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Powerful nor’easter slams East Coast bringing heavy snow and strong winds to millions

January 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Tens of millions of Americans across more than a dozen states are under winter weather alerts Saturday morning from South Carolina to Maine.

Snowfall rates upwards of 2 inches per hour are hitting Atlantic City, New Jersey, and other parts of the Jersey Shore at times, while eastern Connecticut is seeing a rate as fast as 3 inches per hour.

A plow clears a walkway in the snow during a Nor’easter storm in New York, Jan. 29, 2022.

In addition to the snowfall, strong wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph are expected along parts of the Northeast coastline.

Some states have declared emergencies as they brace for the worst of this storm system coming Saturday afternoon.

Whipping winds, treacherous travel, potential power outages and frigid temperatures are all concerns associated with the winter nor’easter. Nearly 120,000 customers are without power in Massachusetts, and over 3,550 flights have been canceled within, into, and out of the United States Saturday, according to Flightaware.

In Connecticut, airports are “down at this point,” Gov. Ned Lamont said during a briefing midday Saturday. Metro-North is running on limited hourly service, and Amtrak is not operating, officials said.

Snow totals, treacherous conditions

Parts of Connecticut to Maine may see up to 18 to 24 inches of snow, with the possibility of up to 30 inches near Boston Metro — a potential recordbreaker. For the city of Boston, the most snowfall in one day in January on record is 22.1 inches on Jan. 27, 2015, and the most snow fall in one day on record overall is 23.6 inches on Feb. 17, 2003.

There are extremely hazardous travel conditions for coastal New Jersey; Suffolk County, New York; Rhode Island and coastal Massachusetts where the heaviest snow totals and whiteout conditions with gusty winds will persist.

The I-95 corridor north of New York City toward Boston and Portland, Maine, are under major impacts, with whipping winds gusting 45 mph to 70 mph near the Boston Metro.

Below-zero wind chills

Parts of the Great Lakes and New England will experience bitterly cold temperatures with wind chills near 25 below zero.

The Northeast will feel frigid Saturday night as wind chills plunge to 2 and 5 below zero in New York City and Boston, respectively.

Cold weather is even heading south to Florida with temperatures in the 30s.

Coastal concerns

There are coastal concerns about storm surge and tidal influence especially along the coastal towns in Suffolk County, New York, which could see 4- to 8-feet waves during high tide Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Boston may also get battered with largest wave swells at 15 to 20 feet.

A worker clears snow in Times Square during a Nor’easter storm in New York, Jan. 29, 2022.

However, there is one silver lining to this winter storm: The storm system remained easterly, meaning less heavy snow and weather-related snarls for states west of Interstate 95.

The storm system is expected to move out of New York City by the afternoon and from Boston by the evening.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Daniel Peck, Hilda Estevez and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

COVID-19 live updates: US cases down nearly 25%

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 879,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 63.6% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:
-US cases down nearly 25%
-New Hampshire to sell rapid COVID-19 tests at liquor stores
-NIH trial finds mixing and matching boosters is safe and effective

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Jan 28, 8:22 pm
Sen. Romney tests positive for COVID-19

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tested positive for COVID-19 Friday, his office said.

“He is currently asymptomatic and will be isolating and working remotely for the recommended period of time,” his office said.

His wife, Ann Romney, has tested negative for the virus. Both are fully vaccinated and boosted, his office said.

Jan 28, 5:06 pm
240 million free at-home tests ordered so far: White House

About 60 million American households have ordered 240 million free at-home COVID rapid tests since they became available on Jan. 18, White House officials said Friday.

The Biden administration plans to ultimately mail 1 billion free at-home rapid tests to Americans.

Additionally, the federal government has sent out “tens of millions of masks” since Biden announced last week that the government would provide 400 million N95 masks for free at pharmacies and community health centers across the country, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

ABC News’ Ben Gittleson

Jan 28, 1:32 pm
US cases down nearly 25%

Federal data shows that the U.S. is now reporting an average of almost 600,000 new cases per day — a nearly 25% drop in the last two weeks, according to federal data.

Just nine states are reporting at least a 10% increase in cases: Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia.

All other states and territories are reporting a decrease in new cases or are at a plateau.

Nationwide, hospitalization rates are also declining, according to federal data. Just under 145,000 COVID-19-positive patients are currently in U.S. hospitals, down from 160,000 patients reported last week.

It’s not clear how many of these patients were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and how many coincidentally tested positive for the virus after they were admitted for other reasons.

The national daily death average now stands at nearly 2,300 — a 30% jump in the last two weeks.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Jan 27, 3:54 pm
San Francisco dropping masks in ‘stable cohorts’

San Francisco officials are ending indoor mask mandates for “stable cohorts” where everyone is up to date on vaccinations, like people in an office or gym setting.

