Love Sux, which also features the lead single “Bite Me,” has been touted as Lavigne’s return to pop-punk, and is influenced by bands including Blink, Green Day and NOFX. The album was released on Blink drummer Travis Barker‘s label, DTA Records.
Lavigne will hit the road behind Love Sux on a tour of her native Canada in May, with support from grandson on select dates. She’ll head down south to the U.S. to play the Boston Calling festival over Memorial Day weekend.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Five Texas district attorneys pushed back on Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive in which he called gender-transitioning and affirming procedures as “child abuse.”
In a letter signed by district attorneys who represent some of the most populous counties in the state, they called the directive “un-American.”
“We are deeply disturbed by Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton’s cruel directives treating transgender children’s access to life-saving, gender-affirming care as ‘child abuse,'” the letter read.
The district attorneys stated they “will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians” to ensure the safety of transgender youth.
They added, “We will not allow the governor and attorney general to disregard Texan children’s lives in order to score political points.”
It was signed by John Creuzot of Dallas County, José Garza of Travis County, Joe Gonzales of Bexar County, Mark Gonzalez of Nueces County and Brian Middleton of Fort Bend County.
In a Feb. 22 letter, Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate this kind of care among youths in the state following an official declaration from state Attorney General Ken Paxton that also called it “child abuse.”
“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said in a Feb. 21 press release. “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”
The letter from the DAs said, “This is part of a continued onslaught on personal freedoms. Elected officials should be protecting our most vulnerable. These two, instead, want to irrationally target and restrain children seeking medical assistance — and force caregivers to participate.”
The White House denounced the directive in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday.
“The Texas Attorney General’s attack on loving parents who seek medical care for their transgender children is dangerous to the health of kids in Texas and part of much larger trend of conservative officials cynically attacking LGBTQI+ youth to score political points,” a White House spokesperson told ABC News.
Here’s something to talk about: Bonnie Raitt has released a new single from her upcoming album, Just Like That…, which will be released on April 22.
The song, “Made Up Mind,” is a cover of a song by the Canadian alt-country-folk group The Bros. Landreth. In a statement, Raitt says, “On this record, I wanted to stretch. I always want to find songs that excite me, and what’s different this time is that I’ve tried some styles and topics I haven’t touched on before.”
Just Like That…, Raitt’s first album in more than six years, was recorded last summer in Sausalito, California, along with three of her longtime musical collaborators and a few new ones. It’s available for pre-order now.
In a statement, Bonnie says she’s grateful that she’s been able to continue making music, 50 years after her debut album. “I’m really aware of how lucky I am,” she says, “and I feel like it’s my responsibility to get out there and say something fresh and new — for me and for the fans. But I need to have something to say or I won’t put out a record.”
On March 2, the veteran star will receive the Icon Award at the Billboard Women in Music Awards, and this spring, she’ll receive a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her tour kicks off March 28 in Modesto, CA and is scheduled to take her all the way through late November.
(NEW YORK) — The stock market has been up and down this week amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and while we are likely to see more volatility in Wall Street in the days ahead, experts say the main effect of this crisis in the U.S. will be at the gas pump.
The national average price for gas is inching its way towards $4 a gallon. And, as ABC News’ Deirdre Bolton explains, “the effects could be even more wide ranging than just gas for your car.”
“The price of airline tickets may also go higher if carriers pass the extra cost of higher jet fuel onto passengers,” Bolton says. “Home heating prices are likely to rise, as well, as are food prices even from their current pandemic highs, since transporting food costs more as diesel for the trucks will be more expensive.”
(NEW YORK) — For many Ukrainians living in the United States, the early hours of Thursday morning were spent reaching out to family members and watching news developments as Russia crossed the border into Ukraine and began the first attacks on the country.
Oksana Sukhina, a Ukranian immigrant who came to the U.S. two years ago, told ABC News she learned the news of the invasion through a neighborhood watch group chat from back home.
