Emergency

"The Verdict: We should go...David's company has asked us to fly to Hong Kong...we are leaving later this afternoon."

That is the latest Facebook wall post from a former Northern Nevada resident and her family living in Japan who have made plans to leave the beleagured country in the wake of the earthquakes and tsunami that left the island nation devastated.

Alyson Meidell Jenkins, 33, along with many other Americans, have made plans to leave Japan immediately.

In the spring of 2010, McCall Realty promised $20,000 in donations to be shared across five non-profit agencies benefitting the youth of South Shore. Included among the organizations is the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center, dedicated to improving the emotional, social, and economic condition of women and families in our community through prevention, intervention and treatment programs and services that address domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and basic needs.

The Carson City School District board tonight will take up proposed traditional and non-traditional calendars for next year, as well as consider a resolution that would oppose Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval's plan to take debt service from school district emergency repair funds.

CARSON CITY – A state lawmaker testified today that the federal government’s unfunded mandates on issues such as clean air, clean water and flood zones are imposing costs on Nevada taxpayers without authority or justification.

(Press Release) On Wednesday March 2, 2011, at approximately 12:00 p.m. Lander County Sheriff Ron Urger was notified that a man, later identified as Devin Westenskow, age 28, of Evanston, Wyoming, fell while exploring an abandoned mine shaft. The mine site closed since 1945, is located in the Jersey Valley at the far eastern part of Pershing County, Nevada.

CARSON CITY – The governor has proposed taking funds school districts are using for emergency repairs to help balance the state budget.
School districts have said this would leave them with little money to fix broken boilers and leaky roofs or perform other emergency repairs.
“We don’t have any money set aside right now to cover those expenses if the governor’s proposal moves forward,” said Craig Hulse from the Washoe County School District before a Senate committee reviewing the governor’s proposal.

With falling and blowing snow throughout Northern Nevada earlier today, troopers from the Nevada Highway Patrol were kept busy by responding to several calls for service this morning, Trooper Chuck Allen reports.

In a six-hour timeframe between 4 am to 10 am, 19 motor vehicle accidents were investigated, 17 slides-offs or spin-outs were reported and the Department of Public Safety-Communications Center fielded 298 phone calls.

Two guest speakers will be featured this month at the second Silver Springs social for families with military members and veterans.

The social will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 11 a.m. at the Silver Springs Senior/Community Center, 2945 Fort Churchill Road in Silver Springs. The gathering is for Silver Springs and Stagecoach families of veterans, enlisted and reserve members, and for reserve, active duty, and veterans. It is open to anyone from Silver Springs and Stagecoach with a family member who is or has been in the military. Children are very welcome!

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The state may save more money by spending rather than cutting.
Advocates for mental health funding advanced that seemingly nonsensical argument in a plea to save the state’s mental health courts, which are designed to rehabilitate mentally-ill criminal offenders.

Natalie Portman has been busy this year, starring in a ballet film, "Black Swan," where she was a neurotic ballet dancer in black face mask, and in the current "No Strings Attached."

"Strings" is about Emma (Portman), a doctor, and Adam, a TV writer, (Ashton Kutcher) who get together after a party and a funeral (there's twist for you) and when I say "get together" I'm being sly — she doesn't want any relationship other than sexual, but sexual she sure wants, and director Ivan Reitman shows a montage of scenes in which Emma is dragging Adam into handy closets or bedrooms.

An single-vehicle accident on Highway 50 this morning in Lyon County provides a good opportunity for the Nevada Highway Patrol to warn motorists to wait for authorities to arrive before leaving the scene.

Troop Dan Lopez reports that NHP is looking for the driver of a yellow Pontiac Aztek who wasn't at the accident site when authorities arrived. The car went down an embankment on Highway 50 east around mile marker 15 about seven miles east of Dayton. The vehicle accident was reported at about 7:15 a.m. Saturday morning.

Next time you try the Chutes at Mt. Rose you can feel a little safer if you take a tumble. Here's what Mt. Rose says about medical care there:

Through a cooperative agreement between Mt. Rose - Ski Tahoe, the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority (REMSA) and North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, the Mt. Rose Ski Patrol is now able to provide Paramedic level Advanced Life Support for sick and injured guests.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong announced law enforcement statistics for the year, including a 4 percent drop in most felony crimes.

Carl Kuhl, a state Parole and Probation employee of six years, has created a plan that he claims will eliminate Nevada's budget deficit within two years.

In a news release issued on Tuesday, Kuhl said his plan not only will reduce the budget deficit but also help repair Nevada's economy at the same time. It is a pretty big claim, he admits, coming from an Accounting Assistant I, an entry level position.

