(GENEVA) — Even as the omicron COVID-19 variant continues to sweep the globe, scientists are now monitoring a new mutation of omicron, dubbed BA.2.
The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a “variant of concern,” meaning there is no current evidence to suggest this new subvariant will worsen COVID-19 transmission, illness severity, or efficacy of vaccines and public health efforts like masking and social distancing.
BA.2 numbers around the world are rising, with at least 40 countries reporting cases to a global variant tracking database, but the subvariant has spread rapidly in Denmark and the UK, with almost half of recent cases in Denmark attributed to BA.2.
The subvariant has already been detected in several U.S. states, with Washington State confirming two cases Monday.
While over 8,000 BA.2 cases have been identified since November 2021, it is unclear where BA.2 originated. Even though the first sequences were submitted from the Philippines, numerous cases have since been detected in various places, from Europe to South Asia.
Given the rising numbers, health care organizations, like the WHO, are asking scientists to watch and study the new subvariant separately from omicron, to see if it behaves differently.
“It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it’s to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge as the pandemic goes on,” said Dr. Meera Chand, the COVID-19 incident director at the UK Health Security Agency, in prepared remarks. “So far, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe illness than Omicron BA.1, but data is limited.”
The evolution of COVID-19 subvariants is not new. The delta variant also had several subvariants, but scientists referred to all of them as delta. BA.2, however, has earned its own designation due to rising numbers across several nations.
Although it’s been called the “stealth” omicron variant, the new subvariant, “can absolutely be detected through traditional surveillance mechanisms whether through rapid testing or PCR,” said Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Harvard University’s Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC Medical Correspondent.
Conventional COVID-19 tests can show a positive or a negative result, but they can’t determine specific variants. For that, scientists need to do additional genetic sequencing. Conveniently, the omicron variant has a particular genetic signature that allows scientists to quickly and easily determine if the sample is omicron or not.
The new BA.2 subvariant does not have that feature, meaning scientists can no longer use this shortcut — though they can still identify the subvariant using genetic sequencing technology. Because of this, the BA.2 subvariant has sometimes been referred to as the “stealth” variant. But for the general public, conventional COVID-19 tests will still work to detect the new subvariant.
Ultimately, while scientists and public health officials are urging continued research and surveillance, experts say there is little reason to worry.
“BA.2 is important from a public health perspective, but it doesn’t fundamentally change at this moment, how we think about the impact in the population,” Brownstein said. “A lot more work needs to be done to understand severity, breakthrough infections, and immunizations before you can make any statement about clinical relevance.”
“While it’s important to understand that in the family of omicron, there is a sub-lineage that is potentially more transmissible, it’s not necessarily a cause for panic,” Brownstein added.
Nitya Rajeshuni, M.D., M.S., a pediatrics resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
The Office alums Steve Carell and John Krasinski will reunite on-screen for Paramount’s new family movie If, according to Variety. Krasinski will write, direct and star in the film, along with Carell and An Officer and a Gentleman star Louis Gossett Jr., Minari‘s Alan Kim, and The Walking Dead actor Cailey Fleming, who have also been added to the cast. They join previously announced cast members Ryan Reynolds, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw. Details have yet to be revealed, but the story is reportedly based on Krasinski’s original idea about a child’s journey to rediscover their imagination. If is slated for a November 17, 2023 release…
The Righteous Gemstones has gotten an early third-season renewal from HBO. “After a season of literal fire and brimstone, blood, sand and rollerblading, who wouldn’t come back for more?” said HBO executive vice president of programming Amy Gravitt said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Gemstone family makes us laugh like nobody else.” The comedy series, which follows a fictional, world-famous televangelist family steeped in greed and charity work, stars Danny McBride, John Goodman, Edi Patterson and Adam Devine…
Jorja Fox has announced that she will not reprise her CSI: Vegas role as Sara Sidle for the show’s second season. “After much deliberating, I have decided not to ‘Sidle up’ for CSI Vegas,” she tweeted on Tuesday. “For me, CSI has always been a love story. The story that people can find love in the darkest of places and times.” Added Fox, “And the story that love, even in the darkest of places and times, can expand and grow roots and endure. I personally just can’t split Sara and Grissom up again. So goes Grissom…..So goes Sara. Wherever they go, they belong together.” CBS has already picked up a second season of the reboot, which reunited Fox with her longtime CSI co-star, William Petersen and introduced a brand new CSI team, played by Paula Newsom, Matt Lauria, Mandeep Dhillon and Mel Rodriguez…
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor Vachik Mangassarian, died Saturday of COVID-19 complications, his reps tell Deadline. The Armenian-born actor’s other well-known credits include NCIS and Curb Your Enthusiasm, as well as guest appearances on a number of popular series such as The Fall Guy, The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, Murphy Brown, Falcon Crest, Jake and the Fatman, NYPD Blue and JAG, along with some TV movies. Mangassarian also anchored his own radio and later television show, The Armenian National Network for 10 years…
Peter Robbins, the voice of Charlie Brown in the classic Peanuts specials of the 1960s, died by suicide last week, his family told KSWB-TV on Tuesday. He was 65. Robbins voiced Charlie in six television specials, including the beloved holiday classics A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, along with the 1969 feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. He also appeared as an actor on such ’60s TV series as Rawhide, The Donna Reed Show, The Munsters, F Troop, Get Smart and Blondie. He made his last appearance in 1972 on an episode of My Three Sons. Following his time in the spotlight, Robbins dealt with addiction issues and mental health struggles, including bipolar disorder. He also served four years in prison from 2015-2019 for making criminal threats…
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.
