Nevada Looks to OK Lane Splitting

A Nevada Sheriff's and Chief's Association official told lawmakers the chances of rear-end collisions would be "significantly less" with the passage of a bill to allow a motorcyclist to drive between lanes in traffic jams.  Bob Roshak of the association says he believes it would be safe as the bill is written. The Nevada Senate transportation committee took …

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Nevada Honors State’s Oldest Lawmaker

The oldest Nevada legislator paid lawmakers a visit to the Senate on Thursday, which passed a resolution commemorating him.  Wilbur Faiss is 101 years old and served two terms in the Senate from 1976 to 1984. Faiss came to Nevada in 1944 and was a small business owner in what was then an unincorporated area of …

Assembly GOP Renews Opposition to Nevada Mining Tax

Assembly Republicans are renewing their opposition to a plan being pushed by some Senate colleagues to seek a 10 percent tax on Nevada's gold and silver mine operators. Members of the Assembly GOP caucus say singling out the mining industry for more money would hurt rural economies and stifle job growth when the state is …

Sailor Who Provided Iwo Jima Flag Dies at 90

Allan Wood spend nearly five decades as a technical artist and public information officer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, before passing away April 18th at his Sierra Madre home from congestive heart failure. Born in Pasadena on May 3, 1922, he earned a bachelor's degree in history at UC Berkeley and was …

Nevada Senate Looks at Candidate Residency Law

Nevada lawmakers are working to update candidate residency laws after a judge ruled a candidate for the Assembly didn't live in the district he was running to represent. Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey of Reno presented AB 407 to the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee Thursday. The bill aims to clarify that simply owning a residence …

Governors Meet over Lake Tahoe

Nevada's Governor Brian Sandoval met with California's Governor Jerry Brown to talk about Lake Tahoe and renewable energy, Thursday. The meeting comes under the cloud of Nevada's threat to leave the decades-old Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a bipartisan group that governs environmental controls and development in the scenic basin that straddles the two states. A …

Nevada Considering Expansion of Scholarship Program

State lawmakers are considering expanding an annual scholarship meant to help future Nevada teachers finance their senior year of college from one recipient to two. Republican Senator Ben Kieckhefer of Reno presented SB 102 to members of the Assembly Education Committee Wednesday. Currently, the Kenny C. Guinn Memorial Scholarship provides up to $4,500 to one …

The Explosion of the Sierra Chemical Company

Investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are sifting through debris in the Texas town of West, following a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant. Fourteen people died and more than 200 injured in a blast that devastated a four to five-block radius. It brings back the memory of another blast …

Nevada Senate Passes Cellphone Tracking Bill

The Nevada Senate has approved a bill designed to give law enforcement quicker access to cell phone locations in times of emergency, by-passing warrant procedures. SB 268 gives carriers protection for providing information during certain circumstances. A Kansas mother who struggled with a cell phone company to provide call location information when her daughter went missing testified …

Nevada Lawmakers Tackle Wild Horse Issues

Don't feed the horses. That's the message the Nevada Assembly is sending with passage of a bill increases penalties for feeding feral livestock. Republican Assemblyman Tom Grady of Yerington says AB 264 isn't about Nevada's wild horses but public safety. It's intended to discourage feeding horses, which lures the animals to populated areas, creating hazards …

Nevada Assembly Oks Restaurant Menu Calorie Bill

Chain restaurants will have to post nutritional information on menus under a bill passed by the Nevada Assembly.  AB 126 was approved on a mostly party-line vote. It requires restaurants with 15 or more locations to post  calorie information on-site, up from 10 in the initial bill.  Another change makes penalties administrative, rather than criminal. Opponents …

Nevada Bill Gets Domestic Violence Victims Out of Leases

Lawmakers are creating an avenue for domestic violence victims to get out of lease agreements early. The Assembly passed AB 284 allowing domestic violence victims to get out of leases without penalty by telling the landlord the situation and providing a written report by the victim, law enforcement personnel or a third-party such as a minister …

NC Governor Orders Flags Half-staff for Hawthorne Marines

North Carolina's Governor Pat McCrory is reversing himself, ordering flags lowered statewide in honor of seven the Camp Lejeune Marines who died in a training explosion last month at Hawthorne Army Depot. The Governor plans to attend a memorial service at Camp Lejeune Tuesday and has ordered flags lowered for the day. The order reverses an earlier …

