The Breakfast Club (An Old Sweet Song)

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

The Six-Day War ends in the Mideast; Yugoslav troops leave Kosovo after NATO’s campaign of airstrikes; Alcoholics Anonymous founded; Actress and singer Judy Garland born; Singer Ray Charles dies.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.

Ray Charles

Breakfast News

US weighs deploying hundreds more troops to train Iraqi forces against Isis

The Pentagon is drawing up plans to expand the training of Iraqi forces and Sunni tribal fighters in a step that could mean deploying hundreds of additional US troops, officials said on Tuesday.

But Barack Obama’s administration is not contemplating a radical change in war strategy or sending American forces into ground combat – despite advances by the Islamic State group on the battlefield. [..]A ramped up training program could mean deploying “less than a thousand” troops at most, as well as increasing the number of training sites from the four currently being used, the official said.

The training effort would carry “a particular emphasis on the Sunnis”, the official said.

Iraq’s Sunni community has yet to join the fight against Isis in large numbers, amid lingering distrust of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. And the Isis jihadists have sought to exploit the Sunnis’ sense of alienation from Baghdad.

Until now, the Baghdad government has overseen the training of Sunni tribal fighters and Washington has been frustrated at what it considers the slow pace of the program.

G7 Climate Goal Will ‘Send Shivers Down the Spine’ of Fossil Fuel Industry

Governments of Canada and Japan reportedly block effort to reach zero emissions

In an acknowledgement of the severity of the climate crisis, officials from the some of the world’s leading economic powers on Monday issued a joint statement calling for a “decarbonization of the global economy over the course of this century.”

In a communique (pdf) issued on the second and final day of the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, leaders from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Canada, Italy, and Germany reaffirmed the need to limit global warming to 2º Celsius and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70 percent of 2010 levels by 2050, which is the amount recommended by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Climate action proponents say the statement sends a strong message to financial institutions as well as to the fossil fuel industry that ‘change is coming.’

Louisiana appeals release order for man in solitary confinement 43 years

Nearly 24 hours after a judge ordered the release of a man who has spent more than four decades in solitary confinement, another court has ordered him to remain in prison at least until the end of this week.

On Monday, a federal court ordered the immediate release of Albert Woodfox, the last of the “Angola Three” inmates, who has been in solitary confinement in a 6 by 8 sq ft cell since 18 April 1972. Judge James Brady called Woodfox’s release “the only just remedy” after his two previous convictions for the death of a prison guard were overturned because of racial prejudice and lack of evidence.

But Louisiana attorney general Buddy Caldwell on Tuesday appealed to the fifth US circuit court of appeals in New Orleans to keep Woodfox in prison with the intent to try him a third time.

The appeals court sided with Caldwell, issuing a stay on Tuesday that will keep Woodfox in prison until at least 1pm on Friday, “unless this order is vacated, or renewed indefinitely or to a time certain, by this panel”. It gave Woodfox until Wednesday afternoon to appeal that stay.

‘Out of control’ Texas officer who threw girl to ground at pool party resigns

Eric Casebolt, the Texas police officer who threw a black girl to the ground and waved a gun at other teenagers others during a pool party incident that quickly went viral and led to protests, has resigned from the police force in McKinney, Texas.

Officials were quick to place full blame on Casebolt as “out of control”, seeking to quell international attention on this small Dallas suburb after video footage spread and protesters descended upon the town at a time when relations between police and communities of color are under increased scrutiny.

“Our policies, our training, our practice doesn’t support his actions,” McKinney police chief Greg Conley said at a press conference. He described Casebolt’s actions as “indefensible” – even though Casebolt had been accused of racial profiling before, according to a withdrawn civil rights lawsuit filed against the police department.

Casebolt will retain his pension and benefits.

Court upholds Texas abortion law that could leave state with only seven clinics

Abortion providers will ask the US supreme court to consider Texas’s severe anti-abortion powers after a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the most restrictive provisions of a state law that could leave the second largest state in the US with fewer than 10 abortion clinics.

A three-judge panel on the fifth US circuit court of appeals, one of the nation’s most conservative courts, found that Texas could require abortion clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, which opponents say are too expensive for small providers and clinics. The state argued in a challenge brought by abortion providers that the law’s building and equipment regulations are meant to protect women’s health.

Opponents of the Republican-backed law, among the most restrictive in the US, say the decision could leave women across the vast expanse of Texas with access to just a handful of clinics, forcing them to travel more than 100 miles to seek an abortion.

Record boost in new solar power continues massive industry growth

A record amount of solar power was added to the world’s grids in 2014, pushing total cumulative capacity to 100 times the level it was in 2000.

Around 40GW of solar power was installed last year, meaning there is now a total of 178GW to meet world electricity demand, prompting renewable energy associations to claim that a tipping point has been reached that will allow rapid acceleration of the technology.

“For the first time ever in Europe, renewables produced more power than nuclear – and solar power was key in achieving this remarkable achievement,” said Michael Schmela, executive adviser to trade body SolarPower Europe, which compiled the statistics published on Tuesday.

Mississippi school drops charges against four arrested for cheering at graduation

A Mississippi school superintendent who pressed charges against people for cheering at a high school graduation has now dropped the charges.

According to multiple media reports, Senatobia superintendent Jay Foster says the school district withdrew the complaints Monday.

“I’ve had a lot of negative phone calls and emails, but I’ve also had a lot of support,” Foster said of the national attention brought to his actions.

Last week, Foster said that over the past few years, the yelling and screaming at graduation has become too disruptive, and made the ceremony unbearable. Foster swore out warrants for disturbing the peace against four people accused of being boisterous at the 21 May ceremony.

Rare footage surfaces of Amelia Earhart shortly before she vanished

Footage published for the first time shows Amelia Earhart just before she attempted to fly around the world, and not long before she vanished and set investigators on a search that has yet to conclude.

Earhart, who had become the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in the late 1920s, met photographer Al Bresnik and his brother John in 1937 at an airfield in Burbank, California, to document her first “round the world” attempt. A few months later, after another attempt, she disapperared.

At the time, Earhart was already a celebrity – a hero during the Great Depression, a lecturer who endorsed products and hobnobbed with Herbert Hoover, and a pioneering woman in the male-dominated world of aviation.

What may be the last surviving footage of Earhart sat on a shelf for more than 50 years until John Bresnik’s death in 1992. His son, also named John, unearthed it while going through his father’s things after he died – only to put the film into his desk for another two decades, not realizing what he had.

Chimpanzees in west Africa observed indulging in habitual drinking

The boozing starts from 7am. Though large amounts are often drunk, the sessions are orderly, even sociable. A skinful later, and always before nightfall, enough is enough and they rest.

They are the chimpanzees of Bossou, south-eastern Guinea, and their secret is finally out. With 17 years of evidence in hand, scientists have declared the troop the first wild chimpanzees to indulge in regular, habitual drinking.

The west African chimps were observed in their natural forest habitat from 1995 to 2012. The action, captured on video, centred around raffia palms. Local communities harvest sugary sap from the trees, which ferments into a rich, alcoholic brew in hours.

To extract the sweet, white sap, tappers cut a wedge in the tree and suspend a container beneath. They leave it there to fill and lay leaves over the top to keep the bugs out. In a few weeks, a single tree can yield 50 litres of sap.

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