The Trump administration continues to weaken environmental protections. Late in July, the administration proposed revoking the scientific finding that is behind the government’s efforts to regulate climate change.
“The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule would rescind a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare,” according to The Associated Press.
This is just one of the latest in a series of environmental protection rollbacks that will, of course affect the whole nation—including our own beautiful corner of it.
As federal policies threaten to further degrade the environment, countless people and organizations are still striving to protect it. In the process of putting this issue together, I had the pleasure of learning about some of the intriguing work a few of them have been doing—and I’m pleased to be able to share their stories with you.
For this month’s Outdoors column, on Page 11, Helena Guglielmino talked with Maria Mircheva, executive director of the Sugar Pine Foundation, to learn how her group and others are working to protect endangered, high-elevation pines from an aggressive tree disease. And for this month’s cover story, on Page 13, contributor Sarah Russell delved into a story that you may have already seen in the news, but not in this much detail—Susanville, Calif., photographer Randy Robbins’ quest to photograph the endangered Sierra Nevada red fox. The conservation experts Sarah talked with along the way are pretty pleased with Randy’s progress. Through their points of view, I learned a few things about the slow, tedious, fascinating business of studying endangered species.
I also learned a bit about photo technology. I’ve certainly spent some time fussing with camera settings, lighting and the other alchemical-seeming details of photography, and I bet anyone else who’s ever struggled with a camera setting will relate to this story, too.
LETTERS
ICE scared our nanny into self-deportation
My granddaughter, Sarah, just graduated from high school. She’s a good student, raised by two “mothers” who have given her a bright future.
When Sarah was a toddler, her mother worked in a local school. “Maria” was hired as a nanny-caretaker. She became Sarah’s second mother.
After Sarah started school, Maria continued visiting weekly, as a job, housecleaning for my daughter. She also visited on holidays—not as a job, but a family member.
Today, Maria stays in her apartment, afraid to drive to housecleaning work. She’s afraid to walk to local markets, because ICE agents are posted on the corner. After living here for more than 20 years, she’s returning to Mexico.
Her departure breaks our hearts; we’re losing part of our family.
Grandchildren grow up and often move away. Now it’s Nanny’s turn, but not her choice. Trump’s cruel deportations dismember our families and disintegrate our community. That just ain’t right.
Stop the kidnappings. Close the internment camps. Restore due process. Freeze ICE!
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.
Thank you for the call to protect wild horses
Thank you, Craig Downer, for this excellent article in defense of these wild horses. (“The historic Montgomery Pass wild horse herd needs to be saved from elimination,” RN&R, July 2025.) They are American treasures and must be protected and preserved as the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act mandated. They are symbiotic to ecosystems so are a great benefit. Their droppings spread seeds, and they wander when grazing, so they do not destroy the range.
Barbara Ann Warner Via Renonr.com
—KRIS VAGNER krisv@renonr.com
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wants their “rightful” lands. Enough is enough!
After 50 years of ignoring the good science, there’s propaganda and the misinformation about wild horses and the land. I appreciate your efforts.
Laurie Steely Via RenoNR.com
Politicizing the military is deplorable
As a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, I find it so deplorable that the administration has politicized the fighting force of America. (Letters, RN&R, July 2025.)
Thank you, Craig Downer, for your continued support of these lovely horses. I have been a wild horse adopter, mentor and natural horsemanship trainer nearly my whole life, and I have watched the Bureau of Land Management cater to ranchers, sheep herders, big mining and anyone else who has deep pockets and
These organizations are made up of more black and brown brothers, which I proudly served with and would die for. It’s despicable that Trump’s policy is pitting our society against each other. But I can attest that this disgust is amplified within the ranks of our military. How disillusioned my brothers must feel, being led by a Fox News talking head/ platoon leader in Pete Hegseth, and a draft dodger, convicted felon and turncoat Putin ally as the president.
Mark Riley Via Renonr.com Email letters to letters@renonr.com
GUEST COMMENT BY
JONATHAN SHARP
A national mesothelioma registry could help end misdiagnosis in Nevada veterans
Nevada’s veteran population reflects decades of honorable service across every military branch. Yet long after their deployments have ended, many continue to face health risks due to toxic chemical exposure. Among the most hazardous threats they unknowingly confronted during their years of active duty was asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral that became a staple in various military infrastructure and equipment, especially in the World War II era. Later, we learned that prolonged or repeated exposure to this material can lead to an uncommon but aggressive cancer called mesothelioma. Because this disease develops slowly and mimics more familiar illnesses, it is often misdiagnosed and only detected when it has already advanced to an alarming stage. A national mesothelioma registry would offer a crucial solution, as it could link veterans’ history of asbestos exposure with medical records to ensure early detection of the cancer and give them a real chance at timely and effective care.
of these victims were former service members who served on potentially contaminated military installations like the 152nd Airlift Wing of the Nevada Air National Guard. Although no public document conclusively confirms asbestos exposure at this site, the fact that it was established in 1948, during the height of its use in military infrastructure, strongly suggests the likelihood of contamination. Veterans currently account for 30% of the 3,000 Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma yearly—a striking overrepresentation, given that they only make up roughly 7% of the civilian noninstitutional population age 18 and older.
A national registry is key to ending misdiagnosis
Mesothelioma’s persistent threat to Nevada veterans
For most of the 20th century, asbestos was regarded as a military essential due to its durability, as well as its insulating and fireproof properties. Unfortunately, this heavy reliance exposed numerous service members to harmful contaminants. Once inhaled or ingested, asbestos fibers can become lodged in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart, eventually causing mesothelioma, which claimed the lives of more than 54,900 Americans from 1999 to 2020.
Mesothelioma’s initial symptoms—such as difficulty breathing, persistent coughing, unexplained fatigue, unintentional weight loss, fever, and chest and belly pain—usually appear 15 to 40 years after initial exposure. This delayed onset, compounded with the cancer’s vague nature, frequently leads to misdiagnosis and missed opportunities for early intervention.
Nevada stands out as one of the most severely impacted states. Between 1999 and 2017, the Silver State recorded almost 1,800 asbestos-related fatalities, including 333 confirmed mesothelioma cases. Washoe County alone tallied 314 fatalities. Many
STREETALK
What’s the dumbest way in which you’ve injured yourself?
BY DAVID ROBERT
Asked at the RTC Fourth Street Bus Station, 200 E. Fourth St., Reno
Establishing a national mesothelioma registry is essential to resolving the diagnostic errors that continue to cost veterans their lives. By consolidating clinical data, service records and environmental exposure histories into a unified system, this database would equip physicians with the tools to recognize early signs more accurately, and distinguish this rare cancer from more common conditions. Earlier intervention can improve survival rates and preserve the quality of life for patients.
In addition, such a registry would provide researchers with critical insights. Current delays in case reporting hinder the ability to track real-time trends, analyze treatment efficacy and understand exposure risks. However, a modern and centralized database would enable scientists to detect emerging patterns, refine diagnostic criteria, and develop targeted screening programs for highrisk populations such as veterans. It would also accelerate innovation in diagnostics and therapies explicitly tailored to the aggressive nature and late-stage presentation of mesothelioma.
To bring this vision to life, long-term investment and leadership at the federal level are essential. Without such a coordinated effort, vulnerable veterans will continue to face delayed diagnoses and diminished outcomes. A national registry will not undo past exposures, but it can change the trajectory for thousands of veterans still at risk.
Jonathan Sharp is the CFO of the Environmental Litigation Group P.C., a firm in Birmingham, Ala., that provides legal assistance to victims of toxic exposure.
Ky Nichols
Food-service worker
I climbed up to the top of a chain-link fence and fell off. A friend and I were climbing the fence just for the fun of it, and we went higher and higher. He didn’t get hurt when he fell, but I sprained my ankle pretty bad and couldn’t play football for a while. I won’t be climbing any fences in the future.
Chad Ceredon Forestry tech
I like collecting bugs and pinning them. I have countless specimens. I was working one day; I had a big net, and I was running down a hill chasing a really cool bug. I was excited, and I fell down a hill filled with shrubbery and hurt myself.
Erika Philby
Emergency medical technician
I shattered my heel while walking in high heels. I was walking through downtown Reno—I wasn’t drunk!—and I was on Sierra Street when I fell, and some kids looked at me in the street and said, “How can you break something by just walking?” REMSA came to my rescue, and I spent a day in the hospital. I have really big scars on both sides of my ankle. I guess that I should’ve gotten used to the heels before I wore them.
Lindsey Sherbondy
Assistant manager
I was jumping on a trampoline, and I thought that I could jump like when I was 10 years old. I came down, and I heard a pop! I went to the hospital and found out that I broke a plate in my ankle. I’m eight months sober now, and I actually hurt myself more now than when I wasn’t (sober). I’m always running into coffee tables and falling down steps. I guess I’m not as strong as I used to be.
James Martin
YouTube influencer
I decided to go down the rapids at Barbara Bennett Park. I wanted to see what the current was like. It wasn’t what I expected. It was extremely fast. I hurt my left leg pretty badly. I scraped it up and had some skin removed from the bottom of my feet! I learned how dangerous the rapids can be.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
What happened when alternative journalists convened in Wisconsin
I was fortunate enough to spend the better part of a July week in Madison, Wis., for the annual AAN Publishers (Association of Alternative Newsmedia) Conference, hosted by Isthmus, Madison’s 49-year-old alternative newspaper.
Here are a few takeaways from the AAN Conference:
• The dedication to truth and resistance among independent, local news publishers remains strong. In various sessions, and during both keynotes—by Katie Drummond, the global editorial director of Wired magazine, and Dan Perkins (aka Tom Tomorrow), the brains behind longtime cartoon This Modern World (which you can read every month here in the RN&R)—the capitulations by Jeff Bezos, ABC News and Paramount to the demands of the Trump administration were discussed and soundly condemned. By the way, if you’re not reading Wired, you really should be. The publication’s political coverage has been second to none in recent months.
• It’s harder than ever to get information from the government—even records that should unquestionably be made public.
There are public-records and freedom-of-information laws at both state and national levels, but they have no teeth—meaning government officials who ignore records requests are rarely punished.
Since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, he’s been making it even harder for journalists and members of the public to get information. From laying off public-records teams, to telling government employees they can’t speak to the media, to fighting public-information efforts in court, to even firing public-records employees for doing their jobs, the Trump administration has made it clear that it wants to control all means of information dissemination, authoritarianism-style. The RN&R has encountered roadblock after roadblock from the federal government as we’ve tried to get the most basic of information regarding various matters over the last six months.
Yeah, journalists and members of the public can go to court to force the government to reveal information—but that’s time-consuming and expensive.
• While some local news outlets are doing well, others face significant challenges. While we were in Madison, we all learned that the
32-year-old Boulder Weekly, in Colorado, had been shut down—perhaps for good—after a dispute between the owner and the editorial staff. During uncertain economic times, one of the first things businesses cut is advertising budgets—and some local news publications are feeling pinched. That includes the RN&R, where advertising revenue is down this year.
• The Reno News & Review continues to produce some of the best work among all of the nation’s alternative publications. The results of the national 2025 AAN Awards, for work done last year, were announced in Madison—and the RN&R won three awards! (Full disclosure: I concluded a two-year term as the AAN Publishers’ board president at the conference, but I had nothing to do with judging the contest.)
Editor at large Frank X. Mullen won third place in the Right-Wing Extremism Coverage category, for “Voting under siege: Conspiracy theories and the refusal to certify results threaten Washoe County elections,” in our October 2024 print edition, and posted at RenoNR.com on Sept. 26, 2024. The judge cited Frank’s “solid, deep reporting into the effects of election denialism since 2020.”
| BY JIMMY BOEGLE
For the second year in a row, Matt Bieker won third place in the Music Writing category. One of the pieces submitted was his piece “Getting used to the spotlight: When people talk down to the members of Worm Shot for being a ‘girl band,’ they laugh it off,” in our August 2024 print edition, and posted at RenoNR.com on Aug. 11, 2024. The judge said: “I appreciated the ‘girl group’ bullsh*t being addressed headon and accurately.”
Matt Bieker also earned a second award: an honorable mention, in the Health Care Reporting category, for “Nevada’s first psychedelic church: As activists push for full legality, these spiritual leaders plan to offer psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic use under the religious freedom act,” in our March 2024 print edition, and posted at RenoNR.com on March 1, 2024. The judge said: “What an intriguing read. The headline immediately drew me in as I wondered whether that was really a ‘workaround.’ The ensuing article was well-written and answered my questions. This is such an interesting approach to legal use of an illegal substance.”
Congrats to Matt, Frank, and the rest of our amazing RN&R team!
Community Is Our Priority.
Since 1993, the Reno News & Review has been telling the community’s stories. Our mission is to inform readers like you— and to help you build stronger connections with your community. However, advertising revenue is down, and the future of our monthly print edition is at stake. Help the RN&R meet this moment!
Please consider becoming a sustaining supporter, or make a onetime donation, by visiting RenoNR.com/support-our-publication, or by sending us a check using the coupon to the right.
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ON NEVADA BUSINESS
A better business building
UNR’s high tech, downtown-adjacent facility opens in August
More than 10 years ago, I was having lunch at a local spot with Greg Mosier, dean of the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno. The university was in the midst of a series of real estate moves to bridge the campus community and downtown.
UNR had purchased, or was purchasing, many of the old properties that it didn’t already own along Eighth and Ninth streets on the north side of Interstate 80, between Evans Avenue and Virginia Street.
We discussed a vision Mosier had for the future of Reno, the College of Business and the community. He described his clear vision of a new College of Business building that could be the true Reno gateway for business, community, hospitality and academics, all readily viewed and easily accessed from the freeway and downtown. This would give the university—previously tucked up on the hill—a formidable presence, overlooking the vibrant, ever-changing city. The College of Business was in the process of growing by 30% in a decade and would expand to become the UNR college with the highest undergraduate enrollment. It had outgrown the 1982 Ansari Business Building—with old elevators and classrooms, and low-slung hallways—years before. (I won’t miss the elevators jamming and sending the throngs into the stairwells, which are my preferred mode of climbing the four flights at the old building.)
There were many folks involved in the vision of extending the campus into the downtown corridor and beyond, especially UNR President Brian Sandoval (the state’s governor at the time of my lunch with Mosier). He was instrumental in bringing this to fruition. The dean’s description was the first I had heard about it in person, though.
