Absenteeism, Federal Funds, and a Shrinking Washington Now, I don’t pretend to understand all the goings-on of this great American experiment, especially when it comes to matters of money and government—which is to say, fraud and folly—but it strikes me as downright peculiar that Nevada, a state with its boots firmly planted in the dusty…

Helmand Provines, Afghanistan, late 2006 with the Marines. My job was to go on mounted patrols with them, riding in MRAPs—big armored trucks meant to withstand blasts. For a while, they worked. Then, the Taliban figured it out. They made bigger bombs. IEDs were their weapon of choice, the cornerstone of their arsenal. They had…

By Yours Truly, a Humble Observer of the Human Comedy The great gears of federal injustice ground on for months, gnashing and hissing like a brokedown steam engine hunting to crush Michele Fiore, a woman of brass spine and no shortage of colorful flair. But when the gavel got raised to flatten her completely, along…

By One that Ought to Know If you ever find yourself in Carson City on a Friday—heaven help you—you might think the State Legislature had packed up its wigs and gavels, boarded a stagecoach, and vanished into the sagebrush. The hearing rooms sit as empty as a church pew in a gambling house, the corridors…

The Silver State—grand, shimmering Nevada—is wearin’ a crown of tarnished tin, not gold, for she’s got herself the worst unemployment rate in all these United States. The number stands at 5.7 percent, accordin’ to some solemn scribblers over at DETR–that’s the Department of Employment, Training, and Reassurance, I reckon. But before you go celebratin’–it’s a…

Here’s a tale that’ll turn your coffee cold and make you swear off sightseeing by air. The federal folks—those good people at the FAA, who always seem to show up late with a mop after the milk’s already spilled—have poked their heads out from behind their desks and taken a hard look at our nation’s…

Now, I ain’t one to meddle in the affairs of courtrooms and city halls—except when they hand down justice the way a goose lays eggs– unpredictable, unceremonious, and sometimes a little soft in the shell. News out of Washoe County has it that Mr. Christopher McDougal, the gentleman that ran down U.S. District Court Judge…

Whilst I don’t aim to write tragedies—as life already writes enough of those without any help from me—some tales fall so hard and sharp upon the public ear and private heart that they demand telling–and this is one. It is a story soaked in blood and sorrow, tangled in madness and mystery–and its telling is…

It was 108 degrees in July 2006 in the Diyala Province, northwest of Muqdadiyah. We sat, baking in our MRAP, waiting, feeling like sitting ducks, while the lieutenant decided what to do. There were a few shots in the distance–small arms fire, scattered and thin. The Skipper thought it was worth a look. The platoon…

The Cherubini Brother’s Reunited If this don’t warm the heart and sting the eyes, then you may be made of stone or servin’ as a bureaucrat. After eighty-one revolvin’ orbits of the sun, a soldier long thought lost to the green jungles of Burma has found his way home, carried not by the footsore march…