NEVADA SAGEBRUSH SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO SINCE 1893
THE
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017
FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES $1.00 EACH
NEWS in REVIEW By Karolina Rivas
INTERNATIONAL THOUSANDS MARCH FOR UNITY IN BARCELONA On Sunday, around 350,000 people marched for unity in Catalonia’s capital Barcelona. The march was held to showcase opposition of Catalonia’s vote to declare independence from Spain. As marchers waved Spanish and Catalan flags, protesters also held signs with “Proud to be Catalan and Spanish” and “Long live the unity of Spain” painted across. This march comes after Catalonia’s most recent attempt to separate from Spain. Catalonia is home to about 7.5 million people and lives by its own culture and language. Of 5.3 eligible million voters, 2.3 million people voted. According to Catalan officials, approximately 90 percent of voters voted for secession. During the voting process, about 900 residents were injured after officers fired rubber bullets and charged crowds to prevent them from voting. A day before the march in Barcelona, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that he would not rule out removing Catalonia’s government and calling another local election if it claimed independence. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is expected to address the regional parliament on Tuesday where he is able to unilaterally declare independence from Spain.
RSJ receives grant for immigration reporting By Karolina Rivas On October 5, the Reynolds School of Journalism received $35,000 in microgrants as a part of the Challenge Fund from the Online News Association. The fund will support an immigration-focused student newsroom lead by Professor Gi Woong Yun. According to the ONA website, the Chal-
lenge Fund is awarded to universities that partner with other news organizations to create new ways of providing information to their local communities. “We’re going to test a set of verification and translation tools, developed by Meedan, to strengthen local reporting on immigration issues and build trust among immigrant audiences,” Yun said. “Working in northern Nevada, a linguistically diverse
LAS VEGAS FIRM BUYS RENO DAYS INN On October 2, a subsidiary of the Siegel Group Nevada purchased the Reno Days Inn for approximately $5.14 million. In an interview with the Reno-Gazette Journal, president of The Siegel Group, Stephen Siegel explained the reasoning for purchasing the property. “We like the proximity to downtown, the proximity to the university and the proximity to the freeway,” Siegel said. “We like to purchase properties where people can see them and this building has great visibility and access.” The Siegel Group says that it will bring affordable housing to the downtown area and make improvements to the property. Features such as high-speed Wi-Fi and new furniture will be added to bring traction to the property. Karolina Rivas can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @karolinarrivas.
trust and engagement between local media and immigrant residents.” The RSJ previously received the reward in 2015 for Noticiero Movil, a multimedia news publication based in Northern Nevada to provide content in Spanish and English.
See ONA page A2
How the tragedy in Las Vegas might (or might not) change the way Nevada thinks about guns IN NEVADA
By Jacob Solis It was the last day of the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas last Sunday when a lone gunman, now identified as Stephen Paddock, opened fire from
CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY RAVAGED BY FLAMES
LOCAL
community, we plan to build a pipeline for newsgathering, translation, and verification that augments our existing efforts to engage the community on the ground and on media such as KUNR. Short term, this will help surface underreported stories about the impact of national and local policies on immigrant communities. Long term, this will generate a database of vetted, translated reports and foster greater
THE POLITICS OF GUN CONTROL
NATIONAL On Monday, about 20,000 people were evacuated from northern California counties after a series of fires broke out Sunday night across California’s wine country. It is unknown how the fires started. Governor Jerry Brown has issued a state of emergency in Napa, Sonoma, and Yuba counties as firefighters continue to battle the flames. As of Monday afternoon, 1,500 structures have been destroyed and at least 10 people have died. “These fires have destroyed structures and continue to threaten thousands of homes, necessitating the evacuation of thousands of residents,” Brown’s declaration said. In an interview with the LA Times, California Fire director Ken Pimlott described how high winds have contributed to the rapid spread of flames. “Late last night starting around 10 o’clock you had 50-60 mph winds that surfaced—really across the whole northern half of the state,” Pimlott said. “Every spark is going to ignite.” According to the California fire department’s website, it is estimated that tens of thousands of acres have been destroyed in at least 14 fires.,The most destructive set of fires in California history.
