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While he says he supports a federal land transfer for Yerington, Senator Harry Reid also wants it to include creating a new wilderness area in the region. The bill has already passed the Republican controlled House and allows the small town to buy 19 square miles of Bureau of Land Management property to be developed by Nevada Copper.

The mining operation will employ between 400 and 800 workers, each making an average yearly salary of $80,000. The surrounding land is to be used by businesses serving the mine, with plans that include a BMX track, outdoor amphitheater, a solar farm and a light-manufacturing district.

As for the proposed wilderness area, its land located between Smith Valley, Nevada and Bridgeport, California. It covers about 80,000 acres or nearly eight times the size of Yerington’s proposed land purchase.

So in exchange for cash, jobs and economic growth, a federal government that already controls 86-percent of Nevada’s land,  would get even more acreage. Meanwhile Nevada continues suffering through the nation’s worst unemployment rate at 12-percent.

Yet, if Senate Republicans say no to Reid’s proposed wilderness area, the Senate Majority Leader will prevent the land transfer bill from reaching the floor. Then he’ll waste no time in accusing the GOP of being at fault for the lack of jobs creation.

But we know the truth.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney about his tax returns once again. This time during the opening day of the Democratic National Convention for refusing to release several years of tax returns, where he also contends no other presidential candidate in history has been as secretive.

“Never in modern American history has a presidential candidate tried so hard to hide himself from the people he hopes to serve,” Reid said. “When you look at the one tax return he has released, it’s obvious why there’s been only one.”

Reid added about Romney, “We learned that he pays a lower tax rate than middle-class families.”

For Reid, a fact is a bothersome thing — so he does his best to avoid them. However, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler called him on his ill-stated quest.

“For all the rhetoric about high taxes in the United States,  most Americans pay a relatively small percentage of their income in taxes.  Romney had an effective rate of 13.9 percent in 2010 and 15.4 percent in 2011.  That gives him a higher rate than 80 percent of taxpayers if only taxes on a tax  return are counted and puts him just about in the middle of all taxpayers if  payroll taxes paid by employers are included,” writes Kessler.

Once again Reid shows the nation that he is completely without a moral compass. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reminded many long-time residents of Nevada about Reid’s history of making false accusations.

“In the Democrat’s first bid for the U.S. Senate, Reid threw out all sorts of unsubstantiated charges against Paul Laxalt, the former Republican governor of Nevada who went on to defeat Reid by 611 votes in a recount,” wrote Laura Myers.

It was during the height of the Watergate scandal in 1974, when Reid questioning the former Nevada Governor about his financial connection to Billionaire Howard Hughes.  Reid challenged Laxalt to show his own and his family’s finances and to explain how he paid $7.5 million for the Ormsby House in Carson City.

Reid, then Nevada’s Lt. Governor claimed he wanted to clear up the “Ormsby House mystery.”

In October he handed out financial statements and tax returns for himself and his three brothers. He then challenged Laxalt to do the same. Reid continued by stating Laxalt hadn’t paid income taxes for several years.

In the end Reid claimed his financial worth was $305,292. On the other hand, Laxalt was worth only $200,000, excluding his interest in the Ormsby House.

Laxalt also showed he had not profited as governor. His returns showed that in December 1961, he was worth about $167,000 and, when he left the governor’s office in 1970, he worth less-than $102,000.

Kind of sounds familiar, huh?

Senator Harry Reid publicly banned relatives from lobbying him or his staff after several 2003 news reports showed Nevada’s industries and institutions routinely turned to Reid’s sons or son-in-law for representation. Now, questions surrounding those family ties are coming up again about the Senate majority leader’s influence.

Reid and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in southern Nevada. The Chinese company hopes it will be the largest solar energy complex in the U.S.

Solar panel prices have plunged globally, leading to the bankruptcy of equipment maker’s like Solyndra, with $535 million in U.S. government loan guarantees, and job cuts at other solar manufacturers. Pressured to curb Chinese trade practices, the Obama administration imposed duties as high as 4.73 percent on solar equipment imported from China.

