News

Denialists target teachers

Science teachers in Nevada, kindergarten through high school, should start seeing some quirky matter showing up in their mail.

The Heartland Institute is distributing climate change material across the nation in an effort to influence about 200,000 science teachers to not teach science. Copies of its booklet “Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming” and a DVD are being sent to teachers. The booklet has already been sent to many reporters.

Scientists do not disagree on warming. There is a remarkable degree of consensus among climate scientists that warming is happening and that it is mostly caused by human activity. In 2016, a study by the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society found that “only 4 of 69,406 authors of peer-reviewed articles on global warming ... or 1 in 17,352, rejected AGW” [Anthropogenic Global Warming].

The Heartland Institute holds events—including one in Las Vegas in 2014—that it calls International Conferences on Climate Change that are given trappings to make them look like scientific gatherings.

The Institute does not disclose its current funding sources but in the past has received tobacco, oil and gas corporate money.

Heartland also denies the link between tobacco and cancer.

Bill Farr 1923-2017

Bill Farr of Sparks served the public at every level from city to national.

He was in the military during World War II, including landing at Normandy on D-Day and marching into Paris. He can be seen in a photo in Life magazine taken by Lt. Bob Landry at the Arc de Triomphe.

He was the Reno office manager for U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht.

He was elected to the Nevada Senate, serving from 1966 to 1970.

He was elected to the Washoe County Commission, serving from 1976 to 1983.

He joined the Sparks fire department as a volunteer in 1946, rose to chief and served there until 1976.

He also served in numerous other unpaid capacities. After the MGM Hotel fire in Las Vegas in 1980, he was appointed by Gov. Robert List as a member of a study commission chaired by Las Vegas businessperson Kenny Guinn to recommend policy and legal changes.

In his last speech to the Nevada Legislature as a U.S. senator, Harry Reid recalled how he and fellow assemblymember Richard Bryan in 1969 introduced a piece of fire legislation, only to be told by Sen. Farr during a hearing, “In fact, this legislation is so good, we passed it last session.” Farr’s legislative accomplishments and legacy have been obscured because his records have been filed by legislative staffers under his first name Francis, which he did not use.

One of Farr’s most notable acts was often attributed to others. In March 1960, Storey County District Attorney Robert Moore obtained a court order allowing him to destroy the Triangle Ranch Brothel as a nuisance. It was located just inside the Storey County line from Washoe County. Farr, the fire chief in Sparks, was called to the scene to burn the building down. He arrived with a fire engine and, after an interior inspection, set the building on fire. It was burned to the ground.

“I had been trained to stop fires, not start them,” Farr later told author Michael Archer.

—Dennis Myers

Nevada’s current law does not actually define when cars should stay out of the passing lane.

PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

Legislators eye making passing lanes mandatory

Road hogs block highways

“i came across nevada on 50,” Gabriel—he declined to give a last name—said at the Reno Arch, where he was getting his picture taken. “There was this one stretch, this side of Fallon, where I just couldn’t get through. There were people in every lane and traffic was backing up behind them.”

He had reacted to being asked what he thought of passing lanes. He’s visiting from Kansas, and like many people who have taken drivers ed, has always considered it common courtesy to stay out of the left lane unless he is actually passing.

What if there are more than two lanes?

“Three, four—the left lane is still the passing lane,” he said. “I stay out of it unless I am passing.”

In fact, in his home state, according to the Lawrence Journal World, “On highways with three lanes of traffic—such as the Kansas Turnpike between Lawrence and Topeka—the law requires that motorists drive in the right or middle lanes and use only the left lane to pass.”

There are three measures— Assembly Bills 208, 329 and 334—in the Nevada Legislature to make the law covering a passing lane more explicit and more workable.

Nevada actually has such a law, but its wording is vague, and it doesn’t clearly tell drivers to stay out of the passing lane. Nevada Revised Statute 484B.627 reads:

“Duties of driver driving motor vehicle at speed so slow as to impede forward movement of traffic; prohibition against stopping vehicle on roadway so as to impede or block normal and reasonable movement of traffic; exception. 1. If any driver drives a motor vehicle at a speed so slow as to impede the forward movement of traffic proceeding immediately behind the driver, the driver shall: (a) If the highway has one lane for traveling in each direction and the width of the paved portion permits, drive to the extreme right side of the highway and, if applicable, comply with the provisions of NRS 484B.630 [which prescribes when slow vehicles must turn off the road]; (b) If the highway has two or more clearly marked lanes for traffic traveling in the direction in which the driver is traveling, drive in the extreme right-hand lane except when necessary to pass other slowly moving vehicles; or (c) If the highway is a controlled-access highway, use alternate routes whenever possible. 2. A person shall not bring a vehicle to a complete stop upon a roadway so as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic unless the stop is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.”

