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NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returns to Earth after record-breaking spaceflight

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(DZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakstan) — NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth Wednesday, after spending a record-breaking 355 days in low-Earth orbit. Vande Hei shared a spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts as tensions between the Russia and the U.S. continue amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Vande Hei returned in a Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, making a parachute-assisted landing at 7:28 a.m. in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The trio had departed the International Space Station at 3:21 a.m. ET.

Vande Hei broke the record for the longest spaceflight by a NASA astronaut by 15 days. The record was previously held by retired astronaut Scott Kelly.

On this spaceflight, Vande Hei completed 5,680 orbits of the Earth and a journey of more than 150 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 312 trips to the Moon and back, according to NASA.

This trip gave Vande Hei a lifetime total of 523 days in space.

“Mark’s mission is not only record-breaking, but also paving the way for future human explorers on the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release. “Our astronauts make incredible sacrifices in the name of science, exploration, and cutting-edge technology development, not least among them time away from loved ones.”

Nelson added: “NASA and the nation are proud to welcome Mark home and grateful for his incredible contributions throughout his year-long stay on the International Space Station.”

According to NASA, Vande Hei contributed to dozens of studies from the hundreds executed during his mission, including six science investigations supported by NASA’s Human Research Program.

As NASA plans to return to the Moon, under the Artemis program, and prepares for the exploration of Mars, the agency said Vande Hei’s extended mission will provide researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans.

After the crew goes through post-landing medical checks, they will be flown to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, on Russian helicopters. Vande Hei will then board a NASA plane to Cologne, Germany, for refueling, prior to his return home.

Shkaplerov and Dubrov will be flown home to Star City, Russia, on a Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft.

Miranda Lambert’s favorite items from her Idyllwind brand

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

ABC

It’s safe to say that Miranda Lambert is a fan of all the clothes and accessories available through her fashion line, Idyllwind, but even she has a few personal favorites.

Miranda has called attention to some of her favorite items in the Idyllwind closet that covers many of the fashion bases. One of her top selections is a denim skirt with faux suede lace patchwork, along with a sassy black tank top displaying the phrase “Girl Grit” in gold lettering.

It should come as no surprise that the country queen has selected multiple cowgirl boots among her favorite picks, including a couple pairs of snake skin boots, along with embroidered leather boots ranging from Sanded Sky print to Revenge Tan.

Miranda’s Favorites range in retail price from $34.50 – $229.50.

The multi-award winning country star launched Idyllwind in 2018. “It is a true picture of everything that I am about – built for the everyday girl who is also a bada**! A brand based on loving who you are – being who you are – being comfortable in your skin – and celebrating that at whatever age or size,” she describes in a statement.

Idyllwind products are available online and at Boot Barn.

Machine Gun Kelly talks tripping in the jungle on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Ah, the life of a rock star. Studio sessions, parties, tripping in the jungle on sacred hallucinogens…

Appearing Tuesday night on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Machine Gun Kelly shared his perspective on a visit he and fiancée Megan Fox paid to Costa Rica, during which they both tried ayahuasca [ah’-yuh-WAH-skuh], a plant-based hallucinogen used for millennia by indigenous peoples there.

While Jimmy Kimmel reminded Kelly that Fox, while visiting the show last summer, described the experience as “a trip to hell,” Kelly said his experience was much different — including how much of the drug he took.

Kelly says the shaman leading the ritual looked at him and declared he had a “big shadow of darkness” behind him, adding, “You need more.” As in four cups of ayahuasca, where everyone else only drank one. And this apparently went on for three consecutive nights. At one point, Kelly said he saw something that “looked like gray sand, coming from my body,” which the shaman appeared to suck out of him and then spat away.

“All jokes aside, it was one of the most important things that happened to me in my life,” Kelly said, more soberly.

As for Fox, Kelly said her first night was “rainbows and unicorns,” but her second was so intense that she skipped the third. “We were exorcising some things out of ourselves,” Kelly said.

