How a cyber attack on the state is impacting public safety, why the ACLU of Nevada is joining celebrity blogger Perez Hilton in his legal fight against actress Blake Lively, and... -It's a special place for your kids to be, it's a special place for your family to be, and it creates this network that's, you can't duplicate it anywhere else.

-...what it was like to be part of the Summerlin South Little League team's US championship run.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪ -Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

The state is still recovering from a cyber attack that officials first learned about late last month.

The attack shut down several state services, including a background check system for people trying to buy guns, as well as the sex offender registry database.

Joining us with more on where these services now stand is Jessica Hill, Politics Reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Jessica, welcome back to Nevada Week.

-Thanks for having me.

-So the sex offender database and the system for background checks on guns, these being down all kind of sounds very scary.

What should our viewers know?

(Jessica Hill) So Governor Lombardo did say last week that the background check for buying a gun is down.

They announced on Sunday that it is now back up.

So that is all good.

He did say that many gun dealers were holding off on actually giving the gun until the background check could be done, so I don't believe that there was any circumstance in which people were running around with guns without having a background check done.

So that system is now back up online.

-And how were gun owners-- gun store owners operating amidst all this?

-Yeah.

Governor Lombardo had said that as far as like the publicly certified gun dealers, they were holding guns until, you know, a background check could be completed.

He said he wasn't really sure about private gun dealers, but he also imagines that it was like a similar scenario.

-What do we know about the sex offender registry database?

-The governor's office hasn't announced that it's been back online; however, there are other tools that I've seen that are still working.

Metro has a tool as well that's a sex offender database that we've been looking at that still works.

-Where is the state of Nevada in this recovery process?

-The governor has said on Friday that they are about 90% restored as far as the public facing websites go.

There are some internal websites or systems that are still down.

I've talked with, like, attorneys who work in the Workers Compensation Program, and they basically help injured workers fight their cases and get, you know, money for their medical health.

And they have been saying that their e-filing system is down, which is causing a large delay in seeing those workers' cases go through.

-And now that you bring that up, that makes me think about the background checks.

That impacted employers as well.

How so?

-Right.

So if you're a new employee who's getting hired, in a lot of cases, many work places require a background check.

Places such as like a medical facility, for instance, some workers have reported saying that they haven't been able to actually start their job until this background check was able to go through.

-When we last had you on, you wanted to know who did this, who was behind this cyber attack; how they pulled it off; and what information has been taken and for what purpose.

Do you have the answers to any of those yet?

-I wish I could say I did.

We still don't know who did it or how it happened.

We don't know exactly what data was taken, but the governor has said what data has not been taken as far as that they are aware.

They said DMV records have not been taken.

That includes people's personal information regarding a driver's license, that kind of thing.

And then also state financial data has not been taken.

We don't know yet what kind of data was taken and whether or not it was labeled as personal identifying information.

-Yet amid all this, the governor has announced his bid for re-election.

Did that surprise you that he did this while this is still ongoing?

-It did not totally surprise me.

I had known that he would file for re-election or announce that he was running for re-election after Labor Day, so I was anticipating it coming soon.

I'm sure that he will receive some criticism from Democrats who might say, you know, why didn't you wait until this was fully recovered?

But I do think that in his eyes, a lot of services have been restored.

-And who knows when it will be fully recovered?

I mean, how long could that process take?

-I mean, it could take months to get every single system back up online.

-And that would certainly be a significant delay in his re-election bid.

Jessica Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thanks for having me.

-We move now to Nevada's reporter shield law, which protects journalists from disclosing their sources.

It's what celebrity blogger and Las Vegas resident Perez Hilton cited when fighting a subpoena from actress Blake Lively, who claimed that Perez had colluded with actor Justin Baldoni to launch a smear campaign against her.

Lively has since withdrawn her subpoena.

And Perez, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, Jr., thinks he knows why.

And he joins us now.

Perez Hilton, welcome to Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

I thought I'd dress up for the occasion.

-You look lovely.

I did not know you were a Golden Knights fan.

(Perez Hilton) I mean, who isn't in Vegas?

