At a rally in Tampa, Fla., President Donald Trump continued pushing for tougher voter ID laws, suggesting voter fraud is rampant (it isn’t) and saying people need photo ID to shop for groceries. Meanwhile, sales at Utah liquor stores — where you do need ID — are booming.
Happy Wednesday! Trump is continuing to beat the drum for tougher voter ID laws, falsely claiming people need photo ID for everything else — including grocery shopping. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond when asked when the billionaire president last bought his own groceries. [AP]
Topping the news: Trump, at odds with the Health and Human Services Department, has reportedly decided to suspend until after the midterm election consideration of state requests for partial Medicaid expansion plans, as Utah and others have put forward. [Trib] [NYTimes]
-> Three members who serve on the controversial Utah Transit Authority board were sidelined in the search for members for the new commission that will oversee the agency amid reforms and rebranding. Only one commission candidate remains who currently serves as a UTA board member. [Trib] [DNews]
-> Former Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder, now police chief of Moab, criticized his successor, Sheriff Rosie Rivera, for what he described as lack of leadership in stopping cities from leaving the Unified Police Department. He also took shots at the “greed” of cities departing UPD. [Trib] [DNews] [ABC4]
Tweets of the day: From @Acosta: “It was great chatting with all the Trump supporters in Tampa tonight. I took more questions from them than the president has taken from the press lately.”
-> From @OhNoSheTwitnt: “Past: No collusion Present: Collusion isn’t a crime Future: Trump/Collusion 2020”
-> From @byrdinator: “shutting down the government right before a midterm election to own the libs”
Happy Birthday: To Jennifer Fox Young and Rachael Stoll.
In other news: Utah liquor consumption is overflowing. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control reports that sales at state-controlled liquor stores hit $454 million for the fiscal year just ended. [Trib]
-> Children in Utah generally fared better than their counterparts in other states during the past six years — including a smaller percentage living in poverty, according to a new study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. [Trib]
-> The founders of the Utah Cold Case Coalition announced the group will begin offering a $3,000 reward for anyone who has information to help investigations into one of Utah’s unsolved crimes. [Trib] [DNews] [Fox13]
-> Rep. John Curtis held a closed meeting with Utah’s tech leaders from Facebook, Qualtrics, CenturyLink and other companies to discuss net neutrality, which Curtis said needs to be addressed through congressional action. [KSL]
-> Amazon has begun hiring some 1,500 workers who are expected to staff its under-construction fulfillment center in Salt Lake City. But the company, which is receiving more than $5 million in tax breaks, is offering wages starting at just around $12.50. [DNews]
-> Pat Bagley believes Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke’s reduction of national monuments was an offering of public lands to oil and gas companies. [Trib]
-> Robert Gehrke says the support for LGBTQ rights displayed at the LoveLoud Festival shows how much our society has changed in recent years — and how radically different it will look in the future. [Trib]
Nationally: In the opening statements of the first trial to arise out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, prosecuting attorneys said President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, lied to tax authorities and banks for years. [WaPost] [NYTimes] [Politico]
-> While the president has been adamant in insisting that there was no collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia, he tweeted that “collusion is not a crime," adding that “there was No Collusion.” [Politico] [CNN]
-> A back-and-forth public feud between Trump and billionaire industrialist Charles Koch over trade and immigration could create problems for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. [NYTimes] [WaPost] [CNN]
-> A federal judge in Seattle granted a temporary nationwide injunction blocking blueprints for a 3D printed plastic gun from being posted on the internet. [NYTimes] [BBC] [CNN]
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— Dan Harrie and Connor Richards
Follow @sltribpolitics