In a few weeks we’ll all be casting our ballots. The top of the ballot is pretty easy – those races get all the press, and most of us have picked our sides. The super local races get harder, even as our individual vote is worth far more. And then we get to the judicial races, where almost no one will be casting an informed vote.

Attorney General Adam Laxalt knows how critical judges are to the system.

The word spread quickly in the afterlife. I hear Bob Martin had tears in his basset hound eyes. Laughing Sid Wyman let loose a roar that thundered through the Dunes. The Hunchback and Crippled Julius sat up straight for the first time in, well, maybe ever.

I have heard many misconceptions about brothels and legalized prostitution. The main misconception I have heard has been marketed by the legal pimps Lance Gilman and Dennis Hof.

When a senior is downsized at work and finds re-employment in their field difficult, or when a mother struggles to secure employment that occurs only during school hours so that she can be there for her kids, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is there to help them put food on the table.

Thirty-five years ago, an influential Democratic senator declared that nuclear waste would never be stored in his state. A law passed the previous year made that a possibility, but he said never in his backyard would the first high-level repository be built. Four years later, having ascended to a powerful new post, he made his move to protect his home.

It’s that time in the election cycle when political candidates start laying out “plans,” consisting of bullet points, rhetoric and vagueness meant to placate their base's hunger for red meat and still keep swing voters calm. If you don’t know how you’re going to pay for your proposals, or if you haven’t drafted some actual statutory language, you can’t actually call it a “plan.”

Their names burnished in modern American politics for more than three decades, it may be hard for some to remember when U.S. Senate icons Harry Reid and John McCain were just freshmen House members without a sliver of seniority.

Although Nevada has largely been immune to the worst of the partisan fighting in Washington, D.C. and around the country, it seems those days are numbered. Saying that we’ve been safe from political squabbling is bold for a state participating in unprecedented attempts to recall lawmakers, but it’s a testament to how politically charged and largely negative the national conversation has become.

This month, the Clark County School District school board named Jesus Jara our newest superintendent. I take this news personally because CCSD is my home. Not only do I teach here, but I am a product of this school district. I attended CCSD public schools, did my student teaching at Cheyenne High School and now teach at Del Sol Academy.

In 2016, I ran for state Senate as a Libertarian Party candidate. I took the race as seriously as I could, given my limited time, budget and chances. One of the rules I followed, to the best of my ability, was to always show up when invited to an event.

On Tuesday, May 8, the justices of the Nevada Supreme Court will hear an appeal in Scott Dozier’s death penalty case. They will consider whether the Department of Corrections can use a paralytic as part of a never-before-tried combination of drugs in an attempt to kill Mr. Dozier.

Sometimes it takes months or even years to see the full impact of a government policy decision. But in Nevada last year, the Legislature and Gov. Brian Sandoval enacted a single bill that immediately revived an industry and put thousands of Nevadans, including me, back to work.

June 2017 was a very good month for Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore. On the 13th, Fiore narrowly defeated Kelli Ross to win election in Ward 6. She celebrated the victory with champagne, but her party was just getting started.

Many years ago in my more politically active days, I remember talking to a woman about a primary election in which Sharron Angle ran against Bill Raggio for state Senate in 2008. “I can’t believe he had to actually knock on doors,” she huffed, as if Raggio (or anyone else) were somehow entitled to be re-elected.

As the editor of a thriving nonprofit watching my staff consistently produce stellar work, I am regularly exhilarated. But as a longtime follower of politics and media, I am saddened every day.

The Washoe County Lands Bill has been referred to as a “Las Vegas-style” lands bill. It’s easy to see why: It will worsen our sprawl and hasten Washoe County’s transformation into Los Angeles County.

Nevada is one of the last states in the nation without strong constitutional protections and guaranteed rights for victims of crime. It is time, once and for all, to change that. Marsy’s Law for Nevada — Question 1 on the November ballot — will provide protected guarantees to victims of crime.