Nickelback and Crocs banned in Nevada

CARSON CITY, Nev.—A bipartisan spirit seems to be catching in the Nevada Legislature this session. Several across-the-aisle proposals have made headway and headlines in the Silver State already, including a joint resolution opposing any future plans to license Yucca Mountain as a dump for high-level nuclear waste, and a bill that would bring the state’s electoral college delegates in line with the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide.

Now, it seems the collaborative esprit is growing. In the last two weeks, three new bills have been introduced with bipartisan backing.

Assembly Bill 477, introduced by Las Vegas legislator Elliot Anderson, had its first hearing in front of the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor on March 20. The measure, co-sponsored by Republican assemblymember John Ellison of Elko County, would prohibit “the purchase, sale or possession with intent to sell of any item in this State that a person knows or should know to be identified with the Canadian rock band Nickelback.”

Democratic assemblymember Heidi Swank, of Las Vegas—who is not a member of the Commerce Committee—made an appearance during the first committee meeting to express her opposition to the bill.

“I kind of like that one song,” she said, “How does it go? ’And in the air the fireflies/Our only light in paradise/We’ll show the world they were wrong/And teach them all to sing along.’”

But it seems Nevada’s legislators are banding together more out of their mutual distaste for things than a desire to create harmony. The two other bipartisan bills that have been introduced are also aimed at imposing bans. Assembly Bill 483 would make Nevada the first state to ban the sale and consumption of the vegetarian turkey substitute Tofurky. And Senate Bill 439—co-sponsored by Clark County Republican Pete Goicoechea and Democrat Aaron Ford—would place a ban on the buying, selling or wearing of Crocs in Nevada. After the bill was introduced in front of the full Assembly on March 16, Ford told a gathering of reporters that its purpose is simple. “Crocs are intolerably ugly,” he said.

In response to Ford’s explanation of the bill, the Nevada Nurses Association released a fiery statement, which said in part, “We think Aaron Ford’s stupid bowties are ugly.”