Buzz Blog

It’s the Arab Spring, Part Two, as millions of Egyptians once again take to the streets to protest the country’s leadership.---

Top of the Alty World

“Seeking New Leadership, Millions of Egyptians Take to the Streets”—The Atlantic

As the international community tries to define the rules of cyberwarfare, critics question the Obama administration’s definition of an “imminent” threat.—Rolling Stone

A dark-money group spent money on a congressional attack ad against a Texas Democrat, only to later tell the IRS it spent no money at all on the effort.—ProPublica

After singing “Happy Birthday” to a dictator, singer Jennifer Lopez won’t disclose how much she was paid.—Mother Jones

The Department of Homeland Security has finalized the end of its previous ban on gay married couples receiving green cards based on their marriage.—Buzzfeed

Top of Alty Utah

Valley Mental Health will soon be cutting loose up to 2,100 of its mental-health clients/patients.—Salt Lake City Weekly

Enviro-activists are rallying July 2 for the closure of a medical-waste incinerator in North Salt Lake.—KUER

After the demise of the Defense of Marriage Act, KRCL looks at what’s next for queer Utah.—RadioActive!

The ACLU of Utah’s Marina Lowe gives KCPW the rundown on warrantless subpoenas by Utah law enforcement.--KCPW

Rantosphere

Utah Political Capitol says the panel to be picked to investigate allegations of corruption by Attorney General John Swallow is setting itself up for failure and the appearance of partisan favoritism.

“For [House] Speaker Lockhart to create a nine-member panel, of her choosing, is to brand Utah as a state more concerned with party loyalty than working for the citizens.A nine-member panel can only mean one thing: One political party will have the majority vote. As it is extremely doubtful that the most powerful Republican in the house will choose more Democrats than Republicans on the investigatory committee tasked with determining if a high-profile Republican should be impeached, we can only assume that the most “balanced” makeup of this committee possible would consist of five Republicans and four Democrats.”—Utah Political Capitol

The Long View

Salt Lake City Weekly looks at the trials faced by newly appointed Utah Domestic Violence Council Director Peg Coleman as she tackles Utah’s troubling takes on domestic violence.

“The more time Coleman spent in Utah’s domestic-violence-services community, the more she became concerned that behind Utah’s focus on the family lay a disturbing pattern of victim-blaming. She would hear local advocates opine that “it takes two to tango,” and when talking about batterer accountability, almost inevitably, she says, individuals would shift to talking about “pushing his buttons, how difficult she is, she is with one perpetrator after another, what does that say about her?” Neither FVPSA’s Kenneth Noyes, nor Coleman, had ever heard before of domestic-violence treatment as it is practiced in Utah. It’s essentially clinical therapy for both victim and batterer, with little if any differentiation made between the two. Because of the “lack of ongoing supervision for persons working with batterers and a lack of meaningful connection to DV advocates,” the approach, Coleman says, can “lead to minimization of the violence and colluding with the batterer.” She points out that in calls that have come in to UDVC’s LINKLine, a federally funded anonymous hotline, victims have reported their therapists telling them that their batterer-partner was getting better, even as he continued to hit her at home.”—Salt Lake City Weekly