Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 334th day of the year. There are 32 days remaining in 2016.
Greg Hughes will meet with Donald Trump’s transition team this week. Mitt Romney meets with Trump again about the Secretary of State post on Tuesday. Republicans plan a “lightning strike” on Obamacare in early 2017.
The clock:
- 20 days until the Electoral College meets to cast their votes for president and vice president (12/19/2016)
- 52 days until Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President (1/20/2017)
- 55 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (1/23/2017)
- 100 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (3/9/2017)
- 343 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
- 707 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
Ten talking points for Tuesday:
- House Speaker Greg Hughes will meet with Donald Trump‘s transition team about possibly taking a position in a Trump administration [Utah Policy].
- Utah House Democrats meet Tuesday night to pick their leaders for the next two years [Utah Policy].
- Mitt Romney will meet again with Donald Trump on Tuesday about the Secretary of State job [Utah Policy]. LaVarr Webb says Romney would be wise not to take a post in a Trump cabinet [Utah Policy]. Trump’s flirtation with Romney is not sitting well with some of the loyalists within his inner circle [Washington Post]. Trump is also considering David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty to leaking classified information and lying about it to investigators, for the Secretary of State post [Politico].
- Donald Trump taps Georgia Congressman Tom Price, a fierce opponent of Obamacare, to lead Health and Human Services [Politico].
- Congressional Republicans are considering a “lightning strike” on Obamacare early next year to jump-start the Donald Trump era [Bloomberg].
- Congressional Democrats send a second letter to Rep. Jason Chaffetz demanding that he launch an investigation into Donald Trump‘s innumerable conflicts of interest with his business empire [Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Tribune].
- Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox calls Donald Trump‘s claim that millions of illegal votes were cast during the presidential election is “dangerous” [Deseret News, Tribune].
- Utahns hit the polls in record numbers this year as nearly 58% of eligible voters cast ballots [Tribune]. Democrat Suzanne Harrison asks for a recount in her 3-vote loss to Republican LaVar Christensen [Deseret News].
- Changes to Utah’s tax policy have cost public education more than $1 billion a year according to a new report [Utah Policy, Tribune].
- Utah’s abortion rate ticked up slightly in 2015, reversing a four-year decline [Deseret News].
On this day in history:
- 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrated a hand-cranked phonograph that recorded sound on grooved metal cylinders.
- 1929 – Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd radioed that he’d made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.
- 1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing “all necessary means,” including military force, against Iraq if it didn’t withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991.
