Ariana Grande Says She Is ‘Missing A Few Years’ Of Her Memories

Ariana Grande recently discussed experiencing memory loss from her early career due to a lack of boundaries and overextending herself. Grande admitted to difficulty recalling past events, attributing it to the intense demands she placed on herself during her rise to fame. She credited her current support system for helping her establish a healthier work-life balance and expressed gratitude for her team’s protection. Grande highlighted how therapy and personal growth have helped her reconnect with her music more positively, allowing her to reflect on her journey with appreciation. Source: Entertainment Now

Bridging the Divide: How Affordable and Reliable Internet Connects Our Communities

At the Capitol, Democrats’ anguish over Biden’s debate performance on full display

(WASHIINGTON) — House Democrats spent their Friday morning huddling on the floor in hushed, anguished conversations about President Joe Biden’s debate performance.

“It was a f—— disaster,” one member said, adding that a lot of members believe Biden should suspend his campaign.

“If something happens it has to happen in the next couple of days,” another House Democrat told ABC News, adding that the only House lawmaker who may be capable of getting through to Biden is Nancy Pelosi, “Catholic to Catholic.”

For her part, Pelosi told reporters that Biden “got off to a bad start but he came through okay on the issues later.”

“Compared to a person who was lying the whole time, we saw integrity on one side and dishonesty on the other,” she said.

When later asked if Biden is the best messenger for the party, Pelosi responded: “I’m a very big supporter of President Biden’s. He’s been a great president and done great things for the country.”

Even Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., one of Biden’s biggest boosters and often credited for saving Biden’s 2020 primary campaign, said his performance was “strike one.”

But he added that Democrats should “stay the course,” and that there is “no better Democrat” to lead the ticket than Biden.

Former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., acknowledged Biden had a “bad night.”

“He is a good man. He’s got a great record. All the things he said about the economy are actually true — he had a bad night. Some of us have bad nights sometimes,” Hoyer said.

Moderate Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said they “all would’ve liked a better performance by the president.”

“Regardless of what happens, I have got to fight for my district — whoever becomes the president — whether it’s President Biden, former president Trump or some other Democrat or Republican … I am going to fight for my district,” Suozzi said.

Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said, “Joe Biden didn’t communicate, and Donald Trump lied every time he opened his mouth.”

However, multiple House lawmakers purposely ignored reporters’ questions about Biden’s performance at the debate. Rep. Jamie Raskin, another Maryland Democrat, appeared to have faked a phone call. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., said “you guys are crazy” and Rep. Susan Wild, who represents a competitive Pennsylvania district, talked about the weather when pressed on the topic.

One Democratic source acknowledged that only Biden’s tight-knit circle of family and aides could convince the president to change course. Even former President Barack Obama, the source speculated, would face resistance to any effort to encourage Biden to step aside.

“Obama should tell him he saved the country once from Trump, and he can do so again” by suspending his bid, the source said.

But hours later, Obama appeared to dash hopes he would intervene, posting on X that “bad debate nights happen” but that he still supported Biden’s bid.

“This election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit,” he wrote. “Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”

President Biden addressed the performance himself during a rally on Friday afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but … I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong, and I know how to do this job,” he told a roaring crowd.

The Biden campaign, which is now openly acknowledging the president had a bad night, was also asked Friday about calls for Biden to step down or drop out.

Biden Campaign communication director Michael Tyler said there are “no conversations about that whatsoever.”

Tyler was also emphatic that Biden will take part in the ABC News debate scheduled for Sept. 10.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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8-year-old girl dies after mom allegedly left her in car during high heat to go to work

(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — A North Carolina mother has been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter after she allegedly left her 8-year-old daughter in a hot car while at work and the girl died, police said.

Officers responded Wednesday evening to reports of a child in critical condition inside a vehicle in Charlotte, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

The child was transported to a hospital where she was pronounced dead early Thursday, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Her mother, 36-year-old Ashlee Stallings, allegedly left her daughter in the vehicle “in hot weather conditions” and the 8-year-old suffered a medical emergency, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a press release. Temperatures in Charlotte on Wednesday had reached the upper 90s.

Stallings allegedly told police she had left her daughter in her car while she was at work, running with the air on, but “believed the victim turned the car off because she was cold,” the arrest warrant affidavit stated.

