The Daily Rundown: September 10, 2026
✊ Union leaders in Las Vegas are concerned the service industry will take a hit as potentially thousands of workers lose temporary protected status this week.
The city’s tourism industry relies on its hospitality workers, including many from El Salvador who came to the U.S. under TPS, which provides protections from deportation and work permits to those whose countries are deemed too unsafe to return to.
Culinary Union spokesperson Ted Pappageorge said the workers are critical to hotels, casinos and other businesses in Las Vegas.
“We have thousands of TPS members who are Culinary Union members,” Pappageorge said. “Many of them, like our Salvadoran brothers and sisters, have been here for decades. They have children, they have homes, they pay taxes and they are critical to our economy here in Las Vegas.”
He called U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services efforts to take away TPS “harmful” to families and the economy.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has cited a Supreme Court case in efforts to remove the protected status from TPS holders. In roughly one year, the agency has announced or implemented TPS terminations for many foreign nationals seeking refuge in the United States, including those from Myanmar, Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Cameroon.
Some politicians are trying to reverse the push by the Trump administration, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat. She says there are approximately 5,800 TPS holders from El Salvador in the Southern Nevada metro area.
She added that TPS workers contribute to the economy through taxes and said she is pushing a bill to allow TPS holders a path toward permanent legal residency. Read the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau's Yvette Fernandez here.
💸 The cost of flying to Las Vegas is rising. Data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says airfare for passengers flying into Las Vegas is up by more than 20% since March.
That’s nearly double the increase in domestic airfare, which is up 12%. Part of the reason is jet fuel prices, which have risen 75% since February. However, visitors with incomes above $100,000 a year continue to travel at a steady rate and make up more than half of current Las Vegas tourists.
In addition, first-time visitors are at a record low of 8%, down from 24% in 2019. The data also suggests more people are driving than flying to the area because of the rising costs.
🏫 Nevada’s largest teachers’ union wants state lawmakers to restructure the tax incentives for data centers as part of an effort to generate more money for K-12 public schools. According to reporting by KNPR's Paul Boger, the proposal from the Clark County Education Association looks to reshape the public’s perspective of the facilities.
The union’s proposal calls for ending the 2.6% local school support sales tax abatement for data centers. It also calls for reviewing facilities’ property tax abatements to help pay for special education programs and universal pre-K.
According to the union, the move could generate as much as 500 million dollars a year for schools statewide. CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita says data centers are now a way of life and that it’s up to state leaders to find a way to make them work for the betterment of the state as a whole.
Vellardita says his office is already working with state lawmakers to add the proposal to the 2027 legislative agenda. All tax and spending bills must pass with two-thirds support from lawmakers.
In a post on X, the Nevada State Education Association, which largely represents teachers outside Clark County, criticized the proposal as “pro-data-center policy with some education funding attached to make a deeply unpopular industry easier to sell.”
🚓 A preliminary hearing for the criminal trial of former Mesquite Police Chief MaQuade Chesley is set for November 4th. According to the Nevada Current, Chesley is caught in two separate legal disputes over the same alleged secret recording.
The first is the criminal prosecution now set to proceed in November. In this criminal case, Chesley faces a felony charge for secretly recording a conversation in City Hall. Pro Tem Judge Christopher Laurent rejected his defense attorney's claim that the law is unconstitutionally vague.
The second is a civil lawsuit filed by Chesley against Mesquite for wrongful termination. In this civil case, District Judge Nadia Krall ruled that Chesley's recording was not illegal. Krall declared that city officials fabricated the accusations against Chesley in bad faith to justify firing him.
The city settled part of the civil dispute for more than 1.4 million in April. However, the criminal charge remains fully active. Judge Laurent ruled that Chesley cannot use the favorable civil court findings to defend himself in the upcoming criminal hearing.
🤰 The majority of western states now let Medicaid help cover the cost of doulas, the trained professionals who provide emotional support and information to people before, during and after childbirth.
It’s a change from a decade ago, when only two U.S. states allowed Medicaid to reimburse doulas for their work. Now, 28 do, including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. That’s according to a map from the National Health Law Program, a healthcare advocacy group for low-income patients.
“I'm seeing way more clients coming in inquiring about doula care,” Colorado postpartum doula Ali Batwin said on Sept. 2 at the Wyoming Maternal Health Summit in Laramie, Wyoming, a first of its kind event organized by the state university’s Rural Health Institute.
Research has shown doulas can decrease C-section rates by as much as half or more, and at the same time increase breastfeeding rates. While they aren’t medical professionals, they help clients make informed decisions before and during childbirth, and help them get the care they need after birth.
Almost two-thirds of maternal deaths in 2020 happened in the postpartum period, up to a year after birth, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Service report. Common causes include cardiac events, hemorrhage, and postpartum depression or anxiety.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Read the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau's Hanna Merzbach 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. 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.
