Nevada
Murdoch succession battle to play out in Nevada courtroom
By Dawn Chmielewski
RENO, Nevada (Reuters) – A closed-door court battle over control of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire begins Sept. 16, and could determine the future of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
Murdoch, 93, is attempting to change the terms of the family’s irrevocable trust to ensure his newspapers and television networks remain under control of his eldest son and chosen heir, Lachlan Murdoch, according to the New York Times, which obtained a sealed court document detailing the succession drama.
Reuters and other news organizations are attempting to gain access to sealed court records, and to open the court hearings in Reno, Nevada, before probate commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr.
The trust lays out a scenario on how a potential takeover could occur, according to a source who has seen the documents. The trust is the vehicle through which the elder Murdoch controls News Corp and Fox, with roughly a 40% stake in voting shares of each company. Murdoch also holds a small amount of shares of the companies outside the trust.
Upon Rupert Murdoch’s death, News Corp and Fox voting shares will be transferred to his four oldest children – Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. Potentially, three of the heirs could out-vote a fourth, setting up a battle over the future of the companies, even as Lachlan Murdoch runs Fox and is sole chair of News Corp.
Rupert Murdoch’s proposed amendment to the trust would block any interference by three of Lachlan’s siblings, who are more politically moderate, the Times reported, citing a sealed court document.
Lachlan Murdoch is viewed as ideologically aligned with his conservative father. James Murdoch, who has donated to progressive political groups, resigned in 2020 from the News Corp board, citing disagreements over editorial content. James also has criticized the U.S. media for amplifying disinformation about the 2020 election results ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He hosted a fundraiser for U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021, before the Democrat ended his re-election campaign.
A hearing to determine whether Rupert Murdoch’s proposed changes to the trust would benefit his heirs will take place in a Reno courtroom, well outside the media hubs from which the conglomerate operates in New York, Los Angeles, London and Sydney.
“He’s going to have to prove that these changes are being made in good faith,” said Shane Jasmine Young, a Nevada attorney who specializes in estate planning. That means demonstrating any changes would not “sacrifice the rights, or discriminate against, any of the parties that this trust was intended to protect.”
A group of news organizations, including the New York Times, CNN, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, The Washington Post and Reuters, have asked to intervene in the matter, arguing that the court should unseal the records and provide access to the proceedings.
“Though some litigants may desire secrecy and some courts indulge this desire, this level of sealing does not pass constitutional muster,” attorneys for the Access Coalition of news organizations wrote in a memo to the court, arguing the First Amendment calls for civil judicial proceedings and records to be open to the public.
The news organizations say the public has immense interest in which of Murdoch’s children will succeed him at the helm of the influential media empire, an outcome that will affect thousands of jobs, millions of worldwide media consumers and the political landscape.
Spokespeople for Lachlan, James and Elisabeth Murdoch declined comment. A spokesman for Rupert Murdoch referred inquiries to his attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment. An attorney representing James, Elisabeth and Prudence also could not be reached for comment.
“The reason this is interesting is the outsized role that Fox (News) has played in the political landscape, in the U.S. and around the world,” said Paul Hardart, director of the Entertainment, Media and Technology Program at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “I think this is a reflection of the future of not only the business, but also how conservative media is handled going forward.”
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio)
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Nevada
11 burros found dead in Death Valley
![11 burros found dead in Death Valley 11 burros found dead in Death Valley](https://www.reviewjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/19604490_web1_burros-NPS-Photo.jpg)
A total of 11 burros have been found dead in Death Valley National Park, so far.
The National Park Service said in a release on Wednesday that the burros were found near Owls Hole Spring. While the burros’ cause of death is under investigation, park officials said they believe a toxic algae bloom is to blame.
The water at the spring is warm and stagnant, which can cause algae and cyanobacteria to grow. Burros also defecated in and around the water, which contributed to unhealthy conditions for both humans and animals to drink or touch, the park service said.
“I hate to see any animal suffer,” park superintendent Mike Reynolds said in a statement. “The National Park Service is working to remove feral burros from Death Valley for their own safety, and to reduce impacts to native wildlife.”
According to the park service, burros are not native to Death Valley and were brought to the area by miners. Park officials are working to relocate burros from the park.
Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.
Nevada
NDOC completes transfer of nearly 2,000 inmates between Nevada prisons
![NDOC completes transfer of nearly 2,000 inmates between Nevada prisons NDOC completes transfer of nearly 2,000 inmates between Nevada prisons](https://gray-kvvu-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/ODMP7MGLFJCDZGWPFQSZDEPH4Q.jpg?auth=86de770552509893eee605b2ba7b152ff4ad3630870a307ce1bbf31205490844&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The Nevada Department of Corrections announced Wednesday that the prisoner swap between Ely State Prison and High Desert State Prison is complete.
According to a press release, nearly 2,000 inmates were moved between the two facilities over several days. Additionally, the facilities have swapped security designations, making Ely a medium-security facility and High Desert the new maximum-security facility.
High Desert prison employees have received additional training to handle maximum-security offenders, which include the use of “Less Lethal Systems” like pepper ball launchers.
An NDOC spokesperson also said while the recent fight that killed three offenders at Ely was part of the decision to swap, it was “not the impetus.”
“NDOC officials have been planning the move for several months due to an uptick in gang activity and violence, along with the remote nature of Ely State Prison,” the release stated. “The highest-risk offenders will now be housed where staffing levels are greater, and the institution is closer to outside law-enforcement and medical services, if necessary.”
NDOC also added that the operation was a highly sensitive one that put officers, staff, and inmates at risk, which is why it wasn’t discussed beforehand.
“We were fortunate to work with a number of agencies that helped make this a seamless transition, with no injuries to staff or offenders. Of course, it would not have been possible without our own highly trained officers in both the north and the south who handled this difficult operation with the utmost professionalism and skill,” said James Dzurenda, Director of the Nevada Department of Corrections. “We believe this move will increase the efficiency of the Department and, most importantly, maintain a safer environment for our offenders, our staff and the community.”
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Nevada
In Nevada, Clean Energy Divides the Senate Race – Inside Climate News
![In Nevada, Clean Energy Divides the Senate Race – Inside Climate News In Nevada, Clean Energy Divides the Senate Race – Inside Climate News](https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Nevada_Rosen-Brown-1024x682.jpg)
In November’s election, Nevadans will vote between two U.S. Senate candidates with vastly different climate and energy positions—particularly regarding solar energy, an issue that has even divided climate and environmental advocates in the state.
Incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat and Nevada’s junior senator, has consistently backed legislation supporting the renewable energy transition and pro-climate policies, like the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, and has fought against tariffs on imported solar panels.
Her Republican opponent, Army veteran Sam Brown, has said the construction of solar and wind farms across the state would ruin the state’s landscapes and is “not for the benefit of Nevadans,” while touting former President and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill,” slogan in support of promoting domestic oil and gas production.
This election cycle, the Silver State is yet again a key battleground state, along with Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Democrats hope to hold onto Senate seats in ultra-competitive races. A single loss would set up a divided and gridlocked government even if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the White House in November.
Explore the latest news about what’s at stake for the climate during this election season.
Flipping the Senate would have major implications for passing legislation to address climate change. If Democrats lose both the White House and the Senate, meanwhile, it could allow Republicans to reverse the climate wins of the Biden administration, like the hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits delivered by the Inflation Reduction Act. Trump has vowed to repeal it if he’s elected.
Also vulnerable would be rules from federal agencies promoting the use of public lands managed by the federal government for renewable energy development and conservation, which Republicans have pushed back on. Such rules are of huge importance in Nevada, the state with the highest proportion of federal public lands in the country.
Polling has consistently shown Rosen in the lead in the Senate race, with Harris also leading recent polls in the state, though with smaller margins than the Democratic senator.
“Nevada is leading the nation in building a robust clean energy economy, which is creating new good-paying jobs and lowering costs across my state,” Rosen said in a statement to Inside Climate News. “While my extreme MAGA opponent Sam Brown would rather bash clean energy to score political points, I’m working to jumpstart Nevada’s energy future in areas like solar and geothermal so that we can continue this growth and improve people’s lives.”
![Incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen has supported pro-climate policies like the Inflation Reduction Act and has fought against tariffs on imported solar panels. Credit: Rosa Pineda/U.S. Senate Photo](https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Jacky-Rosen_US-Senate-Rosa-Pineda-1024x681.jpg)
![Incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen has supported pro-climate policies like the Inflation Reduction Act and has fought against tariffs on imported solar panels. Credit: Rosa Pineda/U.S. Senate Photo](https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Jacky-Rosen_US-Senate-Rosa-Pineda-1024x681.jpg)
Brown fell short in the 2022 Republican primary for Senate in Nevada after moving to the state from Dallas in 2018 and has never held elected office. In speeches across the state, he has adopted an energy policy rebuking Rosen’s positions and focused his campaign on addressing inflation and highlighting his military service. In Afghanistan in 2008, his Humvee struck a roadside bomb, leaving him permanently scarred.
“We have solar fields being built across the state right now, on our land. Not for the benefit of Nevadans but for the energy policies of [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom,” Brown told KTVN 2 News Nevada last year in an interview announcing his campaign. “That power is going directly into California. We need someone who will be an advocate for us here.”
