(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — California issued a new rule on Monday banning unmasked students from school campuses but then rescinded it just hours later.
The California Department of Health published its COVID-19 public health guidance for K-12 schools in the Golden State for the 2021-2022 school year, including a new mandate that said students “are required” to wear face masks indoors, unless they are exempt due to a medical condition, and “schools must exclude students from campus” if they refuse to do so. The guidance, which was initially published on Monday afternoon and took immediate effect, noted that schools “should offer alternative educational opportunities for students who are excluded from campus because they will not wear a face covering.”
But later, officials backtracked on that rule. The California Department of Health took to Twitter on Monday evening to signal a change of direction, saying, “California’s school guidance will be clarified regarding masking enforcement, recognizing local schools’ experience in keeping students and educators safe while ensuring schools fully reopen for in-person instruction.”
The guidance was ultimately revised, dropping the language about excluding unmasked students from classrooms statewide and instead allowing schools to decide how to deal with the issue.
“Consistent with guidance from the 2020-21 school year, schools must develop and implement local protocols to enforce the mask requirements,” the guidance now states. “Additionally, schools should offer alternative educational opportunities for students who are excluded from campus because they will not wear a face covering.”
The California Department of Health says the guidelines are “effective immediately and will be reviewed regularly.” The department further noted that it is operating within the updated recommendations released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which continues to advise schools to promote COVID-19 vaccination and implement indoor mask requirements and physical distancing for those who are not fully vaccinated. But the CDC’s guidelines also state that schools “should not exclude students from in-person learning to keep a minimum distance requirement.”
“Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority,” the CDC says.
Nevertheless, California’s COVID-19 measures are among the strictest of any U.S. state. Education and health officials alike are concerned about the so-called delta variant, a highly contagious version of the novel coronavirus, with infections on the rise as the new academic year draws closer.
As of July 7, there were 1,085 confirmed cases of the delta variant in California — a 71% rise from the previous week. Meanwhile, among the COVID-19 tests statewide that are genomically sequenced, the delta variant accounted for 43% on June 21 compared with just 5.8% on May 21, according to data from the California Department of Health.
Overall, California has reported more than 3.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 63,000 deaths from the disease. More than 42.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across to the state, which is home to some 39.5 million people, according to data from the California Department of Health.
(NEW YORK) — While all adults in the United States are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, parents with young children find themselves in an uncomfortable limbo state. Fully vaccinated parents are protected against the virus, but their kids under 12 aren’t even eligible for a shot.
While children are less likely to have serious infection than in adults, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noting that “most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all,” in rare instances, children have developed severe COVID-19 cases that led to hospitalization or death.
As of early June, 4,000 children nationwide had developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19. There’s also an element of uncertainty associated with any COVID-19 infection, since the long-term health consequences of having COVID-19 are not yet known.
Navigating kids and COVID is complicated. Come fall, vaccines are likely to be approved for children younger than 12, but until then, some parents are wondering how to keep their kids safe as guidelines about masks and social distancing loosen.
ABC News spoke with Dr. Judith Flores, a pediatrician and former chief of ambulatory care at NYC Health + Hospitals, who has been in practice for more than 30 years, about how parents can lower their kids’ COVID risk.
Q: My kid is going back to school in person this year. What do I need to know?
You should start planning and ask questions, Flores says.
“I would also inquire who is vaccinated at school and keep an eye on what their environmental controls are,” Flores said.
According to the CDC’s guidelines for K-12 schools, “consistent and correct use of face masks reduces the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and, with some exceptions, is recommended for use indoors among people aged 2 and older who are not fully vaccinated.” The CDC also recommends handwashing, improving ventilation, staying home if sick, social distancing and testing in schools to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks.
Depending on school guidance and your risk tolerance as a parent, send your child to school with a mask. Flores noted that if she had a small child, she would have them wear a mask at school, especially in the beginning, while you determine whether or not the school is doing a good job of keeping the environment safe.
But ultimately, it’s important to keep in mind that schools have been reasonably safe settings so far.
“It’s been well documented that kids get sicker when they’re home with family,” Flores said.
