Page 7627 – 105.7 WDNY

Charlottesville civil trial over deadly 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally set to begin

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — A dark moment in U.S. history is set to be revisited when a federal civil trial begins in Charlottesville, Virginia, over a violent 2017 white nationalist rally that ended with an alleged neo-Nazi ramming his car into counterprotesters, killing one and injuring more than 30.

Jury selection is scheduled to get underway on Monday in the high-profile civil case in the U.S. district court in Charlottesville against organizers and certain participants of the “Unite the Right” rally. Nine people injured over the two-day event are accusing promoters of exhorting followers to “defend the South and Western civilization” from non-white people and their allies, according to the lawsuit.

“There is one thing about this case that should be made crystal-clear at the outset — the violence in Charlottesville was no accident,” contends the suit that is seeking unspecified damages from 24 defendants, including James Alex Fields Jr., the Ohio man who plowed his Dodge Challenger into a group of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

Fields, now 24, was convicted in 2018 of murder and multiple counts of aggravated malicious wounding, malicious wounding and hit and run. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

Fields also pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes in a deal his attorneys worked out with prosecutors to spare him the death penalty.

Among the other defendants named in the civil suit are the alleged key organizers of the 2017 rally; Jason Kessler — who took out the permit for the rally — and Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, which the plaintiffs have described in court documents as a white nationalist think tank.

Also named as defendants in the suit are the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, the East Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and Andrew Anglin of Ohio, founder of the far-right website the Daily Stormer.

The trial will mark the first major civil suit to be tried under the Enforcement Act of 1871, which is also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act and passed by Congress in response to a wave of terrorist violence against African Americans in the South.

“These defendants planned violence on social media and on other communication forums and even in-person conversations. They went to Charlottesville, committed that violence and then celebrated that violence,” Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, a nonprofit supporting the plaintiffs, told ABC affiliate WRIC in Richmond, Virginia.

The defense

The defendants claim they were exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and their right to self-defense, claiming counterprotesters initially turned violent.

“Plaintiffs complaint is long on coarse internet language regarding non-whites and short on allegations of racial violence perpetrated by any moving defendant,” defense attorneys argued in a motion to dismiss the case that was denied.

The defendants also said the lawsuit fails to demonstrate that they conspired to incite violence.

“Plaintiffs have failed to make any credible allegation that any moving defendant came to any agreement with anybody, to do anything, other than march and chant in Charlottesville,” defense attorneys said in a filing.

Kessler and Spencer both denied the allegations that they helped instigate the violence in their responses to the lawsuit.

Immediately after the Charlottesville rally ended in the deadly hit and run, Kessler released a statement blaming local police for the mayhem.

“The blame for today’s violence is primarily the result of the Charlottesville government officials and the law enforcement officers which failed to maintain law and order by protecting the First Amendment rights of the participants of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally,” Kessler said in a statement to WVIR-TV, the NBC affiliate station in Charlottesville.

The “Unite the Right” rally was organized in response to a February 2017 decision by the Charlottesville City Council to consider a petition to remove a statue honoring Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a city park.

Far-right demonstrators from across the country descended on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Aug. 11, 2017, where many were seen marching with tiki torches, giving Nazi salutes, and chanting “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us.”

Broken legs and emotional distress

Several of the plaintiffs were marching on Aug. 12, 2017, with a group of counterprotesters on Fourth Street in downtown Charlottesville when Fields’ was recorded driving his car into the protesters at high speed.

Marcus Martin, one of the plaintiffs, was peacefully protesting when he saw Fields’ car bearing down on him and pushed his fiancee out of the way right before he was struck by the vehicle, suffering a broken leg and ankle, according to the lawsuit.

Martin’s now-wife, Marissa Blair, who is also a plaintiff, was a co-worker and friend of Heyer, the woman killed in the incident. Both Martin and Blair suffered not only physical injuries but also emotional distress from the incident, according to the lawsuit.

Another plaintiff, referred to in court papers as Jane Doe 1, said she was marching with her mother and sister when Field’s car plowed into her, breaking both her legs and a knee.
‘Very fine people on both sides’

In the aftermath of the violence, then-President Donald Trump came under fire from Democrats — and many Republicans — for failing to strongly condemn the white supremacists and said during a news conference that there were “very fine people on both sides.”

President Joe Biden has said the turmoil in Charlottesville is the reason he ran for president.

“In that moment, I knew that the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime. I wrote at the time that we’re in a battle for the soul of this nation,” Biden said in his 2019 campaign launch video.

The civil trial is expected to last at least four weeks, and the aim of the litigation, according to the lawsuit, is to get justice for the plaintiffs and “to ensure that nothing like this will happen again at the hands of (the) Defendants, not on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, and not anywhere else in the United States of America.”

Hate crimes against Asians rose 76% in 2020 amid pandemic, FBI says

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Hate crimes against people of Asian descent rose by 76% in 2020, according to newly republished data by the FBI.

The FBI previously issued hate crime data in August, but due to an error in reporting Ohio’s statistics, the data was incomplete. The FBI has now corrected the technical problem in Ohio’s reporting system.

In 2020, 279 hate crime incidents against individuals of Asian descent were reported, compared to 158 incidents reported in 2019.

More than 60% of hate crimes in the United States were carried out on the basis of an individual’s race, according to FBI data released Monday.

“Every hate crime is an attack on the community,” Jay Greenberg, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division, told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas.

Greenberg said most hate crimes are directed at African Americans, but acknowledged there was an uptick in anti-Asian hate crimes due to COVID-19.

In total, there were 8,052 single-bias incidents — crimes motivated by one type of bias — involving 11,126 victims. Comparatively, there were 7,103 single-bias incidents involving 8,552 victims in 2019.

The FBI said 20% of the hate crimes targeted a person’s sexual orientation and 13% of the hate crimes that occurred in 2020 were due to religious bias.

More than half of the offenders were white, and 21% of the offenders were African American.

Greenberg said they are working to make sure there is trust not only in the FBI, but in local communities as well.

“Because a hate crime is defined as a violent or property crime with a bias motivation, that crime could be categorized a number of different ways,” he explained. “We would like the public to reach out to us if they believe that they are a victim of a hate crime. It’s not for the public to make that determination; we will work with our state and local partners and help determine how best to investigate that.”

When someone is a victim of a hate crime, people have different reactions, according to Regina Thompson, the head of the FBI’s victim services unit.

“Everybody has their own way of reacting and on their own timeline, so sometimes people will react immediately in the aftermath of a crime,” said Thompson, who was named head of the unit last year. “Sometimes they’ll go immediately into crisis and crisis intervention will be needed. Sometimes the full impact isn’t felt for hours, days, weeks, sometimes even months after the criminal event and the way that they react, there’s absolutely no normal.”

Greenberg said that while they don’t discuss the number of cases they are currently investigating, leaders at the FBI “have brought a renewed focus to enforcing the civil rights program consistently across all our offices, and we have seen the number of cases rise in the last year.”

The bureau takes a victim-centered approach to hate crimes, the two senior FBI officials explained.

“The FBI does have a victim services division that is focused on assisting and supporting the victims of federal crime and that when they are a victim of a federal crime, we are there to assist them and they can expect us to do that with understanding, dignity, fairness and respect,” Thompson said.

Thompson said that hate crimes are especially unique because it is a direct assault on someone’s identity and individuality.

“It really strikes at the fundamental core of who the person is, which makes it very different from some of the other violent crimes,” she explained. “It is an attack on something that is within the person’s identity, something that’s very immutable about them and often something that they can’t even change. So that has a very deep psychological effect.”

Pediatric vaccines will ‘very likely’ be available first or second week of November: Fauci

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Vaccines for children will “very likely” be available the first or second week of November, White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

“If all goes well, and we get the regulatory approval and the recommendation from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], it’s entirely possible if not very likely that vaccines will be available for children from 5 to 11 within the first week or two of November,” Fauci told ABC This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 91% effective against symptomatic illness in children ages 5-11, according to new data. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will meet Tuesday to discuss authorizing the vaccine for children, which is currently only available to those ages 12 and older.

The CDC issued recommendations for both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine boosters for certain populations on Thursday evening, clearing the way for millions of Americans to receive additional shots. The CDC’s authorization followed the FDA’s, which it issued Wednesday.

The CDC is also permitting mix-and-match booster doses — allowing people to get a different booster brand than was used for a primary vaccination.

