Today's Featured Articles:
Love: Trump promoting birther lie about Kamala Harris is 'harmful to the American people'
Bernick and Schott on politics podcast: 'The inexorable march of death'
McAdams/Owens matchup shifts slightly toward the GOP
Situational Awareness
Good morning from Salt Lake City and TGIF!
TICK TOCK
6 days to the 6th special session (8/20/2020)
41 days to the 1st Congressional District debate (9/24/2020)
46 days to the Utah gubernatorial debate (9/28/2020)
48 days to the Utah Attorney General debate (10/01/2020)
54 days to the Vice Presidential debate at the University of Utah (10/07/2020)
59 days to the 4th Congressional District debate (10/12/2020)
62 days to the 3rd Congressional District debate (10/15/2020)
66 days to the 2nd Congressional District debate (10/19/2020)
81 days to the 2020 election (11/3/2020)
159 days to inauguration day (01/20/2021)
164 days to the start of the 2021 Utah Legislature (1/25/2021)
Here are the stories you need to pay attention to this morning:
- Trump's all-out assault on vote-by-mail.
- Legislative Republicans back off a plan some were calling "backdoor vouchers."
- Teachers in the Granite School District say they don't feel safe returning to class, but they don't have enough support for a strike.
FRIDAY TRIVIA
Break out your maps! This week's question comes from Zachary Zundel:
Ten political entities legally share sovereignty within the boundaries of the State of Utah. Utah and the United States are two of the ten. Name four of the remaining eight entities.
Email your guesses to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We'll select a winner at random from the correct entries.
Good luck!
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Read: Top local news | National News Briefing
Today at Utah Policy
Teachers in the Granite School District say they're afraid to return to the classroom, but union officials say there's not a 'critical mass' of support for a strike yet
Anatomy of a smear. Right-wing conspiracy site pushes false story targeting Mitt Romney
Republican candidates for governor spent nearly $4 million on advertising ahead of the primary
Podcast: Understanding the threat from Russian election interference with David Shimer
Utah ranked #1 in new economic competitiveness outlook
Lawmakers considering bonding to boost economy
Policy News
Casual Friday: Weekend Events & Outdoors Report 8-14-20
Accelerate your growth: Making global local with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency
State of Utah to host virtual employment workshops for veterans, military service members and spouses
NHMU to reopen Saturday, August 15 with an evolved museum experience
Utah recognized as a leading state in new national report on data and evidence in policymaking
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Chris Redgrave launch Global Leaders Scholarship Fund with Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy
Local Headlines
Deseret News
- A. Scott Anderson: Schools reopening is critical for kids and society
- Even with over $1B in claims, Utah’s jobless trust fund not in danger of insolvency, official says
- Family of man killed by police claims bodycam video exists but was kept secret
- Feds charge fourth person with burning police car in Salt Lake riot
- Utah lawmakers to address budget ‘hot spots’ in special session next week
- Latter-day Saints for Trump group seeks to ‘mobilize’ church members to reelect president
Salt Lake Tribune
National Headlines
- The UAE-Israel deal is a triumph of Trump’s personal diplomacy (Spectator)
- Is Kamala Harris Really a ‘Pragmatic Moderate?’ (FEE)
- CNN is all in for Kamala Harris (and maybe also Joe Biden) (Washington Examiner)
- Biden Accuser Tara Reade: 'The Democratic Party Has Become an Enabler to Sexual Predators' (PJ Media)
- Libel, Accountability Standards for Media May Be Due for Reexamination, Professor Says (Epoch Times)
- Reagan Speechwriter: Biden Just Plagiarized From Reagan (American Spectator)
- Does Seattle deserve better than Carmen Best? (Spectator)
- Justice Department Finds Yale Admissions Illegally Discriminated Against Asian American and White Applicants (National Review)
- Hope For Atlanta Officer Rolfe After DA Loses Re-Election (Townhall)
- Tucker Carlson Gets the Last Laugh in the Faux Controversy Over How to Pronounce 'Kamala' (PJ Media)
- How Many Lives Will the Health Experts' Bizarre HCQ Disinformation Campaign Cost? (PJ Media)
Lighter Side
“Yep, Trump went on and on this morning for 53 minutes. Most Americans were like, ‘Hey, if we wanted to hear the president ramble about nothing for an hour, we’d watch the coronavirus briefing.” — JIMMY FALLON
Wise Words
"The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan
National Briefing
The battle over vote-by-mail
President Donald Trump said Thursday he opposed much-needed funding for the postal service because it would be used for mail-in voting in November [CNN].
The post office is deactivating mail sorting machines that would handle mail-in ballots ahead of the election without any explanation [Vice].
Democrats in Congress are demanding that the new head of the Postal Service roll back a number of changes he's instituted before election day [NBC News].
The USPS says mail ballots may not be delivered on time to voters in Pennsylvania because deadlines there are too tight [Philadelphia Inquirer].
The Supreme Court denied a request from Republicans to reinstate a requirement in Rhode Island that mail-in ballots must be signed in the presence of two witnesses or a notary [ScotusBlog].
President Trump and his wife Melania have requested mail-in ballots for the upcoming Florida primary despite his rhetoric that mail-in voting would lead to election fraud [USA Today].
Here we go again
President Trump promoted a racist conspiracy theory that Sen. Kamala Harris might not be a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible to be vice president. Trump previously suggested the same thing about former President Barack Obama [WaPo].
Stimulus delay
Any action on another coronavirus relief bill will likely wait until September at the earliest [CNN].
Economy
The number of new unemployment claims last week slipped below 1 million for the first time since March [USA Today].
Coronavirus
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris call for a nationwide mask mandate to "save lives" and stop the spread of the coronavirus [Twiiter].
The true death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. is likely already more than 200,00 according to a new analysis [NYT].
A new poll shows a third of Americans say they won't get vaccinated against Covid-19 when a vaccine becomes available [NPR].
Yikes!
The Secret Service, worried that protests following the killing of George Floyd could overrun the White House, sought tactical aircraft and surveillance drones as a countermeasure to the demonstrations [WaPo].
Who cares about ethics?
President Trump said Thursday he's planning to deliver his speech accepting the Republican Party's nomination from the White House lawn. Critics say the location is inappropriate and an ethical violation [New York Post].
Another Trump tell-all
Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer, released the foreword from his forthcoming memoir on Thursday. He claimed he has "proof" Trump cheated with the Russians to win the 2016 election among other things [NYT].
Bold prediction...
President Trump says taxes and a spike in crime could help him carry New York in the 2020 election. Trump lost New York by more than 20 points in 2016. Democrats would love to see Trump's campaign spend money there [New York Post].
Saying the quiet part out loud
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said this week his probe of Obama-era intelligence agencies would help President Trump win re-election in November [Politico].
QAnon caucus
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican nominee for Congress from Georgia, is not only a believer in the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, she's also a 9/11 truther, claiming there's "no evidence" a plane crashed into the Pentagon [Business Insider].
Historic agreement
Israel and the United Arab Emirates struck a historic deal to normalize relations between the two countries [BBC].
