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What to know about ‘flurona’

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In the midst of a new pandemic surge, another seemingly new ailment is now grabbing headlines: flurona.

Despite the catchy name, “flurona” is not new. It is a term coined to describe what happens when a person tests positive for the flu and COVID-19 at the same time.

“Both are common, so it is not unexpected that some people would be infected at the same time,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Flurona is not a new disease, experts stress, nor is it a new variant of COVID-19. The flu virus and COVID-19 virus are from two very different virus families. Scientists are not concerned about the two viruses mixing to create a new virus.

There are many different types of viruses that are capable of infecting people. Viruses that cause the flu and COVID-19 are two examples, but there’s also HIV, the chicken pox virus, rabies virus, the common cold and many others.

It has always been possible for one person to be infected with two or more different viruses at once. And with flu season coinciding with a new COVID-19 surge, there’s a greater chances that a handful of people will test positive for both viruses at the same time.

Doctors call these instances co-infections. Though uncommon, last year’s flu season also saw a handful of cases of flu and COVID-19 in the same person at the same time.

“It has not been a big issue for us because of the low levels of influenza circulating in the community,” Dr. Jonathan Grein, director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told the hospital’s website. Cedars-Sinai said it had recently seen one mild case of the co-infection.

“It’s obviously not good to be infected with two viruses rather than one, but there’s no clear indication that this is a particularly bad combination,” Grein added.

With the flu and COVID circulating at the same time, people can reduce the risk of becoming severely ill with either virus by getting vaccinated against the flu and COVID, wearing a mask in crowded spaces and washing your hands.

Two ticketholders win Powerball jackpot of $632.6 million — seventh largest in game’s history

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Two ticketholders win Powerball jackpot of 2.6 million — seventh largest in game’s history

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Two tickets sold in California and Wisconsin were the lucky winners of the Powerball jackpot on Wednesday night.

Both tickets matched all six numbers in Powerball’s drawing and the winners will split the $632.6 million jackpot — the seventh largest in the American lottery game’s history. The grand prize had climbed beyond earlier estimates of $630 million due to “strong ticket sales,” according to a press release from Powerball.

Each of the winning tickets is worth an annuitized $316.3 million or $225.1 million cash. Both prize options are prior to taxes, according to Powerball.

The winning California ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Sacramento, according to the California State Lottery.

Wednesday night’s drawing was the 40th in the Powerball jackpot run, according to Powerball. The winning numbers were 6, 14, 25, 33, 46 and the Powerball was 17.

The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot was on Oct. 4, 2021, when a single ticket sold in California matched the winning numbers for the $699.8 million grand prize.

According to Powerball, the overall odds of winning a prize are one in 24.9, while the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million. To date, Powerball holds the world record for largest jackpot. The record $1.586 billion grand prize was shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in 2016.

Scoreboard roundup — 1/5/22

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Charlotte 140, Detroit 111
Philadelphia 116, Orlando 106
Houston 114, Washington 111
San Antonio 99, Boston 97
Dallas 99, Golden State 82
Brooklyn 129, Indiana 121
Minnesota 98, Oklahoma City 90
Toronto 117, Milwaukee 111
Utah 115, Denver 109
Atlanta 108, Sacramento 102
Miami 115, Portland 109

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Toronto 4, Edmonton 2
Pittsburgh 5, St. Louis 3
NY Islanders at Vancouver (Postponed)

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Michigan St. 79, Nebraska 67
Iowa St. 51, Texas Tech 47
Houston 83, South Florida 66
Alabama 83, Florida 70
Tennessee 66, Mississippi 60
Villanova 75, Creighton 41
Arizona St. at UCLA (Postponed)

Hey, Katy Perry: Ryan Seacrest says he’s “willing” to babysit Daisy Dove — but is he ready?

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest doesn’t have any children, but he says he’s getting valuable experience by working with Katy Perry, who brings her daughter Daisy Dove to the set. In fact, Ryan predicts that one day, he may actually be capable of being left alone with her.

Speaking to People, Ryan says he’s “practicing” his child care skills with Daisy, who’s 16 months old, so he can be ready if and when Katy ever does decide he’s experienced enough to babysit.

“She’s mentioned the babysitting opportunity, just not officially,” Ryan laughs. “She and Orlando [Bloom] have never officially said, ‘Hey, Ryan, we’re going out tonight. You’re in charge all by yourself.’ But I would be willing.”

“I think she knows that I’m practicing and at the right point, I will be ready to be alone and be a great babysitter or uncle to Daisy as well,” he adds.

Ryan, 47, told WSJ. Magazine last month, “I do want to have kids. But I haven’t even gone down that path, which is nuts at my age. I think in the last year, it’s become clear to me that yes, I do want to do that…. I want to be available and present.”

Katy and Ryan, along with Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, will return for the landmark 20th season of American Idol February 27 on ABC. The three judges and the host recently starred in a hilarious video that imagines what they’d all be doing today if they hadn’t been discovered. As the video imagines it, Luke would be a bartender, Lionel would be an art teacher, Katy would be manning a fireworks stand and Ryan would be hosting bar mitzvahs.

Reba returns to ‘Young Sheldon,’ as she dreams of a mini-reunion of her own beloved sitcom

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Reba McEntire‘s recurring role on Young Sheldon is going strong, as she returns tonight. And while a full-fledged reboot of her own eponymous sitcom has proven elusive, the CBS show could set the stage for a small one.

“Loved working with Annie Potts on Young Sheldon,” Reba told reporters in the fall. “We’ve just gotten through doing an episode and I’m going back in another month to do it again. Rex [Linn] is on his way soon to go back to shoot an episode.”

By all accounts, the Young Sheldon set is a veritable mutual admiration society. Of course, Linn is Reba’s real-life love, and while Potts plays the girlfriend of her ex-husband, Craig T. Nelson, on Young Sheldon, the Designing Women actress couldn’t be fonder of her.

“Hey y’all! Look who’s back!” Potts shared on Instagram this week, along with a shot of the two laughing. “Tune in this Thurs to find out what’s so darn funny… We just LOVE it when @Reba is here!”

Since the Ethel to her Lucy from the Reba sitcom is also on Young Sheldon in an almost-unrelated storyline, the country music superstar dreams of sitcom worlds colliding.

“Melissa Peterman‘s on it,” Reba explains, “so we’re all trying to find a way to get the writers to put Annie Potts, Craig T. Nelson, Melissa Peterman, Rex Linn and myself in one episode.”

“Wouldn’t that be fun?” she beams. “I love Young Sheldon!”

You can check out the episode titled “An Expensive Glitch and a Goof-Off Room” tonight at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Meanwhile, Reba reveals her potential NBC series, an extension of 1991’s Fried Green Tomatoes with the legendary Norman Lear, likely won’t happen.

“Fried Green Tomatoes,” unfortunately, kinda has gone away for right now,” she says.

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A post shared by Annie Potts (@thisisanniepotts)

Selena Gomez talks new music, milestone birthday: “I love growing up”

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

While some people may dread turning 30, Selena Gomez says she’s looking forward to celebrating her milestone birthday on July 22.

Telling People she’s “excited” to turn the big 3-0, Selena declares, “I love growing up. When I was younger, I was scared of it, and I thought by now my life would look so different.”

Now, says Selena, “I’m like, ‘Wow, this is not what I ever expected, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.'”

The Grammy nominee said she has good reason for being enthusiastic about getting older: “I stopped caring about what people have to say, and that’s been wonderful.”

Looking back at how much she’s grown since turning 20, Selena remarked, “A lot has changed for me in a lot of good ways.” One of those good changes, she says, is finally being able to call herself a Grammy nominee after her Revelación album was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album.

“I’m so excited,” she declared. “I couldn’t be more proud.” The Only Murders in the Building star also notes the positive effect the Grammy honor had on her music, which was that it lit a “good fire under my a**.”

Selena, who says she “put my heart and soul” into Revelación, also reveals she is working hard on her next studio effort — although she admits that Grammy nod has now made her “more nervous” about her new work.

Selena did not reveal the title or release date of her upcoming studio album.

Best of ’Billboard’: Foo Fighters set new chart record

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Foo Fighters are kicking off 2022 by setting a new Billboard chart record.

Dave Grohl and company now have a total of 14 top-10 hits on the Rock & Alternative Airplay ranking, which measures radio airplay across rock and alternative formatted stations. That breaks what was previously a three-way tie for the most top-10s on the 12-year-old chart with Twenty One Pilots and Cage the Elephant, who both have 13.

The Foos earned the record thanks to their song “Love Dies Young,” the fourth and current single off the band’s 2021 album, Medicine at Midnight. Each of the record’s previous three singles — “Shame Shame,” “Waiting on a War” and “Making a Fire” — also hit the top 10 on Rock & Alternative Airplay.

In addition to breaking Billboard records, Foo Fighters’ 2022 — or, as one might call it, 202Foo — includes returning to the road in continued support of Medicine at Midnight, as well as the premiere of Studio 666, a new horror-comedy film starring all of the band members.

In related news, it was just announced that the Foos will appear on the upcoming Jim Henson Company series Fraggle Rock: Rock to the Rock, set to premiere January 21 on Apple TV+.

Rod Stewart says a “very, very worthy” Faces reunion album is in the works, and “it’s gonna be good”

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Founding Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood and drummer Kenney Jones both recently revealed that they and singer Rod Stewart had been working on songs for a new album by the band. Now Stewart also has commented about the project.

“It’s very, very worthy,” Stewart tells ABC Audio about how the new material stands up to classic Faces tunes.

Reflecting on his former band’s music, Rod adds, “When you dig out tracks that [are], like, 40 years old or whatever, you suddenly realize, wow, we were good and we did have a different sound, chaotic as it may have been.”

