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Inside the rise of Nevada’s political bulldog who changed Washington forever

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Inside the rise of Nevada’s political bulldog who changed Washington forever


  • New biography of former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, “The Game Changer,” released Jan. 20.
  • Book details Reid’s impact on Las Vegas gambling industry and top Democratic legislation.
  • Gives new details on Reid’s most controversial statements on Bush, Obama and Romney.

Former Sen. Harry Reid — son of a destitute miner, favorite of the Las Vegas gambling industry and the highest ranking Latter-day Saint politician in U.S. history — left a permanent mark on national politics.

The Democratic bulldog, who died in 2021 after 34 years in Congress, was one of the key figures in flipping Nevada blue, forcing the passage of Obamacare and ending the filibuster on judicial nominations.

An official biography of Reid, released on Jan. 20, details how he fought his way from the tiny town of Searchlight to the heights of American power as Senate majority leader — and how he transformed political norms along the way.

“Reid’s political legacy is indisputable,” writes Jon Ralston, author of the new book, “The Game Changer.” “(He) forever changed Washington with his ruthless, cutthroat style that led to spectacular victories and perpetual dysfunction.”

Ralston, CEO of The Nevada Independent, followed Reid’s career for four decades, starting with Reid’s first Senate campaign in 1986. At one point, Reid tried to get Ralston fired from a local news station — and succeeded.

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Then, in 2021, Reid agreed to work with Ralston on a biography, participating in dozens of interviews spanning the course of his career, before he died of pancreatic cancer in December 2021 at the age of 82.

Here are some of the highlights from the life of Nevada’s longest-serving senator, and one of the most notable Democratic game changers of the political landscape in the American West as well as in Washington, D.C.

Biggest accomplishments

It didn’t take long for Reid’s ambition to lead him to politics.

After paying his way through law school as a U.S. Capitol Police officer, Reid was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968, where he sponsored 20% of the bills, ranging from increasing pawnshop rates to regulating the phone industry.

Two years later, at age 30, Reid became the youngest lieutenant governor in Nevada history, serving with his former high school history teacher, and mentor, Nevada Gov. Mike O’Callaghan.

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After failed campaigns for U.S. Senate in 1974, and Las Vegas mayor in 1975, Reid, who worked as a trial attorney, was elected to the U.S. House in 1982, followed by the U.S. Senate in 1986, where he would stay for 30 years.

During his time in Congress, Reid developed a unique balancing act on his priority issues, advocating ceaselessly for the mining industry he had grown up with, while championing environmentalist causes in his home state.

Reid secured protected status for more than 5 million acres by creating the Great Basin National Park, and helping to establish the Tule Springs Fossil Beds, Basin and Range and Gold Butte national monuments.

After becoming Senate majority leader in 2007, Reid was President Barack Obama’s legislative liaison, lobbying for stimulus funding and negotiating the Affordable Care Act by carving out expensive exceptions for reluctant senators.

Reid is also credited with organizing the “Reid Machine” — a Democratic get-out-the-vote operation that shifted voter registration totals, got Democrats elected and helped designate Nevada as an early Democratic primary state.

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Casino controversies

Along the way, Reid made his fair share of enemies.

He was known for his “ruthless” campaign style, which included a tendency to repeat rumors as if true, like implying without evidence that Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt had used his position to become owner of a $7.5 million casino.

Many of Reid’s own criticisms came from his work with the gambling industry.

Reid was appointed as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1977, where he informed the FBI on bribery schemes, confronted mob bosses, investigated Howard Hughes and gave a gaming license to Frank Sinatra.

As chair, Reid was credited with helping push the mob out of Las Vegas, denying licenses to individuals like Frank Rosenthal. This came at a cost, including a close call when something that looked like a bomb was placed in his wife’s car.

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But Reid came under scrutiny when wiretaps named him as a mob source. While the investigation found Reid never engaged in illegal conduct, recordings identifying Reid as “Clean Face” followed him through his career.

Despite this, Reid never stopped championing the biggest players on the Las Vegas Strip, including by pushing banks during the Great Recession to support the MGM casino, which hired him as a consultant after he left the Senate.

