February 11, 2010
Aero Alternative Energy gives community exciting news. VH will serve as a model for other communities to incorporate their natural resources of wind, sun, and waster water into alternative sources of energy, at no cost to these communities. "Aero will not only be providing jobs and energy, but will be giving back to VH in the form of a 5% return to the town.

May 27, 2010
Pecans….China just loves them. Every pecan grown is sold to them. The farm consists of 656 acres and 32,500 trees. The soil in West Texas is conducive to the growing of pecan trees but not without enormous amounts of water.

May 27, 2010
Unemployment in county is lowest. Brewster County - 5.3%, Culberson County - 4.4%, Hudspeth County - 5.9%, Jeff Davis County - 6.3% and Presidio County 17.4%.

June 10, 2010
Quail Masters brings sessions to view management success. The objective of the course was to understand the factors that affect quail populations and good quail management. To understand quail managements students were taught quail survey techniques, habitat evaluation, and the impacts of disease, parasites, predation, and proper grazing techniques.

June 17, 2010
TxDOT unveils Hwy 54 Beatification Project Details. Texas Department of Transportation is estimating the project will run $1.6 million. It will entail placing curbs, gutters, sidewalks, ADA handicap facilities and a 2" asphalt overlay along Hwy 54.

June 19, 2010
Grand Opening of the New Culberson Hospital Addition

June 24, 2010
Ribbon cutting opens new addition. Culberson Hospital opened the doors of its new hospital addition. The addition includes 10 new patient rooms, a new emergency department and state-of-the-art-16 slice CT scanner is significant for Culberson County.

July 1, 2010
McDonald Observatory offers visitors a 'Wow' experience. Home to the world's 5th largest telescope. The telescope will be used in the first major experiment astronomers are planning to conduct to understand dark energy. The project is called HETDEX.

July 22, 2010
A new face on Van Horn's 2nd oldest motel built in 1915. The motel was purchased in 2003 by Jose and Oliria Martinez and they have been gradually restoring the historic motel to an attractive and quaint place and keeping with the motor court look of the days that put Van Horn on the map as a 'haven on the highways'. The restoration process is over 50 percent complete, with mainly the west wing of the U-shaped layout of the motel remaining.

July 29 & August 5, 2010
Town gets check for $325,401. THE TDRA's check recognized the community for securing a grant from the agency's Texas Community Development Block Grant program. Community development projects such as this help Texans in rural communities improve their quality of life significantly. The funds will be used to drill a new water well.

September 9, 2010
Van Horn, TX - Move complete, ready to serve patients. Culberson Hospital staff finished moving into the new hospital wing on September 2, patients and all. The new addition includes a two story main entrance leading to a 10 room inpatient unit equipped with 14 beds, a new emergency department and a new imaging center, among other things. The next phase of the construction will be to begin renovations of the existing hospital to address mechanical and electrical system issues and to open a telepharmacy.

September 16, 2010
Tariffs imposed by Mexico is being closely watched by Texas. Congress' decision to discontinue the U.S. -Mexico Cross-Border Transportation Pilot Project led to the latest round of countries must allow free and open access to transport goods across North American borders. When a country fails to comply, another country may file a case contesting the alleged infraction.

September 23, 2010
SRSU gets grant to research the declining antelope herds. In an effort to investigate an alarming and unexplained decline of pronghorn in far West Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has awarded a 3-year $111,210 grant to the BRINRM. The goal of the project is to identify possible causes for the declining pronghorn herds and to evaluate two competing hypothesis regarding pronghorn survival and productivity.

September 30, 2010
Apartments to meet rental demand. McDonald's owner Bill Story has plans to build 6 rental units in town to meet the growing demand for rental property. It's a start.

October 14, 2010
Pecan Industry is at a crossroads. The pecan harvest in Texas began recently & continues to gain momentum. The challenge is meeting an increase in demand for pecans, particularly export demand from China.

November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving weekend is the start of the annual Mule Deer hunting season along with the Trans-Pecos Big Buck Tournament.

April 14-15, 2010
Pony Express events held along U.S. 50.The 150th anniversary of the Pony Express was commemorated on April 3rd. U.S. Hwy 50 roughly parallels the old Pony Express Trail across most of northern Nevada.

Nevada Tourism's new mobile Website provides travel info for people 'on the go'. NCOT has launched a new mobile phones & devices that provides instant info about where to stay & what to do in Nevada cities. click on http://nv.mobi, select a city and get an overview, listings for lidging, events, things to do and weather. New building from Clark Builders offers more economic development opportunities to encourage businesses to re-locate to Battle Mountain.

April 21-28, 2010
BLM, ranchers clash over grazing issues. County commissioners agree to back ranchers.

Lincoln Highway Car Show - 3rd Annual event draws around 200 people & was the biggest one yet. 51 cars were registered this year. Motor Vehicle/Deer Collisions - Major concern in the winter months when deer are most active during the migration & the breeding phase. Taking proper precautions like driving slow & scanning roadsides for deer can prevent many of the accidents from occurring.

May 12-19, 2010
BLM seeks volunteers for Public Lands Day - The BLM Battle Mountain District is seeking volunteers to help restore Fish Creek during Public Lands Day on May 15th. School district's new bus to arrive within two weeks & is environmentally friendly because it has a different emissions package. New Austin visitor center design, construction on rack. The center, which is slated to be under construction by spring of 2011, will beckon travelers to stop and check out Austin's many scenic & historic attractions.

Museum restoration continues - renovation has been going on for 8 years & has been made possible through seven grants totaling $736,000 from the Commission for Cultural Affairs. Battle Mountain Burners Car Show to be held this Saturday at BMHS.

June 9-30, 2010
Company asking courts to seize land for mine. An exploration & development company wants a court to approve the seizure of almost 3 square miles of private land for a gold mine in northeastern Nevada. BLM seeks public comment on water transmission project. The EA analyzes the impacts from construction of a six-mile long underground water line and associated water storage tanks, wells, a power line and a service road.

July 7, 2010
Portion of OHV trail complete - 16 miles are complete for the Off-Highway Vehicle trail in the Shoshone Range, 25 miles south of Battle Mountain.

The Second Annual Rodeo is coming to town with 170 contestants.

Elko Farmers Market is scheduled for the second Saturday of each month through October in the downtown corridor.

July, 21, 2010
Lander County 4-H hosts fundraiser with a breakfast burrito, bake sale and car wash to draw in the local residents to the fundraising project. They raised over $800.

July 28, 2010
Lander reports lowest unemployment rate in Nevada.

August 11-18, 2010
Hospital construction now complete for the remodeling & expansion of the long term care day room & emergency department at Battle Mountain General Hospital.

Wind turbines coming to Lander County & residents can save big on electric bills.

Feds: Postponing CA - NV roundup. Claims are made that it will harm mustangs as the helicopter roundups are inhumane, often leading to dozens of injuries and deaths

August 25, 2010
Fair offers residents chance to showcase talents - once a year shot at showcasing their ability to do everything from bottling prize-winning pickles to sewing a stunningly beautiful quilt.

Project is progressing on Renewable Energy Development Feasibility Study being conducted to look at the wind, solar and geothermal energy on public lands with the focus on closing or closed mine sites.

Lander County will work with Army Corps of Engineers to possibly upgrade levee to handle the flood plain issue. The cost to the county would approx. $2.2 million out of the $6.3 million project, but they are hoping for less.

September 1-8, 2010
Austin Lions Club hosts Fly-In with 47 airplanes flying in and most of the community turns out for the event.

Lander school district fares well in latest AYP report. The 2009-2010 results have been released and Lander County has no schools labeled in need of improvement. Austin High School was labeled as high achieving.

Nevada Duck Stamps available free for eligible hunters and may now be request for the department a free Nevada Duck Stamp for License Year 2010 & for the current license year 2011. To obtain a free stamp, you must have purchased an "electronic stamp privilege" for either or both of these license years.

Nevada is gaining in the development of geothermal energy. Currently the installed capacity is a little more than 400 megawatts. Nevada's ability to take geothermal heat and turn it into electricity is second in the U.S. only to California. It would be the ninth-largest producer of geothermal energy in the world.

