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. 

The post Disillusionment leads newcomers to challenge Henderson council incumbents  appeared first on Nevada Current.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has recently initiated a related probe involving a number of casinos, including Resorts World.

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Three gamblers under federal investigation for their ties to illegal sports betting rings that allegedly laundered money through Las Vegas casinos lost just under $24 million at Resorts World alone since the casino opened less than three years ago, according to sources who asked not to be identified in order to provide confidential gambler information. 

The revelation could prove costly for Resorts World, which is being investigated by federal authorities from California, as first reported last year by the Current. Corporate fines are often levied by federal authorities as a means of divesting companies of ill-gotten gains. 

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has recently initiated a related probe involving a number of casinos, according to individuals who have been interviewed. 

Resorts World has not been charged with wrongdoing. General Counsel Gerald Gardner and a public relations firm hired by the company declined to speak on the record, other than to say the company is cooperating with investigators.  

Damien LeForbes, who is being investigated by federal authorities in connection with illegal sports betting, racked up $12.3 million in losses during close to four dozen trips to Resorts World, according to sources.

A casino record obtained by the Current reveals Resorts World turned over a bad check for $2.5 million from LeForbes to the Clark County District Attorney for prosecution, however, no case has been filed against the gambler. His Las Vegas attorney, David Chesnoff, declined to comment. District Attorney Steve Wolfson did not respond to requests for comment. 

LeForbes also owes $1 million to the Venetian, according to a source at that casino. That marker has also been sent to the District Attorney, according to the source, however no case has been filed. 

The gambler declined to comment on the record when contacted by phone Monday.

Ryan Boyajian, a regular on the Real Housewives of Orange County and associate of admitted illegal bookie Matt Bowyer, lost $3.7 million at Resorts World tables during 21 trips.

“There’s an investigation and I don’t want to compromise it,” Boyajian’s attorney Steven Katzman told the Current via phone Monday. Katzman confirmed Boyajian and Bowyer have been acquainted for years.

Bowyer, who admitted through his attorney to taking sports bets from Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of baseball star Shohei Ohtani, made 32 trips to Resorts World, the Current learned. ESPN reported earlier this month that Bowyer lost $7.9 million at the casino between 2022 and 2023. 

Mizuhara, who stole close to $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account in order to fuel his gambling habit and pay off millions of dollars in debt, has entered a plea deal with federal authorities.

Some of Mizuhara’s payments to Bowyer, up to $500,000 a week, were sent to Boyajian and subsequently deposited in his gambling account at Resorts World, according to ESPN.

Illegal bookmakers are known to launder money by wiring ill-gotten gains to casinos, where they later withdraw the bulk of the funds.

“I don’t know what kind of money launderers blow it all at the tables,” said one source who asked not to be named. 

Bowyer, Boyajian and LeForbes have not been charged with any crimes.

Bowyer’s California home was raided last October by the same federal authorities who investigated former MGM Grand and Resorts World president Scott Sibella. A federal judge sentenced Sibella earlier this month to one year probation and a $9,500 fine for failing to ensure MGM filed a suspicious transaction report for a cash payment from gambler Wayne Nix, who has admitted to being an illegal bookmaker and is awaiting sentencing.

MGM Resorts agreed to pay federal authorities $7.5 million to avoid prosecution in the case, which included violations at MGM Grand and Cosmopolitan.

The investigation of Nix, Sibella and his former employers has widened to include other resorts and other alleged illegal bookmakers, including Bowyer and LeForbes. A dozen individuals have been charged or entered plea agreements in connection with the case, according to federal authorities. 

On the same day federal agents raided Bowyer’s home, they confiscated the phone of Las Vegan Jennifer Belcastro, an independent representative who served as Bowyer’s host for his first trip to Resorts World. 

Resorts World and state regulators subsequently approved Bowyer’s wife as an independent host, an arrangement that allowed her to represent her husband and recoup a percentage of his losses.    

Outside representatives are compensated on a trip-by-trip basis determined by their customer’s level of play and/or the amount lost per trip. They must be registered with the state and undergo a background check, according to Gaming Control Board spokesman Michael Lawton.

“Additionally larger companies with compliance plans are required to conduct their own due diligence for Independent Agents,” Lawton said.

Note: The original version of this story said state regulators approved Bowyer’s wife to represent him as an independent host. Regulators do not approve hosts for specific customers. 

The post Resorts World could face massive fines in alleged money laundering case appeared first on Nevada Current.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson in a campaign ad for his daugher, who is running for a judicial seat.

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

A complaint filed with the Nevada Ethics Commission against Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson alleges Wolfson violated state law by appearing in a campaign ad for his daughter, Rebecca, a candidate in the race for Las Vegas Municipal Judge. 

The district attorney, in the ad that is running on television and on social media, declares his daughter will be “a great Municipal Court Judge.” He is identified not as the district attorney, but rather as “Rebecca’s father”. 

Steve Wolfson did not respond to a request for comment. 

“This doesn’t have anything to do with Rebecca’s campaign,” Roger Kaplan, a longtime Las Vegas resident who filed the complaint, told the Current during an interview. “This is about Steve Wolfson violating the ethics laws of the state of Nevada.”

