Nevada
Escape to Nevada’s oldest town: A Silver State spot worthy of the silver screen
Genoa, the Silver State’s first town — older than Nevada itself — is a cozy relic steeped in history that may as well double as a Hallmark movie set this time of year.
Just 30 minutes from South Lake Tahoe, Genoa is a place where visitors can escape from the hustle and bustle, trading crowds for peaceful snow fall on the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range as Main Street comes alive with a twinkle of sparkling lights and a slight winter chill.
Historic doesn’t mean dated here, however. The tiny town (population 786) has a robust dining scene, offering gourmet fare unexpected in a village made up mostly of restored Victorian buildings and cattle ranches.
Daytime activities
On Main Street, a collection of mid-1800s storefronts house a collection of mom-and-pop establishments, including boutique shops and homey restaurants.
Here, you can start with breakfast at Flutter & Buzz Café. Open at 8 a.m. daily, it’s the perfect first stop off for an anti-inflammatory cardamom and cinnamon latte or a flavorful mimosa. The menu specializes in fresh breakfast and lunch fare and pastries baked in-house. There is an obvious affinity for local honey — hence the name — which appears as a main ingredient in several beverages and plates.
Once you’re fueled, you can begin Christmas shopping. The tree-lined streets boast adorable gift shops including Dancing Deer and Antiques Plus, which is so stuffed you’ll have to squeeze in and out of it.

When weather allows, consider getting into the great outdoors. The silent serenity of Genoa is inescapable as you walk the 2-mile path along River Fork Ranch Preserve, an 800-acre natural preserve and cattle ranch less than 2 miles from the center of town. The trail is dirt, so when it is wet, it can get fairly muddy, but on a dry day, the views of the snow-capped mountains can’t be beat.
Of course, snowshoeing is always an option (although the area isn’t exactly robust with tour operators, so you’ll need to pack your own snowshoes). When snow is falling in the Sierra Nevada foothills, both the Genoa Loop Trail and Sierra Canyon Trail make excellent destinations.
Nearby Mormon Station State Historic Park is an adorable place to stroll and let little kids get their wiggles out. There are restored covered wagons, lush lawns and an artifacts museum at the historic site that marks the town’s modest beginnings as a trading post founded by Mormon pioneers in 1851, before being renamed Genoa (after the Italian city) in 1855.

For lunch, the square offers several options, including the casual Foothill Market serving chili cheese dogs and turkey club sandwiches at the counter. There’s also beer and wine on the menu, and it’s a good stop for edible souvenirs — everything from local goods such as Tahoe Toffee to specialty items shipped in from around the world. During the holiday season, the market even offers curated gift baskets that take the guesswork out of your holiday shopping.
Another worthy lunch option is The Pink House, which enjoys a modern pop of neon lights in an 1855-built home painted in a delicate hue that inspired the name. A smattering of pink Christmas trees decorate the lawn, which hosts live-music events year-round.
For after-lunch drinks, take a stroll across the street to the Genoa Bar & Saloon — the oldest bar in Nevada — where the walls are covered with dusty old bras slung over antlers and other relics of the past, plus cocktails that allow you to catch a buzz for about $20 (drinks are $5-$12 each).

At night
We’ve saved the best for last: dinner. Behind The Pink House, Daniel’s is a fine dining restaurant with a robust menu that pairs rustic French cuisine with Old Nevada hospitality. Its drool-worthy dishes include grilled duck breast topped with foie gras ($44) and scallops over a bed of wild rice risotto ($48).
Before or after your meal, stop into The Ice House, a standalone bar adjacent to the main dining room. Its name comes from its original purpose as a place to store ice before refrigeration. While much of the building has been redone, the large-stone walls are original. With less than 20 guests allowed in Daniel’s at any given time, it’s an intimate setting open only on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The menu boasts more than 20 craft cocktails, 10 tap handles and more than 100 bottles of wine.
On select evenings, Main Street businesses host specialty evening activities for locals and visitors, sometimes staying open late to do so.

