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
Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announce they are separating; The Charge of the Light Brigade – is published in Britain; Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa is elected president in Poland; Actor Kirk Douglas is born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
We were hoping Obama would reclaim moral leadership for America. That failed. Lech Walesa
Breakfast News
FBI to launch new system to count people killed by police officers
The FBI plans to overhaul its system for counting the number of deaths caused by police in the US, according to federal officials, and will begin releasing information about deadly encounters involving the use of Tasers and other force, in addition to fatal shootings.
Responding to months of sharp criticism over its existing program for reporting fatal shootings by police officers, the bureau is to unveil a new system that will publish a wider range of data, resembling that currently collected by an ongoing Guardian investigation.
Stephen Fischer, a senior official in the FBI’s criminal justice information services division in West Virginia, said it had “identified a need for more robust and complete information about encounters between law enforcement officers and citizens that result in a use of force”.
Officials said statisticians were intending to count deadly incidents involving physical force, Tasers and blunt weapons used by officers as well as firearms, and that they planned to begin gradually publishing some more information about fatal incidents as soon as 2016.
Greenpeace exposes sceptics hired to cast doubt on climate science
An undercover sting by Greenpeace has revealed that two prominent climate sceptics were available for hire by the hour to write reports casting doubt on the dangers posed by global warming.
Posing as consultants to fossil fuel companies, Greenpeace approached professors at leading US universities to commission reports touting the benefits of rising carbon dioxide levels and the benefits of coal. The views of both academics are well outside mainstream climate science.
The findings point to how paid-for information challenging the consensus on climate science could be placed into the public domain without the ultimate source of funding being revealed.
Syrian refugee families arrive in Texas and Indiana despite governors’ protests
Syrian refugee families have arrived in Texas and Indiana, defying efforts by the governors of those conservative US states to stop their arrival.
A Syrian family of six went to live on Monday near relatives who were already living in the Dallas area, said Lucy Carrigan, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee. And a Syrian couple and their two small children arrived safely in Indiana on Monday night, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Indianapolis said in a statement.
Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Mike Pence of Indiana were among more than two dozen Republican governors who said they would refuse any new Syrian refugees following the deadly 13 November Paris attacks, which have been linked to the Islamic State group operating in Syria.
But federal officials and refugee agencies have continued resettlement. They say states are denying a safe haven to families displaced by war, and that a state’s role in resettlement does not include the authority to block them.
Canada launches inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women
Canada’s government has launched a long-awaited national inquiry into the murder or disappearance of hundreds of indigenous women, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised a “total renewal” of the country’s relationship with its aboriginal population.
Speaking to an Assembly of First Nations (AFN) special chiefs gathering in Gatineau, Québec, the Liberal leader announced that his government had begun the process to create the inquiry into the nearly 1,200 indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or who have gone missing in Canada over the past three decades.
Activists, aboriginal leadership and many victims’ families have been calling for a national inquiry for more than five years – a move which was resisted by Trudeau’s conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper.
Bad news, bears: Yellowstone grizzlies poised to lose protection from hunting
State and federal wildlife officials are set to strip grizzly bears of their protection from hunting around Yellowstone national park, with a plan that would remove one of the species’ last populations from the endangered species list.
A leaked letter from Dan Ashe, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, to state officials notes there is a “mutually understood process that will allow the Service to proceed with a proposed delisting” for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region.
Yellowstone grizzlies were placed on the federal endangered species list in 1975, at a time when the population had declined to 136. It has now rebounded to between 674 and 839 in counts taken last year, with occupied habitat increasing by more than 50%.
US to ban soaps and other products containing microbeads
The US is set to ban personal care products that contain microbeads after the House of Representatives approved a bill that would phase out the environmentally-harmful items.
The bill, which had been backed by a bipartisan committee, will now go to the Senate for approval.
The Microbead Free Waters Act would start the phase-out of the tiny pieces of plastic found in soap, toothpaste and body washes beginning 1 July 2017. Microbeads can flow into rivers, lakes and streams where, they can be mistaken for food by fish. This can lead to the spread of pollutants throughout the food chain, including to humans.
Breakfast Blogs
Good Afternoon from the Supreme Court, Where Voting Rights Are Under Attack Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
In One of His First Major Legislative Acts, Paul Ryan Trying to Deputize Comcast to Narc You Out to the Feds emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
New Chicago Police Chief Approved Fabricated Reports on Laquan McDonald Shooting Kevin Gosztola, ShadowProof
Obama Promises Limitless War In Response To San Bernardino Attack Dan Wright, ShadoeProof
Remembering Lone Wolves digby aka Heather Digby Parton, Hullabaloo
New Mexico Legislators Sue City For Refusing To Follow New Asset Forfeiture Law Tim Cushing, Techdirt