Every Monday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. beginning Feb. 5, Nevada Rural Counties Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is hosting an opportunity for seniors and adults with disabilities to meet new friends, learn something new, and provide respite to their caregivers during Friends Day Out (featuring Java Music Club).
More than 160 days after The Nevada Independent submitted a request for a copy of Attorney General Aaron Ford’s calendar, Ford’s office has failed to provide the records, even as staff for the state’s other five top elected officials fulfilled identical requests in 33 days or less.
WASHINGTON — Leading members of Congress released a bipartisan, bicameral tax proposal Tuesday, promising a middle-path deal to help low-income families and provide incentives for businesses as Trump-era tax breaks expire. The framework led by top tax policy leaders U.S. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri would raise the child tax credit incrementally through 2025 and restore tax relief for affordable housing projects.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced a much-anticipated lands bill for Washoe County, opening up new parcels for development in the housing-starved area in a conservation and development compromise mirroring prior Nevada lands bills. The Truckee Meadows Public Lands Management Act, first requested by Washoe County and the cities of Reno and Sparks in 2016, has been studied and drafted by Rosen’s team for more than four years. The product unveiled Friday represents the result of lengthy negotiations with city officials, developers, conservationists and other stakeholders.
Two days before a winter storm shut down government offices in Northern Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo asked if certain licensure requirements could be waived by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) to address a shortage of highway maintenance workers who keep roadways clear.
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar offered little direct criticism of the Nevada Republican Party for rejecting the state-run presidential preference primary in favor of hosting their own party-run caucus. But he defended the state’s primary election system, calling it more accessible to voters than a caucus held over less than three hours on just one specific day.
Gov. Joe Lombardo told The Nevada Independent last week that he plans to caucus for former President Donald Trump and will vote “none of the above” in the state-run primary. Lombardo made the comments in an interview less than a month before Nevada’s Republican presidential primary and a separate Republican caucus two days later, noting that he planned to participate in both contests to maintain his voting record with the state and caucus for Trump.
Nevadans, many of whom are struggling to pay their electricity bills, are now being asked to reimburse NV Energy for $5.75 million in employee bonuses, thanks to an amended order from Public Utilities Commission member Randy Brown. Brown amended a draft order from Commissioner Tammy Cordova that would have split the cost of the bonuses between ratepayers and the utility. Instead, ratepayers are now on the hook for the entire amount.
The future of a proposed regulation on high school start times is unclear as the State Board of Education has yet to hear back on a draft of the proposal it sent to legislative attorneys about three months ago. Under the latest version of the regulation, public high schools that begin prior to 8 a.m., including charter schools, would be required to provide alternative options to families and students. If passed, the regulation would be implemented by the 2025-26 school year.
In a county where water is always a major concern, it is important that the community knows how it can be both protected and have a plan that makes sure everyone will have access to clean drinking water in the future. Both Humboldt County and the City of Winnemucca adopted the Community Source Water Protection Plan (CSWPP) in 2016, which helped outline how the community would make efforts to protect public drinking water, but the CSWPP was recently updated and adopted in 2023. With the help of the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP), Humboldt County was able to secure high-level advisers, such as Resource Concepts Inc., to help put together the CSWPP.
With registered voters beginning to receive ballots in the mail, confusion is emerging regarding the Republican primary vs. caucus. The abbreviated Q&A below should help answer questions; for the full story, see Page 3 in the Jan. 10 edition of the Great Basin Sun.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Walmart has unveiled plans to dive further into the world of artificial intelligence — and drones — to improve its customers’ shopping experiences. In a Tuesday keynote at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, the nation's largest retailer announced it will be expanding its drone delivery to 1.8 million additional households in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area later this year. Drones aren’t new to Walmart — which has already completed 20,000 drone deliveries across seven states to date — but company leaders say that this expansion is a sign of growing demand and efficiency.
The Nevada State Police – Highway Patrol Division will be joining forces with participating law enforcement agencies in Nevada for a Joining Forces Distracted Driver Campaign. The campaign will run through Jan. 31.
PBS Reno is thrilled to announce 327 new members joined PBS Reno during the station’s Better Together Challenge, which took place November 23, 2023 through January 1, 2024. An additional 1,080 donors renewed their membership or made additional contributions. As a result, the NV Energy Foundation will provide a generous gift of $10,000 to Communities In Schools (CIS) of Western Nevada and $10,000 to PBS Reno for its Curiosity Classroom Workshops that reach thousands of local students each school year.
A recently formed nonprofit focused on ending high-interest lending in the state has filed paperwork to begin circulating a petition focused on capping interest rates on certain loans. The initiative — filed last week with the secretary of state’s office — is the latest effort to crack down on payday loans, typically defined as short-term loans where individuals receive immediate cash and agree to pay back the loan (typically with a high rate of interest) within a short period of time. High-interest loan businesses — such as Dollar Loan Center or MoneyTree — are regulated by the state’s Financial Institutions Division, but state law places no maximum cap on the interest rates that can be attached to a loan.