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

Barbwire Archives

Site map
SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions

The Barbwire's Silver Anniversary—>Now we go for gold
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.

Everybody knows the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.    Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost.    Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.    That's how it goes. Everybody knows. Everybody knows the scene is dead    But there's gonna be a meter on your bed That will disclose    What everybody knows.

— Leonard Cohen

Travus T. Hipp Feb. 20, 1937 — May 18, 2012 NEW: The Bullfrog Times-Picayune and Sticky Stones: Last blast from the past NEWLY UPLOADED: Love ain't free Evelyn Kerr's remembrances of the life and times of Travus T. Hipp from the pages of TimeMazine CD available

"If voting mattered, they wouldn't let us do it." — Travus T. Hipp, 1982

Barbara Bennett, Erik Holland and Václav Havel
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-22-2014 Sparks Tribune

How corrupt was follytix when voters sent an angry message by electing Reno Mayor Barbara Bennett in 1979?

Brothelmeister Joe Conforte dominated early 1970s Sparks government. Casino owner John Ascuaga finally regained control in 1975.

One Sparks contractor developed a curious habit of submitting last-minute low bids on Reno public works. Officials suspected a spy leaking competitor proposals. The contractor forgot that if you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. He later went under.

A Reno official embezzled untold sums of money and completely got away with it. Only an oblique reference was made at a city council meeting. Afraid of looking bad, city hall covered it up and the new potentate enjoyed a prosperous retirement.

I once asked a Reno councilcritter why he reversed himself on a popular vote.

"Everybody who pays for political campaigns was in the audience."

Of course.

In 1993, the Reno paper asked four downtown moguls what they'd like to see on the riverfront.

Eldorado magnate Don Carano favored government buildings. Two decades later, the grand duke's will has largely been imposed.

No competitors allowed.

As I wrote on April 3, this year's Reno mayoral election exudes eerie echoes of Bennett '79.

Nobody gave the renters' rights grandmother driving the yellow Volkswagen Beetle any chance in a crowded field including three incumbent officeholders.

California speculators cruised the streets with briefcases full of cashier's checks, snapping up properties and jacking up rents. Thanks to eight new casino operations, people were living in tents on the river.

By electing Barbara Bennett, the people sent a message: Get things under control, dammit.

A managed-growth minority came to the council under Bennett and remained under her successor, Pete Sferrazza.

Then Mayor Jeff Griffin blew up the historic Mapes Hotel, State Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, facilitated the casino district railroad trench for his law firm's clients, and give-the-store-away infatuation infected local governments for 20 years.

Now, Reno and Sparks slip, slide and slither on banana peels.

Incoming officials will likely preside over municipal bankruptcies. You can't deposit cheerleading in the bank.

Reno News & Review Editor D. Brian Burghart recently wrote what can only be termed an anti-job description:

"Can I point out something obvious? Every time I hear one of these people tell me their business bona fides qualify them to be mayor, I want to gag. Every single problem this city has—and I am not exaggerating—goes back to an overbearing business influence on our city government. Government is not business, and decisions that are good for business have been horrible for our city's citizens."

The late great investigative commentator Jack Anderson once reported that he had looked all his life for a great president and finally found one: Václav Havel, the eminent playwright who led Czechoslovakia to a peaceful transition from Soviet rule.

During trying times, people look to artists and philosophers before the accountants and opportunistas take over.

Artist Erik Holland's low-budget campaign and well-reasoned positions most closely parallel Barbara Bennett: infill before urban sprawl, expand public transit (he takes the bus), make developers pay their way — and he's the only candidate who actually lives in downtown Reno.

The crisis call has been sounded.

How will you answer?

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

WEB EXTRAS...

HOLLAND ON UNIONS FROM A PREVIOUS CAMPAIGN: "There is an alternative to a future of developer driven sprawl built by non-union labor. The first thing we must do is allow the public back into the process. And the public gets to say no sometimes."

MORE MAYORAL MAYHEM —>

---

HONOR YOUR DON. Campaign season is upon us. I'm working to elect legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including the Tribune and most probably every newspaper in Nevada.

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 in 2012.

Help me double down

TOO LEGIT TO QUIT. The Barbwire's ongoing investigation of phony Nevada graduation rates, now in its third year, just got respectable. (Scroll down to Hiding in Plain Sight.) Read it and weep, then review the series for yourself.

TOAST ALERT. Teachers' union 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. [UPDATE]

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. Current frontrunners include (pardon the pun) wild mustangs as canned goods, education and  i-Guns with César Chávez in Nevada recently surging.

Now come 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 work to do.

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

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 45-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.

Smoking Guns... Stabbing rock-sucking kangaroos on the Ides of May Reno Gazette-Journal blatantly manipulates mayoral contest Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-15-2014 Sparks Tribune Negative Optimism: Making the best of being worst Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-8-2014 Sparks Tribune Nevada State AFL-CIO conventioners join anti-education initiative business coalition Steve Sebelius / Las Vegas Review-Journal 5-2-2014 In search of the modern day Barbara Bennett Barbwire by Barbano / Substantially expanded from the 4-3-2014 Sparks Tribune We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series ...and more ammo.. Nevada Day Required Reading The Lady in the Red Dress The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983 The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Sparks Tribune 10-31-2013 and previously Barbano on the Barbwire plots new TV season Barbwire Special Web Edition / 10-21-2013 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 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune UPDATE—>Bill Moyers: Shutdown is simply secession by other means ...and more ammo yet 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 The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Annual César Chávez Celebration War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart We Don't Need No Education Search this site | In Search Of...

Barbwire Archives

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.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins