Scotty McCreery and his wife, Gabi, are about to become parents for the first time, but they’ve already gotten some practice in with their dog, Moose.
The couple welcomed the yellow Lab into their family in 2019 when he was 3 months old. In the years since, the couple has given him a dream life that includes hikes through the mountains in their home state of North Carolina and indulging in Moose’s favorite activity — swimming.
“Sometimes he gets a little sassy with us, if he only wants to eat at certain times or whatever. But it’s like, ‘You get to run around, we’ll take you to the beach, you get to go hiking in the mountains and swimming in waterfalls,'” Scotty describes of their relationship with Moose, noting that the pup has a “good life.”
The singer adds that they spend a lot of time at Gabi’s parents’ lake house so Moose can swim in the lake (oftentimes chasing kayakers for a half mile). And if the way they dote on Moose is any indication of how they’ll be as parents, it’s safe to say their child will be loved and cared for. Scotty shared with Peoplethat having Moose was “great training for kids one day.”
“He loves going to his boarding. They call it Pet Resort and Spa. They have a pool for him and they send us pictures, he’s loving life,” Scotty adds. “I can’t even remember life without Moose. It’s so funny because now, nobody ever asks, ‘How are you doing?’ or ‘How are you and Gabi?’ It’s, ‘How’s Moose doing?’ That’s all we ever get nowadays is, ‘How’s Moose?’ But we love it. He’s the man.”
Scotty and Gabi are expecting a baby boy in November.
In the new Paramount plus film Jerry and Marge Go Large, a couple, played by Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening, beat the lottery by exploiting a loophole in the math and use the winnings to benefit their town.
Larry Wilmore plays the couple’s accountant, and he tells ABC Audio the script fell into his lap when he needed it the most — during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I really [needed] something to give me hope,” he recalls. “And just that story of Jerry and Marge, you know, just how simple it was. I mean, the guy…just he just wanted to figure out puzzles, you know? He wasn’t trying to win money. That was like a bonus…And then the fact that he got the whole town involved, that was fantastic. I love that part of it.”
The multitalented 60-year-old comedian whose numerous credits include serving as executive producer on the ABC sitcom, black-ish, and as a co-creator, with Issa Rae on the HBO series Insecure, reveals that once upon a time, math was actually his thing, but comedy eventually won out.
“I was taking calculus as a sophomore in high school…I was on that math track,” he explains. “But after a while, comedy just became a little more fun than the math, you know?…I’m not like math genius type of thing, way far from that.”
Wilmore says he used to play the lottery “all the time” back in the day, but not so much these days.
“I’m a big-stakes lottery guy,” he shares. “If it’s like 25 million, I’m like, come on, lottery. You got to do better than that…But when it’s like 500 million?…I’m like, okay, you can get my $2, on 500 million.”
BoyWithUke may need new friends, but he’s got a whole lot of listeners.
The mysterious, masked artist’s viral hit “Toxic” has officially hit #1 on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart, making it the first BoyWithUke track to reach the top of any Billboard song ranking.
All told, “Toxic” took 31 weeks between its debut on Alternative Airplay and its ascension to #1. That ties Phoenix‘s “1901” for the sixth-longest journey to #1 on Alternative Airplay.
“Toxic” was first released in October 2021, and its lyric video has over 57 million views on YouTube. It’s included on BoyWithUke’s new album, SerotoninDreams, which was released in May.
Graham Nash‘s latest solo studio album, This Path Tonight, was released over six years ago, but the folk-rock legend says he’s finally almost finished with a follow-up record.
“I think I’m two songs from completing it,” Nash tells ABC Audio. “I’ve got 10. I want to add a couple more. I know what I’m gonna add. So it is almost done.”
Nash, who turned 80 in February, says “the most interesting thing” about the new album is that “it was done completely remotely.”
Explaining how the songs came together, Graham notes, “I have a small, tiny studio in my bathroom in Manhattan. I would put down a song on an acoustic guitar and a vocal track. I would send [the tracks] to [guitarist] Shane [Fontayne] in California. He’d put on the bass, his guitars and a harmony vocal. He would then send all those files to [keyboardist] Todd Caldwell in Brooklyn…who would put on all the keyboards and a harmony vocal. He would then send them…to his brother, [drummer] Toby [Caldwell,] in Lubbock, Texas, who would then put on all the drums.”
