Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: More information needed about bear hunt

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

Wooden nickel: To the Nevada Wildlife Commission's decision to allow bear hunts in Nevada. For many, the decision felt precipitous and did not adequately take into account opponents' concerns. One big concern: how to prevent orphaned cubs. Cubs take more than a year to be able to live apart from their mothers, and it can be very difficult to tell males and females apart, especially from a distance.

The Department of Wildlife needs to slow down and do more outreach and education on the issue. It may come to pass, after all the facts are known and openly discussed, that a bear hunt is a good solution for Nevada. But the people need more information to come to that decision.

This is too big a change for the state to undertake based on the vote of just nine people.

Wooden nickel: To Gov. Jim Gibbons, for his lame-duck decision to appoint Sue Lowden to the State Board of Medical Examiners. This one feels like nothing but cronyism in light of the fact that Lowden's inability to articulate a clear plan for the health care crisis was largely responsible for sinking her candidacy for U.S. Senate. She's an accomplished woman and business owner, but this is one was an eyebrow-raiser.

Silver dollar: To Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval. We may not know much, yet, about his plan to save the state from insolvency, but we do know his stance on Yucca Mountain: "I will not consider accepting high-level nuclear waste in our state - period," Sandoval said Wednesday. Those are welcome words.

Silver dollar: To getting the Focus House men's shelter back open in time for this weekend's next round of winter storms. While it offers just 16 beds, those will provide a welcome respite to some of our local homeless population.