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Local News Highlights: Daily Briefing

Morning must reads for Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 151st day of the year. There are 214 days remaining in 2017. Today is the 132nd day of Donald Trump's presidency.

What the NAFTA negotiation could mean for Utah's economy. Jim Winder to become Chief of Police in Moab. What does "covfefe" mean?

The clock:

• 17 days until the Utah Republican 3rd District nominating convention at Timpview High School 96/17/2017).

• 17 days until the Utah Democratic State Convention at Weber State University (6/17/2017)

• 76 days until the 2017 Utah primary election (8/15/2017)

• 160 days until the 2017 election (11/7/2017)

• 236 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)

• 281 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)

• 524 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)

• 1,252 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today's political TL; DR -

• President Donald Trump's plan to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could have a big impact on international trade in Utah. We break down the implications with Derek Miller from the World Trade Center Utah [Utah Policy]. Here's a podcast of our conversation with Miller [Utah Policy].
  
  
• Christine Cooke, the education policy analyst for the Sutherland Institute, offers a defense of the school choice movement [Utah Policy].
  
  
• A state audit shows the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control did not report more than $200 million in revenue to the state during a six-month period in 2016 because of the difficulty in implementing a new computer system [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
  
  
• Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder has been offered the vacant Chief of Police job in Moab [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
  
  
• The primary ballots in August for the special election to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz potentially could have many more names than Utahns are used to seeing [Deseret News].
  
  
• President Donald Trump has been giving world leaders his cell phone number, urging them to call him directly. That could be a problem because it breaks longstanding protocol procedures and raises questions about the security of Trump's communications with other world leaders [Associated Press].
  
  
• A truck bomb exploded near the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday killing at least 80 people [New York Times].
  
  
• Fired national security adviser Michael Flynn has agreed to provide some documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election [Politico].
  
  
• The investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election is making it difficult for President Trump to recruit talent to the White House as many potential employees are wary of taking a position with the administration [New York Times].
  
  
• Staff shake-up? President Donald Trump is considering two potential replacements for Reince Priebus as chief of staff: current economic adviser Gary Cohn and Republican lobbyist David Urban [Axios].
  
  
• Covfefe? President Donald Trump sent out an unfinished tweet with the misspelled word early Wednesday morning that said "Despite the constant negative press covfefe." The word "covfefe" immediately became the #1 trending topic on Twitter. Trump later tweeted out "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe'???" [The Hill]. And, of course, "covfefe" was also made into an entry on Urban Dictionary [Urban Dictionary].
  
  
• President Donald Trump wants the U.S. Senate to kill the filibuster to help speed up passage of health care and tax reform legislation [Wall Street Journal].
  
  
• Rep. Mike Noel says residents in Torrey should not complain about the impacts mining may have on the town's water system because they take federal grant money that's funded by mineral leases [Tribune].
  
  
• Rep. Mia Love wants the Trump administration to delay deporting Haitian refugees for another year because the county has not yet recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake [Tribune].
  
  
• Utah school districts are struggling to provide incentives to attract and retain teachers [Deseret News].
  
  
• The ACLU says Utah needs to establish statewide rules for independent oversight for local jails [Associated Press].
  
  
• The U.S. successfully tests an anti-missile defense system designed to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile [Wall Street Journal].

On this day in history:

• 1790 - President George Washington signed a bill creating the first U.S. copyright law.
  
  
• 1859 - The Big Ben clock tower in London went into operation.
  
  
• 1913 - The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect.
  
  
• 1977 - The trans-Alaska oil pipeline was completed after three years of work.
  
  
• 2005 - Former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward as "Deep Throat," the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Today At Utah Policy

What the NAFTA renegotiation means for Utah's economy (with video) By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor Derek Miller, President and CEO of the World Trade Center Utah joins Managing Editor Bryan Schott to discuss what the renegotiation of NAFTA means for international trade in Utah....

Podcast: A conversation with Derek Miller, President and CEO, World Trade Center Utah By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor Managing Editor Bryan Schott speaks with Derek Miller, President and CEO of the World Trade Center Utah....

In defense of education choice By Christine Cooke The world – and Utah – isn’t the same as it once was. Education shouldn’t be, either....

3rd Congressional District special election candidate tracker [Updated] By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor There are 22 candidates in the race to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz in Congress. Who's going through their party conventions? Who's gathering signatures? Check out our complete list of candidates....

Weekly survey: Who will win the vote at the GOP nominating convention? By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor On June 17, Utah Republican delegates in Utah's 3rd Congressional District will forward one name out of 13 candidates to the ballot for November's special election to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Which candidate do you think is most likely to advance? Vote now in our weekly ...

Policy News

Consumer confidence in Utah's economy remains high in May The Zions Bank Utah Consumer Attitude Index remained statistically flat in May, dipping just 0.8 points from 112.6 in April to 111.9 in May....

Wise Words

Still True Today
"We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison

Lighter Side

Drone Investigation
"The FAA is investigating why a drone appeared in the sky during a San Diego Padres game. Authorities have already ruled out the possibility that someone actually wanted to watch a Padres game." Conan O'Brien