The governor’s office and the corrections agency jointly announced Dzurenda’s departure on Friday, saying that he was leaving to pursue new opportunities and spend more time with his family and children in Southern Nevada. The effective date of his resignation is expected to be announced in the near future, officials said.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson to serve 27 months in prison and pay $249,900 in restitution for his misuse of campaign funds.

Clark County commissioners raised concerns about a renewed collaboration between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), saying they’ve been unable to get information about how the so-called 287(g) agreement is being carried out in the county jail.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo on Wednesday detailed a number of lessons learned by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department from the Oct. 1 mass shooting, including that high rise structures facing open air venues must be kept secure, fire commanders should be present and crews should have extra supplies including trauma kits at big events.

The educational program is part of a broadening effort in Nevada to help inmates reintegrate in the workforce instead of reoffending. A day before the ceremony, the Las Vegas Metro Chamber announced a partnership with HOPE for Prisoners to connect graduates of the program with services to create a smoother transition from prison to training to employment. 

The award wasn’t without controversy, with lawmakers asking at an Interim Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday whether the grant was singling out Latinos as vulnerable to gang activity, and staff from the attorney general’s office stressing that they did not want to promote a narrative that unaccompanied minors who are seeking asylum and are largely from Central America are gang members.

In the wake of rising traffic fatalities in the valley, Clark County officials held a Traffic Safety Forum at UNLV on Thursday to discuss new ways of keeping both drivers and pedestrians safer. The number of Nevada’s traffic fatalities continue to rise, exceeding more than 300 for the past four years.

But behind the usual graduation trappings of gold-foil stars, sheet cake and Costco pizza, the massive windows in the room looked out on endless spirals of concertina wire and imposing guard towers. The three dozen or so graduates earning their diplomas on Wednesday afternoon were doing it all within the walls of the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, a medium-security prison in Carson City.

“I’m sure people will say it was great and that we got a lot accomplished because there were lots of bills. And there were lots of bills, but they do lots of little steps and lots of little things,” said lobbyist Kimberly Mull.

Senators cast a party-line 12-8 vote on Friday to approve Democratic Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui’s AB291, which now must have an amendment concurred by the Assembly before moving to Gov. Steve Sisolak’s desk for a signature.

Democratic Assemblyman Steve Yeager says he’s further scaling back an ambitious criminal justice reform bill, but it still has strong opposition from prosecutors who are calling for major changes in the measure with less than four days left in the session.

After weeks in limbo amid concerns over language allowing local governments to pass more restrictive gun ordinances than the state, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee held an hours-long hearing on Democratic Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui’s AB291, substantially amended since it was first heard in early April.

The bill, AB291, is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday after it hit a snag earlier this month with labor unions fearful that provisions repealing the state’s preemption law — which prohibits local governments from passing their own gun ordinances — could scare away the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s annual SHOT show in Las Vegas.

Instead, what may be the last potentially major changes to the state’s bail system are alive in the form of Democratic Assemblywoman Dina Neal’s AB125, which was passed out of the Assembly on a party-line vote Friday, but it likely faces an uncertain path as law enforcement and district attorneys question the implementation and effectiveness of the bill.

An order issued by Nevada District Court Judge Robert Jones on Monday dismissed a sexual harassment claim filed against Antinoro by a former deputy, Melanie Keener, but allows her claims related to emotional duress and civil rights violations to proceed. No trial date has been set, but it is likely to come sometime this year.

No work session or committee vote was held on AB291 on Friday, but the bill is expected to receive a waiver from legislative deadlines for continued work and a future amendment — agreed to by several gun safety groups — removing language allowing local governments to preempt state gun laws and instead replacing it with “red flag” provisions, which allow law enforcement and family members to request a court order temporarily seizing an individual's firearms. It’s also likely to include aspects of Democratic Assemblyman Ozzie Fumo’s bill creating criminal penalties for negligently storing or leaving a firearm where a child can access it.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted 10-5 on Tuesday on AB236, a bill based on 25 recommendations from the state’s Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice after the Crime and Justice Institute combed through reams of data about what’s driving the state’s rising prison population. The institute said implementing the full slate of recommendations could save some $640 million in prison costs over 10 years.

The bill enshrines many recommendations developed during the interim by criminal justice leaders and the Crime and Justice Institute, which projected that implementing all the changes could cut prison costs by $640 million over the next decade.