Monthly archive
Two disparate events Wednesday will showcase Nevada with the ongoing immigration reform debate as a backdrop.
In the Capitol, Attorney General Adam Laxalt will be testifying before the House Judiciary Committee "on the unconstitutionality of President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration," as his office describes it. Laxalt joined 25 other AGs in a lawsuit that they won in a Texas court last week.
Also on Wednesday, in Florida, Jose Diaz-Balart will be holding a joint MSNBC/Telemundo town...
Ed Vogel loved people.
That made him different from many journalists.
Ed Vogel loved human interest stories.
That made him different from many capital bureau chiefs.
Ed Vogel loved to travel around Nevada.
That made him different from most urban state reporters.
Ed Vogel was different. And that’s part of why he has been so missed from Nevada journalism for the past year and why his passing this weekend at the age of 66 is a reminder that it sometimes takes a character to write well about other...
Welcome to the Weekly Report.
This week:
1. Three weeks in and already some strong feelings
2. Is Roberson a tyrant, are the Democrats inept, or both or neither?
3. Smartest/dumbest moves
A smart guy in Carson City neatly summed up the session for the Democrats to me last week: “You have a problem when the only hammer you have is to shoot yourself in the head.”
That is, if all you can hold over the GOP leaders is a threat not to vote for taxes (which means you will vote against funding...
You may have heard that the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the state's largest and least complete newspaper, has been sold after many budget cuts and with fears of more to come.
The new owners are coming to visit next week, so the staff has been advised to clean up and look sharp. Here's the memo:
All:
As mentioned yesterday, executives from New Media will be in the building Monday to see what they're buying.
This would be a good opportunity to do some early spring cleaning. If you need a bin...
Michele of the Thousand Tax Liens and the Mouth That Gored (Herself) talked to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Read it and weep.
Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has no position on the governor's tax plan for education, leaving Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison as the only constitutional officer elected in The Sandoval Sweep backing the titular head of the GOP.
Rarely have I seen an elected official so painfully and obviously dodge taking a position as Cegavske did. This what I received about 24 hours after asking from her spokeswoman, Catherine Lu:
Secretary Cegavske is currently following its progress through the Legislature...
Veteran Reporter Jon Ralston Joins PBS Stations in Nevada
Governor Brian Sandoval Scheduled as First Guest
(Las Vegas, Reno) – Veteran reporter, commentator and news analyst Jon Ralston is returning to statewide television five nights a week. He begins his weekday program,Ralston Live, Monday, March 2 at 5:30 p.m. on Nevada’s two PBS member stations, Vegas PBS and KNPB in Reno. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is scheduled to be the first guest of the program.
The program will repeat...
Here's what's happening on two GOP bills driving Democrats batty:
►SB 119: The bill to allow school bonds to automatically roll over and remove prevailing wage requirements from school construction is in limbo in the Assembly after passing the Senate on a party-line vote. Why? Here's what sources tell me:
Democrats are hung up on the prevailing wage provisions, as they were in the Senate. But the real problem is that some of the Republicans consider the automatic bond rollover a tax increase...
The Retailers Association of Nevada plans to release results of focus groups today that show voters don't think a lot of tax reform plans but back education reform and gun background checks.
And this:
Although the "sunset taxes" were a topic of many election campaigns, no participants could identify those taxes and less than half supported continuing them. Participants were very supportive to various proposals to reform construction defects legislation and most supported companies such as Uber...
Welcome to the Weekly Report.
This week:
1. Leadership report cards after two weeks
2. General thoughts after two weeks
3. Smartest/dumbest moves
My insiders never let me down:
►Everyone has noticed the pace and the substance so far: Is it really only week 2? Maybe time moves extra slowly in Carson City or maybe Republicans are seizing what could be a short lived double majority by doing a lot of work very quickly. Either way, it seems like this session is going to put every Democratic...