For the Nevada DMV, the second time’s the charm. Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Director Julie Butler told lawmakers during a Wednesday budget hearing that the agency’s effort to upgrade its internal computer system and shift more services online is “on schedule and within budget projections,” with a goal of completing the transition to the new system by September 2026.
On the campaign trail and during his State of the State address, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo laid out a wide-reaching policy agenda, calling for improvements to K-12 education, more aggressive economic development policies, more secure elections, and criminal justice policies. But under state law, Lombardo is limited to requesting just five bills per legislative session “to propose the governor’s legislative agenda.” With those five bills, the governor is seeking to enact changes to state government organization, elections, criminal justice policies and the K-12 education system.
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo released an executive order Monday embracing natural gas as part of the state’s energy mix and calling for a review of a statewide strategy to fight climate change. The executive order, signed last week, appeared to signal a major policy shift for the state in targeting a central goal outlined in the Nevada Climate Strategy. That plan called for an orderly transition away from fossil fuels, including natural gas, to reach a statutory goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Rainy day fund? It’s raining in rural school districts, at least metaphorically. That was one of the takeaways from the nearly eight-hour Saturday meeting between lawmakers and the superintendents of Nevada’s 15 rural school districts.
The new aquatics center could have the capacity to host swim meets, a lap pool, diving boards, a shallow water pool, updated bathrooms and locker rooms, new programs, and much, much more—the problem? Money. The Winnemucca City Council approved a design proposal for a new aquatics center from the architecture firm Knit on March 21. The fee for the design alone is $1,306,000, and a new facility could cost upwards of $13 million, according to preliminary figures in an Aquatic Center Feasibility Study conducted April 2021.
Before D-Day 1944 when the largest Allied assault rushed the beaches of Normandy, the U.S. Army had developed a ruse against the Germans with a little deception of their own. The Ghost Army or the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops activated as a unit on Jan. 20, 1944, to deceive the Germans by simulating two divisions that normally consisted of 30,000 men.
Great Basin College is excited to announce that they have hired Dr. Sam Spearing as the Executive Director of Workforce Development and the Proposed Mining Center of Excellence.
The Winnemucca Division of Fire and Aviation’s (DFA) Engine 2432 (E-2432) has completed federal service and is set to be transferred to a cooperator recipient within the Winnemucca District.
With 21 months away from a December 2024 deadline to obligate the use of all federal relief funds from the American Rescue Plan, lawmakers questioned officials from the Governor’s Finance Office Monday about the possibility the state could lose out on those funds.
About one-third of the way through the 120-day biennial legislative session, lawmakers have introduced dozens of bills affecting the management of water, wildlife and the environment. In this week’s newsletter, we break down some of the major bills pending before state lawmakers. It’s important to note that this list is hardly exhaustive and state lawmakers still have additional opportunities to introduce new bills, even as a major deadline looms next week. This list also does not include several energy-related bills, which I’ll write more about in a future newsletter. But this roundup will hopefully provide some insight into what’s at stake as lawmakers propose a range of policies, from prohibiting the sale of certain products that contain “forever chemicals” to giving the Southern Nevada Water Authority the power to curb excessive water use during Colorado River shortages.
Bill introductions during floor sessions on the first major deadline of the legislative session wrapped up around 3:15 p.m. March 20. That’s because legislative leaders suspended rules requiring legislators’ bills to be introduced by the 43rd day of the session (March 20), instead allowing the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s legal division to keep working throughout last week on drafting measures.
Though the 2024 midterms remain more than 600 days away, early Republican campaign attacks against Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) — a swing-state Democrat up for re-election in 2024 — are centering around a proposed new rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare Advantage, the capitated Medicare Part C program created in the 1990s that pays private insurers to cover seniors’ health care benefits. Ten days after the State of the Union, the National Republican Senatorial Committee came out with a new ad targeting Rosen over Medicare.
In a rare move, Gov. Joe Lombardo testified before state lawmakers on Thursday in support of his bill revising a contentious 2019 restorative justice law that school districts and others have said ultimately limited teachers’ ability to deal with disruptive or violent students.
Having reliable Internet access is regarded as a basic necessity these days, but in remote rural areas, it is still difficult to get access. According to the Federal Communications Commission, “In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population —14.5 million people—lack access to this service.” On March 20, Humboldt County Librarian Jessica Anderson asked the Humboldt County Board of Commissioners to approve a request for a project that would give fiber Internet access to the McDermitt and Denio library branches. The request was approved in a split-vote, (4-1) with Commissioner Tom Hoss in opposition.
Hundreds of acres of land sit empty to the west of the Winnemucca Municipal Airport and the Industrial Park in Grass Valley, but a 177.31 acre parcel along the railroad line could be occupied by a transloading facility for loading and unloading material from freight to trucks in the near future.