The Daily Rundown - March 9, 2026
🌵 Climate change models predict that long-term droughts are becoming more frequent — meaning temperatures will likely continue to increase while water becomes less available. For many farmers and ranchers, that could spell disaster. Crops such as rice, corn and soybeans have an upper temperature limit. Alfalfa, Nevada’s No. 1 cash crop, requires far more water than might be available in the future.
However, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, have identified a surprising crop that could be not just a source of food and fodder but also a future fuel source. And it’s a plant that seems to grow just about anywhere — whether that’s the arid deserts of the American West or the humid fields of the Southeast.
Cactus pears, otherwise known as opuntia, have had a long history as a food source for both Native and Hispanic peoples, as well as fodder for animals. Now the plant has taken on a new life that could help power a hotter, drier Mountain West while saving a lot of water. Read the full story by KNPR's Paul Boger here.
🕯️The Forever One Memorial is on track to open next year. It’s scheduled to open on Oct. 1, 2027, the 10th anniversary of the Las Vegas Strip mass shooting. The Vegas Strong Fund said it has collected about 65% of the money it needs. That includes major contributions from Clark County and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The money raised so far fully funds the first phase of the project, which should break ground in the fall. MGM Resorts International donated the two-acre memorial site to the project.
🗳️ Nevada’s 2026 candidate filing period enters its second week as key races take shape. Candidates must officially declare their intent to run by 5 p.m. this Friday. The governor’s race is currently the most crowded, with 13 filed candidates, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. Ten have also filed to replace retiring Rep. Mark Amodei in the 2nd Congressional District, with six more candidates likely to file before the end of the week.
🥃 Things in the Henderson Artisan Booze District are flowing, you might say. The district was founded in spirit — soon to be in spirits — in 2011, when George Racz opened the Las Vegas Distillery in an industrial park on Eastgate Road, between Lake Mead Parkway and Warm Springs Road.
His operation couldn’t legally exist then, but Racz had a precedent. Charlie and Patty Peters had been in a similar situation when they founded Grape Expectations instructional winemaking elsewhere in Henderson in 2005; Charlie formulated legislation to enable the opening in 2007. He and Racz became friends, and with tips and a healthy dose of reality from Charlie, Racz wrote similar legislation in 2009 that would become law in 2013.
“He was my hero,” Racz said in a 2015 interview. “He pioneered his industry also.” By 2012, Grape Expectations had outgrown its space, and Racz encouraged the couple to locate near him. The Booze District was on its way.
🧠 For decades, psychologists believed willpower was the ticket to a good life. “It was thought that people with better willpower would be more successful,” says psychologist Marina Milyavskaya at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Hundreds of studies appeared to support this idea. Researchers found links between better willpower and better grades in school, better relationships and careers as adults, healthier diets and even more consistent parenting.
So psychologists and parenting experts advised parents to teach children to use willpower to resist modern temptations, such as sweets, fast food, video games, phones and other screens.
But in the past 15 years, Milyavskaya and other psychologists have dug deeper into the studies, and they uncovered a major flaw: These studies weren’t actually measuring willpower but a different skill — the ability to avoid temptation in the first place. Hear the full story by NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff here.
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.