New Amendment to Nevada Gay Marriage Bill

The Nevada Senate, on a strict party-line vote, amended a proposal seeking to clear the way for gay marriage in Nevada. An amendment offered by Democratic Senator Pat Spearman of North Las Vegas inserts language ensuring churches and clergy would not have to solemnize same-sex unions. The resolution seeks to repeal a constitutional measure passed …

Abdulrahman Alharbi, Person of Interest

At first he was named as one of the possible bombers, then that changed to 'Person of Interest.' But Abdulrahman Alharbi is in the U.S. illegally,  but claims to be only a witness to and  victim of the Boston Marathon bombing. UPDATE: 04/01/2014 -- Alharbi is now suing Glenn Beck and his network for defamation, even though …

How’d I Get Here?

"It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded." Ecclesiastes 6:4 (NIV) Anger equals evil. It took me a year and some time to complete my study of the Book of Jeremiah, in the Old Testament. When I undertake a study from any book in the Bible, I try …

Sparks Man Injured in Boston Marathon Blast

BOSTON (AP) — Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people and injuring more than 130 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs that raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the U.S.. Eighty-five runners in the Boston …

The Saga of Crescent City’s Japanese Boat Continues

Adding to a small boat’s more than 5,000-mile  journey is where it came ashore -- less than a mile from a  multi-million-dollar project to repair damage done to a harbor from a tsunami resulting from a March 2011 earthquake. Now authorities in Del Norte County have tracked down the owner of that vessel which washed up on South Beach in early April 2013. It came from the …

Spring Calving in the Snow

<"The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." Proverbs 12:10 (NIV) It was my turn to work a seven-day stretch at the line shack. It was spring calving time, so I expected to be fairly busy, but I didn't know jus' how busy I would be. …

The Ramona Food and Clothes Closet

This may appear to be off the beaten path at first, but you'll soon understand why I am treading this road... The Ramona Food and Clothes Closet is in its 30th year of service to the community. The FCC, as it is known locally, was officially launched in March 1983. My wife’s parents, Don and …

Nevada’s Mysteriously Missing Bullfrog County

Bullfrog County was a short-lived county in Nevada created by the Nevada Legislature in 1987.  It consisted of an uninhabited 144-square-mile area around Yucca Mountain completely enclosed by southern Nye County, the county from which it was created. Bullfrog" was the name Frank "Shorty" Harris and Ernest "Ed" Cross, the prospectors who started the Bullfrog …

Mouseketeer

Annette Funicello died April 8th, 2013, following a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 70. In July 1983, when she was 41,  Annette was photographed playing a slot machine at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  At the time Annette was appearing at the hotel-casino. Meanwhile, Annette's passing has touched many in Northern Nevada, including Sharon Baird.  She has …

Possible Tsunami Boat Washes Up on Del Norte Beach

Officials are trying to determine if a boat that washed up on a beach is debris from the 2011 tsunami. The  20-foot boat with Japanese writing, believed to be a license or registration number on its side, washed ashore Sunday near Crescent City. Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson reports, "Yesterday evening at about 8:30, …

From Sparks to Spy

His family had no running water, so they bathed in the Truckee River every Saturday -- something that prepared him for conditions during Central Intelligence Agency operations in Vietnam during the war, he wrote in his autobiography, “The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA,” with Malcolm McConnell. Antonio “Tony” Mendez’s mastery led …

Fire Escape

Generally, it's my mouth that gets me into trouble -- other times it's my thoughtless actions. It was our final foray to San Francisco as a track team my senior year of high school. And even though we were on a strict curfew, I sneaked out of my hotel room, using the fire escape to …

Donation

Every couple of months my wife will gather up all the romance novels she’s read, put them in a plastic bag and she’ll donate them to the Spanish Springs Library.  Last Sunday was one of those times. Since she was doing that, she decided to also pick up a few supplies from the local office …

Wants, Needs and Cyprus

"Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations. When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in, the lambs will provide you with clothing, …

The Easter Bludgeoning Continues

The bludgeoning of faith continued Easter Sunday as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos', "This Week," had atheist Susan Jacoby, who wrote in the New York Times that the murders in Newtown are "The Blessings of Atheism."  Jacoby wrote this piece of trash on January 6th, but Stephanopoulos chose to have her on as a guest Easter morning. Perhaps …