Buzz Blog

Democrats could be making some major political missteps by trying to fast track the Keystone Pipeline.

Top of the Alty World

“Mary Landrieu’s Pipeline Pipe Dream”—Slate

An internal survey shows the Red Cross' own employees have doubts about the charity's ethics and leadership.—ProPublica

Gawker looks at the large and “shady” practice of municipalities letting police officers do security work for private companies with official uniforms and patrol cars.—Gawker

The Atlantic considers the probability of Republicans thwarting Obama's immigration reform, and whether that might mean another government shutdown.—The Atlantic

Top of Alty Utah

Sources have confirmed an affair between two Salt Lake City Council members.—Salt Lake City Weekly

Nonprofit groups raise funds for storage lockers for Salt Lake City's homeless.—Salt Lake City Weekly

A KSL news director has sent an “ethics inquiry” to the Society of Professional Journalists about possible conflicts with the Salt Lake Tribune's publication of a biography of newly elected Mia Love.—Utah Politico Hub

Transgender advocates will be holding a silent vigil at the Utah State Capitol on Nov. 20.—Q Salt Lake

Rantosphere

Ray Hult makes the argument that Democrats blew it by trying to run away from their progressive values and the President in the mid-term elections.

“Democratic contestants made a big mistake when they tried to distance themselves from the president. One of the best examples was when Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat, refused to say whom she'd voted for in the last presidential election. Like so many others, she apparently didn't want to associate herself with the president, whose reputation in Kentucky was at a low ebb. She lost anyway, to incumbent Republican Mitch McConnell.

She would have been better off proclaiming her support of the president and defending his accomplishments over the past six years, such as the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans were successful in making look like an abject failure. Too many voters accepted the overwhelming deluge of unsubstantiated charges without bothering to fact-check.”—Salt Lake City Weekly

The Long View

Outside magazine looks at the epidemic of sexual abuse in youth sports, especially swimming programs.

“Because there have been so many sexual-abuse cases over the years involving swimmers, USA Swimming in 2010 became one of the first sports governing bodies to create a public list of coaches and other officials who have been banned for violating its code of conduct, which now forbids sexual advances toward or sexual contact with athletes, even if the coach and athlete are both adults.

As of September 1, the list contained the names of 106 members, with at least 73 who were banned for sexual misconduct, often involving multiple victims. On this roster, you’ll read about men like former San Jose Aquatics coach Andy King, who spent decades leaping from club to club on the West Coast, raping more than a dozen young girls and impregnating one before he was caught in 2009. Or Charles Arabas, sentenced to ten years in prison in 2004, who moved to northern Arizona after being fired for sexual abuse at his previous coaching job and then assaulted seven girls on his new local swim-club team.”—Outside