The Daily Rundown - June 29, 2026
📈 In its proposed rate adjustment application, Southwest Gas says it needs to increase rates in order to cover more than 71 million dollars in current operating costs. That would amount to an increase in monthly gas bills for single family residences by roughly 8 percent in northern Nevada and 15 percent in southern Nevada.
The consumer session is a chance for ratepayers to voice concerns about those proposed changes before the commission takes final action to approve them or not. The commission says they are rescheduling the consumer session to later this summer in order to find a larger venue in anticipation of more people attending and commenting.
The move comes about a week after ratepayers spent hours complaining to commissioners at a similar meeting about NV Energy’s plan to move to a peak demand rate structure. Some attendees spent hours outside in the heat in an effort to give public comment, but only a few dozen were allowed to speak.
🎸 Developers have filed plans for a 2-thousand-seat entertainment venue on The Strip. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino submitted an application scheduled to go before the Paradise Town Advisory Board on June 30. The five-story venue is planned for the west side of the resort, featuring a karaoke bar on the second floor.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the application is expected to be approved by the Paradise Town Advisory Board and the Clark County Commission within a month. Other plans include expanding the former Love Theater, which housed The Beatles “Love” for nearly 18 years, from a 2000-plus-seat theater into a 5000-seat arena.
And the main Mirage Theater, which hosted Siegfried and Roy, is also slated for transformation, but nothing definitive has been announced. Hotel officials are planning to open the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the 660-foot Guitar Hotel Las Vegas in the second half of 2027.
🎆 The Fourth of July is this weekend, and officials are reminding the public to follow the rules regarding fireworks. In Clark County, products deemed “Safe and Sane” are the only legal consumer fireworks in many areas, and they’re only permitted through July 4. These are small, ground-based, non-exclusive devices like sparklers, fountains, and ground-level spinners. Public officials are asking people to report illegal fireworks by calling the non-emergency phone number 311 in order to keep the emergency lines open for life-threatening situations.
🎰 Gaming companies and casinos get bought and sold all the time. However, what happens when the two biggest operators in Nevada — with 23 total properties on the Strip — are the ones being bought? A couple of bombshells landed on the gaming industry in the past month. First, Caesars Entertainment said it would be bought by billionaire Tillman Fertitta for $17.6 billion, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Fertitta owns three Golden Nugget properties in Nevada. Then, People Incorporated made an $18 billion offer to buy MGM Resorts. People is a publishing company headed by businessman Barry Diller, and it’s already MGM’s largest stakeholder. MGM’s board of directors, which includes Diller, is reviewing the deal. The two deals have distinctions between them. For one, the Caesars deal largely comprises debt — $11.9 million — that the company has built up for nearly two decades.
(By comparison, the People deal for MGM would include $5.6 billion in debt.) According to gaming reporter and "Casino Life" editor David McKee, highly leveraged company buyouts are risky in industries and economies that aren't booming.
"It's a huge wager that the Las Vegas economy is not only going to stay good, but it's going to improve, because it has to in order for this deal to succeed." McKee added that, as such, these buyouts could be "very bad" for the industry, barring a notable economic rebound. Hear the full story by KNPR's Mike Prevatt here.
📷 In April of this year, a lawsuit was quietly filed in federal court. The 200-page complaint names various officials at state agencies and local governments. It claims they knowingly aided and abetted the physical or sexual assault of children who were in juvenile detention and correctional facilities in Nevada.
The suit, brought by John Doe, lists 96 accounts of sexual assault of minors by correctional staff over the span of decades and paints a picture in vivid and excruciating detail. It also alleges that the abuse was "not a matter of isolated misconduct" but rather "systemic failure." Those allegations come just months after state inspectors published their own report. It questioned whether management at some facilities, or even those who license them, is adequately protecting the children in their care.
The Nevada Independent's Tabitha Mueller broke the story about the lawsuit. She told "State of Nevada" that the victims are looking for some level of justice. Hear the full story by KNPR's Paul Boger 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.