This prompted more Chinese companies to move their manufacturing facilities to the U.S. It also helped Harry and son’s in their quest to secure the Chinese company for Nevada.

Senator Reid recruited the company during a 2011 trip to China and has been quietly applying his political muscle on behalf of the project ever since. Headed by Chinese energy tycoon Wang Yusuo, who took Reid and nine other U.S. senators on a tour of the ENN’s operations.

Reid reciprocated by introducing Wang as a speaker at his 4th annual National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas. Then ENN retained the state’s largest  law firm, Lionel Sawyer & Collins, where Rory works.

From there, Rory helped ENN find a 9,000-acre desert site in Laughlin, Nevada, buying it well below the appraised value made by Clark County, where Rory formerly chaired the commission. Public records show Harry owns some “fairly worthless” land near Laughlin as well as Bullhead City in Arizona.

Then there’s the fact Lionel Sawyer & Collins gave $40,650 individually and through its political action committee to Senator Reid over the past three election cycles. Its political action committee also contributed $2,000 in 2010 and $5,000 in 2008 to the Searchlight Leadership Fund, a political action committee that lists Reid as an affiliate.

After the controversy over the number of lawmaker relatives engaged in lobbying, in 2007 Congress passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, sharply restricting the lobbying activities of close relatives of members of Congress. The law only applies to registered lobbyists and Rory Reid is not registered as a federal lobbyist in Washington or a state lobbyist in Nevada.

Whether the business is successful or fails, it’s the taxpayer who’ll end up taking the loss where the sun-doesn’t-shine.

The all-absorbing topic in Stockton on March 26, 1906, was the trunk murder mystery — the finding of the dead body of a man in a trunk at the Southern Pacific railway station by baggage master I. K. Thompson and his assistant, N. Vielioh, on a Saturday night. The police were satisfied that the man’s wife committed murder, beating him to death over the head, possibly with a sandbag.

By early Sunday morning, it developed that the murdered man was Albert McVicar, a timber man in the Rawhide Mine at Jamestown. He occupied a room in the California rooming house Friday night with a woman registering as   A.N. McVicar and wife, of Jamestown.

It was learned late that night that the woman was actually the ex-wife of McVicar, but in August of 1905, she had married a Eugene or Jean Le Doux, a teamster, whose folks conduct a miners’ boarding house near Martelis Station in Amador County.

As the furniture purchased at a local store was directed to be sent to Martelis in the care of a man named Le Doux, whom she is said to have designated as her brother, suspicion was directed at him. Sheriff Sibley went to Jackson and investigated but found Le Doux had not been away, and that he was in Jackson on the day of the murder.

This relieved him of any direct connection with the crime. He professed ignorance of it.

The woman’s maiden name was Emma Cole, and her widowed mother, Mrs. Head, resides between Jackson and Sutter, in Amador County. She told Sheriff Sibley her daughter had left home two weeks ago for Stockton or San Francisco.

Where she was at the present time she did not know.

On the same day as the body was found, Mrs. Emma Le Doux was arrested at Antioch at the Arlington Hotel by Town Marshal Thomas B. Sharon on information sent from Stockton. On being arrested the woman promptly admitted her identity and said she knew what she was wanted for.

Upon her arrest, she said to have made a statement. She declared carbolic acid was administered McVicar Saturday morning by Joe Miller, a sandy-complexioned man with a smooth face.

He and McVicar, so she said, came to the room intoxicated Friday night and McVicar went to bed. She said that she was with Miller after that.

In the morning about 9 o’clock they went into the room and Miller administered the poison. She does not go into detail but declared she had nothing to do with it outside of assisting in putting the body in the trunk.

She never gave a reason for the killing. She telephoned her mother in an endeavor to have her meet her in Lodi or Galt and said she expected her mother to take the Santa Fe train for Stockton.

She also told the Constable she was waiting for Miller, who had gone to San Francisco from Stockton.  Miller however left her at Point Richmond, stating that he would meet her at Antioch.

