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Rage Against the Machine reacts to Kyle Rittenhouse verdict: “What defines innocence in America?”

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Rage Against the Machine has shared a statement reacting to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

Rittenhouse, then 17, killed two people and injured another with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Demonstrators were protesting against police violence and brutality after Kenosha police shot and partially paralyzed Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man.

In his much-publicized trial, Rittenhouse, now 18, claimed self-defense. He was acquitted on all charges Friday.

In a series of tweets reacting to the verdict, Rage asks, “What defines innocence in America?”

“Tamir Rice was executed for playing with a toy. Nobody was charged,” the post reads. “Ahmaud Arbery went jogging and was murdered in broad daylight. Rittenhouse armed himself and killed people who were fighting for racial justice. He claimed self-defense.”

“This is the settler logic of America’s founding myth: whiteness must cast itself as the victim in order to justify its violence against those resisting its oppression,” Rage continues. “Welcome to the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.”

1/What defines innocence in America? Tamir Rice was executed for playing with a toy. Nobody was charged. Ahmaud Arbery went jogging and was murdered in broad daylight. Rittenhouse armed himself and killed people who were fighting for racial justice. He claimed self-defense. pic.twitter.com/Em0qIOgaOp

— Rage Against The Machine (@RATMofficial) November 20, 2021

Billie Eilish accepts 8-year-old boy’s invite to help him save Australia’s coral reef

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

An eight-year-old boy’s quest to save Australia’s threatened Great Barrier Reef received a welcome boost from one of his heroes — Billie Eilish. The young activist contacted Billie in hopes that he could use her song, “Ocean Eyes,” for an upcoming social media campaign…and she said yes.

Elijah Richardson has been part of the nonprofit Coral Watch since last year and the organization says he felt Billie’s 2016 breakout song was the perfect fit for his new conservation campaign, titled “Come Join Our Watch.”

The avid snorkeler shared the impassioned video, titled “An Open Letter to Billie Eilish,” last October and the message went viral. The video not only states Billie’s song can inspire others to use their “Ocean Eyes” to “look out for the reef,” but politely asks her to lend a helping hand. “Not physically, we’d just love you to Zoom or FaceTime. Just let us know by email. We don’t have your address, so we had to do this to get you ours,” the message states.

Elijah says the message eventually found its way to Billie and, when talking to WIN News about their partnership, he called it a “dream come true” to receive her blessing.

“If the Great Barrier Reef dies, then all that marine life dies with it,” Elijah warned. The reef, the most biodiverse in the world, is home to more than 1,500 species of fish.

The young activist is concerned about the critical rate of bleaching, or loss of algae, that is killing the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Watch reports it “takes many years for coral to grow back,” but a “third mass coral bleaching event” is threatening to undo recovery efforts.

You can lean more about Elijah’s campaign on his Instagram, Elijahsworldqld.

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Luke Combs to headline the Thanksgiving Day halftime show

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Luke Combs has been tapped to headline the Thanksgiving Day halftime show at the Dallas Cowboys vs. Las Vegas Raiders NFL game at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

The event also serves as the launch of the annual Red Kettle Campaign run by the Salvation Army to supply a range of resources to people in need during the holiday season, including food, shelter and Christmas gifts.

Luke, who is friends with Dallas Cowboys player Ezekiel Elliott, says he’s “humbled” to be a part of the initiative.

“Considering I’m a huge football fan, the Dallas Cowboys were always on our TV on Thanksgiving Day growing up, so it is a complete honor to be a part of their 25th Thanksgiving Day halftime show supporting The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign,” the singer says in a statement.

The CMA Entertainer of the Year follows in the footsteps of Kane Brown, who performed at the halftime show last year. Luke’s performance comes as his latest single, “Cold as You,” clinches the #1 spot on the country charts.

The NFL game airs at 4:30 p.m. ET on Fox.

Shinedown’s Brent Smith, Third Man Records applaud Adele removing default album shuffle option on Spotify

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Shinedown frontman Brent Smith and Jack White‘s Third Man Records are among those applauding Adele in her effort to remove the shuffle option as the default setting for playing albums on Spotify.

