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Morning must reads for Wednesday, May 31, 2017

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Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 151st day of the year. There are 214 days remaining in 2017. Today is the 132nd day of Donald Trump’s presidency.

What the NAFTA negotiation could mean for Utah’s economy. Jim Winder to become Chief of Police in Moab. What does “covfefe” mean?

The clock:

  • 17 days until the Utah Republican 3rd District nominating convention at Timpview High School (6/17/2017).

  • 17 days until the Utah Democratic State Convention at Weber State University (6/17/2017)

  • 76 days until the 2017 Utah primary election (8/15/2017)

  • 160 days until the 2017 election (11/7/2017)

  • 236 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)

  • 281 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)

  • 524 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)

  • 1,252 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today’s political TL; DR –

  • President Donald Trump‘s plan to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could have a big impact on international trade in Utah. We break down the implications with Derek Miller from the World Trade Center Utah [Utah Policy]. Here’s a podcast of our conversation with Miller [Utah Policy].
  • Christine Cooke, the education policy analyst for the Sutherland Institute, offers a defense of the school choice movement [Utah Policy].
  • A state audit shows the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control did not report more than $200 million in revenue to the state during a six-month period in 2016 because of the difficulty in implementing a new computer system [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
  • Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder has been offered the vacant Chief of Police job in Moab [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
  • The primary ballots in August for the special election to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz potentially could have many more names than Utahns are used to seeing [Deseret News].
  • President Donald Trump has been giving world leaders his cell phone number, urging them to call him directly. That could be a problem because it breaks longstanding protocol procedures and raises questions about the security of Trump’s communications with other world leaders [Associated Press].
  • A truck bomb exploded near the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday killing at least 80 people [New York Times].
  • Fired national security adviser Michael Flynn has agreed to provide some documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election [Politico].
  • The investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election is making it difficult for President Trump to recruit talent to the White House as many potential employees are wary of taking a position with the administration [New York Times].
  • Staff shake-up? President Donald Trump is considering two potential replacements for Reince Priebus as chief of staff: current economic adviser Gary Cohn and Republican lobbyist David Urban [Axios].
  • Covfefe? President Donald Trump sent out an unfinished tweet with the misspelled word early Wednesday morning that said “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” The word “covfefe” immediately became the #1 trending topic on Twitter. Trump later tweeted out “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’???” [The Hill]. And, of course, “covfefe” was also made into an entry on Urban Dictionary [Urban Dictionary].
  • President Donald Trump wants the U.S. Senate to kill the filibuster to help speed up passage of health care and tax reform legislation [Wall Street Journal].
  • Rep. Mike Noel says residents in Torrey should not complain about the impacts mining may have on the town’s water system because they take federal grant money that’s funded by mineral leases [Tribune].
  • Rep. Mia Love wants the Trump administration to delay deporting Haitian refugees for another year because the county has not yet recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake [Tribune].
  • Utah school districts are struggling to provide incentives to attract and retain teachers [Deseret News].
  • The ACLU says Utah needs to establish statewide rules for independent oversight for local jails [Associated Press].
  • The U.S. successfully tests an anti-missile defense system designed to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile [Wall Street Journal].

On this day in history:

  • 1790 – President George Washington signed a bill creating the first U.S. copyright law.
  • 1859 – The Big Ben clock tower in London went into operation.
  • 1913 – The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect.
  • 1977 – The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was completed after three years of work.
  • 2005 – Former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as “Deep Throat,” the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal.