In April 2020, Washoe County’s website announced the county was part of a nationwide program called Built For Zero. In January 2021, Special Projects Manager Dana Searcy and Washoe County published a comprehensive Built For Zero report outlining the number of available beds in Washoe County used to identify gaps in the community.

“We want to be clear about what is included in our data and what is not: The HUD Housing Inventory Count performed annually by the CoC (Continuum of Care-HUD Funded) [are] different from this, but there is some overlap between the two,” the report reads. “Additionally, we did not include programs that fall into the next step of transitioning out of homelessness, including affordable and subsidized housing.”

Shortly after President Joe Biden signed the legislation on Thu., Mar. 11, 2021, Washoe County received $91,587,038 in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) for projects and programs supporting the ongoing COVID-19 impacts and recovery efforts. Simultaneously, The City of Reno was awarded $51.5 million from the SLFRF through the ARPA.

Then the Reno City Council contracted to buy Governor’s Bowl on East 7th Street near the Spaghetti Bowl and turn it into a permanent emergency homeless shelter. According to the City of Reno documents, the price tag for the Bowl was $2.2 million. The county took the reins because Reno needed approval from the county for funding, creating an inefficient process.

On Tue., Feb. 2, 2021, Searcy said 76 percent of 1,436 were in a housing program or emergency center, and the remaining number, about 340, are verified or assumed to be without a shelter.

The Nevada CARES Campus opened on Mon., May 17, 2021, featuring a tent–with no heat or air conditioning and 604 Beds. The county claimed an 88 percent occupancy rate for the first year. In July 2021, responsibility for all homeless services, including finances, was transferred to Washoe County.

In June 2022, it became public that the tent in the encampment did not protect people from Covid-19, instead adding to the health risks. Further, black mold was growing in the shower areas, and the water pipes had frozen over the winter and left unrepaired.

Brown and Searcy contracted with a Canadian-based company OrgCode Consulting to provide Washoe County with research on how the region was doing and how it could do better in July 2022.

The county website shows that as of April 2023, Searcy remains stuck on Phase Two of Five Phases: counting the homeless population so proper funding and resources can be established.

Also, in April 2023, spending concerns became apparent about the three-year lease at 170 South Virginia Street, for $643,679.05 for offices for the Cares Campus team, and the approval of $225,170.73 for office furniture for the team for the three-year lease. Despite this, Washoe Commissioners moved forward with 35 new partnerships, now running through millions of dollars for less than 800 people on the payrolls.

Meanwhile, Washoe County has 735 beds available for homelessness, and commissioners recently voted to increase the funding from $38 million to $70 million.

As I woke up this morning, I decided to talk with God. I told him that I was tired of being angry.

While getting dressed, a question popped into my mind: “Why are you angry?” Without hesitation, I answered: “Of being wrong when I know I’m right.”

Those words resonated with me after the situation I found myself in once again on Friday. Every April and August, it seems the Virginia City fathers surrender the town to groups of people who neither act as tourists nor guests.

August it is Hot August Nights, with classic cars parked in such a way the day before the actual event that I and others making deliveries cannot do our jobs. On Friday, it was the Virginia City Grand Prix and one of Storey County’s Sheriff Deputys.

As I dropped down Sutton Street with the intent to turn right onto E Street and make my way up the hill to St. Mary’s in the Mountain Catholic Church, I had a man wearing a yellow reflective vest try to stop me. He claimed the roadway was close to anyone not associated with the Prix.

“On what authority?” I asked.

“Mine,” he said.

“Well too hell with that since I don’t see a badge on you!” I returned as I moved forward around the corner.

He stepped in front of my truck, and I pressed down on the gas pedal while holding down the clutch. The engine revved a little, and as I lifted my foot off the clutch, the truck drove forward a few inches to a foot.

“Let the asshole go!” he called to those gathering around him.

After delivering my papers, I headed up the hill to C Street, towards Mill Street, and onto E Street from the opposite end. As I approached the Silverland Inn’s driveway, a woman in a reflective yellow vest stepped in front of my truck to stop me from entering the business’s private property and delivering my newspapers.

Slowing enough for her to move out of my way, I did not stop. Just as I pulled in front of the motel doors, a sheriff’s vehicle rolled up behind me.

His first words were, “Did you threaten to run a man over earlier?”

“No.” I said flatly.

“The man and a bunch of others said you did.”

“Anyone swearing out a complaint?”

“No, I get the frustration, but you could be a little nicer. They are guests here, after all.”

“Guest don’t act that way in my house. And if they do, they are shown the door.”

“How long have you been delivering papers up here?”

“About three years.”

“I’ve been putting up with it for 36 years.”

“I didn’t know they started deputies while they are still suckling at their mama’s tit.”

