Nevada state fire and police officers may see their take-home pay decrease 4% later this year after an approved employee retirement contribution rate hike goes into effect. The Nevada Police Union in an open letter released Tuesday urged state legislators to take actions to offset the scheduled rate hike. That could include providing employees with cost-of-living adjustments, offering one-time retention bonuses, delaying or rejecting the rate hike, or funding the retirement system directly.
On the night of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s State of the State address last month, Democratic legislative leaders accused the Republican governor of submitting a budget with a $335 million structural deficit. Three weeks later (and two weeks after the governor’s office conceded the shortfall existed), the deficit has been eliminated after the governor’s office made changes to how some programs were funded and incorporated certain items that were left out of original revenue projections.
Over the last eight years, Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden have remade the federal judiciary. The U.S. Senate approved 234 of Trump’s judicial picks in his first term, and 235 Biden nominees. Each is responsible for the appointments of just over a quarter of the entire federal judiciary. But Nevada has been largely left out of either president’s effort to reshape the judiciary. Between the two presidents, only three judges whose chambers are in Nevada, of nine total, were appointed to the federal bench — and all replaced judges appointed by a president of the same party.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As part of the Trump administration's push to expand U.S. energy production, federal officials will review and consider redrawing the boundaries of national monuments created under previous presidents to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. The review — laid out in a Monday order from new Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — is raising alarms among conservation groups concerned that President Donald Trump will shrink or eliminate monuments established by his predecessors, including Democrat Joe Biden. Burgum gave agency officials until Feb. 18 to submit plans on how to comply with his order.
One of the nearly three dozen executive orders issued by President Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration last month is designed to halt the development of wind turbines. On Trump’s behalf and as part of carrying out that order, the Department of Interior’s acting secretary issued an order the same day to all Interior’s bureaus and departments temporarily suspending their authority “to take any of the following actions…” One of the paused actions listed in the order was approving any “plans of operation, or to amend existing plans of operation under the General Mining Law of 1872.”
SPARKS — The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest has been selected to provide the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree in 2025. This will mark the first time the United States Forest Service will harvest the tree from the Humboldt-Toiyabe and the state of Nevada. “Nevada’s rugged, wide-open landscapes are a hallmark of our culture and a cornerstone of our economy,” said Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo. “In the spirit of shared stewardship, the state of Nevada looks forward to partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to provide the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree and showcase what’s special about the Silver State.”
A silver pickup towing a white horse trailer rumbled along Interstate 80 before turning north on State Route 447 toward Gerlach. Without stopping in town, it bumps its way down rough dirt roads past some of Northern Nevada’s most fantastical and imposing formations — the Black Rock Desert, Fly Geyser, the Calico Mountains, King Lear Peak. Nearly two hours later at the edge of the Black Rock Desert, the trailer hooked a sharp left onto an even more rugged road leading into Box Canyon. As the slopes looming over the canyon grew steeper and closer together, the trailer came to a stop.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — What was once the world's largest solar power plant of its type appears headed for closure just 11 years after opening, under pressure from cheaper green energy sources. Meanwhile, environmentalists continue to blame the Mojave Desert plant for killing thousands of birds and tortoises. The Ivanpah solar power plant formally opened in 2014 on roughly 5 square miles of federal land near the California-Nevada border. Though it was hailed at the time as a breakthrough moment for clean energy, its power has been struggling to compete with cheaper solar technologies.
RENO — The Nevada Mining Association (NVMA) proudly announces the return of Drew McGregor to the organization as its Communications Manager. In this position, McGregor will oversee the organization’s communication strategy, relationships with media, community organizations, and educational institutions.
On Sunday, Jan. 26, at approximately 5:57 a.m., troopers with the Nevada Highway Patrol responded to a report of a vehicle crash on State Route 225, near mile 67 in Elko County.
RENO — PBS Reno is now available to Amazon Prime Video viewers in northern and central Nevada and northeastern California. PBS Reno can be found in the “Live TV” section under “Entertainment.” It also currently being highlighted in the “Featured” genre. “Once again PBS Reno steps out providing increased access to our channels through Amazon Prime Video,” said Kurt Mische, PBS Reno President and CEO. “We want to provide our award-earning quality content any time on any platform on any device so our viewers are never without us. This is a win-win for PBS Reno and Amazon Prime Video.”
The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) released the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results for mathematics and reading. Despite earnest efforts by hard-working students and educators, the latest nationwide results from this assessment of student performance are cause for concern.
More than $40 million was raised by backers of the abortion and ranked-choice voting ballot questions in 2024, primarily from so-called “dark money” groups that do not have to disclose their donors, campaign finance reports released last week show. Most of the money went to support Question 3, the failed initiative that would have instituted ranked-choice voting and open primaries in Nevada. The PAC behind the initiative brought in nearly $29 million, making it one of the most expensive ballot question campaigns in recent memory.
The Legislature will once again consider a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove a 159-year-old prohibition on Nevada operating a lottery. The measure, AJR5, passed easily in both legislative chambers in 2023 but requires a second approval before it can be sent to Nevada voters in 2026. History, however, isn’t on its side. More than two dozen legislative attempts to implement a Nevada lottery since 1887 have failed and never made it out of Carson City. The effort also faces headwinds this legislative session from the casino industry, which opposed the effort two years ago but is taking a more aggressive stance in 2025 and is determined to keep Nevada’s place as one of just five states without a statewide lottery.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats in Nevada. Using updated voter registration data from the secretary of state’s office procured by Republican strategist Jeremy Hughes, which was shared and reviewed by The Nevada Independent, Republicans built a lead of about 340 voters over Democrats in January. By November 2024, Democrats’ longstanding voter registration advantage was down to fewer than 6,000 voters in a state with more than 2 million active registered voters. Despite beating Democrats, both parties still lag registered nonpartisans, who became the biggest political group in the state in August 2022 and whose share of the electorate has continued to increase. There are nearly 692,000 registered nonpartisans, while Republicans have 617,204 voters to Democrats’ 616,863.