BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

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Photo: Debra Reid, Sparks Tribune

 

An Alternative National Anthem By Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) & Sharon Robinson © 1988 CBS Records, Inc.    Everybody knows the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.    Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost.    Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.    That's how it goes. Everybody knows.    Everybody knows that the boat is leaking. Everybody knows that the captain lied.    Everybody got this broken feeling Like their father or their dog just died.    Everybody talking to their pockets. Everybody wants a box of chocolates    And a long stem rose. Everybody knows.    Everybody knows that you love me, baby. Everybody knows you really do.    Everybody knows that you've been faithful, Give or take a time or two.    Everybody knows you've been discreet But there were so many people you just had to meet    Without your clothes. Everybody knows.

Everybody knows that it's now or never. Everybody knows that it's me or you.    And everybody knows that you live forever When you've done a line or two.    Everybody knows the deal is rotten Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton    For your ribbons and bows And everybody knows.    Everybody knows that the plague is coming. Everybody knows that it's moving fast.    Everybody knows that the naked man & woman — Just a shining artifact of the past.    Everybody knows the scene is dead But there's gonna be a meter on your bed    That will disclose What everybody knows.    And everybody knows that you're in trouble. Everybody knows what you've been through    From the bloody cross on top of Calvary To the beach at Malibu.    Everybody knows it's coming apart. Take one last look at this Sacred Heart    Before it blows. And everybody knows. Everybody knows. Everybody knows.    That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island. — Leon Russell, 1942-2016

"The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have." — Kierkegaard

The awful truth for the rudely scrude
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-25-2022 / Updated 5-25-2022 GMT / Expansions in blue

Sorry, kids. We are rudely screwed once again. This edition of the Crudely and Rudely Scrude News comes from no less than Gomorrah South.

Bottom line: When the biggest, baddest union in the state can't get something done by southern Nevada governments, MAYDAY!

That's just what's happened to mighty Culinary Union Local 226 and its 60,000+ Nevada members, some of whom even live up here in the provinces.

My union sisters and brothers will be gathering initiative petition signatures for a new ordinance mandating rent control in the City of North Las Vegas. They want a rental increase cap of five percent per year.

More than 7,300 Local 226 members and their families live in NLV, Nevada's fourth-largest incorporated city (by all of 117 fewer people than number three Reno, according to the 2020 semi-senseless Trumpian census). LV remains number one followed by Henderson with Sparks a distant fifth.

Of that 7,300, 63 percent are Latino and 18 percent black. If the NLV campaign is successful, "we will work to get similar laws passed in the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, Clark County and other jurisdictions," stated union communications director Bethany Khan.

Does that include us, the uncultured great unwashed up here in the backwaters? Probably not. We just have not shown the cojones, at least not recently.

Evidence in point: I have asked for a position on this issue from EVERY Washoe County candidate or official running for anything this year, anyone who might have power to do something NOW. That includes city council and county commission candidates, city attorneys and others like Sparks Councilmember Kristopher Dahir, now seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state.

One, count 'em, ONE has taken a definitive position on rent control, Democrat Kyle Isacksen. He's running for the Washoe County Commission District 3 seat (northeast Reno/western Sparks) being vacated by term-limited incumbent Kitty Jung.

I published his stance on May 4. He "told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he favors creation of a 'rental registry' database to 'find out where the money's going, who owns the houses...and then, the next step is rent stabilization.'

Breaking News Culinary Union proposes ballot initiative to bring rent control to North Las Vegas Michael Lyle/Nevada Current/5-19-2022 MORE: Barbwire 5-18 & 5-4-2022 Culinary Union launches North Las Vegas rent control ballot initiative Culinary Local 226 / 5-18-2022 Estabilidad vencindaria/226 Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Verifies Local Government Rent Control Authority By Ben Margiott /NBC TV-4/Fox-11 5-18-2022 Does Clark County have the authority, desire to pursue rent control? Michael Lyle/Nevada Current/3-24-2022 Clark commissioners mull short term fixes, urge state action on rising rents Michael Lyle/Nevada Current/2-16-2022 Rentvolution.org

"Shades of the late great Reno Mayor Barbara Bennett," I noted. "Landlords would have to justify rent increases during tight times based on actual costs. Isacksen's next step would be some form of rent control."

"Are you in favor?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

Zounds. A leader has risen.

I got some sideways wiggly wafflings but only Mr. Isacksen showed the courage to mount his white horse and tilt against the windmills and werewolves of the corporate welfare development cult.

First and probably alone in all of Nevada history, the Reno City Council actually passed rent control in 1978. Intense political pressure forced them to quickly back away. (Barbwire 7-17-2019)

A few elected officials have recently tried to do something, including Reno Councilmember Jenny Brekhus and Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, both in 2019.

At the last minute, legislative Democrats, acting at the behest of realtors and developers, killed Ratti's SB 398.

A bill was introduced during last year's legislative session to reign in extortionate rental application fees. Alas and alack, Democrats killed that, too.

As I noted, the ultimate irony is that no new law needed to be passed and former Sen. Ratti agrees. The Republican-controlled 2015 Legislature passed two bills (SB 29 and AB 493) which the Legislative Counsel Bureau says gives local governments all the power they need. (Barbwire 5-4-2021)

To use a good ole boy term, it slud thru the ledge. How? Because it granted broad local authority without mentioning issues. One of the immutable commandments of modern hidebound conservatism is cutting back on big government. You know, "take Nevada back" snake oil. This time, the grease caught on fire. Almost all the Donkeykongs voted against it. Go figger.

That accidental liberal blessing hasn't given local officials any courage. Reno City Attorney Karl Hall and his deputy, Jonathan Shipman, have advised their councillors that they don't think the 2015 legislation does what it says it does.

That means the Reno or Sparks council or the Washoe County Commission must actually pass an ordinance over which some corporate interest would sue.

That's sort of what happened in 1978 under a since-repealed cockamamie law allowing governments to ask courts to rule on constitutionality without a formal case filing. Somebody apparently forgot Article 3 of the Constitution of the United States which mandates that courts must have actual cases before them.

As a result, Washoe District Judge James Guinan bounced Reno's request for a judicial opinion like a hot check on a cold day. By then, business interests had mounted a vicious counter-offensive and city hall backed down.

Apparently no Nevada local body today has the political will to even enact a trial balloon.

The Culinary Union says initiative petitions provide legal workarounds neutering such timid objections.

Rent control advocacy did one good thing in 1979: It elected the greatest Reno mayor in history. Alas, if Barbara Bennett wuz alive today, she'd be turnin' over in her grave.

BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL: BLOODY BUS BUSTS BURGEONING. Monitor NevadaLabor.com for impending revelations regarding hemorrhages of taxpayer money perpetrated by macho ineptitude at the elected Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County and their overpaid, misguided, misfeasant minions.

RTC Washoe Contact Information — Utilize frequently

In case you've forgotten, the RTC's board is comprised of Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson (R), Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R); Reno City Councilmembers Oscar Delgado (D) and Neoma Jardon, (R), board chair. // RTC board e-mail <rtcpubliccomments@rtcwashoe.com>, bthomas@rtcwashoe.com (RTC Executive Director Bill Thomas), RTC Director of Public Transportation and Operations Mark Maloney,

Mr. Delgado is stepping down. At the June 1, 2022, Reno City Council meeting, his replacement will be named from among the following: Councillors Jenny Brekhus, Naomi Duerr & Devon Reese, all-D, and Mlle. Mayor Hillary Schieve, NP.

FOR ALL THE NEWS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED TO KNOW 'TIL NOW, subscribe to Barbwire Confidential (hush, hush!) at BallotBoxing.US/

Take care of each other and be careful out there. Pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

¡Sí se puede!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
___________________
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

 

Take care of each other and be careful out there. Pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

¡Sí se puede!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
___________________
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

"Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great. If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate." — "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" 1983

I thought I settled all of this 33 years ago, dammit.

Here's the text of the January 27, 1989, Barbwire entitled "An Elegant Solution to Abortion."

The abortion quandary revolves around the classic question of cake: how to have it and eat it, too. Pregnant women want to become unpregnant. Anti-abortionists want pregnancies carried thru to birth and have been increasingly willing to resort to violence to make their point.

INSTANCE IN POINT: On October 23, 1998, Dr. Barnett Abba Slepian was murdered in Amherst, New York, by anti-abortion militant James Charles Kopp. Dr. Slepian was the brother of then-Reno Wooster High School Principal Serena Robb.

Back to 1989.

Before any more on either side get killed, consider this: for the price of a couple of B-2 Stealth Bombers, we might solve this once and for all. My idea is simple: a new, liberal spending program to facilitate embryo/fetus survival outside the womb at any point in pregnancy.

