Carson City School District resuming bus services Wednesday
By Danna O'Connor
School buses in Carson City will resume a normal schedule starting on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Carson City School District says some routes may be doubled-up, which will cause minor delays, but students can plan for school transportation as usual on Wednesday. The district has been limiting bus service since Friday due to staffing shortages caused by COVID-19.
Families should still plan to transport students to and from school Tuesday, unless the student has an Individual Education Plan specifically noting transportation needs.
Nevada initiative would allow new breakaway school districts
By The Associated Press
A Henderson city councilman who wants a state law change to let communities like his carve out their own school districts has filed paperwork to gather citizen support to put the question before state lawmakers next year.
Dan Stewart field an initiative petition on Jan. 11 through a political action committee he formed. Stewart and other initiative backers argue the size of districts like Clark County make it difficult to manage schools. If they gather enough signatures to put the initiative before lawmakers, it would allow communities like Henderson to secede from the Clark County School District. It's the fifth-largest in the country, with about 320,000 students.
PG&E's criminal probation to end amid ongoing safety worries
By The Associated Press
The nation's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is poised to emerge from five years of criminal probation amid worries that it remains too dangerous to be trusted.
Over the last five years, the utility became an even more destructive force. More than 100 people have died and more than 23,000 homes and businesses have been incinerated in wildfires sparked by its equipment in that time. The probation period was supposed to rehabilitate PG&E after its 2016 felony conviction for a 2010 explosion that blew up a neighborhood and killed eight people.
PG&E says it has made strides in fixing outdated equipment and pledges to do more.
SCOTUS to look at federal water protections
By Nate Hegyi, Mountain West News Bureau
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will look at limiting the scope of a landmark federal clean water law. The Clean Water Act allows the federal government to place limits on development or pollution near protected waters, but there’s long been a fight over which waters exactly are protected. The law’s language is vague and a 2006 Supreme Court decision didn’t help. The 5-4 ruling essentially created two conflicting definitions.
Some justices said the law only protects permanent lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Others argued it also protects wetlands and intermittent rivers and streams. Now, the Supreme Court is taking a second look at this fight.
They’ll hear the case of an Idaho couple who were blocked by the federal government from building their house near a small wetland next to a protected lake. The ruling could have wide implications for arid regions of the West like the Great Basin, where a lot of rivers and creeks run dry in the summer. Those areas could lose protections.
“We are really concerned if substantial revisions are going to carve out the protections for the waters that make the Great Basin so great,” said Patrick Donnelly with the nonprofit environment group Center for Biological Diversity.
The Supreme Court will take up the case this fall.
Nevada Division of Forestry looking to fund ecosystem restoration, wildfire mitigation projects
By Lucia Starbuck
The Nevada Division of Forestry is looking to fund restoration projects that protect communities and ecosystems from wildfires, floods and invasive species.
The division is now accepting pre-proposals for two grants. One will fund a variety of conservation projects for water sources, rural forests and rangelands. The other grant is for projects that aim to mitigate the risk of wildfire, such as reducing hazardous fuel and increasing community outreach in targeted areas.
Both grants will provide $300,000 per project. More information can be found here.
Indigenous authors from our region nab book awards
By Dave Rosenthal, Mountain West News Bureau
On Monday, the American Indian Library Association announced its youth book awards, and some winners were about our region.
The winning picture book was Herizon. In this wordless story a girl uses a magic scarf to help her mother retrieve a flock of sheep. It was written by Daniel Vandever and illustrated by Corey Begay, both Diné.
Healer of the Water Monster won in the middle school group. The story of a young boy’s heroism was written by Brian Young, Diné.
And the young adult winner was Apple, Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth, Onandaga, His poetic memoir tells of balancing White and Native cultures. The title plays off a slur that pegs some Natives as red outside and white inside.
Mirage Hotel volcano, icon on Vegas Strip, to get demolished
By The Associated Press
The landmark volcano that spits fire outside the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas will soon be snuffed out. KLAS-TV reports Hard Rock International, which purchased the hotel property, plans to tear it down as part of a major renovation plan. A guitar-shaped hotel will take over.
Previous owner MGM Resorts International will license The Mirage name and brand to Hard Rock for the next few years. Some not happy with the decision to do away with the volcano have started an online petition on change.org. It has gathered more than 1,500 signatures.
