http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/ High Desert, NV News http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/f2658d891de0eeb428db2a14719dbd30.html Clear Creek runs along Old Clear Creek Road which was the original US 50 The full length from US 395 until it meets the new US 50 near Spooner Summit is probably between six and eight miles with a total gain of about 1800 feet http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/b882c5fd39285f95a4305295d78bbe31.html With 70000 to 80000 sage grouse scampering through thickets of high desert shrubs in Nevada a casual observer might think the chickenlike bird is hardly a candidate for listing as a threatened or endangered species http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/5431ee5930c24b18d5926249ce5ca954.html Three federal biologists were held at gunpoint by suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel after chancing upon a large marijuana garden on a remote stretch of public land in northern Nevada authorities said Friday The US Bureau of Land Management workers were released unharmed after being held by three armed men late Tuesday afternoon in a highdesert area about 200 miles northeast of Reno near Winnemucca said JoLynn Worley an agency spokeswoman http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/266bc83e00930a827a7fab412429e1dc.html Three federal biologists were held at gunpoint for several minutes by suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel after happening upon a large marijuana patch in a remote stretch of public land in northern Nevada authorities said Friday The men conducting research for the Bureau of Land Management were released unharmed after being held by three men Tuesday afternoon in the high desert about 200 miles northeast of Reno near Winnemucca said JoLynn Worley an agency spokeswoman http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/86fff4b55f637b3751f3cb365c032c61.html Three US Bureau of Land Management biologists are held at gunpoint by suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel after happening upon a large marijuana garden http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/6c2cd4716eedbc8023b6fd4a8515f49c.html ELKO Former prisonerofwar Col Bill Elander who was a captive in the infamous Hanoi Hilton at the same time Sen John McCain was imprisoned there will be in Elko on Wednesday to speak at a Rotary meeting and Elko County Republican Central Committee meeting http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/2506ec0d67973bd23a9566e4c918a614.html What is often lost in the debate over Yucca Mountain is that what were really talking about is cancerHow much cancer risk should future Nevadans be exposed to if federal governments nuclear waste repository is built in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las VegasThe answer came this week: 1 in 125One in every 125 future residents living near Yucca Mountains deadly nuclear waste can expect to be at risk of getting cancerOne in every 250 can expect to dieThe odds are better for people who would live in the area only a short timeThe new standards interpreted by watchdog groups were released by the Bush administrations Environmental Protection Agency in a surprise move more than four years after a federal district court tossed out the old ones as not protective enough of Nevadans healthMany observers expected the new cancer risk standards would not be released until after the presidential election so as not to inflame an unpopular issue in the battleground state of Nevada Most Nevadans oppose Yucca Mountain even if it is not their top issue John McCain the Republican candidate supports developing the dump; Barack Obama the Democrat has vowed to halt itYet others believe that by releasing the new standards the Bush administration hopes to accelerate the project before leaving office The Energy Department reached a major milestone this summer by submitting the dumps application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval Had the cancer standards been released before that Nevada would have likely sued again and potentially delayed the submittalSen Harry Reid the majority leader said There is no way this weak standard will breathe life into the BushMcCain plan to dump nuclear waste in Nevada He and Republican Sen John Ensign vowed to continue fighting itA nuclear watchdog group the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research called for an independent investigation into whether the Energy Department can realistically meet the new standardsThe Democratic chairman of a House environmental committee Rep Edward Markey of Massachusetts said the government should withdraw the projects application and start over once the Energy Department proves it can protect Nevadans healthThe Bush administrations release of the new risk standard only reinforces how their entire approach to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project has put politics and the financial health of the nuclear industry ahead of science and the health of the public Markey saidThe cancer risk wouldnt start immediately Thats what makes talking about cancer at Yucca Mountain tricky The conversation immediately fastforwards to the nevernever land of planning a facility that will be around for 1 million yearsAt first the risk will be much smaller For the first 10000 years just one in every 1000 people living in the desert around Yucca Mountain would be at risk of getting cancer Thats about as much danger as the Environmental Protection Agency allows at other sites with nuclear contamination Some even have a higher riskBut what has always tripped up Yucca Mountain planners is what happens in the faroff future the post10000year time frame as the waste sits in the mountain for the next million yearsWho knows Maybe there will be a cure for cancer by thenBut those future years are when the biggest potential risk for exposure occurs If the containers holding the nuclear fuel begin to corrode waste could spread into ground water used for drinking and irrigationThe Energy Department says its models show very little waste will escape just a small fraction of what the new standards allow Watchdogs are skepticalStill the new cancer risk standard is an improvement all sides agree The original would have allowed as many as 1 in 70 future residents to die of cancer The court said no wayBut putting 1 in 125 residents at risk of cancer in the farout future is still more than the government allows at its other nuclearcontaminated sites said Daniel Hirsch a longtime antinuclear activist who teaches at the University of California Santa CruzHirsch likes to say the EPAs approach is like falling off the Empire State Building: The first 50 floors are fine But the last few are the killersThe Environmental Protection Agency said the new standard protects public health and safety for one million yearsThe agency assumes less risk by estimating residents live near the site for only 30 years rather than 70 years as watchdogs calculateDeveloping a standard that will apply for 25000 generations is unprecedented the agency said In meeting this challenge we followed international guidance and applied our best scientific judgmentThe new standards come at a pivotal time as Nevadas point man fighting the project Bob Loux the director of the state agency for nuclear projects resigned this week after Gov Jim Gibbons called for his ouster following Louxs role in a payraise scandalSome experts say there may be no one else in the country with the expertise and experience to run the office Loux has headed since its inception 25 years agoAnd the proYucca forces see Louxs departure as a chance to reconsider the potential economic benefits of hosting a waste dumpLoux who will remain on the job until his successor is appointed said Wednesday the state is reviewing whether it will again sue the government for stricter standardsHirsch is a believer in the concept of generational ethics that this generation has a responsibility not to saddle the next with contamination which he says the Bush administration would allow at Yucca MountainFor purely political reasons to try to help get an unsafe project approved they have overridden the science and the ethics of creating so many cancers in people not even born yet he said http://www.axtora.com/homesites/us/nevada/high-desert/content/d149f71bb0b4ae9d3af904994f251903.html The Brewery Arts Center has formally requested that Carson City close a street that runs through the organization's campus making way for a new amphitheater and other improvements