Carly Pearce is offering an intimate look into the story of 29: Written in Stone with a special show in Nashville.
On April 6, Carly will take the stage at Marathon Music Works for Inside 29: Written in Stone Live From Music City, an intimate, one-night-only concert where she’ll perform songs off the critically acclaimed album and share the in-depth stories that shaped the songs. The show will be filmed and released later this year.
“I have been lucky enough to connect with y’all in times of heartache and joy, especially with 29,” Carly expresses on Instagram, noting how the songs “lead me to a place of growth and happiness.” The hit singer also hints that there may be a few surprise guests at the show.
Presale tickets are available now and general admission is on sale Friday.
Last week, Carly was named Female Artist of the Year at the ACM Awards where she and duet partner Ashley McBryde performed their top 20 hit featured on 29, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”
FILE photo – Andrea Filigheddu/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A Fox News cameraperson was killed and a correspondent was injured in Ukraine, shortly after the death of a freelance journalist also covering the Russian invasion.
Fox News’ Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, was killed while working alongside Fox News State Department correspondent Benjamin Hall “when incoming fire hit their vehicle outside of Kyiv” on Monday, the network said Tuesday. Zakrzewski had covered stories in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox News.
“Pierre Zakrzewski was an absolute legend at this network, and his loss is devastating,” the network said.
I don’t know what to say. Pierre was as good as they come. Selfless. Brave. Passionate. I’m so sorry this happened to you. pic.twitter.com/IvxlPWGDAl
Hall was hospitalized, according to Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, who asked Monday to “please keep Ben and his family in your prayers.” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby also confirmed he was injured.
“The president of Fox, Jay Wallace, says that everyone always felt an extra sense of reassurance when they arrived on the scene and they saw that Pierre was there. He was a professional, he was a journalist and he was a friend,” Fox News PR said Tuesday.
Shaun Tandon, president of the State Department Correspondents’ Association, said in a Monday statement, “We know Ben for his warmth, good humor and utmost professionalism. We wish Ben a quick recovery and call for utmost efforts to protect journalists who are providing an invaluable service through their coverage in Ukraine.”
This follows the Sunday death of freelance journalist Brent Renaud, which was confirmed by the U.S. State Department. Renaud was in Ukraine to cover the global refugee crisis for a documentary with Sugar23, Time Studios and Day Zero Productions, according to Sugar23.
“As an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, Brent tackled the toughest stories around the world often alongside his brother Craig Renaud,” Time editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal and president and COO of Time and Time Studios Ian Orefice said in a statement. “In recent weeks, Brent was in the region working on a TIME Studios project focused on the global refugee crisis. Our hearts are with all of Brent’s loved ones.”
Photojournalist Juan Arredondo said he was with Renaud when he was killed.
In a video from a hospital bed, Arredondo said, “We crossed the first bridge in Irpin; we were going to film other refugees leaving and we got to a car, somebody offered to take us to the other bridge, and we crossed a checkpoint and they started shooting at us. So, the driver turned around, and they kept shooting. It’s two of us, my friend is Brent Renaud, and he’s been shot and left behind.”
“This kind of attack is totally unacceptable and is a violation of international law,” Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. “Russian forces in Ukraine must stop all violence against journalists and other civilians at once.”
“Two examples of the dangers in covering war,” Kirby, of the Pentagon, said of Hall and Renaud during a Monday press briefing. “This is a war that didn’t need to be fought, to be sure. But just as to be sure, there are journalists from around the world on the ground trying to discover the truth and to show that truth and to tell these important stories.”
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Amid growing concerns about the impact of the pandemic on Americans’ mental health, and the rollout of a new three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline this summer, advocates say local call centers across the nation remain underfunded and understaffed for an expected increase in call volume.
Despite the effort to improve the system, they say, people in crisis could face delays — or might not be able to reach a counselor at all.
On July 16, the Lifeline will transition from its current 10-digit hotline number to the much easier to remember 988, modeled after the 911 emergency number for police and fire.
The 24-hour hotline has been in service since 2005, and in that time has received more than 20 million calls from people looking for help.
“What we’re building on is a proven, existing service that’s shown to reduce emotional distress and suicidality,” Lifeline Executive Director Dr. John Draper told ABC News. “It’s essentially scaling up that service to make sure that we’re going to be able to reach more people and serve them more effectively.”