(LONDON) — Two men were arrested in England on Wednesday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into a hostage-taking incident at a synagogue in the United States, British authorities said.
Counterterrorism officers detained both men in Manchester. The pair “remain in custody for questioning,” according to a statement from the Greater Manchester Police.
Two other men were arrested in connection with the probe in Manchester and Birmingham, about 85 miles south of Manchester, on Jan. 20. They “remain in custody and officers have been granted an extension of custody to continue to question them further,” the Greater Manchester Police said.
Assistant Chief Constable Dominic Scally of the Greater Manchester Police has said that counterterrorism officers are assisting their U.S. counterparts in the investigation of an hourslong standoff between American authorities and a hostage-taker at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, about 27 miles northwest of Dallas.
An armed man claiming to have planted bombs in the synagogue interrupted Shabbat services on Jan. 15 just before 11 a.m. local time, taking a rabbi and three other people hostage, according to Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller.
One hostage was released uninjured at around 5 p.m. CT, Miller told a press conference later that night. An elite hostage rescue team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation then breached the synagogue at about 9 p.m. CT, after hearing the hostage-taker say he had guns and bombs and was “not afraid to pull the strings,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin issued on Jan. 19 and obtained by ABC News.
“As a tactical team approached to make entry to the synagogue, the hostages escaped and were secured by tactical elements,” the bulletin said. “The assault team quickly breached the facility at a separate point of entry, and the subject was killed.”
No hostages were injured during the incident, according to Miller.
The slain suspect, identified by the FBI as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, was from the Blackburn area of England’s Lancashire county, about 20 miles northwest of Manchester, according to Scally.
A motive for the Jan. 15 siege is under investigation. Matthew DeSarno, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said during a press briefing on Jan. 21 that the agency is treating the incident as an act of terrorism and a hate crime.
During the negotiations with authorities, Akram “spoke repeatedly about a convicted terrorist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in the United States on terrorisms charges,” according to the FBI.
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the hostage-taker was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who is incarcerated at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, about 16 miles southwest of Colleyville. Siddiqui, who has alleged ties to al-Qaida, was sentenced to 86 years in prison after being convicted of assault as well as attempted murder of an American soldier in 2010.
Two teenagers were arrested in southern Manchester on Jan. 16 in connection with the synagogue attack. They were questioned and later released without being charged, Greater Manchester Police said in a statement on Jan. 18. Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the teens are Akram’s children.
Akram has ancestral ties to Jandeela, a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province, the local police chief told ABC News. He visited Pakistan in 2020 and stayed for five months, the police chief said, a duration that may have been necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions.
Akram has been separated from his wife for two years and has five children, according to the police chief.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that British authorities investigated Akram about a year ago and concluded he posed no threat that would have prohibited his travel from the United Kingdom to the U.S.
After arriving in the U.S. last month via a flight from London to New York City, Akram stayed at homeless shelters at various points and may have portrayed himself as experiencing homelessness in order to gain access to the Texas synagogue during Shabbat services, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who called the hostage-taking incident “an act of terror,” told reporters on Jan. 16 that investigators suspect Akram purchased a gun on the street. While Akram is alleged to have claimed he had bombs, investigators have found no evidence that he was in possession of explosives, according to Biden.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Habibullah Khan, Josh Margolin and Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.
Could a Snoop Dogg and Sade collaboration be on the way? If it were up to the “Gin and Juice” rapper, the answer would most definitely be yes.
