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Gabby Petito’s cause of death a lesser-known sign of intimate partner violence, experts say

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — When a Wyoming coroner announced Tuesday that Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old travel blogger whose remains were recovered in September in a national park, died by strangulation, experts who study intimate partner violence said they saw a recognizable thread.

“Strangulation is not talked about as much, but it is a major risk factor for intimate partner homicide,” Kellie Lynch, an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told Good Morning America. “And we often see it occur alongside more severe abuse.”

“When you’re talking about strangulation, that is very typically the cause of death in domestic violence cases,” Dan Abrams, ABC News chief legal analyst, said in an interview Wednesday on GMA. “It is angry. It is violent. It takes time. That is precisely what many believe happened here.”

Petito’s death was ruled a homicide and the cause is officially listed as “manual strangulation/throttling,” according to the coroner.

Petito’s boyfriend and cross-country traveling companion, Brian Laundrie, has been named by investigators as a person of interest in her death and is the subject of a massive nationwide search being directed by the FBI.

While the search continues for Laundrie, he’s also wanted on charges of bank fraud for allegedly using Petito’s credit card. Experts said the case has shined a spotlight on intimate partner violence and the many forms it can take.

Strangulation is one of the most lethal forms of domestic violence, one that can cause death within minutes, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a 24/7, free and confidential resource.

It is also a predictor for future deadly violence, experts said. A non-fatal strangling in the past by a partner makes the victim 10 times more likely to be killed by them later on, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“I think people are now starting to appreciate the seriousness of strangulation, both that it’s more frequent than we realize and also that it can be more lethal than we realize,” Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy and advocacy of Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit organization focused on ending violence against women and children, told GMA. “When we train health care providers, strangulation is one of the very specific issues that we talk about to help them recognize it.”

Symptoms of strangulation can range from a sore throat and difficulty swallowing to bruising, memory loss, difficulty breathing and changes in sleep, mood and personality, among others, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Strangulation in cases of intimate partner violence is often about control, and in non-fatal cases, it may not leave as evident of a mark as other forms of physical abuse, experts said.

Stewart and other experts note that when cases like Petito’s are in the news, though extremely tragic, they can raise awareness about intimate partner violence and the many different forms it may take.

“Domestic violence is still a very serious issue,” said Stewart, noting young people between the ages of 18 and 24 experience the highest rates of domestic violence. “As a country, we have made great progress in the last 25 years, but we haven’t actually reduced homicides nearly as dramatically, and that still needs to be a real focus.”

In his eulogy at his daughter’s funeral last month, Joseph Petito referenced the issue, telling mourners, “If there is a relationship that you’re in that might not be the best thing for you, leave it now. Take care of yourself first.”

Intimate partner violence, which falls under the broader umbrella term of domestic violence, affects more than 12 million people every year, and disproportionately impacts Black and Indigenous women, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. It has historically been seen by many as something that happens with older, married couples, or something that involves only physical abuse, like a black eye, the organization said.

In reality, it is something that cuts across all social and demographic lines and can also occur through control and manipulation that is not as easily visible to the outside world, according to Lynch.

“We have these myths or stereotypes in our head of a typical domestic violence abuser and victim, who they are and what they act like, but everybody is at risk,” she said. “People would be very surprised to find out just how prevalent it is and how many people they know who’ve experienced it at some point.”

While acknowledging that not all details of the incident are known, both Lynch and Stewart pointed to body camera footage of Petito and Laundrie being pulled over in Arches National Park in Utah in August after a report of an alleged domestic problem.

The footage showed Petito, who appeared to be crying, at one point sitting in the back of a police vehicle, and Laundrie, at other points, talking to police officers.

Petito told police she suffers from severe anxiety and other medical conditions and that the couple’s argument had been building for days. Police labeled the incident as a “mental/emotional break” rather than a domestic assault, according to the police report.

“I don’t know how much we’re going to know about the relationship and the dynamic between the two of them, but in the video, she seemed frightened and scared,” Lynch said of Petito. “I think across all of these cases [of intimate partner violence], that’s what you’re going to see, someone is intimidated.”

Stewart said she sees in the video fear from Petito, which she calls a red flag.

“You can’t always tell the first time you meet somebody what’s going on,” she said. “But once you’ve started to have a conversation, if you see somebody who’s very much afraid, like, ‘If I were to not do what he wants, what happens?’ that’s often a red flag.”

Abuse in relationships, which data shows is more often, but not always, perpetrated by men, comes down to “power and control,” according to Rosemary Estrada-Rade, director of quality assurance and innovation at the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“It’s about that pattern of behaviors that are used within relationships to maintain that control over the other partner,” she said. “So it could be physical violence, but a lot of times it’s intimidation, manipulation, emotional abuse, financial abuse and financial control, and that can look different in different relationships.”

Signs that someone may be suffering from intimate partner violence include isolation from family and friends, appearing withdrawn or not like themselves, frequent calls or texts from their partner about where they are and who they’re with and other controlling behaviors, like withholding money or restricting a person’s ability to work, according to Estrada-Rade.

When a case like Petito’s is in the headlines, it can help draw awareness to the issue of intimate partner violence and increase education, experts said.

In Sarasota, Florida, around 30 miles from the town where police say Laundrie was last seen, calls to a local domestic violence shelter have increased 15% over the past month, compared to the same time last year. The shelter’s CEO attributes the increase to both the pandemic and headlines around the Petito case.

“Domestic violence is something that people shy away from, they don’t want to talk about it,” Jessica Hays, president and CEO of Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center in Sarasota, told “GMA.” “I think that anytime that we have an opportunity to talk about how common domestic violence is, and the warning signs and just shine a light on the fact that this is something that affects many, many people and is not the fault of the victim and that there is help and support out there, that’s a really important conversation.”

The National Domestic Violence Hotline has experienced a 46% increase in contacts in the past five years, according to a spokeswoman, who also attributed the yearslong increase in calls to a combination of factors.

“While we can’t say definitively that seeing or hearing about reports of abuse or domestic violence in the media causes an increase in contacts, we do know that news reports and even depictions of tactics of power and control in other media can help survivors recognize that they might be experiencing abuse and that they can reach out to us,” the spokeswoman said.

Experts said that is the most important takeaway, the recognition that there is help out there for everyone touched by intimate partner violence, from those experiencing it to those committing it to those trying to help.

“During this Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we really are encouraging those who feel that they may be in an abusive or controlling relationship to get help, to talk to somebody,” said Stewart. “And also, we really encourage people who may be using violence in their relationships to also reach out for help because that’s really the behavior we need to change.”

If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

Prince William criticizes space tourism race, says focus should be on saving Earth

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — As Prince William prepares to deliver his Earthshot Prize to people saving the planet, he aimed some criticism at billionaires sending people to space.

“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live,” William, 39, said in a new BBC interview, referring to the current race for space tourism led by billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson. “I think that ultimately is what sold it for me — that really is quite crucial to be focusing on this [planet] rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future.”

William’s comments came just one day after actor William Shatner took a successful 10-minute trip to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard.

“Everybody in the world needs to do this,” Shatner told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos after he touched down in Texas Wednesday.

William said he has “absolutely no interest” in going to space and questioned the carbon cost of flights to space, according to the BBC.

On Sunday, William and his wife, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, will attend the first Earthshot Awards, where five winners working to repair the planet will receive $1 million in funding.

William launched the Earthshot Prize, modeled after former U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s famous moonshot challenge, last October.

Five winners will each receive $1 million each year until 2030. The goal is to create “at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030,” Kensington Palace said about William’s $50 million initiative.

William and Kate are the parents of three children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte.

William spoke to the BBC about how his kids motivate his work on the environment.

“I want the things that I’ve enjoyed — the outdoor life, nature, the environment — I want that to be there for my children, and not just my children but everyone else’s children,” he said. “If we’re not careful we’re robbing from our children’s future through what we do now.”

William also described his fear that Prince George, 8, the third in line to the throne, may still be talking about climate change 30 years from now, when it “will be too late.”

“It shouldn’t be that there’s a third generation now coming along having to ramp it up even more,” said William, whose father, Prince Charles, has made addressing climate change a priority of his work. “And you know, for me, it would be an absolute disaster if George is sat here talking to you or your successor, Adam [Fleming, of the BBC], you know in like 30 years’ time, whatever, still saying the same thing, because by then we will be too late.”

What to expect from FDA panel on boosters for Moderna, Johnson & Johnson vaccines

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — An independent FDA advisory panel on Thursday and Friday is set to discuss and vote on whether to authorize Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine boosters for those 18 and older.

The outside experts will also consider new data from the National Institutes of Health on the potential benefits of mixing and matching vaccines for booster shots.

