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[[EDITOR'S NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, historical items appear courtesy of longtime Nevada reporter Dennis Myers' Poor Denny's Almanac [PDA]. Items highlighted in blue are of interest to labor in particular and seekers of justice in general. Copyright © 2010 Dennis Myers.]]

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-29-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Sharron Angle: Blast from the distant past
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-22-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE MONDAY 8-16-2010 01:01:21 PDT, 20:01:21 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

Nevada State AFL-CIO 54th Annual Constitutional Convention
Luxor Hotel-Casino / Las Vegas Blvd. South / Clark County, Nevada
August 18, 19 and 20, 2010
All guests must be registered and credentialed.
For information, call or email Sarina Riley
702-413-5338

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2:30-4:30 p.m. PDT: WORKSHOP with Scott Goodstein — Organizing with text messaging. Delegates and non-delegates are invited to attend.

   Welcoming reception begins at 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 19:

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Rep. Shelley Berkely, D-Nev.
Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, Democratic nominee for governor
The New New Deal for Jobs in America
Presentation of Awards
Scholarship luncheon
Mini-town meetings with state senate candidates

Friday, Aug. 20:
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.
Brother Robert Haynes, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO
   Topic: The New New Deal for Jobs in America

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

Barbwire.TV


The latest TV show
webstreamed

Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest. A button for older shows is being installed. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.

Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative session

(775) 882-8255
[882-TALK]

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

Milquetoast, mice and macho men
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-15-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE SUNDAY 8-15-2010 00:20:51 PDT, 07:20:51 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — On this date in 1057, Malcolm Canmore III or Máel Coluim (accounts differ) killed King Macbeth, last Celtic king of Scotland, in the battle near Lumphanan; in 1895 at the Ohio Republican Convention, U.S. Senator and former secretary of the treasury John Sherman defended the Crime of 1873 (the demonetization of silver) by attacking Nevada U.S. Senators William Stewart and John Jones for consenting to abandoning bimetallism (dropping the traditional silver and gold for money to go solely to gold as a monetary standard) and then changing their minds; in 1927, jury selection began in Carson City in the trial of former Nevada state treasurer Ed Malley and former state controller George Cole who allegedly embezzled $516,322.16 of state funds and invested it in oil stocks; in 1939, the premiere of The Wizard of Oz was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre; in 1944 in Yona Village in Guam, a thatched shrine was created to 51 Chamorro beheaded by the Japanese; in 1945 on NBC's Meet the Press, after journalist I.F. Stone pushed FDR envoy to China Patrick Hurley for an explanation of why the U.S. should keep subsidizing Chiang Kai-shek, Hurley yelled at Stone on the air "Quit following the red line with me. Go back to Jerusalem."; in 1947, the British, who had aided Hitler in carving up Czechoslovakia, carved up India into two nations, India and Pakistan (with India, a mostly Hindu nation, flanked on east and west by Pakistan, a mostly Muslim nation), pitting the two against each other and resulting in instant war that left hundreds of thousands dead; in 1947, University of Nevada electrical engineering professor Irving Sandorf told the Reno Kiwanis Club that half-minute thawing and heating of frozen foods was already being done by "high frequency tubes", and that television could be used for child care; in 1965, The Beatles, flying in a helicopter toward a landing in Shea Stadium, saw the flash of innumerable flashbulbs aimed skyward and reportedly heard, over the helicopter blades, the roar from the largest concert crowd in human history — 56,000 fans who, at promoter Sid Bernstein's insistence, paid a maximum of $5.65; in 1987, Great Basin National Park was dedicated at Baker, Nevada; in 2001, scientists announced the first discovery of another solar system.


UPDATE SUNDAY 8-15-2010 00:20:51 PDT, 07:20:51 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

Two dead miners found in Nevada mine identified
AP / Daily Sparks Tribune / 8-14-2010

Two miners' bodies foundUPDATE SATURDAY 8-14-2010 6:08 p.m. PDT, 01:08 8-15-2010 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — Nevada news media are reporting that "human remains" have been found in the Meikle pit but that positive identification will take three to six weeks. The accident happened when a slag pipe two feet in diameter detached from the wall of the 1,300-foot shaft, striking the cage carrying two miners on their way down about 1:15 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 12. Please say a prayer.

UPDATE FRIDAY 8-13-2010 3:03 p.m. PDT, 22:03 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — Another mining death watch

Search resumes for miners feared dead in Nevada
Associated Press / 8-13-2010

2 missing miners feared dead at Nevada gold mine
Associated Press / 8-12-2010

Miners still missing, feared dead in Elko County
KRNV TV-4 / 8-13-2010

Mine Safety & Health Administration: Several past deaths at Barrick’s NE mine complex
KRNV TV-4 / 8-13-2010

Drill baby drill for jobs - maybe - jobs
Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune 6-6-2010

Punishment of capital: sentence killer corporations to death
Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune 2-6-2000

NevadaLabor.com Mining and Safety War Room


 UPDATE TUESDAY 8-10-2010 12:19 a.m. PDT, 07:19 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

Thomas Jefferson to his nephew Peter Carr/August 10, 1787: Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

On this date in 70, the Jerusalem temple was destroyed by Roman soldiers led by Titus, a month before the city itself was destroyed; in 1776, word reached London that the Atlantic coast colonies had declared independence on July 2d; in 1821, Missouri, named for its former Native American inhabitants, was admitted to the union as a slave state in which free blacks lost the right to vote because the new state constitution forbade the African American franchise; in 1872, wheat being grown on the Pyramid Lake tribal reservation had heads that were seven inches long and there were plans to display them at the California State Fair; in 1883, Chicago White Stockings player Cap Anson refused to play the Toledo Blue Stockings because Toledo's team included Moses Walker, the first African American player in major league baseball, but he changed his mind when Chicago was threatened with a forfeit (recent research suggests that Walker may have been preceded as the first black player by William White, who played one game for the Providence Grays in 1879); in 1918, the Clark County Review gave front page play to the text of a letter signed by Republican U.S. senate candidate Walter Lamb of Tonopah attacking Nevada's antiwar U.S. Representative Edwin Roberts for causing the nation to doubt "the character of Nevada for loyalty and patriotism..." by voting against the declaration of war (Roberts trounced Lamb in the GOP senate primary); in 1927, Nevada Governor Fred Balzar commended Massachusetts Governor Alvan Fuller for deciding to let the execution of Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti go forward; in 1960, Nevada Controller Keith Lee warned that rampant growth was putting such a strain on services that the state's $8 million surplus was rapidly being used up; in 1991, Houston woke U.S. astronauts with sounds from astronaut Shannon Lucid's backyard; in 1988, President Reagan signed legislation for $20,000 payments to some U.S. citizens interned by the U.S. government during World War II (this was for the benefit of citizens of Japanese descent; German Americans, Italo-Americans, and other groups interned have never been compensated); in 2006, Jeremy Long of Sun Valley, Nevada, died in Anbar province, Iraq.


UPDATE MONDAY 8-9-2010 1:04 a.m. PDT, 08:04 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

75,000 died in Nagasaki 65 years ago today
Rev. John Auer remembers

On this date in 1854, Walden or Life In The Woods by Henry David Thoreau was published, creating a wholly false impression of solitude and isolation on Walden Pond — in fact, according to researcher Walter Harding, Thoreau went into Concord or was visited by someone from town every day of his two years there, and the pond was on a railroad line; in 1919, the new issue of All Story Weekly magazine carried the story The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, introducing the character of Don Diego de la Vega and El Zorro; in 1919, former Pioche mill worker William Garrison, who received the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross for bravery in action in France during World War One, was being sought by the French government, which wished to bestow the Croix de Guerre on him (see below); in 1936, The New York Times ran a federal agency photo of cattle grazing on the North Dakota capitol ground, prompting a national controversy over whether the Roosevelt administration faked the photo (it didn't) and whether the caption ("A herd driven from the drought area contentedly grazes on the Capitol grounds at Bismarck, N. D.") misrepresented the situation (it did — the cattle were not driven to the capital by drought, they routinely grazed there); in 1940, crowds were gathering in Kingston, Arizona, for the trial of two communists accused of disturbing the peace by being attacked for circulating a petition seeking ballot status; in 1945, seventy-five thousand people died in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki; in 1945, three days after the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, President Truman lied in a nationally broadcast address about the nature of the city: "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians."; in 1947, a 19th-Century mine in Central Nevada called the Old Blackbird was the source of "medicinal spring water" being sold around northern Nevada; in 1964 on Face the Nation two days after he voted to authorize war in Vietnam, U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy was asked why a Vietnamese patrol boat would take on the U.S. Navy, as claimed by the U.S. in the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and McCarthy replied "Maybe they were bored."; in 1968, as part of its ongoing harassment campaign to drive the underground newspaper Love out of existence, the Reno police department arrested and jailed three of the paper's street vendors; in 2006, twenty-two year old Ignacio Ramirez of Henderson, Nevada, died in Iraq.

William H. Garrison
Place of Birth: Pioche, Nevada
Home of record: Atlanta, Nevada
Distinguished Service Cross
Awarded for actions during the world war

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Private William H. Garrison (ASN: 199156), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Signal Corps Company, 101st Infantry Regiment, 26th Division, A.E.F., near Chateau-Thierry, France, July 20 - 23, 1918. Private Garrison displayed great personal bravery and skill in maintaining telephone lines between the regimental commander and the leading battalion for more than two days. He patrolled the line continuously and repaired it when it was cut during bombardment. Knocked down frequently by exploding shells, and once buried beneath dirt and debris, he nevertheless stuck courageously to his task, thereby making communication possible.

