Nevada

CARSON CITY — Week 7 of the Nevada Legislature starts today with a marathon day that will include a student protest over higher education cuts and the first nighttime floor meetings of the 2011 session as legislators rush to meet the deadline for individual bill introductions.

After failing for five straight sessions to repeal the state’s 39-year-old motorcycle helmet law, Sen. Don Gustavson has developed a new, perhaps winnable, strategy: Let them take off their helmets, and they will come.

Mining companies in Nevada could lose tax deductions worth more than $2 billion under a bill making its way to the state Legislature.