Banned 4 life

Breaking News Getty Weed is now LEGAL in the MLB ... the league is lifting its ban on marijuana for minor leaguers, removing the drug from its prohibited substance list. As part of the MLB's efforts to crack down on opioid use in and around its league ... it has agreed to stop testing minor leaguers for weed, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reports. Of course, the MLB already didn't test its big leaguers for marijuana ... but the rule change for everyone else is a big deal for the sport. Previously, minor league players faced a 25-game suspension for a first positive weed test, a 50-game suspension for a second test, a 100-game suspension for a third and a ban for LIFE for a fourth. Ex-Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress is among the list of several current MLB players who have previously been popped for using weed in the minors. As for the why now ... MLB officials are clearly trying to deter players from turning to opioids to fix their issues -- this after Angels … [Read more...] about MLB Lifts Weed Ban For Minor Leaguers, Eliminates Marijuana Testing

When I was 19, I had an abortion. I was homeless, bouncing around couches and floors in New Orleans. I was in an emotionally abusive relationship. I was not myself, I was lost. One morning I woke up sick. I got a pregnancy test. Positive. I did not have a cell phone. I did not have a bank account. I had nothing but my banjo and a backpack. I went to a friend’s house to use his phone. I called my best friend who had just received student loans to attend college in New York City. “I know a doctor,” she said. “You’re coming here and we will deal with this.” I remember crying on the phone. I remember the rock-bottom feeling of helplessness. Icy fear. So I flew to New York, where I was born and raised, because my friend had the resources and saved me. I remember the immediate relief of her friendship and how badly I needed it. My pride would never allow me to crawl back to my family and ask for help. I was ashamed of myself not for my choice, but for … [Read more...] about How Alynda Segarra Created Hurray for the Riff Raff After Her Abortion

This January marks the tenth anniversary of the Beatles‘ appearance on the American charts. Last month Rolling Stone conducted its first full-scale interview with Paul McCartney, in six sessions starting in a London recording studio and ending on a New York street. The New York sessions took place the day after McCartney had entered the US for the first time in two years, visa problems stemming from two marijuana violations now finally resolved. McCartney was cautious in his responses during the first two sessions. He and Linda remembered being on vacation in Scotland when they were first shown John Lennon‘s lengthy interview (Rolling Stone Number 74 and Number 75, January 21st and February 4th, 1971), and having been deeply hurt by it. At first he seemed to want to avoid the kind of controversy Lennon’s interview had generated but in later conversations he became freer with his answers. Because the various sessions were necessarily disconnected, our text does not … [Read more...] about Paul McCartney Is Not Dead (And Neither Is the Past)

Britney Spears extends a honeyed thigh across the length of the sofa, keeping one foot on the floor as she does so. Her blond-streaked hair is piled high,exposing two little diamond earrings on each ear lobe; her face is fully made-up, down to carefully applied lip liner. The BABY PHAT logo of Spears’ pink T-shirt is distended by her ample chest,and her silky white shorts — with dark blue piping — cling snugly to her hips. She cocks her head and smiles receptively. But hold on. It’s not like that. You’re falling into the same trap as the lovelorn youths who call Spears’ local florist to send her long-stemmed roses and the randy fellows outside the MTV studios with prom invites scrawled on their chests. Admittedly, that trap is carefully baited by a debut video that shows the seventeen-year-old singer cavorting around like the naughtiest of schoolgirls. But, as Spears points out, nothing is actually revealed. “All I did was tie up my … [Read more...] about Britney Spears, Teen Queen: Rolling Stone’s 1999 Cover Story

We shouldn’t be asking Facebook to fix the problem. We should be fixing Facebook. It’s our collective misfortune that this perhaps silliest-in-history supercorporation – a tossed-off hookup site turned international cat-video vault turned Orwellian surveillance megavillain – has dragged us all to the very cliff edge of modern technological capitalism. We’ve reached a moment in history where many companies are more powerful than even major industrialized nations, and in some cases have essentially replaced governments as de facto regulators and overseers. But some of those companies suck just a little too badly at the governing part, leaving us staring into a paradox. The Russians call this situation a sobaka na sene, a dog on the hay. Asleep in the manger, the dog itself won’t eat the hay. But it won’t let you eat it either. We’ve got to get the dog off the hay. For much of the past year and a half, the Social Network has been everywhere … [Read more...] about Can We Be Saved From Facebook?