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

Barbwire Archives

If you stand among the legions harboring the lurking suspicion that a lot of news goes under- or unreported, this will assuage and massage your darkest predilections.

WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION. After all the acrimony and asinine allegations of the cartoon legislative session from hell, Nevada's long-lamented low education funding remains pretty much stagnant.

Senate Bill 515 allocated $5,612 per year for Washoe County, $5,512 to more populous Clark and a 2015-16 statewide non-construction weighted average of $5,710. You may see other numbers in the $8,000 range, but that usually includes construction and maintenance costs, often erroneously cited by public education critics and hopeless moonhowlers as taking Nevada into nationally acceptable ranges. [In 2004, Nevada voters defeated Question 2 by 51% to 49%. It would have mandated that Nevada K-12 per-pupil expenditures meet or exceed the national average.]

Depending on the source, statewide per-pupil funding has thus risen a whopping $34 [1] or an equally underwhelming $120 per year. [2] Any way you slice it, we have apparently not even kept up with annual inflation, let alone recovering to pre-depression levels.

Somehow, the legit media often can't see the forest for the trees.

My esteemed underpaid colleagues didn't recognize the red flag waved by Gov. Veto El Obtúsè's vaunted private school funding bill. The nationally sensational new law gives parents wanting out of the public system $5,000 a year to drop out, be it home schooling or religious education. (Wonder who will open the first Islamic jihadist madrassa teaching Sharia Law.)

Gomorrah South education boss Pat Skorkowski recently told punditissimo Jon Ralston that people have been calling his office wanting to know when they can pick up their checks.

Basically, the needle hasn't moved, which explains why Gomorrah South witheld teacher raises, blaming a $67 million shortfall.

It's OK. Nevada students are used to riding in the back of the bus.

DANGEROUS RIDE. Sparks resident Ismael Mayorga-Torres flew 40 feet last week and lived to tell the tale. The road construction worker was hit by a now-arrested motorist in the south Tahoe area.

His brother, former Laborers' Union Local 169 President Tony Mayorga, told me that Ismael suffered a skull fracture (but no concussion), a dislocated shoulder and a broken bone. He was hospitalized for two days and wanted to immediately return to work. The tough dude was ordered to recover at home for three weeks.

Road construction has always counted among the three most-dangerous jobs in the country and will become moreso as we morph from being a nation of road builders to road-repairers. See "The Flagger Moms of Orange Cone Hell" at NevadaLabor.com.

WHITE PINE LOGROLLING. Gov. Veto El Obtúsè did right for a change by nixing a bill to eliminate the City of Ely and merge it with White Pine County. Locals hailed it for at least temporarily thwarting political power plays aimed at acquiring a bunch of land dirt cheap. Stay tuned.

STOREY STORIES. The sister of homicide victim Judith Black won a temporary restraining order freezing assets, some of which have already been marketed. A hearing was scheduled for July 6.

Storey County Sheriff Gerald Cook-Antinoro ruled Black's death accidental last year. The Washoe and Clark County crime labs disagreed. Insiders tell me that the sheriff so botched the investigation that murder charges will be impossible to prove. The new Storey DA is trying to exhume Black's body.

Cook-Antinoro made news in these parts last year when Mineral County Sheriff Stewart Handte brought forward a Sparks PD employee who filed rape allegations against Cook-Antinoro. Because the statute of limitations had expired, SPD closed the case.

MINERAL STEW. Handte was one of several Mineral County officials who may or may not have lost last November. Reno lawyer Ken McKenna sued the state last week for allegedly ordering former Mineral County Clerk Cherrie George to certify the election without all votes tallied. George left a cartridge containing 178 early votes uncounted in a desk drawer.

There is nothing in Nevada law allowing re-voting as desired by McKenna's client, Christopher Nepper, who was appointed county clerk after the person who "defeated" him resigned.

Handte or another aggrieved party needs to join the suit, as a judge could rule the issue moot given Nepper's ascension.

Sequoia voting machine maker Dominion, the secretary of state and attorney general are named defendants. Last year, that meant SOS Ross Miller and AG Catherine Cortez Masto, now the Democratic frontrunner for U.S. Senate.

