Best of The Indy: Our favorite stories from 2025
The past 12 months brought us the demise of a film tax credit expansion plan, a slump in the Las Vegas gaming and tourism markets, a push for more school district accountability, a cyberattack on state government and an immigration crackdown.
Here, the staff of The Indy offers a look back at 2025, highlighting some of our favorite stories from the last 12 months.
Thank you, as always, for reading our stories and supporting The Indy.
Capital Bureau Chief Tabitha Mueller
Film tax fiasco: How a three-year push to create Hollywood 2.0 in Las Vegas cratered
A push to make Nevada the next Hollywood failed dramatically and unexpectedly in November. Breaking down what led to the death of a yearslong effort to expand film tax credits in the Silver State allowed me to use my skills to give readers a peek into the room where it happens, and an understanding of how decisions that shape the lives of everyday residents are often negotiated behind closed doors.
‘It was a shock’: Nevada water regulator speaks on why he was fired
Water is a precious resource in Nevada. Perhaps the most important regulator of it is the state engineer, who is tasked with carrying out Nevada water law, while understanding and using the best available science in decision-making. It was a privilege to work on an accountability piece that raises questions about whether powerful interests helped push out Nevada’s state engineer, and take a step out of my comfort zone to write about water policy — a critical, complex issue in the most arid state in the country.
‘Not just a number’; Nevada’s disability community fears backslide amid funding cuts
Services for people with disabilities are often the first to be cut, but they’re vital for ensuring independence. I was grateful to be able to share this story and to the people who trusted me to write about it. As a reporter, my focus is on how policy shapes the lives of everyday Nevadans, and what’s at stake when funding decisions are made. This article let me do just that, and to hand a microphone over to people who are often not listened to.
Senior Reporter Howard Stutz
Headlines say Vegas is dead. What’s actually going on is more complicated.
During the summer, as Las Vegas visitation slipped, national news outlets reported the Strip was no longer an affordable destination. In a collaborative effort, Indy reporters Oona Milliken and Kiara Adams and photographer Jeff Scheid ventured out to the Strip to talk with Vegas visitors about their impressions and helped me report the story.
Prediction markets weren’t at G2E. Here’s why they dominated gaming industry discussions
I probably wouldn’t have been able to define prediction markets 12 months ago. But as 2025 draws to a close, gaming regulators in Nevada and nationwide have taken legal steps to ban the sports betting-like businesses from their jurisdictions. As the year closes, several of the nation’s largest sports betting operators announced plans to launch prediction markets in 2026.
Tourism leader Rossi Ralenkotter, known for ‘unparalleled’ love of Vegas, dies at 78
I was honored that Rossi Ralenkotter wanted to talk with me about his four-and-a-half decades with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, when tourism grew from almost 8.5 million visitors in 1973 to a record 42.9 million in 2016. He knew his 16-year battle with cancer was coming to an end.
Energy and Environment Reporter Amy Alonzo
Will a $7,600 price tag derail a bill to better track utility shutoffs in Nevada?
This session, bills with any sort of price tag seemed doomed, even those with seemingly minor price tags and oversized benefits. It felt important to call out SB442, which pushed for transparency about shutoffs for nonpayment of bills, as it stalled with just a handful of days left in the session.
‘When the water goes away, it goes away’ — NV’s desert wildlife can’t keep up with drought
I often hear people comment on rain and snowfall as it relates to their hobbies — is there enough to ski in winter, or float the Truckee River in the summer? Rarely do I hear people comment on the effects of precipitation, or lack thereof, on Nevada’s plants and animals — where a drought isn’t a matter of not recreating, it’s a matter of life and death.
Limos, liquor, hotels among NV Energy’s millions in ‘inappropriate charges’ IDed by watchdog
The amount of testimony I read through for this story had me beating my head against a wall. Then again, I could say that about just about any energy story that involves combing through the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada website — the site is notoriously challenging to navigate.
