At the end of months of research on the border security industry, I attended the annual Border Security Expo in El Paso, Texas, to see first-hand the companies and technology “protecting” the border. The trip made tangible all the things I had learned about surveillance tech and its purveyors. I sat in every general session, trying to appear low key while furiously scribbling notes in this rare opportunity to hear directly from senior government officials.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today has released the U.S. Border-Homeland Security Technology Dataset, a multilayered dataset of the vendors who supply or market the technology for the U.S. government’s increasingly AI-powered homeland security efforts, including the so-called “virtual wall” of surveillance along the southern border with Mexico.
Organizers asked that only they be photographed to maintain the privacy of renters taking part. For more information, RSTU can be found on Instagram @renosparkstenants and they encourage anyone who is interested to email them at renotenantsunion@gmail.com.
The recently formed Reno-Sparks Tenant Union held a community town hall this morning in the auditorium of the downtown library seeking to grow their effort.
Attendees filled nearly half of the 100 seat theater and listened intently as organizers Caleb (in photo below) and Elizabeth, who only wanted their first names used, gave a presentation, with additional information and input from the handful of other union members standing beside the circular stage.
As the meeting got underway, an RSTU organizer named Erika asked the crowd, “How many people here have had a landlord that will not fix something that needs to be fixed in your apartment or house?” Everyone in the room raised a hand.
RSTU organizers say their goal is to empower local renters to know their rights and how to organize collective action to protect them. Following in the footsteps of other successful tenant unions throughout the nation, this local group hopes to build a broad coalition of community members who can bargain for affordable rent and put pressure on delinquent landlords to make needed repairs.
As a collective with more political and economic power than individual tenants, tenant unions can also lobby for better tenancy laws and transparency in leasing.
Another goal of RSTU is to create a database of property ownership, a concept called “power mapping” which they say has been greatly successful in Chicago at helping tenants identify and hold bad landlords accountable.
In their presentation, the organizers explained the history of tenant unions, success stories from other cities’ collective movements, and some information on the current state of housing and the economy in Washoe County, noting how local rents have increased at twice the rate of wages. Also covered were some of the pro-tenant pieces of legislation vetoed by Governor Joe Lombardo this year.
As they opened the floor to testimonials and questions, a common theme emerged which is the displacement and homelessness caused by pricing tenants out of their homes and often out of Reno. Organizers explained how resources available for the unhoused in our community do not satisfy the amount needed, which is why they are organizing to help keep more people in their homes.
As one organizer Elizabeth (pictured above) noted, “We need to figure out ways to prevent rent from rising, rather than dealing with this catastrophic effect of people having to relocate.”
Along with their personal stories and frustrations, several of the attendees offered their unique skills, with one guest offering to share expertise as a former housing attorney, and another showing how to effectively search Washoe County property records.
Rather than claiming to have all the answers, the organizers of the Reno-Sparks Tenant Union stress the power of the collective and hope to find ideas and solutions from within the community as they grow their coalition.
Singer-Songwriter Andrew Zuker joined up with an eclectic group of musicians at Cypress Music Venue in Midtown recently to showcase the unpredictable beauty and community of an Open Mic Night:
There are few places in life where professionals and amateurs commingle joyously, where competition is absent, and where artists from all backgrounds and origins can revel in their craft and enjoy the work of others without pressure to hustle and climb, network and promote.
Hosted by prolific Reno musician Greg Gilmore, Cypress music venue opens their stage to anyone each Wednesday evening from 7:00-10:00 p.m. Musicians put their name in a bucket and must be ready to perform at any point in the evening when their name is drawn.
“Three songs or 15 minutes, whichever comes first,” Gilmore gently reminds each group or solo artist once they are plugged in, tuned up, and ready to go.
Music and entertainment are notoriously competitive industries and American culture at large often assumes that everyone should be trying to “make it,” or in other words, become a big star. For some, Open Mic is the first place where they get to step in front of a crowd and give it their best shot.
For others with a rich resume of music jobs, bands, and gigs, Open Mic is a place to leave career goals behind and just share their love of music and performing.
Ellie Bartels performing an original work, “Song for Ed,” playing her Fender Stratocaster without a pick, plucking and strumming intricate harmonies under her voice and clever, engaging lyrics.
“We’re all equal here,” quips Ellie Bartels, a singer-songwriter and close friend I originally met at an Open Mic a few years back. “The community is great. It’s a funny thing, because I never even noticed until I moved to Reno 5 years ago. The people here are so supportive of each other.”
Ellie stands tall and slender, with long hair tumbling from her winter hat. Her original songs meander and create a sequence of moods, with lots of motion and dynamic, her thought-provoking lyrics sung earnestly.
Ellie was born in the Deep South but has lived all over the U.S., most recently in Oakland, CA before moving to Reno in 2019. She is currently a student of Psychology and Music at Truckee Meadows Community College.
With many original songs and a few albums to her name, Ellie has made music both professionally and as a hobby. She considers Open Mics a crucial forum for beginners to gain confidence and performing experience.
“So that’s why, even if someone sounds kinda crappy to me, I won’t over-praise them, but I will always be supportive,” she said, explaining that it takes a lot of courage to sing and play in front of a crowd.
Ellie acknowledges that we all start out as beginners and that encouragement from other musicians can be an amazing confidence-builder. “Most people will never become famous or anything, but you hope they will keep creating music that you enjoy.”
That night at Cypress, we got the chance to see and support one such beginner.
Poet and rapper Th3 R3alist R3ason took the stage and announced that this would be his first public performance of music and first time rapping in front of anyone. I would never have guessed it was his first rap performance from his passionate delivery of thought-provoking rhymes and cutting refrains.
Also known as the “Dictionary Hero,” R3ason ended his set by cutting off the mic and performing a dazzling poem of the same name, sans amplification, running through the alphabet forwards and back again with a passionate litany of social commentary.
Poet and rapper Th3 R3alist R3ason relaxes at the bar after performing music in public for the first time in his life. Inspired by his Aunt, he began writing and performing poetry as a teenager.
“It helped feed my performance,” he said. “I’ve never done the rapping in front of anybody and to perform that in front of people was a little nerve wracking but it definitely helped calm the nerves seeing that the crowd was responsive. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
The 34-year-old R3ason lives in Reno with his three children but says he is “from everywhere.” He says became interested in poetry as a child, inspired by his Aunt who was a poet and an influential figure in his life. It was her who pushed him to first share his poems at poetry open mic nights.
Though this was his first public musical performance, Th3 R3alist R3ason drew from his experience reading poetry and exchanging energy with the crowd.
British-born chanteuse known simply as Sue riles up the crowd with a rocking rendition of the Rolling Stones’ hit Paint It Black.
By contrast, the singer who goes by Sue, originally from Kent, England, is an entertainment and music veteran.
Petite and in pigtails, playing a small-sized acoustic guitar with a peace sign guitar strap, the cheerful and unassuming songstress has an enormous and energetic sound with soaring, powerful rock vocals. Sue has worked in entertainment professionally for decades, starting in the film industry as a runner and eventually working her way up to visual effects producer. Back in the UK, Sue regularly hosted an Open Mic and also toured professionally with bands and as a solo act.
Having recently relocated to Reno with her husband, Sue is loving the mountains and beauty of nature in Northern Nevada while finding kinship among the local musicians.
“I had lived here for about 4 months,” Sue says, explaining how she discovered the Open Mic at Cypress, “I walked in here because I had to have live music, because my soul was craving it, and I just thought ‘I’ve come home.’”
That feeling of belonging and home was mentioned by all the performers I spoke to, especially Argyle, a cheerful and colorful singer-songwriter with smart lyrics and a lovely, honest voice. Argyle plays a rare and interesting vintage instrument called an Omnichord, which could best be described as the lovechild of an autoharp and a synthesizer, played by holding chord buttons and strumming over a sensor instead of strings.
Reno-based singer-songwriter and all around creative force Argyle hypnotizes the audience with a stark and soothing original song. Originally from Las Vegas, they came to Reno 11 years ago for school and never left.
“I grew up Mormon and I was trained from a young age to go and sing with a bunch of people once a week and this kind of is a good continuation of that,” Argyle said with a laugh and wry smile.
“But really what I started doing it for is: I sang a lot as a kid and I really miss that, but I developed stage fright and so I was like ‘If I keep going maybe I’ll stop having stage fright…’ and I think it worked!”
For Leon Neilsen, the multi-talented multi-instrumentalist lead singer of local band Enigmana, the connections created and fostered in the music community are what it’s all about. Neilson, along with bandmates Jonathan Louis, Darion Jordan, Tyler Smelich, and Salvador Garcia, wants to foster the type of supportive environment that encourages new performers to join in and experience being on stage.
“I want to turn Reno into a music town,” Nielsen says, explaining that community is a large part of what drives him to perform.
“It’s this channeling tool where I get to take this energy that I have, and then I get to crank it to 12 because I’m really good at being an entertainer, so I can make other people feel happy and that’s a rare feeling actually nowadays.”
Another musical performance in the books for Leon Neilsen.
For me, as a full-time journalism student, father of two, husband, and former pro-musician, Open Mic is a welcome respite from daily life where I can enjoy live music, talk shop with the other players, and share my songs or favorite covers without a lot of responsibility and competition. I don’t have to promote the show, book the other bands, host and MC the show, handle payment negotiations with the club manager, bring the equipment and run sound all the while trying to give a great performance. I just get to enjoy the moment.
When I first moved to Reno in 2019, I started attending Open Mics to meet other musicians and make some friends in town. What I found was an expansive but tight network of talented and creative people, bound together by a love of music, eager to laugh, cheer, sing, and be unabashedly happy to be together.
unpacking the adderall shortage
Reporter Andrew Zuker looks at the local impact of nationwide ADHD medication shortages.
Why are millions of Americans with ADHD struggling to get the medications we need to function in daily life?
