lawmakers

CARSON CITY — This Wednesday, Feb. 27, the Nevada dental community is heading to Carson City to spend the day at the Capitol for Oral Health Awareness Day. This is a passionate and involved group of Nevada dentists and UNLV dental students and non-profit dental programs, including Compassion Community Clinic, Adopt a Vet Dental and Healthy Smile Healthy Child.

CARSON CITY — A slew of interesting bills and presentations are ahead this week. A bill to establish the Stewart Indian School museum is on the move Monday. Also on Monday, lawmakers will consider raising the maximum age of a “runaway or homeless youth” from 18 to 24. A physician assisted suicide bill will be heard Monday afternoon.

CARSON CITY — Senate Bill 13 now under consideration by Nevada lawmakers aims to authorize county commissioners to form a nonprofit corporation to “aid the county in providing certain governmental services.”

If the bill is adopted, changes to Chapter 244 of the Nevada Revised Statues would be amended to include several new sections regarding a county’s ability to form a nonprofit corporation.

It’s big news: female lawmakers now hold 32 of the Nevada state legislature’s 63 seats. Thus, Nevada has the distinction of being the first state in the country to seat a female majority to its legislative assembly.

But, that this momentous occasion has transpired first in Nevada oozes with irony. After all, Nevada is the only state in the country that legally sanctions the buying and selling of women for sex.

The most emblematic measure of women’s true status in any society is reflected in its prostitution laws: are women public sexual commodities under the law or not?

The 2019 Legislative Session is in full-swing, and during week 3 we’ll see numerous, important bills, budget considerations and presentations in committees and around the legislative campus in Carson City.

A perennial measure to implement an automated system of traffic enforcement at select intersections will be heard this week. Lawmakers will hear a measure regarding collective bargaining, the New Nevada Education Funding Plan, Medicaid coverage for donor breast milk, cannabis drug screening for employment, sexual assault screening, a Working Families rally and lobbying day on Monday and much more.

A report released last Friday by the Nevada Department of Education showed that nearly 70 percent of students receiving the Nevada Opportunity Scholarship experienced a positive score change according the report, based on six standardized measurements utilized.

CARSON CITY — Two Justices on Monday joined the Nevada Supreme Court and a new Chief Justice has become the administrative leader of the Nevada Judiciary. Justice Abbi Silver and Justice Elissa F. Cadish were sworn in as Justices during an inaugural ceremony this morning in Carson City.

A group of nine Assembly members and five state senators have formed a new caucus focused on economic development through the lens of technology and businesses that bring tech jobs to Nevada.

Groups in four corners of the state have been meeting over the last year to contemplate how to better care for residents grappling with mental health issues, a population that oftentimes has no one to advocate on its behalf.

CARSON CITY — Before the beginning of a biennial legislative session, Nevada lawmakers and various other governmental entities submit Bill Draft Requests to the Legislative Counsel Bureau, and LCB staff draft the measure for introduction during the upcoming session.

Get ready to hear more about Education Savings Accounts, marijuana, conjugal visits and antler dealers when lawmakers head back to Carson City early next year.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton traveled to Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada, to inaugurate what would become an annual bi-state forum focusing on environmental challenges at the lake. More than two decades later, the conversation has shifted, implicitly and at other times explicitly, for a new century and a Lake Tahoe watershed that must contend with changing weather dynamics, from warmer water to increasing wildfires.

Health and Social Services (HSS) has been the fastest-growing category of state expenditures since Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10). Nevada spent $5.5 billion on these services in FY17, up from $2.2 billion in FY06.

Much of this spending is financed through federal grants for Medicaid, food stamps and other welfare programs. As Nevada spends money on these programs, it gets some reimbursement from the federal government. However, the reimbursements do not compensate Nevada fully for all expenditures, and certain programs such as Medicaid require a matching state commitment.

In early spring 2018, the Nevada Division of State Lands completed the conveyance of 6,281 acres of federal land to nearly double the size of the Steptoe Valley Wildlife Management Area near Ely, Nev.

