Thursday, April 17, 2025
💡
Programming note:
There will be no "Morning News Fix" on Friday morning.
We will return to your inbox on Monday.
⏰ Tick Tock
117 days to Utah's 2025 municipal primary elections (8/12/2025)
201 days until Election Day (11/4/2025)
565 days until the 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026)
👀 Here's what you need to know for Thursday morning:
Utah Headlines
Labor coalition shatters threshold to qualify for referendum in effort to repeal union bill. [Utah News Dispatch]
Utah House speaker says embattled judge could be impeached if he doesn't resign. [KSL]
Why Utah's former solicitor general is being sued over Trump's firings of Democrats. [Tribune]
With tight deadline, Utah universities scramble to cut 10% of budget for courses. [Utah News Dispatch]
Do Utahns support the flag ban? A new poll shows what they think. [Deseret News]
Utah sued over a Biden-era conservation rule last year. Now, the Trump admin is dismantling it. [Tribune]
Utah youth homeless shelters face funding uncertainty amid federal cuts, freezes. [Utah News Dispatch]
Why is massive wave pool being built in southern Utah city in drought conditions? [Fox 13]
In the nick of time – SLC approves wage contract with police union, just ahead of ban on collective bargaining. [Tribune]
Huge explosion destroys building at mysterious Rocket Ranch in Utah desert. [Daily Mail]
National/International
El Salvador denied Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen's request to meet with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported by the Trump administration. [New York Times]
The White House says Garcia "will never live" in the U.S. again. [BBC]
El Salvador president Nayib Bukele plans to double the size of the maximum-security CECOT prison where his government is holding U.S. deportees. [Wall Street Journal]
A federal judge found probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for a "willful disregard" of his order to stop deporting immigrants to El Salvador. [Politico]
Retail sales rose 1.4% in March as consumers stocked up on big-ticket items. [CNBC]
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warned that President Donald Trump's tariffs are "likely" to cause an increase in inflation and unemployment. [Financial Times]
President Trump blasted Powell on social media saying his "termination can't come soon enough!" [Axios]
China wants countries to unite to resist pressure from the Trump administration on tariffs. [New York Times]
President Trump says negotiators made "big progress" on a trade deal after a meeting with Japanese officials on Wednesday. [Bloomberg]
Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month, but the attack was waved off by President Trump, who is trying to negotiate a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program. [New York Times]
The Trump administration asked the IRS to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status. [Washington Post]
The Department of Homeland Security is threatening to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll international students unless the school turns over records of "illegal and violent activity" by foreign students. [CNN]
New York Attorney General Leticia James is accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the government after a federal agency referred her for potential criminal charges on alleged mortgage fraud. James successfully prosecuted Trump in a $464 million civil fraud case. [Axios]
The entire staff of the White House agency tasked with coordinating the federal government's efforts to combat homelessness was placed on leave by DOGE. [Bloomberg]
Nearly half of Americans say global warming will pose a serious threat to themselves or their way of life. [Gallup]
The Trump administration is suing Maine over policies that allow some transgender athletes to compete in women's sports. [New York Times]
Briefly...
OpenAI is building a social network to rival X/Twitter. [The Verge]
Astronomers detect a possible sign of life on a planet 120 light-years from Earth. [New York Times]
Three cases of the mad cow-like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been reported in a single county in Oregon. The disease has a 100% fatality rate. [Live Science]