When Dolly’s custom baking collections arrived in January, they sold out in a matter of hours. The line also includes the Southern Style Banana Flavored Cake Mix, buttercream and chocolate buttercream icings plus custom spatulas and tea towels.
Dolly’s Duncan Hines collaboration isn’t the only sweet treat she’s helped dream up. She also released a collaborative flavor with Jeni’s Splendid ice cream called Strawberry Pretzel Pie.
Though the singer loves cake, she previously admitted to Peoplethat her biggest culinary weakness isn’t necessarily a dessert.
“If I’ve been on a low-carb diet or something for a while, the first thing I want to do when I break it is have some cake — or potatoes. That’s my weakness,” she admits. “Usually that’s why I fall off any diet, is for the love of some sort of a potato.”
Did the sci-fi/horror flick Nope have what it takes to knock Thor: Love and Thunder out of first place at the box office? The answer was a resounding “Yep.” The film’s estimated $44-million finish gave filmmaker Jordan Peele his third consecutive number-one debut as a director, following Get Out and Us.
Thor: Love and Thunder dropped to second place with an estimated $22.1 million. Its worldwide tally after three weeks now stands at $598 million.
Third place belongs to Minions: Rise of Gru, which grabbed an estimated $17.7 million in its fourth week of release. Globally, the film has collected $640 million.
Where the Crawdads Sing pulled up in fourth place with an estimated $10.3 million haul in its second week in theaters. Its North American total currently stands at $38.3 million.
Top Gun: Maverick rounded out the top five with an estimated $10 million in its ninth week of release.
Jordan Davis’ latest single is a love ballad called “What My World Spins Around,” a song that he wrote with fellow artist Ryan Hurd and another co-writer, Matt Dragstrem. All three writers had their partners in mind when they sat down to write that day, the singer says — which means that it was also written about Ryan’s wife, country star Maren Morris.
“We wrote it thinking about our wives and girlfriends,” he remembers before quickly jumping in with a clarifying joke. “Matt’s not married yet. It’s not that I have a wife and a girlfriend.”
For Jordan, of course, the inspiration comes from his wife Kristen, who’s been with him through all the ups and downs of his career. That makes their bond stronger, and it also makes her a little less romantic when it comes to hearing new love ballads he wrote just for her.
“She doesn’t even pick up on the lyrics anymore,” he adds. “She’s just kind of like, ‘Oh, that could be a cool follow-up to ‘Buy Dirt.’’ I was like, ‘Babe, did you even listen to the lyrics?’’
When Kristen first heard it, he continues, he and his team were on the hunt for the follow-up single to his number-one duet with Luke Bryan, “Buy Dirt” — so she had her music business hat on as she listened to the song.
“I play it. Halfway through it, I’m like, ‘I wonder what she thinks?’” Jordan recounts. “I did kind of write this with her in mind. Ended the song, and she was like, ‘I could see that as a single.’”
Jordan and Kristen tied the knot in 2017. They are parents to two young children, Eloise and Locklan.
U2 will play the first concerts ever at the MSG Sphere, a high-tech arena that’s being built at the Las Vegas resort The Venetian and that’s scheduled to open next year, Billboard reports, according to multiple sources.
The Irish rockers’ performances at the MSG Sphere reportedly will be part of a residency that will feature a series of shows held on non-consecutive days and will take place over the course of several months.
The MSG Sphere, which is being built by Madison Square Garden Entertainment chairman James Dolan, is being touted as “the largest spherical structure on Earth.” According to press information, the venue has a 20,000 guest capacity, and will offer a multisensory experience that features a 160,000-square-foot immersive video screen with 4D capability, and state-of-the-art spatialized audio.
The structure also will feature an exterior whose look will be changeable thanks to LED technology.
The MSG Square at The Venetian was initially scheduled to open in 2021, but plans were delayed until 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A second MSG Sphere also is being planned for London.
U2 currently has no confirmed concerts scheduled. The band’s last performance to date took place in December 2019 in Mumbai, India. Meanwhile, as was announced last week, U2 will be among the artists saluted at the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors this December.
(MARIPOSA, Calif.) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County as hundreds of firefighters are battling a fast-moving fire burning near Yosemite National Park that remained out of control on Sunday.
The Oak Fire ignited Friday afternoon and has exploded to 14,281 acres as of Sunday morning, according to state fire officials. The fire is currently 0% contained.
“The fire remained active through the night moving toward the communities of Jerseydale, Darrah, and Bootjack,” Cal Fire said in its incident report Sunday.
The low humidity, which is between 5% and 10%, is expected to “hamper firefighting efforts,” according to Cal Fire.
The agency said fire activity remains “extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.” Cal Fire said emergency personnel are working to evacuate people, while at the same time protecting structures.
