Tag: nevada

Arizona, Nevada blast federal plan for Colorado River

Arizona and Nevada on Friday opposed a Colorado River usage reduction plan by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which could define the crucial waterway for 40 million people over the next decade.

The Colorado River Final Environmental Impact Statement by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of Interior emphasized the federal government’s preference for negotiations to take place among states, but set in motion plans for the next decade of water conservation. The proposal, which was released Friday, included up to 3 million acre-feet in annual Lower Basin water usage reductions.

“Arizona recognizes the serious condition of the Colorado River, and we are prepared to be part of a responsible solution,” Arizona State Senate President Warren Petersen said in a statement sent to The Center Square. “What we will not accept is a federal plan that protects some states while placing a devastating and disproportionate burden on Arizona.”

Negotiations among Colorado River states have repeatedly failed to meet deadlines over the past year, leading at least four states, including Arizona, to build legal teams for potential litigation over the river’s water sharing. The Colorado River states are California, Nevada and Arizona in the Lower Basin and Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico in the Upper Basin.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources toed the line on potential legal action. The department told The Center Square in a statement that it would “work to complete the agreements necessary to implement the Lower Basin Proposal while preserving Arizona’s legal rights.”

“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s willingness to continue working with us toward a fair agreement, but the Senate stands ready to use every legal and legislative tool available if Arizona is forced to carry this burden alone,” Petersen said.

The previous Colorado River water usage guidelines from 2007 are set to expire at the end of 2026.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s new guidelines included “sideboards” to protect against extreme flow reductions in the river. The largest announcement among them was the potential annual 3 million acre-feet of water reductions that could be required from California, Nevada and Arizona.

The Colorado River Compact, originally signed in 1922, allocates each basin 7.5 million acre-feet of annual river water. Today, the agreement applies to seven states and 30 tribes.

“While our community is prepared to manage through short-term reductions to protect the Colorado River system, as the basin’s smallest water user, Nevada cannot solve the river’s imbalance alone,” John Entsminger, Southern Nevada Water Authority’s general manager, told The Center Square in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) released by the Department of the Interior today seeks to impose unrealistic reductions on Nevada and our water users,” Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, added in a statement Friday.

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Bureau of Land Management Approves First-Ever AI Data Center on Public Lands

A little over a year ago, on July 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order announcing that “my Administration will utilize federally owned land and resources for the expeditious and orderly development of data centers.”

And indeed, just last month, on June 26, 2026, the Trump administration approved the first-ever commercial AI data center on public land.

The Townsite Data Center would be located on 88.5 acres of federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Eldorado Valley. It would sit within the city limits of Boulder City, Nevada, a historic community of fewer than 15,000 people southeast of Las Vegas, often referred to as the “gateway to the Hoover Dam.”

The facility would draw as much as 167 megawatts of electricity—more than Boulder City itself consumes—and place two warehouse-scale buildings, parking lots, an electrical substation, battery storage, backup generators, powerlines, and a brand new road in the middle of desert tortoise habitat.

And yet, Bruce Sillitoe, the BLM’s Las Vegas Field Office Manager, approved the AI data center in June without preparing a new environmental assessment or soliciting any public comment.

Instead, the agency relied on a prior analysis conducted for a completely different proposal: a solar-energy and battery-storage project called Townsite Solar 2, which was first proposed by the same Houston-based company that now wants to build a data center there instead.

The maps below, obtained from the BLM’s Plan of Development, show the location of the proposed Townsite Data Center relative to Las Vegas and Lake Mead, and Boulder City. “Development of data center and AI infrastructure is a top priority [of] the United States Government,” the Plan of Development says.

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Protesters Target NV Energy At Utility Conference As Anger Over Soaring Electricity Prices Boils Over

Protesters shouting affordability complaints and chanting slogans interrupted a speech by NV Energy President and CEO Brandon Barkhuff on Wednesday. Barkhuff was speaking to some 1,000 utility executives and electricity industry stakeholders during the Edison Electric Institute 2026 conference at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

After being escorted out by security, the protesters spoke to the media outside the hotel to demand the cancellation of a daily demand charge for NV Energy customers slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2027, as well as to demand action on clean energy and high electricity bills.

The confrontation shows the extent to which energy costs have stoked public anger, raising pressure on utilities and their regulators.  

Utilities have made affordability a cornerstone of their public messaging as they prepare to spend over $1 trillion over the next five years to meet a surge in demand, much of it driven by large-load data centers. 

In Nevada, The Public Utility Commission in September unanimously approved a demand charge and new rate design for NV Energy customers in the southern portion of the state. It also approved changing the utility’s net metering design in ways that solar advocates said would weaken customer protections and set back Nevada’s clean energy goals. 

“In Las Vegas, one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, you cannot live without electricity,” said protest organizer Leslie Vega. Vega, a climate equity policy fellow at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said she’s lost loved ones to heatstroke and sees the demand charge as air conditioning rationing.

“We’re not just asking for lower rates. We’re asking for survival,” she said.