“I saw messages that someone was asking, ‘Oh, what’s that booming?’ and someone responding, ‘Well, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin started the military operation,'” Sukhina told ABC News.
She couldn’t fall asleep that night.
Sukhina, who is a member of the non-profit U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, said that most of her family is back in Ukraine, and though she fears for the safety of her loved ones, she trusts in the Ukrainian army and in NATO forces.
“We hope that this insanity stops. It’s a civilizational attack,” Sukhina told ABC News. “We’re reading some disturbing messages about Russian troops being over on the ground.”
She said her son, who is in the U.S., is even seeking out ways to get back to Ukraine to help.
Alex Ponomarenko, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union region that is now Ukraine, told ABC News that as soon as he heard reports of the invasion, he began reaching out to loved ones.
Because of past aggression from Russia, including the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, many Ukrainians say they had the eerie feeling that something would soon erupt.
“No one was expecting this to happen, but it was always on the table,” Ponomarenko told ABC News in an interview. “My fear is the loss of life.”
Tamara Olexy, executive director of the nonprofit Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, also told ABC News that the invasion isn’t necessarily a surprise, but she still feels shaken by the attacks.
“It was a complete shock that in the 21st century, you can watch a war unfolding right before your eyes,” Olexy said.
Her family in Western Ukraine is safe, she said.
“We’re urging our governments to put in the harshest sanctions possible against Putin, and the Russian regime, and doing whatever we can to get the real truth out about what’s going on in Ukraine,” Olexy added.
Many said they hope Ukraine’s past of resilience and victory will pull the country through.
“Ukrainians are fighting back,” Olexy said. “Ukrainians aren’t going to give up the land easily. This is going to be a very long-drawn-out war … Ukrainians have fought long and hard to gain their independence — or regain their independence, I should say — 30 years ago, and they’re not going to give it up easily.”
Sukhina added, “[Ukraine] has prevailed so far, we will prevail further on.”
Many Ukrainian descendants, immigrants and refugees said they are channeling their initial feelings of pain into action. They’re set on figuring out how best to help their loved ones back home.
The goal is to not only make sure they’re safe now but also to financially and resourcefully support their continued safety. They’re calling on people from around the world, non-Ukrainians and Ukrainians alike, to assist in making sure those in need have the resources necessary.
“We’re ready to assist anyone as much as possible,” Ponomarenko said. “It’s a humanitarian issue. We should be ready to help.”
President Joe Biden will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, elevating an African American woman for the first time to a seat on the high court bench, ABC News has learned.
Judge Jackson, 51, currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to which she was appointed by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year with Republican support.
Her historic nomination fulfills a promise Biden made during the 2020 campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary, when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters. It’s also the first opportunity for Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to help shape a Court that has grown sharply more conservative in recent years, even if his appointment will not alter the current ideological balance.
Jackson, a former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, has more than eight years experience on the federal bench, following a path through the judiciary traveled by many nominees before her. She also would be the first federal public defender to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have criminal defense experience.
Democrats have the votes to confirm Jackson without Republican support, but President Biden has said he hopes to win over some members of the other party.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/POOL
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, elevating an African American woman for the first time to a seat on the high court bench, ABC News has learned.
Judge Jackson, 51, currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to which she was named by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year with Republican support.
Her historic nomination fulfills a promise Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters.
It’s also the first opportunity for Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to help shape a Court that has grown sharply more conservative in recent years, even if his appointment will not alter the current ideological balance.
Jackson, a former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, has more than eight years experience on the federal bench, following a path through the judiciary traveled by many nominees before her.
All but four justices appointed in the last 50 years have come from a federal appeals court, including three current justices — Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts and Clarence Thomas — from the D.C. Circuit.
Born in D.C. but raised in Miami, Jackson comes from an elite legal pedigree as a graduate of Harvard Law School but also has experience representing everyday Americans in the legal system as a federal public defender.
