As 2021 comes to a close, we look back at the top stories that shaped the Las Vegas Valley from the COVID-19 pandemic that seemed to never end to the Las Vegas Raiders' early rise and quick slide.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

(Kipp Ortenburger) Welcome to Nevada Week.

Well, 2021 started with hospitals full of COVID patients, but the vaccine rollout was on its way.

The year also featured big moves in the Nevada legislature like education funding and the late-in-the-year redistricting maps.

Climate change and the drought and even wildfires occupied much of the summer's environmental news, and by the fall, the Raiders had fans in the stands for the very first time, but the team's off-field problems dominated headlines.

Joining us to talk about all of these stories and a heck of a lot more are Megan Messerly, a reporter from the Nevada Independent; Heidi Kyser, deputy editor for the Desert Companion; Sam Gordon, sports reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Michael Lyle, a reporter for the Nevada Current.

Thank you all for being here.

It's very interesting.

We've had you all on the show throughout the year, so I feel like I know all of you guys both in person and when we were still virtual.

Michael, I know we had you on several times during our legislative session.

Megan, I think we had you on once for our election coverage as well.

Because of that, I kind of want to start with more of a personal question.

Let's talk about maybe some of the stories that have impacted you, affected you on a personal level, things you've covered or maybe stories that you've been reading.

Megan, I want to start with you.

(Megan Messerly) Yes.

I mean, I've spent so much of the entire year and then even last year covering the COVID-19 pandemic and, you know, I think back to earlier this year, I was working on a COVID retrospective series, and I spent a lot of time talking to people about what COVID was like for them, right, and talking to people who'd lost family members, who'd lost jobs, who would experience mental health issues, and I think, you know, for me getting to hear those personal stories and have people open up about, you know, what it's been like going through the pandemic and living their lives as Nevadans was just really valuable for me but, you know, really hard to hear those stories.

But I think for me, it's really important to be able to tell those stories and share them, because then we can have sort of more compassion for each other.

You know, we can sort of understand how other people's perspectives have been, you know, how they've gone through the last year, year and a half.

So I just think back to some of those people, you know, the tearful phone calls, trying to walk through sort of everything that people have gone through.

But I just really appreciated that experience of being able to sort of have those one-on-ones with individuals.

-Because you've had those types of calls for 18-plus months now and again each week, the same calls, the same kind of emotional outreaches here, I mean, how's that impactful to you personally trying to cover this?

-Yes.

I mean, it's a great question.

I don't think anyone who's covered the pandemic or anything difficult, right, I think part of us as journalists, we like to set that aside a little bit so we can get the job done.

But at the same time at the end of the day, you go home and you're recalling the conversations you've had.

I think a lot of us as journalists, right, and as human beings who have gone through the last year and a half have all had our struggles, so I think it's very humbling to hear other people's experiences, and I think in some ways for me, it was really cathartic to be able to tell other people's stories, you know, because I think we've all gone through our own struggles in the last year, year and a half, almost two years now.

So I think for me, it was really rewarding to be able to sort of have that role and be able to share those stories.

It sort of gave me a sense of purpose I think.

-Yes, absolutely.

Michael, I want to come to you.

Again, something that's really impacted you, affected you.

(Michael Lyle) I think at the start of the pandemic, we started hearing something to the fact that we're seeing how it is underscoring all the gaps and deficiencies in our social service networks and systems, and that's continued completely into 2021.

So I think part of this is seeing the resilience of people just trying to navigate systems and safety nets that have massive holes in them.

So just kind of like what Megan was saying, talking to them, having those tearful conversations about how they are facing eviction or how they're struggling to pay rent and hearing those conversations over and over again and trying to convince them that their story is worth sharing because it's painting this picture, and it's helping to show there's so much more work that needs to be done in our policy gaps.

But it does have an effect.

One, it makes you feel a little more privileged about the things that you do have when you hear about the deficits that so many people are having in their lives.

It makes you a little bit more grateful, but still like it hurts your heart just hearing these stories over and over again.

People are still facing housing insecurity and struggling to make ends meet and just struggling to survive, but there's also a beauty in that resilience, that determination of no matter how little they have, using it to make sure that they can get through it.

Just hopefully those lessons and those stories get to the policymakers and they make the changes that need to be made.

-And we need to address that.

The in-depth coverage that everybody around the table is providing here provides that perspective we wouldn't get from a lot of other media sources, so important.

Heidi, what comes to mind for you?

(Heidi Kyser) I think the story that touched me the most, the deepest personally was the one about the five cyclists that were killed and their driver in the collision about a year ago now-- -Almost to the day, right?

-That's right, December 10, 2020.

I did some reporting on it early in the year, and we had a radio show on it on KNPR State of Nevada.

We did a full hour in which we talked to one of the cyclists who was there and who survived and who saw his friends dying, dead and dying on the road, and for me, that was very difficult.

I am a cyclist and I ride with groups of friends, so I could really feel that pain.

I could really put myself on that road that day, and it was just extremely difficult.

And then I wrote an essay about it in March, and then what began to happen over the course of the year was the Southern Nevada Bicycle Coalition started to bring together different groups of cyclists.

Not just recreational cyclists, but also people who commute to work, people who do the Downtown pub rides and different parts of this community, and they came together to try to advocate together for greater safety in our community.

They recently just painted-- did a mural painting Downtown and, you know, doing all of these other really positive, really encouraging activities to raise awareness.

So I think similar to what both Michael and Megan said, there was sort of a ray of hope at the end of that story or, you know, kind of ongoing hope for me there watching that develop.

-Absolutely.

And this is tied to policy, most definitely.

We do have a big infrastructure package that has passed, and there is money in that package hopefully for more bicycle safety.

We might get to that in a second.

Thank you, appreciate that.

Sam, I wish to say, you know, I mean, we're talking about difficult things here and we go to sports and we go well, I mean, everything is hunky-dory in the sports world, but that's not true.

We've seen some major tragedy on the Raiders side as well, and I don't mean to focus your attention on that.

I want to know what's impacted you the most.

(Sam Gordon) Yes.

I think, you know, 2020 for sports, I mean, sports are for spectators.

They're communal.

People go to games to bond and to have fun and to share in this experience and to get away from everything that you guys all talked about for a little bit, and having COVID shut everything down in 2020 was devastating.

Then you get things opening back up but there's no fans, it's just different and covering those Raider games last year when there was no fans at all, it's just bizarre.

It feels like a scrimmage or almost a practice.

So I think for me, seeing Vegas open up a little bit, seeing that sporting events are allowed to have fans now and seeing people go back in arenas and are able to share this joy they didn't have for so long in 2020 was a beautiful thing especially, you know, of course it's not exactly how it was.

We have to adjust because of COVID and there's all these precautions in place, but the fact that people can bond over sports again and the sports here in this town, I think throughout the course of the year was able to provide some kind of beacon of hope in what's been a really hard time.

So I think for me, that's been the thing that stuck out the most, and like you said, there's been a lot of, you know, devastating things with sports here in Vegas, especially with the Raiders, but big picture, the fact that people can go to games again, people can go to fights, people can enjoy the sports that they love and share those experiences with people they care about, it's something we can take solace in, given how hard everything has been the last couple of years.

-Yes, and let's not forget how that started with the Golden Knights and October 1 and the tragedies there and how that team and the togetherness we found in that arena really helped in healing as well.

Really great point.

Let's talk about some of the bigger stories I think of the year, and maybe with a little bit of an eye on not only the big stories, but the big stories that might really impact or influence our future.

Megan, what stands out to you?

-Yes.

I mean, I look back and think about some of the changes made at the legislative level.

I think there was some question going in, how much are we going to see done on COVID?

What are the changes that are going to be made, but one of the things that I think is really interesting, Nevada passed this public option bill to create a public health insurance option.

People would be able to buy into it much like they would a plan on the health insurance exchange.

There's still a lot of questions about what that looks like moving forward, but I think the pandemic has underscored for all of us how important it is to have our health, how important it is to be able to access that care when we need it.

And those conversations, you know, don't end with the public option certainly, but I think the pandemic underscored the need in Nevada to do more on healthcare.

Obviously someone who covers healthcare, healthcare reporter, I'm biased but I think it's a really important topic.

You know, you look at the list, right, Nevada ranks at the bottom of all the wrong lists on healthcare.

We consistently don't have enough doctors, nurses, so there's a workforce issue to address as well.

But I just think that especially the pandemic has just underscored, and I think underscored for a lot of policymakers, the importance of taking action on healthcare and sort of understanding, you know, Nevada-- for a long time we've known Nevada is not doing enough on healthcare, but what does it look like to actually, you know, take some policy steps to address that?

And I think that's the beginning of what we saw, so I'll be curious to see what comes from that in the future.

