New statistics show millions of students defaulting on loan debt while failing to take advantage of prorgrams meant to give them a financial lifeline.---

Top of the Alty World

“Our Student Loan System is Broken and These New Statistics Prove it”--The Atlantic

A look at the surveillance reforms Obama was for, before he was against them.--ProPublica

Polling shows black voters are more supportive of scandal-plagued candidates, like Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner.--The Root

Activists and experts are unsure if a new United Nations initiative will help LGBT rights abroad.--Rolling Stone

Top of Alty Utah

After a nine-month investigation, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill says the police shooting that killed 19-year-old Danielle Willard was not justified.--KUER

A local man describes life after release from solitary confinement at the Utah State Prison.--Salt Lake City Weekly

Evidence seems to show Attorney General John Swallow lobbying without a license in 2011.---Utah Political Capitol

A new clothing company, All One Species, hopes to promote inclusion with its product line.--Q Salt Lake

Rantosphere

Truth Out argues that the actions of recently convicted whistleblower Private Bradley Manning saved lives.

“Manning’s revelations actually saved lives. After WikiLeaks published his documentation of Iraqi torture centers established by the United States, the Iraqi government refused Obama’s request to extend immunity to U.S. soldiers who commit criminal and civil offenses there. As a result, Obama had to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. The American public needed to know the information Manning provided. He revealed evidence of war crimes in the "Collateral Murder" video, which depicts a U.S. Apache attack-helicopter crew killing 12 unarmed civilians and wounding two children in Baghdad in 2007. The crew then killed people attempting to rescue the wounded. A U.S. tank drove over one of the bodies, cutting it in half. Those actions constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.”--Truth Out

The Long View

Slate profiles Sigurdur Thordarson, the teenage informant tasked by the FBI to spy on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

“It was 2010 when the saga began in Reykjavik, Iceland. Thordarson, then just 17, says that before his first encounter with Assange, he knew little about the man beyond a few YouTube videos he’d watched about WikiLeaks. Bu,t he went to hear Assange speak at a conference hosted by an Icelandic university and the teenager was impressed. After the event, a journalist Thordarson knew introduced him to Assange, and the pair struck up a relationship that led to Thordarson doing some volunteer work for the organization. Before long, he was on the edges of WikiLeaks’ small, tight-knit inner circle. At that time, the group was sitting on the explosive files it had received from Manning that included a video showing a U.S. helicopter attack that resulted in the deaths of 12 civilians, among them two employees of the Reuters news agency. Thordarson, a blond-haired stocky figure with a baby face, was present while WikiLeaks staff and volunteers in Reykjavik were preparing the video for publication. When it was published by WikiLeaks in April 2010, under the name Collateral Murder, it catapulted the organization into the international spotlight and provoked an angry response from government officials in Washington.”--Slate