LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Governor Joe Lombardo is set to pay $20,000 in fines for ethics violations. That’s due to wearing Lombardo using photos of himself in uniform while campaigning for the Governor’s office.
The Nevada Commission on Ethics handed down the ruling Tuesday afternoon.
Attorney Elizabeth Bassett with the Ethic Commission pointed out the commission consistently said the law prohibits Nevada sheriffs from using their uniforms, badges, and other government-owned equipment to support any campaign, including their own.
“In the penalty matrix attached to the executive director’s motion, we have calculated the maximum civil penalty that may be imposed for subjects for violations, which totals $1.665 million,” Bassett said. “A civil penalty in this amount or even near this amount would in fact be unprecedented. However, subject’s conduct in these matters was unprecedented and therefore requires an equivalent penalty. The evidence shows the subject’s violation of the ethics law was intentional, pervasive, repeated and ongoing.”
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However, Lombardo’s attorney, Colby Wiliams, said according to the law, to be in violation, Lombardo must have received an unwarranted privilege or advantage. He added the $1.6 million fine is out of sync with prior ethics cases.
“There is no proof in any of these stipulated facts that these 34 postings of the same four images caused anyone to vote for Governor Lombardo, to give him a campaign contribution or to provide him with any other benefit,” Williams said. “The highest one we have found is a $15,000 fine imposed against Kathy Augustine. The fine here is 111 times higher than that highest fine. It is 10 times higher than Governor Lombardo’s annual salary. Consider this. It is 1.665 million times higher than the highest fine you have ever imposed on a law enforcement officer that was before you previously. Why is that? Because you have never imposed a fine of a single cent against any prior sheriffs or under sheriffs.”
After deliberating for about two hours, the commission found Lombardo to be in violation of ethics laws so he will be censured and he will have to pay $20,000 in civil penalties.
The Nevada Democratic Party disagreed with the ruling and released the following statement.
“At today’s hearing, Joe Lombardo’s own legal team admitted he knowingly used his uniform and badge as a current law enforcement officer for the sole purpose of boosting his candidacy. From willfully flouting the law, to postponing an ethics hearing just to stack the commission with his own appointees, Lombardo has never acted as if the law applied to him. ‘Law and Order’ has never been more than a campaign slogan to him.”
Hilary Barrett, Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Director
AUSTIN, Nev. (KOLO) –6:10 P.M. UPDATE: The magnitude of the earthquake has been revised to 4.1. Its depth is now 2.9 miles.
The location is now 19 miles closer to Austin, putting it about 10 miles east of Austin.
ORIGINAL STORY: A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck central Nevada Saturday afternoon less than 2 miles north of U.S. 50 about halfway between Eureka and Austin.
The Nevada Seismological Laboratory said the quake happened about 4:35 p.m. north of Summit Mountain.
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The depth was listed as a tenth of a mile.
A seismologist has reviewed the report.
Sarah Hruby, owner of Grandma’s pizzeria in Austin, said they did not feel it.
“Our building was built in the 1870s, and if it had been shaken it very hard, it would not have been good,” Hruby said.
LAS VEGAS — Sin City Republicans felt a rare emotion this week as President Biden rambled on during a shambolic 90-minute debate performance — optimism that Nevada will pick former President Donald Trump come November.
It’s been 20 years since a Republican won the Silver State’s electoral votes. In 2004, President George W. Bush claimed the state’s five electors, now standing at six. Trump lost Nevada to Hillary Clinton eight years ago and to Biden in 2020, as the state became more and more blue.
Gathering for a state GOP watch party at the Italian American Club, one of the city’s oldest eateries, the ex-prez’s supporters were at first hopeful but guarded, a mood that was not helped by initial glitches in getting the video and audio of the CNN-hosted debate working properly.
GOP crowd gathers at the Italian American Club, one of Las Vegas’s oldest restaurants, to watch the June 27 debate between President Biden and former President Donald Trump. Mark A. Kellner
But as the match wore on, Biden’s clear issues answering questions by turns shocked and saddened the crowd.
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“I could not understand even two sentences [of] what he was trying to say,” noted Cristiane Mersch, a Summerlin resident and development manager for a crisis pregnancy center. “It worries me. I think he needs a medical, mental exam because he’s not capable to be a president right now.”
Joe Burdzinski, a Las Vegas resident, said “the look at times” on the president’s face was concerning.
“He had a blank expression on his face, his eyeballs would be bulging sometimes,” he said. “His words, especially in his closing statement, he mumbled in his last two minutes.”
Burdzinski said Biden’s comment about more “fentanyl machines” being needed to combat the influx of the deadly synthetic opioid bewildered him.
“During the debate, when he was talking about machines, I couldn’t figure out what kind of machines he was talking about as related to drugs. I don’t know where that fit in or how that worked,” the local said.
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Burdzinski, who’s been involved with GOP efforts for 49 years, said he was “feeling the same type of momentum, if you will, that Ronald Reagan experienced in 1980 against Jimmy Carter.”
