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

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We don't need no education: Leaks R Us
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-30-2014 Sparks Tribune

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more, nor less," said Humpty Dumpty during Alice's walk through Wonderland.

Words matter. Information is power. Which brings me to the corrosive campaign against most of the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees.

In a rare front-page editorial worthy of Tesla worship, the Reno Kazoo-Journal last week jumped on the recall bandwagon, echoed by bullet-headed D.A. Dick Gammick, R, and finger-to-the-wind Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno.

Nothing like leading from the rear, which is where their heads usually are.

Nowhere in recent self-righteous vitriol did anyone genuflect to the demi-god of full disclosure. Breach of the Nevada open meeting law motivates the tar-and-feathers tribe but demand for facts has been curiously absent of late.

The public discourse has been single-sided because state law forbids school board members from discussing personnel issues in public.

Ousted school boss Pedro Martinez, under no such restriction, first attributed the dustup to semantics about his status as a certified public accountant.

I guarantee it had more to do with CYA than CPA.

For experienced public officials to act as they did on June 22, something much more serious had to have gone down.

Any legal settlement with Martinez must not include a perpetual gag order.

Alas and alack, early reports indicate it will.

Without full disclosure, the community cleavage will continue to clot and rot.

The coming of the Tesla corporate welfare battery plant is being used as a club.

Tesla may need educated workers but is certainly not going to be paying to educate them.

We are.

So what are Tesla's biggest suckups doing? Working to further cripple an already beleaguered education system by ripping open the clots and continuing the bleeding.

Nevada ranks fourth among the least-educated states and is not likely to improve given the stingy corporate shills we elect like battered spouses who keep coming back for more.

The school board is not without sin. They basked in national glory when former superintendent Heath Morrison announced miraculous graduation rates, progress praised by the RGJ and Gammick last week.

This column, with help from the Reno-Sparks NAACP, debunked the Martinez-Morrison miracles as smoke and mirrors, proving it two years before the RGJ grudgingly admitted it after being shamed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. (See We Don't Need No Education at NevadaLabor.com/)

They should read their own paper over on Kuenzli Street.

This community can only heal after all facts are known.

Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

So the Barbwire hereby serves notice: Bring me your tired, your poor, your unattributed leaks and I will publish them no matter what your freakin' lawyers say.

The best defense is a good offense and I'm damned offended.

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 the past three 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)

Last Sunday's blah editorial 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 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.

The Underbellyof the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential 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 CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH 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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