Brookings Mountain West

About
Brookings Mountain West is a partnership between UNLV and the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. The purpose of Brookings Mountain West is to bring the Brookings tradition of high-quality, independent, and impactful research to the issues facing the dynamic and fast-growing Intermountain West region. Building upon work at Brookings and UNLV, our community engagement and research initiatives focus on helping metropolitan areas like Las Vegas grow in robust, inclusive, and sustainable ways. Brookings Mountain West provides a platform to bring ideas and expertise together to enhance public policy discussions at the local, state, and regional level.
Accomplishments
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Apr. 13, 2021
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Mar. 8, 2021
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Jan. 25, 2021
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Jan. 22, 2021
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Jan. 6, 2021


Brookings Mountain West In the News

Nevada lawmakers hope this session will be the one where they resolve a “vexing” problem that has lingered since 2017 — it’s legal to consume marijuana recreationally, but not in a public place.
For decades, the order of the presidential primaries and caucuses has caused consternation.

As the United States prepares for a COVID-19 recovery, policymakers need to understand why some cities and communities were more vulnerable to the pandemic’s economic consequences than others. In this paper, we consider the association between a city’s core industry, its economic susceptibility to the pandemic, and the recession’s racially disparate impact across six select metropolitan areas. We find that areas with economies that rely on the movement of people—like Las Vegas with tourism—faced substantially higher unemployment at the end of 2020 than cities with core industries based on the movement of information. Further, we find the hardest-hit areas have larger Hispanic or Latino communities, reflecting the demographic composition of workers in heavily impacted industries and susceptible areas. We conclude by recommending targeted federal policy to address the regions and communities most impacted by the COVID-19 recession.
Last week, commotion broke out in North Ogden over Maria Montessori Academy’s decision allowing parents to opt out of a social studies unit spotlighting Black History Month. School director Micah Hirokawa “reluctantly” made this concession, yielding to parental pressure for exemption from the curriculum.