Her statement was conflicting, so her arrest was made. Emma was turned over to Sheriff Veale, of Contra Costa County, and brought to Stockton.

Her statement didn’t account for the bruises on McVicar’s head, and as for carbolic acid, the autopsy didn’t discover any trace of it. Doctors did say there was a slight but unimportant inflammation of the stomach.

“It is hardly likely that anybody would attempt to give another so active a poison as carbolic acid, which would burn him badly and thus betray itself,” one newspaper reads. “A person taking carbolic acid would not be incapacitated from putting up a hard struggle, and there was no sign of a struggle.”

Dr. Hull, one of the medical examiners, stated the blows on the head, causing congestion of the inner lining of the skull, had caused death, and there was absolutely no evidence of poison. Neither was there an odor of alcohol, which would be the case had he been very drunk.

As for Joe Miller, who she says was the chief actor in the murder, there is no such man. However, she did spend that Saturday night with Joe Healy in a San Francisco lodging house, who established an alibi covering the time of the murder.

Within days of Emma’s arrest, the Grand Jury was convened. This came after authorities found a small bottle of laudanum, about one-third full.

It became quickly evident the report Emma had made a statement to the effect that the mythical Miller had given McVicar carbolic acid was a mistake. It was now believed she used the narcotic prior to beating McVicar to death.

As Emma was reported to be “quietly, but with great relish,” eating breakfast, District Attorney Norton refused to allow anyone to talk with her.  He told the Associated Press, “I feel it my duty to protect the woman in every way possible. There is yet to be a trial, and interviews would serve to complicate matters.”

Questioned as to the motive for the crime, Norton said he only had an opinion. He speculated it might have been revenge for his having spent her money, or it might have been robbery — a desire to get possession of the furniture which had been purchased and partly paid for, or it might have been jealousy; possibly all three.

As for the identity of the deceased, a dispatch from the Cripple Creek Chief of Police Baker, Norton says there is no question that the dead man was McVicar.

Evidently, Stockton’s Chief of Police Baker has sent an inquiry to the Colorado mining town asking for information on McVicar after the card was found in McVicar’s effects showing he had been a Wells Fargo agent.

McVicar worked for the company in Cripple Creek from 1886 to 1890 before relocating to California. He was also involved in the shooting some years ago of a Colorado newspaperman by a Wells Fargo man named Russell.

The dispatch also shows McVicar‘s brother John, owned and operated the Cripple Creek Laundry. John with two more brothers and their mother still lived in the town.

Furthermore, Captain Neville, of the Rawhide Mine, where McVicar was employed, as a timber man, told the reporter, “He was a quiet, industrious fellow, who took care of his money, and he was not a drinking man.”

Finally, Norton concluded that the motive wasn’t money because at the time McVicar and Mrs. Le Doux bought the furniture, he paid $100 down; he said he had little money left, but expected $200 from Wells Fargo.

An inquiry by detectives shows he didn’t receive the money and that Emma must have known his financial condition.

Sibley, who had gone to Jackson to investigate Emma’s background claimed the family, her husband, and her mother, were “a queer crowd,” He pointed out that when Mrs. Head, the woman’s mother, was told her daughter was suspected of murder she didn’t show the slightest emotion, furthermore, the husband, Le Doux seemed completely undisturbed.

He said he knew nothing whatever about it, and Sheriff Sibley was satisfied that he had nothing to do with the murder. Le Doux claimed he had expected her home any day during the past week.

He added that Emma had been accustomed to go and come when she pleased and he never worried about her. He also told Sibley he knew nothing about the furniture.

Three days after McVicar’s body was found stuffed in the trunk; Norton reported the discovery in San Francisco that Emma had purchased a six-ounce bottle of cyanide of potassium at the Baldwin Pharmacy about the 14th of the month. He added that traces of the poisoning had been found by the chemist analyzing pieces of tissue from the dead man.

“If they have found that,” said Norton, “then they are ahead of us.”

“Isn’t it true,” was asked, “that a bottle which had contained cyanide of potassium was found, and also that a knife or cleaver was also found among the effects of the woman?”

“I am not saying anything about anything now,” was Norton’s reply.

“Will you deny that these were found?” was the next question.

“I am not denying anything at all,” replied Norton, with a smile.

It was obvious Norton enjoyed playing up his notoriety.

The inquest into the cause of the death of McVicar showed Emma had nearly been caught from the outset.  It was shortly before noon on the day of the murder and Emma had evidently placed McVicar’s body in the trunk.

Afterwards, she informed Mrs. Englehardt, the proprietress of the California lodging house that she and McVicar were going away on the 3 o’clock train. Emma then went down the street to purchase the rope with which to tie the trunk.

While she was away a person called for a room. Mrs. Englehardt took the prospective roomer to Emma’s apartments. The door was open, and directly behind it was the trunk in which was McVicar’s body.

A hasty examination of the room was made, but no attention was paid to the trunk. Emma returned in a few minutes, had the trunk tied, and carried to the depot.

Emma was charged with the murder of McVicar, on April 16^th, and immediately pleaded not guilty. The proceeding took less than a minute, but the Courtroom was crowded long before the hour arrived for bringing the accused before Superior Court Judge W. B. Nutter.

By May 5^th, only seventeen days remained before Emma’s trial. Both sides were hard at work gathering evidence

Norton and his assistant George McNoble were spending all their time working on the case. Defense Attorney Hugh McNoble, the brother of George, Attorney Fairall, and Attorney Crocker were as busily engaged framing up their side.

McNoble and Sibley were in Arizona gathering evidence in regard to the former life of the defendant.

“I know where my brother and the Sheriff have gone. It won’t do them any good, though, as they will not learn anything new.” Hugh said. “I would willingly tell them all they wanted to know about the matter. Yes, it’s a wild goose chase.”

As the trial began that June 5^th morning, the courtroom was crowded. By this time the case had attracted widespread attention and reports of the murder had even been printed in the foreign press.

Two weeks prior to the trials beginning Hugh McNoble was forced to drop from the defense team when his partner, Fairall accused the two brothers of double-dealing.  It took the remainder of the second week to sit a jury.

It was made clear from the onset that the defense intended to show that McVicar committed suicide. The prosecution, on the other hand, claimed to have a clear case of murder in the first degree.

When the Court was called to order, Fairall immediately objected to the Sheriff and Coroner being called as witnesses, on the grounds of bias and prejudice. However, Nutter overruled the objections.

Then Dr. S.E. Latta, who helped conduct the autopsy on McVicar’s body, was given a rigid cross-examination. Attorney Fairall reportedly used more technical terms than Latta and he finally asked the Court for assistance.

“Why didn’t you take the temperature of this man?” asked Fairall.

“Because he was dead,” answered the witness.

“You assumed so,” Fairall shot back

“I know it,” was Latta’s emphatic reply.

Other doctors testified regarding the relative action of various poisons, ante and post-mortem bruises, the blood, and other matters. Their testimony was introduced to support the contention of the defense the deceased came to his death from cyanide poisoning, self-administered, and that he was dead when placed in the trunk.

Prosecutors Norton and McNoble wasted no time in laying out the facts of their case. They pointed out that McVicar evidently never dreamed that Emma had married another man.

More damning evidence was presented showing McVicar’s death was planned some time in advance. They showed Emma had telephoned a San Francisco plumber with whom she had associated named Ed Healy, and who had been engaged to marry her, just three days before McVicar was killed saying “Poor Al is dying of miner’s consumption.”

They were quick to direct the jury’s attention to the fact Emma was even a known bigamist, though she was never charged with the crime. With this information, the pair was able to tie the crime together by concluding that when Emma realized McVicar would learn of her marriage to Le Doux, she decided to poison him, place his body in a trunk, and ship it to Jackson.

Soon the trial was turned over to the jury.

