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Las Vegas hosts final presidential debate, blast rattles Panaca among top local stories of 2016

For a moment there, it looked like there would be no big news in 2016 because most people were out hunting Pokemon with their phones.

Then we went and spoiled it all by throwing the ugliest, most unpredictable election in American history.

As usual, Las Vegas found itself at the center of the craziness. The valley was overrun by visiting candidates, their eager surrogates and a ceaseless stream of televised attack ads, all leading up to the third and final presidential debate at UNLV. Then came the election itself, which saw voters turn out in record numbers to replace retiring Sen. Harry Reid and deliver a historic “in your face” to political pundits and prognosticators everywhere.

But the election wasn’t the only big news. Las Vegas also endured a disturbing rise in homicides, a wave of educational uncertainty from the reorganization of the nation’s fifth-largest district and a court fight over school choice, and a FEMA-worthy blow to highway commuters known as Car-nado.

Is it any wonder we legalized recreational marijuana?

Here are the top 10 local news stories of the year, as determined by Las Vegas Review-Journal reporters and editors:

1. Up for debate

Las Vegas grabbed the national spotlight during the presidential election when the third and final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton unfolded at the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV on Oct. 19.

The 90-minute made-for-TV event gave voters a final chance to see Clinton and Trump trade barbs and field questions from moderator and Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. Hundreds of reporters descended on Las Vegas to cover the debate, which drew more than 71 million television viewers.

Local officials estimate the resulting coverage generated nearly $114 million in publicity for Las Vegas and UNLV.

Three weeks after the debate, Trump surprised pollsters and pundits by winning the election, though Clinton carried Nevada, and the national popular vote, by 2 percentage points.

— Ben Botkin

2. Searchlight sayonara

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivered his farewell address Dec. 8, capping a three-decade political career in which he rose higher than any Nevada politician before him.

But the Searchlight native didn’t say goodbye without one last spin through the state in the so-called “Reid Machine.” His well-oiled political operation helped Democrats retain Reid’s Senate seat and capture three of Nevada’s four slots in the House, flipping the state’s congressional delegation from red to blue.

The hardest-fought and most expensive of those races saw former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto win the right to succeed Reid by defeating Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Heck.

In the process, Cortez Masto became the first Latina — and the first woman from Nevada — to be elected to the Senate.

— Ben Botkin

3. A deadly trend

A spike in violent crime plagued the Las Vegas Valley in 2016. Both Henderson and North Las Vegas saw significant increases in homicides, and the Metropolitan Police Department investigated more slayings than in any of the past 20 years.

The last time Las Vegas police handled this many homicides was 1996, when 167 people died at the hands of others.

Multiple tragedies struck at the heart of the community: the April 18 killing of Lee’s Liquor clerk Matthew Christensen, 24; the May 6 murder-suicide at a North Las Vegas daycare center that left Christina Franklin and her assailant dead and her two young children wounded; and the June 29 slayings of Phoukeo Dej-Oudom and her three children at the hands of their father, who then took his own life.

— Wesley Juhl

4. Bundys branch out

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters were indicted on a host of charges stemming from their 2014 armed standoff with federal agents who were trying to clear cattle from public land near Bundy’s Bunkerville ranch.

But that wasn’t the only news the Bundy family made in 2016.

Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy, two of Cliven’s sons, led the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon that dragged on for 41 days early in the year. Then Oct. 27, a federal jury in Portland acquitted the two men in connection with the occupation, a verdict that stunned even the defense.

Expect more big news from the Bundys in 2017. Starting Feb. 6, Cliven and four of his sons are slated to stand trial along with 12 other defendants in three separate criminal proceedings.

— Ben Botkin

5. Breaking up is hard to do

One of the biggest issues facing the Clark County School District is the system-wide overhaul mandated through the law known as AB394.

The reorganization, which gives less power to central offices and more to individual schools, has had a bumpy rollout since the law was passed in 2015 and then placed on an accelerated timeline, with the new system expected to be in place by 2017 instead of 2018.

