In the early eighties, Ricky Skaggs topped the chart with “Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown.” Now, another Kentucky native’s changed that to “don’t steal from my hometown.”
You see, on September 2, Carly Pearce traveled home to be honored with a sign that read “Welcome to Taylor Mill: Hometown of Country Music Star Carly Pearce.” Within the next week, however, it disappeared.
And obviously, the “I Hope You’re Happy Now” hitmaker — is decidedly NOT.
“You know, it honestly pisses me off if I’m completely honest with everyone,” Carly asserts. “If this is a super fan — and I hope that they hear this — but if this is a super fan, just [direct message] me that you want freakin’ tickets to a show.”
“My town spent so much time and money to honor me in this way,” she goes on. “And people are now not really affecting me. They’re affecting my town and I’m pissed.”
“And if I ever figure out who did this, I will put them on blast because it is wrong,” she adds.
While Carly is clearly angry, she seems willing to negotiate some sort of peace with the culprit.
“I will give you tickets,” she offers. “I will give you a large photo of me for your bedroom, if that’s what you need. But don’t steal from my damn hometown.”
“I’m getting mad,” Carly laughs, realizing how outspoken she’s been.
On Friday, the expanded version of Carly’s CMA-nominated 29 arrives, adding the secondary title Written in Stone. It features her new duet with Ashley McBryde, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Detroit 4, Milwaukee 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto 6, Tampa Bay 3
Boston 9, Seattle 4
NY Yankees 4, Baltimore 3
Cleveland 12, Minnesota 3
Houston 7, Texas 2
LA Angels 3, Chi White Sox 2
Oakland 12, Kansas City 10
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Miami 8, Washington 6
Pittsburgh 5, Cincinnati 4
Philadelphia 6, Chi Cubs 5
St. Louis 11, NY Mets 4
Colorado 3, Atlanta 2
San Diego 9, San Francisco 6
LA Dodgers 5 Arizona 3
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Connecticut 98, New York 69
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Atlanta 4, Cincinnati 0
CF Montreal 4, Orlando City 2
DC United 3, Chicago 0
Sporting Kansas City 4, Minnesota 0
Los Angeles FC 2, Austin FC 1
Colorado 2, Portland 2 (Tie)
Houston 1, LA Galaxy 1 (Tie)
Real Salt Lake 4, San Jose 3
The Premise, a new anthology series from B.J. Novak, debuts today on FX on Hulu. Each episode tackles a different social hot button, and one of the two episodes out now deals with gun violence.
“It’s about a guy who has lost his family in a mass shooting and then applies for a new job at the sort of NRA type facility,” one of the stars, Boyd Holbrook tells ABC Audio. “[He] really falls in love with this job a little too much and starts raising concerns around the office about his true intentions.”
“It’s not really an anti-gun thing or a pro-gun thing,” the 40-year-old actor says of the dark comedy. “It’s just about the common decency and the actual care of human life and how we’re engaging with that on a responsible level.”
Holbrook says his hope is that the show will start a conversation about a problem that has become all too common in this country.
“I think it’s great to ask, you know, what are we doing here? We have mass shootings, three hundred fifty-five days a year in the United States before the pandemic,” the Narcos alum says. “It’s just kind of almost droning in the media just how often they were happening and almost becoming sort of desensitized to all these horrific events that were happening.”
While Shawn Mendes’ past week has been filled with glamorous celebrity events like the MTV VMAs and the Met Gala, he can still appreciate the simpler times that the pandemic afforded him.
Appearing on the Spout podcast, the singer reminisces about being in lockdown with Camila Cabello and how everyday tasks took on new, special meanings.
“I was getting really into the coffee mug,” he says. “I was, like, waking up in the morning and I was like, ‘Which coffee mug am I today?’…I was getting really technical about it and it was just like everything to me. You know, it was my home. I would go to bed super excited for that moment.”
The time off also forced him to reflect on what he enjoys doing outside of music and to explore different hobbies, like archery, which he says was inspired by one of his favorite shows, Game of Thrones. But so far, nothing has really stuck.
