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If you’ve ever wondered how Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are able to ride horses and drive wagons so effortlessly during their scenes in the Yellowstone prequel 1883, the answer’s simple: They went to cowboy camp.
That’s because, as show creator Taylor Sheridan puts it, “There’s no way for me to inform them what this way of life is, you just have to do it.” So Tim, Faith and the rest of the cast showed up each morning and put themselves into real-life cowboy situations, with guidance from professional horse trainers.
“Cowboy camp was probably the most helpful thing in the world,” says Tim, who plays James Dutton on the show.
Learning the ropes — no pun intended — also forced the cast mates out of their comfort zone, and helped them bond with each other.
“We’re all doing this together. So we were all dedicated to it. And that’s been extraordinary to watch,” explains Faith, who plays Margaret Dutton.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s military launched a long-feared invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, attacking its ex-Soviet neighbor from multiple directions despite warnings of dire consequences from the United States and the international community.
Thursday’s attacks followed weeks of escalating tensions in the region. In a fiery, hourlong speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region: the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for stoking the crisis and reiterated its demands to NATO that Ukraine pledges to never join the transatlantic defense alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 25, 10:59 am
Russians going ashore in ‘amphibious assault’
A senior defense official confirms that there is a Russian “amphibious assault” underway along the Ukrainian coast from the Sea of Azov. The attack is to the west of Mariupol, which is a coastal city in southeastern Ukraine.
“Indications are right now that they are putting potentially thousands of naval infantry ashore there,” the official said.
Feb 25, 10:31 am
EU moving toward sanctioning Putin, Lavrov: Top diplomat
The European Union is moving toward sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Russia’s war against Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat confirmed.
But the decision has not been made and requires unanimous approval by the 27 member states, diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters Friday.
“If there is no surprises and nobody objects — because we require unanimity — yes, Putin and Lavrov will be on the list,” Borrell said.
He said even these EU sanctions on Putin and Lavrov would “certainly” not be enough.
“We are facing a full-fledged invasion of a country by another. It’s not a special forces operations like Russia pretends us to believe — it’s a fully-fledged invasion with bombing, with killing of civilians, with confrontations among two armies,” he said. “This is the worst thing that has happened in Europe, if I may say, since the end of the Cold War, and nobody knows what’s happening afterwards. Nobody knows which are the real intention of Putin.”
Feb 25, 8:57 am
Russia may be reinforcing, resupplying before moving in on Kyiv
There was an eerie quietness across Kyiv on Friday afternoon, as Russian forces closed in on the Ukrainian capital.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that he believes the pause around Kyiv was due to the Russian military reinforcing troops and resupplying ammunition and food, and that Russia still wants a stranglehold on the city over the next 24 to 48 hours.
The official also expressed great concern about civilian causalities if Russian forces do move in. While there appeared to be a renewed effort at diplomacy on Friday, the United States believes any noise Russia makes about negotiations is simply stalling, the official said.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Feb 25, 8:35 am
Kremlin claims Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality
Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality for his country.
“Zelenskyy stated his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “From the beginning, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the goal of the operation to the [separatist regions], including a path to the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine. But that is actually also an essential component of neutral status.”
Peskov added that Putin is prepared to send a delegation to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with Ukrainian officials in Minsk.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it would amount to Zelenskyy surrendering to Russia’s demand that Ukraine pledges to never join NATO.
Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to hold talks “to stop people dying.” But he did not mention neutral status.
The comments came as Russian troops reached the center of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 8:35 am
Kremlin claims Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality
Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality for his country.
“Zelenskyy stated his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “From the beginning, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the goal of the operation to the [separatist regions], including a path to the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine. But that is actually also an essential component of neutral status.”
Peskov added that Putin is prepared to send a delegation to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with Ukrainian officials in Minsk.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it would amount to Zelenskyy surrendering to Russia’s demand that Ukraine pledges to never join NATO.
Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to hold talks “to stop people dying.” But he did not mention neutral status.
The comments came as Russian troops reached the center of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 8:13 am
Russia claims to have blocked Kyiv from west
Russia claimed on Friday afternoon that its forces have blocked Kyiv from the west, which would begin a partial encirclement of the Ukrainian capital.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian forces also have completely blocked the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, about 90 miles north of Kyiv, and now have full control of a key Ukrainian military airport in Hostomel, a town on the edge of the capital. Some 200 Russian helicopters were allegedly used in the attack on the airport.
While ABC News could not independently verify Russia’s claims, the Ukrainian military has acknowledged that it does not have full control of the airport in Hostomel.
The Russian Ministry of Defense alleged that Russian forces are “doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties” and “will not deliver any strikes on residential areas of Kyiv.” However, fighting is already taking place in residential areas and Ukrainian authorities said homes have been bombed in and around Kyiv.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 7:47 am
Zelenskyy warns Russian invasion is start of ‘war against all Europe’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold negotiations and cease the deadly attacks on his country.
“Fighting is ongoing all over Ukraine. Let’s sit at the table for negotiations to stop people dying,” Zelenskyy said in a televised address Friday afternoon.
But he did not order Ukrainian troops to stop defending their country, instead telling them: “Stand tough. You’re everything we have. You’re everything that is defending us.”
Zelenskyy criticized Europe’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it too slow and noting divisions. He also issued a dire warning to the rest of Europe.
“It’s not just Russian invasion in Ukraine, it’s the beginning of the war against all Europe, against its unity, all human rights, against all the rules of coexistence on the continent, against European countries’ refusal to change the borders by force,” he said.
-ABC News’ Julia Drozd and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 7:15 am
UN refugee agency estimates 100,000 Ukrainians are displaced
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates some 100,000 Ukrainians have already been forced from their homes due to the ongoing Russian invasion, spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told ABC News on Friday.
Mantoo cautioned that the agency has not confirmed any exact numbers.
“But there clearly has been significant displacement inside the country and some movements towards and across the borders,” she said.
The news was first reported by AFP.
The United States is coordinating with its European allies and partners who will be on the front lines receiving refugees, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told ABC News. That includes diplomatic engagements “to ensure neighboring countries keep their borders open to those seeking international protection,” the spokesperson said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 25, 6:42 am
Russia says negotiations will begin after ‘democratic order’ restored
Russia will begin negotiations again once “democratic order” is restored in Ukraine, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said Friday, amid an ongoing invasion of the neighboring country.
“We are ready for negotiations, at any moment, as soon as the Armed Forces of Ukraine respond to the call of our president to cease resistance and lay down their arms. No one intends to attack them,” Lavrov said during a televised meeting in Moscow with pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov’s comments come as Russian forces attacked Ukrainian troops in Kyiv on Friday morning, as the fighting drew closer to the capital’s city center.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 6:03 am
Russia claims to have disabled 118 Ukrainian military facilities
Russia claimed Friday that its forces have so far disabled 118 elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
“These include 11 military airfields and 13 command and communication posts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
Konashenkov also alleged that more than 150 Ukrainian soldiers have “laid down their arms and surrendered during the fighting.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 25, 5:43 am
Gunfire, explosions heard within Kyiv as fighting draws near
ABC News’ team in Kyiv saw a large explosion and heard intense gunfire in the distance early Friday afternoon.
The crackles of gunfire appeared to be several miles north of the center of the Ukrainian capital, but still well within the city limits.
Ukrainian authorities have told residents in the northern suburb of Obolon to take shelter and prepare for imminent military action. The area is a 10-minute drive from Kyiv’s center.
The capital remains on edge as Russian forces draw near. Earlier, Ukrainian troops were seen hurriedly moving with ammunition to set up positions in the city center as air-raid sirens rang out.
Thousands of people have tried to leave Kyiv and head west to the Polish border, with some spending hours stuck in long traffic jams.
The Ukrainian military said it has distributed 18,000 assault rifles to territorial defense volunteers in the capital. It has also begun handing out weapons to civilians who want to fight and has called on healthy men over the age 60 to join the defense force, if they wish.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 5:11 am
Ukrainian military claims to have killed Russian saboteurs in Kyiv
Ukraine’s military claimed Friday to have killed an advance group of Russian saboteurs disguised as Ukrainian soldiers during a gunfight in the capital, Kyiv.
The Ukrainian military released video purportedly showing the bodies of men in Ukrainian uniforms and a destroyed truck. The fighting allegedly happened in an area only 10 minutes north of the city center.
Russian forces that crossed into Ukraine from the north on Thursday have been trying to advance south toward Kyiv. Fighting was taking place near a town 20 miles north of the entrance to the capital on Friday morning, ABC News has learned.
Love Sux, which also features the lead single “Bite Me,” has been touted as Lavigne’s return to pop-punk, and is influenced by bands including Blink, Green Day and NOFX. The album was released on Blink drummer Travis Barker‘s label, DTA Records.
