Board of County Commissioners Chair Alexis Hill has rebuffed an attempt by another Washoe County commissioner to revisit the upcoming transfer of the Our Place shelter for women and families from RISE to Volunteers of America management, despite its two-year bid coming in about $1.2 million higher.
After Michael Clark said he wanted to reconsider his “aye” for block agenda items on May 20th, Hill then wrote back “Typically, we would follow the reconsideration rules outlined in our Board Rules however, reconsideration of these executed contracts creates potential liability for the County under Nevada law governing contracts. Rule 5.4.2.1 empowers the Chair to decline agenda items that substantially conflict with the law or the county's ability to conduct operations. Due to the legal exposure, I will not be adding this request to a future agenda.”
Clark also indicated on social media he had mistakenly let the agenda item go through without discussion, perplexed as to why VOA got the nod over RISE. The change will take effect in mid June.
Commissioner Clark previously received an email from Candee Ramos, from the county’s communications office, indicating “the evaluation committee, which is made up of both internal staff and stakeholders, scored VOA higher in the scoring process. This was a standard procurement/RFP process that included a qualifications-based process vs. a commodity or construction low bid process. Pricing is only one of the five criteria delineated in the RFP. The team offered to let you see the scoring if you would like.”
Our Town Reno has asked to see this scoring process as well if made available.
RISE, which runs county CrossRoads programs, has had good reviews for operating Our Place in Sparks since its opening five years ago, while VOA has had controversial history running both the former Record Street shelter and now the Cares Campus, with several lawsuits and numerous complaints which have been ongoing over perceived favoritism, safety concerns, logistics and working with the community at large.
RISE started as a local grassroots organization organizing community meals in 2012, while Volunteers of America is a faith-based entity with programs in nearly all states.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 2025
Washoe County Responds to Community Concerns over Trail Closure due to New Development
The Washoe 301 service has given a new response regarding concerns about the White Creeks trail closure due to a Pavich and Associates development project overspilling into public recreation areas near the foot of Mt. Rose.
“Washoe County, in conjunction with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, permitted a private residential subdivision in 2007 with standard conditions for development. The developer restarted development activities in late 2024 and just recently began field work including a new crossing of Whites Creek. This work has significantly impacted the many users of the Whites Creek trail system, initially creating safety issues for both the users of the trail system and the Whites Creek stream environment,” Washoe 301 wrote back to a concerned resident.
“When construction began last week, Washoe County began receiving complaints and concerns and after visiting the construction site, immediately shut down the Whites Creek Trail for the safety of our residents. Portions of the trail had become an active construction site complete with heavy machinery and hazards such as metal posts erected on the trail with no signage or buffers in place to warn the public of the work being done.
While this is a private development and is the responsibility of the owner and contractor to ensure a safe work environment for everyone, Washoe County stepped in to resolve the situation. Frankly, County staff was stunned that a construction site would be left unsecured in this manner, especially given the heavy use of the trail system in the area. Washoe County has also contacted the other permitters including the State of Nevada and the US Army Corps of Engineers to address possible violations of the various permits, including lack of environmental protections, water flow management, and excessive grading.
Washoe County has been made aware of the issues associated with this private development and quickly acted to address public safety and the safety of the Whites Creek environment. Working directly with the other project permittees, the County has and is meeting with the owner and contractor to address the County, the State of Nevada, and the US Army Corps of Engineers concerns. We will keep the community informed of the outcomes to assure that all non-compliant issues are resolved appropriately. For the safety of trail users, the trail will remain closed until further notice.”
Assistant County Manager David Solaro sent his own reply, explaining the situation in even greater detail.
“The Whites Creek trail through this section of the Whites Creek drainage is located primarily on lands dedicated to Washoe County as open space from the various developments that abut the creek,” he wrote in an email forwarded to Our Town Reno. “It is also through lands managed by the USFS in many cases as well. The closure of the trail in this area is on a privately owned 70’ wide piece of land, not dedicated to Washoe County. As part of the development of the subdivision plans there is a 62’ wide easement for pedestrian access which will allow the trail to continue through the new roadway, possibly similar to how it crosses Callahan east of this location. In order to effectuate the pedestrian easement, construction must be completed. In a perfect world the developer would have communicated with Washoe County before beginning construction so we could come up with a plan to re-route the trail before construction. As we know this did not occur, and WC was put into a position to have to close the trail due to safety reasons listed below.
It is unfortunate that the trail closure has inconvenienced so many trail users, and as a frequent user of that and the many other great trails in the area I understand the inconvenience. This does shine a light on the work that we do here at Washoe County to make sure when development occurs, the long-term impact is continuation of a great recreational trail network.”
The development is for the Legend Trail subdivision, with 42 estates of two plus acre lots each in a gated community.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 2025
Our Place Shelter Goes to Volunteers of America Management, Replacing RISE, Despite Costlier Bid and Criticism
The Our Place county-run shelter for women and families is being passed from RISE management to the often harshly criticized Volunteers of America, after Item 9 passed without discussion this week at a commissioners meeting, despite its more costly bid, according to County Communications Manager Bethany Drysdale.
The item indicated VOA, which has come under repeated criticism for its handling of operations at the previous Record Street shelter and now at the Cares Campus, from several local social workers and the unhoused themselves, was “the most responsive and responsible bidder.”
The item indicated “VOA will provide staffing, program management and administrative oversight for the Our Place campus. The contract will be awarded for a transitional term of two weeks in an amount not to exceed [$75,000] for the period of June 16, 2025 to June 30, 2025 and an initial term of twenty-four (24) months in an amount not to exceed [$3,987,879] for the period of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 and [$4,127,455] for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, with the provision for up to three (3), one (1) year renewals.”
Commissioner Mike Clark, who was seeking a more detailed explanation, received a separate email from Candee Ramos, in the same office as Drysdale, indicating “the evaluation committee, which is made up of both internal staff and stakeholders, scored VOA higher in the scoring process. This was a standard procurement/RFP process that included a qualifications-based process vs. a commodity or construction low bid process. Pricing is only one of the five criteria delineated in the RFP. The team offered to let you see the scoring if you would like.”
VOA’s overall two-year bid was $1.2 million higher than RISE’s which had run Our Place since its opening in 2021, to the surprise and delight of many at the time that a grassroots organization would be awarded such an important county contract.
We contacted RISE executive director Benjamin Castro but did not hear back.
RISE is an acronym for Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality.
The sprawled out 20-acre Our Place campus includes a free clothing boutique, several family and women’s homes, a general shelter area and a dining hall, which several social workers have told Our Town Reno is a much more welcoming model than the prison like warehouse look and feel of the Cares Campus. Throughout the years, local facilities run by Volunteers of America have had extremely restrictive access for our team of reporters, while with RISE we were able to visit Our Place on our own whenever we asked.
