(NEW YORK) — Some 911 call centers across the country say they are experiencing staffing shortages.
Some centers are struggling with as much as 30% to 50% vacancies, according to reports from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.
“We have actually been experiencing much higher staffing shortages throughout the pandemic,” April Heinze, operations director at the National Emergency Number Association, told “Good Morning America.” “It’s actually really starting to kind of take a head.”
For Ashley Bagwell, the mom of 6-year-old Hadlee, experienced the effects of those staffing shortages when she couldn’t get through to 911 earlier this month when Hadlee was having a seizure.
“I was terrified,” said Bagwell, whose oldest daughter also ran to the neighbors to try 911 but they also couldn’t get through. “I remember just screaming, I just said, ‘What do I do? I need them to talk me through what to do.’ It was the scariest moment of my entire life.”
In Lexington County, South Carolina, where Bagwell lives, officials say they are facing challenges when it comes to staffing shortages. Calls like Bagwell’s were not answered “due to a large volume of 911 calls received within a 15-minute period, which overload call takers,” according to officials.
But county officials say dispatchers called back the initial caller within three minutes and there was no answer. And “several other calls were made finally connecting with a caller” 10 minutes after the first call.
Other parts of the country that are seeing staffing shortages include Alabama, where there are 88 dispatcher jobs open across 10 agencies, and Chesapeake, Virginia, where a 911 call center is struggling to hire dispatchers.
“We’re about 30% short of overall staffing,” said 911 coordinator Lt. James Garrett of Chesapeake, who told “GMA” that there are delays in getting to 911 callers. “We’ve seen a drop in our ability to answer 911 calls and within 10 seconds and within 30 seconds, which is some of our standard, we’re not able to be as fast as we were because I don’t have enough and available people to answer those phones.”
Officials say COVID is playing a role in the staffing shortage, but so is burnout and low salaries.
To attract more people to apply for these open dispatcher roles, some states are working on or have passed legislation reclassifying 911 dispatchers as first responders so they can get better benefits. A similar bill is currently in Congress.
In the meantime, as call centers try to keep up with the large volume of 911 calls, dispatchers are urging the public to be patient. They’re also advising folks not to hang up if they don’t get to a dispatcher on the phone right away, otherwise, it will move them back to the end of the queue.
“I just hope no one ever has to experience the terror of this,” Bagwell said. “I just don’t want anyone to have to go through the stress of 911 not answering when your child is unresponsive.”
Otis Williams, the last surviving original member of The Temptations, celebrates his 80th birthday this Saturday.
Williams continues to perform with the legendary Motown quintet, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and he tells ABC Audio, “I’m still enjoying it, 60 years later. Turning 80, and still having fun.”
As for the enduring popularity of his group’s music, Otis says, “We never [would’ve] imagined that people would still be loving The Temptations 60 years later, because…show business can be very fickle…I’m very happy that we’ve had long stalwart fans to enjoy us.”
The Temptations have had so many classic songs, but Williams says his all-time favorite is one of their earliest and biggest hits, the 1964 chart-topper “My Girl,” which was co-written by Smokey Robinson.
Otis says that when Smokey first brought “My Girl” to The Temptations, Otis didn’t realize what a classic it was.
Williams says that changed “when the strings and horns were added to such a wonderful melody and the structure of the song, [which] gave it a whole ‘nother kind of daylight.“
Otis tells ABC Audio that he’s glad that the group has been able to start playing concerts again after a 16-month layoff because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he’s also excited that the Broadway musical based of the group’s story and music, Ain’t Too Proud, has reopened.
Williams says he’ll celebrate his 80th birthday in New York City, and he and The Temptations will be going to a performance of Ain’t Too Proud that day.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Otis will take part in a virtual Q&A event at New York’s City College Center for the Arts that will be streamed live for free at 7:30 p.m. ET. Visit CityCollegeCenterfortheArts.org for more details.
Reggie Rock Bythewood, series creator of Swagger, admits that 2020 put an unexpected wrench in his Kevin Durant-inspired Apple TV+ sports drama.
“Like most people, I could have never imagined what would’ve happened,” Bythewood tells ABC Audio of the challenges that 2020 brought to his production.
Bythewood says his initial plan for the series was to follow “youth [basketball] players and…their journey.” However, his plan quickly changed when COVID-19 hit, along with the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
“[T]he world…felt like it was being disrupted,” he shares. “So when we shut down during the pandemic…I just really felt like we needed to address what was going on… in the show.”
