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Ricky Skaggs shares details of his quadruple bypass: “It was a major blessing I didn’t have a heart attack”

• No Comments • Country Music News

Terry Wyatt/Getty ImagesCountry and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs is opening up about a scary health situation he dealt with back in June.

After months of noticing that he got winded more easily than usual, the Hall of Famer and his wife, Sharon, were planning a family visit to North Carolina. The day before they were set to depart, Ricky got a call from his doctor explaining that his last visit had revealed some concerning symptoms that needed further investigation.

Ricky explains to People that originally, he considered putting the appointment off until after his trip. But before he could vocalize that thought, he remembers, “it was like I saw the Lord with a jeweler’s eye glass on. He was peering at me, but never said a word. But just by His look, I knew He was saying, ‘Absolutely no.’”

With the confidence that God was telling him he needed to take care of his health right away, Ricky went in for the appointment, and underwent a quadruple bypass in Nashville four days later.

“It was a major blessing I didn’t have a heart attack,” the “Country Boy” singer adds. “Nothing was hurt, and nothing was destroyed or irreparable. It was just by the mercy and grace of God that all of this happened in this way.”

Ricky spent four days in the hospital, surrounded by his family. Now, he says he feels “150%” better than he did before the surgery. Plus, he’s found renewed perspective on the importance of taking care of his health.

“Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today,” Ricky advises. “That surgery gave me a brand-new heart. Not only a real heart, but a spiritual heart that has been cleaned out, so I can hear Him better than ever before.”

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

"I think it's important that we do bring the fun": Seacrest ready for this unprecedented "New Year's Rockin' Eve'

• No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Brian Bowen Smith(NEW YORK) — Despite the pandemic, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest rolls on, live from New York’s Times Square Thursday night on ABC.  But even without a massive crowd, Ryan and his co-hosts Lucy Hale and Billy Porter will still bring up the energy through the broadcast.

“We will not pack in a million-people, obviously, but we will have the performances like we always do, we will have the stage built like we always have,” Ryan tells ABC Audio. “And I think it’s important that we do bring in fun and…this theme of celebration and this theme of moving forward and moving on from this year.”

And it’s not like Times Square will be completely empty: Essential and frontline workers and their families — who Lucy calls “the real heroes of 2020” — will be joining Ryan and company at the Crossroads of the World.

“It’ll be nice to have some people there and really be honoring them,” Lucy notes.

In addition to interviewing those workers, Ryan will be speaking to president-elect Joe Biden and his wife about “what’s to come in the new year, hope and unity.”

Also joining the party: Jennifer Lopez, who’ll be performing right before the ball drops. J-Lo, who last appeared on NYRE 10 years ago, “really felt it was important to come back as a local from the New York area to celebrate,” says Ryan, adding, “We’ll also have Billy Porter and Cyndi Lauper performing together, which is kind of special.”

And because folks won’t be out partying this year, Ryan is hoping “there’ll be more people watching than ever before.”

He says, “Our hope is that they turn the TV on, and even if it’s just the background for their very small gathering…we’ll be a part of it.”

By Andrea Dresdale
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Coronavirus live updates: Surgeon general responds to vaccinations falling short of administration’s goal

• No Comments • National News

Samara Heisz/iStockBy ROSA SANCHEZ, ERIN SCHUMAKER, IVAN PEREIRA and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 82.8 million people worldwide and killed over 1.8 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

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

Dec 31, 9:03 am
US sees record high death toll for second day in a row

The U.S. has seen a record high daily death toll for the second day in a row.

There were 3,744 COVID-19 deaths reported Wednesday, the highest since start of the pandemic, surpassing the previous record of 3,725 deaths reported Tuesday.

Dec 31, 8:28 am
Surgeon general responds to vaccinations falling short of administration’s goal

In the wake of the Trump administration falling short on its vaccination goal, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told ABC News’ Good Morning America Thursday, “We always knew that this was going to take a while to ramp up.”

“The curve is rapidly increasing, in terms of number of people being vaccinated,” Adams said. “So we shouldn’t extrapolate from what happened yesterday to what’s going to happen six months from now. What we should do is make sure that curve continues to go up and continue to support our state and public health departments, which is what we are doing.”

The Trump administration had promised that 20 million people would be vaccinated by the end of the year.

As of Wednesday morning, 2,794,588 Americans had received vaccine doses and 12.4 million doses had been distributed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There’s vaccines manufactured. There’s vaccines allocated. There’s vaccines delivered. And then there’s vaccines put in arms,” Adams said. “From a federal perspective, we are on track to have 20 million people able to be vaccinated, doses on the ground, by the end of next week.”
 
Adams also urged Americans to celebrate New Year’s Eve virtually.

“This has been a marathon, but we don’t want to trip at the finish line,” Adams said. “We want to have a normal New Year’s next year, we want as many of our loved ones and family and friends as possible to be able to enjoy that New Year’s in 2021. The way we do that is by pulling together and sacrificing one more time so that we can ramp up these vaccinations and put this virus away for good.”

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Becky Hammon becomes first woman ever to serve as NBA head coach

• No Comments • Sports News

Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesBy GMA TEAM, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — History was made in the NBA on Wednesday night when Becky Hammon stepped in as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, becoming the first woman to act as head coach during an NBA regular-season game.

Hammon, in her sixth season as an assistant coach with the Spurs, took over after Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the first half of the Spurs’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Obviously, it’s a big deal,” Hammon said after the game, according to ESPN. “It’s a substantial moment.”

“I’ve been a part of this organization, I got traded here in 2007, so I’ve been in San Antonio and part of the Spurs and sports organization with the Stars and everything for 13 years,” she said. “So I have a lot of time invested, and they have a lot of time invested in me, in building me and getting me better.”

Hammon is a former WNBA star who retired in 2014 following a 16-year playing career, including eight seasons for the San Antonio Stars, according to her bio on the Spurs’ website.

She has been named one of the WNBA’s Top 15 players of all time and was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, according to her bio.

Even though she made history, Hammon said it was “business as usual” for the team, adding the Spurs players are “used to hearing my voice in practice.”

“Becky played, and any player who knows the history of women’s basketball knows what she meant to the sport,” said Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan, according to ESPN. “You don’t think twice about it. She’s one of us. When she speaks, we are all ears.”

Added Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray, “The future is bright for her. I hope she sticks to it and doesn’t give up. One day it may happen, or it may not happen. Who knows? But she is definitely on the right road, and I think everyone here appreciates her. She is setting an example for every woman out there.”

Hammon also received praise from Lakers star LeBron James.

“She’s been putting in the work, and any time you put in the work you get rewarded with opportunities,” James said, according to ESPN. “Tonight was a case where she got to step in and show her work, show her talents and her love for the game, and obviously, what she did as a player, first of all, we all know that. So her mind was able to transfer to our league, and she’s been great ever since she got in.”

“It’s a beautiful thing just to hear her barking out calls, barking out sets, and she’s very passionate about the game, so congrats to her and congrats to the league,” he said.

ABC News and ESPN are both owned by parent company Disney.

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Alison Brie recalls "peeing incident" while filming 'Mad Men'

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix(LOS ANGELES) — They say “one day you’ll look back at this and laugh” and that’s exactly what Alison Brie is doing. 

While chatting with Justin Long on the Life Is Short podcast, the 38-year-old actress recalled a slight incident that occurred with her wardrobe while filming the first season of the highly acclaimed drama Mad Men. 

Brie, who played Trudy Vogel on the series, began, “On Mad Men once there was a peeing incident … because we wore girdles… it’s basically like biker shorts that go all the way up to our ribs, and it’s like time-period appropriate.”

She then elaborated that the girdles have a “small hole” to make it easier for people to urinate since the costume would be difficult to pull down, however, it wasn’t easier for her to use the restroom because of one simple mistake. 

“I didn’t know, for the first season of Mad Men, that you weren’t really supposed to wear underwear under them, because they are underwear,” the actress explained.

“So I was rushing to set … Mad Men was my first real job so I didn’t ever want to be the problem person…” she  said. “So I rushed to the bathroom … [I] tried to pull the hole open, but I didn’t pull my underwear to the side so I’m peeing and not hearing it hit the bowl and then I just feel warmth.”

In an attempt to remedy the situation she “just dabbed it with a bunch of toilet paper” and returned to set “because they’re waiting on me … I don’t want to lose my job.”

Fortunately, Brie did not lose her job and the costume designer was able to get her a new, dry girdle.

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.