775 Alive

Yadusha Jones, leader of Moms For Liberty Nevada and Chair of the Clark County Chapter, joins Crystal and Scott to discuss the Moms For Liberty project and its expansion into rural Nevada. Key issues include why Moms for Liberty is necessary, problems with current school board practices, civics education and teaching the Constitution, and legislation concerning libraries. Filmed in Las Vegas at the Innovation Space at the Nevada Republican Club.
 #ruralnevada #MomsForLiberty

Mail ballots for elections continue to roil election debates, with arguments ranging from their importance to increase minority turnout to allegations they are a mechanism for fraud. Crystal and Scott delve into controversies in Nevada, one of only 8 states that use universal mail ballots that are sent to all registered voters. Major topics include the differences between opt-in and opt-out mail balloting, the decades-long use of mail ballots in remote rural precincts, who is or is not using mail ballots, and whether mail ballots are bringing in enough new voters to justify the chaos they have introduced into recent elections.
 #ruralnevada #mailballots #absenteeballots #ballotharvesting #tribalvoting

The recent funding cuts to public media have resulted in claims that it is rural communities that will suffer most of all. Crystal and Scott delve into the world of rural public media, how it operates in rural Nevada, and what its end might mean. We cover the history of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), National Public Radio (NPR), and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), as well as how they compare to emerging media formats such as podcasting.
#ruralnevada #publicmedia #npr #cpb #pbs 

Redistricting has emerged as the hottest news topic over the last month, nationally and here in Nevada. Crystal and Scott talk about how redistricting, especially Scott’s recent involvement with a redistricting controversy in the city of Henderson, Nevada’s gerrymandered map, and what this might for a Nevada ballot question on an independent redistricting commission. We also look at the factors that led to the current tension between Texas and California, a bit of the history of redistricting and the failed efforts to maintain an idea of “congressional balance,” and trying to get to some solution to identifying the “communities of interest” that should be the basis of representation. 

#redistricting #Henderson #2020Census #FairMapsNevada #Elko #Pahrump

Guest Caleb Cage (Arc Dome Strategies and Nevada Battery Coalition) joins Crystal and Scott to discuss Nevada's emerging lithium industry. Caleb describes closing the Lithium Loop, where all aspects of the lithium industry--mining, processing, manufacturing, and recycling--are located entirely in Nevada. The Lithium Loop promises to liberate Nevada's economy from a reliance on only extractive or entertainment activities. Among the topics of discussion is what lithium mining might mean for rural counties, the advanced manufacturing benefits for Reno and Las Vegas, and how locating the lithium supply chain in the United States is a win for environmental and labor concerns. 

#LithiumLoop #LithiumSummitNV #mining #ruralNevada #CalebCage #775 Alive

Links:
Caleb Cage, President, Arc Dome Strategies: https://arcdomestrategies.com/
Nevada Battery Coalition: https://nevadabatterycoalition.com/
2nd Annual Governor's Lithium and Critical Materials Summit, September 18th-19th 2025, Las Vegas: https://secure.anedot.com/nevada-strategic-growth-initiative/elements-of-change-forum 

Will the Citizenship question be on the 2030 Census? The issue is back in the news, so Crystal gets up the nerve to ask Scott about the Census and his work on the 2020 Census. We discuss what the citizenship question might mean about political representation and federal funding for sanctuary states, as well as some common issues with the Census and whether alternatives are actually possible. 

 With the struggle of the Trump administration to cut off federal funding to Harvard continuing, Crystal and Scott look at the various dimensions of the issues, from Harvard's brand identity to its advising and consulting projects globally to how dependent even rural Nevada communities are on university research centers that are subject to little oversight. 

Crystal's recent visit to Tampa for the 2025 Turning Point USA Student Action Summit (SAS) left her shocked at both the interest in the Epstein files from Gen-Z and their growing power in politics. Crystal and Scott discuss whether Gen-Z will be more consistently engaged in politics than earlier young generations, what the absence of Gen-Zers in the rurals means, and also a little bit about the Nevada Republican Central Committee meeting in Winnemucca on July 12th. 

The story out of the Nevada State Legislature this year is Governor Joe Lombardo's new record of 87 vetoes. Since this podcast started with discussing the 2025 Legislative session, Crystal and Scott turn back to look at what happened and then discuss the increasingly active role of governors in American politics, from standing up to the federal government to becoming one of the most fertile recruiting grounds for presidential candidates. If the 50 states are laboratories of democracy, the governors are now playing lead scientists. 

The strike on Iran's nuclear facilities is one of the hottest stories at the moment. Crystal and Scott take a dive into the various controversies, including the war-making powers of the president, the role of media leaks, what Iran attempted to gain, and what the effects of the strike are likely to be.