Former Yes frontman Jon Anderson just finished a U.S. tour with the Paul Green Rock Academy celebrating the 50th anniversary of his old band’s classic album Close to the Edge. Now the 77-year-old singer has revealed he’s got potential plans for a new trek with a different group of musicians.
Anderson tells ABC Audio that he recently discovered a group called The Band Geeks that he says “do very, very good interpretation[s] of Yes music.” The group is led by Richie Castellano, who’s been Blue Öyster Cult‘s bassist since 2004.
“It kind of freaked me out how good they were,” Anderson notes. “So last November, I got in touch with the bass player, and I said, ‘Guys, would you be interested in going out and doing epics and classics?’ And they said, ‘Yes! We would!'”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer continues, “They actually sound just like Yes. It’s kind of wonderful and frightening at the same time. The bass player, perfect Chris Squire sound … [The] guitarist, perfect Steve Howe. And [the drummer sounds like] Alan White, Bill Bruford-y Alan White.”
Anderson says he’s hoping to put together a set that includes the epic “Close to the Edge,” as well as some lesser-known Yes songs, among them “The Ritual,” “The Gates of Delirium” and “Mind Drive.”
“These are really, to me, very special Yes pieces of music that got lost in the quagmire of life,” Anderson maintains. “And I think they’re brilliant.”
Anderson says he recently shot a video of him singing some Yes material with The Band Geeks that he’s planning to use “to promote the idea” of the tour. However, no official plans for the trek have been confirmed.
Mindy Kaling is paying no mind to speculation that her ex B.J. Novak is the father of her children.
“It doesn’t bother me,” the 43-year-old, who is mom to four-year-old Katherine and one-year-old Spencer, said of the rumors in an interview with Marie Claire published Tuesday.
“He’s the godparent to both my kids — and they have such a great relationship — and so far [the rumors haven’t] affected my happiness at all, it hasn’t affected my kids or BJ,” she continued. “If that’s what is going to be titillating to people, I’ll take it.”
Since welcoming her children, Kaling has remained tight-lipped about their conception and their father and there’s a reason for that.
“I want them to be old enough to talk to me about it and [tell me] how they want me to talk about it,” The Office alum explained. “I’m the only parent my kids have…I think I err on the side of super cautious so that there’s less things that they can potentially be mad at me about down the line.”
Kaling and Novak dated on and off from 2004 until 2007.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Milwaukee 5, Tampa Bay 3
Atlanta 9, Boston 7
LA Dodgers 10, Minnesota 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Kansas City 4, Chi White Sox 2
Cleveland 5, Detroit 2
Baltimore 6, Toronto 5
Chi White Sox 3, Kansas City 2
Houston 7, Texas 5
LA Angels 5, Oakland 1
Seattle 1, NY Yankees 0
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Philadelphia 4, Miami 1
NY Mets 6, Cincinnati 2
Washington 6, Chi Cubs 5
Colorado 16, St. Louis 5
Arizona 6, Pittsburgh 4
San Diego 7, San Francisco 4
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Seattle 111, Chicago 100
Las Vegas 97, Atlanta 90
Connecticut 97, Los Angeles 71
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Investigators tracked down the Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows allegedly driven by the suspect in the most recent homicide, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina announced during a tweet Tuesday afternoon news conference.
The car was stopped by New Mexico State Police near Santa Rosa, New Mexico — about 115 miles east of Albuquerque — after a tip from a community member following the release of the description of the car, Albuquerque Deputy Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock told reporters at Tuesday’s news conference.
The driver of the car, identified as 51-year-old Muhammad Syed, was then detained at a traffic stop, Medina said.
The most recent murder occurred on Friday, when Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old native of Pakistan, was found dead from a gunshot wound near Truman Street and Grand Avenue in Albuquerque’s Highland Business neighborhood, police said.
Syed has been charged with murder in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Aftab Hussein, Medina said, adding that investigators are working with the district attorney’s office on potential charges for the murders of the other two men.
Investigators do not have any indications yet that the murders present a serial killer case or are the result of a hate crime, authorities said.
