The Daily Rundown: September 21, 2026
🗳️ Susan Gonzalez plans to pay off her credit card now that she no longer needs to pay taxes on the dollar bills that she stashes away at the end of long shifts pouring beers and mixing cocktails in a smoky sports bar.
Thanks to President Donald Trump, “there’s more money in our pockets,” the registered Republican said. The Iran war might have spiked gas prices, but Gonzalez is still confident that the U.S. economy is getting stronger.
The Jackpot Bar & Grill, located about 4 miles from the Strip, is in the heart of Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, where Democratic Rep. Susie Lee is trying to fend off a challenge from Republican candidate Marty O’Donnell. Nevada has the highest concentration of tipped workers in the country because its economy is driven by the hospitality and tourism industries, making Trump's “no tax on tips” policy a critical part of his party's midterm pitch here.
The question for voters is whether they're seeing more benefit from lower taxes or more pain from the country's economic troubles, such as energy costs and declining tourism.
Lee’s district is a top target for the Republican Party in its fight to maintain control of the House. With a mix of working-class and high-income neighborhoods, it’s the most competitive of Nevada's four congressional seats. In 2024, both Lee and Trump won the district.
The race has caught the attention of Trump-aligned super PACs. Safety and Affordability, an offshoot of MAGA Inc., committed this month to spending almost $3.2 million on advertising to help O’Donnell, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The total effectively matches the $3.1 million O’Donnell’s campaign has already spent on advertising reservations through November. Read the full story here.
🚧 Crews are set to close Commerce Street along the south side of Charleston Boulevard for four weeks as part of the ongoing Charleston Boulevard Storm Drain Project.
Beginning Sept. 21, southbound travel will be restricted. Commerce will become a two-way street temporarily from California Avenue to the closure on Charleston in order to maintain access to businesses along Commerce.
The City of Las Vegas says it’s scheduled the work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
🏢 Nevada’s governor has joined a growing list of his peers in signing an executive order aimed at protecting consumers from paying higher utility bills due to the rapid proliferation of data centers. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed an executive order on Sept. 18 aimed at placing guardrails on data centers. It states that developers should shoulder the costs to electrical grids and water systems in “the communities that host them.”
Lombardo said in a news release announcing the order that data centers can be an “unprecedented opportunity for Nevada,” and that his order sets “clear expectations” while opening the door to billions in responsible investment, good-paying jobs and long-term economic growth.
It’s the latest pushback by lawmakers from both parties seeking to rein in the fast-paced rollout of data centers.
Recently, Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed Executive Order 2026-03, titled “Data Centers the Wyoming Way,” to create a “framework” for “responsible” development on June 3, 2026, to guide industry development.
Lombardo’s executive order is the latest in a growing list of efforts from lawmakers to require data centers to pay more to communities. Hear the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau's Yvette Fernandez here.
📖 If you’re looking for a tourist experience on the Loneliest Road in America, don’t rely on Nevada in Our Teeth: Crossing Highway 50, a slim new travelogue in verse by Las Vegas poets Jennifer Battisti and Andrew Romanelli.
Sure, you could deduce from its pages a few points of visitor interest in the cow counties — Lehman Caves sounds groovy, as does the Churchill Arts Council gallery in Fallon, and the Drugstore Museum in McGill, “a relic that stuns us with humanity,” Battisti writes — but the authors aren’t after the guidebook clarity that the looky-loos among you might want.
Remember, they’re poets. So Nevada in Our Teeth concerns itself with spirit of place, the gestalt of travel, the shifting meaning of “loneliness” 40 years after Life magazine handed the highway its perfect marketing slogan.
Funded by a grant from the Nevada Arts Council, Battisti and Romanelli traveled to, from, and along Highway 50, searching for the stuff poets look for: essences and inspirations, eternity and ephemerality, connections and disruptions, memory prompts, feeling prompts, writing prompts.
Much of which they found, in varying proportions. Scott Dickensheets takes a look at the new book from the two Las Vegas poets in the newest issue of Desert Companion, available now.
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.
