Buzz Blog

New reports from the U.N and Amnesty International describe ethnic-cleansing against Muslims in Asia and Africa.---

Top of the Alty World

“The Slaughter of Muslims”--Slate

A court has determined Kentucky can't prohibit same-sex marriage.--Nuvo

Drought brings new dust storms to the country's Dust Bowl.--High Country News

The executive of the National Quality Forum, which endorses benchmarks that Medicare uses to compensate hospitals, is also receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from large medical companies, sparking questions of an ethical conflict.--ProPublica

Top of Alty Utah

The firebrand director of a Domestic Violence Coalition resigns while the fight to fund treatment and shelters continues on the hill.--Salt Lake City Weekly

The House Investigative Committee discusses potential bills to address problems revealed by the Swallow probe.--Utah Political Capitol

A bill to be proposed in the Legislature would require bars to have breathalyzer machines that would allow patrons to test their blood-alcohol level for free.--Utah Policy

Utah same-sex couples are still struggling with turbo tax.--Q Salt Lake

Rantosphere

Q Salt Lake analyzes the source material used by the state in its brief appealing a federal judge's ruling allowing same-sex marriage in Utah and finds some questionable citations.

“Further discussing the importance of mother-father parenting, the state quotes Kristin Anderson Moore in a 2002 Child Trends Research Brief, saying, “research clearly demonstrates that family structure matters for children, and the family structure that helps children the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage.” But the authors of the brief have repeatedly said that marriage equality opponents are misquoting and misusing their work. “The Child Trends brief in question summarizes research conducted in 2002, when same-sex parents were not identified in large national surveys,” president of Child Trends Carol Emig said. “Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn from this research about the well-being of children raised by same-sex parents.” She added, “We have pointed this out repeatedly, yet to our dismay we continue to see our 2002 research mischaracterized by some opponents of same-sex marriage.”--Q Salt Lake

The Long View

The Pittsburgh City Paper looks at the problem of “revenge porn” and why new state laws might not be enough to combat the problem.

“Jennifer wasn't sure what to expect when she clicked the link emailed to her by the ex-boyfriend she'd dated for four years. He'd harassed her online in the past, she says, and had shown up at her job "trying to get me fired." "He did everything he could to make my life miserable," she says. And as the Web page loaded, he finally succeeded. On the screen before her, Jennifer saw a half-dozen nude and sexually explicit photos she'd taken of herself with, and for, him. "It took everything I had not to vomit," recalls the Fayette County resident, whose real name, when Googled, yields a link to the photos within the first two pages of search results. According to a counter on the page, the photos have been viewed nearly 9,000 times so far.”--Pittsburgh City Paper