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ANDREW BARBANO
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Je Suis Charlie
"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

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Andrew Barbano Editor/Publisher
Photo: Debra Reid, Sparks Tribune

 


   Everybody knows the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
   Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
   Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
   That's how it goes. Everybody knows...
Everybody knows the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows...
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   and a long red rose.
   Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

By Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) & Sharon Robinson
© 1988 CBS Records, Inc.


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

 

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

On January 16, 1959, two babies were born.
They became sisters in both life and death.

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Big news. Prayers answered: Pope takes on T-Rump head-to-head.

NVEnergy tries to fry your grandma
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-5-2026 / UPDATED 8-5-2026 / Expansions in blue


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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

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Billionaire Warren Buffet's NVEnergy tried to broil grannyburgers this week and something stopped them. Maybe me.

They are now the frontrunners to win the overall 2026 Barbwire Blue-Footed Booby Prize sweepstakes . Read further at your peril. It may raise your blood pressure on this, the hottest day of the year.

Last Sunday night/Monday before dawn, I wallpapered the world with the following.

BARBWIRE BULLETIN: Lack of timely notice of NVEnergy mass Reno electrical cutoff on Wednesday Aug. 5

Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts:

Please help me save a few lives this week. In case you haven't gotten the message — and some of my northwest Reno neighbors have not — Warren Buffet's NVEnergy/aka Sierra Pacific Powerful plans to cut off electric service to our immediate vicinity at 9:00 a.m. PDT Wednesday, August 5, thru 4:00 p.m.

New heat alerts warn of record 103-degree heat.

I websearched NVE's website, nada. Media announcements? Zip. After getting their e-mail notice last Friday, July 31, I also talked to four NVE underlings between here and LV. ALL they would timidly say is "read the e." It was nobody's department to answer questions. Their tardy bulletin basically says we're on our own, lotsa luck. I tried to find any notice to ratepayers by calling in on my account Sunday, nothing.

I am sending this to political and community leaders, candidates, organizations and my homeowners association. My e-list is limited and hereby ask my association's management company to IMMEDIATELY send this memo to all 198 unit owners and/or tenants. We don't need to lose any members due to corporate moral obtuseness. (And you might contact NVE on behalf of the association. We don't have time for a board meeting. Please take executive action.)

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS. CC me and send any feedback. Based on decades of experience fighting NVE/SPP as both consumer and organizer, I know they only respond to pressure.

RELEVANT QUESTIONS: Will NVE confirm by INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL contact that EVERY RESIDENT HOUSEHOLD in the affected area is notified? E-mail can end up with the out-of-state account owner's spam folder. US Postal Service efficiency has been hamstrung by DC intrigues.

Is NVE planning to work with RTC Washoe and senior services to transport the fragile to safe locations during the outage?

WHY DO THIS ON A RECORD-FORECAST 103-DEGREE DAY? This endangers workers every bit as much as ratepayers. Why not do the work at night? (Avoiding overtime pay, perhaps?)

If NVE needs to shave peak demand, let them look to big users to cut back, e.g., data centers; irrigation pumping which enjoys year-round interruptible low rate design in exchange for cheaper power; agricultural watering and large commercial or industrial users enjoy reduced rates for allowing their power to be cut off on short notice. (I lobbied in favor of Nevada's first such law which passed in 1981.)

COMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT: Sure, NVE says charge your cell-phone in advance. Alas and alack, northwest Reno's cell service is notoriously bad no matter the supplier because ATT towers are poorly placed. ATT's solution: Upgrade to 5-G. Some experts I have queried call it an expensive PR band-aid. (See my July 15 Sparks Tribune column at Barbwire.US/)

DOES NVE PLAN TO PUBLICIZE? If so, will they give a heads-up to first responders, especially Reno police for increased patrols in the affected areas. A blanket outage announcement for a specific time and place is attractive to criminals who will look for doors and windows left open while people are at work or otherwise engaged.

What about those who lock up tight and leave, assuming their pets will be OK because the air conditioning is on? I fear for Rover, Chirpy and Cleo.

