Governor Joe Lombardo says he intends to call a special session.

We explore what for, plus... A law that defines antisemitism is now in effect in Nevada.

You'll meet the local teen who helped get it passed.

And... -One of our employees here is from El Salvador, and him and his family, big-time Raider fans, obviously.

And you know, anytime he goes back, he'll send hats to his family.

So he'll send pictures to us of just people wearing hats in the street.

- ...how the Las Vegas Raiders are celebrating their loyal Latino fan base and staff.

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 making national news as Nevada's senior U.S.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was one of just two Democrats who voted with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown.

Meanwhile, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo announced he intends on calling a special legislative session to, quote, finish what the legislature left unfinished.

Here to unpack that and the significance of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto's vote is David Damore, Professor of Political Science at UNLV and Executive Director of the Lincy Institute & Brookings Mountain West.

David, welcome back to Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

-What do you make of Catherine Cortez Masto breaking from Democrats?

(David Damore) Interesting, right?

So she, you know, fancies herself as sort of a moderate, pragmatic senator.

In wanting to keep the government going, you've heard some talk, Well, if I voted for this, maybe this keeps Nevada out of the cross hairs of the Trump administration there.

It's a bit of a free vote for her, because it wasn't going to pass.

So she can say, Look, I'm willing to make a deal if you want if there's enough here to make a deal on.

So it's very sort of consistent with the history of Nevada senators, right, the pathway to successful tenure, Nevada senators sort of moderate problem solver?

I think that's how she's sort of presenting herself, as she did when she ran for re-election back in 2022.

-But if it did benefit her, then you would think Senator Jacky Rosen would do the same.

-She did.

But they're responding to different cues, different electoral cycles there.

So, you know, you would have thought-- -What do you mean by "different electoral cycles"?

-Well, Rosen just had her election, and so she's got six more years, right?

She knew she wouldn't be up till 2030.

Cortez Masto is getting there.

2028 would be when she's on the ballot there.

I think there's just a lot of sort of mix there, and sometimes it's not the worst thing in the world to stand up against your base as a politician.

-Is that a good strategy right now?

-By the time we get to the her election cycle, I think most this will be forgotten on this.

You know, we voters have very short memory there on this.

But in the meantime, she can sort of position herself as being sort of pragmatic problem solver, willing to sort of reach across the aisle, that type of messaging.

-So it was her and fellow Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, along with an Independent Angus King of Maine.

As we speak, it's Wednesday, October 8.

And by the time this airs on Thursday, the government could be reopened, perhaps temporarily.

Wishful thinking, you think?

-You know, there doesn't seem to be much urgency to get it done here.

I think you see both sides trying to sort of position themselves as who's winning the shutdown, as opposed to who's resolving the shutdown there.

Early polling suggests that the blame is going to the Republicans, which you might expect, right?

They have unified control of the federal government, so they're trying to obviously say, No, it's the Democrats here.

The Democrats are holding their ground.

I think this is something that's been frustrating for their base, is that they haven't really had a strategy in this, in Trump's second term here, so now at least they're sort of coalescing around the subsidies for healthcare payments.

-And that is why they are not voting with Republicans, minus Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who says that had she not voted for this, she is putting more power into the hands of President Trump.

Does that make sense to you?

-Some level, I suppose.

He's obviously had a lot of threats about, you know, firing lots of people, using this as an opportunity to reduce the federal workforce there.

There's now been floating this idea of, I don't have to pay people the furloughs, even though he signed a law in 2019 saying that there would be back pay for these people here.

I think there's, there's a lot of blustering and a lot of bluff.

I think the analysis suggests what he's suggesting, is it legal?

Even if they do it, you have to go through the legal process to get that remedy.

-Okay.

What do you make of the special session and the timing of it, amid all of this going on within the federal government?

-Kind of the worst kept secret, right?

They've been talking about this for quite some time.

The governor came out and said, Yes, there will be a special session.

No date.

No idea what the agenda is.

I think there's some idea of what's going to be on there.

I think right now you probably have a feeding fest at the governor's office with lobbyists trying to say, Get my bills on there that didn't get through the session last time there.

I think, clearly, the crime bill, which went down on the last evening of the session there, I think he'd like to get that back.

-And that was his bill.

-His bill.

