Country star Luke Combs announced he and other stars are coming together for a benefit concert in Charlotte to help those in the southeastern states affected by Hurricane Helene. In a post on Monday, the 34-year-old country singer wrote that he “had something big planned for Carolina. One of the ways we’re helping is a benefit concert at Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 26th!” “This concert took so much planning, work, and coordination from so many people,” he added. “I’m so thankful to everyone who helped make this a possibility on such short notice. Tickets will go on sale this Thursday and 100% of all proceeds will be going directly to those who need it most.” Combs named Eric Church, James Taylor, and Billy Strings as joining him for the concert with all proceeds from the show to be split 50/50 between Combs and Church’s Chief Cares Foundation to help those in the Carolinas affected, WCNC noted. I told y’all I had something big planned for Carolina. One of the ways we’re helping is a benefit concert at Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 26th! This concert took so much planning, work, and coordination from so many people. I’m so thankful to everyone who helped make this a… pic.twitter.com/b6bHwcGfZq — Luke Combs ? (@lukecombs) October 7, 2024 Church and Combs also spoke to Billboard about the conversation the two singers had after the hurricane that led to the concert. Combs — who went to Appalachian State University — said the morning after the hurricane hit both of them “were just inundated with calls and texts and pictures and images from the areas.” “I called Eric and was like, ‘Hey, let’s figure out how to do a show. I don’t know when, I don’t know where. We’ll worry about that later, but let’s just pool our resources,'” Combs said. “Let’s do what we do best and help in the way that is best suited to my abilities and Eric’s abilities’ and I think we’re doing that.” “It was disbelief,” Church said. “These are areas that I knew and then I saw the photos and I didn’t recognize these areas. My family spends half the year in Banner Elk.” “That’s as much home as Nashville is,” he added. “It was just this shock of I know what I’m supposed to be looking at, but that doesn’t look anything like what it looked like a week ago. I don’t think I’ve come to grips with it yet.” The concert follows massive donations from country superstars like Dolly Parton, Jason Aldean, and Morgan Wallen to aid with hurricane relief efforts. The heavy metal rock band Metallica also announced they were contributing $100,000 to help those in the area. “Over the past week, Hurricane Helene has left a 500-mile path of destruction throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee in its wake,” the band wrote on X. “It is an unmitigated tragedy, with over 215 lives lost and hundreds of people still unaccounted for. Historic water levels and widespread flooding across the Appalachians have left hundreds of roads inaccessible, hindering rescue efforts.” The death toll was up to at least 232 as of Monday across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia in the wake of the hurricane. For information about the “Concert for Carolina,” visit their website for tickets, updates, details, and more. Related: Jason Aldean Makes Huge Donation To Help Hurricane Victims

Republicans in Pennsylvania and North Carolina registered nearly twice as many voters as Democrats in September, according to new data reported by Michael Pruser of Decision Desk HQ. In Pennsylvania, on the back of registration efforts from conservative activist Scott Presler, Republicans registered nearly 61,000 new voters compared to Democrats gaining nearly 36,000 voters. Presler has recently been leading an effort to register Amish voters in Pennsylvania, a group of 87,000 people in the Keystone State, many of whom have never voted. North Carolina, another vital battleground state, saw over 19,000 Republicans register to vote in September, nearly double the Democrats’ numbers in the state, according to the data. All party voter registration changes – Month of September 2024 pic.twitter.com/vI5y0NLDpa — Michael Pruser (@MichaelPruser) October 8, 2024 “WAIT! Are you telling us that Pennsylvania added more Republican voters in the last month than any other state?” Presler wrote on X. “My heart is singing a tune so loudly, I think the sun, moon, & stars can hear it!” Pennsylvania is considered by many to be the key to victory for both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump won the state on his way to the White House in 2016 and then lost the state to President Joe Biden in 2020. A poll conducted by Cygnal and shared exclusively with The Daily Wire on Monday showed Trump holding a slim lead over Harris in Pennsylvania’s all-important swing counties of Erie and Northhampton. “In a reversal from 2020, Pennsylvania’s ‘Bellwether Counties’ have narrowly swung back to Donald Trump,” the pollster wrote. “As Democrats have a 4-point party registration advantage in these counties, this is further evidence of these ancestral Democrats increasingly leaving the party of their forefathers.” Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! Trump is currently polling ahead of Harris by less than 1 point in both Pennsylvania and North Carolina, according to the RealClearPolitics average. Republicans also saw big wins in September voter registration in other states, including Nevada, where 9,071 people registered as Republicans compared to 8,801 people registering as Democrats. In Florida, 60,436 people registered as Republicans while 36,116 people registered as Democrats. Republicans also beat Democrats in September voter registrations in the deep blue states of California, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Rhode Island.