-If you move here, you have to, because you're here about, what, you've been here two years?

-Almost three years total, and we love going to the games, taking my kids.

It's sports, but it's also entertainment.

Vegas does hockey and everything next-level.

-They need to take that sound bite from you and air it.

If you say it's entertainment, it is.

They put a lot into it.

Anyhow, back to this.

Okay, why do you think that Blake Lively and her team of attorneys withdrew that subpoena?

-Well, I'm going to try to make this as simplified as possible.

I was subpoenaed in July.

And for over two months, I was handling it all by myself.

And then last week, a little over seven days ago, the ACLU of Nevada agreed to represent me.

-You reached out to them?

-No.

It happened so serendipitously.

God, the universe, a kind person was looking after me.

I did two in-person hearings--I think you went to one of them--by myself.

That first one that you were at, it was me versus three lawyers.

I was representing myself pro se, as they say, because I knew, as a journalist, what was being asked of me was wrong.

I knew it was right to fight.

However, I also knew that my insurance for my job, I'm self employed, covers lawsuits.

It doesn't cover fighting a subpoena.

And if I would have paid out of pocket to fight this subpoena, given that it had a drama in two different courts in two different states that spanned three months--correct, yes, New York City and here in Vegas--it would have probably cost me by the end of it over $75,000.

-And that would be costs in lost time because you were representing yourself?

-Both.

$75,000 in legal bills and then also my time.

So I said, you know what?

I know it won't be easy, but I think I can do it.

And then it got to a point where it just became bigger than me.

And what the judge here in Las Vegas was asking of me, Prepare this privilege log and name your sources and I will look at it and determine if it's privileged or not.

It didn't sit right with me, because that's the whole point of what I was trying to fight, to protect those names.

So this lawyer, I got to give her a shout-out.

Her name is Dawn, D-A-W-N, Thoman, T-H-O-M-A-N.

She is a local attorney here who works pro bono representing children in need in Vegas.

And the judge at the second hearing said: I need you to reach out to some forensic data experts and get quotes; and if Ms.

Lively wants this information, she will pay for that, because the privilege log that you put together was not detailed enough.

You need to compile all this information and then get me also quotes from a paralegal, and the paralegal will help you put it together.

And I left that second hearing so overwhelmed, and this lawyer, Dawn, came to me and said, Hey, if you need any recommendations for forensic experts, let me know.

-And that would be to comb through your cell phone-- -Laptop, my devices, my cloud, everything.

So I emailed her, because I don't know any forensic experts here in Vegas.

And she sent me some names.

And then the day after that, I was in the local morning news and also I made a video for YouTube.

And in both of those places, I said, I need help.

Please, if any lawyer--and I get it--if any lawyer just wants the publicity, please, I need pro bono help.

-You get that?

-Yeah.

So the next day, Dawn said, Hey, I reached out to my friend at the ACLU of Nevada, and he wants to talk to you.

And I'm like, that's so amazing and kind.

And then I met with Athar and Chris and the team at the ACLU of Nevada.

They agreed to represent me.

They call Blake Lively's lawyers.

They say to them almost immediately, We're going to withdraw the subpoena.

The next day in the morning, they go to court, they withdraw the subpoena.

I'm pretty confident with every fiber in my being that if the ACLU of Nevada had not stepped in and the optics of that, Blake Lively versus the ACLU, she would still be pursuing this subpoena against me.

-I did talk to Athar myself.

He said he cannot speculate on why they withdrew the subpoena, but he said that if they continue to come after you in the future, he will be representing you.

-So kind.

I'm just so relieved, too, because there is a possibility that they might issue another subpoena or they might want to depose me.

And to know-- -Yeah.

And in that request to withdraw it, her attorneys listed that they already had enough documentation from other defendants, and so it made it unnecessary to keep pulling information from you.

-Well, I argued that myself.

I said that in my filings and in court.

Your Honor, everything that is being asked of me, Ms.

Lively can get from the parties directly apart of this litigation.

-Okay.

But what's the likelihood then that in that documentation they're going to find anything that connects you to colluding with Justin Baldoni?

-Zero.

Was I in communication with sources?

