Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 168th day of the year. There are 198 days left in 2016.
Is Utah a battleground state in November’s election? Democrats filibuster for gun control measures. Utah’s public lands lawsuit may not be ready until 2017.
The clock:
- 12 days to the 2016 Utah primary election – (6/28/2016)
- 32 days to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland (7/18/2016)
- 38 days to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (7/25/2016)
- 145 days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
- 221 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
- 266 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)
Ten talking points for Thursday:
- Woah! Utah could be a battleground state in November because of Donald Trump’s poor polling numbers here [Washington Post].
- Democrats take over the floor of the U.S. Senate in a nearly fifteen-hour filibuster demanding a vote on measures denying gun sales to individuals on the terrorist watch list and expanded background checks for gun sales. They ended the marathon session after Republicans agreed to vote on the proposals. [Washington Post, CNN]. Donald Trump becomes an unlikely Democratic ally in the gun control battle, saying he’s going to meet with the NRA about the issue [The Hill, Bloomberg, Politico].
- Another national poll gives Hillary Clinton a significant lead over Donald Trump [Politico]. A separate poll shows the Republican Party’s favorability rating is at the lowest point since they started tracking in 2009 [Bloomberg].
- A document that looks like the Democratic Party’s opposition research file on Donald Trump has leaked online after Russian hackers apparently breached the party’s computer system [Gawker]. Trump bizarrely accuses the Democrats of leaking the file themselves as a way of distracting attention from Hillary Clinton [Politico].
- Donald Trump claims he was “right” about President Barack Obama being a terrorist sympathizer because of a published report from a conservative news site that claims the administration “supports” the Islamic State [Washington Post].
- Marco Rubio looks like he might be changing his mind about not running for another term in the Senate [Washington Post].
- Utah lawmakers are not yet ready to launch a lawsuit challenging federal control of public lands within the state, but that legal battle could start in 2017 [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
- Another survey shows Utahns are still split on whether the Bears Ears area should be designated as a new national monument [Tribune].
- A staffer for Rep. Rob Bishop says groups pushing to designate Bears Ears as a national monument are not dealing honestly and their efforts could derail Bishop’s Public Lands Initiative proposal [Deseret News].
- The LDS Church offers to spend $3 million on a new 10,000 seat stadium at the Fairpark if lawmakers kick in another $10 million for the proposed state-owned facility [Utah Policy, Tribune, Deseret News].
On this day in history:
- 1897 – The United State signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
- 1909 – President William Howard Taft recommended the adoption of a constitutional amendment giving the federal government the right to levy and collect income tax.
- 1963 – The Soviet Union put the first woman into space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
- 2011 – Rep. Anthony Weiner announced he would resign after admitting he sent sexually suggestive photos on social networks. He left office the following week.
