The United Utah Party, Gary Ott and GOP healthcare failure. Your Wednesday morning political briefing from UtahPolicy.com

Local News Highlights: Daily Briefing

Morning must reads for Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 179th day of the year. There are 186 days remaining in 2017. Today is the 159th day of Donald Trump's presidency.

Utahns would consider voting for a candidate from the new United Utah Party. Salt Lake County will investigate whether Gary Ott lives in the county. Senate Republicans hit a roadblock in their effort to repeal Obamacare.

The clock:

• 48 days until the 2017 Utah primary election (8/15/2017)
• 132 days until the 2017 election (11/7/2017)
• 208 days until the opening day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (1/22/2018)
• 253 days until the final day of the 2018 Utah Legislature (3/8/2018)
• 496 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
• 1,225 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

Today's political TL; DR -

• NEW POLL: Nearly 2/3 of Utahns said they would be open to voting for a qualified candidate who ran under the banner of the new United Utah Party. Most of those who would consider voting for the UUP are Democrats and independents [Utah Policy].
   
• An analysis says nearly 200,000 Utahns would lose their healthcare coverage in the next decade if the current Senate plan passes as is [Utah Policy].
   
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz says members of Congress need a $2,500 per month housing allowance to help ease the financial burden on those who serve in Washington [Utah Policy].
   
• LaVarr Webb says passing health care reform is difficult for Congress because it's easier to be generous with benefits than to pay heed to what those benefits will cost taxpayers down the line [Utah Policy].
   
• A group of Native American tribes and environmental groups are readying a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's ability to reduce or rescind the Bears Ears National Monument [Associated Press].
   
• The Salt Lake County Council forms a committee to investigate whether troubled County Recorder Gary Ott actually lives inside the county [Deseret News, Tribune].
   
• Protesters gather in downtown Salt Lake City to oppose the Senate version of the Obamacare repeal bill [Deseret News, Tribune].
   
• A lawsuit says a plan to make Utah's school board elections partisan affairs is unconstitutional because it violates the Utah Constitution's ban on a partisan requirement to work in Utah's public schools [Deseret News, Tribune].
   
• The state is investigating $37,000 in public funds that went missing from a state-contracted liquor-package agency in Payson. That agency was shut down about two months ago [Tribune].

National headlines:

• You don't have the votes! Senate GOP leaders yank their version of the Obamacare repeal bill after it looked like the measure was headed toward failure in a planned vote before the July 4th recess. Now, Republicans will try to regroup and figure out what to do next [Washington Post].
   
• The failure of the Senate to pass the health care measure underscores one thing. Not enough members of the Senate are afraid of Trump for him to push unpopular legislation through [Washington Post].
   
• Fake news? A framed Time Magazine with Donald Trump on the cover hangs in at least five of Trump's golf clubs. The problem is the magazine is a fake [Washington Post]. 
   
• Some would-be refugees are trapped in legal limbo because of the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate a soft version of President Trump's travel ban [Reuters]. 
   
• Another massive cyber attack on Tuesday hit a number of banks and companies in Ukraine [Huffington Post].
   
• French President Emmanuel Macron invites President Donald Trump to visit Paris on Bastille Day [New York Times].
   
• This summer some prototypes for President Donald Trump's promised border wall will be going up in San Diego [Los Angeles Times].
   
• U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she does not foresee another financial crisis in her lifetime [Reuters].
   
• Americans will hit the road this summer with the cheapest gasoline prices since 2005 [Bloomberg].
   
• Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook now has 2 million users. That's 27% of the world's population [Facebook].

On this day in history:

• 1894 - Labor Day was established as a holiday for federal employees.
   
• 1914 - Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist. The event triggered World War I.
   
• 1919 - The Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I.
   
• 2000 - The Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders.

Today At Utah Policy

Poll: Utah Democrats and independent voters would be most likely to vote for United Utah Party candidates
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
There may be an opening for the new United Utah Party to make some headway with Utah voters according to a new UtahPolicy.com survey....

Weekly survey: Will the medical marijuana ballot initiative be successful?
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
A group has launched an initiative to put legalizing medical marijuana in Utah on the 2018 ballot. Will they be successful? Vote in our weekly survey....

Why health care reform is so difficult for Congress
By LaVarr Webb, Publisher
In a divided Congress reflecting a divided country, passing a healthcare plan that wins support from all competing interests is impossible....

