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Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2021

Updated on 1-7-2021 GMT

JOE NEAL: You can't run from the truth
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 1-6-2021 Sparks Tribune

Trumpist Treason on Joe Neal Day


Sen. Joseph M. Neal, Jr.
1935-2020

Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts:

The best who ever was just embarked on a new journey. At 12:45 a.m. on 1-1-21, Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, informed me that her father, 32-year former State Sen Joseph M. Neal, Jr., D-North Las Vegas, died at 10:25 p.m. PST 12-31-2020.

"Hello, Mr. Barbano. Happy New Year. I bring sad news to you. My Dad, after a long-fought battle, succumbed to an illness. He passed away at 10:25 tonight at Dignity Health, Sienna Campus, in Henderson, (where) he received the best care, surrounded by family."

My friend Joe had become ill over the past several weeks and apparently succumbed to multiple system failure after rebounding many times to the surprise of professionals and family surrounding him with thoughts and prayers.

Please monitor SenJoeNeal.org and NevadaLabor.com for details. You may send remembrances to me for posting.

Requiescas in pace, Senatore Maximissimo, frater mei.

AB

 

GEORGIA ON MY MIND
Please volunteer to do what you and so many others did before November —>
Sign up to contact infrequent voters before January 5, 2021.

A Barbwire Christmas carol in the time of plague

Laborers' Union Local 169 Donates $12,500 in Grocery Gift Cards to 7 Nonprofits to Help Families & Veterans

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

 

Copyright © 2019 NYTimes

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME —>

GEORGIA ON MY MIND
Please volunteer to do what you and so many others did before November —>
Sign up to contact infrequent voters before January 5, 2021.

Suicide for citizens but not political careers
Lives are on the line
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO / Expanded from the 12-30-2020 Sparks Tribune

So this is Christmas —> What have you done?
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO / Expanded from the 12-23-2020 Sparks Tribune

Transitions and decisions in a darkening winter
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 12-16-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-18 & 12-22-2020 GMT

SUPERSPREADER UPDATE
TWO DOZEN BUS DRIVERS GET COVID-19
A golden goose for the morally obtuse
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-9-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bus boss oblivious: Neoma Jardon in denial
12-7-2020
B-Words: Obtuse Bus Boss' brain fade bungles boast of transit system's COVID-19 safety

Recipes to die for in a toxic holiday season
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-2-2020 Sparks Tribune

11-30-2020: ST. ANDREW'S DAY IN SCOTLAND. Italians celebrate it, too.
Benedicta! Andrea Luigi Barbano

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune


THE DAY AFTER

Asked to buck-up his constituents with a positive thumbs-up, President Trump instead goes digital with his feelings. Or maybe his thumbs were just too busy elsewhere on his perfect body.

(Photo: Anna Moneymaker for the Fake News New York Times 11-4-2020)                                                                                NevadaLabor.com

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 11-25-2020 Sparks Tribune
We have met the enemy and he is us

 

¡Viva Chávez!

César Chávez Celebration XVIII / Celebración de César Chávez XVIII
Wednesday 31 March 2021 / miercoles 31 marzo 2021

American Monster M*A*S*H: Suicide is painless
Almost two-dozen mass transit drivers are now infected with COVID-19.
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-18-2020 Sparks Tribune

Legerdemoniacal legerdemain: 3 Rights Make a Left
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-11-2020 Sparks Tribune

 

Barbwire Confidential Special Report—>Hush-Hush!

LIFE IMITATES ART

RENO, NV USA 00:01 11-6-2020 GMT—> I published odds on close Nevada races last week. Here's my call on the big enchilada:

At 9:19 PM 10/26/20, Andrew Barbano wrote:
NOW THE BIGGIE. The only poll that shows Nevada close comes from Trump backer Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Review-Journal. The New York Times average sez Biden has a seven-point lead. As always, Washoe (Reno-Sparks) is the swing county in the swing state. As the Barbwire reported weeks ago, a lot of union members are closet Trump cultists. The Culinary Union is pulling out all the stops statewide. Biden, 11-10.

I'm going to write next week that each and every benighted troll who voted to reinstall his/her godhead is now my mortal enemy: Their king has been and continues trying to kill me as he is the principal proliferator of two deadly diseases, one a microbe, the other, microscopic reptilian-brained disregard for the dignity of life. Nothing gets more personal.

Aaron Sorkin ("The Social Network," "The American President", the Broadway version of "To Kill a Mockingbird") presciently called 2020 more than 15 years ago. In the last season (2005-06) of "The West Wing," the TV version of the 1995 movie "The American President" starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening, Sorkin scripted that Democrat presidential nominee Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) defeated a conservative Republican (Arnold Vinick, a role for which Alan Alda won a primetime Emmy). Santos became American's first minority president when latecoming results arrived from — drum roll, please...NEVADA!

Biden's electoral count is now 264. (Some sources gave Biden Arizona's 11 last night.) Nevada's 6 gets him to the promised land of 270 electoral votes.

How prescient was Mr. Sorkin? Fictional President Santos appointed his opponent as secretary of state, as America's real-life first minority president did a few years later.

May life imitate art despite our czar's moonhowlers trying to pull a Bush v. Gore redux.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (And my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
___________________
NevadaLabor.com/CesarChavezNevada.com Editor Andrew Barbano is a 52-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

LOVE'S LABOURS LOST DEPT.: On Saturday Nov. 7, Pennsylvania and thus the presidency were called for Biden. Nevada's confirmation came about an hour later. Alas, what might have been.

The Nightmare Continues

More than 150,000 ballots were caught in Postal Service processing facilities and not delivered by Election Day, agency data shows
By Jacob Bogage and  Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post / 11-5-2020

Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential—>Cheap (HushHush!)

