England’s renowned former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has passed away and Democracy Now! reflects on her controversial legacy, from supporting Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship to supporting apartheid and calling Nelson Mandela a “terrorist.”---

Top of the Alty World

“Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013): Tariq Ali on Late British PM’s Legacy from Austerity to Apartheid.”—Democracy Now!

Slate rounds up some of the highlights Wikileaks new release of documents from 1973 to 1976 that have been dubbed “the Kissinger Cables”--Slate

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talks national-security issues and warns Americans to get used to drones.—Monterey County Weekly

The U.N. calls for the U.S. to close down Guantanamo Bay, saying it's a breach of international law.—Rolling Stone

Top of Alty Utah

Outdoor-recreation businesses and conservation groups are calling for federal protection of land in and around Utah’s state and national parks.—KUER

An activist talks about his fight to gain access to a copy of Ogden City’s line-item budget.—Salt Lake City Weekly

A Provo restaurant owner speaks out about the uselessness of the Legislature allowing “Zion Walls” to stay up in restaurants that burden businesses by requiring them to hide alcohol pouring from public view.—Libertas

The West Valley City Police Department is under close scrutiny after the killing of an unarmed woman and the dismissal of numerous suspicious drug cases.—KCPW

Rantosphere

After a good run, and many posts detailing the idiocy of Sen. Orrin Hatch, satire and commentary site the Telestial State is shutting down.

“We had lofty visions of success, where throngs of people would sing our praises and they’d throw a parade in our honor, rivaling the attendance of the few dozen who show up each year for Utah’s Gay Pride Parade. Well, none of that happened. We didn’t get a book deal, or a movie deal, or even a handjob outside the State Capital; but what we did get was a few new friends, a lot of laughs and a surprisingly low amount of Cease and Desist letters.”—Telestial State

The Long View

Salt Lake City Weekly looks at how principal Ike Spencer helped turn around a struggling west-side school.

“Several teachers recall Spencer telling the faculty at his first meeting as principal that West Lake was a failing school and he was there to turn it around. Spencer denies that. “People got this mixed up with Lean on Me,” the Morgan Freeman movie where he played a hard-nosed principal trying to save an inner-city school. “First of all, I didn’t know if I could fix it,” he says. “I knew if they stuck to the same strategies, they weren’t going to turn it around, but I also knew if we used the right strategies, we could be successful.”—Salt Lake City Weekly