Category Archives: Nevada

Severe US weather: California heat puts firefighters on high alert for wildfires; Canada wildfires cause air quality alerts in US midwest – as it happened

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Extreme dry conditions raising fire risk; air quality alert for Minnesota took effect at 8am on Friday

Vermont governor Phil Scott said his formal request to President Joe Biden for a major disaster declaration has been approved.

The major disaster declaration unlocks federal disaster funds to assist individuals and communities recover from the devastating floods earlier this week.

The disaster declaration provides federal support for recovery. It’s separate from, and in addition to, the federal emergency declaration the president already signed when he was overseas to help with the initial emergency phase.

It’s incredibly important to get flooded homes, businesses and public buildings as dry as possible to prevent other outcomes like mould. We’re working on resources to help with that.

I’m very grateful for the speed of Fema in the White House. It will open up significant federal resources for communities, individuals, businesses [...] In anticipation of these funds, we are working to develop a concrete list of resources to help impacted Vermonters and making sure it’s as easy as possible for Vermonters to access those.

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Residents of US south-west swelter under record-breaking heatwave

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Relentless temperatures upwards of 100F leave millions under extreme heat warnings and outdoor events cancelled

Record-breaking heat is baking the US south-west this week, putting millions under extreme heat warnings as temperatures upwards of 100F (38C) hit Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and southern California for days on end.

Even desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the relentless grip of the heat. Phoenix, which hit a 12th consecutive day of 110F on Tuesday, could see its longest ever heatwave.

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Trump attacks ‘no personality’ DeSantis and repeats election lies in Nevada

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Former president who dominates Republican primary finds receptive audience at Las Vegas rally

Donald Trump attacked Ron DeSantis at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, saying his closest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination had “no personality” – but claiming responsibility for the Florida governor’s career on the national stage.

Trump also repeated his lie about electoral fraud in his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, to a receptive audience, before high-fiving fans at a mixed martial event.

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‘One hell of a mess’: volunteers clean up three tons of trash from Lake Tahoe

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Cleanup effort after Fourth of July was ‘one of the worst’ in years, says founder of group behind trash collecting

A team of volunteers that included scuba divers, kayakers and snorkelers has collected more than three tons of trash from Lake Tahoe left behind by Fourth of July revelers.

Colin West, founder and CEO of Clean up the Lake, the group behind the cleanup effort, said the mess was “one of the worst” he’d seen in his years of trash collecting.

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Bug swarm: Nevada crawling with thick carpet of Mormon crickets

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Millions of crickets – or rather shield-backed katydids – migrating across state, after hatching was delayed in spring

Millions of flightless insects known as Mormon crickets have descended across Nevada, alarming residents, blanketing roadways and buildings, and fueling nightmares.

Footage shared on social media and by local news outlets captures six Nevada counties under siege, with thick carpets of bugs moving slowly and efficiently across the state. A local hospital had to deploy brooms and leafblowers to clear the way for patients to get into the building, a spokesperson for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, told local news outlet KSL.

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Historic Colorado River deal not enough to stave off long-term crisis, experts say

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Agreement between California, Arizona and Nevada will cut water consumption by 13% but experts warn river is still in serious peril

A hard-fought agreement between California, Arizona and Nevada to slash the states’ use of the shrinking Colorado River is only a temporary salve to a long-term water crisis that continues to threaten the foundations of life in the American west, experts have warned.

The deal, announced on Monday, between the three states that make up the lower portion of the sprawling Colorado basin will pare back 13% of water consumption from the beleaguered river over the next three years if adopted, averting the prospect of more stringent cuts imposed by the federal government. Backed by $1.2bn in federal funds, the bulk of the reductions are structured to encourage voluntary cuts taken by rights holders, in exchange for grant money.

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Five people killed in Care Flight air ambulance crash in Nevada

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Those aboard the flight included the pilot, nurse, paramedic, patient and the patient’s family member

Five people – including a patient, a relative of the patient and medical personnel – were killed in a plane crash Friday in Nevada, according to an air ambulance company.

The sheriff’s office in Lyon county said it began receiving calls about a possible plane crash near the community of Stagecoach – about 25 miles south-east of Reno – about 9.15pm and found the wreckage two hours later.

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Wienermobile in a pickle after falling victim to catalytic converter thieves

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The Oscar Mayer crew didn’t relish their time in Las Vegas after the vehicle had to be towed to an auto body shop

One of the US’s most easily recognizable vehicles is back on the road after it fell victim to a crime that has grown more common in recent years: catalytic converter theft. While parked in Las Vegas ahead of a Super Bowl weekend appearance, the Wienermobile, a 27ft-long bright yellow-and-red hotdog on wheels, was disabled after someone took the vehicle’s hardware.

The Wienermobile is actually a fleet of six vehicles used as a promotional tool for the celebrated Wisconsin-based hotdog brand Oscar Mayer. The Wienermobiles are driven across the nation by “hotdoggers” who claim the job for a one-year assignment. The morning after the converter was taken, the Wienermobile was towed to a nearby auto repair shop where mechanics installed a temporary converter that would allow the Wienermobile’s crew to drive it.

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Friendly Ghost: white dog running with coyotes gets help from rescue group

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Animal spotted in the desert of southern Nevada likely to have been abandoned as a puppy, rescuers say

For the last few months, a ghost has roamed the desert of southern Nevada near Las Vegas with a pack of coyotes. The apparent phantom is actually a white dog named Ghost, who observers say the animals accepted as one of their own.