After being out six hours and twenty-five minutes Saturday night, June 25^th, the panel returned to the courtroom. The document containing the verdict was presented to Nutter, who looked at it, handed it to Clerk Comstock with instructions to read it.

Comstock read it slowly and distinctly, “We, the jury in the above entitled case, find the defendant, Mrs. Emma Le Doux, guilty of murder in the first degree.”

Emma, whose eyes were fixed upon the table in front of her, straightened up and emitted a short groan, then placed her handkerchief to her face for a moment.  Mrs. Crocker, wife of her attorney was seated beside her, and placed her arms around Emma, kissed her many times, and told her that the fight for her life had just begun.

Neither Fairall nor Crocker showed signs of disappointment.

Nutter then set the date of judgment for July 9th at ten in the morning. Whereupon the two defense attorneys announced that they would move for a new trial and if their motion was denied would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

Fairall wasted no time in filing an appeal. He added the applause indulged in by the jury when they reached their verdict is an element he’ll make use of in his appeal.

“In case the Supreme Court grants a new trial,” he told the newspapers, “I will apply for a change of venue to Calaveras County.”

Meanwhile, Sibley permitted a Catholic priest to visit Emma.  Her attorneys scoffed at the idea of a confession and strongly maintained her innocence.

After a number of delays and postponements, Emma was sentenced on August 7^th to be hanged on October 19^th.  The convicted woman heard her sentence with calmness as there was neither fear nor defiance in the expression on her face as she heard her doom pronounced.

Her attorneys presented affidavits intended to impeach the character of Juror Ritter, but Judge Nutter deemed them Insufficient as a basis for the motion for a new trial.

Six months later, on January 14^th, 1908, Fairall, found himself before the Supreme Court. He argued Emma’s case should be “reversed for many reasons, the principal one of which was that the Jury at her trial had been greatly prejudiced against her by the newspaper accounts of the murder published at the time of the finding of the body of McVicar.”

The Supreme Court took the case under advisement.

Meanwhile, Emma was interviewed for the second time by a group of independent reporters. It was at the request of Sheriff Sibley that after rumors surfaced Emma was being mistreated.

This allegation angered Sibley and he courted an investigation. The rumor’s persisted though so he asked for the meeting.

Emma met with the reporters in the jail’s reception room. She quietly surveyed them; remaining still until Sheriff Sibley introduced her.

She shook hands with them and then took a seat among the small group to answer their questions. Emma at once informed them she had never been mistreated, and it was a surprise to learn people could be so uncharitable to her.

When asked it she still lived in hope of her life being saved from the gallows, she answered “Why, I never worry — of course I have hope — while there is life there is hope.”

“A wedding ring upon the finger and a small gold cross holding a golden image was the only jewelry that bedecked her person,” writes one reporter. “She was neat, in tact, richly attired, but withal there was a peculiar something which impressed a person with the fact that she was convicted and condemned — that she was still just plain Emma Le Doux.”

More than a year after the gruesome discovery of McVicar’s body crammed in the trunk, the Supreme Court on May 20^th, 1909, handed down its decision.  It ordered that Emma be granted a new trial.

Associate Justice Henshaw wrote the decision granting her a new trial with Associate Justices Lorigan and Melvin concurring and Chief Justice Beatty writing a concurring opinion.

After several cases are cited, the opinion continues as follows: “Thus it is seen that all of the authorities agree upon the principle and announce the rule that where the principal is disqualified his deputy is likewise disqualified and process served under these circumstances is voidable. Therefore the challenge to the panel should have been allowed.”

Her new trial date was set for February 2^nd, 1909.

Wasted away, Emma was brought before Judge  Nutter, and her second trial was set for February 2^nd, 1909. She was accompanied by County Health Officer Dr. C. L. Six, who had attended Emma for over a year.

There it was learned Emma had contracted, tuberculosis, commonly called “consumption,” or the “white plague.”  Nutter decided to postpone her trial until she was once again well.

However, that second trial would never occur. Instead on the morning of January 26^th, 1910, weak and rather frail, Emma Le Doux pleaded guilty to the charge of having murdered Albert McVicar and was sentenced by Nutter to life imprisonment in San Quentin.

