Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Silver to couple who donated seaplane

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.

Silver dollar: To Carson City's Bill and Gina DaSilva, who provided their seaplane to transport a medical group and supplies into Haiti and return carrying orphans to Florida to be united with their adoptive parents. By landing in the ocean, bypassing Port-au-Prince's backlogged airport, th group hopes to make multiple trips bringing aid into the earthquake-ravaged country.

Wooden nickel: To whoever took the tricycles from St. Teresa Child Development Center last week and left a few beer cans in their place.

Fortunately, a neighbor spotted the Nevada Appeal's article about the theft and returned the trikes, found abandoned in her yard, to their rightful owner. Message to the thieves: Stealing from a preschool? As stupid acts of vandalism go, this was about as stupid as you can get.

Wooden nickel: To the recession that refuses to release its grip on Nevada.

The Economic Forum recently released the figure that our state's biennia budget is going to fall short by more than $580 million. Add in other expenses guaranteed for education spending, and it's adding up to almost $1 billion in the red. On top of that, the state is likely going to have to borrow at least that much from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits. This state is in the kind of trouble that transcends political bickering, which leads us to our final silver dollar:

Silver Dollar: To Gov. Gibbons and the legislative leaders who met last week without trading public accusations and blame before or after the meeting to discuss the budget crisis and schedule a series of public town halls. The time is long since past to put aside partisan arguments. Let's hope they can get down to serious business at the special session to figure out how to save our state.