“From the Strip to downtown, Reid was a gaming industry darling and would be for as long as he was in office,” Ralston writes.

Navigating political tension

Like many politicians, Reid evolved over time. But some of his transformations were stark.

As a young lawmaker, Reid had a “100% pro-life voting record.” He opposed Roe v. Wade, voted against federal plans paying for abortion and supported a constitutional amendment banning abortion from conception.

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Reid was also one of 38 Democrats who killed the Equal Rights Amendment. But as he rose through party leadership, Reid developed more establishment Democratic views on abortion, same-sex marriage, gun rights and immigration.

While in the House, Reid lambasted Reagan’s immigrant amnesty program for allegedly rewarding lawbreakers by giving them legal status. In 1993, Reid introduced a bill outlawing birthright citizenship and lamented the impacts of mass immigration.

By the time he became majority leader, he was a key supporter of the DREAM Act for minors living in the country illegally, had lost his top rating from the National Rifle Association and had done a total reversal on the “nuclear option.”

In 2005, Reid had been one of the most vocal senators opposing an effort to remove the Senate’s 60-vote, filibuster-proof requirement to pass most legislation. In 2013, Reid did just that for most judicial nominations.

Reid also gained a reputation for his viral “Reidisms,” revealing his proclivity for speaking without a filter.

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Such instances include when he called Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan a “political hack,” and President George W. Bush a “liar” and a “loser,” or praised Obama for having “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

The most famous of these is when Reid accused, without evidence, then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney of not paying taxes, even though Reid, who had significant real estate holdings, secretly had a similar average tax rate.

Throughout his political endeavors, however, Reid remained a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ralston writes, attending church regularly and reading scriptures every night.

Raised in abject poverty, in a town of several dozen with no church, the first time Reid “learned of a man named Jesus” was in a high school seminary class, which he attended with his friend to meet girls, Ralston writes.

He and his wife, Landra, began to take missionary lessons after eloping to Logan, Utah, to attend Utah State University. The two decided to join the church in 1960. Together Reid and Landra had five children.

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Southern Nevada sees string of shootings, one person killed in 24-hour span

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Southern Nevada sees string of shootings, one person killed in 24-hour span


LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metro Police are investigating multiple shootings that occurred across Southern Nevada within a 24-hour period, including one that turned deadly.

The violence began Thursday evening near Flamingo Road and Linq Lane, when officers attempted to stop a stolen vehicle. The driver sped away, driving into oncoming traffic and nearly causing crashes across the valley.

Crime

Stolen car chase leads to fatal officer-involved shooting, LVMPD investigating

The pursuit ended with 3 suspects fleeing on foot. When one armed suspect refused to drop his weapon, officers opened fire, killing him. The remaining suspects were taken into custody.

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Hours later, police responded to a deadly shooting at a business in the northeast valley near Craig Road and Nellis Boulevard. Officers arrived to find a man and a woman suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot.

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Police searching for suspect after shooting in northeast valley leaves one dead

The woman was transported to the hospital and is expected to survive. The man died at the scene.

Detectives say the victims had been arguing with another man when he opened fire and fled. Officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating the suspect as the investigation continues.

About 30 minutes after that shooting, Metro officers responded to another shooting near the intersection of Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to the leg.

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Police activity blocks off all lanes on eastbound Lake Mead Blvd., Rancho Dr.

He was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover. Detectives are investigating.

Overnight, a fourth shooting shut down Craig Road from Lamont Street to Nellis Boulevard. A victim was found with non-life-threatening injuries, and a suspect was detained.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.






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Caltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada

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Caltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada


LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Caltech researchers are preparing to build a radio telescope that will be the most sensitive ever constructed and survey the sky 100 times faster than any other radio telescope worldwide.

Schmidt Sciences has greenlit construction of the Deep Synoptic Array after the project completed its final design review. The milestone paves the way for construction to begin on the telescope, which is planned for a remote valley in Nevada.

MORE ON FOX5: Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool

The array will consist of 1,650 radio dishes, each slightly more than 6 meters in diameter. The array will span an area of about 20 by 16 kilometers. The team plans to build the telescope by 2029, with science operations commencing soon after.

