Awareness

The month of May is Mental Health Awareness Month, as good a time as any to become more aware of what mental illness is, what it isn't, and the challenges that those struggling with it face every day.

Mental illness has touched my family. It has touched me.

As lead prosecutor, Andrew McCarthy, continued to involve himself and his legal team in further and deeper knowledge of the enemy in order to successfully bring to trial and to win the U.S. government's case against Sheik Abdel Rahman, aka the Blind Sheik, for the World Trade Center bombing which killed and maimed hundreds of Americans in 1993 in New York City.

See Part 1 here.

Addiction does not discriminate. It grabs ahold and tightens, oftentimes prompting even the most reasonable-seeming people to do unreasonable things to feed it.

Today dozens of people participated in the annual Veterans Suicide Awareness March, an event meant not only to raise awareness of the suicide epidemic among our military veterans, but also to spread the word about how to prevent these deaths.

But suicide infects more than our veteran population. It reaches across the demographic plain to touch people of many different races, colors, creeds, genders, ages and backgrounds.

Angels' tears fell from heaven Saturday morning as dozens braved cool, wet conditions to participate in the second annual Veterans Suicide Awareness March, an event organized by the Western Nevada College Veterans Resource Center.

The march, a solemn one for those participating as well as anyone who has been affected by suicide, followed a 1.5-mile course from the Bully's parking lot at the corner of North Carson Street and West College Parkway up the hill to the Western Nevada College (WNC) campus.

I am not even going to attempt guessing what weather we have in store. The west side of the Sierras are notoriously unpredictable. You are much better off betting on the Kentucky Derby; and the Firkin and Fox is just the place to cheer on your favorite horse.

Showers and thunderstorms may develop Friday afternoon around Carson City with the potential for heavier bands of precipitation arriving early Saturday morning, a National Weather Service forecaster said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Zach Colby said the brunt of Friday’s weather will be north of Interstate 80, possibly moving southward into the afternoon and early evening.

The public is invited to join Western Nevada College student veterans for the second annual Veterans Suicide Awareness Walk in Carson City on Saturday, May 7. It begins at 10 a.m.

The 1.3-mile walk from Bully’s Restaurant parking lot, up West College Parkway to the college campus is to honor and remember an alarming number of veterans who have taken their own lives. National data reveal that more veterans die from suicide than in battle. Those statistics indicate that 22 veterans take their lives daily.

Members of the Carson City Veterans Community Council (CCVCC) met Wednesday afternoon to discuss changes within existing member organizations, as well as to welcome new members onto the council.

Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell and City Manager Nick Marano, both veterans, attended Wednesday's meeting and highlighted changes to the city's new, improved web site scheduled to go public by the end of May.

Department of Child and Family Services is a great group of people providing services that are needed in Nevada. It's Your City host Cortney Bloomer speaks with two members of the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services team, Karla Navarro and Lori Nichols about Child Abuse prevention and foster care.

Registration is open for the Northern Nevada Wildfire Awareness Half Marathon and 5K Trail Run in Reno, hosted by University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Living With Fire Program in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and Desert Sky Adventures. All proceeds from the race will be donated to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.

Immunize Nevada held two award ceremony dinners in April, in northern and southern Nevada, to identify outstanding individuals and organizations that have gone above and beyond to protect Nevadans from vaccine-preventable diseases.

The 18th Annual Silver Syringe Awards were held in conjunction with National Infant Immunization Week, which brought more awareness to the work these winners strive to provide.

While they provide shade and are considered ornamental landscaping around homes, juniper trees are also highly flammable and are discouraged around homes where there's a high risk threat of wildfires.

Participants walk along College Parkway from the north Carson City shopping center to Western Nevada College during the Sexual Assault Awareness Walk event hosted by the Associated Students of Western Nevada on Saturday, April 30, 2016. Photo by Shannon Litz/Nevada Photo Source.

Justine Hernandez, University of Nevada, Reno violence prevention education and outreach specialist speaks during the Western Nevada College Sexual Assault Awareness Walk event hosted by the Associated Students of Western Nevada on Saturday, April 30, 2016. Photo by Shannon Litz/Nevada Photo Source.

More than 15 people gathered Saturday morning in the Bully's parking lot off West College Parkway, braving overcast skies and a crisp spring chill to participate in the Sexual Assault Awareness Walk hosted by the Associated Students of Western Nevada.

The Brewery Arts Center (BAC) in downtown Carson City will be hosting a free summer concert series this year, sponsored by the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation.

Through the efforts of the BAC, Carson City was one of 15 cities nationwide awarded the concert series for 2016.

The Levitt AMP Carson City Music Series kicks off June 4 and will run every Saturday evening through August 6 with live music starting at 7 p.m. along Minnesota Street next to the BAC. The 10-week music series will include one Friday night show on June 17.

