Nevada

Rural Nevada sheriff probes potential hate crime after Black man says he was racially harassed

Published

1 year ago

August 6, 2024

Rural Nevada sheriff probes potential hate crime after Black man says he was racially harassed

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A rural Nevada sheriff is investigating a potential hate crime after a Black man who was collecting signatures for a ballot measure recorded a confrontation with another man he said directed a racial slur at him and said “they have a hanging tree” for people like him.

“I’m still shaking every time I think about it,” Ricky Johnson told The Associated Press by phone Monday as he boarded a plane in northern Nevada back to his home in Houston, Texas.

Johnson posted part of the video of the Aug. 2 incident in Virginia City, Nevada, on social media, and the comments drew swift condemnation from local and state officials. Sponsors of the 10-day Hot August Nights class car event that was being held at the time said it revoked the registrations of those identified in the video confronting Johnson.

Storey County Undersheriff Eric Kern said Monday the office has completed interviews with Johnson and potential suspects and delivered the case to the district attorney for a decision on any charges.

“As far as a hate crime, it could be an element,” Kern told AP. “There is an enhancement we are looking at.”

Johnson, who can’t be seen on the video he posted to TikTok, said a white man called him a racial epithet and referenced the “hanging tree” before he started recording the encounter. In the recording, Johnson asks the man to repeat what he said.

A loud, profanity-filled argument on both sides followed before a woman told Johnson he was on her property and he repeatedly asks her not to touch him as they move the conversation into the street, the video shows.

Kern said Johnson provided the video to investigators. He said no one, whether suspect or victim, has been uncooperative in the investigation.

In a statement over the weekend, the sheriff’s office said it doesn’t condone racism, inequality or hate speech and wants to ensure the public it’s doing a thorough investigation.

“But I want to say that in general, in Virginia City, this is not something that happens here,” Kern said. “It’s really a sad thing but it’s an isolated incident. It’s has caused a lot of negative impacts on all sides because people are getting a negative opinion. People are calling businesses.”

Storey County District Attorney Anne Langer didn’t respond to an email request for comment Monday. A spokeswoman for her office referred calls to County Manager Austin Osborne. Osborne’s office said he wasn’t available.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is Black, offered his support Monday to the Storey County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation of what he said was a “hateful, racist incident” in one of Nevada’s most storied towns.

Virginia City attracts tens of thousands of tourists who walk its wood-planked sidewalks filled with old saloons and stores in the Virginia Range just east of the Sierra, about 30 minutes outside of Reno.

It was Nevada’s largest city in the mid-1800s when the discovery of the Comstock Lode brought thousands of silver miners there. Samuel Clemens got his start in the newspaper business and adopted his pen name, Mark Twain, there at the Territorial Enterprise.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo posted on social media saying he was concerned and disappointed by the incident.

“Racism and hate have no place in Nevada — this behavior must be condemned in the strongest terms possible,” he wrote on X.

The Virginia City Tourism Commission denounced the “hateful and racist” behavior as “abhorrent and inexcusable.”

Johnson was working for Advanced Micro Targeting Inc., a Texas-based company that provides voter outreach and get-out-the-vote services, to collect signatures for a proposed Nevada state ballot initiative aimed at capping fees that attorneys collect from clients in personal injury cases.

Johnson said he’s been the target of racial slurs before but the Virginia City incident was different.

“To be actually in the middle of that and you have no way out. you feel like you’re being surrounded by all these people. I felt closed in,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Ritter contributed to this report from Las Vegas.

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Nevada

Outdoor tourism grows in Nevada despite Las Vegas Strip visitor decline

Published

5 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Outdoor tourism grows in Nevada despite Las Vegas Strip visitor decline

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — While Strip tourism declined this year, outdoor recreation across Nevada continues to grow, with some areas seeing increased business and new facilities opening to accommodate visitors.

Valley of Fire State Park reached 1 million visitors this year and recently opened a new $30 million visitors center. Lake Mead National Recreation Area also continues to draw tourists, including those taking holiday-themed rafting tours through Black Canyon.

Chad Taylor, director of operations for the Hospitality Division of Guest Services and Hoover Dam Rafting Adventures, calls outdoor recreation an “enormous” boost for the state economy.

Last month, the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation (NDOR) released an Economic Impact Analysis finding that outdoor recreation is a $24 billion industry in Nevada, generating $13.7 billion in total economic output, supporting more than 75,000 jobs, and contributing $8.8 billion to the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

NDOR reports outdoor recreation has officially surpassed the mining industry in GDP contribution and is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of Nevada’s economic diversification strategy.