A slowdown has prompted a Carson City business to lay off 100 workers. Chromalloy Nevada officials say the layoffs come after reductions in military spending and the flat economy in Europe and Asia.

Chromalloy provides high-tech repairs and engine components for commercial airlines and the military at its two Carson City facilities. It’s at least the fourth announcement of layoffs the company has made over the last four years.

The latest layoffs cut the company’s total workforce to about 280, down from a high of 540 in December 2008. The layoffs affected both hourly and salaried positions.

Nevada’s unemployment rate sits at 12-percent, up 0.4-percent, since June. Reno and Sparks is up from 11.7-percent to 12-percent. Carson City is up half a point to 12.2-percent.  Las Vegas saw the largest uptick from 12.2-percent to 12.9-percent. Even Elko County saw its unemployment rate jump up to 6.3-percent from 6.7-percent.

Meanwhile, Senator Harry Reid will speak at the Democratic National Convention, where he’s expected to talk about President Obama’s job performance, Mitt Romney’s tax returns and the impact the Tea Party has had on the Republican Party.

While Progressives continue lambasting Clint Eastwood for his speech during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Conservatives are applauding the speech and its humor. For many, the improvisational speech more than made up for the Chrysler commercial he voiced-over during Superbowl XLVI.

Either way, it’s safe to say Eastwood’s been in tougher spots.

Drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War in 1950, and stationed at Fort Ord, his certificate as a lifeguard got him appointed as a life-saving and swimming instructor. Eastwood excelled as an instructor and received a promotion to corporal.

But to supplement his $67 a month Army salary, he held a part-time job on a loading dock for the Spreckles Sugar Refining Company. When discovered by the Army, he had to quit the job.

In October 1951, Eastwood was aboard a Douglas AD-1 Skyraider that crashed into the Pacific, north of San Francisco’s Drake’s Bay. The plane had departed from Seattle, bound for Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento.

When the intercommunication system failed, the plane ditched into the sea at dusk, two miles off Point Reyes. Eastwood and the pilot escaped serious injury, and swam to shore.

The crash was headline news on October 1, 1951 in the San Francisco Chronicle. There was an immediate investigation into the crash, where Eastwood testified.

This kept him from going to Korea with the rest of his unit. He was Honorably Discharged in 1953.

He later reflected on the crash, “I thought I might live. But then I thought, other people have made it through these things before. I kept my eyes on the lights on shore and kept swimming.”

With my son Kyle, entering college this fall he’ll be a member of the Class of 2015. For him, Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.

His classmates could include Taylor Momsen, Angus Jones, Howard Stern’s daughter Ashley, and the Dilley Sextuplets.

1. There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information super highway.

2. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be his friend’s parents.

3. States and his parents have always required he wear his bike helmet.

4. The only significant labor disputes in his lifetime has been in major league sports.

5. There have always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.

6. He “swipes” his debit cards — not the merchandise.

7. He’s grown up on websites and cell phones and most adults in his life have constantly fretted about his alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.

8. His school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.

9. “Don’t touch that dial!” What dial?

10. American tax forms have always been available in Spanish.

11. More Americans traveled to Latin America than to Europe.

12. Amazon never been just a river in South America.

13. Refer to LBJ, and he might assume you’re talking about LeBron James.

14. All his life, Whitney Houston has been declaring, “I Will Always Love You.”

15. O.J. Simpson has always been looking for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

16. Women have never been too old to have children.

17. Japan has always been importing rice.

18. Jim Carrey has always been bigger than a pet detective.

19. We have never asked, and they have never had to tell.

20. Life has always been like a box of chocolates.

21. He’s always gone to school with Mohammed and Jesus.

22. John Wayne Bobbitt has always slept with one eye open.

23. There has never been an official Communist Party in Russia.

24. “Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short.

25. Video games have always had ratings.

26. Chicken soup has always been soul food.

27. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.

28. Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief.