Absolutely.

Just like People Magazine has sources and TMZ has sources.

But as I've said repeatedly, no one ever told me to write anything negative about Blake Lively.

No one paid me.

There's no contract.

No one promised me discounts or favors.

She does not want to believe this, but I'm only speaking for myself.

My coverage, which began, actually, after reading the New York Times article and her California Civil Rights Department complaint and then the subsequent lawsuit filed on New Year's Eve of December of last year, I'll never forget it.

Initially when I read all of that, I believed her and publicly supported her.

And then I changed my mind after I read all of the receipts, proof, timeline that Justin Baldoni came with.

And I'm allowed to change my mind.

But she does not think it's organic.

She's convinced it's astroturfing, and it was this orchestrated, untraceable smear campaign.

-Had she not withdrawn that subpoena, you would be fighting, first off, to make sure that this is heard in Nevada because of the reporter shield law that I mentioned, one of the toughest in the country and protects you from having to-- -Absolute protection.

- --reveal your sources who could be retaliated against.

-Yes.

Unfortunately, the judge in the second hearing said that the Nevada shield law would not apply here, which confused me.

And that's one of the other reasons.

In addition to feeling unease at the judge saying, I need to know the names-- -Did that judge say why it wouldn't?

-I asked him.

I said-- He would not explain to me why, so I filed the motion to ask the Court to put it in writing.

-Because Blake Lively's team said that that wouldn't apply, because she doesn't consider you a journalist.

She says you do not practice the-- -Also because she-- - --tenets of independent journalism.

-Correct, she argued that.

But also with regards to why the Nevada shield law should not apply, she said, well, because she has claims in various states, and her claims are bigger federal issues.

But as I told-- I'm in my Elle Woods era.

I studied and prepared and I know the law.

I know my filings inside and out.

What's so frustrating is Blake Lively repeatedly, as recently as last week, argued that California law should be applied in New York.

And New York is where the litigation is happening, where she sued her costar and director Justin Baldoni, and the judge in New York applied California law.

-Elle Woods is a reference to that character-- - Legally Blonde.

-She went to law school.

-Yes.

But the judge in Nevada did not want to apply Nevada law here.

That made no sense to me.

-How do you respond to her claims that you are not a journalist?

-She may not like the kind of reporter that I am, but the law does not discriminate.

The law does not make one reporter more valuable than the other.

The law, the Nevada shield law and the federal reporter's privilege protects the act of reporting.

And according to both state and federal law, this is what a journalist is: somebody who gathers information of public interest and shares it with the public.

By every conceivable measure, I am a journalist.

-Perez Hilton, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

-The state's shield law is just one reason Nevada has made national headlines recently.

Another is the Summerland South Little League team, which won the US championship in the 2025 Little League World Series.

It's a win that the team continues to celebrate.

At the Raiders Monday night football game, they lit the Al Davis torch and even got to meet Raiders head coach Pete Carroll.

They've become quite the celebrities in town.

Maria Silva has more on the parade held in their honor and introduces us to some very special guests.

♪♪ -Can I get your autograph?

-Yeah, please.

Actually, let me get your autograph.

-My son is Banks.

He played left field during the World Series.

(announcer) Banks Mossler.

[cheers and applause] -It's so neat to see the passion and how much it means to them.

It was fun.

-I think it's bringing people together, you know, and showing that again, because that's what it is all about.

It's about family.

It's about team and memories.

And because these kids are 12 years old, they're never-- they're always going to remember that, that moment in their lives.

[cheers and applause] -Congratulations.

-Go Nevada.

-That's a lot of hard work.

-I would say... good job!

(Maria Silva) Good job is right.

Those are just some of the special moments captured during the parade honoring our amazing US champions, the Summerlin South Little League champions.

Welcome!

-Thank you, Maria.

Thank you for having us.

-Coach, take it away.

-My name is TJ Fachser.

I'm the manager of the Summerlin South Little League All Stars.

-I'm Americo Miranda.

I'm an assistant coach on the team.

-Jaime Miranda.

I'm Grayson's mom.