-Yes, and I think an important part to note about that is we're only the second state that has passed a public option, so we might be on the bottom on some lists, but we seem to be very innovative on the policy side.

-Yes.

I think that's one of the really interesting things about Nevada.

So obviously Washington state was the first to do a public option; it's called Cascade Care.

We passed ours, Colorado followed shortly thereafter, but it is really interesting to see these sort of Western states innovate.

You know, one of the things I talked to a lot of policymakers about is Nevada, we are scrappy in a lot of ways and maybe under-resourced in a lot of ways, but because of that, you know, you can bring forward to the legislature an interesting experimental idea and you get enough people on board and you can get it passed.

I think that's what we saw happen with the public option.

Of course the devil is in the details with implementation and it's quite a few years out, but I do think that is one of the unique characteristics about Nevada and bringing forward legislation in Nevada is you can kind of try new things in a way that pursuing a public option at the national level, for instance, you know, you have so much-- so many barriers to get through, right, getting something through Congress.

But in Nevada you might be able to get something at the state level done.

-Does it seem like it's going to be kind of a "build as as we go" type of thing?

I mean, I know that as you mentioned, the bill itself is not very detailed in how the process is going to work.

I know you've reported on-- there are a lot of healthcare advocates that were not included in the design of that, so do you think that's going to cause problems in the next couple of years?

-I think we're going to see sort of industry representatives that we've still seen, you know, hospitals, doctors, chambers of commerce sort of coming together to continue to voice concerns about the legislation they've put forward.

You know, these are the things we'd like to see considered during the process of developing the public option.

So I think a lot of that is to be determined.

You know, a lot of the finer points, the legislation requires an actuarial study to see okay, is this sort of feasible?

What would this actually look like?

Do the numbers sort of work out?

You know, we have this idea in theory, but once we've crunched the numbers, is this a viable prospect for Nevadans?

Is it going to reduce their insurance costs?

So certainly there's a lot more conversations to come, and I think it will be really interesting to see how the industry is involved in conversations.

You know, do they continue to be an oppositional force?

Are they brought in at some point?

There's historically been a lot of opposition from the industry generally to a public option type concept, but I think it will be interesting to see if Nevada really pushes forward on this, you know, sort of how they're brought into the fold and how some of their concerns might be addressed.

-Right.

And I'm assuming future legislation related to that, too.

This isn't the last policy we're going to see related to this.

Michael, I want to go to you.

I mean, your coverage is so diverse.

I mean, you cover so many different beats for the Nevada Current, so this might be a hard question for you.

Hopefully, you've done some planning here.

I mean, what is the biggest stories that emerged and some of the things you've covered?

-That is a tough one.

I do think that the federal relief that we've seen and some of the federal legislation is going to make a significant impact on everyday Nevadans.

The American Rescue Plan, the stimulus that came out at the beginning of the year, not only did that give $6.7 billion to Nevada for various different projects, that also expanded something called the Child Tax Credit, and that's giving monthly payments to families.

So you have about a $300 payment for every child under five and $250 for every child under 17, and that is making a huge difference in people's lives.

People are using that to pay for rent, to pay for childcare or even just to kind of offset some of the rising costs that we're seeing whether it's on gas prices or food costs.

So that's a significant thing that people are seeing, a significant benefit that people are seeing from this federal legislation.

And right now that might not be something that's going to be continuing on the horizon.

They're debating whether to extend that for another year in the Build Back Better Act.

It's not sure what it's going to do, but as of right now, it's seemed to have reduced childhood poverty viability by about 40% nationwide, so it's having a significant impact on people, and people are seeing this.

They know that our costs are rising.

I mean, rent has risen in the valley 22% since last year, so they're using this to offset some of these costs, so I think that's a huge story.

I'm curious to see going into next year what campaigning is going to look like around that policy issue.

I hate "dog fight" politics and that's what it's going to come down to, but this is a significant child poverty reduction.

This is a significant thing, so I think we should look at policy and politics of how it's helping everyday people and the most vulnerable, and that's I think something that the most vulnerable people in our state are seeing and are impacted by.

-And we're talking about Build Back Better, but I want to bring it more local and again, maybe more of a symbiotic feeling we've had is our American Rescue Plan Act money.

We saw this huge listening session that happened this year, now they're starting to make decisions.

I'm sure there's some politics that are kind of fueling some of those decisions, but it seems to be that everybody's kind of getting along with that funding.

I mean, are you seeing the same thing?