September 29 to October 5, 2010
NV - Rare red fox sighting confirmed on Humboldt-Toiyabe. This summer, the Forest Service has been conducting monitoring activities with motion sensitive cameras to detect the presence of the elusive fisher and pine martin, two forest carnivores known to frequent the High Sierra. On Aug 11 the Forest Service identified a photo believed to be that of a red fox.

Gold tops $1,300 an ounce as record-high prices continue. Gold has hit a series of record highs over the past two weeks as investors seek safe stores of value as the dollar weakens and after the Federal Reserve said it was ready to push interest rates lower and encourage slightly more inflation. Investors seek out gold as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar, and when other assets appear to be too risky.

October 6, 2010
Hundreds turn out for Battle Mountain Burners Car & Motorcycle Show: They hosted their second car and motorcycle show 9/25 at Elquist Park. Over 70 car & motorcycle entries attracted more than 300 people.

October 20-26, 2010
Madeleine Pickens, wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, buys sprawling Nevada ranch for wild horse sanctuary that would keep mustangs on the range instead of in a governement-funded holding facility. If approved, the move would mark the 1st time the governemnt has released a large number of mustangs to such a facility. Pickens is hoping to initially relocate 1,000 horses to a 14,000 acre ranch.

Panel supports state's first bear hunt. Nevada is the only Western state without a bear hunt, and the state's bruin popultaion is stable enough to allow for a limited one. Nevada is home to 200-300 bears along the eastern Sierra. The wildlife department has said the state's bear population would support a small hunt. Nevada has the lowest black bear popultaion in the West, it has been growing at a rate of 16 percent a year.

November 3-9, 2010
NV - Serenity, wildlife and scenic views. Phase I of Hickison Trails project now complete. The 13 miles of loops start with a brand new trailhead complete with horse hitching posts, a parking lot and a kiosk. There are also the primitive campgrounds that have existed since the 1960's and include bathrooms, tables, fire rings, and shade covers. March 23-29, 2011

NV - Commissioners approve contract for full community health nurse services. Meeting approved a contract that will not see the cutting of any community health nurse services. Commissioners approved the contract for $70,000 for each year for the next two fiscal years to keep up the full current services of the community health nurse office.

November 24-30, 2010
South Dakota artist Adam Oswald claims second win in Nevada Duck Stamp contest.

December 1-7, 2010
Nevada jobless rate down; Lander lowest in state. Nevada's unemployment rate dropped in October to 14.2%, marking the 1st decrease in almost 5 years & suggesting the recession's choking hold on the state's economy may be easing.

December 8-14, 2010
In 2008 alone, Lander County received over $1 million in revenues from geothermal parcels, making it one of the top four beneficiaries in the entire county. That same year, Pershing County earned $235,558 in geothermal lease monies, while $62,697 trickled into Humboldt County.

Reid, Heller push for geothermal revenues to counties - Dean Heller announces Nov. 30 that they're working to ensure the final congressional spending bill for 2011 fiscal year includes full geothermal funding for Nevada's counties.

Treasurer: State retains high credit rating from all three major agencies - State of Nevada has maintained its high credit rating after discussions last month with each of the three major rating agencies. The ratings determine the cost at which the cost at which the state's bonds trade with a high credit rating resulting in reduced costs on the debt issues.

Dec. 15-21, 2010
County commissioners approve improvement plans for airports. The projects are subject to a 95-05 Airport Improvement Program grant match, with the project expenditures and Lander County paying 5% match funding. Airports are very important for the community. Number one, for emergency services such as ambulance, flying people out. Airports are essential for firefighting aircraft battling wildfires.

Auditor: County in healthy financial position. The finance department along with the other departments is continuing to do an outstanding job in monitoring the finances for the county. Audit is looked at in two components - a financial reporting section and a compliance portion.

December 29, 2010
Reid restores geothermal funding to counties. It turns out that the provision in question actually Restores full geothermal lease funding to rural counties in Nevada and other Western states, reversing the Obama administration's move to redirect that money in the federal government's coffers.

Reno preparing bid for 2022 Winter Olympics - Nevada boosters are working quietly behind the scenes to capture another Winter Olympics.