Fauci said Sunday the new recommendations should not cause confusion, as they allow for flexibility in booster selection.

“We would hope that people, if available, would get the boost from the original product,” Fauci said. “But if not, there’s the flexibility of what we’re calling ‘mixing and matching.'”

Stephanopoulos pressed Fauci on whether receiving a different brand shot from the original dose yields better protection.

“I have read some studies that suggest that it’s actually better to mix. Like, say, if you got the Johnson & Johnson the first time around, it’s better to get Moderna the second time,” Stephanopoulos asked.

“If you look at the level of antibodies that are induced — if you originally had J&J, and you get, for example, a Moderna or a Pfizer, the level of antibodies, namely, the proteins that you would predict would protect you, those levels go up higher with the Moderna boost to J&J than the J&J boost,” Fauci responded. “However, it’s a little bit more complicated, because, in the clinical trial that J&J did, the clinical effect of the second dose of J&J was quite substantial.”

“So, it really becomes an issue of, what’s the most convenient? What do you feel is best for you?” Fauci added, recommending that people consult their physician.

Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci on the controversy over to what extent the U.S. was funding bat coronavirus research in Wuhan after the NIH released a letter this week about a New York City-based nonprofit’s research on bat coronavirus spike proteins. The letter states that the subcontractor had not disclosed some results in a timely manner.

“Now, some critics and analysts have seized on that to say you and others have misled the public about U.S. funding of this so-called gain-of-function research. The NIH says that’s false. Our medical unit backs that up,” Stephanopoulos said. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has called for Fauci’s firing over the controversy.

“Well, I obviously totally disagree with Senator Paul. He’s absolutely incorrect. Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the NIH lied or misled about what we’ve done,” Fauci responded.

“What did we learn from the letter? Does it show that some of the research we were finding was riskier than we know?” Stephanopoulos pressed.

Fauci said they knew what the risk was and there’s “no denial” that they should have put their progress report in a timely manner, but that the implication that the research led to COVID-19 is “unconscionable” and “molecularly impossible.”

“There’s all of this concern about what’s gain-of-function or what’s not, with the implication that that research led to SARS-CoV-2, and COVID-19, which, George, unequivocally anybody that knows anything about viral biology and phylogeny of viruses know that it is molecularly impossible for those viruses that were worked on to turn into SARS-CoV-2 because they were distant enough molecularly that no matter what you did to them, they could never, ever become SARS-CoV-2,” Fauci explained.

“And yet when people talk about gain-of-function, they make that implication which I think is unconscionable to do, to say, ‘Well, maybe that research led to SARS-CoV-2’,” Fauci added. “You can ask any person of good faith who’s a virologist, and they will tell you, absolutely clearly, that that would be molecularly impossible.”

Sixteen rescued from burning container ship off coast of Canada

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(VICTORIA, British Columbia) — Sixteen people have been evacuated from a container ship that caught fire off the coast of Canada, according to officials.

A fire broke out in 10 containers on the MV Zim Kingston near Victoria, British Columbia, on Saturday, according to the Canadian Coast Guard.

Crews mobilized to the location to rescue crew members and contain the fire. An emergency zone was set up for 2 nautical miles surrounding the ship, and rescue efforts continued into Sunday.

A navigational warning was issued overnight by the Canadian government reporting that the ship was on fire and expelling toxic gas. Two fallen containers are floating in the vicinity of the vessel.

Overnight, the tug Seaspan Raven cooled the hull of the MV Zim Kingston by spraying the hull with cold water. Due to the nature of chemicals on board the container ship, applying water directly to the fire is not an option.

Photos showed smoke billowing from a row of stacked containers that had collapsed.

There was no safety risk to people on land, according to the Canadian Coast Guard. No injuries were reported, according to a statement from Danaos Shipping Co, the company that manages the ship.

What to know about the Japanese royal family as Princess Mako prepares to bow out

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Princess Mako, niece to Japan’s enthroned emperor, Naruhito, is planning to leave the imperial family, moving out of her family’s estate on Oct. 26 when her marriage to Fordham-educated Kei Komuro is officially registered.

Female members of Japan’s imperial family must renounce their royalty when marrying a commoner. After the high-profile scandal surrounding their courtship, Japanese royalty is being forced to consider not just its dwindling numbers but its future.

