Tobacco

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Tax revenues, or more specifically the lack thereof, have been topic No. 1 during the 2011 legislative session.
Thus far it’s been mostly talk, with GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval saying no to any new taxes or fees and some Democrat lawmakers saying additional revenues are essential to preserve education and critical social services. Republican lawmakers thus far are standing with the governor.

Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey counties will join the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Women's Health, in taking action against HIV/AIDS.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Students who smoke may soon find it more difficult to do so. A proposal heard today would ban smoking on all Nevada’s university and college campuses.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
RENO – He looked out into the audience at the University of Nevada, Reno and said: “if lawmakers want to invest in something, we want to make sure they invest in us.”
Behind him, a Powerpoint presentation displayed tactics for talking to lawmakers about higher education budget cuts.

CARSON CITY – State officials said today they are pleased that Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed continuing the Guinn Millennium Scholarship program in his budget, including a one-time infusion of $10 million from the general fund to keep it solvent through 2016.
“I was pleased to see that,” said Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, in a budget hearing today.

Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey is joining over 350 members of the National Birth Defects Prevention Network to share the message that women of childbearing age should talk with a health care provider about which medications are safe to take while pregnant.

January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month, and this year’s campaign focuses on medication use before, during, and after pregnancy.

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.

At least 24 million people in the U.S. struggle with addiction to alcohol and other drugs. The good news is that millions in recovery stand as evidence that there is hope – people can stop using, reconnect with family, and go on to productive, happy lives. The Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey is one group promoting the fact that recovery is possible, prevention works and treatment is effective.

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.

Christy McGill likes to use a gardening metaphor when she explains Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey's mission to reduce substance abuse and promote recovery.

“The Coalition is planting the seeds of hope that alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse prevention works, treatment is effective, and people do recover,” said McGill, who serves as director.

Republican Steve Martin, whose neck-and-neck race with incumbent state Treasurer Kate Marshall will be decided Tuesday, recently answered some questions about his candidacy in an e-interview with the Nevada News Bureau.

Red Ribbon Week is the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the nation reaching millions of Americans near the last week of October every year. By wearing red ribbons and participating in community events, young people pledge to live sober and thus healthier, lives.

During this year’s Red Ribbon Week, Healthy Communities Coalition asks adults to respond to the growing epidemic of prescription drug misuse among youths by keeping medications locked up, and properly disposing of old medications.

Dozens of Nevada’s nonprofit groups, service providers and others met this week in Reno and Las Vegas to consider the looming threat of deep cuts to the state budget cuts which threaten to eliminate or dramatically reduce health care, education, and human services.

Service agency and nonprofit directors from Lyon and Storey counties attended the Monday meeting, hoping for insights on how to plan for the upcoming deep cuts to Nevada’s public education, health and social services that will hit the rural areas especially hard.

Freida Carbery of Dayton has been named Nevada Prevention Fellow. As an organizer for the Dayton Food Bank through the Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey counties, Carbery has engaged dozens of community volunteers in the region.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau

September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, and Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey is celebrating the month by “planting the seeds of hope” that prevention works, treatment is effective, and people do recover.

CARSON CITY – A new tax amnesty program initiated July 1 by the Nevada Department of Taxation has brought in $3.4 million in previously uncollected revenue through Tuesday, with just over two more months to go.

CARSON CITY – Nevada high school graduates intending to rely on the Millennium Scholarship to attend college in state this fall could find themselves with more out-of-pocket expenses because of a $4.2 million projected shortfall in the program.

DARE officers from around the state are in Carson City today for a conference to discuss school programs, curriculum and prevention issues.
The DARE curriculum is developed by educators and taught by trained officers. It focuses on responsibility, resisting peer pressure, facts about drug abuse and techniques in making good decisions. It has components for elementary, middle, high school and after school programs.

CARSON CITY — Despite cool weather and Friday night's snow showers, hundreds of children and their parents turned out today for the seventh annual Cops and Kids Sheriff’s Open House safety, crime and substance abuse awareness fair held at the Carson City Sheriff's Office.

CARSON CITY — Despite cool weather and Friday night's snow showers, hundreds of children and their parents turned out today for the seventh annual Cops and Kids Sheriff’s Open House safety, crime and substance abuse awareness fair held at the Carson City Sheriff's Office.

CARSON CITY – Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki says it is now clear the Nevada Legislature should have “securitized� the money the state was scheduled to receive as part of a settlement with the tobacco companies a decade ago to protect it from the current reality of lower than expected annual payments.

CARSON CITY – In a letter sent today to the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee, the state Treasurer’s Office said the Millennium Scholarship will run out of money in 2011 unless action is taken to preserve the program.

CARSON CITY – When the Legislature adjourned its special session to balance the budget on March 1, lawmakers went home believing they had ensured the financial viability of the Millennium Scholarship program through 2014.
But the program, hit by declining tobacco settlement revenues and the diversion of financial support to help fill a more than $800 million budget shortfall, remains in jeopardy.

CARSON CITY –A college scholarship available to eligible Nevada high school graduates could be in fin

By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau

CARSON CITY – Among the multiple proposals identified today by Gov.