Nevada football coach Jay Norvell heading to Wolf Pack rival Colorado State
By Kaleb Roedel
The Nevada football team has lost its head coach to a familiar foe. After leading the Wolf Pack for five seasons, Jay Norvell has agreed to be the head coach at Colorado State. The Rams compete with the Pack in the Mountain West Conference.
Norvell will likely get a significant bump in pay at Colorado State. The program’s last coach, Steve Addazio, made about $1.5 million this season. Norvell, meanwhile, made $625,000 this year. That’s the lowest salary in the conference, according to Nevada Sports Net. His departure comes just one day after Nevada learned it will face Western Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit on Dec. 27. Running backs coach Vai Taua will lead the team in the bowl game.
Environmental groups call on tightening Colorado River diversions
By Nate Hegyi, Mountain West News Bureau
Hundreds of scientists, tribal leaders and state officials are meeting next week to talk about the future of the West’s main water source, the Colorado River. The Colorado River supplies drinking water for millions of people in the West, but a severe, prolonged drought in the region is helping dry that river up. Its reservoirs are at record low levels.
Earlier this year, the federal government cut the amount of water some states, like Nevada and Arizona, can use. Now, leaders are meeting in Las Vegas for the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference. It’s a three day event where they’ll share insights and ideas about how to best manage the river.
Zach Frankel is with the nonprofit Utah Rivers Council. He wants to hear a serious conversation about banning new water diversion projects for farming or development along the Colorado.
“It is madness to overspend the bank account of the Colorado River while the income is shrinking so dramatically,” Frankel said.
Next year is the 100th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact. It was the first document spelling out how much water U.S. states and Mexico can use.
Nevada court sides with gunmakers in Las Vegas shooting suit
By The Associated Press
Nevada’s Supreme Court ruled gun manufacturers cannot be held responsible for the deaths in the 2017 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip because a state law shields them from liability unless the weapon malfunctions.
The parents of a woman who was among the 60 people killed in the shooting at packed music festival filed a wrongful death suit against Colt Manufacturing Co. and several other gun manufacturers in July 2019. The suit said the gun companies “knowingly manufactured and sold weapons designed to shoot automatically because they were aware their AR-15s could be easily modified with bump stocks to do so, thereby violating federal and state machinegun prohibitions.”
The shooter used an AR-15 with a bump stock when he fired 1,049 rounds in just 10 minutes on the crowd of 22,000 people from his suite in a casino-resort tower.
Reno city council pulls possible sale of homeless shelter from agenda
By KUNR Staff
The Reno City Council had planned to discuss the possible sale of a homeless shelter at Wednesday’s meeting, but that’s no longer the case. According to KRNV, city council said it will no longer debate selling the Community Assistance Center on Record Street. The council said it’s in response to concerns aired over the weekend about the availability of existing shelter space.
Rising housing costs mean food insecurity for many college students
By Bert Johnson, Mountain West News Bureau
In spite of economic disruption caused by the pandemic, the cost of housing and other necessities continues to rise around our region. That’s making it hard for many college students to finish their education.
Food insecurity has been a problem in higher education for years, especially for students of color, people in community college and student parents. That’s often because rising rents take up a greater share of their budgets. The Hope Center at Temple University surveyed college students from around the country. It found more than one-third had trouble getting enough to eat last year.
Donny Brooks goes to the University of Nevada, Reno. He’s been getting help from an on-campus food pantry.
“They send food to you periodically. Me and my friends have been using that a little bit, but you know, even then, it’s still kind of tough,” Brooks said.
Brooks lives off-campus with three roommates and says housing costs are a major burden. In general, survey data from Western states tracked national trends.