Despite that reality, some parents are rightfully nervous. Flores works with families that were hit hard by COVID-19’s initial wave in New York City. Some parents and children are anxious about returning in person, she explained, adding that behavioral and mental health support are critical, especially for kids who lost family members during the pandemic.
“It’s not just, ‘let’s make sure we have your supply list for the teacher this year,'” she said. “You really have to prepare your children mentally — and yourself,” she said.
Q: Is there anything I can do to lower my child’s COVID risk until they’re eligible for a vaccine?
“The best way to take care of your child is for you, your family and your community to be vaccinated,” Flores stressed. “Your kid’s risk goes up depending on the community you live in or go to school in. If your community has a low vaccination rate and high infection rate, there’s a greater risk your child will get sick.”
“If I were in Mississippi, I’d be very concerned, because the vaccination rate is low. So there, I’d keep a mask on my child and keep social distancing. If I lived in Massachusetts, I might breathe a little easier,” she said.
Mississippi’s vaccination rate trails the national average. As of Monday, 37% of residents had received at least one dose, and 33% were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, compared with 71% of people in Massachusetts who’ve gotten at least one shot and 63% who are fully vaccinated.
Your child doesn’t need to wear a mask in most outdoor settings because the risk of transmission is low, Flores noted, but it’s a good idea to have them wear one in indoor public spaces, especially if ventilation is poor or if the space is crowded.
The same fundamental practices the CDC recommends for schools, like handwashing and social distancing, are useful for reducing kids’ risk in non-school settings. You can also model wearing a mask for your child, even if you’re vaccinated and don’t technically need one yourself. If you’re not going to wear a mask around your child, having a conversation as a family explaining why masks are important is key, Flores suggested.
“This is an added protection for you. Just like I would put a seatbelt on you, I would put a mask on you for this time,” she said. “Kids understand seatbelts.”
(NEW YORK) — Amanda Hunt, a Florida native, said she grew up spending summer days at the beach as a child and using tanning beds as a young adult.
Now 39 years old, Hunt, of Titusville, Florida, is battling stage 4 metastatic melanoma and is speaking out about her experience in hopes of saving other lives.
“I want people to know the things that I didn’t know,” Hunt told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “I can say for myself that having to fight for your life due to something so superficial as being tan, that’s a really tough pill to swallow at the end of the day.”
Hunt’s life changed last June when she discovered a lump in her breast. A biopsy of the lump came back as malignant melanoma. Hunt then learned the cancer had spread throughout her body, including her lungs.
“One day you wake up and your life is one way and the next day you wake up and your life is totally different,” she said. “I remember being shocked and confused and I got angry and thought, ‘How did my body fail me?'”
Hunt said she was even more shocked by her diagnosis because she had been going to annual skin checks since 2011, when she was successfully treated for basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer.
After undergoing treatment for her first skin cancer diagnosis, Hunt said she stopped using tanning beds but did not change her daily sun protection routine dramatically, knowing that she was being checked annually by her dermatologist.
“I got my annual skin checks so that was always in the back of my mind like a crutch,” she said. “But I learned in all of this that there is an occurrence where you do not have melanoma appear on the skin. I never knew that was even possible.”
Hunt’s diagnosis made her one of the approximately 3% of cases where the melanoma has already spread to a subcutaneous site when it is discovered, according to her doctor, Zeynep Eroglu, a medical oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.
Because the spread of melanoma was already underway in Hunt’s body, she began treatment less than one month after being diagnosed. Since July 2020, Hunt has made the four-hour roundtrip drive from Titusville to Tampa to undergo immunotherapy treatments at Moffitt.
The treatments have been working but Hunt has suffered severe side effects from the immunotherapy, including being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes this March.
“It happens to less than 1% of [immunotherapy] patients,” she said of the diabetes diagnosis. “Everything in my case is rare and the exception.”
Hunt, an attorney, lost her job due to layoffs during the pandemic just two days before her diagnosis. Not long after, she said she started a blog, Love and Sunblock, about her battle with melanoma to educate and provide hope to others.
“When I was first diagnosed, I started searching the internet for information and all I could find were just grave statistics,” said Hunt, whose family and friends started a GoFundMe to help cover her medical expenses. “I started blogging about my journey because I wanted to be that person for someone else in the future, that person that I was desperately trying to find.”
Hunt said her diagnosis has made her reflect on the time she spent in the sun as a child, spending hours at the beach without reapplying sunscreen and spending hours in tanning beds to try to overcome her naturally pale skin.
“I even remember missing school because of sunburns,” she said. “I was on my way to becoming a melanoma statistic and had no idea.”
Now, Hunt said she covers herself from head to toe to even walk to the mailbox and is making sure her 14-year-old daughter learns important lessons about incorporating sun protection into her daily skin care routine.
“It’s almost always preventable,” Hunt said of skin cancer. “Sun protection has got to become a habit and it’s got to start with your kids.”
What to know about melanoma and sun protection
Melanoma is a rare form of skin cancer in which cancer cells form in melanocytes, the cells that color the skin, according to the National Cancer Institute.
It can occur anywhere on the body, but in women is found most often on the arms and legs, according to NCI.
The main risk factors for melanoma include exposure to ultraviolet rays, which are found in tanning beds and sun lamps, a family history of melanoma, a personal history of melanoma or other skin cancers, a weakened immune system, moles and a complexion of fair skin, freckling and light hair, according to the American Cancer Society .
In the United States, the risk for melanoma varies by age. Before age 50, the risk for melanoma is higher for women; after age 50 the risk is higher in men, according to ACS.
In order to prevent the occurrence of melanoma, Hunt’s doctor, Eroglu, shared four tips:
1. Go to the dermatologist early and often: “With melanoma, every millimeter matters,” said Eroglu. “Time is really of the essence. If there is any concern, go and have it checked out.”
Eroglu also stressed persistence in seeking testing and a diagnosis if something on your skin continues to look abnormal to you.
2. Always wear sunscreen and reapply it often: Eroglu recommends using a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher and reapplying it often, especially when exposed to water.
A broad-spectrum sunscreen that protects you from UVA rays, which can prematurely age your skin, and UVB rays, which can burn your skin, is also recommended.
It matters less what type of sunscreen you use — spray or lotion or cream — and more that you choose a type of sunscreen you will use consistently and frequently, according to Eroglu.
“Even one bad sunburn from when you were a child can years later, decades later, develop into skin cancer,” she said.
3. Avoid the sun when it is at its strongest: The sun’s rays are at their peak from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. so it is best to avoid being exposed to the sun at that time, according to Eroglu.
People should also be extra vigilant with sun protection when near water, sand and snow because the sun’s rays are strengthened by the reflection off those surfaces.
People should also avoid using tanning beds, according to Eroglu, because of the intensity of their ultraviolet radiation.
4. Do regular skin checks on yourself: People should regularly lookout for new spots or a spot that is changing in size, shape or color on their skin, according to Eroglu.
The ABCDE rule is a guide people can follow to see if any spots have features that need to be flagged to a doctor.
Here is the rule, as described by the American Cancer Society.
A is for Asymmetry: One half of a mole or birthmark does not match the other. B is for Border: The edges are irregular, ragged, notched, or blurred. C is for Color: The color is not the same all over and may include different shades of brown or black, or sometimes with patches of pink, red, white, or blue. D is for Diameter: The spot is larger than 6 millimeters across (about 1/4 inch — the size of a pencil eraser), although melanomas can sometimes be smaller than this. E is for Evolving: The mole is changing in size, shape, or color.
(NEW YORK) — Nordstrom just made a commitment to Black-owned businesses.
The store has become the first major retailer to commit to a 10-year agreement with the 15 Percent Pledge, a nonprofit that holds large corporations accountable for supporting Black-owned brands.
“Long-term societal change cannot happen overnight and we’re in this for the long haul,” said president and chief brand officer Peter Nordstrom in a statement.
Nordstrom — which joins other retailers including Macy’s, Old Navy and Sephora in the commitment to 15 Percent Pledge’s mission — announced it would increase its purchases and partnerships with Black-owned or founded retailers tenfold by the end of 2030.
