Gov. Steve Sisolak said Friday that more than half of Nevada businesses surveyed Thursday by the state were not complying with a mandatory mask directive, and he threatened stronger action next week if the numbers do not change.

That’s the message that Governor’s Office of Economic Development Director Michael Brown and Department of Business and Industry Director Terry Reynolds sent to lawmakers in the state’s interim Sunset Subcommittee last week as to what steps, if any, the state can take to improve its occupational board system.

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Wednesday that a special session of the Legislature is planned for July 8 to consider revisions to the devastated state budget.

The final decision now holds that state-employed law enforcement officers cannot display any “Punisher,” skull type or “symbols of extreme groups” for personnel on duty, but excludes the “thin blue line” and blue-striped American flag from the order.

It promised to be the biggest show in town.

There’s a gap of about 46,293 people who filed weekly claims that have not been paid. But Schmidt said Nevadans should not expect all of the claims to be paid; he said the number of applications filed appears to be outpacing the estimates of how many self-employed people there are in Nevada, which is thought to be anywhere from 85,000 to 200,000 people.

In a press release sent on Friday, representatives of AFSCME Local 4041 said they had filed the complaint with the state labor relations board, and planned to hold Saturday rallies at the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City and in Las Vegas to protest non-involvement in dealing with the state’s COVID-19 related budget crisis.

The governor, who in the past has been hesitant to require mask-wearing, said he was concerned with both the rising COVID-19 caseloads in the state as well as well-documented photos and videos of crowded Las Vegas casinos with most people not wearing any kind of facial covering.

The petition argues that the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation is misinterpreting Department of Labor guidance from April on who should be eligible for the PUA program and unnecessarily delaying payment for people desperate for money. It comes after DETR officials said many claimants are ineligible for PUA because they are eligible for standard benefits.

In a news release, state officials and Sisolak said the regulations — called the “Clean Cars Nevada” initiative — would be further developed through a series of public workshops over the next year and that they were designed to avoid forcing anyone to “give up their current vehicle or choose one that does not work for their lifestyle or business needs.”

Strains from budget cuts, coupled with increased need and decreased capacity for domestic violence service, haven't been felt yet but will be soon when programs receive their one-time award for the next year on July 1. In response to the $2 million shortfall, the state is partnering with the coalition for the first time to do a fundraiser later this month to try to soften the blow of budget cuts.

Juneteenth has been an official Nevada observance since 2011, when lawmakers passed a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Dina Neal and former Assemblymen Harvey Munford and Joe Hogan calling on the governor to issue an annual proclamation to mark the holiday.

Brown, the former head of Barrick Gold USA, said the COVID pandemic has forced GOED to reflect and find ways to adapt to the new economic reality. He reiterated that every state was facing major financial difficulties, and that those best positioned to succeed would need to do the nitty-gritty tasks of workforce development rather than look for a silver bullet to solve economic woes.

A report produced by the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation and provided to members of the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee on Tuesday puts numbers on the bottleneck: there are 35 contract workers serving as adjudicators for the PUA program, and they had 1,685 eligibility issues to resolve as of last week. But there are more than 40,000 pending PUA issues to resolve that can only be addressed by a qualified DETR employee — and only eight such employees are working on that backlog.

The governor, speaking Monday at a press conference in Carson City, also said he will call state lawmakers to the state’s capital sometime this month to address a sizable state budget hole, and he declined to rule out asking for a tax increase to help fill the a budget gap estimated at close to $900 million just for the fiscal year that concludes at the end of June.

The letter, sent Monday, is signed by nearly 70 organizations and individuals including several unions, the Nevada Homeless Alliance and the Children’s Advocacy Alliance. It argues that the pandemic has underscored how racism and bias are embedded in the country’s health, social and economic systems.

The rule has set off a flurry of legal challenges from environmental groups. And in recent months, several Democrat-led Western states, including Colorado, California and New Mexico, have sued the Trump administration to challenge the final rule. Nevada has not joined those suits, but state regulators say they are evaluating the new rule’s total effect.

The vote came during a Friday meeting of the Interim Finance Committee, which directs financial operations of the state while the Legislature is not in session, and split down party lines with all Republicans on the board opposing the motion over transparency concerns.