(IN) — Neighbors, first responders, health care workers, teachers and coaches are the strong, quiet heroes that make up every corner of the country, and one Indiana man’s pep talks, booming voice and bear hugs will be greatly missed by his community but long remembered thanks to a new chapter of his legacy.
The student athletes, staff and families of North Central High School lost their beloved coach Paul Loggan, a towering figure in Indianapolis for more than 30 years, to COVID-19.
When his students learned about Loggan’s diagnosis, they did what their coach had done so many times for them — delivered pep talks.
His wife, Kathy Loggan, told ABC News “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, “We had the nurses playing that for him over and over,” hoping the words of encouragement could help keep him alive.
After 12 days in the hospital, Paul Loggan died at 57 on April 12, 2020.
“I thought it would work. I really did,” she said through tears. “There’s nothing that he loves more than his student athletes. Besides his own kids.”
His son, Michael Loggan, added, “At the end of the day, he knew we loved him and we knew he loved us.”
Hours after students first heard the news of Coach Loggan, the school parking lot filled up with their cars to honor his life. In the days that followed, they organized a statewide remembrance at 7 p.m. when the stadium lights would turn on to remember coach Loggan.
The Loggan family set up a foundation in his name to continue his legacy of supporting athletic programs that will provide money for student athletes to pay for sports, uniforms, equipment and more.
“Good Morning America” surprised his wife and son live on Monday with a donation from the Indianapolis Colts for $10,000 to the Paul Loggan Foundation.
“He always wanted to make sure that his student athletes came first and if those kids couldn’t afford to play or they were having financial issues or couldn’t afford those pair of cleats or those spikes for track — we would pay for it personally out of our own fund,” his wife said. “This foundation just helps us continue his legacy and keeping his name alive for all these future student athletes that won’t get to have the honor of actually knowing him and getting his big bear hugs and his big booming voice that always gives you those words of encouragement that he did.”
ABBA in 2021, in motion-capture suits/Credit: Baillie Walsh
ABBA‘s long-awaited return has British fans saying “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” to their new music.
“Don’t Shut Me Down,” one of two new songs the Swedish superstars released earlier this month, has debuted in the top 10 of the Official U.K. Singles chart. It’s the first time ABBA’s been in the top 10 on that chart since 1982. “I Still Have Faith In You,” ABBA’s other new song, debuted at number 14.
The two new entries brings the band’s total of top-40 U.K. singles to 28. In addition, the group’s best-of album, Gold, is back in the top five on the British album chart for the first time since 2008.
Both of the new songs will appear on ABBA’s new album, Voyage, due out November 5. As previously reported, it’s set a record as Universal Music U.K.’s biggest-ever album pre-order.
All the ABBA hype is leading up to the debut of a virtual concert experience, which will debut next year in London. It’ll feature digital avatars of ABBA’s four members performing all their legendary hits.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — Fourteen content providers in China including Tencent and Weibo are promising a “healthy” cyberspace environment as Chinese authorities expand control over the entertainment industry.
The China Association of Performing Arts, an organization affiliated with the Chinese government, summoned representatives from content providers last Friday to discuss ways to promote contents with positive values in order to “clear” the cyberspace.
“The platforms would strengthen their management of accounts and restrict those that spread baseless star gossip or stir up conflicts between fan groups,” the association said on its WeChat statement Saturday, just a week after China’s major microblogging platform, Sina Weibo, restricted the use of 21 fan club accounts.
Weibo’s crackdown on fan accounts took place shortly after an extravagant birthday celebration event for a K-pop star went viral on Twitter on Sept. 5. Fans following the Weibo account “JiMIN JMC,” a fan community for BTS member Jimin, raised money to plaster an airplane with his photo. Weibo blocked the fan page from writing new posts for 60 days, explaining that the procedure for collecting money was not legitimate.
“Irrational star-chasing behavior, when found, should be dealt with seriously,” Weibo said on its official website, referring to the fundraising activities of fandoms. “The company promptly banned 21 accounts for 30 days, and erased related inappropriate posts.”
The statement also said that stricter oversight of the fan groups would “purify” the online atmosphere and fulfill the platform’s responsibilities to society.
“Since China is a one-party state under a strict communist ideology, other social media companies will follow suit without any resistance once the authorities take control of one large company,” Kim Hern-sik, a commentator who studies and analyzes K-pop, told ABC News. “[For] Weibo, being the most influential social media in China, there will be setbacks in selling K-pop goods and keeping up online fan communities within the country.”
The Chinese government has been clear that it intends to have pop culture under control this year. Last month, the Cyberspace Administration of China posted a guideline to take care of “disorderly fandom management.” The guidelines include restricting minors from spending money on fan club activities and giving entertainment agencies the responsibility of managing fan clubs. There is strong solidarity among fan-made communities on Weibo and Twitter that raise funds for birthday events and gifts for celebrities, but the Chinese government depicted the particular fan culture as “chaotic.”