General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 125 (1918)
Action Date: July 20 - 23, 1918
Service: Army
Rank: Private
Company: Signal Corps Company
Regiment: 101st Infantry Regiment
Division: 26th Division, American Expeditionary Forces


Subject: A Flash from the Past
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:20:22

August 6 and 9th mark the 65th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. Perusing some preaching around those events – always a deeply liturgical matter as I see it – the usurpation of the rights to create and destroy – I came across the sermon attached, preached five years ago, on a Sunday just before Julie and I came to Naples (Fl.) for the last time before we moved here, and when we left just ahead of Katrina.  I am all the more chastened by the attached interview with the director of the new film Countdown to Zero. I wish I could do more to reassure the world of our children’s children . . . .
Thanks for Your Time (Mine is Free!), and Love — JOHN AUER

Hiroshima Haunting: Walking the Water, Daring the Dream
Genesis 37:17b-28, Matthew 14:22-33

As we say in our bulletin this morning, we remember the only atomic bombings in the history of the world --the only destructive use ever of the very energy God uses to create and sustain the universe and all of life -- because remembering life is sacred work for us. It is the work our Lord Jesus gives us to do anew each time we break bread and share cup in his name – Do this remembering me! Remembering life! We are not reliving past or projecting future horrors. We are not assigning guilt or blame. We are acknowledging that we human beings -- youngest, most precocious, most precarious of all species -- like Icarus we have challenged the sun, God’s very source and substance of life itself. That accounts for the sunflowers in the bowls of water on the communion table today. We are invited to come to the waters in memory of the insatiable thirsts of atomic victims.

Yesterday the world held its breath while sailors were rescued off the ocean floor. Tomorrow the world will hold its breath till astronauts safely return from space. We know in our hearts how delicate, how fragile, how vulnerable all of life is in this world. With nuclear weapons the fate of the world, our only Earth, lies literally in our hands. All of us in every nation are subject to nuclear terror. It started with us. It can end with us. For our own sake, for the sake of all other peoples, all other creatures, for the sake of our children and children’s children, we can do something, somehow, somewhere, starting now.

As Carter Heyward puts it, “To forgive is not to forget, but rather to re-member whatever has been dismembered. We must recall as many, and as much, and as far back as we can bear.” I would say we can never know too much about ourselves – about our own deepest, most hidden selves -- about one another even all others -- about our species, here and everywhere on the earth. I remember peace activist Brian Willson once saying of people anywhere in the world, “We are not worth more. They are not worth less.” I believe that is the truth. No one anywhere in this world is worth any more or any less in the sight and the love of God than anyone else anywhere in this world. Something about the radical availability and equality of the sacraments -- waters of baptism, bread and the wine of communion -- says so to us all the time. We are all in this, all part of this – together! How do we learn to see all we do as acts of kinship, of solidarity with everyone else on this earth? How do we start asking of each major choice we make, how am I affecting the lives of others I cannot see?

Ringing the bells, folding the cranes, growing the sunflowers, touching the waters – these are for us in these moments acts of life, acts of love, acts of remembrance, acts of resistance -- in what poet Denise Levertov calls “the human war with ourselves, / the war against earth, / against nature.” Even the trees, she claims, are not indifferent to the slightest attention we give to this task of life-loving, life-giving. God so loves the world as to give of God’s own flesh and blood, so that everyone who believes in the Child and the children of God may not perish but find eternal life! God does not send the Child of God into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved -- through that child Jesus and through all the children of God! This is the judgment, that the Light that gives life has come into the world, and we the people of the world -- so far, to this time -- have loved light that gives death more than light that gives life.

Sisters and brothers, so much of life with Jesus, life offered to God, through the Holy Spirit, is all about choices we make and actions we take. War is not working. Had we noticed? Weapons of war, for all of the trillions of dollars we have spent on them, are useless to God in us. How can we call Earth our home and expect to disarm her if we cannot, will not, even disarm the homes we live in each day? If we will not disarm our own hearts and minds? Fr. Daniel Berrigan puts it, “We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its very nature, is total – but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial.” “There is no peace,” he continues, “because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war – at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.”

I do not know what forms in what times and places the peacemaking of this congregation is called to take – in our personal lives as disciples of Jesus, in our life together as the body of Christ. For some of us right now, I am sure, it seems like enough to make peace with ourselves -- to make peace with the people we live with and love -- to make peace with our friends and co-workers and fellow students and even our neighbors not just down the street but just down the pew!

I do not deny the importance of that. We have got to start right where we are, with what is the next step for us. We cannot do all things, especially at once. But when will we see the “big picture?” When will we be “born again” from above, as Jesus says, to behold the whole world and to hold it, as gently as God does? We have got to start somewhere, somehow, doing so now. It may be easy enough for me to say -- as Julie and I go off for some weeks of renewal by some of the waters of our life -- but I am prepared to go the distance with any and all of us as we seek out what it means for us to make peace together – even disgrace, even prison, even death. Please pray with me on how we are called.

As God in Joseph’s life is looking for us to dare to dream God’s dream for us, even though our own brothers may get in our way – and as Jesus in Peter’s life is looking for us to walk on the waters with him, even though we may only get a step or two at a time – so God in our lives gives us waters to walk by day and dreams to dare by night. Will we sink? Will we fall? Will we fail? You bet! But will we have tried? To see the world with God’s love? To hold the world with God’s care? To pray and to act on the world with God’s justice and peace? Starting right where we are? Learning, changing, growing? One day, one step, at a time? Even as Joseph, facing dangers? Even as the disciples, facing fears? We remember today all who -- no matter what their relationship to the events -- have lived the last sixty years with consequences of the bombings. We know how those who had the least to do with making them happen may have felt the most pain and even most shame and most guilt – as it is so easy in life for victims to be blamed and blame themselves. Whereas those who had the most to do with making the bombings happen may be the last to accept their futility.

What I want to say this morning is that the haunting of Hiroshima in all of our lives and our life together need not, can not be only be a haunting of horror. It may -- by the grace of God, and the courage of all the survivors, along with those who re-member them -- also be a haunting of hope. This morning, as every morning, is for us not about blame and guilt. It is, we are, all about faith in Jesus! Faith in who he is to us, and in what he offers to us as we come to believe he and his life are the truth about us – our lives and our life together. There are times when Jesus needs, for his own sake as well as for ours, to leave us on our own – to go up the mountain by himself to pray, and to let us discover for ourselves how we are learning, changing, and growing from him. Often our boat, our life, is battered by waves -- of our own making and far beyond. Often we get cut off from the land of all we have known and trusted and found our security in. Often the wind of conviction, confidence, comfort, convenience turns against us.

Yet at the peak and the worst of the storm, there is Jesus! Haunting us, like a ghost – even daring the dream and walking the water for us! Haunting us, like all the ghosts of those gone before us in faith! Haunting us to dare the dream, walk the water, ourselves! We may not get very far at a time. But Jesus is there to meet us -- to reach us, to touch us, to see us with love and to hold us with care. All Jesus is looking for from us is a “little faith” at a time – just enough to take that first, often longest and hardest step. Jesus is still about stilling the wind of our fears and our failures -- our defeats, our despairs, our destructions, and even our deaths.

The poet (Levertov) says of our remembering this day – “We are holding candles: we kneel to set them / afloat on the dark river / as they do / there in Hiroshima. We are invoking / saints and prophets, / heroes and heroines of justice and peace, / to be with us, to help us / stop the torment of our evil dreams . . . / Windthreatened flames bob on the current . . . / They don’t get far from shore. But none capsizes / even in the swell of a boat’s wake. / The waxy paper cups sheltering them / catch fire. But still the candles / sail their gold downstream.”

Still the candles, all of us, in every land, of every age, sail our gold downstream.

Amen.


Unions and other Nevada non-profits threatened by tax change
Daily Sparks Tribune / 8-6-2010

Crapshoots, trapshoots and turkey shoots
Carrows restaurants run workers into the ground / Washoe DA race starts to rock
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-8-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE FRIDAY 8-6-2010 12:01 a.m. PDT, 07:01 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

San Mateo County Gazette/Redwood City, San Mateo County, California/August 6 1859:  NEVADA TERRITORY — A dispatch from Carson Valley states that a Convention is in session at Genoa for the purpose of forming a provisional government for Nevada Territory, it being the intention of the people to throw off all appearance of allegiance to the Utah Mormon rule. John MERCER, of Downieville, was a prominent candidate for Governor.

On this date in 1806, after 844 years, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when Francis von Hapsburg abdicated as emperor; in 1863, a Storey County Miner's Union was organized in Nevada; in 1887, Carson City was reportedly going wild for baseball — "Men who cannot pick up a dead ball on the ground without letting it drop are going into the business. Others who could not hit a ball in a week, or if they did they couldn't make first base in an hour, are buying ball bats and practicing in the diamond field."; in 1926, the final location shooting for the silent movie The Winning of Barbara Worth, starring Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky and Gary Cooper (in his first film role), took place at St. Paul's Church in Winnemucca; in 1935, the San Diego Sun reported that the Boulder Dam display was winning "public favor" at the California Pacific International Exposition; in 1942, on the day that German troops began massacring three thousand Jews in Dyatlovo, Byelorussia, 600 Jews (using plans prepared by partisan Jewish leader Alter Dvoretski, who had been murdered by anti-Semitic Russian partisans unwilling to fight the Germans) escaped into the Lipiczany Forest where they joined the partisans who became the third Jewish company in the Soviet Orlianski-Borba Battalion; in 1958, Nevada Catholic Bishop Robert Dwyer sent letters to parish priests (to be read at mass on August 10) forbidding Catholics to attend, produce, advertise, manage, or otherwise take part in shows that featured nudity, generating land-office business for casino shows; in 1965. the soundtrack album Help! by The Beatles was released; in 1968 in Missouri, U.S. Senator Edward Long, dogged by his association with mob lawyer Morris Shenker (later a Las Vegas casino figure), lost renomination in the Democratic primary election to Lt. Governor Thomas Eagleton; in 1988, the astonishing supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys (Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, went on tour; in 2001 at his Texas ranch five weeks before September 11, George W. Bush was given a briefing paper entitled Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.

