Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 5th day of the year. There are 360 days remaining in 2017.
Utahns don’t want Trump to build the wall. Gov. Gary Herbert is inaugurated for a third time. The fight over Obamacare is heating up in Congress.
The clock:
- 15 days until Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President (1/20/2017)
- 21 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (1/23/2017)
- 63 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (3/9/2017)
- 306 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
- 670 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
- 1398 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)
Ten talking points for Thursday:
- Don’t build that wall. Utahns say they don’t want Donald Trump to deliver on his promise of building a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. They also seriously doubt his claims of getting Mexico to pay for said wall [Utah Policy].
- Third time’s the charm? Gov. Gary Herbert is inaugurated for a third time, becoming only the third Utahn to ever achieve that feat [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- Ticket crush. Utah Republicans say they’ve received more than 7,000 requests for tickets to Donald Trump‘s inauguration [Utah Policy].
- Fight! Fight! Fight! President Barack Obama urges Congressional Democrats to not “bail out” Republicans by voting for an Obamacare replacement. At the same time, Vice President-elect Mike Pence rallies Republicans to kill the health care law [Wall Street Journal]. Here’s how Republicans plan to repeal Obamacare [New York Times].
- Intelligence battle. Donald Trump is reportedly planning an overhaul of the office of the Director of National Intelligence [CBS News].
- Hacking investigation. Some top intelligence officials will testify before Congress on Thursday morning [Wall Street Journal]. Donald Trump is siding with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who says he doubts Russia was behind any hacking during the 2016 election [New York Times].
- Stop subtweeting us! China’s state news agency warns Donald Trump to stop using Twitter to take shots at that country, saying his “obsession with ‘Twitter foreign policy’ is undesirable” [New York Times]. Sean Spicer, who will serve as Trump’s press secretary when he takes office, says he does not get any warning when Trump decides to fire off a missive online [Wall Street Journal].
- Term limits proposal. Sen. Mike Lee is part of a group of lawmakers in Congress who would like to see a constitutional amendment establishing term limits. Sen. Orrin Hatch, who has spent 40 years in the Senate, is not a fan of the proposal [Deseret News].
- Not just a bumper sticker. Republican lawmakers are reviving their efforts to audit the Federal Reserve [Wall Street Journal].
- Shelter battle is heating up. Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski is pleading with residents around the four proposed homeless shelters around the city to have an open mind when it comes to relocating the homeless sites [Deseret News]. Councilwoman Lisa Adams wants to abandon plans to locate one of the sites in Sugar House [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1914 – The Ford Motor Co. increased its pay from $2.34 for a 9-hour day to $5 for 8 hours of work.
- 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was sworn in as the first woman governor in the United States.
- 1949 – In his State of the Union address, President Harry S. Truman labeled his domestic program the “Fair Deal.”
- 1996 – The longest U.S. government shutdown ended after 21 days when Congress passed a stopgap spending measure that would allow federal employees to return to work. President Bill Clinton signed the bill the next day.
