Amber Phillips

Story Archive

Q+A: Voters’ guide for the District 1 election and Dina Titus: Friday, Sept. 5, 2014; District 1 is heavily Democratic. Democrat voters outnumber Republicans 2-to-1. Titus has served in Congress before, representing Henderson and Boulder City before the 2011 ...
What you need to know this morning about Nevada’s deal with Tesla: Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014; It’s the biggest economic news for Nevada since the 2008 recession. Tesla will build a $5 billion lithium ion battery factory in ...
Rep. Mark Amodei says leaders working to make Tesla look smart for picking Nevada: Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014; Tesla’s
Senate showdown: With 9 weeks until Election Day, Harry Reid will stay in national spotlight: Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014; Nine weeks from today, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid will know if he will still run the U.S. Senate. The campaign to control the Senate is the defining storyline of American politics in the Nov. 4 election ...
Titus: No easy solution to child migrant crisis: Friday, Aug. 29, 2014; After a two-day visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, Rep. Dina Titus says the humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied Central American minors coming into the United States through the southern border can’t easily be fixed ...
After attending Michael Brown’s funeral, Steven Horsford steps further into spotlight on race relations: Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014; Nevada U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford's decision to join political and black leaders on Monday for the funeral of Michael Brown — the unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a white police officer — is the latest sign that ...
Social media has had an impact on politics: Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014; Lawmakers take advantage of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to reach their constituents unfiltered.
Sen. Harry Reid upbeat about Democrats’ 2014 chances, less confident in Erin Bilbray, education initiative: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014; Sen. Harry Reid, who runs the Democrats' political machine in Nevada and the U.S. Senate, remains upbeat about Democrats' chances in most, but not all, of the important races this fall. The Senate majority leader, in an interview today with the Las Vegas Sun, repeated ...
Congressional report card: The good, bad and incomplete of Nevada’s delegation: Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014; What went right for Nevada’s delegation? What went wrong? What’s yet to be done?
As Senate Republicans gain momentum, ‘Fire Harry Reid’ campaign grows louder: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014; The strategy is to paint Reid, the Senate majority leader, as the boogeyman, especially for voters in Republican-leaning states with contested Senate races that could decide the future of the Senate, said Michael Short, an RNC spokesman. “He’s not a very popular figure, he’s ...
Mark Amodei finds new way to get work done amid congressional gridlock: Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014; In a political climate where getting a single bill passed in Congress can take years, one Nevada lawmaker thinks he’s found a workaround. Rep. Mark Amodei, a Northern Nevada Republican, has gotten yes votes ...
Democrats attack Rep. Joe Heck on immigration in Spanish-language ad: Monday, Aug. 4, 2014; Republican Rep. Joe Heck may have sided with Democrats on a contentious immigration vote Friday, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats from attacking him today. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats' official campaign arm, is...
Married gay veterans’ next battle is for equal VA benefits: Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014; Don't ask, don't tell is over. And gay marriage — or civil unions, or domestic partnerships — is rapidly becoming legal throughout the country. So why is the Veterans Affairs Department "penalizing" gay soldiers who get married? Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from Las Vegas, is trying to get ...
Heck, Amodei defy party in vote to deport Dreamers: Friday, Aug. 1, 2014; Facing a contested re-election bid that is increasingly being framed around immigration, Rep. Joe Heck voted against a Republican bid to require the president to deport ...
Bilbray losing ground? Group says Heck ‘in an enviable position’: Friday, Aug. 1, 2014; One week after getting a shout out from Vice President Joe Biden and other Democratic stars, congressional candidate Erin Bilbray isn’t having the kind of success her campaign ...
Washington Memo: Horsford mocks Boehner, Titus gets a VA win and Heller fights NSA spying: Friday, Aug. 1, 2014; As Congress closes down today for a five-week break from legislating, lawmakers have little to show for their work. As it turned out, they were unable to ...
Northern Nevada lands bill gets new lease on life: Wednesday, July 30, 2014; A sweeping lands bill for Northern Nevada that had a bleak outlook in Congress just a few months ago suddenly has new life. Legislation to create up to 71,500 acres of wilderness and...
