Week of Dec. 20, 2023

From the editor’s desk

The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act of 2006 prohibits smoking in most indoor places of employment, but it’s still allowed in casinos and bars. “There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke,” said Andrea Corral Garcia of Smoke Free Truckee Meadows. Learn more about her team’s efforts to push for cleaner air for hospitality employees in our 15 Minutes interview with David Robert. 

Timothee Chalamet is charming in the new Wonka, Bob Grimm writes, and the rest of the cast, which includes Hugh Grant and Keegan-Michael Key, has some strong moments, but the prequel to Gene Wilder’s original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory lacks the magic this story needs.

The series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, now streaming on Apple TV+, is good enough but not extraordinary, writes Grimm, especially considering that the excellent Japanese film Godzilla Minus One (which is still in theaters), was such a tough act to follow.

Note-Able Music Therapy Services has been using music in clinical settings to help treat neurological conditions, behavioral health issues and physical disabilities for two decades. In recent years, they’ve been offering music therapy services to inmates at the Washoe County detention Facility. “They’re engaged. They’re not fighting. They’re not yelling. They’re not kicking doors. They’re listening,” said Lt. John Stewart.

Supplies of drugs like cocaine and counterfeit Adderall are so commonly tainted with opioids like fentanyl and xylazine that health activists like Darcy Peterson are trying to make test strips for these substances as widely available as possible.

This month, RN&R readers weighed in on outdoors columnist Maggie Nichols’ top-notch writing and the process of testing whether Donald Trump should be disqualified from another term in office according to the 14th Amendment. Get up to speed on the details in letters to the editor. 

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor