Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 132nd day of the year. There are 234 days left in 2016.
Bernie Sanders wins West Virginia but doesn’t make much of a dent in Hillary Clinton’s lead. Gary Herbert has a big lead on Jonathan Johnson according to our latest poll. Herbert takes SAGE testing of the agenda for this month’s special session.
The clock:
- 48 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 68 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
- 75 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 181 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 257 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 302 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Wednesday:
- Bernie Sanders wins the West Virginia primary [Politico]. Hillary Clinton triumphs in the Nebraska primary [Politico]. Donald Trump, who is the only GOP candidate left, is closing in on the number of delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination [The Hill].
- Not a good look! Donald Trump‘s campaign selects white supremacist William Johnson as an official delegate from California. Trump’s campaign blames the selection on a “database error.” Johnson says he will resign as a delegate [Mother Jones].
- Vice President Joe Biden says he’s confident Hillary Clinton will be the eventual Democratic nominee and that she will win the presidency in November [ABC News].
- Data guru Nate Silver goes on a Twitter rampage about why general-election polls are basically meaningless at this point in the presidential campaign [Politico].
- A new poll shows Gov. Gary Herbert with a big lead over GOP challenger Jonathan Johnson ahead of the June primary election [Utah Policy].
- Rep. Jason Chaffetz demands that the IRS explain how they were able to hire 700 new employees after the head of the organization asked lawmakers for a billion-dollar budget increase in February [Washington Post].
- Gov. Gary Herbert backs off his proposal to put an end to SAGE testing on the agenda for this month’s special legislative session [Deseret News]. House Speaker Greg Hughes says Herbert is playing politics with his recent opposition to Common Core and SAGE testing [Tribune].
- The number of Utah parents who are opting their kids out of SAGE testing is on the rise [Deseret News].
- The Utah Transit Authority says its committee meetings will no longer be open to the public [Tribune].
- The number of registered voters in Utah has jumped by about 45,000, which is a larger than normal increase for a presidential election year [KUER].
On this day in history:
- 1858 -Minnesota became the 32nd state.
- 1894 – Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Illinois went on strike. The job action spread and crippled railroad service nationwide before the federal government intervened to end the strike in July.
- 1910 – Glacier National Park in Montana was created by an act of Congress.
- 1997 – World chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by a computer, IBM’s Deep Blue, in a six-game match in New York.
