Representative Justin Amash of Michigan — the only sitting Republican member of Congress to support impeaching President Donald Trump — announced Thursday that he was leaving the party. His move, which comes after fierce attacks from the president and fellow Republicans, makes him the only independent member of the House of Representatives. [NYTimes]
Happy Friday!
Topping the news: Democrats and environmental groups are outraged after Trump announced he would be using $2.5 million from the already-underfunded National Parks Service for his nontraditional July celebration featuring tanks, bands and military flyover jets with himself prominently featured. [Trib]
->More than 100 Utah immigrants officially became American citizens on Wednesday during a special naturalization ceremony. [Trib] [DNews]
-> U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is proceeding with plans for a detention center for immigrants awaiting court in West Valley City that would be located in Evanston, Wyoming. [Trib] [DNews]
Tweets of the day: From @UnFitz: “It’s called Independence Day because it’s the day fireworks make so many fingers independent from the hands to which they were formerly attached”
From @pourmecoffee: “The military could have told Trump they were bringing dozens of the new invisible tanks.”
-> From @daveweigel: “Whenever candidates claim this is ‘the most important election of our lifetime,’ my hipster rebuttal is that 2014 was. If Rs don’t win the Senate, Obama replaces Scalia, lowering the stakes for 2016 and probably electing Clinton.”
Happy Birthday: To former Rep. Johny Anderson, R-Taylorsville.
Trib Talk: On this week’s episode, reporter Benjamin Wood follows the state’s Tax Restructuring and Equalization Task Force to St. George to hear directly from the Utahns who are watching, and concerned about, the reform process. [Trib]
Also in the news: California Democratic senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris will attend two events in Salt Lake City later this month. [Trib] [DNews] [KUTV]
-> After Nike pulled its shoes with a design some say is tied to white supremacy, a Sandy business owner is selling a flag with the same design, saying “only a few losers” will take offense. [Trib] [UPR]
-> Salt Lake City mayoral candidate David Garbett, the former executive director of the Pioneer Park Coalition, says he would push for the Marathon Petroleum refinery and Rocky Mountain Power’s Gadsby power plant to be moved outside the Salt Lake Valley, if elected. [Fox13]
-> The children of Patrick Harmon — a black man fatally shot by police in 2017 — are suing Salt Lake City, claiming the officer who fatally shot him was motivated by race. [Trib]
-> The Kaysville City Council voted 4-1 to remove Councilman Dave Adams after Mayor Katie Witt accused him of sexual harassment for calling her “sweetie.” [DNews]
-> Cartoonist Pat Bagley illustrates “Pet Peeve.” [Trib]
-> Columnist Robert Gehrke writes a satirical speech imagining Trump’s for for Fourth of July. [Trib]
Nationally: After the Supreme Court last week rejected the Trump administration’s stated reason for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census as contrived, the U.S. Department of Justice said it is exploring ways to make that happen, by the president’s orders. [NYTimes]
-> A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday upheld a block on Trump’s attempt to use $2.5 billion from the Department of Defense to construct a wall along the southwestern border — one of his signature campaign promises and an effort to decrease immigration from central America. [NYTimes]
->New York Democratic senator and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the firing of top Customs and Border Patrol officials, claiming conditions in the agency’s detention centers are inhumane. [Politico]
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-- Taylor Stevens and Alison Berg
Follow @sltribpolitics