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From the truth about the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit to evidence that its pork suppliers lie about animal welfare,fake rolex watchs we TreeHuggers are not short of reasons to dislike Ronald and friends. And I am not about to start arguing that the Golden Arches can be a force for good.
But there is one thing to be said for McDonalds — it’s big, really big. So much like Wal-Mart, when it does take steps to reduce its impact, those steps have gigantic knock on effects.jimmy choo outlet shoes
When McDonalds installs electric vehicle charging, it sends a message about the future of transportation. When it drops an inhumane egg supplier (albeit under intense activist pressure), it focuses the minds of the rest of the industry.
And conversely when it fails to go cage-free in America, the factory farming industry breathes a sigh of relief and carries on as normal.
So it’s within this context that we should evaluate news, reported on by Mark Bittman last week, that McDonald’s will map out a path for eliminating gestational crates in its pork supply.
A gestational crate, used in intensive pig farming, means a pregnant pig lives in a 7-foot by 2-foot metal enclosure for the four-month duration of her pregnancy. Once she is pregnant again, back in the crate she goes — meaning most of a sow’s adult life is spent in this small crate.
It doesn’t mean we greenies will be woolfind down Big Macs anytime soon, and it does not mean that fast food is a reformable industry. But it is nevertheless a gigantic leap for the welfare of those animals that have the misfortune to find themselves in factory farming conditions. More from Bittman.
The effect on the industry will be huge, because in the world of big-time meat supply, there are two kinds of producers: those who sell to McDonalds and those wish they could. When, in 1999, McDonalds requested that its suppliers give caged hens 72 square inches of space instead of 48 (72 is still smaller than a piece of 810 paper), not a single factory-farmed hen in the country was being raised with 72 inches of space. Yet the entire supply chain was converted in just 18 months, and 72 square inches is now effectively the industry standard.
Switching from gestation crates to group sow housing is more labor- and capital-intensive, requiring changes that will take money and time, so an 18-month turnaround is unrealistic. But its likely that within a few years gestation crates will be history for most pork producers, and thats a major victory.
Sure, the conditions for pigs in factory farms are still likely to be, let’s face it, horrific. But this is a major step in the right direction and should be recognized as such. Maybe they can also do something about these exploding pigs we’ve been hearing about.christian louboutin outlet

Alberta Oil Sands Partly to Blame for Killing of 145 Bears in 2011

The Alberta Oil Sands have been called “the most destructive project on earth” and now,cheap abercrombie kids there’s a new item on the list of economic and environmental costs. Last year, Canada Wildlife Officers shot 145 problematic black bears in the region.
A bad berry crop last summer and careless handling of food and trash at the miner camps have been blamed for the dramatic increase in bear encounters. In 2010, 52 black bears where shot.cheap fake watches outlet
“Its a very disturbing fact to hear and its one more cost of oilsands development that we need to look at…the fact that these numbers are so high is definitely very worrying,” Mike Hudema of Greenpeace commented.
“Any kind of wildlife fatality is too many for these companies from their perspective and obviously they take it seriously, commented Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, its just a matter of a high number of bears in the area.
That said, Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist Carolyn Campbell called the attitude towards bearsand wildlife in generalprimitive. “There needs to be much more responsible behavior by companies running these camps to really get serious about reducing food and other attractants,” she said, “the attitude of attract them, feed them and then shoot them is really repugnant to most Albertans.”jimmy choo outlet
This was not the first major loss of wildlife due to the tarsands project. In 2008, for example, 1,600 ducks perished in a tailings pond.

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This is important — if you drive or ride in an automobile, if you commute by bus, rail or bicycle, or if your loved ones do.cheap lacoste polo outlet
The USA is at a critical juncture in how it pays for roads, bridges and transit. That’s because the federal tax on gasoline, the primary method since 1956, has lost one-third of its buying power since it was last raised in 1993. States add their own tax on top of that, but the federal tax accounts for about 45%-50% of capital spending for transportation.
The federal gas tax — 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline, 24.4 cents for diesel — is being rendered obsolete by more fuel-efficient vehicles, by Americans driving fewer miles and by the growth of electric and alternative fuel vehicles. The tax rate on gasahol and most other special fuels is much less.
“It no longer works as our primary source,” says Jim Burnley, a Washington, D.C., transportation attorney who was Transportation secretary for President Reagan. “We’re going to have to figure out, as a country, other mechanisms.”
Burnley says transportation bills now being debated in Congress — a five-year, $253 billion version in the House of Representatives, a two-year, $109 billion version in the Senate — likely will be among the last to rely primarily on the gas tax.
Each 1-cent increase in the federal gas tax generates about $1.8 billion in revenue, says Joseph Giglio, a professor at Northeastern University who has written extensively about transportation financing.
Grover Norquist, a prominent tax foe and president of Americans for Tax Reform, says the federal gas tax should be reduced “to near zero” and the states should determine how to build and repair roads and bridges within their borders, even interstate highways.
“If a state wants to widen or repair or build a bridge, how in the world is that a federal responsibility?” he says. “Within 10 years, there won’t be a federal gas tax. There’ll be 50 state gas taxes paying for highways at the state level.”
Proposed alternatives:
•Taxing miles driven. What if drivers were taxed not on how much gasoline or diesel they purchased but on how many miles they drove?
Many transportation experts see a vehicle miles traveled tax (VMT) as the likeliest alternative or complement to the gas tax. “Some kind of VMT tax … is almost inevitable,” says David Goldberg of Transportation for America, a coalition of businesses, unions and non-profit organizations. “I would say within 10 years. The technology is getting better and better. The impetus for it is getting much stronger.”
A VMT tax most likely would use GPS devices to track how much and where vehicles drove, potentially raising privacy concerns. But the growing use of smartphones, already capable of tracking users’ movements, might lessen that concern for many, says Jack Finn, senior vice president and national director of toll services for HNTB, a national engineering, planning and construction firm based in Kansas City, Mo.

However, it’s difficult to gauge the political viability of a VMT tax: The Obama administration and Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, have been nearly as loath to support it as they are to increasing the gas tax.
A federal VMT tax is “highly unrealistic,” says Joshua Schank, president of the Eno Center for Transportation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. But he says such taxes are likely at the state level in coming years. Norquist also says a VMT tax is more workable by states.
•State and local governments paying more costs. As the economy improves, the future transportation funding mix likely will include a bigger contribution from local entities, Goldberg says.
•More tolls. While it’s often controversial, more communities are turning to tolling. Few experts expect tolling to become the sole method to finance roads and transit, but many see it playing a larger role.
“I can see tolls supplementing the gas tax,” Finn says.
Expanded tolling has many detractors.
“I think tolling is a cop-out,” says Greg Cohen, who heads the Highway Users Alliance, a non-profit coalition of highway supporters, AAA auto clubs, bus companies, farm bureaus and shopping centers. “Part of what makes America work is we have an interstate system and it’s a toll-free system that really brings our country together.”
•Tying the gas tax to inflation. Cohen says the federal gas tax would be more effective if it increased at the rate of inflation.
But he acknowledges that’s a long shot. “It would be viewed initially as a tax increase,” he says. “Right now, no one wants to do that.”
•Using general tax revenue instead of a gas tax. Schank says the USA could follow the lead of Germany and other industrialized nations that do this. “We’re already moving in that direction,” he says, noting that Congress has tapped general revenue to cover shortfalls from the gas tax.
•A sales tax dedicated to transportation. Finn says that’s unlikely in the current anti-tax climate.jimmy choo outlet

Boise State staying in Mountain West in 2012 before Big East move

The Broncos had considered an early move to cheap abercrombie bracelets the Big East to help that conference compete with eight football members this fall.
Bu the logistics of the move, including finding a home for non-revenue sports and the financial implications of the withdrawal from the Mountain West, caused the school to delay the move until the planned date in 2013.cheap fake watches sale
“While we have had several discussions with the Big East and the WAC in moving our sports into those two leagues a year earlier than previously stated, the University feels there were too many obstacles to overcome to make the move at this time,” Boise State president Dr. Bob Kustra said in a statement. “While there certainly would have been advantages in making the move a year early, it became clear that it would not be fiscally responsible, as all of the expenses associated with early entry into the two conferences would not be covered.”
The decision by Boise State still leaves the Big East with seven schools with West Virginia exiting early for the Big 12.
It is possible Temple could fill that void. The Owls are speaking about a return to the Big East for all sports and could make that jump from the Mid-American Conference and Atlantic 10 this fall to help out.coach necklace outlet

