Trouble viewing this email? Read it online

Utah's Daily Policy Resource, Brought to you by Utah Policy

---

Situational awareness - May 24, 2018

Good Thursday morning from Salt Lake City.

Utah's dual-track system to the ballot isn't going anywhere. The UTA reaffirms a big severance package for its fired boss. North Korea may ditch the planned summit with President Trump.

  SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER  

Thanks for reading Utah's must-read daily political news roundup. If you would like to subscribe to our morning newsletter, you can SIGN UP HERE.

Got a confidential news tip? You can reach me via encrypted, secure email at bryanschott@protonmail.com.

---

  TICK TOCK  

• 5 days until the last day to register to vote by mail for the 2018 primary election (5/29/2018)
• 6 days until the last day to change your party affiliation before the primary election (5/30/2018)
• 12 days until primary election mail-in ballots are sent to voters (6/5/2018)
• 19 days until in-person early primary voting begins (6/12/2018)
• 26 days until the final day to register to vote online or in person before the primary election (6/19/2018)
• 29 days until in-person early primary voting ends (6/22/2018)
• 33 days until the 2018 Primary Election (6/26/2018)
• 166 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
• 249 days until the first day of the 2019 Utah Legislature (1/28/2019)
• 894 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

  PODCASTS  

Subscribe to the award-winning "Bernick and Schott on politics" podcast, Utah's longest-running political podcast. Hosts Bryan Schott and Bob Bernick have more than 60 years of combined experience covering Utah politics. Plus, you'll get long-form interviews with Utah newsmakers. Subscribe (and leave a review) using iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

---

  HERE ARE THE STORIES WE'RE WATCHING TODAY  

SB54 fight

If Count My Vote fails to make the November ballot, what will that mean for Utah's current dual-path to the primary ballot? Probably not much, since Gov. Herbert has said he would veto any attempt to repeal that law [Utah Policy].

Another SCOTUS pick for Trump?

Sen. Mike Lee says there's a "very real possibility" Justice Anthony Kennedy retires from the Supreme Court this year [Utah Policy].

Medical marijuana battle

Two staffers for the Alliance for a Better Utah say the Sutherland Institute is not being honest about their role in the fight against legalizing medical marijuana [Utah Policy].

A call for civic engagement

Utah House candidate Jon Hawkins argues that the only way to fight factionalism in politics is for everyone to get involved [Utah Policy].

---

  OTHER UTAH HEADLINES  

• The Utah Transit Authority reaffirmed the severance package for Jerry Benson valued at more than $200,000 [Deseret News, Tribune].
  
  
• GOP U.S. Senate candidate Mike Kennedy shares a snippet of a phone call he made to controversial pastor Robert Jeffress that shows he did not apologize on behalf of all Utahns for Mitt Romney calling him a "religious bigot" [Deseret News].
  
  
• Negotiations between Gov. Gary Herbert's office and Salt Lake City officials over the controversial inland port authority are still at an impasse [Deseret News].
  
  
• Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams is demanding changes after a state audit found widespread drug use at the Road Home shelter [Deseret News].
  
  
• An audit finds no evidence that South Salt Lake Mayor Cherie Wood diverted city funds to her re-election campaign [Tribune].
  
  
• The final two agencies have signed off on tax breaks to build a data center in Eagle Mountain for a still unnamed company [Deseret News].
  
  
• State lawyers are fighting a lawsuit from former A.G. John Swallow who wants Utah to pay his $1.6 million in legal fees following his acquittal on public corruption charges [Tribune].
  
  
• Draper's former police chief is suing that city claiming he was fired after complaining about city employees spreading false information about him that hurt his chances of taking another job elsewhere [Fox 13, Tribune].
  
  
• The Census Bureau says Salt Lake City's population is over 200,000 for the first time, but local experts say that's probably not accurate [Tribune].
  
  
• Utah is adding new housing faster than any other state over the past year [Deseret News].
  
  
• UDOT is warning of delays up to 90 minutes on I-15 during the Memorial Day weekend [Fox 13].

