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Situational awareness - June 12, 2018
Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City.
Trump and Kim meet in Singapore. Utahns are still not aboard the Trump train. Bramble says voters, not delegates should decide who fills legislative vacancies.
One word movie review: I had the chance to see an advance screening of the new Disney/Pixar film Incredibles 2. In a word? Terrific!
TICK TOCK
- Early primary voting begins today (6/12/2018)
- 7 days until the final day to register to vote online or in person before the primary election (6/19/2018)
- 10 days until in-person early primary voting ends (6/22/2018)
- 14 days until the 2018 Primary Election (6/26/2018)
- 147 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
- 230 days until the first day of the 2019 Utah Legislature (1/28/2019)
- 875 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)
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HERE ARE THE STORIES WE'RE WATCHING TODAY
Utahns still not on board with Trump
President Trump's job approval ratings in Utah still haven't crossed 50% since his election in 2016 [Utah Policy].
Changing how legislative vacancies are filled
Sen. Curt Bramble says voters, not party delegates, should decide who fills a midterm vacancy in the Utah Legislature [Utah Policy].
Campaign cash
Rep. John Curtis raised more than $130,000 ahead of his primary matchup with Chris Herrod. Herrod has not yet filed his pre-primary financial disclosure [Utah Policy].
Washington bound
Several Utah lawmakers are headed to the White House later this month for meetings with Trump administration officials [Utah Policy].
Bishop for Speaker?
In the battle to find a replacement for Speaker Paul Ryan, some Congressional Republicans are floating Rep. Rob Bishop's name as a compromise candidate [Utah Policy].
OTHER UTAH HEADLINES
- A proposed 8,800 housing development in Herriman has blown up as a campaign issue between Republican Mia Love and Democrat Ben McAdams. Love has accused McAdams of accepting more than $10,000 in donations from the project's developers [Associated Press]. Residents of Herriman have filed a public referendum to put the development to a public vote in November [Fox 13, KSL].
- Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski surprised the City Council by coming out in opposition to raising sales taxes to fund transportation [Deseret News, Tribune].
- House Speaker Paul Ryan will hold a fundraiser for Rep. Mia Love on Tuesday [Deseret News].
- Utah's members of Congress decry migrant children being torn away from their parents as they try to cross the border into the United States [Tribune].
- Sen. Orrin Hatch says North Korea must end their pattern of human rights abuses along with giving up their nuclear program [Deseret News].
- Attorney General Sean Reyes says the decision by the Trump administration not to defend parts of the Affordable Care Act will boost Utah's lawsuit against the healthcare law [KSL].
- Jeff Rasmussen has been named as the new head of the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation [Deseret News, Tribune].
NATIONAL HEADLINES
- President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un meet in Singapore. The two men sign a document stating North Korea will work toward denuclearization while Trump has pledged to suspend military exercises on the Korean Peninsula [New York Times].
- While we're all celebrating Trump's meeting with Kim, let's not forget North Korea's wretched record on human rights and crimes against humanity. Here's a refresher on some of the atrocities from a 2014 United Nations report [New York Times].
- Voters in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia head to the polls on Tuesday for primary elections [ABC News].
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions says victims of domestic and gang violence would not qualify for asylum in the United States [Washington Post].
- Republican senators are left scratching their head after President Donald Trump's inexplicable feud with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau [ABC News].
- The Supreme upheld Ohio's method of removing names from its voter rolls [CNN].
- A federal judge criticized the Justice Department's argument that President Trump's financial interest in his company's hotel in Washington, D.C. does not violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution [New York Times].
- White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow suffers a heart attack [Washington Post].
- Financial disclosures show Jared and Ivanka Trump made at least $82 million in outside income last year while working in the White House [Washington Post].
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law on Monday allowing sports betting in that state [New York Post].
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
- 1665 - Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City.
- 1942 - Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
- 1963 - NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith.