Lavigne will hit the road behind Love Sux on a tour of her native Canada in May, with support from grandson on select dates. She’ll head down south to the U.S. to play the Boston Calling festival over Memorial Day weekend.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Five Texas district attorneys pushed back on Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive in which he called gender-transitioning and affirming procedures as “child abuse.”
In a letter signed by district attorneys who represent some of the most populous counties in the state, they called the directive “un-American.”
“We are deeply disturbed by Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton’s cruel directives treating transgender children’s access to life-saving, gender-affirming care as ‘child abuse,'” the letter read.
The district attorneys stated they “will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians” to ensure the safety of transgender youth.
They added, “We will not allow the governor and attorney general to disregard Texan children’s lives in order to score political points.”
It was signed by John Creuzot of Dallas County, José Garza of Travis County, Joe Gonzales of Bexar County, Mark Gonzalez of Nueces County and Brian Middleton of Fort Bend County.
In a Feb. 22 letter, Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate this kind of care among youths in the state following an official declaration from state Attorney General Ken Paxton that also called it “child abuse.”
“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said in a Feb. 21 press release. “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”
The letter from the DAs said, “This is part of a continued onslaught on personal freedoms. Elected officials should be protecting our most vulnerable. These two, instead, want to irrationally target and restrain children seeking medical assistance — and force caregivers to participate.”
The White House denounced the directive in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday.
“The Texas Attorney General’s attack on loving parents who seek medical care for their transgender children is dangerous to the health of kids in Texas and part of much larger trend of conservative officials cynically attacking LGBTQI+ youth to score political points,” a White House spokesperson told ABC News.
Here’s something to talk about: Bonnie Raitt has released a new single from her upcoming album, Just Like That…, which will be released on April 22.
The song, “Made Up Mind,” is a cover of a song by the Canadian alt-country-folk group The Bros. Landreth. In a statement, Raitt says, “On this record, I wanted to stretch. I always want to find songs that excite me, and what’s different this time is that I’ve tried some styles and topics I haven’t touched on before.”
Just Like That…, Raitt’s first album in more than six years, was recorded last summer in Sausalito, California, along with three of her longtime musical collaborators and a few new ones. It’s available for pre-order now.
In a statement, Bonnie says she’s grateful that she’s been able to continue making music, 50 years after her debut album. “I’m really aware of how lucky I am,” she says, “and I feel like it’s my responsibility to get out there and say something fresh and new — for me and for the fans. But I need to have something to say or I won’t put out a record.”
On March 2, the veteran star will receive the Icon Award at the Billboard Women in Music Awards, and this spring, she’ll receive a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her tour kicks off March 28 in Modesto, CA and is scheduled to take her all the way through late November.
(NEW YORK) — The stock market has been up and down this week amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and while we are likely to see more volatility in Wall Street in the days ahead, experts say the main effect of this crisis in the U.S. will be at the gas pump.
The national average price for gas is inching its way towards $4 a gallon. And, as ABC News’ Deirdre Bolton explains, “the effects could be even more wide ranging than just gas for your car.”
“The price of airline tickets may also go higher if carriers pass the extra cost of higher jet fuel onto passengers,” Bolton says. “Home heating prices are likely to rise, as well, as are food prices even from their current pandemic highs, since transporting food costs more as diesel for the trucks will be more expensive.”
(NEW YORK) — For many Ukrainians living in the United States, the early hours of Thursday morning were spent reaching out to family members and watching news developments as Russia crossed the border into Ukraine and began the first attacks on the country.
Oksana Sukhina, a Ukranian immigrant who came to the U.S. two years ago, told ABC News she learned the news of the invasion through a neighborhood watch group chat from back home.
“I saw messages that someone was asking, ‘Oh, what’s that booming?’ and someone responding, ‘Well, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin started the military operation,'” Sukhina told ABC News.
She couldn’t fall asleep that night.
Sukhina, who is a member of the non-profit U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, said that most of her family is back in Ukraine, and though she fears for the safety of her loved ones, she trusts in the Ukrainian army and in NATO forces.
“We hope that this insanity stops. It’s a civilizational attack,” Sukhina told ABC News. “We’re reading some disturbing messages about Russian troops being over on the ground.”
She said her son, who is in the U.S., is even seeking out ways to get back to Ukraine to help.
Alex Ponomarenko, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union region that is now Ukraine, told ABC News that as soon as he heard reports of the invasion, he began reaching out to loved ones.