 

The greatest political figure of 2020
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-4-2020 Sparks Tribune

FREEBIE ALERT! FREE election bets. NEW!
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-28-2020 Sparks Tribune

The 2020 political cartoon/meme of the year frontrunner —>

Attack of the Orange Crusher
Once in awhile, your memes come true!

The perfectly predictive 2016 political cartoon of the year —>

Suede-shoe salesmen sucker city hall
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-21-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bigotry means never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-14-2020 Sparks Tribune

Intervention Mayday! Suicidal Nevada union workers
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-7-2020 Sparks Tribune

NAACP launches national drive to contact infrequent voters

Superspreaders, homotextuals & hall of famers
Exclusive interview with Supreme Court Justice-Designate Amy Coney Barrett
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-30-2020 Sparks Tribune

The Best Who Ever Was
Barbwire Nominee Dennis Myers elected to Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame
Barbwire / 9-30-2020

 

Our Toothless Mask Mandates
By Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal / The New York Times op-ed 10-1-2020

A former big city ER physician, Dr. Rosenthal is an ex-NYT journalist who is now editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News. Her 2017 book "An American Sickness: How health care became big business and how you can take it back" is still the single best encapsulation of how to fix the broken US system. (For a film on some of its best suggestions, get Michael Moore's 2007 "Sicko.") Dr. Rosenthal's latest Times piece notes that law enforcement officials refusing to enforce gubernatorial mandates in Ohio and Wisconsin are creating "a new level of lawlessness." Ditto Nevada. Two of our Cow County sheriffs have announced the same thing, as has our Reno-Sparks-Washoe turkey. Ditto the Reno Police Dept. "Not our job." And our infection rate increases accordingly. What a country.

Teamsters Union sues to enforce bus system mask mandate
NAACP President Feemster supports Teamsters fight for passenger/worker safety

 

Messages from the gods: Ignore at your peril
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-23-2020 Sparks Tribune

Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx
Still crazy after all these years.

1933-2020

NAACP Devastated by Passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"On the basis of Justice, we honor RBG"
By Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO / Washington DC 9-18-2020

"THE SOLUTION: As always, expanding economic opportunity with a healing dash of human respect for this magical little place we've been given for just a little time. John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg lived their lives that way." — Andrew Barbano, Sparks (Nev.) Tribune 9-23-2020

1933-2020

 

NO PANTS? NO SERVICE. NO MASK? OK.
TEAMSTERS UNION SUES OVER WASHOE BUS SYSTEM COVID-19 DANGERS
Union drivers test positive for virus
Management refuses governor's mask mandate
Charges also filed with federal regulatory agencies

THE LATEST BRIGHT SHINING LIE FROM YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
10-2-2020


     KEOLIS-19 BREAKING NEWS —> (Reno, NV, 3:27 p.m. PDT, 18 Sept. 2020) —

IBT 533 Trade Unionists: Monitor KOLO TV-8 (ABC) from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. PDT today. (And 10:00 p.m. on CW Network over-the-air at 8.3 / Charter-Spectrum 695, Direct TV 9)

Ed Pearce, the most experienced and credible TV journalist in northern Nevada for the past 50 years, interviewed union RTC drivers earlier today. The story should run today but there's always a disaster that can pre-empt. Yesterday, Mr. Pearce got diverted to the narrowly-averted NVEnergy cutoff of Incline Village electricity. TV2 ran the story of Local 533 vs. the transit system four times on Wednesday and probably again on their early morning Thursday newscasts.

I am informed that Regional Transportation Commission Executional Director Bill Thomas spoke before the four obtuse elected commissioners this morning and noted that RTC is doing all it can to enforce safety requirements.

Ahh, another bright shining lie.

Monitor NevadaLabor.com for ongoing updates. New things in the works soon. Keep us posted on what's happening with you. We especially need photos of packed buses with many maskless riders.

Be well. Raise hell. Stay safe.

     KEOLIS-19 BREAKING NEWS —> (Reno, NV, 4:36 p.m. PDT 16 Sept. 2020) — Washoe County bus system management told KTVN TV-2 (CBS) News that they will not use their standing security force to enforce the governor's mask mandate but instead rely on local police. As noted on this site for months, both the Washoe County Sheriff and Reno Police Department have served notice that they will not enforce the safety of the bus system. TV-2 journalist Valentina Bonaparte reported that this diverges from southern Nevada, where officials told her that they use their security infrastructure to enforce COVID-19 mitigation procedures. Ride at your own risk in Reno-Sparks.

     An expanded version aired at 5:36 p.m., again at 6:34 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. PDT. You may visit TV-2's website or monitor for additional broadcasts tonight and well into Thursday morning news programs. Be sure to stay tuned to NevadaLabor.com for more. Be well. Raise hell.

 

Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx
Still crazy after all these years.

Donny & Jimmy's Most Excellent White Castle Adventure
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-16-2020 Sparks Tribune

Czar Donaldov invaded Nevada Sept. 12
Somebody build a wall — quick!

There is justice in the world. Trump actually had to drive the 60+mile route both ways. Oh, the humanity!

