(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Sentencing is underway for the three men convicted of federal hate crimes in the death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.
Travis McMichael, who fired the fatal shot on Feb. 23, 2020, was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
His father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan could also face life sentences. They’ll be sentenced Monday afternoon at the Brunswick, Georgia, courthouse.
The three white men were convicted in February by a federal jury who decided that they followed and killed Arbery because he was Black.
After deliberating for less than four hours, the jury convicted all three men of being motivated by racial hate in interference of Arbery’s civil rights and attempted kidnapping. Travis McMichael, 36, and his 64-year-old father were also convicted of carrying and brandishing a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence. Travis McMichael was also found guilty of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.
The McMichaels chased Arbery in their pickup truck after they saw him jogging in their neighborhood, falsely believing he had been responsible for several break-ins in the Satilla Shores neighborhood. Bryan joined the chase in his own truck, blocking Arbery from escaping and recorded cellphone footage of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun after a brief struggle.
During the trial, prosecutors released text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan repeatedly used racist slurs. Witnesses also testified to hearing both McMichaels make racist comments.
All three defendants are already serving life in prison for the killing after being found guilty of murder in a Georgia state court last fall.
Ernest is embarking on his first headlining tour later this year with the Sucker For Small Towns Tour that takes him to college towns across the country for 11 dates.
Throughout October and November, Ernest will perform in cities across the South and Midwest, including Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama; Columbus, Ohio; and at the famous Joe’s on Weed in Chicago. The “Flower Shops” singer will deliver songs off his album of the same name,among other country hits he’s written. The trek begins on October 6 at Zydeco in Birmingham and wraps up November 19 at Crusens in Peoria, Illinois.
“Well look what we have here….I’m Gonna be comin to party with y’all this fall!!” Ernest writes on Instagram, adding in a statement, “It’s an experience we put together specifically for the fans and I think it’s going to be special for them to be able to say they were there for it!”
Tickets go on sale Friday at 9 a.m. ET. Visit Ernest’s website for a full list of shows.
Sting is among the many stars who will take part in an upcoming CMT special celebrating the career of country music great — and current Eagles touring member — Vince Gill.
The 90-minute show, CMT Giants: Vince Gill, will air September 16 at 9 p.m. ET and will feature a variety of major country stars performing Gill’s songs, including Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, Maren Morris and Ricky Skaggs.
Sting is among a number of guest stars who will appear on the special to share personal stories about Gill, reflect on their experience collaborating with him and discuss his contributions to country music. Others include Emmylou Harris, Keith Urban, Reba McEntire and Rodney Crowell.
Back in 2011, the Police frontman and Gill were featured together on an episode on the popular CMT performance series CMT Crossroads.
In addition, the special will feature a new interview with Gill as he reflects on “his career, his classic songwriting, musical influences and his future plans,” along with rare photos, performance footage and archival conversations.
Meanwhile, Sting recently announced plans for two new special 2023 concerts that will take place on January 9 and 10 at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall. They will feature the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer performing his classic Police and solo hits accompanied by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets for the shows go on sale to the general public on August 22, while members of Sting’s fan club can purchase presale tickets starting today. In addition, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra subscribers will be able to buy presale tickets beginning August 15. General public tickets will be available at PittsburghSymphony.org, by calling 412-392-4900, or in person at Heinz Hall in downtown Pittsburgh.
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Kanye West has responded to news of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson‘s reported break-up as, well, one might expect him to.
The recording artist posted to Instagram a realistic-looking mock-up of TheNew York Times with the headline “Skete Davidson Dead At 28.”
A subheadline reads, “Kid Cudi meant to play funeral, but fearful of bottle throwers,” a reference to the artist who replaced Ye at the Rolling Loud festival two weeks ago. Fans tossing water bottles at Cudi led him to walk off the stage.
The post generated more than 1.4 million likes in a matter of hours — and more than a few disapproving comments.
“God step in,” one follower pleaded.
