Rhode Island
Scooter Braun Jokes About Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Guest List
Scooter Braun, Taylor Swift Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for This Is About Humanity;Neil Mockford/GC Images/Getty Images
Scooter Braun is inserting himself in this narrative, one Taylor Swift likely never asked him to be a part of.
Braun, 43, took to his Instagram Story on Tuesday, August 27, to reshare TMZ’s upload of pics from Swift’s trip to Rhode Island with her friends. “How was I not invited to this?!?” Braun wrote, adding the hashtag, “#laughalittle.”
Days after finishing the European leg of her Eras Tour, Swift, 34, celebrated by spending the weekend with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, at her Rhode Island mansion. The twosome were also surrounded by several pals, including his teammate Patrick Mahomes and family, Travis’ brother, Jason Kelce, and sister-in-law Kylie Kelce. Swift’s longtime friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper were also in attendance.
Around the same time on Tuesday, Braun also shared that he had “finally watched” the Discovery+ docuseries Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood, which explored his feud with the popstar.
Braun and Swift’s bad blood dates back years and came to a head in 2019 when the music manager received heat for purchasing the back catalog of her music from Big Machine Records’ Scott Borchetta. At the time, Swift claimed she was offered a contract to “earn” the rights to her music “one [album] for every new one I turned in.”
“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” Swift wrote in a 2019 Tumblr post. “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy.”
Swift alleged that she learned about the deal after it had been completed, whereas Borchetta claimed in a 2019 post on the label’s website that he texted Swift the night before it went public.
In response, Swift began re-recording her old albums and releasing them as “Taylor’s Version.” She has since dropped a new version of Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989. She has yet to re-release Reputation and her self-titled debut.
Braun went on to share his side of the story in 2021. “I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal,” he told Variety at the time, alleging that the details Swift shared about the events were “not based on anything factual.” He added, “I don’t know what story she was told. I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused.”
Braun noted that he was most upset by Swift painting him as a bully. “I’m firmly against anyone ever being bullied. I always try to lead with appreciation and understanding,” he said. “The one thing I’m proudest of in that moment was that my artists and team stood by me. They know my character and my truth. That meant a lot to me.”
News broke in 2023 that several of Braun’s clients, including Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, reportedly severed ties with him.
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Rhode Island
2 dead, 1 seriously hurt after crash on I-95 South in Warwick
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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Rhode Island
Judge rejects DOJ push for Rhode Island voter information
A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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Rhode Island
Single Dad Says Grandparents’ Rights Trial Has Cost Him More Than $500K, but He'll Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Keep Daughter Safe
As the two-year anniversary of his wife’s death approaches, widowed single father Scott Naso is sounding an alarm to fellow parents across the country — and especially in Rhode Island, where he lives with his now 4-year-old daughter, Laila.
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