Britney Spears news

• “The system deprives athletes of the education that they’re promised”: Joe Nocera on the injustice of college sports

  02-04-2016 22:45 via salon.com
  
  On Saturday evening, the University of North Carolina and Syracuse University will face off in the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in front of tens of thousands of fans at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game will be televised on TBS, which along with CBS signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with the NCAA for the rights to the tournament in 2010.  The Atlantic Coast Conference, to which both schools belong, will earn a record $40 million from the tourname
  
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• The governor who poisoned Flint: The GOP’s Rick Snyder thought he might be president. Not so fast…

  02-04-2016 21:30 via salon.com
  
  When Rick Snyder took the reigns from Jennifer Granholm on Jan. 1, 2011, there was a certain smugness hanging in Michigan’s raw winter air.The changing of the guard had been fairly pleasant –– the Republican and Democrat had even held a (mundane) joint press conference on economic development. That stood in sharp contrast to the bitterly partisan transition from Jim Blanchard to the man who defeated him in 1990, John Engler, and then from Engler to Granholm 12 years later.As th
  
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• It’s a “blow job” because it’s work: How guys push women to make oral sex as common as shaking hands

  02-04-2016 20:00 via salon.com
  
  Why Do You Think They Call It a Blow “Job”?There has been a lot of anxiety over the past couple of decades about teens and oral sex. Much of it can be traced back to the late 1990s, to a New York Times report that among middle-class teens, oral sex—and by “oral sex,” it meant fellatio—not only was becoming ubiquitous, but that they were engaging in it far earlier and more casually than teens’ busy (read: neglectful) working parents realized. One health e
  
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• Bernie’s endgame: No, he can’t win now — but his campaign has exposed Hillary as a “weak frontrunner” in a divided party

  02-04-2016 18:00 via salon.com
  Early last week, leading figures in Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign hosted a conference call with political reporters to push the narrative that they still saw a tenuous “path to victory” over Hillary Clinton in the contest for the Democratic nomination. There was nothing so extraordinary in that: Losing candidates, like baseball teams who are 10 games back at the All-Star break, often claim they have a secret plan to win. (I’m looking at you, Marco Rubio.) It struck me,
  
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• What Donald Trump doesn’t know might save us: He’s unschooled, but at least he’s no American exceptionalist or neo-con ideologue

  02-04-2016 17:59 via salon.com
  
  The Russians have long understood that words are actions. A linguist and literary critic prominent in the last century added to the thought by insisting that context is more important than text. The meaning of what one says, in other words, is relational: It can be understood only by way of when, how, to whom and even where one says it.There is no escaping the thought of words as actions as it applies to foreign policy. Washington has its “moderate opposition” in Syria, and the desig
  
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• An osprey’s untimely demise: The sad tale of a raptor held for ransom

  02-04-2016 17:00 via salon.com
  
  In early February as Haitians took to the streets of the capital city of Port-au-Prince in violent protest against the government, a quieter political drama of international consequence unfolded in a far away village in the Central Plateau where a man held a migrating raptor for ransom hoping it would be his ticket out of the country.The osprey's captor initially mistook it for an eagle — a well-known symbol associated with the United States, and hoped to use it as his ticket out of Haiti.
  
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• Your affair might be illegal: Inside the complicated world — and 21 states — where adultery remains against the law

  02-04-2016 16:45 via salon.com
  
  In 2004, John Bushey, a sixty-six-year-old attorney for the town of Luray, Virginia, pled guilty to adultery and lost his job as a consequence. His infidelity was never in doubt. After his extramarital affair ended badly, the woman involved went to the police. The assistant commonwealth attorney later defended the decision to prosecute: “We’re not out beating bushes and certainly we’re not peeking in windows. However, in this case, it was thrown in our face.” Initially it
  
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• Melania Trump has exposed the absurdity of campaign finance rules

  02-04-2016 16:00 via salon.com
  
  There’s no evidence to support Donald Trump’s claim that Ted Cruz played a role in a super PAC’s attack on his wife.But federal rules barring coordination between candidates and the super PACs that support them have been so rarely enforced that even if Trump were right, it’s uncertain the Cruz campaign would be penalized.The question arose last week, when a super PAC called “Make America Awesome” rolled out a digital ad targeting Utah voters that featured Tru
  
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• Paul Ryan is an absolute joke: The facts and numbers make it clear — GOP economic plans are an absolute fantasy

  02-04-2016 15:30 via salon.com
  
  Paul Ryan has increasingly emerged as the GOP's salvation figure. Not this year, of course. He's made that very clear.  But as the party's presidential primary has gone completely off the rails, Ryan's stature in the eyes of those who count has risen accordingly. If anyone can guide them out of whatever wilderness lies ahead, Ryan's the one they look to now. But, as Digby wrote here recently, what sets Ryan apart from the primary clown car catastrophe is style, not substance. “It
  
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• All Donald Trump, all the time: How our dumbed-down media creates a dumbed-down electorate

  02-04-2016 15:29 via salon.com
  
  Journalists are searching for an explanation of the Donald Trump phenomenon, trying to comprehend how a real estate developer/reality TV star is close to seizing the Republican nomination for president of the United States. They point to the angry electorate, disarray and dysfunction within the Republican Party, but the best explanation is staring journalists in the mirror.Donald Trump’s huge success in the presidential campaign is a direct result of the state of journalism in our country.
  
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• Democrats need to accept a hard truth about Bernie Sanders: He can get a lot more done as a senator than president — and here’s why

  02-04-2016 14:00 via salon.com
  By the standards of a jaded and cynical journalist who believes it's almost miraculous that human imperfection hasn't yet resulted in the destruction of civilization as we know it, I like Sen. Bernie Sanders as much as the next guy (or gal).I am very happy he decided to run for president; and even if he loses, which at this point seems quite likely, he has done the American Left a great service. If Hillary Clinton ultimately becomes the next president, which at this point seems in
  
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• The great $15/hour lie: Workers don’t have to wait to earn a living wage

  02-04-2016 13:00 via salon.com
  
  Millions of workers across the country have won wage hikes under the banner of $15, and this week many more in California stand poised to join the parade. But three and a half years after the first picket sign was hoisted demanding $15/hour and union recognition, very few minimum wage workers are actually getting paid that much. That’s because among those crafting wage legislation, it’s become an axiom that increases must be phased in over time for the sake of business and economic s
  
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• What’s the matter with Dem? Thomas Frank talks Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and everything in between

  02-04-2016 12:30 via salon.com
  
  In his books What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew, writer Thomas Frank made a name for himself with his critiques of Republican politics. Now, he’s turning his eviscerating anthropological technique on the tribe of which he considers himself a member.While the battle rages for the soul of the Republican Party, Frank sees Democrats in the throes of their own identity crisis.While the battle rages for the soul of the Republican Party, Frank sees Democrats in the throes
  
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• How I friended Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Colbert: Zach Anner on comedy and cerebral palsy (“The sexiest of the palsies”)

  02-04-2016 01:00 via salon.com
  
  “So, what does Oprah smell like?”People ask me this question all the time, because in the fall of 2010 I got to sit across from Oprah Winfrey for twenty minutes. It was during the second-to-last episode of Your OWN Show as part of a press junket challenge where the final three contestants were interviewed by TV Guide and Entertainment Tonight, and then at the end were surprised by the queen herself for a one-on-one pleasant chat/most important job interview of our lives. The only dif
  
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• Joy is a feminist (comedy) act: With her playful, dirty swagger, “Broad City”’s Ilana is breaking the mold

  02-04-2016 00:59 via salon.com
  
  In her now famous skit, “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer,” Schumer spoofs the iconic film “12 Angry Men” by depicting a jury of 12, whose job is to decide whether she is attractive enough to be on T.V. “It’s an undisputed fact that a woman’s value is mostly determined by her looks,” one man says, the others concurring seriously.Since "Inside Amy Schumer" debuted on Comedy Central in 2013, Schumer has consistently lampooned sexism in American cultur
  
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• Andrew Bird gets confessional, at last: “I really wanted to make a less whimsical, more visceral, grab-you-in-the-gut kind of record”

  02-04-2016 00:59 via salon.com
  
  Despite going through conservatory and getting a degree in violin performance, Andrew Bird has always felt like an outsider in the world of classical music. Yet, as alternative acts were blooming around him in 1990s Chicago, he quickly realized he also didn’t belong in the world of confessional music that emphasized emotion over technical songcraft. Rather than give up, Bird built property on this seeming no-man’s land — a career based on his trademark violin, whistling and wit
  
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