Popular country duo Country Brooks & Dunn announced the news during an event at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Tuesday morning.
Each year, the Hall inducts members in three categories. This year, Lewis is the Veteran Era inductee, late singer/songwriter Keith Whitley is the Country Hall’s Modern Era artist, and music executive Joe Galante is being inducted under the Non-Performer rotating category.
The 86-year-old Lewis was on hand to speak at the ceremony, delivering his remarks from a chair and wearing a glittering red sequined blazer. “I’m just overwhelmed that they asked me here today,” he told the room, adding that it was “always great to be recognized” and that his lengthy career has taught him to “be a good person, and treat your people right, treat your fans right.”
Lewis added that it was difficult for him to find the words to describe the honor he felt.
Jerry Lee, who was infamously nicknamed “The Killer,” came to fame during the late 1950s with classic songs like “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless” that were hits on both the pop and country charts. He continued to score country hits throughout the 1960s and ’70s and into the early ’80s.
The three inductees will be officially welcomed into the Country Music Hall of Fame during a Medallion Ceremony this fall.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Assuming his role as consoler in chief, President Joe Biden traveled to Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday to visit a community in mourning and call out the dangers of white supremacy on the national stage following Saturday’s racially-motivated mass shooting at a supermarket that left 10 Black people dead, three wounded and others fearing for their lives.
Biden wanted to meet with victims’ families to “try to bring some comfort to the community, particularly to those who lost loved ones” and “grieve with them,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.
BREAKING: Pres. Biden addresses community of Buffalo.
“Jill and I bring you this message from deep in our nation’s soul: In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail. And white supremacy will not have the last word.”https://t.co/EiAF227UVlpic.twitter.com/dw2AkgqtCn
He and first lady Jill Biden visited the Tops market memorial to pay their respects on Tuesday morning, laying flowers. They then met behind closed doors with the families of victims and first responders at a community center. During an afternoon address, Biden called on Americans to reject white supremacy, calling it a “poison” that’s “running through our body politic.”
“What happened here is simple, straightforward,” Biden said. “Terrorism. Domestic terrorism. Violence inflicted in the service of hate. And the vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people as being inherently inferior to any other group,” he said.
Alluding to the “great replacement theory” conspiracy, an idea espoused by the alleged shooter and echoed in language used by some Republicans and media figures, Biden called on Americans to “reject the lie” and condemned those “who spread the lie for power, for political gain and for profit.”
“We need to say as clearly enforced as we can, that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America,” Biden said. “Silence is complicity, is complicity. We cannot remain silent.”
The president also named each victim in the attack and their ages, giving details of their everyday lives before they were suddenly gunned down.
“I know tragedy will come again. It cannot be forever overcome. It cannot be fully understood either. But there are certain things we can do,” Biden added.
The president called on Congress to pass legislation to “keep assault weapons off our street” and to do more to “prevent people from being radicalized to violence,” such as addressing what he called “the relentless exploitation of the Internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism.”
“We just need to have the courage to do that, to stand up over the American experiment in which democracy is in danger — like it hasn’t been in my lifetime,” he said. “The American experiment in democracy is in danger at this hour. Hate and fear are being given too much oxygen by those who pretend to love America.”
Biden has said in the past that he was compelled to run for office, in part, because of how former President Donald Trump responded to white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was the first president to directly address white supremacy in his inaugural speech, calling it “domestic terrorism that we must confront” and released the first-ever national strategy to counter domestic terrorism.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old who was among those killed Saturday, had called on the Biden administration to label the shooting an act of domestic terrorism, which the president did Tuesday.
“We can’t sugarcoat it, we can’t try to explain it away talking about mental illness,” Crump said in a press conference with the victims’ families on Monday. “This was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by a young white supremacist.”
Biden’s first in-person comments on the shooting came while speaking at an event on Sunday to honor law enforcement officers killed on duty, where he described the accused gunman as “armed with weapons of war and a hate-filled soul.” He also said that he has been receiving updates from his team at the White House, which remains in close contact with the Department of Justice, while it investigates the shooting as both a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.
“As they do, we must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said. “Our hearts are heavy once again, but the resolve must never, ever waver.”
During a previously scheduled Medal of Valor ceremony at the White House on Monday, Biden also paid tribute to retired Buffalo Police Department officer Aaron Salter, the security guard at the Tops Friendly Market who was killed after engaging the shooter and “gave his life trying to save others,” Biden said.
“He actually was able to shoot the assailant twice, but he [the assailant] had a bulletproof vest, and he [Slater] lost his life in the process,” Biden added.
On a somber Monday afternoon, Jean-Pierre — taking over for former White House press secretary Jen Psaki — began her first briefing by reading out the names of each victim of the shooting and giving a little description of who they were.
Asked who or what may have influenced the shooter, Jean-Pierre opted, at first, to speak about the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, which saw one counterprotester dead, saying Biden “is determined as he was back then, and he is determined today, to make sure that we fight back against those forces of hate and evil and violence.”
When pressed again by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega about elected officials who have expressed views echoing those espoused by the alleged gunman, such as Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Jean-Pierre said the administration would call out those who “spew this type of hate” — but refused to name anyone — and gave few details about what the White House can do to prevent these kinds of views from becoming more widespread.
“What we’re going to continue to do anyone, any one person, right, doesn’t matter who they are, who spews this type of hate, hatred, we’re going to, we’re going to call out we’re going to condemn that,” she said. “I’m not going to speak or call out any individual names. I’m saying that this is something that we need to call out. And so this is what the president has been doing and will continue to do that.”
“I’m not going to get into a back and forth on names and who said what,” Jean-Pierre added. “We’re just saying, if someone does that, if there’s an individual that is espousing hate, xenophobia, you know, has, you know, has just white supremacy type of extremism, we need to call that out. And this president has done that.”
With renewed calls for gun control from the public, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC’s This Week Sunday that Democrats in Congress is “of course trying to do something about gun violence” but noted that efforts to address mass shootings on Capitol Hill have fallen short not in the House but in the Senate, where Republicans have opposed gun control measures, making it impossible for Democrats to advance legislation over the 60-vote threshold in the chamber.
A document obtained by ABC News Monday appears to show how the alleged shooter, Payton Gendron, 18, carefully planned out his attack at least two months before he was arrested at the supermarket on Saturday and charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
Jepayona Delita/Future Publishing via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Several people in England have tested positive for monkeypox, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency.
Officials announced Monday four more cases of the rare disease have been detected, bringing the total to seven.
The most recent infections do not seem to be connected to the first case confirmed May 7 in a person who had recently traveled to Nigeria.
But the most recent four cases had not traveled to a region where monkeypox is endemic, raising the possibility that the virus could be circulating within the U.K.
Additionally, the most recent people to test positive self-identified as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, leading health authorities to advise people in those groups to watch out for rashes or lesions.
“This is rare and unusual,” Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for UKHSA, said in a statement. “UKHSA is rapidly investigating the source of these infections because the evidence suggests that there may be transmission of the monkeypox virus in the community, spread by close contact.”
What is monkeypox?
Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus.
It was first identified in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in crab-eating macaque monkeys that were being used for research, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first case among humans was recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970, and the illness has since spread to several other nations, mostly in central and western Africa.
How monkeypox is transmitted
Monkeypox can transmit from animals to humans when an infected animal — such as a rodent or a primate — bites or scratches a person.
The CDC said humans can also be infected when hunting wild animals or preparing bush meat for consumption.
The disease can also spread from person-to-person via large respiratory droplets in the air, but they cannot travel more than a few feet so two people would need to have prolonged close contact.
What are the symptoms?
The incubation period for monkeypox is between seven and 14 days, and symptoms are generally mild, according to the CDC.
The most common symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.
In more severe cases, patients can develop a rash and lesions that often begin on the face before spreading to the rest of the body.
Most people recover within two to four weeks. Although there have been no cases of death reported in the U.S., monkeypox has led to death in as many as 1 in 10 people in Africa who contract the disease.
Monkeypox detection in the U.S.
Very few cases of monkeypox have been identified among Americans.
According to the CDC, the disease does not naturally occur in the U.S. and infections are usually identified among people who recently traveled to countries where monkeypox is more commonly found.
