Latest news with #Heavenly
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Quartet of new businesses tucked away in town centre courtyard open doors
FOUR new businesses have opened their doors in Kingswinford, breathing a new lease of life into a tucked-away courtyard. The Courtyard on Market Street celebrated its grand reopening earlier this month, welcoming an aesthetics business, a gifts and craft store, a hair and beauty salon and an artist's creative hub. Local community champion, Shaz Saleem, paid a trip to The Courtyard on May 10 to welcome the businesses into the Kingswinford community. He said: 'It was an honour to be invited - I'm excited for these new businesses. 'I believe they will make a positive impact to our village. On behalf of Kingswinford, I would like to welcome the businesses to our village and wish them the very best of luck!!!" Mr Saleem, along with his daughter, Alina Naz Saleem, explored what the new businesses had to offer, with everything from beauty treatments to bespoke trinkets and gifts. Bels Aesthetics will be providing services to ensure everyone can 'look and feel the best version of yourself'. Register nurse, Belinda Earp, specialises in natural enhancements, and will be taking clients from Monday to Wednesday. 10am until 3pm and Friday to Saturday, 10am until 4.30pm. Heavenly – Gifts, Crafts & Blooms is an all-new craft space, offering everything from hands-on creative workshops, to loving curated gifts, florals and trinkets, open Thursday to Sunday, 10am until 3pm. A perfect spot for birthday gifts and birthday parties alike, as well as hen parties, baby showers and any excuse for a get together with friends. Refine Hair and Beauty is a one-stop destination for any hair needs from Monday to Saturday, 9am to 8pm. From weddings and proms to any occasion requiring a look that will turns heads. Billie-Jo Hamilton Wanklin, a mural painter and artistic creator, has also set up base in The Courtyard, opening Created by Billie. The creative hub will be home to workshops and sessions, as well as Billie's curations and works. Inspired by her late father, Billi will also be launching "Happy Mondays" to help support people affected by ADHD, which she herself lives with. The quartet of new openings will be sure to make The Courtyard a successful shopping destination in Kingswinford.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Disney releases Pixar show with Christian character after dropping transgender storyline: report
A new animated series from Disney-owned Pixar, "Win or Lose," features a character who makes a Christian prayer. Original plans to have a transgender character in the same show were scrapped. The first episode in the new series, "Coach's Kid," shows "Laurie" bowing her head in prayer ahead of a game, according to The Christian Post. "Dear Heavenly Father, please give me strength … I just want to catch a ball or get a hit," Laurie says in the scene. "I promise I'll be good, and I, uh, won't do that thing again." Disney Drops Transgender Storyline From Upcoming Animated Pixar Show 'Win Or Lose' Laurie also prays in another scene during the episode: "Please help me be good. I'm gonna train so hard." Pixar Animation Studios' "Win or Lose" "follows a co-ed middle-school softball team named the Pickles in the week leading up to their championship softball game," according to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), which first broke the news about the changes made to the show. Read On The Fox News App The show, which premiered in February, made headlines late last year after Disney revealed that it dropped a transgender storyline before release. "A source close to Win or Lose said the studio made the decision to alter course several months ago," THR reported. As 'Snow White' Struggles, Here Are Five More Disney Controversies That Rocked The Company A spokesperson for the media company said in a statement that the changes were made in deference to parents who would prefer to address those sorts of topics with their children on their own. "When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline," a Disney spokesperson told Fox News Digital in December about the changes made to the show. Disney did not immediately respond to an additional request for comment from Fox News Digital. Fox News' Kristine Parks and Gabriel Hays contributed to this article source: Disney releases Pixar show with Christian character after dropping transgender storyline: report
CNN
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Disney's ‘Win or Lose' is back in the news. This time for a Christian character
