Fast-food workers across the United States have gone on strike, seeking a decent wage and the right to organize.---

Top of the Alty World

“'We Are Slowly Dying: Fast-Food Workers Launch Strike for Living Wage and Right to Unionize”--Democracy Now!

The feds appear to be getting tougher on “Wall Street's ultimate comic-book villain” and alleged insider trader Steve Cohen.--Rolling Stone

Slate lists the four questions the NSA must answer to restore the public trust.--Slate

Researchers says global warming could result in a 50 percent increase in violence in some regions of the world.--Mother Jones

Top of Alty Utah

A businessman who won a court case against a friend of John Swallow's says the then-Chief Deputy Attorney General went after him. --Utah Political Capitol Part I and Part II.

Sherm Clow is running for Salt Lake City council on an anti-parking-meter platform.--Salt Lake City Weekly

The Sugar Daddy website wants to pay for SLC divorces.--Salt Lake City Weekly

The Salt Lake County Council has approved an audit of its mental-health-care system.--KUER

Rantosphere

Maryann Martindale of the Alliance for a Better Utah calls out the childish antics of Sen. Mike Lee.

“Petulant is a word English inherited from the French. The word is used to describe a person who is childish, sulky, or bad-tempered. Lately, it’s being tossed around a lot to describe Utah’s own junior senator, Mike Lee. But, the word petulant originally came to the French from Latin, where it means to aim at or seek something. Perhaps that original meaning ought to be given greater weight when considering Lee’s most recent tantrum. Lee’s latest hand-waving, headline-grabbing stunt has been a call to shut down the federal government as a way of forestalling the implementation of Obamacare. Though Mike Lee’s antics are certainly childish, they don’t seem to play out the same way as the innocent, naive actions of a toddler. Lee’s designs are far more selfish.”--Alliance for a Better Utah

The Long View

The Texas Observer interviews women at the state's Legislature to talk about the pernicious sexism of one of the “last good 'ol boys clubs.”

"There’s still plenty of overt sexism, too. Take what happened in 2011 to Thompson’s House Bill 2093, a measure about contractor insurance. “I had a feeling that someone was trying to kill this bill,” she said recently. “You know, after a while, you get a feel for what the movements are. And all of a sudden, I get passed this picture of a pacifier. They had my bill [number] on it and said that I was trying to make Texas a ‘Nanny State.’” The bill had nothing to do with motherhood or childcare. The flier had been produced by the Texas Civil Justice League—a conservative legal-reform organization opposed to the bill. Thompson decided to ignore it. But that afternoon, she encountered another nanny-state flier. Instead of a pacifier, this one had an image of a woman’s breast. Thompson was outraged. It was the same session that saw the Legislature cut funding for women’s health care and family planning by two-thirds, and pass a bill requiring women to endure a pre-abortion sonogram. It was also the session in which Tuffy Hamilton, during a debate about Franklin Mountains State Park, made a boob joke to Marisa Marquez. (“Young lady, would you please tell us why your mountains are better than any of our mountains, and are they man-made or are they real mountains?”)--Texas Observer