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Best of the Indy 2017

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Editor’s Note: Amid the avalanche of "Best of 2017” features published by so many news outlets this time of year, we decided to do something a little different. We have endeavored throughout this first year to be transparent about our editorial process, and in the "Best of” list below, we go at this by asking our reporters to highlight a few of their favorite stories and explain how they went about gathering the information — and how they felt once the story was done. The resulting list shows not just their dedication to doing deeply reported and timely pieces but also provides a window into who they are as human beings. I could not be prouder of them on both levels. I hope you enjoy this look-back at some of our best stories of 2017. Happy New Year from all of us at The Indy.

JACKIE VALLEY

The $300,000 dilemma: Housing shortage causing headaches for first-time buyers

Kierra Jemison, center, and her children Autumn, left, 8, Aniya, 6, and Anthony 10, stand outside her grandparents' home on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. Jemison is trying to buy a home in the $200,000 range but is getting outbid. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

As a millennial nearing the dreaded three-decade mark (gulp), my conversations with friends have gradually turned to more “adult” topics such as home ownership. But instead of excited chatter about house-hunting, floor plans and decorating, the tone has been decidedly more grim: It simply isn’t easy buying a home in Las Vegas on a modest budget. As it turns out, we aren’t alone. Other first-time homebuyers in Southern Nevada are feeling the pinch of a tight market and soaring prices. And the situation is even worse in Northern Nevada.

If the job projections pan out, increasing Nevada’s population in the process, it’ll be interesting to see how the housing situation unfolds throughout the state. Will we see rows and rows of cookie-cutter stucco houses spring from the ground — similar to the boom-era construction patterns — or more thoughtful housing solutions to meet various needs and price points?

In the meantime, all of us millennials will continue scouring Zillow, trying to answer the age-old question — buy now or later?

Read the article here.

As leaders squabble over health care, teachers bemoan frequent insurance hassles

The Teacher Health Trust, 2950 E. Rochelle Ave, is seen on July 12, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

While politicians duke it out over the future of the nation’s health-care system, teachers in the Clark County School District have been engaged in a battle of their own. At stake is the Teachers Health Trust, the nonprofit organization that oversees health care for the county’s roughly 18,000 licensed educators and their dependents. Once described as a “Cadillac plan” rich in benefits, the trust has been mired in financial difficulties and beset with lawsuits.

The tug-of-war over teachers’ health insurance has played out in school board meetings and other public settings for years. (The school district wants to move teachers onto a UnitedHealthcare plan.) But what really piqued my interest was an online forum, where teachers were airing their grievances about the trust. Trouble securing insulin. Rampant medical billing mistakes. Long waits for referral authorizations.

When I put out feelers for a story, my phone started ringing off the hook. So many teachers wanted to share their stories and frustrations, but, interestingly, they weren’t at all unified in a solution. Some wanted to salvage the trust; others wanted to ditch it. Six months after my story published, there’s still no resolution. The teachers’ union and school district remain locked in a bitter arbitration battle — with the health-care saga taking center stage — and I still hear educators complain about insurance hassles.

Read the article here.

New groups overseeing operations of schools have new voices: parents

Students stands beside a sign shows student reading skills at Pat Diskin Elementary School in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

The education wonks in Southern Nevada say a 14-letter word so often, it rolls off their tongue — reorganization. The term, which has a certain bureaucratic ring to it, has become synonymous with both successes and challenges. It’s the underpinning of a state law meant to overhaul the chronically struggling Clark County School District by upending the power structure.

Simply put, the reorganization gives schools — and their respective communities — more budgeting and decision-making power. At least in theory.

Early this year, I visited several school organizational teams, which are considered a key component of the plan, as they worked their way through budget decisions. The takeaway: It was a steep learning curve. Parents and other members of the so-called SOTs first needed to understand how schools and their budgets operated. By late summer, some schools reported feeling more empowered by the new structure, but it’s too soon to form any long-lasting conclusions. In other words, stay tuned. There will be more to report and analyze in the coming year.

Read the article here.

LUZ GRAY

On a personal level, 2017 brought two major milestones into my life.

I had the opportunity to join The Nevada Independent team as an associate editor and tell written and visual stories for our Spanish page, The Nevada Independent en Español.

I also achieved one of my biggest dreams: I became an American citizen.

The day of my naturalization ceremony in September brought on a rush of memories: From those first days I’d arrived from my native Mexico City, to taking the bus in the middle of the summer because I didn’t have my own car, to my fear of going out in the street or shopping because I didn’t speak English, to the people who realized my needs as a new immigrant and sought to help me.

