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 21st
France’s King Louis XVI executed; Vladimir Lenin dies; Alger Hiss found guilty of lying to grand jury; President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam draft evaders; Concorde begins service.
Breakfast Tune Orange Blossom Special on electric banjo
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
US airstrikes kill Serbian embassy staffers held hostage by Isis in Libya
Associated Press in Belgrade
Two Serbian embassy staffers who had been held hostage since November died in Friday’s US airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said on Saturday.
Prime minister Aleksandar Vučić said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stanković, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepić, a driver, were killed in the American bombing. They were taken hostage in November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal Libyan city of Sabratha.
“Apparently, the Americans were not aware that foreign citizens were being kept there,” Vučić told reporters. …
North Carolina must heed court order to redraw congressional districts
Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a ruling that two North Carolina congressional districts be redrawn over racial gerrymandering in a 2011 redistricting, forcing congressional primaries to be rescheduled for June 7.
A lower court panel of federal judges this month barred elections in the majority black districts, the 1st and the 12th, until new maps are approved, calling the current maps unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court gave no explanation for its decision in a one-sentence order issued late on Friday night. …
EPA asks Volkswagen to make electric cars in US – report
Reuters in Frankfurt
US authorities have asked the German carmaker Volkswagen to produce electric vehicles in the United States as a way of making up for its rigging of emission tests, the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in talks with Volkswagen, with the aim of agreeing on a fix for nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles that emit up to 40 times legal pollution limits.
The paper, which gave no source for its report, said the EPA was asking VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to help build a network of charging stations for electric vehicles in the US. …
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Pumpkin-flinging contest eyes return to Delmarva in 2016
GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) — After a two-year absence, a pumpkin-flinging contest could be coming back to the Delmarva Peninsula this year.
Organizers of the World Championship Punkin Chunkin hope to hold the event in Delaware’s Sussex County but are considering locations across Delmarva, including Maryland’s Worcester and Dorchester counties. The event began in Lewes in 1986.
Punkin Chunkin Association President Frank Payton says a location for the contest could be picked by the end of March. The competition, in which contestants launch pumpkins with a variety of homemade contraptions, is expected to be held from Nov. 4 to Nov. 6. …