Looking Out for the Mental Health of our First Responders and the Importance of Peer Support

Suicide rates among Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are more than twice that of the general population, and over half of firefighter deaths are due to suicide, though according to recent studies only about 40% are ever officially reported.

Captain Diego Luna, currently a Clark County Firefighter who used to work in Reno, describes how first responders often need immediate specialized mental health support, and emphasized that waiting even a couple of days can prevent a suicide or other tragic outcomes.  Luna feels that forming networks of certified peer support providers is saving the lives of first responders. 

A prior REMSA first responder, who wished to remain unnamed for this report, had a glowing review of how peer support creates opportunities for innovative healing strategies.  She described how bringing her German Shepherd to work was one small way she could bring a smile to her team and help boost morale in between intense 911 calls. Peer support seems to be part of a recent uptrend in addressing local needs, and it may be a great fit, but is it a replacement for traditional mental health resources like licensed therapists?  

” There are a number of reasons peer support is such an effective response model,” Luna explained.

“For one, it usually takes too long to see a therapist, and you know, with insurance and making sure it’s in-network… By the time you see someone, you’ve probably already had to figure things out on your own. Timely access is a problem. But another big thing is that peer support is based on the needs of the first responder.  If you just got off a really tough call and you want to debrief with a peer support member who is from your team and familiar with the incident, you can do that. But maybe you want to talk to someone outside of your chain of command. We have a network for that at the county, state, and national level.”

Luna went on to explain how the compatibility of mental health resources is an important piece, too. “There’s a cultural aspect to being a first responder, and sometimes it’s hard to find that cultural awareness with a therapist - but first and foremost, it’s about timely access to resources and creating that awareness to talk about how you’re doing.”

Luna says it can be a serious compatibility issue when recommendations don't align with the strain that first responders are subject to constantly.

“We’ve actually had mental health providers that offered to go for a ride-along,” Luna explained, and that sort of extra effort to gain insight into the experiences first responders are facing can go a long way. 

Captain Luna recounted how one of his team members continued working and saving lives despite the recent murder of his daughter, for which no arrests had been made.

Luna avoided bringing it up at first, not wanting to intrude, but eventually asked, “How are you holding up with all of this, man?”

The firefighter then opened up for over an hour about the overwhelming emotional burden on his marriage and mental health. Luna could tell he had been suffering silently and masking his turmoil due to a sense that others were relying on him. 

Later, during a peer support debrief, Luna realized that while many had been concerned for him, no one had checked in.

This underscored the importance of growing peer support networks—recognizing when someone is struggling and stepping in before it’s too late. “It’s about creating awareness—knowing help exists, and making sure it’s actually offered when it’s needed,” Luna said.          

At REMSA, according to one of their previous EMTs' experiences, peer support meant a lot of things, but primarily a roster of EMTs on shift who could be there for their peers in whatever way needed.

The EMT we interviewed explained in more detail how bringing her German Shepherd on site with her jubilant attitude would help shore up morale. “Everyone loved playing with her, and her positive energy helped them rehabilitate,” she said.

In between calls, spending a few moments decompressing with Bella was a massive relief to REMSA employees and became a popular and unique source of healing. 

In the case of local chapters of the firefighting union, it is common practice for there to be a Peer Response Committee that is funded.

Captain Luna stated that departments themselves can cover the cost of the additional peer support training as budgets fluctuate. However, sometimes getting a member trained and certified while on shift, or paid to attend the training, isn't an option.

In those cases, the union's Committee on Peer Support can be billed by the peer support provider. The reality is that often when these services are provided billing doesn’t take place because of the culture.

“No first responder wants to feel they are making money off of caring for their own. What happens a lot of the time is you end up working extra hours on your off days,” Luna said. He expressed optimism that peer support’s effectiveness was leading to more first responders getting certified though and growing their network pf mutual aid. “Ideally, no one will be working outside their scheduled shifts, because that time off is so crucial to a healthy work-life balance,” Luna concluded.

In the wake of peer support’s wide success, there’s been some movement on getting more funding and policy established for this at the city and state levels. That is a breath of fresh air for EMTs and firefighters who are already working overtime to help their overworked peers.

Our Town Reno contribution by Ryan Longfellow in collaboration with a COM 210 UNR class with Amy Pason

Amid Cuts, UNR Researchers Scramble to Find Alternative Funding for Projects, Including Acclaimed International Ones

Dr. Zeb Hogan is one of the many USAID-funded researchers who have had to quickly find alternative ways to receive funding in the wake of immediate terminations in their USAID grant, losing millions of dollars in funding. Dr. Hogan has been working at the University of Nevada, Reno for about 20 years as a research professor. He focuses primarily on fish ecology and aquatic biodiversity through the biology department and later founded with Dr. Sudeep Chandra the Wonders of the Mekong Project. 

This project has been an accumulation of almost eight years working alongside National Geographic and Cambodian researchers, but the future of this collaboration is uncertain since a daunting federal notice issued in late January. Dr. Hogan and many other UNR researchers received abrupt and unforeseen notifications that their funding had been temporarily paused across various different federal funding programs, some feeling the effects at a faster rate than others. 

The Wonders of the Mekong team in February of 2022, showcasing the sponsors that have contributed to their research, including USAID. Photo courtesy of Dr. Zeb Hogan

Research programs all across the country suffered a loss of billions of dollars over the last few months in response to several federal agencies imposing immediate funding cuts to all current and future grant-holding projects. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and many medical research projects have lost over $2 billion since the start of 2025. Global conservation programs funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have lost upwards of $75 billion in the last few months. Its immediate effects have been felt nationwide, including top research projects sponsored here at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

“[UNR] internal analysis shows that the impacted projects total $35 million in awarded funds,” a University of Nevada, Reno spokesperson said earlier this month. “Of which $12 million had already been expended when projects were halted. The resulting financial loss is approximately $23 million…As of April 20, 2025, a total of 18 sponsored projects from USAID, HHS…NEH and NSF have been terminated.”

In response to these pauses in funding and current loss of federal support, researchers and scientists alike have filed lawsuits, but for now much remains in limbo and very much on hold, or in a scrambling pattern with alternative stop gap funding.  

Since 2017, Dr. Hogan has co-led the Wonders of the Mekong Project with Dr. Chandra. This project served as a collaboration with universities in the Mekong region to explore and research the ecosystem in the Mekong river. In 2024, the project received a five year funding extension with an additional $20 million in efforts to expand the project in Southeast Asia. 

“Up until recently, [the Mekong Project] was funded by the US Agency for International Development…we were very excited to help establish its role as a leader in the world in this type of work,” Dr. Hogan explained. “And so we were disappointed in late January when we received a notice that we needed to pause activities and spending. About a month after that, we received notification that our funding was terminated.”

Since then, Dr. Hogan and his team have looked towards the university for additional support. As of now, they were provided bridge funding for three months through the University of Nevada’s Global Water Center along with receiving private donations for the next year as the project works to find more long-term funding. They are not the only ones facing the blows from the loss of federal funding through USAID; around 86% of awards to projects have been terminated—a loss of nearly $30 billion in USAID funding nationwide.

“We launched a new center for aquatic sustainability in Cambodia the week before we found out that the project was going to be terminated,” Dr. Hogan said. “We’ve raised funds now through private donations to continue in a scaled-down version of the project for the next year or so… So essentially, we have a short term plan.”

