The Breakfast Club (Heroes)

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.

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This Day in History

Japan signs surrender, officially ending World War II; Union forces occupy Atlanta during the Civil War; A great fire ravages medieval London; Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh dies; Wreckage of the Titanic found.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Bob Dylan

Breakfast News

Inmates Credited for ‘Effectively Ending’ Solitary in California

Marking a significant victory in the struggle to end solitary confinement in the United States, a landmark legal settlement filed in federal court on Tuesday effectively ends the practice of indeterminate, long-term isolation of inmates in the state of California.

The settlement comes in Ashker v. Governor of California, a federal class action lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison who have spent a decade or more in solitary confinement. Many were sent into isolation without any violent conduct or serious rule infractions, purely based on gang affiliation, and all without any meaningful process for transfer out of isolation and back to the general prison population.

As ‘Muslim-Free Zones’ Flourish, Groups Demand DOJ Probe

A coalition of 82 civil liberties and human rights organizations, as well as faith-based groups and immigrant rights advocates, on Tuesday called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the growing number of businesses around the country declaring themselves ‘Muslim-free zones.’

Doing so violates the constitutional rights of American Muslims, particularly under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the organizations said in a letter (pdf) to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The coalition includes the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the ACLU, and the NAACP, among others. Title II guarantees the right to “full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation… without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Fukushima Report Dangerously Downplays Ongoing Health Risks: Greenpeace

A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “downplays” the continuing environmental and health effects of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown while supporting the Japanese government’s agenda to normalize the ongoing disaster, Greenpeace Japan charged on Tuesday.

The Vienna-based IAEA released its final report Monday on the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. While the agency pointed to numerous failings, including unclear responsibilities among regulators, weaknesses in plant design and in disaster-preparedness, and a “widespread assumption” of safety, it was more circumspect with regard to health concerns.

Norway sends prisoners to Dutch jail because its own are too full

Norway has sent a group of inmates to a jail in the Netherlands because its own prisons are too full.

“The first prisoners have arrived,” Karl Hillesland, the Norwegian head of Norgerhaven prison in the Netherlands said on Tuesday.

Due to lack of space, more than 1,000 inmates in Norway are waiting to be placed in prisons, where they are often assigned to individual cells. To solve the problem, Norway has leased Norgerhaven prison from the Netherlands.

But the move has dismayed many Dutch inmates, who were transferred to another facility despite fighting to stay put in their “luxurious cells”, as Dutch media have described them.

Thanks to Industrial Pollution, 90 Percent of Seabirds Have Plastic in Guts

Up to 90 percent of seabirds are likely to have plastic in their guts, and the risk of ingestion is growing-a result of ever-increasing industrial pollution in the world’s oceans, according to a new study published Monday.

Seabirds are particularly vulnerable to plastic ingestion due to their habits of eating floating particles that they mistake for fish eggs, state the authors-a trio of Australian scientists who studied 186 species around the world. The report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, analyzed previous data on seabirds’ plastic consumption and used computer models to update those figures, extrapolating that “the ingestion rate would reach 90% of individuals if these studies were conducted today.”

Lego space mission: Denmark’s first astronaut gets toys for company

Denmark is sending its first man into space – along with 26 Lego toys to keep him company on the journey.

Andreas Mogensen, a 38-year-old aerospace engineer from Copenhagen, will leave for the International Space Station on 2 September. The specially designed plastic toys joining him will bear the official logo of his mission for the European Space Agency (ESA) and will be given to schoolchildren as a competition prize once the mission is complete.

New San Francisco restaurant replaces humans with iPads

Those sick and tired of having to deal with their fellow humans all the time have a new respite – a fully automated restaurant in San Francisco.

Customers at Eatsa in the Financial District will order from an iPad, sending the order to the kitchen. When the meal is ready, it appears in a small glass compartment. The food is prepared by real people, but the patrons never have to see them.

The owners of Eatsa may have felt that San Franciscans needed to ease themselves into such a radical change, however; for the launch on Monday, concierges in red shirts met guests to help them order. But eventually they will disappear.

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Must Read Blog Posts

West Point Official Advocates Targeting Law Professors With Drone Strikes Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics

David Petraeus, Whose Greatest Aptitude Lies in Rewriting History emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel

Proof of Ongoing Foreclosure Fraud and Mortgage Document Fabrication, in Five Emails David Dayen, naked capitalism

Canadian Scientist Muzzled For Writing And Performing Song About Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists Glyn Moody, Techdirt

FTC CTO: Full Disk Encryption Is Important In Preventing Crime Mike Masnick, Techdirt

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Your Moment of Zen

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