Steve Burton, who played mobster Jason Morgan on General Hospital, has become the second cast member of the long-running ABC soap over his refusal to comply with the production’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Burton confirmed his departure in a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday in which he said, “I know there’s been a lot of rumors and speculations about me and General Hospital and I wanted you to hear it from me personally: Unfortunately, General Hospital has let me go.”
Burton claims he sought medical and religious exemptions to the mandate, but was denied.
The turn of events “hurts,” the actor admitted. “But this also about personal freedom to me. I don’t think anybody should lose their livelihood over this.”
Burton thanked his fans, saying he’s “excited to see what the future brings,” and said it would be “an honor” if he could return to the show and “finish his career as Jason Morgan” someday, “if these mandates are lifted.”
Burton, who taped his final episode on October 27, says he doesn’t know when his last airdate will be. Ingo Rademacher recently announced his departure from GH over his refusal to comply with the mandate.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. has shared a statement in response to Marilyn Manson‘s inclusion among the 2022 Grammy nominees, which were announced Tuesday.
Manson, born Brian Warner, is technically nominated as a contributor to Kanye West‘s Donda, which is up for Album of the Year. That 2021 is ending with Warner being a Grammy nominee raised some eyebrows, as he’s spent most of this year being accused of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by multiple women, including ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood, actor Esmé Bianco, model Ashley Morgan Smithline and Warner’s former assistant, Ashley Walters.
Warner, who’s facing multiple lawsuits, has denied the allegations.
In a statement to The Wrap regarding Warner’s nomination, the Recording Academy’s Mason says, “We won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration.”
“We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record,” Mason continues. “We won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria. If it is, they can submit for consideration.”
Mason does imply, however, that the Recording Academy may restrict Warner’s ability to attend the actual Grammy ceremony.
“What we will control is our stages, our shows, our events, our red carpets,” Mason says. “We’ll take a look at anyone who is asking to be a part of that, asking to be in attendance, and we’ll make our decisions at that point.”
The statement concludes, “But we’re not going to be in the business of restricting people from submitting their work for our voters to decide on.”
Just hours after he scored his first Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, The Kid LAROIwon two ARIA Awards, the Australian equivalent of the Grammys.
The Australian rapper was named Best Artist, and also scored the Best Pop Release award for “Stay,” his hit collaboration with Justin Bieber.
While accepting his Best Artist award, LAROI, born Charlton Howard, said, “How good is Australian music? It’s incredible that I’m getting this much love, especially from home. That means to world to me.”
He added, “Starting this, all I wanted to do was just bring up the culture, and show the world how Australian music was. Shout-out to every one of you guys out there who’s been supporting it. I’ll be back next year on tour and I can’t wait to see you guys. I love you.”
LAROI was presented with the award by Australian journalist Brooke Boney, who, like LAROI, is Kamilaroi, one of the four largest Indigenous nations of Australia. Earlier this month, LAROI was also named Best Artist at Australia’s National Indigenous Music Awards.
Lady Gaga‘s previous collaboration with Tony Bennett, the album Cheek to Cheek, won them a Grammy, so it’s no surprise that their new joint album, Love for Sale, has been nominated as well.
Well, it’s a surprise to Gaga, evidently.
Reacting to the news that the project — which has been announced as Bennett’s final album — received six Grammy nominations on Tuesday, Gaga wrote on Instagram, “I am stunned and shocked and beyond grateful. I don’t know what to say. I just keep crying and am utterly speechless. This means so much to me, @itstonybennett, the Bennetts, my family, jazz music, and the great Cole Porter who wrote all these timeless classics.”
Gaga also said she congratulated Bennett, who has Alzheimer’s, on the nominations and revealed, “He could track every word I was saying and understood the world was celebrating him and celebrating jazz — a genre that embodies the joy, abundance and imagination of Black music throughout history.”
“This album happened because it was Tony’s idea and I made him a promise that we would make it and we did,” she continued. “At 95 years old, he has more nominations than ever, I’m so honored to be his companion in music and his friend.”
“Believe in love and partnership, even with 60 years between us, and Alzheimer’s, there is nothing like the magic of music,” Gaga concluded. “I love you Tony, and the world loves you too. How could they not?”
