Rest In Paradise Cara McCollum, Support For Keith Jones
Cara McCollum 15 passed away early Monday morning at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., a week after sustaining critical injuries in a crashlast Monday on Route 55, according to NJ.com.
Cooper University Hospital did not respond to request for comment.
According to a post on the Facebook page titled Prayers for Cara, McCollum passed away Monday morning at 4:31 a.m., accompanied by her family in the operating room. Before she died, she made the decision to donate her organs to save other lives, the post said.
Weve prayed constantly for a miracle, and we believe G*d has answered our prayers. Although its not the miracle that we first envisioned, its a miracle nonetheless, the post read. In the end, its not the years in your life that count. Its the life in your years. Please accept our sincerest thanks for your heartfelt prayers. We all will miss her now that shes gone.
University Media Relations Specialist Min Pullan expressed condolences for McCollums passing.
We were very saddened to hear the tragic news about Caras passing. We extend our deepest sympathies to her family and friends, Pullan wrote in a statement to the Prince.
McCollum graduated from the University with an A.B. in English. While at the University, she was a member of Kappa Alpha Thetas Epsilon Mu Chapter and Cottage Club.
Princeton Theta is incredibly sad to hear about Caras passing, wrote Theta President Courtney Burke 17 in a statement to the Prince.
While I did not have the pleasure of knowing her myself, Ive heard from those Thetas who knew her well about her contagious smile, passion for childhood literacy and impact on campus. Our thoughts and Theta love are with her family at this time, Burke added.
McCollum won the Miss New Jersey pageant in 2013, and was also a competitor in the 2014 Miss America pageant.
McCollum joined SNJ Today as lead anchor last year.
The entire SNJ Today family extends its condolences to the many loyal viewers, colleagues, friends, and family of Cara McCollum, Ken Pustizzi, president of SNJ Today, said in a statement acknowledging McCollums passing.
Whether you had the privilege of knowing her or if you enjoyed her newscasts during her all too brief time with us, you know that her smile determination and sincerity made her a beloved individual, Pustizzi added.
Pustizzi also wrote that McCollum showed warmth to everyone she met.
She was a part of our news team family and we are gratified to have worked with her even for such a short time. We will miss her terribly. Our thoughts and prayers are especially with her parents Rick and Maureen McCollum, her brother Derick McCollum and her boyfriend, Keith Jones, during this difficult time, he wrote.
A tribute to McCollum was broadcast Monday night on Philadelphias WACP Channels 4 and 226 and on Channel 789, according to SNJ Today. The tribute will be archived on the SNJ Today website after Monday night.
In a Twitter statement, Chris Christie, New Jersey governor and ex officio member of the University Board of Trustees, said that he is very sad to learn of the passing of Miss NJ 2013 Cara McCollum.
I love you dear Cara. Your loving smile and sense of humor touched everyone around you. Your laugh was contagious. When we first met, we would both joke that NY and NJ were really from the South (her growing up in Arkansas and myself in Oklahoma), Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri, who gave lecture at the University last year, wrote in a Facebook post.
What a funny old mess theyve made of Best Supporting Actress this year. We have to start with the bare fact that Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander have easily lead-strength roles in both of their films. Craftily, in this bumper year for lead actresses, these two were downgraded to supporting during the promotional campaigns to maximise their chances of being nominated; indeed, either could win.
The nominees:
Theres no doubt that its been Vikanders year. With her work in Ex Machina on top of this, she could very easily have been nominated twice, had the chips fallen differently and her best performance to date, as Vera Brittain in James Kents WWI weepie Testament of Youth, has scarcely been recognised anywhere. Mara, meanwhile, is pitch-perfect in Carol, and will only have to surmount what feels like a two-cheers attitude to her film from awards bodies generally, not to mention a character, unlike Vikanders, who holds a lot of her emotions coolly in check.
