Assembly Judiciary Committee is hearing #AB395, which abolishes the death penalty in Nevada, converts all existing death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Still an open question whether this has sufficient support to pass.

Bill presenter @SteveYeagerNV urges #nvleg to put aside their personal feelings about the death penalty and see this as a policy question. He thinks testimony will demonstrate it is costly, ineffective, retraumatizes family, convicts the innocent and has a regional bias.

.@GovSisolak says he is extending the state eviction moratorium for two months (shorter than three months of CDC moratorium extension).

"Much progress has been made, but there is still more to be done," he said.

https://twitter.com/GovSisolak/status/1377019077009436673

@GovSisolak A new element for Nevada moratorium: When providing notices to tenants, landlords must notify them about rental assistance that is available.

"Help is available for those in need, but only if they know about it."

Up in Assembly Judiciary: Bill #AB59 to raise tobacco sales age in Nevada from 18 to 21.

Change happened at federal level in December 2019, & states have 3 years to enforce it or they risk losing 10% of a block grant.

33 states already raised the age.

When states entered a huge Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies in the late 1990s, states were charged with "diligent enforcement" of the law in exchange for yearly payments from the settlement.

Payouts are big: Nevada received $41 million from the MSA in 2019.

Updates from @DetrNevada: The number of initial claims for regular unemployment last week is down to its lowest point since mid-March, at 6,442 claims.

PUA initial claims at 8,345, one of the lower points recently.

but just during pandemic, more than 1.4M initial claims filed @DetrNevada The number of 'continued claims' - certifications filed last week saying someone is unemployed for a given week - is down but just by a small margin of ~4,000, to 273,037.

Officially more people participating in a CARES Act-funded extension program now than regular state UI.

After an all-day hearing in Washoe County, Judge Barry Breslow says he finds the state (DETR) IS in contempt of a July court order to pay or resume paying certain groups of unemployment claimants. Judge acknowledges that his order was too short, and his call to have DETR pay these claimants within a week "was unrealistic."

"The court apologizes," Breslow says. "Nevertheless, here we are in December and we still have issues."

The #EconomicForum is meeting today to set a forecast for Nevada's general fund revenues for the current and next two fiscal years. That will form the basis for the governor's recommended budget going into the #nvleg session in February.

Watch here: Gaming tax revenue, which accounts for 18 percent of Nevada's general fund revenue, has been rocked by the pandemic, as evidenced by this chart.

Forecasts vary based on everything from new 25% capacity limits on casino floors, to rising COVID cases and midweek resort closures.

.@GovSisolak kicks off his presser by apologizing / retracting a statement and that indicated #nvleg bore blame for lack of investment in unemployment system Follow @RileySnyder for most complete live tweets, btw.

.@BernieSanders is headed to Carson City for a 3 pm speech and swag row - complete with a Demo-cats button - is all set up. Sisters Amber and Alyssa took off school a bit early to be at the Bernie rally and got some T-shirts out of the deal