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Party time

The Washoe County Democratic Party chose the Titaniccentennial for the date of its 2012 county convention.

The delegates, meeting in an auditorium at Wooster High School, seemed to reserve their fervor for local and state races. Out of more than 300 cars in the parking lot, just 14 had Obama bumper stickers, plus one car that had Obama and Hillary Clinton stickers side by side, which seemed to indicate less than complete enthusiasm for the president. Local firefighters set up a table to distribute material opposing the Washoe County Firefighters dissed deconsolidation at the Commission’s planned Washoe Democratic Convention break-up of consolidated city/county fire services.

Reno City Council candidates—not usually big players at these events—got a good deal of attention and some volunteers in this year when term limits have opened several seats.

Nevada Senate candidates Debbie Smith and Sheila Leslie seem to be running on a ticket together, sharing advertising space and photographs.

Nevada Assembly candidate Teresa Benitez-Thompson told the crowd when she was elected to her first term, she went to the state capital expecting to work to make life easier for Nevadans. What she found, she said, was Republicans in the Legislature working to make life harder—“and we don’t need life to be any harder now.”

Bumper stickers for sale at the convention included “KEEP WASHOE BLUE” and “THANK UNIONS/THEY INVENTED THE WEEKEND!”

There was at least one anti-abortion delegate at the convention—his car had a “Pro-Life” sticker next to a sticker reading “A Mormon President?” And another car with a Nevada plate had a sticker referring to the Wisconsin political battles— “RECALL WALKER.”

National GOP targets Nevada

Republican National chair Reince Priebus last week talked about the party’s effort to try to recover ground among Latino voters, no easy task at a time when GOP officeholders are pushing anti-immigrant policies.

In an interview with Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, Priebus said one reason for hope is that “the messengers are just much better,” pointing to Latino Republican officeholders like Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.

He said, “We are paying people” to deliver Latinos to the party in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia.

Nevada abortion law shielded

Arizona’s new abortion law defining gestational age as beginning on the first day of a woman’s last period, rather than at fertilization, is not likely to migrate north into Nevada.

While legislators can introduce anti-abortion bills, the state’s existing legal abortion law was approved by Nevadans in a 1990 referendum. Under Nevada’s referendum law, once the public puts its stamp of approval on a statute, it cannot be changed by the Legislature without another public vote.

In that 1990 election, 71 percent of voters supported legal abortion. —Dennis Myers

Chuck Alvey spent more than a decade luring companies to Nevada.

One-stop shopping

All the bad news about Nevada is now in one handy-dandy place

It is an old story in Nevada that the state’s quality of life is low. Studies repeatby edly come out showing it.

Dennis Myers Columnist Cory Farley once quoted a friend of his saying that Nevada is high in everything a state wants to be low in and low in everything a state wants to be high in, an observation that has since become a Silver State cliché. But usually the occasional studies focus on a single topic— suicides, say, or the crime rate or low birthweight babies. On April 3, however, a new compilation was released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute pulling together information from multiple studies and creating wide ranging profiles The report by the Population Health Institute is posted at of each state. The report, funded by the Robert www.countyhealth Wood Johnson Foundation, shows rankings.org/#app/ how Nevada and other states rank in multiple fields, including mortality, morbidity, crime, economics, health, availability of health care, education, and the impact of the state’s culture on residents. The Wisconsin report essentially provides a single place where this kind of information on states can be found rather than going from site to site. For corporate executives studying where to locate—or not locate—their facilities, the report provides one-stop shopping. It is a portrait of life in the states, and the figures are broken down by county. It also has some new ways of looking at the quality of life.

Who knew, for instance, that of the restaurants in Washoe County, most are fast food? The study reports that 53 percent of eateries in the county fall into that category. (The statewide figure in 56 percent. Statewide figures hereafter will appear in parentheses.) That compares to 25 percent nationally.

“If it’s a one-stop shop, then it could be useful.”

Chuck Alvey Economic development consultant

It a related line, simple access to food for low-income people is ranked. In Washoe County 6 percent of the poor do not live within a mile of a grocery store (4 percent statewide). The ranking defines “near a grocery store” as within a mile in an urban area or within 10 miles in a rural area. The national figure is 0 percent.

In the mortality category, premature deaths are rated by an unusual measure—the number of years of potential life lost per 100,000 residents. In Washoe County it’s 7,377 hours (7,927) compared to 5,466 nationally.

Under morbidity, 15 percent of Washoe adults report fair or poor health (18 percent) compared to 10 percent nationally. The percent of low birthweight babies is 8.4 (8.1) compared to 6 percent nationally. Residents surveyed reported having 3.5 days in the past month that were physically unhealthy (3.7). The national figure is 2.6. They also reported 3.6 days that were mentally unhealthy (3.7 statewide) while nationally it was 2.3.

