This Day in History

Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn in as president, Ronald
Reagan takes responsibility for the Iran-Contra affair, the AAA is born
in 1904.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

We've collectively decided that putting kids in 3000 pounds of metal traveling at 65 MPH is safe, while letting them walk unsupervised can potentially get them taken away from you and placed in a foster situation. Also known to be safe.

ugh.

Atrios

Breakfast News

Senior Official Confirms Obama's AUMF Intentionally Ambiguous to Allow Broad War Powers

Another high-ranking Obama administration
official confirmed on Tuesday that the White House's proposed
Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in the war on ISIS
was left intentionally vague to allow for expansive-and potentially
limitless-presidential war-making powers. [..]

The Obama administration has waffled on just how extensive the powers
granted in the proposed AUMF are. When he initially submitted the
proposal on February 11, Obama claimed it "would not authorize
long-term, large-scale ground combat operations like those our Nation
conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan."

However, White House Press Secretary Joshua Earnest stated the
same day that the proposed AUMF's language was left intentionally vague
because "we believe it's important that there aren't overly burdensome
constraints that are placed on the commander in chief."

British refusal to cooperate with spy inquiry causes row in Germany

Downing Street and the German chancellery are
embroiled in a worsening dispute over intelligence-sharing and the
covert counter-terrorism campaign because of conflicts arising from the
surveillance scandals surrounding the US National Security Agency and
Britain's GCHQ.

According to German newspaper reports citing government and
intelligence officials in Berlin, the Bundestag's inquiry into the NSA
controversy is being jeopardised by Britain's refusal to cooperate and
its threats to break off all intelligence-sharing with Berlin should the
committee reveal any UK secrets.

Petraeus to Plead Guilty, Get 'Hand-Slap' Over Classified Data Scandal

Former CIA director David Petraeus will plead
guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information,
allowing him to skip a public trial over allegations that he gave
classified documents to his mistress while serving as head of the
intelligence agency. [..]

If found guilty, Petraeus faces a maximum of one year in prison. As investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler writes, that penalty amounts to a "hand-slap" for obstruction of justice.

His affair with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer who was
writing his biography, came to light in November 2012 after FBI agents
discovered he had given her access to classified documents that she was
not authorized to see.

Rikers Island inmates rescued prison officer who was being sexually assaulted

A group of inmates at New York City's notorious
Rikers Island prison tore away plastic glass from the outside of a
watchpost to rescue a female corrections officer who was being assaulted
by another inmate.

The New York City corrections department confirmed on Tuesday that
the incident occurred late on Saturday evening at the Anna M Kross
Center within the jail. "The inmate was arrested. The matter is under
investigation."

The New York Daily News, which first obtained the story, reported
that the accused inmate - 27-year-old Raleek Young - was able to get
inside the watchpost after saying he needed to pick up a mattress from
within another unit and needed to pass through.

According to a criminal complaint, Young began choking the
officer. Young is serving a five-to-10 year sentence for rape, according
to the Daily News.

Controversy swirls in Norway as Nobel peace prize chair forced out

The committee that awards the Nobel peace prize
was embroiled in controversy on Tuesday when its chair was ousted by
rightwingers, the first time the committee's leader has been deposed in
the 114-year history of the Nobel prize.

Speculation that Thorbjørn Jagland, the Labour party chair of the
committee since 2009, would be forced out had been mounting since the
director of the Nobel Institute said in October the practice of
appointing former political leaders to the committee had become a
"burden" on its independence. Jagland is a Norwegian former prime
minister and foreign minister.

New Study Shows California Droughts Driven by Climate Change and Here to Stay

The increasingly frequent and severe droughts
that have punished California over the past two decades-including the
current record-breaking one-are primarily the result of human-caused
climate change and will likely grow even worse, scientists at Stanford
University warn.

Published in Monday's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
the new research analyzes historical records, as well as computer
simulations of global warming, to investigate the role of changing
temperatures during California droughts over the last 120 years.

The researchers concluded that human-driven global warming is
exacerbating and increasing the confluent warm and dry conditions that
have produced the state's most severe droughts.

Too much human poo on Mount Everest, says Nepal

Human waste left by climbers on Mount Everest has
become a problem that is causing pollution and threatening to spread
disease on the world's highest peak, the chief of Nepal's mountaineering
association said Tuesday.

The more than 700 climbers and guides who spend nearly two months on
Everest's slopes each climbing season leave large amounts of faeces and
urine, and the issue has not been addressed, Ang Tshering told
reporters.

He said Nepal's government needs to get the climbers to dispose of the waste properly so the mountain remains pristine.

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