Only in Washoe County could the Republican Party roll into the holiday season with not one, but two Christmas parties — on the same day, with the same invitation template, but wildly different vibes.

On one side of the road, we have Event #1:
A polished, paid soirée at a building on 4th Street owned by — wait for it — a mayoral candidate. There’s valet parking, food, and enough political perfume in the air to make a lobbyist dizzy. This is the kind of party where you check your coat and your conscience at the door.

Our Town Reno and Mike’s Reno Report both have reported on Karma Box Project’s Matthew Grimsley’s arrest so we urge you to subscribe and follow them, but in the meantime let’s ask ourselves a very simple question:

Why does the Reno Gazette Journal blast out a major story on former Reno councilman Paul Anderson’s first domestic-violence arrest over Thanksgiving — yet say absolutely nothing when Matthew Grimsley, a third-time domestic-battery arrestee who works for Karma Box Project as a Safe Camp supervisor, is taken into custody?

At what point does Washoe County stop pretending everything is fine?

Here we go again. Another mess tied to Karma Box Project, and somehow Washoe County still can’t seem to connect the dots. How many stumbles does one contractor get before the county finally admits the obvious: something is very, very wrong here. Matthew Grimsley, a Karma Box Project who works at the Safe Camp at the Nevada Cares Campus was arrested for domestic battery for the third time.

And this time, there’s no Dana Searcy or Eric Brown left to blame.
This one lands squarely on the shoulders of newly installed County Manager Kate Thomas.

Let’s take a quick trip down Karma Box Memory Lane …

Sorry we didn’t plan on another snarky story about Reno Mayoral candidates, but this is just too good to pass up. We couldn’t believe our eyes.

Some people spend Thanksgiving watching football. Others watch parades.
But here at Picon, we apparently watch Die Hard and then immediately think of local politics—because honestly, the similarities are uncanny.

Shaun Mullin, ladies and gentlemen, is officially the fly in Devon Reese’s ointment. The Hans Gruber to Devon’s corporate-holiday-party meltdown. The man shows up in a comment thread and suddenly our mayoral hopeful—who collects ethics complaints like tourists collect tiki mugs—cannot help himself. He has to respond. Every. Single. Time.

Holiday weekends are supposed to be quiet… but Reno never met a long weekend it couldn’t fill with intrigue, eyebrow-raising posts, and a few stories that practically write themselves. And because Picon hears from everyone — the kind, the cranky, the concerned, and the borderline-threatening — we figured we’d share a few morsels to go with your football watching.

First Up - Mayor Schieve, Belleville, and Spooge.

Last week, Picon’s publisher received an anonymous letter outlining deep concerns about the pace, impact, and lack of oversight surrounding growth in Washoe County. While the author chose not to sign their name, the frustration and urgency are unmistakable — and frankly, shared by many residents who write to us daily.

The letter describes a “web of uncontrolled growth,” decisions being made without transparency, and the growing feeling that ordinary residents have lost their voice in shaping the future of their own communities. The final line of the letter asks a simple but powerful question:

Yesterday we published a story hoping someone with a bigger reach might amplify it — and bless their souls, Our Town Reno picked it up. They have a megaphone compared to Picon’s whistle, and for that we’re grateful. We’re happy being the “little engine that could,” the outlet everyone swears they don’t read… yet somehow always seem to react to. That’s our comfort zone.

But today we’re stepping out of that zone.

Because what’s happening at the Safe Camp — and how residents are reacting to it — can no longer be brushed aside with a smile, a ribbon, and a county press release from what we lovingly call the Propaganda Princesses at Washoe County.

We pushed another article to tomorrow because this one needed attention. Phil Tenneson flagged a concern, and as always, we followed up. Commissioner Mike Clark — the only commissioner who consistently speaks with us — confirmed he has already reached out to County Manager Kate Thomas to get the exact facts.

Picon supports SB3 and the intent behind the bill, but we continue to question why this item was placed into a special session. While the policy itself may have merit, the urgency and timing remain unclear, and the public deserves transparency on why SB3 could not move through the normal legislative process, and frankly the sponsor of the bill … read on.

Good grief — the Republicans of Washoe County are at it again. It’s 2026, the primaries are warming up, and apparently, the bench is so shallow you can see the bottom.

