(TRENTON, N.J.) — A wildfire in southern New Jersey has scorched at least 7,200 acres as of Monday morning, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.
New Jersey Forest Fire Service crews will continue to conduct backfiring operations throughout the day to aid in containment, according to a statement from the service posted on Facebook. The fire is 45% contained, authorities said.
There are no reported injuries at this time.
The fire spread through Wharton State Forest, leaving several trails, campgrounds and roads closed.
Eighteen structures have been threatened as of Monday morning, with local volunteer fire departments from Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean Counties performing structure protection, authorities said.
As of Sunday evening, only six structures were reported as threatened and the Paradise Lake campground was evacuated.
The wildfire has affected the Washington, Shamong, Hammonton and Mullica Townships, and has been fueled by dry and breezy conditions, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.
The National Weather Service in the Philadelphia/Mount Holly area said the gusty conditions are expected to subside.
Batsto Village and all of its trails continue to be closed to all visitors.
Boat launches along the Mullica River, the Mullica River Trail, the Mullica River campground and the Lower Forde campground are closed.
Pinelands Adventures said it has suspended kayak and canoe trips in the area.
Route 206 from Chew Road to Stokes Road and Route 542 from Green Bank Road to Columbia Road are also closed.
Authorities first addressed the growing fire midday Sunday, where it began in a remote section of Wharton State Forest along the Mullica River.
By 7:20 p.m., the fire had expanded to 600 acres and was 10% contained.
At 10:56 p.m., authorities said the fire had reached 2,100 acres and was at 20% containment.
An average of 1,500 wildfires damage or destroy 7,000 acres of the state’s forests each year, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
(ATLANTA) — Buried in the data about the nation’s abortion debate is an uncomfortable truth: A disproportionate number of women seeking to end their pregnancies are Black.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women as a population have the highest rate of abortions — nearly 24 abortions per 1,000 Black women, compared to about seven abortions per 1,000 white women.
That means that if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the biggest impact would be felt by Black women in the South, where conservative legislators are set to enact restrictions.
To Monica Simpson, a leading Black activist in Georgia and executive director of SisterSong, none of this should be surprising.
“If it’s obliterated,” Simpson said of the right to abortion, “then we’re not only dealing with an access issue. In a bigger way, we’re also dealing with criminalization possibilities. And that’s a very scary thing in particular for Black folks in this country who are already over-criminalized in so many ways.”
The Supreme Court was expected to rule on the abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, in the next few weeks. According to a leaked draft opinion, the court’s decision would leave the issue up to states. If that happens, more than two dozen states, mostly in the South and Midwest, plan to move ahead to severely curtail access to abortion.
Simpson’s organization SisterSong, a lead plaintiff in a Georgia abortion case, and several other Black advocacy groups say the decision is tightly coupled with race. Slavery, painful gynecological experiments and forced sterilizations are part of the nation’s history when it comes to Black women.
“We all need to be able to determine how many children we’re going to have, if we’re going to have children. We all have a human right to make decisions about our bodies,” said Toni Bond, an ethics and religious scholar who in the 1990s helped to coined the term “reproductive justice” to distinguish concerns among Black women from those of wealthier white feminists.
Among those concerns: Black women are considerably more likely to die from childbirth than white women, even when accounting for education. According to one federal study, college-educated Black women are five times more likely to die from pregnancy than college-educated white women.
Health care access is limited, too, and expensive, with many of the same states voting to restrict abortion also blocking efforts to expand Medicaid, the government’s insurance for low-income families.
Police brutality is another factor, advocates say.
“When you look at all of that in its totality, then yes, it’s going to feed into the decisions that black women make,” said Simpson.
“And if that decision is that they choose not to bring a child into this world right now, that is a decision that is a human right to make, and they should not be shamed for that decision,” she added.
During arguments on the abortion case, conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested safe-haven laws that allow a woman to relinquish her child to a fire station or police station have relieved women of the burdens of parenthood.
Also, anti-abortion groups say their church-based crisis pregnancy centers can assist every women, regardless of her race or ethnicity, on their journey through motherhood.
Simpson and others said that kind of thinking ignores the unique challenges that minority communities face, including the higher medical risk of pregnancy for Black women.
“I think they are not about pro-life at all. They are absolutely about pro-birth,” Simpson said of pregnancy crisis centers. “They want us to bring babies into this world, but they have not proven to us or shown us in any way where they have walked with our folks in our community through their lives.”
In the end, several advocates told ABC News they were prepared to work outside the legal system if necessary, as Black people have done historically.
