Wesley Knight  0:00  
This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Tanya Flanagan  0:19  
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started. You

Tanya Flanagan  0:47  
Good morning and welcome to another edition of the scoop with me. Your host, Tonya Flanagan, right here on 91.5k U, N, V jazz and more. Thank you for waking up this morning and tuning in to this episode. I have a wonderful guest in the studio with me today. It's my first time welcoming her to the studio. Her name is Kayla. My essay. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here. Well, thank you for being here. Kayla is with the ACLU Nevada office and with the current tone in our country, the vibe that is not good in some people's opinions tolerable and others accepted, ignored. I don't know what the proper description is, but as we look at how people are being treated everyone from any background and all backgrounds, we have the recent ice several, actually now, recent ISIS shootings in the last week or so we're at, I think, the 11th shooting that ISIS had since it's become so such a focal point. So if you look at ICE, you'll look at and see that they've been around since 1915 but of late, since they are so focused on we've had now the 11th, at least 11 incidents with ice in a very short time period. Yes, so I wanted to talk about that because I found the shooting of the woman, Miss good, Renee Nicole good in Minneapolis. Yes, disturbing to say that she was a threat, not arguing if she was or wasn't a threat, but that level of use of force, trying to understand all of the components, not knowing what they are, yet, still really honestly, but just how we got to the point that we're in in this country, and I don't know if people are living in fear, if people, if it's so surreal, in some cases, so globally, nationally, locally. And that's what we're talking about this morning. And so I'm pleased to welcome Kayla with the ACLU. She is a policy manager.

Kaylah Maese  2:55  
Yes, to talk with me. Yes. I think it. We've seen a lot happen in our country, in our city, across the globe in the last year and a half? Well, it's really about year globally. I don't think globally that people are feeling as fearful as our nation is. I think globally, when we are looking at a global scale, you get more talks about tariffs and things of that nature, not really what's happening to the people when we get nationally, we're seeing 1000s and 1000s of new streams, media streams of our neighbors being taken by mass individuals that we can't always verify who they are or where they're coming from. And when we get down locally, in Nevada, or Nevada is a large state with a lot of nothing surrounding it, but we see that there's up in Northern Nevada, people are now afraid to send their kids to school. They haven't been sending their kids to school for the last year. We had the closure of a fantastic economic entity in our state, broad acres. We had that closed last year, which is something that we would have never imagined. I'm born and raised here, and in the time that I've lived here, no one has ever thought that broad acres would close out of fear. And so to your point, I think everyone across the nation, especially in our state, as our state is so diverse, is very scared. People are not going to work, people are not going to school, kids aren't going to school, adults aren't going to school for their professional degrees. It's It's very sad to see that we don't have answers right now. A lot of answers for our community on what we can do to help them. We have some, we have some guidance for them, but it's, it's sad that our community doesn't even want to step outside of their front door to take the trash out anymore.

Tanya Flanagan  4:36  
It is sad, and it's also, it's both siloed, but yet not siloed. And when I say siloed, I mean you'll have the family or the individual who is going through it, because it's more of a direct impact to them. They're a person of color, they are not a US citizen, or they look like someone who may not be considered to look like what? Whatever this now descriptive US citizen looks like, but after seeing the Minneapolis situation, which was a 37 year old Caucasian woman with her child with stuffed toys in the car, for said child be the victim or the target of an ice altercation, there is no stereotypical description of who you think is being targeted and who is more at risk than the next person.

Kaylah Maese  5:28  
Yes, and I think that, unfortunately, I do think that would happen in Minneapolis really is going to change the tone of how people are looking at how immigration is happening right now. Because, like you said it. At first we thought that immigration was just happening to those who might not be documented or be in that process. But then we learned, hey, they are also taking black and brown people at mass numbers, even if they are citizens, even if you just look like you might not belong here and now, like you said, it is a white woman, it's a Caucasian woman. It is completely going to change the tenor, and hopefully it will really show people like this is happening to everyone. It's not just happening to groups of color. It is happening to everyone at a large scale,

