KUNR Public Radio: Local News Feed

Dozens of protestors gathered in front of the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office Friday to demand an investigation into an officer-involved shooting in Sparks earlier this year, which killed a young Black man.

Washoe County has officially opened the doors to Our Place to Grow, a shelter for unhoused families with children in Sparks. Units for women will be opening soon as well. The county provided $2 million for the facility, which is run by the homelessness advocacy nonprofit called Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality , also known as RISE. KUNR’s Lucia Starbuck spoke with the executive director, Benjamin Castro, about what sets Our Place to Grow apart from other shelters.

Nevada has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases and a steady increase in hospitalizations for the virus since the state entered phase two of Gov. Steve Sisolak’s reopening plan. In an effort to curb the spread, the governor signed a directive Wednesday that requires people to wear masks while in public, effective Friday. KUNR’s Lucia Starbuck covered the governor’s press conference this week for our media partner This Is Reno , and has the details.

Lee en español. There are around half a million students enrolled in Nevada public schools, and more than 14 percent of them are considered English-language learners. With schools around the country relying on distance learning to help mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s unclear how the transition from in-person to online instruction affected those students. To help answer that question KUNR’s Paul Boger spoke with reporter Natalie Van Hoozer to break it all down.

An existing language gap between patients and health care workers has been further exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas are working to close communication challenges in the university’s simulation lab.

Lee en español. Last week the Supreme Court voted to uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which grants a two-year work permit and protection from deportation to nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. KUNR’s Natalie Van Hoozer spoke with Holly Welborn , the policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada , to further understand the Supreme Court's decision.

Coverage of novel coronavirus is supported by the Mick Hitchcock, Ph.D., Project for Visualizing Science , a science reporting project from the Reynolds School of Journalism . The Washoe County Health District is conducting its first antibody study to learn the prevalence of COVID-19 in the general population. This requires a blood test that looks for antibodies, which are the body’s immune response to a past infection .

Read in English. Tres nuevas compañías pronto llegarán al norte de Nevada y eventualmente contratarán a más de 300 empleados. Jayden Pérez de KUNR nos informa.

Read in English. El Departamento de Policía de Reno (RPD, por sus siglas en inglés), recientemente anunció algunos cambios en su política sobre el uso de fuerza como respuesta a las opiniones y sugerencias de la comunidad.

Read in English. El jueves, 18 de junio, la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos rechazó el intento del gobierno de Trump para eliminar la política de DACA (por sus siglas en inglés), el programa de acción diferida para quienes entraron al país siendo menores de edad. La decisión nacional impacta a unos 700,000 beneficiarios de DACA que esperaban ansiosamente la noticia.