VETOED
Domestic partners: Gov. Jim Gibbons vetoed a law Monday that would give domestic partners, whether gay or straight, many of the rights and benefits that Nevada offers to married couples.
Gibbons said that Senate Bill 283 conflicts with a state constitutional amendment approved by Nevada voters in 2002 supporting marriage between a man and a woman.
"Only the voters should have the right to undo or amend constitutional mandates," he said.
It was not immediately clear if the Legislature would seek to override Gibbons' veto.
Off-road vehicles: Gibbons said he vetoed it because it calls for new fees and that's not something he supports.
The ORV bill required owners of ORVs to register their rigs with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. SB394 mandated that all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, dune buggies and all-terrain motorcycles be registered at an annual cost of $20 to $30. A title fee would run about $28.
Nearly $7 million could be generated over the next two years.
SIGNED INTO LAW
Civil rights: A measure that streamlines the process for restoring civil rights of criminal offenders after they have paid their debts to society was signed into law Tuesday by Gibbons.
Currently, certain ex-offenders can have their civil rights restored after they apply to the state Pardons Board, chaired by the governor. But the board only meets twice a year and receives up to 100 applications that are reviewed in a short period of time.
SB238 would allow civil rights to be restored to ex-felons more quickly, provided there are no objections from a sentencing judge or from the prosecutor in the case.
Gibbons also signed:
SB288, which requires the state Division of Industrial Relations to attempt to meet with and assist families of workers killed on the job.
AB530, suspending funding to Nevada's K-12 school remediation trust fund. Lawmakers said the change had to be made as part of many budget cuts mandated by the state's recession-spawned revenue shortfall.
SB229, to ensure that foreign-trained doctors who get visas on the condition that they work in "medically underserved" areas actually provide care in those areas. Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, authored the bill.
SB362, which strengthens the ability of various boards to strip medical professionals of their licenses for unsafe practices;
SB339, requiring Nevada's Colorado River Commission to conduct a feasibility study to explore the use of hydrokinetic power from the Hoover Dam. The goal of the bill is to look into the widest range of renewable energy technologies possible.
Proponents have said hydropower provides a constant source of energy as long as there are flowing currents of water, in contrast to other sources of energy such as wind and solar.
ADVANCED
Special session: Lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a proposed constitutional amendment that would let lawmakers convene special sessions on their own, without having to get the governor to do so.
AJR5 must still win approval from the 2011 Legislature, and then go to a public vote in 2012. It moved ahead on Tuesday as Assembly members agreed to Senate changes to the proposal.
Also Tuesday, a bill to increase the fees for filing various court documents, to help pay for 10 new district judgeships, was endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
AB522: The bill says, among other things, that lawmakers would approve the governor's appointment of an energy commissioner " oversight that Gibbons opposes.
Also Tuesday, the Senate refused to back off from its amendment to a bill that steps up state record-keeping to help keep guns away from the mentally ill.
Under AB46, any court records on mental competency, insanity pleas, forced admissions to mental health facilities or appointments of a guardian for someone deemed to be incompetent would be forwarded to the state's central repository for crime records.
The Assembly refused to go along with Senate changes to AB60, which would require state or local health authorities to determine whether a building previously used to manufacture methamphetamine is safe for habitation.
That actions on both AB46 and AB60 mean that Senate-Assembly conferees now will try to resolve their differences. If they can't, both bills will die.
" Associated Press