Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Little Kids Rock
Following last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York — in which 18-year-old Payton Gendron allegedly killed 10 Black shoppers in what’s been described as a racially motivated shooting — one famous Buffalo artist says the event has sent “shockwaves through the whole community.”
The Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik, born and raised in Buffalo, tells ABC Audio, “I feel mostly for the community that it’s in and the people who live and work and shop in that neighborhood.”
The shooting took place at a Tops supermarket, a local chain, and John notes, “[It’s] such an important sort of anchor for that community, because there’s not a lot of big supermarkets in that neighborhood. There aren’t any, other than that one.”
Indeed, since the supermarket’s been closed, local organizations have had to step in to provide food for the locals. John says, “My biggest hope is that they keep that store open, because that community really needs that.” He also says he and his Goo Goo Dolls bandmates are “willing and available” to do a benefit, if asked.
But earlier this week, John had happier news in another part of the state: He was in New York City to be honored as Rocker of the Year at the Little Kids Rock 20th anniversary benefit. The nonprofit supports music education in public schools nationwide.
“It’s something that we wanted to get more involved with. I was pretty surprised that I was going to be one of the honorees. I thought that was really cool,” John tells ABC Audio.
But it wasn’t that cool for John’s daughter, Lilliana, who accompanied him.
“I asked her, ‘Well, did you like when I was singing?’ And she said to me, ‘I don’t like when your hair is in your eyes,'” he laughs. “That’s typical. You know, she’s my kid. I’m her dad … I don’t think she gets it. I don’t think she’s all that impressed with it!”
Austin St. John, who played the Red Ranger in the hit ’90s show Power Rangers, has been charged in an alleged scam of funds from the CARES Act for COVID relief.
The Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office this week unsealed charges against St. John, who was born Jason Gieger, claiming he was among 18 people who allegedly obtained fraudulent Payment Protection Program loans to the tune of $3.5 million and kept the money.
The fraudulent loan applications said the funds were needed for utility payments, payroll and health benefits for their businesses affected by the pandemic.
“Instead, the defendants … transferred money to their personal accounts, and spent the funds on various personal purchases,” the authorities say.
The defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in federal prison, the Department of Justice says.
COVID-19 relief scams have cost the government — and thusly, American taxpayers — hundreds of millions of dollars since the pandemic began.
As they gear up for a joint summer tour with Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, Chicago has released its first new song in over eight years, a bouncy pop gem titled “If This Is Goodbye.”
The track is available now as a digital download and via streaming services, while a lyric video has debuted at Chicago’s official YouTube channel.
The song mixes the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ classic soulful, horn-driven sound with some electronic beats, with lyrics that seem to celebrate a long relationship that may be coming to an end.
“If this is goodbye, let’s take one more shot for the memories/ Life’s too short to be enemies,” the band sings in the chorus. “If this ends tonight, you can save your tears for the other guy/ I’ll see you in another life.”
Chicago has been playing “If This Is Goodbye” at its recent concerts.
The band’s joint tour with Wilson and his solo group kicks off on June 7 in Phoenix, although Chicago first has three headlining dates scheduled for May 20 in Greensboro, North Carolina; May 21 in Montgomery, Alabama; and May 22 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Melissa Etheridge will do a special guest performance with finalist Noah Thompson on Sunday’s American Idol finale.
American Idoltweeted the news in a video where judge Katy Perry told Leah Marlene that they’d be singing “Firework” together, and Luke Bryan told HunterGirl that they’d be singing the Randy Travis hit “I Told You So” as a duet. Katy then told Noah he’d be singing with Melissa, and he shrugged and said, “Sounds good!”
Melissa responded, “That moment when you realize the other two finalists are singing with the judges and you are singing with…what’s her name again?” She added, “don’t worry @noahthompsonmu1 we are gonna rock the finals.”
Noah replied, “I can’t wait Melissa I really can’t, looking forward to meeting you and cannot wait for this duet.”
Either Noah, Leah or HunterGirl will be crowned the American Idol on Sunday night, and Melissa is just one of the stars who’ll be appearing on the finale. The lineup also includes judge Lionel Richie performing, plus country superstar Thomas Rhett, Michael Bublé, Sara Bareilles, Flo Rida and Earth, Wind and Fire.
The American Idol season 20 finale airs live Sunday, May 22, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — The funerals for several victims of the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, are starting to take place.
Ten people, all of whom were Black, were killed in a mass shooting at a Tops supermarket in an attack authorities are calling a “racially motivated hate crime.”
The victims included four grocery store employees as well as six customers, several of them regulars at the store, according to the Buffalo Police Department and those who knew them.
Heyward Patterson
Deacon Heyward Patterson’s funeral will begin at 12 p.m. on Friday at Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church. Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton and other community leaders are expected to make an appearance at the service.
Patterson’s family described him as a loving person.
“An honorable man. A family man. A working man. A community man. An honest man that was at a grocery store in a parking lot,” a relative of Patterson in an interview with ABC-affiliate WKBW-TV.
He leaves behind a wife and daughter.
Roberta Drury
The family of Roberta Drury will hold her funeral on Saturday at the Church of the Assumption in Syracuse.
Her sister Amanda Drury described her as a “vibrant and outgoing” woman who could “talk to anyone” in an interview with ABC News.
An online obituary says Drury “couldn’t walk a few steps without meeting a new friend. She made sure every single person in the room was having a great time, ready to laugh and hug at a moment’s notice.”
Katherine “Kat” Massey
The funeral for Katherine “Kat” Massey will be held on Monday, May 23, at the Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church.
Massey was a civil rights activist who worked tirelessly to improve Buffalo’s Black community.
“She’s in a true sense of the word, a warrior,” Betty Jean Grant, a friend and fellow community activist, told WKBW. “She loved working and she loved helping people.”
Sharon Belton-Cottman, a Buffalo school board member and a community activist who worked with Massey in the community group We are Women Warriors, told ABC News that she is dedicated to renaming Massey’s street after her late friend.
Celestine Chaney
Celestine Chaney, a mother and grandmother of six, will be laid to rest on Tuesday, May 24, at Elim Christian Fellowship.
Chaney’s son, Wayne Jones, told the Buffalo News, “If people’s moms are still around, just don’t be too caught up in social media and the world to pick up the phone and talk to your mom or your dad.”
Aaron W. Salter
Services for Aaron W. Salter Jr. will begin on Tuesday at the Amigone Funeral Home.
Salter, a retired Buffalo Police officer, was killed after he confronted the gunman, who entered the store wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet.
He has been hailed as a hero for his actions against the alleged Buffalo shooter.
Salter retired from the police department several years ago and had been a “beloved” member of Tops as a security guard, according to Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia.
“He took on a responsibility to protect the customers and the employees in the store,” Gramaglia said. “And he did exactly what he signed up for.”
Pearl L. Young
Pearl L. Young’s funeral will be held on Wednesday at the Elim Christian Fellowship.
In a phone interview with ABC News, her sister, Mary Craig, said Young “was such a beautiful, sweet woman.”
Young raised three children — two sons and a daughter — and was a long-term substitute teacher with the Buffalo Public School District and Emerson School of Hospitality.
“She loved her children, her family, and her Good-Samaritan COGIC church family. She was a true pillar in the community,” the family said in a statement to ABC News.
Margus D. Morrison
Services will be held for Margus D. Morgan on Friday, May 27, at True Bethel Baptist Church, at 11 a.m.
In a text message, Cassandra Demps, his stepdaughter, told ABC News that he was “a great father, wonderful partner” who was “funny” and “always willing to help his family.”
Morrison is “a soul that will always be missed,” she added.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Billy McFarland, who pleaded guilty to scheming thousands of people out of money from his Fyre Festival, was moved to a halfway house this week, according to Bureau of Prison records.
McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison for defrauding investors. Customers and investors lost over $26 million in two separate fraud schemes, according to the Department of Justice. The festival was supposed to take place in the Bahamas in 2017.
He was moved to a halfway house in Brooklyn, New York and is scheduled to be released in August.
McFarland unsuccessfully tried to get released from an Ohio prison in August of 2020 due to COVID-19 conditions in the facility.
In a court filing, DOJ prosecutors argued that McFarland had a disciplinary violation, which counts against his release.