The city’s health officer Dr. Susan Philip called this change, which begins Feb. 1, doable due to San Francisco’s highly vaccinated and boosted population.

“Other COVID-19 safety guidelines in these settings remain in effect and include a means for others who do not or cannot meet the vaccination requirements to join the group with the added safety of showing a negative test and wearing a mask,” San Francisco’s health department said.

ABC News’ Matt Fuhrman

Listen to new Bloc Party song, “The Girls Are Fighting”

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Bloc Party has released a new song called “The Girls Are Fighting,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Alpha Games.

“I think ‘The Girls Are Fighting’ is kind of self-explanatory — someone’s been selling dreams to someone they shouldn’t have and it’s caught up with them,” says frontman Kele Okereke. “I just wanted to capture that moment of going from naught to ten in an evening, in a sweaty nightclub.”

You can download “The Girls Are Fighting” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video, which takes things from the club to the boxing ring, is streaming now on YouTube.

Alpha Games, the follow-up to 2016’s Hymns, arrives April 29. It also includes the previously released single “Traps.”

Light the Torch premieres video for “Death of Me”

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Light the Torch has premiered the video for “Death of Me,” a track off the band’s new album, You Will Be the Death of Me.

The clip finds Howard Jones and company in a decaying, gothic mansion. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.

“‘Death of Me’ is a song dedicated to that one single person or habit you can’t shake,” Jones says. “A slow death hurts so much more. [Director] Ramon [Boutviseth] did a great job with directing this video and we hope you enjoy it.”

Light the Torch released You Will Be the Death of Me last June. They’ll hit the road in support of the record on a tour with Jones’ former band Killswitch Engage kicking off Friday in Pittsburgh.

Usher, Gunna and Lil Baby join the Super Bowl weekend entertainment lineup

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

More stars are lining up to perform during Super Bowl Weekend including Usher, Gunna and Lil Baby.

Usher will sing at the invitation-only Chairman’s Party on Saturday, February 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, site of the Super Bowl to be played on Sunday, February 13. The eight-time Grammy winner performed with the Black Eyed Peas during the Super Bowl 45 halftime show in 2011.

Gunna, whose new album, DS4Ever, debuted last week at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, will hit the stage with Lil Baby at the DirecTV/Maxim party on Friday, February 11 at City Market LA.

As previously reported, Drake will headline the h.wood Group “Homecoming” party on February 12 at the Pacific Design Center. The Champagne Papi will perform one night after his mentor, Lil Wayne, who signed him to the Young Money Entertainment label in 2009, headlines Shaquille O’Neal‘s “Shaq’s Fun House” party on February 11 at the Shrine Auditorium.

The shows by Usher, Gunna, Lil Baby, Drake and Lil Wayne will lead up to the main event, Super Bowl 56, featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige performing for the first time together during halftime.

Bono clarifies comment about not liking his own voice, talks Oscars: “We want to win!”

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Last week, U2‘s Bono made headlines by saying on a podcast that he feels “embarrassed” and “cringe” at the sound of his voice on the radio. But now he’s clarified that it’s not that he doesn’t like his voice — he just doesn’t like how it sounds on the band’s early records.

Speaking to Variety, Bono explains, “I’m used to those songs live. I love the recordings, as far as [the band] is concerned. But when I hear my voice, I just hear the fragility of it.”

He continues, “Live, when it happens, the songs are singing you. It’s the most incredible, miraculous thing. And something like ‘Pride (In the Name of Love),’ which I find particularly excruciating when I hear it [on record]…I sing that on stage and I sing it for everybody. Something is going on there that I have very little to do with.”

However, guitarist Edge disagrees, telling Variety, “I love Bono’s singing on those early records. The vulnerability is part of it.”

Bono and Edge also discuss the fact that they’re shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for “Your Song Saved My Life,” which they wrote for the animated film Sing 2. Their competition includes tracks by Billie Eilish, Van Morrison and Beyonce, which Edge says are “maybe the best array of original songs in the last five years.”

“Whoever wins I think will be a worthy winner — and I hope it’s us. But it’s going to be hard to even get nominated, I think,” notes the guitarist. But Bono insists, “We want to win! We don’t want to come in second. All those people who appreciate songwriting, and the truth behind it, the truth behind the tale, I hope they’re gonna show up for us.”

Oscar nominations will be announced February 8.

ABC News celebrates Black History Month with Halle Berry and more Black female stars; Lisa Raye McCoy reveals she suffered an identity crisis from her breakout role

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

ABC News will broadcast two primetime specials to celebrate Black History Month in February.

As part of the Soul of a Nation series, Halle Berry, Tessa Thompson, Debbie Allen, and more will be featured in Screen Queens Rising airing Thursday, February 3 at 8 p.m. The special will explore how Black actresses are making progress in Hollywood.

One hour later, X/onerated – The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice, will present the first interview with Muhammad Abdul Aziz, who was wrongfully convicted of Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965

Also for Black History Month, Good Morning America will feature a series about Black financial literacy. World News Tonight with David Muir will pay tribute to Black veterans, healthcare workers, teachers, and politicians within its “America Strong” segments. Nightline will take an intimate look at the first police academy at a historically Black college and university, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos will examine the impact of changes to voting rights legislation across the country.

In other news, LisaRaye McCoy reveals she suffered an “identity crisis” following her breakout role as a stripper in the 1998 film, The Players Club, starring Ice Cube, who was also the writer and director. “I felt like I had to have the long hair and look like my character, Diamond, in order to be recognized,” she told Page Six.

“Players Club put me on the map… it made me a bonafide sex symbol, and when you are a sex symbol people think that you’re sexy all the time, and that stigma follows you,” she added. LisaRaye currently stars in A House Divided on ALLBLK.

Finally, Variety reports that Showtime has canceled Black Monday after three seasons. Don Cheadle and Regina Hall starred in the series about Wall Street traders in the 1980s.

Sean Penn says “cowardly genes” lead some men into “surrendering their jeans” for skirts

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Sean Penn is already famous for speaking his mind, and he’s apparently done so again, while promoting his new film Flag Day.

“I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminized,” the actor and activist, 61, told the UK-based publication The i.

Admitting he’s “frustrated with the world,” Penn explained, “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women is anything to do with masculinity, or ever did. But I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them.”

While some in Hollywood might backpedal in a subsequent chance to speak to the media, the Licorice Pizza supporting player attempted to explain his comments by telling the UK’s The Independent, “There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.”

He added, “I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them.”

The comments left the multiple Oscar nominee’s 30-year-old daughter Dylan, his co-star in Flag Day, “quiet, staring into space,” the interviewer noted.

Hear a clip of Jimi Hendrix’s final performance, from new documentary ‘Ronnie’s’

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Two days before his death — September 16, 1970 — Jimi Hendrix showed up unannounced at famed London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s and got onstage with Eric Burdon and War. Now we’re able to hear that performance — his last one ever — in a new documentary called Ronnie‘s.

The doc tells the history of saxophonist Ronnie Scott and his club, which opened in 1959 and became one of the most famous musical venues in London. The film features previously unseen and unheard performances by music icons like Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as rockers like Van Morrison.

The audio from a bootleg tape of the Hendrix performance, as well as interviews with the people who were there that night, are also included. As War guitarist Howard E. Scott relates in a clip from the film, that night at Ronnie’s, the band has started playing a blues cover called “Mother Earth” when he saw Jimi coming towards the stage, guitar in hand.

“Jimi lit into a guitar solo, I mean, me and Jimi were just cuttin’ the place up, we were tearin’ it up, just me and him, back and forth, back and forth…great night,” Scott recalls. “The next night, we got word that after the set, Jimi had died. It was a terrible, terrible thought right then, that I was the last guitarist to play with him.”

You can watch an excerpt from the movie that includes the audio at Rolling Stone. Ronnie’s opens in select theaters and on-demand on February 11.

He “loved with everything he had” — Bob Saget’s daughter Lara posts tribute to her dad

January 28, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Bob Saget‘s daughter Lara remembered her late dad in a tribute she shared on social media.

In a letter addressed to “anyone afraid to love” she posted Thursday on Instagram, Lara wrote that “unconditional love is the greatest of gifts.”

“My dad loved with everything he had. He had so many reasons to be scared to love,” she said. “Instead of being scared, he loved more. I am beyond grateful to receive and to give that love. Love completely and be kind. Of all the lessons he taught me, these feel the biggest.”

The heartwarming message was shared alongside a photo of Lara on a set as a kid, with her face pressed up against her dad’s as she grabs his shirt.

Lara is one of three daughters Saget shared with ex-wife Sherri Kramer; she has an older sister, Aubrey, and a younger sister, Jennifer.

Kelly Rizzo, the Full House alum’s widow, responded in the comments section of Lara’s post by writing, “I love you forever, Lara.”

Rizzo opened up about Saget’s death on January 9 at the age of 65, in a recent interview with Good Morning America. Rizzo said the comedian had “the biggest heart.”

“He just wanted to spread love and laughter, and he did it so amazingly, and I’m just so proud of him because he truly brought people together,” she told GMA.

Rizzo, who married Saget in 2018 after three years of dating, added: “He was just so wonderful, and I was just so honored to be his wife and to be able to be a part of it and bring him any bit of happiness that I could because he deserved it so much.”

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