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Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert is scrambling to see if she can still root and toot in Congress for another term. This situation is somehow worse than it was for her last time around when she only won by 546 votes against Democrat Adam Frisch in a red-leaning district. These days, of course, Boebert’s preexisting polarizing position has grown even more precarious due to her being caught groping and vaping at a Beetlejuice musical production.

Months later, Boebert cannot manage to stop accidentally reminding people of this hot mess, not even when she fires off bigoted comments on the House floor. Yep, the specter of the combative congresswoman and the Democrat Bar Guy will not go away, and Boebert must have seen the writing on Colorado’s 3rd District wall after Frisch promised to fully unseat her in 2024, and that seemed destined to happen. So, she has decided upon a new strategy and took to Twitter to announce that she will jump over to Colorado’s 4th District, where she believes that she stands a better chance of winning.

This decision has come after “[a] lot of prayer, a lot of tough conversations and a lot of perspective,” and Boebert insists, “I am going to do everything in my power to represent the 3rd District well for the remainder of this term as I work to earn the trust of grassroots conservative voters in the 4th District to represent them in 2025.”

Boebert also threw a dart at “dark money that is directed at destroying me,” meaning that she’s not thrilled with how her district’s fundraising has gone. As The Daily Beast reports, Frisch’s position as the anti-Boebert has paid off handsomely, and he has long since surpassed her efforts to raise cash:

Frisch, a former member of the Aspen City Council, has been raking in more campaign cash than almost any other 2024 House candidate, reporting to the Federal Election Commission that he had raised $7.7 million so far, as Time first reported this week. Boebert, in contrast, has raised just over $2.4 million.

Let’s just say that social media does not appear to be impressed by Boebert’s decision to “jump ship” for slightly better odds as “doing public service for the people.” And the groping jokes continue unabated.

And now the matter will rest in voters’ hands for Colorado’s 4th District.

Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert is scrambling to see if she can still root and toot in Congress for another term. This situation is somehow worse than it was for her last time around when she only won by 546 votes against Democrat Adam Frisch in a red-leaning district. These days, of course, Boebert’s preexisting polarizing position has grown even more precarious due to her being caught groping and vaping at a Beetlejuice musical production.

Months later, Boebert cannot manage to stop accidentally reminding people of this hot mess, not even when she fires off bigoted comments on the House floor. Yep, the specter of the combative congresswoman and the Democrat Bar Guy will not go away, and Boebert must have seen the writing on Colorado’s 3rd District wall after Frisch promised to fully unseat her in 2024, and that seemed destined to happen. So, she has decided upon a new strategy and took to Twitter to announce that she will jump over to Colorado’s 4th District, where she believes that she stands a better chance of winning.

This decision has come after “[a] lot of prayer, a lot of tough conversations and a lot of perspective,” and Boebert insists, “I am going to do everything in my power to represent the 3rd District well for the remainder of this term as I work to earn the trust of grassroots conservative voters in the 4th District to represent them in 2025.”

Boebert also threw a dart at “dark money that is directed at destroying me,” meaning that she’s not thrilled with how her district’s fundraising has gone. As The Daily Beast reports, Frisch’s position as the anti-Boebert has paid off handsomely, and he has long since surpassed her efforts to raise cash:

Frisch, a former member of the Aspen City Council, has been raking in more campaign cash than almost any other 2024 House candidate, reporting to the Federal Election Commission that he had raised $7.7 million so far, as Time first reported this week. Boebert, in contrast, has raised just over $2.4 million.

Let’s just say that social media does not appear to be impressed by Boebert’s decision to “jump ship” for slightly better odds as “doing public service for the people.” And the groping jokes continue unabated.

And now the matter will rest in voters’ hands for Colorado’s 4th District.

It may only be a few days after Christmas, but for some of hip-hop’s elite, there’s no such thing as a vacation. J. Cole, who spent the year on an absolute tear of surprise live appearances and scene-stealing feature verses, continued his campaign at Lil Baby’s hometown show in Atlanta on Wednesday night (December 27), popping out to surprise the concertgoers with a performance of his 2014 Forest Hills Drive fan favorite, “No Role Modelz” and his Revenge Of The Dreamers III standout, “Middle Child.”

Cole’s string of surprise performances included coming out in Montreal to surprise fans at Drake’s It’s All A Blur tour as 21 Savage’s replacement. Then, he did the same thing for fans at 50 Cent’s Final Lap tour in Brooklyn. He also joined Lil Durk during his iHeartRadio Festival performance in Las Vegas to perform their collaboration “All My Life” for the first time. The next surprise came with “Pretty Little Fears” collaborator 6lack in LA, after which Cole circled back around to reconnect with Drake for the announcement of their Big As The What? tour, extending the It’s All A Blur tour in 2024.

