Ten Things You Need to Know for Friday – September 19, 2014

Scotland rejects independence. Romney to rally for Mia Love. Valentine wants all restaurants to have a Zion Curtain.

Countdown:

  • Days to the 2014 midterm election – 46
  • Days until the opening day of the 2015 Utah Legislature – 129
  • Days to the final day of the 2015 Utah Legislature – 174
  • Days to the 2015 election – 410
  • Days to the 2016 Iowa Caucuses (tentative) – 486
  • Days until the 2016 presidential election – 781

Friday's top-10 headlines:

  1. Scotland voters reject a bid for independence from the United Kingdom [NBC News].
  2. Mitt Romney is set to hold a rally supporting Mia Love next month [Deseret News, Tribune].
  3. Outgoing Sen. John Valentine says he regrets not requiring all Utah restaurants to have a Zion Curtain and he hopes Utah lawmakers fix that situation [Tribune].
  4. Former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wants prosecutors to provide a specific list of crimes he is accused of committing, arguing the charges against him are vague [Deseret News].
  5. Rural Utah authorities lobby federal lawmakers to continue funding the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program [Tribune].
  6. President Obama nominates Utah Supreme Court Justice Jill Parrish to the federal bench [Tribune, Deseret News].
  7. Fundraising for the two candidates for Salt Lake County Sheriff is a very tight race, with less than $4,000 separating incumbent Democrat Jim Winder and Republican Jake Petersen [Tribune].
  8. The Millard GOP names incumbent County Commissioner James Withers as their nominee after the Utah Supreme Court overturned a lower-court order to hold a new election after a disputed primary [Tribune].
  9. Prices for Utahns shopping for health insurance on the federal exchanges can expect a 5.7% hike in rates [Tribune].
  10. The Kansas supreme court orders the Democratic candidate for Senate off the ballot after he withdrew from the race, making the re-election chances for Republican Sen. Pat Roberts a much tougher road [MSNBC].

On this day in history:

  • 1881 – President James Garfield died of wounds inflicted by an assassin more than two months earlier.
  • 1934 – Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnapping and murder of the Linbergh baby.
  • 1957 – The United States conducted its first underground nuclear test in the Nevada desert.
  • 1982 – The emoticon was born when Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott Fahlman used a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis – 🙂 – to depict a horizontal smiley face.
  • 2008 – The Bush administration asked Congress for $700 billion to buy troubled mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions.