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COVID-19 live updates: Biden reacts to CDC greenlighting child vaccinations

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 748,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 67.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 03, 8:24 am
CDC director: ‘We’ve taken the time to get this right’

“We’ve taken the time to get this right,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told “Good Morning America” Wednesday, the day after she signed off on the Pfizer vaccine for young kids. “It’s taken us almost a year compared to where we had a vaccine for adults.”

Parents should have peace of mind with the vaccine’s safety, she argued. “We reviewed the evidence, we reviewed the safety profile,” she said.

“You may have questions, and we are here to answer your questions,” she said. “Go talk to your pediatrician, your trusted health care provider, your pharmacist, and get the information that you need.”

Nov 02, 8:46 pm
Biden calls CDC greenlight for child vaccinations ‘a major step forward’

President Joe Biden called Tuesday’s move by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 to 11 years old “a turning point.”

“It will allow parents to end months of anxious worrying about their kids, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others,” he said in a statement. “It is a major step forward for our nation in our fight to defeat the virus.”

The president said his administration has secured enough pediatric vaccines for every child in America and has begun shipping out doses.

“The program will ramp up over the coming days, and fully up and running during the week of November 8,” he said.

Nov 02, 8:21 pm
CDC director signs off on child vaccinations

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky approved the agency’s recommendations for administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children between 5 and 11 years old.
MORE: In promising milestone, Pfizer vaccine soon available for kids 5 and up

Vaccinations for this age group, which includes over 28 million children, can begin as early as Wednesday morning.

The two-dose vaccine has been approved for an emergency use for children 12 to 15 years old and for full authorized use for patients above 16 years old.

Hartford HealthCare was one of the first locations in the country to administer the vaccine to kids Tuesday evening. The young patients cheered and gave doctors high fives after they received their shots.

Nov 02, 7:14 pm
Pharmacies readying COVID shots for young children

Two major pharmacy chains announced Tuesday evening they are getting ready to offer Pfizer COVID-19 shots to children 5 to 11 years-old.

Pending signoff from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, which could happen as early as Tuesday night, Walgreens told ABC News it expects to begin administering shots to that age group starting Saturday.

Walgreens said its online scheduler for children’s appointments will be available starting Wednesday.

The Pfizer pediatric vaccine will arrive “later this week in select locations throughout the country,” CVS said in a statement. Appointments will be available at individual stores after each receives vaccines.

Where LA County’s employee vaccine mandate stands a month after initial deadline

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Thousands of Los Angeles County employees are being put on notice in the weeks after a COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline passed.

County employees had by Oct. 1 to submit proof of their vaccination status. The order, announced by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in early August, encompasses sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, hospital staff, social workers and others.

As of Tuesday, 77.7% of the county’s 101,575 current employees are fully vaccinated, county data shows. A dozen departments are reporting vaccination rates of at least 90%, while nearly half of the departments are reporting vaccination rates between 80% and 89%. Seven departments are below 80%.

Nearly 10% of all county employees have yet to register to submit their vaccination status.

Those who fail to get vaccinated or submit a request for a medical or religious exemption could face disciplinary action, including termination.

In the weeks since the vaccine mandate deadline passed, the county has been sending notices in waves to non-compliant employees, advising them that they have 45 days to register as fully vaccinated or request an accommodation. After that point, the employees will be put on a five-day suspension and have 30 days upon return to comply.

Failure to comply within that time period “may result in disciplinary action and continued noncompliance may result in further disciplinary action, up to and including discharge from County service,” the notice states.

As of Oct. 12, unvaccinated employees are also required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing until submitting proof of vaccination and could face disciplinary action for failing to get tested.

The sheriff’s department has the lowest rate of compliance, with 52% of members fully vaccinated, the county data shows. Over 20% of the 16,070-person department has yet to register to submit a vaccination status.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who has been a vocal critic of the vaccine mandate, warned in a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week that the department stands to lose a “substantial” number of employees over the policy.

“People are not happy with the vaccine mandate,” Villanueva told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday, attributing hesitancy among sworn staff to a lack of “faith in a vaccine.”

“Some of it is driven by a political ideology. Some of it might be irrational, some people have legitimate reasons why they don’t trust the vaccine,” he said.

