LAS VEGAS (AP) — Three U.S. House seats in Nevada will remain under Democratic control after a sweeping win Thursday for the incumbents, while the state’s tight Senate race was still too early to call.

The Associated Press has declared Democratic Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford winners in their respective races. The state’s lone Republican Congressman, Mark Amodei, cruised to victory Tuesday night in his reliably red district in northern Nevada.

Lee won over conservative policy analyst Drew Johnson in what is widely considered the state’s most competitive district, which covers a large swath of the culturally diverse Spring Valley neighborhood in Las Vegas and more rural areas of southern Nevada.

Horsford, a four-term congressman who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, defeated former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee in a district that stretches north from Las Vegas, toward rural Nye County in the west and along the Utah border in the eastern portion of the district.

For Titus, it was the second election in a row that she defeated Republican Mark Robertson, a retired Army colonel, to keep her seat in the Las Vegas district she has represented for more than a decade.

All three incumbents, in separate statements, vowed to continue their work to lower costs in the state and to create more jobs. Their challengers conceded Thursday.

Johnson said in a statement he was proud of the race he ran, and that he was encouraged by President elect-Donald Trump’s decisive victory. John Lee, in a brief phone call with AP, also said he ran a good race and was now “looking forward to Trump bringing this nation back around.”

Robertson, meanwhile, told AP he had called Titus to congratulate her, saying he respected the will of Nevada voters and that he and Titus spoke about possibly working together “on a future issue.”

In 2021, Democrats sacrificed part of Titus’ district — the party’s traditional stronghold — in exchange for some gains in neighboring swing districts.

Titus, the longest-serving member of the Nevada delegation in Washington, D.C., has been reelected every two years since winning her seat in 2013. Robertson, her opponent this year, has never held political office and echoed policies favored by Trump on border security, inflation and the economy.

Horsford, meanwhile, became the first Black person to represent Nevada in Congress when he was elected to the House in 2012. He lost in 2014 but has since won in four straight elections.

Susie Lee first won her seat in 2018, succeeding now-Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen.

AP hasn’t yet declared a winner in the race for Rosen’s seat in the upper chamber of Congress. It pits her against Republican Sam Brown, a retired Army captain whose face is still scarred from injuries he suffered in Afghanistan. ___

Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Anita Snow in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Summary

Dr. Jason Talaei, formerly known as Amir Talaei-Khoei, is a faculty member and Chair of Department of Information Systems at the University of Nevada (UNR)’s College of Business. He holds an MSc in Information Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and a PhD in Information Systems from Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Dr. Talaei has held faculty positions at the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Technology Sydney before joining the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in 2016. As Chair of the Department of Information Systems since 2020, he has driven efforts in the development of cutting-edge programs, including a PhD in Business Administration with concentration in Information Systems and a 4+1 accelerated master’s Program, significantly boosting enrollment. Jason during 2022-2023 was appointed as Interim Associate Dean of the School of Social Work. His research agenda transcends traditional paradigms, with a focus on the intrinsic dimensions of artificial intelligence—particularly explainability—to enhance organizational decision-making. His work has been published in top-tier ABDC A and A* journals and has attracted multimillion-dollar funding from prominent agencies like the NSF, NIH, CDC, and CMS, as well as critical state and international grants. Renowned for bridging academia with industry, Dr. Talaei remains dedicated to advancing technology commercialization, fostering cross-sector engagement, and shaping the future of digital business and information systems.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Lithium battery fires are extremely hard to put out and can last for hours, even days. Two in the last few months have shutdown major interstates in and around Nevada. The lithium battery fires on Interstate 15 and Interstate 95 ignited conversation on battery transport and regulations.

Lithium batteries power everything from electric vehicles to cell phones and batteries of all sizes have led to fires. FOX5 has reported on an e-bike starting an Arizona housefire, a vape pen exploding in a New Jersey mall, and a lithium-ion battery blamed for an e-bike repair shop fire that killed four people in New York City.

“Here at NDEP we are actually doing new regulations regarding lithium-ion batteries,” shared Cierra Peters with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, a guest speaker at a recent meeting of the Nevada Department of Education Statewide School Safety Committee during a discussion on lithium-ion batteries.

“How big is this issue that we are facing within schools?,” Peters questioned.

Back in December, a fire at a CCSD storage building near Flamingo and McLeod was caused by an exothermic reaction from lithium batteries.

For Nevada schools, one major safety issue is vape pens.

“Vape pens do have lithium-ion batteries…they are considered a hazardous waste,” Peters explained.

In 2019, Austin Adams, then 17, was using an e-cigarette at his Ely home when it exploded, fracturing his jaw and causing him to lose several teeth. Educators say they are constantly taking the devices away from children.

“If at Elko High School where we only have 1,400 kids and I’m taking away four, five, six in a day, God only knows at a school 3,500…I think the most recent young age one I saw was a fifth grader,” shared CJ Anderson, Superintendent of Schools for the Elko County School District.

“I did speak with a couple of schools…they called up here and said they had a whole draw full of like 30-40 vape pens,” Peters reported.

While having a large number of the devices is a danger for schools, it’s also against state regulations.

“It is difficult because if you guys were to collect over 2.2 pounds, you would have to be held liable as a large generator,” Peters revealed. Educators asked how to dispose of their unwanted waste, one even suggesting schools should be given special containers. Throwing lithium batteries in the trash is not an option but something many people do anyway.

“When they go into a trash truck, it compacts it, so we have had several landfill fires and trash truck fires that way. That has been a big issue as well,” Peters described.

A fire broke out at Republic’s recycling plant on the northside of the Vegas Valley in September 2021. The cause is believed to be a lithium battery. How to best dispose of unwanted batteries is a question not just for Nevada schools but anyone who no longer wants one.

“How are we recycling these batteries? Is it correct? Is it incorrect? In the industry as a whole, not just in Nevada but the whole world there isn’t really a great way to recycle lithium-ion batteries,” Peters asserted.

According to Peters, NDEP has proposing changes to Nevada’s hazardous waste regulations. It will be up to the State Environmental Commission to approve them November 19th.

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