Countdown:
- 39 days until the start of the 2014 Legislature
- 187 days until Utah’s 2014 primary elections
- 320 days to the 2014 midterm elections
- 684 days to the 2015 elections
- 748 days until the 2016 Iowa Caucuses
- 1055 days to the 2016 presidential election
Today’s Utah news highlights:
- Phone records obtained by state investigators link former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to an alleged bribery probe that has swept up his former “fixer” Tim Lawson [Tribune].
- The House panel investigating former Attorney General John Swallow plan to make public their findings starting Thursday [Tribune].
- Lawmakers say there’s little chance of a tax hike during the next legislative session, but legislation addressing air quality will likely be a top priority [Tribune].
- Utah Democrats are scrambling to find a replacement for retiring Representative Jim Matheson [Daily Herald].
- The 2014 Utah Transit Authority budget expands service hours without a fare increase [Tribune].
- Rep. Joel Briscoe proposes allowing local governments to hike sales tax to pay for mass transit [Tribune].
- A study says Utah needs to build 12 more state liquor stores along the Wasatch Front based on the Legislature’s own formula for calculating the number of stores based on population [Tribune].
- Proposed changes to the way the NSA operates will likely not affect the agency’s data center in Bluffdale [Tribune].
- Ads opposing a proposed statewide anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation are set to air in Utah starting Sunday [Deseret News].
On this day in history:
- Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1732
- Gen. George Washington led his army to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in 1777
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was first published in 1843
- Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the U.S. in 1974
- Lawrence Walsh was appointed independent council in investigate the Iran-Contra affair in 1986
- President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998
- President George W. Bush ordered an emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry in 2008