$500,000 in federal pandemic aid going toward Nevada food accessibility
By Nick Stewart
The Nevada Department of Agriculture is partnering with six organizations to address food security throughout the state.
One in eight Nevadans does not know where their next meal will come from, according to Feeding America, and the need for food assistance has increased during the pandemic. Food insecurity in the state is caused by numerous issues, including food deserts.
The Nevada Department of Agriculture is distributing $500,000 from the American Recovery Plan Act to various organizations in the state to help combat this problem.
The three biggest distributions went to Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada, Fallon Food Hub, and the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, with more than $250,000 distributed among them.
Reno introduces the first city-run blockchain platform in U.S.
By Shelby Herbert
The City of Reno is introducing the first city-run blockchain platform in the United States. The pilot will kick off this summer and is called the Biggest Little Blockchain. In a statement, the city said this project is not related to any form of cryptocurrency.
Blockchain technology is an unchangeable digital registry that stores transaction records. Each record is a “block,” and consecutive transaction records make the “chain.”
A company called BlockApps built the application, which is free to residents. It creates a single ledger to document consecutive transactions — starting with those related to Reno’s historic buildings. The City of Reno’s Historic Registry, a public list of properties deemed historically significant and worthy of preservation, is the first records system to utilize this technology.
Pending the success of the pilot, the city would like to expand the project’s scope and integrate additional features.
After groundbreaking slave reparations report, what next?
By The Associated Press
Reparations experts and advocates largely welcomed a move by California to acknowledge in writing its role in perpetuating discrimination against African Americans. The 500-page document released Wednesday details the harms suffered by descendants of enslaved people and how federal, state and local laws, public officials and the courts were active in sustaining systemic racism.
But activist Yvette Carnell said she worries that the California report and others like it could be used as a scapegoat for the federal government to avoid its responsibility to fund a national reparations movement. California’s task force will release a comprehensive reparations plan next year.
Interior Department announces $279M for outdoor recreation, conservation projects
By Kaleb Roedel, Mountain West News Bureau
The Interior Department announced the distribution of $279 million to outdoor recreation and conservation projects across the U.S. The money is coming from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. States will use grants for things like acquiring land for recreation areas, building public parks and trails, and protecting forests and wildlife refuges.
In the Mountain West, the largest chunk of funds is going to Arizona, which will receive $5.7 million. Colorado is getting $4.9 million, and Nevada and Utah are each getting $3.6 million.
Chris Perkins of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable said expanding outdoor access is more important than ever.
“When you think about what the pandemic has done to our relationship with the outdoors, all of us have needed outdoor recreation to help us feel healthy and normal, to decompress, and to visit with loved ones safely,” Perkins said.
Montana gains more from outdoor recreation than any state in the country. In 2020, the industry accounted for more than 4% of the state’s gross domestic product and more than 5% of its workforce.