Page 6728 – 105.7 WDNY

The Zombies’ history to be documented in new film, ‘Hung Up on a Dream’

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

An official documentary about the British Invasion band The Zombies titled Hung Up on a Dream is currently in the works and is being directed by filmmaker and alternative-rock artist Robert Schwartzman, according to Variety.

The movie, which is tentatively scheduled to be released in the summer of 2023, will chronicle The Zombies’ 60-year history, including their 1960s heyday, when they scored hits like “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No” and “Time of the Season”; their influential 1968 album Odessey and Oracle, which was released after the original lineup broke up; the band members’ solo projects; and the group’s eventual reunion and 2019 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Schwartzman’s band, Rooney, opened several shows on The Zombies’ current North American tour, which gave him the opportunity to shoot portions of the film while the groups were on the road together.

The documentary will include exclusive interviews and previously unseen archival footage.

Fans can preorder a special VIP early access screening of Hung Up on a Dream for $19.99 at ALTAVOD.com, a video-on-demand service launched by Schwartzman’s Utopia production company. The offer includes an extended version of the movie, two new songs from The Zombies’ upcoming studio album, and commentary from co-founding members and band leaders Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone.

“[The Zombies’] story has to be told, the music is too good to not give fans and audiences a better perspective of their career to this point, says Schwartzmann. “I can’t express how happy I am to be on this journey with them.”

Adds Blunstone, “It is so great to be working with Robert’s documentary team and finally telling the extraordinary story of The Zombies journey from teenage rock fans to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees!”

Bob Weir and side group Wolf Bros plot out fall US tour

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Founding Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Bob Weir and his side band Wolf Bros have lined up a fall U.S. tour that’s mapped out from a September 30 show in Waterbury, Connecticut, through a November 4-5 stand in Denver.

The trek includes a number of multiple-show engagements, including a three-gig stint at San Francisco’s Warfield theater — October 14-16 — during which Weir will celebrate his 75th birthday; Bob turns 75 on the 16th.

The Wolf Bros lineup for the tour features acclaimed producer/bassist Don Was, RatDog drummer Jay Lane and RatDog and Dead & Company keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. Weir and his group will be joined by the horn-and-string section The Wolfpack and, as a special guest, veteran pedal-steel player Barry Sless.

Tickets for almost all of the shows will go on sale to the general public this Friday, July 29, at 10 a.m. local time. Pre-sales tickets will be available starting today at 10 a.m. local time.

Special VIP bundles also will be available offering premium seats, an invitation to attend a soundcheck, an exclusive singed and numbered poster and more. Visit CIDEntertainment.com for more details.

Before the trek kicks off, Weir and Wolf Bros’ trio lineup, featuring just Was and Lane, will play a September 10 benefit concert at the Hoodoo Ski Area in Sisters, Oregon, supporting the Oregon Adaptive Sports organization.

In other news, Weir will perform with his Dead & Company band mate John Mayer on August 8 in Livingston, Montana, at the first of three benefit concerts Mayer has organized to raise money for those devastated by Montana’s recent historic flooding.

The concert series, dubbed Rise for the River, also will feature comedian David Chapelle joining Mayer on August 4 and John performing solo on August 21.

New Disney+ docuseries ‘Light and Magic’ reveals the magic behind ‘Star Wars’

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The new Disney+ docuseries Light and Magic debuts Wednesday, taking you inside the creation of Industrial Light and Magic, or ILM, the special effects company founded by George Lucas to make Star Wars, which has become the industry leader.

It’s directed by Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence Kasdan, who tells ABC Audio he wanted to focus less of the effects and more on finding the answer to questions like “Who are the people in ILM? Where did they come from?” and “When did they decide this is what they wanted to do?”

He adds, “There was no such thing really, when George first assembled them in 1976…so they discovered this sort of dreamland for them, because so many of them, as you see in the show, started when they were eight years old making these effects movies in their backyard and in their garage.”

Not only did the film business benefit from ILM, but the daily lives of many people too, with Kasdan noting, “In the case of John Knoll, you know, he created a whole world with Photoshop.”

Recalling what it was like at the start of ILM, Oscar winner and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Creative Director of ILM Dennis Muren says, “There was no protective environment, like you stay out of here, this is my department. So it was a great literally spirit of the 60’s coming together.”

There’s a quote in the series where someone says despite what people might assume, Lucas isn’t the most technically savvy guy but Muren doesn’t “give a hoot about that.” “

“You know, life is shorter. And I think it’s important to do what you love,” he says. “I’m sure he knows how to use a cell phone and a computer to a certain extent.”

Star Wars is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Two former cops convicted in George Floyd’s death set to be sentenced

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ST. PAUL, Minn.) — It’s sentencing day for two former police officers convicted on federal charges stemming from George Floyd’s death.

Former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are scheduled to learn their fates in separate hearings on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Both Kueng, 28, and Thao, 35, were convicted by a federal jury in February along with their former police colleague Thomas Lane, 39, who received a sentence last week of 2 1/2 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 6 1/2 years for Lane, which according to federal sentencing guidelines, was the maximum.

All three men were convicted of using the “color of the law,” or their positions as police officers, to deprive Floyd of his civil rights by willfully being indifferent to his serious medical needs.

Prosecutors said the three officers failed to intervene as the handcuffed, unarmed 46-year-old Black man was pinned under the knee of their senior officer, Derek Chauvin, for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd was accused of using a phony $20 bill to buy cigarettes.

Thao and Kueng were also convicted of violating Floyd’s right to be free of an unreasonable seizure by willfully failing to intervene to prevent Chauvin from applying bodily injury to Floyd.

Prosecutors have requested a “substantially higher” federal sentence than Lane’s, but far less than what Chauvin received.

Chauvin was sentenced on Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson to serve 21 years in prison after pleading guilty in December to violating Floyd’s civil rights and admitting he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he became unresponsive. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to depriving a then-14-year-old boy of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by an officer, which resulted in bodily injury to the teen, according to the Justice Department.

Magnuson also sentenced Lane and will sentence Kueng and Thao.

The federal sentencing guidelines call for 4 1/4 years to 5 1/4 years in the cases of Kueng and Thao.

“The facts of this case do not amount to second-degree murder under federal law,” Magnuson wrote in a ruling last week. “Defendants Kueng and Thao each made a tragic misdiagnosis in their assessment of Mr. Floyd.”

Magnuson noted that Kueng and Thao believed Floyd was suffering from a drug overdose and “excited delirium” — a syndrome in which a subject displays wild agitation and violent behavior that can sometimes lead to death.

Chauvin, 46, was also convicted in state court in April 2021 on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced in June 2021 by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill to 22 1/2 years in state prison.

Chauvin will serve his sentence in federal prison concurrently with his state sentence.

Lane also pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the top charge against him of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder. Lane is awaiting his sentence in state court.

Kueng and Thao are scheduled to be put on trial in state court on Oct. 24 on charges of aiding and abetting in murder and aiding and abetting in manslaughter. They have both pleaded not guilty.

Federal Reserve set for another dramatic rate hike

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Economists expect a major rate hike from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, the latest in a series of borrowing cost increases as the central bank tries to slash near-historic inflation while avoiding a recession.

The Fed will likely raise the benchmark interest rate 0.75%, which would repeat an identical hike instituted by the central bank last month, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg.

The significant rate hike, which until last month had not been matched since 1994, follows data released earlier this month showing that prices jumped a staggering 9.1% in June. That inflation rate, last seen more than four decades ago, put additional pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates.

An increase to the benchmark interest rate raises borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, which in theory should slash inflation by slowing the economy and eating away at demand. That means borrowers will face higher costs for everything from car loans to credit card debt to mortgages. But the approach risks pushing the economy into a recession.

The latest rate hike is set to arrive as mixed economic data shows a country buoyed by robust hiring and retail sales, despite several rate hikes so far this year meant to slow economic activity. The U.S. saw stronger than expected job growth in June, as the economy added 372,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%.

