May 2024

EDITOR'S NOTE

An intriguing solution to journalism’s existential crisis

The Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, often brings in national news-industry leaders to discuss their work with students and faculty. In recent months, the department has also invited local journalists outside of the campus community to hear from these speakers.

In April, the guest was Steven Waldman, a longtime New York political journalist and the founder/president of a group called Rebuild Local News, which is working to advance public policies that might help re-stabilize the industry.

“Government is not the only solution to the crisis in local news—but smart public policy is essential,” reads RLN’s website.

We’re talking about government intervention, but not in the form of grants or other direct handouts. While those are also being discussed in the greater news community, they tend to make journalists cringe. It’s hard to imagine state money with no strings attached, and it’s easy to imagine strings-attached money leading to state-controlled media. (See this month’s cover story for why that is a terrible idea.)

Rebuild Local News is instead pushing for various tax credits. The idea that most intrigues me is a tax credit for small businesses that advertise with local news outlets. The federal government would reimburse these businesses for a significant percentage of their ad costs. News organizations would see more advertising revenue; business owners would get a boost; and those business owners, not the government, would make the decisions about where the money goes.

The proposed legislation has been drafted. It’s called the Community News and Small Business Support Act. It’s been endorsed by the National Restaurant Association, many journalism associations and other news industry groups. In Nevada, it’s upon the journalism community to band together to advocate for measures like these—and it’s up to you, dear readers, to encourage our elected officials to support these measures as well. Learn more at www. rebuildlocalnews.org.

—KRIS VAGNER krisv@renonr.com

LETTERS

Our mail will go missing!

Trump appointee Louis DeJoy’s sole mission is to take down the U.S. Postal Service. This relocation of the processing center (proposed, from Reno to Sacramento) fits perfectly into the “mail in” voting issue. Oops! The ballots have been misplaced somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains in a snowstorm!

Michael Mentaberry Reno

Reject Brekhus and Church

This is an appeal to Washoe County voters to reject Jenny Brekhus and Jeff Church. Neither has sufficient community spirit nor the decency to do the jobs for which they were elected.

Jenny Brekhus was last elected to the Reno City Council (Ward 1) in 2020; her term ends in 2024. Her selfishness has cost the city tens of thousands of dollars. Her past contention that she was focused on “supporting city management to strategically position the organization for success and accomplishment in all areas” is a blatant lie. The residents of Ward 1 should file a lawsuit against her to recover the money that the city has had to put forth to

defend itself.

Jeff Church was elected to the Washoe County School Board (District A) in 2020. His term ends in 2024, and he is running for re-election. He is not a team player and is therefore an ineffective co-worker. He has filed two lawsuits against the school district; by suing, he is stealing from our public schools and stealing from school children. Monies to fight these lawsuits come from the school district’s general fund, which is used to fund student programs, schools, salaries and benefits. A petition has been started on change.org to demand his resignation. The residents of his district should file a lawsuit against him to recover the money that WCSD has had to put forth to defend itself.

Earlene Gorzell Reno

The pandemic made us all myopic

Upon reading Jimmy Boegle’s piece about things not all being better, four years after COVID-19 (RN&R, April 2024), I had a question: Before COVID-19, what did the immunocompromised do in their daily lives to protect themselves? Before masking became a symbol of those who deemed themselves the arbiters

of compassion, I don’t remember society as a whole being asked to change innate behavior for the chronically ill.

Your publisher fails to mention all the damage done by a myriad of decisions, in the name of compassion, that destroyed lives. Where were the compassionate adults while children suffered prolonged damage from learning loss and a lack of developing milestones as faces were covered for two years in public? Where was the empathy for those with diseases that could only be managed in the company of others (alcoholics, mentally ill, etc.)?

What Jimmy Boegle and others who only see one side of hardship have taught me, as a life-long progressive who saw the pandemic with a unique set of glasses, is this: The lesson for all of us, left- or right-leaning, is to have the humility to be cogent that not just one side of a political spectrum gets the exclusive humanity to deem “who/what/where and why” is essential.

So, I agree with Boegle—not everything post-pandemic is better. However, I think it’s prudent to look in the mirror, all of us, and come to terms with who/what/where, and why we forgot certain people while championing others in the name of “compassion.”

Wendy Hermes Reno

Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263, Cathedral City, CA 92234 • 775-324-4440 • RenoNR.com

Publisher/Executive Editor

Jimmy Boegle

Managing Editor

Kris Vagner

Editor at Large

Frank X. Mullen

Photo Editor

David Robert

Cover and Feature Design

Dennis Wodzisz

Distribution Lead

Rick Beckwith

Contributors

Alicia Barber, Matt Bieker, Maude Ballinger, Lucy Birmingham, Owen Bryant, Brad Bynum, Alan De Queiroz, Zoe Dixon, Loryn Elizares, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Helena Guglielmino, Matt Jones, Matt King, Michael Moberly, Steve Noel, Dan Perkins, Carol Purroy, David Rodriguez, Jessica Santina, Jason Sarna, Brianna Soloski, Delaney Uronen, Robert Victor, Matt Westfield, Leah Wigren, Susan Winters

The Reno News & Review print edition is published monthly. All content is ©2024 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The RN&R is available free of charge throughout Northern Nevada, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 by calling 775-324-4440. The RN&R may be distributed only authorized distributors. The RN&R is a proud member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the Nevada Press Association, and the Local Independent Online News Publishers. Coachella Valley Independent, LLC, is a certified LGBT Business Enterprise® (LGBTBE) through the NGLCC Supplier Diversity Initiative.

BY CRISTINA JOHNSON

Asbestos exposure may be harming Nevada veterans

The U.S. military abundantly used asbestos-containing products due to their accessibility and low price. As a result, many service members were exposed to this toxic material while protecting our country. The increasing number of toxic exposure cases among our veterans today underscores the health risks they took, in addition to the challenges of service. These courageous men and women now could develop serious asbestos diseases deriving from their military years.

Asbestos in military bases

Not too long ago, the hazardous mineral was praised for its insulating and fire-resistant properties—and nobody thought about asbestos being a threat when its microscopic fibers were released into the air and inhaled. It’s why developing asbestos diseases is a concern for all veterans who might have the toxic fibers in their lungs, including those in the city of Reno and throughout Nevada. Although the armed forces used asbestos mainly for insulation in aircraft, vehicles, barracks, ships and shipyards, the Navy exploited it the most. Consequently, veterans serving onboard naval vessels during the last century were at an exceptionally high risk of asbestos exposure. But this fact doesn’t lessen the asbestos exposure risks of personnel serving in military camps throughout the U.S. Nevada is home to the Naval Air Station Fallon, as well as Nellis Air Force Base and Creech Air Force Base. The state also includes the Hawthorne Army Depot, established in 1930 and still essential to storing, repairing and issuing weapons, equipment and ammunition for all branches of the military. During World War II, the Las Vegas Army Airfield and Tonopah Army Airfield were created from existing Nevada airports. In 1942, the military built four additional installations, including the Reno Army Airbase in the North Valleys area.

deal with the consequences of having served in a contaminated environment upon diagnosis of asbestosis, mesothelioma or lung cancer.

Veterans’ continuous struggle after asbestos exposure

Although many years have passed since the military used asbestos, many veterans must deal with the harsh reality that service to their country held an enormous personal sacrifice. Besides affecting them physically and psychologically, asbestos diseases shorten their lives and steal precious time from their families.

With Nevada ranking 14th among all states regarding the rate of new lung cancer cases and 34th in the country for deaths related to asbestosis, a signature condition of asbestos exposure, veterans should immediately engage in taking care of their health through:

• Periodic checkups: Inhaled asbestos fibers damage the lungs first, so former military personnel should take chest X-rays or CT scans and pulmonary function tests (also known as the breathing test) periodically. These imagistic tests help discover any damage caused by the asbestos fibers and are a diagnostic tool for benign and malignant asbestos-related diseases.

• Legal rights: Veterans who are sure they’ve worked with or around asbestos during their service, or suspect they’ve been exposed, must know their rights and options. Legal avenues and compensation programs are available to assist veterans injured by asbestos exposure. You can apply for compensation from asbestos trust funds and Veterans Affairs. Asbestos trust funds are a significant source of income for people harmed by occupational exposure, including former military personnel. These funds were set up by liable companies that entered bankruptcy protection and have approximately $37 billion currently available for future claimants.

Asbestos exposure is a significant factor in veterans’ health

While in the military, veterans worked and lived near asbestos products, unaware of the danger they represented. Airborne asbestos fibers form dust that may float in the air for hours due to the structure and size of the material’s particles. These microscopic threads are easy to inhale or ingest, and once inside the body, they permanently damage the tissue of major organs.

Asbestos illnesses are difficult to diagnose due to their decades-long latency period between exposure and the first symptoms. Even if veterans haven’t experienced health problems during their service, they’ll have to

STREETALK

What is the most useless app on your phone? The most useful?

Asked at Coffeebar, 9620 S. McCarran Blvd., Reno

• Raise awareness: Veterans can educate others about the risks of asbestos exposure by sharing their knowledge with their communities, especially fellow servicemen and women. By doing so, they can ensure that others who fought for our country are informed.

By promoting awareness of asbestos exposure, we can protect our veterans’ well-being and ensure that those who defended our country receive the care and support they rightly deserve.

Cristina Johnson is a Navy veteran advocate for Asbestos Ships, a nonprofit that aims to raise awareness and educate veterans about the dangers of asbestos exposure on Navy ships and assist them in navigating the VA claims process. Learn more at www.asbestos-ships.com.

BY DAVID ROBERT

Adriana Rios Student

The Juice Box Yoga app. I was going to try out yoga. I took one class and got overheated, so no more yoga. My most useful app is Spotify. I need to listen to my music. It keeps me sane; I can’t go a day or even an hour without my music.

Ruby Batz Assistant professor

Honoré Arias Lawyer

The Enterprise car rental app. I don’t rent cars anymore. I forgot to delete it. Now that I’m prompted, I will delete my other useless apps. Thank you! WhatsApp is a very useful app for me, and it’s free. It’s secure, encrypted and can be used anywhere in the world. I have group chats with my friends and family all over the world—Guatemala, Sweden, the United Kingdom, etc. It’s very close to my heart. Libby. It’s an app that lets you rent books from a public library. Mine is for the Vancouver library, and I don’t live there anymore. I want to go on record that I support public libraries and access to their resources. Duolingo is my most useful app. It helps me keep up with my second language. The more that you engage and learn with the app, the more points you get, and the more gemstones you receive. It can be very competitive.

Meta Zagar Graphic designer

Veo. It’s an app for scooters—but it’s in Florida. I can’t use it here in Reno. I don’t want to delete it. I left $20 on it, and I’ll use it when I eventually go back to Florida. Duolingo is the most useful app I have. I’m learning Italian and want to live in Italy someday. I’ve been there many times and love the relaxing pace of life there.

Will Fleming Psychology instructor

Jimmy John’s. I got the app for the rewards, but I never use the app. My partner also likes Jimmy John’s, but we just never use the app. We do walk-ins for our food. Chess.com is my most useful app. With the app, I always have something to do. It helps to practice thinking of situations in the future—visualizing things after one or two moves, like in real life.

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

| BY JIMMY BOEGLE

It takes a lot of time, effort and money to produce good journalism

In the late 1990s and ’00s, the corporations running America’s mainstream newspapers did a very dumb thing: They trained Americans to think that news stories should always be free.

Before the mid-1990s, if you wanted to read a news story, you had to subscribe to a newspaper, or go to a newsstand, vending box or store to buy one. (If you couldn’t afford any of that, you could go to the library.) Even newspapers that didn’t charge a fee, like the RN&R and its alternative-newsweekly brethren, put the news in between ads and personals and other things that subsidized that news.

Then came the World Wide Web. All the big newspaper companies created websites— and, bafflingly, they started making all of their news available for free, often with little to no advertising around those stories. Then along came social media, where people could easily share newspaper articles with their friends, family members and the world— again, for no charge.

Eventually, newspaper companies started wising up. They put up paywalls and placed more ads around their news stories, but by then, it was too late. People who were used

to going to any newspaper website and reading whatever they wanted got annoyed by things like pop-up ads—and downright incensed when they were forced to pay to get the news they desired.

Add in the fact that it’s now relatively cheap and easy to build a website and post “content,” and the result is that we live in a world where many people don’t think about the fact that real news stories— well-reported, investigated, crafted and edited stories— take a lot of time, effort and money to produce and distribute. I believe this is one reason why, as Kris Vagner reports in this month’s fantastic cover story, University of Nevada, Reno, students recently rejected a proposal to pay a modest fee every semester—$1.29 per credit—to support The Nevada Sagebrush student newspaper and other UNR student media.

questions that came up during the reporting process. At least portions of those interviews needed to be transcribed. She had to do research to get all of the facts, figures and dates right. She had to process the photos she took. And then she had to put it all together and write what became a 2,300-word-plus piece. She estimates that process took her about 30 hours.

Next came my edit of the piece. Kris’ copy was pretty clean—it always is—but it still took me a couple of hours to edit, fact-check and format the piece. Finally, the story was handed off to Dennis Wodzisz, our talented graphic designer, who took everything (including a picture taken by photo editor David Robert) and created this issue’s cover and the 2 1/2-page story layout.

were produced by our printer in Las Vegas (there aren’t any local web presses anymore), put on a truck and shipped 450 miles to Sparks. Then our delivery drivers personally dropped off those copies at 700 locations across Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Minden, Gardnerville, Truckee, Incline Village and South Lake Tahoe.

