Nov. 19: Special session, copper mining, and a longtime local editor departs

From Nevada Public Radio, I'm Paul Boger. This is State of Nevada. On November 13, Republican Governor Joe Lombardo called the Nevada legislature into a long-anticipated special session. Lombardo had announced in early October that he would call a special session. He said its purpose was to address unfinished business stemming from the chaotic final days of the regular legislature in June. That business includes a proposed massive expansion of film tax credits and a host of other issues such as criminal justice and health care bills pushed by the governor himself. Joining me to talk about that are two hardworking members of the Nevada Capitol Press Corps. Tabatha Mueller is the capital bureau chief for the Nevada Independent, and Lucia Starbuck is the politics reporter for our sister station KU and our public radio in Reno. Tabatha, Lucia, thanks for being here. Thanks for having us. Tabs, there is a lot going on in Carson City. Let's start with why lawmakers are there to begin with. Governor Lombardo's proclamation calling for the special session outlined several issues. What are lawmakers supposed to be doing right now? So, Governor Joe Lombardo's proclamation is the longest proclamation that I've ever seen in my coverage of the legislative sessions and special sessions which began in 2021. We saw a litany of issues on this agenda ranging from health care to criminal justice to a massive expansion of Nevada's film tax credit program. And there's been a lot of criticism from lobbyists, from the public, and even some lawmakers who are questioning why this special session was needed to be called now. What's the governor's reason? Why now? I think what he said was these are programs that are needed at a time of economic uncertainty. He says that we have extraordinary circumstances that required us to bring in. And the definition of the law is pretty vague. There's nothing that's really clearly defined, and it's sort of up to the judgment of the governor. We spoke with Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager about this, and he said whether or not I agree or disagree with the governor, it doesn't really matter. He did note that there were some things on the agenda that he thought were really important. Specifically, there's a new grant program that they're establishing that would funnel money to SNAP if that, for some reason, the federal government shuts down again, and that becomes an issue for Nevada. So I think that that's kind of what he noted, but other things that sort of whatever the governor felt was important at that time. All right. We're seven days into the special session, and what have we gotten done thus far? Well, we've been moving slowly along, right? That grant program that I mentioned, or the assistance program, I should say, that passed out of both chambers. So that's in the governor's hands right now and is waiting signature. We're sort of kind of stalled, though, with waiting on the two biggest pieces of legislation, I think, or that have drawn the most attention this session, which is the expansion of Nevada's transferable film tax credits and the criminal justice bill. Now, that criminal justice measure did pass out last night, but it had an amendment in it that I think is going to be a little controversial, and so we'll have to see where that goes. We'll get to that bill in just a moment. Lucia, I know you've been covering the general assistance bill. Arguably, that was the one bill, that was the one emergency bill that lawmakers really needed to address right away. What is that law, and how would it help if there was another federal government shutdown? It would allow the state to give residents cash payments if public, federal, or state assistance gets disrupted again, like we saw with SNAP during the government shutdown. The governor would need to issue a proclamation, and the legislature would need to approve that as an extraordinary circumstance. Senate Majority Leader Nicole Canizaro told me it's necessary because Nevada had no way to directly support residents. Some other states have cash assistance programs. The legislature did put money into food banks, but the issue there is not all residents can make it to a food bank. Okay. Lawmakers also introduced a bill aimed at curbing the state's healthcare provider shortages. That's SB5. The lack of healthcare professionals in Nevada has plagued the state for decades. How does this measure propose they tackle it? Yeah, it's no secret that Nevada is facing healthcare workforce shortages across the state, especially in rural Nevada, and especially when it comes to specialists. The bill provides $60 million for a healthcare worker grant program for these shortages. It could go to hospitals, residency programs, substance use treatment facilities, oncology organizations, for example. Six Republicans voted against it because about a million dollars could go to reproductive healthcare. The legislation also speeds up some licensing requirements and aims to ensure that people can get vaccinated, especially for COVID-19, by aligning state law with federal and CDC regulations. That's just one of the bills they're talking about in this special session. There's also another bill aimed at