From slashed public-housing funds to reduce foreclosure-prevention services, Mother Jones lists 12 ways sequestration cuts will stick it to the poor.---
Top of the Alty World
“12 Ways the Sequester Will Screw the Poor”—Mother Jones
Defense cuts as part of sequestration, meanwhile, will hit some states especially hard, like Virginia, which fears cuts will slide the state into a recession.—The Economist.
Bill McKibben talks with Rolling Stone about the battle being fought on college campuses to divest the fossil-fuel industry.—Rolling Stone
Top of Alty Utah
NRA President Wayne LaPierre told a Utah crowd that the White House planned on capitalizing on the Newtown, Conn., tragedy to confiscate Utahns’ firearms.—SALT TV
KRCL hosts the Sierra Club’s Tim Wagner and photojournalist Stephen Trimble in discussing the need to protect the Greater Canyonlands of southern Utah.—RadioActive!
Utah groups and individuals sound off to the U.S. Supreme Court on both sides of the same-sex-marriage debate.—KCPW
A trans Latina shares her story of job discrimination in Utah, while the Legislature mulls a nondiscrimination bill for LGBT Utahns.—Q Salt Lake
Rantosphere
City Weekly editor Jerre Wroble reflects on recent scandals involving Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and Attorney General John Swallow, asking in the case of the AG why the GOP didn’t sound the alarm before he was elected.
“Now, because of their inaction, Utahns are stuck either with an ineffectual AG striving to be credible, or an acting AG (who'll take over when Swallow leaves) until an election can be held. Wow, thanks.Who knows what awaits Greg Bell, and whether the investigation will yield charges. But Republicans in and outside of office should at least feign concern. We know you've grown accustomed to scandals blowing over, and you frequently bank on voters having short-term memories.”—Salt Lake City Weekly
The Long View
The Guardian looks at a Norwegian prison where inmates have private cabins, jobs, food budgets and other perks that have been criticized as being “luxurious.” The author speaks with the prison boss, Arne Nilsen, about the corrections center that boasts the lowest rate of recidivists—16 percent—in Europe.
“A clinical psychologist by profession, Nilsen shrugs off any notion that he is running a holiday camp. I sense his frustration. "You don't change people by power," he says. "For the victim, the offender is in prison. That is justice. I'm not stupid; I'm a realist. Here, I give prisoners respect; this way, we teach them to respect others. But, we are watching them all the time. It is important that when they are released, they are less likely to commit more crimes. That is justice for society."—The Guardian