Tanya Flanagan  6:09  
absolutely, and I think that's frightening. And I think when I say siloed in one instance, it's happening to the individual who goes through it, or the family. On the other hand, you see people still out to dinner. We are a tourist environment. We're tourist driven. We have what roughly four mile stretch with 165,000 hotel rooms that we try to keep at or above 90% occupancy at all times to drive. The mechanism to drive the is the driving engine here in Southern Nevada. And so you still feel like sometimes you see life continuing right now we're sitting here. I don't know if I want to say holding a breath, but in some ways, holding a breath for things like ces to come through, yes, for these huge conventions to come through. And there was a period, and I won't say ice was the responsible party for why restaurants weren't full? I think economy because affordability, yes, is another reason why. Initially, for a while you're looking at the fact that tariffs, you mentioned that at the beginning of our conversation, being a global focal point that's trickled down locally, nationally, locally. And for a while locally, people were just like, what are they going to do? So people stayed home. So they were home for tariffs, but there were some who were home price, yes. So you have this double whammy happening, if you will, and we're a tourist driven environment. Sometimes I still see people out like, I see it, I feel like, in some cases, it's leveling out, and every time you think it's about to level out, and maybe we'll coast a little bit, we'll glide, we'll try to have the time to figure out better options and better alternatives. Then you're hit with the shock wave, like a shooting, like an harassment, like an action of ripping someone from home, from school, off a playground, out of an event, and it's like you're right back to square one, trying to figure out, how do all the peaceful pieces of the puzzle fit, and how do people just survive day to day, and what are the options,

Kaylah Maese  8:11  
and what do we do? We at the ACLU of Nevada last year, we spent about six months planning for what 2025 was going to look like the first year in this new administration, and it feels like deja vu. It feels like we're exactly back exactly in the same spot we were last January, where things are worse than we thought they were, and we are now trying to figure out, Hey, what did we do to let people know we're trying, we're advocating. We're making sure that you know your rights as we're making sure our rights don't change as we go to bed, but it generally feels like we're back in the same spot where we thought towards the end of the year, okay, we kind of know what's going on. We pre planned. We are expectant for what's next. And then something happens that we couldn't even imagine happens. It's like, where the hamster everyone is a hamster on the wheel all the time.

Tanya Flanagan  9:00  
We haven't talked a lot. I want to before we dive even deeper. Make sure people really understand what the ACLU does. Yeah.

Kaylah Maese  9:07  
So the ACLU of Nevada, we actually are turning 60 this year, so happy birthday to us. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to us. But we are a national affiliate who has different state partners. There's a state affiliate office in every state in our country, but we do work that really lets people know their rights. We do a lot of constitutional work. We do systemic litigation, which means if we are taking on a lawsuit, we're not taking on every individual lawsuit of people who call unfortunately, we wish we could, but we are a nonprofit at the end of the day, so we have a small team 14. But when we are doing systemic litigation, we want cases that will impact everyone as a whole. We want impacts to the school districts, impacts locally, state. We do some federal work. We do a lot of policy work. That's where most of my work comes in, at the legislature, that's actually where I may. Do is at the legislature, but really at the ACLU. We want people to know that they have rights, and we're there to help explain your rights, especially in a season like right now, when it comes to protest in light of what just happened in Minnesota, we are prepared for at least a couple protests this weekend down in Southern Nevada and some in Northern Nevada, and we print out over 500 Know Your Rights guides so that so when people are protesting, they know that they do have some rights when they're out there. So it's been a great 60 years. Our affiliate has filed more lawsuits in the last three years than our affiliate ever has, and so we have a lot of momentum. And we're everyone on our team is very, very passionate about the work we do. Yeah, it's

Tanya Flanagan  10:40  
really great group of people. And you mentioned the legislature, which is where we met this past regular session, and we had a special session as well, but I had the pleasure of watching you work as a young person, which is really wonderful to see. Thank you. When young people become passionate about the process that governs or helps to rectify and things in our country that aren't fair, that are injustices, and when you know that you want part of your life's work to be that type of sacrifice for the benefit of your fellow citizens, it's a very noble path to take. Thank you. So thank you for what you do. Thank you and for being the watchdog that you are in that legislative space. Because we see and review a lot of bills and we hear a lot of testimony in committee hearings before we go to the floor to vote on an issue, and having an organization like yours that looks through it, looks at the issues through the lens that you do, and the time to delve into the details and then talk with us is a very valuable resource for legislators, and so I want to say thank you for the work that you do. Thank you and help. If I pick up my phone and I text, I get an answer. We're there. I get a response, either ATAR hasebullah responds himself, he sends you, someone's gonna respond, someone's gonna respond. And I think also what I appreciate in the space of the exchange is one of the state's assembly members the respect, because I don't have to agree with your position, and you don't have to agree with my position, but I always appreciate the willingness to continue to work together. While this might not be something we're on the same page about, of course, something else may be or there may be a caveat in here that I'm dismissing. What am I missing? What am I not seeing? Why do I not see it through this lens? And so I appreciate the objectivity, of course, and that you bring