Early results from the highly anticipated NIH study finds that boosting with a shot different from what people got the first time appears to be safe and effective.

The non-peer reviewed study evaluated all three vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna and J&J — finding that no matter the booster, all study participants saw a “substantial” uptick in antibody levels after a booster shot.

Though promising, more research is likely needed on mixing and matching. For now, the FDA and CDC are slated to weigh in on whether to authorize additional booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots for those who received the same original vaccine.

This week’s meetings are the first step in a long process: The FDA itself and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would both need to sign off on the panel’s recommendations about who should get boosters and when — and the earliest that could happen is the following Friday, Oct. 22.

On Thursday, the panel will discuss and vote on a potential Moderna booster, and hear presentations from both the company and FDA representatives; Israel’s director of public health health will give a presentation about the results of Pfizer booster shots in that country.

The FDA panel will ask questions and debate the benefits versus risks of a Moderna booster and an initial, non-binding vote on the Moderna booster has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, the panel will discuss and vote on a Johnson & Johnson booster, in addition to hearing NIH’s presentation on mix and match booster data.

Johnson & Johnson’s posted a summary of its research Wednesday, making the argument for a second shot, same dose, roughly six months after the single-shot vaccine.

An initial, non-binding vote on the Johnson & Johnson booster has been scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Once the FDA advisory panel votes on recommendations for each booster, the FDA itself needs to formally amend the current emergency authorization. FDA career scientists are expected to authorize boosters for Johnson & Johnson and Moderna within days of the independent panel’s non-binding vote.

Then, the question goes to CDC’s independent advisory panel of experts. That panel has scheduled a meeting for next Wednesday Oct. 20 and Thursday Oct. 21 to discuss boosters for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Those outside experts will weigh in with their recommendations, which are also non-binding.

Once that happens, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky must sign off, which typically happens within 24 hours of the panel’s recommendations.

Julianna Margulies addresses playing a lesbian on ‘The Morning Show’

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SPOILERS AHEAD) Julianna Margulies plays a lesbian on season two of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, and she’s not at all worried about possible blowback from gay actors.

“Who’s to say I haven’t had my own gay experiences?” Margulies said on the Just for Variety podcast. “We’re making assumptions.”

Margulies plays an out TV news reporter who ends up dating Bradley, played by Reese Witherspoon. Julianna thinks it makes for a surprising but welcome twist to the show’s storyline, which is what drew her to the role.

“You’ve got Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon playing these two very strong characters, and in the second season instead of bringing a man in to upset that balance they brought in a woman,” Margulies explains. “Hats off to that, because the truth is women are more afraid of women. They dress for women. We don’t dress for men. We dress for each other. We want to impress each other much more… It made so much sense, and I thought, ‘Ah, a show that gets women. This is great.’”

The Good Wife alum admits there was some talk of her casting drawing fire from the LBGTQ community.

“I know there was some trepidation of ‘will lesbian actresses be angry?’ and I can tell you I would never, ever be angry if a lesbian played a straight woman,” notes Margulies.

Season two of The Morning Show is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.

Rob Lowe on helping Jennifer Aniston unpack the “melancholy” ‘Friends Reunion Special’

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Rob Lowe‘s podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe recently hosted Jennifer Aniston, and the star of The Morning Show got real about the real tears she shed during Friends: The Reunion Special.

Lowe told Entertainment Tonight he was the “perfect” person for the star to unpack that experience with.

During their chat, Aniston admitted it was “kind of hard to time travel,” for the much-hyped HBO Max special, and the experience took her and her fellow former cast members “down way harder than we anticipated.”

She expressed, “Going back there, it’s nostalgic in a way that’s kind of also a little melancholy ’cause a lot has changed. We have all gone down different roads, some easy and some not so easy, for each of us. It was brutal. And you also can’t turn it off… There are cameras everywhere, and I can’t stop crying.”

Lowe told ET the revelations were the “perfect example” why he makes a good sounding board for his celebrity…friends.

“Jen Aniston gives a lot of interviews… so do all of the people I talk to, but I feel like there are questions I want to ask them that I don’t think other people are gonna ask them.”

“I had done a Parks and Rec reunion,” Lowe explained. “I had done a West Wing reunion, so when I talked to Jen about her Friends reunion, just the fact that it was something both of us have done I think enabled her to open up and talk about [it]…in a way that she never had before, that was how melancholy it was for her.”

“I totally got it,” Lowe said, adding of those kinds of get-togethers, “It’s very bittersweet.”

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Kenya Moore reveals she performed through an injury on ’Dancing with the Stars’

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Kenya Moore is thankful she survived another week of Dancing with the Stars after Bachelor alum Matt James was sent home by the judges.

“I thought I broke my ribs,” the Real Housewives of Atlanta star revealed to Entertainment Tonight, explaining that the injury happened during Monday night’s performance. She consulted a doctor the following morning because she was unable to make it to urgent care or an emergency room after the show.

“I was OK, but I just didn’t want to stop dancing. It meant everything for me to be here,” said Kenya, who didn’t elaborate on the extent of or what caused her injury. “I danced through all of that pain.”

Kenya also revealed that her injury placed additional pressure upon her pro dance partner, Brandon Armstrong, who would continually ask her if she was okay “every time he would touch me.”

“[Kenya] told me she is not 50, but she is not 22,” Brandon joked to ET.

Still, the two put on their brave faces and their hard work paid off, with Kenya adding she’s “just shocked” she survived a double elimination. However, she suffered an emotional blow after being voted into the bottom two.

“I’m dancing injured. I had this emotional low last night after we performed, and it was just overwhelming to fight so much and do a great dance and then end up in the bottom again,” she recalled. “A lot of emotional things going on in my life right now. It was just overwhelming for me… I just cried myself to sleep last night.”

See how Kenya and Brandon salute Grease when Dancing with the Stars returns next Monday at 8 pm. ET on ABC.

Ghost-themed level added to Iron Maiden’s ’Legacy of the Beast’ mobile game

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ghost and Iron Maiden are reuniting — in the virtual world, at least.

The “Run to the Hills” legends have announced a new Ghost-themed level in their Legacy of the Beast mobile game.

Players will lead Maiden’s iconic mascot Eddie alongside an avatar of Ghost’s Papa Emeritus IV character through a dungeon called the Mascarade Diaboliquet. The visuals for the level take inspiration from the cover of Maiden’s 2003 album Dance of Death and Ghost’s 2018 Prequelle single, “Dance Macabre.”

You can play the Mascarade Diaboliquet level now through October 20.

Ghost previously opened for Iron Maiden on the latter’s 2017 U.S. Book of Souls tour.

Meanwhile, both Ghost and Maiden recently released new music. Last month, Ghost premiered the single “Hunter’s Moon” for the new Halloween Kills movie, while Maiden dropped their Senjutsu album.

Biden embraces Trump accords, but struggles with his withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal amid growing threat

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — There have been major differences between the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden on foreign policy — not least over the Iran nuclear deal, with Biden officials blaming Trump’s withdrawal for bringing Iran closer to a nuclear weapon today than before.

But even as Biden’s top diplomat warned more starkly than ever about the threat from Iran and the need to salvage the nuclear deal Wednesday, there was some consistency: Secretary of State Antony Blinken embraced the set of key Trump-era deals known as the Abraham Accords.

Those historic agreements saw Israel establish relations with some of its Arab neighbors — starting with the United Arab Emirates and extending, in varying degrees, to Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

The deals were controversial in some corners not just because they sidelined the Palestinians and did nothing to address long-simmering tensions there, but also because of the big-ticket incentives Trump offered to sweeten the pot for Arab countries, including selling the most advanced U.S. fighter jet, the F-35, to UAE; recognizing Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara; and even offering to pay the Sept. 11 attacks victims to make legal claims against Sudan go away.

But with Israel’s foreign minister and alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid and UAE’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Blinken heralded the agreements during a meeting at the State Department Wednesday. He announced the two countries, along with the U.S., was expanding the Abraham Accords with two new working groups on religious co-existence and water and energy — and said the Biden administration is looking to add other countries to them, too.

“Normalization is profoundly in the interests of the people in the countries in question and is providing all sorts of new opportunities,” Blinken said during a press conference with Lapid and bin Zayed. “It simply means that people will have a better life, more opportunity, more security, more prosperity.”

So far, that hasn’t been the case for Palestinians. Palestinian leaders were furious that the UAE, Bahrain and others abandoned a decades-old commitment to not recognize Israel until Palestinian aspirations for a state were granted. But Blinken, Lapid and bin Zayed said Israel and UAE’s growing economic and people-to-people ties were an example for what could be possible for the Palestinians, too.

“The more of a successful UAE-Israeli relationship will be, that would not only encourage the region, but also encourage the Israeli people and the Palestinian people that this path is worth not only investing in, but also taking the risk,” said bin Zayed.