Brown has previously said he would not have supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the Inflation Reduction Act and has proposed cutting federal agencies that cover the same issues as state agencies, like the Department of Energy. And he has been hammered on all sides for comments he made in 2022 about his willingness to allow nuclear waste to be stored in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain—a third rail in Nevada politics for decades—but has since backtracked from that position. Brown’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Climate, environment and renewable energy advocates alike are supporting Rosen’s reelection bid, even though they sometimes fall on different sides of environmental fights within the state.
“When the environment needed someone to stand up for it, very often Jacky Rosen was there,” said Patrick Donnelly, the Nevada political director for the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, the environmental group’s advocacy and political arm, noting his organization can often be at odds with the senator.
Few states are seeing the impacts of climate change more profoundly than Nevada, with Las Vegas—where most of the state’s population lives—on track to have its hottest summer on record. The state has long been known as the driest in the union, a fact that’s only growing truer in recent decades, with the Southwest experiencing a megadrought and the city of Las Vegas having to impose drought mitigation measures years before other large cities in the region because of its limited water supply. Reno and Las Vegas are the fastest-warming cities in the country, but both continue to grow rapidly in population. And in recent years, the state has seen record-breaking wildfire seasons.
“Nevadans are feeling the brunt of climate change already and we can expect that to get subsequently worse in the years to come,” said Olivia Tanager, the director of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter, as she watched smoke from nearby wildfires outside her home in Reno. “The heavy-hitting climate issues in the state are certainly at the top of most people’s radar.”
One of the biggest issues Tanager hears every day from chapter members is the “nexus between conservation and solar,” with “a lot of members who are concerned about how rapidly solar is being deployed.” But, she said, Nevadans are already seeing the effects of “extreme heat, drought and wildfires and all of the other aspects of climate change, and so broadly recognized the need to transition away from fossil fuels. And a large portion of that is solar and solar deployment.”
Rural stretches of the Mojave and Great Basin deserts are seeing a surge of proposals and construction of large solar farms, to take advantage of the region’s abundant sunshine and the chance to export solar energy to neighboring states. The industry is becoming a major driver of the state’s economy, which has the highest number of solar jobs per capita in the nation and is on track to have 28,000 jobs in the industry by 2028. That’s in large part because of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, said Stephen Hamile, the chief operating officer of Sol-Up Solar and board member of the Nevada Solar Association. The legislation is allowing Nevadans to lower their energy costs, creating more jobs in the industry and giving the state the opportunity to export energy to other states.
“Sam Brown is deeply opposed to solar energy development and would have been a major roadblock to major solar investments,” Hamile said. “If he is in [the Senate], unfortunately, he’s so divisive with regards to solar energy and [climate issues], you have basically a regressive energy policy that would ultimately harm Nevadans.”
Nevada is also home to a new mining boom for lithium, the metal vital for creating the batteries needed for electric vehicles and storage of electricity from solar and wind farms. The state has the only operating lithium mine in the U.S., with others likely to come online in the coming years, despite being highly controversial for their environmental and cultural impacts.
That’s because roughly 80 percent of Nevada’s land is public land overseen by the federal government, which has the final say on its best use—such as for mining or for solar farms. The Biden-Harris administration has consistently presented public lands overseen by the Interior Department as a vital part of the solution to climate change, providing the space needed for massive solar and wind farms, new mines for critical minerals like lithium and copper, conservation programs to offset carbon emissions and more experimental solutions like carbon storage projects and geothermal plants, which are also being proposed in Nevada.
With its abundance of public lands, critical minerals and sunshine, Nevada is seeing firsthand both the drawbacks and benefits of the nation’s pivot away from fossil fuels—making the energy transition and climate change both critical issues in the state’s Senate race.
At the local level, the surge of developments near rural communities can be divisive. The town of Beatty, two hours northwest of Las Vegas, is facing a surge of proposals for new gold and lithium mines, utility-scale solar operations and transmission lines to send the energy they generate to major urban areas. Erika Gerling, chair of the town’s advisory board, said the community has focused on developing its economy around recreation and ecotourism, given its clear skies, wide-open spaces and proximity to Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. She said residents and the board are worried about how the proposed projects will impact the local community and have opposed many of them.
“We’re not against energy or solar in any way,” she said. “We are opposed to the location of these projects.”
It’s an issue she could see influencing voters in rural places like hers, though the town itself does not weigh in on political matters. Environmentalists and clean energy advocates recognize the importance of addressing such concerns going forward. But they say Rosen recognizes those challenges, has worked with local communities on them before and is familiar with public-lands issues. Whether now or later, advocates say, Nevadans’ concerns over addressing climate impacts will likely outweigh some of the other concerns that make up Brown’s stance.
“We aren’t looking to have solar fields in every spot in our backyard,” said Kristee Watson, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League. “But at the same time, if we don’t do this now, we’re not going to be able to support human life in this state.”
About This Story
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