Kelly also talked a bit about how he and Pete Davidson — who appears on MGK’s latest album, Mainstream Sellout — go way back, as well as meeting a very young Zendaya backstage during his first appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2012.

Mainstream Sellout dropped last Friday. Kelly will support the album with a summer tour that kicks off June 8, featuring Travis Barker, Avril Lavigne, Blackbear and others.

Christine McVie says she’s releasing new solo album, ‘Songbird,’ featuring updated versions of her hits

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboardist Christine McVie has revealed that she has a new solo project that will be released in the coming months and will feature reworked versions of her best-known songs.

During an interview this past week with Take That singer Gary Barlow on his BBC radio program We Write the Songs, McVie announced that she’s “just finished an album,” called Songbird, that’s due out in June.

She described the record as “a compilation of my biggest hits, but they’ve all been produced again by [acclaimed British producer] Glyn Johns,” adding that the tracks feature strings arranged by Grammy-winning composer and arranger Vince Mendoza, who previously has worked with Joni Mitchell, Sting, Chaka Khan and many others.

Christine noted that among the songs on the album is a “fantastic version” of her 1977 Fleetwood Mac ballad “Songbird,” which she said has been recut “with a complete string orchestra and it sounds beautiful.”

She also pointed out the the new recordings “sound completely different” from her original versions.

Asked whether she might schedule some concerts in support of the upcoming album, the 78-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer replied, “That I daren’t comment on yet! I’m very cagey about things like that.”

Christine’s last new music project was her 2017 collaborative album with Lindsey Buckingham, which was simply titled Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie.

ABC News special explores mental health crisis among youth amid COVID-19

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, mental health challenges still impact youth.

But in a new one-hour ABC News primetime special anchored by Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said children have struggled with mental health long before the pandemic.

“The pandemic’s been more challenging for some children,” Murthy told ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. “If we wanna address this, we’ve got to listen to kids.”

In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics found “soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents, and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Two months later, Murthy issued an advisory on the youth mental health crisis, emphasizing that mental health challenges are present among children and young adults.

To help young people heal, Murthy has been doing listening tours with youth across the country.

In the ABC News primetime special “24 Months That Changed the World,” Ashton sits down with Murthy and kids at Ida B. Wells Middle School. in Washington, D.C.

“I felt like that little kid in me disappeared and I started worrying about stress,” said Daylan Joya, a student at Ida B. Wells Middle School.

Added student Machi Brooks: “Don’t just treat us like, ‘Oh, you’re a child.’ Treat us like what we’ve been through is as equal to what you’ve been through.”

At a high school in Mason, Ohio, the Hope Squad was created to help students with their mental health.

“Tons of people needed help during the pandemic,” Kaya Rossey, a member of William Mason High School’s Hope Squad, told ABC News.

In one exercise, students role-played how to handle self-harming behavior when they spot it.

Dr. Alok Patel, a physician at Stanford Children’s Health and ABC News contributor, said a “silver lining” of the pandemic is that it’s opened the conversation on mental health.

“One silver lining that has come is the amount of discussion and awareness that has happened to talk about their own mental health struggles,” said Patel.

“24 Months That Changed the World” airs on a special edition of 20/20 on Wednesday, March 30, on ABC. It will air the next day on Hulu.

“Shocked and stunned” and “still triggered” Amy Schumer unpacks Oscars slap

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

One of Sunday night’s Oscars hosts, Amy Schumer, has broken her silence about the so-called “slap heard ’round the world.”

“Still triggered and traumatized,” she said on Instagram. “I love my friend @chrisrock and believe he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave an Oscar to his friend @questlove and the whole thing was so disturbing.”

Schumer continued, “So much pain in @willsmith.”