A recent review of the VOA run general Cares Campus shelter from a month ago, which we cleaned up for spelling, indicates: “I just moved to the Reno area and having a place to go for a warm bed and food to eat, I am glad Nevada Cares exists. However now that I have been at the campus for a bit, the staff treats you like it is prison, they have probably 12 showers in one bathroom and I think 3 of them work, have been broken for couple weeks now, you have to stand in line to show, they have a nice kitchen sad they don't use it, Catholic ministry prepares the food and it’s not that good, why they are serving chili in the spring is very questionable, oh wait they serve sloppy Joe's at lunch and then turn the leftover into chili…”
Another by Robert Lintner from a year ago alleged “all the staff are never on the same page with each other and each shift tends to make up their own rules everyday depending on who you are!!!!” echoing similar complaints we’ve received in our reporting of ongoing issues of perceived favoritism, long wait lines and unclear rules at the Cares campus under VOA management.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 2025
ACLU of Nevada Threatens To Sue School Counties Over New Policy for Transgender Athletes
The ACLU of Nevada is now threatening to sue school districts if a new White House issued policy to ban transgender athletes from high school girls sports is implemented.
The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association which oversees high school sports in the Silver State said in April athletes can only play on teams that align with the sex on their original birth certificate.
“There are many laws that the United States has had over the years that were changed. Sometimes change is difficult,” NIAA executive director Tim Jackson said at the time. “We have a federal law in place and I do not think it would behoove us as a body to willfully violate a federal law.”
This was a reversal of a 2014 policy which allowed transgender students to play on sports teams that aligned with their chosen gender identity.
This new direction goes against the Equal Rights Amendment to the Nevada Constitution passed by voters in 2022 preventing the denial of equal rights on account of sex or gender expression.
The NIAA and its member school districts do not collect any data on whether any transgender student athletes have been participating in its sanctioned sports. At the national college level, NCAA President Charlie Baker has said he was aware of 10 transgender athletes competing in college sports across the country.
Truckee and North Tahoe said they would move from the NIAA to the California Interscholastic Federation after the current season due to this new policy, while leadership from other school counties, including Washoe, have indicated they would not go against NIAA rules.
In April, the group Silver State Equality said they were “deeply disappointed that the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) changed its decade-long inclusive transgender student-athlete policy to one that is exclusionary.”
The LGBTQ civil rights organization added:
“We will continue to fight unapologetically for transgender Nevadans—who make up less than 1% of our state’s population—for the fewer than 10 nationally known NCAA transgender athletes, and for every transgender tourist and professional who comes to Nevada expecting to be treated with the equality and dignity they deserve."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is suing Maine for allowing transgender student athletes to keep playing in girls’ and women’s school sports. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year “to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” according to wording on the White House website.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 2025
A REMSA Employee Endures Hectic Moments, and Decides to Switch to Dentistry
A UNR student I know is passionate about providing health care to marginalized communities. After working as an EMT, though, she decided that line of work might be too much for her, and is instead now pursuing dentistry. This woman would like to remain unnamed but was remain to share her experiences in candid detail.
As a student in college, she is passionate about health care, so she took opportunities to explore what profession in the field would fit her the most. She first volunteered in medical clinics across Reno to test if she enjoyed assisting patients.
“So, I started volunteering, and I noticed that I liked the pace of coming in a room, getting to know someone, seeing what was going on with themselves, and coming up with a conclusion on how to help them, right? But I was like, I feel like I can do more. So, then I was like, let me go into maybe emergency medicine,” she said.
With the encouragement of one friend to pursue becoming an EMT, she enrolled in Truckee Meadows Community College. In the summer of 2022, she got her EMT certification through a class at TMCC. She felt empowered after learning how to take care of people on the spot and think on her feet. But with such power comes great pressure. She mentioned how when a person has this job, they simply cannot overthink because “you have like someone’s life on your hands,” she said. She wanted to discover her place in the future, and the life of an EMT was the first uniform she tried on.
No matter what position in health care this student is in, she loves positively impacting others. In her time working as an EMT, the most rewarding aspect was being able to help others. The heart-to-heart moments with patients stick out to her.
“I think he was probably homeless,” she remembers of one interaction. “He was really dehydrated, and he just donated blood. So he was like really, really bad. So I remember the EMT gave him the IV, and I was just listening to him, and he was like, Thank you so much for listening to me. Like, I appreciate your help and thank you guys for taking me to the hospital. Yeah, so it's like little things that I noticed that I was really satisfied with the health care”.
At this point, she has been working as an EMT for almost two years. Throughout this time, she has provided medical assistance to many individuals and enjoyed doing so.
“At least like if I make their day, I was like happy about it, yeah,” she said.
One of her first calls she had was for a soccer player who hit his head and fell on his back too hard.
Another time she answered the call of a Hispanic family concerned about a lady who looked extremely dehydrated. In moments like this, she educates patients on how and why they must look after their well-being.
She also mentioned an intense call she didn’t like so much, rushing to a victim of a stabbing to the abdominal area.
A situation as dire as this does not allow a person to overthink; only pursue action. She remembers the paramedics commanding her to apply pressure and to just do something to help. She discloses that this was a traumatic moment for her, that she even thinks about it from time to time.
“Yeah, I do,” she admits. But like they say, time heals. But I always think that I freaked out and then I like kind of like froze,” she remembers. Fortunately, the patient made it to the hospital and survived. Even when the patient receives the needed medical attention and everyone is safe, intense and impactful calls like this tend to linger.
“I took it home. I was thinking, what if I could have done this? What if I could have done that? And that's when I was like, okay, maybe let me think about this career again,” she said.
Working as an EMT has many challenges; and she points to two big challenges specifically. The first is not knowing how to handle the situation, so you have to improvise. There is no time to think, so every moment matters.
“Do your best to serve, help someone if they're in like life or death,” she explained.
The second challenge is the anxiety that comes with working a shift. “Sometimes I would go in the ride-along or like the ambulance and think about it,” she said. “I'm like, what if I'm going to do CPR and I don't know where to ride? What if you don't survive, and I'm going to take that. I was like always overthinking it.” She started feeling out of place.
“When it got to like moments that ugly scenarios, I was like wishing, I was like wishing. I know it's bad, but I was like wishing not to be there, which is not good,” she said. “And I was like, why am I doing something I'm like always stressful, you know? Like I wasn't happy to be there. I was just in stress mode, which wasn't good.”
Through these tense times, she got to know herself better.
“It helped me realize that maybe ER or emergency medicine wasn't for me,” she said. “Or like medicine, and maybe go in another because there are so many ways to help people. So, yeah, it made me realize that.”
As she mentioned, she wants to know how her day is going to go; she does not want to bring traumatic moments home, and she ultimately enjoys educating others about health care more than directly running calls on an ambulance. Using this newfound insight, she decided to pursue dentistry instead. So as she wraps up her senior year of college she is now working towards becoming a dentist.
“So I was like, let me shadow a dentist, and I noticed that they do meaningful things … Like someone comes with pain, they fix it right away, you know,” she explained.
Another benefit for her in pursuing dentistry is the steadier work-life balance dentists have and that she says she would no longer experience that constant negative stress.
Ultimately, she is passionate and wants to make a positive impact in the livelihood of others through any kind of health care. Although working as an EMT was not what she wanted to pursue as a longterm profession she grew during this time. She wanted to emphasize that this is her story working an EMT and that it just wasn't the right fit for her, but it could be the right fit for other people.
“I just want to say that that just because I say like ‘it was bad for me for me for being a first responder’ it can be different for someone else like I feel like everybody has a purpose to be here in life, you know and probably me being an EMT wasn't like the one but that's okay. There's a lot of other careers that you can help people you can still do something meaningful in life,” she concluded.
Contribution by Samuel Fernando Rea Ramirez in collaboration with a COM 210 UNR class with Amy Pason
Reno Kimpton Hotel Project Fizzles into $1 Million Land Sale
A trustee sale in Reno today marked the end of the much ballyhooed but never realized Reno Kimpton hotel project on Court Street with the only bidder Court Street Ventures LLC getting the land for $1 million.
That company itself has lent money to the project and is still in a legal battle with Las Vegas-based CAI Investments, which had previously filed for bankruptcy for this specific, much talked about, yet gone nowhere project.
The City of Reno even changed its shadow ordinance in 2019 to help, loosening requirement on tall buildings in downtown areas, to establish Nevada’s first hoped for Kimpton-branded boutique hotel.
CAI was also the initial purchaser of the Harrah’s for $50 million before stalling on that project as well. The company has been represented locally by attorney Garrett Gordon who also does work for Jacobs Entertainment.
At one point, CAI Investments had this blurb on its website concerning the Kimpton Project: “Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, part of IHG Hotels & Resorts’ Luxury & Lifestyle Collection, joined CAI Investments, key stakeholders and local officials on Friday, May 13 for a ceremonial groundbreaking event to mark the progress on its new hotel in Reno, Nevada. When it opens in late 2024, the new Kimpton in Reno will become the first newly constructed non-gaming hotel built in the city. With a prime location in the heart of Downtown and across the street from the Truckee River and Wingfield Park, the hotel will become a beacon for boutique hospitality in the “Biggest Little City in the World.””
Our Town Reno reporting, May 16, 2025
Multiple Charges against Reno-Based Owner in Lovelock Fiber Optic Scandal
Multiple charges have been filed against the Reno-based owner of Uprise Fiber LLC Stephen Allen Kromer, accused of diverting millions of dollars for a massive rural fiber optic project into his own personal bank account.
His company had been paid $9.1 million in upfront state funds from the Nevada Department of Transportation two years ago to initiate a rural broadband project in Lovelock, which also involved huge sums of promised grant money from the U.S Department of Agriculture, but no noticeable progress had been made.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said the charges were the result of dedicated work from his office’s investigators and prosecutors, and that he had faith justice would be served in this case, which has made local media headlines for months on end.
Kromer has been charged with one count of theft in an amount of $25,000 or more but less than $100,000, and 30 counts of theft in an amount more than $100,000.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 16, 2025
Costly Art Projects for Reno Police Station Go To Outsiders, Including to One without Any Renderings
The City of Reno recently decided to spend nearly $400,000 on two art projects for the Public Safety Center police headquarters opened last summer, with both artists coming from out of town, and one with no indication of what the end result might look like beyond being a sculpture.
In a meeting in late April, agenda items B9 and B10 were approved, one for a public plaza concept granted to Seattle based artist John Fleming at a cost not to exceed $175,000 based on sketches with Truckee river symbolism, and another for the Brooklyn-based Mark Reigelman at a cost not to exceed $200,000 for a sculpture in the parking lot along 911 Kuenzli street, which came without any renderings whatsoever in his attached packet.
Reigelman has previously done the Manifest Destiny public art at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, and Smökers, a series of miniature houses positioned over steam-emitting manholes in New York City. Fleming recently got other Reno work to create the new public art at the corner of Oddie and Silverado Boulevards.
In discussions before the approval, Mayor Hillary Schieve said she hoped money could stay for local talented artists, rather than being given to outsiders, and that projects should be seen in detail before these go forward.
“Both of these pieces of art are exceptional,” councilman Devon Reese said, even though one was in the rough draft sketch stage and the sculpture had no suggestion of what it might be.
Megan Berner the Arts and Culture Manager said they did not ask for specific design proposals, and prefer to proceed first with getting an artist on board to then get community engagement in shaping what the art ends up being. She said Reigelman “did a large amount of research,” and is planning to “engage pretty heavily,” to develop the project.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 2025
Looking Out for the Mental Health of our First Responders and the Importance of Peer Support
Suicide rates among Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are more than twice that of the general population, and over half of firefighter deaths are due to suicide, though according to recent studies only about 40% are ever officially reported.
Captain Diego Luna, currently a Clark County Firefighter who used to work in Reno, describes how first responders often need immediate specialized mental health support, and emphasized that waiting even a couple of days can prevent a suicide or other tragic outcomes. Luna feels that forming networks of certified peer support providers is saving the lives of first responders.
A prior REMSA first responder, who wished to remain unnamed for this report, had a glowing review of how peer support creates opportunities for innovative healing strategies. She described how bringing her German Shepherd to work was one small way she could bring a smile to her team and help boost morale in between intense 911 calls. Peer support seems to be part of a recent uptrend in addressing local needs, and it may be a great fit, but is it a replacement for traditional mental health resources like licensed therapists?
” There are a number of reasons peer support is such an effective response model,” Luna explained.
“For one, it usually takes too long to see a therapist, and you know, with insurance and making sure it’s in-network… By the time you see someone, you’ve probably already had to figure things out on your own. Timely access is a problem. But another big thing is that peer support is based on the needs of the first responder. If you just got off a really tough call and you want to debrief with a peer support member who is from your team and familiar with the incident, you can do that. But maybe you want to talk to someone outside of your chain of command. We have a network for that at the county, state, and national level.”
Luna went on to explain how the compatibility of mental health resources is an important piece, too. “There’s a cultural aspect to being a first responder, and sometimes it’s hard to find that cultural awareness with a therapist - but first and foremost, it’s about timely access to resources and creating that awareness to talk about how you’re doing.”
Luna says it can be a serious compatibility issue when recommendations don't align with the strain that first responders are subject to constantly.
“We’ve actually had mental health providers that offered to go for a ride-along,” Luna explained, and that sort of extra effort to gain insight into the experiences first responders are facing can go a long way.
Captain Luna recounted how one of his team members continued working and saving lives despite the recent murder of his daughter, for which no arrests had been made.
Luna avoided bringing it up at first, not wanting to intrude, but eventually asked, “How are you holding up with all of this, man?”
