Britney Spears news

• Cleveland police union responds to $6 million dollar shooting settlement: Tamir Rice’s family should use money to educate children on gun safety

  25-04-2016 23:47 via salon.com
  
  On November 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann. After a more than year long delay, a grand jury failed to indict Loehmann for what prosecutor Tim McGinty described as a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes and communications.” Seconds after arriving at the scene, Loehmann fired at Rice who was alone in a local park with a toy gun.In February, the city of Cleveland filed a creditor’s claim agai
  
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• Beyoncé’s stunning triumph: “What we’re seeing is absolutely unprecedented”

  25-04-2016 23:34 via salon.com
  
  The weekend’s release of Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” film and album has become one of the year’s biggest cultural events and one of the most revealing look at a musician’s domestic life we’ve had in some time. In some ways it resembles Marvin Gaye’s “Here, My Dear,” the 1978 album about the breakup of his first marriage, but in a much fiercer pitch: Beyoncé wields a baseball bat, smashing cars, as she sings about infide
  
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• Jill Stein pens open letter to Bernie: Green Party presidential candidate invites Sanders to “cooperate on political revolution”

  25-04-2016 22:35 via salon.com
  
  While overly presumptive Republican presidential candidates rushing to announce potential vice presidential running mates, one presidential candidate is openly courting the idea of a bipartisan unity ticket.Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, wrote an open letter to Bernie Sanders, asking the Independent Vermont senator to consider ditching his attempt to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination for a real "revolution for people, planet and peace" alongside Stein.Stein
  
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• “Gay” James Franco’s delusion: Why “a little gay” doesn’t go a long way in real life

  25-04-2016 21:45 via salon.com
  
  How do you solve a problem like James Franco? Promoting his new gay-themed film “King Cobra,” about the 2007 murder of gay porn producer Bryan Kocis, the multi-hyphenate discussed his sexuality—yet again—in a sitdown with New York magazine. Referring to himself as a “gay cock tease,” Franco called himself a “little gay,” while emphasizing that he’s straight. “There is a bit of over focusing on my sexuality, both by the straight press an
  
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• “El Trumpo Takes a Thumpo”: St. Louis is latest city to get in on Donald Trump piñata craze

  25-04-2016 21:20 via salon.com
  
  St. Louis is the latest city to get in on the Trump piñata trend. In preparation for the city's Cinco de Mayo celebration, a Donald Trump piñata will be placed on a golden throne.The Trump Piñata will be on display at Yaquis Pizza and Wine Bar, where around dusk on Saturday, May 7, kids will  be able to bash down El Trumpo and grab as much candy as they can during the event,called "El Trumpo Takes aThumpo." The piñata will be un
  
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• 83% of senators call for boosting exorbitant U.S. aid to Israel; Bernie Sanders one of 17 who didn’t

  25-04-2016 21:10 via salon.com
  
  The U.S. gives more than $3 billion in unconditional military aid to Israel every single year — more than any other country receives, by far.In fact, more than half of U.S. foreign military financing goes to Israel, a country roughly the size of New Jersey.The vast majority of the Senate, however, thinks $3.1 billion per year isn't enough.More than four-fifths of the U.S. Senate signed a letter pressuring President Obama to boost military aid to Israel, Reuters reported Monday.A whopping 8
  
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• Jim Webb’s sad Andrew Jackson apologia: Pining for the bad old days of Democratic politics

  25-04-2016 20:51 via salon.com
  
  Jim Webb’s evolution as a political figure is an interesting story. Way back in 2006, he narrowly won his Senate race in Virginia thanks, in part, to the persistent racism in the American political system – Webb’s opponent, George Allen, was caught on tape demeaning a Webb campaign staffer with a racial epithet, and he was engulfed in a media firestorm that never subsided. A decade later, Webb is out of the Senate and emerging as a spokesman and apologist for a bygone era of De
  
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• Piers Morgan trolls Beyoncé: Of course he prefers “less inflammatory” Bey to her new “militant” work

  25-04-2016 20:44 via salon.com
  
  Attention, wannabes: Piers Morgan this Monday has been offering a master class in How to Be Piers Morgan, Beyoncé Edition. Want to learn how he does it? Just follow these easy steps and you too can a be former Fleet Street hack and full-time Internet troll!Step 1: Fire a warning shot to create buzz, in this case, in the form of a tweet promising, "My new @DailyMail column is about militant @Beyonce. Posting soon." Then, both modestly and prophetically, retweet someone else predi
  