Nash adds that the audio files would then be sent back to him and Todd, who is producing the album, and Caldwell “would then make a thing of it.”
Meanwhile, Graham is preparing to launch a new U.S. summer tour on July 13 in Red Bank, New Jersey, and he says he plans to include some of the new material in his sets. The trek, which will visit various venue in the Northeast, is mapped out through an August 8 concert in Ocean City, New Jersey.
(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s surprise hearing on Tuesday featured highly-anticipated and explosive testimony from someone who was inside the White House both as the Capitol attack unfolded and in the days before.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, spent some two hours divulging details about what went on behind-the-scenes leading up to, during and after the attack.
Committee members and even some former Trump staffers hailed the 25-year-old for showing the courage to deliver her testimony publicly. Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said members felt it important to offer her “firsthand” accounts “immediately.”
“It hasn’t always been easy to get that information, because the same people who drove the former president’s pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about Jan. 6,” Thompson said. “But thanks to the courage of certain individuals, the truth won’t be buried. The American people won’t be left in the dark.”
With Hutchinson’s testimony, Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., argued that Trump and Meadows were well aware of the potential for violence at the Capitol last year yet ultimately dismissed the warnings. Trump even demanded to be taken to the Capitol alongside his supporters, Hutchinson said, despite concerns of legality and security from his team.
Here are some key takeaways from Hutchinson’s testimony:
Trump’s chief of staff knew Jan. 6 might get ‘real, real bad’
Kicking off her revelatory account before the committee, Hutchinson said that Meadows had warned her on Jan. 2, 2021, that “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”
She said Meadows made the remarks to Hutchinson after meeting with Rudy Giuliani, who was at that point a central figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the election. After the meeting, Giuliani talked enthusiastically to Hutchinson about plans to go to the Capitol, she said.
“It’s going to be great,” Giuliani said to her, Hutchinson said. “The president’s going to be there. He’s going to look powerful.”
When she walked into Meadows’ office to relay what Giuliani told her, she said Meadows responded with the remark about how “bad” the situation may be on Jan. 6.
“That evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on Jan. 6,” she told the panel.
Hutchinson testified that Meadows generally knew about the potential for violence on Jan. 6 but failed to act. Both Meadows and Giuliani expressed an interest in seeking pardons over the events of Jan. 6, Hutchinson testified. Giuliani on Tuesday denied asking for a pardon. Meadows has not commented on Hutchinson’s testimony.
White House lawyers worried about criminal charges
Several White House staffers expressed concerns about the legality of what Trump intended to do on Jan. 6, Hutchinson told the committee. Specific crimes they were concerned about, she said, included defrauding the electoral count or obstructing justice.
One point of contention was Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, Hutchinson said. She recalled Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann urging speechwriters to avoid “foolish” language that Trump requested be included, such as the phrases “fight for me” and “we’re going to march to the Capitol.”
On the morning of Jan. 6, Hutchinson said White House counsel Pat Cipollone was adamant that Trump shouldn’t accompany his supporters to the Capitol.
“We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen,” she recalled Cipollone telling her at the time.
Trump knew his supporters were armed
With the committee displaying texts from Jan. 6 as visual aids, Hutchinson recalled how Trump was “furious” with the crowd size of his rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and with advisers who didn’t want to let in individuals who had weapons. Those weapons included pistols, rifles, bear spray and flagpoles with spears attached to them, officials warned, according to Hutchinson.
Trump, she said, wanted the metal detectors to be taken away.
“I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, “I don’t f—— care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f—— mags away. Let my people in,” she recalled. “They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f—— mags away.”
Cheney said Hutchinson’s testimony established that Trump “was aware that a number of individuals in the crowd had weapons and were wearing body armor” when he spoke at the rally and urged them to then march to the Capitol.
She asked Americans to “reflect on that for a moment”
An ‘irate’ Trump grabbed the wheel inside presidential SUV
In one of the hearing’s most shocking moments, Hutchinson recalled hearing how Trump turned “irate” as he was driven away from the Ellipse after being told by his security that he could not go to the Capitol to meet supporters.