There were also the memories of English classes six days a week, getting used to the laws and customs of this country, meeting my husband and my career path from radio to working with a team as I’ve always dreamed: the reporters and editors of The Nevada Independent.

It’s been a year of dramatic changes in immigration policy, so much of what I covered this past year had to do with immigration law and its human impact.

DACA and TPS

People gather in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program during a vigil in front of Lloyd George Federal Courthouse on Wednesday, Dec. 6,2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

On Jan. 25, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Border Security and Improvements to the Application of Immigration.” It generated questions and confusion among U.S. citizens, tourists, visitors, green-card holders and members of the immigrant community at large. The following month, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced the memoranda to enforce the executive orders on immigration.

As soon as the Trump Administration unveiled these policies, I began to wonder how immigrants were feeling about these changes, and DREAMers were top of mind. That’s why we presented Being a DREAMer during the time of Trump, the first in a series of interviews that, with help from my colleague Jackie Valley, we rolled out over the course of the year.

In August, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) turned five years old, I wrote a retrospective on the program and interviewed some DREAMers to understand their perspective on the prior half-decade: Five years of dreams: A retrospective on the anniversary of DACA.

Just a few weeks after we published that article, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the elimination of DACA, and we captured the strong reactions to that decision in this roundup: Nevada leaders speak out as Trump administration moves to phase out DACA protections for young immigrants.

Amid the immigration policy shakeups that started in January, I also remembered a lesser-known program that for the past 20 years has allowed thousands of immigrants from countries including Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to work in the U.S. and avoid deportation: Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

I wondered whether this program, too, would be in jeopardy, so in June I interviewed Tirso Sermeño, the consul of El Salvador in Las Vegas, and beneficiaries of the program. We published a story on our page Spanish page, The Nevada Independent en Español.

Sure enough, federal officials announced that they’re phasing out the program for several countries and that recipients need to prepare to leave the country. I followed up as the changes hit Nicaraguan immigrants and Haitian immigrants, and created uncertainty for TPS recipients from other countries.

The most vulnerable immigrants

UNLV Professor of Law Michael Kagan, left, attorneys Arléne Amarante and Laura Barrera stand Wednesday, March 15, 2017, near hand prints is of unaccompanied children that the immigration clinic has helped. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

As I followed the topic of immigration policy, I often heard the same refrain from parents: “What’s going to happen to my children?”

It led me to another storyline: that of children who are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America and arriving alone at the U.S. border in search of a better future, or those who are American-born but have parents who could be deported.

My objective wasn’t just to inform the public about immigration policies that were rapidly shifting but also to allow the people who were affected by these changes to tell their stories in their own words.

That’s how my story, Children in limbo in the midst of immigration enforcement debate, came to be.

Another theme that colored the year’s immigration topics was concern among experts, activists and attorneys that scammers would take advantage of minorities — especially those in a highly vulnerable legal and social position: undocumented immigrants.

I talked with a consumer affairs expert in Nevada who tracks unscrupulous operators. She explained to me three of the most common scams targeted at minorities: faux tax preparation, immigration assistance that does not in fact assist people and contractors who do not provide services they promise. You can read the story here: How scammers target minority communities.

Addiction recovery

Jeff Iverson, founder and creator of Freedom Behavioral Health, enters the Freedom House Sober Living apartments in Las Vegas on Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

One of the human-interest stories I covered in 2017 and that stood out was that of young people who have fallen into the hell of addiction and are rediscovering hope and new opportunities through a Las Vegas rehabilitation center.

The interviews I did with recovering addicts and policymakers who are trying to determine what’s needed to tackle substance abuse in Nevada became part of the story Freedom House: How one Las Vegas recovery center is helping break the cycle of addiction.

MEGAN MESSERLY

Amid rising drug costs nationally, one state senator takes on diabetes in Nevada

Eight bottles of insulin siting on a table on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015. Photo: Alan Levine/Courtesy under a Creative Commons license.

Health care is incredibly, incredibly complicated, and that’s an understatement. For a healthy person with infrequent interactions with the doctor, hospital, pharmacy or the other tendrils of the system, it’s easy to brush aside and not waste much energy thinking about. But for the people who interact with it on a daily basis, the inner workings of the health-care system can literally mean the difference between life or death.