-I'm seeing that policymakers across this state are realizing that for the first time, they have money that they've never had access to before, so they're recognizing, maybe not-- and the roles might be hit or miss but in Southern Nevada in particular, where a big chunk of the population is, recognizing for the first time we could actually address some systemic issues whether that's on housing, whether that's on healthcare, whether it's actually building enough adequate housing for people.

So I think we're recognizing that we have this pot of money, so we just can't screw it up and we'll see-- like there's still a lot of time to actually use this money and to spend it up.

I think they have until 2024 to actually make final decisions, so we're seeing some things go out like grants to nonprofits or direct aid to families with disability.

We're seeing things slowly trickle out, but I think that's going to ramp up more in 2022.

-Yes, which sounds like a good sign just because there's obviously strategy behind the way they're releasing this money and what they're focusing on, so hopefully that bodes well for the future.

Heidi, I want to come to you.

Biggest stories, and here we've got a little bit more of a narrow beat that you focus on with a lot of the more environmental focus, but what are some of the big stories that you covered?

-Well, I just think there's no getting around the fact that climate change is the biggest story.

I mean, it's sort of-- you know, in my mind at least precludes and is of greater importance than anything else we can talk about because if we can't take care of the planet, and if we can't slow or stop global warming, then especially in Nevada, the heat and the drought are literally going to kill us.

So I know Daniel Rothberg, Megan's colleague, has just done some tremendous reporting.

The Colorado River Water Users Association is meeting here-- or was meeting here in Vegas recently, and he was talking about some of the rules that are coming out for shortage sharing, for lack of a better word.

There's the 500-Plus Plan that the Lower Colorado River Basin states have agreed on, and there are some things happening.

I think the awareness of this critical point we've reached in drought and in the Colorado River is upon us, and now the question remains, what's going to actually happen?

So for instance, this agreement that Daniel was writing about is for two years.

You know, that's temporary still, right, some more permanent solutions have to happen.

So you see a lot happening at the federal level and then trickling down to the state level with the things that have to do with climate change but maybe aren't as broad or sweeping or aggressive as what we really need.

And then of course President Biden, many of his plans that he had have been stymied by some resistance in Congress so we're once again, just like with healthcare, sort of left at the state level to do what we can, and then there are conflicts developing as well, right?

So if you think about the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, SNEDCA, and the Clark County Public Lands Bill, there are many environmentalists, a few conservationists, who are staunchly against it despite the fact that it does purport to combat climate change and the lack of affordable housing and some other things.

So you're starting to see some conflicts develop around some of these discrete issues as well.

-Right.

One of the main reasons I believe is because of the greenhouse gas emissions by urban sprawl because it is opening up I think it's-- -40,000 additional acres for development, between 30 and 40, depending.

And then if you look at, you know, the switch to electric vehicles has been one of the-- or presented at least as a big panacea, right, switching to electric.

But then you have the Backer Pass lithium mine in Northern Nevada where a group of natives and ranchers have gotten together to protest the mining of that area because of its sacred nature to indigenous peoples in that region.

You have the proposed solar development in Mormon Mesa that was essentially killed by a group of local recreationists who said we don't want a big solar farm in this spot that we're used to-- you know, it's right next to where we live for one thing, and then it's where we're used to riding our horses and hiking and, you know, we don't want that.

So some of these, you know, we're going to have to figure out how to I think do these proposals maybe a little smarter, maybe cite them differently, and hopefully at the state level, they'll find a way to navigate some of these conflicts instead of just sort of coming in and plopping them down.

-Yes, but I think what's important in everything you just covered right there is how public opinion and public response has weighed things on both sides, and I'm hoping that brings more balance to that conversation.

Definitely something we're going to be covering in the future.

Sam, let's talk about sports.

Biggest-- some of the biggest stories.

Again, there's so much you could cover here.

What are some of your biggest?

-Yes, for sure.

I mean, we talked about-- we touched on the Raiders a little bit, right?

Their first year here, there's this momentum building.

You have this brand new stadium, fans are finally able to come to the stadium, the team starts out 3-0, and then you come to find out that former head coach Jon Gruden using derogatory, racist, homophobic language in emails, and he's out of there.

And then a few weeks later, emerging star wide receiver Henry Ruggs gets in a fatal car crash that claims the life of Tina Tintor and her dog Max, and we've seen how the season has kind of taken a turn after that.

So not exactly I think the ideal start for the Raiders in Las Vegas, but I think big picture, we find out earlier this month that the Super Bowl is coming to Las Vegas in a couple years.

