Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels: ‘Big-name Democrat’ never showed

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.

WOODEN NICKEL: So much for the “big-name Democrat” Sen. Harry Reid told the Appeal his party would field to run against Gov. Brian Sandoval. We said in this space two weeks ago that we were waiting for that candidate to emerge. Asked for details about who he had in mind, he would only say, “You’ll find out.” So much for that.

SILVER DOLLAR: Carson City is the largest city on U.S. Highway 50, making it a frequent stop for bikers and walkers on the Good Cause Causeway. The latest person to traverse the trail, Rob Jones, rolled through town Tuesday. The double amputee who lost his legs in a blast in Afghanistan is riding across the country to raise money for wounded veterans. His goal is to raise $1 million during his 5,000-mile ride from Maine to California. We’re fortunate to be visited by numerous honorable people who stop here for the night while on the Causeway.

WOODEN NICKEL: It’s easy to ding criminals, but extortion cases are rare and always troubling. We had a couple of bizarre ones in the past week. In one, a man allegedly told a woman whose car had been stolen that he knew where the vehicle was, and that he’d tell her if she paid him. The woman smartly approached Carson City Sheriff’s deputies, who set up a sting that led to the man’s felony arrest. In the other case, a father and son allegedly held a man at knifepoint and drove around to homes of the man’s acquaintances, ordering him to ask them for money. No surprise: the incident was drug-related, Sheriff Ken Furlong said. It’s another example of drugs’ corrosive effect on our community.

WOODEN NICKEL: Speaking of criminal acts, vandalism is among the most baffling, if only because the motivation is so murky. Why destroy a stranger’s property for no reason? We hope for the arrest of the person or people who damaged vehicles and businesses in north Carson City this week; we also hope the punishment dissuades anyone considering similar senseless acts.