• The Budget and the Battleborn Bonus

    There’s nothing worse than having a good message, but garbling it up due to poor wording and bad facts. Case in point: the ongoing federal budget battle and the war of words between Senator Harry Reid and conservative commentators. It started with Reid, who bragged, “The National Endowment for the Humanities is the reason we…

  • Death in a Pit and a PR Nightmare

    Later afternoon, March 4, I was there when they called it off, stood on the lip of that old mine shaft, peering down into the darkness where a man still breathed but couldn’t be saved. The wind came in low, whispering through the sage, and the sun had that dull afternoon glare, turning everything the…

  • Coming Home

    As I recall, I was playing in the large field across the street from our home. That’s when I saw the dark blue sedan with the yellow print on its doors pull in to the drive way. At first I simply stood still, watching the car back out of the drive and alongside the curb.…

  • Tire Pressure Bill Passes Nevada Legislature

    A bill requiring garages to check the tire pressures on vehicles that come into the shop for repair has cleared the Nevada Senate. SB144 was approved along mostly party lines, with Republican Senator Joe Hardy of Boulder City voting with Democrats for passage. Under the bill, repair shops would need to fill tires according to…

  • Longing

    The passing of my old man fairly well wrecked me for half-a-year. At the time I felt as if I were the only one in my immediate family that cared about his death. And worse still, I had not yet learned how to talk about what it was I was feeling. Many nights and early…

  • Crazy Out there

    “That song ‘Crazy Out There’ really reminds me about myself,” I said to my bride. Then I added, “I thought I had really lost it there for a while.” She looked at me and smiled, “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. I nodded, “Yeah, but I’m not al too sure where to…

  • Dunce

    “Come on, Dad,” Kyle called to me as he trotted ahead and up the Fourth Ward Schools front steps. I was one of his class field trip chaperones to the Comstock, site of Nevada’s first silver rush. Once inside we were met by the three young high school girls who would be conducting the tour of the…

  • The Conspiritor

    “Barry turned you in even though he gave it to you.” Holly said to me. “Don’t you think I know that,” I returned. We both knew that, as well as the reason why. Now I had to save myself from being arrested. “This isn’t supposed to be how it was to go down,” I said aloud. Holly reached…

  • The Habit

    “Now I trust you two with this chore,” he said to we two boys.  “Don’t let me down.”  With that he climbed into the cab of his pick-up and drove off.  He was nothing but a trail of dust before either of us moved. We looked at each other and then around at the camp with its…

  • The Coyote and the Cave

    It was the President’s Day weekend and I had all three days off. So I decided to spend it hiking some of the rugged back country west of U.S. 95 and the Veterans Memorial Highway. My plan was to venture around in a couple of the canyons along the mountainside, taking pictures and doing a…