Launce Rake

Story Archive

Hopes of water evaporate: Sunday, July 30, 2006; Water-system managers on the Colorado River had high hopes for high water at the beginning of this year.
Great Basin fights to keep water from going down drain: Friday, July 28, 2006; Great Basin National Park has antelope, elk, rare trout and spectacular limestone caves. What it doesn't have is water rights, according to attorneys for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Power buyers sweat it out: Sunday, July 23, 2006; Click here for a printable graphic.
Hotter planet, more wildfires: Tuesday, July 18, 2006; The smoke choking Southern Nevada from huge California wildfires is a harbinger of things to come, scientists are warning, just one more effect from an onslaught of global warming.
Putting it to a vote: Saturday, July 15, 2006; The Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to pump ground water from White Pine County have roiled the rural area for years - and two sons of Greek immigrants are at the center of the controversy.
Haze of power politics: Thursday, July 13, 2006; A growing Las Vegas Valley needs energy to cool the effects of the sweltering summer sun, and energy providers think they have the solution in new coal plants that would be built hundreds of miles north of here.
Nevada, Utah could reach deal soon: Saturday, July 8, 2006; Nevada and Utah are quietly in talks to divide water resources in a shared valley 250 miles north of Las Vegas, and the negotiations could lead to an agreement before year's end - a prospect that makes some in the affected valley unhappy.
Newer residents protest water law: Friday, July 7, 2006; Dozens of Nevada and Utah residents are challenging a state law that bars them from participating in hearings on the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan to pump rural Nevada ground water to Las Vegas.
New look at old idea could be a rainmaker: Thursday, July 6, 2006; Researchers believe that "seeding" clouds with chemicals may be a way to increase precipitation and augment depleted Colorado River reservoirs, the main source of Las Vegas' drinking water.
Book says geology wrong at Yucca: Monday, July 3, 2006; A new book by three dozen scientists from across the country is questioning the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a dump site for the nation's high-level radioactive waste.
Desalination still years away for West: Thursday, June 29, 2006; A study released this week by the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, Calif.-based think tank, suggests that enthusiasm for new desalting technology is understandable but misplaced. Proposals to build 20 desalination plants in California fail to address economic problems, environmental issues and social impacts, the study says.
Population boom not enjoyed by this desert dweller: Monday, June 26, 2006; hey make their home in the brutal heat of the Mojave Desert, where they wander the harsh landscape of rock and sand, Joshua trees and cactus. Although they have survived, even thrived, in the desert for millions of years, desert tortoises find themselves disastrously ill-equipped to deal with man.
Wesley Clark touts science at YearlyKos: Saturday, June 10, 2006; A panel of Internet writers and a former Democratic presidential candidate ripped the Republican Party on Friday for undermining America's historic relationship to science and engineering.
Habitat plan mired in red tape: Thursday, June 8, 2006; Houses sprout in the desert like toadstools in the dark. Desert tortoises, burrowing owls, rare animals and plants are pushed aside for development. An agreement between federal and local governments is supposed to mitigate what would otherwise be a grim calculus for desert wildlife.
Dace winning upstream battle: Tuesday, June 6, 2006; Millions of dollars are turning a former resort 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas into a working refuge for a rare, federally protected desert fish.
Calls for halting nuclear programs: Friday, June 2, 2006; Ambassador Kanat Saudabayev from Central Asia's Kazakhstan told a group at Las Vegas' Atomic Testing Museum that his country, a former republic of the Soviet Union, endured 456 nuclear explosions in the region of Semipalatinsk, which is similar to Nevada's Nuclear Test Site.
Orcutt lawsuit likely to be filed this week: Wednesday, May 31, 2006; Between 1994 and 1996, more than 500 investors, many retired and on fixed incomes, collectively bought more than $2 million in shares to build the two dozen mountain cabins.
Colorado River drought not rare: Sunday, May 28, 2006; That's a drop of bad news for water-system managers along the Colorado River. About 25 million people, including everyone in urban Las Vegas and its environs, depend on water from the river. Agencies running water systems like a steady, dependable and predictable supply.
County: Schedule won't hurt species: Thursday, May 25, 2006; A Clark County official said Wednesday that rare species would not be threatened with extinction by what critics have called the slow pace of the county to issue contracts for research on dozens of plants and animals.
Demonstrators gather to re-create 'Peace Camp' protest: Wednesday, May 24, 2006; The "Peace Camp" was a semi-permanent and colorful presence at the Mercury exit for the Nevada Test Site along U.S. 95, the road from Las Vegas to Reno. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, protested until the end of nuclear testing in 1992, and smaller demonstrations continue.
Holiday safety alert: Friday, May 19, 2006; The Park Service will add staff, bringing in rangers from Death Valley National Park and adding seasonal staff to pump up the ranks of rangers to at least 50, while calling on help from regional agencies, police and emergency personnel if needed, officials say.
City blooming in desert: Thursday, May 18, 2006; Total land area: 43,000 acres/67 square miles
Planned blast at NTS is postponed: Thursday, May 11, 2006; Federal officials confirmed that the detonation, originally scheduled for June 2, would be delayed by at least three weeks to provide time to resolve a legal challenge filed by opponents last month.
Wildlife funds to be delayed: Thursday, May 11, 2006; About $30 million in federally funded wildlife conservation projects have been delayed by Clark County officials who say they need more time to study the projects.
Bureaucracy no friend to blue butterfly: Tuesday, May 9, 2006; Flowers are starting to push through the melting snow at Mount Charleston. When they bloom, the butterflies will soon follow.