Bin Zayed announced he would visit Israel soon “to meet a friend, but also a partner,” he said, smiling over at Lapid, who made a historic visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this year.

“The Palestinians are going to be the most important element of the success of peace in the region. We cannot just talk about peace in the region without the neighbors; the Palestinians and Israelis are not in talking terms to start with,” he added, saying there had been some progress with recent meetings between Israeli ministers and the Palestinian Authority.

For his part, Lapid — who invited bin Zayed to his house and said his wife was ready to cook for him — added that Israel was now focused on making the existing Abraham Accords successful, while working to expand them to other countries, “including ones you don’t think of,” he added with a smile.

He had little to say about the Palestinians, however, adding during his opening statement, “All people are entitled to a decent way of life. This includes of course the Palestinians. Our goal is to work with the Palestinian Authority to ensure every child has that opportunity.”

Blinken reiterated the Biden administration’s support for a two-state solution and called for both sides to “enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity, democracy,” But he backed normalization as a way to get there.

“We believe normalization can and should be a force for progress not only between Israel and other Arab countries in the region and beyond, but also between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.

To pursue that progress, he also made clear the U.S. is “moving forward” with reopening the American consulate in East Jerusalem, which has traditionally served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Israel, which largely has control as host country, has vocally opposed the move, including in comments by Justice Minister Gideon Saar Wednesday, who said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett agreed, “No way.”
US, Israel weighing ‘alternative plans’ against Iran as nuclear talks remain paused

Beyond that disagreement, there was another critical difference on display Wednesday over the growing threat of Iran’s nuclear program.

Blinken again warned time is running out for salvaging the Iran nuclear deal as Iran continues to expand its nuclear program, with more enriched uranium, enriched at higher levels, using more and more advanced centrifuges.

He once again declined to put a timetable on it, but in perhaps his strongest language yet, said the U.S. and its partners are looking at “every option to deal with the challenge posed by Iran. We continue to believe diplomacy is the most effective way to do that, but it takes two to engage in diplomacy, and we have not seen from Iran a willingness to do that at this point.”

Hours earlier, his special envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, said the U.S. must “prepare” for “a world in which Iran doesn’t have constraints on its nuclear program” — a world without a nuclear deal. The Biden administration is doing that “now in consultation with our partners from the region,” he added during an event with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

To that end, Malley is departing for United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Friday to discuss Iran, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday.

Those efforts were echoed in what Lapid said Tuesday after meeting National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House. The two “discussed the need for an alternative plan to the nuclear agreement,” according to his office.

Both he and Blinken declined to spell out Wednesday what those potential plans may be, but Lapid implied it includes the use of force.

“Secretary of State Blinken and I are sons of Holocaust survivors. We know there are moments when nations must use force to protect the world from evil. If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon, we must act, we must make clear that the civilized world won’t allow it,” he said.

When asked later about the use of force, he added, “by saying other options, I think everybody understands here, in Israel, in the Emirates, and in Tehran what is it that we mean.”

But while Blinken said all three of them — along with European partners — agree that Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, Lapid’s language was even more stark. He urged less patience with waiting for Iran to resume nuclear talks. Those indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran have been on hiatus since June, with Iran’s new government saying it must get its team in position first.

“Iran is becoming a nuclear threshold country. Every day that passes, every delay in negotiations, brings Iran closer to a nuclear bomb. Iran is clearly dragging their heels, trying to cheat the world to continue to enrich uranium, to develop their ballistic missile program,” Lapid said, adding that Israel had not just a “right,” but a “responsibility” to stop Iran from acquiring the bomb.

Blinken did not answer a question about use of force, saying again the Biden administration believes a “diplomatic solution” is best, but adding, “To be very clear, Israel has the right to defend itself, and we strongly support that proposition.”

Other U.S. allies have joined in recent weeks in urging Tehran to resume those talks. The French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday the situation had reached a “crisis and at a critical moment for the future of the nuclear agreement,” blaming Iran for “refusing to negotiate” and creating “facts on the ground that further complicate the return to the JCPOA,” an acronym for the nuclear deal’s formal name.

Enrique Mora, the European Union’s second highest-ranking diplomat who has coordinated those talks, said Wednesday he was traveling to Iran to “raise the urgency to resume #JCPOA negotiations in Vienna. Crucial to pick up talks from where we left last June to continue diplomatic work.”

