A fast moving storm that blew gusts of more than 80 mph in the Carson City area Friday is now expected to dump about an inch of snow in the valleys, said Chris Jordan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The storm caused dust storms, limiting visibility especially in Lyon and Mineral counties on Friday and caused multiple power outages. The National Weather Service office in north Reno recorded a wind gust of 83 mph, Jordan said.
The wind died down in the late afternoon as the storm began to produce snow
He said most of the snow should accumulate in the mountains tonight to an expected 12 inches to 16 inches.
He said the snowfall should last about an hour in the valleys.
Another fast-moving, but less powerful storm is expected to move into the area Saturday night, bringing potential wind gusts of 35 mph.
Tempuratures will drop over the weekend to highs in the mid 40s in Carson City and lows near 20 degrees.
Jordan said the mercury won't get above 50 until Tu

A power outage that affected 2,780 Carson City residents today was caused by a tree limb falling onto power lines on Highway 50 amid strong wind gusts in the area, said Karl Walquist, an NV Energy spokesman.
The outage started at 1:35 p.m. and power was restored at about 2 p.m.
Another outage affecting 2,250 Gardnerville residents was resolved around 1:20 p.m. after a tree fell into power lines.
Walquist said about 100 customers are still without power, but should have it back by this evening.
Power outages plagued the Reno-Tahoe area on Friday, as well.
"As far as I know all of the outages have been wind related," Walquist said.

Tom Metcalf said he was sending apology notes Friday morning after the Carson City Sheriff's Office responded to a call that a man was carrying a weapon on Roop Street near the Metcalf Builders office on Basque Way.
Turns out that man was Metcalf, who brought a antique Russian rifle, given to his godfather during the Vietnam War, to his Carson City office to take a photo of it for another Vietnam veteran who lives in Gardnerville.
At about 10 a.m. today, Metcalf took the rifle outside his Carson City construction office where he started to toy with the weapon, which he said hadn't been used since the war.
That's when someone across the street spotted Metcalf with the rifle and called the authorities, worried that a more serious situation was about to unfold.
"I was just playing with it, but this poor young girl thought I was going to go in and blow away people in my company," Metcalf said, owner of Metcalf Builders.
After Metcalf had gone inside his office, officers responde

Nevada's unemployment rate leveled out a bit in October, at 13 percent. The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Friday that a dip in the state jobless rate from September's record high of 13.3 percent was the first month-to-month decline since November 2005.

A state economist cites a shrinking work force and some stabilization in employment.

The report says the jobless rate dropped to 13 percent in the Las Vegas area, 12.2 percent in the Reno-Sparks area and 11.7 percent in Carson City. Those numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

That's an improvement from a month ago. But Nevada still outpaces the national unemployment rate of 10.2 percent in October.

A year ago, Nevada's statewide jobless rate was 7.7 percent.

High wind warnings are in effect throughout Northern Nevada and the eastern Sierra until about 4 p.m., the National Weather Service reports.
"We just hit 65 mph at our office here in north Reno," said meteorologist Scott McGuire, "and we had a gust of 104 mph on Slide Mountain."
The Nevada Highway Patrol said no accidents had been reported, but campers and trailers are prohibited through Washoe Valley.
Carson City resident Joe Childs of carsonweather.com recorded the wind blasts.
"My equipment saw a wind gust of 60 mph at 10:04 a.m.," said Childs. "In nine years of recording, this is only the second time with gust over 60 mph. The other occurrence was 61 mph in 2006."
The winds are being pushed into the area by a fast-moving Pacific storm with a strong cold front across western Nevada this afternoon, he said, and winds will continue to pick up as the day goes on.
McGuire said that it's difficult to predict precipitation on the lee side of the Sierra.


The number of recorded suicides in Lyon County in 2009 has tripled compared to 2008, amounting to 27 so far this year, Sheriff Allen Veil said.
Although it's the largest increase Veil has seen since joining the Lyon County Sheriff's Office in 1982, he said authorities have detected no trends among the suicides.
"There's no big thing that jumps out and says this is what's been behind all of these," said Veil, adding the suicides happened throughout the county and affected various age groups, ethnicities and financial backgrounds, with about a fifth of the cases involving terminally ill patients. "It's so many different things that are going on, from what we're seeing."
Cheryl Bowles, the director of the Fallon and Fernley Mental Health Clinics, said resources for local outreach centers have been strained in Lyon County, especially after the Fernley and Dayton outreach clinics were closed last year amid state budget cuts.
The Fernley office reopened in Sept