In a video clip shared by TMZ, Snoop revealed that he would love to link up with Nigerian-British singer for a song.
“Maybe Def Jam and Universal can hustle that. I didn’t think it could happen,” the 50-year-old Super Bowl headliner said.
He added, “Watch out. We’ll put it in the air. Put a bat signal up saying, ‘You can call me.'”
Snoop then recalled attending one of Sade’s concert’s and being “too nervous” to meet the singer-songwriter.
“I went to her concert, I went to see her perform on time. I went with Heavy D and LL Cool J. She had all these visual effects where she disappeared and she was in the top of the sky, she was [amazing],” he said. “They was like ‘Do you wanna go meet her?’ And I was like ‘[no].’ I was nervous as a motherf*****. Like, nah. I was too nervous!”
Instead of meeting the soul singer, Snoop told his crew that they needed to leave because “there’s going to be a lot of cars trying to get out of here.”
There’s no current plan for the two artists to collab, but never say never.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — A Florida bill that would limit classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity and encourage parents to sue schools or teachers that engage in these topics is speeding through the state House and Senate.
It’s being called a “Don’t Say Gay” bill by LGBTQ advocates, who fear that if this bill is signed into law, it could act as a complete ban on the lessons on LGBTQ oppression, history and discussions about LGBTQ identities.
“This would erase LGBTQ+ history and culture from lesson plans and it sends a chilling message to LGBTQ+ young people and communities,” said Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, the executive director of the national LGBTQ youth advocacy group GLSEN.
Activists say that erasing LGBTQ presence from schools may imply to students that their gender identity or sexual orientation is something to be ashamed of or hidden.
“We have to create a learning environment where they feel safe and healthy, or it’s not an effective learning environment,” said Heather Wilkie of the Zebra Coalition, a Central Florida LGBTQ advocacy group.
“When you have laws like this, that directly attack our kids for who they are, it prevents them from learning,” she said. “It prevents them from being able to be healthy.”
The two bills in the state legislature, HB 1557 and SB 1834, state that a school district “may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
The House Education & Employment Committee has moved the bill forward, handing it off to the Judiciary Committee.
It adds that parents who violate this rule can sue, seeking damages and reimbursement for attorney fees and court costs.
Rep. Joe Harding, who is the sponsor of the legislation, hopes it will “reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding upbringing & control of their children,” according to the bill’s text.
Harding did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Chasten Buttigieg, activist and husband of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, denounced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature for the efforts.
LGBTQ advocacy organizations say these bills are reminiscent of the “no promo homo” laws of the 1990s that barred educators from discussing queer topics in schools, but with an added mandate on parent and family involvement.
“These mandates are harmful and risk carelessly outing LGBTQ+ young people to families who do not affirm their children’s identities,” Willingham-Jaggers said.
2021 was a record-breaking year for anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. More than 250 of these bills were introduced and at least 17 were enacted into law.
Several states, including Arizona, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and South Dakota, have already introduced anti-LGBTQ legislation in 2022.
This Florida legislation follows similar bills that restrict educators from teaching about oppression in the U.S.
Wilkie said that queer issues and access to supportive resources have been the priority against anti-LGBTQ attacks in recent years, and this has been a heightened effort since the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016.
LGBTQ youth in the state, who have a higher risk for suicidal ideation, depression and anxiety, have been struggling, but Wilkie says advocacy groups will continue to fight these bills.
“We will fight,” she said. “It’s so disheartening to think that they would not be able to freely talk about themselves, or learn anything about their history.”
Ellen Weintraub, Commissioner at US Federal Election Commission, addresses the audience during the Web Summit 2021. – Bruno de Carvalho/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — With everyone from giant companies to celebrities embracing the cryptocurrency phenomenon known as NFTs, political candidates are now getting into the act — but some experts say that transparency concerns could affect their use as a political fundraising tool.
Non-fungible tokens — digital assets that cannot be replicated and can be used to represent real-world items — are slowly creeping into the political world, with a few candidates already using them to raise thousands of dollars.
“NFTs are bringing more people into our fold, into our movement,” said Max Rymer, a digital consultant for Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen.
Jensen’s campaign saw an opportunity for NFTs to be a low-dollar way for people to become engaged with their candidate and receive something of value in return for their donations, Rymer told ABC News.
Through the sale of NFTs, “we’ve added 2,500 new people that are going to support our campaign going forward,” Rymer said.
Blake Masters, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, is also embracing NFTs.
“I was thinking of creative ways to raise money and I thought of NFTs because [they] can give people a sense of ownership,” said Masters, who is also the co-author of “Zero to One,” a bestselling business book published in 2014.
