Technically, the 119th Congress does not start until 2025 — but you’d be forgiven for not realizing that after this week. President-elect Donald Trump is making last-minute demands of Republicans in Congress, a bipartisan deal got thrown out the window, a brief government shutdown and in the middle of it all is Elon Musk, threatening to fund primary challengers to uncooperative members of both parties.
RENO — “Fragile and at-risk” is how Nevada’s public health infrastructure could be described based on the findings of a recent assessment conducted by University of Nevada, Reno Extension, in partnership with the Nevada Association of Counties. The assessment, which maps the public health infrastructure in 15 of 17 counties in Nevada (excluding the two most urban counties, Clark and Washoe), provides baseline data for decision-makers and stakeholders as they consider the needs of their communities.
BAKER — The Great Basin National Park Foundation has secured $110,000 in funding from the National Park Foundation to expand its educational programs and increase the capacity of the nonprofit organization. The grants will support the foundation's strategic growth and fund a new pilot educational program focused on engaging middle and high school students with the natural world.
As states across the nation grapple with a highly contagious strain of bird flu infecting livestock and commercial poultry facilities, Nevada has thus far remained largely safe from infection, according to state officials. Bird flu is a highly contagious virus that can lead to illness in livestock and death in poultry. There are two strains of the virus — one affecting wild birds and another affecting livestock and domestic birds.
ELKO, NV — Great Basin College (GBC) has been awarded nearly $1 million in federal funding to expand its distance learning capabilities and improve access to higher education for rural residents of Nevada. The grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program, will enable the college to enhance its interactive video technologies and establish new locations to better connect students across its 86,500-square-mile service area.
WALKER RIVER — The Bureau of Land Management today announced the withdrawal of lands around Walker Lake and transfer that land into trust for the Walker River Indian Reservation. A Secretary’s Order dated Nov. 26, 1906, set aside all lands within one mile of the lake’s high-water mark for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Truckee-Carson Project.
RENO, NV — The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued new federal orders to enhance testing and surveillance for the H5N1 variant of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in U.S. dairy herds. This decision comes following recent detections of the virus in dairy cows across 16 states, including Nevada, and aims to strengthen livestock biosecurity measures.
Wildlife biologists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services and the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) will begin removing non-native European starling populations around several dairies in Churchill, Lyon and Nye counties.
CARSON CITY — The Nevada Department of Transportation is installing ‘daytime headlights required’ signage in advance of an updated Nevada traffic law requiring daytime headlight use while driving on rural two-lane roadways. Beginning the week of Dec. 16, NDOT will install the first in a series of daytime headlight signage. The first signs will be installed on U.S. 95 near the U.S. 95 Alternate junction in Schurz.
SANTA FE, NM — The Western Governors’ Foundation (WGF) is proud to announce the launch of the 2025 Western Governors’ Leadership Institute, a program designed to recognize, reward, and promote and effective exercise of leadership by young adults across the West. The Institute provides a unique opportunity for selected delegates to attend a one-day leadership development forum featuring intimate conversations with Governors, chief executive officers, and other prominent thought leaders. They also attend the Annual Meeting of the Western Governors‘ Association as guests of the foundation. The foundation covers all expenses associated with delegate participation.
Safe Haven Wildlife Sanctuary, located in the heart of wildlife protection efforts, is reaching out for help in a critical area of its operations. The sanctuary, which is home to a variety of rescued wild animals, is in dire need of new tires for its lockouts. These lockouts are essential for emergency procedures, particularly when dealing with the sanctuary's big cats and bears.
Reno lawyer and former gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert is resigning as the Douglas County School District’s legal counsel, his team announced at a Tuesday school board meeting, ending more than a year of work in the position marked by debate over his experience and questions about whether he was overcharging. His resignation is effective Jan. 9, according to his resignation letter.
New forgery charges have been filed against Nevada’s six so-called “fake electors” in Carson City District Court after the Nevada attorney general’s initial prosecution was dismissed in Clark County earlier this year, a move called "preemptive" by the office given that the statute of limitations on the charges is set to expire this week.
Despite two failures in four years at the ballot box, supporters of 2024’s Question 1 say they’re not giving up the fight to defang the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents. Voters rejected the ballot question — which would have removed state constitutional references to the elected board overseeing the state’s colleges and universities and required regular independent audits — by nearly 10 percentage points (or more than 123,000 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast). A similar measure failed on the 2020 ballot by a much narrower margin.
Less than two months after state energy regulators voted not to fully approve a statewide transmission line with a massive price tag proposed by NV Energy, an omnibus energy bill was introduced at the eleventh hour of the 2021 legislative session. Included in that bill was the same project state energy regulators had just partially denied. It was the 102nd day of the session, with just 14 days to sine die, and the bill, introduced by former Sen. Chris Brooks (D-Las Vegas), required a waiver to be introduced at such a late date. The scope of SB448 was massive.