Female protesters in Egypt have been repeatedly terrorized by sexual assault, a shocking occurrence that's happened in various protests over the past few years.---

Top of the Alty World

“Egypt's Sexual Assault Epidemic”--Al Jazeera English

The Washington City Paper asks journos, pundits, and various experts to offer advice to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on how to run The Washington Post.--Washington City Paper

Facing unprecedented new regulations, Texas abortion providers fear an increase in black-market procedures.--San Antonio Current

Egypt's government wages its bloodiest crackdown yet on pro-Morsi supporters (photos).--Mother Jones

Top of Alty Utah

State Democratic Party Chair Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, spars with the Govenor and Attorney General over same-sex marriage.--Utah Political Capitol

The Salt Lake County Health Department has issued an alert to the gay community about a potential bacterial-meningitis outbreak following the death of a local gay man.--Q Salt Lake

Liquor reformers and teetotalling politicians prepare for new liquor rules and laws in the coming legislative session.--Salt Lake City Weekly

A University of Utah professor says Utahns are woefully unprepared for the next major earthquake.--Salt Lake City Weekly

Rantosphere

Daniel Burton calls out Salt Lake County GOP Chair Chad Bennion for criticizing District Attorney Sim Gill for ruling a police shooting of an unarmed woman unjustified, while Bennion's law firm represents the Fraternal Order of Police.

“With two members of the Fraternal Order under heat for the shooting death of a woman and their account of the shooting at odds with forensic evidence (not to mention the mishandling of evidence and possibly missing drugs and money from the two officers’ time on the now defunct West Valley Police narcotics unit), Bennion has used harsh and inappropriate language to attack Salt Lake District Attorney Sim Gill, including blaming Gill’s upbringing in India and calling the DA a “cop hater.” Ouch. So much for avoiding ad hominem attacks or making the GOP more inclusive of other cultures. I guess we can all dismiss Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, because, you know, they’ve got Indian upbringing, as well. To make it worse, Bennion has decided to make all of his comments not as an employee of the Fraternal Order, but as leader of the Salt Lake County GOP. It’s one thing to represent his employer, but it’s another thing altogether to decide to use his political position to go to bat for his employer.”--Publius Online

The Long View

ProPublica looks at how New York state passed laws keeping inmates with “serious” mental-health issues from being confined in solitary. The result of these reforms, however, appears to be prison officials “downgrading” inmates mental-health evaluations, sometimes with troubling results, as in the case of Amir Hall.

“The New York Office of Mental Health says the decrease reflects improvements to the screening process. Efforts to base diagnoses on firmer evidence "has resulted in somewhat fewer, but better-substantiated diagnoses" of serious mental illness, said a spokesman for the office in an e-mailed statement. In Hall's case, prison mental-health staff never labeled his problems as "serious." Instead, they repeatedly downgraded his diagnosis. After three months in solitary — during which Hall was put on suicide watch twice — they changed his status to a level for inmates who have experienced "at least six months of psychiatric stability." Two weeks after his diagnosis was downgraded, and two days after he was transferred to solitary at Great Meadow, guards found Hall in his cell hanging from a bed sheet.”--ProPublica