✈️ Starting today, Southwest Airlines is raising its fees to check a bag. The price increase comes less than a year after the company ended its long-running and popular program allowing passengers to check two bags for free. The airline is increasing its checked baggage fee by $10, with one bag now costing $45 and the second now costing $55.
The change takes place for reservations made on or after April 9. However, certain travelers, including loyalty members and military personnel, will continue to be allowed to check bags for free. Southwest is the largest carrier at Harry Reid International Airport, flying from over 70 cities.
📉 Nevada’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly to 5.3% in January, up one-tenth of a percentage point from December. That’s according to Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation figures released yesterday.
Unemployment rates increased in all three of Nevada’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas when compared with December. The Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metro area had the highest rate at 5.8%, up from December’s 5.2%. That was down, though, from last January’s 6.1%.
⚖️ Betting apps that take wagers on everything from sports to what public officials might say next have become increasingly popular. But the online "prediction markets" are getting pushback from Nevada and Arizona.
Sports betting uses a “bookmaker model,” where the house profits from a built-in margin. Prediction markets use an “exchange model.” Players trade against each other, and the platform takes a fee.
But because casinos and sports betting are state-regulated, and prediction markets are federally regulated, there are legal battles. Alan Feldman is with the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He says prediction apps undercut states. “When states enable gambling, they do so because they’re looking for the economic investment, the job creation, and the tax revenue.” A Nevada judge recently upheld a preliminary injunction banning the Kalshi prediction market app from operating without a gaming license. And Arizona filed criminal charges, alleging the app operates an unlicensed gambling business. Feldman predicts such cases are headed to the Supreme Court.
🚸 More than 300 students have been hit by vehicles in school zones since school started in August, KLAS-TV reports. That’s according to Clark County School District Police Department Lieutenant Michael Campbell. He said that, as of last week, 322 students have been hit by vehicles between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Last year at this time, the total was about 120, Lt. Campbell said, and the year before that, under 100. His officers are working to keep the numbers down, he added, with more of them patrolling school zones. Two-thirds of the students hit by vehicles this school year were high schoolers, most likely distracted, he said.
⚡ Nevada's largest utility says it will need three times the electricity required to power Las Vegas just to handle proposed data centers — and it probably can't do that without fossil fuels. That means the utility could miss Nevada's clean energy targets requiring 50% renewable power by 2030.
“I can’t remember a time in the history of the industry where we’ve seen as much interest in adding load, which is primarily driven by data centers,” said Shawn Elicegui, senior vice president of regulatory and resource planning for NV Energy, which provides electricity to 90% of the state.
It's one of many utilities across the country grappling with how to meet the exploding electricity demand for data centers to power artificial intelligence without sacrificing long-term plans to move away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable and zero-carbon sources. Read the full story here.
🎨 Artist Austine Wood Comarow developed “polage” — short for polarized collage — an art medium without pigments. Instead, it draws color from the visible light spectrum, using polarized filters and birefringent materials (meaning they have double refractive qualities), such as cellophane, to create elaborate visuals.
From the bright underwater hues of “Seahorses” to “Canyon Ghosts,” a homage to Hoover Dam’s builders, her work reveals vivid imagery when viewed through a polarized filter or in a motorized light box. She spent more than 50 years honing her artistry.
Following Austine’s sudden passing in 2020, her husband, David, and daughters, Erika Wood and Cara Wood Ginder, continue to refine the technique she entrusted to them. In 2019, Cara’s daughter Charlotte began her apprenticeship, ushering the family’s legacy into its third generation. They established Lightread Studios to carry it on. Read the full story by Desert Companion's Melissa Gill.
