Nevada
Five infrastructure questions with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – The Nevada Independent
After a number of years of “infrastructure week” jokes, Congress lastly handed a sweeping infrastructure funding invoice final November, paving the way in which for the primary main funding in retooling, revamping (or fully rebuilding) the nation’s quickly getting old — and typically crumbling — community of roads, bridges and extra.
As a part of that invoice, Nevada noticed greater than $3.5 billion secured by means of the following 5 years, with hopes for extra money nonetheless excellent as a part of the traditional aggressive bidding course of. That cash contains greater than $2.7 billion for freeway and bridge repairs, in addition to one other $468 million for public transportation and practically $300 million for airport infrastructure.
On the invoice’s six-month anniversary (and after the announcement of a serious revamp of the Interstate 15/Tropicana Avenue exit close to the Las Vegas Strip), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sat down for an unique interview with The Nevada Unbiased to run by means of what the brand new funding means for Nevada.
Editor’s be aware: This transcript has been edited for readability and size. You’ll be able to hearken to an audio model of this interview on subsequent week’s version of the IndyMatters Podcast, out anyplace you hearken to podcasts on June 7.
The Nevada Unbiased: What’s the day-to-day impression that Nevadans will see from this infrastructure invoice? Each now, and within the subsequent 5 years and past?
Buttigieg: The very first thing you are going to see is loads of development jobs. We’re attending to work swiftly on loads of tasks which are placing lots of people to work. Then over time, in fact, you see the tasks accomplished and then you definitely see advantages by way of security, by way of comfort, by way of with the ability to get to the place you have to be.
The financial impression of infrastructure spending cannot be overstated. Simply right this moment we celebrated the start of an interchange challenge that can straight be accountable for 4,600 jobs. After which not directly, it’ll help numerous extra by ensuring that folks have the connections they want. And on this period once we’re paying extra consideration as a rustic to provide chains than earlier than, the power to maneuver items extra effectively helps at a time like this once we’re combating inflation, and transport prices are a part of what goes into that. So it is actually all the pieces.
How would you characterize how a lot bigger the pool of cash is for infrastructure tasks now, versus earlier than the passage of this invoice?
[There were] packages that had a few billion {dollars} every in them final yr, and we had one thing like a 10-to-1 ratio between the functions that got here in and those we had been in a position to fund. And there have been many deserving tasks that we could not help simply because there weren’t sufficient {dollars} to go round.
Now we have significantly extra money going into these funds proper now. Along with the wholly new packages which were created … add these all up and what it involves is the most important funding that we’ve got made in our transportation infrastructure because the Eisenhower administration.
For transit, it is essentially the most we have ever carried out for highways. It is essentially the most we have carried out since they arrange the interstate freeway system within the first place. For rail, it’s the most we have carried out since Amtrak was stood up 50 years in the past. And that is frankly, [that’s] what it will take to carry our infrastructure again into good restore and to be prepared for the long run.
How will the invoice handle critical transportation, transport and provide chain disruptions, like those who emerged through the pandemic?
Look, our provide chains largely consist of personal operations, however they occur over public infrastructure. In different phrases, the truck driver or the transport firm or the warehouse operator is perhaps a personal firm, however the roads, the bridges, the ports that they’re relying on are sometimes public.
Now we have received to make these public investments in order that our infrastructure programs are extra resilient, that approach when you might have a shock, when you might have a disruption, whether or not it is a pandemic, a local weather catastrophe, or one thing else, we’re higher in a position to adapt to it. Lots of underinvestment for the final 40-50 years caught as much as us within the final couple.
What’s the federal authorities’s function in shaping what coverage must seem like — similar to security coverage, as an illustration — by choosing and selecting challenge funding by means of the bidding course of?
Typically it is one thing seemingly small, like lighting or crosswalks, or it could possibly be the entire redesign of a harmful interchange, which is an even bigger challenge. However there are a variety of issues that we all know we have to do with actual funding to make transportation on this nation safer.
With regards to local weather, we’ve got a carbon discount program now that can undergo the states to allow them to fund tasks which are going to assist, whether or not which means a extra environment friendly design that is going to have much less idling and congestion, or one thing that is going to help much less carbon-intensive technique of getting round.
There’s all the time going to be a backwards and forwards with the states to do the lion’s share. The cash goes to the states to determine which issues they need to fund, after which our division will choose which of them we need to fund within the aggressive packages — sending a sign about among the most promising investments that we expect everyone ought to check out.
So within the scope of those selections being made by states, moderately than the federal authorities — is it as much as the federal authorities to lastly get a prepare between California and Nevada?
For one thing like that to occur, you have to have a partnership that entails states working collectively, typically even a personal associate or purpose-built public sector entity and us, the federal authorities, there to assist.
Actually, loads of the massive tasks we’re seeing proper now, mega-projects we name them, are a bridge or a rail line or one thing else that cuts throughout state traces. And that is why we have to make it possible for we’re not siloed or bureaucratic, by way of how we go about supporting it.
I grew up in an space that was near a state line between Indiana and Michigan. And rising up, you did not actually pay very shut consideration to while you had been on this municipality or district or county or state. You simply anticipated your neighborhood to give you the results you want. And we have to assume regionally extra typically with regards to delivering these huge items of infrastructure.
Editor’s Notice: This story seems in Indy 2022, The Nevada Unbiased’s e-newsletter devoted to complete protection of the 2022 election. Join the e-newsletter here.
JETT/Terrible’s Gaming announced the launch of Terrible’s Mobile Gaming, a new real-money five-card draw poker app available in Nevada, according to a press release.
The multi-player game includes features such as Royal Flush bonuses of up to $4,500 and four-of-a-kind payouts up to $175. To celebrate the app’s launch, Terrible’s Mobile Gaming is offering a deposit match of up to $500 each week.