---

  NATIONAL HEADLINES  

• President Trump said during a Thursday morning interview with "Fox & Friends" that he would be open to a gradual phase-in of North Korean denuclearization [Axios].
  
  
• North Korean officials rip Vice President Mike Pence, saying he is a "political idiot" and threatened to back out of a planned summit with President Trump after Pence warned North Korea's leadership could end up like former Libyan leader Muammar el Qaddafi [New York Times].
  
  
• North Korea announced Thursday morning that they've permanently shut down their nuclear test site [New York Times].
  
  
• Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's lawyer in the Russia investigation, has reversed himself and now says the president should sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller [Washington Post].
  
  
• Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 to arrange a White House meeting between President Trump and Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko [BBC].
  
  
• Republicans in the House who signed on to the effort to force a vote on immigration measures are fearful they could face retribution from leadership [The Hill]. House GOP leaders are making a last-ditch attempt to come up with a compromise immigration bill, but there's not much optimism that they'll be able to find common ground [Washington Post].
  
  
• Republicans in Congress are pushing back hard against President Trump's plan to ease sanctions on Chinese phone maker ZTE [The Hill].
  
  
• The Trump administration is exploring tariffs on vehicle and auto-parts imports. Trump is asking for tariffs of as much as 25% [Wall Street Journal].
  
  
• White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, finally gets a permanent security clearance after more than a year [New York Times].
  
  
• Families of children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting are suing Alex Jones for spreading conspiracy theories about the massacre [New York Times].
  
  
• A federal judge rules President Trump cannot block his critics on Twitter because he uses the platform as a public forum [Washington Post].
  
  
• Elon Musk is proposing a new website to rate the credibility of media organizations and individual reporters. The website will be named "Pravda," which is the name of the former Soviet Union's main propaganda outlet [Wall Street Journal].
  
  
• Troops on a nuclear missile base in Wyoming bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD for months. Once investigators closed in on the ring, one airman deserted to Mexico [Associated Press].

---

  ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY  

• 1607 - 100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first English colony in America.
  
  
• 1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
  
  
• 1844 - Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
  
  
• 1856 - John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
  
  
• 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
  
  
• 1935 - The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
  
  
• 1962 - American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
  
  
• 2007 - Congress voted to increase the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years -- from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.

---

---

Today At Utah Policy

Anti-Count My Vote groups might stop the initiative from getting on the ballot, but Utah's dual track system looks like it's here to stay By Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor Both sides in the Count My Vote citizen initiative are cautiously claiming victory. ...

---

Guest opinion: Sutherland Institute should claim their role in the 'NASCAR pileup' By Katie Matheson and Lauren Simpson In a recent op-ed, Rick Larsen, the president of Sutherland Institute, makes a call for increased civility surrounding the medical marijuana ballot initiative....

---

Guest opinion: Government only works when citizens engage By Jon Hawkins, District 57 House candidate Our country was founded on the principle of "We the people," where government is meant to rely on the consent of the governed....

---

Lee: 'Very real possibility' Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor Sen. Mike Lee says there may be another vacancy on the Supreme Court this year, suggesting Justice Anthony Kennedy might retire at the end of the current term....

---

Weekly survey: Kennedy apologizes By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor GOP U.S. Senate candidate Mike Kennedy apologized to Pastor Robert Jeffress after his opponent, Mitt Romney, called him a "religious bigot."...

---

---

Policy News

Sens. Lee, Klobuchar announce hearing on T-Mobile-Sprint merger  Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, will hold a subcommittee hearing June 27th on the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint Merger....

---

Rep. Curtis questions Secretary of State Pompeo on Josh Holt, Iran, North Korea  Congressman John Curtis, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a hearing Wednesday morning on the State Department's budgets, operations, and policy priorities....

---

Wise Words

Reciprocation

"Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty." John D. Rockefeller

Lighter Side

Similar Lives

"Scientists claim to have succeededtransplanting a memory from the brain of one sea snailand implanting it into another. Or, more likely, snails live pretty similar lives." Seth Meyers

---

This email is intended for newsletter@newslettercollector.com.
Update your preferences or Unsubscribe