Tahra Jirari

Thursday

Tahra Jirari

Will Taylor Swift fans take down Ticketmaster?

I grew up with Taylor Swift. I was ecstatic to hear of her forthcoming tour, having never seen her perform live. Then I heard she was teaming up with Ticketmaster and allowing the use of “dynamic pricing” to change the ticket price based on demand. Like many other diehard fans hoping to snag a pre-sale ticket, my hopes were dashed this week. I logged on thirty minutes prior to the actual sale of tickets — as recommended — and was met with an error message. Ticketmaster’s site crashed before anyone could even purchase a ticket. What was meant to be a pre-sale ticketing event for a select few fans sold out the entirety of the tour. The vast majority of tickets were given to resellers for prices higher than most mortgage payments. The demand was historic.

taylor swift ticketmaster

Friday

Tahra Jirari

Biden is playing politics with his marijuana pardons

From our UK edition

In a somewhat shocking turn of events, president Biden has pardoned all people with federal convictions for simple marijuana possession and asked his administration to reconsider the way marijuana is classified in current code. In his remarks yesterday, Biden said:  'Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.' While this is a major step toward decriminalising marijuana, the key terms here are 'federally convicted'. The number of people who are currently serving time for marijuana possession, excluding trafficking convictions, leaves only around 6,500 in prison — not including those who fall under the federal code.