Buzz Blog

From Q Salt Lake comes a report on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling from California that transgender people are protected from sex-discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “The opinion could dramatically alter the legal landscape for transgender workers across the nation, including in Utah,” Q Salt Lake reports.---

For top alty news and views from the national scene:

“Discrimination based on gender identity is illegal, ruling states” –Q Salt Lake

The San Antonio Current reviews a book that makes the argument that U.S./Mexico border violence could be stemmed greatly by legalizing marijuana.—San Antonio Current.

The credibility of Mitt Romney as the savior of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games is challenged as “The Myth of Mitt” in a Salt Lake Magazine investigation that calls the Olympic-bid scandal an “Olympic-sized trifle” that never truly jeopardized the games—Salt Lake Magazine (Subscription or on the stands only)

But you can hear KCPW interview Salt Lake Magazine editor Marcie Young Cancio and “Myth of Mitt” author Matthew Laplante about the piece here for free.—KCPW

Communication towers across the country kill as many as 7 million birds a year, according to a recent study.—High Country News

Top of Alty Utah:

Activists of Occupy SLC and Peaceful Uprising roll out new means of community engagement and rally through the spring.—Salt Lake City Weekly.

Jesse Fruhwirth discusses the history of May Day and talks with local representatives of the International Workers of the World to talk about the plans for a May 1 General Strike. He also talks with Aaron Kinini ,a local attorney and advocate for people with disabilities, about efforts to help recovering addicts find affordable housing.—RadioActive

A trial began last week for Kareena Macgregor, who was convicted of murdering her child when she was 15. The child was born stillborn and the Utah Supreme Court overturned the charges against MacGregor. Now she has begun a civil suit against six defendants who victimized her, including the family members of a senior police officer.—Salt Lake City Weekly

The Utah Hospitality Association lost out on arguing that the LDS Church played a heavy hand in liquor legislation after a judge’s ruling in March. But the group’s new complaint focuses on if the Legislature can restrict bar owners from offering daily drink discounts.—Q Salt Lake.

Radio West enters the fray over the War on Women by hosting historian Nancy Cohen to take listeners back to what she says are the roots of the sexual divide in today’s politics—the sexual revolution of 40 years earlier.—RadioWest

Rantosphere

Blogger Bob Aagard asks us to imagine a bizarro-Utah known as Uathia and asks what conservatives would think of how the corrupt liberals of this magical land conduct the state’s business.—The World According to Me

The Long View:

From the CW’s cover story “The Mysterious Mr. Smith,” comes the tale of the strange rise to power of Brad Smith, a former prosecutor who once cut an incredibly lenient deal with Bruce Jeppesen, a man prominent in the local LDS congregation, who had been raping his 12-year-old daughter. Smith, since the controversial case, has risen to become the superintendent of the Ogden School District.

“By the time Jeppesen was sentenced on two second-degree-felony counts of child sexual abuse on Jan. 8, 2008, Smith had been replaced by Deputy Attorney General Kristine Knowlton, called in by Box Elder County to take over the case because of concerns among various agencies about its irregularities. She told the court that Jeppesen’s confession, supposedly an act of contrition, was ‘cloaked in secrecy and deception, and as a result of that, the damage to the victim and her family has been extraordinary. It is as if someone lobbed a grenade into the [Anderson] household, blew up the victim’ and her mother and sister.”—Salt Lake City Weekly.