Pearl Jam unapologetic for White House poster

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Pearl Jam’s bassist is unapologetic for a concert poster that has Republicans crying foul.

Jeff Ament said in a statement Wednesday that he was the “sole conceptualist” for the poster depicting a burning White House and what appears to be President Donald Trump’s skeleton.

Ament says the role of an artist is to make people think and feel, and the current administration has people thinking and feeling.

He says he welcomes all interpretations and discourse and ends with, “Love, from the First Amendment, Jeff Ament.

The official poster from the band’s Monday concert in Missoula, Montana, is being condemned by Republican groups for its depiction of a dead Trump.

The concert was put on to promote youth voter registration and Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s re-election campaign.

Tester’s campaign is disavowing the concert poster .

The Montana Democrat’s campaign spokesman, Chris Meagher, said Wednesday that campaign officials never saw the poster before the show, they don’t like it and that they don’t condone violence of any kind.

The poster is from Monday’s concert in Missoula, Montana. The rock band put it on to encourage youth voting and to support Tester’s re-election bid against Republican opponent Matt Rosendale.

John Lennon’s killer is up for parole for 10th time

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The man who killed John Lennon is up for parole again.

Mark David Chapman is scheduled to go before New York’s parole board next week, in what will be his 10th attempt to win release. A decision is expected within two weeks of the parole hearing.

The now 63-year-old Chapman is serving 20-years-to-life in the Wende Correctional Facility in western New York. He shot and killed the former Beatle outside his Manhattan apartment on Dec. 8, 1980.

The state Board of Parole last denied parole to Chapman two years ago.

In that decision, the board noted that Chapman has since described the murder as “selfish and evil.” It determined that Chapman should remain behind bars, in part because of the premeditated and “celebrity-seeking” nature of the crime.