(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Friday’s sports events.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
Atlanta 2 Houston 0
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Toronto 110 Orlando 109
Miami 114 Charlotte 99
Brooklyn 105 Indiana 98
Sacramento 113 New Orleans 109
Portland 111 L.A. Clippers 92
Denver 106 Dallas 75
L.A. Lakers 113 Cleveland 101
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Washington 2 Arizona 0
N-Y Rangers 4 Columbus 0
OT Florida 3 Detroit 2
Carolina 6 Chicago 3
SO Vegas 5 Anaheim 4
Ottawa 4 Dallas 1
(ARLINGTON, Va.) — Numerous police departments in Northern Virginia say the public can expect to see expanded police presence at shopping malls, public centers and gatherings over the Halloween weekend in response to a potential threat.
The potential threat to shopping malls emanated from intelligence possibly linked to ISIS, according to multiple law enforcement and intelligence sources. The credibility of the information is still being assessed, sources said.
An FBI spokesperson said in a statement, “We have no comment. However, we would remind you the FBI takes all potential threats to public safety seriously and we take all appropriate steps to determine the credibility of any information we receive.”
The Arlington County Police Department issued a statement calling it a “potential public safety threat.”
“The Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) is aware of information circulating regarding a non-specific, unconfirmed threat to shopping centers,” it said in the statement. “There is no specific or identified threat to our region. As always, the public is encouraged to remain attentive as you go about your normal routine, particularly in areas where large crowds of people typically gather such as shopping centers, restaurant districts, religious services, and public transportation hubs to name a few.”
Chief Kevin Davis of the Fairfax County Police Department said at a press conference Friday the the intelligence concerns “potential public safety impacts to malls and shopping centers across the region.”
“We’re taking it seriously,” Davis said. “We’re simply being proactive.”
“We’re acting with an abundance of caution in the best interest of those who reside here,” he said.
The chief did not provide details on what the threat was, but urged the public to be vigilant.
Davis called this a “regional matter” with information from collaborative sharing.
“It’s information we’re acting on by establishing a greater presence where people gather,” Davis explained. “We’re taking the appropriate responsible actions to ensure that the community knows that we take all information about their safety seriously.”
Other departments, such as the Alexandria, Virginia, Police Department, Loudon County Sheriff’s Office and Prince William County Sheriff’s Office, offered similar warnings.
(WASHINGTON) — Construction of an oil pipeline deep in America’s heartland has become one of the most contentious environmental battles in the country.
The thousand-mile long Line 3 pipeline transports Canadian tar sands oil — a high-emissions fossil fuel often described as the world’s dirtiest oil — through indigenous lands and waters, including the vulnerable headwaters of the Mississippi River.
The project has been the target of multiple court battles and a years-long massive civil disobedience campaign led by indigenous women in Minnesota, resulting in nearly 900 arrests, including dozens around the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.
“Seeing the expansion of Line 3 tar sands into sensitive wetlands while there is a massive drought is really jarring and it should be for any person who is worried about the climate,” Tara Houska, a tribal attorney who has fought the project for years and co-founded a Line 3 opposition group, told ABC News.
Enbridge, the Canadian corporation responsible for the pipeline, describes Line 3 as a safety-driven replacement of an aging line first put in during the 1960s.
“We made the decision that it would be better for us, better for society, better for the communities that the pipeline runs through to actually look at replacing that pipeline,” Enbridge Chief Communications Officer Mike Fernandez told ABC News.
However, many critics refer to the project as an expansion. More than one third of the new Line 3 follows an entirely new route and the new, wider pipe will roughly double the operating capacity of the old version, according to state documents.
Enbridge argues they are restoring the line’s historic capacity which has not been operational for more than a decade. The move comes after some leading scientists pushed for a moratorium on tar sands growth all together.
“Climate scientists say, ‘Leave the tar sands in the ground.’ Full stop,” said Laura Triplett, an environmental scientist with Gustavus Adolphus College who testified against Line 3 during the permitting process.
Oil began flowing through the controversial pipeline on Oct. 1, marking a long-sought victory for its corporate owner and a devastating defeat for its opponents, who had pleaded with the Biden administration to halt the project.