The vision has many facets, but all include the university helping to renovate and clean up the areas leading into the gaming and entertainment corridors. The Ozmen Center, until now located in the old business building, has in many ways helped bring the university and the community together over this last decade—but its location brought challenges with proximity and parking for folks not familiar with the campus. Sandoval was instrumental in pushing this forward. This new building is a shining star and easy to navigate for all!
That day I met with Mosier, his vision was so clear and concise it was hard to imagine a new business building downtown not happening. He was describing the need for the building with such detail and passion that I knew it would come to fruition. The
big obstacle was the money, estimated at the time at more than $100 million. (According to a 2024 Reno Gazette-Journal article, the budget turned out to be $153 million.) The dean was on a mission to make it happen. After all, the university already owned or was buying all of the property on the north side of the freeway between Evans Avenue and Virginia Street. The timing was good to get rolling. With a creative public-private partnership to finance the project, the dean pushed through with his development team.
It has now become a reality. The new building is set to open in late August, in time for fall classes. It will include a wide-open set of co-working spaces, labs, classrooms, and offices and will include a trading lab with cutting-edge equipment to simulate real-time trading of assets like stocks, bonds and crypto. There are spacious, tiered classrooms, all hooked up with the latest high-definition screens and touchscreen tech. There are beautiful rotunda windows facing downtown to represent the merging and sharing, optimized for heat and cool in the winter and summer. The new Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship will continue to be the hub for startup growth activity, both on campus and in the community. There is a new, 300-seat, high-tech auditorium with giant screens. Of course, there will be a café for food, frolic and collaboration. The new spacious setting is open, sunny and bright from every direction.
“We are excited how this new facility represents the community’s gateway to all the university offers to enhance education, economic development, and the quality of life in Nevada,” said Moser. “It is significant in showing our commitment to the local, state and regional business community.”
The new John Tulloch Business Building is the second part of the bigger vision for the University Mathewson Gateway Project, which, according to the university “will catalyze the invigoration of northern Reno between I-80 and Downtown Reno while expanding the university beyond its southern boundary, therefore creating a much-needed link between the university and the city of Reno via an urban university environment replete with a mix of academic and research uses.”
The new parking garage east of the business building opened last year, to much fanfare from those who have had to fight for parking on campus as a contact sport over the last decade.
After all of the years in the old building, there is a palpable buzz among the faculty and staff, as they’re all packed up and ready to move in. The ability to better serve the students and the community is what drives the excitement.
| BY MATT WESTFIELD
Respectfully, it has always been a pain for the community to get to the Ansari Business Building, in the middle of campus. Between the paid-parking inconvenience and the march
to the old building, many meetings were late, not affiliated with UNR to meet and collaborate.
UNR’s John Tulloch Business Building. Photo/David Robert
UPFRONT
Seven Magic Mountains sculpture no longer bound for Washoe County
Seven Magic Mountains, the monumental land-art installation in Clark County commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art, is no longer slated to be relocated to Washoe County.
The sculpture—consisting of 33 brightly painted limestone boulders, stacked into cairns up to 35 feet tall—was installed near Jean Dry Lake, south of Las Vegas, in 2016. The piece was initially slated to remain at that site for three years. Its stay has been renewed through 2026 but cannot be renewed again, as the museum’s lease with the Bureau of Land Management expires then. The land is allocated for an airport expansion.
In August 2024, the Washoe County Board of Commissioners voted to allocate $500,000 for the museum to relocate the sculpture to an undetermined site in Washoe County. The move would have been funded by American Rescue Plan Act/State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, part of a $350 billion federal COVID pandemic relief package.
On July 17, a Washoe County memo announced: “The agreement defined a strict timeline for identification of a Washoe County location for the art and for securing the additional funds needed for the move and installation. The NMA was unable to secure a Washoe County site for the art installation within the timeline required by the agreement.”
A July 22 press release from the Nevada Museum of Art reads, in part: “The artist (Switzerland’s Ugo Rondinone) was inspired by the bright neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip.” The release also said another draw to the original site is the legacy of monumental land art in Southern Nevada made by Michael Heizer and other prominent artists in the 1960s. “Because of this important history and context, it was ultimately decided that a new home for the project should be identified in Southern Nevada,” it said.
According to the Washoe County memo, “staff will recommend de-obligating the $500,000 NMA award and reallocating the funds to support critical renovations at the Washoe County Behavioral Health facility.”
The commission is scheduled to vote on this recommendation on Aug. 19.
—Kris Vagner
NEWS
Back to the drawing board
A high school team’s robot failed at its attempt to throw a baseball, but the kids know engineering is all about trying again
In April, a group of students from the Davidson Academy and TMCC High School formed a new robotics team dubbed The Ionizers, to compete in a major robotics competition.
A few months later, on July 24, their first robot, SCooBY (Super Cool Baseball Yeeter), threw the first pitch at the Reno Aces game, against the Oklahoma City Comets at Greater Nevada Field.
The original group consisted of Dana Schrock, 16; Max Clemetsen, 17; Myla Clemetsen, 15; and Brayden Law, 17. The
team now includes 15 students, grades 8-12, from five schools.
The baseball event was part of a fundraiser to help the group raise $50,000 to compete in national and international robotics competitions.
“There’s this international nonprofit organization called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), and it has different levels,” said Dana, who is part of the mechanical division and works on the physical manufacturing and fabrication of parts. She added that The Ionizers compete at the highest level. Thousands of teams, from more than 110
| BY JASON SARNA
Competition advisor Andy Webb (left), engineer Eric Schrock (second from left) and Jennifer Munro (right), from UNR’s Aerospace and Defense Academy, are the mentors to The Ionizers, the team of high schoolers whose first major project is a robot designed to pitch a baseball. They appeared at Greater Nevada Field on July 24. Photo/courtesy of The Ionizers
countries, including more than 3 million young people have participated in FIRST competitions since the group’s inception in 1989, according to its website. Every year, in the first week of January, participants are given a game that requires them to design, build and program a large robot, around 120 pounds and capable of moving at 25 to 30 miles an hour.
“It’s like a YouTube video that’s like three hours long, and it explains the whole game and everything we’re trying to do,” said Max, who is the head programmer and writes code. “Then, from there, we are building our robot until the middle of March, when we go to competition.”
Depending on how well The Ionizers’ yet-tobe-built robot performs in the competition, they will either be done with their season, or move on to the world championships.
“At every competition, there are 40 to 60 robots, and only one or two makes it to world championships,” Max said.
Leading the team are Eric Schrock and Andy Webb, who are considered “lead mentors.” Eric, an engineer by trade, explained some of the benefits of being on a robotics team. He said students are “working with tools that we use in the industry” and that the competition provides students with “a very real-world project with a very real-world deadline using real-world tools.”
Webb, who has been involved in FIRST for 16 years, noted, “They don’t have vocational training in high schools much anymore. … This combines high-tech technology with vocational training.”
He added that safety is always the top priority. “I mean, we’re using power tools and sharp metal and things like that,” he said.
Jennifer Munro, a coordinator for the Aerospace and Defense Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Business, serves as “team coach” and loves how the FIRST program recognizes kids for their individual strengths.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re good at,” Munro said. “Doing a community team like this, it takes so many different people to make it happen.”
She said the FIRST program helps kids step out of their comfort zones, improve their speaking skills and gain confidence. The core values of FIRST include discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, fun, gracious professionalism and what the team calls “cooperition.”
“It’s a combination of the words cooperation and competition,” said Dana. “So even though
you have all these teams from different places competing against each other, it’s a really connected community of students who just want to help each other out.”
Shruthi I., 16, who asked the RN&R not to use her last name, is the team’s business-marketing lead. She said being a part of The Ionizers is more than just a project; it feels like running a small business, where students and mentors band together “to solve the thousands of little last-minute problems that will arise, whether it’s for the technical aspect, like the code isn’t running or the robot is glitching, or fundraising and outreach.”
A malfunction—and a learning experience
In the week leading up to the Aces game, Max said the team was about “a lot more than just robotics.”
“We also do a lot of outreach events like this to spread awareness of robotics in our community,” he said.
The Ionizers work out of The Generator, the nonprofit makerspace known for its Burning Man art.
“It’s really, really cool to be at The Generator, because they’re artists, and they have such a fresh perspective,” Shruthi said. “It’s really amazing to hear a different outlook, because, although it may not be robotics-focused, it’s still incredibly helpful to hear what they have to say, and what it looks like from a completely different perspective.”
When it was time to throw out the first pitch, a few Ionizers carried SCooBY, donned with an Aces ballcap, to the pitcher’s mound. As the crowd awaited the pitch, the robot malfunc-
Works by a Reno arts legend
On July 18, Greg Allen, a Reno artist long known for his photorealistic paintings of a changing Reno, held the second of two weekend popup exhibitions at the historic house at 216 E. Liberty St., which was the office of nowretired attorney Paul Quade.
The show featured new paintings and prints of some old classics. There were high desert landscapes, powerful portraits of interesting characters, and gritty, urban scenes of Nevada’s neon past. Allen’s portrayal of the old Zephyr bar’s neon sign (left), complete with a neon martini glass and neon olive, is a perennial favorite.
The exhibition will be up for part of August and can be viewed by appointment. To request an appointment, email paulequade1967@gmail.com.
—David Robert
tioned. The ball shot out of SCooBY’s nose and hit the ground.
One of the Ionizers quickly grabbed the ball and put it back into the robot while Max worked on his computer. After a few moments, it was clear: SCooBY was not up to the task. To complete the mission, Max threw the ball across the plate, and the crowd applauded.
With robotics and engineering, failure is part of the process.
“These kids have had the chance to try something that doesn’t work, and they fix it, and they go back,” Eric said. “It gives them a certain confidence, not like a cocky confidence, but it gives them the confidence and capability not to be flinched by something that may go wrong.”
Justin Baratta, 13, a programmer, said the team is “not just for super smart people. Anyone
can contribute. So if you’re interested, just reach out and you can be part of this.”
Dana added: “If you’re even slightly interested in robotics, like programming, manufacturing, electrical, even things like business and graphic design, we would love to come meet you. You can come to one of our meetings, and you can try us out, and you don’t have to commit to anything just yet, but we would love to meet you and tell you all what our team is about.”
For more information, check out The Ionizers on Instagram @theionizers10903. If a child in grades 8-12 is interested in joining the team, email Eric Schrock at evschrock@gmail. com. There is no cost to join, and everyone is welcome, no matter the skillset.
| BY FRANK X. MULLEN
Preserving history’s crossroads
A foundation is seeking donations for improvements to the Donner Party monument
When westbound visitors cross the California border on Interstate 80, Donner Lake Memorial State Park is the first historic site they encounter.
“It is one of the primary entry points to the state,” said Michael Myers, executive director at the Sierra State Parks Foundation. About 250,000 people per year visit the park, including busloads of students from California and Nevada.
The star-crossed Donner Party gets the main billing, but Donner Lake has been a crossroads of history since the time of the mammoth hunters—and on up through the Gold Rush, the coming of the railroads and the dawn of interstate highways. That diverse legacy is documented in the park’s museum and visitor center.
“(The park) has a lot of natural resources and cultural resources, from the Indigenous people—the Washoe Tribe, who were the original caretakers of the area, and continue to be—to the Chinese workers who helped build the railroads, the Donner Party and all the European immigrants who came across the pass,” Myers said. “It has a rich history and significance to many different people.”
A $600,000 upgrade of the more-than-century-old Donner Party monument at the park was completed in 2022. That work stabilized the 22-foot-high rock base of the heroic bronze statue of a pioneer family. It’s at the site where 81 members of the Donner wagon train were trapped for months by early snow storms in the fall of 1846, and about half of them died.
The Native Sons of the Golden West, which built and donated the monument to the state in 1918, and the Sierra State Parks Foundation are splitting the costs for phase two of the Donner Project. That phase includes native landscaping, accessibility improvements, a protective barrier for the monument (to discourage climbers), a surrounding trail with seating areas and other improvements. An amphitheater/educational pavilion behind the museum also is being built.
The goal is to create a space for contemplation, reflection and respect for the layers of history represented at the site.
Myers said about $135,000 has been
The Sierra State Parks Foundation is hoping to landscape and improve the area around the Donner Party monument at Donner Lake Memorial State Park in Truckee, Calif. Photo/ courtesy Sierra State Parks Foundation
raised, but the project is about $50,000 short of what’s needed. The foundation is asking the public for donations to complete the work. Donations more than $1,000 will be recognized on a donor wall in the visitor-center foyer.
The project should be completed by the spring of 2026, he said.
After weathering more than 100 Sierra winters, Myers said, the monument and its environs will soon be ready to spend another century deepening public understanding of the Donner Party’s story and the significance of Donner Pass in American history—while ensuring the site remains a place of remembrance and learning for generations to come.
For more details, contact the Sierra State Parks Foundation at 530-583-9911, info@sierrastateparks.org or www.sierrastateparks.org.
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Want a doctor who can see you without delays? Meet Dr. Daniel Bradford
Daniel Bradford, MD, a board-certified family physician for more than 30 years, has opened an MDVIP-affiliated practice at 650 Sierra Rose Drive, Suite B, in Reno.
Dr. Bradford provides compassionate and comprehensive family medicine for patients of all ages in Reno, Lake Tahoe and the surrounding areas. He also has experience as an urgent care physician and is adept at handling a wide range of acute illnesses and injuries.
“I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, since a very early age,” Dr. Bradford said. “I like helping people. I like helping people succeed. The patient-doctor interaction— that’s the best part, finding out what a person does for a living, about their children, and helping them succeed in their goals and their health.”
Doctors who operate in the MDVIP model typically see far fewer patients than traditional primary-care doctors. That gives them more time to develop deeper
doctor-patient relationships that can lead to better outcomes. They can also offer conveniences that most primary care doctors can’t, including same- and next-day appointments.
“I’ve been practicing medicine since 1989, and I’ve seen big changes,” Dr. Bradford said. “Previously, I was doing urgent care, and one of the reasons I wanted to get back into primary care is I saw so many people coming in and saying, ‘I can’t get in to see my doctor. I’m sick, and they said it’s three months before I can see my doctor.’ When I practiced primary care before, if someone was sick, we got them in. We saw them that day.”
