In a Washington Examiner article, University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato is naming Nevada’s Senator Harry Reid as 2016′s ‘Most Endangered Democrat,’ suggesting Republicans’ run Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval against him in the upcoming election cycle.

This fits directly with a prediction I made in August 2009 shortly after Sandoval decided to Sandoval step down from a life-long appointment as a Federal Judge to run for governor.

“Brian Sandoval is quitting his lifetime appointment as a Federal Judge in order to run for the state’s governorship. Sandoval was Nevada attorney general before he quit to take over the bench and had been chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission before he bailed from the job to become AG.

Simply put — Sandoval isn’t a real public servant. Instead he’s using ‘public-service,’ to climb the ladder to what he believes are ‘bigger and better positions.’

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb, predicting he’ll quit as Nevada governor to run for the U.S. Senate, if the opportunity arises.”

Granted, I felt certain at the time he was going to bolt from the governor’s mansion the moment John Ensign resigned. Surprisingly, Sandoval appointed then-Congressman and fellow-Progressive Dean Heller to the position instead.

My prediction was on, my timing was off.

Nevada’s two Senators are involving themselves in the NFL’s investigation known a ‘deflategate.’ Evidently, sports now fall within the realm of national politics.

Senator Dean Heller is calling on league officials to punish those he labeled ‘cheaters.”

“As the Senator from the only state where sports betting is legal, it is imperative the integrity of the game never be questioned,” Heller complained.

The NFL also drew the anger of Nevada’s senior Senator, Harry Reid.

“I can’t believe the National Football League, with the billions of dollars it makes, couldn’t at least determine how much air should be in a football,” Reid said.

Idiotic.

Meanwhile, Patriot’s QB Tom Brady poked fun at the two Senator’s: “This isn’t ISIS, no one’s dying.”

However, ISIS/ISIL did behead Haruna Yukawa of Japan after that country refused to pay a  $200 million ransom, for him and Kenji Goto.  The terror group is now demanding the release of a would-be suicide bomber being held in Jordon for Goto’s freedom.

Now back to what really doesn’t matter…

Following the 45-7 rout of the Baltimore Colts during the AFC Championship game, someone accused New England of deflating their footballs. The Pat’s deny the charge and the NFL continues to investigate.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has died at 90. His successor is expected to be his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman.

This spells trouble. Along with Abdullah’s death and fall of the government in Yemen, Iran will now extend its influence over Sana’a in Yemen Iraq’s Baghdad, Damascus, Syria and Beirut in Lebanon.

Ironically, at the same time, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists pushed the Doomsday Clock ahead by two minutes. It now rests at to 11:57 p.m.

The closer it is to midnight, the closer the world is to doom, according to the Board. The last time the clock moved was in 2012 when they set the minute hands to 11:55 p.m.

‘Babe the Blue Ox’ lost his head in November 2007 because of structural weakness, and now Paul Bunyan has lost the use of his right arm. The 49-foot statue at Trees of Mystery in Klamath, California had its arm smashed by a tree limb that fell during a heavy rainstorm.

Apparently, a large branch blew off the nearby “Family Tree,’ during a recent rainstorm. It slammed into the statue, leaving the arm hanging limply to the side. The damaged arm should be repaired in a month’s time.

The business began in 1945 when Larry Thompson bought “Redwood Wonderland” and changed the name to Trees of Mystery. He then built the first Paul Bunyan statue out of papier-mache, which did not last through the wet winter.

In 1979, Louisiana mental health patient, Cathy Woods confessed, was tried and convicted of killing 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell of Reno. She has since been released, pending a new trial to take place in July 2015.

Michelle’s body was found in a garage near 9th and Evans Avenue, three-years earlier, hand’s bound and throat slashed. Witnesses reported seeing someone helping her push her VW Bug into the parking lot across from the UNR agricultural building on Evans Street.

She was a sophomore nursing student at the UNR at the time of her death.

Now San Mateo County, California investigators say 66-year-old Rodney Halbower has been extradited from Oregon State Prison to San Mateo. He’s charged with two counts of Murder with Special Circumstance in the cases of Paula Baxter and Veronica Cascio.

