Nevada Briefly: Heller calls for U.S. Israeli embassy to move to Jerusalem

Heller calls for U.S. Israeli embassy to move to Jerusalem

Nevada Sen. Dean Heller along with Republican colleagues Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida have introduced legislation that would relocate the U.S. Israeli Embassy form Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

He said that would fulfill America’s commitment to Israel that dates back to 1995.

“For years I’ve advocated for America’s need to reaffirm its support for one of our nation’s strongest allies by recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel,” Heller said.

He was joined in the legislation by Cruz and Rubio who said they look forward to working with President Trump to “make this happen.”

BLM wild horse round-up protested

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign is protesting the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to round up nearly 800 horses in Nevada and Utah during the coming two months.

“The BLM continues to cruelly round up and remove wild horses and burros from their homes on the range and stockpile them in feedlot holding pens, contrary to scientific recommendation and public opinion,” according to Suzanne Roy, director of AWHPC. “Meanwhile the agency continues to under utilize humane birth control as an alternative to cruel and costly round-ups.”

Other groups, however, have protested the use of birth control saying the chemicals are dangerous to the animals.

She said there are already more than 45,000 horses and burros in BLM corrals around the west. She charged that BLM last month removed more than 1,400 horses from the Owyhee Complex and another 74 horses from the Eagle and Wilver King herd management areas in Nevada.

Appeals court says District judge ignored their earlier order

Nevada’s intermediate appellate court has sent a case back to Clark County District Judge Doug Smith saying he basically ignored their earlier order to hold an evidentiary hearing in the petition by Michael Echevarria.

He was originally convicted of failure to stop on the signal of a peace officer and sent to prison for up to 48 months when his probation was revoked.

He filed for a writ of habeas corpus which Judge Smith rejected.

The appellate court, on review, ordered Smith to hold an evidentiary hearing but the judge decided that wasn’t necessary because Echevarria had already been released form custody at that time and his lawyer couldn’t be located to conduct a hearing.

“We note that the district court reached this decision during a hearing without the presence of Echevarria’s appointed counsel and by discussing the petition with Echevarria personally,”

The three members of the appellate court reversed that decision, ordering that Echevarria get his evidentiary hearing.

UC Davis studying how to make pot farms more efficient

In the wake of legalization of recreational marijuana in California and Nevada, scientists at the University of California, Davis are studying ways to reduce the energy needed to grow marijuana.

A spokesman said following Colorado’s move to legalize pot, it took just two years before marijuana grow houses were using 2 percent of the power supply in Denver alone. Anticipating a similar surge in energy consumption, Davis officials said they are now testing equipment designed to reduce the energy demands of growing marijuana.

At this point, a spokesman said, there are no standards or best practices for facility design. Grow houses often have multiple dehumidifiers that create added heat which then requires air conditioning to remove the heat, “making for a power-hungry, inefficient growing process.”

Researchers say they have developed a model grow house that includes a new dehumidifier that can save as much as 65 percent of the energy a grow house uses for dehumidifying and cooling. The system by MSP Technology of New York also reuses all the water it removes from the air to water the growing plants.

“The technology we tested is one potential solution but not the only solution,” said Theresa Pistochini, senior engineer at the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at Davis. “We need to acknowledge this as a legitimate engineering problem that needs to be solved

She said the goal is to create best practices for the pot cultivation industry as it develops because its hard to do after the fact.

“It’s better to build it right the first time,” she said.