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.
AP’s Today in History for March 6th
Alamo falls to Mexican forces; Michelangelo born; Walter Cronkite retires. (March 6)
Breakfast Tune Carolina Chocolate Drops – Salty Dog
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
Activists Demand Justice Following Assassination of Berta Cáceres
Nika Knight, Common Dreams
More than 50 humanitarian and environmental groups from around the world called on Friday for an independent international investigation into the assassination of Honduran Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, who was murdered in her sleep at 1am on Thursday by two unknown assailants.
“Mrs. Cáceres’ case is the most high-profile killing within a growing trend in the murder, violence, and intimidation of people defending their indigenous land rights in Honduras,” wrote the groups in their letter to the Honduran president.
“We know that in Honduras it is very easy to pay people to commit murders,” Zuñiga Caceres said of her mother’s death to teleSUR. “But we know that those behind this are other powerful people with money and a whole apparatus that allows them to commit these crimes.” …
Hulk Hogan v Gawker: $100m lawsuit puts first amendment to the test again
Nicky Woolf, The Guardian
…At issue is a post Gawker ran in October 2012 that included a video showing the wrestler, then 58, appearing to have sex with a woman called Heather Clem, who at the time was married to Hogan’s best friend, talk radio DJ Bubba “the Love Sponge” Clem.
The post, which was titled “Even for a Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex in a Canopy Bed is Not Safe For Work but Watch it Anyway”, included not only the video but an accompanying essay describing the intercourse in not-entirely-flattering terms.
Hogan, who was fired by the WWE last year for a racist outburst caught on tape, is asking for $100m in damages for defamation, emotional pain and loss of privacy. He is approaching the trial with the over-the-top bombast for which he became known during his days in the WWE. The day before jury selection began, he tweeted: “Time for the real main event! I AM going to slam another Giant! Hogan vrs Gawker! Watcha Gonna Do Gawker? Only Justice Brother.” …
Exclusive: U.S. watchdog to probe Fed’s lax oversight of Wall Street
Jonathan Spicer, Reuters
A U.S. watchdog agency is preparing to investigate whether the Federal Reserve and other regulators are too soft on the banks they are meant to police, after a written request from Democratic lawmakers that marks the latest sign of distrust between Congress and the central bank.
Ranking representatives Maxine Waters of the House Financial Services Committee and Al Green of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations asked the Government Accountability Office on Oct. 8 to launch a probe of “regulatory capture” and to focus on the New York Fed, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.
In an interview, the congressional agency said it has begun planning its approach.
The probe, which had not been previously reported or made public, is the first by an outside agency into the perception that government regulators are “captured” by and too deferential toward the bankers they supervise, so that Wall Street benefits at the public’s expense. …
New Jersey Supreme Court weighing whether public should have access to police records
S.P. Sullivan, NJ .com
TRENTON — New Jersey’s highest court is weighing whether police departments should be given broad discretion over which documents to release under the state’s public records laws.
News organizations and civil liberties advocates say a decision in the case, which involves records from a police shooting requested by a media company, will have broad implications for transparency in New Jersey.
Law enforcement officials are keenly interested as well. They say they need to be able to withhold records from police investigations to keep from tainting potential witnesses and jurors. …
- Major Pharma Scandal: Whistleblowers Claim Popular Asthma Drug Was Marketed Illegally
Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet
- Freedom Rider: Bye Melissa
Margaret Kimberley
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Bird poop apparently caused NY nuclear reactor outage
Michael Virtanen, AP
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Bird poop was the likely cause of a December shutdown at a nuclear power plant outside New York City, according to the operator.
An Indian Point reactor safely shut down for three days starting Dec. 14 following an electrical disturbance on outdoor high voltage transmission lines, Entergy Corp. said. An outside expert is analyzing whether what’s technically called bird “streaming” was the culprit.
In a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month, the New Orleans-based company said the automatic reactor shutdown was apparently from bird excrement that caused an electric arc between wires on a feeder line at a transmission tower. …
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