Vermont Business Magazine The Las Vegas Sun's Chris Kudialis and the New York Times' Yamiche Alcindor werethe print pool reporters at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday. Here arethe complete, unedited reports.
Pool Report,2/14/16, Las Vegas, Nevada
Chris Kudialis,[email protected]
Bernie Sanders appeared in front of nearly 300 people attending service at Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Las VegasSundaymorning. He spent about 10 minutes with the congregation, speaking on topics of police brutality and income inequality.
Sanders said he opposes an economic system that favors the top one percent of income-earning Americans. He said although the United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, most U.S. citizens can't prosper in the country's wealth, because most of the country's money is going to a small group of people.
The U.S. Senator from Vermont also condemned police brutality across the country, saying African Americans and Latinos are arrested at an unfairly high rate. Sanders advocated for local police forces that works closer with their respective communities.
"We need to make our police officers look like the communities they serve," he said.
Yamiche Alcindor
The New York Times
Both Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont attended church at Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Las VegasSundayafternoon.
Pastor Robert E. Fowler Sr. welcomed both of the candidates telling members of the church, “I’m excited that they are here and I am encouraged that they are willing to sit at the same church, at the same service, at the same time.”
Mr. Fowler told both candidates that he wanted to hear why church members should vote for either Mrs. Clinton, who was accompanied by Congressman John Lewis, or Mr. Sanders, who came with his wife Jane.
“Senator Sanders, your camp contacted us first so you have the opportunity to go first,” Mr. Fowler said.
Mr. Sanders began by acknowledging that his wife Jane and then by saying that there are different competing philosophies in the world.
“Some of us believe that what God teaches us and what this world is about is that we do not turn our backs on our brothers and our sisters, that essentially we are in this together.” Mr. Sanders said. “I have four beautiful kids and seven grandchildren. I want you to worry about my kids and I have got to worry about your children and your grandchildren. That’s what this church is about and that’s what our existence is about. But there are people out there today who say what the world is about is me. 'I got to make as much money as I can. I’ve got to become a billionaire.'”
Mr. Sanders then said that America has a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost every major country and yet it still gives “huge” tax breaks to the rich. He then highlighted that the unemployment rate among African American youth is 51 percent.
Mr. Sanders also said that Nevada was one of the hardest hit states during the 2008 recession and bore the brunt of Wall Street’s greed.
“This state was decimated,” Mr. Sanders said.
The senator then talked about the need to reform and demilitarize police departments, to make sure officers who break the law are held accountable, and to make sure that police departments look like the communities they serve.
He added that people who do their required time in jail must be provided education, job training and other resources to ensure they can become employed.
BuzzFeed's Evan McMorris-Santoro was the print pool reporter at a campaign event in Reno, Nevada. Here is the complete, unedited report:
Pool Report, 2/13/16, Sparks Nevada
Evan McMorris-Santoro,[email protected]
Bernie Sanders met with less than two dozen solar power activists at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center Saturday morning. He spent around 15 minutes with activists before addressing a large group of volunteers for a GOTV rally in the same complex.
Sanders said he opposes efforts to raise the energy rates on solar power customers and called on activists in the crowd to launch a petition drive aimed at getting Warren Buffett — whose company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns the largest energy utility in the state, according to activists — to join their cause. Many of the activists at the event work in Nevada's solar industry.
The activists are part of an effort by solar energy workers and alternative energy supporters in Nevada upset over a public utility commission ruling they say effectively killed the solar industry in the state. Activists say new rules set by the commission for solar panel users have made the return on investment for the installation of solar panels virtually non-existent, making selling panels more difficult and killing 6,000 solar industry jobs in Nevada. They're trying to get an initiative on the fall ballot they say would undo the commission ruling.
Sanders has not officially signed on to the ballot initiative effort. A campaign official said there are still ongoing state-level hearings on the commission ruling which might affect what happens with the ballot initiative process.
Whatever the bureaucratic wrangling, it was clear which side of the commission-vs-solar company debate Sanders was on.
"The decision by the public utility commission is exactly the wrong decision," he told the crowd. "We should be making it easier for people to move to sustainable energy like solar, not harder."
Sanders called efforts to increase the usage of alternative energy "a moral responsibility."
Sanders talked about his plan to "make it easier for people to install solar power" called "10 Million Solar Rooftops." The plan offsets the cost of solar panel installation.
Opposing the effort, Sanders said, is the fossil fuel industry and its political allies.
When Sanders learned of Berkshire Hathaway's connection to the issue, he called on activists to engage in a little political revolution.
"Warren Buffett is somebody who might be interested in hearing from constituents in Nevada. This is a terrible, terrible decision. The ruling went exactly the wrong way," he said. "So you might want to be thinking about writing a letter with a few hundred thousand signatures on it saying 'you know what? what you're doing here in Nevada is exactly wrong."