In the complaint, Kaplan alleges the “DA’s appearance and testimonial for his daughter are a violation of NRS 281.400(2),” which says a public officer shall not use their position “to secure or grant unwarranted privileges to …. any person to whom the public officer or employee has a commitment in a private capacity.” 

That includes close relatives.

“Steve Wolfson is using his office as a district attorney, the top attorney in the county, to blatantly secure a good paying range and prestige for his daughter,” Kaplan said. 

The complaint notes Rebecca Wolfson earns $110,699 in her current job as Deputy City Attorney II, about half as much as a municipal judge. 

In 2004, the Ethics Commission found then-Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman “used his position as Mayor to secure or grant unwarranted privileges or advantages for his son, Ross Goodman, a person to whose interests he has a commitment in a private capacity,” by lending his name to the invitation for a cocktail party sponsored by Ross Goodman’s company at the National Conference of Mayors. Goodman appealed and the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the finding. 

“I recall thinking that if that’s not using his position to further a pecuniary interest of a person to which he has a commitment in a private capacity, I don’t know what is,” says Caren Jenkins, vice-chair of the Ethics Commission at the time. “He was an elected public officer and was a member of the organization’s leadership in his capacity as Mayor of Las Vegas, and though his words seemed benign, I don’t think Ross’ company would be sponsoring a reception had his dad not been a mayor…” 

Jenkins says her initial conclusion is that Wolfson “appearing in an ad as a proud dad is not using his position in government to benefit a member of his family.It may smell a little bad, but I wouldn’t see it as a rotting fish.”

Kaplan says he intends to amend his complaint to include an ad for a January fundraiser for Rebecca Wolfson, hosted by “District Attorney Steve Wolfson.”

A 2005 opinion from the Ethics Commission regarding a public official whose spouse was seeking office, notes “in an effort to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” the public official decided not to fundraise on behalf of his spouse. “The Commission supports Public Officer’s decision to refrain from soliciting campaign contributions on behalf of spouse and renders no further opinion on the issue. “

The post Complaint alleges Wolfson violating ethics law by appearing in daughter’s campaign ad appeared first on Nevada Current.

Las Vegas mayoral candidates Shelley Berkley, Victoria Seaman, and Cedric Crear. (Candidate campaign photos)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Former Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman are the frontrunners in a crowded race for Las Vegas mayor, according to a poll released last month that shows Berkley with 16%, slightly ahead of Seaman with 12%, and Councilman Cedric Crear with 7%. 

The Current spoke with Berkley, a Democrat, and Seaman, a Republican, about their campaigns for the nonpartisan position, and their plans, if elected. Crear did not respond to requests for an interview. 

Berkley, who has been out of politics since she lost a race for U.S. Senate in 2012 to then Sen. Dean Heller, says she has dedicated her life to public service. She began her political career as student body president of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Berkley was elected to the state Assembly, the Board of Regents, and to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served seven terms. 

“What are the opportunities we’re providing people? What about that good education for their families? A more sophisticated transportation system, and of course access to affordable health care? You have a bully pulpit when you’re mayor of Las Vegas,” she says. “These are issues that need to be not only discussed, it’s time that we have some action.” 

Berkley says public safety, homelessness, and affordable housing would be her priorities, if elected. 

Berkley leads the money race with contributions totalling more than $1.35 million. She had more than $1 million on hand as of April 15, compared with Seaman, who has raised more than $900,000 for the race and has just under $800,000 in the bank. Crear began the year with about $800,000 in his campaign account. He raised $183,587 in the first quarter of 2024 and had $303,391 in the bank as of April 15. 

Crear, a marketing professional, served two terms on the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents before winning a special election for City Council in 2018. He won election to a full term the following year. 

Seaman served one term in the Nevada Assembly in 2015. She lost a race for state senate to Nicole Cannizzaro in 2016. In 2018, she filed in the Republican primary for Congressional District 3, but dropped out after Danny Tarkanian entered the race. Tarkanian subsequently lost to Susie Lee, a Democrat. Seaman was elected in a special election to the Las Vegas City Council in 2019 to fill a vacancy. She was later elected for a full term that ends in 2026.

Seaman says her priority, should she be elected mayor, is to “streamline how we’re doing business in the City of Las Vegas.” She says she frequently hears from small business owners who complain their plans are delayed by a variety of inspections or other approvals. “It’s really important to streamline and make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that the process goes quickly for these people who are the job creators and the bread and butter of our economy.” 

Seaman says she is the “law and order” candidate. She has endorsements from the Las Vegas Police Protective Association and other municipal law enforcement organizations.  

Homelessness 

Southern Nevada’s homeless population is on the rise, especially in the City of Las Vegas, where the bulk of resources for the unhoused are located.

“This is a serious problem from the humanitarian angle all the way to the economic angle,” Berkley says, adding, “homeowners are afraid to let their children go out and play because there are homeless sleeping on their lawn and then they use their garden hose to clean up in the morning. Business people downtown are fit to be tied. If you are a mom and pop business, and you’ve got homeless sleeping in front of your entrance, it inhibits customers from coming in. You’ve got your life savings tied up in this business and you can’t get customers in the door.”

