r/ourtownreno

Good morning! Happy 4th winter… hopefully ur tomatoe plants were protected and taken care of.

Anyway, I am looking for dry cleaning places for a wedding dress, a suit and a tux. Does anyone have recommendations?

Thank you!!!

As I was getting out of the hospital today I was walking to get in my car and heard a crunch around 11:35 am . I turned and if you drive a white pickup with specialized plates on the first floor . I seen who hit you . I tried to wave them down and they sped off. I got a shot of their car . I did call security but since I was on my way home they said they couldn’t take a report . I am sorry we didn’t stick around we had been there since Friday. Reach out to me and I’ll send you the pics .

“Most people have no idea this is already happening in Nevada,” Marrico Gill a member of the local NAACP recently wrote to Our Town Reno, concerning a recent contract from earlier this year by the Nevada Department of Public Safety with a company called Fog Data Science.

After emailing the Electronic Frontier Foundation if they knew anything about this, the leading nonprofit defending civil liberties in the digital world sent us a link which led to the below documents.

“What does it do?” Gill wrote in his initial message to us.

“It allows investigators to track smartphone location data without a warrant by purchasing data collected from everyday mobile apps. The state can reportedly run more than 250 location searches per month under a contract that costs taxpayers around $12,000 per year,” he wrote.

That figure is important since at that level it only needed to be signed off by a state clerk, and not at higher levels of Nevada’s government.

“Fog Data Science buys location information from data brokers and advertisers. Using advertising IDs tied to smartphones, the system can map where devices have traveled over months or even years, creating what they call “patterns of life.”

That means the technology can potentially reveal:
Where people live
Where they work
Who they spend time with
What businesses they visit
What churches, meetings, or community events they attend…

This is not a partisan issue. This is a civil liberties and transparency issue,” Gill concluded in his message. “Worth asking more questions about what is happening locally and what safeguards are actually in place to protect the public.”

He also pointed us to an illuminating, warning flag waving 2022 EFF article which began with “A data broker has been selling raw location data about individual people to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, EFF has learned. This personal data isn’t gathered from cell phone towers or tech giants like Google — it’s obtained by the broker via thousands of different apps on Android and iOS app stores as part of the larger location data marketplace.

The company, Fog Data Science, has claimed in marketing materials that it has “billions” of data points about “over 250 million” devices and that its data can be used to learn about where its subjects work, live, and associate. Fog sells access to this data via a web application, called Fog Reveal, that lets customers point and click to access detailed histories of regular people’s lives. This panoptic surveillance apparatus is offered to state highway patrols, local police departments, and county sheriffs across the country for less than $10,000 per year,” or in this case just barely above $12,000.

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Jackie Bryant has announced Reno Police Chief Kathryn Nance who had been on paid administrative leave since early March amid an unspecified investigation has been fired along with two assistant chiefs, Oliver Miller and Anthony Elges.

"At this point in time, the leadership needed to change," Bryant said.

Three other officers have been on paid administrative leave.

The Galena and UNR grad Corey Solferino who had been acting chief on loan from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has been named Reno’s new police chief.

He then made a lengthy statement about how he sees himself in the police leadership role, saying he would stabilize the organization, and improve communication, and data usage for crime trends.

“I know we have work to do,” he said of leading during a time of crisis. “Police legitimacy is fragile,” he said, “and it can be damaged quickly.”

Bryant praised Solferino for "calming the waters," and improving morale, since taking over.

We will update when we have more information, as this press conference started just fifteen minutes ago at the time of this initial report.

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The Reno PD website now has a blank spot on its police chief page with a please try later message.

Earlier today, Reno City Manager Jackie Bryant announced Reno Police Chief Kathryn Nance, who had been on paid administrative leave since early March, amid an unspecified state level Department of Public Safety investigation, has been fired along with two assistant chiefs, Oliver Miller and Anthony Elges.

"At this point in time, the leadership needed to change," Bryant said during a media conference.

Three other officers have been on paid administrative leave, and seem to remain in that status as "the other three are protected,” Bryant explained, citing their own specific employment rights.

The three who have been dismissed, including Nance who was barely just over two years in the leadership position, no longer need to take part in the investigation, which has been reported but not confirmed related to training protocols.

A Galena and UNR grad, Corey Solferino, who had been acting chief on a paid loan from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has been named Reno’s new police chief, pending city council ratification on May 20th.

