rural Nevada

Enjoy a wondrous evening under the stars with our friends from Great Basin National Park as they host the Star Train at Nevada Northern Railway, Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m.

There will be a trivia contest on board with prizes for those with their thinking caps on. Passengers will be let off the train in order to gaze through telescopes at the night sky, guided by the Dark Rangers of Great Basin National Park. This is a great train ride that the whole family can enjoy.

The Nevada Rural Counties Retired Senior Volunteer Program Board of Directors has named Susan Haas as Executive Director and chief executive officer. Haas began work with the RSVP, based in Carson City, in 2007 as program director after serving for 8 years as Deputy Chief of Staff for Lt. Governor Lorraine Hunt.

In 2012 she was promoted to Director of Marketing and Development.

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Rural Counties Retired Senior Volunteer Program Board of Directors has appointed Susan Haas as Interim Executive Director and CEO. Haas began work with the organization in 2007 as Program Director then was promoted in 2012 to Director of Development.

UPDATE: A funeral service for Janice R. Ayres, a longtime Carson City resident and champion for the elderly and disabled in Nevada, will be held today, Friday, in Carson City at the First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Musser and Division streets.

A gathering for family and friends of Ayres will follow at Cafe at Adele's, 1112 North Carson Street.

Ayres was 92 when she died May 27, 2013.

Friday marked yet another deadline at the Legislature. Bills and resolutions had to be approved by the second house committees to which they were assigned after passing out of their respective houses of origin.

Last week, Elaine and her Mom spent five days enjoying all kinds of fun things to do in San Diego, Calif., on their once-a-year Mother-Daughter outing.

They flew roundtrip from Reno to San Diego with some great internet discount tickets from Southwest Airlines.
Then at the airport, the hotel shuttle picked them up and took the two of them to the Wyndham Hotel, which is located on the edge of the harbor.

The Nevada Rural Housing Authority (NRHA) has named DeBug Computer, Inc., “Most Valuable Partner, ” in providing guidance, support and solutions in implementing major software changes at the rural housing agency.

A contest designed to give financial rewards to 12 Nevada students is now underway. The Nevada College Savings Board and State Treasurer Kate Marshall have launched the fifth annual Nevada $529 College Savings Day Contest, open to students from kindergarten through the fifth grade.

As Prepared for Delivery Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013:

Madam Speaker, Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Legislature, Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Officers, Senator Heller, honored guests…...

After receiving numerous complaints, the Carson City District Attorney's Office is investigating a local man who has allegedly defrauded several people in the Hispanic community by telling them he is a credentialed lawyer.

The suspect is practicing law without a license and has been telling people he is a paralegal or a lawyer, said Carson City District Attorney Neil A. Rombardo. He is believed to have taken hundreds if not thousands of dollars from unknowing members of the community.

A popular, new program offered by the Nevada Rural Housing Authority (NRHA) is making home ownership even more affordable. Through the Home at Last™ Access program, qualified home buyers receive a generous 4 percent down payment grant, which does not have to be paid back.

Now, the program is offering even lower mortgage interest rates on a conventional, 30-year fixed rate loan. Through participating lenders, the interest rates on FHA, VA or USDA-RD home mortgages have dropped from 3.75 percent to the current rate of 3.5 percent, which is an historic low.

CARSON CITY – Candidates in two of Nevada’s hotly contested Congressional races debated the issues Thursday in separate 30-minute discussions on public television.

USDA Rural Development State Director Sarah Adler announced the spending

CARSON CITY – Forget the tame, staid, policy driven debates seen in most races in Nevada so far this year.

CARSON CITY – U.S. Sen. Dean Heller today said online gaming legislation critical to the future of Nevada’s economy should be removed from the world of politics so partisan fights don’t “poison the water” for the bill’s future in Congress.

Heller, interviewed on the Nevada NewsMakers television program, said the legislation is too important to be subjected to political fights between himself and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid between now and the Nov. 6 general election.

Many women in rural Nevada have never had a mammogram. Fear, lack of funds, transportation conflicts, or no insurance are just some of the reasons women have not protected themselves against breast cancer. Yet, we know that early detection of breast cancer saves lives.

CARSON CITY, NEV (June 29, 2012) – The Nevada Rural Housing Authority (NRHA) has launched a new home mortgage and down payment assistance program that is designed to help a group that has received very little help until now: working Nevadans who have been hurt by the downturn in the economy and the housing crisis.

CARSON CITY – State lawmakers have put a new tourism contract to promote Nevada on hold despite the concerns of one lawmaker that the move exceeds legislative authority.

Concerns have been raised by Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, about the intent to award the two-year, $3.2 million contract to an out-of-state firm.

CARSON CITY – Danny Tarkanian narrowly beat out state Sen. Barbara Cegavske in the 4^th Congressional District GOP primary today, surviving a tough challenge in the contest to see who will face Democrat state Sen. Steven Horsford in the November general election.

CARSON CITY – With education reform a top priority of Gov. Brian Sandoval, the new alignment of the state Board of Education – with four seats up for grabs on the November ballot – is taking on more importance than ever before.

One of the four seats, District 2 which mirrors the new Nevada 2^nd Congressional District from Reno and Carson City east across rural Nevada, has attracted five candidates, two of whom are serving now on the 10-member elected board. The race is nonpartisan.

CARSON CITY – Three of the Republicans seeking the right to challenge state Democratic Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford for Nevada’s new 4^th Congressional District seat sought to establish their conservative credentials in a televised debate today.

CARSON CITY – While Mitt Romney and Barack Obama were campaigning elsewhere today, Nevada Democrats and Republicans took up the battle for the presidency on their behalf.

Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., held a telephone conference call to talk up Romney’s credentials as a “turnaround specialist” who will get the country back on track. He also criticized Obama for failing to get spending or the national deficit under control as he promised early on in his presidency.

CARSON CITY – A coalition of Native American tribes has filed a lawsuit in Nevada District Court seeking to overturn a ruling issued earlier this year by the state engineer granting nearly 84,000-acre-feet of groundwater in four rural eastern valleys to Las Vegas.

Find out how Nevada is addressing the needs for broadband infrastructure that is, and will be, required for our businesses; particularly for health care to remain competitive.

Join NNDA on April 25 at 7 a.m. at Dayton Valley Country Club to hear from the experts in the field of broadband telecommunications as to what projects are underway and deployed throughout the rural areas and the State.

Driving home the future of visitors and spending to the Silver State, the Nevada Commission on Tourism's annual Rural Roundup at Lake Tahoe April 18-20 will headline the acclaimed author of "The Experience Economy and Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want."

James H. Gilmore's book, whom he co-authored with Joe Pine, was recognized by Time magazine as one of the “Ten Ideas That Are Changing the World." In it he asserts that consumers want authentic products and experiences — something rural Nevada is singularly positioned to offer with its historic destinations and attractions.

CARSON CITY – There was a flurry of candidates filing for office and some political maneuvering today as Nevada’s 2012 election season officially got under way.

Over 90 candidates filed for a variety of offices in Clark County.

Another 17 filed with the Secretary of State’s office and others filed in their respective counties around the state.

February 09, marks a special day in the life of yours truly.

It is my one-year anniversary writing about the Great Outdoors at Internet website Carson Now.

Time certainly flies when you are having fun, and it has been both a totally enjoyable and a totally memorable year of writing about all kinds of activities in the Great Outdoors, both near and far away.

CARSON CITY – Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said today he opposes the earmark process used to fund various projects around the country, advocating instead that state priorities for federal support go through a regular budget review.

“The problem with earmarks, when you look at them, it’s symbolic largely, because it’s not that it’s a huge part of the federal budget,” he said. “But a lot of them appear at the end with absolutely no hearings and they are in bills.

Each year, as my last article for that year, I present my Annual Don Q Awards for a number of different reasons: Outstanding, good, not so good, bad, serious, funny, dumb, head-scratching, are-you-kidding, etc.
Those annual awards are presented to all kinds of people or places or things for what has occurred throughout the year. It’s an interesting way to end the year, so here are my 2011 winners:

As I look forward to the year of 2012 with high expectations, hopes and dreams, this is a good time to reflect back on some selected personal memories from the rapidly ending year of 2011. Here are my top memories: