THE TRUTH ABOUT FAKE NEWS. Tucker Carlson, a lesion on the body politick, has been excised, at least for awhile.
AIN’T NO FAKE NEWS IN THESE PARTS. Awhile back, I congratulated the corporate owners of the Reno Gazette-Journal for appointing veteran journalist Peggy Santoro as only the second WOMAN executive editor the in paper’s history. (The first was Barbara Henry almost 50 years ago.)
Peggy and her small staff are doing Pulitzer Prize quality work. I suggest you get the print copy of last Sunday’s paper. It can win journalism’s top prizes all by itself with its investigations of fatal sexism in the Nevada Army National Guard, brutal bullying of girls at North Valleys High and the murder of a battered young mother in Verdi.
Brava!
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TEAMSTERS. Last Friday, newbie Keolis Transit boss Phil Pumphrey told Regional Transportation Commissioners that in all his years working in other climes and with other unions, he has never seen the degree of activity manifested by Sparks-Reno Teamsters Local 533.
Mr. Pumphrey, that has everything to do with your French government-owned employer. RTCRide had experienced only one strike in a five-decade relationship with its workers’ union, 21 years ago.
For-profit Keolis came aboard in 2019 and the workers were forced into strikes three times just two years later. COVID-19 safety mandates were ignored as the transit provider upon which so many taxpayers depend morphed into a superspreader. That compounded so many problems created by Keolis management.
The union members won all three 2021 strikes, a Hat Trick of victories.
Nonetheless, last year, the RTC board extended your contract into 2026.
That’s not set in stone. You have an opportunity to bridge the gap if your higher-ups will let you do it.
Transit system ridership plummeted from the day Keolis took over in July of 2019, eight months before the COVID-19 shutdown.
Last year, Sparks Mayor and commission chair Ed Lawson warned “We need to blow the thing up and build a better system.”
Bringing in non-Nevada, or in this case, non-U.S. management, has proven a failure. It’s time to return the transit system to those who pay for it.
The ball is in your court to do a better job.
Section 4.10 of your company’s contract provides that the commission is free to terminate your relationship at any time. That’s fair. Nevada is a fire-at-will state which is why workers unionize in order to protect themselves from such conditions.
Maybe you and Keolis need to join a union, eh wot?
Welcome to Nevada, Phil.
THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR GUV. Reno Fire Chief Dave Cochrane and Washoe County School District Trustee & Fire Inspector Joe Rodriguez ($1000 fine) have been found in violation of ethics laws for donning their public service uniforms during last year’s political advertising.
Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago used stills and video of himself wearing his Clark County sheriff togs in numerous campaign ads. A complaint was filed before last year’s June primary and the ethics watchdogs have yet to act. All they need do is a websearch to confirm the evidence.
As Chico Marx said so long ago in the 1933 Marx Brothers classic comedy
“Duck Soup, “who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
I sent an inquiry to the Ethics Commission weeks ago. Nada.
THE TRUTH ABOUT GOV. LOMBARDO AS JIMMY CARTER. In his classic campaign management manual “Playing to Win,” Jeff Greenfield advised candidates what not to do if they attained office.
“Don’t reorganized the government” was near the top of the list. He noted Jimmy Carter’s futile attempts. His newly-created Department of Education played musical offices every few months during its early years.
Gov. Lombardo has a bill before state lawmakers to “modernize state government.”
Good luck with that, Guv.
WILL YOU BELIEVE THE TRUTH WITH YOUR OWN EYES? Distinguished Nevada educator, prima ballerina, choreographer, poet and author L. Martina Young recently received another in a long line of career accolades.
She just became “the first and newest west coast artist invited to publish with New York’s Performing Arts Legacy Project.” Link with the expanded edition of this Barbwire at NevadaLabor.com/
Dr. Young just returned from attending NYC’s 2023 commemoration of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
“It was a splendid turnout of all things Labor Union Movement!!!” she wrote.
Starting with the Feb. 21, 2018 Barbwire, I have been including a Triangle Shirtwaist item at the end of every online Barbwire expansion guaranteed to chill every fan of the iconic TV show “Cheers.”
One of the murderous Triangle Shirtwaist factory owners helped win an Emmy for the program’s iconic opening credits.
The infamous 1911 fire claimed 146 lives and injured 71 others. The owners were fined a whopping $75 per death, less than $2,000 in today’s dollars.
Most of the dead were young, immigrant Italian and Jewish women. Not worth much, apparently.
I found something eerily familiar about the recurring still photos of the greedy owners included in a PBS documentary.
One looked identical to the smirky guy in the bowler hat with a beer in his hand on the Emmy-winning opening credits of the popular “Cheers” TV sitcom. “Cheers” producers never responded to my queries.
Some of those young victims came through Ellis Island during the same years as both sides of my family.
Kudos to New York for remembering. Thank you, Dr. Young, for representing Nevada.
Stay safe, get vaxxed and pray for those cruelly afflicted by the cruelly small minds on this small planet.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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