Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. to turn himself in after groping allegation: NBC

[ad_1]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. intends to turn himself in to New York City police after a woman accused him of groping her at a Manhattan bar over the weekend, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing Gooding’s representative.

The Oscar-wining actor plans to present himself to the NYPD’s sex crimes unit on Thursday, according to NBC News.

The woman, who has not been identified, alleged that Gooding touched her breasts at the bar on Sunday night, the network said, citing law enforcement sources.

In a video posted on TMZ.com, Gooding denied that he had groped anyone. The actor said he went to a bar, talked and took pictures with people, and left.

“I trust the system,” he said as he walked through Los Angeles International Airport, adding that there was a tape “that shows what really happened.”

Asked if “there was any groping involved,” Gooding said “no, nothing.” He also said “absolutely not” when asked if he was guilty.

Attorneys for Gooding did not immediately respond to requests for comment or confirmation.

FILE PHOTO: Cuba Gooding Jr. attends the 69th annual DGA Awards in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., February 4, 2017. REUTERS/Phil McCarten

NYPD spokeswoman Detective Sophia Mason said she had seen the news report, but had no information on it.

Asked about the reported allegation on Monday, NYPD spokesman Detective Martin Brown said, “We don’t really have anything official to say about it other than that there’s been an allegation and that it is currently under investigation.”

Gooding won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1997 for his portrayal of an athlete in the film “Jerry Maguire.” In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”

Reporting by Peter Szekely and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bill Rigby

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]

Source link

Comedian Jon Stewart assails Congress for ignoring 9/11 first responders fund

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jon Stewart, the popular former host of the late-night comedy program The Daily Show, criticized members of Congress for not attending a hearing on Tuesday on renewing funding for a program that provides health care to first responders who were sickened responding to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak and no one,” Stewart said, pointing to a mostly empty dais. “Shameful, it’s an embarrassment to the country and a stain on this institution. You should be ashamed of yourselves for those who aren’t here but you won’t be because accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber.”

Stewart was testifying before the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties about a renewal of the 9/11 first responders health care fund. Most of the panel’s 14 members were not in attendance.

“Where are they? It would be one thing if their callous indifference and rank hypocrisy was benign, but it’s not,” Stewart said. “Their indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity, time, one thing they’re running out of.”

The fund, originally approved for five years in 2010, provides medical treatment for emergency responders sickened by toxic dust inhaled at the World Trade Center site in New York in the days following the attack.

Republicans had balked at the price of the original legislation and as a compromise at the time, Democrats agreed to authorize the fund only for five years and cover the cost with an excise tax. That has set up a fight every five years to get Congress to renew the program.

Stewart criticized Congress for continuing to require the fund be renewed every five years - pointing to the panel’s top Republican, Representative Mike Johnson, for saying that Congress has to balance other emergencies as well.

“I’m pretty sure what’s going to happen five years from now, more of these men and women are going to get sick and they are going to die and I am awfully tired of hearing that it’s a 9/11 New York issue,” Stewart said. “Al-Qaeda didn’t shout death to Tribeca.”

Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Dan Grebler

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]

Source link

Woodstock 50 loses NY site for anniversary music festival

[ad_1]

(Reuters) - The troubled Woodstock 50 music festival on Monday lost the site of a planned anniversary event in August, the latest setback for the weekend marking the famed 1969 “peace and music” festival, but organizers said they were pursuing a new location.

The Aug. 16-19 festival was to have taken place at the Watkins Glen motor racing venue in upstate New York with a line-up including Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus.

On Monday, Watkins Glen said in a statement it had “terminated the site license for Woodstock pursuant to provisions of the contract. As such, (it) will not be hosting the Woodstock 50 Festival,” the site owners said in a statement.

Watkins Glen did not say why it had decided to pull out.

Gregory Peck, one of the organizers of Woodstock 50, said the team behind the festival was “in discussions with another venue” to host the event and looked “forward to sharing the new location when tickets go on sale in the coming weeks.”

Woodstock 50 is backed by the co-producer of the original 1969 Woodstock festival, which was billed as “three days of peace and music” and is regarded as one of the pivotal moments in music history.

The anniversary festival was thrown into chaos in April after the lead Japanese investors abruptly pulled out. It has been plagued with other problems, including obtaining permits and arranging security and sanitation.

Tickets for the festival, expected to attract about 60,000 people, have not gone on sale.

Organizers said last month they had obtained new funding and expressed confidence that the show would go on.

Woodstock 50 announced in March that more than 80 musical acts, including 1969 festival veterans John Fogerty, Canned Heat and Santana, would take part. Some 100,000 fans, including campers, were originally expected to attend, but that number was later reduced to 60,000.

The nonprofit Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the current owner of the field where the 1969 Woodstock festival took place, has also scaled back plans for a three-day anniversary event. It said in February it will instead host separate concerts by Ringo Starr, Santana and the Doobie Brothers.

Watkins Glen has a larger crowd capacity and is some 150 miles (240 km) distant from Bethel and about 250 miles (400 km) north of New York City.

Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Tom Brown, Cynthia Osterman and Dan Grebler

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]

Source link