University of Nevada

The Nevada Air Guard High Rollers will be honoring the men and women in healthcare who are battling COVID-19 by doing a flyover of Northern Nevada and Lake Tahoe area hospitals with a C-130 on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.

CARSON CITY — The Aging and Disability Services Division was recently awarded $6,929,262 in grants from the Administration for Community Living as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The funds will help meet the needs of older adults and people with disabilities as communities implement measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

My friend Roni is redoing her vegetable garden and asked me if corrugated metal materials were safe for building raised beds for vegetables. Since I had no idea, I started doing some research.

The Nevada Small Business Development Center is pleased to announce a social media campaign to support small businesses across the state. The campaign, Support Small Businesses 5-Day Challenge, gives everyone a way to support small businesses from the safety of their home.

Traditionally a Badge Pinning and Promotional Ceremony is conducted in a crowded room, filled with families, friends, and Sheriff’s Office staff, where everyone is given the opportunity to show support.

Under the very different circumstances and with consideration to the health and safety of Sheriff’s Office staff, families, and friends, limited attendance was permitted to the ceremony honoring Lieutenant Mays, Sergeant Tucker, and Deputy Robbins.

It took just one call from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and Carson City Department of Health and Human Services to Tod Colegrove, PhD, MSLIS, director of the Carson City Library, and the wheels were set in motion.

CARSON CITY — The Nevada National Guard began assisting Washoe County Health District COVID-19 sample collection capability Friday at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center with about 30 medical support personnel.

Besides needing funds available for small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis, small-business owners need additional support and guidance, as well as opportunities to talk with other small-business owners.

The COVID-19 outbreak doesn't represent the first quarantine order implemented in Nevada to combat an infectious disease. Similar to COVID-19, the 1918 Influenza Epidemic spread around the world. The epidemic arrived in Nevada in the spring of 1918 and returned even deadlier in October and November that year before tapering off in the spring of 1919.

My friend Julie from Incline laughingly asked me recently if she could come garden at my house since her property was buried in snow. While that’s not feasible, it got me thinking. Others may wish they too could garden during these “Stay at Home” times but not have space for an in-ground garden and need to garden indoors, on a patio or on a porch.

When the Elko County Emergency Operations Center put in a call March 31 to their local University of Nevada, Reno Extension office saying they needed face masks, Extension’s 4-H youth and their families swung into action, making masks not only for the Operations Center, but also for their local School District nutrition services workers who are helping to serve lunches to students who receive free and reduced meals.


My gardening clothes stink and I’m a happy woman! I’ve been pruning a Rhus trilobata, commonly called skunkbush sumac. Its name tells the story. I should have left my malodorous garments outside rather than carrying that pungent scent into the house. Oh well, I don’t care. I’m happy because I’m pruning. It takes so little to put a smile on my face.

Even with the stay-at-home order in place, businesses, families and youth can engage in a number of educational activities online to enhance their daily lives and help themselves, and others, through these challenging days. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, University of Nevada, Reno Extension faculty, staff and volunteers have been hard at work to bring educational workshops, programs and resources useful during this time, into Nevadans’ homes.

Alana Ridge has been elected to the board of directors of NCET, a member-supported non-profit that produces educational and networking events to help people explore businesses and technology.

Wes McQuillen and Kyle Robertson have been re-elected to the NCET board.

Ridge, elected as NCET’s vice president of public relations, is a public relations and strategic communications professional in Reno, with a background spanning several industries -- from travel and tourism to the non-profit sector.

RENO, Nev. — The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much uncertainty and change at all levels of education. Medical education is no exception. While the COVID-19 outbreak has complicated the learning process, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) students are taking what they’ve learned in the lecture halls and during clinical rotations to mobilize in response to the COVID-19 crisis, bolstering the health care workforce in northern Nevada.


I’ve been watching the apple buds, waiting to see swelling begin, waiting for color to start showing. Last week I was excited to finally see a bit of color. Then, snow and overnight lows in the low twenties hit, which is just like last year, when we had no apples. I hope the cold doesn’t kill the blossoms and my apple crop again this year.

If you know Shanell Cavener, then you are tremendously lucky. If you work with her, or she taught you, then the luck is multiplied tenfold (hopefully this is the right math to use, Shanell?).

Shanell Cavener is this year’s Carson High School Teacher of the Year, and she could not be more deserving of the honor. Shanell is quiet, often working behind the scenes in ways people would not even realize in order to benefit the lives of all who enter CHS.

Less than a month after the first instance of COVID-19 was announced, the state has surpassed 1,300 cases. Testing has ramped up including the addition of private labs like, Quest and LabCorp, on top of two state labs in Northern and Southern Nevada.

Former Gov. Brian Sandoval has resigned from his position as an executive with MGM Resorts and has applied for the soon-to-be vacant position of president of the University of Nevada, Reno.

The University of Nevada, Reno, in consultation with student leadership, will postpone its May commencement and has determined that Spring 2020 graduates will have the choice to celebrate their achievements coinciding with, but be separate from, either the December 2020 graduation ceremonies or Spring 2021 ceremonies.

It snowed six inches last night. This followed the four inches it snowed a day or so before. I’m grateful for the extra moisture for the trees, the lawn, all my plants and all the native trees. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I had been doing the water on and off, drag hoses, drain lines boogie for a number of weeks. This water-laden snow is a welcome, although temporary, reprieve.

Software engineer Derek Morgan, Democratic primary candidate for Assembly District 40, will be the featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon, being held online only for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gardening is a great activity that can be done at home, and University of Nevada, Reno Extension is offering online courses to teach gardening basics. This April, Extension's Grow Your Own, Nevada! Program will live stream eight classes statewide to help those who want to get on a path to more sustainable, local, healthy living by growing more of their own food.

Seismic Network Manager Ken Smith was sitting on the couch in his northwest Reno home watching the evening news on March 20 when the earthquake hit.

The University of Nevada, Reno announced Tuesday that it would not hold May in-person Spring commencement exercises, instead replacing them with "virtual" gatherings.

Each season brings its joys and its challenges. I’m excited after winter to see the delights of Spring with all the blooming forsythia, flowering plums, daffodils, and other plants displaying their colors. I generally forget the spring problems until suddenly I’m seeing ground squirrels, ants and weeds. All of a sudden, I feel as if I have to hurry to catch up with the pests.

On Friday, March 13, Carson City resident Sena Loyd filed as a candidate for State Assembly District 40. Loyd, 36 and a registered Democrat, is an information professional currently working in the high-tech industry. Previously she served as the Library Director for the Carson City Library from 2014-2019.

The University of Nevada, Reno announced yesterday that students were being asked to vacate the dormitories and that no refunds would be given. However, following public outcry, the university changed their policies and have now announced refunds will be given.

UPDATE: The University of Nevada, Reno reversed their decision and is now offering refunds. You can read the updated story here.

Switchboards at the University of Nevada, Reno lit up Thursday after the university issued an unusual directive: all students living in on-campus residence halls who have the ability to move back home should be packed up and gone within the next six days.

University of Nevada, Reno has implemented plans, having closed for the next 30 days due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Nevada governor's procedures for all schools, state colleges and non-essential employees and school operations.