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What may well have been the first marriage of talk radio, talk TV and webcast webchat.

[[EDITOR'S NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, historical items appear courtesy of longtime Nevada reporter Dennis Myers' Poor Denny's Almanac [PDA]. Items highlighted in blue are of interest to labor in particular and seekers of justice in general. Copyright © 2009 Dennis Myers.]]

SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the Feb. 21 BARBWIRE show on your desktop
Special guest: Sen. Harry Reid

The Dean's List

   The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners
Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL
Barbwire / 11-30-2008
Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire / 8-3-2008
Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here?
Barbwire / 6-15-2008

Barbwire.TV


The latest TV show
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Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest. A button for older shows is being installed. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.

Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative session

(775) 882-8255
[882-TALK]

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

UPDATE SUNDAY 2-28-2010 01:34 A.M. PST, 09:34 ZULU/GMT — Union men run for office in Reno-Sparks

Former Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 350 Business Manager Bob Lopes declares candidacy for Sparks City Council

Laborers' Union Local 169 Business Manager Richard "Skip" Daly endorsed by term-limited incumbent Democrat Bernie Anderson for Assembly District 31

BREAKING NEWS
Clinging to the Ledge

UPDATE SUNDAY 2-28-2010 12:01 A.M. PST, 08:01 ZULU/GMT —

Tentative budget deal reached (Las Vegas Sun)

Nevadans will feel impact of four-day government workweek (LV Sun)

Ledge 'X:
The Deer-in-the-Headlights Session
Expanded from the 2-28-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 2-24-2010 2:36 A.M. PST, 10:36 ZULU/GMT — Cathousing, carousing and fox-pawing, the emergency legislative session convened in Carson City on Tuesday, 2-23-2010.

CARSON CITY, NV — Nevada state employees from all over the region made things hot on a frigid day by rallying on the capitol mall, then marching on both the governor's office and the legislative building. AFSCME Local 4041/AFL-CIO served food to the stalwarts afterward. All agreed that the occasion gave new meaning to the term cold sandwiches.

OUT IN THE COLD. Supporters of the state workers included Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Treasurer Danny Thompson; Laborers' Local 169 Business Manager Skip Daly (a Democratic candidate to replace term-limited Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks); retired Local 169 business agent Pat Sanderson of Gardnerville; Paul McKenzie, secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO; Ironworkers Local 118/AFL-CIO business agent Danny Costella, a Carson City resident; Sam Lumpe, retired member of Sheetmetal Workers Local 26 and longtime political and union activist; Rudy Viola, president of United Auto Workers Local 2162/AFL-CIO; Scott Watts, president of the Nevada chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans; and two members of the Industrial Workers of the World —> the latter day reps of the venerable Wobblies Union always show up to support their brothers and sisters, even if it means taking a day off work, which one did. Solidarnosc!

ps: Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Yer humble editor was there representing Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO., as was Local 9413 president Jim Burrell.

2-27-2010 UPDATE: State workers win round as lawmakers consider cuts (Las Vegas Sun)

STACKING THE DECK IN THE HALLS. Gov. Jim the Dim announced before the session convened that he would add two items to the legislative agenda: A change to state law so that Nevada could qualify for Race to the Top federal education money and a bill to remedy the recent court-caused uncertainty about water rights application.

Unfortunately, he did not do so before lawmakers were gaveled into session. Any changes are now illegal. (See Sen. Joe Neal's comments in the 2-21-2010 Barbwire.)

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told me in our weekend interview that $175 million will be available to Nevada if the law is changed.

He added that Nevada is the only ineligible state.

He also expressed amazement at the governor's conduct in office.

Gibbons' announcement coupled with inaction (what else is new from this guy?) is viewed as attempt by Jim the Dim to push lawmakers toward his narrow, education-destroying agenda by holding these two important measures in abeyance.

But he has no power to micromanage the legislature and has precipitated the constitutional confrontation predicted in last Sunday's Barbwire.

Some lobbyists told me today that a precedent for Jim the Dim's maneuver was established when Gov. Dudley Do-Right introduced new items at the end of one of the three acrimonious special sessions of 2003.

Wishful thinking.

FOXY LADIES TO THE RESCUE. Nevada Brothel Association lobbyist George Flint is pushing a solution on lawmakers: legalize prostitution in Nevada's two largest counties, Clark (Las Vegas) and Washoe (Reno-Sparks). In Gomorrah South alone, Flint says this new tax (Grover Norquist*, call your office) would generate $300 million a year in Clark County alone. Flint says he's done the math on establishing two houses with 300 girls each. He notes that three women of his acquaintance left the controlled environment of rural Nevada to freelance in Las Vegas. All three were murdered.

Flint has a point — but I'd only support such legalization if a provision were included to make it easy for sex workers to organize themselves into a union.

Purveyors of society's vices always find it good business to take in the government as a partner. Witness gambling, alcohol tobacco and firearms.

FOX PAWS. Testifying before the entire lower house on the assembly floor, Clark County school superintendent Walt Rulffes really barfed things up. As an aside which brought gasps from lawmakers and the assembled multitudes, he noted that administrators in his district are asking for pay raises. With that sense of timing, he could never make it as a comedian notwithstanding his ridiculous remarks.

SPEAKING OF TIMING. Word is that Gov. Jim the Dim wants matters concluded by this weekend. Talk in the hall focuses on a couple of weeks of agony.

TROLLING FOR LAWSUITS. Just hanging around the hallways I picked up two or three additional potential plaintiffs interested in suing the state over its glaring educational deficiencies. Media interest is gathering momentum and I was amazed at the number of people in grocery stores and at the ledge who saw last Sunday's broadcast.

Awesome.

All tips and scurrilous rumors encouraged.

Stay tuned.