-Is that kind of probably a sore spot for him, having been the former sheriff here in Las Vegas, not getting his crime bill passed?

What does that do for his clout?

-Well, it's an interesting political calculation, right?

Because if it goes through the special session and it passes, then it sort of takes it off the table.

It's an election issue, right?

Otherwise, you can sort of blame the Democrats for being sort of weak on crime, the traditional Republican message there.

That's part of the equation there.

I think hopefully cyber security gets back on there.

Right after the attack we had, they sort of shut down.

There was a bill last session that didn't get very far.

Maybe that one gets resurrected there.

I think there's some notion that with some of the change at the federal government, a lot of the administrative costs for some of the programs, SNAP, are getting pushed down to the state.

That wasn't in the budget, so they've got to find the money to cover that moving forward.

-Right.

And originally, when we were talking about a potential special session, it was about changes to Medicaid at the federal level.

I'm not hearing any talk of that.

-If you read the bill, they kicked it down after the midterms by no-- [laughter] Those cuts don't go into effect until the next legislative session for Nevada, so they-- -The State does not have to do it this year.

- --kind of kick those cuts after the midterm.

Not shockingly, that's how that bill was written there.

So I think the next session that would come up, presumably, if that doesn't get changed in between.

-And so a special session is 15 days, correct?

-Well, it's as long as it can take.

-Really?

-Sometimes they're, you know, a half hour, right?

If you've seen those ones after, after, when they don't quite finish on the, on the last day of the legislative session.

Sometimes they can linger a little bit there.

The concern for lawmakers is the blockout for the fundraising.

So there's a blockout before and after the fundraising, so that plays into this, and it's one of the reasons why the legislators don't particularly like these special sessions, because they don't have any control over what's on the agenda; whereas, during a regular session, they can pick and choose what they want to focus on here.

-And it prevents them from fundraising?

-Yes, it prevents them from fundraising.

-How many-- -The governor, as well.

-How many bills, then, would be practical for a special session?

-You know, they're all a little bit different.

So if you look at some of the recent ones, they were, you know, the Tesla one, the Faraday one, right, the stadium one?

Those were very, very sort of narrowly focused just on those.

This seems a little more open ended.

Obviously, the governor will have to decide what gets in and what does not when he makes, when the proclamation comes out.

So this is a real power for the governor in terms of the agenda setting, what he thinks are the priorities.

And obviously you have some interesting dynamics here, right?

You have two vacancies on the Republican side, so those need to be filled, presumably.

You had two resignations there, so Republicans are down a couple of votes.

So you need to get that taken care of, get those seats filled.

So you have this weird thing where people will get appointed just to go to the special session.

[laughter] -And perhaps they will be also considering the film tax credit bill.

We haven't talked about that.

Do you think that's getting on this agenda?

-There's a big push.

There's, obviously, organized laborers got a PAC.

They're putting a lot of money into this on that.

So I-- This goes to the second point, and that is that no bill is going to get on this, the docket that's not going to pass, right?

So all the sort of vote counting has to be done beforehand.

And if it's not there, then I don't think it gets there.

But if it is there, we'll see.

And then we'll see how that plays out.

-Okay.

That would be the bill to expand the film tax credit.

-Yes, significantly.

-Significantly, in order to bring some film studios to-- -Presumably, if AI doesn't take them all over.

[laughter] -Oh, David Damore!

Okay.

Thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

-A number of bills, passed in this year's legislative session, went into effect this month; and among them is a bill that defines antisemitism.

Nevada State Senator James Ohrenschall sponsored Senate Bill 179 and worked with two local teenagers on it.

One of them, Ethan Cohen, recently joined us to explain how the state will now use that definition.

We appreciate you making the time.

I know you are busy, and I want to get to the definition that is used in this bill of antisemitism.

But before we do that, will you explain to our viewers why you thought this was needed, especially considering that the Nevada Equal Rights Commission already functions in order to protect Nevadans from discrimination based on religion, race, ancestry, and national origin.

Why was this still needed, in your opinion?

(Ethan Cohen) So for me, there were two main reasons why I pursued SB 179 and wanted to get this actually codified into law.

The first one was to increase the level of specificity that the Equal Rights Commission has whenever they approach investigating potential discrimination.