When possible, calls are received by the nearest crisis center, but if a local center cannot handle them, they get routed to one of several national backup centers that receive federal funding to maintain staffing.
“And the more that happens, the longer people wait. And that’s something you don’t want for people in crisis,” Draper said is the case when there’s not enough money.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which allocates federal funding for the program, estimates a 25% increase in callers to the Lifeline for fiscal year 2022. The 988 number will only be operational for the final three months of that period.
During the first full year of 988 implementation, FY2023, SAMHSA estimates calls received will reach 7.6 million, which is more than double the most recently recorded metrics.
This year, the federal government allocated $282 million through SAMHSA for 988 implementation, an amount stakeholders call “unprecedented.”
The organization has two major goals for supporting the Lifeline crisis center network, according to John Palmieri, acting lead for the 988 and behavioral health crisis team at SAMHSA.
“One of them is making sure that there is that safety-net infrastructure that exists at the national level, so that when individuals call, if for some reason those calls aren’t able to be received at the local level, that there’s a national safety net to support those individuals in crisis,” Palmieri said.
A total of $177 million dollars is dedicated to fund the backup centers with the other $105 million going to states and territories to support local crisis centers.
“We really feel like from the perspective of the individual in crisis, it really is best for them to be connected at the local level to the degree possible, to be better integrated with the local system of care, to provide wraparound services and so on,” Palmieri said.
An internal 2021 survey of local crisis centers in the Lifeline network found that only about 43% were explicitly funded to answer Lifeline calls, according to Draper.
“They were simply volunteering their services because their organization, their agency’s mission, aligned with ours,” Draper said. “And so they would basically borrow staff from other lines of business, who were dedicated to other lines of business, to help answer calls that were unfunded. So that’s the steep hill that we have to climb.”
Since its inception, the Lifeline network has been underfunded, according to Draper. With the transition to a three-digit number looming, even more funding is needed to ensure centers are adequately staffed to accommodate the expected increase in callers.
As it stands, Draper says about 20% of calls that should be answered at the local level are currently being picked up through the national backup network. Even with the national backup network, a SAMHSA report shows that at its current capacity, the Lifeline can only address approximately 85 percent of calls.
Because local crisis centers are funded at the state level, resource allocation and sustainability of funding are inconsistent across state lines.
The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) has been tracking state level legislation around the implementation of 988.
“States are all over the map on this,” said Kitty Purington, senior program director for NASHP. “And I think there are many states who have not really grappled with what sustainability looks like going forward.”
When Congress enacted legislation to designate 988 as the new Lifeline number in 2020, that law included a provision allowing states to place a tax on cell phone bills to support the service. Similar taxes are used to support emergency medical and law enforcement services through 911 call centers.
Few states have enacted legislation to impose these taxes so far. A handful of others have implemented exploratory committees or provided some funding for the rollout of the new number.
“There’s going to be some time to build this out,” Purington said. “And potentially, it’s going to be something that states are going to be doing for years.”
She compared the transition to the implementation of emergency services through 911 call centers.
“People say [911] took like 60 years to really get its footing,” Purington said. “It took decades for people to really understand and have 911 be really the go-to number. And so, this is not going to be like flipping a switch.”
Stakeholders in the mental health field remain optimistic, despite the underfunding of the program. Laurel Stine, senior vice president of public policy at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said, “ultimately, 988 is more than just a number.”
“It is an opportunity to really reimagine the behavioral health crisis response system,” Stine said.
Stine says the vision of an ideal 988 system would include well-resourced crisis centers across the country, the ability to provide follow-up care as needed, mobile mental health crisis response teams and crisis stabilization centers.
“We understand fully that a lot has to occur,” Stine said. “There are states that are well equipped, and have mobile crisis teams and are well-resourced and there’s others that are not. And so the local level of readiness is varied.”
The overall need is pressing.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently sounded the alarm to lawmakers over an increase in suicide attempts among young people during the the pandemic.
And President Joe Biden called mental health a priority in his State of Union address earlier this month, saying, “let’s get all Americans the mental health services they need.”
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The repeatedly delayed Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick will finally buzz the Cannes Film Festival, Variety reports.