protecting the personal information of elected officials, Lucia. It would allow lawmakers to remove their personal info from the record. It would give them the ability to use the DMV as a valid ID address. It also allows them to use campaign funds to pay for security. Where did this bill come from? There's been a surge of political violence and threats against elected officials at all levels of government. There's also been major incidents just this year. The murder of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and political activist Charlie Kirk. I've also talked to numerous lawmakers who fear for their safety, being followed to their cars, people showing up to their house. Last summer, I sat down with State Senator Angie Taylor, who's told me why she served as Washoe County School Board President during the pandemic. People shared her address on social media and threatened to drag her out of her house. You have security when you go to these public meetings, but what about at campaign events or at your home where your family lives? That's why there's been calls to be able to use campaign funding in this way. Just 15 states really allow it. Let's talk about the governor's crime bill. That was one of the major pieces of legislation that we saw in the regular session, it's made a reappearance in this special session. Tabitha, what all is in that? I think when we talk about that crime bill, there's been a lot of different discussions. There's a major portion of this, which is re-establishing a court or court in Las Vegas, specifically targeted at tourism-heavy districts, aka the Las Vegas Strip. I think that's something that everyone is in agreement that they wanted to cross. Late last night, and by late last night, I mean early this morning at midnight because we're all running on legislative time here, there was an amendment to Lombardo's criminal justice package that made it so that it would prohibit school districts and public schools from allowing law enforcement from accessing school grounds without a lawful order, except in exceptional circumstances. We can take that and extrapolate it out and say, "Hey, look, law enforcement that could apply to a range of different groups, but also ICE." That's something that Democrats have really been pushing for. It would also require detention facilities in the state to maintain a running list of the people they hold. Now, whether or not Lombardo will sign this is a different question altogether. We also saw the introduction of a specific court or court bill last night, too. I think that things are shifting and changing, but that legislation is really looking at, there's some increased criminal penalties in there and some other changes that are going to have an effect, but maybe it's not signed, right? We'll have to kind of see where that goes. We've got a few minutes left, so let's talk about the elephant in the room. The film tax deal between the state and developer Howard Hughes Holdings along with media production giants Warner Brothers Discovery and Sony Pictures, that's been something we've been following for years now. There has been a lot of drama over that legislation, and while the bill appeared to be on its way to the governor's desk last week, it's now stalled in the Senate once again. What is going on, Tabitha? So I think that that measure, I mean, you have to understand this proposal is for $120 million annually. I believe beginning in 2029, and that's a lot of money that we're talking about. The current film tax credit program is $10 million annually, right? So that's a massive jump, and we're saying those tax credits, we're saying transferable tax credits. So that's money that can, the film taxes, once they film companies, when they get that money, they can sell it to other companies to offset their tax burden for the state. That was, that one's really controversial, because on one hand you have proponents saying this is going to create a lot of jobs, which we need during an economic downturn. On the other hand, it is going to drain our state budget, right? And I believe there was a meeting where lawmakers were told in that meeting that we're either going to have to raise revenue to afford this, or we're going to have to make some cuts to afford this. Now that's down the line, that's not going to be in the immediate short term, but it's something lawmakers have to consider. With that in mind, we still haven't yet to see a vote on this bill, and I think that's because there's a lot of backroom conversations going on between lawmakers, lobbyists, legislative leadership, the governor's office, and we're sort of in a wait and see situation. One issue that has caused quite a stir among lawmakers is remote voting. A couple of assembly members were allowed to vote for the film tax bill, even though they left Carson City for vacation. First off, is that allowed? I mean, underneath the assembly standing rules, it is allowed. There's a provision in those rules that allow the assembly speaker to determine an exceptional circumstance. That exceptional circumstance is not defined. When you think about the legal kind of play of this, it sort of is up to the discretion of the speaker to grant that dispensation. Now, does that mean that it might get challenged legally? Probably, right? We're