COVID-19

Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Marshmello, And Steve Aoki Are Among The Stars Accused Of Misusing Pandemic Relief Funds

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During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government issued the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant law to help keep the recording industry afloat after performing live — one of the industry’s main sources of income — became impossible due to live venues being shut down. However, in a new report from Business Insider, several entertainers, including Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, and Marshmello, are being accused of abusing those funds, using them to fund travel, parties, and luxury shopping sprees instead of paying employees and keeping the lights on.

Brown, who received a $10 million grant, reportedly spent $80,000 on his birthday party, which included models in body paint, an LED dance floor, and $29,000 worth of hookahs, bottle service, and fees incurred by damages to couches rented for the occasion. More than double that was spent on a celebrity basketball tournament broadcast on YouTube. Meanwhile, Lil Wayne, who received $8.9 million, allegedly spent the funds on private-jet flights ($1.3 million), luxury clothing ($460,000), and accommodations for female companions ($15,000) whose connections with Wayne are “unclear,” per BI.

Marshmello’s manager told the publication, however, that the DJ paid himself out of the $9.9 million grant he received. He “expensed the entire Grant balance to Payroll” via a loophole that allowed the SVOG funds to go to the artists’ business entities as “owner compensation” provided it was less than their income in 2019. They also had to show that their companies made 25% less in 2020 than in 2019 — which was more or less a given, considering how much of their income is made up of touring and live performances. This is how Steve Aoki paid himself $1.9 million out of a $2.4 million grant, Rae Sremmurd gave themselves $7.7 million, and Alice in Chains members Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney received $1.4 million each (Mike Inez took $682,000).

Meanwhile, the report says that while stars like Lil Wayne did use funds to pay their managers, attorneys, and agents, it was more than 13 times what sound techs and other contractors received. The Small Business Administration says it has recovered some misappropriated funds, but is still investigating open claims.

Lil Wayne Crafts Clever Reply To Joe Biden’s “I’m Sick” Tweet

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Earlier this week, the White House confirmed that Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19, right before a scheduled appearance in Las Vegas. At the time, his physician said he was experiencing “mild symptoms,” and the president headed home to Delaware to self-isolate. Luckily, he’s reportedly on the mend, and his symptoms have shown some improvement.

As news of Biden’s infection made its rounds online, his official X account seized the opportunity to diss Elon Musk with a couple of clever Tweets. “I’m sick,” the first one read simply, followed by “of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.” This left a lot of fellow social media users amused and even sparked a witty response from Lil Wayne.

Read More: Lil Wayne & Ludacris To Headline Kevin Hart’s Upcoming Festival

Lil Wayne Quotes “A Milli” In Response To Joe Biden Tweet

“Muthaf*cka, I’m ill,” he replied, quoting his 2008 Tha Carter III track “A Milli.” Of course, this resulted in many more reactions from Weezy fans, who agree that they should have seen this coming. While Lil Wayne seems to have kept his response to the news of Biden testing positive for COVID-19 light, others took a different approach. Meek Mill, for example, hopped online to claim that he was freaked out by the diagnosis. “I wish I never learned about politics because now y’all scaring me,” he wrote.

He’s certainly not alone, as this election cycle has seen no shortage of wild moments. Just before Biden contracted COVID-19, a man tried to assassinate Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, leaving the former president with an ear injury. Biden and Trump’s first debate also resulted in a great deal of concern, particularly among Democratic voters, and many are now urging Biden to drop out of the race. What do you think of Lil Wayne’s witty response to Joe Biden’s Tweet? What about Biden testing positive for COVID-19? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below, and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.

Read More: Lil Wayne Raps Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” While Holding Drake OVO Pendant

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Joe Biden Tests Positive For COVID-19 Ahead Of Las Vegas Appearance

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Today, Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a scheduled appearance in Las Vegas, the White House recently confirmed. Reportedly, the 81-year-old is currently experiencing “mild symptoms” such as “general malaise.” He canceled his public appearance as a result of the infection and is now headed home to Delaware to self-isolate. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden will “carry out all of his duties fully during that time.”

His physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, claims he “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorrhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise.” AP reports that he was prescribed Paxlovid, an antiviral drug, and has taken his first dose. Hopefully, Biden will be able to recover quickly. Luckily, he appears to be in good spirits despite being under the weather. He told reporters on Air Force One that he was feeling “good” earlier today, indicating that his illness hasn’t taken too much of a toll on him.

Read More: Joe Biden Tries To Decipher Donald Trump’s “Black Jobs” Statements

Joe Biden Makes Light Of COVID-19 Diagnosis

Of course, this latest development comes amid serious questions about his ability to hold the country down for another term, particularly following his performance last month during his first debate with Donald Trump. It also comes shortly after the assassination attempt on Trump that took place at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend. Reportedly, Biden is vaccinated and received his recommended annual booster dose, which is proven to limit serious illness and death from COVID-19.

As the news makes its rounds online, Biden’s official X account seemingly made light of it with a witty set of Tweets. “I’m sick,” the first Tweet reads, “of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.” This was followed by a link to donate to his campaign. What do you think of Joe Biden testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of his scheduled appearance in Las Vegas? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below, and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.

Read More: Joe Biden Shockingly Calls Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump”

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Aaron Rodgers Invites Travis Kelce To Engage In Vaccine Debate

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Aaron Rodgers has been a bit bored as of late. Overall, this is thanks to the fact that he is currently out with an Achilles injury. At this stage, he can no longer play football for the rest of the year. Although he says a comeback is still possible, many believe he is done for the year. Moreover, the New York Jets are not looking so good, which has only made things worse. If you are a Jets fan, it sucks. If you are an Aaron Rodgers fan, well, that must suck too. Overall, it is just a bad situation.

Last week, you probably remember how Aaron Rodgers called out Travis Kelce and said he was “Mr. Pfizer.” Of course, this is a reference to the fact that Kelce is COVID-19 Pfizer commercials. Last week, Kelce was given the opportunity to respond to these offhand comments. He said he never thought that he would be getting involved in “vaccine wars.” It was a good response, although Rodgers had something up his sleeve today. He was on Pat McAfee’s show, where he revealed what he thinks of the whole ordeal.

Read More: Aaron Rodgers Announces Successful Surgery To Repair Torn Achilles

Aaron Rodgers Wants To Talk

“Mr. Pfizer said he didn’t think he’d be in a vax war with me.. this isn’t a war this is just conversation,” Rodgers claimed. Calling a guy by a pejorative isn’t necessarily a conversation, but who are we to say? Either way, Rodgers even went so far as to invite Kelce to a debate. We doubt this debate would actually be productive, especially when you consider what these men do for a living. Neither are experts in vaccines and medicine, so there is no point here. It is all just for show, and very few people will actually care.

Let us know what you think of all of this, in the comments section below. Additionally, stay tuned to HNHH for more news and updates from around the sports world. We will always be sure to keep you informed.

Read More: Aaron Rodgers Says He Will Prove His Doubters Wrong

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Verzuz Battle With The LOX Gave Jim Jones COVID-19

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During a new episode of the Drink Champs podcast, Jim Jones speaks on his previous Verzuz battle against The LOX. They famously battled it out in NYC in 2021. Unfortunately for Jones, an L isn’t the only thing he caught that night. In a preview of the new episode, Jones says that he also contracted COVID-19. “I caught Covid after the Verzuz,” he explained. “That was the only time I got Covid. The LOX gave me Covid. On top of everything that night, they gave me Covid. I couldn’t win for nothing.”

Earlier this year, Jim Jones also revealed that he wants Dipset to have another go at the trio. “I don’t think that energy will ever be duplicated outside of New York unless we go for the rematch, you heard?” he explained. “Last time, there was a lot going on. The venue was way too small. There were people on my back. There were people on people’s shoulders in there.”

Read More: Joe Budden Labels Jim Jones The Winner Of Pusha T Beef

Jim Jones Contracted COVID-19 From Verzuz Battle

Though it hasn’t been confirmed, fans would certainly look forward to a rematch. The battles are scheduled to pick back up again next month, when Diddy takes on Jermaine Dupri at Madison Square Garden. Swizz Beatz has previously hinted at a potential rematch, so it’s not completely off the table. COVID-19 seemed to hit Jim Jones pretty hard, based on his social media posts. He shared the news with his followers in August of 2021.