The movie was originally set to open July 12, 2019, but the pandemic and other scheduling changes scratched multiple planned theatrical landings. Now it will screen as part of the famed fest’s 75th anniversary installment, which runs from May 17 to May 28 in France.
The movie, from Cruise’s Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski, will finally come to theaters in the States on May 27.
A follow-up to 1986’s blockbuster Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick will center on Cruise’s Naval aviator, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, still feeling the need for speed well after most pilots have retired their wings.
Joining him are Top Gun veteran Val Kilmer, Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, and a cadre of younger fliers including Monica Barbero, and Miles Teller, the latter playing Bradley Bradshaw, the son of Anthony Edward‘s Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Maverick’s bestie who was killed in the first film.
The trial continues for Ed Sheeran, who’s been accused by another singer for plagiarizing “Shape of You.” During the latest hearing, singer Sami Chokri took to the witness stand and claimed he was “robbed” by the Grammy winner.
BBC was present for Tuesday’s proceedings and reports Chokri stated, “I feel like I’ve been robbed by someone I respect, or respected.” He claims Ed sampled his 2015 song “Oh Why” in his “Oh I, oh I” hook and called the similarities “strikingly similar.”
Chokri said when he allegedly approached Sheeran and his team about the similarities in 2017, they belittled him. “All I wanted to do was ask for an explanation. If I’d had one we wouldn’t have had to go through with this rubbish,” he stated.
The singer also said when he took to Facebook to vent on the two songs’ similarities, the Grammy winner’s friend, Jamal Edwards, commented with the looking eyes emoji and later deleted it.
Chokri revealed he sent his EP to Edwards and believes he “played a part in showing [my song] to Ed.”
Jamal, who recently passed away, released a statement prior to his death that claimed, “Even if I was sent a copy, I did not share it with Ed.”
Chokri countered, “Jamal would share music with Ed Sheeran” and added he does “respect” the late entrepreneur.
Ed, along with “Shape of You” co-writers Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac, have denied copying “Oh Why.” Ed said last week if he “had heard ‘Oh Why’ at the time and had referenced it, I would have taken steps to clear it… I want to treat other songwriters fairly.”
The case is ongoing. Chokri is suing for “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement.”
(NEW YORK) — As experts warn of a growing mental health crisis among kids due to the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows the mental health struggles kids faced even prior to the pandemic.
From 2019 to 2020, researchers found a 21% increase in children with behavior or conduct problems, according to the study.
“Our research highlights a critical need to support both children and their caregivers to improve families’ mental and emotional well-being,” Dr. Michael Warren, a co-author of the study, said in a statement. “This includes ensuring access to timely health care services and addressing social determinants of health to support children and families’ overall well-being.”
The study was conducted using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which collects data on 36 separate health-related measures, including preventive health checkups, mental health diagnoses, physical activity and caregiver well-being, according to HHS.
In addition to finding an increase in the diagnosis of mental health conditions, the study also found that children’s physical activity decreased by 18% between 2016 and 2020. In addition, the proportion of kids with unmet health care needs grew by 32%, according to the study.
The study comes on the heels of a warning last year from the U.S. surgeon general of a growing mental health crisis among young people. Organizations representing child psychiatrists, pediatricians and children’s hospitals also declared a national emergency for youth mental health in 2021.
“I’m deeply concerned as a parent and as a doctor that the obstacles this generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate and the impact that’s having on their mental health is devastating,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in testimony before senators in December.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that emergency department visits for suicide attempts among teen girls were up more than 50% at the beginning of the pandemic compared to the same period in 2019.
Dr. Darien Sutton, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and ABC News medical contributor, said parents should realize that mental health conditions, including anxiety, may look different in kids than adults.
In children, anxiety in particular can manifest with irritability, mood changes, changes to interest in activities, and in physical conditions like stomachaches and headaches, according to Sutton.
“The first advice that I give to any parent is to have an open and honest conversation with your child at a level that they can understand,” said Sutton. “It’s important to know that your role in that conversation is to make sure that you validate and support their concerns.”
Sutton said parents should also reach out to their child’s pediatrician if they have concerns, or reach out for support through help lines like The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.
For fans thinking they’ll see Debbie Gibson in concert only in their dreams — think again. The celebrated singer is heading out on tour to mark a milestone 35 years in the music industry.
