“Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans,” screams the headline from CBS News. But there is more to the story than the report first admits too – and while one suicide is one too many, the report is better than you think.

The Department of Veterans Affairs released its ‘Suicide Data Report 2014.’ The study’s author, Janet E. Kemp, RN, PhD, used data from the VA and 23 states to look at the issue of suicide and the military veteran.

The Census Bureau estimates there are 21.5 million veterans in the United States, with 19.3 million male veterans and 2.2 million women vets. However, the 23 states studied contain less than 50- percent of the U.S. population in 2012.

Included is data from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Interestingly, the state with the second largest population, California is not included in the study.

Veterans, ages 18-24 enrolled in the VA’s health program, killed themselves at a rate of 80 per 100,000 in 2011. This means two veterans a day in this age group, commit suicide, down from the 22 per day in 2010.

The study also shows suicide among civilian men, 35 to 64, increasing by more than 27-percent. On the other hand, the suicide rate dropped over 16-percent for male veterans in the same age group..

For women 35 to 64, who served, a 31.2 percent rate was found while the rate for civilians was slightly higher at 31.5 percent. The greatest percentage of suicides among female veterans resulted from both poisoning and firearm injury, while men tend to use a firearm in most cases.

If you are currently active duty military or a veteran and are experiencing emotional difficulties, call the VA’s Suicide Prevention Office at 1-800-273-8255.

Near the current entrance to the Jed Smith State Park campground, a memorial stone sits 20 feet from Highway 199, north of Crescent City, California. Hundreds drive by it daily, never realizing it’s there.

Following World War II, a push to form memorials to its veterans was made. Small memorials were established all over the country, but one in particular has national significance and it’s been there since 1949.

The memorial is like no other. This is because the ‘National Tribute Grove,’ includes 5,000 acres of old-growth redwood forest.

Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, a former Secretary of the Interior, said “Instead of stone or concrete, this monument is made up of living trees, survivors of centuries of combat with storm, drought, fire and flood.”

At the start of the war, the land was owned by the Del Norte Lumber Company.  The ‘Save the Redwoods League’ contracted with the company to buy the land as ten, 500-acre parcels and asked Americans to give to the cause.

The 5,000 acres purchased with these donations are almost half of the park. The names given with the donations were published in the ‘Golden Book,’ with one copy to be kept in the state and another in Washington, D.C.

Adopting the grove as a national project, the ‘Daughters of the American Revolution’ took up the goal of purchasing the final 500-acre parcel, raising over $26,000 through thousands of 10 to 29 cent donations.

The state of California matched the DAR donation dollar for dollar to make the final purchase. Located on the only part of the grove along the highway, the monument was placed so that anyone traveling 199 would see it.

The monument was unveiled September 15th, 1929, during a dedication ceremony. Mrs. Roscoe C. O’Byrne, the DAR President General, gave a speech about the importance of the trees to the veterans and to America.

“We recognize that conservation is of vital importance to this country,” she said. “Unless we conserve, we shall be among the nations that have not. Preservation of this grove is a lesson in conservation to every American. We should apply this lesson not only to our trees, but to our very national life.”

She concluded, “In loving memory of the men and women of our country who served in the world war, we dedicate these trees to their courage, to their fidelity and to their sacrifice. May this ‘Land where our fathers died’ never be despoiled by the enemies of democracy.

“May these trees stand through the centuries as living symbols of the enduring strength of a free people, a great nation, our own United States of America,” she concluded.

On August 5th, 1963, the treaty banning atmospheric nuclear testing was signed by the U.S. and Russia. However it didn’t halt the testing of nuclear testing underground.

The Project Shoal site near Fallon became one of two test sites in Nevada used for such testing.

An Atomic Energy Commission office opened in Fallon. A Dr. Robert Frosch, working out of that office, said the area was chosen for its closeness to the epicenter of 1954 Dixie Valley-Fairview Peak earthquakes. The aftershocks of those quakes were so extensive they were still being recorded in 1963.

