Free Republic

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...

Five years after its $1.3 billion acquisition of Zoox, Amazon has officially entered the U.S. robotaxi race, which to date has been dominated by Alphabet’s Waymo. Zoox’s first public launch kicks off today on the Las Vegas strip. The company is offering free rides from a few select locations, with plans to expand more broadly across the city in the coming months. Riders will eventually have to pay, but Zoox said it’s waiting on regulatory approval to take that step. Amazon is jumping into a market that’s all about the future, but one where Waymo has a major head start,...

Las Vegas tourism continues to decline as fresh numbers reveal that fewer visitors are traveling to Sin City. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently released its numbers for July visitors, noting a 12% drop from last year. There were 3,089,300 visitors this July compared to over 3.5 million last year, while occupancy on the Strip dropped 7% from 86.5% last year. The tourism decline has been attributed to a combination of factors, including the impact of tariffs, the seasonal summer slowdown, and a surge in online gaming. Most recently, the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino announced it...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal officer says a man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas told authorities he tried to grab an officer's gun so he could kill the candidate. A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Michael Steven Sandford with an act of violence on restricted grounds. It cites a report by Special Agent Swierkowski, whose first name was not included, saying Sandford told officers he drove from California to kill Trump and went to a Las Vegas gun range the day before to learn to shoot.

Oracle Corp. is pulling the plug on its annual San Francisco technology convention, relocating the event to Las Vegas in a major blow to the city's hospitality industry. The Redwood Shores company has signed a three-year agreement to bring its OpenWorld convention to the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, citing rising hotel rates throughout the Bay Area as well as poor street conditions in San Francisco. An Oracle spokesperson confirmed the deal, first reported by CNBC.

Charges have been dismissed against 15 Republicans who were hit with felony charges by Michigan’s far-left attorney general for objecting to the results of the 2020 presidential election. The case was one of several brought by state attorneys general in the lead-up t0 the 2024 presidential election. Similar cases were brought in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada after left-wing prosecutors accused them of committing forgery by serving as alternate electors. Charges against the Nevada electors were dismissed by a judge last year, while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case has long been paralyzed. On Tuesday, District Court Judge Kristen D....

Las Vegas hotels are rolling out big incentives — including free nights and thousands of dollars in casino credits — to lure visitors back to the city. Sin City saw an 11.3 percent drop in visitors in June compared with the same month last year, an astonishing fall that means almost 400,000 people stayed away. That decline translates to less spending in restaurants, shops, shows and at hotels, where occupancy fell nearly 10 percent, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Kim received an alert on her phone that someone was at her front door. To her surprise, it was a SWAT team with their armored vehicle, about to break down her front door and ransack her home. Eventually, detectives with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department realized they had arrived at least 5 years too late to find their suspect. Leaving behind over 20 grand worth of damage to Kim's home, they offered no explanation, no apology, and refused to pay for the damage they caused.

Burning Man is being torn apart by sand storms just one day into the iconic festival, with 50mph winds tearing up tents and trashing art. Thousands of attendees have been weathering apocalyptic scenes, with some wearing ski goggles and surgical masks to brace against the storm. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that a 'wall of blowing dust' from Smoke Creek and Black Rock Desert would move over the site on Saturday and Sunday. Campsites which were erected on the eve of the celebration were damaged by the dust storm as it tore through the Nevada desert before the festival...

Las Vegas residents were left outraged as congregants at an Ethiopian orthodox church continue to illegally park their vehicles on lawns and driveways. Neighbors of the Hamere Noah Kidane Mihret and Saint Michael Ethiopian Church told KLAS they have repeatedly reached out to Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft and used the Fixit app as they were instructed, but nothing has changed in years. 'We document that and we provide that proof and we have found that there's no follow up,' said Daria Wu, who gathered her fellow neighbors to discuss the issues they have faced during the services at the...

A mom-and-pop casino in Las Vegas is set to close in the fall, after Sin City's rip-off prices sent tourism into freefall. Poker Palace, a casino in North Las Vegas situated on the Las Vegas Boulevard, notified its 126 employees on July 29 that layoffs were set for September 30, with a final closing date of October 1, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. WARN notices are required by federal law to inform employees of closings and mass layoffs at least 60 days in advance. The casino was sold, impacting all of the employees' jobs, but it's unclear...

Lue Elizondo, a former Pentagon official who made public UFO reports, says that the U.S. Military, including a top official, underwent a cooperated campaign to intimidate and defame him. He is the former head of the U.S. government’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) which was disbanded in 2012. Five years later, Elizondo made public three UAP (unexplained aerial phenomena) videos which were later confirmed to be true by the military and were under investigation.

Democratic Party officials are quietly battling over which state will be the first to vote in the 2028 presidential primary — a fight that's set to break into the open next week, when the officials meet in Minneapolis. * Nevada, New Hampshire, and Michigan are currently the frontrunners to be "the new Iowa," and lead off the 2028 Democratic primary season, according to several people familiar with the Rules and Bylaws committee that will determine the order. Why it matters: The candidate who wins the first state primary gets a boost that can help propel them to the nomination —...