Nevada Politics

A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted late Tuesday to approve the last of the state’s five budget bills in an emergency special session, sending the measure to Gov. Joe Lombardo as the final piece in a budget deal that crumbled at the 11th hour of the regular session.

Gov. Joe Lombardo issued a proclamation late Tuesday night calling on the Legislature to convene Wednesday morning for a second consecutive special session to discuss a $380 million public financing package to help fund a proposed Las Vegas stadium project for the Oakland A’s.

Gov. Joe Lombardo officially convened a special session of the Nevada Legislature. The special session will begin at 8 p.m. and end by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

Democratic leadership and Gov. Joe Lombardo’s administration came to an agreement on all but one of the five major state budget implementation bills, with the measure funding state public works and construction faltering in the Senate in the final hours of the session and a special session on the horizon.

As part of the budget compromise, Democrats and Lombardo brokered a deal on three major Lombardo bills, including charter school legislation, a government modernization effort and criminal justice reforms — but all were substantially watered down from their original forms.

As the Legislature approaches adjournment sine die, the constitutionally mandated end to the 120-day session, the once slow trickle of the legislative session has been turbocharged into a raging river — with bills moving rapidly through hearings, committee votes, floor votes, amendments and transmittal to the governor’s desk.

With just days left in the legislative session, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo joined Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar in a bill signing détente.

Speaking at the June 5th Democratic luncheon will be Carson City library director Joy Holt. She will catch us up on all of library's many doings, and is prepared to consider suggestions from the audience for even more doings.

Joy Holt's resume includes experience as a library aide, library assistant, academic student reference librarian, assistant library director, digital services librarian, assistant to the state librarian and deputy library director.

On Wednesday evening, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the K-12 Education Funding Bill, in addition to AB 330, which is Governor Lombardo’s Safer and Supportive Schools Act, and AB 285, Assemblywoman Angie Taylor’s school safety legislation.

LAS VEGAS – on Monday, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo announced that the Colorado River Lower Basin States have developed a plan to conserve 3 million acre-feet over the next three years to protect the Colorado River system.

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be biologist Craig Downer, who will explain with specificity why he strongly supports SB90, a bill which designates the wild mustang as the official state horse of the State of Nevada.

The Legislative Counsel’s digest of SB90 states: "Existing law designates numerous state emblems, including, without limitation, a state bird, state insect, state reptile, state animal, state fish and others. This bill designates the wild mustang as the official state horse of the State of Nevada."

The body of the bill reads as follows:

Our monthly meetings offer opportunities to meet interesting people during our half-hour social time from 6:30 to 7 P.M. During our meeting; we deliver the promise of an exciting speaker. We strive to invite speakers relative to the times who provide information, as knowledge is power. This month we will have Frasier Anning, a Senator who left his country of Austria. He will share his experience of why he and his wife needed to leave their homeland and with a warning for America. Please join us, learn how to get involved, and make new friends. We hope to see you there.

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Christina Lopez, who will be pinch hitting for Kate Marshall, Nevada's 35th lieutenant governor. Marshall, previously announced as the speaker, found herself unable to attend due to a last minute schedule change, so Ms. Lopez, a close associate and former staffer, was asked speak on her behalf.

As Senate Bill 80 (SB80), the education measure advocating for head injury and concussion legislation, advances through the legislative process, Youth Legislator Stella Thornton, 18-year-old senior at Carson High School, on behalf of the Nevada Youth Legislature, took time last Thursday, May 4, 2023, to further present SB80 to the Nevada Assembly Committee on Education.

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Annette Magnus, outgoing Executive Director of Battle Born Progress and the Institute for a Progressive Nevada. For many years she has been as familiar a face around the halls of the legislature and as she has been on TV panel shows hosted by the likes of Sam Shad and Jon Ralston. At the luncheon she will provide an update on the status of bills being promoted or opposed by BBP during the 82nd legislative session.

A state fund used to grant compensation to victims of crime is at risk of being insolvent during the upcoming two-year budget period if additional money is not added to address a dwindling pot of federal dollars.

That would leave the state unable to issue payments to crime victims that are typically used to handle emergency needs such as funeral expenses, relocation costs and emergency therapy.

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Sarah Adler, Principal at Silver State Government Relations. She will provide an update on how key bills have faired in the legislative process so far this session, with special focus on bills related to affordable and supportive housing.

Progressive lawmakers want art therapists to be reimbursed by Medicaid for services used as treatments for anxiety, depression and other mental health symptoms – including drama, art, dance and music therapies.

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee voted along party lines Friday afternoon to “indefinitely postpone” the bill, essentially killing a proposal that came together at the request of Gov. Joe Lombardo.

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Chas Macquarie of the Citizens Climate Lobby. In honor of Earth Week, his presentation, entitled “Building Electrification,” will present information about how electrification of buildings and vehicles is impacting the climate. Also discussed will be how it is now possible to achieve significant savings on home energy costs thanks to rebates and tax credits for home energy improvements included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Social media has become a ubiquitous part of our lives, but is it really good for us? I don't think so. In fact, I believe that social media is destroying our democracy in many ways.

Here are ten reasons why:

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Sara Manns of Compassion & Choices. She will lead a detailed discussion of the End-of-Life-Options Act currently before the Nevada legislative.

On March 14th, Senate Bill 239 had a hearing in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Below is April Corbin Girnus' report on the hearing, as it appeared in the March 16 Nevada Current...

Democratic lawmakers are once again attempting to legalize the use of life-ending medication for terminally ill patients in Nevada.

Even though lawmakers in 2021 unanimously passed AB88, a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) that prohibited “sundown sirens,” or sounds citywide to alert people of color to leave town by a certain time, the town of Minden still sounds a siren at 5 p.m.

The city says the sound honors first responders despite concerns about the racist connotations brought up by Washoe tribal members during the hearing Wednesday for SB391, which seeks to close a loophole in the previous bill that allowed the practice to continue.

The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Calen Evans, President of the Washoe Education Association (WEA). He will present a teacher perspective on which proposals currently being considered by the 82nd Session support public education, and which do not.

Gov. Joe Lombardo has proposed a pair of pay increases for state employees — 8 percent next year and 4 percent the following year — but public safety officers could see raises around 20 percent in the next year under proposed increases meant to bring their pay in line with counterparts in other state and local governments.

A legislative proposal allowing Nevada to operate a state lottery could slice into the revenue stream of Northern Nevada casino operator Truckee Gaming.

But it wouldn’t be a large chunk of the company’s cash flow, said CEO Ferenc Szony.

CARSON CITY — Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Monday an executive order that outlines his state energy policy objectives for the next decade. The executive order highlights Gov. Lombardo’s multifaceted approach to state energy policy and fulfills his promise made in his State of the State speech to address energy objectives through an executive order.

In a rare move, Gov. Joe Lombardo testified before state lawmakers on Thursday in support of his bill revising a contentious 2019 restorative justice law that school districts and others have said ultimately limited teachers’ ability to deal with disruptive or violent students.

For the past few years, Las Vegas elementary school teacher Kristan Nigro said she has dealt with extreme, and at times violent, student behavior. In one incident, a student acted out, trashed her classroom and hit a classmate in the face with a book. That same student later threw a pair of scissors at her and just missed her face.

Dejalyne Davis, a citizen of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and a member of the Pyramid Lake High School girl’s basketball team, was one of roughly a dozen speakers in a packed Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday testifying in support of a bill aimed at ensuring Indigenous people who go missing are included in missing person databases.

Lawmakers are considering a bill, AB157, that would impose harsher penalties for those living off the earnings of child sex workers than for those living off the earnings of adult sex workers.