“Do not induce fans to consume. One should not organize contests to encourage or stimulate consumption,” the Cyberspace Administration of China clearly states in its guidelines published on Aug. 27. China’s National Radio and Television Administration went on to ban broadcasters and internet platforms from organizing “marketing activities to stimulate fan consumption” in a notice on Sept. 2.
Following the announcements, QQ Music and Tencent’s music streaming service in China decided to restrict customers from purchasing more than one copy of an album online.
Album sales are considered an index of popularity for pop stars. According to the South Korean music chart Hanteo, China had the third largest share of K-pop album sales verified on the Hanteo website in the first half of 2021 among 96 countries, following the U.S. and Malaysia.
The largest Twitter fan community of BLACK PINK member Lisa informed followers it would not be able to order as many copies of Lisa’s new album as planned.
“As we are writing this, we are sorry to inform you that we may not be able to order as many copies as we had expected. We have run into unexpected obstacles with tightened restrictions on fan clubs,” the account said in a tweet Aug. 31.
Last Thursday, China’s National Radio and Television Administration announced that Chinese media should stop effeminate male celebrities as well as celebrities who are not politically vocal from appearing on television.
“Tackling down people’s fan community participation cannot be finished at one stroke, but it seems the Chinese authorities will continue expanding its influence step by step,” Kweon Sang Hee, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University, told ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — When Lt. Nathan Brashear saw the call for National Guard service members to help as hospitals were reaching a crisis point during Kentucky’s delta surge, he didn’t hesitate to volunteer.
For about two weeks, Brashear, a member of the Kentucky Army National Guard, has been leading a team of 30 National Guard members at The Medical Center at Bowling Green, doing “everything little thing” they can to help give the hospital staff a much-needed break.
“That’s one thing that makes this mission so important to us as soldiers,” Brashear, who was a deputy jailor before he went on active-duty orders, told ABC News. “We live and work in these communities. So for us to be able to support the communities is something that really impacts us.”
In recent weeks, several states have deployed hundreds of National Guard service members to help overwhelmed and understaffed hospitals, as COVID-19 hospitalization rates have reached points not seen during the pandemic.
The service members are not doing clinical work, but instead offering administrative and logistical support so hospital staff can focus on patient care. That could be anything from taking patients to appointments to cleaning beds to serving and clearing food.
“This is really the latest in demonstrated need that we’re seeing, obviously across the state and nation, that a lot of these hospitals are feeling the strain — both increased patients and a decrease in the available personnel to really help take care of everybody,” Lt. Col. Stephen Martin, director of public affairs for the Kentucky National Guard, told ABC News. “Our main mission there is really just to offload the logistical and administrative support that those hospitals have so that the full-timers there can better care for the needs of the patients that are coming in.”
The Kentucky National Guard was winding down its pandemic response, which has included helping set up drive-through COVID-19 testing sites and assisting food banks, when, about three weeks ago, it was called for the first time during the pandemic to assist hospitals overburdened by COVID-19 patients — most of them unvaccinated.
The size of National Guard teams and length of their deployment varies by hospital size and demand, and will stay as long as they can in whatever capacity is needed, Martin said.
“We as Guardsmen fancy ourselves as Swiss Army knives. We’ve got multiple skillsets, not only in what we’re trained on but being able to accomplish the mission before us,” he said. “We can send a small team into the hospital and say, ‘Here’s your left and right limits, these are the things that we want you to focus on and provide support to, and more than anything, just help these folks out.'”
“They’re in a bad way and we’re really just helping to alleviate that workload for a little it, let them catch their breath and catch up and really focus on the needs of the patients in the hospital,” he added.
Over two-thirds of Kentucky hospitals have critical staffing shortages as they’re overrun with COVID-19 patients, and doctors are “quickly approaching” the point where they would need to ration care, Gov. Andy Beshear told CNN on Wednesday.
More than 100 soldiers and airmen had already been deployed to four hospitals, including The Medical Center at Bowling Green, when Beshear announced Friday that over 300 more will be sent to 21 additional hospitals in the state’s largest-ever National Guard deployment for a health crisis.
“Our hospitals are at a breaking point,” Beshear said during a COVID-19 briefing Friday. “We have 93 total ICU beds left statewide. That is one of the lowest numbers, I think they would tell you, in our lifetime.”
The announcement came a day after Kentucky set new records for its statewide COVID-19 testing positivity rate, reaching 14%, and the number of patients on ventilators, the governor said.
Kentucky is not the only state to turn to the National Guard for COVID-19-related hospital support in recent weeks.
Late last month, Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced the state was deploying up to 150 Guardsmen, among other personnel, to help overwhelmed hospitals.
