(Sturgis, S.D.) — While a series of high-profile events have been canceled this week due to the looming threat posed by the delta variant, one that last year contributed to hundreds of COVID-19 cases will not.
South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which begins Friday and runs through Aug. 15, is expected to draw upwards of 700,000 attendees. Last year’s rally, which took place during the height of the United States’ summer surge, had more than 400,000 estimated attendees, many of whom didn’t wear masks as they patronized bars, restaurants and concerts.
The downstream effect was tangible: At least 649 COVID-19 cases were linked to Sturgis, including secondary and third-degree contacts.
“The Sturgis rally had many characteristics of a superspreading event: large crowds, high intensity of contact between people, potential for highly infectious individuals traveling from hotspots, and events in poorly ventilated indoor environments,” a 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study concluded.
“Such mass events can result in the resurgence of COVID-19 in counties and states even after epidemic control has been achieved through local risk mitigation activities,” the authors wrote.
This year, the CDC has designated Meade County, where Sturgis is located, an area of “high community transmission.” The agency recommends that anyone residing in or visiting such an area wear a mask in public indoor spaces.
South Dakota’s vaccination rate also trails the national average. As of Thursday, 53% of residents had received at least one dose, and 47% were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, compared with 58% of and 50%, respectively, of all Americans.
Republican Gov. Kristi Noem supports the rally, a major economic driver in the state.
“There’s a risk associated with everything that we do in life,” Noem wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “Bikers get that better than anyone.”
“It’s been extremely busy compared to other years so far,” said Pete Gold, the owner of One-Eyed Jack’s Saloon, a Sturgis-based biker bar. He estimated that at least 100,000 people had arrived in town already.
“There’s not one single person here wearing a mask,” he added. “These people — bikers, Trump supporters, South Dakota Republicans — do not believe in it.”
Despite being unconcerned about COVID-19 or the delta variant, Gold said that he and his family got vaccinated because they want to travel internationally, including to Thailand, where he lives for part of the year.
“I suffered through two Pfizers,” he said. “I have a lot of countries I haven’t been to, so if I don’t get vaccinated, I can’t go.”
LeVar Burton says he’s still “blessed beyond measure” amid news that Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards is in “advanced negotiations” to become the game show’s host following the death of Alex Trebek.
“I have said many times over these past weeks that no matter the outcome, I’ve won,” Burton tweetedon Thursday.
“The outpouring of love and support from family, friends, and fans alike has been incredible!” he added. “If love is the ultimate blessing and I believe that it is, I am truly blessed beyond measure.”
As previously reported, Burton, who said hosting Jeopardy! was his “dream job,” has been campaigning for the gig since 2013. After fans rallied for Burton to become Trebek’s official replacement with a Change.org petition, the Reading Rainbow and Roots actor was added to the Jeopardy! guest hosting lineup, taking the reins from July 26 to July 30.
Ready for some early-2000s nostalgia courtesy of *NSYNC‘s Joey Fatone and Lance Bass?
In celebration of KIDZ BOP’s 20th birthday, Joey and Lance are offering fans the chance to win a virtual 2000s music-trivia night, which they’ll be hosting.
To enter, all you have to do is post a TikTok video of you dancing to the KIDZ BOP version of “Bye Bye Bye” and use the hashtag #KidzBopTurns20.
KIDZ BOP, if you didn’t know, is an album series offering family-friendly cover versions of hit pop songs.
In season 2 of Acorn TV’s drama My Life Is Murder, star Lucy Lawless will reunite with her former Xena: Warrior Princess bestie Renee O’Connor, the AMC streaming service confirmed Thursday.
Lawless played the lead in Xena, and O’Connor portrayed her pal Gabrielle in the series, which ran in syndication from 1995 to 2001.
This time, however, their meeting will be less friendly. In My Life Is Murder, Lawless plays a cop-turned-police consultant, and in the upcoming episode in which O’Connor appears, she plays a woman suspected of involvement in the murder of her self-help-guru husband.
A trailer for season 2 of the acclaimed New Zealand-set drama just dropped. The new season starts August 30 on Acorn TV.
Bastille has premiered the video for “Give Me the Future,” the band’s latest single.
The clip chronicles Dan Smith and company’s performance at England’s Latitude Festival last month, which marked one of the group’s first live shows in over 18 months. Attendees at the festival were either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or provided a negative test.
