Politics
It's All Our Fault
March 26th, 2013
It’s popular to blame the Legislature for Nevada’s problems, or—and here I’m comfortably onboard the bandwagon—to blame the dilettante, term-limited, every-other-year nature of our Legislature. But when you stop to think about it, most of what we dislike about the institution can be traced straight back to ourselves. Here’s a starter list. Read more »
Politics
Staying True in North Las Vegas
March 14th, 2013
North Las Vegas has a problem. Isaac Barron is running for its Ward 1 City Council seat because he thinks he has a solution. “I’ve heard people say we need to re-brand North Las Vegas,” he says. “I’m not sure what they mean. We are not Green Valley or Henderson, or Boulder City or Las Vegas. There’s no negative connotation to that. We want people to be able to raise their families here, have a good home and a good job, good parks and schools. I just want to see my city prosper. I can’t change what has been done in the past, but I can help with the future.” Read more »
Politics
The Struggle, Then and Now
February 28th, 2013
When Harvard Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin delivered a recent lecture at UNLV, she was ostensibly speaking about her award-winning book, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement (Oxford, 2012). But if you were listening for subtext, you could have learned a lot about Nevada. Read more »
Politics
The Ballad of Two Mayors
February 14th, 2013
“A 3-Term Mayor as Brash, Shrewd and Colorful as the City He Led.” The New York Times headline above Ed Koch’s obituary captured how he exemplified New York City in so many ways, good and bad. It also describes another former mayor who’s very much alive—Oscar Goodman. A look at both careers, and the ways in which they were similar, gives us some insight into our community and its history. Read more »
Politics
Showdown in Carson City
The 2013 Legislature is ready to shape our future...or at least argue a whole lot about it. Our roundtable breaks down the big issues.
February 13th, 2013
Politics
How to Lose Elections and Negatively Influence People
January 31st, 2013
Campaigns seem permanent, and permanently annoying. To complain about it ignores history: Candidates always have been engaged in constant plotting. Grant Sawyer used to tell his staff when he was Nevada’s governor from 1959 to 1967 that politics and policy—or politics and governance—are inseparable. If you can’t get elected, how do you govern? If you can’t govern, how do you get reelected? Read more »
Politics
A Model of Integrity
January 17th, 2013
Gene Segerblom, a lifelong teacher and longtime legislator, died on January 4 at age 94. She lived well, traveled widely and did everything she wanted to do, except stay around longer. Her husband Cliff was an artist, and Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith described her Boulder City home as “one part poem, one part art museum.” You can be a politician and still be interested in other things. Read more »
Politics
The Year in Preview
January 3rd, 2013
After a year of rhetorical warfare in Nevada politics, the state will have to actually get down to business this year. The 2013 Legislature has a lot on its plate—especially the perennially kicked-down-the-road issues of revenue, education and legislative efficiency. Here are my fearless—maybe even reckless—predictions for the year ahead. Read more »
Politics
Three Stories and the Soul of Nevada
December 13th, 2012
If you woke up on Tuesday, Dec. 4, and opened the Las Vegas Review-Journal, you saw two pieces side-by-side. One was a news story: “Strip club mogul Jack Galardi dies at 81: Entrepreneur built empire, survived scrapes with law.” Beside it was an obituary—the kind for which families have to pay—for Shannon West-Redwine. Later that day, the U.S. Senate rejected the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The three stories speak volumes about politics and priorities in Nevada. Read more »
Politics
Harry Reid, Filibuster Buster?
November 29th, 2012
The president is a Democrat, the Senate’s Democratic and the House is Republican. Nevada has a Republican governor and Democratic Legislature. But we all agree on the need to end partisan gridlock. Read more »
