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Situational awareness - June 22, 2020

Good Monday morning from Salt Lake City

TICK TOCK

8 days to the 2020 Utah primary elections (6/30/2020)

134 Days to the 2020 election (11/3/2020)

212 days to inauguration day (01/20/2021)

217 days to the start of the 2021 Utah Legislature (1/25/2021)

Here are the stories you need to pay attention to this morning:

• Spencer Cox leads a tight three-way race for the GOP nomination for governor.
• Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa falls flat.
• Coronavirus cases rising in the U.S.

TRIVIA WINNER

More than a few of our subscribers knew George Dern was the Utah Governor who served as Secretary of War. His campaign slogan was "We want a Dern good Governor for Utah, and we don't mean Mabey" when he ran against the incumbent Charles Mabey. His grandson is actor Bruce Dern, and he was the great-grandfather of actress Laura Dern.

Congratulations to Paul Metcalf, who was selected as our winner at random from the correct answers. For his reward, he gets to ask this Friday's trivia question.

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Today At Utah Policy

OTHER UTAH HEADLINES

Deseret News

• Op-ed: We have police for a reason - and defunding them won't help
• Pignanelli & Webb: From Black Lives Matter to the Supreme Court ruling, why the silence from Utah politicos?
• Utah jobless rate drops to 8.5% in May, second best in nation
• Utah lawmakers eliminate funding to help first responders
• Utah lawmakers, employees test for COVID-19 antibodies
• Utah 'way ahead of the curve' in dealing with budget impact of COVID-19, Trump economic adviser says
• Hundreds hold 'Blue Rally' to thank and celebrate police officers
• Surviving the pandemic: How a hard-hit Salt Lake neighborhood has banded together
• Trailblazing former Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini has died
• 2020 marks first partisan elections for State School Board
• Lawmakers funneling millions in federal help to Utah businesses via new programming
• Is it OK to travel to national parks now?

Salt Lake Tribune

• Utah lawmakers free up millions in COVID-19 relief for renters, businesses and tourism efforts
• Utah's unemployment rate for May is 8.5%, well below the national mark of 13.3%
• Statue of Brigham Young covered in paint at BYU with the word 'racist' sprayed at the base
• Locals worry about massive 'glamping' resort proposed near Zion National Park
• Reports of child abuse in Utah are down. Experts say it's because schools closed early with COVID-19.
• 1st Congressional District candidates dig into their own pockets for half their campaign funds
• Rep. Ben McAdams is winning 4th District fundraising race so far
• Utah GOP registrations soar amid push for Dems, unaffiliated voters to switch parties
• Longtime Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini dies at age 82
• No, Mitt Romney is not leading the resistance

Other

• 'Confusing' advertising may have Utah House District 61 voters seeing double (Daily Herald)
• Fast-growing West Haven creates city manager post to aid in running locale (Standard-Examiner)
• Cache not among 10 counties going 'Green' despite council's request; BRHD sees 76 new cases Friday (Logan Herald Journal)
• Education budget gets 2% increase in special session (Logan Herald Journal)

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NATIONAL HEADLINES

Underwhelming

President Donald Trump's comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma fizzled on Saturday as only 6,200 people showed up. The president was reportedly shocked at the number of empty seats in the arena, leading Republicans to worry that his re-election campaign may be in trouble [NYT].

During his speech, Trump said he asked officials to slow down testing for the coronavirus in order to keep the number of cases low. The White House later tried to claim Trump's admission was a joke [WaPo].

Much of the blame for the debacle is falling on the shoulders of campaign manager Brad Parscale. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are reportedly "pissed" at Parscale, who claimed more than a million people requested tickets for the event [CNN].

Teenagers on the social media app TikTok are claiming they were responsible for the disappointing turnout by requesting thousands of tickets [NBC News].

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Saturday night massacre

There was a tense standoff between Attorney General William Barr and Geoffrey Berman, the chief federal prosecutor in New York. Barr initially said Berman was stepping down. Berman claimed he did not offer his resignation, but then agreed to leave the post after Barr said he asked President Trump to fire Berman [Bloomberg].

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Coronavirus

Nearly half of U.S. states are reporting a rise in the number of coronavirus cases [CNN].

The World Health Organization says Sunday saw the largest single-day increase in the number of cases worldwide [AP].

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Troubling

The number of home mortgage delinquencies in the U.S. hits the highest level since 2011 [Bloomberg].

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SCOTUS

The Supreme Court is set to deliver its first major ruling on abortion rights in the Trump era this week [The Hill].

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BUSINESS HEADLINES

• Utah lawmakers free up millions in COVID-19 relief for renters, businesses and tourism efforts (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah's unemployment rate for May is 8.5%, well below the national mark of 13.3% (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utah jobless rate drops to 8.5% in May, second best in nation (Deseret News)
• Lawmakers funneling millions in federal help to Utah businesses via new programming (Deseret News)
• GOED's TIF program expected to create record job numbers, in spite of pandemic (Standard-Examiner)

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Policy News

Treasurer Damschen encourages Utahns to participate in first-ever unclaimed property webathon, claim their lost money
The Utah Unclaimed Property Division of the Office of State Treasurer is hosting its first-ever webathon on Monday, June 22 from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. to raise awareness of unclaimed property and encourage Utahns to find and claim their lost money online.

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CYBER24 Episode 85: China hacking away at COVID vaccine research
In this episode of the CYBER24 podcast, presented by VLCM, we take a closer look nation-state hackers trying to get access to COVID vaccine research in the U.S. Because the work is being done at universities and private companies, the federal government can't provide the level of security many say we need.

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More National Headlines

• Nikole Hannah-Jones Endorses Riots And Toppling Statues As A Product Of The 1619 Project (Federalist)
• '1619 Project' writer pushes conspiracy theory that the government uses fireworks to disrupt black communities (Post Millennial)
• 5 Ways Christians are Getting Swept into a Secular Worldview in This Cultural Moment (Natasha Crain)
• Charlotte Clymer gives reasons Vladimir Lenin statue in Seattle hasn't been vandalized (Twitchy)
• Iconoclasm as a Prelude to Woke Horrors? (New Discourses)
• The White-Guilt Cult (National Review)
• What My Neighborhood Needs: Fewer Virtue Signaling Lawn Signs (American Thinker)
• The photo NPR used of 'right-wing extremists' ramming protesters actually resulted in the protesters getting arrested, not the driver (Twitchy)
• Escape to the Country: Why City Living Is Losing Its Appeal During the Pandemic (Wall Street Journal)
• WATCH: John Oliver mocked Trump in 2017 for suggesting Washington and Jefferson statues would fall (Post Millennial)
• 'History erased': Family of woman who portrayed Aunt Jemima against renaming of syrup brand (Washington Examiner)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1870 - The United States Department of Justice is created by Congress.

1898 - The US Fifth Army Corps lands in Cuba during the Spanish-American war.

1940 - France fell to Nazi Germany in World War II.

1941 - Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

1944 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.

1969 - The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

1973 - President Richard Nixon and Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pledge to try to avoid nuclear war.

1990 - Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.

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