Of course, the RN&R made this story free to you, our readers, both online and in print. We’ve always done that, and as long as I have any say in the matter, we always will. Since the start, our business model has depended on advertisers seeing the value in having their messages placed between our news stories—and because the number of these advertisers is down since the arrival of COVID-19, we’re hurting a bit.

As for newspapers that charge for news: I dislike paywalls and subscription demands, too—but I understand them. Real journalism is expensive to do.

Let’s take Kris’ cover story as an example of what it takes to produce a quality news piece. She interviewed five different people, and then did follow-ups with some of them to answer

In total, this one story took around 40 work hours, and the talents of four seasoned, paid professionals, to report, investigate, write, edit and design.

The time, effort and expense doesn’t stop there. Next, 25,000 copies of this print edition

If you’re someone who gets angry when you come across a paywall, stop it. And if you value news, and you can afford to pay for or contribute to those news sources you value, but you’re not doing so … that needs to change. What the RN&R and other legitimate news sources do is expensive—and without your support, we will die.

LEARN TO POLE DANCE!

ON NEVADA BUSINESS

Cross-cultural connections

An inside look at how the local business community plays a role in stimulating international trade

Northern Nevada’s community of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) continues to expand and grow in ways unimaginable here just 15 years ago. We’re leading the country in economic development in many ways. This will be especially true as the economy gets more squirrelly with big layoffs and the issues in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Speaking of Europe, I’m back from another two-week trip to Poland. I’ve been going there for seven years now, to help companies that want to do business in the United States. More on that in a bit.

We traveled down to the Ukraine border to visit local government officials, as we did last year. There was a distinctly different tone in the voices of the locals as they discussed how they perceive the third year of the war. It’s much more complicated now— if that’s possible.

While in Lublin to meet the marshal (governor)—who, last year, gave us pins marking solidarity between Poland and Ukraine— hundreds of Polish farmers were dumping Ukrainian grain there as it came across the border. This happened on the same train tracks that brought refugees across the border into the Lubelskie region of Poland after the initial invasion. The marshal was more dour when we met, stating that the grain was challenging the Polish farmers’ ability to compete on a level basis. They must deal with European Union regulations much like the United States’ pest, pesticide and herbicide testing, point-of-origin docs, etc. This all costs lots of zlotys (Polish currency). Yet Ukrainian grain has no such regulatory costs or inspections associated with it, and Ukrainian farmers are doing anything they can to harvest and sell their grain in between bombs and drones over their heads. Again, its complicated. So this was a much shorter meeting than last year, with no pomp and circumstance, as the marshal needed to quell the protests.

The week before, we had workshopped the top 20 Polish founders who were competing for 10 slots to come to Nevada in May. This is the third year for the Poland NCBR-NAP. That string of initials stands for Narodowe Centrum Badan i Rozwoju (in English, the National Centre for Research and Development)-Nevada Accelerator Program. The program was founded by Gov. Sandoval in 2017 to stimulate international trade and business. I’ve had the honor of being part of the program from the beginning, and I took the lead of the program with my

partners back in late 2021. The 10 companies are traveling to Las Vegas, then Reno and the Bay Area for a “roadshow” May 7-15.

The qualified companies represent a wide swath of technologies and services, ranging from a company that produces algae for air-cleansing and currently has samples growing and propagating on the International Space Station (no kidding!), to a company that produces and sells sustainable caviar which doesn’t kill the fish during egg extraction. There’s an online event management app, a company that secures business networks from deep hacks, and an AI technology that maximizes space utilization in large areas such as building layout and parking lots. These companies are coming here to evaluate their ability to do business in the U.S., create partnerships and prosper. While there are some who would dispute the benefits of bringing these companies to Nevada or to the U.S. at all, the benefits are many—as these companies are investing here, and investing in our reputation as a pro-business climate.

Let’s digress for a minute to get a 50,000foot view. People who’ve grown a business and successfully expanded that business into new markets understand a few fundamental things: Regardless of any current success, expanding into a new market is a risky venture. Past success is not a guarantee of future success. Though successful in our current market, we are a startup in any new market. To expand

internationally, the equation becomes much more complex.

My consulting company has successfully landed in Eastern Europe the last couple of years; it’s been the culmination of doing peripheral business there for many years prior. In order to get contracts and serious money across the pond (over $10,000), we needed background checks, EU certification, an office and an attorney. Prior to that, we needed trustworthy contacts and relationships in the market to know where to steer us and introduce us to their network with honor and respect. We were lucky that almost everyone speaks English in the EU.

Now let’s get back to our delegation of 10 companies coming to the U.S. in May. We prepped them for two months on how to assimilate into the U.S. market. We had them do market analysis, competitive analysis, pricing analysis, funding comparisons, etc. Any and all of these things may be different in the new market, especially in the U.S., where the biggest market can crush you if not prepared.

How do these founders expand to the U.S. economically when they still have their companies in Europe? They need “boots on the ground” that speak easily to U.S. customers. To fill this gap, we’ve built a program at the University of Nevada, Reno, dubbed the START program. It takes the best students and former students from the College of Business and MBA programs, respectively. We match

them to the foreign companies based upon background, interests, focus and needs. The young men and women then start a part-time gig as the U.S. representative for the company. (By the way, each company must first be registered as a Nevada corporation.)

Each student is then placed in the company for 90 days, running the U.S. ops, trade shows, business development, customer service and sales, as needed. After the three months, if they are successful, the company hires them with a permanent management position. This program helps keep the smart kids in Nevada, while bringing them high-growth, high-paying jobs, with the potential to become shareholders and executives in the U.S. company.

This is all happening while big consulting firms are laying off their partners and juniors. We have students who need opportunities, and we have companies that need trustworthy partners on the ground in the U.S. This strategy allows us to fill many needs and keep the Reno market hot, while other cities and states are feeling the big layoffs. In the most prominent recent example, Tesla in mid-April began to lay off 10 percent of its global workforce.

That is why small businesses and startups still account for 70 percent of the net job gains in America. I look forward to helping these great companies bring great tech, great founders and great careers to Nevadans. It’s a win-win for all—and we can’t ask for more than that.

Agnieszka Ratajczak, from Poland, is the executive director of the National Centre for Research and Development-Nevada Accelerator Program, a partnership that promotes Eastern European businesses’ expansions into Nevada. Here, she’s opening the group’s 2023 accelerator program. The event is scheduled to take place again in May. Photo courtesy of Granite Landings

UPFRONT

Arts conference aims to create connections

The Nevada Arts Council is hosting a new statewide arts conference, “Intersections: The Nevada Creative Conference,” from Thursday, May 30, through Saturday, June 1, at the Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel and Spa.

In addition to typical conference fare—for art professionals, that means sessions regarding topics like grant writing, advocacy and marketing—the event is also geared toward arts administrators, arts educators, arts advocates and fans.

Organizer Erica Hill, the NAC’s community arts development specialist, said that business owners are encouraged to attend, as the organization is looking for creative ways to connect them with Nevada’s artists and groups.

“It’s getting more and more common that you see businesses wanting to do murals or wanting a local graphic artist, wanting a local photographer,” Hill said.

Some sessions will teach artists how to enter such arrangements, including how to “speak the language of doing business pitches.” Presenters will include business leaders who have experimented with various arts/business hybrids and collaborations. Among them is Nettie Oliverio, a longtime Reno arts advocate and the arts and culture director at Foothill Partners, the development company that filled the Reno Public Market with food vendors, a performance stage, galleries, a makerspace and other arts-based businesses.

Other presenters will include Torrey Russell, CEO of Broadway in the Hood, a group based in Las Vegas that works nationally to bring performing arts to kids in all socio-economic backgrounds; Beth Macmillan, executive director of Reno’s Artown, who will discuss effective post-COVID strategies for a performing arts industry that still feels the residual effects of pandemic shutdowns; and Frederick Hubbs, director of development at the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

Hill said that the Nevada Arts Council plans to host the “Intersections” conference every two years, alternating between Las Vegas and Reno. Registration is $75. To learn more about “Intersections: The Nevada Creative Conference,” visit www. nvartscouncil.org/intersections. —Kris Vagner

NEWS

What happens in Oregon …

Locals react to the U.S. Supreme Court case expected to have sweeping implications for how governments address homelessness

On April 22, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in The City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the case that will determine whether it is constitutional for local governments to criminalize sleeping outside.

The Nevada Housing Justice Alliance spoke out regarding the case, as well as two recent local camping-ban ordinances—one passed by the city of Sparks, and the other by Washoe County.

The group’s press release reads: “The Nevada Housing Justice Alliance opposes policies that turn low-income, houseless Nevadans into criminals. The NHJA condemns leaders at all levels of government who would attempt to arrest their way out of the housing crisis as opposed to supporting its citizens with meaningful housing policies that work.”

The question central to Grants Pass v Johnson is whether an anti-camping law in Grants Pass—an Oregon city of about 40,000—goes so far in punishing people for being unhoused that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Ben Iness is the NHJA’s coalition coordinator. He grew up in Las Vegas, where, he said, his childhood was defined by instability, including multiple evictions. Today, he holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Iness said in an April 22 interview with

the RN&R that if the Supreme Court sides with Grants Pass, “they would say that it is constitutional to criminalize—through fines, fees and jail time—those who are poor, those who are down and out, and those who are living on the streets and engaging in life-sustaining activities.”

According to the Point in Time Count, which takes place annually in cities nationwide, 1,690 people in Washoe County were in shelters, in transitional housing or unhoused in 2023. (Figures for 2024 have not yet been released.) This is the figure used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other authorities, although activists and others have questioned its accuracy for years.

Iness is concerned that elected leaders across the board are operating under the theory that “we can just build our way out of this.” His group is in favor of long-term solutions to homelessness, including assistance to help tenants deal with rising rents and making adjustments to the eviction process. In the short term, he’s concerned about seeing people “quickly and violently displaced.”

“I believe (Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis) Hill made a comment about, you know, it’s just about compromise, and sometimes you have to push things or pass things or work with folks and meet in the middle. But I don’t know why it feels like our community and those who are most struggling have to compromise.”

| BY KRIS VAGNER

Camps such as this one on West Fourth Street in Reno are prevalent in Reno, Sparks and Verdi, and along the Truckee River outside of town. Photo/ David Robert

Hill also spoke with the RN&R on April 22. “Washoe County is in charge of supporting … our most vulnerable community members,” she said. “We have worked together with the region, and we have put over $100 million dollars into the CARES campus and the Our Place campus”— shelters in Reno and Sparks, respectively.

“Regardless of how the court ruling goes, we are fully committed to getting people emergency shelter, and then getting people housed,” Hill said. “We have adopted a housing-first model, and we are actually very successful in getting people in permanent housing in our community—but finding people appropriate housing is a difficult thing.”

Since Washoe County’s anti-camping ordinance passed, deputies now have what officials call a “tool” to motivate people who are unhoused to seek services. Encampments that fall within the county’s jurisdiction include some that are along the Truckee River in Verdi and between Sparks and Storey County, and some that are near residential areas in Sun Valley. In addition to county land, the county can enforce the ordinance on state land within 300 feet of the river.

So far, said Hill, “We have not arrested anyone using this ordinance.” It was passed on March 26.

The ordinance contains a four-strikes policy, Hill explained. “That was (the Sheriff’s Office’s) commitment to show the County Commission how seriously they take getting people help first. … We’ll be reviewing the outcomes of the ordinance at our quarterly jail report by the Sheriff’s Office … to see if it’s the tool that staff is claiming that they needed.”

Added Hill: “There are no perfect answers.” Iness sees it this way: “What this bill does is kind of terrorize a community that is already struggling the most. … If the court rules in favor of Johnson (meaning local governments can’t ban camping), we establish as a baseline, as a country, that we do not punish those most in need.”

After the Supreme Court heard the arguments on April 22, national media outlets reported that the justices appeared split along ideological lines. According to The New York Times, “The conservative majority appeared sympathetic to arguments by the city of Grants Pass, Ore., that homelessness is a complicated issue that is best handled by local lawmakers and communities, not judges.”

The Supreme Court decision on Grants Pass v. Johnson is expected to be issued in June.

Good boys and girls

Chris Bergman, a former cannabis-industry employee, recently opened a mobile-dog training service, Dog Training Elite. He offers routine obedience training, as well as specialized training for therapy dogs and service dogs for people with PTSD, psychiatric or mobility issues, autism, diabetes and other conditions.

“You have to match the right dog to the right person, and the right dog to the right job,” Bergman said. “Also, you have to show the dog who’s the boss. The dog needs to be shown that the world is an exciting place, but there are rules that go along with it.”

Bergman hopes to open a brick-and-mortar business for Dog Training Elite, which is a franchise, in the future. Meanwhile, he will have his official grand-opening celebration at the Reno River Festival June 7-9, in tandem with the Malinois Foundation, a national group that helps place service dogs with veterans, first responders, women who’ve endured trauma, and children with special needs.

Learn more about Bergman’s services at dogtrainingelite. com/reno.

—David Robert

Chris Bergman plays with his 3-year-old pit mix, Leroy. “He came to us very reactive and scared of everything,” Bergman said. “Now he enjoys all types of new adventures and is a topnotch paddleboard passenger.” Photo/David Robert

Wanna be newsy?

The RN&R is looking for new freelance writers—especially talented writers/reporters who have a nose for news.

Interested in making a difference in the community—and getting paid to do so? Email a resume and clips/writing samples to krisv@renonr.com!

NEWS

A posthumous accolade

Longtime ‘RN&R’ news editor Dennis Myers is inducted into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame

On April 5, former Reno News & Review news editor Dennis Myers became the first journalist ever inducted into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame. Myers, who died of a stroke in 2019, is widely regarded as one of Nevada’s greatest journalists. His death was a news event of its own, meriting comments and obituaries from many of the state’s news institutions and public figures. Myers’ award was accepted by former Reno City Attorney and

Reno Justice Court judge Patricia Lynch.