When the mother returned to her vehicle about an hour and a half after last hearing from the girl via text, she found her daughter unresponsive on the backseat floorboard, taking shallow breaths and foaming at the mouth, according to the affidavit. Stallings used a hammer to break open the back window and then attempted to drive to a local hospital before stopping at a business for help, according to the affidavit.

“She admitted she knew the temperature was 94 degrees outside and that she should not have left the victim inside the car alone,” the affidavit stated.

Medical staff at the hospital told police the girl suffered brain herniation due to hyperthermia, according to the affidavit.

Stallings was arrested Thursday and charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse by willful act causing serious injury, online court records show.

Stallings was appointed a public defender during an initial court appearance on Thursday. Online court records do not list any attorney information.

She is being held at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center on a $250,000 bond, online jail records show. Her next court date has been scheduled for July 16.

The investigation remains ongoing, police said.

Amazon confirmed to ABC Charlotte affiliate WSOC that Stallings worked at an Amazon facility and said it is “working closely” with police as they investigate.

“This is an incredibly tragic incident,” Amazon said in a statement to WSOC. “During this difficult time, we’re supporting our employees and have made counseling resources widely available.

The incident marked at least the fifth hot car death so far this year, according to the nonprofit Kids and Car Safety.

It takes very little time for a car to get too hot for children. A car can heat to 124 degrees in only 30 minutes when it’s 90 degrees outside, according to the National Weather Service.

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Dozens of Jan. 6 cases face uncertainty after Supreme Court narrows prosecutors’ use of obstruction charge

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court’s ruling Friday narrowing a key obstruction statute used against more than 300 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol could affect dozens of cases brought by the Justice Department in the three years since prosecutors say a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters disrupted Congress’ certification of his election loss.

In a 6-3 opinion, the majority of the court ruled that prosecutors overstepped in using the charge against defendants in cases where defendants were unable to show their actions impaired the integrity of actual physical evidence used in a disrupted proceeding.

In a statement Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would be taking “appropriate steps to comply with the Court’s ruling,” while noting the “vast majority” of the more than 1,400 defendants charged thus far in its Jan. 6 probe would remain unimpacted.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., of the 249 cases where defendants have either been charged or convicted of the obstruction statute at issue, there are no cases in which it is the only criminal charge they faced.

“Today’s decision will most significantly impact a narrow band of cases: those where the only felony for which a defendant was convicted and sentenced was 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2),” the office said in a fact sheet sent to reporters. “In total, approximately 52 individuals have been convicted and sentenced on that charge and no other felony; of those individuals, only 27 are currently serving a sentence of incarceration — less than 2 percent of all charged cases arising from the Capitol Breach.”

Judges in D.C.’s district court overseeing the Capitol riot cases already began responding Friday to the court’s ruling, including in at least one case where a defendant was convicted of the obstruction statute alongside other felonies.

D.C. District Judge Dabney Friedrich issued an order for prosecutors and defense attorneys for convicted Jan. 6 rioter Guy Reffitt, who was the first Capitol breach defendant to take his case to trial, to confer and propose a schedule for future proceedings in the case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Friedrich further told parties to contact the court to schedule a date for Reffitt’s resentencing.

In August of 2022, Reffitt was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on multiple felony counts, including the obstruction charge now impacted by the court’s ruling.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, prosecutors may still have a limited path to continue pushing for the charge’s application against defendants if they have evidence that a defendant intended to specifically prevent Congress from signing off on the physical electoral certification records used in the Jan. 6 proceedings.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson left open the possibility that even the defendant who brought the challenge at issue in Friday’s ruling, former police officer Joseph Fischer, could still be convicted of the charge after his case was remanded, should prosecutors be able to show his conduct “involved the impairment (or the attempted impairment) of the availability or integrity of things used during the January 6 proceeding.”

Such a reading of the statute could also help special counsel Jack Smith in his argument for the obstruction charge’s application against former President Donald Trump in his federal election interference case.

In a legal brief with the Supreme Court last year, Smith’s prosecutors said that even if the court sided with Fischer’s interpretation of the statute, it should not impact the two similar charges Smith indicted Trump over for his involvement in allegedly obstructing the Jan. 6 certification.

Their reasoning: While a case may be harder to make against individual rioters in obstructing or altering physical evidence connected to the proceeding, the Trump indictment does allege a tie to specific documents — the fraudulent certificates delivered by so-called “fake electors” that falsely certified a Trump victory in swing states he lost to Joe Biden.

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