Dr. Bradford and other MDVIP doctors are available after hours for urgent matters—and they have time to focus on prevention. That focus begins with the MDVIP Wellness Program, which patients pay for with their annual membership fee.
“The MDVIP practice is exciting, because I get to do a lot of preventative medicine,”
Dr. Bradford said. “MDVIP has some groundbreaking tests to screen for heart disease, diabetes, cancers—and that’s important in helping people succeed.”
Most MDVIP-affiliated primary care practices accept insurance. (Dr. Bradford and his team can tell you whether they accept your specific insurance plan.) Patients pay an annual fee for preventive-care services that insurance usually doesn’t cover, like advanced diagnostic testing and screenings. Dr. Bradford will bill your insurance and charge copays, co-insurances and deductibles for medical services like sick visits.
“This program is for those who are interested in prevention and making their body healthier,” Dr. Bradford said. “It’s for people who want to spend time with their doctor—the extra time they don’t often get (with their current doctor). Sometimes you’re rushed in and out, and you feel like, ‘I didn’t even get to ask my questions.’”
The vast majority of MDVIP patients
love the experience—97% of MDVIP members are satisfied with their doctor-patient relationship (vs 58% in traditional PCPs). And if you need urgent care while traveling, Dr. Bradford can help arrange your care with a local hospital, pharmacy or doctor.
“When I first went into medicine, I envisioned having a practice where patients and I can sit down, talk about everything that is on their mind, and build a connection that allows us to navigate their health journey together,” said Dr. Bradford. “Joining MDVIP enables me to deliver on this vision, blending relationship-based patient care with modern medical capabilities—without the time constraints that many people have experienced in today’s frustrating healthcare environment.”
Learn more about Dr. Bradford and his new MDVIP practice by calling 775-9001670, or visit www.mdvip.com/doctors/ danielbradfordmd.
Losing our history?
The California Digital Newspaper Collection is funded— but all of the employees responsible were laid off anyway
The University of California, Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) learned back in April that state funding for the California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) online archive, approved by the California Legislature last year for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, would not be coming to the CDNC after all. The 20-year veteran director of the college’s Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR), Brian Geiger, determined that the funds had likely been used elsewhere by the State Library. At the time, Geiger estimated that the CBSR would be about $300,000 in debt as a result of this state-funding failure. He launched a public fundraising campaign to try to bridge the gap, which was somewhat successful, netting about $110,000. He later learned that the state had funded the CDNC archive moving forward—and that federal funding to help the project had been restored as well. Despite all of this good news, however, the future of the California Digital Newspaper Collection (cdnc.ucr.edu) remains unclear—and Geiger is now unemployed, along with the rest of his CBSR team.
The CDNC includes searchable content from hundreds of newspapers, going back as far as 1846. This includes various Tahoe, Sierra and California/Nevada border-area newspapers. Editions from two incarnations of the Tahoe Tattler are included—from 1881-1882 and 1935-1959. Editions of the Lassen County Times, out of Susanville, from 1978-2000 are there (when the site is working), as are editions from the Lassen Mail,
Brian Geiger was director of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California, Riverside, which oversees the California Digital Newspaper Collection. He and the rest of the CBSR employees were laid off on June 27.
Attempts to stabilize the site
Geiger said that he and his team worked in their last weeks on the job to stabilize the site’s operations, wrap up content acquisitions, and assure physical asset security, among other chores. Still, he expressed concerns about what the future would hold for the archive’s users around the world.
“My main priority was trying to organize what we have in such a way that someone could come in and manage it well, find new homes for the microfilm that we have, and figure out what to do with the newsprint (which had been obtained, but not yet digitized),” Geiger said. “And then, in the last week, I provided as much detail about the digital collection (as I could), so that it could keep running and potentially find a new home after we left.
also out of Susanville, from 1915-1938. Grass Valley’s Daily National Gazette, from 18531860, and Morning Union, from 1865-1922, are in the archive, as are the Truckee Republican, from 1874-1933, and Truckee’s Sierra Sun, from 1933-1944. There are even a handful of Nevada newspapers, including one edition of the Elko Independent, from March 18, 1871—which includes news about a man attempting to burn down Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City.
As of this writing, there 23,449,221 pages in the CDNC archive, which has always been free to search and view.
As Geiger started the fundraising campaign in the spring, he did not reveal that he and his three CBSR staff members were all given 60-day termination notices in late April. June 27 was their final day of employment.
“The center (had) four full time employees at that point, and we were all let go. So, the center is essentially closed now,” Geiger recently told our sister publication, the Coachella Valley Independent.
The homepage of the archive now includes a statement, dated July 11, from Daryle Williams, dean of the UCR College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. “UCR is actively working on a sustainable model for the CDNC to continue to be available to the public. Effective July 1, 2025, the Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research functions under the direct oversight of the Office of the Dean within the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS),” it says, in part.
Geiger expressed confusion at this statement. “There’s really no CBSR there anymore,” he said.
“Right before the center closed, we had done some work in the data center, and the site was responding very slowly. I wouldn’t be surprised if it still is. But I think it’s more or less stable, and the vendor that we’ve worked with for years, who maintains the hosting software, is really great to work with. I imagine UCR will lean on them for the next while, and get their help keeping the collection accessible.”
If that was indeed the thinking, the plan has not worked this far. Searches done just before this story went to press, worked—but the actual newspaper images were inaccessible.
The decision to fire Geiger and his team is particularly hard to understand in light of the fact that state and federal funding, which was intended to support both the CDNC and CBSR operations through fiscal 2025-2026, was reinstated shortly before the end of June. One of the CBSR’s efforts was the California Newspaper Project, “a multi-year effort by the CBSR to identify, describe and preserve California newspapers.” The California Digital Newspaper Collection was part of that larger effort.
“The state funding, which was officially restored, was for the California Newspaper Project, and not solely the California Digital Newspaper Collection,” Geiger said. “So, that (July 11 statement on the CDNC website) really says nothing about continued preservation or digitization of California newspapers. If the dean plans to manage the CBSR, then traditionally one of the roles of the center was to be the sole place in California working to preserve and digitize California newspapers. So, it seems like (the status of) that work should be addressed too, and not just the digital archive.”
Ironically, on June 27, his last day on the job, Geiger received an email from the federal gov-
| BY KEVIN FITZGERALD
ernment’s National Endowment for the Humanities informing him that the CBSR funding as part of the National Daily Newspaper Program had been restored.
“That (funding) was terminated in April,” Geiger explained, “and that’s kind of what started this downward spiral for CBSR. … That’s not my problem now, but I’m not quite sure how UCR is going to meet the demands of that grant. It’s pretty technical, and we spent many years coming up to speed on the grant requirements.”
The Independent requested an interview with Daryle Williams to discuss the future of the California Newspaper Project and the California Digital Newspaper Collection. In response, we received an email from John Warren, UCR’s senior director of news and content, which read: “The dean will not be available for an interview. However, the college has placed a statement on the CDNC web page related to the archive’s status. This is all the information we have now. We expect to have further information in the coming months. Thanks for your interest.”
Since Williams would not answer our questions, we asked Geiger why he thought he and his colleagues were terminated.
“The justification given was lack of funds,” Geiger said. “Not only was the state funding fully restored, but we raised somewhere over $110,000 through donations to help support us. At the beginning of every fiscal year, I would do budget projections for the fall to make sure we have enough funds to cover (our expenses). I didn’t do it this year, because the center was closing, but the other day, I sat down, and just for kicks, I said, ‘OK, what would our expenses have been?’ I did a budget projection based on the restoration of the funding and the approximately $110,000 that we raised in donations, and it looked to me like we would have been short, at the most, about $50,000 to $60,000 in fiscal year 2025. … I never actually saw a budget from the dean’s office. I don’t know what their budget projections are, and what they thought expenses would be. I can’t imagine that the restored funding will not actually cover the rising costs of personnel, technology and cybersecurity. I’ve been doing budgets for this for two decades, and I have a pretty good sense of what would have been covered.
“Of course, part of our funding did come from the college, and if they’re not willing to support (the CBSR and CNDC) anymore, then, of course, there won’t be sufficient funds to cover the work.”
Geiger summed up his two-decade CDNC work by saying: “I hope that the project, the CDNC as it exists, can continue. I’m sorry that work on preserving newspapers might be at least interrupted, if not stopped.”
Jimmy Boegle contributed to this story, a version of which originally ran in our sister publication, the Coachella Valley Independent.
OUTDOORS
Trees with benefits
The high-altitude whitebark pine is an ecological workhorse, but it’s threatened by a prolific fungus
Last summer, in an act I can mostly attribute to peer pressure, I found myself watching the sunrise at the top of one of the tallest peaks in the Tahoe Basin: Mount Tallac. I’m not one for “peak bagging”— climbing peaks to cross them off some list of accomplishments—but this experience allowed me a look into the high-elevation environment that is home to the impressive but threatened whitebark pine tree.
This tree grows in conditions that many other species resist. Found on ridges and elevations just below the tree line (the elevation above which trees do not grow), the whitebark withstands winds regularly in excess 100 mph, heavy snows, fits of lightning and unobscured sunshine, usually while making do with poor, rocky soil.
The composition of the trees always stands out to me while I’m hiking. They’re often low to the ground and growing in clusters— warped, bent or whorled. There’s a term for these stunted and gnarled trees near the tree line—krummholz, or “crooked wood.”
Whitebark pines survive not only for themselves; birds like the Clark’s nutcracker, bears and other mammals depend on their
nutritious seeds. Humans depend on their ability to maintain snowpacks by providing shade in exposed areas, which prevents premature melting (and possible flooding, or water scarcity during summer). Delicate landscapes, like that along the Tallac ridgeline, depend on the tree’s roots to stabilize the ground.
“It’s a keystone species, which means it’s basically the anchor of the ecosystem and one of the most important species in that ecosystem,” said Maria Mircheva, executive director of the Sugar Pine Foundation. “You chose a pretty cool tree to write about.”
While these trees evolved to live in some of the harshest conditions, they were listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2022—because they are dying in unprecedented numbers. This is due to a fungus called white pine blister rust, as well as increased temperatures due to climate change and mountain pine beetle attacks.
The Sugar Pine Foundation works primarily with—you guessed it—sugar pines, but concerns itself with other white pines (pines with needles in bunches of five), like the Western white pine and whitebark pine. All white pines are susceptible to white pine blister rust, a
disease with a 95% mortality rate for infected trees. The organization was founded to help combat the effects of the disease and operates with a hands-on approach to conservation.
Each year, the group collects seeds from trees to test for blister rust. Seeds from healthy trees that have resisted the disease are then grown into seedlings and replanted around the Tahoe Basin. They plant an estimated 10,000 seedlings each year, though not yet any whitebark pines.
“More work has been done to preserve sugar pine and find resistant trees, because it’s a commercial species (used for lumber),” Mircheva said. “But the higher elevation species—so whitebark, limber, foxtail, bristle cone—they’re not commercial species … so a lot less work has been done.”
In some states, like Oregon, whitebark pines with rust resistance have been successfully replanted. An organization called the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation sowed 20,000 resistant whitebark pine seeds in April 2025. The seeds are growing into seedlings at a United States Forest Service greenhouse, and in two years will be transported for planting on the public lands where they were gathered.
“The best time to plant a tree is 50 years
| BY HELENA GUGLIELMINO
Endangered whitebark pines live at high altitudes. Mount Tallac is a good place in the region to spot them. Photo/Helena Guglielmino
ago,” Mircheva said. “The second-best time is now.” However, she mentioned that replanting efforts have not happened in California yet, because no trees with blister-rust-resistant genes have been identified locally.
The Sugar Pine Foundation and others continue collecting seeds. In 2024, Friends of Nevada Wilderness doubled its seed-collecting efforts, sending seeds to the Lucky Peak Nursery in Idaho’s Boise National Forest for long-term storage, “helping to protect and study this vital species,” an October 2024 Instagram post reported.
At the tree line on the western slope of Mount Tallac, some whitebark pines look ghostly white with limbs stripped of green, but a fair number still look healthy. Sarah Green, the North Tahoe/Truckee program manager at the Sugar Pine Foundation, notes that it can be difficult sometimes to notice the effects of blister rust, but that if you know where to look, you’ll see “yellowish-orange oozy things” along the trunks and limbs.
There are few hikes that allow you to see whitebark pines without climbing to the ridges or peaks. Though it can be grueling, the hike to the top of Mount Tallac is rewarding. Not only can you see whitebark pine—identify the tree by its five-bunched needles, closed cones and grey, scaly bark—but the views of the Tahoe Basin and Crystal Range are incredible. A great way to break up this hike is to camp at Gilmore Lake in Desolation Wilderness. From the lake, it is a little more than 1.5 miles to the peak. Camping at Gilmore requires a backcountry permit, available at recreation.gov.
If you’d like an adventure a bit closer to Reno, check out Donner Summit via trails like the Mount Judah Loop Trail, which is a little more than five miles and features whitebark pines along the ridge along with incredible views. The Mount Rose Peak Trail is a classic as well. There, the whitebark pines are especially present on the switchbacks just under the summit (around mile 4).
If you’d like to get involved with conifer-conservation efforts, volunteer locally with or donate to the Sugar Pine Foundation or Friends of Nevada Wilderness. The Sugar Pine Foundation does not want the public to collect seeds from whitebarks, but you can help water or plant seedlings. Through the foundation, you can also adopt a tree or an acre of land— GPS coordinates and photos included. Your financial support of the organization goes directly toward restoring Tahoe’s sugar pines and other white pines, regenerating burn scars, improving overall forest health and diversity, and building a culture of environmental stewardship in the Tahoe region.
Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight
For August, 2025
ASTRONOMY
This sky chart is drawn for latitude 40 degrees north, but may be used in continental U.S. and southern Canada.
August’s evening sky chart.
Illustration/Robert D. Miller
cent moon, with earthshine visible on its darker, non-sunlit side, appears near Venus and the Twin stars Pollux and Castor. And on Aug. 21, a thin 4 percent crescent moon appears near Mercury. Mercury, after passing inferior conjunction nearly between Earth and the sun on July 31, enters the morning sky. Deep in bright twilight at first, it attains first magnitude by Aug. 14, when it can be spotted very low in the east-northeast an hour before sunrise, 18° to the lower left of Venus. It gets better! Mercury brightens to magnitude zero by Aug. 18, when it’s 16° to Venus’ lower left. Mercury climbs highest in twilight and approaches closest to the lower left of Venus, by 15°, on Aug. 20-21. Continuing to brighten as it heads toward the far side of the sun, Mercury reaches magnitude 1.0 on Aug. 27, while dropping lower, to 17° to the lower left of Venus. By Aug. 31, Mercury shines at magnitude -1.2, but is still lower in twilight, 19° to the lower left of Venus. Mercury will pass superior conjunction, hiding on far side of sun, on Sept. 13.