“Public service is a core value in my family,” Judge Jackson testified last year.
She would be the first federal public defender to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have criminal defense experience.
Jackson has been vetted and confirmed by the Senate three times – twice for appointments to the federal bench, a third time for a seat on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Not since Justice Clarence Thomas was nominated in 1991 has a Supreme Court candidate been scrutinized by the Senate as many times.
“I think she’s qualified for the job. She has a different philosophy than I do, but it’s been that way the whole time,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said of Jackson last year. He was one of three GOP Senators, including Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who voted to confirm Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
President Biden has long admired, respected and helped elevate Jackson, sources say. It was the Obama-Biden administration that first appointed her to the federal bench in 2013. Last year, Biden met one-on-one with Jackson at the White House before nominating her to the D.C. Circuit. The two met again in recent days, sources said.
The president is impressed by her “experience in roles at all levels of the justice system, her character and her legal brilliance,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said this month.
Jackson has won praise from grassroots progressive, civil rights and legal groups, particularly for her work as vice chair of the bipartisan U.S. Sentencing Commission between 2010 and 2014, when she played a key role in major criminal justice reforms.
Jackson joined a unanimous vote to reduce federal sentencing guidelines for some nonviolent drug offenders and make the changes retroactive — moves backed by members of both parties.
“In my view, that of a civil rights lawyer and advocate who is committed to bringing justice, respect, and fairness to this nation, and particularly to my community, that woman is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump told ABC News.
On the bench, her jurisprudence has widely been considered mainstream and measured, legal scholars say. She authored 600 opinions while on the U.S. District Court for D.C.; only 12 were reversed, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Justice, a progressive legal advocacy group.
One of her most high-profile decisions came in the 2019 case of former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who was contesting a congressional subpoena for testimony. Then-District Court Judge Jackson wrote a 118-page ruling ordering McGahn to testify, concluding that “presidents are not kings” and could not assert universal executive privilege over former aides.
Earlier this month, Judge Jackson published her first appeals court opinion — a unanimous decision in favor of a large union of federal government workers contesting new federal labor guidelines that would have made collective bargaining more difficult. Jackson concluded the changes were “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Late last year, Judge Jackson joined a unanimous appeals court panel decision rejecting former President Donald Trump’s attempt to shield his records from review by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The decision recently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jackson’s former colleagues and associates describe her approach as “Breyer-esque,” qualities Biden has explicitly sought to replicate on the bench: moderate, pragmatic, and a consensus-builder.
“She believes the judiciary should be accessible and transparent,” said Sanchi Khare, who clerked for Judge Jackson in 2019. “She really feels that people who come to the court or who interact with the judicial system, whether they are civil or criminal parties, that they feel heard and that the court is considering their arguments.”
Rachel Barkow, an NYU law professor, former Harvard classmate of Jackson and former member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, predicted Jackson could help “dial down the temperature” around the Court if confirmed.
“She is not someone who is a firebrand off on her own, creating and doing new things which I don’t think she should be doing as a lower court judge,” Barkow told ABC. “I think she absolutely on the merits should be a person who appeals to people of all political stripes.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said this week that the nominee will be “respectfully treated and thoroughly vetted.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Sunday that his party will not engage in “personal slime attacks” but will scrutinize the candidate’s record.
Democrats have the votes to confirm Jackson without Republican support, but President Biden has said he hopes to win over some members of the other party.
During her appeals court confirmation hearing last year, Republicans questioned Jackson on issues of race; ties to progressive legal groups; her rulings against the Trump administration; the impact of sentencing reductions; and her work as a public defender for Guantanamo detainees.
She could also face questions about her affiliation with Harvard University – both as an alumna and member Board of Overseers – ahead of a major lawsuit challenging the school’s use of race-based Affirmative Action in admissions that will be heard by the Supreme Court later this year.
