In today’s edition: 

• More people upset at LCB’s copyright policy
• Updates on magic mushroom legalization efforts
• Will the Windsor Park relocation be completed on time?

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From the Capital Bureau Chief:

Transparency advocates and lobbyists aren’t the only ones worried about the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s (LCB) stringent copyright policy.

In early February, Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus (R-Wellington) expressed worries in a letter to the LCB about the new policy, leading to presentations and supporting materials for bill hearings being categorized as copyrighted and not posted online as was common in the past.

“I am elected to represent the people of Nevada, and in my own course of work have found the limitation of committee presentations to be a barrier,” Titus wrote. “It should go without saying that public officials preparing presentations on public agencies, for public bodies and on the public dime need to have their materials available for public review, to say nothing of legislative review.”

Titus added that the current workaround — requiring people to request materials through the LCB library — is not a working solution, and there should be as few barriers as possible, especially for residents of rural communities. 

Interim Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Diane Thornton said LCB has considered having submitters sign a document taking responsibility for copyright infringement, but that doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

“The legal liability for posting the material to the Legislative website falls to the legislative department,” she said. Thornton added that there are continual issues with people submitting presentations with copyrighted material.

Sean McDonald, a labor attorney, says the copyright policy has been ill-explained. He said refusing to republish materials on the Legislature’s website, but allowing the same presentations to be viewed by video, doesn’t make sense because if republication liability is the fear, the same theory should apply to the video broadcast. 

He said there are likely fair use defenses if copyright concerns arise.

McDonald added that in 2020, under Allen v. Cooper, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the longstanding policy that states are not subject to copyright infringement liability. He noted that the decision flowed from the doctrine that, generally, states are sovereign and not subject to be sued in federal court under the 11th Amendment’s immunity doctrines. 

“I think the Legislature has missed the first issue, which is, are we even liable for copyright infringement? I think that case says the answer is no,” McDonald said.

He noted that many exhibits pulled from the legislative website are from public entities. For example, one memo was unavailable because it used the City of Las Vegas’ letterhead. Another exhibit not available, he said, is a budget presentation for the Supreme Court, submitted by Chief Justice Douglas Herndon.

“It's a chainsaw where a scalpel was needed,” McDonald said. “There's no analogy too absurd to throw at this to understand just how crazy this is.”

As always, please send us your questions, thoughts and suggestions. You can reach me at [email protected]. 

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Mushroom Magic

Democratic and Republican legislators are looking to magic mushrooms to help address Nevada’s litany of mental health care challenges and its high suicide rate.

SJR10, heard Tuesday in the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee, would call on federal agencies to recategorize psychedelic compounds such as MDMA and psilocybin (known as magic mushrooms) in federal drug law to reflect their therapeutic potential and increase research funding into those compounds.

The resolution from Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) attracted 27 sponsors, including seven Republicans.

Here’s more on the issue: 

• Approximately 25 percent of Nevada adults experienced mental illness in the past year — notably higher than the national average — and the state had the eleventh-highest suicide rate in the nation as of 2023.
• Clinical research has shown that psychedelics have promising results in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, and some forms of depression. Yet, without rescheduling, proponents of the resolution said that patients — especially veterans and first responders — face hurdles in accessing care and getting treatment covered by health insurance.
  • Nevada's current regulatory framework closely aligns with federal classifications, maintaining strict controls on psychedelic substances.
    • “Without federal clarity, these efforts exist in a legal gray area,” said John Dalton, a military veteran and representative for the Nevada Coalition of Psychedelic Medicines.  
• Last session, the Legislature established the Psychedelic Medicines Working Group.
  • A December 2024 report from the group recommended that legislators  create a regulated access program for psychedelic-assisted therapy this session.
    • AB378, introduced this Monday and sponsored by Assm. Max Carter (D-Las Vegas), aims to establish such a pilot program, managed by the Division of Public and Behavioral Health. It also has several Republican co-sponsors.  
  • The group also recommended ensuring that health insurance covers psychedelic therapy. 
• Numerous other states, including Oregon and Colorado, have also begun to decriminalize “magic mushrooms.” 
• When asked Thursday why she decided to pursue a resolution instead of a bill explicitly decriminalizing psychedelics, Nguyen said she believes that change first needs to occur at the federal level.
  • “It’s much easier to come up with a regulatory structure. It's much easier to research things. It's much easier to do a pilot program, if you have some of that federal-like push,” Nguyen said.  