That’s the story I followed for several months after a bill to control the costs of insulin and other drugs used to treat diabetes was introduced into the Legislature by Democratic state Sen. Yvanna Cancela. It was a bill, more legislation, another piece of policy — but for those with diabetes, it was so personal. I heard stories about people stockpiling drugs in the fridge, afraid what would happen if they were to suddenly lose their insurance. I heard from one mom who said she literally had to make the choice between purchasing insulin for herself and feeding and clothing her children. It’s an impossible choice. I thought back to elementary school, to a friend in my class who had diabetes. My teacher used it as a learning opportunity, allowing her to put together a presentation to the class on diabetes. I thought she was brave for pricking her finger. I wonder how she’s doing now.

On the other side of the debate are the pharmaceutical companies, who argue they’re doing the best they can for patients. They’re trying to innovate, to make drugs for diabetes patients better, faster, longer-lasting, and that innovation comes at a price. The competition drives prices down, they say, and if they were to disclose information about how they set their insulin prices (as the final version of the bill passed requires), patients could actually end up paying higher prices, not lower ones.

Ultimately, it will be up to a court to decide whether the public’s interest in understanding how prices for insulin are set outweighs the pharmaceutical companies’ interests in keeping that information secret to retain their competitive advantage.

Regardless of which side you’re on, these conversations about health care are important to have. This story is just the tip of the iceberg of the more than two dozen stories I wrote about diabetes drug pricing this year, but I hope it offers a glimpse into this particular conversation, and, if you’re not diabetic yourself, why it’s so personal for the people I’ve spoken with over the last year.

Read the article here.

A brief history of Medicaid in Nevada and the people who depend on it

Elisa Castillo de Pena, 37, who is a divorced mother with a daughter and is seven months pregnant, stands in her living room before going to work at Sunset Station Casino on Saturday, July 8, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Another health-care story, I know, I know. But it’s important!

I’m not going to give you a rundown of the entire Medicaid program — you can read the story for that. But what was most important to me in reporting this story wasn’t the chronology of how the Medicaid program came to be or the debate over whether to end Medicaid expansion as part of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, though those are important. It was the people. These policy decisions have real impacts on people’s lives. These conversations can’t be had in a bubble.

Take the part-time dishwasher who Luz Gray helped me interview in Spanish for this story. She wants a full-time job, and the employer-sponsored health coverage that comes with that, but she can’t. She’s on a waiting list. But she’s also pregnant, and her little boy isn’t going to wait. Enter Medicaid.

How you feel about whether the government should or should not be providing health care and other services will likely inform your view of Medicaid. But I hope this story offers a glimpse into some of the real humans who rely or relied on Medicaid during critical periods of their lives and why a robust discussion about the program’s future is worth having.

Read the article here.

Compton to Carson: Jason Frierson’s historic path to power

Democratic Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson at the Legislature on Feb. 6, 2017. Photo by David Calvert.

I find people infinitely fascinating. What makes people tick? What drives them? What are their hopes, dreams and fears? Every time I dive into a profile, I find myself coming back to the title of an otherwise completely unrelated short story by Joyce Carol Oates — “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” I was hoping to give readers a sense of that with this profile of Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, which published just before the start of the 2017 session.

I didn’t really know Frierson at all before diving into this story, but through interviews with him, his wife, colleagues and even would-be foes on the other side of the aisle, a portrait of a deeply thoughtful, respected man emerged. And, having personally seen Frierson at work and talking to folks on both sides of the aisle during some of the most tense moments of the session, I know the praise for Frierson in the story wasn’t just pre-session bloviation either. I also now know how apt that anecdote about a young Frierson in his senior year of high school standing on a bench table orchestrating a conversation with a group of classmates about how to end a boycott and reinstate grad night was.

Read the article here.

MICHELLE RINDELS

Facing great demand, Nevada struggles to deliver enough autism treatment

Parents and their children prepare to release balloons during a soccer camp event held by Azulblue at Charlie Frias Park in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 2, 2017. The organization aims to support parents with children in the autism spectrum. Photo by Daniel Clark. Follow @DanJClarkPhoto

As is probably the case for many Indy readers, I know a number of people with autism. It’s a life-changing diagnosis, it’s a condition that is startlingly on the rise and it’s something that can yield a dramatically better outcome if a patient gets help during a window of opportunity in childhood.

In Nevada, getting the kind of treatment needed to make the difference between a lifetime of independence or dependence is a function of what kind of insurance you have (if you have it at all), a medical professional shortage that creates long waiting lists and policy decisions made by the state. Luz Gray and I explored these barriers in our story, including how the state has problems fully utilizing a pot of Medicaid money available for autism treatment. 