Fueled by winds and 100-degree temperatures, the fire “grew significantly” between Saturday night and Sunday morning as flames crept further into the Sierra National Forest just south of Yosemite, according to Cal Fire.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon Heggie took ABC News on a tour of the edge of the blaze and noted large patches of dried out vegetation that had not yet burned to illustrate the type of terrain on fire and producing high-intensity heat, saying, “this is what we’re dealing with throughout this whole incident.”
“It really is a challenge because the amount of heat that’s in this fuel. It makes it challenging to our firefighters to fight these fires,” Heggie said.
The fire started around 2 p.m. Friday near the Mariposa County town of Midpines, Cal Fire said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Newsom’s office said Saturday that the state has secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help provide resources as it responds to the “rapidly-moving fire.”
More than 90% of Mariposa County has exceptional drought conditions, which can provide ample dry brush to fuel the fire. Hot, dry weather has also helped drive the blaze.
This is the third wildfire to burn in the county over the past two weeks.
The Washburn Fire, which started on July 7 near the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park, is 79% contained after burning over 4,800 acres.
The containment of the fire, which at one point was inching dangerously close to the park’s large sequoia grove Mariposa Grove, allowed the southern entrance of the park to open Saturday morning.
The smaller Agua Fire, which started on July 18, is now fully contained after burning some 420 acres. The fire was caused by a car, officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had sharp words for the Republicans opposing a bill codifying the right to same-sex marriages, urging them to support the legislation’s passage in the Senate after it won bipartisan House approval.
Buttigieg, the first openly gay person to be confirmed to a Cabinet position, underscored during a CNN appearance on Sunday what it would mean for the legislation to become law, recounting a typical weekend morning in which he said he tries to take on household duties to give his husband, Chasten, a break.
“That half hour of my morning had me thinking about how much I depend on and count on my spouse every day. And our marriage deserves to be treated equally. I don’t know why this would be hard for a senator or a congressman,” Buttigieg said.
“I don’t understand how such a majority of House Republicans voted ‘no’ on our marriage as recently as Tuesday hours after I was in a room with a lot of them talking about transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations with many of them on that subject only for them to go around the corner and say my marriage doesn’t deserve to continue,” he said.
“If they don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, they can vote ‘yes’ and move on,” he continued, “and that would be really reassuring for a lot of families around America, including mine.”
Buttigieg also criticized Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., specifically after Rubio said a vote on the bill would amount to a waste of time — echoing other Republicans who oppose the measure because they say Democrats are using it as political theater when no real threat to marriage rights exist.
“If he’s got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to safeguard marriages like mine. Look, this is really, really important to a lot of people. It’s certainly important to me,” Buttigieg said, referencing Rubio’s dispute with Disney over the company’s criticism of a state law restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Appearing on PBS last week, Buttigieg said the LGBTQ community was in “a very precarious moment.”
“Historically, rights and freedoms have always expanded, we went from one era to the next. It’s always been more free, and more just — even if imperfectly so. That was before. And the question now is, Are we going to start going backwards right now?” he said. “It is extremely disturbing, certainly as a married gay man and a member of the LGBTQ community, not only to see our rights coming up for debate once again but to see settled law called into question.”
Buttigieg’s remarks come as Democrats push multiple bills codifying unenumerated rights in the Constitution that had been extended via Supreme Court rulings.
With Roe v. Wade overturned last month, reversing five decades of national abortion access, Democrats argue other rights granted by the high court could be at risk, such as same-sex marriage.
Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative members, wrote in his concurring opinion rejecting Roe that the court should also reconsider its decisions legalizing same-sex marriage and ensuring contraception access.
Last week, 47 Republicans in the House joined with the Democratic majority in approving the bill ensuring recognition of lawfully granted same-sex and interracial marriages. One-hundred and fifty-seven Republicans voted against it, with some citing their personal beliefs and others saying it was unnecessary.
The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Democrats would need the support of 10 Republicans for passage.
(PEACHTREE CITY, Ga.) — A U.S. Marshal and a murder suspect were shot on Sunday while law enforcement officials attempted to arrest the suspect in Peachtree City, Georgia, according to the Pike County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials from Pike County, about one hour south of Atlanta, said that while U.S. Marshals were arresting 19-year-old suspect Antonio Murgado Jr., an officer-involved shooting occurred.
U.S. Marshals and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office attempted to execute the arrest warrant around 9:18 a.m. at the Shiloh Mobile Home when shots rang out, authorities said.
“When officers entered the home, Murgado fired a gun and hit a Task Force Officer one time,” according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “Officers returned gunfire at Murgado, hitting him multiple times.”