“I urge everybody to stay safe out there,” he began, “COVID is real.” “I was runnin’ ’round here thinking I was Superman and COVID knocked the socks off Superman,” he continued. “So I urge and encourage everybody to please continue to mask up, please continue with hand sanitizer, social distance as much as you can, try to stay away from as many packed and crowded places. This sh*t is no joke. I really felt it and I don’t want nobody to feel like how I felt.”

Read More: The LOX Bring Out Rakim In Vintage Summer Jam Performance

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NYC Officials Warn of New COVID-19 Summer Surge

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COVID-19 is roaring back into the lives of New York City residents. According to NY Daily News, a summer surge of COVID is impacting NYC.

Data from across the city and state show a rise in COVID-19, signaling the latest run of the pandemic. Reasons for the surge have been connected to immunity to variants wearing away and more air-conditioned indoor events. The hospitalization rate per 100,000 residents is up to 10.22. The pre-surge figure was 4.41 hospitalizations.

“The main point is that we need to keep paying attention to COVID,” Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said.

On Wednesday, the State Department of Health encouraged NYC residents to take precautions and to test if they feel sick.

The post NYC Officials Warn of New COVID-19 Summer Surge first appeared on The Source.

The post NYC Officials Warn of New COVID-19 Summer Surge appeared first on The Source.

Ice Cube Popped Up On Tucker Carlson’s Show And Explained Why He Rejected The COVID-19 Vaccine

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Ice Cube Room Service Tour With Cypress Hill 2023
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Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show drew a non-trivial amount of eyeballs when it debuted in June, but viewership numbers have been dwindling since then. Still, he presses on, and on his latest episode shared yesterday (July 26), he was joined by Ice Cube, and the pair spent about a quarter of the 12-minute episode talking about the COVID-19 vaccine, specifically about why the rapper didn’t get it.

Carlson asked why Ice didn’t take the vaccine, noting he had “a direct order” to do so, and the rapper responded, “Yeah, I’m not real good with direct orders. […] No, it wasn’t ready. You know, it was six-month kind of rush job and I didn’t feel safe.”

Carlson jumped in, “But they told you you were safe,” and Ice responded, “I know what they said [laughs]. I know what they said, and I heard them. I heard them loud and clear, but it’s not their decision. There’s no repercussions if they’re wrong, but I can get all the repercussions if they’re wrong.”

The host then asked if it was a tough choice for Ice to make and he said, “No, it wasn’t a tough call. I wanted to be an example for my kids, really make sure they wouldn’t take it either, show them that I want to stand on my convictions and that I was willing to lose $9 million and more because we’ve probably lost more since then.”

The part about losing $9 million refers to what he said in a 2022 interview: “I turned down a movie because I didn’t want to get the motherf*cking jab. I turned down $9 million. I didn’t want get the jab. F*ck that jab. F*ck ya’ll for trying to make me get it. I don’t know how Hollywood feels about me right now.”

Elsewhere in the Carlson conversation, Ice noted he never intended for his vaccination status to be a matter of public concern, saying, “I never told anyone not to get vaccinated publicly. That was never my message to the world. I didn’t even want people to know whether I got vaccinated or not. I was pretty upset that that even came out, because I was just gonna quietly, you know, just not take it and deal with the consequences as they came.”

Carlson, for the record, proudly proclaimed he didn’t get the vaccine either: When Ice asked if he got the jab, the host exclaimed, “Of course not!”

Find the full episode of Carlson’s show here.

Millions to Lose Medicaid as COVID-19 Safety Net Expires

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Beginning this past weekend, U.S. states will begin to kick as many as 15 million people off Medicaid insurance as the emergency safety net initially put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end.

What is Medicaid? Medicaid is a public health insurance program for people who have lower incomes. It is jointly administered by the state and federal governments. Over the past three years since the global pandemic, under an emergency pandemic measure, states have stopped double-checking if people who are enrolled in Medicaid are still eligible for its coverage. Suppose you were enrolled in Medicaid in March 2020 or became eligible at any point during the pandemic. In that case, you have remained eligible the entire time no matter what, even if your income later increased.  However, states will now double-check every Medicaid enrollee’s eligibility, a huge administrative task that will put health insurance coverage for millions of Americans at risk. Not everyone will be removed from the program all at once. States plan to verify all recipients’ eligibility over periods of nine months to one year.

The change is “disruptive,” said Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts who advocates for health care reform. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra says the Biden administration is working with states to prevent Americans from being without any health insurance. “One of the best ways to make sure they don’t, is to make sure that governors have adopted the Medicaid expansion program, which lets them cover more Americans within their Medicaid program,” Beccera said.

People with Medicaid should ensure their personal information is up-to-date, be on the lookout for Medicaid application materials in the mail or via email, and complete the renewal application by their state’s due date. People who lose Medicaid coverage will be eligible to purchase coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The termination notice should provide instructions.

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China Insists it has been ‘Open’ on COVID Origins

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Following speculation on the pandemic’s origins, China said it has been  “open and transparent” with information it has obtained. 

Three years and over 6.8 million deaths later, concerns on how the worldwide virus emerged are at an all time high. 

Most recently, the U.S. Department of Energy  assessed with “low confidence” that the pandemic that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 began with the leak of a virus from a lab. This report remains sealed to the public. 

In defense of the accusations against China,  Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning Mao told reporters at a daily briefing that China has “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research.”

Mao added, “Politicizing the issue of virus tracing will not smear China but will only damage the U.S.’s own credibility,” opposing complaints from U.S. officials and members of Congress that China has not been fully cooperative. 

Still, not all opinions sway in favor of the United States. Members of the U.S. intelligence community disagree with the U.S. Energy Department assessment of the lab leak, specifying 

differing opinions within the government. On Monday, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said “There is just not an intelligence community consensus.” 

The DOE, which oversees a national network of U.S. labs,  concluded that the classified report was based on newly acquired intelligence and noted in an update to a 2021 document, according to the first reports made by the Wall Street Journal. 

Requests for comment made to White House officials by numerous sources to confirm the press report assessments have been declined. The last report, made in 2021, said four members of the U.S. intelligence community believed with low confidence that the virus was first transmitted from an animal to a human, and a fifth believed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab. The quest to find more information is ongoing. 

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John Legend Teams With Pfizer For COVID-19 Booster Video

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John Legend stars in the latest promotional video for the COVID-19 booster shot from Pfizer, prompting backlash from many of his anti-vax fans. In the clip, Legend explains that he and his family got their updated COVID-19 booster shots. Many users on Twitter labeled him a “sellout” in response to the partnership. Pfizer later ended up turning off replies to the video on social media.

“For John Legend, there is nothing better than being a dad and enjoying special moments with his family. That’s why he considers his health a top priority and why he got an updated #COVID19 booster. His eligible family members got theirs too!” the Pfizer Twitter account captioned the video. In the piece, Legend says, “I wouldn’t trade being a dad for anything in the world. I love being there for my special moments with my kids. That’s why my health is such a priority to me. And why I got an updated Covid-19 booster. My family did too. I encourage you to talk to your healthcare provider and go to vaccines.gov to check eligibility and schedule an appointment today.”

John Legend’s Pfizer Video

John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, previously shared that their then-5-year-old daughter Luna got the vaccine in 2021. “Took my big girl to ice cream to celebrate her 2nd shot,” Legend wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “Second shot queeeeen! go big girl go big girl go!” Teigen further added.

Legend was an early voice in promoting the Pfizer vaccine when the company released it widely in 2021. Speaking with USA Today at the time, he explained, “It gave me a sense of greater optimism and relief as well. I’m just excited that the vaccine has proven to be effective and to be safe, and that we’re on our way to opening back up more and more people get vaccinated.” As for potential side affects, he also added: “If you’re getting vaccinated – preventing yourself from getting the virus, preventing yourself from giving the virus to any of your relatives and loved ones, and getting the nation back closer to opening up slowly – it’s a small price to pay.”

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