The stand-up and actress added, “I’m still in shock and stunned and sad. Im proud of myself and my cohosts. But yeah. Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”

In case you’ve been under a rock for the past 48 hours, Will Smith stormed the stage, slapped, and then cursed Chris Rock after he took a swipe at Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, likening her close-cropped hair to Demi Moore‘s Navy SEAL bald cut in G.I. Jane. Pinkett-Smith shaved her head because she suffers from hair loss as a result of alopecia.

After the incident, Smith tearfully collected his Best Actor trophy for King Richard.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday it “condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show.” The organization further announced it has “officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”

“I’m heading to Vegas y’all!”: Miranda Lambert unfurls plans for her Velvet Rodeo Las Vegas residency

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Miranda Lambert is the newest country star signing on for a residency in Las Vegas.

The singer announced her Velvet Rodeo residency on Wednesday. The 24-date string of shows kicks off September 23, and will take place at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood.

By the time the residency begins, Miranda will have added another album to her collection of hits. Palomino, featuring her current single “If I Was a Cowboy,” is due out at the end of April. The singer also has a large variety of past songs to choose from: Her catalog ranges from rough and rowdy classics like “White Liar” and “Gunpowder & Lead” to her more recent, introspective acoustic project, The Marfa Tapes.

There’s also some rock ‘n’ roll in the mix, as Miranda joined forces with Elle King last year for the hit song “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).”

Miranda’s Vegas shows start with dates on September 23, 24, 28 and 30. She’ll return October 1, 5, 7, 8, followed by a set of dates on November 26, 27 and 30 and December 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11.

Tickets go on sale April 7, but members of the singer’s RanFans fan club can access a special pre-sale starting April 1.

Other country acts setting up camp in Vegas this year include Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.

Trans woman who was reported missing found in Texas

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Joao “Julia” da Silva, a 23-year-old trans woman, was found in Texas on Tuesday after she was last seen by family members leaving her residence in North Bay Village, Florida, on March 24.

North Bay Village police are working with local authorities and family members to coordinate her return. The investigation into her disappearance remains ongoing.

Authorities said da Silva frequents the Miami, Miami Beach and Wilton Manors LGBTQ communities. She was seen in video surveillance at a gas station on Monday night in the South Miami area near Homestead.

“With this video footage, what concerns us is that she did appear disoriented,” said Paul Battaglia, the LGBT liaison officer at the North Bay Village Police Department. “She also did appear alone, which is unusual for her.”

Transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violence, according to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

Battaglia said the department is taking the heightened risks against this population into account.

“We understand the statistics. They’re are at a higher probability for violence, self-harm,” he said. “So we did ask those pertinent questions at the initial intake. She does not suffer from any previous mental health history, no depression, no self-harm, because that’s very important to us.”

“That’s all we want, to make sure she is OK,” da Silva’s best friend, Tatiana, told ABC-affiliate WPLG-TV when da Silva was missing. Da Silva’s mother had reportedly flown in from Japan to help with the search.

If anyone has information on da Silva’s whereabouts, the North Bay Village Police Department urges them to reach out to the agency at (305)758-2626.

FTC sues Intuit TurboTax’s ‘free’ filing campaign

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to file their taxes ahead of Tax Day, the Federal Trade Commission has slapped a lawsuit against a company behind a popular tax filing software.

The FTC announced on Tuesday it is suing Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, over what it calls “bogus advertisements” that mislead taxpayers into believing they can file their taxes for free with the software.

The commission says that in reality, most customers can’t use TurboTax’s free products “because it is not available to millions of taxpayers, such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income.”

The FTC points out that in 2020 alone, approximately two-thirds of tax filers weren’t eligible to use the company’s free products.

With the deadline for filing taxes just around the corner — Tax Day is April 18 — the FTC has also filed a complaint in federal district court asking that Intuit cease its “deceptive advertising” immediately.

GOP’s Susan Collins to vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court

March 30, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has pledged to support Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden at least one Republican vote for his nominee.

While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s high court nominee on their own, with Collin’s vote, the White House meets its goal of securing at least some Republican support and shoring up the court’s credibility.

The New York Times first reported the development.

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