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You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

When half of the people get the idea they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that’s the beginning of the end of any nation.

There was a colt, which every time he heard anyone coming, he ran away. One afternoon, Uncle Adam came to where the pony was, but it just lowered his head, kicked up his hooves and galloped away.

Every time Uncle Adam got near him, the colt raced across the field. And his mother galloped with him and stayed by his side.

But Uncle Adam knew a lot about horses. So he jus’ went and leaned against a fence post and whistled gently to himself, never looking at the pony or his mother.

The colt saw Uncle Adam and he heard him whistling. However the pony jus’ lowered his head and nibbled grass.

Uncle Adam didn’t move and kept on whistling. Curious, the colt moved closer, nibbling some grass nearer to Uncle Adam.

But still Uncle Adam didn’t move and he kept on whistling. Then after a while he walked out of the field the way he had come and went away.

The next day he came back, and he stood there whistling and he gave the mother horse a cube of sugar. The third day when he came, he walked over to the mother horse and put a halter over her head and gave her another cube of sugar.

Then Uncle Adam led her around the field, and the pony followed after, close to his mother’s side.  After a few times around the pasture, he let the mother go and walked away, paying no attention to the colt whatsoever.

Uncle Adam returned a fifth day and a sixth, giving the mother a cube of sugar and walking her around the pasture, with the pony close to her side. By this time the colt was feeling more comfortable with Uncle Adam’s presence.

On the seventh day, Uncle Adam returned and instead of offering the mother a cube of sugar, he offered it to the pony. The little horse gladly accepted, and from then on he freely followed Uncle Adam around the pasture.

It was then Uncle Adam knew it was time to start training the colt to be a working ranch horse.

Democratic officials believe the growing Hispanic population in battleground states like Nevada gives those who embrace the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors amnesty legislation or DREAM Act, an edge in November’s elections. Nevada Congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Shelley Berkley supports the act and Senator Harry Reid made it the centerpiece of his reelection win in 2010.

Yet, three times, Congress voted down the DREAM Act. It should be clear to President Obama and others, that so-called middle-class Americans do not want amnesty enacted, especially not while our borders remain unsecured.

On the day Obamnesty went into effect, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed an executive order directing state agencies to deny driver’s licenses and other public benefits to illegal aliens granted “deferred action” amnesty and work authorizations after hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants began lining up across the nation to apply. In Arizona, an estimated 80,000 eligible illegal immigrants will apply for amnesty resulting in what Brewer calls “significant and lasting impacts on the Arizona budget, its health care system and additional public benefits that Arizona taxpayers fund.”

Ohio State Congressman Courtney Combs proposed an Arizona-style immigration law after the Supreme Court’s June ruling to uphold the key enforcement provision of Arizona’s SB 1070. If this anti-amnesty legislation passes, it will relieve Ohio taxpayers of $878 million in annual costs to support, educate, and care for illegal aliens and their dependents.

But Americans in other states aren’t so lucky.

Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin announced $275,000 in funds to cover thousands of illegal aliens’ $465 application fees. Then New York state officials set aside $450,000 in grants to be donated to three advocacy groups helping thousands of illegal aliens apply for Obamnesty work permits.

So not only will 1.8 million illegal aliens be competing for our jobs, but politicians are make it easier for them to do it.

Once again Senator Harry Reid is busy rewriting both Nevada and U.S. history.  When asked about renaming Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport during a ceremony at the airport’s new Terminal Three, he said he was for it — but that’s not all he had to say.

“Pat McCarran was one of the most anti-Semitic — some of you might know my wife’s Jewish — one of the most anti-black, one of the most prejudiced people who has ever served in the Senate,” said Reid, “It’s not a decision I’m going to make, but if you ask me to give my opinion, I don’t think his name should be on anything.”

McCarran was a United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until his death in 1954.  He was also Nevada Chief Justice, chairman of the Nevada State Board of Parole Commissioners, chairman of the Nevada State Board of Bar Examiners and district attorney for Nye County.

The only thing he was “anti-” on was Communism — which he hated with a passion.

This is the second time Reid has attacked a deceased Nevada politician. In 2009, he released his biography, “The Good Fight,” a play on words referring to his boxing background, claiming Nevada U.S. Congressman Walter Baring told him President John Kennedy’s assassination was “a good thing.”

“There is no way my dad would have said anything like that, much less to Harry Reid,” said Jeff Baring, son of former Congressman Walter Baring, “Simply, no way.”

As I said then — and repeat now — Reid needs mental health help.

Nevada voters have one less choice in November, now that a federal judge struck down the states voting option of “none of the above,” saying it’s unconstitutional and should be removed from the ballot.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones says that because the option can never win, even if it gets the most votes, those votes are worthless. A federal lawsuit filed in June and backed by the Republican National Committee argued Nevada’s voter option disenfranchises voters because it’s a perpetual loser.

However, former Sparks Assemblyman and state Senator Don Mello, who created the 1976 law disagrees.

“Talking about disenfranchising the voter?” he tells KOLO 8 News. “That’s what he’s trying to do, by telling them they’re not allowed to go to the polls and vote none of the above.”

“It tells the candidate something too.” Mello adds. “That they’d better change their ways if they want to stay in office.”

Jones is a 2003 Bush appointee and because of this Mello, a Democrat, sees the ruling as another GOP efforts to suppress votes by creating stricter voter ID requirements.

“If the Republican party doesn’t like it,” Mello says,” they ought to run better candidates.”

Recently, the Obama administration has battled state’s over their requirement voters produce a picture ID to vote, saying it disenfranchises minorities and the elderly. Furthermore, the Department of Justice has taken several states to court to stop them from removing the dead, illegal aliens, felons and those who’ve moved to another state or country from the voter rolls.

Meanwhile, the September 20^th deadline for finalizing ballots looms for officials across the state who have the last-minute job of making the changes to the ballots before mailing them to overseas voters.  Secretary of State Ross Miller says his office will pursue “an immediate and expedited appeal.”

More and more, the Republican and Democratic parties are looking like the same party.

Joseph Russ was born in 1825 in Maine, and came west in 1850. In fall of 1852 he purchased 100 cattle in Placerville, and with two hired cowboys, drove them over the Coast Range to Humboldt County, selling them in Eureka to the Army which was buying beef for its troops on the north coast where there were Indian wars.

The following spring he filed a claim and built a log cabin near Fern Cottage. He and a partner, Barry Adams, went to the Sacramento area to buy a large herd of cattle, eventually opening a meat market in Eureka.

He met his future wife Zipporah in Sacramento and persuaded her family to move to the Ferndale area. Though she was 16 and he was 29, they married December 17, 1854, having 13 children throughout the years.

In the mid-1850s they began to buy ranch land, ultimately owning some 50,000 acres. Over time Russ enterprises included timber and lumber, an abattoir, several meat markets, a bank, ships, and a dry goods emporium.

Joseph conducted his business activities from the home in Fern Cottage; the children went to school, and the home was the center of a dairy farm. Across the street were barns, stables and living quarters for ranch hands.

Bertha Russ Lytel, the youngest of Joseph and Zipporah’s children, died in 1972. She was the last direct descendant to live in the Fern Cottage home, built originally in 1866.

All the furniture and furnishings are original to the house and the family, but not of the same period. Many of Zipporah’s dresses are on display in her bedroom or sitting room.

According to the homes website, ferncottage.org: “Of the 182 direct descendants of Joseph and Zipporah Russ on our records, 36 live in Ferndale, another 19 elsewhere in Humboldt County, for a total of 30.1 percent in the county.  Another 60 live elsewhere in Northern California and 19 in Southern California.”

President Barack Obama is accusing Mitt Romney of being blind to the burdens of paying for college, claiming his opponent’s education policies amount to nothing more than encouraging them to tap their parents for money or “shop around” for the best deal.

“This is his plan,” President Obama said during his recent campaign speech in Reno at Truckee Meadows Community College. “That’s his answer to a young person hoping to go to college — shop around and borrow more money from your parents if you have to. Not only is that not a good answer, it’s not even an answer,”

The president continues to try linking Romney’s education policies with the House Republican budget blueprint offered by Congressman Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate.  He claims Ryan’s budget proposal would cut $115 billion from the Education Department, costing 1 million college students their Pell Grants over the next decade.

Meanwhile, Nevada’s unemployment rate stands at 12 percent, the highest in the country and 3.7 percentage points higher than the national rate. In fact the state’s numbers for unemployment increased four-tenths of a percent in July.

Nevada also has the sixth worst foreclosure rate in the country, due in part to new laws forcing lenders to increase the processing and paperwork timeline, however, while touching on employment briefly, the president failed to mention the housing crisis at all in his Reno remarks.

She had laid her baby to sleep in her bassinette and went to Mrs. Fortain’s, up the road for a visit. Mrs. Fortain owned the nearby mobile home park.

Once there, they began to chat about this and that, but were suddenly interrupted by a sound of the nearby Yurok Volunteer Fire Departments siren.

“Look,” Mrs. Farmer exclaimed, “I can see the fire truck coming this way!”

The red vehicle turned off U.S. 101 onto the gravel road of Sanders Court, and raced by Fortain’s Mobile Home Park.

Without another word the Widow Farmer ran into the road and towards her house. Smoke and flames were already pouring through the roof.

“My baby!” she cried as she raced into the front yard of her home.

Pa Sanders, the fire chief and owner of Sanders Court, grabbed her by the arm.

“You can’t go in there!” he said, “You’ll get killed.”

“Let me go!” she shouted, breaking free and running into the flaming house anyway.

Dashing through the smoke and flames, she scooped up her child, then started to make her way out. But, overcome by the smoke, she passed out, fell, and would have died with her baby in her arms had a fireman not found and carried her out.

Fortunately the baby wasn’t harmed; the Widow Farmer though, was badly hurt. Soon an ambulance arrived, taking her to Seaside Hospital.

There doctors found her hands to be horribly burned. And though they did their best to heal them, they were left scarred.

Weeks became months, and months became years. The Widow Farmer’s baby grew into an adult, she married and eventually moved away.

When I was ten-years old, the Widow Farmer was babysitting my brother, sisters and me when I noticed her hands. It was something I had seen before, but had never really paid attention too.

“You’re hands are ugly,” I exclaimed.

“Yes, Tommy,” the elderly woman said quietly, “They are ugly, aren’t they?”

She must have been hurt beyond words, because I remember the tears in her eyes.

“Do you know why I have ugly hands?” asked the Widow Farmer.

Then she told me the story. She told of the fire, of how she was held back, the wild dash into the burning house, how she lifted her daughter from the crib, of how she fell, of being rescued and how badly she burned he had been.

At that moment I realized she had done something heroic.

“My hands were beautiful back then,” she finished.

“Mrs. Farmer,” I said trying to choke back my shame, “they’re beautiful!”

A Carson City lobbyist may have bit off more than he should have when he brought together Nevada and technology giant, Apple, Inc.

Greg Ferraro represented Apple, while his company, Ferraro Group, has a contract with Nevada’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development, which inked the agreement. Ferraro’s long-standing friendship with Governor Brian Sandoval is also being called into question over the arrangement.

A state board approved a $200-an-hour contract with the Ferraro Group for public relations and communications in 2009, before Sandoval’s election as governor. The contract, extended in 2011 for another two years, caps out at $180,000.

The negotiations between Nevada and Apple netted the company $89 million in tax breaks. Furthermore, Apple is eligible for up to 12 years of reduced sales taxes and 30 years of property tax abatements.

For receipt of those tax breaks, Apple promised a $1 billion investment — mostly in computer servers — which will not manufactured in the state.  The company also agreed to hire 35 people full-time and another 200 contractors at its Reno facility.

Getting Apple to come to Northern Nevada and promoting the state as “a good place to do business,” were the goals officials had in mind when they launched this venture. So far, the second goal “has yet to pan out,” as they would say along the Comstock.

Meanwhile, Ferraro, who did not take direct part in the negotiations, says he doesn’t believe his relationship with both sides presents a conflict. It does though, double his pay out.

President Obama will campaign Tuesday in Reno, delivering remarks at Truckee Meadows Community College. The Obama campaign says the event is open to the public, but tickets are required and will be available at Obama campaign offices in Reno and Carson City beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday.

The president will talk about the upcoming election, focusing on how his plan for the economy, jobs and paying down the nation’s debt differs from that of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. It will be Obama’s third visit to northern Nevada in recent months, including an official state-visit to speak to the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars Convention on July 23rd.

So far all the campaign visits the president has made to the Reno area has cost local taxpayers $350-thousand for the extra police protection. When the Reno Police Department asked the Secret Service for possible reimbursement, the department was told by the Secret Service, it considers the work the RPD does, part of the departments civic duty.

Not only is the president not creating jobs in Northern Nevada, he’s also making Northern Nevada taxpayers foot some of the bill for his campaign visits which should be picked up by the Democratic National Committe or the Obama Campaign.