More than 600 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Idaho, the highest on record for the state, as the number of intensive care unit beds dwindles and hospital staff are stretched thin. On Tuesday, Idaho public health leaders announced they had activated “crisis standards of care” for the state’s northern hospitals, enabling them to ration care.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown announced last month she was deploying up to 1,500 National Guard members to hospitals around the state to provide support.
The service members have been met by applause by grateful health care workers as they’ve arrived at their hospitals.
Over the past few weeks, they’ve helped with nonclinical tasks, including screening visitors at hospital entrances, manning COVID-19 hotlines and changing patients’ bedding in the ICU.
Some have even used their talents to boost morale. Senior Airman Skadi Freyr of the Oregon National Guard has been playing piano during her lunch break while working at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
“A beautiful moment of someone in uniform who was blessing us on her break with some beautiful music, which really was grounding for me, to remind me of the beauty and the good in the midst of this really hard time,” OHSU oncology social worker Jen Smith told the Oregon National Guard last week.
Freyr said she doesn’t have any plans to stop playing after seeing the impact on staff.
“Now that I’ve seen that it has such a good sort of healing effect on people, it makes me more driven to do it, because I know that it’s really gonna just help them,” she said. “And I really like to be of service.”
(NEW YORK) — North Korean officials announced they test-fired long-range missiles this weekend.
The “long-range cruise missiles” were launched on Saturday and Sunday and allegedly hit a target 1,500 kilometers away, officials said on North Korea’s state-run media.
The missiles flew for over two hours, according to the report.
The officials claimed the test was successful, and said the missile is “a strategic weapon of great significance,” to North Korea’s defense plans.
Although the report said several top North Korean leaders and scientists were in attendance for the launches, there was no mention of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un being present.
South Korean officials have not yet commented on the test launch.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS
After opening Sunday night’s MTV VMAs with Justin Bieber, The Kid LAROI has announced his debut headlining tour.
The End of the World Tour kicks off January 29 in Phoenix, AZ and is currently scheduled to wrap up March 10 in Atlanta, GA, reports Billboard. Tickets go on sale Friday, September 17 at 10 a.m. local time. Following LAROI’s North American tour, he’ll travel to Europe and then to his home country of Australia, plus New Zealand.
Billboard quotes LAROI as saying, “I am beyond excited to share this experience with you all. It’s always been a dream of mine to headline a global tour. I cannot wait to see my fans all around the world and give them something that they won’t ever forget. It’s been a long time coming.”
Billboard reports that the tour will find LAROI performing songs from all three installments of his F*ck Love release, including his smash hits “Stay” and “Without You.”
Following his MTV VMA debut, LAROI tweeted to his fans, “I love you family. Thank you for everything. NONE of this s**t would be possible without you. I’m forever in debt to you all.”
“I’m forever grateful for the opportunity to do what I love and support the people I love most around me,” he added. “There’s no way I will ever be able to repay you.”
Last week, BTS teamed up with Coldplay‘s Chris Martin for an episode of YouTube Originals’ series RELEASED. Now the two are teaming up on music.
“My Universe,” a collaboration between the superstar British band and BTS, will be released on September 24. Produced by Max Martin, it was co-written by both acts and is sung in both English and Korean. You can pre-order it now atmyuniverse.coldplay.com.
“My Universe” is the second single from Coldplay’s upcoming album Music of the Spheres, due out October 15.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Nicholas is closing in on Texas where a hurricane watch has been issued along the coast.
Nicholas, now churning with 60 mph winds, could strengthen to a hurricane when it makes landfall Monday (hurricanes have 74 mph or higher winds).
Nicholas is slow moving and will likely remain in Texas from Monday to Wednesday.
Flash flooding is possible along the Texas coast, including Houston. Some areas could see about 1 foot of rain.
Storm surge could be as high as 5 feet south of Galveston.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner in a tweet Monday morning urged residents to stay off the roads.
In Louisiana, where residents are still recovering from the devastating hurricanes Laura and Ida, Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency.
“The most severe threat to Louisiana is in the Southwest portion of the state, where recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May flooding is ongoing. In this area heavy rain and flash flooding are possible,” the governor said in a statement. “However, it is also likely that all of South Louisiana will see heavy rain this week, including areas recently affected by Hurricane Ida. This tropical storm has the potential to disrupt some power restoration and recovery work currently underway.”
Ashton Kutcher continues to reap the consequences of igniting the great celebrity bathing debate of 2021, with things coming to a head at college football game that he recently attended.
Kutcher was serving as ESPN’s College GameDay guest picker on Saturday when the crowd at the Iowa State vs The University of Iowa football match began to loudly clap and chant “take a shower.” The That 70s Show alum was speaking about his new charity initiative when the stadium erupted, which partially drowned out his response.
The 43-year-old ignored the jeering and has yet to reference the incident on social media. However, the heckling happened live on television, with clips of the awkward interaction now going viral on Twitter.
