Umbrage has been duly taken. On the afternoon of July 3 Energy Department Deputy Secretary Daniel Brouillette called Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak to let him know the department may have been mistakenly shipping unstable nuclear material to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) monthly for a dozen years. Mixed low-level radioactive waste — which must be protected … [Read more...]
Expect Long Lines Come Election Day 2020
Democracy is a chaotic endeavor. Nevada lawmakers have made it more so. Expect long lines and delayed results come the next Election Day. Assembly Bill 345, which passed on a party line vote with Democrats favoring and Republicans opposed, will allow people to register to vote on the same day of an election rather than several weeks earlier. This will inevitably mean much … [Read more...]
Public worker contracts should be negotiated in the open
Despite being duly warned, Nevada’s Democratic lawmakers and Democratic governor this past legislative session lit the fuse on a huge budget bomb — passing and signing into law Senate Bill 135, which gives state public employees the right to collectively bargain for wages and benefits. A study commissioned by the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce estimates this … [Read more...]
Nevada gets short shrift on PILT checks
The checks are in the mail. Nevada’s U.S. senators both sent out press releases a couple of weeks ago boasting about all the money Nevada counties will be getting from the federal government to help cover the expense of having so much non-taxable federal public land within their borders — called Payment in Lieu of Taxes. This year’s checks for Nevada counties amount to … [Read more...]
Nevada should reject 50 percent renewable energy
Are Nevada voters and lawmakers falling for a scam? In an article titled “Solar Power to Hit the Wall in Nevada” in “American Thinker” this past week, retired engineer Norman Rogers says we are. In November, Nevada voters approved by nearly 60 percent a constitutional amendment that would require 50 percent of the electricity consumed in the state to come from renewable … [Read more...]
How to save the West from devastating wildfires
As we enter another wildfire season — and each one seems to be more devastating than the previous one — the question lingers: Why? According to The New York Times, The Washington Post and National Geographic it is unquestionably due to climate change. Pay no heed to the fact that prior to 1980 less than 25,000 acres of wildfires occurred each year in Nevada. In each of … [Read more...]
Is minimum wage hike constitutional?
This past week Gov. Steve Sisolak signed Assembly Bill 456 into law fulfilling a promise to raise the minimum wage in Nevada. AB456 raises the minimum wage 75 cents per hour each year as it climbs from the current $7.25 per hour for those receiving company health insurance and $8.25 for those not insured until it reaches $11 or $12 per hour in 2024. “Keeping working … [Read more...]
Lawmakers fail to rein in forfeiture abuse, again
In the past three legislative sessions bills have been pushed to rein in the pernicious practice of civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement agencies to seize cash, houses, cars and other property without a criminal conviction and keep the proceeds — a practice dubbed “policing for profit” by the Institute for Justice (IJ). In 2015 Nevada lawmakers did pass a … [Read more...]