Happy Monday!
This is not an April Fool’s joke: A comedian leads after the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political upstart who had never run for public office before, finished first with about 30 percent of the vote on Sunday, followed by incumbent Petro Poroshenko with 18 percent, according to exit polls. The rest of the vote was split among more than a dozen other candidates.
Zelenskiy and Porosheko now will compete in a run-off in three weeks.
Zelenskiy's only brush with Ukranian politics has been to play the president in a television show called “Servant of the People,” a popular satire about a teacher who wins the county's highest office.
During the campaign, he avoided giving interviews to journalists, preferring instead to stage rally-like performances for which he charged an entrance fee. He refused to participate in a television debate.
Billionaire incumbent Poroshenko has struggled to end the country’s war with Russian-backed separatists and to make good on the promise of reform that vaulted him to power. [Politico][NYTimes]
Topping the news: Monday is exactly one year before the 2020 census counts where Americans live on April 1, 2020. Utah lawmakers chose not to spend any local money to help ensure that all its citizens are counted while others are spending plenty — including $154 million by California. How much will that hurt as the census decides how to split up $675 billion a year in grants, and divide U.S. House seats? [Trib]
-> More low-income Utahns may apply for Medicaid coverage today as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved Utah’s partial Medicaid expansion plan. It allowed the state to extend healthcare to 70,000-90,000 Utahns who earn up to 100 percent of the federal poverty limit. [Trib][Fox13][DNews]
-> Replacing Utah’s outdated emergency radio systems has sparked a war between two companies, Harris Corp., who won bids for the work, and Utah’s current emergency technology supplier, Motorola who as filed three protests alleging bid-rigging. [Trib]
Tweets of the day: From @JessieMandle “Thousands still left out of #medicaid coverage. All Utahns deserve access to affordable coverage- without caps, unnecessary barriers #utpol.”
-> From @tonyposnanski “Those three countries are...El Mexico, Los Mexico, No Way San Jose.”
-> From @GovHerbert “I appreciate the great work of the legislature on SB103, which will serve as a powerful tool in providing critical protections to Utah residents. I look forward to it landing on my desk and signing it into law. #utpol @SenThatcher.”
Happy Birthday: to State Rep. Jim Dunnigan and ABC’s Meredith Nettles
In other news: Sidestepping the usual approval for transportation projects that would generally go through the Utah Transportation Commission, Utah lawmakers approved $800,000 to be spent on a sound wall in front of property owned by a prominent homebuilder and former legislator. [Trib]
-> Documents show that Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall admitted to investigators that he once zip tied the hands of the city’s zoning and planning administrator and put his arms on a resident during a conversation in his office but said these were not aggressive actions, and that they had been misinterpreted. [Trib]
-> A bill to increase regulation on secretly placing a GPS tracker on a vehicle was passed by Utah lawmakers after heavy debate between the state’s two chambers. The final version included provisions that would still allow private investigators to use such devices. [Trib]
-> Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill aimed at improving the response of campus police to cases of sexual assault and relationship violence. The measure was brought to the Legislature after a University of Utah student was slain on campus by her ex-boyfriend. [Trib]
-> Utah lawmakers have set aside $110 million for improvement projects on Utah’s Capitol Hill, including increased parking, repairs to outdated structures and adequate storage space to house ancient artifacts. [Trib]
-> A Tooele family is asking the Salt Lake City Council to buy all of its properties that it says have become uninhabitable due to low flying planes from the city-owned Tooele Valley Airport. [Trib]
-> A number of Sandy residents are frustrated after their efforts to lobby the city council against a large residential development project in their neighborhood failed. [DNews]
->Pat Bagley illustrates a GOP health care plan. [Trib]
Nationally: President Donald Trump is not backing down on his threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico despite industry warnings that this action would hamper supply chains with the nation’s third-largest trading partner. [WaPost]
-> Trump plans to cut off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for allowing mass migration to the United States. [NYTimes][Politico][WaPost]
-> Russia has gradually been expanding military presence across Africa, a move which is indicative of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s desire to return Russia to the position it held before the collapse of the Soviet Union. [NYTimes]
-> Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is expected to announce candidacy for the democratic primary to the 2020 presidential election, has come under scrutiny after an internet article by a Democratic politician described an encounter in which she said Biden had been inappropriately physically affectionate with her. [WaPost]
-> The British Parliament is set to try again today to find an alternative to Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for withdrawing the country from the European Union, which lawmakers rejected for a third time last week. [NYTimes]
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Lee Davidson and Christina Giardinelli