The Daily Rundown - December 16, 2025
🚗 Auto giants Hyundai and Kia have agreed to a $9 million multistate settlement after the manufacturers failed to install standard anti-theft devices on their vehicles. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford's office announced the settlement Tuesday. Videos posted on social media in 2021 showed thieves stealing Kias with only a screwdriver and a USB cable. In a statement Tuesday, Ford said that "Hyundai and Kia did not meet their responsibilities to the public." He urges Nevadans to use the settlement to install additional safety features on their vehicles.
Read more about the Hyundai and Kia settlement here.
🔌 The federal Bureau of Land Management has taken the rare step of stalling NV Energy's Greenlink North transmission project. The agency's decision upholds several protests filed by conservation groups and Lander County. While the multibillion-dollar project aims to create a utility corridor across central Nevada along U.S. 50, federal officials found that Nevada's state BLM office failed to adequately address environmental concerns. The decision effectively places the project under further review, forcing regulators to resolve issues regarding visual resource degradation and protection for the greater sage-grouse — a species on the verge of collapse.
Read and listen to more coverage of the Greenlink project here.
🏨 Hotels and lodges on Grand Canyon's South Rim are welcoming visitors again, starting today. That's after the national park halted overnight stays for more than a week because of breaks in a decades-old water pipeline, park officials say. It's the second time the park has halted overnight stays for repairs to the park's primary pipeline, which frequently breaks. Last August, park officials imposed water restrictions that forced the sudden shutdown of overnight hotel stays during one of the busiest times of the year.
Upgrading the 12.5-mile-long Transcanyon Waterline has long been a priority for the park, with a $208 million rehabilitation of the pipeline and water delivery system underway. The pipeline carries water from a spring on the North Rim. Most Grand Canyon visitors spend their time at the South Rim. Last December, about 41,000 of them stayed overnight.
🏞️ The Washoe believe that Tahoe is where life began for them as a people, and although it is the sacred center of their world, they now have limited access to its shores. The Washoe Warrior Society or Washiw Zulshish Goom Tahn Nu (WZGT) nonprofit aims to change that.
Before colonization many Washoe people lived along Tahoe's shores both year round as well as seasonally in the spring and summer, said Lisa Grayshield, the nonprofit's executive director.
"We had stories about every one of these mountains and all these waterways and the way that the lake was before the edge of the lake was all taken up by people, colonizers. So it makes it really difficult for us to get down to the edge of the lake now," Grayshield said.
Now the WZGT is working to create more access to Tahoe lands for Washoe people.
Read the full story by KUNR's Kat Fulwider here.
🌲 A new playground at Police Memorial Park is scheduled to open Friday, the last of several additions. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is slated for 3:30 p.m. The other recent additions include four pickleball courts (bringing the total number of courts to eight), a dog park, walking paths, a skatepark, improved parking lots and a canine memorial statue. The park renovation project cost about $4 million. Most of that came from the city of Las Vegas' general fund and public donations. Police Memorial Park originally opened in 2001.
🏙️ The North Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to approve an agreement to build a new civic building on the grounds of the old city hall. Council Member Isaac Barron said the project will transform the downtown area and create jobs. The city will lease the building for roughly $3 million annually in an escalating 30-year contract with an option to purchase the building after 10 years.
Read more about Nevada politics here.
Part of these stories are taken from KNPR's daily newscast segment. To hear more daily updates like these, tune in to 88.9 KNPR FM.