STUPID QUESTION FROM A DUMB TEENAGER. I once asked my Fresno State freshman psychology professor Dr. Powell about exactly that in 1963. He looked at me like I had set him up for joke.

"How are they going to do that without a placenta?" he dissed me. If only I knew then what I know now.

Back to the 1989 Tribune:

Today, not only can in-vitro fertilization take place in a laboratory, but embryos can be removed from one womb and transplanted to another. This constitutes difficult but "basically surrogate mothering," one doctor told me awhile back.

Survivability is now limited to early and late stages of pregnancy, leaving the mid-portion for research. The mid-pregnancy time frame continues to shrink. No less than U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has recognized that the law and medical technology are on a "collision course" on this issue.

Controversial British researcher Robert Edwards has had embryos growing for over a month in lab dishes. Fertilized eggs can be frozen and last for years. The collision course of law and medical technology can be utilized to end the counterproductive collisions between people of radically different views. All it will take is putting the right amount of taxpayer money into the program.

So there you have it. Put your pro-life money where your mouth is. Support the answer to abortion: a classic liberal spending program to research and implement the perfect solution. While the research is underway, another question must be posed: How many pro-lifers, male and female, would be willing to volunteer their bodies as hosts for these saved kids? (A recent report stated that male pregnancy is now technically feasible.)

UPDATE: In 1994, supermacho actor and future conservative Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in "Junior," a comedy in which he became the world's first pregnant man. What Terminator?

Back to 1989.

Pro-choicers to whom I've presented this idea have unanimously committed to support it with their tax dollars. Anti-abortionists have accused me of sanctioning murder and violating God's will. I can't seem to get thru to them that the transplanted embryo/fetus would not be trashed, just relocated to eventually become little Johnny. No sale.

Why? Because elimination of the abortion controversy would destroy a lot of hobbies. People who enjoy proselytizing, publicizing, pontificating and prevaricating to their little corner of the world would find themselves fresh out of a cause. People get mad when you threaten their favorite pastimes.

So concluded my since-ignored advice. A guy even wrote Dear Abby with the transplant idea a decade or two later.

In one of his last newscasts, the most trusted man in America, Walter Cronkite, decried the emergence of single-interest politics. Anti-abortion is (pardon the expression) its poster child.

Zealots avoid "tangential" issues like who pays the societal costs for all those new kids? The 2005 bestseller "Freakonomics" noted how sociologists accurately predicted that the national crime rate would drop starting in 1998, precisely 15 years after 1973's Roe v. Wade decision. Why? Far fewer unwanted young males age 15 to 25, the demographic responsible for most crimes. [UPDATE published by Stanford Law: "Legalized abortion reduced violent crime by 47% and property crime by 33% over the last two decades."]

We already have an embarrassingly high infant mortality rate in this country (33rd among 36 advanced nations). Mississippi is our worst state and Mississippi West Nevada last month earned the dubious distinction of fourth in the nation for syphilitic babies.

Alas and alack, narrow focus is smart follytix. Lots of "fiscally vigilant" anti-abortion pols vote against "commie-liberal" programs such as food, Head Start, child and health care — like diagnosing and stopping parental syphilis with two bucks worth of penicillin.

The Texas Compromise: Make sex illegal save by government-regulated appointment

"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament" read a recent protest sign. Amen.

I'm basically a Buddhist-Newtonian: Matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed, they merely change form. Thus with any inchoate individual who doesn't make it all the way.

Catholic dogma recognizes an immortal soul. I've never gotten over Father Sergio Negro telling my high school senior religion class that if it's a tossup between a mother's life or the fetus, doctors should kill the mother in order to give the kid a chance at baptism and a higher place in heaven. My all-male classmates were uniformly aghast at this unintentional but callous marketing strategy.

I will let my first and last wife Betty (1941-2005) close with this until-now unpublished commentary on my 1989 piece: "The only thing I might add is this thought: Right or wrong should not always be equivalent to legal or illegal. People grow and advance as a human race when allowed to choose. People become divided and law enforcement ineffective when all choices are ruled legal or illegal. Mankind must grow through conscience, not fear. Fear of breaking the law is not necessarily based upon fear of God or morality, nor should it be. Government is not God. (God help us for making it seem this way.)"

The mother of five, grandmother to 11 and great-grandma of three (so far) was always much wiser than me. And demonstrably a much better and certainly more concise writer.

BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL: Monitor KRNV TV-4/Fox-11 starting today for the latest on rent control. (Barbwire 5-4-2022)

Take care of each other and be careful out there. Pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

¡Sí se puede!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
___________________
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

On Roe, Alito cites a judge who treated women as witches and property
By Jill Elaine Hasday, Univ. of Minnesota Law School / Washington Post 5-9-2022

No women in the U.S. Constitution?
Of course the Constitution has nothing to say about abortion
By Jill Lepore / The New Yorker / 5-4-2022

Rise of the Homotextuals
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 2-9-2022

Betty J. Barbano 2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

 

Dare not speak its name
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-4-2022 / Updated 5-5, 5-18 and 5-19-2022 GMT

Actual knocking-on-doors candidates of every stripe appear to be hearing about one thing more than any other (gasp): Rent control.

Greatest Hits Dept. WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame Support Don Dondero and Jake Highton and David Toll next. Send endorsements Eee-yo-leven! Barbwire wins 11th Nevada Press Association award GOLD 2017-18 2018 First-Place Winners From the depths of despair to the den of iniquity & holy of holies "Excellent work. These are some of the most moving columns I've read." — NPA contest judge/9-29-2018 The Grasshopper and the Dragonfly 9-6-2017 Kicked off the Ledge 4-18-2017 NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK Back to the Future in Mississippi West Nevada 10-18-2017 Gold 2017 Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo 10-4-2016 We Don't Need No Education Toxic turf threat ignored 12-13-2016 Kate Smith & Lady Gaga 2-14-2017 Bronze 6-pack In the Uber-Nevada legislature, words can kill 4-28-2015 On artificial turf, don't breathe unless absolutely necessary (above) 11-24-2015 Leading questions, lead-headed leaders 1-19-2016 Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake 4-18-2013 2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon 5-30-2013 The politics of media ga-ga boosterism 3-20-2014 More statewide and national award winners We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries Barbwire.TV: 15-year overnight success Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008 The Barbwire's Greatest Hits BEATING LUSH RAMBO AT HIS OWN GAME: Highlights from radio days mp3 file 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 Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential TOP SECRET— HushHush!

Everybody wants affordable housing in the abstract but political leaders are stuck in cement shoes when it comes to concrete solutions.

In 1978, coinciding with the rise of the Reaganauts, Sparks-Reno was as much a boomtown as today. Eight major casinos, sparked by the MGM Grand, had opened and even gambling execs were living in tents or vans down by the river.

Back when he was still a Democrat, future State Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, backed a temporary rent control law to blunt landlord profit gouging. The establishment went bananas. Adding insult to injury, Townsend narrowly lost to a self-admitted Republican slumlord.

After Townsend's high-profile loss, rent control was dead, right? Wrong.

A champion rose up from the Oddie Blvd. mobile home park. A grandmother named Barbara Bennett got into her little yellow Volkswagen Beetle and organized tenants to push for a rent justification ordinance.

Prodded by their constituents, the Reno City Council actually passed rent control and got so much heat, they quickly nuked it. (Barbwire 7-17-2019)

After Townsend's high profile loss AND the city council's collapse, rent control was dead, right? Wrong.

The late great Grandma Bennett filed for mayor in the spring 1979 city primary. She had no money and no chance, right? Wrong.

She beat two incumbent councilmembers in the primary and the incumbent mayor in the general election. In 1999, the only Reno mayor to make the Reno Gazette-Journal's list of "100 who made a difference in the 20th Century " was the little old lady in the yellow VW. A downtown Reno park today bears her name.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. The housing situation in today's Tesla Town is made worse as state and local governments pass out corporate welfare like cookies and turbocharge uncontrolled growth. Without developer money to mitigate the impacts, increasing numbers of people are on the streets or down by the river. Throw in a pandemic recession, garnish with war in Europe and the little people languish.

A few months back, I wrote the story of a couple forced to pay $500 just to apply at five apartments. (A background check costs less than a buck.)

Such exploitation has brought international shame to Sparks-Reno. In 2018, I lined up desperate renters for The Guardian of London's west coast bureau. None would allow their names to be used. I tried to start a Facebook page where people could anonymously post the facts about larcenous landlords. Tenants who responded were still too intimidated to go forward in this fire-at-will/no-cause-eviction state.

It is thus no wonder that rent control weighs heavy on the minds of voters while pols remain scared to freakin' death.

Officeholders always pass the buck saying they don't have the authority without specific legislative approval which will never come.

Maybe it already has.

