Friday's Talking Points - May 13, 2016

46 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
66 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
73 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
179 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
255 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
300 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)

Donald Trump meets with Paul Ryan in Washington. Ryan says he was encouraged by the meeting [Politico].

Sen. Orrin Hatch says he is backing Trump while Sen. Mike Lee is still keeping his distance because Trump “scares him to death” [Deseret News, Trump].

The Obama administration will instruct public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity [Washington Post, Associated Press].

A federal judge ruled against a key provision of Obamacare, saying the Obama administration does not have the power to fund cost reductions to insurers without an appropriation from Congress. Republicans in the U.S. House initially brought the lawsuit [The Hill, Washington Post].

Turns out Donald Trump‘s former butler, Anthony Senecal, is incredibly racist. He once published racially tinged posts on Facebook saying President Obama should be killed. He’s now under investigation by the Secret Service [Mother Jones].

Here’s some footage of Trump flip-flopping on many issues during the presidential race [ABC News].

The race between Misty Snow and Jonathan Swinton for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination is still a toss-up as a majority of voters remain undecided [Utah Policy].

Gov. Gary Herbert is the 5th “most popular” governor in the nation according to a series of favorability polls ranking the chief executives of each state. Herbert scored a 64% approval rating [Morning Consult].

The Utah ACLU files an open-records request fo the body camera footage from the officer-involved shooting of 17-year-old Abdi Mohamed in downtown Salt Lake City in February of this year [Deseret News].

Salt Lake County DA Sim Gill says he will refuse to prosecute cases where body camera footage is made public before trial [2 News].

1607 – Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, was founded in Virginia.
1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico.
1963 – President John F. Kennedy sent military riot-control units to Birmingham, Alabama to help quell racial unrest.
1981 – Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
1985 – Philadelphia police dropped a bomb onto the headquarters of the radical group MOVE; 11 people died in the resulting fire.

Friday’s Talking Points – May 13, 2016