Friday, May 16, 2025
⏰ Tick Tock
88 days to Utah's 2025 municipal primary elections (8/12/2025)
172 days until Election Day (11/4/2025)
536 days until the 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026)
👀 Here's what you need to know for Friday morning:
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Utah Headlines
Florida bans fluoride from drinking water, joining Utah. [USA Today]
Utah Supreme Court affirms ruling ordering new trial for death row inmate. [Utah News Dispatch]
This pardoned Utah billionaire has a history of making political donations while facing criminal accusations. [Fox 13]
Gov. Cox: Utah's housing crisis demands tough conversations with cities. [Deseret News]
Minimum-wage Utah workers have to work 156 hours a week to afford the average apartment, according to report. [Fox 13]
How 2 Utah universities plan to slash liberal arts programs under state-imposed budget cuts. [Salt Lake Tribune]
Behavioral health in Utah has critical gaps amid growing demand. [Deseret News]
Utah leaders praise Trump's fast-tracking of a "vital" uranium mine. Environmentalists say the move "beggars belief." [Salt Lake Tribune]
Why lack of federal funding could drop the curtain on southern Utah arts scene. [Fox 13]
Salt Lake City plans to spend another big chunk of $80 million bond on parks upgrades. Here's how and when. [Salt Lake Tribune]
National/International
Republicans in Congress are being urged to go on offense over spending cuts to Medicaid and argue they are rooting out fraud and abuse. [Washington Post]
President Donald Trump said he wants to make Gaza a "freedom zone," arguing there's nothing left to save in the Palestinian territory. [Reuters]
Inflation unexpectedly dropped 0.5% in April, mostly due to falling egg and gasoline prices, but experts say it appears to be a one-off that will likely reverse course if tariffs remain high. [MarketWatch]
- Walmart plans to raise prices this month, passing the cost of merchandise impacted by tariffs to consumers. [Wall Street Journal]
285 of America's 313 air traffic control facilities are operating below the Federal Aviation Administration's recommended staffing levels. [New York Times]
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pitching a reality television show pitting immigrants against each other "for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship." [Wall Street Journal]
Senate Republicans rejected a Democrat-backed resolution requiring the Trump administration to tell Congress what steps it has taken to comply with court orders involving deportees to El Salvador. [New York Times]
Russia and Ukraine are holding the first direct peace talks in three years in Istanbul today. [Associated Press]
The FBI is shutting down its public corruption division. [NBC News]
Donors are being offered a "VIP experience" at several events involving the military planned by President Trump this summer. [Wall Street Journal]
Briefly...
President Trump's political advisers helped convince Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to not run for U.S. Senate by showing her poll results that had her losing to Democrat Jon Ossoff by nearly 20 points. [Wall Street Journal]
Violent threats against judges in the U.S. are skyrocketing. [Wired]
A "copy" of the Magna Carta purchased by Harvard Law School in the 1940s is, in fact, one of seven surviving originals from 1300. [Harvard Law Today]
YouTube will start inserting ads after "peak" moments in videos. [TechCrunch]