Other indicators, however, such as flagging consumer confidence and slowing home sales, suggest the economy has begun to weaken.

U.S. consumer confidence fell this month to a level not seen for one-and-a-half years, according to a closely followed Conference Board survey released on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in June, existing home sales plummeted 5.4% compared with the month prior — the fifth straight month of decline, according to data released last week by the National Association of Realtors.

If the Fed raises interest rates too quickly, an abrupt economic slowdown could send the economy into a downturn, Andrew Levin, a former Fed economist and a professor at Dartmouth College, told ABC News.

“There are definitely some indicators now that the economy is slowing,” he said.

“The question for the Fed is: Are we really heading into a recession?” he added. “If so, is that going to slow the Fed’s efforts to fight inflation?”

The anticipated 0.75% rate hike would raise the Fed’s benchmark interest rate to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%.

On Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve announcement, a federal agency will release gross domestic product data that shows whether the U.S. economy grew or contracted over the three-month period ending in June.

Because the economy shrank at an annual rate of 1.4% over the first three months of the year, a contraction in the second three-month period would establish two consecutive quarters of falling GDP, which many consider a shorthand benchmark for a recession.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER, a research organization seen as an authority on measuring economic performance, uses a more complicated definition that takes into account several indicators. This definition determines whether a downturn is formally designated as a recession, since the NBER is the official arbiter on the subject.

Scoreboard roundup — 7/26/22

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

INTERLEAGUE
Toronto 10, St. Louis 3
NY Mets 6, NY Yankees 3
San Diego 6, Detroit 4
Milwaukee 7, Minnesota 6
Chi White Sox 2, Colorado 1

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Baltimore 5, Tampa Bay 3
Cleveland 8, Boston 3
LA Angels 6, Kansas City 0
Oakland 5, Houston 3
Seattle 3, Texas 1

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Chi Cubs 4, Pittsburgh 2
Miami 2, Cincinnati 1
Atlanta 6, Philadelphia 3
Arizona 7, San Francisco 3
Washington 8, LA Dodgers 3

WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Las Vegas 93, Chicago 83

Mega Millions jackpot crosses $1 billion mark for third time in history

July 27, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Mega Millions jackpot crosses billion mark for third time in history

(NEW YORK) — For only the third time in the 20-year history of Mega Millions, the jackpot has surpassed the massive $1 billion mark after the winning numbers were drawn on Tuesday night and no winner was declared.

The estimated jackpot Mega Millions drawing on Friday, July 29, is now an estimated $1.025 billion.

The winning numbers on Tuesday were 7-29-60-63-66. The Mega Ball was 15 and the Megaplier was 3.

The jackpot had reached an estimated $830 million ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing, making it the third-largest jackpot in the game’s history.

“Friday night’s drawing will be the thirtieth in this jackpot run, which began April 19 after the jackpot was won in Tennessee on April 15,” Mega Millions said in a statement issued early Wednesday.

Even though Friday’s prize is now estimated to be valued at over $1 billion, it still falls short of the record jackpot which was won in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018. The winner won $1.537 billion and it holds the world record for the largest lottery prize ever won on a single ticket.

Only four Mega Millions jackpots have been won this year; in California, Minnesota, New York and Tennessee.

Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing had a cash value of $487.9 million, the company said in a press release. The next drawing on Friday has an estimated cash value of $602.5 million.

“We look with anticipation on the growing jackpot,” says Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, current Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium. “Seeing the jackpot build over a period of months and reaching the billion-dollar mark is truly breathtaking. We encourage customers to keep play in balance and enjoy the ride. Someone is going to win.”

As the numbers were being drawn at 11 p.m. ET, those who were trying to check the Mega Millions website were given an error — the site had crashed.

“With unprecedented traffic after the drawing — more than any in the history of megamillions.com — the Mega Millions website was down for more than two hours Tuesday night,” the company said in a statement.