As for the status of the record, Stewart says, “We’re working on it.” He notes that depending on whether his planned 2022 Australian tour takes place, “we’ll have two or three months to work on it. And it’s gonna be good.”

Wood, who joined The Rolling Stones after the Faces’ 1975 breakup, wrapped up a U.S. Stones trek in November, although it’s not been announced if the band will hit the road again in 2022. Stewart, who released a new solo album called The Tears of Hercules in November, is scheduled to launch his Australian tour in March. However, ongoing issues with COVID-19 could derail those plans.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Uncut, Jones shared some more details about the Faces reunion project. According to BANG Showbiz, he told the magazine that the album will feature a “mixture of old and new” material.

“What we’ve decided to do is work on some of the original stuff that we didn’t use,” Kenney explained. “Ronnie and I, in particular, have been working on lots of the old stuff together and we’ve rerecorded a couple of those songs with more of a modern feel.”

‘Women of the Movement’s Adrienne Warren hopes the series hits a nerve with viewers

January 6, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Tonight on ABC, it’s the debut of Women of the Movement — a limited series that tells the true story of Mamie Till-Mobley, and her fight for justice after her 14 year old son Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.

Adrienne Warren stars, and she hopes the series has a big impact on people.

“You get to hopefully look at this story and it humanizes these incidents for you,” she says. “That when you find out that someone’s son is taken from them, or their child is taken from them, that you realize that is not just a person, a picture on the screen, but that’s an empty seat at your kitchen table. That that’s an empty seat when you’re having holidays. That that is someone’s loved one.”

Warren, who plays Till-Mobley, says it’s an important story for people to know, and it’s not just history, it’s happening.

“We must know our history so that we don’t repeat it,” she explains. “And there are women, and mothers, screaming right now for justice for their sons, for their daughters, for their families, and we don’t talk about those families enough.”

Women of the Movement premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Jan. 6 artifacts collected at American History Museum point to organization, planning and violence

January 5, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The early collection of historical artifacts collected by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History documenting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 , includes a flak jacket worn by a journalist when she was attacked and signs with violent rhetoric.

“Off with their heads,” one sign reads, echoing the chilling words chanted by rioters who stormed the Capitol and threatened the lives of lawmakers.

“Those are heavy signs. They clearly took some time to repaint, and someone came with bolts and tools to attach them to street poles. So, they were not walking around carrying those. They wanted them to be someplace where people could see them and presumably thought that they would stay there for a long time,” Claire Jerry, curator of political history at the museum told ABC News, describing the sign and others in the collection with words stenciled and spray-painted on large, thick sheets of metal.

On Jan. 6, ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of events marking one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the continuing fallout for American democracy.

The museum collected several artifacts in the days immediately following the attack. As they often do, especially in the nation’s capital city, they sent out a rapid response team to pick up and preserve discarded material on the National Mall and around the Capitol buildings. Jerry said in some cases, her staff tried to stay ahead of cleaning crews to gather significant material that otherwise might have been lost.

Museum staff says it’s been a challenge to bring in new artifacts this last year, because of COVID-19 restrictions and extensive, ongoing law enforcement investigations. But the team was quick to talk about the historical significance of that day as it related to the nation’s politics, and the 2020 campaign and election.

“This peaceful transfer of presidential authority, the mainstay of the American democracy since 1800, was intentionally interrupted as thousands of rioters, many carrying Trump banners and signs, violently broke through police security and entered the Capitol. This was the first time that the Capitol had been breached on a large scale since the War of 1812 when British troops attacked the city,” museum staff wrote in a press release this week.

Over 700 criminal cases have been brought against rioters and nearly 200 individuals have already pleaded guilty. Dozens of law enforcements officials were injured during the attack, many of them hospitalized and out of work for months.

“The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and on the foundation of the United States’ democratic republic, revealed the fragility of our political system,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s Elizabeth MacMillan director. “As the nation’s flagship history museum, our staff is committed to documenting and, most importantly, preserving this history for future generations to understand how the events of that fraught day unfolded and to track their ongoing impacts.”

Included in the collection is a group of National Guard insignia from units from around the country who responded in days after the attack, as well as a flak jacket worn by a freelance photographer when she was attacked by a female rioter on the Capitol ground the evening of Jan. 6.

The attacker’s knife blade pierced straight through the heavy material of journalist Madeleine Kelly’s jacket. The attack was clearly violent and forceful. Kelly credits the jacket with keeping her safe, if not saving her life.

“We know from video and from photographs that the press was literally attacked. There were stashed cameras, and this is an important story to tell,” Shannon Perich, photography curator, told ABC at the museum. The vest is displayed on a mannequin that is designed to be close to Kelly’s size.

“Her physicality was not threatening, but she was taking photographs and that was threatening. And this is an interesting story to think about the power of photography in that way,” Perich added.

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