UPDATE THURSDAY 8-5-2010 04:40 a.m. PDT, 11:40 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — Retired teacher and former Carson City Democratic Chair Pat Potter died at her Carson City home after a long illness. May the sweet lady rest in peace.

Patricia Ann Radcliff Potter
September 17, 1929 —August 5, 2010

Patricia Potter, former Carson City educator and former chair of the Carson-Tahoe Hospital Board of Trustees, dies

Carson City, Nev., USA (Updated 8-9-2010 4:42 p.m. PDT / 23:42 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT) — Patricia Potter, former Carson City educator and former chair of the Carson-Tahoe Hospital Board of Trustees, died at her Carson City home at 4:40 a.m. PDT (11:40 ZULU / GMT) on Thursday, August 5, 2010. She was 80.

"I was saddened to learn of Pat's passing," said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"She was a good teacher and a good friend to many Nevadans," Reid added.

"Pat was a strong advocate for change and fought for a better Nevada as chair of the Carson City Democratic Central Committee. My thoughts go out to Pat's family and friends during this difficult time," Reid stated.

She was born Patricia Ann Radcliff in Hapeville, Ga., on Sep 17, 1929, to Vincent and Mable Brock Radcliff. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Steve, and his wife Ann.

She received her bachelor's degree in education from Georgia State College for Women in 1951 after which she taught in school districts across rural Appalachia until she accepted a position on the staff of Sen. Richard B. Russell, D-Ga., in Washington, D.C. There, she met her future husband, Robert Joseph Potter who had been serving on the staff of Sen. Alan Bible, D-Nev. On July 27, 1957, they married in Carrollton, Ga. The couple moved to Carson City in 1959 where they raised their family.

On Sept. 1, 1968, Ms. Potter began her 25 years of service for the Carson City School District. She taught at Bordewich-Bray Elementary from 1968 to 1974, then transferred to Carson Middle School from which she retired in 1993. She received her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1981.

She was elected to the Carson-Tahoe Hospital Board of Trustees from 1985 to 1992. In 1992, she served as chairwoman.

Throughout her life she was a community leader involved in numerous civic and political organizations. She joined the John C. Fremont Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1972 in order to advocate inclusion of African Americans. She became chair of the DAR chapter's committee on conservation. She was a den mother for the Cub Scouts of America, president of the American Red Cross Gray Ladies (‘61-‘62) and president of the St. Teresa of Avila Parent-Teacher Association. She served on the Carson City Parks and Recreation Commission as a member and chairwoman for many years. She was a longtime member of the Nevada State Education Association and the National Education Association.

Ms. Potter served as elected chair of the Carson City Democratic Central Committee from 1972 to 1974. She acted as northern Nevada chair for the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, which reviewed the proposed 1972 Democratic National Convention (DNC) reforms. Better known as the McGovern reforms, the measures were proposed in 1968 and went into effect for the 1972 presidential nominating convention. She was one of two Nevadans seated on the 1972 Democratic National Convention Rules Committee. The other was Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, D-Nev. In addition to 1972, Ms. Potter served as a delegate to the 2000 Democratic national convention. Throughout her adult life she was a tireless advocate for the rights and advancement of women as well as continuously pursuing the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Pat Potter was honored and recognized for her accomplishments and contributions from various organizations including Soroptimist International which in 1982 honored her for her work in effectively advancing the status of women. The American Biographical Institute named to her to Notable Americans of the Bicentennial 1976. In 1977, the Nevada Department of Education presented her with a Certificate of Recognition for distinguished service to education. In 1980, she was initiated into Delta Kappa Gamma, the professional honorary society of women educators.

She is survived by her partner Timothy Bissell, children Robert Lee (Eileen), E. Julian “Betsy” (Mirian), Christina Bryan and Thomas Brock; her grandchildren Kacey, Alexander, Nicholas, Anna and Katryna Potter.

Pat Potter dies
Daily Sparks Tribune 8-8-2010

Carson City Nevada Appeal
8-8-2010

At the request of Ms. Potter, no services will be held. A private memorial will be conducted at a later date.

Remembrances and condolences may be sent to 1555 Kings Canyon Rd, Carson City NV 89703-5301 or via e-mail to Rob Potter. The family may be contacted at (775) 434-9377.

Anyone wishing to publish their remembrances may send them to Andrew Barbano. They will be permanently posted with Ms. Potter's formal obituary and photo at this page. There is no charge.

Remembering Pat Potter

We were really close friends for many years. I called her on an impulse about a year ago because I had truly loved and admired her. Someone had to help her to the phone. As always when someone who once meant a great deal to you is gone, you feel very sad. I recall that she was close to Gov. Grant Sawyer (1959-67). Pat and I went to DNC meetings together and also national conventions. I do believe she was a delegate to the 1972 convention in Miami and was part of the protest group who broke rank and voted for Shirley Chisolm for president. It was the first year they had abolished unit rule and it was wild. I'd love to sit and talk with you sometime about those years when we tried to democratize the Democratic Party.

Pat was fearless and a great comrade in a fight.

Love,

Harriet Trudell
Las Vegas

Pat was a dear friend and co-worker for many years. We worked in the Carson City School District together and were on the CC Parks and Recreation Commission together. When she left the hospital board I followed her as a trustee. Her support and input was a great value. We had many good times playing bridge, taking our kids to Bowers Mansion every summer for swimming lessons and just being good friends. She will be missed by many as she touched the lives of many students and families in our community.

My sincere sympathy to her family and those who knew and loved her.

Jo Saulisberry
Carson City


My crooks are better than your crooks
Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from the 8-1-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE SUNDAY 8-1-2010 3:56 a.m. PDT, 10:56 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — On this date in 1887, there were plans afoot for lighting Virginia City with electricity transmitted from Reno where the Electric Power Company was generating it in the Truckee; in 1908, Nevada Democratic chair John Considine launched an initiative petition drive to abolish the state police; in 1914, four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Europe tumbled into war in an appalling display of power politics that led to a lethel and pointless world war — Germany and Russia declared war on each other, Germany invaded Luxembourg as a first step toward invading France (in a few days France, Belgium, and England all added declarations of war against Austria Hungary and Germany and Germany invaded Belgium); in 1936, the first televised olympics began in Berlin, broadcast live by two German firms; in 1944, Anne Frank wrote in her diary "[I] keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would like to be, and what I could be, if...there weren't any other people living in the world", after which the diary went silent and she was never heard from again, dying at Bergen-Belsen at age 15; in 1960, The Twist by Chubby Checker was released; in 1962, President Kennedy urged women to check their medicine cabinets for baby-deforming thalidomide and to turn in any supplies they found, and he urged Congress to enact pending legislation that "will allow for immediate removal from the market of a new drug where there is an immediate hazard to public health"; in 1971, in one of the major natural disasters of the 20th century, Vietnam's Red River flooded, killing 100,000 people, a weather event that got little attention because the war prevented its study by world scientists (it is on the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration list of the most important 20th century climate events); in 1973, American Graffiti, a George Lucas movie with an astonishing cast of future stars (Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins, Harrison Ford, Kathleen Quinlan, Terry McGovern, Debralee Scott, Joe Spano, Kay Lenz, Susan Richardson, Suzanne Somers, but not Mark Hamill, who answered a casting call for the film) that had been rejected by 20th Century Fox, Paramount, American International, Columbia and United Artists before Universal accepted it, was released into theatres, going on to earn 90 times its $1,250,000 budget (the original director's version was nearly twice as long as the film released into theatres); in 1997, Boeing purchased McDonnell-Douglas, a deal the Clinton administration eventually approved (President Clinton threatened trade sanctions against the European Union if it moved against the acquisition — "he made clear that he was prepared to put the full weight of the Government behind the Boeing Company's $14 billion takeover of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation," reported the New York Times, something he never did for workers); in 2005, Houston woke U.S. astronauts with Big Rock Candy Mountain by Harry McClintock.

UPDATE FRIDAY 7-30-2010 5:16 p.m. PDT, 00:16 7-31-2010 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

Michael "Homer" Johnson dies

It is with deep sadness that I report to you the death of Michael "Homer" Johnson. Homer passed away on July 13, 2010, at his home.

Homer was a fixture during the Frontier Strike and an amazing union activist to his last day. We will all miss him.

There be a memorial service held at the American Legion Post #88 beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 31, 2010.

Thank you.

Danny L. Thompson
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Nevada State AFL-CIO


UPDATE THURSDAY 7-22-2010 1:14 p.m. PDT, 20:14 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

Former Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn dies
NevadaLabor.com Guinn Watch archive

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

Barbwire.TV


The latest TV show
webstreamed

Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest. A button for older shows is being installed. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.

Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative session

(775) 882-8255
[882-TALK]

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 7-28-2010 2:52 a.m. PDT, 09:52 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — On this date in 1868, with ratification of the fourteenth amendment, African Americans became full citizens of the United States, voiding original constitutional language making them three-fifths citizens; in 1878, there was a Canary Bird Concert at Reno's Methodist Church — humans singing in a hall filled with cages of birds hung all around the church (Nevada State Journal: "Though the birds did not sing as much as desired the human warblers did great credit to themselves."; in 1914, World War I began when the Ottoman Empire declared war on Bosnia; in 1935, Joseph M. Neal Jr., who has served as Nevada Senate majority floor leader, president pro tempore, acting governor, and at his retirement was tied for longevity of service as a Nevada state senator, was born in Mounds, Louisiana (EDITOR'S NOTE: A public event is scheduled for July 30. See JoeNeal.org); in 1945 in heavy fog, a U.S. Army B-25 bomber was piloted by an experienced pilot down Manhattan's 42d Street, banked onto Fifth Avenue, dodged several skyscrapers, and plowed at an estimated 200 miles an hour into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, exploding inside the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Conference and killing 14 people (two woman whose elevator dropped more than 70 floors survived; one of the plane's engines came out the other side of the building and landed on a 12 story building); in 1956, Elvis' I Want You, I Need You, I Love You hit number one on the Billboard chart; in 1999, archeological excavation began of Island Mountain, Nevada, a Chinese mining camp that was a living community from 1873 to 1915; in 2002 on a trip to Toronto for a youth conference, Pope John Paul II failed to apologize for the clergy sex abuse scandal and coverups, saying only "The harm done by some priests to the young and vulnerable fills us all with a deep sense of sadness and shame, but think of the vast majority of dedicated and generous priests whose only wish is to serve and do good."