Komuro’s mother, involved in an unresolved financial dispute, has been portrayed as a gold digger in tabloids, which have harshly criticized the couple. Princess Mako, an imperial household spokesperson told ABC News, is now suffering from PTSD because of the scrutiny.

Some among the nation’s citizenry are questioning whether maintaining an emperor as a living symbol of the state is still necessary. In 2019, the aging but popular Emperor Akihito abdicated, citing his age and declining health. His son, Naruhito, assumed the throne to reserved fanfare.

The latest scandal surrounding the princess’ fiance has left a bad taste in the mouths of many. Naotaka Kimizuka, a professor at Kanto Gakuin University who specializes in modern British and European political diplomatic history, said the Princess Mako courtship kerfuffle will take a historic toll on the Chrysanthemum Throne, adding: “The pair have already disgraced the heritage of Japan’s imperial household.”

Although Princess Mako has pledged to make a clean break from royalty, refusing the taxpayer-funded, one-time entitlement of 150 million yen (about $1.35 million), distrust remains. Many citizens aren’t convinced they won’t still be on the hook, even after the princess and her husband move to New York.

“The taxpayers will be paying for this in one way or expected to another,” one Tokyo resident told ABC News. “If one is in the imperial family, they’ll always be in the imperial family.”

Japan’s royal family, believed to be the world’s oldest continuous hereditary monarchy, has seen its numbers dwindle. Currently, women can’t ascend to the throne, so royal women marry commoners due to a lack of viable imperial suitors. Children from those marriages are then excluded from the imperial family line.

Hirokazu Matsuno, a government spokesperson, said in response to the question of dwindling numbers among Japanese royals: “The marriage of Princess Mako is scheduled for the 26th of this month. We wish her happiness, and prosperity for the imperial family. An expert panel has been established to address the issue [of dwindling numbers] in the imperial family. Detailed discussions are ongoing.”

More than 80% of Japanese citizens, according to a Kyodo poll, said they’d readily accept either a male or female ascending to the throne, or even a male who descended just from a female member of the imperial family. Most conservatives, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, disagree. The question of female ascension is a common clash in Japan of liberal vs. conservative values.

Japan ranked 120th in a global gender-equality ranking of 156 countries, according to a 2021 World Economic Forum report. Attorney Kazuko Ito, secretary general of Human Rights Now, said she believes living human beings can never be a symbol.

“I think the treatment toward the royal family and system as a whole is inhuman,” she added. “Exclusion from the royal family might be a good thing for female family members since they will get freedom for the first time as a human being, not as a restricted virtual role model.”

Hideya Kawanishi, an associate professor of Japanese history at Nagoya University, believes that keeping together the imperial family helps keep together Japan.

“There is no doubt that the emperor of Japan is a symbol of Japan’s unity as a nation,” he said. “In fact, it can be said that the emperor is somehow holding together the fragmented Japanese society. I believe that the same phenomenon is occurring in the royal families of Europe, and that a monarchy is needed in the 21st century world and in Japan.”

Supply chain problems forcing small businesses to change how they operate

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The supply chain issues the U.S. economy is currently facing are not only affecting consumers during the peak shopping season, but small businesses have also started to feel the effects of these shortages.

According to the most recent U.S. Census Small Business Pulse Survey, conducted between Oct. 11 and Oct. 17, 45% of businesses said they are having domestic supplier delays. The number is up from 26.7% during the first week of the year.

Supplies that small businesses rely on are becoming harder to find, especially since owners cannot always order in bulk or in advance like larger companies.

Rene Kirby, the owner of Marie’s Cafe in Baltimore, works to provide baked goods from her home and in pop-up shops in her community. With essential products not available on shelves, Kirby has been left searching for answers.

“We just can’t serve the same size beverages, or sometimes any beverages, because they don’t have the cups we need in stock,” said Kirby, adding that buying these essential products from other suppliers increases the price, making it “difficult for the consumer to buy these products.”

Jeremy Plemons, the owner of County Manners, a food truck based in southern Maryland, said he has been going to the same businesses for the past six years and has been shocked recently by the lack of products at his local stores. He said he has had trouble finding to-go boxes and forks, essential for his food truck business.