So Masters sold his supporters limited edition NFTs depicting the cover of his book — and raised nearly $575,000.
Like collectible artwork and rare baseball cards, the value of an NFT derives from it being unique — in this case, a unique digital token in a distributed database known as a blockchain. The digital tokens are stored in the blockchain through a digital wallet and can be held as an asset — as digital memorabilia — or sold and traded for investment purposes.
Many NFTs also come with real-life perks and exclusive access to events, which makes them attractive as campaign offerings.
For example, for those who purchased Masters’ digital tokens, the perks included receiving a signed copy of his book and the opportunity to meet him and his co-author, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who helped develop the NFT collection.
“We’ll have at least one token-holders party,” Masters told ABC News. “It’s like the Willy Wonka golden ticket.”
That kind of involvement makes NFTs a good way to help candidates build a community of supporters, said Joseph Argiro, CEO of Iron Key Capital, a digital asset hedge fund.
“[NFTs] are probably a better way than just to accept donations, because they are more of a symbolic representation of your beliefs,” said Argiro.
For those who purchased from her initial NFT collection, former first lady Melania Trump offered an audio recording with a “message of hope.” A portion of the proceeds from her collection, which was released last month, supported her Be Best initiative, a campaign focused on children’s issues and advocating against cyberbullying.
“What you’re trying to tap into with NFTs is a sense of supporters around a common cause,” said Joshua White, an assistant professor of finance at Vanderbilt University. “And so NFTs can build a community where there’s this positive feedback loop.”
In the case of Masters’ Senate campaign, said White, NFTs could attract young voters that have never voted Republican but want a younger and more tech savvy candidate to represent them.
NFTs have also been a breath of fresh air for political campaigns and fundraisers that are seeking a new way to appeal to grassroots supporters, said Brian Forde, co-founder of the online fundraising platform Numero, which is working to launch a new NFT fundraising platform for Democratic campaigns called electables.com.
“We’ve put out surveys to more than 14,000 grassroots donors and a couple things stand out: One, they’re tired of hyperbolic emails, two, they want to be recognized and connect with other grassroots supporters of that campaign,” Forde said. “So with NFTs, electables allow them to connect with other grassroots supporters and be recognized for their contribution.”
Forde said that supporting an NFT is similar to supporting a sports team — which is why NFTs have been embraced by numerous leagues.
“What surprised me the most about NFTs is how quickly and powerfully one connects and builds a community of strong supporters,” Forde said. “Pro sports leagues were some of the first to figure this out, and in many ways, campaigns are a lot like sports teams. If you own [an NFT], you feel a belonging to that community in a stronger way than you ever did before. Sports teams have been the pioneers, and campaigns are going to follow in their footsteps.
And while the number of political campaigns that have launched NFTs remains low, interest has been growing. Forde said electables.com, which will make money by providing an NFT fundraising platform for campaign clients, currently has more than 300 campaigns on its waitlist ahead of its planned launch in March.
As of now, there’s little to no official guidance on NFT fundraising from the Federal Election Commission, FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said. Nor has there been any campaign or committee seeking an official advisory opinion from the agency.
“It’s not something that the agency has gotten a lot of questions on, and certainly there have been no formal request of the Commission as a whole to weigh in on this,” Weintraub told ABC News. “My sense is that it’s just not that common yet.”
As a result, the Masters campaign and the Jensen campaign both sought legal advice before they launched their NFT collections.
“We ran it through all the legal analyses,” Masters said. “I was heavily legally diligent, and we were careful with our language … we made sure that all the benefits were allowed.”
“It’s brand new territory for a lot of these regulatory bodies too,” said Rymer. “So we partnered, in essence, with the Campaign Finance Board and we treated this the same way that supporters would get a hat for a donation.”
NFTs can typically be purchased using either regular currency — like through a credit card — or with cryptocurrency, virtual tokens that allow purchasers to remain anonymous. But most political campaigns that report to the Federal Election Commission or state-level election agencies are required to report the identity of their donors — and officials say that could raise transparency concerns.
“I think we probably have to look into the transparency aspect, whether one could determine where the NFT, the ‘thing of value,’ is coming from,” Weintraub told ABC News.
White said that if a cryptocurrency user has linked their virtual wallet to their personal information, then transparency isn’t an issue. But he said that the use of cryptocurrency for political fundraising in general makes it easier to “not know where that money is coming from.”
To comply with fundraising regulations that govern contribution limits and other restrictions, some campaigns offering NFTs have turned to platforms like electables.com and the recently launched Front Row, which launched over the fall as another NFT marketplace for Democrats.
