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
—–
Two American Men Will Likely Face Trial In North Korea
Two Americans who entered North Korea this spring could be headed for trial there, as they’re accused of “hostile acts against the country,” according to state media. A trial date for the two, who were traveling separately, hasn’t been announced.
—–
Marine Who Disappeared in Iraq in 2004 Back in US
A Marine who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. claiming he had been kidnapped, only to disappear again, is back in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday.
Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 34, turned himself in and was being flown Sunday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East to Norfolk, Va. He is to be moved Monday to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to a spokesman, Capt. Eric Flanagan.
Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Lejeune, will determine whether to court martial Hassoun.
—–
China ‘baby hatch’ inundated with abandoned, disabled children
Along a winding Chinese mountain road dotted with inns and restaurants is Jinan Orphanage, a place of refuge and site for troubled parents to dump unwanted children.
The government-run orphanage in eastern China opened its first baby hatch on June 1, International Children’s Day, as a symbolic step to show the country’s commitment to improving child welfare.
However, it since proved so popular that authorities have had to introduce new rules to limit the number of babies and children being abandoned.
—–
Why China’s ‘admirable workers’ are dying at their desks
Chinese banking regulator Li Jianhua literally worked himself to death. After 26 years of “always putting the cause of the party and the people” first, his employer said this month, the 48-year-old official died rushing to finish a report before the sun came up.
China is facing an epidemic of overwork, to hear the state-controlled press and Chinese social media tell it. About 600,000 Chinese a year die from working too hard, according to the China Youth Daily. China Radio International in April reported a toll of 1,600 every day.
Microblogging website Weibo is filled with complaints about stressed-out lives and chatter about reports of others, young and old, worked to death: a 24-year-old junior employee at Ogilvy Public Relations, a 25-year-old auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers; one of the chief designers of China’s next-generation fighter planes at state-run AVIC Shenyang Aircraft Corp.
—–
Airliner diverted after emergency chute opens in flight
A United Airlines flight en route from Chicago to California with 101 passengers aboard made an unscheduled stop late Sunday in Wichita, Kansas, after the Boeing 737’s emergency evacuation chute accidentally opened.
Public safety personnel at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport said the slide deployed in the cabin of Flight 1463, KAKE-TV reports. The plane, which was flying from Chicago’s O’Hare airport to the John Wayne Airport near Los Angeles, landed at Wichita airport around 10:30 p.m.
—–
U.S. Supreme Court to rule in mandatory union dues case
An Illinois healthcare worker’s legal challenge of mandatory union dues from public employees reaches a climax on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule in the case at the final session of its nine-month term.
If the justices agree with the sweeping argument made by home healthcare worker Pamela Harris that compulsory union dues are forced association and speech prohibited by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, it would essentially establish a national right-to-work law and deliver a blow to public employee unions.
The case, Harris v. Quinn, seeks to upend the decades-old practice of including so-called fair-share, agency or union-security clauses in collective bargaining agreements.
—–
Anti-abortion protesters take advantage of Supreme Court ruling
More than 50 protesters gathered outside Planned Parenthood in Boston, Mass., on Saturday to speak out against abortion and – for the first time in years – many set up inside the yellow line on the sidewalk. The line marks the 35-foot buffer zone that the Supreme Court ruled Thursday as unconstitutional.
Anti-abortion activists who say the buffer zone blocks their right to free speech celebrated the ruling.
“This is a public sidewalk,” said Ruth Schiavone of Norwood, Mass. “We should be able to talk to each other.”
—–
NASA successfully tests ‘flying saucer’ vehicle
After several weather delays, NASA successfully launched and recovered a “flying saucer” into Earth’s atmosphere Saturday to test technology that could be used to land on Mars.
The experiment off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai tested the disc-shaped vehicle and a giant parachute. The parachute did not fully deploy but NASA still deemed the mission a success.
Saturday afternoon, the ‘flying saucer’ splashed down in Pacific.
—–
Why Eating Fruits and Veggies Won’t Make You Thin
Eating more fruits and vegetables is a generally a good idea, but this alone isn’t likely to help you lose weight, a new review of studies suggests.
Researchers analyzed previous research on weight loss and increased fruit and vegetable intake, which included data on more than 1,200 people. The investigators found that eating more fruit and vegetables, without also changing the amount of calories from other food sources, did not cause people to either lose or gain weight.
“Across the board, all studies we reviewed showed a near-zero effect on weight loss,” study author Kathryn Kaiser, an instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, said in a statement.
—–
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
—–
Breakfast Tunes
—–
Stupid Shit by LaEscapee
