(NEW YORK) — Much of the United States is under an ominous, hazy sky on Tuesday as smoke spreads from the massive wildfires in the West.
At least 40 million Americans are experiencing poor air quality.
The hazy skies have even reached New York City.
At least 80 large wildfires are burning in 13 states, mostly in the West.
Oregon’s Bootleg Fire has exploded to over 388,000 acres and is 30% contained as of Tuesday morning.
“Fighting this fire is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Rob Allen, incident commander for PNW Incident Management Team 2.
The Dixie Fire in Butte County, California, has spread to over 59,000 acres and is just 15% contained.
The danger for wildfires will remain high on Tuesday due to low humidity, high wind gusts and the potential of dry lightning.
Fire danger will continue Wednesday before subsiding some on Thursday. But with the West enduring a widespread drought, new fires could easily spread at any time.
(NEW YORK) — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky told lawmakers Tuesday the delta variant now makes up 83% of cases, up from 50% at the beginning of this month.
“CDC has released estimates of variants across the country and predicted the delta variant now represents 83% of sequenced cases. This is a dramatic increase from — up from 50% for the week of July 3rd,” Walensky testified in a hearing before the Senate Health Committee.
Walensky said the alarming increase was happening in unvaccinated areas and that they were “allowing for the emergence and rapid spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.”
“In some parts of the country, the percentage is even higher, particularly in areas of low vaccination rates,” she said.
The best way to stop the spread is with vaccines, she said.
“To date, our data indicates that vaccines are available to neutralize the circulating variants in the United States and provide protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death,” she said. “The message from CDC remains clear: the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 variants is to prevent the spread of disease and vaccination is the most powerful tool we have.”
And on the subject of whether booster shots — which could offer extra protection against the variant for immunocompromised people — will be recommended, Walensky and Food and Drug Administration acting chief Janet Woodcock said they don’t yet have a timeline on an answer.
They were pushed multiple times by Republicans who argued Israel has already made the call to use boosters.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah pressed Woodcock on when boosters might be available to people who are immunocompromised.
A CDC advisory panel is scheduled to discuss on Thursday what the research shows on that point. While no vote is planned, the discussion could pave the way for the FDA to alter its authorization of the vaccines to allow for booster shots for the immunocompromised.
“Why should we not allow people who, who are elderly or have other compromised conditions to be able to get that booster?” Romney asked, noting that Israel was allowing it.
“Certainly, we are looking at all that,” Woodcock responded.
“Remember this vaccine right now — the vaccines are under emergencies use authorization and require an additional authorization for a booster,” she said.
“Well, how long is that going to take? That’s the question,” Romney asked. “We have people who want to get that booster and I’m hearing that from people who are at risk and concerned… Why can’t they?”
Woodcock didn’t answer directly, but noted that Pfizer was submitting data “to potentially make the case” for a booster and that “the FDA will be looking at that.”
Romney responded: “I don’t like the timeframe, frankly, given the fact that this is being done elsewhere.”
The 2020 edition of the Farm Aid was a virtual event because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year’s installment of the festival, which supports family-run and independent farms in the U.S., will return to being a live, in-person extravaganza.
Farm Aid 2021 is scheduled for September 25 in Hartford, Connecticut, at Xfinity Theatre, the same venue where the 2018 festival was held. As usual, the event will be headlined by Farm Aid board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson, with Matthews playing as a duo with his longtime collaborator, Tim Reynolds.
This year’s lineup also features Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, Sturgill Simpson, Bettye LaVette, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and more. Tickets for the festival go on sale to the public this Friday, July 23, at 10 a.m. ET. A limited number of pre-sale tickets can be purchased now at FarmAid.org/Festival.
“The experience of the past 18 months has reminded us how much we need each other,” says Willie Nelson, Farm Aid’s president and co-founder. “I’m so glad that music is bringing us all back together at Farm Aid 2021 to celebrate family farmers. When we combine music, family farmers and good food, we have the power to grow the kind of agriculture that strengthens all of us.”
The festival will feature local and organic foods produced at family farms, and will offer various agricultural-themed activities and forums presented by farmers and artists.
In addition, a silent auction featuring rare and signed memorabilia, including guitars and prints, will be held to raise money for Farm Aid. The sale will run from September 25 to October 8 at FarmAid.org/auction.
Via handwritten note on their socials, Coldplay has announced that their ninth album will arrive October 15.
Called Music of the Spheres, the album, produced by Max Martin, comes with a trailer that depicts an animated cosmic journey through the album’s space-themed artwork, with snippets of each new song. In their note, the band says that a new track from the album, “Colaratura,” will be out on Friday, followed by a single in September. The first release, “Higher Power,” came out in May.
“Thank you for listening or coming to shows or any way we have met through music,” the band ends their note, adding, “Everyone is an alien somewhere.”