“I often ended up on the other side of the interview with Dennis Myers, and even though he was a friend, he still was very tenacious and really good, but he was always fair,” Lynch said in her acceptance speech. “I never feared meeting with him, that my words would be twisted or anything like that, because he was a fair journalist. He was after the truth, and that’s what we need.”

The César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of

| BY MATT BIEKER

“He was an honest and fair and accurate reporter, combined with a rare love for Nevada history,” said Andrew Barbano about longtime RN&R news editor Dennis Myers, who died in 2019. In this 2017 file photo, Myers is posing with a painting of a bridge in a Yugoslavian village that fascinated him for decades. Photo/Eric Marks

Fame Awards were hosted this year by the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council, a federation of workers’ unions chartered under the umbrella of the AFL-CIO in 1956.

“Awardees historically have always been organizers or labor leaders who were tremendously successful in one campaign or another,” said NNCLC representative Wendy Colborne. “And that’s why it’s particularly relevant that Dennis Myers was inducted as a journalist. Due to his work for the labor movement, we felt it was appropriate.”

In years past, the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame awards were produced by Andrew Barbano, a longtime activist and columnist for the Sparks Tribune; Barbano organized the Hall of Fame awards from 2013 to 2019. Throughout his tenure, the Laborers’ Union Local 169 was the main sponsor of the event. When Barbano chose to step down as organizer after the pandemic postponed the event in 2020, the NNCLC offered to take ownership of the awards this year, with Barbano’s blessing.

A longtime friend and correspondent of Myers, Barbano nominated Myers for his posthumous acceptance into the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame in 2019, and also presented Myers and the RN&R staff with the Inaugural Eddie Scott/Bertha Woodard Human Rights Advocacy Award on behalf of the NAACP in 2015.

Barbano was also inducted into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame this year—a surprise by the NNCLC for his work as a labor advocate—and accepted his award over Zoom. According to Barbano, he intended to induct Myers into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame in 2020, but was unable to because of the pandemic.

“Every time organized labor did something, and I would send out stories, there were many times Dennis was interested in covering the story or some perspective on it,” Barbano said. “He was an honest and fair and accurate reporter, combined with a rare love for Nevada history. That’s something we both shared.”

Barbano touted many of Myers’ missives on his own Nevada Press Association-recognized column “Barbwire,” and penned memorial announcements on both his site and others after Myers’ death. An announcement on the Barbwire site above news of Myers’ induction reads succinctly: “Adios to a giant who stood strong for all Nevada workers.”

Reno’s remarkable rise

Joyce Cox’s book documents how the Chamber of Commerce promoted a cow town into a national destination

Reno author Joyce Cox was a human version of Google decades before the internet existed.

While working as a research librarian in California in the 1990s, Cox fielded phone calls from people who couldn’t find answers to their questions at their local libraries. Some queries were easy to answer. Others, not so much.

“People would ask about a song that they liked from 1948, and maybe they could hum part of it,” Cox remembered. “Or they would have only the slightest information, like there was a book their mother read to them when they were 5 years old. ‘What was the book?’”

Neal Cobb and Joyce Cox at her book signing at the Nevada Historical Society in February. Photo/Alex Cobb

from a cow town into a national destination known around the world.

Reno historian Neal Cobb, who came up with the idea for the book, said Cox was the perfect person to take on what he said was a “humongous” task.

“Joyce is a tiny dynamo,” he said. “She dug into everything right to the bottom. Researching the Chamber was a massive undertaking; we knew it would be a monster.”

Cox’s book traces the evolution of the Reno Chamber, decade by decade, from a merchants’ group in the 1890s to the present. Cox combed through newspaper archives, state records and collections of chamber ads, brochures and railroad posters.

“She wound up with a three-foot stack of materials,” Cobb said.

Cox initially produced a much longer manuscript, now available at the Nevada Historical Society. She and her editor, Eric Moody, slimmed down the story into a 148-page volume, with plenty of historic photos and promotional images that “sold” the city to potential visitors and investors.

“It was fun,” Cox said. “The Chamber did a lot of ads and pamphlets and came up with a lot of slogans.”

She also searched eBay listings for anything associated with the Chamber and found more pamphlets, memorabilia and slogans, including Meet Me in Reno; Everybody’s Going to Reno; Reno: Land of Charm; and Reno: 300 Days of Sunshine.

“Then I would look through newspapers and other places to find out how long they used those (slogans),” Cox said. “… I also wanted to find out who they were targeting (with the ad campaigns). The ‘300 Days of Sunshine,’ for example, was aimed at people in western Oregon and the Pacific Coast.”

The Chamber accentuated the positive.

Cox would ask callers for details, then search indexes and library materials to find answers. She worked in libraries in California, Washington and Nevada, where she retired in 2009 as the head reference librarian at the Nevada State Library and Archives. Since then, Cox has continued to dig deep into the history of the Silver State by volunteering as a docent at the Nevada Historical Society, working with the Nevada Women’s History Project and writing books on the histories of Washoe County and Sparks. Her latest book, Behind the Arch: The Story of Reno, Nevada’s Unique Chamber of Commerce and the Making of the Biggest Little City in the World, is the result of five years of research. The volume details the rise of Reno

The first Reno Rodeo made headlines as the “Nevada Round-Up” in 1919. Reno has been promoted as a mecca of winter recreation since the 1920s. The group supported the creation of Reno’s first golf course in 1936 as an essential attraction for the area. Lake Tahoe and other nearby lakes were promoted as havens of fishing and boating. The city’s wedding chapels were touted as the perfect settings for nuptials, and big-name entertainment was a draw for downtown showrooms. Nevada’s lack of an income tax was an attraction for businesses looking to relocate.

The state’s legal brothels, gambling parlors and divorce industry were not fodder for advertising campaigns, however.

“They couldn’t really promote the quickie

| BY FRANK X. MULLEN

divorces, but they didn’t have to,” Cox said.

The nation’s wire services often carried stories of celebrities taking the “Reno cure” in the Biggest Little City. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the mere mention of the city’s name in a movie was often a codeword for “divorce.”

The relentless researcher

Others who have worked with Cox are also in awe of her dogged pursuit of facts.

Patti Bernard, for example, in 2006 was trying to find information about Nevada’s first ladies for the Nevada Women’s History Project. But she didn’t find much about the women at the Historical Society or the State Archives.

“There was zip info,” Bernard remembered.

Then she met Cox at the State Archives. “She seemed more interested than anyone,” Bernard said. “She immediately started files of all the women, similar to the ones that were already in existence for the governors, so that when I came again, the files were ready to be filled with new information that we would find.”

Cox wrote biographies of some of the women, starting with Elnora Sparks, wife of John Sparks, the 10th governor of Nevada who served from 1903 to 1908. “In Elnora’s time period, women weren’t commonly written about, other than what they wore, what they ate, how they decorated their luncheon tables, or who they were married to,” Bernard said. “… Joyce really had to work on ‘fleshing out’ Elnora. She wholeheartedly investigates until there are no more sources to be found; she is the consummate searcher for documented facts.”

Reno historian Alicia Barber, who penned the introduction for Behind the Arch, wrote that the book recounts how the Chamber’s membership and staff “learned to navigate Reno’s unique mix of the normal and notorious, tourist town and hometown, and use those elements to shape a municipal entity and a municipal image distinct from anything else in the country.”

For Cox, who was named the Nevada Women’s History Project’s Woman of Achievement at the Nevada Women’s Fund Luncheon in May 2023, doing research is like being the protagonist in a detective story. The facts are out there; she just has to dig deep.

“It’s fun, and you learn a lot of things,” Cox said. “Not everything can be found on Google. You have to look all over the place … and a human can ask questions that Google can’t in order to find the answers.”

Behind the Arch: The Story of Reno, Nevada’s Unique Chamber of Commerce and the Making of the Biggest Little City in the World (Nevada in the West Publishing, $24.99) is available at Flag Store Sign and Banner, 155 Glendale Ave., No. 9, in Sparks. Joyce Cox’s other books include Washoe County (Images of America) and Sparks (Images of America).

OUTDOORS

Wildflower wonderland

Where to catch May’s best blooms

The open spaces and public parks around Reno are filled with wildflowers. From resilient blooms close to the ground to ostentatious bushes, wildflowers have adapted to our harsh springs and summers, and can survive wind, limited water and sun. With help from Emma Wynn from the Nevada Native Plant Society, here is a list of unique flowers to keep an eye out for— and the trails where you can find them.

Evans Canyon Loop Trail at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park

Among the many blooms along the Evans Canyon Loop Trail at Rancho San Rafael

Indian paintbrush blooms near Church’s Pond along the Jones-Whites Creek Trail in Galena Creek Regional Park. Photo/ Helena Guglielmino

Steamboat Ditch Trail in Mayberry Park

The showy milkweed along the portion of the Steamboat Ditch Trail near the Tom Cooke Trail in Mayberry Park has multiple, starshaped flowers, a bit like a dandelions, growing in a ball at the end of stalks that can reach almost four feet. These flowers bloom through late June, and can sometimes last until August. Showy milkweed likes growing near water, but also grows on dry slopes and roadsides, and in open woodland areas. The bloom is habitat and food for the monarch butterfly, as well as other insects like the queen butterfly and dogbane tiger moth. When the stalk or leaves are cut, they produce a milky sap––a substance that some Native Americans used for medicinal purposes. The stalks were also used to weave baskets and rope.

Other blooms to look for:

• Delicate, tissue-paper-like white poppy blooms

• The aforementioned desert peach’s lovely pink blooms

• The white flowers adorning chokecherry shrubs

• The rich-purple Lewis flax flowers, about three inches off the ground

Hidden Valley Regional Park Trail System

Regional Park, the most notable is the desert peach. This shrub can reach up to seven feet tall, with beautiful pink flowers and small fruits that are food sources for animals including mule deer and white-tailed antelope squirrels.

Along the creek from early May to June, find these other blooms:

• Dazzling orange-to-red desert paintbrush

• Purplish-pink twinleaf onion, with spiky flowers clumped in groups of 15 to 35

• Bright yellow sunflowers of Hooker’s or arrowleaf balsamroot

• Low-lying pink flowers called cold-desert phlox and pink phlox

• Tall stalks—up to six feet!—of Palmer’s penstemon, with pink, bulbous flowers

The apricot mallow is one of the most stunning blooms found in Hidden Valley Regional Park—and there are quite a few of them now! A delicate, tissue-paper-like flower grows on this native shrub from April through July, and potentially into August. These blooms have five petals and are bowl-shaped. Their peach-like color makes them unique amid a high desert catalog of purple, pink, white and yellow. This shrub loves desert environments, from Nevada to Baja California. It grows in dry, alkaline soils and is often cultivated as an ornamental plant. Historically, this plant was used by Indigenous people as food and medicine, for a range of ailments from skin irritations to cooling inflamed kidneys.

Hidden Valley is a trove for Great Basin wildflowers. Along the various trails, look for:

• The deep purple blooms topping Dorr’s sage

• The beautiful, three-petal Bruneau mariposa lily

• The Great Basin onion’s star-shaped, tiny purple flowers

• Bright yellow stalks of flowers from the prince’s plume shrub

| BY HELENA GUGLIELMINO

Ballardini Ranch

Trails and Sierra Front Trail

The Ballardini Ranch Trails and adjacent Sierra Front Trail are great places to spot the aforementioned Bruneau mariposa lily. These white flowers are common from May to late June. It’s related to the sego lily, Utah’s state flower. This flowers within this genus are often confused for each other, because both can be found in this region, and both contain a striking, yellow center with a deep purple outline. Other notable blooms in the area:

• The small, light purple to white blooms of the short, soft lupine

• Palmer’s penstemon

• The inconspicuous white, daisy-like flower heads of the rough eyelash weed

• Arrowleaf balsamroot, a cousin of the standard sunflower.

• The bighead clover’s soft gathering of pink, egg-shaped flowers

• The twinleaf onion would be a Fourth of July staple, if flowers could be fireworks

Church’s Pond via Jones-Whites Creek Trail

Paintbrush is a classic Sierra Nevada flower, and its bright red, orange or pink, spiky-looking stalks are staple of summer. There are many different types of paintbrush, but the one mainly found along the Jones-Whites Creek Trail in Galena Creek Regional Park is the wavyleaf variety. Like all paintbrushes, it is actually a root parasite that can survive with or without a host. They like to partner with sage, so you might find them hiding within sage bushes. They bloom in late June through July and love wide-open spaces with full sun. Along this higher slope, flowers bloom a little later, from June to July. Others you can find here include:

• The bright red snow plant, which has a parasitic relationship to a type of fungi

• The white-ish to purple flowers lining the hot rock penstemon’s stalks

• Royal beardtongue, with deep purple, bulbous flowers on a short, three-inch stalk

• The Mahala mat, a carpet of deep green leaves and lilac-colored flowers

• Arrowleaf balsamroot

• Tiny, pale pink flowers crowning the greenleaf manzanita

One great resource for finding or reporting flowers near you is www.inaturalist.org. To get the best results, make sure to filter searches by “research grade.”

Also, the Nevada Native Plant Society is a fantastic resource on local flora. The organization hosts plant-finding field trips, including a Tom Cooke Trail field trip from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday, May 19. You can learn more at www.nvnps.org or www.facebook.com/ NevadaNativePlantSociety.

For May, 2024

This sky chart is drawn for latitude 40 degrees north, but may be used in continental U.S. and southern Canada.