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• Missouri Republicans spend more than $8 million to block less than $400,000 in federal funding for Planned Parenthood

  25-04-2016 20:43 via salon.com
  
  Missouri Republicans rejected $8.3 million in federal Medicaid funding the state was granted for women's health services because less than $400,000 of that funding would have gone to Planned Parenthood, the Associated Press reported over the weekend.After finally dropping their threat to hold the president of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri in contempt, a rare move that would have carried jail time, Missouri Republicans passed a budget that takes
  
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• Why I say “Bernie or Bust”: If Sanders isn’t the Democratic nominee, his backers should not pull the lever for Hillary Clinton

  25-04-2016 20:00 via salon.com
  
  Why would Bernie or Bust voters risk a future with Donald Trump by refusing to vote for Hillary Clinton?It’s structural change Bernie or Bust wants; it’s the status quo that Clinton voters want to uphold.As we’ve heard throughout this election, “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.” Sure, Clinton would be better than Trump, but better won’t prevent the next endless war, or devastating financial collapse. President Obama is sending even&nbs
  
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• Bad news for Hillary and Democrats: Donald Trump is coaxing tens of thousands of Pennsylvania Dems to switch parties

  25-04-2016 19:47 via salon.com
  
  Short of unifying his own party, Donald Trump has somehow managed to blur partisan lines in Pennsylvania with his paper-thin policy platforms.An unprecedented number of Pennsylvanians have switched their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican ahead of Tuesday's primary in order to vote Trump, according to a Duluth News Tribune report.The report said that "61,500 Democrats have become Republicans so far this year, part of a 145,000 jump in Republican registrations since the fall
  
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• “It shows how weak they are”: Donald Trump reacts to Ted Cruz and John Kasich alliance

  25-04-2016 19:10 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump's path to the nomination doesn't seem to be slowing.
  With 845 delegates so far, Trump leads Cruz by nearly 300. And while John Kasich will need over 100% of remaining delegates to reach the necessary 1,237, it is mathematically impossible for either Cruz and Kasich to win.
  Their best bet is stop Trump from also reaching the necessary delegate count, and now they've joined forces to do just that.Watch for more information.Donald Trump's path to the nomination doesn't seem to be slowi
  
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• What’s Hillary waiting for? 80 days after promising “I will look into it,” Clinton still has not released her paid speeches to Wall Street

  25-04-2016 18:58 via salon.com
  
  Exactly 80 days ago, Hillary Clinton promised to the world that she would "look into" releasing the transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street firms and other corporations.In the time since, Clinton has not released a single transcript.Her opponent, Bernie Sanders, has persistently brought up the speeches in presidential debates. When asked about them in the New Hampshire debate on Feb. 4, Clinton insisted "I will look into it. I don't know the status, but I will certainly look into it."Aft
  
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• Set Prince’s vault free: His music is too fascinating and important to stay locked up

  25-04-2016 18:30 via salon.com
  
  Since his death, Prince has emerged as an artist with something close to a consensus around him: Musicians, critics, and music fans see him as not only a hugely major figure, but an impossibly complex one. Assessments of his guitar playing, his lyrics, his relationship to technology, his sexuality, his quiet philanthropy, his embrace of religion, and his intense individualism have reminded anyone who might have taken him for granted that Prince was not a musician of a single style or a sing
  
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• Bill Clinton can’t stop screwing up: Why his latest broadside against millennials reveals an underlying problem

  25-04-2016 18:14 via salon.com
  
  If the Clinton campaign is hoping to get young people out to vote for Hillary in November, it may want to start thinking about sidelining one of its most well-known surrogates: her husband.Though still charming and well-liked after all these years, Bill Clinton has not been very helpful to his wife’s campaign thus far; if anything, he has caused more harm than good, with several ill-advised remarks that have alienated voters whom Hilla
  
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• Cleveland agrees to pay $6 million to family of Tamir Rice, child who was shot dead by cops

  25-04-2016 18:03 via salon.com
  
  Cleveland has approved a $6 million settlement for the family of Tamir Rice,  who was shot and killed by police in November 2014, reports The New York Times.The 12-year-old boy who was seen carrying a fake firearm on Nov. 22 was killed by police officer Timothy Loehmann who responded to an inaccurate 911 call of a man waving a gun in the vicinity of a playground. The dispatcher failed to communicate to the responding officers that the caller reported seein
  
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• They have no idea what to do: The GOP lacks basic competence — just look at Kasich and Cruz’s “brilliant” plan to deny Trump the nomination

  25-04-2016 17:49 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump is blessed with incompetent enemies. Not since Jeb Bush dropped out of the race have we seen anything as comically pathetic as John Kasich and Ted Cruz openly conspiring to deny Trump the nomination through a half-baked plan to divvy up the remaining primary states in an attempt to deny Trump a large enough delegate lead to avoid a contested convention. The whole sorry affair is a reminder that the Republicans have a serious deficiency when it comes to competent leadership, which is
  
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• Fox News’ “Medical A-Team” expert Keith Ablow proposes a “cure” for transgender children

  25-04-2016 17:45 via salon.com
  
  On Fox & Friends Monday morning, "Medical A-Team" leader Keith Ablow decided that trans individuals who wish to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify are the equivalent of people trying to defraud the government in order to receive Medicare benefits -- or white people who get themselves inked head-to-toe in order to appear black."If you believe that you are of one gender, but your DNA and your physical appearance and your physical anatomy are evidence that you are of anothe
  
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• Republicans rush to defend Dennis Hastert, plead court for leniency in alleged pedophile hush money case

  25-04-2016 17:44 via salon.com
  
  On Wednesday, former Republican U.S. House speaker Dennis Hastert will be sentenced for his part in an elaborate hush money scheme to cover up his years long molestation of teenage boys while he was a Illinois high school wrestling coach from 1965 until 1981. But if his fellow Republicans have their way -- he won't see a minute of prison time.According to federal prosecutors, Hastert “made payments to a man who was sexually abused at age 14 by Hastert when he was the boy’s
  
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• All famous Rachels, watch out: Beyoncé fans are coming for you — whether you’re “Becky with the good hair” or not

  25-04-2016 17:09 via salon.com
  
  In much the same way that Herod — or King Joffrey, if that's more your reference point — went after all the babies in the land just to ensure the correct one was punished, woe unto the high profile women of social media who share a name with the woman who may or may not have ever been Jay Z's side piece. Or as a Beyoncé fan put it recently on actress Rachel Bilson's Instagram, "We coming for all named Rachel." IT BEGINS.It started with Beyoncé's brilliant new
  
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• Oligarchs handing control of Brazil to corporate elites in slow-moving “coup,” critics say, as U.S. accused of quietly helping

  25-04-2016 17:03 via salon.com
  
  Analysts are warning that there is a slow-motion "coup" going on in Brazil, where the country's right-wing opposition is trying to impeach the democratically elected left-wing president with the support of corporate elites and likely even the U.S."Brazilian financial and media elites are pretending that corruption is the reason for removing the twice-elected president of the country as they conspire to install and empower the country’s most corrupted political figures," writes journalist G
  
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• Their new, desperate bid to stop Donald Trump: Cruz and Kasich officially unite to derail the billionaire — and they’ve fallen right into his trap

  25-04-2016 15:46 via salon.com
  
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• “I’m with Monica Lewinsky with this”: Bernie Sanders surrogate Rosario Dawson finds sneaky way to inject Monica into 2016 debate

  25-04-2016 15:30 via salon.com
  
  Bernie Sanders has repeatedly said he is committed to battling Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination to the very end, insisting that all future attacks will be policy based, but now one of his most active Hollywood supporters is invoking Monica Lewinsky to accuse Clinton of bullying the Sanders campaign."We are literally under attack for not just supporting the other candidate," actress and top Sanders surrogate Rosario Dawson said at a Sanders campaign rally in Wilmington,
  
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• Jim Webb’s embarrassing argument for keeping Jackson on the $20 bill: He committed genocide against Native Americans to protect them from themselves

  25-04-2016 15:27 via salon.com
  
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• WATCH: Fox News’ Jesse Watters tries — and fails, spectacularly — to outsmart the Reverend Al Sharpton

  25-04-2016 15:01 via salon.com
  
  The always topical, always relevant Jesse Watters approached the Reverend Al Sharpton recently and asked him about a heated speech he delivered in 1992 at Kean College in New Jersey.In the speech, Sharpton excoriated those who believe in "offing the pigs," saying that "they've got pigs out here, you ain't offed one of them." He then drew a contrast between their talk and his action."What I believe in, I do," Sharpton said in 1992. "Do what you believe in, or shut up and admit you’ve lost y
  