County Commission allows Orcutt to move forward with home project: Friday, May 5, 2006; Following months of legal wrangling, the construction of a half-dozen structures can go forward with county approval. In 2003 it gave permission to Barbara Orcutt, who owns the Mount Charleston Lodge, to build single-family homes a few hundred feet from the lodge at Kyle Canyon.
Bomb testing valley's patience Action growing over huge explosion: Friday, May 5, 2006; A swelling chorus of community concern in Southern Nevada and Utah has prompted planning for town hall-style meetings about a huge explosion scheduled by the Defense Department at the Nevada Test Site.
Test Site is once again making noise: Sunday, April 30, 2006; Almost 60 years after the nation reveled at the sight of mushroom clouds boiling high above the Nevada desert, another blast - tiny by comparison - is again thrusting the Nevada Test Site into the public spotlight.
Test blast linked to nuke weapons: Friday, April 28, 2006; The detonation could simulate "a number of weapon concepts," said Doug Bruder, director of the counter-weapons of mass destruction program for the Defense Department's Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Resort planned for Lee Canyon rouses residents: Tuesday, April 25, 2006; Despite the presence of the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, Lee Canyon doesn't get the throngs of visitors that the Mount Charleston Lodge and other amenities bring to the Kyle Canyon side of the mountain. A new development, however, threatens to change that, and the residents of Lee Canyon are not happy about it.
Playing politics with lake: Sunday, April 23, 2006; The scientist who headed federal studies into harmful chemicals being released into Lake Mead from Las Vegas sewage says he quit his job because his findings have been suppressed for political reasons.
Hunt to save bighorn to begin this week: Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Bob Posey, regional supervisor with the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Kingman, said culling the mountain lion population in the Black Mountain region was the only tool left to the agency, which is trying to maintain the population of sheep in the region.
Bush's denial of plans for Iran hit wrong chord before Test Site blast: Tuesday, April 11, 2006; "It is abundantly clear, at least to me, that the military has not given up the idea of a nuclear penetrator," said Christopher Hellman, a policy analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington. He noted that Congress last year killed funding for the nuclear bunker-busting program.
Mountain lions in Arizona's line of fire: Friday, April 7, 2006; The number of sheep in the region has dropped by at least 50 percent in recent years. Jim deVos, research branch chief for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, attributes that to the toll drought has taken on the population of the mule deer, the mountain lion's more common prey.
Angry investors form group to go after Orcutt: Thursday, April 6, 2006; Leanne Njus, one of more than 500 investors in the company that built the cabins at Mount Charleston, said she and others are contributing to a legal fund. Kirk Lenhard, an attorney with high-powered law firm Jones Vargas, is working with the group.
Scientists say planned blast a part of nuclear testing: Wednesday, April 5, 2006; The Pentagon refused to confirm or deny the claim, made by the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal policy group opposed to development of nuclear weapons.
A housewife for those desperate in the desert: Tuesday, April 4, 2006; For travelers squeezed into a window seat on flights from Los Angeles - the view to the ground this week offers more than miles of dusty desert.
It still can be a gas to get behind the wheel of a hybrid: Wednesday, March 29, 2006; Jenner, Spanish content manager for the Web site VEGAS.com, is one of a small, but growing number of hybrid-vehicle owners in Southern Nevada.
Yucca Johnny targets youngsters' hearts, minds: Friday, March 24, 2006; A federal government Web site hosted by an animated "Yucca Johnny" suggests that the waste must be stored somewhere. And for Yucca Johnny's druthers, that "somewhere" is about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where the federal government wants to store 80,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste deep inside Yucca Mountain.
Endangered list input sought: Thursday, March 23, 2006; A federal listing of a plant or animal as endangered or threatened can be a big deal . The federal action, designed to protect vulnerable species, can bring development to a halt.
Saving Mount Charleston: Wednesday, March 22, 2006; Snow on Mount Charleston is a beacon to those living in the Las Vegas Valley below. Tuesday brought throngs up Kyle Canyon Road to play and grab a hot Irish coffee at the Mt. Charleston Lodge.
The world and Devils Hole: Saturday, March 18, 2006; Water temperature of Devils Hole, year-round: 92 to 93 degrees
Mountain heat rising: Wednesday, March 15, 2006; Mount Charleston has always provided a cool, alpine welcome to relieve the brutal heat of the Las Vegas Valley. A decade ago, visitors to the mountain were enticed with the possibility of building rental cabins among the abundant pine trees in the mountains.
Little common ground on gold, mercury: Saturday, March 11, 2006; On one point, environmentalists and Nevada's hard-rock miners agree: Gold mining produces waste mercury.
BLM takes on Moapa rancher: Friday, March 10, 2006; As the saying might be: It ain't over until the fat lady cites you for trespass.
'A happy mountain' once again: Monday, Feb. 27, 2006; Apparently ending a dispute that divided the tiny mountain village, a developer has agreed to modify the six buildings into one-family homes, as Clark County and the Mount Charleston Town Advisory Board had approved in 2003.
Invasion of the species: Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006; Nevada is under siege. And we welcomed the attack.
Squeezing tomorrow's water from today's technology: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006; Ever wonder what a 21st century rain dance looks like? Nevada water officials are about to find out.
After investigations rancher won't be charged, fined: Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006; After rancher Bob Lewis wheeled heavy equipment onto federal land last year to divert the flow of a slender Lincoln County stream, at least five state and federal agencies opened investigations. No way would Lewis get away with rerouting a stream on BLM land.
Conservation to be pushed to cut use of water: Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006; After three years of continuous decline in water use, Southern Nevada used more water last year than the year before.