(SMITHSBURG, Md.) — Multiple victims have been reported in a shooting in Smithsburg, Maryland, Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
“The suspect is no longer a threat to the community,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.
Smithsburg is about 70 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
Additional information was not immediately available.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Breland’s one of country music’s hottest rising acts today, but the pandemic nearly conspired to keep his career from taking off.
“I first visited Nashville to work on the ‘My Truck’ remix with Sam Hunt, back, like, a few weeks before the pandemic hit,” he reveals during a new interview on Trailblazers Radio With Fancy Hagood.
“My Truck” — and the version featuring Sam — was Breland’s breakout hit and launched a career that quickly grew to include duets with Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, and his chart-topping “Beers on Me” collaboration with Dierks Bentley and Hardy. But back then, Breland says, he felt like he was on the cusp of big developments in his career.
“It felt like a lot of things were about to happen in a good way and then a lot of things globally happened that were quite the opposite. I don’t blame Nashville for that. It was just an unfortunate timing,” Breland says.
But on the flip side of things, the timing couldn’t have been better: If Breland had visited Music City just a few weeks later, he never would have gotten to meet some of the people who inspired him to return to Nashville and keep working on music.
“I got a really good vibe when I was here, spent a few days, met a bunch of people, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ The way that people write out here was really fascinating to me,” Breland says.
In fact, he got such a good vibe from the city that he moved to Nashville full time just a few months later.
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When Jimmie Allen takes the CMA Close Up Stage Thursday, he won’t be alone: a group of music students from Nashville’s Mountain View Elementary will perform alongside him.
According to a news story from ABC affiliate WKRN News 2, the children have been practicing for weeks ahead of taking the big stage. They can be seen in a clip practicing “Best Shot,” Jimmie’s hit song from 2018.
Jimmie’s commitment to furthering music education is longstanding. Back in 2020, he was an artist ambassador for the CMA Foundation’s Unified Voices for Music Education, an initiative that deputized a cast of country stars — also including Lindsay Ell and Ashley McBryde — to get involved with music education programs.
Jimmie, who’s a father of three, also recently released his first children’s book, My Voice is a Trumpet, which celebrates diversity and the importance of everyone using their voice.
The singer is also booked to perform on the Chevy Riverfront Stage during this year’s CMA Fest. His next album, Tulip Drive, arrives later this month.
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Christina Aguilera, who is headlining LA Pride this Saturday, regularly uses her platform to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. According to Ricky Martin, artists from that community appreciate what the “Beautiful” singer has done for them.
“Christina is a force! Her voice has become synonymous with greatness and the most commendable thing is that [after] becoming one of the most successful female artists of all time, she uses her voice as a constant ally to the LGBTQ+ community,” he told People.
He continued to gush, “She is an amazing mother, a businesswoman and a proud Latina.”
The two collaborated on the track “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely” in 2001, a time when Ricky was fending off rumors about his sexuality. The “Livin’ La Vida Loca” singer publicly came out as gay in 2010. In 2017 he married husband Jwan Yosef.
Christina previously told the outlet of her advocacy, “Being an LGBTQ+ ally is not something that’s short-lived. It’s in my DNA.” She added of her connection with the community, “We’ve all come from struggle; We’ve all had to fight to be heard.”
She takes the L.A. State Historic Park stage on June 11.
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(NEW YORK) — Sterling Jewelers, the multibillion-dollar parent company of shopping mall stalwarts Kay Jewelers, Jared and Zales, agreed to resolve a legal dispute involving, among other things, allegations of promotions traded for sexual favors.
Tens of thousands of current and former employees sued in a class arbitration that included sexual harassment accusations against senior executives and wage violations. The class grew to 68,000 plaintiffs who claimed women were discriminated both in compensation and in promotions.
The company was also accused of having a policy “prohibiting employees from discussing their pay with each other,” which “made it difficult for women to identify instances where they were paid less than male employees performing the same job.”