ASTRONOMY

May skies

A string of first-magnitude planets dominates mornings; Sirius is the star of the stars in the evening

May’s first morning features a last-quarter moon, half full, in the southeast as twilight begins to brighten. Since the lower left half of the moon is illuminated, you’ll know that the sun is in the northeast, below the direction of the brightest twilight glow.

To the moon’s lower left, between the moon and the sun’s known position, look for a string of first-magnitude planets, in order of increasing distance from the moon: Saturn, Mars and Mercury. You’ll likely need binoculars to see Mercury rising in bright twilight.

As the moon approaches the sun the next five mornings, it goes through waning crescent phases and slides down the lineup of planets. It is to upper right of Saturn on May 3; between Saturn and Mars on May 4; to the lower left of Mars and to the upper right of Mercury on May 5; and to left of Mercury on May 6.

The Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar for May 2024 illustrates these events, as well as the evening gatherings of the moon and stars mentioned below. The May calendar and a detailed evening star map will be posted online at abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar.

The brightest stars in May’s morning sky shine at zero magnitude: Golden Arcturus is in the west, and blue-white Vega is nearly overhead. Note the stars Altair and Deneb completing the summer triangle with Vega. Also noteworthy is the red supergiant star Antares, heart of the Scorpion, in the southwest. On May 30, as the Earth passes between Antares and the sun, the star stands at opposition, and is visible all night: low in the southeast at dusk, in the south in the middle of night, and low in the southwest at dawn.

Mercury is highest for several mornings around May 12, but only 1° up in mid-twilight from the Reno area. During this worst apparition

| BY ROBERT VICTOR

May’s evening sky chart. Illustration/Robert D. Miller

of the year, the planet’s brightening through magnitude zero to nearly -1 doesn’t help much.

For the best Milky Way viewing, get out to a dark place two hours before sunrise May 5-17. You’ll notice the Cygnus Star Cloud along the neck of the Swan inside the summer triangle nearly overhead, and the Greater Sagittarius Star Cloud looking like a puff of steam rising up from the spout of the Teapot in the south.

The moon returns to the morning sky after the full moon of May 23. Catch the moon near Antares on May 24, near Saturn on May 31, and near Mars on the morning of June 2.

At dusk at the start of May, since Jupiter is nearly on the horizon, the brightest object easily seen is the “Dog Star,” Sirius, in the southwest. Start there, and go clockwise around the huge oval of bright stars—Procyon, Pollux, Castor, Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel and back to Sirius. The red supergiant star Betelgeuse lies inside the oval. By the end of May, of all these stars, only the “spring arch” of Procyon, Pollux, Castor and Capella will remain. Look nightly, using the sky watcher’s log (which you can download at the online version of this column at RenoNR.com) to keep track of your observations.

Pollux and Procyon are 23° apart. Trailing behind them as they slide down the western sky, look for a star at the apex of an isosceles triangle, 37° from each—Regulus, heart of Leo, the Lion.

Other bright stars at dusk in May are Arcturus, starting out in the east, and Spica, in the southeast, both moving higher toward the south as the month progresses. Later in the month (and/or later in the evening), keep an eye out for Antares rising in the southeast, and Deneb rising in the northeast, to the lower left of Vega.

Watch the moon nightly at dusk May 8-23, waxing from a thin crescent, very low in the west-northwest, to full on May 23, passing the five first-magnitude zodiacal stars Aldebaran, Pollux, Regulus, Spica and Antares as it goes east at an average rate of 13° per day. The conjunctions of the latter four stars on the evenings of May 12, 15, 19 and 23, respectively, are very close and noteworthy. Binoculars will help you enjoy the view.

The Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar is available by subscription from www. abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar. For $12 per year, subscribers receive quarterly mailings, each containing three monthly issues.

Save the Date!

Who: Readers who want to help the RN&R have a sustainable future

What: A community meeting to discuss the future of the RN&R

When: Monday, May 13

Where: To be announced

Why: Because independent local journalism is important!

Watch RenoNR.com, our weekly newsletter and our social media channels for the location and more information!

Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the beauty of the night sky and other wonders of nature.

Stereographic Projection Map by Robert D. Miller

occurs when

Betelgeuse

Vega Deneb

In April 2022, Emerson Drewes, then a 19-year-old sophomore, became the editor in chief of The Nevada Sagebrush, the University of Nevada, Reno’s student newspaper.

The Sagebrush went all-digital after 2021 due to the closure of Northern Nevada’s last printing press, but Drewes and the staff still call it a “newspaper.”

Drewes grew up in Las Vegas, in a family that lived on a steady diet of news—FOX5, celebrity news like E! and TMZ, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which still arrives on her parents’ doorstep daily. She enrolled at UNR as a business major but soon switched to journalism.

By the time she became the Sagebrush editor, she had already gained her sea legs in the field as the newspaper’s news editor—but the sudden, midsemester promotion made her feel like she had some big shoes to fill.

“There was nobody there to train me into the position,” she told me as she sat behind a large desk that faces her always-open office door. (She wants both her staff and the public to feel like they can come talk with her anytime.)

Those figurative shoes soon got even bigger: Within days, Amy Koeckes, a UNR staff member who oversees student media, among other things, came to a Sagebrush staff meeting.

“She only joins if there’s something really bad,” Drewes said.

Koeckes announced that the Sagebrush, which has been publishing since 1893, was quickly running out of money—and needed to make changes to remain sustainable.

The pandemic made matters much worse.

“COVID was awful on the budget,” Koeckes said during a phone interview. “There were hardly any ad dollars in 2020.”

The Sagebrush’s operating expenses are about $24,000 to $29,000 per year, she said. Most of that goes toward staffing, with a small percentage going to tech expenses and occasional equipment purchases.

Before the 2007 recession, annual revenue from advertising was in the low-$100,000s, enough to operate and put some funds in reserve. Today, ad revenue is a mere fraction of that, and has gone as low as $7,000 in recent years.

Koeckes, who has been a UNR staffer for 20 years, is effectively the keeper of long-term institutional knowledge regarding the Sagebrush. Over the years, she has always advised the paper’s leaders to save any excess revenue for a rainy day, which they largely have done.

“They had been very fiscally responsible from year to year,” she said.

The news that Drewes learned from Koeckes in April 2022 was that there was just $72,000 left in the coffers—a figure that will dwindle to nothing within several years without action. Today, about $61,000 is left. To survive, the Sagebrush will need a new revenue model.

Most professional news outlets are dealing with the same problems. The RN&R, for one, is in the process of transitioning to a nonprofit model in an effort to remain sustainable. Other news outlets have put up paywalls, solicited donations from corporations and charitable foundations, and applied for grants. The news industry is also now weighing the pros and cons of various forms of government funding, though there is a general sense of unease about the strings that would likely be attached to it.

The Sagebrush has been subject to the same forces that have been pummeling the rest of the news media for almost two decades now. The recession that began in late 2007 weakened businesses, decreasing ad revenue. Around the same time, print advertising decreased due to cheaper digital offerings; classified advertising just about went extinct; and paid print subscriptions dropped. Around one-third of the nation’s newspapers have closed in the last two decades, and the trend is accelerating.

The Sagebrush staff wasn’t initially sure which funding avenue to pursue, but they knew one thing for sure: They were determined to avoid a model dependent on funds from UNR’s student government.

Full disclosure: I am not a neutral observer here. I sit on UNR’s Student Media Advisory Board. While I have not played a role in the events this story is about to cover, I’ve known about them. Also: Sogand Tabatabaei—who is not mentioned in this article, but is UNR’s coordinator of student publications and

Emerson Drewes, the Sagebrush editor in chief, in her office.

Photo/Kris Vagner

marketing, and has advised the Sagebrush team on the events that follow—is a board member of Double Scoop, another publication of which I am the editor.

Back

in 2008, the editor of the Sagebrush was Brian Duggan. He went on to put in 11 years at the Reno Gazette-Journal, three of them as executive editor. He is now the general manager of KUNR Public Radio.

When Duggan first took the Sagebrush post, advertising revenue was strong. The paper also received a subsidy of around $20,000 annually from the Associated Students of the University of Nevada—UNR’s student government, commonly referred to as ASUN.

Under his administration, the Sagebrush discontinued its financial relationship with ASUN. The reason: financial independence means editorial independence.

“The student senate had control over who was editors; they had the votes,” Duggan said. “We wanted the next editors to be people who were already working up through the Sagebrush. We didn’t want people just to come in without any experience whatsoever to take over the paper.”

During the selection process for the two editors preceding Duggan, some members of the student senate “were coming from an explicit, partisan, ideological position,” Duggan said.

“It wasn’t about partisan (matters) or politics,” Duggan clarified. “It was about

people coming up through the culture at the Sagebrush and then earning that spot. We wanted to make sure that the next editor always had experience. Kids start when they’re a freshman or sophomore, and they start as an assistant editor, then they become the section editor, and then by the time they’re a senior, they’re ready to become the managing editor or the editor in chief. … We were very protective of the paper. We didn’t want to cede leadership of the paper to an interloper, so to speak.”

Patrick File, who teaches media law at UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism, said there have long been tensions between student media and student government—not just at UNR, but everywhere.

“If part of what journalism is meant to do is hold the powerful accountable, then part of what student journalism is meant to do is hold powerful people at universities and colleges accountable,” File said during a phone interview. “It’s a challenging position to be in, because, as in any academic setting, you’re a subject of the administration—and thus subject to their rules and the consequences of criticizing them—while at the exact same time trying to be somebody who speaks truth to that power.”

A few days later, I asked File what happens in places where governments control the press. He answered by email: “No free press equals no participatory democracy. It’s as simple as that. Press freedom guarantees we can have a reliable and independent system to inform and engage the public and hold powerful people and institutions accountable. These are the things that make democracy work, in every community of any size, and where they are absent, you can see it in every aspect of people’s daily lives. In countries without a truly independent and free press, even ones that call themselves democratic because they have elections, there is no way to tell what is and what isn’t propaganda from the people in power.”

For Emerson Drewes and the Sagebrush staff, that April 2022 news that the paper’s future was in peril brought forth a combination of panic and action.

“I was, like, flipping out,” said Drewes. “So I had a bunch of meetings with a bunch of different alumni.”

A alumni committee was formed; you might recognize some of the names from the local media, including Duggan, File, former RGJ reporter Mike Higdon, and Elizabeth “E” Thompson, then an editor for The Nevada Independent Madeline Purdue, who had been the Sagebrush’s editor in chief a few years prior, proposed a funding model that sounded like it might work—a per-credit fee that all UNR students would pay, along with tuition, at the beginning of each semester.

While the Scarlett & Gray staff petitioned the NSHE directly, the Sagebrush staff decided to seek approval from the student body first. Drewes reasoned that since the Sagebrush includes student voices in its news coverage, it should be asking for students’ voices as part of its funding restructuring, too. Before reaching the NSHE, the measure would need to pass two rounds of voting—first the student senate, then the student body.

In March 2023, UNR’s student senate approved the measure unanimously. However, while the student body voted 58 percent in favor of the fee, that was not enough: Twothirds of the vote was required.

“We still got a majority,” said Drewes. “And that gave us a good precedent to go again (this) year. … We just needed to educate the students more. We barely put out any marketing (in 2023). … We went back to the drawing board.”

Drewes advised the incoming directors of the Brushfire, Wolf Pack Radio and Insight to spend time campaigning for the student media fee in addition to learning how to run their respective media outlets.

“ We didn’t want to cede leadership of the paper to an interloper, so to speak. ”

—KUNRgeneralmanagerand former Sagebrush editor Brian Duggan,onwhythe Sagebrush endeditsstudent-government subsidyabout15yearsago

Later that spring, when some ASUN senators proposed slashing funding for Brushfire—the 76-year-old, studentrun arts and literary journal—Sagebrush staff banded together with that publication, as well as two other student-run media organizations, Wolf Pack Radio and Insight Magazine, UNR’s lifestyle and culture journal.

The Nevada Sagebrush has been in operation since 1893. In its early days, it was called The Student Record Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Nevada, Reno

Together, they would lobby for a per-credit fee to ensure their longevity and independence.

“We came up with the first number, which is 67 cents per credit,” said Drewes. UNR’s minimum full-time course load is 12 credits, and many students take 15, which would put a student media fee at approximately $8 to $10 per student, per semester.

The student newspaper at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, The Scarlet & Gray Free Press, also sought a per-credit fee in 2022. That December, the Board of Regents for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) approved it.

The leaders of each of the outlets took a closer look at their budgets and determined that the 67 cents they’d proposed in 2023 would not be sufficient to staff all four outlets. For the 2024 vote, they campaigned for a percredit fee of $1.29, which would amount to a per-semester fee of about $15 to $20. They knew this would be a harder sell.

“Students see dollar signs, and they don’t want to pass it,” said Drewes. “I can’t say I blame them.”

Part of the reason for the increase was to bump up student journalists’ wages. They shoulder the same challenges that professional journalists do: As revenue has decreased, workloads have largely increased. Burnout is common; it’s difficult to count the number of skilled, local journalists who have left news for jobs in PR and other fields, simply so they can feed their families.

continued on next page

continued from Page 13

One of the alarming results is that journalism careers have become, to a significant degree, available only to people who can afford to have them. Many local journalists, myself included, would not be able to pull it off without some form of subsidy from family members or additional jobs. The same goes for the Sagebrush staff.

“A majority of the people here work two to three jobs,” Drewes said. “Jaedyn (Young, the news editor), I believe, works, like, four jobs. Some other people work three jobs.” Drewes counts herself “super lucky” because she has gotten scholarships and only has to work one job. (Another disclosure: In the fall of 2022, Jaedyn Young was a paid intern for Double Scoop, and she’s done freelancing for the RN&R.)