But the most poignant parts of the piece were the personal stories — both the ones of young people with autism who are living rich lives and chasing their dreams after receiving extensive therapy, and those from parents who regret missed opportunities.

Luz tapped into the acute problems facing Spanish-speaking families whose children have autism. The troubles that face all Nevada families with a diagnosis are exacerbated by a language barrier.

“If I had known, I would have placed my daughter in early intervention. But nobody told me, and I didn’t know, and the pediatrician didn’t help me much,” said Silvia Rodriguez, who’s worried she lost a chance to improve her 5-year-old daughter’s future. “I didn’t know where to go and nobody guided me.”

As autism touches an increasing number of Nevadans, we hope that this story will remind the public and policymakers of the possibilities opened up by addressing this issue — and the perils of pushing it aside.

Read the article here.

Reno mom with terminal cancer makes fighting tax bill, defending Medicaid her cause

Emily Reese with her children Madeline, Kate and Thomas. Photo by Sally Casas of Modern Muse Photography.

I first noticed Emily Reese because she was a new face engaging with some Indy content on Twitter. A few more clicks and I realized that this 43-year-old mother of three and former English teacher had a fascinating blog, is battling terminal cancer and seemed to have only recently gotten involved as a citizen-activist after learning about the Republican tax bill.

What kind of person spends what could be their final months throwing themselves into advocacy over a tax overhaul? I had to know. So I direct messaged her on Twitter to see if she’d be up for sharing her story.

Reese had some fascinating insights — about looking death in the face, about her political and personal evolution since her now-ex husband came out as gay 10 years into their marriage, about why she’s so concerned the tax bill will lead to cuts in the Medicaid program that’s bringing her life-sustaining treatment.

She has very strong opinions about the tax overhaul and whom she thinks Nevada should elect in 2018, which we put up front in the story. And while we at the Indy do not advocate for or against candidates or policies, I think Reese’s story offers our readers some very valuable food for thought and an example of one of the many ways people can find themselves in need of public assistance.

Read the article here.

The Indy Explains: The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (Welfare)

Nevada state seal. Photo by David Calvert.

I’ve always been interested in personal finance, investing and budgets, perhaps because my dad is so methodical about that kind of thing. I was inspired to look into welfare services in Nevada after reading the book “$2 A Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” which explored the welfare reform of the Clinton Administration and how people in extreme poverty in the U.S. survive.

What I found shocked me. The number of people on welfare (TANF, or “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families”) in Nevada is tiny relative to the number of people on programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, and the payout is also tiny, barely changed over the two-decade lifespan of the program.

What was also shocking is that the issue doesn’t seem to be on legislators’ radar. Regardless of party, no lawmakers I talked to seem to be “up” on the TANF issue or pushing for changes; the lone lobbyist in the Legislature who was the TANF expert said he felt like the program was “sad” and a rather hopeless cause.

Regardless of your feelings about welfare, I encourage you to check out this TANF explainer. It provides a case study into block grants that, while they provide “flexibility” to states and are on the table today for Medicaid, don’t grow over the years in spite of changing conditions. It also touches on the role that only cash can play for a family — a niche that is still unfilled by food stamps, health care and housing vouchers.

And I think it’s always worth exploring issues that are so forgotten that they have virtually no lobbying power. I learned a lot researching this piece, and I hope you do reading it.

Read the article here.

RILEY SNYDER

Energy

Power lines from Hoover Dam stretch through Eldorado Valley south of Boulder City on Friday, June 16, 2016 Photo by Jeff Scheid.

At the start of 2017, I never would have pegged myself as finding Nevada energy policy to be one of my main topics of interest. I actually tried to stay as far away from the net metering and rooftop solar wars during the 2015 legislative session, as I found the whole area to be dense, byzantine and unwelcoming to newcomers.

That’s still the case, and the learning curve has been challenging (I still don’t totally understand how wholesale energy markets work). But one of the things I’ve realized throughout this year is just how much the decisions made on energy policy — dry and complex as it may be — affect nearly every person in Nevada. A decision made in a general rate case will literally change how much hundreds of thousands of people pay on their electricity bills for the next three years.

It’s also been a great year to nerd out over wonky energy policies, especially given the seismic shifts in energy policy on the horizon. The Energy Choice Initiative, which passed overwhelmingly in 2016, portends such a sea change in the way electric service operates and functions not only behind-the-scenes but for every person with a power bill. In addition to covering the various potential roadblocks associated with transitioning to a retail electric market, we were also able to do deep, in-depth looks at how other states have managed the transition and what policy makers can learn from the state’s aborted attempts to move to a retail energy market in the 1990s.