News articles published on the Wonders of the Mekong Project displayed outside of Dr. Hogan’s and Dr. Chandrea’s lab, one of the articles, is showcasing their National Geographic documentary, “Monster Fish,” which Dr. Hogan has been the host since 2003. Photo by Samantha Wagner

Currently, their top priority is to provide continued support to the Ph.D. students conducting research through the Mekong Project. 

“These types of activities I think are very important to maintain our relationships with other countries to maintain our position in the world as a leader,” Dr. Hogan said. “We’ve been working with these vulnerable fisheries and critically endangered species, and with the loss of funding, these are species that could go extinct within the next 10 years or so… we want to make sure that they don’t disappear forever.”

For some researchers at UNR, cuts came just as programs were gaining early momentum, creating nerve wracking uncertainties.  

Dr. Baker Perry, a professor of climatology in the department of geology, outside of his office in the Mackay Science building. Photo by Samantha Wagner

Dr. Baker Perry is a climatologist and professor at UNR who recently set up several weather stations in South America earlier this year, as part of what is known as Project Wayra. Some weather stations have been established in the mountain range of Aconcagua in Argentina, while there are also water towers associated with this project on Mount Everest in Nepal. Dr. Perry, along with his team, initiated their first exhibition in February of this year, installing five weather stations that will analyze hydrological cycles, weather patterns, and the snowpack levels in the Andes Centrales, a region with a fast-changing high-altitude environment.

This project was initially being funded by the Department of State, and just three days before leaving for Aconcagua earlier this February, Dr. Perry received the notice that all federal funding through this agency had been frozen for the project. The problem was that 90% of the grant was already used prior to the announcement, which was roughly $90,000. 

“We had $150,000 in addition came from American meteorological companies and we had some support from the National Geographic Society and UNR,” Dr. Perry said. “So I estimate probably the whole project was easily $350,000 to $400,000 and so the Department of State grant was only a part of that.” 

The team had decided to proceed with the project and hoped for the best whether or not they would get reimbursed for the last 10% of the grant once they came back from Argentina. Luckily, the funding freeze was lifted soon after their arrival back to the United States. Unsure how reliable federally-sourced grants can be, the team have looked for alternative ways to fund their research, including finding support through the National Geographic Society. 

Dr. Perry expects many other research programs to seek out diverse ways to receive grants and funding in response to the outbreak of federal funding cuts, and he is confident that the project will continue to transpire over the next few months despite the temporary setback, which is more than what many can say at the moment.

”Most of us, we understand that this is a setback, but this is not going to last forever,” Dr. Perry said. “It is important that we stay engaged with the institutions, the universities that are really pushing back. We have to continue to do the work that we do and advocate for science and for this work. I think the pendulum will swing back in time.” 

As for the Wonders of the Mekong Project, Dr. Hogan is still trying to find more alternative funding plans that will support their students long term. 

They had initially planned to pivot to apply for grants through the National Science Foundation, but as of May 2nd, that budget had been cut by 50%. 

For now, the team will continue to put the student researchers first and will seek to support them in completing their Ph.D.s, with or without the funding from USAID, while waiting and hoping for the pendulum to swing back into a much better U.S. environment for research funding.  

Reporting by Samantha Wagner shared with Our Town Reno

Behind the Screen: One UNR Student’s Journey Through Camming

In a hyperconnected yet disassociated world, some college students are confronting feelings of isolation by turning to sex work, not just for income, but for a sense of agency and emotional connection. At the same time, they are grappling with how porn quietly shapes their self-worth and understanding of desire. To shed light on this, we speak with a cam girl about how porn has influenced her identity, boundaries, and views on intimacy. James Perez, Bobby Diaz, and Elijah Reyes report.

The desperation of job hunting can lead people to consider options they never thought possible. A 21-year-old University of Nevada, Reno student, majoring in secondary education, who goes by “Chloe Duncan,” is from the small town of Wells, Nevada.

She found herself in a position she never imagined herself to be in. While desperate to find a job to pay for student fees and other living expenses, Duncan turned to a familiar source of income that she had known since she was just 15 years old – sex work.

While she was in high school, Duncan was offered the opportunity to make a quick hustle by performing sexual acts on older teens, and as a naive high schooler, she accepted.

“Most of the people who paid me to do it were seniors,” Duncan said. “A lot of them liked being dominated, and they would pay me hundreds of dollars to step on their balls with my heels on. They were 19 and I was 15, [doing those sexual acts] made me feel so empowered.”

Several years later, by the end of her Fall freshman semester at UNR, Duncan found herself draining her savings account.

“I applied to over 50 places, mostly bakeries, kitchens, and places with kids,” Duncan said. “I ended up getting turned down a lot because of the way that I look. I have dyed hair and a bunch of visible tattoos, and there’s a big stigma against that.” 

Unable to land a job due to her physical appearance, Duncan turned to a niche area of online camming called Financial Domination or FinDom, where someone called a “Pay Pig” pays a sex worker to humiliate them, with specific rules.

For example, if a Pay Pig doesn’t respond fast enough to an order, they have to send the worker $500.

“They just want somebody to talk to,” Duncan said. “I feel like people who are in these higher positions kind of get separated from society, and they get lonely, and I'm empathetic. I don't think I ever purposely manipulated anybody, it's just not my style.”

Despite only being on this site for two and a half months, Duncan earned roughly $12,000, which she used to pay for her dorm room, textbooks, car payments, and pets. Although the pay was substantial, she felt it was too good to be true and would be difficult to explain to the IRS and her family about where the funds originated from. 

With a replenished savings account and a new sense of self-independence, Duncan decided to try and share her personality online through different streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube.

She wanted to share her art, play video games, and build a community with her viewers. When the views weren’t coming in, the money dried up with it.

“With Twitch, it's either you go viral and you get big, or you don't,” Duncan said. “That's when I kind of leaned more into what sells the quickest, and sex sells, and so I started looking into camming sites again.”

She chose Chaturbate because of the website's user security features, which allowed her to set up region filters that prevented anyone from Nevada and its surrounding areas from watching her content, to protect her identity. She also chose Chaturbate because all new users are automatically pushed to the site's main page, allowing her to build an audience from the start.

Despite being a new face on a cam site, she did not use it to show off her body, but rather to promote her art. For the first few months, she didn't post any nude content. Her viewers paid to have discussions with her and get to know her as a person rather than a model. It was more intimate than FinDom, where she was able to be herself and get paid for it.

“After those first two weeks, you're not being promoted as much,” Duncan said.  “So, the viewer count goes down, but now you've kind of built a loyal clientele. So, more people that I knew who were familiar with my streams were coming in, and they felt more comfortable with me, and I was pretty consistent with it, and so they wanted to pay me more.”

As time went on, Duncan became more comfortable with her loyal audience and decided to cater to their sexual requests. She had her limits, of course, but she believed the less she was willing to do it, the more she would charge for these acts.

“So it was like, if I was going to do it, it was going to be worth it, and I have some hard limits, you know. I don't show anything below the belt on a public stream,” Duncan said.

In her first year, Duncan raked in nearly $1500 a month, with her biggest month peaking at $5000 due to large donations by viewers for more explicit content. After doing this for three years, Duncan’s wish to work in a traditional job ended up coming true when she landed a job at a local bakery. 