In

December 2023, after a mixture of student support and opposition, the student senate added the $1.29-per-credit fee measure to the spring 2024 ballot.

“From there, we did a huge marketing push,” said Drewes. She admits she may have missed some of what her professors were discussing, because she was occupied with designing election graphics during class.

Her staff tried to drum up support with posts on social media, in the Sagebrush newsletter and on their website. They passed out stickers with a cartoon wolf—a take on UNR’s mascot—reading a newspaper that says, “Vote ‘yes’ on Question 1.”

Unfortunately, that marketing push was not enough. In March 2024, students

overwhelmingly rejected the student-media fee: Just 41.7 percent voted yes.

“We’re just back to the drawing board now,” said Drewes.

At the end of the spring semester, the Sagebrush staff will see another changing of the guard. Drewes is graduating and plans to move to Washington to work for the Seattle Times as a business reporting intern. Derek Raridon, now sports editor, will be her successor. At 21, Raridon already has six years of student reporting under his belt—three at Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas, and three at the Sagebrush.

“Journalism is … known to be the watchdog,” Raridon said. “It holds governments accountable. Journalism is a facet for change as well.”

He also values journalism’s role as a conduit for positive news, like spreading the word about community efforts and the accomplishments of local athletes.

He’s not certain what the game plan for securing the Sagebrush’s future will look like, but he still sees a per-credit fee as a likely end goal.

He’ll be balancing his job as the Sagebrush editor and the mission to save student media with a full-time course load and a teaching commitment. (This semester, he’s teaching precalculus.) He said the workload is intimidating, but he cares enough about the job—and the future of journalism—to take it on.

“I’m ready to tackle whatever, to make sure that we’re able to be on campus longer than just a few more years,” he said.

ARTS

Dancing in the moonlight

Paulina Productions transforms a brewery space into a lush cabaret

We’ve been a bit preoccupied with the moon lately, what with its recent eclipsing of the sun, the planned Artemis lunar landing and the federal government’s request that the moon get its own time zone.

But since ancient times, the moon has been believed to control our fertility, predict our fortunes and even drive us crazy. Its association with the feminine and divine was Marla Paulina Richardson’s inspiration to create Moonlight: Electro Burlesque With the Moon Muses, currently running twice monthly at Reno’s Lead Dog Brewing Taproom.

The dancer/singer/choreographer, who goes by Marla Paulina in her creative endeavors, is a Reno native who’s been dancing since age 3. After completing her dance studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, she began auditioning for productions here and around the country, performing in shows at casinos here and in Atlantic City, as well as venues such as the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

“For about 10 years, that was my life—full-

time dancing in heels in casinos every night,” said Paulina, who is 35.

Of course, COVID-19 changed everything, bringing an end to performing arts productions, particularly the big casino shows. Yet the break gave her time to be thoughtful about her next move and be realistic about her physical limits.

“When shows started dying off, I was sad about it, but I also was excited to transition into singing more,” she said. “I was getting older. I was in my 30s and getting knee injuries. I didn’t know if there was longevity in my dance career, and I really wanted to keep performing.”

A trained singer with relatives who’d sung professionally, she opted to follow that passion when making her next move.

“I wanted to put together a small, underground theater production that would work with the 50-person maximum-capacity rule we had at the time,” she said. She initially did shows at The Office of Hughes and Porter, a downtown Reno bar. It was the ideal intimate venue.

At first, it was tough finding willing dancers, as many of them had stepped away from performing to concentrate on other pursuits.

But thanks to word of mouth among her Reno-area dance connections, she managed to assemble a small troupe, and Paulina Productions was born. She rearranged the bar’s furniture and brought in some aerial rigging, additional lighting and an improved sound system, and premiered her new company’s first show, with herself as choreographer and singer, in the summer of 2021. Acts included aerialists, live music from a guitarist and saxophonist, and dance featuring classic Reno burlesque aspects.

The intent was to present only a handful of shows, but every performance sold out, so she extended it to 13. With that success under their belts and theaters fully open without caps on capacity, the company went on to produce a Moulin Rouge-style musical the following year, renting space at local theaters on nights when they were dark. While this

BY JESSICA SANTINA

allowed for more ticket sales and better overall production values, theaters’ sparse and unpredictable availability made them less than ideal.

Fortunately, this season’s show, the company’s third, was the charm. On a friend’s recommendation, Paulina approached the entertainment manager at Lead Dog, and soon the taproom’s expansive back room became home to Paulina Productions on the second Wednesday and last Friday of the month. Moonlight opened this winter, receiving a boost from a dressing area and lighting provided by Lead Dog, as well as a lifted stage and a bar on which dancers perform.

“We had scheduled it to run through April 26,” Paulina said, “but we have been selling out (with) standing-room only every single show.” Thanks to high demand, the show was extended until July. She hopes to also arrange an Artown encore performance.

Paulina admits she’s wrestled with the “burlesque” label because of its often-negative, amateurish and crass connotations. Paulina is committed to presenting her version as a polished, professional art form. Indeed, the burlesque of Moonlight alludes to the medium’s more glamorous origins. The performances, while sensual in nature, aren’t baldly sexual; they’re instead meant to tastefully showcase the artistry of dance and the beauty and skill of the performers’ bodies.

Moonlight is a revue comprised of a variety of acts that loosely follow the lunar theme, with acts ranging from songs performed by Paulina and company member Savannah Bishop to high-energy dance numbers performed in lavish costumes; impressive acrobatics; and a thumping soundscape of house music provided by DJ Maribel Garcia, with elements of burlesque woven throughout. The venue’s spatial arrangement enables a high level of intimacy with the performers, or “moon muses,” who frequently interact with and get close to the audience.

Though the company is largely made up of women, it features a few males and even a canine—Miss Bianca, dancer Carly Roberts’ Lhasa Apso, who utterly charms audiences by docilely allowing herself to be dressed up, held, squeezed and cooed over. Altogether, the production is electrifying, visually beautiful— and a whole lot of fun.

Moonlight is performed on various dates at Lead Dog Brewing, 415 E. Fourth St., in Reno. Tickets, available via Eventbrite, start at $30. For more information, follow Paulina Productions at www.facebook.com/ moonmusesencored or www.instagram.com/ paulina__productions.

The cast of Moonlight.

ART OF THE STATE

Meet Heather Nicole

The Florida transplant and wildlife photographer uses today to remind us that there are no promises about tomorrow

Traveling wildlife photographer Heather Nicole’s passion for conservation drives her work. Clad in dragonfly earrings, an elephant ring and a necklace strung with a bear-print charm, Nicole sat down with me to discuss her practice ahead of her newest adventure: a nine-day photography excursion into the Arctic.

“I’m gonna need a polar bear tattoo now,” she joked, pointing out the ravens and dog prints—from her own dogs, rescues named Charles and Abigail—she already carries on her arms. “Like an actual-size polar-bear paw print across my whole back.”

Nicole and her husband were originally slated to visit the Arctic in the spring of

2025, but when the tour’s organizers offered them the chance to make the trip this year instead, they decided the opportunity was worth the short notice and the rush. The excursion, led by Stockholm-based photographer Melissa Schäfer and producer Fredrik Granath, is conservation-driven and aims to be as low-impact on the regions explored as possible.

“You can’t have this opportunity and wait another year. With the polar bears—honestly, who knows how much longer we’re going to have polar bears in the Arctic?” Nicole said.

Originally from Florida’s Gulf Coast, Nicole relocated to Reno-Tahoe in 2019 after taking a seasonal job at Heavenly Ski Resort. Photography has been her passion since she started work-

ing with film in high school in the late ’90s, and she learned her way through the transition to digital in the early 2000s. A trip to Tanzania in 2016 cemented her love for wildlife photography, and since then, she has photographed animals and environments in places like Alaska, Costa Rica and India.

“At some point, I just had to get out of Florida,” said Nicole. “(There was) the craziness of Florida … but a lot of it was the humidity. I have multiple sclerosis, so the heat is very hard on me. It got to the point where I could only be outside maybe two months out of the year.”

Nicole is not alone in her relocation. I, myself, am originally from California, and last summer, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported that Nevada boasts the Western United States’ highest move-in ratio. Of new residents relocating to the state, former Californians take first place, while former Floridians take third.

Many people come to Nevada in search of more affordable housing or refuge from the effects of climate change. But as we try to cope with our own habitat issues, we drive other species out of theirs. As Nicole pointed out, Reno was named the fastest warming city in the U.S. by the Climate Center; the federal government aims to mitigate this through grants for increased tree cover, a strategy used to counteract the heat collected by concrete and asphalt surfaces.

Even in the short time Nicole has lived in the region, she has observed the rapid transformation of the natural landscape. “I used to hear coyotes every night, and you just don’t hear them anymore,” she said, speaking of the wildlands near her home in Lemmon Valley that have disappeared beneath new housing developments. “The same with the rabbits—yesterday, I saw a rabbit when I went to check the mail and realized I hadn’t seen a little bunny in maybe two years.”

Nicole hopes that her practice can help encourage conservation by putting critters seen increasingly less often back in sight and back in mind.

“You can tell stories in so many different ways,” she said. “I’m more drawn to photography, because you can say so much with an image, and you can also say so much with what’s not in an image. Now there are houses where there used to be land.”

Nicole plans to develop more written storytelling content to accompany her photographic work. She is also working to incorporate satellite imagery of the Northern Nevada landscape from decades past to throw into relief drastic changes that are easy to miss when observed day by day.

But these projects are on temporary hold as

| BY DELANEY URONEN

the photographer and her husband cram what they thought would be a year of preparation into a few weeks for their trip to the Arctic. Besides the polar bear’s precarity, Nicole has good reasons to do today what could be put off for tomorrow.

“The way I’m afflicted with MS, it affects everything. That’s one of the other driving forces for me for traveling and wildlife photography,” Nicole said, adding that she makes the most of out-of-town doctor’s appointments by taking scenic detours with her husband along the way. “I have good days and bad. Sometimes it affects my vision. It affects my mobility. My uncle has it, and he can’t walk unassisted. He’s not that old. I see that, and it just scares the hell out of me. So I have to get out and travel while I still can.”

Unlike many of us, Nicole does not have the luxury of forgetting that an uncertain outlook is the reality for all of us—so she works to help us remember that even if we’re just apes, we have opposable thumbs we need to put to work now.

Heather Nicole behind her camera.

Photo/Heather Nicole

A male polar bear walks along the edge of the sea ice in a fjord system north of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle. Photo/Heather Nicole

This article was originally published by Double Scoop, Nevada’s source for visual arts news.

FILM & TV

Trips worth taking

‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ features the comedy legend at his best; Amazon Prime’s ‘Fallout’ is bonkers fun

Are you feeling the sting of Curb Your Enthusiasm coming to an end on HBO? Never fear: Conan O’Brien has come to the rescue—and his new show might be his best show yet.

In Conan O’Brien Must Go, the legend travels to four foreign lands, with each trip inspired by a call into his podcast. Somebody from Norway called and said he was a fan? What the hell! Let’s get on a plane and go surprise the guy! We’ve got the budget for that sort of thing! We’re HBO! It’s a great premise, and while Conan became a fine interviewer over the years, it was the behind-the-scenes stuff and street skits that really distinguished him. Now we get a whole show of Conan meeting up with people and riffing. The setups are also pretty funny, like him dressing up as a Viking or performing on some Norwegian rap group’s song. (“Velkommen Til Klubben,” featuring the crystalline-voiced Conan, is now available on streaming services.)

Other bits include him going on a low-rated radio show—he helps spike their daily listenership from four people to five!—appearing on a Bangkok TV show where he’s legitimately uncomfortable, and, best of all, appearing on an Irish soap opera. He appears as a balloon delivery boy and, astonishingly,

acts the shit out of the part. I’m not kidding; what could have been a goof turns out to be a layered couple of minutes of a delivery boy believably frustrated at his job. Conan has a career in Irish soap operas if he wants it.

While Conan is always funny, much of this show’s charms come from the people he visits in Norway, Ireland, Thailand and Argentina. The subjects range from supremely sweet to surprisingly wise-assed (in a pleasant sort of way), and Conan’s rapport with all of them is truly winning stuff. Conan doesn’t pull punches in his exchanges; if he thinks you are a weirdo, he will say it. Most of the subjects who made the edit respond well.

Conan fans will recognize his arch nemesis, production supervisor Jordan Schlansky. (Conan fans will understand this question: What the fuck does Jordan do, anyway?) He joins Conan in Argentina and proceeds to drive him crazy; I’m pretty sure Conan’s complete frustration with Jordan’s pronunciation of “tango” is genuine. What Conan does with a piece of meat while arguing with Jordan defies description. Honestly, a whole series with Jordan and Conan squabbling would be golden. Trusted assistant Sona Movsesian doesn’t make it on any of the trips (we do see her a bit in podcast footage); perhaps we’ll see her in future seasons. Speaking of future seasons: Let’s start the campaign now for many, many, many more episodes of this show. Maybe this will be Conan’s Curb. He actually employs a fake Larry David in the Argentina episode to funny effect. The fake cameo is pretty good … pretty,

pretty, pretty good. There’s also a fake cameo involving Bono and a humanitarian award used as bait. (Next time around, Bono must make a real appearance. It’s mandatory.)

Season 2 hasn’t been announced yet, but I would like to think it’s a no brainer. Then again, HBO does tax write-offs of already-completed movies and has been up to some notoriously weird shit lately, so who knows?

Conan O’Brien Must Go is now streaming on Max.

