(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, according to her office.
Jill Biden tested negative on Monday during her routine testing, and then developed “cold-like symptoms” Monday night, according to her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander.
“She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive,” Alexander said in a statement.
She’s been prescribed the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, which President Joe Biden also took after testing positive last month.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Goo Goo Dolls just released their new album, Chaos In Bloom, but one of their old songs has just hit a significant milestone.
The band’s biggest hit, 1998’s “Iris,” has just eclipsed one billion streams on Spotify. The track, which was recently certified for seven million copies sold, was featured in the movie City of Angels and on Goo Goo Dolls’ album Dizzy Up the Girl. It reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 but was a number-one hit on the publication’s Adult Top 40 airplay chart for a record 18 weeks.
Meanwhile, the band’s Chaos in Bloom tour has been extended into the fall. The new leg, which starts October 28, will find the band playing intimate theaters and performing new songs, hits and deep cuts. Those shows will wrap up November 20 in El Paso, TX. Tickets for the new dates go on sale Wednesday, August 17 at 10 a.m. local time via googoodolls.com/tour.
Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is heading to Emerald City. According to Variety, Barris has been tapped by Warner Bros. to write and direct a reimagining of The Wizard of Oz. This version is not to be confused with another Wizard of Oz retelling that’s in the works from New Line. No other details have been released thus far. Before he puts his stamp on this classic, Barris is completing work on his feature film directorial debut, You People, for Netflix. He’s also writing a remake of 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, with Jack Harlow starring in the Woody Harrelson role…
Ready to unlock Guillermo del Toro‘s Cabinet of Curiosities? The eight-episode series will debut on Netflix Tuesday, October 25, with two episodes airing daily until the collection is complete on Friday, October 28. Del Toro released a first look at the creepy series on Monday, which revealed each episode’s title…
VH1 announced on Monday that it has renewed RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked. “When I hear season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, I have to pinch myself — I just won’t tell you where,” said six-time Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer RuPaul in a statement. “We never take for granted the opportunity we’ve been given to showcase drag excellence and tell authentic queer stories.” Drag Race will return for its 15th season with a new group of queens and Drag Race Untucked will have more backstage drama from Drag Race…
Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures on Monday announced the 10th installment of the Saw franchise is slated for Oct. 27, 2023. This will be the tenth movie in the highly successful film series, according to Variety. The film will be directed by Kevin Greutert, who helmed 2009’s Saw VI and 2010’s Saw: The Final Chapter. While the plot of the movie hasn’t been revealed, the studio promises the film will capture fans’ “hearts — and other body parts — with all-new twisted, ingenious traps and a new mystery to solve,” according to Variety…
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(WASHINGTON) — Car buyers hoping to get a tax credit from the government for an electric vehicle after President Joe Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act into law might find fewer vehicles that qualify.
The Clean Vehicle Credit, a part of the Inflation Reduction Act that passed Congress last week, had a provision that added a credit of up to $4,000 for used EVs. The new law also removes the current 200,000 EV sales cap, which means vehicles made by Tesla, General Motors and Toyota are eligible again for a federal tax credit.
The law also tightens restrictions on which vehicles qualify for the credit. To receive the tax credit, vehicles must be manufactured in North America and made with batteries that have critical components sourced in either North America or supplied by the country’s free-trade agreement partners. The new law also means that high-income buyers and more expensive EVs will not be eligible for the credit.
Of the more than 70 EVs currently on the market, one insider says there’s a possibilitythat no EVs would qualify for a tax credit in the short term.
“When the Inflation Reduction Act is passed and signed by the president, those rules will change and become a lot more restrictive,” said John Boezella, president and CEO of Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “And that’s because the purpose of the credit has changed. It’s now focused on reducing our dependance on China for raw materials and battery components.”
But as manufacturing of EVs and batteries move to the U.S., far more vehicles will qualify for the federal tax credit. Boezella estimates that in five or seven years, there will be as many as 120 EVs on the market that could qualify for the new credit.
“It won’t happen overnight despite the fact that companies are investing billions of dollars right now to develop those supply chains,” Boezella said. “So what you’ll see is a reduction in the number of vehicles that will qualify, and then over time, we would expect that more vehicles will qualify in the future.”
The changes have caused confusion for industry experts, manufacturers and consumers.
