A marijuana dispensary in Nevada was cleared to open Wednesday, …
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/576008-first-nevada-marijuana-dispensary-along-idaho-border-cleared-to-open
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Lexi Lonas
A massive, uncontained wildfire has crossed the border from Northern California into Nevada — triggering fresh evacuations, this time in the Silver State, AP reported early Thursday.
The big picture: The Tamarack Fire, south of Lake Tahoe, has razed over 68 square miles since erupting on July 4 — one of 23 blazes ignited by lightning strikes, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It’s one of 78 large fires raging across 13 U.S. states.
Of note: Oregon’s Bootleg Fire, the largest blaze in the U.S. and which officials say was also sparked by lightning, swelled to 618 square miles in the Fremont-Winema National Forest.
Yes, but: Cooler conditions with less gusty winds were assisting Oregon firefighting efforts on Wednesday and the blaze was 38% contained, per the U.S. Forest Service.
Context: The wildfires, many of which started when a severe heat wave erupted in June, have been linked by scientists to human-caused climate change.
Go deeper: Western wildfire smoke chokes Upper Midwest, East Coast
Source: https://www.axios.com/california-wildfire-crosses-border-nevada-af59ce7b-acf8-4aa3-9de4-2fa2f9d467eb.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Falconer
The latest megadrought alarm bell just went off in the West. The Bureau of Reclamation began emergency water releases from reservoirs upstream in the Colorado River this week in an effort to keep Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, full enough to continue to generate hydroelectric power.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/officials-pull-emergency-lever-as-lake-powell-plunges-1847308190
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Molly Taft
The wellspring of Lake Mead created by the dam’s blocking of the Colorado River has plummeted to an historic low as states in the west face hefty cuts in their water supplies
Had the formidable white arc of the Hoover dam never held back the Colorado River, the US west would probably have no Los Angeles or Las Vegas as we know them today. No sprawling food bowl of wheat, alfalfa and corn. No dreams of relocating to live in a tamed desert. The river, and dam, made the west; now the climate crisis threatens to break it.
The situation here is emblematic of a planet slowly, inexorably overheating. And the catastrophic consequences of the extreme weather this brings.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/hoover-dam-lake-mead-severe-drought-us-west
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Oliver Milman at Hoover dam
Water investigators track down wasteful homeowners and public turf torn up to conserve scarce water supplies
Investigator Perry Kaye jammed the brakes of his government-issued vehicle to survey the offense. “Uh oh this doesn’t look too good. Let’s take a peek,” he said, exiting the car to handle what has become one of the most existential violations in drought-stricken Las Vegas – a faulty sprinkler.
Kaye is one of nearly 50 water waste investigators deployed by the local water authority to crack down on even the smallest misuse of a liquid perilously scarce in the US west, desiccated by two decades of drought. The situation in Las Vegas, which went a record 240 consecutive days without rain last year, is increasingly severe.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/09/las-vegas-climate-change-drought-water-conservation
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Oliver Milman
The West hasn’t totally cooled off, but the region has gotten a slight reprieve from the heat that has dried up reservoirs, curtailed hydropower, and otherwise wrought havoc on the megadrought-afflicted region. Unfortunately, all good(ish) things must come to an end.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/a-record-breaking-and-dangerous-heat-wave-is-about-to-h-1847157954
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Brian Kahn
Her $4,431 in traffic tickets ballooned to $20,000 in debt and the threat of arrest. The system is “money hungry,” she said.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nevada-drivers-can-be-arrested-unpaid-tickets-activists-are-fighting-n1266673
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jon Schuppe
The animal bones were discovered during the construction of a pool and are between 6,000 and 14,000 years old.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/ice-age-era-bones-found-las-vegas-backyard-n1265923
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press
The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday night rejected President Trump’s appeal to overturn the state’s election results, affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 battleground.The decision comes after a co…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/529382-nevada-supreme-court-rejects-trump-campaign-appeal-affirms-biden-win
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Cameron Jenkins
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wildfire-destroys-multiple-reno-homes-hundreds-threatened-reno-homes-wildfire-california-blaze-b1724953.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Via AP news wire
Republicans struck out in another election-related lawsuit on Friday as a federal judge refused a request to issue an order that could have delayed Nevada’s election results for days.
Las Vegas-based U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Gordon issued his ruling after hearing arguments Friday that Clark County officials violated state law by using a machine to scan mail-ballot signatures and match them against earlier signatures on file for each voter.
A lawyer for a voter who claims that someone else voted her initial ballot and for two GOP congressional campaigns argued during a two-hour telephone hearing that election officials should be required to stop using the machine and instead compare the signatures manually on every mail ballot.
“Every other county eyeballed it appropriately through the statutes,” said David O’Mara, the Republican lawyer. “They didn’t have the right to do this. … The court needs to protect the integrity of the election.”