UPDATE TUESDAY 7-27-2010 2:25 a.m. PDT, 09:25 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — On this date in 1877 at an Oglala Lakota council at Camp Robinson, Nebraska, U.S. Army Lieutenant William Clark read a message from General George Crook proposing that Crazy Horse and 17 other tribal members travel to D.C. to meet with President Hayes; in 1916, German officials in Belgium executed Captain Charles Fryatt of Britain after a strange court martial in which Fryatt was prosecuted and convicted of using his merchant ship to defend against the German u-boat that was attacking him; in 1931, the death toll in California's Imperial Valley was 40 and in Phoenix it was 14 as a brutal 41-day heat wave bore down on the southwest; in 1939, new state figures showed that tourist traffic using the Victory Highway in Nevada (U.S. 40) had increased in one year from 18,194 to 23,305 vehicles and the Lincoln Highway (U.S. 50) from 14,431 to 15,606; in 1940, with its release of A Wild Hare, Warner Brothers introduced the character of Bugs Bunny; in 1954, the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, elected with a 1951 landslide of 65 percent of the vote, was overthrown by CIA-paid and -trained mercenaries, leading to four decades of vicious military juntas that waged a genocidal war against the indigenous Mayan Indians and against political opponents; in 1959, the Reno City Council put off a decision on what to do with the old aquarium/fish hatchery building adjoining the municipal pool in Idlewild Park; in 1985, a day after the New York Times crossword puzzle clue for 42/down was "Vegas term", the key to the puzzle came out and the correct term was "odds"; in 2000, the Nevada historical records advisory board discussed a problem of improper storage of state records by state agencies, such as a prison storage building where records were "covered with pigeon droppings, dead pigeons and dead rodents" so severe that an archivist suggested keeping everyone out of the building and calling a hazardous materials team.

Sell us this day our daily bread
Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from the 7-25-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

The simple song of greatness
Longtime Nevada labor leader Danny Coyle diesCarson City Democratic activist and teacher Pat Potter terminally ill
Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from the 7-18-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune


UPDATE SATURDAY 7-17-2010 3:22 a.m. PDT, 10:22 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
JIM BURRELL or LIZ SORENSON (775) 322-9413

Communications Workers union will picket AT&T in Reno on Saturday
Internet call center contract expires at midnight
Updated 7-23-2010

RENO, Nev. (7-17-2010) – Members of statewide Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO will hold an informational picket in front of AT&T corporate offices at 645 E. Plumb Lane in Reno on Saturday, July 17, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. PDT.

"Our national contract expires at midnight, eastern time, so we will be out on the line with everyone else when the clock strikes twelve," stated union president Jim Burrell.

The demonstration will bring long-simmering issues to the forefront.

"We are tired of seeing our work outsourced to low-wage, non-union subcontractors at the same time the company touts all the jobs that have been returned to Nevada at new call centers. They fail to note that those jobs pay about half of what they did before they migrated overseas," Burrell said.

"They came back very skinny," he added.

Union and company negotiators have been meeting regularly but no agreement has been reached on a wide range of issues.

CWA members at AT&T Internet in Districts 3, 4, 6 and 9 have voted overwhelmingly for strike authorization if a fair contract can't be reached. Nevada is part of District 9. Local 9413 represents Internet call center workers in both northern and southern Nevada.

A bulletin to members after a negotiating session yesterday advised "With the contract expiring tomorrow night, remember to take your personal belongings home with you today!"

Negotiations got underway June 21 in Dallas. The expiring contract covers nearly 5,400 workers. Key issues include wages, protecting and improving benefits, job security, protections against subcontracting, improved scheduling and time off.

In the three months ended March 31, 2010, Dallas-based AT&T reported net income of $2.5 billion, or 42 cents per common share.

Local 9413 has been showing strong growth in Nevada. On June 29, technical workers at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno voted by a margin of 98 percent to ratify a new contract. The union now represents about 540 workers in two bargaining units within the sprawling organization.

The St. Mary's workers are the first to be included under the Nevada CWA health care sector. The union represents health care workers in many other states.

Sparks-based Local 9413 is the longest continuously operating labor organization in Nevada, beginning as the Washoe Typographical Union in the days of the Comstock Lode. It once counted Mark Twain among its members and now represents more than 5,000 Silver State workers including telecommunications (AT&T statewide, CC Communications in Fallon), Naval Air Station Fallon support staff, Clark County employees (school police, district court marshals, district attorney investigators, park rangers) and law enforcement personnel in Henderson and Elko.

MORE DETAILS: CWA9413.com

UPDATE:

Failure to communicate
Union workers try to call AT&T to account in a non-union age
By Dennis Myers
Reno News & Review 7-22-2010

Michael Moore and Crackers the Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken receive their usual warm welcome.

UPDATE SATURDAY 7-17-2010 12:02 a.m. PDT, 07:02 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — On this date in 1791 in Champ de Mars two days after the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, soldiers under the orders of revolutionary Paris mayor Jean-Sylvain Bailly and the Marquis de Lafayette opened fire on a crowd seeking the removal of Louis XVI, killing sixty; in 1903, the Wadsworth Base Ball Club held a social dance at the Music Hall in Wadsworth, Nevada; in 1927, with Nicaraguan patriot forces surrounding a U.S. Marine garrison in Ocatal, U.S. occupation forces used six or seven aircraft from Marine Observation Squadron 1 for an aerial dive-bombing attack, killing and injuring more than 300 Nicaraguans, the first known aerial bombing of a civilian population by the U.S.; in 1935, the opening of a new Federal Emergency Relief Administration playground with supervised play for children at Robert Mitchell School in Sparks was announced (FERA was a New Deal agency); in 1942, SS chief Heinrich Himmler had an experience few other top Nazi leaders had — he visited a death camp (Monowitz, one of the three camps at Auschwitz) and personally participated in selecting and executing prisoners; in 1953, Stanley David Osborne of Reno died in Korea; in 1966, Gomer and Sergeant Carter went to Las Vegas on the latest episode of Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.; in 1970 after University of Nevada instructor David Harvey demanded that Washoe County Senator James Slattery produce specific charges in writing against Harvey (Slattery had been making vague accusations against various university faculty members), Slattery avoided the issue by offering to debate Harvey on television; in 2004, after she expressed support for Michael Moore and his film Fahrenheit 9/11 during her show at the Aladdin Casino, the management had Linda Ronstadt escorted off the property (the Eagles and other performers cancelled their Aladdin appearances in support of Ronstadt); in 2008, thirty-seven year old Jackie Larsen of Tacoma, Washington died at Balad Air Base, Iraq, and she was the hundredth female U.S. serviceperson to die in the war zone.

UPDATE THURSDAY 7-15-2010 1:03 a.m. PDT, 08:03 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — On this date in 1741, Alexei Chirikof of Russia "discovered" mainland Alaska at the present site of Sitka (it was discovered right where its native residents thought it was) as part of Vitus Bering's expedition; in 1919, the Provost Marshal General in D.C., who administered the draft, was relieved of duty and his office shut down, ending draft activities, and it was announced that 337,000 U.S. men had resisted the draft during the world war; in 1933 in Clark County, the U.S. Forest Service gave its approval for a highway into Charleston Park; in 1947, after six small children in three years drowned, the Reno city council voted for a $100,000 bond to fence ditches that crossed the city, one of them forming the southern border of popular Whittaker Park; in 1966, When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge went gold; in 1986, César Chávez spoke to Nevada workers at the Musicians Union hall in Reno; in 1999, after half a century of evasions and denials by the federal government, U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson acknowledged for the first time that thousands of nuclear weapons contract workers were made sick by exposure to toxic substances and promised to compensate many of them for medical care and lost wages; in 2004, the Las Vegas monorail began operation.

Obama pays tribute to late Reno labor leader

THE WAY WE WERE — The above is a recently discovered photo from 1986. Left to right are Kathy Brown, Culinary Union Local 86 office manager; Miguel Contreras, Local 86 Secretary-Treasurer; Local 86 President Bill Uehlein; a lady named Natalie (anyone who knows her last name, please write), and César Chávez. This item was first published in Ahora, northern Nevada's Spanish-English weekly, on March 26, 2008. (UPDATE: On 3-19-2009, President Obama paid tribute to Brother Contreras as he spoke in the L.A. building named after the late labor leader. See the 1986 Chávez Reno archive, below.)

(Photo courtesy of Dan Rusnak, retired business manager of Laborers' Union Local 169.)

More stories and photos from César Chávez's 1986 Reno visit


Wha'dya Expect Dept.

State management...er, business..., i.e., sorta kinda labor commissioner rules for Mr. Wynnderful
Steve Wynn’s controversial policy of splitting casino dealers’ tips with their immediate supervisors doesn’t violate state law, according to a ruling issued by Nevada’s Labor Commissioner. This is the same guy who ruled that state prevailing wage law should not be enforced, which happens to be his job.
Las Vegas Sun 7-12-2010

The twisted ethics of sports, politics & rock 'n' roll
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-11-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Interdependence Day 2010: Red, white and screwed
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-4-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Translating the politically inscrutable
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-20-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Sexy follytix 2010: Reality vs. Superficiality
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-13-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE THURSDAY 6-10-2010 11:48 a.m. PDT, 18:48 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — Barbano on statewide Nevada Newsmakers program. Watch for the Sharron Angle angle.

