Last week, Reed and Damonte Ranch high schools played football on lead-laced, carcinogenic crumb rubber artificial turf at McQueen High. Damonte will play for the northern title at the same location.
Nevada is infested with green plastic hazardous waste sites, including Manogue, Douglas, Carson High, UNR’s Mackay Stadium and Peccole baseball park. (Barbwire 8 Dec. 2015)
Reed’s team often practices at Sparks’ Golden Eagle Regional Park which is covered with the stuff. It must be eliminated.
INTO THE SUNSET. Longtime Elko County Commissioner and Republican State Assemblymember John Carpenter passed away last Saturday at 86.
In 1980, I attended an Elko commission meeting with future State Sen. Randolph Townsend, D- and later R-Reno, and a former Carpenter schoolmate, Sparks activist Rosalie Beasley. We tried to convince Elko to join a coalition to convert the northern rural power system to ratepayer ownership, a far cheaper alternative to SPP/NVEnergy’s proposed takeover.
“You’re just a socialist,” Big John groused at me. The Elko and Winnemucca cowboys did not listen and their constituents have been stuck with NVE’s higher rates ever since.
I told that story a few times in legislative testimony over the years and we always had a good laugh. Turned out John was a pretty good socialist himself.
A few years back, he fought the privatization of Elko’s hospital. Wish we had more like him.
MEA CULPA DEPT. Shortly after last week’s edition closed, I received conflicting information from Washoe County government regarding the annexation status of the former Garden Shop property which should be converted into a mini-Rancho San Rafael.
Although surrounded by county parkland, the 3.77-acre ranch house area at Mayberry and W. McCarran already lies in the City of Reno.
LAND GRAB DEPT. “Nevada received 3,992,000 acres of public land from the federal government in 1864 to be used for schools, and only 2,914 acres of those lands still remain in state hands, much of it lost in illegal or fraudulent land actions,” former Tribunite Dennis Myers wrote awhile back in the Reno News & Review.
Nonetheless, GOP Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei is pushing a bill to hand over millions of acres to the state. Democratic U.S. Sen.-elect Catherine Cortez-Masto expressed her opposition, noting that Nevada does not have the money to manage millions of acres. We also don’t have trustworthy government.
CARTOON REALITY. BallotBoxing.US and most of my other sites now display the political cartoon of the year from the LA Times’ David Horsey.
“As Democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.”
The chilling 1920 quote was penned by the legendary Baltimore Evening Sun columnist H.L. Mencken.
In an accompanying comment, Horsey takes great pride in noting that only the LA Times/USC poll correctly called the presidential election. Not necessarily.
Check out the Barbwire of 16 February 2016: “History foreshadows a GOP November win.”
Happy Thanksgibleting to you and yours.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 48-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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