The Breakfast Club: 6-16-2014

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Everyone’s welcome here, no special handshake required. Just check your meta at the door.

Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Breakfast News

—–

U.S. considers action with Iran against Iraq insurgent onslaught

The United States is contemplating talks with its arch-enemy Iran to support the Iraqi government in its battle with Sunni Islamist insurgents who routed Baghdad’s army and seized the north of the country in the past week.

The stunning onslaught by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant threatens to dismember Iraq and unleash all-out sectarian warfare across a crescent of the Middle East, with no regard for national borders that the fighters reject.

Joint action between the United States and Iran to help prop up the government of their mutual ally Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s Shi’ite prime minister, would be a major turn of events after hostility dating to Iran’s 1979 revolution, and demonstrates the urgency of the alarm raised by the lightning insurgent advance.

—–

Russia’s Gazprom reduces gas to Ukraine after deadline passes

Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom reduced supplies to Ukraine on Monday after Kiev failed to meet a deadline to pay off its gas debts in a dispute that could disrupt supplies to the rest of Europe.

Announcing that Ukraine will now only get gas it pays for in advance, Moscow put the onus on its neighbour to guarantee the European Union receives supplies that transit through Ukraine.

Kiev and Moscow failed to agree overnight on the price of future gas deliveries, with both sides refusing to abandon well-established positions: Russia offering a discount and Ukraine rejecting it as a tool for political manipulation.

—–

Kenya attack: Mpeketoni near Lamu hit by deadly raid

At least 48 people have died after unidentified gunmen attacked hotels and a police station in a Kenyan coastal town, officials say.

Witnesses in Mpeketoni said gun battles lasted for several hours and reported seeing buildings set on fire.

The town is on the mainland near Lamu island, a well-known tourist resort.

—–

Starbucks offers workers free college tuition

Starbucks employees nationwide will be eligible for a free college education through Arizona State University’s online program beginning this fall.

The new initiative, touted as the first of its kind, will allow many of Starbucks’ 135,000 workers to graduate debt free from ASU with no requirement to repay or stay on with the company. The funding will come from a partnership between ASU and Starbucks.

ASU President Michael Crow is scheduled to appear in New York on Monday with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to launch the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, as it is called.

—–

Parents find using new pot laws risks endangering claims

A Colorado man lost custody of his children after getting a medical-marijuana card. And the daughter of a Michigan couple growing legal medicinal pot was taken by child-protection authorities after an ex-husband said their plants endangered children.

The cases eventually were decided in favor of the parents, but they underscore a growing issue: Although a pot plant in the basement might not bring criminal charges in many states, the same plant can become evidence in child-custody or -abuse cases.

“The legal standard is always the best interest of the children, and you can imagine how subjective that can get,” said Jess Cochrane, who helped found Boston-based Family Law & Cannabis Alliance after finding that child-abuse laws have been slow to catch up with pot policy.

—–

Police Find Pot Hidden in Man’s Belly Fat

Police busted a 450-pound Florida man for drug possession last week after they found 23 grams of marijuana hidden under his stomach fat.

—–

Guantánamo Bay tribunal to hear arguments over suspected FBI probe

A US war crimes tribunal will hear arguments on Monday over a suspected FBI investigation that may have created a conflict of interest for lawyers representing Guantánamo Bay inmates accused of orchestrating the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The Guantánamo Bay military commission is weighing a defence motion whether to abate or modify proceedings against the five inmates charged for their alleged involvement in the 9/11 attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The tribunal was adjourned in April after defence lawyers said FBI agents tried to turn a defence team expert on classified materials into an informant. Defence lawyers claimed the attempt raised a conflict of interest between them and their clients.

—–

Extroverts could cause problems on Mars mission

Extroverts could potentially be a “liability” on long-term space missions – such as missions to Mars – as they may have a hard time adjusting to confined and isolated environments, according to a NASA-funded study.

As NASA focuses considerable effort on a mission to send humans to Mars in the coming decades, sociology researchers are looking at what types of personalities would work the best together on such a long trip.

Extroverts tend to be talkative, but their gregarious nature may make them seem intrusive or demanding of attention in confined and isolated environments over the long term, researchers said.

—–

Progress made on a ‘bionic pancreas’ for diabetics

Scientists have made big progress on a “bionic pancreas” to free some people with diabetes from the daily ordeal of managing their disease. A wearable, experimental device passed a real-world test, constantly monitoring blood sugar and automatically giving insulin or a sugar-boosting drug as needed, doctors said Sunday.

The device improved blood-sugar control more than standard monitors and insulin pumps did when tested for five days on 20 adults and 32 teens. Unlike other artificial pancreases in development that just correct high blood sugar, this one also can fix too-low sugar, mimicking what a natural pancreas does.

The device was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University. Results were featured Sunday at an American Diabetes Association conference in San Francisco and were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

—–

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

Mother Teresa

—–

Breakfast Tunes