Good Monday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 116th day of the year. There are 250 days left in 2016.
Ted Cruz and John Kasich team up to stop Donald Trump. Most Utahns support suing the federal government over public lands. Gov. Gary Herbert will face Jonathan Johnson in a primary.
The clock:
- 64 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 84 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
- 91 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 197 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 273 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 318 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Monday:
- It’s a plot twist worthy of the WWE. Ted Cruz and John Kasich are teaming up in a last ditch effort to stop Donald Trump from winning enough delegates to secure the GOP nomination on the first ballot [CNN, The Hill, Washington Post]. Trump calls the effort an “act of desperation” [Politico].
- Shots fired! Charles Koch says Hillary Clinton might make a better president than any of the Republican contenders [Washington Post].
- Clinton’s campaign is beginning to consider possible running mates [New York Times].
- President Barack Obama announced plans Monday morning to quadruple the number of U.S. Special Forces in Syria [Washington Post].
- A new poll shows nearly 60% of Utahns support suing the federal government to take control of public lands within the state [Utah Policy].
- As expected, Gov. Gary Herbert is going to a primary election against challenger Jonathan Johnson after Johnson prevailed in the delegate vote at Saturday’s GOP convention [Utah Policy, Tribune, Deseret News].
- Utah Democrats pick Mike Weinholtz as their gubernatorial nominee, even after Weinholtz admitted to convention delegates his wife was under investigation for possession of marijuana. U.S. Senate candidates Jonathan Swinton and Misty Snow are headed to a primary [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- The vote count in the Senate District 23 Republican contest between Sen. Todd Weiler and challenger Heather Gardner is generating some controversy [Standard Examiner].
- Sen. Orrin Hatch says he’s not ruling out another run for the Senate in 2018 [Fox 13].
- The Days of ’47 parade once again rejects Mormons Building Bridges from marching in the annual event [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1507 – German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller published a book in which he named the newly discovered continent of the New World “America” after the man he mistakenly thought had discovered it, Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
- 1862 – Union forces captured New Orleans during the Civil War.
- 1939 – Batman was introduced in DC Comics’ Detective Comics No. 27.
- 1945 – Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.
- 1967 – The first law legalizing abortion in the United States was signed into law by Colorado Gov. John Love.
