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Morning Must Reads for Wednesday, December 21, 2016

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Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 356th day of the year. There are ten days remaining in 2016.

Gov. Gary Herbert is wary of a possible Bears Ears monument declaration in the final days of the Obama administration. President Obama permanently bans oil drilling in large parts of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. A non-profit with ties to Donald Trump’s family offered access to the new president for a $1 million donation.

The clock:

  • 30 days until Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President (1/20/2017)
  • 33 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (1/23/2017)
  • 78 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (3/9/2017)
  • 321 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
  • 685 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)

Ten talking points for Wednesday:

  1. Waiting for Bears Ears. Gov. Gary Herbert says if President Barack Obama creates a new Bears Ears monument in the waning days of his presidency, it would be an abuse of the Antiquities Act [Utah Policy]. Here’s the video of our interview with Herbert [Utah Policy].
  2. Countdown rolls on. The first election under the SB54 compromise is our #5 Utah political news story from 2016 [Utah Policy].
  3. Not a drill. President Barack Obama permanently bans oil drilling in large portions of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. The announcement makes much of the eastern seaboard off-limits to oil exploration. Administration officials say the moratorium falls under a 1953 law that will make it impossible for President-elect Donald Trump to rescind the ban once he takes office [Washington Post].
  4. Selling access? Donald Trump‘s family is distancing itself from a newly formed non-profit organization that offered access to the President-elect the day after he takes office for a donation of $1 million. The Trump Organization says the fundraiser had not been approved by the Trump family, but one of Trump’s sons is listed on the newly-formed charity’s board of directors [New York Times].
  5. Nearly 3 million. Now that all of the vote totals have been certified, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in the popular vote by just under 2.9 million votes [The Hill].
  6. The team of billionaires. Donald Trump‘s Cabinet is shaping up to be the richest ever with an estimated aggregate net worth of $11 billion [CBS News].
  7. Homeless defection. Salt Lake City Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall says she does not support one of the four sites chosen for a new homeless center because it is too close to a neighborhood of single-family homes [Tribune].
  8. Whoops. A child pornography case reportedly had to be abandoned because Attorney General Sean Reyes tainted the investigation by taking unauthorized pictures at the scene of an arrest with his cell phone [Tribune].
  9. Population boom. New census numbers show Utah is the fastest-growing state in the nation [Deseret News, Tribune].
  10. Federal funding. An audit shows Utah spent more than $4 billion in federal funds last year [Deseret News].

On this day in history:

  • 1620 – The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Mass., following a 63-day voyage from England aboard the Mayflower.
  • 1864 – Union Gen. William T. Sherman completed his Civil War “march to the sea” across the South and arrived in Savannah, Ga.
  • 1988 – Pan Am Flight 103 exploded and crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone aboard and 11 people on the ground for a total death toll of 270.