By historical standards, we actually live in amazing times — the absurdity of our modern politics notwithstanding. Judging by a slew of metrics, we’re living in the golden age of humanity. 

Was 2025 an unending catastrophe? No. Was it a good year? For most of us, certainly not. Above all, though, it definitely wasn't boring.

Special sessions might be an ideal setting for legislators to push through pet bills, but it’s bad for sensible, transparent policymaking.

I have never believed more strongly in the power of journalism and especially the promise of nonprofit journalism to be part of the solution, if not the solution.

What this means in practice is that if a gambler lost money, broke even or barely managed to come out ahead for the year, they may very well end up owing taxes to Uncle Sam on money they don’t have. 

Due process must be respected. But an acquittal does not prove that harm didn’t occur — something even the NHL underscored. Yet media accounts and online conversations often treat the verdict as a moral clean slate.

There's a difference between heated lobbying during a special session and the campaigns of harassment experienced by Indiana’s senators. But there are limits to what people can be pressured into.

For years, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has encouraged elected officials, customers and community allies who support workers’ rights to stay out of Station Casinos properties in an act of solidarity. 

It’s hardly a spoiler alert that many of the stories emanate from or lead back to the Las Vegas Strip, whose titans have long paid lip service to the fight against money laundering while managing to profit from the movement of illicit cash across the green felt.

Money is not an intrinsically evil force in politics. On the most basic level, it’s a necessary equalizer for candidates who don’t have a vast fortune of their own to spend on communicating with potential voters. Money is, essentially, nothing more than a megaphone.

Where do we go from here? I don't expect Nevada to reverse course and recriminalize marijuana tomorrow. But if we're going to live with this experiment, then Big Marijuana must be held accountable for every promise made and every harm caused.

Since these fees are only charged to people who can’t afford them, most cases result in nonpayment, and Nevadans often end up with their debts sent to collections — ruining their credit and causing a host of harmful consequences for them and their families.

With her legislative experience and Washington contacts, Berkley appears well-positioned not only to raise the mayor’s profile, but also its impact on the complex issues facing Las Vegas and other metro areas.

While this is good news for those of us who believe such schemes are bad deals for taxpayers, don’t expect the issue to disappear entirely. It’s unlikely that Hollywood will write Nevada off as a lost cause.

Nevada’s public colleges and universities remain among the most affordable in the country. Adjusting tuition and fees modestly will maintain that affordability while ensuring that we can continue to deliver the quality education Nevada students deserve.

John Oliver made the same argument in an episode about special districts for Last Week Tonight nearly a decade ago. Every argument made in that episode in 2016 holds up just as well today.

Having sold my car more than six years ago, I relish the joy of being in the fresh air instead of encased in thousands of pounds of hermetically sealed plastic, glass and metal. E-bike commuting has been liberating and joyful!

Critics can save their talking points about free markets. Nevada’s housing market isn’t free, it’s rigged. Without meaningful protections, the housing market will remain a hustle in real time.

To the politicians who are eager to please powerful lobbying groups or cozy up to politically favored industries, what’s a few million dollars of poorly spent tax dollars in exchange for a few photo ops? 

In short, a bipartisan majority of senators would rather keep the power to frustrate objectionable legislation as an otherwise powerless minority than exercise the power to pass legislation as a simple majority.

The event was our most successful IndyFest yet, despite the three Democratic elected officials who committed to participate and then abruptly pulled out.

Those who expected more from Rosen have a right to be disappointed and should let her know about it. It’s easy to accuse her of a calculated act of self-preservation, but that’s no sin in politics. Her predecessors made long careers out of it. 

The pandemic showed us the danger of relying on a single industry. The images of an empty Strip in 2020 still linger. We said we'd learn from that experience. The creation of Summerlin Studios is one way to prove we mean it.

What Democratic insiders and partisan loyalists saw as leverage, the rest of us saw as delayed or canceled flights, unpaid bills, missed paychecks, empty grocery carts and hungry children. 

Trump’s alarmist rhetoric is nothing new. He is, after all, the king of chaos. But this hits particularly close to home in Nevada, which has played an integral role in nuclear weapons testing.

For those of us living next to the most-nuked patch of ground on Earth, that should raise a few red flags — especially because such testing doesn’t seem even remotely required to ensure nuclear capability today.

I’ve had a couple of vaccine-deniers with professional programming experience tell me they could evaluate double-blind study data better than the “corrupt lying” scientists who work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Voters shouldn’t be expected to know what a television or swimming pool district is, much less pay five people between $9,000 and $14,000 per year to run one, nor should they require each district to create its own websites at additional expense.

Progressive candidates spend a lot of time talking about wealth taxes and health care reform without realizing that legislating on behalf of regular people is impossible in a system as heavily skewed as ours.

Most suppression motions don’t go far, but it begs an interesting question: Nearly 30 years after the murder, was there really a need to search the house just before 10 p.m.? What was the rush?

With mere days remaining, there was only one piece of technology that might still provide a breath of hope for those who saw Nevada as a path to ensure a Republican victory over the issue of slavery: the telegraph. 

Georgia has become utterly fixated on one way to boost its economy: The film tax credit is now our largest corporate tax incentive, expanding over time to compete with 38 other states that have enacted their own credits.

One veteran of the legal side of the sports betting industry puts it bluntly: If the bookies used were legal, they were dangerously unsophisticated. If they were illegal, they were asking for trouble — or were in on the conspiracy and getting a piece of the action.

For Trump, soliciting outrage is the entire point. Sure, that might be attention-grabbing, but it’s also a pretty unhealthy way for the leader of 350 million Americans to communicate in our modern era of discontent and partisan divide. 

Reno’s No Kings rally was just one of thousands held across the country as an exercise of the right to peaceably assemble that’s guaranteed under the First Amendment of our Constitution. What’s more American than that?

Tonopah was squired and hyped throughout the 20th century. It played its part in Nevada mining lore and the nation’s war effort. Locals take pardonable pride in the town being too tough to fail.

These attacks aren’t just political — they strike a personal chord. Trump’s siege on higher education damages foundational initiatives I proudly led, which resulted in a more equal and inclusive environment in Nevada’s colleges and universities.