"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer NevadaLabor.com HEALTH CARE WAR ROOM It's long been very personal: Blasts from our very checkered past Fatal Conservatism: Killing our bodies & our minds Expanded from the 4-2-2006 Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune UPDATED 8-8-2006, 1-16-2008, 3-9-2008, 4-6-2008, 1-16-2011 and 1-16-2014 FIGHTING FOR PATIENTS AGAINST PROFITMONGERING MANAGEMENTS THRIVING ON HUMAN MISERY "Washoe Med: This community has been snookered!" — From a Reno Gazette-Journal guest editorial DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN...— Washoe Med / Renown nurses picket during a one-day strike on 6-23-2001. The issues were the same as during a 1990 organizing drive and remain today: Understaffing which erodes patient care so that the conglomerate may profit and proliferate on the backs of health care consumers and taxpayers. Breaking News –> DoctorLawyerWatch.com Renown Octopus goes Kaiser Permanente Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno ST. MARY'S NURSES vs. THE VENERABLE HOSPITAL'S UNHOLY CORPORATE OWNERS Sign the union petition for a fair contract! 5-30-2026 Hot August VD Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-7-2024 Health care bandidos and flaming ammotextuals Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-3-2024 In the cocoon of our unhealthy cartoon Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 12-6-2023 Bonfire of the Vampires Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 11-29-2023 How Renown stole our county hospital Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 3-16-2022 DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN— St. Mary's registered nurses picket hospital Friday, 2-11-2022 1:00 .m PST Union members picket "greedy and unaccountable" St. Mary's-Reno Hospital By Jeri Davis / This is Reno 11-9-2020 Intensive care St. Mary's-Reno nurses picket Wednesday September 18, 2019 What's harder: Finding a doctor or Stormy Daniels? Sucking up money: The ever-expanding tentacles of the voracious Renown medical octopus Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno Expanded from the 3-21-2018 Sparks Tribune Labor's stake in the fight for veterans' health care By Suzanne Gordon and Ian Hoffmann / Labor Notes 10-12-2017 Ian Hoffman is with AFGE 2152 representing workers at Reno's Ioannis A. Lougaris Veterans Medical Center Profit-mongering health care crashing in northern Nevada Rx for Rape and Pillage SMOKING GUN —> The big picture ain't pretty. DC GOP lawmakers are trying to bludgeon thru Obamacare "repeal" because the budget cuts therein will substantially reduce projected deficits. Without those projections in law, under current revenue-neutral rules, they will not be able to pass their tax cuts for the corporately wealthy. No less than conservative Reason Magazine Editor Peter Suderman said that on the June 19 PBS/Bloomberg Charlie Rose TV program. As Lily Tomlin once opined, no matter how cynical you become, it's hard to keep up. The game's afoot. So use a foot to kick some ass. Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. Andrew Condemned at Birth The diabetes establishment inhibits research on a very promising diabetes CURE "Tell us how it will make ever make us money." Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-14-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-14 and 6-20-2017 Nevada consumers consumed again Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno Expanded from the 6-6-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-8-2017 Single-Payer Health Care Essential for America Government allows unwarranted corporate profits from taxpayer-developed medicines By Jake Highton / Sparks Tribune 10-25-2016 Don't ask Renown for marijuana to help your chemo Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-4-2016 Sparks Tribune EXCLUSIVE! The Renown ripoff 1995 Washoe Med Grand Jury commentary Additional columns just uploaded from our archives Download the Grand Jury Report Read it and weep Nevada's hospital cost control law worked, so the legislature repealed it, of course When public interest is secondary to public relations Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-5-2016 Sparks Tribune Good news, bad news and Machine Gun Michele Washoe County schools norovirus outbreak spreads Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-6-2015 