The firefighter then opened up for over an hour about the overwhelming emotional burden on his marriage and mental health. Luna could tell he had been suffering silently and masking his turmoil due to a sense that others were relying on him.
Later, during a peer support debrief, Luna realized that while many had been concerned for him, no one had checked in.
This underscored the importance of growing peer support networks—recognizing when someone is struggling and stepping in before it’s too late. “It’s about creating awareness—knowing help exists, and making sure it’s actually offered when it’s needed,” Luna said.
At REMSA, according to one of their previous EMTs' experiences, peer support meant a lot of things, but primarily a roster of EMTs on shift who could be there for their peers in whatever way needed.
The EMT we interviewed explained in more detail how bringing her German Shepherd on site with her jubilant attitude would help shore up morale. “Everyone loved playing with her, and her positive energy helped them rehabilitate,” she said.
In between calls, spending a few moments decompressing with Bella was a massive relief to REMSA employees and became a popular and unique source of healing.
In the case of local chapters of the firefighting union, it is common practice for there to be a Peer Response Committee that is funded.
Captain Luna stated that departments themselves can cover the cost of the additional peer support training as budgets fluctuate. However, sometimes getting a member trained and certified while on shift, or paid to attend the training, isn't an option.
In those cases, the union's Committee on Peer Support can be billed by the peer support provider. The reality is that often when these services are provided billing doesn’t take place because of the culture.
“No first responder wants to feel they are making money off of caring for their own. What happens a lot of the time is you end up working extra hours on your off days,” Luna said. He expressed optimism that peer support’s effectiveness was leading to more first responders getting certified though and growing their network pf mutual aid. “Ideally, no one will be working outside their scheduled shifts, because that time off is so crucial to a healthy work-life balance,” Luna concluded.
In the wake of peer support’s wide success, there’s been some movement on getting more funding and policy established for this at the city and state levels. That is a breath of fresh air for EMTs and firefighters who are already working overtime to help their overworked peers.
Our Town Reno contribution by Ryan Longfellow in collaboration with a COM 210 UNR class with Amy Pason
Amid Cuts, UNR Researchers Scramble to Find Alternative Funding for Projects, Including Acclaimed International Ones
Years of research in the Mekong region is displayed in front of Dr. Zeb Hogan and Dr. Sudeep Chandra’s lab, featuring National Geographic publications and sustainability developments for the Wonders of the Mekong Project. This research has been in the works for over eight years, with some of their discoveries spotlighted in the National Geographic documentary, “Monster Fish.” Photo by Samantha Wagner
Dr. Zeb Hogan is one of the many USAID-funded researchers who have had to quickly find alternative ways to receive funding in the wake of immediate terminations in their USAID grant, losing millions of dollars in funding. Dr. Hogan has been working at the University of Nevada, Reno for about 20 years as a research professor. He focuses primarily on fish ecology and aquatic biodiversity through the biology department and later founded with Dr. Sudeep Chandra the Wonders of the Mekong Project.
This project has been an accumulation of almost eight years working alongside National Geographic and Cambodian researchers, but the future of this collaboration is uncertain since a daunting federal notice issued in late January. Dr. Hogan and many other UNR researchers received abrupt and unforeseen notifications that their funding had been temporarily paused across various different federal funding programs, some feeling the effects at a faster rate than others.
The Wonders of the Mekong team in February of 2022, showcasing the sponsors that have contributed to their research, including USAID. Photo courtesy of Dr. Zeb Hogan
Research programs all across the country suffered a loss of billions of dollars over the last few months in response to several federal agencies imposing immediate funding cuts to all current and future grant-holding projects. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and many medical research projects have lost over $2 billion since the start of 2025. Global conservation programs funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have lost upwards of $75 billion in the last few months. Its immediate effects have been felt nationwide, including top research projects sponsored here at the University of Nevada, Reno.
“[UNR] internal analysis shows that the impacted projects total $35 million in awarded funds,” a University of Nevada, Reno spokesperson said earlier this month. “Of which $12 million had already been expended when projects were halted. The resulting financial loss is approximately $23 million…As of April 20, 2025, a total of 18 sponsored projects from USAID, HHS…NEH and NSF have been terminated.”
In response to these pauses in funding and current loss of federal support, researchers and scientists alike have filed lawsuits, but for now much remains in limbo and very much on hold, or in a scrambling pattern with alternative stop gap funding.
Since 2017, Dr. Hogan has co-led the Wonders of the Mekong Project with Dr. Chandra. This project served as a collaboration with universities in the Mekong region to explore and research the ecosystem in the Mekong river. In 2024, the project received a five year funding extension with an additional $20 million in efforts to expand the project in Southeast Asia.
“Up until recently, [the Mekong Project] was funded by the US Agency for International Development…we were very excited to help establish its role as a leader in the world in this type of work,” Dr. Hogan explained. “And so we were disappointed in late January when we received a notice that we needed to pause activities and spending. About a month after that, we received notification that our funding was terminated.”
Since then, Dr. Hogan and his team have looked towards the university for additional support. As of now, they were provided bridge funding for three months through the University of Nevada’s Global Water Center along with receiving private donations for the next year as the project works to find more long-term funding. They are not the only ones facing the blows from the loss of federal funding through USAID; around 86% of awards to projects have been terminated—a loss of nearly $30 billion in USAID funding nationwide.
“We launched a new center for aquatic sustainability in Cambodia the week before we found out that the project was going to be terminated,” Dr. Hogan said. “We’ve raised funds now through private donations to continue in a scaled-down version of the project for the next year or so… So essentially, we have a short term plan.”
News articles published on the Wonders of the Mekong Project displayed outside of Dr. Hogan’s and Dr. Chandrea’s lab, one of the articles, is showcasing their National Geographic documentary, “Monster Fish,” which Dr. Hogan has been the host since 2003. Photo by Samantha Wagner
Currently, their top priority is to provide continued support to the Ph.D. students conducting research through the Mekong Project.
“These types of activities I think are very important to maintain our relationships with other countries to maintain our position in the world as a leader,” Dr. Hogan said. “We’ve been working with these vulnerable fisheries and critically endangered species, and with the loss of funding, these are species that could go extinct within the next 10 years or so… we want to make sure that they don’t disappear forever.”
For some researchers at UNR, cuts came just as programs were gaining early momentum, creating nerve wracking uncertainties.
Dr. Baker Perry, a professor of climatology in the department of geology, outside of his office in the Mackay Science building. Photo by Samantha Wagner
Dr. Baker Perry is a climatologist and professor at UNR who recently set up several weather stations in South America earlier this year, as part of what is known as Project Wayra. Some weather stations have been established in the mountain range of Aconcagua in Argentina, while there are also water towers associated with this project on Mount Everest in Nepal. Dr. Perry, along with his team, initiated their first exhibition in February of this year, installing five weather stations that will analyze hydrological cycles, weather patterns, and the snowpack levels in the Andes Centrales, a region with a fast-changing high-altitude environment.
