I was born and raised in the high desert of Nevada in a tiny town called Searchlight. My dad was a hard rock miner. My mom took in wash. I grew up around people of strong values - even if they rarely talked about them.

My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true.

They say you can never step in the same river twice. New water flows in, replacing the old and continually renewing the river. The Senate is the same.

Simply put, music can heal people.

My Republican friends are lamenting reconciliation. But I would recommend for them to go back and look at history.

We in the Senate refer to Sen. Gillibrand as the hottest member.

We stopped the fighting in 1991 on an agreement that Iraq would take steps to assure the world that it would not engage in further aggression and that it would destroy its weapons of mass destruction. It has refused to take those steps. That refusal constitutes a breach of the armistice which renders it void and justifies resumption of the armed conflict.