Did lawmakers put a carrot in a bill to entice Salt Lake City to accept the new prison? Utah's schools got a funding boost in 2015, but it's still not back to pre-recession levels. Becker has visited the White House 40 times.
Countdown:
- Days to the 2015 Utah municipal primary elections – 148
- Days to the 2015 election – 232
- Days to the 2016 Iowa Caucus (tentative) – 308
- Days to the opening day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – 315
- Days to the 2016 Utah presidential primary – 470
- Days until the 2016 presidential election – 603
Monday's top-10 headlines:
- The nomination of Loretta Lynch as Attorney General is on hold because lawmakers are fighting over a human trafficking bill that contains a controversial anti-abortion measure [New York Times].
- There's a provision in a bill setting a deadline for the Prison Relocation Commission to pick a site for the new facility that seems like it's specifically designed to entice Salt Lake City into accepting the new prison [Tribune].
- Utah schools got some budget love from the legislature during the 2015 session, but funding has not rebounded to where it was prior to the recession [Tribune, Deseret News].
- Bob Bernick runs down the lessons learned from the 2015 session [Utah Policy].
- Gov. Gary Herbert still has a sales job to do with many members of the legislature on Medicaid expansion [Deseret News].
- Legislators couldn't figure out a compromise on school board elections, meaning the issue could be left up to a judge to decide [Tribune].
- Lawmakers were finally able to reach a compromise on raising the gas tax, but they almost didn't get there [Tribune].
- Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are the frontrunners for the 2016 presidential nomination amongst Utahns [Utah Policy].
- Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker has visited the White House 40 times so far during the Obama administration [Tribune].
- Former Congressman Jim Matheson sits down for a Q&A [Deseret News].
On this day in history:
- 1802 – Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
- 1935 – Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles.
- 1968 – About 300 Vietnamese villagers died at the hands of U.S. troops in what came to be known as the My Lai massacre.
- 2003 – Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that American troops would be "greeted as liberators" by the Iraqi people.
