The Daily Rundown - January 28, 2026
⚖️ Northern Nevada's congressman, Republican Mark Amodei, says he'd like to see more facts about the killing of VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minnesota by immigration agents over the weekend. "It's not an open and shut issue," Amodei told the Nevada Independent in an interview Monday. He said the current discourse has dissolved into reflexive defense and name-calling. The eight-term representative said he hadn't seen the videos of the shooting but was briefed by staff.
He said ICE should pivot to a new strategy that focuses on apprehending what he called "the worst of the worst" and those whose asylum claims were denied. Amodei chairs the House Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, which recently passed a bill to increase funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. That bill is now in the Senate. Both of Nevada's Democratic senators say they plan to vote against that funding.
📚 Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine says the rate hike approved by the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents last week won't affect those participating in the Prepaid Tuition Program. The increase for students at state universities, colleges and community colleges goes into effect next year. But, he said, people currently enrolled in the program already have their tuition rates locked in. He said the program is a powerful way to shield families from rising costs.
🚰 The city of Las Vegas is offering assistance for water-leak and lead paint remediation in residents' homes. Through the water leak program, homeowners can receive up to $7,500 in assistance. The owner must live in the house with an income below certain limits. The city pays the contractor directly. Regarding the lead paint program, the house must be built before 1978. A child under 6 years old must live in the house or frequently visit. The household must also meet income rules, but for this program, both owners and landlords can apply. Residents can apply and get more details through the city's online portal.
🎰 Only nine active poker rooms will remain on the Las Vegas Strip after Planet Hollywood closes its room at the end of the month. According to casino.org, this is one of about 40 Las Vegas poker room closures since the 2000s. Planet Hollywood failed to garner the necessary interest to keep the room open. That's even with the casino hosting 18 World Series of Poker events since its 2025 reopening. The closure follows a trend of replacing poker rooms with more profitable slot machines. That was the case in the most recent closure at the Sahara in 2024.
📖 A selling point of poetry is that it expands the ways we can access some of life’s most vital truths. For poet and longtime UNLV professor Claudia Keelan, poetry is an art of continual present-tense attention to the world, in its largest and smallest movements — you never know what detail will yield a new insight. April being National Poetry Month is our pretext for interviewing Keelan, but the calendar is beside the point. As she notes, “any second can produce a poem.” Hear the full conversation between Desert Companion's Scott Dickensheets and Claudia Keelan 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.