As notices are rolling out, the county has continued to address vaccine hesitancy.

“We’re encouraging vaccination through an extensive internal communications campaign, including town hall meetings with experts, weekly fliers, messages from County leaders, meetings with our labor partners and other messaging that we are continuing to expand,” Jesus Ruiz, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office, told ABC News in a statement.

County employees are not the only ones subject to a vaccine mandate. Workers in adult and senior care facilities and in-home direct care settings must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 30 under a state order. In the city of Los Angeles, city employees, including police officers, as well as public school staff and students, have vaccine requirements.

Proof of vaccination is also required to enter or work in indoor portions of bars, lounges, nightclubs, breweries, wineries and distilleries in Los Angeles County.

County health officials stressed the importance of vaccination Tuesday, as COVID-19 transmission remains “substantial” heading into the holiday season.

“While transmission is substantial, we need to continue layering on protections, understanding that significant spread of the virus affects unvaccinated individuals and increasingly results in post-vaccination infections among those vaccinated,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “Substantial spread also creates a fertile breeding ground for new variants that can threaten our progress to date.”

US warehouses running out of room amid supply chain crisis

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Warehouses in and around U.S. ports are running out of room, experts say, adding another challenge to the country’s already crippled supply chain.

“We are either at or over capacity, and demand for space is the greatest I have ever seen,” said Michael Sarcona, president of Sarcona Management Inc. He operates several warehouses in the Newark area, the third-largest port in North America.

Hundreds of thousands of shipping containers faced record backlog at U.S. ports over the past several weeks. Now that some have made landfall, the goods stored in those containers may soon outpace warehouse capacity.

Warehouse vacancy in the country has reached 3.6%, a record low, according to recent data from Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE), an American commercial real estate services and investment firm.

“Three-and-a-half percent is effectively zero,” said John Morris, executive managing director lead for CBRE’s industrial and logistics business in the Americas. “For the year, we have basically an effective shortage of space of about 300 million square feet.”

Even if retailers can get more products shipped to the U.S., Morris explained, they will struggle to find places to store them and move them along the supply chain.

“In an efficient supply chain, you want about 15% availability of warehouse capacity in these markets and across the country,” said Craig Fuller, CEO and founder of FreightWaves, a global logistics industry data and analytics company. “At 3.6%, these warehouses are operating beyond their available capacity to even function properly.”

Warehouses in the port of Los Angeles, the largest port in North America, have a record low vacancy of 1% , according to CBRE’s analysis. This is the lowest vacancy CBRE has ever recorded for the port.

“That vacancy rate is down by more than half over the last year,” said Chris Caton, the global head of strategy and analytics at Prologis, the world’s largest logistics real estate developer. “So there is extreme scarcity in these port markets.”

Warehouse vacancy at ports in central and northern New Jersey sit around 2%. Sarcona operates eight warehouse locations in Newark with a combined capacity of almost 2 million square feet, but has a team of employees and real estate agents urgently searching for more space.

How will this impact consumers?

Consumers likely won’t be able to rely on online shopping the way they once did, according to experts.

“I’m worried that the inability of the supply chain to keep up, ends up having an impact on the wonderful growth we’ve seen in this omni-channel retail economy,” said Morris, referring to online shopping platforms that allow consumers easy and timely access to big and small brand items.

“I think we’ve lost the predictability of when products are going to be delivered to consumers,” said Fuller, explaining that sellers likely won’t be able to guarantee delivery times this holiday season. “I’ve been ordering Christmas items since mid-October — [because] if anyone tells you they can tell you when something’s going to be delivered, they’re either not truthful or they’re misinformed.”

Fuller believes the uncertainty could push consumers back into stores.

“I think people are going to find that as we get closer and closer to the Christmas holiday, that the items that they normally would be able to buy online, they’re going to have to go into stores to get it,” Fuller said.

How did this happen?

Rebounding consumer demand has led to record imports through U.S. ports on both coasts. Warehouses at those ports are the first stop for items coming into the U.S., and they’re overwhelmed.

“Are we out of space? The answer is not yet,” Morris said. “Is supply and construction keeping up with demand? Just barely… like… just barely.”

One factor: Land around these ports is becoming increasingly in demand.

