The Daily Rundown - June 16, 2026
🗺️ Governor Joe Lombardo’s office has unveiled a new tool meant to help communities better coordinate, plan and share information about federal land available for development in Nevada. The Governor’s office designed the web-based interactive map to help various levels of government and developers better track information related to how the federal land is used.
It also provides information such as soil composition and slope, as well as the location of existing infrastructure, schools, parks, and commercial areas. It's the product of a partnership between the Nevada Division of Minerals (NDOM), and Bureau of Land Management Nevada.
It’s meant to cut down on bureaucratic red tape. In a statement, Governor Lombardo says the information is key to making sure communities in Nevada have what they need “so they can responsibly and efficiently plan for future development.”
🚨 The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will increase its visibility in the Las Vegas Valley over the next few weeks. That includes more enforcement along the Las Vegas Strip, downtown, and especially areas with large gatherings, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Metro is also increasing its counterterrorism unit by 30 percent, which will allow the unit to spend more time on threat detection, intelligence gathering, investigations and prevention efforts.
The department is also increasing coordination with federal, state and local, and private-sector partners. Metro officials say there is no known imminent threat, but said the boost comes as World Cup watch parties, the America 250 celebration, and the 4th of July are expected to bring thousands of visitors to Las Vegas in the coming weeks.
👶 It’s summer, and while most kids think about all the fun they’re going to have over the next couple of months, parents are thinking about childcare. Of course, for families with younger children, it's a full-time concern. Childcare costs in Nevada are among the highest in the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average cost of full-time, center-based childcare in the state ranges from $880 to well over $1,000 per month.
And, according to the First Five Years Fund, a national early childhood advocacy organization, 28% of working families with young children in the U.S. cannot reasonably access the childcare they want or need. That number jumps to 66% in Nevada — the highest rate in the country.
"It's not just that they can't find the care they want; there just aren't the slots available in the state of Nevada," said Elisa Cafferata, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, a non-profit that aims to improve child welfare across the state. "We would need to triple the number of spots we have to serve all the families that need it." Hear the full story by KNPR's Paul Boger here.
🏛️ A federal judge in Massachusetts has ordered the Trump administration to restore signs and exhibits at national park sites that were removed under an executive order to eliminate negative portrayals of American history, according to reporting by the Mountain West News Bureau's Rachel Cohen. District Judge Angel Kelley ordered the Interior Department to reinstall interpretive materials within three weeks, accusing the administration of attempting to “rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.”
In an executive order last year titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” President Trump directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to ensure monuments, memorials, statues and markers “do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Conservation and historical groups sued as the Interior Department targeted hundreds of exhibits on climate change, civil rights and diverse communities.
Some of the interpretive materials officials removed in the Mountain West, include displays at the Grand Canyon sharing how the federal government claimed tribal land to create the park, and a sign at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona that included an image of a visitor holding a Pride flag. In a statement, the Interior Department said the order came from a Biden-appointed judge and that it’s looking at options for appeal. Hear the full story here.
🏒 John Tortorella will not return as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights after guiding them to the Stanley Cup Final on an interim basis. Uncertainty lingered over the situation through the team's elimination in Game 6 of the final against Carolina on Sunday night. General manager Kelly McCrimmon announced Tuesday that Tortorella would not be back.
McCrimmon hired Tortorella on March 30 when he fired Bruce Cassidy with eight games left in the season. The Golden Knights won seven of them and then got through three rounds before losing to the Hurricanes in the final. Players spoke highly of how Tortorella handled jumping in this spring. He took criticism in recent days for deciding to stick with goaltender Carter Hart, whose .863 save percentage was the lowest in the final since Minnesota's Jon Casey in 1991.
McCrimmon is scheduled to speak to reporters on Wednesday. One avenue Vegas could go with for Tortorella's successor is promoting Ryan Craig, who has been coach of its top affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, for the past three seasons.
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.