BaD signs

On the strength of this law, Nevada once had signs alongside some highways reading, “Slower traffic keep right.” But that made it a judgment call for drivers to decide for themselves whether they were traveling slowly or not. The law is permissive instead of mandatory. It also means that a driver can never know what it takes to be stopped by police for improperly using the passing lane.

And most of the signs have disappeared.

In states with mandatory passing lane laws, the signs read, “Keep right except to pass.” That flat requirement tends to keep highways more clear.

For many years, a number of states left it up to drivers to be

courteous and keep right. But that has not worked well, and some states like Maryland and Oregon have been looking at getting tougher.

In Gabriel’s case, when he drove from Fallon to Fernley and found his way blocked, the problem may have been some amateur traffic cops. Some drivers are known to get into the passing lane and then drive at a speed that keeps them abreast of a vehicle in the right lane, thus holding all drivers down to lower speed. Of course, if someone in the backed-up traffic is trying to deal with an emergency, it can create very dangerous problems. Imagine if someone was rushing a passenger to a hospital. It was against that eventuality that Oregon recently passed a new passing lane law. It requires all drivers to stay in the right lane unless they are passing.

“In other words: Self-anointed traffic monitors need to quit squatting in the passing lane on highways, deliberately creating a rolling traffic jam of impatient drivers

behind them,” editorialized the Eugene Register Guard. “Senate Bill 532 would strongly encourage this by making such behavior a Class D motor vehicle violation, with a maximum fine of $250.” Some drivers believe that if they are doing the speed limit, it’s OK for them to drive in the passing lane when not passing. But some states act to stop that practice. The Colorado State Patrol distributes material that says “it is the exclusive responsibility of law An old law never enforcement officers to initiate appropriate really worked well. enforcement action. … By mitigating traffic flow conflicts caused by slower drivers, bouts of aggressive driving would likely be reduced. The Patrol believes the Left Lane Law achieves the appropriate balance between public safety and optimizing traffic flow on Colorado highways.” YouTube has a video titled “Why you shouldn’t drive slowly in the left lane” that is recommended by car insurance salespeople. Ω

No apartments shortage

From inside the parking garage adjoining the Sparks downtown theaters building, a wall can be seen rising. It’s an apartment development called Silverwing, which, when finished, will have 192 apartments. Directly east of Silverwing, the former Silver Club Hotel has been converted to 100 apartments. West of Silverwing is another, mostly complete apartment complex called Fountainhouse. It has 236 units. Just getting underway at the Sparks Marina, meanwhile, is a five story apartment building called Waterfront at the Marina. It will have 209 units.

RENOApril 27 - 29, 2017 University of Nevada, Reno JAZZ FESTIVAL

Considered one of the best of its kind in the world, and lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “showcasing music’s future,” the Reno Jazz Festival has been hosting jazz superstars and the finest emerging young artists for over five decades.

The festival hosts three days of concerts, clinics, competitions and superstars It’s nonstop jazz — and, it’s always … the best in jazz!

04.27 7:30 pm 04.28 7:30 pm

Two jazz “stars” — Saxophonist Joshua Redman and piano-bass-drums trio The Bad Plus, both known for pushing the boundaries — unite for a world tour of their explosive collaborative album, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman. April 28 @ 7:30PM

The showcase concert and awards ceremony feature encore performances from the best and brightest young standouts in the festival.

The Collective, known as one of the most creative and distinctive jazz ensembles in the northwestern United States — takes the stage with renowned multi-instrumentalist, Don Byron. April 27 @ 7:30PM Calling Don Byron a jazz musician is like calling the Pacific wet — it just doesn’t begin to describe it ... Byron has carpentered an extraordinary career precisely by obliterating the very idea of category.” — TIME Magazine The Bad Plus Joshua Redman took the stage … and proceeded to raise the roof … In a word, the music the quartet produces is sublime.” — Metroland