Alty News: Single-Donor Super PACs on the Rise; Scott Walker's Immigration Flip Flop | Buzz Blog
Support the Free Press | Facts matter. Truth matters. Journalism matters
Salt Lake City Weekly has been Utah's source of independent news and in-depth journalism since 1984. Donate today to ensure the legacy continues.

Alty News: Single-Donor Super PACs on the Rise; Scott Walker's Immigration Flip Flop

by

comment
altrealities.webp
A former staffer to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker ripped her former boss for flip-flopping on immigration to score political points.

Top of the Alty World

Former Walker Aide Blasts Walker for Immigration Flip-Flop—Mother Jones

One of the Pulitzer Prize winners is no longer in journalism because it couldn't pay the bills.—Slate

Super PACS that get nearly all of their money from one donor quadrupled their share of overall fund-raising in 2014—ProPublica

Three GOP presidential candidates were asked if they would attend a gay marriage ceremony while still opposing the unions in general; awkwardness ensues.—The Atlantic

Top of Alty Utah

Democratic lawmakers Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City and Rep. Justin Miller, D-Salt Lake City talk about water conservation, minimum wage, Healthy Utah and more.—Utah Political Capitol

A new poll shows Gov. Herbert would beat former Democratic congressman Jim Matheson by a hefty margin if he were to challenge Herbert in the gubernatorial election.—Utah Policy

KRCL talks with two Utah women who have been active in working in Africa to help support war refugees and orphans of the Ebola epidemic.—RadioActive!

Utah and other western states will experience smoke and dust in the sky as a result of massive wildfires that occurred recently in Russia.—Wasatch Weather Weenies

Rantosphere

Rolling Stone offers some guidance to those who feel inconvenienced by rallies, protests and other demonstrations by social justice movements.

Your "normal" may consist of a commute or a meal, activities ranging from acceptable to pleasant, so the disruption of that routine annoys you. But the protest happens because someone else's "normal" is intolerable. It consists of routine injustice, exploitation, and even violence – sometimes lethal violence. For these people's "normal," disruption is a vital exercise.

By and large, people only take to the streets reluctantly, after a situation has become so fraught that it compels them to protest. In hundreds of encampments across the country in 2011-2012 could be found debt-overburdened people chucked into a painful, hopeless economy by a bailed-out billionaire financial class. Desperate to confront austerity, furious at Wall Street's unaccountability, and frustrated with the available political options, they were driven to occupy squares and parks in the thousands to contest the insufferable state of their "normal" lives.—Rolling Stone
The Long View

Salt Lake City Weekly takes a look at the trials facing Scott Gollaher an enigmatic child predator and author of a disturbing list containing the names of over 100 children.

The world of Scott Gollaher is one layered in ambiguity, denials and accusations against those aligned against him, be they victims, witnesses or part of the criminal justice system. He describes his alleged child victims and their families as being motivated by a desire for attention. "They got their social reward already," he says. City Weekly interviewed the parent of an alleged victim and the parents of the victim linked to his 1996 conviction. Those interviews highlighted that Gollaher got close to parents of children he was later accused of molesting by exploiting Mormon cultural commonalities or by allegedly presenting himself as an "expert" in child sexual abuse who can counsel child victims. Farris says Gollaher is "enough of a chameleon to use whatever he has in common with that person to build common ground."

Gollaher comes across as dismissive or even angry when his past is brought up, preferring to focus on current problems. But some issues in his past aren't so easy to dismiss. Take, for example, a chilling four-page list provided to City Weekly by one of the mothers of one of the children listed among 100-plus children's names he compiled in jail, prior to going to prison in 1996. Whether it's a list of victims or, as he contends, a list of children he had the opportunity to victimize but did not, it's a document that haunts parents of offspring who are named on it.—Salt Lake City Weekly



Tags