Archive

Morning must reads for Monday, February 6, 2017

··

Good Monday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 37th day of the year. There are 328 days remaining in 2017.

Lawmakers make a move against a proposed income tax hike to fund schools. The John Swallow trial finally gets underway this week. President Trump says we may not see his plan for replacing ObamaCare until next year.

The clock:

  • 22 days until President Trump addresses a joint session of Congress (2/28/2017)
  • 31 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (3/9/2017)
  • 274 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
  • 639 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
  • 1366 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Ten talking points for Monday:

  1. Utah lawmakers are considering legislation to make it harder for backers of a proposed income tax hike to better fund schools to get their proposal on the ballot [Utah Policy].
  2. Sen. Daniel Thatcher says he doesn’t have the votes to pass his hate crimes proposal this year, but he’s not ready to give up trying [Utah Policy].
  3. The Utah GOP drops their lawsuit against the SB54 compromise that allows candidates to gather signatures to get on the primary ballot [Utah Policy, Tribune, Deseret News].
  4. Our “Political Insiders” are divided along party lines over President Donald Trump‘s nomination of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court [Utah Policy].
  5. The public corruption trial of former Attorney General John Swallow gets underway this week [Deseret News, Tribune].
  6. President Donald Trump says it could take “some time into next year” until his plan to replace ObamaCare is ready for prime time [The Hill].
  7. President Donald Trump‘s team readies to defend his executive order on immigration in federal court after a federal judge temporarily blocked it [Wall Street Journal]. Nearly 100 Silicon Valley tech companies have banded together to denounce Trump’s immigration order [Washington Post]. Lawyers for Washington State and Minnesota argued with the court that restoring the immigration ban would “unleash chaos” again [Associated Press]. Most expect the legal battle over Trump’s immigration ban to reach all the way to the Supreme Court [Bloomberg].
  8. Rep. Jason Chaffetz is among those Republicans in Congress who were critical of President Barack Obama‘s use of executive orders, but have remained mum over President Donald Trump‘s use [Roll Call].
  9. Congressional Republicans break with President Donald Trump over his assertion that the United States is morally equivalent with Vladimir Putin‘s Russia [Politico]. In that same interview, Trump walks back his claim that 3 to 5 million illegal ballots were cast in the 2016 election [Washington Post].
  10. Demand is outstripping supply in the Wasatch Front housing market, which resulted in a record year last year, and could lead to a housing shortage [Deseret News].

On this day in history:

  • 1865 – Gen. Robert E. Lee was appointed commander in chief of the armies of the Confederacy.
  • 1933 – The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which moved the start of presidential, vice-presidential and congressional terms from March to January, was declared in effect.
  • 1952 – Britain’s King George VI died at age 56, and his daughter was proclaimed Queen Elizabeth II.