The Breakfast Club (May The Force Be With You)

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. 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.

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This Day in History

Cuban exiles invade Bay of Pigs; Three astronauts of Apollo 13 land safely in pacific ocean; Benjamin Franklin dies at age 84; JP Morgan born in Connecticut; Ford rolls out the Mustang convertible.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

Breakfast News

Lawmakers Unveil Secretly Negotiated Deal To Fast-Track Free Trade

Congress’ tax committees announced an agreement Thursday to speed through a bill to give President Barack Obama the fast-track authority (pdf) that he will need to push mammoth new trade deals through Congress.

While many believed a deal was in the works, news that it was actually done came as a surprise to members of both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which had been called to a hearing on the deal less than 12 hours earlier.

The “trade promotion authority” bill, or TPA, would allow the White House to cut new trade deals with Asian and European nations, and then pass them through Congress using expedited procedures. Under these rules, the deals cannot be amended or obstructed, and they get a simple up-or-down vote.

The fast-track authority would likely pave the way for both the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement with the European Union, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership with a dozen Asian nations. Both deals are vastly larger than NAFTA, and would involve about two-thirds of the entire world’s economy. Currently, the United States has trade agreements covering just 10 percent of world trade.

Education Department Nears Deal With Student Loan Giant Navient Over Cheating Troops

The U.S. Department of Education is nearing a deal with Navient Corp., the student loan giant formerly known as Sallie Mae, over allegations the company cheated active-duty troops on federal student loans, a department official said Thursday.

The agreement likely would end the Education Department’s much-delayed and heavily-criticized probe into whether the nation’s largest student loan specialist — a major government contractor — broke the law that caps interest rates and provides other special financial protections for active-duty members of the military.

With New Law, Life Just Got ‘A Lot Harder’ for Poor in Kansas

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Thursday signed a controversial welfare bill into law that places strict limits on welfare benefits, how long recipients may get them, and how they are-and are not-allowed to spend them.

Brownback, a Republican, said during the signing that placing limits on the benefits, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), would encourage recipients to become more self-reliant, but critics of the law maintain that it is punitive and degrading.

The law enshrines policies that set a 36-month lifetime limit on benefits; require able-bodied adults to work a minimum of 20 hours a week or go through a training program in order to qualify for the benefits; and prohibit recipients from spending TANF money at movie theaters, swimming pools, spas, massage parlors, and cruise ships.

‘Profiting From Misery’: Private Prison Corporations Driving Harsh Immigration Policies

rivate prison companies are spending millions of dollars to lobby the U.S. government for harsher immigration laws that, in turn, spike corporate profits by driving up incarceration levels, a new report from the national social justice organization Grassroots Leadership reveals.

Entitled Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota, the report’s release on Wednesday coincided with a renewed hunger strike at a privately-run immigrant detention center in southern Texas, where asylum-seeking mothers incarcerated with their children report inhumane conditions, including sexual assaults by prison guards and staff.

According to the report, for-profit companies are capturing an ever-increasing share of this immigrant detention center “market.” In 2009, 49 percent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds were run by for-profit companies. Today, that number stands at 62 percent.

Now 90 percent of the largest ICE detention centers in the U.S. are privately operated, the study finds.

Greece pushed a step closer to Grexit after IMF snub

Greece has been pushed a step closer to default and potential exit from the euro after one of its main lenders, the International Monetary Fund, all but ruled out allowing the cash-strapped country to delay repaying the €1bn (£722,000) due next month.

The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said delaying the payments would be an unprecedented action that would only make the situation worse.

Speaking at the organisation’s spring meeting, she said: “Payment delays have not been granted by the board of the IMF in the last 30 years.”

Her intervention is likely to heighten fears that senior policymakers in the US and Europe are preparing for Greece to leave the eurozone.

WikiLeaks publishes 30,000 leaked Sony documents

WikiLeaks on Thursday published a searchable database of more than 30,000 documents and 173,000 emails leaked from the Sony Pictures Entertainment breach last year.

WikiLeaks, which publishes leaked, secret and classified information, posted the files in an easily searchable format.

It said they were important to keep in the public eye because of Sony’s ties to the White House, its extensive lobbying efforts on behalf of copyright law as well as its “connections to the US military-industrial complex,” the group said in a release on its site.

In a statement, Sony said it “vehemently disagrees” with the assertion that the material belongs in the public domain.

Vermont Lawmakers Threaten To Reinstate Prohibition If Pot Isn’t Legalized

Vermont may well become the next state to legalize marijuana, and two state lawmakers who support legalization have a simple message for their colleagues: Give us what we want, or we’ll take away your booze.

A new bill filed earlier this month by state Reps. Jean O’Sullivan and Christopher Pearson would effectively reinstate alcohol prohibition in Vermont. If passed, House Bill 502 would outlaw consumption of alcohol, with penalties mirroring those currently in place for marijuana possession. Those found with small amounts of alcohol would be subject to fines of up to $500, and anyone involved in the sale and distribution stream could face up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in penalties.

O’Sullivan herself acknowledges that even she doesn’t support the substance of the bill. Rather, “the object was to basically embarrass leadership to say that we have [marijuana legalization bills] in front of us, and they’re going absolutely nowhere,” she told The Huffington Post.

Rock-paper-scissors victory over police spares young woman from ticket

Three Texas police officers are facing disciplinary action after sparing a young woman from punishment for underage drinking because she beat one of them at rock-paper-scissors.

The incident was uncovered after a short video of it went viral. The video shows the upset young woman – who was attending the music festival Chillfest – being clasped by her friends after evading punishment from Burleson County Precinct 2 officers.

Burleson County constable Dennis J Gaas confirmed the incident happened to local news station KBTX.

He also said that the three officers would no longer be allowed to work security at Chillfest. The precinct is also looking to determine whether further disciplinary action is needed.

Rutgers’ Lord Nelson, only horse ever to be penalized in college football game, dies at 42

The only horse ever to be penalized in a college football game has died.

Rutgers University says Lord Nelson was 42, or the human equivalent of 126 years.

One of Lord Nelson’s duties during his 37-year Rutgers career was carrying the school’s Scarlet Knight mascot during football games. It was against Army in 1994 that Lord Nelson was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after he broke free and raced down the sideline at Giants Stadium.