Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels: It’s time for Wheeler to talk

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: Assemblyman Jim Wheeler has some explaining to do, and Secretary of State Ross Miller is putting the squeeze on him to make it happen. Wheeler has submitted various documentation to the Secretary of State’s Office listing three lengths of time in which he has lived in Nevada. In one form, he said he’d lived here four years. In another, he said nine years. In a third, he said 10 years. According to an accusation by Kelly Kite, who lost to Wheeler in the 2012 Republican primary for District 39, Wheeler didn’t disclose a $6,168.66 tax lien filed against him in Michigan. Wheeler says he has never owned a company or had employees in Michigan. The numbers clearly aren’t adding up, and it’s time for Wheeler, who has had a rough year after making an unfortunate comment about reinstating slavery, to spill.

SILVER DOLLAR: Many of us feared the worst upon learning that six people had gone missing in the wildnerness near Lovelock over the weekend. It was easy to envision a happy ending, given the below-zero conditions. But rescuers were able to find the group by tracking cellphone signals and footprints, and incredibly, none of the six had frostbite. “We were obviously braced for much worse, considering the cold,” said Dr. Douglas Vacek at Pershing General Hospital in Lovelock. So were numerous others.

WOODEN NICKEL: An estimated 17,000 Nevadans will lose unemployment benefits after Christmas under a federal budget deal. After Dec. 28, an additional 800 people per week will lose benefits, according to the Nevada Division of Employment Security. The Senate convenes in January; we wish we had more faith that Congress would get a deal done quickly to help the state’s most vulnerable residents.

WOODEN NICKEL: Fees for undergraduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno, will increase $15 a semester next fall and an additional $30 a semester in 2016 to pay for construction of the four-story E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center. It’s vital for education to be accessible to as many Nevadans as possible, and every fee increase makes it a little more difficult for many students to afford it.