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Political Cornflakes: The Koch brothers are waging a war against public transportation.

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) A TRAX train turns the corner on 200 south 400 west in Salt Lake City Thursday April 26, 2018. Because of complaining about noise there by UTA Board member Babs DeLay, UTA has been manually greasing the tracks there every three hours and ordered trains to cut their speed.

The Koch brothers are waging a war against public transportation. Hatch, Love urge Congress to stop family separations at border. LDS Church condemns Trump policy.

Happy Tuesday. The Koch brothers are waging a war you might not have noticed. In cities and counties across the country — including Little Rock, Ark.; Phoenix, Ariz.; southeast Michigan and yes, Utah — the Koch brothers are fueling a fight against public transit, an offshoot of their longstanding national crusade for lower taxes and smaller government. [NYTimes]

Topping the news: Rep. Mia Love, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Gov. Gary Herbert all urged Congress to act to halt the practice of separating families crossing the border. [Trib]

-> The LDS Church and Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City also condemned separating families and called for immigration reform. [Trib]

-> Gov. Herbert is the latest Utah official to oppose President Donald Trump’s nomination of Utah anti-immigrant activist Ron Mortensen to oversee a refugee and migration program. [Trib]

Tweets of the day: From @RobertPicardo: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. . . and we will take their children and put them in cages and blame the Democrats . . .”

-> From @chrislhayes: "Currently, the Trump administration is arguing that its family-separation policy: - is a deterrent - is biblically compliant - is the Democrats’ fault - does not exist.”

-> From @TheDweck: "Congrats to Republicans on making ‘should children be kept in cages’ a partisan issue“

Happy Birthday: To Thom Carter, executive director of the Utah Clean Air Partnership.

In other news: The first meeting of a new board overseeing a controversial inland port proposal was cut short over concerns that board members had not submitted conflict-of-interest disclosures or been sworn in. [Trib]

-> State officials warned that if a medical marijuana ballot initiative passes in November, and if the state fails to open licensed dispensaries by the Jan. 1, 2021 deadline, Utah residents would be able to grow plants for personal use. [Trib]

-> A graduating Westlake High School senior tried to wear a ta’ovala cloth under his robe to honor his Tongan heritage, but a school administrator told him he couldn’t. [Trib]

-> Robert Gehrke calls President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy monstrously inhumane and says Congress needs to act to change things. [Trib]

-> Pat Bagely gives his take on migrant families being separated when crossing the border. [Trib]

Nationally: Despite widespread criticism from both parties, President Donald Trump and his Cabinet defended the immigration policy of separating families. [NYTimes] [WaPost]

-> Even though she isn’t internally seen as a supporter, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has become the face for Trump’s “zero tolerance” border policy. [Politico]

-> Trump threatened to levy tariffs on nearly all products from China unless the government agrees to sweeping trade concessions. [WaPost] [CNN]

Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Send us a note to cornflakes@sltrib.com.

-- Thomas Burr and Connor Richards

Twitter.com/thomaswburr and Twitter.com/crichards1995