Lawmakers in voting frenzy

CARSON CITY -- Facing a Friday deadline, Nevada lawmakers passed a bill imposing reporting requirements and controls for legal defense funds -- a measure stemming from a furor over Gov. Jim Gibbons' fund set up to deal with various allegations against him.

Senate Bill 425, which passed unanimously, would limit per-person contributions to such funds to $10,000, and also require that periodic reports on the fund be sent to the secretary of state. Restrictions on when contributions can be made also are in the bill.

The measure defines such funds as accounts created to pay legal costs associated with any allegations of wrongdoing arising from a campaign, the electoral process or the performance of official duties.

Lawyers for Gibbons have said his defense fund, which had total donations of $194,100, was closed because issues prompting its creation were dropped for lack of evidence. However, one issue is still pending: a legal dispute between Gibbons' longtime friend, multimillionaire federal contractor Warren Trepp and a former Trepp partner.

Gibbons got two high-priced lawyers, Don Campbell of Las Vegas and Abbe Lowell of Washington, D.C., to help him deal with FBI questions about his associations with Trepp. Gibbons has denied that he accepted payments or gifts from Trepp in exchange for helping Trepp get defense contracts while Gibbons was a member of Congress.

The bill was authored by Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus of Las Vegas. Titus ran against Gibbons in the November gubernatorial election.

It wasn't immediately clear if Gibbons planned to sign the bill.

The Assembly also voted 25-14 to approve Senate Joint Resolution 4, a constitutional amendment that would end direct elections of the state's university system regents, and let the governor appoint board members.

Under that proposal, the Legislature would set guidelines for the number of board members and the length of their terms of office.

The Senate approved Assembly Bill 285, which would require the water engineer to reopen a protest period for water applications if a decision isn't made within seven years.

Senators amended the bill to include provisions of Senate Bill 405, which clarifies the authority of the state engineer. Since that bill had died in an Assembly committee, the rewritten AB285 now returns to the Assembly for more review.

The Assembly also passed:

• Senate Bill 48, which would require greater financial disclosure from candidates for public office.

• Senate Bill 549, which would require signatures for ballot initiatives come from each county in the state.

The Senate gave final legislative approval to several bills, including:

• Assembly Bill 193, which would reinstate the plea of "guilty but mentally ill."

• Senate Bill 3, which would allow spouses of deceased police officers and firefighters to continue to get death benefits after remarrying.

• Senate Bill 10, a "video voyeurism" bill that would ban videotaping "private areas" of people under circumstances in which they have "a reasonable expectation of privacy."

• Senate Bill 16, which would allow defendants in eminent domain cases to collect interest on any deposits they are required to give the court.

• Senate Bill 53, which would ban "musical impostors" from faking connections to recording legends from years past.

• Senate Bill 110, which would limit the amount of standardized testing in schools.