Nevada's solar industry got a lift this month with a new law in place making it easier for homeowners and businesses to use renewable energy systems to generate electricity.

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Nevada has a larger percentage of children without health insurance than any other state.
And among the 75 percent of adult Nevadans covered by employer-sponsored health insurance, family insurance premiums have risen 97 percent since 1999 as wages increased an average of 43 percent.

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Washoe County commissioners approved a federal grant of $401,000 to install the county's first solar-power units: solar photovoltiac systems for the administrative complex and the Northwest Library.

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Las Vegas Sun
By: Jeff German
September 22, 2009

Lawyers suing the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada say they have discovered a new cluster of hepatitis C cases that originated at the clinic and predict the discovery will have a big impact on the massive litigation over the outbreak.

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Kindergartners across the nation are learning a lesson about education: Fun isn’t part of the curriculum.

A new report by the child-advocacy group Alliance for Childhood says the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act have forced schools to cut out play time for the nation’s youngest students. Kindergarten requirements are now essentially the same as they were for first graders 20 years ago.

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We have heard so much about the potential of solar energy, but other than a few notable projects, not much is happening.

One fact is certain: Mother Nature has endowed us with enough sunshine that it gives us a lot of energy to use. Another fact: Nevada has a great deal of land that could be used to harvest this resource.

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The worst may be over for the U.S. real estate market, a report issued Tuesday suggests. Nationally, prices in the second quarter posted their first quarterly increase in three years, up 2.4 percent, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller's U.S. National Home Price Index.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman styles himself as a godfather of gab.

But he's got nothing on the Las Vegas queen of quips, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
In an interview with the Review-Journal editorial board last week, Berkley cheerfully jabbed and weaved on every issue thrown her way, from health care to clean energy to Middle East policy.

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In August, Brian Greenspun turns over his Where I Stand column to guest writers. Today’s columnist is Dan Klaich, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Education changes lives.

I can say it no more clearly. Education has the power to rewrite one’s future and build a foundation for the success of future generations.

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Southern Hills Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — San Martin Campus were built during the residential and commercial development boom. At the time it was expected that both hospitals would be surrounded by homes and businesses, attracting physicians to medical buildings and servicing a high demand for medical care.

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Nevada's housing industry continues to limp along with the highest residential foreclosure starts in the country at 3.7 percent for the second quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.

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CARSON CITY – Unemployment in the Las Vegas area jumped to 13.1 percent in July. The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said the 13.1 percent compares to 12.3 percent in June and to 6.9 percent in July a year ago. Statewide, unemployment rose from 12 percent in June to 12.5 percent in July with 179,300 persons jobless.

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Nevada's unemployment rose to 12.5 percent in July, while joblessness in especially hard-hit Las Vegas surged to 13.1 percent. It’s the highest jobless rate both statewide and locally since the state began tracking data in 1976.

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Gay and straight couples who want to take advantage of Nevada's new domestic partners law will be able to pre-file their declaration with the secretary of state starting Monday.

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CARSON CITY -- Thousands of couples are expected to begin filing applications Monday to register as domestic partners, a step allowed under a state law that goes into effect Oct. 1, Secretary of State Ross Miller said Tuesday.

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During the 2009 Legislative session, an important step was taken to better protect children with the passage of Assembly Bill 88, a bill that makes two significant changes to Nevada law to combat the problem of child pornography.

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Two Nevada public schools made Forbes’ list of America’s Best Colleges this year.

UNLV placed 486 while UNR came in at 406.

The second-annual ranking compiles the top 500 colleges and universities in the country, basing the criteria on how well a school meets student needs.

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Jobs and the economy will take center stage during the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 on Aug. 10 at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion.

The summit comes when Las Vegas’ jobless rate hit 12.3 percent in June. That figure doesn’t include people who have given up looking for work or who are working part time but would prefer full time.

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The U.S. Labor Department has convened a task force to review problems with the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

As Alexandra Berzon reported in Friday’s Las Vegas Sun, the task force’s study is an indication of the level of concern federal officials have with the way Nevada OSHA has handled the rash of workplace deaths here. The state has been rightly criticized for its lax oversight of safety.

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Nevada's children are more likely than the average American child to live in single-parent homes, to become teenage parents, to drop out of high school and to die before they turn 18.

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Three new university studies suggest that texting while behind the wheel is far and away more dangerous than using a cell phone while driving.

Two of the studies were conducted by Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute and one was conducted by the University of Utah. All three received prominent coverage this week in The New York Times.

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To read related legislation that was introduced by Senator Breeden last session, click here

Driving is difficult, and it's well past time that Americans started treating it that way. Having failed to convince drivers that they shouldn't eat while behind the wheel or talk on the phone, now some lawmakers want to tackle texting.

