Nevada Week | Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) on antisemitism, aid for veterans | Season 6 | Episode 18 | PBS

Published

1 year ago

November 10, 2023

Nevada Week | Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) on antisemitism, aid for veterans | Season 6 | Episode 18 | PBS

We begin with U.S.

Senator Jacky Rosen, who in a recent interview shared which veterans’ issues are top of mind for her this Veterans Day, while addressing how a rise in anti-Semitism is impacting her personally.

-So first off, Senator, how are you and your family doing following the threats that were reportedly made on your life simply because you are Jewish?

(Senator Jacky Rosen) Well, thank you for asking that question.

My family and I, we’re doing fine.

I’m grateful to law enforcement, Department of Justice, for apprehending this individual and getting him off the streets.

But I will tell you that this is just a fraction of what Jewish people around the country and in some cases around the world are feeling right now.

As ADL has reported a rise, almost a 400%, in anti-Semitic incidences over the same time last year.

So people are feeling less safe.

They’re feeling threatened in their communities.

And no one is more threatened right now than our college students.

And I want to take one moment to talk about that, because as a mother, that’s what struck me the most when my daughter called me and she had heard of the threats.

And I realized, through her eyes, how it– how it felt.

And that’s when I realized the enormity of it.

I know as a mother as well, when you send your kids to college, sometimes the first time they’re away from home, they’re away from their support systems, all students should feel safe on campus.

It’s a university’s responsibility.

And I did call Secretary of Education Cardona to reiterate these guidance for universities about doing that.

Just today, he did do that.

It is the university’s responsibility.

He’s going to call together a task force to talk about these issues, qualified individuals, all the stakeholders, and there will be consequences if we don’t keep our students safe.

-And what do you think those consequences should be?

-Well, I’m going to let the taskforce determine that.

But it is, whether you’re a Jewish student, it is their responsibility, Jewish student or any other student.

Parents send their children to school.

They want them to have a robust education, to make friends, and to feel safe.

And so whatever that is, universities need to do that.

So we’re going to let the taskforce the Department of Education will put together, that will be what they determine is appropriate.

And they’re going to issue their guidance, and we’ll see what comes out from that.

-As you mentioned, the Department of Education is responding.

They have reportedly mentioned that federal funding could be at stake if these colleges and universities fail to protect their Jewish students.

In that letter that you wrote to the Department of Education, you said, quote, Schools have a legal responsibility to protect their students from discrimination.

Yet many university presidents and administrators have failed to forcefully condemn anti-Semitic speech and incidents on campuses in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attack.

Why do you think these university presidents are not forthcoming with their condemnations?

-Well, I can’t speak to each university president, but what I can tell you is that they need to stand up for all their students.

And today, it’s a terrorist attack.

Hamas, a terrorist organization, brutally went into Israel, killing over 1,000 people.

Still almost 240 people, I think by current estimates, hostages still in Gaza.

And so whether it’s Jewish students or any other event, university presidents need to stand up and be strong to protect their students.

That’s what’s disappointing to me.

Why are they withholding those statements against a terrorist organization?

So we’re going to work on that with the Secretary of Education, perhaps federal funding, perhaps there’s other sanctions that we can do.

But I believe, as well as everyone else, and I say– I speak not just as senator, but as a mother– we need to keep our college students safe from harm.

-You mentioned the dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents following Hamas’ attack on Israel.

At the same time, the Council on American Islamic Relations is reporting a spike in hate incidents against Muslim Americans.

What is your message to your Muslim American constituents right now?

-Well, I can tell you hate in all forms is unacceptable.

Now, in America, we have a beautiful right to free speech, but that doesn’t give you the right to threaten or to intimidate or to incite violence.

And so the President put together a task force to combat anti-Semitism.

He’s, again, just this last week or so, putting together that task force to combat Islamophobia.

But I would argue that there is no place for hate in this country.

There’s no place that we want to tolerate threats or intimidation based on your race, your ethnicity, or your religion.

And so that’s what we’re going to continue to work on with everyone.

We can have an open dialogue, but we can’t threaten each other.

-I’d like to transition to Veterans Day now.

You are so involved in many veteran related bills and projects.

Of the issues that they face right now, what’s top of mind for you?

-Well, I can tell you healthcare is top of mind for our veterans.

I would say healthcare, business opportunities, and just the benefits that they’ve earned.

And so I’m the daughter of a World War II veteran.

But my grandfather and my grandmother, her three brothers, everyone served in the war.

And I have so many friends who are veterans, and actually we have many veterans on my team.

And so it’s important that we let veterans know that they have earned the benefits.

They deserve their benefits.

So what’s the first one we’re talking about?

About a year ago, the PACT Act that gave veterans expanded access to health care.

What if you were exposed to Agent Orange, toxic burn pits, high levels of radiation?

You need and deserve the care to take care of your symptoms, your illnesses, whatever they may be.

To that end, you know in Southern Nevada, we’re blessed to have one of the largest VA hospitals in the nation.

And in Northern Nevada, I asked the President to include a new VA hospital in Reno, because that VA Hospital is old and out of date.

He agreed to that.

So we’re going to see expanded access to care up in Northern Nevada as well.

So healthcare, number one.

-And then in September, your office helped secure almost $1 million for the city of Reno Housing Authority to help homeless veterans access housing.

On the topic of housing, you recently helped introduce the VA Home Loan Awareness Act.

Why is that needed?

-Well, again, veterans need to know the benefits that they have out there.

And sometimes, you know, you separate from the military, you come back home, you’re busy getting your life back, maybe going to school, going back to work, and then you want to buy a home.

Well, you’ve forgotten that one- or two-day course you had and all the benefits that were coming to you.

So we want to be sure for the VA home loan, only about 13% of veterans are taking advantage of that.

I want to be sure that every veteran takes advantage of that.

That helps with housing.

Housing helps with health care, your mental health, your physical health, your financial health, you have a stable place to live.

And this is, again, a benefit that they’ve earned.

And I’m very proud too.

I’m going to add one more thing we’ve done.

A lot of veterans want to open small businesses, and I fought for Veterans Business Outreach Center.

I’m on the Small Business Committee.

First ever in Nevada.

It’s going to have two locations: one in Reno, one in Las Vegas.

Ribbon cutting will be coming up pretty soon.

And we’ll let you know about that.

-How soon do you think?

I think there are veterans out there excited for that.

And how were you made aware of the need for this?

-Well, you know, our state, 99% of businesses in Nevada are small businesses.

People think of Nevada, and they think about the Las Vegas Strip with our giant casinos and the like.

But honestly, 99% of our businesses are small business– women owned, veteran owned, minority owned.

They support our tourism industry, not just on the Las Vegas Strip.

I’ll tell you, our outdoor tourism industry, multibillion dollar economic impact in our state.

In fact, I’m chair of the Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion subcommittee, and we’ve been talking about this just in the hearing earlier today.

And so it’s really important that veterans have this ability to, again, use the SBA resources and take advantage of everything that they’ve earned and that they deserve.

So bringing this to Nevada to support our few hundred thousand veterans, it’s really important to have locations up and down the state.

Also important and, of course, I’m sure there’ll be doing things on webinars as well so they can get to everybody.

It matters, and I want our veterans to thrive in Nevada.

-U.S.

Senator Jacky Rosen, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Well, thank you so much for having me.

And Happy Veterans Day to everyone.

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LETTER: Nevada House Democrats buck their party

Published

7 hours ago

January 12, 2025

Press Room

LETTER: Nevada House Democrats buck their party

As a hard-core conservative, I could never see myself voting for the trio of Nevada Democrats who voted for the Laken Riley Act in the House last week. But stating that, I must give the three politicians high marks for bucking the Democrat trend to favor immigrants over us constituents. That takes courage, and I applaud them for putting principle over politics.

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Nevada

Nevada volleyball players were pressured with 'legal issues' to play SJSU trans player during feud with school

Published

15 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Nevada volleyball players were pressured with 'legal issues' to play SJSU trans player during feud with school

EXCLUSIVE: In October, players on the University of Nevada Reno women’s volleyball team were engaged in a highly publicized dispute with its university and athletic department over whether to play a match against San Jose State University.