“Nordstrom has established new goals and benchmarks to help it become a more diverse, inclusive and anti-racist organization, and has made strides towards these goals through notable product launches and curations,” 15 Percent Pledge said in a statement.
What is the 15 Percent Pledge?
Created in 2020 by Aurora James, the 15 Percent Pledge is a nonprofit organization that aims to get retailers to commit 15% of their shelf space to products from Black-owned businesses.
According to 15percentpledge.org: “Over 13% of people living in the United States identify as Black and another estimated 2% identify as mixed race, totaling 15%.”
What started out as an Instagram post now has nearly 30 major retailers across three countries addressing racial inequities in retail.
(NEW YORK) — What do you get when National Macaroni and Cheese Day falls in the middle of National Ice Cream Month? A flavor collaboration from two very different comfort foods.
While the creaminess of mac and cheese doesn’t exactly scream ice cream, Kraft and Van Leeuwen put their heads together to create a unique summer treat.
“For the first time ever, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese will launch a limited-edition ice cream in partnership with Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, the cult-favorite brand known for making decadent and delicious ice cream and vegan ice cream with just a few ingredients,” the company announced Tuesday.
The soft orange hue that makes the iconic elbow-shaped pasta pop is made with paprika, annatto and turmeric, according to Kraft, after the brand removed artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from the recipe in 2016.
The exact recipe for the hot-turned cold nostalgic noodle dish being churned up in ice cream form was not officially released, but the brand said just like the pasta, the ice cream remains free of any artificial ingredients.
Starting July 14, the limited-edition flavor will be sold at Van Leeuwen scoop shops in New York City, Los Angeles and Houston, as well as online for $12 per pint, while supplies last. New Yorkers can taste the bold new flavor for free at an ice cream truck that will be stationed by Union Square on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“We know that there is nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than ice cream. That is why we wanted to combine two of the most iconic comfort foods to create an ice cream with the unforgettable flavor of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese we all grew up with,” Emily Violett, senior associate brand manager for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, said in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — With GOP-led legislatures advancing new voting laws and Congress deadlocked over proposed legislation, President Joe Biden is expected to deliver a major speech on voting rights in Philadelphia on Tuesday as his administration wades more aggressively into the fight over ballot access at the urging of civil rights groups and Democrats.
Previewing his remarks on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would directly call out lies from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, and “decry efforts to strip the right to vote as authoritarian and anti-American.”
“He’ll call out the greatest irony of the ‘big lie’ is that no election in our history has met such a high standard with over 80 judges, including those appointed by his predecessor, throwing out all challenges,” Psaki said.
National Urban League CEO Marc Morial, who was one of a handful of civil rights leaders to meet with Biden at the White House last Thursday, told ABC News the group asked Biden “to put the full moral prestige and the power of the presidency” behind voting rights, to help frame the debate for the American people.
“As a candidate, he talked about the soul of the nation. And I think this is a soul of the nation issue,” he said.
Along with Biden’s White House meeting last week, Vice President Kamala Harris also announced plans for the Democratic National Committee to spend $25 million to expand its voter outreach campaign and support future litigation.
The Justice Department has also sued the state of Georgia over its new voting law, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced plans to beef up the department’s Civil Rights Division to help defend voting rights.
Biden’s speech on Tuesday comes as Democrats in the Texas State Legislature fled the state for Washington, D.C., the second such effort in recent weeks to derail the passage of sweeping GOP-authored voting legislation by trying to prevent Republicans from taking up the proposals in a special legislative session.
Roughly 17 states have enacted 28 laws that would restrict voting access, out of hundreds that have been introduced throughout the country, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
“You can’t disassociate Jan. 6 with what is happening in the states,” Morial said of the Capitol riot that sought to disrupt the Electoral College count. “This is all sour grapes over losing an election.”
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld two GOP-backed voting restrictions in Arizona, imposing new limits on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Liberals on the court argued that the decision would weaken protections against racial discrimination.
That ruling, together with the flurry of state-level actions on voting, has led civil rights advocates to push the White House to more vocally make the case for federal voting rights legislation.
“The Court has put the ball in Congress’ court, and now it’s on Congress and the administration to actually take that up now,” said Wendy Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center.
In March, House Democrats advanced HR 1, the For the People Act, an expansive package that would transform federal elections, voting and congressional redistricting. But it has stalled in the Senate after failing to advance in a procedural vote late last month, over opposition from all Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., panned the bill and accused Democrats of attempting a “power grab” with the proposal.
A more measured proposal named for the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., which would restore pieces of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, has also failed to advance through Congress.
In light of the GOP opposition, Democrats have pushed for the Senate to reform the legislative filibuster, with House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a key Biden ally and endorser during the 2020 Democratic primary, suggesting Democrats create an exception to the 60-vote threshold for election reform and other constitutional issues.
When asked about Clyburn’s call for a filibuster exemption for voting rights, and if the president agreed, Psaki punted the issue back to Congress.
“I will say, though, in terms of how this works, the filibuster is a legislative process tool, an important one, that warrants debate but determination about making changes will be made by members of the Senate, not by this president or any president, frankly, moving forward,” Psaki said Monday.
“There are two pathways forward” for voting rights reform,” Morial said. “Either you try to find an agreement with Republicans, so you have a bipartisan bill, or the pathway forward is to create a carve out for the filibuster.”
Asked how Biden responded in their meeting last week, Morial told ABC News the president “simply made a comment that, ‘I know the Senate better than anyone,’ and that’s probably true.”
Veteran R&B singer Deborah Cox turns 47 today. The Canadian vocalist, who previously sang backup for Celine Dion, says the new music she’s making reflects her spontaneous attitude toward life.
“It’s really just about the spontaneity and living in the moment. I’m very much that kind of person that’s very grounded and very present,” Cox tells ABC Audio. “So a lot of the projects that I choose to do are birthed out of the moment that I’m in.”
Cox’s next moment involves preparing her seventh album, which will feature production assistance from Rico Love and D-Town.
“We were in the studio coming up with ideas for this next project, the seventh album, and that’s literally what I was working on at the time,” Cox explains, noting that the pandemic impacted her motivation to create more R&B classics.
Cox admits that she’s “still in the process” of mixing, mastering and recording vocals for the album, reflecting on her new perspective on life.
“y life has changed dramatically [because of the pandemic]. I’m not able to really connect with people and do live shows and do all the things that were my life before,” she explains. “I’m going to have to be able to express that in this album. So, yeah, we’re not done. We’re just taking a bit of a pause until we can figure out how and when we can get back to finishing up some more.”
It’s difficult for videos that were released before YouTube existed — that’s pre-2005 — to amass a billion views, but a lucky few have done it, including clips for hits by Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Whitney Houston and 50 Cent. Now, you can add Nelly to that prestigious list.
The multi-platinum rapper’s number-one 2002 hit “Dilemma” has just made it into the Billion Views club. A collaboration with Kelly Rowland, whose career was then red-hot with Destiny’s Child, the song topped the the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 10 weeks that year and won a Grammy to boot. The video featured the legendary Patti LaBelle playing Kelly’s mother, since the song was based on a sample of Patti’s hit “Love, Need and Want You.”
“Dilemma” replaced Nelly’s own “Hot in Herre” at number one on the Hot 100. The song appeared on both his album Nellyville, and Kelly’s first solo album, Simply Deep, which also included the hit “Stole.”
In a statement, Nelly said of the achievement, “It is both humbling and what every artist hopes for, to see your work from 20 years ago still getting such love from fans old and new.”
He added that it’s “super dope that a song made before YouTube existed is getting so much support now,” and declared, “Shout out to Nelly fans and to my girl Kelly Rowland who helped make this song a hit when we made it and still a hit today!”
Nelly is currently on the pop charts with the song “Lil Bit,” a collaboration with his pals Florida Georgia Line. He’s working on a country-inspired album called Heartland that’s due out this summer.
After his solo touring plans were put on hold last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moody Blues singer/guitarist Justin Hayward will get back on the road starting in September for a monthlong U.S. trek.
The outing, dubbed the “Nights” tour, gets underway with a September 13-14 stand in Chicago and winds down on October 15 in Clearwater, Florida. The 22-date trek also will stop in venues in other Midwest cities, as well as along the East Coast.