After the entertainment goodness that was The Last of Us comes Fallout, another TV series—based on a video game I’ve never played—that I’ve greatly enjoyed, much to my surprise.

The great Walton Goggins is terrific as Cooper “The Ghoul” Howard—which just might be my favorite new TV character of this century. A former Western movie star, Cooper is now 200 years old, and he’s traversing a post-apocalyptic countryside as a real-life gunslinger, facially scarred and missing his nose. During the eight-episode season, we see his character’s origins, giving Goggins a chance to act without prosthetics and providing The Ghoul a certain amount of soul. He’s a fantastic creation—the highlight of the series.

But The Ghoul is not the only thing worth watching here. Fallout is bonkers fun, a stranger-than-all-hell take on a popular video game.

In a futuristic society after nuclear war, some “vault dwellers” live in an idealistic society that, of course, gets disrupted by raiders. Circumstances arise for Lucy (Ella Purnell) to leave her vault in search of her father (Kyle MacLachlan), meaning she has to deal with The Ghoul, zombie-like creatures, radioactive mutant animals and much more.

Every episode pops, making the whole thing quite bingeable. Took me two days to ingest all of it. Great special effects, a surprising amount of sticky gore and a wonderful sense of humor keep Fallout constantly intriguing.

The show, which was just renewed for a second season, ends with some major cliffhangers. Amazon has themselves a winner here, and it’s always good to see the likes of Goggins getting a worthy vehicle.

Fallout is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Writer-director Alex Garland, often a purveyor of excellent sci-fi and horror (Annihilation, Ex-Machina), drops a full-blown cinematic grenade with Civil War, a hypothetical look at an America divided during a second civil war. It’s also a look what lengths the press will go to in order to get a story. This is not a happy movie by any means.

Kirsten Dunst, in one of the best roles of her

BY BOB GRIMM

career, plays Lee, a photojournalist covering what could be the last days in office of a tyrannical three-term president (Nick Offerman in a small but effective appearance), during the tail end of a divisive Civil War. California, Texas and Florida have seceded; they’ve combined their military might—and Washington, D.C., is in their crosshairs.

Lee and colleagues Joel and Sammy (Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson) are on their way to D.C. to try to get an interview with the troubled president. Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a photojournalist wannabe, tags along.

The movie is largely good, but the plot takes its characters down some predictable routes that had me rolling my eyes a bit. Also, the ending is kind of ridiculous—well-filmed, but ridiculous.

Most of the action is top-notch, and some of the scenarios are genuinely horrifying; overall, Civil War is effective and quite memorable.

Jesse Plemons has a cameo in the most memorable and chilling scene. I won’t give too much away—but when he shows up onscreen, get ready.

The timing of Civil War, released when the country is going a little crazy politically, makes the film feel less hypothetical and more possible. A divided U.S. in violent conflict feels less fictional than it would’ve, say, 15 years ago. In fact, much of this feels quite realistic. According to Mr. Garland, the United States is in a lot of trouble.

Conan O’Brien in Conan O’Brien Must Go.

Nick Offerman in Civil War.

BEST 3 THINGS

Snacks to share

Cheesy

bruschetta, chorizo queso and yellowfin ahi ceviche!

As a food writer, I’m no stranger to solo dining experiences. It originally took a bit of courage to ask for a table for one. Oftentimes, I sat at a bar seat as to not take up any real estate for potential groups, and so I could enjoy my food without feeling like I had to stare at my phone the entire time.

While I now find solo dining to be a pleasant experience, I always prefer to eat with others—and I especially enjoy the opportunity to share plates.

Shareable menu items, usually appetizers, offer a sense of community to a table.

It is a simple pleasure to collectively discuss the flavors of the dish, curiously analyze its ingredients, and deliberate about what might be missing—or perhaps agree that it’s perfect as-is. I find it almost meditative to be this present while eating a meal, observing all the flavors and textures, and fully appreciating the moment with those around me. And, of course, sharing a dish creates an opportunity to demonstrate the ultimate act of love: offering the last bite.

This month’s list features shareable dishes that I found particularly enjoyable. The best part

Great Full Gardens’ cheesy bruschetta comes on toasted Truckee Sourdough Co. ciabatta with garlic aioli, mozzarella cheese, marinated tomatoes, basil and a balsamic reduction. They make a vegan version, too. Photo/Maude Ballinger

is that all three dishes are on happy-hour menus at each establishment.

What: Chorizo queso

Where: Wild River Grille, 17 S. Virginia St., Reno Price: $10

Contact: www.wildrivergrille.com, 775-284-7455

I’ve never met a queso dip I didn’t like: Even if queso is bad, it’s still pretty good. However, there is no question about the queso from Wild River Grille being delicious. It’s a bit thicker than your average queso, making it almost a cross between a Mexican fundido and a pimento-cheese dip. The savory chorizo adds heat and texture and turns the dish into a must-order.

The real kicker, and quite possibly the simplest element of this dish, is that it’s served with both tortilla chips and pita. I’m not sure why all dips aren’t served with a textural variety of carbs, but it really enhances the experience.

While you can only find the queso during happy hour at Wild River Grille (4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday), it is worth a trip, because the happy-hour menu is ample and very affordable given the quality of food.

What: Yellowfin ahi ceviche

Where: La Condesa Eatery, 1642 S. Wells Ave., Reno

Price: $18

Contact: www.lacondesaeatery.com, 775-409-3000

I usually try to order something different each

| BY MAUDE BALLINGER

time I go to La Condesa—but I always have to order the yellowfin ahi ceviche. My favorite part of the dish, aside from the fresh fish, is the “leche de tigre” sauce in which the ceviche is served—it’s deliciously bright with lots of acid. Much to the chagrin of those I go with, I seem to utter every time, “This sauce is so good, I could drink it.” The dish is so delicious that sometimes I wish I hadn’t ordered it to share.

As warm weather starts to make a consistent appearance, it is worth noting that La Condesa’s front patio is a fabulous place to sit and enjoy a nice meal—especially when that nice meal includes their top-notch ceviche.

What: Cheesy bruschetta

Where: Great Full Gardens, 555 S. Virginia St., Reno; also available at the Sparks and South Meadows locations

Price: $12

Contact: www.greatfullgardens.com, 775-324-2013

I was going through my phone the other day and saw a photo I’d taken in 2016 of Great Full Gardens’ cheesy bruschetta. I realized that I have been eating this dish for more than a decade, and it has remained consistently delicious all these years. In fact, I don’t think I’ve eaten at Great Full Gardens without getting the cheesy bruschetta—and sometimes I go just because I am craving it.

The bruschetta is served on toasted Truckee Sourdough Co. ciabatta with garlic aioli, mozzarella cheese, marinated tomatoes, basil and a house-made balsamic reduction. It is irresistibly savory, sweet and texturally compelling; it’s one of my favorite dishes to share with others, because it’s unassumingly delicious. It can also be made gluten-free and vegan, with the addition of their house-made vegan cashew “cheeze” spread.

Happenings

Kentucky Derby fans: Get your fancy hats ready for a day of celebration at The Depot Craft Brewery and Distillery for their Churchill Downs VIP Experience, at noon, Saturday, May 4, at 325 E. Fourth St., in Reno. For $100, ticket-holders can expect a premium bar, a deluxe buffet, a costume contest, private race viewing and pop-up shops from Sierra Belle, Desert Gems and Lovely Links. For tickets or more information, find the event on Eventbrite.

The Jesse is hosting a Cinco de Mayo celebration from 2 to 8 p.m., Sunday, May 5, at 306 E. Fourth St., in Reno. The celebration will include food and drink specials, music and more. For more information, head to www.instagram.com/ thejessereno.

The Eddy House has announced its But First, Dessert fundraiser, from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday, May 10, at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, 4590 S. Virginia St., in Reno. The event features a pre-dinner dessert competition from local vendors, with guests voting on the winner. Ticket proceeds will benefit The Eddy House, whose mission is to end youth homelessness in Northern Nevada. For more information or to purchase tickets, which start at $325, head to eddyhouse.org/events/ butfirstdessert.

Celebrate Mother’s Day a day early from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, May 11, at Perenn Grocery with a picnic and plant-potting at the Village at Rancharrah at 7700 Rancharrah Parkway, in Reno. Picnics, which are $28, include curated Perenn-made goods and potting kits with a perennial plant, a porch pot, soil and tips on how to care for your new plant. Ten percent of the picnic sales will be donated to Women and Children’s Center of the Sierra. For tickets and more information, head to www.perennbakery.com/ order-online/mothers-day-picnic-planting.

Openings + Shifts

No. 731, the cottage-turned-bar behind Calafuria at 725 S. Center St., in Reno, has opened. The name, No. 731, is a reference to the civic number still on the building, which was built in 1914. The menu features a selection of stuzzichini, aka Italian small bites, such as suppli, meats, cheeses and sandwiches from Calafuria’s kitchen. As for drinks, expect cocktails, spritzes and a curated list of wines from small, sustainably farmed vineyards. Get details at calafuriareno.com.

Champagne and Chocolate, a gourmet chocolate and champagne shop at South TASTE

continued on Page 23

LIQUID CONVERSATIONS

Tainted tequila

The beloved Mexican spirit has become subject to added impurities; here’s how to avoid them

The world of spirits is full of legends and marketing tall tales designed to make you feel like the bottle on which you spent your hard-earned money is worth it.

It can be hard to tell the difference between marketing and fact in the beverage world, because so much of the industry is built on selling you a brand’s charisma. These days, no category of spirits is more confusing and saturated with bad actors than the world of tequila. Celebrity brands, additives and elaborate bottles are all part of the smoke and mirrors designed to distract you from the juice in the bottle—so let’s chat about poorly made tequilas, how to spot them, and how one of Reno’s finest spirits curators is doing their best to get you the authenticity the category deserves.

First and foremost, great tequila is made from properly harvested agave. By law, tequila must be from the Mexican state of Jalisco, from blue Weber agave. This varietal needs about five to seven years to grow to maturity so that all the delicious agave sugars are concentrated in the piña (agave bulb), and the plants have proper time to propagate. As the demand for tequila has risen, so has the pressure on farmers to harvest sooner—and the industry has created a slippery slope of corner-cutting to extract what is needed to make alcohol from that

young agave.

Properly harvested agave is carefully pulled from the ground, sent to a distillery and baked in a stone oven until the sweet, roasty nectar can be extracted. The roasted agave is crushed with a giant stone wheel known as a tahona, a testament to the dedication of tequila producers. This process allows the agave nectar to separate from the fibers, creating a golden, aromatic sap that is then naturally fermented and distilled to about 50 percent alcohol. (Some manufacturers use those traditional methods with the addition of an autoclave or giant pressure oven to help modernize the process.)

When manufactures harvest agave that is too young, they must use methods other than the traditional. A distilling methodology known as diffuser technology is generally used to get the most out of the young agave as quickly and cheaply as possible. The process involves feeding agave into a shredder, spraying those chunks with boiling water to extract the starchy pulp, boiling that pulp with chemicals that convert the starch to sugar, and then distilling that liquid. The end product is crazy-high in alcohol content and is essentially flavorless, creating the need to add flavors and fillers to the tequila.

The Consejo Regulador de Tequila (CRT), which translates to Tequila Regulatory Council, is the Mexican government’s arm for regulating tequila. The CRT’s essential job is to maintain

| BY MICHAEL MOBERLY

“I wish more people knew when they were paying for a novelty,” said AJ Chhabra, owner of Drams and Smoke. He advises his customers to steer clear of tequilas with additives. A tequila like Cascahuín 48 Plata contains none; its notes of black pepper, earth and stone fruit arise naturally in the fermentation process. Photo/David Robert

the quality of tequila by creating and enforcing regulations on producers. The CRT allows up to 1 percent of additives in tequila, including glycerin, oak extract, caramel coloring or sugar-based syrup. That means there can be about 1 1/2 teaspoons of additives in a bottle of tequila. Think about how much flavor is added to a recipe with 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

You are probably thinking, “Michael, how do I tell if my favorite bottle of tequila is properly made and free of additives?” The CRT gives each distillery a NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) number, which all regulated tequila must have on the bottle. You can look up that NOM on websites like tequilamatchmaker.com to see if a producer uses traditional distilling methods, and what other tequilas they produce. But when finding out about additives, things get tricky— and that’s when you call in the experts.

“My first experience with agave was eye-opening,” said Amitoj “AJ” Chhabra, owner and proprietor of Drams and Smoke in Reno. “While we are known for whiskey, my first love is agave.”

Chhabra has become our region’s high priest of spirits curation and general dorkery; his shop has one of the best selections of rare and hardto-find spirits in town. Chhabra recommends using community resources like Reddit and tequilamatchmaker.com to dive deep into reviews that can help you sort legend from fact.

“I wish more people knew when they were paying for a novelty,” Chhabra said. “You can look into the way people produce and see how the bad actors have affected the industry agriculturally and even culturally in Mexico.”

How does Chhabra react when people seek out bottles of lesser-made tequila? “I’m going to be vocal about how I feel about it. Some people can be put off by my reaction to their request, thinking I’m being a snob, but you are literally drinking glycerin.”

He said the additional sugars and other fillers found in poorly made tequila can make the dreaded hangover even worse.

Tequila is one of the most dynamic spirits, steeped in history and heritage. It is an agricultural product that affects an enormous population of hardworking people. We must do our part to demand tequila that respects the tradition and the authentic flavor of the agave—because when we do that, our drinks will taste better, and we’ll feel better in the morning.