San Jose State, at the time, rostered a trans athlete.

The Nevada players approached university administrators privately to express their desire to forfeit the match and join four other programs that refused to play SJSU. But Nevada did not honor that request and instead released a statement insisting it would play the match. Nevada also insisted its players would be allowed to skip the contest without facing discipline.

The team ultimately forfeited the day before the match was scheduled to be played, due to not having enough players. However, the university has said it had discussions with the players about potential “legal issues” that would emerge if the match were not played.

“University administrators met with the Nevada volleyball team and discussed scenarios of what could happen if they chose not to play. One of the scenarios that was discussed revolved around possible legal issues for violating the Nevada Constitution,” read a statement that was provided exclusively to Fox News Digital by the University of Nevada, Reno.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

The state’s constitution was revised in 2022, when Democrat lawmakers voted to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, which added gender identity to its list of diversity classifications that are protected under state law.

“The University of Nevada was prohibited by laws and regulations to forfeit for reasons related to gender identity or expression. As a State university, a forfeiture for reasons involving gender identity or expression could constitute per se discrimination and violate the Nevada Constitution,” Nevada’s statement read.

Nevada’s statement was in response to allegations made by co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), Marshi Smith.

Smith met and spoke with multiple players on the Nevada team during ther dispute, and heads the legal advocacy group that has brought a lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West conference for its handling of the situation involving the trans athlete.

“At UNR, school administrators warned athletes they could face legal action if they refused to compete against SJSU’s team, which included a male starter,” Smith told Fox News Digital.

The dispute between the players escalated into a national controversy that even garnered mainstream political attention in the weeks leading up to November’s election.

Nevada players, including captain Sia Liilii, spoke out publicly against the university multiple times for its refusal to forfeit the match. Trump’s Director of National Intelligence presumptive nominee Tulsi Gabbard and former Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown even visited the team for a photo-op and interview.

SJSU TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL: TIMELINE OF ALLEGATIONS, POLITICAL IMPACT AND A RAGING CULTURE MOVEMENT

The scale of the controversy only heightened as the Oct. 26 match date approached. On Oct. 22, Nevada and San Jose State announced that the match would be moved from Nevada’s campus in Reno to San Jose State’s campus in the Bay Area in California, claiming the location change was “in the best interest of both programs and the well-being of the student-athletes, coaches, athletic staff and spectators.”

But then, the day before the match, Nevada announced that its team would forfeit, citing the fact that it didn’t have enough players who were willing to participate. Nevada took a loss on its record, for the match, then went just 1-7 to finish the season.

Nevada players previously spoke about pressures they faced from the university to play the match in a press conference at their university. It was held the day of the originally scheduled match on Oct. 26.

Liilii broke down in tears from the minute she took the podium while she recounted her experience telling school officials she didn’t want to compete against a transgender player.

“We felt unsafe and dismissed,” Liilii said, sobbing. “We met with our school officials to give them our team’s new statement, but they wouldn’t even hear it. We were told that we weren’t educated enough and that we didn’t understand the science. We were told to reconsider our position.”

Nevada sophomore Masyn Navarro alleged her teammates had been told to “stay quiet” about the controversy during the press conference.

“It should not be this difficult to stand up for women. However, we will now take this opportunity to stand up as a team, as some of us have been told to stay quiet,” Navarro said.

WHO IS BLAIRE FLEMING? SJSU VOLLEYBALL PLAYER DOMINATING FEMALE RIVALS AND ENRAGING WOMEN’S RIGHTS GROUPS

Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing the allegations that were made at the press conference.

“I did not tell, and am unaware of any member of the athletics administrative team telling members of our women’s volleyball team that they ‘weren’t educated enough,’ that they ‘didn’t understand the science,’ that they should reconsider their position or that they should ‘stay quiet’ regarding their participation in an Oct. 26 match that was scheduled against San Jose State University.”

