Happy Wednesday! The vice presidency is largely a ceremonial job. Yes, there are constitutional responsibilities but often the vice president finds himself filling in for the president or working to advance his agenda. In the case of Vice President Mike Pence, it’s also his job to be a punching bag. In recent months, Pence has repeatedly found himself an even-tempered target for prominent Republicans needing to vent about President Donald Trump’s unorthodox style. [Politico]
Topping the news: Following an emotion packed debate, the Utah House passed a bill to increase the state’s hate crime law in order to make it more expansive and enforceable. The legislation was years in the making and now if Gov. Gary Herbert signs it the bill will become a law. [Trib] [Fox13] [ABC4] [KSL] [KUTV]
-> Lawmakers from both the Senate and House overwhelmingly voted in favor of a piece of legislation that would subject BYU police to the same level of transparency as any other law enforcement agency in the state. If Gov. Gary Herbert signs the bill, BYU police will be forced to open their records despite the university’s private status. [Trib] [KSL] [KUTV]
-> The Montana-based Western Values Project discovered that the Bureau of Land Management officials were explicitly clear about Utah’s Grand Staircase monument’s importance, yet the monument was significantly cut in what was an extremely controversial move. [Trib]
-> President Donald Trump signed a sweeping, bipartisan public lands package, which included several Utah-centric bills such as the creation of a Jurassic National Monument. [Trib]
Happy Birthday: to Jeff Robinson, Gary Guelker, Rep. Dan Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Pitcher!
Tweets of the day: From @hels: “One year ago Mitt Romney blessed us with the knowledge that his favorite meat is hot dog, and now we learn that his favorite snack is Twinkie, the hot dog of cake products.”
-> @deanjnorris: “I got into Harvard against long odds via hard work and perseverance. Neither of my parents went to college, we didn’t have money 2 even pay for SAT prep course let alone bribes. Shameful. It’s hard enuf for working class kids 2 succeed w/o rich privilege taking opportunity away.”
-> @StephenAtHome: “I wonder which college basketball team will get to watch Trump eat 300 room temperature cheeseburgers.”
-> @StephenAtHome: “I set my clock forward for Daylight Savings Time and my Doomsday Clock forward for everything else.”
In the news: A Senate committee voted to push a bill forward that would create protection zones for gravel operations currently underway despite the onslaught of residents from the Point of the Mountain pit arguing against it. However, the legislation has been through several revisions. [Trib]
-> Lawmakers narrowly approved a bill in the Senate Tuesday designed to send a message about air pollution by allowing authorities to enforce idling laws with just one warning rather than the original three. [Trib]
-> A video of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney blowing out the candles on his birthday cake went viral yesterday with more than 1 million views in four hours. His cake was assembled out of Twinkies and he blew out each of the candles individually. [Trib] [Fox13]
-> A bill seeking to increase environmental protections on the inland port area planned for northwestern Salt Lake City soared through the Senate Tuesday afternoon. The bill instructs the Department of Environmental Quality to analyze the baseline environmental conditions for the area and monitor if anything changes adversely once development for the port begins. [Trib]
-> Several leaders from Utah education groups expressed their displeasure over lawmakers’ decision to divert funding set aside for public education and push it into other services that aid the disabled, poor and elderly communities. [Trib]
-> The Utah Senate voted to change driver license expiration dates from five years to every eight. [Trib]
-> In wake of the previous tax-reform plan crumbling last week, lawmakers from the Utah Senate and House announced a plan to fund the state budget, however about $300 million of total spending will be designated as one-time payments. This was done to pressure lawmakers into meeting again as soon as possible to find solutions with the state’s revenue imbalance. [Trib] [Fox13] [KSL] [KUTV]
-> The Utah House approved a bill seeking to bring order to the hundreds of electric scooters strewn across Salt Lake City. If passed, the piece of legislation would allow cities to regulate the scooters, allow scooters on roads over 25 mph, prohibit drivers from drinking or transporting alcoholic beverages and carrying more riders than one. [Trib]
-> Both the House and Senate voted in favor a bill that would raise Utah’s minimum marriage age to 15 and only in instances where both the child’s parents and a judge approves. The bill would also prevent children from marrying anyone 7-years-older than they are. [Trib]
-> Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke argues that Utah lawmakers as an entirety care more about protecting than their own addresses than the addresses of victims of domestic violence or human trafficking. He criticized a House committee’s decision to kill a bill that would have created a state program to give violent crime victims a proxy address for sending and receiving mail. [Trib]
Nationally: For the second time in months, parliament voted against British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan leaving the country in an even more uncertain position than before. The United Kingdom is supposed to leave the European Union in less than 20 days, but leaders have been unable to agree on a plan. [NYTimes] [Politico] [WaPost]
-> Former Vice President Joe Biden told a group of firefighters on Tuesday that he will likely be announcing his 2020 presidential run soon. [NYTimes] [WaPost] [Politico]
-> Several Ivy League schools are now under fire after an investigation conducted by the FBI revealed that on countless occasions rich well-known parents donated money to secure positions for their children in the elite universities. Federal prosecutors have already charged 50 people involved in the scandal. [Politico] [WaPost] [NYTimes]
-> Spread across the world there are 22 international U.S. based immigration offices that deal in a variety of areas including fraud prevention, immigration applications and asylum grants. Now, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to close these offices, according to several source. [Politico] [NYTimes] [WaPost]
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-- Thomas Burr and Sahalie Donaldson
Follow @sltribpolitics