Nevada Gold Mines settles unfair labor practice complaint, recognizes union after federal agency accuses company of ‘unlawful conduct’

Welcome to the 17th installment of “Coronavirus Contextualized,” a recurring feature in which we explore some of the numbers swirling around in the time of coronavirus.

Last week, after a nearly 10-hour board meeting, the school district’s trustees approved in-person learning to start the 2020-2021 year. The decision defied the recommendation of Washoe County’s health officer.

AB4 was signed into law by Gov. Steve Sisolak during the second special session of 2020. The bill aims to continue the process of holding a primarily mail-in election come November, this time by mailing ballots to all active registered voters and providing more polling locations in the two urban counties than existed in June for the primary election.

The session comes after lawmakers convened for 12 days in July to rework a state budget pummelled by the pandemic. Sponsors of the bills in the latest session argued that they addressed issues too pressing to wait for the regular session set to start in February, although the results didn’t satisfy everyone — Republican Sen. Ira Hansen called the unemployment bill “window dressing” on a massive problem of delays in benefit payouts.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has appointed former lawmaker and legal aid center leader Barbara Buckley to lead a “strike force” focused on improving the processing of Nevada’s backlogged unemployment claims.

The court issued a unanimous ruling, upholding a decision from Carson City District Court to amend and otherwise allow the 200-word “description of effect” for a ballot question that would raise the state sales tax as a push for more K-12 funding sought by the CCEA.

Members of the Assembly, after a five-hour hearing Wednesday night, voted 31-10 to grant final approval to SB4, the last major piece of legislation to advance in the special session. It mandates certain health and safety protections for hospitality workers, in addition to granting broad liability protections to nearly all businesses, governmental bodies and nonprofit groups in the state so long as they follow required local, state and federal health protocols.

This week's edition of the Indy Environment newsletter looks at legislation in Congress that would fund a regional assessment of saline ecosystems in the Great Basin.

Even after more than 170 comments bombarded the Supreme Court over the last three days, the court’s five justices denied a petition to allow law school graduates to temporarily practice without passing the bar in an order issued late Wednesday.