going to kind of have to wait and see what comes out of this session, but it's sort of a, hey, if you believe that somebody has an exceptional circumstance, you can offer that. Now, when we spoke to assembly speaker Steve Yeager about this, he said that in this case, they were in Nevada, they were in Las Vegas, they had pre-scheduled things, they had prepaid, and for him, that was an exceptional circumstance, especially given the part-time nature of the legislature. We have a little bit less than two minutes left, so let me ask you, we're still expecting to see legislation come out of this special session. What are we waiting for at this point? We are actually waiting for a bill that will limit the corporate purchase of homes in Nevada. What we saw yesterday is something that I have never seen before. It's the first time in state history that Nevada lawmakers have added a new bill to Governor Joe Lombardo's special session Proclamation and Agenda. We're still waiting for that language. It is apparently very similar to a proposal that was proposed in 2023 and 2025, but honestly, things can shift and change. We're likely to see some amendments on that and some big shifts, so keep following these lovely reporters. Lucia, we have about 30 seconds left. We have an election next year. What sort of midterm election implications does this special session have? I think voters, especially in northern Nevada, are questioning the film tax credit bill. A lot of that development will go to southern Nevada, and a lot of people are struggling right now, living paycheck to paycheck, experiencing impacts still from the government shutdown, and wondering why lawmakers are taking this up right now, and do they want to reelect these people? Well, that's where we're going to have to leave it. I know you both have to get back to Carson City to cover the rest of the session, so thank you so much. Tabatha Mueller is the Capital Bureau Chief for the Nevada Independent, and Lucia Starbuck is the Politics Reporter for our sister station, KUNR Public Radio and Reno. Tabatha, Lucia, thank you. Thank you, Paul. Copper is one of the many wondrous substances that powers our daily lives. It's indispensable for making pipes, electronics, power lines, and even medical equipment. But it has to be mined somewhere. One of those places is Nevada's Smith Valley. Some residents there are worried a proposed copper mine would pollute the water springs that they rely on and the natural environment they love. With support from the Pulitzer Center, Desert Companion contributor Meg Bernhard traveled there to hear their story. Leslie Sonay lives on a ranch in northern Nevada's Smith Valley, with four dogs, 30 chickens, two alpacas, three horses, and a stray cat named Ella. This is Sonay. Trying to get Ella back inside a shed that her husband, who collects antiques as a hobby, converted into an old-timey general store when they moved here from Monterey, California, in late 2019. Sonay is a former lieutenant with the Monterey Police Department. She thought that by coming to this rural corner of Nevada, she'd be happily living out her retirement, off-roading, stargazing, and enjoying the much-needed quiet and space. And she was, until she learned about a potential copper mining project in the valley she now called home. That's Judy Harker, who's lived in the valley for more than 20 years. Harker learned about the potential mine, called the Mason Project, from a friend. There are an estimated 2 billion tons of copper on the east side of the valley. Had Bay, the company behind the Mason Project, wants to build an open-pit mine there. The pit would be more than a mile across and wide and 2,100 feet deep. Harker worried about its potential impact to groundwater and the local ecosystem. So she, Sonay, and others in the valley banded together. They're not against the mine, but they want to make their concerns known, as the permitting process gets underway. It's really more about looking at water, looking at the environment, and trying to maintain the quality of life that we have in the valley, and in a way, protecting the agriculture and the rural way of life and protecting our open space as well. Copper is a hot commodity in the western United States. It's used in a bunch of different materials that power our daily lives, electrical wiring, pipes, and it's used in solar panels and electric car batteries, which are important to transitioning us off of fossil fuels to combat climate change. Glenn Miller is an emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Nevada, Reno, or UNR. Copper is one of those metals that is part of the energy transition from coal, oil, and gas. Copper's important. There's no question about it. Electric cars use a lot more copper wire than a regular engine does. President Donald Trump's administration is not exactly jumping at green energy development, but it does want the United States to produce more copper. In July, Trump announced a 50% tariff on copper imports. The aim is to reduce the country's reliance on foreign nations for this material, especially China. Amanda Hilton, president of the Nevada Mining Association, agrees. I am growing exceedingly concerned when looking at how much mineral production is happening overseas that the United States is dependent on, and now that we are seeing impacts from China shutting down the export of certain minerals, our country is starting to feel the pain. In Nevada, two active copper mines produce 7% of America's copper. Those numbers will likely go up. The Trump administration has already fast-tracked one Nevada copper mine, the Golden Mile Project, in Mineral County. And there are proposed projects across the state, especially in the Smith Valley area, where there are plenty of copper deposits. This is John Hatter, executive director for the non-profit Grape Basin Resource Watch. So that whole area there is definitely up for possible development. It could become a copper district, a mining district, which would really change the whole nature of the area significantly. But while Nevada might have a lot of minerals, it lacks one key ingredient essential to mining, water. And that's what worries environmentalists, academics, and residents. On a balmy June day, Soné, Harker, and I piled into Soné's RAV4 to drive across Smith Valley and see where the mining would take place. Here's Soné again. You can see lots of nice little hills and knolls and green, lots of green, like we said, wildflowers are pretty much gone, but the variations of green with the sagebrush, the rabbit brush, the different stuff that's out here, you know, but my assumption is most of this will just be wiped clear. It'll just be all graded out, probably for parts of their project. We see a bird dart passed, but it's too quick for any of us to identify. This is Harker. We've got red-tailed hawks, a lot of them. Rough-legged hawks, veruginous hawks. We've got all kinds of owls. We've got little kestrels, long-eared owls, great horned owls. Lots of wildflowers. Oh, yeah. Ton of wildflowers. It is, in other words, a desert valley full of life, but crucial to all that life is water. We're definitely over-allocated, over-pumped. Anything having to do with water should really be of a concern to anybody in our basin, much less in Nevada, being the most arid state in the nation, and you can't make water. You can mitigate a lot of things with projects, but you can't make water. I'm at a spring in central Nevada. It's a place where water that's deep underground comes to the surface. As the nation's dry estate, Nevada doesn't have a lot of this stuff, but there's more than you'd think, and most of it's underground. When you look into the heart of a desert spring and you see that water coming out of the ground, it's like looking into another universe. That's Kyle Warrank, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable water use throughout the region. What makes the Great Basin special is why the mining interests are here, and that is the relationship between our geology and our hydrogeology. It's what pushes the water out of the ground to give us springs that our wildlife depend on. Why exactly does the geology of the Great Basin make for good mining? John Hatter explained. A lot of it was part of a big inland sea at one time, and so there's a lot of deposition that occurred millions of years ago. Minerals wash down from mountains and built up in the closed basins typical of Nevada. Today, they have no outlet to the sea, so the minerals just stay there. Water also built up over time, but under the surface. Kate Berry is a UNR geographer who studies water, mining, and environmental justice. Groundwater becomes really important in a state like Nevada where we don't have very many perennial streams and rivers that are here. So the thing about groundwater is that it's inconspicuous, right? You don't see it. I don't want to say it's... Lots of people rely on groundwater in Nevada. Ranchers, farmers, tribes. In Las Vegas, we get most of our water from the Colorado River, and about 10% of our water from underground. By contrast, the 2,000 or so residents of Tonopah are entirely dependent on groundwater. Why do you mind use a lot of water? This is Kate Berry again. You're digging pits that are often hundreds, if not a thousand feet deep. Very, very deep pits, and those intersect the groundwater. The mining companies don't want the water there. They want the rock. So they do what's called dewatering, pumping the water out and moving it somewhere else. Then they can continue their excavation, extracting ore and moving it as well. A typical copper project can use billions of gallons of water a year. HUD Bay estimates their mason project in the Smith Valley will use between seven and 16,000 acre feet of water a year. That would be enough for 6,400 average Las Vegas households. Another issue, says John Hatter, is not just water quantity, but quality. Water is always an issue, you know, with mining in general. But copper deposits often kind of go sour in terms of the water quality. By that, he means that the rock material reacts with oxygen, starting a process that generates acid, which can drain out. Copper is a highly conductive metal. That's why it's in wiring. Because of its many uses, the Department of Energy designates copper a critical mineral, meaning it's important for energy technologies, important for our national security and our economy. But, Barry asks, "Well, who is it critical for and then who's impacted by it, right?" Ah, hey, how are you doing? I went to the other door next to you. Hi, nice to meet you. Thanks so much for having me. Do you want some water or something? Um, yeah, water would be awesome. Thank you. I'm visiting Corey Rockwell's home in Sparks, Nevada. Rockwell is an underground miner, and he's showing me his old hard hats. He works underground and explosives, basically blasting rock into smaller bits so it can be moved for further processing. Rockwell loves his job so much that he has 170,000 followers on TikTok. That's a clip of him showing a bolter used to stabilize mine shafts. The job bought him a house in Sparks. It lets him raise his 10-year-old son as a single dad. A lot of people, when they think about mining, they just think about the worst stuff. You know, mining companies poisoning the water, you know. But for him, the US does it better than other countries. We have environmental reviews and worker safety measures for now. These minerals, we're going to get one way or the other. Our species needs it. Our survival depends on it. It's just how are we going to get it? I mean, it is kind of a trade-off, I understand. Environmentalists acknowledge this tension. Here's Kyle Warrink from the Great Basin Water Network again. I fully understand that I use phones, and I drive cars, and I use computers, and I create the demand too. So this is our challenge as it relates to copper, as it relates to lithium, and even gold. I requested an interview with Hudd Bay Minerals but didn't get a response. I wanted to visit an active copper mine and had planned to visit the state's largest, the Robinson Mine near Ely. But after we agreed on a tour, John Haynes, a spokesperson for the mine's Polish parent company, KGHM, wrote to me in an email, "We will not host you at the site nor provide an interview as requested." Amanda Hilton of the Nevada Mining Association also believes demand for copper is not going to slow. Copper has been produced for thousands and thousands of years. It's been mined in the state of Nevada for over 150 years. The green energy transition is just another layer of where the copper demand is coming from. She called Nevada's mine reclamation regulations world-class, and says the state's mining industry aims to be sustainable. All of our mine sites across the state of Nevada are working on minimizing their water usage, recycling their water usage, and making sure that they are optimizing every gallon of water. So what are we supposed to do? 2024 was the hottest year on record. We need copper for solar panels, for electric vehicles, to stop our planet from getting even hotter. But what's the cost of extracting copper? A mine's legacy long outlasts its actual life, says Glenn Miller, the UNR emeritus professor. That's a problem with a lot of copper mines. When people walk away from them, when they aren't profitable, that's when the real problems start, and that's happened. He refers to the acid project Hatter talked about, explaining that acid can drain from large heaps of extracted copper when it rains. Another issue, he says, is general disturbance of the land. A lot of the copper mines, they're deep, have open pit mines that fill with water, and that water can be horrendously bad. I wanted to see what horrendously bad water looks like. So I ended my drive with Sone and Harker, from the Citizen Supertech Smith Valley, at the Anaconda Copper Mine near Earrington. Anaconda stopped mining copper in 1978. In 2000, the company, Atlantic Richfield, abandoned the site without properly closing it. The Environmental Protection Agency designated it a so-called "superfund" site, meaning it's a priority for cleanup. We see signs posted along a barbed wire fence that read "Danger, Unsafe Mine." Doesn't it? It's like a different planet. That's Sone. It just looks like a barren landscape. And this is Harker. Nothing will grow on it. It might as well be on the moon. We arrive at the pit where, decades ago, miners dug for copper. There, water from the aquifer, that deep groundwater that mining companies remove so they can get the rock, has naturally risen back. The water is dark, very dark. The edges are kind of a light aqua-y green, and there's yellow, almost looks like pollen, along the edges. Yeah, I think that's what it is. Yeah, kind of polliny. Yeah, this is, I'm so curious what these birds are. They just, they seem to like the water. They're swooping. Those are swallows? Oh, those are swallows? Yeah, I gotta get a better look at them to see whether what they are. That seems right, actually. That's sort of what I was wondering. I mean, it's wild because if you had no idea what you were looking at, and I guess it's hard not to know what you're looking at, but there's birds, it looks pretty, sort of. If you didn't know what it was, you might think a lake is just here. Right, and then I've been over here at times when it almost, you know, it's more teal colored, and you know, depending on the sky and the clouds and stuff. So, in that aspect, you're right, but it's, you know, what are you gonna do with it? The beautiful blue water we were looking at is contaminated with arsenic, zinc, mercury, lead, manganese, and who knows how many other byproducts from all those decades ago. In 2018, the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection started working with the Atlantic Richfield Company. The EPA is still