K-12 Education Reporter Rocío Hernández
'Fear and compliance': Rural superintendents wary of bipartisan school accountability law
Increasing school accountability was a major talking point in K-12 education discussions in the 2025 legislative session — for Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and Democratic leaders. I checked with four superintendents of urban and rural school districts to get their take on how this legislation, which was introduced in the final weeks of the session, would affect the K-12 education landscape.
Amid immigration crackdown, a Latino cultural hub in North Las Vegas is collateral damage
I stepped outside the education beat this year to cover immigration issues, including the enforcement fear-driven closure of the community staple, Broadacres Marketplace, which was a blow to many of the entrepreneurs who depend on the outdoor swap meet for their livelihoods and the families it serves. It’s a place I frequented with my family growing up in Vegas. I also attended the reopening a few weeks later and spoke to patrons and shop owners about how much it meant to them to have the swap meet back.
Spanish-language newspaper ceases printing after 45 years, leaving void in Las Vegas
This is another off-the-beat story that’s close to my heart. My dad used to grab the El Mundo newspaper on our way out of our local grocery store and would have me read the paper to practice my Spanish. It was an honor to be part of telling the story of the paper’s 45-year legacy.
Southern Nevada Local Government Accountability Reporter Oona Milliken
Why do lawsuits claim Las Vegas operates a ‘shadow police force’?
After a tip about an increased number of lawsuits alleging the Las Vegas City Marshals were overstepping their bounds, we decided to look into what was going on and found that the marshals have had a history of patrolling outside of their jurisdiction since the 1990s.
Is Nevada short-term rental law an Airbnb ‘ban in disguise’ in Vegas? Critics say so.
To me, this was a story of two corporate behemoths using Las Vegas as a battleground. On the one hand, you have Airbnb, a massive global conglomerate with billions in revenue. On the other hand, you have the gaming industry, another multibillion-dollar interest group. Stuck in the middle are the Las Vegas residents who want to get rid of “party houses” in their neighborhoods and the property owners who want to rent out their houses to make some extra cash.
Vegas resorts want to revive court geared at cleaning up Strip. Critics say it was a failure
Tourism is the lifeblood of Las Vegas — and it could suffer tremendously if visitors feel unsafe. Proponents told me that’s why it was important to bring back the once-disbanded Resort Corridor Court that dealt specifically with crimes on the Strip. The court has also been criticized for being a de facto way to expel homeless people from the area, with some calling it “unconstitutional.” Now, the court is coming back despite pushback from critics.
D.C. Correspondent Mini Racker
No Tax on Tips covers more than 440,000 Nevadans. Here’s why few will actually benefit.
No Tax on Tips was one of President Donald Trump’s flashiest campaign promises. With its high share of tipped employees, Nevada is likely to be one of the states where ordinary people benefit the most. By analyzing data from the state’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, I found the policy could affect more than a quarter of the state’s workforce — although the way it is structured means many of those people will not actually get richer.
The inside story of how a Nevada fir became the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree
For the first time, this year’s Capitol Christmas tree was harvested in the Silver State. This feel-good storyline brought the whole delegation together; I saw all six members chatting at the tree-lighting ceremony. But for me, the most fun part of the story was hearing from Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) about all the tactics he used to ensure the tree would come from his district.
Where do Nevada’s members of Congress like to eat? Here’s what campaign finance data shows
I love discovering unique ways to use campaign finance data to better understand the people who represent us. This story reveals some of the delegation’s most-frequented restaurants.
Politics and Data Reporter Eric Neugeboren
Regulations called for stricter rules on Nevada’s battery sector. Tesla objected, and won.
This story provided a peek behind the curtain to show how Tesla successfully fended off rules that would have imposed stricter oversight on its operations after appealing to the governor’s office.
Why Lombardo-backed ‘big bill with big intentions’ to reform state licensing boards died
Reforming Nevada’s sprawling system of occupational licensing has long been a priority for Gov. Joe Lombardo — and the 2025 legislative session provided the first opportunity to pursue significant changes. However, several proposals drew fierce pushback. This story dove into how the Department of Business and Industry’s strained relationships with legislative power players doomed the chance to make even the most modest of changes.
Lombardo praised Nevada’s new finance system. The switch has been plagued by glitches.
For years, Nevada has tried to modernize its finance and human resources computer systems. When the first part of a new finance system went live at the start of the year, child support, pension and health savings account payments were stalled. This story compared the positive public statements to the grittier reality of the rollout, as well as why state officials remained optimistic about it.
Reporter Isabella Aldrete
After ‘sanctuary’ label, Lombardo makes case to DOJ that Nevada aligns with Trump agenda
Shortly after Nevada was labeled a “sanctuary state,” Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s team reached out to me and shared a 10-page timeline documenting policy decisions to crack down on people in the state illegally. While I’ve focused on immigration my entire time at The Indy, this story provided the most comprehensive look yet at how the state is aligning itself with President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.
Vegas man’s immigration arrest, caught on video, stirs questions about ICE transparency
When I sat down to interview the family of Rafael Lopez Gomez — a man who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year — they recounted a miniature odyssey. Unable to find him, his daughter searched for him from hospital room to hospital room and organized a protest in his name. Lopez Gomez’s arrest, caught on camera, provides a powerful glimpse into just how surreal these immigration arrests can be.
‘Are we subsidizing ICE?:’ Nye County, ICE part ways over negative audit, sparse funding
I think the story highlights one of the most common criticisms against local partnerships with ICE: the steep price tag. For years, the deeply red Nye County has struggled to keep up with the rising cost of holding ICE detainees in its local jails. Republicans and progressives alike agreed that the contract was just not worth it, with one Republican commissioner saying that ICE was “taking advantage of us.”
Reporter Kate Reynolds
Nevada’s traditional public schools are losing children to charter schools. Why?
This story examined a trend that is not Nevada-specific but occurring nationwide: expanding enrollment in charter schools even as birth rates decline. In trying to pin down the cause of this shift, I stumbled upon an evergreen question in education policy: Do certain schools perform better because of the education they provide, or because of the backgrounds of the families who elect to send their children there? It’s an uncomfortable but important question.
Nevada child vaccine rates continue decline, raising herd immunity concerns
This story was published about a month before news broke that there was a measles case in Clark County, the first since 2018. It was a stark reminder of the stakes of our journalism, as was one of the central theses of this article: that vaccine rates have declined in part due to collapsing trust in experts and institutions, including and perhaps especially public health authorities.
Archivist Guy Rocha, a gregarious ‘evangelist for Nevada history,’ dies at 73
This was one of my first articles for The Indy. What an introduction to Nevada, writing about a man who made it his life’s mission to chronicle the state’s rich and complicated past. I learned a ton about Nevada while poring over Guy Rocha’s myth-busting history columns (which I highly recommend to everyone). But in an era of misinformation and manipulation, I was especially touched by learning about his commitment to the truth and all the nuances that come with it.
Reporter Kiara Adams
Nevada’s election system stayed up during massive statewide cyberattack. Here’s why.
When I first pitched this piece, I thought it would be a cool story about voter registration going up during the same month as a cyberattack. But it ended up way beyond that — I was able to get a glimpse into the systems that store Nevada voter data and keep our elections running. There was a lot of awesome coverage here at The Indy during the cyberattack and this piece turned out to be a positive look into innovative technology that is here to help keep our elections safe.
How are students (and teachers) dealing with Nevada’s new restrictions on phones in classes?
This was my first piece at The Indy way back in August and I love how many voices I was able to put into this story. Featuring state senators, teachers and even high school students, it went beyond basic policy coverage and delved into how people are adapting to a new policy at the start of a brand-new school year.
As government shutdown drags on, Nevada reps sound alarms over food stamps, health care costs
The government shutdown was a crazy time to be a reporter at The Indy. Compiling what the members of Nevada’s congressional delegation were doing during the shutdown and what they had to say about it into a single piece was a challenge, but quite a fun one. Seeing the various town halls, video conferences, food pantry visits and joint letters to the governor happen in real time helped me provide an inside look into how Nevada’s politicians were still working at a time when the government itself wasn’t.