The faint distant ice giant planets, 5.7-magnitude Uranus and 7.8-magnitude Neptune, can be viewed with optical aid before morning twilight begins. Uranus is easy for binoculars, within 4.4° to the south of third-magnitude Alcyone, the Pleiades’ brightest star. Neptune is 1.1° north to 1.7° north-northeast of Saturn this month, so a small shift in the aim of the telescope after you inspect Saturn’s rings will bring the faint planet into view.
August skies
Set your alarm to get up and enjoy cooler early mornings—and a lot of beautiful celestial events
In August, the most beautiful scenery and impressive celestial events are to be enjoyed before dawn—along with much more comfortable temperatures for sky watching.
At least three of the five bright planets, plus at least nine stars of first-magnitude or brighter, are all simultaneously visible before dawn. By Aug. 14, the Dog Star Sirius, the brightest star—ranking next in brilliance after Venus and Jupiter—rises in twilight in the east-southeast. Find it by extending the three-star belt of Orion down toward the horizon. Rising left of Sirius, a few degrees north of due east and, in Reno, about 20 minutes earlier is Procyon, the ”before the Dog” star, announcing the imminent rising of Sirius. The planet Mercury, to the lower left of Venus, appears above the eastern horizon, bringing the total to four bright planets and 11 bright stars.
Here are additional rewards for early risers:
On Tuesday, Aug. 12, a close pairing of the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, just 0.9° apart, is the most impressive planetary conjunction of this year, with the 88 percent waning gibbous moon appearing close to Saturn that same morning.
Also on Aug. 12, and on the 13th, in predawn darkness hours, the Perseid meteor shower is near its peak.
On Aug. 16, the moon, 47 percent lit, is nearly half-full and just past last quarter phase, near the Pleiades star cluster, making a wonderful field for binoculars. On Aug. 17, a 36 percent crescent moon is widely north of Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster. The “V” formation of Aldebaran and the Hyades makes up the head of Taurus, and fits nicely into the field of view of binoculars.
On Aug. 19, a 16 percent crescent moon appears near Jupiter. On Aug. 20, a thinner 9 per-
That makes a total of six planets visible in the August morning sky, after Mercury has become easy to see around mid-month. The six planets, in order from east to west, are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, faint Uranus, faint Neptune and Saturn. They span 124° on Aug. 15; 130°on Aug. 21; 135° on Aug. 25; and 146°on Aug. 31. Over a span of 10 mornings, August 12-21, the waning moon passes eastward along the planetary lineup, from Saturn to Mercury, and the much more distant background stars of the zodiac constellations Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer.
In the evening sky about an hour after sunset on Aug. 1, golden Arcturus, high in the west-southwest, and blue-white Vega, high in the east-northeast, are the brightest stars visible. Altair and Deneb complete the Summer Triangle with Vega. The moon, 56 percent full and just past first quarter phase, is in Libra, midway between blue-white Spica in the southwest, and reddish Antares in south, 23° from each. Mars, dim at magnitude +1.6, is low in the western sky, 27° to the lower right of Spica. It’s no coincidence that Mars, Spica, the moon and Antares lie in a nearly straight line, since Spica and Antares lie only a few degrees south of the ecliptic (plane of Earth orbit), within 2.1° and 4.6°, respectively. Watch the moon shift position eastward by an average of 13.2° daily, returning to the same stars after 27.3 days. On the evening of Aug. 2,
| BY ROBERT VICTOR
the 65 percent moon is 11° to the west of Antares. On Aug. 3, the 74 percent moon appears 1°-2° to the lower left of Antares one hour after sunset. On Aug. 4, the southernmost, 82 percent moon appears in Ophiuchus, the Serpent-bearer, 13° to the lower left of Antares. Notice how unusually low the moon is as it passes directly south that night, only 21° up for the Reno area, nearly 1.5 hours after sunset, and nearly 6° lower than the Dec. 21 winter solstice midday sun. Later that night, watch the moon set unusually far south of west, 4.4 hours after reaching its high point for the Reno area.
On the evening of Aug. 5, the 89 percent moon appears within the Teapot, an eight-star asterism within the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer. On the next evening, the 95 percent moon is east of the Teapot.
The moon is full on the night of Aug. 8-9, rising around sunset and setting shortly after sunrise. Thereafter, watch the waning gibbous moon rise farther north and not much later each successive evening, but still before the end of twilight. On the evening of Aug. 11, about two hours after sunset, watch for Saturn rising within 5° to the lower left of the 90 percent moon. The 88 percent moon and Saturn appear closest the next morning, Aug. 12, about 3° apart, high in the southern sky, 1 1/2 hours before sunrise. The best dates for viewing the Milky Way, high in the sky with little or no moonlight at the end of evening twilight, are Aug. 13-26.
The moon returns to the evening sky on Aug. 24, as a 4 percent crescent, very low in the west in bright twilight, a half-hour after sunset.
On Aug. 25, 40 minutes after sunset, the 8 percent crescent is very low, south of west. Try for faint Mars (magnitude +1.6) within 7° to the upper left of the moon, and 12° to the lower right of first-magnitude Spica.
On Aug. 26, the 16 percent crescent is low in the west-southwest, with Mars within 7° to its right, and Spica 6° to the moon’s upper left.
On Aug. 27, one hour after sunset, the 22 percent crescent is low in the west-southwest, with Spica within 7° to the right, and Mars 11° to the lower right of Spica.
One hour after sunset on Aug. 28, the 30 percent crescent moon in the southwest has Spica 18° to its lower right, and Antares 28° to its upper left. At the same stage of twilight on Aug. 29, the 39 percent moon is 17° to the lower right of Antares.
On Aug. 30, one hour after sunset, the 49% moon, nearing first quarter phase, is in the south-southwest, 4° to the lower right of Antares.
On Aug. 31, one hour after sunset, the 58 percent, slightly gibbous moon is in the south to south-southwest, 8° to the lower left of Antares. Mars ends August to the 8.5° lower right of Spica.
Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still helps produce an occasional issue.
Stereographic Projection Map by Robert D. Miller
mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon.
In December 2020, wildlife photographer Randy Robbins was walking in the woods by his Susanville, Calif., home when he came across a dead doe covered with a layer of frost. He used his cell phone to take a picture of her (she was too close for the 400-millimeter lens he was carrying), and he posted it to social media
Robbins titled the photo “Full Circle,” and in 2024, it became the first photo taken with a smartphone camera to win an award in the 60-year history of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, put on by the Natural History Museum in London.
On a recent weekend afternoon, Robbins met with the RN&R in his wife’s law office—which adjoins his downtown Susanville gallery, A Thousand Windows—surrounded by beautiful prints of the doe, a gray wolf, bobcats, mountain lions, bald eagles and landscapes. The photographer, part-time pastor and former teacher shared the story of how the doe photo kicked off a series of events that led to him getting what scientists say is the first-ever professional, high-resolution photograph of a Sierra Nevada red fox.
‘HOW HARD COULD THAT BE?’
Robbins realized that bobcats and other wildlife would be coming by to feed on the doe’s carcass. He set up trail cams, which take video when they detect movement,
to see what kind of animals would come by, and when. He then built a camera blind (like a hunting blind), so animals wouldn’t see him when he was shooting in-person.
The trail cams showed that a bobcat kept coming to feed on the doe—in the middle of the night, not during the long hours Robbins spent waiting in the blind. The frustration of not getting the shot inspired him to learn more
about camera traps, which are much more than trail cams: They use a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera and yield higher-quality photos.
After some experimentation, Robbins developed a system using trail cams to show animals moving in the area, with the shutter of the camera trap—a DSLR camera in a weatherproof housing—set off by a motion trigger.
There was a lot of trial and error. The timing between trigger and shutter has to be precise, and the focus has to be set manually.
“It can’t autofocus at night,” Robbins said. “So you have to know within inches where you’re hoping the animal is going to walk by.” His setup requires 40 AA batteries every three weeks, so the traps, typically in remote areas, must be checked and refreshed regularly.
Throughout 2021, Robbins said, he captured hundreds of images—of squirrels, mountain lions, bobcats and gray foxes. He practiced his lighting and timing techniques on them, learning which shots work in daylight and at night.
Robbins, who had been teaching at Lassen High School when a gray wolf called OR-7 became the first spotted in California since the 1920s, was fascinated by the wolf and his travels. He and his students followed online posts about the wolf’s movements. Eventually, OR-7’s offspring led to the establishment of the Lassen pack of gray wolves in 2017.
Once Robbins mastered photo-trapping, he realized he could probably get the first-ever high-resolution shot of a California gray wolf. He studied reports from ranchers and biologists indicating where the wolves might be, and set up a camera trap in the forest.
In July 2021, the Dixie Fire broke out,
A Thousand Windows, Randy Robbins' photography gallery, is in the same building as his wife's law practice in Susanville, Calif. Photo/Sarah Russell
ABOVE: Scientists loved Robbins’ photo of the Sierra Nevada red fox, but Robbins himself has some critiques. Photo/Randy Robbins continued on next page
continued from Page 13
forcing Robbins to take his gear down. After the fire, he went back to see if he could find signs of the wolves. The forest floor was covered in ash, making wolf tracks easy to spot. In November 2021, less than a year after the dead doe inspired him to master camera-trapping, Robbins had what he and the California Wildlife Photo of the Year organization believe to be the first-ever high-quality photo of a Lassen pack wolf. The wolf stands amidst the Dixie Fire destruction with muddy ash on its feet, staring just past the camera.
According to the California Wolf Center, there were only 20 of them in the state at that point. The picture went viral. At that point, Robbins figured if he could photograph a gray wolf, he could get anything.
“It was so rare and so difficult that it made me maybe a little cocky,” he said. “I started looking into what would be another rare, difficult catch—and the animal that got mentioned the most was the Sierra Nevada red fox. And I thought, ‘How hard could that be?’”
FOX FACTS
Jennifer Carlson, a biologist working in the red fox conservation program for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), has been tracking and studying the Southern Cascades population of Sierra Nevada red foxes for 10 years. The population lives in Lassen National Park and is often referred to as the “Lassen Population.” Each winter, Carlson works with a team to trap the foxes and fit them with GPS collars. She said her team can positively count five of these foxes, and she
guesses there might be about 15 altogether.
“The foxes are small, about the size of a housecat,” said John Perrine, who is now a CDFW wildlife supervisor for Trinity, Shasta and Tehama counties, but got his doctorate studying these foxes at UC Berkeley in the 1990s and ’00s.
“They don’t make packs or groups, and they largely don’t like to be around people,” he said. “So it’s really tricky to get a population estimate.”
His ballpark estimate is close to Carlson’s— maybe around 20.
“For a thousand square miles, that’s not a lot,” Perrine said.
Robbins talked with staff at Lassen Volcanic National Park and learned that wildlife organizations are eager for research help to learn more about these foxes and other animals.
“Everybody … wants citizen science efforts to add data points to where these animals are being detected,” he said.
He secured a scientific research permit in September 2022 from the National Park Service and set up his trail cameras that fall, in order to determine where to install camera traps the following summer.
A week and a half later, he learned that a storm was about to roll in. Robbins knew the park could close the roads for the winter once the storm hit, so he went out to retrieve his equipment. Much to his surprise, the trail cam had captured a video of the elusive Sierra Nevada red fox.
Carlson knew that fox. It was a female she called “F5.”
Robbins spent the summer of 2023 putting trail cams and camera traps in various locations around Lassen Volcanic National Park. He used his own data, as well as data from the park, to triangulate areas where the foxes were moving—but he never caught one on camera all year. He did leave a camera trap set up over the winter in the location he thought was most likely.
In the summer of 2024, when the roads opened again, and Robbins could get back to his equipment, he found exciting footage: He
had caught a Sierra Nevada red fox on a camera trap, not just on a trail cam.
Carlson could identify the female fox by the collar, which had been placed in 2020. The batteries in the collars go dead in a couple of years. Once foxes are trapped and collared once, Carlson said, they get “trap shy,” and can rarely be collared again. She was excited to see this female still doing well.
“It gives us a good idea on survival,” she said. “Some of our other females that we’ve collared haven’t been as successful. We had one hit by a vehicle, and then we had one that we don’t know what happened to her, but she
“I started looking into what would be another rare, difficult catch (to photograph)—and the animal that got mentioned the most was the Sierra Nevada red fox. And I thought, ‘How hard could that be?’”
–Wildlife photographer Randy Robbins
just up and died one day, and she was fairly young.”
Carlson estimates that the fox was 3 or 4 years old when she collared it and is now 8 or 9, very old for a wild red fox living in the mountains.
Randy Robbins, who got what scientists believe is the first-ever high quality photo of the endangered Sierra Nevada red fox, is now on a mission to get a better photo of said fox.
As a scientist, Carlson loved the camera-trap photo. As a photographer, Robbins was not so impressed. The fox was squatting and peeing on a bush, and wearing a GPS collar, which, to him, detracted from the shot.
“I mean, I finally got a fox on the camera trap! But it was just a weird picture, man,” he said with a laugh.
In 2024, Randy Robbins’ photo of a dead deer on his property became the first photo taken with a smartphone camera to win an award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition’s 60-year history.
Photo/Randy Robbins
A FERAL FOX IN THE MIX
This June, when Robbins retrieved footage from his overwintered equipment, he found new fox video footage on the trail cam. There were three clips of what appears to be the same Sierra Nevada red fox as the one from the 2024 photo. She has a thick, full winter coat that is bright red, in dazzling contrast to the snowy surroundings. In broad daylight, she walks to a promontory, looks out over the ravine below, and looks around. Beyond her is a snowy mountain peak. In a second clip, she does a big stretch that will inspire anyone to do a little yoga. In a third, she settles onto the warm rock for a moment before moving on.
The footage has been shared by news sites worldwide.
1900s,” said Sacks, who has been studying Sierra Nevada red foxes for about 30 years.