involved because of the potential impact on the Earrington-Piutes Tribal Lands. In-Depth, as it's called, presented a cleanup plan in 2020, but it's been a slow process. The mine is expected to close in 2029, but the Bureau of Land Management is considering selling the public land in and around the former mine site back to the company. The move worries environmentalists who believe such a sale would end any oversight into the mine cleanup. So, Harker's question remains, what in the end can we do with it? [Music] For news-loving Southern Nevadans, the name Andrew Karali is synonymous with local voice. The born and raised Las Vegas has been a prominent writer and editor here for more than three decades. Karali's career began in 1992 at the early Alt Weekly, the Las Vegas New Times. He also worked for the Las Vegas Mercury and Las Vegas City Life before becoming editor of our very own Desert Companion Magazine in 2010. He later created the events newsletter, TheList.Vegas. Karali left Nevada Public Radio in 2022, and now he's leaving Las Vegas altogether. Desert Companion editor at Large Scott Dickensheets talked with Karali about his time in the local news business and where he predicts that business is headed. Hey, Andrew, thanks for joining us. Hey, I'm so happy to be here, Scott. Well, I think the first question that our listeners want to know is, you came to journals and through a non-traditional route, through skateboard, zine, music culture, how did that shape the way you approach the craft? Yeah, so a lot of people might not know this, but long before I was a public radio dandy, I was a East Side Suburban skate rat, and I was publishing skate zines and punk zines. And the thing I loved about publishing zines was it just gave me limitless creative latitude to try different things. So zines are the space where I was able to get all the bad writing out of my system and kind of find my voice and, you know, really develop love of verbal energy in writing. So it did that, but it also gave me a really strong appreciation for a publication as a whole thing unto itself, as far as being an expression of design, photography, and great writing, as opposed to separating all those things and thinking about them individually. What did you learn about writing about this city by doing those zines and so on? I would say if I'm sort of like thinking in terms of a continuity of my sort of late skateboard, punk zine publishing career, and then my early career in the alt-weekly scene in Vegas in like the early '90s, one thing I really learned was, is that there are, you know, within the world of Las Vegas, there are hundreds and thousands of other little worlds, right? And that's where I became really keenly aware of this word that we used to use back in the day called the scene, right? And the scene was, you know, was nominally the punk scene or the art scene or the culture scene. And one thing I really learned in covering punk shows and skate gangs on the east side and things like that, and then when I got into the alt-weekly world and I was covering trans community bars, the LGBTQ community, fringe political groups that I would profile like proto-early proto-libertarian conspiracy theorists and stuff like that, I discovered that Vegas, as perceived from outside, as being, you know, this blazing neon casino town that's surrounded by a crunchy shell of suburbs, there's so much more going on. And that was the fun part about, you know, to kind of move forward a little bit to the alt-weekly days of the early '90s to the early 2000s, that half the fun was just discovering all the cool, weird, and the best way stuff that was going on beneath the surface. In the 30 odd years of your career, whatever it's been, a lot has changed in the local media landscape. What are those changes stick out to you? Yeah, it's a lot to think about and a lot to encompass. And I think, you know, what I've been able to see is just a sort of like gesture at the scope of changes, right? My mind goes back to all these little points on the timeline, and when you kind of line them up, it tells this sort of micro-cosmic story about, yeah, what's happening in media, and how that lays against the broader narrative about, you know, what's going on with media. So we saw, like, 1989, right, the joint operating agreement between the RJ and the Sun, and that kind of presaged to me a lot of the troubles that were going to face print journalism ahead of the age of the internet, right? And then the '90s, the alt-weekly boom, which I think for Vegas was really important, right? We had, like, what, three, four alt-weeklies at some point? Yeah, and in the early 2000s, there were three really viable weeklies at the time. Yeah, so, I mean, start off like Scope Magazine, which was kind of like an alt-monthly, I guess you would say, and The New Times, which became City Life, and then The Las Vegas Weekly, which was like in two iterations, and then, you know, seven considerably later. But I guess what I want to point out about that is, like, that was a moment where there was this collective recognition of Vegas as a place that could actually have an identity that was sort of like framed by themes and issues and topics that kind of characterized Southern Nevada in a unique way. And then that all went