Also in Washoe County, 20 percent of adults are smokers (22), against 14 percent in the nation, and 23 percent of adults who are obese (26) against 25 percent nationally. Seventeen percent report no leisure time activity (24) against 21 percent nationally and 21 percent report excessive drinking (19) against 8 percent nationally. The county has a motorvehicle crash death rate of 14 residents per 100,000 residents (17) compared to 12 percent nationally, 304 cases of chalmydia per 100,000 (386) compared to 84 nationally, and a teen birth rate of 48 per 1000 residents aged 15 to 19 (53) compared to 22 nationally.

Twenty-four percent of Washoe County residents do not have health insurance (25) against 11 percent nationally. There are 791.1 primary care physicians for every 100,000

Washoe residents (1,153.1) as opposed to 631.1 nationally. The county experiences 47 preventable hospital stays per 1,000 Medicare enrollees (59) compared to 49 nationally. Washoe has a 75 percent diabetic screening rate (76) against an 89 percent national rate. On mammography screening, Washoe is at 65 percent (60), and the national rate is 74 percent.

In factors affecting the economic and social life of residents of Washoe County, 89 percent of the ninth grade cohort go on to become high school graduates (70). No national figure was provided. Sixty percent of the adult population has some college (54) against 68 percent nationally. Twenty percent of children—residents under 18—live in poverty (21) against 13 percent nationally. Thirtytwo percent of children live in single parent households (34) against 20 percent nationally, and 525 of every 100,000 county residents have experienced violent crime (728) against 73 nationally.

One indice indicates that Nevadans don’t know each other well. In surveys on whether they have adequate social support, 22 percent (23) say they do not, compared to 14 percent nationally.

Joblessness is reported at 14.1 percent (14.9) compared to 5.4 nationally, but these figures are somewhat stale. The Institute’s Julie Willems Van Dijk said they came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They apparently represent the most recent annual period—2010—for which figures are complete, though things have not improved greatly since then. In 2012 months, the unemployment figure for Washoe has usually been between 12 and 13 percent.

In the impact of the physical environment, the report says Washoe has one day of unhealthy airdue to particulate matter per year (one), which is the same as the national figure. Washoe experiences three days of unhealthy airdue to ozone (24) compared to 0 nationally. On access to recreational facilities, access is defined as the number of recreational facilities per 100,000 residents. That figure is 10 for Washoe (7) and 16 nationally.

Chuck Alvey, former director of Economic Development of Western Nevada, said the all-encompassing nature of the report could make it useful to consultants who find new locations for businesses.

“There’s two primary ways people considering relocating look— either do it on their own or they hire something called a site consultant,” he said. “If they hire those outside firms, they use their own data collection systems. If this [Wisconsin report] is deemed by those consultants as good and accurate, then they’ll turn to it. It could be helpful.”

He said it may take time for those consultants to discover the report, but when they do it could save them time.

“If it’s a one-stop shop, then it could be useful to them.”

Former Nevada governor Richard Bryan’s comment was succinct: “Not the kind of numbers we’d like to see in Washoe or statewide.” Ω

On the job

Whisper sleeps soundly in front of a heater at the Paperback Exchange on Vesta Street. On warmer days, she is usually in the front window where her fur acts as a solar collector, converting sunlight into more sleep. Naturalist Joseph Wood Krutch wrote, “Cats are rather delicate creatures, and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.”

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha

Six months before the general election, Marsha Berkbigler is already sitting pretty

Marsha Berkbigler has a few things going for her. As the lone Republican running for the District One county commission seat, she’ll be skipping the primary and very much looking forward to the general election in November. And she’ll be the only woman seeking a commissioner’s seat in either of the districts up for election, which has got to be good for some name recognition. Then there’s the fact that she looks to be pretty well-funded: As a prominent legislative lobbyist and the founder of her own consulting firm, Berkbigler was able to loan herself $10,000 to kick-start her campaign. She’s been in and around politics for more than 30 years—longer than either of her potential Democratic opponents has been breathing on Earth. But you’re unlikely to find the 61-year-old grandmother of two harping on others’inexperience, or anything else, anytime soon. As a lobbyist, she’ll just hope to avoid being painted into a corner herself. “It’s a very tough sell,” Berkbigler explains, “I was a lobbyist. I’m still a lobbyist, and when I asked everybody, ‘What’s going to be my negative?’everyone said, ‘That you’re a lobbyist’” Berkbigler’s lived in Nevada for 52 years, but worked in Carson City, Washington, D.C., and many places besides as a representative for the health-care, cable and mining industries. Now she finds herself in a unique situation. Like any candidate, she would rather be seen as a policy maker than a lobbyist—as someone who rubs elbows with legislators as opposed to greasing their palms. Aself-described “consensus-builder,” Berkbigler hopes to translate years of experience as an arbiter between the government and business interests into a new career finding common ground between Democrats and Republicans, or between the city and the county, or among almost countless others. Currently, the county commission is four to one Republican. “I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I could go in and fix it all myself,” Berkebigler said, “but I think I can help bring the parties together. I know the mayor, I’ve worked