NV Energy issued a statement following the protest citing “misinformation and confusion” about the daily demand charge. 

“Daily demand [charges] will lower bills for the majority of our southern Nevada customers,” it said. “We understand that energy costs are an important issue for our customers, and that’s exactly why daily demand [charges are] critical in stopping subsidies that shift costs to other customers.”

Demand charges are tied to a customer’s peak electricity use, and NV Energy’s daily demand charge is based on the energy a customer consumes during a 15-minute period of peak usage each day. The utility expects the demand charge to add about 49 cents/day to a typical customer’s bill, but says most southern Nevada customers will see monthly bills that are similar to or slightly lower under the new structure.

Regulators and the utility have said that consumers who are concerned about potential spikes on their bill from the charge can shift their electricity use, but advocates say that’s not realistic, especially for cooling. Las Vegas temperatures on Wednesday reached 103 degrees as the city experiences its longest 100-degree streak of the year, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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FEDs Target Las Vegas Businessman Rick Saga After He Exposed Nevada State Money Laundering Scheme

The founding and growth of Las Vegas is part of the American story.  Colorful figures abound, and many are etched into exhibits in the city’s Mob Museum.  From the early 1940s into the early 1980s, the mob ruthlessly shaped the city’s image, fighting for power and money for approximately 40 years.  Now, the hundreds of millions of dollars made by the mob in Las Vegas are insignificant in comparison to what occurs across the country in government and political fraud annually.

After President Trump won the 2024 election and was sworn in on January 20, 2025, we learned that the real corruption in this country is happening within the government. Some of this corruption is happening in Nevada.

Many readers may recall that after President Trump’s 2024 reelection and before his inauguration, the defeated Biden Administration frantically dispersed government funds to political friends to hide money from the incoming Trump Administration.

A $375 billion slush fund handled by corrupt deep state insider John Podesta gave billions to Democrat Non-Profit Organizations (NGOs) throughout Biden’s time in office.

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Unusual earthquake swarm strikes near Area 51 sparking fears of secret testing

More than a dozen earthquakes have struck near Nevada‘s highly classified base in the past 24 hours.

At least 17 earthquakes up to a 4.4 magnitude were detected just miles from Area 51,  a cultural phenomenon thanks to decades of conspiracy theories connecting the base to UFOs, aliens and experimental aircraft testing.

The 4.4-magnitude earthquake kicked off the seismic activity, striking just 2.5 miles underground, fueling speculation about possible underground testing.

The tremors were recorded in an area not typically known for frequent seismic activity, raising questions among observers tracking the unusual cluster.

Geophysicist Stefan Burns described the location as ‘an unusual place to get an earthquake,’ noting that the region has historically remained relatively quiet compared with other fault-heavy zones across the West.

He also pointed to the shallow depth of the strongest quake, roughly four kilometers underground, a detail he said made the event particularly noteworthy.

Burns added that earthquakes and underground explosions can sometimes produce similar seismic signatures, especially when energy is released suddenly beneath the surface.

While he stressed that the event was most likely a natural earthquake, he acknowledged there was ‘some ambiguity’ in the seismic data and said the unusual characteristics made the activity ‘worth discussing in the context of whether this is a covert underground nuclear test.’

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Another Wrongful Arrest Based on Faulty Facial Recognition Raises Growing Concerns

Jason Killinger walked into Reno’s Peppermill Casino in September of 2023, later that evening as he was exiting the building he would be arrested. The casino’s facial recognition system had flagged him as a “100 percent match” for an individual that had previously been banned from the property. The only problem? It was completely wrong.

After the system flagged Killinger, casino security would approach him, referring to him as “Mike”, an individual who had been previously removed from the property. Despite his insistence and ability to prove that he was in fact not Mike, security would surround and handcuff Killinger before calling the Reno Police Department. Shortly thereafter rookie Officer Richard Jager would arrive on the scene.

Killinger quickly proved he was not the man identified in the system, as he was carrying three valid forms of identification, including a Nevada Real ID compliant drivers license, his Peppermill player’s card, and a debit card, all with his name on it. When this wasn’t enough he offered to retrieve more from his vehicle, which included a pay stub, vehicle registration, and a medical card. Despite all of this copious documentation proving who he was, Officer Jager declined to investigate further, not bothering to look at any of his other identifying documents. Killinger would be arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

He would then spend 11 hours in police custody, only after a fingerprint check at Washoe County jail confirmed his identity would he finally be released.

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FAA Records Detail Pilot Encounter with Unidentified Object Pacing Aircraft Over Nevada

A newly released set of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), documents an unusual aerial encounter involving a business jet over Northern Nevada in May 2025. The records include air traffic control (ATC) audio and internal FAA logs, though key data, specifically radar information, was withheld.

The FOIA request, originally submitted May 30, 2025, sought comprehensive records related to an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) observed by flight PWA192 during its return trip from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Chicago Executive Airport (PWK). The FAA issued a partial denial response under case number FAA-2025-03957, releasing limited material while withholding others under federal exemptions.