The president’s allies on Capitol Hill and among Democratic grassroots groups have begun mobilizing to promote and defend the nominee, gearing up for a media blitz to mark both the historic nature of the nomination and counter expected Republican attacks, some of which have already been racially-charged.
The White House is expected to highlight Jackson’s personal story as the embodiment of the American Dream.
“Her Miami roots will afford her valuable perspective on the rights and lives of the people who come before the court,” members of the Cuban American Bar Association wrote in a letter to the president this month.
Jackson attended Miami-Dade public schools. Her mother was a public high school principal in the county, while her father was a teacher and later county school board attorney. Her younger brother — her only sibling — served in the military and did tours in combat. Two uncles have been law enforcement officers.
Her husband, Patrick Jackson, is a surgeon in the Washington, D.C., area, where together they have raised two daughters.
“It’s a story of someone who’s always been very hard working, who has not had things handed to her, who has worked for all the things that she’s achieved,” Barkow said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Amanda Kloots, host of CBS’ The Talk, announced on Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19 following a recent trip to Mexico.
Kloots — whose husband, Nick Cordero, died of COVID-related complications in July 2020 — also confirmed that she would be missing The Talk while she quarantines.
“My @thetalkcbs family! Unfortunately I tested positive for COVID and will be missing some days at work until my quarantine is over,” Kloots, 39, shared on Instagram. “I am feeling completely normal now and feel very grateful for that. I am vaccinated and boosted which is very much putting me at ease.”
“I recently got back from a trip to Mexico where I tested negative before I left and before I flew home so this was [a] surprise this morning,” she continued. “This is the first time I’ve tested positive since the pandemic.”
Kloots went on to say that she plans on using her time in quarantine to potty-train her two-year-old son, Elvis Eduardo, whom she shared with Cordero.
“I will hopefully be back to work soon but taking this time at home with Elvis to start potty training!!!!” Kloots wrote. “Wish me luck as I run after a naked toddler for the next three days. Any advice please share below.”
Sean Penn is on the ground in Ukraine filming a documentary about Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.
The Office of the President of Ukraine released a statement on Facebook Thursday praising the Oscar-winning actor for his work.
“The director specially came to Kyiv to record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country,” reads the translated statement. “Sean Penn is among those who support Ukraine in Ukraine today. Our country is grateful to him for such a show of courage and honesty.”
The statement also notes that the actor, who visited the country back in 2021 in “preparation” for the documentary, also attended a press briefing the Office of the President on Thursday, and spoke with journalists and the military.
“Sean Penn demonstrates the courage that many others, including Western politicians, lack. The more such people in our country now, true friends of Ukraine, who support the struggle for freedom, the sooner it will be possible to stop Russia’s treacherous attack,” the statement continues.
Penn is no stranger to anti-war and humanitarian operations. The 2020 Discovery+ documentary Citizen Penn chronicled his efforts setting up the non-profit organization Community Organized Relief Effort, also known as CORE, in response to the Haiti earthquakes of 2010. CORE also assisted with the COVID-19 response in the United States.
Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts are making history as the first same-sex couple to grace the cover of Essence magazine.
Nash, 52, and Betts, 39, who wed in 2020, appear on the March/April cover of magazine topless as they lovingly gaze at each others’ faces. Now, the two are opening up about the historic cover and the powerful message behind it.
“What I am hoping happens with our cover is that it will normalize people just loving who they love and not having to explain it or defend it but just do it,” Nash told Entertainment Tonight on Thursday.
Betts shared the same sentiment, adding, “Spreading love and supporting each other, you know, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to support each other…so I think this message is very clear that we should love and support each other regardless of our race, gender, or sexualities.”
In the cover story, Nash says of her wife, “The least of my attraction is gender…What I was and am still attracted to is Jessica’s soul. She was the most beautiful soul I had ever met in my life. Now that I’ve experienced it, I can’t imagine going through life without it.”
The March/April 2022 “Black Women in Hollywood” issue of Essence hits newsstands March 1.
