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.
This Day in History
Ireland’s Saint Patrick dies; President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and his sons; Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt marry; Baseball players face questions about steroids.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
It’s not that the Irish are cynical. It’s rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.
Brendan Behan
Breakfast News
Germany to reform rape law to help victims file complaints
The German government has agreed to reform the country’s law on sexual crimes to improve victims’ ability to file complaints against their attackers.
The bill agreed upon Wednesday by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet wouldn’t require proof that victims resisted their attackers before rape charges can be brought.
Under the proposed law, which needs Parliamentary approval, attackers could be convicted of rape if they surprise their victims or exploit the fact that victims fear greater violence if they resist.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas says the reforms are needed because only 8 percent of rape trials result in convictions in Germany and studies show only one in ten rapes is reported.
White House expands tourists’ access to Cuba as Obama visit draws near
The White House on Tuesday opened the door wide for Americans to visit Cuba, even as tourism remains officially banned on the eve of President Barack Obama’s historic visit to the communist island.
The Obama administration declared that Americans could visit the island freely for “individual people-to-people educational travel,” chipping away at the nation’s five-decade-old embargo on Cuba, which Congress has refused to repeal.
No longer will travelers have to go with an organized group, as required under recent rules. New guidelines issued by the Treasury Department are broad enough to permit many kinds of tourism. They mainly require “meaningful interaction between the traveler and individuals in Cuba” and “support for the Cuban people.”
Revealed: EPA official warned staffers about Flint water crisis months before emergency order
The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned in September that the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, could “get very big” months before the EPA issued an emergency order requiring the state and city to take immediate steps to protect residents, emails released on Wednesday showed.
Administrator Gina McCarthy wrote in a Sept. 26, 2015, email to EPA staff that the Flint water issue was “really getting concerning” and asked for a meeting to be scheduled to determine “where we are now and what needs to be done by whom.”
McCarthy wrote, “This situation has the opportunity to get very big very quickly.”
She asked officials in another email the same day for options on federal intervention.
The EPA released 1,200 pages of redacted emails Wednesday on the agency’s response to the Flint water crisis.
An EPA spokeswoman did not comment on McCarthy’s emails.
Surge in renewable energy stalls world greenhouse gas emissions
Falling coal use in China and the US and a worldwide shift towards renewable energy have kept greenhouse gas emissions level for a second year running, one of the world’s leading energy analysts has said.
Preliminary data for 2015 from the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed that carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector have levelled off at 32.1bn tonnes even as the global economy grew over 3% .
Electricity generated by renewable sources played a critical role, having accounted for around 90% of new electricity generation in 2015. Wind power produced more than half of all new electricity generation, said the IEA.
Antibiotics becoming ineffective at treating some child infections
Children are becoming powerless to fight off common infections because antibiotics they take are unable to kill the bacteria involved, experts warn.
New research shows that overuse of antibiotics by children is to blame for bugs becoming drug-resistant for up to six months at a time in cases of urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by E coli.
Antimicrobial resistance among children with such infections in rich countries is so great that certain common antibiotics do not work in about half of all cases, academics from Bristol University and Imperial College London found.
Breakfast Blogs
“Noteworthy” Ron Wyden Interview on Apple vs FBI: Ask NSA, Ask NSA, Ask NSA emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
The Problem of Liberal Elites Part 2 On Trade Ed Walker, emptywheel
The Scariest Thing About Trump? He’s Winning Fair and Square. Charles Pierce, Esquire Poltics
Defense Department Agencies Have Been Operating Drones Domestically Without Cohesive Guidelines Tim Cushing, Techdirt
Apple’s VP Of Software Engineering: No, We Have Never Given A Backdoor To Any Government Mike Masnick, Techdirt
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