Good Friday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 314th day of the year. There are 51 days remaining in 2017.

Daily Briefing

Good Friday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 314th day of the year. There are 51 days remaining in 2017.

The clock:

• 73 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)
• 118 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)
• 361 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
• 1,089 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today's political TL; DR -

• Bob Bernick and Bryan Schott help you make sense of what happened this week in Utah politics [Utah Policy]. Here's a podcast if you prefer [Utah Policy].
   
• Gov. Gary Herbert disputes a report that he's reached a deal with lawmakers to release a legal opinion on the procedure for the 3rd CD special election. Legislative leaders say Herbert wants assurances they won't sue him once the opinion is made public [Utah Policy].
   
• Bob Bernick says changing the Count My Vote ballot initiative to include the current dual-track system puts opponents of the proposal in a tough spot [Utah Policy].
   
• Updated election results confirm John Curtis won Tuesday's special election to fill Utah's vacant seat in Congress [Deseret News].
   
• Sen. Orrin Hatch takes the wraps off his plan to overhaul the nation's tax code [Deseret News].
   
• Gov. Gary Herbert says he expects a "grand compromise" when President Donald Trump announces his plan for reducing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments [Tribune].
   
• Some election-night ties have been broken with a new round of vote totals released Thursday [Tribune].
   
• Representative-elect John Curtis looks back on his time as Provo Mayor as he readies to head to Washington to take a seat in Congress [Daily Herald].
   
• The third phase of Operation Rio Grande, which will focus on providing jobs for the homeless, gets underway [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
   
• Gov. Gary Herbert says he's pleased organizers of the Count My Vote initiative have changed their proposal to include the current dual-track path to the ballot [Deseret News].

National headlines:

• ROMNEY WATCH: Mitt Romney has been meeting with Utah power brokers and political donors as he's getting closer to launching a run for U.S. Senate next year [Politico].
   
• BOMBSHELL! A woman says Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 and he was 32. Two other women say Moore pursued them when they were 16 and 18 years-old around the same time. Moore has denied the allegations [Washington Post]. 
  • Some Republicans are calling for Moore to drop out of the U.S. Senate race because of the allegations, but some absentee ballots have already been sent to voters, so there are no options for replacing him on the ballot [Washington Post]. Moore's campaign sent out a fundraising email in response to the allegations [Politico].
     
  • Former White House strategist Steve Bannon compared the allegations against Moore to the release of the "Access Hollywood" tapes just before the 2016 election [CBS News].
     
• The U.S. Senate takes the wraps off their tax reform proposal. The Senate version puts a one-year delay for cutting the corporate tax rate. It also keeps some middle-class tax breaks that were left out of the House version [New York Times].
   
• President Trump talks trade in Vietnam on the latest leg of his visit to Asia. Trump did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit because of scheduling conflicts [Washington Post].
   
• Keith Schiller, President Trump's longtime bodyguard, told investigators probing Russia's involvement in the 2016 election that a Russian once offered to "send five women" to Trump's hotel room in Moscow after a business meeting. Schiller says Trump declined the offer [NBC News].
   
• The research firm that prepared a dossier on President Trump's alleged ties to Russia offered the Trump campaign unrelated information on donors to the Clinton Foundation [Reuters].
   
• Special counsel Robert Meuller has interviewed White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller as part of the probe into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election [CNN].
   
• The bribery trial of Democratic Senator Robert Menendez could end in a deadlocked jury. A former juror who had to leave the trial said she would have found Menendez not guilty [Politico].
   
• The U.S. Air Force missed at least two chances to prevent the man who killed 26 people at a Texas church on Sunday from buying guns [Reuters].

On this day in history:

• 1775 - The United States Marine Corps, then known as the Continental Marines,  is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas.
   
• 1871 - Journalist Henry Stanley found Scottish missionary David Livingstone in a small African village. His famous comment: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."
   
• 1898 - Beginning of the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history.
   
• 1969 - National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) debuts Sesame Street.
   
• 1975 - The freighter S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board.
   
• 1989 - Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall

Today At Utah Policy

Sore losers and irony has a sense of humor - Bernick and Schott on politics Ep. 349
By Bryan Schott and Bob Bernick
Count My Vote decides that they're going to keep the current dual-track system for candidates to get on the ballot. This means they can either gather signatures, go through the caucus/convention system, or both....

Bob Bernick's notebook: Flip the script
By Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor
Count My Vote petition backers, some of whom are pretty smart political cookies, have just switched the field on the arch-conservative, right-wingers who oppose SB54 and the dual path candidates can take to a party's primary ballot....

