Ten Things You Need to Know for Tuesday – July 21, 2015

Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City. 

Another PAC steps up to spend big for Jackie Biskupski. Trump surges to the top of the national polls. Becker backs away from a tax hike tied to the prison relocation.

The clock:

•  21 days to the Utah municipal primary elections – (8/11/2015)
• 105 days to the 2015 election – (11/3/2015)
• 181 days to the 2016 Iowa Caucus (tentative) – (1/18/2016)
• 188 days to the opening day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – (1/25/2016)
• 189 days to the 2016 New Hampshire Primary – (1/26/2016)
• 233 days to the final day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – (3/10/2016)
• 343 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
• 476 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)

Tuesday's top-10 headlines:

1. A PAC with long-standing ties to Jackie Biskupski is paying for some polling for her campaign [Utah Policy].
2. An Iowa newspaper calls for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race [Des Moines Register].
3. Trump continues his surge in the polls, tying Jeb Bush for the national lead among Republicans [New York Times].
4. Republican John Kasich will announce his bid for the White House on Tuesday [Politico].
5. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is backing away from a proposed sales tax hike tied to the prison relocation in Salt Lake City [Tribune].
6. A loophole in Utah's campaign finance rules will allow Gov. Gary Herbert and other politicians to donate money to embattled San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman's defense [Tribune].
7. Lyman's lawyers argue the judge in the case should recuse himself because of his ties to an environmental group [ABC 4].
8. Utah will not appeal a ruling allowing a lesbian couple to be named on a child's birth certificate as the legal parents [Tribune, Deseret News].
9. Salt Lake County is planning to build more outdoor recreation facilities [Tribune].
10. The DABC announces raises for store employees [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune, ABC 4].

On this day in history:

• 1861 – The first major battle of the Civil War occurred at Bull Run Creek, Va.
• 1925 – The so-called Monkey Trial, which pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in Tennessee ended with John Thomas Scopes convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in violation of state law.
• 1969 – Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin lifted off from the moon in the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle and docked with the command module Columbia piloted by Michael Collins.
• 2007 – "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment in the series, sold more than 8.3 million copies on its first day in bookstores.