Tiger survives, Donald falls in Day 1 of Match Play

Luke Donald, so dominant in winning the Match Play Championship last year that he closed out every match before the 18th hole,cheap abercrombie bikini became only the third No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round Wednesday on Dove Mountain.
Ernie Els, who only got into the 64-man field when Phil Mickelson took his family on a ski vacation, delivered the biggest shocker in the first round with a 5-and-4 victory.
“I don’t think it would have mattered who I played today. I just didn’t play well,” Donald said. “I struggled. I gave away too many holes and made too many mistakes. You can’t do that in match play against anyone, let alone Ernie.”
Tiger Woods nearly found that out against Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.
Woods had to play left-handed in one of his three journeys into the desert. He trailed the Spaniard with four holes to play, and both of them looked beatable. That changed when Woods drove the par-5 15th green to win with a two-putt birdie, won the 16th with a par and then closed out the Spaniard with an 8-foot par putt for a 1-up win.
“We both made our share of mistakes, there’s no doubt about that,” said Woods. “But somehow, I was able to move on.”
That was the only objective in this World Golf Championship, a single-elimination format in which the only proper use of the word “upset” is the mood of the 32 guys who are headed home.cheap watches outlet
Among them:
” Ian Poulter, the Match Play winner two years ago, suffered his worst loss in nine appearances when Bae Sang-moon beat him, 4 and 3.
” Bill Haas, coming off that monster win at Riviera just three days ago, looked like a winner when he was 1 up on the 17th green and had a 5-foot birdie putt. Ryo Ishikawa holed from 18 feet, Haas missed, and the Japanese star made par on the 18th to win.
” In the most thrilling match of the opening round, Jim Furyk was on the verge of sending Dustin Johnson home early for the fourth straight year when Johnson hit his tee shot into the desert and had to take a penalty drop on the 20th hole. Furyk chipped across the green and three-putted for bogey to lose.
” Rafael Cabrera-Bello was 3 up with three holes to play against Jason Day when he bogeyed three straight holes, and Day beat him with a 4-foot birdie putt on the 19th hole.
The other top seeds didn’t have too many problems.
U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy won four straight holes on the back nine to seize control against George Coetzee. He ended up winning 2-up. Lee Westwood never trailed in his 3-and-1 win over Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium. The test for Westwood comes on Thursday against Robert Karlsson, when he tries to advance to the third round for the first time. Martin Kaymer easily dispatched Greg Chalmers, while Steve Stricker outlasted Kevin Na.
McIlroy and Westwood now have a chance to replace Donald at No. 1 in the world with a win this week.
Donald will head home to Florida to shake off a poor start to his season.
A year after becoming the first player to win money titles on the PGA and European tours, he was not a factor at Abu Dhabi or Riviera, and this the first time he’s had three straight events out of the top 30 since August 2009.
“I’m not sure where to start,” Donald said. “I just didn’t play very well. It’s disappointing. I’ve been working really hard. To lose control of the golf ball like I did today is really frustrating, but I believe the hard work will start paying off soon.”
Fernandez-Castano got some attention this week for saying Woods was “beatable” and not at his best. “He’s beatable, too,” Woods replied, and the way they played, both were right.
Woods lost the opening two holes and looked as though he might fall 3 down until making a 10-foot par save. Woods won three of the next five holes, one of them with a 50-foot birdie putt, and that’s when the match became a case of give-and-take.
Woods was on the verge of going 2 up until he three-putted the ninth and Fernandez-Castano got up-and-down for bogey. Three holes later, Woods had to make a par to avoid falling 2 down.
He wasn’t wild all the time, but it cost him when he was a left-handed shot out of the desert on No. 2, too much club that sent him over the 11th green and into the desert. But he settled down right about the time the Spaniard began to struggle with the putter, missing putts inside 10 feet on the 15th and 16th holes that enabled Woods to take the lead.
“I think if there was one day to beat Tiger Woods, this was it,” Fernandez-Castano said. “I didn’t take the opportunity. I missed a few shots. And of course, you can’t miss spots if you want to beat one of the greatest in history.”
Johnson had no business winning his match.
He already was 3 down when he drove into the desert. He was given relief, but didn’t check the path of his swing, and his club hit a cactus on the way back, leading to a muffed shot that stayed in the desert and required a penalty drop. He was hitting his fourth shot from the desert. Furyk was hitting his third from the desert.coach xmas promotion
Johnson wound up winning the hole with a bogey.
He managed to take the lead going to the 18th, only to bogey. Then, on the par-5 second hole, Johnson had to take another penalty drop from the desert and appeared to be beaten until Furyk chopped up the rest of the hole for bogey.
“It’s a funny golf course. Anything can happen,” Johnson said. “And I just hung in there.”
It never looked more bizarre than when Retief Goosen hit into the desert, took a penalty drop, pitched out and holed a 156-yard shot for his birdie. Snedeker jarred a 40-foot birdie putt to halve the hole. It was only fitting that their match was the longest of the day, going 21 holes until Snedeker won with a par.
Next up for Woods is Nick Watney, who had little trouble disposing of British Open champion Darren Clarke. Woods has not made it out of the second round the last two times he has played.christian louboutin shoes
Els moves on to play Anders Hansen, who beat K.T. Kim, 5 and 3. The Big Easy is in dire need of ranking points as he tries to get into the next World Golf Championship at Doral in two weeks, and tries to get into the top 50 by the end of March to avoid missing the Masters for the first time in nearly 20 years.
He managed to escape Dove Mountain without talking about his big win.