UPDATE TUESDAY 6-8-2010 12:37a.m. PDT, 09:37 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

On this date in 632, Muhammad died in Medina (Madinah) in northern Arabia; in 1878, the Reno Workingmen's organization met and decided to form a military troop (the Workingmen's Party was also known as the Sandlotters and Kearneyism, after San Francisco political leader Denis Kearney, and gained considerable power in California with its program of economic populism and opposition to immigrant groups); in 1901, The New York Times reported that Charles Herrenshoff Jr.'s new cutter Nevada won the Glasgow regatta in the 65-foot class, "covering the course in 9 hours 25 minutes and 17 seconds. None of her competitors had been sighted up to a late hour."; in 1918, Robert Preston (Beau Geste, The Music Man, Victor Victoria, Junior Bonner, The Last Starfighter) was born in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts (Richard Burton: "the best American actor, with a voice like golden thunder"); in 1934, six Sparks property owners filed for a permanent injuction against the Sparks/Reno highway, arguing that when Sparks granted the federal government the right to construct a highway through the city it disregarded the rights of business owners along the route and that Sparks had no authority to grant the right of way; in 1941, a U.S. Army observation plane took off from France Field, Panama, and disappeared (in April, 1999, wreckage of the plane was found in the mountains of Panama and the remains of the three crew members — James D. Cartwright, Augustus J. Allen and Paul R. Stubbs — were recovered and returned to their families); in 1953, Henderson, Nevada, was incorporated; in 1959, the United States Post Office issued a four-cent stamp commemorating the centennial of the discovery of silver in Nevada; in 1967 on the fourth day of the Six Day War, Israel attacked the U.S.S. Liberty, a U.S. spy ship, with PT boats and planes, killing 34 and wounding 171; in 1971 in a special statewide election, Nevada voters lowered the voting age to 18; in 1972, South Vietnamese military jets dropped white phosphorus and napalm on a village and screaming children running from the village were photographed by Huynh Cong Ut, the photo winning the Pulitzer Prize (Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the naked girl running down the road with her body aflame in the photo, spent years getting skin grafts and became a peace activist).

Drill baby drill for jobs, maybe, jobs
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-6-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

From clear-cut forests to dirty Gulfstream waters, this land belongs to old BP
TOLJASO LONG TIME AGO
BP/ARCO: The greasy root of our evils
Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune 9-10-2006
The awful truth — Read it and weep, fellow suckers

Trying to brighten the unelightened
A little hate mail on Memorial Day weekend
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-30-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Al Gunderson:
Hang 'em high and watch 'em swing
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-23-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Al Gunderson: Thunder of the court silenced
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-16-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune


UPDATE THURSDAY 5-20-2010 3:08 p.m. PDT, 22:08 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

Homework: Workers want local labor on local construction
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 5-20-2010

UPDATE FRIDAY 5-14-2010 3:01 a.m. PDT, 10:01 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

200 Nevada construction workers protest jobs going out-of-state
Reno Gazette-Journal & Associated Press / 5-14-2010

PROTESTING THE DEPORTATION OF NEVADA JOBS (Reno, Nev., 5-13-2010) — TOP: More than 200 union construction workers march on the UNR campus. BOTTOM: Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Victor Calderon interviews Paul McKenzie, executive secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada AFL-CIO while Painters Local 567 retiree Mo Hursh poses as the Grim Reaper.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 5-12-2010 03:59 p.m. PDT, 22:59 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Paul McKenzie (775) 355-9200

Unemployed workers march in protest of epidemic of Nevada jobs going to out-of-state contractors
Demonstration forms at Sixth and Sierra streets, Thursday, May 13, 11:00 a.m.

RENO, Nevada, USA – Nevada workers and political leaders will march from downtown Reno to the University of Nevada this Thursday, May 13, to bring attention to the huge volume of employment being awarded to out-of-state companies. The demonstration will form at 11:00 a.m. on the east side of N. Virginia and 6th streets and proceed north to UNR, site of two major jobs employing non-Nevadans.

SPEAKING OUT LOUDLY IN RENO (5-13-2010) — Former University of Nevada Regent and current Democratic congressional candidate Nancy Price addresses demonstrators at UNR's Lawlor Events Center. CWA Local 9413 v.p. and organizer Liz Sorenson stands at upper left, building trades council executive secretary-treasurer Paul McKenzie holds loudspeaker at right.

"The volume of Nevada construction work going to out-of-staters has reached epidemic proportions," stated Paul McKenzie, executive secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO.

"These projects may help with the economic recovery of many other states but we think Nevada jobs should go to Nevada workers," he added.

"According to a 2009 Report prepared by UNR for the Associated General Contractors, few industries have suffered as much as the construction trades," McKenzie said. "Yet even with this knowledge, public bodies such as the same university system which authored the report continue to outsource Nevada's construction jobs to out-of-state contractors.

"Adding insult to injury, they hire out-of-state workers. Two projects currently underway at UNR were not even subject to competitive bidding, yet contractors from out of state were selected. Tax dollars which should have been kept at home to help improve Nevada's economy and reduce our state's budget deficit are instead leaving the state and enriching the economies in Utah, California and Arizona, among others," he noted.

The university system has lots of company in outsourcing jobs. At Thursday's demonstration, the building trades council will distribute a handbill with a partial list of northern Nevada projects described as draining millions of dollars out of the state's economy. (Also hereinbelow.)

"Enough is enough," McKenzie said. "Our march will deliver the message that it is time to tell state and local governments to assure that Nevada workers and contractors work on Nevada projects, especially if those projects are receiving tax dollars, incentives or are being paid for with Nevada ratepayer money."

The handbill includes contact information for companies and public entities responsible for the projects. It has been posted at NevadaLabor.com along with a summary of the 2009 university jobs report.

"Nevada has been hit harder by the depression than any other state. It is unfair to working families that so much major construction work is going to non-Nevadans and we want the public to know it," McKenzie said.

"It has been our long, sad experience that non-Nevada companies often pay less than area-standard wages on privately funded jobs and are much more likely to violate the law by paying less than prevailing wages on public jobs," McKenzie noted.

"Once employers from a foreign jurisdiction have completed work, it is almost impossible to get them to make up underpayments of wages and benefits. The building trades council has fought for decades to ensure that all workers, union or not, are paid according to area standards and the law," McKenzie added.

"It's too early in the process on most of the current public sector jobs to see if prevailing wages are being paid, but we will review the mandated reports when they are filed with the Nevada Labor Commissioner's office," McKenzie said.

"In the case of the Sparks Marina project, we began filing wage complaints last year," he noted.

Established in 1903 and formally chartered by the American Federation of Labor in 1928, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO is comprised of 19 member unions and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO on both the state and national levels.


A wide range of public and private sector construction projects are now underway throughout northern Nevada.

Location / Client and Job / Contractor

PROJECTS FUNDED WITH TAXPAYER MONEY

University of Nevada-Reno
Contact: President Milton Glick, 775.784.4805

UNR School of Medicine, Center for Molecular Medicine
Clark & Sullivan – Sparks, using contractors and workers from California, Utah and Arizona

UNR School of Medicine, Pennington Health Science Education Building
Sundt Construction – Arizona, using workers from Utah, Arizona and California

Nevada Department of Transportation
Contact: Susan Martin Vick, Director, 775.888.7440

Meadowood Mall interchange
Freeway interchange at US 395 South (I-580) and McCarran loop road
Meadow Valley Construction – Arizona, workers from Utah and Arizona

I-580 extension
South of Reno through Pleasant Valley
Fisher Sand and Gravel – North Dakota, workers from North Dakota, Arizona, California

Lyon County School District
Contact: President Neal McIntyre, 775.575-2770

Fernley Middle School
Rafael Construction – Las Vegas
Subcontractor: Midwest Drywall – Wichita, Kansas
The Las Vegas general contractor is using subcontractors from as far away as Kansas with manpower from Arizona, Idaho, Utah and California.

Reno-Tahoe International Airport
Contact: Director Krys Bart, 775.328.6400
Runway lighting project
Royal Electric – California, workers from California

Sparks Marina / RED Development
Contact: Sparks City Councilman Ron Schmitt, 775-353-2311

From the Scheels & Target retail stores to numerous tenant improvements, some of which were performed by out-of-state contractors who did not even have Nevada contractors licenses, this project has been staffed by workers from all over the United States. The Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO began filing wage and hour complaints last year. See cabellyup.com

PROJECTS FUNDED WITH RATEPAYER MONEY

UTILITIES ARE USING RATEPAYER DOLLARS TO IMPORT WORKERS
Contact: Nevada Public Utilities Commission, 775.684.6100

AT&T, SOUTHWEST GAS AND NV ENERGY – importing workers from California, Arizona, Utah and many other states to perform maintenance and new construction.

AT&T building and utility maintenance work
California and Arizona contractors

NV Energy
Power plant, planned maintenance outage
Valmy, Nevada
Contractors: Foster Wheeler, a Swiss Corporation with offices in Clinton, New Jersey
Total Western, Inc., Paramount, California

PROJECTS FUNDED WITH RATEPAYER, TAXPAYER AND PRIVATE FUNDS

GREEN WITH YOUR MONEY: Renewable energy developers have been and are still receiving federal aid and state assistance to import workers.

Contact: Nevada State Energy Office, 775.687.1850

NEVADA GEOTHERMAL, ORMAT & ENEL have been importing workers from Colorado, Louisiana and Mexico, as well as products from outside the USA while receiving millions of Federal and Nevada tax dollars as a reward – money supposed to be aimed at economic recovery.