Barbwire Confidential —>HushHush!
Donny & Jimmy's Most Excellent White Castle Adventure
NEW—>BARBWIRE EXCLUSIVE 9-12-2020

Barbwire Confidential Special Report: Hush-Hush!
Machine Guns & Racism in Nevada's Alabaster Bastion
NEW—>Douglas County Commission Chairman wanted to cut library funding after its director showed support for Black Lives Matter
EXCLUSIVE FROM KRNV TV-4 & KRXI FOX-11 / 9-11-2020

Cider House Rules: Admonitions & Ammunition
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-9-2020 Sparks Tribune

The perfectly predictive 2016 political cartoon of the year —>

Diabolical Déjà Vu: Fire is the Devil's only friend
Barbwire accurately called 2016 presidential result 9 months out & stands by 2020 prediction made four years ago
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-2-2020 Sparks Tribune

The 2020 political cartoon/meme of the year frontrunner—>

HOT AUGUST STRIFE 2020 Demonstrations & Good Trouble

Tribal trauma, Belarus R Us, a hero dies well
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-26-2020 Sparks Tribune

"Save the Post Office Saturday"—>National Day of Action
Nevadans brave killer smoke to revive US Postal Service
ThisIsReno.com / 8-22-2020

Lemmings, ostriches & dirty-talking desert rats
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-19-2020 Sparks Tribune

Andrew Barbano: Enemy of the state
Coronavirus rides the bus & Black Lives Matter whited out
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-12-2020 Sparks Tribune

Mississippi West: honkytaunts and alabaster bastions
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-5-2020 Sparks Tribune

Dear Guv: Put your foot where your mouth is
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

Second Teamsters driver tests positive for COVID-19. Stay tuned.

KEOLIS-19: TRANSIT SYSTEM DEFIED GOVERNOR'S MASK ORDER
Then put out a press release denying they did so (Updated 10-2-2020)
TEAMSTERS: Reno-Sparks-Washoe passengers, families & workers jeopardized

Sparks City Hall strikes a blow for white guys
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-22-2020 Sparks Tribune

A giant has fallen: John Lewis, 1940-2020

Together, you can redeem the soul of our nation
"Answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you believe."
Rep. John Lewis' final words published at his request on the day of his funeral
New York Times Guest Editorial / July 30, 2020

July 17, 2020 (NYTimes.com) — John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died. He was 80.

Family sues City of Sparks for fatal police shooting of mentally ill teen
By Marcella Corona / Reno Gazette-Journal 8-14-2020

Sparks Police investigating vulgar, threatening social media posts allegedly made by an officer
By Bob Conrad / ThisIsReno.com 8-4-2020

Sparks police killing analysis: Could 18 year-old Miciah Lee have been saved?
Former sheriff: Establish civilian police review board
By Anjeanette Damon & Marcella Corona / rgj.com 7-6-2020 / Reno Gazette-Journal entire front page feature / Sunday 7-12-2020

Washoe law enforcement announces new expedited information policy on officer-involved shootings, including copcam video
UPDATE: All three major departments agree / Separately: Sparks City Hall defaced with red paint
KRNV TV-4/KRXI TV-11 July 15, 2020
UPDATE 2:40 p.m. PDT July 15, 2020 — NAACP President Lonnie Feemster: "The NAACP was not consulted. We need a regional approach. There are many other Washoe police departments such as those at the University of Nevada-Reno,the Washoe County School District and tribal law enforcement. We will be making further recommendations. Regional consistency is required."
Mr. Feemster will appear on northwestern Nevada TV-2 and TV-4 later today. Also monitor the Reno Gazette-Journal

Sparks mayors respond with passive-aggressive, patronizing racism
"So, boys and girls..."
By Siobhan McAndrew / rgj.com 7-14-2020 / Reno Gazette-Journal 7-15-2020

Fair warning to the rich, famous & powerful
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

There just ain't no cure for stupid
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Ship of Fools: Washoe County as derelict ocean liner
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

Weird love of dos Tejanas for El Jefé Trump
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-24-2020 Sparks Tribune

Government shuts down when it should step up
Wherein I become a 36-year overnight success
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-17-2020 Sparks Tribune
e
Top 10 cures still go begging
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-10-2020 Sparks Tribune

FLAILING OVERTURNED TURTLE: Have we reached a turning point?
By Frank Rich / New York Magazine 6-9-2020

View Reno-Sparks NAACP President Lonnie Feemster's June 6 & 7 appearance on KTVN TV-2's Face the State half-hour program

Most arrested after May 30 Reno riot were innocent downtown residents
Most live within walking distance of downtown, one 700 feet from City Hall
Mississippi West alive and well: City lawyers advise arrestees to plead guilty or face days or weeks in jail
Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday front page 6-7-2020

Don't let fear and anger convert us to Germany 1933
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-3-2020 Sparks Tribune

Reno reimposes martial law

Tuesday, 02 Jun 2020 17:12:30 (PDT) [Official City of Reno bulletin] Reno, Nevada USA — Out of an abundance of caution for public safety, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve has issued citywide curfews starting at 7 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, June 2. The curfew will be in effect nightly from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next morning and will continue until terminated by Mayor Schieve. During the hours of the curfew, no person — with the exception of law enforcement, military and other emergency response personnel, government officials and authorized media — shall enter or remain in the public right of way, public parks or any other public place in Reno unless they have an essential reason to be out (i.e. people traveling to/from work or seeking emergency care, etc.). Residents are asked to adhere to the curfew to help protect the safety of our community. [More at Reno.Gov]

NAACP CALLS FOR CALM & SHOOTING TRANSPARENCY
Downtown Reno Black Lives Matter rally turns violent
RENO CITY HALL SET ON FIRE

     RENO, NEV. (Updated 7:54 p.m. PDT 6-2-2020 / 02:54 June 3 GMT) — Saturday afternoon's downtown Reno Black Lives Matter rally turned violent after adjournment as evening approached. People jumped on cars near the casino center Reno Arch. Windows were broken at businesses, the Washoe County Courthouse and Reno City Hall. Its first floor set afire, tear gas was used to keep crowds away from the 14-story high-rise. Arrests were made. Gov. Steve Sisolak called out the Nevada National Guard. Citizens put hands in the air shouting "don't shoot." KOLO TV-8 telecasted live, joined by two other network affiliates much later in the evening. Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve ordered a citywide curfew which was expanded to cover the entire county. The Reno-Sparks NAACP called for calm and transparency regarding all shootings, local and elsewhere. Stay tuned.