So you juxtapose the struggles with the Raiders with the possibilities for the future not only the franchise, but the NFL recognizing Las Vegas as a major market and what that means big picture for sports here, right?

We've seen the Golden Knights have major success, boxing, UFC are housed here.

The Aces had a fantastic season.

They fell a little short in the WNBA semifinals but have a foundation, a championship-caliber foundation.

So even though the Raider stuff wasn't-- I mean, wasn't the kind of start they hoped for here, I think you're just kind of scratching the surface big picture of what Las Vegas can be as a sports town, and having the Super Bowl come here, being awarded the Super Bowl I think is kind of symbolic of how far the city has come.

I mean, think about that.

You know, even five years ago, right, would we see a Super Bowl here in Vegas with how taboo gambling once was?

I think we're seeing sports leagues around the country embrace gambling, and I think we've seen-- that's why the NFL is here, it's why the NHL here, and that's why the Super Bowl is coming here.

So definitely a lot to unpack, but a lot of possibility on the horizon as well, and it's exciting.

It's an exciting sports scene.

I mean, this is not a small market anymore with just UNLV.

There's a lot here and a lot here now, and there's going to be a lot here coming in the future, and it's very exciting to think about those possibilities.

-And I want to talk about one of those on the horizon is we can't forget about the Aces here, semifinalist again, getting so close to a championship.

I mean, let's shift the conversation to the future.

What's maybe next season going to look like?

Are they making the right moves?

-Yes, I think so.

I mean, you take a look at the foundation they have with A'ja Wilson, with Chelsea Gray, with Kelsey Plum, with Jackie Young, how talented that group is and how still young.

I mean, with your core, everybody's in their 20s still so this to me, if we're taking a look big picture at what the first pro sports team to deliver a championship to Las Vegas is going to be, it feels like the Aces are the closest with how they did in the bubble in 2020, with how they did this year and with just kind of the state of their organization.

They're going to be a major player in the WNBA for a long time.

I expect them to be competing for championships just like they did.

Of course they fell a little short, but the talent is there, the infrastructure is there, now it's all about putting it together.

I think you need experience to win at the highest of levels, and this team has gathered that experience throughout the last three or four years, and that's why they're in this position where I think they're a viable contender not only in 2022, but moving forward.

They built this thing to be sustainable, and that's what it looks like so far.

-That's encouraging.

When I hear things like that, I start thinking dynasty.

I don't want to get too far ahead over our skis here, but maybe.

Megan, let's look just maybe at 2022.

What are some of the biggest stories you think are going to be emerging?

-Yes.

I mean, one of the things I'll be keeping an eye on is COVID, you know, just where we go with the pandemic.

You know, I say we're in an uncertain moment of the pandemic, but it seems like every moment in the pandemic has been an uncertain moment so just trying to figure out, you know, what does the long-term response look like?

A lot of public health experts I talk to say, you know, COVID is going to be with us in one form or another.

If it's not this variant, it's the next variant, so what does it look like to live with COVID long-term, and I think that's going to be an important question for policymakers, for healthcare, for public health.

And then for the state more broadly, how do we continue to recover from the pandemic?

You know, all the changes to our economy, unemployment, all the things Michael mentioned, right, with this changing world that we're in that's increasingly unaffordable for a lot of folks.

I think that's something the state is going to have to grapple with big picture in the new year.

-Michael, we have about a minute.

I don't know where to start here on the future.

We can talk about elections, we don't have to talk about elections.

What are some of the biggest stories we're going to see here in 2022?

-I'm going to be a broken record and repeat about housing.

We're in a housing crisis.

Rent has increased 22%.

Something has to be done so for me, it's going to be continue to tell the story that people are struggling to find housing.

The Super Bowl is coming here, tourism is coming back, the people that are making our economy run can't find places to live.

So it's going to be up to policymakers at the state level, local level, federal level to see what they're going to do about helping everyday people, the people that are making Nevada's economy run, making sure that they can afford housing because right now, they can't.

-They can't, and as you said, this isn't a low-income issue, this isn't a middle-income issue.

This is pervasive and it's not only rent, it's also first-time homebuyers is a big part.

We'll have you back.

We'll talk about that in the future.

Well, thank you so much, really appreciate it.

It was a great conversation.

And thank you as always for joining us this week on Nevada Week.

Now, for any of the resources discussed on the show, please visit our website at vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @nevadaweek.

Thanks for joining us, and have a safe and happy holiday season.

We look forward to more in 2022.

♪♪♪