NV Geothermal (Canadian owned)
Power plant at Blue Mountain north of Winnemucca, recently completed
Project manager: Ormat Energy – Israel
General contractor: TCB Construction – Colorado

Geothermal project owned by Enel, an Italian company
Churchill County, Nevada
General contractor: TIC construction – Steamboat Springs, Colorado
TIC is a subsidiary of Kiewet Corporation of Omaha, Nebraska

PRIVATELY FUNDED PROJECTS

FOREIGN-OWNED MINING MULTI-NATIONALS IMPORTING WORKERS RATHER THAN HIRING NEVADANS

CONTACTS: Newmont – Richard O'Brien, 303.863-7414
Barrick Gold – Gregory Lang, 801.990-3900

Barrick Gold power plant at McCarran east of Sparks, importing workers perhaps from as far away as Finland

Newmont Mining
TS power plant, planned maintenance outage
TS Ranch – Elko County
Contractor: Aquilex SMS, Inc. – St Petersburg, Florida, importing workers from Florida and Louisiana

Wal-Mart
Second St., Reno, north of Grand Sierra Resort
Contractor: R&O Construction – Ogden, Utah, using subcontractors importing workers from Arizona, Utah, Idaho and California


CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

-30-

Newspaper commits dogmatic suicide
Las Vegas Review-Journal assassinates the First Amendment
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-9-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

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

Barbwire.TV


The latest TV show
webstreamed

Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest. A button for older shows is being installed. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.

Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative session

(775) 882-8255
[882-TALK]

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

May 9: On this date in 1868, the town of Reno, Nevada was established with the auction of 400 lots; in 1907, the Sells-Floto Circus began two days of performances in Reno; in 1927, a single company mailed 100,000 letters at the Reno post office, the first of an expected two million, the largest load in the post office's Reno history; in 1940, the tiny nation of Luxembourg was invaded by the Third Reich in violation of its neutrality and Grand Duchess Charlotte and the cabinet fled to London where a government in exile was established; in 1960, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of The Pill; in 1970, H. James Shea, Jr., a Massachusetts state legislator who sponsored the state law that said no citizen of the state could be forced to fight in an undeclared war and sent the Massachusetts attorney general into court to defend any soldier who refused to serve in Vietnam, killed himself in despair over the widening of the war into Cambodia and the resulting tumult across the U.S.; in 1974, nine months after the Nixon administration engineered the September 11 overthrow of the democratic government of Chile, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Melanie, Larry Estridge, Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk performed in concert in New York to raise money for victims of the Chilean junta; in 1994, Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa.

May 8: Man Bites Dog. On this date in 1786, Saint John Vianney, patron saint of draft dodgers, was born near Lyon (in 1808 he hid in a mountain community to avoid service with the French Army on the Spanish lines and was able to return to his home town after Napoleon granted amnesty to deserters and others in 1810); in 1885, Helen Case, theatre and silent movie actress who made at least 26 movies (including some for the 101 Bison Company) and then spent 40 years in obscurity as a beautician in Reno, was born in Petersburgh, Indiana; in 1907, several feet of the top of the state capitol flag pole was lying in a capitol hallway after it was snapped off the pole by a Washoe zephyr and it plunged through the roof, the heavy steel ball at the top of the pole breaking through the roof; in 1929, the bodies of Chicago mobsters Joe Giunta, Albert Anselmi and John Scalisi were found and newspapers called it retribution against Al Capone for the St. Valentine's massacre (actually, Capone ordered the hits); in 1935, the Associated Press reported that the award of the Pulitzer prize for meritorious public service had been recommended by the Pulitzer jury for all the newspapers of the nation in tribute to their fight for a free press clause in their National Recovery Administration (NRA) codes but rejected by the Columbia School of Journalism advisory board; in 1950 in Washington D.C., police committed a man to a hospital for observation after they entered his kitchen and found him biting a dog (news reports contained no explanation of what the police were doing in the man's kitchen in the first place); in 1970, student protestors were attacked and beaten by New York City construction workers who were later honored at the White House by President Nixon; in 1979, Supertramp's Breakfast In America album went platinum; in 2000, Germany removed the name of Wehrmacht Chief of Air Defence Gunther Rudel, a veteran of both world wars, from a military base and renamed it for Sgt. Anton Schmid, who saved more than 250 Jews in the Vilnius ghetto from the Nazis; in 2001, after two papers were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association on the possibility of "curing" homosexuality — one which tended to support the notion, the other opposing it — national media outlets like the Associated Press, CBS, New York Times and Time magazine reported on the supporting study while ignoring the second study (and the author of the supporting study later said "I was appalled at how media simplified it").

May 4

In Memoriam

ALLISON KRAUSE
JEFFREY MILLER
SANDY SCHEUER
WILLIAM SCHROEDER
How can you run when you know?
—Ohio by Neil Young

May 4: On this date in 1885, the United States Supreme Court upheld a ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court in Richmond Mining Company of Nevada vs. Rose and others, a dispute over mining patents; in 1888, the Nevada Education Association, a teachers group, met in Virginia City's Fourth Ward School, with a welcoming address given by Major F.M. Huffaker; in 1934, Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy was released (it became enduringly famous as the movie John Dillinger saw before exiting the theatre to be shot dead by FBI agents); in 1942, six Jews in Lodz, Poland, killed themselves over four days rather than be deported by the Nazis; in 1959 with Mort Sahl as host, the first Grammy awards were held at the Beverly Hilton: Music from Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini won album of the year and best arrangement, The Chipmunk Song by David Seville and the Chipmunks (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) won best recording for children, best comedy performance, and best engineered (Ted Keep), Tom Dooley by The Kingston Trio won best country performance, The Music Man by Meredith Willson won best original cast album, Gigi won best soundtrack, Tequila by The Champs won best R&B recording (the only rock and roll win), Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook won best vocal performance female, and Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como won best vocal performance male (this ceremony was for 1958 performances; a second 1959 Grammy awards program was held six months later, on November 29, 1959); in 1970, four antiwar protesters on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio were shot and killed by National Guard soldiers; in 1999 after U.S. Representative Shelley Berkley of Nevada described Jesse Jackson and an interfaith group that won release of three U.S. prisoners of war in Yugoslavia insulting to the president and compared the group's trip comparable to Jane Fonda's trip to Vietnam, U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois called Berkley "reckless, offensive and ill-informed."

Going dumb by thinking young
Who burned Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-2-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

May 1

May Day: On this date in 1866, a three-day lynching spree began in Memphis, with 46 African Americans taken from their homes and murdered; in 1873, the county seat of Humboldt County, Nevada, was moved from Unionville to Winnemucca; in 1886, a strike in Chicago for an eight hour day was begun, a challenge to economic power that later became International Workers Day and gave May Day its name. It took place in a period of economic brutality and robber barons. On the same day, Boston plumbers and carpenters issued a strike threat against the Master Building Association unless an eight-hour day was allowed, brewers at a Philadelphia firm struck, a building trades strike was scheduled in the District of Columbia, a labor mass meeting was held in San Francisco, furniture makers and cigar makers unions in San Francisco imposed an eight-hour day without bothering to ask employers, the Baltimore Sun agreed to an eight-hour day for carpenters it employed, St. Louis carpentry employers agreed to an eight-hour day, and business and journalism throughout the country tried to play workers off against each other, particularly against Chinese workers (two days after the first May Day, Chicago police fired into a crowd of strikers, killing four people and wounding many more); in 1911, old cannons once used by Virginia City Battery A were slated for placement in front of the Nevada Capitol as "monuments to the hardy pioneers who were ready to fight the battles of the nation, but never had a chance"; in 1915, young songwriter Jerome Kern, who was supposed to sail for England with Broadway producer Charles Frohman, missed the RMS Lusitania when it sailed because he was up late the night before; in 1922, the first known federal broadcasting license issued to a Nevada station, license 224, was issued to station KOJ at the University of Nevada; in 1931 in Chicago, African-American welterweight champion Jack Thompson's manager said he expected Thompson to face former champ Jackie Fields in Reno on July 4 in a match in which Jack Dempsey and Max Baer were taking an interest; in 1957, Good Posture Week in Nevada, as declared by Governor Charles Russell, began; in 1959, three days after the U.S. Senate approved her appointment as ambassador to Brazil over opposition led by U.S. Senator Wayne Morse, and in the wake of reaction to her comment that her problems began when Morse "was kicked in the head by a horse" in 1951, Clare Booth Luce resigned; in 1965, Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter by Herman's Hermits hit number one in the U.S., later spawning a movie of the same name; in 1968, Michael Kenneth Hastings of Las Vegas, Nevada, died in Quang Tri province, Vietnam (panel 42e line 18on the Vietnam wall); in 2003 in a carefully orchestrated made-for-television "top gun" performance that dazzled mainstream journalists and was covered like a campaign event, George Bush, dressed in a fighter pilot's flight suit, was flown in a refueling jet to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to declare an end to combat operations in Iraq before a huge banner reading "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." (Bush said he flew the jet himself, which navy pilots said they had no trouble believing because the jet nearly went over the side of the carrier, being stopped only by the last of four catch cables).

Gov. Raggio: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-25-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

The corporate con job continues
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-18-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Bette Drakulich: Beautiful mother to us all
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-11-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

BREAKING NEWS
Teamsters Local 533 members sweep awards in transit safety competition
Master operator Rex Schrock advances to nationals fourth straight year
UPDATE — This story has been picked up by Teamster Magazine, the international union's publication
NEW PHOTO GALLERY

Cabellyup again
STAR Bonds continue to drain schools and services

Payback time: Lie to your government
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-4-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Viva Chávez
Thanks to all who made Chávez VIII memorable.
Mark 3-31-2011 on your calendar.
Congratulations to all the honorees.
César Chávez awards presented
Reno Gazette-Journal 4-1-2010

Today we march with Chávez
Andrew Barbano guest editorial / Reno Gazette-Journal 3-31-2010

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 3-31-2010 12:49 a.m. PDT, 07:49 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT — From veteran Nevadada journalist Dennis Myers' daily Poor Denny's Almanac

César Chávez: We know what unions have done for other people.  We have seen it and we have studied and we have cherished the idea of unionism.  We have seen the history and development of unions in this country and we tell the growers that we want nothing more, but that we want our own union and we are going to fight for it as long as it takes.

