BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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Twenty-five years ago on August 12, this column moved from regional magazines to the newly-daily Tribune.

Last week, I told how I got here.

This week, highs and lows from over 1,300 Barbwires.

     1. THE UNIVERSITY SCANDALS OF 1996-97. Rambunctious UNR Prof. Howard Rosenberg was elected to the university board of regents. The establishment tried to negate his win, arguing that he should not serve because he was a system employee. The Nevada Ethics Commission ruled in his favor. He served with distinction for a dozen years and now sits on the Washoe County school board.

Writing about it opened the floodgates of discontent. The last quarter of 1996 and much of 1997 were taken up with university skulduggery and financial chicanery, like illegally charging donors for three separate research programs that were all the same thing. (They changed the name on the door depending on who was visiting.)

They also illegally shunted money to a new basketball floor.

People came to the Tribune to buy all extra copies of the paper.

Xerox stock went up after I made copies available at Sparks and Reno office supply stores.

The newspaper's publisher entered the series in the 1997 Pulitzer Prize competition. It's available at NevadaLabor.com.

     2. INJUDICIOUS CLARENCE. My 1991 column accurately predicting the conduct of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was picked up by the San Francisco and L.A. Daily Legal Journals.

     3. WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION, the current ongoing series about the Clark and Washoe County school districts and their phony graduation stats.

The guy who started the shell game, Dr. Heath Morrison, just announced amazing results in Charlotte, NC.

At least hiring him away got the modern-day Prof. Harold Hill out of Nevada.

But the Music Man cancer persists.

     4. TALLY HO. My 1996 obituary of local motorsports legend Merle Brennan was picked up by the world's best racing site based in Britain.

That's one reason that NevadaLabor.com's monthly readership eclipses more than half of Nevada newspapers and even some network TV affiliate websites.

     5. DOA. A 2005 online edition, e-mailed to every lawmaker at dawn, by 9:00 a.m. killed the bill to subdivide the Ballardini Ranch wilderness area.

     6. WHAT I'M BEST AT: Obituaries of people I've known, from Paul Newman to average workers.

     7. THE HIGHEST COMPLIMENT: "You're a hoot!" from a reader. Thanks.

     8. THE LOW. There are a lot of public figures I've helped into early retirement, but a long-ago column got a good guy fired.

In 1990, a commercial client told me that First Federal Savings in Carson City had been robbed but the branch lacked surveillance cameras.

The feds didn't require them until after a place got hit.

I printed the story and the bank fired its chief of security who had advocated for years to install cameras.

A cover-her-ass exec made the retired Reno cop a scapegoat for her corporate cheapness.

I wanted to expose it, but the old officer asked me to let it go.

     9. LOWER THAN LOW —> TRUE HATE MAIL. The execution of Trayvon Martin continues to bring to the surface more hateful spew from freedom-loving racists than I have ever experienced in more than three decades.

     10 . WORK TO DO: Ratchet up support for my two proudest public policy achievements.

The Nevada Consumer Advocate's office needs a higher profile and more aggressive posture.

The local community television station needs rebirth. Go to Barbwire.TV and join the cause.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

BARBWIRE.TV. Support the return of community TV to these parts.

If last year's elections didn't convince you of the need, the 2013 legislature certainly should have.

Join up. You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important.

Thank you.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... The Barbwire Files ...and more ammo... We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo yet The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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