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Planting seeds that encourage us to read

I love to read. I think I always have. My memory doesn’t stretch back far enough to recall a time when good books weren’t a part of my life. Our home was filled with them. My parents were readers, so maybe I learned the art of reading by osmosis? If not, then certainly by example. As a toddler, I became a precocious reader. By the time I was four, I was reading a fair amount on my own.

Passport Program to draw shoppers to Boulder City

Boulder City has a great vision statement. It’s located on the front page of our website: “The City of Boulder City is committed to preserving its status as a small town, with a small-town charm, historical heritage and unique identity, while proactively addressing our needs and enhancing our quality of life.”

Rock and Roll all night, baby

OK. So I had originally intended to write about a totally different subject this month. But a glance at the calendar and the death of one of my teen heroes means I am gonna write about Halloween. Kinda. Sorta.

Love — not fear — is the answer

When I sat down to use the word processing program Word, I was accosted by my computer which wanted me to use “Copilot.” I don’t need copilot to compose what many humans have, until recently, been capable of creating, a column in the newspaper. I enjoy crafting my words from my soul, which is consciousness. I’m sure you have a soul too! Hopefully, that doesn’t spook you!

A year of hugs, healing and headway

Nov. 7 will mark a year since the ribbon cutting of the St. Jude’s Ranch for Children Healing Center and shortly after, the opening of the since renamed school, Amy Ayoub Academy of Hope.

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Being against now ranks as a political value

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic floor leader, last week got some attention for praising his colleague Rand Paul of Kentucky, a symbol of libertarian conservatism.

Convention poses tough choices for GOP

The Nevada Republican Party is preparing a bid to bring the 2016 Republican National Convention to Las Vegas, and some party figures are concerned that the — how do I put this? — unconventional or non­traditional lifestyle of Nevada’s largest city could steer national GOP officials to a safer venue.

Gambling with gambling

Twenty-­four years ago, conservative columnist George Will wrote, “One state’s welfare is uniquely woven into gambling, but Nevada has an excuse: The silver was gone, the soil was lousy, and the would-­be divorcees were bored. After the Comstock Lode petered out, Nevada eventually discovered divorce as a way of making money. Nevada crushed the competition of a few other states in setting the shortest residency requirement, and then looked around for a new way to mine money from the law and found gambling. Now, one Nevada is kind of nice. But there is something sinister about more and more governments becoming more and more addicted to money from what was until recently considered a vice.”

Nevada court allows anti-Mormon effort

A few days ago, the Nevada Supreme Court refused to intervene in a court case to correct a case of religious bigotry.

Remember this number

When some deputy district attorney wants to taint the jury pool against someone suspected of defrauding worker’s injury insurance and so he invites a television station to come along to shoot footage when they are observing the suspect loading some furniture into a truck, it can be very easy to believe that such fraud is rampant.

Intuition vs. information

When I was small I did not think there should be homework. Actually, I still feel that way. I analogized it to adults — when they came home from work, they read the paper and watched television. A dry cleaner didn’t spend evenings at home dry cleaning.

Perils of propaganda and presidents

During the Cold War, the U.S. government assembled a huge propaganda structure in its messianic efforts to combat communism behind the “iron curtain.” Voice of America and Radio Free Europe were the best known of these tools.

Escalating from mistake to blunder

Last week a reporter for KLAS News in Las Vegas reported, “Vaccines have been debated for years in the medical field. While some doctors believe they are vital to a child’s health, other doctors believe in a more natural approach to disease prevention.”

A lesson on how to cripple economic development

Recently one of my colleagues at our newspaper wrote a piece about the efforts of some Nevada beekeepers who are attempting to deal with neonicotinoid insecticides as a possible cause of honey bee colony collapse. The article had nothing to do with the University of Nevada, Reno, but one reader took the opportunity to post a comment about the campus:

Issue education vs. political advertising

Keeping the lines straight on free expression is a constant battle. Government always strains to regulate it. Civil libertarians get nervous when it does. But there are no clear-cut lines. These groups sometimes take stances that can appear inconsistent.

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Put that dog on a leash BC tightens “at-large” law

The most important part of what happens in a city council meeting is not always the vote. Sometimes it is something that seems minor at the time. This week, as the council finally voted unanimously to tighten up Boulder City’s notoriously lax leash law, the important part came long before any discussion about the actual law.

Hoover Dam hosts Capitol Christmas Tree

There are a couple of things that unite most Nevadans: how people often mispronounce that state’s name and for those who have been around a while, their dislike of the Duke men’s basketball team.

BCHS coach ‘unavailable’ for football playoff game

Parents of student athletes playing on Boulder City High School’s football team received a note last Thursday morning from BCHS Principal Amy Wagner informing them that the team’s head coach would be “unavailable” for that night’s playoff game.