Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Grant Davis' teen star burning brighter

The Nevada Appeal's Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels feature recognizes positive achievements from the capital region and, when warranted, points out others that missed the mark.

SILVER DOLLAR: To Carson City teen singer-songwriter Grant Davis for his triumph on Dr. Phil's nationally televised youth talent show, "Is My Child a Star?" And just to toot our own horn a little, a silver dollar to the Appeal for our A1 story that first tapped this talented teen's good vibrations for readers last December. The bold headline on Sunday, Dec. 4, screamed: "Stay Tuned: Carson teen singer finds his groove." We knew Grant had the entertainment chops (and we have YouTube vids to prove it), but he's only 15, so time would still have to tell, right? Time sure flies when Grant's having fun and success!

The two-part Dr. Phil show spent a week filming at the Davis home in the Lakeview area and focused on the competitors and their mothers, who coached and cajoled their offspring.

In victory, Grant won a new Ford Focus, use of a Wilshire Boulevard apartment for six months, the aid of an agent, television show appearances, plus acting, vocal and dance lessons from professionals. Added his No. 1 fan, mom Angie: "It was a whole lot of fun."

So we'll now answer the show's inherent interrogative question with a definitive declarative: Yes, America, Carson City's Grant Davis is a star - as both performer and young person of Carson character.

Stay Tuned!

SILVER DOLLAR: Keeping with the musical theme, a silver dollar to sponsors and organizers of Wednesday evening's "Concert Under the Stars," which raised money for the Greenhouse Garden Center. The pairing of classic soft-rockers Pablo Cruise with Reno rockers The Mighty Surf Lords provided a very cool breeze on a hot summer night in Carson.

WOODEN NICKEL: To all the perpetrators - including and especially the late Joe Paterno - of a Penn State conspiracy to hush up allegations of child sex abuse involving assistant coach Jerry Sandusky that went back more than a decade. A blistering report Thursday disclosed that Paterno indeed sacrificed the ideals he long preached to protect his football program. There is clamor for PSU to remove the statue of major college football's winningest coach from in front of the school's stadium. However, former Nittany Lion linebacker LaVar Arrington perhaps said it best on Thursday: "A statue should be the least of someone's worries."