Sparks Tribune Don't call a lawyer to sue a doctor Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-18-2015 Sparks Tribune Tinkle-down economics: testing Tesla's testes Theft of Washoe Med/Renown provides cautionary tale Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-9-2014 Sparks Tribune Sexy scandals, whitewashes & black towers In Nevada visit, new Veterans Administration boss proves all jobs require training Media overlook federal sex/race/ethnicity investigation into Washoe County School District Meanwhile, big money is spent strictly on abstinence State panel to review militarization of police departments Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-21-2014 105 + 285 layoffs at LV public hospital called necessary Las Vegas Sun / 8-21-2014 Study Shows the Madness of States Refusing to Expand Medicaid Joshua Holland / Bill Moyers.com / 8-14-2014 How to assassinate Medicare and Medicaid Health Savings Accounts: The insurance industry's Trojan Horse Andrew Barbano / Reno Gazette-Journal / 7-19-2014 Las Vegas cancer center drops Obamacare patients Culinary Union is part of cancelled co-op Las Vegas Review-Journal / 7-17-2014 Nevada OSHA fines Summerlin Hospital in fatal TB outbreak Las Vegas Review-Journal 4-10-2014 Fold your favorite charity, then go thank yourself Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-13-2014 Sparks Tribune Grim picture painted of mental health care in Nevada By Ed Vogel / Las Vegas Review-Journal 1-29-2014 RENO, Nev. (12-5-2013) — Former Nevada Assemblymember and hospital trustee Vivian Freeman died this morning at her home in Reno. She was 86 years old. Freeman's distinguished career included Nevada's first mining reclamation law Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 12-12-2013 EXCLUSIVE! 1995 Washoe Med Grand Jury commentary Additional columns just uploaded from our archives Download the Grand Jury Report Read it and weep Nevada's hospital cost control law worked, so the legislature repealed it, of course POOR DENNY'S ALMANAC 11-21-2013 — On this date in 2004, Ray Hagar and Sandi Wright reported in the Reno Gazette-Journal that local schools attended by low income students tended to be the most poorly maintained schools.         THE BARBWIRE RESPONDS: So what else is new? Over the decades, the RGJ has done a sterling job investigating separate but unequal health care and education. Alas and alack, nothing much ever changes on the High Desert Plantation. For a quick sad summary, see the Barbwire of April 2, 2006 (updated periodically). Staff, visitors and patients sue southern Nevada Summerlin Hospital over TB exposure AP & Las Vegas Sun / 11-20-2013 Assemblymember Peggy Pierce, D-Las Vegas, 1954-2013 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 Another public relations coup for Nevada Report: Every nursing home in Nevada cited by inspectors Chronic understaffing in a very lucrative & growing industry "Nevada is one of two states where every nursing home was cited with one or more deficiencies by state health inspectors, and one in three nursing homes was cited for a severe deficiency, meaning a resident suffered actual harm or was in imminent danger." Las Vegas Review-Journal / 8-12-2013 Major union leaders blast Obamacare for hurting health plans Labor starts to bail: Democratic health care plan support erodes By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-1-2013 Full text of letter to Reid and Pelosi Death panels hard at work right here in River City Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-4-2013 Sparks Tribune Guilty of Murder: Las Vegas hepatitis C murder cases archive Defrocked California doc allowed to practice in Nevada by Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 5-30-2013 We Don't Need No Education Part XIV Never trust gun runners, politicians or PR men Barbwire by Barbano Expanded from the 1-31-2013 Daily Sparks Tribune Clinging to the ledge and paying for our sins Governor pays back Nevada health insurance monopoly and major campaign contributor Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-24-2013 Daily Sparks Tribune ALSO —As predicted last year, mass firings have begun as the union busters take over St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno as of June 30 . Looks like the Hot August Strike season may come early this year. Stay tuned and keep