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• John Oliver just made the Puerto Rico crisis make sense

  25-04-2016 14:57 via salon.com
  
  "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver last night devoted his main segment to Puerto Rico.The territory now has approximately $7 billion in debt and a 45% poverty rate. In an attempt to chip away at that deficit, the Puerto Rican government has increased sales taxes and closed schools, convincing thousands to leave for the contiguous U.S."Right now, Puerto Rico is like the last Tower Records," Oliver said. "Everything's overpriced, everyone's being laid off, and there's still a weirdly large
  
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• Y’all can stop tweeting about Beyonce’s #Lemonade now — Monica Lewinsky just won the Internet

  25-04-2016 14:01 via salon.com
  
  In the HBO debut of her "visual album" Saturday night, Beyonce addressed a number of the concerns of her critics, and the Internet responded as the Internet responds, with careful and astute analysis:https://twitter.com/KitBihun/status/724048231919947777Many fans thought the series of videos showcased would formulate a statement about the current state of her marriage to rapper Jay Z:https://twitter.com/MattBesser/status/724294502421127168But if it was a statement about infidelity, it was an odd
  
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• The GOP primary is exploding at the finish line: Trump “reinvents” himself while Ted Cruz makes a deal

  25-04-2016 14:00 via salon.com
  
  Lindsay Graham is hysterical. As usual. He appeared on John Catsimatidis's radio program on Sunday and declared,"I have never been more worried about the Republican Party breaking apart than I am today.” This is par for the course for Graham. He's what Trump would call a panic artist, running around in circles declaring the sky is falling over virtually every issue. But in this case, he's probably right. The Republican party is in big trouble and nothing says it more clearly than the fact
  
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• Paul Krugman: Only Hillary Clinton save the American economy now

  25-04-2016 13:59 via salon.com
  
  In his Monday New York Times column, economist Paul Krugman discussed the ability of the current crop of presidential candidates to answer the economic equivalent of the "3 a.m. call" from the 2008 election cycle.Krugman analyzed the economic policies of the three people he still considers viable candidates -- Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz -- and determined that of them, only Clinton is qualified to answer that call -- but boy howdy, is she ever."Mrs. Clinton isn’t just the m
  
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• “Game of Thrones” recap: More like “Game of Crones” — and the show finally discovers its true heroes

  25-04-2016 13:59 via salon.com
  
  The following is a recap of the season 6 premiere of "Game of Thrones," and it contains spoilers galore. The end of last night’s season six premiere of “Game Of Thrones,” which featured Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) taking off her magical choker to reveal her real, aged body underneath, provides the audience at home with a naked body of a type not seen often by any television audience—that of a naked elderly woman. Melisandre is not even just elderly; she is ancient
  
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• Donald Trump is a con artist — and his general-election strategy proves it

  25-04-2016 13:58 via salon.com
  
  There's an unspoken tradition in presidential politics, at least on the Republican side, to lean rightward during the primaries as a means of accumulating an adequate level of support from the conservative base. After the convention is over, the nominee then gradually pivots toward the middle for the general election in order to pick up moderate Republican voters. These days, however, the pivot is more like an imperceptible sidestep from the extreme far right to the not-as-awful-but-still-really
  
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• Lawmakers launch bipartisan effort to restrict U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, citing war crimes in Yemen

  25-04-2016 13:57 via salon.com
  
  Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and both chambers of Congress are concerned about the U.S. government's support for the Saudi war in Yemen, and have introduced legislation in hopes of protecting human rights.Congressmen Ted Lieu and Ted Yoho have introduced a joint bill in the House that would bar the sale of certain U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia.H.J. Res 90 would put limit the transfer of air-to-ground munitions to the Saudi monarchy, until the kingdom can demonstrate that it is taking &l
  
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• 5 worst right-wing moments of the week — Paul LePage is really this sadistic

  25-04-2016 13:30 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump got oh-so-presidential this week. Being presidential for Donald Trump consists of insulting Harriet Tubman (as, gasp, politically correct), imitating call center workers with Indian accents, and magnanimously suggesting his fellow Republican reality show star, Caitlyn Jenner, should get to use whatever bathroom she wants. Whoa. Impressive.That last one earned NBC’s comment that Trump is "LGBT-friendly," apparently revealing an extremely low bar at the network.It’s a low
  
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• Maybe Donald Trump has really lost his mind: What if the GOP frontrunner isn’t crazy, but simply not well?