In the process, a number of issues have cropped up — most notably the hiring of a consultant that will cost the district up to $1.2 million. That move and other concerns have further divided the School Board and state legislators on the Advisory Committee for AB394.

Moving into the new year, each school must craft individual budgets with the hope that a weighted funding formula — one which assigns more per-pupil money to students in special categories — will be bankrolled by the Legislature in the future.

— Amelia Pak-Harvey

6.Court cripples school choice

Nevada’s nascent voucher program known as the Education Savings Account came to a halt in late September when the state Supreme Court ruled the funding portion of the program unconstitutional.

The 2015 law was set to give more than $5,000 to families who wanted to opt out of their public schools and attend private institutions. The high court didn’t say such programs were unconstitutional but ruled that the use of the Distributive School Account to fund them “undermines the constitutional mandates” to fund public education.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has said finding a new ESA funding source is a top priority in the upcoming Legislature. The state treasurer has continued to accept and process ESA applications in the meantime, drawing more complaints and legal filings.

— Meghin Delany

7. Voters just say yes

Nevada said yes to recreational marijuana in the 2016 election, joining a growing number of states that have moved to legalize, tax and regulate the drug.

Fifty-four percent of voters approved ballot Question 2, which legalizes the possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and up to an eighth of an ounce of concentrated pot products. The law takes effect Jan. 1, but recreational marijuana sales are not expected to start until summer.

Four states — Nevada, California, Maine and Massachusetts — voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016. Colorado and Washington were the first to legalize the drug in 2012, with Oregon and Alaska following in 2014.

— Colton Lochhead

8. An orange-cone storm

The Car-nado swept into downtown Las Vegas on Oct. 26, with state transportation officials predicting a perfect storm of traffic delays, dizzying detours and ramp closures lasting four months at the Spaghetti Bowl interchange.

Instead, Car-nado was downgraded a few days later to a mere tropical depression, with most drivers heeding repeated warnings to avoid closures through the end of February 2017 on Interstate 15’s southbound and northbound ramps to northbound U.S. Highway 95 and the exit for Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Despite the onslaught of construction at the Spaghetti Bowl — or maybe because of it — Clark County voters comfortably approved ballot Question 5 to allow for a 10-year extension of the fuel revenue index tax that took effect in 2013. The tax is expected to generate about $3 billion to help pay for nearly 200 transportation projects countywide.

— Art Marroquin

9. Middle school mercury

A quarter-cup of mercury found primarily in the gymnasium prompted an emergency shutdown Sept. 7 at Johnson Junior High School. It also set off a public firestorm, as parents anxiously waited for hours — some until 5 a.m. the next day — to pick up their children after they were screened for possible contamination by the Environmental Protection Agency.

At a town hall meeting following the incident, parents vented frustration over a lack of answers from school and EPA officials.

Once the full scope of the mercury spill was revealed, the search for contaminants spread beyond the walls of the school, with about 60 homes in the community screened and 80 bags of clothing brought in for additional testing.

At year’s end, parents still were awaiting answers and police still were investigating how the mercury ended up at the school. The cost of cleanup is expected to reach about $157,000 after repairs are completed.

— Natalie Bruzda

10. Blast rattles peaceful Panaca

A July 13 bomb attack in the most unlikely of places left a family’s home in ruins and triggered an ongoing multistate investigation by the FBI.

In the tiny Lincoln County town of Panaca, authorities say 59-year-old Glenn Franklin Jones triggered two homemade explosive devices and then shot himself in the head in front of a home belonging to his former boss at a hospital where he used to work.

The following day, police evacuated the Kingman, Arizona, recreational vehicle park where Jones was living as investigators removed homemade bombs and bomb-making material from his motor home, along with journals and notebooks outlining a possible terror attack against the Bureau of Land Management.

Jones was the bombing’s only casualty, and six months later his motives remain unclear.

— Henry Brean

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