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New York’s largest private hospital system now 100% vaccinated

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Northwell Health, the largest hospital system in New York state, announced Monday that all of its employees have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The move comes just one week after the state issued a vaccine mandate for all health workers.

Northwell Health representatives said in a statement that all of the company’s 76,000 employees, from 23 hospitals and more than 830 outpatient facilities, have received their shots.

“Northwell believes that having a fully vaccinated workforce is an important measure in our duty to protect the health and safety of our staff, our patients and the communities we serve,” the company said in a statement.

A spokesman for the hospital system told ABC News that 1,400 employees were laid off because they did not comply with the mandate.

“Northwell regrets losing any employee under such circumstances, but as health care professionals and members of the largest health care provider in the state, we understand our unique responsibility to protect the health of our patients and each other,” the hospital said. “We owe it to our staff, our patients and the communities we serve to be 100% vaccinated against COVID-19.”

As the deadline for the mandate approached, Gov. Kathy Hochul said that thousands of unvaccinated health care workers got their doses. No hospital in the state was forced to close its doors following the termination of employees who didn’t comply with the mandate.

New York hospitals were the epicenter of the pandemic during the spring of 2020, with bed space scarce in several locations in New York City. Hospital admissions peaked 18,825 on April 12, 2020, according to the New York State Health Department.

Hospitalization rates in the state have seen a jump since the summer, when they hit a low of 349 on July 13, state health data showed. As of Oct. 2, 2,151 people are hospitalized throughout the state, most of whom are unvaccinated patients, according to state health officials.

As of Oct. 4, 71.9% of all New York residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I’m going to be a ‘Rocket Man'”: Captain Kirk is going where few men have gone before

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Space. The final frontier.

Sure, it’s old hat for the starship Enterprise‘s Captain James Tiberius Kirk, but it will be a whole new experience for his alter-ego, 90-year-old William Shatner.

The actor will be among the next group of passengers on Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos‘ New Shepard spacecraft from his Blue Origin company. The trip is slated for October 12.

“So now I can say something. Yes, it’s true; I’m going to be a “rocket man!” Shatner confirmed via Twitter on Monday, perhaps referring to his infamous cover of the Elton John hit.

Shatner’s news was met with tons of support from fans and celebs, including Vincent D’Onofrio, who replied “Wow! That’s amazing dude,” and English actor and writer Stephen Fry, who said the news is “EVERYTHING.”

Cheekily, Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, replied to Shatner, “Congrats, @WilliamShatner! If you really [get] to go to space, I hope I can really figure out how to get an invisible plane.”

Similarly, Jason Alexander referenced his own famous alter-ego, Seinfeld‘s George Costanza, by saying, “@WilliamShatner is going to space? My man! I guess this means I have to become a marine biologist.”

Trump set to be deposed in lawsuit filed by former ‘Apprentice’ contestant

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) –Former President Donald Trump will have to sit for a deposition sometime before Christmas as part of a defamation lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “Apprentice,” a judge’s law clerk said Monday.

Zervos has alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007 and defamed her during his campaign when he said she lied about it.

Earlier, in a 2016 statement, Trump had said that he had “never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago.”

The two parties are still haggling over disclosure of certain documents but Zervos’ side is eager to depose the former president.

“We just don’t believe our client can be further prejudiced in delaying this litigation any longer,” said Zervos’ attorney Moira Penza. “We do not believe there are any outstanding issues that would prohibit the parties from engaging in depositions.”

An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, called it “completely ridiculous” to think depositions could occur immediately when Zervos has not turned over all relevant information.

“Ms. Zervos is claiming emotional damages and financial damages,” Habba said. “How can we, as defense counsel, provide any kind of quality deposition when we don’t have all the medical records?”

A law clerk for the judge overseeing the case said he saw no reason depositions could not occur before the end of the year.

“Now he’s a private citizen,” said clerk Michael Rand during a virtual status conference on Monday. “I’m sure like any other litigant, we can have mutually agreeable dates for depositions. I really don’t see a reason that before the end of the year, you’re not done with depositions.”

Rand set a close-of-fact date by Dec. 23, meaning depositions will have to be taken by then. He said he expected a trial date to be set sometime in the early part of 2022.

Blake Shelton calls Gwen Stefani his “better half” in birthday post

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Over the weekend, Blake Shelton took time out of his day to wish his “better half” a happy birthday.

On Sunday, Blake’s wife, Gwen Stefani, celebrated her 52nd birthday, and he honored the occasion by sharing a beautiful black-and-white photo from their wedding on his Twitter feed.

“Happy birthday to my better half.. my WIFE!!!! I love you @gwenstefani!” wrote the country star alongside the photo, which shows the couple beaming as they dance at their wedding, the venue adorned with candles and, in the background, guests seated at tables boasting gorgeous candelabras.

Blake and Gwen wed on July 3 at their property in Blake’s native Tishomingo, Oklahoma. The wedding was officiated by The Voice host Carson Daly.

Musically, the couple has sent two duets to the top of the country charts, “Nobody but You” and “Happy Anywhere.”

Sterling K. Brown to star, exec-produce Hulu’s ‘Washington Black’; Regal offers immersive auditoriums

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Sterling K. Brown is headed to Hulu for his next major TV project.

The This Is Us actor will executive-produce and star in Washington Black, a new series based on Esi Edugyan’s best-selling novel of the same name. The story follows the adventures of 11-year-old George Washington “Wash” Black, a young boy living on a Barbados sugar plantation during the 19th century. After learning of a shocking death, Black “flees the plantation and travels the world.” Brown will play Medwin Harris, a “Black refugee who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood” and has Washington Black as his young protégé.

In other news, Regal theaters is offering moviegoers an immersive experience to see some of this year’s most highly-anticipated films. In select theaters, Regal offers fans the option of ScreenX and 4DX auditoriums. On ScreenX, which is the world’s first multi-projection cinema with an immersive 270 degree field of view, movie fans can now watch Venom, No Time to Die and Spider-Man: No Way Home on a panoramic screen. 4DX allows audiences to connect with movies through motion, vibration, water, wind, snow, lightning, scents, and other special effects, fans can watch Dune, Eternals, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, among others. For more information on how to get tickets, go to Regal’s website.

Finally, SIX, the Broadway musical that centers on the six wives of Henry VIII, had a new opening night on Sunday after the pandemic put the show on hiatus for over a year. The original diverse cast of Adrianna Hicks as Catherine of Aragon, Andrea Macasaet as Anne Boleyn, Abby Mueller as Jane Seymour, Brittney Mack as Anna of Cleves, Samantha Pauly as Katherine Howard, and Anna Uzele as Catherine Parr, all returned for a performance. Tickets are now on sale.

Ben Affleck says playing Batman again in ‘The Flash’ movie “was really fun” after the “difficult” ‘Justice League’

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ben Affleck has reason to smile lately, even if Batman rarely does.

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know that he’s dating Jennifer Lopez again. He’s also got The Last Duel coming out next week, which he co-wrote with his co-star and childhood friend Matt Damon.

But Ben tells Variety that he recently also had a happy new experience as the Caped Crusader that was worlds away from his time on the controversial Justice League.

Affleck plays the Dark Knight again in the upcoming Flash film with Ezra Miller — which, because it follows the Flashpoint comics, also runs through several timelines, meaning we’ll also see Michael Keaton reprising his Batman role.

Affleck told the trade it was much more fun than last time, noting, “I had a great time.” He then joked, “I’m probably under some gag order that I’m not even aware that I probably just violated, and I’m now going to be sued.”

Ben added, “I love Ezra and I had a chance to see Jason [Momoa], who’s over there making [the] Aquaman [sequel].”

Affleck noted that the Flash film “was a really nice way to revisit [Batman], as the prior experience had been difficult. This was really lovely. Really fun.”

The Flash debuts November 4, 2022.

2017’s Justice League underwent a series of poorly received reshoots from Joss Whedon, after director Zack Snyder dropped out following his daughter’s tragic death by suicide. It also weathered controversy from co-star Ray Fisher, who blamed racism for his on-set treatment — and his scenes mostly being left on the cutting room floor.