But in the meantime, the U.S. is urging immediate action on another front — the release of American citizens detained by Iran. Both Blinken and Sullivan met Wednesday with Babak Namazi, whose brother Siamak and father Baquer Namazi have been detained by Iran for six years — to the day — and 5 1/2 years, respectively.

“The Iranian government continues to subject the entire Namazi family to unimaginable abuse. Through it all, the Namazis have shown remarkable courage,” Blinken said in a statement afterward. “The United States is committed to securing Siamak and Baquer’s freedom as soon as possible, as well as that of the other U.S. citizens wrongfully detained in Iran.”

Jared Genser, a lawyer for the Namazis, filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations last week to call for Baquer Namazi’s immediate release so he can have a lifesaving surgery on a major blockage in his right carotid artery.

“My father’s already lost so much precious time. I’m begging Iran to allow him to spend whatever time he has left with his family,” Babak Namazi told reporters last week in an emotional appeal.

Ally Brooke “can’t wait” for the world to hear her new Spanish music

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ally Brooke is preparing to share a piece of her heritage with fans with the debut of her new music, which is entirely in Spanish.

The former Fifth Harmony member couldn’t help but share her excitement about this new era of music that she’s releasing under a new label, and with a new team around her.

“This has been such a major blessing in my life,” she told People. “My fans can see how happy I am and I can’t even explain it. It’s indescribable.”

Singing in Spanish isn’t exactly new for Brooke or her fans. The singer, who grew up in San Antonio, Texas, shared that her new music “taps into my roots, how I grew up and who I am today.”

What was a new experience for the “Perfect” singer, however, was being “so involved with the creative process.”

“I co-wrote a lot of these songs,” she said. “This is me. This is totally me. And the world’s going to hear it. I can’t wait.”

“I feel a [sense of] relief, I feel like I’m an artist, I’m fully myself and I’m pouring myself into these songs,” she added. “And I felt like before, I didn’t have that chance. To be able to finally put my writing in every song is the best feeling.”

Brooke’s debut Spanish single, “Mi Música,” is out October 22.

Hundreds gather for Miya Marcano’s Celebration of Life ceremony

October 14, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(COOPER CITY, Fla.) — Hundreds of mourners gathered for an emotional Celebration of Life ceremony for Miya Marcano, the Florida college student who was found dead eight days after her family reported her missing.

Her funeral will take place Thursday afternoon.

Family and friends embraced each other in front of Marcano’s casket, which was painted her favorite color royal blue, during Wednesday’s ceremony at Cooper City Church of God.

Loved ones shared their favorite memories of Marcano and talked about how she enjoyed dancing and celebrating her Caribbean culture.

“It was totally amazing just to be there and to experience the lives that Miya touched in such a short period of time,” family attorney Daryl K. Washington told ABC News.

“Hearing the stories from her friends, strangers and family members talking about how she was such a princess and how she brightened up the room every time she entered. It makes it so hard to accept the fact that this young lady lost her life in such a brutal fashion,” he added.

Marcano’s mother, Yma Scarbriel, is asking that donations be made to the Miya Marcano Memorial Fund, which is supporting and providing resources to families of missing persons while advocating for the protection of students and vulnerable populations, in lieu of flowers.

“Miya always said she would change the world and we want to ensure her legacy lives on,” Scarbriel told local ABC affiliate in Miami, Florida, WPLG.

Marcano, who turned 19 in April and was a student at Valencia College, was last seen at the Arden Villas apartments complex in Orlando on Sept. 24. Her family reported her missing after she missed a flight home to South Florida that day.

Her body was found Oct. 2 near the Tymber Skan apartment complex in Orlando with her hands, feet and mouth taped over.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina said last week that Armando Caballero, 27, “is the person responsible for her death.” He was a maintenance worker at Arden Villas and was found dead Sept. 27, three days after Marcano disappeared, from an apparent suicide, authorities said.

Authorities previously said Caballero had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano but she rebuffed his advances. Caballero possessed a key fob to access apartments and his was used at Marcano’s unit just before her disappearance, authorities said.

Washington said the family is working to establish policies that will assure maintenance and other apartment complex employees do not have free access to people’s apartments without their permission. He said the family is also in talks with state politicians to potentially pass legislation on the issue.

“There’s really no laws to protect people from this type of invasion of privacy,” he said. “Right now we’re working on it on the state level, but hopefully that’s going to be something that can really go on the national level.”

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