“I am appalled by the lack of action on something like this,” Houska said. “You can’t be the climate president when you’re allowing through one of the largest tar sands infrastructure projects in North America. That’s his climate legacy,” she said.
The White House declined to provide a representative to be interviewed for this report, and did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden and the tar sands
Canadian tar sands oil requires more emissions to extract and transport than conventional oil. It also results in more carbon emissions when burned, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden described the Keystone XL pipeline as “tar sands that we don’t need — that in fact is very, very high pollutant.” He canceled Keystone XL shortly after taking office but has so far declined to intervene against Line 3, and his Department of Justice has defended the project in court.
“When I think about how much carbon is going to be emitted by this, I actually literally feel nauseous,” Triplett told ABC News.
Line 3 could emit between 35 and 193 million tons of CO2 annually, according to the project’s environmental impact statement — the latter being the equivalent of 45 new coal-fired power plants coming online or 38 million cars being added to the road, according to multiple independent scientists.
“If this pipeline is going to run and bring these tar sands oil to market, we have a much more even massive job to do, reducing emissions elsewhere,” Triplett said.
Enbridge argues that if the pipeline weren’t built, oil would have to get to market through even more carbon-intensive means such as truck or rail lines.
Triplett says there are road maps for how the U.S. can transition to a lower carbon emissions economy. “But none of those plans include building a brand new big pipeline to bring tar sands oil to market,” she said. “That’s not part of any transition. That’s terrifying.”
Dividing communities in its path
On the ground, the project has divided local indigenous communities in its path. Three tribes — the Red Lake Nation, the White Earth Nation and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe — have opposed the project throughout and sued to halt construction. The tribes say the project violates their treaty rights and fear the pipeline will eventually leak, contaminating sacred waters and vital wild rice beds.
Two other local tribes — the Fond du Lac Band and Leech Lake Band — came to agreements with Enbridge to allow Line 3 to pass through their reservations. They also agreed not to oppose the project, in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money and promises of future infrastructure investments, according to local reports. As of May 2021, Enbridge says it has spent $250 million with Tribal nations, communities and contractors.
Enbridge’s agreement with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe included removing most of the old Line 3 pipeline from the reservation and building the new pipeline on lands to the south. Details of the agreement are not public, but the Bemidji Pioneer reported that Enbridge agreed to a broad commitment with the tribe to work on green energy projects.
The Leech Lake Band did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In the case of the Fond du Lac Band — which originally opposed the project — leaders say the tribe was put in an difficult position after Minnesota authorities forced them to choose between allowing the pipeline to run along its existing route through the reservation or agreeing to a route south of the reservation that would still cut through treaty territory, where tribal citizens hunt, fish and gather.
“There is no perfect outcome here,” tribal council Chair Kevin Dupuis Sr. told MPR News at the time of the deal. “All remaining options threaten the environment for all, and livelihood of the Indigenous people of Minnesota.”
Fond du Lac member Rob Abramowski, who grew up on the reservation and has worked on Enbridge projects for years, including Line 3, welcomed the project.
“Enbridge went out of their way to encourage Native people to work on the pipeline,” said Abramowski, who is one of the 500 Native Americans out the roughly 4,000 temporary workers Enbridge hired to construct Line 3, according to the company.
Abramowski says the jobs are more than just temporary. “Because of the experience that they’re gaining here today, they can carry that as far as they want,” he told ABC News. Abramowski believes the new pipeline will be safer and less likely to spill, but most important to him is that his tribe appears to now have a seat at the table.
“The major part is that my reservation leaders have a say in what happens here, not only today, but in the future,” he said.
Other Fond du Lac members see it differently.
“The Fond du Lac Band cannot speak for all of the other Anishinaabe Nations,” Taysha Martineau, a fellow Fond Du Lac member and prominent Line 3 opponent told ABC News.
“When they approved Line 3, and they started construction, they took away the voice of the wider nation,” Martineau said.
The Fond du Lac Band Tribal Business Council declined ABC News’ request for an interview and did not respond to a request for comment.
Houska, who comes from a small town in Northern Minnesota, co-founded one of the groups most known for conducting direct actions: Camp Namewag. A former intern at the Obama White House and later Native American Affairs Adviser to the Bernie Sanders campaign, Houska says she’s “participated in the process as much as anyone.”
