Zac Brown Band founding member John Driskell Hopkins had “tough news to share” on Friday: He announced that he’s been diagnosed with ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
With his ZBB bandmates by his side, John delivered his news in a video message, describing some of his symptoms and telling fans that, so far, the progression of the disease has been very gradual.
“Over the past several years, I’ve noticed some balance issues and some stiffness in my hands,” he said. “After careful analysis by some of the country’s top neurologists, I have been diagnosed with ALS. Because my symptoms have been slow progressing from the start, we believe that they will continue to be slow progressing going forward.”
He added, “God willing, I plan to be rocking with these amazing people for many years to come.”
An additional video message that John posted solo describes ALS as a “degenerative neuromuscular disease that has no cure,” also explaining that “[t]ypically, research shows a 3-5 year lifespan after diagnosis, but the slow progression stands to reason that I will be around longer than that.”
He also shared his family’s Hop on a Cure Foundation, which raises funds for research to find a cure for the disease.
Frontman Zac Brown spoke of the band’s work with the foundation in their video message. “The technology and research surrounding ALS treatments has been advancing, but we still don’t have a cure. Thanks so much for your prayers and support in helping us cure ALS,” he said.
The video ends with info on how to help the cause via the Hop on a Cure Foundation. To donate, text “Hop” to 345-345.
George Miller, the visionary director behind the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road, is back at it with another madcap movie adventure.
The trailer to Miller’s latest, called Three Thousand Years of Longing, has Idris Elba playing a djinn — that is, a genie — who comes to be in the service of Tilda Swinton‘s bookish, self-described “solitary creature” Alithea.
“I have a question,” she asks him. “What does one do with three wishes?”
“You’ll see,” he replies.
What follows is a trippy visual tour of the heart’s desires, from apparent orgies to fantastic battlefields, melting spiders and a mandolin — a mix that perfectly fits the trailer’s promotional copy stating the movie hails “from the genius mind of George Miller.”
(CHICAGO) — An investigation is underway after a Chicago police officer shot a 13-year-old boy during a foot pursuit who authorities allege was involved in two recent carjackings.
The incident occurred Wednesday night on the city’s West Side. Police tracked the license plate of a vehicle stolen two days earlier in Chicago to the area shortly after 10 p.m., according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.
As officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the teenager got out of the car and fled, as several officers pursued him on foot, Brown said.
“The subject flees to a gas station parking lot … and turns toward the officer,” Brown told reporters during a briefing Thursday. “The officer then discharges his weapon, striking the individual once.”
Officers rendered first aid and moved the boy away from the nearby gas pumps due to concerns over a possible explosion following the gunfire, Brown said.
He was transported to an area hospital in serious but stable condition, according to the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, an independent agency that is investigating the shooting. He was also placed in custody for the stolen car, Brown said.
No weapon was recovered from the scene, Eaddy said.
The officer’s body-worn camera was on at the time of the shooting, according to Brown and COPA spokesperson Ephraim Eaddy. COPA also has third-party footage of the incident, Eaddy said.
COPA is unable to release any video of the shooting because it involves a juvenile, the office said. In the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo last year, it released the body camera footage at the request of Toledo’s family.
Brown said he was limited in what he could discuss around Wednesday’s shooting, including the contents of the body-worn camera footage, amid the investigation.
“We cannot draw conclusions to an investigation that just started last night,” he said Thursday. “We’re not going to answer how many shots were fired. The ballistics evidence will say that. We’re not going to answer anything else about the shooting.”
It is not clear at this time where the teen was shot, said Brown, who added he would defer to medical personnel’s findings for that.
“We’re not going to speculate. This investigation will reveal the facts,” he said, adding that COPA has his department’s full support.
The driver of the stolen vehicle fled the scene in the car and has not been apprehended, police said. The car was found abandoned a couple of miles from the scene of the shooting and was being processed for evidence, Brown said.
Several witnesses told Chicago ABC station WLS that the teen had his hands up before he was shot.
When asked by a reporter whether the shooting was justified, Brown said it was too soon to jump to conclusions, and that the officer and suspect had yet to provide a statement.
“There’s a lot of evidence, a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said. “Jumping to conclusions is just not fair to any of the people involved because you might jump to the conclusion that is wrong.”