Hutchinson was not in the SUV at the time but said she heard the account from Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official, when everyone was back at the White House. Also in the room was Bobby Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail, Hutchinson said
“The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now’ — to which Bobby responded, ‘Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing,'” she continued. “The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’
“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted this story to me, he motioned toward his clavicles,” she said.
In a statement later Tuesday, the Secret Service reiterated that it had been cooperating and intended to continue to cooperate with the House committee, “including by responding on the record” to Hutchinson’s testimony.
Two sources familiar confirmed to ABC News that Trump had indeed requested to go to Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Secret Service refused due to security concerns. One of those sources said that the former president did return to his vehicle after his speech at the Ellipse and asked Engel if he could go to the Capitol, with Engel responding, essentially, that it was unwise.
In another alleged incident of Trump having an outburst, Hutchinson told the committee Tuesday that he threw his lunch at the wall in the White House dining room after learning about then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s interview with the Associated Press in which Barr made it clear the Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread fraud in the election. It wasn’t the first time Trump threw a dish or tablecloth in anger, Hutchinson said.
Meadows wanted to go to the ‘war room’ on Jan. 5
Hutchinson testified that the White House was aware of a “war room” assembled in the Willard Hotel in Washington on the night of Jan. 5.
Hutchinson said Trump asked Meadows to speak by phone with Roger Stone, a longtime Trump aide, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn the day before the rally, and that Meadows asked her to look into setting up Secret Service for him to go to the nerve center of the “Stop the Steal” movement that night.
She said she expressed to Meadows she didn’t think was a “smart idea” or “something appropriate for the White House chief of staff to attend or be involved in,” coming days after she overheard Guiliani mentioning “Oath Keepers” and “Proud Boys,” she testified earlier.
Eventually, Meadows dropped the request and said he would dial into a meeting, Hutchinson recalled.
Stone, for his part, said through his attorney that he and Meadows did not talk. “Unequivocally stated, Mr. Stone did not speak to or otherwise communicate with Mr. Meadows on January 5th or 6th. Additionally, Mr. Stone did not receive a call from Mr. Meadows on either day,” Grant Smith exclusively told ABC News.
Flynn, who Trump pardoned in December 2020 for lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador, previously appeared before the committee and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
In a clip played by the committee, Cheney asked Flynn if he “believed in the peaceful transition of power.”
“The Fifth,” Flynn replied.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Ali Dukakis, Katherine Faulders, Ben Siegel and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is planning to send out hundreds of thousands of monkeypox vaccines in response to the outbreak of the rare disease that has been identified in multiple non-endemic countries.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday on a call with reporters that it will be sending out 296,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for prevention of the disease for people who have been exposed.
Of that number, 56,000 doses will become available immediately and an additional 240,000 doses will become available in a few weeks. Officials said they expect 750,000 more doses to become available over the summer, and an additional 500,000 doses throughout the fall.
This allows for a total of “1.6 million doses we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” Dr. David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response at HHS, told reporters during the call.
Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding its recommendation of who gets the monkeypox vaccine due to the difficulty identifying all contacts in the current outbreak.
Previously, the federal health agency only recommended vaccination for people who had been identified as being exposed through contact tracing.
But the CDC said it is now recommending the vaccine for those with confirmed and suspected exposures, including those who have had close physical contact with a person who was diagnosed, contact with a known sexual partner who was diagnosed, and men who have sex with men who were in an area with known monkeypox exposure.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on the call that, as of Tuesday evening, 4,700 monkeypox cases have been detected globally in 49 countries.
In the U.S. alone, 306 cases have been identified across 28 jurisdictions with no deaths.
Many cases have been reported among men who identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, but there is currently no evidence monkeypox is a sexually transmitted infection — and the experts emphasize that anyone can be infected.
Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said the majority of U.S. cases in this outbreak have occurred through intimate close contact as exposure to transmission via droplets.
However, officials advised Americans not to panic and that there are plenty of tests, vaccines and treatments for those who have been exposed to monkeypox.
“We want to remind folks this is not a novel virus,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said. “Unlike COVID, monkeypox is a virus that has been around forever. We have known about it for 60-some-odd years and we have spent years treating it in endemic nations.”