In 2003, 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported among six U.S. states, the first human cases reported outside of Africa.
All the infections occurred after coming into contact with pet prairie dogs, which in turn became infected “after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana,” the CDC stated.
Since then, just two other cases have been detected in the U.S., both associated with travel.
In July 2021, a case was confirmed in a Texas resident who had recently returned from Nigeria and in November 2021, another case was found in a Maryland resident who had also traveled to Nigeria.
Treatment and prevention of monkeypox
Currently, there are no specific treatments available for monkeypox. Antivirals typically used for smallpox have been shown to be effective in lab studies and in animal trials.
One vaccine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in those aged 18 and older at high risk for monkeypox or smallpox.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Rashid Haddou contributed to this report.
(BALTIMORE) — A fire and explosion at a suburban Baltimore nail salon that injured seven people was deliberately set by an “emotionally distressed” man, authorities said Tuesday. Four police officers and two emergency medical workers were wounded in the incident.
The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was critically injured in the blast at the Libra Nails & Spa salon in Windsor Mill about 23 miles northwest of Baltimore, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.
Baltimore County Fire Department officials said the suspect is a former employee of the nail salon, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Police officers responded to a workplace disturbance call at the nail salon, in the Security Station Shopping Center, just after 9 p.m. and encountered the suspect who was refusing to leave business, police said in a statement released to ABC News Tuesday morning.
A police spokesperson told reporters Monday night that officers called EMTs to the scene to examine the “emotionally distressed” man. While the officers and EMTs were inside the salon, the suspect suddenly ran to the back of the business, police said.
“The individual refused commands by officers and proceeded to run into the back of the store where he started a fire that produced an explosion,” according to the police statement.
The four police officers and two EMTs were taken to hospitals with minor to non-life-threatening injuries, according to the statement. One officer remained in the hospital Tuesday for further observation, while the other officers and emergency medical workers were treated and released.
The suspect was placed into custody and taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to the statement.
Charges against the suspect are pending further investigation, police said.
A motive also remains under investigation.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Baltimore County Fire Department are assisting the probe.
Fire officials said the blaze and explosion were fueled by flammable chemicals, including acetone and nail polish remover, stored inside the business. The fire quickly engulfed the business and prompted fire officials to declare a hazmat situation.
The fire was brought under control at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Drew Barrymore has found a peaceful balance in life.
Looking back on her younger years, Drew says she lived a “wild, rebellious and fun” youth, and was open about her struggles with addiction, so much so she entered rehab at the age of 13 and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for six months. She was emancipated from her parents a year later.
Despite the troubles she faced, the actress has found a sense of tranquility in life that she knows her younger self couldn’t understand at the time.
“I like trying to tell myself to please react with grace. Be on the high road. Don’t flip out about everything. Find calm, find peace,” she shares with Peopleabout her advice for her past self, adding that she “wouldn’t have listened” to those wise words as a teen.
“Those are things I wish I could’ve told myself when I was a kid, but I would’ve never thought those things were possible, nor did I really want them at that time,” she expresses. “Now I want them.”
The Golden Globe award winner’s talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, has been renewed for season three. It will air on CBS later this year.
Ghost has announced a U.S. tour with support from Mastodon and Spiritbox.
The summer trek kicks off August 26 in San Diego and will conclude September 23 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 20, at 10 a.m. local time.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Ghost-Official.com.
Ghost will be touring behind their new album Impera, which was released last March. It includes the singles “Hunter’s Moon” and “Call Me Little Sunshine,” both of which hit number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Meghan Trainor is a Grammy-winning singer, television host, podcast host, mother of a young son and — if she gets her way — could be the next sitcom star. The “All About That Bass” singer is working on a secret project with NBC, and she will soon find out if it gets the green light.
“I mean, we’re waiting right now. We’ve done all the steps,” Meghan teased to PopCulture. “I don’t know how much I can say, but right now we’re waiting for that green light from the top boss.”
The singer attested she’s done everything she could to get the project off the ground, saying, “It is in their hands, it’s in their court right now, and we’re all just holding our breath.” As for how she feels about the wait, Meghan said it is a “really exciting” time for her.
