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Daily Briefing

Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 320th day of the year. There are 45 days remaining in 2017.

The clock:

• 47 days until candidates can declare their intent to gather signatures for the 2018 election (1/2/2018)
• 67 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)
• 112 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)
• 113 days until the filing period for candidates in the 2018 election opens (3/9/2018)
• 119 days until the filing deadline for the 2018 elections (3/15/2018)
• 124 days until the statewide GOP caucus meetings (3/20/2018)
• 156 days until the GOP State Convention (4/21/2018)
• 222 days until the 2018 Primary Election (6/26/2018)
• 355 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
• 1,083 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today's political TL; DR -

• Former Governor Mike Leavitt briefs members of the Utah House GOP on the new Count My Vote initiative, saying there won't be any negotiations with the legislature to try and head off ballot drive [Utah Policy].
  
  
• Legislators rejected a proposal that would have required lobbyists to undergo anti-harassment training [Associated Press, Tribune].
  
  
• Lawmakers want an audit of the downtown homeless shelter and other service providers after reports of "appalling" conditions [Deseret News].
  
  
• Lawmakers will consider legislation next year to crack down on the number of days Utahns are allowed to set off fireworks during the summer [Tribune].
  
  
• Rep. Norm Thurston is proposing legislation to protect First Amendment rights from being hindered by local governments [Deseret News].
  
  
• Former Lt. Gov. Greg Bell is named the new chairman of the Utah Transit Authority board [Deseret News].
  
  
• The Utah Senate confirms Paige Petersen to the Utah Supreme Court [Deseret News].
  
  
• The Salt Lake City Council pulls the plug on funding for the defunct Wingpointe golf course [Tribune].

National headlines:

• House Republicans are set to pass their tax reform measure on Thursday [The Hill].
  
  
• The GOP tax reform bill in the Senate may be in trouble as Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson says he will not vote for the package [Associated Press].
  
  
• Congress must pass a spending bill to fund the government by the end of the year. Conservatives are worried the spending bill won't get much scrutiny as lawmakers will be anxious to get home for the holidays [Politico].
  
  
• Two more women have come forward to describe advances by Roy Moore toward them when they were teenagers working at an Alabama mall. One woman says after refusing to give Moore her home phone number, Moore called her using the main number of the high school she was attending [Washington Post].
  
  
• A woman says Moore groped her while she was a client in his law office in 1991 [AL.com].
  
  
• Republicans in Congress are considering a drastic plan to head off Roy Moore's flailing candidacy. They may ask Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed when Jeff Sessions became Attorney General, to step down, which would trigger another special election [Politico].
  
  
• Republican strategists are worried that members of Congress aren't taking the prospect of a Democratic wave in 2018 seriously, which could lead to big losses for the party next year [Politico].
  
  
• Six Democrats in Congress are calling for impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump [Politico].
  
  
• Former Democratic VP nominee Tim Kaine says the party should ditch the superdelegates in future nominating contests [Politico].
  
  
• Time Inc. is in talks to sell itself to the Meredith Corporation. The deal is backed by the Koch brothers who are offering $500 million to make the deal go through [New York Times].
  
  
• Nobody really knows what the heck is going on in Zimbabwe, but it's becoming clear that Robert Mugabe's grip on power has ended [CNN].

On this day in history:

• 1793 - Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
  
  
• 1859 - John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
  
  
• 1875 - Brigham Young University is founded.
  
  
• 1907 - Oklahoma became the 46th state admitted to the union.
  
  
• 1909 - President William Howard Taft holds a summit with Mexico's president Porfirio Diaz. Both men narrowly escape assassination during the meeting.
  
  
• 1968 - U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

Today At Utah Policy

GOP lawmakers briefed on new Count My Vote initiative By Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor Former GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt, a leader in the Count My Vote citizen initiative petition, met privately with the Utah Republican House caucus Wednesday afternoon to brief them on the new CMV effort and answer questions....

State cyber team closes vulnerability found by Utah man By Marty Carpenter Last week, a Utah man with at least some basic coding skills contacted a local media outlet claiming he had discovered a security vulnerability in the state website used to manage accounts for the Utah Dept. of Transportation (UDOT) Express Passes....

Weekly survey: Should Roy Moore drop out? By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor There are growing calls for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to drop out of December's special election amid mounting allegations he had inappropriate sexual contact with teenaged girls. Do you think he should remain the race? If he wins, should the U.S. Senate expel him a...

10 Things I Need More Than A Self-Driving Car By Jared Whitley Everywhere you turn it's artificial intelligence this and self-driving cars that. If you'd told me five years ago I'd live to see self-driving cars, I would have said, "Sure, maybe in 2049!" But nope. That is our impending reality. From a public policy standpoint, we talk ab...

Policy News

Seasonal price decreases in the housing sector nudge Wasatch Front Consumer Price Index slightly downwards The Zions Bank Wasatch Front Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased 0.4 percent from September to October on a non-seasonally adjusted basis....

41st annual Women & Business Conference and ATHENA Awards Luncheon The Salt Lake Chamber, Utah's largest and longest-standing statewide business association, honored Dr. Deneece Huftalin as the 2017 ATHENA Leadership Award recipient at this year's Women & Business Conference and ATHENA Awards Luncheon at the Little America Hotel....

Wise Words

Future

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." Abraham Lincoln

Lighter Side

Generics

"According to a new poll, a generic Democratic opponent would beat President Trump by 10 points in 2020 election. Yeah, the generics do great. It's the name brands [shows photo of Hillary] who have trouble." Seth Meyers