After watching Stephen Nedoroscik’s Soul Train performance on DWTS, it’s pretty clear there’s no writing on the wall for him. Stephen and his partner, Rylee Arnold, danced the quickstep to Stevie Wonder’s Superstition on Soul Train Night, and once again, Stephen proved he could get down. Stephen Nedoroscik Cut Loose On “DWTS” in a Leisure Suit The contestants wore 70s clothing for Soul Train Night, and some even wore wigs. Stephen opted for a fresh-looking gold suit and some curly hair. He seemed totally at ease as he and Rylee moved across the floor. Stephen dances as fast as he moves on the pummel horse. He’s proven week after week that he is no one-trick pony. Fans loved watching Stephen and Rylee dance, even if they only scored 30 points out of a possible 40. The judges felt Stephen’s dancing was a bit stiff, but his fans certainly disagreed. His score kept him in fourth place for the night. And while there was no elimination, with a score like that, Stephen definitely would have been safe. DWTS shared a video on YouTube, and Stephen Nedoroscik’s fans once again showed him a lot of love. This person loved it. “Cute routine, really good execution. He showed lightness and precision in his footwork and really sold the dance. Good job!” Another fan thought the judges were totally wrong with their score. “The judges were unnecessarily harsh on them. I’m glad Stephen has a positive outlook on critiques though, I’m sure those comments will make him want to work harder. This was such a fun dance to watch!!!” This fan agreed. “This was such a fun dance to watch!! I agree with people in the comments saying that the judges were WAY too harsh on Stephen and Rylee. Stephen was NOT stiff at all!! He’s getting better and better each week!! These two were paired up perfectly!! So excited for tomorrow!!!” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Stephen Nedoroscik’s Gymnast Talents Came In Handy During His Groovy “DWTS” Routine appeared first on InspireMore.

'This is what keeps me up'

The film showed sexting, explicit nudity and lots of profanity

'Intimidation, threatened, and corruptly persuaded'

'I am today issuing an administrative ban on Mr. Omar Bin Laden'

When former President Barack Obama comes to Pittsburgh on Thursday to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the home stretch for next month’s election, he will be returning to a very different western Pennsylvania from the one he won robustly in 2008 and less so in 2012. In 2008, Obama ran on a message of aspiration, using a slogan of hope and change to create a coalition of working-class white people long part of the New Deal Democrats, minorities, young people and educated professionals. In that race against Republican John McCain, he won 18 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Here in the west, he won Cambria and Erie and came within 100 votes in Fayette, and he earned a whopping 57% in Allegheny. Overall, in Pennsylvania, Obama earned 3,276,363 raw votes, or 54.47%, over McCain’s 2,655,885, or 44.15%. By the time he ran in 2012, Obama’s hope and change were gone, replaced by a more ideological Democratic Party built around climate change, expansive government, internationalism and a move toward eliminating fossil fuels. His new coalition of ascendant demographics, minorities, young people, college-educated white elites and women, was his focus. Left in the dust were New Deal Democrats. But it worked. Just enough New Deal Democrats stayed with him. However, his slippage in support should have been a warning sign to Democrats that this dismissal of working-class interests might not work for the next Democratic candidate. When Obama won Pennsylvania and the presidency in 2012, he did so by being the first president in modern political history to win his second term with fewer voters than in his first run for president. That was no more evident than here, where the erosion of support was noticeable if you were paying attention. Obama lost five counties that year, slipping to a narrow 13 of 67. He lost a percentage point here in Allegheny County, lost Cambria, lost Fayette significantly, and counties like Beaver, where the race had been much closer in 2008, all shifted right. In Pennsylvania in 2012, Obama earned 2,990,274 votes, or just over 51%, meaning nearly 300,000 people who voted for him before just didn’t show up. Now, the interesting thing about that is those missing voters did not show up for GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who won just 2,680,434, or 46%, of the vote. In short, Romney gained just over 24,000 voters over McCain in Pennsylvania that year, while Obama lost nearly 300,000 statewide, with many of those voters coming from western Pennsylvania. Obama lost around 20,000 voters in Allegheny County, a county he won, but the diminishing support in Beaver was around 3,000 votes, Westmoreland 8,000 votes, Fayette 4,000 votes, Cambria 8,000 votes, and Butler around 4,000 votes. So where did the former Obama voters go if they didn’t go to Romney? For the most part, it appears they stayed home. They liked the promise of Obama in 2008 and generally liked him personally, but they did not like his policies, and they saw Romney not as the guy who brought jobs back but as the guy who came to your desk with a box to escort you out of the building after he politely fired you. The Obama coalition of the ascendant promised to pay dividends for his party for years to come. For former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that was not the case. She lost a state her husband, former President Bill Clinton, won. Then-candidate Joe Biden, because of his past relationships with unions, was able to glue on just enough of the working-class vote here in 2020 to win the state narrowly. That working-class vote, white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, is now decidedly in the Republican camp. That party has now become the party of work. A part of the coalition that was always relegated to the sidelines is now in the driver’s seat. There are scant details out so far for the Oct. 10 visit. It will be interesting to see who comes to the event. The young people who were out blocking traffic in front of the University of Pittsburgh Thursday evening will probably not be there. It is unclear what the energy is for Harris, or Biden, among the Left’s youth vote. The suggestion is that Obama is the strongest surrogate Democrats could draw here four weeks leading up to Election Day. The suggestion eight years ago was that it was Bill Clinton who would be the best surrogate for Hillary Clinton. Both came, but both were unsuccessful. Working-class voters had a candidate they would actually turn out for in the man of Trump. Obama’s speech in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention this year was not of hope and change. It was mocking and slick, very reminiscent of the 2012 Obama who lost support here and across the state. Case in point: When Obama was last in Pittsburgh, during the 2022 midterm elections for then-Senate candidate John Fetterman, he said Republicans “make us angry and afraid of one another … so they can take power.” Of all the campaign stops made by Democrats here in Pittsburgh, including Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., the one that will be the most telling in terms of message and who shows up will happen here Thursday. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Obama Returns to a Different Western Pennsylvania appeared first on The Daily Signal.

On the latest episode of “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” we watch with morbid fascination as the Harris/Walz campaign flips from a basement strategy to a strut through a media tour (well, a tour of the media that sings its praises). Vice President Kamala Harris horrifies Americans on friendly interview shows as hurricane survivors attempt to prepare for a second major storm. The least the media could have done was refrain from editing her worst answers, as a very friendly “60 Minutes” did with her answer on Israel. Thank goodness we have the recordings of both cuts of the interview and we play them for you on the show. We also examine the phenomenon of “poll delay” and why it could cost both campaigns severely in the presidential elections. How long do serious regional and national events take to affect poll numbers? How can you tell? Friend of the show and assistant professor Nick Dwork of the University of Colorado stops by to analyze the plateauing of artificial intelligence and to explain where the future of the field is (fantasy-horror dystopian future not included). Catch the live radio show and livestream weeknights at 7 p.m. EDT on The Daily Signal’s YouTube, X, or Facebook—and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode or exclusive interview! The post The Kamala Harris ‘Media Blitz’ Is a DISASTER appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A group of family therapists learned that denying so-called gender-affirming care to children is an example of “implicit bias” in a Zoom call recorded Monday and obtained by The Daily Signal. The Zoom-based training, titled “Recognizing Bias: Avoiding Pitfalls in Gender-Affirming Care,” was hosted by family psychologist Dr. Shawn Giammattei, who identifies as a transgender man. Giammattei’s training teaches marriage and family therapists to overcome their “unconscious bias” toward transgender children. Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, a self-described “anti-woke” social worker and author of “A Practical Response to Gender Distress: Tips and Tools for Families,” attended the Zoom training call Monday and shared the recording of it with The Daily Signal. “A lot of ageism that comes up is about kids’ ability to know themselves and what age they can actually make informed decisions about their medical care,” Giammattei said during the training call, “and that we have this idea actually that trans people can’t know it no matter how old they are.” COMING SOON: Denying ‘gender-affirming care’ to children Is ‘ageist’, family therapists learn in virtual training, recorded by @truththerapist "A lot of ageism that comes up is about kids' ability to know themselves and what age they can actually make informed decisions about… pic.twitter.com/AHCcUdoUOJ— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) October 8, 2024 The training call came shortly after medical nonprofit watchdog Do No Harm launched a database of 225 hospitals that provide sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, and/or hormone therapies to children. Nearly 14,000 American children underwent sex-change interventions of some type between 2019 and 2023, according to Do No Harm. Minors who received transgender medical procedures increasingly have been detransitioning after regretting that they took hormones and/or had healthy body parts surgically removed. Chloe Cole says she started identifying as a boy at 12 years old and went under the knife at just 15, only to regret it a few months later. Giammattei uses the “gender-affirmative model” of counseling, which assumes that “the kid is the expert on their own identity.” A slide titled “Understanding Your Gender Web” is part of Shawn Giammattei’s training for counselors. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) Giammattei is the founder and CEO of three gender counseling organizations: the Gender Health Training Institute, Quest Family Therapy, and TransFamily Alliance. Giammettei is a psychology professor and associate director of mental health at the Child and Adolescent Gender Center Department of Pediatrics at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. Giammattei did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. Giammattei started the Zoom session with a “land acknowledgment” before stating the purpose of the training: making listeners aware of the “types of bias that arise in even the most gender-affirming providers.” “So there’s a lot of internalized transphobia that we all end up with, or homophobia, or all the rest of those things,” the psychologist said. The training aimed to help therapists consider “your own personal and cultural gender narratives and their influence on potential negative and positive biases” by covering “your own gender development and its impact on your understanding of gender for yourself, your kids, and your expectations for clients and their families.” A slide outlines topics in Giammattei’s training for counselors. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) The most common form of implicit bias against transgender people, the transgender instructor said on the Zoom call, is “parents not supporting their kids.” “The difference between kids who are supported is that about 4% of them are suicidal,” Giammattei said. “It’s about on par with the rest of the population. For those who are not supported by their parents, 54%.” Giammattei’s statement is in line with what critics call a common lie told to parents: that they have to choose between a living son and a dead daughter. The psychologist also argued that there is a “relationship between anti-trans laws and suicidality.” After discussing suicide rates for trans youth, Giammattei said that “people who were able to get access to gender-affirming care were doing a lot better. They were much happier.” Giammattei admitted that many family therapists are “child-centered,” ignoring the parents or guardians of minors. “We tend to do collateral work with parents, and we don’t include them on the journey,” Giammattei said. “We expect them to just show up and get it. And they have a whole process that they need to go through that’s part of this. And so I think that it’s frustrating. It’s like, why do I have to work with you?” Therapists are often “unaware of the beliefs we have that may impact our clients,” Giammattei said, adding: “I have these negative biases, and I can feel them in my body.” Giammattei told therapists in the Zoom call that they all have biases. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) Giammattei refers to herself as a “man” with “white privilege” who constantly needs to go through “the cisgender privilege checklist.” “I stand here before you as a very privileged man,” Giammattei said. “I’ll put it that way. Even though I have a transgender experience, I’m privileged in the fact that my family was affluent, although I ended up homeless.” Holding “the idea that sex outside of your marriage is infidelity” is an example of bias, the psychologist said, describing asking clients about their “take on consensual nonmonogamy” and “polyamory.” Therapists are biased if they believe those things are wrong, Giammattei said. “I may push more for people to try things that they may not have thought of,” the psychologist said. Transgender individuals are victims of transphobia and the cure to their struggles is “expressing one’s authentic gender.” Giammattei prefers the “Gender Affirmative Model” for counseling kids who say they are transgender. (Pamela Garfield-Jaeger) “Gender variations are not disorders,” one slide read by the presenter says. “Gender presentations are diverse and varied across culture, requiring cultural sensitivity/humility.” Giammattei advertised a two-day training session later this month titled “Unpacking and Contextualizing Gender: Managing Bias in the Therapeutic Relationship.” Such awareness training is an “ongoing, never-ending process” about “becoming fully aware of what’s happening in our biases and how they impact the work that we do,” Giammattei said. The post EXCLUSIVE: Denying ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ to Children Is ‘Ageist’, Family Therapists Learn in Training appeared first on The Daily Signal.