Posted in News Clips | 03/25/10 | By Lisa Mascaro
After nearly pulling an all-nighter, the Senate today passed the final element of health care reform, making good on its promise to House Democrats to fix up the bill that President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday. The Senate voted 56-43 to pass the reconciliation bill that makes several changes Democrats wanted despite hours of non-stop challenges from Republicans to gut the bill with amendments. “The American people have waited for this moment for a century,” said Senate Majority Leader…
Posted in News Clips | 03/23/10 | By Stephanie Tavares
The developer of a planned coal fired power plant in Mesquite has announced it is formally withdrawing its application with the Bureau of Land Management and is reverting to an earlier plan for a natural gas fired power plant on the site. Sithe Global is now planning to build a 700 megawatt natural gas fired power plant, called the Toquop Energy Project, near Mesquite. The plans for the natural gas plant were approved by the BLM in 2003. The company…
Posted in News Clips | 03/19/10 | Reno Gazette-Journal Staff
Nevada Senator Harry Reid has announced that the Department of Agriculture will provide $16 million to farmers and ranchers in Nevada and other states for projects this year that will help improve sage grouse habitat and bolster sage grouse populations. The funds will be made available through the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, both administered by the Department of Agriculture. Last week, Reid wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting that new monies…
Posted in News Clips | 03/19/10 | By Richard N. Velotta
Bruce Bommarito, U.S. Travel Association executive vice president and chief operating officer, tells a great story about how much the United States has been outspent by other countries marketing their tourism destinations. Bommarito, once the director of the Nevada Tourism Commission, where he helped develop the state’s relationship with China, has a passion for international travel and recently took a trip to Botswana. He got a chance to spend a day with Botswana’s minister of tourism. During a meeting, Bommarito…
Posted in News Clips | 03/19/10 | BY Stephanie Carroll
The Fallon City Council met Tuesday for a regularly scheduled meeting to discuss or take action on the following: • The board accepted an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant for $1.27 million from the state, which received funding through the U.S. Department of Energy as a part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. “It's a sizable grant,” said City Engineer Jim Souba. “Its a wonderful opportunity to do great work across the city.” Souba said the grant will…
Posted in News Clips | 03/19/10 | Las Vegas Sun Editorial
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid twice this month did what he’s done for years — delivered for Nevada. Reid, with an assist from the rest of the state’s congressional delegation, engineered final legislative approval of the long-sought Travel Promotion Act. With President Barack Obama having signed the bill into law March 4, advocates are hopeful that thousands of jobs will be created as the Commerce Department creates an office to encourage foreigners to visit the United States, including Las Vegas.…
Posted in News Clips | 03/16/10 | By Emily Cadei
Former Nevada state Sen. Sue Lowden's (R) may not be generating the sort of photo-op she intended with her "Protect Your Freedom Gun Shoot" and fundraiser at the Clark County Shooting Park on Wednesday. Turns out that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Lowden's prospective general election opponent, is the public official roundly credited for obtaining the funding and the land transfer for the park. National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre even attended the opening ceremony of the park with…
Posted in News Clips | 03/16/10 |
Republicans’ suggestion to return stimulus money won’t help the economy Once again, Republicans are taking aim at the stimulus bill that is on pace to create or save more than 3.5 million jobs in America. As Lisa Mascaro reported in Monday’s Las Vegas Sun, they want money from the $787 billion measure that hasn’t been used yet to pay down the nation’s debt or to provide tax cuts. Nevada is still scheduled to receive more than $500 million of its…
Posted in News Clips | 03/15/10 | By Anjeanette Damon
To hear former state Sen. Sue Lowden tell it, she was the lone vote that stood in the way of the state's powerful labor unions' attempt to overturn Nevada's voter-approved right-to-work status in a tense legislative battle in 1995. The bill, as Lowden recounts, would have started the reversal process of the law that prohibits union membership from being a condition of employment. "I was a state senator in this very difficult time of right to work," Lowden said in…
Posted in News Clips | 03/15/10 | By Lisa Mascaro
Washington — A popular proposal among Republicans in Nevada and nationwide is to take unspent money from the $787 billion economic recovery act — the stimulus bill — and return it to Washington, where it can be used for tax cuts or to pay down the national debt. The idea has been popular on the campaign trail, where the leading Republican candidates in the U.S. Senate race in Nevada, Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian, both want unallocated stimulus money returned.…