“I think the real reality is that I struggle to put down the guitar and figure out what to do besides my job and besides music…,” he says. “So for better or for worse, I am searching for a hobby at the moment, but like, I think that all those things are just exploring for me. I think that something’s going to click sooner or later, but until then, I’m going to stick to coffee and working out.”
Many, many artists have covered David Bowie‘s “Heroes.” Dead Sara‘s “Heroes,” however, is very much not David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
On the track, which is the current single off the “Weatherman” rockers’ upcoming album, Ain’t It Tragic, lead vocalist Emily Armstrong sings, “All my heroes are dead.” As Armstrong tells ABC Audio, it was that lyric that really brought the song together.
“I just happened to read [that line] down on my list of lyrics that I have,” Armstrong recalls. “I just started singing that, and I was, like, ‘Oh, that’s the song.’ We had a shell of a song, but then it really made sense when we started actually honing in on what the album was gonna be.”
“From there, everything else just kind of rolled out,” she notes, adding that the sentiment “just made so much sense” to her.
“As a kid, all the stuff you’re gonna fight for and fight just in life, and nobody’s really gonna be there,” Armstrong explains. “When you’re an adult, you just go, ‘Oh, f***, I’m here. It’s just me.'”
And if it isn’t clear by the song, Armstrong definitely believes in the “You should never meet your heroes” adage.
“Yes, 100 percent,” she laughs. “And that’s all I’ll say about that.”
Ain’t It Tragic arrives this Friday, September 17.
Kyle Harvey, better known as Kyle, agrees that it’s never a bad time to learn about our rights as American citizens, regardless of our age. That’s why the “iSpy” singer still refers to his We the People song “Federal vs State,” which teaches about the differences in federal and state power, as his most impactful song to date.
“Attaching myself to [We the People] was a no-brainer for me,” Kyle tells ABC Audio of the Netflix series. “Because it was like, one, I get to be a part of something that the Obamas [who are the show’s executive-producers] are part of. Two, I get to actually help young people understand how our government works, which for me was…really awesome.”
Kyle explains that his participation in the 10-episode animated music series, which has been compared to Schoolhouse Rock!, wasn’t just an opportunity to “give back,” but “an opportunity to actually do something… really good.”
“For me like this is like the most important song I’ve ever made,” he shares. “Because I know that it will help kids out there learn.”
We the People, which also includes episodes featuring H.E.R., Cordae and Janelle Monáe, is available to stream on Netflix.
Bruce Springsteen will interview his longtime friend and collaborator “Little Steven” Van Zandt for the first time ever during a virtual event on September 28 celebrating the release of the E Street Band guitarist’s new memoir, Unrequited Infatuations.
The livestreamed event will begin at 8 p.m. ET on the 28th, and tickets are available now at StevieandBruceLive.com and VanZandt.UnisonEvents.com. Tickets also include a copy of Van Zandt’s book — signed for $45 or unsigned for $35.
Fans who purchase tickets for the interview will be able to watch the event on demand for 90 days after the livestream.
In Unrequited Infatuations, Van Zandt recounts the story of his eventful life, from his childhood in suburban New Jersey and the development of his passion for rock ‘n’ roll, to playing in various Jersey Shore groups en route to joining Bruce’s E Street Band, to forging a solo career and becoming a political activist in the 1980s, to finding success as an actor as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, to launching his Underground Garage radio show and satellite radio station, and so much more.
Little Steven’s virtual conversation with The Boss marks the launch of a promotional tour for the memoir that will include three in-person events and another virtual interview.
For more details about Unrequited Infatuations, visit HachetteBooks.com.
Here’s Van Zandt’s full book-tour schedule:
9/28 — Virtual, Premiere Unison Event, Van Zandt in conversation with Bruce Springsteen, 8 p.m. ET
9/29 — New York, NY, 92Y, Van Zandt in conversation with screenwriter Jay Cocks, 7:30 p.m. ET
9/30 — Virtual, Commonwealth Club, Van Zandt in conversation (Interviewer TBA), 8 p.m. ET
10/1 — Los Angeles, CA, Book Soup at the Colburn Music School, Van Zandt in conversation with director Chris Columbus, 7 p.m. PT
10/3 — Montclair, NJ, Montclair Literary Festival, Van Zandt in conversation with news anchor Budd Mishkin, 5 p.m. ET
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The first all-civilian flight to Earth’s orbit successful launched Wednesday.