Matt Sampson, director of operations for Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada in Carson City, travels to Washington, D.C., April 18-19, to advocate for afterschool programming threatened by cuts in the proposed 2019 federal budget.

Northern Nevada veterans will have the opportunity this coming weekend to speak out about issues and concerns important to them during a Nevada Veterans Legislative Symposium.

There will be a "March For Our Lives" in Carson City on Saturday, March 24th at 11 a.m. at Mills Park across from the high school. The march will begin at Mills Park, proceed down N. Roop St., west on E. 2nd street, across Stewart onto the State Legislature grounds.

Retired Carson High School teacher Brian Reedy of Carson City will join more than 300 other advocates in Washington, D.C. March 19-21 to meet with their Members of Congress to share their stories of the personal impact Parkinson’s disease has made on their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

As Nevada works to remedy the deplorable conditions in community homes for the mentally ill identified in a legislative audit last month, lawmakers and state officials are grappling with the bigger question of how to better oversee and tailor care to meet patients’ needs.

CARSON CITY - District Attorney Jason Woodbury announced Tuesday he will run for re-election this year. Woodbury is finishing his first term after winning office in 2014. “I am profoundly grateful Carson City voters hired me to do this job,” Woodbury said. “We’ve assembled a solid team that serves this community well.”

Christmas is just around the corner. For small businesses, it is officially the start of the make-or-break holiday shopping season. And this year, passing a tax bill would give small business owners much to be thankful for.

Lawmakers are running low on time to pass a new 25 percent tax rate for small businesses—the largest tax cut in generations, as President Trump often says.

As a small business owner and lawmaker at the state level, my message to Washington is simple: Get the job done. Small business deserves it, voters want it, and the economy needs it.

All Nevada elected public servants, as well as candidates to be, should learn from a most noteworthy observation by Wolfgang Schauble (who has served in the German Parliament since 1972, as well as finance minister from 2009 -2017).

Recently elected to serve as president of Germany's Parliament, Schauble's advised lawmakers - people were watching - and "The way we speak to each other can set and example for debate in society."

There are new Department of Defense (DoD) guidelines on sexual orientation, however, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and questioning (LGBTQ) veterans may not be aware these changes may benefit them. If they were discharged with a less-than-honorable discharge based on their sexual orientation, they may be eligible for a discharge upgrade.

The Northern Nevada Development Authority's newly established advisory body, the Sierra Region Economic Council, met for the first time Wednesday, Sept. 20. SREC is the vehicle that brings diverse groups together who participate in or are affected by economic development of Nevada’s Sierra region including Carson City, Douglas, Lyon and Storey counties.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Matt Sampson, director of operations for Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada in Carson City, was one of 15 Afterschool Ambassadors appointed by The Afterschool Alliance, a non-profit public awareness and advocacy organization dedicated to increasing the availability of afterschool programs for children.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval will honor a distinguished area veteran and a veteran's support group in a ceremony this coming Monday, August 21. The public is invited to attend as United Veterans Legislative Council Chairman Kevin Burns and the Douglas County non-profit, Welcome All Veterans Everywhere will be recognized and honored.

The wait for northern Nevada veterans is finally over. On Monday, July 17, 2017 at 10:00 a.m., there will be Groundbreaking Ceremony to celebrate the construction of the new Northern Nevada State Veterans Home. The event will be held on the site of the new facility, 2 Kietzke Lane, Sparks, NV, which is located across from the DMV.

Despite what so many Americans demand of lawmakers today, our country wasn't built so much on cooperation as it was people with differences learning to get along.

Funding approved for Nevada libraries by the Legislature will make a difference for people across the state, including those in some of the most remote places, librarians testified.

Lawmakers shut the books on the 2017 legislative session Monday by pushing out budget bills that were part of a strategic compromise, imposing last-minute rules on Uber and Lyft and giving state employees a surprise raise.