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jimmy choo flats shoes on sale Exhibiting his trademark restraint and good taste, Donald Trump told Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmon what he thought of Scotland’s ambitious offshore wind projects. With the reckless installation of these monsters, you will single-handedly have done more damage to Scotland than virtually any event in Scottish history.” Why is The Donald so mad? Because distant offshore wind turbines might be visible from his luxury golf resort in Aberdeenshire, and such a “destruction of Scotland’s coastline” is simply unacceptable to Mr. Trump.
“I have just authorised my staff to allocate a substantial sum of money to launch an international campaign to fight your plan to surround Scotland’s coast with many thousands of wind turbines.
“It will be like looking through the bars of a prison and the Scottish citizens will be the prisoners.
“Luckily, tourists will not suffer because there will be none as they will be going to other countries that had the foresight to use other forms of energy.”
Mr Trump added of his objection: “I am doing this to save Scotland.”
The Scottish government doesn’t seem scared by Trump’s threats, and Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, which represents the renewable energy industry in Scotland (take note that he’s not a neutral party either), said:
“Who is Donald Trump to tell Scotland what is good for our economy and our environment?” he said. “Offshore wind is already attracting billions of pounds of investment and supporting hundreds of jobs across Scotland, including in his mother’s hometown of Stornoway.
“He completely overblows the impact of the proposed wind farm and to be honest there are so many mistakes in the ‘trumped-up’ nonsense that it’s difficult to know where to begin.”
Bottom line is: As long as people like to flip on the switch and have the lights turn on and want a healthy environment to live in and a sane climate, we’ll have to figure out how to produce energy as cleanly as possible. Wind power has great potential. It’s not without downsides, and we should exploit it as thoughtfully as possible. But it’s impossible to always do it out of sight of everybody, everywhere. Sometimes seeing some turbines off in the distance (and in many cases they will be over the horizon, so they won’t even be visibile) is still a smaller price to pay than to have coal plants spewing out CO2, particulate matter, mercury, etc in the air that we and our kids breathe. How would Mr. Trump like to have a coal plant next to one of his resorts?jimmy choo outlet