The case first came to light through an anonymous tip submitted to The Black Vault. While anonymous sources are typically treated with caution, the details provided were corroborated through FAA documentation and audio recordings released under FOIA.

The most direct official acknowledgment appears in the FAA’s Daily Record of Facility Operation (Form 7230-4), which documents the event as it was recorded in real time by Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZOA).

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Dr. Jeff Gunter: Democrat Susie Lee ‘Aided, Abetted’ Biden’s Flood of Millions of Illegal Aliens Across Border

Dr. Jeff Gunter, President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Iceland under his first term, on Breitbart News Saturday, said that Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) “aided and abetted” President Joe Biden’s flooding of up to 20 million illegal aliens across the southern border.

Gunter, who aims to oust Lee if he becomes the Republican nominee in Nevada’s third congressional district, spoke to Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle as Democrats refused to stand up for Americans over illegal aliens during the State of the Union.

When asked about Democrats’, including Lee’s, refusal to back Americans over illegal aliens, he said on Breitbart News Saturday, “Let’s face it, she’s flooded and aided and abetted Joe Biden in flooding our country with illegal aliens, up to 20 million people. She did not stand, she’s an aider and abetter. She’s really just chosen illegal aliens over the American people, over her district, over Nevada CD-3, and that’s why she’s going to lose.”

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Nevada is the latest of 18 states sued by US government for voter data

The lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division adds Nevada to a growing list of 18 states facing litigation over sensitive state voter data.

The suit comes after months of DOJ demands for complete state voting registration lists, which Nevada and other states have repeatedly denied and called intimidation in an effort to influence elections. President Donald Trump lost all 18 states in the 2020 election, with Nevada one of three states with Republican governors.

The Trump administration said in the filings that it would like to use the voting registrations to verify the states are following federal election law in an effort to strengthen voting security.

Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says states administer elections and determine their “Times, Places and Manner.”

Nevada, along with most other states, had already denied a request to provide the sensitive voter data. The initial request by the DOJ Civil Rights Division in August called for complete voter registration lists – including Social Security numbers and information about driver’s licenses. Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said at the time that the state needed more time to look over the “unprecedented” request.

“Despite our simple requests for information on how they’re going to keep this data secure, they’ve given us no clear answers,” Aguilar wrote in response to the suit filing announced Friday. “It’s my duty to follow Nevada law and protect the best interests of Nevadans, which includes protecting their sensitive information and access to the ballot.”

The DOJ Civil Rights Division announced similar suits in Colorado, Hawaii and Massachusetts on Friday. They also sued for 2020 voting records from Fulton County, Georgia after an ongoing election interference case against Trump and allies in the state was dismissed last month.

“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,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”

Wyoming and Indiana provided complete voting registration lists with driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers. Ten other states responded to the DOJ Civil Rights Division with publicly available versions of the voter registration lists, with the sensitive information redacted.

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Federal Judge DISQUALIFIES President Trump’s Acting US Attorney in Nevada, Rules Her Appointment is Invalid

A federal judge on Tuesday disqualified President Trump’s Acting US Attorney in Nevada, Sigal Chattah, and ruled her appointment is invalid.

Earlier this year President Trump appointed Sigal Chattah as the Interim US Attorney in Nevada. Shortly before her 120 day interim appointment expired, she resigned from the position and was reappointed as the Acting US Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Anti-Trump prosecutors immediately filed motions to disqualify Chattah, claiming this maneuver to leapfrog to an “Acting US Attorney” role was unlawful.

On Tuesday, US District Judge David G. Campbell, a George W. Bush appointee, said in a 32-page ruling that Chattah is “improperly serving” in her role as Acting US Attorney.

“Ms. Chattah is disqualified from supervising these cases or any attorneys in the handling of these cases,” Judge Campbell wrote.

Judge Campbell did not dismiss the indictments.

“Defendants’ motions are denied to the extent they seek dismissal of their indictments,” the judge wrote.

The judge reassigned Sigal Chattah’s cases to the District Judges in Nevada.

“These cases shall be reassigned to the District Judges in Nevada to whom they were originally assigned. The undersigned judge will remain available to handle similar motions filed in other Nevada cases, if warranted,” the judge wrote.

This is the second time a federal district court judge has disqualified one of President Trump’s Acting US Attorneys.

As previously reported, last month, US District Judge Mathew Brann, an Obama appointee, said Alina Habba is “not lawfully holding the Office of US Attorney” of New Jersey.

The Pennsylvania-based federal judge oversaw a challenge to Alina Habba’s authority because the judges in New Jersey had a conflict of interest after they ousted her from her position as interim US Attorney last month.

A group of federal judges over the summer declined to extend Alina Habba’s term as interim US Attorney of New Jersey after Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries launched a pressure campaign to oust her.

Habba resigned as Interim US Attorney and became Acting US Attorney for New Jersey after the Trump DOJ outmaneuvered the judges before her term expired.

President Trump recently said he will be filing a lawsuit to prevent Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) from blocking Alina Habba’s confirmation for US Attorney of New Jersey with the unconstitutional ‘blue slip’ custom.

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