School funding, Bears Ears and Sally Yates. Your Tuesday morning political briefing from UtahPolicy.com

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Local News Highlights: Daily Briefing

Morning must reads for Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Good Tuesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 129th day of the year. There are 236 days remaining in 2017. Today is the 110th day of Donald Trump's presidency.

Utahns want a proposed ballot initiative that raises taxes to fund schools to move forward. Zinke tours Bears Ears. Sally Yates says there was evidence Michael Flynn may have been compromised by the Russians.

The clock:

11 days until the Utah Republican State Convention (5/20/2017)

39 days until the Utah Democratic State Convention at Weber State University (6/17/2017)

182 days until the 2017 municipal elections (11/7/2017)

258 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)

303 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)

546 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)

1,274 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today's political TL; DR -

A new poll shows most Utahns want the group pushing for a tax hike to fund Utah's schools to move ahead with their effort to put the question on the 2018 ballot [Utah Policy].
Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he intends to investigate former president Barack Obama's deal with Iran and whether the pact harmed national security [Utah Policy].
LaVarr Webb argues Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador's faux pas at a town hall meeting is a perfect illustration of how difficult the health care issue is proving to be [Utah Policy].
Utah Democrats have a plank in their proposed 2017 platform that pushes for animal rights. The issue is higher up on their list of priorities than other topics like gerrymandering and equal pay [Utah Policy].
There's a new Utah political podcast hosted by our own Bryan Schott and Rep. Mike Winder which examines the news of the day from different perspectives. Here's their first episode [Utah Policy].
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tours the Bears Ears National Monument and speaks with local residents about land use issues [Deseret News, Tribune].
Sen. Orrin Hatch sparks outrage after making a condescending remark that American Indians "don't fully understand" what they lose with Bears Ears being turned into a national monument [Tribune].
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before a Senate panel that she delivered an urgent warning to the Trump White House that former national security adviser Michael Flynn could be compromised by the Russian government [New York Times]. President Donald Trump lashed out at Yates' testimony on Twitter, saying the issue was "nothing but old news" [Politico].
The U.S. is considering a plan to expand military operations in Afghanistan to push back against a resurgent Taliban [Washington Post].
President Donald Trump names 10 nominees to fill vacancies on the federal bench [Wall Street Journal].
Even though Donald Trump's White House refuses to release their visitor logs to the public, most of those who get face time with the president are wealthy, white Republican men [Politico].
Boring but important. The Trump administration is probing whether Haitian immigrants who are allowed to remain in America under a humanitarian program have been committing crimes [Associated Press].
Possible Democratic candidates for president in 2020 are starting to get their ducks in a row [Washington Post].
Most of this year's college commencement speakers are avoiding mentioning Donald Trump in their speeches [USA Today].
The candidates for Utah GOP Chair are drawing sharp contrasts over how they would approach the job and just how much financial hardship the party is facing [Tribune].
Jon Huntsman Sr. says he will publish a two-page newspaper ad detailing the Huntsman Cancer Institute's operations over the past two decades [Deseret News]. Huntsman also says the University of Utah Health Sciences Department is in "total disarray" following the controversy that resulted in the resignation of top officials [KSL].
Kane County officials are facing a possible criminal investigation into their involvement in a service district for a luxury resort that overpaid them according to a state audit [Tribune].
Utah's new liquor laws mostly go into effect on Tuesday [Tribune].

On this day in history:

1502 - Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere.
1926 - Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made what they claimed was the first airplane flight over the North Pole. (Evidence suggests they may have missed their target by 150 miles.)
1960 - The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a birth control pill.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

Today At Utah Policy

Poll shows Utahns support some sort of tax hike to fund public schools By Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor More than two-thirds of Utahns want Our Schools Now to go forward with their citizen initiative petition and put before 2018 voters a possible state income tax hike for public schools, a new UtahPolicy.com poll shows....

Labrador comment illustrates difficulty of healthcare issue By LaVarr Webb, Publisher Our neighboring congressman to the north, Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, made an unfortunate comment at a town hall meeting last week -- saying that nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care....

Utah Democrats prioritize animal rights in 2017 platform proposal By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor Utah Democrats are proposing to put "animal rights" in the top-10 of their proposed platform for 2017....

Chaffetz to investigate Obama's Iran nuclear deal By Golden Webb In response to a recent Politico report, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz launches a sweeping investigation into whether the Obama administrationjeopardized national security and misled the American public in itsefforts to secure the former president'slegacy-defining ...

Beg to Differ: Political calculus By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor In our very first episode, Bryan Schott and Rep. Mike Winder offer a prognosis following the House vote on health care....

Policy News

Sen. Lee congratulates Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Monday after the Senate voted to confirm Secretary Heather Wilson as the 24th Secretary of the Air Force:...

Addressing the labor shortage: Salt Lake Community College graduates record setting 4,600 students In a recent trip to Chicago, EDCUtah COO Mike Flynn gained some valuable insight from some prominent site selectors....

Treasurer Damschen announces $33.1 million new abandoned property now online for claim Utah State Treasurer David Damschen announced that the State of Utah’s Unclaimed Property Division received more than $33.1 million in new abandoned property at the end of 2016....

Local Headlines

Salt Lake Tribune

Editorial: Farming out inmates to other jails carries risks for Salt Lake County

As Utah Republicans prepare to elect a new leader, division lingers over SB54 and debt

Former state employee gets prison sentence for $1.2 million embezzlement case

UTA takes public comment Wednesday on controversial Clearfield plan

Kane County officials under investigation for involvement in district for luxury resort

Utah's new liquor laws - some of them, anyway - go into effect Tuesday

Tribal leaders demand apology from Hatch after he said they 'don't fully understand' Bears Ears implications

Zinke flies over Bears Ears as critics urge him to 'Make San Juan County Great Again' and rescind monument

Deseret News

Mia Love: AHCA and the problems of the status quo

Editorial: Don't bail out bankrupt Puerto Rico

Judge signs order barring Utah from defunding Planned Parenthood

Zinke: No question Bears Ears should be preserved, but how?

Hatch, Lee to play key roles in overhauling health care law

Huntsman Cancer Institute will publish full accounting of past 23 years in newspaper ad, founder says

Other

Editorial: Too many people are dying in Utah jails. Now, how do we protect the vulnerable? (Standard-Examiner)

National Headlines

Condoleezza Rice on Slave Owner Statue Purge: 'It's a Bad Thing' (The Wrap)

Fights over Trump drive couples, especially millennials, to split up (Washington Examiner)

Will Hurd Is the Future of the GOP (Politico)

Trump busting presidential norms with weekend getaways (Politico)

McConnell: ObamaCare replacement bill 'will not be quick' (The Hill)

Trump reveals first slate of judicial nominees (The Hill)

10 people nominated by Trump to federal bench (Washington Post)

Texas announces lawsuit against local officials considered hostile toward 'sanctuary cities' ban (Los Angeles Times)

EPA dismisses half of key board's scientific advisers; Interior suspends more than 200 advisory panels (Washington Post)

Senate confirms Trump's choice for Air Force secretary Heather Wilson (FOX News)

S&P 500, Nasdaq eke out record closes as 'fear index' drops to lowest in decades (MarketWatch)

Wise Words

Politics and Parties
"We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections." John Adams

Lighter Side

Getting Attention
"Trump tweeted that the media is out of control, saying that they will do or say anything to get attention. Then he honked the horn of an 18-wheeler, posed for a picture with Kid Rock, and accused Obama of spying on him from his microwave." Jimmy Fallon

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