SPOTLIGHT
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Lake Tahoe planning agency ducks environmental obligations • Nevada Current
It’s not good when it takes a formal letter from a Nevada legislative committee chair to pry loose a required environmental update from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA). This letter, sent Oct. 16, followed months of public testimony at the state capitol and TRPA headquarters in Stateline, Nevada. Just days later, California’s Attorney General’s office also sent a letter…
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American by birth? Congratulations! But maybe have your papers ready. • Nevada Current
In a cabin in the Kaw Valley, a few miles northwest of what is now Lawrence, the first baby boy of white parents was born in Kansas. His name was Napoleon Boone (yes, of the famous Boone family and yes, named after that Napoleon) and he arrived Friday, Aug. 22, 1828. Napoleon’s entry into the world is notable mostly because,…
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Trump’s got Republican governors right where he wants them — obeying in advance • Nevada Current
“With my background in law enforcement, I can attest that reform is long overdue at the FBI,” Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo wrote on Elon Musk’s website last week. “I look forward to hearing Mr. Patel’s ideas for the Bureau,” Lombardo added. Ah, said by a true MAGA believer eager to see all those federal officials, er, corrupt deep state “government…
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Infectious diseases killed Victorian children at alarming rates • Nevada Current
Modern medicine has enabled citizens of wealthy, industrialized nations to forget that children once routinely died in shocking numbers. Teaching 19th-century English literature, I regularly encounter gutting depictions of losing a child, and I am reminded that not knowing the emotional cost of widespread child mortality is a luxury. In the first half of the 19th century, between 40% and…
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Trump demands are a test of courage for Thune and other senators • Nevada Current
The United States Senate is arguably the least democratic (small “d”) institution in any democracy in the world, with the possible exception of the British House of Lords. The Senate exists without proportional representation. Every state has two senators without regard to population. Wyoming’s two senators represent 586,000 citizens, while California’s 39 million citizens are represented by two senators. The…
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Mark Amodei, Nevada’s only Republican in Congress, has some choices to make • Nevada Current
Rep. Mark Amodei is confident that Washington’s annual game of December Budget Chicken will end without a government shutdown, he told a Reno right wing talk radio show Monday. “But the other good news,” added the only Nevada Republican in Congress, “is we’ve got this wild card out there now with this – Musk and Vivek – that frankly, I…
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How right-wing media is like improv theater • Nevada Current
If you’ve ever wondered how the right-wing media ecosystem operates and why it’s effective, try viewing it as a form of improvisational theater or improv. In the wake of the 2024 U.S. elections, everyday people and political pundits alike have been trying to make sense of the results and the related observation that many Americans seem to be experiencing very…
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Protecting public school literature and learning • Nevada Current
Preserving the integrity and effectiveness of public schools is a continual struggle; particularly with those that seem intent on dismantling public education. Unreasonable demands from parent groups are common across the country. Contrary to some of their leaders, parents do not “have the fundamental rights under our Constitution to guide and direct the education of their kids” in public schools. …
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McConnell’s influence goes underground • Nevada Current
“We’re in the personnel business,” Sen. Mitch McConnell has said ever since he concluded the biggest piece of business in Donald Trump’s first administration, a massive tax cut — and argued that a bigger legacy of that Congress was going to be conservative judges. Now Trump is about to become president again, and McConnell can reshape his own legacy, starting…
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Protecting hope in the face of fear • Nevada Current
The week before Thanksgiving, I spoke with an immigration attorney in Madison, Grant Sovern, who helped found the Community Immigration Law Center (CILC) — part of a flurry of new services created in the wake of the 2018 ICE raids that terrorized Dane County during President-electDonald Trump’s first administration. No one knows what the immigration crackdown Trump has promised for…
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