In addition to capturing “real time” events, Bythewood made sure to capture the DMV culture through the use of the funk-inspired go-go music genre, which he says was a “big part of his storytelling.”
“One of my writers…was from the DMV and she spoke about it, [Durant] spoke about it, and it just felt…authentic,” he says of making go-go music a “small character” in the show.
Like the creator, the cast says they also connected with something authentic when portraying their characters.
“I channeled…my father [Ice Cube],” O’Shea Jackson Jr. says of playing Coach Ike. “My father was my basketball coach, and I went on to coach my little brother, so I already had that…love for the game.”
Meanwhile, Isaiah Hill says he tapped into his confident side when portraying rising basketball star Jace.
“I had to really bring out some anger — the desire to want that exposure, the desire to want to be seen by the world as a certain player,” he shares.
(NEW YORK) — Remains found in a Southern California desert have been identified as 30-year-old Lauren “El” Cho, a New Jersey woman who was missing for months, authorities said.
Her cause and manner of death are pending toxicology results, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.
The remains were recovered on Oct. 9 during a search for Cho “in the rugged terrain of the open desert of Yucca Valley,” the sheriff’s department said. Cho was reported missing on June 28 “when she reportedly walked away” from the Yucca Valley home where she was staying, the sheriff’s department said.
The search for Cho was launched this summer and included planes searching the remote mountain terrain and canines scouring the area for evidence, the sheriff’s office said.
The “Break Stuff” rockers announced late Thursday night that their first record since 2011’s Gold Cobra will drop in full on October 31. The long in-the-works album — which, at one point, was to be titled Stampede of the Disco Elephants — is officially called Limp Bizkit Still Sucks.
The record consists of 12 tracks, including the previously released single “Dad Vibes,” which first premiered during the Bizkit’s set at Lollapalooza over the summer.
“We are excited to share this with you,” Fred Durst and company say in an Instagram Story posted by their label Suretone Records. “The party has just begun. See you soon.”
Here’s the Still Sucks track list:
“Out of Style”
“Dirty Rotten Bizkit”
“Dad Vibes”
“Turn It Up, B****”
“Don’t Change”
“You Bring Out the Worst in Me”
“Love the Hate”
“Barnacle”
“Empty Hole”
“Pill Popper”
“Snacky Poo”
“Goodbye”
Oh, well imagine, your adorable baby is finally asleep, and you don’t even need to close the you-know-what door.
Rockabye Baby! is here to help you accomplish that dream. The long-running series, which has released lullaby versions of songs by artists including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Tool, has now put its spin on Panic! at the Disco.
A whole album of soothing, twinkling recreations of tracks from throughout the Panic! discography is out today. What’s more, ABC Audio has the exclusive premiere of the video for the Rockabye Baby! rendition of “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.”
“What’s cool about Panic! is they started their big breakthrough right around the same time Rockabye did,” says series founder Lisa Roth. “So, there’s a chance that the teenagers and young adults who grew up with Panic! are starting families of their own, and it’s our hope they’ll share our lullaby renditions with their little ones.”
“Personally, I’ve always been intrigued by their genre-hopping music,” Roth adds of Brendon Urie and company. “And as a kid raised on musical theatre, I love the theatrical style of the videos and live shows.”
Here’s the Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Panic! at the Disco track list:
“Hey Look Ma, I Made It”
“High Hopes”
“I Write Sins Not Tragedies”
“Victorious”
“The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage”
“Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off”
“Nine in the Afternoon”
“Death of a Bachelor”
“The Ballad of Mona Lisa”
“Miss Jackson”
“Say Amen (Saturday Night)”
“This is Gospel”
Megan Thee Stallion went on an even deeper dive of her musical archive and unearthed 20 rare tracks for her new studio effort, Something for Thee Hotties: From Thee Archives, which she released Friday.
The “Savage” rapper was set to put forth a 15-track compilation, which include a mix of freestyles and never-before-heard tracks, right at midnight, but the release was slightly delayed after Meg decided to throw in five bonus tracks, including two skits.
Appearing on Thee Archives are the unreleased singles “Freakend,” “Pipe Up” and “Bae Goals.” On the freestyle side, she’s included “Southside Forever,” “Outta Town” and “Bless the Booth,” among others.
She added an extra treat, too, by placing her previously released single “Thot S***” in the mix.
The Grammy winner previously said she rummaged through her music catalogue and unearthed a mix of never-before-heard or unreleased tracks because she wanted to give her fans something to “hold ya’ll over for the rest of the year.”
