Free Republic

A long-dormant supervolcano on the Nevada-Oregon border is now at the center of a trillion-dollar energy battle. Beneath its surface lies a lithium discovery so massive it could redraw the global battery map. © The U.S. May Be Sitting On A Lithium Treasure Beneath A Supervolcano. Credit: Shutterstock ==================================================================================== In the high desert along the Nevada–Oregon border, a quiet basin formed by an ancient supervolcano is rapidly becoming a global focal point. Hidden beneath the McDermitt Caldera lies what scientists now believe is the world’s largest known deposit of lithium, the element driving the battery revolution behind electric vehicles, smartphones,...

A Virginia high school principal and his brother were arrested for allegedly planning to carry out a heinous attack involving firearms and explosives to kill US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Wednesday. John Wilson Bennett, and his brother Mark Booth Bennett, have each been charged with conspiracy to commit malicious wounding. According to DHS, the pair was overheard by Virginia state police officers on November 17 discussing alleged plans to "kill police officers and ICE agents." Additionally, Mark was allegedly overheard stating his intention to meet with like-minded individuals in Las...

A 55-year-old mystery about a Canadian woman who seemingly fell off the face of the Earth was partially solved earlier this month with the announcement from Metro police that human remains found in the desert more than half a century ago had finally been identified. Las Vegas mob duo tied to 55-year-old cold case murder | 5:50 8 News Now -- Las Vegas | 404K subscribers | 106,607 views | November 18, 2025

A disbanded court in Las Vegas may come back to life as lawmakers look to attract visitors to revive Sin City tourism. Vegas tourism has continued to decline, with just over 3 million visitors in September, an 8.8% decrease from the same time last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCA). A specialized court was created in 2022 to handle offenses such as petty theft, assault, drug violations and loitering, with penalties including banning offenders from the Strip for a year. The Resort Corridor Court, however, was disbanded less than two years later after judges raised...

An 11-year-old boy was killed in a road rage incident in Henderson, Nevada, after two drivers got into a heated exchange along the freeway and one fired into the other vehicle, according to police. "We lost a life today that we didn't have to lose," Henderson Police Department Chief Reggie Rader said during a press conference on Friday. At approximately 7:30 a.m. on Friday, two vehicles in traffic began "jockeying for positions trying to pass each other on the congested freeway," police said during a press conference on Friday. One of the vehicles tried to pass on the shoulder of...

A unanimous Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday revived the criminal case against six prominent allies of President Donald Trump who falsely claimed to be legitimate presidential electors amid Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. The justices concluded that Attorney General Aaron Ford properly brought the forgery case in Las Vegas, overruling a lower-court decision that found the case should have been brought in Carson City, where the pro-Trump elector nominees signed the false documents. The 6-0 decision comes just days after Trump pardoned dozens of allies — including the six defendants in Nevada — for any potential federal crimes...

In a long vote made longer by Texas Senator John Cornyn's absence from D.C. until late Sunday night, a new funding bill has passed the U.S. Senate and heads for the House of Representatives.The deal, which got support from eight Democrats, is part of a package meant to reopen the government, fund SNAP benefits, begin the appropriations process, and even secure a future vote for extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. The text of the bill can be found here.What's in the Deal?In exchange for their support of a bill to re-open the federal government, the seven Democrats were promised a...

The top boss of MGM resorts has admitted Las Vegas has become a rip-off and even declared 'shame on us' as he derided his own hotels' extortionate prices that have driven tourists way. MGM President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle revealed during an earnings call Wednesday that his resorts have 'price-corrected' after being rocked by a summer of public scandal. The company was met with heavy criticism after a guest at its four-star ARIA hotel revealed they were charged $26 for a single bottle of water. A Daily Mail reporter also revealed the company's flagship Bellagio Hotel was charging guests an...

When the headlines scream about trillion-dollar defense budgets vanishing into black holes, it’s a rare jolt to see the Pentagon back a project that actually delivers firepower without draining the taxpayer’s wallet dry. Enter Castelion, [https://www.castelion.com/], the scrappy California-based defense outfit that’s just locked in contracts to bolt its Blackbeard hypersonic missile onto Army and Navy gear—real platforms, not pie-in-the-sky prototypes. Announced yesterday, this deal is a straight shot at fielding weapons that can outpace threats from Beijing to Moscow, all while keeping costs grounded in reality. Castelion, barely three years old and holed up in Torrance with outposts in...