Sen. Heller’s views on gun background checks are more complex than you think: Tuesday, July 29, 2014; The conventional wisdom in Nevada politics is that Sen. Dean Heller doesn’t support expanding background checks for would-be gun owners. The reality may be more nuanced than that.
As Congress debates VA reform, Rep. Dina Titus spends long nights in committee hearings: Tuesday, July 29, 2014; While Congress works to to pass a VA reform bill, the House Veterans Affairs Committee has ramped up, going from once-a-week hearings on various veterans issues to ...
Rep. Mark Amodei’s bill shows Nevada needs Congress’ OK to do anything with its land: Friday, July 25, 2014; Much of Congress’ attention this week was on the Veterans Affairs Department, from picking its new leader to trying to agree on a health care reform bill before the August recess. Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, voted with his ...
Dina Titus stands up for military working dogs: Wednesday, July 23, 2014; There are a lot of niche issues for lawmakers to champion in Congress. Rep. Dina Titus, a Las Vegas Democrat, chose a particularly fluffy one today. In between votes and media interviews, Titus...
In a flash, Sen. Dean Heller’s relatives become the cool kids on the Internet: Tuesday, July 22, 2014; Being a United States Senator probably makes you the most famous person in your family, right? Not the case for ...
How does a bill become law in Washington? Follow Joe Heck’s case study: Tuesday, July 22, 2014; Today, President Barack Obama is signing into law a bill modernizing the nation’s job training programs. A critical component of the bill can be traced back to Nevada’s Rep. Joe Heck ...
Washington Memo: Puppies, Slurpees and bipartisanship in Nevada’s delegation: Friday, July 18, 2014; Sen. Dean Heller bucked his party this week to support his colleague, Sen. Harry Reid. Heller was the only Republican ...
Heller cites ‘corporate incompetence’ at hearing over GM failures: Thursday, July 17, 2014; Sen. Dean Heller blasted what he called “corporate incompetence” at yet another congressional hearing examining how General Motors sold cars that could lose power at any moment, a fault linked to 13 deaths and thousands of crashes. “General Motors failed to understand...
The stories told by the candidates’ bank accounts: Wednesday, July 16, 2014; It’s that time of the campaign cycle when candidates are judged by how much money they’ve raised. Nevada’s congressional lawmakers — and hopeful congressional lawmakers— filed ...
Biden, DNC chair to campaign in Las Vegas for congressional hopeful: Tuesday, July 15, 2014; Vice President Joe Biden will be in Las Vegas next week, in part to stump for congressional candidate Erin Bilbray. Bilbray’s campaign confirmed Biden would be a special guest at an …
Republican Dean Heller wants to extend unemployment benefits. Mark Amodei doesn’t. Here’s why.: Tuesday, July 15, 2014; In a rare feat of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats from Nevada’s six-person delegation have backed Heller’s effort to renew benefits for the long-term unemployed. ...
Dina Titus takes on Yucca, and Dean Heller grills NCAA president: Friday, July 11, 2014; Nevada's congressional delegation tried its best this week to strip federal funding for research to store the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but it was a futile effort ...
Chances slim for law to blunt court’s ruling on contraceptives: Thursday, July 10, 2014; It’s got a catchy name, but a proposal by Senate Democrats to override a Supreme Court decision striking down part of a federal mandate requiring companies to provide women with birth control isn’t likely to become law anytime soon. The Not My Boss’ Business Act would guarantee...
Congress clears Henderson to buy, clean up toxic mine site: Thursday, July 10, 2014; An abandoned mine outside Henderson could go from toxic eyesore to residential high-rises after Congress approved the sale more than 900 acres of federal land to the city of Henderson. The Senate approved legislation Wednesday...
Steven Horsford, Darrell Issa and Congress’ most politicized committee: Tuesday, July 8, 2014; There’s a place in Congress where the nation’s biggest scandals get dissected. From questionable IRS scrutiny of conservative nonprofits to the 2012 killings of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is on it. And Nevada’s Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford is right in the middle ...
On America’s birthday, Congress takes a break, and it’s a sign of how Washington works: Thursday, July 3, 2014; It’s America’s birthday week, but the country’s most recognizable landmark is empty. The marbled halls of Congress, normally bustling with striding, suited lawmakers and their harried aides ...
