by Dennis Myers
Casinos: aCa yes, yuCCa no Gambling industry lobby groups have called on Congress to leave intact provisions in the Affordable Care Act dealing with treatment of addicted gambling. “We would be concerned with any paring back of essential health benefits that eliminates ‘gambling disorders,’” said a letter from the groups to congressional leaders and the secretary of Health and Human Services. “Inclusion of behavioral health is critical to ensuring integrated and comprehensive health care in the United States, and this approach has increased access to treatment for gambling disorders. While research shows that the majority of patrons set a budget of under $200 when they visit a casino, those who struggle with a gambling disorder deserve access to treatment.” The letter was signed by represenYUCCA MOUNTAIN tatives of the National Indian Gaming Association, National Council on Problem Gambling, Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacture, and the American Gaming Association. A few days later, the American Gaming Association came out against any revival of plans for a dump for high level nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain in Nye County. “AGA opposes any effort to revive Yucca Mountain as a repository and will work tirelessly with the many concerned citizens, small-business operators and members of Congress to ensure that radioactive waste is never stored anywhere near the world’s premier tourist, convention and entertainment destination,” a statement by the group said.
Then why The Candy danCe? A website called gobankingrates.com says 89411 is the most expensive zip code in Nevada. As usual, the information’s not original, it’s recycled from at least one other website (Zillow Real Estate), but we’re not going to track it back. “Genoa lies south of Carson City and near the tourist hot spot of Lake Tahoe,” the site describes the western Nevada zip. “According to Zillow, home values in this zip code increased 15.3 percent over the last year. With housing costs that are more than three times the national average—and a higher than average overall cost of living—you’ll need to make sure you have enough savings to buy a house in this zip code.” According to Zillow, the median home value in Genoa is $732,600.
Minus one Even before the internet started the decline of newspapers, a two-newspaper community was a rarity. It was especially rare in small towns. On March 3, the Comstock Chronicle and the Virginia City News began appearing as one newspaper bearing both names. The design of the Chronicle will reportedly dominate in the new publication.
–Dennis Myers
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03.23.17
Former Nevada lieutenant governor and state legislator Sue Wagner, who broke her pick trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment approved in the 1970s, watched this week as the ERA finally passed. PHOTO/ERIC MARKS
Equality How the failed Equal Rights Amendment changed Nevada in 1973, the nevada Legislature rejected the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would have guaranteed equality of rights under the law no matter a person’s gender. After languishing in Congress since 1923, the amendment—known as the Equal Rights Amendment— was finally approved and sent to the states for ratification in 1972. Twenty-two states ratified that year. When more state legislatures went into session in 1973, small Western states—Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon and New Mexico—were among the first to approve it. But a backfire had been building. Right-wing women, evangelicals and other groups that would become more influential in the years ahead got organized and slowed the ratifications to a trickle. After the Nevada Assembly approved it and the Nevada Senate rejected it in 1973 and 1975,
the Nevada Senate approved it in 1977 only to see the Assembly reject it. A 1978 advisory ballot measure put an end to the ERA in Nevada when it lost in a massive landslide, 67 to 33 percent. Meanwhile, at the national level, by the end of the seven-year ratification period, the Amendment stopped three states short of ratification, 35 of 38. A three-year extension by Congress—opposed by some women’s rights organizations—did not result in any more ratifications. There was an occasion during the ratification fight when the U.S. Supreme Court came close to ruling that the intent of the Equal Rights Amendment was already in the law. In their book, The Brethren, Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong revealed that the justices nearly ruled that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which says no state can “abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”—applied to women. But the justices were unable to agree on a pace at which to apply the change, and it never happened. Years later, it did happen. In Nevada, on March 1, one Republican, 11 Democrats and one Independent voted for the ERA in the Senate by a 13-8 vote. On March 20, the Nevada Assembly approved Senate Joint Resolution 2 as well, on a 28-14 vote. The two votes have no legal effect, but were seen as a gesture toward equality 35 years after the ERA expired. “If it is only a symbol, it is a good one,” said former Nevada lieutenant governor Sue Wagner, who as an assemblymember fought hard to pass the ERA. She was on hand for the Assembly vote this week. What few of the younger legislators supporting the ERA knew is that Nevada did benefit from the impact of the ERA. Because of it, numerous sexually discriminatory laws were cleaned up and corrected. They included, for instance, a law that treated widows and widowers differently in state pension matters, prompting one legislator—Carl Dodge of Churchill County—to refuse to support the ERA for fear he would be cutting widows off from their support, though other legislators pointed out that the same treatment could be accorded both widow and widower. Another measure dealt with a bar on women being bartenders. As late as 1973, Republican Assm. Randy Capurro said he had supported the measure on grounds that it would subject women to “moral” difficulties. He did not explain why men were not similarly challenged by barroom climates. In the early Nevada battles, opponents said that the states could do the job better than a federal amendment. After a couple of ERA defeats, by some accounts, Republican U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt—who had run for Senate as an ERA supporter, then switched to an opponent after taking office— advised opponents to get to work and start reforming state laws.
