(Sam Brown campaign photo)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

After weeks of taking heat from opponents and critics Democrat and Republican alike for expressing a willingness to bring nuclear waste to Nevada, Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown on Saturday said that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project should not be considered.

“Over the past month, I’ve invested time speaking with engineers and experts on Yucca Mountain. It is abundantly clear that the project is dead,” Brown said on social media Saturday.

“As I’ve said before, it should not, and will not, be revived as a nuclear waste repository,” Brown added. 

Brown’s campaign did not respond Saturday to a request to identify where and when he has said that before.

His statement Saturday is in stark contrast to remarks he made in 2022 but that only came to light last month, in which Brown said not allowing nuclear waste in Nevada was “an incredible loss of revenue for our state.”

In a 2022 recording obtained and reported by the Los Angeles Times last month, when asked about Yucca Mountain at a campaign event, Brown said “one of the things I’m afraid of is a lack of understanding and the fearmongering that Harry Reid and others have spread,” and “that we could miss an incredible opportunity for revenue for our state in the future.”

“If we don’t act soon,” Brown added in those 2022 remarks, “other states like Texas and New Mexico, right now, are assessing whether or not they can essentially steal that opportunity from us. And at the end of the day, we all know Nevada could use another great source of revenue and it sure would be a shame if we didn’t monopolize on that and become a central hub of new development that we can do at Yucca.”

In a statement issued by Brown in response to the Times story, he did not specifically reassert support for bringing nuclear waste to Nevada, but said “I’m always interested in economic opportunities for Nevada that better diversify our economy.”

Ever since the so-called “Screw Nevada” bill passed by Congress in 1987 singling out the Yucca Mountain site northwest of Las Vegas to be studied as the nation’s nuclear waste facility, opposition from the Nevada public and the state’s politicians of both parties has been overwhelming.

Since Brown’s 2022 statements became public, Sen. Jacky Rosen and multiple other Democrats have hammered Brown for expressing willingness to bring nuclear waste to Nevada.

And Jeff Gunter, Brown’s chief challenger for the Republican nomination to challenge Rosen in the general election, is airing an ad promising to block the Yucca project if elected to the Senate and blasting Brown’s willingness to “dump toxic nuclear waste here.”

Less than three weeks ago Brown responded to Rosen and Gunter’s attacks over Yucca by telling The Hill he is “not committed to supporting the opening of Yucca Mountain.

“However,” Brown added in that May 14 statement to The Hill, “I will consider all thoroughly vetted future proposals, with the safety of Nevadans being my top priority, while ensuring the proposals are substantially economically beneficial.” 

“Leadership means considering all economic opportunities that could better support the lives of Nevadans,” Brown added.

That too is in contrast to his statement on social media Saturday, in which Brown said, “As Nevada’s next US Senator, I’ll stand with President Trump to oppose it.”

Trump’s opposition to dumping nuclear waste in Nevada was itself a reversal of position on the former president’s part.

Yucca Mountain was officially designated as the nation’s nuclear waste “repository” during the administration of George W. Bush, in 2002. But the project was the subject of legal and regulatory proceedings for the next several years, until the administration of Barack Obama ordered the Department of Energy to discontinue its licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and eliminated federal funding for the project.

While president, Trump attempted to restart funding for Yucca, but was thwarted by Congress. Trump reversed positions during the 2022 campaign cycle in an effort to help Adam Laxalt, the Republican who defeated Brown in the 2022 Senate primary but lost to Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in the general election. The Biden administration has never included funding for the Yucca Mountain project, and has assured Nevada officials that it has no plans to ever do so.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which includes a playbook for actions the influential organization suggests should be urgent priorities in a second Trump administration, calls for resuming and funding the Yucca Mountain licensing process.

The post Under pressure from all sides, Brown backtracks, says Yucca ‘should not be revived’ appeared first on Nevada Current.

Left to Right: Jennifer Atlas and Christian Bishop are competing in the Democratic primary for Nevada State Senate District 5 (Photos courtesy of the candidates)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The Nevada State Senate district expected to have the most competitive general election race is also having one of the most cutthroat primaries, with two well-funded Democratic candidates actively campaigning and dividing support.

State Senate District 5, which covers parts of Henderson, is considered the most flippable seat this year for Democrats, who are currently one senator shy of a supermajority in the Legislature’s upper chamber. Securing a supermajority in both chambers would allow the majority party to override any gubernatorial veto, of which there have been dozens.

Republican state Sen. Carrie Buck, the incumbent who has represented the district since 2020, faces a primary challenge from self-funded candidate Richard Frederick, but she is significantly ahead in terms of actual donations and endorsements.

Meanwhile, the Democratic primary appears less certain. Jennifer Atlas, a competitive ballroom dancer turned paralegal and lobbyist, is the preferred choice of the Nevada Senate Democratic Caucus, and has been endorsed by Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada and AFL-CIO, among others. Christian Bishop, an esports consultant and entrepreneur who appeared on a season of The Bachelorette, has the backing of Culinary Union, the Nevada State Education Association, and several veteran groups.

Bishop acknowledges there are people who are critical of him for running against a caucus-backed candidate, especially in what is expected to be a competitive general election race, but he says he doesn’t like gatekeeping. Those who think the Democratic candidate should be hand selected and not chosen by voters are undermining democracy, he said

“I’m a family man. I’m a mixed, biracial, diverse candidate. I’m young. I’m everything our Democratic Party has wanted to run,” said Bishop, who is 35. “I’m here to step up to that call.”

Bishop says he is a lifelong Democrat who since moving to Nevada eight years ago has become more active in politics, serving on the board of Henderson Democrats and canvassing and mobilizing for candidates up and down the ballot. He has contributed $100,000 toward Democratic candidates, including to Kristee Watson, who lost to Buck by less than 1% of votes in 2020.

Bishop is an esports consultant and has owned several tech companies over the years. He also appeared on the 12th season of The Bachelorette, which aired in 2016. (He was eliminated in week three.)

“I’ve been on both sides of the table — an everyday worker and a business builder who’s managing the responsibility of taking care of staff and making payroll,” he said.

Atlas comes with her own behind-the-scenes political experience, having worked as a lobbyist since 2018 and in the government affairs team for MGM Resorts. Before her political and policy work, she was a competitive ballroom dancer and teacher turned convention gig and concierge worker. After having her son, she decided to go back to school to become a paralegal, which led to her current professional endeavors.

She said her “zigzaggy” career path makes her acutely aware of the cyclical nature of the economy in Southern Nevada. What sets her apart from Bishop, in her eyes, is that she understands “how Nevada policy works.”

“I have been in this world,” she said. “I can get in on day one and work, work on health care, really start to make a difference. I feel like I’m the one that can hit the ground running and really represent the district.”

Supporters of Bishop are pointing to that experience as a negative. Strong Public Schools Nevada, a PAC associated with NSEA, sent a mailer in support of Bishop that highlighted the fact Atlas is listed as a registered lobbyist for the Athletics Investment Group, for which state lawmakers approved $380 million in public assistance to build a baseball stadium in the Las Vegas Strip. The education group vehemently opposes that project.

Atlas and Bishop both identified education as a top priority for the state. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will likely face Buck, a charter school executive.

Both Democrats expressed a passion for health care issues. Bishop noted he is married to a nurse at MountainView Hospital.