“Consumer Reports did a survey and we found that half of car buyers are more likely to purchase an EV if there’s a tax credit that brings down the price, so those tax credits are obviously important to buyers,” said Keith Barry, an auto writer at Consumer Reports. “And if people can’t quite figure out which car qualifies, I imagine that will probably stall sales in the short term.”
Manufacturers, dealers and others in the auto industry are waiting to see what effect the bill will have on EVs.
“There’s a bit of a wait and see,” Barry said. “Different manufacturers are saying different things about what cars will qualify during this sort of transition period. And there’s no one size fits all answer here, unfortunately, until the regulations are fully written and the dust settles.”
Olivia: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage; Alanis: Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Earlier this year, Olivia Rodrigo welcomed Alanis Morissette onstage for a duet of “You Oughta Know.” Now, she’ll be sharing a stage with Alanis again as the Canadian star receives a major honor.
On September 24, Olivia will induct Alanis into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at Toronto’s Massey Hall. In a statement, Olivia says, “I remember hearing Alanis for the first time when I was about 13. I was in the car with my parents when Jagged Little Pill came on. I heard ‘Perfect.’ I was like, ‘Oh, my God…you can write songs like that?’ I just looked at music and songwriting in a completely different way.”
In addition, fellow Canadian artists Alessia Cara and JP Saxewill perform as part of a tribute to Alanis at the event.
In addition to Alanis, Bryan Adams and his songwriting partner Jim Vallance will also be inducted, as will super-producer David Foster. Previously announced performers at the ceremony include Nickelback‘s Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake, “Sunglasses at Night” singer Corey Hart, Deborah Cox and more. Tickets for the event are available via Massey Hall’s website.
Ezra Miller is reportedly seeking treatment for “complex mental health issues” after exhibiting alarming behavior that’s led to a recent series of arrests and accusations.
In a statement provided toVariety through their rep, the actor acknowledged what they’ve been going through and apologized.
“Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment,” Miller says. “I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.”
Earlier this month, Miller was charged with felony burglary in Vermont after allegedly breaking into a home in May and stealing bottles of alcohol. It was just the latest controversy for the star of the forthcoming The Flash, who was also arrested twice earlier this year after altercations at establishments in Hawaii.
(NEW YORK) — In an exclusive interview with Good Morning America, Amber Escudero-Kontostathis sits down to talk for the first time about being the sole survivor of a lightning strike near the White House earlier this month, on her 28th birthday, and her road to recovery.
“I don’t remember much of that day at all,” Escudero-Kontostathis told GMA in her first interview since the incident.
On Aug. 4, Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, was canvassing outside the White House for Threshold Giving, a nonprofit organization through the International Rescue Committee that helps refugees, when she and three others took cover underneath a tree at Lafayette Square after it began to rain.
Six bolts of lightning struck the group within half a second, killing three others, including 76-year-old James Mueller and 75-year-old Donna Mueller, a married couple celebrating their anniversary, and Brooks Lambertson, a 29-year-old Los Angeles man who was in D.C. for business.
Escudero-Kontostathis said the lightning struck her through the ground and traveled through her body, resulting in significant burns on her body.
“I don’t know why I survived,” she said. “I don’t feel good about being the only survivor, that’s for sure. I’m grateful, but I just don’t feel good about being the only one.”
She doesn’t recall much of her stay at the hospital, where she was placed in the Intensive Care Unit, but does remember the nurses trying to keep her calm and telling her things would be OK.
Escudero-Kontostathis praised the burn and ICU nurses for checking on her and providing constant care.
“You would hit the little things saying you were in pain and they’d be like ‘we’re coming,’ and they walk in and their name was always on the board,” she said. “I had more of a personal relationship and memory with the burn center nurses, but I’m excited to eventually get to meet the ICU nurses in person again now that I’m more conscious of that.”
She said her path to recovery has been frustrating both physically and mentally. “I forget that I can’t just get up and do stuff. I have to use a walker, for example,” she said.
“You wake up and you think that you can just get up and go and brush your teeth or get a cup of coffee yourself and I can’t, my whole left sides like pretty charred,” Escudero-Kontostathis said. “Mentally, also a little frustrated because I want to be working and doing things.”
Escudero, who’s the director of Threshold Giving’s canvassing team, said she enjoyed the work she did and that being unable to work while she recovers is one of the more painful parts of this experience.
“I get to help people find their inner activist and bridge them to the work they want to see in the world,” Escudero-Kontostathis said. “Not getting to do that every day is probably more painful than cleaning the burns, which is pretty painful.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — During Monday night’s school board meeting, Uvalde citizens demanded financial transparency regarding the millions of dollars in grants announced last week aimed at strengthening school security before children return to the classroom this September.