Love for Sale was nominated for Album of the Year and Traditional Pop Album of the Year, while “I Get a Kick Out of You,” one of its tracks, is up for Record of the Year, among other categories.
(NEW YORK) — The White House announcement Tuesday that the U.S is taking the rare step of releasing oil from the nation’s strategic reserve in an attempt to lower gas prices comes as inflation-battered Americans are feeling the pinch at the pump ahead of Thanksgiving travel.
While the news could bring relief of five to 15 cents per gallon in the coming days and weeks, industry experts told ABC News, they remain skeptical about whether the move will ease longer-term pressures in the oil market and concerned over how oil producers could punitively respond.
The announcement that the U.S. will disperse 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a complex of four sites with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts — comes as gas prices hover near a seven-year-high for this time of year, largely due to supply-demand imbalances wrought by the pandemic. The White House is taking action, meanwhile, amid soaring gas prices seen as hurting President Joe Biden’s approval ratings.
“It’s very much political,” Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at the fuel price-tracking site GasBuddy, told ABC News of the release. “We’ve never used the Strategic Petroleum Reserve merely to to bring prices down.”
The 50 million barrels of oil the U.S. plans to release represents about one-twelfth of the total in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Historically, the U.S. has tapped into this reserve in response to immediate disruptions in oil supply, like hurricanes.
“The SPR has historically been there as a strategic use in case of disruption,” DeHaan added. “It presents a bit of a slippery slope that now it’s going to be used politically, to improve a candidate’s reelectability or potential.”
“That’s why Biden feels so much pressure, Americans are feeling pressure, gas prices are at their highest they’ve been this time of year in seven years,” he said. “But it also puts the nation at further risk in case OPEC decides it wants to cut oil production or, in fact, the increase from the SPR could draw OPEC’s ire and cause them to lower the restoration of oil production.”
A senior administration official, citing a low global supply of oil that is contributing to driving up fuel costs, said the decision was made to ease costs on American consumers as pressures between demand and the easing of the pandemic create unique conditions.
During remarks on Tuesday, Biden said he was “announcing that the largest ever release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help provide the supply we need as we recover from this pandemic.”
“This coordinated action will help us deal with the lack of supply, which in turn helps ease prices,” the president said. “It will take time, but before long, you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank.”
As the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 shock, oil demand is surging and more travelers are hitting the road and taking flights, causing demand for gas — and prices — to rise at a rapid clip. At the same time, the supply and production of oil has not kept up with increased demand. OPEC+, a conglomerate of the world’s biggest oil producers, has resisted repeated calls by the White House to boost global production.
“At the end of the day, this is a short-term Band-Aid,” said Jeff Kilburg, the chief investment officer at Sanctuary Wealth, told ABC News.
He added crude oil prices have come down in recent weeks, in part in anticipation of an announcement that the U.S. and other countries would tap into oil reserves. But after the White House formalized the news Tuesday, crude futures actually traded higher.
“This was a surprise that everyone saw coming,” Kilburg said.
Longer-term price drops are more dependent on boosting global oil production, he added.
President Biden, meanwhile, put the blame on “gas supply companies” for the prices at the pump staying elevated.
“The fact is the price of oil was already dropping prior to this announcement and many suggest in anticipation of the announcement,” Biden said during his Tuesday remarks. “The price of gasoline in the wholesale market has fallen by about 10% over the last few weeks. But the price at the pump hasn’t budged a penny. In other words, gas supply companies are paying less and making a lot more. And they do not seem to be passing that on to the consumers at the pump.”
How and when will this affect gas prices?
Typically, prices at the pump lag crude oil prices by a couple of weeks, but GasBuddy’s DeHaan said speculation that this announcement was coming had already been driving crude oil prices down over the past week.
DeHaan said he expects this announcement to bring down gas prices by some five to 15 cents per gallon depending on the state, and most Americans should start seeing this at the pump “in the next couple of days” or weeks at most.
As of Tuesday, the national average gas price in the U.S. was $3.403 per gallon for regular gas, according to American Automobile Association data. A week ago, that figure was $3.411, a month ago it was $3.382, and a year ago — as the pandemic raged — it was $2.109.
This relief Americans will see as a result of this announcement, however, will likely be “underwhelming,” according to DeHaan, and not a long-term solution.
“I’m not sure that national [gas price] average will drop as much as what Biden had intended or hoped for,” he said.
DeHaan also said there was some “accounting maneuvers” being used in that of the 50 million barrels released, 32 million barrels are going to be “exchanged.”
“That is, oil companies can take delivery now and it’s like an ‘IOU,’ they have to replenish them later,” he said. “Which is not necessarily an outright gain to supply because they have to replenish that.”
The biggest threat of this announcement is that OPEC+ has already hinted at the fact that it may limit future production increases to offset the U.S. and other countries strategic reserve releases, DeHaan added.
“Prior to this SPR announcement, I would have expected that OPEC increases in production that they’ve been doing monthly would have brought meaningful relief by early- to mid-2022,” DeHaan said. “But now, I think that might be threatened if OPEC responds.”
(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 773,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.2% 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 24, 9:37 am
700K more could die in Europe between now and March: WHO
An additional 700,000 people in Europe could die from COVID-19 between now and March, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
COVID-19 is now Europe’s leading cause of death, the WHO said.
Deadly deaths in Europe neared 4,200 last week, which is twice as many as the daily deaths at the end of September, according to the WHO.
-ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic
Nov 24, 3:25 am
Massachusetts asks hospitals with limited capacity to reduce elective surgeries
Hospitals with limited capacity in Massachusetts are being asked to, once again, begin reducing elective surgeries.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health released the updated guidance to hospitals on Tuesday. The guidance explains that, “on a statewide basis, hospitals are currently operating at over 90% inpatient capacity,” which it says “is compounded by 500 fewer acute care inpatient beds available as a result of unprecedented staffing shortages.”
“The current strain on hospital capacity is due to longer than average hospital stays and significant workforce shortages, separate and apart from the challenges brought on by COVID,” Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders said in a statement Tuesday. “COVID hospitalizations in Massachusetts remain lower than almost every other state in the nation, but the challenges the healthcare system face remain, and this order will ensure hospitals can serve all residents, including those who require treatment for COVID-19.”
Although COVID-19 hospitalizations in Massachusetts are still significantly lower than last January, when more than 2,000 patients were receiving care, approximately 740 patients are currently hospitalized across the state.
Given the current “high census level” and expected increase in hospitalization rates, as seen last year during the period following Thanksgiving and through January, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said a “concerted effort to preserve inpatient capacity” was necessary.
The current strain on the Bay State’s health care system has been further exacerbated by staffing shortages.
“We are now seeing significant strain on hospital capacity due largely to workforce shortages and an influx of non-COVID-19 patients who deferred care and now need complex medical care,” Steve Walsh, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, said in a statement Tuesday.
The reduction of non-essential, non-urgent scheduled procedures will not apply to ambulatory services, pediatric care or immunizations, pregnancy terminations and essential, urgent inpatient procedures that have a high risk or would lead to a significant worsening of the patient’s condition, if deferred.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 23, 3:58 pm
New cases in US up by more than 42%
New cases in the U.S. have jumped by more than 42% over the last four weeks, according to federal data.
These states as well as Washington, D.C., have seen at least a 10% uptick in daily cases over the last two weeks: Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Michigan is currently experiencing its highest case average of the entire pandemic, according to federal data.
New York is now averaging its highest number of new cases since February.
More than 101 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated; 81 million of those people are over the age of 5 and thus eligible to be vaccinated, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 23, 3:02 pm
Denver hospitals running out of space
Denver area hospitals are 95% full, Denver Health CEO Robin Wittenstein warned at a Tuesday news conference.
“Emergency rooms are routinely diverting patients because they simply don’t have the capacity to take care of people who need help,” Wittenstein said.
Eighty-three percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Colorado are unvaccinated, said Bob McDonald, executive director of Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment.
“To suggest that the vaccines don’t work… that’s like suggesting seatbelts don’t work,” McDonald said.
Denver is implementing an indoor mask mandate unless businesses choose to require proof of vaccination.
(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 773,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.2% 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 24, 8:59 am
Fauci says definition of fully vaccinated could ‘without a doubt’ change
Dr. Anthony Fauci told Reuters Tuesday that the definition of fully vaccinated could change as more evidence emerges on how vaccine protection can wane over time.
“Right now, officially, fully vaccinated equals two shots of the mRNA and one shot of the J&J, but without a doubt that could change,” Fauci said. “That’s on the table for discussion.”
Fauci told Reuters that the “overwhelming majority” of Americans who have been fully vaccinated should now receive a booster shot given the evidence that the additional dose provides “substantial” protection.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 24, 3:25 am
Massachusetts asks hospitals with limited capacity to reduce elective surgeries
Hospitals with limited capacity in Massachusetts are being asked to, once again, begin reducing elective surgeries.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health released the updated guidance to hospitals on Tuesday. The guidance explains that, “on a statewide basis, hospitals are currently operating at over 90% inpatient capacity,” which it says “is compounded by 500 fewer acute care inpatient beds available as a result of unprecedented staffing shortages.”
“The current strain on hospital capacity is due to longer than average hospital stays and significant workforce shortages, separate and apart from the challenges brought on by COVID,” Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders said in a statement Tuesday. “COVID hospitalizations in Massachusetts remain lower than almost every other state in the nation, but the challenges the healthcare system face remain, and this order will ensure hospitals can serve all residents, including those who require treatment for COVID-19.”
Although COVID-19 hospitalizations in Massachusetts are still significantly lower than last January, when more than 2,000 patients were receiving care, approximately 740 patients are currently hospitalized across the state.
Given the current “high census level” and expected increase in hospitalization rates, as seen last year during the period following Thanksgiving and through January, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said a “concerted effort to preserve inpatient capacity” was necessary.
The current strain on the Bay State’s health care system has been further exacerbated by staffing shortages.
“We are now seeing significant strain on hospital capacity due largely to workforce shortages and an influx of non-COVID-19 patients who deferred care and now need complex medical care,” Steve Walsh, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, said in a statement Tuesday.
The reduction of non-essential, non-urgent scheduled procedures will not apply to ambulatory services, pediatric care or immunizations, pregnancy terminations and essential, urgent inpatient procedures that have a high risk or would lead to a significant worsening of the patient’s condition, if deferred.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 23, 3:58 pm
New cases in US up by more than 42%
New cases in the U.S. have jumped by more than 42% over the last four weeks, according to federal data.
These states as well as Washington, D.C., have seen at least a 10% uptick in daily cases over the last two weeks: Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Michigan is currently experiencing its highest case average of the entire pandemic, according to federal data.
New York is now averaging its highest number of new cases since February.
More than 101 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated; 81 million of those people are over the age of 5 and thus eligible to be vaccinated, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 23, 3:02 pm
Denver hospitals running out of space
Denver area hospitals are 95% full, Denver Health CEO Robin Wittenstein warned at a Tuesday news conference.
“Emergency rooms are routinely diverting patients because they simply don’t have the capacity to take care of people who need help,” Wittenstein said.
Eighty-three percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Colorado are unvaccinated, said Bob McDonald, executive director of Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment.
“To suggest that the vaccines don’t work… that’s like suggesting seatbelts don’t work,” McDonald said.
Denver is implementing an indoor mask mandate unless businesses choose to require proof of vaccination.
(NEW YORK) — Every year, thousands of Americans undergo routine screening to catch cancer in its early stages, while it’s still treatable. But these routine tests can be painful and invasive, and doctors only regularly screen for five of some of the most common types of cancer.
So for decades, scientists have been working on ways to screen for cancers using a simple blood draw rather than a painful biopsy or invasive test. These so-called “blood biopsy” tests are closer than ever to dramatically improving the way doctors screen for cancer.
Galleri, a new blood test by health care company GRAIL, is one of the most advanced blood biopsy tests. It works by looking for fragments of DNA in a person’s blood that indicate the presence of more than 50 types of cancer.
According to Dr. Pashtoon Kasi, director of colon cancer research and precision medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, the underlying technology was actually first used to serve a different purpose.
“The same technology has been around for more than 20 years,” he said. “It started with prenatal diagnostics.”
But now, similar technology has been harnessed to detect early signatures of cancer.
Dr. Michael Seiden, the former president of the US Oncology Network, sees blood biopsy tests as part of the future wave of so-called “precision medicine” — the idea that each person’s medical care can be tailored to fit their specific genetics, medical needs and unique characteristics.
Precision medicine tries “to learn as much [as possible] about a person’s health through sort of sophisticated diagnostic tests,” Seiden said.