The concert series is free and open to the public.

The changing of the monthly guard is happening. The first of May is Sunday and Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Music, theater, sports, shopping and more will be abundant in the valley this weekend, so make sure to take a good look at this weekend’s list for all of your fun options.

SATURDAY:

• Nevada Artists Association Art Exhibit featuring Bill Migan and Photography by Chas. H. McDonnell, III at the Carson Visitor Center (8am-5pm)
• Coffee and Donuts with EAA Sierra Chapter 403 at 2500 E. College Pkwy (8:30am-12pm, all welcome)

In celebration of Historic Preservation Month, the Carson City Historic Resources Commission will hold its 7th annual Historic Preservation Scavenger Hunt beginning Monday and running through May 31.

Imagine being awakened in the middle of the night by a stranger, escorted out into the chill of dark Nevada twilight, placed in a strange car, and driven to a strange house with more strangers who tell you everything is going to be all right.

To top it off, you are expected to go back to sleep in a strange bed.

Welcome to the world of a foster child, whose story is much the same whether it's told in Las Vegas or Battle Mountain, in Caliente or Carson City.

An independent and assisted living community in Carson City will host a fundraising event Tuesday to support a Nevada woman's effort to bring awareness and support to wild horse adoption.

The event, dubbed "Along for the Ride" will be done in support of Samantha Szesciorka, who, for the second time since 2013, will ride across Nevada by horseback to advocate for wild horses.

Western Nevada College student leaders are serious about preventing sexual assault in our society. To bring awareness to the problem, they will lead a free public Sexual Assault Awareness Walk on Saturday, April 30, 10 am.

The 2.3 mile round-trip walk will begin in the parking lot just south of the Bully’s Restaurant at 3530 N. Carson St, at the intersection of U.S. Hwy 395 and West College Parkway in Carson City.

Join the Associated Students of Western Nevada during a Sexual Assault Awareness Walk Saturday, April 30. The walk begins at 10 a.m.

We will meet and begin on the side of the Bully's parking lot (3530 N Carson St, Carson City, NV 89706) and then continue to walk up W. College Parkway all the way up to Western Nevada College (1.5 miles) where we will have speakers along with refreshments for all who attend.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office participation in the Joining Forces Distracted Drivers event held from April 1 to April 20th resulted in the following:

1 arrest for DUI, 21 citations issued for cell phone use, 1 citation for an individual cutting their hair while driving, 2 citations for failure to yield to a pedestrian, 89 for speed, 19 stop sign and traffic light violations. In addition, 41 citations were issued for other traffic related violations.

Picture this. A group of male prisoners (big, burly guys) and a group of tiny, tabby kittens (weighing about three ounces), meeting each other for the first time at the Warm Springs Correctional Center. It’s early evening, the sun is setting and everyone is settling in for the night. It’s calm and quiet.

Suddenly the men are alert, turning all warm and fuzzy, cooing and using baby talk — they are melting at the sight of newborn kittens. Don’t judge, you would react this way too.

Since the early 1980s, May has been a month for celebrating historic preservation and archaeology in Nevada. This year, the theme acknowledges the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, which helps to stabilize neighborhoods and downtowns, contributes to public education, attracts investment, creates jobs, generates tax revenues, supports small business and affordable housing, and powers Nevada’s heritage tourism industry.

Starting Monday, April 18 until Mother’s Day, May 8, Summit Cleaning Services will donate 10 percent of their sales to Food For Thought to help combat local childhood hunger.

“Every year, we try to give back to the community in a real way,” said Stephen Jaenchen, owner of Summit Cleaning Services. In past years, Summit has helped support the NV Children’s Museum, the Carson Tahoe Cancer Resource Center, and the Ron Wood Family Resource Center.

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of April 11-17, 2016. Work will continue on the Downtown Corridor improvement project on Carson Street. This week: Traffic on North Carson Street will remain one lane in each direction, from William to 5th Street.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office recently participated in the Joining Forces law enforcement effort to stop impaired drivers and riders. The operation was done between March 17 to March 31 and resulted in the following:

Hundreds of tiny pinwheels were planted Friday morning on the lawn in front of the Nevada Legislature building, facing Carson Street, to raise awareness of child abuse around the state and in the community.

The month of April is designated as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Several pinwheels, made of paper with hand-drawn and colored designs, were created by area children.

Carson City’s most impassioned TEDx enthusiasts will come together on Friday for a day of information, inspiration, networking and dialogue around the theme Creating the community you want to live in.

The event will take place at Brewery Arts Center’s Black Box Theater and will feature an incredible line-up of speakers on topics ranging from innovations and ideas to health to technology and the arts. Attendees will also have an opportunity to network at an on-site lunch event.