Situational awareness - May 31, 2019

Situational awareness - May 31, 2019

Good morning from Salt Lake City and TGIF!

Welcome to Utah's must-read daily political news rundown. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to sign up for our emails.

Here's what is driving the day:

• Lawmakers announce 8 town hall meetings on tax reform.
• Trump threatens Mexico with tariffs over immigration.
• New documents show the Trump administration added a citizenship question to the 2020 census to help Republicans.

Friday Trivia

Today's head-scratcher comes from guest quizmaster Shykell Ledford.

What was the name of the Utah county, included in Tooele's current borders, that was incorporated in 1856 and dissolved in 1862?

Send your answers to me via email at bschott@utahpolicy.com. The first three readers who send in a correct response will be recognized in Monday's newsletter.

News tips/story ideas

Kindly send suggestions, concerns and news tips to us via email at bschott@utahpolicy.com.

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 151st day of the year. There are 214 days remaining in 2019.

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

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

8 days until the Independent American Party Utah State Convention (6/8/2019)

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

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

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

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

104 days to the third Democratic presidential primary debate (9/12/2019)

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

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

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

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

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

Today At Utah Policy

Bob Bernick's notebook: Stop beating a dead horse
By Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor
Since the 2014 Utah Legislature passed SB54, I have written I-don't-know-how-many columns saying this may be the end of this issue.And it never was.

Lawmakers set eight town hall meetings to discuss tax reform
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
The Legislature's special Tax Reform Task Force will hold eight public town halls around the state, starting the end of June, to hear citizens and special interests' concerns about changing how items are taxed in Utah.

Watch: Reyes says disabled military vets should have student loan debt forgiven
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
Attorney General Sean Reyes says military veterans with permanent disabilities should have their student loan debt wiped out.

Cities Work podcast: Dealing with wildfire (part 1)
By Utah League of Cities and Towns
ULCT members gathered for the Annual Convention in Salt Lake City when mayors and council members started getting the word- their communities were burning.

Independent American Party Convention June 8
By Press release
The Utah Independent American Party will hold its State Convention/Independence Summit on Saturday, June 8, 2019, at Juab High School in Nephi.

OTHER UTAH HEADLINES

Deseret News

• Op-ed: New homeless services system requires historic effort
• Editorial: Utah ranking as a safe state for children online is a wake-up call, not celebration
• Historic agreement could open up overseas markets for Western states' natural gas
• Study shows a steep decline in Utah's 2018 Medicaid and CHIP enrollment
• No proposed fixes and no public comment at first tax reform task force meeting
• How Utah's new 'epic' project will change the U.S. energy grid in the West
• Report: Sandy limiting notice of water contamination to avoid 'panic' was 'not warranted'

Salt Lake Tribune

• Herbert unveils massive Utah renewable energy project, draws praise from Trump official, protests from climate activists
• Where in Utah have opioid overdose rates been highest? In Carbon and Emery counties, where treatment services are scarcer.
• Gehrke: Wait a minute, why is Utah's attorney general helping a private company sell body scanners?
• 'We overdosed them': Outside investigation details Sandy City missteps in dealing with water crisis

Other

• Protesters storm stage during energy panel with Gov. Herbert, Rick Perry (Daily Herald)
• Weber County opioid lawsuit timeline hinges, in part, on resolution of Ohio cases (Standard-Examiner)

NATIONAL HEADLINES

Trump threatens Mexico. President Donald Trump said he would impose a 5-percent tariff on all imports from Mexico next month unless the country cracks down on the flow of illegal immigration coming into the U.S. - https://wapo.st/2MnmxIy

• Stock futures and the global stock markets slumped on the news - https://cnn.it/2MkYE4u
• If Trump follows through on his threat to impose tariffs, it could sink Trump's proposed trade deal with Mexico and Canada - https://wapo.st/2MutaZs

