OTHER UTAH HEADLINES   

Deseret News

Editorial: Better rehab services for drug offenders is a win-win

Utah to ring in new year with toughest DUI law in the country

State agreement protecting Salt Lake City from Olympic losses on fast track for 2019 Legislature

Salt Lake Tribune

State moves to expand, preserve eastern Utah's Tabby wildlife area, but it could cost $41 million

Meet the seven new women - five Democrats and two Republicans - who will join the Utah Legislature in January

Utah's senators and Delta Air Lines say cheating by far-away Qatar Airways is hurting U.S. carriers

  NATIONAL HEADLINES  

• The partial government shutdown heads into day 6. Congress returns to Washington on Thursday to try and find the votes to end the impasse over President Trump's demand for funding to build his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border - https://nyti.ms/2EOAQAv
  
  
• Federal workers are beginning to panic that they won't be able to pay their bills - https://nyti.ms/2EPzZj5
  
  
• President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to troops in Iraq on Wednesday, his first trip to a conflict zone during his presidency - https://reut.rs/2EMH2ZP 
  
  
• President Trump says he has no plans to withdraw U.S. military forces from Iraq, and those troops could re-enter Syria if needed. Last week Trump announced a plan to withdraw American forces from Syria, which caught the Pentagon off-guard and led to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigning in protest - https://wapo.st/2EPuNf0 
  
  
• Uh oh! President Trump posted a video to his Twitter feed during his visit to Iraq that revealed the identities of a covert U.S. Navy Seal team. Defense Department officials said the video was a serious breach of operational security - http://bit.ly/2EQhbjB
  
  
• During his visit to Iraq, President Trump falsely claimed that he had secured military personnel a "big pay raise" and repeated the falsehood that it was the first pay hike in several years - http://bit.ly/2EPAVnB 
  
  
• The president's trip to Iraq wasn't kept secret for long. After firing off dozens of tweets over the last few days, President Trump suddenly went silent, and amateur aviation watchers posted on social media that they were tracking a mystery plane they quickly figured out was Air Force One - https://wapo.st/2EOZe4U
  
  
• The Dow bounced back with the biggest single-day jump in history, rising more than 1,000 points on Wednesday. However, the rally is not easing fears that the longest bull market in history may be ending - https://cnn.it/2ESkJSF 
  
  
• Economic officials have told the White House that President Trump's tweets criticizing the Fed are the reason the markets have dropped dramatically over the past weeks - http://bit.ly/2EPNW0s 
  
  
• Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker lied on his resume, wrongly claiming he was named Academic All-American during his time as a football player for the University of Iowa - http://bit.ly/2ENQfkw
  
  
• House Democrats plan to hold hearings on the deaths of two migrant children in U.S. custody - http://bit.ly/2EOBm1p
  
  
• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was discharged from the hospital and is recovering at home following surgery to remove two nodules from her lungs - https://nyti.ms/2EMgV54 
  
  
• Democrats are wringing their hands that the top three contenders for the 2020 presidential nominations are all white men - http://bit.ly/2EO7vWR 
  
  
• The White House is considering an executive order to bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei - https://reut.rs/2ENOhk8
  
  
• Recovering from natural disasters cost $155 billion in 2018. Several hit the United States particularly hard - https://wapo.st/2EQnCmF
  
  
• Bad headlines for President Trump have led to slumping television ratings for one of his biggest cheerleaders in the media, Sean Hannity - http://bit.ly/2EPySQr 
  
  
• Russia claims their hypersonic nuclear missile system, which President Vladimir Putin says is invulnerable to U.S. defenses, will become operational in 2019. U.S. military officials say Russia often makes unfounded claims about their military capability - https://cnn.it/2EPE07e 
  
  
• The legal marijuana industry had a banner year in 2018, with even bigger profits projected for 2019 - http://bit.ly/2EQijDR
  
  
• More than 4 million children went through a lockdown in U.S. schools last year - https://wapo.st/2EQjEdL

  ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY  

• 1831 - Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.
  
  
• 1845 - Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, writing in his newspaper the New York Morning News, argues that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country "by the right of our manifest destiny."
  
  
• 1932 - Radio City Music Hall opened in New York.
  
  
• 1945 - The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
  
  
• 1979 - The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
  
  
• 1983 - Pope John Paul II met privately in a jail cell with Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish man who shot and attempted to assassinate the pontiff in 1981. The pope pardoned him.

Policy News

More National Headlines

What do Democrats want in 2020? Someone new and Biden. But definitely not Hillary (USA Today)

These States Are Most Likely To Legalize Marijuana In 2019 (Forbes)

2020: Biden, Sanders, Obama lead Democrats, Trump 72 percent, Romney 9 percent in GOP (Washington Examiner)

McCaskill on Ocasio-Cortez: 'I'm a little confused why she's the thing' (The Hill)