Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels

The Nevada Appeal's Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels feature recognizes positive achievements from the capital region and, when warranted, points out others that missed the mark.

SILVER DOLLAR: To Sen. Dean Heller for rightly faulting both his own Republican colleagues and the Democrats across the aisle for the Senate's failure to pass a budget. While some lawmakers default to finding fault only through a partisan prism, he's right that there's plenty of blame to go around.

WOODEN NICKEL: To the Clark County Republican Central Committee, which is rife with Ron Paul supporters and which faulted the chairman of the national party for backing presumed presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Paul is nothing more than a spoiler with no chance of winning the GOP nomination. His backers should quit braying and accept reality: The spotlight on Paul has petered out.

SILVER DOLLAR: To Carson Nugget President Steve Neighbors for agreeing to pony up an additional $5 million toward a parking garage as part of the City Center Project, should the controversial plan pass muster with voters. No matter your views on the project or not, he deserves credit for his efforts to resolve the impasse one way or the other.

SILVER DOLLAR: To the Nevada Department of Transportation, for granting $212,000 to the V&T Railroad so it can finish the year in the black.