‘Dancing with the Stars’ 2021: Season 30’s celebrity cast includes Mel C, Olivia Jade and more

ABC

Back to the ballroom! Dancing with the Stars returns for season 30 on September 20, and ABC’s Good Morning America just revealed which celebrities will compete for the coveted Mirror Ball trophy.

Celebs taking part in the series’ milestone season include Olivia Jade — the social media influencer daughter of Massimo Giannulli and Lori Loughlin, who were both jailed as part of the Varsity Blues college cheating scandal — as well as Spice Girl Melanie ‘Mel C’ ChisholmReal Housewives of Atlanta star Kenya Moore, country singer Jimmie Allen and talk show host Amanda Kloots.

Previously announced additions to the cast include Olympian Suni Lee, the Team USA gymnast fresh off winning gold in Tokyo, and YouTuber JoJo Siwa, who will make history as the first celeb to be paired with a pro of the same sex.

The cast also includes Bling Empire star Christine Chiu, Emmy-nominated The Office actress Melora Hardin, The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai actor Martin Kove, professional wrestler Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, Peloton cycling director Cody RigsbyBeverly Hills 90210 actor Brian Austin Green, and NBA star Iman Shumpert.

America will find out which pros the celebs have been paired with for their DWTS journey during the season 30 premiere.

The judging panel for this landmark season consists of Len GoodmanCarrie Ann InabaBruno Tonioli and former DWTS pro Derek HoughTyra Banks returns as host and executive producer, having joined the show last season as the first Black female host, and solo host, in franchise history.

Here’s the full celebrity cast: 

Country singer Jimmie Allen
Spice Girl Melanie
Christine Chiu — Bling Empire
Brian Austin Green — Beverly Hills, 90210
Melora Hardin — The Office
Social media star Olivia Jade
Matt James — The Bachelor
Amanda Kloots — The Talk
Martin Kove — Cobra Kai
Gold medal Olympian Suni Lee
WWE Superstar Mike “The Miz” Mizanin
Kenya Moore — The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Peloton star instructor Cody Rigsby
NBA star Iman Shumpert
Pop star JoJo Siwa

Professional dancers:

Brandon Armstrong
Lindsay Arnold
Alan Bersten
Sharna Burgess
Cheryl Burke
Witney Carson
Artem Chigvintsev
Val Chmerkovskiy
Sasha Farber
Jenna Johnson
Daniella Karagach
Pasha Pashkov
Gleb Savchenko
Emma Slater
Britt Stewart

Dancing with the Stars kicks off season 30 on Monday, Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Steve from ‘Blue’s Clues’ leaves inspiring message to show’s grown-up fans

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Blue’s Clues turned 25 on Tuesday and, to celebrate, Steve Burns returned to share a sweet message to the show’s original fans, who are now full grown.

Steve donned the familiar green-striped polo to speak directly to those who once watched him find clues with the playful puppy named Blue.

“Hi, you got a second?,” he started the sentimental clip that was shared on Nick Jr.’s Twitter. “You remember how when we were younger we used to run around and hang out with Blue and find clues and talk to Mr. Salt and freak out about the mail and do all the fun stuff?”

“And then one day, I was like, ‘Oh hey, guess what? Big news, I’m leaving’… And we didn’t see each other for a really long time,” Steve continued. “Can we just talk about that?”

Burns left the series in 2002 and handed the reins over to his “brother,” Joe, played by Donovan Patton. Steve explained how thankful he is to have gone to college because it allowed him to achieve “many of the things that I wanted to do!”

He then told his fans how proud he is of their growth.

“Look at all you have done and all you have accomplished,” he praised. “We started out with clues and now it’s what? Student loans, and jobs, and families…and some of that has been kind of hard.”

“I really couldn’t have done all of that without your help,” Steve declared, noting that he’s still inspired by his time on the Nick Jr. show. “I guess I just wanted to say that after all these years I never forgot you… Ever. And I’m super glad we’re still friends.”