“We built this platform because we saw that that’s what needed to happen for progressive organizations, campaigns and movements that have some of these compliance regulations to participate in this ecosystem,” Front Row co-founder Parker Butterworth told ABC News. Butterworth said the platform allows political organizations to collect all the necessary information from NFT buyers, including their name, addresses, age, and U.S citizenship status.
The platform offered its first NFT collection from the Texas Democratic Party, and it’s now talking with several new clients, said Butterworth. He said the world of NFT fundraising is a “very fast moving space” that’s expected to expand the world of digital campaigning.
“NFTs are not going anywhere,” said Argiro. “I think we’re just seeing the beginning of how communities use these NFTs to drive community formation and capital formation.”
(OMAHA, Neb.) — Dani Donovan, a 30-year-old woman from Omaha, Nebraska, said she spent the better part of a decade going to different doctors to seek help for chronic pain.
At each visit, according to Donovan, she would be told she needed to lose weight, a discouraging cycle that she said kept her from seeking more medical care.
“I was in pain and all doctors would say to me is that I need to lose weight,” Donovan told “Good Morning America,” noting the experience would often lead her down a cycle of binge eating due to her frustration and pain.” “I felt like doctors wouldn’t listen to me and it was making me not go to want to see the doctors.”
That changed in December, according to Donovan, when she went to a new primary care physician.
While in the waiting room at that doctor’s office, Donovan saw what are called “Don’t Weigh Me” cards, business cards that are designed for a patient to hand to a nurse or doctor.
The cards read on the front, “Please don’t weigh me unless it’s (really) medically necessary. If you really need my weight, please tell me why so that I can give you my informed consent.”
On the back of the card is a list of reasons why a person may not want to be weighed, including the risk of weight stigma and stress and that “most health conditions can be addressed” without knowing a patient’s weight, according to the card.
The cards were a game-changer for Donovan, who said she felt empowered to stand up for herself and not have her weight be the focus of the doctor’s appointment.
“I had heard online that you could ask doctors not to weigh you, but I still felt really intimidated to say that out loud,” said Donovan. “You’re used to going to the doctor’s office and them herding you onto the scale. It’s just part of the routine.”
“I was able to just show the card to the woman who was bringing me back and it was like OK and we continued on,” she said.
Donovan said she went onto have an hourlong appointment with the doctor, who sent her to a specialist, whom Donovan said ultimately diagnosed her with Ehlers Danlos syndromes, a a group of inherited connective tissue disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“It just made a huge difference to have been heard,” said Donovan, adding that she now feels comfortable going to see her doctors.
It was a similar experience with weight stigma at doctors’ offices that led Ginny Jones to create the “Don’t Weigh Me” cards nearly four years ago.
Jones, the founder of More-Love.org, an eating disorder-focused resource for parents, said she suffered from an eating disorder and began asking to not be weighed at doctors’ offices when she started her recovery.
“I decided I would not be weighed unless it was necessary,” said Jones, explaining that at first she told her doctors verbally. “Very interestingly, in many, many years of asking not to be weighed, it’s never been required for my care.”
“I’m open to it if it is required for my care, but so far it really hasn’t been an issue for me,” she said.
Jones said that as she began working with parents and people in recovery from eating disorders, she saw she was not alone in not wanting weight to be the focus of doctors’ appointments. She launched the cards as a way for people to have something in their pocket they could just easily hand to a doctor or nurse.
“I posted them on my website kind of thinking maybe a couple people would be interested,” said Jones. “And they have had a huge demand.”
The cards, which are available for sale on Jones’s website, have been purchased by not just individuals but also therapists, dietitians and doctors, according to Jones.
Dr. Lesley Williams-Blackwell, an Arizona-based family medicine physician and eating disorder specialist, carries the cards in her office so that patients can take them and use them with other doctors.
Williams-Blackwell said she started doing automatic blind weights — meaning the patient is weighed but the number on the scale is not shown to them — after one incident in which a patient fled the office after being weighed.
“She was so upset that she fled the office,” said Williams-Blackwell. “That just illustrated for me that you don’t know, especially if it’s your first time meeting someone, how [weight] being the first piece of data that they’re presented with, even before you have an opportunity to meet them, could be very triggering or upsetting.”
Williams-Blackwell said when she takes her three children, ages 9 to 12, to doctors’ appointments, she asks that their weights not be shown or discussed.
She said, in her experience, it is important for doctors and patients to look beyond a single number when it comes to someone’s health.
