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Morning must reads for Wednesday, February 8, 2017

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Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 39th day of the year. There are 326 days remaining in 2017.

The NRA may scuttle a bill to allow Utahns to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams did much better at the polls than other Democrats in Salt Lake County. Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he discussed Bears Ears with President Donald Trump.

The clock:

  • 20 days until President Trump addresses a joint session of Congress (2/28/2017)
  • 29 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature (3/9/2017)
  • 272 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
  • 637 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
  • 1364 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Ten talking points for Wednesday:

  1. A Republican Senator on Utah’s Capitol Hill threw a lobbyist for the NRA out of their office on Tuesday afternoon. The reason? The NRA is threatening to blow up a bill allowing Utahns to carry concealed weapons without a permit over an issue very few gun owners car about [Utah Policy].
  2. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams did better at the polls than quite a few of his Democratic colleagues. We broke down the numbers and found McAdams won 10 more legislative districts in 2016 than the Democrats captured [Utah Policy].
  3. Rep. Mike Noel wants to create an independent director of the school trust lands who would be required to act in the best financial interest of Utah’s school children [Utah Policy].
  4. Utah Democrats name the members of a task force to plot their way out of the political wilderness [Utah Policy].
  5. Rep. Jason Chaffetz says the first thing he talked about during his meeting with President Donald Trump is the Bears Ears National Monument [Deseret News, Tribune]. Chaffetz has also signed on as the co-sponsor of a bill to abolish the U.S. Department of Education [Daily Herald].
  6. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams says lawmakers need to pony up to fund the treatment part of justice reform or just scrap the program completely [Tribune, Deseret News].
  7. House Speaker Greg Hughes isn’t happy that the Outdoor Retailers Association is trying to dictate public policy to Utah officials on public lands with their threat to take the profitable show elsewhere [Deseret News].
  8. A federal appeals court hears arguments over the decision to temporarily block President Trump’s executive action on immigration. The court could rule as soon as Wednesday [Washington Post].
  9. Senate Republicans drop the hammer on Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the debate over Sen. Jeff Sessions‘ nomination to be Attorney General. Warren attempted to read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King urging the Senate to reject Sessions’ bid to become a federal judge. Senate Republicans said that Warren was impugning Session’s character, and she has been sidelined from the rest of the debate [Wall Street Journal].
  10. A new poll finds Democratic voters across the U.S. want their party’s elected officials to stop Donald Trump no matter the cost [Politico].

On this day in history:

  • 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after being implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
  • 1692 – A doctor in Massachusetts Bay Colony said two village girls were possibly bewitched, a charge that set off the Salem witch trials.
  • 1999 – The Senate heard closing arguments in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
  • 2002 – The  Olympic Winter Games opened in Salt Lake City.