John L. Smith

1 month ago | thenevadaindependent.com | John L. Smith |JOhn Smith

Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) lost some sleep Tuesday night. In a marathon meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee that ended just before midnight, Nevada’s lone Republican in Congress pushed through an amendment into his party’s budget legislation that calls for selling off hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in this state and Utah. Not a nickel of the sales proceeds is earmarked to remain in Nevada. Nothing for parks, infrastructure, conservation, wildland firefighting.

1 month ago | thenevadaindependent.com | John L. Smith |JOhn Smith

Nevada data center giant Switch once again has failed to douse a brushfire litigation with potential rival Tract Capital Management in Storey County’s booming Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Storey County District Judge Jason Woodbury on May 2 denied Switch’s motion to dismiss Tract’s counterclaims in a lawsuit over its attempt to develop land for future use as a colocation data center. If Tract prevails, it could substantially increase competition for data center clients at the industrial park.

1 month ago | thenevadaindependent.com | John L. Smith |JOhn Smith

The charm offensive continues apace on the Las Vegas Strip as some of its biggest players attempt to put an embarrassing and costly illegal bookmaking and money laundering scandal behind them. Fresh and familiar faces are in abundance these days along with stories about the concerted efforts being made to follow federal anti-money laundering regulations and the rules that apply in the state with the longest history of legal gambling.

1 month ago | thenevadaindependent.com | John L. Smith |JOhn Smith

Trump bankrupted his casinos, and now it looks like he’s trying to bankrupt ours. Nevada legislators for weeks have waited like root-canal patients for the projections that were delivered at Thursday’s Economic Forum. The lawmakers anticipated pain, but no one knew just how much to expect. What they heard through their groans and grimaces this week was what can playfully be described as good news and bad news. The good news? At this moment, things aren’t so bad.

2 months ago | thenevadaindependent.com | John L. Smith |JOhn Smith

I joined the Nevada Humanities Committee in 1999 thinking I knew a little something about our state and its people. After all, I was born and raised in Nevada. Members of the Smith family tree have rambled and roamed around the Great Basin for generations without ever striking gold or owning a gambling hall. We’re lucky that way. As a committee member, I soon realized my Nevada education was only beginning.