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

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St. Elon, Lord Pedro and Gov. Veto El Obtúsè
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-16-2014 Sparks Tribune / UPDATED 9-23-2014
9-23 CRYSTAL BALL UPDATE: This column accurately predicted Superintendent Pedro Martinez's departure one week in advance

Last week, St. Elon Musk conquered Nevada with promises to bring us from the den of iniquity to the holy of holies.

He even counts a non-reformed whoremaster among his true believers and has our governor as a candle-carrying acolyte.

Gov. Veto El Obtúsè took the field and pitched a 60-0 shutout for St. Elon in Team Tesla's first game against the overmatched provincials in Carson City.

Not to be outdone by the Electric E-Bay Entrepreneur, Washoe County school boss Pedro Martinez walked across troubled waters to announce, once again, that despite operating on a gutted budget, his incubators remain among the nation's best.

GRADE INFLATION ARE US. Fully half of the past year's graduates achieved "honors and advanced diplomas."

So what was the split?

Pedro's not telling.

A handout compared 2014 with 2012 but not with 2013. Compared with last year's chart, the numbers don't match.

Which is the point. You survive by reshuffling data to your advantage. If you need more black students to apply for a grant, move them in from "multiracial" and out again, depending on the project.

Sooner or later, the deck will have been re-shuffled so often that the cards will wear out.

If anyone, like the Reno-Sparks NAACP, asks for raw data in order to make apples-to-apples comparisons, stonewall requests for several years until you can get outta Dodge.

The last two Washoe and Gomorrah South supers, Heath Morrison and Dwight Jones, did just that.

Miraculous graduation rate increases cannot be sustained. Pedro will soon be shopping if he hasn't already.

BATTERIES INCLUDED. No official has been willing to address how Washoe and Lyon counties will handle the influx of students now that Tesla has brought boomtown status.

Washoe teachers have been forced to expend up to $1,500 of their own salaries buying school supplies. [1]

Schools now extort money from parents for fees and costs, which is illegal in some states.

In 1992, in the best journalism I've ever seen them produce, the Reno Gazette-Journal, threatening to sue, got accurate data from the school district.

They published 20 full pages.

Bottom line: separate and unequal education depending on the socio-economic status of the parents. (See fees and costs, above.)

In 2006, Hug High principal Andrew Kelly, without knowing of the 1992 series, composed a guest editorial revealing that nothing had changed.

I gave both to Martinez and Morrison in 2009.

Nothing changed.

In this newspaper on Aug. 3, Martinez erroneously bragged about having produced a district that ranks in the national top 20 on a brain-dead budget.

Chris Ault bailed from the UNR head coaching job knowing that Nevada football cannot consistently compete in its new conference.

Now with Tesla dumping thousands of new students but no more money, Pedro will find calmer waters to walk upon.

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

WEB EXTRAS...

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. 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 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 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.

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Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential 1. Teachers average $1,000 yearly paying for supplies & other costs for underfunded classes     Tracy Bell / Stafford County (Virginia) Sun 9-3-2014 Graduation rate increase something to applaud, but party not over Sparks Tribune Editorial 9-16-2014 Sparks Tribune editor quizzes Supt. Martinez and principals about grad rate critics Dan Eckles / DailySparksTribune.com 9-9-2014, Street edition 9-16-2014 Tinkle-down economics: testing Tesla's testes Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-9-2014 Sparks Tribune Taxpayers taken for Teslacide demo ride 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 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   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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