Nevada is Nevada and Texas is Texas. Always was; always will be. But in 2022 may I suggest a tiny link between the two states: The awakening of Hispanic voters. Consider Mayra Flores, who won a special election in the 34th Congressional District in Texas. In a traditionally Democratic stronghold, did she run on gender identity? Did she hit the stump telling people about the … [Read more...]
Does a chicken cry?
Ever since newly minted Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson could not – or more accurately would not – answer the question “what is a woman” at her confirmation hearing, American political punditry remains at the ready to do battle over the topic. Don’t expect much of a fight in Nevada, though. This remains a pioneer state with fairly conservative values about … [Read more...]
A timeline that will haunt law enforcement
Seventeen minutes. One hundred and sixteen rounds fired. Nineteen kids and two teachers slaughtered in their elementary school classroom in Uvalde, TX. Seventeen minutes. That’s the time between when a mentally screwed up, mascara wearing 18-year-old entered the classroom with a rifle and the time officers burst into the classroom and killed him. We’ve reached the … [Read more...]
Sherman Commentary: Sisolak blew it
We know what you did in the summer of 2020, Gov. Steve Sisolak. You shut down Nevada churches in the teeth of the COVID-19, while letting a myriad of other businesses gather. The governor and Attorney General Aaron Ford were taken to court and summarily admonished for the blunder. Now, the governor wants to be re-elected. You gotta be kidding. A governor with so light a … [Read more...]
Leak of the century
Who leaked the Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade? I suspect the court already knows, or has a damn good idea, who the leaker is because if you zero in on the three minority justices and staff who gain the most from the leak – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen G. Breyer – the list of likely suspects becomes very small. Also, there wasn’t … [Read more...]
Another ‘Kamala-ism’
I’ve tried to let a significant passage of time go by before commenting – again – on our incredible vice president. Now’s the time. The ever-bizarre Kamala Harris went down to the bayou (Sunset, LA, to be precise) to talk up her federal initiative to bring greater broadband internet access to rural America. It’s needed, as rural Nevadans know. But, how in gawd’s green Earth … [Read more...]
Time to resolve this conflict
It’s been a burr under the saddle of good governance in Nevada for as long as we’ve been a state – can public employees also serve as legislators? In 2020, the think tank Nevada Public Research Institute (full disclosure – I was on this organization’s board many moons ago) filed suit contending that public employees cannot also be legislators under the separation of powers … [Read more...]
Equity is what, exactly?
May I draw your attention this week to the word “equity,” the increasingly popular idea that in American culture it’s not enough to maintain a society of opportunity, it must also have “equity.” Exactly what “equity” might look like in a free America is blurry. I was on a website recently that took a stab at defining it. Marin County, just north of San Francisco is a … [Read more...]