“I really would challenge people to look at health in a more holistic way and to not feel that they have to get so pigeonholed into weight as the sole marker of how healthy someone is,” said Williams-Blackwell. “Because the reality is that there’s so much more to health.”
Chelsea Kronengold, a spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association, said doctors’ focus on weight can often not only miss other conditions that may be present, but can also lead to weight stigma and eating disorder behaviors.
“Weight stigma is discriminating or stereotyping someone based on their weight, which we know that medical providers frequently do, as well as the general public,” said Kronengold. “And weight stigma can increase body dissatisfaction, which is a leading risk factor in the development of eating disorders.”
Nearly 30 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime, and over the past two years of the coronavirus pandemic, eating disorders have been on the rise in the U.S., according to NEDA.
Jones said she hopes the conversation around weight changes in society to the point that it puts her “Don’t Weigh Me” cards venture out of business.
“My dream and my vision is that we actually live in a society that respects bodies regardless of weight, and that being weighed at the doctor’s office is not an assumed first step,” she said. “I don’t want to be in business in 10 years selling cards. My vision is actually that we change the conversations at a much deeper level, and that doctors start to recognize the harm that being weighed [in their offices] can cause.”
(NEW YORK) — Rob Gronkowski says it’s “unfortunate” the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t make this year’s Super Bowl, losing 30-27 to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional playoff, but he tells ABC Audio he’s not dwelling on it.
“It was a good season. There’s no doubt about it. It’s unfortunate it didn’t end the way that we wanted it to end, obviously,” the tight end stressed, noting the team’s 13 wins “was the most wins in the franchise history in a single season, which is pretty incredible.”
Gronk also had an incredible season because he’s close to breaking 100 receiving touchdowns in regular season play. He currently has 92. When asked about that upcoming milestone, he cryptically replied, “That’s another season away — I would have to play another year, no doubt about that, to get over 100.” Gronk cheekily noted that he technically did hit that mark “if you include playoffs.”
Ninety of those receiving passes were thrown by Tom Brady, but Gronk says “it took a while” to build the chemistry fans see on the field.
Gronk detailed the hard work he put in during his rookie year with the Patriots to become the player Brady needed him to be. “We would throw 10 more routes after practice to get that connection, build it up every single week, and it was kind of struggling at first. I didn’t really know the plays, didn’t know my routes that well, didn’t know how Tom wanted me to run them… Then, finally, it just clicked.”
The duo have played in six Super Bowls together, winning four, the last being on their home turf in 2021. Will the two try again for a fifth Super Bowl win? On Monday, Gronk flirted with the thought of “year 12” on Twitter, but only time will tell….
As for who Gronk thinks will play in this year’s Super Bowl, he says, “It will be the 49ers versus the Kansas City Chiefs,” noting the latter team’s “offense is red hot.”
(ATLANTA) — Some residents in Atlanta’s wealthiest neighborhood say they want to leave the city and start a new one, saying they are concerned with crime. But the idea comes with an increasing number of economic and social concerns as it gains steam.
Buckhead is located on the north end of town and accounts for about 20% of Atlanta’s half a million residents. The neighborhood is known for having the city’s most expensive hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. It is also home to CEOs, movie stars and their mansions.
Concerns that crime is going unchecked has inspired a group of neighbors to form the Buckhead City Committee. They want the community to vote this November on removing themselves from the city of Atlanta, and starting their own city, with their own police force.
Bill White is leading the charge. He’s the chief executive officer of the Buckhead City Committee and has helped raise over $2 million in donations from as far away as Bangladesh and Australia. He’s a wealthy political fundraiser who only moved to the neighborhood about three years ago, and says one day thieves showed up to his home.
“We had somebody come up our driveway — a pair of criminals who had just harassed a 10-year-old girl,” he said.
White’s critics say his intentions are political, that this is part of a far-right conservative effort to weaken cities run by Democrats. He denies this is the reason.
White said the Atlanta Police Department doesn’t have the resources or the community support to effectively protect residents in his neighborhood. By creating their own city, White said Buckhead’s taxes will be better spent on public safety.
He said a rash of high-profile crimes in Buckhead has sounded alarms. In December, a man was shot at a high-end movie theater in Buckhead. In November, and again in June, people jogging on Buckhead sidewalks were shot in random attacks. At Buckhead’s Lenox Mall, there were several shootings at the property in 2021, and at least two of those people were killed.
“People say enough is enough, and I think this has been brewing for some time,” White said.
