Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
THE YEAR IN LAS VEGAS
Vote, justice system made plenty of news
IN the spring, Las Vegas embraced gold and black.
In the fall, the state of Nevada turned blue.
The Golden Knights’ improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final and the team’s impact on the community was the top local story in 2018, but it was hardly the only big news of the year.
The midterm elections in November reshaped Nevada’s government as Democrats swept into power and female lawmakers formed a majority in the Legislature. In addition, a dead man was elected to the Legislature.
Here’s a look back at the 10 most important local stories of 2018, as determined by Review-Journal staff:
1 Golden Knights
The Knights captured the hearts of valley residents with a remarkable run to the Stanley Cup Final and community outreach that endeared the players and coaches to adoring fans, many of whom had never before been interested in ice hockey.
2 Nevada turns blue
The Democrats prevailed up and down the ballot in the Nov. 6 election. A Democratic edge in registered voters helped the party sweep the races for governor, U.S. Senate and attorney general. Democrats won three of four other statewide races, three of four U.S. House seats and a supermajority in the state Assembly. The party also won six of 11 state Senate contests and picked up two seats in the 21-seat chamber, one away from a supermajority there as well.
3 Majority-female legislature
Nevada became the first state in the country to get a majority-female Legislature. Two December appointments raised the number of female lawmakers to 32 in the 63-member body — 23 assemblywomen and nine senators.
4 Changes at LVCVA
Longtime Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority chief Rossi Ralenkotter retired Aug. 31 amid police and state ethics investigations and questions of excess agency spending raised by a Review-Journal investigation. The RJ investigation spotlighted Ralenkotter’s personal use of Southwest Airlines gift cards purchased by the LVCVA, his use of authority security officers as chauffeurs despite receiving a vehicle allowance and the agency’s history of violating its own expense policies.
5 Oct. 1 final report
Nearly a year after the Route 91 Harvest festival attack, Las Vegas police in August released a final report on the mass shooting, which left 58 concertgoers dead and hundreds more wounded. More than 180 pages long, the report detailed the sequence of events and included notes from interviews with the gunman’s friends and family, as well as an admission that detectives had no idea why the shooter, a Nevadan, chose to carry out the attack.
6 Execution delays
Just hours before the planned execution of condemned Nevada prisoner Scott Dozier, a judge ruled July 11 that the prison system should be barred from using a sedative in the state’s untested lethal injection cocktail. It was the second time in nine months Dozier’s execution had been halted through a court decision. He would have been the first Nevada inmate executed in a dozen years.
7 Dead man wins election
Brothel owner Dennis Hof, a Republican, died unexpectedly three weeks before the Nov. 6 election. Nevertheless, his name remained on the ballot, and he was easily elected to the Assembly, defeating Democratic rival Lesia Romanov. In December, the Nye County Commission appointed Gregory Hafen II to replace Hof in the Assembly District 36 seat.
8 Bundy case tossed
A federal judge cited “flagrant prosecutorial misconduct” when she threw out felony conspiracy and weapons charges against Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and an independent militia member on Jan. 8. The charges stemmed from a 2014 standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over a cattle roundup that resulted in decades behind bars for some. One of Bundy’s sons, Ryan Bundy, launched an unsuccessful bid for governor after his acquittal.
9 CCSD picks new leader
Clark County School District trustees in May selected Jesus Jara, deputy superintendent of Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida, to oversee the nation’s fifth-largest school district.
10 MGM lawsuits
MGM Resorts International, the company that owns Mandalay Bay, sued more than 1,000 victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting in an unusual effort to avoid liability. The company cited a 2002 federal act, created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, that extends liability protection to any company that uses “anti-terrorism” technology or services. MGM Resorts argued that the security vendor it hired for the Route 91 Harvest festival used such services and that therefore MGM should be protected.