Don’t Mess With The People Who Serve Your Food

  • Law

  • Nevada Supreme Court rules against disclosure of records from diabetes drug manufacturers. [TNI]
  • Brian Berman is representing a teacher facing retaliation after she reported student strip searches. [RJ]
  • The Culinary Union wants gaming regulators to threaten Station Casinos with license revocation over their failure to bargain. [Nevada Current]
  • Culinary is also at odds with the IRS. [News3LV]
  • Chief Judge Miranda M. Du sent out the following press release regarding the two new federal judges:  
Chief Judge Miranda M. Du is pleased to announce that Anne Rachel Traum and
Cristina Dionne Silva have been appointed by President Biden to serve as United States
District Judges for the District of Nevada.
Professor Traum will fill the seat vacated by Robert C. Jones, who took senior
status on February 1, 2016. She has been a law professor with the University of Nevada
Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law since 2008. Professor Traum previously served
with the United States Attorney’s Office as an Assistant United States Attorney from 2000-
2002, then as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Federal Public Defender’s
Office for the District of Nevada from 2002-2008. She received her Bachelor of Arts
degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1991, and went on to
receive her law degree from the University of California Hastings College of Law in San
Francisco, California in 1996. Professor Traum will assume the position of a United States
District Judge with chambers in Reno, Nevada.
Judge Silva will fill the seat vacated by Judge C. Mahan, who took senior status
on June 29, 2018. She has been a judge for the Eighth Judicial District Court in Las
Vegas, Nevada since 2019. Judge Silva previously served as an Assistant State Attorney
for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, then as the Assistant Chief of Litigation of the
Domestic Violence Unit. She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada from 2011-2019. Ms. Silva received her
Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College in Boston, Massachusetts in 2001, and
went on to receive her law degree from the American University Washington College of
Law in Washington D.C. in 2007. Ms. Silva will assume the position of a United States
District Judge with chambers in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We are delighted that these two highly accomplished individuals will join us as
district judges and look forward to serving with them. We express our appreciation to
Senator Cortez Masto and Senator Jacky Rosen for working to help fill our two vacancies.
22 Comments
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 4:46 pm

Did anyone have issues with a power surge this morning? It knocked our system out for a few hours…it was pretty strange.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 4:51 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

This happened at my house (Centennial Hills). It was brief, but didn't knock anything off line. Everything was still on at work when I arrived.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 4:53 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Power Surge and Cox Cable out for a few hours. Haven't heard about the cause of the power surge but cable is back on for my office.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 6:22 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Knocked out my TV, internet, and phone in Aliante area this morning.

Laughlin Constable Jordan Ross
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Laughlin Constable Jordan Ross
March 25, 2022 6:31 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Not so much a surge as a drop in power for about a second and half around 8:30 AM this morning in Laughlin.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 9:49 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Per the RJ – backhoe vs. power line…. dang construction!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 4:48 pm

However you feel about these particular two new judges, it's great that our district is finally getting some reinforcements. Does anyone know if some cases will be randomly reassigned to the new judges or will they just pick up stuff as it comes in the door?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 4:52 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Agreed. I presume that they will get some random cases and new ones. We now need a new Reno BK Judge to finish up this year!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 5:02 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Hopefully these appointments will lead to shorter decision turnaround time on federal motions. One can hope, at least. My optimism isn't high.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 5:13 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Please reassign my 3 Judge Jennifer Dorsey cases, thanks.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 6:34 pm
Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 7:04 pm

So the culinary union's issue is that the IRS is no longer allowing culinary employees to under-report their tip income and requiring them to report all of their tip income based on averages incorporated into a tip compliance agreement? Is their issue that they aren't actually receiving the amount of tips they're required to report? Or is it that they don't want to have to pay taxes on all of their tips and want to use the lower reporting requirement so they are only taxed on a fraction of their actual tips? They didn't increase or decrease the tax rate on those tips – they just reinstated, and increased, the presumptive amount of tips received. Sounds like they need to recalculate actual tip averages and amend the contract to reflect actual tip averages.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 7:13 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I've lived in Vegas since I was very young. Sometimes the imputed is close, sometimes over, sometimes under – I get it, it is an average but it sure sucks when you're paying taxes on money you never got. I understand the arguments for revenue for the gov, etc. but IMHO tips should not be taxed at all.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 7:44 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Yes tips should be taxed. Tips are income. Bonuses are income. Set up a system where tips are verifiable and tracked, and the IRS will not have an issue. Create a system where you think you are going to get shadow income, and the IRS will squash it.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 7:50 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Honestly, I think tip compliance for culinary and other restaurant workers is stupid. I'm a Republican and I know I shouldn't say this but – I think restaurant workers and other culinary workers should be paid an actual wage (clearly more than minimum wage) based on their value as an employee, let's stop this tipping BS and put actual prices on the menus.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 8:16 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I agree with 12:50 and I also want to add that it is absolutely bananas that the IRS is going after tipped workers in Vegas, but corporations that make billions and billions a year still have a negative tax rate. Simply insane. Our tax system is so screwy. I'd love for politicians to have the backbone to stand up and say that corporations should pay their fair share…and not just Bernie and AOC, but more mainstream politicians.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 8:17 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

12:50, here in Nevada, we don't do the tip credit thing they do in other states. So all employees are paid at least minimum wage, plus tips. Its not like other states where you can make two dollars an hour and depend on tips. So at least we aren't as bad as other states.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 8:38 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Echoing 1:16 PM point, yeah, it's absolutely bananas that income is subject federal income tax. Completely crazy!

And, I'm sure the bottle girl at Hakkasan that makes the equivalent of $250 per hour wants to be paid what her employer believes is a "fair wage."

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 25, 2022 11:11 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

@1:17p – Ok that's not as bad as I thought. The state I moved to Nevada from did the $2.13/hr thing and if it didn't add up to minimum wage they had to top it off to hit minimum wage. That's insane.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 29, 2022 6:58 pm
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The current system of taxing income is plain dumb. It allows for 2 similarly situated taxpayers to be taxed different amounts based upon what they ultimately do with their net disposable income.

The current tax regime encourages people to live beyond their means rather than save their income for the future (or their eventual retirement). The saver taxpayer receives interest/dividends/capital gains/etc., contributing to national economic growth. The reward for placing their capital at risk (other than building wealth if successful) is additional income tax liabilities that the spender taxpayer doesn't face.

Instead of taxing income, the system should be altered to taxing based upon consumption. Those that spend more, pay more in taxes. Such a system reduces, if not eliminates, tax loopholes and exemptions exploited by the wealthier taxpayers since their consumption is much higher than lower income taxpayers. To add a progressive nature to the tax system (if concerned about it being regressive to low income people) a simple standard deduction of the average annual cost of necessities of life (say around $25k per adult + $5k per child on the return) could be applied. For simplicity sake, the tax could be collected at time of purchase like sales tax with a monthly/quarterly/annual rebate for the tax on the standard deduction amount.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 28, 2022 3:11 am

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