- 1967 - The Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
- 1987 - At the Brandenburg Gate, President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
- 1994 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered outside Simpson's home in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, O.J. Simpson is later charged with the murders but is acquitted by a jury.
Today At Utah Policy
 | President Trump's approval rating remains below 50% in Utah Utah remains one of the most anti-Trump Republican states in America. A year and a half after winning the presidential election, President Donald Trump's approval rating in Utah has not yet crossed 50-percent.... |
 | Curtis raises more than $130,000 for his primary matchup against Herrod Rep. John Curtis raised more than $130,000 ahead of his primary election battle with Chris Herrod.... |
 | Utah may move to special elections to fill legislative vacancies Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, wants to make a drastic change to how legislative vacancies are filled, taking power away from party delegates and giving it to voters.... |
 | Utah lawmakers heading to White House meetings later in June The Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles didn't get an invite to the White House, but all of the Utah Legislature has, and most are going.... |
 | Speaker Rob Bishop? Some Congressional Republicans are reportedly discussing him as a candidate With the retirement of House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Republicans are searching for a replacement if they manage to keep control of the House following the 2018 midterms. Rep. Rob Bishop is being mentioned as a possible compromise candidate.... |
Policy News
| Governor Herbert invites Utahns to celebrate Flag Week and Flag Day President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation designating June 14, 2018 as Flag Day and the week beginning June 10, 2018, as Flag Week.... |
 | SAMPE honors GOED's Aerospace Pathways Program The Governor's Office of Economic Development was awarded the Delmonte Award for Excellence for the development of the Utah Aerospace Pathways program, presented by the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineers North America. ... |
 | Fox files 'Golf for grants' I'm not much of a golfer, but last Wednesday was a great day to be on the links raising funds to support our Community Match Grant Program.... |
 | Public development: Year in review As EDCUtah began its 30th year in business, newly appointed CEO Theresa Foxley led the charge for an organizational shift that she affectionately coined "EDCUtah 3.0."... |
Local Headlines
Salt Lake Tribune
Conservationists balk as feds aim to expand hunting in Utah's Bear River Bird Refuge
Sugar House streetcar service will increase frequency with double tracking
Gehrke: Mitt Romney 3.0 can be whatever you want him to be
Mayor Biskupski tweets her opposition to sales-tax hike on eve of expected city council vote
Deseret News
Op-ed: A future of less suffering and more care
Editorial: What to look for in the North Korea summit
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan holding Utah fundraiser for Rep. Mia Love
Romney versus Kennedy: A tale of two campaigns
Referendum filed seeking to block big development near Herriman
UTA breaks ground on S-Line expansion with hopes of cutting wait times
Other
Ogden City considering bumping up tax rate (Standard-Examiner)
National Headlines
Trump tells Kim a 'terrific relationship' beckons as summit begins (Reuters)
Inside Obama's secret meetings with 2020 contenders (Politico)
Bill Clinton: 'Norms have changed' for what you can do to somebody against their will (CNN)
New Jersey governor signs bill allowing sports gambling after Supreme Court ruling (CBS News)
Every June 12 primary election you should know about, briefly explained (Vox)
Supreme Court upholds Ohio method of removing names from voter rolls (CNN)
US arrests 74 in global email scam crackdown (BBC News)
Maine set for groundbreaking voting experiment on Tuesday (CNN)
Pence will attend Southern Baptist Convention meeting amid turmoil over gender (Washington Post)
The Fed's Biggest Dilemma: Is the Booming Job Market a Problem? (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. stocks rise ahead of North Korea summit, despite Trump's G7 fireworks (Reuters)
Wise Words
Politics
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." Plato
Lighter Side
More Cake
"TheSupreme Court ruled that a baker in Colorado can refuse to make a wedding cakefor a same-sex couple on religious grounds. Ladies and gentlemen, in my opinion, if there's anything America is not going to stand for, it's less cake." Conan O'Brien
