Free Republic

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Two long-time associates of a developer and high-powered lobbyist charged with making illegal campaign contributions testified Friday that he is well known for his generosity and integrity.State Assemblyman Ira Hansen said he and defendant Harvey Whittemore were rarely on the same side of issues when Hansen lobbied the Legislature as a citizen for more than two decades.Still, the Sparks Republican said during the federal trial that Whittemore was considered the most prominent and successful lobbyist in Nevada because people respected his opinion."He's always been straight-forward," Hansen said. "He's always been very generous in our community and always well-respected for...

CARSON CITY — Perhaps nobody at the Legislature this year has been more insistent than Nevada Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis that the state must immediately put more money into Nevada’s education system. And Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval could hardly have been more clear when he said he opposes and would veto Denis’ bill to increase payroll taxes for education. But Denis will make the case today that his payroll tax hike proposal is the best way to help Nevada’s schools next school year. Noting that Nevada consistently ranks near the bottom of state-by-state education comparisons, the Las Vegas Democrat...

On Friday, former acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller, testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, said that America’s tax system is “voluntary.” Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) agreed. Miller offered this perspective as he was grilled about his involvement in the IRS scandal wherein the IRS targeted conservative groups, particularly Tea Party organizations. This line has been used before by none other than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Interviewed by Jan Helfeld in 2008, this is how the conversation went: Helfeld: If the government is in the business of forcefully taking money from some people in order to provide welfare...

Well, Harry Reid is resorting to desperate measures in order to try and regain some power in the Senate. Reports say that he is getting ready to use the so-called “nuclear option” to change the senate rules so that 60 votes are no longer needed to block a filibuster. And it looks like President Obama will support Reid’s efforts if the Republicans try to block upcoming nominations. “If Senator Reid decides to do something on nominations, the president has said he’ll be there to support him,” a Democratic aide told the Post. "This would take away the right to...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday "House Republicans have truly lost their minds" under a popular definition of insanity. Reid, speaking of House GOP leaders' plan to hold a 37th vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act -- commonly known as "Obamacare" -- cited a statement often attributed to Albert Einstein, that insanity is defined as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.""If that's true, the House Republicans have truly lost their minds," Reid said in a speech on the Senate floor.Noting that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the 2012...

CARSON, NV - Thelma Kessler is 86, her husband Stanley, 87. They've been married for 36 years, but now in the sunset of their lives they are allowed to see each other for just one hour a week and a court order gives others the power to file for their divorce. Thelma no longer has control of her husband's life. That's responsibility now rests with Carson City Public Guardian Debi Marzoline. After a series of court hearings, Stanley was removed from their home and put in a nursing home. There was an allegation Thelma was starving him and she was...

Funding Will Research How To Make Solar Panels More Efficient & Minimize Water UseNSF Grant Expected To Employ 100 Technicians, Scientists and StudentsWashington, D.C.- Nevada Senator Harry Reid today joined Chancellor Dan Klaich and officials with the National Science Foundation  in announcing a grant for $20,000,000 which will be awarded to the Nevada System of Higher Education to improve the effectiveness of large-scale solar installations in arid desert lands. The grant comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the project, called  “The Solar Energy-Water-Environment Nexus in Nevada,” will be a collaborative effort between the University of Nevada, Reno, the...

The last time O.J. Simpson was in a Las Vegas courtroom, he stood next to defense attorney Yale Galanter before being handcuffed and hauled off to prison for up to 33 years. On Monday, the former football hero returns to Clark County District Court with a different set of lawyers hoping to convince a judge that Galanter shouldn't have been handling his armed robbery-kidnapping case — that the lawyer who was paid nearly $700,000 for Simpson's defense had a personal interest in preventing himself from being identified as a witness to the crimes and so misled Simpson that the former...

The Mini-Golf Tax. The “Iron Man” Tax. The Burning Man Tax. I’m pretty sure most Nevadans enjoy one or more of those activities, which means if Democrats in the Legislature pass their new Nevada Entertainment and Admissions Tax, every Nevadan will curse them when they try to enjoy themselves on the weekend after a long workweek. Wow, this is stupid. So, instead of imposing a corporate tax on Wal-Mart like nearly every other state in the country, you’re going to tax me when I go to the movie theater? So I’ll pay $11.88 instead of $11? I love carrying 12...

The Legislature’s attempt to craft an entertainment tax in 2003 read a little bit like the children’s story of the hen who couldn’t persuade her barnyard animal friends to help her gather and grow grain for the winter. Lawmakers then considered a proposal by the Nevada Taxpayers Association to tax admissions to nearly every form of entertainment and recreation. But when it came time to write the bill, a common refrain was sounded by many targeted for the tax. “Not I!” said the movie theaters. “Not I!” said the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Not I!” said the baseball parks, bowling...

By the end of Tom Coburn's Morning Joe appearance today, a panel member could be heard, off-camera, whistling in astonishment. Not surprising, since the plain-talking Republican Senator from Oklahoma had just unloaded on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Coburn called Reid "dishonest" in his dealings with him, saying that Reid was "not truthful" and had "not kept his word." For good measure, Coburn added that Reid had been a "failure" as Majority Leader. View the video here.

"Superficial" "A source close to the Senate negotiations [says] that two senators who voted against the background check bill would vote for it after minor, superficial changes." - Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, May 6, 2013ACTION: Senators who voted pro-gun last month are under intense pressure - by Senate Democrats and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s hit ads - to switch their votes.  We need to keep applying the heat and let them know that gun owners are ready to help in any Senate campaign, no matter which state, to defeat ANY SENATOR who votes for gun control.LEGISLATIVE UPDATE FROM WASHINGTON, DC. It’s...

State and university employees may see a temporary 2.5 percent salary reduction solidified into a permanent pay cut. Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget director Jeff Mohlenkamp told a legislative committee Saturday that the administration may amend a bill to make those salary reductions permanent. As written now, Senate Bill 483 extends current 2.5 percent salary reductions until June 30, 2015, at which time they’d go away and employees would get 2.5 percent of their salaries back. “We would seek to modify that bill to make the pay cut permanent, and then we would make the affirmative decision to restore the pay...

CARSON CITY — Freshman Assemblyman Jim Wheeler’s favorite thing to do at the Legislature: Argue with liberals. From where he hails — the rural ranching town of Gardnerville — there aren’t many of those for the cowboy hat-wearing, retired businessman with a deep, gravely voice to argue with. “It’s so much fun,” the exuberant lawmaker said from his fourth-floor office at the Legislative Building last week. “Where else can you argue with a liberal every day? You argue with one, you can turn around and, look! There’s another!” This session, Wheeler appears to be one of a dwindling breed in...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has essentially agreed with Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul that the Senate should address weaknesses in the U.S. immigration system in light of last month’s attack in Boston. U.S. Senator Rand Paul had sent a letter to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid after the Boston bombing expressing concern over the refugee program. That program allowed two individuals to move to Bowling Green where they were planning a terrorist attack. “I am not for saying no to an immigration bill, I think the immigration system is broken and we do need immigration reform and I am...

Democratic leaders are wooing staunchly pro-gun candidates to run in pivotal Senate races at the same time they are discussing a strategy for bringing gun control legislation back up for debate. The two-pronged effort has prompted Republicans to accuse the Senate Democratic leadership of hypocrisy, but Democrats say it is simply smart politics. The question is whether two of the Democrats’ most promising potential candidates in Montana and South Dakota will pay a price for the leadership’s political maneuverings in Washington. Or will recruiting candidates who do not support President Obama’s gun control agenda have any effect on Democratic fundraising...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) believes the Tea Party is ideologically similar to anarchists and that government is "inherently good." Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Reid said he was frustrated that, "We have a situation where this country has been driven by the Tea Party for the last number of years." He then insinuated Tea Partiers were like anarchists. "When I was in school, I studied government and I learned about the anarchists. Now, they were different than the Tea Party because they were violent," Reid said. "But they were anarchists because they did not believe in...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require background checks to be run on anyone buying explosive powder, a reaction to last week's Boston Marathon bombing. Reid introduced the bill, S. 792, for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has been out sick for much of the year. But in a press statement, Lautenberg said the Boston bombing shows that background checks are needed for explosive materials. "It defies common sense that anyone, even a terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosive powders without a background check or any questions asked,"...

