Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 117th day of the year. There are 248 days remaining in 2017.
Utahns give Gov. Herbert high marks. President Trump puts a bullseye on Bears Ears. Trump’s tax plan would benefit wealthy Americans.
The clock:
- 23 days until the Utah Republican State Convention (5/20/2017)
- 51 days until the Utah Democratic State Convention at Weber State University (6/17/2017)
- 194 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)
- 270 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)
- 315 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)
- 558 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
- 1,286 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)
Today’s political TL; DR –
- NEW POLL: Utahns continue to give Gov. Gary Herbert high favorable ratings [Utah Policy].
- If Rep. Jason Chaffetz resigns from Congress early, he would be the first House member in Utah history to leave his seat before his term was up [Utah Policy].
- President Donald Trump orders a review of national monument designations under the Antiquities Act from the last 20 years, which includes Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante [Deseret News, Tribune]. Utah elected officials and other stakeholders react to Trump’s executive order [Deseret News].
- Jon Huntsman Sr. says if the University of Utah had not reinstated Dr. Mary Beckerle as head of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, he would have withdrawn a $250 million donation to the school [Deseret News].
- Former Utah Transit Authority board member Sheldon Killpack, who resigned after a trip to Switzerland, is now tied to a plan by a Swiss company to build a rail car manufacturing plant on UTA owned land in Clearfield [Tribune, Deseret News].
- President Donald Trump unveils his tax reform proposal, which would provide massive tax cuts for wealthy Americans. However, Trump did not detail how to pay for the tax cuts without adding significantly to the deficit [Washington Post].
- President Trump says he won’t immediately pull the U.S. out of the NAFTA trade agreement but plans to renegotiate the treaty with Canada and Mexico [Bloomberg].
- A renewed effort to repeal Obamacare may be DOA when it gets to the Senate. Only two Republicans need to vote “no” to kill the measure, and more than a handful are skeptical of the new plan [Politico].
- President Trump signs an executive order to review federal education policies [New York Times].
- Republicans in Congress introduce a stop-gap spending bill to put off a government shutdown for a week so that they can continue negotiating on a bigger spending measure [Politico].
- Rep. Jason Chaffetz will miss 3-4 weeks in Congress to get surgery on his foot [Politico].
- President Trump is “absolutely” looking at a plan to break up the 9th Circut Court of Appeals. Judges there have blocked two of his executive orders so far [Washington Examiner].
- House Democrats plan to force a floor fight on a bill that would force President Donald Trump to disclose his tax information and visitor logs from the White House [Washington Post].
- The Trump administration bussed all 100 U.S. Senators to the White House for an urgent classified briefing on North Korea [Wall Street Journal]. Meanwhile, a North Korean government official says the Hermit Kindgom will “never stop” their nuclear program [CNN].
On this day in history:
- 1521 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives of the Philippine Islands during his attempt to be the first to circumnavigate the world. His co-leader, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, completed the voyage in 1522.
- 1937 – The first Social Security payment was made in the United States.
- 1982 – John W. Hinckley Jr. went on trial in Washington, D.C., in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan. (He was acquitted by reason of insanity.)
- 2006 – Construction began on a 1,776-foot building on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
