The Ebola virus that has already claimed over 1,400 lives in in West Africa is mutating rapidly as it spreads.

Top of the Alty World

“Ebola virus mutating rapidly as it spreads”—Nature

The murder of Colorado's Corrections Department by a parole absconder has cast doubt over whether the agency can institute meaningful reform.—Westword

Conservationists say a new policy from the Obama administration has set the Endangered Species Act back half a century.—High Country News

A new study finds whites have one black friend, whle blacks have eight friends on average and white people don't have as many black friends or associates in their inner circles.—The Root

Top of Alty Utah

After a legislative audit slammed the Utah Transit Authority citizens challenged the board to use only UTA services for seven days straight and document their experience.—Utah Political Capitol

Jesse Harris looks at the challenges involved in Internet voting and how to address them.—Utah Politico Hub

Governor Herbert hopes that his Medicaid expansion alternative could be finalized by the end of September.—Salt Lake City Weekly

LGBT and straight ally protesters defiantly challenge their arrest for “disrupting the legislative process”—Salt Lake City Weekly

Rantosphere

Truth-Out argues that while there are few winners emerging from our long entanglement in Iraq, arms makers have clearly come out ahead.

“Ask the "defense" industry, the makers and sellers of all these weapons, and they'll tell you this Iraq debacle is the greatest thing to happen since Vietnam. Twenty-four years of war since 1990, all those missiles and bombs dropped, all those bullets fired, all those armored vehicles blown up that needed to be replaced, all of which come with a price tag to be paid out of the taxpayers' pockets. Not everyone gets a payday that lasts a quarter of a century. The "defense" industry got one, again, and it is ongoing, and expanding.

The United States is bombing weapons the "defense" industry already got paid for with ordnance they will get paid for.”—Truth-Out

The Long View

ProPublica looks at how the land in south-east Florida is rapidly disappearing.

“This land being swallowed by the Gulf is home to half of the country’s oil refineries, a matrix of pipelines that serve 90 percent of the nation’s offshore energy production and 30 percent of its total oil and gas supply, a port vital to 31 states, and 2 million people who would need to find other places to live.

The landscape on which all that is built is washing away at a rate of a football field every hour, 16 square miles per year.”—ProPublica