(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Philadelphia 123, Orlando 110
Brooklyn 119, Washington 118
Charlotte 111, Boston 102
Atlanta 134, Minnesota 122
Chicago 117, Cleveland 104
Milwaukee 126, Memphis 114
San Antonio 118, Oklahoma City 96
Final Dallas 102 Toronto 98
Houston 116, Utah 111
Detroit 133, Sacramento 131
Denver 130, LA Clippers 128 (OT)
Indiana 111, LA Lakers 104
Miami 104, Portland 92
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Arizona 4, New Jersey 1
NY Rangers 6, Toronto 3
Colorado 2, Anaheim 0
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Wednesday night failed to change the filibuster rule to allow voting rights legislation to pass with a simple majority.
The rule change would have required 51 votes to pass but did not have the support of all Democrats, whose leader had pushed for it. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., joined all Republicans in opposing the change.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said prior to the vote that the Senate would be “saved” by the opposition.
“Tonight, for the first time in history almost an entire political party will write in permanent ink that they would shatter the soul of the Senate for short-term power,” McConnell said. “But the brave bipartisan majority of this body is about to stop them.”
President Joe Biden said in a statement following the defeat: “I am profoundly disappointed that the Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed — but I am not deterred. We will continue to advance necessary legislation and push for Senate procedural changes that will protect the fundamental right to vote.”
Earlier in the evening, the Senate was unable to end debate on voting rights legislation — something that would have required 60 votes to move toward final passage.
That vote was 49-51.
“This is about the fundamental freedom to vote and what should be an unfettered access to the ballot. I am here to make a very strong statement that this is: Whatever happens tonight in terms of the outcome of this vote the president and I are not going to give up on this issue this is fundamental to our democracy and it is non-negotiable,” Vice President Kamala Harris said after the first vote.
In a rare event, the Senate convened on Wednesday morning with all Democrats instructed to be in their seats inside the chamber as they tried to move forward on voting rights legislation and on a challenge to a longstanding Senate rule.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., was one of the last to speak before the voting began.
“Jan. 6 happened, but here’s the thing, Jan. 5 also happened. Georgia, a state in the old confederacy, sent a Black man and a Jewish man to the Senate in one fell swoop,” he said. “Our nation has always had a complicated history, and I submit to you that here’s where we are — we’re swinging from a moral dilemma. We are caught somewhere between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6. Between our hopes and our fears. Between bigotry and beloved community. And in each moment we the people have to decide which way are we going to go, and what are we willing to sacrifice in order to get there. The question today is are we going to give in to a violent attack, whose aim is now being pursued through partisan voter suppression laws in state legislatures?”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats would seek a carveout to the filibuster rule to pass voting rights legislation by replacing the current 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster with an old-fashioned “talking filibuster.”
“We feel very simply: On something as important as voting rights, if Senate Republicans are going to oppose it, they should not be allowed to sit in their office,” Schumer said Tuesday following an evening caucus meeting. “They’ve got to come down on the floor and defend their opposition to voting rights, the wellspring of our democracy. There’s broad, strong feeling in our caucus about that.”
“The eyes of history are upon us,” he said to open debate Wednesday, preemptively defending the effort as a moral win, if not a legislative one. “Win, lose or draw, we are going to vote, especially when the issue relates to the beating heart of democracy.”
Schumer called out McConnell directly in his speech, who has led his party to block Democrats’ election reform efforts five times in the last year, blasting him for falsely claiming that red states haven’t changed laws restricting voter access.
“Just as Donald Trump has his “big lie,” Mitch McConnell now has his: States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever,” Schumer said.
He also addressed two Democratic senators who hold what Schumer thinks is a false view that the chamber’s filibuster brings greater bipartisanship — and he countered in his remarks: “Isn’t the protection of voting rights — the most fundamental wellspring of this democracy — more important?”
McConnell, in another blistering speech, said a rule change would “destroy the Senate” and warned of a “nuclear winter” if Democrats get their way and “blow up” the chamber’s rule to pass voting rights legislation, which he called a “partisan Frankenstein bill.”
“This is exactly the kind of toxic world view that this president pledged to disavow, but it is exactly what has consumed his party on his watch,” McConnell said, building on days of swipes at President Joe Biden.
McConnell accused Democrats of trying to “smash and grab as much short-term power as they can carry,” and said, “For both groups of senators, this vote will echo for generations.”
When Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., tried to ask McConnell a question after his speech and get him to engage in debate on the issue, the Republican leader walked away.
“I’m sorry he did not stay for the question,” Durbin said to the chamber. “Does he really believe that there is no evidence of voter suppression in the actions of 19 states?”