Jennifer Jason Leigh (at 54) and Rachel McAdams (at 37) join the nominations club the latter for a shrewd, unflashy turn riding the coattails of her widely liked film, and the former because it just seemed like a great chance to get her in at long last. If The Hateful Eight were more popular generally, and perhaps the part of Daisy Domergue a little less of a panto punchbag, Leigh might have strolled off with this in her pocket.
As it stands, the only truly supporting performance that looks like a tempting bet is Kate Winslets excellent marketing guru in Steve Jobs: her most original and charming creation in years, for all that the accent comes and goes. A little unexpectedly, shes bagged a Golden Globe and a Bafta already. Can she score the hat-trick, or will that wily campaign strategy pay off handsomely for one of the new kids on the block?
Will win: Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), even though shes not a supporting actress in it
Should win: Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), but only because category champ Rooney Mara isnt a supporting actress in Carol
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GoGuardian, an educational technology company that provides digital learning tools for K-12 schools, announced today the launch of Google Classroom Integration for GoGuardian for Teachers, a product currently used by teachers of more than 200,000 students in nearly 1,000 school districts. GoGuardian for Teachers connects teachers to students in real-time, allowing teachers to view and interact with the assignments students are working on, and share appropriate online resources when necessary.
Google Classroom is a widely used web-based solution that allows educators to integrate their suite of Google services, like Docs and Gmail, with their Google Apps For Education account. This integration pairs Googles robust tools to organize and disseminate assignments and information with GoGuardians tools facilitating classroom management and communication. Teachers can connect with their students in real-time and ensure that students are always protected from harmful or distracting content, while navigating through assignments that are easily distributed and collected through Google Classroom.
We design all of our products with teachers, admins and students in mind, but this feature in particular was the direct result of input and requests from the educators we talked to, said Tyler Shaddix, the GoGuardian for Teachers Product Manager. In todays K-12 education landscape, the move to a more personalized learning environment catered to each students individual needs is unprecedented, Shaddix said, and technology is playing an increasing role in this movement as devices become more affordable, manageable, and readily available to schools. We want to continue playing a role in ensuring teachers have convenient access to every tool at their disposal.
As shown in this GoGuardian video, the integration allows users to easily sync Google Classroom, the associated students, and their GoGuardian for Teachers dashboard, creating a powerful digital learning scenario. By providing educators with an easy-to-use platform that lets them engage with students and promote responsible digital citizenship, GoGuardian helps schools discover how students best learn and adapt to meet their needs.
About GoGuardian
GoGuardian provides education software that keeps students safe when they"re online, helps teachers better engage with their students, and provides schools with more control over how their technology is used. With GoGuardian, teachers and administrators can harness the power of the Internet for learning, without harmful content or distractions getting in the way. GoGuardian software is easy to implement and manage across entire districts, and convenient to access through a user-friendly dashboardanytime, anywhere.
Well, no one can say Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is boring; he contains multitudes.
During a wide CNN town hall event Thursday, the billionaire showman weighed in on emerging scrutiny about his wavering support for the Iraq war, his thoughts on fatherhood, andMichael Jackson.
Here were the top quotes from the event:
1) On whether or not George W. Bush lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
Trump did not directly respond to a question about whether he went too far last week in accusingPresident George W. Bush of knowingly lying about why the U.S. invaded Iraq:
Look, I don"t know. I would probably say that something was going on. I dont know why he went in. I dont know why he went in. Because honestly, there was no reason to go in. They didnt knock down the World Trade Center. It wasnt Iraq that knocked it down, he said.
2) On recently released audio of him supporting the Iraq War
Trump responded to a recently unearthed 2002 interview with radio host Howard Stern in which he seemingly indicated his support for invading Iraq which cuts against his frequent assertions on the campaign trail that he opposed the war:
I could have said that. Nobody asked me I wasn"t a politician, Trump responded. It was probably the first time anybody asked me that question.
By the time the war started, I was against the war. There are headlines in 2003, 2004 that I was totally against the war, he added.
3) On his recent dust-up with the pope
During the GOP Town Hall on CNN, Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and John Kasich spoke on Pope Francis" comment that Trump is not a Christian because of his stance on immigration. (The Washington Post)
Trump toned down his rhetoric against the pope, who seemingly called Trumps faith into question based on his support for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump called those comments a disgrace earlier Thursday:
I dont think this is a fight, Trump said. I think he said something much softer than was originally reported by the media.
4) On (not) nominating his sister to the Supreme Court
Trump dismissed the notion that he would ever appoint his sister who is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to the Supreme Court. GOP primary rival Sen. Ted Cruz recently knocked Trump on the subject:
So, my sister is a brilliant woman who was always a fabulous student, very, very smart. She was appointed by Ronald Reagan. He said appointed by Bill Clinton. She was elevated to the Court of Appeals, a very high position, right under the Supreme Court, as you know," he said.
I would have such a conflict of interest and I joke, he said. You know, Im laughing and having fun. But I would never do a thing like that.
5) Trump on his taste in music
Well, I think Elton John is great, I think the Stones are great. The Beatles, I love. Michael Jackson was actually a very good friend of mine. I knew Michael Jackson very well; lived in Trump Tower for a long period of time, would go down to Mar-a-Lago, he said.
6) And then on his friendship with Michael Jackson
He actually got married you know, Lisa Marie Presley the whole big deal at Mar-a-Lago, he said. And I will tell you, he was up there one week with her, and he never came down, so I dont know what was going on, but they got along.
7) On why he avoids alcohol
It may surprise people, but the billionaire is well known for abstaining from alcohol:
Ive never had a drink and Ive never had a cigarette. Those are the good things, I dont want to tell you the bad things. There are plenty of bad things, he said. Ive seen what it does to people, its a horror show. And the one thing I can say is if you dont drink, theres no temptation.
8) On hisprevious marriages:
The candidate also showed a softer side toward the end of the town hall, briefly mentioning his two previous marriages, which rarely (if ever) come up on the trail:
I work very hard. Maybe I work too hard. I had two very, you know, wonderful women frankly, he said. I have a very good marriage now, Melania is fantastic. But I had two women that I never blamed because I worked so hard that my job came first.
So not that Id change anything, but...probably wouldnt have had two marriages that didnt work out, he added later.
9) And on fatherhood:
I would say this: I was a better father than I was a husband, he said.
Jose A. DelReal covers national politics for The Washington Post.
PGA TOUR players hit vintage clubs at Northern Trust Open
Adam Scott came out of the gate on Sunday at the Northern Trust Open with a hot putter.
No, a really hot putter.
Scott made more than 100 feet of putts in the first six holes at Riviera, playing the first third of his round in 5 under par. He looked ready to pick up his first PGA Tour win since he retook No. 1 in the world at Colonial in 2014.
Then on the eighth hole, Scott struggled to reach the green in four shots, missing a 5-foot putt for bogey. The double bogey stunted but didn"t kill Scott"s momentum. What did Scott in was a pair of misses from inside 5 feet on the 14th and 15th holes, leading to bogeys.
Scott did his best to rally, making a birdie on the par-5 17th before chipping in for a closing birdie from back of the green at No. 18. However, the Aussie came up one shot short of Bubba Watson, who won the PGA Tour"s Los Angeles-area event for the second time in three years.
Ahead of the ban on the anchored stroke which took effect on Jan. 1, Scott ditched the broomstick putter and went to a counterbalanced model in the hopes of somewhat replicating the successes he had with the long wand. Then again, Scott never found complete confidence with the anchored stroke. He"s had reason to feel encouraged since making the switch, with now a second runner-up finish in four official PGA Tour starts this season.
Perhaps the best sign of all? While the putter was friend and foe on Sunday, Scott"s performance moved him up from 195th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting to 74th.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Jennifer Aniston on An Evening Honoring James Burrows (07.10.2013) The Mike & Molly cast reflected on the show ending after a six-year run at the James Burrows special on Feb. 21. Star Billy Gardell admits the cast tears up thinking about filming their final episodes.
It came as a shock to everyone when it was announced that Mike & Molly would be ending after six seasons. The cast, including Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy, attended the James Burrows special on Feb. 21, and Billy had a few words to say on behalf of the cast. Its clear this cast is more than just a cast theyre family.
Were just trying to get through it, Billy said when asked by Jane Lynch what its been like filming the final episodes of the show. We have that same sense of family.
He revealed that cast gets teared up experiencing these last moments on the Mike & Molly set. Were just kind of huddling together, Billy added during the shows segment onMust See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows.
James has directed a total of 49 Mike & Molly episodes. He has been an essential player to the shows success.
Mike & Molly fans were shocked to learn in Dec. 2015 that the current season would be its last. Rondi Reed, who plays Mikes mother, Peggy, revealed the heartbreaking news.
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Before you hear it elsewhere (and some already have) this is the Final and 6th Season of MIKE & MOLLY on CBS, Rondi, 63, wrote on her Facebook page. It is also a shortened season (13 episodes) after the announced full renewal of 22 episodes back in March by the network. We are done taping as of January 27th 2016 and I am not sure exactly when/if the episodes will all be aired.
Stream music, completely unlimited and ad-free, RIGHT HERE
Melissa was just as devastated as the rest of the Mike & Molly fans. I was shocked and heartbroken when @CBS canceled #MikeAndMolly, Melissa wrote on Twitter when the news broke. I would have shot this show for 50 more years. Ill miss my 2nd family.
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of the James Burrows tribute? Let us know!
Luenell on Oscars Boycott: We Need White Actors to Speak Up Too Photo Chris Rock, who will host the Oscars ceremony next week, on the set of his 2014 film Top Five. Credit Ali Paige Goldstein/Paramount Pictures
LOS ANGELES The last time Chris Rock hosted the Oscars, he was judged by many to be a bust.
Loud, snide and dismissive, he wasnt just a disappointment, wrote the USA Today critic Robert Bianco in 2005. He ranks up there with the worst hosts ever. Other reports noted that the audience for Mr. Rocks show had dropped by 5 percent, to about 42.2 million viewers, from the year before, when Billy Crystal did the honors.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the future.
It would take nine years for another host to beat Mr. Rocks audience. That was Ellen DeGeneres, who got 43.7 million viewers in 2014 and, measured against a larger population, she actually fell a bit short of his Nielsen ratings.
As for snide and dismissive, almost anything that gets the numbers up when Mr. Rock takes the Oscars stage on Sunday will most likely be fine with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars, and ABC, which broadcasts the show.
Returning after 11 years, Mr. Rock inherits a ceremony in crisis, as the academy grapples with a deeper problem than the television ratings: diversity.
Photo Credit Photograph by Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images; Illustration by Andrew Sondern/The New York Times
For the second straight year Oscar voters snubbed minorities in the acting categories. Would-be viewers who are angry about that may not watch the telecast as a result. (Last year, the number of black viewers fell about 20 percent, according to Nielsen data.)
Others may be turned off by the crackle of racial politics around a show that they view as pure entertainment. (Cant we just enjoy a big TV event without being lectured? the conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III wrote about pleas for equality at last years ceremony.)
Quincy Jones, one of at least a dozen black celebrities lined up in recent weeks to appear at Sundays ceremony as presenters, had said this month that he would hand out a trophy only if given five minutes to address diversity. That would approximately match the length of last years opening musical number by Anna Kendrick, Jack Black and the ceremonys host, Neil Patrick Harris. A spokesman for Mr. Jones confirmed that he would appear, but declined to say whether he was promised added airtime.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said last week in an email that his group and others were continuing to back what they call the White Oscars Tune-Out. They were also planning Oscar day protests in Hollywood and at ABC stations in New York, Washington, Detroit, Cleveland, Miami and Atlanta.
We fully expect the ratings numbers to be down, and much of that will be due to the pressure, Mr. Hutchinson said.