Atlas says one of her legislative priorities is to introduce a bill to automatically enroll into Medicaid babies who enter the neonatal intensive care unit. Currently, NICU babies are eligible for Medicaid but their parents must actively fill out the paperwork.

Atlas says she didn’t realize this when she gave birth to her son Beau 10 years ago, so she declined to fill out the paperwork and found herself with medical bills totalling half a million dollars, which she later had to fight.

“When I was presented with paperwork, I was sick in the ICU. I saw ‘Medicaid’ but I knew I had good insurance, so I didn’t think we qualified. We were focused on our baby. We weren’t thinking about paperwork.”

Bishop says part of his motivation for running is knowing a potential supermajority is up for grabs.

“What I’d like to see is forward thinking and a forward looking legislature, where we choose to invest, to not always be reactive,” he said. “How can we think a decade in advance, two decades in advance?”

Allegations arise

Atlas’s campaign has sent to voters mailers calling Bishop “completely creepy & seriously disgusting” and highlighting claims made by two women on She’s All Bach, a podcast focused on The Bachelorette, that he requested nude photos and canceled their hotel room after they wouldn’t have sex with him.

Nevada Legislative Victory, a PAC whose money largely comes from sitting Democratic state senators, sent an even more aggressive mailer attacking Bishop for allegedly “pressuring a young woman for sex.”

The Nevada Independent has reported on the allegations made in those mailers. Bishop has denied pressuring or expecting sex from the women.

The post Race that could decide control of Nevada Senate features testy Democratic primary appeared first on Nevada Current.

This isn't the first time the Lombardo team has claimed credit for the results of Biden's policies. (Photo of Lombardo campaigning in 2022 by David Becker/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

“I’m pleased to announce the allocation of $250 million towards Middle Mile Infrastructure,” Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said in a statement released by his office this week. “This significant investment will enhance internet connectivity in communities across Nevada that have struggled with inadequate internet access. By addressing these critical gaps, we are ensuring that all Nevadans have the opportunity to benefit from reliable and fast internet service.”

“We” are ensuring? Who’s the “we”?

In other words, where did the $250 million come from?

The press release from Lombardo’s office left that part out.

Later in the press release, Lombardo’s office notes that the middle mile infrastructure – thousands of miles of fiber optic lines, basically – is part of a larger investment, and “Over the next four years, over $900 million will be dedicated to broadband infrastructure and digital equity and adoption initiatives.”

Where’s the $900 million coming from?

The statement from Lombardo’s office neglected to say.

Perhaps because everyone already knows.

Or should.

A presentation from the Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) indicates that of the $250 million Lombardo was “pleased” to announce this week, $87 million is provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), more commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, introduced by the Biden administration and passed by Congress in November, 2021.

Despite the law’s bipartisan passage, only 13 members of the U.S. House of Representative who, like Lombardo, are Republicans, voted for the bill. Nevada’s Mark Amodei wasn’t one of them.

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, another $74 million of the $250 million was also provided under the infrastructure bill. The OSIT presentation indicates that money was assigned to the capital projects fund under the American Rescue Plan Act. ARPA passed both houses of Congress in March, 2021 without a single Republican vote in either the House or the Senate.

Those two tranches of funding comprise about two-thirds of the $250 million. As for where the other third comes from, as of late Thursday neither the governor’s office nor OSIT could provide a detailed breakdown.

But during a legislative interim committee meeting last month, OSIT Director Brian Mitchell said there were several sources of broadband funding for Nevada – 12, to be exact, Mitchell said.

He provided legislators with a graphic to illustrate those 12 sources. 

Every one of them is federal:

As the size of the bubbles indicate, the overwhelming majority of broadband funding to be provided to Nevada is the result of either the bipartisan infrastructure bill or ARPA, one of which passed with only minority support from congressional Republicans and the other with no Republican support at all.

Lombardo must be torn.

It was only a few weeks ago Lombardo wrote Biden a letter demanding the president “embrace free market principles that rely on supply and demand and rein in excessive federal spending.”

So why doesn’t Lombardo reject all that federal spending provided – over Republican opposition – by the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress, and just let free market principles provide broadband to rural and other underserved communities? 

Yes, the free market has had decades to do that, and failed. But surely the free market will get around to it eventually, no matter how many more decades it takes, right? 

In the meantime, Lombardo could be at ease knowing he had adhered to his faith in free market principles.

But Lombardo contains multitudes.

Just a couple weeks after telling the president how to do his job and demanding that Biden rein in “excessive federal spending,” there Lombardo was, celebrating the groundbreaking of a high-speed train that has received $6.5 billion in federal grants and financing – again thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure bill that most members of Congress from Lombardo’s party opposed.

And this week he is “pleased to announce” all that federal funding for broadband.

For some reason Lombardo and his office did not feel obligated to tell the public where the broadband funding was coming from. Maybe his faith in free market solutions wouldn’t let him.

Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen’s office issued a statement noting she helped include the $74 million for middle mile funding when the infrastructure law passed.

The Nevada media largely acquiesced to the governor’s narrative, however, reporting the press release from Lombardo’s office under Lombardo-friendly headlines like “Gov. Lombardo allocates $250 million to improve state internet infrastructure,” and “Lombardo announces $250 million for better internet to 40,000 Nevadans,” and even “Governor Lombardo Providing $250 million for Internet Access.”

This isn’t the first time Lombardo has claimed credit for the results of Biden administration policies. 

His political action committee is fond of touting how many straight months of employment growth have occurred “under Joe Lombardo’s leadership.” Lombardo’s PAC always neglects to note that all of those consecutive months of employment growth, in addition to about twice as many more, have occurred under Joe Biden’s leadership.

Construction of fiber optic networks to underserved/unconnected Nevada communities is indeed a development worth celebrating. 

But Lombardo, Steve Sisolak, your last ride share driver… federal broadband funding would be coming to Nevada no matter who the governor was.

So Nevadans who applaud broadband funding may want to consider saying something Lombardo should but won’t: Thanks, Biden.

The post Lombardo tries to hog credit for Biden administration achievements (again) appeared first on Nevada Current.

Shanon Bilbray-Axelrod, left, and Hunter Cain. (Campaign photos)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Hunter Cain, a veterans advocate who works in the military department of Grand Canyon University, is winning the money race against Assemblywoman Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod in the Democratic primary for Clark County Commission District C, which is being vacated by Democrat Ross Miller. 

The winner will take on the Republican who prevails in a three-way race among April Becker, Gail Powers, and Tom Wagner. 

This is Cain’s third run for office. In 2020 he came in second in the Democratic primary race for Commission District C to Miller, who went on to win the general election. In 2022, Cain ran unsuccessfully for county recorder.

A foster parent, Cain says it’s no wonder the foster population is disproportionately represented in the jail. He says he’s seeking election to help the county address social issues such as what he says is a failure to retain foster homes

“The Department of Family Services is trying to appeal to the 21-year-old saying, ‘Hey, if we pay you a little bit more money, and instead of 10 weeks of classes, we’ll just break it down to two weekends.’ At the same time, they’re calling us glorified babysitters. That’s the mentality that the county has. Let me get in there and do something a little bit different.” 

He also wants to establish a department of veterans services at the county.