In a tweet over the weekend, the “Rolling in the Deep” superstar revealed that she’d requested the change alongside the release of her much-anticipated new album, 30.

“We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason,” Adele wrote. “Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening.”

Smith very much agreed with that sentiment, writing in an Instagram post, “The fact that @adele was able to get @Spotify to remove the shuffle button on album pages is massive.”

“Simply put, albums do tell a story whether they are conceptual, or not,” Smith says. “They are a snapshot, ‘a window in time’ into the hearts, and minds of the artist.”

“Now some opinions of this may be, what’s the big deal? and why does it matter?” he continues. “It matters because it gives value back to the music, and the artist. Ultimately it comes down to respect. So with that being said, we applaud you @adele and @spotify.”

Meanwhile, the Third Man Records Twitter account retweeted Adele’s statement alongside a trio of clapping hands emojis.

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👏👏👏 https://t.co/KglKxnywf3

— Third Man Records (@thirdmanrecords) November 21, 2021

Whitesnake bassist Michael Devin leaves band; replacement to be announced soon

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Whitesnake has parted ways with bassist Michael Devin, who’s been a member of the band since 2010.

The David Coverdale-fronted rock group announced the news Sunday in a post on the singer’s and his band’s social media pages.

The message reads in part, “WHITESNAKE & bassist Michael Devin have decided to go their separate ways after an amazingly successful decade together…We all wish Michael every success in his life & all his endeavours…We sincerely thank him for being part of our journey & for all his exceptional gifts he brought to WHITESNAKE…God speed, Michael…Know we love you & will miss you…& we wish you well. Once a snake…always a snake.”

The band also revealed that it’s “secured a new bass player who will be announced very soon.”

Besides taking part in many Whitesnake tours, Devin contributed his talents to three of the band’s studio albums — 2011’s Forevermore, 2015’s Deep Purple tribute The Purple Album and 2019’s Flesh & Blood.

Whitesnake’s current lineup features Coverdale, longtime drummer Tommy Aldridge, guitarists Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra, keyboardist/backing vocalist Michele Luppi and multi-instrumentalist/backing singer Dino Jelusick. Jelusick joined the band earlier this year.

Last month, Whitesnake released a deluxe 25th anniversary reissue of their 1997 studio album Restless Heart. The band currently is scheduled to return to touring next year for their first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a European leg that kicks off May 10 in Dublin, Ireland.

❤️🔥❤️🔥💔❤️🔥❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/YZcVxGVHP2

— David Coverdale (@davidcoverdale) November 21, 2021

COVID-19 live updates: TSA vaccine mandate won’t impact holiday travel

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 771,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 22, 10:01 am
TSA vaccine mandate won’t impact holiday travel

About 93% of TSA employees are in compliance with Monday’s deadline for the federal employee vaccine mandate, TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein said.

“In compliance” means employees have had at least one shot or have filed for a medical or religious exemption.

Holiday travel won’t be impacted by the mandate, Farbstein said.

-ABC News’ Gio Benitez, Anne Flaherty

‘CMA Country Christmas’ reveals the festive songs list for this year’s show

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Country stars are lining up to bring seasonal cheer to fans next week with the airing of the annual CMA Country Christmas special. Following the lineup announcement earlier in November, the CMA has now revealed which songs will be performed on the 2021 show.

Breland, Carrie Underwood and Brett Eldredge are all sticking with the classics, performing “The Christmas Song,” “Mary, Did You Know?” and “Merry Christmas, Baby,” respectively.

Show hosts Gabby Barrett and Carly Pearce will perform Christmas standards, too, with Gabby offering her version of “Silent Night” and Carly putting her spin on “O Holy Night.”

Gabby and Carly will also take the stage together. They’re planning a duet version of “Sleigh Ride” that features two student musicians: eight-year-old Carter Hammonds and 17-year-old Truman Eltringham, both of whom are from Nashville.

The CMA Country Christmas special will offer some original holiday music, too. The Pistol Annies are performing “Snow Globe,” off their newly-released Christmas record, Hell of a Holiday. Lady A will offer “Christmas Through Your Eyes,” a holiday song inspired by their kids, and Jimmie Allen taps Louis York and the Shindellas for a performance of “What Does Christmas Mean,” a song they put out together last year.