There are 12 tracks on Music of the Spheres, the titles of five of which are represented by emojis. The songs that aren’t so titled are “Higher Power,” “Humankind,” “Let Somebody Go,” “People of the Price,” “Biutyful,” “My Universe,” and “Coloratura.” The emojis range from a heart, to a picture of Earth, to what looks like an infinity symbol.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles Rams running back Cam Akers has torn his Achilles during a workout, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Further testing confirmed the injury, according to Schefter.
Akers is likely out for the season. The team has not announced the injury.
Akers was the team’s leading rusher last year with 626 yards and two touchdowns. Darrell Henderson Jr. was the second leading rusher with 624 yards and five touchdowns.
The 22-year old Florida State product missed two games last year with a rib injury.
Lala Kent‘s definition of sober is very different from Demi Lovato‘s.
The Vanderpump Rules star, who has been sober since October 2018, appeared on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast and — when asked her opinion on Demi’s song “California Sober” — shared that she’s not a fan.
“You know, I don’t like to judge, but I actually think that that’s super offensive,” Lala said of the track, which depicts a lifestyle where hard drugs and alcohol are off the table but marijuana and wine are acceptable.
“There are people out there who have worked their a** off to never take themselves out of reality and to never place themselves in an altered state,” Lala continued. “When they have a cold, they don’t even take DayQuil or NyQuil. So to say that you’re ‘California sober’ or this type of sober is extremely offensive, I think.”
The 30-year-old reality star added that she doesn’t believe that “California sober” is a real thing. “You’re not sober,” she stated. “If you’re drinking and smoking weed, you’re not sober.”
Demi has been public about their sobriety journey following their near-fatal overdose in 2018. Most recently in their YouTube documentary, Dancing with the Devil, Demi shared that recovery isn’t a “one-size-fits-all solution” and said they work with a recovery manager to determine the best plan for them.
For a guy who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer earlier this year, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is extremely busy. He received a clean bill of health in March, and he’s got his hands in several different projects.
Wood tells The Times of London, “Me and Mick [Jagger] have done nine new tracks for the re-release of Tattoo You.” Wood adds that Jagger, who underwent heart surgery in 2019, is “fighting fit,” and says, “We both can’t wait to get working again.”
Tattoo You will mark its 40th anniversary on August 24; the reissue has yet to be officially announced.
On top of that, Wood says, “Me, Rod [Stewart] and Kenney [Jones] have been recording some new Faces music.” He’s also putting the finishing touches on Mr. Luck — A Tribute to Jimmy Reed: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a live album originally recorded in 2013 that will be released September 3.
As Ronnie puts it, “I’ve had a front-row seat on some amazing rock ‘n’ roll projects these past couple of weeks. I’m making every day count. Not wasting a moment.”
In August, two life-size fiberglass lions that Wood, a respected painter, has been decorating over the past couple of months will go on display in London. They’ll be auctioned in November for the charity Tusk, which supports animal conservation in Africa.
Wood adds, “I go through art phases when music is secondary, but right now I really want to get out there and play.”
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Lala Kent‘s definition of sober is very different from Demi Lovato‘s.
The Vanderpump Rules star, who has been sober since October 2018, appeared on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast and — when asked her opinion on Demi’s song “California Sober” — shared that she’s not a fan.
“You know, I don’t like to judge, but I actually think that that’s super offensive,” Lala said of the track, which depicts a lifestyle where hard drugs and alcohol are off the table but marijuana and wine are acceptable.
“There are people out there who have worked their a** off to never take themselves out of reality and to never place themselves in an altered state,” Lala continued. “When they have a cold, they don’t even take DayQuil or NyQuil. So to say that you’re ‘California sober’ or this type of sober is extremely offensive, I think.”
The 30-year-old reality star added that she doesn’t believe that “California sober” is a real thing. “You’re not sober,” she stated. “If you’re drinking and smoking weed, you’re not sober.”
Demi has been public about their sobriety journey following their near-fatal overdose in 2018. Most recently in their YouTube documentary, Dancing with the Devil, Demi shared that recovery isn’t a “one-size-fits-all solution” and said they work with a recovery manager to determine the best plan for them.
Actress Reese Witherspoon is set to reprise her iconic role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde 3, a movie slated to arrive in theaters next year.
Despite its 2022 premiere date, not much is known about the upcoming third installment — except that it stars Witherspoon and that she and actress Mindy Kaling are penning the script.
In a recent interview with E!’s Daily Pop, Kaling kept her lips sealed about the super secretive project, but did divulge one thing… it’s serious work.
“I’m having a great time writing it,” Kaling said. “It is the most corporate gig I’ve ever had so I can’t talk about it at all, but I hope we do a good job.”
Her reply aligns with recent remarks made by Legally Blonde stars Jennifer Coolidge and Luke Wilson, who both starred in the original movie as Paulette Bonafonté and Emmett Richmond, respectively. It’s unknown if either will be featured in the third film.
While Coolidge said she heard the movie “is going to be finished soon,” Wilson remarked, “We’ll just have to see what happens.”
Legally Blonde was released in 2001, followed by Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde in 2003.
In 2018, Witherspoon confirmed a third installment was forthcoming when sharing a post of herself lounging on a pool float with the caption, “It’s true… #LegallyBlonde3.”
(WASHINGTON) — Since the onset of the pandemic, children in the U.S. have faced multiple challenges and hardships. Tragically, recent data reveals that a staggering number of children have been faced with the most heartbreaking reality: the loss of a caregiver to COVID-19.
An estimated 119,000 children across the country have lost a primary caregiver due to COVID-19 associated death, and more than 140,000 children experienced the death of a primary or secondary caregiver, defined as co-residing grandparents or kin, according to data in an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document obtained exclusively by ABC News.
“This is yet another horrible byproduct of the pandemic and we as a global community must commit to supporting these children and families. The effects of this pandemic will be felt for decades,” Dr. Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, told ABC News.
The data is provisional, and the CDC confirmed to ABC News that it plans to release official data next month.
The figures are particularly staggering in comparison to a JAMA Pediatric study published in early April, which estimated approximately 40,000 children in the U.S. had lost a parent to COVID-19.
Emily Smith-Greenaway, associate professor of Sociology & Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California, called the new CDC figures “astounding.”
“These numbers demonstrate how the mortality shock of the pandemic is directly affecting tens of thousands of children. These are really intimately experienced losses that will certainly have consequences for children’s wellbeing going forward,” Smith-Greenaway said.
As more than 609,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., an analysis published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which tracks the extent of loss of kin due to COVID-19 with a bereavement multiplier, estimates that 5.48 million family members have grieved the loss of a loved one due to COVID-19 since last year.
Pamela Addison, a 36-year-old New Jersey teacher, and mother to two young children, lost her husband, Martin, to COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic.
As a single parent, Addison said she felt very alone and vulnerable as she struggled to care for children and find her place in a “new normal,” which no longer included her husband.
“My heart aches for them to know that they just have me now,” Addison said.
Addison said she’s doing the most she can to make sure they remember their father and the deep love he had for them. “Every night, they kiss their papa’s picture and tell him goodnight. My daughter taught my son to do that, and it’s an important part of our bedtime routine.”
The scale of COVID-19 related deaths is so large that even if a small fraction of those who have lost their lives had children under the age of 18, there would still be a significant number of children affected, Dr. Ashton Verdery, professor of Sociology, Demography, and Social Data Analytics at Penn State, told ABC News.
“There are substantially elevated death rates among adults in their 50s, a non-trivial fraction of whom still have children under 18,” Verdery said. “Each death can leave multiple children behind.”
According to the data, children of color have been significantly affected by the loss of a caregiver, something that reflects a disparity built on an existing inequality, even prior to the onset of the pandemic, according to Smith-Greenway.
“Black youth experience higher rates of familial loss earlier in life relative to white children–speaking to the racial inequality in mortality conditions. Specifically, we find that even as Black children represent about 14% of the U.S. child population, our estimates suggest they represent 20% of those bereaved,” she said.
A 2018 Pew Research study estimated that in 2016, 64 million Americans, or 20% of the U.S. population, lived with multiple generations, and 3.2 million Americans lived in households consisting of grandparents and grandchildren.
Children of color are often more likely to reside with grandparents, acting as their primary or secondary caregivers, according to Verdery, which further aggravates their disproportionate burden.
“The much higher death rates seen in communities of color, and more specifically, the greater death rates at younger ages owing to more exposure because of inability to socially isolate, employment situations, lead to the expectation that children of color will constitute an outsize share of those who lost a caregiver,” Verdery said.
Children who have lost a caregiver to COVID-19 will be particularly affected, according to experts, potentially experiencing long-lasting adverse health, educational and economic outcomes.
“Studies across the medical and social sciences routinely show that those who lose parents are at elevated risks of depression and related mental health challenges, have higher risks of criminal justice system involvement and higher rates of substance use, are more likely to drop out of schooling and less likely to attend college,” Verdery said. “Further down the line, we know all of those factors above place the individuals at greater risk of lower earnings, more unemployment, poor physical health, and relationship strains. To some extent, though the literature is more tenuous here, there is likely greater risk of early death.”
Although children are often resilient, and many who have been bereaved after the loss of a caregiver will be able to lead healthy and productive lives, “these youth are certainly ‘at-risk’ following a death and deserve adequate resources and support to try to help them navigate corresponding adversities,” Smith-Greenaway said. “These deaths leave holes in the lives of children that are not easily mended.”