Both women support the city’s “camping ban,” which is designed to keep the unhoused from sleeping on the street. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing the constitutionality of such prohibitions. 

Seaman blames the “liberal policies” of neighboring municipalities for the proliferation of homelessness.  

“They put Band-Aids on the problem,” she says. “Like when they have encampments, they put in a Porta Potty, or they take up these hotel rooms and just put people in that really should have treatment rather than just giving them a place to live that now they don’t care about.” 

Seaman takes exception to the suggestion that the city’s Courtyard of Hope offers little more than Band-Aids. Of more than 7,000 clients who sought shelter at the Courtyard last year, the facility, which is designed to help place people in housing, directly placed three people into housing. 

“We want to give people the services they need. I know that not every person is going to take them but the more we offer them and the more we continue to bring them, eventually, those folks will take services,” Seaman says, adding the Couryard’s clients “aren’t sleeping on someone else’s private property.” 

Berkley and Seaman support a proposal from the resort industry to build a homeless facility that would provide mental health services and transitional housing. The project would be financed by the resort industry, with a $100,000 infusion from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. 

“The governor’s project is replicating what we do at the Courtyard and it would be a huge step in the right direction,” Seaman says of the proposal, which is spearheaded by Wynn Resorts. 

Seaman says the project’s architects are looking at a location near Rainbow and the College of Southern Nevada because of existing mental health services in the area. She says she’ll advocate for the facility regardless of where it’s located, even over potential protests from residents. 

Berkley would prefer the project not be near downtown. 

“Let us do a wraparound service away from downtown Las Vegas that’s fully enclosed and is fully self-contained,” Berkley says. “it can’t be so remote that it would impede clients from finding and keeping work. I think they know it can’t be in Timbuktu.”

Berkley says the resort industry’s involvement in the effort is critical to providing employment.

“We’re providing not only life skills, but job training skills, so that they get a job at one of the hotels,” Berkley said. “One of the things I bring to the table, I believe, is I know everyone in town. I can call anyone and they will return my calls, and we should all be working together.” 

Development

Berkley and Seaman are united in their support of Lombardo’s effort to secure more federal land for development in Southern Nevada via an expedited appraisal process. Neither views the southwest’s drought as an impediment to more development.

“I am pro-growth.” Berkley said. “I do believe that the Water Authority will continue to manage our water resources. I know they work closely with the Israelis who have technology because they’re in a desert environment with very limited water resources.”

Seaman says she expects Nevada’s congressional delegation will renegotiate the Colorado River Compact, which allocates the river’s waters among southwest states and Mexico. A deal designed to keep the river flowing expires in 2026. Renegotiation of the longstanding pact could occur then, say some experts. 

Southern Nevada’s housing market is a hotbed for venture capital investment, which has helped increase the cost of buying and renting a home. 

Wall Street investors own more than 13,000 homes in Clark County, compared to fewer than 8,000 in 2019, according to a Rutgers University analysis of property records. 

“These corporate owners that are buying up single family houses and jacking up the price, they’ve got no relationship to Las Vegas,” Berkley told the Current. “They don’t live here. They never will live here and they are making a substantial profit on the backs of our citizens and our working families.”

Berkley says she doesn’t know if the city can address the issue via an ordinance. “But it is very important for us to look at that. If we have the legal authority to limit that sort of purchase, I would be in favor of that. If this is a legislative issue, we should go to the Legislature and ask for some relief.” 

Last year, Lombardo vetoed Senate Bill 395, a measure that would have tracked investor purchases, and limited corporations and LLCs to buying 1,000 properties a year. The measure will return to the 2025 legislative session because lawmakers had no opportunity to vote to override the veto. 

Seaman says “any resolution to ban corporate-owned housing would have to come from state legislators or from Congress.” 

While they oppose rent control, both Berkley and Seaman support inclusionary zoning – a process that requires developers to include low-income or affordable workforce housing in their projects, or pay into a fund that would assist the city in providing housing at lower price points.

Seaman says she prefers incentives for mixed use projects, which she says help to disguise a lower-income component. 

“I love mixed use, because you’re putting buildings wherever and you’re not knowing that some of them are workforce,” she says.  

Berkley says she expects to encounter NIMBY, the “not in my backyard” syndrome, on the road to providing affordable housing. 

“A number of people that I’ve spoken to are not enthused about having more housing projects in their neighborhood,” says Berkley. “And I think it would be important to help educate the public that we are talking about very nice housing that is going to provide a solution for a number of their fellow citizens.” 

She says she respects the desires of residents in rural areas to protect their neighborhoods from development. 

Wrong side of the tracks 

Efforts to revitalize blighted areas in Las Vegas during the Oscar and Carolyn Goodman era have been focused almost exclusively on downtown.

In 2019, the Current reported that Mrs. Goodman’s administration had spent $187 million on redevelopment projects, $163.6 million of it downtown and $22 million in the blighted Westside, which lacks necessities such as grocery stores.

The Current’s review in 2021 of Clark County Assessor’s records revealed the city owned at least 25 vacant lots on the blocks bordered by Interstate 15 to the east, Van Buren Avenue to the north, Martin Luther King Boulevard to the west, and Washington Avenue to the south.

Records indicate little has changed today. 

“I did a cleanup there last year. And I’m going to tell you, it has been neglected,” Seaman says of the Historic Westside. 

That’s an understatement to Katie Duncan, owner of the Harrison House, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016 as a reminder of Las Vegas’s segregated past. Harrison House was home in the 1950s and 60s to Sammy Davis Jr. and other Black entertainers who were prohibited from staying on the Strip where they performed. 

“Symphony Park is booming behind investment by the redevelopment agency but the other side of the freeway isn’t getting any redevelopment,” says Duncan, who says she’s unable to get attractive rates on loans or share in redevelopment funds. She says Crear, her councilman, refuses to talk with her. “He won’t talk with anybody.” 

In 2016, the city launched the HUNDRED plan, “a vital step in identifying the opportunities to link with the past and create a familiar bridge to the future,” according to his website. The plan consists of eight “Big Moves” envisioned for the Westside.  

• Establish a gateway welcoming the community 
• Revitalize Jackson Street spent 7 million repaving road and planting trees
• Make the most of opportunities for infill to add new housing, parks, plazas, greenhouse and community gardens 
• Establish Washington Live, an entertainment district along Washington Avenue, between D and H streets
• Establish community amenities and housing in mixed-use developments
• Ensure all streets in the Historic Westside are designed for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. 
• Reopen James Gay Park and reclaim the park with mixed-use facilities 
• Develop the Moulin Rouge Entertainment District 

Duncan, who is running for the council seat currently held by Crear, says the vast majority of improvements have not come to fruition. 

“They did put up some signs,” she says of the effort to establish a gateway. “They spent $7 million repaving Jackson Street and planting trees, but there was nothing for the businesses.” 

A city spokesman says the city made infrastructure improvements on Jackson Street, including new lighting and wider sidewalks.

The city cites the groundbreaking of ShareDOWNTOWN, an apartment complex on the Westside, and the new Mario’s Market, in a previously shuttered CVS store as examples of infill efforts under the HUNDRED plan. Mario’s Market received $1 million in American Reinvestment Plan funds, according to the city.

No multi-use developments have materialized, and entertainment districts are “in process,” according to the city.  “James Gay Park is home to the Historic Westside Urban Farm and a farmer’s market,” a spokesman said. A photo of the park indicates it is closed. 

“There’s so much opportunity in the historic Westside,” says Seaman. “And we need to really have that town hall with all of the community, and find out what they want and what they need, give incentives and bring the developers in.”

“That area is ripe for development, and it is high time,” Berkley said, stressing the need to “show the positive economic possibilities that are there. The community wants development, but they want to have great pride in their neighborhoods.”   

Berkley says she intends to meet with legislative representatives of the area to determine its needs and how the city and Legislature can work together to ensure development. 

Animal crisis

Seaman prides herself on bringing the council’s attention to the animal overpopulation issue and the failings of the Animal Foundation, the government-funded shelter for Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Clark County. 

The city is opening the shelter contract to bids later this year. 

“We’ve had providers take some tours,” Seaman says. “I don’t want to jump the gun,  but I believe that whoever our next partner is, we will have a new contract and oversight.”

Berkley, a longtime friend of Animal Foundation board member and former Las Vegas mayor Jan Jones, says rather than building a city-run shelter, as Seaman has proposed, “we need to adequately fund the Animal Foundation that currently exists and make sure they can afford to take care of our four legged friends.”

Seaman opposes a ban on the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits from pet stores, a measure passed by Clark County and Henderson to help get a handle on overpopulation. She says a ban would increase illegal breeding. 

Berkley, on the other hand, says she would prohibit the sale of pets in stores and would support an increase in fines for illegal breeders. 

Seaman says the city currently lacks the personnel to follow up on breeding complaints and is working to hire a staff person. The city has also increased illegal breeding fines and penalties to include two days in jail upon a second offense and ten days behind bars for a third offense.

“We did this because we cannot wrap our hands around illegal breeding with the manpower we have now,” Seaman said. 

The primary election is June 11. Early voting is May 25-June 7. The top two candidates in the race will advance to the general election, unless one candidate receives more than 50% in the primary.

The other 11 candidates who filed candidacies for mayor are Kolawole S. Akingbade, Tera Anderson, Lynn Baird, Daniel Joseph Chapman, Irina Hansen, Kara “KJ” Jenkins, Eric Thomas Medlin, Donna G. Miller, Michael Pacino, Deb Peck, and William Walls III.

The post Berkley, Seaman leading field of 14 vying in Las Vegas mayor’s race appeared first on Nevada Current.

Scott Sibella, former president and COO of the MGM Grand, pictured here at a 2017 press conference. (Mark Damon/Las Vegas News Bureau)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Scott Sibella, the former president of MGM Grand and Resorts World Las Vegas, to one year of probation and a fine of $9,500 for violating a federal law requiring casinos to know the source of their customer’s funds and file a suspicious activity report. 