“If you look at the policies of the city of Atlanta, this is a criminal’s paradise. There is no adjudication of justice here,” White said. “If you let the criminals know that they can carjack you and they won’t be chased, they can shoplift you and they won’t be prosecuted, people feel like they’re living in a war zone.”
Police say it’s true that they’re not sending police officers to most shoplifting calls, saying that by the time those officers arrive, the thieves are gone, and that their time could be better used. But Atlanta police said their current policies do allow for high-speed chases. Some of their policies changed after lawsuits were filed by innocent drivers who were hurt in car wrecks caused by these chases. Even so, Atlanta police will still chase a driver wanted for murder, for example.
If the effort is successful, White said that a new Buckhead City would form its own police department with more than 250 officers, compared to 80 officers currently assigned to the area.
For many Buckhead residents, Atlanta is not doing enough to ensure their safety. Eliana Kovitch, a health care worker and Buckhead resident, said she is in favor of separation if it means more police on the streets.
“I’ve lived in Buckhead [for a] long time, and for the past year and a half, I’ve been terrified everywhere I go,” she said.
Kovitch said she started feeling unsafe after an incident in June 2020, when she was attacked by a man with a knife while waiting for a Lyft ride with her boyfriend. The suspect, according to the police, was a repeat offender who was arrested days earlier in a different county.
“I don’t side with … the politics of any of it. I wanna be a voice … for victims,” Kovitch said. “Yes, there are more severe crimes, if you wanna put it that way. But everyone has their own experience and … is affected in their own way.”
Across Atlanta’s Police Zone 2, which covers Buckhead, West Midtown, Lenox Park and Piedmont Heights, murders were up 63%, from eight cases to 13 between 2020 and 2021.
While murder rates were up, the city reports that overall crime in this same area (including robberies, burglaries and car break-ins) actually decreased by 6% last year, compared to 2020, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said that even Buckhead’s total number of violent crimes are still a fraction of the violent crimes seen in other neighborhoods. Most other Atlanta neighborhoods had at least 30 murders in 2021, compared to 13 for Buckhead, the fewest in the city.
Bryant said he still doesn’t want to minimize the crime residents are seeing.
“One of the hard things that I have to do is address the perception and what people feel as it relates to crime,” said Bryant. “We recognize that we have to do a better job of that as well. And so that’s something that we will be working with at the mayor’s office — what is it that we can do to really show people the truth? And make them feel what we are seeing in the numbers.”
On the southwest end of the city, Glenda Mack lives in Atlanta’s Zone 4, where 32 people were murdered last year. Her 12-year-old grandson was one of them.
She doesn’t agree with all the focus on Buckhead.
“To me, it’s just a bunch of entitled people that think they can do that because they’re entitled,” she said.
“I don’t understand. They want to leave the city of Atlanta and be their own. Well, you know. I realize the city of Atlanta depends on y’all money. They depend on that too. I pay taxes, too,” Mack said.
David Mack was killed near her home, not far from a police precinct. His family found his body the next morning, and the autopsy later revealed he was shot nine times. Police still haven’t made an arrest in the case.
When it comes to crime, Mack believes the focus should be citywide.
“You can’t just focus on one place, and that’s what I want everyone to know,” she said.
If Buckhead leaves Atlanta, it would underline a racial divide.
The vast majority of Buckhead’s residents — 77.5% of its total population — are white, while 11% are Black and 6% are Asian. Regardless of race, 7% of the neighborhood’s population is Hispanic.
In contrast, Atlanta is nearly 50% African American.
If Buckhead leaves, the neighborhood will also take with it a great deal of tax dollars.
While residents in the neighborhood make up about 20% of the city’s population, their tax bills (through property and commercial taxes) cover about 40% of the city’s expenses.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said it would leave a significant hole in the city’s tax base if Buckhead goes it alone.
“This divorce of Buckhead from Atlanta would be an unnecessarily expensive one for both spouses in this divorce,” Dickens said. “We have a lot of parks and things that … it’s going to cost them. It’s going to be alimony if this happens.”
Dickens took office this month, and has been working with business leaders and other local influencers to keep his city together.
This month, he opened a new police precinct in the heart of Buckhead. He’s also working to establish a better relationship between Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Statehouse, where the decision to allow residents to vote will be made.
“In Atlanta, across Georgia and across the nation, if the wealthier parts of a community decide they want to form another city, they will continue to make lines and draw division between those that are affluent and those who aren’t,” Dickens said. “What does that say about our society?”