  25-04-2016 12:00 via salon.com
  
  The Donald Trump gaffe track keeps playing. The GOP frontrunner seems to literally spew out a doozy almost daily.  Campaigning in Pittsburgh, he recently blathered, “How’s Joe Paterno? We gonna bring that back? Right? How about that—how about that whole deal?”  While his campaign suggested he was referring to the former Penn State football coach’s statue, it was hard to shake the sense that Trump was unaware that Paterno died in 2012 and that Pittsburgh ha
  
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• “Complete and total destruction of the Republican Party”: Former Reagan official Bruce Bartlett on why he backs Trump

  25-04-2016 11:59 via salon.com
  
  Regardless of how you feel about Donald Trump, his ascendance as the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nomination signals major changes within the GOP. Large segments of the Republican Party and the conservative movement have arrayed themselves in opposition to Trump to ward off the political reckoning his candidacy threatens, but there are some people who want Trump to win precisely because his nomination would inflict much-needed violence upon the Republican Party
  
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• Bernie has wasted his best weapon: Why Sanders should be raking the Obama administration over the coals

  25-04-2016 11:58 via salon.com
  
  Time is running out for Senator Bernie Sanders to tell the truth about the last several years of the Obama administration that has run a protection racket for the Wall Street predators that cratered the economy, even as their pillage of Main Street continues unabated. By avoiding this awful truth, perhaps in fear of alienating African-Americans voters, Sanders is squandering a once-in-a-life opportunity he’s worked so hard for -- to speak truth to power.There is a certain incoherence to th
  
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• Trump’s “reinvention” could be Hillary’s worst nightmare: Why the GOP frontrunner could do real damage

  25-04-2016 11:57 via salon.com
  
  Shortly after the New York primaries last week, a “senior Clinton aide” was in a celebratory mood that apparently inhibited his or her self-awareness, and scoffed at Sen. Bernie Sanders' tone (which has become scandalous in Hillaryland):“We kicked ass tonight. I hope this convinces Bernie to tone it down. If not, fuck him.”While it is still unclear what exactly is so disagreeable about Bernie’s tone (if Sanders was truly running a negat
  
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• My “rapidly fatal” diagnosis: My worst nightmare was also a miraculous stroke of luck

  25-04-2016 01:30 via salon.com
  
  In the summer of 2010, Salon writer Mary Elizabeth Williams was diagnosed with malignant melanoma and underwent lifesaving surgery. A year later, her cancer had returned — and metastasized into her lung and soft tissue. With aggressive Stage 4 cancer and few treatment options, she took a chance as one of the first patients in a clinical trial for a new form of treatment: immunotherapy. Three months later, she was cancer free. In this exclusive Salon excerpt from her new memoir, "A Ser
  
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• The Buddist I am not: Reflecting on my conversation with the Dalai Lama about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal

  25-04-2016 01:29 via salon.com
  
  Eighteen years ago, I interviewed the Dalai Lama on the very morning that every news outlet on the planet ran the story of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. It made headlines from the New York Times to the Hindustan Times, where I was camped out in Dharamsala, India at what felt like an upscale hotel to me at the time, hovering as I was between the backpacker I’d been in my 20s and the 30-year-old who had recently taken a liking to private hot showers.
  The night before my interview I did not ye
  
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• The Buddhist I am not: Reflecting on my conversation with the Dalai Lama about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal

  25-04-2016 01:29 via salon.com
  
  Eighteen years ago, I interviewed the Dalai Lama on the very morning that every news outlet on the planet ran the story of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. It made headlines from the New York Times to the Hindustan Times, where I was camped out in Dharamsala, India at what felt like an upscale hotel to me at the time, hovering as I was between the backpacker I’d been in my 20s and the 30-year-old who had recently taken a liking to private hot showers.
  The night before my interview I did not ye
  
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• “The worst thing that can happen is that friends disappear”: Love, loss, and the unappreciated art of checking in

  25-04-2016 00:30 via salon.com
  
  A year ago this March, when I found out that my friend Lisa had died, my first instinct on that cold black night was to text her: Are you ok? Thinking about you. Will check in again tomorrow. Because as ridiculous as that sounds, that was the habit of our relationship: Checking in on each other, by text, was what we did.It’s what she did with everyone.Lisa Bonchek Adams — 45, a mother of three and a prolific and well-known blogger and tweeter on metastatic breast cancer&#
  
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