Northern Nevada Briefly June 4

Annual pond tour offers gardeners plenty of ideas

The Northern Nevada Pond Club is sponsoring a tour of local ponds and water gardens July 10. Several ponds and water gardens will be on the tour in Carson Valley in the morning and in Carson City in the afternoon.

Water features and the fish and other creatures that inhabit them can be a source of beauty and tranquility in almost any yard or garden. Come and enjoy a variety of landscaping and water gardening scenarios, and talk to owners and builders to get ideas for your own water feature. One of the ponds to be featured has a model railroad as part of the landscaping.

Tickets in Carson City will be available starting June 10 at Greenhouse Garden Center, 2450 S. Curry St. Call 882-8600 for more information.

Tickets also will be available at Carson City's Taste of Downtown June 19.

Rite of Passage hosts luau, dance June 19

The Nevada Museum of Military History and Wings Over Carson are hosting a "Luau and Hangar Dance" from 5:30-11 p.m. June 19 at the Carson City Airport, South Hangar. The dance will benefit the hope-generating and life-transforming Rite of Passage Minden area high school program for previously "incorrigible youth."

Former U.S. Sen. Richard H. Bryan said Rite of Passage "has distinguished itself for making positive changes in the lives of troubled boys.

Those interested in helping the program can attend the benefit luau dinner and enter the raffle to win door prizes. There will be a live band and dancing, and an Andrews Sisters singing contest. Groups of three singers can enter at the door for $10, with a first place prize of $100. There also will be a swing dance contest and a live hula show.

Dinner and entertainment tickets are $35, but veterans pay only $20. Entertainment only is $10. Children under 12 are $10.

For more information, go to www.rop.com or call 267-9411 ext. 130.

Western Shoshone judgment fund meetings slated

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is conducting two public meetings for the purpose of updating the Western Shoshone identifiable groups on the status of the judgment fund distribution project. The meetings are scheduled for:

• 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. June 19: Elko Colony Gymnasium, 2250 Indian View Heights, Elko

• 1-4 p.m. June 20: Reno-Sparks Indian Community Recreation Facility, 34 Reservation Road, Reno.

For more information, contact Athena Brown, superintendent, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Western Nevada Agency, 311 E. Washington St. Call 887-3500.

Pine needle basket demonstration slated for Saturday

Master artists Audrey Frank and her step-mother Brenda Frank will give a rare demonstration on pine needle basket making at the Nevada State Museum from 1-4 p.m. Saturday.

The Franks pass on family traditions of basket making through classes and workshops where they demonstrate weaving techniques and discuss their Native heritage and culture. Participants learn about traditional basket materials, techniques, processing, styles and their importance in the Washoe and other Great Basin tribes.

Among American Indians in the Great Basin, pine needle basket weaving has a unique story because it is primarily a one-family tradition and was initially learned from non-native teachers.

This program is provided in partnership with the Folklife Program of the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. The Nevada State Museum is located at 600 N. Carson St. For more information, contact Deborah Stevenson at 775-687-4810 ext. 237.

Gov. Gibbons moves on with open bargaining petition

(AP) - Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons says backers of his initiative to require open bargaining for public sector labor groups will begin gathering signatures now that a challenge period has expired.

Supporters of the governor's Open Government Initiative must collect 97,002 signatures by Nov. 9 to send the proposal to the 2011 Legislature. If lawmakers reject it or fail to act, it would go to voters in 2012.

Gibbons says labor costs make up the bulk of state and local government budgets, and that negotiated salaries and benefits should be open to public scrutiny.

NRC panel to begin Vegas hearings on nuclear dump

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Nuclear Regulatory Commission legal panel is hearing arguments in Las Vegas about whether the federal Energy Department can withdraw its application to build a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

Local officials say a decision by the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and Construction Authorization Board will be pivotal to the fate of the Yucca Mountain project.

A public hearing took place Thursday at an NRC hearing facility near McCarran International Airport.

The panel of administrative judges also are considering which petitioners can be admitted as parties in licensing proceedings, and how millions of documents generated during more than 25 years of study could be archived, maintained and preserved.