BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

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True confessions from the back of the bus
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-7-2014 Sparks Tribune

Over lo, these many years, I've been accused of negativism, cynicism and (gasp!) laughing in the face of progress.

All true.

But my predictions have a way of happening.

As yet, the only two that have not involve the bankruptcies of Sparks and Reno, the latter of which lacks only a court filing.

If not for major international banks holding off on the municipal equivalent of foreclosure, the Biggest Little City would long ago have become the Biggest Little Detroit. The interest meter is running.

Can't we just deed over Reno City Hall and call it even?

Current candidates for office ignore the two 800-pound gorillas growling in their midst.

Tesla will make matters worse. Much worse.

I derive dark pleasure when the billion-dollar boondoggle's boosters bloviate that the behemoth battery factory will cost taxpayers nothing.

They ignore attrition, the big burdens we will have to front for years before the Tesla project gets close to breakeven — if ever.

In the current Reno News & Review, Tribune alumnus Dennis Myers tours Circe's island where the beaches are littered with the bleached bones of politicians who succumbed to the siren song of corporate welfare.

The RNR also carries a killer editorial about the Reno Gazette-Journal's improper campaign to recall the Washoe County school board.

As reporter Myers has rightly opined in the past, the RGJ is capable of great journalism when the corporate interests of the company are not involved.

But when local car dealers last year demanded that the paper oppose tax increases for school maintenance, the Gannett-Journal caved to its biggest advertisers.

So when I see the Kuenzli Street Klan come out of nowhere to advocate a new casino redline, I start looking for puppet strings. Local brahmins have been pimping the idea of making the University of Nevada more a part of downtown, whatever that means.

Reno created a corporate welfare development district on the university's doorstep as part of the Apple server farm scam.

Sensing a way to further pervert a bad idea, somebody with juice has apparently ordered the Kazoo-Journal to pimp for a new casino redline.

The old one was imposed over half a century ago by downtown gamblers who wanted to prevent the evolution of a Las Vegas-style strip.

They succeeded.

For decades, no casinos were licensed south of the Ponderosa Hotel while casino moguls acquired huge swaths of land along S. Virginia Street to keep competitors out.

Most people have forgotten that the tunnel over Interstate 80 below Walgreens was originally constructed to accommodate a high-rise hotel-casino. The new university redline would prevent any gambling enterprise on the freeway frontage.

I'm willing to bet six bucks against a latté at union-busting Starbucks that because of the Tesla PR, somebody inquired about buying Walgreens and building a major drive-in resort at the entrance to downtown.

As the great Travus T. Hipp used to say, I may be wrong but I'm never uncertain.

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

WEB EXTRAS...

TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY: FEEL UP YOUR FIRE METER. The Reno Gazette-Journal did big spreads on three consecutive Sundays (Sept. 14, Sept. 21 and Sept. 28) on NV Energy smart meter fires. Welcome aboard. Barbwire readers were two years ahead on the fire meter issue. (Touch a Smart Meter, Go to Jail — 11 October 2012)

In a blah editorial on Sept. 28, the RGJ praised the Public Utilities Commission for opening an investigation.

What's next? Endorsing motherhood?

I've taken to regularly feeling up my gas and electric meters and those of my neighbors. Heat means your fire meter is about to go torch. Call NVE and pray or 911.

TOAST ALERT. Teachers' union gross profits tax petition supporters and opponents would do well to review the Barbwire of Feb. 28, 2013.

Passage of the tax initiative could easily lead to a successful court challenge that would at the same time blow out not only the revenue hike, but also term limits and the state's worst anti-union laws. Something for everybody.

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

PayPal monthly subscription software is now operational at the website.

A thousand thanks to those who already responded and keep sending show suggestions. I've gotten a lot of queries about ballot questions. The Jan. 30 column brought a surge of inquiries about the Nevada State Education Association corporate tax petition on this November's ballot.

Stay tuned.

  Please forward additional ideas or vote on the above.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important. We've got a lot of work to do.

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.

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

Andrew Barbano is a 46-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 and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ 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 Sparks Tribune since 1988.

The Underbellyof the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential We don't need no education: Leaks R Us Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-30-2014 Sparks Tribune Taxpayers taken for Teslacide demo ride Heavy demands for services & infrastructure but no money for them: Los Angeles Times debunks booster claims Can megaresorts scam Tesla-style freebies? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-23-2014 Sparks Tribune St. Elon, Lord Pedro and Gov. Veto El Obtúsè Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-16-2014 Sparks Tribune 9-23 CRYSTAL BALL UPDATE: The above column accurately predicted Martinez's departure one week in advance Tinkle-down economics: testing Tesla's testes Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-9-2014 Sparks Tribune Labor Day 2014: Red, white and screwed Silver State Lining: Nevada union membership 10th-highest in the nation Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-28-2014 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Labor Day: State of the Unions By Mark Robison / Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 9-1-2013 The above graph was 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. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 ...and more ammo... The hardest and fairest questions yet asked of proponents of the teachers gross profits tax initiative Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 7-10-2014 We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 ...and more ammo yet IMF Head Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She’s Right. By Erika Eichelberger / Mother Jones/BillMoyers.com 5-30-2014 “The behavior of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally…since the crisis. The industry still prizes short-term profit.” 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 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest 2013-14: BARBWIRE SCORES SIXTH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD BRONZE 2014 Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake / 4-18-2013 The 2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon / 5-30-2013 The politics of media ga-ga boosterism / 3-20-2014 2012: WE WON —> BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION GOMORRAH SOUTH CONFAB—> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO NPA HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT Support legendary photographer Don Dondero next 2010 GOLD 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 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 The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was   Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

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Copyright © 1982-2014 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 45-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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