(NEW YORK) — Former GOP vice president candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will run for Alaska’s at-large Congress seat vacated by the late Rep. Don Young, she announced on her Facebook page Friday.
“Today I’m announcing my candidacy for the U.S. House seat representing Alaska,” Palin wrote. “Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years.”
Young died on March 18 at 88 years old after losing consciousness on a flight to Seattle returning home to Alaska. He was the “dean of the House” as the longest-serving representative.
Tiffany Montemayor, public relations manager at the Alaska Division of Elections, confirmed to ABC News that Palin had filed to run on Friday afternoon. The deadline to file was 5 p.m. Friday. The primary will be held June 11 with the special election Aug. 16.
Palin, 58, resigned as governor in 2009, but helped mainstream the populist strain of GOP politics later embraced by former President Donald Trump.
“America is at a tipping point. As I’ve watched the far left destroy the country, I knew I had to step up and join the fight,” Palin wrote. “The people of the great State of Alaska, like others all over the country, are struggling with out-of-control inflation, empty shelves, and gas prices that are among the highest in the world.”
She continued, “We need energy security for this country, and Alaska can help provide that — but only if the federal government gets out of the way and lets the free market do what it does best.”
She was a surprise choice as running mate for the late Sen. John McCain when he ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008.
Palin has stayed in the public eye in the 13 years since she stepped down as governor though she hasn’t run for office since then. She released two books, “Going Rogue” and “America by Heart,” appeared for years as a political commentator on Fox News and starred on the TLC reality series “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” She was also a contestant on Fox’s “The Masked Singer” in 2020.
She was in the news last month when a judge in New York tossed a libel lawsuit she had filed against The New York Times in 2017 saying the newspaper deliberately ruined her burgeoning career as a political commentator and consultant by publishing an erroneous editorial. The judge said she had not proven “actual malice” on behalf of the paper. He allowed the jury to still reach a verdict, but they also ruled in favor of the newspaper.
ABC News’ Ben Siegel and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
Miley Cyrus has canceled a Grammy night performance because she’s tested positive for COVID-19.
“Traveling around the world, playin for a 100,000 people a night & meeting hundreds of fans a day, the chances of getting Covid are pretty high,” Miley tweeted. “I have Covid now but it was definitely worth it.”
She then announced that she’s canceled her scheduled performance at Steven Tyler‘s Grammy Awards Viewing Party in LA, which will benefit Janie’s Fund, a charity that provides protection and counseling for young female victims of abuse. It’s named after Tyler’s 1989 hit with Aerosmith, “Janie’s Got a Gun.”
“Unfortunately because of this I’m missing out on Janie’s Fund which sucks because it’s a charity that’s super important to me & my friend Steven Tyler,” Miley tweeted. “I am feeling fine so don’t worry about me! Sorry Steven! We’ll have to ‘Walk This Way’ another time!”
On Friday, Miley released her live album, ATTENTION.
If you want your relationship to last, get a hobby, and explore it together!
That advice comes from psychologist Dr. Diana Kirschner. She says a lot of research shows that shared activities tend to make couples happier.
First, because they bring newness to a relationship, and keep boredom from setting in. Plus, new experiences activate the brain’s reward system, so we’re flooded with chemicals that promote bonding.
And Dr. Kirschner says your relationship can get a boost from just about any activity. For example: One of her counseling patients agreed to take up beekeeping with his wife. He says he was nervous about owning 24-thousand bees. But after he and his wife set up the hives in their yard, and extracted honey for the first time, he says he felt amazed at what they’d accomplished. Plus, it gave the couple something to talk and laugh about, while creating new memories together.
Just one thing: Dr. Kirschner says to get the biggest boost from a shared hobby, it needs to be one you both enjoy. Because if you enjoy bowling, for example – but your partner can only roll gutter balls – then resentment is going to build up, which can trigger distance in the relationship.
That’s why Dr. Kirschner recommends trying something that’s new to both of you.
But if you do try to introduce your partner to your favorite hobby, she says introduce it to them slowly, and praise your partner for making the effort. Just remember: The point isn’t to convert your partner into a master fisherman, or a sewing champion. It’s more about spending time together, and bringing your relationship closer.
If you feel groggy and brain-foggy every morning, your biological clock might be out of whack.
The solution: Go camping! It can reset your internal clock in just 2 days.
Dr. Kenneth Wright is director of the Sleep Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder. And he says we’re biologically wired to go to bed about 2 hours earlier than we typically do… because we’re artificially extending daylight hours with indoor lights, and glowing smartphones, computers and TVs. Which throws off our body clock, disrupts our sleep, and leaves us drowsy in the morning.
But a recent study found that a camping trip reset the biological clocks of study volunteers. Within a couple of days, they were falling asleep and waking up two-and-a-half hours earlier than normal. Plus, levels of the sleep hormone melatonin began to spike right after sundown – bringing their sleep-wake schedule more in line with natural daylight and darkness.
In fact, even camping for a weekend raised people’s melatonin levels by 69%.