Kaylah Maese  12:42  
Thank you. And with the ACLU, we love being able to engage in constructive conversations, because being nonpartisan, I feel like, is one of our best strong suits. We're looking at it with such a neutral lens. We're really looking at it through the lens of the Constitution, and we're just here to make sure that all of our rights stay in place, and if they change, that they're changing in ways that are beneficial to our community. So thank you as well.

Tanya Flanagan  13:03  
You're welcome. And as we talk about constitutionality and change on a daily basis, we hear all these stories about what's happening at the federal level and how things are just changing, or you just can't do this. Like I feel like people are inching toward the space where they're not giving up hope. There's not total despair, but I have to be honest, there have been moments when I've had conversations with people and they've said things happen, and it just feels like you don't have there's no hope that anything right is going to happen to correct course. And I think people are increasingly feeling this sense of despair over the way things are happening. Yes, like all we're doing is struggling and treading water. I don't care what it is, whether it is a law enforcement issue, a criminal justice issue, whether it is an affordability issue, if you are in the most basic place, a grocery store, trying to purchase food for your family. There isn't correction, right? There's just this treading water to adapt to the fact that eggs that were 329, are now 678, $11 that were $3 maybe sometimes on sale for $1.49 are now $8 that everything is just exponentially more, and there's no pushback against it, unless you decide to go outside in your backyard and figure out how to be a great gardener and have good chickens and have a cow and a chicken. I mean, come on, being funny, but there really isn't. It's like this process of, well, how do I just buy bread that's $5 or

Kaylah Maese  14:43  
whatever it's really it feels like the current state of our country. We get five steps forward and 10 Steps 10 steps back. We had said a lot last year in 2025 that we would go to sleep and we'd wake up and there'd be a new order or a new law, or some. That would change when we spent all this time fixing things yesterday and now there's 10 new problems to fix the very next day. So I would, I would absolutely agree that people are feeling very despaired. A lot of our members and our volunteers, they got to a point where, of course, they are so great with volunteering. We have a very fantastic list of volunteers and members, but they got to a point where they were like, how are we really helping? How are we helping if we're going out to these things and then something bad happens the next day, or if we don't win this lawsuit? And we've had to tell people that winning isn't everything right now in this current economy and the state of what's going on, it's the fight that really matters. And so that's what we've had to help explain to a lot of our community. I mean,

Tanya Flanagan  15:42  
I think that really is the message to never give up, to keep standing up for what is right or what does make a difference, for what should be decent and human consideration of one person to another. I think that is part of the crux of don't give up. Super would say, Well, why should I engage myself in the political process? It's just going to go the way it goes. It's going to work out as my voice doesn't matter. But it does, because if no one shouts and says no, then those who are saying yes, just keep steam rolling. Yep.

Kaylah Maese  16:13  
And that is something being young, something that I hear all the time from my generation, is my voice doesn't matter. It it makes no difference. I shouldn't vote. I shouldn't do things like that. But my experience in the legislature has taught me how accessible it really is for people to be engaged in the process. And I try to tell all my friends like, no, it is very accessible for you to make change. You just have to do it. You have to go there. You have to be on top of yourself,

Tanya Flanagan  16:38  
your local and your state level, especially at local and state levels. Your local and state levels are very accessible points. A federal is a heavier field. It's a bigger lift, heavier lift, and it's not not accessible, but that's definitely a heavier lift of what's happening with those that you've elected and how well they're able to negotiate and navigate the halls of capital in Washington, DC, at the same time being engaged is crucial, and it's critical that, because some things that happen at the federal level are transferred down to the state level, like, for example, we talked about voting a little bit. We don't have universal we do have some universal voting laws. But then it comes down to state by state, how some of those laws are protected, how you vote, how you register, when you can register, like we can register, we have same day registration to vote, to register and to participate in an election. And not everyone has that. So it's not just universal. It's also trickling down to the state level to right there in your backyard, and it makes a difference to be engaged, to impact what can happen to you, regardless of what's happening somewhere else, but then how to fight to keep what you have accessible available to you.

