Opinion

I started this column the day after House Speaker John Boehner walked away from negotiations with President Barack Obama for a solution to our debt/deficit/tax/spending problems. Boehner's done it...

I hear it all the time: Folks longing for the "old days" of family, neighborhood and community in America. When people, not the government, took care of themselves and watched out for each other. W...

Fall semester classes begin Monday, Aug. 29, at the Fallon campus of Western Nevada College, and WNC students, their families and community members will be learning in the coming weeks how the stat...

A key aspect of the recent virulent debate over the debt ceiling had to do with the question of raising tax rates, at least on the super-wealthy, in exchange for deep cuts in government spending. Before we can evaluate the pros and cons of that “grand compromise,” let's look at current tax rates and understand who pays what income taxes.

If you have eyes, ears, and a TV, radio, or newspaper, you have seen and heard a lot of bad news lately. The political/financial mess at home and abroad, wars (as always), politicians intentionally...

Monday night's presentation of the new plan for the Carson City Center development to the Nugget Advisory Committee has put this much-criticized project back on track, even winning over some long-time opponents.

The new plan is different enough it needs a new name: Nugget Project 2.0.

Today's column is a change of pace for me, as I am writing it not as the president of the Nevada Seniors Corps Association, as I usually do, but as the executive director & CEO of the Nevada Rural ...

Sorry if you settled into your recliner ready to enjoy the blessed silence destined to descend on the political playing field in the aftermath of the Debt Ceiling Death Match. Lasted as long as the...

With Nevada's economic woes painfully well documented and the state scoring a dismal ranking of 45th in CNBC's recently released "Top States for Business" 2011 survey, one would think that Carson C...

Like everybody else, presidents have birthdays and have a right to celebrate them and invite others to join them in the festivities. But taking advantage of the occasion to bash the rich and then c...

Even though I'm not a knee-jerk "mining is bad for Nevada" person, I urge the Lyon and Storey county commissions to deny permits for large-scale open pit mining operations in the Comstock Historic ...

The "Always Lost" exhibit is the brainchild of Western Nevada College educators Marilee Swirczek, Don Carlson and Kevin Burns, plus class members from Swirczek's creative writing class. Other North...

In the 2011 session of the Nevada Legislature, there was once again a plethora of bills to license, regulate and tax all manner of businesses and individual activity. These ranged from forcing mope...

I am not against hunting. I grew up in hunting communities and have many friends and acquaintances whom I admire and respect who are hunters. My concern is the black bear hunt, which was unanimousl...

It's a wait and see situation at the Carson City Airport in the wake of the shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration when Congress failed to pass a bill two weeks ago to continue its funding...

Choosing a guardian for young children might be the most important and difficult decision a parent can make.The will is where that decision is usually made. It's a significant reason why all parent...

"Hi, Grandpa. I'm in jail in Mexico City." So began a phone call that a friend of mine recently received. My friend was then informed that his grandson had been in a car accident with a member of a...

As a proud and founding member, I just received an alert from the National Senior Corps Association, which I helped form to keep a sharp eye on Congress for any actions that adversely affect our se...

The high drama of our ruling elite regarding the debt ceiling only reminds me of an old joke: How do you know if a politician is lying? His lips are moving.The truth is not being told. In fact, the...

Appeal columnist Eugene Paslov seems to think that those of us who write about enforcing the nation's immigration laws are engaging in "xenophobic gibberish," whatever that is. He recently proposed...

Assuming that a deal is reached last minute on the debt ceiling, the U.S. economy still will have a great deal of headwind before we see any meaningful recovery. We still have the American consumer...

School districts and their governing boards are under enormous pressure. There is less money to operate the schools, more demands and greater expectations for teachers, with a corresponding lack of...

Our friend and political pundit Jon Ralston - who supports bigger government and higher taxes - is gonna need a chiropractor after all the contortions he's going through to cover Gov. Brian Sandov...

When one gets his rear end chewed out by those he respects, it tends to make an indelible imprint. I recall one time when President Ronald Reagan was very upset with a memorandum I had written. He ...

Editor's note: This is a letter to the editor submitted to the Nevada Appeal last month that they chose not to run.

Dear Editor,

Is it the policy of the Nevada Appeal to print demonstrably false attacks on the editorial page? I'm referring to the letter to the editor on June 25 that claims, "There is incontrovertible proof that an ineligible usurper sits in the White House."

"Before this trip, all I knew how to do was fix a flat tire."I know how to change my bike tire, too, but not much more than that. Armed with that knowledge, would I build a bicycle by hand and t...

Heading out on the road for a summer vacation? Make sure you know the rules of the road in the states you'll be visiting; or you could be in for a traffic ticket. Most of us know the basics when it...

After writing a previous column about former Gov. Kenny Guinn, I had some calls from people asking me to write about another favorite Nevada governor, Mike O'Callaghan."Governor Mike," as he was af...

Since when did "compromise" become a bad word? I think it happened last fall when disillusioned voters, fed up with President Barack Obama's free-spending, Big Government agenda, sent a bunch of in...

We must solve the immigration problem and get on with growing our economy and creating jobs. Immigrants and growing the economy are indeed related. Instead, many so-called political leaders spew an...