And given the huge financial stakes involved with energy markets, we’ve also taken a closer look at who stand to benefit from the proposed ballot initiative, including the less-than-public reasons behind the support of one financial backer, an under-the-radar nonprofit quietly backed by Switch taking aim at NV Energy and lobbyists representing both sides on major energy bills in the Legislature.

Campaign Finance

The Nevada Legislature (2017). Photo by David Calvert.

I’ve always been fascinated by the political contribution and expense reports (a skill that makes me a big hit at parties.) But especially in a state like Nevada, it doesn’t take a long time to realize that why certain events or news stories happen can be traced back to the information on financial disclosure forms. Especially in a small state such as Nevada, with closely clustered centers of power, finance reporting and disclosures are an invaluable tool for journalists and the public to glimpse how relations between powerful players and politicians are formed.

That’s why I was glad to (alongside my colleague Megan Messerly) do a full analysis of more than 9,400 campaign contributions throughout the 2016 election, released in a series of articles throughout the first half of 2017. Over nearly two dozen stories, we detailed the millions of dollars sent to candidates by a variety of powerful players — casino giants, unions, law firms and the health-care industry. The reporting was illuminating on its own, but I found it most helpful when put into context with the major stories of the session — stories on the pharmaceutical transparency bill and the various energy-related measures were enriched by contextual coverage of just how much those industries gave to legislators.

I was also proud of the enterprise work we did in covering campaign finance in ways no one else in Nevada has done, including exhaustive looks at how donors circumvent contribution limits by spending thousands on “leadership” PACs and legislative caucus PACs, as well connecting the dots on the donations doled out by clients of major lobbying firms in the state.

Campaign finance coverage isn’t the sexiest topic to read about, and can take a long time to do right (Messerly and I built a spreadsheet and categorized more than 9,400 contributions by hand), but the value of thorough looks at who’s financing candidates and causes is an invaluable public service that the Independent will continue to do into 2018 and beyond.

Fact Checks

Early voting for the City of Las Vegas Municipal general election sign posted in front of Las Vegas City Hall on Wednesday, June 7, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Coming from spending 2016 as the one-man reporter for PolitiFact Nevada, I thought it was important for media outlets to continue to hold political feet to the fire and fact-check any questionable or dubious statements. Campaigns are filled with noise, drama and lots of exaggerations and mistruths, and fact checks have (rightfully) become a tool to separate spin from the truth outside the confines of a normal he-said, she-said story.

That’s why I was glad The Nevada Independent launched our own fact-checking model in June, with a set rubric as how we grade claims along with a four-part rating system based on Abraham Lincoln. Our fact checks this year have run the gamut, with many of the claims focused on Senate candidates: Republican Sen. Dean Heller and Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen.

Republicans and Democrats alike are poised to pick up the pace of ads and attacks in 2018, especially given the state’s competitive U.S. Senate seat, open governor’s race and at least two competitive House seats. On everything from press releases to stump speeches to TV and digital ads, we’ll continue to take a critical look and gauge how truthful the statements made by Nevada’s most powerful politicians are.

DANIEL ROTHBERG

Indy Q&A: Author Caleb Cage on "Desert Mementos: Stories of Iraq and Nevada"

Caleb Cage reading his book in Reno. Photo courtesy of Caleb Cage.

I expected this interview to last 15 minutes, maybe 30 minutes if I were lucky. Caleb Cage, a Sparks native who led a platoon in Iraq and now leads the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, had met me at PublicUs about an hour-and-a-half before he was scheduled to read from his short story collection at the Writer’s Block in downtown Las Vegas. We ended up talking up until the reading started. Our interview about his book, "Desert Mementos: Stories of Iraq and Nevada,” turned into a broader conversation about war, patriotism, the civil-military divide and what fiction can capture that war journalism cannot. As part of the civilian public, I am in the majority of Americans who has not experienced military service during wars that have lasted more than half of my lifetime. In the past few years, I’ve found fiction by war veterans to be a valuable avenue for understanding the conflict on a personal level. Cage’s story collection will be particularly resonant for anyone who has spent any time driving across Nevada, as he juxtaposes the Iraqi battlefield with towns like Tonopah and Battle Mountain. This interview was one of the most memorable and meaningful conversations I had in 2017.