How many Utahns will lose coverage under the Republican healthcare proposal?
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
If the Senate's Obamacare repeal plan passes in its current form, nearly 200,000 people in Utah could lose their health care coverage in the next decade....

Chaffetz says Congress should get $2,500 per month for housing
By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
Rep. Jason Chaffetz says lawmakers in Washington should get $2,500 per month to pay for housing because many members cannot afford two mortgages or rent....

Policy News

Consumer confidence in Utah's economy continues to rise in June
The Zions Bank Utah Consumer Attitude Index increased slightly in June, notching upward by 3.3 points from 111.9 in May to 115.2 in June....

Hatch: 'Robust and transparent' effort required for tax reform
In a speech on the Senate floor, Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) reiterated the need for comprehensive tax reform and highlighted his commitment to an integrative and transparent process in order to make the nation's tax code simpler and fairer for all Americ...

Sen. Lee, Rep. Stewart urge Pres. Trump to consider North Korean involvement in David Sneddon disappearance
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) sent a letter to President Trump in preparation for this week's summit with South Korean President Moon Jaein regarding the disappearance of BYU student David Louis Sneddon from China in 2004....

Press release: Poll of likely Utah voters shows 73% support for a medical cannabis ballot initiative next year
A February poll of 402 Utahns found that 73% of voters support a medical cannabis ballot initiative, with only 20% opposed and 7% undecided....

Sen. Lee comments on delayed healthcare vote
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) released the following statement Wednesday after a procedural vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act was delayed:...

Local Headlines

Salt Lake Tribune

Op-ed: The promise of digital teaching and learning

Sheryl Allen: We deserve nonpartisan elections in education

Editorial: Real people benefit from open government laws

Utahns like what they see in the economy

Utah's partisan school board elections are unconstitutional and exclusionary, advocates say. Now they're suing

Sugar House streetcar to improve frequency, convenience with new stretch of double track

Utah Supreme Court tosses air-quality lawsuit over refinery expansion

State investigating $37,000 in missing public funds at closed liquor outlet

Trump's BLM plans oil and gas leasing near Dino monument and San Rafael Swell

Salt Lake County Council approves committee to investigate Recorder Gary Ott's residency

'Sen. Hatch, Don't Kill Us' - Health care fight reaches the streets as protesters block traffic in downtown Salt Lake

Deseret News

Derek B. Miller: The U.S. must write the rules for the 21st century

Editorial: In LGBT-religion dialogue, try persuasion, not punishment

Lawsuit says Utah school board election shouldn't be partisan

Consumer confidence in Utah rises in June

Parties jointly ask judge to extend stay in LGBT lawsuit

Accountability, power and money: New canyon commission raising questions

Hatch, Lee on opposite sides of Senate health care bill as vote postponed

Salt Lake County Council launches investigation into troubled recorder's residency

'Open season on all of us': Organization for the disabled blocks State Street to protest health care bill

Other

Editorial: Hatch should lead Senate's restoration as 'greatest deliberative body' (Daily Herald)

Op-ed: Modern life in rural America requires high-speed internet (Standard-Examiner)

Weber County Latino population increases, outpacing white growth (Standard-Examiner)

National Headlines

CNN's Russia story debacle came at the worst possible time for the network (Washington Post)

Sarah Palin Suing New York Times For Defamation (Daily Caller)

Podesta Meets With House Intelligence Panel Behind Closed Doors (Bloomberg)

Retracted CNN story a boon for president at war with media (Associated Press)

Madigan offers budget, but won't say how he'd pay for it (Chicago Tribune)

EPA Moves to Rescind Contested Water Pollution Regulation (New York Times)

Trump hails 'energy revolution' as exports surge (Washington Post)

Obamas under fire from the left for never ending, sizzling ultra-luxury vacations (FOX News)

Google faces years of EU oversight on top of record antitrust fine (Reuters)

The $15 disaster: Seattle's grim warning for NYC (New York Post)

House panel approves proposal to privatize air traffic control (The Hill)

Wise Words

Responsibility
"We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, duty. It is the other side of rights." Pearl Buck

Lighter Side

NASA
"NASA reports that it had a record 18,000 applicants to be astronauts. And apparently 1,000 more apply every time President Trump tweets." Conan O'Brien