Be well. Raise hell.

AB

* DC Taxophobe and anarchist Norquist sent a letter revealed on Tuesday wherein he blasted Gibbons for allowing tax and fee increases.

UPDATE: SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the Feb. 21 BARBWIRE show on your desktop
Special guest: Sen. Harry Reid

Posted Feb. 19, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
ANDREW BARBANO

TUNE IN SUNDAY FEB. 21, 2010 —
LIVE REGIONAL TV + webcast 6:00 p.m. PST / 02:00 ZULU
Rerun at 9:00 p.m. PST / 05:00 ZULU

Please be patient. This webstreaming link will NOT activate until the 6:00 p.m. live webcast begins

SUING FOR SCHOOLS: The case for making Nevada finally obey her constitutional mandate to provide for public education

Can we do any worse with a judge running the system?

RENO — A live television special Sunday evening will explore suing Nevada on behalf of public education. "Suing for Schools", a live Barbwire special, will air from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. PST on interactive Reno television before a studio audience. Viewers may call with questions at (775) 828-1211 or send them in advance to program host Andrew Barbano via barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

With the destruction of the remainder of the Nevada education system at hand in next week's emergency legislative session, the time is right to review legal remedies to force the state to live up to its constitutional mandate to provide for education.

In 2008, then-university system chancellor James Rogers published research noting all the jurisdictions which have been successfully sued under circumstances similar to or worse than Nevada's. The study may be downloaded by accessing the 7 Feb. 2010 Barbwire ("Tap City Again and Again") at NevadaLabor.com.

Sunday panelists will include Lonnie Feemster, president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP (RenoSparksNAACP.org), Jeffrey Blanck, NAACP legal counsel, and Prof. Howard Rosenberg, former university system regent.

A recorded interview with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is also scheduled.

"Suing for Schools" will cablecast live at 6:00 p.m. PST on three Reno-Sparks-Washoe community television channels (Charter Communications digital 16, 216 and 80-295HD). Internet viewers may view the program as it happens by accessing a link through the front page of NevadaLabor.com. The link will activate when the show starts.

The program will rerun in prime time from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. PST Sunday on Reno CW Network affiliate KRNS TV (through the airwaves on digital 27.2 or analog 46).

It is receivable over the air from just east of Sacramento, Calif., to Pershing County, Nev., and to the south through Fallon, Yerington and Mineral County (Hawthorne), Nev. The CW is available on Nevada cable systems at channel 6. Satellite (Dish, Direct et al.) or AT&T UVerse subscribers in the above telecast area should consult their program guides for the dial position of KRNS TV from Reno.

Viewers with analog TV sets without digital converters, cable or satellite may access the program over the air with rabbit ears at UHF channel 46. Viewers in Susanville, Calif., may receive CW-Reno over the air at analog channel 29, again with no converter necessary. A coverage map may be accessed at NevadaLabor.com and Barbwire.TV.

The program will be rerun on various public and commercial stations statewide.

Check local listings.

UPDATE: SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the Feb. 21 BARBWIRE show on your desktop
Special guest: Sen. Harry Reid

Be well. Raise hell.
_____
PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

SUNDAY, Feb. 21: BARBWIRE BY BARBANO IN THE SPARKS TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, Feb. 23: March of the Workers at the legislature in Carson City, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 11:30-1:00 p.m. All workers are welcome to join AFSCME Local 4041/AFL-CIO. Info: (775) 882-3910.

"We all need to be vigilant as the governor is determined to destroy labor and undermine any gains that working famiilies have made in Nevada," stated Nevada State AFL-CIO executive secretary-treasurer Danny Thompson. Gov. Gibbons' proclamation calling the special session contains provisions to destroy what's left of worker rights in the Silver State.

MARCH 31: Nevada César Chávez Day VIII, March 31, Circus Circus Reno. See CesarChavezNevada.com for sponsorship and event info.

DOUBLE DOWN TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY MEDIA. The Sunday Barbwire Special program would not be possible without community media. We originate in public access facilities and rebroadcast over both public and commercial television. Sierra Nevada Community Access TV needs your help with a critical grant program which matches public contributions dollar-for-dollar — it's all tax-deductible. Thanks to all who have already jumped in. Please consider doing so yourself. Please contact Barbano for more info. If you don't think corporate conglomerate TV provides all the news you never knew you needed to know, this is important to you. So turn on, tune in and tell a friend.

Mr. Vegetable Lives Forever
Feb. 21 Barbwire live TV special announced
Expanded from the 2-14-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE 2-11-2010 3:23 P.M. PST, 23:23 ZULU/GMT — Nuclear test site workers finally receive special status for compensation

Déjà Vu Part Deux:
Tap City Again and Again
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-7-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

UPDATE 2-2-2010 4:52 P.M. PST, 00:52 ZULU/GMT 2-3-2010 — Gov. Jim the Dim's Tuesday double whammy: Cut 300 more state jobs and eliminate collective bargaining for teachers by executive order. Who cares about contracts or the law? If dictatorial style was good enough for Dubya and Tricky Dick II, it's good enough for him.

The hits just keep on coming
Expanded from the 1-31-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

City of Reno insolvent
1-26-2010

Bill Raggio, Governor of Nevada 2011
Barbwire by Barbano / 1-24-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

The crabby cure for what ails us
Barbwire by Barbano / 1-17-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

RED flags flying low over Sparks
Barbwire by Barbano / 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Barbwire by Barbano / 1-3-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

What may well have been the first marriage of talk radio, talk TV and webcast webchat.

NEWS BULLETIN & ALMANIACAL ARCHIVES

Also see NevadaLabor.com's Statewide U-News Roundup


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Click here to get on our news & bulletins mailing list...
But before you do so, please read this note. —AB