The video has amassed over 16.6 million views and over one million likes as of Wednesday morning.

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Virginia removes 12-ton Robert E. Lee statue from Richmond’s Monument Avenue

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(RICHMOND, Va.) — A giant statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed in Richmond, Virginia, Wednesday, more than a year after the order from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

The 12-ton, six-story monument on Monument Avenue, erected in the state capital in 1890, was deconstructed nearly one week after the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared the way for the removal following several legal battles.

Northam ordered the removal of the state-owned statue in June 2020, amid nationwide protests against symbols of racism and oppression that erupted following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody.

“This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a Commonwealth,” Northam said in a statement.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Virginia denied or dissolved injunctive relief sought in two lawsuits challenging the statue’s removal — one filed by a descendant of the former owners of the land where the monument stands, the other by several owners and a trustee of property in the area’s historic district — allowing the state to move forward with its plans.

The removal is “extremely complex,” the state’s Department of General Services said, requiring “coordination with multiple entities to ensure the safety of everyone involved.” The removal process began Tuesday evening with crews installing protective fencing on the streets near the monument.

On Thursday, crews will remove plaques from the base of the monument. The 40-foot granite pedestal will remain for now, with its future still to be determined, the state said.

The statue itself will be held “in secure storage at a state-owned facility until a decision is made as to its disposition,” the state said.

This is the sixth and final Confederate statue to be removed from Monument Avenue.

“We are taking an important step this week to embrace the righteous cause and put the ‘Lost Cause’ behind us,” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said in a statement. “Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy. We are a diverse, open and welcoming city, and our symbols need to reflect this reality.”

Last year, the busts of Lee and eight other Confederate leaders were removed from the Old House Chamber in the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond. The Fairfax County School Board has also changed the name of the Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield to the John R. Lewis High School, in honor of the late Georgia congressman and civil rights leader.

A great-great-great-nephew of Lee has previously said that taking down Confederate symbols in public spaces is a “no brainer.”

“I see them as idolatries,” Rev. Robert Lee IV told ABC News last year. “They have been created into idols of white supremacy and racism.”

Over 160 Confederate symbols were renamed or removed from public spaces in 2020, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

France’s ‘trial of the century’ begins over Bataclan terror attacks that killed 130

Guillaume Louyot/iStock

(PARIS) — France’s long-awaited “trial of the century” began Wednesday in Paris as more than a dozen people tied to the November 2015 terror attacks — the deadliest in the country since World War II — face a panel of judges.

In a matter of hours, nine suicide bombers committed a series of attacks across Paris that killed 130 people and wounded over 400 more. The simultaneous attacks outside the Stade de France during a soccer match, on a number of Parisian cafés and restaurants and inside the Bataclan concert hall during a packed performance were later claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. At the Bataclan alone, 90 people were killed by terrorists with machine guns after being taken hostage.

Six years after the terror attacks of Nov. 13, 2015, the landmark trial opened Wednesday and will last about nine months. With 1,800 plaintiffs and 330 lawyers, the trial is taking place in front of a specially composed panel of professional judges, instead of a jury of peers.

A historic event and a logistical challenge for the Paris courts, the trial is extraordinary in more ways than one.

For the occasion, the French government spent $9 million on a courtroom specially built in the former courthouse of Paris. The work was completed this summer, making it the largest criminal courtroom ever built in France, able to accommodate up to 550 people.

“All parties wanted the attacks that took place in the heart of Paris to be judged in a unique place, in the heart of Paris,” the French Ministry of Justice said in a statement.

Twenty defendants are being tried, including 14 who will appear before the court. Salah Abdeslam, the only one directly involved in the planning who’s still alive, is among those who will be tried. Of the nine terrorists involved in the attack itself, seven of those died during the attacks and another two were killed in a police raid five days later.

Six defendants will be tried in absentia, including five ISIS officials presumed dead in the Iraqi-Syrian zone.