Solferino made a lengthy statement about how he sees himself in the police leadership role, saying he would stabilize the organization, improve communication and boost data usage to better identify crime trends.

“I know we have work to do,” he said of leading during a time of turmoil. “Police legitimacy is fragile,” he said, “and it can be damaged quickly.” Bryant repeatedly praised Solferino for bringing steadiness, "calming the waters," and improving morale since taking over initially in an emergency role.

Over the weekend, we posted about South 40 getting a closed status from its latest inspection from May 5th, needing a meeting they paid for before being allowed to reopen, complete with details of the recent damning report and inspector photos.

The restaurant immediately went on a social media attack posting a story falsely writing we were releasing “false information” while pointing to a screenshot from the Washoe Eats app which showed a conditional pass.

Problem is the Washoe Eats app doesn’t include the most recent reports anymore and if you search South 40 there what you get if you click on the conditional pass screenshot they included are inspection histories from 2025 and 2024, rather than the much more recent one we were reporting about.

We got our information and photos from a public information request, so there’s that, and that’s it.

While messaging us on Instagram the South 40 account wrote “we just wanted to kindly clarify that South 40 was not closed by the Health Department.” They also commented on our own social media posts putting out this false information as well in the comments section.

Then there was a turn when they did their own social media post several hours later writing: “We want to address the recent health department report that has been circulating online regarding South 40. The moment these concerns were brought to our attention, we immediately closed down our kitchen operations and worked closely alongside the health department to fully address and correct the issues.”

Did you notice they used the word “closed”?

Also, despite their wording, it wasn’t their choice to close as it was required by Northern Nevada Public Health following the inspection which revealed a slew of critical violations which we had outlined in our original reporting.

When we asked South 40 to take down their libelous story about us as well as their false social media comments they wrote back “At this point, we no longer wish to engage further, but we do appreciate the concern.”

Which concern are they talking about?

We get restaurants get angry at these inspections when these don’t go their way but why shoot the messenger, and on top of that try to gaslight the entire community by falsely accusing us of spreading “false information” when it was the correct information all along?

Get this type of bonus content emailed to you by subscribing to our Substack at https://ourtownreno.substack.com/ which also includes a recap of our recent reporting.

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Reporting and top graphic by Shaun Baldock

Nearly 10 years after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee in front of cameras in a protest against racial injustice and police brutality against the Black community, he has been labeled in many conservative quarters as one of the most controversial quarterbacks in the NFL's history.

There was backlash, protest against his protest, as well as unity for what he took a knee for, including a Sit with Kap movement at UNR.

Before the NFL, the national spotlight, and social justice advocacy, there was a college student in Reno, one of our best all-time student-athletes, a quarterback who would eventually lead the University of Nevada, Reno football team to heights it has failed to reach since.

The Wolf Pack ended number 11 in the nation at the end of the 2010 season, with a 13–1 record, including a win in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

Many current students though know little about his connections and college success in Nevada, feeling it could be emphasized more.

"I honestly before coming here, did not know Colin Kaepernick went to UNR," says second-year student Megan Bryant, an atmospheric science major. "I think what he does off the field is something important that people should know and is positive for a lot of people."

Third year student Aisah Finley says that even though she may not know much about Kaepernick, she understands the importance of what he stands up for.

"I don't know much about him but I think it's important to acknowledge what he did," she said. "He showed that you can stand up for things you think are wrong and that it can be impactful when you do," she said.

Luke Hughes, the president of the UNR Club Baseball team and a student at UNR, says Kaepernick's importance was historical as a student athlete. 

"I think what he did for the school and athletes is very important. He helped make Nevada look like a competitive sports school and made our name recognizable across the country," he said.
To hear from politically divergent student political groups on campus, I reached out to the Young Democrats of UNR and Turning Point UNR to hear their thoughts on the Kaepernick legacy.

Both groups declined to comment.

"We continue to be proud of all of our alumni, Colin Kaepernick being one of the most recognizable. The University recognizes Colin's tremendous contributions to the social justice conversation, as well as the impactful contributions of many of our history-making alumni," a statement I received from UNR indicated.

While researching around campus, though, it was hard to feel Colin Kaepernick's past presence here.

With the university having banners of alumni wrapped around campus such as for other former football players Nate Burleson and Marion Motley, I couldn't find one for Kaepernick.