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

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A ray of hope for aggrieved renters has appeared.

It's paper-thin and almost a prayer, but it's better than despair, an emotion I've often witnessed in more than 40 years of working on this.

Renters in Nevada have few rights and if they try to take advantage of our weak laws, they can be evicted for no reason at all. We play by Old Man Trump's rules (apologies to Woody Guthrie, who wrote that about Czar Donaldov's dad decades ago).

I got a query after last week's column from an old friend at a law firm. She wanted to know whazzup with my inchoate renters rights organization.

I responded that the group is me and a few vols who responded to my original announcement last year. I hoped to institute a two-pronged approach, information sharing about landlords and starting a non-profit to make low-interest loans to put a dent in payday loansharking.

The former did not fly because volunteers either did not have Facebook pages which could be networked or were just too frightened to fight.

I set up two senior ladies to talk with the Guardian of London (200,000 daily UK circulation and a whopping 1 billion page views per month). The article ran last July. I started Rentvolution.org and all followups are linked thereat.

A law professor said that the loan idea was basically a credit union startup which is being tried elsewhere, especially St. Louis which has a large minority population. I found that it took them 14 YEARS to get it on — and they've been having trouble getting paid back. Gee, I wonder why.

I offered my Sparks Guardian-featured tenant the opportunity to present a letter in person to Gov. Sisolak at César Chávez XVII last month. She was too shy and said she'd mail a copy of her plight to the guv and two local mayors.

I talked to some fine upstanding community bankers and they want no part of trying to save renters from payday loan thugs or themselves. The starch-collared financiers make too much money on overdraft charges.

Right now, our best bets lie with the Democratic legislature. As I noted in last week's Tribune, Sparks Sen. Julia Ratti's Senate Bill 398 empowers local governments to implement rent increase justification.

Lt. Gov. Kate Marshall is pushing Assembly Bill 399. It is titularly a state-based savings account/wage withholding program but the proposed penalty-free access to funds can give low-wage workers a readily available stash to pay for emergency expenses where they might otherwise resort to loan sharks. I attended Ms. Marshall's speech about it last Friday at the Reno-Sparks Chamber offices.

Combine the savings accounts with an amended Ratti plan and we've got something. If we can win local option on rent increase justification and lose the shibboleth of "rent control," this bird might fly.

The only problem with Sen. Ratti's bill is that it empowers county commissions. Fine for Gomorrah South, but the Washoe County Commission is 4-1 Republican.

Sparks City Hall is 100 percent GOP including the mayor and madcap city-attorney-for-life. However, they just started a highly-touted senior citizens advisory committee which might have some sway. (See Kayla Anderson's front-page story in the 3-6-2019 Tribune.) One or two councilcritters might prove reasonable.

Reno remains the best bet if we can get Sen. Julia to amend the bill to allow city councils the power. (And I remain unsure that local officials don't already have it.)

We can marshal the troops but we need a flag to rally them toward.

UPDATE, CORREXION, DEADLINES AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS (4-12-2019 2:20 a.m PDT 09:20 GMT): A more thorough reading of the bill shows that it would also empower city councils. The language of the bill is a bit arcane, perhaps for political cover. Verbal vagueness often spawns victory for opponents versed in the vagaries of the justice system. The word "rent" is not mentioned anywhere in the bill with "affordable housing" the preferred term. Irrespective of the word games, both SB398 and AB399 die today unless they are passed out of their respective committees or given reprieves as emergency measures. I apologize for my lack of thoroughness. Now, time to ask lawmakers to throw them lifelines. People's lives and health hang in the balance. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., last week said that "I believe in markets but capitalism without regulation is theft." Long ago on KOZZ 105.7-fm in Reno, Jay Leno said "sleep is for wimps." Owls of the world, unite! The game's afoot.

FYI: DELAWARE'S 2013 RENT JUSTIFICATION LAW. Not a complete overlap, but nonetheless instructive.

CORPORATE CAPITALIST PUNISHMENT DEPT. I sent last week's proposal about a corporate death penalty to minions of presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. I had hoped Warren might mention it in her fiery address at Wooster High last Saturday.

Politics does not reward the shy. It's a simple idea and some structures already exist such as confiscation of drug dealer property and the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act.

My idea is far less complicated: A company which has intentionally and knowingly killed people should be put to death with assets sold off, stock value zeroed and proceeds to the injured and/or the public treasury. Tobacco companies used to be number one on that hit parade but Big Pharma, led by the opioid pushers at Purdue Pharma, are my current pick to click.

¡Sí se puede!

"Facebook is taking everything": rising rents drive out Silicon Valley families
Property companies advertising their proximity to Facebook’s campus are giving low-income residents a choice: pay a huge rent increase or move out
By Sam Levin / The Guardian 6-20-2018

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	Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Is not Mr. Harris eerily familiar to television junkies?
From the Emmy-winning opening slate of the blockbuster "Cheers" television series. Combined with its "Frasier" spinoff, it lasted 20 years.	The "shirtwaist kings" immigrated from Russia and made a fortune manufacturing "Gibson Girl"-style blouses. (Photo, "The American Experience"/PBS)	The Emmy-winning opening slate of the "Cheers" television series before the "slate" of creators is superimposed. Looks like Mr. Harris' dead ringer (at left) is having a bloody good time.

"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" — Chico Marx disguised as Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup" (1933)
Back to the story of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist holocaust

Triangle tragedy recalled as requiem "The Fire in My Mouth," a new oratorio by Pulitzer honoree Julia Wolfe, premiered with the New York Philharmonic Jan. 24 By Michael Cooper / The New York Times 1-23-2019

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

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Copyright © 1982-2019 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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

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