“In the most sought after locations, pricing is spiking — we’ve never seen rents rise like they have,” Caton said, explaining the challenges facing warehouse creation and development.

The issues relate to the physics and scarcity of land in these key locations, per Caton.

“If you want to build a 500,000-square-foot facility in New Jersey, you need 30 to 35 acres of land that’s relatively flat and well served by infrastructure, and that is just increasingly scarce,” Caton said.

Adding to the congestion, these warehouses often send goods to distribution centers, which in turn send those items out to consumers or to brick and mortar businesses. These centers “are also at capacity or overcapacity,” Sarcona, the warehouse owner, said.

When does this all get fixed?

“Perhaps in Q3 of next year” this will all be fixed, Morris said.

The U.S. will use over 1 billion square feet of storage space this year, compared to 800 million last year. And there are already 500 million square feet of storage in development, per CBRE.

But even with more storage locations being built, supply chain issues continue.

“It’s hard to get the materials to finish that construction,” Morris said. “With a broken supply chain for construction materials, cement roofing trusses, the pins that hold the roof to the wall, they’re short on all of that.”

Britney Spears claims her mother started the conservatorship: “You know exactly what you did”

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Britney Spears issued several damning accusations against her mother, Lynne Spears, after her attorney, Mathew Rosengart, formally asked to terminate her 13-year conservatorship.

In a since-deleted post, captured by ABC Audio, Britney, 39, explained how her mother “secretly ruined my life” and claimed the conservatorship was Lynne’s idea.

Sharing an infographic that read,”The most dangerous animal in the world is a silent smiling woman,” the Grammy winner started off by saying her mother is “concerned” by how happy she is.

“The moment I SMILE and I realize I haven’t in a very long time !!!! My mom gets so CONCERNED and says ‘You’re acting weird … what’s wrong with you ???,'” Britney wrote. “I was BORN today cause I get to SMILE … so thank you for exiting out of my life and finally allowing me to live mine !!!!”

“It was a family business before … it’s no longer that anymore,” Spears continued before claiming Lynne played a much-larger role in her legal woes. “My dad may have started the conservatorship 13 years ago … but what people don’t know is is that my mom is the one who gave him the idea.”

Spears further alleged, “I will never get those years back …. she secretly ruined my life … and yes I will call her and [former family business manager] Lou Taylor out on it.”

Britney accused both Lynne and Taylor of feigning ignorance and claimed both were well aware of her situation. “You know exactly what you did … my dad is not smart enough to ever think of a conservatorship,” the singer declared. “But tonight I will smile knowing I have a new life ahead of me.”

Britney’s next court hearing is set for November 12, where Judge Brenda J. Penny will consider terminating the conservatorship.

Brothers Osborne step “into a new era” with their CMA-nominated ‘Skeletons’

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

One week from today, Brothers Osborne could add to their already impressive collection of CMA trophies, potentially claiming the prestigious Album of the Year award for Skeletons, which celebrated its first birthday last month.

The cover shows TJ and John walking through an enormous keyhole — an equally ominous piece of symbolism for the siblings.

“We didn’t want to be extremely on the nose with having a skull and bones on there or something, but we wanted a skeleton keyhole…” TJ explains. “For us, it’s really kind of symbolizing us kind of stepping out into a new era of Brothers Osborne.”

Skeletons builds on 2016’s Pawn Shop and 2018’s Port Saint Joe, without fundamentally altering the DNA of the duo.

“Obviously, with every record, you want to get, not only better, but you also just wanna be different than the record before,” TJ tells ABC Audio, “so you have something fresh, and it’s not the same thing over and over again, but at the same time, not lose that very thing that the fans love to begin with.”

Ultimately, it’s an evolution that leaves TJ and John right where they want to be.

“I think we’ve learned a lot about who we are between our first two records,” TJ reflects. “And it really allowed us to kinda be able to focus in on what Brothers Osborne is, and what people respond to.”

“And that hasn’t always been what we thought it would be sometimes,” he confesses. “And I think now that we’re here, I really feel like this is the version of us that our fans have grown to love over the years.”

The brothers are also up for Music Video for the non-album track, “Younger Me,” as well as Duo, which they’ve won three times before.

