Situational awareness - April 16, 2019

Situational awareness - April 16, 2019

Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City.

Here's what is driving the day:

• Elizabeth Warren is coming to Utah this week, which could pay off for her down the road.
• Most Utahns say climate change is a threat, but there's no consensus on how serious that threat is.
• White House officials are bracing for the release of the Mueller report on Thursday.

What do you think?

We always welcome your feedback, questions, story suggestions, news tips, etc... Send us an email at this link.

The UtahPolicy.com daily newsletter gets you up to speed on the top local and national news about politics and public policy. Our news is curated by Managing Editor Bryan Schott, along with help from Golden Webb. ((Click here to subscribe))

TICK TOCK

Today is the 106th day of the year. There are 259 days remaining in 2019.

4 days to the Utah Libertarian Party state convention (4/20/2019)

18 days to the Utah State Republican Party Organizing Convention (5/4/2019)

18 days to the United Utah Party state convention (5/4/2019)

48 days until the municipal election filing period opens (6/3/2019)

52 days until the municipal election filing period ends (6/7/2019)

67 days to the Utah State Democratic Party Organizing Convention (6/22/2019)

71 days to the first Democratic presidential primary debates in Miami (6/26/2019)

105 days to the second Democratic presidential primary debates in Detroit (7/30/2019)

119 days to the 2019 Utah primary elections (8/13/2019)

203 days to the 2019 municipal elections (11/5/2019)

286 days to the first day of the 2020 Utah Legislature (1/27/2020)

294 days to the 2020 Iowa Caucuses (2/3/2020)

322 days to the 2020 Utah presidential primary (3/3/2020)

563 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today At Utah Policy

Elizabeth Warren will campaign in Utah on Wednesday. The strategy could pay off for her in the future
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren brings her presidential campaign to Utah this week for a rally on Thursday night. It will be the most high-profile visit by a presidential contender since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders held a massive outdoor rally in Utah in 2016.

Utahns are divided over the seriousness of the threat posed by climate change
By Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor
Utahns may not be climate change deniers, but they aren't that worried about it, either, a recent UtahPolicy.com poll shows.

Governor appoints Kerry Gibson as Commissioner for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food
By Press release
Gov. Gary R. Herbert has appointed Kerry Gibson to serve as commissioner for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, following LuAnn Adams' announcement that she will retire.

Romney, McSally, Sinema introduce legislation to settle water rights for Navajo Nation in Utah
By Press release
U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT), Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) introduced the Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act of 2019, legislation that would settle a decades-long negotiation among the Navajo Nation, federal government and the State of Utah over water rights for Utah Navajos. A summary of the legislation is available here.

Building Utah: How to pitch your products to Walmart
By Salt Lake Chamber
If you are a supplier of new, shelf-ready, goods manufactured in the United States and you are looking to sell your products with Walmart, now is your time to apply. Walmart is holding its 6th Annual Open Call for U.S. Sourced Products. It's part of the company's commitment to purchase an additional $250 billion in products made, sourced or grown in the U.S. by 2023.

OTHER UTAH HEADLINES

Deseret News

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledges to end drilling, restore Bears Ears, Grand Staircase if elected president
• What should teachers be paid? Envision Utah to convene group to take hard look at teacher pay
• Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson determined to give Wasatch canyons short-term relief
• Hearing scheduled in lawsuit challenging Utah's new 18-week abortion ban

Salt Lake Tribune

• Medicaid expansion may cover birth control for thousands more Utah women. Unwanted pregnancies, abortions will decrease, advocates say.
• Ahead of visit to Utah, Sen. Elizabeth Warren outlines plan to restore the state's slashed monuments if elected president
• Two Utah cities to pilot a new voting method in a county that has faced election-related problems in the past

Other

• New Utah law will soon allow motorcyclists to 'filter' between stopped traffic at lights (Daily Herald)
• Gov. Gary Herbert picks Kerry Gibson to lead Utah Department of Agriculture (Standard-Examiner)

NATIONAL HEADLINES

Thursday is Mueller time. A redacted version of the long-awaited Mueller report will be released to Congress and the public on Thursday - https://cnn.it/2GnssHc

• Some of the more than one dozen current and former White House officials who cooperated with the Mueller investigation are worried the report will expose them as the source of damaging information about President Trump. They're concerned about how Trump and his allies may react - https://nbcnews.to/2GtQkJB

Trump the divider. President Donald Trump has signaled he plans to rely on divisive messages that will rile up his base of voters as his 2020 re-election strategy - https://wapo.st/2GgqZCA

• Trump's campaign plans to target senior voters on Facebook. So far, the campaign has spent half of their Facebook ad budget to target voters over 65 - http://bit.ly/2Gg7muz

Democrats subpoena Trump's banks. Two House committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and several other financial institutions as part of investigations into President Donald Trump's finances - https://politi.co/2GgYFQz

Economic optimism. J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says the current economic expansion the U.S. is enjoying "could go on for years" - https://cnb.cx/2GfeQOb

More companies paying zero taxes under Trump. The Trump tax cuts doubled the number of big American companies with zero tax liability from 30 to 60 - https://nbcnews.to/2Gh0i0D

Immigration. The Trump administration is reviving a controversial policy that forces Central American asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claim is considered by U.S. immigration officials - https://lat.ms/2GiEBNO

• Immigration officials deported the spouse of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan but left their 12-year-old daughter in Arizona. They abruptly reversed the decision on Monday, allowing the man to return to the U.S. - http://bit.ly/2GgYaWH

That didn't take long. Newly confirmed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is under an ethics investigation after complaints the former oil and gas lobbyist may have had conflicts of interest when he was the deputy secretary of the department - http://bit.ly/2GeBEha

Beto O'Rourke's taxes. The Democratic 2020 hopeful appears to have underpaid two years of taxes because of an error in the way they reported their medical expenses - https://on.wsj.com/2GtQssz

Good luck with that. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld announced he will challenge President Trump for the GOP nomination in 2020 - https://cnn.it/2GjZS9D

Measles explosion. The number of measles cases in the U.S. is surging. So far, there are 555 confirmed cases. The number of infections is on pace to be the most in the country in a quarter-century - http://bit.ly/2GgnM65

• The Washington Post tracked down "Patient Zero" in the current outbreak, a Michigan man who traveled to New York and infected 39 other people - https://wapo.st/2GkInGa

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1818 - The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot Treaty, establishing the border with Canada.

1862 - The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia becomes law.

1881 - In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

1908 - Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah.

1912 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.

1947 - Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated for protesting against segregation.

2007 - Virginia Tech shooting: A gunman kills 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide on the Blacksburg campus.

Policy News

Plaid opens engineering hub in Salt Lake City
The Economic Development Corporation, Salt Lake City, and the Governor's Office of Economic Development are excited to announce that Plaid is opening an engineering hub in Salt Lake City.

Moab natural gas pipeline shut down, operator fined $100K after investigation by Utah Division of Public Utilities
Chris Parker, Director of the Utah Division of Public Utilities, announced that a Division investigation resulted in a Hazardous Facility Order issued against Pacific Energy & Mining (PEMC) April 10, 2019 by the Utah Public Service Commission (PSC).

More National Headlines

• Face It: You (Probably) Got a Tax Cut (New York Times)
• Sanders jumps ahead of Biden in 2020 poll (New York Post)
• Democrats Are Falling Into the Ilhan Omar Trap (Atlantic)
• 2020 Democrats raising less money as donors sit on sidelines (Associated Press)
• Monty Python's Terry Gilliam Wishes Comedy Hadn't Changed (Wall Street Journal)
• Mapping San Francisco's Human Waste Challenge - 132,562 Cases Reported In The Public Way Since 2008 (Forbes)
• Inglewood's stadium deal is threatening one of California's last black enclaves (Los Angeles Times)
• Divided new Congress is getting little accomplished (Union-Tribune)
• Marine Corps suffers identity crisis in age of cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence (Washington Times)
• Europe looks to remold internet with new copyright rules (Associated Press)

Wise Words

Good Friends

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." Thomas Jefferson
 

Lighter Side

Dumping Drinks

"This week on an American Airlines flight to Dallas, the flight attendant accidentally spilled drinks on a passenger, and then she found out that he was the C.E.O. of American Airlines. When the rest of the plane heard, they also dumped their drinks on him." - JIMMY FALLON