“California’s a pretty ridiculous place to have a fur farm, but there were probably 50 or 60 of them throughout the state. By the midpart of the century, it was pretty clear that it wasn’t economical. All of those fur farms went under—and presumably they just turned their foxes loose. Whether they escaped or were deliberately turned loose, nobody will ever know, but definitely that’s where they came from.”
There are “ probably fewer than five breeding pairs, and it could be considerably fewer. It could be one or two breeding pairs. ”
–Ben Sacks, mammal ecologist and geneticist at the University of California, Davis, on the Southern Cascades population of the Sierra Nevada red fox
Several people have pointed out to Robbins that they have had red foxes in their yards. According to Ben Sacks, a mammal ecologist and geneticist at the University of California, Davis, the red foxes in yards are a non-native species descended from fur farms.
“There was kind of a craze back in the early
of Yosemite National Park, and the Southern Cascades population in Lassen. Both populations were listed on the California Threatened and Endangered Species list in 1980. However, because there was so little data about the Southern Cascades population, it was not listed on the federal Endangered Species List when the Sierra Nevada population was added in 2021.
Sacks agrees with Perrine and Carlson that there aren’t many. He said there are “probably fewer than five breeding pairs, and it could be considerably fewer. It could be one or two breeding pairs.”
PUZZLES IN PROGRESS
Robbins has found himself explaiing the differences between various species of foxes to numerous people on the internet. His video has captured a lot of attention, and the folks trying to save the Sierra Nevada red fox think that’s great.
Perrine, the CDFW wildlife supervisor, has a still of the video set as the desktop on his computer. “(Robbins’ footage) tells the public that these guys exist. It’s awfully hard to have a conservation program for a critter that people don’t even know exists. … Randy is this great ambassador for the mountain red fox, because he’s basically saying, ‘Look how cool this is!’”
Perrine also said that the photos provide data points for scientists.
more Sierra Nevada red fox pictures, as there’s more to learn, especially about the fox’s three different coat patterns—various combinations of red, black and silver.
Robbins isn’t sure what he’ll pursue next. He loved photographing the Lassen pack of gray wolves and would like to get more photos of them. He hesitated, though, because the photo he got drew a lot of ire. (To conservationists, the return of wolves to California is a triumph; to cattle ranchers, it’s a threat to their livelihood. The disagreements can get contentious.) Then he reconsidered, recalling how many people reacted to “Lassen Pack Wolf,” saying they didn’t even know there were wolves in California.
“There are hundreds of people seeing (the Sierra Nevada red fox) for the first time, realizing that these animals exist, that we need to be doing something to protect them—and I think that happens with wolves, too,” Robbins said. He has considered trying for a photo of a wolverine, but he said it’s not clear that any are established in Northern California; they are likely just passing through. Perrine also thinks a wolverine photo would be great, but pointed out, “The problem with that is you could spend years looking and not finding, and that gets hard on the soul, right?”
Whatever Robbins’ next subject is, it will be beautiful—and tell an engaging story about wildlife in the Sierra Nevada.
Sacks said these non-native red foxes are found in the lowland of the Sacramento Valley.
“We also have native Sacramento Valley red foxes also in the lowland, but north of Sacramento,” he said. “And then we have, of course, the Sierra Nevada red foxes. And yes, we have gray foxes throughout the state, although gray foxes and red foxes are as different as wolves and coyotes. They’re even more different.”
He said there are two populations of Sierra Nevada red foxes in California: one called the Sierra Nevada population that lives north
“If we know where a fox is, then we can maybe go find some poop from that fox,” he said. “From that poop, we can get DNA, and it’ll tell us exactly which fox that is, and it’ll tell us what he or she is eating, and things like that. That’s how we build our knowledge of the species, bit by bit.”
Robbins is still not satisfied. He’s been working for three years to get the right DSLR shot of a Sierra Nevada fox. His camera traps are still up, so the photo he envisions could be waiting for him now.
Once Robbins gets the proper high-resolution shot, what will he pursue next?
Sacks, the UC Davis scientist, hopes it’s
Robbins was surprised to see that a trail cam that had been set up in Lassen Volcanic National Park for only a week and a half captured a video of a red fox—one that was already known to scientists as "F5." Video still/Randy Robbins
After Randy Robbins captured the first-ever high-quality photo of a Lassen pack wolf, in 2021, he figured he could photograph other rare, elusive animals in Northern California. Photo/Randy Robbins
Beachy Bard for beginners ARTS
The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Twelfth Night’ is witty and captivating
Bawdy, outrageous, laugh-out-loud fun—they’re not words usually associated with Shakespearean classics, which unfortunately have a reputation for staid drama and linguistic gymnastics that feel too cerebral for a summer night.
But not the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s current production of Twelfth Night—it’s a silly farce of mistaken identity with sparkling wit, visionary direction and captivating actors who so entertainingly bring the Bard’s words to life that you’ll have zero trouble following, and laughing, along.
Sara Bruner, LTSF’s new producing artistic director, kicks off her first full season with the organization as this show’s director, and she’s a triumph. From the play’s first moments, you can tell this isn’t stereotypical Shakespeare. There are no Elizabethan costumes—no sentries in pantaloons, no powdered wigs. This production
is bursting with color, light and sound. A jester in clownish attire stands atop waves that appear carved into the stage, looking ahead at the foolishness to come.
Then, a windswept maiden, washed ashore after a shipwreck, appears to our right, atop a Tahoe boulder. Bruner takes advantage of the Sand Harbor amphitheater’s dimensions, introducing our main character, Viola (played by Grayson Heyl), so that she hails, both literally and figuratively, from an unexpected place. Viola has landed on the island of Illyria, stepping onto its shores in the middle of the audience. She meanders her way through the crowd, encountering a sea captain (M.A. Taylor) and explaining that she has lost her twin brother, and is utterly alone. The captain advises her that for her safety, as a woman alone on a strange island, she should disguise herself as a man to make her
way in this new world.
Viola takes his advice. With a pencil-thin mustache and a white suit with powder-blue trim—reminiscent of an early 1900s bathing costume—Viola pretends she is a man named Cesario and becomes a page and confidant to Duke Orsino (Jeremy Gallardo). Orsino shares with Cesario that he is desperately in love with Countess Olivia (Angela Utrera), but he faces a dilemma: Olivia is mourning her recently deceased brother and has sworn not to marry for seven years, until she has finished mourning. Orsino isn’t willing to wait. Could Cesario plead his case to her, on Orsino’s behalf? Viola, meanwhile, is developing a crush on Orsino and can’t act on it. All she can do is earn his admiration by following through on the request. Then things get weird. Olivia couldn’t be less interested in Orsino … but this Cesario fellow
| BY JESSICA SANTINA
Cesario (Grayson Heyl) is frightened as Sir Toby Belch (Dar’Jon Marquise Bentley) and Maria (Christiana Clark) challenge him. Photo/Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival
sure is attractive. Now we have a love triangle: Orsino wants Olivia; Olivia wants Cesario/ Viola; and Viola wants Orsino. And what about Viola’s lost brother?
As if that weren’t tricky enough, Olivia’s household is a mess—and the source of the secondary plot. First, there’s her uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Dar’Jon Marquise Bentley), a ridiculous drunk who spends entirely too much time merrily imbibing with the frilly footsoldier Sir Andrew Aguecheek (James Alexander Rankin). Olivia’s lady in waiting, Maria (Christiana Clark), enjoys their merriment and poking fun at her lady’s priggish steward, Malvolio (Joe Wegner). When Malvolio gets a little too big for his britches, Maria, Toby and Andrew cook up a plot to expose him as a fool … with the help of Olivia’s actual fool, Feste (Theo Allyn).
It sounds like a lot, because it is. It’s why Shakespeare’s work often feels inaccessible, as if you need a dictionary and credentials to be qualified to follow it. Let me assure you now: You won’t.
Bruner’s magic in the realm of set design and costuming—which seems to take inspiration from Venetian carnival, Victorian steampunk and even Edward Gorey illustrations, giving it a timeless and occasionally contemporary vibe— also extends to her work, evoking brilliance from a host of remarkably talented actors. At times, their lines are delivered with urban inflections and body language that accurately point to their meaning, even when the Bard’s actual words may be lost on you. At times, they break into song and break the fourth wall with the audience to help convey meaning.
Allyn’s portrayal of the spry, clever fool will captivate you and have you in stitches, as will Bentley’s Sir Toby, the merry, mischievous uncle I wish were mine. Trust me when I say I was on the edge of my seat as Viola struggled to maintain her secret identity while absurdity reigned all around her.
Add to that my feeling of escaping the weekly grind for fun in the cool, pine-scented Tahoe air, with a delicious dinner and a bottle of bubbly, and it was the perfect summer Friday night.
The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare festival presents Twelfth Night several nights a week through Aug. 23, along with Peter and the Starcatcher, through Aug. 24. The festival also features Monday-night performances by groups such as Sierra Nevada Ballet, the Reno Jazz Orchestra and the Reno Philharmonic. All events will take place at Sand Harbor State Park, 2005 Highway 28, in Incline Village. For tickets and information, visit laketahoeshakespeare.com.
ARTS
‘No
easy feat’
Chautauqua performer Steve Hale, playing explorer John Frémont, is ready to field tough, unscripted questions
When Steve Hale was preparing his final presentation to earn his certification as an interpretive guide for national parks and museums, he decided to forgo the usual PowerPoint presentation for a more engaging option—a Chautauqua performance.
“It presented the most challenging and unique way to bring history to life,” Hale said in an email interview. (He was out of the country and could not easily chat via phone.) In that debut performance, he played John “Snowshoe” Thompson, who hauled mail sacks of up to 100 pounds through the Sierra Nevada, navigating sometimes deep snow on his hand-carved, oak skis.
Over the past 18 years, Hale has performed at national parks, statute dedications, historical societies, schools and dinner theaters. He has worked with prominent Chautauquans including McAvoy Layne, the consummate reenactor of Mark Twain.
“Since Snowshoe, I’ve added 19th- and 20th-century figures whose life passions significantly changed American history and whose legacies have become bigger than life,” Hale said. His cast of characters has included millionaires George Whittell Jr. and Albert Johnson. He’s also portrayed Dr. James E. Church, a professor of classics and art at the University of Nevada, Reno, from 1892 to 1939. On the stage in Yosemite National Park, where Lee Stetson played
John Muir for more than four decades, Hale depicted Stephen Mather, the founder of the National Park Service, during the organization’s centennial in 2016.
“Performing America’s most important figure in National Park History in the shadow of Glacier Point infused Yosemite magic into each performance in a way that can’t be duplicated otherwise,” Hale said of the once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In August, Hale will give two performances as explorer John C. Frémont.
Preparing a Chautauqua performance involves many hours of research—developing themes, stories and timing before rehearsing the character. The true test of the preparation comes when the Chautauquan opens the floor to unscripted questions from the audience at the close of the performance.
“Audiences show a high level of interest and questions concerning the final fate of the Frémont Cannon,” Hale explained. The cannon was abandoned near Bridgeport, Calif., during Frémont’s second transcontinental expedition in 1844, Hale said.
In one performance, when Hale, as Frémont, spoke of his expedition’s perilous crossing through the Sierra, he spoke soberly. But he kept a twinkle in his eye when he recalled his courtship with his wife, Jessie Benton.
Through his research, Hale learned that she was a true partner in her husband’s career at a time when women were often relegated to an uncredited supporting role. Even at 17,
| BY SUSAN WINTERS
Chautauquan Steve Hale as explorer John C. Frémont in a July performance at Reno Public Market.
Benton—the daughter of a prominent Missouri senator—was known for her intelligence and beauty. She used her writing prowess to edit her husband’s expedition journals, which soon were excerpted in newspapers and published as popular books, further fueling the “Oregon Fever” driving the Western migration.
In 1856, when the newly formed Republican Party nominated Frémont as its presidential candidate, Benton traveled with him on the campaign trail. Women attended the campaign rallies even though they could not vote.
At the close of the aforementioned performance, Hale fielded the audience questions with the presence of a man accustomed to being in command. Afterward, while he was packing his displays and chatting with lingering audience members, someone reminded him that he was still speaking with Frémont’s Southern accent. Hale smiled, and in his own voice—as if sharing an anecdote about a mutual friend—he talked about Frémont’s French father and how Frémont later altered his name.
“I have been continually surprised and invigorated how every character I choose reveals more and more depth, expands, grows from continuing research and audience questions,” he said.
Hale noted that the Frémonts’ individual accomplishments were exceeded by the synergy they created as a couple, charting their course through the movements sweeping the country—anti-slavery, the women’s movement, Manifest Destiny and so on. He created a separate Chautauqua where Frémont, as an elder statesman, reminisces about his life with Jessie.
It is no easy feat to bring a larger-than-life historical figure to the modern public. For Hale, it’s well worth the challenge.
“It is a pleasure and honor to share some of our country’s historical luminaries and colorful personalities whose legacies resonate whenever a live audience and Chautauquan come together,” he said.
Steve Hale will portray Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont at 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 8, at Galena Creek Regional Park’s Eagle Meadows, at 18250 Mount Rose Highway, as part of the Galena Campfire Programs series. Admission is free, but a $5 donation is encouraged. For details, visit www.washoecounty.gov/parks/calendar. php. He will also portray Frémont at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 13, at Dangberg Home Ranch Park, at 1450 State Route 88, in Minden, as part of the Dangberg Summer Festival. Tickets are $15. For information, visit dangberg.org/ index.php/events.
RENO’S GRANDEST ENTERTAINMENT LINEUP
Larry the Cable Guy Aug 8
311 with Badflower Aug 10
Ice Nine Kills Aug 16
Luis Ángel “El Flaco” y Julio Preciado Aug 22
Modest Mouse Aug 28
Thievery Corporation
Sept 1
Bailey Zimmerman Sept 12
Juanes Sept 20
The Princess Bride in Concert with Reno Phil Sept 23 & 24
Empire of the Sun Sept 25
RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq
The World Tour 2025 Oct 4
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac Oct 7
The Dead South Oct 8
Russell Dickerson Oct 11
Daryl Hall Oct 19
Ninja Kidz Oct 26
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™ in Concert with Reno Phil Oct 29 & 30
Marc Rebillet Oct 31
Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert Nov 13
Yes Nov 16
The Temptations & The Four Tops Nov 22
Yuri Dec 5
Bobby Lee Dec 6 For the complete show lineup, visit GrandSierraResort.com/Shows
ART OF THE STATE
| BY BRANDY
Tech talks back
In Lynn Hershman Leeson’s video installation at the Nevada Museum of Art, AI narrators explain their troubles
Artificial intelligence takes on many forms. You can ask it for advice via ChatGPT; it can give you writing suggestions. (This article was not written using AI.) It enhances assistive technology for disabilities, and machines can enact AI to perform tasks using knowledge scraped from various sources (see: self-driving cars).
