Asked once if I were to write a history of the Silver State, where would I begin? My answer:  Berlin, Nevada.

That’s because long before it was a mining camp – and I mean LONG BEFORE – it was home to a prehistoric creature we know as the Ichthyosaur. In fact the area was acquired by the State of Nevada in 1970 and turned into a state park featuring 40 fossilized remains of the ancient sea monster.

The Ichthyosaur was a giant marine reptile that resembled a dolphin. Ichthyosaurs averaged six and a half to 13 feet in length and could weigh anywhere between 360 pounds to jus’ over a ton.

At Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nye County, a 55-foot skeleton remains embedded in the rock and is protected from the elements in a large barn.  In 1977, the Ichthyosaur became the State Fossil State of Nevada, which is some 90 million years after it became extinct.

As for the mining camp of Berlin — in 1911 it also suffered extinction.

A private jet carrying U.S. Marine Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman’s flag-draped casket landed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.  A half-dozen family members, a flight of airmen, the base color guard and seven white-gloved Marines met the plane on the tarmac for his final journey home.

The 2007 Pahrump High School graduate died January 15th while trying to rescue another Marine involved in an electric generator mishap in Helmand province.  Lance Cpl. Kenneth E. Cochran of Wilder, Idaho, was also killed in that accident.

The incident remains under investigation.

The FBI arrested a woman in Henderson on charges that she tried to vote twice. Roxanne Rubin, whose a registered Republican according to the Clark County Registrar of Voters office, is accused of trying to vote a second time on the same day.

Miller said poll workers questioned Rubin when they found her name in a database showing she had already cast a ballot, but she denied having voted and insisted she be allowed to vote. The election workers did not allow Rubin to vote and reported the incident to the Clark County registrar, who notified the secretary of state.

An investigation was launched by the Nevada’s multi-jurisdictional Elections Integrity Task Force (EITF). She was later arrested and charged with one felony count of voting more than once in the same election.

“There are two important points worth noting in this case,” Miller said. “First is that, as we’ve said and demonstrated in the past, we take all elections complaints very seriously and investigate them thoroughly. Second, this demonstrates the integrity of the system. Someone thought that by going to two different locations they’d be able to cast two ballots. The system immediately caught that, the task force responded and an arrest was made.”

The EITF is investigating at least one other incident of someone trying to vote twice.

This begs two yet unanswered questions: If she did try to vote again, how many other attempts has she made? And finally, if she didn’t actually vote as she claims, who voted in her place?

It was nearing the end of the year and nearly half a year since I had last seen my son. Kyle was living in  Oregon with his mother while I continued living in Reno.

At the time he had jus’ started what he called “school.” Actually it was a pre-school with a religious curriculum and he was telling me all about it.

The big story was about the “hairy ticks that the church guys like to put on fire with their candles.” I had no idea what he was talking about but I listened jus’ the same.

Later that night as I lay on the bed next to him, watching him sleep, I reflected back on the day’s events. The story about the “hairy ticks” popped into my brain and I let it linger there for a few seconds.

Then like a bolt out of the blue, it hit me what Kyle was telling me. He wasn’t talking about insects – rather how the church used to punish people who didn’t fall in line with their teachings.

He was talking about heretics – not hairy ticks!

Fire officials say 29 homes have been destroyed by a 3,200 acre brush fire near Reno, that forced 10,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. Firefighters were able to stop the fire’s progress, but not before wind gusts of up to 82 mph sent it rushing through a valley south of town, creating flames up to 40 feet high.

By late afternoon, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval asked for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency which is responding with a special team. They will look at the number of homes and businesses impacted by the fire and whether there should be an emergency declaration.

One person died in the fire. Authorities say 93-year-old June Hargis was trapped inside her daughters home.

While her cause of death remains unknown, officials believed she died from smoke inhalation. Autopsy results are pending

Then there’s the person described only as “an elderly gentleman,” who has confessed to improperly disposing of fireplace ashes, possibly starting the blaze.  The cause is still under investigation.

As for the family of June Hargis, they’re against prosecuting the man who started the fire. They add prosecution would do no good.

Meanwhile, rain and snow helped firefighters surround the fire, declaring it fully contained early Saturday.  Evacuations were also lifted and U.S. 395 reopened to through traffic.

Finally, Vice President Joe Biden was forced to cut short a speech about college costs at Galena High School.  Aides summoned him off stage 25 minutes into his speech where he told the audience he would have to move onto a question-and-answer time before officials “make me get out of here.”

A 22-year-old U.S.  Marine has died in Afghanistan.  Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman of Pahrump is the first Nevadan to die in overseas military operations this year.

On his Facebook page Bateman listed his favorite quote as, “Ducle et decorum est pro paria mori.”  It’s Latin and translated reads, “It is sweet and right to die for your country.”

Bateman was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton and on his first deployment.  He died last Sunday while conducting operations, though it remains unclear if he died due to hostile action or in an accident.

Bateman’s military honors include the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, and Good Conduct Medal.  He was returned to the U.S. last Tuesday.

Funeral and burial arrangements are pending.

When white’s settled Walker Lake in 1881, they noted the local Paiute’s didn’t own boats. A local paper, the Hawthorne Arsenal, reported it was “believed to be have been the only lake in the country near which resident Indians had no boats, and they had no desire for any.”

Two year’s later, the Walker Lake Bulletin reported settlers were “awakened by a horrible, soul-shrinking screech” when a pair of serpents started fighting. The loser measured “seventy-nine feet, seven inches and a quarter in length.”

The serpent caught the curiosity of professor and Stanford University President David Starr. During the Summer of 1907, newspapers reported he planned to capture it and send it to the Smithsonian.

A 1930 story in the Hawthorne News claimed it was sighted in a cave at Mount Grant. A couple of years later, local businessman E. J. Reynolds told the Goldfield Daily Tribune he’d seen it sunning itself, saying it was at least 70 feet long.

In a letter to the editor of Hawthorne’s newspaper, a couple claimed to see “something moving in Walker Lake at a terrific speed.” They added, “It must’ve been 45 to 55 feet long and its back stuck up above the water at least four or five feet when it was swimming fast.”

On Tuesday, June 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order No. 11110, directing the U.S. Treasury to produce $4 billion worth of $2 and $5 bills.

The bills, supported by silver reserves stored in the U.S. Treasury’s vaults, were issued without debt or interest. The seigniorage, or profit from coinage, went directly to the U.S. government rather than to the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.

The issuance of the notes was part of Kennedy’s broader strategy to diminish the influence of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. On Friday, November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Like all high schools in Washoe County, this week’s been Finals Week at Galena High School. It’s also been a week of unusual activity with the Secret Service on campus preparing for a visit from Vice President Joe Biden.

Amid this activity, which allegedly entailed one male teen taken from class for uttering something inappropriate, students have been trying to get their school work completed and handed in. This is never an easy task — let alone one where the nation’s Vee Pee’s speaking about higher education and what the Administrations doing to make it more affordable.

My son, Kyle goes to Galena High School, summed it up, saying, “The Vice President picks Finals Week to come talk to us about going to college; you’d think he’d be smarter than that.”

I can hear Jeff Foxworthy’s voice ringing in my head, “If you spend more on your dogs in a year than you do on your wife – you might be a Redneck.”

Now, he didn’t really say this – but I did jus’ to make my point.

Right before Christmas, our pit-bull, Roxy got the crud beat out of her and I figured her was a goner. But after several hundred dollars she’s mending very well.

Then last week our Yorkshire terrier, Trixie, had a run-in literally with the dog door that fractured her lower jaw. She’s 11-years- old and doesn’t see very well anymore and didn’t know that the door was down when she was called in.

She made a mad dash in to the garage and ran face first into the closed-door. She hit it with such force that it bounced her backward about four feet and left her sitting on the cement, stunned, for about half a minute.

For the next day she refused to eat or drink and wouldn’t allow anyone to touch her mouth. I ended up taking her to the veterinarian and for a few hundred bucks more, had her treated.

She’s now on the mend too. I wish I could say the same for our budget.

Perhaps it’s time to have my wallet euthanized.