NevadaLabor.com posted. Meet the unholy new owners of St. Mary's By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 6-21-2012 St. Mary's firings begin Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-8-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune Nevada would profit handsomely from Obamacare Hugh Jackson / Las Vegas CityLife 4-5-2012 A bunch of law-breaking, union-busting, profit-gouging sleazoids Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-1-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune Renown 150th: Profiting at taxpayer expense Barbwire by Barbano/ Daily Sparks Tribune 3-18-2011 Heart doctors accuse Renown/Washoe Med of fraud and conspiracy Reno Gazette-Journal 11-13-2011 The Nevada initiative partially banning smoking in public buildings has resulted in a big drop in hospital admissions for heart attacks and strokes. Too bad casino and bar workers don't enjoy any protection. Daily Sparks Tribune / 9-18-2011 BARBWIRE EXCLUSIVE Reno Catholic hospital sale rumored UPDATE: Confirmed, controversial and perhaps corrupt Barbwire by Barbano/ Daily Sparks Tribune 8-28-2011 What's the ugliest part of your body? Barbwire by Barbano Expanded from the 7-31-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune Nevada government's license to kill A funeral dirge for the disposable worker Barbwire by Barbano Expanded from the 6-5-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune Running red in a frozen economy Sparks and Reno face huge fines for labor law violations Cancerexia: Ralph Lauren boycott widens Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from Daily Sparks Tribune / 12-13-2009 Health care in prime time, ready or not Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from Daily Sparks Tribune /12-6-2009 If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions LIVE TV Dec. 6 Available to every TV set in N/E California and N/W Nevada Click here to see the show live on your computer NOTE: The above webstreaming link will not be hot until 5:30 p.m. PST / 01:30 ZULU/GMT, a half-hour before showtime on Dec. 6. The above link is now disabled. Catch the CW network re-run, 9:00 p.m. PST/05:00 ZULU/GMT Turn on, tune in and tell a friend If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions LIVE TV Dec. 6, 2009 Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from Daily Sparks Tribune / 11-29-2009 Give 'em health Harry, part deux Barbwire by Barbano/ Daily Sparks Tribune / 11-22-2009 Sick and tired of being sick and tired Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune / 11-15-2009 Déjà vu all over again Renown/Washoe Med, always in desperate need of nurses, fires 15 9-29-2009 EXCLUSIVE! 1995 Washoe Med Grand Jury commentary Additional columns just uploaded from our archives Download the Grand Jury Report Newly uploaded report Nevada's hospital cost control law worked, so the legislature repealed it, of course Washoe Med's chairman of the board attempts to rewrite history while erasing a venerable name      "Studies show that people still think we're a county-run hospital, but we haven't been that for over 20 years....There is a perception that a government-operated facility can't be that good and they will choose not to give money to the foundation because they think we are tax-subsidized, which is false." — Mike Alonso, attorney and board chair — From Washoe Medical Center renamed Renown Health Daily Sparks Tribune, 9-22-2006 Nothing could be further from the truth. Washoe Med/Renown has been receiving huge taxpayer subsidies for indigent care since 1985, when the hospital was given away by corrupt county officials under a false promise to permanently relieve the taxpayers of the costs of indigent care. See the Washoe County Grand Jury Report available exclusively at NevadaLabor.com. DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN — Washoe Med / Renown nurses picket during a one-day strike on 6-23-2001. The issues were the same as during a 1990 organizing drive and remain today: Understaffing which erodes patient care so that the conglomerate may profit and proliferate on the backs of health care consumers and taxpayers. RENO, Nev. (12-5-2013) — Former Nevada Assemblymember and hospital trustee Vivian Freeman died this morning at her home in Reno. She was 86 years old. Freeman's distinguished career included Nevada's first mining reclamation law Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 12-12-2013 Déjà vu all over again Renown/Washoe Med, always in desperate need of nurses, fires 15 EXCLUSIVE! 