We’d hoped for new faces, new voices, maybe even new ideas. Instead, the Washoe County Republican Party is serving reheated leftovers — and calling it strategy.

Mike’s Reno Report nailed it: Kate Marshall posting a New York Times article about Iowa City’s fare-free bus program isn’t policy — it’s aesthetic politics, the political equivalent of putting a plant in the background of your Zoom call to appear grounded and responsible.

A repost is cheap. Leadership isn’t.

Here’s the latest: Washoe County just inked a two-year contract with County Manager Kate Thomas, paying her nearly $339K a year — only marginally lower than her predecessor, who earned $341K. And yes, that’s happening while the county is juggling a $27 million budget deficit.

Welcome to Reno, where even the charities that pick up the slack for the city might soon pay for the privilege. The latest target: local nonprofits — you know, the ones filling the gaps that government can’t manage, the ones feeding seniors, sheltering people, and fighting fires in the social safety net.

The City of Reno is proposing nonprofit registration regulations that could force nonprofits to pay business-license–style fees. According to a city announcement, officials are concerned that without formal registration, some nonprofits operate “under the radar,” avoiding fire code, zoning compatibility checks, and other safety reviews. So now they want to enforce an “ordinance governing this matter” — and possibly charge fees that nonprofits currently don’t pay.

Remember 2016? When Washoe County voters were told schools were literally crumbling around our children and the only thing standing between students and structural collapse was a sales tax hike wrapped in a shiny PR campaign called “Save Our Schools.”

What voters weren’t told:
– Enrollment was already projected to decline.
– Developers didn’t want “per door” fees like other cities use to fund infrastructure.
– And the PR machine running WC-1 was also building a very cozy political ecosystem that now shapes the WCSD board and beyond.

Well, mark your calendars — Picon just agreed with the Nevada Press Association. We know. We’re shocked too.

Apparently, the Nevada Legislature has enrolled itself in a crash course titled “How to Lose an Election in 3 Easy Bills,” and Assembly Bill 3 is the final exam. Nothing says “we care about transparency” quite like tightening privacy laws right as public records wait times are already long enough to qualify for archaeological status.

Washoe District Judge Kathleen Sigurdson will remain on the Michael Leonard lawsuit involving Devon Reese, Alex Velto, and Conor McQuivey. A motion had challenged her impartiality, but Judge Barry Breslow ruled there was no evidence of bias sufficient to warrant removing her from the case. He noted, however, that the “significant concerns” raised by the motion can still be addressed later on appeal, should the case reach that point.

Something strange is happening at the Washoe County Senior Advisory Board — and seniors deserve to know exactly what’s going on.

At the October 8, 2025 meeting, the board discussed moving current District 5 representative Pam Roberts into the suddenly vacant District 1 seat. On paper, that looks like a routine housekeeping matter. In reality, it raises a long list of uncomfortable questions.

A Distrcit 1 seat that seemed to have emptied itself … conveniently - if you listen to the July 9, 2025 Zoom Senior Advisory Board Meeting. The person who previously held the District 1 seat “suddenly resigned.” No real explanation. No public discussion. No clarity on whether the resignation was voluntary or… encouraged.

Some politicians get things done.
Some politicians pretend to get things done.
And then there’s Commissioner Clara Andriola, who manages to take credit for things that were done before she even found the parking lot.

If political boasting were an Olympic sport, she’d have more gold than Michael Phelps.

Andriola has a talent for taking credit for anything and everything that defies physics. There is not an idea that crosses the county line that Andriola cannot, within seconds, position herself in front of—preferably with a photographer nearby.

Reno just lost another print newspaper. Again.

The Reno News & Review (RN&R) announced this week that it’s ending its print edition — the second time in recent years it has done so. For longtime readers, it’s déjà vu. First the racks disappeared and the paper went digital-only. Then, after a change in ownership, the presses started up again and the city’s coffee shops and breweries once more filled with those familiar stacks of RN&R issues.

Now, the presses are silent again.

Washoe County seems to have cracked the code on “senior engagement.”
Spoiler alert: it’s called volunteerism.

Yep — somewhere in the Human Services Division, someone must have decided that seniors don’t need fun, stimulation, or community. Nope. What they really need is to stuff envelopes, run errands, and “stay active” by doing unpaid labor that conveniently makes the county look good.