The film was later re-edited and released to fan acclaim as Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Affleck will also be seen in The Tender Bar, directed by George Clooney, which debuts December 17.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema claps back after chased into bathroom by pro-Biden agenda protesters

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Krysten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat, is clapping back after she was videotaped and chased into a school bathroom over the weekend by a group of pro-Biden agenda activists, confronting her over her objections holding up Democratic efforts on Capitol Hill.

President Joe Biden has also weighed in on the encounter, when asked on Monday, calling it not appropriate but also “part of the process” for someone without Secret Service protection.

Sinema, in a new statement on Monday, called the display caught on video and posted online “no legitimate protest” and “wholly inappropriate.”

She claimed activists entered Arizona State University, where she was teaching, using “deceptive” and “unlawful” means.

“After deceptively entering a locked, secure building, these individuals filmed and publicly posted videos of my students without their permission — including footage taken of both my students and I using a restroom,” the statement said.

While she wrote she supports the First Amendment, she shunned the protest — by a group she doesn’t name but claims to have met with several times since she was elected to the Senate.

“Yesterday’s behavior was not legitimate protest. It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom,” she wrote.

Video posted to Twitter on Sunday by the organization Living United for Change in Arizona or LUCHA, showed people chanting at and chasing the first-term senator into a bathroom, pressing her to support Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and progressive immigration policy.

ABC News has reached out to LUCHA for comment.

The confrontation comes as the moderate Democratic senator, along with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., continue intra-party negotiations on the topline number for a larger social spending package to accompany the already Senate-passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

“In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have been committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students. Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized. This is wholly inappropriate,” Sinema continued.

Her statement ended by putting the onus also on elected officials to foster a healthy environment for politics.

“It is the duty of elected leaders to avoid fostering an environment in which honestly-held policy disagreements serve as the basis for vitriol — raising the temperature in political rhetoric and creating a permission structure for unacceptable behavior,” she wrote.

Biden was asked about the recent protests facing both Sinema and Manchin in his remarks on Monday about the debt ceiling.

“Joe Manchin had people on kayaks show up to his boat to yell at him. Senator Sinema last night was chased into a restroom. Do you think that those tactics are crossing a line?” a reporter asked.

“I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody,” Biden replied. “The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them. So it’s part of the process.”

Asked if Sinema has given the White House a topline number for the social package — somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $3.5 trillion — Biden said “I’m not going to negotiate in public.”

As the video went viral on Twitter over the weekend, accumulating more than five million views by Monday, pundits of all parties united in agreement that the behavior crossed a privacy line.

The Doors’ Robby Krieger lines up series of virtual events to promote upcoming book, ‘Set the Night on Fire’

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Doors‘ Robby Krieger will publish a new memoir titled Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar with The Doors on October 12. To promote the book, the 75-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has lined up a variety of virtual events taking place in the coming weeks.

First up, Krieger will participate in virtual book signing at the TalkShopLive social-shopping site’s Rock N Roll Channel on Tuesday, October 5, starting at 7 p.m. ET.

Then, on the memoir’s release date, October 12, Robby will appear in two streaming events. The first, which starts at 2 p.m. ET, will feature Krieger signing copies of his book at LiveSigning.com and also answering questions fans have submitted in advance.

The second is a pre-recorded Q&A that’s part of the Live Talks Los Angeles series, and that’s set to air at 9 p.m. ET.

On October 13, Krieger will take part in a previously reported interactive interview event presented by Rough Trade Records NYC that will be streamed live via Dice.fm. It will feature Robby chatting with respected writer and broadcaster Laura Barton via Zoom, and also answering questions from virtual audience members.

Other upcoming events to promote Set the Night on Fire include a virtual Q&As on October 18 hosted by the Hudson Library & Historical Society in Cleveland, and on November 8, presented by the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, a video preview featuring Krieger sharing details about his book has been posted at The Doors’ official YouTube channel. In the clip, Robby says, “Hopefully after reading my book, I think people will understand the whole dynamic of The Doors and what it’s really like to be in a band like The Doors.”

(Video includes censored profanity.)

