The Henderson mayor race is sort of lit

Crypto Thursday. The digital currency industry is hot hot hot for legislation that would declare crypto is a totally legitimate investment for everyone to make. But it also declares no no no let's not make the crypto industry adhere to legitimate investment reporting and transparency requirements and icky things like that, because c'mon it's crypto yippeee! Except the 309-page bill says it differently.

The prospect of endangering the entire financial system by lacing it with highly volatile and yet magnificently useless Melania meme coins or whatever has prompted many congressional Democrats to oppose the bill.  Many Democrats are also against the bill because it does nothing to stop Melania, her husband, and/or their offspring from personally, which is to say corruptly, amassing billions of dollars from foreign interests and shady characters in exchange for most favored treatment from your U.S. government — treatment that may have nothing whatsoever to do with the nation's best interest, but may well harm it.

At the same time, tremendous fear of the crypto industry parachuting hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns against Democratic members of Congress has prompted some Democrats to make excuses for the Trump-crypto agenda and pretend it's, you know, not all that bad. For instance, all five Democrats in Nevada's congressional delegation voted for the stablecoin crypto bill that Trump signed into law last year. And Democratic Reps. Steven Horsford and Dina Titus voted for a House version of the aforementioned 309-page bill that will be voted on by the Senate Banking Committee, which is meeting this morning as this is written.

“If the bill passes the committee on a party-line vote, then the bill’s prospects will be weak,” one investment firm lobbyist told The Hill. “If one or two Democrats cross the aisle and support the bill, then it would have a fighting chance of passing this year.”

Among the senators on that committee who is in the room and will be voting on that bill today is Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.

IN NEVADA CURRENT

Hooterville still a hoot. Intrigue. Recriminations. And a person who seems nice. This is the story about the mayor's race the voters of Henderson have been waiting for. Dana Gentry reports: Four challengers seeking to oust Henderson mayor

There are those (raises hand) who have been known to suggest the Las Vegas City Council, and Las Vegas city government, could be abolished, its people could join that largest group of Las Vegas metro area residents — those residing in unincorporated Clark County — and it would make zero difference to the lives of the vast majority of people currently residing within the city limits. But I digress.

When Nancy Brune decided to become a politician a few years back I was surprised, because the gig she had as chief policy nerd at the Guinn Center looked, to me anyway, like a better job than Las Vegas City councilperson. But apparently she digs it, because she's seeking reelection. Someone from what Gov. Joe Lombardo is fond of calling "the law enforcement space" is running against her, and perhaps the key thing to know about him is he is nostalgic for and evidently an admirer of the "Lady Trump" herself, minor celebrity whackadoodle Michele Fiore. Also challenging Brune is a government contractor from what I will call "the rehab industry space" with a trail of, let's say, checkered headlines. Viva Las Vegas. Or whatever. Jeniffer Solis reports: Police union president, addiction recovery CEO challenge incumbent in Las Vegas City Council race

New kid. One rap on new Fed chair Kevin Warsh is that he was just saying whatever Trump wanted to hear so he could get the job, but we can't know what he actually would like to do, because his policy thoughtlets can be a bit of all over the place. In any case, Trump tapped him back in January, which is to say before Netanyahu convinced Trump to ignite shocking inflation and generally wreak havoc on the global economy by launching the world-historical blunder that is the Iran war. Is/was the new guy jonesing to cut interest rates to give Trump smiles? Because thanks to the table Trump has set, cutting rates very likely would make inflation even worse, as some senators noted yesterday. Ashely Murray reports on the Senate vote: Senate confirms Warsh, Trump’s pick to replace Powell as Fed chair

Sic 'em. One unintended consequence of Trump's war is that it is speeding the world away from oil and toward clean energy. That trend was already acknowledged by energy industry analysts — and oil producing nations — and the oil industry itself — before the war, except not of course within the Trump administration and the American right that sucks up to it. Meanwhile, as the oil industry enters its senior years, a little payback is in order, say some states. Alex Brown reports: As property insurance crisis worsens, some lawmakers target Big OilGood Luck