Harry Reid: Court’s ruling jeopardizes access to essential health care: Monday, June 30, 2014; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Congress will have to pick up where the Supreme Court left off after the court ruled that employers don’t have to provide contraceptives to their employees. “If the Supreme Court will not...
Conditions for young, detained immigrants are humanitarian crisis, Horsford says: Saturday, June 28, 2014; Horsford toured a southern Texas detention facility Saturday and was appalled by what he saw: About 50 children crowd into bedroom-size cells, where they sleep on concrete floors ...
Washington memo: Rep. Joe Heck’s big week: Friday, June 27, 2014; Rep. Joe Heck probably had the Nevada delegation’s most successful week in Congress, and Sen. Dean Heller continued his fight to extend unemployment benefits for ...
Democrats lean on House to pass immigration reform: Thursday, June 26, 2014; Congressional Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., renewed their calls today for House Republicans to take up immigration reform. “Republicans are the reason we haven’t been able to do immigration reform,” Reid said at...
In a rare swing district, Republican Rep. Joe Heck faces test from Democrat Erin Bilbray: Thursday, June 26, 2014; In a relatively quiet Nevada election year, the race to represent Henderson and Boulder City in Congress will be big and bitter in one of America’s last true swing districts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican incumbent Rep. Joe Heck is ...
Congress passes bill to help retrain workers: Wednesday, June 25, 2014; Congress approved a bill today to modernize workforce development programs, which in Nevada help train job-seekers for new industries and provide educational opportunities for workers. Congress last addressed workforce programs...
Heck holds hearing on benefits denied to Filipino-American veterans: Tuesday, June 24, 2014; When Congress acts to right a wrong, sometimes it doesn’t do a very good job. Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., would argue that’s the case with regard to...
Sen. Dean Heller making new push for extended unemployment benefits: Tuesday, June 24, 2014; Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is once again trying to restore federal benefits for the long-term unemployed, after his last approach failed to pass Congress. “What I was hoping would be a sprint has become...
Washington memo: Rep. Steven Horsford and the long road to getting things done: Friday, June 20, 2014; Sometimes, being a member of Congress isn’t that glamorous. Rep. Steven Horsford has spent his entire first year and a half ...
Harry Reid says billionaire Koch brothers ‘trying to buy America’: Thursday, June 19, 2014; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid continued his vitriolic attacks on the Koch brothers today, calling them “the cult of Koch. Reid attacked...
Nevada advocates lobby Washington to oppose bigger trucks on roadways: Thursday, June 19, 2014; Could the commercial trucks we share our highways with be getting bigger? Congress is mulling an idea to allow bigger and heavier semitrailers ...
President singles out Las Vegas entrepreneur as new wave of nation's makers gathers at White House: Wednesday, June 18, 2014; It’s not every day a Las Vegas resident gets a shoutout from the president. But today, President Barack Obama singled out entrepreneur Jen McCabe as a key player in a new wave of manufacturers who Obama says are …
Dean Heller to Dr. Oz: ‘Do you believe there’s a miracle pill out there?’: Tuesday, June 17, 2014; A Senate panel led by Nevada Sen. Dean Heller said the country is so deceived by weight loss products that they invited Dr. Mehmert Oz of “The Dr. Oz Show” to Washington, D.C., to talk about how to clamp down on false advertisements. During today's hearing ...
Las Vegas gets $28M in tax breaks to spur development: Monday, June 16, 2014; Las Vegas now has $28 million in federal tax breaks to hand out to businesses that want to invest in lower-income areas. The city was awarded the tax breaks this week as part of...
Has I-11 hit a dead end?: Sunday, June 15, 2014; Interstate 11 is the West’s dream transportation project. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is ushering the project through the Washington bureaucracy. Every politician and chamber of commerce between Reno and Phoenix supports the project. After a decade of planning, it’s almost time to start building. But there’s a bump in ...
Why this photo of Obama means so much to Harry Reid: Sunday, June 15, 2014; An image captured of President Barack Obama in a candid moment with a young boy a few months into Obama’s first term signifies how much this nation has changed, the Senate majority leader says.
Congressional candidate challenging GOP primary results: Friday, June 13, 2014; Tea party candidate Niger Innis lost his primary race for Congress on Tuesday, but he’s not giving up without a fight. Innis, a political consultant, conceded the Republican primary for...