Nevada
Governor names new Nevada Gaming Control Board member
A deputy city attorney in Reno has been appointed to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Gov. Joe Lombardo said Wednesday.
Chandeni Sendall, who in 2015 joined the civil division of the city of Reno attorney’s office, will replace Brittnie Watkins, who announced earlier this month that she would not seek reappointment to the full-time three-member board that evaluates and makes recommendations on gaming license applications for consideration by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
The governor’s office did not disclose Sendall’s salary, but Watkins’ 2025 financial disclosure form listed an annual salary of $196,790.
The Control Board meets monthly, mostly in Las Vegas, but occasionally in Carson City.
“With her unique background in law and compliance, Chandeni will bring fresh insight and critical perspective to the board,” Lombardo said in an emailed statement. “I look forward to her leadership and contributions to gaming oversight in our state.”
Sendall will begin her four-year term this week. Watkins announced at the Jan. 15 Control Board meeting that she would not seek reappointment after serving four years on the board, two months as interim chairwoman.
“I’m grateful to Gov. Lombardo for this opportunity to serve the state of Nevada,” Sendall said in an emailed statement. “Along with my legal background, I look forward to applying my educational background in economics and my work experience in the gaming industry as I begin this new role at the Nevada Gaming Control Board.”
Sendall’s history
Since 2015, Sendall has served as a deputy city attorney for the city of Reno, practicing in the civil division. Before her work in the Reno office, Sendall worked in civil and commercial litigation, served as an in-house legal intern for Reno-based Caesars Entertainment Inc., and clerked for retired Justice James Hardesty at the Nevada Supreme Court. While attending the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV, Sendall served as the editor-in-chief of the UNLV Gaming Law Journal. Before her legal career, she served for several years as an internal auditor for Caesars Entertainment.
According to Sendall’s LinkedIn page, she was born in California, but moved to Nevada, at a young age. She attended the University of Nevada, Reno for undergraduate and graduate studies in economics.
She was also a member of the Nevada Wolf Pack women’s golf team. While in graduate school, she served as a student ambassador, a graduate assistant in the Economics Department, and a volunteer mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada.
After completing her graduate studies, she began her finance career at Caesars. While working as an internal auditor, she enrolled in the part-time evening program at the Boyd School in Las Vegas. In law school, she interned for the corporate legal department at Caesars, worked as a summer associate at Travelers Insurance, and led the UNLV Gaming Law Journal.
“My position with Caesars’ in-house legal department provided me an opportunity to learn a great deal about the legal issues that surround a major casino corporation,” she said on LinkedIn. “While working at Travelers Insurance I had the opportunity to draft numerous legal pleadings, discovery requests,and attend mediations and depositions.”
Return to Reno
After graduating from law school in 2012, she moved back to Northern Nevada and began a clerkship with Hardesty. During her clerkship, she was exposed to diverse areas of law and was tasked with researching and drafting bench memoranda to assist the justices in deciding cases of first impression and matters of significant public policy importance before the court.
She then spent a year in the litigation department of Lionel Sawyer & Collins where she represented clients in civil and commercial litigation matters. In 2015, she moved to McDonald Carano Wilson LLP and continued a civil litigation practice before moving that same year to the Reno city attorney’s office.
Sendall will join two other legal experts on the Control Board, Chairman Kirk Hendrick, who earlier this week announced his plans to resign from the board at the end of the 2025 legislative session, and retired Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge George Assad.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A North Las Vegas man awaiting trial for allegedly killing his girlfriend during a fight is dead, according to Nevada prison officials.
Markeem Benson, 30, died at High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs on Monday, Dec. 22, the Nevada Department of Corrections said in a statement.
An autopsy has been requested, according to the department.
Benson was serving time for an attempted robbery conviction from 2024, for which he was originally sentenced to probation with a suspended prison sentence.
He was also charged with the murder of 33-year-old Renise “Nene” Wolfe.
Renise Wolfe is pictured in this undated photo. Police allege Markeem Benson shot and killed Wolfe in a North Las Vegas apartment. (Photo provided)
North Las Vegas Police arrested him in December last year. According to an arrest report, Benson’s father called 911 saying Benson wanted to turn himself in for murder.
The father told detectives that Benson called him saying, “I killed her; I think I killed her” and “told him something to the effect of ‘she’ came at him with a gun, there was some kind of ‘tussle,’ and then the gun went off,” the report states.
An grand jury indicted him for murder and possession of a gun by a prohibited person. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following the indictment, his probation was revoked in March, and he was incarcerated at High Desert State Prison to serve a term of two to five years.
A jury trial was scheduled to begin in April next year for Wolfe’s murder. Instead, prosecutors have asked for a hearing on Dec. 30 in light of Benson’s death, per court records.
A man serving time at the Southern Desert Correctional Center for felony reckless driving died last month, the Nevada Department of Corrections said Tuesday.
Shiloh Walker, 28, died at the Indian Springs facility on Nov. 24, a news release said. Cause of death was not listed.
Walker was serving a sentence of up to six years after a plea agreement was reached in 2022 following a DUI crash that happened May 31, 2021 in Las Vegas, according to online court records.
An autopsy was requested following Walker’s death, though results were not available as of Monday evening. Attempts to reach Walker’s family members have been unsuccessful, according to the department.
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.
After widespread condemnation last year, the U.S. Postal Service backed away from plans to move its Reno mail-processing operations to Sacramento — but did it stay true to what it told the public?
The question arose recently after letters sent from one Carson City address to another in Carson City were both postmarked in Sacramento.
Northern Nevadans did not want first class mail sent from one Northern Nevada address to another going first to California. They sent a unified message to the USPS all the way up to the postmaster general.
Critics of the USPS plan were especially worried about delays from mail having to go back and forth over the Sierra during winter.
The Washoe County District Attorney’s office filed a lawsuit over the plan, the Washoe County Commission voted to oppose the plan, public comment was universally opposed, and Democratic and Republican elected officials from across the state joined to stop it.
Could it possibly have happened anyway? The answer is yes, temporarily, for a brief time.
How letters sent in Carson City came to be processed at Sacramento USPS facility
A reader told the Reno Gazette Journal they’d twice had letters internal to Carson City postmarked in Sacramento, so we asked USPS if the policy had changed.
“Mail processing for First Class mail that originates in Northern Nevada and is destined to Northern Nevada has not changed,” USPS spokesperson Sherry Patterson responded by email.
“However,” she added, “without the specific mail piece and class of mail, we cannot determined if there is an issue.”
The reader then supplied a photo of the two envelopes postmarked Nov. 5 in Sacramento, and this was shared with USPS.
“Our processing machine in Reno was temporarily out of service while we awaited a replacement part,” Patterson said after viewing the postmarks to nail down the specific date the letters went through Sacramento.
“To ensure that mail was not delayed during this time, we implemented a contingency plan that involved routing certain mail to our Sacramento facility for cancellation and processing. This measure allows us to maintain service continuity and minimize disruptions for our customers. We understand that this may cause some confusion, and we are committed to ensuring that all mail is processed efficiently and accurately.”
Bottom line: Regarding first class mail that’s being sent to and from Northern Nevada addresses, it’s still USPS policy to process that in Reno at its Vassar Street facility, she said.
The path these particular letters took, Patterson added, “is indeed an unusual occurrence.”
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.
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