Your article on the impact of “shattered heat records” was wonderfully thorough, balanced and informative (“Shattered heat records forecast dicey future for Sin City, July 12”). This heat sure is a wake-up call for action, preferably of two kinds:

Adaptation: Yes, “cooling centers” can help, but also adding trees, encouraging reflective surfaces and embracing other countermeasures to urban “heat island” features.

Mitigation: Exploit Nevada’s solar and geothermal gifts to “greenify the grid.” And use the subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act to “electrify everything” (e.g., heat pumps for cheaper air conditioning, induction stoves and electric cars). And push Congress for an international price on carbon pollution … thereby giving the private markets more incentive to clean up their act.

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Sparks, Nevada, man was sentenced on Friday to 65 years in prison after he was convicted in a “sextortion” scheme perpetrated over Omegle, Snapchat, TikTok and Mega social platforms from 2018 to 2021.

James Patrick Burns, 55, “sextorted” multiple minors online, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Burns was already a registered sex offender when he was arrested by authorities.

“During this period, Burns was the most prolific creator of illegal content on these forums,” according to the news release. “He victimized over 100 children, many of whom have yet to be identified. Burns’s offenses came to the attention of law enforcement when the mother of one of his victims saw threats on the victim’s phone and reported what she saw to the police.”

Burns will be required to serve lifetime supervised release if he is released from prison.

He was convicted on March 5 by a federal jury on eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, eight counts of coercion and enticement of a minor, and one count each of advertising, receiving, distributing and possessing child pornography.

Burns coerced minors into producing pornography. He was also ordered to pay $82,655.92 in restitution and $21,000 in assessments under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act.

The announcement was made by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada; Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Special Agent in Charge Spencer L. Evans of the FBI Las Vegas Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Miller of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Las Vegas.

The FBI-led Northern Nevada Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, which is comprised of detectives and investigators from the Sparks Police Department, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, Nevada Attorney General’s Office, and HSI, investigated the case. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, HSI Chicago Field Office, and local law enforcement around the country provided substantial assistance.

LAS VEGAS — Republicans have vowed to continue pressing legal claims against Nevada’s 2021 law allowing the inclusion of mail-in ballots received up to four days after Election Day.

Federal District Court Chief Judge Miranda Du said plaintiffs including the Republican National Committee, the state GOP, the 2024 Trump campaign and Nevada voter Donald Szymanski, a registered Republican, “lack standing to challenge the Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline.”

The plaintiffs had sued Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, Washoe County Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess, Washoe County Clerk Jan Galassini and Lorena Portillo and Lynn Marie Goya, respectively Clark County’s voter registrar and county clerk. The two counties are the state’s most populous.

In a 15-page ruling, Du, a 2011 Obama appointee to the federal bench, said none of the plaintiff’s claims demonstrates they “have suffered, or will likely suffer, an injury” if the ballot-counting measure is allowed to stand. The judge said “it does not necessarily follow that mail ballots arriving after Election Day will skew Democratic. And even if later-arriving mail ballots have favored Democrats past elections, it is far from guaranteed that Nevada voters will behave similarly this November.”

She went on, “The Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline does not have an ‘individual and personal’ effect on the voting power of Republican voters; it neither undermines their access to the polls nor disproportionately diminishes the weight of their votes relative to other Nevada voters.” 

Clark and Washoe counties tallied 45,596 mail-in ballots in 2022 voting, the secretary of state’s office reported, with 89% of those arriving the day after Election Day.

It’s unknown how those ballots broke down along party lines, but Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated GOP challenger Adam Laxalt by 8,000 votes that year.

Republicans believe Nevada, which hasn’t gone for a GOP presidential candidate since 2004, could end up in former President Donald Trump’s column this year and have stepped up voter-integrity efforts, with party chair Michael Whatley saying the Silver State is “absolutely critical” in regaining the White House.

A GOP spokeswoman, Claire Zunk, told Courthouse News the party will appeal.

“Our case fights a Nevada law that shouldn’t be on the books; it breaks federal law and allows mail ballots to be counted after Election Day,” Zunk said. “Rather than letting us fight this in court, a liberal judge unjustifiably dismissed our case. Political parties must be allowed to fight invalid election laws that threaten the integrity of our elections. We are committed to protecting the ballot and we will pursue further legal action in this case.”

The Republicans are not alone in challenging voter issues in the Silver State. Last month, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, joined by two Nevada voters, sued Clark County’s Portillo over rolls showing voters listing a casino, several industrial parks and a topless club as their residential addresses.

That lawsuit, along with a similar one in Washoe County, is pending.