“What I observed over time was a process that was so incremental in its approach, that was incredibly inefficient in addressing existential problems like a habitable planet to live on,” she said.
Spills, past and present
Enbridge pipelines have resulted in two of the largest inland oil spills in American history. In 2010, an Enbridge pipeline dumped nearly 1 million gallons of tar sands oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, as Enbridge pipeline controllers ignored repeated leak warnings for 17 hours before shutting down the pipeline, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Enbridge CCO Mike Fernandez says the company spent $5 million cleaning up the spill and learned valuable lessons that resulted in hiring and training more staff. “It was a big wake-up call for us as a company,” he said.
However, incidents during the construction of Line 3 have opponents feeling less than optimistic. Minnesota authorities have reported 28 known drilling fluid spills during construction, including a spill at the headwaters of the Mississippi. Enbridge was also fined $3.3 million for illegally piercing an aquifer in January, which resulted in the loss of at least 24 million gallons of water.
“We were drilling, we found the problem. We took the problem to the State Department of Natural Resources,” Fernandez told ABC News. “They assessed a fine and we are going to pay it.”
Despite the project coming online this month, opposition groups have vowed to continue to fight Line 3, saying that their efforts have forced the fossil fuel industry to expect heightened resistance in the years to come.
“They know that we are a threat to their bottom line. And that Indigenous resistance and all of the people who feel inspired by that resistance is very threatening,” Houska said.
“I think we’re that stubborn thorn that just won’t go away. I mean, I think it’s pretty reflective of native people generally,” she said. “We underwent genocide, then cultural genocide, then displacement or removal. We’re still here after all that. And we aren’t going away.”
(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — The relatives of those killed in the 2015 Charleston Church shooting are speaking out after they came to an $88 million settlement with the federal government over allegations the FBI was negligent in performing a background check on shooter Dylann Roof.
Rev. Anthony Thompson, whose wife was slain in the attack, said that the settlement brought some closure in “the tragedy of his life.”
“It’s been a long and tedious road and a lot of pain, a lot of suffering,” said Thompson. “It’s been hard to move my life forward because of all the legalities involved. Having to appear in court, having to send pictures and just revisit this whole situation time after time.”
Months before Roof opened fire at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine in a racist attack, he was arrested on drug possession charges. Despite having a prior criminal history, Roof was still able to purchase the handgun used in the massacre.
“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement released Thursday. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”
Roof’s victims include Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons, Sharonda Colemen-Singleton and Myra Thompson.
Roof, who is a self-declared white supremacist, was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges. He was sentenced to death in 2017.
Although Thompson said no amount of money can bring back his wife, he called the Justice Department’s settlement “fair” and said he’s glad to be able to move on in his life.
Thompson’s lawyer, Mullins McLeod, said that the settlement sends a bigger message.
“Unfortunately, in America, African Americans have not always experienced equal justice in our courts,” said McLeod. “This settlement, where the defendant is the most powerful nation on earth, sends a powerful message that justice does exist.”
Thompson has both publicly and privately forgiven Roof for the attack. He said that expressing forgiveness has brought the Charleston community closer together.
“The community of Charleston [has] a history of slavery here. … Even in my lifetime, I’ve experienced discrimination [and] racism, on the job, in schools,” said Thompson. “After [the church] expressed our forgiveness, there was a change. Our community came together.”
Avatar has a last-minute addition to your Halloween playlist.
The Swedish metallers have dropped a new song called “So Sang the Hollow,” which frontman Johannes Eckerström describes as “what Simon and Garfunkel would’ve sounded like if they grew up listening to Black Sabbath.”
“‘So Sang the Hollow’ lives between a dream and our waking nightmares,” Eckerström says. “It’s like a seance with ghosts of your own creation.”
You can download “So Sang the Hollow” now via digital outlets.
Avatar just released two new singles, “Going Hunting” and “Barren Cloth Mother,” in September. The band’s most recent album is 2020’s Hunter Gatherer.
In other news, Avatar has rescheduled a group of tour dates that were postponed this month after Eckerström tested positive for COVID-19. The shows will now take place in January and February 2022.
The fourth studio effort from the “Destruction” outfit will arrive February 11. It’s the follow-up to 2020’s Possession, which spawned the singles “Obsession” and “Half Your Age.”