So whenever they're investigating an employment, housing, public accommodations, whatever it may be, and they lack a tool or resource, which is, in this case, is a definition of antisemitism, then whenever they are investigating, they're left not knowing how to classify what they just investigated and not being able to determine whether or not it is antisemitic or not.

So I think being able to provide this definition to them gives them a clear cut way to determine how to classify certain things they're investigating.

And the second reason was to provide a calculated response on the part of the state government.

You know, the past couple years, we've seen, you know, a 200 to 300% increase of antisemitism.

And I think, after the most recent reports, it's actually been a little higher.

And you know, being able to show that the state government has a response to antisemitism and is standing up for the Jewish community and Jewish Nevadans, that's really important, which is why I was super thankful to all of the legislators who voted in favor of the bill, to all the public officials who expressed support, and, of course, for Governor Lombardo for signing the bill.

-So it sends a strong message, but it also provides clarity to the Equal Rights Commission.

I imagine that you got a lot of good experience out of this experience.

You are also a Nevada Youth Legislator, in addition to being a junior at The Meadows School.

And I say some good experience because you actually faced some pushback for the original definition of antisemitism that was a part of this bill.

What ended up happening?

What was that backstory?

-Yeah.

So the main intent was always to use the specific definition of antisemitism, called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition.

And over the past 10 years or so, it's gained a lot of traction in the international community.

There have been many countries that have adopted it, many NGOs, faith groups, nonprofits, both Jewish and non Jewish, that have adopted this.

So it's become kind of the standard or the go-to.

-And the Nevada System of Higher Education, also.

-Last year they also adopted this.

-Yeah.

-The intent was always to use that definition, because both of, you know, the credibility it has, but also to keep it consistent with other states in the country that have begun codifying it into their own laws.

But the Legislative Council Bureau, they're the lawyers who write the language for the bill, they initially refused to put the IHRA definition into law, even though-- because they said that, you know, by reference, we can't, you know, insert any other organizations' or entities' definition into Nevada law.

But from what I was told, there have been certain codes and regulations that have been adopted from other organizations, and so I didn't see why this should be any different.

But eventually they were able to change it to actually inserting the definition, which was really a fortunate step and a good step in the right direction.

And that led to a lot of unity in terms of getting this bill across the finish line.

-You got a first-hand experience of some of the red tape that is involved.

-Yeah.

-So the definition that is in this bill that is now part of law in Nevada, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, is that "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.

Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

I was a little bit thrown off by "non-Jewish individuals."

How does that apply to this situation?

-So what that is meant to say is that whenever someone is perceived to be Jewish and treated in a discriminatory way, even if they're not Jewish, that still is a form of antisemitism, since the behavior of the second individual in this scenario would have been based on the fact that they intend to use antisemitism against that individual, even if they weren't Jewish.

So if someone thinks someone's Jewish and treats them differently because of that, even if that person is not of the Jewish faith, that still is considered antisemitism, because the intent and the motivation was there.

-I did speak with Senator Ohrenschall on the phone about this legislation, and he gave me an example of that, saying he grew up with a friend whose last name was Gold, and he was not Jewish; but, because of his last name, was assumed to be Jewish and treated differently as a result.

I also talked to him about the criticism that exists of this specific definition.

And one-- And it includes some in the Jewish community say that it could threaten the ability of someone to speak freely against Israel, that it may silence that kind of speech.

How would you respond to that?

-So I think looking at the definition itself, it actually makes clear that criticism of Israel and, you know, being able to express someone's opinion about, you know, the policies of the government of Israel is totally allowed.

And I personally think that under the First Amendment, anyone should have the right to say anything that they want to.

I think that, you know, that's a right that needs to be protected, and, obviously, I'm not trying to infringe on that at all with this bill.

I think where this definition is useful is where it makes clear when criticism of Israel crosses over into antisemitism.

And for that, I'll talk about another one of the parts of this definition.

When you hold Israel to a double standard or single it out or expect of it more than you would of any other democratic nation on earth and the only distinction between Israel and all the other democratic nations is that it is the lone Jewish state, then those different perceptions you have of Israel can only be based on the fact that it is different based on faith and based on its Jewish identity as a state.

So I think that criticism of Israel should be allowed because Israel, like all countries, is imperfect, and only through criticism can something get better.

But I think, you know, criticism of Israel based on the fact of someone's antisemitic beliefs were using criticism of certain policies as a mask or shield for someone's, you know, own hateful rhetoric really, you know, doesn't contribute anything to the dialog.

And I think it just sets things back.

So I think that's why this definition is really useful for trying to really make specific when those types of things happen.

-And as it relates to the Equal Rights Commission, the senator said that this is about actions and not words; that you can feel however you want and say it, but if it keeps you from renting a house to someone because they are Jewish or hiring them because they are Jewish, that is when it is not okay.

We really appreciate your time.

I know you're busy, as I mentioned, and I'm looking at a book right now on the table.

Do you mind holding that up?

-Yes, absolutely.

-When did you write this?

-So over the summer, I published a children's book about youth empowerment.

And so far, it's been either read to or distributed to 3,000 kids across Nevada.

And the main goal of the book is to encourage kids to recognize their ability to accomplish whatever they seek to do; but not only to empower themselves, but also use that empowerment to make a difference in the community.

So that's one of the projects that I've been working on.

And another project somewhat relates to what we talked about earlier is my project called the National Holocaust Youth Council, which is the only for-youth-by-youth Holocaust organization.

And what I do is I create educational resources designed specifically for teens, but coming from another teen perspective.

So through curriculum, assemblies, and PSAs, I've reached about 10,000 students in Clark County, with hopefully more to come as well, because I do have a partnership with the Department of Education on that project, which is hopefully going to be released next year.

-Wow!

Ethan Cohen, you are impressive.

Thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you for having me.

I really appreciate it.

-We move now to Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Las Vegas Raiders boast one of the most loyal Latino fan bases in the National Football League, with an estimated 32% of Raider Nation identifying as Latino or Hispanic.

Nevada Week's Maria Silva shares how two trail blazers helped spark this strong support of the Silver and Black.

(Maria Silva) Bienvenidos to the Las Vegas Raiders headquarters.

I'm about to head inside where we're going to talk about living legends Tom Flores and Jim Plunkett, Viva Los Raiders, and FAMILIA.

Vamonos.

Once inside this state of the art facility, I got the chance to sit down with Community Relations Manager Victoria Alejandre and Jonathan Martinez, Vice President, Revenue Planning & Analytics.

- Bienvenida, Maria.

[in Spanish] -[in Spanish], Jonathan.

Let's talk about your career with Los Raiders.

You've been here 20 seasons?

(Jonathan Martinez) Yes, yes.

I'm entering my 20th season now with the Raiders.

I started my career back in Oakland in 2006.

-As a Latino being part of this organization, what does that mean to you, personally?

-To me, it means a lot.

This organization is a first of a lot of things when it comes to minorities for the right reasons, and that's been instilled through our past owner, Mr.

Davis, and even through Mark now.

And, you know, with the history of what has happened with the Raiders through the Latinos with Tom Flores being the first Hispanic head coach to win a Super Bowl-- (Tom Flores) We were the best team.

We deserve to be world champions.

I'm proud of you.

[cheering] -With Jim Plunkett also being the first Hispanic quarterback to win a Super Bowl for the Raiders, it's a lot of heritage that is deep rooted within not only them, but also our fan base.

(Jim Plunkett) You know, Al Davis saw something in me that he thought I could help the ball club, and it worked out for him, worked out for me.

And you know, as everybody says, I'm proud to be a Raider.

-Representation matters in any field.

What needs to be done so we see representation out on the field?

-I think the NFL is doing a good job with some of the pathway programs, but that's a difficult run, because I think it starts at the youth and then high school and then collegiate level.

So I think it's just, you know, maybe having additional scouts that focus on Mexico, those types of things.

But again, it's-- there's hundreds if not thousands of individuals that want to become professional athletes, especially in the NFL.

So I think that's a challenging one.

Putting dedicated resources to that, I think that's tough, you know, for an organization to come in and look at, do you do an international scout?

You know, that's, that might be an opportunity, but that's a tough one.

-We need more Tom Floreses and Jim Plunketts out there.

-Yeah, we do.

-And let's talk about FAMILIA.

It's a wonderful organization within the organization.

-Yeah, so it's our employee research group.

It's our two and a half years into FAMILIA.

It's been great.

I sit on as the executive sponsor for FAMILIA.

Right now, we're sitting with around 62-ish members within the organization that are part of that group.

And it's really used to be a sounding board for those individuals, whether if it's difficult conversations, whether if it's just camaraderie, whatever it is, I think it's a good opportunity for people of the same background and allies as well, right?

Not everyone in that group is Latino.

It's people that want to support the Latino cause as well.

-When you yourself hear "Viva Los Raiders," what goes through your mind?

-It's just an opportunity to celebrate the heritage of the Latino fan base.

And I think the biggest thing, too, is that we are trying to be very genuine in what we do at the Raiders.

I think that we realize how important the fan base is to us, and our marketing department and our game entertainment department has done a very good job of incorporating that through the years of the history of the Raiders with Hispanic Heritage Month.

-And it's not just during Hispanic Heritage, which is really important as well.

Let's celebrate throughout the year.

-I completely agree.

I think it's just an opportunity for us to showcase more throughout that month, but you're right.

This is something that is something that we do consistently, whether that's here domestically or even internationally with our global markets program in Mexico.

-Another thing that was really touching for me on a personal level was to read some of the testimonials from your fans on your Viva Los Raiders part of your website.

I have one here I'd love for you to read, if you don't mind.

-Yeah, absolutely.

"I became a Raiders fan because my tios and tias are all die-hard Raiders fans...The Raiders' grit and rebellious spirit felt like home.

Sundays were sacred with silver and black everywhere.

My family lived and breathed those games, and I got hooked on the legacy, the underdog energy, and the unapologetic toughness."

So I grew up in LA, so I had the opportunity to really have the Raiders in my backyard when I was growing up, before they relocated to Oakland.

So I had a ton of family that were die-hard Raider fans--my uncles, cousins, all those types of things.

Full transparency, my parents were bigger college fans than anything; but, you know, they're the biggest Raider fans to this day now.

But I had a lot of friends growing up, big Raider fans.

So to me, this is exactly hitting home of what we're used to seeing, right, the passion and the reason why people became fans, whether if it was tradition through family, whether it was they loved the style of the play of the Raiders, whatever it is, this really just hits home.

-Viva Los Raiders!

-Victoria, if anyone knows the community here in Southern Nevada and Las Vegas, it's you, because born and raised here.

(Victoria Alejandre) Yes, I know.

I'm so excited to talk a little bit more about my experiences and everything we do with the Raiders.

-And let's talk about some of the events happening throughout the year, but especially during Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month.

-Yes.

So we do have an annual event, Huddle and Grow.

So we normally bring in panel speakers.

They'll speak to the community, to our staff really about their experiences, how it was growing up as a Latino, where they're at now in their careers.

So we have partnered up with Latinas in Power, the Latin Chamber of Commerce.

We do the Las Vegas Metro Police Department Hispanic Coalition Alliance.

-And how wonderful as well, not just the players that the kids see, but behind the scenes.

I mean, I'm sure you speak to young Latinas, young kids, young ladies here in Southern Nevada, young men.

And they see you and they're like, Wow, if she can do it, I can do it too.

-Yes.

It is a wonderful thing.

We actually, for one of our events, we did Nevada Reading Week in schools.

And so we had some players go to certain places, to certain schools, but we also had some of our corporate staff go to schools.

And so to see those kids come in and say, like, You work for the Raiders?

You're a girl!

And you're like, Yes.

If we could do it, you can too.

Like, football is important, and, yes, we need all of our players on that field, but there's so many things that happen off the field that you can be a part of too.

And then people will be like, But you're also Latina.

And you're like, Yes, we are here, and we are coming into the sports industry.

And we have been, but I think they just didn't see that.

And so to be able to say like, Oh, I met someone from the Raiders who was a Latina.

I could do it if she can too.

And to be able to inspire them and empower them at such young ages is really a sight to see.

-What message do you have for Raider Nation and Viva Los Raiders fans?

-Just thank you.

Thank you for being part of Raider Nation and embracing us with everything that we do.

And always remember, Viva Los Raiders.

There's never going to be a day that we don't have Viva Los Raiders with us.

-Thank you to Maria Silva for her reporting.

It sure was hard to get Tom Flores into that Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Don't you think it's time to get Jim Plunkett in as well?

In the meantime, for more information on any of the topics discussed in today's show, go to vegaspbs.org.

And I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

♪♪