The Daily Rundown - July 10th, 2026
🏛️ Department of Homeland Security representatives canceled a scheduled appearance at a Nevada state legislative committee meeting. That's according to a statement from Democratic state Senator Edgar Flores to the Nevada Current. Lawmakers wanted to question the federal agency about local deportation and detention operations. U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware recently issued orders stating that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was defying a court ruling.
Boulware accused the agency of unlawfully detaining people. He ordered the release of 17 detainees from the Nevada Southern Detention Center. The judge noted that the government denied the individuals bond hearings. Flores called the federal agency's refusal to follow judicial orders extremely alarming.
The canceled meeting aimed to address community fears regarding immigration enforcement tactics. The agency did not provide lawmakers a reason for their absence. The committee plans to invite the agency back.
🚧 Beginning Monday, July 13, a major intersection in the Las Vegas Arts District will close temporarily. Construction workers will close Casino Center Boulevard on the south side of Charleston Boulevard for approximately three weeks. The city of Las Vegas said in a press release that crews will restrict north and south travel to one lane of traffic in each direction.
This is due to the installation of large box culverts below ground as part of the ongoing Charleston Boulevard Storm Drain Project. More major intersections are expected to be closed in the future along Charleston as the project moves westward, but only one at a time. The city said it will maintain access for residents and businesses during construction.
🚘 Waymo says it will start providing fully autonomous robotaxi service in Las Vegas. In other words, there will be no emergency driver behind the wheel. The company will begin with a service for area Waymo employees before expanding the service to the general public. This comes after months of supervised testing in the area, according to a news release.
Denver, San Diego and Tampa will also be going driverless, making more than 10 cities with the company’s fully autonomous robotaxis. It currently has a fleet of roughly 3,500 robotaxis which have collectively surpassed 20 million trips. Earlier this year it said it was providing about 500,000 paid rides per week.
⚡ NV Energy says a postponed consumer comment session is now set for July 27. The investor-owned utility says the focus will be fuel and purchased power expenses, as well as natural gas expenses filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Although critics of the utility's controversial daily demand rate restructuring might want to speak, a company spokesman says there will be a separate session for that, KSNV-TV reports.
This session will take place at the Nevada Legislative Council in Las Vegas, with videoconferencing to the Council office in Carson City. It had been scheduled for June 25 but was postponed at the last minute when the company said public interest meant they needed a larger venue.
🤝 Workers at several national parks in the Mountain West are voting to join labor unions amid a broader organizing wave among agency staff over the past year, according to reporting by the Mountain West News Bureau's Rachel Cohen. Employees at Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park and Rocky Mountain Park are among the 317 workers who voted to unionize, according to a June announcement from the National Treasury Employees Union.
Eleven workers voted against it. The new chapter of the NTEU will cover about 650 people at 12 park sites or offices in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Montana and other states. Peri Sasnett is an interim officer for the union. She works at Glacier National Park and said momentum to unionize was growing last year with cuts to the federal workforce. “We were watching our colleagues watching their jobs, people being pushed out of careers that they have invested a lifetime in,” she said. “We could see, at that same time, that workers who were unionized were more protected.”
Park rangers, scientists and administrative staff are among the non-supervisory staff represented. Last year, workers at Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in California joined another union, the National Federation of Federal Employees. Warner Vanderheuel, the national organizing director for NFFE, said workers at Death Valley National Park in Nevada will soon vote on whether to join his union.
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.