The witness list is up to par with this historic moment, with a number of high-profile witnesses set to testify, including former French President Francois Hollande — who was inside the stadium when three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside — and a number of his ministers, and the former Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins. Several convicted terrorists will testify via videoconference.

Footage of the trial itself won’t be available for years, as hearings will be filmed only for posterity by the courts themselves. Like the trials of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, which took place in January 2015, the archival video will become available to the public and the media when a final judgment has been made and the full course of justice has taken place.

Unlike in the United States, trials are not usually filmed. This is the 13th trial filmed in France since 1985, when the method was authorized by law for historic trials.

The defendants face sentences ranging from six years in prison to life imprisonment. The main defendant, Abdeslam, is appearing for organized murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise and could be sentenced to the life imprisonment. This is also the case for 10 of the other defendants who are on trial for complicity in the murders. France does not have the death penalty.

The verdict is expected at the end of May 2022.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 live updates: About one in 500 Americans has died from virus

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(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 650,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 62.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Sep 08, 6:02 am
US surpasses 40 million cases and 650,000 deaths

The United States has recorded more than 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 650,000 deaths from the disease since the start of the pandemic, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. surpassed the grim milestones on Tuesday, as the highly contagious delta variant continued to spread across the nation. The U.S. has reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country in the world.

Sep 07, 9:56 pm
Pediatric cases reach highest point of pandemic

The U.S. reported 251,781 COVID-19 cases among kids during the week ending Sept. 2 — the highest week of pediatric cases since the pandemic began, according to the weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

After declining in the early summer, new cases among kids are rising “exponentially,” the organizations wrote, with the weekly figure now standing nearly 300 times higher than it was in June, when just 8,400 pediatric cases were reported over the span of one week.

Last week children represented 26.8% of all reported COVID-19 cases. Regionally, the South had the highest number pediatric cases, accounting for approximately 140,000 of last week’s cases.

The rate of pediatric hospital admissions per 100,000 people is also at one of its highest points of the pandemic, up by 600% since the 4th of July, according to federal data.

Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. According to the nearly two dozen states which reported pediatric hospitalizations, 0.1%-1.9% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization. ​Similarly, in states which reported virus-related deaths by age, 0.00%-0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death.

However, the AAP and CHA warned that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on children, “including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.”

About 37.7% of children ages 12 to 15 and 46.4% of adolescents ages 16 to 17 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Sep 07, 9:50 pm
About 1 in every 500 Americans has died from COVID

The country’s daily death average continues to surge, now standing at more than 1,100 deaths reported a day. This marks the nation’s highest average in nearly six months.

On Tuesday, the death toll crossed 650,000 Americans lost to the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, meaning that 1 in every 504 Americans has died from the virus.

The U.S. COVID death toll is now more than 218 times higher than the number of lives lost during the U.S. attacks on Sept. 11. It is also rapidly approaching the total number of American deaths that were recorded during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Prior to the Labor Day holiday, the U.S. daily case average stood around 150,000 cases a day. About a year ago, around Labor Day, the country was averaging about 38,000 new cases a day.

Sep 07, 6:36 pm
Tucson pauses vaccine mandate for city employees following AG legal threat

Tucson, Arizona, officials announced a pause on the city’s policy to require its public employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine after Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich called it illegal and threatened to cut funding if the city went through with the plan.

Tuscon City Manager Michael Ortega said in a statement the city council is evaluating the mandate’s legal position.

“Until we have a better understanding of our legal position in relation to today’s report, I have instructed staff to pause on the implementation of the policy,” he said.

Brnovich said Tuscon’s rule violated Gov. Doug Ducey’s July executive order that banned any state or local office from requiring their staff get a vaccine against the coronavirus or any vaccine that has only received an emergency order.

“COVID-19 vaccinations should be a choice, not a government mandate,” he said in a statement.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said in a statement that the attorney general was “prioritizing his political ambitions over his responsibility to objectively interpret the law.”

As of Tuesday, over 606,000 residents in Pima County, Arizona, the county that includes Tucson, have had one COVID-19 shot, according to the Pima County Health Department. That represents roughly 56.7% of the county’s 1.07 million population, according to the U.S. Census numbers.

The county has recorded more than 4,000 new cases since Aug. 5, according to health department data.

Sep 07, 5:57 pm
Idaho hospital officials plead with public to get vaccinated as they run out of beds

Idaho hospital officials are pleading for the public to get vaccinated and take COVID-19 warnings seriously after the state declared a crisis in its standards of care.

Kootenai Health, a northern Idaho hospital, currently has 113 patients with COVID-19, an increase from the 90 patients they had last week, officials said. Administrators had to set up 22 beds in a conference room to deal with the influx of patients.

Dr. Robert Scoggins the chief of staff at Kootenai Health, said the hospital was not built for a pandemic this size. Currently, 39 patients are in the intensive care units and 19 are on ventilators, all on high levels of oxygen, he said.

The hospital said it could see as many as 140 patients in the coming weeks.

“The message that I’d like to send out to people is that we’re near the limit that we can handle in this facility,” Scoggins said in a news conference. “We’ve done a lot of things to expand our care to take care of more patients, but it keeps growing. If we had everyone in the community vaccinated, we would not be in this position.”

-ABC News’ Flor Tolentino and Nicholas Kerr

Sep 07, 4:00 pm
Louisiana hospital reports significant decline in number of patients

In hard-hit Louisiana, the Ochsner Health System is seeing a significant decline in COVID-19 patients, now down to 530 — dropping by nearly 250 patients in the last week, hospital CEO and president Warner Thomas said.

But in the wake of deadly Hurricane Ida, releasing patients from hospitals has been difficult, as some patients have no homes to return to, he said.

Sep 07, 3:30 pm
Oregon hospitals ‘scrambling’ with cases, hospitalizations ‘hovering at or near pandemic highs’

Hospitals in Oregon are “scrambling” to stay afloat with cases and hospitalizations “hovering at or near pandemic highs,” the state epidemiologist, Dean Sidelinger, said at COVID-19 briefing Tuesday.

Oregon saw 16,252 new cases in its most recent weekly report – which is 13 times higher than the reported cases for the week ending July 4, Sidelinger said.

Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions are “alarmingly high” and hospitals are at a “saturation point” where they aren’t “able to provide care to everyone arriving at their door,” Sidelinger warned.

Sep 07, 3:08 pm
Former NBA player on 10th day in ICU

Former Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers player Cedric Ceballos, 52, tweeted that he’s on his 10th day in the ICU battling COVID-19.

Sep 07, 2:03 pm
Military medical personnel head to Idaho, Arkansas, Alabama

About 60 military medical personnel are heading in three, 20-person teams to Arkansas, Alabama and Idaho to help treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients following a request from FEMA, the U.S. Army North said.

The personnel, including doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, were sent to hospitals in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Ozark, Alabama; and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Six teams had previously been dispatched to six other hospitals: three in Louisiana, two in Mississippi and one in Dothan, Alabama.

Sep 07, 1:43 pm
Crisis Standards of Care enacted as ‘last resort’ at 10 Idaho hospital systems

A Crisis Standards of Care plan has been enacted at 10 hospital systems in Idaho, which is only done as a “last resort,” Dave Jeppesen, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said in a statement Tuesday.

The hospitals were chosen due to their “severe” shortages in beds and staffing as a result of a “massive increase” in COVID-19 hospitalizations, state officials said.

Crisis Standards of Care “means we have exhausted our resources to the point that our healthcare systems are unable to provide the treatment and care we expect,” Jeppesen said. “This is a decision I was fervently hoping to avoid.”

“When crisis standards of care are in effect, people who need medical care may experience care that is different from what they expect,” state officials said. “For example, patients admitted to the hospital may find that hospital beds are not available or are in repurposed rooms (such as a conference room) or that needed equipment is not available.”

Sep 07, 12:37 pm
75% of American adults have had at least 1 vaccine dose

Seventy-five percent of U.S. adults have now had at least one vaccine dose, Cyrus Shahpar, the White House’s COVID-19 data director, tweeted Tuesday.

Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

Sep 07, 10:36 am

Biden to layout administration’s strategy to combat delta

President Joe Biden on Thursday will deliver remarks on his plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and to boost vaccinations, the White House confirmed Tuesday.

Biden “will lay out a six-pronged strategy … working across the public and private sectors,” a White House official said.

On Friday, while addressing August’s disappointing jobs report, Biden said, “there’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. … Next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns.”

Part of the strategy Biden referenced Friday is to ask states and local governments to consider using federal funding to extend unemployment benefits in hard-hit areas.

“I want to talk about how we’ll further protect our schools, our businesses, our economy, and our families from the threat of delta,” Biden said Friday. “As we continue to fight the delta variant, the American Rescue Plan we passed continues to support families, businesses and communities. Even as some of the benefits that were provided are set to expire next week, states have the option to extend those benefits and the federal resources from the Rescue Plan to do so.”

Sep 07, 7:05 am
3rd person dies in Japan after receiving contaminated Moderna vaccine

A third person has died in Japan after receiving a dose from one of three batches of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that have since been recalled due to contamination, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The 49-year-old man died on Aug. 12, one day after getting his second shot of the two-dose vaccine. His only known health issue was an allergy to buckwheat, the Japanese health ministry said in a statement Monday.

Two other men, aged 30 and 38, also died in August within days of getting their second Moderna shot. In all three cases, the men received doses from a batch manufactured in the same production line as another lot from which some unused vials were reported to contain foreign substances at multiple inoculation sites in Japan.

The deaths remain under investigation, and the Japanese health ministry said it has yet to establish any casual relationship with the vaccine.

The contaminated lot and two adjacent batches were suspended from use by the Japanese health ministry last month, pending an investigation. Moderna and its Japanese distribution partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. ultimately recalled the three lots, containing about 1.63 million doses, after an investigation confirmed the foreign matter to be high-grade stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.

The Japanese health ministry said that, based on the companies’ analysis, it is unlikely the stainless steel contaminants pose any additional health risk.

Moderna and Takeda have yet to release statements on the third fatality, but the companies have previously said there is currently no evidence that the other two deaths were caused by the vaccine.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lauren Alaina: From “drowning in [her] emotions” to ‘Sitting Pretty on Top of the World’

Mercury Nashville

Lauren Alaina may now be Sitting Pretty on Top of the World, as the title of her third album suggests — but that wasn’t always the case. 

In fact, she candidly admits the title track was inspired by her struggles over the last few years.

“The chorus says ‘life of the party,'” she explains, “and I’ve always been the life of the party. And the last few years have had quite a few upsets. I lost two pretty significant relationships very publicly, and lost my step dad, and then this pandemic. And they were just a lot of things that had kind of happened in the whole time.”

“I was on Dancing with the Stars, I was on tour,” she continues. “I was the girl that makes everybody smile and laugh. And I was oftentimes kind of drowning in my emotions. Everybody saw me on stage, but behind the curtain, I was struggling.”

Eventually, “On Top of the World,” would come to mean even more to Lauren.

“I wrote that song about that, and it felt really representative of the rest of the songs,” she says. “And then the title now for me is just really empowering-sounding.”

“And I’ve found so much healing and I’ve gotten myself into such a great place emotionally that that title feels really representative of how I feel now,” she adds.

Sitting Pretty on Top of the World features Lauren’s latest hit with Jon Pardi“Getting Over Him.” September 11, she stars in the new Hallmark Channel movie Roadhouse Romance, ahead of the arrival of her new book, Getting Good at Being You, in November.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The BMW Tupac was shot in is up for sale for almost $2 million

Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

The 1996 BMW 750iL carrying slain rapper Tupac Shakur the night he was shot to death in Las Vegas 25 years ago on Tuesday is up for sale for a cool $1.7 million, according to TMZ.

The bullet holes have since been repaired and the Bimmer has been restored to its original condition, according to the gossip website.