Because of past aggression from Russia, including the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, many Ukrainians say they had the eerie feeling that something would soon erupt.
“No one was expecting this to happen, but it was always on the table,” Ponomarenko told ABC News in an interview. “My fear is the loss of life.”
Tamara Olexy, executive director of the nonprofit Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, also told ABC News that the invasion isn’t necessarily a surprise, but she still feels shaken by the attacks.
“It was a complete shock that in the 21st century, you can watch a war unfolding right before your eyes,” Olexy said.
Her family in Western Ukraine is safe, she said.
“We’re urging our governments to put in the harshest sanctions possible against Putin, and the Russian regime, and doing whatever we can to get the real truth out about what’s going on in Ukraine,” Olexy added.
Many said they hope Ukraine’s past of resilience and victory will pull the country through.
“Ukrainians are fighting back,” Olexy said. “Ukrainians aren’t going to give up the land easily. This is going to be a very long-drawn-out war … Ukrainians have fought long and hard to gain their independence — or regain their independence, I should say — 30 years ago, and they’re not going to give it up easily.”
Sukhina added, “[Ukraine] has prevailed so far, we will prevail further on.”
Many Ukrainian descendants, immigrants and refugees said they are channeling their initial feelings of pain into action. They’re set on figuring out how best to help their loved ones back home.
The goal is to not only make sure they’re safe now but also to financially and resourcefully support their continued safety. They’re calling on people from around the world, non-Ukrainians and Ukrainians alike, to assist in making sure those in need have the resources necessary.
“We’re ready to assist anyone as much as possible,” Ponomarenko said. “It’s a humanitarian issue. We should be ready to help.”
President Joe Biden will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, elevating an African American woman for the first time to a seat on the high court bench, ABC News has learned.
Judge Jackson, 51, currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to which she was appointed by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year with Republican support.
Her historic nomination fulfills a promise Biden made during the 2020 campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary, when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters. It’s also the first opportunity for Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to help shape a Court that has grown sharply more conservative in recent years, even if his appointment will not alter the current ideological balance.
Jackson, a former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, has more than eight years experience on the federal bench, following a path through the judiciary traveled by many nominees before her. She also would be the first federal public defender to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have criminal defense experience.
Democrats have the votes to confirm Jackson without Republican support, but President Biden has said he hopes to win over some members of the other party.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/POOL
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, elevating an African American woman for the first time to a seat on the high court bench, ABC News has learned.
Judge Jackson, 51, currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to which she was named by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year with Republican support.
Her historic nomination fulfills a promise Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters.
It’s also the first opportunity for Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to help shape a Court that has grown sharply more conservative in recent years, even if his appointment will not alter the current ideological balance.
Jackson, a former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, has more than eight years experience on the federal bench, following a path through the judiciary traveled by many nominees before her.
All but four justices appointed in the last 50 years have come from a federal appeals court, including three current justices — Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts and Clarence Thomas — from the D.C. Circuit.
Born in D.C. but raised in Miami, Jackson comes from an elite legal pedigree as a graduate of Harvard Law School but also has experience representing everyday Americans in the legal system as a federal public defender.
“Public service is a core value in my family,” Judge Jackson testified last year.
She would be the first federal public defender to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have criminal defense experience.
Jackson has been vetted and confirmed by the Senate three times – twice for appointments to the federal bench, a third time for a seat on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Not since Justice Clarence Thomas was nominated in 1991 has a Supreme Court candidate been scrutinized by the Senate as many times.
“I think she’s qualified for the job. She has a different philosophy than I do, but it’s been that way the whole time,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said of Jackson last year. He was one of three GOP Senators, including Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who voted to confirm Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
President Biden has long admired, respected and helped elevate Jackson, sources say. It was the Obama-Biden administration that first appointed her to the federal bench in 2013. Last year, Biden met one-on-one with Jackson at the White House before nominating her to the D.C. Circuit. The two met again in recent days, sources said.
The president is impressed by her “experience in roles at all levels of the justice system, her character and her legal brilliance,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said this month.
Jackson has won praise from grassroots progressive, civil rights and legal groups, particularly for her work as vice chair of the bipartisan U.S. Sentencing Commission between 2010 and 2014, when she played a key role in major criminal justice reforms.
Jackson joined a unanimous vote to reduce federal sentencing guidelines for some nonviolent drug offenders and make the changes retroactive — moves backed by members of both parties.
“In my view, that of a civil rights lawyer and advocate who is committed to bringing justice, respect, and fairness to this nation, and particularly to my community, that woman is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump told ABC News.
On the bench, her jurisprudence has widely been considered mainstream and measured, legal scholars say. She authored 600 opinions while on the U.S. District Court for D.C.; only 12 were reversed, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Justice, a progressive legal advocacy group.
One of her most high-profile decisions came in the 2019 case of former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who was contesting a congressional subpoena for testimony. Then-District Court Judge Jackson wrote a 118-page ruling ordering McGahn to testify, concluding that “presidents are not kings” and could not assert universal executive privilege over former aides.
Earlier this month, Judge Jackson published her first appeals court opinion — a unanimous decision in favor of a large union of federal government workers contesting new federal labor guidelines that would have made collective bargaining more difficult. Jackson concluded the changes were “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Late last year, Judge Jackson joined a unanimous appeals court panel decision rejecting former President Donald Trump’s attempt to shield his records from review by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The decision recently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jackson’s former colleagues and associates describe her approach as “Breyer-esque,” qualities Biden has explicitly sought to replicate on the bench: moderate, pragmatic, and a consensus-builder.
“She believes the judiciary should be accessible and transparent,” said Sanchi Khare, who clerked for Judge Jackson in 2019. “She really feels that people who come to the court or who interact with the judicial system, whether they are civil or criminal parties, that they feel heard and that the court is considering their arguments.”
Rachel Barkow, an NYU law professor, former Harvard classmate of Jackson and former member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, predicted Jackson could help “dial down the temperature” around the Court if confirmed.
“She is not someone who is a firebrand off on her own, creating and doing new things which I don’t think she should be doing as a lower court judge,” Barkow told ABC. “I think she absolutely on the merits should be a person who appeals to people of all political stripes.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said this week that the nominee will be “respectfully treated and thoroughly vetted.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Sunday that his party will not engage in “personal slime attacks” but will scrutinize the candidate’s record.
Democrats have the votes to confirm Jackson without Republican support, but President Biden has said he hopes to win over some members of the other party.
During her appeals court confirmation hearing last year, Republicans questioned Jackson on issues of race; ties to progressive legal groups; her rulings against the Trump administration; the impact of sentencing reductions; and her work as a public defender for Guantanamo detainees.
She could also face questions about her affiliation with Harvard University – both as an alumna and member Board of Overseers – ahead of a major lawsuit challenging the school’s use of race-based Affirmative Action in admissions that will be heard by the Supreme Court later this year.
The president’s allies on Capitol Hill and among Democratic grassroots groups have begun mobilizing to promote and defend the nominee, gearing up for a media blitz to mark both the historic nature of the nomination and counter expected Republican attacks, some of which have already been racially-charged.
The White House is expected to highlight Jackson’s personal story as the embodiment of the American Dream.
“Her Miami roots will afford her valuable perspective on the rights and lives of the people who come before the court,” members of the Cuban American Bar Association wrote in a letter to the president this month.
Jackson attended Miami-Dade public schools. Her mother was a public high school principal in the county, while her father was a teacher and later county school board attorney. Her younger brother — her only sibling — served in the military and did tours in combat. Two uncles have been law enforcement officers.
Her husband, Patrick Jackson, is a surgeon in the Washington, D.C., area, where together they have raised two daughters.
“It’s a story of someone who’s always been very hard working, who has not had things handed to her, who has worked for all the things that she’s achieved,” Barkow said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Amanda Kloots, host of CBS’ The Talk, announced on Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19 following a recent trip to Mexico.
Kloots — whose husband, Nick Cordero, died of COVID-related complications in July 2020 — also confirmed that she would be missing The Talk while she quarantines.
“My @thetalkcbs family! Unfortunately I tested positive for COVID and will be missing some days at work until my quarantine is over,” Kloots, 39, shared on Instagram. “I am feeling completely normal now and feel very grateful for that. I am vaccinated and boosted which is very much putting me at ease.”
“I recently got back from a trip to Mexico where I tested negative before I left and before I flew home so this was [a] surprise this morning,” she continued. “This is the first time I’ve tested positive since the pandemic.”
Kloots went on to say that she plans on using her time in quarantine to potty-train her two-year-old son, Elvis Eduardo, whom she shared with Cordero.
“I will hopefully be back to work soon but taking this time at home with Elvis to start potty training!!!!” Kloots wrote. “Wish me luck as I run after a naked toddler for the next three days. Any advice please share below.”
