Buying your first home is exciting but overwhelming. This guide reveals hidden costs, common mistakes, and key decisions that shape your purchase. Backed by data and expert insights, it helps first-time buyers navigate financing, expectations, and the process with clarity, confidence, and transparency.

To get a clear picture, it’s important to step back from the noise and look at verified, national housing data. If you’re looking to buy or sell in 2026, here is your guide to make an educated decision. 

The October 2025 arrest of former Reno Police commander Thomas Robinson during a Washoe County HEAT operation sparked intense public scrutiny. While multiple arrests were made, Robinson’s case fueled debate over Nevada’s child prostitution laws and concerns about defendants accused of crimes involving minors being routed into diversion court. Advocates say the case highlights deeper issues surrounding exploitation, legal interpretation, and accountability.

In a city long considered by many as one of Nevada’s more open and accepting communities, two recent acts of vandalism have shaken the sense of safety for many residents who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Vandalism bearing Nazi symbols in November targeted Our Center, a cornerstone resource for queer and trans individuals and families in the region.

That fresh paint and cookie smell? It might be hiding something. Learn how to spot warning signs before you commit, and what to ask while touring.

Reno’s local music scene is experiencing a surge in activity, and much of that momentum can be traced back to the all-ages venue at the center of it all: Holland Project. From endurance-based video challenges to community-driven charity concerts, the city’s musicians are pushing boundaries, uplifting one another and proving that Reno’s artistic identity is stronger than ever.

The Biggest Little Death Café is a monthly Reno gathering fostering open, supportive conversations about death and dying. With a welcoming atmosphere, guided prompts, and community connection, participants explore mortality in a way that reduces fear, encourages reflection, and normalizes dialogue.

The first Saturday of each month, the lights dim at Dead Ringer Analog Bar and Reno’s misfits, romantics and shadow-kissed dreamers gather for a celebration more than a decade in the making. This is Ritual, Reno’s longest-running goth, industrial and darkwave night, now in its 12th year of bringing shadow, glamour, vulnerability and joy to the city’s nightlife.

An attorney representing Reno City Council member Devon Reese and his law partner and Reno Planning Commission member attorney Alex Velto filed a motion to disqualify District Court Judge Kathleen Sigurdson from presiding over their case.

Nicole Fernandez recounts her journey through Washoe County's Department of Alternative Sentencing, finding hope and healing after addiction. From addiction and loss to healing and hope, she details how structure, therapy and grace helped her find sobriety and purpose.

The Washoe Board of County Commissioners voted earlier this month to move forward with plans to dissolve the Department of Alternative Sentencing. According to county officials, the decision will improve efficiency and streamline operations. While county leaders describe the move as an efficiency measure, employees and clients say it dismantles one of the few systems in Northern Nevada focused on rehabilitation over punishment.

New 911 recordings obtained by This Is Reno show that Sparks emergency responders delayed responding to a 12‑year‑old’s suicide, prompting a wrongful‑death lawsuit. The calls reveal that Sparks emergency responders decided to “stand down” during an incident in which a teen died by suicide. This was despite multiple calls for help from teen’s mom, Sara Tolliver. 

She pleaded for help as her 12-year-old son was locked in his bedroom on Nov. 18, 2024. Police didn’t agree to arrive until minutes after he was found unresponsive.

Reno’s Red Lip Rebellion brings the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” back as a year-round live shadow cast celebrating inclusivity, camp and community. What was once an annual tradition has now become a permanent fixture in the local performance scene, complete with a live shadow cast, iconic costumes and the audience callbacks that have made the cult classic a participatory phenomenon for nearly five decades.

The Indian Ocean tsunami tore through Sri Lanka’s coast in 2004, destroying not only boats and nets but also the very social safety nets that kept the economy afloat. During the loss, women in fisheries in Sri Lanka stepped up. They organized a framework to provide mutual aid circles that transformed into cooperatives that process dried fish, market shellfish and advocate for the waters that feed their families.

Only two decades later, many of these groups are now stable, central businesses that have become anchors in the community. These women didn’t just survive; they changed who held power in coastal life. 

Sara Tolliver and Christopher Schatz this week filed two wrongful-death lawsuits against the City of Sparks and Washoe County School District alleging first responders delayed aid and the district ignored repeated bullying of their 12-year-old son, Kellen Schatz. Both complaints were filed in Washoe’s Second Judicial District Court.

The allegations claim emergency responders refused to act when their son was found unresponsive in his locked bedroom and that officers gave false timelines in their reports. The parents also said the school district ignored persistent bullying, downplayed their concerns and ultimately failed to protect their son from the emotional abuse he endured while at school.

The Washoe County School District is facing complaints after a school nurse allegedly denied a child federally regulated disability accommodations, forged medical documents to access private records and administered medication to a student without proper documentation. A school police report and complaints to other agencies have been filed in the case that occurred at Spanish Springs Elementary School.

Parents and advocates argue these issues extend beyond one school, and they are accusing the Washoe County School District of routinely delaying evaluations, downplaying requests for legally binding individualized education programs (IEPs)—which require specialized instruction and carry stronger enforcement—and pushing families into weaker 504 disability plans that only provide accommodations and are often left unenforced. 

Vietnam transformed from one of Southeast Asia’s most underserved, war-torn nations in the early ’90s into a global model for poverty reduction. This transformation did not happen overnight. The country changed over the years of investment in its future: the children of Vietnam and their education.

Extreme poverty previously covered around 45–52% of the population in the early ’90s. By 2022, it had dramatically decreased to about 1%. This change came not from foreign aid or outside enterprises, but from a sustained, state-led initiative to invest in children in rural areas by expanding education and bolstering electrification, infrastructure and health care.

Behind closed doors, families across the world are fighting a disease most doctors barely understand: myotonic dystrophy. For many, the struggle is not just against the illness itself, but also against a system that offers pain relief instead of real, viable solutions. Remarkable people lose the ability to dance, to walk, to breathe. Muscles deteriorate and lose their strength, as doctors stand by without solutions.

Sex trafficking is often thought of as a distant issue—something that happens elsewhere, to other people. Yet in Reno, cases of human exploitation are being uncovered at an alarming rate. Behind each statistic is a life marked by manipulation, fear, and survival.

To better understand what happens once traffickers are identified, arrested, and brought into the justice system, I spoke with Deputy District Attorney Darcy Cameron. As Reno’s designated sexual assault and sex trafficking prosecutor, Cameron has seen firsthand the ways traffickers exploit vulnerabilities and the immense challenges victims face when seeking justice.

In our conversation, she sheds light on the realities of online investigations, the obstacles prosecutors face when victims are too fearful to testify, and the lasting trauma survivors must overcome. Her insights not only reveal the complexity of building these cases but also underscore the urgency of community awareness and support.

RENO, Nevada — Organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting are not domestic issues; these are crimes against humanity that have become a national ethical crisis. China’s organ transplant system remains one of the most compromised practices in modern medicine. Evidence shows organ trafficking from unwilling prisoners and the removal of organs before brain death.

Debate continues over whether Chinese prisons and health organizations have met legal requirements for organ removal. At the intersection of poverty and state power, inequities in organ supply and demand fuel a shadow economy that exploits the disenfranchised and incarcerated for organ trafficking in China.