Democrats’ election reform bill comes at a time when 19 states have restricted access to voting fueled by false claims in the wake of the 2020 election, according to the the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. The bill at hand would make Election Day a federal holiday, expand early voting and mail-in-voting, and give the federal government greater oversight over state elections.
Schumer has proposal to reverting to a talking filibuster on the issue would allow Democrats to subvert GOP obstruction to make way for the bill’s final passage.
Under a talking filibuster, senators are required to “hold the floor” during debate, testing their stamina as they stand and speak to block bills. Once a party runs out of steam, the chamber would then pass the bill that was filibustered by a simple majority. So, in theory, Harris, as president of the Senate, would serve as a tie-breaking vote for Democrats to pass the once-filibustered bill.
But both Manchin and Sinema have repeatedly made clear their opposition to changing the filibuster rule even in order to pass voting rights, although they say they support the underlying legislation.
“I don’t know how you break a rule to make a rule,” Manchin told reporters Tuesday, shooting down the proposed talking filibuster.
Manchin defended his decision to vote against changing Senate rules in a floor speech Wednesday evening that he said aimed to “rebut what I believe is a great misleading of the American people” by Senate Democrats.
“Eliminating the filibuster would be the easy way out. It was not meant to be easy,” Manchin said. “I cannot support such a perilous course for this nation when elected leaders are sent to Washington to unite our country not to divide our country. We are called the United States, not the divided states, and putting politics and party aside is what we are supposed to do.”
Manchin made another plea for bipartisan cooperation and said he believes election reform could be achieved in a bipartisan fashion if members worked at it.
“I don’t know what happened to the good old days but I can tell you they’re not here now,” Manchin said.
The West Virginia lawmaker said he respects that many Democrats have migrated in their stance on the filibuster and asked for respect in his steadfast opposition.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., however, laid into Manchin and Sinema Wednesday evening.
“I do not understand why two Democrats who presumably understand the importance of the Freedom to Vote Act, and as I understand it, will vote for the Freedom to Vote Act, are not prepared to change the rules so that that bill could actually become law. That I do not understand,” he said. “If you think this bill makes sense and if you’re worried about the future of American democracy and if you are prepared to vote for the bill, then why are you wasting everybody’s time and not voting for the rule change that allows us to pass the bill? You know, it’s like inviting somebody to lunch and putting out a great spread and saying you can’t eat.”
Generally, senators rarely occupy the chamber while debate is open and only those wishing to speak deliver remarks to a largely empty room — but that was not the case for the high-stakes showdown Wednesday.
Among those who spoke was Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who warned Democrats that they’re embarking on a “slippery slope” in attempting to carve out an exception to the filibuster to pass a piece of legislation.
“They’ll soon find themselves rueing the day their party broke the Senate,” he said. “The next Republican-controlled Senate can make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, ensure that blue state millionaires are required to pay their fair share of federal taxes,” he went on, listing GOP platforms including implementing a 20-week ban on abortion and establishing concealed carry of firearms nationwide.
Both parties have supported filibuster carveouts in the past decade for judicial nominees — first under then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who lowered the threshold for judicial nominees to 51 votes to make way for then-President Barack Obama’s nominees in 2013. McConnell, as Senate majority leader in 2017, also used the so-called “nuclear option” to confirm then-President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
Last November, fans were shocked to hear that 25-year-old Hannah Price — daughter of Chris Daughtry and his wife Deanna — had died. Now, the couple has issued a statement revealing that she died by suicide while under the influence of narcotics.
The statement explains that Hannah had always “struggled with mental illness and was in and out of therapy and treatment centers.” She also “began using drugs and often found herself abusive relationships.” Then, just months after she lost her biological father to suicide, Hannah was the victim of a crime and was shot in the face.
“We did everything we could to support her and get her the help she needed to recover from these tragedies and get her life back on track,” Chris and Deanna say. “We had just recently made plans with Hannah for her to seek further treatment and move closer to the family.”
On the morning of November 12, the couple says Hannah told them she feared for her life because her boyfriend had allegedly physically abused her and taken her car. Chris and Deanna asked the local police department to perform a wellness check; they found she was O.K. But later that afternoon, Hannah was found hanging by her boyfriend, who called 911. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“After a thorough investigation…they have determined her official cause of death as suicide by hanging while under the influence of narcotics,” the statement concludes. “It has been determined that there is no evidence of foul play.”
The couple adds that Hannah “was a generous and loving person who wanted more for herself and others. She will forever be in the hearts and minds of those of us who love her.”
Daughtry’s tour resumes February 9.
If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.
In 2019, Mastodon released a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic “Stairway to Heaven” as a tribute to their late manager, Nick John. The band continued to honor John with their new album, Hushed and Grim, which is dedicated to his memory.
