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Las Vegas 2026

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What will the new year bring to the valley? These are the biggest stories we’re watching.

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2025: Las Vegas Year in Review

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Look back at the biggest stories and events that took place in Las Vegas in 2025

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Nevada’s ‘white gold’ rush

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Read our six-part series about the Nevada communities that are bearing the brunt of the country’s clean energy future.

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WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

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Exposing officials and agencies keeping public records from the public.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

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2023 YEAR IN REVIEW

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CLICK HERE FOR MORE

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REMEMBERING 9/11: 20 YEARS LATER

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Looking back at the 2001 terror attacks and how they affected Las Vegas and the world.

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Read more

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MEET THE UNFORGETTABLE CLASS

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2021

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VEGAS REAWAKENING

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A year after the pandemic began, the first weekend of spring showed a perfect storm of promise for Las Vegas’ recovery and brought optimism that visitors would indeed return to the city

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Read more

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Incumbent District 33 Assemblyman Bert Gurr announced last week that he will sponsor legislation during the 2027 session to make the blue elderberry Nevada’s official state fruit, with the idea originally coming from Elko County elementary students in Spring Creek, Nevada.

“These students did exactly what we hope young Nevadans will do,” Gurr said in a statement. “Their research, enthusiasm, and civic engagement are impressive. I’m proud to help bring their idea to the Legislature and give them a chance to see how a bill becomes law.”

Sage Elementary School students Macy Matson, Lita Garcia, Levi Tatum and Stella Holferty wrote to the assemblyman after they learned Nevada is one of ten states that don’t have an official fruit.

“The students proposed the blue elderberry because it is native to Nevada and grows naturally across the state, including in the Ruby Mountains, Lamoille Canyon, Mount Charleston, and the Sierra Nevada mountain range,” read a press release. “Historically, Native American tribes such as the Paiute and Shoshone peoples gathered elderberries for food and traditional uses.”

The press release added that when the bill is considered, Gurr hopes to invite the students to Carson City so they can experience the legislative process directly.

“Civic education is most powerful when students see that their voices matter,” Gurr explained in the release. “These students saw something missing in Nevada’s list of state symbols and took the initiative to suggest a solution. That’s exactly the kind of leadership our state needs.”

The assemblyman also said in the press release, “I want these students to know their ideas matter. This is their bill, and I’m honored to help carry it forward.”

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal judge in Nevada has ruled against conservationists who wanted to stop a lithium-boron mine they said would harm an endangered wildflower.

The ruling marks a major legal victory for the 11-square-mile (28.49 square-kilometer) Rhyolite Ridge Lithium/Boron Mine Project in Esmeralda County, located between Reno and Las Vegas. The land holds the largest lithium and boron deposit in the world outside of Turkey, said Bernard Rowe, managing director of Ioneer, the Australia-based company behind the project.

U.S. District Judge Cristina Silva ruled Friday that the federal government properly approved the project and sufficiently examined the impacts the project will have on the rare wildflower called Tiehm’s buckwheat, whose entire population grows within 10 acres (4.05 hectares) of land in the project area. Environmental groups behind the lawsuit say they may appeal.

Lithium is an essential component of electric vehicle batteries. Rhyolite Ridge would be Nevada’s third lithium mine, and one of few mines that will process the materials on site, Rowe said.

“Rhyolite Ridge will create hundreds of new American jobs, reduce reliance on foreign materials and processing, and provide a domestic source of two critical minerals,” Chad Yeftich, vice president of corporate development and external affairs at Ioneer, said in a statement.

Growing US manufacturing

Ioneer wants construction to start by the end of this year and production in 2029, though it is still looking for a financial partner after a major investor pulled out last year. Sibanye Stillwater said the project did not make financial sense. In January 2025, the Department of Energy finalized a nearly $1 billion loan for the project.

The $2 billion mine would have a life span of over 77 years and would produce enough lithium carbonate for around 400,000 electric vehicles per year, Rowe said. It will also produce boric acid, which is used in pest control, flame retardant, and medical and personal care.

Rhyolite Ridge was first approved under the Biden administration as an part of the former president’s clean energy agenda. The Trump administration has also supported lithium projects in Nevada as a way to bolster US manufacturing of critical minerals. The Interior Department declined to comment.

Protecting the wildflower

The Center for Biological Diversity, which has long fought to protect the wildflower and successfully pushed for its endangered species designation in 2022, is not finished in its fight, Great Basin Director Patrick Donnelly said.

His organization is considering appealing the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the case could have implications for other species and protected habitats on the Endangered Species Act.

“This can seem like a little remote flower in the middle of nowhere. But if we lose on Tiehm’s buckwheat, you know, what else are we facing with the whittling away of the Endangered Species Act?” Donnelly said.

Tiehm’s buckwheat is a wildflower a couple inches tall that grows in an area the size of seven football fields in the Silver Peak Range. In the spring, the plant produces green leaves and yellow flowers that look like pom-poms. When it blooms, it is the epicenter of a vibrant pollinator community, Donnelly said.

Silva, a Biden-nominated judge, found Ioneer’s mitigation efforts, which include fencing around the habitat and buffer zones between the mining activities and the buckwheat, were sufficient for the purposes of the Endangered Species Act. Silva wrote that of the buckwheat’s 1.4 square mile (3.63 square kilometers) of critical habitat, it will lose 4.9% due to the project.

Donnelly maintains the mining project will increase the risk of the wildflower going extinct, which would affect the ecosystem’s biodiversity. He cast doubt that fencing around the flower’s habitat will protect it.

“There’s been this kind of death by a thousand cuts for Tiehm’s buckwheat,” Donnelly said, adding that if it were to move forward, it would be the “death blow” for the wildflower.