Opinion Columns

At the tail end of the 2011 Legislature, the state seemed headed for a standoff over Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget. Then the Nevada Supreme Court stepped in.

President Barack Obama got cheers in Las Vegas on Tuesday when he announced the purpose of his quick visit: “I’m here today because the time has come for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform.”

In early January 2012, I objected to President Obama’s use of his recess appointment powers to fill government jobs that were being intentionally left vacant by a filibustering Senate minority.

As reporters chased a mute, hooded, cane-wielding Assemblyman Steven Brooks from the Legislative Building in Carson City Wednesday – and then resumed the hunt as he got off a plane here in Las Vegas – it became instantly clear that this eventually must end.

The truest thing said thus far about the increasingly bizarre saga of Assemblyman Steven Brooks, D-North Las Vegas, comes from former state archivist Guy Rocha, a man who has seen almost everything.

Looking back over last week’s State of the State speech and the Democratic response, it occurs to me that perhaps the reason Nevada’s Democrats don’t want to come out strongly for new taxes is that they want to appear to be open-minded.

Gov. Brian Sandoval did a workmanlike job of delivering a straightforward, unadorned State of the State speech in Carson City Wednesday, setting out a budget and agenda for the Legislature that will mostly preserve the status quo.

It was such a simple thing, at first.