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Guns, gouging and guts: once upon a time in the west
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-20-2019 Sparks Tribune/ Updated 3-25, 4-3 and 4-8-2019/ Expansions in blue
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno

The gun lobby's worst nightmare just came true when the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School murder victims can sue the manufacturer, the wholesaler and seller of the Bushmaster machine gun (I'll call it what it is, dammit!) used in the attack.

The ruling allows a workaround of the 2005 "Runaway Jury" Law passed in 2005 to exempt profiteers from all product liability when one of their pieces is used in a crime. The law allows exceptions for sale and marketing practices that violate state and federal laws. Remington marketed the Bushmaster with incitement to combat-level violence and slogans stating "consider your man card reissued."

Lawyer/author John Grisham wrote "The Runaway Jury" in 1996. It was made into a 2003 A-list movie starring Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack, Rachel Weisz and a (pardon the expression) killer supporting cast. Hoffman played a New Orleans personal injury lawyer trying to win a hopeless product liability civil case on behalf of the widow and children of a mass slaying victim. When I saw it, I had a hunch the gunnies would go to Congress to (pardon the expression) build a wall. And they did.

THE ONLY "REASON": Why do pervs commit mass shootings? Because they can. It's easy.

RENT AND PILLAGE DEPT. The spirit of Barbara Bennett still guides us after lo, these many years. The only mayor to make the Reno Gazette-Journal's millennium list of 100 who made a difference in the 20th Century, she started a renters' rights organization that led to the biggest political upset in Reno history in 1979. The mobile home-dwelling grandmother who drove a little yellow Volkswagen beat several council incumbents and other good-ole-boys to become the city's first woman mayor.

Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, informed me this week that she has pulled her proposed rent control amendment to an apartment construction bill and awaits a new stand-alone draft. I will send all lawmakers a copy of this column.

I was there when the Reno City Council threw cold water on pre-mayor Bennett's proposal for a rent justification ordinance which would have triggered when vacancies fell below five percent. We are far below that figure now — 1978 all over again. As a realtor friend of mine told me that year, our capitalist system usually works pretty well but not in a speculative boomtown like then and now.

Speculators and their representatives were actually driving around Reno with suitcases full of cash looking for properties to buy at any price. They were betting that boomtown growth would facilitate quick flips and quick profits. Those who got out early scored big. Those who got greedy and held on until the Carter/Volcker/Reagan recession lost their buns.

When speculators buy apartments in a boomtown environment, they pay a high price and jack up rents to cover their mortgages. Other landlords notice their higher levies and charge what the traffic will bear, defending "market determined rates." In reality,existing landlords costs may have risen little or not at all. Ka-ching!

Bennett wanted landlords to document increased costs justifying higher rents while supply was close to zilch.

I remain unsure that local governments can't enact rent justification ordinances right now. That issue was never raised in 1978. Perhaps the locals want political cover from the ledge.
It's so bad now, as I reported last year (Barbwire 4-25-2018, The Guardian of London/UK 7-3-2018), landlords currently extort humongous application fees from potential renters. Some charge $50 per potential inhabitant, some $75 or more. I know one couple that paid $500 in such coercion until they found a small place. A credit background check costs less than a dollar. Google at will.

GOOSING GRANDMA. One Sparks complex is charging an extra $25 per month to pick up trash at the doors of disabled or elderly tenants. Watch Rentvolution.org for updates.

ONE VOTE AWAY. The Equal Rights Amendment is one state ratification away from making it into the U.S. Constitution. Nevada ratified in 2017, 40 years after legislative corruption killed it. I was there. Details online.

TICKET PRICES RISE THIS FRIDAY for César Chávez XVII, so hie thee quickly to CesarChavezNevada.com, contact me at 775-882-TALK or drop me an e. Gov. Steve Sisolak will deliver the keynote address at the Grand Sierra-Reno on March 27. He will make history as the first Silver State chief executive to attend.

Grand Sierra Tahoe Ballroom doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for conservative booze and liberal schmooze. Dinner's at 7:00. Seating is limited and I strongly recommend early reservations via the website. People have asked me how I could top last September's NAACP tribute to Aretha Franklin complete with a 1965 Pink Cadillac convertible. This is how I try.

Long before he became an international figure, César Chávez traveled to northern Nevada, according to the late Reno-Sparks NAACP President Dolores Feemster, who met with him at his request in the early 1960s. The event will pay tribute to the memory of NAACP matriarch Feemster, who died in 2018, as well as to former Nevada Attorney General and Chief Justice Charles Springer, who died Feb. 19. Springer rightly stands with the giants for his lifelong human rights advocacy. We will also remember the late former business manager of northern Nevada IBEW Local 401, Jerry David.

Former Nevada Labor Commissioner Stan Jones, the courtly gentleman with the mellifluous voice who could kill anti-labor legislation with just a short speech, died last year. A sheet metal worker (Local 26/AFL-CIO), Jones served under Republican and Democratic governors. He was arguably the last labor commissioner to take seriously his legal mandate to advocate for workers.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-N. Las Vegas (ret.), will memorialize his fellow NevadaLabor.com/César Chávez Hall of Famer and longtime colleague Bob Price, D-NLV, who passed away in Sparks on January 4. Price, former business manager of Las Vegas IBEW Local 357/AFL-CIO, represented North Las Vegas for 28 years in the Nevada State Assembly. Bob and his wife, former University Regent Nancy Price, retired to the Rail City more than a decade ago.

Nevada Press Association Hall of Famer John L. Smith will attend to autograph copies of his new book "The Westside Slugger: Joe Neal's Lifelong Fight for Social Justice." (University of Nevada Press 2019, $34.95) John resigned after more than three decades as an award-winning columnist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal when he refused to allow the new owner, virulently anti-union Trumpista casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, to influence his writing.

Maria Zamora, another NevadaLabor.com/César Chávez Hall of Famer, will speak and auction for charity a United Farm Workers Union flag which she hand-sewed and carried aloft while marching with César Chávez throughout California a half-century ago.

By popular demand, Ballet Folklorico de La Sierra will perform an encore as will noted Reno artist Erik Holland who will unveil his new César Chávez memorial portrait, latest in a series.

Chávez family members, some of whom are longtime Nevadans, are expected.

Reno's first César Chávez Day was declared on July 15, 1986, by then-Mayor Pete Sferrazza. Chávez spoke before a regional gathering of the International Association of Machinists, then to a general meeting of Nevada union members. In his later years, Chávez often visited southern Nevada, frequently rallying Culinary Union members on the Las Vegas Strip at the Frontier Hotel in what became the longest strike in U.S. history. (The union won.)

In 2013, President Obama issued a proclamation for César Chávez Day. Gov. Sisolak will do the same later this month.

¡Sí se puede!