Editor’s note: Seven days. Never enough hours.

Stacks of paperwork at the office and piles of laundry at home. It’s a never-ending cycle, which makes it difficult to stay on top of the endless news nuggets flowing from the White House, state capital, local government and business community. We get it — and we’re in the news business.

Enter “About Last Week.” This is our way of bringing news-hungry but time-strapped readers up to speed on happenings that may have flown under the radar. Our promise: We’ll keep it brief.

Our hope: You’ll read (or skim) and keep checking back every Monday.

So, without further ado, here are some noteworthy things that happened in Nevada last week.

Nevada’s population numbers show evidence of a stronger economy

Nevada continues to be one of the fastest-growing states, with another 33,300 people calling it home since 2016, according to data released by the state demographer’s office.

The influx of new residents brought the Silver State’s population up to 2,986,700 for 2017, which equates to growth of 1.1 percent.

The northwest and southern regions led the growth. The northwest region — which includes Carson City and Douglas, Lyon, Storey and Washoe counties — jumped from 609,420 residents in 2016 to 614,403 last year. In Southern Nevada, which includes Clark and Nye counties, the population grew from 2,211,918 to 2,240,208 people during that same year.

“Taken as a whole, the population estimates are very consistent with other widely followed barometers, each suggesting that Nevada’s economy continues to grow and expand,” Bill Anderson, who heads the Department of Taxation, said in a statement. “Since our recovery started at the beginning of the decade, the state’s population has grown by about 262,000, very similar to the increase in jobs and employment.”  

The demographer’s office also noted that the state has undergone significant change over the last decade — going from one of the places hit hardest by the Great Recession to posting some of the strongest job gains in the nation more recently. The state’s population is up by nearly 404,000 since 2007.

— Jackie Valley

Merkley, possible 2020 contender, visits Nevada

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, considered a possible Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, spent part of the weekend campaigning in a key swing state — Nevada.

Merkley, appearing with U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Jacky Rosen, spent Saturday at a roundtable discussion on clean energy issues at the Las Vegas headquarters of Valley Electric Association (a rural electric cooperative serving Pahrump), and later appeared at a voter registration drive at the state Democratic Party’s headquarters.

Though the event was nominally aimed at helping Rosen, running against Sen. Dean Heller, the visit underscored the latest moves in the ‘invisible’ 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Nevada, as both a swing state and one of the first four states to cast votes in presidential primaries, will be a target for any hopeful presidential candidate — including Merkley.

California Sen. Kamala Harris, also considered a possible presidential contender, visited the state for an event in Henderson earlier in March, and fellow Democratic Sen. Cory Booker also visited Southern Nevada in February.

— Riley Snyder

Another indictment in failed effort to get Green Party on 2016 Nevada ballot

Another Las Vegas man has been indicted on charges of falsifying signatures on a petition aimed at getting the Green Party on the Nevada ballot in the 2016 general election.

Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske announced Wednesday that 48-year-old Patrick Duffy had been indicted by a grand jury on 13 felony charges, including misconduct in signing, filing or altering a petition and perjury. He’s accused of submitting the fraudulent signatures after swearing under penalty of perjury that they were legitimate.

Duffy is scheduled to appear in Clark County District Court on March 28.

The Green Party, including its presidential candidate Jill Stein, didn’t qualify for the ballot.

In December 2016, another man — 55-year-old Las Vegas resident Renaldo Johnson — was indicted on 15 felony charges related to falsifying signatures on the Green Party’s ballot-access petition.

— Michelle Rindels

State approves tax abatements with expectation that they’ll create 600 jobs

The board of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development approved tax breaks Thursday for several companies that expect to invest nearly $500 million in capital combined to relocate or expand their businesses in Nevada.

Among the biggest expansions are from the grocery store chain Smith’s, which wants to open up a 482,000-square-foot distribution center in Henderson. Workers at the site would ship products to states in the Southwest, including Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

That expansion is expected to create 182 jobs.

Another major project comes from Scientific Games, which manufactures lottery, electronic gaming and sports betting technology. The company wants to expand its Nevada-based headquarters and renovate its Clark County campus in hopes of attracting new talent and creating 195 jobs.

Other companies that received the perks include a business that provides cryptocurrency mining services, a data center, a beverage syrup manufacturer and a company that offers summer computer camps to children.

— Michelle Rindels