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

Barbwire Archives

Last June, one labor leader termed the 2015 legislative session "The Great Escape.".

Republican Gov. Veto El Obtúsè's 2015 tax proposals would not have passed without Democratic and union support. Minus that bargaining chip, the 2017 legislative session will bring open season on unions unless Democrats can regain a majority in at least one chamber next year.

Control of the state senate lies in northwest Reno where Republican Greg Brower, a narrow 2012 winner over former Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, is the most endangered elephantine incumbent.

Last week came word that former Assemblymember Heidi Seevers Gansert, R-Reno, will run to replace Sen. Brower. The daughter of legendary First National Bank of Nevada executive Leo Seevers, she's smart, experienced, female, telegenic and rich. The doctor's wife also doesn't carry the primary poison of having voted for tax hikes, at least not recently.

Nonetheless, the district remains the most vulnerable in the state to Democratic takeover.

The game's afoot.

PETITION PERDITION. You may have heard that taxophobic moonhowlers are circulating a petition to repeal this year's paltry tax increases. The werewolves hope to get gullible government goosers to flock to the polls.

As this column alone first revealed in July, per-pupil education funding lies flat despite the tax hikes. Adjusted for inflation, we've done slud (sic) backwards. That's how bad the cuts have been in this stingy state since 2008.

Who cares? We don't need no education, which brings me to my Italian teenage crush.

MACHINE GUN MICHELE BLASTS AGAIN. As always, mercurial Assemblymember Michele Fiore, R-Gomorrah South, is chock full of simple solutions for complex problems.

On Sam Shad's TV show last week, she said that taking ownership of the "84 percent" of Nevada owned by the feds would cover us if this year's tax hikes are repealed.

Nevada is not worthy of such trust. See Congress gave the new state of Nevada 4 million acres to pay for schools. What happened to them? by former Tribunite Dennis Myers (Reno News & Review, 7-18-2013).

For good measure, she reaffirmed support for the Confederate flag. She said if you want the Confederate flag taken down, you'd have to do the same with the American flag because the KKK uses the American flag more often than it does the Confederate battle flag. ((She researched it thoroughly, having seen the Klan with flags on TV.)

I give you the Sarah Palin of 2016. If Trump picks her for vice-president, that will at least get her out of Nevada.

Shoot-First Fiore added that many government-torching GOP primary candidates will announce soon.

The game's afoot.

LINDA ANGELES KELLEY, 1941-2015. Beautiful Linda Kelley, 73, passed away on August 1 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. She and husband Lyle were Sparks residents since the 1960s. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Oct. 10 at St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral. Her full obituary will be linked to this column at NevadaLabor.com/

PERDITION PART DEUX. Last week, a complaint was filed with the secretary of state about a group named Engage Nevada which has been gathering petition signatures at Reno DMV. Their proposal would require drug testing of all welfare recipients. Like voter fraud, it's a solution to a non-existent problem. Independent research has proven that drug abuse by the least among us barely (pardon the expression) moves the needle.

LV gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson was a founding funder of the GOP-leaning outfit in 2013.

Engage Nevada has not filed the petition with the secretary of state, which makes their activities illegal.

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

The Underbelly of the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

BARBWIRE WEB EXTRAS...

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.

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 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.

Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential Democrats for Trump Hope one of your detractors attends your funeral Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-25-2015 Sparks Tribune Don't call a lawyer to sue a doctor Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-18-2015 Sparks Tribune DMV lines, voting lines and lines in the sand Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-11-2015 Sparks Tribune The light side of prison escape The Lost Column: Composed 6-9-2015 and refused by major corporate media / Uploaded Wednesday 8-5-2015 Alas and alack, otherwise good journalists get conditioned out of any sense of irony or humor on the way to morphing into weak corporate weasels Heroic lions, pampered elephants & sweating RINOS Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-4-2015 Sparks Tribune Ironic colonics, shameless strumpetry & repo men Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-28-2015 Sparks Tribune Moving the needle and needling the weasels Education funding hike non-existent / Confederate flags fly in Sparks Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-21-2015 Sparks Tribune School, life, death, taxes and other high ironies Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-14-2015 Sparks Tribune All the news you never knew you needed to know Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-7-2015 Sparks Tribune / Updated 7-9-2015 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

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 © 1982-2015 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.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins