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There it was — propped up against a juniper tree in Nevada’s Snake Mountains — an unloaded Winchester Model 1873 repeating rifle. Now, researchers are scouring old newspapers, bills of sale, family histories and handwritten letters, hoping to discover its history.

It’s generally known that the Winchester Company of New Haven, Connecticut produced 720,000 of the model from 1873 to 1916. The weapon featured an oil-finished walnut stock, blued-steel crescent butt plate and a 20-inch-long octagon barrel.

This particular repeating rifle was manufactured in 1882, learned by the fact that every gun was stamped with a serial number. It was shipped from the Connecticut warehouse that year; no one has been able to locate who ordered the gun, where it went or how it came to be on a Nevada hillside.

Also during that same year, Morgan Earp and gunfighter Billy Claiborne are both killed in Tombstone; Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford; Congress outlaws polygamy and passes the Chinese Exclusion Act; John D. Rockefeller creates the Standard Oil Trust, Charles Darwin, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Mary Todd Lincoln all die; and and future U.S. President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is born.

Discovered on a wooded, craggy hillside, overlooking the Utah border to its east – the rifle’s location conjures the idea of a possible gun fight. It also suggests a cowboy or sheep-herder out looking for a lost animal or some lonely prospector, flustered when he thought he’d struck the mother lode.

While I’m only speculating here, I think someone shot a buck or some other wild game, set the rifle against the tree to dress the kill, and then couldn’t find the spot where the rifle was resting. Stranger things have happened in the high Nevada backcountry.

There’s a great story behind this once-lost ‘Winny’ and until it’s known, speculation will continue to blow — along with Nevada’s high-desert wilds.

Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons.
Relationships must be chosen wisely.
It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.
There’s no need to rush.
If something is meant to be, it will happen — in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason.
Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.

Married for 28-years, instead of dining by candlelight, soft music, and a getaway at some retreat, we ate lunch at P.F. Chang’s.  Mary paid, using a gift card she received at Christmas time.

Lunch was preceded by a stop at Lowe’s Hardware, where we bought a new range for Mary. She’s been doing without one after the bottom element in the stove burned out a couple of weeks ago.

But our anniversary adventure didn’t end there. We also when to Walmart and bought me some new underwear and socks.

Exciting!

Now, some might say the romance has escaped our marriage, but no one can say we lack a certain practicality and love for one another — plus a healthy sense humor.

I’m already planning next year; a refrigerator and new tennis shoes.

As a point of disclosure — I used to work for Cumulus Media at their Reno radio station KKOH 780 AM. And I don’t like what I’m hearing.

It is hard for me to listen to a station being run by management in Atlanta, Georgia, which forces on-air programming so general in nature that it doesn’t service its listening area. It’s even harder still to hear local radio staff struggle to overcome such a handicap.

To make matters even worse, Cumulus Media has now broken its ties with ABC News Radio, which mean’s KOH will no longer air ABC News at the top of the hour.  Instead, CNN, which doesn’t identify itself during news broadcasts, will provide all Cumulus stations with content.

The new arrangement began this month as ABC’s agreement with Cumulus Media came to an end.  Furthermore, Cumulus has ended its partnership with the Associated Press.

Now KOH’s news staff will have to rely heavily on other media sources for content, including their news partner, ABC affiliate KOLO TV. Maybe Cumulus chief executive officer Lew Dickey thinks such tactics will make the listener think their local station is creating all of its own content – but he’s mistaken.

It’s not the first time he’s made a gaffe that damaged the quality of the on-air content and programming. Shortly after Cumulus purchased Citadel, rumors surfaced that both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were to be axed.

In the end, Hannity left only to be replaced by Michael Savage, while Limbaugh somehow managed to hang on.

Also causing uproar was the sudden dismissal of long-time KOH programming favorite, “Coast to Coast.” The shows’ 25-year-plus run ended when Cumulus decided to replace it with erudite New York talker John Batchelor and the overnight trucker-program, “Red Eye Radio.”

Memo to Lew: the listener isn’t stupid, but CEO’s who think they are – are.

Nevada’s Governor didn’t disappoint Progressives across the Silver State as he urged lawmakers to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes over the next couple of years. Brian Sandoval proposed a two-year budget totaling about $7.3 billion in his recent ‘State-of-the State’ address.