Harry Reid and Wal-Mart hope nobody will notice their online revenue raid. Every time Congress has taken a serious look at proposals to boost Internet sales taxes, it has rejected them. That's probably why pro-tax Senators are trying to rush through an online tax hike with as little consideration as possible. As early as Monday, the Senate will vote on a bill that was introduced only last Tuesday. The text of this legislation, which would fundamentally change interstate commerce, only became available on the Library of Congress website over the weekend. And you thought ObamaCare was jammed through Nancy Pelosi's...

LAS VEGAS, April 19, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayors Against Illegal Guns announced today that concerned Nevadans will gather with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, ProgressNow Nevada, and veteran and gun owner Johnathan L. Abbinett on Saturday for a "Shame on You" protest against Senator Dean Heller, who voted with the Washington gun lobby and against the 90 percent of Nevadans who support commonsense, life-saving background checks for all gun sales. This week Senator Heller was among those who voted against bipartisan legislation proposed by Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey that would have closed the loopholes that make it easy for...

A state online sales tax fix may leapfrog its way right to the Senate floor. Majority Leader Harry Reid began the process late Tuesday that would allow the bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, to come before the full chamber without first going through the Senate Finance Committee — whose leaders largely dislike the proposal.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he would support a new ban on assault weapons as an amendment to pending gun control legislation. ""I will vote for Dianne Feinstein's assault weapons ban," Reid said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor. "I will vote for assault weapons ban because maintaining law and order and saving lives is more important than preventing imagined tyranny." "Today I choose to vote my conscience, not only as Harry Reid, a United States Senator, but also as a husband, a father, a grandfather, and — I hope — a friend to lots...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that he will support the Assault Weapon Ban against what he calls conspiracy theorists, black helicopters and false flags: “I’ll vote for the ban because saving the lives of police officers, young and old, and innocent civilians, young and old, is more important than preventing imagined tyranny,”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an NRA supporter, announced on Wednesday morning he will vote for bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines being offered as amendments one month after pulling those bans from a package of overall gun-reform legislation.

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) issued the following statement in opposition to the Manchin-Toomey amendment to S. 649. “When it comes to national policy choices on issues such as Constitutional liberties, gun violence and public safety, the stakes could not be higher. The enormity of this issue has weighed heavily on me. While I was home this past weekend, my family and I ate at the Carson IHOP where four people lost their lives and several were injured. The survivors of that senseless shooting in the morning hours of September 6, 2011, deserve this debate. “I...

The White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are shy of the 60 votes they need to move the bipartisan compromise bill on background checks for gun sales. Vice President Joe Biden has been personally calling senators to urge them to support the measure, Democratic aides say. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) began a whip count on Monday, Democratic aides said, and Biden has been pressuring his fellow Democrats to fall in line. Biden’s office did not return an email seeking comment. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are co-sponsoring the proposal that would expand background checks...

Dozens of resorts with permits to operate on national forests have bought or acquired rights to use nearby bodies of water for snowmaking. The Forest Service had adopted a clause that said those resorts had to transfer their water rights to the federal government ... After the National Ski Areas Association sued, a judge ruled last year that the agency violated procedure in not seeking public comment before adopting the clause. The agency now plans open houses April 16 in Lakewood, Colo., on April 17 in Salt Lake City, and April 18 in Lake Tahoe, Calif., to get input.

The Republican plan to block debate on Senate Bill 649, which requires background checks on almost all gun purchases and transfers, failed spectacularly Thursday morning when sixteen Republican Senators joined almost all of the Democrats to vote in favor opening debate on the bill. Among those voting to defeat the filibuster were 9 Democrats with “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, and 12 A-rated Republicans (out of 16 Republican “ayes”). Two Democrats, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), joined the majority of Republican Senators who tried to prevent debate, much less a vote, on the bill....

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told reporters on a conference call moments ago that his compromise bill with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on gun background checks “doesn’t change in any way” his “conservative record or views.” The former Club for Growth president acknowledged he was out of his usual legislative area on the issue, but “it became clear to me a bill of some sort was very likely to reach the floor” that would be “badly flawed,” so he reached out to his friend and neighboring state senator Manchin to sit down and talk. “You’re probably used to hearing me talk...

(CNN) – A key player in negotiations over potential gun control legislation said on Tuesday a planned GOP filibuster of the bill won’t occur if Democrats allow Republicans to bring amendments up for a vote. Sen. Tom Coburn, speaking on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront,” said a filibuster that’s been promised by more than a dozen fellow Republicans would prevent Americans from seeing where their elected officials stand on the issue. “It’s not going to be filibustered,” Coburn said, adding that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs to offer "an open amendment process" in order for Republicans to agree to...

I’m moving forward to break the Republican filibuster. On Thurs, Senate will begin voting on background checks + other gun safety measures.

Dean Heller (R) not supporting filibuster threat of gun bill - "the discussion needs to be had."

Mandatory registration coming to state’s largest wilderness area . Visitors to the Weminuche Wilderness are going to be required to register before entering the almost 500,000 acres that stretch from Silverton to Wolf Creek Pass. Use and abuse of the pristine mountains, valleys and waterways through the years now require switching from voluntary to mandatory registration at trailheads, the San Juan National Forest said in a news release. “During the first two to three years of the new requirement, we’re going to educate the public on the reasons,” Forest Service spokeswoman Ann Bond said Saturday. “After that, rangers can issue...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s threat to filibuster any new gun restrictions is gathering steam, as a dozen of his Republican colleagues have now signed onto his plan. The Kentucky Republican and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) first wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid late last month to warn him of their intention to try to tie up the Senate if, as planned, Reid moved forward with legislation that would expand background checks and attempt to crack down on interstate gun trafficking. Reid is expected to bring a gun-control bill to the floor as early as next...

State employees will no longer have to take unpaid furlough days, starting in July 2014, Gov. Brian Sandoval said. The governor’s original budget had provided for decreasing furlough days from six to three per year for the next two years. An amended plan calls for three furlough days between July 1 and June 30, 2014, and no furlough days between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015. That means state employees will work and collect pay for nine more days than they worked under the current, two-year state budget.

It was, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada ebulliently proclaimed, a “happy day for me” as he stood with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, in 2010 at a new shooting range in Las Vegas made possible by federal money secured by Mr. Reid. “People who criticize this probably would criticize baseball,” Mr. Reid said before firing off a few rounds. These days, Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader, is far more likely to meet with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, an outspoken advocate of stricter gun control, than with Mr. LaPierre as he prepares to...

"...and the county's conservative lawmakers have been passing silly-season unconstitutionalities, like a law prohibiting a man from being naked in the presence of a child..."

MESQUITE, Nev. – Five members of a Southern California family were killed Saturday when their van was rear-ended by an 18-year-old driver who was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities said. The dead were among seven family members who were in the van, authorities said. The other two -- the 40-year-old female driver and a 15-year-old boy -- were hospitalized in critical condition. Hixson said only two of the seven people in the van were wearing seatbelts. The five who were not buckled in were ejected, but one survived.

<p>LAS VEGAS – Former Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks was arrested near Barstow after a high-speed chase, hours after being expelled from the Legislature because he was “potentially dangerous.”</p> <p>Brooks, 41, was arrested about 7 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 15 at Stoddard Wells Road, officials said. He was being held in the San Bernardino County Jail in Rancho Cucamonga on $100,000 bail, jail officials told the Los Angeles Times.</p>

LAS VEGAS—Former Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks has been arrested in California on charges including resisting arrest and throwing objects, just hours after he became the first lawmaker ever expelled from the Nevada Legislature. Jail records show Barstow police arrested Brooks, 41, at about 7 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 15 at Stoddard Wells. "We had started to discuss possible next steps," Mitchell Posin, Brooks' attorney, told The Associated Press Friday. "Next thing I know, I heard about this." Posin said he had no details about the arrest, or about why Brooks was on the interstate in Barstow. Records show the North...

A bipartisan committee of lawmakers voted Tuesday to recommend troubled Assemblyman Steven Brooks, D-North Las Vegas, be expelled from the Legislature. After meeting for nearly three hours behind closed doors, the somber committee members voted 6-to-1 to recommend expulsion. Assemblywoman Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, voted against the expulsion recommendation, saying she believes Brooks should be suspended, rather than expelled. The committee’s recommendation will go to the full Assembly for a vote as early as Wednesday. A two-thirds majority is needed to expel a member.

Each year, Burning Man draws 60,000 people to the Black Rock Desert north of Reno to participate in a weeklong counterculture art festival. Admittance to the bohemia isn’t free, though. You need to buy a $380 ticket. Now, some Democratic legislative leaders are looking at the ticket proceeds and wondering why the state doesn’t get a cut. “It’s how many people and they pay how much?” Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, said. “I definitely think we ought to look at that.” Here’s some quick math: 60,000 tickets sold at $380 a pop equals $22.8 million. Apply the state’s...

Soon after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced an assault weapons ban would not be part of a gun control bill, a new CBS News poll shows support for stricter gun control laws overall has dropped since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Currently, support for stricter gun control laws stands at 47 percent today, down from a high of 57 percent just after the shootings. Thirty-nine percent want those laws kept as they are, and another 11 percent want them made less strict. Pared-down Senate gun bill focuses on background checksWH says it doesn't support national gun...

A lawmaker who has been arrested twice in two months, hospitalized for a mental evaluation and accused of threatening to harm a Democratic Party leader could this week become the first person in Nevada history to be kicked out of the Legislature. A select committee plans to convene Tuesday evening to recommend whether Assemblyman Steven Brooks, D-Las Vegas, should be allowed to return to his seat in the Legislature, be expelled, censured or otherwise reprimanded.

Loosen his bow tie and snuggle up, you two,” says Las Vegas photographer Linda Quackenboss, directing a camera-shy couple sitting for portraits in her studio. Reaching out, Phil Pineda does as he’s told and loosens Mel Cole’s bow tie. “There’s my GQ smile!” the petite 53-year-old tells the couple, who will be celebrating their fifth anniversary this fall. “Maybe I can shoot your wedding soon.” For Quackenboss, who estimates that 30 percent of her clientele are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, the suggestion is more than friendly conversation. It’s marketing.

A USAF B-52 Stratofortress from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana prepares to land at Nellis AFB, Nevada on January 24, 2013 during Red Flag 13-2. Via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20051129.htm (medium, large, huge) The Photographer Caitlin Kenney, 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs, United States Air Force  

CARSON CITY — Gov. Brian Sandoval has said his administration has two top priorities: education and economic development. When it comes to education, Sandoval has used both the bully pulpit of his office and his budget to call for school choice, ending social promotion, expanding full-day kindergarten and improving funding for programs targeting English-language learners. But Sandoval and his administration have been largely silent on one key issue important to education advocates, school districts and Democrats: reining in class sizes. That’s not to say he’s ignoring it completely.

CARSON CITY -- Mining should pay its fair share, say critics who want to remove the industry’s separate and special constitutional tax rate. Gold prices are high, but the state’s mining industry pays a constitutionally capped tax rate, and the state allows the industry billions of dollars in tax deductions before paying a 5 percent rate. No matter the price of gold and no matter how much of it mining companies take out of Nevada, its tax rate remains the same because of that exemption in the constitution. Lawmakers who would like to collect more from the industry say their...

Sally Jewell on Thursday breezed through a committee vote to lead the Interior Department but the agency’s proposal to list the sage grouse as an endangered species threatens to block her nomination from reaching the full Senate. ... some Republican lawmakers were not satisfied with Jewell’s responses to written and oral questions about her past association with the National Park Association’s lawsuits against the government and future plans to list the sage grouse as an endangered species. Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) threatened to put a hold on Jewell’s nomination before it goes to a floor vote unless the agency commits...

A parade of educators told legislative budget committees Saturday that more money must be poured into reducing class sizes in the elementary grades to help students advance. “We have to restore class size,” said Pat Skorkowsky, interim superintendent of the Clark County School District. “Our teachers are asked to do more and more with less.” An overflow crowd in Las Vegas attended the hearing, which was televised from Carson City. Jeremy Christensen, a high school teacher in Clark County, called it child abuse when children are packed into a classroom