This project was initially being funded by the Department of State, and just three days before leaving for Aconcagua earlier this February, Dr. Perry received the notice that all federal funding through this agency had been frozen for the project. The problem was that 90% of the grant was already used prior to the announcement, which was roughly $90,000.
“We had $150,000 in addition came from American meteorological companies and we had some support from the National Geographic Society and UNR,” Dr. Perry said. “So I estimate probably the whole project was easily $350,000 to $400,000 and so the Department of State grant was only a part of that.”
The team had decided to proceed with the project and hoped for the best whether or not they would get reimbursed for the last 10% of the grant once they came back from Argentina. Luckily, the funding freeze was lifted soon after their arrival back to the United States. Unsure how reliable federally-sourced grants can be, the team have looked for alternative ways to fund their research, including finding support through the National Geographic Society.
Dr. Perry expects many other research programs to seek out diverse ways to receive grants and funding in response to the outbreak of federal funding cuts, and he is confident that the project will continue to transpire over the next few months despite the temporary setback, which is more than what many can say at the moment.
”Most of us, we understand that this is a setback, but this is not going to last forever,” Dr. Perry said. “It is important that we stay engaged with the institutions, the universities that are really pushing back. We have to continue to do the work that we do and advocate for science and for this work. I think the pendulum will swing back in time.”
As for the Wonders of the Mekong Project, Dr. Hogan is still trying to find more alternative funding plans that will support their students long term.
They had initially planned to pivot to apply for grants through the National Science Foundation, but as of May 2nd, that budget had been cut by 50%.
For now, the team will continue to put the student researchers first and will seek to support them in completing their Ph.D.s, with or without the funding from USAID, while waiting and hoping for the pendulum to swing back into a much better U.S. environment for research funding.
Reporting by Samantha Wagner shared with Our Town Reno
Behind the Screen: One UNR Student’s Journey Through Camming
With the weight of her financial survival and fears of how her future will shape out, a student at the University of Nevada, Reno, who goes by “Chloe Duncan”, reflects on a local park bench.
In a hyperconnected yet disassociated world, some college students are confronting feelings of isolation by turning to sex work, not just for income, but for a sense of agency and emotional connection. At the same time, they are grappling with how porn quietly shapes their self-worth and understanding of desire. To shed light on this, we speak with a cam girl about how porn has influenced her identity, boundaries, and views on intimacy. James Perez, Bobby Diaz, and Elijah Reyes report.
The desperation of job hunting can lead people to consider options they never thought possible. A 21-year-old University of Nevada, Reno student, majoring in secondary education, who goes by “Chloe Duncan,” is from the small town of Wells, Nevada.
She found herself in a position she never imagined herself to be in. While desperate to find a job to pay for student fees and other living expenses, Duncan turned to a familiar source of income that she had known since she was just 15 years old – sex work.
While she was in high school, Duncan was offered the opportunity to make a quick hustle by performing sexual acts on older teens, and as a naive high schooler, she accepted.
“Most of the people who paid me to do it were seniors,” Duncan said. “A lot of them liked being dominated, and they would pay me hundreds of dollars to step on their balls with my heels on. They were 19 and I was 15, [doing those sexual acts] made me feel so empowered.”
Several years later, by the end of her Fall freshman semester at UNR, Duncan found herself draining her savings account.
“I applied to over 50 places, mostly bakeries, kitchens, and places with kids,” Duncan said. “I ended up getting turned down a lot because of the way that I look. I have dyed hair and a bunch of visible tattoos, and there’s a big stigma against that.”
Unable to land a job due to her physical appearance, Duncan turned to a niche area of online camming called Financial Domination or FinDom, where someone called a “Pay Pig” pays a sex worker to humiliate them, with specific rules.
For example, if a Pay Pig doesn’t respond fast enough to an order, they have to send the worker $500.
“They just want somebody to talk to,” Duncan said. “I feel like people who are in these higher positions kind of get separated from society, and they get lonely, and I'm empathetic. I don't think I ever purposely manipulated anybody, it's just not my style.”
Despite only being on this site for two and a half months, Duncan earned roughly $12,000, which she used to pay for her dorm room, textbooks, car payments, and pets. Although the pay was substantial, she felt it was too good to be true and would be difficult to explain to the IRS and her family about where the funds originated from.
With a replenished savings account and a new sense of self-independence, Duncan decided to try and share her personality online through different streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube.
She wanted to share her art, play video games, and build a community with her viewers. When the views weren’t coming in, the money dried up with it.
“With Twitch, it's either you go viral and you get big, or you don't,” Duncan said. “That's when I kind of leaned more into what sells the quickest, and sex sells, and so I started looking into camming sites again.”
She chose Chaturbate because of the website's user security features, which allowed her to set up region filters that prevented anyone from Nevada and its surrounding areas from watching her content, to protect her identity. She also chose Chaturbate because all new users are automatically pushed to the site's main page, allowing her to build an audience from the start.
Despite being a new face on a cam site, she did not use it to show off her body, but rather to promote her art. For the first few months, she didn't post any nude content. Her viewers paid to have discussions with her and get to know her as a person rather than a model. It was more intimate than FinDom, where she was able to be herself and get paid for it.
“After those first two weeks, you're not being promoted as much,” Duncan said. “So, the viewer count goes down, but now you've kind of built a loyal clientele. So, more people that I knew who were familiar with my streams were coming in, and they felt more comfortable with me, and I was pretty consistent with it, and so they wanted to pay me more.”
As time went on, Duncan became more comfortable with her loyal audience and decided to cater to their sexual requests. She had her limits, of course, but she believed the less she was willing to do it, the more she would charge for these acts.
“So it was like, if I was going to do it, it was going to be worth it, and I have some hard limits, you know. I don't show anything below the belt on a public stream,” Duncan said.
In her first year, Duncan raked in nearly $1500 a month, with her biggest month peaking at $5000 due to large donations by viewers for more explicit content. After doing this for three years, Duncan’s wish to work in a traditional job ended up coming true when she landed a job at a local bakery.
“I have not been streaming nearly as much as I used to,” she said. “I used to do it probably every day. Like, maybe take a day off or whatever,” Duncan said. “Now I probably only do it maybe twice a month. I only do it when I want to get a little extra pocket change now. The more I do it, the more likely it is to be found. I have to take into consideration, if I want to be a teacher, you know, I have to stop camming to do that.”
It wasn’t just her future career that pulled her away from camming, it was also the fear of losing the ones closest to her. Duncan has never told her mom about her camming because she knows her mom wouldn’t accept her for it.
“She thinks kind of in a traditional way in that aspect, I think she believes that doing sex work in any form degrades your self-value as a member of society, which sucks,” Duncan said. “I love my mom, I need her in my life, I want her to be that support, and I don’t want to break that.”
