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

Site map & U-News Archives from 1996 forward —>


The awful truth hurts so good
Barbano by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-1-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune

Happy High Holly Days!

MerryChristmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus

On the first day of Christmas, follytix gave to me: Newt Gingrich dressed in Sharron Angle drag.
On the second day of Kwanzaa, Newt Gingrich gave to me: Slave laboring poor kids cleaning schools.
On the third day of Festivus, Mike Huckabee gave Rick Perry: Time to abort his campaign.

On the last day of Chanukah, Ron Paul gave to me: A tattered set of used white sheets.
On the fifth day of Christmas, Iowa gave to us: blunderbusses blundering via bus.
On the sixth day of Christmas, although it may seem strange, I'm beginning to miss Herman Cain.
On the seventh day of Christmas, let's rise above the sleaze: Break out good champagne and blackeye peas.
On the eighth day of Christmas, I drifted into dream, some fantasy about love and peace.
On the ninth day of Christmas, Iowa gave the Dems: defrocked Sen. Scrotum Factotem —> ahem (snicker) amen.
On the tenth day of Christmas, Iowa gave the GOP: a hangover for
Don't Tread on Me
On the eleventh day of Christmas: Comedians now lament, Michelle Bachmann's campaign done came and went.
On the 12th day of Christmas, a dream so near/so far —
That Obama can morph into FDR.



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

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME —>

The great ones died but Newt's like Dracula
Happy High Holly Days anyway!
Barbano by Barbano
/ Expanded from the 12-25-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Pipeline pigs, oily vultures & flying swine
Barbano by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-18-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

LOBBY YOUR CONGRESSCRITTER TO CONTINUE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS. The fastest way to get money into the economy is to help the unemployed who will spend the small allowance immediately.

The guns of December pointed at you
Barbano by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-11-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Life imitates art imitates Chuck
Chuck Fisher, 1944-2011
Nevada may decide 2012 presidency / New community fm radio station
Barbano by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-4-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

DON'T LET 'EM LICK YOUR STAMPS! Postal workers picket to save Reno area jobs. Public meeting at 6:00 p.m. PST Dec. 1 at Wooster High School in Reno

Sign the petition to the U.S. Senate

FED UP AT THE FEDERAL BUILDING (9-27-2011) — More than 200 postal workers and members of other unions demonstrate at the Bruce Thompson Federal Building in Reno in favor of passage of HR 1351, which would remove the funding drain now threatening the United States Postal Service. The federal courthouse may be seen in the window reflections of the auto in the foreground. (NevadaLabor.com photo)

The Christmas conundrum, harrumph-a-pump-pump
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-27-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Tell the Super Committee NO cuts to Social Programs
Demonstration 5:30 p.m. PST Monday 11-21-2011 in downtown Reno

Nevada's 11 most powerful in 2011
Send in your personal picks to click
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-20-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS AND AIRWAVES
News that affects your life

If you can't win, be spectacular
BARBWIRE EXCLUSIVE: ST. MARY'S REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER SALE
UPDATE: Confirmed, controversial and perhaps corrupt
Barbwire by Barbano/Expanded from the 8-28-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune/Updated 11-16-2011

Trumpeter, band leader, union man Al Shay dies at 90

Irony cards, cat houses and catty censorship
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-13-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Heroes are made, not born
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-6-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Ostrich heads in the sands of Sparks Marina
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-30-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

St. Crispin's Day — History's greatest motivational speech

Corporate welfare watch
Local sporting goods stores drop like flies while corporate welfare queens Cabela's and Scheels score tax dollars based on a bright, shining lie. Heavily subsidized Reno Aces billionaire boss says he's open to higher taxes but refuses to pay in Nevada.
ALSO: KOCH CAIN — Koch Bros. would rather invest in follyticians like Pizzaman

The dog ate my press release
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-23-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Loss of Faith
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-16-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune
"Casino Women" book hits nationwide

Dirty words and sexy talk always get it on
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-9-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

When money owns you
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-2-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Retired Culinary Union leader Jim Arnold, Jr., dies
All of Nevada labor mourns

DON'T LET 'EM LICK YOUR STAMPS! Postal workers and a few million of their best friends march in Nevada and nationwide to save the U.S. Postal Service from degradation and privatization. BE THERE.

