Nevada
Nevadans honor veterans’ ‘ultimate sacrifice’ on Memorial Day — PHOTOS
This Memorial Day brought Army veteran Doug Rogness back to his time as a commercial pilot.
For years, he took the pilot’s seat for United Airlines. But perhaps his most important flight was bringing home the remains of First Lt. Jared Landaker, a Marine who died in 2007 in Iraq War combat.
Landaker’s legacy lives on today through the Seven Stars Foundation, an organization Rogness was reminded of Monday as local veterans and their families reflected on the sacrifices made to defend the United States.
“There’s a lot of people out there who have sacrificed for what we have today,” said Rogness, who now lives in Henderson. “There’s a lot of people who don’t appreciate that.”
Rogness was one of hundreds of Nevadans who gathered in Boulder City’s Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Monday afternoon to honor both lives lost and time served in the U.S. military. Among the crowd were politicians like Rep. Susie Lee and Rep. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Las Vegas mayoral candidate Shelley Berkley.
Defending the country is no easy task or one that should be taken for granted, Rogness said. Over time, the 72-year-old said he’s noticed younger generations seem to take less interest in what’s happening with geopolitical conflict.
“Everyone used to be really involved, whether you were here at home or you were out fighting,” he said.
‘Respect, sacrifice and service’
Across the sprawling grounds of the cemetery Monday were a slew of American flags. Thirty-four thousand, one hundred of them, to be exact, representing each of the fallen soldiers who are memorialized within the cemetery’s 79 acres.
Col. Mary Devine, director of the Nevada Division of Veterans Services, said groups of volunteers set up the flags throughout the weekend as a physical representation of shared pride.
“Today, we use small American flags as a symbol of our respect, sacrifice and service for our fallen who did not make it home,” she said.
Instead of a scheduled keynote speech from Gov. Joe Lombardo, state Office of Energy head Dwayne McClinton spoke to the crowd about what he learned during his time in the Marines.
He noted Nevada’s official list of fallen heroes in the Nevada State Capitol Building that tallies 895 state residents who died in conflict. Everyone with a family member who served in the Armed Forces has made “the ultimate sacrifice,” McClinton said about those who have suffered the pain of losing a fallen loved one.
“The debt we owe you is one we can never repay,” McClinton said. “There will never be a ceremony or a tribute that will ease the pain.”
Veterans groups from around Southern Nevada also showed their support.
Valerie Pizarro, vice president of the Firefighter Memorial Transport, said her volunteer organization is involved in processionals for fallen first responders in the region. Her husband Frank founded the nonprofit largely because of what he witnessed as a first responder during the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York City.
Pizarro, whose brothers and father also served, said it’s vital for everyone to understand what military families give up for a sense of collective safety.
“We know many people from the Vietnam War days,” said Pizarro, who grew up on the Fort Leonard Wood military base in Missouri. “I was small, but I was aware because many of my friends’ fathers and brothers didn’t come home.”
Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s tradition of voting by mail is front and center in a new national ad campaign launched today in Las Vegas.
The Nevada State Postal Workers Union rolled out a television spot urging Americans to “vote by mail — keep it, protect it, expand it.”
The ad features real voters, from college students and military members to parents, seniors and people with disabilities, who say mail ballots let them participate even when they can’t make it to the polls.
MORE ON FOX5: Clark County primary voting guide: Registration, ballot tracking and key dates
Union leaders say a new bipartisan poll shows that mail voting is widely popular. They point to postal service data from 2024 showing nearly all ballots were delivered within five days.
“The public can rest assured and feel confident when participating in all elections because it has proven that vote by mail works, said President of the Las Vegas Postal Workers Union Terrence Johnson. “The postal workers union and the postal service are committed to making sure every ballot makes it to its correct destination.”
The spot is airing on broadcast and cable in Las Vegas today and in Reno tomorrow, before expanding to Washington, D.C. and other states as primary season continues.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
Game wardens captured a bear that was spotted in a tree near Fourth Street and Keystone Avenue west of downtown Reno on Thursday, May 21.
“The bear safely came down from the tree and entered a culvert trap,” the Nevada Department of Wildlife wrote on Facebook just before 3 p.m. “NDOW staff have secured the bear, and it is being transported for processing to determine its age and sex.”
Bears can be a common occurrence in Reno as the animals wander down from the mountains into the city.
Last year, NDOW told the Reno Gazette Journal that it got about 15 calls a month in September and October about bear activity in Northern Nevada as the animals searched for food before winter.
Bear-human interactions can be dangerous for both bears and humans. NDOW recommends securing garbage, keeping a clean yard and never approaching bears when you see them in order to avoid potentially dangerous encounters with the wild animals.
Are bears in Nevada unusual?
Bears lived in Nevada long before the first settlers came to the region. But by 1900, bear populations had been destroyed for a variety of reasons, including unregulated hunting, conflicts with settlers’ livestock and clear-cutting of forests.
Conservation and habitat regeneration increased bear populations in Nevada dramatically since the 1980s.
You can learn more at the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s website.
Nevada fire officials are warning that 2026 could bring a challenging wildfire season, with abundant fuels and early drought conditions raising the potential for large-scale fires as the state heads into warmer months.
On Wednesday, Gov. Joe Lombardo received a briefing from state and federal fire agencies, including the Nevada Division of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, on wildfire conditions and preparedness across the state.
“2026 is going to prove to be challenging,” said Ryan Shane, the state forester fire warden for the Nevada Division of Forestry.
While fire activity in northern Nevada was fairly mild in 2025, Shane said other parts of the state saw significant impacts.
“2025 last year was the heaviest fire year we’ve had in the last five, just about 457,000 acres burned, which is slightly above our 20 year rolling average,” Shane said. He added that “the acreage burned was largely in the northeastern Nevada.”
Communities being ready, the public not starting fires, and the fire suppression service getting out there doing a quick job of suppression fires kept any of these fires from going very large in this part of the state.
Officials said about 579 fires burned in 2025, with more than 300 of those being human-caused.
Looking ahead to 2026, Shane said fuels are abundant across the region, particularly in northern Nevada, as drought conditions begin to take hold.
“This is the first year of the onset of the drought cycle. And we have a lot of carryover fuels from previous years, as well as the fuels that have grown this year. We have a lack of snowpack in the upper elevations,” Shane said.
Fire agencies are coordinating with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which helps officials plan for fires and allocate resources when needed.
Jim Wallmann, a meteorologist with the National Interagency Coordination Center, said low Sierra snowpack and amount of fuel available is among the biggest factors influencing this year’s fire activity.
“They’re going to cure out generally earlier and then all the leftover grass in northern Nevada that we have from the last couple years as well and whatever little growth we get from this year will only add to it,” Wallmann said.
Shane said interagency agreements and help from local communities will be key through the year, urging residents to be prepared when outdoors.
“If you’re out and about, make sure you carry a shovel, some water, possibly a fire extinguisher, and a way to communicate and report a fire if you see one or cause one,” Shane said.
The U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Nevada Division of Forestry are working to mitigate fuels, while efforts including resilient landscaping, fire-adapted communities and safe, effective fire response are aimed at keeping Nevada more fire-ready in 2026.
Email reporter Anthony Ramos at aramos@sbgtv.com. Follow @antramosnews on X and Anthony Ramos on Facebook.
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