AGAIN, PLEASE MAKE SOME CALLS. NVE'S general number is (775) 834-4444. I hope you can find a live person to talk with. PUBLIC PRESSURE is our best and only weapon with the drop-deadline looming in jut 48 hours.

Adding insult to injury, because of working on this debacle, I missed almost all of the Red Sox/Dodgers game on Sunday. Sacrilege!
Thanks for helping me save some lives.

UPDATE 1: The projected outage would have involved 907 households.

UPDATE PART DEUX: At 2:15 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, August 4, as I was working at an early deadline, this came in via e-mail from the Buffet Buffoonery: "The planned power outage previously scheduled for August 05, 2026 at 9:00 AM is canceled. You will be notified when the outage is rescheduled."

AAAARRRRGH! I've been sandbagging ice for two days and now this, for which I missed a good baseball game.

My homeowners association did nothing to inform my neighbors and I will send a preview of this column to the small list I have as well as to Barbwire Confidential die-hard subscribers.

The bottom line is the same: This ain't no way to run a railroad. It kills people.

This hassle may have done a bit of good. When this outage is rescheduled, it most probably won't be on a day of record heat. I will keep you posted.

IF they bother to inform me at all.

LATER BREAKER: This kinda stuff is nothing new to Panther Valley residents, one of whom informed me that the north Reno area has been experiencing random outages on weekday afternoons. All additional info appreciated. Help bring the heat!

MELT ICE —> Mask up! Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family, mask yourself up to melt ICE, and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours. May we survive WW3, perhaps coming soon to a polling place near you.

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know, head for BallotBoxing.US.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

The Mid-'26 Barbwire Blue-footed Booby Prizes
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-29-2026
/ UPDATED 8-5-2026 / Expansions in blue

Barbwire addicts know that I usually call out the Booby Birds at the end of December. But booby mating season comes in July and August.

Timing is everything whether or not you're into rhythm methods.

So here's a heatwave dose of fuzzy fuss and feathers for today's bird-brained asylum.

Said booby is a marine critter resembling a long-beaked seagull with webbed feet wider than a duck's — bright baby-blue footsies which waddle bigger than all irascible ducks named Donald.

The booby's vivid paddles "play a key role in its mating display," according to bird watchers, "a sexually selected trait."

Big Google in the Sky sez "males show off their bright blue feet with a high-stepping strut." Politics with a lascivious mating dance? Seig heil, mein fuehrer!

The booby's distinctive face looks at photographers with a slightly irritated expression bordering on contempt. It conveys "my, you poor human, born so plainly repulsive and useless. No feathers, no wings, no fins, no webbing. How long can such a species survive?"

Herewith, the latest Barbwire Blue-footed Booby Prizes, research for which we spared every expense, as usual.

5. THE UNCONSOLABLE who want local government consolidation in the name of "efficiency." This town has been thru that hustle many times and always turned it down.

Sparks is usually the holdout, although the latest "shared fire chief" decision by Rail City Hall calls that immunity into question. Time for a booster shot, eh wot?

Beware the siren song of CONsolidation and give it a hard review in the context of just another power grab by the gambling-industrial complex. You won't see more cops and fire protection, but downtown Reno will.

4. SLOW LEARNERS. In 2018, Democrat Steve Sisolak put out a big lie about his formidable primary opponent, Christina Giunchigliani. She did not respond, lost the primary and Sisolak became a one-term governor.

In 2022, Sisolak was viciously attacked by his old friend Joe Lombardo (aka Giuseppe Lumbago). In this case, a glaring Vegas-style conflict of interest was legit, but Sisolak sat shiva and failed to respond, just basically saying Giuseppe was no better. Like Christina, he lost.

This year, Lumbago is a well-monied sitting duck. He just got busted for a secret-meeting giveaway to Elon Musk of almost half a million dollars in state fines for dangerous working conditions at Mr. MuskAx's Las Vegas tunnel project.

Nevada's all-time corporate welfare queen has waxed richer while his opponent, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford sits shiva and Giuseppe spends millions trashing him over small stuff.

Alas, small stuff with a big TV budget gets bigger. The last three Nevada gubernatorial races have been replays of the old adage "Democrats don't win elections, Republicans lose them."

Enjoy your Blue Boobys, boys.

