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Death toll rises to 12 as search and rescue operation continues in Florida building collapse

As of Tuesday evening, at least 12 people have been confirmed dead, with 149 others unaccounted for, after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed in South Florida’s Miami-Dade County last week. A massive search and rescue operation entered its sixth day on Tuesday, as crews continued to comb through the pile of debris in hopes of finding survivors. So far, 125 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for.

The partial collapse occurred at around 1:15 a.m. local time last Thursday at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said during a press conference in Surfside on Tuesday: “Nobody is giving up hope here. Nobody is stopping. We are dedicated to getting everyone out of that pile of rubble.”

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Surfside on Thursday, according to a statement from the White House. Last week, the president approved an emergency declaration in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts in the wake of the partial building collapse.

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President Biden travels to promote his $1.2T infrastructure deal

President Joe Biden traveled to Wisconsin on Tuesday to promote a bipartisan infrastructure proposal that would spend $1.2 trillion on various upgrades and repairs across the United States, including work on roads and bridges.  Biden told an audience in La Crosse that “America has always been propelled into the future by landmark national investments. This is a generational investment to modernize our infrastructure, creating millions of good-paying jobs, and position America to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century.”

The investment includes $48.5 billion for public transportation, $109 billion for road and bridge projects, as well as funding to replace lead water pipes in the state and expand access to broadband Internet. The bipartisan proposal was reached last week among a group of centrist Democratic and Republican senators. The bipartisan agreement is effectively a compromise to Biden’s original infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan, which was estimated to cost far more and had no Republican support.

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Country Daypop

Naomi Judd inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame

Country legend Naomi Judd has been honored after being inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. Naomi, a member of the hit making mother-daughter duo ‘The Judds,’ earned Grammy honors and a string of country hits through the ’80s and ’90s with her daughter, Wynonna Judd.  Naomi was also a co-writer behind the anthem, “Love Can Build a Bridge,” and went onto a successful acting career.

Said Naomi: “It’s always gratifying when someone acknowledges your best efforts. I love expressing my deepest feelings as I did in writing ‘Love Can Build a Bridge.’ Not only was I being celebrated at this auspicious event in Washington, D.C., I was among other accomplished songwriters. It was fun to reconnect with Valerie Simpson of Ashford & Simpson fame. We met years ago. A good time was had by all!”

Other women honored for their songwriting were Valerie Simpson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Roberta Flack, Tawatha Agee, Klymaxx, Deniece Williams, Jeri Keever “Bunny” Hull and Veryl Howard. Along with Judd, they became the first artists to be enshrined in the new Hall, which is located inside the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

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Country Daypop

Riley Green to drop 7-song ‘Behind The Bar’ project this Friday

Riley Green will drop a 7-song project titled, Behind The Bar, featuring a number of unreleased fan favorites like “I Let A Damn Good Woman Leave,” “That’s What I’ve Been Told,” “That’s My Dixie”, this Friday, July 2nd.

Said Riley: “I’ve always enjoyed writing songs and one of the biggest tools I’ve used over the years to shape my songwriting is playing those songs on the road for fans and gauging their reactions. I’m looking forward to releasing Behind The Bar and getting to play those songs on the road this summer.”

Riley will also celebrate the release of Behind the Bar with a live stream concert from Joe’s Bar in Chicago, which you can view via Riley’s YouTube channel.

Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

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Entertainment Daypop

Disney Channel alum Kyle Massey charged with felony for immoral communication with a minor

Disney Channel alum Kyle Massey, 29, is facing a felony charge for allegedly sending pornographic content to a 13-year-old girl in Dec. 2018 and Jan. 2019. The ‘That’s So Raven’ actor has been charged with one felony for allegedly sending explicit texts and videos to a 13-year-old girl, according to TMZ and Variety.  Massey was reportedly charged with one count of immoral communication with a minor on June 14 in King County, Washington. He failed to show up for his arraignment on June 28th.