During the September 2010 Healthy Communities Coalition meeting, over 70 community leaders and officials from throughout Lyon County, Nevada gathered to sign a “community covenant.” The covenant promised Lyon County communities, State and local groups will work together to increase community support to the area’s military families and veterans. A number of new or expanded events and initiatives have followed that pledge.

On Saturday, Jan. 22 only, the Dayton Food Pantry will operate from Sutro Elementary School at 190 Dayton Village Parkway from noon until 4 p.m.

Sutro Elementary School offered an indoor venue for the pantry on January 22 so that people can come in out of the cold January weather.

Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey has scheduled their winter and spring line up of special speakers on the 2nd Thursday of each month during their public meetings. Each meeting also includes resource sharing, updates and discussion on issues of regional importance such as health and wellness, substance abuse prevention and recovery, education, job training, etc.

Lyon County phone problems have apparently been resolved, according to dispatchers.
A telephone outage happened at around 2 p.m. according to dispatchers, and 911 phone calls were re-routed to Carson City. An Emergency Broadcast System message announcing the phone problems came at around 3 p.m.
Lyon dispatchers said later this afternoon that the phone problem has since been fixed. A similar outage happened on Dec. 8 through Lyon and Douglas counties.

Santa and Mrs. Klaus have a heart to heart chat during the Dayton Breakfast with Santa Saturday, Dec. 18. Healthy Communities Coalition and Kiwanis of Dayton Township hosted a pancake breakfast with Santa, Mrs. Klaus and elf helpers at the Dayton Community Center.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board has agreed to appeal to the 9th Circuit District Court a September federal district court ruling that struck down updated ordinances for the shorezone of Lake Tahoe, according to its website.

Ten University of Nevada, Reno College of Business students got some real-world experience this fall semester, when they detailed plans that will help Microsoft Licensing continue business operations in the event of various emergencies.

“I really want to thank the University students for just diving in,” said Tom Fullerton, Microsoft Licensing’s senior solutions manager in information technologies. “We want to build upon this and do more things like this in different areas of Microsoft Licensing.”

Healthy Communities has scheduled their winter and spring line up of special speakers on the 2nd Thursday of each month during their public meetings.

Each meeting also includes resource sharing, updates and discussion on issues of regional importance such as health and wellness, substance abuse prevention and recovery, education, job training, etc.

All emergency 911 calls for Douglas and Lyon counties are being re-routed into Carson City after a significant outage within the system.

Persons in those counties dialing 911 will be automatically connected to Carson dispatchers.

Douglas County sent out the following press release about the outage:

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons today announced the retirement of Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Jerry Hafen. Hafen is a life-long resident of Clark County and was appointed to the top job at the agency in early 2008.
He will step down Dec. 31.
“Jerry Hafen has proven to be a respected leader in law enforcement in Nevada and I am proud of his accomplishments as DPS Director,” Gibbons said. “Jerry has proven time and again that the safety of the citizens of Nevada is his top priority.

Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., today urged his colleagues to ensure that any Continuing Resolutions passed by the House include provisions to restore geothermal royalties to local counties.
The Office of Management and Budget has determined that under current funding legislation, local counties can no longer receive their share of geothermal royalties established under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

With the big distribution day for the holidays on Thursday, Dec. 16, the Dayton Food Pantry will operate that day only from the Dayton Community Center at 170 Pike Street from noon to 5 p.m.

With unemployment in Lyon County at nearly 20 percent, donations are especially welcome this holiday season, explained Freida Carbery, director for the Pantry.

On the other days of December, the Food Pantry will be open for emergency food needs as usual, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 4 Enterprise Way and Highway 50 (east of Smith’s Grocery) Monday through Friday.

Accentuating the good concerning United States of America Jobless claims is possible, depending on how you look at the statistics. The number of people filing for unemployment rose last week. However, the number was lower than analysts forecasted. Individuals are getting employed, however insufficient to make up for the ones getting fired, a stasis that is reflected in the unemployment rate, which has been stuck at 9.6 percent and shows no signs of imminent movement.

A third punch of snow overnight in Carson City brought a few spinouts, minor accidents, downed power lines and traffic delays this morning. In one accident, a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper sustained injuries after a car lost control and slid into his parked SUV.

U.S. Congressman Dean Heller, R-Carson City, today came out in support of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuation Act (H.R. 6419) which would extend unemployment benefits for an additional three months.

The driver of a truck that crossed a center turn lane, striking a car that killed a 19-year-old Fallon woman on Monday faces a felony charge in the woman's death, the Nevada Highway Patrol reports this morning.

Justin Speed, 21, of Fallon was arrested Wednesday and booked on charges of felony driving under the influence that caused death; felony failure to maintain a travel lane and speeding. He is being held on $251,344 bond and remains in the Churchill County jail, said NHP Trooper Chuck Allen.