You can watch the “Give Me the Future” video streaming now on YouTube.
“Give Me the Future” premiered in July. It’s the second new Bastille single of 2021, following June’s “Distorted Light Beam.”
Meanwhile, you can catch Bastille when they perform on the Good Morning America Summer Concert Series, airing August 23 on ABC.
The plight of the poor NPC — that means non-player characters in the background of games like Grand Theft Auto — are at the center of Ryan Reynolds‘ upcoming movie, Free Guy.
In the film, Reynolds plays one of those, a bank teller named Guy — and, as NPCs often do, Guy often finds himself a victim of random crimes at the hands of online players.
In a take-off of cheesy TV slip-and-fall attorney ads, a mustachioed Reynolds asks injured NPCs: “Have you ever been shot at, body slammed, flame-throwered, hit by a train, or emotionally demeaned? We can tell you if you have a case.”
You can trust him: he calls himself the #1 Xbox NPC Personal Injury Law Firm in all of Free City — the video game Guy unwittingly thinks of as his real life home.
Free Guy hits theaters August 13 from 20th Century Studios, which is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News.
In a year where many entrepreneurs saw their profits flagging, Dolly Parton was among those who not only survived, but thrived.
In fact, the legendary country multi-hyphenate saw her wealth increase over the last year, enough to land her a spot as one of Forbes’ 15 new additions to their list of the richest self-made women in the world.
With Dolly’s revenue coming from diverse sources — her her holiday album, A Holly Dolly Christmas, a Netflix film, Christmas on the Square, and of course, her stake in her namesake theme park, Dollywood — the superstar’s net worth topped out at $350 million.
That puts her well over the $225 million cut-off to makes Forbes’ list, and in impressive company. Among those named to Forbes’ new crop of richest self-made women this year are supermodel-turned-skincare-entrepreneur Cindy Crawford, and CEO and chair of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi. At 75, Dolly is the oldest of the 15 women to make Forbes’ list.
Most recently, Dolly is expanding her portfolio yet again with the release of her new line of perfume. Called “Dolly — Scent from Above,” the fragrance is a collaboration with ScentBeauty. To go along with it, she released a new song called — you guessed it — “Sent from Above.”
Shinedown drummer Barry Kerch is dropping off the band’s tour due to testing positive for COVID-19.
In an Instagram video posted Thursday, Kerch shares that contracted the virus sometime during rehearsals, even though he’s fully vaccinated.
“I’d followed all the rules, wore a mask, washed my hands,” Kerch says. “Unfortunately, I’m one of those ones that got it even though I was [vaccinated].”
Kerch is currently quarantining, and says that while he’s “had symptoms,” his “health is good.”
“Until I’ve finished my quarantine and test negative, I’m stuck in these four walls,” Kerch says. “I can’t risk it for my band and my crew, they’re all doing fine.”
Shinedown will still continue with their tour, which kicks off Thursday in Davenport, Iowa, with Sixx:A.M. touring drummer Dustin Steinke filling in for Kerch.
Tito Jackson‘s new solo blues album, Under Your Spell, gets its release on Friday, and in advance of its arrival, the Jacksons member has debuted a star-studded music video for the record’s lead single, “Love One Another.”
The clip for the uplifting tune features an impressive cast of celebrities, as well as a slew of Jackson family members, including Tito’s brothers and band mates Jackie, Jermaine and Marlon, his sisters Janet and La Toya, and family matriarch Katherine Jackson.
Among the many famous music stars and other celebs appearing in the video are Smokey Robinson, Magic Johnson, Chris Tucker, Kathy Sledge, Morris Day, Deniece Williams, Brian McKnight, Deborah Cox, Kim Fields, Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Lori Petty, Merrill Osmond, UB40, and Yvette Nicole Brown, as well as Tito’s Under Your Spell collaborators Bobby Rush, Kenny Neal, and Claudette King.
“Love One Another” begins with Tito’s mom addressing the camera, declaring, “Stop the violence, killing, racism and all the bad things that are happening today. We need to love one another.”
Tito shares lead vocals on the song with his brother Marlon, Neal and Rush. The track also features a harmonica solo by none other than Stevie Wonder.
“[I wanted] to send a message out to all the listeners out there to remind them that it’s important for us to love one another,” Jackson explains of the song in a YouTube Q&A. “You know, with all the protesting, Black Lives Matter, the storming of the Capitol building and seeing all the violence and brutalities, I just felt it’s a message that should be out there and accepted.”
As previously reported, Under Your Spell also includes guest appearances from George Benson, The O’Jays‘ Eddie Levert, and blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa.
(QUEEN CREEK, Ariz.) — An Arizona mom’s worst fear came true when her 5-year-old daughter tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks after her school year started.
Heidi Kim’s 5-year-old daughter, Irene, is in kindergarten and her 8-year-old daughter, Rosalind, is in third grade at EduPrize charter school in Queens Creek, Arizona.
Kim homeschooled both of her children during the 2020 school year due to Arizona’s high COVID-19 rates and to protect close friends and family that were high risk for COVID-19. This year, Kim and her husband made the decision to send their children to school on July 21 in hopes that a vaccine would soon be available for children and allow for Kim to return to work.
“I was really nervous about sending them back there, but I had hoped maybe in September they would be eligible for the vaccine,” Kim told “Good Morning America.” “I had hoped it would just be the month and a few extra weeks depending when it comes.”
Arizona is one of eight states that has banned mask mandates in classrooms. On June 30, 2021, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law prohibiting mask mandates in Arizona schools. Kim says EduPrize encouraged students to wear masks but due to state law cannot enforce it.
“I dropped them off at school and I just cried and not because of things that you should normally be feeling when you send your youngest kid off to kindergarten,” Kim said. “I cried because I felt like I was sending her into a petri dish.”
Kim said although masks were encouraged, there were only two other kindergartners wearing masks in her daughter’s class. In Rosalind’s third grade class there was only one other student.
“It’s incredibly frustrating because I think schools should absolutely be open. I don’t think that people should have to put their life on hold for a year and a half,” Kim said. “When we look at what public health is telling us, you look at the American Academy of Pediatrics, or the CDC, they’re all saying schools should be open. But also people who aren’t vaccinated should wear a mask.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reversed its mask guidance and recommended that schools embrace universal masks, backtracking on an earlier recommendation that vaccinated students and staff could go without masks indoors. Several Arizona districts have opted to make masks mandatory.
In addition, The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of nearly 70,000 pediatricians, has also called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates.
“AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP wrote in a statement.
Two weeks after her first day of school, Kim noticed Irene was acting out of character. She would fall asleep doing everyday activities and soon she was running a 103 fever. Kim brought her to get a COVID-19 test and confirmed that the 5-year-old had contracted the virus.
“I’d like to be honest, I’m angry,” Kim said. “And of course I’m sad. And I feel guilty, because I had felt so conflicted about sending her back in the first place. And I never should have had to be in that position.”
Kim says since Irene tested positive for COVID-19 her other daughter has also started showing symptoms but has not yet received her results from the PCR test she took at her doctor’s office.
Arizona Public Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman weighed in on Arizona’s mask guidelines for schools in a statement to ABC News.
“It is heartbreaking to learn of a child being infected with COVID-19. It is equally as frustrating knowing that Arizona public schools have lost the authority to fully implement proven mitigation strategies recommended by public health experts like universal and correct use of masks,” Hoffman said. “In June, Governor Ducey signed a law prohibiting schools’ ability to implement mask requirements, undercutting local school authority. This action by Governor Ducey and the Legislature was reckless and short-sighted – and will result in more children testing positive for COVID-19.”
“I want kids in their classrooms because that is where the best learning happens – and until we are fully on the other side of this pandemic, we must take every necessary precaution to protect student health and safety in those classrooms and ensure minimal disruption to learning,” Hoffman continued. “We have serious work ahead of us to help students recover from the last two disrupted school years, all while keeping them safe, and we don’t have time for political games.”
After going through this with her children, Kim said she hopes that since schools in her state cannot mandate masks, more parents will put masks on their kids before they head into classrooms..
“It’s not hard to wear a mask and it does so much to protect the people around you,” Kim said. “I would really encourage parents to put their kids in a mask. And I would really encourage parents if they haven’t, to get vaccinated.”
“The more adults that are eligible to get the vaccine, the less community spread there will be. And the sooner these kids can get back to a normal life,” Kim said. “I understand that we want kids to have a normal school year, the best way we can do that is by sending them in a mask.”
