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Je Suis Charlie
"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

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¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Saturday 31 March 2018 / Sabado 31 de Marzo 2018
Highlights from the record-breaking 2017 event at Circus Circus Reno

Condemned at Birth
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-13-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-14 and 6-20-2017 / Expansions in blue.

Beautiful little Hailey was bequeathed the entire family inheritance at birth.

She was born with Type-1 Diabetes, diagnosed at the ripe old age of four.

The odds against it were perhaps in her favor but the DNA casino beat her.

One of the few things I remember from Fresno State statistics class is how to make book on family diseases. If your mother's side experiences a malady but your father's side does not, your chances of getting it are one in four.

My brother and I won the lottery, although the U.S. Army reversed God's decision in his case. My mother was afflicted by the dread disease, as were her brother, mother and father, who died of it.

Unlike my mom and the Sicilianis. my father's family from Maschito on the heel of the boot was diabetes free. So far, so good.

Then my bro spent a year in Vietnam drenched in Agent Orange. He now has diabetes. Some of his former comrades-in-arms whose families were diabetes-free have since succumbed to that plague.

Hailey's elders have understandably long been active in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I even sent JDRF a small contribution earlier this year and got a nice letter of thanks from New York.

As regular readers know, I have recommended Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's new book An American Sickness: How healthcare became big business and how you can take it back. (Penguin Press, New York, 2017) [Barbwire 6-6-2017]

The eminent physician/journalist has composed a tour-de-force documenting the dastardly depredations of the for-profit medical industry which perpetually perpetrates plethoras of pain perverted for profit. I strongly suggest that you read all about it. The research is available cheap at locally-owned Grassroots Books.

Dr. Rosenthal tells the sad story of Dr. Denise Faustman, an eminent Harvard researcher who has been on the trail of a Type-1 cure for a decade.

She scrounged for funds and had to launch a crowd-funding website to augment seed money from retired Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca's family foundation. Dr. Rosenthal reports that after a decade of scrambling, the online appeal allowed Dr. Faustman to begin clinical trials in 2015. JDRF repeatedly refused assistance.

The problem: her promising potential cure is based on an old generic tuberculosis vaccine.

"Tell us how it will make ever make us money," Dr. Faustman said, quoting the typical response of drug companies she approached. Alas and alack, JDRF has become like so many other institutions, partnering with for-profit corporations in exchange for a piece of the action.

"By 2013, JDRF research grants hit a ten-year low, down 30 percent since 2008," Dr. Rosenthal writes, "while nonresearch grants increased. Dr. Faustman's work didn't make the cut....In late 2013, JDRF announced it was 'going the equity route,' joining with PureTech Ventures, a for-profit venture capital firm, to create a fund to fuel new diabetes startups."

Nevada has a major ante into this game. After originally balking, Gov. Brian Sandoval has announced that he will sign a bill mandating transparency in insulin pricing, an attempt to dampen profit-gouging. (Nevada State Senate Bill 539)

Versions of life-saving insulin have risen from between 127 to 325 percent this decade. Humulin, the most popular form, went from $258 to almost $1,100 a month from 2010 to 2015, Dr. Rosenthal reports.

All this brings new impetus to contacting the guv to sign Assembly Bill 374, principally sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Sprinkle, D-Sparks. "SprinkleCare" establishes a basis for continuing the Obamacare Medicaid expansion in Nevada should President Trump be successful in destroying the federal program. [UPDATE: Reverting to his reactionary roots, Gov. Veto El Obtúsè vetoed the bill on June 16. As usual, he runs with the moonhowlers.]

References, including JDRF's actions and reactions, may be accessed with the expanded web edition of this column at Barbwire.US/

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

SMOKING GUNS —>

Nevada consumers consumed again
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-6-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-8 and 6-14-2017

ONLINE EXTRAS —>

GREAT SCOTT. Rev. William C. Webb will come out of retirement to conduct the memorial service for Nevada civil rights legend Eddie Scott. the 2015 University of Nevada Distinguished Nevadan honoree. It's scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 30, at Reno's Second Baptist Church, 1265 Montello Street. Arrive early. Nevada's best journalist, former Tribunite Dennis Myers, published an outstanding and touching obituary of my friend Eddie in the current Reno News & Review. Please read the very hopeful story of the grand accomplishments of a very humble man.

END OF TIMES SURVIVAL KIT. Defend yourself with humorous or humorless but always-peerless predictions for 2017 by subscribing to the Barbwire Confidential News Service.

Last year's dark foreshadowings unfortunately became reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/ It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment.

THE GOOD DON. Nominations are afoot for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. Time to ramp up for world-famous Tribune photographer Don Dondero. Here's the compelling case for his induction.