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Nevada’s legislative session is underway this month – which means the difficult work is about to begin for those who believe in a limited and accountable government.   Nevada Policy Outreach and Coalitions Director Marcos Lopez joined the show to discuss how activists can become more involved during the legislative session. From Nevada Policy’s legislative bill tracker to regular updates for supporters and activists, Marcos explains how the institute is focused on keeping Nevadans informed and engaged so they can have an outsized influence on what happens in Carson City.  

A federal debt of $31 trillion certainly demands attention – but it’s not the only slow-motion financial trainwreck taking place.   Mark Moses, author of The Municipal Financial Crisis, joins the program to discuss the way our cities and municipalities are spiraling into similar financial turmoil. As always, local politics matter – and the way your city is throwing away tax dollars deserves far more scrutiny than it generally receives.  

Politicians in Nevada might seem eager to emulate the absurdity of California politics – but is that really the fate of this great state? John Tsarpalas, president of Nevada Policy, joined the program to talk about the culture, history and people that make Nevada so distinct from our neighbor to the west – as well as all the hard work we have to do in the upcoming year to make sure we remain that way.

At first glance, it seems like divided government should make it harder to get meaningful reforms passed into law … but the truth is, there are still plenty of opportunities.   Geoffrey Lawrence, director of research for Nevada Policy and the Reason Foundation, joined the program to talk about the policy solutions we should focus on in the 2023 legislative session – and why a politically divided government might just benefit those of us who want to get important things done in the year ahead.  

Guest: Aaron Withe, Freedom Foundation    As unionization rates continue to decline across the nation, union bosses are getting increasingly political in an effort to reverse the trend.    Freedom Foundation Chief Executive Officer Aaron Withe joined the program to talk about the political business model both private-sector and public-sector unions are using to increase their revenue – and why such methods are not only a danger to taxpayers, but also bad for workers themselves. 

The elections are finally over!   So … what happens now? Nevada Policy President John Tsarpalas shares his take on the 2022 election outcome and gives his prediction of what comes next in Nevada as a Democrat-controlled legislature and Republican governor prepare to face off on numerous policy battles in the coming year.  

With ranked-choice voting on the ballot in Nevada, many eyes turned toward Alaska to see how the system actually works in practice. Sarah Montalbano from the Alaska Policy Forum joined the program to discuss the troubles Alaska had in its recent special election, including the way ranked-choice voting impacted the election outcome. Unlike backers of Question 3 in Nevada, Montalbano argues the process did little to help the political climate in the state and actually introduced numerous unintended challenges for voters and politicians alike.

Guest: Andrew Roth, State Freedom Caucus Network  While everyone likes to pay most of their attention to national politics, it’s actually the local politics that usually matter the most for limiting the size and scope of government.   After all, there’s a reason so many people from over-regulated and high-tax states are flocking to low-tax western states — it’s because, regardless of what’s going on nationally, states like Nevada still have a culture that prioritizes individual freedom. And preserving that culture is going to require keeping our efforts focused where it matters the most: In our own state’s legislature.  Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, joined the program to talk about his effort to keep that culture of freedom alive in local politics throughout the nation.   

For decades, people’s trust in journalism and “the news” has been declining—and probably for good reason. Wayne Hoffman, president of Idaho Freedom Foundation, is a former journalist and believe the changes we’ve seen within the media have made much of this declining trust inevitable. Wayne joins the program to discuss how journalism has changed in recent decades, how it’s poisoning public policy debates, and how we, as individuals, can become better consumers of news in an era of distrust and decentralized information.

Let’s face it, most public policy debates come down to one thing: How are our tax dollars actually being spent? Nevada Policy Research Institute Director of Open Records Shelby Fleshood joined the program to talk about the importance of greater financial transparency in government — and why, despite bipartisan support, it remains such a struggle to actually implement in the real world.

Culturally, we’re definitely experiencing a “wave” of educational freedom throughout the nation. Not only are states like Arizona going “big” when it comes to educational-choice programs, but parents across the political spectrum are demanding it more than ever. Erin Phillips, co-founder and president of Power2Parent, joined the program to discuss when Nevada will finally come around to expanding the kind of choice in education that parents are demanding.

