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Morning must reads for Monday, June 19, 2017

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Good Monday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 170th day of the year. There are 195 days remaining in 2017. Today is the 150th day of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Herbert blocks the A.G. office from giving the Legislature an opinion on the legality of November’s special election process. Chris Herrod pulls off a stunning upset. A terror attack in London leaves one dead and 10 injured.

The clock:

  • 57 days until the 2017 Utah primary election (8/15/2017)

  • 141 days until the 2017 election (11/7/2017)

  • 217 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)

  • 262 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)

  • 505 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)

  • 1,234 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today’s political TL; DR –

  • SCOOP: Gov. Gary Herbert blocked the Attorney General’s office from giving an opinion on the legality of the special election process in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. [Utah Policy].  
  • Our “Political Insiders” mostly say the Salt Lake City Council did the right thing by blocking Sen. Jim Dabakis‘ nomination to join the Utah Transit Authority board [Utah Policy].
  • Former Rep. Chris Herrod wins the GOP delegate nomination in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District special election, setting up a three-way primary in August. Few people gave Herrod a chance to win the vote on Saturday [Utah Policy].
  • Dr. Kathie Allen easily wins the Democratic nomination for this summer’s special election in the 3rd Congressional District [Utah Policy].
  • Utah Democrats tap Daisy Thomas to lead the party for the next two years following a contentious and sometimes dirty campaign [Utah Policy].
  • On this week’s “Beg to Differ” podcast, Bryan Schott and Mike Winder dissect what a three-way primary for Utah Republicans means for the state’s political order, plus a conversation with outgoing Utah Democratic Party chair Peter Corroon [Utah Policy].
  • Two Salt Lake County Mayors are raising questions about how the money from a sales tax fund has been doled out to cover transportation projects over the past 14 years. They also worry that former House Speaker Greg Curtis, now a lobbyist, may have too much influence over how the funds are distributed [Deseret News].
  • A legal battle involving the American Preparatory Academy in Draper is raising questions about whether charter schools should be allowed to seize land from their neighbors [Tribune].
  • Backers of a proposed ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana say they should be ready to launch their effort to put the measure on the 2018 ballot within the next few weeks [Daily Herald].
  • The new United Utah Party says they’re ready to sue to get their candidate, Jim Bennett, on the ballot for November’s special election [Utah Policy, Deseret News].
  • A Utah Muslim leader finally returned home from Kenya after being blocked by U.S. officials who refused to let him board an airplane [Deseret News, Tribune].
  • A new report concludes a worker in Utah earning minimum wage would need to work 94 hours per week in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment [Deseret News].
  • If the Bears Ears National Monument is reduced in size, a number of energy extraction companies are ready to swoop in and start drilling and mining operations on the land surrounding the area [Tribune].

National headlines:

  • A terror attack in London killed one person and injured 10 others after a man driving a van plowed into a group of worshipers leaving a mosque. The driver of the van allegedly screamed “I’m going to kill all Muslims” as he ran down the pedestrians [The Sun].
  • In case you’ve forgotten, we’re still at war. The U.S. is sending several thousand more troops to Afghanistan [New York Times].
  • A U.S. aircraft shot down a Syrian fighter jet shortly after Syrian forces attacked U.S.-backed fighters in northern Syria [Washington Post].
  • Iran launched a missile strike against Islamic State fighters in Syria in retaliation for terrorist attacks inside Iran earlier this month [CNN].
  • President Donald Trump‘s lawyer says he is not under investigation despite the president confirming he was being investigated via an official statement on Twitter [CNN].
  • Two of President Trump’s top aides, including Jared Kushner, will travel to Israel this week to help jump start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks [Reuters].

On this day in history:

  • 1586 – English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in America.
  • 1862 – Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
  • 1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y. They had been convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
  • 1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate.