Week of March 13, 2025

From the editor’s desk

The Trump administration continues to upend the lives of countless ordinary Americans at a dizzying pace. Today, a federal judge ruled that tens of thousands of fired federal workers must be rehired. The nation’s top health advisor continues to spread misinformation about vaccines as the number of measles outbreaks in the U.S. has surpassed 250. And it’s anyone’s guess which tariffs might be threatened, issued, paused or rescinded between the time I wrote this newsletter and when you’re reading it.

But as much as this whiplash-inducing flurry of decrees takes up the air in the room, local life and local news do continue to unfold. Here are a few developments closer to home that are on my radar this week. 

• The Nevada Current reported yesterday that the Nevada Wildlife Commission recently discussed a new approach to a long-debated Nevada tradition—wildlife-killing contests. Conservationists and animal-rights activists want the state to ban such contests. Hunters and ranchers want them to remain legal. 

From the Current:

On Saturday, the Nevada Wildlife Commission, which has rejected calls to end the contests, debated two proposals from staff on regulating the contests.

One of these proposals would require that the contests be licensed. The other would require that the hunting and trapping of all unprotected species—such as coyotes, rabbits and squirrels—be licensed.

Neither side seems too enamored with these ideas. 

“We never wanted this to cross over to recreational hunting,” sportsman George Forbush said during public comment, adding Nevadans will not be pleased “if they have to go out and start getting a license just to go out to shoot squirrels.”

And …

“Addressing this issue is akin to trying to put lipstick on a very uncooperative pig,” said John Hiatt of the Clark County Community Advisory Board to Manage Wildlife. “In the end, the pig is still a pig and everybody’s smeared with lipstick. You can’t win in this situation by just regulating it. Essentially, this issue just needs to go away. Killing contests are not supportable.”

• In other news, the long-ailing downtown Reno property that was formerly Harrah’s is in the hands of a new owner and a new developer. The Reno Gazette Journal reported yesterday that managers of the property, now called “Revival,” announced that it is slated to include: 

• 390 hotel rooms
• About 300 residential units
• 900 garage parking stalls
• 120,456 square feet of office space
• 133,691 square feet of retail and entertainment
• A 50,000 square-foot plaza
• 12,100 square feet of amenities

• Finally, as arts leaders fear further cuts in federal funding, two Clark County politicians, along with the new Southern Nevada Arts Coalition, are pushing legislation that would divert some state tax revenue to the arts. 

Here’s the proposal, AB219, in a nutshell, from Double Scoop (the statewide arts publication of which I am also the editor):

AB219, sponsored by Assemblymember Howard Watts III and State Sen. Fabian Doñate, both Clark County Democrats, is pretty straightforward: It would redirect 1% of the state’s live entertainment tax from the general fund to the coffers of the Nevada Arts Council. This is intended, as Watts was careful to point out in his hearing testimony, to augment the council’s current state funding, not replace it. (Although, as the text of the bill notes, the council already gets $150,000 from the tax.)

How much money are we talking? In fiscal year 2024, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the live entertainment tax generated more than $127 million, so, had this measure been in place, the council’s cut would’ve been $1.27 million. Most of this new influx would be redistributed through grants to artists, organizations, presenters, and education initiatives statewide.

This could be great news for arts groups down the line.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor