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Situational awareness - October 7, 2019

Good Monday morning from Salt Lake City

Thanks for reading Utah's must-read daily political news rundown. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to sign up for our emails.

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

• Stewart defends Trump but not Romney.
• McAdams says he supports impeachment inquiry.
• There's another whistleblower on Trump's interactions with Ukraine.

Trivia contest

It was a close race, but subscriber Ron Fox was the first to identify Sarah Elizabeth Anderson and Eurithe K. LaBarthe as the first women elected to the Utah House of Representatives. Neither woman was able to serve more than one term. Representative Anderson died shortly after her term and Representative LaBarthe moved out of state after helping to establish the Utah State Historical Society.

Fox's correct answer beat several others by just a few seconds, which means he gets to pose the next stumper. Check back on Friday for his question.

TICK TOCK

Days to the 2019 Utah municipal elections: 29 (11/5/2019)

Days to the first day of the 2020 Utah Legislature: 112 (1/27/2020)

Days to the Utah presidential primaries: 148 (3/3/2020)

Days to the 2020 Utah primary elections: 267 (6/23/2020)

Days to the 2020 election: 393 (11/3/2020)

Today At Utah Policy

OTHER UTAH HEADLINES

Deseret News

• Pignanelli & Webb: Will Trump be impeached and tossed from office?
• Op-ed: Wait, who's in charge of education in Utah?
• Op-ed: Private DNA should stay out of the government's hands
• Task force weighs how to best connect youths to treatment
• Rep. Ben McAdams finally said the 'I' word
• Overall crime down in Utah, despite some disturbing trends
• Process launched to update teacher discipline rules
• How some Utah families are breaking the cycle of poverty

Salt Lake Tribune

• Luke Garrott: A note to the next mayor about e-scooters
• James 'Cid' Seidelman: How Utah has avoided the loss of rural hospitals
• Utah teachers may face training about avoiding sexual misconduct before they can get or renew a license
• Park managers balk at plan to let ORVs in Utah national parks
• UTA settles long-running feud with small-business neighbor
• Utah architect creates tiny - really tiny - houses he hopes will address gaps in homeless services
• Mitt Romney ratchets up his response to Trump accusations going from 'troubling' to 'appalling'
• 'I am not on the fence': Ben McAdams throws his support behind Trump impeachment inquiry
• President Trump calls Mitt Romney a 'pompous ass' for criticizing him, firing a warning shot to all Republicans
• While Jon Huntsman dealt with the Kremlin, Mary Kaye Huntsman practiced Instagram diplomacy
• Utah Rep. Chris Stewart defends Trump but not Sen. Mitt Romney

Other

• Congressman McAdams supports impeachment inquiry to get 'all the facts on the table' (Daily Herald)
• Northern Utah leads state, most of the nation in jobs growth (Standard-Examiner)
• Davis commission boosts lobbyist contract by $20K after disagreement over need (Standard-Examiner)

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NATIONAL HEADLINES

Ukraine scandal

The lawyer for the first intelligence whistleblower says he is representing a second whistleblower who has first-hand information about President Donald Trump's actions toward Ukraine [NYT].

Attorney General William Barr is sparking discord in several foreign capitals by going outside of the normal channels as he seeks help in investigating the origins of a counterintelligence investigation that began during the 2016 presidential campaign [WSJ].

In 1992, campaign advisers for President George H.W. Bush suggested contacting the Russians or British to seek information on Bill Clinton's trip to Moscow while he was a student. "We absolutely could not do that," wrote James Baker, Bush's chief of staff in a memo [NYT].

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Impeachment

President Trump is telling friends and allies he is worried about the stain impeachment will leave on his legacy [Axios].

Vice President Mike Pence will begin a national tour of congressional districts of Democrats who support impeaching President Trump. Trump won all of the districts during the 2016 election [Politico].

President Trump is blaming Energy Secretary Rick Perry for the phone call to the Ukrainian president that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats [NBC News].

A former Trump Organization official predicted that President Trump would either resign or make a deal during impeachment to "save face" [Newsweek].

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A significant shift in U.S. foreign policy

The White House said Sunday night U.S. troops in northern Syria would move aside in advance of a planned Turkish military offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces [CNN].

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SCOTUS

The new term for the Supreme Court begins on Monday. The court could issue several blockbuster rulings that could upend the 2020 election [WaPo].

The high court has agreed to hear a case involving a Louisiana law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital [AP].

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North Korea

Officials said Sunday that North Korea had no desire to engage in "sickening negotiations" with the U.S. anymore [NYT].

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BUSINESS HEADLINES

• Of all the success stories that began in Utah, none is larger than this one (Deseret News)
• Northern Utah leads state, most of the nation in jobs growth (Standard-Examiner)
• Panel examines interaction of outdoors industry, Cache Valley gov't (Herald Journal)
• Utah's Ogden-Clearfield metro area ranks No. 3 in the nation for job growth (Salt Lake Tribune)

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Policy News

CYBER 24 episode 53: An entire country gets hacked
Sometimes you read something and just can't believe it. Sometimes the numbers involved in cyber breaches are just overwhelming. And then there's this one.

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More National Headlines

• Stephen Cohen: Why Did American And Foreign Intelligence Agencies Set Out To Destroy Donald Trump? (RealClearPolitics)
• Van Jones: Impeachment is a lose-lose for Democrats (Washington Examiner)
• Everybody Is Tipper Gore Now (National Review)
• The Education of a Cynic (National Review)
• Women, Minorities Fueling Increase in Concealed Handgun Permits (Townhall)
• Boris Johnson to sabotage EU if forced to delay Brexit (Telegraph)
• Sudden-death playoffs (Washington Examiner)
• Deroy Murdock: Media often ignore Trump's outreach to racial minorities (FOX News)
• Lessons of the Bowery homeless-slay horror (New York Post)
• The Dow Was Getting Whacked Until It Wasn't. Here's Why. (Barron's)
• Low inflation? Nothing to worry about, Fed's George says (Reuters)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1765 - The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.

1949 - Less than five months after Britain, the United States, and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany) was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone.

1963 - President John F. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.

1996 - Fox News Channel made its debut.

1998 - Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being beaten in Laramie, Wyoming. He died 5 days later.

2001 - The United States and Britain launched airstrikes against Taliban positions and Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan; bin Laden praised God for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a videotaped statement aired on the Arabic satellite station Al-Jazeera.

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