The body of 18-year-old Veronica was discovered pm January 8, in a creek on the grounds of the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, California. She had been stabbed 30 times.

Only 17 at the time, Paula went missing on February 2. Her nude body was found February 4, behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Millbrae, California.

She had been stabbed four times, sexually assaulted and struck on the head with a piece of concrete. Her killing was forensically linked to Veronica.

A few weeks later, 14-year-old Tatiana Blackwell was reported missing after leaving her home in Pacifica to run an errand. She was discovered off Sharp Park Road in the Gypsy Hills section of the city on June 6, having also been stabbed multiple times.

Nineteen-year-old Carol Booth was reported missing by her husband on March 15, and discovered in a shallow grave near Colma Creek on Grand Avenue, in South San Francisco, on May 6. Denise Lampe, 26, of Broadmoor, California was found after a search in the parking lot of the Serramonte Center, stabbed 20 times, April 1.

A month before, Denise’s murder, on March 17, 21-year-old Idell Friedman was found stabbed to death in her San Francisco apartment. Her murder has yet to be officially linked to the others.

Halbower was previously identified as a person of interest after San Mateo investigators made a DNA link between a cigarette butt and semen found at the crime scenes. The FBI has since confirmed a DNA match to Michelle’s murder to samples found by San Mateo.

He has yet to be charged in Michelle’s death. Halbower was in custody in Oregon, serving time for an attempted murder charge.

While our media and politicians obsess over 11 deflated footballs, this is what is happening in other parts the world.  Which offends you more? Which is more worrisome? Which should be the focus of the media and our politicians?

You know the answer!

Call it what you will, but I call it the ‘Obama Effect.’

During his SOTU address President Obama publicly recognized eBay, as he highlighted the strength of the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, less than 24 hours later the company announced it will be cutting 2,400 jobs.

Ouch! I really feel bad for those people.

John Donahoe, eBay’s president and CEO gave thousands to Obama’s 2012 campaign. He’s also donated more than $90,000 to other Democrats since 2006.

But all is okay — the company’s stock jumped more than four-percent after the announcement — so now he can give even more to the Democratic Party.

President Obama wants everyone to have two “free” years of junior college. In his recent “State of the Union,” address he laid out new tax packages that includes a $320 billion hike to help pay for this plan.

Under current law, 529-Plans work like Roth IRAs — you put money in, and the money grows tax-free for college. Distributions are tax-free provided they are to pay for college.

But here’s what Obama didn’t say in plain, understandable language…

Under the Obama plan, earnings from a 529-Plan will no longer be tax-free. Instead, earnings would be taxed upon withdrawal, even if the withdrawal is to pay for college.

In addition to taxing college savings plans, Obama is calling for a hike in capital gains taxes, an increase in the death tax, a bank tax and an increase in retirement plan taxes. Each of his proposals will affect the middle class either directly or somewhere down the road.

This is nothing more than a ‘redistribution of wealth’ plan as those who’ve been saving and planning ahead for college will foot the bill for those who didn’t.

A rededication ceremony of Galaxy Grove took place at the Wilbur D. May Arboretum and Botanical Garden inside Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.  In late 2013, thieves stole the original bronze plaque from the memorial.

Three decades after Reno’s worst aviation disaster, Washoe County unveiled a new memorial plaque in tribute to the victims of Galaxy Airlines Flight 203. The plane crashed January 21, 1985, minutes after taking off from what was then Reno-Cannon International Airport.

Of the 71 passengers and crew, only 17-year-old George Lamson Jr. survived. Most of the passengers were from Minnesota and had taken the charter flight for Super Bowl weekend.

The new plaque mistakenly names the stricken flight as ‘Galaxy 205.’

About 50 veterans protested a speaking engagement by Jane Fonda at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Maryland. Fonda drew the anger of many Americans when she visited North Vietnam in 1972, leading some to call her “Hanoi Jane.”

Fonda told the audience she made a “huge mistake” and it’s something that she’ll take to her grave.  Unfortunately, Fonda failed to make it clear whether she was sorry for supporting the Communists or for getting caught supporting the Communists.

Either way, she escaped punishment for ‘aiding and abetting the enemy,’ in my opinion.