Dirty books, holy men, false prophets and sex profits
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-25-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Barbano back on statewide Nevada Newsmakers TV/radio program

Corporate bake sales for broken governments
Unions threatened in attempt to stifle Obama administration criticism
Democrats schedule national convention with rat labor

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-18-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

So what else is new? Republican Amodei smokes titular Democrat for 30-year GOP Nevada House seat. Portents below.

    "There was no reason for the base to come out (for Kate Marshall). I was very disappointed in her campaign."

— Marlene Lockard, former chief of staff to former Gov. Richard Bryan (D)
Nevada Newsmakers / 9-14-2011

Piss up a rope: Vote
NY, NV special House elections all about bragging rights
Laborers' Union files legal actions over illegal bids

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-11-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, brings his congressional campaign north

Princess Cassandra's neverending labor
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-4-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

If you can't win, be spectacular
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-28-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune / Updated 8-31-2011

Miners don't even kiss us afterward
Hugh Jackson / Las Vegas CityLife / 8-25-2011

Suicide via Laborcide in Carolina
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-21-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Bullshots and bum watches
Will Nevada unions picket their own convention?
Culinary 226 cuts new deal in the face of Grand Sierra Reno's wholesale outsourcing
Huge Tonopah solar array project is Nevada's newest corporate welfare queen
Residents opposing Comstock pit mine schedule events
Seniors group endorses Democrat Kate Marshall in 9-13-2011 Nevada special election
Verizon national strike comes to Nevada

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-14-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Bullfighting in Tonopah, Part Deux
Survival bulletins from the High Desert Outback of the American Dream
Wherein the D.A. comes apart like a cheap watch

Barbwire by Barbano special web edition 8-11-2011
Substantially updated and expanded from the 8-7-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Bullfighting in Tonopah
All the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-7-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

What's the ugliest part of your body?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-31-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Unions protest FAA shutdown at Rep. Joe Heck's LV office

Lord Rupert's Rupture & President Tiger Wuss
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-24-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

President Kevorkian and Harry Potter's Congress
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-17-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

7-15 yo'11
César Chávez came to Reno 25 years ago, 7-15-86

UFW leader Richard Chávez, brother of César Chávez, dies at 81
Los Angeles Times / 7-28-2011

Obama pays tribute to late Reno labor leader

THE WAY WE WERE — The above is a recently discovered photo from July 15, 1986. Left to right are Kathy Brown, Culinary Union Local 86 office manager; Miguel Contreras, Local 86 Secretary-Treasurer; Local 86 President Bill Uehlein; a lady named Natalie (anyone who knows her last name, please write), and César Chávez. This item was first published in Ahora, northern Nevada's Spanish-English weekly, on March 26, 2008. (On 3-19-2009, President Obama paid tribute to Brother Contreras as he spoke in the L.A. building named after the late labor leader. See the 1986 Chávez Reno archive, below.)

(Photo courtesy of Dan Rusnak, retired business manager of Laborers' Union Local 169.)

More stories and photos from César Chávez's 1986 Reno visit

Dr. Strangelove and Sen. Don the Dumberer
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Daily Sparks Tribune 7-10-2011

A precedent of sorts for the contested one-vote North Las Vegas City Council election
+ Nevada Supreme Court upholds Republican plan for party-controlled special house election
BallotBoxing.US

July 4 Railroad Jobs: We're Red, White and Screwed
PLEADING POVERTY: Washoe County Commission tries to up D.A.'s quickie conviction rate
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-3-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Railway engineer gives his perspective on the fiery and fatal Trinity, Nevada, tractor-trailer/AMTRAK crash
UPDATED 7-3-2011

THIS WEEK'S BARBWIRE.TV REGIONAL REBROADCAST SCHEDULE

What may well have been the first marriage of talk radio, talk TV and webcast webchat. Such wedded bliss can happen again with a little help from our friends.

Reno-Sparks-Washoe-Carson City-Dayton-Tahoe-Douglas-Storey County Charter cable

Live call-in line: 775-882-TALK
Reruns statewide. Check local listings.