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To read related legislation that was introduced last session by Sen. Breeden, click here

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama administration is investing $80 billion to support clean energy solutions. This is the largest single investment in clean energy in American history.

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Las Vegas spotlighted plans to put solar panels on top of carports at city buildings Wednesday, an $11 million plan funded mostly by federal stimulus money that's projected to cut the city's electrical costs by $300,000 a year when fully in place.

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Las Vegas could become a hub of green jobs aimed at putting the less educated to work, according to a report released today.

By shifting $882 million from fossil fuels to clean energy, Las Vegas could produce almost 5,000 new jobs with the bulk of them employing high school-educated workers, according to the report, produced by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Bad news about Nevada home prices and foreclosures continued to roll in Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, a federal agency that tracks home prices said Nevada led the nation in price declines between March 2008 and March 2009, with Nevada prices falling 31.1 percent. For the first quarter of 2009 alone, Nevada prices fell 10.56 percent, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported.

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On the eve of a promise from Gov. Jim Gibbons to veto education spending, dozens of educators and students rallied against the decision, calling a veto a lack of support for the state's future.

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The Senate overrode Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto of a $781 million tax package Thursday night.

After the clerk read Gibbons' veto message, where he warned the Legislature of setting a "dangerous precedent," the Senate voted 17-4 to pass the bill anyway. It was the same vote the Senate had when it passed the tax package.

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CARSON CITY -- Jump-starting a renewable energy economy in Nevada has emerged as a top priority for Nevada lawmakers who are battling to close a gaping budget hole.

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WASHINGTON — Facing down the backlog of renewable energy project applications, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today he will be creating a permitting office in Nevada to speed green power development on federal lands.

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CARSON CITY -- With a vital revenue report in hand, Nevada legislators start the 14th week of the 2009 session on Monday with a joint meeting of Senate and Assembly budget panels trying to resolve their differences in proposed spending for the next two fiscal years.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
By: Molly Ball
May 3, 2009

The state Legislature has been meeting for 90 days, but the real work is just beginning.

With Friday's release of the final revenue projections that will govern the next biennial budget, legislators now must figure out how to patch a hole in the budget that appears to be close to $3 billion.

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Editorial
April 30, 2009

With Northern Nevada continuing to suffer from the national recession and the local real estate bust, with fears of a "swine" flu endemic threatening to curtail vacations as summer approaches, and with the political cacophony drowning out all our dreams of another era of good feelings, it is the perfect time for a little Artown.

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The debate in the state Legislature on spurring renewable energy projects has been hung up over the question of whether Nevada should support small-scale solar projects, including those on home rooftops.

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Echoing remarks she made earlier this week, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Thursday that her department would strengthen the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by adding hundreds of investigators and spending tens of millions of dollars on enforcement activities.

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To learn more about Senate Bill 288, click here

CARSON CITY – On a 12-9 vote, the Senate has approved a bill to give gay partners the same legal rights as married couples.

The bill, which now goes to the Assembly, says domestic partners who file with the Secretary of State have the “same rights, protections and benefits” as granted spouses.

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To learn more about Senate Bill 283, click here

Las Vegas Sun
By: Cy Ryan
April 21, 2009

CARSON CITY – The Senate on Tuesday narrowly passed a bill to provide neglected or abused children with lawyers during court proceedings despite complaints it would cost Clark County $10 million a year.

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To learn more about Senate Bill 292, click here

Washington — Before Jon Wellinghoff invites visitors into his 11th floor suite at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, he leads them to the office of a fellow commissioner down the hall for what might be regarded as a little gloating.

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Some power-saving steps are inexpensive
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By: Jennifer Robison
April 19, 2009

You know the old saying: You have to spend money to make money.

It might not be the message you want to hear in the middle of a recession, when dollars are tight, but experts say it's the best advice for consumers who want to reap major savings on their power bills as summer approaches.

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To learn more about Senate Bill 114, click here

Jump follows end of moratorium

By HUBBLE SMITH

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

April 17, 2009

Lenders opened the floodgates by lifting a moratorium on foreclosures in March, resulting in a record number both in Clark County and nationally, a foreclosure expert said Thursday.

Clark County saw 7,747 homes taken by banks during the month, more than double February's 3,286 foreclosures and four times the 1,937 in March 2008.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal

Associated Press

April 17, 2009

By: Jennifer Robison

April 17, 2009

Las Vegas Review-Journal

By: Jennifer Robison

April 16, 2009

Las Vegas Sun
By: Brian Wargo
April 15, 2009

Nevada set a record in March with 10,351 homes defaulting on their mortgage payments as the state continued to lead the nation in foreclosure filings.

California-based RealtyTrac reported Nevada had 19,849 foreclosure filings in March, a 26 percent increase from February. That’s 159 percent higher than March 2008.

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To learn more about Senate Bill 128, click here