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Daily Briefing

Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 312th day of the year. There are 53 days remaining in 2017.

The clock:

• 75 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)
• 120 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)
• 363 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
• 1,091 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today's political TL; DR -

• Provo Mayor John Curtis sprinted to an easy victory over Democrat Kathie Allen in the 3rd CD special election Tuesday night [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
  
  
• Voter turnout in Salt Lake County hit 37% in Tuesday's election while Utah County saw 30% turnout [Deseret News].
  
  
• Michelle Kaufusi is poised to become Provo's first female mayor. Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan is out after 24 years. Three other incumbent mayors in Salt Lake County were ousted on Tuesday night [Deseret News, Tribune].
  
  
• Blanding voters again reject a proposal to allow beer and liquor sales in that town [Tribune].
  
  
• Tuesday nights results show voters across Utah were on track to approve more than $600 million in school bonds [Deseret News, Tribune].
  
  
• A security flaw on UDOT's Express Pass website may have exposed the personal information of more than 21,000 Utahns [Deseret News].

National headlines:

• Democrats had a very good night at the ballot box across the country on Tuesday night:
  
  
  • Democrats swept the statewide races in Virginia. Ralph Northam easily won the gubernatorial race over Republican Ed Gillespie in the broadest win for a Democrat in a Virginia governor's race in decades [New York Times].
    
    
  • Democrats erase a 32-seat Republican advantage in the Viginia House of Delegates, picking up at least 14 seats on Tuesday night. It was the most significant swing in that body for Democrats since 1899 [Richmond Times-Dispatch].
    
    
  • It turns out that irony has a sense of humor. Virginia Republican Bob Marshall, who authored that state's transgender bathroom bill, lost his seat in the Virginia legislature to Democrat Danica Roem, a transgender woman [ABC News].
    
    
  • Democrat Phil Murphy handily beat Republican Kim Guadagno to succeed Chris Christie as governor of New Jersey [Washington Post].
    
    
  • Voters in Maine approved a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid [Portland Press Herald].
    
    
• Exit polls from Tuesday's election showed a massive backlash against President Donald Trump. Majorities in Virginia and New Jersey disapproved of Trump's job performance, and vast numbers of voters said Trump was the reason they were casting ballots [Politico].
  
  
• During his visit to South Korea, President Donald Trump tried to make a surprise visit to the DMZ but had to turn back because of weather [New York Times].
  
  
• Trump then traveled to China where he is expected to press Chinese President Xi Jinping to help put pressure on North Korea [New York Times].
  
  
• President Trump is trying to get Congressional Democrats to support the GOP tax proposal. On Tuesday he phoned into a meeting with Senate Democrats to tell them that his own accountant said he would be a "big loser" under the current plan [Washington Post].
  
  
• The Senate version of tax reform could delay a proposed corporate tax cut until 2019 to make the numbers work [Washington Post].
  
  
• Sign-ups for Obamacare are surging. The number of people signing up for coverage through HealthCare.gov during the first week of open enrollment is about double the number from last year [Politico].
  
  
• The gunman who killed 26 people at a Texas church on Sunday once escaped from a psychiatric hospital while he was in the Air Force [New York Times].
  
  
• Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross claims he's worth more than 2 billion dollars. After some digging, that figure appears to be a lie [Forbes].
  
  
• Twitter is now doubling the size of posts for users on the social media platform from 140 to 280 characters [New York Times].

On this day in history:

• 1889 - Montana is admitted as the 41st state.
  
  
• 1923 - Beer Hall Putsch. In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
  
  
• 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration.
  
  
• 1966 - Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.
  
  
• 1994 - Republicans pick up 54 seats in the U.S. House and eight in the U.S. Senate, securing massive majorities in both houses of Congress.

Today At Utah Policy

Curtis easily cruises past Allen in CD3 special election By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor The Democratic wave that hit other states on Tuesday night missed Utah as Republican John Curtis easily defeated Democrat Kathie Allen in the special election in Utah's 3rd CD. ...

Weekly survey: 'Fake news' on social media By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor We're learning more about how Russian "troll farms" used social media to spread misinformation during the 2016 election. Would you support or oppose a law requiring social media companies to remove "fake news" posts or political content paid for by a foreign government?...

CYBER24 Episode 6 - Utah Fusion Center fights cybercrime across borders, nabbed Nigerian prince scammer By Marty Carpenter Do you remember back when you had your first email account and you received an unsolicited email from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince?...

Will Texas massacre finally get military to improve its criminal reporting system? By A.C. Thompson and T. Christian Miller, ProPublica Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had an urgent question Monday about Devin Patrick Kelley, the former U.S. Air Force airman who is accused of killing 26 people worshipping at a church service yesterday: How was it that Kelley, convicted of domestic violence and discharged for bad cond...

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