The charge against Massey stems from a 2019 civil lawsuit, in which the underage victim sued the actor for $1.5 million for allegedly sending the pornographic content via Snapchat during the months of December 2018 and January 2019. The lawsuit also revealed that Massey and the 13-year-old met, alleging that she met Kyle over a decade ago at Universal City in California while with her mother. The young girl was interested in pursuing an acting career, according to the lawsuit, and Massey stayed in touch, reportedly offering to help the teen. In Nov. 2018, Kyle allegedly offered the teen a place to stay with him and his girlfriend while he planned to help her find an agent for her acting career.  Massey reportedly added the teen on Snapchat, and sent her “numerous sexually explicit text messages, images, and videos.”

Massey appeared on That’s So Raven from 2003 to 2007 and also starred in the spinoff Cory in the House from 2007 to 2008.

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Entertainment Daypop

Gal Gadot welcomes third daughter with husband Yaron Varsano

Gal Gadot, 36, announced on Tuesday that she and husband Yaron Varsano, 46, have welcomed their third daughter together.  Gadot captioned an Instagram photo “My sweet family. Couldn’t be more grateful and happy (and tired). We are all so excited to welcome Daniella into our family. I’m sending all of you love and health. GG.”

Gadot and Varsano, a real estate developer, are also the parents of Alma, 9, and Maya, 4. In April, the Wonder Woman star announced that baby No. 3 was on the way, captioning a picture of her baby bump:  “Here we go again.” The couple celebrated 12 years of marriage in September 2020, and Gadot wrote via Instagram at the time: “To many more to come. I’m yours forever.”

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Supreme Court refuses appeal for transgender bathroom ban at Virginia school

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a Virginia school board that sought to reinstate a ban on transgender students using any public restroom other than the one of their birth sex.  The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal and left in place the lower court decision; and only two dissenting justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, voted to hear the appeal. The court did not give a reason for refusing to hear the case.

The Gloucester County School Board had asked the Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last year in student Gavin Grimm’s favor. That court decided that the school’s policy segregating transgender students was unconstitutional and violate Title IX. Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, was initially told by his high school principal that he could use the boys restroom — but the school board later adopted a ban against using any public school restroom that doesn’t correspond to a student’s assigned gender at birth. The Gloucester School Board argued that its issue was about weighing the privacy rights of other students against the rights of transgender students. It contended that the rights other students were at-risk if transgender students are allowed to use restrooms opposite from their biological sex.

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2 killed, 2 injured in northeast Texas gas explosion

Two people were killed and multiple others were injured Monday in a gas explosion at a site in rural northeastern Texas, authorities said.  The Collin County Sheriffs Department said in a tweet that the incident happened in Farmersville, Texas, located about 45 miles northeast of Dallas.

Local police and firefighters, Texas state troopers and the FBI were on the scene to investigate the explosion; they confirmed the scene was safe but urged residents to stay away. Aerial television footage showed the explosion site to be gas pipeline station. Contractors for Atlas Energy were at the station servicing the pipeline when the explosion happened, according to Farmersville police officials.No other information was immediately available on the incident as of press time.

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Country Daypop

Kelsea Ballerini announces her debut poetry collection, ‘Feel Your Way Through’

Kelsea Ballerini has announced her first-ever collection of poems, called Feel Your Way Through, which will be published in November.

The new book of poetry finds Kelsea navigating her way through youth and into womanhood, with Kelsea explaining: “I’ve realized that some feelings can’t be turned into a song, so I’ve started writing poems. Just like my songs, they talk about what it’s like to be twenty-something trying to navigate a wildly beautiful and broken world.”

An audio version of Feel Your Way Through will simultaneously be released by Penguin Random House Audio. Feel Your Way Through will be out in hardcover on November 16.

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Country Daypop

Sam Hunt drops unreleased single “Came the Closest”

Sam Hunt previewed an unreleased track on Instagram, tentatively titled “Came The Closest,” described as an emotional ballad.  Hunt posted the audio clip along with the caption: “This is a rough acoustic demo of a new song called “Came the Closest”

Hunt’s last full-length album, Southside, was released in April 2020, containing his hit songs “Hard To Forget” and “Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90”.  Throughout the year, he continued working in the studio, despite having to cancel his 2020 tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In addition, he’s been teasing new music as well,  including this latest snippet.  Take a listen to the sample of Came The Closest: here.

Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com