away, right, because of the advent of the internet. I think now, you know, I'm the opinion editor at the Nevada Independent, and I think that they represent a promising, you know, new strain in the sort of dark age that we're living in of viable, nonprofit journalism that is earnest and transparent and trustworthy. And my sincere hope is that in this age of precepticide, as it's been, you know, being called beyond misinformation, right, that that's going to make some kind of hopeful comeback. I hope, in a broader sense, how optimistic are you about the sort of the future viability of the kinds of, you know, narrative journalism that you shepherded through here? I mean, that stuff takes time. It takes resources. It takes some money. Not just here at Desert Companion, but like just the viability of that form, generally speaking, in the current fragmented and, you know, sort of dissipating media scene. Yeah, I would characterize myself as a desperate optimist via this sort of like accelerationist, this sort of like, like, intermediately bleak accelerationist of view. And what I mean by that is I say, like, I think we're going to pass through a very dark age of misinformation, especially now with algorithmically powered information that is sort of custom delivered to, you know, readers of social media to reinforce our worldview. Add to that the advent of AI just, you know, generating, yeah, beyond misinformation. I call it percepticide because it's like, and that's a great album titled by a really cool industrial band from Chicago called PixelGrip, so I have to credit them. Shout out. Check them out, yeah, shout out. But it has to do with like, you're not just being misinformed, you're getting, we're getting to a place where in the information ecosystem, you can't actually trust your perceptual apparatus, you know, and have to ask yourself now, like, is this real? Not whether or not it's true. Is this, is this real? Which is kind of a different question. So my theory is this. I think we're going to come to some, this is the accelerate, bleak accelerationist part. I think we're going to come to a series of like a fairly cataclysmic events that are going to be born of this misinformation atmosphere that we've created. And I'm hopeful that through that, people will come to appreciate, quote, traditional journalism in which, you know, that that's factually based, that's informationally sound, that is written in good faith in a spirit of trust with the community. So when I see, you know, Nevada Independent, Nevada Current, and of course, Nevada Public Radio, NPR, right, the enduring standard bears of this model as reaffirming and reachieving their relevance. So I'm hopeful, ultimately, that those will be appreciated again because things are getting bonkers. So now we come to now, you're heading out to Texas for the next chapter of your life. In the rearview mirror, what are the things you're going to miss the least and the most about your hometown? I'll start with the most. Actually, yeah. And I mean, one thing I love about Vegas, and this is very, very broad, but I love its spirit of sort of desperate invention that is inspired by greed, right? And, you know, I'm talking about the strip, right? And the totalized atmosphere of spectacle that is created there. And it's, you know, it's so inventive, right? And so if it was up to me, like the sphere would be my church. Like I went in there and I was like, "Yeah, you know what? I'll probably have some meta thoughts about this whole hyper-object thing, and, you know, I'll be cynical about it." I was just utterly immersed into, I've been to so many shows there, and I love it. And so I love that, you know, that sense of like potent imaginative inventiveness that is powered by outlandish amounts of capital, and that makes Vegas, you know, always headline-worthy. And then sort of off the strip, one thing I really love about Vegas and the arts and culture community that I've been, you know, really involved with my whole life is that its relationship to the strip kind of gives it this sort of recalcitrant insurgent energy. And so it kind of counter-programs in resistance to, you know, what's perceived as the empty spectacle of the strip. And so I felt like our arts and culture scene always had that little extra, that little turbo kind of dose that really kind of gives it a sense of like urgent potency. The things I won't miss are some of the things that I will miss in a way. And, you know, I wish that Vegas' desire to be this, you know, magnetic international tourist destination wouldn't always come at the cost of the locals, right? And so I'm thinking F1, right? F1 is, you know, right around the corner. And, you know, I sort of, in a weird way, love the idea that F1 is here just the way it just seems so absurd. But at the same time, it's like it's an infrastructural nightmare. None of the benefits really, you know, trickle down or accrue to the locals. So I find that kind of sad and dismal. Another thing that I won't miss about Vegas is I wish that there was just sort of like some moment where we could stop and think about the actual physical development of our city and get to a place where it's not just strip mall, suburb, strip mall, suburb. And there are places where this is sort of happening, you know, a bit more