Illegal immigration is one of the most controversial topics of this overheated election season. Suggestions to curb illegal immigration by building a wall or increasing enforcement of existing laws are met with passionate accusations of racism and white supremacy. The Census can’t even ask about citizenship. What is the bottomline cost to the United States and Nevada? That … [Read more...]
Perfectly Nevadian: Joe Conforte, 1925-2019
Joe Conforte deserves his induction among the inaugural six honorees in the Nevada Hall of Fame. Nevada author and publisher David Toll (“The Compleat Nevada Traveler”) announced the lineup last week. Mr. Conforte was the only one of the six still alive. Then came news of his death down in the land of Cariocas and breast reductions. The only other name you might recognize … [Read more...]
Trump Call for Unity Met with Derision, Slurs
The campaign rhetoric is being brandished like a flame thrower, scorching the stump with recriminations, incriminations, insinuations and denunciations. In the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that left 32 dead and dozens more seriously wounded, Democratic presidential candidates unsheathed accusations that President Trump is the prime mover of such lunatic … [Read more...]
Alfred E. Neuman for Washoe School Superintendent
Last week came news of the corporate assassination of another American cultural icon. Mad Magazine will soon cease publication and go into perpetual re-runs. Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury has been there for years save for current work in the Sunday color comics, another endangered species. Believe it or else, I went to high school with a kid who was a real-life double for … [Read more...]
Expect Long Lines Come Election Day 2020
Democracy is a chaotic endeavor. Nevada lawmakers have made it more so. Expect long lines and delayed results come the next Election Day. Assembly Bill 345, which passed on a party line vote with Democrats favoring and Republicans opposed, will allow people to register to vote on the same day of an election rather than several weeks earlier. This will inevitably mean much … [Read more...]
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Newly defrocked Washoe School Superintendent Traci Davis made two fatal mistakes. First, she decided she liked Nevada and wanted to raise her daughter here. Second, she stayed too long at the fair. A government critic once told me that the average mid- to high-level public administrator jumps jobs every three years. By that time “they’ve gotten too hot to stay any … [Read more...]
Nevada gets short shrift on PILT checks
The checks are in the mail. Nevada’s U.S. senators both sent out press releases a couple of weeks ago boasting about all the money Nevada counties will be getting from the federal government to help cover the expense of having so much non-taxable federal public land within their borders — called Payment in Lieu of Taxes. This year’s checks for Nevada counties amount to … [Read more...]
Demented Dems
Major news last week was the long awaited Democrat debates on Wednesday and Thursday nights. To start off with, it is probably well to compare the two nights. The first night was a rather pallid exposition of the lower tier of Democrat candidates. The only one with some stature was the lone female Elizabeth Warren. Her annoying shrill voice was quickly surpassed on the second … [Read more...]