The car is currently on display at the Celebrity Cars Las Vegas showroom — not too far from where the fatal shooting took place.

Death Row Records co-founder and CEO Suge Knight was at the wheel on September 7, 1996, when another vehicle pulled alongside them and opened fire, hitting Shakur, seated on the passenger side, multiple times with .40 caliber rounds.  Knight was grazed by the bullets. 

The “Hit Em Up” rapper was rushed to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he was pronounced dead six days later on the 13th.

Tupac’s killer has never been brought to justice.

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Eddie Vedder premieres new song “Long Way” off upcoming ‘Earthling’ solo album

Credit: Danny Clinch

Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has premiered a new song called “Long Way.”

The track was produced by Ozzy Osbourne‘s Ordinary Man collaborator Andrew Watt, who’s also worked with artists including Miley Cyrus, Post Malone and Dua Lipa.

You can download “Long Way” now via digital outlets. It will also be available as seven-inch vinyl single including another new Vedder solo tune, “The Haves.”

Along with the new song, Vedder has also announced the title of his next solo record: Earthling. The album is Vedder’s first full-length solo effort since 2011’s Ukulele Songs.

More recently, Vedder contributed new music to the film Flag Day, which premiered in August. The soundtrack also includes the debut songs from Vedder’s daughter, Olivia.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Meghan Trainor’s already planning for baby number two…and three

Smallz & Raskind/Peacock

Meghan Trainor‘s son, Riley, isn’t even a year old yet, but the Grammy-winning singer is already planning on expanding her family…a lot.

Speaking to E! News’ Daily Pop on Tuesday, Meghan revealed, “I’m working on my health and my fitness. I just want to focus on my body again and then get super-pregnant.”

She added, “I’m hoping for twins next time. I just want to get, like, two in one done! I want a baby girl. I’d love a baby boy, but I want Riley to have a sister.” 

That’s no surprise, given Meghan’s close relationship with her brother Ryan: As previously reported, the two are hosting a new podcast called Workin’ on It that premieres September 15.  Meghan’s also gearing up for the debut of her two TV shows: Top Chef Family Style, which she’s hosting, arrives on Thursday on Peacock; while Clash of the Cover Bands, which she’s judging, premieres on E! on October 13.

With that kind of schedule, you might think Meghan has bitten off more than she can chew, but she says she’s constantly surrounded by family — including Riley — and her team, which helps her cope with the pressure.

“They literally get me through every day and they help me realize how fun and awesome my jobs are at time when I feel stressed out or overwhelmed,” she explains. “I love being a working mom and just being a boss queen.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

KISS tour to resume Thursday after dates postponed because Stanley, Simmons tested positive for COVID

Jen Rosenstein/Courtesy of Live Nation

After postponing a series of U.S. concerts because founding members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons both tested positive for COVID-19, KISS has confirmed that it will relaunch its End of the World farewell tour with a show this Thursday, September 9, in Irvine, California.

According to a statement from the band, doctors advised that the trek was safe to resume after Stanley and Simmons quarantined for 10 days.

Meanwhile, five of the postponed shows have been rescheduled for late October at the tail end of the 2021 U.S. leg of the outing.

An August 29 concert in Atlanta has been moved to October 10; an August 26 show in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, now will take place on October 13; a September 1 performance in Clarkston, Michigan, has been moved to October 15; a September 4 gig in Tinley Park, Illinois, has been rescheduled for October 16; and a September 2 concert in Dayton, Ohio, has been rescheduled for October 17.

Two other concerts delayed because the KISS members’ COVID diagnoses, originally scheduled for August 28 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and September 5 in Milwaukee, will be made up sometime in 2022, as will an August 22 concert in Hartford, Connecticut — a date that was postponed because of the effects of Hurricane Henri.

Tickets that were purchased for the postponed concerts will be honored for the rescheduled dates. Additional details will be emailed to ticketholders.

Visit KISSOnline.com to check out the band’s full schedule.

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