Nevada

ONLY ON FOX5: Nevada leaders react to tragedy in Minnesota

Published

6 months ago

June 18, 2025

ONLY ON FOX5: Nevada leaders react to tragedy in Minnesota

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It took almost no time for the shockwaves surrounding the Minnesota attacks to travel all the way to Nevada.

Now state lawmakers tell FOX5, they most definitely felt it and its impact on their own well-being.

“One of the first things I did was reach out to my colleague and fellow Attorney General Keith Ellison to check in on him, because his name was on that list as well,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford told FOX5.

Bad news travelled fast on Saturday – in no time, lawmakers more than 16 hundred miles away were hearing about the tragedy surrounding their colleagues in Minnesota.

“Right after the incident, the governor, the governor’s team reached out to myself, my team, and all of us, to try to help make sure that proper procedures were being followed,” shared Assembly Minority Leader Gregory Hafen, a Republican from Pahrump.

The news sparking many, many phone calls – and many, many conversations about lawmaker security.

“We’ve been reaching out to other Senators and other lawmakers and making sure that we’re answering any questions that we can, and making sure that we have contact with our legislative police to ensure the safety of all state lawmakers,” said Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, a Democrat from Las Vegas.

“I think when you see something like that, you know, an attack on lawmakers in their very own homes, I think it’s really scary,” she adds.

Lawmakers tells FOX5 they feel very secure while the legislature is in session.

“When we’re in Carson City, and in our Las Vegas office, there are metal detectors, x-ray machines before anyone can enter, and so extensive law enforcement presence at those facilities,” said Hafen.

But Nevada doesn’t provide off-site security for members of the legislature. In fact — no states do. The governor does get his own detail, but other elected officials have to ask for it.

“In fact, this past legislative session, my office specifically asked for detail protection for me, because we’ve been getting increasing amounts of threats directed toward me,” said Ford.

Ford got his detail – but Assemblymembers and state Senators remain on their own when it comes to their personal security.

“I’ve been involved in local politics in Nye County for probably going on 20 years now, so to me it’s just been second-nature, you have to be vigilant,” said Hafen. “Sadly we live in a society where things do go wrong. We don’t live in a perfect world, so you always have to be vigilant and cautious when you’re out and about.”

Cannizzaro agrees.

“The idea that because you choose public service, for a part of your life – giving back to the community you live in, that could potentially lead to a very violent situation, can definitely make you think about your surroundings a little bit more.”

Nevada has never witnessed an act of political violence that cost a lawmaker his or her life.

All the lawmakers FOX5 spoke with say they have complete confidence in local law enforcement to protect them when they’re in their home districts, but they all agree vigilance is essential in times like these.

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Nevada

DOJ sues Nevada for allegedly withholding voter registration information

Published

4 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

DOJ sues Nevada for allegedly withholding voter registration information

The Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against Nevada on Friday, alleging that the state failed to provide statewide voter registration lists when requested, according to a news release.

Colorado, Hawaii, and Massachusetts were also sued, bringing the total to 18 states now facing lawsuits from the Justice Department. The department’s Civil Rights Division filed the complaints.

Francisco Aguilar, Nevada secretary of state, was charged with violating the Civil Rights Act after he responded on Aug. 21 to a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying there was no basis for her request for certain voter information, asserting privacy concerns, according to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Aguilar provided a link to the state’s computerized voter registration list. However, the version shared contained incomplete fields, including registrants’ full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

Aguilar’s Aug. 21 letter said his office would follow up, but the attorney general never received the list containing all the requested fields, the lawsuit said.

According to the news release, Congress assigns the attorney general primary responsibility for enforcing the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, both enacted to ensure that states maintain accurate and effective voter registration systems.

The attorney general also has authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to request, review, and analyze statewide voter registration lists, according to the release.

“States have the statutory duty to preserve and protect their constituents from vote dilution,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the release. “At this Department of Justice, we will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws. If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.

