Commentary
‘Explosive’ price of gold won’t mean much for Nevada
Since last year the price of gold has increased 25 percent, from $1,200 to $1,500. Market watchers are saying things like gold is a “juggernaut” and $1,500 is “the new floor.” They’re bracing markets for “explosive” short-term price increases, and asking “Is $2,000 on the horizon?” The price of gold has been rising for a […]
They should’ve banned assault weapons while they were at it
Gov. Steve Sisolak and legislative Democrats take pride, and rightly so, in the gun safety agenda they enacted this year. In February, Sisolak signed into law a bill requiring background checks on most private gun sales. Voters had approved the measure in 2016, but former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, enthralled by gun culture ideology and […]
Turns out firing people is good for shareholders
MGM Resorts released its quarterly financial report last week, and a preponderance of professional expert-texpert market watchers agree: firing people makes shareholders happy. MGM hoped as much. The company’s quarterly report and accompanying corporate presentation all but gush over the wondrous effects of “our new operating model,” MGM 2020 — a key part of which […]
“And then they lied to cover it up?” “Generally, that’s true.”
If you read the special counsel’s report (and being Current readers you’re likely the sort who did), the exchange between Robert Mueller and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff at the start of the committee’s hearing Wednesday, like much of Mueller’s testimony, was nothing you didn’t already know. Perhaps you weren’t shocked, or even taken […]
Do Nevada Democrats secretly love this guy?
Your governor, you may remember, kicked off his first term with a stirring state of the state address in which he said … well, let’s quote him: “Nevada’s economic growth happened under our current revenue structure — and as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s why this budget is presented without […]
All the times Donald Trump has never been a racist
In the 1970s when African Americans who applied to rent apartments owned by Donald Trump were told there were no vacancies, even though there were vacancies, it wasn’t because Donald Trump is a racist. As he confided to a federal prosecutor after reaching a settlement in a discrimination case filed against him by the U.S. […]
A real “New Nevada” would fix its daffy mining tax
Nevada mines produced $7.8 billion worth of minerals in 2018. Mining taxes were paid on less than a third of that amount. And after taking advantage of tax deductions Nevada so foolishly but generously allows, operators can whittle down their state mining tax bill to almost — or even absolutely — nothing. Nevada mining tax […]
What every Nevadan should know about Wynn’s new Boston casino
If Nevada doubled the gambling, er, gaming tax, the rate would still be about half what casino corporations pay in Massachusetts. Wynn Resorts opened a $2.6 billion casino resort in Boston Sunday. MGM opened a billion-dollar property in western Massachusetts last year. Nevada taxes gambling at 6.75 percent of gross revenue. In Massachusetts, it’s 25 […]
Enough already with the space aliens
Harry Reid is a UFO bug. He even got your federal government to spend 22 million American dollars preparing a report chronicling strange things in the sky (and elsewhere) that have made jet pilots and other folks in the military scratch their noggins. A couple years ago, the New York Times spilled the beans on […]
Limits on Nevada’s Legislature keep it from serving the state
In the last 30 years, Nevada has evolved from a sparsely and homogenously populated rural outpost to one of the most urban and diverse states in the country. Nevada’s population is now majority-minority. The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise Metropolitan statistical area with over 2.2 million residents is the 28th largest in the country and is home to […]
Thanks for visiting Nevada, Beto. Now don’t come back.
Remember that viral video from last year when Texas U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke was asked about NFL players taking a knee and he answered correctly with eloquence and passion and facts and became a national thing? That was cool. Alas, O’Rourke still lost to Ted Cruz. Now O’Rourke is one of the eleventy-nine people […]
Workers should be empowered to bargain and Democrats know it
A bill to allow collective bargaining for state employees should pass in Nevada. Support for collective bargaining has been a staple Democratic position for decades, and Democrats control both houses of the Legislature. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, in his state of the state address, said state workers “should be empowered to bargain collectively in the […]