Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 133rd day of the year. There are 233 days left in 2016.
Trump begins backing away from some of his campaign promises. Romney slams Trump for not releasing his tax returns. A new poll shows Democrat Mike Weinholtz will have trouble winning the race for governor in November.
The clock:
- 47 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 67 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
- 74 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 180 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 256 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 301 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Thursday:
- Donald Trump is starting to backpedal on some of his campaign promises. He says his proposed ban on Muslims from entering the U.S. was just a “suggestion” rather than a firm policy proposal [Politico].
- Trump says he will not release his tax returns until he is done being audited by the IRS. Mitt Romney says he thinks the presumptive GOP nominee is hiding a “bombshell” in his returns, and the refusal to release them disqualifies Trump from the presidency [Fortune]. Hillary Clinton pounced on Trump’s refusal to release the returns, saying she plans to make them an issue during the general election race [New York Times].
- Trump is set to meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan in Washington on Thursday [The Hill, Bloomberg].
- A top aide to Trump claims his economic policies would generate a budget surplus of as much as $7 trillion within a decade of him taking office [Politico].
- A new poll shows both of the Republican candidates for governor, Gary Herbert or Jonathan Johnson, would easily defeat Democrat Michael Weinholtz in November [Utah Policy].
- A breakdown of polling numbers shows GOP gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Johnson is having trouble attracting GOP voters [Utah Policy].
- President Barack Obama signs Sen. Orrin Hatch‘s bill to protect intellectual property [Tribune, Deseret News].
- Gov. Gary Herbert joins the chorus of politicians criticizing the Utah Transit Authority’s decision to close some of its meetings to the public [Tribune].
- A legislative audit says the Utah Office of Rehabilitation has poor quality control and is having trouble keeping track of cases [Tribune, Deseret News].
- Homelessness in Utah is on the rise, with families making up most of that increase [Deseret News, Tribune].
On this day in history:
- 1932 – The body of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in Hopewell, N.J.
- 1949 – The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin blockade.
- 2002 – Former President Jimmy Carter began a visit to Cuba. He was the first president, in or out of office, to visit the island since communists took over in 1959.
