The establishment-backed candidate in all but one of the important primaries identified by The Nevada Independent had a fundraising lead in the first quarter.

This week’s Indy Environment looks at the water bills that are advancing in the Legislature as a bipartisan group on a budget subcommittee supported increasing the state’s water funding.

Even though lawmakers in 2021 unanimously passed AB88, a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) that prohibited “sundown sirens,” or sounds  citywide to alert people of color to leave town by a certain time, the town of Minden still sounds a siren at 5 p.m.

Boyd Gaming and Red Rock Resorts are taking different approaches in expanding their operations. The two companies are the primary forces in the Las Vegas locals gaming market.

This week’s Indy Environment newsletter recaps a Colorado River panel hosted by The Nevada Independent at IndyFest, our annual news festival.

Last week, during a Las Vegas-based webinar led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada (ACLU), local leaders joined a national conversation about the bloodied and covered-up past history of U.S. slavery to discuss whether Black Nevadans should receive reparations.

The law could lead to the reinstatement of thousands of suspended drivers’ licenses because it also applies to drivers whose licenses were suspended for court-related debt before Oct. 1.

Democrats controlled both houses of the Legislature during the 2021 session, and hundreds of high-profile Democratic measures sailed through the Assembly and Senate while a vast majority of Republican-backed measures failed to make much headway in the legislative process.

The legislation prioritized by Native leaders that cleared the lawmaking session include measures that waive fees at Nevada colleges and universities for Native students; prohibit racially discriminatory language or imagery in schools; and provide environmental protection for sacred sites, among others.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which serves the Las Vegas metro area, is tasked with implementing what its general manager said is probably “the most aggressive municipal water conservation measure that's been taken in the western United States.”

Lawmakers ended the 81st session of the Legislature on Monday night passing dozens of high-profile measures but many others, including an effort to license midwives and a bill allowing casinos to prohibit firearms, failed to advance.

Sisolak’s office announced late Thursday that the governor had signed a total of 70 bills in a press release, bringing the governor’s total of signed bills from the 2021 session up to 107 as of Friday. Once bills are approved by both houses of the Legislature and sent to the governor’s office, the state’s chief executive has five days during sessions and 10 days after they adjourn to either sign the bill, veto the measure or allow the clock to expire, which causes a law to automatically take effect.

Going into the last week of the session, lawmakers moved to adopt an amendment authorizing county commissions to impose fees related to emission reduction — a change aimed at removing the constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote on the bill, as it previously raised taxes and fees.

Nevada lawmakers stand poised to vote out dozens of bills banning ghost guns, changing criminal justice procedures including bail and a host of other measures affecting education, cannabis and health care heading into one of the final major bill passage deadlines of the session.

Nevada is facing its worst drought in two decades. The dry conditions are important for the forecasts facing fire managers as they start planning for the warm summer months. This week’s Indy Environment newsletter looks at a recent media briefing on Great Basin fire risks.

Friday at midnight marks the deadline for most bills and resolutions to pass out of their second committee, typically a major legislative culling with less than two weeks left before lawmakers must adjourn the state’s 120-day session.

But in Nevada and many other states, those protections do not explicitly extend to the digital realm. During a Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting on Monday, Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) said he is looking to change that with AB207, a bill clarifying that Nevada's public accommodations law also applies to e-commerce.

Lawmakers voted out measures including a tenant’s rights bill limiting application fees, a bill requiring eggs sold in Nevada be cage-free and a measure lowering penalties for youth caught possessing marijuana.

The bill doesn’t require “free range” setups, but does call for something more generous than the 67-square-inch “battery cages” that are standard in the industry. It requires farmers to provide at least 144 square inches of floor space if the hens have unrestricted access to elevated platforms in a multi-tiered aviary or partially slatted housing system, and at least 324 square inches if using a flat, single-level layout with litter covering the floor.

With nearly a quarter of the Legislature holding legal day jobs or with a J.D. on their wall, it comes as little surprise that law firms, legal groups and lawyers contributed more than $607,000 to legislative campaigns last cycle.