Image by Andrew Zuker
I, along with about 10 million other Americans, rely on a daily medication called Adderall to manage the symptoms of ADHD. I’m also one of millions whose treatment and lives have been upended by an ongoing national shortage of Adderall and similar drugs.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder of the brain that causes both children and adults to have difficulty with focus, impulse control, task completion, emotional regulation and self control.
ADHD is often thought of as a childhood condition, but in recent years more adults have sought treatment as a better understanding of the disorder has become more widespread.
Like many people diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, I had avoided screening and diagnosis for years based on a misunderstanding of ADHD, and a cultural stigma leftover from my childhood in the 1990s in which ADHD was considered an excuse for bad parents to drug their children rather than raise them.
In 2022, at 39 years old and returning to college as a freshman, I found that I had no trouble understanding the material I was learning in class, but I was having extreme difficulty starting, finishing, and organizing all my weekly tasks. I lost hours of homework time feeling incapacitated and then finishing everything in a panic at the absolute last second.
In speaking with my psychologist during the screening process, it became clear that I had exhibited a constellation of ADHD symptoms for my entire life, including disordered eating, sensitivity to sound, hyperfixation, impatience, inability to sit still, interrupting others, hypervigilance, etc.
Adderall and its generic versions are central nervous stimulants that work by increasing levels of important neurotransmitters in the brains of people with ADHD, which helps us regulate our thoughts and behavior, improving focus and executive function.
For me, a moderate dose of extended release Adderall improves my concentration, my eating habits, my physical coordination, my attention span, my patience, my ability to think clearly, and my ability to start and complete tasks and projects. The medication gives me a sense of control over my mind and body that was out of reach for me before.
A main ingredient of these medications is methamphetamine, a controlled substance that creates a stimulant high for people who do not have ADHD. This can lead to addiction and abuse. For this reason, the supply of Adderall and other methamphetamine based treatments are strictly regulated by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
During the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the main domestic manufacturer of Adderall, TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries, began to have production problems due to a shortage of workers. This reduction in the supply of the drugs coincided with a dramatic increase in both child and adult diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.
The significant uptick in diagnosis and prescription of amphetamine based medications was largely facilitated by telemedicine apps which allowed patients to connect with a provider remotely, avoiding an in-office visit.
In spite of the rapidly increased demand for Adderall, the DEA has been slow and reluctant to increase the legal quota for drug manufacturers, citing potential for abuse and addiction.
In essence, limited manufacturing quotas, staff-based production delays, and a large increase in demand have combined to create a desperate situation for people unable to reliably get the medication we need.
Everything about the shortage has been stressful for me and millions of other people with ADHD. Facing the prospect of running out of medication, many of us have rationed our pills, taking them only when we absolutely need to be our most functional. Interruptions in treatment can cause the ADHD symptoms to return with a ferocity, leaving us feeling more dysfunctional than we did before beginning treatment.
In an attempt to maintain some program of treatment, my doctor and I met more frequently, at my expense, and tried different dosages, delivery methods, and types of medication based upon what I could track down in Reno. The rapid switching of medications caused some unwanted side effects like depression, anxiety, and inconsistent ability to function.
It has been stressful calling around to different pharmacies in an attempt to find Adderall, then relaying info to my provider and hoping to get the prescription sent in before the pharmacy sells out of that dosage. At times pharmacists have treated me with suspicion, interrogating me about my doctor and condition.
In my own experience searching for my medication in the area, I’ve found that Walgreens will no longer fill prescriptions for Adderall made through telemedicine. Raley’s Pharmacy, as well as the few local small pharmacies, cannot get any supply of Adderall for the indefinite future. CVS is moving away from distributing controlled substances like Adderall after paying hefty settlements for over-prescribing opioid painkillers like Oxcontin.
As far as I have found, Costco is currently the only reliable source for these medications in Washoe County.
While the current supply and distribution of Adderall is beginning to stabilize, the manufacturing quotas set by the DEA will not be reviewed again until the beginning of 2024, which could proliferate the disparity between supply and demand.
For rural patients, and those of us in places like Reno where there is a notable shortage of medical providers and long wait times for appointments, the ability to connect online with a doctor through telemedicine is nearly the only way to access treatment and renew our prescription monthly.
On May 11 this year, as the Biden Administration allows the Covid-19 Emergency Declaration to expire, the White House plans to change the rules for the prescribing of controlled substances, requiring at least one in-person visit per year to be on file for telemedicine patients.
This could mean that many Americans will continue to experience interruptions in treatment due to difficulty finding a local doctor, even if supply issues and manufacturing quotas ease.
For now my situation has stabilized. I’m back on the dosage that works the best for me and hopeful that I can reliably fill my prescriptions again. Searching around town for medication was stressful and humiliating. Rapidly switching dosage and delivery and even trying a totally different medication made me feel depressed and disjointed, and it interrupted my progress on the overall journey of ADHD treatment, which for me includes a lot of habit-building, self-reflection, physical fitness routines, diet, and nurturing of relationships.