-I'm Kelsey Miranda, and I'm Grayson's sister.

-I'm Q Miranda, this guy's brother.

-"This guy's brother."

And who is this guy?

-I'm Grays Miranda.

I played first base for the Mountain team.

-And you go by Gray?

-Yeah.

-All of you have some cool names on the team.

I do want to start with you.

What a whirlwind this has been, right?

US champions, you went to the World Series, had a parade in your honor that we just saw.

What's going through your mind?

(Gray Miranda) It's just been really great, because I didn't really expect to get far.

I mean, I hoped to win districts and state, but once we won regionals, I didn't really expect that we would win the US championship.

So when we won-- and, like, even still, like riding that wave, it's been a really like, it's a really great blast of emotion that's just kind of made the world a little bit brighter.

-Are you very proud of your brother?

(Jaime Miranda) Oh, yeah.

He did all right, I guess.

(laughter) -Q, what was going through your mind as you're watching him?

(Q Miranda) Well, because you see it on TV and you're like, that's insane.

The teams must be like really, really good.

And like, I didn't realize that Gray's team was that good.

So then when they made it, I was like, dang, okay.

-All right.

Let's talk about what the experience has been like for the entire team.

(TJ Fechser) You touched on one point.

Just as we grew into this experience from regionals going into Williamsport is the media side.

I mean, they're exposed.

We all see what's on TV.

But behind the scenes, they're doing interviews, meeting with people, talking, and it's a really formative experience for these kids just to showcase their talents, but also learn to grow up a bit and have some adult conversations.

It was great seeing these kids grow through those weeks.

-Dad, I am going to ask you.

Not only are you Dad, you're also a coach.

How do both of you, both of you because, Coach TJ, your son is also on the team.

How do you balance being Dad and Coach?

(Americo Miranda) Well, to be honest, when we're on a team, he's not my son any longer.

I mean, he calls me Coach.

He gives me a hard time, and I just have TJ take care of him.

-That's different than normal?

-I handle someone else's kid.

Like if there's another coach, I handle his kid and he handles my kid.

-There's definitely a different-- There's expectations.

We know how to talk to our kids, but also they're player and coach.

And you have to maintain that dichotomy.

You can't bring in the dad side of this.

So all my kids that play with me, it's Coach.

It's not Dad.

There's no dad.

We don't do that.

-We don't exist there.

-And discipline, right, is important?

-Absolutely.

You have to have order.

-You have to have order.

Mom, now you are known, Jaime, as "Mom in charge."

That is an important title.

What does that entail?

What are some of the responsibilities that come with that title?

(Jaime Miranda) I was an executive on the Strip for 20 years, stepped away from that role and have been in the house this year, which has really enabled me to dial in and focus on this ride that we've been on this summer.

These boys and these coaches, it's been a road, right?

They were in practice for five, six days, every single day out there in the Las Vegas summer, the heat.

And then we went into districts, and that was seven, ten days, every single night out at the ballpark till 10 p.m.

or later.

And then state's in Reno.

And then San Bernardino, right?

So that road and being available and being able to be present, which was incredible, and handling everything else that goes into a family of five and what that life is and keeping everything kind of still moving and going-- -And sacrifices are made.

-Yes.

-And let's talk about that for a parent who might be watching this and might be thinking about, you know, signing up their child to T-ball or Little League.

-Do it.

-"Do it."

I love it.

-Do it, period, end of story.

Do it.

-What can you tell me about some of his teammates, including your son?

-We had a very vigorous process of putting this team together, and we knew we had tremendous talent and great character.

Also, I mean, also staffwise, I knew immediately I wanted Americo as a coach with me.

I knew these guys could compete and if we put it together we can make a run.

And I'll tell you, we set a standard and a process and a focus, and the kids bought into it.

And we just kept on building.

I'm proud of those boys.

-And, Gray, what can you tell me about your teammates?

-Everyone on my team, I mean, we're all pretty good players, right?

We play good defense.

We hit well.

But also like on an emotional level, we're all like friends.

No one's really fighting.

And, I mean, some people are closer than others, but still, like, we all have conversations.

We all have each other's phone numbers.