Click here for on-demand viewing from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Barbwire TV archives

Suing for Schools: Feb. 21 Barbwire live TV special

BREAKING NEWS
You can't have your war and eat it, too

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-26-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Final pieces found at last!
Eminent conservative economist Pierre A. Rinfret's seminal 1966 commentary on how war spending destroys the economies of nations: Peace is Bullish

Vietnam's Economic Lesson: Peace can yield fatter profits than war / Look Magazine 5-31-1966
Plus: The actual facts behind the fabled JFK tax cuts

Dennis Myers: Democrats folded without firing a shot at the 2011 Legislative session

Hall of famers give the boss the finger
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-19-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

SYLVESTER KELLEY, GUTSY RETIREE & WW2 VET WHO BATTLED NV ENERGY OVER MEDICAL BENEFITS, DIES AT 87
Memorial service on Monday, June 20

1923-2011

Mary Valencia Wilson: Nevada's Aztec Warrior

1944-2011

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-12-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

BARBWIRE.TV REGIONAL SCHEDULE

Nevada government's license to kill
A funeral dirge for the disposable worker
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-5-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune/ Updated 6-10-2011

Barbwire.TV 5-31-2011: The Mining Addiction
Barbwire banned in prime time
Tune in tonight LIVE 7:00 p.m. PDT / 02:00 ZULU GMT 6-1
Live webstreaming at the above link

Déjà vu, dustbusters and living legacies
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-29-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Clinging to the Ledge: Cold War
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-22-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Updated 5-25-2011: TV SHOW REGIONAL RERUN SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED

Carson City 12 noon Thursday, May 19
Workers rally for good jobs at good wages
Proposed reforms will devastate Nevada's already eroded wage base

Nevada's future held hostage

"So here you are, brothers and sisters. You are the hostages of Nevada’s governor and his political party. You are the hostages of the Chamber of Commerce. And they are holding you and your future hostage, not to fix the problems of this state, but rather only after you have been sacrificed will they be willing to discuss – I repeat, not agree to — but discuss a way to fix Nevada’s financial woes." — From Paul McKenzie's speech to the more than 300 workers at the May 19 rally. Read the full text.

TV this week:
Freedom Riders and wage defenders

Since they're blaming the victims, it's high time for the victims to fight back.
Live with your phone calls throughout northwestern Nevada Tuesday, 5-17
7:00 p.m. PDT 5-17-2011 / 02:00 5-18 ZULU
Click above for live webstreaming and rebroadcast times
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-15-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Updated 5-16-2011, 5-17-2011

LV IATSE LOCAL 720 LEADER MEL TURNER DIES

Teamsters blast Fallon layoffs targeting union workers

Slaves taxes, bread crumbs & another brick in the wall
There are no virgins in politics. The best you can hope for is that your friends treat you a little better than your enemies and promise to kiss you afterward.
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-8-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

May Day! T-Rump reduces president to peanuts
Wobblies lead May Day human rights solidarity March through Reno
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-1-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

The perils of playing the other guy's game
Obama botches gasoline price issue in Reno speech
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-24-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

You can't run from the awful truth
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-17-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

No more Mr. Nice Guy
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-10-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-13-2011

MLK 43 National Unity Rally
Workers and students rally Monday April 4 at Western Nevada College in Carson City and College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas
43rd anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

César Chávez and Dr. King still lead us
Barbwire by Barbano / Reno Gazette-Journal Guest Editorial / 3-31-2011

A walk with the giants
The César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame Awards
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-3-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

César Chávez Day in Nevada
EL DÍA DE CÉSAR CHÁVEZ

¡Sí se puede!
Be well. Raise hell.

Nevada César Chávez Celebration IX
Thursday/jueves, March/marzo 31, 2011
Circus Circus-Reno
Sponsorship & Ticket Information
Purchase online thru E-Bay's secure PayPal service

César Chávez IX Celebracion del 2011
Jueves 31 DE Marzo, 2011 en Circus Circus de Reno

The César Chávez Long March
by Reno artist Erik Holland


Mr. Holland will be selling cards and prints at the March 31 César Chávez celebration at Circus Circus in Reno. The original watercolor is currently displayed at the Nevada Legislature in the office of Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas.

Copyright © 2009 Erik Holland. All rights reserved.