Murgado and the officer have non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The Marshal is expected to be released from an area hospital on Sunday, according to ABC News Atlanta affiliate WSBTV.
Murgado was arrested and charged with felony murder for allegedly killing 19-year-old James Knight during a drug deal on July 16, WSBTV reported.
At the time of the crime, Murgado was out on bond for armed robbery in Georgia’s Clayton County and possessing methamphetamine in another county, officials said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed it has launched a probe into the officer-involved shooting.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump committed crimes related to last year’s Capitol riot and should ideally be charged by the Justice Department, House Jan. 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger contended on Sunday.
“I certainly hope they’re moving forward,” Kinzinger, R-Ill., told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl of the Justice Department’s separate investigation into the events around the insurrection. “I certainly think there’s evidence of crimes, and I think it goes all the way up to Donald Trump.”
Kinzinger’s comments come after the House committee wrapped up its summer hearings, with the final session last week focusing on Trump’s inaction for 187 minutes as his supporters ransacked the Capitol.
Democrats and other Trump critics have expressed hope that the Justice Department’s probe will ultimately target the former president. Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly stressed that prosecutors’ work and decision-making will not play out in public, but he pointedly noted last week that “no person” is above the law.
When pressed by Karl about the optics of the Justice Department investigating a former president and potential future candidate, Kinzinger said he is more concerned about the precedent that would be set if Trump is not charged.
“We never want to get in a position as a country [of] what you see in failed democracies, where every last administration is prosecuted. But there is a massive difference between ‘I’m gonna prosecute the last administration for political vengeance’ and not prosecuting an administration that literally attempted a failed coup. That is a precedent I’m way more concerned about,” Kinzinger said.
“If there is evidence that this happened from a judicial perspective, if there is the ability to move forward on prosecuting and you don’t, you basically set the floor for future behavior by any president,” he added. “And I don’t think a democracy can survive that.”
Karl asked Kinzinger about one of the most notable moments from the Jan. 6 hearings so far: when former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she was told Trump physically lashed out after his Secret Service detailed refused to let him go to the Capitol with his supporters.
The Secret Service said soon after Hutchinson’s testimony that they would respond on the record.
“Why have you not spoken yet to the lead detail who was in that vehicle on Jan. 6 with Donald Trump or the driver of that vehicle? And is that going to come?” Karl asked.
Kinzinger insinuated the lack of new information on that front was because of the agency, not investigators.
“The committee is more than welcome, if they will testify under oath, to throw the doors wide open for them and welcome them at any moment. It is not our decision that they haven’t so far,” he said, calling Hutchinson a “very credible witness.”
Karl also asked Kinzinger about a conference call among House Republicans just days before the Jan. 6 attack. According to Kinzinger’s retelling in an interview with The Washington Post, the Illinois lawmaker warned House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he was concerned about violence because voters had been “convinced … that the election was stolen,” and McCarthy replied, “Thanks, Adam. Next caller.” (McCarthy didn’t comment to the Post on Kinzinger’s account.)
“Would it have been different if he had stood up and he had said, ‘No, the election’s not stolen,’ and pushed back on this effort?” Karl said.
“It would be so different right now. Would he have been pushed aside in the process? Maybe,” Kinzinger said. “But the question is, what are you going to stand for in your life, you know? Are you going to go out being knowns as the guy that enabled a failed coup, or are you going to be the guy that goes out standing up, right?”
Kinzinger, a vocal member of the GOP’s anti-Trump minority, also lashed out at Republicans who echo Trump’s baseless doubts about the integrity of the 2020 election, suggesting they’re duping their voters. He called out McCarthy by name.
“Ladies and gentlemen, and particularly my Republican friends, your leaders, by and large, have been lying to you,” he said. “They know the election wasn’t stolen, but they’re going to send out fundraising requests, they’re going to take your money from you and they’re going to use you to stay in power. You’re being abused.”
He continued, “You can be mad at Liz Cheney and I — that’s fine. … We’re not the ones lying to you. It’s the people you think are telling you what you want to hear. They’re the liars, and Kevin McCarthy is among them.”
(WASHINGTON) — Some Republicans “are very concerned” about Donald Trump potentially launching a 2024 presidential bid before November’s midterm races, which could upend contests across the country, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday.
“We had discussions about that at the Republican Governors Association last week,” Hogan told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl of a possible Trump announcement, which Trump has repeatedly teased.
“I think most people are very concerned about the damage it does to the party if he announces now,” said Hogan, one of Trump’s loudest GOP critics. “And it may help in very red states or very red districts. But in competitive places and purple battlefields, it’s going to cost us seats if he were to do that.”
Karl asked Hogan about the House Jan. 6 committee hearings this summer, which most recently detailed Trump’s inaction responding to last year’s Capitol riot. Hogan contrasted that with his own decisions that day as a leader of a neighboring state.