Not much is known about Meghan’s upcoming series, as it was announced as part of a new cross-platform deal with NBCUniversal Television and Streaming Entertainment. The deal — a first of its kind for the company — encompasses potential projects both scripted and unscripted across NBCU’s brands, which include NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, SYFY, Universal Kids, USA and Peacock.
This means Meghan will also have the opportunity to create network, cable, streaming and syndication programming — but right now her focus is on getting that sitcom.
Elsewhere, the “Me Too” singer is working hard on her next album and tells the outlet, “I’m doing more the doo-wop style, like my first album.” But, unlike her first album, Title, this upcoming effort talks about motherhood.
“I talk about that in my music,” said Meghan. “And I talk about also how it’s hard and I’m not perfect all the time. And I’m learning to love that.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 years old, at least five months after completion of a primary series, officials announced Tuesday.
“While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said in a statement Tuesday.
“The FDA is authorizing the use of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age to provide continued protection against COVID-19,” he added.
Pfizer asked the FDA in April to authorize its booster vaccines for younger children, after it submitted data that indicated their shot was safe and generated a strong immune response in children ages 5 to 11.
“Vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences, and it is safe. If your child is eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and has not yet received their primary series, getting them vaccinated can help protect them from the potentially severe consequences that can occur, such as hospitalization and death,” Califf said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must still formally recommend the booster dose before shots can go into arms. That is likely to happen by the end of the week.
The benefits of the booster dose outweighed any known and potential risks and a booster dose can help provide continued protection against COVID-19, officials said, noting that with immunity waning, boosting is more important than ever.
“Since authorizing the vaccine for children down to 5 years of age in October 2021, emerging data suggest that vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 wanes after the second dose of the vaccine in all authorized populations,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, adding that the benefits of the booster dose outweighed any known and potential risks and that a booster dose can help provide continued protection against COVID-19.
In January, the FDA authorized the use of a booster dose in adolescents ages 12 through 15. Since authorization, 3.7 million adolescents ages 12 to 17 have received a booster dose.
The push to get children boosted comes despite a continued lag in vaccinating children, despite renewed increases in pediatric COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
To date, just 43.6% of eligible children, ages 5 to 17 years old, have been fully vaccinated, according to federal data. An even smaller portion — less than 30% — of children ages 5 to 11 years old have been full vaccinated, and would thus, ultimately be eligible for a booster shot.
Overall, 25.7 million children over the age of 5 — about half those eligible — remain completely unvaccinated, including 18.2 million children ages 5 to 11.
Last week, more than 93,000 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, an increase of about 76% from two weeks ago, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. This marks the fifth consecutive week of increases, and the highest weekly total since late February.
Pediatric hospital admission rates have increased by 57% in the last month, according to CDC data, and on average, about 163 virus-positive children are entering hospitals each day.
Overall numbers remain significantly lower than during other parts of the pandemic. However, many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, experts say daily case totals are likely significantly higher than the numbers that are officially reported.
Nearly 13.2 million children have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic, and children represent about a fifth of all reported cases on record.
According to Weedman, Palmer gets a “severe” form of eczema after consuming milk protein, which can present as facial boils that then turn into scabs. – Kayzie Weedman
(NEW YORK) — The baby formula shortage in the U.S. has grown rapidly since February, quickly impacting countless families in multiple states, but especially those who rely on special formula for their babies and children.
The deepening crisis prompted Kayzie Weedman, a 30-year-old mom of two, to share her experience in a TikTok video that has already been viewed over 1.4 million times.
Weedman, who works as an interior designer, told Good Morning America Monday that she started noticing a formula shortage at the end of last year and it has only worsened in the past six months.
“We started noticing the shelves weren’t as stocked as they usually were in December of 2021. And then every month there on, it got worse and worse and worse,” Weedman said. “Probably the last two months is when it’s become like, the shelves are bare, empty, and nothing left and maybe in the last three weeks, every time I go, it’s completely empty. There’s nothing there. It’s pretty much just distilled water and that’s all that’s on the shelves.”
