Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels, May 13

SILVER DOLLAR: To Sen. Dean Heller's Senate campaign for its generous donation to the Western Nevada College art/humanities exhibition "Always Lost: A Meditation on War." The free exhibit will run at UNR until May 22, then resume its nationwide tour in the fall at Michigan Tech. The Children's Cabinet and the Nevada Statewide Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs also received donations from Heller's campaign.

SILVER DOLLAR: To the U.S. Postal Service, for saving rural post offices from closure as a result of budgetary woes. To many in the less-populated parts of the heartland, the post office is more than a place to send and receive mail - it's a lifeline.

WOODEN NICKEL: To Gov. Brian Sandoval, for not pushing to collect $6 million a year in property transfer tax revenue from the nation's two largest mortgage corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on foreclosure sales in Nevada. State Treasurer Kate Marshall has rightly pointed to a federal court ruling that upheld the tax in a Michigan case.

And we need the money.

SILVER DOLLAR: To all the moms on their special day: Happy Mother's Day! "M" is for the Many things they gave - and still give - us.

WOODEN NICKEL: To the kids and dads who forgot.