(MENDON, Mo.) — Four people were killed and dozens were injured Monday when an Amtrak train derailed after hitting a dump truck that was in an uncontrolled public crossing in Mendon, Missouri, according to Amtrak and officials.
Eight passenger cars and two locomotives derailed at about 12:42 p.m. local time, Amtrak said.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Justin Dunn initially said two of the train’s passengers were killed, along with someone who was in the dump truck.
On Tuesday, the highway patrol said a third train passenger died overnight, bringing the total number of deaths to four.
At least 150 people involved the crash were treated at 10 hospitals in the area for minor to serious injuries, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement, citing updated information from Amtrak and law enforcement.
NTSB investigators said Tuesday that the dump truck was transporting aggregate to contractors nearby for an Army Corps of Engineers project. The NTSB said the vehicle was crossing the track when the backside was hit by the train.
The agency said it was downloading the event recorders from the train and noted the train had two forward-facing cameras. The dump truck also had a data recorder that investigators are trying to examine, according to the NTSB.
“It was something that you never think is going to happen, but when it does happen, it’s far worse than anything you could have imagined,” Jason Drinkard, a passenger on the train, told ABC affiliate station KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri.
Drinkard, a high school teacher, said he was traveling with his wife and six students to Chicago for a conference, when the crash occurred. He described seeing the “carnage,” with injured passengers and crew unable to walk.
The train was en route from Los Angeles to Chicago with 275 passengers and 12 crew members on board at the time of the crash, Amtrak said. All the train occupants from the scene were evacuated, according to Dunn.
Officials at Hendrick Medical Center accepted seven patients from the scene, while officials at MU Health Care University Hospital/Columbia said its facility was treating 16 patients as of 10 p.m. ET Monday. Pershing Memorial Hospital received between 15 and 20 people from the accident.
Passenger Rob Nightingale, 58, told ABC News his train car tipped to the side and he climbed through a window to escape. He said he saw a little girl crying and her family trying to comfort her.
Some people were covered in blood, he added.
Aboard the train were two Boy Scout troops from Appleton, Wisconsin, that sprang into action, breaking windows and helping to evacuate passengers, two of the scouts’ mothers told ABC affiliate station WBAY in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Berken and Tierney said they both described a nerve-racking period of time between learning of the crash and hearing that their sons survived the crash without injuries.
“Until I heard from my son an hour later, that he was OK, I couldn’t stop shaking or crying,” Berken said.
Tierney added, “It was a phone call that no parent should ever have to receive. It was probably way up there on the scariest moments of my life.”
Scott Armstrong, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, told ABC News Tuesday that there were 16 scouts, ages 14 to 17, and eight adult chaperones who were returning home from a week-long backpacking trip at a wilderness camp in New Mexico. He said three of the adult chaperones suffered non-life-threatening injuries and remained in the hospital in stable condition.
Armstrong said one of the scouts was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released.
“Our scouts immediately sprung into action and assisted other people in getting out of the train wreckage,” Armstrong said. “The train itself is physically on its side, which can be very traumatic and disorienting, and (the scouts) helped a lot of people with basic first aid and made sure they got the proper medical attention once it arrived on scene.”
He said most of the scouts on the trip had achieved their first aid merit badge and some had been awarded their emergency preparedness merit badge.
“Frankly, we know what these kids are capable of,” Armstrong said. “I’ve always described that scouting takes ordinary kids and enables them to do extraordinary things and that was on full display yesterday.”
Armstrong said one of the scouts, a 15-year-old he described as a troop senior patrol leader, went to the front of the train and discovered the driver of the dump truck that was hit, who had been ejected from his vehicle and landed in field adjacent to the toppled train. He said the scout attempted first aid on the dump truck driver and summoned state police and emergency responders, who continued to try to save the man’s life.
“They continued to give aid and then wound up just giving comfort, frankly, as he passed away on the scene, unfortunately,” Armstrong said.
He said the scouts will be monitored in the coming weeks to ensure they are both mentally and physically OK.