There were a total of 6,775,330, winning tickets at all prize levels from Tuesday night’s drawing. A total of nine tickets matched the five white balls to win the Mega Millions second prize with one of those being sold in Ohio being worth $3 million because it included the optional Megaplier. The other eight Match 5 tickets were all worth $1 million with two each being sold in New Jersey and New York, plus one each in California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio.

“In the 29 drawings since the jackpot was last won in Tennessee on April 15, there have been more than 28.1 million winning tickets at all prize levels, including 42 worth $1 million or more,” the company said. “Those big prizes have been won in 17 states across the country: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.”

Lottery winners have two options: take the money as a lump sum payment or annuity payments over 29 years.

Most winners usually take the lump sum payments, but record inflation has complicated matters, experts said.

“If we believe that inflation will be here for a while, then you may want to consider taking the annuity versus taking the lump sum,” tax and estate planning attorney Kurt Panouses told ABC News’ Deirdre Bolton.

US now leads globe in reported monkeypox cases, data shows

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The United States now leads the globe in confirmed monkeypox cases, new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed.

The U.S. has reported a total of 3,846 known monkeypox cases as of Monday, July 25, federal and global data shows, surpassing Spain, which has reported 3,100 cases, and Germany, which has 2,352 cases.

“The international community must work together to protect individuals that have been impacted by monkeypox, and those most at risk of contracting the virus,” White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

“We want to make sure that we all Americans understand that we have taken we are continue to take this virus seriously,” he added.

Last week, the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Across the globe, nearly 18,100 cases have been confirmed in 75 countries, including more than 17,800 cases confirmed in countries that have not historically reported monkeypox.

Health experts have said that the number of monkeypox cases is likely much higher than the total that is officially reported, and U.S. health officials have been warning for weeks that the number of monkeypox cases would likely increase across the country, as the government increases testing capacity and surveillance.

“I would like you all to understand that we anticipate an increase in cases in the coming weeks,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing earlier this month.

With increased testing, an improved reporting system for states, and the continued spread of disease, more cases will be identified, she said.

“We know monkeypox symptoms usually start within three weeks of exposure to the virus, so we anticipate we may see an increase in cases throughout the month of July and into August,” Walensky added.

Monkeypox transmission typically occurs through close contact for an extended period of time, or contact with articles of clothing, bedding, or towels that have been in contact with an infectious patient, Dr. Amy Arrington, Medical Director, Special Isolation Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital, told ABC News.

“You cannot get this virus from touching an elevator button, from walking past someone in the mall casually. It is spread by close contact – contact with lesions so touching infectious lesions or infectious scabs,” Arrington said.

Although the vast majority — 99% — of the cases reported domestically have been related to male-to-male sexual contact, according to the WHO, last week, federal officials confirmed that two children in the U.S. had tested positive for monkeypox.

One case has occurred in a toddler, who is a resident of California, and the other has been reported in an infant, who is a non-U.S. resident.

The two cases are unrelated, located in different jurisdictions, and were likely the result of household transmission, officials said.

Officials have repeatedly stressed that although monkeypox is affecting the “gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men,” community most prominently, at this time, the virus can affect anyone who has close contact with people who have monkeypox, including children.

ABC News’ Dr. Rachel Boren contributed to this report.

China targeted Fed employees for almost a decade, GOP Senate report says; chairman pushes back

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A report released Tuesday by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee says that China targeted the Federal Reserve for nearly 10 years, working to recruit and influence employees in an effort to obtain information and monetary benefit and to influence U.S. monetary policy.

The report zeroes in on what it describes as Chinese efforts to recruit American talent using programs that targeted individuals at the Fed — offering job prospects, academic positions and economic and research opportunities in an effort to gain access to sensitive data and information.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell refuted many aspects of the report. In a letter on Monday to Sen. Rob Portman, the committee’s ranking Republican, Powell wrote that he had “strong concerns” about the findings, including allegations that the Fed had failed to work with law enforcement to ward off outside influence.