What does AI mean for the future of humanity? Artist Lynn Hershman Leeson explores this in her exhibition Of Humans, Cyborgs, and AI at the Nevada Museum of Art.
The exhibition consists of three short videos: “Shadow Stalker” (2019), “Logic Paralyzes the Heart” (2021) and “Cyborgian Rhapsody: Immortality” (2023). Each of these videos explores human interaction with technology, particularly AI. They play on a loop in a dark, quiet gallery. Interestingly, the seating arrangement—one long row of seats—doesn’t allow for much discussion during the films, which is just as well, considering the subject matter that is covered in the span of a half-hour. Any discussion is best left for after the viewing.
Each of the works feature one or more female narrators, who explain the technological troubles of humanity to human viewers from the perspective of technology itself.
In “Shadow Stalker,” the “Spirit of the Deep Web” urges viewers to be vigilant about their online interactions and digital personas, warning that our actions are being logged and used against us. The video “Logic Paralyzes the Heart” also strongly emphasizes this, with the First Cyborg explaining that facial recognition is increasingly being used to track humans, and is often unreliable and incredibly biased.
Hershman Leeson’s works take advantage of our fascination with technology by having our own creations talk back to us through these films. If AI and cyborgs are made to resemble humans, then perhaps they are worthy of being heard, and having their view of the situation respected?
In an artist statement from 2024, Hershman writes, “Our relationship to computer-based virtual life forms that are autonomous and self-replicating will shape the fate of our species and seem to me to be a critical issue of our time.” Even as some people form relationships with generative AI, calling it their “friend,” “therapist” or “research partner,” Hershman Leeson asks
how these relationships will impact human connections with each other.
In “Cyborgian Rhapsody: Immortality,” another cyborg that goes by the name “Sarah” explores what it would mean to be human, expressing regret for not being able to experience human emotions. However, this cyborg is portrayed by an actual AI creation. As Sarah introduces her abilities, she reveals that one of her skills includes “spying.” Once again, the narrator waves a metaphorical red flag in the hopes that the audience will see it: Can an AI assistant really be helpful if its ulterior motive is collecting your data? Doesn’t that mean any help you receive could just be a test to predict your future actions?
Hershman Leeson asks viewers to take a hard look at our online digital footprints, and the ways in which we are giving away what needs to be most protected the most: our identities.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s video exhibition Of Humans, Cyborgs, and AI is on view at the Nevada Museum of Art, at 160 W. Liberty St., in Reno, through Sunday, Sept. 7. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday, with hours extended until 8 p.m. on Thursday. General admission is $15, with discounts. For more information, visit www.nevadaart.org. This article was originally published on Double Scoop, Nevada’s source for visual arts news.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s video “ShadowStalker” contains a warning about digital privacy. Image/courtesy of the Nevada Museum of Art
ART OF THE STATE
Sprucing up Sparks
Reno painter Ashley Gottlieb painted two signal boxes as part of the city’s new program
Since May, the signal box at the corner of Victorian Avenue and Victorian Plaza Circle West in Sparks has been a lot more noticeable. It’s now brightly colored and adorned with the words, “Let’s go outside.”
The signal box, located at the Sparks
Transit Center, a busy bus station, served as a canvas for Reno artist Ashley Gottlieb, where she showcased her eclectic, colorful style.
Gottlieb, 42, is originally from Chicago, where she worked as an event planner. She and her husband moved to Reno in 2018 in search
Several of the 20 artists who painted signal boxes in Sparks this year gathered with City Manager Dion Louthan, left, Councilman Donald Abbott, second to left, and Mayor Ed Lawson, right, at an unveiling in June. Photo/ courtesy of the city of Sparks
of mountains. She remembers feeling that something creative was missing from her life.
“Painting was always reaching out to me,” she said. “I was always a fan of the art museums in Chicago.”
In 2022, she earned her associate’s degree in fine arts from Truckee Meadows Community College, 17 years after she’d received her bachelor’s degree in communications. Now she works remotely for a nonprofit based in Chicago, which affords her time to make art.
Gottlieb is partial to abstract work and using colorful pastels and organic shapes. When she arrived in Northern Nevada, she noticed that landscape art is often prioritized here. She’s glad the signal box project creates space for abstract artists to gain exposure—although on her recent box, which is her second in Sparks (her first, from November 2024, is on the corner of Oddie Boulevard and 12th Street), her images are less abstract and more decipherable. On each side of the box, she depicted outdoor activities like hiking and sports, along with desert mountains.
While Reno’s signal box painting program, Art Signals, has existed since 2008, this is only the second year for Sparks’ program. Twenty artists, including Gottlieb, were selected this year through an online application reviewed by the city’s Arts and Culture Advisory Committee. Each artist received $1,000, allocated from discretionary funds secured by Mayor Ed Lawson via the Regional Transportation Commission.
The project’s goals include beautifying the
city, promoting local artists and deterring graffiti.
“Only one of the boxes has needed graffiti removal in the past year,” said Raquel Monserrat, the special events supervisor for Sparks. The city provided artists with graffiti-resistant materials, as well as guidance along the way.
With no set theme, the artists had full creative freedom to design works that reflected their personal styles. Jesse Jentzen painted a realist portrait of a woman surrounded by abstract shapes and colors at Victorian Avenue and 15th Street. Iain Harrison used neon colors and abstract designs for his box at Prater Way and I Street. Kendel Leslie created a portrait of a great blue heron at the intersection of El Rancho and Greenbrae drives.
Gottlieb appreciates signal box programs because they give artists a chance to put their work somewhere very visible—right out on street corners, both in downtown areas and more suburban neighborhoods.
While she usually works indoors, she said painting on the street, in such a public setting, didn’t change her artistic process much. She noted the joy and connection it brought—cars honked; people waved; many stopped to express their appreciation.
She sees this project as a valuable entry point for emerging artists. “The signal boxes give newer artists a chance to get out there and do something that feels impactful,” she said. “They are a lot less intimidating than taking on a giant mural.”
In such a heavily digitized world and era, Gottlieb is pleased this project gives drivers and pedestrians more chances to see an artistic image that isn’t on a screen as they go about their day.
This article was originally published on Double Scoop, Nevada’s source for visual arts news.
FILM & TV
Marvel is again marvelous
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is a stylish, funny return to form; HBO Max’s Billy Joel two-parter is fantastic
The summer of 2025 should be remembered as the time when both the DC and Marvel universes gave themselves much-needed resets. Superman got things back on the right track for DC, while The Fantastic Four: First Steps ends a creative drought for Marvel. With a cool retro feel and a nice sci-fi element, First Steps is directed by Matt Shakman, who proves his muster on the big screen. (He’s done fine work on TV with Monarch, The Boys and WandaVision.) Incorporating the mighty Galactus (Ralph Ineson) as the main villain is a wise, menacing choice. The film has an entertaining, stylish groove with a winning offbeat charm.
Wonderfully cast and performed, Marvel’s first family finally gets its due, with Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing) perfect choices for their respective roles. Julia Garner gives us a fine Silver Surfer as well.
Set in a sort-of futuristic ’60s, the art direction/look of this film marks a Marvel high point, and the score is great, too. The
movie has a lot of heart to go with some consistent laughs.
Kirby and Pascal are the real stars here, giving Storm and Richards some serious depth. Storm is one of the great badass movie moms, while Richards is a little off-kilter, and slightly nervous. It all makes for a fun screen couple with great chemistry, and some surprising plot turns with both characters. They have a baby named Franklin (Ada Scott); his part in the film, at times, played a little bit too Ghostbusters 2 for me.
The film is the first (mostly) solid film from Marvel in a long time, and it looks to be a promising set-up for the next Avengers film. It’ll be interesting to see if we can get two cinematic comic book universes firing on all cylinders for an extended period of time. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a true geek’s delight.
The great Billy Joel finally gets a worthy documentary, a five-hour, two-parter in which he, and a lot of figures in his life, participate fully.
In Billy Joel: And So It Goes, directors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin cover the entire life of Joel—and I mean the whole thing, warts and all, from his troubled younger years in Hicksville, N.Y. (when he dabbled in boxing alongside his musical career), through his early bands like the infamous Attila, through the marvelous salad years of the late ’70s and ’80s, and up until present day.
5
Pedro Pascal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
wives (Christie Brinkley and Elizabeth Weber among them) and ex-bandmates (including the awesome Liberty DeVitto) get a chance to chime in. Joel, of course, wrote and sang the wonderful song “Honesty.” This documentary is chock-full of honesty.
Joel was critically drubbed during most of his heyday, but he’s had the last laugh. Albums like Turnstiles, The Stranger and Glass Houses stand as all-time-great rock records.
Like Bruce Springsteen, Joel didn’t cave to whatever musical movements (like disco) were going on around him. His trademark sound prevailed no matter what album he was putting out. Even the doo-wop album, An Innocent Man, managed to feel like a Joel album rather than some drastic, career-altering left turn.
And So It Goes shows Joel’s mammoth legacy. He stopped writing and recording rock music in the mid-’90s, while still performing consistently through many stretches of the last 30 years. He doesn’t have to make any more new music, because his musical output in his productive years was so bountiful—and it just gets better with each passing year.
The documentary stands as one of the better rock documentaries EVER, and it’s strongly recommended for fans and the uninitiated. Long live Billy Joel!
Billy Joel: And So It Goes is now streaming on HBO Max.
Writer-director Ari Aster, maker of horror classics Hereditary and Midsommar, went off the rails a bit with his 2023 film, Beau Is Afraid, a crazy collaboration with Joaquin Phoenix that ultimately worked due to its performances, its sheer craftmanship and a gonzo vibe; the film felt fully committed to its purpose of freaking you out. It was as strange as a movie can get, and I applauded him for it.
2
Joel is right there for this entire ride, speaking candidly about the highs and lows. Yes, his ex-
Alas, Aster’s impressive streak of maverick cinema has come to an end with Eddington. The film, a strange take on conspiracy theorists, the pandemic era, social media and street protests, claims to be a satire, but it’s just a bunch of nonsense thrown against the wall parading as a character study.
The movie feels like something Aster wrote with the guiding intention of not editing himself at all: “I’m gonna write all of this shit down that is bothering me, in stream-of-consciousness fashion, and we are going to film all of it, and we’ll just see how it all turns out!”
It’s an overlong mess—2 1/2 hours—with no sense of purpose. While nobody is safe on the left or right in the movie, it’s non-committal. Sometimes, that can be a good thing, but, in this case, the film seems afraid of itself, so it
|
BY BOB GRIMM
just meanders from one increasingly outrageous situation to another as we witness a sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) completely lose control after a few incidents in May 2020 during which he refuses to wear a mask in public places.
The film plays like a long scroll through TikTok on a pandemic Sunday afternoon when you were extremely hungover: It’s boring—peppered by a few interesting things here and there, but packed with too many nonsensical elements to establish it as anything other than a failed curio, despite its impressive pedigree.
That pedigree, in addition to Aster and Phoenix, includes Pedro Pascal as the mayor of the title city, Emma Stone as the sheriff’s wife, and Austin Butler as some sort of cult leader. Pascal’s part comes to the closest to being fully formed, with his subplot having the most heft. Stone’s part gives one of the most important actresses in the world next to nothing to do, while Butler drifts in and out of a few scenes of little consequence.
There is a place in the world for a straightforward, tighter take on a person having a nervous breakdown during the pandemic. Sure, it could include commentary about social media, politics, MAGA, being “woke” and the general state of the United States, but a real movie about a dude losing his shit during the pandemic starring Phoenix could’ve been something else. Instead, Aster throws in those subplots, pads his running time, and loses his sense of purpose. By the time toward the film’s end when Phoenix is running around with a big gun like Sylvester Stallone in First Blood, I couldn’t help but think, “Why?”
In a strange way, this is one of the best Phoenix performances put to film. Just as he did in Beau Is Afraid, he lets it all hang out in this movie, and I could almost recommend the film based on what he does. In fact, if you are a diehard Phoenix fan, I suppose you must see this movie, because the man can act; he’s handed pure insanity to translate; and he does it well. He emerges from this film unscathed.
While I don’t like this movie, I am glad there is a nutball like Ari Aster taking big swings. He’s batting .750 with his last four movies, and I’m confident he will rise again with something that is, most assuredly, totally insane—but tighter, and with purpose.
I’ve made no secret of my disdain for the handling of the Superman film franchise in the hands of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan. Henry Cavill could’ve been a decent Supes, but Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman and Justice League botched the character by taking what had been a virtuous, positive character and turning him into a Kryptonian version of Batman—brooding, whining and, unlike Batman, boring.
4
James Gunn’s new Superman movie has a vibe similar to his Guardians of the Galaxy
FILM & TV
movies and, to some extent, his takes on Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad. If you don’t like James Gunn movies, you probably won’t like Superman
But I like James Gunn, and I like the new movie. I like it a lot. No, it is not as good as the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films. I’d say it is a little better than the under-appreciated Superman Returns. (All hail, Brandon Routh!) It’s much, much better than Snyder-verse Superman. Sorry, Henry; you got a raw deal.
Stepping into the role of Superman/Kal-El is David Corenswet, an actor who has been kicking around Hollywood for more than a decade, showing up in a few notable projects (Pearl, Twisters) but not really making a big mark. He’s made a big mark now: He’s a terrific Superman. This version of the character is charming, funny, semi-irritable and, yes, vulnerable—but without being a brooding baby. No matter what happens to Superman in this movie, he remains optimistic and focused on fighting for truth, justice and Lois Lane (an equally wonderful Rachel Brosnahan, the best Lois since Margot Kidder).
A note on the vulnerable aspect of Superman: He gets his ass kicked way too much in this movie. This is a minor quibble, but Superman spends a lot of time bloodied, getting shriveled up like a raisin from Kryptonite
exposure, and so on. I would’ve preferred a little more of him kicking ass rather than getting his ass kicked constantly—but that would be in my “perfect” Superman movie, and this one isn’t perfect.
The many beatdowns Superman takes are all connected to his most infamous enemy, Lex Luthor, played with psychotic charm by Nicholas Hoult. Hoult, himself a former candidate for the Superman role, gives us the scariest Luthor yet. He’s funny—but deliriously evil, and some of his actions are shocking for a comic-book movie. Hoult creates a monster that is calm and suave in one moment, and a cold-hearted, crazed killer in the next. You’ll remember this Lex.
The movie is packed with a lot of extra superhero characters, almost making it a Justice League movie. Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) and Supergirl (Milly Alcock) all play a part. Krypto the dog, a fine CGI creation based in part on James Gunn’s own dog, also plays a substantial role. The dynamic between Krypto and Superman is one of the best aspects of the movie—total fun.
Yes, this is a lot for a 129-minute movie, but Gunn does a good job of keeping it mostly centered, giving characters space and time to develop, and establishing his new DC Universe. Superman isn’t a supporting character, but he
comes close at times, with everything else going on. Now that everything has been established, I’m thinking the next chapter will be a little calmer.
The movie gets right to it in its opening minutes. Superman has been doing his thing for three years, and Lois already knows that Clark Kent is Superman. The movie trusts that most of the folks sitting down to watch it know the character’s origin story and just want to see him being Superman.
By the time it ends, the stage has been set for
a new age with the DCU; a star has been born with Corenswet; and Lois Lane finally gets a real part in a Superman movie, after the character had been notoriously downplayed since the Kidder days.
Superman ends a stretch of bad superhero films from both DC and Marvel. With Gunn in charge of the whole DC Universe—not just Superman—we are guaranteed a different, semi-crazy and fun take on a lot of beloved characters. This movie is fun, and it’s a safe bet the future films will be, too.
Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet in Superman.
THE DISH
Danny Nguyen Manager and co-owner of Kwok’s Bistro
Nguyen, born and raised in Reno, is the co-owner and manager of the acclaimed Kwok’s Bistro, which he opened alongside his father in 2018. Located in the former China Diner building at 275 West St., the restaurant has earned top ratings and national recognition for its authentic Cantonese cuisine. Danny is a dedicated foodie who has traveled with his wife across the United States, Canada and Japan in pursuit of exceptional sushi experiences, from allyou-can-eat establishments to traditional sushi in Tokyo. To learn more, visit kwoksbistro.com. Photo by David Robert
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten locally in the last month?
Sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu soup) from Tofu House in south Reno. When I was in elementary school, during summer vacation, I would eat dinner at my friend’s house, and his mom would always make either kimchi jjigae or sundubu-jjigae for us. Tofu House brings back nostalgic memories for me.
Your kitchen is on fire— metaphorically! What are you cooking? I would roast a prime rib, one of my favorites I can’t get enough of during the holidays and special occasions.
Who is/was your strongest culinary influence? My father, Kwok Chen—after all these years of working under him, he can always knock my socks off with his Chinese food.
What is the most unusual thing in your refrigerator right now? Durian, lots of frozen durian.
What is your go-to midnight snack? A spoon of peanut butter and a spoon of
hazelnut spread. I’m a chocoholic, so I always have them stocked in the house.
Which local restaurant deserves more attention, and why?
Kauboi Izakaya. Japanese-style bar food is something Reno needs more of.
How does food contribute to our community? Everyone eats. At the end of the day, food is something universal, and breaking bread is a form of reaching across the table. Reno is still growing with lots of new and up-and-coming restaurants. Whether it be a croissant from Perenn or a bowl of pho from 999 Pho, a torta from Beline Carniceria and Deli or ribs from Brothers Barbecue, we feed the community and tell our stories through food and service.
Please share your favorite food memory from growing up. One of my first food memories comes from eating heirloom tomatoes at Lulou’s. I was a very picky eater growing up, and I never understood why people liked tomatoes. In my youth, to that point, I had never tasted such a sweet and meaty tomato.
What is the one kitchen tool you can’t live without?
My Joule sous vide. I use it for meal prep, and it’s a godsend. It keeps things like chicken breast and pork chops juicy when you reheat them.
If you could have dinner at any restaurant in the world tonight, where would it be, and why there?
Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo! Hands down best Edomae sushi I’ve ever had.
Danny
A new wine event up the hill
Tahoe Wine + Feast debuts in September with tastings from more than 90 wineries
A new Lake Tahoe event will launch at the end of this summer—Tahoe Wine + Feast, a four-day celebration of wine, food and hospitality that will take place Sept. 18-21 at the state-of-the-art Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline.
Founded and produced by Tom Kees, a veteran of the wine industry and longtime event organizer, Tahoe Wine + Feast aims to bring the spirit of renowned festivals like Pebble Beach Food & Wine, and the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo., to the Sierra, while offering a uniquely approachable and inclusive experience for both seasoned connoisseurs and casual enthusiasts.
“I’ve been working on this event for about two years,” said Kees, who serves as the event’s CEO. “Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places in the world, but it’s been missing a major, multi-day wine and food event. I wanted to create something that brings the best of wine country right to people’s backyard, without the intimidation factor that sometimes comes with these tastings.”
Kees, who splits his time between Fort Worth, Texas, and Zephyr Cove, has spent decades in the wine business—running a wine bar, hosting a radio show on wine and food, and building relationships with winemakers and chefs across the country. Inspired by friends and
| BY STEVE NOEL
his own experiences at top culinary festivals, he set out to design an event that would be both grand in scale and welcoming in spirit.
The festival’s schedule is packed. More than 90 wineries will be pouring 300-plus wines from acclaimed regions including Napa, Sonoma, Monterey, Oregon, Washington, Italy, France and Spain. Also on offer will be small plates from the region’s chefs, tastings from craft breweries, and high-end spirits. Educational seminars are included in the ticket price as well.
Highlights include:
Women of Wine (WOW) Brunch—Kicking off the festivities on Thursday, Sept. 18, this event celebrates female leaders in the wine industry.
VIP dinners and seminars—From Thursday through Saturday, industry experts will lead exclusive dinners and engaging seminars, including a sparkling wine seminar exploring Champagne, prosecco and cava.
Grand tastings—The centerpiece events on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will transform the Tahoe Blue Event Center arena into a vibrant tasting floor with dozens of wineries and 30 to 40 chefs serving gourmet bites.
VIP dinner with Chappellet Winery—This special evening will feature celebrated chef Jon Bonnell, who has cooked at the James Beard House in New York City.
Kees emphasized that the Tahoe Wine + Feast is designed to be accessible.
“I want people to have more fun around wine,” he said. “There’s too much intimidation that goes on. You don’t need to be a sommelier to enjoy great wine. I want people to walk out with a big smile on their face, having learned something and had a great time.”
The seminars were also conceived with accessibility in mind. “We’re not here to prescribe what you should drink,” Kees said. “We want to help people find what they like, ask questions, and just enjoy the experience.”
Organizers expect attendees from across the country, with ticket sales already reaching as far as New York, Florida and Texas.
Kees, who met his wife at a wine event 15 years ago, hopes the Tahoe Wine + Feast will become a beloved annual tradition.
“It’s about creating memories, discovering new favorites, and celebrating the best of what Lake Tahoe and the world of wine have to offer,” he said.
TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN
New and coming soon
Arcade enthusiasts have a new gaming spot in town with the grand opening of Dave and Buster’s at the Shayden Summit mall, at 13969 S. Virginia St. on July 28. The new location features 120 arcade games, interactive suites for darts and shuffleboard, and a sports bar with a 40foot screen. Check out daveandbusters. com for details.
Bristlecone Brewing Company is now open at 785 E. Second St., the former location of IMBIB. Owners Martin Barman and Matt Garcia, who used to brew for Alibi Ale Works, are building out their beer selection with a balance of light and dark options. Bristlecone is open Friday through Sunday. Follow @bristleconebeer on Instagram.
Rising for People Coffee Company, a regular vendor at the Riverside Farmers’ Market, plans to celebrate the grand opening of a new brick-and-mortar shop at 121 Vesta St. on Friday, Aug. 1. The company is known for its focus on sustainability and ethical sourcing. Learn more at risingforpeoplecoffeeco.com.
Art of Spice is one of the newest additions to the Reno Public Market’s Food Hall, at 299 E. Plumb Lane, serving Thai and Indian cuisine. Menu offerings include standards like samosas, curries and pad Thai, along with innovations like the sweet and spicy “chicken lollipop.” Follow @art.of.spice_reno on Instagram.
Cold Stone Creamery opened a new parlor in south Reno on July 2. Located at 57 Damonte Ranch Pkwy., this is Cold Stone’s second shop in the Truckee Meadows, with the other being at Reno Public Market (across the parking lot from the Food Hall). Keep up with new menu items at coldstonecreamery.com.
Events
Tahoe Wine + Feast will take place Thursday, Sept. 18, through Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Tahoe Blue Event Center, at 75 U.S. Highway 50, in Stateline. Tickets start at $198 for a one-day grand-tasting pass, with two-day passes and VIP packages also available. For tickets and information, visit tahoewinefeast.com.
Be the Change, a Western-themed event formerly known as Wine and Ribs, is raising funds for Community Health Alliance on Saturday, Aug. 2 from 5:30 to 10 p.m., at The Club at ArrowCreek, 2905 E. Arrowcreek Parkway. To learn more, visit www.chanevada.org/support.
The 2025 Summer Wine and Chocolate Pairing Series at Dorinda’s Chocolates features four wine samples paired with four handcrafted chocolates. The continued on next page
TASTE OF THE TOWN TASTE OF THE TOWN
continued from Page 23
next event takes place on Thursday, Aug. 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. on the patio at 727 Riverside Drive. To purchase tickets ($35 advance; $45 day-of), visit dorindaschocolates.com/products/wine-chocolate-pairing.
The Fallon Cantaloupe Festival & Country Fair, which has existed in one form or another for more than 100 years, celebrates another year from Friday through Sunday, Aug. 22-24, at the 3C Event Complex (formerly Churchill County Fairgrounds), at 227 Sheckler Road, in Fallon. The event features opportunities to chat with farmers, interact with animals, and learn about water management, along with food, music, games, shopping, truck and tractor pulls, and a carnival. Advance tickets are $12 for a day or $20 for the weekend; $9 and $6 for kids, and $40 for the carnival. For details, visit falloncantaloupefestival.com.
Closings
After 11 years, Laughing Planet has closed both of its Reno locations, 941 N. Virginia St. and 650 Tahoe St. In a message posted on its doors, the management stated, “There was a confluence of several factors that led us to this difficult decision.” The casual health food restaurant continues to operate locations in Oregon and Washington.
Midtown lost Truckee Bagel Company, which closed its doors at 538 S. Virginia St. on July 12 after 10 years. According to a recent company announcement, “Since opening in 2015, the TBC Midtown location has sold over 100,000 bagels and was voted Reno’s Best Bagel seven years in a row.” The shop at 18130 Wedge Parkway remains still open. Visit truckeebagelcompany.com.
Mellow Fellow, the gastropub that has been at 300 E. Second St., across from Greater Nevada Field, for the past decade, announced plans to close its doors on Aug. 30. In a Facebook post, the restaurant cited an inability to reach an agreement with building ownership as a reason for closure.
Rice Box Kitchen/Noodle Box Kitchen—originally two separate Thai-fusion restaurants in Midtown owned by Perapol Damnernpholkul, later merged into one restaurant with a hybrid name— has closed. It was located next to the Discovery Museum, 490 S. Center Street. The restaurant’s last day in business was July 26.
Have local food, drink or restaurant news? Email foodnews@renonr.com.
—Alex Cubbon
LIQUID CONVERSATIONS
A can-do attitude
A look at the world of 10
One of the beverage world’s biggest trends is ready-to-drink cocktails, or RTDs.
This is one of the fastest-growing alcohol segments in the world. Various researchers report that 2024 sales were in the $800 million to $900 million range.
Here in our biggest little corner of the world, there is one distillery crushing the canned RTD cocktail, and that’s 10 Torr Distilling and Brewing. Located at 490 Mill St. in Downtown Reno, 10 Torr makes award-winning spirits and beer, but what keeps them busy these days are cans of cocktails. You may have seen them behind local bars and at retail outlets like Raley’s, so what does it take to make such an in-demand can? I sat down with Annalisa Suarez, 10 Torr’s director of craft beverag-
es and spirit innovation, to discuss the success of these RTDs.
“It’s what pays the bills,” Suarez said when I asked her how many cans of cocktails 10 Torr is selling. “We make about eight to 10 pallets of cans a month.” That’s roughly 72,000 cans leaving the facility monthly. According to Suarez, the secret to their success is in the still.
“We do not use malt liquor to make our (drinks in) cans like some other RTDs,” she said.
Most ready-to-drink cocktails, such as flavored seltzers, are made with malt liquor, which can result in a less-than-great feeling in the morning. 10 Torr is home to a unique still that uses vacuum pressure instead of heat to distill alcohol. (In fact, it’s where the name comes from: The still operates at 10 torr of
| BY MICHAEL MOBERLY
Annalisa Suarez from 10 Torr Distilling and Brewing said the distillery tries out different cocktails on tap and gauges customers’ responses to decide which ones to distribute in cans. Photo/David Robert
atmospheric pressure.) The vacuum still makes alcohol faster than most traditional stills, allowing the distillery to keep up with demand.
“We start with fresh juices, fresh purees and our spirits—that’s it,” Suarez said.
10 Torr makes seven flavors of canned cocktails—three available year-round, and four seasonal. The flagship three are Lavender Lemonade, Blueberry Sage Spritz, and the new Spill the Tea, flavored with Earl Grey tea and marionberry vodka (and featuring can art by a 10 Torr brewer who loved the drink so much, he wanted his art on it). Each flavor uses real ingredients, so when it says “sage” on the can, someone has to pick the sage off the stem.
“We are picking 30 to 60 pounds of sage per run,” Suarez said. “It can take almost two days to pick all that.”
The distillery first sold canned cocktails in 2018, but they achieved a new level of hype during the COVID-19 shutdowns, when the distillers wanted to offer a taste of their bar experience, and the community was lining up for cases of Lavender Lemonade. “The canned cocktails skyrocketed during 2020, because we could sell them to-go,” Suarez recalled.
Today, some of 10 Torr’s best-selling canned cocktails are seasonal variations. Flavors like the Spiced Apple sell out incredibly fast, which can make people a little impatient.
