Major League Baseball announced changes to its drug use and testing policies on Thursday, removing marijuana from its "drugs of abuse," while announcing mandatory tests for cocaine and opioids. The policy will be effective starting in 2020 during spring training.

Players who test positive for prohibited substances, which include fentanyl and LSD, will be evaluated and prescribed a treatment plan. Those who don't obey the league's plan may be punished.

McDonald's should not be held responsible for the labor practices of its franchisees, the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Thursday.

Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET

Sixteen-year-old activist Greta Thunberg has quickly risen to prominence with her clarion call for climate action and Time's naming her its 2019 Person of the Year this week.

Since her first school strike for action in August 2018, Thunberg has grown her protest into a global youth movement calling on the world leaders of today to take decisive action on climate change and prevent further global warming.

Since a pair of shooters opened fire Tuesday in Jersey City, N.J., the state's attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, had been reluctant to label the assault on a local kosher market specifically as an anti-Semitic act. As recent as Wednesday afternoon, even after identifying the shooters, Grewal said authorities were still not in a position to definitively assign a motive.

By Thursday, though, he was ready to say it.

Next time on Peninsula Performances,

In 2017, the Marquette Choral Society presented “Laudate Dominum: Cantatas at the Cathedral.” The cantatas included Benjamin Britten's "St. Nicolas Cantata" and Arthur Honegger's "Une Cantate de Noël.” The Marquette Choral Society was joined by the Diosesan Children's Choir.

Program:

• Benjamin Britten - St. Nicolas Cantata
• Arthur Honegger - Une Cantate de Noel

Tune in Friday at 8pm ET, and again Tuesday at 1pm ET on Public Radio 90, WNMU-FM 90.1 in Marquette, online at wnmufm.org

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI (AP)--   The U.S. Coast Guard says it has launched ice-breaking operations in the western Great Lakes.

Officials announced Wednesday they have started what they call “Operation Taconite” in Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, as well as northern Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Green Bay, the Straits of Mackinac and St. Marys River.

The effort responds to expanding ice in commercial ports. Ice-breaking is done for several reasons, including search and rescue, flood control or to serve vessels or communities in need.

Bang on a Can Launches New Festival in Brooklyn: LONG PLAY - Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 3, 2020

Brooklyn, NY — Bang on a Can announces the launch of LONG PLAY, a new, three-day destination music festival, presented for the first time from Friday, May 1 through Sunday, May 3, 2020. Featuring dozens of concerts, LONG PLAY also showcases a dense network of pioneering music venues in Brooklyn – with performances at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Roulette, Public Records, ShapeShifter Lab, Littlefield, Brooklyn Music School, BAM Lepercq Space, outdoor events at The Plaza at 300 Ashland, and more. Festival passes and special early bird offers will be available starting on December 16, 2019 at www.longplayfestival.org.