imaginatively. Symphony Park, you know, downtown. It's kind of a, you know, turning into an interesting mixed-use kind of scene. There are places out in Centennial Hills that are, you know, kind of experimenting with this. But if you're going to want like big city energy, you need to get people out on the streets, you need to get them walking and out of their cars, right? And so I wish that, you know, the transportation sector and that the planning sector and that the industry sector would get together and work on this and make Vegas such a, it can make it such a more interesting place. Well, we'll work on that before your next visit back. Awesome. I expect to see improvements. We'll try and get all that in order before you return. I appreciate you. I appreciate your efforts. Andrew Coralli is a longtime editor and writer from Las Vegas, most notably for our purposes of Desert Companion, the magazine of Nevada Public Radio. Andrew, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. There's no shortage of what to see here and do at any time in Nevada. Here to filter out a few of the best options is KNPR producer, Mike Provatt, who oversees the arts and culture beat for Nevada Public Radio. He sat down with managing editor, Heidi Kaiser. Hi, Mike. Hey, Heidi. So the holidays come to us earlier and earlier, it seems. I see there's even a themed opera that's popped up ahead of Thanksgiving weekend. It's beating every other holiday season production to the punch, I think. It's Amal and the Night Visitors. This is the 1951 Chestnut by Giancarlo Minotti. This is about a shepherd boy and his mother who happened upon the three kings as they had to Bethlehem. It's a very accessible work. And if you were going to introduce children to the opera, this is probably your best opportunity as the music has a very easy entry point. And the production kind of provides a childlike perspective. I can see that, but it's still hard for me to imagine children at the opera. Well, they'll get a warm-up that will probably hook them in. What makes this staging of Amal unique is that it's being paired with a prologue work of sorts. Four Lost Sanas, which is getting its regional premiere this week, debuted last year as a comedic companion to Amal. So this work by Spicer Carr and Rose Freeman centers around Forest Sanas, whose night goes awry. And they find themselves at a community production of Amal that just happens to need replacement performers. So this is a two-for-going-down November 21 and 22nd at Winchester Dondaro Cultural Center. And kids always love the productions that happen at Winchester, so maybe they'll be OK. How about one for the adults, something more, I don't know, talky? We've had some pretty great authors and speakers come to Las Vegas to talk and lecture. I think lesser known in the community are the notable artists that are from elsewhere. They come in, they talk about their craft or the big themes behind their work, or even the current state of the visual arts. And I think the perspectives of creative types from outside our little desert bubble is helpful in gaining a perspective in art as well. So enter Josephine Halverson. She's from Massachusetts and she's shown her work all over the world. She's taught at a handful of Ivy League schools as well as others. And she went to Vienna, Austria as a US Fulbright Fellowship recipient. And you said she's a painter, but can you kind of describe her art a little bit more? What does she do exactly? So Halverson is a painter, but she's also a sculptor and a printmaker. And she's known for capturing everyday things in their natural environment. And she typically does this by setting up her easel and canvas and paints or whatever, wear her muse and focus sit off and outdoors, and then starting and finishing in the same session. But it's not just, you know, still life type works. So I think all of that should make for a pretty compelling talk. And you can see in here for yourself, November 20th at UNLV's Berg Museum. I speak for myself only here, but sounds like my alley. Now all we need for the week is something just, you know, maybe a little more offbeat. Well, how do you feel about improv comedy? I refuse to answer that question. Well, I will tell you that this looks like one of the more creative improv shows that I have seen advertised. The Las Vegas outfit known as Bleach, they put on a show called Your Show once a month at Vegas Theatre Company. This month, it's on November 20th. Now, why is it called Your Show? Because audience members are asked to give the troupe an idea or a word, and then the troupe picks one, and then over the course of an hour, they build a whole damn play around it. The players don't know what they're going to be doing until they hear and decide on that concept. And from there, a play develops over real time. It's five actors and a piano player basically doing it. And the only thing linking all of these new plays every month is that they're funny. Okay, I'll admit that sounds pretty fun. So what one idea or word would you throw out, Mike? I would want to do something kind of abstract. So here we go. How about dampness? I'm not sure I want to watch play about that. But it's certainly offbeat, and that is all the time we have for this week. Mike, thank you so much. Thanks, Heidi.