“We get our apple from Apple Hill (in Placerville, Calif.), so we can only make it one time a year, and we can only hold so much apple juice,” Suarez said.
Which cocktails make the cut to become an RTD? “We like to put cocktails on draft here and then see if people like it,” Suarez said. “If they do, we try it in a can. … If you want to know what we are making next, you can come down to the bar.”
10 Torr has no plans to slow down its production and development. You can now buy 10 Torr canned drinks from the website anywhere in the U.S., excluding Iowa and Utah. New bottled espresso martinis and other cocktails are coming to the tasting room, and through a new partnership with the University of Nevada, Reno, cans of Pack Punch—a mojito-style sipper with rum, marionberry, blackberry, mint and lime—will be available at UNR games and online in the fall and winter.
As much as Suarez wants you to drink the 10 Torr cans at home, she is still a bartender at heart. When I asked her why her team handmakes each batch, even with all the volume they have, she said: “It’s a labor of love; you have to do it that way.”
Patronage performances
For the Song continues bringing talented musicians to Northern Nevada—and making sure they’re properly paid
It’s not easy to make money as a musician in 2025. Some artists are removing their music from streaming sites due to abysmal payouts and the platforms’ support of AI-generated music. On the concert end, many venues are struggling, which means less money in the pockets of musicians.
Not quite two years ago, the RN&R talked to a local benefactor who had started an organization to help with the crisis. The goal of For the Song is to make shows more lucrative for bands and musicians, and the organization has been consistently hosting concerts in its two years of existence. In August, For the Song will feature two artists: Walt Wilkins and the Ramble, and Raul Midón.
“We’re small enough where this is still curated by my wife and me. We have decades of following Americana music in all of its forms, whether it’s rock ’n’ roll, or folk, or country, or even jazz,” said founder Ford Goodman during a phone interview.
“I was a tech executive until five years ago, when I retired, but through that process, I learned a lot about the business model. … The artists we’re looking to help are nationally touring, critically acclaimed, but virtually unknown in the Northern Nevada area. … It’s unlikely a venue would see this as a profitable opportunity, yet we know their music is terrific, and it’s something that the community ought to see.”
When a musician works with For the Song, they end up performing two or three
Ford Goodman: “The artists we’re looking to help are nationally touring, critically acclaimed, but virtually unknown in the Northern Nevada area. … It’s unlikely a venue would see this as a profitable opportunity, yet we know their music is terrific, and it’s something that the community ought to see.”
Photo/David Robert
time we bring an artist. That’s the intent. We spend $4,000 on average for hospitality, production and lodging. Sometimes there’s a shortfall to the guarantee we make between the private show and the public show, and we don’t make enough to cover the guarantee we’ve made.”
While For the Song’s private shows for members (and their guests) at The Club at ArrowCreek are fairly straightforward, Goodman has more freedom to get creative with the public shows.
“What I really care for with scheduling the public show is, No. 1, maximize money for the artist, and No. 2, (schedule) an iconic venue, if possible,” he said. “We’ve done the Piper’s Opera House, the Nevada Museum of Art, Brewery Arts Center in Carson City, and Nashville Social Club. We do the Reno Public Market sometimes, which is a weird audience but a wonderful stage. We’re looking to do more.”
me up for a house show when they lived in Sonoma that he hosted, and I just got to know him,” Elliott said during a phone interview. “I think he’s a really, really great person. … He appreciates lyrics, appreciates music, and also is very generous at heart in that he recognizes how the music business has cratered in many ways.”
Elliott talked about the infuriating lack of fair treatment for musicians.
“Musicians serve at the pleasure of the court, like the court jester—but there was this weird little window there, which happened to be when I was a teenager, with MTV,” he said. “The record business found this way in the middle of the 20th century to make money, and some people got paid very well. … It’s really interesting to look at the guys who are older than me, who were making CDs in the ’90s independently, when CD Baby was actually this very viable entity, and making really good money. They could pay rent and pay groceries. That’s what we want.”
Performing original music for members of a golf club doesn’t sound like the most comfortable environment for a musician, yet Elliott said he loves these shows.
concerts, including at least one show for the public, and one private show. Walt Wilkins and the Rumble will perform Wednesday, July 30, at Valhalla Tahoe; Saturday, Aug. 2, at the Red Dog Saloon; and Sunday, Aug. 3, at The Club at ArrowCreek. Raul Midón will perform Wednesday, Aug. 20, at Valhalla Tahoe; Saturday, Aug. 23, at the Reno Jazz Orchestra; and Sunday, Aug. 24, at The Club at ArrowCreek.
“The model starts with a private residential club, and the money comes from there,” Goodman said. “We have donors who come to a private show at the club at ArrowCreek. It’s a free show, so they don’t have to donate, but we give them a lot of good reasons to, and that’s the underlying substrate that allows us to make a guarantee that covers two shows. … There are plenty of private communities that bring musicians to play for their membership or for their community, but we haven’t found another one in America that then turns around and produces a show in the public. That second show is, by definition, not going to make a lot of money—until we do a great job of establishing the For the Song brand to mean naturally touring, critically acclaimed artists you probably haven’t heard, but they’ll blow you away.”
Goodman said the organization is still losing money, but For the Song has left many music fans and musicians happy.
“We have a number of people who really respond to that, but it’s got to be bigger to be as successful as we want to be,” Goodman said. “We know we’re going to lose money every
Goodman hopes to build a community around For the Song.
“I think in some ways, we’re building a new audience for artists, and they love that, too,” he said. “Somewhere between 30% and 40% of the people who either live in ArrowCreek, or members of the club at ArrowCreek and their guests who come to see a show there, don’t go pay for live music very often. They’re being exposed to how wonderful and great live music can be, so I think we’re creating some music fans among them, too.”
All of the donations from ArrowCreek residents go straight to the artists.
“We never take a fee for anything,” Goodman said. “… Every penny we get from a venue for a show goes to the artist, and that’s going to be our philosophy forever. That patronage is required, or we’re going to lose this music. … (There’s) about $160,000 we’ve raised from families, a family office, and fans of what we’re doing, and that supports that $4,000 per visit that we have to spend. The goal is to get a second private club in Reno to do this with us, so we can do 20 shows a year, not 10. Once we prove that, we want to export this model throughout the Mountain West—Albuquerque, Spokane, Colorado Springs. They all have private residential communities of some sort.”
San Francisco musician John Elliott performed with For the Song late last year. He’d previously met Ford Goodman at a house show in San Francisco.
“He was really nice afterward, and then had
“It’s really beautiful,” he said. “(Live performances are) really where my heart is. Coldplay does private corporate events. This is the deal. This is just one minuscule thread in the income tapestry that we all have to try to weave that somehow adds up to a mountain of 1099s at the end of the year that hopefully balances out, and you break even.”
Elliott said he’s appreciative of what Goodman is doing for musicians.
“In this era of wealth inequality and repulsive wealth on the high end, in almost every facet of American life, we are dependent on private philanthropy to somehow trickle down,” Elliott said. “You see GoFundMe (campaigns) for health care, so I think there’s really a place for that in the music industry. … It’s a very dire situation, but as far as the arts are concerned, it’s always nice to see people like Ford and groups coming together to find ways to support.”
Walt Wilkins and the Ramble will perform at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 30, at Valhalla Tahoe, 1 Valhalla Road, in South Lake Tahoe; 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 2 at the Red Dog Saloon, 76 N. C St., in Virginia City; and 6 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 3, at The Club at ArrowCreek, 2905 Arrowcreek Parkway, in Reno.
Raul Midón will perform 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 20, at Valhalla Tahoe; 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 23, at the Reno Jazz Orchestra, 2590 Orovada St., in Reno; and 6 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 24 at The Club at ArrowCreek.
For tickets and more information on the Valhalla shows, visit valhallatahoe.com/events. For tickets and more information on the other shows, or to learn more about For the Song, visit www.forthesong.com.
| BY MATT JONES JONESIN'
CROSSWORD
“Peddle Pieces”
By Matt Jones
Big bikes
Faucet issue 15. Eyed lewdly
LGBT rights activist Windsor 17. Twain protagonist
Black, in Bordeaux 19. Regal title 20. Marvel series from 2013-2020
23. Conical cooker
24. “Boy king” of Egypt
25. Info that often gets encrypted
34. Geller who claims paranormal ability
35. Memo taker
36. Like failed goals
37. Speakers between woofers and tweeters, for short
39. Like some baskets 41. Domesticated
42. To have, in Le Havre
44. Neared, with “to”
46. Former Portuguese colony in India
47. It only has 60 feet between bases
50. Part of RSVP
51. Winnipeg-to-Memphis dir.
52. How additional items are described in toy ads (and a hint to the circled letters)
60. ___ gobi (Indian potato dish)
61. Lady Bird actress Saoirse
62. Still-life fruit
64. Tabby noise
65. Bar mixer
66. Pie crust ingredient
67. X Games airer
68. Refuge from the sun
69. Where the Sidewalk ___ (Shel Silverstein book)
THE LUCKY 13
Jacob Darby
Guitarist for Charity Kiss, lead singer for Etiquette
You may know guitarist Jacob Darby from his twangy, punky contributions to Charity Kiss, the genre-mashing indie-pop outfit that’s been packing in Reno audiences. (For more information, visit www.instagram.com/charitykiss775.)
Down
1. Adobe export
2. Operatic solo
3. Send an e-notification to
4. Nonprofit journalism org.
5. “Ya got me”
6. They may easily bruise
7. Ad agency award
8. What’s My Line? panelist Bennett
9. “___ Fideles” (Christmas carol)
10. Unsure
11. Garfield canine 12. St. Pauli ___ (beer brand)
Find the answers in the “About” section at RenoNR.com!
Darby just began a new band, Etiquette, as the lead singer. Etiquette, featuring other members from the Reno scene, debuted their sound with “Too Close,” a high-tempo psych-punk-meets-emo soundscape that is angsty yet rockin’. For more information, visit www. instagram.com/etiquettereno.
What was the first concert you attended? I saw Cherub with my best friend. They were visibly angry that people only wanted to hear “Doses & Mimosas.” Very uncomfortable environment.
What was the first album you owned? Poodle Hat by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
What bands are you listening to right now? Geese; The Fearless Flyers; Black Country, New Road; and Pussy Velour.
What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?
I’m basically alone in my aversion to Elliott Smith, but that’s because he’s what my inner monologue sounds like, so I don’t need to buy the record.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? I wish I could see FKA FINGERS with their original guitarist one last time.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? The only way you can tell if a song is truly good is if the Kidz Bop version also hits.
What’s your favorite music venue? Midnight Coffee Roasting.
What’s the one song lyric \ you can’t get out of your head?
“If only I could sustain my anger,” from “The Ballad of the Costa Concordia,” Car Seat Headrest. Also, every individual line of “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen.
What band or artist changed your life? How? Cameron Winter is changing every facet of my life. Hearing the difference in his vocals from his solo music to his band (Geese) really inspired me to add vocal distortion to my bag, which you can hear in the Etiquette songs.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? I’d like to ask Jack Lucian (jacklucian. bandcamp.com) what he wants to be when he grows up.
What song would you like played at your funeral? “Danny Boy.”
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time? Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan.
What song should everyone listen to right now? Aside from “Too Close” by Etiquette, I think “Drinking Age” by Cameron Winter is the Song of the Moment.
Kym Renner
President of Camp RennerVation, with a new teen summer camp for foster kids
The RennerVation Foundation was started by Jeremy Renner, the actor best known for playing Hawkeye in the Avengers movies. Renner lives in the region, and he’s involved with many local charities. His foundation helps at-risk youngsters and foster kids build skills, confidence and self-worth. Kym Renner— Jeremy’s sister and the foundation’s CEO and president—talked about the inaugural session of the group’s Teen Camp—part of the ongoing Camp RennerVation— which will be held Aug. 3-7 at the Sierra Nevada Journeys Outdoor Education Camp in Portola, Calif. Visit www. rennervationfoundation.org or www. facebook.com/rennervationfoundation to learn more, get involved or donate.
How did you get involved in the program? I helped start the RennerVation Foundation alongside my brother, Jeremy Renner, because we both believe that every young person deserves a community that sees them, supports them and gives them real opportunities to thrive. … My background is in child welfare and nonprofit leadership, but my heart has always been in working with foster youth.
What is the RennerVation Foundation and Camp RennerVation?
The RennerVation Foundation exists to cre-
| BY DAVID ROBERT
ate hope and opportunity for foster youth, underserved teens and families in Nevada. We do this through community programs, outreach and immersive experiences like Camp RennerVation. It’s a summer camp designed specifically for youth who are in foster care. It’s not just about fun and games; it’s about creating a space where kids feel safe, empowered and part of something bigger than themselves.
Why is Teen Camp important?
This age group often falls through the cracks, especially those in foster care. Many of them are preparing to transition into adulthood without stable support systems. The camp gives them not just tools and life skills, but also a sense of belonging, resilience and encouragement. For families and caregivers, it’s peace of mind knowing their teen is being celebrated and not overlooked.
A helicopter is involved! How will that play out? Yes, we’re incredibly excited. Thanks to support from local partners like REMSA, teens will get a chance to participate in a helicopter emergency medicine activity as part of a team-building and a confidence-boosting challenge.
I see that Enzo the comfort dog will also be there. Yes, Enzo is a trained therapy dog and a favorite among the campers. He plays a quiet but meaningful role, whether it’s helping a teen regulate their emotions, offering silent support or just being a calming presence during high-energy days. He’s a big part of our trauma informed approach.
Kevin Ashton, “Kevmo” the celebrity chef, will be there. How did he get involved? What will he be showing the kids?
He is such a wonderful community partner and generous soul. He is going to bring his cooking skills directly to our teens to share his ways in the kitchen and his success at being a social-media influencer. We think his background and expertise will resonate with our young population.
How can people get involved and help?
There are so many ways to help, whether it’s volunteering at one of our events, sponsoring a camper, donating supplies or financially supporting the foundation generally. All proceeds are directed toward programming, with more than 80% of our funds (going to) direct services. We’re always looking for partners who believe in lifting up foster youth and underserved communities.
This rare exhibition brings together the iconic work of the famed weaver Louisa Keyser (known as Datsolalee) and other talented Washoe artists-on display for the first time in nearly two decades.
