Equality
Organizers call on Congress to pass last-minute immigration reform, pathway to citizenship
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 […]
One-third of Nevada workers are paid less than $15 per hour
More than a third of all Nevada workers are making less than $15 per hour, according to a new report by Oxfam America. The vast majority of these workers are adults, many of them are parents with children to support. The analysis, which uses U.S. Census Bureau data and advocates for raising the federal minimum […]
Evictions abound, car repo’s too, and nobody has time for the health care table
It’s the first of the month. The rent is due. Iris Isaacson,19, and Isaiah Isma, 25, already know there won’t be enough money to cover that plus utilities, food and his outstanding title loan, so they’re discussing their strategy. He needs to clock in at his minimum wage job, but does he have time to […]
Biden signs law making Juneteenth a new federal holiday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law legislation declaring a legal public holiday annually on June 19, the date of the end of slavery in the U.S. known as Juneteenth. “Throughout history, Juneteenth has been known by many names—Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Liberation Day,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at the White […]
Union workers lobby lawmakers to pass ‘right-to-return’ legislation
Jose Lopez gave more than 30 years of his life working for Boyd Gaming, with the last eight years as a bartender at the California Hotel and Casino. After a year being laid off due to the pandemic, there is no guarantee Lopez, 59, will be able to return to his old job and is […]
4 questions about the feds’ scrutiny of oil and gas leasing on public lands
In his first week in office, President Joe Biden paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands as his administration reviewed fossil fuel development policy. Now that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has taken office, the administration is gearing up to begin that process. A forum comprising the energy industry, conservation groups, labor organizations and […]
HOA foreclosure process comes under scrutiny
Nevada lawmakers last summer declared racism a public health crisis and signaled a desire to address systemic racism. Now, it’s time for lawmakers to pass policies to support that mission, says state Sen. Pat Spearman (D-Clark). And they could start with homeowners associations. Spearman is sponsoring Senate Bill 144, which would change the process used […]
Las Vegas charter school sued for curriculum covering race, identity
A Black mom is accusing a Las Vegas charter school of creating a hostile learning environment for her white-passing son by requiring him to participate in the school’s social justice curriculum. In the federal lawsuit, Gabrielle Clark and her son, William Clark, allege that Democracy Prep at the Agassi Campus violated the high school senior’s […]
Nevada must improve blind people’s access to government websites
The internet has become an integral part of most people’s daily lives. This is truer than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most of us are spending a great deal of time in our homes interacting with the outside world through websites, apps and video conferences. Unfortunately, despite some efforts by a few officials and […]
Question 2 on same-sex marriage pitched as symbolic righting of wrongs
Nevadans this November will formally declare their support of (or opposition to) same-sex marriage with Question 2, the “marriage regardless of gender amendment.” Regardless of the outcome, same-sex marriages will continue to be legal in Nevada and nationwide. That was decided by a landmark ruling by the United States Supreme Court in 2015. But the […]
Top staff for Nevada senators reflect diversity – and that’s rare, says report
Nevada is one of the few states where diversity is reflected in the top staff hired by U.S. senators, according to a new report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. People of color make up 40 percent of the country’s population, but that diversity is typically not reflected in Senate personal office […]
Nevada elects women but female voter participation lags nation, report says
The Nevada State Legislature may have achieved gender parity, but the state’s voter participation among women is nothing to brag about. According to a new Institute for Women’s Policy Research ranking of women’s political participation, Nevada placed in the top third of all states. But that ranking was entirely because of its best-in-the-nation numbers of […]