“It would be one thing if I couldn’t find french fries, we can change that, but when we got nothing to put it in, it’s heartbreaking and stressful,” Plemons said.

Plemons said he is looking to his community of restaurant owners to find a short-term solution for the most essential items he needs.

“We have been supporting each other a lot. If anyone needs anything, they know to call me, and I can always call them,” said Plemons, mentioning be might buy a shipping container with a fellow small business owner to stock up on essential, single-use items.

The Biden administration has worked on ways to mend issues with the supply chain, including expanding work hours to 24/7 at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports and agreeing with large private companies to expand their hours as well.

Easing the supply chain bottleneck is one step in the right direction, according to Ayman Omar, an associate professor of supply chain management at American University’s Kogod School of Business.

Omar describes the current situation as a “perfect storm.” Adding that “there is no one single point in time where the delays or disruptions started, it just exacerbated significantly because the volume of disruption is much higher,” pointing to the disruptions in multiple fronts, including the current shortage of truck drivers, stocking up on products, and delays in the shipping industry.

“The worst thing for a supply chain manager is inconsistency, getting 10 units one day 100 units the other day, drives supply chain managers insane,” adding that stocking up is also hurting small businesses “because a business is now ordering more of a product, another business might not get their product, it’s just a big domino effect.”

The outlook for small businesses is improving after many were forced to close during the COVID surge last winter. According to a survey conducted by Facebook and Small Business Roundtable, 16% of small to medium businesses in the U.S. remained close in July 2021, down from 22% in February. However, the speed of supply has not improved during the reopening phase of COVID, according to Omar.

“The infrastructure is at its breaking point, in terms of being able to deal with demand and distribution of supply,” said Omar. “The massive amount of demand that has shot up over the last five to 10 years, capacity has not kept up.”

Omar said he is optimistic about the short-term solution put forward by the Biden administration but added that in the long term, the answer could be “a partnership between private and public sectors” to share supply chain information to pinpoint the issue early on.

Karen Keating, president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, said the issues have been ongoing since the beginning of the pandemic. However, she said small businesses are trying to be proactive to stay competitive.

“Small businesses may have less sophisticated purchasing options, but they do have more flexibility due to their size,” Keating said. She added that small businesses “communicate with customers and clients about the situation” and “stay in contact with their customers about possible disruptions and delays in their products and services” to keep up with current issues.

Kandace Loge, who owns Pidcock Glass, a four-employee business in Nelsonville, Ohio, said she has had trouble finding screen metal, an essential part of her work, since May, saying she’s often had to wait several months before being delivered her orders.

Loge, who has managed the company for almost 20 years, said her solution has been to be upfront with her customers.

“You have to be very honest with your customer; when they know that you are honest, they are usually very nice about it,” said Loge.

Loge has changed her supplier, which has also meant a change in product sizes and changes to the company’s usual workflow and equipment.

“I am now starting to adjust our budget and change the pricing on products,” said Loge.

For many business owners, the concern remains the same: Will they be able to find the products they need, and will it affect their cost of production?

Plemons said he has the same thought every time he goes shopping for his business: “What am I not going to be able to find today?”

Oh, the horror: Things get scary tonight for Jimmie Allen on ‘Dancing with the Stars’

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Heading into Halloween weekend, it’s “Horror Night” this evening on Dancing with the Stars.

Jimmie Allen, however, is still laughing about being mistaken for an NFL player back when he had to wear a face shield to conceal his identity, prior to the cast reveal.

“Oh, yeah, it’s pretty funny. I loved it,” he tells ABC Audio. “They could not figure it out. First, they thought I was Matt James from The Bachelor. And I was like, ‘Matt James is six-five!'”

“And then they thought I was a football player for the longest, because I guess people weren’t thinking country music, you know what I mean? They see a black guy, looks like he got one or two muscles, they’re like ‘Oh he’s got to be a football player,'” he laughs.

Meanwhile, Jimmie remains a die-hard aficionado of all things Disney, so he’s thrilled to be part of the Disney family, since ABC’s owned by The Walt Disney Company. It’s something he shares with his seven-year-old son Aadyn.

“Listen, anything that gets him in Disney World,” Jimmie smiles, “and he loves JoJo Siwa, so I had to take a couple of selfies with her for him.”

