Monday Morning Scoop: The ‘Shape’ We’re In
The Shape of Things to Come
The Shape of Water won best picture, director, score and production design at a long Academy Awards ceremony last night, and the main acting awards — Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour and Allison Janney for I, Tonya. — went to the favorites. But the Times Up and #MeToo movements clearly have made a serious impact on Hollywood’s biggest night.
The Los Angeles Times observed that, “there were two main narrative thrusts to the evening, one looking backward, one looking ahead — looking ahead was also looking outward, to a more inclusive film industry.”
Three of the over sixty women who have accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment spoke up during the ceremony. Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciora, and Salma Hayek all sent a message, but Sciorra may have summed it up best by saying, “this year many spoke their truth and the journey ahead is long, but slowly a new path has emerged.”
Democrats’ Dramatic Face off in Texas
A Democratic House primary outside Houston, Tx. has become a dramatic face off between Democrats who backed Bernie Sanders and members of the establishment.
CNN reports, “The controversy erupted more than a week ago, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s political arm for House races, unleashed a scathing attack against journalist and activist Laura Moser, one of seven candidates in the Texas 7th District Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. John Culberson this fall.”
With just a short time left before Tuesday’s primary, the fighting has rehashed old conflicts among the party going back to the 2016 election when Sanders supporters accused the Democratic National Committee of favoring Hillary Clinton.
Today in a Tweet
Jordan Peele’s Get Out earned him a place in history at the Academy Awards last night, as he became the first Black nominee to ever win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Central Michigan University Student Who Shot and Killed His Parents His Dorm Faces Murder Charges
A tragic and dramatic scenario played out at Central Michigan University on Friday as students were preparing to leave campus for spring break.
CMU student James Eric Davis Jr. killed his father — who was a part-time police officer in the Chicago area — and his mother Friday morning with a handgun that was registered to his dad after they arrived on campus to take him home for spring break. They had been summoned by a phone call from campus police, who took Davis to the hospital the night before, citing behavior that was consistent with drug use.
Davis faces two first-degree murder and a felony weapon charge.
Get all the details in CMN’s report.
Florida Teacher Removed After Reports She Hosted A White Supremacist Podcast
A Florida middle school teacher is being investigated after reports that the teacher had been secretly hosting a white nationalist podcast.
HuffPost first reported Saturday that Dayanna Volitich, a 25-year-old social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School in Florida, had been hosting a podcast titled “Unapologetic” under the pseudonym “Tiana Dalichov.”
Arianna Lynne has the details in her report for CMN.
Last But Not Least: It’s Now Illegal to Get an Eyeball Tattoo in Indiana
Indiana lawmakers have approved a bill to effectively ban eyeball tattooing.
According to the Associated Press, tattooists would be prohibited from coloring the whites of an individual’s eyes. The process is referred to as a sclera tattoo, which involves injecting ink injected into the eyeball to turn the sclera — white part of the eyeball — a different color.
The process went horribly wrong for a Canadian model last year, causing her to lose sight in one of her eyes.
Today’s Morning Scoop was compiled by Roxanneh Mousavi, Natalia Kolenko, and the CMN Staff. It’s Monday, but you probably don’t care because you’re on spring break, aren’t you?
