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.

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 […]

Southern Nevada has limited options to house domestic violence survivors

By: - December 20, 2022

Sixteen. In a range from one to 20 on a lethality scale, an assessment that SafeNest does with those experiencing domestic violence who are looking to leave an abusive partner, you would need to score a 16 in order to secure a bed and a safe place to stay. Assessment questions include asking if the […]

Organizers call on Congress to pass last-minute immigration reform, pathway to citizenship

By: - December 9, 2022

As a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, David Beltran Barajas lives his life two years at a time. The DACA program, created through an executive order by former President Barack Obama, protects eligible immigrants who arrived in the United States as children from deportation, but they have to repeatedly reapply. The legality of […]

Horsford to chair Congressional Black Caucus; Lee gets Dems to add new ‘Battleground’ post

By: - December 1, 2022

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford was elected to serve as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, which advocates for policy priorities important to the Black community, while U.S. Rep Susie Lee is among moderate Democrats pushing to create a leadership position focusing on perpetually vulnerable Democratic members serving in congressional swing districts. Horsford, who recently won […]

NDOC closes Warm Springs Correctional Center amid staffing shortages

By: - November 22, 2022

Amid staffing shortages, prison officials announced the Nevada Department of Corrections is closing Warm Springs Corrections Center in Carson City and consolidating remaining staff to work at other facilities. The Nevada state prison system averages around 50% staffing vacancy rates at three northern Nevada prisons including Warm Springs, Northern Nevada Correctional Center and Lovelock Correctional […]

To end youth homelessness, groups say ‘we have no choice but to make policy changes’

By: - November 22, 2022

Tayvon Jenkins was 12 years old when he and his family began experiencing homelessness on and off.  The now 26-year-old Jenkins explained during the annual Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY) summit Nov. 17 that he thought his situation was typical.  “I thought all my friends were always hungry, like me,” he said. “I thought […]

Battleground state SOS winners relieved after denying the election deniers

By: - November 16, 2022

Voters in Nevada, along with other battleground states including Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Arizona, rejected election deniers running to become secretaries of state. Members of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, including Cisco Aguilar who was recently elected in Nevada, spoke during a virtual press conference Tuesday about the importance of preventing those […]