“While the president was watching television and while the vice president [Mike Pence] was being whisked off to save his life and members of Congress, I was on the phone with the leaders of Congress. I was calling up the National Guard. I was sending in the Maryland State Police,” he said.
Hogan said the lack of response to the hearings from many leading Republicans was “disappointing,” especially in light of how they criticized Trump immediately after the Capitol attack. He said that the most striking part of the last hearing was watching outtakes from an address that Trump recorded on Jan. 7, 2021, the day after the insurrection.
The clips show a visibly frustrated Trump saying that he doesn’t want to read a line from the teleprompter that states “the election is now over.”
“Nothing really surprised me except those outtakes, I had never seen. And it showed the real thinking,” Hogan said, adding, “With those outtakes, you could see the anger.”
Hogan went on to reflect on the future of the Republican Party. He said the primary elections this year were just the start of a “long, tough fight” over GOP identity and whether Trump’s influence will endure.
“It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to win some; we’re going to lose some,” he said. “But I think the final chapter on some of this will be in November, when we lose some races.”
That was his prediction in Maryland where his handpicked choice, former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, last week lost out to the Trump-backed candidate, state Del. Dan Cox, in the Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed Hogan.
Cox has been sharply critical of Hogan, who in turn said Cox is too right-wing to win in Maryland, labeling him a “conspiracy theorist.”
According to data collected by FiveThirtyEight, at least 120 election-denying candidates who ran for all sorts of down-ballot offices advanced from their primaries and will be on the general election ticket in November.
Cox likewise attacked the 2020 election. He called former Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” for certifying the 2020 election results in now-deleted tweets. (He later apologized.) He also organized buses to drive Maryland residents to Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, though he said he didn’t go to the Capitol and denounced the rioting that broke out there.
“I would not support the guy. I wouldn’t let him in the governor’s office, let alone vote for him for the governor’s office,” Hogan told Karl on “This Week.”
“It’s a big loss for the Republican Party,” he said. “And we have no chance of saving that governor’s seat.”
While Hogan also blamed Democrats for boosting Cox’s profile in the primary through advertising, as they have done with more conservative candidates in other elections, Karl noted that it was Republican voters who ultimately chose Cox, despite or because of his history of attacking the 2020 election and more.
“It was a very small turnout. So, first of all, only 20% of the people in Maryland are Republican, and 20% of them showed up to the polls. So about 2% of the people in Maryland voted for this guy,” Hogan said.
Cox’s victory did not dissuade him from continuing to make his case for an anti-Trump GOP, he said.
“Does this make you more or less likely to run for president in 2024?” Karl asked.
“It makes me more determined than ever to continue the battle to win over the Republican Party and take us back to a bigger tent, more Reagan-esque party,” Hogan said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. But I’m certainly not giving up.”
ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s doctor said Sunday that he “continue to improve significantly” after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician, wrote in a letter released by the White House that Biden’s primary symptom was a sore throat and that his runny nose, cough and body aches had all “diminished considerably.”
Biden completed his third day of Paxlovid, a COVID treatment, on Saturday night.
“His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature all remain normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear,” O’Connor added in the memo to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Biden tested positive for the coronavirus three days ago. O’Connor wrote Saturday in a memo that he likely had the BA.5 subvariant, which now accounts for the majority of COVID-19 cases in the country and is more resistant to vaccines than prior strains.
The president appeared to contract a relatively minor case of the virus, according to the White House, with his symptoms consistently including a runny nose and a cough. He started experiencing a sore throat and body aches on Saturday.
O’Connor has never said Biden’s pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate or oxygen were outside normal ranges throughout his infection.
In addition to Paxlovid, Biden has been using an albuterol inhaler for a cough, according to O’Connor. He is fully vaccinated and double-boosted.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, also expressed optimism on Sunday about the president’s infection, saying, “He had a great day yesterday, was feeling well.”
“This is a president who’s double-vaccinated, double-boosted, getting treatments that are widely available to Americans and has at this moment a mild respiratory illness,” Jha said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is really good news, and this is both vaccines and treatments that are available to everyone. Really important that people go out and get vaccinated and avail themselves of these treatments if they get infected.”
Biden began presenting symptoms Wednesday evening and ultimately tested positive Thursday, according to his aides.
White House spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Biden’s positive test had “no impact” on “the national security decision-making process.”
Seventeen people have been identified as close contacts of Biden’s, though none of them tested positive for COVID-19. Among them are first lady Jill Biden, who is staying in Delaware until at least Tuesday, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is maintaining her normal public schedule.
The president is working from the White House residence and will continue to do so until he tests negative.
