Lauren Moccio

President Barack Obama’s presidential library and museum has found its home. It has been long decided that President Obama’s presidential library would be in his adopted hometown of Chicago rather than his birthplace of Honolulu, Hawaii, but the presidential center’s exact location was just announced on Friday: the center will be located in historic Jackson […]

Meghan McCain, a daughter of the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), is using Twitter to stand up to her party’s 2016 nominee, New York City businessman and brand licensor Donald Trump, according to The Hill. Trump has sparked outrage this week by responding negatively to Khizr and Ghazala Khan, a Muslim American […]

Michelle Carter’s involuntary manslaughter trial in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a new twist. According to The Independent, Carter and her attorneys are asking that her statements to police in the wake of the suicide of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, be declared inadmissible, along with damaging evidence found in a police search of her […]

Classic television and movie actor Don Knotts, who is most well-known for having played hapless sheriff’s deputy Barney Fife on the 1960s-era sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, was born in Morgantown, West Virginia in July of 1924. In celebration of his birthday and his extraordinary creative achievements, Morgantown is hosting a Don Knotts Celebration Weekend, […]

A hilarious viral tweet contains a video in which a 7-year-old boy learns the hard way why you shouldn’t feed the seagulls. The boy’s older cousin, Patricia, filmed him making the mistake of trying to feed seagulls at the beach and then fleeing them in terror when they descended upon him — and she said […]

The names of the three Baton Rouge police officers who were murdered on Sunday have been released to the media, along with details about their families. The three officers are Montrell Jackson, Matthew Gerald, and Brad Garafola. The names were released to the media in that order according to the Associated Press. Sheriff deputy Brad […]

Queen Latifah is making headlines this week for speaking out on Friday morning’s TODAY show about rising tensions between police officers and the general public, the two extrajudicial executions of black men that were displayed on social media in the past week — those of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile — and the murders of […]

Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not shy about expressing her dislike for the 2016 presumptive Republican presidential nominee, New York City businessman and brand licensor Donald Trump. In their article accompanying last week’s press interview with her, the New York Times remarked on Sunday about Justice Ginsburg‘s fearless deviation from the norm when […]

Is baseball great Derek Jeter married? According to People, the answer is yes! The celebrity news and human interest magazine reports that Derek Jeter, 42, married his girlfriend of almost four years, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Hannah Davis, 26, on Saturday in what was described as an “intimate ceremony” at Meadowood Napa Valley Resort in […]

Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s novel The BFG — which stands for “big, friendly giant” — was undoubtedly an attempt at a kids’ movie summer blockbuster. Unfortunately, the film had a $140 million budget and only made $19.6 million in domestic sales in its opening weekend box office returns, according to […]

Kim Kardashian’s nude dresses have made a definite fashion splash during her public appearances in May and June, as reported by the Mirror Online and The Huffington Post. The Kardashian/Jenner women are very much known for their love of neutrals, with the arguable exception of Caitlyn Jenner, who seems to experiment with brighter colors a […]

The Macy’s Independence Day television special, concert, and fireworks display is a holiday tradition in New York City on the Fourth of July, much like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and several other spectacular holiday celebrations in the city that are hosted by Macy’s — the quintessential American department store. This classic company has been […]

Dan Rather has provided the latest installment of one of the American media’s favorite games: reporting on itself. According to The Huffington Post, Rather appeared on Sunday’s Reliable Sources on CNN, at which time he accused the media of being so desperate for ratings that they have essentially become both a “political partner” and a […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hTyUMZMx3g Tony Blair, member of the British Labour party and former prime minister of the United Kingdom, wrote an op-ed for Friday’s New York Times that discussed “Brexit,” the nickname for “British exit” that has been used to describe Thursday’s referendum in the UK through which the British public voted to leave the European Union […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXmxjepBCQ Comedian Jim Gaffigan appeared alongside viral video juggernaut and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon on NBC on Thursday night, according to comedy industry blog Splitsider, for a Father’s Day “last-minute gift guide” joke segment that doubled as a promo for the second season of Gaffigan’s TV Land sitcom, The Jim Gaffigan Show. The show’s […]

Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of the 2016 presumptive Republican nominee for president, New York City businessman and brand licensor Donald Trump, has a social media strategy that strongly incorporates her personal life as a working mother of three young children — including her new baby, Theodore James Kushner, born March 27. Baby Theodore has […]

The Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in the wee hours of Sunday morning has been declared the worst mass shooting in American history. It took place in a venue that especially caters to LGBT clientele and also during the month of June, which is traditionally Gay Pride month in the United States to commemorate […]

The recent listeria outbreak in early May that resulted in the recall of hundreds of frozen food items has soldiered on for a solid six weeks now, resulting in an overwhelming amount of recalled food items in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada that shows no sign of stopping. https://twitter.com/dejbanlaw/status/742137812217004032 Nature Valley, Clif […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjkk4MmCuFQ Kendall Jenner is an international fashion model who, at the relatively young age of 20, has a staggering amount of paparazzi following her around in order to keep tabs on her street style. Considering the fact that her style, street or otherwise, is integral to her career, Jenner has made the perhaps gutsy decision […]

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has won the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico according to NBC News, moving her yet another step closer to clinching the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. Hillary Clinton’s polls have shown her consistently ahead of her primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), from the earliest stages of […]

Governor John Kasich (R-OH) sat down with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday for his first in-depth interview following his withdrawal from the 2016 Republican presidential primary. Cooper stated that John Kasich’s name has been coming up in the news “a lot” for the past few days, and asked him if there is any truth to […]

Season 12 of the smash hit E! reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered on Sunday, May 1. Episode 3 airs tonight, May 15, and E! has released three exciting sneak peeks of the newest episode, according to Gossip Cop. One clip released this week features an argument between Kris Jenner and Khloé […]

Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of the Republican Party’s presumptive 2016 nominee for president, New York City businessman Donald Trump, talked life, family, and politics at the fourth annual Forbes Women’s Summit in New York City on Thursday, May 12. An enthusiastic and active surrogate for her father’s presidential campaign, Ivanka Trump took only a […]

The recent Melania Trump interview and profile in GQ was met with consternation from Melania Trump herself and absolute rancor from Donald Trump’s devoted supporters. Donald Trump, a New York City brand licensor and real estate magnate, is the presumptive 2016 Republican nominee for president. When Melania Trump’s profile was published in GQ on April […]

Comic actress Ariel Winter, 18, known for her performance as the teenaged genius Alex Dunphy on the ABC primetime hit sitcom Modern Family, used Instagram to wish a happy Mother’s Day to her older sister, Shanelle Workman, 37, also known as Shanelle Gray. Workman stepped in and finished raising Ariel Winter following the actress’s removal […]

The Kardashians have been relatively quiet about the recent news that Rob Kardashian, Jr.’s fiancée, celebrity entrepreneur Blac Chyna, is expecting his first child. According to a Friday report from People, however, there’s no way the Kardashians were blindsided by the news — Blac Chyna’s representative told the magazine that she would have preferred to […]

Author’s note: this piece originally stated that Melania Trump was born with the surname Knauss, which is incorrect. She was born with the surname Knavs, which she later Germanized to Knauss. My apologies for the error. ~LEM, July 2016 Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, New York […]

The 2016 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was the talk of social media on Saturday night. The red carpet was populated by members of the White House press corps as well as their guests, many of whom were Hollywood celebrities in addition to well-known Beltway figures. The dinner has been hosted by the White House […]

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the Republican party’s 2008 presidential nominee, referred to the program of development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — a fifth-generation military stealth jet — as “both a scandal and a tragedy with respect to cost, schedule, and performance,” according to CNN. He also stated that the F-35 “scandal” is the […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LP3CCxXZZM The nickname “Super Tuesday” — while traditionally belonging to the first Tuesday in a presidential primary season which follows the designated early races (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina) — has entered into more general usage, with various members of the political media using it to describe any Tuesday that contains more than […]

President Barack Obama is visiting Britain for the last time as President of the United States. His visit was ostensibly to celebrate the 90th birthday of Britain’s monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the president and First Lady did meet with the queen and her consort, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, as […]

Jennifer Hudson, an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, and Grammy-winning actress and singer who began her career by placing seventh on the third season of American Idol, led her fellow Broadway cast members of The Color Purple in a stirring Prince tribute Thursday night that enchanted his mourning fans on social media following the death of […]

Princess Charlotte, the 11-month-old daughter of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, was featured sitting on the lap of her paternal grandmother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in an adorable family portrait of the monarch with the youngest members of the British […]

Donald Trump’s wife, businesswoman and former model Melania Trump, cast her vote for her husband in the New York Republican presidential primary today in front of many members of both local and national media at the Central Synagogue in midtown Manhattan. Josh Haskell of ABC News asked Melania Trump for whom she voted as she […]

Tracy Morgan, a stand-up comedian and comic actor formerly of Saturday Night Live and NBC’s 30 Rock, suffered a debilitating car accident in June 2014 that resulted in the death of his friend, mentor, and colleague, comedian James “Jimmy Mack” McNair, 62. On Saturday night, April 16, People reports that Tracy Morgan performed a special […]

Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination for president, has made distrust for the media (and sometimes outright hatred of the media) a cornerstone of his primary campaign. Trump is continuing this strategy, which has proved to be very popular among his supporters, by announcing this past Wednesday that he will be boycotting […]

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are soon scheduled to arrive in New Delhi, the second stop on their royal tour of India and Bhutan that commenced in Mumbai on April 10. The New Delhi leg of their tour includes a milestone birthday party for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the duke’s […]

Carly Fiorina, former candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, made headlines this week when she told press that she wasn’t ruling out the idea of accepting an offer to run as a vice presidential candidate instead. Since dropping out of the race, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard has endorsed Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), the […]

Former First Lady Laura Bush, wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, a Republican, surprised pundits this week by hinting — according to the analysis of The Telegraph and The Washington Times — that she would prefer to have Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton win the 2016 presidential election if it […]

Megyn Kelly, host of the primetime show The Kelly File on Fox News Channel, has seen her name recognition and national profile increase this election season. This is primarily due to the fact that the 2016 frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, New York City businessman Donald Trump, decided to launch a months-long social media […]

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) polls far, far ahead of New York City businessman Donald Trump in Five Thirty Eight‘s prediction for the upcoming Wisconsin GOP primary on Tuesday, April 5. The approaching Wisconsin GOP primary coincides with a rather sudden shift in the media buzz surrounding Donald Trump’s stability as the frontrunner for the 2016 […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euO716g3TNs The 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Boston marked the end of the American medal drought in Ladies’ Singles, as American skater Ashley Wagner, 24, overtook her teammate Gracie Gold, 20, and won the silver medal on home soil with a final score of 215.39. Ashley Wagner’s silver medal is the first medal […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MosAdhhvoo The 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships kicked off in Boston on March 30, and Team USA has not disappointed, using the morale boost that comes with skating for the host country in front of home crowds to outperform almost every expectation in the first few events. As of this writing, two divisions have […]

Happy Easter! The White House submitted a press release on Friday announcing its impressively full talent program for the 2016 White House Easter Egg Roll. The Easter Egg Roll is a delightful White House tradition for families that allegedly dates back to 1814. According to the National First Ladies’ Library, “undocumented legend has it” that […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fybETQxX4Bc The 2016 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships took place in Debrecen, Hungary, from March 14 through March 20. This year’s junior championships marked an historic win for Japan, as Japanese skater Marin Honda, 14, won gold in Junior Ladies’ Singles on Saturday, ending a long winning streak for Russia. According to Kyodo News, […]

Bill Maher has jumped into the conversation about just what caused this year’s Donald Trump phenomenon in the United States with the suggestion that “the self-esteem movement” is to blame, according to the Washington Post‘s political blog, The Fix. On the March 18 episode of his HBO program, Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher rustled […]

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a 2016 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, hosted a rally in Seattle, Washington, on Sunday evening that pulled a very impressive several thousand attendees. The question is, as the Democratic primary races draw toward a close, will Bernie Sanders keep his campaign going all the way to the convention, or […]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made news this weekend by signing a belated Valentine’s Day card, along with several members of Canadian Parliament, for an Alberta man named Degas Sikorski. Why would Justin Trudeau sign a valentine for just one university student? Sikorski’s mother, Shelley Bramhoff Sikorski, took to Facebook on Valentine’s Day weekend to […]

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, released in 2010, will soon have a sequel, and a new trailer for Alice Through the Looking Glass was released today, March 13. The trailer contains a cute reference to Daylight Saving Time, which began today in the United States. Collider reminds us that the correct term, Daylight Saving Time, […]

Larry David’s Bernie Sanders impression has been a beloved staple on Saturday Night Live this election season, and David was back by popular demand for the cold open at the beginning of the March 12 episode. Senator Bernie Sanders’s similarity to Larry David in vocal tone, mannerisms, and regional accent is so striking that it […]