Phil Valentine, conservative radio host and vaccine skeptic, dies of COVID-19
CBSN
Phil Valentine, a conservative radio talk show host who was a vaccine skeptic and disagreed with mask mandates up until he was diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, has died at age 61.
"We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away," his station, SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, tweeted Saturday afternoon. "Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers." Valentine, whose show first went on-air in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1995 and was eventually syndicated to several cities across the country, confirmed he was diagnosed with the coronavirus in a Facebook post on July 11, CBS affiliate WTVF-TV reports.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.