Monday, May 5, 2025
⏰ Tick Tock
2 days remaining to verify signatures for the HB267 referendum. (5/7/2025)
99 days to Utah's 2025 municipal primary elections (8/12/2025)
183 days until Election Day (11/4/2025)
547 days until the 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026)
👀 Here's what you need to know for Monday morning:
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Utah Headlines
The Great Salt Lake is drying. Can Utah save it? [New York Times gift link].
As Utah's fluoride ban begins, health officials urge Utahns to protect their teeth. [Utah News Dispatch]
Utah is producing more oil than ever. Even more could be on its way if a controversial railway gets built. [Tribune]
Could an AI "hallucination" ruin your reputation? A conservative activist says it did. [Deseret News]
Woman who held Elizabeth Smart captive for months is arrested after visiting park. [NBC News]
National/International
President Donald Trump was asked if he has to "uphold the Constitution." He replied, "I don't know." [NBC News]
President Trump said on social media that he's directed his government to rebuild and reopen the Alcatraz prison in California. The site is currently a museum. [Axios]'
The "big, beautiful bill" to enact much of President Trump's agenda is running into problems as Republicans in Congress keep adding red lines they're unwilling to cross. [Washington Post]
President Trump says he's willing to lower tariffs on China because the two countries have essentially stopped doing business with each other. [Bloomberg]
46% of Americans say President Trump is mostly responsible for today's economy while 27% say Joe Biden bears responsibility. [Gallup]
Conservatives in Congress want to include a proposal to shred hundreds of federal regulations in their massive party-line energy, tax and border security megabill. [Politico]
President Trump attacked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum after she rejected his proposal to allow U.S. troops to operate inside her country to thwart drug cartels. [Associated Press]
The Justice Department division that enforces voting rights laws is changing its focus to investigating voter fraud and making sure elections aren't marred by "suspicion." [Associated Press]
Wednesday is the deadline for having a Real ID compliant license to board a commercial aircraft in the U.S. [Axios]
More than 15,000 Department of Agriculture employees have taken the Trump Administration's offer to resign – roughly 15% of the department's workforce. [Politico]
Crude oil prices tumble after OPEC agrees to surge production by 411,000 barrels per day. [CNBC]
The federal government resumes collecting defaulted student loan payments from millions of people today. [NBC News]
Briefly...
President Trump defended the estimated $45 million price-tag for his planned military parade in Washington, D.C. on his birthday. [NBC News]
President Trump announced plans to implement a 100% tariff on movies made in other countries and imported to the United States. [NBC News]
The National Endowment for the Arts has begun terminating grants to arts organizations after President Trump proposed eliminating the agency in his next budget. [New York Times]
Chinese exporters "wash" their products in third countries to avoid Donald Trump's tariffs. [Financial Times]
Facebook allegedly detected when teen girls deleted selfies so it could serve them beauty ads. [Futurism]
California is running out of license plate numbers. [Los Angeles Times]