1995 Washoe Med Grand Jury commentary Additional columns just uploaded from our archives Download the Grand Jury Report Teddy, Tunney, cowboys and Indians Barbwire / Expanded from the 8-30-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Angry Americans and Freudian fraud Barbwire / Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Editorial: A sloppy hospital is enabled by an incompetent governor Reno News & Review / 7-9-2009 Read it and weep Nevada's hospital cost control law worked, so the legislature repealed it, of course CWA WINS AT ST. MARY'S-RENO Thursday, 4 Dec 2008, 12:24 p.m. PST, 20:24 ZULU/GMT/SUT/CUT Nurses win contract with St. Mary's Reno Washoe Med/Renown nurses also ink deal RENO — Washoe Med/Renown nurses plan June 11, 2008, protest vigil against stonewalling, union-busting management Monopolists and mass malpractice Gasoline price fixing and greasing pols to exploit the sick Barbwire / Sparks Tribune 4-13-2008 Washoe Med: Renowned for Ripping Us Off Inhospitable Reno hospital terrorizes its nurses for daring to picket for an hour. Barbwire Special Web Edition 4-10-2008 Take it to the streets today! Who's on Worst? Nurses organize, governor Hooverized, regents piratize Is anybody running this show? Nurses schedule April 10 demonstration in Reno Barbwire / Sparks Tribune 4-6-2008 DoctorLawyerWatch.com BREAKING NEWS ANOTHER WORLDWIDE PUBLIC RELATIONS COUP FOR NEVADA Tens of thousands statewide in jeopardy as Nevada health care provider inspection system collapses Clinics close, nurses surrender licenses LONGTIME RURAL NEVADA CONUNDRUM: Imported doctors abused and small county patients suffer Does your race predict your health care? New mini-series says yes. CNA v. SEIU: Discontent divides LV area nurses Labor groups contest election results in fight for representation at three St. Rose Dominican hospitals Cab passenger in accident finds no one has to pay for her injuries After hit-and-run, she learns Nevada law contains insurance loophole for taxis STRIKE LOOMS CLOSER — Culinary Union files for injunction against Reno Grand Sierra. Health care costs are the issue. BARBWIRE: The Wages of Sin "My doctor killed me." Daily Sparks Tribune 2-24-2008 Longtime St. Mary's hospital employee "Fired for cancer?" in a fire-at-will state A not very Christian tale Reno News & Review Editorial 3-13-2008 Fired for cancer? Reno News & Review 3-6-2008 Right-to-work / fire-at-will law plagues Nevada for more than half a century St. Mary's Reno nurses vote 252-141 for union representation thru the California Nurses Assn. Renown/Washoe Med nurses vote 491-213 (a landslide of almost 70 percent voting yes) to keep their union. MORAL OBTUSENESS ALERT: Climbing the walls at new Washoe Med Reno News & Review 12-6-2007    Washoe Health System got a free hospital by promising perpetually free indigent care and reduced health costs to the public. The behemoth has now used its exorbitant profits to open the most expensive hotel in northern Nevada. The palace built on the pain of patient and public purse comes complete with an imperious and imperial Steve Wynn-esque orgasm of attitude for the artsy set, as noted in the 12-6-2007 Reno News & Review puff piece, above. The Reno Gazette-Journal, as always taking care of a good advertiser, editorialized on 11-8-2007 that "Renown got priorities right in its new Mill Street tower." The Gannett chain gang newspaper may not reflect the community, but it certainly represents its own community of narrow self-interest. President Harry Truman had it right on health care in 1949 SEIU split over Nevada leader BARBWIRE Comeuppance for corporate welfare queens UNION ELECTIONS AND STRIKES SPREAD ACROSS THE LAND GOWABUNGA! Renown/Washoe Med nurses vote, UAW strikes California Nurses Assn. competes with SEIU for Nevada nurses Reno City Council rolls over and goes belly up for Cabela's SPECIAL INTERNET EDITION 9-25-2007 BARBWIRE: BOXING PANDORA DAILY SPARKS TRIBUNE 9-23-2007 Statewide 16,000-member senior citizens group supports Renown/Washoe Med nurses union drive BARBWIRE: Culinary negotiates, nurses agitate, both may vacate and demonstrate DAILY SPARKS TRIBUNE 9-16-2007 NLRB sets election for Reno Renown/Washoe Medical Center nurses BARBWIRE LABOR DAY 2007: Labors of Love 9-2-2007 Party like it's 1929 Union-busting Reno hospital offers excuses for rape and pillage 8-12-2007 Washoe Med renown for toxic sludge 8-5-2007 EXCLUSIVE! 