Along the way, he dropped verses with K-pop star J-Hope, Summer Walker, his own Dreamville artist Bas, the surprising collaborators Gucci Mane and Lil Yachty, multiple tracks with Drake (including his first-ever No. 1), and Nicki Minaj. He’s had a busy year, and he STILL has yet to release his long-awaited album, The Fall-Off.

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.

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Nicole was especially surprised by this reaction since she had already gone through the effort of making sure her son had every supply he needed from the school’s list, which was slightly different than the one they previously had.

And yet, the 7th grade teacher informed her son that he was still expected to provide for the classroom, not just himself. And, thus, a zero grade, for failing the assignment, so to speak.

Even though Nicole thought the rule was “weird,” she went out and bought the bulk items, which included tissues, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, pencils, Expo markers, and red pens.

And yet, the next week—her son still has a zero. Concerned, Nicole emailed her son’s teacher.

“I’m like, ‘hey…my student has a 83 in the class and everything else in the class is 100s and 98s and he still has a zero for something called ‘classroom supplies.’” she said in a video.

“‘We bought the supplies anyways, but I don’t feel like it’s the parents’ responsibility to supply your classroom. And I definitely don’t think it’s appropriate to assign a grade to students based off of whether or not they’ve supplied your class with supplies. That doesn’t make any sense.’”

@shanittanicole Am I doing too much? #fyp #school ♬ original sound – Shanitta Nicolee 💖

And while Nicole’s email did get the teacher to reconcile the grade, there was no mention to her other concern regarding the responsibility for parents to provide the entire class with supplies.

“So, I emailed the principal because I just, I might be extra, but I just want to see what’s going on. Why do I have to buy supplies for the classroom?” the frustrated mom concluded.

Nicole’s video quickly went viral on TikTok, and several weighed in to agree that the teacher’s actions were misguided.

“That is so unfair!! Especially for the kids whose parents CANT afford groceries let alone classroom supplies,” one user wrote.

Another added, “You are not wrong. It is 100% ok for [the teacher] to ask for supplies, but mandate it for a grade? Absolutely not.”

And this point is truly what Nicole took umbrage with, as she noted several times in the comments. It has less to do with being asked to help and more to do with her son’s grade depending on it.

In a follow-up video, Nicole shared that the school principal did end up reaching out, notifying her that while, yes, teachers are allowed to ask for donations, it should never be mandated.

@shanittanicole Replying to @yafavv._.dancer😍😘💞😍😍💞 Graded Supplies Update #fyp #school ♬ original sound – Shanitta Nicolee 💖

“What the teacher was trying to accomplish, but it definitely wasn’t appropriate,” the principal told Nicole.

While the teacher might have not handled this situation in the best way, it goes without saying that this is a larger systemic issue—one that isn’t exactly fair to parents, teachers and students alike.

Most public school teachers spend a significant amount of their own money on classroom supplies, to an average of $673 per year, according to a recent survey of more than 1,100 educators by the Association of American Educators (AAE). That number only goes up for teachers in high poverty schools.

At the same time, according to a 2022 survey with Savings.com, the typical parent also spends nearly $600 on school supplies. Plus things like clothes, backpacks, haircuts etc.

In the grand scheme of things, there’s no use placing full responsibility or blame onto teachers or parents. Because either way, students get caught in the crossfire. This is clearly a universal burden that needs attention.

This article originally appeared on 10.5.23

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.

---

Nicole was especially surprised by this reaction since she had already gone through the effort of making sure her son had every supply he needed from the school’s list, which was slightly different than the one they previously had.

And yet, the 7th grade teacher informed her son that he was still expected to provide for the classroom, not just himself. And, thus, a zero grade, for failing the assignment, so to speak.

Even though Nicole thought the rule was “weird,” she went out and bought the bulk items, which included tissues, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, pencils, Expo markers, and red pens.

And yet, the next week—her son still has a zero. Concerned, Nicole emailed her son’s teacher.

“I’m like, ‘hey…my student has a 83 in the class and everything else in the class is 100s and 98s and he still has a zero for something called ‘classroom supplies.’” she said in a video.

“‘We bought the supplies anyways, but I don’t feel like it’s the parents’ responsibility to supply your classroom. And I definitely don’t think it’s appropriate to assign a grade to students based off of whether or not they’ve supplied your class with supplies. That doesn’t make any sense.’”

@shanittanicole Am I doing too much? #fyp #school ♬ original sound – Shanitta Nicolee 💖

And while Nicole’s email did get the teacher to reconcile the grade, there was no mention to her other concern regarding the responsibility for parents to provide the entire class with supplies.

“So, I emailed the principal because I just, I might be extra, but I just want to see what’s going on. Why do I have to buy supplies for the classroom?” the frustrated mom concluded.

