Buzz Blog

Mother Jones argues that recent marriage-equality battles were won thanks to the LDS Church stepping out of the battle since Prop 8.---

Top of the Alty World

“How the Mormons Ensured Victory for Gay Marriage”—Mother Jones

In other LGBT news, watch this video for people’s reactions as a camera crew asks people when they chose to be heterosexual.—Dangerous Minds

A 14-year-old girl’s science-fair project has demonstrated that Apple’s iPad 2 can sometimes interfere with pacemakers.—The Age

The Cleveland Scene takes a look at the long history of kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro.—Cleveland Scene

Top of Alty Utah

Gov. Herbert has reached a deal with the feds on two “Obamacare” health exchanges to be set up in the state.—Utah Political Capitol

A convicted white-collar criminal says former AG Mark Shurtleff and his then-chief fundraiser, John Swallow, partied it up at his expense at an exclusive California resort.—Salt Lake City Weekly

Two organizations are emphasizing not just feeding the homeless but befriending them and hanging out with them.—Salt Lake City Weekly

Rantosphere

Utah Policy’s Bob Bernick argues that, despite recent scandals, the thing that may unseat Swallow is a bar complaint filed by outgoing Consumer Protections watchdog Traci Gundersen alleging inappropriate communications when Swallow contacted an embattled call-center owner and tried to set up a meeting without Consumer Protection’s knowledge.

“The Utah Constitution says the attorney general must be an attorney. If, for any reason, Swallow is not a licensed attorney, then he can’t serve in the office. The Utah Supreme Court ultimately licenses, through the Bar, all lawyers in the state. And the high court, ultimately, sanctions all actions against licensed attorneys. In theory, Supreme Court justices are immune from political influence in their decisions. In reality, the five justices care a great deal about Utah’s reputation, both legally and otherwise. Not being an attorney, nor well versed in the legal and ethical implications of what Gundersen alleges Swallow did, or if his actions are of such a serious nature that he could be sanctioned out of office, I don’t see how a sitting AG could survive, with all the other issues swirling around him, action against his attorney license – even it comes up short of disbarment.”—Utah Policy

The Long View

Just in time for Mother's Day, The Nashville Scene profiles four undocumented immigrant mothers who risked everything to provide for their families by coming to the United States.

“The single mom of two had seen her San Salvador neighborhood grow dangerous and crime-ridden. Gangs extracted protection money from business owners; many shops closed. She wondered whether her son, then 11, would one day fall in with the gangsters who lurked outside his school. Chávez's own career hopes had dissolved — she dreamed of becoming a nurse — and she didn't want the same thing to happen to her kids. "If you have children," says María, whose name means "Maria of Peace," "you want them to do better than you did." So, she boarded a bus for Chiapas and paid a guide $7,000 to take her to Arizona. "It was awful," she says, her eyes streaming. "We slept on a mountain ... walked three days and nights in the desert. There were snakes, coyotes, scorpions. We could hear people crying out at night. It sounded like they were about to die. We thought the same thing would happen to us." –Nashville Scene