The Hoover Dam Rafting Adventure, which has operated for more than four decades, saw slightly lower numbers this year for its 12-mile Colorado River tours starting at the base of the dam. Taylor said the rafting business typically follows Las Vegas tourism trends.

“As Las Vegas tourism increases or decreases, we typically see the same out here for the tour specifically,” Taylor said.

However, other outdoor properties showed growth. Taylor said Lake Mead properties, including Callville Bay, Cottonwood Cove, and Temple Bar, saw increased business this year.

Taylor, who sits on the governor’s advisory board for outdoor tourism, said the state is investing heavily in outdoor recreation infrastructure. Nevada is building Adventure Centers in Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada.

The Southern Nevada Adventure Center, under construction in Boulder City, will serve as a one-stop shop for booking outdoor activities. The facility is expected to open in summer 2026.

“Not only at the federal level, but the state level, the amount of energy and effort that they’ve put into outdoor recreation over the last few years, especially when it comes to the two new adventure centers that they’re building in Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada, they’re doubling down on outdoor recreation,” Taylor said.

The Hoover Dam rafting company continues its holiday-themed tours with Santa through Christmas Eve.

The Hoover Dam rafting company continues its holiday-themed tours with Santa through Christmas Eve.(FOX5)

Reservations can be made at hooverdamraftingadventures.com or by calling (800) 455-3490.

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Nevada

Bill by Nevada’s Amodei to ramp up mining on public land passes House

Published

17 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Bill by Nevada’s Amodei to ramp up mining on public land passes House

The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday put forward by Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei that would reinvigorate mining activity on federal lands.

Amodei, a Republican who represents the state’s top half, described the bill as strengthening the nation’s mineral supply chain and helping to counter China’s dominance with minerals.

“Western states are sitting on a wealth of resources and a critical opportunity to break our dangerous reliance on foreign adversaries while powering our own economy,” he said in a statement.

“The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act … gives domestic mining operations the certainty they need to compete aggressively and win.”

The bill passed 219 to 198. Republicans voted 210 in favor, 1 opposed and 9 not voting. Democrats voted 9 in favor, 197 opposed and 7 not voting. It was one of the House’s last actions before adjourning for the year.

Nevada delegation split on mining bill

Amodei was joined by Las Vegas Democrat Steven Horsford, who co-sponsored the bill in the House.

“Streamlining the hardrock mining process will create good jobs and strengthen our energy sector,” Horsford said.

The state’s other two House members — Democrats Susie Lee and Dina Titus — voted in opposition.

Titus spokesperson Dick Cooper told the Reno Gazette Journal that the congresswoman voted no because the bill would allow for increased dumping of mine waste on public lands.

“It would also allow mining companies to gain permanent rights to occupy public lands and preclude other uses including recreational and cultural uses,” he added.

It now heads to the Senate, where Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto will work to get it passed.

“This bill is common sense, and it’s key for communities across Nevada that count on mining for their livelihoods,” Cortez Masto said in a social media post.

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, a Democrat, also supports it. She helped introduce the Senate companion version of Amodei’s bill.

“Nevada is one of the few places in the United States with an abundance of critical minerals and a robust hardrock mining industry,” Rosen said. “The responsible mining of these minerals supports thousands of jobs and will help to strengthen our domestic manufacturing and clean energy supply chains.”

What does Amodei’s Mining Regulatory Clarity Act do?

The bill is a response to a 2022 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals involving the Rosemont Copper Mine in Arizona.

The decision basically meant that mining companies must prove valuable minerals exist on a piece of land before they can dump waste material on it. Called the “mineral validity” requirement, it disrupted decades of precedent.

Amodei’s bill would reverse that and allow the practice to resume of using nearby land for mining waste without proving the land contains commercial deposits — something mining companies say is essential for operating on federal land.

“This legislation ensures the fundamental ability to conduct responsible mining activities on federal lands,” said Rich Nolan, National Mining Association president and CEO, in a statement. “Regulatory certainty, or the lack thereof, will either underpin or undermine efforts to decisively confront our minerals crisis.”

The bill also creates an “Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund.” Some fees related to mining claims will be used to fund a program to inventory, assess and clean up abandoned hardrock mines.

Environmental groups blast House vote on Mining Regulatory Clarity Act

Some environmental groups campaigned against the bill and described it as choosing corporate interests over people, Native Americans’ rights and the environment.

