Congress reaches a deal on a spending bill. Torture report details C.I.A. actions during the Bush Administration. Utah has a big budget surplus.
Countdown:
- Days until the opening day of the 2015 Utah Legislature – 47
- Days to the final day of the 2015 Utah Legislature – 92
- Days to the 2015 Utah municipal primary elections – 244
- Days to the 2015 election – 328
- Days to the 2016 Iowa Caucus (tentative) – 404
- Days until the 2016 presidential election – 699
Wednesday's top-10 headlines:
- Congress reaches a spending deal to avoid a government shutdown [Washington Post].
- A new report gives gruesome details of C.I.A. torture during the Bush Administration [New Yorker].
- BYU graduate Jay Bybee, who wrote the controversial memo which was used to greenlight that torture program, did so because of bad information [Tribune].
- Utah has a budget surplus of more than $600 million but lawmakers still want some tax cuts [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- Legislative Democrats nearly derail a plan to hire an attorney to move forward with a plan to sue the federal government over public lands in the state but ultimately relent [Utah Policy].
- An independent commission recommends a pay hike of nearly 37% for Gov. Herbert [Tribune].
- Incoming House speaker Greg Hughes names Greg Hartley as the new Chief Deputy of the House [Utah Policy].
- Newly elected Rep. Mia Love sends a letter to the Prison Relocation Commission urging them to keep the new prison from being located in Saratoga Springs [Deseret News].
- Utah Democratic Party chair Peter Corroon says he hopes Doug Owens runs again in 2016 [Utah Policy].
- The Salt Lake County Council approves a $1.1 billion budget that includes no tax hikes [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1817 – Mississippi was admitted to the union as the 20th state.
- 1948 – The U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
- 1964 – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1980 – Rep. John W. Jenrette resigned to avoid being expelled from the House following his conviction on charges related to the FBI's Abscam investigation.