Sibella maintains he did nothing that benefited him personally. 

“I was charged from the very beginning for not filing a SAR, accepted a plea, and have taken full and complete responsibility for what I did,” Sibella said in a statement distributed shortly after the sentencing by his attorney John Spilotro. “I want to reiterate that by, anything alleged, I gained no benefit – neither personal, professional or financial.”

Sibella said he’s “relieved to have this matter concluded and accept the terms imposed today by the court. As I have said throughout this investigation, I regret the pain this has caused my friends and family and am extremely grateful for those who chose to stand with me throughout these difficult times.”

Sibella entered a guilty plea in January for allowing illegal bookmaker Wayne Nix to pay a $120,000 gambling debt to the MGM Grand without reporting the transaction to the federal government, a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act that is punishable by a fine up to $250,000 and prison time. 

“The decision to plead to the single charge, for failing to file a suspicious activity report (SAR) at MGM Resorts in 2017, was not easily arrived at given the underlying facts and realities in this matter,” Sibella said in the statement. 

“Contrary to published reports, Mr. Sibella never used a betting account and never made any illegal bets,” Spilotro said in a statement. “In addition, Mr. Sibella had no involvement in the bookmaking activities of Mathew Bowyer and nothing whatsoever to do with Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Shohei Ohtani.”

In a sentencing memo, federal authorities noted that when questioned by law enforcement in 2022, “defendant admitted that he had ‘heard that Nix was in the booking business’  and he ‘couldn’t figure out how he had all the money he gambled with.’ Defendant further admitted ‘I didn’t want to know because of my position, . . . in this business, they [bookies] are a dime a dozen. . . I stay out of it. If we know, we can’t allow them to gamble. . . I didn’t ask, I didn’t want to know I guess because he wasn’t doing anything to cheat the casino.’” 

Numerous individuals, including Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill asked Federal Judge Dolly Gee to show leniency in sentencing Sibella. 

“What he is accused of is out of character and doesn’t represent the person I’ve come to know,” McMahill wrote, according to legal documents. “For as long as I have known him, he has displayed unwavering support to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.”

Sibella’s attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo on April 24 that in 30 years in the gaming industry “…Mr. Sibella has never been disciplined by the Nevada Gaming Control Board or New Jersey Casino Control Commission. No fines, suspensions, or timeouts.” 

Days later,  the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which remained largely silent since news broke last year of the federal investigation, filed a complaint against Sibella that could result in the loss of his gaming license. 

The government noted in its sentencing recommendation that Sibella “is no longer a casino president, which was the environment in which the crime occurred. Per defendant, he was terminated from employment at another large casino in Las Vegas due to this case. In addition, the negative publicity surrounding defendant’s felony conviction for violating the Bank Secrecy Act serves as a deterrent for both defendant and others from engaging in similar conduct.”  

Sibella’s attorneys argued his “personal history reflects generations of hard-working, selfmade, successful people – including his grandparents and parents. He inherited both their work ethic and commitment to those around them. Starting out as a busboy, construction worker, and eventually front desk clerk at a casino hotel, Mr. Sibella rose to being a recognized and respected figure in the Las Vegas hospitality business.” 

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“Across and within most states, white people overall receive better quality of care than Black, Hispanic, AIAN, and, often, AANHPI people,” the report says. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Nevada’s health care system ranks 41st overall of the 50 states and District of Columbia, according to a report detailing disparities in health care and wellness across racial and ethnic groups.

The care afforded to white residents ranks at 39th in the nation, says the report from the Commonwealth Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving health care. Nevada ranks 35th for health services available to Black residents, and 36th for services available to Hispanics. 

The care provided to Asian American and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islander (AANHPI) residents of Nevada ranked 25th in the nation – the state’s highest ranking in the study. 

Premature death from avoidable causes

The report notes that health outcomes, measured by death rates and the presence of health problems, also vary by race and ethnicity.

“Deep-seated racial and ethnic health disparities persist across the United States, even in states with otherwise high-performing health systems,” says the report.

Black Americans, American Indians and Alaskans have lower life expectancies than others, and experienced more COVID-related deaths, the report says.  

In Nevada, Blacks had the highest rate of premature deaths (age 75 and under) from avoidable causes with 553 per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control National Vital Statistics System for 2020 and 2021, followed by AIAN at 549 per 100,000. AANHPI residents in Nevada had the lowest death rate at 237 per 100,000, followed by Hispanics at 286, and white Nevadans at 374 per 100,000.  

Health Care Access

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are perpetuated by less insurance coverage and unequal access to high-quality care, the report says.

“Large disparities in health care access between white people and members of most other racial and ethnic groups are apparent across states,” the report says. “Hispanic people have the highest uninsured rates and cost-related problems in getting care.”

While more Americans have become insured since the Affordable Care Act became law, some 25 million people remain uninsured. 

“In nearly all states, uninsured rates continue to be higher for Black, Hispanic, and AIAN residents than they are for white and AANHPI residents,” the report says. 

In Nevada, Hispanics have the highest percentage of uninsured adults at 26,4%, followed by Blacks at 16.2%, AANPHI at 11.2%, and whites at 9%.  

“Some Hispanic and AANHPI populations continue to face immigration-related barriers to getting subsidized coverage through Medicaid or the ACA marketplaces,” the report says. 

Americans who don’t have insurance or have plans that lack comprehensive coverage are “unable to get care when they need it or have to pay high out-of-pocket costs for their care,” the report says. “With comparatively lower incomes and fewer savings, Black, Hispanic, and AIAN people are more likely to report experiencing delays in their care or financial distress.”

Access and use of primary care

“Across and within most states, white people overall receive better quality of care than Black, Hispanic, AIAN, and, often, AANHPI people,” the report says, noting primary care clinicians play a critical role in ensuring quality services. 

Patients tend to have better outcomes when they receive care from providers of the same racial background, the report says.

“When there are barriers to obtaining primary care, such as costs or a lack of providers, people are more likely to get care in more intense and costly care settings, particularly an emergency department,” the report says, noting Black patients covered by Medicare are more likely than white patients to be hospitalized for “acute exacerbations of chronic conditions” that could be treated and managed by primary care providers. “For all Medicare beneficiaries, greater use of primary care services is associated with less use of Emergency Departments for treatable conditions and fewer hospital admissions.”

In Nevada, Black residents have 31.9 admissions per 1,000 Medicare patients to hospitals for conditions that could be treated outside a healthcare facility, compared with white residents who are hospitalized for such conditions at a rate of 23.5 per 1,000 Medicare patients. 

Black patients are admitted to emergency departments for avoidable conditions in Nevada at a rate of 181 per 1,000 Medicare patients, compared with 132 for white patients.

The report asserts that equity in health care should be a top priority for policymakers, and urges leaders to evaluate existing policies that thwart the effort.  

Among the report’s suggestions: 

• Congress could extend the insurance premium subsidies set to expire in 2025
• States that have not expanded Medicaid could do so 
• Congress could reduce deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for marketplace plans. 
• Congress could reduce immigration-related barriers to insurance coverage
• Lawmakers could allow undocumented, low-income immigrants to enroll in Medicaid, as several states have already done 
• Policymakers could strengthen primary care by reimbursing providers based on the value of care they deliver

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Black bear in Lake Tahoe Basin (Photo: California Fish and Wildlife Department)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The Nevada Wildlife Commission voted Saturday to allow hunters to kill 42 bears a year, more than twice the number permitted to be slaughtered in the first decade of the hunt, which began in 2011. 

The move is the latest in a series of decisions that have prompted criticism of the commission for failing to represent the interests of a plurality of Nevadans, who prefer to coexist peacefully with animals, according to studies, including the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s own survey.  

Advocates for allowing more bears to be killed note the population has not declined since the inception of the hunt. But critics complain no one knows how many bears are in Nevada. 

NDOW estimates the black bear population in Nevada at between 239 and 740 with 95% confidence, and growing at a rate of 5% annually. 

“That’s a real wide gap of confidence when we’re trying to estimate the population,” said Commissioner David McNinch, the lone member of the board charged with representing conservationists, who took issue with NDOW using 700 bears, the high end of the range, in its calculation for increasing the quota. “Not sure why we wouldn’t equally land on 240.”  

“A 95% confidence level that varies by several hundred animals means you have no confidence level at all,” Dr. Donald Molde of the Nevada Wildlife Alliance said via email. ”Pick a number.”

Molde says estimating populations of any species is not easy. “That means to me they must be conservative in their choice of numbers.”

The mortality rate under the new hunting regulation is projected at 1.9% to 2.7% of the population. NDOW biologists say up to 14% of the population could be killed each year without compromising the species. 

Fred Voltz of the Nevada Wildlife Alliance told commissioners the “selective information” presented by NDOW raises “more questions instead of providing complete answers regarding wildly fluctuating bear population guesstimates.” 

Voltz noted that NDOW reported 74 bear deaths from all sources in 2021 and 71 in 2022, when 20 bears could be killed by hunters. Yet the department’s report justifying the increased hunting quota failed to include sources of mortality other than the hunt. 

“These numbers don’t reflect bears that are orphaned and killed by other species, hit by cars and die in the woods. and other sources” not counted by NDOW, Voltz told the commission. 

‘How many times…’ 

NDOW, which is entrusted with conservation of the state’s wildlife, says it manages species, not individual animals.  

“Is it fair to think of animals only as part of a larger population, not as an individual whose suffering is very real?” Cathy Smith of No Bear Kill Nevada asked commissioners during public comment. “I think not, and I  think most of you know that animals suffer, and humans can and do increase that suffering.”

The new regulation limits hunters to killing no more than 14 females, one-third of the quota, each season. Last year, almost half of the bears killed – nine of 19 – were female, including one that was still lactating and another with young cubs. 

Hunters have defended the practice of hounding – using dogs to chase bears up a tree – as a means of determining gender before the kill. 

