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Body cam footage shows Minneapolis police allegedly ‘hunting’ anti-police brutality protesters

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(Minneapolis, MINN.) — Newly released body camera footage shows Minneapolis police officers allegedly celebrating the “hunting” of anti-police brutality protesters just five days after the murder of George Floyd.

In one video, a protester yells: “We’re unarmed! This is America. We can say what we want!”

In response, an officer appears to shoot at the protester with rubber bullets.

Floyd’s death set off months of protests against police violence and racism. The city of Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed by then-MPD officer Derek Chauvin, set a curfew in response to the unrest.

The body cam footage released to the public by the court captures the police department’s enforcement of the 8 p.m. curfew: Officers firing rubber bullets at numerous people out on the streets in an attempt to forcefully clear them of demonstrators. Some officers can be seen and heard celebrating and even fist-bumping over their successful hits.

In the recording, one officer can be heard saying: “You guys are out hunting people now. It’s just a nice change of tempo.”

Shortly after, another officer comments: “F— these people.”

In another video, an officer says: “I would love to scatter [the protesters] but it’s time to f—— put 100 people in jail and just prove the mayor wrong about his white supremacist from out of state,” referring to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s comments about white supremacists and out-of-state instigators.

The officer later adds, “This group is probably predominantly white because there’s not looting and fires.”

Due to an ongoing internal investigation into the actions of officers seen in the videos, the Minneapolis Police Department declined ABC News’ request for comment.

The footage was introduced as part of the criminal case against Jaleel Stallings, who was accused of trying to kill police officers but has since been acquitted of all charges, according to his attorney Eric Rice.

The 27-year-old faced two counts of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, one count of second-degree assault and three other charges for firing a gun at an unmarked police van. No officers were injured.

Stallings argued that he fired at the unmarked police van in self-defense. In an affidavit, Stallings said that other people were running from the unmarked van and warned him of people shooting from the vehicle. He said that after being hit by a rubber bullet himself, he used his gun to shoot the vehicle in an attempt to scare the attackers off.

Deep Purple releasing first-ever covers album, ‘Turning to Crime,’ in November

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

A little over a year after the release of their last studio effort, Whoosh!, Deep Purple has announced plans to put out a new album titled Turning to Crime on November 26.

The new collection, which was produced by the band’s frequent collaborator, Bob Ezrin, features the British hard-rock legends putting their own spin on 12 songs originally recorded by other artists.

Turning to Crime, which is Deep Purple’s first-ever covers album, includes versions of Fleetwood Mac‘s “Oh Well,” Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Little Feat‘s “Dixie Chicken,” The Yardbirds‘ “Shapes of Things,” Cream‘s “White Room,” and more.

The final track is a medley titled “Caught in the Act” that features sections of songs by Booker T & the MG’s, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, and The Spencer Davis Group.

According to a making-of video posted on the earMUSIC label’s YouTube channel, the album came together remotely while the band members were separated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each member chose songs they wanted to record and then the group voted on the final list of tunes.

In advance of Turning to Crime, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have released the album’s lead track, a prog-flavored version of Love‘s 1966 garage-rock classic “7 and 7 Is,” as a digital single.

Turning to Crime can be pre-ordered now, and will be available on CD, as a two-LP vinyl set, as a five-LP/DVD box set and digitally.

You can check out more details about the album at TurningToCrime.com. Fans who sign up for Deep Purple’s newsletter at the site will receive a free download of a non-album track on November 12.

Here’s the full Turning to Crime track list:

“7 and 7 Is”
“Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”
“Oh Well”
“Jenny Take a Ride!”
“Watching the River Flow”
“Let the Good Times Roll”
“Dixie Chicken”
“Shapes of Things”
“The Battle of New Orleans”
“Lucifer”
“White Room”
“Caught in the Act” (Medley: “Going Down”/”Green Onions”/”Hot ‘Lanta”/”Dazed and Confused”/”Gimme Some Lovin'”)

Will Packer sends his thanks to the Academy after being tapped to produce the 2022 Oscars

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Will Packer is sharing his gratitude following the news that he’s now the official producer of the 94th Academy Awards.

“I’d like to thank the Academy,” Packer captioned an Instagram post, which shared The Hollywood Reporter‘s feature on his appointment.

He then added “mind blown” and “dancing” emojis to his post.

As previously reported, Packer, the Emmy-nominated director and producer of blockbusters like Girls Trip and Ride Along, comes to the show with his Will Packer Media chief of staff Shayla Cowan, who will serve as co-producer of the 2022 telecast.

Other staffing, including a director and a potential host, have yet to be confirmed.

The Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

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Biden and China’s Xi plan to meet virtually this year after aides’ ‘meaningful,’ substantive’ talks

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping will hold a virtual meeting before the end of this year, according to a senior U.S. administration official.

That’s the key outcome of six hours of meetings Wednesday between two of their top aides – national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.

The virtual summit comes amid high tension in the critical relationship between the world’s two largest economies, including over trade and regional challenges like Taiwan. China has sent scores of military planes into Taiwan’s air defense zone in recent days, raising concerns about potential conflict.

