Archive

What You Need to Know About Utah Politics Today – February 12, 2014

··

Reyes asking lawmakers for more money for Amendment 3 ruling. Lockhart’s education technology plan will help build wireless capacity in schools. Battle over “Count My Vote” heating up on the Hill.

 

Countdown:

  • 29 days until the final day of the 2014 Legislature
  • 132 days until Utah’s 2014 primary elections
  • 265 days to the 2014 midterm elections
  • 628 days to the 2015 elections
  • 693 days until the 2016 Iowa Caucuses
  • 999 days to the 2016 presidential election

Today’s Utah political news highlights:

  • Attorney General Sean Reyes is asking lawmakers for more money to appeal the Amendment 3 ruling in federal court [Standard-Examiner].
  • 81 Utah Republican lawmakers sign on to a court brief defending Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage [Tribune].
  • The state is readying an appeal to a ruling that struck down parts of Utah’s ban on polygamy [Standard-Examiner].
  • House Speaker Becky Lockhart’s push for more technology in education will include money to increase the wireless capacity of schools [Tribune, Deseret News].
  • Legislation spawned by the House investigation into John Swallow starts to trickle out in the Legislature [Utah Policy].
  • The Utah House passes a bill offering grants, paid for by private businesses, for preschool education [Utah Policy, Tribune].
  • A Senate committee approves a bill allowing the state to adopt higher air-quality standards than the federal government [Tribune].
  • The fight over how political parties nominate their candidates is heating up on the Hill [Utah Policy].
  • Advocates call for Utah to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour [Deseret News, Tribune].
  • A Senate committee kills a measure making failing to wear a seat belt a primary offense [Tribune].
  • The City of Orem has been forced to freeze its checking account following a case of check fraud [Daily Herald].
  • The Utah Department of Health says they’ve found an elevated rate of cancer surrounding a medical waste incinerator [Tribune, Deseret News].

On this day in history:

  • English colonists founded Savannah, Georgia in 1733.
  • Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in 1809.
  • The Utah Territory granted women the right to vote in 1870. That was later revoked in 1887.
  • The U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in 1999.