3. THE MARX BROTHERS REVENGE. The illegitimate nephew of Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo has chosen to infect northern Nevada. Flippo Marx moved here from Gomorrah South. With T-Rump's endorsement, he scored a primary win to replace longtime northern Nevada Republican Congresscritter Mark Amodei.

Carpetbagger Flippo is looking for a walk in a district that was gerrymandered for the GOP in 1981 in order to give Harry Reid an easy ride in the new Las Vegas district.

It's been 45 years and Reid's gerrymander has held. Flippo is a MAGA Moonhowler. Alas and alack, like Attorney General Ford, the Dems have sat shiva after nominating the very-qualified Teresa Benitez-Thompson.

Both Ford and Benitez-Thompson have apparently not learned one of the basics: Media releases don't cost much money to put out there.

So my dear friends Aaron and Teresa may now share the Bullwinkle J. Moose Memorial Booby in honor of the venerable cartoon critter's alma mater, WHASSAMATTA U?

2. T-RUMPIAN TARIFF TERRORISM. Why don't the Donkeykongs remind people that the Orange Crusher wants to go down in history as the guy who eliminated the income tax by replacing it with tariffs? It's just a fast shuffle to finally move all taxation onto the little folks, a doomsday version of our current tax system.

1. THE BRASS BOOBY BOBBING-FOR-FRENCH-FRIES SELF-FLAGELLATION TROPHY. Boobys dive into the ocean to catch fish. Power-tripped politicians, consumed with boobish lust for power, would bob for french fries over a vat of hot oil if the Orange Crusher so ordered.

So who is the most slavish of all such suicidals? Let's wish them well as they follow their fellow lemmings over the cliff. The envelope, please, to...

THE GREAT BOOBOISIE. (Props to H.L. Mencken) It has nothing to do with Boise, although that's a major nesting ground. "Bourgeoisie" (pronounced "boob" like "boorish," followed by "schwaz" kinda like "Shah of Iran", then Zee as in paper towels)

Webster's Dictionary defines the term as descriptive of the shallow, "marked by a concern for material interests, respectability and a tendency toward mediocrity."

MAGA moonhowlers are narrow-minded and see the worst in others. Perpetual grouchies who look for reasons never to leave a tip. Benighted souls who live life like an old IBM slogan, searching for "simple answers to complex problems."

They are possessed of a lazy mindset that looks toward others to think for them and quickly blames others when they don't.

They are suckers for con artists. So, dear MAGA fellow citizens, it's time for an intervention. Look deeply into the mirror of your souls and ask yourselves if you in any way resemble the words of Pogo the Possum: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Otherwise, enjoy your french fries.

MELT ICE —> Mask up! Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family, mask yourself up to melt ICE, and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours. May we survive WW3, perhaps coming soon to a polling place near you.

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know, head for BallotBoxing.US.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024


The 2025 Barbwire Blue-footed Booby Prizes
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 12-31-2025

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Let it Be: An American Pope Francis2
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-23-2025, uploaded 4-22-2025

Pinky & the Brain taking over the world
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-2-2025

Ain't we a pair?
Dennis Myers & Andrew Barbano inducted into Nevada Labor Hall of Fame
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-10-2024

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

On January 16, 1959, two babies were born.
They became sisters in both life and death.

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023
To Die For
My daughters were born 65 years ago yesterday. Alas, their youth was cut in twain.
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 1-17-2024
 

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

Why the science is clear that masks work
By Zeynep Tufecki / The New York Times / 3-10-2023

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024
For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, subscribe to BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>Cheap. (HushHush!) Hie thee to BallotBoxing.US/


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For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now: Tell your friends and friendly enemies to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential for warm laughter, cheap thrills, hot scoops and occasional cold logic at BallotBoxing.US/ Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)

Barbwire dark foreshadowings unfortunately have a way of becoming reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/ It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment. Thank you kindly for your support.



$75 dead or alive: Still crazy after all these years
A mass murderer becomes famous on TV a century later
How come nobody noticed 'til now?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

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

Wasting workers where everybody knows your name
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-18-2023

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Copyright © 1982-2026Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and has been a quarter-century member and 10- year officer of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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