President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a pair of fundraising events in the Hamptons on Friday, including one that charges up to $250,000 for lunch, a photo and a private roundtable with the president — the latest sign that his re-election campaign will embrace the wealthy contributors who served as punching bags in his 2016 run. [WaPost]
Happy Wednesday!
Topping the news: Jon Huntsman has resigned as U.S. Ambassador to Russia and is returning home to Utah where he might run for governor. [Trib] [DNews] [Fox13] [ABC4]
-> The Utah Supreme Court has thrown out a legal challenge by a citizen’s group that argued the Legislature unconstitutionally overrode Utahns’ rights by tightening restrictions on medical marijuana. [Trib] [DNews] [Fox13]
-> Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Reps. Chris Stewart and John Curtis have all expressed support for “red flag” laws, which allow a court to order someone’s weapons to be seized if the individual is deemed a danger to himself/herself or others. [Trib]
Tweets of the day: From @BreeNewsome: “Folks are ready to stigmatize mental illness before they’re ready to stigmatize racism & misogyny.”
-> From @JimDabakis: “Sitting in my neighborhood coffee shop working on city stuff. Kept thinking of Dayton and El Paso--of all the kids without parent and parents without kids. It got me emotional. America deserves better.”
-> From @SpencerJCox: "For those of us, like me, who own guns, love to hunt/shoot and fiercely protect the 2nd Amendment—we have to be willing to propose ways to keep these weapons out of the hands of madmen while still protecting the rights of good guys to bear arms. And if we don’t? We will lose.
Happy birthday: To Moab City manager David Everitt.
In other news: A new poll shows that a majority of Salt Lake residents, by a 3-1 margin, want a free-fare transit system, which mayoral candidates Jim Dabakis and Stan Penfold have pushed for in their campaigns. [Trib]
-> Salt Lake City police departments are switching to hybrid vehicles as part of a focus on becoming more environmentally conscious. [Trib]
-> Gov. Gary Herbert denied Tuesday that shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste passed through Utah on their way to Nevada. [Trib]
-> During her three years as Salt Lake City’s first economic development director, Lara Fritts helped attract more than 9,000 new jobs and direct more than $40 million in incentives for affordable housing. She is now departing for a new position in Virginia. [Trib]
-> The children of a black man who was shot and killed by a Salt Lake City police officer last year are suing the city and the officer, claiming there’s a history of racially biased policing in Salt Lake. [DNews]
-> A Logan teenager who killed a homeless man by pushing him over will spend 30 days in prison after he was charged with homicide by assault, a third-degree felony. [HJNews]
-> The Professional Soccer Referees Association and Equality Utah condemned Real Salt Lake coach Mike Petke for his recent use of homophobic slurs. [Trib]
-> Cartoonist Pat Bagley illustrates stats on universal background checks for gun ownership. [Trib]
Nationally: Trump will visit El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday after the border town suffered a mass shooting that left 22 people dead. The shooting appears to have been motivated by anti-Hispanic hatred, which Democrats blame the president for stoking. [Reuters] [WaPost]
-> The United States lacks sufficient scientific data on gun violence prevention because of a 1996 ban by Congress on federal funding for such research. [Wired]
-> Trump and the Republican National Committee are fighting a new law that would keep him off California’s ballots next year if he declines to disclose his tax returns. [WaPost]
-> Experts believe an increase in prescriptions of naloxone, an overdose-reversing drug, is one reason that opioid overdoes deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades. [APviaTrib]
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-- Taylor Stevens and Sara Tabin
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