He added, “I think the economy is a key issue in this election. And under Donald Trump, the economy was doing better gas prices, lower food cost and so on were lower and that will make a big difference here with Democrats and independents.”
Mersch, who heads the local Moms for Liberty chapter and spoke at the June 9 outdoor Trump campaign rally, said the ex-prez’s promise to end taxing of tips offers “a great potential of Trump winning here.”
She said, “I see a lot of people, especially in the culinary industry,” moving toward the presumptive GOP nominee over tax-free tipping.
“Those Latinos, the hard-working families, are being affected by Biden’s policies,” she said.
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Political consultant Zachary Hayes said he believes Trump “will probably take the state,” having “come close” in 2020, when he lost to Biden by 33,606 votes.
“I think Biden’s lost too much ground in the state, and the state is getting more favorable to the GOP over time, because it’s more blue collar and working class,” Hayes said. “And the demographic, the changes in how the electorate is voting based on class lines favors the GOP.”
Linda Cassaro, a Buffalo, New York, native who’s lived in Las Vegas for 40 years, believes Biden’s debate disaster should be a wake-up call for Nevada’s Democrats.
“I’m not sure who they would put in his place, but they should be worried.”
She thinks Trump will “definitely” win the state and is “gonna do good things for the country like he did the first time he was elected.”
During recent public meetings leading up to the Nevada City Council’s decision to pay themselves and future councilmembers $500 a month, reference was made several times to the town having been incorporated in 1856 –– an oft-repeated misstatement of local history that needs clarification. A related frequent misstatement is the claim that in order to avoid confusion, the town of Nevada became Nevada City in 1864 when the new state to the east was admitted to the Union and appropriated the name Nevada.
It seems logical that a name change would have taken place in 1864 –– or perhaps earlier, in 1861, when the Nevada Territory was carved out of a portion of the Utah Territory. Logical, but not accurate.
Truth is, “Nevada City” was often used as early as 1851 –– thirteen years before Nevada statehood –– and the legal corporate name was, and remains, City of Nevada. So is the county seat Nevada City or City of Nevada? And was it incorporated in 1851 or 1856? Let’s see what happened, then you decide for yourself.
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When miners were working Deer Creek and Gold Run Creek in 1849, most people referred to present-day Nevada City as Caldwell’s Upper Store (a general mercantile and grocery store located where Trinity Episcopal Church now stands on Nevada Street). By the spring of 1850, however, a more fitting name was desired.
According to pioneer Charles Marsh, who was at the meeting when it happened, the name “Nevada” was agreed to on April 17, 1850. The name was suggested by O. P. Blackman, a Main Street merchant, and means “snow covered” in Spanish.
Considering that the town-naming meeting was held following a winter that saw several feet of snow accumulate here, it’s easy to understand why Nevada was selected. As for the man who suggested the name, little is known except that Blackman later became a wholesale liquor distributor and purveyor of alcohol for the 1856 San Francisco Committee of Vigilance –– the feared Vigilantes.
The first local newspaper was the Nevada Journal, established in April 1851. In its first edition, the Journal identified its place of publication as Nevada City, and some advertisers began referring to their business being located in Nevada City. Also in 1851, the post office began using Nevada City, Cal. as its postmark.
Insofar as the formal and official City of Nevada designation is concerned, it is a name codified by the incorporations of 1851, 1854, 1856 and 1878, and reads, “The people of the City of Nevada shall be a body politic and corporate, under the style of the ‘City of Nevada.’”
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Several months after its first incorporation, the City of Nevada was bankrupt, unable to pay bills because they had neglected to provide themselves with taxing authority. They tried paying with script, but the script had no monetary value. In addition, the incorporation document contained language inconsistent with the state constitution, so disincorporation became necessary.
In 1854 they again incorporated, and everything seemed fine until local newspaper coverage of a criminal trial drew the ire of the district attorney. The DA demanded an apology from the newspaper, but it wouldn’t issue one, so the DA, out of spite, challenged the legitimacy of the 1854 incorporation based on a procedural error, and in 1855 the state supreme court sided with the district attorney. A third incorporation took place in April 1856, and it remained intact until 1878, when a new state constitution was ratified and all California communities reincorporated with new language.
Confused? Here’s a summary: Originally called Nevada, but commonly referred to as Nevada City, its legal name since 1851 has been City of Nevada. The existing City Seal, used to emboss proclamations and other official 21st century documents, reads “City of Nevada,” but the USPS postmark remains Nevada City. Also, the first local newspaper referred to the town as Nevada City, and in the early 1850s some businesses used Nevada City in newspaper display ads.
Clearly, then, the “City” appellation was not added in 1864 when the State of Nevada was admitted to the Union. It’s one of those local myths that has endured –– similar to claims that Nevada County is shaped like a Derringer, the nozzle abutting the State of Nevada, in protest for them stealing the name. (But that’s a story for another day).
Be it Nevada City or City of Nevada, and using whichever incorporation date you prefer, the name Nevada has stood since April 17, 1850. That means next spring the town will observe its 175th birthday. Could be quite a party, but that’s a heck of a lot of candles to blow out with one breath.