NAACP calls for calm, demands police transparency
Family of 18 year-old killed by Sparks Police in January still waiting for answers
By James DeHaven / rgj.com 5-31-2020 / Reno Gazette-Journal 6-1-2020

 

WE WON! City of Reno votes down Ballardini Ranch annexation

Presidents Trump & Harding channel Mark Twain
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-27-2020 Sparks Tribune

Ballardini Ranch: Love's Labours Lost. Again.
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-20-2020 Sparks Tribune

Letter from gods of alpha males & alpha mails
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-13-2020 Sparks Tribune


The Laborers' Work Zone Safety Sentry will ride its messages into high-traffic areas and routes, daily visiting 10 to 15 construction sites that each typically employ 100 to 200 workers. The union is a nationally recognized leader in construction site safety. Please be careful out there. [MORE]

Re-name former Hug High for Dolores Feemster
By William C. Webb, John A. White, Jr. and Andrew Barbáno / RGJ.com 5-7-2020 / Reno Gazette-Journal op-ed 5-10-2020

Make Dolores Feemster's light shine brightly
Renaming of former Hug High before school board Tuesday, May 12
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-6-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-7 & 5-9-2020

May 1: Happy Labor Day (everywhere in the world except here)

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award
6 of 10 gold
Tribune editorial page voted 2020 best

MAGAcidal maniax are loosed upon the land
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day April 29, 2020
Including 11 Las Vegas Culinary Union workers dead of COVID-19

WORKER DOUBLE JEOPARDY: Unions outraged as businesses seek congressional shield from pandemic liability
By Jim Tankersley & Charlie Savage / The New York Times 4-28 & 4-30 2020

Wisconsin and US Supreme Courts forced citizens to risk lives to vote
Extraneous postmark dictum will disallow votes in November
By Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-Elect Jill Karofsky / NYTimes 4-29-2020

Unions: Pandemic used to foil labor organizing nationwide
By Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Rachel Abrams / NYTimes 4-29-2020

1930s ReRun? Nationwide wildcat strikes may revitalize crippled labor movement
Organized capital, hostile courts and a cruel president: "US Supreme Court conservative majority ready to make entire US an open shop"
By Jamelle Bouie / NY Times op-ed 4-29-2020

Rev. Jim Jones said "drink the Kool-Aid"
Time for Trump's True Believers to Respond

4-26-2020 — Memo to my New York union readers: I'm a bleeding heart liberal and thus always open to new ideas. I will give the president's innovative new medical therapy careful consideration if he will be the first to try drinking bleach and applying his makeup with Lysol. Swill at will. Bon appetit. Alleluia! — AB
Be well. Raise hell. Stay safe, sane and sanitary in the permanent sanitarium.

"Betwixt all the Trump flags in the thinly attended Carson City MAGAcidal maniax demonstration was a home-made sign stating 'All cults should be voluntary.' They are obviously experts on that kinda stuff." (Barbwire 4-22-2020)

New Yorkers take Trump's medical advice and o.d. on Clorox and Lysol
The will to live is finally gone since the bastard is their city's spawn
Spike in New Yorkers ingesting household cleaners following Trump’s coronavirus comments
New York Daily News 4-25-2020

TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM (New York Times front page headline 8-6-2019)
BARBWIRE TRANSLATION: "You provide the unity, I'll provide the racism"


Trump wants your cat and your shorts
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-22-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-26-2020

A gold record message from the King
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

Three Reno VA hospital AFGE 2152 Union members die of virus
First victim, Bruce McAlister, 47, followed by ER nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, who died in the hospital's ICU, and medical technician Alex Gousev, 57
Reno Gazette-Journal 4-journalist team series 3-30 thru 4-10-2020

Are you ready to die for your country?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

300 Died of COVID-19 in NYC Friday, April 3; 550 statewide just that day

Trump wants the churches full by Easter — Perhaps like Lombardy, Italy, today?

Payback: Corona, Cocaine & Trump
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-1-2020 Sparks Tribune
 Photos, video and commentary from Barbwire correspondents in the belly of the beast: New York City and northern Italy
And remembering when Andy met Betty on April Fools Day 44 years ago

Covid Containment

Teamsters 533 persuades Waste Management to protect public and drivers
4-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

Teamsters UPS members protest unsafe working conditions nationwide
3-25-2020 Sparks Tribune

Kinks and hijinx in the time of plague
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-25-2020 Sparks Tribune

The lighter side of the latest plague
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-18-2020 Sparks Tribune

Medflies, flyweights and President Pelosi
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-11-2020 Sparks Tribune

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

On April 1, 1976, Andrew Barbano met Betty Joyce Luffman Donlevy, manager of Pauline's Sportswear in Carson City.
Be still my foolish heart.

Trump's Blackrobes: Humpty Dumpty Homotextuals
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-4-2020 Sparks Tribune

Happy Leap Day from the Grasshopper and the Dragonfly

Bernie or bust, Dolores a must
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-26-2020 Sparks Tribune

National Labor Relations Board dismisses Nevada Gold Mines’ effort to disrupt union representation

Czars Donaldov & Nixon win Democratic Caucus
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-19-2020 Sparks Tribune

Springtime for fat cats & unburied hatchets
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-12-2020 Sparks Tribune

Love saves a life on Reno's mean streets
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-5-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bill Harrah's cookie cutter crumbles
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

Going to confession with Father Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-22-2020 Sparks Tribune

¡Viva Chávez!

César Chávez Celebration XVIII / Celebración de César Chávez XVIII
Wednesday 31 March 2021 / miercoles 31 marzo 2021
Sign up for news and bulletins

The Best Who Ever Was
Barbwire Nominee Dennis Myers elected to Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame
Barbwire / 9-30-2020

Dennis Myers will become the first journalist ever installed
in the César Chávez NevadaLabor.com Hall of Fame

For a limited time, nominations remain open for HOF and union organizer, project and employer of the year. Submit. Click here for sponsorships and reservations.


NEW JIM CROW AUTHOR: "Everything has changed and nothing has changed"

INJUSTICE ON REPEAT: From mass incarceration to mass deportation, our nation remains in denial
By Michelle Alexander / The New York Times / Jan. 17 & 19, 2020
Printable text version

Ms. Alexander has just released the 10th anniversary edition of her seminal bestseller, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness," from which the above is adapted.

READ IT. PRINT IT. POST IT. CIRCULATE IT. IT'S IMPORTANT!


Railroad Workers United General Secretary Ron Kaminkow wrote:

King’s support of unions was long-standing, although that endorsement was not returned by unions, including most rail unions that did not offer membership to African-Americans. In 1961, King’s address at the AFL-CIO’s annual convention was considered a turning point. At the Convention, King observed: “Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor’s demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.”

In the last year of his life, King had embarked upon organizing a “Poor Peoples Campaign” designed to unite people of all races in a struggle to redistribute the wealth and power in society to common everyday working people. “I think it is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights … [W]hen we see that there must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power, then we see that for the last twelve years we have been in a reform movement … That after Selma and the Voting Rights Bill, we moved into a new era, which must be anoara of revolution … In short, we have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society.King’s support of unions was long-standing, although that endorsement was not returned by unions, including most rail unions that did not offer membership to African-Americans.

In 1961, King’s address at the AFL-CIO’s annual convention was considered a turning point. At the Convention, King observed: “Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor’s demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.”

In the last year of his life, King had embarked upon organizing a “Poor Peoples Campaign” designed to unite people of all races in a struggle to redistribute the wealth and power in society to common everyday working people. “I think it is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights … [W]hen we see that there must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power, then we see that for the last twelve years we have been in a reform movement … That after Selma and the Voting Rights Bill, we moved into a new era, which must be an era of revolution … In short, we have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society.[1]

("While roughly 1 of 3 U.S. workers have the day off work today, MLK Day has yet to be recognized by nearly all U.S. rail carriers. For most of us on the nation’s railroads, it is unfortunately, business as usual," Bro. Kaminkow concluded.)
__________________

1. EDITOR'S NOTE: A young Bernie Sanders attended the 1963 March on Washington. The latter paragraph could have been ripped from a Bernie for President brochure.

 

National welfare, corporate welfare and MLK
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

"America exists today to make war." — Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, 2002-2005

The only way to stop killing is to stop killing
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Barbano sells out to white Republicans
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

Hope you and yours enjoyed Happy High Holly Days
Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah/Thanksgibleting
Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo / Felice Anno Nuovo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2020


© 2019 The New York Times

The Nightmare
Before Christmas

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

Typhoid Mary infects Sparks Addams Family
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-18-2019 Sparks Tribune

A fake news fable for our times
Typhoid Mary, quite contrary
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire Confidential by Andrew Barbáno / 12-11-2019 Online Edition
Red-flag warnings — Ignoring history at our peril
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-11-2019 Sparks Tribune

Major rent raunch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Billionaire Tom Steyer owes me $5
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

11-30-2019
Happy St. Andrew's Day in Scotland and my house.
Hoist ye holy spirits.

Alleluia!

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME —>

We Don't Need No Education Part XCII—>
People get ready, that train's a comin'
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Internet Edition 11-12-2019 / Updated 11-14 & 11-15-2019
A version of this column appeared in the Wednesday 11-13-2019 Sparks Tribune
An excerpt from the above was included in Andrew Barbano's address to the school board on Nov. 12.
SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE SCENE OF THE CRIME:
Clever maneuver prevents vote after 4 of 7 trustees announce support to name school for Dolores Feemster

We Don't Need No Education Part XCI—>
DO NOT risk your kids at Golden Eagle Park
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 11-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Tale of 2 city halls: Cancer kids & brain damage
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Open house Nov. 7 at northern Nevada's first union printer in more than a decade

Teamsters win unanimous vote at Bell Limo
Teamsters boycott of Grand Sierra-Reno announced at NAACP annual awards dinner
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-23-2019 Sparks Tribune


The Best Who Ever Was: Barbwire Nominee Dennis Myers elected to Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame
Barbwire / 9-30-2020

Adios to a Nevada giant on the Ides of September
A surprise bit of charming post-script to Dennis' life

REPORT FROM THE MEMORIAL GATHERING (9-15-2019) — About 200 people from as far away as the Philippines, Australia and Ireland gathered to honor Dennis on the banks of the Truckee River on Sunday, Sept. 15. His ashes will be scattered at Pyramid Lake, the termination of the Truckee on the Paiute Reservation. It was a truly Nevadian wish — the Truckee is the only U.S. river that originates in a lake (Tahoe) and ends in one. Lake Tahoe lies in two states. The bard of Nevada himself originated in California and concluded in Nevada. Life imitates art imitates life.

Details in the Sept. 18 Sparks Tribune.

Dennis Myers: Enroute to the universe next door
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-11-2019 Sparks Tribune

Philippines to Burning Man to Ireland: Adios GOAT
Dennis Myers Memorial 9-15-2019
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevadian Dennis Myers: The Greatest Of All Time
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-28-2019 Sparks Tribune

Dennis Myers, 1948-2019
OBITUARY: Veteran Nevada reporter removed from life support
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Internet Edition 8-25 and 8-26 -2019
 [En Español — La Voz Hispana En Nevada 9-18-2019]

On March 31,, 2021, Nevada César Chávez Day XVIII, Dennis Myers will become the first journalist ever installed in the César Chávez NevadaLabor.com Hall of Fame.

From: Lisa Ruggerio
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 11:51:23 a.m. PDT
Re: On behalf of Dennis Myers' family

Dear friends:

Dennis suffered a stroke last week. Dennis’ family is honoring his wishes to support the lives of others through organ donation. The hospital has been keeping his body alive for organ viability. A donor recipient has just been located for his liver. There will be an honor walk for our beloved Dennis today Monday, August 27, 2019 at Renown at 1:30 pm in the Sierra Tower ICU waiting room. Those who loved Dennis are welcome to attend.
Lisa


...The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
   Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
   For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!

...And then
the windows failed
   And I could not see
to see.
— Emily Dickinson   


25 August 2019
2:34 p.m. PDT

Dear Friends:

The following arrived this morning from former Washoe County School District Trustee Lisa Ruggerio. At least this won't turn into another Karen Ann Quinlan case. Our dear Dennis is gone but his song will survive in so many ways. — AB

At 9:12 a.m PDT 8/25/19, Lisa Ruggerio wrote:

Dennis suffered a massive stroke. Dennis’ family is honoring his wishes to support the lives of others through organ donation. The hospital is keeping his body alive for organ viability.

 

The best that ever was lies brain dead

UPDATE (11:43 p.m PDT Saturday 8-24-2019) — Journalist Dennis Myers, the best reporter in Nevada, is on his way away from us. There have been many conflicting stories circulating among his legion of heartbroken friends. I heard from people across North America today.

Cut in twain
(His favorite photo)

While I was writing this update, Renown Regional Medical Center's patient information operator told me "he's been discharged." She then flipped me to Sierra Meadows ICU. A nurse thereat said he's still in Renown Sierra Tower Room 136. The attending nurse then informed me that Dennis remains there and that he would pass my phone number to one of those holding vigil. The nurse could give me no further information. (Damn the beastly HIPAA* hipaapotamus.) I begged for a call ASAP "but it may not be until tomorrow." Witnesses who have been with Dennis say Renown ER found no brain activity when he was admitted.

After he missed a dinner engagement and then did not show up at his newspaper, concerned friends went to his Sparks apartment, banged on his door, and later broke it down.They found him on the floor, broken chair nearby. He had broken ribs which punctured a lung. They got him to ER where his lung was re-inflated. Doctors then discovered he had suffered a brain stem stroke and technicians could detect no brain activity. The stroke had cut off oxygen to his brain. A credible source informed me Saturday morning that Dennis would have his ventilator removed Saturday afternoon, August 24. Apparently not. Someone who saw him earlier said he had been declared "brain dead." Communications all day have been in past tense and about memorial services.

A formal statement from someone onsite is needed immediately. More sooner than later, some well-intentioned someone is going to call the Reno Gazette-Journal and/or several TV stations and give them incomplete information. Witness Saturday's ping-ponging. I submit that someone could both lie in some state in a hospital room and yet be officially discharged. It's all in the regulatory semantics and paperwork trail delay. It is also quite possible that no blood relative is yet in Reno and thus no one has any authority to do the unthinkable.

My nomination of Dennis for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame stands notwithstanding his inchoate adios. All testimonials, remembrances and updated information will be most welcome.

More as details arrive. E me at <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Phone (775) 747-0544. Texts are a crapshoot thru my five phone line jumps. So voice or e, please.

To put it in Spanglish, this Sabado morphed into endless black sabbath. Thank you all for your caring and concern.

I weep the tears of transfiguration for you, old friend. — Barbano

_______
* HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

-30-

The Trump Whisperer and a $40,000 baseball ticket
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-21-2019 Sparks Tribune

Perfectly Nevadian: Joe Conforte, 1925-2019
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-14-2019 Sparks Tribune

TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM
— New York Times front page headline 8-6-2019
BARBWIRE TRANSLATION: "You provide the unity, I'll provide the racism"
Coming in Wednesday's Sparks Tribune: Guns and roses, traitors and political poses

The Sting, spike heels, green eggs & ham
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-31-2019 Sparks Tribune

July 28: Happy Birthday Senator Joe Neal.

A cuckoo coup and a president, too
Barbwire exclusive: Secret 2017 meeting set the setup in motion
"The firing of Traci Davis was nothing short of a long-term, well-orchestrated coup."
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Reno City Council passes rent control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-17-2019 Sparks Tribune


Broken Promises in Boomtown —>

Drug Addiction: Nevada's Chronic Corporate Welfare Tax Giveaways

Nevada corporate welfare queens rip off megabux from dumb hick taxpayers
By James De Haven / rgj.com 7-22 / Reno Gazette-Journal 7-28-2019

Corporate welfare ripoffs — Nevada business as usual
By Former Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno / Reno News & Review 7-25-2019

TURNING TRICKS QUESTION: Is Nevada’s corporate welfare paying off?
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 7-18-2019

Assemblymember Skip Daly, D-Sparks, has criticized Gov. Steve Sisolak for vetoing Assembly Bill 444 which would have created a legislative committee to review Nevada's epidemic of corporate tax breaks.
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

Corporate Welfare War Rooms: Cabellyup with Cabela's & Scheel's et al + Nevada Corporate Welfare Archives
+ We Don't Need No Education

Racism Comes Out of the Closet
By Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman / nytimes.com 7-15 / The New York Times 7-16-2019

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME —>
TOXIC TWINS: school bureaucracy & casino jockocracy

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXIX—>
Alfred E. Neuman for Washoe school superintendent
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-10-2019 Sparks Tribune

Witness at the execution
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

Gang banging on 9th Street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Extra Edition / 7-1-2019

SUMMER SCHOOL HEAT: Showdown looms July 1 as Reno-Sparks school district attempts to fire superintendent Traci Davis
BARBWIRE "WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION" ARCHIVE

