Shortly after state health officials confirmed the first presumptive case of the coronavirus — dubbed COVID-19 — in Nevada this past week, Gov. Steve Sisolak issued an emergency regulation regarding insurance coverage for testing and treatment of the rapidly spreading virus. State law gives the governor the power in emergency situations to make, amend and rescind … [Read more...]
Courts Can’t Tell Lawmakers to Hike Education Funding
An education advocacy group has filed suit on behalf of nine parents of Nevada public school children demanding that the courts force lawmakers to adequately fund K-12 education — declaring that the students “inhabit one of the lowest-rated and worst-performing state school systems in the United States.” The suit, filed in the 1st Judicial District Court in Carson City, by … [Read more...]
Federal bill would negate right-to-work laws
A month ago the U.S. House passed on a near party line vote of 224-194 a bill dubbed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act. Among other things the bill would nullify state right-to-work laws, such as Nevada’s 66-year-old right-to-work law and those of 26 other states. Workers would be forced to pay union dues in order to keep their jobs. All three of Nevada’s … [Read more...]
Could a socialist be the Democratic nominee for president?
To their eternal ignominy Nevada Democratic caucus voters have helped jump start the presidential candidacy of self-identified democratic-socialist Bernie Sanders, a man who could not have voted for himself if he lived here because he is not a registered Democrat. The Vermont independent senator won 47 percent of the state’s equivalent delegates, picking up strong … [Read more...]
Federal Spending by Both Parties must be Reined in
There is always one issue on which both parties in Washington never fail to agree — more and more spending. President Trump’s proposed 2021 fiscal year budget of $4.8 trillion includes a deficit of $1 trillion dollars, almost double the deficit for the Obama administration’s final year in office, but the squawking isn’t about the deficit and the mounting national debt. It … [Read more...]
Nevada State and Local Taxes Already too Regressive
In this presidential election year there has been an ongoing and vigorous debate, nay, a knock-down-drag-out fight over the question of whether the wealthy pay their fair share of federal taxes. There is ample ammo for both sides of that argument. But when it comes to state and local taxes there is no debate. The tax data from nearly every state shows those tax practices are … [Read more...]
Steyer ups Ante in Bidding War for Votes
All of the candidates still seeking the Democratic presidential nomination have at one time or the other advocated doubling the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Recently billionaire businessman Tom Steyer upped the ante in his vote buying scheme by calling for tripling the minimum wage to $22 an hour. As The Wall Street Journal editorialists point out, this is not a … [Read more...]
Democratic Candidates could Hurt Rural Health Care
As Democratic presidential candidates sweep across the state in advance of Saturday’s caucus rural voters should pay close attention — as if your life depends on it, because it does — to what they say about their plans for changing how Americans pay for health care. Two of them — Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — are advocating what has been dubbed “Medicare for … [Read more...]