29. Arnold Palmer has always been a drink.

30. Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!

31. Women have always been kissing women on television.

32. Older kids have told him about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.

33. Faux Christmas trees have always outsold real ones.

34. He’s always been able to dismiss boring old ideas with “been there, done that, gotten the T-shirt.”

35. The bloody conflict between the government and a religious cult has always made Waco sound a little wacko.

36. He spent his bedtime on his back until he learned to roll over.

37. Music has always been available via free downloads.

38. Grown-ups have always been arguing about health care policy.

39. Moderate amounts of red wine and baby aspirin have always been thought good for the heart.

40. Sears has never sold anything out of a Big Book that could also serve as a doorstop.

41. The United States has always been shedding fur.

42. Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road.

43. No longer known for just gambling and quickie divorces, Nevada has always been one of the fastest growing states in the Union.

44. He’s part of the first generation to grow up hearing about the dangerous overuse of antibiotics.

45. He pressured his parents to take him to Taco Bell or Burger King to get free pogs.

46. Russia’s courts have always had juries.

47. No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.

48. While he’s been playing outside, we’ve always worried about nasty new bugs borne by birds and mosquitoes.

49. Public schools have always made space available for advertising.

50. Some of his peers have been inspired to actually cook by watching the Food Channel.

51. Fidel Castro’s daughter and granddaughter have always lived in the United States.

52. His parents have always been able to create a will and other legal documents online.

53. Charter schools have always been an alternative.

54. He’s grown up with George Stephanopoulos as the Dick Clark of political analysts.

55. New kids have always been known as NKOTB.

56. His friends always wanted to be like Shaq or Kobe: Michael who?

57. His friends have broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.

58. His parents remember Woolworths as a store that used to be downtown.

59. Kim Jong Il has always been bluffing, but the West has always had to take him seriously.

60. Frasier, Sam, Woody and Rebecca have never Cheerfully frequented a bar in Boston during primetime.

61. Major League Baseball has never had fewer than three divisions and never lacked a wild-card entry in the playoffs.

62. Nurses have always been in short supply.

63. He won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.

64. Altar girls have never been a big deal.

65. When he was 3, his parents may have battled other parents in toy stores to buy them a Tickle Me Elmo while they lasted.

66. It seems the United States has always been looking for an acceptable means of capital execution.

67. Folks in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have always been able to energize with Pepsi-Cola.

68. Andy Warhol is a museum in Pittsburgh.

69. He grew up hearing about suspiciously vanishing frogs.

70. He’s always had the privilege of talking with a chatterbot.

71. Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.

72. Women have always been Venusians; men, Martians.

73. McDonald’s coffee has always been just a little too hot to handle.

74. “PC” has come to mean personal computer, not political correctness.

75. The New York Times and The Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.

Good luck, Kyle. I’m very proud of you!

Nevada delegates for Ron Paul closed ranks with like-minded delegates from other states like Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, Oregon, Alaska and the Virgin Islands. And on the last night of the Republican National Convention, those same delegates exchanged state flag pins with others as a sign of solidarity.

At any other time — this might seem unimportant — however not after seventeen of Nevada’s 27 Republican delegates voted in favor of Ron Paul with 5 abstaining and one casting their ballot for Mitt Romney.  Under binding caucus rules, most of Nevada’s delegates were to vote for Romney, who In February’s Nevada caucus won half of the state’s vote.

Former Nevada Governor Robert List says he’s never seen anything like the Paul supporters, who broke their pledges.

“You know other delegations have had their issues from time to time and there were others here this time that did,” List told KOH in Reno. “But this is the first time I’ve seen Nevada go off the rails like that.”

Sparks dentist, Paul supporter and chairman of the Nevada delegation Wayne Terhune said after being frustrated when the convention adopted new rules, he recorded the votes of each Nevada delegate, as they wanted, not as assigned. and that led to the delegations vote. Still others say the Paul delegates were simply waiting for something — anything — to use as an excuse to go off the beaten path.