McNinch, referring to the almost 50/50 gender split among hunted bears last year, called the notion that hounding spares females from being killed “malarkey.” 

Only 13% of Nevadans condone hounding, according to NDOW’s own survey. 

“How many times will you have to listen to members of the public like myself before you take us  seriously?” No Bear Hunt Nevada’s Kathryn Bricker asked commissioners.

Bricker recalled a video posted to social media by a houndsman of “his hounds at the base of a tree in the Mt. Rose forest. A two-year-old female was looking down. The look on her face, and her vocalizations of sheer terror will haunt me until I die. She was not even old enough to have had cubs of her own. I and others only pray that she was dead when she hit the ground and not still alive to be mauled by the dogs.” 

Hunters speaking in favor of increasing the bear hunt quota asked the commission to eliminate restrictions on killing female bears. 

“Do we even need hounds at that point?” asked Commissioner Alana Wise, the only member of the board charged with representing the public. “Can we eliminate them?”

The unpopular method, which is illegal in California, has spawned a growth industry in Nevada of guides and houndsman, who are paid thousands of dollars to lead tag winners on their quest. 

The commission quickly moved to approve the amendment as drafted, keeping intact the limit on killing females and the ability to hound. 

‘Brain dead’

During the meeting, McNinch told his colleagues of a number of incidents, primarily in Northern Nevada, that prompted calls from irate residents. 

In one instance a deer was snared in a legally set trap. In another, a person shot a deer with a bow and arrow in a residential neighborhood. 

“Apparently it was not the first one,” he said of the illegal shooting. 

McNinch went on to describe an incident in which a Wyoming man intentionally ran over a wolf in that state with a snowmobile, then tortured the animal before shooting it. 

Animal advocates see little distinction between the suffering of the wolf, the two-year old bear chased up a tree to her death, or a deer ensnared for days in a trap. 

“These are the types of things that happen when we don’t tend to our business – when we don’t have strong laws that say these activities are not condoned, but they’re condemned, and we’re going to do something about it,” McNinch told his colleagues. “We’re primed for those same things happening in Nevada.”

Tommy Caviglia, the commission chairman, called the perpetrator of the wolf incident “brain dead.” Caviglia supports the increase in the bear hunt quota and has repeatedly defended coyote killing contests, in which prizes are awarded for racking up the most dead coyotes.

McNinch, the only commissioner to vote against allowing more bears to be killed and an opponent of killing contests, says he’s at a loss to describe his colleagues’ embrace of what critics call wanton killing. 

“You’d have to ask them,” he said during an interview. “I’m struggling with this more and more. I don’t understand the commitment to that mind set.” 

Caviglia did not respond to requests for comment.

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“The truth is that the vast majority of those that have been elected to serve the people of Nevada, have opposed this project. Many of them are in Mr. Brown's own party,” former Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid said Thursday. (Photo: Dana Gentry/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Former Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid says Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Sam Brown needs a history lesson. “I’m happy to provide it here and now.”

Reid emerged from his absence from public life Thursday to campaign for Sen. Jacky Rosen and speak up for keeping nuclear waste out of Southern Nevada, a cause his father, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, embraced from the 1980s until his retirement in 2017. Reid died in 2021 at the age of 82.

“I’m here as a son,” Rory Reid said. “I’m here to defend my father’s legacy. As you know my father dedicated much of his political career to fighting against Yucca Mountain.” 

Reid added that some people credit his father with stopping what seemed the inevitable selection of Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste burial site. 

“I would agree with that,” he said. “And he was very proud of what he did. I heard him talk about how a small state like Nevada, when powerful people throughout the country were trying to solve their problems on our backs, we were able to come together as a community and stop it.” 

Reid said it was “deeply, deeply troubling for me to hear that someone is trying to drag that legacy that my father proudly built through the mud for their own political game,” referencing audio that surfaced this week of Brown.

Joining Reid against the backdrop of Interstate-15 and the Las Vegas Strip, Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) said “all the nuclear waste would be transported right through here,” should Yucca Mountain become the nation’s nuclear waste burial ground. “Any trucks transporting nuclear waste will be going down this highway right past the heart of our community. The trains would go right behind where we’re gathered today along this rail line.” 

While campaigning for U.S. Senate in 2022, Brown, now the Republican frontrunner for the U.S. Senate nomination in 2024, told a campaign gathering that he supported bringing nuclear waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The Los Angeles Times Tuesday published audio of previously unreported remarks Brown made during a 2022 campaign event in Henderson, where Brown said that not allowing nuclear waste in Nevada represented “an incredible loss of revenue for our state.”

Yucca Mountain was officially designated as the nation’s nuclear waste dumping ground 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, Donald 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.

“I am not strictly committed to opening Yucca Mountain at this time. However, 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,” Brown said in a statement Thursday to the Current.  

