Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels

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 the planners and participants in the AMA International Women & Motorcycling Conference, thanks for making Carson City your base of operations for your gathering these last few days. We hope to see you again next year - if not sooner.

WOODEN NICKEL: To Nevada's efforts in developing renewable energy. The website energytrends.org gives the state a C+, which ranked 11th-best. Three states - California, Massachusetts and Colorado - received B grades, the highest awarded in the review. The 2010 energy data, recently published by the U.S. Energy Department, is the most recent available.

SILVER DOLLAR: To consumers, for having pumped up Nevada's taxable sales in May to the tune of 10.4 percent over May 2011. Bryan Wachter, director of government affairs for the Retail Association of Nevada, said the broad increases across all major categories, from vehicles to general merchandise, is especially noteworthy.

"Things are starting to look good," he said. We like the sounds of that.

SILVER DOLLAR: To the Republican National Committee, which is giving the Nevada GOP $166,000 to boost voter registration in the state. It's good to see a thaw in the once-frosty relations between the groups, regardless of one's political stripe.