‘The Bachelorette’ recap: A suitor’s lies end in a shocking elimination

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Bachelorette continued Tuesday with Michelle Young and her suitors dealing with the aftermath of Jamie‘s rumor about her having a previous relationship with Joe.

Rick, a 32-year-old medical sales rep from Los Angeles, assured Michelle that the men in the house had her back and, during their conversation, learned the rumor came from Jamie.

Rick shared his discovery with the other suitors, which led to a series of confrontations with Jamie.

As awkward as that was for Jamie, who tried unsuccessfully to dodge their questions, it was nothing compared to the tongue lashing he received from Michelle, in front of the other men.

Michelle led Jamie outside for a private conversation and sent him home after telling him, “I don’t trust you at this moment and I have to be done with it.”

Also sent home on Tuesday were Washington-based yoga guru LT; Mollique, an academic administrator from San Diego; Peter, the pizzapreneur from Florida; and Spencer, a financial crimes analyst from Cleveland, Ohio.

Earlier, Glen Powell and Jay Ellis — stars of the upcoming movie sequel, Top Gun: Maverick — challenged a group of men to prove their love for Michelle with a series of physical and mental competitions. At the end, it was Martin, the personal trainer from Miami, Florida, who earned the date rose.

Later, a group date led by spoken-word poet Rudy Francisco had the men testing their poetry skills, with Brandon scoring his second group date rose.

Finally, a one-on-one date saw California sales rep Rodney literally bearing it all in a game of truth or dare. Rodney passed both the dare and truth parts of the date and was rewarded with a rose.

Here are the other men remaining after the rose ceremony:

Brandon J., 26, a traveling nurse recruiter from Portland, Ore.
Casey, 36, an advertising creative director from Miami Beach, Fla.
Chris G., 28, a motivational speaker from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Chris S., 28, a commodities broker from West Hollywood, Calif.
Clayton, 28, a medical sales rep from Columbia, Mo.
Joe, 28, a real estate developer from Minneapolis, Minn.
Leroy, 27, a biomedical Ph.D. student from Dallas, Texas
Martin, 29, a personal trainer from Miami, Fla.
Nayte, 27, a sales executive from Austin, Texas
Olu, 27, an IT analyst from Newark, N.J.
Rick, 32, a medical sales rep from Los Angeles, Calif.
Rodney, 29, a sales rep from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Romeo, 32, a mathematician from New York City, N.Y.
Will, 28, an academic interventionist from Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Bachelorette returns Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Scientists investigate the steep costs of climate change and US wildfires

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Climate change is making wildfires in the western United States larger and more destructive, and the effects are felt across the country, according to a study by Steve Davis, a professor of Earth systems science at the University of California Irvine.

Davis ran a study looking into the cost of wildfires, which was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

According to Davis, “It’s not just relegated to California, there’s places beyond California that are being affected.”

The research also considers more than just the cost of destruction. It includes the price of health care for smoke inhalation from the fires, people missing work and supply chain issues nationwide from products coming from California.

His team found the cost of the 2018 wildfire season to have totaled about $150 billion in losses. That amounts to .7 percent of the gross domestic product of the U.S.

Davis says, “If we continue to have these kinds of wildfire seasons, the costs are going to maintain themselves.”

In 2021, living in California means an almost year-round threat of wildfires.

According to CAL Fire, wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape. Yet the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year.

They say climate change is considered a key driver of this trend with warmer temperatures, less rainfall and a more intense dry season all contributing to more severe wildfires.

Since 2017, wildfires have broken all-time size and destruction records consistently.

CAL Fire’s Top 20 Largest California Wildfire statistics show the top eight largest in the state’s history have all happened in the last five years. This includes the August Complex, which burned 1,032,648 acres of land alone.

Whitesnake’s David Coverdale says new deluxe ‘Restless Heart’ reissue is “like [an] amazing box of chocolates”

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Whitesnake recently released the latest installment of its deluxe reissue campaign, a four-CD/DVD set focusing on the band’s 1997 studio album, Restless Heart.

The Restless Heart: Super Deluxe Edition features newly remixed and remastered versions of the album, various unreleased demos and studio outtakes, and a DVD containing official music videos, fan videos, and a short making-of documentary.

