Here are the local news headlines for the morning of Monday, Oct. 11, 2021.
Amodei ‘torn’ between gubernatorial bid and possibly serving in GOP majority, will make decision this month
By Humberto Sanchez, The Nevada Independent
Representative Mark Amodei said in a recent interview he is still undecided about possibly running for Nevada governor and will make a decision later this month.
Amodei said he remains undecided about possibly running for governor as he considers concerns about the economy. He’s also wondering about the possibility of having more power as part of a House GOP majority following the midterm election, if he chooses to try staying in Congress.
Amodei first floated the idea of a gubernatorial bid back in December. In recent months, a broad slate of serious candidates have joined what’s likely to be a very competitive Republican gubernatorial primary. They include former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, Reno attorney Joey Gilbert, businessman Guy Nhora and North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee.
Read the full story at thenevadaindependent.com.
Accidental drug overdose deaths in Nevada increase by 55%
By The Associated Press
Nevada health officials reported a dramatic increase in drug overdose deaths in the state between 2019 and 2020. The Nevada Overdose Data Program said accidental overdoses among Nevadans totaled 788 in 2020, a 55% increase from 510 in 2019. The number of overdose deaths among people younger than 25 nearly tripled, increasing from 38 in 2019 and 106 in 2020. According to the state’s drug overdose reporting system, one of every two overdose deaths involved a person with a mental health problem while three in four overdose victims had an identified substance misuse problem not related to alcohol.
Report: Gender pay gap more pronounced in Western states
By Bert Johnson, Mountain West News Bureau
On average, women across the country made about 82% of what men did last year, but Matthew Insco of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.
"For all the jobs that women work in and all the jobs that men work in, women earn less, and a lot of that has to do with what types of jobs men and women work in," he said.
Registered nurses, teachers and administrative assistants were the top jobs held by women, and more men work in well-paid engineering roles.
In most Western states, female workers are even further behind — Nevada, Colorado and Idaho all fall below the national average. Utah is in last place, at 72.7%.
Women have gained ground in the last forty years, but that progress has stalled in the last decade.
Dragonfly species rediscovered near Tahoe
By Michele Ravera
Citizen scientists rediscovered a dragonfly species near Tahoe that had not been seen in more than a century.
While the Spiny Baskettail dragonfly is easier to find in Canada and some forested parts of the northern U.S., it was last seen near Tahoe in 1914. Clarence Hamilton Kennedy made the discovery at Donner Lake, the year World War I broke out. The species was not seen again anywhere near there, even though people were on the lookout.
“A lot of folks, [including] dragonfly biologists/enthusiasts, have looked for it and revisited Donner lake at the right time, and it just hadn’t been seen,” said Will Richardson, executive director for the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science, the organization that led the team of volunteers who made the discovery.
“This really speaks to how citizen science and just average folks with an open mind and open eyes can make real discoveries, and important discoveries,” Richardson said.
With limited state budgets for monitoring various species, those efforts can go a long way.
