Double Jack Dilemma

I had been home a few minutes when my wife told me she had problems with the new set of headphones she'd planned to use the evening before to watch some television shows via the Internet. I didn't understand what she was talking about. "Here, I'll show you," she said as we walked to the …

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Silver Tailings: Slothfulness in Nevada

Did the now-extinct giant ground sloth live alongside native Paiute and Shoshone tribes? In 1930, archaeologist M. R. Harrington started working in Gypsum Cave, in the Frenchman Mountain Range. He found evidence of mankind along side deposits of petrified feces. Then he found the skull and bones from a giant ground sloth. Below these, he …

Historic Comstock Home Burns

Its been a difficult day for people living on the Comstock as a historic building from 1876 is gutted by flames. The Seven Gables House at 98 Howard Street in Virginia City, was one of the oldest homes in Northern Nevada. It took crews from Storey, Carson City and Lyon counties as well as the …

A Lesson on Corporate Punishment Lost

Once again -- the few screw it up for the many and in the true form of corporate punishment the many get screwed by a few. Common sense be damned! An Internet posting of a fist fight between students from Reno and Galena High has led Reno High's student leader's to cancel the schools' Winterfest …

Silver Tailings: A Big Fishes Tale

Asked once if I were to write a history of the Silver State, where would I begin? My answer:  Berlin, Nevada. That’s because long before it was a mining camp – and I mean LONG BEFORE – it was home to a prehistoric creature we know as the Ichthyosaur. In fact the area was acquired …

Nevada Marine Returns Home

A private jet carrying U.S. Marine Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman's flag-draped casket landed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.  A half-dozen family members, a flight of airmen, the base color guard and seven white-gloved Marines met the plane on the tarmac for his final journey home. The 2007 Pahrump High School graduate died January 15th while trying …

Nevada Woman Arrested for Voter Fraud

The FBI arrested a woman in Henderson on charges that she tried to vote twice. Roxanne Rubin, whose a registered Republican according to the Clark County Registrar of Voters office, is accused of trying to vote a second time on the same day. Miller said poll workers questioned Rubin when they found her name in …

Hairy Ticks

It was nearing the end of the year and nearly half a year since I had last seen my son. Kyle was living in  Oregon with his mother while I continued living in Reno. At the time he had jus’ started what he called “school.” Actually it was a pre-school with a religious curriculum and he …

Deadly Blaze Threatens Reno

Fire officials say 29 homes have been destroyed by a 3,200 acre brush fire near Reno, that forced 10,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. Firefighters were able to stop the fire's progress, but not before wind gusts of up to 82 mph sent it rushing through a valley south of town, creating flames up to …

Pahrump Marine Killed in Afghanistan

A 22-year-old U.S.  Marine has died in Afghanistan.  Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman of Pahrump is the first Nevadan to die in overseas military operations this year. On his Facebook page Bateman listed his favorite quote as, "Ducle et decorum est pro paria mori."  It's Latin and translated reads, "It is sweet and right to die for your country." …

Silver Tailings: Walker Lake’s Serpent

When white's settled Walker Lake in 1881, they noted the local Paiute's didn't own boats. A local paper, the Hawthorne Arsenal, reported it was “believed to be have been the only lake in the country near which resident Indians had no boats, and they had no desire for any.” Two year's later, the Walker Lake …

Biden Speaks at Galena in Reno

Like all high schools in Washoe County, this week’s been Finals Week at Galena High School. It’s also been a week of unusual activity with the Secret Service on campus preparing for a visit from Vice President Joe Biden. Amid this activity, which allegedly entailed one male teen taken from class for uttering something inappropriate, students …

Rednecked

I can hear Jeff Foxworthy’s voice ringing in my head, “If you spend more on your dogs in a year than you do on your wife – you might be a Redneck.” Now, he didn’t really say this – but I did jus’ to make my point. Right before Christmas, our pit-bull, Roxy got the …

Taking the Silver

I wrote this with the intent of having it published in the Ramona Sentinel -- but somehow it was overlooked. It's fun to look into a time capsule -- even if its only in writing. After the sun set through the beautiful stained glass windows of the First Congregational Church of Ramona, Miss Mary Conklin …

Conserve Water, Shower with a Marine

On my way into the radio station, I saw a bumper sticker on a truck in front of me. It caused me laugh as I read, "Conserve water, shower with a Marine." It wasn't that the quote was all that funny, it's the memory that it brought up. I promised myself that the moment I …

Stuck, In Between

This is a cautionary tale of authority -- Stuck was caught between a Rock and a Hard Place. It' not the first time Stuck had been in this position -- but as usual -- it was uncomfortable. Rock was the top of the hill. What Rock said rolled downhill. Hard Place was the newcomer -- still searching for …

In the Game Still

I've stopped posting for a while -- too much work and lack of sleep are the two main reasons.  Plus I'd like to recharge my internal batteries before heading off on another writing jag. As I wait for my muse to awake, I've been playing with a small idea.  Hell, it might be a big idea …

Background on The Iowa Caucuses

Here's a break-down of The Iowa Caucus results going back to 1972: 2008 -- Democrats: Barack Obama 37.6%, John Edwards 29.8%, Hillary Clinton 29.5%, Bill Richardson 2.1%, Joe Biden 0.9%, Others 0.2% Eventual nominee: Barack Obama Republicans: Mike Huckabee 34.4%, Mitt Romney 25.2%, Fred Thompson 13.4%, John McCain 13%, Ron Paul 9.9%, Rudy Giuliani 3.4% …