“Petty,” noted another.
That said, Ye had his share of supporters: “Skete is a clown,” one opined, adding the clown face emoji for good measure.
The Offspring is “doing OK” after being involved in a fiery car accident over the weekend while touring in Canada.
According to a tweet from the “Self Esteem” rockers, they were on the road when “something flew off the vehicle in front of us and became wedged underneath one of our SUVs and it caught fire.”
The band notes that “everyone got out safely,” however, “pretty much everything else was destroyed,” including luggage, passports and laptops.
Ever the professionals, The Offspring still made it to their scheduled gig Saturday in Quebec.
The Offspring is touring in continued support of the band’s new album, Let the Bad Times Roll, which was released in 2021.
Baby number two has arrived for Khloé Kardashian and her ex, Tristan Thompson.
The pair, who split in January, welcomed their second child, a baby boy, via surrogate, a rep for Kardashian confirms to E! Online. The two are already parents to 4-year-old True Thompson.
The baby’s name has not been revealed.
Khloé’s new arrival comes a month after it was confirmed that she and the NBA player were expecting a second child. At the time a rep shared that True’s brother “was conceived in November.”
The second child does not mean a reconciliation for the 38-year-old reality star and 31-year old baller. The two split after it was revealed that Thompson was having a baby with Maralee Nichols, a fitness model he slept with in Houston in March 2021.
This is the second child for Khloé, and Tristan’s fourth. He also has a seven-month-old son with Nichols and a five-year-old son with his ex, Jordan Craig.
(NEW YORK) — With the midterm elections three months away, Americans maintain a sour view on the state of the economy and are pessimistic about its future course, with President Joe Biden’s approval rating across a range of issue areas continuing to suffer, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
More than two-thirds (69%) of Americans think the nation’s economy is getting worse — the highest that measure has reached since 2008, when it was 82% in an ABC News/Washington Post poll. Currently, only 12% think the economy is getting better and 18% think it is essentially staying the same.
Americans’ views of Biden’s handling of the economic recovery remain overwhelmingly negative — and are virtually unchanged from the same poll in early June, with only 37% of Americans approving of the job the president is doing and 62% disapproving in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll, which was conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
The president’s rating on inflation is even worse, with 29% of Americans saying they approve, while 69% disapprove. This number is also unchanged since June.
The only area where Biden sees some improvement in this poll is on his handling of gas prices. Just over one in three Americans (34%) approve of the president’s handling of gas prices — up seven points since June.
This comes as the country has seen the average cost for a gallon of gas come down — price drops celebrated by the White House.
The low confidence in Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation comes on the heels of Friday’s jobs report, which showed that 528,000 jobs were added in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Americans also saw the unemployment rate go down to 3.5%.
In a statement released Friday, Biden touted the July jobs report, saying that it shows that his administration is “making significant progress for working families.”
When asked how enthusiastic they were about voting in November, the poll found that 75% of Republicans are either very or somewhat enthusiastic about voting, compared to 68% of Democrats and 49% of independents. In ABC News/Ipsos polls conducted in April and June this year, Republicans were more likely to report that they were very enthusiastic about voting than Democrats. That gap has narrowed to five points in this August poll.
There are other glimmers of hope for the Democrats in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll when it comes to the potential impact abortion could have on how voters cast their ballots this November.
The poll asked voters which candidate they would support if one favored keeping abortion legal and available and the other candidate supported limiting abortion except to protect the mother’s life. About half of Americans (49%) would be more likely to support the candidate who would keep access to abortion legal compared to the 27% of Americans who would be more likely to support the candidate who favors limiting abortion. Meanwhile, 22% of Americans say that abortion would not have an impact on how they would vote.
This comes after voters in the deep red state of Kansas voted to preserve the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution, shocking the country in the first state-level test since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In a statement from Biden on the defeat of Kansas’s abortion amendment, he called on Congress to “listen to the will of the American people and restore the protections of Roe as federal law.”
