With business closures across the state, a drop in tax revenue could lead to millions of dollars in lost revenue for municipalities, Reno Finance Director Deborah Lauchner said in a presentation to the City Council on Wednesday. Although city staff are looking at three scenarios including a “doomsday” case, Lauchner said it is still too early to tell how large the hit to city services will be.

Gov. Steve Sisolak made Nevada one of the first states to enter a state of partial lockdown last Tuesday as an emergency step meant to stem the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, enforcing a closure of the state’s casinos and urging other nonessential businesses to close their doors for 30 days. But in the week that’s followed, public confusion has mounted as many businesses, small and large, have defied the governor’s orders and kept their doors open.

There is little question that the moratorium on travel and the shuttering of casinos in a state reliant on visitors and gaming revenue, is going to hurt local revenue, and some more than others. Local officials are attempting to figure out how sharp the drop will be and for how long.

Goodman made the comments during the Las Vegas City Council meeting on Wednesday — the only jurisdiction in Southern Nevada to continue to hold public meetings in the face of the spreading novel coronavirus.

Dozens of candidates — including 52 in populous Clark County — waited until the final day of the filing period to declare their candidacy. The end of filing means that campaign season — though hampered by the spread of the novel coronavirus — is officially underway ahead of the June 9 primary election and Nov. 3 general election.

In September, Mayor Hillary Schieve announced a pilot program designed to address the area’s housing shortage called "1,000 homes in 120 Days," offering developers local permit fee deferrals that act as no-interest "loans" to attract more construction. By the end of the 120-day application period on Jan. 30, developers had proposed 4,628 housing units scattered throughout Reno.

In 2015, The Animal Foundation set the goal to reach “zero euthanasia” by the end of 2020 — which means saving all healthy and treatable animals, not just adoptable ones. If they meet the goal by the end of the year, they will be one of the highest-volume shelters to do so in the country. Last year, it euthanized less than one-third of the annual population that was euthanized five years ago.

Under the new regulations, operators of massage establishments in the city will be required to obtain an FBI background check and have a manager present during operating hours. Businesses are also no longer allowed to have an on-site ATM, tinted exterior windows, or recording devices in treatment rooms.

Reno City Manager Sabra Newby will leave her position as the city’s top administrator in July 2020, citing a desire to return to friends and family in Southern Nevada.

A member of the Nevada Silver Haired Legislative Forum was abruptly dismissed from a meeting when she kept pressing a Clark County social services manager about the impact of Las Vegas ordinances outlawing sitting and sleeping in public. An estimated 42 percent of the more than 5,500 homeless in Southern Nevada are 50 or older.

The suit comes after Lombardo announced in October that his agency would stop participating in the so-called “287(g)” jail-based partnership with ICE, and honoring holds, following a federal court in California’s ruling on the issue. Adame-Reyes’ lawyers said they worry that Lombardo could go back on his word, based on what they described as a begrudging promise to end the agreement. 

Less than two months after the Alpine Motel Apartments fire killed six people and revealed gaps in the city’s inspection processes, city officials introduced a draft of a Multifamily Residential Rental Registry and Inspection Program to “improve current practices” in preventing fires. The proposed program aims to ensure compliance with Las Vegas fire safety code by implementing more regular inspections of smoke detectors, fire alarms and exits.

Shortly after misdemeanor penalties for violating the Las Vegas City Council’s encampment ordinance went into effect on Feb. 1, Clark County commissioners are considering taking vagrancy laws “off the books.” The district attorney’s office determined that the county’s vagrancy laws are “already covered” by state statute.

The Point-in-Time Count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) every two years, to count the number of people experiencing homelessness who are unsheltered, in emergency shelters, or in transitional or supportive housing to determine funding for that locality. The count is conducted on a single night to avoid duplicate counts. In Southern Nevada more than 5,500 homeless people were counted in the 2019 count.

The City of Las Vegas’ Department of Public Safety has set a goal to reduce its annual intake of homeless inmates by more than 1,000, or 20 percent over the next three years, and to provide follow-up support after people are released from jail.

Campaign payments made by Fiore’s PAC to a business owned by her daughter highlight Nevada’s loose laws and oversight on political spending, especially with no clear definition of “personal use” or guidance on how to avoid ethical conflicts when paying family members out of campaign funds.

Eureka County Sheriff Jesse Watts issued an open letter earlier this month expressing “disdain” for Gov. Steve Sisolak and accusing him of using the October 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas as a way to “show boat” and “grand stand” in order to further gun control laws.

Clark County commissioners are asking what they can do to prevent a tragedy like the fire that took six lives and injured 13 people on Dec. 21 at the Alpine Motel Apartments in downtown Las Vegas. The Department of Building and Fire Prevention has been tasked with notifying residents of inspections and providing a "priority" list of vulnerable properties.