1995 Washoe Med Grand Jury commentary Additional columns just uploaded from our archives Download the Grand Jury Report NevadaLabor.com Statewide Health Care News Roundup & Archives DoctorLawyerWatch.com Copyright © 2004-2017 Andrew Barbano WELCOME TO NEVADALABOR.COM'S NEW HEALTH CARE WAR ROOM DEAR NEVADA LABORITES: SINCE HEALTH CARE IS THE HOTTEST POLITICAL ISSUE IN THE COUNTRY, (yes, health care deficiencies are only magnified by our perpetual wars), it's high time that we started a health care war room to go along with all the rest. (See below.) The Culinary Union is threatening strikes north and south. The big sticking point — you guessed it! — health care. The merger of the state's largest health care insurers threatens to make Nevada the most concentrated (translation: monopolistic) insurance market in the country. Once again, the Silver State aspires to the number one position at the bottom of the barrel. Nothing illustrates the problem better than the bitter fruit of privatization known as Renown Medical Center, the former public hospital once called Washoe Medical Center in Reno. For the first time, the damning 1995 Washoe County Grand Jury Report about the theft of the hospital is available online. Right here. Who else would do it? (Who else would keep a copy after all these years?) I have also uploaded for the first time my 1995 Barbwires about the heist. Selected additional information will be posted over time, but right now, the front burner issue is the union re-election scheduled at Renown/Washoe Med for Sept. 25-27, 2007. Here's the official word from Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson: 9-19-2007 TO: All affiliates RE: Nurses fight at Renown Medical Center Over the last few months, nurses at Renown Medical Center (formerly Washoe Medical Center) have decided to form a union with Service Employees Local 1107. The nurses were previously members of Operating Engineers Local 3 and all of Nevada labor supported them in a difficult first contract. OE 3 is 100 percent supportive of the nurses joining SEIU. The employer, Renown, is refusing to honor the election and has subjected the nurses to all kinds of harassment. The delegates at the Nevada State AFL-CIO convention supported a resolution to stand with the Renown nurses in their demand that the employer stay neutral in the election and quickly get to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract that respects the hard work of Reno nurses. The resolution also provided that each Nevada State AFL-CIO affiliate with a relationship with Renown commit to sending a formal letter of support to the nurses and a letter to the employer, condemning its actions. Please send those letter today. The nurses' vote starts on Sept. 25. FAX the company's top executives Jim Miller, Renown CEO, (775) 982-4353 Ron Laxton, administrator, (775) 982-4111 Renown nurses fax: (775) 327-4911 Thank you. In Solidarity, Danny Thompson For a depressingly complete picture of what Renown/Washoe Med has done to this community and its own employees since current management ripped it off from the public in 1985, use the NevadaLabor.com search engine for the words Washoe Med.Then get set to read awhile. (The 4-8-2001 Barbwire has a lot of archival links.) Here are selected 1995 Barbwires commenting on the scandalous Washoe County Grand Jury Report. Here's the Grand Jury Report itself downloadable in Adobe Acrobat Reader .pdf format. Here's the title page, also in Acrobat Reader. Now start writing and faxing those letters to the Washoe Med fat cat execs! Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Barbano, Editor DoctorLawyerWatch.com     BACK TO NEVADALABOR.COM STATEWIDE U-NEWS ROUNDUP     Back to home page Labor Links   About the Editor Letters Annual César Chávez Celebration | Español  Campaign 2000-02   Campaign 2004    Nevada Labor History NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Corporate Welfare, Energy, ReSurge.TV/Consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart NEW: We Don't Need No Education Search this site In Search Of... Barbwire Archives

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