Industry

LAS VEGAS - The indictments that led to three major online poker companies shuttering U.S. operations have provided an opening for American casinos to cash in on an industry worth untold billions o...

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – The Assembly worked late today meeting as a Committee of the Whole to review Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget for health and human services.
The review by the entire 42-member Assembly followed a similar session held in the Senate earlier this week.

Tom Henderson will conduct a walking tour of remarkable trees on Saturday, May 7, beginning at 10 a.m. at Bordewich-Bray School. This stroll along King Street will include several Nevada Champion trees, the largest of its species recorded in the state.
Mr Henderson will point out several distinctive trees proximate to King Street which he recommends for planting in our climate. This informative tour will pause at several trees to review their particular characteristics and to provide broader perspectives on the benefits of an urban forest.

By Andrew Doughman
CARSON CITY – A bill removing the mining industry’s right to take private land heads to the governor’s desk after passing in the Assembly this evening.
Senate Bill 86 gained early bipartisan support when Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Las Vegas, joined the bill’s sponsor, Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, in criticizing a corporation’s ability to take land from a private citizen.

CARSON CITY – U.S. Rep. Joe Heck praised GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval in remarks to the Nevada Legislature today for proposing a budget that does not raise taxes, saying it is the way to an economic recovery.
Heck, R-Nev., also expressed appreciation for Republican lawmakers who so far this session have supported Sandoval’s no new taxes or fees position during the lengthy review of his two-year, $5.8 billion general fund budget.

By Andrew Doughman
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s rural Republican legislators are struggling to defend the governor’s budget that cuts their communities.
Democrats have been showcasing cuts to the rural counties in order to convince rural Republican legislators that a vote for tax increases is a vote to mitigate the harm to their districts.
Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said that rural counties are already “cut to the bone,” and in many cases could lose all that they have left.

RENO - Backers of a broad proposal to expand a nuclear-waste dump site in Nevada criticized the Obama administration Thursday for paying lip service to the nuclear industry while ignoring the ne...

By Andrew Doughman
RENO – President Barack Obama highlighted Nevada’s renewable energy sector today with a visit to the heat-to-energy company ElectraTherm, in northern Nevada.
In front of a backdrop of “green machines” Obama touted plans to end $4 billion in subsidies for oil companies in favor of providing incentives for renewable energy companies.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Tax Commission today agreed to undertake a review of the exemptions granted mining companies to ensure the proper amount of taxes are being paid by the industry to the state and county governments.
The request for the review came from Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, acting in the capacity as a private citizen, using a state law to request the commission to undertake an emergency rule-making process.

CARSON CITY — In the anti-tax world, the Tea Party in Nevada might have one thing in common with progressives who want to raise taxes.
Both say that industries that get special treatment or have special provisions written for them in the constitution should not have those advantages.
Senate Democrats are sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 15, a constitutional amendment that would remove mining industry benefits currently written into the state constitution.

CARSON CITY – Efforts in the Legislature to amend Nevada’s constitution failed for the most part to move forward today as a deadline hit to get measures passed out of committee.
Measures creating a lottery, repealing the minimum wage and allowing tax dollars to be spent on religious schools all failed to advance.
One of the most significant failures came on the issue of vouchers for religious schools. Two measures, including one introduced by Gov. Brian Sandoval, did not make it out of committee by the deadline.

The Nevada legislature just gave the finger to every law enforcement officer who daily puts his or her life on the line in the fight against illegal drugs. Officers like the Carson City deputies who discovered a boy being held in a makeshift home prison by his meth-addicted parents.

The same day that story broke, State Senator Sheila Leslie had to pull a bill that is designed to seriously interrupt the availability of essential ingredients for methamphetamine production, because it didn't have the support it needs to pass the Senate.

It's hardly a surprise.

CARSON CITY –Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, nudged his bill out of committee today, meaning the state could secure anywhere from $20 to $50 million from the casino industry.
Under Assembly Bill 219, if you lose or do not redeem a paper voucher printed from a slot machine, the state would sweep that money into its coffers as unclaimed property. Right now, casinos pay taxes on that money and count the remainder as revenue.

Nuclear industry spokespeople and some in Congress have been very vocal of late suggesting that the nuclear accident in Japan requires restarting the defunct Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository...

By Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A bill to create a website where Nevadans could learn how to protect themselves from consumer fraud was received favorably today by an Assembly committee.

CARSON CITY – A bill to create a website where Nevadans could learn how to protect themselves from consumer fraud was received favorably today by an Assembly committee.

By Nicoletta Florio / Big George Green Consulting
CARSON CITY — In politics, it is generally considered bad news if a governor is regularly associated with the terms “hot air” and “hot water.” In Nevada however, these associations, according to Governor Brian Sandoval, are easily acceptable.

Wild Horse Theater, in collaboration with Nevada Casting Group, Inc., will be presenting a workshop, Everything You Wanted to Know about 'The Biz' But We Afraid to Ask on Friday, April 15, 6:30 p.m., at 813 N. Carson St. in Carson City.

This one-hour question and answer session will give adults and children a chance to meet Juli Green, casting director and CEO of Nevada Casting Group, and to ask questions and get more information about the entertainment industry in Northern Nevada.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
RENO – Behind the laptop, beside the cell phone and next to the iPad tablet, somewhere, is a legislator.
“I ask you to please stop looking at your phones,” said Crystal Jackson, a UNR student. “Stop looking as if you’re bored.”
She made the remarks after legislators were more than two hours into listening to students and faculty testify about proposed higher-education cuts at the University of Nevada, Reno on Thursday.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Tax revenues, or more specifically the lack thereof, have been topic No. 1 during the 2011 legislative session.
Thus far it’s been mostly talk, with GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval saying no to any new taxes or fees and some Democrat lawmakers saying additional revenues are essential to preserve education and critical social services. Republican lawmakers thus far are standing with the governor.

CARSON CITY — Bethany Drysdale, who has promoted Nevada's tourism attractions for more than five years for the Nevada Commission on Tourism will head the Public Relations department beginning April 23, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki announced this week.

Drysdale has served as Public Relations specialist for NCOT since October 2005. She succeeds Chris Chrystal, who is retiring as manager April 22 after a 48-year career in news reporting and public relations that included 13 years with the Commission.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A hearing room was packed today with labor and business representatives for a legislative committee’s consideration of a package of bills aimed at curbing the misuse of independent contractors.

By Andrew Doughman/Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A proposal in the state Assembly would give minority-owned or women-owned businesses a five percent bidder preference for state public works projects.
Assemblywoman Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, advanced the bill in a Assembly Government Affairs hearing today.

(Press Release) — Business owners and residents will have an opportunity to participate in an economic development plan update for the Greater Reno and Lake Tahoe region at the Business BUZZ “Beyond Target2010” economic forum, Thursday, March 31 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. The program is sponsored by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN).

CARSON CITY – Nevada Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden said today he believes the state can reduce Medicaid rates to medical providers as proposed in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget, but acknowledges the issue is “muddy territory.”
Willden’s view suggests the Medicaid reductions can be imposed without the state being subjected to successful legal challenges based on a recent appeals court ruling.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
A national analysis shows Nevada’s growth in personal income was last in the nation during 2010.
The federal government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis today released a report charting personal incomes for all 50 states during 2010.

CARSON CITY – A legal analysis provided to the skilled nursing home industry regarding a proposed Medicaid rate reduction to cover the cost of caring for Nevada’s seniors says the cuts would be a violation of federal law.
The analysis says the proposed reductions of $20 per Medicaid resident per day are being proposed in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget, “purely as a means to alleviate the budgetary crisis.”

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – An analysis of a cut in Medicaid payments to skilled nursing facilities proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval paints a sobering picture for the industry and its future in Nevada.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, may have just found the state $20 to $35 millions in new revenue.
Under his proposal, if you lose or do not redeem a paper voucher printed from a slot machine, the state would sweep that money into its coffers as unclaimed property. Right now, casinos pay taxes on that money and count the remainder as revenue.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Representatives of Nevada’s skilled nursing home industry say up to five facilities could close and 700 beds lost if a proposal in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget to cut the Medicaid reimbursement rate by $20 a day per patient comes to pass.
The closures would result in well-paid medical professionals being laid off and joining the ranks of Nevada’s already sizable population of unemployed, industry officials say.