Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels

SILVER DOLLAR: To the Nevada Department of Wildlife for its prompt, safe and compassionate response last week when a young black bear turned up in a Carson City backyard. The NDOW responder knew he had to tranquilize the bear in order to safely move it to the wild, but he waited until it was low enough in a tree so that it wouldn't be hurt when the shot knocked it out and it fell.

WOODEN NICKEL: To Mother Nature for flooding Florida with Tropical Storm Debby while scorching Colorado with wildfires. (Depending on your views on the causes of climate change, this Wooden Nickel might instead be directed at people in general rather than Mother Nature.)

SILVER DOLLAR: To the U.S. House of Representatives for finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a demand for certain documents in the misbegotten Fast and Furious program. And a Wooden Nickel, while we're at it, for Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California for dismissing the investigation as "over the top" in partisan motivation. Pelosi decrying anything as overly partisan is about as ironic as it gets.

WOODEN NICKEL: To the state teachers' union, for proposing a business tax increase and calling it a bill to "fund education." Under the proposal, the money would go to the state General Fund, not be designated specifically for schools.

A lawsuit challenging the measure cites several extremely good reasons for it to be scrapped and not certified for the ballot.