The Daily Rundown: September 22, 2026
🏞️ The Kootzaduka’a, or the people of the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe of California and Nevada, have been working on becoming a federally recognized tribe for a long time. It’s a demanding process with a lot of governmental red tape.
Dean Tonenna, a Kootzaduka’a elder, said it was “July of 1976, [when] our tribe filed the paperwork to begin the process of federal acknowledgement. We’ve been working on it since then.”
Tonenna is trying to recover records that identify the tribe in every decade going back to the early 1900s. This is to prove to the U.S. government that it has been here all along.
Recently, it entered into an agreement with California State Parks that establishes the tribe as a state-recognized sovereign nation. It allows tribal members to collect traditional materials and access their ancestral homelands.
Scott Green, the California State Parks associate state archaeologist, has been working with the tribe on this memorandum for two years. “It’s time to pay attention to what the tribal people have to say,” Green said. The tribe is also working with Nevada to reach a similar agreement.
🍂 Through November 7, the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is running its annual Harvest display on the Las Vegas Strip, Fox 5 reports.
According to MGM officials, the display incorporates sustainable practices by repurposing living plant material.
Along with the visual showcase, the seasonal installation will feature immersive dining through the Garden Table restaurant and exclusive MGM Rewards, such as after-hours access for members.
🗳️ Voters will weigh in on abortion in Missouri and three other states in the November general election. Missouri is also one of two states voting on it for the second time since 2024. Nevada will vote again, too.
The spate of referendums comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections with its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — leaving each state to make its own abortion policy. The result has been a patchwork of state rules with varying degrees of bans or limitations and even a series of “shield laws” in states where abortion remains legal that aim to protect providers from prosecution in states where it’s not.
“I just think there’s a constitutional crisis that’s coming,” said Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy for the anti-abortion organization Students for Life Action. “Can you have 50 state standards on whether or not a human being is a human being? Can you have 50 state standards on whether human beings have legal protection?” Hamrick said.
That patchwork of abortion protections is the reason Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom introduced the 2024 ballot measure to enshrine the state’s law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks after conception into the state constitution, said Denise Lopez, president of the coalition.
The measure received strong support two years ago from 64% of voters. Nevada law requires two majority votes to enshrine constitutional amendments, so voters will need to support the expanded protection again in November for it to be enacted.
The Nevada ballot measure wouldn’t change the state’s existing law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks after conception. But the proposal would make it more difficult to overturn abortion access, requiring voter approval of any new ban in two elections.
Lopez said Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom has been campaigning to ensure voters are still mobilized.
“Folks care about it,” she said. “They’re seeing what’s happening at the national level, and they want to make sure that whatever’s happening in our neighboring states, like Idaho and Utah, doesn’t happen here in Nevada.” Read the full story by KFF Health’s Bram Sable-Smith and Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez here.
🐾 The nonprofit Friends of Henderson Animal Support is looking for some support itself, saying thieves stole thousands of dollars’ worth of pet items from its storage unit.
The organization said in a social media post that surveillance footage shows two women taking food, treats, toys for enrichment and training and more.
According to News 3, Henderson police confirmed they responded to a burglary at the storage unit’s location on Sept. 19.
The volunteer group is asking the community to help replace what was taken. They work with the city’s shelter and animal rescue groups.
🏢 The Bureau of Land Management filed a motion on Sept. 21 to conduct additional review of the proposed Townsite Solar Data Center to be built on federal land near Boulder City.
Per the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s reporting on the filing, developer Townsite Solar 2 LLC supports the motion, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club are neutral, but Boulder City opposes the motion.
Boulder City representatives explained their opposition to the motion, saying it did not commit the BLM to an environmental assessment, nor did it commit the agency to cooperation with city officials or residents.
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.