Sworn statements also described a corporate culture in which annual managers’ retreats allegedly became no-spouses allowed “booze fests” where male executives “prowled around the [resort] like dogs that were let out of their cage,” and that “there was no one to protect female managers from them,” arbitration documents show.
The alleged incidents took place between late 1990s to the 2000s, according to the sworn statements.
Ohio-based Sterling Jewelers and the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC announced the agreement, which calls on the company, a subsidiary of UK-based Signet Jewelers, to pay $175 million. Of that, $125 million would be split among the class members and the rest would go to the lawyers.
The agreement is subject to the arbitrator’s approval.
“For the past four years, we’ve been successfully transforming Signet’s business model and culture. I want to thank our dedicated team members for helping to create our welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone is invited to be their authentic self. We believe prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion grows high-functioning teams and fosters a culture of appreciation and development,” Gina Drosos, CEO of Signet Jewelers, said in a statement. “This settlement is an important step in bringing closure to a nearly 15-year-old case.”
Signet has discontinued the pay and promotions practices at issue in the lawsuit and offered mentorship and leadership training for women.
“This settlement provides for significant monetary relief for our clients and ensures that the practices that gave rise to this case will not recur. And we applaud Sterling Jewelers for undertaking important and meaningful changes to its workplace policies, which have moved it forward as a leader in gender equality,” said Joseph Sellers, of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
ABC News’ Kelly McCarthy contributed to this report.
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Ozzy Osbourne is set to undergo a “very major operation” on Monday, June 13.
The Black Sabbath frontman’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, shared the news this week during an episode of her U.K. talk show The Talk.
“It’s really gonna determine the rest of his life,” Sharon said of the procedure.
Sharon did not speak on the nature of the operation, but Ozzy, 73, told Classic Rock magazine in an interview published in May that he was “waiting on some more surgery” on his neck. Ozzy suffered a fall in 2019, which aggravated injuries he sustained in a 2003 ATV accident.
Beyond that, Ozzy has been battling a number of health issues over the past few years. Prior to the 2019 fall, he’d been hospitalized with a bad case of pneumonia, and in early 2020, he revealed he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
In April of this year, Ozzy tested positive for COVID-19.
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Once again, Porno for Pyros is subbing in for Jane’s Addiction at a festival.
The Pyros have joined the bill for Lollapalooza 2022, while Jane’s is no longer listed on the lineup.
Both the Pyros and Jane’s are, of course, fronted by Perry Farrell, who also founded Lollapalooza. Farrell confirmed the news by retweeting a PfP post reading, “The news is true. See you soon @lollapalooza.”
The Pyros previously reunited last month to play their first show in 26 years at the Welcome to Rockville festival in place of Jane’s, who dropped out due to guitarist Dave Navarro contending with a “long bout” of COVID-19. As for why Jane’s isn’t playing Lolla, no reason was announced.
Lollapalooza 2022 takes place July 28-31 in Chicago. The bill also includes Green Day, Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly and Måneskin.
Porno for Pyros will also be playing a Lollapalooza aftershow, as well as a headlining date in Los Angeles.
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(WASHINGTON) — From legal action to name-calling, former President Donald Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime-time on Thursday.
Committee members say they will lay out to the American people how Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to descend on lawmakers as part of a monthslong attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election — as Trump, from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, coordinates counterattacks with GOP allies in the House, who have assumed the role of his public defenders against what he’s deemed is a “scam” investigation from the “unselect committee” of “political thugs.”
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts Thursday on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
While Trump has labeled the rioters as “a loving crowd” who were “hugging and kissing” police officers and posed “zero threat” in an interview, the committee is expected to emphasize the threat to then-Vice President Mike Pence as it seeks to capture the severity of the attack and make its case — despite Trump’s narrative.
Members of the select committee now have the challenge of making their case to the American public amid Trump’s relentless commentary riddled with false claims about the 2020 election — commentary that previously encouraged “patriots” to “fight” in Washington on Jan. 6.