The report’s conclusions are based off of counterintelligence data from the Fed and detail a variety of actions by the central banking system’s employees that the report describes as putting the institution at risk. It identifies 13 persons of interest, representing eight regional Fed banks, who have connections to known Chinese talent recruiters or “similar patterns of activity.”

The report details the interactions that some of these individuals had with China’s government — some of which were aggressive on the part of the Chinese.

In one series of events, the report says, a Fed employee was detained on four separate occasions during a trip to Shanghai in 2019. Chinese officials threatened the employee’s family, tapped their electronics and tried to force them to sign a letter stating they would not discuss the interactions, according to the report.

Another employee provided modeling code to a Chinese university with ties to a Chinese talent recruitment agency.

Still another individual, with “continuous contacts with Chinese nationals and universities,” tried twice to transfer Fed data to an external site.

One of the reasons Fed employees were vulnerable, the report asserts, is due to China “taking advantage” of America’s openness to participating in academic and research-based work.

Republicans on the Senate committee said the Fed remains poorly positioned to counter such overtures from China, citing a “lack of internal counterintelligence competency” at the bank and failure to sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The result, the report says, is an institution unable to identify threats quickly or to investigate potential efforts by China to recruit U.S. talent.

Powell, the Fed chairman, pushed back in his letter.

“We value our interactions with the law enforcement community and would not hesitate to refer a matter to them or otherwise seek their counsel where appropriate. We would be concerned about any supportable allegation of wrongdoing, whatever the source,” he wrote to Portman. “In contrast, we are deeply troubled by what we believe to be the report’s unfair, unsubstantiated and unverified insinuations about particular individual staff members.”

Portman, who previously led investigations of China’s recruiting efforts in the tech and science fields, urged the Fed to “do more” to protect itself.

“I am concerned by the threat to the Fed and hope our investigation, which is based on the Fed’s own documents and corresponds with assessments and recommendations made by the FBI, wakes the Fed up to the broad threat from China to our monetary policy,” he said in a statement. “The risk is clear, I urge the Fed to do more, working with the FBI, to counter this threat from one of our foremost foreign adversaries.”

Powell insisted the Fed was already being proactive.

“Because we understand that some actors aim to exploit any vulnerabilities, our processes, controls and technology are robust and updated regularly,” he wrote. “We respectfully reject any suggestions to the contrary.”

But the report recommends that Congress act to institute safeguards for federally funded research at the Fed and other academic institutions. Portman is leading an effort to include these protections in a soon-to-pass bill on science and microchips.

San Francisco couple gets ticket for leaving car parked after curb was repainted

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(SAN FRANCISCO) — A couple received a ticket last week for parking in a red zone after the curb was repainted while their car was parked there, according to ABC San Francisco station KGO .

Jeff and Desiree Jolly have lived in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood for years, telling KGO that they’ve parked in the spot whenever it’s available for 25 years.

The couple said they noticed a $180 parking ticket on the windshield of their Honda sedan for parking in a red zone about a week ago.

The Jollys said the parking space was not a red zone when they had parked their vehicle days earlier, adding that the city missed a small patch when it avoided painting over their tire.

“If it was warranted, I don’t have a problem with it, but this seems unfair to me,” Desiree Jolly told KGO.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency told KGO the ticket wasn’t for the newly painted red zone, but rather, a faded one.

The decision on whether to enforce the ticket or dismiss it is now in the hands of the citation clerk, as the Jollys contested the ticket, the agency told KGO.

Earlier this month, a San Francisco couple was fined more than $1,500 for parking in their own driveway. The city eventually agreed to waive the fine and the threat of a $250-per-day fee if the couple could prove that the lot had historically been used for parking, or if they build a cover for the carpad or a garage.

As for Desiree and Jeff Jolly, they told KGO they plan to move out of the country to France in the future. “We do want to leave because of all of this stuff that goes on in the city,” Jeff said.

“I’m going through chemotherapy right now, so it’s like I’m worried about other things, and now I have to worry about this,” Desiree Jolly told KGO.

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