Cain has earned a number of associate degrees and two bachelor degrees, one in administration and management from the University of San Diego, and another from UNLV, according to his Ballotpedia entry and website .

Bilbray-Axelrod is the daughter of former U.S. Rep. Jim Bilbray. She served four terms in the Nevada Assembly. She cites her experience as a lawmaker and her ability to bring people together to forge solutions as her motivation for running.

In 2023, as chair of the Education Committee, Bilbray-Axelrod co-sponsored legislation that allows local governments to appoint four non-voting members to school boards in Clark and Washoe counties. The bill was touted as a means of addressing perceived dysfunction and conflict among elected school board members.

Money game 

Bilbray-Axelrod raised about $19,000 in contributions last year, and another $60,000 in the first quarter of 2024. She has roughly $58,000 on hand.

Her largest contribution is $10,000 from Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 525.

She has $5,000 contributions from Olympia Companies, the developer of Southern Highlands, and from Key Reid. Reid’s father, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, served in Congress with Bilbray-Axelrod’s father. 

Cain raised just under $197,000 in the first quarter of 2024, with more than half of it from in-kind contributions. He has $84,000 on hand.

The bulk of his support comes from the Armed Forces Chamber, of which he’s a member. “In the veteran community, I’m very well-known,” says Cain, who served in the Army from 2001 to 2010.

The founder of the Armed Force Chamber, Andre Haynes, contributed $5,000, his first contribution in excess of $100. Haynes’ wife, Patsy Brown, also contributed $5,000, her only contribution to a political race other than the $100 she contributed to her own campaign as a Republican running for public administrator in 2022.

Haynes’ daughter also contributed $5,000 to Cain, as did his daughter-in-law, the first contributions for both women.

“I’m glad they did it now. It’s a great time to start when you’re young,” Haynes said during an interview with the Current.

Joaquin Perry-Edwards, a member and employee of the Chamber, according to Haynes, also contributed $5,000 to Cain. Edwards went to prison after he pled guilty in 2001 to second-degree murder of his 3-week old son. He admitted to slamming his fist into the infant’s chest, causing the baby’s heart to rupture.

“His inspiring journey of overcoming and rebuilding resonates deeply with me,” Cain said of Edwards during an interview with the Current, adding he welcomes support from a diverse community. “I have in the past, and aspire to extend similar support to other veterans in need, ensuring they receive a hand up, not a handout.”

Cain, a disabled war veteran who receives a stipend from the government, loaned $20,000 to his campaign. “I could probably put another $25,000 into there. But after that, I would probably just say no. I’m trying to raise funds.”

His foster and adopted children have contributed another $5,000.

By comparison, Becker, the fundraising frontrunner on the Republican side, has raised $329,000, a third of which came from companies owned by her husband, Matt, while $60,000 is from political action committees connected to Laborers’ Union 872. 

Spreading the wealth 

The Clark County Commission is regarded as one of the most powerful boards in the state, with the Las Vegas Strip in its jurisdiction.

Cain suggests Clark County offer perks to make special events such as the Formula One race more palatable to locals.

“Why can’t we work with the Regional Transportation Commission to offer free bus rides for locals to various events? Say ‘We know this is inconvenient for you. We support you. We love you.’ Or seriously discounted tickets? Everyone was excited for the Super Bowl but unless you have $8,000 to $10,000 for a ticket, then most of you aren’t going,” he says. 

Bilbray-Axelrod suggests the county work creatively to incorporate into the festivities those businesses harmed by the race preparations.

“Why wouldn’t we have put a private event in Battista’s Hole in the Wall?” she says of a restaurant that lost business because of F1 disruptions. “There’s so many thoughtful out of the box ways that we could have made the community as a whole do well with all this money coming in. I just think that we’re maybe a little blinded by the light and idea of what F1 was.”

The two Democrats disagree on providing public subsidies to stadiums.

“I don’t think enough is done right now,” says Cain. “I think we’re in such a rush to build every stadium and get every team and every event here, that we’re neglecting the people that live here.”

As a state lawmaker, Bilbray-Axelrod voted in favor of providing $380 million in public assistance for the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat A’s baseball stadium on the Strip. She says it’s important to extract promises for community benefits.

Gimme shelter

Clark County is in the throes of a housing crisis that has left low- and moderate-income families struggling to find shelter they can afford.

Bilbray-Axelrod says she doesn’t think rent control is the answer. She prefers solutions that would allow more residents to become homeowners.

“It is a very nuanced argument. I think it’s very easy to say that the rents are too damn high, which I would agree with. However, you don’t want to live in a community where you have a majority of renters. We know that that doesn’t help the community in the long run.”

Cain favors rent control, but says he doesn’t know at what percent rents should be capped.

He declined to say whether he supports inclusionary zoning, the practice of requiring developers to include a low-income or workforce component to their developments or contribute to a fund to do so.

Bilbray-Axelrod says she supports inclusionary zoning as well as industry-specific workforce housing for teachers and other professions. 

“When you’re offering up prime real estate, it’s important that the community benefits as well. And that’s going to look at a lot of different ways including parks and open spaces, but also affordable housing,” she says, adding she has no desire to stifle growth. “We’re going to continue to grow. We just need to make sure we’re doing it intelligently. We’re not looking at sprawl. We’re looking at smart development.”

She also supports the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, which is championed by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and would open 30,000 acres of federal land in Hidden Valley near Sloan, 16 miles southwest of Las Vegas, to developers.

“I trust Catherine,” Bilbray-Axelrod said of Cortez Masto. “The devil is always in the details. So I’d like to see what actually comes out.”

Cain said he doesn’t have enough information on the legislation, which is endorsed by Clark County.

“Clark County needs to think outside the box,” he says, adding he supports a “massive increase in property tax” on second homes to support social services and public safety. “That would prevent a lot of these corporations from being able to buy up homes like it’s nothing.”

Bilbray-Axelrod says the county needs to get a grip on short-term rentals, which remove housing stock from the market.

“Unfortunately, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Short-term rentals are here. They just need to be regulated,” she says, adding “the county needs to do more to protect neighborhoods and protect the value of homeowners and renters.”

Cain disapproves of using urban housing stock for short-term rentals. He suggests the county should allow construction of STRs near recreation areas such as Lake Mead and Kyle Canyon.

“But I think that maybe not in the main city area,” he said. He suggests couchsurfing as an option in urban areas. “It doesn’t cost anything.”

Early voting begins Saturday. Primary Election Day is June 11.

The post Political novice out fundraising Bilbray-Axelrod in Democratic primary for Clark County Commission appeared first on Nevada Current.

Challengers are hoping to break the hold of development-backed members of the Henderson City Council. (Photo: City of Henderson)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

In the City of Henderson, three is a magic number. That’s how many votes it takes to prevail before the five member City Council where four members – Mayor Michelle Romero, longtime council members Dan Stewart and Dan Shaw, and new member Jim Seebock – often vote in lock step. Councilwoman Carrie Cox is the odd woman out. 

“If you look at the campaign contribution and expense reports of the three up for election, the contributions are identical. It’s over 95% from big developers,” says Dr. Monica Larson, who recently moved to Inspirada from Pasadena, and is challenging Shaw in Ward 2  “So that’s my concern is where their allegiance lies.”

Challenges to incumbents are rare in Henderson, but Larson and a handful of others are hoping to break the hold by ousting Seebock, Shaw, and Stewart in the general election, if not the primary. The council races are non-partisan. 

“Split government is a really good thing,” says Jason Porter, one of two candidates challenging Seebock in Ward 1. “It’s a really good thing to have dialogue. Any single mindset as the only mindset being represented is a problem.”

In Henderson, Porter says, that mindset is growth at all costs, even though the infrastructure to support it is non-existent. 

“There is a ‘pay for play’ theme in Henderson and that’s why they’ve never found a development project they don’t love,” he said during a recent phone interview. “Developers have bought and paid my competitor to the tune of $677,000 for a $60,000 a year job,” Porter said, referring to Seebock’s campaign contributions, including the special election last year that landed him on the council. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Seebock is a former Las Vegas Metropolitan police officer. According to his campaign contribution and expense reports, he raised $378,000 last year, $91,000 in the first quarter, and had $400,000 in the bank as of April 15. 

Seebock is awaiting resolution of a state ethics complaint alleging he used the trappings of his position as an assistant sheriff at Metro in his campaign for city council. 

Another candidate in the race, Rick Whittaker, did not respond to requests for an interview.

Porter says he hopes to emphasize quality of life for residents over new development. 

He and his wife moved to Henderson six years ago. “In our time being here, we’ve just seen a change,” he says, adding he’s running for office “because I am very concerned about the overdevelopment of Henderson. I’m running to try to slow that down. It’s not that I’m anti-growth. I think we’re approving development too fast for our infrastructure to be able to handle things.”

Porter says he’s heard different takes on the valley’s water problem, but notes a neighbor was fined $300 for allowing water to seep onto his sidewalk. “If water is a problem for him, how is it not a problem elsewhere? Whether water is a problem or not, growth is a problem.”

He points to the planned remediation of contaminated land at Three Kids Mine, a former open-pit manganese mine that operated from 1917 to 1961. Pulte Homes plans to build 3,000 homes after the remediation, estimated to cost $250 million. The original development agreement called for then-owner Bob Unger to foot the bill for the clean-up. 

Instead, Pulte is providing $31 million in financial assurance for the remediation and the city council agreed to provide $250 million plus interest in tax incentive financing – a scheme that leaves Henderson taxpayers subsidizing each home to the tune of $100,000, according to Bob Understein, a member of the original development group. That’s more than seven times the amount of tax incentive financing provided to the developer of Cadence, which is also built on remediated land. 

“If I had been on the council, I would have had real problems with privately cleaning up a site that the federal government couldn’t or wouldn’t do,” Porter says. “I would not have supported that. It doesn’t make sense mathematically to have a developer spend under $40 million, and as a city, commit incentives back to them of $250 million over 30 years.”

He adds the city doesn’t “have enough police officers to keep our city safe,” noting Henderson has less than one officer per 1,000 residents when it should have more than two. He points to recent news that Henderson is the second most dangerous city in Nevada, behind Winnemucca. Las Vegas is sixth. 

“I want to put the onus on the developers who want to make money off of our population and our lands” to provide public safety infrastructure. “And I just don’t see that.” 

Porter invests in tax deeds and tax liens with the goal, he says, of keeping people in their homes.

“I figured out solutions to provide people with safe, clean, affordable housing, and I fight to keep them in their home,” he says. “I fight against gentrification.” 

He acknowledges the city needs affordable housing, but even more he says, “we need a pathway to ownership for anyone who seeks to do that. Homeownership is the way out of poverty for people. The American dream is not to rent.”   

He doesn’t favor rent control. “I’m a free market guy.” But he thinks barriers to affordable rentals, such as charging applicants fees for multiple rental applications, should be removed. “It’s ludicrous that application fees can be as profitable as actually renting the property itself. It’s egregious, and to me that’s predatory.”

He says inadequately funded projects such as Henderson’s animal shelter can be properly funded “if we quit buying $32 million casinos to tear down or we don’t spend $140 million reimagining Boulder Highway. We just have to be smarter with allocation of capital, it needs to go to the things that bring us a quality of life.” 

He favors reliance on property taxes and is interested in proposals to tweak Nevada’s cap of 3% on annual growth, but wants to learn more. “Any place that I have seen that forces the reduction of property tax to be something other than based on the actual assessed value of the property eventually has problems.”  

Porter says his “primary goal is to bring ethics and honesty” to the city council, where he says “ethics have been forgotten and honesty is malleable to some, and I have a problem with that.” 

The council recently approved a ‘governance policy’ that requires members to gain approval from the city before speaking about issues of concern. 

“The first thing I’ll do when I win is change that governance policy. Look, we’re a city and we’re electing a representative and if that representative has to have somebody go through a filter to get to them, then there’s a problem,” he says of the gag order. 

The second thing he’ll do, if elected, is pass an ordinance prohibiting “any council person from having a consulting company that provides any consulting services to any company of any type operating in Henderson.”

Romero and Seebock have consulting companies. Romero has represented parties who appear before the council. 

“I’m optimistic for this election,” says Larson, a clinical forensic psychologist from Pasadena who says her family moved here less than two years ago for a better quality of life. “I really do think people are ready for change, and they want accountability.” 

Larson alleges Shaw lives in Utah, where he has property, and travels to Henderson twice a month for council meetings.  

“You have to live in your community that you represent and care about it,” she says, adding her concerns about public safety in her neighborhood, which she brought before the council, drew no response from Shaw, who she says becomes animated only when developers appear before the council. 

Shaw, who was appointed to the council in 2017, declined to be interviewed. He raised more than $300,000 in 2023, another $63,000 in the first quarter, and had $266,000 on hand as of April 15. He takes pride in having increased Henderson’s general fund without raising taxes, according to his website.

Larson says Henderson touts itself on its website as the second safest city in the nation.

“That was really appealing to me. We quickly found out it was not true.”

After a rash of crime in her neighborhood, Larson mobilized her neighbors and began a patrol program that has almost eliminated crime. But she’d like to rely on the police. 

“We are critically low on officers,” she says, adding Henderson police are the lowest paid in the valley.

Larson says she wants city funds to be spent fairly and equitably, instead of for the benefit of council members. 

“You’d think that they would put their money where their mouth is and invest and vote in favor of our law enforcement and first responders,” she says, noting the city’s fire chief had to come to a city council meeting “literally begging for funds” for new equipment and facilities. 

Shaw, along with his Henderson business partner, recently settled lawsuits for making and collecting unlawful loans in Illinois and Indiana.

Larson says it’s “infuriating and despicable” that an elected official would take advantage of low-income individuals. “How can you ethically and with integrity represent your constituents?” 

Larson says she’s shocked by the price of housing, which she says rivals California. While she recognizes the need for affordable and low-income housing, she says neighbors in Seven Hills and Inspirada are opposed to the proliferation of multi-family developments, and notes the city  lacks the public safety infrastructure to support it. 

She says she’d support requiring developers to include workforce or affordable housing in their projects, or pay a fee to the city to be used for construction. 

“Everyone deserves to have quality and sustainable housing, but I’ve seen that the council is not interested. Everything seems to focus on the benefit and incentives for the developers, never for the residents,” she says. “There has to be a balance because a lot of people want the American dream of home ownership.”

Larson, who touts herself as a “quality of life candidate” on her website, says she’s interested in removing barriers to affordable housing, including rentals. She notes a relative was gouged by property managers over application fees. “They had to pay for each family member in the home.” 

Like Porter, she’s concerned about the development slated for the land at Three Kids Mine. 

“All it takes is three councilmen, the incumbents who vote in favor of these things, and this is one of them,” she says, adding the council is sacrificing the “health of safety of the community to focus on big business and special interests.”

“I want things to be transparent,” she says, in reference to the city’s gag order on city council members. “I’m opposed to that, and I know it was strategic, and it’s against our First Amendment rights. You should be able to speak and be held accountable. If you don’t have anything to hide, why would you implement something like that?” 

Larson says a recent trip to Henderson’s understaffed and over-populated animal shelter “was truly upsetting. I saw one volunteer. They need a better facility, staff and volunteers to better care for the animals.”

She says she’d support an effort to legalize the practice of trapping, neutering and releasing stray and feral cats, which has long been prohibited in city limits. “They can’t fend for themselves. There’s no harm to feeding a cat who’s hungry, or giving it shelter.”

Larson is endorsed by the Fraternity of Police, Stagehands union, Teamsters, and the Armed Forces Chamber, a veterans organization. 

Another candidate in the race, Bristol Marunde, did not respond to requests for an interview. 

Marunde, according to his website, is a mixed martial arts fighter and appeared in a now-defunct television series about flipping homes in Las Vegas. He raised close to $26,000 in 2023 and another $42,000 in the first quarter. He had $48,000 on hand as of April 15. 

Ward Four

Councilman Dan Stewart is a fourth-generation Nevadan, according to his website.

He declined to be interviewed for this story. 

Stewart has served on the State Ethics Commission, the Colorado River Commission, and the City of Henderson Planning Commission. 

He was once at the helm of Landwell, the company that turned a toxic waste site into the master planned community Cadence. 

Stewart is endorsed by the Henderson Chamber Political Action Committee, the International Association of Firefighters, and the Southern Nevada Building Trades, among others. 

He raised $492,000 in campaign contributions last year, another $35,000 in the first quarter of this year, and has $378,000 in the bank. 

Stewart is being challenged by Cherlyn Arrington, who ran unsuccessfully in 2010 and 2018 for State Assembly District 21 and in 2022 for State Senate District 12.  

She confirms she was among the founding member of the Nevada Oath Keepers, 

“The Nevada Oath Keepers had nothing to do with what happened on January 6. To affiliate me with those type of people was wrong. It was a lie put out by the Democratic Party so people would go against me,” she says. “The original Nevada Oath Keepers had to do with law enforcement, our Constitution, and standing up for what’s right.”

The Oath Keepers originated in Nevada, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

When asked whether she believes Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Arrington replied “He’s our president.” She says she doesn’t know who she’s going to vote for in November. 

“I believe that President Trump should learn how to be more cognizant of what comes out of his mouth. And how he tweets,” Arrington said. “I think he ran our country amazingly. We were great. We were prosperous at the time. And other leaders showed us respect. They don’t now. Look at our economy. Look at the crime rate.”

The violent crime rate has been on the decline in Nevada in recent years, however property crimes are increasing, according to state statistics. 

She’s endorsed this election by the Henderson Police Officers Association and the Henderson Police Supervisors Association, according to her website. She has raised close to $26,000 and has about $18,000 remaining. 

“I’m running because our law enforcement officers need someone to stand up for them and not tell them one thing behind closed doors and stab them in the back once they get to the chamber floors,” she said, noting the disparity in Henderson police pay with other jurisdictions. 

The average salary for a Henderson officer is $56,000 a year compared with $66,000 for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, according to estimates from Zip Recruiter. 

“I’ve spoken to voters who said they would be in favor of a small tax increase, just like the fire department is requesting right now,” says Arrington, adding she’d support higher taxes for police and fire services. 

In November, Henderson voters will be asked to approve a ballot measure increasing the property tax by .06 cents per $100 assessed value to fund fire services. 

Arrington disagrees with the Henderson Council’s decision to subsidize Pulte Homes’ remediation of toxic land at Three Kids Mine. 

“I think that money would have been better spent somewhere,” she says, adding the city should have fenced it off and walked away. 

She considers many Henderson projects to be a wasteful use of resources.. 

“They are allowing builders to build when our water resources are not there. Law enforcement is not there. Education is not there.”

Arrington says she’s undecided on the issue of rent control. She also says there’s enough  low-income housing available via Section 8 subsidies.

A 2021 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated Nevadans wait an average of 38 months to receive housing vouchers.

Early voting begins Saturday. Primary election day is June 11.

This story was updated with information from Cherlyn Arrington. 

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A sign is shown at North Las Vegas City Hall is Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, in North Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Home to more than 275,000 residents, the City of North Las Vegas is the state’s fourth most populous incorporated city – behind Las Vegas, Henderson, and Reno.

The nonpartisan North Las Vegas City Council includes the mayor and four members, who each represent a ward. This year, seats for two of the wards are up for reelection, but only one will appear on the June primary ballot.

In Ward 2, Councilwoman Ruth Garcia-Anderson is seeking her first full term. The incumbent faces two competitors: small business owner Robert “Twixx” Taylor and Air Force veteran Billy Lamont Riley.

If any candidate receives more than 50% of the votes during the primary, they will win the seat outright. If nobody reaches a majority, the top two vote getters move forward and appear on the November general election ballot.

Garcia-Anderson was appointed to her seat by the North Las Vegas City Council in December 2022 after then-Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown was elected mayor. 

Ward 2 runs roughly from Rancho Drive to Interstate 15, and from Lake Mead Boulevard to Centennial Parkway.

Garcia-Anderson is endorsed by Goynes-Brown, and her fellow council members, Isaac Barron, Scott Black, and Richard Cherchio. She is also endorsed by the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association, the Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 13, and Sheet Metal Workers Local 88.

Her campaign raised more than $23,000 in campaign contributions during the first quarter reporting period. Station Casinos was her biggest campaign donor, donating $10,000.

Since her appointment, Garcia-Anderson has served as the vice chair of the North Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency, and as a member of the North Las Vegas Deferred Compensation Plan Committee.

The mother of four earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Business with a minor in Marketing, as well as a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Spanish from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Before being appointed to city council, Garcia-Anderson spent more than a decade in North Las Vegas as a stay at home mom. Prior to that, she worked as a Spanish language interpreter for courts in Washoe County. 

Garcia-Anderson is the first Latina to serve on the city council. She highlighted her skill as a bilingual speaker as a selling point for her reelection.

“I think that is an important skill to recognize, because I’m able to communicate with the vast majority of the residents living in the City of North Las Vegas,” Garcia-Anderson said.

North Las Vegas is Nevada’s largest minority-majority city: 42% of residents identify as white, while 42% identify as Hispanic or Latino, 22% as Black, and 6.7% as Asian.

While campaigning in Ward 2, Garcia-Anderson said she found that resident’s top priorities were public safety, the rehabilitation of neighborhoods, and education.

Robert “Twixx” Taylor, owner of Fade ‘Em All barber shops, said his campaign is focused on personally connecting to residents of Ward 2 through door-to-door engagement.

“I literally knock on doors personally, myself, every day,” said Taylor.

Taylor previously served on the City of North Las Vegas Civil Service Board of Trustees, the Las Vegas Metro Multicultural Advisory Council, and the Urban Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Taylor also ran for mayor in 2022 but did not make it to the general election.

Taylor has been endorsed by various progressive groups, including the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) Action Fund and Make the Road Action Nevada, the organization’s campaign arm. Taylor was also endorsed by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1977.

His campaign reported nearly $17,000 in campaign contributions during the first quarter of 2024. His largest single contribution was $2,500 from Rosalind Cotton, the executive director of the Children’s Center in Chicago.

Taylor described himself as extremely self motivated, recounting how he opened his first barber shop at 23 before developing a chain of shops in North Las Vegas. He also runs a professional event promotions company called Two: Ent. His experience as a small business owner is what led him to getting involved in politics, he said.

“I got hindered a few times by the local government,” Taylor said. 

He recounted a time when the main road to his barber shop was shut down for repair for nearly three months, costing him business and employees.

“I saw how they started putting all this money into that new North Las Vegas downtown situation. But for some reason, they weren’t doing anything to the property where my barber shop was,” Taylor said. “One of the big reasons I’m running is that I’m a business owner, and I feel like North Las Vegas can do better supporting small business owners.”

Taylor said he’s employed hundreds of North Las Vegas residents over the years. He believes his experience with problem-solving, networking, and leadership would serve Ward 2 effectively.

“I’m the only candidate who’s a business owner and who hires people in North Las Vegas. And I’m the only candidate who has a 20-year-plus background of doing community work in our community. I am the clear choice,” Taylor said. “Both of the other candidates have been appointed by the city. I want to be appointed by the people, the citizens, and with their vote I’ll be appointed to work for them.”

While campaigning in Ward 2, Taylor said some of the most common concerns from residents were public safety, road maintenance, and education. 

“In one specific neighborhood, the neighbors took it upon themselves and put their own speed bumps and their own cones. And they have their own signs warning about children and they say they all agree to it,” Taylor said. “If I become the councilman, I want to make sure that becomes a real thing versus the community using their own money. I don’t think they should have to do that.”

Billy Lamont Riley, a U.S. Air Force veteran, is also a contender in the race to represent Ward 2. Riley’s campaign reported $700 in campaign contributions during the first quarter of 2024.

Riley was appointed to the North Las Vegas Planning Commission in 2021, a role he is still serving. Riley earned a bachelor’s and graduate degree from Bellevue University in 2002 and an associate degree from Metropolitan Community College in 2012.

He has been endorsed by Teamsters Local 14, Teamsters Local 631, and Teamsters Local 986. He was also endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees. 

Riley did not respond to Current’s requests for an interview. 

On his campaign Facebook page, Riley said the city has been plagued by illegal dumping on vacant lots near neighborhoods, an issue he plans to address if elected. He listed affordable housing, public safety, education, economic development, infrastructure, and the environment as top priorities on a Ballotpedia’s candidate survey.

Both Garcia-Anderson and Taylor are in support of a pair of ballot initiatives set to appear on the city’s June primary ballot that would extend two existing property taxes used to fund public safety, street maintenance and public parks. 

The street improvement tax collects 24 cents per $100 in property value and is set to expire in June 2025, while the public safety tax collects 20 cents per $100 in property valuation and is set to expire in June 2027. Together, the taxes brought in nearly $35 million in the 2023 fiscal year, according to a city budget document.

“I’m 100% in support of maintaining these taxes. The tax is not increasing. The city’s not going to be increasing the tax, we’re just maintaining it to keep our city safe,” Garcia-Anderson said.

“I think it’s important to ensure that we have enough trained officers patrolling our communities especially at night, so that their response time is improved. As well as 911 response time for medics, sometimes that just takes too long,” she continued.

Taylor said the city needs to maintain funding levels, which ‘yes’ votes would do: “We can’t go lower when there are police officer vacancies and roads that need repair.”

“But I feel that we need a deeper dive. Yes, I agree with it. I do support it, but once again, that’s something we’ve already been having but we still only have half of the staff we need. We need to use our money better to recruit,” he continued.

Garcia-Anderson and Taylor have different positions on a proposal to tie rent increases to cost of living increases, as proposed by the Culinary Union last year.

Garcia-Anderson said she would not support such an initiative without statewide implementation: “I would not support rent control only affecting North Las Vegas because that would affect the quality of homes. There would be no incentives for investors to come in, and I think we would see a decrease in property values.”

Taylor said when he ran for mayor in 2022 he did not see the need for such legislation, but has changed his position after seeing rent prices dramatically increase since then.

If elected, Taylor said he would also prioritize zoning, land use, and affordable housing. Taylor said the city council needs to find solutions to prevent out-of-state investors from monopolizing housing stock, which Taylor said is contributing to rising housing costs and the housing shortage.

“We can’t price ourselves out of our own city, out of our own state. That doesn’t make sense,” Taylor said.

Incumbent Councilman Richard Cherchio represents Ward 4 and is running unopposed, meaning his name will not appear on June primary ballots but will appear as the only option on the November ballot. 

Ward 3 runs roughly south of Bruce Woodbury Beltway to Craig Road, and from Aliante Parkway to Pecos Road.

His campaign raised nearly $108,000 in contributions during the first quarter reporting period. His largest single contributor was the Laborers International Union Local 872, who donated $10,000 to his campaign. 

Cherchio did not respond to Current’s requests for an interview.

North Las Vegas City Council appointed Cherchio to represent Ward 4 in 2009. He ran to retain the seat in 2011 but lost in the general election by a single vote. He ran again in 2015 and 2019 and won both times.

Before running for public office, Cherchio worked as a USPS mail carrier for more than two decades, according to his campaign site.

On his campaign site, Cherchio lists various initiatives he helped achieve as a member of the North Las Vegas City Council for more than a decade. Those initiatives include the construction of a Veterans Resource Center, a Job Creation Zone on Pecos Road, establishing the Tule Springs Fossil Bed National Monument, and helping the City of North Las Vegas recover from a $150 million deficit.

The post Barbershop chain owner, veteran challenge incumbent for North Las Vegas City Council appeared first on Nevada Current.

Voters have already started receiving mail ballots, and early in-person voting begins Saturday, May 25. (Photo: Hugh Jackson/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Ahead of Nevada’s June 11 primary election, Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar outlined new guidance around when counties should start tabulating votes in order to make sure results are released as soon as possible.

Nevadans have already begun receiving ballots in their mailboxes, and in-person early voting begins Saturday, May 25 and runs through Friday, June 7.

Speaking to press on Wednesday, Aguilar said his office is instructing county officials to begin tabulating early voting returns and mail ballots at 8 a.m. on Election Day.

Counties are being instructed to submit their results to the Secretary of State’s office by 6 p.m. to “allow our internal team to conduct verification and quality assurance as we always do,” he said. 

“The new guidance is very important as more and more voters opt to participate in the electoral process in different ways either during early voting or by mail,” Aguilar said. “We will be able to release more data to the public more quickly with this new process.”

The timeline, Aguilar said, will not only aid in transparency and allow for results to be released quickly, but also help “get ahead of any potential misinformation” around the election. 

Republican officials, encouraged by former President Donald Trump, have used lag times in election results and the voting process itself to baselessly claim there was rampant voter fraud in recent election cycles. 