Lauren Pagel, policy director for Earthworks, said the bill “will remove already-scarce protections for natural resources and sacred cultural sites in U.S. mining law.”

The Center for Biological Diversity said the bill surrenders public lands to mining conglomerates.

“The so-called Mining Regulatory Clarity Act would bypass the validity requirement and grant mining companies — including foreign companies — the statutory right to permanently occupy and indiscriminately use public lands upon approval of a company’s self-written plan of operations,” said the nonprofit conservation organization in an online post.

Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.

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Nevada

California school district near Nevada caught up in a dispute over transgender athlete policies – WTOP News

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

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California school district near Nevada caught up in a dispute over transgender athlete policies – WTOP News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student athletes, a dispute that’s poised to reorder where the district’s students compete.

High schools in California’s Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, set in a mountainous, snow-prone area near the border with Nevada, have for decades competed in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, or NIAA. That has allowed sports teams to avoid making frequent and potentially hazardous trips in poor winter weather to competitions farther to the west, district officials say.

But the Nevada association voted in April to require students in sex-segregated sports programs to play on teams that align with their sex assigned at birth — a departure from a previous approach allowing individual schools to set their own standards. The move raised questions for how the Tahoe-Truckee district would remain in the Nevada association while following California law, which says students can play on teams consistent with their gender identity.

Now, California’s Department of Education is requiring the district to join the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, by the start of next school year.

District Superintendent Kerstin Kramer said at a school board meeting this week the demand puts the district in a difficult position.

“No matter which authority we’re complying with we are leaving students behind,” she said. “So we have been stuck.”

There are currently no known transgender student athletes competing in high school sports in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, district officials told the education department in a letter. But a former student filed a complaint with the state in June after the board decided to stick with Nevada athletics, Kramer said.

A national debate

The dispute comes amid a nationwide battle over the rights of transgender youth in which states have restricted transgender girls from participating on girls sports teams, barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors and required parents to be notified if a child changes their pronouns at school. At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some of the policies have been blocked in court.

Meanwhile, California is fighting the Trump administration in court over transgender athlete policies. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender women and girls from participating in female athletics. The U.S. Justice Department also sued the California Department of Education in July, alleging its policy allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams violates federal law.

And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has signedlaws aimed at protecting trans youth, shocked party allies in March when he raised questions on his podcast about the fairness of trans women and girls competing against other female athletes. His office did not comment on the Tahoe-Truckee Unified case, but said Newsom “rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids.”

The state education department said in a statement that all California districts must follow the law regardless of which state’s athletic association they join.

At the Tahoe-Truckee school board meeting this week, some parents and one student said they opposed allowing trans girls to participate on girls teams.

“I don’t see how it would be fair for female athletes to compete against a biological male because they’re stronger, they’re taller, they’re faster,” said Ava Cockrum, a Truckee High School student on the track and field team. “It’s just not fair.”

But Beth Curtis, a civil rights attorney whose children attended schools in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, said the district should fight NIAA from implementing its trans student athlete policy as violating the Nevada Constitution.

Asking for more time

The district has drafted a plan to transition to the California federation by the 2028-2029 school year after state officials ordered it to take action. It’s awaiting the education department’s response.

Curtis doesn’t think the state will allow the district to delay joining CIF, the California federation, another two years, noting the education department is vigorously defending its law against the Trump administration: “They’re not going to fight to uphold the law and say to you at the same time, ‘Okay, you can ignore it for two years.’”

Tahoe-Truckee Unified’s two high schools with athletic programs, which are located about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) in elevation, compete against both California and Nevada teams in nearby mountain towns — and others more distant and closer to sea level. If the district moves to the California federation, Tahoe-Truckee Unified teams may have to travel more often in bad weather across a risky mountain pass — about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) in elevation above a lake — to reach schools farther from state lines.

Coleville High School, a small California school in the Eastern Sierra near the Nevada border, has also long been a member of the Nevada association, said Heidi Torix, superintendent of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District. The school abides by California law regarding transgender athletes, Torix said.

The school has not been similarly ordered by California to switch where it competes. The California Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment on whether it’s warned any other districts not in the California federation about possible noncompliance with state policy.

State Assemblymember Heather Hadwick, a Republican representing a large region of northern California bordering Nevada, said Tahoe-Truckee Unified shouldn’t be forced to join the CIF.

“I urge California Department of Education and state officials to fully consider the real-world consequences of this decision—not in theory, but on the ground—where weather, geography, and safety matter,” Hadwick said.

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