Weedman’s daughter, Palmer is just 5 months old and relies on a special baby formula that’s made without cow’s milk protein. Her formula is part of Similac’s Alimentum hypoallergenic formula line, made by Abbott Nutrition.
“She was on a formula that had the milk protein in it and she had a reaction and that is what caused the doctors to have me get her tested,” Weedman said about learning that her youngest child had a cow’s milk protein allergy, or CMPA.
When a child has a milk protein allergy, their body mistakenly considers the protein as a foreign invader and the child can experience various symptoms that range in severity, including difficulty breathing, hives, nausea, diarrhea or even life-threatening anaphylaxis, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“When she has reactions, first, she gets a really bad rash. She’ll get boils on her face that turn into scabs, and it’s a very severe form of eczema. She gets wheezing. She has some problem going to the bathroom. So a lot of things happen when she has that milk protein,” Weedman explained.
“We don’t have an option to have any other formula on the shelf. So we can’t just go and get whatever’s left on the shelf,” she continued. “We have to have her prescription formula or the hypoallergenic formula.”
Abbott, the largest U.S. producer of baby formula, recalled some Alimentum products in February after reports of bacterial infections that caused two deaths were linked to the company’s Sturgis, Michigan, manufacturing plant. The recall and ongoing supply chain issues due to the pandemic have severely limited the stock of baby formulas, including special formulas like nutrient-enriched, hydrolyzed and hypoallergenic formulas.
Abbott and the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday evening that a plan to restart the Sturgis facility had been agreed upon and Abbott said it hopes to resume production within two weeks. However, it will still take six to eight weeks for new formula products to hit store shelves.
But Weedman and other parents haven’t been able to wait weeks for new formula products to get restocked.
Weedman said her daughter Palmer needs to have five bottles of Alimentum formula per day and that Palmer can usually go through one can of Alimentum in about a week.
The Michigan mom said the formula shortage has made her feel angry, frustrated, sad and nervous for other parents. She considers herself one of the lucky moms, who can use their social media platform to ask for and receive help. Weedman said she now has enough supply for Palmer for the next three months and is now working to pay it forward to other parents and kids in need.
“I have actually been able to facilitate swapping of formula for a lot of moms,” Weedman told GMA. “Some moms will say, ‘This formula didn’t work for me. Can you reach out to your followers and see if it’ll work for them?’ So I’ve actually shipped a lot of formula to different moms so that we can all help each other out because that’s really all we can do.”
For parents struggling to find formula, Weedman suggested asking as many people as possible.
“Reach out to your friends and family, anyone who’s not in your city,” Weedman said. “Have them look for your can and if they do have your can, pick up one, pick up two, you know, we don’t need to pick up 10, but just support other moms and if you know someone who’s formula feeding, see what can they have, pick it up if you can, and we all have to support each other.”
“Social media can be a scary but amazing place. … I’m really lucky for social media because it got me the cans I need so my daughter doesn’t starve,” Weedman added.
Keith Whitley, Jerry Lee Lewis and music industry executive Joe Galante are the next three inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Brooks & Dunn announced the news during an event at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Tuesday morning, offering some words about each of the soon-to-be Hall of Famers.
Each year, the Hall inducts members in three categories; this year, Galante is being inducted under the Non-Performer rotating category. Whitley is the Hall’s Modern Era artist for 2022, and Lewis is the Veteran Era inductee.
Both Lewis and Galante were on hand to speak at the ceremony, with the 86-year-old Lewis delivering his remarks from a chair, wearing a glittering red sequined blazer. “I’m just overwhelmed that they asked me here today,” he told the room, adding that it was “always great to be recognized” and that his lengthy career has taught him to “be a good person, and treat your people right, treat your fans right.”
Lewis added that it was difficult for him to find the words to describe the honor he felt, and Galante echoed that sentiment in his own speech. “I’m humbled, beyond honored, and honestly, I’m still trying to wrap my head around this,” Galante said.
Meanwhile, the late Whitley’s wife, Lorrie Morgan — who is also a country star — spoke on his behalf, saying, “He would be absolutely blown away if he were here today. That’s how humble he was.”
The three inductees will be officially welcomed into the Country Music Hall of Fame during a Medallion Ceremony this fall.