Aguilar said 120 voters have cast their ballots through Nevada’s Effective Absentee System for Elections (EASE), which is available for military and overseas voters, tribal members and people with disabilities. 

More than 4,700 mail ballots have been returned statewide.

Though vote-by-mail was made universal, voters can submit a form to opt out from receiving a mail ballot. There have been hiccups in that process. 

The Reno Gazette Journal reported that 2,700 people in Washoe County received a mail ballot despite requesting not to receive one.  

Aguilar said the state is in the process of implementing a new “top down voter registration system” that would help address glitches like that seen in Washoe County. 

“I think you’re seeing the challenges of the legacy system,” he said. 

He added that the county “has done a tremendous job addressing the issues and getting out in front of them” and that he didn’t “foresee any future issues.”

The Secretary of State’s office originally announced they would implement the new voter registration system prior to this year’s June primary, but that timeline was amended after county election officials expressed concern.

In addition to new guidance, Aguilar highlighted recent efforts statewide to ramp up recruitment efforts to get more poll workers, which has included reaching out to veterans and youth 16 and older. 

“Last month we announced a new partnership with Vet the Vote to encourage the veteran community, who know the value of serving and protecting our fundamental rights, to step up again for our community,” he said. 

Aguilar campaigned on efforts to protect poll workers, who experienced greater levels of harassment as the result of misinformation and conspiracy theories.  

The state last year passed an Election Worker Protection Act to make it a felony to threaten or intimidate election officials. 

Sigal Chattah, a Republican who lost her 2022 attorney general race by the largest margin of all the statewide races that year, filed a lawsuit challenging the bill on behalf of three plaintiffs, including a virulent right-wing conspiracy theorist and regular GOP donor.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in April. 

“Despite the challenges to our Election Worker Protection Act, we’re focused more than ever in ensuring our poll workers are safe and protected through June primary and November general,” Aguilar said.

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Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday was asked if he supports “any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception.” (Photo of a package of birth control pills by Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president, suggested during a taped interview with a Pittsburgh TV news station Tuesday that he might be open to states restricting access to contraceptives, though he later appeared to backtrack.

“We’re looking at that and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting,” Trump said on KDKA. “It’s another issue that’s very interesting. But you will find it very smart. I think it’s a smart decision, but we’ll be releasing it very soon.”

Trump had been asked if he supports “any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception.”

Trump later added that “things really do have a lot to do with the states. And some states are going to have different policies than others.” That comment came just after being asked if he “may want to support some restrictions, like the morning-after pill or something?”

The former president, who is currently on trial for allegedly facilitating hush money payments to an adult film actress during his 2016 campaign to cover up a prior affair, later posted on his social media platform that he wasn’t advocating for birth control restrictions.

“​​I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” Trump wrote. “This is a Democrat fabricated lie MISINFORMATION/DISINFORMATION, because they have nothing else to run on except FAILURE, POVERTY, AND DEATH. I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON BIRTH CONTROL, AND NEITHER WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!”

Supreme Court rulings

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled in favor of privacy rights for decisions about contraceptives, meaning that any state looking to restrict or ban access to birth control would quickly see that law challenged in federal court.

In the1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case, the justices struck down a Connecticut law that prevented married couples from using birth control, writing that the “right to privacy can be inferred from several amendments in the Bill of Rights, and this right prevents states from making the use of contraception by married couples illegal.”

The Supreme Court later ruled in the 1972 Eisenstadt v. Baird case that the same privacy rights that protected married couples’ decision-making about contraceptives also protected unmarried people.

In that case, the justices held that “unmarried couples have the right to use contraception, based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the more nebulous constitutional right to privacy.”

Biden-Harris spokesperson Sarafina Chitika released a written statement Tuesday that Trump’s comments show he “wants to rip away our freedom to access birth control.”

“Women across the country are already suffering from Donald Trump’s post-Roe nightmare, and if he wins a second term, it’s clear he wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives,” Chitika wrote. “It’s not enough for Trump that women’s lives are being put at risk, doctors are being threatened with jail time, and extreme bans are being enacted with no exceptions for rape or incest.”

KDKA-TV Money & Politics Editor Jon Delano posted on social media that viewers interested in the Trump interview could tune in at “4, 5, and 6 to hear comments on the trial, abortion, contraceptives, the economy, energy, trade, and the fairness of PA’s election.”

The Biden campaign posted clips of the interview on their social media account, but it didn’t appear available anywhere else prior to KDKA’s airing.

Other policy hints from Trump

Trump has teased out providing clear policy plans before, telling Time magazine in an April interview that his campaign would put out details in the weeks ahead about his “strong views” on access to mifepristone. The campaign had not done so as of Tuesday afternoon.

The pharmaceutical is one of two drugs used in medication abortions and is currently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices heard oral arguments in the case in March and are expected to decide this summer whether to leave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s prescribing guidelines in place or revert to what was used before changes began taking effect in 2016.

Trump said during the Time magazine interview that he wasn’t going to explain his beliefs about access to mifepristone just then.

“Well, I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going to explain,” Trump said, according to the transcript of the interview. “I’m not gonna say it yet. But I have pretty strong views on that. And I’ll be releasing it probably over the next week.”

The post Trump signals he’s open to state limits on contraceptive access, then insists he’s not appeared first on Nevada Current.

Former President Donald Trump sits in court during the final day of testimony in his New York trial. Trump, the first former U.S. president to face trial on criminal charges, is accused of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments. (Photo by Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

WASHINGTON — The end of the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president is in sight as Donald Trump’s defense team rested its case Tuesday in Manhattan, where jurors have heard weeks of testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses about Trump’s alleged reimbursement of hush money meant to silence a porn star before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump did not take the stand after his team called just two witnesses.

The former president is accused of 34 felonies for falsifying business records. New York prosecutors allege that Trump covered up reimbursing his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels just before Election Day in 2016 to silence her about a tryst with Trump.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican candidate for president, denies the affair and maintains that he was paying Cohen for routine legal work.

The case will not resume until after the Memorial Day holiday, when closing arguments are expected.

A back channel to Trump

Trump’s defense team’s second and final witness, former federal prosecutor and longtime New York-based attorney Robert Costello, stepped down from the witness stand Tuesday morning. His brief but tense appearance began Monday afternoon and included an admonishment from Justice Juan Merchan for “contemptuous” conduct.

Costello testified to meeting a panicked and “suicidal” Cohen in April 2018 after the FBI had raided Cohen’s New York City hotel room as part of an investigation of his $130,000 payment to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.

After Merchan sustained a series of objections from the prosecution Monday, Costello exclaimed, “jeez” and “ridiculous” on the mic and at one point rolled his eyes at Merchan. Merchan cleared the courtroom, including the press, to address Costello and Trump’s defense team.

Costello’s testimony confirmed that he offered a back channel for Cohen to communicate with then-President Trump through Costello’s close contact and Trump’s former legal counsel Rudy Giuliani as Cohen was under investigation, according to reporters at the courthouse.

New York does not allow recording in the courtroom but provides public transcripts of the proceedings.

During cross examination, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger showed a series of Costello’s emails in an attempt to convince jurors that Costello was actively working to assure Trump that Cohen would not turn against him during the federal investigation.

In one email between Costello and his law partner, he asks, “What should I say to this (expletive)? He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet,” according to reporters at the courthouse.