with Kitty Jung and Andrew Clinger. I’ve worked with key players from both sides. I respect them, by and I think they respect me.” James DeHaven “I’m a mediator and as, a business owner, a negotiator. That’s part of my career, so I think one of the things I can bring to the commission is an ability to mediate and to bring third parties together.” That isn’t to say that she’s wishy-washy. Berkbigler supports regionalization of fire and emergency services, for example, opposing a split between the city and county in the so-called “fire divorce.” Even in that case, though, Berkbigler believes there are cracks yet ripe for compromise. “I am not in favor of a split. But I do understand that the parties are so far down the road that it’s going to take them a while to reach an agreement,” she said. “I’d love to see one right now, something where they’d set up a fire board and hopefully open up the union contract so we can reach some kind of parity here, but I know that is a ways in the future.” If elected, Berkbigler would join four other members of a Washoe County Commission that is sets policy on everything from law enforcement to child welfare and public health. Though she has no direct experience as an administrator or public official, thanks to an “open door policy,” Berkbigler’s not worried about being out of touch with the issues in the county. “I think that before I take a vote I need to see how the constituents feel about it, because in the end, you’re responsible to the people who elect you and also to everyone else in the same area you’re elected to.” “I have a lot of friends and a lot of contacts,” she added. “I’m going to win by listening, and by having my name out there the most.” She’s been getting her name out a lot lately, knocking on doors in her district at least two days a week, sometimes more, “if it’s not snowing.” Most of the doors are in Incline Village, at the very upper reaches of District One, and probably right in Berkbigler’s demographic wheelhouse, according to UNR science professor Eric Herzig. He doesn’t expect too many of the folks behind these doors to be very much bothered by Berkbigler’s lobbying career. “The [lobbying] charge will be made. But she still has 30 years of experience,” Herzig said. “Just on the political side she knows and has worked with key city players, key donors. She knows the process and even though she hasn’t run before, all that other stuff is going to work to her advantage.” What’s more, Herzig—himself a District One voter—couldn’t even remember the last time someone beat a Republican candidate in Berkbigler’s district. He was certain there hadn’t been one in the 24 years that he’s lived in the county. “This race is over. It’s going to Berkbigler,” Herzig said. “This district is overwhelmingly Republican. If you look at the history, a Democrat will not win.” Ω

PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

Not many people were smiling at this April 2 meeting where the city and county failed to agree on fire services, but county commission candidate Marsha Berkbigler, right, and Reno City Council candidate Neoma Jardon produced a couple for the camera.

UNR’s competitive edge

It was an eventful week for student innovators at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The Sontag Entrepreneurship Award Competition, which awards $50,000 to a winning team of From left, students Clint Brochard, Vicki Bischoff, Adair Melendez, Manpreet Kaur and students with a strong busi- ShaunCameron (not pictured) make upteam Envirohaven. ness plan, named six finalists. Each team’s plan is focused on sustainable projects, including a way to use waste created by breweries, and an optical instrument to detect airborne particles in mining work places. The teams have to complete their plan by April 27 and give a presentation on May 4. The winners will be announced on May 9. This is the first time the competition has been held at UNR.

UNR students also competed in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup, in which 13 teams out of 18, a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, were selected as finalists. All finalists in the Lt. Governor’s Award category—which, according to a press release, is “presented to the business plan that best employs clean, renewable or efficient energy technologies and services”—were from UNR. $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 were given to the first, second and third place winners.

And if that wasn’t enough victory, two more UNR teams reached the third and final round of the First Look West (FLoW) competition. FLoW is a $2 million program through the U.S. Department of Energy. The two teams were also finalists in the other competitions. Envirohaven, a team designing homes capable of assembly without a need for public utilities, was awarded in the Sontag Competition and the Governor’s Cup in addition to FLoW. Modphalt, which aims to produce a polymer-modified asphalt material for roofs using ground tire rubber, was also a finalist in both the Sontag and FLoW competitions.

FLoW’s grand prize is $100,000, with a second prize of $60,000 and a third prize of $40,000. The final round of the competition is in late April at the California Institute of Technology. The winning team from the Western region will go on to compete against five other regional winners in June at FLoW’s national competition in Washington, D.C.

Body found at Waste Management

On April 9, a dead body was found on a conveyor belt at Waste Management Inc.’s Reno facility. The body has been identified as David Robert Borland, a 36-year-old man from Carson City. According to Waste & Recycling News, “Borland apparently arrived at Waste Management´s Commercial Row MRF, 1100 E. Commercial Row, inside a recycling truck that had collected a container on the morning of April 9.”

Autopsy and toxicology reports have not been released. An investigation is underway. —Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

Learn how to build a low-cost hoop house on May 4, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., at Smith Valley High School. Participants will construct a hoop house design developed by Utah State University Extension, and is popular with experienced gardeners and new farmers. The workshop will include classroom instruction and actual construction of a hoop house. It will be made from PVC tubing, precut rebar, greenhouse plastic and two-by-fours. Ray Johnson of Customs Organic Farm and Andy Miller, teacher and manager of the student farm at Smith Valley High School, will speak. $35 early bird, $45 after April 25. Includes lunch. Register online at http://bit.ly/IizIMR.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@newsreview.com. Find more at www.facebook.com/RNRGreen.