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  • Earth Day Round Up from Across the Administration

    It’s been a busy Earth Day here at the White House and around the Administration.  Yesterday Vice President Biden kicked off the Administration’s Earth Day Celebration by announcing $452 million in Recovery Act funding to support a “Retrofit Ramp-Up.” This program will create thousands of jobs and allow these communities to retrofit hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses while testing out innovative strategies that can be adopted all over the country.  President Obama also issued a Presidential Proclamation on Earth Day calling on Americans to join in the spirit of the first Earth Day forty years ago to take action in their communities to make our planet cleaner and healthier.

    This afternoon, Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, hosted a live chat on WhiteHouse.gov to answer your questions about how the Administration is working to improve the environment and build a clean energy economy that supports the jobs of the future.  This evening, the President hosted an Earth Day reception in the Rose Garden at the White House where he discussed some of the challenges that lie ahead in achieving a clean energy economy:

    I think we all understand that the task ahead is daunting; that the work ahead will not be easy and it’s not going to happen overnight.  It’s going to take your leadership.  It’s going to take all of your ideas.  And it will take all of us coming together in the spirit of Earth Day -- not only on Earth Day but every day -- to make the dream of a clean energy economy and a clean world a reality.

    Over on the Social Innovation and Civic Participation blog, guest blogger and former Peace Corps volunteer Kelly McCormack shares here story about a community solution to an environmental problem in Gautemala.

    Finally, President Obama’s cabinet and other senior government officials fanned out across the country as part of the Administration’s 5-day celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.  From live chats, to announcing major investments in renewable energy, to appearing on the David Letterman show - all-in-all a busy day!

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    • Nevada

    800-NEVADA-8
    www.travelnevada.com

     

    Flag of Nevada

    Seal

     

     

    #   Entered Union       Year Settled

    36th            Oct. 31, 1864        1849

     

    Nickname

    Silver State

     

    Rank   Population

    35th     2,600,167

     

    Rank   Square Miles

    7th 110,561

     

    State Bird

    Mountain Bluebird

     

    State Flower

    Sagebrush

     

    State Tree

    Single-leaf Pinyon

     

    State Motto

    All for our country

     

    Nevada's name comes from the Spanish word meaning "snow clad"--a reference to the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada. The discovery of the Comstock Lode, a massive deposit of silver, in 1859 brought many fortune seekers. Statehood followed shortly afterwards in 1864, when Nevada was admitted as the 36th state.

     

    Nevada is in a mountain region that includes semiarid grasslands and sandy deserts, and is the most arid (dry) state in the nation. Like oases in the desert, Nevada's two main cities--Las Vegas and Reno--attract fortune seekers from around the world hoping to strike it rich in the many casinos located there. The capital is Carson City.

     

    If you think of Nevada only as the state where the city of Las Vegas is located, you'd be ignoring its long and interesting history. Originally, many Native American tribes occupied the area that is now Nevada. Ancient Native American culture goes back at least 10,000 years, and still today, the state is home to more than a dozen tribes.

     

    In 1855, a group of Mormon missionaries were the first non-natives to settle in the Las Vegas Valley. They built an adobe fort, which is now a museum. The area appealed to them because of the valley located along the Old Spanish Trail. In fact, Las Vegas means "the meadows" in Spanish.

     

    In addition to the Mormons, pioneers moving westward sometimes settled in the area, and the Pony Express riders cut through hundreds of miles of what is now Nevada to deliver mail. After the discovery of large gold and silver deposits in 1859, more people arrived in the hopes of striking it rich. In the early 1900s, Las Vegas became a railroad town and then in the 1930s the town grew further when gambling was legalized.

     

    Nevada is an attractive place to live for a lot of people. It grew by a whopping 66 percent from 1990 to 2000 -- the fastest of any state.

     

    Nevada's Buckaroos

    What's a buckaroo?

     

    The Great Basin, which includes the region of northern Nevada, is wide-open territory primarily known as cattle country. Amid the desert and mountains is the Humboldt River, which begins in the mountain ranges and ends in the desert. This is the home of the buckaroos, cowboys who work on cattle ranches in Nevada. They get their name from vaquero, (pronounced bah-care-oh) the Spanish word for "cowboy," because the first buckaroos in the area were Spanish-speaking horsemen.

     

    Buckaroos have developed many different special skills to work with the land and cattle. They run cattle drives, rope and brand cows, and shoe horses. They are most famous for breaking (making suitable for riding) horses, also known as "starting colts." But buckaroos also bail hay, mend fences, and haul trucks out of desert mud holes. They work long hours for low wages, but buckaroos are rugged independent people who choose to work close to nature.

     
     
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