Free Republic

CARSON CITY — Independent auditors concluded Tesla Motors Inc. met all conditions for tax abatements and credits during the eight months after lawmakers approved the perks in a special 2014 legislative session. The audit by accounting firm Grant Thornton calculated Tesla has earned $9.6 million in transferable tax credits for the period Oct. 17, 2014, through June 30. Tesla, in partnership with Panasonic Corp., is building a $5 billion lithium battery factory east of Reno in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. To lure the electric carmaker led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to Nevada, state lawmakers last year approved $1.3...

It's a pretty odd business decision if you turn it into a newspaper version of Fox News Channel. By Tuesday night, Adelson's new management team had begun to take the reins, firing back in their own editorial, which ran on Wednesday's front page, that they would "publish a newspaper that is fair, unbiased and accurate."

Republican lawmakers reportedly laughed at House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) after he told them he had been given a promise from Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Lawmakers were amused at Ryan's naiveté for thinking that Reid is someone their party can trust. "I know, I know," Ryan replied with a smile, according to The Hill. Reid and Ryan just finished working together to help pass a $1 trillion dollar spending bill, which many argue contained far more liberal policies than conservative ones. Reid has promised Ryan that he will return to regular order in the New Year....

Ted Cruz was once the GOP Establishment’s top internal enemy. The Texas senator built a national following by forcing his party into doomed crusades against the reality of divided government, and then, in the face of inevitable defeat, disparaging his senior colleagues as weak-kneed RINOs. As of last year, the idea that the GOP would name the Senate’s most-hated man as its standard-bearer was almost unthinkable. And then a billionaire reality star decided to spend his late-life crisis surfing a wave of xenophobia to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Six months later, Trump has taken a commanding lead in the Republican primary...

Beltway-insider publications Politico and The Hill are hiding House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan's 2016’s disastrous report card, even days after the Dec. 18 passage of his $1.1-plus trillion 2016 spending-and-tax plan. Ryan and his top aides “really gave away the store,” Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared Dec. 18. Her report-card phrase — “they really gave away the store” — doesn’t appear in Politico or TheHill, even by Dec. 22. Instead, Politico suggested that Ryan came out roughly even. “The four leaders — Ryan, Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry...

So far, since Obama flew off to Hawaii he has done nothing but golf. Since he arrived there, we have had the angry black woman run over 35 people in Las Vegas, ending the life of a young mother of three. In Afghanistan, where Obama declared all combat operations over, six Americans were killed. Obama has remained silent on these two incidents, and has instead been busy golfing with Bobby Titcomb. Who is Bobby Titcomb? He is the Obama pal who was arrested in 2011 for 'soliciting prostitute' in Hawaii sting operation. Talk about Obama priorities.

Las Vegas - Marco Rubio is going all in to win Nevada. Though the Florida senator has eschewed the idea that he needs to hunker down in any particular state, his campaign has quietly and steadily poured resources into the Silver State, where chaos and dismal turnout rule the caucuses. Rumors of the Rubio campaign's weak ground game in Iowa and New Hampshire have led many to conclude that his strategists don't believe he needs an early-state victory to remain competitive as the primary season moves into March. But that narrative overlooks the reality on the ground here in Nevada,...

It wasn't long ago that the woman arrested in the deadly Las Vegas Strip sidewalk crash seemed to be doing well for herself. After a rough childhood that included a period of homelessness in high school Lakeisha Holloway had become an award-winning high school graduate and caring mother. That recent picture of success deepens the mystery of how the former Oregon woman wound up in a Las Vegas jail and on suicide watch.

A 24-year-old homeless woman who cops said had been living in her car with her 3-year-old daughter in Las Vegas for about a week was charged Monday in the automobile rampage that killed one and wounded at least 35 others Sunday night. Lakeisha N. Holloway appeared “stoic” when cops encountered her soon after the 1996 Oldsmobile sedan she was driving plowed into a crowd on the Las Vegas Strip multiple times – all while a young child was sitting in the backseat. Authorities said Sunday they “know this was not an act of terrorism,” though Lombardo did leave some wiggle...

The agreement never sold well either in solidly Republican Klamath County or on the California side of the border, where the idea of removing dams and tilting the scale toward environmental and tribal purposes was regarded suspiciously. "They try to say the community is for it, and it's not true at all," said Klamath County Chairman Tom Mallams, noting that almost all successful candidates in the area run against the agreement. ... Among western Republicans, the idea of removing the dams has been viewed with great suspicion, even though the aged structures are relatively small hydroelectric producers, aren't used for...

The Portland woman accused of driving into dozens of people and killing one in Las Vegas may have fallen asleep at the wheel, her cousin said Monday. Lakeisha Holloway, 24, is suspected of swerving onto a Las Vegas sidewalk Sunday evening. Based on video footage, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said it appeared that Holloway intentionally veered into pedestrians, but the family disputes that account. Holloway works a lot and sleeps little, said her cousin, LaShay Hardaway. Taking care of her 3-year-old daughter and managing her fashion projects could have taken a toll, Hardaway said.

The woman who mowed down several dozen people in Las Vegas Sunday night says she was sober but just extremely tired. Lakeisha Holloway told police she was trying to sleep in her car on several hotel properties but security kept running her off. In the police report, obtained by TMZ, Holloway described a "stressful period of time today where she was trying to rest/sleep inside her vehicle with her daughter." Holloway told cops she doesn't really know how she ended up on the Strip. The report says, "She would not explain why she drove on the sidewalk but remembered a...

A woman in a car with its windows down screamed "Allahu Akbar" as she ran up onto the sidewalk and ran-over upwards of 40 people in Las Vegas last night. According to one eye witness "As we were walking accross the street, this car comes flying through the red light. She ran up on the sidewalk and smashed into a group of people walking accross the street and into the group of people at the corner. She did not slow down and appeared to accelerate as she hit the sidewalk." According to that witness. there is a huge row of...

A car plowed into pedestrians on the sidewalk Sunday night on the Las Vegas Strip, killing one person and injuring 37 people, six critically. The six critically injured were in stable condition by late Sunday night, Las Vegas police said. The female driver of the 1996 Oldsmobile four-door sedan, only described as being in her 20s, was arrested near the Tuscany hotel on Flamingo Road shortly after the crash, which happened in front of the Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood hotels. She is being interviewed and tested for impairment, Metro Capt. Peter Boffelli told media gathered on Las Vegas...

Gun violence costs Nevada taxpayers millions of dollars every year, according to the national gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The Las Vegas Review-Journal received an advance copy of the organization's study of state inpatient hospitalizations for gunshot wounds from 2005 through 2014. Average health care costs for gunshots vary by the type of incident, and government insurance plans such as Medicaid and Medicare picked up most of the bills, the study said. Everytown for Gun Safety and its local affiliate Nevadans for Background Checks are pushing for a 2016 ballot question to expand background checks to nearly all...

(CNN)A driver careened into a crowded sidewalk several times on the Las Vegas Strip, injuring over 30 people in what authorities described as an "intentional" act. At least one person was killed and 37 others injured near the Paris Las Vegas Hotel on Sunday night, authorities said. Authorities said the woman was driving down Las Vegas Boulevard before her car jumped onto the sidewalk and struck pedestrians. She returned to the sidewalk at different spots and hit more people before barreling down the road, according to witnesses.

South Las Vegas Boulevard — the main road in front of the numerous hotels and casinos on the Strip — was closed to traffic in both directions between Harmon Avenue and Flamingo Road, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department tweeted shortly after 7 p.m. The Nevada Highway Patrol described the incident as a vehicle versus pedestrian...Police have asked everyone to avoid the area until further notice.

More than 20 people are reported to have fallen victim to a major accident near the luxurious Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Conflicting reports are coming from the scene, which has been cordoned off by police. The crash took place on Las Vegas Boulevard in front of the Paris Hotel & Casino and Planet Hollywood, local NBC affiliate KSNV News 3 reported.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval approved a $335 million incentive package to attract upstart electric carmaker Faraday Future's billion-dollar factory to a hard-hit Las Vegas suburb, even though the company has yet to unveil a concept car or bring a product to market. The move came shortly after the Legislature voted overwhelmingly to support the deal Saturday, after a four-day special session in Carson City. Lawmakers learned last week that Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting was backing the secretive California-based company, which employs some former Tesla Motors executives, and that Faraday plans to bring 4,500 direct jobs to Nevada. ...

Ted Cruz has coined a new term in the fight over immigration: "undocumented Democrats." Speaking in Las Vegas on Thursday, the Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate portrayed the idea of a path to citizenship as a ploy to beef up Democratic voter rolls."Proponents of the Gang of Eight were being hypocrites. They were not telling the truth," he said. "What they claimed they were interested in was not in fact what they were interested in. What they were interested in, what Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama wanted, was very simple: They wanted millions of new Democratic voters. There's a...