Bombshell. New documents show a deceased GOP strategist was a driving factor in the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Thomas Hofeller wrote a study showing adding that question would advantage white, non-Hispanic voters, allowing Republicans to draw political boundaries that would put Democrats at a disadvantage - https://nyti.ms/2MnH0wM

Mueller

• President Trump admitted on Thursday that Russia helped get him elected in 2016, then walked that admission back shortly afterward - http://bit.ly/2HN2jUh
• Trump attacked special counsel Robert Mueller as being conflicted because of a personal vendetta against Trump, a claim that has been repeatedly discredited - https://wapo.st/2HLJFMy
• Attorney General William Barr says special counsel Mueller "could've reached a decision" on whether President Trump obstructed justice - https://cbsn.ws/2HNC5Ry
• President Trump railed against a growing call for the House to instigate impeachment proceedings against him, calling impeachment "a dirty, filthy, disgusting word" - https://politi.co/2HLJeSq
• Over 50 House members now say they favor beginning an impeachment inquiry against President Trump - https://nbcnews.to/2HMyP8S

2020

• Democrats unveil a $90 million super PAC targeting grassroots turnout in seven swing states - https://politi.co/2HLKcOy
• The Democratic National Committee is demanding that each of their presidential primary debates feature at least one woman moderator - http://bit.ly/2HLhtt7

Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to talk about President Trump anymore. "I'm done with him, in terms of talking about him," she said during a Thursday interview - https://wapo.st/2HN14V4

Boring but important. The U.S. has dropped to third place in the ranking of most competitive economies, falling behind Singapore and Hong Kong - https://cnb.cx/2MnJqeQ

North Korea purge. Kim Jong-un has reportedly executed that country's special envoy to the United States on spying charges following the breakdown of the second summit with President Donald Trump - https://nyti.ms/2Mze999

Media slap fight. The New York Times is warning reporters about appearing on cable news shows that are too ideological, including MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show - http://bit.ly/2HLgsRP

Measles cases exploding. There have been more measles cases in the first half of this year than in all of 1992, which was the last massive outbreak - https://nyti.ms/2HMyxyU

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1859 - The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.

1911 - The RMS Titanic is launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1921 - A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma kills at least 39 people.

1927 - The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15 million vehicles.

1977 - The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is completed.

2005 - Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was "Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal.

Policy News

Sandy City Public Utilities Director Tom Ward reinstated
Mayor Kurt Bradburn announced today the reinstatement of Tom Ward as Sandy City's Public Utilities Director after completion of an independent investigation conducted by the law firm Parsons Behle & Latimer.

Dorsey & Whitney congratulates partner David Barlow on nomination as judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah
International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP congratulates Partner David Barlow on his nomination by President Donald J. Trump to serve as Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.

Casual Friday: Weekend Events & Outdoors Report
Outdoors Report--Salt Lake Tribune:Off-roaders are revved up to see southern Utah's Factory Butte reopened to motorized use. But environmentalists are gearing up for a fight.--Salt Lake Tribune

More National Headlines

• Biographer Garrow pens explosive report on Martin Luther King Jr. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Oregon, awash in marijuana, takes steps to curb production (Associated Press)
• Top sheriff warns: Trump's 'done' if illegal immigration isn't slashed (Washington Examiner)
• Democrats are divided: Compromise or conquer? (Washington Post)
• Trailing candidates angry over new Democratic debate rules (Olympian)
• Joe Biden will return to Iowa in June, the same day Donald Trump will campaign in the state (Des Moines Register)
• Saudi king calls on Gulf states to tackle Iran's 'criminal' acts (Arabian Business)

Wise Words

Failing Forward

"Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success." C. S. Lewis
 

Lighter Side

Cover Up

Colbert spoke about House speaker Nancy Pelosi's comment to reporters that Trump was engaging in a cover-up. Colbert agreed, telling his audience: "It's a cover-up. It's called bronzer, Nancy. And he's not fooling anyone." Stephen Colbert

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