This Day in History

Alamo falls to Mexican forces; Michelangelo born; Walter Cronkite retires.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Good Question:
Iran's Foreign Minister suggests the US should ask itself why it
continues to create extremists that it later fights. Someone should tell
him that to the US that's a benefit, not a bug.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III, Some Assembly Required

Breakfast News

US government still hunting WikiLeaks as Obama targets whistleblowers

The US government is conducting an active,
long-term criminal investigation into WikiLeaks, a federal judge has
confirmed in court documents.

Five years after Julian Assange and his team began publishing the massive dump of US state secrets leaked by an army intelligence analyst, two wings of the Department of
Justice and the FBI remain engaged in a criminal investigation of the
open-information website that is of a "long-term duration",
"multi-subject" in nature and that "remains in the investigative state".

The disclosure was made in the course of a ruling from the US district court for the District of Columbia (pdf), the jurisdiction of which covers federal agencies, and
underlines the Obama administration's dogged pursuit of WikiLeaks and
its unprecedentedly aggressive legal campaign against official
whistleblowers.

Snowden: Canadians Face 'Intrusive' Spy Bill That Echoes US Patriot Act

In a teleconference hosted by the Canadian
Journalists for Free Expression at Ryerson University on Wednesday, NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that the country's intelligence
agencies have the "weakest oversight" in the Western world, and that new
anti-terror legislation championed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper was
"an emulation of the American Patriot Act."

"And when [the agencies are] trying to expand their powers, it's
pretty amazing that we have the Canadian government trying to block the
testimony of former prime ministers who've had access to classified
information, who understand the value of these programs, and who are
warning the public broadly and saying this is something we really need
to talk about, this is something we really need to debate, this is
something we really need to be careful about," Snowden continued.

Iran nuclear deal 'very close' as Netanyahu brings negotiators together

The long and convoluted negotiations over Iran's
nuclear programme adjourned on Wednesday amid talk of continuing
progress towards a comprehensive deal but of tough political decisions
still to be made.

The talks will resume on March 15, probably in Geneva, as the latest deadline for agreement looms at the end of the month.

Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif said a deal was
"very close", telling NBC that he and his team were prepared to carry on
working through the Persian New Year celebration of Nowruz starting on
March 21.

States Weigh Legislation to Let Businesses Refuse to Serve Gay Couples

As it looks increasingly likely that the Supreme
Court will establish a nationwide right to same-sex marriage later this
year, state legislatures across the country are taking up bills that
would make it easier for businesses and individuals to opt out of
serving gay couples on religious grounds.

Many states are now reliving a version of events that embroiled
Arizona in February 2014, when Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, vetoed a
bill that would have allowed businesses to use their religious beliefs
as a legal justification for refusing to serve gay customers.

The resurgent controversy is fueled in part by a deep anxiety
among many evangelicals and other conservatives that the Supreme Court
will make same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states after it takes up the
matter in April.

Indigenous Peruvians win Amazon pollution payout from US oil giant

Members of the indigenous Achuar tribe from the
Peruvian Amazon have won an undisclosed sum from Occidental Petroleum in
an out-of-court settlement after a long-running legal battle in the US
courts.

They sued the company in 2007, alleging it knowingly caused pollution
which caused premature deaths, birth defects and damaged their habitat.

It is the first time a company from the United States has been
sued in a US court for pollution it caused in another country, Marco
Simons, the legal director of EarthRights International, which
represented the Achuar people in the lawsuit, said. It set a "precedent"
which he said will be "significant for future cases and has already
been cited by other courts in the United States".

Michael Brown's family to file wrongful death lawsuit

Lawyers for the family of Michael Brown, the
teenager killed last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, said on Thursday they
would file a wrongful death civil case on behalf of the family.

"We are officially in the process of formulating a civil case that we
anticipate will be filed shortly on behalf of the family," said Anthony
Gray, an attorney for the family.

Brown, 18, was shot dead by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson
on 9 August 2014. The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that it
would not bring federal civil rights charges against Wilson.

Gray spoke with Michael Brown's parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr, standing behind him in a Ferguson church.

Last Known Ebola Patient in Liberia Is Discharged

Liberia's last Ebola patient was discharged on
Thursday after a ceremony in the capital, Monrovia, bringing to zero the
number of known cases in the country and marking a milestone in West
Africa's battle against the disease.

Officials in Monrovia, the city where the raging epidemic littered
the streets with bodies only five months ago, celebrated even as they
warned that Liberia was at least weeks away from being officially
declared free of Ebola. They also noted that the disease had flared up
recently in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, the two other countries
hardest hit by it.

Florida man claims self-defence after driving with dead body to lawyer's office

Sheriff's office investigation under way after
John Marshall arrived bloody and agitated with neighbour's body in
pickup truck, lawyer says

A south-west Florida man put his dead neighbor in the bed of his
pickup truck and drove - bloody and agitated - to his lawyer's office,
where he said he had killed the man in self-defense.

John Marshall, 52, showed up on Wednesday afternoon, his attorney,
Robert Harris, said. "He was clearly undergoing something," Harris said,
noting that he was bleeding and flustered.

Harris said he brought Marshall into the office, and that's when
he said the man's body was in the truck parked outside. Harris called
911.

Nasa finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars

A massive ancient ocean once covered nearly half
of the northern hemisphere of Mars making the planet a more promising
place for alien life to have gained a foothold, Nasa scientists say.

The huge body of water spread over a fifth of the planet's surface,
as great a portion as the Atlantic covers the Earth, and was a mile deep
in places. In total, the ocean held 20 million cubic kilometres of
water, or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found.

Unveiled by Nasa on Thursday, the compelling evidence for the
primitive ocean adds to an emerging picture of Mars as a warm and wet
world in its youth, which trickled with streams, winding river deltas,
and long-standing lakes, soon after it formed 4.5bn years ago.

Samantha Bee Will Host TBS Comedy Series, Won't Be Jon Stewart's Replacement

Samantha Bee is known mostly for her hilarious
bits on "The Daily Show," but on Thursday TBS announced that she'll join
the network to host and executive produce a new satirical news series.
Her husband, former "Daily Show" correspondent Jason Jones, will also
executive produce. [..]

News of Bee's series means that she won't replace Jon Stewart as host
of "The Daily Show." As longtime correspondents, Bee and Jones were on
many critics' short list to take over for Stewart when he announced his
departure from the show. Luckily, fans will get their fix of the couple
over at TBS.

Must Read Blog Posts

FBI's Culture of Hostility Toward Whistleblowers-And How Justice Department Permits Policy of Retaliation Kevin Gosztola, FDL The Dissenter

Things In Politico That Make Me Want To Guzzle Antifreeze, Part The Infinity Charles P. Pierce, Esquire Politics

America's student loan boycott: How 15 students took on the government - and just may win David Dayen, Salon

The right has f***ked up minds: Meet the researcher who terrifies GOP Congress Paul Rosenberg, Salon

Study: Police Killed More Than Twice As Many As FBI Reported Suzie Madrak, Crooks and Liars

EFF Grabs Two More Docs From The NSA, Detailing Expanded Post-9/11 Surveillance Powers And Section 702 Justifications Tim Cushing, Techdirt

DOJ Invites The ATF To The War On Drugs, Grants It Power To Process Its Own 'Drug-Related' Forfeitures Tim Cushing, Techdirt

Clapper: The Attacks We Didn't Prevent In The Past Can't Be Prevented In The Future If Section 215 Is Allowed To Die Tim Cushing, Techdirt

"Default Monday": Oil & Gas Companies Face Their Creditors Wolf Richter, Wolf Street with a h/t to naked capitalism

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