At the same time, Alderperson Emma Mitts, who represents the 37th Ward where the shooting occurred, was left questioning the use of force.
“Why would you want to shoot if you can easily go and chase him?” Mitts told WLS. “The 13-year-old did not have a weapon that was recovered from the scene. So now that brings up concern to why and what happened. Certainly we don’t want an officer out here shooting our children for no reason, that’s insane.”
In a statement, COPA said it was “committed to a full and thorough investigation into the officer’s use of force to determine if their actions were in accordance with Department policy and training.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she has been in contact with Brown and COPA regarding Wednesday’s shooting.
“I have full confidence that COPA will investigate this incident expeditiously with the full cooperation of the Chicago Police Department,” she said in a statement.
No information on the officer who discharged his weapon has been released at this time. The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days, the police department said.
Police believe the 13-year-old boy was involved in the carjacking of that vehicle, as well as a second carjacking that occurred on Tuesday in Oak Park, Brown said. In that incident, a car left running with a 3-year-old girl in the back seat was stolen, and the mother was dragged after grabbing onto the car before falling and breaking her clavicle, the superintendent said.
The car was soon recovered with the child still safely inside, he said.
Harry Styles‘ new album just dropped at midnight Thursday, but it’s already broken an Apple Music record. In its first two hours on the streaming platform, Harry’s House earned the most first-day streams for a pop album released in 2022.
The singer’s One Night Only In New York debut performance of the new album at the UBS Arena in Queens will be streamed exclusively to Apple Music subscribers tonight, May 20, starting at 9 p.m. ET. The stream will encore May 22 at 12 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, nine locations of the Harry’s House pop-up shop are now open around the world, in Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Dallas, London, L.A., New York, Paris and Toronto. The pop-up features exclusive merch designs not available anywhere else, such as album box sets, T-shirts, hoodies, towels, hats and totes.
In other Harry’s House news, according to the Los Angeles Times, the new album features John Mayer playing electric guitar on two songs: “Cinema” and “Daydreaming.” Recently, Justin Bieber revealed that Mayer also plays guitar on his upcoming album.
Tickets for Carrie Underwood’s 2022 Denim & Rhinestones Tour go on sale Friday, May 20, and to celebrate, the singer just dropped a twangy new tune off of her upcoming Denim & Rhinestones album.
Called “She Don’t Know,” the new tune revisits the vengeful, scorned-lover themes that made Carrie so popular with hits like “Before He Cheats.” This time around, Carrie’s lyrics describe an encounter with her partner’s other lover at a grocery store.
But Carrie’s got a secret: She’s wise to the games they’ve been playing, and she’s willing to bet that they won’t be happy together for long.
“But there’s a cruel world a-waitin’ outside of them motel sheets / ‘Cause he’ll find himself another Jezebel and she’ll end up just like me,” Carrie sings.
“She Don’t Know” is the most traditional country-leaning offering yet off of Denim & Rhinestones. So far, the album has explored a wide array of genre influences, borrowing from pop and disco styles on previously released tracks like “Ghost Story” and the title track.
Denim & Rhinestones is due out next month. Carrie’s tour starts in October.
Portugal. The Man may or may not have a crystal ball, but what they definitely do have is a cover of “Santeria.”
The “Feel It Still” outfit has put a spin on the Sublime classic, featuring lead vocals from band member Zoe Manville.
“Ever since the very beginnings of Portugal. The Man, there has been a conversation centered around Portugal. The Woman,” says guitarist Eric Howk. “Last summer, we wanted to take that conversation a step further. As a touring band that still couldn’t tour due to health and safety concerns, and with [frontman] John [Gourley] out of town working on the vocals for the upcoming PTM album, we decided to take advantage of the moment by recording some tracks in [keyboardist] Kyle [O’Quin‘s] basement with Zoe on lead vocals.”
“As we were working on several ’90s covers for [a radio show], we got a call to perform in support of the PDX March for Reproductive Rights,” Howk continues. “We jumped at the opportunity and got to let Zoe shine on lead vocals during a five-song Portugal. The Woman set, and shared one of the most inspiring moments any of us have ever had on a stage. This track hopes to capture that spirit of hope and warmth.”
You can listen to the “Santeria” cover streaming exclusively on Amazon Music.
Portugal. The Man released a new single called “What, Me Worry?” earlier this year. At the time, the band announced that a new album would be dropping in June, though no title or exact release date has been revealed yet.
