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Nevada should cap charter schools
Twenty-one states have capped the number and growth of charter schools. Nevada should join them. Four years ago, the state spent $254 million on charter schools. This year, according to the director of the State Public Charter School Authority, the state expects to spend more than $340 million. A little more than 28,000 students were enrolled […]
Sebelius reports Sandoval won’t endorse Laxalt
Gov. Brian Sandoval intends to make no endorsement in the race to succeed him. Sandoval’s decision was reported on Twitter Thursday by KLAS-TV PoliticsNOW co-host Steve Sebelius. BREAKING: @GovSandoval said today he does not plan to make an endorsement in the race to succeed him as governor, ending speculation about whether he'd embrace Republican nominee […]
Real wages down year over year
Real average hourly earnings for all employees in the U.S. decreased 0.2 percent from July 2017 to July 2018, the Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week. For production and nonsupervisory employees, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.4 percent compared to July 2017. Economists are infamously “puzzled” as to why higher employment rates have not […]
Arizona may get an electricity deregulation debate, too
Sixteen states, mostly in the northeast, have adopted electricity deregulation in one form of another. Nevadans will determine whether they want to join them when voters decide the outcome of the Question 3 state constitutional amendment in November. And Arizona may also be moving toward deregulation — again. Five years ago the Arizona Corporations Commission […]
NV one of 11 death penalty states not to use it for a decade or more
The fifteen states that have joined Nevada’s suit to let Nevada execute Scott Dozier, in what would be the first execution in Nevada since 2006, are predominantly states that have executed someone much more recently. The one exception — Nebraska — is scheduled to execute someone Tuesday. Nine of the 15 – Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, […]
GOP congressional candidate calls economy “stagnant”
“Job creation and retention are the key elements to getting our stagnant economy moving again” according to the campaign website for Cresent Hardy, the Republican seeking to regain the seat that he lost two years ago in Nevada’s fourth congressional district. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Great financial numbers being announced on an […]
Nevada oil & gas: Production still miniscule, but leasing is booming
Last week, the prospect of oil and gas drilling in the Ruby Mountains near Elko prompted alarms, particularly within the conservation community and among some politicians. Meantime, other parts of Nevada are already hotbeds for oil and gas lease applications — if not oil & gas production. Thursday E&E News, a publication well-known among people […]
The simple truth about Question 3
“Competition is good,” declares the campaign for Question 3. “It’s that simple” If Question 3 passes, Nevada will have to create rules and guidelines for energy traders who will parachute into the state to buy electricity wholesale and sell it to you retail. The end result will be many things. “Simple” won’t be one of […]
Lyon County sheriff candidate “being neutral” on Confederate flag
A candidate for sheriff in Lyon County is surprised to be attracting attention for posting a picture of himself on Facebook with a man whose face is painted to look like the Confederate flag. “I didn’t realize it was going to turn out to be that big a deal,” Lyon County Sheriff’s Commander Frank Hunewill […]
What’s going on with the resort industry anyway?
Falling stock prices, meh, whatever. But the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reports a lot of stats are down year-to-date, including visitor volume, convention attendance and holy sacred RevPAR amen. And this is amidst what we are told is a booming national economy. This morning the R-J reports that MGM is lowering room rates. […]
“You can’t eat GDP”
Nevada’s senior senator, Dean Heller, is for veterans, according to a recent Heller campaign ad. And, veterans — especially the one who does most of the talking in the ad — are for Heller. “We were alone, forgotten, until Dean Heller stood up for us,” the vet says. “And finally we had a voice…” This […]
RGJ-Suffolk poll: Nevada men hot, women not, for Trump
The Reno-Gazette Journal-Suffolk University poll released Tuesday found statistical dead heats in Nevada’s Senate and gubernatorial races. But perhaps more intriguingly, the poll found a nearly mirror-image split between men and women over Donald Trump. Asked if they approve of the job Trump is doing: 60 percent of Nevada men approve of Trump, 33 percent […]