Good Friday morning from Salt Lake City. There are 13 days left in 2015.
Democratic presidential candidates set to debate Saturday. Biskupski names Litvack to her senior staff. A campaign finance complaint has been filed against Utah’s newest state senator.
The clock:
- 38 days to the opening day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – (1/25/2016)
- 45 days to the 2016 Iowa Caucus – (2/1/2016)
- 53 days to the 2016 New Hampshire Primary – (2/9/2016)
- 83 days to the final day of the 2016 Utah Legislature – (3/10/2016)
- 95 days to the Utah Republican and Democratic caucus meetings (3/22/2016)
- 127 days to the Utah Republican and Democratic State Conventions (4/23/2016)
- 193 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 326 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
Friday’s top-10 headlines:
- Democratic presidential candidates are set to debate on Saturday night in New Hampshire [Politico, New York Times].
- Bernie Sanders‘ campaign has been accused of improperly accessing voter information gathered by Hillary Clinton’s campaign operation [Washington Post].
- President Barack Obama is set to use executive action to tighten gun laws after the holiday season [Roll Call].
- Congress reaches an accord on a spending bill to keep the government running [New York Times].
- Jackie Biskupski taps former House Minority Leader David Litvack as her deputy chief of staff [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- Incoming Utah State Senator Lincoln Fillmore has been accused of violating campaign finance law by accepting a donation from a company that manages public charter schools [Tribune].
- Sen. Mike Lee is blasting a move to tuck a cybersecurity measure inside the omnibus spending bill [2 News].
- A renewal for the Land and Water Conservation Fund has found its way inside the massive omnibus spending bill set for approval on Friday. Previously, Rep. Rob Bishop tried to force some changes to the fund [Tribune].
- A judge has put the brakes on the sale of Miller Motorsports Park because Tooele County sold the property below fair market value [2 News, ABC 4, Deseret News].
- Utah is outpacing the rest of the country with job growth, but wages are not keeping up [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1787 – New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
- 1865 – The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States.
- 1957 – The first nuclear facility in the United States to generate electricity, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, went online.
- 1972 – Following the collapse of peace talks with North Vietnam, President Richard Nixon announced the beginning of Operation Linebacker II, a bombing campaign against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong.
