Author

Michael Lyle

Michael Lyle

Michael Lyle (MJ to some) has been a journalist in Las Vegas for eight years. While he covers a range of topics from homelessness to the criminal justice system, he gravitates toward stories about race relations and LGBTQ issues.

Not an isolated incident: Video of violent arrest heightens calls for more scrutiny of CCSD police

By: - February 17, 2023

A recent video showing Clark County School District police officers arresting several Black teenage boys, with one officer slamming a student to the ground, has outraged the community and led activists to push for a stronger response from the district.  While CCSD has offered little details about why officers stopped the teens, community groups recognize […]

Nevada lawmakers form LGBTQ+ Caucus to ‘move state forward’

By: - February 16, 2023

Nevada lawmakers have formed an LGBTQ+ Caucus and plan to bring back legislation bolstering rights for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.  Democratic state Sen. Dallas Harris, who was elected Monday to serve as the first chair for the caucus, said legislative priorities for the group include bills that increase protections for trans inmates within the Nevada […]

Democratic state officers outline legislative goals

By: - February 10, 2023

Nevada state treasurer Zach Conine warned of the brunt Nevada would bear, including increased costs and higher interest rates, if the nation defaulted on its debt during a press conference Thursday afternoon.  Conine along with the other top democratic constitutional officers Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar spoke Thursday to outline […]

Lombardo to propose expansion of governor’s office

By: - February 8, 2023

Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposals to effectively create a new layer of executive management for several state departments drew sharp questions from lawmakers Wednesday morning. The governor’s chief of staff, Ben Kieckhefer, told a joining committee of Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance the administration wants to create multiple new cabinet-level positions. The office is […]

State lawmaker drafting bill to give local governments power to tackle rent, housing

By: - February 7, 2023

Democratic State Sen. Edgar Flores plans to introduce legislation this session to make it “abundantly clear” that local officials have the ability to implement their own regulations to address housing affordability.  Amid skyrocketing rents, local and county officials said “Dillion’s rule,” a governing principle that limits local powers to those expressly granted by the state, […]

Dems, Latino caucus outline plan to expand Medicaid eligibility

By: - February 7, 2023

A group of Democratic lawmakers proposed expanding Medicaid for Nevadans regardless of immigration status and vowed to address housing affordability and expand mental health access on the first day of the 82nd Legislative Session.  Ahead of the official start of the session Monday, members of the newly renamed Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus outlined priorities that […]

Center offering legal information on eviction, civil matters sees high volume of clients

By: - January 31, 2023

Attorneys with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada liken the Civil Law Self-Help Center to a legal emergency room.  People find themselves at the center when they become overwhelmed by an often confusing, cumbersome legal system and need help finding a resolution.  That’s exactly what Rudy and Liza, who are married, needed when they […]

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Some Nevada households paying a fifth of their income – or more – on child care, report says

By: - January 30, 2023

The average household in Clark County spent nearly 20% of their income on rising costs of infant and toddler child care, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Women’s Bureau within the department issued a report in January that based findings from the National Database of Childcare Prices.  The Department […]

Housing justice advocates weigh in on White House plan to bolster tenant protections

By: - January 26, 2023

Amid rising rents nationally and people still struggling to maintain housing, the White House released a series of non-binding guidelines Wednesday in an effort to connect renters to affordable housing and direct agencies to bolster tenant protections.  In the “Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights,” the Biden-Harris Administration outlined efforts to address fair leasing, […]

Legal Aid urges lawmakers to reconsider previously declined eviction bills, tenant protections

By: - January 18, 2023

Lawmakers failed to pass several bills during the 2021 session that would have offered modest tenant protections against a Nevada eviction system that has been characterized by critics as one of the most tenant-hostile in the nation.  Ahead of what they are seeing as an emerging eviction crisis, attorneys with the Legal Aid Center of […]

End of rental assistance program prompts fears evictions will spike

By: - January 13, 2023

To prevent a tsunami of evictions in the first two years of the pandemic, policymakers set up a safety net that included eviction moratoria, an expanded rental assistance program and passing legislation to postpone court proceedings while rental assistance applications were processed. As a result, the much-feared wide scale eviction crisis was mostly held at […]

240 unhoused individuals died in Southern Nevada last year

By: - January 9, 2023

While attending last month’s vigil in Southern Nevada remembering unhoused people who died in 2022, Clark County Human Services Administrator Tim Burch took note of many of the stories circling in the background.  An estimated 240 unhoused people died in Southern Nevada between Nov. 1 2021 and Oct. 31, 2022, which was around the same […]