Hoffinger also established from Costello during her final series of questions that Cohen never officially retained him for legal help — reinforcing that Costello showed up in Cohen’s life only after the FBI raid.

Trump’s multiple indictments

Costello has been publicly critical of the hush money trial against Trump, and of Cohen, as recently as May 15, when he testified before the GOP-led U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

There, Costello told lawmakers that the cases brought against Trump during this election year are “politically motivated.”

Trump, who faces dozens of criminal charges in four separate cases, was indicted in New York in April 2023.

Three other criminal cases were also brought against Trump in 2023. They all remain on hold.

• The former president was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida in June 2023 on charges related to the mishandling of classified information. Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed proceedings, making a trial before the November election unlikely.

• Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., in August 2023. A four-count indictment accused him of knowingly spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election results and scheming to overturn them. Trump claimed presidential immunity from the criminal charges in October 2023, which both the federal trial and appeals courts denied. Trump is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Weeks after the federal election interference indictment, Trump was indicted on state charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly interfering in the state’s 2020 presidential election results. The Georgia case has been mired in pretrial disputes over alleged misconduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Courtroom conditions

In the dim, tightly secured hallway just feet from the courtroom at the New York County Supreme Court, Trump again criticized the trial Monday and accused prosecutors of wanting to keep him off the campaign trail.

“We’re here an hour early today. I was supposed to be making a speech for political purposes. I’m not allowed to have anything to do with politics because I’m sitting in a very freezing cold courtroom for the last four weeks. It’s very unfair. They have no case, they have no crime,” he said before the news cameras that he’s stopped to speak in front of every day during the trial.

Trump told the cameras that outside the courtroom was like “Fort Knox.”

He complained that there are “more police than I’ve ever seen anywhere,” and said “there’s not a civilian within three blocks of the courthouse.”

That statement is false. States Newsroom attended the trial Monday and witnessed the scene outside the courthouse during the morning, mid-afternoon and late afternoon.

Just as dawn broke, people standing in the general-public line vying for the few public seats in the courtroom squabbled over who was in front of whom.

About an hour later, a woman with a bullhorn showed up in the adjacent Collect Pond Park to read the Bible and amplify contemporary Christian music played from her phone. A man paced the park holding a sign that read, “Trump 2 Terrified 2 Testify.”

Several people sat outside eating and talking at tables in Collect Pond Park during the 1 p.m. hour, as witnessed by reporters who left the courtroom after Merchan dismissed the jury for lunch.

By late afternoon, a small handful of protesters holding Trump flags and signs shouted that he was innocent.

The post Trump declines witness stand as testimony in his first trial concludes appeared first on Nevada Current.

Val Thomason, Democratic candidate in Assembly District 10 (Photo courtesy of Val Thomason)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

A coalition of business organizations are behind an attack mailer attempting to tie a progressive state Assembly candidate to former President Donald Trump, whom the groups supported in 2020.

A mailer recently received by voters in Nevada State Assembly District 10 in Las Vegas claims that Democratic candidate Valerie Thomason and Trump “both hid campaign cash to influence an election” and are “both facing accusations of misleading Nevada voters.”

“Can we trust Donald Trump or Valerie Thomason?” it asks.

Thomason is one of three Democrats running in the reliably blue district, which spans across the central part of the Las Vegas Valley. Venise Karris and Kyle Greenwood are the others. No Republicans filed for the seat, so the winner of the Democratic primary is expected to cruise to victory in the November general election, where they will face only Libertarian Sean Moore.

The attack mailer was distributed by Nevadans for Economic Opportunity, which describes itself as a coalition of trade organizations standing together “to oppose the progressive left and pro public union growth in Nevada that is pushing aggressively anti-business policies in our state legislature.” The coalition’s board is composed of leaders from the Associated Builders and Contractors, Nevada Trucking Association, Retail Association of Nevada, and Nevada Franchised Auto Dealers Association.

Chris Daly, who as part of the Strong Public Schools Nevada PAC filed an election integrity report against Nevadans for Economic Opportunity over the mailer, said he isn’t surprised the groups are opposed to Thomason, but he finds it ironic they are attempting to mar her campaign by tying her to a candidate they supported. Strong Public Schools Nevada, which is affiliated with the Nevada State Education Association, is supporting Thomason.

ABC, NTA and RAN all endorsed Trump for president in 2020.

Thomason works for Teamsters Local 14 and organized for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020. She is a democratic socialist and active in the Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America. She lists “housing for all” and “universal free childcare” her top issues.

Trump is the antithesis of everything she stands for, she says.

The allegation referred to in the mailer involves a PAC called Leftists United for Nevada Assembly, which Thomason says she set up to try and support progressive candidates running for office. The PAC received $3,262 in contributions but the majority of the candidates they’d hoped to back ultimately didn’t file to run for office. Thomason transferred the majority of the funds — $2,826 — to her personal PAC. The rest was spent on Jovan Jackson, a progressive running for Assembly District 6, according to Thomason.

Thomason had not received notice of any formal complaint filed against her campaign, as of Friday. She says the average donation amount to the Leftist PAC was $40 and all of the donations fell below the threshold required for reporting individual donor names.

“I’m offended they did it,” said Thomason of the mailer. “I think it’s offensive to our democracy to send out a blatant lie.”

She continued, “Truthfully, I think this is the biggest sign that I would be the strongest voice on (progressive) issues. If there’s a person who will go against the corporations and the corporate lobbyists, it’s the person they’re attacking with full force.”

The transferred PAC money makes up the bulk of what Thomason has available for her campaign, according to her finance reports. Thomason has said she is not accepting any donations from corporate PACs or lobbyists.

Daly alleges in his election integrity report that Nevadans for Economic Opportunity is the one violating state election law by distributing what is clearly campaign material without being appropriately registered to do so. Nevadans for Economic Opportunity is listed as an inactive PAC on the state’s campaign disclosure reporting portal and has filed no reports detailing contributions and expenses.

Brian Wachter, the senior vice president for government and public affairs at the Retail Association of Nevada, is listed as the executive director of Nevadans for Economic Opportunity. He did not respond to the Current’s request for comment on the mailer or the group’s interest in the AD10 race.

Wachter is a son-in-law to Venise Karris, Thomason’s main competitor. Wachter, who unsuccessfully ran for Clark County School Board in 2020, was the first contributor to Karris’s campaign, transferring $2,000 from his PAC to hers in October of last year.

Karris is a retired union electrician and member of IBEW Local 367. She is endorsed by the Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus, as well as multiple union and trades groups. Her campaign website lists no policy positions.

Karris is not named on the Thomason attack mailer and has not been formally endorsed by any of the groups associated with the coalition. Karris did not return the Current’s request for an interview or comment.

Kyle Greenwood, the third Democrat in the primary, does not appear to be actively running a campaign. He has collected no campaign contributions and spent no money, according to his campaign finance report. The Current could not find any online campaign presence for him.

AD10 is currently a vacant seat in the Nevada State Legislature. It was most recently represented by Democrat Sabra Smith Newby, who in August resigned in order to accept a job as deputy city manager of the City of Las Vegas.

Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to reflect Jovan Jackson’s political affiliation. He is a progressive candidate but does not identify as a democratic socialist. The article has also been updated to reflect how the Leftist PAC was distributed.

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