Podcast: Bernick and Schott on politics Ep. 349
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
Bryan Schott and Bob Bernick break down the big news from the last week in Utah politics....

Operation Rio Grande Phase Three to focus on 'Dignity of work'
By Press Release
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and Speaker Greg Hughes announced the start of Phase Three of Operation Rio Grande and said that this phase is about focusing on individuals and the pride and self-esteem that comes for participating in work....

Herbert says no agreement yet on release of election legal opinion; Lawmakers say he wants a promise they won't sue him
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
Gov. Gary Herbert pushed back on Thursday against a UtahPolicy.com report that his office had agreed with GOP legislative leaders to release a legal opinion on the 3rd Congressional District special election....

Weekly survey: 'Fake news' on social media
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
We're learning more about how Russian "troll farms" used social media to spread misinformation during the 2016 election. Would you support or oppose a law requiring social media companies to remove "fake news" posts or political content paid for by a foreign government?...

Policy News

Casual Friday: Weekend Events & Outdoors Report
Outdoor Notes--Tribune:Kayenta Trail: A slightly less crowded route to Zion's Emerald Pools--Tribune: In one of the last Utah towns where you can see the Milky Way, a new observatory opens 'a portal to the cosmos'--Tribune:Major changes could be coming for Utah's deer and el...

Sens. Lee, Rubio release statement on Senate tax plan
Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) released the following statement in response to the Senate Finance Committee unveiling their tax reform proposal:  ...

Hatch tax plan will save an average middle-class family $1,500 annually
 Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, his proposal for comprehensive tax reform based on the unified framework put together by Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways...

Local Headlines

Salt Lake Tribune

Op-ed: Reservations are a sensible solution for Arches' crowds

Editorial: Indigent defense should be independent of county pursestrings

Snapchat plans to open an office in Utah, adding to the state's growing tech community

Utah expects 650 new jobs in financial tech and lawn care after offering tax incentives to two companies

'House-keeping' bill would give Utah 520 acres of prime federal real estate, Rep. Mia Love says

What are UTA's most and least popular services?

Gov. Gary Herbert predicts 'grand compromise' when Trump shrinks Utah monuments

Homeless shelter stays are up - slightly - just not as high as the state said last week

Jail scandal? We've seen this movie before from Daggett County - let's click rewind

Hatch, Lee call on Alabama's Roy Moore to drop his Senate bid if underage sexual allegations are true

Operation Rio Grande, the campaign focused on homelessness in Utah, will now try to find jobs for those without homes

Your vote (in some cases) does matter: election night ties in Bluffdale, Herriman races broken with updated tallies

Salt Lake City will review how dispatch center handles homeless complaints

Deseret News

Jay Evensen: Why tweets on election night matter

Op-ed: Congress can keep America's transportation moving

Editorial: A few voters turned out large changes in Utah

Ex-GOP lawmaker to serve on state alcohol commission

Utah among the most toxic states, report says

$106.5 million Ogden school bond narrowly defeated

Senate OKs Hatch bill seeking 3-digit national suicide prevention hotline

Additional election results confirm Curtis win in 3rd Congressional District

Sen. Orrin Hatch unveils plan to overhaul tax system

Utah governor urges party unity in wake of Count My Vote dispute

Operation Rio Grande's 'dignity of work' phase underway

Other

Roy, Pleasant View, four more cities getting new mayors after Tuesday's election (Standard-Examiner)

One valley: Cache Summit brings collaboration on growth (Logan Herald Journal)

National Headlines

Ex-Trump security chief testifies he rejected 2013 Russian offer of women for Trump in Moscow (CNN)

These are the 37 major deals US firms signed with Chinese entities during Trump's visit (CNBC)

Why Campus Rape Tribunals Hand Down So Many 'Guilty' Verdicts (Weekly Standard)

Pope Francis wades into North Korea crisis and vows to save the world from nuclear disaster (The Sun)

Chinese 'love' Trump's Mandarin-speaking granddaughter (AFP)

L.A. prosecutors form special Hollywood sexual assault task force (Los Angeles Times)

CNN faces another racial discrimination lawsuit, lawyer says (FOX News)

Bannon: Mitch McConnell should resign (Politico)

Trump voters: We'd do it again (Politico)

Key differences between the Senate and House tax plans (The Hill)

Biden: 'I regret that I am not president,' but 'it was the right decision' for family (ABC News)

Wise Words

Good Counsel

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." Thomas Jefferson
 

Lighter Side

Manafort

"Security researchers have reportedly discovered that recently indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort used "bond007" as one of his computer passwords. He also signed his checks "From Russia with Love." Seth Meyers