It includes about $1.14 billion in additional revenue, mostly in the form of business taxes so he can give $881 million to the Nevada State Education Association. The proposal also calls for restructuring the flat, $200-a-year business license fee into a fee that varies based on a company’s gross receipts and industry type.

Sandoval also wants to make temporary “sunset” taxes permanent, while increasing cigarette taxes from 80 cents to $1.20 a pack. But that’s not the only smoke being blown as he set media tongues wagging, burying his proposed tax increases by announcing the appointment of failed Washoe County school superintendent Pedro Martinez to a statewide “Achievement School District.”

Last year the Washoe County School Board fired Martinez, proving again that in Progressive politics — failure equals success. Also missed: Sandoval’s call for members of local school boards to be appointed, saying school boards have become “disconnected from their communities.”

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is due to make a stop in downtown Reno, Saturday. He is one of a number of Republicans testing the political waters, and Nevada’s first-in-the-West Republican caucus is a little more than a year away.

Unfortunately, I can’t find myself getting excited about him or his possible run for the presidency.

He favors allowing so-called DREAMERs, whose parents brought them to the U.S. as children, to stay in the country, and to provide more work visas so immigrants can legally hold jobs. Paul adds, though, that any reform effort must also include securing the borders.

Paul plans to attend private fundraisers in Reno for his “victory committee,” and a mid-day “meet-and-greet,” at the Atlantis Casino Resort.  He’ll then headline a private dinner at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Saturday evening, where tickets start at $500 and go up to $2,600.

His father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, had strong support from Nevada Conservative’s during his presidential bids in 2008 and 2012. The Silver State was only one in seven swing states and ultimately gave President Obama six electoral votes.

Few listened then — fewer are listening now.

The Great White Fleet is the nickname for the U.S. Naval fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from December 16, 1907 to February 22, 1909. President Theodore Roosevelt wanted to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability.

The fleet consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various escorts. The hulls of these ships were painted a stark white, giving the armada its nickname.

The second leg of the voyage was from San Francisco to Puget Sound and back. And as the fleet headed up the north coast of California, they passed Trinidad Lighthouse, jus’ north of Eureka, as shown in a rare photo postcard by J. A. Meiser of San Francisco.

It was mailed on May 29, 1908 to a Miss Alene Fay Seight of Martinez. The text while faint, reads, “Dear Aly Fay, This is for John and Mama at home Trinidad Light house.  Love to all, Granma.”

Canceled policies, dropped doctors, higher premiums and deductibles and enrollment nightmares, and  now 3.4 million people who signed up for Obamacare in 2014 are about to get large tax bills.  These tax bills could be as high as $2,500 for families at the upper end of the subsidy eligibility range.

Furthermore low-income earners will face a complicated process while trying to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, a process that will force them to pay extra to have their returns professionally prepared. Worse yet, many will have to reimburse the system for overpayments.

Supposedly, these are the people who can least able to afford insurance. And it’s another reason for Conservative’s put an end to it.

Spent my entire day out and about taking photographs. It was bright, sunny and slightly chilled — perfect for picture-taking.

These are parallel fences that eventually met at the far end. I’ve no idea why anyone would waste their time stringing barbed wire in such a way.

While exploring an old barn, I found what remains of an old airplane wing. It was the only thing left inside the structure.

Being out well after sundown is how I came up with this shot. The jet aircraft’s contrails add a little something-something to the fading daylight.

I’m looking forward to something to eat and a little sleep after such a long but enjoyable day.

London’s Daily Mail isn’t shy about criticizing the Obama Administration with headlines reading, “America snubs historic Paris rally: Holder was there but skipped out early, Kerry was in India, Obama and Biden just stayed home.”

This comes after Obama failed to attend the Paris Unity March against Islamic terrorism, instead to spending his afternoon watching the NFL playoff game.  He didn’t even send Vice President Joe Biden, who was at home in Delaware for the weekend with nothing scheduled.

At least, U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley was in the march, as was assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.

And while Nuland’s boss, Secretary of State John Kerry plans to visit Paris later this week, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder was already in there for security meetings. He didn’t attend the march — but had time for news interviews.

In two separate instances, Holder refused to say that the U.S. is at war with radical Islam. Instead, Holder, who spoke to both NBC’s Chuck Todd and ABC’s George Stephanopolous with the same question, said that the U.S is at war with “terrorists” who “corrupt the Islamic faith” or use a “corrupted version of Islam.”

The Obama administration is completely blind when it comes to so-call ‘optics,’ or they jus’ don’t care.