— Isabella Aldrete 

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What we’re reading and writing

A bipartisan mail ballot bill in Nevada? It’s not as crazy as it sounds. by Eric Neugeboren

Kumbaya.

Northern Nevada lawmaker pushes to expand paid family leave by Lucia Starbuck, KUNR

Assm. Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno) said the policy should help businesses maintain employees and boost morale among workers.

HOAs are creating barriers for home-based childcare providers, lawmakers told by April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current

Lawmakers battle over the purpose of an HOA.

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Windsor Park relocation behind schedule?

Nevada Housing Division Administrator Steve Aichroth conceded on Wednesday that “we still have concerns about” relocating people from the sinking Windsor Park neighborhood by the end of 2026, which is when most of the project funding must be expended.

Here’s what to know:

• In 2023, legislators passed SB450 to fund the relocation of residents of North Las Vegas’ Windsor Park neighborhood, which has been unsafe since the 1980s because of subsidence — the sinking of the ground because of groundwater overuse.
  • The bill allocated $37 million to build 93 single-family homes, $25 million of which came from the American Rescue Plan Act, the pandemic-era relief program that requires all money to be spent by the end of 2026.
• The state is still working to acquire land to build the new homes, Aichroth told legislators during a budget presentation Wednesday. After that, work will begin to develop infrastructure on the property, then home construction will begin.
• Aichroth said the state is working to expedite the acquisition of land and is “continually” reminding the developer of the 2026 deadline.
• But he remained optimistic.
  • “We would anticipate that if they’re not moving in by the end of 2026, it would be shortly thereafter,” Aichroth said.
• Worry about the project timeline dates back to last year when the governor’s office asked legislators to no longer use coronavirus relief funds for the project, instead pledging to bring forward legislation in 2025 to fund the entire project through the state budget.
  • That plan ultimately never materialized after public outcry.

— Eric Neugeboren

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 Keeping Tabs

💰Dems cutting fees? Is this real life? — A bill from Sen. Julie Pazina (D-Las Vegas) would decrease the business license application fee for small businesses. SB240, heard Tuesday, would lower the application fee for businesses with 50 or fewer employees from $200 to $100 as a way to make it easier for people to start businesses. It received wide support from groups that sometimes do not align with Democrats on small business-related issues, such as the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce and the conservative Independent American Party. 

🍃 Stop telling UNR to research medical marijuana? — After lawmakers ordered UNR to research medical marijuana in 2001, a bill this session, AB365, could end that requirement.

• Context: In 2017, reporting from The Nevada Independent indicated that 16 years after lawmakers ordered medical marijuana research to take place, nothing had happened because of a lack of state funding and uncertainty about a potential marijuana crackdown on the federal level.

🖥️ Trump tariffs may increase Legislature’s computer hardware costs — Tyler Saylor, the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s chief information officer, said the division received notice from hardware suppliers that they expect a 20 to 30 percent increase in costs. Saylor said during a budget hearing last Friday that the costs may require additional funds, although those exact amounts were unknown.

🪪 The “common sense” bill — Assm. Linda Hunt (D-North Las Vegas) wants to ease the burden of getting an ID through AB220, which would authorize the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to give free temporary IDs to homeless people until they can go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to get a permanent ID. 

• Hunt said the bill is a “crucial step” to take pressure off the DMV, saying that homeless people go to DHHS more often than the DMV. 

— Eric Neugeboren, Isabella Aldrete, Lizzie Ramirez and Tabitha Mueller

Days until: 

• Last day for bill introductions: 12
• First house passage deadline: 41
• Sine die: 82

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And to ease you into the weekend, a few social media posts that caught our eye: 

• X: We’ll have to make the most of the free bag policy while it lasts.
• Instagram: When celebrities come to town… 
• BSky: Sus indeed. 

We’ll see you next week.

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