The Inspiration4 rocket took off successfully at the start of the five-hour window for launch at 8:02 p.m. ET. It reached orbit about 12 minutes later.
The crew said goodbye to their families, suited up and were driven in Teslas to Kennedy Space Center’s historic pad 39A Wednesday afternoon.
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is the third recent billionaire-backed space launch, but it’s going where neither Richard Branson nor Jeff Bezos could — into orbit.
If successful, the crew on Inspiration4 will reach the farthest any civilian has traveled from Earth. They will orbit 360 miles above the Earth, even further than the International Space Station, which orbits at 240 miles.
Commanding the mission is 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, an experienced pilot. He founded a payment process company called Shift4 Payments and purchased all four seats on the flight for an estimated $220 million.
Isaacman wants this launch to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He has already donated $100 million to the cause.
One seat was reserved for 29-year-old St. Jude ambassador Hayley Arceneaux. Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor and will be the youngest American to go to space as well as the first pediatric cancer survivor.
The third occupant will be Dr. Sian Proctor, 51, who said she has dreamed of going to space since she was a child. She burst into tears when she heard she was chosen as a member of the Inspiration4 mission.
She will become the fourth Black female American astronaut to travel into space.
The final crew member is Chris Sembroski, 41, an Iraq War veteran and engineer with Lockheed Martin, who won the final seat through a lottery that required a St. Jude donation to enter.
The four will orbit the Earth for three days with no set destination. They said they will conduct some science experiments while on board and auction off items in space for St. Jude.
There is always risk launching into space and coming home. While these passengers have been trained by SpaceX, they are not professional astronauts.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon will also be tested for the first time at this distance.
They cannot go much longer than three days without running low on fuel, food and water. And while past missions could make changes on the return because of bad weather on Earth due to astronauts on board, this ship won’t have quite as much flexibility.
After three days of orbiting Earth, they will prepare to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida late Saturday or early Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — Women driving hundreds of miles alone for an abortion, clinics overwhelmed with out-of-state patients, providers facing “relentless harassment” from “emboldened vigilante activities,” those are some of the impacts detailed by the federal government in new court documents since the most restrictive abortion law went into effect in Texas earlier this month.
Nearly a week after announcing a lawsuit against the state, the U.S. Department of Justice filed for an immediate injunction Tuesday to halt the enforcement of the law, known as SB8, which bars physicians from providing abortions once they detect a so-called fetal heartbeat — technically the flutter of electrical activity within the cells in an embryo. That can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women even know they’re pregnant.
In their latest filing, the DOJ documented the impact of the unprecedented law based on declarations from the leaders of women’s health clinics, doctors and abortion rights advocates in support of the motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.
“The devastating effects warned of in the pre-enforcement litigation immediately became a reality for patients and providers in Texas,” the emergency motion states. “S.B. 8 has gravely and irreparably impaired women’s ability to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion across the State.”
Under the law, between 85% and 95% of all abortions previously provided will stop, according to the motion. One Planned Parenthood affiliate in Texas went from providing 205 abortions the week before SB8 went into effect, to 52 the week after, according to the court documents.
As a result, “Women are being forced to travel hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of miles to obtain an abortion under harrowing circumstances in the middle of a COVID surge,” the motion states.
The DOJ recounted the experience of one patient, a minor, who was allegedly raped by a family member and traveled eight hours, from Galveston, Texas, to Oklahoma, for an abortion. There is an exception under the Texas law for abortions in cases of medical emergencies, but not for cases of incest or rape.
“[Other] survivors of sexual assault have to bear the additional burden of taking time off work and arranging childcare because abortions are not available in Texas,” the motion states.
According to the court documents, one patient drove a 1,000-mile roundtrip alone “because she didn’t have paid time off work and couldn’t afford” to miss her shift. Another “piled her children into her car and drove over 15 hours overnight to obtain a medication abortion in Kansas rather than struggle to patch together the money needed for airfare and child care or remain in limbo,” Anna Rupani, co-executive director of the advocacy group Fund Texas Choice, said in her declaration.
