In 1999, two Bureau of Land Management historians nominated a mountain south of Las Vegas for the National Register of Historic Places, citing ethnographic accounts stretching back to the 1920s that name it the center of creation for more than a dozen tribes. Twenty-four years later, that same mountain gave its name to Nevada’s newest… Continue reading The Bureau of Land Management Nominated Spirit Mountain for the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. President Biden Named It the Center of Nevada’s Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in 2023.

In January 2012, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department agreed to open its use of deadly force to outside federal review, after the agency’s officer-involved shootings climbed well past its own historical average. The sheriff who oversaw that review’s formal conclusion is gone from office, but the successor who spent years carrying its reforms forward… Continue reading The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Agreed to a Federal Review of Its Deadly-Force Practices in January 2012. The Sheriff Who Carried Its Reforms Forward Is Nevada’s Governor Today.

Congress cleared the way to transfer more than 5,700 acres of Ivanpah Valley desert to Clark County in 2000 so the county could someday build a second Las Vegas-area airport. Twenty-five years later, no runway exists — but the federal government has just restarted the environmental review required before one can be built, on a… Continue reading Congress Cleared the Way to Transfer 5,752 Acres of Ivanpah Valley to Clark County in 2000 to Build a Second Las Vegas Airport. The Environmental Review Required to Build It Won’t Finish Until 2028.

Frank Sinatra owned pieces of two Nevada casinos in 1963, until a Chicago organized-crime figure barred from every gambling property in the state showed up at one of them and Sinatra picked a fight with the man in charge of keeping people like him out. Sinatra surrendered both licenses within months. Sixty-three years later, Nevada’s… Continue reading Frank Sinatra Surrendered His Nevada Gaming Licenses in the Fall of 1963, After a Call to the State’s Gaming Board Chairman. Nevada’s Gaming Commission Just Expanded Whose Associates It Can Police.

Nevada’s top water regulator granted Las Vegas rights to nearly 84,000 acre-feet of rural groundwater in 2012, over the objections of tribes, ranchers and two Utah counties. A court threw out that approval within two years, and the pipeline that would have carried the water was never built. More than a decade later, the same… Continue reading Nevada Approved 83,988 Acre-Feet of Rural Groundwater for a Las Vegas Pipeline on March 22, 2012. The Coalition That Got It Reversed Is Still Fighting in Carson City.

Las Vegas casino owners signed a federal consent decree in 1971 promising to open 12 percent of resort industry jobs to Black workers, the outcome of a legal fight one civil rights attorney waged for more than a decade. Fifty-five years later, the gaming industry reports a workforce that is majority-minority — a statistic its… Continue reading A Federal Consent Decree Forced Nevada Casinos to Open 12% of Jobs to Black Workers on June 4, 1971. Nevada’s Own Historic Record Says Enforcement Never Held.

Las Vegas bartenders started organizing in 1934, when the Strip barely existed. Their union didn’t receive its formal charter until two decades later, and nine decades after that first organizing effort, its members were still walking a picket line outside a Strip casino. Bartenders Union Local 165 traces its founding to 1934, according to the… Continue reading Las Vegas Bartenders Chartered Their Union on June 15, 1954. Seven Decades Later, They Walked a Picket Line at Virgin Las Vegas.

LVMPD started requiring new officers to wear body cameras in 2013, two years before Nevada’s Legislature gave agencies the authority to do it and four years before lawmakers made it mandatory statewide. Thirteen years later, the fight isn’t over whether officers wear the cameras. It’s over what the public has to pay to watch what… Continue reading Nevada Required Body Cameras on Every Officer by 2017. This Year, the ACLU Sued LVMPD Over What It Charges to See the Footage.

Congress drew a line around Las Vegas in 1998 and let the federal government sell everything inside it. Twenty-eight years and $3.5 billion in land sales later, that same line is why Clark County is back in Washington asking for more room to grow. President Bill Clinton signed the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act,… Continue reading Congress Drew a Federal Land-Sale Boundary Around Las Vegas in 1998. Clark County Is Now Asking for a Second One.

President Ulysses S. Grant fixed the Moapa Band of Paiutes’ reservation with nothing more than a river, a meridian and a straight line north. A century and a half later, that same ground carries the electrical output of three separate utility-scale solar plants, built after five decades of a coal plant that polluted it instead.… Continue reading An 1873 Executive Order Set Aside Moapa Land With Nothing but Rivers and Meridians. It Now Hosts Nevada’s Largest Cluster of Tribal Solar Power.