Connect with us

Nevada

‘Light over darkness’: Local Hanukkah celebrations held amid tight security

Published

on

‘Light over darkness’: Local Hanukkah celebrations held amid tight security


As the most visible Jewish holiday, Hanukkah is traditionally observed publicly with ceremonies such as the eight-day lighting of the menorah, Rabbi Shea Harlig of Chabad of Southern Nevada noted Monday.

In the aftermath of an antisemitic terror attack that targeted Jewish revelers marking the beginning of Hanukkah at an Australian beach over the weekend, the holiday’s message of “light over darkness” resonates, Harlig said at a menorah lighting ceremony at Las Vegas City Hall.

Events hosted by the city and later at Clark County’s government center took place amid enhanced police security.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that the attack, which killed 15 people and injured dozens more, was “motivated by Islamic State ideology,” according to CNN.

Advertisement

“The way we deal with it is not by hiding, but on the contrary by going out and doing more events to bring more light into the world,” Harlig added.

Police officers and marshals guarded the city’s Civic Center & Plaza during the menorah lighting ceremony.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Monday that it was monitoring the Australian terror attack and that it had bolstered officer presence at places of religious worship across the valley.

“As always, we remind everyone that ‘if you see something, say something,’” said police, noting that suspicious activities can be reported at 702-828-7777 and snctc.org.

‘Festival of light’

Advertisement

Las Vegas’ Hanukkah ceremony was one of about 50 organized in the valley for the holiday, Harlig said.

Performers known as the “Dancing Dreidels” shimmied to music before a torch that marked Hanukkah’s second day was lit among Hebrew prayers.

Mayor Shelley Berkley and Councilman Brian Knudsen joined the festivities.

“In the city of Las Vegas, we do not tolerate antisemitism, racism, discrimination or hatred of any kind, against any individual or group of people,” Berkley said.

The Jewish mayor later told the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the holiday’s personal significance.

Advertisement

“It’s a festival of light, it’s a happy occasion where you celebrate with your family and your friends and your loved ones, and the entire community,” she said.

Berkley said that the city, its marshals and Metro had stepped up to provide a safe environment during the festivities, adding that a menorah celebration at Fremont Street Sunday went off well during the first day of the holiday.

“I think everybody that attended the menorah lighting last night felt very safe, and very welcomed and valued in the city of Las Vegas,” she said. “And that is the message we wanted to get out to the community. No matter what your religion, your culture, you’re all welcome here in this city.”

Asked about Southern Nevada’s response to the terror attacks, Berkley said: “I believe there was tremendous concern in the Jewish community.”

She added during her public remarks: “There has been a Jew hate and antisemitism for 5,000 years. We just keep moving forward and doing the best we can, and I’m very proud of the Jewish community and very proud to be a part of it.”

Advertisement

A couple of hours after the City Hall event, Harlig and the Dancing Dreidels made their way to a similar celebration at the Clark County Government Center, where the victims were memorized with a moment of silence.

Commissioner Michael Naft echoed the rabbi’s menorah lighting message in his remarks.

“There is no better way for the Jewish community — (or) any community — to respond to darkness than with demonstrations of our power, demonstrations of our strength and by never hiding, by never running away,” he said. “That’s what we do here in Clark County and around the world.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.

Advertisement



Source link

Nevada

Tigers Fall in Home Bout Against Nevada – University of the Pacific

Published

on

Tigers Fall in Home Bout Against Nevada – University of the Pacific


STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific women’s tennis program dropped a 4-0 match to Nevada at the Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center on Sunday morning.

Defeats on doubles courts two and three gave the Tigers (0-4) an uphill battle going into singles and showed great fight despite not being able to secure any courts. Junior Nahreen Cheam erased a first set loss on court four to lead 2-1 in set three when play was suspended. Fellow junior Rayna Sugai was locked in a set three battle when play was suspended while junior Milena Maiorova on court one had just entered a tiebreaker on court one to try and force a deciding third set.

However, losses on courts two, five and six gave the victory to Nevada (3-3) the points needed to win the match.

Advertisement

Pacific has two matches left in the current homestand, taking the court once on Friday, February 6 against San Jose State in a rematch from last season. Maiorova was the sole point scorer from last season’s matchup.

The match will be streamed live via Track Tennis.

FULL RESULTS

DOUBLES

  1. Indiya McLeod and Pauline Lerminiaux (PAC) led Foerster and Costache (NEV), 5-0
  2. Charrier and Robinson (NEV) def. Milena Maiorova and Rayna Sugai (PAC), 6-2
  3. Janigova and Buqai (NEV) def. Leyanne Hirota and Maggie Hoe (PAC), 6-1

SINGLES

    Advertisement
  1. Charrier (NEV) led Milena Maiorova (PAC), 6-4, 6-6
  2. Foerster (NEV) def. Indiya McLeod (PAC), 6-0, 6-3
  3. Janigova (NEV) led Rayna Sugai (PAC), 1-6, 6-2, 5-2
  4. Nahreen Cheam (PAC) led Robinson (NEV), 0-6, 6-4, 2-1
  5. Costache (NEV) def. Maggie Hoe (PAC), 2-6, 6-1, 6-2
  6. Buqai (NEV) def. Leyanna Hirota (PAC), 6-0, 7-6

Stay Social
For all the latest on Pacific Women’s Tennis, be sure to follow the team on X (@PacificWTennis), Instagram (@pacificwtennis) and “like” the team’s official Facebook page (Pacific Women’s Tennis).
 
#PacificProud
 





Source link

Continue Reading

Nevada

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

Published

on

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Nevada

American Lung Association in Nevada hosts first practice climb event

Published

on

American Lung Association in Nevada hosts first practice climb event


The American Lung Association in Nevada offered a unique opportunity for participants of the Scale The STRAT event.

For the first time, climbers had the opportunity to practice ahead of the main event scheduled for Feb. 22.

The practice climb took place at Cashman Stadium on Saturday, thanks to a partnership with the Las Vegas Lights.

Deborah Thompson is the Executive Director with the American Lung Association of Nevada. She says, “This is the first time that we actually done a practice climb, and this is an opportunity for people that aren’t sure about doing it, if they’re able to do it and get over their fear.”

Advertisement

Registered participants tested their stair-climbing skills nearly a month before tackling the 1,455 steps of The STRAT Tower.

Comment with Bubbles

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT

Additionally, participants could bring a guest to the practice climb, who can register on-site and receive a $10 discount on the regular registration donation.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending