The Daily Rundown: September 29, 2026
💜 September is National Recovery Month, honoring those who have recovered from substance use disorder, while also remembering those who lost their battles with drug and alcohol addiction.
It comes on the heels of last month's National Overdose Awareness Day, while also being the traditional time for the Narcan at Night event, organized by national nonprofit Mobilize Recovery. On Sept. 16, more than 700 volunteers distributed 15,000 doses of the opioid overdose medication naloxone.
This all comes at a significant time for Southern Nevada, which is finally seeing a drop in its overdose rates.
According to the Clark County Coroner, drug-related deaths dropped by more than 11% in 2025 compared with 2024, and numbers compiled by the Health District earlier this year show the age-adjusted overdose rate fell by nearly a quarter from 2024 to 2025.
At the same time, Health District data shows the nonfatal overdose rate increased by nearly 7% — likely thanks to the bevy of harm reduction measures local agencies have enacted, like upping naloxone and test-strip dissemination to check for deadly adulterants, increasing education, and targeting outreach to specific ZIP codes around Las Vegas.
Jessica Johnson, a health education supervisor with the Southern Nevada Health District, said Nevada is finally catching up to the declining overdose trends present in the rest of the nation. That lag could be due to how the U.S. drug flow works.
"Some of the adulterants like fentanyl, xylazine, metatomidine, we have seen begin on the East Coast and sort of make their way west," she told KNPR's State of Nevada. That migration takes time, both to saturate the local drug supply and also peter itself out.
But timing isn't the only reason local overdose fatalities are falling. Hear the full story by KNPR's Anne Davis here.
💧 Callville Bay Marina is making infrastructure adjustments to its docks because of declining water levels at Lake Mead, according to Fox 5. The marina’s operators say that as the facilities are pushed farther into the bay, utility connections must be lengthened. The adjustments require specialized equipment and commercial divers.
Despite the changing conditions, operators emphasize that Lake Mead continues to offer sufficient water for recreational activities.
Lake Mead has seen a continuous decline in water levels for decades, affecting agriculture, hydropower infrastructure, available drinking water and recreational activities in Nevada.
🏜️ A group of Democratic lawmakers has sent Interior Secretary Doug Burgum a list of questions raising concerns about the potential proliferation of data centers on public lands.
Lawmakers are asking for more transparency about potential projects and guarantees that communities will be allowed to have input on any proposals.
The push comes amid media reports that data center developers are eyeing Bureau of Land Management lands for sites in at least six Western states. The lawmakers’ letter raises concerns that BLM could be reviewing proposals across Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
The BLM has not confirmed to the Mountain West News Bureau whether data center proposals are under consideration in those states.
The letter references a data center approved by the BLM that stoked controversy from local officials in Boulder City, Nevada, which calls its appeal the first such test case involving public lands. An Interior Department appeals judge recently temporarily halted the project, saying it appeared to have been approved without proper environmental studies and public input.
The Democrats who sent the letter are on the House Natural Resources Committee and asked for more details about the processes for approving data centers on public lands from Burgum by Oct. 8.
Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada says lawmakers want to ensure accountability and that local communities are involved.
Titus is pushing a bill called the Public Lands Accountability Act that would ensure data center projects on public lands adhere to the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA requires health and environmental assessments and closes potential loopholes. Hear the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau's Yvette Fernandez here.
🏀 The NBA’s Board of Governors is reviewing how possible expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle would affect the league. Key issues include how the league plans to share revenue between the two new teams and how those teams would impact the current pool of players.
The next expansion bid deadline also has yet to be announced to groups in either city, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Currently, Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and his group remain in the running after meeting the latest bid filing deadline earlier this month.
If the league expands to Las Vegas and Seattle, officials say they hope to see the teams on the court by the 2028-29 season.
📄 After missing federal deadlines and delaying for months, Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate David Flippo has released his financial disclosure forms five weeks before Election Day.
Federal ethics laws required the document months ago, drawing media attention and ethics complaints regarding the delay.
According to The Nevada Independent, the candidate submitted the forms by hand via mail and fax after experiencing technical issues with online filing. The filing shows a net worth between $3.2 million and $14.5 million, built through real estate, investments, military retirement and small-business holdings.
It also reveals debt between $580,000 and $1.2 million, largely stemming from credit lines used to fund his political campaigns.
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.