We all play video games together, and we're still in contact.

-Oh, that's great.

And how does it feel?

All of you, in your own right, family members behind the scenes, you're all celebrities here in Southern Nevada and Nevada.

Again, the fact that little kids your age, their ages, right, and not much younger, were asking for autographs.

They were naming the entire roster.

That was neat.

-It's pretty crazy when you're walking with your son and somebody is like, Hey, can I have your autograph?

Or a woman my age came up, came up to him and said, Will you take a picture with my daughter?

-Well, how was it getting honored at City Council?

That's a great honor.

-Yeah, it was really cool because I'm also kind of interested in that stuff.

-Oh.

-Yeah.

So when we were there, it was kind of cool looking around and seeing-- -Lawmaker?

- --how things work.

Yeah.

-Okay, future lawmaker.

You heard it here first.

We have an exclusive.

What message do you have for the community?

-A takeaway I really hope comes from this experience that I shared with my baseball family and my own family is there's not a lot of places of authentic community, okay, and baseball and youth sports is a great one.

Tie in early into this when you're four or five years old, like the Mirandas did, and you have a community for a decade, okay?

And the phone's not real; this is real.

And this is what I would share with people: Go engage with something like this, and it'll pave the way for a lifetime of memories.

-What message do you have for the community?

-I keep thinking back when we had a birthday party for Q when he started playing baseball.

And we had, what, 50 kids?

And I'm thinking to myself, if he was not playing baseball, I would have had two kids in that party.

I love Little League.

I will always love Little League.

It's, it's just, I adore it.

-Oh, it comes from the heart.

-I can't get enough of it.

-I met one of my best friends because Gray use to play with this kid, and then it was his sister, and that's how we met.

So I probably wouldn't know her if he didn't play.

-That's great.

And mom?

-Same thing.

First of all, the outpouring of love and support for our boys has been incredible, and our families.

And I've said to many people, our city is so special because it's such a big city but such a small city, and that's a really remarkable.

-Q?

-Well, yeah, most of my neighborhood friends, like all of my neighborhood friends are from Little League, because pretty much all my friends outside of school are from Little League or are connected to like baseball club in some way.

So like baseball has definitely fostered and facilitated a lot of social connections as well as, obviously, you know, life lessons from sports.

-And all of you are wise beyond your years.

I'm so impressed.

All right, we're going to end with you.

Started with you and end with you.

What message do you have for our Las Vegas, our Southern Nevada community?

Nevada, you have the entire state rooting for you.

-Little League's really great because it, it just teaches you new things.

It helps you make friends like they were saying, and it helps you just learn about baseball.

But also, like from this experience especially, I've learned to talk in front of cameras and stuff.

So if I-- So, like, if I grow up and I go into an industry where I'm talking to people I don't know or something like that, it'll help me a lot there, too.

-And future lawmaker here.

Future President.

I'm calling it.

There you go.

Thank you all for being here again.

-Thank you.

-What an incredible honor.

All right.

Does the team have a chant?

Did you guys come up with a chant?

-Let's go South.

(in unison) Let's go South!

Let's go South!

Let's go South!

-A big congratulations to Summerlin South Little League and to new undisputed super middleweight champion, Terence "Bud" Crawford.

He too attended the Raiders game at Allegiant Stadium, which is where just two nights before, he upset future Hall of Famer Saul Canelo Alvarez, earning a unanimous decision win in front of an announced crowd of 70,482 people.

That's a new record at the Raiders Stadium.

This was also the first-ever boxing match there.

And with the win, Crawford became the first male boxer in the four-belt era to be undisputed champion in three weight classes.

(Terence Crawford) To be honest, when I set my sights on doing something and I know what I'm capable of, it's not like a surprise to me.

It's a surprise to y'all, because y'all didn't believe me.

But for me, I knew I could do it, and I believed I could do it.

I just needed the opportunity.

-And he got that chance thanks to the government of Saudi Arabia, which promoted this fight alongside the UFC.

To watch my interview with UFC president Dana White on how he plans to disrupt boxing, go to our website vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek, and I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

♪♪