The Daily Rundown - June 5, 2026
🗳️ Nevada's only Republican congressional seat is open for the first time in 15 years, and the primary is testing Republican voters' appetite for a veteran politician or a newcomer with President Donald Trump's backing. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei announced his retirement earlier this year, creating an opening in the state's 2nd District, which covers all of northern Nevada.
He and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo are backing former state Sen. James Settelmeyer against retired Lt. Col. David Flippo, who has never held elected office but won the endorsement of Trump and key allies in his MAGA movement. The primary is on Tuesday. Republicans boast a large registration advantage in the district, and experts and strategists are watching the race for clues about how much influence Trump continues to hold over the party's voters as he enters the last half of his final term.
Nevada Democrats, meanwhile, say they'll try to flip the seat despite the uphill climb and think Flippo could be an easier opponent because his ties to Trump could turn off nonpartisan voters in the swing county of Washoe, home to Reno.
Settelmeyer became a frontrunner when he entered the race with nearly two decades of political experience in the Legislature and state government. But Flippo quickly gained attention when he switched from a congressional race in southern Nevada. He began renting a house to run for the seat and brought with him endorsements from well-known conservative groups like Turning Point Action, founded by the late political activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump endorsed Flippo last week after both candidates had been fighting to show their ties to the president. Settelmeyer had been a co-chair of Trump's 2024 Nevada campaign.
“I love the State — The People are special! I will never let you down and, with David Flippo, I am just adding to that Statement,” Trump posted on his social media. Read the full story and more here.
🍽️ The nearly 400,000 food insecure people living in Southern Nevada are getting a lifeline this week — as they have every spring for 19 years — from those who love to eat out. Three Square Food Bank, Nevada's largest hunger-relief operation, is holding its annual Restaurant Week, June 1-12.
The valley-wide dining event recruits more than 300 eateries to craft and promote special prix fixe menus. When diners select these exclusive three-course meals, up to $6 from each meal goes to Three Square, which turns that money into supplies for food banks. Restaurant Week does so well — more than 10 million donated meals have sprung from previous events — that restaurants often extend the availability of the prix fixe menus by a week or two.
Meeting the needs of food insecure people has grown more important in the wake of cost-of-living increases — especially in the grocery store — and the reduction of federal funds for the poor. The Trump administration also instituted work requirements for adults receiving SNAP benefits. Read the full story by KNPR's Mike Prevatt here.
Pereira previously directed the Resiliency & Justice Center and chaired the One October Memorial Committee. Now, she’s responsible for all aspects of the memorial from fundraising and construction, to community outreach.
$7 million dollars are still needed to fund the Forever One Memorial, which is on track to break ground this fall.
⚡ President Donald Trump has announced a $700 million investment in coal, and Mountain West states could play a major role according to a report by the Mountain West News Bureau's Hanna Merzbach. The administration says it aims to keep electricity prices low, while critics say the effort will only increase rates, hurt the environment and put human health at risk.
In a June 4 press conference, Trump referred to the energy source that’s been in decline for almost two decades as “beautiful, clean coal.” “You're not allowed to say ‘coal’ within the Trump administration unless it's preceded by the words, ‘clean, beautiful,’” he said to a room of reporters. Invoking his wartime authority through the Defense Production Act, Trump said $425 million will go toward extending the lives of 13 coal plants nationwide, including one in the Mountain West, paying for upgrades and reinforcing grid reliability.
The Arizona Electric Power Cooperative is one recipient of those funds. Wyoming and New Mexico are among the states supplying coal to those funded plants.
🕊️ The Vegas Strong Fund has raised $27-million dollars for the Forever One Memorial. This announcement comes just a couple days after Tennille Pereira was named the new executive director of the organization, according to reporting by KNPR's Rafaela Gandolfo.
The memorial will honor the lives impacted by the Route 91 Harvest Festival tragedy on Oct. 1, 2017. It will be located on the festival's former grounds, spanning 2 acres of the Las Vegas Strip.
The nonprofit Vegas Strong Fund, created to provide relief and support, has played a critical role in fundraising for the monument. They have raised nearly 80% of the project’s $34-million dollar budget. Clark County, Live Nation Entertainment, MGMResorts International and others have contributed donations so far.
“It is a very, very exciting milestone for us to reach. It's basically telling the impacted community that we're going to do what we promise to do, and we have the money to do so,” the organization's new executive Tennille Pereira said. She emphasizes a key goal of VSF is to open the memorial by the tragedy's tenth remembrance in 2027.
📊 A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds many Americans are noticing those kinds of changes. Nearly seven in 10 adults say extreme weather events in the United States are becoming more frequent, while six in 10 say they are becoming more severe. According to federal data, climate change is causing droughts and floods that are more frequent, longer-lasting and severe.
But while many Americans agree they are seeing more extreme weather, they remain sharply divided over why it's happening. About half of Americans say the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. Brian Kennedy, a senior researcher at Pew, said one of the most notable findings was how stable those views have remained between 2016 and 2026. The survey also found that political affiliation plays a major role in how Americans perceive extreme weather. Hear the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau's Kaleb Roedel 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.