When you’re ready to tuck in for the night, the White House Inn, a remodeled mid-1800s home featuring modern amenities in a historic setting, is a great pick. The property’s original carriage house is now the inn’s best room, outfitted with a king-size bed and walk-in shower.
Another option is David Walley’s Resort, offering both overnight accommodations and day passes to one of Nevada’s best outputs — natural hot springs. The rustic lodge houses five hot springs once enjoyed by the pioneers and set among the Sierra Nevada mountains, as well as a restaurant, the 1862 Restaurant & Saloon Bar.

If You Go
Flutter & Buzz Café: Open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. daily, 2285 Main St., Genoa, (775) 215-0245; flutter-buzz-cafe.square.site
Dancing Deer: Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays, 2299 Main St., Genoa, (775) 782-5777; genoadancingdeer.com
Antiques Plus: Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, 2242 Main St., Genoa, (775) 782-4951
River Fork Ranch Preserve: Open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily, 381 Genoa Lane, Minden, (775) 322-4990

Mormon Station State Historic Park: Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, 2295 Main St., Genoa, (775) 782-2590; parks.nv.gov/parks/mormon-station
Foothill Market: Open 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sundays, 2299 Main St., Genoa, (775) 392-0527; foothillmarket.com
The Pink House: Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 193 Genoa Lane, Genoa, (775) 392-4279; thepinkhousegenoa.com

