David McGrath Schwartz

Reporter

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Popular in their cities, could Reno or Las Vegas mayor be governor?: Saturday, July 4, 2009; Nevada’s two most colorful mayors, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, met a couple of weeks ago for a talk. After hours together in Goodman’s office, they emerged to give supporters a similar account of the meeting: If one is in, the other guy will support him.
Wait times climb at the DMV; Northern Nevada, you’re next: Monday, June 29, 2009; Few issues bring out the anger of Nevadans like a long wait at the DMV. For Southern Nevadans that irritation has been compounded by the knowledge that wait times here are as much as three times as long, on average, as in the rest of the state. That won’t be remedied any time soon because lawmakers were unable to fully fund a plan to bring more equity to the system because of the state’s austere fiscal situation.
A $16 artifact rich with significance: After a record 48 vetoes, Gov. Jim Gibbons proudly sending his well-used stamp of disapproval to the state museum; Thursday, June 25, 2009; Gov. Jim Gibbons’ tenure has, for better or worse, been memorable. Now a piece of it is museum-worthy. The hardest-working veto stamp in Nevada history, which Gibbons’ deployed a record 48 times, will be sent to the Nevada State Museum.
Next stop: Taxpayer bailout?: Private company can’t repay construction debt, says it’s seeking government money; Tuesday, June 23, 2009; The Las Vegas Monorail was sold as a privately funded solution to traffic woes on the Strip — a transit line built without tax dollars. Despite the promises of nine years ago, monorail officials now acknowledge they have quietly begun seeking public dollars in a bid to keep the financially troubled train running. “We’re looking at all potential funding sources,” a monorail official said.
On home defect legislation, lobbyists went to the wire: Some say there’s reason to believe a compromise can be achieved in 2011; Sunday, June 21, 2009; The construction industry had just captured a huge victory, pushing legislation through the state Senate that would limit the ability of homeowners to win settlements against developers for construction defects. Builders needed only a victory in the Assembly to save themselves millions in settlements and legal fees. Their lobbyists, gathered in the hallway of the state’s 1970s-era concrete slab of a Legislative Building on April 16, were ecstatic over the Senate vote.
Are you ready for ... a longer general election cycle?: Sunday, June 14, 2009; By creating a longer general election season, a new law will allow parties’ nominees to regroup and replenish their campaign coffers after brutal primary contests.
Governor's idle hands: Gibbons chose passive stance on bills he didn’t like: He let them become law without signing them; Friday, June 12, 2009; Nevada governors have always viewed bills from the Legislature as either or propositions: either sign it or veto it.
But Gov. Jim Gibbons chose a third route in handling some legislation this session — allowing seven bills to become law without his autograph.
The governor didn’t like the bills, but didn’t dislike them enough to veto them.
Furloughs creating staffing ‘nightmare,’ longer wait times: Mandated time off for state workers presents problems for some agencies; Wednesday, June 10, 2009; Lawmakers last month instituted a one-day-a-month furlough for state workers as a gentler money-saving alternative to the straight salary cut proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
How speaker corralled the final vote for partnerships: Loyalty to his Democratic ‘family’ overcame doubts of a Las Vegas lawmaker; Sunday, June 7, 2009; Once the governor’s veto of the domestic partnership bill was overridden in the Senate, observers assumed that the legislation would easily make it out of the Assembly — even though the bill had been approved originally without enough votes to override.
Session evaluation: A winner, a loser, but mostly a wash: Sunday, June 7, 2009; When the boat has a gaping hole in it, no one on board is having much fun on the shuffleboard court. And so at the Nevada Legislature, which adjourned last week and suffered through the worst fiscal crisis in state history, there were few winners.