While Jason Aldean may be best known for his jam-packed career of country hits, his wife, Brittany, is quickly gaining notoriety for her interior design taste.
She gave fans a virtual house tour of the family’s new home in Florida this week, posting a montage of views of each room in the beachside abode. Light-filled interiors and beachy blues are a theme throughout the mansion, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean and photos of family memories adorning the walls.
“This is for those of you who love home decor,” Brittany wrote. “I personally am obsessed with interiors…so here’s our new Florida home for some potential inspo!”
The master bedroom is decked out in denim blue, a fringed chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a balcony outside the windows. But it’s not just Brittany and Jason’s space that’s deluxe: Even the kids’ room is exquisitely decorated, with green wallpaper adorned with palm fronds and blue-and-green bunk beds.
At the end of her tour, Brittany shows off the most precious things of all in the new home: her family members. Jason sips a beverage in the kitchen, while toddler daughter Navy blows a kiss to the camera as she dances around in the hallway.
The Aldean family recently moved out to Florida, and both Brittany and Jason are self-described beach people who prefer a tropical lifestyle over the colder, more landlocked Nashville. In addition to Navy, they’re also parents to 4-year-old Memphis.
(NEW YORK) — When Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old white man charged in connection with the murders of 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, was a senior in high school, he allegedly wrote a paper saying that he wanted to commit murder-suicide, according to authorities.
That prompted the assistant principal of Gendron’s high school to call New York State Police and report Gendron, according to law enforcement. After a day-and-a-half mental health evaluation a year ago, Gendron was released and his behavior wasn’t flagged to authorities before he allegedly carried out the mass shooting last Saturday.
Gendron has pleaded not guilty.
Law enforcement sources tell ABC News how they handle mental health evaluations and police investigations regarding disturbed people and their access to firearms is very much a work in progress.
They point to how easily Gendron allegedly sidestepped an investigation to see if he was dangerous following the incident at his high school.
Buffalo suspect had made references to murder-suicide, sources say
A review by ABC News of the 589-page document allegedly containing messages first posted on the social media platform Discord appears to show that Gendron simply misled law enforcement and mental health officials when confronted after writing that senior class paper that he had thoughts of murder-suicide.
In the document, Gendron writes of landing in a hospital emergency room in May 2021 for 20 hours because he referenced murder-suicide in terms of how he planned to mark his graduation from high school — as part of an economics assignment.
He told law enforcement and mental health officials he been joking. According to the social media messages, that was a lie. He allegedly wrote in Discord that the murder-suicide reference was specifically about his developing plans to murder minorities whom he believed were replacing white people in American society.
Gendron said the murder-suicide quote in his school assignment may have even been a cry for help but he lied so he could keep his plan in motion, because killing, he said, was precisely what he was planning.
Ohio shooter made hit-list in high school
Previous mass shooters have often left clues or raised concerns with others and, in some cases, authorities have missed signals that could have otherwise prevented an attack.
On a summer night in August 2019, Connor Betts opened fire at the entrance of Ned Peppers Bar in downtown Dayton, Ohio, killing nine, including his brother, and wounding 17 before responding officers shot him to death.
Betts, according to the U.S. Secret Service, “had a history of concerning communications, including harassing female students in middle and high school, making a hit list and a rape list in high school, telling others he had attempted suicide, and showing footage of a mass shooting to his girlfriend.”
Betts had an “enduring fascination with mass violence,” the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit concluded in a report released in November.
“The FBI’s BAU assessed the attacker’s enduring fascination with mass violence and his inability to cope with a convergence of personal factors, to include a decade-long struggle with multiple mental health stressors and the successive loss of significant stabilizing anchors experienced prior to August 4, 2019, likely were the primary contributors to the timing and finality of his decision to commit a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio,” the report stated.
One reason that family and friends did not alert authorities about Betts was potentially because of “bystander fatigue,” according to the report.
Bystander fatigue occurs when people around the suspect don’t pay attention or take any action “due to their prolonged exposure to the person’s erratic or otherwise troubling behavior over time,” according to the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
FBI warned about accused Parkland high school shooter
Nikolas Cruz has pleaded guilty to walking into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 18, 2018, and opening fire inside the school killing 17 and wounding 17 more.