One patient traveled six hours each way to Oklahoma alone because she was worried she would make someone liable for helping her, the court documents state. Under SB8, private citizens can sue a person they “reasonably believed” provided an illegal abortion or assisted someone in getting it in the state, such as by driving them to an appointment.
On average, patients are traveling 650 miles each way to get to abortion clinics in the Southwest, according to the DOJ. The waits and logistical hurdles in planning travel to another state “have made it such that some women are no longer eligible for a medication abortion and instead are subjected to more invasive procedural abortions,” the motion states.
SB8 not only affects Texans, but has had an “extreme impact on the rights of women in other states,” the motion argues. Clinics in nearby states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado, have been “overwhelmed” by an influx of Texas residents seeking abortions, with clinics in Tulsa and Oklahoma City in particular seeing an “overall staggering 646% increase” in Texan patients compared to the first six months of the year, according to the court documents.
Planned Parenthood health centers in Oklahoma are seeing scheduling backlogs of “several weeks” due to the number of Texan patients, while some clinics are simply unable to accommodate large numbers of out-of-state patients due to current demands and staffing challenges “given the current threats from S.B. 8 layered atop the challenges of hiring in a pandemic,” according to the court documents.
Abortion clinic staff have also been impacted, the DOJ argues, as SB8 has “emboldened vigilante activities” against abortion providers and staff, including yelling at, recording and trying to follow them home.”
Staff are also concerned about the threat of potential lawsuits. Whole Woman’s Health, which has 17 doctors on staff across its three abortion facilities in Texas, reported that only one doctor “unconditionally agreed to work” after the law was enacted, according to the court documents.
“For most of our physicians, the risk was too great to even come to work,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, said in her declaration.
Some clinics risk closure for good under the law, supporters of an immediate injunction said.
“If the law remains in effect for an extended period of time, and we are only able to serve a fraction of our patients with a fraction of our staff, we will have to shutter our doors and stop providing any healthcare to the communities we serve,” Hagstrom Miller said. “I believe that, without court-ordered relief in the next couple of weeks, S.B. 8 will shutter most if not all of the remaining abortion clinics in Texas.”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The first all-civilian flight to Earth’s orbit is set to launch Wednesday.
The Inspiration4 crew said goodbye to their families, suited up and were driven in Teslas to Kennedy Space Center’s historic pad 39A Wednesday afternoon, ahead of a five-hour window for launch beginning at 8:02 p.m. ET for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is the third recent billionaire-backed space launch, but it’s going where neither Richard Branson nor Jeff Bezos could — into orbit.
If successful, the crew on Inspiration4 will reach the farthest any civilian has traveled from Earth. They will orbit 360 miles above the Earth, even further than the International Space Station, which orbits at 240 miles.
Commanding the mission is 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, an experienced pilot. He founded a payment process company called Shift4 Payments and purchased all four seats on the flight for an estimated $220 million.
Isaacman wants this launch to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He has already donated $100 million to the cause.
One seat was reserved for 29-year-old St. Jude ambassador Hayley Arceneaux. Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor and will be the youngest American to go to space as well as the first pediatric cancer survivor.
The third occupant will be Dr. Sian Proctor, 51, who said she has dreamed of going to space since she was a child. She burst into tears when she heard she was chosen as a member of the Inspiration4 mission.
She will become the fourth Black female American astronaut to travel into space.
The final crew member is Chris Sembroski, 41, an Iraq War veteran and engineer with Lockheed Martin, who won the final seat through a lottery that required a St. Jude donation to enter.
The four will orbit the Earth for three days with no set destination. They said they will conduct some science experiments while on board and auction off items in space for St. Jude.
There is always risk launching into space and coming home. While these passengers have been trained by SpaceX, they are not professional astronauts.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon will also be tested for the first time at this distance.
They cannot go much longer than three days without running low on fuel, food and water. And while past missions could make changes on the return because of bad weather on Earth due to astronauts on board, this ship won’t have quite as much flexibility.
After three days of orbiting Earth, they will prepare to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida late Saturday or early Sunday.
