Herbert threatens to veto Lockhart’s education plan if it costs too much. Payday lender crackdown sails through the legislature. Autism treatment bill one step closer to approval.
Countdown:
- 6 days until the final day of the 2014 Legislature
- 7 days until the Utah candidate filing period opens
- 11 days until the Utah Democratic Party caucus meetings
- 13 days until the Utah candidate filing period closes
- 13 days until the Utah GOP caucus meetings
- 49 days until the Utah State Republican and Democratic conventions
- 109 days until Utah’s 2014 primary elections
- 242 days to the 2014 midterm elections
- 605 days to the 2015 elections
- 670 days until the 2016 Iowa Caucuses
- 976 days to the 2016 presidential election
Today’s Utah political news highlights:
- Gov. Gary Herbert threatens to veto Speaker Becky Lockhart’s education technology initiative if it costs more than $30 million [Tribune, Deseret News, Daily Herald].
- A measure to tighten restrictions on payday lenders is headed to the Governor [Tribune].
- Insurers would have to cover autism treatments under a bill headed to the House for debate [Tribune].
- House Minority Leader Jennifer Seelig announces she won’t run for another term [Deseret News, Tribune].
- The House passes two bills stemming from the John Swallow scandal [Tribune, Deseret News].
- A bill allowing state regulators to adopt air quality standards more strict than the feds dies in a Senate committee [Deseret News].
- A House committee advances a bill exempting homeschoolers from state regulation [Tribune].
- A Senate committee approves a bill allowing the use of cannabis oil for treating seizures [Deseret News, Standard-Examiner].
- The Senate sends a bill banning panhandling along highways to the governor’s desk [Tribune].
- Sen. Mike Lee speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference [Tribune].
- The Utah Senate gives thumbs up to a bill banning the use of drones for spying [Tribune].
- February storms helped boost Utah’s snowpack [Deseret News].
On this day in history:
- Daniel Webster gave a three-hour speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850.
- Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone in 1876.
- Adolf Hitler ordered German troops into the Rhineland in 1936.
- State troopers broke up a march by civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama in 1965.
- John Bolton was nominated by President George W. Bush to be U.S. ambassador to the UN in 2005.
