Nevada’s drug transparency program could get two years of funding as lawmakers consider expanding its scope

Friday at midnight marks the deadline for most bills and resolutions to pass out of their second committee, typically a major legislative culling with less than two weeks left before lawmakers must adjourn the state’s 120-day session.

Many Republican governors have said programs such as the $300-per-week add-on to base benefits is harming the workforce by discouraging people from getting a job, but Sisolak’s office is taking a different tack.

On Friday, committee members voted 4-3 to pass the measure with the promise that another amendment will be filed prior to a floor vote. The bill previously passed out of the Assembly on a party-line 26-16 vote in April.

Welcome to the 48th installment of “Coronavirus Contextualized.” For more than a year, we have brought you the latest COVID-19 numbers in Nevada, including COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and provided context to them on a near-weekly basis through this series.

Superintendent Jesus Jara's new contract, approved by the trustees in 4-3 vote Thursday night, runs through Jan. 15, 2023. The decision further exposed the rift on the board, with Trustees Linda Cavazos, Lisa Guzman and Danielle Ford voting in opposition to the extension.

Gov. Steve Sisolak said there is “no path forward” for efforts by Democratic lawmakers to move forward on abolishing capital punishment, striking a blow to the hopes of criminal justice reform advocates that the state’s Democratic trifecta in the Legislature and governor’s office would finally take steps to end the death penalty.

Beyond the two themes of transmission and electrification of transportation, the bill makes a host of other energy policy related changes, including expansion of tax credit programs to energy storage facilities, allowing multi-family or commercial buildings to use the state’s rooftop solar net metering program and reopening a 2013 economic development rate rider program aimed at giving new large businesses a discount on energy costs.

The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled in favor of state Senate Republicans in a 2019 dispute over extended payroll taxes and DMV fees, setting clear limits on legislative efforts to avoid the constitutional two-thirds majority requirement for tax increases while also blowing a substantial hole in the state budget.

Lawmakers on a budget subcommittee voted Wednesday to recommend rolling back a 6 percent Medicaid rate decrease, approved by the Legislature during a budget-slashing special session last summer, in a major victory for Nevada’s health care providers who had pilloried the reductions.