On Wednesday, lawmakers heard and voted to advance a bill that would appropriate $64.5 million to replace the Owyhee Combined School on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada.

Assemblywoman Shea Backus (D-Las Vegas) said she's sponsoring AB125 to ensure Indigenous persons who go missing are included in the National Crime Information Center, a database accessible to federal, state and local law enforcement officials.

In this edition: How lobbying might look once the legislative building re-opens, a controversial home-schooling bill, raising the smoking age to 21 and education bills making it easier to fire principals and requiring all charter school teachers be licensed. Plus, the debut of 'Carson City Restaurant Spotlight.'

Tribal leaders moved into the 2020 general election campaign season with the same goal held by other organizers — to achieve high voter turnout and elevate the voices and concerns of their fellow community members.

While campaign season during a presidential election year is typically loud and full of energy in urban areas of the state — voter registration drives and events, local candidate forums, national candidate rallies, canvassing and phone banking — eligible Native voters living on reservations in rural Nevada hear crickets.

Fueled by a renewed sense of agency after the Dakota access pipeline protests and recent electoral victories, Native leaders say they're preparing to make a stand in the 2020 election — starting with Nevada's Democratic presidential caucus in February.