The Daily Rundown - April 3, 2026
📰 The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Friday that it will no longer print its rival, the Las Vegas Sun, for the first time in decades, amid an ongoing legal dispute over the nation’s last joint operating agreement, stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers.
Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal said in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms and is free to produce its own newspaper.
“We encourage them to do so. The Review-Journal competes with countless sources of news and entertainment, but we would welcome one more. We just don’t want to foot the bill. It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” the editorial said, without specifying the cost.
The now-rare joint operating agreement required the Sun to be printed as a daily insert in the Review-Journal, while both companies remained editorially independent, with separate newsrooms and websites. Read the full story here.
🏘️ The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved development of a community made up entirely of tiny homes designed for seniors. About 50 homes will be built on the southwest corner of Eastern and Searles avenues. Rent for each 360-square-foot home would run from $900 to $1,000 a month and include utilities, according to the developers. They and the city said it was a step toward addressing the area’s affordable housing shortage.
🏈 The Las Vegas Raiders have found a veteran quarterback and won’t have to rely on a rookie at the position. According to ESPN, Kirk Cousins has signed a contract for $20 million, fully guaranteed for next season. The team has the option to extend it for two more years for $80 million.
Reporting suggests the Raiders could still select Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza with the first pick in this year’s draft. Cousins’ signing would allow the team to ensure Mendoza is ready for the spotlight before he takes over as the starter.
🚀 Standing before a friendly crowd in March, Elon Musk laid out a plan for the future of his companies that was literally out of this world. Musk announced that his space-launch company, SpaceX, which had recently merged with his artificial intelligence company, xAI, would put data centers into orbit around Earth. It all comes down to electricity, he explained.
“You’re power constrained on Earth,” he said. “Space has the advantage that it’s always sunny.”
Musk envisions legions of data-crunching satellites spinning around the planet, powering the AI revolution from above. It’s the perfect pitch for taking SpaceX public. This week, Bloomberg reported that the company had filed documents confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with the goal of launching an initial public offering this summer.
Musk also claims it makes financial sense. “I actually think that the cost of deploying AI in space will drop below the cost of terrestrial AI much sooner than most people expect,” he said. “I think it may be only two or three years.” Read the full story by NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel here.
📚 2026 is an election year, and for many in Nevada, political analysis starts and stops with one name: Jon Ralston, CEO of The Nevada Independent. Ralston has covered politics in the state for more than four decades. He sat down with Nevada Public Radio’s Paul Boger shortly before the publication of his newest book. Read the full conversation with KNPR’s Paul Boger in the newest edition of Desert Companion, or see it here.
🌿 For more than 15 years, botanist Naomi Fraga of the California Botanic Garden has been trying to collect seeds from the rare Death Valley sage for safekeeping in a vault of native California seeds. Each time, she’s come home empty-handed. But this year, with the desert in the midst of a big bloom, she’s trying again. “It’s a little bit of a gamble,” she says. “But, you know, the plant’s having a really good year. I feel hopeful.”
The plant has silvery-green, pointy leaves, fuzzy buds and striking deep purple flowers. But it is challenging to study and sample. Fraga says she often has to hike or scramble up mountainsides, or drive on back roads, to find it. Very little is known about the plant’s pollinator. And in exceptionally dry years, the Death Valley sage doesn’t flower at all, meaning no seeds either.
The sage’s habitat is mostly protected within the boundaries of Death Valley National Park. But climate change doesn’t respect park boundaries and could push these plants, already living on the brink, into even more existential peril. Hear the full story by NPR’s Christopher Intagliata 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.
