While Carson City Schools temporarily cut most bus service, WCSD has no similar plans
By Andrew Méndez
The Carson City School District announced last week that it is limiting its bus service to only special education students due to a staffing shortage. In Washoe County, school officials confirmed on Friday that they have no plans to take similar action.
Washoe is expecting to have more than 80 bus driver vacancies by the end of the month due to drivers pursuing job opportunities elsewhere or calling out sick; however, Superintendent Kristen McNeill says there are no plans to adopt the temporary model in Carson City.
“What we don’t want is to set up a system where we have some students who are able to come to school and some that are not.”
Last school year, the district had over 61,000 students, and approximately 28,000 of those students were provided with transportation services.
Some Western lawmakers pushing for permanent child tax credit
By Bert Johnson, Mountain West News Bureau
Families are struggling with the loss of financial aid, after a temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit expired, but some lawmakers in our region want to make that policy permanent.
As it was originally written, the Child Tax Credit has a minimum income requirement, which excludes millions of families. COVID-19 relief legislation expanded the benefit. Those additional payments had been helping parents keep up with rising rents and high inflation, but they expired in December.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, says the expansion benefited over a million children in his state, so he wants to make it permanent. He said it could also help heal the partisan divide because the policy had been good for rural and urban voters.
"On the substance, it's helping people, but on the politics, I think it can help unify people," Bennet said.
Bennet told reporters Friday that he’s ready to pursue a bipartisan deal to continue the expanded benefits. Some Republicans have signaled their support, too, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
Wineries, farms eligible for last-ditch California insurance
By The Associated Press
Napa wineries and others hard-hit by massive wildfires in California’s wine country and elsewhere will soon be able to tap into the state’s insurance plan of last resort.
Hundreds of farmers, ranchers, wine growers and other outdoor businesses that were previously ineligible for coverage will be eligible starting Feb. 1 under the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan. It's commonly known as the California FAIR Plan.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Friday approved the new farm coverage. It was initially authorized under legislation last year backed by the California Farm Bureau, the California Association of Winegrape Growers and the Wine Institute.
Biden administration spending billions on orphan oil and gas well cleanup
By Nate Hegyi, Mountain West News Bureau
Orphan wells are often left behind by companies once they are done drilling for oil and gas. They leak methane and other harmful pollutants into the air. Cleaning them up has been a priority for the Biden administration.
"Right now, millions of Americans live within a mile of tens of thousands of abandoned mines and orphaned oil and gas wells. These discarded remains of extractive industries spew poison into the air and nearby waters and contribute to climate change," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said during a recent speech.
Many states in our region say they’ll apply this year for some of the estimated $4.2 billion in new grants allocated towards cleanup. They include big oil and natural gas producers like Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.
The money comes from the recently passed infrastructure law. The Interior Department has also created an interagency group that will identify, document and clean up orphan wells on federal lands. Interior estimates there are 130,000 of these wells in the United States.
Nevada geothermal power lawsuit bound for US appeals court
By The Associated Press
A federal appeals court will have to decide whether protecting historical tribal lands and a rare toad warrant blocking a major geothermal plant in Nevada as the nation tries to move away from fossil fuels amid a looming climate crisis.
Ormat Technologies says it may abandon the project if a 90-day court order remains in place into March. The legal battle is headed to a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco after a judge in Nevada denied Ormat's request to lift the injunction by Feb. 28. The site 100 miles east of Reno is home to a toad being considered for a U.S. endangered species listing.
