Laxalt campaign touts police group’s endorsement

By Jessica Hill

Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022 | 2 a.m.

The National Association of Police Organizations, a powerhouse union representing more 1,000 police associations and about 241,000 law enforcement officers across the nation, is backing Republican Adam Laxalt in his U.S. Senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

It’s a flip for the association, which in 2016 back Cortez Masto in his Senate bid.

Laxalt “has always supported law enforcement since his time as Nevada’s Attorney General and is the candidate who will ensure police officers across the country will have the tools they need to protect our communities,” said Michael McHale, president of the National Association of Police Organizations. “At a time when being a police officer is as dangerous as ever, Adam Laxalt cares about our law enforcement officers and their families. We look forward to working with him in Washington, D.C.”

Officials from several law enforcement unions spoke in support of Laxalt’s candidacy at an event Thursday in Las Vegas. Officials with the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the Public Safety Alliance of Nevada, the Nevada Fraternal Order of Police and the National Border Patrol Council attended. Those organizations had all previously announced their endorsements for Laxalt in the last several months.

John Abel, director of governmental affairs for the LVPPA, said Laxalt would have the backs of law enforcement officers.

Brandon Judd, president of National Border Patrol Council, spoke about Laxalt’s efforts to learn more about the situation happening at the southern border. Laxalt recently visited the border in Texas.

At the event, Laxalt detailed his accomplishments as Nevada attorney general from 2015 to 2018, such as creating an elder fraud unit to help law enforcement agencies, having the first human trafficking conviction and providing resources to solve the opioid crisis.

“I had to clean up after Sen. (Cortez) Masto once when she was attorney general, and I intend to clean up after her the United States Senate,” Laxalt said.

In response to those endorsements, Cortez Masto’s campaign press secretary Sigalle Reshef said, “Adam Laxalt assaulted a police officer and then lied about it, so it’s clear he does not support public safety,” referring to Laxalt’s arrest when he was a juvenile and suspected of assaulting a police officer in 1996.

Cortez Masto has also received the endorsements from police unions, including the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers and the Nevada Law Enforcement Coalition, which represents members from 19 law enforcement associations across the state.

Placing Nevadans in jobs

Reno’s Nevadaworks, a workforce development board, won a $14.9 million grant — one of 32 recipients nationwide. The grant money comes via the Commerce Department’s Good Jobs Challenge, which is allocating $500 million from the American Rescue Plan to different companies across the country to invest in workforce development.

The Biden administration and Cortez Masto, D-Nev., announced the Nevada winner last week. Nevadaworks will support placement for 648 jobs that focus on health care, information technology, manufacturing and the transportation, distribution and logistics industries, according to a statement from Gov. Steve Sisolak’s office.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said on a conference call that the Good Jobs Challenge was a “once-in-a-lifetime investment aimed at creating good jobs.” It developed a competitive grant program for community work programs with the goal to create more workforce training programs.

“We appreciate the support from the Economic Development Administration and the state so we can continue our critically important work on behalf of those living and working in Northern Nevada,” Milt Stewart, CEO of Nevadaworks, said in a statement. “We want to make sure individuals trying to join the workforce — or trying to advance in their careers — have every opportunity to do so. That helps us bring a more prepared workforce to Northern Nevada.”

The American Rescue Plan is a $1.8 trillion stimulus bill based in spring 2021 to aid small business heavily hit by the economic crisis of the pandemic. Nevada Sens. Jacky Rosen and Cortez Masto voted in favor of the plan.

Face-to-face debate?

A debate could be on the horizon between the candidates vying to represent Nevada’s 1st Congressional District.

Republican nominee Mark Robertson last week accepted a debate invitation from KLAS-TV, Channel 8, and urged incumbent Dina Titus to join him.

Robertson, a veteran and small-business owner, said in a statement he was looking forward to talking about issues important to Nevadans, such as inflation and the cost of gas and groceries.

“I look forward to the opportunity to talk about solutions to inflation, crime, water, our failing schools,” Robertson said in the statement, “and the disastrous policy that is allowing guns, gangs, drugs and terrorists to cross our southern border. This will be an excellent way for voters to decide who they want to represent them in Washington.”

Titus’ campaign told the Sun that Titus received the invitation and will have a better understanding of the congressional schedule as the date draws closer.

“Meanwhile, her first priority is to keep working for Nevadans in Congress on the issues important to them, as she always has,” her campaign staff said in an email.

Titus is the most tenured official in Nevada’s federal delegation, serving the district since 2013 and four times winning reelection — usually by convincing margins.

This election cycle, however, is considered more of a challenge as redistricting peeled off some of the Democratic voters in Titus’ district — which she easily won in 2020 by 28.4 percentage points — and put them in the more competitive 3rd and 4th Districts. That made all three of Nevada’s congressional seats now held by Democrats vulnerable to Republican takeovers, Titus previously said.

Boosting drones

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and two other senators introduced the Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grant Act last week, legislation that will authorize $100 million in competitive grants to use drones made in the U.S. to perform infrastructure inspection, maintenance and construction projects.

It will also authorize another $100 million in grants for workforce training and education to prepare workers in the drone field, according to a statement from Rosen’s office.

“As we make historic investments in fixing and updating our nation’s infrastructure, we can rely on the latest technology to identify physical vulnerabilities that need to be fixed,” Rosen said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation will help local governments invest in drones and skilled workers to ensure America’s existing infrastructure remains safe.”

According to Rosen’s office, drones have been used to help inspect infrastructure projects and to prevent disasters. For example, a drone last year showed a large crack in the Interstate 40 bridge in Tennessee, which led to the bridge being shut down.

Rosen’s office said the legislation would also help universities like UNLV and UNR access grants to train the next generation of workers who operate drones.

Tubman coin OK’d

Biden signed Rosen’s Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Act into law.

Rosen co-introduced the legislation in 2021. It celebrates what would have been the 200th birthday of the acclaimed former slave-turned-abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor by directing the Treasury Department to mint and issue $5 gold coins, $1 silver coins and half-dollar clad coins that feature Tubman’s image. The coins will be legal tender, according to a statement from Rosen’s office, and will cost taxpayers nothing.

Any surcharges the Treasury receives will go to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, N.Y.

Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio co-introduced the legislation with Rosen.

“Harriet Tubman’s incredible life story is one of courage, resilience and heroism,” Rosen said in a statement. “After escaping slavery, Tubman dedicated her life to helping others flee to freedom through the Underground Railroad, served as a spy and a nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, and became a leading voice in the women’s suffrage movement. I am thrilled this bill is now law so that we can continue to honor Tubman’s life and legacy for generations to come.”