“We should see this as something deeply, deeply troubling. This is not just about what is legal. This is about what is moral and just,” said Paris Hatcher, executive director of Black Feminist Future.
Because of that, Hatcher said, “I will make sure that anyone who needs an abortion will get (one) by any means.”
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — According to surveillance video obtained by ABC News Louisville affiliate WHAS, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, Greg Fischer, appears to fall to the ground after being hit.
The mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, was assaulted over the weekend while out attending community events when he was punched by the assailant. Police are still investigating and have yet to make any arrests.
Mayor Greg Fischer was attacked while visiting Fourth Street Live, celebrating Kentuckiana Pride and Juneteenth over the busy weekend.
According to surveillance video obtained by ABC News Louisville affiliate WHAS, the mayor appears to fall to the ground after being hit. The assailant was caught fleeing in surveillance footage.
According to police, and Fischer himself, he is doing fine following the assault.
“My son, who is 30 said, ‘Dad you’re not quite an old geezer yet, but it is good to see you can still take a punch,'” Fischer said on Sunday at the Louisville Central Community Center’s Juneteenth gala. “It is an unfortunate thing. We’re living in weird times these days, so it’s just another day in the life of the mayor.”
Anyone with information can call the Louisville Metro Police Department anonymous tip line at 502-574-5673.
All across the country Monday, Americans are observing Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery. When President Joe Bidensigned a bill last year making Juneteenth a federal holiday in the United States, one woman captured well-deserved attention.
Opal Lee, 94, was described by Biden as the “grandmother of the movement” to help make Juneteenth a nationally recognized holiday. In 2016, 89-year-old Lee, a former teacher and lifelong activist, walked from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to the nation’s capital in an effort to get Juneteenth named a national holiday.
Every year on June 19 Lee walks 2 1/2 miles to mark the time that passed between President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and when the news arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. This year Lee was joined by a host of residents, visitors and supporters.
At the time of bill signing on June 17, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president, also gave Lee her due, saying, “And looking out across this room, I see the advocates, the activists, the leaders who have been calling for this day for so long, including the one and only Ms. Opal Lee.”
“I was overjoyed. I was ecstatic,” Lee told ABC News last year of her reaction to the holiday being signed into law. “I was so happy I could have done a holy dance.”
Juneteenth — also known as Freedom Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day — is celebrated on June 19 to mark the day when African American slaves in Galveston, Texas, were among the last to be told they had been freed two months after the Civil War officially ended.
Turns out Tim McGraw wasn’t the only one who had to stop shaving for his role in 1883.
In a new conversation with actor Courteney Cox for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Faith recounts the rigorous prep the actors had to embrace to get ready for their roles on the show.
There was a two-week “cowboy camp” where they learned about the pioneering lifestyle, but for Faith, the hardest part was a little bit more basic — she had to put down her razor.
“[Show creator] Taylor [Sheridan] actually called my husband. We were at a wedding, our nephew’s wedding, and he said, ‘Who’s gonna be the one to tell your wife she has to stop shaving under her arms?’” the singer remembers. “And I’m thinking, ‘Can this wait?’ He goes, ‘No, stop tonight.’”
And she did — but Faith admits she never really felt comfortable making that adjustment to her personal grooming habits.
“It really grossed me out, I have to say,” she continues. “All due respect to those who love that, and all that freedom, woo! But for me personally …”
1883, the prequel to the hit TV show Yellowstone, streams on Paramount+.
If you want to know how great of a year 2021 was for Ed Sheeran, just ask the United Kingdom.
NME reports the “Shivers” singer is the country’s most-played artist of the past year. His single “Bad Habits” was the top song in the U.K. and his album = (Equals) was the most popular album of 2021.
Ed has been enjoying this top honor since 2017 when he first hit a double-header with his ÷ (Divide) album and the song “Shape of You.” He was only bested once, by Dua Lipa, in 2020.
This year, Dua is third on the list of most-played artists, with DJ David Guetta claiming second place. Also making the roundup is Coldplay at number five, The Weeknd in sixth place, Justin Bieber in seventh, Calvin Harris in eighth, Taylor Swift in ninth, and rounding out the top ten is Pink.
When it comes to the nation’s other top songs, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” claimed fourth, while Coldplay’s “Higher Power” took fifth.
After postponing two concerts because frontman Mick Jagger recently tested positive for COVID-19, The Rolling Stones are ready to relaunch their SIXTY tour on Tuesday in Milan, Italy.
Jagger has posted a video message on his Twitter feed in which he tells fans, “Thanks so much for all your lovely messages. I really appreciate them. And I’m sorry for the inconvenience about the shows, but we’ll be on stage at Milan on Tuesday, so see you there.”