He turned red in the face from either anger or embarrassment, but both for getting caught in a stupid statement akin to a lie.

“Well they have a permit for this event…” he started.

“But not to block two-way roads from being used until tomorrow,” I interrupted.

“Yes, they do,” he said.

“I’ll bet you that their permit does not say that,” I said. “I’ll go so far as to say they don’t have the authority to block driveways to businesses either. That is a job for law enforcement, which is why you’re not out there working that street.”

“I can see there’s no talking to you,” he said as he started for his cruiser.

I wanted to be a smartass in the worst way, saying, “No, it’s not that you can’t talk to me, it’s you can’t argue something you know is wrong.” I kept my mouth shut.

After delivering to the motel, I returned to E Street and crossed over Mill Street, getting back on route. When I got to the Storey County Courthouse, where I deliver papers to the County Recorders’ office, I asked to see a copy of the event permit for the Grand Prix. And exactly as I thought, nowhere on the sheet of paper does it say a civilian can block another civilian from moving freely through the streets, nor does it say a civilian can stop another civilian from going into a business driveway or parking lot.

I can add further credence to my point as the sheriff’s office cited a race participant for trespassing on private property and had to force the organizers to create a pathway for pedestrians.

Come August, if I cannot use C Street or any other street in Virginia City for my job, the businesses I can’t get to won’t get papers. Like I said at the start, I’m tired of being angry and tired of being right and treated as if I’m wrong.

In a meeting with the Washoe County Commission on Tue., Apr. 25, County Manager Eric Brown said the Elections Group would not be working on-site with her Washoe County Registrar of Voters office. However, as he was testifying, they were already working in person inside the ROV’s office.

Then there is the contract, a matter of public record, which states that they would be on-site. It also shows that phase 2 of the program set up by the Election Group will cost $250 per hour for one-on-one training, capped at $500,000.

During the same meeting, Brown testified, as the county manager, he has authorization to spend up to $300,000. His comments were followed by Commissioner Clara Andriola suggesting he also had the authority to spend an initial $100,000 on the Elections Group without board approval.

The contract does indicate a $100,000 starting point, but it also suggests the Election Group will continue billing until the end of the year.

The contract starts with an on-site assessment scheduled for Mon. Mar. 13 through Fri., Mar. 17, and into April, if necessary, despite Brown assuring Commissioners that no one from the Election Group would be in the Washoe County Registrar of Voters office.

He’s home-schooled and was outside bouncing a basketball on the sidewalk when he saw me. He came up on the porch and sat by me as I watched Buddy sniff around the front yard.

“What are you learning today?” I asked.

“How to be frustrated with my computer,” he answered.

We both laugh. Chase can be funny, even though a youngster.

“So Chase, who’s your favorite music artist?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“I like Eminem,” my young neighbor answered. “How about yours?”

“I prefer Skittles,” I returned. “The red ones taste the best.”

“Skittles?!” the ten-year-old exclaims. “I mean the rapper!”

“Well, why would I want to eat the wrapper?” I ask.

“Ah, geez,” I’m out of here,” Chase said as he stepped from my porch and returned to dribbling his ball along the sidewalk and up the driveway to his porch, where he disappeared into his home.

President Joe Biden warned us in December 2022 that there “surely will be” another pandemic while announcing millions of dollars in U.S. aid for the African continent.

While we are growing used to his mumbling, fumbling, and stumbling because of his dementia, it still pays to listen and remember what he says. More times than not, he is divulging plans meant to remain under wraps.

“Fighters occupied a national public laboratory in Sudan holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an “extremely, extremely dangerous” situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tue., Apr. 24,” CBS News reported.

The combatants “kicked out all the technicians from the lab…which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” said Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO representative in Sudan.

“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab,” Abid added.

Abid did not say if it was the Sudanese Armed Forces or RSF paramilitary group. He said he received a call from the head of the national lab in Khartoum on Mon., Apr. 23, a day before a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between warring the two generals took effect following ten days of urban combat.

The lab possibly holds a strain of Ebola as well.

Some people make it so hard to want to help others, and I don’t know if I should be mad or sad at the realization.

It started in December when I told a friend I’d help her find a dresser. She has been living out of a suitcase since I’ve known her, and that will soon be three years.

That month I found a dresser. It came from my son and daughter-in-law.

When I showed it to the person I was helping, they said it was too long, too low, that there were not enough drawers, and that they were too shallow. Okay, so back to square one.

Finally, I located a dresser about two and a half feet wide and slightly taller than four-foot. It is a standard four-drawer, more than likely manufactured in the early 70s.

Because of logistics and miscommunication, it took four days to get my hands on the damned thing and get it home. Once out of the back of my truck, I snapped a photograph of it and sent it to my friend.

They messaged: “I think I’d say no for now. Looking for something narrower, I think.”