Rempe said she had offered an apology to the players regarding how they were informed that the university planned to proceed with the game, even after the players had voted to forfeit.

“On Oct. 14 and Oct. 22, I spoke with the team for less than five minutes each time and those gatherings were operational in nature. At all three meetings, I shared our genuine apology for not sharing the statement released on Oct. 3 in advance of their match against UNLV. As has been stated on multiple occasions, we continue to support the rights of the volleyball players who choose and choose not to participate,” Rempe said.

Article I, Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution provides that “Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”

But Liilii is now one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players engaged in the lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West for its handling of the situation involving the trans athlete.

San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser leads the suit and is engaged in a separate lawsuit against the NCAA citing her experience of having to share a team, bedroom and changing spaces with the trans athlete while knowledge of the player’s birth sex was actively withheld from her for an entire season by the school and conference.

HOW TRANSGENDERISM IN SPORTS SHIFTED THE 2024 ELECTION AND IGNITED A NATIONAL COUNTERCULTURE

The other players on the plaintiff list are Alyssa Sugai, Elle Patterson, Nicanora Clarke, Kaylie Ray, Macey Boggs, Sierra Grizzle, Jordan Sandy, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk. Former SJSU Assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended by San Jose State after filing a Title IX complaint alleging the university gave favorable treatment toward the trans player, is also a plaintiff.

Smith told Fox News Digital that some athletes have expressed fear of retaliation by their schools when deciding whether or not to seek their help.

“The most common first question we hear from NCAA female athletes seeking support is: ‘What can my school or the NCAA do to retaliate against me if I speak out against allowing men in women’s sports?’ They’re often terrified of losing scholarships or being kicked off their teams,” Smith told Fox News Digital.

“The first reassurance we provide is that these athletes have a Constitutional right to free speech. They can speak out or forfeit in protest against discrimination, Title IX violations, or increased safety risks when competing against a male athlete—without fear of retaliation, regardless of the lies their schools may tell them.”

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.

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Nevada

Nevada basketball: How to watch Nevada at Fresno State on Saturday

Published

1 day ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Nevada basketball: How to watch Nevada at Fresno State on Saturday

After a challenging start to conference play, the Nevada basketball team has a chance to pick up its first win of the season in the Mountain West on Saturday.

But so does Fresno State.

The Wolf Pack plays the Bulldogs with tip-off set for 4 p.m. Saturday.

Nevada is 0-4 in conference (8-7 overall) and coming off a one-point overtime loss, 82-81, at New Mexico. The Bulldogs (4-12, 0-5 MW) lost by 27 at Colorado State, 91-64, on Tuesday

What time is the Nevada-Fresno State game at Save Mart Center?

Saturday, 4 p.m. in Fresno, California.

What TV channel and radio station are airing the Nevada-Fresno State game?

The game will be broadcast on TV on KNSN (Ch. 21) and on the Mountain West Network. It will be on the radio at 95.5 FM with John Ramey. All games are available online through the Varsity Network app.

The rankings

Nevada is No. 59 in the current KenPom Rankings, while Fresno State is No. 264.

Meanwhile, Nevada is No. 53 in the NCAA NET rankings and Fresno State is No. 273.

Scoring

Nick Davidson leads the Wolf Pack at 15.3 points per game and Kobe Sanders is averaging 15.1.

The Bulldogs have five players averaging double figures, led by Amar Aguillard at 13.3 points per game and Zaon Collins at 12.9.

Mountain West Standings

Conference, overall

Utah State 5-0, 15-1
New Mexico 5-0, 13-3
Boise State 4-1, 12-4
San Diego State 3-1, 10-3
UNLV 3-1, 9-6
Colorado State 3-1, 9-6
Wyoming 2-3, 9-7
Nevada 0-4, 8-7
Air Force 0-4, 3-12
San Jose State 0-5, 7-10
Fresno State 0-5, 4-12

Saturday’s games: Nevada at Fresno State, San Diego State at New Mexico, San Jose State at Air Force, UNLV at Colorado State, Boise State at Utah State.