Nicole’s video quickly went viral on TikTok, and several weighed in to agree that the teacher’s actions were misguided.

“That is so unfair!! Especially for the kids whose parents CANT afford groceries let alone classroom supplies,” one user wrote.

Another added, “You are not wrong. It is 100% ok for [the teacher] to ask for supplies, but mandate it for a grade? Absolutely not.”

And this point is truly what Nicole took umbrage with, as she noted several times in the comments. It has less to do with being asked to help and more to do with her son’s grade depending on it.

In a follow-up video, Nicole shared that the school principal did end up reaching out, notifying her that while, yes, teachers are allowed to ask for donations, it should never be mandated.

@shanittanicole Replying to @yafavv._.dancer😍😘💞😍😍💞 Graded Supplies Update #fyp #school ♬ original sound – Shanitta Nicolee 💖

“What the teacher was trying to accomplish, but it definitely wasn’t appropriate,” the principal told Nicole.

While the teacher might have not handled this situation in the best way, it goes without saying that this is a larger systemic issue—one that isn’t exactly fair to parents, teachers and students alike.

Most public school teachers spend a significant amount of their own money on classroom supplies, to an average of $673 per year, according to a recent survey of more than 1,100 educators by the Association of American Educators (AAE). That number only goes up for teachers in high poverty schools.

At the same time, according to a 2022 survey with Savings.com, the typical parent also spends nearly $600 on school supplies. Plus things like clothes, backpacks, haircuts etc.

In the grand scheme of things, there’s no use placing full responsibility or blame onto teachers or parents. Because either way, students get caught in the crossfire. This is clearly a universal burden that needs attention.

This article originally appeared on 10.5.23

Hannah Waddingham has ensured she’ll be getting one of Tom Cruise‘s in-demand coconut cakes next Christmas.

During a recent appearance on the ITV series James Martin’s Saturday Morning, the Ted Lasso star discussed working with Cruise on the eighth Mission: Impossible movie (formerly titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two). “I have to say, I have a real problem with anybody that goes at [Tom Cruise] now,” Waddingham said, according to Variety. “Having met him and having spent five days intensely…He is without doubt one of the loveliest and encouraging, positive and inspiring human beings I have ever met. Isn’t he gorgeous? I have no time for anyone saying anything about him.”

Waddingham’s character remains a secret, unlike her love for Cruise.

This isn’t the first time Waddingham has sung Cruise’s praises. In an interview with Live with Kelly and Mark in March, the actress said, “I’ve met plenty of fabulous people. He is one of, if not the most inspiring, encouraging, warm, tactile, friendly to everyone, engaging… I mean seriously, he and I were literally like two 12-year-olds together.”

There needs to be a scene in M:I 8 where Waddingham and Cruise sing karaoke together. She already did “Let It Go” from Frozen on Ted Lasso. Maybe they could do another Disney song? I bet Cruise has the pipes for “A Whole New World” (“Hakuna Matata” is taken).

Mission: Impossible is scheduled to come out on May 23, 2025.

(Via Variety)

Shakira moved to Miami following her very public split from her longtime partner, the world footballing great Gerard Piqué, the father of her two sons. However, Barranquilla, Colombia will always be home, and it is now guaranteed that Shakira will lord over the city regardless of her physical location.

On Tuesday, December 26, a 21-foot bronze statue depicting Shakira from her “Hips Don’t Lie” video was unveiled. Per ABC News, the statue was sculpted by Yino Márquez, and The Guardian noted, “The statue is large but not necessarily the largest pop icon statue to ever be erected. That accolade would seem to go to Forever Marilyn, a 26-ft tribute to the screen goddess Marilyn Monroe that now sits outside a tourism agency in Palm Springs, California.”

Shakira posted twice to Instagram to commemorate the honor, noting how happy she was to share the historic moment with her mother on her birthday. An Instagram carousel includes photos of her parents posing next to the statue and of her brother and father with the Mayor of Barranquilla.

However, the more interesting social media activity was how fans reacted. Someone posted on X (formerly Twitter), “I’d happily live under it.” Another person going by Chombe wrote, “This statue is bigger than Piqué’s career.” A user named DK (probably accurately) pointed out, “In 250 years, people are going to think this was a Spanish goddess.” Several more people anointed Shakira’s statue as superior to The Statue Of Liberty.

See some of the many reactions below.

The final days of 2023 are upon us, and the NFL regular season is nearing its conclusion. Only two more weeks remain before the playoffs get underway, and all 32 teams are in action between Thursday and Monday. Week 16 wasn’t exactly fantastic for us, particularly on Saturday and Sunday, but a 2-3 result isn’t terribly dire. Still, we endeavor for more in advance of Week 17.

Before issuing this week’s picks, let’s take a glance at the season-long progress.

• Week 16: 2-3
• 2023 Season: 41-35-4

Come get these winners.

TEASER: Cleveland Browns (-1.5) over New York Jets and New Orleans Saints (+8.5) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Widely Available

Joe Flacco revenge game?! The Browns’ defense is at least as good as the Jets defense, if not better, and Cleveland has the better offense playing at home with more to play for. I also tend to lean on home teams on Thursday evenings, so that one explains itself. I was tempted to grab New Orleans on its own but, once the line moved off of the key number of three, the Saints fit snugly into a teaser leg.

Washington Commanders (+13) over San Francisco 49ers — DraftKings

It’s Jacoby Brissett time. I personally think Brissett is better than Sam Howell and, at the very least, it’s not a downgrade. Washington is catching 13 at home here and, as the world tries to bank on a bounce-back from the Niners, we’ll be happy with a 10-point home loss.

TEASER: Jacksonville Jaguars (-0.5) over Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs (-1) over Cincinnati Bengals — Widely Available

Let’s call this our “get right” teaser. Trevor Lawrence’s status is in doubt, and the Jags have lost four in a row. However, Lawrence has never missed a game in his career, and Jacksonville should be able to get us to the window at home. Kansas City’s struggles have been well-documented, but we’re buying the dip here in a home game with real stakes.

Indianapolis Colts (-3.5) over Las Vegas Raiders — Widely Available

The Colts are a bizarre football team, so this could go very poorly. I’ll acknowledge that. However, the Raiders had no business winning the game against the Chiefs last week. Because they did, Las Vegas is now a popular team and, admittedly, the defense is playing well. Still, Indianapolis has the juice to get this home for us.

Green Bay Packers (+2) over Minnesota Vikings — Widely Available

The Nick Mullens experience rolls along for the Vikings, and we’re going the other way. Minnesota just lost TJ Hockenson and injuries are piling up. While the Packers are not playing well at all on defense, they could create some havoc against Mullens. I also just trust Jordan Love more and we’re getting the two points. Let’s ride.

There have always been women at the forefront of hip-hop’s 50-year reign over pop culture, and perhaps none is more iconic than Queen Latifah. The “U-N-I-T-Y” rapper is widely acknowledged as one of the genre’s greatest of all time, and last night at the Kennedy Center Honors, she received loving tributes from some of her most iconic peers and proteges.

First up, Missy Elliott repaid Latifah for her touching Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech introduction, recalling hearing “Ladies First” for the first time as a teenager and having her life changed by Latifah’s “Queen” moniker and positive messaging.

Then, there were performances. Queen Latifah’s fellow hip-hop pioneers MC Lyte and Monie Love performed her signature hit “Ladies First,” with Lyte taking over Latifah’s verses and Monie performing her own.

Rapsody then performed one of Latifah’s best, but most underrated songs, “Just Another Day…” (Would have been cool if she performed “Hatshepsut,” the song on which they collaborated from Rap’s 2019 album Eve, but extra light being shed on the smooth Black Reign cut is never a bad thing.)

The Kennedy Center Honors simply seal a legendary legacy which includes such accolades as Grammys, Emmys, and Oscar nominations, as well as roles ranging acting to heading one of hip-hop’s first women-led labels. She is, indeed, an icon and a queen.

With the first installment of Rebel Moon now streaming on Netflix, critics and viewers can’t help but notice that the film feels an awful lot like a Star Wars movie. There’s a good reason for that.

Granted, Rebel Moon is not an official Star Wars movie, but it did start out as one. Zack Snyder has not been shy about revealing that the project started out as a pitch to Lucasfilm shortly before George Lucas sold the company to Disney. According to Snyder, the pitch was rejected, but over time, he mulled over making the story a standalone sci-fi series with its own cinematic universe.

Via IndieWire:

Detaching the [Akira] Kurosawa-inspired movie from “Star Wars” didn’t prove difficult, as Snyder said there was no overlap in terms of characters between what he was developing at Lucasfilm and the other movies in the franchise. The director added about his isolated “Star Wars” movie, “It was me saying, ‘Give me the keys and let me take it for a spin.’”

However, the milage may vary on Snyder’s attempt to distance Rebel Moon from Star Wars. The film arrived with a brutally low Rotten Tomatoes score as critics eviscerated the film for repeating way too many of the same beats as the original Star Wars. (The characters wielding laser swords didn’t help.)

“In film school, some professors use the familiar example of Star Wars to teach Campbellian mythmaking, the theories that identify and codify the narrative units re-contextualized since Grecian times,” Charles Bramesco of The Guardian wrote. “Snyder demonstrates a clear fluency in these concepts with his classically minded scripting, except he forgot the part where the archetypes are meant to be refreshed through novel contexts.”

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is streaming on Netflix.