He dismissed recent steps by the academy to make its membership and governing boards more diverse as time-delaying, cumbersome and convoluted. The academys goal, he added, was to s****h lots of favorable PR, give the appearance of change and make the protest go away. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the academys president, he said, had declined to meet with his organization or others to discuss further changes.
A spokeswoman for the academy declined to comment, and said neither Mr. Rock nor the shows producers, Reginald Hudlin and David Hill, would agree to be interviewed about plans for the ceremony.
The ratings numbers are of paramount concern to the academy, which derives the largest part of its income from the awards ceremony. Last year the audience fell 15 percent, to about 37.3 million viewers. At the same time, ABC has been raising prices for its ads; they now cost an average of $1.9 million to $2 million for a 30-second spot, up as much as 11 percent from a year ago, according to a report released by Kantar Media last week.
The report said ABC took in about $110 million from last years broadcast, up by almost half from $74 million in 2011, as rates jumped, and the network increased its advertising minutes during the show by about 25 percent, to 29 minutes and 45 seconds. By contrast, the 2015 Grammys had about $75 million in ad revenue last year, and the Golden Globes took in about $42 million, according to Kantar.
The academy receives roughly $110 million annually from the show, including fees related to ABCs domestic broadcast, separate income from distribution around the world, and other Oscar-related revenue. Assuring financial stability for the awards has become more critical for the academy, which last year sold about $350 million in bonds to support a new movie museum.
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Under a long-term contract, ABC has agreed to air the Oscars through 2020. But a ratings collapse of the kind that occurred in 2008 contributing to a 16 percent drop in ad revenue the next year could squeeze the network by reducing future advertising rates, and an Oscar-day boycott that reduced viewership could dent ABCs brand. The Disney-owned network has promoted itself as leading a TV industry push toward greater racial diversity (and on Wednesday, in a first for a major broadcaster, hired a black president of entertainment).
So much depends on Mr. Rock, who is not known for diplomacy.
Days after the 9/11 terror attacks, he tried out jokes in a Los Angeles comedy club about those trapped in the World Trade Center. His most recent film, two years ago, was Top Five, about a comic trying to get his mojo back. (Mr. Rock was writer, director and star.) It included a subplot in which its protagonist, Andre Allen, promotes his work in a film about a slave rebellion that killed 50,000 white people.
Scott Rudin, who was a producer of Top Five, suggested that Mr. Rock on Sunday will be served by his time spent working along cultural edges.
When you talk about who can walk a tightrope, he makes Philippe Petit look like an amateur, Mr. Rudin said in a phone interview, referring to a real-life high-wire artist who once walked between the World Trade Center towers.
Mr. Rocks aggressive comic style, seen as a bit much in 2005, may be less shocking in an era inured to the bawdy ramblings of an Amy Schumer, or the beery barbs of a Ricky Gervais, both of whom graced this years Golden Globes (which largely featured the same films that the Oscars will, and saw its audience drop 5 percent from 2015).
Of bigger concern, perhaps, are the size and currency of Mr. Rocks fan base. Ms. DeGeneres had the advantage of a daily talk show, and a Twitter following of 39 million. Neil Patrick Harris, last years host, appeared in the hit CBS series How I Met Your Mother through 2014, and had about 13.5 million followers.
Mr. Rock has 3.8 million followers, and has appeared only occasionally on television since 2009, when the CW network last aired new episodes of Everybody Hates Chris, a series for which he was narrator and executive producer.
In a 2013 interview with The Sioux City Journal, posted on his official website, Mr. Rock spoke of having passed up spots as a late-night television host to spend time with his two young daughters. At the time, he was among the producers of a talk show, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. (Mr. Bell described Mr. Rock as the foul-mouthed Yoda.) And he was awaiting the release of Grown Ups 2, in which he joined Adam Sandler in a comic ensemble.
Top Five took in just $25 million in North America after Paramount Pictures released it in December 2014. But critics liked it.
Chris Rock is the smartest person I know, Mr. Rudin said. If there is one person never to bet against, its him.
