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

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Long lines of labor commissioners and attorneys general have simply chosen laxitude over exactitude when it comes to pesky workplace laws that their drinking buds don't like.
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Senate Bill 119 is absolutely unnecessary —> Nevada governments and out-of-state contractors are already expert at flouting the letter and spirit of the Nevada prevailing wage law.

SB119 hits the Nevada State Assembly Government Affairs Committee this morning. Chairman John Ellison, R-Elko, can strike a blow for fiscal conservatism by shredding it.

First, the cost to taxpayers of processing and implementing the measure will be eliminated. So will any potential litigation should it pass.

Two pieces of shaky and shady skulduggery have mostly neutered the current prevailing wage law, so why spend money doubling down?

SB119 may be inexpensively amended as a whole to become a rare piece of Nevada consumer-friendly legislation: truth in labeling.

It can be used to re-title the Nevada Labor Commissioner to Employer Commissioner. That's basically how the office has worked for several decades anyhow.

As to the school maintenance and construction taxes in the bill, that fight was lost two years ago with a Democratic legislature.

Hope springs eternal.

Long lines of labor commissioners and attorneys general have simply chosen laxitude over exactitude when it comes to pesky workplace laws that their drinking buds don't like.

You can get the idea from the following NevadaLabor.com U-News posting from 25 October 1999 —>

THE SHADY

Reno City Council reviewing leaseback strategy to build new civic center, an end run around prevailing wage laws.
The city apparently lacks the financial capacity to build it and is seriously considering having it privately constructed.

THE SHAKY

This technique has been frequently used by the University and Community College System of Nevada to avoid the Nevada Prevailing Wage Law and facilitate construction by importation of cheap, out-of-state labor.

Newly elevated Sparks City Manager Shaun Carey called leasing an "obvious strategy" for the oft-discussed new Sparks city hall.

The Nevada labor commissioner ruled long after the project was completed that the downtown Sparks Syufy 14-plex theater should have been a prevailing wage job. An anti-labor Sparks government disagreed despite firsthand knowledge of the city's subsidizing of the project, triggering the law. Syufy went on to burn the city for $1,035,000 in good faith money which was supposed to guarantee timely and effective completion of redevelopment projects. The Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada maintained pickets at the Syufy site for almost a year.

Scattered to the four winds over time, many and probably most of the workers will never get their back pay.

THE SHAFT

So there you have it. Lax enforcement and shaky financial shell games.

How shaky? Ever wonder why the rickety upper east grandstands at UNR's Mackay Stadium wobble so much? Built privately to circumvent the law.

Not to worry. The place is scheduled for a major facelift that may save a little face. And your ass if you buy a ticket to sit there.

Assuming you can afford it.

In the Barbwires of February 17 and February 10, I showed how eliminating area-standard wages imposes a pay cut on the entire community.

That's about as conservative as you can get.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR for César Chávez Celebration XIII on the great one's birthday, Tuesday, March 31, at Circus Circus Reno. Details at CesarChavezNevada.com/

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

The Underbelly of the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

BARBWIRE EXTRAS...

65 YEARS OF KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD. Read Tribune alumnus Dennis Myers' tour de force about a tour de farce in the Feb. 5 Reno News & Review. His cover story "No Fair" provides a quick and vicious history lesson about Nevada government failing to take care of its people.

MYERS: Nevadans may well wonder why one of the state’s biggest and most familiar problems could be ignored so assiduously for decades, like an elephant in the room. In the end, the explanation comes down to a rule of thumb for politicians: Offending the affluent comes with consequences. Offending the working poor does not.

He also posits a tax solution which liberals may find quite surprising. (I resemble that remark.)

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)

FIRE METER UPDATES: THE NEVADA FIRE MARSHALL'S INVESTIGATION concluded "don't worry, be happy." I'm still worried and will continue fondling NVE's precious equipment —> If your smart meter feels very hot, not just from sunshine, call 911. In its Sunday 21 Dec. 2014 front page headline major story, the Reno Gazette-Journal published results of the NVEnergy-commissioned "don't worry, be happy" echo study.

On 1-27-2015, the RGJ published an analysis based on veteran reporter Anjeanette Damon's review of more than 1,000 pages of documents. Barbwire bottom line: NVE handles this like auto manufacturers handle defects —> It's cheaper to pay legal settlements after people are injured or killed than to fix the problem.

Don'tcha worry 'bout a thing! If you can't trust your power company, who can you trust?

DIDN'T THEY MAKE A MOVIE CALLED "THE INCREDIBLES?" On 2-6-2015, the RGJ reported that the Public Utilities Commission has ordered NVE to hire an independent laboratory to review the material.

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

A thousand thanks to those who already responded and keep sending show suggestions

  Stay tuned.

  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.

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Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential We don't need no stinking wages! The skeleton of the underbelly of the news Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-24-2015 Sparks Tribune Parsing our parsimonious public pursers Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-17-2015 Sparks Tribune What else is new? Southern Nevada CLC authorizes strike sanction vs. wage violator. The flush of victory and the irony of deceit Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-10-2015 Sparks Tribune Senate Republicans take a jackhammer to the bedrock of Nevada trade unionism The last bastion of local hire comes under fire By Sean Whaley / Las Vegas Review-Journal 2-4-2015 Follytix, Foxcatchers and corporate weasels Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-3-2015 Sparks Tribune We Don't Need No Education Archive The ever-expanding Ira Hansen Archive of an anachronism BREAKING BAD Walter White and some other white guy Who's,,, ...Who?   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... 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 © 1982-2015 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 46-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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