Hayward’s longtime guitar accompanist Mike Dawes will open the shows with a solo set.
The most recent new music that the 74-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer released was a two-song digital EP featuring the original songs “One Summer Day” and “My Juliette” that came out in March 2020.
Here’s a full list of Hayward’s upcoming U.S. tour dates:
9/13 — Chicago, IL, City Winery
9/14 — Chicago, IL, City Winery
9/16 — Cincinnati, OH, The Ludlow Garage
9/18 — Warren, OH, Robins Theatre
9/19 — Kent, OH, The Kent Stage
9/20 — Munhall, PA, Carnegie of Homestead
9/22 — Annapolis, MD, Rams Head On Stage
9/24 — Fairfield, CT, The Warehouse at FTC
9/25 — Hartford, CT, Infinity Hall Hartford
9/26 — East Greenwich, RI, Greenwich Odeum
9/28 — Boston, MA, City Winery Boston
9/29 — Rockport, MA, Shalin Liu Performance Center
9/30 — Plymouth, NH, The Flying Monkey
10/2 — Huntington, NY, The Paramount
10/3 — Sellersville, PA, Sellersville Theater 1894
10/5 — Nashville, TN, City Winery Nashville
10/7 — Atlanta, GA, City Winery Atlanta
10/9 — Fort Lauderdale, FL, Amaturo Theater at Broward Center for the Performing Arts
10/10 — Key West, FL, Key West Theater
10/12 — Ponte Vedra, FL, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall
10/14 — Orlando, FL, The Plaza Live
10/15 — Clearwater, FL, Capitol Theatre
The Bachelorette continued Monday with one suitor’s shocking and heartbreaking exit, leaving the rest of the men doubting where they stand with Katie.
The episode started with a friendly competition for the remaining 12 men, cooked up by Katie and mentors Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe. The three wanted to find out who among the suitors — to borrow a phrase from a classic Seinfeld episode — was “the master of his own domain.”
Dubbed “Operation: WOWO,” the men made a promise to refrain from “self-care” for the remainder of the competition.
Back to the real business at hand, Justin got the first one-on-one date — a dress rehearsal of sorts for their potential big day in which he and Katie had to write and recite their wedding vows.
Katie admitted the date was tough for her and tearfully explained that her dad, whom she’d lost to cancer, could not give her away. She also revealed that she’d learned shortly before his death that he was not her biological father. Despite her real father’s attempt to reach out, Katie said he could never replace the man who raised her.
Justin’s promise to support Katie and be there for her “no matter what,” along with his ability to listen to her, resonated with her. Katie believed his caring nature would make him a great husband and awarded him the date rose. Afterwards, they slow-danced to MAX performing his song, “Butterflies.”
Next, Katie enlisted RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars winners Shea Couleé and Monét X Change in a group date that engaged Blake, Andrew, Michael A., Greg, Aaron, Mike P., Brendan, James, Tre and Hunter in a “great royal debate” to prove why they deserved to remain in the competition with Katie, instead of the other suitors.
When pressed to pick the man they thought was the least compatible with Katie, Hunter was the unanimous choice, arousing her suspicions. Later, at the after-party, James, Tre and Aaron used their time with Katie to try and cast more doubt in her mind about Hunter’s character, leaving the bachelorette confused and sick to her stomach — literally. She abruptly ended the date, informing the men that they would not be getting a rose.
Another one-on-one date, this time with Connor B., started out with a special double date featuring Bristowe and her fiancé Jason Tartick. Beforehand, Katie admitted that she and Connor are still in the “friend-zone” and hoped the date would change that. After one last kiss between the two failed to ignite a “spark,” Katie informed Connor he would be going home.
In a break with tradition, Connor personally told the remaining suitors he was leaving, leading to an emotional goodbye that left them all shell-shocked because the Tennessee-based math teacher was once considered the one to beat. His departure caused everyone to doubt their own futures with Katie.
The tension grew more intense after Katie canceled the pre-rose ceremony cocktail party, revealing she’d already made up her mind. Fed up with the drama, she sent James, Tre, Aaron and Hunter home.
