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Are all Nevada judges legally required to have law degrees?

No. Nevada does not require all judges in the state to have law degrees.

Nevada stations rallying their supporters after Trump orders federal cuts to PBS and NPR

(AP) — Nevada-based public media stations are appealing to listeners and viewers for help after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR, alleging bias in the broadcasters’ reporting. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

Homeland Security chief says travelers with no REAL ID can fly for now, but with likely extra steps

WASHINGTON (AP) — Travelers who aren’t REAL ID compliant by the upcoming deadline this week will still be able to fly but should be prepared for extra scrutiny, the head of Homeland Security said Tuesday. Kristi Noem told a Congressional panel that 81 percent of travelers already have IDs that comply with the REAL ID requirements. She said security checkpoints will also be accepting passports and tribal identification when the deadline hits Wednesday.

‘Political realities’ killed Nevada bill that would permanently fund wildlife crossings

Nevada lawmakers had hoped to come up with a permanent funding source this session to build wildlife bypasses — structures that help animals safely cross busy highways and cut down on the estimated 5,000 animal-vehicle collisions that happen in the state each year. But the effort suffered a major setback after AB486, a bill looking to double the existing $1 fee the state charges on new tires and send the funding toward the projects, was gutted. It faced opposition from the trucking industry — a heavy consumer of tires — and political challenges because it would require a two-thirds majority approval to increase a tax.

23andMe users’ genetic data is at risk, state AGs warn

The fate of more than 15 million customers’ genetic data remains in limbo after popular DNA testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March. The data is up for sale, stoking fears about how it might be used and prompting attorneys general from more than a dozen states to warn 23andMe users: Delete your data. “Your genetic data is your most personal, confidential data, and you should be able to protect who has access to it,” North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, said in a March statement.

Top Nevada lawmaker seeks to cap insulin prices at $35 a month under private insurance

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) will introduce a bill Thursday to cap the price of insulin drug copays to $35 a month for Nevadans on private insurance — a measure that could have major implications for the more than 1 in 10 Nevada adults with diabetes. The measure, announced at a press conference in Carson City, comes as Yeager said some Nevadans are paying as much as $500 a month out of pocket for an essential substance discovered a century ago. It would place Nevada among the 26 states that have already set limits on the price of insulin for private payers — caps in other states range from $0 to $100 a month.

$160M fall in projected Nevada education funding raises questions about program expansion

Nevada’s main budget fund for K-12 education is expected to bring in about $160 million less in revenue for the upcoming budget cycle than projected at the start of the year, raising questions about how much the Legislature can do to expand education funding and programming for the next biennium. The forecast, prepared by state finance analysts and obtained by The Nevada Independent Thursday, predicted the State Education Fund will bring in about $8.6 billion during the 2025-2027 biennium. The fund is a special budget account devoted solely to education filled with specific tax revenue, including room taxes, marijuana taxes and a special mining tax. The decreased projections largely result from downturns in expected revenue from the local school support tax, which is a 2.6 percent sales tax included as part of the state’s overall sales tax.

Economic forum predicts $191M less for Nevada budget

Nevada lawmakers will have about $191 million less to spend in the next two-year budget cycle than previously projected, according to updated forecasts from the state’s Economic Forum. Combined with a newly identified $160 million shortfall in the State Education Fund, the total budget gap now approaches $350 million.

Why Nevada’s attorney general wants to put strict guardrails on youth social media activity

For years, educators and parents have sounded alarm bells about the adverse impact of social media use on minors. In recent months, those calls have turned into concrete policies in Nevada, such as phone bans in classrooms. Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford could take those bans a step further through a sweeping measure that could transform the way websites operate in Nevada — requiring online platforms to implement age verification systems, limit features such as infinite scrolling for minors and require them to have approval from legal guardians before using social media.

Nevada Outdoor School responds to AmeriCorps funding cuts

Nevada Outdoor School (NOS) has announced its response to sudden and widespread cuts to AmeriCorps State and National program grants, which included the termination of its AmeriCorps Nevada grant. The decision is part of what NOS described as “unprecedented cuts” that affected more than 1,000 service programs nationwide. Since launching its AmeriCorps program in 2002, Nevada Outdoor School has hosted 348 AmeriCorps members. According to the organization, those members have contributed hundreds of thousands of service hours to rural communities across northern Nevada by supporting youth, advancing outdoor education, and strengthening community resilience.

Amodei explains why he moved to sell Nevada lands to backfill GOP cuts

Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and House Republicans passed an amendment to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in Nevada without getting proceeds earmarked for Nevada or land designated for conservation in exchange, setting off a firestorm of criticism from conservationists and Democrats who called it an “insane plan.” Amodei’s amendment — introduced around 11 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday following 11 hours of debate — was the only successful addition to the natural resources portion of Republicans’ budget mega-bill.

University researchers predict improved water yields after forest thinning

RENO — Thinning of forests, generally undertaken to reduce dangers from wildfire and restore the forest to a more natural state, also can create more mountain runoff to mitigate drought effects in the central Sierra Nevada region that relies on snowpack. In fact, researchers from the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources at the University of Nevada, Reno found that the quantity of additional water produced by thinned forests can be so significant that it might provide further incentive for forest managers to undertake prescribed burning or tree-removal using heavy equipment and hand crews with chainsaws.

Talks begin in Nevada Legislature about NV Energy’s wildfire liability

In what has become a sort of legislative tradition, NV Energy is having talks late in the session, this time about wildfire liability. According to four people with knowledge of the situation, discussions are taking place behind the scenes about addressing the utility company’s liability in wildfires started by its equipment. It’s a fluid situation and everything is in the early stages, but here’s what we know so far: Sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because conversations are ongoing, said everything is preliminary.

Twenty-five data centers are currently in operation or planned for Northern Nevada

Last month, the Reno City Council approved the Oppidan Data Center to become the city’s second data center, despite the city planning commission’s original denial of the project. The back-and-forth decision coincides with the ongoing city council debate about how to regulate data centers, in light of their significant energy and water demands to power artificial intelligence (AI) models such as ChatGPT. “Every time a user inputs a prompt, ChatGPT’s massive language model processes it using an estimated 2.9 watt-hours (Wh) of energy,” reported RW Digital, a digital marketing firm. “That’s nearly ten times what it takes for a single Google search.”

Expanding the child tax credit has some Republican support. Now what?

The push to expand the child tax credit is more bipartisan than ever — but a clear solution to stop it from being slashed in half is still far off. Republicans and Democrats have been juggling proposals for the credit — currently a $2,000-per-child tax incentive — as Congress renegotiates the country’s tax structure. Lawmakers told The 19th they are anxious to pass something this year before the existing bill sunsets this fall and reverts the credit to a baseline $1,000.

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