Nevadans have mixed feelings about the upcoming presidential race, but also about a recent poll that showed President Joe Biden 12 points behind Donald Trump.
Listeners called and emailed their thoughts for State of Nevada’s open microphone forum. Guest Hugh Jackson, editor of the Nevada Current, joined show host Joe Schoenmann.
“I think it’s possible that a lot of people have kind of forgotten about what they might have felt about Trump four years ago,” Jackson said. “And people are upset about the economy … which has been a basket case for the entire first quarter of this century.”
He added the economy pain in Nevada started long before the pandemic. The Great Recession and the terrorist attacks on September 1, 2001 devastated the hospitality industry in this state.
“Toss in the invasion in Ukraine, the Gaza tragedy and … there’s just a lot of reason for people to want something, anything different, and I think that has a lot to do with that poll.”
Some callers cast doubt about the poll.
Sunny, a listener in Las Vegas, said the polls are unreliable because so many people get scam calls, they won’t answer their phones.
She said younger people might be answering those calls but “seniors, as being targeted scam victims, we don’t respond to that, because we don’t know if it’s a scam.”
Listener Alfonso from Las Vegas called Donald Trump “dangerous.”
“He only thinks about himself. Why (don’t) American people wake up and see the reality of his life?”
The weather in Las Vegas and throughout the state is also starting to get hot. Meteorologists have predicted a hotter-than-normal summer is on the way. That means more water use for people with outdoor plants.
But for those who replace lawns with artificial turf, one listener issued a warning.
Norm Schilling, a horticulturist who hosts KNPR’s “Desert Bloom” program, said he’s worried that microplastics from the turf will get into our storm drains, which empty into our water supply.
Caller Scott from North Las Vegas is a landscaper who also had a comment about artificial turf. He said he was working at a property earlier in the morning, and the temperature reading showed him it was 111 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperature for Las Vegas was predicted to be only 92 degrees.
“There’s some problems with this artificial turf,” he added.
Guest: Hugh Jackson, editor, Nevada Current