While her mother’s disapproval weighs heavily on her, Duncan has not let it stop her from creating her way in the crowded camming field. She's learned to mix her sense of independence with caution, acknowledging both the freedom and the risks associated with the position.
“My advice to anyone who wants to be in this field is to take it cautiously and only do what you’re comfortable with,” Duncan said. “You are your boss. The moment you want to do it, you can hop on, press broadcast, and end it whenever you want. But I do think people should think about it, because things like this, the internet never forgets.”
Reporting by James Perez, Bobby Diaz, and Elijah Reyes shared with Our Town Reno
International Graduate Assistants at Nevada Face Financial Limitations and Growing Uncertainties
Nevada graduate assistants gathered in March for a count the cards rally, with multiple international graduate assistants in attendance. Some students have been afraid to participate in any type of protest, or even drive a car, and travel to an in country conference due to other students at other colleges having their student visas revoked for multiple reasons in recent months. Photo by Samuel Kahnke
International graduate assistants (GAs) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) are expressing concerns both about their financial situation at the university, animosity towards foreigners and feeling especially vulnerable under the Trump administration about their overall situation.
B who only wanted to give one initial for this article is an international GA from Europe. He works as both a research assistant and teaching assistant on campus and enjoys the research project he is doing.
Kaashifah, another international GA, is a PhD student from the College of Education and Human Development. She is from Vijayawada, a small city in India and is currently working as a research assistant doing data analysis for the Dean’s Future Scholars program.
She enjoys her department and job, calling her advisor, Donald Easton-Brooks, a “sweetheart.”
With their visas, B and Kaashifah are only allowed to work on campus, limiting their opportunities for jobs and higher pay. While students elsewhere are having their stays in the United States gone under sudden upheaval, for a myriad of reasons, from the political to the trivial, their own predicament feels increasingly precarious.
They both have jobs as GAs, but with the increasingly high cost of living in northern Nevada, they say the money is not enough.
B says his stipend covers rent, groceries and other essentials leaving him with about $200 at the end of the month. With his $200 left over, B cannot afford to own a car and he struggles to get groceries without one.
For Kaashifah, her $2,000 a month stipend is “enough to pay the bills” with little to no money left over. She pays for rent, groceries and any other personal expenses she has.
As international students, both of them face higher costs in tuition than U.S. students. Many international students are likely to pay higher taxes compared to domestic students, as well, as international students do not get the standard deduction from their income on their taxes.
Some international students are taxed at least 10% on their income for federal taxes, while some may have exemptions depending on where they are from.
GAs at the university are contracted for no more than 20 hours a week, though many have said they regularly work more than that, including international GAs. B says that when he is doing research instead of teaching he is working on average 30 hours a week.
Kaashifah says that she works the 20 hours a week she is scheduled for and not more than that. Though she says that is typical of her department and not of other departments, especially the sciences.
“I’ve been lucky,” Kaashifah said.
Amid grant cuts and prevailing funding uncertainties, international GAs, in particular, are vulnerable at UNR as their assistantship pays for their tuition. If the assistantship were to lose funding, then international GAs could suddenly be paying almost $30,000 in tuition for one year of schooling.
They could also lose their visa status as international students are required to show proof that they can pay for school. Part of this proof can include the salary they make as a GA.
B specifically mentioned fears over his position disappearing. “The uncertainty of not knowing if your position … [could] disappear like that,” he said.
Markus Kemmelmeier, the dean of the graduate school, acknowledges the vulnerable position of international GAs.
“And once you lose your assistantship you lose your funding, and funding is actually the precondition for you to have your visa,” Kemmelmeier said while discussing the uncertainties GAs face semester to semester.
At the university, GAs have been attempting to form a union to help gain more workplace protections and higher wages. Recently, though international GAs have felt the need to step back from organizing, feeling participating in any type of protest is a dangerous proposition for their precarious situation.
The union even though it has not yet been formally recognized by the university, with state level legislative efforts still ongoing, it does currently have protections in place for international GAs such as a hotline to give international GAs access to legal resources. They also recently hosted a Know Your Rights training for international student rights in conjunction with the ACLU of Nevada.
Sadmira Ramic, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Nevada, ran a majority of the training and went over the protections that international students have. Those protections include not having to speak to law enforcement, the right to an attorney and interpreter and no unreasonable search and seizure.
B and Kaashifah are in support of the union and Kaashifah originally helped recruit multiple international GAs to sign their union cards.
She stepped back from the organizing effort after the election of Donald Trump.
“I am generally scared about it,” B said of of his own visa. “I’m fairly certain that everything is going to be alright, but I’m scared and that is definitely a source of stress.”
“Every day we wake up and there’s something new,” Kaashifah said about the current political climate, and decisions coming from the White House, with some stalled by the court system.
She mentioned the potential removal of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) status option for recent graduates. OPT, which allows international students to get further work experience within their field of study while in the United States after graduation, is currently being discussed as on the cutting block in the U.S. Congress.
OPT is the main route of post-graduation employment for international students as about 72% of international student graduates use OPT. These employment opportunities can last for one to three years depending on the work and the student’s field of study.
Finances and work are not the only areas that Kaashifah says she struggles in. Kaashifah mentioned facing what she called “microaggressions” while attending UNR.
“People look at me and say ‘oh you don’t look Indian, your skin is not brown,’” Kaashifah said.
In another instance, Kaashifah says she was denied from a front desk position on campus due to her English not being good enough. All international graduate assistants whose educational history is from a non-English speaking country have to pass an English fluency test to attend the university.
In an email sent out by Kemmelmeier to graduate program directors, he recently mentioned international students’ fears about getting their visas revoked, as well as encouraging faculty members to support their international graduate students.
For both B and Kaashifah, they are excited about the work that they are pursuing and want to continue in their U.S, experience without fear, but are finding it increasingly difficult to do so.
Reporting by Samuel Kahnke shared with Our Town Reno
GSR Owner Looking for TIF Assistance for New Arena Project Has Flooded Reno Council Members with Donations
While Item B1 of the Redevelopment Agency Board Wednesday is a presentation “on the Grand Sierra Resort Arena Project's request for Tax Increment Financing, including a summary of the financial gap analysis, potential approval of deal terms, and potential delegation of authorization to execute the final participation agreement to the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency,” it’s a good reminder to look at how the different casino entities of Alex Meruelo have flooded most of our City Council with enormous campaign donations in recent cycles.
A local Redditor recently called the possible TIF for the proposed GSR expansion, which would redirect future increases in tax revenue from the project back to the private developer, as “almost the literal definition” of privatizing profit by socializing costs.
Other casinos have sent a letter disputing this plan, quoting Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 279 which has TIF intended to be used in “blighted areas which constitute either social or economic liabilities, or both …”
The GSR’s plan has been touted as a $1 billion project with a new 10-thousand seat arena scheduled for just three years away, including for Wolf Pack basketball, big name concerts and possibly minor league hockey. Initially UNR President Brian Sandoval had said no public funds, including Tax Increment Financing, would be needed, but that turns out to have been an early misdirection.
We probably couldn’t find all the Meruelo related donations as his casinos come up under different names in contribution reports, but what we could identify is that the Grand Sierra Resort itself gave $5,000 to potential future mayoral aspirant Brandi Anderson in September 2024, and $5,000 to the sometimes on the fence about these issues Naomi Duerr in October 2023 for another electoral seat she was seeking.
The MEI-GSR Holdings gave Kathleen Taylor $5,000 in December 2023, in the crucial Ward 1 race that could have tipped the balances in such council decisions, with Meghan Ebert often opposing big developers, Duerr never entirely predictable, and Mayor Hillary Schieve recently more of a wild card. Taylor has been firmly entrenched with the Anderson, Devon Reese and Miguel Martinez camp, carrying that pro development at seemingly any cost group to most Council decisions. Only Anderson was initially elected from the group, while the three others gained initial entry into the Council through a non elected internal replacement appointment process.
Martinez got two payments of $5,000 from MEI-GSR, the first in 2023 and the second in 2024, while Reese also got two $5,000 paychecks from that entity.
Meruelo’s other casino, called the Sahara in Las Vegas in some contribution reports, gave $10,000 to Reese in April 2024, and $10,000 to the equally developer friendly Martinez in May 2024 . The same casino but called Sahara Las Vegas gave Taylor $10,000 in April 2024 and the same amount in the same month to Duerr, even as she was running for the State Senate.
That’s a lot of Meruelo related cash, including some not even coming from his Reno casino but from Las Vegas.
Not to be left out of the picture, Mayor Schieve herself has received a total of at least $21,000 from GSR related entities from what we could find in contribution reports since 2014. Reese previously got $5,000 from the Grand Sierra Resort in his 2020 campaign, as developers are well known to play the long game in who they support in elections.
Our Town Reno reporting, May 4th, 2025
Which Workers and Organizations Are Facing Federal Cuts at the Local Reno Level?
We are receiving multiple messages from readers directly affected by ongoing or potential funding cuts coming from the federal level, from university faculty scrambling with their grants, to KUNR sending emails titled Important Update to early education support employees already dismissed or fearing for their jobs.
A mentor for the AmeriCorps United Readers program with the United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra recently told us she had abruptly lost her job along with dozens of other workers after the program which helped kids falling behind in reading was suddenly cut. The organization said they had just lost $700,000 in funding as part of a $400 million cut nationwide, making the mentors' continued employment unfeasible.
The former mentors cannot claim unemployment due to how their jobs were set with AmericaCorps, a domestic version of the Peace Corps, while they also immediately lost their full education award and living allowances, leaving them in a total bind.
The local iteration of the program which had been going strong for five years had been developed in partnership with the Washoe County School District.
There was a Reddit post yesterday from a local worker for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges saying the non profit they are are working for is looking for voluntary layoffs, with indications that those staying on will face pay cuts if their jobs do remain.
Reports indicate that organization, which houses the oldest juvenile justice research group, had $15 million in grants terminated.
KUNR has been writing emails to its subscribers calling for donations after the White House issued an executive order called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media” seeking a general government defunding of NPR and PBS. The two organizations have challenged the legality of this move, but a bill is also working its way through Congress to defund both.
Another reader had expressed concerns that the Head Start program would be on the cutting block but it seems that in the current budget proposal it remains funded as it previously was, despite Project 2025, the controversial cost cutting blueprint by the Heritage Foundation, calling for its elimination.
Meanwhile, the Nevada Humanities which saw its own highly publicized DOGE slash was just awarded a $250,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, with an immediate $200,000 and an additional $50,000 presented as a one to one challenge grant.
Have you heard of any other local programs or employees recently affected by the federal cuts taking place?
Our Town Reno reporting, May 3, 2025
Three Decades On, A Carson City Teacher Prepares To Say Goodbye to an Increasingly Challenging Profession
Tara Sakelarios, an elementary school teacher at Al Seeliger Elementary School in Carson City, has had many roles over the years, first as a substitute teacher two years after graduating high school, then as a full time 1st and 2nd grade teacher, to now being a long time PE teacher for nearly two decades.
“Since I've been at my school for 26 years, it's my family,” she said during a recent interview which can be heard above. “It's like, you know, you have new family members come in and out, and I get really close with my coworkers. We have a lot of history together, we have a lot of memories together, and my students, because I know every student in my school because of my PE position, I have known many of their siblings and their parents, and so I'm at a point where I have my students' children now coming into our school. And, I mean, if I leave, it's a small town, and if I go anywhere, I usually run into people I know.”
She’s been known to really get into Halloween costumes, and getting her colleagues to create a festive atmosphere.
“When I'm having a bad day and I'm tired and I come to school and I'm still super happy to be here because I still love my job,” she said.
This year, she is retiring, after pouring so much love and care into her school and the many students in her classes.
“I really am going to cry. The kids are so fun in the morning and they bring, like, good energy. Even when they're naughty, it's like, you know, we all roll our eyes and we all but we're here for them and and and we care so much about them that we just are so excited when they when they achieve things and they've grown,” she said.
She survived difficult years such as the pandemic, when behavior, social skills, and mental health deteriorated.
She said students of the past would never talk back to a teacher – when now it is an everyday occurrence.
“There was no questioning. And now the children question everything,” she said.
Being respectful to students' boundaries, but also not letting them do whatever they want is something that Sakelarios has to deal with everyday as she says her goodbyes.
A new generation of students has meant lots of change, but it is still a job she loved, and a job she will miss.
“I wanted to leave loving my job because I watched people leave when they were not happy and left because they were not happy, and I didn't want do that. So I'm leaving still happy,” she said.
Reporting and photo by Samantha Wittke
Effort to Ban Retail Sale of Dogs and Cats in Nevada Makes Progress at Legislature
Legislation making its way through the Nevada legislature is Assembly Bill 487, known as Cindy Lou’s Law, in honor of a Havanese puppy who died while at a store called Puppy Heaven in Las Vegas last year.
According to a video by the Humane World for Animals, an investigator working undercover at that store found Cindy Lou dying alone in the bathroom, when it was too late to save her. A month after her death she was still being advertised on the store’s Facebook page.
The bill now being considered in the Senate would prohibit a “retail pet store from selling, offering to sell, bartering or otherwise transferring ownership of any dog or cat,” according to its current iteration, making it a misdemeanor to do so.
Selling pets in public places would also be illegal, while adoption events in partnership with shelters and rescues would still be allowed.
The last so-called puppy mill in northern Nevada Puppy Love shut down in Sparks last summer, providing relief to many locals who view such stores as prioritizing profit over the well-being of animals, leading to poor living conditions, care and increased health problems. Retail stores also rely on importing puppies from other facilities with inhumane breeding practices, leading to poor genetics and other problems.