“Sam’s first priority will always be the safety and security of Nevadans, our water, and our environment. If a proposal isn’t explicitly proven to be demonstrably safe, he will not support it,” Kristy Wilkinson, Brown’s communications director, said in a statement. “Senator Rosen is continuing the Harry Reid machine’s dirty political tactic of fear-mongering for votes — just in time for her struggling reelection bid. As a U.S. senator, Sam will consider and vet every safe opportunity that brings jobs and economic investment to our state so that we can help working Nevada families earn a good living again and undo the economic destruction that Joe Biden and Jacky Rosen have brought to Nevada.”

Brown’s 2022 remarks come on the heels of a U.S. House Energy and Commerce hearing earlier this month in which chair Cathy McMorris Rogers and other Republicans called for  restarting the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain project.

Days later, during a Senate Energy Committee hearing, Cortez Masto got reassurances from Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that there is no funding in President Joe Biden’s budget for restarting the relicensing process, and no intention to ever include any.

Rosen issued a statement blasting Brown for his remarks obtained by the Times.

“I’ve been fighting against Washington politicians trying to force nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain since Sam Brown was still living in Texas, and his extreme support for this dangerous and unpopular project underscores how little he understands the needs of our state,” she said. 

Rosen was first elected to the U.S. House in 2016. Brown moved to Nevada in 2018.

In the recording obtained by the Times, asked his opinion about the Yucca Mountain project, Brown said “one of the things I’m afraid of is a lack of understanding and the fear mongering that Harry Reid and others have spread,” and “that we could miss an incredible opportunity for revenue for our state in the future.”

Reid said his father was not perpetuating fear, but rather “trying to do what was best for the people in Nevada.” He noted that opposition to burying high-level nuclear waste in Nevada transcends party lines.   

“The truth is that the vast majority of those that have been elected to serve the people of Nevada, have opposed this project. Many of them are in Mr. Brown’s own party,” Reid said, naming U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, former Gov. Brian Sandoval, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, and Laxalt. “This issue isn’t Republicans versus Democrats. It’s Sam Brown versus Nevada.” 

Note: This reporter worked as Sen. Harry Reid’s Nevada press secretary in the late 1980s. 

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(Nevada Department of Wildlife photo)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

For more than a decade, hunters in Nevada have been limited to killing 20 bears a year. But in recent years that number has climbed, and on Friday, the Nevada Wildlife Commission is expected to vote to allow hunters to kill 42 bears come September.

Nevada’s first bear hunt in 2011 authorized the sale of 45 tags and permitted that 20 bears be killed, including six females, according to wildlife commission documents. The quota – the number of tags sold to prospective hunters – was later increased to 50 tags but the hunting limit remained at 20 bears. 

Last year, despite a recommendation from the Department of Wildlife that hunters be limited to killing 20 bears, the commission voted to decrease the quota to 37 tags but increase the number of bears that could be killed to 37. 

On Friday, the commission will vote on a proposal to make 42 tags available and permit hunters to kill 42 bears, this time in accordance with the department’s recommendation. 

“Since the commission drastically increased these limits to match the quota, it seems the department has followed their lead,” says Cathy Smith, a board member of No Bear Hunt Nevada. 

The move is a surprise to animal advocates, given recent criticism of the commission for failing to represent the vast majority of Nevadans who do not hunt and favor coexisting with wildlife over their slaughter.

“We are not commenting on this at this time as it will be thoroughly addressed at tomorrow’s Commission meeting, where an NDOW bear biologist will be providing a comprehensive presentation on current bear populations,” NDOW spokeswoman Ashley Zeme said via email. “All NDOW’s recommendations are based on current population sizes. NDOW only makes recommendations, and then the Commission will make the final decision on quotas after reviewing and hearing input from the public and County Advisory Boards.”

“This hunt has always been about hunter convenience, opportunity and success and flouts the Commission’s responsibility to ‘protect wildlife.'” as required by state law, says activist Fred Voltz of the Nevada Wildlife Alliance.

“The commission and the department of wildlife have made it perfectly clear they don’t care that the majority of Nevadans are against the bear hunt and particularly against the use of dogs in the bear hunt,” says animal rights activist Carolyn Stark, noting that last year, all 19 bears killed in the hunt were “chased by hounds and then shot dead out of a tree.”

Stark says the department and commission “made it perfectly clear that they could care less that bear hunters killed two lactating females in last year’s hunt. This undoubtedly orphaned the dependent cubs as well.” 

The commission is dominated by hunting and ranching interests under a statutory scheme that requires it to have five “sportsmen,” i.e. hunters, fishermen or trappers who have purchased a license in three of the past four years, one rancher, one farmer, one conservationist, and one member of the public.

The lopsided membership, critics say, renders the board ineffective and preoccupied with looking out for ranchers and hunters at the peril of the wildlife it is charged with protecting.

“Less than 3% of the population hunts. Yet, 8 of 9 (89%) of commissioners making decisions about wildlife, hunt,” says Stark. “They make decisions based on their own biases and preferences.”

“I knew where the commission is regarding changing wildlife values – the majority don’t believe it,” says Smith. She says the recommendation to allow more bears to be killed illustrates the commission’s lack of concern for public sentiment regarding trophy hunting.

“Wildlife, particularly bears, mountain lions and now moose will never get a fair shake in this state under the current system,” says Stark.

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