Terrible’s Mobile Gaming is available for download on iOS and Android devices.
“JETT/Terrible’s Gaming and the Terrible’s brand in general have been making life more convenient for Nevadans for over 65 years,” said Tim Herbst, president of JETT Gaming & Terrible Herbst Inc. in a statement. “Now, we are excited to bring that same level of convenience to mobile gaming—delivering the excitement of Multi-Player 5 Card Draw Poker directly to our customers, wherever they are, and within the palm of their hand.”
The app is available in collaboration with Real Gaming, the igaming platform co-founded by South Point casino-hotel owner Michael Gaughan and tech entrepreneur Lawrence Vaughan.
“Nevada players know that both the JETT Gaming and Terrible’s Gaming brands mean convenience, and that’s exactly what we’ve delivered,” Vaughan said in the news release.
Culinary Local 226 ratifies Fontainebleau Las Vegas labor contract
Members of Culinary Union Local 226 recently voted to ratify a labor contract with Fontainebleau Las Vegas. According to the union, 99.6 percent voted in favor of the labor deal.
The new contract covers nearly 3,300 non-gaming employees at the Fontainebleau casino-hotel, located at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. It is the first labor contract with the new resort, which opened in December 2023.
According to previous reports, the Culinary workers’ contract is for slightly less than five years, timed to match the span of the citywide contracts agreed to at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 with other Strip operators.
The deal with Fontainebleau comes as Culinary Local 226 workers at the off-Strip Virgin casino-hotel have been striking for more than seven weeks. The union rejected the casino-hotel’s invitation to arbitration in late December.
Sports wagering
Two U.S. states that haven’t legalized sports wagering are making efforts to win approval in 2025.
Oklahoma state Sen. Dave Rader has introduced legislation in the Sooner state to modify the state’s compact with tribal casinos there to allow betting on sports. The bill’s first reading is scheduled Feb. 3.
Under Rader’s proposal, tribes would be required to pay the state 5 percent of the first $5 million in gross gaming revenue, 6 percent of the next $5 million and 7 percent for any revenue over $10 million as a fee.
A bill introduced in Oklahoma last year never made it out of committee.
In Minnesota, state Sen. Matt Klein said he will reintroduce a bill that failed to win approval last year early in that state’s legislative session. The session opens Jan. 14 in St. Paul.
Bill opponents have blocked passage because of fears of gambling addiction and family bankruptcies. Klein said his legislation has protections that would make it the safest sports-betting law in the country.
Washington D.C. and 38 U.S. states have legalized sports wagering and Missouri is establishing rules and regulations to begin this year.
Raising the age limit
New Hampshire lawmakers will consider raising the minimum age to place a sports bet from 18 to 21 under a bill that is expected to be reviewed Wednesday by the state’s House Ways and Means Committee.
New Hampshire is one of seven states and Washington D.C. that set the minimum gambling age at 18 and most neighboring states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, and New York — have 21 as their minimum age.
If signed into law, the bill would likely take effect in mid-2026. Lawmakers will take into consideration the possible loss of $640,000 a year in gaming revenue with the age increase.
DraftKings is the only online sports-betting option in the state.
Macao
Gross gaming revenue in Macao totaled $28.3 billion (U.S.) in 2024, a 23.9 percent increase over 2023, the special administrative region’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reported last week.
December revenue of $2.3 billion was off 2 percent from a year ago and was the first month in 2024 to have less monthly revenue than in the previous year.
October was the strongest month of the year with revenue of $2.6 billion.
By comparison, Nevada’s October gaming revenue total was $1.286 billion.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Nevada State Police said a 51-year-old North Las Vegas man died in a crash at Red Rock Canyon.
The crash happened Thursday, Jan. 2 at 2:25 p.m. near Red Rock Canyon and Fossil Ridge roads.
Police say Shawn Raymond Pierson drove too fast during a curve and drove left of center into the eastbound travel lane as traffic approached.
Pierson struck a broken paddle marker base and overturned. Police say he died at the scene.
The investigation is being conducted by the Nevada State Police Highway Patrol – Traffic Homicide Unit.
2025 Year to date: The Nevada State Police Highway Patrol Region 1 (Southern Command) has investigated 1 fatal crashes resulting in 1 fatalities.
2025 fatalities details preliminary and may change/be updated based on final investigation.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
A body found in the Nevada desert is believed to be a teenager who went missing last week after a family dispute.
Police in the city of Henderson said in a statement that the body matches the description of 17-year-old Jennaleah “Jenna” Hin.
Hin was reported missing on December 30, 2024, after she left the home in Henderson following a family issue.
“It’s just a normal family dispute, you know, that teenagers have with their parents. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Mark Speer, Red Rock Search & Rescue commander said.
She said something to the effect of, “You don’t have to worry about me anymore,” according to Speer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Hin did not have a phone or money on her the night she disappeared, her family members said, according to CBS affiliate KLAS.
On Sunday, Henderson police responded to an area of the desert just east of Desert Sunflower Circle and Spanish Needle Street around 10:42 a.m. after a K-9 unit was alerted to her scent, officials said. They discovered a “deceased female” who they say matches the description of Hin.
According to their “preliminary investigations, there does not appear to be signs of foul play,” police said.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office will release official identification of the body, pending notification of next of kin.
A cause of death has not been revealed.
The discovery of the body comes just two days after her mother pleaded for the public’s help in finding the teen at a press conference on Friday.
“Jenna, wherever you are or whoever you’re with, I just want you to come home,” Hin’s mother, Jennifer Swanson, said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I want you safe. We love you so much — please come home.”
On Sunday afternoon, her mother shared a photo of Hin on her Facebook page, writing “Jenna, I love you… Where are you, who are you with, who has you, please come home…”
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