Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 146th day of the year. There are 220 days left in 2016.
Protests outside of a Donald Trump rally in New Mexico turn violent. FreedomWorks endorses Jonathan Johnson. Bernie Sanders supporters in Utah want to punish superdelegates who don’t back their candidate.
The clock:
- 34 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 54 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
- 61 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 167 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 243 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 288 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Wednesday:
- Donald Trump wins the Washington primary and has nearly amassed enough delegates to officially win the GOP nomination [Bloomberg, Politico].
- A protest outside a Donald Trump rally in Albuquerque turns violent [Politico, CNN].
- A third-party challenge? Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson is polling at 10-percent against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump [FiveThirtyEight].
- National Democrats are considering dumping party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz before the convention in July [The Hill].
- FreedomWorks, a national Tea Party group, throws their support behind Jonathan Johnson‘s bid to oust Gov. Gary Herbert [Tribune, Deseret News].
- Utah Bernie Sanders supporters want to punish superdelegates who do not vote for the Vermont Senator, who overwhelmingly won the March caucuses. However, their proposal may run afoul of national Democratic Party rules [Utah Policy].
- Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski announces a plan to close all smoking rooms at Salt Lake City International Airport by the end of the year [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- The Utah Transit Authority backtracks and announces they will not close some of their meetings to the public [Tribune, Deseret News].
- The Salt Lake City Council allocates $65,000 for the upkeep of the now closed Wingpointe golf course while officials explore how to reopen the facility [Deseret News].
- Bill Cosby has been ordered to stand trial on sexual assault charges [CNN].
On this day in history:
- 1787 – The first regular session of the Constitutional Convention, which drew up the Constitution of the United States, convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
- 1925 – John Scopes was arrested for teaching the theory of evolution in a Tennessee high school. Scopes was convicted and fined $100; the conviction was later overturned.
- 1961 – President John F. Kennedy told a joint session of Congress of the plan to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
- 1977 – The first installment of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” film series was released in theaters.