He told the ‘Fallon Eagle-Standard,’ “The primary purpose is to obtain seismic signs from a nuclear explosion in an area where natural earthquakes occur, in order that we can compare the seismic signatures from the two sources occurring in the same area and thus having the same characteristics.”

He added it was imperative to find ways to discover underground Soviet tests and to distinguish them from earthquakes.

On October 26th, 1963, an atomic bomb was detonated underground in the mountains about 20 miles southeast of Fallon. The 12.5-kiloton nuclear device was about 80 percent as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.

The government spent more than $5 million on the project. Before the detonation, four miles of land surrounding ground zero was withdrawn from public use by the BLM at the request of the AEC.

At GZ, a head frame was constructed and a shaft was drilled 1,211 feet deep. From the bottom of the shaft, a 1,000-foot tunnel was drilled through the solid granite rock.

There also were buildings, machines and vehicles there to measure, document and calibrate the blast forces, a first aid trailer, a mobile radio-assay lab for counting alpha and beta activity, personnel decontamination trailer, a weather trailer and a mobile laundry trailer for decontaminating clothing.  Along with this were 18 remote gamma detectors.

Precautions such as off-site surveillance from five to 50 miles from ground zero began in July 1963 to find a baseline of radioactive contamination and continued on the day of the test and afterward. There was no reported rise in radiation at any point.

On the day of the test, the public was invited to watch from about four and a half miles away on State Route 839, which is known locally as Nevada Scheelite Mine Road. A parking area had been made along the highway and next to the road leading to GZ for observers and for those driving on the highway who had to be stopped jus’ before the blast occurred.

At six, the morning of the detonation, the Federal Aviation Administration began broadcasting warnings every half hour for aircraft to avoid the airspace to 12,000 feet and 50 nautical miles southeast. The bomb was detonated at 10 a.m., and about four seconds later, a loud roar filled the air and a dust cloud 1,000 feet tall began to rise over desert.

A magnesium flare marked the moment the blast went off, but it was a couple of seconds later when those in the parking lot were jarred by a severe ground shock. A seismograph reported a reading of about 4.7 on the Richter scale.

The earth bulged, but no crater was formed. Instead a shaft, nearly 170 feet in diameter and 460 feet high was created, with rock fractures extending out in all directions for hundreds of feet and several tons of radioactive rubble believed to contain two kilograms of unburned plutonium-239 with a half-life expectancy of 24,000 years filling it.

Although no radiation leaked into the atmosphere during the test, the ‘Fallon Eagle–Standard’ reported December 17th, 1963, drillers had found temperatures of 600 degrees and radiation that peaked at 40 Roentgen per hour. A final radiological safety survey, conducted in 1964, found all radiation levels were not above natural background levels.

The area was cleaned by scraping the surface and mixing the contaminated soil with clean soil and burying that soil under several feet on contaminated earth.  Decommissioned in 1964, it would another six years before the land was once again returned to the BLM and open to the public.

A woman has life-threatening injuries after she being shot at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in Carson City Sunday morning.  The shooting happened jus’ before noon on the 3rd floor.

The shooter, 88-year old William Dresser, walked into his wife’s room and shot her in the chest with a handgun. Authorities have not released what she was originally being treated for.

Correctional officers were guarding a prisoner a few doors away when the shooting happened, and are credited with helping subdue Dresser. The woman has been flown to Renown for her injuries.

The hospital was on lockdown for about two hours while officers investigated. None of the other patients were threatened and hospital staff worked to make sure they were as safe as possible.

This shooting comes about a month after suicidal gunman opened fire at Renown last December, killing one person, critically wounding two others and sending police on a door-to-door search within the facility amid the chaos.

Dr. Christine Lajeunesse and Shawntae Spears were injured in the attack, while Dr. Charles Gholdoian died after being shot in the upper torso. Investigators say Alan Frazier, from Lake Almanor, left evidence at his home indicating the shooting was planned.

The shooting came nearly two months after a 12-year-old boy opened fire at an area middle school, killing a math teacher before taking his own life. Two other students were treated for their injuries at Renown, the largest hospital in northern Nevada.

