Democracy Now! reports that cell-phone companies reported to congress receiving 1.3 million requests from law-enforcement agencies for customers’ cell-phone info, and that “a large number of the requests were made without the backing of warrants or court orders.”---
Top of the Alty World
“Law Enforcement Made 1.3 Million Requests for Cell Phone Records in 2011”—Democracy Now!
The Media Oxpecker runs down all the news surrounding the revelation that news company Journatic outsourced news writers to the Philippines, who wrote stories under fake bylines.—Media Oxpecker
A New York Appellate court tossed out a lawsuit seeking to repeal a 2011 law allowing same-sex marriage in the state.—Q Salt Lake
Marine scientists are blasting the U.S. Navy’s plans to increase underwater sonar testing. Scientist Fred Fellerman believes the measures will do irreparable harm to marine life. “A deaf whale is a dead whale,” Fellerman says.—The North Bay Bohemian
Top of Alty Utah
Utah Valley Magazine has garnered national attention by titling its women’s issue “Women of Color” and featuring a cover full of white women—albeit in colorful outfits.—Gawker
KCPW reports that a Salt Lake County Jail Gardening program has inmates offering their harvests to patrons of the downtown farmers market.—KCPW
A Justice Court Judge for West Valley City and Saratoga Springs will be on the wrong side of the gavel as he goes to court this Thursday for potential abuse of his power in jailing a woman for behavior not actually considered a criminal offense.—Salt Lake City Weekly
Rantosphere:
City Weekly intern Oliver Hughes explains the hazards of being an ump for Little League baseball “Adding to the pleasure of taking baseball after baseball to my shins, chest and face is the fact that many of the catchers in the league cannot stop the pitches when they actually come across the plate. The coach yells to his catcher to “make sure you get in front of the ball, bud” as I take another painful groin shot, leaving me to wonder if I will ever have children of my own.”—Salt Lake City Weekly
The Long View:
The Colorado Springs Independent recaps the horrors of recent devastating wildfires. “It happened so fast. In a matter of hours on Tuesday, June 26, the Mountain Shadows subdivision went from bucolic suburb to war zone, engulfed by the vengeful Waldo Canyon Fire. In one day, the historic wildfire grew thousands of acres after a column of heated smoke and ash, visible for miles in every direction, collapsed on the city's northwest side.”—Colorado Springs Independent