I’m in love again! Not only is my fantasy fiancée Machine Gun Michele Fiore running for the southern Nevada Congressional District 3 GOP nomination, but Sharron Angle is taking another flyer at the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Harry Reid.
Don’t underestimate either by their weirdness. They are formidable campaigners.
I proposed marriage to Assemblymember Fiore on 10 March 2015. (See “The Italian girl mother always wanted for me?” at the NevadaLabor.com Barbwire archive.)
She has yet to respond but hope springs eternal.
CRUMMY CRUMBLINGS. The Environmental Protection Agency has opened a nationwide investigation into toxic, carcinogenic crumb rubber artificial turf which is epidemic throughout northern Nevada. Sparks’ Golden Eagle Park is up for resurfacing this year at tremendous cost. This column alone among all Nevada media has reported on the hazards.
As I noted last November, UNR’s Mackay Stadium and Peccole Park as well as the football fields at Damonte Ranch, McQueen, Carson and Douglas high schools are replete with the birth-defect causing used tires.
Now with lead ubiquitous in the nation’s water supply and Zika virus reaching epidemic proportions, no kid appears safe. (“What do Sparks and Flint, Michigan, have in common?”, Tribune 19 Jan. 2016)
Hmmm. Since conservatives think government doesn’t work, maybe they should advocate subcontracting environmental protection to Donald Trump’s management company.
SCHOOL DAZE. I hate to pile onto the Washoe County School District, but they’ve asked for it. This column was a year ahead of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and fully two years ahead of the Reno Gazette-Journal in breaking the story that Nevada’s two largest school districts had used creative accounting to overstate their graduation stats.
New Washoe boss Traci Davis told us at a Reno-Sparks NAACP meeting that she would stop using the techniques of her predecessors, but she’s still basing current grad rates on the old inflated numbers.
Uncool.
MOTHER’S MILK DEPT. As legendary California Democratic Speaker Jesse “Boss” Unruh famously said, “money is the mother’s milk of politics.”
Two of my buds will be shaking the tree, mixing the metaphors and milking the cows this week. Northern Nevada Congressional District 2 candidate Chip Evans will be the guest of honor at Don and Patricia Gallimore’s northwest Reno home at 5:30 p.m. this Thursday, March 24. (RSVP 775-846-2952)
Same time next day at Swill in Moana West, Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, hosts a fundraiser for his CD4 (central and southern Nevada) campaign. (RSVP 775-560-2233)
I had high hopes that Sen. Kihuen could again keynote the March 30 César Chávez Dinner & Nevada Labor Hall of Fame Awards at Circus Circus. Alas, his campaign will take him elsewhere. He was principal sponsor of the 2009 Nevada César Chávez Day Law.
We shared a laugh over the typo his staff made about his endorsement by the prestigious League of Conservation Voters, headlined as the League of “Conversation” Voters.
Sen. Kihuen said he would be happy to also accept the conversationalists’ support.
JOB JEOPARDY. On April Fool’s Day, SAVE-MART will close its locations at Prater at McCarran along with Carson City to be replaced by FoodMax. More at NevadaLabor.com/
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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