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Sun rises, quickly sets on tax policy during Senate hearing
The sun never sets in Carson City, and yet there is so little illumination. Nearly 13 months to the day that Gov. Brian Sandoval signaled he wanted to spend more than the state’s economic forecasters believed would be available – i.e. making sure so-called tax sunsets would not occur -- his administration presented the actual legislation to lawmakers on Monday.
Speaker to County Commission: Only two candidates "we were particularly impressed with"
After meeting with candidates to replace Steven Brooks, expelled by the Assembly, Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick has written to Clark County commissioners to recommend two of them as possibilites: Tyrone Thompson and Meli Pulido. Thompson, who works for the county, and Pulido, who used to work for the city of Las Vegas, were among nine candidates who were seeking the appointment, which the commission is scheduled to make Tuesday.
"I'm Jeremy Hughes, Brian's new campaign manager"
Wait, there's a gubernatorial campaign underway? So folks were told told by Jeremy Hughes, who introduced himself (again?) to folks as Gov. Brian Sandoval's campaign manager today in a "Don't forget he's running already" missive slugged, sunnily, "Saying Hi" And what is this canard about the governor "has been busy working with the Nevada Legislature...." He has? When did this happen? I kid. Enjoy: Hey --
Groups to sponsor forum for candidates to replace Brooks, even though at least one has decided what race of replacement should be
Four groups are sponsoring a forum next week for the nine candidates who want to replace expelled Assemblyman Steven Brooks, even though one of them is lobbying commissioners to appoint an African-American.
Transparency bill moves forward after lawmakers take two steps back
Shortly after a Senate committee passed a heavily amended version of his transparency bill, Secretary of State Ross Miller issued a tweet: “SB49 AuroraTransparency & Ethics bill passes committee on party line vote - many thx to those who worked so hard on moving NV forward” Forward, eh? One small step for transparency, one giant leap for nonsense.
Headline of the year -- until it was changed
UPDATED: Managed to get the hard copy of the RGJ. It has close to the original headline, but a helpful sub-head for Heller. It's attached here. After the Senate voted to move to the gun debate on Thursday, the Reno Gazette-Journal ran a story about the 68-31 vote with this memorable headline:
GOP pollster conducts Hispanic focus groups in Vegas
Public Opinion Strategies recently conducted focus groups among Las Vegas Latinos to try to probe ways for Republicans to effectively reach out to a demographic that is deeply distrustful of the GOP.
Gay marriage advances, with amendment to repeal ban and allow marriage equality
With a last-minute amendment that would both repeal the ban in the Constitution and replace it with a mandate for Nevada governments to recognize it, gay marriage advanced in the Legislature on Thursday.
Heller: Let's have the debate
Moments after voting to proceed to the gun bill, Sen. Dean Heller put out this statement to make sure people understand he still loves the 2nd Amendment:
Nevadans overwhelmingly support universal background checks
UPDATED WITH CROSSTABS: I have obtained them, and here's what they say (and they are attached here so you can see all the details). As I suspected, the only place where there is signifcant opposition to background checks is rural Nevada (22 percent). But 59 percent of rural voters feel strongly and 12 percent more somewhat back the idea of universal checks. Even in the two congressional districts with rural areas, strong support is above 70 percent. Support is much stronger among women (84 percent strongly support) than men (65 percent).