William Shatner took his 90th trip around the sun last March, but that’s not stopping the Star Trek star.
He recorded albums and shot his History Channel show The UnXplained during the pandemic, swam with sharks in the Bahamas with adventurer Josh Gates in Discovery’s Expedition Unknown: Shark Trek, and just launched his new RT America series I Don’t Understand. The series has Shatner exploring myriad mysteries ranging from why people lie, to what to do about space junk polluting Earth’s orbit.
“‘Are you 90?!’ I get that all the time,” Shatner tells ABC Audio. “I used to get ‘Are you Captain Kirk?’ and now it’s ‘Are you 90?!’ No!, I’m Captain Kirk,” he says with a laugh.
You know, it’s weird, Shatner admits. “I’m dancing with sharks. I’m underwater with 50, 60 feet of sharks…and I’m in genuine peril. And I’m 90 years old! I don’t get it.”
“The 90-year-olds I know,” Shatner continues, “You can tell how old they are by the amount of dribble on their shirt. If it’s a clean shirt, you’re 50 years old and younger. One dribble every 10 years: if you have three dribbles, you’re 80 years old — and that‘s young according to my point of view. Gee whiz, man!”
The trouble with dribbles aside, Shatner’s excited about I Don’t Understand. “It is a show that reflects my natural curiosity about everything,” he explains. “The older I’ve gotten, I’ve tried to simplify: ‘What is all this?’…What is the kernel of truth behind all this razzmatazz involving language…behind all the masks? And isn’t it a joy…to share that moment of truth…in a simple conversation? And that’s what I’m after.”
I Don’t Understand is now streaming on various platforms and RT America’s website.
(IOWA) — Democrat Abby Finkenauer, a one-term congresswoman who represented Iowa’s 1st Congressional District until she was unseated by a Republican in 2020, announced Thursday she’s running for Senate.
In her announcement video, Finkenauer, who is also a former state representative, shares the news with an intimate group of Iowans, calling out longtime fixtures of the Senate for how “obsessed” they are with maintaining power, citing their response to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“The politicians who’ve been there for decades … [t]hey think they own democracy, and they were silent when it was attacked. You see it’s politicians like Senator Grassley and Mitch McConnell, who should know better, but are so obsessed with power that they oppose anything that moves us forward. Since the Capitol was attacked, they’ve turned their backs on democracy, and on us,” she says. “They made their choice, and I’m making mine. I’m running for the United States Senate.”
The seat Finkenauer is seeking has been held by Republican Chuck Grassley for 40 years. First elected in 1980 when Republican Ronald Reagan ascended to the White House and defeating incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter, Grassley is the longest serving senator to ever represent the Hawkeye State.
The 87-year-old has been fundraising, earning nearly $2 million in contributions so far this cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission filing for his campaign committee submitted a week ago. But Grassley has not made his reelection bid official yet, despite the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s chairman persistently “bugging” the senator to make an announcement.
However, Sen. Rick Scott, the NRSC’s chairman, indicated in a podcast interview Tuesday he feels good about Grassley seeking another term, citing a fundraiser he recently held for him in Florida.
“If he flies all the way from Iowa down to Naples, Florida, I think he’s gonna run,” Scott said.
The Republican Party of Iowa was quick to blast Finkenauer after her announcement.
“Let me be as clear as possible – Abby Finkenauer will never represent the state of Iowa in the U.S. Senate,” Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement. “Iowans know Finkenauer and her disastrous record, it’s why they rejected her last November. No matter how she tries to reinvent herself, Iowans will see that her values and priorities are just the same as AOC’s and Chuck Schumer’s. Finkenauer will fall in line with Democrat leadership every chance she gets in hopes to gain media notoriety. … I look forward to seeing even more Iowans reject Finkenauer once again.”
When Finkenauer won in 2018, she became one of the youngest members of Congress along with New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. At only 32 years old, Grassley was already serving his second Senate term when she was born.
After flipping her district from red to blue in the 2018 blue wave, the Democrat narrowly lost reelection in 2020 to Republican Ashley Hinson. Hinson won about 10,700 more votes than Finkenauer, giving her a 2.6-point lead over Finkenauer. Across the country in 2020, Republicans picked up 14 seats, not including Republican-turned independent Justin Amash’s district, giving Democrats the slimmest House majority since the early 2000s.