christianlouboutlnshortshoesoutlet As Yemenis voted Tuesday to replace their dictator of 34 years, analysts say Yemen must address the legitimate grievances of the country’s factions rather than continue a military crackdown that has cost hundreds of lives.
“Even if the election goes well, there’s intense trouble ahead,” says Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst who advised U.S. presidents on the Middle East under Republican and Democratic administrations.
The United States has been working with Yemen’s government to target al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has expanded into one of the most menacing terror franchises in the Middle East, according to the Pentagon. American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen in September.
The Obama administration supported the easing aside of dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose family-controlled military has been pounding an uprising in the south. In voting Tuesday, Yemenis cast ballots for his replacement, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Hadi inherits leadership of the Arab world’s poorest country during a conflict that has destroyed the economy, set security forces fighting against each other and allowed al-Qaeda to seize towns.
Experts say the United States and Saudi Arabia need to persuade the new government to forge a cease-fire with the south and address its complaints about unfair political representation and economic rights to help isolate al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda, “wants the chaos to continue, so it can continue to grow,” Riedel says. “It’s going to require a lot of coaxing effort, an enormous amount of Saudi money to grease the skids and American support to help make it happen.”
Saleh’s family and northern cronies dominated the country after north Yemen unified with south Yemen, once a socialist client of the Soviet Union, keeping foreign aid and control of the military in their hands, says Ibrahim Sharqieh at the Brookings Doha Center.
“That is the first thing the new government will have to deal with, the southern question, whether to keep them as part of the country, let them go on their own or have some sort of a federal system between the south and the north,” Sharqieh says.
Julie Taylor, a Middle East expert at the Rand Corp., says the Obama administration realizes that defeating al- Qaeda in Yemen will require more than killing its leaders. “That’s why they increased USAID funding in Yemen,” Taylor says.
The problem is, “there’s no leadership to work with,” she says. “Who are we going to give money to, the Saleh government that in 2011 was cracking down on its own population?”christianlouboutlnshoes

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christianlouboutlnoutlet Here you will see the old flower Melting permafrost is not helping climate change, as it gives off gusts of globe-warming methane. But the world’s scientists are finding a treasure trove in areas where the snow melts.
A team at the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia discovered in a fossilized squirrel burrow in Siberia remnants of the ice-age flowering plant Silene stenophylla. The plant had been buried at a depth of 38 meters in sediments with a temperature of “7.
Radiocarbon dating of the plants seemed to show that an ancient squirrel stashed them around 31,800 years ago, just before ice rolled into the area near the Kolya river.
Scientists used growth hormone to coax silene stenophylla back to life and eventually, back to bloom. They are now, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report ” the most ancient, viable, multicellular, living organisms.”
The discoveries of this ‘ancient DNA’ as permafrost in colder regions melts is becoming a trend. Sometimes, seed finds turn out to have been deposited much later than scientists first believe, but the Soil Cryptology Lab in Moscow went to some lengths to ascertain that silene stenophylla’s seeds were really as old as they seemed to be.
As permafrost melts, there will be more finds like silene stenophylla, and some scientists think ancient seeds might even begin to bloom spontaneously, giving hope that previous extinct varieties of plants will come back to life.
And if not, there’s always Norway’s seed vault to provide some genetic info.christianlouboutlnsandalsoutlet

Recession has Portugal urging citizens to leave to find work has become so common

christianlouboutlnshoes For nearly 600 years Portugal had one of the greatest colonial empires in Europe, commanding trade centers in Africa, South America and China where the Portuguese language is common.
Its colonies in places like Brazil and Macau are gone, but laid low by recession, Portugal is telling citizens to head to its former colonies to find work.
“Recent graduates should lead a new type of emigration, different from the 1960s when Europe was the destination,” Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Miguel Relvas said recently. “In the past 20 years, Portugal has invested in a generation of people, and now we can’t give them what they need employment.”
The Portuguese government has admitted it is unable to provide job opportunities to the country’s 700,000 unemployed, especially teachers and recent graduates. Many of them have lost jobs, or been unable to find employment at all, as a result of austerity measures imposed by the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank they bailed out the country to the tune of $115 billion last May.
Portugal’s jobless rate reached its highest level ever in December 2011 14%, according the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics. Talk of a second bailout has led to fears that there might be more austerity to come.
The credit ratings agency Fitch predicts Portugal’s economy will shrink by 3% in 2012. In contrast, Brazil’s economy grew by 7.5% last year.
The solution for Portuguese citizens, according to the country’s secretary of State for youth and sports, Miguel Mestre, is to get out of town.
“If people are unemployed they should leave their comfort zone and look beyond our borders,” he said late last year, to an outraged reaction from his increasingly frustrated fellow Portuguese, who blasted him for it via Twitter and Facebook.
Portugal’s construction and catering industries have long been a magnet for workers from the former Portuguese colonies of Brazil and Angola. But the economic crisis engulfing Europe means the old colonial “mother country” is no longer the land of opportunity it once was. Portugal is experiencing its worst economic crisis since 1975.
What seemed at first to be a public relations gaffe soon received the governmental seal of approval when Conservative Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho advised unemployed teachers to search for jobs in Brazil and Angola.
“Look to the Portuguese-speaking market as a whole and maybe find alternative (opportunities) there,” the prime minister advised unemployed teachers, according to the Correio da Manh newspaper.
Some are taking heed. Nearly 330,000 Portuguese now live legally in Brazil, compared with 277,000 in 2010.
Lawyer Teresa Morais, 28, left Lisbon for So Paulo four years ago. She decided to make the move because job opportunities at home were becoming increasingly scarce.
“There were not many jobs in Portugal when I left,” she said. “I saw my colleagues without new challenges, with routine jobs without incentives to improve productivity.”
She says that it hasn’t always been easy adjusting. “There have been obstacles,” she said. “The first was cultural the networking, figuring out the job market and getting to know how the Brazilian judicial system works.”
Meanwhile, about 200,000 Portuguese citizens are now living in Mozambique and Angola, where jobs are available in the mining and construction industries. In 2009, 24,000 Portuguese moved to Angola, compared with only 156 in 2006, according to the Portuguese Immigration Observatory.
Ana Nobre, a 26-year-old commercial manager, left her home in Rio Maior in western Portugal, a year ago for a job in Angola.
“Almost a year after I arrived here, I was promoted within the company,” she said, speaking from Luanda. “I earn much more money than I would ever earn in Portugal.”
Some see trouble with the exodus.
“When people who can actually work, entrepreneurs and people with skills and experience, as well as capital, are leaving, it is not only a problem for our economy but also for Portugal’s recovery and regeneration,” said Jos Adelino Maltez, a senior political analyst the Technical University of Lisbon.
Even so, many say there is a truism that still lingers in the country, written by the Portuguese writer E?a de Queirs in 1871: “In Portugal, emigration is not, as it is everywhere else, an overflow of population. It is a means of escape for those who are suffering.”christianlouboutlnpumpsoutlet

Manny Ramirez close to signing with A’s what we can see from here

christianlouboutlnshoes Slugger Manny Ramirez is close to signing a contract with the Oakland Athletics that would be worth approximately $500,000, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said Monday.
ESPN first reported earlier in the day that the sides had reached agreement, speaking directly to Ramirez. The person confirmed the sides were closing in on a contract, speaking on condition of anonymity because Ramirez still must take a physical and likely another drug test.
The A’s made public their interest in the 12-time All-Star, who is due to serve a 50-game suspension for his second positive drug test before he can play for Oakland. Barring rainouts, his first game could be May 30 on his 40th birthday.
He has been working out in Florida this winter, so he will now travel to Arizona to join his new team probably in time for Oakland’s first full-squad workout Saturday.
Ramirez was expected to sign a minor league deal, which would keep him off the 40-man roster. For the low-budget A’s, Ramirez presents a low-risk bargain. They don’t have to pay him during his suspension and will give him per diem money during the club’s stint in the desert, which is shorter than usual because of two opening games in Japan next month.
Oakland sent representatives to Florida this winter to watch workouts by Ramirez, who retired from the Tampa Bay Rays last season rather than serve a 100-game suspension. For Ramirez, this could become a chance to help repair his reputation and serve as a positive clubhouse influence on a young team.
The A’s recently agreed to terms on a $36 million, four-year contract with highly regarded outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, a Cuban defector who has expressed interest in playing with Ramirez.
At baseball’s winter meetings in December, it was announced that Ramirez had applied for reinstatement. He had his suspension for a second failed drug test cut to 50 games because he sat out nearly all of last season. MLB had announced his retirement on April 8, saying he was notified “of an issue” under the drug program.
Ramirez ranks 14th on the career list with 555 home runs. He went 1 for 17 (.059) in five games last season for Tampa Bay, which had signed him to a one-year deal worth $2.02 million.
This would be the 20th major league season for Ramirez, a career .312 hitter with 1,831 RBIs.christianlouboutlneveningoutlet