Trump has maintained he carries no responsibility for the attack while deploying an arsenal of rhetoric to recast what happened and to undermine the investigation.
Here are some examples:
Branding the ‘Unselect committee’
After Senate Republicans blocked efforts last year to form an independent commission to investigate the Capitol attack, the House established a select committee last summer by a vote of 222-190. From the start, Trump used familiar attack language to mock the effort he called a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats.”
When the committee sent its first subpoenas to four of his administration officials last September, the former president released a lengthy statement labeling it the “Unselect Committee” of “highly partisan politicians.” He called the action “Harassment Subpoenas,” while continuing to push baseless claims that the election was stolen.
“Hopefully the Unselect Committee will be calling witnesses on the Rigged Presidential Election of 2020, which is the primary reason that hundreds of thousands of people went to Washington, D.C. in the first place,” Trump said.
And when announcing he was canceling a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, amid concerns from congressional Republicans over what he might say, Trump added in his statement, “This is the Democrats’ Great Cover-Up Committee and the Media is complicit.”
Trump continues to call the 2020 election “the Crime of the Century,” despite his own officials, dozens of recounts, and more than 40 failed lawsuits affirming President Joe Biden’s win.
GOP coordination in counterprogramming
Taking cues from the former president as still appears to carry massive influence with his base, Republican leaders have also dismissed the work of their colleagues to match Trump’s rhetoric.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — who first said that Trump carries responsibility for the attack before making a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago just weeks later — held a news conference with other House Republicans Thursday morning as a “prebuttal” to the Jan. 6 hearing. Though McCarthy was subpoenaed by the committee seeking information on his phone calls with Trump on the day of the attack, he did not comply.
Asked Thursday by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl whether the election was stolen, McCarthy repeatedly dodged.
“Joe Biden is the president. There’s a lot of problems still with the election process,” he said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has slammed the committee as a “scam” for months, called the upcoming hearing “garbage” that “Americans are not going to watch” in an interview Wednesday on Fox News, which is notably not carrying the hearing in prime time.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who was with Trump in Bedminster Wednesday, said in an interview with “Breitbart News Saturday” that it’s House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who should be investigated instead, alleging the speaker “refused” to turn over security documents.
“Why? Because she is covering up, because there were concerns about security that were raised with Speaker Pelosi’s office,” Stefanik claimed. “Where are the documents? Where are the communications, Nancy? Until she does that, we know that she bears responsibility.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told ABC News Wednesday, “We have no idea what Rep. Stefanik is talking about. We suspect neither does she.” He added: “Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination.”
While House Republican leaders have loudly backed Trump, one notable Republican — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent target of Trump’s attacks — signaled his personal interest in the House committee’s work. McConnell said in an interview with Spectrum News in December, “I think that what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.”
Trump taunts committee members
Trump has taken particular aim at the only two Republicans sitting on the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, whom he has taunted with his trademark nicknames, “polling warmonger Liz Cheney and Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger.”
The pair has faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for speaking out against Trump, with Cheney being removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year and both being formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate the attack.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement on the censure. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
Beyond calling Cheney a “smug fool” and throwing the full weight of his endorsement behind her primary challenger, Trump has also shared doctored images on his website of the lawmaker with former President George Bush’s face, teasing the images as a “must-see.”
Cheney has continued to counter the attacks with warnings for American democracy.
“We are not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened,” she told CBS News correspondent Robert Costa in a “Sunday Morning” interview. “We are, in fact, in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack. And so, people must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it.”
Attempts to block committee
As the select committee began to seek documents for its investigation last summer, Trump announced that he would assert “executive privilege” over what he called a “partisan exercise” in order to withhold documents the committee had requested.
Then, in October, Trump announced that he was suing the committee to block the disclosure of those documents, describing the panel’s demand in a lawsuit as a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition.”