The two men and their delegations met in Switzerland, where they had what the senior administration official described as a “more meaningful and substantive engagement than we have had to date below the leader level.”

They attributed that to the long phone call Biden and Xi had last month, saying Sullivan and Yang had been “empowered directly” by their leaders to have a more honest back-and-forth, away from cameras and off talking points, per the official.

There had been hopes that Biden and Xi could meet in person on the sidelines of the COP26 climate conference or the G20 summit this fall – but Xi will not attend either in person.

So far, there are no other details confirmed about the meeting – one of several tasks ahead of the two leaders’ advisers after these engagements.

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

Former Tesla worker speaks out after winning $137 million lawsuit

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Former Tesla worker speaks out after winning 7 million lawsuit

(NEW YORK) — Owen Diaz, the former Tesla employee who sued the electric car company over allegations of racism, is opening up about his experience.

“[Tesla] decided not to follow through, they decided to kill investigations,” Diaz said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “Tesla, as a company, as a whole, needs to wake up. You know you can’t keep treating workers like this.”

Diaz was hired as a contract elevator operator at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. He worked there from June 2015 to July 2016. Diaz claimed fellow workers called him the “n-word,” was told to “go back to Africa” and saw racist and derogatory images in the factory’s bathroom stalls.

Diaz said he complained to Tesla about his treatment but his supervisors failed to stop the abuse. He left the company four years ago, filing a lawsuit in October 2017 that claimed “Tesla’s progressive image was a facade papering over its regressive, demeaning treatment of African-American employees.”

Now, after receiving one of the largest awards in a racial harassment case in the history of the United States, Diaz said he feels justice was served. A San Francisco federal jury awarded him $137 million on Monday.

“It’s God’s justice that this happened, you know, and allowed me to talk for people who can’t talk for themselves. A lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. They have to take choose to either take the abuse that these billion-dollar companies are putting out or feed their families,” Diaz said.

Mr. Diaz’s attorney, Lawrence Organ of the California Civil Rights Law Group, spoke to “Good Morning America” as well and said the verdict “makes Tesla take notice of these horrid conditions, and hopefully it will make them change and make other companies change and realize, racist conduct has no place in the workplace.”

In an internal email to employees, Valerie Capers Workman, Tesla’s vice president of people, said Tesla of 2015 and 2016 “is not the same as the Tesla of today.” Tesla published Workman’s email in a blog post on its website following the verdict.

“While we strongly believe that these facts don’t justify the verdict reached by the jury in San Francisco, we do recognize that in 2015 and 2016, we were not perfect. We’re still not perfect. But we have come a long way from 5 years ago,” Workman said in her email.

Tesla had responded to Diaz’s complaints of harassment by firing two contractors and suspending a third contractor, according to Workman.

This is not the first time Tesla faced claims of a hostile, racist work environment. The company had to contend in court with similar lawsuits, including a class-action civil rights lawsuit filed in 2017 in Alameda County Superior Court. That case is still pending.

In August, a court ruled that Tesla must pay a million-dollar fine in the case of Melvin Berry, a former black employee, who was allegedly subjected for years to racial insults from his colleagues. Tesla has denied all claims.

Tesla employees are bound by mandatory arbitration contracts when they start their jobs, preventing them from suing the company. Diaz was a contract worker.

Diaz said he knows that his case is “bigger than him.”

“This is not really about me. This is about a verdict that a jury made to let Tesla know that they’re being put on notice to clean up their factories,” he said.

Nearly 200,000 COVID-19 rapid test kits recalled over concerns of false positives

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Ellume is recalling nearly 200,000 rapid at-home COVID-19 antigen tests out of concerns over an abnormally high rate of false positives observed from certain lots of its tests.

Roughly 427,000 test kits, including thousands sent to retailers and some provided to the Department of Defense, have been impacted by the issue.

About 195,000 of these kits are still unused and subject to the recall. About 202,000 have already been used, the company said. Of those, there have been around 42,000 positive results, of which as many as a quarter of those positives could have been inaccurate. However, the company said it’s difficult to determine an exact ratio.

Ellume is removing the affected product from store shelves and said distributors should cease distribution and quarantine those products immediately.

This recall yanks hundreds of thousands of rapid COVID-19 tests off the shelves at a time when demand for these tests has already skyrocketed. Amid shortages, many of the major retail pharmacy stores announced they are limiting purchases to contend with supply constraints.

Meanwhile, Ellume is notifying consumers, retailers and distributors affected by the recall. It’s warning those consumers who have tested positive to take confirmatory tests, as their initial Ellume results may have been incorrect.

Ellume CEO Sean Parsons apologized for the incident, acknowledging how much rides on accurate test results during this pandemic.

“We understand that trust is central to fulfilling our purpose as a company, and we recognize that this incident may have shaken the confidence of some of those who trusted Ellume to help them manage their health and to take back a bit of control of their lives during this pandemic,” Parsons said in a statement. “To those individuals, I offer my sincere apologies – and the apologies of our entire company – for any stress or difficulties they may have experienced because of a false-positive result.”

