David Colborne

Sparks

Opinion Columnist at The Nevada Independent

Opinion columnist for @TheNVIndy. Rural sympathizer. Epistemic trespasser. @wendy_colborne wife guy. @[email protected]

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Articles

OPINION: Why the art of the possible can't diversify Southern Nevada's economy

4 days ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Are expanded film tax credits a bad investment? Sure, but so is everything else that isn’t tied to hospitality and entertainment in Las Vegas. In December 2007, the unemployment rate in Nevada’s two most populous counties exceeded the national unemployment rate for the first time in six years.
OPINION: Northern Nevada’s voters deserve more control over city planning

2 weeks ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

SB48 shifts power — power that Southern Nevadans already have — from appointed commissioners to the city councilors we elect. When was the last time you voted for a planning commissioner? If you’re like most Nevadans, the answer is never.
OPINION: Neither state law nor a recent Supreme Court ruling stops vehicular surveillance

1 month ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Installing a tracker on a politician’s car isn’t constitutionally protected political conduct. With modern cars, however, nobody needs to. A little-understood truth about technology is that it doesn’t enable us to do new things. It merely allows us to do what we’ve always been doing, only faster and easier. Take this column, for example.
OPINION: Imagine a Trump in every governor’s mansion

1 month ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

If you think what the president is doing is bad, wait until dozens of upwardly aspirational governors follow his example. In 2013, the Sacramento Bee published a scathing investigative report about a state-run mental hospital in Las Vegas that was throwing mentally ill people onto buses with bottles of Ensure nutritional supplement and one-way tickets out of Nevada. To his credit, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval didn’t dig in his heels.
OPINION: Tariffs are quack medicine — and they’ll poison Nevada’s economy first - The Nevada Independent

2 months ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Trump’s bizarre obsession with trade deficits will make it impossible to plan a vacation, much less a domestic industrial renaissance. I have a trade deficit with my neighborhood grocery store. Every week, I drive to the grocery store. I fill my cart. I pay for my groceries. Does the grocery store ever buy anything from me? Absolutely not. They’ve never even asked. This is clearly a bad deal.
OPINION: Cortez Masto and Rosen are beginning to receive the Signal

2 months ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Nevada’s senators pride themselves on their bipartisanship — and have been rewarded for it. Recent votes show they’re learning it’s time for that to stop. On March 24 — a date which, for President Donald Trump’s administration, will forever live in infamy — The Atlantic published what was supposed to be a private conversation between several members of Trump’s cabinet, including the secretaries of state and defense.
OPINION: Government is not a business — nobody can run it like one - The Nevada Independent

2 months ago | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Running the government like a business is like driving a tractor like a race car. While researching for my most recent column for The Nevada Independent, I found a few arguments suggesting that President Donald Trump’s aggressive federal workforce and budget cuts were an example of his administration successfully running the federal government like a business. One representative sample was written by Warren Meyer, owner of a company that manages state and federal parks, on his personal blog.
OPINION: Amodei is right — DOGE is out of control - The Nevada Independent

Mar 4, 2025 | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Give me 90 minutes and a microphone and, like Rep. Amodei, I’ll give you a profanity-sprinkled conversation about DOGE, too. “By the way, it’s not doje. It’s doggie. What the hell? This isn’t France.”— Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) on how to pronounce DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency. As a Northern Nevadan, I don’t always agree with my congressman.
OPINION: Wynn must lose

Feb 18, 2025 | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

If Steve Wynn successfully overturns six decades of First Amendment jurisprudence, kiss the ability to complain about anything in print goodbye. You have an unsatisfying meal at a restaurant where you believe you saw canned ingredients being used. Do you have the right to publicly write about your experience?
Nevada’s boards and commissions are receiving some much-needed sunlight

Feb 4, 2025 | thenevadaindependent.com | David Colborne

Reforming the state’s hundreds of boards and commissions is a big task. The Legislature should set aside some time to get through it. “I asked the Legislature not to get nervous when [Kris Sanchez, director of the Department of Business and Industry] plops that bill on the table. I saw it. It’s big. But we’ll get through it.” — Gov. Joe Lombardo remarking on SB78 during his State of the State address.