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News Brief: Impeachment Ads, Curtis On War Powers & Woman Sues LDS Church

Photo of John Curtis speaking in office.
Screenshot @RepJohnCurtis Twitter.
Rep. John Curtis said he "feels like that was good data given to him" during a classified briefing about Iran from White House officials.

Thursday morning, Jan. 9, 2020

Nation

Ads Challenge Romney On Impeachment

Four Progressive political groups are spending about $40,000 on digital ads and outreach in Utah. They’re demanding Sen. Mitt Romney push for a “fair” impeachment trial in the Senate and vote to remove President Donald Trump. Romney said on Monday that he wants to hear from former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, one of the witnesses democrats want to call, but stopped short of taking a stand on what trial rules the Senate should adopt. KUER reached out to Romney’s office, but he has yet to comment on the ads. — Sonja Hutson

Curtis On Trump Administration Briefing

Utah Rep. John Curtis has a different take on the classified briefing about Iran than his colleague in the Senate, Mike Lee. Curtis said he “feels like that was good data given to him.” Lee spoke with media after Wednesday’s meeting, saying briefers wouldn’t allow discussion or questions and says he’ll support a resolution to reign in the president’s war powers. — Diane Maggipinto

Region

LDS Church Reported Sex Abuse, Wife Sues

An Oregon woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for more than $9 million after her husband's confession to church leaders led to his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual abuse charges. The lawsuit involves a man from Turner, Oregon, convicted of abuse after he confessed to LDS clergy that he had repeated sexual contact with a minor. LDS Church officials did not comment. The family's attorney said the man's confession was meant to be confidential. — Associated Press

Women Mean Business

A new study rates Colorado the best state for women entreneuprers. But while Colorado is number one the rest of our region lags way behind. This year Fit Small Business decided to factor in the health and safety of women in addition to business friendliness. While Colorado came in at number one the rest of region lags behind. Utah ranked 32nd in the nation. — Kamila Kudelska, Mountain West News Bureau

Rural Innovation

New research shows that innovation isn’t just happening in the cities. Pennsylvania State University researchers looked at innovation in a new way. Instead of just counting patents and adding up research funding, they looked at ideas that crop up from businesses communicating and building on each others ideas. They found this type of group-think was just as important as having lots of patented ideas and it’s happening in rural counties as well high tech meccas like Seattle and San Francisco. The study found that Utah’s counties with the highest potential for innovation were largely concentrated in the Salt Lake region, like Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties. But Iron County was also a top performer. — Madelyn Beck, Mountain West News Bureau

State

Governor’s Budget

Governor Gary Herbert is proposing a 20 billion dollar state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and it focuses on education and growth issues. Read the full story. — Sonja Hutson

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