As I said, people make it hard to want to help others. As for this one person, they are on their own in this venture from here on out.

Today we have an entire generation of people who shout “fake news” at the slightest hint of something they believe to be untrue. Sadly, this shows what our education system has done for these people; nothing.

The term “fake news” was known as “yellow press” at one time. Many historians claim it originated in the competition over the New York City newspaper market between newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

At first, yellow journalism had nothing to do with reporting but derived from a cartoon strip about life in the slums of New York called “Hogan’s Alley,” drawn by Richard F. Outcault. Published in color by the New York World, which Pulitzer owned, the comic had the Yellow Kid.

In 1896, to boost sales of his New York Journal, Hearst hired Outcault away from Pulitzer, launching a bidding war between the two publishers over the cartoonist. Hearst won, but Pulitzer refused to give in and hired a new cartoonist to continue drawing the cartoon for his paper.

The fight over the Yellow Kid gave rise to the term yellow journalism. And once coined, it extended to the sensationalist style employed by the two publishers in their profit-driven coverage of world events.

However, long before Hearst and Pulitzer created their publishing dynasty, there was Joeseph Goodman of the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada Territory. On staff, Goodman employed two men who famously wrote “fake news” articles called “quaints.”

William Wright wrote under the nom de plume “Dan DeQuille,” while Sam Clemens first signed his humorous letters with “Josh,” he became better known as “Mark Twain.”

There is the 1862 “The Petrified Man” by Twain and his 1863 “Empire City Massacre.” In 1867, DeQuille wrote “The Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley,” and “Solar Armor,” published in 1874.

The pair followed in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, who used hoaxes for satirical ends, to expose foolishness and vice to the light of public censure. His first hoax, “Silence Dogood,” was hot off the press in 1722.

In 1835, The New York Sun announced that the British astronomer Sir John Herschel had discovered life on the moon using a new telescope “of vast dimensions and an entirely new principle.” According to the article, Herschel reported seeing lunar bison, fire-wielding biped beavers, and winged “man-bats.”

On Sat., Apr. 13, 1844, the New York Sun announced that the European balloonist Monck Mason had completed the first-ever transatlantic balloon crossing — accidentally. He had taken off from England, intending to go to Paris, but had been blown off course and ended up floating to South Carolina and penned by none other than Edgar Allen Poe.

The Los Angeles Evening Express published “The Bigamist of San Bernardino” in 1873, and a year later, the New York World ran the article “The Man-Eating Tree of Madagascar.” Then there is “The Global Warming Hoax of 1874” that ran in the Kansas City Times, The New York Hearlds “The Central Park Zoo Escape,” also written in 1874, and in 1875, The Chicago Times printed “The Chicago Theater Fire.”

Perhaps it is time to do some more reading and less whining.

During the early 19th century, Nevada witnessed the arrival of fur trappers and commercial caravaners, marking the first phase of exploration and contact with the region. These individuals embarked on small-scale expeditions, driven by their pursuit of natural resources and the desire to establish profitable trade routes. Influenced by economic interests and competition with British counterparts, American fur trappers ventured into the Great Basin to capitalize on the lucrative beaver trade.

One notable figure among these trappers was Jedediah Smith, hailed as “the greatest of all Mountain Man explorers.” In 1826, Smith and his group of 15 men blazed a trail from Salt Lake, traversing southern Nevada and reaching Los Angeles via the Mojave villages. Their journey marked the incorporation of this route into the Old Spanish Trail, later known as the Mormon Road and the Salt Lake Road.

Peter Skene Ogden, a chief trader for the British-owned Hudson’s Bay Company, also ventured into the northeastern corner of Nevada in 1826. Ogden’s expedition predates Smith’s and provided valuable insights into the region. Notably, he encountered the Humboldt River in 1828, a significant landmark that later served as a crucial emigration corridor across Nevada.

The second phase of exploration in Nevada emerged as the United States government-sponsored various expeditions to chart the western Great Basin and identify potential routes for transportation, particularly for a transcontinental railroad. The expansionist policies of the U.S. government, driven by the concept of “manifest destiny,” spurred the need for thorough exploration and mapping of the western North American region.

One of the most renowned explorers during this phase was John C. Fremont, who embarked on several surveys and expeditions into the Great Basin. Fremont’s 1843-1844 expedition established his reputation as an explorer. His party of 39 men, guided by Thomas “Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick, extensively explored the Great Basin, scientifically mapping its geography and documenting their findings. This expedition played a pivotal role in popularizing the Old Spanish Trail, and Fremont’s route map garnered significant attention, with 20,000 copies printed and distributed.

Other explorers like Edward F. Beale, Edward J. Steptoe, and Captain James H. Simpson led government-sponsored expeditions. These explorations aimed to understand the physical features of Nevada, identify potential transportation routes, and gather valuable geographic and ethnographic data.