“I have not been streaming nearly as much as I used to,” she said. “I used to do it probably every day. Like, maybe take a day off or whatever,” Duncan said. “Now I probably only do it maybe twice a month. I only do it when I want to get a little extra pocket change now. The more I do it, the more likely it is to be found. I have to take into consideration, if I want to be a teacher, you know, I have to stop camming to do that.”

It wasn’t just her future career that pulled her away from camming, it was also the fear of losing the ones closest to her. Duncan has never told her mom about her camming because she knows her mom wouldn’t accept her for it. 

“She thinks kind of in a traditional way in that aspect, I think she believes that doing sex work in any form degrades your self-value as a member of society, which sucks,” Duncan said. “I love my mom, I need her in my life, I want her to be that support, and I don’t want to break that.”

While her mother’s disapproval weighs heavily on her, Duncan has not let it stop her from creating her way in the crowded camming field. She's learned to mix her sense of independence with caution, acknowledging both the freedom and the risks associated with the position.

“My advice to anyone who wants to be in this field is to take it cautiously and only do what you’re comfortable with,” Duncan said. “You are your boss. The moment you want to do it, you can hop on, press broadcast, and end it whenever you want. But I do think people should think about it, because things like this, the internet never forgets.”

Reporting by James Perez, Bobby Diaz, and Elijah Reyes shared with Our Town Reno

International Graduate Assistants at Nevada Face Financial Limitations and Growing Uncertainties

International graduate assistants (GAs) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) are expressing concerns both about their financial situation at the university, animosity towards foreigners and feeling especially vulnerable under the Trump administration about their overall situation.

B who only wanted to give one initial for this article is an international GA from Europe. He works as both a research assistant and teaching assistant on campus and enjoys the research project he is doing. 

Kaashifah, another international GA, is a PhD student from the College of Education and Human Development. She is from Vijayawada, a small city in India and is currently working as a research assistant doing data analysis for the Dean’s Future Scholars program. 

She enjoys her department and job, calling her advisor, Donald Easton-Brooks, a “sweetheart.”

With their visas, B and Kaashifah are only allowed to work on campus, limiting their opportunities for jobs and higher pay. While students elsewhere are having their stays in the United States gone under sudden upheaval, for a myriad of reasons, from the political to the trivial, their own predicament feels increasingly precarious.

They both have jobs as GAs, but with the increasingly high cost of living in northern Nevada, they say the money is not enough.

 B says his stipend covers rent, groceries and other essentials leaving him with about $200 at the end of the month. With his $200 left over, B cannot afford to own a car and he struggles to get groceries without one. 

For Kaashifah, her $2,000 a month stipend is “enough to pay the bills” with little to no money left over. She pays for rent, groceries and any other personal expenses she has.

As international students, both of them face higher costs in tuition than U.S. students. Many international students are likely to pay higher taxes compared to domestic students, as well, as international students do not get the standard deduction from their income on their taxes. 

Some international students are taxed at least 10% on their income for federal taxes, while some may have exemptions depending on where they are from.

GAs at the university are contracted for no more than 20 hours a week, though many have said they regularly work more than that, including international GAs. B says that when he is doing research instead of teaching he is working on average 30 hours a week. 

Kaashifah says that she works the 20 hours a week she is scheduled for and not more than that. Though she says that is typical of her department and not of other departments, especially the sciences.

“I’ve been lucky,” Kaashifah said.

Amid grant cuts and prevailing funding uncertainties, international GAs, in particular, are vulnerable at UNR as their assistantship pays for their tuition. If the assistantship were to lose funding, then international GAs could suddenly be paying almost $30,000 in tuition for one year of schooling. 

They could also lose their visa status as international students are required to show proof that they can pay for school. Part of this proof can include the salary they make as a GA.

B specifically mentioned fears over his position disappearing. “The uncertainty of not knowing if your position … [could] disappear like that,” he said.

Markus Kemmelmeier, the dean of the graduate school, acknowledges the vulnerable position of international GAs. 

“And once you lose your assistantship you lose your funding, and funding is actually the precondition for you to have your visa,” Kemmelmeier said while discussing the uncertainties GAs face semester to semester.

At the university, GAs have been attempting to form a union to help gain more workplace protections and higher wages. Recently, though international GAs have felt the need to step back from organizing, feeling participating in any type of protest is a dangerous proposition for their precarious situation.

The union even though it has not yet been formally recognized by the university, with state level legislative efforts still ongoing, it does currently have protections in place for international GAs such as a hotline to give international GAs access to legal resources. They also recently hosted a Know Your Rights training for international student rights in conjunction with the ACLU of Nevada.

Sadmira Ramic, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Nevada, ran a majority of the training and went over the protections that international students have. Those protections include not having to speak to law enforcement, the right to an attorney and interpreter and no unreasonable search and seizure.

B and Kaashifah are in support of the union and Kaashifah originally helped recruit multiple international GAs to sign their union cards. 

She stepped back from the organizing effort after the election of Donald Trump.

“I am generally scared about it,” B said of of his own visa. “I’m fairly certain that everything is going to be alright, but I’m scared and that is definitely a source of stress.”

“Every day we wake up and there’s something new,” Kaashifah said about the current political climate, and decisions coming from the White House, with some stalled by the court system.

She mentioned the potential removal of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) status option for recent graduates. OPT, which allows international students to get further work experience within their field of study while in the United States after graduation, is currently being discussed as on the cutting block in the U.S. Congress.

OPT is the main route of post-graduation employment for international students as about 72% of international student graduates use OPT. These employment opportunities can last for one to three years depending on the work and the student’s field of study.

Finances and work are not the only areas that Kaashifah says she struggles in. Kaashifah mentioned facing what she called “microaggressions” while attending UNR.

“People look at me and say ‘oh you don’t look Indian, your skin is not brown,’” Kaashifah said.

In another instance, Kaashifah says she was denied from a front desk position on campus due to her English not being good enough. All international graduate assistants whose educational history is from a non-English speaking country have to pass an English fluency test to attend the university.

In an email sent out by Kemmelmeier to graduate program directors, he recently mentioned international students’ fears about getting their visas revoked, as well as encouraging faculty members to support their international graduate students.

For both B and Kaashifah, they are excited about the work that they are pursuing and want to continue in their U.S, experience without fear, but are finding it increasingly difficult to do so.

Reporting by Samuel Kahnke shared with Our Town Reno

GSR Owner Looking for TIF Assistance for New Arena Project Has Flooded Reno Council Members with Donations

While Item B1 of the Redevelopment Agency Board Wednesday is a presentation “on the Grand Sierra Resort Arena Project's request for Tax Increment Financing, including a summary of the financial gap analysis, potential approval of deal terms, and potential delegation of authorization to execute the final participation agreement to the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency,” it’s a good reminder to look at how the different casino entities of Alex Meruelo have flooded most of our City Council with enormous campaign donations in recent cycles. 

A local Redditor recently called the possible TIF for the proposed GSR expansion, which would redirect future increases in tax revenue from the project back to the private developer, as “almost the literal definition” of privatizing profit by socializing costs.

Other casinos have sent a letter disputing this plan, quoting Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 279 which has TIF intended to be used in “blighted areas which constitute either social or economic liabilities, or both …”

The GSR’s plan has been touted as a $1 billion project with a new 10-thousand seat arena scheduled for just three years away, including for Wolf Pack basketball, big name concerts and possibly minor league hockey.  Initially UNR President Brian Sandoval had said no public funds, including Tax Increment Financing, would be needed, but that turns out to have been an early misdirection.  