“We just saw lump sum $100,000 here, $500,000 here,” one community member said during the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District meeting. “Now what I would like to see is further breakdown. OK, who is that money going to?”
The school board announced last week that it plans to spend more than $3.5 million on projects such as replacing locks, installing fences and hiring more counselors. The school district received grants from the state of Texas, the Department of Justice and the Las Vegas Raiders football team to fund these projects.
Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.
The district also outlined its plan to offer remote classes this year in response to parents’ concerns that their children do not feel comfortable returning to school in person.
Becky Reinhardt, the administrator for virtual learning, said there would not be a limit on the number of students who can be virtual, and that students could switch back to in-person learning whenever they wanted.
For their part, the school board members did not speak much about the massacre that killed 21 people in May. They did not answer when asked about the progress of fence-building at the other schools, the likelihood they would conduct their own investigation or the timing of Police Chief Pete Arredondo’s termination hearing, which has been delayed twice.
The board will meet next Monday to hear community grievances.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Archbishop of San Antonio Gustavo García-Siller has been traveling to Uvalde, Texas, to “walk with the community” as it grapples with the horrific shooting this past May.
García-Siller spends time with the residents and leads Mass services for the community. For the past two and a half months, he has borne witness to the town’s “collective wound,” he said.
When faced with the magnitude of emotions that accompanies tragedy, words often fail, which is why he’s utilizing another way to make a connection with the children of Uvalde.
The archbishop said he has met with children from the community to encourage them, but when he tried to ask them to express their feelings, they had trouble, likely due to emotional distress. But when he used sign language for words such as “sad,” “happy,” or “peace,” they were receptive and responsive, helping him and their families understand what they were feeling, García-Siller told ABC News Correspondent John Quinones.
The archbishop said one of his first concerns was that children he met weren’t able to communicate their feelings verbally. “It’s hard for people to talk… to express a feeling,” he said. But after sensing fourth and fifth graders’ participation during a partially signed homily, he went home to brush up on his American Sign Language skills. What they could not previously communicate verbally, they were able to through hand motions.
The archbishop could gauge the children’s emotional states, and how they felt sad but desired to feel peace, he said. “It was a breakthrough. I felt so happy that I was able to connect with them,” said García-Siller, who has now integrated the practice into his work with children.
“Because the children trust me,” he said, when asked why he attended a local private school’s back-to-school student-teacher meet-and-greet Monday morning.
Meanwhile, the parents of victims have presented the church leader with deep questions regarding faith and forgiveness, he said. What surprised him was how many parents asked not about why God would take their children away, but rather, if God was with their little girls and boys. “They wanted to know that God was taking care of their child,” he said.
The archbishop described a community aching for trust. He said that while children often gain trust by “just sitting [at] the same table eating cookies,” the adults in Uvalde need “servant leaders” who will reestablish “mutual trust.” The archbishop also said he has a message for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“We don’t need to show power at this time. Power, at this time, and it will be for a while, diminishes people. We need you to accompany them. To walk with them,” he said. “If mistakes were made, walk with them to resolve them. Don’t bring all that power and all those arms and all that control.”
In the meantime, García-Siller plans to continue to do just that: walk with Uvalde.
(NEW YORK) — The Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, is expected to plead guilty to tax charges as soon as this week, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Weisselberg, 75, is currently scheduled to go on trial in the fall, but a hearing in the case is now scheduled for this Thursday, in what could be a sign that he could change his plea then.
An attorney for Weisselberg declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
Weisselberg, along with former President Donald Trump’s namesake family real estate firm, was charged last year with tax fraud after they were accused of compensating employees “off the books” in order to pay less in taxes.
According to the charging documents, Weisselberg avoided taxes on more than $1.7 million over the past 15 years, resulting from the payment of his rent on an apartment in a Trump-owned building and related expenses that prosecutors said included cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
The Trump Organization is proceeding to trial, the sources said, with the case currently scheduled to begin toward the end of October.
News of the development was first reported by The New York Times.
It was not immediately clear whether the terms of Weisselberg’s plea would require him to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
However, sources said Weisselberg is expected to serve some prison time.
Last week, Weisselberg lost his motion to have the indictment against him thrown out.
He is no longer the Trump Organization’s CFO, but remains employed by the firm.