The third and final phase in Nevada exploration coincided with a significant wave of emigration, as settlers sought new opportunities in the western frontier. Emigrants crossed Nevada in their quest to reach the gold fields of California, particularly before the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859, which became a turning point for Nevada as settlement patterns, population growth, infrastructure, and economic prospects experienced significant transformations.

Emigration through Nevada began earlier, with the Bidwell-Bartleson party in 1841 becoming the first group to traverse the region as part of the California Trail. These early emigrants faced challenging conditions, including treacherous winter crossings of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Their journeys established initial routes, and subsequent emigrants followed in their footsteps, with the numbers swelling during the California Gold Rush in 1849.

The influx of emigrants led to the establishment of settlements and the development of infrastructure in Nevada. Despite the absence of a railroad until 1868-1869, early travel and settlement modes persisted. Emigration expeditions overlapped with the ongoing exploration activities, as explorers often followed well-established emigration routes or made discoveries along the way.

Brady grabbed the wool blanket from the foot of his cot and folded it in half twice before dropping it on the small step that doubled as his front porch. He sat down on it, using it as a cushion.

The thought of his “porch” made him reflect on his youth and the porch’s popularity as a meeting place for families and friends. Now, no one had a real one unless they were a member of the social elite, which he and his wife were not.

He pictured his wife as she visited with her sister. She had received her travel papers the week before, but the ministry declined his permission.

Brady had heard the workers when they were west of his home. He could hear the sound of the heavy sledge hammers cracking the cement and the crew as they moved in his direction.

“This will make shopping and communitcation with family and the state easier,” the ministry had said as they passed by, announcing the planned work.

Now they were nearly in front of where he sat. They were a marvel of teamwork, moving in such a way that they never stopped breaking up the cement, moving it out of the way, laying the thick black piping down, and then encasing it in new concrete.

He recalled how only three years ago, he had watched a team of workers lay the same sidewalk, which doubled as a cart path, in the same manner. It reminded him then, as now, of how the Egyptians must have put the Pyramids up, or how the Transcontinental laid the hundreds of miles of train tracks, or Henry Ford’s assembly line.

“What’s in the pipe?” he asked as the fellow he took for the foreman stood, hands in pocket, watching over the crew.

“Some sort of fiber optic cable,” the man said, never turning around.

“Huh,” Brady returned, knowing the man was not listening.

He saw the bright red ‘A’ on the side of the truck from where the tube came. Somewhere in his mind, he recognized the symbol but could not remember the company it belonged to.

“I’ll probably remember at two in the morning,” he chuckled to himself, “And by then, it won’t matter.”

In minutes the work crew had moved past him and was nearly beyond his neighbor’s house to the east. Brady would sit there for most of the afternoon, knowing the sidewalk, once dry, would be a digital conduit designed to track citizens’ movements.

“They must think we’re all stupid,” he thought as he felt for his state-issued hand-held device.

Too many islands had sprung up at the edge of Marlette Lake, which had grown. The merfolk and the naiads feared this place, and he did not blame them.

As Brady paddled across the water, he saw creatures lurking in the depths. A few rose to see him, to peer at Brady with eyes of deep purple and mouths like nightmares.

They neither knew Brady nor feared him, which he took as a good sign. Had either been the case, Brady doubted his travels would have gone so smoothly.

As it was, Brady landed on a large island and took stock of what he had. His ruck held a week’s worth of hiking, a fair amount of ammunition for the Colts, his Bowie knife, and warclub.

The island had increased in size. Perhaps the largest to ever appear from the Comstock, and he had no doubt who was behind it.

Big Jack Davis, Alhazred’s man, might have prevented his mother from leaving the Comstock, but he was not stopping her from helping the Silver Fever to spread. Not that it needed much assistance.

He walked for about half an hour when he heard the steady thrum of troops marching in unison. A few moments later, Brady caught sight of the soldiers.

Like the other troopers Brady recently faced, these men wore uniforms he was unfamiliar with and carried rifles both new and strange. Their swords, though, Brady was all too familiar with edged weapons.

When the troops saw him, they halted, spread out, and charged Brady at the order given in antique Farsi. None of them shot at the lone man.

Brady could not say the same. He emptied the Colts, the revolvers thundering and tearing the air as the slugs tore through the charging troops.

When the men reached him, Brady was ready. Bowie knife in one hand, warclub in the other. It was blood and violence, pain and terror.

They beat Brady with the rifle stocks, and he gutted them with the knife. Some stabbed with bayonets and knives, while Brady crushed their skulls.

They held his arms, and Brady bit out their throats. They did not have to chase after him.

They died, and when Brady killed the last of them, he searched for more to kill. He knew where to look and how to ride the flume.