We probably couldn’t find all the Meruelo related donations as his casinos come up under different names in contribution reports, but what we could identify is that the Grand Sierra Resort itself gave $5,000 to potential future mayoral aspirant Brandi Anderson in September 2024, and $5,000 to the sometimes on the fence about these issues Naomi Duerr in October 2023 for another electoral seat she was seeking.

The MEI-GSR Holdings gave Kathleen Taylor $5,000 in December 2023, in the crucial Ward 1 race that could have tipped the balances in such council decisions, with Meghan Ebert often opposing big developers, Duerr never entirely predictable, and Mayor Hillary Schieve recently more of a wild card.  Taylor has been firmly entrenched with the Anderson, Devon Reese and Miguel Martinez camp, carrying that pro development at seemingly any cost group to most Council decisions. Only Anderson was initially elected from the group, while the three others gained initial entry into the Council through a non elected internal replacement appointment process.

Martinez got two payments of $5,000 from MEI-GSR, the first in 2023 and the second in 2024, while Reese also got two $5,000 paychecks from that entity.  

Meruelo’s other casino, called the Sahara in Las Vegas in some contribution reports, gave $10,000 to Reese in April 2024, and $10,000 to the equally developer friendly Martinez in May 2024 .  The same casino but called Sahara Las Vegas gave Taylor $10,000 in April 2024 and the same amount in the same month to Duerr, even as she was running for the State Senate.  

That’s a lot of Meruelo related cash, including some not even coming from his Reno casino but from Las Vegas.  

Not to be left out of the picture, Mayor Schieve herself has received a total of at least $21,000 from GSR related entities from what we could find in contribution reports since 2014.  Reese previously got $5,000 from the Grand Sierra Resort in his 2020 campaign, as developers are well known to play the long game in who they support in elections.

Our Town Reno reporting, May 4th, 2025

Which Workers and Organizations Are Facing Federal Cuts at the Local Reno Level?

We are receiving multiple messages from readers directly affected by ongoing or potential funding cuts coming from the federal level, from university faculty scrambling with their grants, to KUNR sending emails titled Important Update to early education support employees already dismissed or fearing for their jobs.

A mentor for the AmeriCorps United Readers program with the United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra recently told us she had abruptly lost her job along with dozens of other workers after the program which helped kids falling behind in reading was suddenly cut. The organization said they had just lost $700,000 in funding as part of a $400 million cut nationwide, making the mentors' continued employment unfeasible.

The former mentors cannot claim unemployment due to how their jobs were set with AmericaCorps, a domestic version of the Peace Corps, while they also immediately lost their full education award and living allowances, leaving them in a total bind.

The local iteration of the program which had been going strong for five years had been developed in partnership with the Washoe County School District.

There was a Reddit post yesterday from a local worker for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges saying the non profit they are are working for is looking for voluntary layoffs, with indications that those staying on will face pay cuts if their jobs do remain.

Reports indicate that organization, which houses the oldest juvenile justice research group, had $15 million in grants terminated.

KUNR has been writing emails to its subscribers calling for donations after the White House issued an executive order called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media” seeking a general government defunding of NPR and PBS. The two organizations have challenged the legality of this move, but a bill is also working its way through Congress to defund both.

Another reader had expressed concerns that the Head Start program would be on the cutting block but it seems that in the current budget proposal it remains funded as it previously was, despite Project 2025, the controversial cost cutting blueprint by the Heritage Foundation, calling for its elimination.

Meanwhile, the Nevada Humanities which saw its own highly publicized DOGE slash was just awarded a $250,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, with an immediate $200,000 and an additional $50,000 presented as a one to one challenge grant.

Have you heard of any other local programs or employees recently affected by the federal cuts taking place?

Our Town Reno reporting, May 3, 2025

Three Decades On, A Carson City Teacher Prepares To Say Goodbye to an Increasingly Challenging Profession

Tara Sakelarios, an elementary school teacher at Al Seeliger Elementary School in Carson City, has had many roles over the years, first as a substitute teacher two years after graduating high school, then as a full time 1st and 2nd grade teacher, to now being a long time PE teacher for nearly two decades.

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“Since I've been at my school for 26 years, it's my family,” she said during a recent interview which can be heard above. “It's like, you know, you have new family members come in and out, and I get really close with my coworkers. We have a lot of history together, we have a lot of memories together, and my students, because I know every student in my school because of my PE position, I have known many of their siblings and their parents, and so I'm at a point where I have my students' children now coming into our school. And, I mean, if I leave, it's a small town, and if I go anywhere, I usually run into people I know.”

She’s been known to really get into Halloween costumes, and getting her colleagues to create a festive atmosphere.

“When I'm having a bad day and I'm tired and I come to school and I'm still super happy to be here because I still love my job,” she said.

This year, she is retiring, after pouring so much love and care into her school and the many students in her classes.

“I really am going to cry. The kids are so fun in the morning and they bring, like, good energy. Even when they're naughty, it's like, you know, we all roll our eyes and we all but we're here for them and and and we care so much about them that we just are so excited when they when they achieve things and they've grown,” she said.

She survived difficult years such as the pandemic, when behavior, social skills, and mental health deteriorated.

She said students of the past would never talk back to a teacher – when now it is an everyday occurrence.

“There was no questioning. And now the children question everything,” she said.

Being respectful to students' boundaries, but also not letting them do whatever they want is something that Sakelarios has to deal with everyday as she says her goodbyes.

A new generation of students has meant lots of change, but it is still a job she loved, and a job she will miss. 

“I wanted to leave loving my job because I watched people leave when they were not happy and left because they were not happy, and I didn't want do that. So I'm leaving still happy,” she said.

Reporting and photo by Samantha Wittke

Effort to Ban Retail Sale of Dogs and Cats in Nevada Makes Progress at Legislature

Legislation making its way through the Nevada legislature is Assembly Bill 487, known as Cindy Lou’s Law, in honor of a Havanese puppy who died while at a store called Puppy Heaven in Las Vegas last year.

According to a video by the Humane World for Animals, an investigator working undercover at that store found Cindy Lou dying alone in the bathroom, when it was too late to save her. A month after her death she was still being advertised on the store’s Facebook page.

The bill now being considered in the Senate would prohibit a “retail pet store from selling, offering to sell, bartering or otherwise transferring ownership of any dog or cat,” according to its current iteration, making it a misdemeanor to do so.

Selling pets in public places would also be illegal, while adoption events in partnership with shelters and rescues would still be allowed.

The last so-called puppy mill in northern Nevada Puppy Love shut down in Sparks last summer, providing relief to many locals who view such stores as prioritizing profit over the well-being of animals, leading to poor living conditions, care and increased health problems. Retail stores also rely on importing puppies from other facilities with inhumane breeding practices, leading to poor genetics and other problems.

The American Kennel Club has been opposing this proposed legislation saying it “is concerned this limits the opportunity for residents to purchase a pet from a licensed, regulated entity and removes consumer protection.”

Still existing pet store owners in the Silver State warn such a bill could increase online scams and illegal breeding for people seeking specific dogs.

Reno banned the retail sale of cats and dogs in pet stores in 2020, while Clark County and North Las Vegas have also done the same. The new bill if passed in the Senate and approved by Governor Joe Lombardo would make the ban statewide.