“In the spirit of freedom that inspired the founding of our country,” Terhune said, “and in honor of the liberty that has made these states the greatest country on earth, we proudly cast 17 votes for Congressman Ron Paul.”

A former Carson City District Attorney and Nevada Attorney General, List called Terhune an “outlaw.” He also said he corrected the official Nevada delegate nomination vote as 20 for Romney and eight for Paul.

“Some of them are novices  and thought they could come here and do something unheard of, but Romney had this thing locked up two months ago,” List told the news-talk radio station. “This whole thing was just an exercise in futility on their part.”

Had Terhune correctly announced Nevada’s vote, the delegation could have put Romney over the top in the delegate count. Instead that honor now rests with New Jersey.

The International Security Assistance Force said in a brief statement a crash killed four of its members, three U.S. service members, three members of the Afghan national security forces and an Afghan civilian interpreter.

U.S. Army Sgt. Richard Essex, 23, was among 11 people killed August 16th, when the Black Hawk helicopter they were riding in crashed.  Essex was the helicopter’s gunner.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. However, media reports have stated the Taliban has claimed credit for shooting down the helicopter in Kandahar province.

A member of the Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Essex is the twenty-first North Coast service member killed in the Global War on Terror since 2001.  He previously served a yearlong tour in Iraq, deployed to Afghanistan last fall and was due home in November.

He was a 2008 graduate of Kelseyville High School. He played the bass guitar, was an artist and a published poet, with one book of poetry to his credit and another ready to be published soon.

Along U.S. 101, emergency personnel and private citizens gathered on overpasses to honor the soldier’s passing motorcade. Crowds waving American flags, holding thank-you signs and saluting lined the streets in Kelseyville.

“What a wonderful welcome home for Richard,” Noella Essex, Richard’s step-mother, wrote on her Facebook page. “People lined up for miles as his body was taken home — twenty or so police cars from all around, fire trucks, people with flags flying for their home town solider.”

Essex is survived by his mother and step-father, Marion and Brett Hopkins of Kelseyville; father and step-mother, Charles and Noella Essex of Crescent City, sisters, Stacey Hopkins and Jennifer Williamson; and brother, Michael Essex.

The daughter of a murdered Nevada lawmaker has been found dead in Phoenix, Arizona, after allegedly shooting and killing her lesbian partner.

Dallas Augustine, who worked as a correctional officer in Florence, is suspected of shooting Jessie McCaskill before taking her own life. Police discovered the bodies of the women after a family member called 9-1-1 concerned for their welfare.

The couple married at the Hotel Del Coronado, in San Diego, September 22nd, 2007.  In May 2008, Dallas unsuccessfully ran for the Las Vegas Assembly District 12 seat her mother, Kathy held when she first entered politics in 1992.

Kathy Augustine also served in the state Senate before being elected state controller in 1998 and re-elected to a second term. The first woman to hold the job, she became the first constitutional officer in Nevada history to be impeached and convicted after she pleaded guilty to three ethics violations in 2004.

She was found unconscious in her Reno home, July 8th, 2006, dying four days later without regaining consciousness. Although early reports stated the cause of death was a massive heart attack, police soon came to suspect foul play.

Augustine’s husband, Chaz Higgs, attempted suicide by slitting his wrists in the couple’s Las Vegas home, July 14th.  He was later arrested in Virginia, September 29th, 2006, and charged with first degree murder in her death.

Higgs, a critical care nurse, allegedly made suspicious remarks to a co-worker about how to kill someone using succinylcholine. He was convicted of murder in Reno, June 29th, 2007.

Dallas’ father, Delta Air Lines pilot Charles Augustine, died from complications of a stroke August 19th, 2003. Since Higgs was his private nurse at the time, authorities had him disinterred in October 2006 where they determined his death was due to natural causes.

Higg was sentenced to life in prison, with a chance of parole after 20 years. In May 2009, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld his murder conviction in a majority decision.

The Maricopa County medical examiner’s office says Augustine and McCaskill are scheduled for autopsies by the end of the week.