An animated character in a new Disney+ series is sparking conversation for a surprising reason: Prayer. The Pixar series 'Win or Lose,' according to a Disney synopsis, 'features the intertwined stories of eight different characters as they each prepare for their big championship softball game — the insecure kids, their helicopter parents, even a lovesick umpire.' In the first episode, a player named Laurie who struggles with self-doubt prays on the bench before a game, marking the first distinctly Christian character in a Disney-related project in about two decades, according to WDW News Today, a website that closely follows news about Disney parks and entertainment. 'Dear Heavenly Father, please give me strength,' Laurie prays. 'I have faith, but sometimes the doubt creeps in.' The animated series made headlines recently when it cut a transgender storyline ahead of the show's release last month. 'When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,' a spokesperson for Disney, which is Pixar's parent company, said in a statement at the time. Disney projects with Christian references aren't new - 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' 'The Jungle Book' and 'The Lion King' are just a few titles that include Biblical themes - but some observers have questioned whether Disney is trying to appease conservative critics of diversity and inclusion efforts in line with President Donald Trump's second term anti-DEI directives. This week, Disney+ also changed course on a long-planned animated series based on Tiana from 2009's 'The Princess and the Frog,' which featured Disney's first Black princess. Instead, the animation studio plans to develop a special based on the title, according to The Hollywood Reporter. CNN has reached out to representatives for Disney for comment. In December, Chanel Stewart, the trans actress who had been cast to voice the trans character in 'Win or Lose,' spoke with Deadline about the storyline being scrapped. 'I was very disheartened,' Stewart said. 'From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard.' Bob Iger, the chief executive officer of Disney, recently signed off on a settlement of a defamation lawsuit President Trump brought against ABC News and has been vocal about steering the company away from culture wars. 'The stories you tell have to really reflect the audience that you're trying to reach but that audience, because they are so diverse … can be turned off by certain things,' Iger told CNBC in April 2024. 'We just have to be more sensitive to the interests of a broad audience. It's not easy.' 'Win or Lose' co-creators Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates have shared their thinking behind the show. 'We knew from the beginning we wanted to have all the hallmarks of a Pixar film — humor, heart, and creativity,' the Pixar veterans said in a press release. 'We came to the table also knowing we wanted to tell the types of stories we couldn't tell in a film format. Which included multi-protagonists, nonlinear storytelling, and really just pushing the tone to be more outside of the box.'
CNN
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Disney's ‘Win or Lose' is back in the news. This time for a Christian character
An animated character in a new Disney+ series is sparking conversation for a surprising reason: Prayer. The Pixar series 'Win or Lose,' according to a Disney synopsis, 'features the intertwined stories of eight different characters as they each prepare for their big championship softball game — the insecure kids, their helicopter parents, even a lovesick umpire.' In the first episode, a player named Laurie who struggles with self-doubt prays on the bench before a game, marking the first distinctly Christian character in a Disney-related project in about two decades, according to WDW News Today, a website that closely follows news about Disney parks and entertainment. 'Dear Heavenly Father, please give me strength,' Laurie prays. 'I have faith, but sometimes the doubt creeps in.' The animated series made headlines recently when it cut a transgender storyline ahead of the show's release last month. 'When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,' a spokesperson for Disney, which is Pixar's parent company, said in a statement at the time. Disney projects with Christian references aren't new - 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' 'The Jungle Book' and 'The Lion King' are just a few titles that include Biblical themes - but some observers have questioned whether Disney is trying to appease conservative critics of diversity and inclusion efforts in line with President Donald Trump's second term anti-DEI directives. This week, Disney+ also changed course on a long-planned animated series based on Tiana from 2009's 'The Princess and the Frog,' which featured Disney's first Black princess. Instead, the animation studio plans to develop a special based on the title, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In December, Chanel Stewart, the trans actress who had been cast to voice the trans character in 'Win or Lose,' spoke with Deadline about the storyline being scrapped. 'I was very disheartened,' Stewart said. 'From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard.' Bob Iger, the chief executive officer of Disney, recently signed off on a settlement of a defamation lawsuit President Trump brought against ABC News and has been vocal about steering the company away from culture wars. 'The stories you tell have to really reflect the audience that you're trying to reach but that audience, because they are so diverse … can be turned off by certain things,' Iger told CNBC in April 2024. 'We just have to be more sensitive to the interests of a broad audience. It's not easy.' 'Win or Lose' co-creators Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates have shared their thinking behind the show. 'We knew from the beginning we wanted to have all the hallmarks of a Pixar film — humor, heart, and creativity,' the Pixar veterans said in a press release. 'We came to the table also knowing we wanted to tell the types of stories we couldn't tell in a film format. Which included multi-protagonists, nonlinear storytelling, and really just pushing the tone to be more outside of the box.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Yahoo
A Tahoe snowboarder was 'buried alive' on the slopes. Lawsuit says the resort is to blame
In late February 2023, a major blizzard dumped several feet of fresh powder across Northern California's mountains — dream conditions for many experienced snowboarders like Wesley Whalen. Instead, it turned into the worst-case scenario. Whalen, 46, suffocated to death underneath the deep snow at Heavenly Mountain Resort in Tahoe on March 1, 2023. His widow says the resort is to blame. In a recent lawsuit, Chanel Whalen claims that Heavenly made the extreme conditions even more dangerous and failed to warn visitors or increase safety patrols, causing her husband's death, which the complaint called an "unnecessary and preventable tragedy." The lawsuit, filed last month in El Dorado County's Superior Court and first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, claims that Heavenly increased the risk of sinking into the loose, deep snow by triggering an avalanche not long after the blizzard. The suit alleges that "blasting" the snow to spur controlled avalanches — a regular practice at ski resorts — not only increased the amount of powder, but also hid the natural signs of a loose snowpack by creating the appearance of a solid top layer of snow. "Combining this freshly loosened powder with the practically unheard of levels of precipitation created a significant increased risk of cave-in," the lawsuit said. "Heavenly further failed to warn guests that they had blasted, meaning that even skilled and experienced skiers and snowboarders would have no reason to believe the sink risk was as high as it actually was." The wrongful death lawsuit claims the resort was negligent and demands unspecified damages. Ashlee Lamber, a spokesperson for Vail Resorts, Inc., which owns and operates Heavenly, declined to comment on the case, saying that the company doesn't comment on pending litigation. On the day he died, Whalen — who was described in the complaint as a "skilled and experienced snowboarder" and active in the U.S. Deaf Ski and Snowboard Assn. — was going down a single black diamond trail when he pulled over to the side to stop, the lawsuit said. The attorney representing Whalen detailed what occurred after reviewing footage from a GoPro-style video camera Whalen had on him. "He started to slowly, but consistently sink into the snowpack" with "snow collapsing on top of him," the lawsuit said. "Wesley was buried alive." The lawsuit called the snow that day "deceptively loose" and also said that there was "insufficient ski patrol coverage." Read more: How L.A. snowboarder, with no phone and wearing a hoodie, survived 2 nights in frigid mountains The complaint noted that some reports after his death indicated that Whalen fell into a "tree well," a dangerous dip in deep snow that is known to trap skiers and snowboarders. But the lawsuit said "there were no warnings anywhere about the dangers of tree wells and cave-ins" and the resort should have installed temporary fencing and warning signs, if such dangers were present. The National Ski Areas Assn. warns that skiing off groomed trails increases the risk of having a deep snow or tree well accident, which can be deadly. But the suit claims that where Whalen pulled over was "well within the open trail," and how he died is not part of the inherent risks associated with snowboarding. "Being swallowed by snow as if sinking in quicksand is not intrinsic in snowboarding," the lawsuit said. "Wes was a leader in the deaf community and his wife, Chanel, was his entire world," Mike Guasco, the attorney representing his wife, said in a statement. "His death is an immeasurable loss, one which the community and Chanel still feel acutely. Worse, his death was entirely preventable." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