Kaylah Maese  17:55  
It's a tiring process, especially when we talk about how things aren't the same nationwide. Like, I know right now we are coming up on another election cycle, and there's a lot of ballot measures that are going to be very important for people to pay attention to, especially when we talk about voting. Voter ID is something that's on the ballot initiative again, and that's one of our, not necessarily, passion projects that we're working on, but it's something that we're working on to really educate the community on why things like like showing your ID when you go vote isn't helpful to our community and isn't something that we need so it is. It's very interesting that voting laws aren't universal across our country, but it's where we're at, and we're doing our best, at least, to make sure that voting is still very accessible for people in Nevada, because we want people to vote, and they really aren't

Tanya Flanagan  18:40  
right now. And I think there's so many conversations that we talked about you mentioned how things change one day to the next. You wake up and it's different. And I think it's not just the day to day change. It's the historical work rate. It's the change that's happening to things that have been part of the culture of this country for decades, for generations that were thought through by those who came before us, who gave who they didn't just wake up one day and go, oh, we need this. And here, this is, here's the, I don't know, 1965 Civil Rights Act, or Roe v Wade, or Brown versus Board of Education, or whatever it might have been, a lot of painstaking work went into getting to this point to establish something of equality, yes, of fairness. And those things are you see these things in different categories and areas roll back Yes, time and again. And I think that is what is super disturbing to me, how laws set a long time ago are just being upended and overturned and new rules are just being put in place, not with due diligence, not with proper process, just I want and.

Kaylah Maese  20:00  
It feels like history, as everyone says, history repeats itself. We go back. We're changing all these laws. We are undoing, like you said, things that people have worked very, very hard to put in place. And I will say I'm very happy we do have something in Nevada like the equal rights amendments, which is one of the most comprehensive equal rights amendments in the country. And sometimes we hang on to that as our last hope to make sure that everyone is still protected. Still protected as as they are, as they come. But it is very difficult. If we didn't have our Equal Rights Amendment, I think our state would look a little different. But there was fantastic work that went into that ballot measure that was able to further protect people in our state when changes like this are happening, where people have worked really hard to make sure things are in place.

Tanya Flanagan  20:41  
So it's like we're slightly ahead of the curve. Someone said something to me the other day, because we have a majority Democrat legislature, but we have a Republican governor, and not to get into, you know, political party specifics, but what they put before me was, are we as a state slightly better for having that current structure, given the current structure of the federal level leadership, and how is that weighing out against other states that might Have Democratic governors and other structures in their legislatures are their leadership body, because we're so driven by people needing to come here and feel safe, yes, and feel like it's a place where. Because, I mean, what would we do if people came here and, oh, hey, look, let's just track your people on the strip and snatch them up.

Kaylah Maese  21:36  
Yeah, well, it being like,

Tanya Flanagan  21:41  
thankfully, we don't know, but someone said they thought maybe we were in the space that we're in some and maybe it's just a blanket hypothetical that they leaned on. What does our structure have to do with how things are playing out here?

Kaylah Maese  21:59  
I think being as non partisan as I can be with the ACLU of Nevada,

Tanya Flanagan  22:03  
yes, I tried to be as non partisan as I can be when I worded that.

Kaylah Maese  22:07  
I think our structure does play a lot into how laws are passed. Right now in Nevada with the majority Democrat legislature, I think conversations are easier. I think that's the biggest thing, especially being in the position of the AC of Nevada, a lot of people see us as a political organization, and we're not. And so it's a lot easier to go into, for example, the Capitol, and have these conversations. I'm not saying that legislators or Republicans don't listen to us, because, of course, we have equal conversations with everyone, but sometimes it does feel like it's easier to get in the door and to have these conversations and to have people hear us out, and for people to know that, hey, we're coming neutral. We're just coming in the lens of the Constitution. But I do think if the composition was a little different of our legislature, which it could change. We are on an election year that we could see our next legislative session pass completely different bills. And of course, they pass different bills every time, but pass bills that maybe aren't as comprehensive as we need them to be. But I think right now, our composition really does benefit the laws that we're trying to get passed. Not all of them. Bad bills come out all the time. Bad bills get through. That's just the nature of the work, but I do think the composition right now has a lot to do with being able to get good laws passed to protect our people.

