Nevada Republicans upset; Democrats hail national monument

LAS VEGAS — The sudden designation of a state-sized area of desert, valleys and mountains in Nevada as a new national monument was derided Friday by local congressmen as an act of political cronyism involving outgoing U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and President Barack Obama. Reid shrugged off the criticism and hailed the president’s use of executive power to protect about 1,100 square miles of Silver State rangeland. Presidents of both parties have invoked the Antiquities Act of 1906, he said. “Th