Genoa Bar & Saloon: Open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 10 a.m.-midnight Fridays-Saturdays, 2282 Main St., Genoa, (775) 782-3870; travelnevada.com/bars/genoa-bar-saloon
Daniel’s: Open 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2291 Main St., Genoa, (775) 392-1822; danielsgenoanv.com
White House Inn: 195 Genoa Lane, Genoa, (775) 870-7203; whitehouseinngenoanv.com
David Walley’s Resort: 2001 Foothill Road, Genoa, (775) 782-8155; holidayinnclub.com/explore-resorts/david-walleys-resort
Nevada
Southern Nevada sees string of shootings, one person killed in 24-hour span
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metro Police are investigating multiple shootings that occurred across Southern Nevada within a 24-hour period, including one that turned deadly.
The violence began Thursday evening near Flamingo Road and Linq Lane, when officers attempted to stop a stolen vehicle. The driver sped away, driving into oncoming traffic and nearly causing crashes across the valley.
Crime
Stolen car chase leads to fatal officer-involved shooting, LVMPD investigating
The pursuit ended with 3 suspects fleeing on foot. When one armed suspect refused to drop his weapon, officers opened fire, killing him. The remaining suspects were taken into custody.
Hours later, police responded to a deadly shooting at a business in the northeast valley near Craig Road and Nellis Boulevard. Officers arrived to find a man and a woman suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot.
Crime
Police searching for suspect after shooting in northeast valley leaves one dead
The woman was transported to the hospital and is expected to survive. The man died at the scene.
Detectives say the victims had been arguing with another man when he opened fire and fled. Officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating the suspect as the investigation continues.
About 30 minutes after that shooting, Metro officers responded to another shooting near the intersection of Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to the leg.
Traffic
Police activity blocks off all lanes on eastbound Lake Mead Blvd., Rancho Dr.
He was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover. Detectives are investigating.
Overnight, a fourth shooting shut down Craig Road from Lamont Street to Nellis Boulevard. A victim was found with non-life-threatening injuries, and a suspect was detained.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Nevada
Caltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Caltech researchers are preparing to build a radio telescope that will be the most sensitive ever constructed and survey the sky 100 times faster than any other radio telescope worldwide.
Schmidt Sciences has greenlit construction of the Deep Synoptic Array after the project completed its final design review. The milestone paves the way for construction to begin on the telescope, which is planned for a remote valley in Nevada.
MORE ON FOX5: Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool
The array will consist of 1,650 radio dishes, each slightly more than 6 meters in diameter. The array will span an area of about 20 by 16 kilometers. The team plans to build the telescope by 2029, with science operations commencing soon after.
Survey capabilities
“The DSA will survey the entire visible sky several times in its first five years at unprecedented speeds,” said Gregg Hallinan, principal investigator of DSA, professor of astronomy at Caltech, and director of Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory. “While all other radio telescopes combined have so far found about 20 million radio sources, the DSA will match that in the first day of operations. By the end of its initial survey, it will have discovered about 1 billion new radio sources.”
The telescope will discover radio emission from millions of stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects. It will address the mysteries of black holes, pulsars and fast radio bursts. It will also probe the physics of dark matter and gravity, and it will measure the structure and expansion of the universe.
“Radio astronomy is about to go from sketch to photograph,” said Vikram Ravi, the co-principal investigator of the DSA and a professor of astronomy at Caltech. “The DSA is looking at a far larger volume of the universe far more often than any other telescope.”
Real-time imaging
The DSA will be capable of making images in real time. The numerous radio dishes will feed into a supercomputer that creates images instantly. The images will be immediately accessible to the worldwide astronomical community.
“Without the radio camera, we would have to store 100 exabytes of data to complete our survey,” Hallinan said. “This would require 5 million hard drives in a multi-billion-dollar facility the size of multiple football fields. The radio camera solves this problem.”
The DSA’s radio camera will convert the raw data to images in real time with the help of an off-site supercomputer built from Graphics Processing Units built by Nvidia. The radio camera images will be given freely to the public with no proprietary period.
“We want the whole world to also have access to the data just as quickly as we do,” said Katie Jameson, the DSA lead project manager.
The DSA will have the ability to detect more than 100,000 intensely powerful flashes of radio light from fast radio bursts and to localize them to their home galaxies. The DSA will also reveal more than 20,000 new pulsars.
“The science that can be done is endless,” Hallinan said. “There will be enough discoveries to occupy every radio astronomer on the planet.”
The DSA is led by Caltech and funded by Schmidt Sciences. It is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. Two pathfinder projects that led to the DSA, the DSA-110 and the OVRO Long Wavelength Array, were funded by the National Science Foundation.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
Nevada
Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Conservation groups are pushing back against a new state mapping tool that identifies federal lands potentially available for development in Nevada.
The governor’s office, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Nevada, unveiled the interactive map this week to make it easier to find federal land that may be available for development throughout the state and in the Las Vegas Valley.
“It is shocking to look at the map and see how many lands could potentially be sold off,” said Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter.
Tanager said she was surprised at how many federal lands were identified for disposal when she first looked at the map.
“Places like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon in Southern Nevada are what draw people to live in Southern Nevada. We cannot continue to develop right up onto the boundaries or perhaps even in these precious places,” Tanager said.
The conservation group says the mapping tool is the latest effort to treat Nevada’s public lands as a real estate inventory rather than a shared public resource.
“We know that a lot of these areas are environmentally sensitive. We know that there are endangered species on these lands,” Tanager said.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unveils interactive tool mapping federal lands available for possible development, other uses
Housing concerns
Lawmakers have proposed using federal lands to create more affordable housing. Several areas at the edges of the Vegas Valley have been identified for potential development on the mapping tool. Tanager said she does not see that as a viable solution.
“The areas on the outskirts or far outside of existing urban areas are wholly inappropriate for affordable housing. Housing that is located that far away from services will never be truly affordable,” Tanager said. “As folks have to live further and further away from resources like schools and grocery stores, transportation costs go up substantially.”
The conservation group says the valley should fill in open lots and build upward within the existing urban core instead of building outward.
“We know that sprawl and developing on the outskirts of the valley worsens air quality as well from increased transportation,” Tanager said. “We know that sprawl is incredibly water-intensive. The further out you build, the harder it is to recapture that water.”
The Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter says treating federal lands as disposable assets could set a dangerous precedent that accelerates privatization efforts and undermines the principle that public lands should remain in public hands for future generations.
Approximately 85% of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the federal government.
The state says the tool is designed to bolster information sharing about federal lands. The mapping tool is available here.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
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