She also acknowledged that her Hotties have been asking for her to release singles of the freestyles she previously shared on social media, such as her “Outta Town” and “Tuned In.”
Meg has certainly been keeping busy in the recording studio this year. After releasing her debut album Good News in the tail end of 2020, she’s been dropping freestyles, partnered with DJ Snake for “SG” and jumped on the Maluma and Rock Mafia track “Crazy Family” for Addams Family 2.
Here’s the complete track list for Something for Thee Hotties: From Thee Archives:
“Tuned In Freestlyle”
“Megan Monday Freestyle”
“Trippy Skit” ft Juicy J
“South Side Forever Freestyle”
“Outta Town Freestyle”
“Megans Piano”
“Vickeelo and Dino BTW Skit”
“Eat It”
“All of It”
“Warning”
“Kitty Kat”
“Tina Snow Interlude”
“Let Me See It”
“Opposite Day”
“Freakend”
“Bae Goals”
“Pipe Up”
“Bless the Booth Freestyle”
“Thot S***”
(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, 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.”
Dua Lipa‘s “Levitating” is one of the biggest songs of 2021, but it isn’t likely to take home any Grammy Awards.
Lipa didn’t submit the song for Grammy consideration even though, according to Variety, “The single had major impact this year, and because it was a new remix, with DaBaby as an added featured artist.”
However, DaBaby’s controversial remarks about people with HIV/AIDS made during a concert in Miami back in July might have been the reason the singer chose not to submit it.
“Lipa presumably could only have submitted the DaBaby, and that would have been a lot to ask of voters, to pretend that the persona-non-grata rapper really wasn’t on it,” notes Variety. “Most likely Lipa was saving voters having to agonize over choosing between their love for her and their dread of giving the thumbs-up to a guy still considered toxic by much of the industry for his homophobic comments.”
Lipa does have one song on the ballot for record of the year, but it’s “Demeanor,” the Pop Smoke song that features her as an artist.
Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images
(VATICAN CITY) — As President Joe Biden embarked on only his second overseas trip, he started with a personally poignant audience with Pope Francis on Friday, the first time in more than half a century that a Roman Catholic U.S. leader has met at the Vatican with the head of the Catholic Church.
The White House said the private meeting lasted about 90 minutes, unusually long.
Biden, only the second Catholic elected president after John Fitzgerald Kennedy, spoke of the moment’s significance last month.
“I happen to be a practicing Catholic and one of the things I like about my pope today is he’s all about renewal and forgiveness, that’s what that’s what he’s about. And I look forward to — I hope I get to see him in the not-too-distant future,” Biden said in September.
In a statement after Friday’s meeting, the White House said “President Biden thanked His Holiness for his advocacy for the world’s poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution. He lauded Pope Francis’ leadership in fighting the climate crisis, as well as his advocacy to ensure the pandemic ends for everyone through vaccine sharing and an equitable global economic recovery.”
At one point, the two men exchanged gifts.
“I’m not sure this is appropriate, but, there is a tradition in America that the president has what is called a command coin that he gives to warriors and leaders, and you are the most significant warrior for peace I’ve ever met,” Biden can be heard explaining to Francis in edited footage released by the Vatican, as an interpreter shares the message with the pope. The Vatican did not allow U.S. news photographers inside.
Biden described the symbols on the coin, and the personal connection it has to his late son, Beau, telling Francis he knew Beau would want him to have it.
“It has the U.S. seal in the front. … I know my son would want me to give this to you because on the back of it, I have the state of Delaware in the 261st Unit my son served with,” Biden said.
Later, at a photo op with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, ABC’s Ben Gittleson asked Biden how the meeting went.
“Wonderful,” Biden replied. When asked what they discussed, he answered, “A lot of personal things.”
Overshadowing the meeting, though, was criticism from conservative U.S. bishops over Biden’s political position on abortion.
This is not the first time the two have met. In fact, the pair have spent more time together than perhaps any previous U.S. president and pope — a distinction not lost on Shaun Casey, a senior fellow at Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University.
“They’ve known each other for the entire papacy. And this will not be their first meeting, which I think makes it fairly unique in American presidential history, it may be even in papal history that these two guys know each other to a degree that no other analogous pair do.” said Casey, who served as a special representative for religion, and global affairs to Secretary of State John Kerry during the Obama administration.
“These guys know each other, and I think they’re comfortable with each other and they have a relationship that seems to be very warm and very genuine.”
Biden and the pope
As vice president, Biden attended Francis’ inauguration in 2013, and helped shepherd him during his visit in Washington in 2015, before once again meeting Francis at the Vatican in 2016 for a conference on regenerative medicine.