Drums of demagoguery paradiddle in the distance.

McKenna's filing further alleges that similar problems with Dominion-Sequoia voting machines have plagued other counties, not a new story to us political junkies who follow such stuff.

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

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BARBWIRE WEB EXTRAS...

WHO NEEDS BOOKS? Get on my e-list for breaking developments in the neverending fight to save the Duncan/Traner and Verdi libraries from closure.

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.) Myers once again looks positively psychic. Actually, he just reads history.

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. UPDATE: The report said all is well. I still recommend feeling up your fire meter on a regular basis.

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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.

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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 [1] Page 6 of chapter 6 of the 2015 Legislative Counsel Bureau Education Data Book notes that "legislatively approved" basic support for 2014 was $5,590 and $5,676 for 2015. If that's the case statewide, the meat-ax support number has increased a whopping $34 per student. Gov. Sandoval's generosity knows no bounds. I have filed an inquiry to see if all highly-touted bells-and-whistles "reforms" have been included or if, for some inexplicable reason, they have been reported separately from what is thus erroneously labeled as "per-pupil" funding. Stay tuned. [2] Senate Bill No. 522 of the 2013 legislative session gives a statewide per-pupil average of $5,590 vs. the $5,710 from Senate Bill No. 515 of 2015. The difference in the two numbers attributed to fiscal year 2015 may be that the 2013 senate bill is a projection ("estimated per pupil amount" per the Nevada Dept. of Education) and the 2015 data book reflects actual experience based on the hard count of students who showed up. This bodes ill for the next two years as Nevada's population and thus its schools explode with new growth. Longtime Sparks resident and decorated airman Fidel Sauceda dies Applying Christian forgiveness to a fault Barbwire by Barbano / From the Tuesday 6-30-2015 Sparks Tribune Life & death tickle the underbelly of the news Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-23-2015 Sparks Tribune Al Capone takes stock of Nevada education Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-16-2015 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-17-2015 The 2015 Nevada Legislature's greatest hits Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-9-2015 Sparks Tribune Chaos theory: Republicans learn to use their majority — on each other Cover Story by Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 6-4-2015 Several related stories linked thereat Stench of sulfur suffuses Nevada's year of the gun Barbwire by Barbano / Uncensored full-length edition expanded from the censored Tuesday 6-2-2015 Sparks Tribune Updated D-Day, 6-6-2015: How I handled a similar situation Dogs and ponies, DARE traps and tokenism Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-26-2015 Sparks Tribune Corporate welfare unites me with the moonhowlers Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-19-2015 Sparks Tribune Hotplates, hotheads, hot rumors and hot Moose Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-12-2015 Sparks Tribune MayDay! The bright side of riots in the streets Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-5-2015 Sparks Tribune In the Uber-Nevada Legislature, words can kill Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-28-2015 Sparks Tribune Tesla rewrites history to chisel worker paychecks Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-21-2015 Sparks Tribune Radiation Nation: Gomorrah South bakes in the glow of victory Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-14-2015 Sparks Tribune Revenge, redistricting and amnesia in Cartoon City Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-7-2015 Sparks Tribune Harry Reid, Eddy Arnold, César Chávez and Gaga Madonna Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-31-2015 Sparks Tribune High noon for the high desert outback of the American Dream Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas. Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-24-2015 Sparks Tribune St. Patrick, I need a green energy beer Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-17-2015 Sparks Tribune Michele Fiore: the Italian girl mama wanted for me? Barbwire by Barbano / Excised from the 3-10-2015 Sparks Tribune as "not suitable" / Updated 3-12 and 3-13-2015 Who was that lady I saw you with last night? That was no lady, that was...none of your damned business! But can she cook? Barbano to legislative committee: Let Tesla, Switch and Apple help pay for police officer video cameras Clinging to the Ledge: guts, feathers and all Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-3-2015 Sparks Tribune We don't need no stinking wages! It became necessary to destroy the community in order to save it Barbwire by Barbano / Special online edition 2-26-2015 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? Breaking Bad 5: Machine Gun Michele and the good ole boys Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-16-2014 Sparks Tribune Breaking Bad 4: Ira and his ammosexuals flip us the finger Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-9-2014 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-11-2014 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... 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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