Cleanse includes the previously released single “Every Window Is a Mirror,” as well as the songs “After Coffee” and “The Inversion.” A fourth album cut, “Cyn City 2000,” is out today via digital outlets.
Joywave will launch a U.S. headlining tour in support of Cleanse next year, starting February 26 in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Tickets go on sale next Thursday, November 4, at 10 a.m. local time.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit JoywaveMusic.com.
Here’s the Cleanse track list:
“Pray for the Reboot”
“Buy American”
“Every Window Is a Mirror”
“Cyn City 2000”
“After Coffee”
“We Are All We Need”
“Goodbye Tommy”
“The Inversion”
“Why Would You Want to Be Young Again?”
“Have You Ever Lit a Year on Fire?”
The Rolling Stones have teamed up with the Boston Dynamics robotics company on a unique remake of the band’s “Start Me Up” music video, which features robots recreating the band members’ moves from the original clip, released 40 years ago this month.
The video, which you can watch at Boston Dynamics’ YouTube channel, features the original video side-by-side with the robotic re-creation. The new clip features the company’s dinosaur-like “Spot” robots displaying moves like Mick Jagger, as well as like Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts.
The new clip has been rechristened “Spot Me Up.”
“Start Me Up” appeared on The Rolling Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You. The song and album peaked at #2, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts. An expanded, 40th anniversary Tattoo You reissue was released earlier this month.
Meanwhile, The Stones continue their 2021 No Filter Tour of U.S. with a concert tonight in Tampa, Florida.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 4.9 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 743,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 67.4% 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:
Oct 29, 6:44 pm
SCOTUS rejects bid to block Maine vaccine mandate for health care workers
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request for an emergency injunction against Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care staff.
A Maine physician and several others had sued the state over the mandate, which required that all health care workers be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1, because it disallows religious exemptions.
With three justices dissenting, the high court rejected the application Friday, though it could still grant the case on the merits and take it up for further consideration.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
Oct 29, 6:28 pm
Federal court lifts pause on New York vaccine mandate for health care workers
A federal appeals court has lifted an injunction on New York’s statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers seeking a religious exemption.
The court Friday returned the case to the district court for further proceedings. But for now, the state can once again enforce the mandate despite religious objections.
Seventeen people had sued the state after it ordered health care staff at hospitals and nursing homes to get at least one dose by Sept. 27, saying the mandate violated their constitutional rights because it disallowed religious objections.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Oct 29, 3:24 pm
FDA authorizes pediatric vaccine
The FDA authorized the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 on Friday.
An initial 15 million doses are expected to start shipping out of Pfizer’s manufacturing plant within 24 hours.
No vaccinations will start until the CDC director signs off. The director is likely to sign off on Nov. 2, with vaccinations likely beginning Nov. 3.
Oct 29, 1:04 pm
Being vaccinated offers better protection than being infected: CDC study
A new study from the CDC finds that people with “natural” immunity through infection were more than five times more likely to become infected with COVID-19 compared to people who were fully vaccinated.
The study reviewed more than 7,000 people across nine states, measuring infections and hospitalization rates three to six months after either vaccination or initial infection. The study — published in the CDC’s weekly journal, the MMWR — reaffirms prior research indicating that vaccines offer superior protection than natural immunity.
Oct 29, 12:46 pm
FDA expected to authorize vaccine for kids within hours
ABC News expects the FDA to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 on Friday, according to people familiar with the agency’s planning.
The exact timing of the announcement is not yet known.
But no vaccinations will start until the CDC director signs off. A hearing with the CDC’s independent advisory board is set for Nov. 2; the director is likely to sign off on the panel’s recommendations that evening, with vaccinations likely beginning Nov. 3.
Oct 29, 11:12 am
NYPD 80% vaccinated after administering over 1,000 shots Thursday
New York City’s police department is 80% vaccinated after administering more than 1,000 shots on Thursday.
Nearly all municipal employees, including police officers, sanitation workers and firefighters, have until 5 p.m. Friday to submit proof of receiving at least one dose of vaccine. Those who don’t get vaccinated will be placed on unpaid leave, starting Monday, for at least 30 days, and their future employment will be resolved in negotiations with individual labor unions.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called reports of nearly half unvaccinated precincts “certainly outdated” and said he’s more concerned about filling “individual shifts” than staffing precincts.