WASHINGTON (AP) - Digging in for a long struggle, Republican senators and governors assailed the Democrats' newly minted health care legislation Thursday as a collection of tax increases, Medicare cuts and heavy new burdens for deficit-ridden states.
Despite the criticism, there were growing indications Democrats would prevail on an initial Senate showdown set for Saturday night, and Majority Leader Harry Reid crisply rebutted the Republican charges. The bill "will save lives, save money and save Medicare," he said.
The legislation is designed to answer President Barack Obama's call to expand coverage, end industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and restrain the growth of health care spending.
Republicans saw little to like.
"It makes no sense at all and affronts common sense," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, one of several Republicans to criticize the measure. He added that a

CHICAGO (AP) - "The Oprah Winfrey Show," an iconic broadcast that grew over two decades into a daytime television powerhouse and the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey's production company said Thursday night.
Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday, Harpo Productions Inc. said, bringing an end to what has been television's top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the U.S. alone.
A Harpo spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday on Winfrey's future plans except to say that "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will not move to cable television.
Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. that is expected to debut i

The Nevada Museum of Art is now accepting submissions for the 2010 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition, which seeks to recognize the country's best young artists across 30 categories including design, fashion, illustration, painting, ceramics, poetry, persuasive writing, novel writing and others. All Northern Nevada students in 7th through 12th grades are invited to submit their work for the annual competition.
Select award-winning works will be displayed in a month-long exhibition at the Museum March 6-April 3. All students are eligible for regional and national awards. Scholarships are available to seniors.
In 2009 there was a record number of more than 1,000 entries from Northern Nevada students, especially in the senior art portfolio category. Scholarships were awarded to six high school seniors and several national-level awards were granted.
This year marks two new arts categories for young artists to apply: Video Games and Creativity & Citizenship. A full list

The Interim Finance Committee on Thursday deferred action on a plan to allow the Department of Corrections avoid furloughs.
The Board of Examiners has already approved funding to cover added prison salary costs this year.
Part of Director Howard Skolnik's plan to raise the nearly $3.8 million it will cost to avoid furloughs next year is to begin charging inmates rent to use the gyms, canteens and coffee shops at the institutions. Together, those rents would generate just under $1.4 million toward the cost of avoiding furloughs.
Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes said she is worried it requires action by the Legislature itself to authorize those rental charges.
Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, moved to defer the issue until that can be resolved. He and Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, also urged Skolnik to continue working with California, Pennsylvania and a private company, GEO, to lease the Jean Prison, which could generate about $2.5 million a ye

RENO (AP) - Sarah Palin is bringing her book tour to Reno next month.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate and governor of Alaska is scheduled to sign copies of her new book "Going Rogue" on Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Costco on Harvard Way.
Costco manager Barbara Sullivan says the book signing will be open to the first 1,000 people.
Palin's book tour is sticking to mainly small to medium-sized cities in Republican strongholds. She campaigned in Northern Nevada twice during the presidential race.

Carson City

The following people were booked into the Carson City Jail. All suspects are innocent until proved guilty in court:
* Lenox Lacour, 25, unemployed from Carson City, was arrested at 6:58 p.m. Wednesday in the 3900 block of Pheasant Drive on suspicion of gross misdemeanor possession of brass knuckles and misdemeanor contempt of court. Bail was set at $3,000.
The following are some of the calls to which deputies responded Wednesday:
* Report of someone trying to syphon gas from a vehicle on Northgate Lane at 7:36 a.m.
* An 18-year-old Carson High student was arrested at the school at 8:30 a.m. after a Sheriff's Office drug sniffing dog allegedly found a marijuana pipe in her purse in a classroom.
* Report of a man crashing a vehicle into the sidewalk at Moses and Curry streets at 2:53 p.m. and walking away.
* Report of a child left alone in a vehicle outside Safeway at 4:28 p.m.
* Coroner call on Medical Parkway at 4:40 p

The Nevada Rural Housing Authority was recently honored for the management of its Rental Assistance Program by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
For the third consecutive year and fourth year out of the last five, NRHA was recognized as a high performer in its implementation of the Housing Choice Voucher Program, with an overall score of 100 percent.
The program provides rental assistance to low-income families, the elderly and disabled through the federally funded Housing Choice Rental Assistance program.
Terry Smith, NRHA Rental Assistance Director, said, "Our Rental Assistance Program increases affordable housing choices by assisting qualifying individuals and families with the means to afford privately owned rental housing."
NRHA scored high on a number of performance indicators including providing reasonable rent, correct tenant rent calculations and rental inspections.
"We believe when more Nevadans are able to purchase a home of the

Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Hardesty defended the court's decision not to impose furloughs on the court staff, telling lawmakers the court made the necessary budget reductions in other ways.
"I strongly disagree with any suggestion expressed or implied that the court has not complied in the sacrifice," he said Thursday.
Hardesty said the court exempted itself from furloughs for the first quarter of this fiscal year and, last week, extended that exemption for the second quarter that ends Dec. 31.
Hardesty said if the court can't create the necessary savings other ways in the future, it will impose furloughs. But he made it clear that is the court's decision, not the Legislature's.
"This is not to suggest that the court will not ultimately have to impose furloughs but that is a decision that falls within the judicial branch's jurisdiction," he said.
Hardesty told lawmakers the final judicial branch budget was reduced

Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., have introduced legislation designed to eliminate the nationwide backlog in testing rape DNA kits.
Heller said the testing is imperative to give law enforcement the DNA evidence needed to solve sexual assault crimes.
"This legislation could help solve cases nationwide and bring closure to victims and families," he said.
Maloney said a sexual assault occurs every two minutes in the U.S.
"By processing this evidence, we can prevent rapists from attacking more innocent victims and ensure that the survivors and their families receive justice," she said.
There are an estimated 180,000 untested rape kits currently in police storage across the country.
Heller said the legislation also addresses other problems that deny justice to victims of sexual assault - including denial of free rape kits to survivors and the shortage of professionals with the training to administer the rape kits.

The Lyon County Sheriff's Office is coordinating its second annual "Shop with a Sheriff" event Dec. 12 at the Fernley Walmart.
Organizer Deputy Julie Redmond said the goal is to raise $1,000 or more from local businesses and community members.
All of the donations will go to provide children from needy families with Christmas gifts on a shopping trip accompanied by sheriff's department staff.
If you would like to donate or to sponsor one or more children for $100 each, contact Redmond at 775-246-6200 or 775-577-5023 or e-mail jredmond@lyon-county.org.
"Any amount is needed - $1, $5, $10. Anything will help and is greatly appreciated," said Redmond.
Donations are needed by Dec. 5.
Checks can be made out to Lyon County Sheriff's Office with "Shop with a Sheriff" in the memo line and can be mailed to: Brenda Farler, 30 Nevin Way, Yerington, NV 89447

CARSON CITY

In Carson City, the Sheriff's Office̵

Lawmakers on Thursday told state Welfare Administrator Romaine Gilliland to sign a $10.7 million contract even though they withheld part of the money to pay for it.
The action was later rescinded after Gilliland, Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden and Director of Administration Andrew Clinger explained that not only would that violate state law, it would probably kill the project.
Welfare officials won approval from the 2009 Legislature for the project to develop and install an electronic eligibility system. They said it will increase the efficiency of the eligibility process up to 20 percent by automating much of the paperwork process involved in determining who is eligible for welfare and other benefits.
Gilliland said that would result in estimated savings of $15 million a year by reducing the number of eligibility workers by 270. His division employs about 1,000 eligibility workers.
When lawmakers on the Interim Finance Committee decided to hold back $317,804 of

'The King and I' concludes Sunday
The curtains will fall Sunday on the Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company's production of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, "The King and I."
You still can catch it at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the Bob Boldrick Theater, Carson City Community Center at 851 E. William St. Tickets are $20 general, $18 seniors and students, and $16 for ages 17 and younger. Call 445-4249.

Carson seniors plan trip to Stateline
The Carson City Senior Citizens monthly bus trip will travel to Harvey's/Harrah's at Stateline, Wednesday, Dec. 9.
The bus will load at 7:45 a.m. in the east parking lot of the Senior Center, 911 Beverly Dr. and depart at 8:15 a.m., returning at
4 p.m. To make reservations and for information, call
882-3352.

Entertainment books to benefit seniors
Just in time for holiday giving, the 2010 Entertainment Books are available in the finance office of the Senio

The Nevada Division of State Parks will hold a public hearing from
5 - 7 p.m. Dec. 10 in the Board Room at the Nevada State Library and Archives, 100 North Stewart St., to receive comments regarding the amendment of the regulations pertaining to the collection of user fees and operation and management of state parks.
Written submissions must be received by the Nevada Division of State Parks on or before the meeting. For a copy of the proposed regulations, call 684-2770 or send an e-mail to acloutie@parks.nv.gov.

Nevada Treasurer Kate Marshall has announced the sale of $130.9 million in general obligation bonds at one of the lowest interest rates ever.
The rate of 3.69 percent was well below the 4.3 percent rate for a similar bond sale a year ago and far below rates a decade or more back.
She said the benefit to Nevada taxpayers is that lowers the amount of public money the state must pay to redeem the bonds. She said the state will save an estimated $4 million in bond payments over the next 20 years.
The bonds, sold under the Build America federal bond program, will finance $75 million in state and local government construction projects. About $3 million will finance historic renovation projects, $13 million for Lake Tahoe restoration work and $13 million for other public restoration projects. Finally, $26 million will refinance bonds sold earlier but at a higher interest rate.
She credited Nevada's solid AA credit rating for the low interest rate. Nevada maintained that rating this