Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 201st day of the year. There are 165 days left in 2016.
The GOP convention gets underway in Cleveland. Melania Trump’s primetime speech appears to have been plagiarized from Michelle Obama. Utahns support allowing guns on Utah’s college and university campuses.
The clock:
- Six days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 112 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 188 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 233 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Tuesday:
- A majority of Utahns say they support carrying firearms on Utah’s college and university campuses [Utah Policy].
- Prosecutors move to dismiss all of the charges in the public corruption case against former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff [Utah Policy, Tribune, Deseret News]. Utah Democrats are furious that the prosecution of Shurtleff fell apart while Republicans say it’s a sign that the system works as intended [Tribune].
- Fear and loathing in Cleveland. Day one of the Republican National Convention…Let’s just say it probably could have gone better for Donald Trump and his supporters, as most reporting described it as a “disaster” [Politico, Bloomberg, The Hill, Yahoo].
- Melania Trump delivered a soaring primetime speech. It turns out the reason it was so good is it was apparently plagiarized from Michelle Obama‘s 2008 Democratic Convention address [Politico]. Twitter had a field day with the news, gleefully shredding Trump’s wife over the gaffe [Talking Points Memo].
- Donald Trump‘s supporters snuff out an anti-Trump rebellion on the floor when delegates, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, nearly opened the door to an attempt at ripping the nomination away from Trump [Politico, CNN, Tribune, Deseret News]. Some Trump opponents, including a delegate from Utah, say they were bullied by pro-Trump supporters [The Hill, Tribune].
- Sen. Orrin Hatch tells Utah’s delegation at the RNC it’s time to unify behind Donald Trump [Tribune].
- Sigh. Soap opera star and underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr., who spoke on Monday at the Republican National Convention, shortly after his speech told reporters he is “absolutely” convinced that President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim [Talking Points Memo].
- That’ll show ’em! Bernie Sanders supporters plan to hold a “fart in” to protest Hillary Clinton at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia [NBC News].
- Gov. Gary Herbert signs all of the bills from last week’s special session [Utah Policy, Deseret News].
- The toxic algae bloom in Utah Lake has farmers on alert as the tainted water appears to have spread to the Jordan River and Little Cottonwood Creek [Tribune, Daily Herald].
On this day in history:
- 1969 – Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins on board, went into orbit around the moon.
- 1979 – The Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas.
- 1993 – President Bill Clinton announced the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward homosexuals in the military.