Robert Kennedy to farm workers at Delano, Calif., March 10, 1968: "When your children and grandchildren take their place in America, going to high school and college and taking good jobs at good pay — when you look at them, you will say, 'I did this. I was there, at the point of difficulty and danger'. And though you may be old and bent from many years of labor, no man will stand taller than you when you say, 'I marched with César'."

On this date in 1492 in Granada's Alhambra Palace, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain signed an "edict of expulsion" ordering all Spanish Jews to leave the nation and giving them three months to dispose of their homes, property and assets, usually at a fraction of their value (Isabella said it was not their decision, it was God's); in 1877, Virginia City's magnificent International Hotel opened; in 1900, the Nevada State Journal reported "The world is full of material that will be used to make bombs for the destruction of protection to labor. Organized capital, for the illegitimate purpose of enslaving labor in manifold form, is forcing the conflict that will in due time culminate in a severe conflict. Capital at the present time holds the fort and its guns are directed against the rights of labor."; in 1927, César Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona; in 1931, Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne was killed in a plane crash as he was on his way to Los Angeles for production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame (intense public interest in the results of the federal investigation of the crash resulted in an end to the policy of keeping such probes confidential, and the crash damaged both TWA and Fokker aircraft manufacturing); in 1934, law enforcement officers surrounded the Lincoln Court Apartments in an exclusive section of St. Paul, trapping John Dillinger in his apartment, but Dillinger, his companion Billie Frechette, and gangster Homer Van Meter escaped in a gun battle; in 1944, Adolf Eichmann promised Jewish leaders in Hungary that German/Jewish relations would return to normal after Germany won the war; in 1958, Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode was released; in 1965, the members of the University of Nevada debate team quit on the eve of a 40-college championship tournament hosted in Reno by the UN and issued a statement saying it was the result of a dispute with the campus hate group Coffin and Keys; in 1982, a massive avalanche hit Alpine Meadows ski resort, killing seven and entombing chairlift operator Anna Conrad, who was trapped under a bank of lockers buried in ten feet of snow (she was found alive in a hollowed-out ice cave five days later); in 2010, César Chávez Day will be celebrated with a large gathering at the Circus Circus Hotel in Reno.

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

Barbwire.TV

The latest TV show
webstreamed

Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest. A button for older shows is being installed. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.

Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative session

(775) 882-8255
[882-TALK]

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file
BREAKING NEWS

UPDATE TUESDAY 3-30-2010 1:05 p.m. PDT, 20:05 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

FOLLOWUP: After receiving a copy of the following press release from NevadaLabor.com, Gov. Gibbons issued the legally required César Chávez Day proclamation, dated today. We will let you know when the thank-you note arrives. — AB

March 30, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Andrew Barbano (775) 882-TALK [882-8255]

Gov. Gibbons reminded to obey state law and proclaim March 31 as Nevada César Chávez Day

LAS VEGAS — Gov. Jim Gibbons should follow state law and declare this Wednesday as César Chávez Day, according to Nevada César Chávez Committee Chair Andrew Barbano.

"The governor's website lists proclamations into the month of May, but he has not yet declared March 31 as César Chávez Day, which is required by state law," Barbano said.

"At the request of Commissioner Kitty Jung, the Washoe County Commission recently issued a Chávez Day proclamation for Nevada's second most-populous county without being asked," Barbano noted.

Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, was the primary sponsor of AB 301 in last year's legislative session which requires the governor to proclaim each March 31 as César Chávez Day in the State of Nevada. The legendary United Farm Workers Union founder would have been 83 this Wednesday.

The legislation passed both houses with no dissenting votes. It is commemorative and not a mandatory state holiday requiring paid time off. The law urges news media, education, business and labor leaders to bring to the public's attention the accomplishments of the labor leader who died in 1993. The following year, Chávez was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He was honored with a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp in 2003.

"The proclamation may call upon the news media, educators, business and labor leaders and appropriate government officers to bring to the attention of Nevada residents the important contributions César Chávez made to the State of Nevada and the United States," Chapter 236 of the Nevada Revised Statutes now reads.

Chávez visited northern and southern Nevada in support of worker rights during his lifetime. The City of Reno declared July 15, 1986, as César Chávez Day in honor of his visit and public appearances. Chávez marched in support of Las Vegas Culinary Union members during the Frontier Hotel strike. (See CesarChavezNevada.com)

Celebrations are being held statewide for the first time this year. Assemblymembers Kihuen and Moises Denis, both D-Las Vegas and both candidates for state senate, will inaugurate a new southern Nevada event from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on March 31 at Big League Field of Dreams, 3151 E. Washington in Las Vegas. In addition to other candidates, the special guest will be world class boxing referee Joe Cortez. For details, see Facebook.com or e-mail Adriana Ybarra-Rojas at <sunflowers04@gmail.com> Links at CesarChavezNevada.com.

The eighth northern Nevada event will be held at Circus Circus Hotel Casino in Reno on Wednesday evening when the inaugural César Chávez Silver State Public Service Awards will be presented.

As always, the Chávez family has confirmed attendance at the northern Nevada dinner. Ten members of César Chávez's immediate family will remember their relative, including his brother, Librado "Lee" Chávez. Federal, state and local officials have also been invited.
Links to information about both events may be accessed at CesarChavezNevada.com.

Major northern Nevada sponsors this year include Laborers' Union Local 169, the Building & Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO and AT&T Nevada.

On March 31, doors of the Circus Circus Mandalay Room will open at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 7:00 p.m. Reserved tables for 10 are $575. Individual tickets are $55 per person, $85 per couple; children under 12 are $22.50. Seniors 65 and over or students (with student i.d.) are $40 per person, $70 per couple. Tickets may be purchased online at CesarChavezNevada.com or by calling Andrew Barbano at (775) 882-8255. The website has additional ticketing and sponsorship details.

e-copy: julieroberts@gov.nv.gov (Governor's staff)

-30-

César Chávez Day:
Organizing Nevada on March 31
Union employer and project of the year awards announced
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-28-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE THURSDAY 3-25-2010 01:03 a.m. PDT, 08:03 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT —

U-NEWS you can use from NevadaLabor.com
Uploaded to targeted e-lists. Click here to request future inclusion.

IN THIS EDITION

Union convention delegates march on Wells Fargo Bank in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 25 (see below)

César Chávez's immediate family will attend March 31 Reno César Chávez Day commemoration dinner, awards and hall of fame event

Reno-Sparks-Stead, Nev., airport support workers vote to affiliate with Teamsters Local 533

Las Vegas Plasterers & Cement Masons Local 797/AFL-CIO launches website protesting substandard wages and benefits at One Queensridge Place

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
GAIL TUZZOLO (702) 596-1482

Union convention delegates will march on Wells Fargo Bank in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 25
"Tell Wells Fargo to pay up"

LAS VEGAS, Nev., USA (3-25-2010) — Delegates to this week's Nevada State AFL-CIO convention will march on Wells Fargo Bank at 3300 W. Sahara in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 25, beginning at 3:30 p.m. PST (22:30 GMT/ZULU/CUT/SUT).

"Big Wall Street banks helped cause the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, homes, and retirement savings," according to Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson, "but the biggest Wall Street banks gave their execs $145 Billion in pay and bonuses last year.

"Wells Fargo paid CEO John Stumpf $21.3 million," Thompson said.

"Wall Street banks took billions in taxpayer bailouts to get back on their feet. Wells Fargo got $25 billion," Thompson noted.

'Now, they’re spending millions lobbying to kill financial reform. Wells Fargo spent $2.9 million on lobbying last year," Thompson said.

"On Thursday, Nevada working people — taxpayers all — will send a message to Wells Fargo: Start lending to your communities, small businesses and others so starved for credit. Stop fighting financial reform. Stop refusing to pay your fair share to create the 11 million jobs America needs," the longtime labor leader added.

Delegates will leave the Riviera Hotel at 3:10 p.m. Thursday for Wells Fargo Bank, about 1.3 miles away at 3300 W. Sahara Blvd.
Delegates are advised that 3150 W. Sahara is a mall parking lot and that they should park adjacent to the closed-down Hogs Casino and Cantina, right next to the bank.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
ANDREW BARBANO, 775-882-TALK (882-5785)
CesarChavezNevada.com

César Chávez's immediate family will attend March 31 Reno celebration of the great labor leader
Wednesday/Miercoles, March/marzo 31, 2010 / Circus Circus - Reno MORE —>>>

SUING FOR SCHOOLS, the latest Barbwire live TV special rebroadcasts this week on Reno-Sparks-Washoe Charter/SNCAT digital channels 16 and 216 and hi-def 80-295. The next cablecast is scheduled for 2:25 p.m. PDT (21:25 GMT/ZULU) on Friday, March 26.
It's also available online at NevadaLabor.com, along with If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions.

The programs are additionally rerunning in Carson City on Charter cable channel 210, 5:30 p.m. Mondays; 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8:00 a.m. Thursdays and 8:00 p.m. Saturdays. (Health Care 3/22-3/27, 3/29-4/3; Suing for Schools 4/5-4/10).

Check local listings for other areas of the state and keep an eye on the Barbwire at this website for future scheduling. The programs are available 24/7 online and may be accessed via the March 21 Barbwire column.

MORE TUBULAR TIME. NevadaLabor.com editor Andrew Barbano's latest rather rambunctious appearance (March 23) on Sam Shad's statewide Nevada Newsmakers program may be accessed at NevadaNewsmakers.com, where a complete statewide radio-TV rerun schedule may be found.

