The Culinary Union’s longtime secretary-treasurer was kidnapped at Las Vegas’s airport in February 1977 and killed three weeks later over an unpaid debt tied to a bombing campaign against non-union restaurants. The union he spent 23 years building didn’t collapse with him. It grew into the political operation that now drives Nevada elections. Culinary Workers… Continue reading Organized-Crime Associates Kidnapped and Killed the Culinary Union’s Secretary-Treasurer in February 1977 Over an Unpaid Bombing Fee. The Union He Built Now Runs Nevada’s Largest Political Operation Instead of Picket Lines.

Southern Nevada’s water agency started tunneling a new intake into the bottom of Lake Mead in 2008, betting that the reservoir would keep falling. It has. The backup pumping station built behind that tunnel is now the only thing standing between the valley’s water supply and a lake that has already swallowed the region’s original… Continue reading The Southern Nevada Water Authority Began Boring Intake No. 3 Under Lake Mead in 2008. The Low Lake Level Pumping Station Built Behind It Is the Only Reason Las Vegas’s Taps Are Still Running Today.

Nevada’s transportation agency walled off F Street with a concrete barrier in 2008, severing the Historic Westside from downtown Las Vegas — a neighborhood the city itself had pushed Black residents into eight decades earlier. The wall came down in 2014, and Las Vegas is still spending to reconnect what it cut off. The city of… Continue reading A 2008 Freeway Project Walled Off F Street, Severing the Historic Westside from Downtown Las Vegas. The City Reopened It in 2014 and Is Still Spending to Reconnect the Neighborhood Today.

Nevada’s gambling regulators froze the Stardust’s gaming licenses in December 1983 after state examiners caught casino employees skimming cash from the count room. The casino that eventually replaced the Stardust on that same stretch of the Strip paid the same regulatory body a $10.5 million fine in March 2025, over a different kind of compliance… Continue reading The Nevada Gaming Commission Fined the Stardust’s Operators $3 Million Over a December 1983 Skimming Probe. It Fined the Casino Now on the Same Site $10.5 Million in 2025.

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.