Kutcher, along with wife Mila Kunis, first surprised the internet about their bathing habits in July when candidly revealing on the Armchair Expertpodcast that they do not bathe their children every day. While the two attested that they wash their armpits, face and private parts on the daily, their remarks ignited a firestorm over proper hygiene.
While celebs such as Kristen Bell and Jake Gyllenhaal defended Kunis and Kutcher by revealing that they, too, don’t wash themselves daily, others like Dwayne Johnson and CardiB made sure the public knew that they were firmly on the “bathe every day” train.
Kunis and Kutcher couple laughed off their now-viral interaction last month and even shared a hilarious clip of themselves bathing their young kids.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 659,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 63% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 13, 9:35 am
North Carolina school board votes to stop quarantines, contact tracing
In Union County, North Carolina, the school board voted Monday to end quarantines and contact tracing, meaning students can go to school even if they’ve been in close contact with someone who tested positive, ABC Charlotte affiliate WSOC reported.
Students and staff can only stay home if they test positive or have symptoms, WSOC said.
Sep 12, 9:14 pm
Nearly 74% of eligible Americans have at least 1 vaccine dose
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its latest vaccine numbers Sunday afternoon and revealed that over 209.2 million Americans 12 and older have received a COVID-19 vaccine dose.
That represents 73.8% of all Americans 12 and older, the agency said.
In 13 states, over 80% of the population has at least one dose, CDC data shows.
Hawaii is in the lead, as 88% of its residents have at least one shot, according to the CDC. West Virginia is last, as just 54.6% of its residents over 12 have at least one dose, the CDC data shows.
More than 40.9 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the U.S. since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
And more than 659,000 Americans have been killed by the virus.
Sep 11, 4:25 pm
West Hollywood orders restaurants, bars and gyms to require vaccination proof indoors
The city of West Hollywood, California, issued an emergency executive order Friday requiring patrons to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the indoor portions of businesses such as restaurants, bars and gyms.
The order comes “as the transmission rate of the COVID-19 delta variant remains high in Los Angeles and throughout the entire nation,” the city said in news release.
Anyone 18 or older must show proof of vaccination prior to entering “any indoor portion of a facility, subject only to certain exceptions.” The requirement should be enacted “as soon as possible but no later than Oct. 11,” according to the order.
Individuals who do not provide proof of full vaccination will be allowed to use outdoor portions of business facilities.
Other businesses affected by the order include nightclubs, theaters, cannabis consumption lounges and entertainment venues as well as yoga studios and tattoo parlors.
Employees 18 and older and all affected businesses must “ensure all staff who routinely work onsite provide proof of full vaccination before entering or working in any indoor portion of the facility” by Nov. 1.
Sep 11, 3:01 pm
74 million in US eligible for vaccine but remain unvaccinated
Some 74 million Americans eligible for the vaccine still aren’t vaccinated, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar said Saturday.
Still, many are flocking to get their shots with “+903K doses reported administered over yesterday’s total,” Shahpar said, with 395,000 of them being new vaccinations.
Sep 10, 9:13 pm
Texas suing 6 school districts over mask mandates
The Texas attorney general has filed lawsuits against six school districts that mandate masks, the office said Friday.
The lawsuits target the school districts of Richardson, Round Rock, Galveston, Elgin, Spring and Sherman for flouting Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local entities from requiring masks — what Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon referred to in a statement as “acts of political defiance.”
In a statement to ABC News, Sylvia Wood, a spokesperson for Spring Independent School District, said the district had yet to be served and had no details about the lawsuit beyond a press release.
“Spring ISD will let the legal process unfold and allow the courts to decide the merits of the case,” Wood said.
Elgin Independent School District Superintendent Jodi Duron also told ABC News the school district had not been served yet, and that schools in Travis County, part of Elgin ISD, are required to have students wear masks. “To the District’s knowledge, the Travis County Order has not been suspended,” she said.
Round Rock Independent School District spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo told ABC News the school district is following Texas Education Agency guidance that allows for mask requirements “for adults or students for whom it is developmentally appropriate” and is working with local authorities “who advise us that masks remain an essential tool in stemming the spread of COVID-19 in our classrooms.”
Sherman Independent School District told ABC News in a statement that it had not received any information on the lawsuit yet and for now “will continue to focus on promoting a safe and healthy learning environment for our students and staff.”
ABC News has reached out to the other school districts for comment.
Nearly 90 school districts currently have mask mandates, according to a list compiled by Paxton’s office. The attorney general anticipates more lawsuits if school districts “continue to defy state law,” his office said in a statement.
Several school districts have sued the state to challenge the ban on mask mandates.
Last week, the Texas Education Agency said it is not enforcing the governor’s executive order “as the result of ongoing litigation.”