Residents in Henderson spotted the dog running through their neighborhood at night, sometimes with the coyotes as they played together, for at least six months, according to a fundraiser for the animal. But neighbors, who documented his movements on social media, grew concerned about an injury on Ghost’s leg that was causing a severe limp and tried unsuccessfully to catch him.

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Mills Lane, referee of Holyfield-Tyson ‘bite fight’, dies at age of 85

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  • Lane was also a Marine, boxer, prosecutor and TV judge
  • Referee had been in poor health since suffering stroke

Mills Lane, the referee who disqualified Mike Tyson for biting Evander Holyfield’s ears in the 1997 world heavyweight title fight, has died at the age of 85.

Lane’s son, Tommy, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that his father, who had been in poor health since suffering a stroke 20 years ago, died peacefully at a hospice in the Nevada city on Tuesday.

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Democrat Cisco Aguilar defeats election denier in Nevada secretary of state race

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Victory over Republican Jim Marchant for state’s top elections post is significant win against efforts to sow doubt in US elections

Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, was elected Nevada’s top election official, beating Jim Marchant, a Republican who is linked to the QAnon sought to spread misinformation about the results of the 2020 race.

His victory is a significant win against efforts to sow doubt in US elections, a growing force in the Republican party.

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Catherine Cortez Masto wins Nevada Senate race to hold Democrat seat

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The race was among the tightest in the country and saw record spending with the incumbent senator nearly beaten

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto managed to hang on to her seat in a close race that nearly saw her beaten by her Republican adversary, with the result leaving control of the US Senate in the hands of Democrats.

After Democratic senator Mark Kelly’s victory in Arizona on Friday, the party now holds a 50-49 edge in the Senate. The Democratic party will retain control of the chamber, no matter how next month’s Georgia runoff plays out, by virtue of vice-president Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

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Sixth set of human remains found in vanishing Lake Mead

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A second world war-era boat, half emerged B-29 plane and five other bodies have so far been found in the receding waters

Yet another set of human remains was pulled from the shallows of Lake Mead this week, marking the sixth time this year the receding water levels uncovered bodies from the past.

The National Park Service confirmed on Wednesday that a human bone discovered by a diver directed a park dive team to an area where the skeletal remains were found.

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‘I just care about change’: Nevada’s Latinos on their cost-of-living fears

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Nevada has an acute shortage of affordable housing – but do Republicans or Democrats have practical answers to curb one of America’s most pressing issues?

Claudia Lopez, 39, is worried for her children.

As her curly haired seven-year-old daughter bounced around a play area inside El Mercado, a shopping center within the Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas where the smell of arepas and tacos hovers over the shops, Lopez soaked in her day off from knocking on doors and talking to residents about the upcoming election.

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Las Vegas teen dies from brain-eating amoeba as experts warn against panic

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Investigators believe teen was exposed in warm waters at Lake Mead but epidemiologist says disease is ‘very, very rare’

Experts have said that the death of a teenager in the Las Vegas area from a rare brain-eating amoeba should prompt caution, not panic, among people at freshwater lakes, rivers and springs.

“It gets people’s attention because of the name,” Brian Labus, a former public health epidemiologist, said on Friday of the naturally occurring organism officially called Naegleria fowleri but almost always dubbed the brain-eating amoeba. “But it is a very, very rare disease.”

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There’s lithium in them thar hills – but fears grow over US ‘white gold’ boom

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The treasured mineral is critical for electric vehicles and could help slow global heating, but locals worry about the harmful extraction near tribal land

Deep in the parched landscapes of Nevada, there is a stirring boom. The mining of lithium holds the promise of a treasured resource that can help slow disastrous global heating.

Spurred by a growing demand for battery parts essential for electric vehicles, the US’s only major lithium mine, in Silver Peak, a remote outpost situated in desert scrub and nascent Joshua trees a three-hour drive north of Las Vegas, is doubling its production.

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Suspect arrested after Las Vegas Strip stabbing attack kills two and injures six

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A man with a large kitchen knife said he wanted to take a picture with showgirls but then started stabbing people, a witness said

An attacker with a large kitchen knife killed two people and wounded six others in stabbings along the Las Vegas Strip before he was arrested on Thursday, police said.

Three people were hospitalized in critical condition and another three were in stable condition, according to Las Vegas police, who said they began receiving 911 calls about the stabbings around 11.40am across the street from the Wynn casino and hotel.

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Las Vegas dolphin attraction closed after third mammal death

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Mirage Secret Garden and Habitat temporarily shut after third dolphin fatality in five months

A dolphin habitat at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip has been temporarily closed after the third mammal death at the attraction in five months.

Officials at the Mirage Secret Garden and Habitat said an 11-year-old bottlenose dolphin named K2 died on Saturday.

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Local official arrested after Las Vegas reporter Jeff German found dead

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Robert Telles, Clark county’s public administrator, had been the focus of several investigative stories by German

Four days after the investigative journalist Jeff German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home, police have arrested a local official who had been the focus of German’s reporting, on suspicion of murder, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Robert Telles, an elected official who serves as the Clark county public administrator, was was wheeled out of his home on a stretcher and put into an ambulance about 6pm, just hours after officials had searched Telles’s home, according to the Review Journal.

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Temperatures smash records in US west as brutal heatwave continues

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Records broken in Sacramento and Reno, while California close to ordering rolling blackouts to ease strain on power grid

A brutal heatwave enveloping the US west smashed records on Tuesday, as high temperatures and historic energy use strained California’s grid to the brink of its capacity and spurred fire behavior across the state.

Western states are struggling through one of the hottest and longest September heatwaves on record.

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