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Political Cornflakes: Trump says for the first time the 2016 meeting with Russian attorney was campaign-related

President Donald Trump, center, raises his fist alongside first lady Melania Trump, left, and son Donald Trump, Jr., after dancing at the Liberty Ball, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The meeting between President Donald Trump’s campaign and a Russian attorney with links to the Kremlin took its latest twist on Sunday. Brigham Young University’s Honor Code was changed last year to give amnesty from school discipline to students who report sexual assault, but a recent case at the school’s Idaho campus sheds light on a possible “loophole” in the new policy.

Happy Monday.

President Donald Trump admitted Sunday that the focus of a June 2016 meeting between his son and a Kremlin-connected lawyer was to “get information” on Hillary Clinton. He claimed it was “totally legal” and something “done all the time in politics.” The admission, made on Twitter, was the latest in a shifting line of explanations the Trumps have made to explain the meeting with a representative of a U.S. adversary during a presidential campaign. [NYTimes]

Topping the news: A BYU-Idaho student says the school kicked her out after she reported being sexually assaulted, exposing what experts call a “loophole” in BYU’s recently adopted Honor Code amnesty policy for students who report assault. [Trib]

-> Records show that girls in the polygamous Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group, are being married off as young as 15. In Utah, it is legal for 15 year old to get married if they have a judge’s permission. [Trib]

-> Some Democratic senators are arguing that mining within the former boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is illegal, and also say Trump didn’t have the authority to shrink the boundaries in the first place. [Trib]

Tweets of the day: From @StephenAtHome: “How about an awesome cage match between the Koch Brothers and Steve Bannon? They all go into a cage, we lock the cage and...that’s it.”

-> From @byrdinator: “truly baffling that Republican lawmakers and their aides are not interested in answering my questions about [checks notes] paying off the national debt with tariff revenue”

-> From @HayesBrown: “It’s wild to think about how future historians will talk about football or basketball the way we learn about things like jousting today”

In other news: Salt Lake City, like other cities in the U.S., has been inundated with hundreds of electric scooters. Salt Lake Tribune reporters wanted to find out: with so many options, what is the best way to get around town? So they raced to the office. [Trib]

-> Here’s how Utah’s members of Congress reacted to Trump’s call to build a Space Force branch of the military to defend against a potential war in outer space. [Trib]

-> Some attendees of the annual Taste of the Wasatch wine tasting and beer drinking event were upset when they heard that 3 Squares, a nonprofit that organizes the event, shorted other charities that were supposed to receive proceeds from the past three events. Four Salt Lake City vendors backed out after the financial issues became public, and those who came said there must be changes before next year’s event. [Trib]

-> Right now, there are few policies in place that would prevent university students with access to 3D printers from printing a plastic gun. So what happens if they do? [Trib]

-> A month after the launch of Call2Haul, a bulk waste pickup program in Salt Lake, trash continues to pile on the streets across the city, leaving residents frustrated. [Trib]

-> Pat Bagley wonders where Sen. Orrin Hatch’s disdain for partisan leadership was during the nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court when Obama was president. [Trib]

-> Robert Gehrke says the president’s tariffs on foreign goods – coupled with a crippling drought – could negatively affect farmers in Utah. [Trib]

-> Frank Pignanelli and LaVarr Webb discuss the politics of an inland port in Salt Lake City. [DNews]

Nationally: In the age of steep tariffs on foreign steel, companies are looking for exemptions to allow them to buy products at discounted rates. But two American steel giants with ties to the Trump administration have been successful at blocking those requests. [NYTimes]

-> Democrats in Ohio are experiencing a surge in the final days before Tuesday’s special election as they hope to defeat their Republican opponents. [Politico]

-> Paul Manafort’s former right-hand man, Rick Gates, has taken center stage in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, and the jury will have to decide whether to believe a person who has admitted to lying. [WaPost]

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

-- Connor Richards and Taylor W. Anderson.

Twitter.com/crichards1995 and Twitter.com/TaylorWAnderson