The latest legislative funding proposals for Nevada’s rural community colleges will do serious harm to the economic development work now employed through a partnership between Northern Nevada Development Authority and Western Nevada College.

Saturday’s committee vote in the Nevada Legislature would result in a General Fund cut of 11.42 percent in the budget of Western Nevada College. This comes on top of more than 27 percent in reductions over the past five years, which led to a significant loss of academic programs, faculty, staff, and services.

Western Nevada College advanced to the Western District baseball tournament championship round by splitting a pair of games on Friday in Sterling, Colo.

The Wildcats dropped into losers’ bracket with a 4-2 defeat to sixth-ranked Cochise, Ariz., on Friday morning but ousted Lamar with a 9-1 afternoon victory.

WNC (43-19) earned another shot at Cochise behind the pitching of Christian Stolo and Evan Parker, as well as a six-run fifth inning.

There is no place like someone else’s home, at least for the Western Nevada College baseball team. Since March 23, the Wildcats have played 19 of 23 games on the road, compiling an 18-5 record.

That ability to focus and excel away from home will come in handy this weekend in Sterling, Colo., as the Wildcats pursue their second straight Western District Championship and a berth in the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series.

CARSON CITY — For the fourth consecutive year, Western Nevada College will graduate its largest class in history. The class of 2013 is 505 students strong, with 530 degrees and certificates being issued.

Four students will receive Bachelor of Technology degrees in construction management, and three students will graduate with bachelor’s degrees as part of WNC’s teacher preparation partnership with Nevada State College. The graduates span 60 years, from the youngest at age 17 and the eldest at 77.

They did it. Western Nevada College’s softball team earned the program’s first postseason victory with a 2-0 win against Colorado Northwestern in the Region 18 tournament on Thursday morning in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Sophomore pitcher Ali Lostra blanked the Spartans on five hits and struck out the final two hitters with the potential tying runs on base to secure the history-making victory.

“It was really exciting,” said WNC coach Leah Wentworth. “Along with the first postseason win, another first was that I don’t think we shut out anybody this year.”

The American Association of University Women, Capital Branch is pleased to announce that Clarissa Muñoz, a student at Carson High, and Annie Sanchez, who attends Dayton High, are the 2013 recipients of AAUW scholarships. Clarissa will graduate in June and plans to attend UNR majoring in pharmaceuticals. Annie will graduate from Dayton High in May and will begin her college at WNC. From there she plans to earn a BS as a nutritionist and then attend medical school.

No Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball team has had a better won-loss record than the Western Nevada College Wildcats over the last half of the season.

After concluding the first half of the conference season by losing three of four games at College of Southern Idaho and seeing their record fall below .500, the Wildcats won 14 of their final 16 games. Their only two defeats during that stretch were to conference winner College of Southern Nevada, which hosts this week’s postseason tournament.

It wasn’t the way the Western Nevada College softball team planned to end the regular season.

After shining and showing improvement in its previous three Scenic West Athletic Conference series, including winning three of four games from Snow College, the Wildcats were swept by College of Southern Nevada on Friday and Saturday.

College of Southern Nevada avenged an earlier series defeat to the Wildcats by dominating the weekend set in Henderson, winning 8-3 and 11-2 on Friday and 7-1 and 8-2 on Saturday.

More than a decade ago, a Western Nevada College physics professor’s dream, a desire by college students to learn about astronomy, and the Carson City community's willingness to help make dreams come true, all converged to create the Jack C. Davis Observatory.

Now, WNC and the observatory staff and volunteers have planned a stellar celebration from May 2-15 to commemorate 10 years of science and discovery in Nevada’s capital city.

Presented by the Xerces Society, the Pollinator Conservation Planning Short Course will be offered on the Western
Nevada College Fallon Campus. The workshop will be followed by a tour of the National Resources Conservation
Service’s Great Basin Plant Materials Center in Fallon.

Cost is $45. Workshop topics include pollination economics and biology, bee-friendly farming, pollinator habitat and restoration, and more. Participants will learn how to identify and protect nesting sites and how to design habitats for native pollinators.

Outstanding Western Nevada College students and faculty have been honored for outstanding scholarship and teaching during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Awards were presented to students for academic excellence, tutoring, peer mentorship, athletics, those in the Latino cohort and in student government, as well as to faculty for outstanding teaching and service during the 2012-13 academic year.

Faculty of the Year honors went to Mathematics Professor Michael Hardie, Ed.D. and English instructor Ryan Stryffeler, Ph.D.

Earth and science will be in the spotlight at Western Nevada College next week with two free lectures in Carson City that will feature discussions on global warming and the geologic history of Lake Tahoe. The events highlight a series of activities during Earth Week, April 22-27.

Western Nevada College found a cure over the weekend for its recent Scenic West Athletic Conference softball losing streak: the power hitting of Sydney Darby and long pitching stints by Ali Lostra and Carlee Beck.

Darby equaled a program record with her 15th and 16th homers of the season, while Lostra and Beck each tossed a complete game as the Wildcats won three of four games from Colorado Northwestern in Rangely, Colo.

In the four tight games with the Spartans, the Wildcats came through with clutch hits, solid defense and lengthy outings from their pitchers.

Two free lectures by science experts - one about the violent geologic history of Lake Tahoe, another concerning global warming, will highlight the many free activities at Western Nevada College during Earth Week, April 22-27.
Renewable energy exhibits, an organic gardening lecture, alternative fuel vehicles and a tree planting ceremony will also be featured.

“Many diverse and interesting activities will be offered,” said Valerie Andersen, WNC public service librarian and college Earth Week event coordinator. Students, faculty and the public are invited to attend.

As our legislators practice their compassion for homosexual marriage in what the unenlightened refer to as 'profaning our historic religious traditions', they will now consider overturning the laws of nature and biology to gratify the countless progressives who claim to be unfairly labeled by their detractors as deviants and/or Feminists. However, in the words of our President, perhaps we should also address the equally important issue of fairness.

When D.J. Whittemore was an assistant baseball coach at Wooster High School in 2002, he almost overstepped his boundaries.

A Wooster hitter was one strike from striking out during the state tournament, and head coach Ron Malcolm was ready to put in a pinch-hitter because he didn’t like what he saw.

A discussion on global warming and ways that plants, wildlife and humans living in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin will adapt to climate change will be the focus of a free April 23 forum at Western Nevada College in Carson City.

CARSON CITY — Anytime a child picks up a book and reads it cover to cover, it is the equivalent to hitting a home run.

Emphasizing the importance of reading to more than 100 Seeliger Elementary fourth graders, WNC baseball players Donald Glover, Evan Parker and Carson Now sports editor and play-by-play announcer Chris Graham used the children's book "Home Run" to encourage youngsters to think of reading like playing baseball or softball. Finishing books from front to back should be celebrated because the rewards — learning something new — will last a lifetime.

Western Nevada College Softball Coach Leah Wentworth said her team exhibited a bit of a split personality in its home doubleheader Friday, Feb. 22, against Colorado Northwestern Community College.

In the opening contest at Edmonds Field in Carson City, the Wildcats led for much of the way and ultimately grabbed a 4-2 victory in six innings. But in the nightcap they were unable to manufacture hits while the Spartans got the hot hand, dominating 9-1.

For the first time in program history, the Western Nevada College baseball team will open its season at home.

A rainy forecast in Las Vegas has prompted WNC and South Mountain Community College to move their Friday and Saturday doubleheaders to John L. Harvey Field in Carson City.

“I hope to see the faithful at the yard for 50-degree temperatures tomorrow,” said WNC baseball coach D.J. Whittemore.

Doubleheaders are scheduled for 11 a.m. both days.

Given the advances in media, photo and printing technology, publishing a yearbook has never been easier for schools, clubs and organizations. But this same technology offers so many choices and alternatives that the process of beginning or updating a yearbook program can appear overwhelming. "How to Advise Yearbook" is a new course offered this spring in Carson City through the Western Nevada College's Community Education department and is designed to give aspiring and novice yearbook advisers a solid grounding in the theory and application of modern yearbooking.

Carson Now is proud to begin its third year of being a host to Western Nevada College Baseball broadcasts. Western Nevada Baseball is now widely known as a national power across the USA. In 2012, Carson Now brought you the exciting season that saw the Wildcats baseball program make it to their third JUCO World Series appearance. This year, the Wildcats will have a strong team that is anxious at retaking that trip to Grand Junction, Colorado.

Major League Baseball’s Matt Williams is coming home. The Carson High School graduate who is a World Series winner and five-time All-Star will headline the 10th annual Western Nevada College Wildcats Athletics Gala Dinner on Thursday, Jan. 24, at the Downtown Reno Ballroom. The event will also benefit Carson High School baseball and softball.

Tickets are $100, with tables of 10 for $850 through December 31 and $1,000 afterward. They are available through the WNC Foundation at 445-3240 or at www.wnc.edu/wildcatsgala/.

Given the hostility temperature lately, it's refreshing to see young adults with cool heads mobilize for the good of the cause. The Associated Students of Western Nevada has initiated a holiday giving project to help fellow students struggling financially during the holidays.
The Giving Tree will be set up in the Bristlecone Building at WNC Carson City and Virgil Getto Hall at WNC Fallon Campus containing cards with information for a WNC student who could use a little help this holiday season, according to a news release.