Friday, April 22, 2005 | 11:20 a.m.
Guinn to get more protection
Gov. Kenny Guinn will have two more bodyguards to shepherd him around in Las Vegas in the future.
A Senate-Assembly budget committee today approved a plan to add two Nevada Highway Patrol officers for the Dignitary Protection Unit in Southern Nevada.
There are currently three dignitary protection officers based in Carson City and one in Las Vegas.
Col. David Hosmer, superintendent of the Nevada Highway Patrol, said the governor and his wife spend a "lot of time in the south."
Assembly passes gift card measure
Businesses would have to clearly outline whether or not gift cards have an expiration date under a bill passed Thursday by the Assembly.
Assembly Bill 19 would require cards to state the terms of any expiration dates or service fees on the card, or list a phone number where the information can be found.
It would also require that service fees could not exceed on dollar per month nor be charged until the card has been held for a year, said the bill's sponsor, Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas.
"This bill will be helpful to consumers, and particularly to me because I have a hard time remembering dates," said Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, who sponsored similar legislation.
Assembly calls for mobile home action
A bill intended to improve inspections to prevent problems like those at Sky-Vue mobile home park in Las Vegas passed the Assembly Thursday.
Assembly Bill 343 was written in response to the actions against Sky-Vue, which Las Vegas closed down last year because of a myriad of health problems, said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who visited the park last year.
Giunchigliani said she found open-running sewage, water lines illegally hooked up and a senior citizen lying in a bed with a hole in the roof right above her.
Part of the problem was that different government entities were inspecting the park, but they weren't communicating problems with each other, Giunchigliani said.
"People only came out and inspected the one thing they're responsible for," she said.
Her bill requires more inspections of mobile-home parks, outlines better communication between government entities, provides for more fines relating to health issues and requires that mobile homes be equipped with a smoke detector.
The bill also would require mobile home parks to get approval from either the State Health Officer or another local health board when they want to do construction or expansion on a park.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Charter schools measure passes
The state Board of Education would have the power to reject requests for new charter school licenses under a bill passed Thursday by the Assembly.
Now the board of trustees can reject charter school applications, but the Board of Education must approve them as long as they meet basic requirements set by law.
Assembly Bill 180 would allow the state board to reject applications for new charter schools if the board provides written notice of the deficiencies in the application. It also affects teachers who take a leave of absence from school districts to work at charter schools, saying they must return within three years -- instead of six years -- if they want to return to comparable jobs in the school district.
Finally, the bill requires charter schools that are sponsored by school trustee boards to enroll students from that board's district before enrolling out-of-district students.
A similar bill that also cleared the Assembly, Assembly Bill 168, also would allow the Board of Education to reject applications to start a charter school. It was amended this week in the Senate to say that charter schools would have 30 days to appeal those rejections, and that the schools could also appeal rejections to District Court.
Changes made to adoption contracts
The Assembly passed a bill Thursday that puts more teeth in a law that allows adoptive parents and birth parents to enter into adoption decrees.
Adoption contracts are sometimes formed to deal with contact and communication regarding the child. But the Nevada Supreme Court found there is no way under current state law to enforce those contracts.
Assembly Bill 51 would require both parties to sign the agreement and enter the decree into a court. It would also require that the decrees can be modified or terminated only if it is deemed to be in the best interest of the child and only if it limits or restricts the contract.
Birth parents would be able to take civil action if they believe the adoptive parents are not complying with the agreement, but the contracts cannot be used to terminate the adoption.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Energy assistance measure defeated
A bill that proposed to change the program that provides assistance to low-income families for their energy bill died in the Senate Thursday.
Senate Bill 123 was defeated on a 7-13 vote after opponents complained that people living in mobile homes would be shortchanged if the bill became law.
There is presently a charge on natural gas and electric bills to set up a fund to provide money to help pay energy bills and to weatherize housing. At present 75 percent of the money goes to the state Welfare Division to help pay part of the heating or cooling bills of low-income families. The remaining 25 percent goes to the state Housing Division to weatherize homes.
Legislators complained that $15 million built up in the fund without the state Welfare Division spending the money because of problems with the law.
The bill sought to give housing and welfare each 50 percent of the money collected. And it prohibited the Housing Division from weatherizing mobile homes.
It would have also lowered the tax now imposed from 3.30 mills on each therm of natural gas to 2.475 and on electricity from 0.39 mills to 0.2925 on each kilowatt-hour.
Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said the bill was "throwing out people who expect to benefit. We're going to cut services," to mobile home owners. He argued all people pay the tax.
But Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, said it was not effective to spend money on weatherizing mobile homes. There will still be money to weatherize "stick homes."
Voting for SB123 were Hardy, Mark Amodei, R-Carson City; Joe Heck, R-Las Vegas, John Lee, D-North Las Vegas and Las Vegas Democrats Terry Care, Mike Schneider and Valerie Wiener.
Military might get retirement break
People returning from active military duty could have a chance to buy back the time they missed in the state retirement system under a bill passed Thursday by the Assembly.
Assembly Bill 113 allows people who have at least five years of service credit in the Public Employees Retirement System to purchase the time they spent while on active duty. The returning public employee would have to pay the full cost of the credit, and the bill would be effective in July.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Senate approves voyeur restrictions
A bill aimed at stopping people from filming others in such areas as restrooms and then distributing the film was approved by the Senate 20-0 Thursday.
Senate Bill 28, which goes to the Assembly, makes it illegal for a person to film the "private area" of another person in a place where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The felony penalty would be 1-4 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. But the court would then have to place the person on probation, though a judge could order one year in the county jail.
Senate says yes to gaming admission
A bill permitting casinos to charge admission to such events as pool parties where there is gaming cleared the Senate Thursday on a 19-1 vote.
Senate Bill 444 would allow hotels to charge admission for some special events where they set up slot machines or table games. But it would require that the hotel have an equal number of slots or games in a different area for a person to play without charge.
The bill was pushed by the Palms.
Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, cast the lone dissenting vote on the bill that goes to the Assembly.
Emergency room measure advances
A move toward ending the long wait that some patients endure when they arrive at emergency rooms in Clark County has been approved by the Senate.
Senate Bill 458, passed 19-0 Thursday, requires that a hospital must accept a patient within 30 minutes after arriving by ambulance. And a study must be conducted in Clark County to determine whether the hospitals are able to transfer the patient to a bed, chair or gurney in the 30 minutes.
There have been complaints that patients sometimes must wait hours before hospital emergency room personnel in Clark County are able to accept them for treatment. And ambulance drivers said they must stay with the patient instead of returning to the street to handle additional cases.
SB458 goes to the Assembly.
archive
