The Breakfast Club (Short Farewell Blues)

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.

AP’s Today in History for January 3rd

Washington’s army routs the British in the Battle of New Jersey; Manuel Noriega surrenders to U.S. forces; Jack Ruby dies; Author J.R.R. Tolkien is born.

Breakfast Tunes Willow Osborne – Farewell Blues (Flatt and Scruggs)

Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below

 
Top Investigator Says British Soldiers May Face Prosecution for Iraq Crimes
Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

The head of an independent UK unit tasked with investigating allegations of torture and unlawful killing in Iraq has said that British soldiers could face prosecution for crimes including murder, according to an interview published Saturday in The Independent.

“There are serious allegations that we are investigating across the whole range of … investigations, which incorporates homicide, where I feel there is significant evidence to be obtained to put a strong case before the Service Prosecuting Authority [SPA] to prosecute and charge,” Mark Warwick, a former police detective who is in charge of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), told the paper.

Asked whether some cases could constitute war crimes, he responded: “There are lots of significant cases that we are investigating and at the appropriate time it will be a matter for us to discuss with the SPA whether they meet the war-crimes threshold, but there are certainly serious allegations currently being investigated.”

The Independent reports:

IHAT’s caseload of allegations of ill-treatment or unlawful killing by British forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 has risen tenfold since it was established. In 2010, it was dealing with cases involving 152 victims. It is now dealing with more than 1,500 victims, according to Ihat’s latest quarterly update. Of these, 280 are victims of alleged unlawful killing by British forces in Iraq, but more than 200 of these cases have yet to be investigated, with just 25 under investigation.

Warwick said his unit hopes to complete its investigations by the end of 2019. But human rights groups are pressing for a faster timeline.

“The incredibly slow pace at which IHAT is investigating allegations of criminality committed by UK soldiers against Iraqi civilians is wholly unacceptable,” Carla Ferstman, the director of the human rights charity Redress, told The Independent. “Things seem to still be moving at a snail’s pace. We call upon the Government to ensure IHAT can, and does, do what it was set up to do, and to do it now. This cannot be a whitewash.” …

 
Oregon militia threatens showdown with US agents at wildlife refuge
Jason Wilson, The Guardian

Tensions over the treatment of two cattle ranchers in Oregon escalated into an armed standoff over the weekend when members of a rightwing militia occupied a wildlife refuge and threatened a confrontation with federal authorities.

Ammon Bundy, the son of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was at the heart of a notorious showdown over cattle grazing rights last year, was among at least a dozen heavily armed men who seized the headquarters of the Malheur wildlife refuge on Saturday afternoon and said they would stay indefinitely.

They occupied the building after an earlier peaceful protest over the treatment of two ranchers, Dwight Hammond and his son Steve, who are facing custodial sentences related to arson charges. Both are due to report to prison on Monday. …

 
Biggest El Niño effects on US may be yet to come
Renee Lewis, Al Jazeera

The weather effects of El Niño, already blamed in large part for unusual winter floods, tornadoes and other extreme weather in the U.S., the U.K. and other countries during 2015, is far from over.

Scientists predict El Niño’s biggest effects will be felt in 2016.

“El Niño 2015 has already created weather chaos around the world,” NASA said in a Dec. 29 press release. Over the next few months, forecasters expect the United States to continue to feel its impacts, the release stated.

“We may not yet have seen the peak of this El Niño,” Josh Willis, a project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said in the release. More severe weather is predicted for the New Year, with scientists warning that El Niño is growing and its biggest effects are expected in early 2016. …

• Las Vegas police fatally shoot suspect holding a cellphone mistaken for a gun
  Associated Press in Las Vegas, Nevada

• Arab Americans shouldn’t be classified as white
  Germine H. Awad

• How interpretive dance got cool
  Malcolm Harris

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Attack owl returns in Oregon, targeting government workers
Courtney Sherwood

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – An owl that achieved notoriety last winter for attacking joggers in an Oregon park has returned and is now turning its talons on government workers, state officials said on Wednesday.

The barred owl has clawed at least three people outside the state Capitol in Salem in a series of attacks since late November, city parks department spokeswoman Tibby Larson said.

“It’s silent. You’re just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind,” Larson said.
…
The Oregon attacks are taking place near state government offices in Salem, but the owl is probably more interested in impressing potential mates than in making a political statement, Larson said, noting such attacks occur during courtship season.

“If you’re in that neighborhood, we’re advising you to wear a hat or carry an umbrella,” she added.

Salem’s aggressive barred owl first struck local residents last January and February in incidents that inspired MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow to unveil an “attack owl” street sign on her program.

Maddow granted the Salem city parks department permission to print the image on actual street signs, which have been posted in areas where the owl has struck, Larson said.

Sales of “attack owl” street signs have raised more than $20,000 for local parks, and local brewery Gilgamesh Brewing paid tribute by naming a pale ale it released this year “Hoot Attack,” Larson said. The barred owl is also known as the hoot owl.

“Everybody loves the owl – well, I’m sure those whose heads are clawed up don’t, but everybody else,” she said. …