“It’s a pretty traumatic experience,” Armstrong said. “It’s not always evident immediately after any incident like this and so we have mental health professionals that we’re in consultation with to make sure that those services are available to the scouts and the leaders as necessary.”
Missouri Public Safety officials, highway patrol troopers and other personnel were dispatched to the scene, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson tweeted.
Mendon is about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri.
The NTSB also said there are 130,000 passive crossings in America right now, which account for about half of all crossings. The agency said it has made recommendations for years about transforming and improving “passive” crossings.
It would’ve cost $400,000 to add cross arms, lights, and bells to the Mendon crossing, according to the NTSB.
The crash came a day after an Amtrak train collided with a car in California, killing three people.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement, “My thoughts are with the victims and families affected by today’s Missouri train derailment and the Northern California collision that occurred over the weekend. I have been updated on these crashes and my team is in communication with Amtrak and the relevant authorities.”
Federal Railroad Administration personnel are en route to Mendon, where they will support NTSB investigators, Buttigieg added.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Gio Benitez and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
An archival Alice Cooper concert album that captures the shock rocker performing at a Dallas record store with the surviving members of his original band will get its official wide global release. Live from the Astroturf will come out on multiple formats September 30.
The album was originally released as a limited-edition vinyl disc. The new release will be available as a colored-vinyl LP packaged with a DVD featuring the 2019 documentary about the reunion performance; a CD/Blu-ray set also featuring the audio and the documentary; and a digital version of the record.
The reunion show took place in 2015 at Good Records in Dallas and featured Cooper joined by guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith from the original Alice Cooper band as well as guitarist Ryan Roxie from Alice’s current touring band, who stepped in after the late Glen Buxton died in 1997.
The performance was a surprise to the attendees, who had gathered at the record shop for a special in-store signing event intended to promote Dunaway’s memoir, Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!
The concert featured Cooper and company running a selection of songs from the group’s early-1970s albums, including classics like “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Under My Wheels,” “Elected” and “School’s Out.”
The band’s performances of “I’m Eighteen and “Under My Wheels” will be featured on the Live at the Astroturf DVD and Blu-ray in addition to the documentary about the event and a lengthy interview with Dunaway, Bruce and Smith.
Physical versions of Live at the Astroturf can be preordered now at Ear-Music.net.
Here’s the full Live from the Astroturf track list:
“Caught in a Dream”
“Be My Lover”
“I’m Eighteen”
“Is It My Body”
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”
“Under My Wheels”
“School’s Out”
“Elected”
“Desperado” (Instrumental Bonus Track)
DVD/Blu-ray:
–Documentary
–Music Video: “I’m Eighteen”
–Music Video: “Under My Wheels”
–Extensive Interview with Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith
Primus has canceled the upcoming European leg of the band’s A Tribute to Kings tour.
The outing, set to kick off in the fall, was scrapped due to “unavoidable logistical challenges.”
“We apologize to our fans who were planning to attend and look forward to performing in Europe again soon,” Primus says.
Refunds will be issued to ticket holders at the point of purchase.
The A Tribute to Kings tour, which first launched in 2021, features Primus performing Rush‘s 1977 album A Farewell to Kings in full, as well as a set of their own songs. The most recent North American leg made a stop in the “Tom Sawyer” outfit’s hometown of Toronto in May, which was attended by Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.
The lineup of the 2022 Aftershock festival is going through some shake-ups.
Organizers for the California hard-rock extravaganza announced Tuesday that Judas Priest and several other acts — including Bullet for My Valentine and Alice Cooper touring guitarist Nita Strauss — have dropped off the bill. A tweet announcing the news did not give a specific reason for the change, noting only that those acts are “no longer able to perform at Aftershock 2022.”
As replacements, Danzig and In Flames are among the artists that have now joined the Aftershock lineup.
Aftershock 2022 takes place October 6-9 in Sacramento. The lineup also includes KISS, Stone Temple Pilots, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, Papa Roach, Shinedown, My Chemical Romance, Helmet, GWAR and Evanescence.
Judas Priest had been scheduled to perform on October 7, the same day KISS is headlining the event. The appearance had been the first scheduled date on the fall 2022 leg of Priest’s 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, which now will kick off with an October 13 concert in Wallingford, Connecticut.
