Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 131st day of the year. There are 235 days left in 2016.
Democrats vote for their presidential nominee in West Virginia today. Trump is working with GOP leaders to raise big money for November. Did Facebook suppress conservative news stories?
The clock:
- 49 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 69 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
- 76 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 182 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 258 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 303 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Tuesday:
- Democrats vote in the West Virginia primary Tuesday. Bernie Sanders could end up with a big win, but that won’t do much to change the overall trajectory of the race, with Hillary Clinton expected to win the nomination [FiveThirtyEight]. Republicans vote in Nebraska and West Virginia, but it doesn’t matter since Donald Trump is the last man standing in that race.
- Donald Trump is working with GOP leaders to come up with a plan to raise money for November’s general election to blunt the expected cash advantage Hillary Clinton should have [Politico, New York Times].
- North Carolina and the Justice Department filed competing lawsuits over that state’s transgender “bathroom bill.” North Carolina claims the feds have re-written existing civil rights laws without Congress while the Justice Department says North Carolina is discriminating against transgender people [Washington Post].
- A former Facebook employee claims the social network routinely kept conservative news stories and outlets from appearing in the “trending news” section [Gizmodo].
- Davis County prosecutor Troy Rawlings wants a grand jury to hear evidence he has gathered against Sens. Harry Reid and Mike Lee as part of his investigation into former Attorney General John Swallow [Tribune].
- Gov. Gary Herbert may put a measure to eliminate SAGE testing on the agenda for this month’s special legislative session [Deseret News].
- Critics say it is medically impossible for doctors to comply with Utah’s new “fetal pain” abortion law [Tribune].
- The Utah Department of Health is holding public hearings on Utah’s limited Medicaid expansion approved by lawmakers during the 2016 session [Deseret News, Tribune].
- More than 350 new laws go into effect today in Utah [Associated Press].
- Water rates will be going up for most Salt Lake County residents under a proposed increase from the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District [Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1869 – A golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.
- 1924 – J. Edgar Hoover was appointed the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a job he held until his death in 1972.
- 1933 – The Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.
- 1984 – A federal judge in Utah found the U.S. government negligent in above ground Nevada nuclear tests from 1951 to 1962 that exposed downwind residents to radiation.
