Happy birthday, Dolly Parton
The Queen of Country turns 75 years young today! ABC’s Will Ganss is celebrating with some little-known facts about Dolly Parton that might surprise you!
The Queen of Country turns 75 years young today! ABC’s Will Ganss is celebrating with some little-known facts about Dolly Parton that might surprise you!
Mississippi legislators have passed a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams in schools and universities -- one of over two dozen similar measures proposed by state lawmakers nationwide this year. The state House voted 81-28 Wednesday to pass the so-called Mississippi Fairness Act. Gov. Tate Reeves said Thursday that he will sign it.
Connecticut is the latest state to take action toward passing a law to ban discrimination against race-based ethnic hairstyles in workplaces and schools. The state's Senate voted 33-0 to pass the The CROWN Act, an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair, this week. Now, it's with Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont to be signed into law.
A U.S. official confirmed Thursday that the Capitol Police have requested a 60-day extension for the National Guard presence at the Capitol. There are currently more than 5,000 National Guard members still in the city from a peak of 25,000 present for security at the Jan. 20 inauguration. The need for the National Guard presence -- armed behind high fences topped with razor wire -- has become a focus of debate over how much security is needed around the Capitol going forward.
A grand jury is expected to be seated this week in Fulton County, Georgia, to look into efforts by Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election, signaling that the county's investigation into the former president is intensifying. Prosecutors in Fulton County are expected pursue subpoenas for documents and witnesses and rely heavily on them, people familiar with the investigation told ABC News. In a letter sent last month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to Gov. Brian Kemp and obtained by ABC News, Willis said the grand jury would convene in March and would "begin requesting grand jury subpoenas as necessary at that time."
A new clip of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, speaking out to Oprah Winfrey was released Wednesday night, just hours after Buckingham Palace announced it plans to open an investigation into allegations of bullying made against the duchess. "I don't know how they could expect that after all of this time we should still just be silent if there's an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us," Meghan tells Winfrey in the promo for Winfrey's primetime interview with Meghan and Prince Harry.
An international team of researchers from institutions including Boston Children's Hospital, Northeastern University and the University of Oxford has partnered with Google.org, Google's nonprofit subsidiary, to release Global.health, a platform that contains information about almost 10 million COVID-19 cases from over 100 countries. There are many databases tracking COVID information, such as the ones run by Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project, but most of those track what's known as aggregate data, which includes case and death counts in particular regions. "What's different about ours is its detailed line-list information," said Dr. John Brownstein, a Global.health researcher and a professor of pediatrics and biomedical informatics at Boston Children's Hospital.
Paul Bettany knows what happens in the "WandaVision" finale, of course -- but he isn't divulging any spoilers to ruin it for Disney+ viewers. The actor, who plays Vision, opposite Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff on the show, appeared on "Good Morning America" on Thursday and played mum when asked about various fan theories, answering with strange noises and even going as far as pretending his video froze.
Kelly Marie Tran's rise from relative unknown to landing the role of Rose Tico in 2017's "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi" was a real-life fairytale that quickly became a nightmare. The 32-year-old actress, who is of Vietnamese descent, shut down her social media accounts after being targeted by racist and sexist attacks. Regarding her decision to ditch social media, the "Raya and the Last Dragon" star told The Hollywood Reporter, "What's interesting to me about working in this industry is that certain things become so public, even if you don't really mean them to be, [like] the succession of events in which I left the internet for my own sanity."
A Colorado man has been arrested in connection with the unsolved murders of two women who were found dead in 1982, authorities said. Alan Lee Phillips, 70, of Dumont, Colorado, was taken into custody without incident in Clear Creek County on Feb. 24 and is currently being held at the Park County Jail in the town of Fairplay, about 90 miles southwest of Denver. Park County Sheriff Tom McGrath announced the arrest on Wednesday.
When the pontiff touches down in Baghdad on Friday, it will be the culmination of a Vatican trip decades in the planning. Pope Francis will be the first pope to ever visit this area of great biblical importance -- home to ancient civilizations. Questions about the timing of trip were raised repeatedly at a recent Vatican press conference.
The makeup collaboration you never know you needed is here and it comes with a side of guac. Cosmetics has teamed up with Chipotle to launch a fully co-branded makeup collection and custom burrito bowl. Cosmetics x Chipotle Collection will include four limited edition items including a palette, lip gloss, sponge and makeup bag.
Chris Harrison is speaking out for the first time since stepping aside from the franchise last month. In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" co-host Michael Strahan, the embattled "Bachelor" host addressed the comments he made defending current "Bachelor" contestant and front-runner Rachael Kirkconnell, whose past racist social media posts showed her "liking" a photo containing a Confederate flag and attending an "Old South" plantation-themed party in 2018. "I am an imperfect man, I made a mistake and I own that," Harrison told "Good Morning America."
Motor vehicle deaths jumped 8% in 2020, despite fewer people on the roads amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to preliminary data from the National Safety Council. "We believe that the open roads really gave drivers an open invitation marked open season on reckless driving," Maureen Vogel, director of communications at NSC, said in an interview with ABC News. While the final data will determine causation, Vogel said states saw increases in speeding, increases in distraction and, in some cases, increases in impaired driving.
As Congress debates the latest coronavirus relief bill, many await their much-needed aid, while others, desperate for help, will never see the benefits. "I have not received any benefits," Rosa Arelvo, an essential worker, said. Arelvo immigrated to the United States from El Salvador and works as a restaurant cook.
Thursday will be a quiet day in the House of Representatives. It's all tied to March 4 -- the original inauguration date set by the Constitution, and now the focus of QAnon conspiracy theories that falsely believe that to be the date that former President Donald Trump will come back to power. A series of hearings on Capitol Hill have only raised more questions about who was behind the attempted insurrection, and why and how authorities were as ill-prepared as they were.
At least 38 protesters were killed by authorities in Myanmar on Wednesday, marking the bloodiest day since the military seized power in an apparent coup last month, according to the United Nations' special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener. Demonstrations have been taking place in cities across the Southeast Asian country since its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party were detained by the military on Feb. 1. The protest movement has been growing and the military junta, which calls itself the State Administration Council, has become increasingly violent in its response as weeks of internet shutdowns, threats and mass arrests have not stopped thousands of people from voicing their opposition.
Last week, numerous athletes trained by Olympic coach John Geddert felt a fleeting moment of victory when he was charged with abusing young gymnasts. Geddert, a notoriously tough coach who worked with convicted sex offender Larry Nassar and trained the Fierce Five team that won Olympic gold in 2012, was charged Thursday with 24 felonies, including counts of human trafficking and forced labor causing injury as well as criminal sexual conduct. For Lindsey Lemke, a former Michigan State gymnast who accused Nassar of sexual abuse and trained with Geddert at his Dimondale, Michigan, gym, there's no closure in his death.
More than six months after Lesia Phillips' only daughter died from COVID-19, the grief and sorrow are still raw. Shanta Batchelor, an administrative assistant at Arkansas Children's Hospital who was beloved by her mother, grandmother, friends and fiancé, spent nearly one month battling the virus before her death in August 2020. Phillips is now left wading through the pain -- and anger.
Fewer people will qualify for direct payments as part of the new COVID-19 relief bill under an agreement by Senate Democrats. The agreement more narrowly tailors who qualifies for those $1,400 direct checks that President Joe Biden has touted as part of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation. The Senate is expected to begin debate on the plan Thursday.
Former White House physician Ronny Jackson "bullied" subordinates and made sexual comments about female colleagues while serving as President Barack Obama's official doctor, according to a new report from the Defense Department inspector general. The Pentagon watchdog's investigation into Jackson's behavior in the White House Medical Unit stemmed from a referral from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in 2018, when Jackson was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.