Debbie is launching a month-long tour named after and in support of her latest album, The Body Remembers. She kicks off her whirlwind 15-stop concert series in Minneapolis on June 1 and will hit cities such as Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Washington D.C., before wrapping in San Diego, California, on June 26.
Tickets to see the “Lost in Your Eyes” singer live in concert are now available to pre-order on her official website.
Debbie released her 10th studio album, The Body Remembers, last August. It was her first effort in 20 years to offer completely original songs, following her 2001 album M.Y.O.B.
She told Billboardupon its release, “The goal was to make an undeniably special, authentic, well-crafted and yet still raw album. I feel great about the fact we found that. I feel like I’ve made an undeniable album.”
Added Debbie, “I’ve lived a lot of life up to this album, and it’s all reflected here. There are chapters and chapters of other songs I’ve written, especially in the last 10 years. I knew that the next time I put something out I wanted it to be a drop-the-mic ‘wow’ moment. I feel like this is that album.”
In addition to singing her new songs on tour, she will also throw it back by performing some of her best-known and biggest hits in honor of her career’s 35th anniversary.
Dave Grohl has gotten to meet and work with most of his heroes over the years, but his interactions with the late David Bowie were among the most memorable.
Speaking to the Australian TV show 7.30, Grohl recalled the first time he ever saw Bowie in person: He was standing in the photo pit at a British festival where they were both performing, with Grohl, of course, lower down the bill.
“I stood in the photo pit and looked at him and it was like seeing an alien,” Grohl says. “You know, it was like seeing a UFO for the first time, like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s real’. That’s something I’ve never seen before.”
After Grohl ended up meeting Bowie and, later, recording a song with him, his admiration for the icon increased.
“Getting to meet him, all of that feeling coming down to Earth, realizing, ‘Oh, my God, what a gentleman!” says the Foo Fighters front man. “‘What a brilliant, sweet, kind, outrageously funny person.'”
“Watching him step in front of a microphone and begin to sing and you realize, ‘Wow, that voice – that’s real, that just comes out of his mouth, that iconic voice,’” Grohl notes. “The great thing about it is that it really humanizes everything. We’re like, ‘Wow, that’s a real person.’ It’s reassuring, but at the same time, you’re like, ‘That’s a hero. That’s not just another person. That’s David Bowie.’”
In the same interview, Grohl also recalls meeting Elton John and Paul McCartney, how he learned to play drums, and more.
A Florida judge has ruled in favor of Bob Saget‘s family: No photos or body camera footage involving the late comedian’s sudden death can be released to media outlets.
The Saget family had sued to block the release of records and photos of Saget’s death earlier this year, arguing that the pain they already felt would be exacerbated if any of it was published.
The family won a permanent injunction on Monday as they continue to mourn the man beloved by many.
Legal expert and trial attorney Tom Porto spoke with ABC’s Good Morning America about the possible reasoning behind the judge’s decision. “This is such a sensitive topic area, that being a death and having photos…you know, the public adoration for Mr. Saget didn’t trump those privacy interests of his family in this scenario,” Porto said.
The Saget family said they’re grateful the judge granted their request to preserve the late actor and comedian’s dignity, as well as their privacy rights.
Just over two months ago, Saget, 65, was found unresponsive in his hotel room hours after performing a stand-up comedy set in Orlando, Florida. The Orange County medical examiner determined that Saget died of a head injury likely sustained in a fall.
Meanwhile, ABC News has obtained the police report of the investigation, featuring interviews with those who had interacted with him prior to his death, and redacted descriptions of the state of his hotel room.
The report also detailed that Saget’s injury to the back of his head was severe enough it “broke the orbital bones at the front of the skull.” That led to a reexamining of his hotel room so investigators could determine what could have caused it.
Police closed the case after not finding anything that contradicted he was injured in an accidental fall.
The new Hulu documentary on the late XXXTentacion has a release date.
Look at Me: XXXTENTACION will hit the streaming service on Friday, June 10. The film will explore how Florida teenager Jahseh Onfroy went on to become a successful SoundCloud rapper and one of the most streamed artists in the world.
The documentary will include commentary from family and friends, as well as never-before-seen archival footage.
XXXTentacion was shot and killed in Broward County, Florida in 2018. He was 20 years old.
