Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City. There are 49 days left in 2015.
Utahns favor an income tax hike to fund schools. Democrats pick former Rep. Lynn Hemingway to replace Justin Miller. A Utah judge orders a foster child removed from the care of a lesbian couple.
The clock:
- 74 days to the opening day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – (1/25/2016)
- 81 days to the 2016 Iowa Caucus – (2/1/2016)
- 89 days to the 2016 New Hampshire Primary (tentative) – (2/9/2016)
- 120 days to the final day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – (3/10/2016)
- 131 days to the Utah Republican and Democratic caucus meetings (3/22/2016)
- 163 days to the Utah Republican and Democratic State Conventions (4/23/2016)
- 230 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 362 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
Thursday’s top-10 headlines:
- More than 2/3 of Utahns say they favor a slight income tax hike to provide more money for schools [Utah Policy].
- Utah Democrats tap former Rep. Lynn Hemingway to replace disgraced Rep. Justin Miller in HD40 [Utah Policy, Deseret News, KUTV, Fox 13, ABC 4, KUER].
- A Carbon County judge orders a foster child be taken away from a lesbian couple because he feels the infant would be better off in the care of heterosexual parents [Washington Post, Tribune, Deseret News, KUTV].
- The rematch between Rep. Mia Love and Democrat Doug Owens is already in the national spotlight [Deseret News].
- Jackie Biskupski, the presumptive winner of the Salt Lake City mayoral race, says Utah’s capital city should not bear the burden of trying to deal with homelessness alone [Deseret News].
- How much progress is the state making to meet Gov. Gary Herbert‘s goal of having 2/3 of Utahns with a college degree by 2020? [KUTV]
- An environmental organization launches a TV ad campaign that targets Rep. Rob Bishop‘s lands reform legislation [Deseret News].
- Sandy officials table a proposed controversial townhome development on Utah Transit Authority land [Tribune].
- The Utah National Parks Council for the Boy Scouts of America says they will have to lay off employees because donations have dropped [Deseret News].
- Donald Trump says New Jersey Governor and fellow presidential candidate Chris Christie could have a place on his ticket if Trump wins the GOP nomination [The Hill].
On this day in history:
- 1927 – Joseph Stalin consolidated power in the Soviet Union following the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Communist Party.
- 1936 – President Franklin Roosevelt pressed the Presidential Gold Key to open the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge officially.
- 1954 – After processing more than 12 million immigrants, the immigration station at Ellis Island closed its doors for the last time.
- 1982 – Yuri Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.
- 1999 – President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping measure knocking down Depression-era barriers and allowing banks, investment firms and insurance companies to sell each other’s products.