“We will move resources around. We have had significant increase in people getting vaccinated in the past three days, and that’s the good news,” Shea said on Channel 5. “New Yorkers should not, should not, be worried about this.”
The FDNY’s vaccination rate stands at 71%. The city’s firefighters’ unions organized an anti-vaccine mandate rally on Thursday.
Oct 29, 10:18 am
Montana, Idaho leading nation in death rates
In recent weeks, cases have been creeping up in Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont and Washington, according to federal data.
The nation’s daily death average has dropped by about 36.3% in the last month, but it remains persistently high, around 1,150 new deaths reported each day.
Montana currently has the country’s highest death rate, followed by Idaho and West Virginia, according to federal data.
Oct 28, 12:44 pm
Florida files lawsuit against Biden administration over vaccine mandate for federal contractors
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, arguing that the vaccine mandate for federal contractors is “unconstitutional.”
“Florida companies, public and private, receive millions of dollars in federal contracts annually and will be negatively impacted by the unlawful requirements,” a statement from Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said.
DeSantis said in a statement, “The federal government is exceeding their power and it is important for us to take a stand because in Florida we believe these are choices based on individual circumstances.”
Oct 28, 11:37 am
Global cases, deaths on the rise for 1st time in 2 months
The global number of COVID-19 cases and deaths are now increasing for the first time in two months, largely driven by an ongoing rise in Europe that outweighs declines in other regions, W.H.O. Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.
The highest case increases in the last two weeks were in the Czech Republic (up by 234%), Hungary (up by 200%) and Poland (up by 183%), according to the W.H.O.
The director-general attributed ongoing infections “in large part” to inequitable access to tests and vaccines.
“Eighty-times more tests, and 30 times more vaccines, have been administered in high-income countries than low-income countries,” Tedros said. “If the 6.8 billion vaccine doses administered globally so far had been distributed equitably, we would have reached our 40% target in every country by now.”
Goo Goo Dolls are getting into the holiday spirit with the deluxe edition of It’s Christmas All Over.
Following the release of their debut Christmas album in 2020, the legendary rock band is expanding on the effort with a deluxe edition that includes a pair of new tracks: the original “One Last Song About Christmas” and a cover of Dean Martin‘s “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” featuring opera-turned-alt-rock singer Kudisan Kai.
“Raise a glass/ And cheers to the season/ We don’t need a reason/ To love one another again,” the group sings over a melancholy melody in “One Last Song About Christmas,” co-produced by frontman John Rzeznik.
The new tracks join holiday classics including “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Christmas Don’t Be Late.”
The It’s Christmas All Over deluxe edition will be released on November 5.
Journey keyboardist and songwriter Jonathan Cain has just released a new EP titled Oh Lord Lead Us, the latest in a series of Christian music projects he’s put out in recent years.
The six-track collection includes the title track, which was issued as a single in July, and a tune called “Blue Thunder” that was inspired by Cain watching a storm roll by while at his home in Florida.
“It just hit me that there was a powerful conversation that God was having with the whole neighborhood,” Cain explains to American Songwriter. “The lightning hits and the thunder comes right after it; and the way it rolls, it feels like the sound waves roll, really, across the land. You can feel the earth kind of shake.”
The EP also features “Something Greater,” a song named after and inspired by a book by his wife, pastor Paula White-Cain.
Cain is planning to release a new full-length solo album soon.
Meanwhile, Jonathan’s song “Oh Lord Lead Us” will serve as the theme song for a new series Rockin on Heaven’s Door that will debut in December on the Pure Flix faith-based network. Cain also will appear on the debut episode of the series, which will feature various musicians discussing their spiritual beliefs.
Cain also is planning a songwriting event and a Christmas concert, with details to be announced soon.
As previously reported, Journey will be performing a series of Las Vegas concerts in December, including a six-show residency at The Theater at Virgin Hotels, a special symphonic performance on December 18 in Vegas at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
Here’s the EP’s full track list:
“Oh Lord Lead Us”
“Pray to the Father”
“Worship Our Way”
“Beautiful Thunder”
“Something Greater”
“No One but You Jesus”