However, Gordon sounded deeply skeptical about the Republican arguments on several levels. He repeatedly suggested he should defer to state courts on the requirements of state law.
But the judge said he wasn’t rejecting the request based on what he called “a technicality,” but because he thought the suit had little chance of succeeding. He noted that Nevada law allows for the use of machines in tabulating votes and doesn’t specifically forbid signature-comparison devices.
The judge also questioned whether the aggrieved voter, Jill Stokke, was actually injured by the county’s use of the matching machine, called Agilis. Stokke acknowledges that after being told an absentee ballot had already been submitted with a signature that three officials determined matched hers, she was given an opportunity to cast a provisional ballot if she signed an affidavit confirming she had not voted. She declined.
O’Mara said the provisional ballot Stokke would have been given doesn’t include all the races she was eligible to vote in, but a lawyer for the county, Mary-Anne Miller, said it would have been a “full provisional ballot.”
“Ms. Stokke, it seems to me, could have repaired her harm by filing a provisional ballot with the affidavit,” Gordon said. “There’s little to no evidence that the machine is not doing what it is supposed to do.”
The judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama, also said that upending the system as a deadline for certification of the results nears would not be wise.
“The public interest is not in favor of disrupting the completion of the process and the counting of the ballots,” Gordon said. “There is an interest in having the legislature’s rules and laws carried out.”
The suit also sought an order to require greater access to vote tabulation in Clark County. A plaintiff in the case, Chris Prudhome, complained that observers are too far away and can’t hear the poll workers because they are behind a glass partition.
O’Mara said that was at odds with the right of access guaranteed by state law.
“It has to be a public event. Just like any hearing or public meeting,” the attorney said. “It’s just basically nothing. You get nothing out of it. It makes that statute a nullity.”
The judge, however, said he wasn’t going to delve into whether observers couldn’t hear well or couldn’t hear well enough.
“You’re asking me to impose some new standard or strictures or guidelines,” Gordon said. “Do we have to provide microphones? … At what point does this get into the ridiculous? … It occurred to me that you’re forcing me to get way down deep in the weeds and we’re going to be right back here if I put something in place.”
After O’ Mara asked for “meaningful access,” Nevada’s deputy solicitor general, Craig Newby, warned the judge against adopting a “nebulous, undefined” standard.
“We have had that setup for years,” Miller said. Under O’Mara’s proposal, she added, “they’d have to be inside that glass enclosure cheek by jowl with the tabulation room workers.”
Miller said the arrangement allows the public a closer-up look at the process, but without using cameras. Journalists are kept farther back. She said Prudhome violated the rules by taking a device up to the window.
On the signature scanning, Newby said: “It is a valid system. There is nothing under the statute that prohibits this.”
Under the system, if the machine reports a mismatch, then three election officials look at the signature and decide whether it is close enough. If the machine reports a match, then the ballot is counted without further review.
The federal suit will continue despite Gordon’s rejection of the requested temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. However, a similar case is currently pending at the Nevada Supreme Court and could provide a clearer answer on how much access is required and whether the signature-matching system complies with state law.
On Election Day, Nevada’s top court declined to grant emergency relief on the issues to the state Republican Party. Legal briefing, set on an expedited basis, is scheduled to wrap up on Monday. The deadline to finish vote counting in the state is Thursday, with the formal canvass by Nov. 16.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/06/republican-election-lawsuit-nevada-434822
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Josh Gerstein
Silver State is LGBT+ rights ‘rockstar’, says local activist
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nevada-gay-marriage-constitution-vote-lgbt-b1644519.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Liam James
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) warned on Wednesday that President Trump was telling supporters during a presidential debate the night before to intimidate voters at polling locations.During the debate…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/519011-nevada-attorney-general-warns-trump-telling-supporters-to-intimidate-at
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The Article Was Written/Published By: J. Edward Moreno
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/sheriff-crowds-alcohol-drugs-fueling-vegas-strip-violence-nightclubs-visitors-police-resort-crime-b561141.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Via AP news wire
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) took aim at President Trump’s decision to hold an indoor rally in his state Sunday evening, accusing the president of taking “reckless and selfish actions” that he said put lives in danger….
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/516251-nevada-governor-trump-taking-reckless-and-selfish-actions-in-holding-rally
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The Article Was Written/Published By: John Bowden
Nevada lawmakers passed legislation on Saturday that would ban chokeholds in the state.The bill, passed by the state Assembly over the weekend, would also codify a “duty to intervene” for police witnessing colleagu…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/510167-nevada-lawmakers-pass-ban-on-chokeholds
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Zack Budryk
Nevada reported the highest number of new coronavirus in a single day on Tuesday, breaking a record the state had set just a few days earlier. Nevada reported 462 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, …
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/504143-nevada-sets-new-record-for-highest-single-day-coronavirus-cases
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Klar