CLIFF YOUNG FOR RENO CITY COUNCIL WARD 3

An attorney in Reno for over 40 years

Former Assistant Reno City Attorney

McGeorge School of Law JD, UNR Business Degree

OVER 30 YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE

• Washoe County Open Space and Regional Park Commission, 20032013, Elected Chairman 9 times

• Regional Transportation Commission, 2030 and 2040 Masterplan Steering Committees

• RTC Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee for 8 years

• Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, 23 years adopted various roadways

• First person to receive the ActivistSupporter Award from the NDOT Nevada Bicycle Advisory Board

Committed to conservative spending, providing for vagrants that won’t participate in current shelters’ programs and promoting affordable housing

10a-6a: BVD's 4000 handpicked-for-Jive tunes from Shpongle to James Brown with vintage Bruce voice breaks from Xville at the top of every hour.

jiveradio.org/bvd "Alexa, play: bruce van dyke radio"

Rhymes and reasons

Why do people love wine? We headed to Midtown Spirits Wine and Bites

to find out

Wine is much more than just a beverage we consume. Wine’s history and importance are as old as civilization itself; evidence of its production dates back to 6000 B.C.

In ancient Rome, wine was central to culture and society. It was consumed at every meal and integral to religious ceremonies. It continues to be used in religious ceremonies today. It’s a symbol of the blood of Christ in Christianity, and it is important in Judaism, where participants of the Passover Seder are required to drink four cups of wine at specific points, corresponding to the four expressions of redemption.

Wine is also a source of inspiration and creativity. It has inspired countless artists, writers and filmmakers. Robert Louis Stevenson described wine as “bottled poetry.” In Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingway reflects on wine’s potential for infinite enjoyment. Shakespeare highlighted the dual nature of wine as both a source of joy and pain.

Wine has a huge economic impact, too. In 2022, the wine industry in the United States

generated more than $276 billion, providing jobs, bolstering tourism and bringing in revenue through sales and taxes.

Wine has also been reported to provide health benefits. Specifically, red wines have been shown to have high levels of the antioxidant resveratrol, which some studies suggest may fight diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Additional studies have shown how wine consumption in certain regions of the world may have an impact on the longevity of the people who live there.

As a lover of all things wine, I find all of these facts to be important to me on an intellectual level—but why is wine important to me on a personal level? More importantly, why is wine important to anyone on a personal level? I decided to try to find out.

In the name of science and a deep intellectual pursuit, I visited Midtown Spirits Wine and Bites. There, in that wine-bar jungle, I, much like Jane Goodall, observed the interactions and behaviors of the wine-drinkers, to determine why it was important to them. When that didn’t

| BY STEVE NOEL

Midtown Spirits Wine and Bites stocks a rotating selection of around 150 wines. When our wine scribe talked to people enjoying wine there, he learned about the many ways in which people feel connected with this timeless libation. Photo/David Robert

work, I decided to ask them.

Jessie and her husband were sitting at the bar near me. She had a wine flight while he was drinking beer. When I asked Jessie why wine was important to her, she said, “I think first and foremost, wine is relaxing.” She went on to add, “I always do a flight wherever I go, just to try new ones from different regions. I enjoy the different histories of the regions and learning about them.”

Jessie touched on two really important things—first, connecting wine with a region about which she’s curious, and second, using wine as part of a personal ritual to help escape life’s pressures. Learning and de-stressing are very important.

The next person I spoke with was Melissa, who answered my question by saying, “When I first started drinking wine, I didn’t enjoy the taste, but I enjoyed the company around me.”

George and Debbie were sipping on a nice wine when I interrupted them with my question. Debbie offered, “Well, it’s a big part of our social life. And we do a lot of traveling, and we try wine wherever we are. So we get to learn a little bit of local history through wine, and how it came about.”

Melissa, George and Debbie hit on one of the big, important things about wine: It’s often associated with social gatherings and celebrations, creating a sense of community and shared experience. It can signify sophistication, relaxation and pleasure, enhancing meals and fostering connections among friends and family.

Speaking of celebrations, Michelle and Nasia were sharing a bottle in the shadow of a “happy birthday” gift bag. I asked them about the importance of wine, and without taking a breath, Nasia, the birthday girl, said: “Because it is something that gathers friends and family together. It’s a gathering point and a socialization point where you can … share memories, share updates and share what’s going on in your life.”

Michelle added: “For me, (wine) reminds me of an original event. Last night, I went out to dinner with friends, and afterwards, we went and bought a bottle—specifically, Austin Hope from Paso Robles. We had a bachelorette party there for a friend of ours, so last night when we were out, we said, ‘We love that wine. Let’s get it.’ It reminded us of that event.”

Wine is important to us for many reasons— historical, religious, social, celebratory, artistic, economic and just because it is delicious. But whatever makes wine important to you is all that matters.

TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN

continued from Page 20

Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly Village, is opening a second location in Reno at 550 W. Plumb Lane, replacing Voodoo Brewing Co. The concept will feature a full bar, a candy selection and the option to “build your own candy bar,” with more than 30 ingredients from which to choose. Stay up to date by following along at www.instagram.com/ champagnechoco.

Parlay6 Brewing (above) is taking over the Wonder Aleworks location at 1041 S. Virginia St., in Reno. The space will include a brewery and taproom, and the menu will feature beer, cocktails and food. For more information, follow www.instagram.com/ parlay6brewing.

The Sky Terrace inside the Atlantis, at 3800 S. Virginia St., in Reno, received a makeover, including a new lounge area, a 600-bottle wine wall, updated restaurant furniture, chandeliers and sleek lighting. Aside from the decor refresh, the menus also received an update. Visit atlantiscasino.com/dining/fine-dining/ sky-terrace-sushi-bar.

Tasteful Tangle has opened at 3683 Kings Row, in Reno, in the space previously occupied by King’s Sandwiches. It’s self-described as offering “elevated urban takeout,” and the menu features items like Scotch eggs, flatbreads, bowls and protein shakes. Learn more at www. tastefultangle.com.

Have local food, drink or restaurant news? Email foodnews@renonr.com. —Maude Ballinger

MUSICBEAT

New beginnings

Reno duo CHRRY is conquering musical heartbreak by heading in a new direction

CHRRY (pronounced “cherry”) is a band in flux. Just a few weeks ago, frontwoman and vocalist Victoria “V” Brown posted on the band’s Instagram page that the Reno rock group would be going forward as a duo comprised of herself and producer/composer Joey Fore, instead of the five-piece ensemble that created their recorded tracks on Spotify.

After numerous lineup changes and after the release of their latest single “TOXIC ONE,” CHRRY is striking out to find a new sound.

“Having a band is like being in a relationship, but I’m very tired of getting my heart broken,” Brown said.

She’s speaking metaphorically about the difficulty of finding musicians with the kind of chemistry that makes for a successful band—but since Brown and Fore are also in an actual relationship, their decision to go forward as a duo felt natural.

“My guitar player ended up moving to Minnesota, and for about six months, we (recorded our music) long distance,” Brown said. “That was a struggle, just because we all have different goals in mind … and ultimately it just led to us all deciding to go into different avenues of music, but we all still are really good friends. Now it’s my boyfriend and I, and he’s been in it since the very beginning, and we’ve always been

really collaborative and work well together.”

CHRRY got its start in 2022 when Brown, a musician since childhood, started the group to fight the musical “dead end” in which she found herself. Brown has always been the band’s lyricist, and Fore its producer and recording engineer, but Brown said the band’s sound always felt dependent on the lead guitarist. Despite any dysfunction, CHRRY has played plenty of live shows around Reno and racked up more than 2,500 followers on Instagram and thousands of plays on Spotify.

CHRRY’s rotating cast of musicians colors each of the band’s three singles with different hues of rock. The group saunters through an impressive blend of indie melodies, grunge-inspired riffs and even some heavier metal-esque influences with grace. Brown’s voice and Fore’s crisp production provide undeniably solid through lines, leaving listeners with the impression that, whichever sound they choose to inhabit, they belong there.

“Sticks n Steel” is brooding, powerful and mysterious—fans of early Kings of Leon might feel at home in the moody, reverb-drenched strings. Brown’s vocals are a revelation: delicate and vulnerable when needed, yet capable of commanding power and a smoky texture at surprising turns.

Their most recent single, “TOXIC ONE,” is a fun and catchy adventure in the sonic tradition of bands like Paramore or Green Day, driven by

pop-punk riffs and a throwback sound that will put a smile on the face of anyone who might’ve, say, held a skateboard in the early 2000s. Finally, “2 AM” is an indie jam dripping with the vibes of its namesake—dreamy, contemplative, and tired, like the last few partygoers watching the sun rise after an all-night bash.

Much praise can and should be given to Brown’s voice; it’s as much an instrument as any of the strings or drum heads her backing musicians provide. Fore’s production skills also deserve commendation for the fullness of the band’s sound. While some local bands’ Spotify pages are fleshed out with flat, live recordings or half-mixed demos, CHRRY’s digital offerings sound intentional from start to finish.

“I very much value every single detail that’s put into the mix,” Fore said. “I use FL Studio, which makes me super-unorthodox for a rock producer. Most people use Logic or Ableton for that type of thing, whereas FL Studio is more of a rapper’s go-to for production.”

Now that Brown and Fore are free to pursue their own direction, they listed a few goals they’re chasing for the rest of 2024—but staying in Reno isn’t necessarily one of them. Both Brown and Fore spoke candidly about personal struggles they endured spending their youth in Reno.

“I feel like being here for this long kind of kept me in an isolated position in life,” Fore said. “I feel like, just with all of the history I’ve

| BY MATT BIEKER

Reno’s CHRRY, formerly a five-member band, is now a duo—lead vocalist Victoria “V” Brown and producer/composer Joey Fore. Photo/David Robert

already put into this place and how everything has, over time, just kind of withered away on my family’s end, I kind of just want to leave.”

Conversely, both of them admit that Reno’s tight-knit music scene is a bright spot that alleviates some of their frustration with the town. The support they’ve found, both personally and for their music, has led to some cathartic moments.

“I’ve had a lot of, like, really horrible things happen to me, which is kind of the drive for most of our music,” Brown said. “There have been times that I’ve sung songs that were about my sexual abuse (when there were) women in the crowd crying, and I’ll never forget that. No matter where I end up in life, that meant a lot for me to connect with other people like that, especially people in a city that I thought I hated.”

Added Fore: “I definitely do appreciate the music scene for what it is, and the people who do attend the shows and stay in the loop with the bands and musicians and artists. That’s, like, the jewel of the city.”

As for the music, CHRRY is hoping to release the rest of the songs they’ve recorded sometime in the next few months. While Brown initially wanted to remaster all of the tracks, she reconsidered, and intends to release them as they were originally composed, with their erstwhile band members.

“We just kind of decided we wanted to keep it authentic out of respect for the other musicians and respect for our audience,” Brown said. “Like I said, there’s that loyalty that they have for us, and I just want to reciprocate that and provide the songs that maybe they really liked.”

After that, Brown and Fore are free to change their sound as they see fit. Both musicians expressed an interest in exploring other genres, even experimental ones like the burgeoning hyper-pop sound. Brown also talked about paying for high-quality promotional materials and beefing up the band’s social media presence, with the eventual goal of taking their sound on the road.

“We actually have a song coming out called ‘Cotton Candy Castles,’ which is basically about, like, I have these massive dreams, but is it even possible?” Brown said. “I’m super-headstrong and passionate about music. I want to get out of Reno; I want to be famous, but I always try to humble myself. There are a lot of other people who feel that way, so it’s a lottery. That’s what I always tell myself—it’s a lottery.”

Learn more at www.instagram.com/ chrry_chrry_chrry.

MUSICBEAT

DJ delights

Bass Camp’s ‘Biggest Little Block Party in the World’ brings electronic music to the heart of downtown Reno

Since 2013, Bass Camp Festival founder Paul Reder has helped revitalize Reno’s DJ scene through festivals and concerts that bring in huge names—who often share stages with local talents.

While this year’s Bass Camp isn’t happening until July, a smaller-scale event run by Bass Camp will take place on Saturday, May 18, in the heart of Reno. The Biggest Little Block Party in the World will take place at the Reno Arch and Locomotion Plaza. Headliners like Sidepiece and Anabel Englund are teaming up with local and regional DJs for an all-ages event celebrating electronic music.

During a recent phone interview, Reder explained how Bass Camp got started.

“I created the first Bass Camp festival in 2013, out of a love for electronic music,” Reder said. “Prior to Bass Camp, I was the vice president of entertainment for Caesars corporate; I was their primary talent buyer for 13 years, and brought the first electronic DJ to Caesars back in 1995 with Paul Oakenfold. … This is before all the residencies in Vegas, and we completely sold it out. I followed that up with Tiësto playing at Caesars, and it was the first time another major DJ had played a casino before, way before Vegas even was interested in this stuff. We did it to attract the ski crowd up in Tahoe, and the bosses at the time let me have my way, because I loved electronic music—and it sold out again.”

The success pushed Reder to make things

The Bass Camp Festival moved from the Tahoe area to Wingfield Park last year.

stamina, and (Reder) is doing bigger events,” Johnson said. “That’s awesome, because it’s really easy to get tired and played out on the same artists coming to Reno once a year. … You’ve got to keep it fresh; you’ve got to invite different DJs; and you’ve got to put on different types of shows that are geared toward attracting different audiences. I really appreciate what that’s done for the scene around here, and I buy tickets to everything.”

Since Bass Camp has brought in higher-caliber DJs, so, too, have other venues.

“I worked in the nightclub scene for quite some time,” Johnson said. “… I saw SNBRN at Cargo a few years ago, and it just blew my mind that we weren’t having acts like that on the regular, especially with the sizes of venues that we have. All the really, really good shows are always down in Vegas, and sometimes we get skipped. Since (Reder) has been doing a lot more events in the area, the caliber of DJs who have been coming to town have been a lot higher. Over the winter, I went to the Palisades, and seeing DJ Diesel (Shaquille O’Neal) up there was amazing.”