Veni, Vidi, Jockocracy?
Locker room rules: Caesars goes commando, union vows resistance to Eldorado empire
By Bryan Horwath / Las Vegas Sun 6-28-2019 / Reno Gazette-Journal 7-8-2019

Eldorado-Caesars merger means labor union battles far beyond Reno & Las Vegas
Culinary Union leader D. Taylor: "Where are they going to cut?"
Building trade union campaigns continue
By Ed Komenda / Reno Gazette-Journal / 6-27-2019

The divine right of kings, casino gods & dingbat heirs
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-26-2019 Sparks Tribune

The Barbwire Presidential Dirtiest Dozen
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-19-2019 Sparks Tribune

Sen. Ira Hansen announces his pregnancy
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Priorities for butt-, rent-, birth- and gun-control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-17-2019 Sparks Tribune

DAY OF THE DEAD
Relieve Rent & Pillage: Save SB398 & AB399
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Online Legislative Edition / 4-12-2019
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

4-1-2019

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

On April 1, 1976, Andrew Barbano met Betty Joyce Luffman Donlevy, manager of Pauline's Sportswear in Carson City.
Be still my foolish heart.

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME—>

¡Viva Chávez!

César Chávez Celebration XVIII / Celebración de César Chávez XVIII
Wednesday 31 March 2021 / miercoles 31 marzo 2021
Sign up for news and bulletins

Thanks to everyone who helped make César XVII a record-breaking success despite the rain and snow.
Mark your calendar now for César XVIII

50 years in Nevada: Trying to outlive them all
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak delivers the keynote address at César Chávez Celebration XVII 3-27-2019
¡Sí se puede!

César Chávez Celebration XVII / Celebración de César Chávez XVII
Wednesday 27 March 2019 / miércoles 27 de Marzo 2019
Tahoe Ballroom / Grand Sierra - Reno

UNR-sponsored day of service and celebration 3/31/2019
Reno Gazette-Journal ads break March 24
KTVN TV-2 (CBS/Home of March Madness)
Spots break 'round the clock starting March 24
[VIEW]

The César Chávez Long March, 3-17-1966
by Reno artist Erik Holland

The original watercolor above was displayed for several years in the Nevada legislative offices of State Senator and future Congressman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, prime sponsor of the 2009 César Chávez Day bill which is now state law. (Nevada Revised Statutes 236.027/AB301-Kihuen et al./2009). Mr. Holland is preparing a new painting to be unveiled on May 30, 2020, at César Chávez Celebration XVIII, latest in the series. The Reno-Sparks NAACP will participate with a full display and voter registration, as usual. Click here for event reservations and sponsorship information. Copyright © 2009 Erik Holland. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2009 Erik Holland. All rights reserved.

GOP avoids Chávez event
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 3-21-2019

Guv keynotes César XVII: 17-year overnight success
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-13-2019 Sparks Tribune

¡Viva Chávez!

Poor Denny's Almanac
Remember: St. Patrick was once a slave who returned to minister to the land which shackled him

On St. Patrick's Day: in 1934, thirty African American students were ejected from the U.S. House of Representatives dining room when they sought service as a protest against the firing of a waiter who tried to serve blacks, with police shoving the students out of the restaurant, down the hallway, and outdoors, fists swinging and blows landing; in 1966, farm workers led by César Chávez began a march from Delano to Sacramento; in 1970, U.S. postal workers struck.

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

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

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

In memoriam: 60 years ago toward a lonely road

January 16, 1959, brought the births of Debra Joyce Donlevy/Carson High '77 (1959-1978) and Donna Leslie Cline (1959-1999). Their youth was cut in twain on the same night in 1978 within the loneliness of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream. Remember them fondly.

OBITUARY: Robert Earle Price, Jr. / 1936-2019
By Andrew Barbano / NevadaLabor.com 1-5-2019

More stupid signs of our republic's decline
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-2-2019 Sparks Tribune

Crystal Balls: Peerless Predixions 2019 & Beyond
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-26-2018 Sparks Tribune

So this is Christmas: May we get what we deserve
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-19-2018 Sparks Tribun

A Christmas fantasy for freedom-loving racists
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-5-2018 Sparks Tribune

The growing tide of Teslacide
Latest news from Nevada's $1.4 billion corporate welfare champion
Menial Tasks, Slurs and Swastikas for Minorities

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award
6 of 10 gold
Tribune editorial page voted 2020 best

BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune

Melvin and Howard: The untold reality show
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-12-2018 Sparks Tribune

50 shades of rape: Tales of future past
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-3-2018 Sparks Tribune

Buyer beware the Ides of March
Full house: Renters face a bleak future in the Truckee Meadows
Barbano: Shoddy developers still call the shots
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 3-8-2018
And we didn't even get kissed afterward

LATEST Barbwire

2018 Black History Month Almanac
Courtesy of journalist Dennis Myers and friends

RenoSparksNAACP.org

Oh, you beautiful doll!
Forever a Fox: Rosie in 1995

Naomi Parker Fraley, aka Rosie the Riveter, dies at 96
Mrs. Fraley’s connection to Rosie was made public in 2016, ending years of speculation over who was the model for the fictional 1940s war worker.
By Margalit Fox / The New York Times front page 23 January 2018

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award
6 of 10 gold
Tribune editorial page voted 2020 best

Je Suis Charlie

30+ years of Barbwire Archives thru today

SITE MAP

SITE NAVIGATION TIP: When all else fails, read the instructions
(A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

All the news you never knew you needed to know—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

Navigating the flagship—>Making quick work of NevadaLabor.com

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS DEPT.—> A year or so back, I got my first criticism in more than two decades that this site is a bit confusing to navigate. I take that as a compliment. Confusing people is one of my few talents.
    I thought I had anticipated any such problems years ago by liberally sprinkling links to the front page site map. (These days, am I supposed to say that I sprinkled progressively rather than liberally?)
    The front page of NevadaLabor.com acts as a chronological listing of recent workplace news with the latest at the top. I archive annually to create a continuous permanent record fully accessible via the site map or any garden-variety websearch.
    "We Don't Need No Education" is now approaching its 100th installment and long ago earned its own section inside. Say hi to Don Quixote.
    Current Barbwires plus more than 20 years of columaniacal archives, the Statewide News Roundup and Breaking News/Bull'tins/Almanac are all available via the site map—>as well as the usual general or specific ongoing madness and historical inflammation. (Once something's posted here or to any of my other sites, it's up forever.)
    While the front page is chronological, the Statewide News Roundup is categorical, e.g., construction, hospitality, legislation, health care and many others. Breaking News/Bull'tins/Almanac often publishes original U-News as well as links to items at other sites that are not hot enough for the front page chronology. The NevadaLabor.com search engine acts as a short-cut to everything, depending on what you seek. So simply seek and ye shall find.
    As my old friend Wise John the Lake Havasu Cropduster Pilot often says, "when all else fails, read the instructions." So when all else fails, re-read the above, then go to the nearest site map link and/or "search." The NevadaLabor.com search engine is really amazing. It's also union-signatory and thus quite efficient.
    Thanks for your inputs and support over lo, these many years. Keep up the good work and the good fight.
    Esté bien. Haga infierno. / Be well. Raise hell.

—> Andrew the Barbwire Man


Site Map
SITE NAVIGATION TIP: When all else fails, read the instructions
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Get ahead of the corporate news wave—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
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Site Map

SITE NAVIGATION TIP: When all else fails, read the instructions
(A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)


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 voted into 2020 NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero
and Jake Highton next
Send endorsements

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award

Tribune voted best 2020 editorial page

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
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!

 
Editor's Note: Many of the news links on this site are from Nevada dailies. In late 2006, the Reno Gannett-Journal began nuking much of its archive. If you encounter any broken links, I encourage you to contact them and send me a copy. On the one hand, they want to build their web traffic in order to increase the price of ads. On the other hand, they are killing that very traffic. Far be it from me to reconcile the Dilbert-style motivations of an outfit for which a 38 percent net profit is not enough. If you can explain it, please enlighten me. (Before you e-mail me, please read this bulletin — AB) UPDATE: In early 2008, the Las Vegas Sun "upgraded " its website, nuking more than a dozen years of links. If you find an orphaned Sun story, search their site for the title. Thanks.

 

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!



NevadaLabor.com Site Directory

Navigating the flagship—>Making quick work of NevadaLabor.com

Latest Breaking News & Bulletins + Almanac + Archives 1999-present

2000-2019 U-News Front Page Archives

U-News Statewide Archives 1996-2018

In Search Of... | Search NevadaLabor.com

Right to Work for Less | Nevada Labor History | Sparks Centennial
Building Energy  | 100 Years of Union Apprenticeship

DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive| BallotBoxing.US

War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cable TV, Cabela's, Cancer Kids/Mining, Corporate Welfare, Energy, Health Care, ReSurge.TV, Starbucks, Wal-Mart

NEW —> WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION
The Neverending Series
The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

Un-dissing the Dead—>The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries

Labor Links | Nevada Writers | About the Editor | Search | Deciding Factors


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The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

 


The unmatched and comprehensive online meeting hall
for Nevada workers since 1995



The tale of our gorgeous union-created graphics

In 2002, we were honored to produce the Centennial Book for the 100th anniversary of the founding of northern Nevada Painters and Allied Trades Local 567/AFL-CIO. Working on a short time frame, we cast a nationwide net for appropriate cover art and succeeded beyond our wildest dreams thanks to muralists Kathleen Scarboro and Kathleen Farrell. The above illustration ("Papering the World: Joliet's Wallpaper Industry") appeared on the cover and interior of Local 567's Centennial Book, copies of which have been submitted to Nevada libraries and historical organizations. The mural, painted on a wall in Joliet, Illinois, depicts Painters Union members manufacturing wallpaper the old fashioned way, long about the time of Local 567's founding. Ms. Farrell is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, an affiliate of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades/AFL-CIO. Ms. Scarboro is a member of the Maison des Artists in Paris, the association which represents artists in France.

Ms. Farrell executes murals, mosaics and figurative sculptures for the labor movement. Her work and that of others may be viewed at the Friends of Community Public Art web site. "We have added new table top size sculptures for sale as well as additions of our life size sculptures," she says. "A number of the sculptures feature union members including the Baseball Player (The Catch) and The Firefighter. I have also finished the rad workers sculpture I mentioned awhile back. I welcome work from unions that would like to buy the existing sculptures or hire me to create awards, tabletop size sculptures and life size sculptures."

Sister Farrell may be contacted at terri@fcpaonline.org; phone (815) 722-4140; fax (815) 722-9007. You may view more of her work and obtain additional contact information at http://fcpaonline.org/artist.asp?a=farrelka

Rotating at the top of this site as well as in pastel form in the background of this page is a mural produced for the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union/AFL-CIO. The others were acrylics on canvas done for the United Food and Commercial Workers and to memorialize the plight of U.S. chicken processing workers (si podemos). Enjoy.

Be well. Raise hell.

Murals/montages copyright © Kathleen Farrell


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[CWA 9413/AFL-CIO]

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

In memoriam

January 16, 1959, brought the births of Debra Joyce Donlevy/Carson High '77 (1959-1978) and Donna Leslie Cline (1959-1999). Their youth was cut in twain on the same night in 1978 within the loneliness of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream.

Remember them fondly. Act in their honor.

 

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