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
The Civil War’s Battle of Fort Donelson; the Georgia crematory case; John Demjanjuk goes on trial; America’s first 911 call; and the NHL scraps the rest of its season.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
I make an effort to keep it as real as I possibly can.
Breakfast News
Sources: At least 22 killed in strikes against 2 hospitals, school in Syria
Rescuers wearing hard hats searched through rubble for survivors in northern Syria Monday after airstrikes hit two hospitals and a school building.
The attacks killed at least 22 people, according to reports. Eight others are missing and presumed dead.
Amnesty International said the hospital attacks amounted to war crimes. Critics of the Syrian government warned that the latest violence is yet another troubling sign that a planned “cessation of hostilities” in the war-ravaged country is far from taking hold.
Fifteen people were killed when a hospital and a school building that was housing displaced people were struck in Azaz, in Syria’s Aleppo province, according to a hospital worker on the scene. Up to 40 other people were wounded.
Risk of EU breakup is real, Tusk warns ahead of crucial summit
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, warned on Monday that positions were hardening on Britain’s future in Europe ahead of the crucial summit he will chair on Thursday and the risk of break-up was real.
David Cameron scrapped a debate at the European parliament on Tuesday and scheduled a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, amid fears that a proposed settlement geared to keeping the UK in the EU could unravel because of growing European objections to the concessions promised to Britain. [..]
The stark warning from the former Polish prime minister, who presides over the EU summit on Thursday and who has been charged with drafting the settlement rewriting the terms of Britain’s EU membership, came as east European leaders staged a mini-summit in Prague to hammer out a common position on the proposed British deal.
Tornados, snow, sleet in East; record heat in West
Suspected tornados touched down in Florida’s Panhandle and Mississippi on Monday, destroying more than a dozen homes, damaging a school while it was in session and trapping an elderly woman and possibly other residents under rubble.
The tornadoes were part of a large winter storm system that was clobbering the eastern U.S. with snow, sleet, strong winds and rain, and which came on the heels of record-breaking low temperatures.
In the West, it was a very different story: Both Arizona and California were experiencing record-high temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s.
Officials in Florida and Mississippi were investigating reports of at least three possible tornadoes. One of the apparent twisters swept through the rural town of Century, in the northwest corner of Florida’s Panhandle, late Monday afternoon, destroying or significantly damaging about 10 homes, said Escambia County spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka.
Colorado Planned Parenthood reopens after deadly rampage
A Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic reopened on Monday, seeing patients nearly three months after a deadly shooting rampage at the facility left three people dead and nine wounded.
“Today, we opened our doors in Colorado Springs. We didn’t back down. We didn’t disappear. We returned, stronger and with more conviction than ever,” the clinic said in a statement.
The clinic was closed on Nov. 27 following a bloody five-hour siege that police said began when a gunman opened fire with a rifle outside the building and then stormed inside. He was taken into custody by law enforcement at the scene.
Portions of the building damaged during the standoff will remain closed as repairs continue, said Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
The facility was resuming its work providing a range of healthcare services, including abortion, to the community of Colorado Springs, Cowart said.
Lincoln Memorial to Get Major Renovation
The Lincoln Memorial will undergo some of its most extensive renovations to date, the National Park Service said on Monday, including efforts to wash away dirt and debris, repair damage sustained during a 2011 earthquake, and build a substantial space for educational programs under the memorial.
The renovations, which will also involve the restoration of artwork, will open up about 15,000 square feet of space for exhibits, classrooms and other educational purposes. The new exhibits will offer a peek at the foundations of the monument, including long-hidden graffiti left behind by the workers who built the memorial, which first opened to the public in 1922.
The work, which is expected to be completed in 2019, will be funded largely by an $18.5 million contribution from David M. Rubenstein, the billionaire philanthropist, the Park Service said. The memorial will largely remain open during renovations.
Breakfast Blogs
A Solution to the Chaos Surrounding the Next Supreme Court Nominee Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Preemptive rejection? Bucket! Tom Sullivan, Hullabaloo
US Shrugs Off Yet Another Report of Cluster Bombs Launched By Saudis In Yemen Kevin Gosztola, ShadowProof
Even Before Scalia Died, Obstructionism Was The Republican Plan Steve M., No More Mister Nice Blog
Reagan’s Republican Revolution and the Death of the American Dream Jim White, emptywheel