Some Nevada conventions died Thursday, when the state Assembly followed the Senate in passing a pair of resolutions that would undo a couple of long-standing Nevada traditions.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman settles plenty of scores in his new autobiography, “Being Oscar.”

It’s something of an irony that — in a nation where the Constitution prohibits establishing a state religion — we’ve spent so much time during the 2013 Legislature talking about religion.

I was fairly sure when I boarded the Southwest Airlines jet at McCarran International Airport that I was headed to Reno. I recall following the freeway road signs in my rental car to Carson City.

CARSON CITY

Suddenly, the endgame for the 2013 Legislature has become clear. The Democrats must surrender.

Give state Sen. Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, and Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno, credit for good intentions: They want to catch criminals.

Ah, spring (in an odd-numbered year in Nevada), when a young lawmaker’s thoughts turn lightly to taxes.

There are two extremes when it comes to the Democratic response to the patient-dumping scandal that has vexed the previously unvexable administration of Gov. Brian Sandoval: Cacophony or coddling.

Would you believe there’s a bill in the Nevada Legislature upon which left and right totally agree?

In 2008, many people were enthusiastic about the prospects of then-U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton becoming the nation’s first female president.

I’m not sure what surprises anybody could have expected from the Economic Forum meeting Wednesday.

The sad reality is, Las Vegas can be a cold, hard town.

This is why we’re doomed. Confronted with an expanded version of the delays that plague air travelers on a daily basis in this country, the American people rose up in mighty anger at the sequester. And Congress listened. And then immediately restored the funds cut from the Federal Aviation Administration, thus allowing the end of air traffic controller furloughs, and a return to normalcy in the air.

We’re more than two-thirds of the way through the 2013 Legislature, and while some big debates have been had, some even bigger ones remain ahead.

So, let me see if I have this right.

The raw emotion and tension in the Nevada Senate on Monday night was obvious, whether one was in the room or watching from hundreds of miles away.

There will be a major change in the gun control debate when gun owners, feeling secure enough in the knowledge that the Second Amendment protects their rights, no longer see legislation calling for universal background checks as a forerunner to gun confiscation.

In the wake of the defeat of gun background check legislation this week, President Barack Obama said senators opposed to the bill and its amendments could offer no good reason for that opposition, and that “there were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn’t do this.”

An open letter to Odis “Tyrone” Thompson, who was unanimously appointed to the Nevada Assembly on Tuesday by the Clark County Commission:

As a certified gun lover, I can understand the pressure placed on Nevada’s elected officials when it comes to writing legislation aimed at preventing violence.

It’s amazing at times to consider how much gambling the Nevada Resort Association wants to prevent, rather than to promote.

For years, I’ve heard people complain about how all the newcomers to Nevada were ruining the place, robbing it of the libertarian, Old West ethos of yesteryear. But after Thursday, I got a glimpse of the old Nevada.

When it comes to marketing, I’m far from an expert. But I am a repository of thousands of commercials, jingles and ad campaigns absorbed over years of wasted hours watching TV. And that experience suggests Nevada’s new branding campaign may not go down in history.