Politicians seemingly live by the motto “never let a crisis go to waste.” From Coronavirus to the financial crisis of 2008 to 9/11, one crisis after another has resulted in an explosion of the regulatory state, mountains of government debt and political predation from electeds eager to implement their pet projects. Wayne Crews, vice president for policy and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, joined the program to discuss how we can temper this trend — a topic he covers in detail in his latest report: The Case for Letting Crises Go to Waste.

How optimistic should we be about Nevada in the long term?  Marcos Lopez, Nevada Policy’s new director of coalitions and outreach, joined the program to talk about the unique opportunities we have for the liberty movement in the Silver State – regardless of what happens in November.  

As unionization in the private sector continues to decline, many labor activists are getting ever-more desperate to force workers into union representation.   From the federal “PRO Act” in the private sector to state-level “opt-out” periods for public sector workers, unions are increasingly trying to make it more difficult for workers who don’t want union representation to say “no” to membership.   Vincent Vernuccio, president of the Institute for the American Worker and senior fellow at the Mackinac Center, joined the program to talk about current labor policy in Nevada and the nation – and, more importantly, the way unions’ political shenanigans have fundamentally failed to represent the workers they claim to champion

Guest: William Estrada, President of the Parental Rights Foundation Should parents or government officials be in charge of raising our children? Who should be in charge of making decisions on behalf of that child? If these seem like simple questions to answer, you’re not alone. An overwhelming percentage of Americans believe parents should have a constitutional right to raise and make decisions for their child without undue government interference and yet, the basic concept of “parental rights” are consistently under attack from all levels of government. William Estrada, president of the Parental Rights Foundation and ParentalRights.org, joined the program to discuss the crucial concept of empowering families by putting parents back in charge.

Education today is largely treated as an industrial affair—as if curriculum and syllabuses should be rigidly structured to push kids through a K-12 conveyor belt toward higher education. In fact, much of parenting has adopted a similar notion that children should be micromanaged through most of their formative years. However, is this really the best way to ensure a generation of healthy and productive young adults? How will younger generations ever become “independent” if they’re never given the chance to practice independence in their daily lives? Peter Gray, research professor at Boston College and author of Free to Learn, joined the program to talk about the importance of rethinking the way we parent and educate our children for the sake of their mental health, social development and personal independence

What happens when the public-school establishment — or even individual teachers — decide it is their duty to do more than merely instruct children, but also tell them how to think? From “Critical Race Theory” to sexual identity curriculum, many parents have raised concerns that certain classrooms are going beyond merely teaching about controversial topics — instead presenting certain cultural or political agendas as “fact” and trying to mold the worldview of their students. Bonnie Snyder, author of Undoctrinate: How Politicized Classrooms Harm Kids and Ruin Our Schools, joined the program to talk about the ethical, practical and cultural ramifications of such indoctrination in K-12 education — and what can be done by parents to guard against it.

No matter how much the teacher unions, politicians and special interests fight it, education is changing—and it’s going to continue to do so. Eric Wearne is Director of the National Hybrid School Project, associate professor with the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University and author of: Defining Hybrid Homeschools in America. He joined the program to talk about the way changing expectations from parents are giving rise to a new form of “homeschooling” for families—regardless of what is happening in the world of politics.

Guest: Valeria Gurr, American Federation for Children Despite the frustrating lack of educational options in Nevada, there’s one blindly obvious reason to be optimistic about the future of education reform in the Silver State: Parents aren’t about to give up! Valeria Gurr, Director of External Affairs for the American Federation of Children, joined the program to discuss why educational choice is happening elsewhere in the nation, and what that means for Nevada families.

Guest: Dan Greenberg, Competitive Enterprise Institute The idea that police can seize property — cash, jewelry, cars or even houses — without ever charging someone with a crime seems like something that would happen in some corrupt soviet satellite rather than American cities. And yet, it happens every day with police using a practice known as “civil asset forfeiture.” Billions of dollars are seized from private citizens every year — often with police never having to prove in the court of law that such property was connected to any sort of criminal wrongdoing. Deputy General Counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute Dan Greenberg’s new paper, Five Myths of Civil Asset Forfeiture, dives into how such an un-American policing practice has become worryingly commonplace among the law enforcement community and what we can do to fix it.