It’s all about doing what farmers normally do: Up with the sunrise, and head for bed at sunset.
Some of the things we do daily are NOT helping us stay mentally sharp. In fact, although it may sound harsh, scientists say, these things are actually making us dumber! That’s according to Nicholas Carr, who wrote the book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. So, here’s what’s dumbing us down:
Email! University of California researchers found that constantly checking email stresses us out, and reduces our ability to concentrate. The good news is: All we have to do to get smarter is to cut back. Because test subjects who limited their emailing to, say, a couple of specific times a day had lower blood pressure and better memory recall.
Eating sugar. We ingest about 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup a year. And researchers at UCLA say that steady sugar consumption slows the brain, and reduces memory and our ability to learn in as little as six weeks.
Our smartphones, which allow chronic, relentless multitasking. Brain expert Dr. Sandy Chapman says our phones keep us permanently distracted and that means we’re less able to absorb what we see, hear, and read.
We’re only as smart as the TV we watch. A study found that people did worse on tests after reading a story about a stupid person. Researchers concluded that, what we consume mentally, directly affects our behavior. Which means, watching mindless shows may be wasting away our brainpower.
City living. A huge experiment at the University of Michigan found that people who walked through the city had learning problems, poor focus, and worse memory, compared to those who walked through a park. It’s partly because of increasing distractions, like traffic, lights and sirens. And partly due to air pollution from car exhaust, secondhand smoke, and factory emissions. Researchers at Columbia University found that the more air pollution children are exposed to, the lower their IQs.
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans on Capitol Hill appeared frustrated with the weeklong controversy sparked by Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who made unsubstantiated claims in a recent interview that some of his colleagues invited him to sex parties and used cocaine.
“It’s pretty clear to me that Madison must have a far more active social life than any other member of Congress that I’m aware of,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said Friday on Capitol Hill. “What he’s saying can’t possibly be true.”
The 26-year-old freshman Republican lawmaker from North Carolina earlier this month claimed that he had been invited to sex parties by colleagues and had witnessed representatives using cocaine in front of him.
“I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve always looked up to through my life, always paid attention to politics, guys that, you know — then all of the sudden you get invited to, like, ‘Oh hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes. You should come,’ he said. “And I’m like, ‘What? What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy,” Cawthorn said during a podcast interview with the “Warrior Poet Society.”
He had been asked by the podcast host if his experience in Washington as a freshman lawmaker comported with the dark drama depicted in Netflix’s “House of Cards,” the story of an ambitious lawmaker’s murderous and cutthroat climb to the presidency.
Cawthorn continued on the podcast: “Or the fact that, you know, there’s some of the people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it’s like, this is wild.”
Cawthorn’s remarks sparked fury among his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill this week, who angrily confronted the issue during a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday. At this meeting, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy pledged to speak to Cawthorn about the racy remarks.
On Wednesday, Cawthorn was hauled into McCarthy’s office to explain himself.
The meeting, which lasted 30 minutes, was attended by Cawthorn, McCarthy, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise and GOP Rep. Mike Johnson, who had been assigned to mentor the freshman lawmaker last year.
McCarthy told reporters following the meeting that Cawthorn “did not tell the truth” and that he had admitted to exaggerating his claims. McCarthy said he told Cawthorn to change his behavior, otherwise there would be consequences.
“This is unacceptable. There’s no evidence to this,” McCarthy said. “That’s not becoming of a congressman. He did not tell the truth.”
“In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in, he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away and tells me that he doesn’t know what cocaine is basically,” McCarthy said.
“The Constitution gives you the age when you could serve in Congress. But when you’re in Congress, you should respect the institution and you should focus on the work that you should do,” McCarthy said.
He said he told Cawthorn that he had to “earn his trust” back, or else he could lose his committee assignments or face other punishment.
“He’s got a lot of members very upset,” McCarthy said, adding, “You can’t make statements like that, as a member of Congress; it affects everybody else and the country as a whole.”
A source familiar with details of the meeting with Republican leadership said Cawthorn clarified that multiple individuals were not involved with the sex parties, but that he was invited to a sex party by one colleague. When he was pressed to provide a name, Cawthorn refused and “backpedaled” his claims.
Politico first reported details of the meeting.
During his remarks to reporters, McCarthy pointed to other transgressions the young lawmaker had committed in recent months, including driving with a suspended license, inviting a congressional candidate on the House floor without permission and then lying about it and referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “thug.”
Cawthorn’s office did not return multiple requests for comment to ABC News, nor has Cawthorn provided proof to back up his claims.
Sources familiar with the meeting told ABC News that the Republican leaders asked Cawthorn to issue a public apology and clarify his remarks.
Cawthorn has not done so, but he did send a letter to constituents and even issued a new campaign ad, in which he defiantly said, “I will never bow to the mob.”
“There are many who despise the great work we’re doing to represent western North Carolina, but I promise, I will stay focused on the work that still needs to be done in Washington for my beautiful district,” Cawthorn said.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who appeared visibly frustrated with Cawthorn during an interview with ABC News on Friday, called the allegations “irresponsible.”