<p>The FBI’s Washington Field Office requested the senior officials’ authorization before looking into “an apparent effort to obstruct Congress’ certification of the Electoral College” and “fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the Archivist of the United States, purporting to represent the actual elector votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin,” the files show.</p>

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A massive virtual arcade located on the Las Vegas Strip filed for bankruptcy after just one year of operation, facing a pending eviction and millions in unpaid claims, court documents show. The Electric Playhouse in Las Vegas, a high-tech gaming and dining center inside a mall at the world renowned Caesars Palace resort, submitted the filings in federal court on Monday. The filing requested that the motions for bankruptcy be heard on an accelerated timeline so that current employees can be paid on Friday.The sprawling 10,000-square-foot Las Vegas gaming venue is equipped with a network of...

There is, however, one more thing that exists today as it did in 1950. It is a house — a house now concealed behind a television station, apartment buildings, and the six-lane Desert Inn expressway near Channel 8 Drive. It sits painted as it was in its heyday: a minty seafoam hue, seemingly selected straight from a postwar paint catalogue. One of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world used this desert house. His time at the house was short, but his influence is still at work more than 50 years after his death. We call it the...

The Trump administration’s cancellation of the largest solar project in the United States has sparked confusion and concern among Republicans and Democrats alike. Known as the Esmerelda 7, the collection of seven solar projects in rural Nevada was set to generate up to 6.2 gigawatts of energy when complete, enough to power 2 million homes. That’s an eye-popping amount of power to add to an electrical grid that desperately needs more of it, due to the insatiable demand from AI-related data centers and increasing residential needs. Under former President Joe Biden, the federal government was moving the sprawling project through...

A tourist to Las Vegas is now warning others after she was charged more than $200 for using a wall socket at a popular hotel. Sharina Butler, of the Bahamas, was staying at the Paris Hotel Las Vegas when she received a bill for $224 due to her son unplugging a tray used for mini-bar snacks and drinks. The policy, which is written on a small card in the front of the tray, says there's a $56 charge for every day the tray remains unplugged. 'You've got to be kidding me,' she told the hotel employee, she recalled in a...

In a statement on October 4, officials at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada said that an aircraft 'was involved in an incident,' crashing in the desert just miles from the restricted zone around Area 51 on September 23. While the Air Force said that the craft was assigned to the base as part of the 432nd Wing, some on social media pointed out that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a temporary flight restriction around the area for an entire week. The location of the flight restriction placed the crash roughly 12 miles east of the security boundary around...

In 2020, California imported about 25% of its demand for electricity from Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona due to the capacity limitations of the three utilities that serve the State (Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric). These capacity limitations resulted from the closure of fossil fuel plants and environmental restrictions imposed by regulatory authorities in California to meet climate change standards. New England, New Jersey, and New York combined imported about 30% of their demand from either neighboring states or Canada. Many utilities in PJM and MISO import electricity from TVA and the...

The Hard Rock Casino Tejon, a partnership between the Tejon Indian Tribe and Florida-based Hard Rock international, is set to swing its doors open for the first time on Nov. 13, more than a month ahead of its original expected opening date.

CNN host John Berman confronted Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday for previously opposing government shutdowns. Along with most Democrats, Schumer voted to shut the government down since the Republican-led stopgap bill did not include an extension of enhanced tax credits in the Affordable Care Act. While he defended his party for voting in favor of the shutdown on “CNN News Central,” Berman played previous clips of the New York Democrat previously calling government shutdowns “self-defeating” and “a politics of idiocy.” “That was you three times in the past,” Berman said. “That was in March, John, before they had...

Three Senate Democrats voted in favor of the Republican Continuing Resolution, bucking their party and hoping to avoid a Schumer Shutdown. Those Senators are Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), John Fetterman (PA), and Angus King (ME). In a post on X, Fetterman explained his vote, writing, "I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them -- but I won't vote for the chaos of shuttering our government." He added, "My vote was our country over my party." Earlier, Sen. King had expressed concerns over the CR and played coy as to how he would vote. "You'll find out...

A dramatic increase in foreclosure filings is the latest bad news for the US housing market, with one state particularly hard hit. In August there were a total of 35,697 properties in the US with foreclosure filings, according to a report by ATTOM. This represents a 1 percent decrease from the previous month, but an 18 percent increase compared to 2924. August was the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year increases in foreclosures and the third month straight with double-digit annual growth. Nevada was worst affected last month, with a foreclosure filing for one in every 2,069 housing units. Foreclosure is...