Director Destin Daniel Cretton following up ‘Shang-Chi’ with ‘American Born Chinese’ animated series for Disney+

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton is following up his hit Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings with another comics-inspired project.

However, the director is not staying within the pages of Marvel Comics for the new project, which is an animated Disney+ series featuring an adaptation of the graphic novel American Born Chinese.

The “genre-hopping action-comedy” comic from Gene Luen Yang centers on Jin Wang, “an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his immigrant home life” who, after meeting a new foreign student, “is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.”

Like Shang-Chi before it, the upcoming series represents Asian culture both in front of and behind the scenes. Emmy-winning Bob’s Burgers veteran Kelvin Yu and his Westworld alum vet brother Charles are writing the American Born Chinese series, with Kelvin acting as showrunner. Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan, two producers on the Asian-centric series Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. on Disney+ and ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, are executive producing with Gene Luen Yang.

In a statement, Cretton comments, “Reading Kelvin’s riveting adaptation of Gene’s incredible novel had me laughing and crying and jumping out of my chair on every page. I feel deeply connected to the characters in this story and the brilliant team bringing it to life.”

Cretton added, “This show is going to be unlike anything we’ve experienced on TV, and I can’t wait for the world to see what we’re cooking up.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Inside the Supreme Court during COVID: Reporter’s notebook

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the cry “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” rang out just after 10 a.m. Monday in Washington, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court emerged from behind a 44-foot velvet curtain wall, walking into their vaulted marble chamber for the first time in 18 months.

They entered a world — a courtroom, a docket, an American society — dramatically changed and charged with anticipation since they last convened in-person as major decisions loom on abortion, guns, the death penalty and religious freedom.

A chamber normally packed with hundreds of spectators is now limited to an audience of just five dozen clerks and members of the press — all covid-tested, N95-masked, and seated 6-feet apart. The lectern for attorneys, once 3 feet from the bench, now positioned 10-feet away.

Proceedings that for years were shielded from much of the public in real-time are now livestreamed on the Supreme Court website.

The justices took their seats in a new array for the first time since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Chief Justice John Roberts, in the middle of the iconic mahogany bench, is now flanked by senior conservative Justice Clarence Thomas and senior liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.

Thomas, 73, who was famously silent for years during oral arguments before the pandemic, asked the first question of the new, in-person term and remained loquacious throughout. A sprightly Breyer, 83, repeatedly whispered to the chief with a smile from his new center-stage spot.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired from the court in 2018, was seated in a front box as special guest — a show of solidarity for the institution at a time when the court faces its lowest public approval rating in decades and a brewing crisis of credibility.

On the wings of the bench, the newest justices: Amy Coney Barrett on the right, appearing in-person for arguments for the first time; on the far left, an empty seat for Brett Kavanaugh, who dialed in by phone from home due to a COVID-19 diagnosis last week. (There were no audible signs of his illness; the court has said he is asymptomatic.)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only justice to don a face mask. Justice Samuel Alito was seen slumped back in his chair sipping from a stainless-steel thermos; he was the only justice to remain silent for the entire first case.

For nearly two-and-a-half hours, the justices heard arguments in two opening disputes: the first, a suit brought by Mississippi against Tennessee over the pumping of groundwater from a massive aquifer that stretches across eight states. The second case addressed a criminal procedural matter involving the Armed Career Criminal Act.

Free-for-all questioning among the justices, which had been sidelined during virtual sessions, was back in full force but remained civil and polite. Chief Justice Roberts has implemented a new procedure at the conclusion of each round, calling on each justice by name to see if they have any additional questions.

The court was gaveled in and out by newly-sworn Court Marshal Gail Curley, a recently retired Army colonel and judge advocate general officer who joined the court this summer as its 11th marshal in history. She is responsible for court security and operations.

Meanwhile, outside the court building protests raged over abortion. That issue will get its first public hearing of the term next Tuesday Oct. 12, in a procedural case out of Kentucky. The marquee abortion case of the year out of Mississippi — which asks the justices to squarely consider nearly 50 years of precedent since Roe v. Wade — is set for December.

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