State Things are back in the news. This is not surprising. Anytime state legislatures are in session, the public faces a threat from new State Things.
Editorials
You can count the number of philosophical, as opposed to rhetorical, conservatives serving in this year’s Nevada Legislature on one hand. Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R-Las Vegas) is one of them.
In the 1930s Walt Disney got into a wrangle with California state government and announced he was planning to move his studios to Nevada. There was great excitement in the Silver State.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee has voted to send to the floor Senate Bill 243, the Guilty-Until-Proven-Innocent bill. What this bill allows the government to do is take a sample of your DNA upon any arrest for an alleged felony offense.
Well, it is that time again. Time to find out if this guy here is holding the emperor of maladies at bay, or if, well, not.
In January, a man named George Gund died in Palm Springs, Calif. Gund was a resident of Lee in Elko County. He provided the funding for the very first Cowboy Poetry Gathering and sat on the board of Elko’s Western Folklife Center.
Turns out there’s only one elected representative in the entire Nevada Legislature who got the Internet tax issue (SJR5) correct. Every other legislator voted to force out-of-state companies to suck “use” taxes (since you intend to “use” the product in your home state) out of your pocket for online purchases despite myriad reasons not to do so.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Sushi Lounge & Steakhouse on Nevada Highway recently closed.
Perhaps not since Benedict Arnold sold out the American patriot movement have we seen such a betrayal as that of Republican state Sen. Mike Roberson to all that’s held dear by the Nevada conservative movement this legislative session.
In the 19th century, a movement called “uniform state laws” became enormously influential. It involved getting states to write similar laws so that crossing a state border was not such a legally difficult process. Unfortunately, it has led to a one-size-fits-all philosophy and a belief that what works in Roanoke, Va., will work in Reno.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval broke his word in the last legislative session and decided to extend some $600 million worth of “temporary” tax hikes passed in 2009 to balance his budget.
While covering the ongoing news over the busing of mental patients out of Nevada by a state hospital, I called former Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan to interview him on the impact these kinds of disputes have on the state’s ability to attract news businesses. Bryan created the economic development system that existed for three decades until Gov. Brian Sandoval dismantled it two years ago.
In the past few months I have written two columns that touch on gun rights. The first was Dec. 20 in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting. The other was last week when I questioned having a gun show attached to the Spring Jamboree.
I was sitting in the waiting room for jury duty (I wasn’t selected) April 15 when news of the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon started coming in over my iPhone via the social media site Twitter.
Last weekend I visited a Reno used bookstore that I often frequent. The owner told me that this is like no recession he has experienced. In previous recessions, he said, people have avoided buying new books so he benefited. Sales rose in hard times. Not this time.
