Opinion

Below is my article that was published in Nevada Appeal (3/22/2014), although it is titled: Become educated, involved in local government.

For this column I will state personal views on a few topics: education, city employees, the Sheriff Department, the Board of Supervisors, ending with a little insight about Jim Shirk.

This is to let Carson City know what we have in our Assemblyman, PK O’Neill. Before the election, PK proved himself to be a very gracious individual who seemed to truly care about the people and who willingly gave his time to answer questions and concerns. He also had the right answers to my questions.

There are many victims of crimes committed by drug abusers as witnessed in the recent burglaries in Carson City. Along with the victims whose homes were burglarized and whose sense of safety in their homes was destroyed; the drug abusers’ family bonds are broken; their children neglected, displaced, frightened and confused.

Now that the highway through Gold Canyon has been closed to vehicle traffic, forcing us to use the much longer and quite dangerous truck route, perhaps it's time to question the value of CMI's presence on the Comstock.

Dear Editor:

I am opposed to the Concealed Carry Bill AB 148 for a myriad of reasons.

Firstly, students and teachers don’t feel safe, meaning that this will effect our learning environments. Students and teachers alike will be more worried about someone pulling a weapon out in a fit of anger and using it than they are about the educational topic they are discussing. I’m sure the need, and therefore cost, for security around our schools, public buildings, daycares, and colleges will rise as well.

There’s a lot to be learned by studying others’ successes. At the Tahoe Talks Brown Bag Lunch this February, a design engineer for the Federal Highway Administration discussed how modern roundabouts are being used to improve traffic and make roads safer for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians, as well as where they would make the most sense at Lake Tahoe.

On Sunday afternoon Feb. 8 the Nevada Department of Transportation closed a two-mile stretch of Nevada Highway 342 in lower Gold Hill because of subsidence occurring adjacent to the steeply excavated Lucerne Pit, prompting a call for answers from angry residents of Gold Hill and Silver City.

Assemblymen PK O'Neill kicked off his tenure as Carson City's elected representative in the State Assembly by sponsoring a 'symposium' on the Nevada Academic Content Standards (NACS) for English Language Arts and Mathematics.

What happened at the Common Core Forum in Carson City on 1/13/15

The ground rules agreed to by both sides for the two forums: two people would participate on each side of the issue. The pro side would contain two policy makers from either the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) or the Nevada State Board of Education; the con side would contain Drs. Stotsky and Milgram. Drs. Stotsky and Milgram were the only two members of Common Core’s Validation Committee who are content area specialists and who have also written high K-12 standards.

For the record; I do not hate Nazi's, I do not hate Fascists, I do not hate Imperialists, I do not hate Socialists, I do not hate Communists, nor do I hate Muslims. However, I do hate murder and slavery and it is not my fault that all these cults use, and are synonymous with, the two things that I will always hate the most.

On Monday, 63 people will gather in Carson City to take their oaths of office and get down to the business of running the 2015 Legislature.

They'll meet in the same place the Legislature has always met, take the same oath lawmakers have always taken and perform the same rituals that are always performed. But in some important ways, Nevada will be a very different place in 2015 than it was just two years ago.

That didn't take long.

Less than a month after he was sworn in, Adam "Call me General!" Laxalt has created a rift with the governor, catalyzed a potential constitutional crisis and created a political problem for his fellow Republicans. Now that's talent!

By the time the Nevada Legislature wraps up in June (or, you know, late August), you'll have heard plenty of numbers. Economic Forum numbers. Budget numbers. Bill numbers. Vote-count tally numbers. Alternative-universe numbers.

During his campaign, Adam "You can call me General" Laxalt incessantly pummeled Ross Miller for accepting $70,000 in gifts during his nearly eight years as secretary of state.

Committee appointments by the Board of Supervisors has been a much talked about subject the last few weeks. Here’s my take:

Carson City has many boards, commissions and committees (BCCs) that typically include one or two city supervisor representatives in addition to city staff and representatives from the public, who may be appointed or apply for their positions. A complete list of Carson City’s boards, commissions and committees (BCCs), and information about each, may be found here:

“To get along, one must go along.” All too often I have heard this in the last two years. For me, the epiphany of understanding this phrase came in my second year when I realized nothing is going to change, not even this phrase. Puzzling to me is why some think there is a need to build a political consensus; yet, they build a political Berlin Wall and stand behind it saying, “it ain’t me causing this.”