Barbano on Nevada Newsmakers today, reruns statewide
Wednesday, 3-23-2010

César Chávez, Thurgood Marshall & Thomas Jefferson
Submit your nominations for the César Chávez Silver State Public Service Awards
Enter your video (for cash and/or prizes) in the public service announcement competition
Barbwire TV specials now rerunning statewide
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

César Chávez Day 2010:
Produce your own revolution
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-14-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the Feb. 21 BARBWIRE show on your desktop
Special guest: Sen. Harry Reid

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

Barbwire.TV

The latest TV show
webstreamed

Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest. A button for older shows is being installed. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.

Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative session

(775) 882-8255
[882-TALK]

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

UPDATE SUNDAY 2-28-2010 01:34 a.m. PST, 09:34 ZULU/GMT — Union men run for office in Reno-Sparks

Former Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 350 Business Manager Bob Lopes declares candidacy for Sparks City Council

Laborers' Union Local 169 Business Manager Richard "Skip" Daly endorsed by term-limited incumbent Democrat Bernie Anderson for Assembly District 31

BREAKING NEWS
Clinging to the Ledge

UPDATE SUNDAY 2-28-2010 12:01 A.M. PST, 08:01 ZULU/GMT —

Tentative budget deal reached (Las Vegas Sun)

Nevadans will feel impact of four-day government workweek (LV Sun)

Ledge 'X:
The Deer-in-the-Headlights Session
Expanded from the 2-28-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 2-24-2010 2:36 A.M. PST, 10:36 ZULU/GMT — Cathousing, carousing and fox-pawing, the emergency legislative session convened in Carson City on Tuesday, 2-23-2010.

CARSON CITY, NV — Nevada state employees from all over the region made things hot on a frigid day by rallying on the capitol mall, then marching on both the governor's office and the legislative building. AFSCME Local 4041/AFL-CIO served food to the stalwarts afterward. All agreed that the occasion gave new meaning to the term cold sandwiches.

OUT IN THE COLD. Supporters of the state workers included Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Treasurer Danny Thompson; Laborers' Local 169 Business Manager Skip Daly (a Democratic candidate to replace term-limited Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks); retired Local 169 business agent Pat Sanderson of Gardnerville; Paul McKenzie, secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO; Ironworkers Local 118/AFL-CIO business agent Danny Costella, a Carson City resident; Sam Lumpe, retired member of Sheetmetal Workers Local 26 and longtime political and union activist; Rudy Viola, president of United Auto Workers Local 2162/AFL-CIO; Scott Watts, president of the Nevada chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans; and two members of the Industrial Workers of the World —> the latter day reps of the venerable Wobblies Union always show up to support their brothers and sisters, even if it means taking a day off work, which one did. Solidarnosc!

ps: Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Yer humble editor was there representing Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO., as was Local 9413 president Jim Burrell.

2-27-2010 UPDATE: State workers win round as lawmakers consider cuts (Las Vegas Sun)

STACKING THE DECK IN THE HALLS. Gov. Jim the Dim announced before the session convened that he would add two items to the legislative agenda: A change to state law so that Nevada could qualify for Race to the Top federal education money and a bill to remedy the recent court-caused uncertainty about water rights application.

Unfortunately, he did not do so before lawmakers were gaveled into session. Any changes are now illegal. (See Sen. Joe Neal's comments in the 2-21-2010 Barbwire.)

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told me in our weekend interview that $175 million will be available to Nevada if the law is changed.

He added that Nevada is the only ineligible state.

He also expressed amazement at the governor's conduct in office.

Gibbons' announcement coupled with inaction (what else is new from this guy?) is viewed as attempt by Jim the Dim to push lawmakers toward his narrow, education-destroying agenda by holding these two important measures in abeyance.

But he has no power to micromanage the legislature and has precipitated the constitutional confrontation predicted in last Sunday's Barbwire.

Some lobbyists told me today that a precedent for Jim the Dim's maneuver was established when Gov. Dudley Do-Right introduced new items at the end of one of the three acrimonious special sessions of 2003.

Wishful thinking.

FOXY LADIES TO THE RESCUE. Nevada Brothel Association lobbyist George Flint is pushing a solution on lawmakers: legalize prostitution in Nevada's two largest counties, Clark (Las Vegas) and Washoe (Reno-Sparks). In Gomorrah South alone, Flint says this new tax (Grover Norquist*, call your office) would generate $300 million a year in Clark County alone. Flint says he's done the math on establishing two houses with 300 girls each. He notes that three women of his acquaintance left the controlled environment of rural Nevada to freelance in Las Vegas. All three were murdered.

Flint has a point — but I'd only support such legalization if a provision were included to make it easy for sex workers to organize themselves into a union.

Purveyors of society's vices always find it good business to take in the government as a partner. Witness gambling, alcohol tobacco and firearms.

FOX PAWS. Testifying before the entire lower house on the assembly floor, Clark County school superintendent Walt Rulffes really barfed things up. As an aside which brought gasps from lawmakers and the assembled multitudes, he noted that administrators in his district are asking for pay raises. With that sense of timing, he could never make it as a comedian notwithstanding his ridiculous remarks.

SPEAKING OF TIMING. Word is that Gov. Jim the Dim wants matters concluded by this weekend. Talk in the hall focuses on a couple of weeks of agony.

TROLLING FOR LAWSUITS. Just hanging around the hallways I picked up two or three additional potential plaintiffs interested in suing the state over its glaring educational deficiencies. Media interest is gathering momentum and I was amazed at the number of people in grocery stores and at the ledge who saw last Sunday's broadcast.

Awesome.

All tips and scurrilous rumors encouraged.

Stay tuned.

Be well. Raise hell.

AB

* DC Taxophobe and anarchist Norquist sent a letter revealed on Tuesday wherein he blasted Gibbons for allowing tax and fee increases.

UPDATE: SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the Feb. 21 BARBWIRE show on your desktop
Special guest: Sen. Harry Reid

Posted Feb. 19, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
ANDREW BARBANO

TUNE IN SUNDAY FEB. 21, 2010 —
LIVE REGIONAL TV + webcast 6:00 p.m. PST / 02:00 ZULU
Rerun at 9:00 p.m. PST / 05:00 ZULU

Please be patient. This webstreaming link will NOT activate until the 6:00 p.m. live webcast begins

SUING FOR SCHOOLS: The case for making Nevada finally obey her constitutional mandate to provide for public education

Can we do any worse with a judge running the system?

RENO — A live television special Sunday evening will explore suing Nevada on behalf of public education. "Suing for Schools", a live Barbwire special, will air from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. PST on interactive Reno television before a studio audience. Viewers may call with questions at (775) 828-1211 or send them in advance to program host Andrew Barbano via barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

With the destruction of the remainder of the Nevada education system at hand in next week's emergency legislative session, the time is right to review legal remedies to force the state to live up to its constitutional mandate to provide for education.

In 2008, then-university system chancellor James Rogers published research noting all the jurisdictions which have been successfully sued under circumstances similar to or worse than Nevada's. The study may be downloaded by accessing the 7 Feb. 2010 Barbwire ("Tap City Again and Again") at NevadaLabor.com.

Sunday panelists will include Lonnie Feemster, president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP (RenoSparksNAACP.org), Jeffrey Blanck, NAACP legal counsel, and Prof. Howard Rosenberg, former university system regent.

A recorded interview with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is also scheduled.

"Suing for Schools" will cablecast live at 6:00 p.m. PST on three Reno-Sparks-Washoe community television channels (Charter Communications digital 16, 216 and 80-295HD). Internet viewers may view the program as it happens by accessing a link through the front page of NevadaLabor.com. The link will activate when the show starts.

The program will rerun in prime time from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. PST Sunday on Reno CW Network affiliate KRNS TV (through the airwaves on digital 27.2 or analog 46).

It is receivable over the air from just east of Sacramento, Calif., to Pershing County, Nev., and to the south through Fallon, Yerington and Mineral County (Hawthorne), Nev. The CW is available on Nevada cable systems at channel 6. Satellite (Dish, Direct et al.) or AT&T UVerse subscribers in the above telecast area should consult their program guides for the dial position of KRNS TV from Reno.

Viewers with analog TV sets without digital converters, cable or satellite may access the program over the air with rabbit ears at UHF channel 46. Viewers in Susanville, Calif., may receive CW-Reno over the air at analog channel 29, again with no converter necessary. A coverage map may be accessed at NevadaLabor.com and Barbwire.TV.

The program will be rerun on various public and commercial stations statewide.

Check local listings.

UPDATE: SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the Feb. 21 BARBWIRE show on your desktop
Special guest: Sen. Harry Reid

Be well. Raise hell.
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PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

SUNDAY, Feb. 21: BARBWIRE BY BARBANO IN THE SPARKS TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, Feb. 23: March of the Workers at the legislature in Carson City, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 11:30-1:00 p.m. All workers are welcome to join AFSCME Local 4041/AFL-CIO. Info: (775) 882-3910.

"We all need to be vigilant as the governor is determined to destroy labor and undermine any gains that working famiilies have made in Nevada," stated Nevada State AFL-CIO executive secretary-treasurer Danny Thompson. Gov. Gibbons' proclamation calling the special session contains provisions to destroy what's left of worker rights in the Silver State.

MARCH 31: Nevada César Chávez Day VIII, March 31, Circus Circus Reno. See CesarChavezNevada.com for sponsorship and event info.

DOUBLE DOWN TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY MEDIA. The Sunday Barbwire Special program would not be possible without community media. We originate in public access facilities and rebroadcast over both public and commercial television. Sierra Nevada Community Access TV needs your help with a critical grant program which matches public contributions dollar-for-dollar — it's all tax-deductible. Thanks to all who have already jumped in. Please consider doing so yourself. Please contact Barbano for more info. If you don't think corporate conglomerate TV provides all the news you never knew you needed to know, this is important to you. So turn on, tune in and tell a friend.