“You have my personal commitment that we have learned from this experience, we have implemented additional controls to ensure our product meets our high quality standards and we are going to do everything in our power to regain your trust,” Parsons said in the statement.

Ellume said it has identified the root cause as an issue in variation with one of its test kit’s components, and said it has “implemented additional controls” and are “continuing to work on resolving the issue that led to this recall.”

While the recall was triggered by false positives, the company said the reliability of negative results from its kits is unaffected by this issue: approximately 160,000 tests from affected lots produced negative results.

Cage the Elephant reissuing ‘Melophobia’ and ‘Tell Me I’m Pretty’ on vinyl for RSD Essentials series

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Cage the Elephant‘s albums Melophobia and Tell Me I’m Pretty are being reissued on vinyl as part of Record Store Day’s RSD Essentials Series.

Both LPs will be available on limited-edition colored vinyl in independent record stores on October 29.

As the name suggests, RSD Essentials, which launched earlier this year, highlights different albums from various eras and genres that Record Store Day organizers feel are “essential.”

“We would be the first to advise that you ‘make every day a record store day’ and to that end, we’re working to make sure they have access to fantastic records all year long, not just on special release dates or days we single them out for celebrating,” RSD says. “Great records in great record stores.”

Cage the Elephant first released Melophobia and Tell Me I’m Pretty in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Melophobia was nominated for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy, while Tell Me I’m Pretty won Best Rock Album.

First look at Michelle Young’s ‘Bachelorette’ season, which teases romance and drama

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The first look at Michelle Young‘s season of The Bachelorette is finally here, and it’s equal parts romance and drama.

The trailer begins by showing Michelle, who was featured on Matt James‘ season of The Bachelor earlier this year, and all of her suitors having fun on their various dates. She is gushed over by the men, with one even calling her “a one in a billion girl.” Amid all the romance, Michelle even says she has “the hottest kiss of my life.”

“I’m in love with this man,” Michelle declares around the halfway mark. “These are like the best guys I’ve met in my entire life.”

Then things get messy, as hosts and former Bachelorettes Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe reveal some wild news to Michelle, telling her, “We found something that was actually really alarming. Someone is planning out their every move.” The camera then shows a folder filled with various papers and notes pertaining to the show.

Things only spiral from here, with one suitor questioning Michelle about whether she knew and potentially had a relationship with one of the other guys before the show. It also seems as though some of the men have beefs with each other, as tensions and emotions appear to be at an all-time high for the Bachelor franchise.

“If you keep shoving things under the rug, they don’t just disappear,” Michelle ominously says.

In the last scene of the teaser, Michelle is standing on a beach and holding the final rose of the season. So will she have luck on her quest for love? We’ll have to watch and find out.

The Bachelorette season 18 premieres Tuesday, October 19, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Wolfgang Van Halen shares post honoring one-year anniversary of dad Eddie’s death

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Wolfgang Van Halen has shared a post honoring his father, Eddie Van Halen, on the one-year anniversary of the iconic guitarist’s death.

“You fought so hard for so long, but you were still taken away,” Wolf writes alongside a photo of him and Eddie smiling and playing music together. “It’s just so unfair.”

He continues, “I’m not OK. I don’t think I’ll ever be OK. There’s so much I wish I could show you. So many things I wish I could share with you. I wish I could laugh with you again. I wish I could hug you again. I miss you so much it hurts.”

Wolf adds that he’s “trying to do my best here without you, but it’s really f***ing hard.”

“I hope you’re still proud,” he says. “I love you with all of my heart, Pop. Watch over me.”

Eddie died October 6, 2020, following a battle with cancer. He was 65.

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Listen to Bruce Springsteen read from Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ in trailer for new documentary, ‘Ants’

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

A recording of Bruce Springsteen recording a passage from John Steinbeck‘s classic book The Grapes of Wrath is featured in a new Italian documentary titled Ants, about the plight of African and Asia migrants trying to make their way to Europe to find a better life.

A segment of Springsteen’s spoken-word soliloquy can be heard in a new trailer for the film that got its exclusive premiere at Variety.com.

In the clip, interspersed with scenes of various migrants in the midst of their journeys, we hear The Boss read, “The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line…On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment.”

Ants producer Davide Azzolini tells Variety that he reached out to Springsteen via his manager, David Landau, to see if Bruce would do the reading, which he felt would give the film a “more universal” appeal.

The Grapes of Wrath, of course, was written during the Great Depression and focuses on people who left their homes in the Dust Bowl region of the U.S. to travel to California seeking a better future. Springsteen’s song “The Ghost of Tom Joad” was inspired by the novel’s main character.

Azzolini says he wasn’t hopeful about Springsteen agreeing to the request, but a few weeks later, he was informed that Bruce “would tape [the reading] in his studio.”

A few days later, Azzolini says he was emailed “two different takes of his recordings.”

Ants, which was directed by Italian journalist and filmmaker Valerio Nicolosi, features footage shot on rescue vessels, in crowded migrant camps on the Greek island of Lesbos, and in the Balkans. The movie currently is being submitted to international film festivals.

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