According to Kasi, less than two thirds of Americans get screened for colon cancer, which often involves an invasive procedure called a colonoscopy. A simple blood biopsy such as Galleri may improve current cancer screening due to ease of use, he said.
But despite the recent advancements, many doctors say there’s a long way to go — and some say there are reasons to wait for more research to be done.
The Galleri test, though promising, is not yet FDA approved. It still needs to undergo more testing to show it can produce reliable results every time.
“What you want to see is evidence it detects cancers early and in a reasonably good-sized population and that there aren’t harms done,” Dr. Ann Partridge, a breast oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said.
But there’s another, more complex challenge, some experts say. In routine medical care, more testing isn’t always better.
“To do a screening test for any kind of disease or disorder, you have to consider what’s the benefit of doing it,” Partridge said. “If you live for 15 minutes longer, it might not be worth it. But if you live for 10 months longer, it might be worth it.”
A common refrain in cancer treatment is “earlier is better”: that the earlier a cancer can be found, the treatment is often more successful. However, sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between an early cancer and a non-cancerous growth.
A final diagnosis often involves an invasive procedure, such as a needle biopsy or surgery in order to remove tissue. These procedures are not without risk, and any screening tool, such as the Galleri test, should reduce the number of unnecessary procedures by not flagging non-cancers as cancers.
That’s why some in the medical community have hesitation about the utility of a blood biopsy capable of detecting only a few cancer cells, as it may accidentally detect a non-cancer as a cancer.
But at the very least, Galleri could provide an early warning system, so doctors could monitor patients and treat them if it becomes necessary.
“This provides an additional screening test that might detect an early-stage cancer that’s not detectable by other available tests,” Seiden said. But, “It does not prove you don’t have cancer, and it does not replace currently recommended screening. It’s a supplement.”
Partridge added that she’s hopeful that someday she’ll be able to order tests like these, but right now, “I think the big picture is very optimistic, but really not ready for our patients routinely, outside a clinical trial. I look forward to seeing this important research evolve.”
Although Galleri is still not FDA approved, the test can be prescribed by any physician in the United States. Because it’s not covered by insurance, it costs $949 out of pocket.
Jacob S. Warner, an internal medicine resident at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — A Georgia jury resumed deliberating on Wednesday the fates of three white men charged with trapping Ahmaud Arbery with their pickup trucks and fatally shooting him.
“Your oath requires that you will decide this case based on the evidence,” Judge Timothy Walmsley told the jury before sending the panel off to begin their deliberations on Tuesday.
The jury got the case after Linda Dunikoski, the Cobb County, Georgia, assistant district attorney appointed as a special prosecutor in the Glynn County case, took two hours to rebut the closing arguments made on Monday by attorneys for the three defendants.
The jury, comprised of 11 white people and one Black person, heard wildly different summations on Monday of the same evidence in the racially-charged case. Dunikoski alleged the defendants pursued and murdered Arbery because of wrong assumptions they made that the Black man running through their neighborhood had committed a burglary, while defense attorneys countered that Arbery was shot in self-defense when he resisted a citizen’s arrest.
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 24, 9:01 am
Jury resumes deliberations
The jury resumed its deliberations on Wednesday morning, after working a little over six hours on Tuesday.
The panel was called into the Glynn County courtroom around 8:30 a.m. and Judge Walmsley thanked them for their service and sent them off to continue their discussions.
Nov 23, 6:34 pm
Jury sent home for the night
After more than six hours of deliberations on Tuesday, the jury was sent home for the night.
Judge Timothy Walmsley sent the panel home after questioning the jury foreperson about the jury’s progress.
“We are in the process of working to reach a verdict,” the jury foreperson told Walmsley.
When Walmsley asked if a verdict was imminent, the foreperson said, “At this moment, I think breaking for the day would be the best option.”
The foreperson went back and conferred with the other jurors, who initially said they wanted to keep working. But minutes later, Walmsley called the jury into the courtroom and told the panel it was a good time to break for the day and sent them home.
Deliberations will resume at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Nov 23, 11:34 am
Judge gives jury final instructions
Judge Timothy Walmsley read the jury final instructions and explained the law and each charge to the jury before sending the panel off to deliberate their verdicts.
