The headwaters of the Muddy River, a tributary of the Colorado River, take their form with water invisible to us. They start with groundwater. The Muddy River, as it charts its course to Lake Mead, relies on groundwater-fed springs as its primary supply. And for the last two decades, those springs have faced the threat of groundwater overuse.
In a nondescript patch of high desert north of Lovelock, nestled between two dry creek beds, the only indication of where a 60-foot impact crater once was is a patch of tall grass standing out amidst the sagebrush. As he sat on the tailgate of his Jeep, Taylor Wilson laces up his desert boots. “What I love about these places, whether I'm looking for uranium or spy planes or atomic bombs, is you would never think this spot was interesting,” he says. “It's just an average spot out in the desert. But little do they know.”
Lithium Americas has officially planted their roots with the grand opening of their Winnemucca office on Jan. 18. The Humboldt County community gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new office, constructed by Big G Construction and owned by Javier Rivera, which has space for 15 people and can be expanded to accommodate 25 to 30 people.
For general information about feral and stray cats, visit https://www.alleycat.org/.
Dress to impress for this year’s Father Daughter Dance at Sonoma Heights Elementary School (SHES) on Feb. 9 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Communities In Schools of Nevada (CIS) is collecting gently used and news dresses, fancy shoes, and hair accessories for students in kindergarten through fourth grade until Feb. 2.
Bees, butterflies and other pollinators are key components of Nevada’s ecosystem, pollinating crops and native plants while serving as food for countless species. There are thousands of these terrestrial invertebrates — land-dwelling species that lack backbones — in Nevada. But there’s a gap in how they’re managed and protected. Agencies in charge of overseeing the state’s wildlife either don’t know enough about the terrestrial invertebrates to protect them or don’t have the explicit authority to do so. Nevada legislators determine which species state agencies manage.
Republican U.S. Senate candidates gathered in Reno Thursday night to debate who among them would be the best challenger to take on Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in November — and took shots at the elephant not in the room, front-runner and retired Army Capt. Sam Brown. The debate, hosted by conservative group RedMove at the Atlantis Casino, included seven candidates competing to be the Republican nominee after the June 11 primary. Both Brown and former ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter skipped out on the debate, leaving it as more of an undercard in which contenders (many of whom are perennial candidates) mostly agreed on conservative policy principles, including closing the border to new migrants, ending military aid to Ukraine and sharply curbing government spending.
Gov. Joe Lombardo has joined 15 other Republican governors in asking the federal government to reconsider a proposed mandate dramatically accelerating the nation’s electrification of vehicles.
Two rural Nevada newspapers that have stood the test of time will be doing what the news industry has done since its inception: change. On Friday, Sherman Frederick, the founder of Battle Born Media — which now publishes three rural newspapers — told The Nevada Independent he has made a “verbal deal” to transfer ownership of The Ely Times and The Eureka Sentinel to Nevada Central Media. The Ely paper has been operating under its current name for more than 60 years, and the Eureka paper’s history reaches back more than 150 years.
