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Situational awareness - December 2, 2019

Good Monday morning from Salt Lake City and welcome back from the long holiday weekend!

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

• Utah officials bracing for big voter turnout in 2020.
• Trump's lawyers won't participate in impeachment inquiry.
• Investigation shows the FBI did not spy on President Trump's 2016 campaign.

TICK TOCK

Days to the first day of the 2020 Utah Legislature: 56 (1/27/2020)

Days to the 2020 Iowa Caucuses: 63 (2/3/2020)

Days to the Utah presidential primaries: 92 (3/3/2020)

Days to the final day of the 2020 Utah Legislature: 101 (3/12/2020)

Days to the 2020 Utah primary elections: 211 (6/23/2020)

Days to the 2020 election: 337 (11/3/2020)

Today At Utah Policy

OTHER UTAH HEADLINES

Deseret News

• Pignanelli & Webb: What were politicians grateful for on Thanksgiving?
• Derek Miller: The economy is a feast to be grateful for this holiday season
• Op-ed: Facial recognition needs some handcuffs
• Op-ed: In defense of the Lake Powell Pipeline project
• Editorial: Successfully ending homelessness requires a generous community
• A world on the go: Projections call for near tripling of air passenger seat miles by 2050
• A 2nd chance for first-time offenders
• Utah lawmakers 'still headed' for Dec. 12 special session on taxes
• Utah high schools could soon cost $145M each in 'era of intense construction inflation'
• 2 small Utah cities test ranked-choice voting method
• Utah's homeless experiment

Salt Lake Tribune

• Gail Miller: Tax reform should not take money from Utah schools
• Editorial: After decades of oil and gas negligence, Utah needs to get a grip
• Utah ski resorts yanking proposed land swaps from Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area bill
• Salt Lake has the lowest unemployment among the nation's large metro areas - again
• Utah fertility rate falls below the 'replacement rate' for the first time
• Sen. Mike Lee says the American Bar Association has a 'systemic political bias'
• Activists protest plan to double the size of proposed jail for Utah immigration detainees
• Targeting homeless? Most jaywalking tickets written near The Road Home and Pioneer Park.
• San Juan County OKs guidelines for Spanish Valley development that could double county population

Other

• Rep. Ben McAdams introduces resolution to protect children from inappropriate content on digital apps (Daily Herald)
• Ogden City to spend next several months overhauling plan that guides downtown (Standard-Examiner)
• Northern Utah economic development body taking shape, details coming in December (Standard-Examiner)
• Utah Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal in Kerry Gibson public records case (Standard-Examiner)
• Local officers impacted by growing number of drug cases (Logan Herald Journal)
• Summit County to decide on $60M budget in coming weeks (Park Record)
• Summit County's region asked to cut 20% of its water usage by 2030 in new state goals (Park Record)

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NATIONAL HEADLINES

The next phase of impeachment

The House Intelligence Committee will review their report on the investigation into President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine on Monday [The Hill].

President Trump's lawyers say they won't participate in the House Judiciary's first impeachment hearing on Wednesday, saying the impeachment process is not fair [Washington Post].

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No FBI spying on Trump

A highly-anticipated report from the Justice Department's inspector general will say there's no evidence the FBI tried to place undercover informants inside President Trump's 2016 campaign. President Trump and his supporters have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the FBI spied on the campaign and former President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump's phones [New York Times].

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"I'm done being quiet"

Ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page slammed President Trump for his "sickening attacks" against her in a wide-ranging interview. She pushed back against unfounded claims from the president and his supporters saying, "There's no fathomable way I have committed any crime" [Daily Beast].

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2020

Montana Governor Steve Bullock ends his bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination [CNN].

Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak announced he was dropping out of the 2020 Democratic race [New York Times].

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Online ad wars

YouTube and Google took down hundreds of online ads from President Trump's re-election campaign over the summer for violating company policy but did not detail exactly why the ads were removed [CBS News].

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Guns

The Supreme Court will consider a Second Amendment case for the first time in nearly a decade on Monday [New York Times].

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Hmmm...

A new poll shows a majority of Republicans in the U.S. believe Donald Trump is a better president than Abraham Lincoln [The Hill].

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BUSINESS HEADLINES

• Derek Miller: The economy is a feast to be grateful for this holiday season (Deseret News)
• Salt Lake has the lowest unemployment among the nation's large metro areas - again (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Northern Utah economic development body taking shape, details coming in December (Standard-Examiner)
• Ogden City to spend next several months overhauling plan that guides downtown (Standard-Examiner)

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Policy News

Governor-led trade mission to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. on April 16-25, 2020
On behalf of Governor Gary R. Herbert, World Trade Center Utah and the Governor's Office of Economic Development would like to invite you to join the State of Utah's trade mission to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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CYBER 24 episode 61: Having a cybersecurity plan in place makes business more valuable
A recent study shows that businesses that have a cybersecurity policy in place - and are willing to talk about it - are more valuable to investors.

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IRS and State Tax Commission to help you stay safe online during the holidays
U.S. consumers are expected to spend about $144 billion in online shopping this holiday season. "That creates a huge opportunity for identity thieves to shoplift sensitive personal and financial information," says Utah State Tax Commission Security Manager Bobette Phillips.

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More National Headlines

• AP: Swing-State Voters Skeptical of Impeachment (Free Beacon)
• Is it possible to impeach a president in a full employment economy? (New Criterion)
• 'Sources of funding': Ronan Farrow says Hillary Clinton cooled on him when he investigated #MeToo crimes (Washington Examiner)
• The New York Times' long descent from credibility (New York Post)
• Moral grandstanding is making an argument just to boost your status. It's everywhere. (Vox)
• Why TV networks may be afraid of investigative stories (Los Angeles Times)
• U.S. Posts First Month in 70 Years as a Net Petroleum Exporter (Bloomberg)
• Newsweek reporter fired for Trump Thanksgiving story blames editor (Washington Examiner)
• Michael Bloomberg's Chinese appeasement (Spectator)
• Joe Biden munches wife Jill's finger at Iowa campaign stop (New York Post)
• Harris aide, in resignation letter, says 'I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly' (FOX News)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1804 - Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France.

1823 - During his annual address to the U.S. Congress, President James Monroe proclaimed a new U.S. foreign policy initiative that became known as the "Monroe Doctrine."

1859 - Abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, W.Va.

1954 - The Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R Wis., for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."

1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would lead Cuba to Communism.

1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center performed the first implant of a permanent artificial heart in a human. Barney Clark lived 112 days with the device.

2001 - Enron filed for bankruptcy after reports of widespread accounting fraud became public.

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