In addition, The Rolling Stones posted a Twitter message Monday featuring a series of photos of their crew setting up the stage at Milan’s San Siro Stadium for Tuesday’s concert.
Unfortunately, the band has announced the second show that was postponed because of Jagger’s illness, a June 17 performance in Bern, Switzerland, can’t be rescheduled and has been canceled.
The announcement explains, “The Stones concert promoters have worked extremely hard all week and tried everything they possibly could to find an alternative date or venue for the concert in Switzerland but sadly this was not possible. The band wish to send a huge apology to all the fans in Switzerland who bought tickets and are deeply saddened they cannot perform in Bern on this tour.”
The message explains that fans who bought tickets can get refunds from their point of purchase until July 17.
As previously reported, the first postponed date, a June 14 show in Amsterdam, has been moved to July 7.
In the new film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Emma Thompson stars as a repressed former religious ed teacher who goes on a sex-positive journey of acceptance with the help of a much younger male escort, played by Daryl McCormack.
The two characters – who meet each other under the aliases Nancy Stokes and Leo Grande – end up changing each others’ lives in different ways, and both Thompson and McCormack agree that making this film was a life-changing experience for them, too.
“I think that’s not an exaggeration, is it?” Thompson, 63, tells ABC Audio. “It’s a timing thing in your life and I think that Nancy and Leo certainly hit us right in the center of our souls, right at the right moment; it’s bizarre. I don’t think I could have played her even five years ago.”
McCormack, 29, adds, “Just seeing a young man presented on screen in that way … the sensitivity that he had, yet he felt masculine, he felt he knew who he was. And I just haven’t seen men portrayed on-screen like that before.”
Thompson and McCormack also had to build intimacy with each other quickly, which they say was aided by the tight production schedule and COVID-19 restrictions.
“We shot it in 19 days. It was all in lockdown. We couldn’t go out with anyone else,” Thompson says. “So we were very like Nancy and Leo. We were locked in a hotel for 19 days making this.”
Brian Wilson was born 80 years ago today, and in celebration of his milestone birthday, special messages from some of TheBeach Boys legend’s famous musical friends, fans and associates have been compiled in a video that’s been posted on Wilson’s official YouTube channel.
Among the stars featured in the video are Bob Dylan, Elton John, John Fogerty, Joe Walsh, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Wilson’s fellow Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine.
Elton, who is the first artist featured in the tribute, tells Brian, “Have a wonderful 80th birthday with [your wife] Melinda and your family…You’ve inspired me all my life. To me, you’re the only real pop genius in the world, and I love you very much.”
Fogerty declares, “Happy 80th birthday, and thank you for all the great music!”
Walsh is shown playing the intro to The Beach Boys classic “California Girls” on an electric guitar, and then singing a fun rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.”
Nash says, “I wanted to take a moment and wish you a very, very happy 80th birthday. Do me a favor, please. Keep writing all your wonderful music. I’ll be listening.”
Crosby adds in a separate clip, “Happy Birthday. I love your music. I always have.”
Jardine, who’s been touring with Wilson in recent years as part of his solo band, says, “Hi Brian, I’m the guy who sings on your left…Always remember, we’ll always be younger than your cousin Mike [Love].”
Dylan ends the presentation with an acoustic rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.”
Among the other stars who are featured in the video are Smokey Robinson, the Bee Gees‘ Barry Gibb, Carole King, The Monkees‘ Micky Dolenz, My Morning Jacket‘s Jim James, producer Don Was, actors Jeff Bridges and John Cusack, and filmmaker Cameron Crowe.
Blake Shelton‘s birthday consisted of two of his favorite things: his wife, Gwen Stefani, and country music.
Blake was headlining Country Summer Music Festival in Santa Rosa, CA on his 46th birthday, June 18, when his wife surprised him on stage with a cake. Gwen’s appearance sent the packed crowd into an excited uproar as she walked out with a chocolate frosting-covered cake in hand.
“Let’s do this!” she shouted into the mic, encouraging fans to show her husband some “birthday love.” She led them in a group sing-a-long of “Happy Birthday,” Blake laughing all the while before pretending to blow out the unlit candles on the cake.
“Thank y’all for all the birthday wishes this past weekend and for y’all who came out to party at Country Summer!!! What a damn time we had.. also.. I love you @gwenstefani!!!!” Blake raved on Twitter.
The famed The Voice coach also spent his birthday weekend performing back up for his wife when Gwen hopped on stage during his set to perform No Doubt’s smash hit “Don’t Speak,” with Blake playing guitar in the background.