Our Town Reno reporting, April 2025

Patagonia Remains Mum on TikTok That Goes Viral With Allegations from Reno Local

Several Patagonia employees and other locals are reaching out to Our Town Reno about the plight of a Reno resident who says he is now facing homelessness after a commuting injury while working at Patagonia, on both a gofundme and a TikTok from yesterday which has gone viral and helped with his fundraising. 

The TikTok released a day ago titled “My experience working at Patagonia” with the hashtag #homeless has gotten over 450k views and 10-thousand comments as of Tuesday afternoon. 

One current employee told Our Town Reno Ryan Urabe was recently barred entry by security at the Patagonia warehouse where he says he worked alongside him.  We reached out to Patagonia corporate media earlier today, but did not hear back for initial publication. We then got to speak Tuesday evening with J.J. Huggins from Patagonia, who said the outdoor recreation retailer is not at liberty to discuss such a personnel matter.

The gofundme has a $22,000 goal with already over $18,000 raised by Tuesday afternoon with one person donating five dollars saying they’re “sending support and warm thoughts from Norway.” 

In the TikTok, in a calm voice, wearing a Patagonia shirt, Urabe says it’s his first social media video and that he started working at Patagonia last year.  

In the gofundme called “Help Ryan Urabe Recover and Rebuild His Life” he calls his former position at Patagonia a “dream job.” 

Spurred by the company’s monetary incentive for getting to work in environmental friendly ways, he says he bought himself an electric scooter for his short commute along the Truckee river.

On his way home one day, he says he hit a pothole, breaking his leg and ankle, and then found out after an allegedly protracted process he didn’t qualify for FMLA assistance.

He says he had only been employed for a few months, and a year was required, but he alleges he was led to initially believe he might get help.

He then writes  “I received an email stating that I voluntarily resigned,” which he denies.

His version or any of the details of what transpired during his short time with Patagonia could not be independently confirmed.  

Urabe says while recovering from surgery, without medical insurance, he was evicted and went to the local shelter still in a cast, but then was 86ed from the facility after an altercation there. On the TikTok he said he was staying at a Reno shelter, presumably the Cares Campus run by the county, for about a week.   

“I have asked Homeless Services if and how much information we can provide about an individual, and I’ll let you know what they say,” Bethany Drysdale from the county’s communications team wrote back after we asked if this could be confirmed. 

In his TikTok, Urabe said he was now living in a motel, but that his father who had been helping him financially, was then hospitalized.  

“I will be homeless and I am desperate. I am scared and don’t know how to survive on the streets,” he concludes in bold letters in the gofundme.  

In the TikTok from yesterday he said “tomorrow I’m going to be homeless” without even a sleeping bag or tent. 

He concludes the video by saying “thank you for listening.” 

His TikTok at ryan.urabe has a Venmo and a PayPal with the words “Anything helps.”

Our Town Reno reporting, April 29, 2025

City of Reno Denies Needed Permit for Jiffy Lube in Hunter Lake Area after Protests

The City of Reno is denying a required so-called minor conditional use permit for a proposed Jiffy Lube in the Hunter Lake and Mayberry area in Reno, after several weeks of protests by neighborhood residents, citing safety and congestion concerns.

In a Facebook post from earlier today, councilwoman Naomi Duerr wrote “Staff have #denied the minor conditional use permit because the location selected is already in use as a required overflow parking location for the Raley's across the street. In 1996, when Raley's wanted to expand at this location, one of the requirements was that they have a certain amount of parking to account for the loss of parking on site. That requirement is still in place,” Duerr wrote.

“I credit one of the city's former staff members with bringing this 30-year old permit requirement to the attention of the city planning staff and the community. While old permit records are retained, they are kept offsite, often on microfiche (film copies of old records) and not easily accessible. I appreciate the current city staff's diligence in following up on the information provided at the NAB during our public workshop on this project,” the Ward 2 councilwoman added, before underlining the importance of NAB meetings.

A letter from Planning Manager Mike Railey dated April 28th announcing the denial indicated “this administrative decision may be appealed to the City Council by the applicant.”

Our Town Reno reporting, April 29, 2025

City of Reno Councilman Issues Response after Man in Promotional Campaign Materials Expressed Holocaust Denialism

Reno City Councilman Miguel Martinez has responded to our concerns after a man who had appeared on his promotional campaign materials and in many joint photos expressed Holocaust denialism when he recently reposted a City of Reno announcement on his public Facebook digital creator page.

“I denounce all forms of antisemitism and discrimination. What others think or say is not in my control, but what is in my control is showing up each day and making sure that I advocate for all communities. This comes in the form of my own words, actions, and votes,” the Ward 3 councilman responded by email.

The post a reader alerted us to by Jerry Martinez called the City of Reno honoring Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day “WACK,” adding “It was never 6 million btw. There were no gas chambers. It’s all theater.”

His feed which also contained many homophobic and anti-trans posts now only has a cover photo and a half dozen photos visible to us.

Our Town Reno reporting, April 28, 2025

Former Reno Shelter Now Used as Parking for Pizza Beer Place to the Dismay of Unhoused Advocates

Local activists who have long tried to save the former CAC shelter area for enhanced Reno social services have been surprised to see its parking lot now being used as parking for a new beer and pizza restaurant called Lake Tahoe AleWorX Reno on 4th street.

"The land Lake Tahoe AleworX Reno is currently using for their parking lot is owned by the City of Reno,” the City wrote to us when we asked.

“This piece of land is currently in the process of being sold to an affordable housing developer. While the transaction of that parcel is in the process of going under contract, the City has made an arrangement with Lake Tahoe AleworX Reno to use the site as a parking lot in exchange that the business maintains the site. Once the land sale is completed, the City will no longer own that parcel and Lake Tahoe AleworX Reno will have to negotiate with the new owners for the future use of that site."

After federal pandemic money was used to quickly open the Nevada Cares Campus, and local homelessness services were moved to the County's authority, the City of Reno left its former Record Street shelter buildings and area go into disrepair due to a lack of security and maintenance. After that, the council said it would be too costly to rehabilitate the compound for social services.

Advocates for the unhoused have long wanted the CAC to be kept under city control as a warming and cooling center with additional services for those struggling in our community.

Its two sections were built in 2005 and 2007 for $20 million with materials estimated to be able to last between 50 to 100 years.

Our Town Reno reporting, April 28, 2025

Daryl Vann, Number One All-Time, Even Ahead of Michael Jordan, with Sierra Kids

“I don’t want to work with no kids.” 

That’s what Daryl Vann told his grandma when a family friend mentioned a job opening working with youth. He was just looking for work, any work, but the idea of spending his days around kids? That wasn’t exactly ideal for him. 

But life had other plans. 

On his very first day, the kids were coming back from a field trip. As they filed in, one looked straight at him and shouted, “Michael Jordan!”

Daryl laughs when he tells the story now. 

“That moment caught my heart,” he says. “I didn’t even know what I was doing yet, but after that? I was in!” 

Who knew being called Michael Jordan would be the start of a 25-year legacy? At first, Daryl, now 49, wasn’t sure where he was going. After high school, life hit him hard. His mom passed away just two months after graduation from Hug High and friends were headed off to college, but him? He was stuck. 

His mom had him when she was just 14. He had four half siblings with different fathers, but without his mom and without high school structure, he felt lost.

“1994 to ‘99 was just a dark time,” he says. 

Daryl recalls going into a depression, but once he found work in local youth programs, things shifted ever since that first day.

He started at a local camp, then spent nearly two decades with Sierra Kids at Lemelson STEM academy, building a reputation as someone the kids could count on. Today, he’s at the Mount Rose K-8 school, as the site supervisor for the Sierra Kids program. 

But “supervisor” barely scratches the surface of what Daryl really does. 

Walk into Mount Rose during after school hours, and it won’t take long to figure out who Daryl is. Even when surrounded by staff, he’s the one the kids go to. Whether they need a laugh, an energy boost, an ice pack, want to play a game, or just have something to share. All of the interactions between him and the kids he meets with patience, energy, and a grin that never seems to fade. 

“I used to be a staff member, playing and hanging out,” he says. “Now I oversee everything. But I still make sure I interact. I listen. Not just talk, I listen.”

That part matters to him. He knows how rare it is for kids to feel heard and how deeply they respond when they are. 

“I am a big talker, like the star of the show, you know. But to be a star you have to listen to everyone else and it's not just about me,” he said during our interview.

Whether it's games or just sitting and talking, what really defines Daryl’s work is consistency. He is always there. Rain, shine, even sick days. Explaining how it's just a feeling you can’t beat. 

“It’s the trust. When parents trust you with their kids, their creations, it means something. That’s not something I take lightly,” he said.

He’s never had kids of his own, but he makes sure to treat them like they are his own. This comes from his own upbringing of lacking a father figure. Now, he’s made it his mission to be the strong presence he never had. 

“I see myself in some of these kids,” he said. “A little rough around the edges, but full of potential. All they need is someone to believe in them.” 

He didn’t plan for any of this. But now? Somewhere between that first day and all the years that followed, this became more than a job. It became his purpose. And to think it all started with one kid calling him Michael Jordan. 

“It’s simple: show up, mean it and be someone a kid can count on,” he said of his recipe for doing this job so well.

He does exactly that. Not because he set out to be the star, but because he makes sure that every kid feels like one.

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Genevy Machuca

Reno Satanic: Dismantling Rumors and Demonic Misconceptions

Jason Pennington-Miller stepped up to the podium for the Board of County Commissioners meeting to give an opening invocation on January 16, 2024. He ended his speech with “Hail Satan.”

Before ending his invocation, Miller praised freedom of expression, intellectual inquiry, and the beauty of the natural world.

The Washoe County Commission had previously approved the proposal to host an invocation at the start of their meetings.

Commissioner Clara Andriola, who had pitched the idea, left the room when Miller spoke. Andriola said she “totally disagreed with the invocation presenter.” 

Online, this unexpected opening to a county meeting got mixed reactions, from admiration to admonishment. 

Miller explained that the invocation he gave was not used for religious purposes.

“An invocation is simply just words. You don’t have to be of religious faith, or lack of faith, to be able to give an invocation,” Miller said during a recent interview at The Ravens Realm, a small metaphysical shop on Rock Blvd. 

Reno Satanic describes itself as a non-theistic satanic community in Northern Nevada. It started in the summer of 2019. The group says it does not believe in Satan but rather uses Satan as a “Symbol of Rebellion.” The Reno Satanic said they “value the idea of Satan in the sense of the Adversary,” according to its website renosatanic.com. 

“Hail Satan, which in Satanism, means hail ourselves. We take on the name as part of ourselves. We don’t worship a deity,” Miller said.

Miller is 30 years old, and he is the founder of Reno Satanic. He hosts rituals such as the Spring Equinox along with other activities as a representative for Reno Satanic. He has participated in volunteer work in the past alongside the Reno Satanic community, helping out with Karma Boxes for people in need.  

Miller, as well as the Reno Satanic community, have taken part in LGBTQ activism such as the Northern Nevada Pride Parade yearly, giving out free buttons and having a “Sign your name in the Devil’s book” gimmick, a play off the 1970s film The Devil’s Rain.  

Miller said that Reno Satanic has a private Facebook and Discord group chat that is used for networking and for members to be their “authentic self.” He hosted a Spring Equinox Ritual Workshop on March 22nd. 

Rituals for the Spring Equinox included nailing the Holy Bible shut for what they call “Closing the Book of Lies”. This is a ritual in which members take turns hammering nails into the Bible. The ritual, according to Miller, was made to “take back control of ourselves as individuals.” He said it was made to show that the Bible doesn’t define them, that the Bible was made to be in his words a “tool of enslavement for the unjust.”

During the recent Spring Equinox ritual, a statue of Baphomet is shown. The statue is a hermaphrodite figure with the head of a goat and the body of a human. It has wings, horns, and a pentagram on its forehead. It is the official symbol for The Satanic Temple and represents duality, balance and rebellion.

Members of the group wrote letters about a time someone had lied to them as a prompt for the Spring Equinox. The prompt was first posted on March 17th. Members placed these letters in the “book of lies” during the Spring Equinox event to nail the book closed. 

Alice, who didn’t disclose her last name for privacy reasons, is 30 years old and is a member of the Reno Satanic. She has been a member for the past two years and attended the recent Spring Equinox. 

“That ritual helped me to let go of that [lie]. It didn’t erase the event… but I’m not stuck on it anymore, I can move on and grow,” she said during an interview over the phone on April 4th. 

Other rituals during the Spring Equinox included burning a slip of paper over one of two candles, black for blessings and white for curses. 

Alice said the ritual was, “equivalent to praying for someone…I’m not praying to a god to help them, just sending that positive energy, that good vibe.”

Reno Satanic’s prerituals include biting into what they call the “forbidden fruit”, which is biting into an apple. Miller says that this ritual is used to “take back power” and is mostly a feminine ritual based on the story of Eve from the Bible. The last ritual is what they call “The Destruction of the Host”, where they smash real communion wafers.

Reno Satanic uses these rituals as a catharsis, saying that it’s for giving members confidence more than for the use of magic. 

Alice said that ever since she was 18 years old, she has struggled with depression and anxiety, explaining that she wasn’t able to overcome these struggles through therapy or religion. She was an atheist her whole life and developed a community with Reno Satanic.  

“Since I can’t believe in something greater, such as a god, what I can do is start to believe in myself,” she said.

Alice says that Reno Satanic makes her feel better and more accepting about her flaws, mental health struggles, and herself. The reason for this is because she says it’s easier for her to remember that she’s human and makes mistakes. She said that it also helped her be more accepting of other people by treating others the way she wants to be treated.

Miller says that Reno Satanic stands for rebelling against mainstream norms and it’s made for a person to focus on oneself.  

“An athlete might have a specific song they always listen to before a game because they are trying to bring out a state of mind, and that’s essentially a ritual even if it’s probably not looked at like that,” Alice said. 

The number of people who are a part of the Reno Satanic are kept anonymous due to safety reasons, according to Miller. The group also doesn’t own a building due to safety reasons as well. 

Reno Satanic is not the only such group facing safety related concerns.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, on April 8, 2024, a man by the name of Sean Patrick Palmer was arrested for throwing a pipe bomb at The Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts. He will be sentenced on June 12th, facing five to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

“It’s a safety concern to also have property, as there’s too many people out there who are fearful of satanism to this day,” Miller said. 

After telling her father that she is a part of Reno Satanic, Alice says their relationship wasn’t any different from before, which is loving and healthy. 

She hasn’t been in a situation where she withheld disclosing her membership for Reno Satanic. She said she would withhold this information if there was an “aggressive mob of people walking down the street saying they were hunting satanists.” 

Reno Satanic is not a part of The Satanic Temple or The Church of Satan. It is considered an independent group. Miller said that the Reno Satanic doesn’t have a structured membership and that membership is judged by involvement.  

Miller said Reno Satanic doesn’t have extreme occult like practices such as hurting animals, people, or sacrificing babies. He also said that there are no extreme satanist groups in Reno who use such practices that he knows of.

“That wouldn’t be satanism,” he said. 

When asked if there was any violence involved in Reno Satanic, Alice said she never heard anyone raise their voice. She also said that Reno Satanic is accepting, tolerant, and genuine. 

“It’s easy to fear something you don’t know anything about. It’s easy to fear the unknown,” she said.

Our Town Reno reporting and photo by Teagan Greer

Math Students at TMCC Trying to Avoid Certain Professors Relieved They Can Finally See Who They are Signing Up With

As math classes for the Fall 2025 semester at TMCC were posted this month for sign ups, rooms, instruction methods and meeting dates were indicated but the rows for instructors were all listed as “To Be Announced.”

This worried multiple students trying to avoid two instructors who rate very low on the ratemyprofessors website. 

An email sent by Mike Peyerl on April 14th to District 35 Assembly member Rebecca Edgeworth and shown to Our Town Reno with the Subject Re: FW: TMCC Policy Undermines Student Rights and Transparency - Legislative Oversight Urgently Needed, indicates:  “We have fixed the issue.  We had a member of our team take an inappropriate action with the Math registration classes for the upcoming registration cycle.  This individual has been causing numerous problems and he decided to do this even though he knew it was against NSHE policy. We are addressing this on the academic side with him.”

“The good news is that it is now fixed in our system and was only for Math classes. None of our other courses had this issue because all of our other Department Chairs follow the rules,” the TMCC Vice President of Finance and Government Relations concluded in that email.  

Our Town Reno was previously sent a response by TMCC’s Director of Marketing and Communications Kate Kirkpatrick indicating: “TMCC's practice is to publish class schedules that list the names of available instructors, starting with full-time faculty, and later the part-time instructors, as they are hired. After registration opened last week, the math courses you mentioned were mistakenly hidden to students temporarily, which may have disrupted the registration process for some students. All the affected courses have now been made visible to students once again by the admissions office, as our catalog states that they are to be offered every semester. They are now available for registration.”

We asked for a follow up after seeing Peyerl’s email if the mistake was inappropriate and intentional but have not heard back by the time of this report.

An email from Alejandro Rodriguez, the NSHE director of government relations on April 14th, to another assembly member, Erica Mosca from District 14, indicated the TMCC Vice President had the community college working on restoring instructor names, with an attributed quote that “the chair was not authorized to remove the instructor names from the schedule, which he had built and the dean had already approved.”

NSHE, the Nevada System of Higher Education, is the state government entity which oversees all public colleges and universities in the state.  

TMCC has been mired in legal disputes for years with faculty member and current math department chair Lars Jensen.

In March, Jensen earned a courtroom victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after it overruled the U.S. District Court of Nevada and determined TMCC administrators had violated his First Amendment rights and retaliated against him. 

In a case that received national attention, in 2019, Jensen had raised concerns that the TMCC math curriculum standards were being lowered both during a meeting and in writing, even though he was told he could not do that, which then led to a reprimand, negative evaluations from higher ups and proceedings since abandoned to fire him.  

Jensen has a 2.2 rating on ratemyprofessors where many students tend to give low ratings to professors who many view as too difficult. 

In terms of rating distribution, he has five in the awesome category, four in the great, three in the good, two in the OK and 38 in awful.

Prior to the professors being listed, a TMCC student Jennifer Hancock had been posting graphics on social media, as well as contacting officials, about the situation of not being able to see who was teaching which math class.

One graphic from Jennifer indicated:  “To All TMCC Students, past, present and future.  I am writing to you today not just as a fellow student, but as someone who believes in transparency, accountability, and your right to make informed decisions about your education. Last year, I enrolled in a math class at TMCC and was assigned to an instructor with a historically low student success rate. The class environment was anything but supportive, and I felt like I couldn’t learn math.”

After indicating the instructor names were not available, she concluded: “Let’s protect future students from being blindsided by the very system that’s supposed to support them.”

In another she gave her full name Jennifer Hancock with in one section in capital letters: “You deserve to know who’s teaching your class before you commit to it.”

Hancock had also expressed these concerns via email to the NSHE Board of Regents and to multiple people in the math department, with a conclusion there that “hiding instructor names does not foster equity or academic excellence — it merely forces students into courses they have valid reasons to avoid.”

In another message on social media for TMCC students Hancock wrote:  “I ended up in a math class with a professor whose teaching style made it nearly impossible for me to succeed. I wasn’t alone—many students struggled in that class, and it shook my confidence in learning math at all. I decided to speak up for those who come after me.”

Another math professor students have told us they avoid is Jeff Olsen, who has a 2.9 overall score on ratemyprofessors but with 28 awesomes being more than his 25 awfuls there. 

Our Town Reno reporting, April 2025

Jacobs Entertainment Seeks Controversial TIF Help as Part of Updated Projects

Jacobs Entertainment CEO Jeff Jacobs is seeking public tax increment financing reported at over $20 million as part of ongoing development plans which now include turning the former Bonanza Inn on 4th street into a planned 57 unit project called the Breeze.

Jacobs Entertainment has already received sewer connection fee credits, pedestrian amenity credits and special dispositions for its signage, while tearing down bought out motels which some low income residents used to rely on for housing.

In a Thursday announcement, Jacobs also indicated he wants to replace the Reno Housing Authority’s Sarrazin Arms Apartments on 3rd street with 65 of his own units.

Meanwhile there’s also a plan to convert an area with the idle Chapel of the Bells and the rotting historic Nystrom House into what is now being branded as the Glow Gardens for weddings and special events.

This comes during active construction of the downtown J Resort outdoor festival grounds, and already talked about plans to have a new 400-seat banquet hall at the J resort, formerly the Sands.

TIF is a controversial financing mechanism which can divert funds from essential public services, and raises concerns about transparency and accountability in terms of how money is spent.

It allows developers to recapture property tax revenue generated by a project to the detriment of a city’s budget.

There have been other controversial asks recently locally for TIF help, including the GSR’s massive arena project and the old Harrah’s casino stalled conversion.

Our Town Reno reporting, April 17th 2025

Jeff Scott's Tenure at the Helm of Washoe County Library System Ends After Right Wing Protests

After an opening announcement that former library director Jeff Scott had resigned after 10 years on the job, even though he still appears on the system's website, the main event of the Library Board of Trustees Wednesday night meeting became the public comment section.

The second speaker Valerie Wade blasted the board for siding with what she qualified as bigotry. Scott has been under fire from right wing protesters for years now, with attention initially focused against him during the previously held drag queen story hours. Scott had recently received low effectiveness ratings from current library board members, with lots of new arrivals giving him bad evaluations. A possible dismissal was in the cards prior to the preemptive resignation.