Tanya Flanagan  23:26  
And you're right. We are in a an election year, and the legislature is the most citizen centric space that you're going to participate in. And I think that anyone and everyone out there should understand that you have a voice. You have a voice, not just through your legislator, whoever you've elected to represent you, depending on what area you live in, but you yourself have a voice. You don't always have the time. You won't always have the time because the legislature meets in Northern Nevada in Carson City. So if you're down here in Southern Nevada, that means you got to pause and take a plane ride, or you have to take a seven hour drive from the bottom to the top, and it is driving. As you said, We're surrounded by a lot of openness. It's a lot of mountains on that drive, but they're very, very far away in the distance. It's not like Nevada to Arizona rides very different view. But nonetheless, when you get into that space, you can be heard, and I say to anyone concerned about what's happening and how to protect yourself. You live here, understand where you live. Know that you can absolutely engage in the law making process, at least to be heard. You don't have to be well known, you don't have to be super popular, you don't have to be wealthy. You just have to give it a little time and some persistence at times.

Kaylah Maese  24:44  
One of my favorite things that I learned during session, it was just my first session, is there was a group of people up there, and they were about my grandparents' age, and they all registered to be lobbyists, just because they wanted to participate. They didn't represent anyone. They represented themselves. And they said, Well, we were just sitting down in our house. Said we have nothing else to do, but so we're gonna go engage in our laws. And I said, Well, that is so beautiful. So I love

Tanya Flanagan  25:05  
that about our state. Yeah, it is. It's a very simple not that it's simple, it's complex, and it can be complicated. But when groups come up, I say to them, it's every little thing that affects your life every day. That some of what happens at the legislature, and if you can articulate what that is, you never know the Discover, discovery can be made that that is something that's missing in law, yeah, and that small contribution that you think is insignificant can become very significant and can become part of a discussion to establish a new law, and it's really that simple, but it's understanding the process, and because otherwise you're in the building and you're walking around, yeah, and it's just a whole day of walking around and having some lunch and looking at displays, but when you have an issue and you understand the process or that, you can impact the process, because the smallest thing happening in Your neighborhood, on your job, in your business, in your healthcare space, at your child's school with education, you can come and talk about that, and someone may go, Wait a minute. I had no idea. I had no idea. And maybe this is a missing piece that we need to really address. And that is how some I worked on a payroll processing to make it less complicated for small businesses to deal with their payroll processing and a reduced fee cost, because someone said to me, we've got this issue. Oh, okay, and I represent the area north Las Vegas. What a lot of small mom and pop businesses. Okay, well, let's see what we can do with that. Yeah, we're in almost at our last couple minutes of the show. I like to make sure I give you ample time for people to hear how to learn more about the ACLU, what you're doing, how to volunteer, how to support, if you want to. So I like to give you the floor to share your social media, your website stuff, of course.

Kaylah Maese  26:50  
So our social media handles is a C l u n v, across Instagram, we're not really on ex a ton, so just Instagram, our website is a C l, u, N, v.org, on our website, you can find a plethora of things. You can find all the recent cases that we have filed in our highlighted section. You also can find areas where, if you have to submit some kind of form, we have an immigration form. If you would like to submit any concerns you have related to immigration that is available on our website. You can see all of our staff members on our website find who's best to connect with. If you do have a problem in our community, what else do we have? We haven't done any recently, but in the last year, we conducted more than 60 Know Your Rights trainings. We are still offering those. If you have a group or some family who needs a know your rights training, our legal attorneys are more than happy to come out. We're able to do those in English and Spanish and just let you know your rights when you're at school or when you're in your car or when you're at home, as we are coming up again, on potential protests happening, we are going to be running a Know Your Rights hotline, where, if you are at a protest and something does happen, we'll have members of our legal team on the line to be able to guide you through the issue that you're having, and that line phone number is on our Instagram at ACLU envy. Thank you.

Tanya Flanagan  28:09  
I almost lost my train of thought, but I just wanted to say to folks, listening, visiting the website and learning what the ACLU does is a great way to know what's happening in the community, how things are affecting you, what issues are hot button, issues that are worth you know, staying on top of and being familiar with. So it's a great way to educate yourself about what's happening in society today and how you can engage and be a part of the process, or at least protect yourself more. Yes. Kayla Maisie, thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. It was great to my listening audience. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you've enjoyed the show and found the information enlightening and helpful and inspired you to dig a little deeper until next time, stay safe, stay well, and have a great week. Bye for now, I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a N, A, G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tonya almonds Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

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