Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels: Nevada now represented on House Appropriations Committee

The Nevada Appeal’s Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels feature recognizes achievements from the capital region and, then warranted, points out other acts that missed the mark.

SILVER DOLLAR: Carson City and Nevada now have representation on a powerful congressional committee. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., and a Carson native, is set to serve on the House Appropriations Committee. That’s great for our state; it also marks the first time we’ve been represented on the committee since Rep. Barbara Vucanovich served on it 20 years ago.

SILVER DOLLAR: Speaking of politics, former Assemblywoman Vivian Freeman served our state proudly and effectively, fighting for worthy causes such as education and women and children. The Democrat, who represented northwest Reno from 1986 to 2002, passed away Thursday from complications from a stroke. She was 86.

WOODEN NICKEL: As they’d promised, lawyers for O.J. Simpson are in the process of appealing a judge’s ruling that denied the former NFL star a new trial. Simpson, 66, is serving at least nine years for armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges after an incident in 2007 involving sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas. In the past 20 years, when Simpson’s name has been in a headline, the news hasn’t been good. We’re ready for him to go away for good.

SILVER DOLLAR: Carson High’s Porfirio Jauregui has undertaken a commendable senior project: financially helping students at a school in Ghana, in western Africa. He accepted donations Thursday and Friday at Comma Coffee in exchange for working on people’s computers, removing viruses and ensuring they ran smoothly. The donations will be given to the Let Them Be Kids Ghana Project.