“We will fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country, while we wait to find out whether or not Subpoenas will be sent out to Antifa and BLM for the death and destruction they have caused in tearing apart our Democrat-run cities throughout America,” he said in a statement.
A federal appeals court first rejected his effort before the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the select committee in January, allowing the National Archives to turn over Trump White House records to the committee. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented that he would have granted Trump’s request.
The National Archives and Record Administration also confirmed earlier this year that Trump White House documents sought by the committee recovered from Mar-a-Lago were marked classified.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
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(CAIRO) — Egyptian officials said they plan to start legal proceedings to recover five Egyptian antiques seized from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of a wide-ranging investigation involving former Louvre museum President-Director Jean-Luc Martinez.
The five objects, which are said to be worth more than $3 million in total, were confiscated from the museum by the New York District Attorney’s Office under a May 19 court order from the Supreme Court of the State of New York, The Art Newspaper reported last week.
“Measures are being undertaken to recover those objects,” former Egyptian antiquities minister Zahi Hawass, a leading member of a committee the state had set up to repatriate stolen artifacts, told ABC News.
The Met bought the items between 2013 and 2015, the newspaper reported. They include a portrait of a woman painted during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero (54-69 AD) and linen fragments of the Book of Exodus that date back to “the fourth or fifth century.”
“Throughout this investigation, The Met has been fully cooperative, and will continue to be so,” a spokesperson for The Met told ABC News.
Martinez, who headed the Louvre from 2013 to 2021, was charged in May with complicity and fraud in concealing the origin of antiquities purchased by Met and Louvre Abu Dhabi, according to prosecutors in Paris.
The items in question also include a pink granite stele of 18th dynasty ruler and famous Boy King Tutankhamun, which Louvre Abu Dhabi had bought in 2016. It dates back to about 1327 B.C. according to the museum.
“Regarding the Louvre, we are awaiting the end of investigations to demand the artifacts’ return,” Hawass added, with other officials saying Egyptian authorities have been following up on the case with their French counterparts since 2020.
The prominent Egyptologist hit out at both museums for turning a blind eye towards the origin of the objects they bought. He said all such artifacts were “secretly excavated” and smuggled out of Egypt in 2011 when the country was gripped by the Arab Spring turmoil.
“The museums committed a mistake; they should have contacted Egypt’s antiquities ministry and inquired about the origins of those objects. They were fooled by the dealer,” Hawass said.
In 2019, U.S. authorities returned to Egypt the gilded sarcophagus of high-ranking priest Nedjemankh, after it was sold to The Met with fraudulent paperwork two years earlier.
Egypt said it had recovered 5,000 ancient pieces from the U.S. last year.
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(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — The prosecutor in Kent County, Michigan, has decided to charge Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop in April.
Lyoya, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was shot in the head on April 4 after Schurr pulled him over for an unregistered license plate. His death prompted protests throughout Grand Rapids.
Schurr turned himself in and is expected to be arraigned Friday, according to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, who made the charging decision.
Body camera video showed Schurr shouting at Lyoya to “get back in the car” at the beginning of the footage, which was released nine days after the shooting.
Schurr can be heard asking Lyoya if he spoke English and then demanding that Lyoya show his driver’s license. Lyoya turned to a passenger in the car and started to walk away from Schurr.
The officer grabbed Lyoya and struggled with him before Schurr eventually forced him to the ground and shouted, “Stop resisting,” “let go” and “drop the Taser.” Police said Lyoya had grabbed at the officer’s stun gun during the altercation.
The body camera was deactivated during the struggle, according to police.
Lyoya was then shot from behind, according to an independent autopsy report backed by Lyoya’s family.
“He’s on his hands and knees facing away from the officer. There are so many other things the officer could have done instead of pulling his gun out and shooting him in the back of the head,” Crump told ABC News in April.
ABC News’ Adisa Hargett-Robinson contributed to this report.
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