With the recent Navy Yard shooting, the United States is on track to set another record for mass shootings.---
Top of the Alty World
“This Year Is on Track to Set Another Grim Record in Mass Shootings”--Mother Jones
Unrest in Congo is spreading to the Rwandan border.--Vice
Fifty years after the Ku Klux Klan's bombing of a Birmingham church, a victim of the attack says she has still not been compensated for injuries from the explosion.--Democracy Now!
Author Eric Schlosser discusses the scary history of near-misses with the United States' nuclear arsenal.--Rolling Stone
Top of Alty Utah
Lt. Gov. Greg Bell has announced he is stepping down from the position, citing money woes.--Utah Political Capitol
An internal document from Guv's office about finding Bell's replacement says new Lt. should not take bait of Democratic Party Chair Jim Dabakis.--Utah Policy
A group seeking to create a coalition of mayors in favor of marriage equality so far only has the support of one mayor from Utah.--Q Salt Lake
An agreement has been reached to delay drilling near the Book Cliffs.--KUER
Rantosphere
The Provo Buzz says the city won't get serious about sustainability until its residents elect candidates interested in the environment as much as they are interested in the “business environment.”
“We actually have an educator and an attorney on the Council now. But most of this season’s candidates are still hardcore “businessmen.” Their priorities, like the mayor’s, is Provo’s business environment. There are alternative sensibilities, people! If we want better sustainability scores, perhaps we need to start electing different people.”--Provo Buzz
The Long View
National Geographic Magazine looks at how the pursuit of a mineral used in electronics like smart phones has furthered unbelievable horrors in the Congo.
“The story of the Congo is this: The government in Kinshasa, the capital, is weak and corrupt, leaving this vast nation rotten at its core. The remote east has plunged straight into anarchy, carved up by a hodgepodge of rebel groups that help bankroll their brutality with stolen minerals. The government army is often just as sticky-fingered and wicked. Few people in recent memory have suffered as long, and on such a horrifying scale, as the Congolese. Where else are men, women and children slaughtered by the hundreds, year after year, sometimes so deep in the jungle that it takes weeks for the truth to come out? Where else are hundreds of thousands of women raped and just about nobody punished?”--National Geographic Magazine