Free Republic

Nuclear Waste: While Keystone XL remains a focus, the long-stalled repository for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, Nev., deemed safe in a recent report, is also good for the environment and for our energy future. The ghosts of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima continue to haunt and hinder the nuclear energy industry. Yet a report released Oct. 16 may revive both the spent fuel repository and the nuclear energy industry with it. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report, mostly finished in 2010 but delayed by Yucca Mountain foes such as the Obama administration and soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader...

Nevada's top election official is giving the go-ahead to two initiatives for the 2016 ballot: One to allow recreational marijuana use, and the other to tighten background checks for anyone buying guns from private sellers and gun show exhibitors.

Nevada faces an initiative that would virtually ban all private sales of firearms and would require federal record-keeping of all sales and transfers. The initiative is being promoted by a Michael Bloomberg funded group. The group was required to turn in 101,667 valid signature by November 12 of this year, distributed among various counties. The group claimed that they turned in 247,000

Karissa Neff and Sara Shertz drive away from the hustle and bustle, down a lonely stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South until they reach their turn-off, a road where asphalt meets gravel. It’s late afternoon and their truck is loaded with about a dozen semi-automatic handguns, revolvers, and bolt action and high-powered rifles. A utopia for gun enthusiasts seeking outdoor target practice, the location near Sloan is barren isolation with a touch of lawlessness. Pockmarked by divots and peppered debris, the off-road stretch is lined with pickup trucks and empty ammunition shells. For the women of Gun Play Vegas, it’s...

Newly designated Assembly Majority Leader Michele Fiore (R-Las Vegas) says Republicans were elected to the majority to defeat liberalism and that includes doing what has to be done to recover gun rights in Nevada. Speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on December 3, Fiore said: "We're getting our gun rights back this session, period."

On the rim of the Grand Canyon, there is an area that is not part of Grand Canyon National Park. This land does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to the Navaho people. The Navaho tribe, as such, has the right to develop its tribal land to bring tourism, money, and jobs to its population. But this kind of thing gives out-of-town environmentalists and the government employees who run the park a sad. The New York Times article on a proposed $1 billion development actually features quite a few viewpoints, mostly fairly, but it frames the whole...

Transfer of Public Lands Act’ demands Washington relinquish 31.2 million acres by Dec. 31. In three weeks, Utah intends to seize control of 31.2 million acres of its own land now under the control of the federal government. At least, that’s the plan. In an unprecedented challenge to federal dominance of Western state lands, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 signed the “Transfer of Public Lands Act,” which demands that Washington relinquish its hold on the land, which represents more than half of the state’s 54.3 million acres, by Dec. 31. ... With the 2012 law, Utah placed itself on...

Gun control advocates used plight of iconic California condor to push legislation. A pro-hunting group is up in arms after obtaining emails that it says indicate that a federal official withheld critical data on lead blood levels in the California condor until after gun control advocates in the California state legislature used the iconic bird’s plight to help push through a law last year to ban lead ammunition. ... Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel, accused the Fish and Wildlife Service of deliberately sitting on the report in order to bolster the chances of passage of Assembly...

A Nevada law on the books for 30 years requires girls younger than 18 to tell at least one of their parents before getting an abortion, but it’s never been enforced because of a successful legal challenge. Now, with the Republican takeover of both houses of the Nevada Legislature, fueled by an influx of fresh-faced conservatives, anti-abortion advocates say they’re going to take another run at reviving the statute. “One of our highest priorities has been the parental notification law,” Melissa Clement, president of Nevada Right to Life, said. “We’ve always played defense because there hasn’t been enough (anti-abortion) lawmakers...

A gun rights group wants Nevada's elections chief to throw out a proposed 2016 ballot measure that would tighten background checks for anyone buying firearms from private sellers or gun show exhibitors. In a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press, Nevadans for State Gun Rights tells Secretary of State Ross Miller that initiative proponents missed a deadline to deliver signatures to one clerk. The group also says some pages lack a proper signature-gatherer's affidavit, and some signatures are dated after the affidavit was notarized.

