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
Ferdinand Marcos flees the Philippines; Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces Josef Stalin; Samuel Colt patents the revolver; Muhammad Ali becomes world boxing champ; Musician George Harrison born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Breakfast News
Austria and 9 Balkan States Agree on Steps to Address Refugee Crisis
Austria and nine Balkan states on Wednesday agreed on several measures to choke off the flow of refugees from Greece, effectively imposing their own response to the migrant crisis while the European Union has been paralyzed over what to do.
The moves, by the foreign and interior ministers of the 10 countries, come amid Europe’s preparations for another surge in people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond as winter wanes and the weather turns warmer.
The practical effect of the steps they agreed on during a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday will probably be to keep more of the migrants in Greece, the primary point of entry into the European Union for people coming from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other troubled countries.
Apple Is Said to Be Trying to Make It Harder to Hack iPhones
Apple engineers have begun developing new security measures that would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iPhone using methods similar to those now at the center of a court fight in California, according to people close to the company and security experts.
If Apple succeeds in upgrading its security — and experts say it almost surely will — the company will create a significant technical challenge for law enforcement agencies, even if the Obama administration wins its fight over access to data stored on an iPhone used by one of the killers in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., rampage. If the Federal Bureau of Investigation wanted to get into a phone in the future, it would need a new way to do so. That would most likely prompt a new cycle of court fights and, yet again, more technical fixes by Apple.
The only way out of this scenario, experts say, is for Congress to get involved. Federal wiretapping laws require traditional phone carriers to make their data accessible to law enforcement agencies. But tech companies like Apple and Google are not covered, and they have strongly resisted legislation that would place similar requirements on them.
House Republicans seek to open up national forests to mining and logging
Congress is to consider two bills that would allow states to hand over vast tracts of federal land for mining, logging or other commercial activities – just weeks after the arrest of an armed militia that took over a wildlife refuge in Oregon in protest at federal oversight of public land.
The legislation, which will be presented to the House committee on natural resources on Thursday, would loosen federal authority over parts of the 600m acres (240m hectares), nearly one-third of the land mass of the US, it administers.
A bill put forward by Republican Don Young would allow any state to assume control of up to 2m acres of the national forest system to be “managed primarily for timber production” in order to address what Young claims is a decline in national logging rates.
A further bill, written by Republican Raúl Labrador, would allow state governors to assign up to 4m acres of land as “forest demonstration areas”, which would allow logging free from any federal water, air or endangered species restrictions.
Oregon militia standoff: Ammon Bundy and 15 others plead not guilty
Ammon Bundy and more than a dozen Oregon militia protesters pleaded not guilty for their role in the 41-day armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge.
Bundy and 24 other anti-government activists who participated in the protests at the Malheur national wildlife refuge are accused of using “force, intimidation and threats” in a conspiracy against the federal government.
If convicted, they could face up to six years in prison for their role in the occupation, which began 2 January and dragged on until 11 February when the final four protesters surrendered after a dramatic standoff with the FBI.
How much did the Oregon standoff cost taxpayers? Millions, say early estimates
The Oregon militia standoff cost taxpayers more than $3m, burdening local sheriffs’ offices and government agencies across the state and leaving officials uncertain how they are going to recover the significant losses.
The armed occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge, which began 2 January and ended 11 February after a dramatic standoff with the FBI, forced police agencies throughout Oregon to devote resources to the response, while also requiring schools and multiple federal departments to halt their work in rural Harney County for more than a month.
The estimated more than $3m, which officials say is significantly lower than the total costs, covers the activities of the Oregon state police, more than 35 local police and sheriffs’ agencies and the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which had to keep paying the more than 100 workers unable to work as the 41-day standoff dragged on.
Archaeologists identify oldest Muslim graves ever found in Europe
Archaeologists working in southern France have identified three graves that are believed to represent the oldest Muslim burials ever found in Europe, dating to the eighth century.
The skeletons at medieval site at Nîmes were found facing Mecca, and a genetic analysis showed their paternal lineage was North African, said the study in the journal Plos One.
Furthermore, radiocarbon dating shows the bones likely date from the seventh to ninth centuries, suggesting they came from the Muslim conquests of Europe during that period.
Penguins on a treadmill: study shows fat ones fall over more often than slim ones
Fat king penguins are unsteady on their feet while waddling compared to their slimmer counterparts, but carrying a bit of extra weight comes with an important advantage when it comes to reproduction, biomechanics researchers say.
A research team led by Astrid Willener from the University of London’s department of life sciences travelled to the subantarctic region of Antarctica to research the king penguin, which can grow up to 1m tall and up to 16kg, making it the second largest species of penguin behind the emperor.
Breakfast Blogs
With Donald Trump Looming, Should Dems Take a Huge Electability Gamble by Nominating Hillary Clinton? Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
Why Don’t Republicans Trust American Prisons to Hold Terrorists? Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
35% Of Public Oil Companies Could Face Bankruptcy Irina Shav, naked capitalism
Former Playboy Playmate, Other Finance-Linked Donors, Give Big Bucks to “Sheriff of Wall Street” Eric Schneiderman Yves Smith, naked capitalism
Javelin Missiles on the Syrian Battlefield, CENTCOM and State Deny Provision Joanne Leone, ShadowProof
House Speaker Paul Ryan Demands TPP Be Renegotiated; Neglects To Mention It Was His Bill That Makes That Impossible Mike Masnick, Techdirt