Tonight, tune in at 8 p.m. ET to see Jimmie and his partner Emma Slater dancing Contemporary to “Say Something” by Daniel Jang, inspired by the movie, A Quiet Place.

Scoreboard roundup — 10/24/21

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Charlotte 111, Brooklyn 95
Philadelphia 115, Oklahoma City 103
Boston 107, Houston 97
Orlando 110, New York 104
Golden State 119, Sacramento 107
Lakers 121, Memphis 118

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Boston 4, San Jose 3
Nashville 5, Minnesota 2
Detroit 6, Chicago 3
NY Islanders 2, Vegas 0

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Atlanta 30, Miami 28
Cincinnati 41, Baltimore 17
Green Bay 24, Washington 10
NY Giants 25, Carolina 3
New England 54, NY Jets 13
Tennessee 27, Kansas City 3
LA Rams 28, Detroit 19
Las Vegas 33, Philadelphia 22
Arizona 31, Houston 5
Tampa Bay 38, Chicago 3
Indianapolis 30, San Francisco 18

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Austin FC 2, Houston 1
New England 2, Orlando City 2 (Tie)

Jason Sudeikis resurrects “The Ghost of Biden Past” in ‘SNL’ hosting debut

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Jason Sudeikis returned to his old stomping grounds this past weekend, hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time since leaving the show in 2013.

In the show’s opening sketch, President Joe Biden — played by new SNL cast member James Austin Johnson — grapples with his falling poll numbers and wonders and longs for the old days, when the press used to like him.

He’s then visited by “The Ghost of Biden Past” — played by Sudeikis, reprising his Biden impersonation from from 2013 — who gives 2021 Biden a pep talk, reminding him he’s still “Joe Freakin’ Biden.”

Sudeikis’ monologue took a couple of sentimental turns, with a shout out to his two kids with ex-wife Olivia Wilde — Otis, seven, and Daisy, five — then to reflect on the “historic” Studio 8A and how it shaped his life.

The Ted Lasso star also joined Weekend Update anchors, Colin Jost and Michael Che, and dusted off his devil character, who bragged about some of his recent accomplishments, including Jost’s marriage to Scarlett Johansson.

Sudeikis’ devil also claimed responsibility for Florida, The Houston Astros, Tom Brady and Lil Nas X.

Later, Sudeikis revived his red sweatsuit-clad over-enthusiastic back up dancer, Vance, in Kenan Thompson‘s recurring sketch, “What’s Up with That,” joined by fellow SNL vet, Fred Armisen as the sax-playing Giuseppe.

Sudeikis was joined by musical guest Brandi Carlile.

Kieren Culkin, who stars in the HBO drama Succession, will host when SNL returns November 6.

John Fogerty headlining three Florida charity shows next month supporting children of fallen first responders

October 25, 2021 by WDNY Radio

John Fogerty will headline three special benefit concerts in Florida next month, that will raise money for The Charity Pro’s, a Fort Myers, Florida-based non-profit established to support and advocate for children’s social causes.

The shows, scheduled November 20 in Tampa, November 21 in Estero, and November 23 in Orlando, will raise funds for the organization’s “Charity Pro’s for Heroes” initiative, which will help provide educational scholarships to children of first responders and healthcare workers who died from complications of the COVID-19 virus.

Proceeds from the events also will go toward granting children of fallen heroes a “Megan’s Wish,” that is, a special experience that will enrich their lives with love, hope and strength.

Joining Fogerty at the concerts will be three special support acts — country star Lauren Alaina on November 20, Foreigner on the 21st and Cheap Trick on the 23rd. Recent American Idol finalist Casey Bishop, an Estero native, will perform at all three shows.

Immediate family members of first responders and healthcare workers who passed away from COVID-19 are invited to attend the concerts for free. Those interested in reserving seats can email meg@thecharitypros.org.

First responders and healthcare workers will be able to purchase discount tickets for the events through the end of the day today by using the promo code HERO. Visit TheCharityPros.org for more information.

“Every day, we learn of the incredible stories of the children and families of our Heroes nationwide who are dealing with the effects of losing a parent or loved one,” says The Charity Pro’s founder Megan Maloney. “Bringing these families together to honor their loved ones, their Heroes and ours, is the very least we can do.”

+ More