Walmsley told the jury that they must reach a unanimous verdict beyond a reasonable doubt, explaining that does not mean “beyond all doubt” or to a “mathematical certainty.”
He reminded the jury that the defendants have all pleaded not guilty to the charges and that the burden of proof is solely on the prosecution.
Walmsley said that lesser charges could only be considered against William “Roddie” Bryan. He said the lesser charges against Bryan are simple assault, reckless conduct and reckless driving.
“Each of you must decide this case for yourself,” Walmsley said.
Nov 23, 10:56 am
Prosecutor pokes holes in Travis McMichael’s testimony
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski suggested to the jury that Travis and Greg McMichael became angry at Ahmaud Arbery after he ignored their calls to stop when they pulled up alongside him during the pursuit.
Dunikoski attacked the testimony of Travis McMichael, pointing out inconsistencies and claims she alleged were concocted for the trial.
Dunikoski said neither Travis McMichael nor his father told police on the day of the shooting that they were trying to place Arbery under criminal arrest because they believed he had committed a burglary at a home under construction in their neighborhood.
The prosecutor cited Travis McMichael’s testimony that he thought his father had called 911 before they set out to chase Arbery.
“Does anybody believe that?” asked Dunikoski, suggesting that a dispatcher would have kept Greg McMichael on the line to get more information.
She scoffed at Travis McMichael’s claim on the witness stand that he didn’t know what his father yelled at Arbery as they chased him, including the alleged statement threatening to shoot Arbery.
She said Travis McMichael’s testimony was full of “maybes” and assumptions, including that Arbery may have committed a crime, that maybe he was caught.
“These are all maybes. He doesn’t know anything,” Dunikoski said.
Dunikoski also poked holes in Travis McMichael’s claim that he spoke to Arbery calmly during the pursuit, trying to get him to stop and answer questions about what he was doing in their neighborhood.
“Do you believe for a minute he was talking softly to Ahmaud Arbery?” Dunikoski asked the jury.
She played a 911 call Travis McMichael made after Arbery was cornered, and breathlessly reported his emergency that “A Black male was running down the street.” In the background of the call, Greg McMichael was heard yelling at Arbery, “Stop. Goddammit. Stop.”
The prosecutor wrapped up her rebuttal argument by telling the jury the defendants are all “parties to the crime” and asked the panel to convict them on all charges.
(NEW YORK) — Macy’s is turning some of the iconic balloon designs from its annual Thanksgiving Day parades into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), some of which will be auctioned to benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation.
NFTs have become adopted by the mainstream and are especially popular among budding digital art collectors.
Macy’s first-ever NFT series is launching in celebration of its 95th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is returning in full-swing this year after pandemic restrictions curbed some of its excitement last year.
“As we celebrate our rich legacy, 95 years in the making, we were struck by the unique place the Parade holds in pop culture, always evolving and reflecting the greatest characters and artists of each generation,” Will Coss, the executive producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, said in a statement.
“To celebrate that history, we created art in a new form through NFTs that would bring the magic of the Parade to a new generation while raising funds for our partner Make-A-Wish,” Coss added.
The NFTs are based on Macy’s archival content and balloons that have appeared over the parade’s nine-decade history. They are being designed by a digital art agency REOMETRY.
Starting last Friday and going through Nov. 30, Macy’s is auctioning 10 of its unique NFT designs, and 100% of the proceeds generated from these 10 digital collectibles will go toward benefitting Make-A-Wish, a group that grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
Macy’s is also dropping an additional 9,500 free generative NFTs, featuring past parade balloon designs, that will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis starting at 10 a.m. ET on Thanksgiving Day. The auction and NFT drop can be accessed at macys.com/NFT.
Bids on some of the 10 NFTs up for auction have already topped $5,000 as of Tuesday.
The NFTs are powered by the platform Sweet and built on the Polygon blockchain. Even if the free NFTs are sold by fans in the future, 10% of any sales generated will be donated to Make-A-Wish, in perpetuity, using the blockchain technology.
NFTs have exploded in popularity amid the pandemic, creating an entirely new marketplace in recent years for digital collectors. Many recent NFT sales have garnered eye-brow raising sums. An NFT of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet fetched some $2.9 million in March. A collage by digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, fetched a whopping $69 million when it was auctioned as an NFT by Christie’s.
