Nevada
Proposed paid family and medical leave bill would benefit estimated 1M Nevada workers
Nevada lawmakers are considering vastly expanding access to paid family and medical leave, though the proposal faces harsh opposition from business and industry groups.
Democratic Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch’s Assembly Bill 388 would require private employers with more than 50 workers, as well as all public employers, to provide paid family and medical leave. The bill was heard by the Assembly Committee on Revenue on Wednesday, according to Nevada Current.
Only 4% of businesses employ more than 50 workers, according to La Rue Hatch, who attributed the figure to research by the Legislative Counsel Bureau, but that 4% of businesses employ nearly 1 million Nevadans — more than 60% of the state’s workforce.
In 2023, the Legislature established paid family and medical leave for state employees. La Rue Hatch described this year’s AB388, as “a natural next step” to ensure nearly a million Nevadans are able to address their own and their family’s medical needs. Twelve assemblymembers and one state senator have signed on as additional sponsors.
La Rue Hatch, a public school teacher in Northern Nevada, shared with the committee that in November she had jaw surgery that required six weeks of recovery. Public school teachers are not covered by the state’s existing mandated paid family and medical leave law, so she relied on a union-negotiated program where members can donate their paid time off to others who need it.
Most Nevada workers don’t have access to an option like that, she added, and instead are left with options that lead to financial hardship. They return to work prematurely after giving birth, leave the workforce entirely to provide unpaid care to elderly parents, wrack up additional debt during extensive cancer treatments, or forgo needed medical procedures because they know they can’t afford not to work while recovering.
The United States is one of only six countries that does not have a national guaranteed, comprehensive paid leave program.
Thirteen states have comprehensive, mandatory state paid family and medical leave. Most offer the benefit through pooled payroll taxes paid by employers and/or employees, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
La Rue Hatch told the committee she didn’t believe Nevada was open to that approach.
Under her bill, Nevada employers would be required to offer it as a benefit after 90 days of employment. The leave would be available for specific purposes, such as the birth or adoption of a child, treatment of a serious illness, or caring for a family member who is seriously ill. There are also specific provisions for victims of domestic abuse and families dealing with military deployment.
Workers who earn up to 110% of the state’s average weekly wage — about $1,200 per week or $57,000 annually — would receive 100% of their paycheck for up to 12 weeks. Workers who earn more than that would receive 60% of their wage or 60% of 150% of the state’s average weekly wage, whichever is less. (That 150% threshold currently translates to workers who make about $1,600 a week or $78,000 annually.)
La Rue Hatch said the sliding scale and cap acknowledges that the lowest wage earners may not be able to survive off only part of their paycheck.
AB388 is supported by numerous unions and worker advocacy groups, including the Communication Workers, SEIU, AFSCME, Washoe Education Association and Make It Work Nevada.
“Employees and workers are people,” said Erika Washington, executive director of Make it Work Nevada. “They are human beings… We believe that being able to support, advocate, love and support our families is indeed a human right and a reproductive justice issue. Everyone has somebody they would drop everything for, and it’s our responsibility to care for our families and each other.”
Ben Challinor with the Alzheimer’s Association testified that paid family and medical leave could benefit the estimated 84,000 Nevadans who provide unpaid care for someone living with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Business groups, including the Vegas Chamber, Nevada Resort Association, Retail Association of Nevada, and several chambers of commerce, are opposed to the bill, arguing they oppose mandates that force solutions that need to be addressed business by business.
They also claimed it will drive up costs for business.
“If the government of the State of Nevada believes it is important to pay people in this state to not work for three months, then the State of Nevada can pay for that,” said Tray Abney, Nevada state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
He continued: “Bills with incredibly large fiscal notes or impacts to the state budget have a very hard time getting passed out of here. We don’t always seem to have the same concern for the fiscal notes that affect private sector job creators.”
In her closing remarks, La Rue Hatch argued that paid family and medical leave is an economic benefit that pays itself off in increased productivity and less turnover at business.
“Ikea offers 16 weeks” of paid family and medical leave, she said. “CitiBank, 16 weeks. Bank of America, 16 weeks. Google, 18 weeks paid leave after 90 days of employment. Huge corporations making significant profits have figured out how to take care of workers. It is not mutually exclusive.”
Nevada
Southern Nevada sees string of shootings, one person killed in 24-hour span
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metro Police are investigating multiple shootings that occurred across Southern Nevada within a 24-hour period, including one that turned deadly.
The violence began Thursday evening near Flamingo Road and Linq Lane, when officers attempted to stop a stolen vehicle. The driver sped away, driving into oncoming traffic and nearly causing crashes across the valley.
Crime
Stolen car chase leads to fatal officer-involved shooting, LVMPD investigating
The pursuit ended with 3 suspects fleeing on foot. When one armed suspect refused to drop his weapon, officers opened fire, killing him. The remaining suspects were taken into custody.
Hours later, police responded to a deadly shooting at a business in the northeast valley near Craig Road and Nellis Boulevard. Officers arrived to find a man and a woman suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot.
Crime
Police searching for suspect after shooting in northeast valley leaves one dead
The woman was transported to the hospital and is expected to survive. The man died at the scene.
Detectives say the victims had been arguing with another man when he opened fire and fled. Officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating the suspect as the investigation continues.
About 30 minutes after that shooting, Metro officers responded to another shooting near the intersection of Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to the leg.
Traffic
Police activity blocks off all lanes on eastbound Lake Mead Blvd., Rancho Dr.
He was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover. Detectives are investigating.
Overnight, a fourth shooting shut down Craig Road from Lamont Street to Nellis Boulevard. A victim was found with non-life-threatening injuries, and a suspect was detained.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Nevada
Caltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Caltech researchers are preparing to build a radio telescope that will be the most sensitive ever constructed and survey the sky 100 times faster than any other radio telescope worldwide.
Schmidt Sciences has greenlit construction of the Deep Synoptic Array after the project completed its final design review. The milestone paves the way for construction to begin on the telescope, which is planned for a remote valley in Nevada.
MORE ON FOX5: Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool
The array will consist of 1,650 radio dishes, each slightly more than 6 meters in diameter. The array will span an area of about 20 by 16 kilometers. The team plans to build the telescope by 2029, with science operations commencing soon after.
Survey capabilities
“The DSA will survey the entire visible sky several times in its first five years at unprecedented speeds,” said Gregg Hallinan, principal investigator of DSA, professor of astronomy at Caltech, and director of Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory. “While all other radio telescopes combined have so far found about 20 million radio sources, the DSA will match that in the first day of operations. By the end of its initial survey, it will have discovered about 1 billion new radio sources.”
The telescope will discover radio emission from millions of stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects. It will address the mysteries of black holes, pulsars and fast radio bursts. It will also probe the physics of dark matter and gravity, and it will measure the structure and expansion of the universe.
“Radio astronomy is about to go from sketch to photograph,” said Vikram Ravi, the co-principal investigator of the DSA and a professor of astronomy at Caltech. “The DSA is looking at a far larger volume of the universe far more often than any other telescope.”
Real-time imaging
The DSA will be capable of making images in real time. The numerous radio dishes will feed into a supercomputer that creates images instantly. The images will be immediately accessible to the worldwide astronomical community.
“Without the radio camera, we would have to store 100 exabytes of data to complete our survey,” Hallinan said. “This would require 5 million hard drives in a multi-billion-dollar facility the size of multiple football fields. The radio camera solves this problem.”
The DSA’s radio camera will convert the raw data to images in real time with the help of an off-site supercomputer built from Graphics Processing Units built by Nvidia. The radio camera images will be given freely to the public with no proprietary period.
“We want the whole world to also have access to the data just as quickly as we do,” said Katie Jameson, the DSA lead project manager.
The DSA will have the ability to detect more than 100,000 intensely powerful flashes of radio light from fast radio bursts and to localize them to their home galaxies. The DSA will also reveal more than 20,000 new pulsars.
“The science that can be done is endless,” Hallinan said. “There will be enough discoveries to occupy every radio astronomer on the planet.”
The DSA is led by Caltech and funded by Schmidt Sciences. It is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. Two pathfinder projects that led to the DSA, the DSA-110 and the OVRO Long Wavelength Array, were funded by the National Science Foundation.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
Nevada
Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Conservation groups are pushing back against a new state mapping tool that identifies federal lands potentially available for development in Nevada.
The governor’s office, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Nevada, unveiled the interactive map this week to make it easier to find federal land that may be available for development throughout the state and in the Las Vegas Valley.
“It is shocking to look at the map and see how many lands could potentially be sold off,” said Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter.
Tanager said she was surprised at how many federal lands were identified for disposal when she first looked at the map.
“Places like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon in Southern Nevada are what draw people to live in Southern Nevada. We cannot continue to develop right up onto the boundaries or perhaps even in these precious places,” Tanager said.
The conservation group says the mapping tool is the latest effort to treat Nevada’s public lands as a real estate inventory rather than a shared public resource.
“We know that a lot of these areas are environmentally sensitive. We know that there are endangered species on these lands,” Tanager said.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unveils interactive tool mapping federal lands available for possible development, other uses
Housing concerns
Lawmakers have proposed using federal lands to create more affordable housing. Several areas at the edges of the Vegas Valley have been identified for potential development on the mapping tool. Tanager said she does not see that as a viable solution.
“The areas on the outskirts or far outside of existing urban areas are wholly inappropriate for affordable housing. Housing that is located that far away from services will never be truly affordable,” Tanager said. “As folks have to live further and further away from resources like schools and grocery stores, transportation costs go up substantially.”
The conservation group says the valley should fill in open lots and build upward within the existing urban core instead of building outward.
“We know that sprawl and developing on the outskirts of the valley worsens air quality as well from increased transportation,” Tanager said. “We know that sprawl is incredibly water-intensive. The further out you build, the harder it is to recapture that water.”
The Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter says treating federal lands as disposable assets could set a dangerous precedent that accelerates privatization efforts and undermines the principle that public lands should remain in public hands for future generations.
Approximately 85% of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the federal government.
The state says the tool is designed to bolster information sharing about federal lands. The mapping tool is available here.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
-
World2 minutes agoVideo: Moscow Tanker Blast Most Likely Russian Missile, Video Shows
-
News7 minutes agoVideo: The Sacred Catholic Site Where Trump Wants a Border Wall
-
Health29 minutes agoThe Mental Trick That Ends Compulsive Eating and Makes Weight Loss Easier
-
Lifestyle44 minutes agoJudy Blume says she’s done writing: ’50 years is enough!’
-
Education47 minutes agoRuth Bader Ginsburg, Booker T. Washington and 6 Other Americans Who Shaped U.S. History
-
Technology52 minutes agoMoves of the Diamond Hand is an unfinished, irresistibly weird dice-based RPG
-
World59 minutes agoMan charged with attempted murder, released after allegedly forcing toddler into crocodile enclosure at zoo
-
Politics1 hour agoTrump says Iran missiles ‘aren’t the problem’ after White House made them central to war rationale