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Political Cornflakes: Trump cheers on the high school student from a viral video who’s suing The Washington Post

President Donald Trump speaks during a signing event in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Nick Sandmann, the teen who was front and center in the viral video in last month’s hotly debated confrontation with a Native American elder, is suing The Washington Post over its coverage of the incident. And it appears he has an ally in President Donald Trump. The president weighed in on the suit on Twitter on Wednesday morning, saying, “go get them Nick. Fake News!” Trump has voiced support for students of the all-male Catholic Kentucky school before, ripping the media for “smearing” the boys, who were in Washington to attend an anti-abortion march. [POLITICO]

Happy Wednesday.

Topping the news: A bill that would look to amend Utah’s toothless hate crime law will receive a committee hearing on Thursday after weeks of stagnation in which its sponsor worked to obtain approval from his fellow Republican senators. [Trib] [Fox13] [DNews]

-> The sponsor of a bill aimed at restricting abortions in Utah has increased the window for legal abortions from 15 weeks to 18 in an effort to bolster the odds the law would survive a likely court challenge, if approved. State law currently allows abortions before 22 weeks. [Trib] [DNews]

-> There are 10 candidates vying to fill the open at-large Salt Lake County Council seat — a large field that’s seen as both a boon and a complication. [Trib] [DNews]

-> The contamination of Sandy’s water with excess amounts of fluoride last week has renewed an old debate about the need for the mineral in Utah’s water. [Trib] [DNews]

Tweets of the day: From @JennyWilsonUT: “Hey @BenMcAdams. Just cleaning out your old desk. Do you want any of this stuff?”

-> From @MollyJongFast: “I was sure the guy with the Nixon back tattoo would have had better judgement.”

Happy birthday: To State Rep. Keven Stratton and former Rep. Earl Tanner.

In other news: The Sandy City Council unanimously approved creation of an independent technical committee that will investigate the approach the city took after discovering fluoride contamination in its water supply. [Trib] [Fox13] [ABC4]

-> A federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the town of Dutch John against Daggett County, finding no merit to the town’s claims that the county had violated federal law by selling off its buildings and real estate and spending the money on unknown purposes. [Trib]

-> The Murray City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to join a coalition of six other Utah municipalities, and several cities from other states, that are pledging to help electrify the grid in the Navajo Nation, where an estimated 60,000 residents live without power. [Trib]

-> Utah Congressman Ben McAdams visited the Utah Legislature on Tuesday and spoke to majority and minority caucuses about the national debt, ideas for a balanced budget and the apparent reluctance for banks to deal with marijuana businesses because the substance remains illegal at the federal level. [Trib]

-> Later on, McAdams held a town hall in Lehi City, where he fielded questions from residents in heavily Republican Utah County about abortion, the border wall and impeaching Trump. [Trib]

-> A bill aimed at monitoring the environmental impacts of the inland port development planned for Salt Lake City’s westernmost area cleared committee on Tuesday with a vote of 4-3. [Trib]

-> A measure that passed the Utah House and is on its way to the Senate would legalize a practice called “lane filtering,” in which motorcyclists travel between same direction lanes and cars that are stopped in traffic. The practice is thought to decrease incidents of rear-ending stopped motorcyclists during traffic jams. [Trib]

-> After more than an hour of tense debate, a bill that looks to clarify what teachers can and can’t say about condoms and birth control pills passed unanimously out of a legislative committee. [Trib]

-> A measure that would have required the state’s county jails to provide women behind bars with continued access to birth control won’t move forward after pushback from sheriffs who are concerned about costs and want more time to study the proposal. [Trib]

-> If passed, a bill introduced in the Senate would allow Utahns to bet in horse races. The bill’s sponsor says that while it qualifies as gambling, it is not a mere game of chance because it requires “knowledge of the horses.” [Fox13][DNews]

-> After its website domain was snatched while the site was going through a redesign, Utah Moms for Clean Air is accusing the parent company of Rio Tinto Kennecott of buying the domain name in an attempt to silence the group. [Trib]

-> Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has nominated a recently returned missionary to serve as a new member of the state’s liquor commission. [Trib] [Fox13]

-> During a Salt Lake City School District Board meeting, parents reacted strongly to the potential closure of Bennion Elementary School, which has a high population of minority and homeless students. [Trib] [Fox13]

-> Pat Bagley illustrates women’s health care in Utah. [Trib]

Nationally: After California joined a coalition of states suing Trump for declaring a state of national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and for circumventing congressional approval of budget funds, the administration was looking at ways to revoke $2.5 billion in federal funds already spent on the state’s high speed rail. [NYTimes]

-> Trump has nominated Jeffrey Rosen — the deputy secretary of transportation, who used to work in the same firm as Attorney General William P. Barr — to replace Rod J. Rosenstein as the nation’s new deputy attorney general. [WaPost]

-> Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign will employ a corporate structure with a top-down organization that is vastly different from his 2016 one. [Politico]

-> Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and the 2016 Democratic primary runner-up to Hillary Clinton, announced he will join an already crowded field of Democrats to run for the 2020 presidential election. [NYTimes]

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

-- Taylor Stevens and Christina Giardinelli

twitter.com/tstevensmedia; twitter.com/C_Giardinelli