“If you say something like that, you corroborate that with other people,” Nehls said. “Listen, we all make mistakes in our lives.”
Rep. Don Bacon, a veteran GOP lawmaker from Nebraska, told ABC News that Cawthorn’s recent comments have reflected poorly on Congress as an institution.
“Allegations like that, if they’re not true, hurt the whole institution,” Bacon said. “I think the view of the conference is, if they’re true, name names.”
“Congress has got a low favorable rating, we’ve got to do better than this,” he said.
Both of North Carolina’s Republican senators — Richard Burr and Thom Tillis — said they won’t back Cawthorn in his upcoming primary race.
“On any given day, he’s an embarrassment,” Burr told reporters.
Democrats also pounced on the controversy.
“Not sure why Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn’s alleged revelations about their party,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted. “One of their members is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they’ve been pretty OK w/ that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump.”
It’s been a dizzying week for Cawthorn, who is thought to have ambitions for higher office after unexpectedly winning a seat in Congress vacated by former GOP Rep. Mark Meadows, who left to serve as former president Donald Trump’s chief of staff at the White House.
Cawthorn has embraced Trump since taking office — saying he has called him up for advice in the last year.
The former president is clearly still on his side.
On Friday, Trump announced Cawthorn would be a guest at his rally in North Carolina next weekend.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the legendary Swedish pop group ABBA, special screenings of a digitally remastered version of the 1977 film ABBA: The Movie will be held on May 12 and May 14 at over 400 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
The film stars ABBA’s four members — Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog — and captures the band during their 1977 tour of Australia. ABBA: The Movie was directed by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström, whose credits also include My Life as a Dog, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Chocolat.
The flick captures ABBA performing and backstage during the trek, and also features a lighthearted fictional subplot focusing on a naïve radio DJ who struggles to score an interview with the famous group.
Among the songs ABBA performs in full during the film are “Dancing Queen,” “Tiger” and “Name of the Game.”
Tickets for the ABBA: The Movie -– Fan Event screenings go on sale this Wednesday, April 6, at 9 a.m. ET at ABBAMovie.com.
“This will be such a fun event for fans to come together and experience ABBA on the big screen for the first time since the 1977 release,” says Trafalgar Releasing executive Kymberli Frueh. “We hope everyone will dig deep into their closets to find vintage 70s outfits to wear in celebration with us!”
The film event is scheduled just a couple of weeks before the May 27 premiere of ABBA Voyage, the concert experience featuring a performance by digital avatars of the band’s four members taking place at the specially built ABBA Arena at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
It’s been almost 10 years since Patti Smith released her most recent studio album — 2012’s Banga — but the legendary singer/songwriter known as the “Godmother of Punk” has now revealed that she’s planning to make another one…and it may be her last.
In a new article published in U.K. newspaper The Guardian, Smith answered a variety of questions submitted by fans, including if she was planning a follow-up to Banga.
“I do have plans and I’ve written a lot of songs,” Patti said. “I’d like to do one more album and my record company, Columbia, has very generously left the door open.”
Another fan asked Smith to name her favorite album, and she chose Banga.
Patti explained, “‘Constantine’s Dream,’ the long improvised piece at the end, touched a lot of things that concern me — art, the future of mankind, climate change, the horrors done to our indigenous people, and love.”
She added, “I love the cover, which was shot on the fly by my friend Stephen Sebring. That record feels like me, like [my 1975 debut album] Horses feels like me.”
Besides her music, Smith’s an acclaimed poet and author. Asked about her unrealized dreams, she said, “There’s nothing I love more than books. I’ve written some and I’m really happy with them but I just want to write at least one that I feel deserves to be in the canon of books to endure. I basically want to write something as good as Pinocchio and, yes, I’ve started it.”
Smith has a variety of concerts lined up for 2022, with her next shows scheduled for May 6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and May 7 in Austin, Texas. Check out her full itinerary at PattiSmith.net.
(WASHINGTON) — New cars in the U.S. will need to meet stricter fuel economy standards, the Biden administration announced Friday.
The rule will require passenger cars, trucks and vans produced for the model year 2026 to average 49 miles per gallon, the Department of Transportation said. It will also increase fuel efficiency 8% annually for model years 2024-2025 and 10% annually for the model year 2026.
“Starting in model two-year 2024, when these standards take effect, Americans buying a new vehicle will spend less on gas than they would have if we hadn’t taken this step,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a press conference at the agency’s headquarters Friday.
The administration says the new requirements will reduce fuel use by more than 200 billion gallons through 2050, and estimates it will prevent 5.5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere between now and 2050.
“These vehicles will be better for the environment, safer than ever, and cost less to fuel over their lifetimes,” added Dr. Steven Cliff, the deputy administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The move comes amid high gas prices across the country. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he was ordering the release of roughly 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve over the next six months to reduce energy and gas prices.
Ford Motor Company applauded the announcement in a statement saying it’s “an important step toward achieving our shared national goals.”
