Count My Vote compromise advances. Lawmakers introduce a record number of bills. House advances their alternative to Medicaid expansion.
Countdown:
- 9 days until the final day of the 2014 Legislature
- 10 days until the Utah candidate filing period opens
- 14 days until the Utah Democratic Party caucus meetings
- 16 days until the Utah candidate filing period closes
- 16 days until the Utah GOP caucus meetings
- 53 days until the Utah State Republican and Democratic conventions
- 112 days until Utah’s 2014 primary elections
- 245 days to the 2014 midterm elections
- 608 days to the 2015 elections
- 673 days until the 2016 Iowa Caucuses
- 979 days to the 2016 presidential election
Today’s Utah political news highlights:
- A House committee sends the compromise between lawmakers and Count My Vote to the full House [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune, Daily Herald].
- Lawmakers have introduced the most bills ever during the 2014 session, but are on pace to tie the record for fewest passed [Tribune].
- The House advances their plan for dealing with Medicaid expansion [Deseret News, Tribune].
- Lawmakers propose creating a fund to help hotels that may lose business from the planned convention center hotel in Salt Lake City [Tribune].
- A House committee gives new life to a measure creating partisan elections for the State School Board [Deseret News,
- House lawmakers pass a resolution allowing Stericycle to move their medical waste incinerator from North Salt Lake to Tooele [Tribune, Standard-Examiner].
- The Utah Senate kills a measure to raise the smoking age from 19 to 21 [Tribune, Deseret News].
- The House passes a bill allowing the use of a cannabis extract for medical purposes [Tribune,
- A tight budget may mean a move to add more beds to the prison in Gunnison is not feasible [Tribune].
- The House approves a measure providing for a jury trial when a court moves to terminate parental rights [Tribune, Deseret News].
- A new report says the move by Utah to re-open the state’s national parks during the government shutdown paid big dividends [Deseret News, Tribune].
- Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker says the new electronic parking meters are not to blame for falling parking revenue [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- The Constitution went into effect as the first Congress met in New York in 1789.
- Vermont became the 14th state in 1791.
- Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office as the 16th president in 1861.
- Woodrow Wilson was sworn in as the 28th president of the United States in 1913.
- Republican Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1917.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president, delivering the famous line “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” in 1933.
- Actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in 1952.
- President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation about the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging the situation had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal in 1987.
- President Bill Clinton banned spending federal money on human cloning in 1997.