According to court documents, McFarland had a pen with a USB recording device inside the prison that he initially denied knowing about.
Downton is back! The new film Downton Abbey: A New Era is in theaters now, and actress Michelle Dockery – who has been with the series since season one – warns that fans may shed a tear or two.
“It’s very emotional,” she tells ABC Audio. “I feel like you could cry laughing as well, there’s lots of emotions in this film.”
Those emotions made Dockery work hard to stay in character as Lady Mary, who is known for her snide observations and cold demeanor. “The challenge is sometimes holding it back as Michelle and trying to stay like Lady Mary … a bit more stoic, and not blubber.”
A New Era is the sequel to 2019’s smash hit Downton Abbey, which saw the beloved Crawley family all follow one singular plot of welcoming the king and queen of England into their estate. In this film, the cast gets split into two – with half journeying to a home in the south of France, and the others holding down the fort while a film crew shoots at Downton.
“Downton has always been visually very cinematic, even in the TV show. So that transition from the small screen to the big screen really worked the first time around. And the second time it feels like it’s on an even bigger scale,” Dockery says.
Lady Mary is part of the group who stays at Downton, and Dockery acknowledges the plot’s meta, self-referential nature: “There’s something about the movie within the movie, and France. It adds an even more extravagant layer.”
The actress hopes its extravagance will entice fans, maybe even those who haven’t yet returned to movie theaters, to go out and see the film. “It’s an event, isn’t it? Downton always feels like a bit of an event,” she says.
Heartstopper fans got double the good news on Friday.
The hit Netflix teen show has officially been renewed for seasons two and three. The series, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, debuted in April and has since launched its young cast to social media stardom.
The LGBTQ-themed series follows the love story between two British teens: the shy, nerdy Charlie Spring, played by newcomer Joe Locke, and the popular rugby player Nick Nelson, played by Kit Connor.
Heartstopper has been embraced by critics, as well as fans, scoring the elusive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has also topped Variety’s Trending TV chart over the past four weeks. In its first week of release, Heartstopper racked up 1.05 million engagements on Twitter.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: The Cure‘s next album will be released later this year.
Frontman Robert Smith has been teasing the follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream dating back to at least 2019, when he told NME that he was “intent” on releasing a new Cure record by the end of that year.
Well, it’s now 2022, and Smith is once again telling the U.K. publication that The Cure will release a new album before the year is over.
“We will be releasing a new album,” Smith says. “I get fed up of saying this now! We will be playing from October and the new album will be out before then.”
Smith describes the record, which is currently titled Songs of a Lost World, as “pretty relentless,” correctly asserting that vibe “will appeal to the hardcore of our audience.”
“I don’t think we’ll be getting any #1 singles off it or anything like that!” he laughs. “It’s been quite harrowing, like it has for everyone else.”
Meanwhile, Smith and longtime Cure bassist Simon Gallup were honored with the Music Icon Award at the 2022 Ivor Novello Awards, which were held earlier this week. The prestigious U.K. prize recognized the pair as “true cultural icons who have changed the face of popular music across the last four decades as songwriters for The Cure.”
(NEW YORK) — Federal regulators are expected to decide on a new COVID-19 vaccine design in early July, which would allow vaccine companies to begin production for rollout this fall and winter, a top official told ABC News.
Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said the decision would likely come from the FDA shortly after its advisory committee meets on June 28 to review data from the vaccine companies about the versions of next-generation vaccines they’re testing.
The FDA will then make a decision on which type of vaccine the companies should go ahead with, an estimation they’ll base on what could offer the best protection even in the face of new variants this fall and winter, similar to how the flu vaccine is concocted ahead of flu season.
“We’ll have to make some decision by early July to make sure that the manufacturers know what we’re looking to do, so that they know what they have to start producing in large quantities,” Marks, who serves as director of the department that oversees vaccines within the FDA, told ABC News in an interview.
Under consideration is how to give people “the longest duration of a high level of protection” with their vaccines, not just because it’s unrealistic to keep boosting every few months, but also because experts predict another surge in the colder months.
Second boosters for wider age-range?
Already at play, however, is the current surge. Cases are rising and nearly a third of the country is currently at medium- or high-risk community COVID levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s why, in the meantime, the FDA is also internally discussing whether to open up second boosters to a wider age-range to mitigate rising cases, Marks said. They’re currently only available for people over 50, or people over 12 who are immunocompromised.
The FDA would have to come to a decision in the next few weeks to intervene effectively, as cases are already on the rise, Marks said.
“I can tell you that that discussion is already happening internally — it’s just that I can’t tell you what the outcome will be at this point,” he said.
“We would not be doing our job as public health professionals if we weren’t thinking about it, and thinking about the benefits and risks,” he added.
For example, hospitalization rates for people under 50 who have received their first booster are still relatively low, Marks said, indicating boosters might not be necessary for younger people. But the FDA is also looking into the risks from even mild infections, like long COVID, and whether booster shots would mitigate that.
Opening up second boosters to more people would just be a stop gap measure, though. The vaccines for the fall are intended to offer a more lengthy, durable protection.
“We’d be looking at things like at least 10% higher in terms of immune response, if not more, against the currently circulating virus,” Marks said, laying out the criteria the FDA is looking for in the future vaccines.
The vaccines would have to be superior, at least against the current variants like omicron and its subvariants, to make it worthwhile to switch over from the vaccines in use now.
Who would get a new vaccine?
Though it could change when the advisory committees meet, Marks said he expects the next-generation boosters to be available for all age groups.
As far as timing, all ages should become eligible around the same time, Marks said, unlike the lengthy waiting periods of months between older and younger age groups with the current vaccines.
And the FDA also hopes to get both vaccine companies, Pfizer and Moderna, to produce vaccines that target the same strains.
“People are very confused about everything, to have different compositions for different vaccines will get things even more confusing,” Marks said.
Booster fatigue a factor
Just 43% of those 65 and older have gotten a vaccine dose in the last six months, be it a first or second booster, according to the CDC, even though nearly 90% of people in that age group got their initial vaccination series.
“From a public health standpoint, what we’ve seen is if it only lasts three or four months, it may be that there’s a recommendation that you get another one, but the vast majority of people are not going to keep coming in and getting more boosters,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
“With each one, we lose some more people,” Wachter said.
Come fall, that fatigue could be exacerbated by calls for yet another booster.
If the vaccine is more effective, though, that could help to convince people it’s worth another round.
Experts are wary that the vaccine this fall will last a full year, but expect it will at least be more effective in its protection because it will be updated with more of the recent variants, whereas the current vaccine is based on the first strain of COVID from 2019.
Dr. Paul Goepfert, director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic, is overseeing research on the new vaccines as part of the National Institute of Health study. They’re looking into vaccines that target just one new variant, like omicron, and vaccines that target a handful of the variants from the past two years, like omicron and delta, both in one shot.
“By the end of all that, for the fall, we’re going to know which of these vaccine combinations gives us the highest antibody response towards the most new and improved variants,” Goepfert said.
He expects the new vaccine will better protect against severe disease, but cautions that stopping all infections is a lofty goal.
“I am hopeful that maybe we could have a yearly vaccine rather than this every few months go back to get the vaccine boost,” Goepfert said, but that’s probably “one or two more tries” away.
Resources in question
Of course, the overarching issue of resources still remains. Who will pay for these new vaccines, or the ones after them?
Congress has yet to strike a deal with the White House for more COVID funding, even as other countries move ahead with negotiations with the vaccine companies.
White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha warned on Wednesday that if Congress doesn’t agree to billions in new COVID funding, not every American who wants a vaccine this fall will be able to get one.
Should the FDA decide that not everyone needs a vaccine — that only people over 50, or over 65, need another booster shot — that wouldn’t be an issue. But Marks said he’s hopeful that if “the right thing to do medically” is to recommend them to everyone, of all ages, the country will be able to purchase those doses.
“I’m not worried about who’s paying for what. I’m worried about making sure that our recommendations that come out of FDA are the right thing by the people of this country in terms of their health,” Marks said.
“So we will make a recommendation that, based on all of the available evidence, comports with what we see would do the best by public health in the coming year,” he added.
