The Breakfast Club (Desperado)

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

Golden Gate Bridge opens to the public; U.N. Tribunal indicts Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic; the British Navy sinks Nazi Germany’s battleship Bismarck; Actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

“If I was to really get at the burr in my saddle, it’s not politics – and this is, I think, probably a horrible analogy – but I look at politicians as, they are doing what inherently they need to do to retain power. Their job is to consolidate power. When you go to the zoo and you see a monkey throwing poop, you go, ‘That’s what monkeys do, what are you gonna do?’ But what I wish the media would do more frequently is say, ‘Bad monkey.'”

Jon Stewart

Breakfast News

Privacy advocates oppose fresh Senate attempt to renew NSA spying powers]

Fresh attempts to prevent controversial National Security Agency surveillance powers expiring this weekend emerged on Tuesday, only to quickly run into opposition from privacy campaigners in Congress.

Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, a hawkish member of the intelligence committee, has proposed the new legislation to try to win over a handful of wavering Republicans who stood in the way of more ambitious reform efforts during a showdown last week.

But Feinstein’s bill, first reported by the Empty Wheel blog (pdf), rolls back a number of key provisions in the USA Freedom Act, which fell three senators short of the 60 needed to proceed in a 57-42 vote in the early hours of Friday morning, and may complicate rather than aid the painful process of building consensus.

IRS says breach provided hackers with information on 100,000 taxpayers

Thieves used an online service provided by the US government’s tax collecting agency to gain access to information from more than 100,000 taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.

The information included tax returns and other tax information on file with the IRS.

The IRS said the thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript”. In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address.

FIFA Officials Arrested on Corruption Charges; Face Extradition to U.S.

Swiss authorities began an extraordinary early-morning operation here Wednesday to arrest several top soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges.

As leaders of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, gathered for their annual meeting, more than a dozen plain-clothed Swiss law enforcement officials arrived unannounced at the Baur au Lac hotel, an elegant five-star property with views of the Alps and Lake Zurich.

The arrests were carried out peacefully, with at least two men being ushered out of the hotel without handcuffs. One agent carried what appeared to be evidence bags containing medication and money. One FIFA official, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, was led by the authorities from his room to a side-door exit of the hotel. He was allowed to bring his luggage, which was adorned with FIFA logos.

Greece looks to buy time for bailout talks with combined repayment to IMF

Greece could secure vital weeks to negotiate a rescue deal with its creditors if Athens is able to delay repayments worth €1.6bn (£1.1bn) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as critical deadlines approach.

The proposal to combine four IMF repayments due in June and delay payment until the end of the month would win more time for vital debt talks that resumed on Tuesday.

Greece must repay €300m on 5 June, the first of four instalments due next month . The IMF, its biggest creditor after the European Union, often waits a month before receiving funds from debtor countries.

A senior eurozone official close to the talks with Athens told Reuters: “There is the possibility of putting together several payments that Greece would need to make to the IMF in the course of June and then just make one payment.”

Saudi Arabia passes execution total for all of 2014 as 88th person is put to death

Three more people have been put to death in Saudi Arabia, taking the number of executions carried out in the country this year to 88 – surpassing the total for all of 2014.

The interior ministry on Tuesday identified the latest prisoners to be put to death as Saudis Awad al-Rowaili and Lafi al-Shammary, who had been convicted of smuggling amphetamines. They were executed in the northern region of Jawf, the ministry said in statements carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Another Saudi, Muhammad al-Shihri, was separately put to death in the south-western region of Asir for murder.

The escalation in the number of executions comes amid activists’ concerns that trials are not being conducted fairly. The conservative Islamic kingdom executed 87 people in 2014, according to an AFP tally.

Two Native American tribes withdraw from ‘paternalistic’ Maine legislature

Saying they can no longer participate in a system that perpetuates a “paternalistic attitude”, two Native American tribes abandoned their seats in the Maine legislature on Tuesday amid clashes with Governor Paul LePage.

The Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe said recent actions by LePage – including the withdrawal of an executive order that sought to promote cooperation between the state and the tribe – have broken what was once a productive relationship.

“Our hope is that someday the state will recognize us for who we are and value the tribes as sovereign partners and engage in a relationship of mutual respect. Until then we simply must decide our own future,” representative Matthew Dana of the Passamaquoddy Tribe said before walking out of the house chamber with Penobscot Nation representative Wayne Mitchell.

Alberta wildfires prompt oil firms to suspend production and evacuate staff

Several energy companies have suspended oil operations and evacuated non-essential staff from northeastern Alberta as nearly 20 wildfires rage out of control in the remote rural region.

At least 233,000 barrels per day of oil sands production, 9% of Alberta’s total oil sands output, has been suspended in Alberta’s northeast because of the fire risk.

Several small towns threatened by fires have been evacuated in other parts of the province.

In its daily update on Tuesday, the Alberta government said there are 66 forest fires now burning in the province and 19 of those, including the one in the Cold Lake oil sands region of northeastern Alberta, are considered out of control.

Mediterranean-style diet may halve womb cancer risk, study suggests

A Mediterranean-style diet, already associated with good health and prevention of heart disease or a stroke, could also significantly cut the risk of womb cancer, an Italian study suggests.

Researchers who looked at the eating habits of over 5,000 women report that those who adhered most closely to food groups within such a diet lowered their risk of developing the disease by more than half. There were benefits too for those who stuck only slightly less strictly to the diet’s components.

The results are reported in the British Journal of Cancer but the charity Cancer Research UK, which owns it, was cautious, partly because the study was based on the women’s memories of what they had eaten.

‘Free range’ parents cleared of child neglect charge in Maryland

A Maryland couple who were investigated for neglect after letting their two young children walk home alone from local parks have been cleared in one of two such cases.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Child Protective Services has ruled out neglect in the case against Danielle and Alexander Meitiv for allowing their children, ages 10 and six, to walk about a mile home in December.

The suburban Washington DC, parents have been investigated three times since October by the Montgomery County agency, a division of the state department of human resources.

The agency has been monitoring the Meitivs for their advocacy of so-called “free range” parenting, which encourages independence and exploration. They remain under investigation for neglect related to their children walking home from another park 12 April. The children were held by police and Child Protective Services for more than five hours that day.

Thorny frog and dementor wasp among new species discovered in Mekong

A “dementor” wasp named after the Harry Potter creatures, a stick insect more than half a metre long, and a colour-changing thorny frog are among new species discovered in South East Asia’s Greater Mekong region.

The discoveries also include a bent-toed gecko which is the 10,000th reptile to be recorded on Earth, a feathered coral whose nearest relatives are found in Africa and four moths named after Thai princesses.

A total of 139 new species were identified in the region in 2014, including a new mammal – a long-toothed pipistrelle bat – as well as 90 plants, 23 reptiles, 16 amphibians and nine fish found by scientists.

It brings the total number of species found in the Greater Mekong, which covers Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, between 1997 and 2014 to 2,216 or an average of three new plants or creatures a week.

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