More than a month before the shooting, the FBI was warned about Cruz by a person close to him through the FBI’s public access tip line, according to an FBI statement in 2018.
“The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” the FBI statement says.
The information, the FBI admitted, should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami field office and assessed as a “threat to life,” where it would’ve been investigated.
The school shooting was one of the deadliest in American history.
The FBI was later sued by the families of the Parkland shooting for not appropriately assigning the call to the Miami Field Office. In March, the Justice Department, while not admitting the full guilt of missing the signals Cruz exhibited, settled with the families for $127 million.
A jury will decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison without chance of parole.
In October of that same year, Robert Bowers is accused of walking into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and killing 11 people. Bowers, according to a criminal complaint charging him with the crime, made comments shortly after he was arrested to investigators about wanting to kill people who are Jewish.
Bowers, according to authorities, made posts on the social media site gab and early as July 2018 posted and reposted photos with antisemitic tropes, as well as a photo of a target that he reportedly shot by with a handgun, according to authorities.
Bowers was not known to law enforcement before October 2018, the then FBI Special Agent in Charge told reporters at the time. Moments before he carried out the shooting, Bowers posted antisemitic statements on the platform.
Bowers is facing trial for the 2018 shooting and has pleaded not guilty.
Charleston church shooter reportedly went on bigoted rant
Three years earlier, in 2015, Dylann Roof walked into the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine African-American parishioners attending Bible study.
Friends told the New York Daily News that two weeks before the shooting, Roof went on a bigoted rant while drunk about “segregation and killing people.”
“He said he was planning for about six months to do something crazy,” said Joseph Meek, a friend of Roof. “He wanted it to be segregated. He wanted it to be white with the white, Black with the Black. All the races segregated.”
Meek, according to the Daily News, took a gun away from Roof two weeks before the shooting unfolded.
“I only took it away because he was drunk. I didn’t take him seriously,” Meek said. “I do feel a little guilty because I could have let someone know,” Meek told the Daily News.
Roof is appealing his capital punishment sentence.
Signals before mass shootings common
Alerting someone or giving a warning sign before a mass shooting is common, according to the U.S. Secret Service, which published a report in 2020 titled Mass Attacks in Public Spaces. The report found that nearly 65% of the mass attacks they studied in 2019 the attacker had threatened someone in the past, and 57% of attackers made some form of communication prior to the attack that should’ve elicited concern but didn’t.
“These concerning communications included making paranoid statements, sharing videos of previous mass attacks, vague statements about their imminent death, and one attacker telling his school counselor that he had a dream about killing his classmates,” the report says.
Javed Ali, former senior counterterrorism director at the National Security Council, told ABC News the shooting in Buffalo underscores the challenges law enforcement has in identifying shooters.
“The horrific attack in Buffalo underscores the challenges for law enforcement in identifying and preventing mass-casualty lone wolf terrorist attacks, with this being the latest in a string of similar ones committed by other white supremacists in the United States,” Ali, now an associate professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said.
“In these attacks, white supremacist lone wolves focused on different victims — including African Americans, Latinos, Jews — based on their belief in anti-immigrant and racist tropes found in conspiracies like the “great replacement theory” or other sources like manifestos written by infamous attackers such as Anders Brevik and Brentan Tarrarent that fuel white supremacy across the globe,” Ali said.
Breivik is a Norwegian who killed 77 people in 2011 and Brenton Tarrant carried out the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, shootings at two mosques, murdering 51 people.
Deftones will be without guitarist Stephen Carpenter for the band’s upcoming international shows.
In a video statement posted Friday, Carpenter says, “As much as I would love to be on the road with my brothers right now playing for all of our incredible international fans, I’ve chosen to remain playing domestically for now.”
“With everything going on in the world, I’m just not ready to leave home or the country yet,” he adds.
Guitarist Lance Jackman will fill in for Carpenter in his absence.
“Give him some love,” Carpenter says. “Have a great time. I wish I could see every one of you. Thanks for your understanding.”
Deftones is set to launch a tour of Europe in June. Presumably, Carpenter will miss the band’s upcoming two shows in Canada this weekend, as well.
The Deftones’ lineup has already been looking different lately due to the departure of longtime bassist Sergio Vega, who left the band last year as the result of a contract dispute. Vega was replaced by former Marylin Manson bassist Fred Sablan.
