After six months the state department released documents to ProPublica of “special” employees allowed to work for private corporations the same time they worked for the department.---

Top of the Alty World

“State Department Finally Releases List of ‘Special Government Employees’”--ProPublica

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city will drop its appeal of the “stop and frisk” lawsuit and will work to reform the practice and stop racial profiling.—Democracy Now!

Rolling Stone looks at 27 numbers that reveal the true state of the union.--Rolling Stone

Millions of Americans are coming to terms with the fact that they are too poor to receive coverage under the Affordable Care Act.--Huffington Post

Top of Alty Utah

Healthcare navigators find unique challenges and opportunities in enrolling LGBT Utahns with Obamacare.--Salt Lake City Weekly

Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem says there may be a record number of bills presented at the 2014 Legislature.--Utah Policy

A legislative audit has found the University of Utah's Red Zone stores are unfairly competing with the private sector and are thusly violating Board of Regents and University policy.--Utah Political Capitol

A bill removing penalties for reporting drug overdoses passes in the House.--Utah Political Capitol

Rantosphere

City Weekly founder John Saltas reflects on House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo taking stand against “Zion Curtains” that are meant to shield restaraunt-goers from watching drinks being mixed and served.

“[Lockhart] sure has my support on the issue of Utah’s stupid Zion Curtains—those useless barriers that block the view of a cocktail being mixed, but do not block the view of said cocktail being served or consumed. Utah deserves a liquor policy that focuses on several key items: no bootlegging, no serving minors, no overconsumption, no serving after hours, stricter penalties for drunk driving—each aimed at getting drunken drivers off the streets. The Zion Curtain does none of that.”--Salt Lake City Weekly

The Long View

A look at the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami, with Reverend Kaneda discussing the shock of the disaster and the process of bereavement for survivors.

“Nearly twenty thousand people had died at a stroke. In the space of a month, Kaneda performed funeral services for two hundred of them. More appalling than the scale of death was the spectacle of the bereaved survivors. ‘They didn’t cry,’ Kaneda said to me a year later. ‘There was no emotion at all. The loss was so profound and death had come so suddenly. They understood the facts of their situation individually – that they had lost their homes, lost their livelihoods and lost their families. They understood each piece, but they couldn’t see it as a whole, and they couldn’t understand what they should do, or sometimes even where they were. I couldn’t really talk to them, to be honest. All I could do was stay with them, and read the sutras and conduct the ceremonies. That was the thing I could do.’” --London Review of Books