Scott began his career over 20 years ago at the Arizona Historical Foundation, followed by library director positions for Casa Grande, Arizona, Tulare County, and Berkeley, California. 

Scott was always open to partnerships with the community including with Our Town Reno which held Share Your Story sessions at the downtown library with community residents during several years preceding the pandemic.

Our Town Reno reporting, April 16, 2025

David Torres Thrives as an Ironman Both In and Out of his Print Shop

David Torres, 43, the owner of Thrive Reno, is wearing black to stay clean amid the whizzing of multiple print jobs at his new location in north Reno, just above the University of Nevada, from where he gets many clients.

The Bridgeport, Connecticut native, with heritage from Puerto Rico, has been in Reno since 2006, where he's also known for his cosplay, and visiting Renown Children's Hospital dressed up as Ironman.

"I remember on my way up to the children’s ward, a nurse stopped me and said that they need me up there," he remembers. "The ward was packed with two kids per room, so she knew they needed some joy and a little bit of superhero magic. This was a mission that I’ll always cherish."

On the left at the entrance of Thrive Reno there’s a photo of Torres as Ironman comforting a sick child.

Workwise, he says he lost his job during the pandemic, and having worked for others in printing previously, he decided to start his own business in his own garage.

Torres proved his mettle and quickly outgrew that space within one year, initially setting up a brick and mortar shop on Market Street. Torres chose the new location on North Virginia Street to save $800 per month and give easy parking access to customers and quicker delivery to some of his casino clients.

"We advanced and thrived and completely thrived, and here we are now," he says pun intended. "We're doing it. We're making it happen. And I'm just happy to be a part of the community and happy to bring our flavor."

Thrive Reno is a full in house shop with design and digital marketing capabilities, specializing in direct mail projects, postcards, menus, company stationary, labels, booklets, posters, flyers, brochures, business forms and t-shirts.

He says growing up poor in a bad neighborhood has given him resilience and the ability to adapt. Torres says he does have anxiety and panic attacks, but just like Ironman he works to overcome these challenges.

"When there's a will, there's a way," he says of his business acumen. "As cliche and as old school as that sounds, when there's a will, there's a way."

Our Town Reno reporting, April 2025

Nevada Humanities Scrambles to Survive after Sudden Grant Termination

The team at Nevada Humanities is scrambling, after receiving a notice of grant termination from the federal government earlier this month.

“Our staff and board are evaluating our situation at this moment, financially,” said executive director Christina Barr. “To see if it's possible for us to survive and we think it may be possible for us to survive a little while, but in a very limited way.” 

“Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities,” the April 2nd notice sent to Barr by Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Michael McDonald indicated.

According to recent reporting, the National Endowment for the Humanities intends to redirect some of the funding retracted from humanities programs across the country to build President Donald Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes.

A banner on the Nevada Humanities website now indicates “Our Work is Under Threat. DOGE is cutting funding for Nevada Humanities and all other state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the country.”

Underneath, it has a take action tab, asking people to contact their elected officials and share the action alert.

“The humanities aren’t some elite luxury,” George Lam, assistant director explained. “We’re talking about programs that reach rural communities, students, artists, storytellers – people all across Nevada. We use roads to connect our towns, but we also connect people through culture, food, ideas, and language. That’s what we’re fighting to preserve.” 

Events at risk include book talks, oral history projects and presentations that explore identity, philosophy, and what it means to be human. Programs here include local lectures, partnerships with schools and libraries, and elevating voices that are often overlooked.  Losing this funding doesn't mean fewer events and programs, it could mean none at all. 

Barr remembers distinctly the moment she received the notice.

“It came from an outside sender, not the usual NEH system. And that was already strange,” Barr said. “ What shocked me most was finding out NEH staff didn’t even know this letter had gone out.” 

Barr and her team had just warned their staff the night before about potential grant terminations.

“It's been an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “We believe in our work. We know it helps people, and it’s heartbreaking to imagine Nevada without it.” 

Nevada Humanities has an office in Reno and works closely with both urban and rural communities throughout the state.

“Imagine a small organization that gets a grant from us,” Lam explained. “If they lose it, the speaker doesn’t get paid, the event doesn’t happen, and the audience never gets the message. It’s not just about the money. It’s about what the money enables.”

Despite the uncertainties, Nevada Humanities is not giving up. They’ve launched an emergency fundraising campaign and are asking for the community's help.

If a Nevada Humanities event, program or grant impacted you, they are asking Nevadans to speak out, contact their representatives and let them know what’s at stake, not just the funding, but spaces where residents find meaning, memory, and each other.

As Barr puts it, “It’s all happening in real time.” 

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Genevy Machuca

Full Funding is Proposed for Washoe County Libraries, But Director Faces Possible Dismissal on Wednesday Night

“Washoe County is proposing full funding for the Washoe County Library for this next fiscal year. I am relieved and grateful for our community's advocacy for the library and for the support of the Commissioners and Trustees,” Washoe County Library Director Jeff Scott wrote to Our Town Reno on Friday, after news came through that the county is proposing to fully fund current library programs for the next fiscal year.

There has been uncertainty for months, after voters, some of them confused by the wording on their ballots, chose to discontinue a previous dedicated financing mechanism, sending the money instead to the county’s general fund.  

In a follow up phone conversation, Scott said it has now been decided at the county level that money previously set aside for a new North Valleys Library, or about $3.3 million, should be used for upcoming operational funds, with an additional $1.3 million coming from the county “to make the budget whole.”

The existing North Valleys library on North Hills Blvd is in a leased facility with rent due on a monthly basis.  

Scott said there’s a private donor interested in helping out building a new county-owned one, which all told could cost about $20 million, with future plans to have it serve as a multi government facility for an area lacking available services. 

County Commissioners are due to vote on the county’s budget at their next meeting on Tuesday, amid overall shortfalls.

Some protesters have called on Jeff Scott to be fired from his position. amid their opposition to library policies.

Meanwhile, the Library Director is scheduled to be publicly evaluated Wednesday at a possibly contentious Library Board of Trustees meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. at the downtown Reno library.

Item 7b indicates: “90-day performance evaluation of Washoe County Library Director, Jeff Scott, to include: an update on the results of the 90-day performance evaluation feedback survey by Washoe County Human Resources, an update on accomplishments by Library Director Scott, and a discussion by the Library Board of Trustees on the job performance of Director Scott and possible action including, but not limited to, corrective action plan, reduction in pay, reprimand, endorsement, engagement, retention, dismissal if necessary, or ‘no action’.”

A 90-day clock was started after a heated meeting in January. 

Current trustees who will decide his fate are chair Ann Silver, vice chair Tami Ruf, and three other trustees Gianna Jacks, Lea Moser and Marie Rodriguez. 

“I’m happy with the work that I've done, and we'll see what the board wants to say,” Scott said.  

In our interview, he disputed online criticism that the library’s budget isn’t transparent 

“Everything that we're doing, you walk into the building, that's where the money is being spent,” he said.  

“You’ve got staff. You’ve got books on the shelves, and you’ve got computers and technology there. Those are the three biggest expenses.... It's not a complicated budget. It's probably the most simplistic budget that we have in the county. And you know directly where it goes. You walk in the building, you see where it's being spent on. So, I'm always kind of surprised by this kind of criticism because it's a public library. What books do we have on the shelves? You can look them up online.”

Our Town Reno reporting, April 2025