Board Appointments

I would like to just through a humanitarian question out their. I know as a citizen of Carson City that we do have a homeless population in our city. I personally try my best to help when I can, knowing it is the wright thing to do. I personally think we all in this community need to take a look in the mirror and realize that any one of us at any given time could end up homeless.

In a previous CarsonNow comment, Carson GOP Chair Maurice White called for Dr. Steve Canavero of the Nevada Department of Education to "be immediately dismissed for his public disrespectful conduct."

Now Peter Hennessey is calling James Milgram and Sandra Stotsky "widely known and respected experts on eduction standards."

On January 13, 2015, a symposium on Common Core was held in the Legislature Building. The participants were Professors James Milgram and Sandra Stotsky, both widely known and respected experts on eduction standards, who have actually participated in the development and validation of not only Common Core but also other standards before and since. The other side was represented by Steve Canavero of the Nevada Department of Education and Allan Grossman from the Washoe County School District.

We wish to thank the public and the property owners of Carson City’s Historic District for their efforts and support in our cause to save the Integrity of the District.

Peter Hennessey, Ann Bedarski, Sandra Stotsky, James Milgram and the other anti-Common Core activists in attendance at PK O'Neill's symposium Tuesday night were there to stage a demonstration against the K-12 standards, which, it should be remembered, were adopted unanimously by the state board of education four years ago and enthusiastically signed off on by the Governor Gibbons.

As the incoming Chair of the 15-member Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board, this promises to be a hopeful and exciting year. 2015 will be full of opportunities, but also challenges, for the continued protection of Lake Tahoe.

The number one priority among our challenges is funding shortfalls. Federal and state funding that has paid for environmental restoration and protection efforts at Lake Tahoe for years is drying up and new approaches need to be pursued.

This is a reply to my old friend Rich Dunn and to his posting, "All we got out of the Common Core 'symposium' was a one-sided presentation."

Wow, what a great spin. Once again we see a typically objective piece of reporting from a typically objective source. We can agree on one thing; it was a fiasco -- for the NDE.

Fortunately, there are others who have reported on this event, and their reports are on-line.

http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/nevada-more-misinformation-mayhem-f...

The January 13th Common Core "symposium" at the legislature didn't go off quite as advertised. The announcement posted by organizer Ann Bedarski on the Nevada Trends website listed the Department of Education participants as:

JUDY OSGOOD, Public Information Officer, Nevada Department of Educa_on
STEVE CANAVERO, Deputy Superintendent of Student Achievement, NDE
AMY SALGO, Teacher Ambassador, NDE

The rack surely was agonizing. Drawing and quartering sounds gruesome. Waterboarding must be unbearable.
But do they really compare to the pain of a pundit offering up his yearly predictions for shame and ridicule? I don't think so.

A recent article in the Nevada Appeal titled: Swearing in, 2015 Carson City board kickoff Monday by John Barrette published on December 31, 2014. Here is an excerpt from that article.

“Mayor Robert Crowell said Tuesday he intends to suggest Abowd remain in her roles as mayor pro tem on the board, handling the gavel if he’s absent, and as chairperson of the authority. He also said in the past there hasn’t been controversy in divvying up board members’ committee work with members usually agreeing on what they want, but if any slots are contended they will be handled when that comes up.”

Hope everyone had a Holiday Season filled with joy and cheerful moments that create lasting memories. My wish to all: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Nevada Appeal on December 28th had the following article, “Balancing Development, Services” written by John Barrette. The context covered what each Board member thought were the highlights in 2014, as well as their priorities for 2015. Informative and covering a broad spectrum of topics, three Board members classified the 1/8 of a cent sales tax as their number one highlight of 2014.

Former Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons had a very interesting term as Nevada's 28th governor from 2007-2011

Editor: I have been in the antiques business in Downtown Carson City for more than 15 years. The last six years have been extremely difficult, but perhaps our state may have reached a turning point.

In the last 15 years I have been involved in dozens of community meetings and planning sessions that were generally boring and filled with doomsayers and negativism. I've spent hundreds of hours gnashing my teeth listening to every malcontent in town who says that saving our Downtown is a waste of time and money. They have said it's by-the-way impossible.

Forty-five years ago, in December 1969, President Richard Nixon signed a unique Bi-State Compact approving California and Nevada’s plan to create the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. It was the first such undertaking of its kind, uniting two states, six local jurisdictions, and the federal government in a shared mission to protect Lake Tahoe’s sensitive environment from overdevelopment.

That effort has shaped the Tahoe we know and love today, and will help shape the Tahoe that we bequeath to future generations.