Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels

SILVER DOLLAR: To the four top finishers in the Carson City Board of Supervisors race. Candidates Brad Bonkowski and Dennis Johnson will square off in November, and incumbent Molly Walt faces a challenge from Jim Shirk. All ran clean campaigns.

WOODEN NICKEL: To the 65 percent of eligible Carson City voters who did not cast a ballot in the primary. Admittedly, the top-ticket matchups weren't especially compelling (it was a slam-dunk for Dean Heller and Shelley Berkley in the Senate race), but it's hard to listen to complaints about politicians when so many complainers don't bother to vote.

SILVER DOLLAR: To Mayor Bob Crowell for calm, steady, transparent leadership - so much so that he faced no challengers and was re-elected on the basis of the one vote he needed - which happened to be his own. In his characteristically dry way, he acknowledged voting for himself "with reservations."

SILVER DOLLAR: To Joseph and Lisa Keating-McEllistrem of Carson City, for opening their home, as they do every year, for an annual fundraiser benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada. Their hospitality was matched only by the generosity of those who donated - and it's worth noting that the Nugget casino's Mae Adams Foundation pledged to match dollar-for-dollar the combined total of the evening's take.