By Eric Neugeboren The Nevada Independent The Nevada Supreme Court will not decide whether the state’s civil forfeiture system is unconstitutional after the family leading the challenge agreed to a six-figure settlement. The legal challenge stems from the case of Sylvia and Elvin Fred, who have fought for years to retain control of their Carson City home after the government assumed control of the property from 2019 to 2022 under asset forfeiture, a process where law enforcement takes private property believed to be connected to a crime. Elvin was convicted of a drug trafficking charge in 2015, and officials recovered methamphetamine, firearms and cash from the home, according to the forfeiture application. Lawyers representing the family said that Elvin had faced multiple punishments for the same crime — the home seizure and a lifetime prison sentence with the possibility of parole — which they argued violated the state’s double jeopardy laws. As part of the settlement terms, the Fred family and prosecutors asked the high court to drop the case. The court dismissed the case Monday. Prosecutors declined to comment. The family received around $400,000 through the settlement, and the government has dropped efforts to reseize the home (the government had attempted to regain control of the home even after the family retook possession in 2022). The state government paid $350,000, while Carson City’s government covered $50,000. The family has already received all of the funds, Sylvia said. In an interview earlier this month, Sylvia said the settlement will get the family “back to square one.” The home had previously served as a place of refuge for Fred family members who were experiencing homelessness, but it had fallen into disrepair and become functionally uninhabitable while under government control. “That’s what the money means to us, is just almost the very beginning,” Sylvia said. “Again my family can be in a home that was intended for all of our family.” See COURT, Page 27 COURT — From Page 3 The settlement means that there will be no court-ordered changes to how the civil forfeiture process operates in the state. The Freds’ lawyers had hoped a court victory would require civil forfeiture proceedings law to be changed and for the process to be included in the original criminal sentencing. The forfeiture process has garnered pushback across the political spectrum, including from criminal justice reform organizations and libertarian groups that view it as an infringement on due process. But the Legislature has resisted reforms to the process. A bill last year that would have required a criminal conviction before a forfeiture proceeding could start, unless the forfeiture was part of a plea agreement, failed to get a final vote in either chamber. Another bill from the 2021 session that would have placed limits on the practice for low-level drug crimes also failed to pass. In 2015, legislators required that local law enforcement agencies report their forfeiture and seizure activity annually, and this year, the Legislature passed a bill expanding what should be included in those annual reports. From July 2021 to July 2022, law enforcement agencies in Nevada seized more than $5.5 million worth of property, with nearly $3 million ultimately being forfeited to the agencies, according to a report from the attorney general’s office. Sylvia said the family anticipated that it would win the Supreme Court case, but that her priority was her family and the legal process had already taken years. Elvin will be eligible for parole next March. Sylvia said she hopes that he will have a greater chance of success because the home will be livable again. “He does have a home to go to,” Sylvia said.
Remember the child tax credit? If you’re a working parent with a household income of less than $150,000, surely you do. For six months in 2021, the government sent a monthly check of $250 to $300 per child to more than 330,000 Nevada families. The policy, created via the 2021 American Rescue Plan, expanded the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 annually for children between the ages of 6 and 17, and from $2,000 to $3,600 for children younger than 6. Critically, the Department of the Treasury sent out these checks on a monthly basis, rather than allowing families to claim the funds once per year when filing their taxes. The credit was fully refundable — allowing the lowest-income filers to claim the credit for the first time even if the credit was bigger than their tax bill. Single filers earning less than $75,000, heads of household earning less than $112,500 and joint filers under $150,000 in annual income were eligible.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis scuttled his presidential bid just six days after losing the Iowa caucus — a contest in which he outspent former President Donald Trump nearly two-to-one — by nearly 30 points. His exit — 18 days from the Nevada Republican caucus — now leaves just two names on that caucus ballot: Trump and long-shot Texas pastor Ryan Binkley. In what has long been viewed as a contest winnable only by Trump, the caucus is now little more than a delegate rubber stamp.
Although it has great potential, the Battle Mountain Duck Pond is only accessible to some and has an ecosystem that is out of balance. As it sits, domesticated ducks and geese have been abandoned at the pond and invasive Russian Olive trees grow unkempt around the rough perimeter. Andrew Warwood, a local and husband to Battle Mountain High School (BMHS) Vice Principal Cori Warwood, discovered a grant that could help with the restoration and proposed that BMHS apply for it, according to Mrs. Warwood.
A workforce housing unit for Lithium America’s planned Thacker Pass mine in Northern Nevada is set to open in Winnemucca this year. Lithium Americas is constructing housing for the roughly 2,000 workers it expects to employ during peak construction of the mine’s first phase. Housing units began arriving in October and the final structures are set to arrive by February.
The road to Martin Creek runs right through a 28-acre parcel of land that has been in the trust of the Humboldt County Treasurer’s Office since 1967 for nonpayment of taxes. At the regular meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 16, the Board approved a request for the County to take possession of the parcel and maintain it with all members of the Board present.