The American Kennel Club has been opposing this proposed legislation saying it “is concerned this limits the opportunity for residents to purchase a pet from a licensed, regulated entity and removes consumer protection.”
Still existing pet store owners in the Silver State warn such a bill could increase online scams and illegal breeding for people seeking specific dogs.
Reno banned the retail sale of cats and dogs in pet stores in 2020, while Clark County and North Las Vegas have also done the same. The new bill if passed in the Senate and approved by Governor Joe Lombardo would make the ban statewide.
Our Town Reno reporting, April 2025
Patagonia Remains Mum on TikTok That Goes Viral With Allegations from Reno Local
Several Patagonia employees and other locals are reaching out to Our Town Reno about the plight of a Reno resident who says he is now facing homelessness after a commuting injury while working at Patagonia, on both a gofundme and a TikTok from yesterday which has gone viral and helped with his fundraising.
The TikTok released a day ago titled “My experience working at Patagonia” with the hashtag #homeless has gotten over 450k views and 10-thousand comments as of Tuesday afternoon.
One current employee told Our Town Reno Ryan Urabe was recently barred entry by security at the Patagonia warehouse where he says he worked alongside him. We reached out to Patagonia corporate media earlier today, but did not hear back for initial publication. We then got to speak Tuesday evening with J.J. Huggins from Patagonia, who said the outdoor recreation retailer is not at liberty to discuss such a personnel matter.
The gofundme has a $22,000 goal with already over $18,000 raised by Tuesday afternoon with one person donating five dollars saying they’re “sending support and warm thoughts from Norway.”
In the TikTok, in a calm voice, wearing a Patagonia shirt, Urabe says it’s his first social media video and that he started working at Patagonia last year.
In the gofundme called “Help Ryan Urabe Recover and Rebuild His Life” he calls his former position at Patagonia a “dream job.”
Spurred by the company’s monetary incentive for getting to work in environmental friendly ways, he says he bought himself an electric scooter for his short commute along the Truckee river.
On his way home one day, he says he hit a pothole, breaking his leg and ankle, and then found out after an allegedly protracted process he didn’t qualify for FMLA assistance.
He says he had only been employed for a few months, and a year was required, but he alleges he was led to initially believe he might get help.
He then writes “I received an email stating that I voluntarily resigned,” which he denies.
His version or any of the details of what transpired during his short time with Patagonia could not be independently confirmed.
Urabe says while recovering from surgery, without medical insurance, he was evicted and went to the local shelter still in a cast, but then was 86ed from the facility after an altercation there. On the TikTok he said he was staying at a Reno shelter, presumably the Cares Campus run by the county, for about a week.
“I have asked Homeless Services if and how much information we can provide about an individual, and I’ll let you know what they say,” Bethany Drysdale from the county’s communications team wrote back after we asked if this could be confirmed.
In his TikTok, Urabe said he was now living in a motel, but that his father who had been helping him financially, was then hospitalized.
“I will be homeless and I am desperate. I am scared and don’t know how to survive on the streets,” he concludes in bold letters in the gofundme.
In the TikTok from yesterday he said “tomorrow I’m going to be homeless” without even a sleeping bag or tent.
He concludes the video by saying “thank you for listening.”
His TikTok at ryan.urabe has a Venmo and a PayPal with the words “Anything helps.”
Our Town Reno reporting, April 29, 2025
City of Reno Denies Needed Permit for Jiffy Lube in Hunter Lake Area after Protests
The City of Reno is denying a required so-called minor conditional use permit for a proposed Jiffy Lube in the Hunter Lake and Mayberry area in Reno, after several weeks of protests by neighborhood residents, citing safety and congestion concerns.
In a Facebook post from earlier today, councilwoman Naomi Duerr wrote “Staff have #denied the minor conditional use permit because the location selected is already in use as a required overflow parking location for the Raley's across the street. In 1996, when Raley's wanted to expand at this location, one of the requirements was that they have a certain amount of parking to account for the loss of parking on site. That requirement is still in place,” Duerr wrote.
“I credit one of the city's former staff members with bringing this 30-year old permit requirement to the attention of the city planning staff and the community. While old permit records are retained, they are kept offsite, often on microfiche (film copies of old records) and not easily accessible. I appreciate the current city staff's diligence in following up on the information provided at the NAB during our public workshop on this project,” the Ward 2 councilwoman added, before underlining the importance of NAB meetings.
A letter from Planning Manager Mike Railey dated April 28th announcing the denial indicated “this administrative decision may be appealed to the City Council by the applicant.”
Our Town Reno reporting, April 29, 2025
City of Reno Councilman Issues Response after Man in Promotional Campaign Materials Expressed Holocaust Denialism
Reno City Councilman Miguel Martinez has responded to our concerns after a man who had appeared on his promotional campaign materials and in many joint photos expressed Holocaust denialism when he recently reposted a City of Reno announcement on his public Facebook digital creator page.
“I denounce all forms of antisemitism and discrimination. What others think or say is not in my control, but what is in my control is showing up each day and making sure that I advocate for all communities. This comes in the form of my own words, actions, and votes,” the Ward 3 councilman responded by email.
The post a reader alerted us to by Jerry Martinez called the City of Reno honoring Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day “WACK,” adding “It was never 6 million btw. There were no gas chambers. It’s all theater.”
His feed which also contained many homophobic and anti-trans posts now only has a cover photo and a half dozen photos visible to us.
Our Town Reno reporting, April 28, 2025
Former Reno Shelter Now Used as Parking for Pizza Beer Place to the Dismay of Unhoused Advocates
Local activists who have long tried to save the former CAC shelter area for enhanced Reno social services have been surprised to see its parking lot now being used as parking for a new beer and pizza restaurant called Lake Tahoe AleWorX Reno on 4th street.
"The land Lake Tahoe AleworX Reno is currently using for their parking lot is owned by the City of Reno,” the City wrote to us when we asked.
“This piece of land is currently in the process of being sold to an affordable housing developer. While the transaction of that parcel is in the process of going under contract, the City has made an arrangement with Lake Tahoe AleworX Reno to use the site as a parking lot in exchange that the business maintains the site. Once the land sale is completed, the City will no longer own that parcel and Lake Tahoe AleworX Reno will have to negotiate with the new owners for the future use of that site."
After federal pandemic money was used to quickly open the Nevada Cares Campus, and local homelessness services were moved to the County's authority, the City of Reno left its former Record Street shelter buildings and area go into disrepair due to a lack of security and maintenance. After that, the council said it would be too costly to rehabilitate the compound for social services.
Advocates for the unhoused have long wanted the CAC to be kept under city control as a warming and cooling center with additional services for those struggling in our community.
Its two sections were built in 2005 and 2007 for $20 million with materials estimated to be able to last between 50 to 100 years.