Renown has also treated victims of other recent tragedies, including a deadly incident involving a truck versus a train near Fallon, a crash at a Reno air race in 2011 that killed 11 people and a rampage at a Carson City restaurant the same year that killed three uniformed Nevada National Guard members.

Meanwhile, Dresser has been booked into the Carson City Jail on charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon. Authorities say they believe this was domestic violence incident.

To Sarah Pisan, excited about her new job as a gas station manager in Las Vegas, Nevada, Robert Generoso had the car, the look, the money.  She jus’ didn’t want to date him.

But Generoso persisted.

In 1980, the 19-year-old Sarah had three children and was busy with her new job.

“He started coming in on a daily basis,” Sarah says, “and then one day he asked me out. He didn’t want to take no for an answer.”

“I finally looked at him, and said, call me sometime. And he said okay, and he took off and he left,” Sarah says, “and probably 10 minutes later — the phone went off in my booth.”

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for a very long time,” she heard.

The call freaked her out so badly, that she decided to skip the date.

Shortly after, Las Vegas Metro police called her mom in Bullhead City, south of Vegas. They told her Sarah’s friend and coworker, Cheryl Ann Daniels had been killed and her body dumped in Hell Hole Canyon.

“She said I just got off the phone call with metro police,” Sarah recalls, “and they’ve linked you to a homicide.”

The killer had left behind his wallet and in that wallet were Sarah’s name and address. She almost went on a date with the killer and when she didn’t he tried to kill her at her work.

Her life was changed forever.

Generoso, whose real name was Stephen Peter Morin had been killing for over ten years and was a master of disguise; he had changed his name and appearance many times.

The police made Sarah leave her job and the area in order to save her life, convinced she would be dead within the week otherwise. So she moved to Texas.

“He found me, and I knew at that point that it really didn’t matter where I went,” Sarah says.  “The only places I had a choice to go to he already knew.”

Though never convicted for Cheryl’s murder, Morin was executed by lethal injection March 13th, 1985, for the 1981 murder of Carrie Scott. Morin was later convicted of the killings of Janna Bruce in Corpus Christi and Shelia Whalen in Golden Colorado.

In the early morning hours of December 11th, 1981 in San Antonio, Morin shot and killed 21-year old Carrie in front of her place of employment. She interrupted Morin in the process of stealing her car.

Later that day, Morin abducted Margaret Palm from a local shopping center. Morin and Margaret drove to Kerrville where Morin ended up boarding a bus to Austin.

Margaret survived the ordeal.

He was busted in Austin ending a four-year FBI manhunt.  At the time of his arrest Morin was a suspect in 37 violent crimes from coast to coast.

As for the former Las Vegas resident, Sarah lives along the coast of Southern Oregon. She also penned the book, ‘Sarah’s Story: Target of a Serial Killer,’ in 2013.

The word ‘Google’ which is the name of a famous search engine, is a play on the number ‘googol’ – the equivalent to the number one followed by 100 zeros. But, really, what is ‘Google,’ all about?

Google was jus’ an ‘Internet search engine,’ – in 1998 — but today, you’d be surprised at what they’re in to. Not only is it the biggest player in internet advertising today, it sends balloons into near-space, outfits  cities like Topeka, Kansas with underground cables, runs your smartphone and tablets and is taking on the wearable tech sector with such items as Google Glass.

Recently, Google purchased a military robot maker, Boston Dynamics. It’s the eighth robot maker Google has snatched up.

The deal indicates the Internet giant and pioneer of self-driving cars is serious about a robot-filled future.  In March 2012, Google file for an application to operate self-driving automobile in Nevada, maintaining the technology is not supposed to replace drivers, but help them.

So far, Google isn’t sharing much about the purchases augmenting it’s newly-launched robotics division. Meanwhile, Google has quietly invested in such companies like ‘Buttercoin,’ a marketplace for virtual currency ‘Bitcoin,’ and ‘Wittlebee,’ a child’s clothing specialist, ‘Kabam, a social gaming start-up; ‘Fitstar,’ a firm looking to create fitness apps, and ‘Nextdoor,’ a local social networking platform.

Add to this, investments in the health sector with companies like ‘23AndMe,’ a biotechnology firm ofering rapid genetic testing, allowing customers to take a swab of their own DNA and have it checked, quickly, for genetic-based diseases. And members of Google’s “X” team, a group working on top secret research projects, were having meetings with officials from the US Food and Drug Administration to discuss their plans.

Google has also acquired Nest, the maker of the energy-saving ‘Learning Thermostat’ and ‘Protect’ smoke alarm for $3.2 billion, headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The merger will help Google gain a toehold into the design and manufacturing of sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled, self-learning, programmable thermostats and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

“Google will help us fully realize our vision of the conscious home and allow us to change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone,” Nest CEO Tony Fadell blogs. “We’ve had great momentum, but this is a rocket ship. Google has the business resources, global scale, and platform reach to accelerate Nest growth across hardware, software, and services for the home globally.”

Lastly, Google has been tied directly to the National Security Administrations’ Internet data-mining sweep through the use of small tracking files or ‘cookies.’ Experts say given the widespread use of Google services and widgets, most Web users are likely to have a ‘Google PREF cookie’ even if they’ve never visited a Google property directly.

While out and about a day ago, I decided to stop by an old book store in Sparks. “The Book Gallery,” has been on North Rock for most of the last quarter century.

Once inside I started browsing the ‘Mystery’ and ‘Western’ section of the story. I’m always looking for a book I haven’t read by Louis L’Amour, Elizabeth Coel or Tony Hillerman.

Barring my ability to find anything by the three authors above, I generally turn to the ‘Classics,’ searching for books by Jack London or O. Henry. And every once in a while, I’ll find something that I had no idea I was looking for.

Case in point: A small book of poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson. What makes this so unique to me is that the book, “A Child’s Garden of Verses,” was published in the year 1900, six short years after his death.

The binding is in very good shape, though it does show signs of being handled. But it is the lithograph art work through out the book that makes this four-dollar purchase so remarkable.

For me — this is a wonderful find.

Former Nevada State Assemblyman Bernie Anderson has died. The Washoe County Democrat represented District 31 and was a retired Reed High School teacher.

He served from 1991 through 2010, in several key positions including chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and was a staunch supporter of children and education. His family says he had been hospitalized in Reno since December 26th for pulmonary problems.

Services are pending. He was 71.

On Sunday, December 7, George “Skateboard George” Spinner passed away at 68.

Born in Queens, N.Y., Spinner’s life took him on a journey from the bustling streets of New York to the sunny landscapes of California’s San Fernando Valley. It was there that he spent his formative years before the family relocated to Tucson, Arizona.

Spinner was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome at age three, a neurological condition characterized by involuntary outbursts and muscle tics or spasms.

When Spinner’s sister secured a job in Reno, he followed her, making the Biggest Little City his new home. Over the years, he became an integral part of the community, leaving an indelible mark on those he encountered.

In recent years, Spinner grappled with health issues, facing the challenges of arthritis and ultimately undergoing hip replacement surgery. As time passed, additional health concerns emerged. A few months ago, his electric wheelchair broke, necessitating the use of a manually operated chair.

A burial service to honor his memory was held at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 10, at Our Mother of Sorrows on North Virginia Street.

It has been 50 years and $20 trillion since President Lyndon Johnson announced his War on Poverty to bring education, health care, and jobs to the underprivileged and downtrodden so they could live the American Dream. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation that outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women, ending unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public.

Four months after signing the legislation, LBJ visited Northern Nevada, speaking at Powning Park in downtown Reno. In his opening remarks beginning at 9:57, the morning of October 12th, 1964, he referred to Governor and Mrs. Grant Sawyer, Senators Alan Bible and Howard Cannon, and Congressman Walter Baring, all of Nevada, thanking them for their help in passing the bill.