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Survey capabilities

“The DSA will survey the entire visible sky several times in its first five years at unprecedented speeds,” said Gregg Hallinan, principal investigator of DSA, professor of astronomy at Caltech, and director of Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory. “While all other radio telescopes combined have so far found about 20 million radio sources, the DSA will match that in the first day of operations. By the end of its initial survey, it will have discovered about 1 billion new radio sources.”

The telescope will discover radio emission from millions of stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects. It will address the mysteries of black holes, pulsars and fast radio bursts. It will also probe the physics of dark matter and gravity, and it will measure the structure and expansion of the universe.

“Radio astronomy is about to go from sketch to photograph,” said Vikram Ravi, the co-principal investigator of the DSA and a professor of astronomy at Caltech. “The DSA is looking at a far larger volume of the universe far more often than any other telescope.”

Real-time imaging

The DSA will be capable of making images in real time. The numerous radio dishes will feed into a supercomputer that creates images instantly. The images will be immediately accessible to the worldwide astronomical community.

“Without the radio camera, we would have to store 100 exabytes of data to complete our survey,” Hallinan said. “This would require 5 million hard drives in a multi-billion-dollar facility the size of multiple football fields. The radio camera solves this problem.”

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The DSA’s radio camera will convert the raw data to images in real time with the help of an off-site supercomputer built from Graphics Processing Units built by Nvidia. The radio camera images will be given freely to the public with no proprietary period.

“We want the whole world to also have access to the data just as quickly as we do,” said Katie Jameson, the DSA lead project manager.

The DSA will have the ability to detect more than 100,000 intensely powerful flashes of radio light from fast radio bursts and to localize them to their home galaxies. The DSA will also reveal more than 20,000 new pulsars.

“The science that can be done is endless,” Hallinan said. “There will be enough discoveries to occupy every radio astronomer on the planet.”

The DSA is led by Caltech and funded by Schmidt Sciences. It is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. Two pathfinder projects that led to the DSA, the DSA-110 and the OVRO Long Wavelength Array, were funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool

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Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool


LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Conservation groups are pushing back against a new state mapping tool that identifies federal lands potentially available for development in Nevada.

The governor’s office, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Nevada, unveiled the interactive map this week to make it easier to find federal land that may be available for development throughout the state and in the Las Vegas Valley.

“It is shocking to look at the map and see how many lands could potentially be sold off,” said Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter.

Tanager said she was surprised at how many federal lands were identified for disposal when she first looked at the map.

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“Places like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon in Southern Nevada are what draw people to live in Southern Nevada. We cannot continue to develop right up onto the boundaries or perhaps even in these precious places,” Tanager said.

The conservation group says the mapping tool is the latest effort to treat Nevada’s public lands as a real estate inventory rather than a shared public resource.

“We know that a lot of these areas are environmentally sensitive. We know that there are endangered species on these lands,” Tanager said.

MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unveils interactive tool mapping federal lands available for possible development, other uses

Housing concerns

Lawmakers have proposed using federal lands to create more affordable housing. Several areas at the edges of the Vegas Valley have been identified for potential development on the mapping tool. Tanager said she does not see that as a viable solution.

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“The areas on the outskirts or far outside of existing urban areas are wholly inappropriate for affordable housing. Housing that is located that far away from services will never be truly affordable,” Tanager said. “As folks have to live further and further away from resources like schools and grocery stores, transportation costs go up substantially.”

The conservation group says the valley should fill in open lots and build upward within the existing urban core instead of building outward.

“We know that sprawl and developing on the outskirts of the valley worsens air quality as well from increased transportation,” Tanager said. “We know that sprawl is incredibly water-intensive. The further out you build, the harder it is to recapture that water.”

The Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter says treating federal lands as disposable assets could set a dangerous precedent that accelerates privatization efforts and undermines the principle that public lands should remain in public hands for future generations.

Approximately 85% of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the federal government.

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The state says the tool is designed to bolster information sharing about federal lands. The mapping tool is available here.

Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.



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