In 2015, the Nevada Association of Counties pushed Senate Bill 29 thru the ledge. It "gave more power to County Commissioners," according to Creative Commons via Wikipedia.

The bill reaffirmed existing draconian "home rule" law, which means Nevada municipalities have no power other than that specifically granted by the state...

EXCEPT (drum roll, please) "boards of county commissioners," who "in the absence of a constitutional or statutory provision requiring a power to be exercised in a specific manner," (shall have) "all other powers necessary or proper to address matters of local concern for the effective operation of county government, whether or not the powers are expressly granted to the board."

Zounds.

Breaking News MORE: Barbwire 5-18 & 5-25-2022 Culinary Union proposes ballot initiative to bring rent control to North Las Vegas Michael Lyle/Nevada Current/5-19-2022 Culinary Union launches North Las Vegas rent control ballot initiative Culinary Local 226 / 5-18-2022 Estabilidad vencindaria/226 Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Verifies Local Government Rent Control Authority By Ben Margiott /NBC TV-4/Fox-11 5-18-2022 Does Clark County have the authority, desire to pursue rent control? Michael Lyle/Nevada Current/3-24-2022 Clark commissioners mull short term fixes, urge state action on rising rents Michael Lyle/Nevada Current/2-16-2022 Rentvolution.org

That advice came from a pack of flaming liberals. It was written on August 15, 2016, by Deputy Attorney General Dennis Belcourt to Nye County District Attorney Angela Bello on letterhead from noted socialist Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R). His first assistant AG was former Assemblymember Wes Duncan, R-Las Vegas.

You may have noticed Mr. Duncan in last week's Tribune being sworn in as city attorney by Republican Mayor Ed Lawson. (Them closet socialists are everywhere!)

[[UPDATE: Both houses of the 2015 Nevada Legislature were Republican-controlled and GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval held the state house. Assembly Speaker John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, sponsored Assembly Bill 493, a companion bill to SB 29.]]

Which brings me to the Democratic primary for Washoe County Commission District 3 (northeast Reno/western Sparks).

Candidate Kyle Isacksen told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he favors creation of a "rental registry" database to "find out where the money's going, who owns the houses...and then, the next step is rent stabilization."

Shades of Barbara Bennett. Landlords would have to justify rent increases during tight times based on actual costs.

Isacksen's next step would be some form of rent control. "Are you in favor?" I asked. "Yes," he said.

One of his two opponents, Hawah Ahmad, was a bit more circumspect, apparently noticing that the hills of the Truckee Meadows are littered with the bones of those who uttered the shibboleth.

"I appreciate the notion of rent control, but it doesn't positively impact the demand issue we have and isn't anything we can get enacted immediately...I personally think incentivizing good landlords is important," she stated. "My most immediate potential fix is the creation of county positions to negotiate long term leases" (I assume with incentivized good landlords) "that are specific on rent increases to come over a period of time for those transitioning out of homelessness and individuals on fixed incomes (seniors and disability recipients). We need to also change what the county defines as affordable housing to be more than just a percentage of units. A rent registry would help," she added.

I heard back from candidate Mariluz Garcia's campaign management but they did not venture a position. Her statements to the RGJ's Mark Robison were long on homelessness but did not mention the word "rent."

Links and references at NevadaLabor.com/ Monitor for late-breaking developments.

LET THEM EAT MASKS
Sparks-Reno superspreadators give booby bus boss big bucks

RAZING THE BUS SYSTEM. Local bus overlords just gave a huge raise to regional transit bus boss Bill Thomas who has presided over three Teamsters strikes and a humongous decrease in passengers. (The wusses wanted masks. Who knew?)

Thomas and his foreign contract enforcers colluded with the Washoe County School District during the strikes and even stopped Sparks transit driver Michael Lansborough from speaking to media.

The longtime RTCRide operator is sole support of his wife and son, Logan, who has no lower legs due to a genetic flaw but still took to his wheelchair and joined dad on downtown Reno picket lines during last year's Hat Trick Strikes. (Photos at the front page of NevadaLabor.com/)

Mike is now home recovering from open heart surgery. Support him and his family at <https://gofund.me/7eae2ed0> or by sending checks or money orders payable to him at Teamsters Local 533, 1190 Selmi Drive, Suite 100, Reno NV 89512. Tell your friends.

Bill Thomas will soon be making almost $300,000 a year including benefits. Maybe he'll send a small check.

Take care of each other and be careful out there. Pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

¡Sí se puede!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
___________________
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.org, ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.