This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs‘ KnowledgePanel® August 5-6, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 665 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.2 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 29-25-40 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
ABC News’ Ken Goldstein and Dan Merkle contributed to this report.
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Britney Spears has responded to Kevin Federline’s claims about their kids.
In an upcoming interview with ITV News, the pop star’s ex-husband said that their sons, 16-year-old Sean Preston and 15-year-old Jayden James, “have decided they are not seeing her right now,” the Daily Mail reported on Saturday. It’s reportedly due to their mother’s social media posts, which sometimes includes censored nudity.
Britney fired back on Instagram, writing in her Stories, “It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children.”
“Raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone…It concerns me the fact that the reason is based on my Instagram…it was LONG before Instagram,” she continued.
“I gave them everything,” the pop star went on. “Only one word: HURTFUL…I’ll say it…My mother told me ‘You should GIVE them to their dad’…I’m sharing this because I can…Have a good day folks !!!”
In another Instagram post, Britney added, “The conservatorship has only been over for 8 months…I’m only human and I’ve done my best…I honestly would like to share my TWO CENTS!!!!…Other artists have made much worse when their children were extremely young.”
“During my conservatorship I was controlled and monitored for nearly 15 years…I should embark on doing WAAAY more than going topless on the beach like a baby,” she continued, adding that she’s not surprised by Kevin’s actions.
“I’m not surprised that just as my family did their share of interviews, they will too,” Britney wrote. “I’m not surprised at all with their behavior and their approach to what I’ve had to deal with !!!”
(NEW YORK) — As more states enact near-total bans and restrictions on abortion, providers say many patients are experiencing delayed care which can force them into later stages of pregnancy.
Abortion care options are becoming more limited and complex in some cases, which often means higher costs for patients. For example, medication abortion, which is less costly than other options, is only an option up to 10 weeks into pregnancy.
The most recent data available, from 2017, shows the average cost of an abortion in the first trimester nationwide was about $550, whether it was medication or procedural, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which researches reproductive rights.
Any abortion care for pregnancies further along than 12 weeks costs more than that. The median cost of abortion care for pregnancies at 20 weeks in 2017 was $1,670, Dr. Rachel Jones, a principal research scientist at Guttmacher, told ABC News.
Jones said that access to abortion care for patients in their second trimester has always been limited, and those patients have always had to travel further.
Almost every clinic offers abortions up to nine and 10 weeks into pregnancy and 75% offer abortions until the second trimester, Jones said.
“After that, the percentage of clinics that offer abortion at each week of gestation starts dropping off. And so people are going to have to travel further to get to a facility that can provide care at those gestations. And of course this is all going to be incredibly exacerbated given the overturning of Roe,” Jones said.
Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a provider in Texas and the national medical spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, told ABC News that how far along a pregnancy has to be before costs go up varies between clinics and across states.
Whether a patient has insurance coverage is also a main factor in determining cost. In some states, patients may not have to pay anything because abortion is covered by insurance, Kumar said.
Abortions for pregnancies that are further along can cost more because of fewer healthcare professionals that can provide that care and their limited availability, abortion procedures becoming more complicated and requiring medications or abortions needing to happen over two days, Jones said.
Second trimester abortions could also require more surgical preparations like medications or dilators, sometimes an extra procedure to insert dilators, all of which requires more time in the clinic and is factored into higher costs, Kumar said.
When the pandemic first hit, Texas said abortions were not essential health care, forcing patients to travel across state lines or not get care. When abortion care resumed, a study documented that there were more patients coming in at later stages of pregnancy, Jones said.
Other abortion restrictions, like having to make in-person visits or having to return to a clinic before getting care can also delay care by several days and push patients from one trimester into another, Jones said, citing Guttmacher research.
When Texas was one of the only states implementing a ban, wait times were around one to three days. As time progressed, within one to two months, providers saw wait times jump to one to three weeks depending on which clinic you look at, Kumar said.