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Nevada

Police: Deadly crash closes all lanes at I-15, Charleston

Published

16 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Police: Deadly crash closes all lanes at I-15, Charleston

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A deadly crash has closed all lanes at I-15 and Charleston Boulevard, police say.

Nevada State Police posted on social media after 7 p.m. about the crash. Police say drivers in the area should use other routes.

Police have not immediately shared details about the victim or if other people are involved. It’s not yet confirmed if impairment is suspected.

This is a developing story. Check back later for details.

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Nevada

Top Interior Department official has ties to Thacker Pass lithium mine – High Country News

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Top Interior Department official has ties to Thacker Pass lithium mine – High Country News

This story was co-published with Public Domain.

Karen Budd-Falen, a top official at the Department of Interior, has financial ties to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada — a project that the Trump administration worked to fast-track during its first term. In recent months, the administration took an equity stake in the mine and the mine’s parent company.

After an unexplained delay, Public Domain and High Country News obtained Budd-Falen’s financial disclosure earlier this month, which details her family’s extensive land holdings. Among them is Home Ranch LLC, a Nevada ranching operation valued at over $1 million. Nevada’s business search database shows a Home Ranch LLC that listed Frank Falen as the manager in February 2022. Frank Falen is also the name of Karen Budd Falen’s husband.

Karen Budd-Falen, senior partner at Budd-Falen Law Offices LLC, speaks at the 2024 Western Ag and Environmental Law Conference. Budd-Falen is a top official at the Interior Department. Credit: uacescomm / CC via Flickr

In November 2018, not long after Karen Budd-Falen joined the first Trump administration as a top legal official at the Interior Department, Home Ranch LLC agreed to sell water rights to Lithium Nevada Corporation, the company developing the Thacker Pass mine, for an undisclosed amount of money, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Frank Falen is listed on the document.

A Home Ranch also appears in planning documents that Lithium Nevada submitted to federal regulators during Trump’s first term. A monitoring plan for Thacker Pass, dated July 2021, notes that the company intended to use existing stock water wells owned by Home Ranch LLC to “monitor potential drawdown impacts” from its mining operations.

The water purchase agreement and other records raise questions about potential conflicts of interest. Budd-Falen was appointed in March as associate deputy secretary to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — a position that does not require Senate confirmation. She also served as a high-ranking legal official at the Interior Department during President Trump’s first term.

It was during that earlier government stint that her official calendar lists a November 6, 2019 meeting in which Budd-Falen was scheduled to have “lunch with Lithium Nevada.”

In 2019, Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining firm Lithium Americas, was seeking speedy approval for its Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada. In the waning days of the first Trump administration it received just that. In January 2021, the Bureau of Land Management approved the mine project, which includes some 5,700 acres of public land.

The $2.2 billion, open-pit mine project has drawn fierce opposition from area tribes and environmentalists, who argue it threatens water resources, endangered species and sacred cultural sites. Thacker Pass, known as Peehee Mu’huh to the Paiute Shoshone people, was the site of an 1865 massacre of at least 31 Paiute people.

Budd-Falen was being considered to lead the BLM during Trump’s first term, but turned down the director job when she learned that she and her husband would have to sell their interests in their family ranches to avoid conflicts of interest, she told The Fence Post in 2018.

Since returning to power, Trump and his team have again worked to move the project forward, as part of a broader push to boost critical mineral mining in the U.S. In September, the Trump administration struck a deal with Lithium Americas to take a 5% equity stake in both the Thacker Pass mine and the company, in exchange for the release of loan money from the Department of Energy.

Budd-Falen has largely worked behind the scenes at the Interior Department. Little is known about what issues she has focused on since returning to the sprawling agency. Notably, Interior officials have yet to release her ethics agreement, which would detail any companies or projects that are off limits.

“Did she have any oversight of the environmental review process regarding Thacker Pass? It is a big question,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, a water conservation group in Nevada. “If she didn’t recuse herself, it would fly in the face of the impartial decisionmaking that Americans expect from government officials.”