Based on the 2020 election, Democrats are facing an uphill battle to win statewide in Iowa. The Republican in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, also won her election, flipping an open seat from blue to red as well. Republican Joni Ernst fended off a challenge from Democrat Theresa Greenfield, winning reelection by a 6.6-point margin. Former President Donald Trump’s margin against President Joe Biden was even bigger, 8.2 points.
But if Grassley chooses to forgo a bid, an open race could be much more competitive.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot back at House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday and said the Jan. 6 select committee is “deadly serious” after McCarthy accused Pelosi of an “egregious abuse of power.”
“It’s my responsibility as speaker of the House, to make sure we get to the truth on this, and we will not let their antics stand in the way of that,” she said at her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill.
The boiling tensions between the two come after Pelosi rejected two of McCarthy’s nominees for the committee — Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks — citing concerns with “statements made and actions taken by these members” that might compromise the integrity of the investigation. Jordan and Banks are vocal allies of former President Donald Trump and supported his efforts to overturn the election.
“It’s bipartisan, and we have a quorum. Staff is being hired to do the job,” Pelosi continued. “We’re there to get the truth, not to get Trump.”
While Pelosi accepted McCarthy’s other three picks — Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong and Texas Rep. Troy Nehls — McCarthy threatened Wednesday to pull all of his members.
“Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts,” McCarthy said at a press conference on the Hill.
Pelosi acknowledged at her press conference that Nehls had also voted against certifying election results for President Joe Biden, but said the two members she rejected, Jordan and Banks, had taken the big lie to another level.
“The other two made statements and took actions that just made it ridiculous to put them on such a committee seeking the truth,” she said.
She said some counseled her to allow Jordan and Banks on the committee “and then when they act up you can take them off,” she disclosed. “I said, ‘why should we waste time on something so predictable?'”
“I’m not going to spend any more time talking about them,” she added later.
Back in May, Senate Republicans killed a proposal for an independent, bipartisan commission that would have given Republicans equal representation to investigate the Capitol attack. Under the House select committee proposal, which was approved by the House mostly along party lines with GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger or Illinois joining Democrats, Pelosi gets seven appointments and McCarthy has five.
Pelosi also maintained the power to reject McCarthy’s appointments, which she exercised Wednesday.
The House Select Committee was expected to hold its first hearing on Tuesday. Capitol police officers are among the first witnesses.
Live music is back, and concert promoter Live Nation is celebrating by offering $20 tickets to its shows this summer.
The promotion, dubbed Return to Live, will let you see artists including Maroon 5, Jonas Brothers, Daryl Hall & John Oates and Alanis Morissette at various outdoor Live Nation venues across the U.S. for just twenty bucks — taxes and fees included.
Other participating artists include Lindsey Stirling, The Doobie Brothers, New Kids on the Block and Chicago.
The Return to Live tickets go on sale beginning next Wednesday, July 28, at noon ET. For the full list of participating artists and venues, visit LiveNation.com.
Kanye West is letting the world know his children are the center of his world. The rapper made a grand return to Instagram on Tuesday ahead of releasing his hotly anticipated 10th studio album, DONDA, and dedicated his first post to his four children.
Wiping his Instagram clean, Ye shared a slideshow of several chain necklaces that bear the names of his four children — North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm — whom he shares with his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian. It should be noted that Kim is the only person Kanye still follows on Instagram.
The caption-less slideshow features a masked figure, clad in all black, modeling the necklaces that Ye identifies as being designed by luxury jeweler John Hardy.
Since then, the rapper has shared three other posts, which include his latest Beats by Dre ad that stars runner Sha’Carri Richardson. Other snaps depict him kneeling in an empty stadium, while the latest depicts him wearing a DONDA sweater while facing a whiteboard that seemingly reveals the album’s track listing.
DONDA, Ye’s 10th studio effort, is named after his late mother, Donda West, who passed in 2007. The album is due out Friday, July 23.
Ye will hold a listening event tonight at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The event, which will also stream on Apple Music, starts at 8 p.m. ET. It was also announced DONDA will feature Lil Baby, Travis Scott and Pusha T.
Billboardreports that, to celebrate the album’s release, the 44-year-old rapper will take over Rolling Loud Miami on Sunday. Sources claim that the event, held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, would be the first festival headlined by Ye since he played Coachella in 2019.
(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are considering inviting former House Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman to serve as an adviser to the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol assault, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.
Riggleman, a former intelligence officer who lost his primary last year, has been a forceful critic of other Republicans over election-related disinformation and QAnon conspiracy theories.
Rep. Liz Cheney, picked by Pelosi to serve on the committee, has been pushing the idea even before Pelosi rejected two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s choices on Wednesday.
The track, which is available now for digital download, is the third fresh tune from the Canadian rockers in as many months, following “Daylight” and “Young King.”
“This one’s just a few chords and some confessions,” says frontman Brett Emmons. “It’s one of my favorites we’ve ever recorded.”
The Glorious Sons’ most recent album is 2019’s A War on Everything, which includes the single “Panic Attack.” A press release promises “news about more new music coming very soon.”
Meanwhile, you can catch The Glorious Sons on tour this winter, beginning December 10 in Pittsburgh.
(PADUCAH, Ky.) — Ten people have been injured in an explosion at a Kentucky Dippin’ Dots factory.
The explosion took place Wednesday at a Dippin’ Dots-owned facility on Industrial Drive in Paducah. The site is not where the ice cream is made, but where ingredients for a third-party company are produced, officials said.
A truck was unloading liquid nitrogen when the eruption took place, but it’s unclear exactly what caused the explosion, Paducah police spokeswoman Robin Newberry said to local ABC Kentucky affiliate WPSD Wednesday.
The 10 injured people were taken to two local hospitals, Newberry said.
Dippin’ Dots, which is headquartered in Paducah, told ABC News: “This is a terrible accident … At this moment, our focus is on the well-being of our fellow employees who were injured.”
The company said they’re working with authorities for a complete investigation into the incident.
Dippin’ Dots CEO Scott Fischer also released a statement to ABC News: “My heart is with our employees, especially those injured in this afternoon’s terrible incident. I care deeply for our employees — they are family to me. Please join me in praying for our employees.”
Shot at the Hollywood Bowl, the show will feature Billie performing every song off her new album, Happier Than Ever, in sequential order for the first and what’s said to be the only time.
“Disney is incredibly iconic, so to collaborate on something like this is a huge honor,” Billie says in a statement. “To be able to present my album in this way and dedicate it to the city that I love and grew up in is so exciting to me. I hope you love it.”
The special, directed by Robert Rodriguez and by Oscar-winner Patrick Osborne, will also include animated elements as Billie pays tribute to her LA hometown. Her brother, FINNEAS, will also take the stage with her, along with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Last month, around the time of the Friends reunion special, Courteney Cox posted an amazing video on Instagram in which she, Elton John, Ed Sheeran and singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile all sang Elton’s hit “Tiny Dancer,” but changed to lyrics to “Hold me close/young Tony Danza” — in reference to what Lisa Kudrow‘s Friends character Phoebe thought Elton was singing. Now, Cox has revealed how she got the all-star group together.
As many fans know, Ed and Cox are longtime pals, and Ed even introduced the actress to her boyfriend, Johnny McDaid. Cox tells Entertainment Weekly that both Ed and Brandi were staying over her house for Brandi’s birthday when Ed asked her, “Do you mind if I have Elton John over for dinner?'”
Once Elton confirmed he was coming, Cox says, it was Ed’s idea to film the number. “He said, ‘Maybe it’d be really funny if we do a thing, the Lisa Kudrow ‘hold me closer,'” Cox recalls.
So Cox, who plays piano, asked a friend to teach her how to play “Tiny Dancer” 20 minutes before Elton was set to arrive. She says, “After dinner, Elton was like, ‘Of course I’ll do it,’ and then I was playing with Ed, Brandi, and Elton. And Elton had his arm around me, and I was like, ‘I love this moment, but I’m panicking.'”
She got through it, but once they sang the chorus, Cox says Elton asked her, “What are you doing? Why are you stopping?”
“And I’m like, ‘Dude, I only know that part of the song!'” she laughs. “It was amazing.”
What’s more, Cox says after filming the clip, Elton entertained them by playing two deep cuts from his 1970 self-titled album: “The Greatest Discovery” and “I Need You to Turn To.”