Kumar said he is seeing a lot of patients who are looking to get care in another state seeing delays of several days or several weeks and some clinics are so overwhelmed, they are not even making appointments.
States with the least restrictions, that do not have mandatory wait times are where Kumar says he is hearing about longer wait times.
“It seems like there’s sort of hotspots that are forming for abortion access and the states that come to mind are Illinois, Kansas, Colorado [and] California because of the lack of most restrictions and the ability to get care,” Kumar said.
Experts said waiting longer into pregnancy increases costs.
Dr. Katie McHugh, an abortion provider who works at three clinics in Indiana, told ABC News that abortions for pregnancies that are less than 14 weeks cost around $800.
These patients are getting medication abortions or simple procedures, McHugh said.
The cost of abortion for pregnancies further along than 14 weeks range from $900 to $1,200, depending on the stage of pregnancy and need for anesthesia or if the abortion is done over multiple days, McHugh said.
Some states like Indiana had mandated that abortion care be done in a hospital after a certain number of weeks, which costs “many thousands of dollars,” McHugh said. The cutoff for when care is required to be in a hospital is regulated by states and varies around the country.
It costs less to get care at a clinic than a hospital because clinics have less overhead costs. Abortions at later gestations cost more largely because they need to be done in a surgical or hospital setting, McHugh said.
Asked whether her clinic has received patients further into pregnancy because of bans or restrictions in their states, McHugh said “absolutely.”
“Most of the people that we’re seeing from out of state, had to be referred here because of the restrictions in their own states. And then some of them, they tried to be referred to here, but they can’t get here in time. And so then we are having to refer them to Illinois,” she said.
On Friday, Indiana became the first state to enact near-total abortion ban since the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe.
Kumar said that for patients with medically complex pregnancies who need abortion care for health reasons, delaying their care complicates risks.
People likely to have complications like preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes or who have had past hemorrhages are also likely to be people who experience other barriers to access. Those people are often uninsured people, people of color and low-income people, Kumar said.
Patients who have to travel to get care also face other costs that vary from patient to patient.
“So much of that depends on where people are traveling from, how much work they have to miss, how much they have to pay in childcare, not to mention gas and lodging and all of those costs,” McHugh said.
Roger E. Mosley, the actor best known for his role as the helicopter pilot Theodore “T.C.” Calvin in the original Magnum P.I. TV series alongside Tom Selleck, died early Sunday morning, his daughter shared on Facebook. He was 83. The cause of death was not revealed. In addition to Magnum, P.I., Mosley also appeared on Love Boat, Sanford and Son, Kung Fu, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, Night Court and Walker, Texas Ranger. He also had a major role in the 1979 TV film The Jericho Mile. On the big screen, Mosley appeared in films such as The Mack, Hit Man, Sweet Jesus, Preacherman, Darktown Strutters and The River Niger…
ABC’s Abbott Elementary took home four trophies at the 38th annual Television Critics Association Awards, including Individual Achievement in Comedy for series creator, producer, writer and star, Quinta Brunson, as well as Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, Outstanding New Program, and the Program of the Year Award. Other winners included This Is Us star Mandy Moore, who earned the award for Individual Achievement; Disney+’s The Beatles: Get Back, for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information; Hulu’s Dopesick, for Outstanding Movie, Miniseries or Specials; and HBO’s Succession, for Outstanding Achievement in Drama honors. View the complete list of winners at TVCritics.org…
Clu Gulager, the real-life cowboy best known for his roles in the 1960s TV series The Tall Man and The Virginian, died Friday of natural causes at the Los Angeles home of his son, John, and daughter-in-law Diane, they tell The Hollywood Reporter. He was 93. Gulager’s film credits include The Last Picture Show, Winning, opposite Paul Newman and McQ, alongside John Wayne and horror movies such as The Return of the Living Dead, and A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Most recently, he showed up in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood…