UNR students honor César Chávez

César Chávez, Dr. King and the kids are alright
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-27-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Obama pays tribute to late Reno labor leader

THE WAY WE WERE — The above is a recently discovered photo from July 15, 1986. Left to right are Kathy Brown, Culinary Union Local 86 office manager; Miguel Contreras, Local 86 Secretary-Treasurer; Local 86 President Bill Uehlein; a lady named Natalie (anyone who knows her last name, please write), and César Chávez. This item was first published in Ahora, northern Nevada's Spanish-English weekly, on March 26, 2008. (On 3-19-2009, President Obama paid tribute to Brother Contreras as he spoke in the L.A. building named after the late labor leader. See the 1986 Chávez Reno archive, below.)

(Photo courtesy of Dan Rusnak, retired business manager of Laborers' Union Local 169.)

More stories and photos from César Chávez's 1986 Reno visit

3-25-1911: New York Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146, including 132 girls

The Reagan Ranch, hall of famers and protest fatigue
Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from Daily Sparks Tribune
3-20-2011 / Updated 3-21, 3-22-2011

Required Reading: Myers on 8 freakin' years of war

It ain't broke, but we'll fix it
Former Laborers' Local 169 Secretary-Treasurer Don Carruthers dies
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-13-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Charlie Sheen and the Price of Gasoline
ENERGY, PART DEUX: PUC sides with electrical workers, orders NV Energy staffing investigation
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-6-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Hearing by Nevada Senate Select Committee on Economic Growth and Employment
Skills Assessment Program for Unemployed Workers
Community College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne Campus, Las Vegas
Friday, March 4, 2011 1:00 p.m. PST

Legislative Field Hearing on Budget 5:00-7:00 p.m. PST Feb. 28
Green Valley High School, 460 Arroyo Grande Blvd, Henderson, NV 89014

FROM THE WOBBLIES: Rally for UNR public education
March 2, 5:00 p.m. PST/
University of Nevada-Reno

Cowboys and Indians
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-27-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Too old to work, too young to die
High noon on President's Day: Nevadans rally statewide to support Wisconsin workers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-20-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune
UPDATE: Great Minds Think Alike Dept. The stakes could not be higher.

A Valentine for Tura Satana —>Union Star
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-13-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Tura Satana Jurman, noted 1960's motion picture actress and Nevada union stalwart, dies in Reno at 72

40 Years on the High Desert Plantation
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-6-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Barack Brian Obama Sandoval Carter
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-30-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

SOS Means Chicken Follytix
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-23-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Toljaso — Raggio's boy gets the boss' job

Unions field strong representation at MLK events

BARBWIRE
BREAKING NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Still
Sierra Pacific Powerful
No matter whether they call it Reddi Kilowatt, Nevada Power or NV Energy, it's just bright new branding for the same old monopoly rape and pillage — the public knows it and the latest poll proves it
Time for another initiative petition after 21 years?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-16-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 1-18-2011

Billy Brawl: Raggio Resigns
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-9-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 1-18-2011: Toljaso — Raggio's boy gets the boss' job

Courtesy of Hugh Jackson's Las Vegas Gleaner

The Lady in the Red Dress
The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983
The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

DAILY SPARKS TRIBUNE 1-3-2011

Political Animal Crackers & Crackups

      "I think it is dangerous to confuse the idea of democracy with elections. Just because you have elections doesn't mean you are a democracy...I'm still taken aback at the extent of indoctrination and propaganda in the United States. It is as if people there are being reared in a sort of altered reality, like broiler chickens or pigs in a pen."

Indian novelist Arundhati Roy
in the Barbwire of 9-12-2004


      
The American electorate is a dumb cow that follows the herd, is easily stampeded, gets milked for all she's worth and produces offspring for meat, muscle or cannon fodder to benefit the few. When all used up, she is sent to the slaughterhouse so that she may give her overlords the last full measure of devotion, bones for Jello and hide for belts. No stars and stripes for her grave because she doesn't merit one, having been totally consumed by our consumptive system.
Barbwire 9-12-2010

"If elections mattered, they wouldn't let us do it." Travus T. Hipp, 1982

Great Minds Think Alike Dept.
Over-rated New York Times Pulitzer over-achiever Thomas Friedman predicts emergence of a third political party a month after the Barbwire did so for the umpteenth time (He's just one short.)
Paul Krugman: Murdoch as Citizen Kane / GOP candidates paid off by Faux News
New York Times 10-4-2010


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

HAT TRICK
Barbwire wins third straight Nevada Press Association first-place award

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

 

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 bulletinAB) 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.

 



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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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