Among Democrats, fighting is breaking out all over. The Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is hurling criticisms toward the White House over Barack Obama’s handling of the recession and his myopic and politically ruinous obsession with reforming the nation’s health care system amid that economic downturn.In response, the White House took what Reuters called the “unusual step” of publicly pledging to veto an overdue plan to reform the nation’s tax code which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has been in the process of negotiating with House Republicans. When Obama announced his intention to extend legal status to...

Democrats hope to take back control of the Senate in 2016, but their plans could be complicated by potential retirements. The two Democratic senators most likely to retire are Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who represent both sides of the party’s ideological spectrum. Boxer, whose fourth term expires at the end of 2016, has a paltry $149,000 in her campaign account, less than almost every other senator facing election next year. As the nation’s most populous state, California is expensive to cover with advertising. If Boxer decides to run for reelection, she would face a major fundraising...

Treasury Department investigators completed but never released a 2011 law enforcement probe of White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, The Washington Examiner has learned. The investigation by the Treasury Department Inspector-General for Tax Administration was sparked by Goolsbee's remarks during an Aug. 27, 2010, White House news briefing in which he appeared to possess confidential tax information on Koch Industries, the private conglomerate controlled by the Koch brothers, Charles and David. "So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of...

Attorney General-elect Adam Laxalt is joining the charge to condemn President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. In one of his first public moves since winning the attorney general race on Nov. 4, Laxalt signed onto a joint statement sponsored by the Republican Attorneys General Association objecting to Obama’s decision to prevent the deportation of an estimated 5 million people. The statement also questions the validity of Obama’s oath to “protect the Constitution.” Signed by 20 attorneys general and attorneys general-elects, the letter doesn’t outline any course of legal action from RAGA members. But it dovetails with Republican promises to...

Assemblyman Ira Hansen has concerns about the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service overreaching their policing powers. Spurred in part by the BLM’s April roundup of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle that brought an armed confrontation between federal agents and Bundy supporters, the Sparks Republican is pushing for a bill that would prohibit BLM and Forest Service law officers from enforcing state laws. He is trying to get Nevada’s 17 counties, including Clark County, to take an interest in the issue that would be considered by the 2015 Legislature. Hansen’s concerns are tied in part to a variety...

Embattled Nevada Assemblyman Ira Hansen was found innocent after facing a misdemeanor charge of illegally setting animal traps. A New River Township Justice Court judge ruled that Hansen was not guilty of a misdemeanor when he set four animal traps known as snares within 200 feet of public roadways in Churchill County. The decision caps what’s been a yearlong battle and difficult month for Hansen, a Sparks lawmaker who recently stepped down as the Assembly speaker-elect. In November 2013, the Nevada Department of Wildlife spotted Hansen removing traps that were within the 200-foot limit. The department assembled a case and...

SPARKS — A 41-year-old Washoe County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested in Spanish Springs after police say he was firing a gun while drunk and threatened to shoot at a sheriff’s helicopter. Sparks police say Robert Brunsvold was arrested Sunday for suspicion of possession of a firearm while intoxicated and resisting police with a firearm. His bail was set at $20,000. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Our Number 1 Goal: Retire Harry Reid For Good In 2014, we were successful in firing Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader. We had historic gains in picking up 8 seats in the U.S. Senate, but we still have a lot more work to do. In 2016, Harry Reid is up for reelection and it's time that WE THE PEOPLE stand up and retire him from the Senate for good! Harry Reid embodies everything that is wrong with Washington, D.C. He has long forgotten about his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, and has made clear that he will...

President Obama's executive actions on immigration threw gasoline on the fire of border politics — and nowhere is it burning hotter than in Nevada, where incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is gearing up for a tough reelection. Obama chose the Silver State, which has proportionately more illegal immigrants than anywhere else in the country, to begin a tour aimed at winning support for his decision to stop deportations for as many as 5 million people. His first shout-out in a Friday speech at a heavily Hispanic Las Vegas high school went to Reid, who has been emphasizing his...

Wynn Resorts under investigation for potential money laundering by Tom Huddleston, Jr. @tjhuddle NOVEMBER 21, 2014, 11:09 AM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons Federal agencies and offices are reportedly trying to determine if the casino operator violated money-laundering laws. A range of federal agencies and offices are trying to determine if casino operator Wynn Resorts violated money-laundering laws, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites anonymous sources. The Journal says the Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Administrations are working together with U.S. Attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Las Vegas on an investigation into Wynn...