Las Vegas was awarded nearly $150 million in federal funding for a transportation project designed to create more efficient, frequent, and speedier bus transit between the Harry Reid International Airport  and the Las Vegas Medical District in the north.

There are many powwows throughout the desert Southwest — including the following selection within driving distance of Las Vegas. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Since customs and rules vary, visitors should check an event’s website or social media for updated information. And if you’re unsure what to do, err on the side of respect.

#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.

Nathan Robertson arrives at Ely City Hall looking much like one would expect of the mayor of a remote town near the Great Basin National Park — sandy blond hair, dressed in a hiking vest and carrying a sporty backpack. Though he’s busy with city government work, the fifth-generation resident makes time to talk on a recent Thursday about the local news scene in his community, which is a four- or five-hour drive from either of the state’s major population centers.

Have you ever found yourself perplexed in front of the honey aisle at your local grocery store, wondering what’s real and what’s not? You’re not alone. The world of honey is buzzing with more than just bees these days.

Gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman has focused recent campaign messaging on Utah’s disputed status as a “sanctuary state.” The state lawmaker, who is running in the Republican primary against Gov. Spencer Cox, argued Utah is effectively a sanctuary state because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are unable to hold migrants who break the law after entering the country illegally in county jails for extended periods of time.

Las Vegas isn’t good at documenting its art history. Does it matter? I've lately been racking what’s left of my brain for details of an old exhibit — a show by local artists who created work to protest Steve Wynn’s implosion of the Dunes. So, this would’ve been sometime in 1993, maybe? Organized by the then-newish Contemporary Arts Collective, it took place in a storefront on Maryland Parkway near UNLV. I think. I mean, it’s been a few years.

The world of this old Vegas-set video game remains so compelling, fans travel here to visit the real thing. As I stand in the Goodsprings cemetery, I do my best to be respectful of its residents, especially since only bona fide citizens of the town can be buried here. The place has a sepulchral serenity. Miniature American flags on headstones flap in the wind. There is a bench for contemplation. The sun shines all day. It’s a fine place not only to spend eternity, but also to reflect on the fleeting nature of life, the passage of time, and one’s own mortality.

Director L. Frances Henderson’s documentary This Much We Know (available now on VOD platforms) explores the topics of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and the suicide rate in Las Vegas, filtered through Henderson’s own personal perspective. It’s an often-impressionistic essay film, spending time with the family of Levi Presley, the 16-year-old who jumped to his death from the Stratosphere Tower in 2002, as well as with various experts on both Yucca Mountain and suicide. Henderson frames the movie as a way to process her own friend’s Las Vegas suicide, although the tone is more open-ended than definitive. Henderson spoke with Desert Companion about the process of making a film on such difficult subjects.