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
Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech; Clashes mar the 1968 Democratic National Convention; Emmett Till abducted and killed; Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana granted a divorce.
Breakfast Tunes
Breakfast News
Russia accused of new military incursions into Ukrainian territory
Ukraine has accused Russia of new military incursions into its territory, a day after hours of talks between the two countries’ presidents appeared to yield little in the way of concrete results.
Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko had met in Minsk on Tuesday, speaking privately for two hours after several hours of broader round-table talks including EU representatives and the presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan. But the two leaders had very different readings of what was agreed.
Ukrainian president Poroshenko claimed that all the heads of state present at the talks, including Putin, had signed up to supporting his “peace plan”, and also said that there was agreement that Ukrainian and Russian border guard services would meet soon to discuss the situation on the border.
Omaha police kill Cops TV crew member during gunfight
Police officers who opened fire while disrupting a robbery at a fast-food restaurant killed a crew member with the longrunning TV show Cops as well as the suspect, who was armed with a pellet gun that they thought was a real handgun, authorities in Omaha have said.
The suspect fired from the pellet gun before officers returned fire, Omaha police Chief Todd Schmaderer said at a news conference. He said witnesses and officers thought the robbery suspect’s Airsoft handgun looked and sounded real. They discovered later that it fired plastic pellets.
Cops is a Fox reality TV show that depicts law enforcement officers in action. According to its website the show has been filmed in at least 140 US cities and three foreign countries.
Executives with Langley Productions said this was the first time one of their crew members has been fatally shot while filming.
Committee on Shut Lanes Subpoenas Cellphone Records of a Top Christie Aide
The New Jersey legislative committee investigating the mysterious closing of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge last September has subpoenaed a cellphone carrier in an effort to uncover text messages exchanged by Gov. Chris Christie and a top aide as the governor’s administration sought to contain the fallout from the ensuing scandal.
The aide, Regina Egea, told the panel last month that she texted the governor in December after a legislative hearing at which employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the bridge, first rebutted the administration’s assertion that the lanes had been closed as part of a traffic study.
US journalist Steven Sotloff’s mother begs Isis for kidnapped son’s return
The mother of an American journalist who is being held by Islamic State (Isis) militants made a plea for her son’s safe return to the group’s leader on Wednesday.
“I am sending this message to you, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Quraishi al-Hussaini, the caliph of the Islamic State. I am Shirley Sotloff. My son Steven is in your hands,” she said in a video posted on The New York Times website. “You, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you please to release my child. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life.”
Referring to Baghdadi as the caliph could likely be seen as controversial, as it suggests the group is gaining legitimacy.
Ebola claims life of third doctor in Sierra Leone
A third top Ebola doctor has died in Sierra Leone, a government official in the west African nation has confirmed. The news came as another scientist, who also contracted the disease there, began treatment in Germany on Wednesday.
Health workers are trying to work out how the scientist, whose identity and condition are being withheld for privacy reasons, contracted Ebola before his overnight evacuation to a Hamburg hospital, it has been reported.
Time Warner internet outage affects millions of US broadband customers
Internet service went down for millions of Americans on Wednesday morning after cable company Time Warner suffered a major outage.
The company, which has almost 12m broadband subscribers nationwide, said it was investigating the cause of the outage, which apparently began around 4.30am ET. By 6am, it said “services were largely restored”, but an hour later, said it was still “working to restore services to all areas”. By 10am, the company was telling customers the outage had been resolved, but some social media users said access was still spotty.
Must Read Blog Posts
Black Folks are Going Nowhere Until We Discard the Misleadership Class Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
Freedom Rider: Van Jones and Charles Blow Absolve White America Margaret Kimberly, Black Agenda Report
Judge: Government’s Justification for Keeping Detainee Abuse Photos Secret is ‘Not Sufficient’ Kevin Gosztola, FDL The Dissenter
The Curious Case Of The Reverend Al Charles P. Pierce, Esquire’s The Politics Blog
The Judicial System’s Blessing Of Police Use Of Excessive Force Makes It Nearly Impossible To Hold Bad Cops Accountable Tim Cushing, Techdirt
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden Trying To Pretend CIA Torture Report Is Just A ‘Democrat’ Political Ploy Mike Masnick, Techdirt
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!