In listening to both the “Stairway” cover and Hushed and Grim, you may find that both have a similar, well, hushed quality. When asked whether he thinks any of “Stairway to Heaven” made its way into Hushed and Grim, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor tells ABC Audio, “I hope it found its way into something.”
“I’d never claim that,” Dailor laughs.
Covering “Stairway” in the first place, was, of course, a daunting task for Mastodon. After all, “No ‘Stairway'” is, as Wayne’s World taught us, one of the few rules of rock n’ roll.
“When you do a cover, especially something so iconic like that, like, who’s covering ‘Stairway to Heaven?'” Dailor says. “It’s, like, a big no-no, you know what I mean?”
Mastodon eventually decided to go through with it as a special tribute to John by performing “Stairway” at his funeral. They later recorded the cover and released it to raise money for cancer research.
In addition to honoring Mastodon’s beloved manager, covering “Stairway” allowed Dailor to dig deeper into the epic rock classic. That exploration of its iconic slow build and massive crescendo, Dailor thinks, may have influenced Hushed and Grim.
“I guess that I would say that there’s some stuff on the record that’s more in-line with something like that than anything we’ve really done previously,” Dailor says. “So maybe it subconsciously made its way into [us thinking], ‘Let’s try to have a vibe like that.'”
Hushed and Grim is out now. It includes the single “Teardrinker.”
The deluxe version of Brothers Osborne’s Skeletons arrives on Friday, bumping up the original track list to 15 with three new songs.
Fans have already heard one of those, “Younger Me,” and the other two are called “Headstone” and “Midnight Rider’s Prayer.” The latter is a tip-of-the-hat to Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” which it even samples.
The idea came after band mate John Osborne was looking for a chorus with the same feel and style as “On the Road Again,” and his brother TJ Osborne suggested simply using it.
“TJ just goes, ‘Well, why don’t we use that chorus?’ I’m like, ‘Because it’s already been written,’” John remembers. “He’s like, no, no, no…they do that a lot in pop songs and stuff.’ This has never really been done in country before.”
They sent the demo to the legend himself, and got a response that was even better than they could have dreamed.
“He liked it enough that he played it for Kris Kristofferson,” John continues.
But while the song pays homage — literally — to “On the Road Again,” “Midnight Rider’s Prayer” isn’t quite as carefree as the original. “At the time when we wrote that song, John and I were still in the phase of riding around in 12-passenger vans and getting beat up by the road,” TJ remembers.
“There’s a spot in the song John and I both really love,” he continues. “‘When your night is ending, ours is just beginning, on the road again.’ And that’s how it is.”
Look for Brothers Osborne on an upcoming episode of ABC’s Nightline. The show airs weeknights at 12:35AM ET.
After releasing his first album in five years, Love Is the New Black, in September, Anthony Hamilton is celebrating receiving three NAACP Image Awards nominations on Tuesday. The Grammy winner is up for Outstanding Male Artist,and has two nods for Outstanding Duo or Group Collaboration: “Superstar” featuring Jennifer Hudson from the album is nominated, as well the “Complicated” remix with Leela James.
Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a teenager Anthony chose to be adopted by another family after his mother struggled with substance abuse. He became a father right out of high school and supported his son working as a barber and as a cook. Eventually, at 21 he moved to New York City to pursue a music career, then returned home where his career took off. Last year, Hamilton celebrated his 25th anniversary as a recording artist.
His life has been a struggle, and he believes his journey can inspire others.
“I’m at an age where I’m not ashamed by it,” the 50-year-old singer tells Shadow and Act. “If it can be used to tell the story of Anthony Hamilton, maybe some young kid or one of my own kids can see something in that to push them through to their next level of greatness.”
Now the “Charlene” singer is diversifying and owns the Hamilton Corner Store in Pineville, NC where he sells the southern foods he grew up on.
“I want my own grocery stores in the urban communities like Whole Foods and Publix for my people,” Anthony says. “We deserve the best of the best.”
Hamilton will join Joe on Maxwell‘s NIGHT tour kicking off March 2 in Dallas. They will perform 25 shows, and cities will include New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland. The tour wraps in Miami on May 8.
Twenty One Pilots have earned a new chart milestone thanks to “The Outside.”
The track, the current single off the duo’s new album, Scaled and Icy, has hit number one on the Billboard Alternative Airplay ranking, making it the 10th Twenty One Pilots tune to achieve that feat.
The “Stressed Out” outfit is now just the sixth act to rack up at least 10 Alternative Airplay leaders since the chart first began in 1988. The other five are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters and Cage the Elephant.
The Chili Peppers have the most number-ones, with 13.
Scaled and Icy also produced chart-toppers in “Shy Away” and “Saturday.” Twenty One Pilots will launch a U.S. tour in support of the record in August.