Finally, Lainey Wilson will keep it country with her spin on George Strait’s “Christmas Cookies.”

The 2021 CMA Country Christmas will air on Monday, November 29 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Ahmaud Arbery death trial live updates: Closing arguments begin

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — A jury is expected to begin deliberating the fates of three white Georgia men charged in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery after first hearing final arguments on Monday that the 25-year-old Black man was either “hunted down” and murdered or was killed in self-defense when he resisted a citizens’ arrest.

The radically different theories based on the same evidence are expected to be laid out in closing arguments set to commence Monday morning in Glynn County Superior Court in Brunswick, Georgia. The closing arguments are expected to take all day as the prosecutor and attorneys for the three defendants are each expected to speak to the jury.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday morning.

Travis McMichael, the 35-year-old U.S. Coast Guard veteran; his father, Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired Glynn County police officer, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 53, each face maximum sentences of life in prison if convicted on all the charges.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty to a nine-count state indictment that includes malice murder, multiple charges of felony murder, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with a 12-gauge shotgun and aggravated assault with their pickup trucks.

The McMichaels and Bryan were also indicted on federal hate crime charges in April and have all pleaded not guilty.

Here’s how the news developed. All times Eastern:

Nov 22, 10:17 am
Prosecutor says defendants attacked Arbery because he was Black

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski began her closing argument by telling the jury that the three defendants chased and killed Arbery based on “assumptions and decisions” made in their driveways based on rumor and neighborhood gossip.

“The state’s position is all three of these defendants made assumptions, made assumptions about what was going on that day and they made their decision to attack Ahmaud Arbery in their driveways because he was a Black man running down the street,” Dunikoski said.

She stressed that the “bottom line” is that the defendants assumed Arbery had committed a crime “because he was running real fast down the street.”

“They did not call 911. They wanted to stop him and ‘question’ him before they called 911,” she said. “How do we know that? Because that is what they told the police that night.”

She asked the jury to closely consider the evidence she said shows beyond reasonable doubt that the men committed murder.

“This is your search for the truth,” Dunikoski told the jury. “You are Glynn County.”

Ahmaud Arbery death trial updates: Closing arguments set to begin

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday morning.

The McMichaels and Bryan were also indicted on federal hate crime charges in April and have all pleaded not guilty.

The charges stem from a Feb. 23, 2020, confrontation in the Stella Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. Lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski alleged in her opening statement that a series of wrong “assumptions and driveway decisions” led the men to surmise that the Black man she said was just jogging through their neighborhood on a balmy Sunday afternoon was a burglar they needed to detain at gunpoint.

Travis McMichael was the only defendant to testify during the nationally-televised trial.

He described a “life-or-death” encounter with Arbery and claimed he had no choice but to shoot the man with his Remington pump-action shotgun. He also conceded under cross-examination that Arbery never verbally threatened him or his co-defendants nor did he brandished a weapon during the five minutes Dunikoski said Arbery was running for his life.

During the trial, prosecutors relied heavily on a cellphone video recorded by Bryan. The video repeatedly played for the jury showed the unarmed Arbery trapped between Bryan’s pickup and Travis McMichael’s truck and partly captured a struggle that ended with Travis Michael shooting Arbery.

The trial, which began on Nov. 5, began with controversy when a jury of 11 white members and one Black member was seated to hear the case after a nearly three-week jury selection process.

Biden nominates Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to second term

November 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Monday he will nominate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to a second four-year term.

“While there’s still more to be done, we’ve made remarkable progress over the last 10 months in getting Americans back to work and getting our economy moving again. That success is a testament to the economic agenda I’ve pursued and to the decisive action that the Federal Reserve has taken under Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard (as vice-chair) to help steer us through the worst downturn in modern American history and put us on the path to recovery,” Biden said in a statement.

“Fundamentally, if we want to continue to build on the economic success of this year we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve — and I have full confidence after their trial by fire over the last 20 months that Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard will provide the strong leadership our country needs,” he added.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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