Read the article here.

CEO: NV Energy pushes back on energy choice, looks at big renewable commitment

NV Energy corporate headquarters is seen on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Going into this interview with NV Energy CEO Paul Caudill, I had heard the same question over and over again. Consumer advocates, economists and clean energy groups had all asked the same question: Why can’t NV Energy be more like its sister company, MidAmerican? Both are owned by the same parent company yet MidAmerican amazed the utility industry in 2016 when it announced a commitment to get 100 percent of its energy from renewables. Groups wanted to know why NV Energy couldn’t do the same thing. I was wondering that too. In my opinion, such a move had the potential of being smart politics for NV Energy, a move that could restore some of the “reputational damage” it suffered during the net metering fight and blunt the momentum of the Energy Choice Initiative. So it was one of the first things I asked Caudill during our interview. And his answer surprised me. “We may not be far from that,” he said. I’m listing this full interview because it gives insight into NV Energy’s thinking. With NV Energy’s monopoly on the ballot again in November, 2018 is going into a make-or-break year for the utility.

Read the article here.

Congress looks at wild horses (again), and there are no easy solutions

Feral horses are seen off U.S. Route 6 near the Fishlake turnoff on Monday, Aug 14, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Before writing this story, I understood that wild horses were controversial. Beyond that, I had little knowledge of why and how a symbol of Western freedom had become a flashpoint of the rural-urban tensions that exist on the Western range. A few months before pitching the story, I had read that the Trump administration wanted to allow euthanasia for wild horses, but the issue has long predated the current administration. Simply put, wild horse management has turned into a bureaucratic nightmare for the federal government. No groups, from ranchers to land managers to advocates, are happy with the current system. This story offers a brief look at how the wild horse came to be controversial. It’s a topic I plan on going back to in 2018.

Read the article here.

EDITORS’ PICKS

We were proud of the team’s work on many fronts this year, but especially on these stories. 

Sexual harassment

As the volume of the national conversation grew louder, we decided that a look at this problem in Nevada was long overdue. We began by exploring what led to the Legislature finally sanctioning state Sen. Mark Manendo after years of misconduct, hoping that would open the doors to other
The Nevada Legislature as seen on the evening of Monday, June 5, 2017. Photo by David Calvert.

stories.

It did. And after BuzzFeed broke allegations of misconduct by Rep. Ruben Kihuen, it was our team’s accounts of a second and third accuser that led him to announce he was not seeking re-election. Throughout our reporting, we showed readers how we approached the stories with posts explaining our process on the editor’s blog. We believe we are much closer to the beginning of this story in Nevada than the end.

1 October

Women gather around a memorial cross for a Las Vegas shooting victim on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017, at the welcome sign. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

As the horrific shooting was still going on — victims tweeting, initial news reports trickling in — we were unsure we would even cover the event. We knew there were a handful of deaths and a mass shooting from a Strip hotel window is no small thing, but we do not normally publish crime news. As the death toll rose and the magnitude became clear, though, we began to think we should go outside our norm and report. Even though we are a small team with limited resources, we decided to do our best to write news as it broke and also to do what we do best: in-depth pieces.

From scenes from the aftermath to how the city coped and came together (including numerous vigils across the valley) to a look at Spanish counseling for Spanish victims and families, we sought to tell the stories of real people dealing with the unimaginable tragedy.

We also reported on the gunman’s arsenal and the difficult task of Sheriff Joe Lombardo in the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Lombardo bore the brunt of the public’s criticism as timelines and details changed and the gunman’s motive remained unknown. We’re proud of our story on his attempt to balance investigative priorities with dispensing public information. We also wrote about the first big security meeting on the Strip following the shooting and covered the predictable legal fallout including the class action lawsuit filed against bump stock manufacturers.

Indy Explainers

People check in to vote during primary election day at Sahara West Library on Tuesday, April 4, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

From how the state verifies voter eligibility to the ins and outs of the fight over Yucca Mountain to what a lamb fry is and Basque culture in Nevada, our explainers are designed to educate (and sometimes amuse), distill complex issues and shed light on policy that affects the people — for better or worse — it aims to serve. They also call attention to little known facts, like geothermal energy’s impressive and surprising presence in Nevada. Recently, we liked the piece on who pays the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalty and the complete update on the recall efforts against Democratic lawmakers.

(If you have an idea for an explainer, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].)  

Disclosure: Joseph Lombardo ($500) has donated to The Nevada Independent. You can view a full list of donors here.

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