🧯 Climate Skeptics Gonna Love This

Read it and weep — with relief. Says here that the valley isn’t slated to hit triple digits until at least mid-June. Whew! (Last year we hit that mark on May 19.) Of course, if it heats up before then, we must rise up to hold the National Weather Service accountable! [Review-Journal]

🚄 Is Brightline the Rail Deal?

Show of hands: Who really thinks we’ll see an actual high-speed train line to Southern California? What’s the true sitch? Journalist Gabby Birenbaum, who’s written about Brightline for The Nevada Independent, brings some unexpected optimism to the podcast. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]

💸 Now for Some Actual News

Las Vegas redditors tackle the eternal question, What’s the most ridiculous place you’ve been asked to tip? [Reddit]

• Your turn: How do you feel about tipping? Email me your thoughts!

😬 House of Short-Term Horrors

In a clash that illustrates the tensions around short-term rentals, some residents of the old-line downtown Rancho Sereno neighborhood are fed up with a noisy party house in their midst. They tell horror stories of the house’s owner’s awful behavior. Meanwhile, short-term owners have new frustrations with the county’s licensing process. [KLAS, KSNV]

• Context: Short-term-rental advocates make their case. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]

Geese inspire a lot of affection in Las Vegas — a controversy blew up last year in Spanish Trails when residents weren’t down with the country club’s aggressive extermination program. (The birds pooped too much.) Geese have many likable qualities: Long-lived, they mate for life, tend to their young for lengthy periods, and populate the valley’s public ponds and preserved wetlands.

They also act like jerks. Google “Why are geese so mean” to see the internet’s agreement on this — or just visit a park with a goose-enhanced pond. Last time I did, I wasn’t sure I’d escape the honking mob with my life. They’ve been known to attack teen golfers. According to Popular Science, geese “will chase down just about anything: children, adults, bicycles, even cars, and frequently knock humans and other predators to the ground …” No wonder they’ve often been used in place of guard dogs.

But it’s not because they’re mean. The reasons are more mundane: They’re large, territorial, protective of their goslings, and have lived among us for so long they don’t fear humans. Humans return the favor — it seems 61% of us think we could take a goose in a fight. Well, sure. As far as I can tell, a goose has never killed a person without flying into a jet’s engine first.

Still, if you’d rather avoid getting beaked, next time you’re confronted by a park goose, here are a few tips: 1. Don’t escalate. 2. Don’t turn your back. 3. Definitely don’t run. And if it just won’t leave you alone, you can always play fowl: Show it Jacques Pépin’s classic recipe for roasted goose with crispy skin.

• Another aggressive creature: Invasive crayfish 🦞 at Wetlands Park! [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]

The legislative session now lurching through its final week (last scheduled day: Monday) is Erica V. Mosca’s first as Democratic assemblywoman representing District 14 (map). In her freshman year she chaired the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, and sponsored or co-sponsored a sizable slate of bills.

As the session and AANHPI Heritage Month both wind down, how would you rate this session from an AANHPI perspective?

Successful, so far. We were able to more than double our AANHPI Nevada Legislative Caucus, with seven members representing a diversity of AANHPI communities: Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, myself, and Assembly members Duy Nguyen, Reuben D'Silva, Cecelia González, Brittney Miller, and Selena Torres. So far we have been able to advance legislation focusing on language access, making sure prescription drugs and election ballots are available in the 10 spoken languages in our state.

This is your first session as a lawmaker — what surprised you most about the process?

I've been surprised how much my experience as a nonprofit founder and former executive director has been helpful up here. Whether it's community-building, organizing, or understanding budgets, I can see my grassroots experience is an asset. I hope I can encourage other nonprofit folks to run in the future.

What must the Legislature still accomplish before it wraps up?

We must make sure the budget passes with record investment into education, and I will be personally working on getting my legislation through (bills having to do with World Esports Day, increased transcript access for NSHE students, easier access to internships, and more)! I am also prioritizing following up and ensuring the legislation that I do pass actually has the intended outcomes in the actual community.

⚰️ Death Café Meetup | Wednesday | 3-4:30 p.m.

Bring your thoughts about the end of life to this participant-directed conversation. It’s not a counseling session, just a chance to talk frankly. There will be cake. (I went to a 💀death sesh 18 years ago myself.) [Enchanted Forest Reiki Center, South Jones, free]

♂️ Reception for ‘Affinity for Masculinity’ | Thursday | 5-8 p.m.

An exhibit of visual poetry that explores maleness, “Affinity for Masculinity” was curated by local poets Harry R. Fagel and Rodney Lee. They’ll be among the readers at this event. [Nevada Humanities Program Gallery, Arts District, free]

👙 Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender | Thursday-Sunday | Various times

A four-day celebration of tease and outsize personality, this event features plenty of ooh-la-la performances, parties, community events, and bowling. [The Orleans, $100-$400]

Perhaps Not a Train in Vain?

When it comes to the high-speed rail line between here and L.A., we’re used to start-and-stop promises. But might it be different this time? Nevada Independent reporter Gabby Birenbaum tells co-host Dayvid Figler how the billionaire-backed Brightline West is chugging closer to approval, what few obstacles remain, and how this could impact our city.

Lastly today, the answer to last week’s Where Is It? Challenge: Big Green here resides at the corner of Sixth and Franklin, downtown, and approximately 10,000 of you knew that — far too many to list here. But give yourself a 🏆 if you were correct, and come back next Monday for a fresh — and not so easy! — challenge. See you tomorrow!