Countdown: There are 71 days to the 2013 municipal elections, 155 days until the start of the 2014 Legislature, 430 days until the 2014 midterm elections and 867 days until the 2016 Iowa Caucuses.
- Salt Lake County Councilman David Wilde drops out of the Murray mayoral race due to fears his cancer would keep him from completing a term in office if elected [Tribune].
- Rep. Chris Stewart says he will not support efforts to shut down the federal government in order to de-fund Obamacare [KUTV].
- Stewart and a BYU economist are caught up in the fight over clean-air laws [Tribune].
- Top of Utah business leaders give Rep. Rob Bishop an earful on immigration reform [Deseret News].
- Bishop says his efforts to broker a deal on federal lands between recreational use and development is moving forward in a positive manner [Standard-Examiner].
- Gov. Gary Herbert travels to Colorado to promote tourism and business in the Beehive State [Tribune].
- The Utah Taxpayers Association is wary of the growing talk in favor of hiking taxes [Utah Policy].
- Rep. Brian Greene wants to make school board elections a partisan affair to help boost turnout [Daily Herald].
- Salt Lake City voters will get to sound off on whether corporations should have the same rights as people and if regulating money in politics is limiting free speech [Tribune].
- Here’s how Utah higher education officials were able to head off a drop in enrollment due to changing age requirements for Mormon missionaries [Deseret News].
- Drivers clocked more than 9 billion miles on the Utah’s interstate freeways last year [Tribune].
- A new scientific paper says the wild horse population is growing so fast in the West that the federal government will soon be unable to manage their numbers [Tribune].
- Provo is reaping the benefits of rising sales tax revenue, which is up $600,000 over last year [Daily Herald].
- Some Utah sportsmen groups are upset by a decision opening the Book Cliffs to energy exploration [Tribune].
- West Valley City taps Lee Russo, who led the Covington, Kentucky police department for 5 years, as their new police chief [Tribune].