Syed moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan several years ago and has since been arrested multiple times for domestic violence, police said, adding that those charges were dismissed. His son was also questioned but was later released, police said.
The Albuquerque Police Department’s homicide unit began noticing similarities between the murders that occurred on Friday and July 26, such as related shell casings found at both scenes that were likely fired from the same gun, Hartsock said.
After Syed was arrested, police executed a search warrant at his home, where multiple firearms were recovered and are now being tested, Hartsock said, adding that one gun found inside the home and another found inside the car match two from the crime scenes and are the basis for the charges that have been brought so far.
Police are compiling more evidence to build a case with the prosecutor’s office for the murders of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain and Ahmadi, Hartsock said.
“We think there might be involvement in two other homicide cases,” he said. “Those are still considered open and active.”
The pattern matches the murder of Ahmadi in November, police said, adding that there is a possible personal connection between Ahmadi and Syed.
Investigators are also looking into whether there are other cases that could be similar, in order to identify whether there may be a “really active public threat” from someone targeting the community, Hartsock said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has sent additional state police to provide support to the Albuquerque Police Department and FBI, she announced on Saturday.
The community has “never gone through anything like this before,” Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, said during a press conference Saturday, Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT reported.
“This is really a surreal time for us. We’re in fear of the safety of our children, our families,” Assed said.
In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, commended the Albuquerque Police Department for apprehending the suspect.
“We welcome the arrest of a suspect in this horrific shooting spree and we commend law enforcement for their efforts at the local, state and federal levels,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said. “We hope the news that this violence has been brought to an end will provide the New Mexico Muslim community some sense of relief and security.”
CAIR had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the murders.
(NEW YORK) — One person is dead and “multiple” others are injured after a bus overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike Tuesday, according to state police.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House credits the drop in gas prices to President Joe Biden’s million-barrels-a-day strategic oil reserve release and his engagement with oil companies.
They say this strategy helped bring gas prices down below $4 a gallon in many parts of the country.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recalled the near-dollar-a-gallon gas price jump this summer.
“This is the fastest decline in gas prices in over a decade,” she touted.
She also hopes this drop in gas prices will have an effect on tomorrow’s Consumer Price Index report. Last month’s report showed inflation at a 40-year high.
Måneskin has dropped off the lineup for England’s upcoming Reading & Leeds festivals due to “unforeseen scheduling conflicts.”
“We love and miss the U.K. and all of our beloved U.K. fans,” the Italian rockers write in a statement. “We’re absolutely gutted to longer be able to play these shows.”
Reading and Leeds, which consists of two separate festivals featuring the same lineup taking place over the same weekend, will be held this year August 26-28. The bill includes Rage Against the Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me the Horizon, Wolf Alice, Glass Animals, Halsey, Bastille and All Time Low.
Måneskin will be launching their first North American headlining tour Halloween night in Seattle. They plan to return to the U.K. in 2023.
Blondie has debuted a 1978 home recording of a previously unreleased song called “Mr. Sightseer” as the latest advance track from the band’s expansive forthcoming box set, Blondie: Against the Odds 1974-1982, which is due out August 26.
The song was recorded on a four-track reel-to-reel machine in the bedroom of singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. It will be featured on the B-side of a 7-inch vinyl single that boasts Blondie’s recently rediscovered rendition of The Doors‘ “Moonlight Drive,” which previously was made available as an advance track.
Reflecting on “Mr. Sightseer,” Harry says, “The lyric is not good at all … The song’s not too bad. It’s just a little simplistic. It didn’t ever get really developed or finished.”
As previously reported, Against the Odds focuses on the influential New Wave band’s original heyday and is fully authorized by the group.
The retrospective, which can be preordered now, will be available in multiple formats and configurations, including an eight-CD set and a Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition that features 10 12-inch vinyl LPs, a 10-inch LP and the aforementioned vinyl single.
The vinyl box set features 124 tracks, 36 of which are previously unreleased. The collection contains remastered versions of Blondie’s first six studio albums — 1976’s Blondie, 1977’s Plastic Letters, 1978’s Parallel Lines, 1979’s Eat to the Beat, 1980’s Autoamerican and 1982’s The Hunter — and four LPs of outtakes, demos, remixes, alternate versions, home recordings and other rarities.
The box set also includes extensive liner notes and track-by-track commentary from current and former Blondie members.
Blondie: Against the Odds will also be available as a four-LP package, a three-CD set and digitally.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The frustrations of a community still reeling from a mass shooting were on full display Monday night as a procession of Uvalde residents confronted school district leaders over their response to the massacre that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
Trustees of the Uvalde CISD School Board convened the special session to present plans for the upcoming school year, including upgrading security measures and an announcement that all students K-12 would be offered the opportunity to attend classes virtually.
But during the open forum portion of the evening, attention returned to the fallout from the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School.
“We want results,” one man said. “Has anybody lost their job? Has anyone been terminated?”
“We still need answers,” a woman added.
“This is not going to be swept under the rug,” said another.
More than two-and-a-half months since the shooting, several of the roughly 100 attendees sought basic answers about the law enforcement response, including chain-of-command communication.
When board trustee JJ Suarez, a former police officer who responded to Robb Elementary, told one questioner that he did not remember who told him the shooting was “a barricade situation” and claimed not to have heard gunshots from inside the school, members of the audience heckled him.
“I heard the shots,” one woman shouted before imitating the sound of gun shots. “I still hear that sound.”
Suarez replied that his failure to ask if children were still inside the classrooms will “haunt [him] every day.”
Trustees also faced questions about school district police chief Pete Arredondo and why a decision whether to fire him has not yet been made. The board responded that it is following “due process,” adding that it is considering multiple new dates for a hearing on Arredondo’s future.
Arredondo remains on leave while an investigation into the conduct of law enforcement during the shooting on May 24 marches forward. Last month, the Uvalde school district postponed a closed hearing to consider whether to terminate Arredondo as its police chief and has not yet set a new date.
A special committee in the Texas legislature issued a report last month that found Arredondo had “failed to perform or to transfer to another person the role of incident commander.” Arredondo previously told the Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the on-scene commander during the shooting.
After multiple media outlets, including ABC News, reported on a demotion Arredondo received in 2014 at a prior job, Superintendent Dr. Hal Harrell acknowledged that he made the decision to hire Arredondo and said he contacted previous employers but was not told about the demotion.
Harrell also laid out several new initiatives taken by the board to shore up security across the school district in the coming year. Those updates include:
33 Texas DPS officers being assigned to UCISD
500 cameras being installed across the district
Campus monitor role to be created — this person will walk school grounds throughout the day, noting lock, gate and door statuses on an iPad that the district will then be able to review
Each school will have a single point of entry all students, faculty and guests must utilize
An audit on the district’s Wi-Fi set to be completed Wednesday
Other notable speakers at Monday’s session included a woman who said her daughter with special needs cannot reasonably attend class virtually, and a rising fourth grader in the school district who requested upgrades to school lighting, automatic door locks and the installation of ballistic glass. (Harrell had said earlier in the meeting they were still looking for funds for ballistic glass.)
After fielding concern about the conduct of school administrators and law enforcement moving forward, Harrell said “it’s going to take a while to regain that trust.”
“The trust has been damaged. The trust has been broken,” Harrell said. “It’s going to take all of us to fix it.”
Ava Max is the latest Sketchers ambassador, and the “Maybe You’re the Problem” hitmaker teased her new collection on Instagram. The Uno Collection contains ultra colorful sneakers that are now available to purchase.
Priyanka Chopra is on vacation with husband Nick Jonas and the two shared an adorable poolside photo of their baby, Malti. The infant is cuddling her mom while Nick is decked out in orange swim trunks and aviator glasses.
Britney Spears revealed on Instagram she wanted to get married in Italy — more specifically St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The singer made headlines after claiming she wasn’t allowed to get married at a Catholic Church. Britney also revealed she hired the wedding planner who took care of Madonna‘s nuptials.
Another teaser for the new season of The Voice, which sees Camila Cabello serving as a first-time coach, is here. It shows her getting along with her fellow coaches Blake Shelton, John Legend and Gwen Stefani.