Frontman David Coverdale tells ABC Audio that the new collection is “packed solid” with quality, like an “amazing box of chocolates.”

He’s “doubly excited” about the deluxe package’s arrival because the album wasn’t even released initially in the U.S.

Coverdale says he wasn’t happy with the album’s original mix, so the remix was beefed up with added tracks from current Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian.

“They brought in this early Whitesnake vibe,” Coverdale notes. “[And Derek is] almost like the son of [late Deep Purple/Whitesnake keyboardist] Jon Lord, bringing this element…of scorching Hammond organ.”

The new mix also features a different running order than the original Restless Heart, and David explains that’s because he put “a lot more thought [and] a lot more care” into the updated version. He adds, “These things I’m looking upon as my legacy as an artist.”

Restless Heart was a particularly diverse collection of tunes for a Whitesnake album, which Coversale says was because the project originally was intended to be his third studio album.

Besides hard rockers and power ballads, the album included two power blues songs and a cover of the 1966 R&B hit “Stay with Me.”

Meanwhile, another interesting element of the Super Deluxe set is an “Evolutions” disc, which features tracks that show how each song evolved from demos to the studio version.

Visit Whitesnake.com for full details about the reissue.

How Twitter brought Ingrid Michaelson an ‘Elf’ (star) for Christmas

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

This Friday, Ingrid Michaelson is releasing a deluxe version of her 2018 Christmas album Songs of the Season, with five new tracks. One of them is “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,” a duet with actress Zooey Deschanel, and Ingrid says she’s got Twitter to thank for that.

“I love her as an actress,” Ingrid says Zooey, who’s also one-half of the musical duo She & Him. “And Elf is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and so she’s kind of stamped in my brain as a Christmas figure. So I actually wrote on Twitter last year, ‘All I want is to write a Christmas song with Zooey Deschanel.'”

“It was sort of the height of the pandemic…y’know spirits were very low and it just came to me,” she tells ABC Audio. “And she wrote back to me on Twitter, like, ‘Let’s make it happen!'”

“I was blown away that she even knew who I was and we exchanged phone numbers and she’s just, like, she is as lovely as…you would think she is,” raves Ingrid, who describes the duet as “the warm hug that we all desperately need.”

As for the rest of the new tracks, there’s “Winter Wonderland,” “Marshmellow World,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and her 2019 Jason Mraz duet, “Christmas Valentine.” Ingrid says she knew from the day she released the original album that she’d do a deluxe version eventually.

“I wanted to add more [songs], but I didn’t have time,” she says of the original album. “And I knew…John Legend and Gwen Stefani and a lot of other, like, ‘Christmas heads,’ were putting out their deluxes. And so I thought, ‘Well, you know, in a few years, we’ll do a deluxe, and we’ll add some extra stuff then.'”

Mission accomplished.

“Back from the Dead” and back on the charts: Halestorm’s Arejay Hale talks band’s “fitting” number-one hit

November 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Halestorm is back on the charts with “Back from the Dead.”

The band’s latest single has hit number one on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay ranking, marking their fifth leader on the tally.

Not only did “Back from the Dead” signal Halestorm’s return with new music for the first time in three years, it also served as their declaration of intent after being sidelined from the road for the longest time in their career due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is very representative of what we went through during the pandemic,” drummer Arejay Hale tells ABC Audio of “Back from the Dead.” “Now, it just seems so fitting that it’s called ‘Back from the Dead’ and we’re also kind of back from being dead in the water for a year-and-a-half.”

The song also reflects Hale’s struggles with his mental health amid the pandemic, as well as that of his sister and band mate, Lzzy Hale.

“The pandemic was a real test for both of our mental health and our mental wealth,” Arejay shares. “We really had to force ourselves to take care of ourselves mentally.”

The best way to do that, Hale found, was to “be creative.”

“The only thing that got me through the pandemic was songwriting,” he says.

After finally getting back on the road to play shows these past couple months, Halestorm will now embark on a big U.S. co-headlining tour with Evanescence starting this Friday, November 5, in Portland, Oregon. In addition to being excited to playing live again with good friends, Hale feels that working on “Back from the Dead,” and more upcoming new material, has made Halestorm an even better live band.

“I feel like these new songs have really challenged us as players,” he says. “I love it!”

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