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KUNR Today: Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County establish cooperative emergency response working group

Several REMSA ambulances are parked in a lot.
REMSA

Read or listen to news headlines for Monday, August 1, 2022.

Reno, Sparks, Washoe County establish cooperative emergency response working group
By Shelby Herbert

The Reno and Sparks City Councils, as well as the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners, voted to establish a cooperative emergency response working group. The three governing bodies have expressed concern about what they call a “regional fragmentation” of emergency resources. They have agreed to a set of guiding principles in order to identify flaws in the current system. Sparks City Manager Neil Krutz said that jurisdictional boundaries are disorganized and have created inefficiencies.

“If we get a call that we need to transfer over to another agency, that’s a time-consuming process that ends up being frustrating for everybody,” Krutz said. “We know that when you call 911, you need help as quickly as we can get there. They don’t care what color the truck is, or what the jersey you’ve got on says, they just want somebody to be there to help them.”

Krutz added that other emergency jurisdictions in Washoe County, including the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and Incline Village, have also expressed interest in joining this mutual aid plan — though it’s still in its earliest stages. The working group aims to standardize dispatch resources and will include stakeholders from emergency medical, fire and law enforcement.

Democrats delay primary order decision until after 2022 vote
By The Associated Press

The Democratic Party is delaying a decision on potentially reordering its primary calendar for the 2024 presidential election until after November's midterm elections. The Democratic National Committee's rules committee had planned to decide during meetings in Washington set to begin next week. The question is whether to recommend that presidential voting should continue to begin with Iowa and New Hampshire. Some party leaders and activists say more diverse states should move up, including the current No. 3 and No. 4 states, Nevada and South Carolina.

Election conspiracies grip Nevada community, sowing distrust
By The Associated Press

The resignation of a county elections clerk in a rural county in Nevada has opened a window into the long-term consequences of election conspiracy theories. Officials in Nye County have recommended scrapping voting machines in favor of hand-counting all ballots - which would be more than 20,000 in a typical general election. The leading candidate to replace the veteran clerk is someone who denies the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and says he is willing to hand-count all ballots instead of using electronic tabulators. Experts warn that could increase the likelihood of human error, delay results and create chaos in future elections.

$50 million will expand child care subsidies to Nevada families with higher incomes
By Naoka Foreman

Using $50 million in federal money, Nevada lawmakers are expanding a child care subsidy program. This will allow many families to get help with daycare even if they were previously considered to be too wealthy for the assistance. The Nevada Child Care Fund will now be open to families making $60,000 to $70,000 per year for a household of four. That’s nearly double the previous income threshold.

Northern Nevada and rural residents can apply with The Children’s Cabinet and Southern Nevadans can apply with Las Vegas Urban League. Under the current arrangement, more than 5,000 children receive on average of roughly $550 per month or have their child care costs fully met by Nevada's child care and developmental programs. The new funding will expand resources to thousands more families through next year.

Read more from this story at The Nevada Independent.

California not counting methane leaks from idle wells
By The Associated Press

After 21 idle wells were found to be leaking methane - some of them explosive levels of it - in Bakersfield, California in May and June, the California Air Resources Board told the Associated Press that it's not tallying leaks from idle wells. That means officials can't include those leaks in their total emissions counts. That's significant because methane is a potent greenhouse gas and law requires the state to ramp down all of its carbon emissions to zero. The state plans to use new satellite sensors to get a count. And a new proposal in the US Senate would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to address this issue nationwide.

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