(NEW YORK) — Mothers across the U.S. are banding together to respond to the baby formula shortage emergency and execute short-term solutions in local communities while corporations and the federal government scramble to address the crisis on a national level.
Kerissa Miller, a mom from Kennewick, Washington, started the Find My Formula, Tri Cities WA Facebook group on May 11 to pay it forward after another mom helped her by donating much-needed formula for her 6-month-old son.
Miller’s son MJ was born two months early and needs to be fed a special baby formula made specifically for premature babies. Similac’s NeoSure is one of the formulas impacted by the Abbott Nutrition recall in February. Miller said she isn’t able to breastfeed her son and her son’s pediatrician also told her there weren’t any other formula substitutes that would work for him.
The Facebook group helps parents and caregivers like her in southeastern Washington ask for formula, share information on formula stock at local stores and facilitate formula donations for each other.
“Moms message us and call us crying. They’re on their last can of formula so the need is extremely urgent,” Miller told “Good Morning America.” “When these moms go on Facebook looking for formula, they’re at such a desperate state that delivery is really the only option to help that baby get fed right away.”
Miller and a team of several moderators as well as three delivery drivers, including Mac Jaehnert, set out every day to respond to Facebook posts from parents in need and coordinate formula pickups and drop-offs.
“We’ve fed hundreds of babies just by gifted formula to us. There’s no other option,” Miller said. “Pediatricians can’t supply the need. There’s just no formula to go around so we’re just depending on moms to donate formula to us to feed each other’s babies. It’s a crazy world we live in where Facebook feeds our babies.”
In just nine days, the public Find My Formula, Tri Cities WA group has ballooned to over 560 members. Some days, Miller said she drives up to six hours with her son to make formula deliveries after she gets off her eight-hour night shift as an environmental wastewater operator simply to help.
“All we have right now is community so we’re just doing everything that we can to help the babies because this has affected the wealthy, the middle class and the poor,” Miller, who is also currently four months pregnant, said.
“I’ve delivered formula to mansions and those moms can purchase it but they can’t because it’s just not available. And the moms that are suffering the hardest are the moms on WIC,” she added, referencing the federal benefits program for low-income Americans. “It’s just a crisis that you never knew existed in America.”
“All I can do is just go pick up a can of formula and go drop it off before I go to bed.”
Marcela Young has also been dedicating her time to ease the formula crisis. Young is a mom to an 8-month-old and although her son doesn’t need baby formula, seeing stories of other families impacted by the shortage resonated with her.
“I don’t formula feed personally, but I do know a lot of moms that do and just the feeling of not being able to help your child is just very close to home,” Young told “Good Morning America.”
Young, a consultant in the Houston area, remembered that one of her former classmates had started a company that lets people create interactive maps online and quickly realized the map tool could be one way for her to help others.
That’s how the 29-year-old launched her “Fighting the Formula Shortage” map last week. The map, hosted by Proxi, is viewable on a computer, phone or tablet, and lets anyone add any point to a global map and organize it under several categories: “need formula,” “can donate formula,” “need breast milk,” “can donate breast milk,” “formula in-store” and “milk bank.”
“The way the map works is you add a point anywhere in your country. You don’t have to put your actual address,” Young explained, adding that anyone who adds a new point will also receive a welcome email afterward.
But Young also tries to help arrange connections whenever possible.
“People do reach out and say, ‘Hey, I have this pin that I’m looking at near my area. They need formula. I see formula at my store, I would like to ship it to them or I’d like to take it to their house or wherever to meet up,’” Young said. “Then I, as the admin of the map, can see their information if they decided not to share it, and then put them in contact with each other. I make sure that the person receiving it knows who’s going to contact them and I try to make sure that the other one knows who needs it.”
Young has spread the word about her map through her friend network and on social media on the Fighting Formula Shortage Facebook and Instagram pages. As with many groups online, Young also warns others to stay vigilant about potential scammers.
“First and foremost, be careful, be safe,” Young said. “If you’re going to do something virtually with someone, ask a lot of questions. If you’re going to meet with someone locally, please do it in a public place. That way, you’re avoiding different issues out there.”
“There’s a lot of good in humanity still,” she added. “And it’s been really nice to see people stepping up and willing to spread [the] word, spread resources.”