VOLUME 124, ISSUE 7
the 32nd f l o o r of the Mandalay Bay hotel. What followed was the deadliest mass shooting in modern memory, and a tragedy that continues to reverberate across the state and across the country Now though, as things return to normal, the questions are starting. How could this have been prevented? So far, what information police have discovered about the shooter has yet to prove a motive. Even so, as is the case after every mass shooting, the push for reform has already begun. But what does reform look like?
carried out his crime and the fact that Nevada’s gun culture is deeply rooted in both rural and urban state politics. However, there is also the question of background checks, and thus the question of enforcement on Question 1 — a ballot measure from last year that would have required federal background checks on private gun sales. While voters approved the measure by the slimmest of margins (just 50.45 percent voted “yes”) in 2016, it’s been left in legal limbo since the start of this year when the FBI refused to conduct any extra background checks. In stating their decision, the FBI said a state could not tell them how to spend federal dollars and suggested using a state-run background check system, the Criminal History Repository, instead. But Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt countered that such a move would violate the language of the ballot measure, which called explicitly for the use of the FBI’s background checks (mainly in an effort to avoid draining any money from state coffers for a measure sure to be controver-
The way Nevada handles guns and gun rights might seem fairly lax, especially compared to states like neighboring California. However, barring the Golden State and places like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., very few parts of the U.S. have particularly strict laws for guns. Open carry is generally legal throughout the state for both long guns and handguns, though there are some rules that govern loaded guns in vehicles. In most circumstances, it’s legal to have your gun visible on your person. Just don’t go waving it around, because brandishing that gun is still very illegal. Concealed carry is also legal in Nevada, which is a “shall issue” state. As long as someone meets the necessary criteria for a concealed weapons permit, the state will issue that person a permit (which is different from a “may issue” state, which still has some discretion to deny a permit even if someone checks all the right boxes). Neither of these laws are likely to change anytime soon, especially considering that neither had much to do with how Paddock
sial without the need to spend extra money). The measure was deemed “unenforceable” and has been mothballed ever since. And while there may be a lawsuit soon by Question 1 proponents
See VEGAS page A2
Design by Nicole Skarlatos/Nevada Sagebrush
University mourns Las Alan Alda advocates science Vegas with candelit vigil reporting at journalism school By Joey Lovato
Jacob Solis/Nevada Sagebrush
Students and members of the Reno community wait in line to sign a banner and receive candles at a vigil for Las Vegas on Tuesday, Oct. 3. Around 4,000 UNR students are from Las Vegas.
By Madeline Purdue Hundreds of students and community members gathered outside the Joe Crowley Student Union on Tuesday, Oct. 3, for a candlelight vigil held to honor those affected by the mass shooting in
THEATRE GOES TO THE MOVIES
A4
Las Vegas the previous Sunday. The vigil started with a moment of silence, followed by speakers from the local community offering words of
See VIGIL page A2
On Tuesday, Oct. 3, writer, director, actor and science Journalism advocate Alan Alda visited the Reynolds School of journalism to talk about the importance of communicating science accurately and effectively. During his 40 minute talk, he fielded questions from both professors and students from the journalism and science programs to help them better understand the importance of communicating their work effectively as well as how to communicate that work accurately in a way that engages the audience. Alda is best known for his role as Capt. Benjamin Franklin ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce in the hit ’70s show “M*A*S*H*,” where he appeared in over 251 episodes over the course of 11 seasons. The series finale in 1983 still holds the record for the mostwatched television series event ever aired at 105.9 million viewers. Alda went on to host a show on PBS called “Scientific American Frontiers” from 1993 to 2005 where he inter-
TECH IMPROVES FOOD SERVICE
A6
viewed over 600 scientists about their various fields of work, from climate change to astronomy. The show aired as a companion to the “Scientific American” magazine. “I was always interested in science from the time I was a boy, but I never studied it formally,” Alda said in his speech, “I really have always loved science… I wanted to interview them [scientists] because I wanted to learn about their work from them in their own voice.” In 2009, Alda founded the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, at Stony Brook University in New York. “Effective science communication happens when we listen and connect,” Alda writes on the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science website. “It happens when we use empathy. Communication is headed for success when we pay more attention to what the other person is understanding rather than focusing solely on what we want to say.”
See ALDA page A2
FOOTBALL WINS FIRST GAME
A9