Good Tuesday morning and Happy Valentine’s Day from Salt Lake City. Today is the 45th day of the year. There are 320 days remaining in 2017.
Herbert proposes a compromise on Bears Ears. Lawmakers seek a modest boost for education funding. Utah would be hit hard by a trade war with Mexico.
The clock:
- 14 days until President Trump is scheduled to addresses a joint session of Congress (2/28/2017)
- 23 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (3/9/2017)
- 266 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
- 631 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
- 1358 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)
Here are the stories making news in politics this morning:
- Gov. Gary Herbert says a series of smaller national monuments instead of the massive Bears Ears Monument would be a good compromise in the controversy engulfing the area [Utah Policy]. Utah tourism officials are promoting the Bears Ears monument despite opposition to the monument from Utah officials [Associated Press].
- Legislators propose a 3% boost in funding for education along with eliminating licensing fees for teachers [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- Lawmakers consider measures to ensure free speech from all parts of the political spectrum on Utah’s college campuses [Utah Policy].
- Sen. Stuart Adams says private investment could be the fix for Utah’s crumbling infrastructure [Utah Policy].
- Derek Miller of the World Trade Center Utah says Utah would be hit hard by a trade war with Mexico as that country is the state’s third-biggest trading partner [Utah Policy]. Here’s video of our interview with Miller [Utah Policy].
- Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump‘s national security advisor, resigns just 25 days into the job for lying about his contacts with Russian officials [Politico]. The FBI warned the White House last month that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail because of his dissembling about his contacts with that country [Washington Post].
- Utahns are brilliantly trolling Rep. Jason Chaffetz over his assertion that the protesters at his rowdy town hall meeting last week were being “paid” by sending him invoices for their time [The Hill]. There’s no evidence that any of the protesters showing up at Republican town hall meetings are being paid [CNN].
- Steven Mnuchin was confirmed by the Senate as Treasury Secretary [New York Times].
- Despite tons of controversy, President Donald Trump has accomplished almost nothing during his first three weeks in office [Politico].
- Utah lawmakers will not act on a bill to keep Utah’s school board elections non-partisan affairs [Tribune].
- Lawmakers can attend nearly 100 free events during the 45-day legislature hosted by groups looking to win their favor [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1929 – Seven rivals of gangster Al Capone were gunned down in a Chicago garage in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
- 2005 – Video-sharing website YouTube was founded by former PayPal employees. The company was purchased by Google a year and a half later for $1.65 billion.