The issue now awaits the vote of two bills, one introduced by state Rep. Todd Jones in the Georgia House of Representatives as well as another sponsored by state Sen. Brandon Beach in the Georgia Senate. Both bills will be voted on during the 2022 legislative session in April.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan also believes Buckhead’s move to leave the city would hurt the region.
“I think businesses would look negatively upon the separation of those two areas and I think actually it will make the crime issue worse,” he said.
His opinion matters more than many, because as lieutenant governor, he’s able to slow down or speed up legislation in the state Senate. Duncan has assigned the legislation to a committee of Democrats, which is likely to sit on the bill.
And in the Georgia House, Republican House Speaker David Ralston has signaled that he’s not sure Buckhead leaving is in the best interests of the state.
If lawmakers do say yes to a vote, only residents who live in the boundaries of the new city would get to decide. The vote would take place in November.
Atlanta’s mayor said he’s working overtime to convince Buckhead residents to work with him on the issues.
“When individuals choose to divide and choose separation as that answer, they’re not going to get the result that they were seeking. They’re not going to have a better community. They are not going to have a safer community,” Dickens said.
“When we come out of this pandemic, and as we’re in it, we have to lock arms and work together to solve these issues,” he added. “Separation has rarely been the answer for community-based issues. We do things together in Atlanta and across America, and the benefits would be seen broadly.”
The Irish rockers’ “Songs That Saved Our lives” playlist appropriately kicks off with “Your Song Saved My Life,” followed by 10 tunes each picked by frontman Bono, guitarist The Edge, drummer Larry Mullin Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton.
Among Bono’s choices are Joy Division‘s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Bob Dylan‘s “Most of the Time,” Johnny Cash‘s cover of Nine Inch Nails‘ “Hurt,” the JAY-Z and Alicia Keys duet “Empire State of Mind,” The Verve‘s “Bittersweet Symphony” and David Bowie‘s “Life on Mars?” The singer also included Kendrick Lamar‘s “XXX,” featuring a guest appearance by U2.
The Edge also chose “Life on Mars?,” as well as a classic tune by his own band, “One.” The guitarist’s other picks included The Beatles‘ “Strawberry Fields Forever,” Stevie Wonder‘s “Superstition,” Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue,” Lou Reed‘s “Walk on the Wild Side” and The Clash‘s “London Calling.”
Standout choices by Mullin include Sweet‘s “Ballroom Blitz,” Diana Ross‘ “Upside Down,” Led Zeppelin‘s “Black Dog,” Van Morrison‘s “Moondance,” Bruce Springsteen‘s “Nebraska” and, believe it or not, Britney Spears‘ “…Baby One More Time.”
The list winds down with Clayton’s picks, which include Marvin Gaye‘s “What’s Goin’ On,” Sam Cooke‘s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” The Righteous Brothers‘ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” Simon & Garfunkel‘s “The Sound of Silence,” James Brown‘s “Super Bad – Parts 1 & 2,” The Clash’s “The Magnificent Seven and two Bob Marley & the Wailers songs.
Bono’s list:
Kris Kristofferson, “Help Me Make It Through the Night”
Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Sinead O’Connor, “You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart”
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “Into My Arms”
Kendrick Lamar featuring U2, “XXX”
Bob Dylan, “Most of the Time”
Johnny Cash, “Hurt”
JAY-Z and Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind”
The Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony”
David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”
The Edge’s list:
The Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever”
David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”
U2, “One”
Stevie Wonder, “Superstition”
Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up in Blue”
Aretha Franklin, “Say a Little Prayer”
Lou Reed, “Walk on the Wild Side”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions, “Shipbuilding”
New Radicals, “You Get What You Give”
The Clash, “London Calling”
Larry Mullin Jr.’s list:
Sweet, “Ballroom Blitz”
Sandy Nelson, “Let There Be Dreams”
Diana Ross, “Upside Down”
Led Zeppelin, “Black Dog”
Van Morrison, “Moondance”
Magazine, “The Light Pours In”
Black Uhuru, “Sponji Reggae”
Bruce Springsteen, “Nebraska”
Stiff Little Fingers, “Suspect Device”
Britney Spears, “…Baby One More Time”
Adam Clayton’s list:
Marvin Gaye, “What’s Goin’ On”
Bob Marley & the Wailers, “Exodus”
Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come”
The Righteous Brothers, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”
Simon & Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence”
James Brown, “Super Bad – Parts 1 & 2”
Sly & the Family Stone, “I Want to Take You Higher”
The Stranglers, “Nice ‘n’ Sleazy”
The Clash, “The Magnificent Seven”
Bob Marley & the Wailers, “Waiting in Vain”