24 years ago today, *NSYNC‘s debut single “I Want You Back” was released in the U.S., so let’s check in and find out the status of that movie Lance Bassannounced he was making based on the true story of two girls who won a Winnebago on The Price Is Right in 1999 and used it to follow *NSYNC on tour that year. Well, it’s definitely happening.
“It is finally being written right now,” Lance told ABC Audio a few months ago. “I wanted to make sure that this movie was written by, one, females, and people that knew that fandom and appreciated that fandom. And this writing team knows that.”
Lance added that Rachel Bloom –best known for co-creating and starring in the musical comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — is involved.
“We’re toying with how much of a musical we’re doing,” he explained. “There’s going to be tons of music in it, y’know, the way Pitch Perfect does it, where they break into song and dance, but it makes sense.”
The movie’s set 20 years after the original 1999 road trip, Lance said, adding, “We just want it to be kind of fun, over-the-top…I want that R-rated road trip comedy that you just have a lot of fun with.”
Meanwhile, *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone told ABC Audio that Lance has wanted to make this movie since the original 1999 road trip.
“From day one, when these girls won The Price Is Right, and they were following us, we started giving them tickets…we kinda sponsored them a little bit,” he noted. “And [Lance] even said, ‘One day, I want to do a film about this’…so it was really cool to hear that he’s going to be doing this, [with] a couple of really, really, really great writers.”
Here’s wishing a very happy birthday to KISS‘ Paul Stanley, who was born 70 years ago today.
The band’s frontman, co-lead singer and rhythm guitarist was born Stanley Eisen in New York City. He was born with a deformed ear caused by a defect called microsia that also left him deaf in that ear.
In his late teens, Paul joined a group called Rainbow that featured bassist/singer Gene Simmons. The band changed its name to Wicked Lester in 1971 and eventually recruited drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley. In 1973, the group again changed its name…to KISS. The band members soon came up with costumes and face makeup for themselves, with Stanley choosing the persona “The Starchild,” featuring a star over his right eye.
With their cartoonish look and over-the-top live shows featuring pyrotechnics and other dramatic effects, KISS soon became one of the most popular rock bands on the planet. Over the years, Stanley has written or co-written many of KISS’ biggest hits and most popular songs, including “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “Detroit Rock City,” “Hard Luck Woman,” “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” “Lick It Up” and “Forever.”
Stanley and Simmons have continued to lead KISS through the band’s entire history, while a number of musicians have filled the guitarist and drummer slots over the years.
In 2014, Stanley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of KISS.
Outside of KISS, Stanley is an accomplished painter and also has released a few solo projects. His most recent was the debut album by his side project Paul Stanley’s Soul Station, Now and Then, which arrived in 2021. The album featured covers of a variety of classic soul tunes from the 1960s and ’70s, as well as a handful of originals.
Meanwhile, Stanley has had a rough go of it during the last several months, overcoming two bouts with COVID-19 and undergoing shoulder surgery in late 2021.
Thankfully, Paul appears to be on the mend as KISS prepares to relaunch its End of the Road farewell tour with an Australian leg that kicks off in March.
The new series Single Drunk Female makes its debut tonight on Freeform, telling the story of Samantha Fink, a late 20s alcoholic realizing things are spiraling out of control.
Sofia Black-D’Elia plays Sam in the series and tells ABC Audio that the show is highly relatable, even if you’re not a late-20s alcoholic from Boston.
“We are all touched by addiction in some way or another,” she says. “We all sort of know somebody or are that person…So it’s sort of impossible to not relate to some part of this story.”
For Black D’Elia, the part of Sam’s journey that she relates to is “when you realize that you’ve spent most of your 20s thinking you know who you are, and you were wrong and you don’t really know anything and you kind of have to start over.”
The creator of Single Drunk Female, Simone Finch, also relates to the titular character and even admits, “I think she is me, but me when I was an alcoholic.”
“Just kidding, I’m still an alcoholic,” Finch jokes. “But when I came into AA at 28, is sort of Sam — they’re very similar, I would say.”
While alcoholism doesn’t necessarily sound like the premise for a comedy, executive producer Daisy Gardner would beg to differ.
“The darkest moments of my life are also the moments that I laugh the hardest,” she explains. “Like, when stuff goes so awry and is so terrible, just something ridiculous will happen. And that’s truly funny to me.”
![Chris Daughtry reveals daughter’s cause of death, says she’ll “forever be in [our] hearts and minds”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2022-01-19/Getty_ChrisDaughtry_011922.jpg "Chris Daughtry reveals daughter’s cause of death, says she’ll “forever be in [our] hearts and minds”")