The Biggest Little Block Party in the World is designed to bring music, community and festival energy to the heart of downtown Reno.

with them as they see the results of events of this size and what they can do to the local economy.”

Reder said he makes sure every show includes local talent.

“We have a huge local consortium of artists and DJs and producers we work with constantly, not only on the festival side and events side, but also we have a music label called Bass Camp Music, and we release music on our label with the artists who are on our shows. If you take a look at our schedule for this year, you’ll notice that on the bottom tier, there are probably 30 DJs on there who are all local and regional.”

Johnson said he loves the fact that local DJs can have a huge moment without having to travel.

“I have personal friends who have been absolutely blessed with opening for a ginormous talent,” Johnson said. “When something like that happens, that’s 100% the promoter giving back to the community by picking locals to be openers for huge DJs. That gets their name on a poster, and that gets them out there, and that’s the best kind of publicity to ever give to any DJ.”

Reder couldn’t agree more. “Being able to say that you opened for Zeds Dead or Big Gigantic or Diplo or Tiësto, that’s a big credit for these guys, so we’re happy to do it. We all have humble beginnings, so we try to give back and support and uplift the local artists as much as we can.”

bigger—and more community-oriented.

“After realizing that there was an audience for it in the area, I asked the powers that be if I could create—this is years later—an all-day music festival and call it Bass Camp,” Reder said. “… It sold out. We started doing the festival every year, and we started bringing in more major artists like Porter Robinson, and did some more events with Tiësto and some of the other larger DJs throughout the year.

“Last year, we moved the big festival down to Reno to Wingfield Park; 80% of our shows are in Reno proper anyway, so the majority of our audience is down there. It was a natural progression to want to bring the festival down there and create something larger than what had been happening up in Tahoe for years.”

Reder said he’s always been encouraged to see how locals have reacted to Bass Camp.

“These artists normally play much bigger markets,” said Reder. “We had one fan reach out not too long ago, and she said that she was moving to Reno for work, but she was a little concerned about moving to Reno because she wasn’t sure of the music scene, and then she discovered Bass Camp events. … That puts a smile on my face for sure.”

One Bass Camp superfan is Johnathan Johnson. During a recent phone interview, Johnson talked about how Bass Camp is unlike other parts of the music scene.

“Bass Camp Festival last year was so good, and I love that the events are keeping up the same

“We have had smaller block-party events, but nothing to this size,” Reder said. “This particular event is taking the place of the event that we’d done every year called Bass Camp in the Park with the Dancetronauts, which is an art car (mobile DJ). Because we moved the (big) festival to Wingfield Park, it was redundant to do a similar event (at the same place) on a smaller scale. My business partner and I decided to ask the city if it would be cool if we blocked off Virginia Street and did something under the Reno Arch. … We’re taking over Locomotion Plaza as well for a second stage, and we’ll do a silent disco there with an art car called The Giving Tree. It’s another Burning Man art car, so we’ll have two Burning Man art cars there—one at the main stage with the Dancetronauts where Sidepiece, Anabel Englund and Corey Baker will perform, and then we’ll have a host of regional and local DJs play The Giving Tree.”

Reder talked about the attention Bass Camp has garnered outside of the Reno area.

“I’d say a strong 30% to 40% of our sales from these larger events are coming from out of market,” Reder said. “There’s a huge contingency from Sacramento and all up and down the Interstate 80 corridor like Roseville, Nevada City, Grass Valley—and, believe it or not, a huge San Jose contingency. … It’s cool to see people traveling to Reno and putting heads in beds, which is the goal. We work with the (Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority), and they’re one of our sponsors as well. It’s fun to share this data

Bass Camp supports the local arts scene in other ways as well.

“We’re soon announcing a collaboration with a local artist 501(c)(3), and we try to incorporate some sort of relationship with local charities for every event that we do,” Reder said. “Last year was the Tahoe Fund, and this year, we’re in the process of aligning ourselves with a couple of really cool Reno based local charities that will give back to the arts. Also, the festival this year is a part of Artown, so a portion of the ticket price will go back to Artown and support the arts in that way as well.”

As for The Biggest Little Block Party in the World, Reder hopes that it being an all-ages event will bring in a new generation of music fans.

“There are a lot of moms and dads out there who are big electronic fans, and they want to come out, and they need to have a baby sitter, but bringing their kids is an option here,” Reder said. “We have a lot of families that come out and share their experiences. I love to see even infants with their little headphones on to protect their hearing. We had a lot of that last year at the festival, and it just put a smile on my face to see families coming out and dancing with their kids.”

The Biggest Little Block Party in the World will take place at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 18, at both the Reno Arch, 345 N. Virginia St., and Locomotion Plaza, 301 N. Virginia St., in Reno. Tickets start at $45. For more information, visit basscampfest.com.

| BY MATT JONES JONESIN'

CROSSWORD

“Sounds Like a Deal”—onomatopoetic justice. By

Matt Jones

Across 1. Design details

6. Savoir-faire

10. Hunk of marble

14. Danger signal

15. Inter ___ (among others)

16. Intl. defense alliance

17. M*A*S*H setting

18. ___ and the Real Girl

19. Other, en español

20. Social media message that a percussive offBroadway show is getting a movie deal?

23. Palindromic magazine title

24. Toyota’s luxury division

25. “Carte” or “mode” preceder

28. Moldova’s landmass

32. “Gangnam Style” performer

33. Computer music format

35. Company that merged with Minolta in 2003

37. Nab some showy jewelry from jail?

43. Brigadoon lyricist Alan Jay ___

44. Mononymous Irish singer

45. Seattle setting, briefly

47. Like lost files

51. Talking bear filmturned-TV show

52. Analgesic’s targets

54. “Pale” drinks

56. Trash talk about a doctor handing out phony cold remedies?

63. “You’ve Got a Friend ___”

64. Bear up there

65. Bellybutton type

66. PFC superiors

67. Call it ___

68. Cornball

69. Frobe who played Goldfinger

70. Curt agreements

71. Frequently

Down

1. “Fifth Avenue” store

THE LUCKY 13

Kodeus McKinley Drummer of Donkey Jaw

Reno punk rock doesn’t get more kick-ass than Donkey Jaw … get it? The four-piece band hones feisty riffs and blasting drums to create high-gear rock tunes that take listeners on a fast-paced, headbanging journey across a minute or two. Latest single “Don’t Feel Nothin’” mixes a poppunk melody with the band’s tight brand of no-brakes jams—and the drumming is as blistering as ever. For more information, visit instagram.com/donkeyjawreno. Kodeus McKinley is Donkey Jaw’s drummer.

What was the first concert you attended?

2. Novel storyline

3. Architect Saarinen

4. Cadbury egg filler

5. Corner fastener

6. Like Penn, vis-a-vis Teller

7. Jai ___ (fast-moving game)

8. Newspaper sales no.

9. Item on a list

10. Longtime Maine senator Olympia

11. Quick-drying coat

12. Agamemnon’s father (and Electra’s grandfather)

13. 1970s funkmeister Collins

21. It might give you the chills

22. Michigan congresswoman Rashida

25. Guitarist’s hookup

26. ___ Nas X

27. It’s definitely not popsicle-stick jokes

29. Rashomon director Kurosawa

30. Branch of a family tree, maybe

31. Sign, as a contract

34. Curling surface

36. Cavaliers, on the scoreboard

38. ___ Groove (1985 hip-hop movie)

39. TV debut of 1980

40. ___ Miserables

41. Science guy Bill

42. Josh of Frozen II

45. Tempo of a play’s dialogue

46. Torch bearer

48. Times off, slangily

49. Tundra wanderer

50. Mississippi River explorer Hernando

53. Discharge, as perspiration, scientifically speaking

55. Papa or Brainy

57. Docking station?

58. Language that gave us “khaki”

59. Right away

60. Busy

61. Quote as reference

62. Not dull

© 2024 Matt Jones

Find the answers in the “About” section at RenoNR.com!

My dad took me to see GBH and Circle Jerks in Las Vegas at the Huntridge Theater. I was 10 years old. I vividly remember getting elbowed in the face by a grown man as he was trying to open up a circle pit right at the start of the GBH set. I was hooked on punk-rock music immediately, and have been ever since.

What was the first album you owned?

I grew up with a lot of hand-me-down CDs from my dad and older brother. The first CD I remember as “mine” was a copy of AC/DC’s High Voltage. I stole it from a Walmart down the street from my house. I ran out the back door of the tire center straight to my CD player boom box to crank “It’s a Long Way to the Top.” Those bagpipes did something to me, man. I think I still have that CD.

What bands are you listening to right now?

LA LOM, Hot Water Music, Conservative Military Image, Miles Davis Quintet, Spitting Image, C.O.F.F.I.N., Phantom Bay, Roy Orbison and many others.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

No one really listens to or cares about full albums anymore. That is my favorite way to listen to music. Also, the people who say stuff like, “Oh that song is old,” and it was released in 2022. Music is not some

| BY MATT KING

disposable, one-time-use product like your vape pen. Music lives forever.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Mitch Mitchell on drums.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? Don’t be ashamed of any music or art that brings you joy—but I will play along. For a long time, I drove around a little ’94 Mazda pickup truck with a basic radio. I stumbled upon KNCJ 89.5, the classical and jazz station. I found myself listening to classical music every single day while driving to work, and late-night jazz music on the way home from weekend gigs. You should put it on your dial and switch over to it sometime when you are sick of Dollar Loan Center commercials.

What’s your favorite music venue?

I’ll keep it local. I love Cypress in Midtown for the sound system and room. I love the Holland Project for being a safe place in the community for everyone to enjoy music.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“Get a haircut and get a real job,” “Indoor Skins,” Conservative Military Image.

What band or artist changed your life? How? Operation Ivy/Rancid. When I moved to the area in my junior year of high school, I had no friends. On the first day of school, I was standing alone in the halls of Spanish Springs High when a punk kid walked up and complimented my Op Ivy T-shirt. He then took me over to introduce me to some other punks at the school. One of those kids was my now-best friend and longtime bandmate, Zack Ryan. Him and I instantly clicked, because his favorite band was also Rancid. We started a band three weeks later, and the rest is history.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? Bill Stevenson from Descendents: “Can you make me a bonus cup?”

What song would you like played at your funeral? “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” by ZZ Top. I want you to blow up the sound system with this tune.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? Rancid (2000).

What song should everyone listen to right now? Shameless plug here, but “Don’t Feel Nothin’” by my band Donkey Jaw. Oh, and “Coffee Mug” by Descendents.

Erica Wilson

The annual Reno Dance Festival was founded in 2021 by Erica Wilson of Mövgram Dance, along with co-producers Maggie Stack and Melissa Ennis. The impetus for the event was to provide a platform for emerging and established local choreographers to showcase their work. The festival takes place at the Glow Plaza, at 640 W. Fourth St., in downtown Reno, on Saturday, June 1, featuring 14-plus choreographers—a few of them premiering their work for the first time—as well as workshops, more than 50 artists and a DJ afterparty. Workshops run during the afternoon, and main performance will be at 7 p.m., with an afterparty is scheduled start at 9 p.m. The event is all-ages and family-friendly, and tickets to the main performance are $30. Some seating is available; organizers also encourage people to bring blankets and lawn chairs. For tickets and information, visit sierraarts.org/event/reno-dance-festival-2024-june-1.

Who is involved in the fest?

What dance companies will be there?

This year’s dance event features a diverse lineup, including established local groups like Paulina Productions, Around the Stage,

| BY DAVID ROBERT

The Dapper Tappers and guest group The Rolle Project. Additionally, individual choreographers, recent University of Nevada, Reno, dance graduates, and Reno locals from Mövgram Dance are participating. The dancers have hailed from various Reno circles, notably The Loft dance studio, UNR’s dance department, Northern Nevada Ballet, The Conservatory of Movement and The Reno Empire—really, all over Reno!

The event showcases a variety of dance styles, including hip-hop, jazz, tap, modern and contemporary, with a focus on providing a platform for artists less frequently showcased. About half of them are established companies that are already grounded in Reno’s community, like Paulina Productions and Around the Stage, and the other half are young artists, some who have never had their work shown. … They are maybe having just graduated from the University of Reno’s dance department and are kind of spreading their wings, if you will. And a couple of people—it’s their first work, so that’s what I really love about being able to have a festival like this: It gives people like that a chance to show their work when it’s really hard to find a stage.

Who is your audience?

Our audience consists of diverse Reno locals from various circles, including fellow dancers, friends, family and members of the broader arts community. RDF serves as a platform for newcomers to connect with Reno’s vibrant dance scene, offering opportunities to perform, attend classes and build friendships. In our close-knit community, word of mouth plays a significant role, reflecting Reno’s “Biggest Little City” charm. Additionally, we welcome dance enthusiasts seeking an entertaining show. We see people moving into Reno. … We’ve had a lot of people moving here from California ... people who come here for Burning Man, and there’s just a big artistic community coming in from a lot of different places.

Founder of the Reno Dance Festival, coming up on June 1

ANOTHER UNIQUE MUSEUM EVENT MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR AMAZING VOLUNTEERS

The Nevada State Museum is grateful for the passion and commitment of our volunteers. They make it possible for us to share rich and diverse cultural experiences with so many Nevadans.

Want to join the team? Learn about becoming a museum volunteer.

CarsonNVMuseum.org/volunteer

CarsonNVMuseum.org | 600 N Carson St, Carson City