Francis’ visit to the United States was particularly touching for Biden, coming just a few months after the passing of his son, Beau, from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, that May.
“He asked to meet with the family in the hangar in the airport as he was leaving in Philly,” Biden recalled of Francis in an interview with CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert last year.
“He came in. We had 16 family members there, and he didn’t just speak about Beau, he spoke in detail about Beau, about who he was and about family values and about forgiveness and about decency. I mean, he is — I am a great admirer of His Holiness, I really am,” Biden continued.
He keeps a photo of himself and Francis in the Oval Office.
Yet, Biden’s political views have sometimes put him at odds with the church on issues like gay marriage and abortion, issues that still divide him and Francis. Despite that, the two men share similar views when it comes to helping the poor, the need to address climate change and combatting the pandemic.
According to Casey, Francis places the church’s “pastoral” role above its “theological” one — an outlook that bonds him with the American president.
“Biden draws meaning and sustenance and healing from how the church has been with him during his grief over his long public career. And so in essence, there’s a pastoral bond there, in addition to the sort of social teachings bond that they share.
Francis is not the only pope Biden has met in his nearly 50 years in Washington. Biden also met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, and in 1980, the then-senator met for 45 minutes with Pope John Paul II.
“He kept kidding me about how young I am,” Biden told The Dialogue, the newspaper of the Wilmington, Delaware, diocese following the meeting.
Biden also recalled “discussions with the pope were relatively uninterrupted, even though several times during their conversation aides knocked on the library door, only to be waved away by John Paul.”
‘My religion defines who I am’
Biden is perhaps the most publicly religiously observant president the country has seen since Jimmy Carter. He attends Mass almost every weekend and on holy days of obligation, very often accompanied by family members, and wears Beau’s rosary beads on his wrist.
“My religion defines who I am,” Biden said during the 2012 vice presidential debate. “I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.”
Biden attended Catholic school growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, and has cited his faith as helping him to weather some major traumas in his life, including the death of his young wife and daughter in a 1972 traffic accident, and his son in 2015.
“I never miss Mass,” Biden said last August. “It is part of who I am. It’s what gets me through the very difficult times in my life, and I believe it very strongly.”
But even as he acknowledges the profound impact his religious devotion has had on his life, Biden largely deems his faith to be a “private matter” and not open for public discussion.
“I don’t proselytize. This is just a private thing with me and I feel very — my faith … means a great deal to me. And it’s been sort of my salvation,” Biden said in 2019.
But Biden’s private faith has become the subject of a major public debate during his presidency. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has criticized him for his stance on abortion, and voted to draft guidance on who should be able to receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist — the consecrated host Catholics believe is the Body of Christ.
Biden, who campaigned on codifying Roe v. Wade, and announced his opposition to the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of public funds for abortions, during the 2020 campaign, has drawn a line between his public and private views of the issue.
“My position is that I am personally opposed to abortion, but I don’t think I have a right to impose my view on the rest of society,” Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir.
That position has caused problems for Biden in the past. In 2019, Biden was denied Communion at a South Carolina Catholic church while campaigning for president.
“Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching. As a priest, it is my responsibility to minister to those souls entrusted to my care, and I must do so even in the most difficult situations. I will keep Mr. Biden in my prayers,” Rev. Robert Morey of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, said in a statement.
For his part, Biden brushed off the incident as a one-off event, saying, “it’s not a position I’ve found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father who gives me Communion.”
A vote on the new guidance for Eucharistic eligibility, pushed by conservative bishops, is set to take place in mid-November, and would require support from two-thirds of the conference to be implemented, but the effort has not been received warmly by the Vatican.
Francis has made clear that Holy Communion is “not a prize for the perfect,” and does not believe in denying Communion.
“What must the pastor do?” Francis asked aboard the papal plane in September. “Be a pastor, don’t go condemning. Be a pastor, because he is a pastor also for the excommunicated.”
“The bishops here in the U.S. cannot miss the symbolism of the warm embrace of Joe Biden by Pope Francis,” Casey said of the visit.
Even if approved, implementation would be up to local bishops. The Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has also said he does not support denying Communion, as has Holy Trinity Catholic Church, which Biden attends in Washington.
“As a parish which has a long history of welcoming all, we concur with and support the pastoral approach of our Archbishop. Holy Trinity Catholic Church will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it,” the parish said in a statement.
When Biden was asked about the effort earlier this year, he simply replied, “That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
