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

Barbwire Archives

Site map
SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Door-to-door salesmen and stoner stores
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 9-4-2014

Washoe County school boss Pedro Martinez is recruiting volunteers for a worthy but oft-abused endeavor.

The 5-20-2012 Barbwire is instructive:

Charlotte Observer education reporter Ann Helms, who spent a week in Nevada researching (former Superintendent Heath) Morrison's record, wrote that "Morrison introduced a door-to-door campaign to locate the hundreds of students a year who were listed as 'vanished,' along with those who had officially dropped out, and get them into school. If dropouts who are 18 or older enroll in the Washoe Adult High School, they are switched into the 'transfer out' category, which means they're removed from the calculation entirely, counting neither as graduates or dropouts." [Reno grad rate jump too good to be true? 5-13-2012]

I have been contacted by longtime local educators who share a very different perspective.

One says door-knocking basically ceases in late September after enrollment numbers have been hyped to obtain maximum funding from the state.

Another says door-knocking is a prelude to permanently wipe students off the books as though they never existed, thus artificially inflating the graduation rate, a Carter-Reagan spin from Morrison.

"Yes, in fact Reno's grad rate is too good to be true," an anonymous commenter wrote in response to Helms' blog.

SAY WHAT? "Washoe County is seeing great gains," Martinez said in this newspaper last August 13.

"Our graduation rates have been rising. The class of 2014 was at a record-high of 70 percent. We have more kids taking advanced classes. The economic development board did an independent study, and if we were ranked by Washoe County alone we would be ranked number 15," he told reporter Chante Owens.

Actually, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), a private outfit, published a self-serving report that asserted Washoe ranks 18th nationally for producing college-ready students and carping that Nevada's other counties hurt our stats. (Barbwire 20 Feb. 2014)

Inverse, perverse trickle-down economics has come to the schoolhouse.

Cut the budget by a third and achieve record results.

Following this innovative thinking to its logical conclusion, if we totally eliminate taxpayer support for schools, we'll mass-produce geniuses.

Mr. Martinez thus can make no case for more money from the legislature and should consider returning some.

Door-knocking happens Sept. 20.

Hide the silverware.

DISPENSING WITH BUREAUCRACY. The state has received about 500 applications from benevolent souls desirous of treating the sick by operating medical marijuana dispensaries.

Hopefuls must post a non-refundable $5,000 deposit and be possessed of a financial statement that would choke a horse with the munchies.

I agree with all right-thinking conservatives who oppose such nefarious government intrusion into free enterprise.

We already have licensed, pre-screened providers for such stuff.

They are called pharmacies. There is no need for an expensive new bureaucracy ripping off speculators to the tune of half a million or so.

Case closed.

Or might there be another agenda that I've missed?

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

WEB EXTRAS...

TOAST ALERT. Teachers' union gross profits tax petition supporters and opponents would do well to review the Barbwire of Feb. 28, 2013.

Passage of the tax initiative could easily lead to a successful court challenge that would at the same time blow out not only the revenue hike, but also term limits and the state's worst anti-union laws. Something for everybody.

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

PayPal monthly subscription software is now operational at the website.

A thousand thanks to those who already responded and keep sending show suggestions. Current frontrunners include (pardon the pun) wild mustangs as canned goods, education and  i-Guns with César Chávez in Nevada recently surging.

Now come queries about ballot questions. The Jan. 30 column brought a surge of inquiries about the Nevada State Education Association corporate tax petition on this November's ballot.

Stay tuned.

  Please forward additional ideas or vote on the above.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important.

We've got a lot of work to do.

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.

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

Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

The Underbellyof the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential Labor Day 2014: Red, white and screwed Silver State Lining: Nevada union membership 10th-highest in the nation Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-28-2014 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Labor Day: State of the Unions By Mark Robison / Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 9-1-2013 The above graph was used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Sexy scandals, whitewashes & black towers 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 In Nevada visit, new Veterans Administration boss proves all jobs require training Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-21-2014 ...and more ammo... The hardest and fairest questions yet asked of proponents of the teachers gross profits tax initiative Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 7-10-2014 We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune UPDATE—>Bill Moyers: Shutdown is simply secession by other means ...and more ammo yet IMF Head Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She’s Right. By Erika Eichelberger / Mother Jones/BillMoyers.com 5-30-2014 “The behavior of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally…since the crisis. The industry still prizes short-term profit.” The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was   Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Annual César Chávez Celebration War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart We Don't Need No Education Search this site | In Search Of...

Barbwire Archives

Copyright © 1982-2014 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins