Lead contamination tops the 2017 edition of Sonoma State’s Project Censored list of the most under-reported news stories. (“Lead contamination threatens children’s health, could triple water bills,” Reno News & Review Nov. 9) Nevada’s competitive! Here are the Barbwire Top 10 Nevadian Unmentionables, presented in reverse order, kinda like everything else in these … [Read more...]

“If nothing was done after Newtown, nothing will be done after Las Vegas.” So predicted BBC network anchor Katty Kay to Charlie Rose on PBS last week, days before the latest ballistic butcher shop, a Baptist church near San Antonio. Newtown is the Connecticut hamlet where a deranged young man mowed down 26 teachers and little kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. … [Read more...]

Sparks residents have an opportunity this Wednesday to do something about Nevada’s endemic racism. Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt are hosting a public event at the Peterbilt truck place, 2272 Larkin Circle, 3:45 p.m. Registration is required via EventBrite.com. Politicians do that to get your info into their campaign databases but … [Read more...]

After half a decade, perhaps I’ve finally got the legit media educated about how the Clark and Washoe school districts cook their books. After my first 2012 Tribune report, it took the Las Vegas Review-Journal a year to figure out they’d been had by a retiring superintendent. The Reno Gannett-Journal finally sniffed the shuck more than two years down the road after … [Read more...]

“I’m going nigger hunting.” So read a recent Snapchat photo caption featuring a Yerington teenager with a rifle, a pistol and a knife. The coverup now goes all the way up to the Lyon County Sheriff’s office which shredded three reports about threats and harassment at Yerington High School. The FBI advised the Reno-Sparks NAACP to refer that issue to Nevada Attorney General … [Read more...]

“80 percent of success is showing up” — Woody Allen   The Sparks City Council voted in January 2007 to establish a diversity commission and nothing’s been heard since despite ongoing prodding from its Reno-Sparks NAACP sponsors. Sparks was recently approached to help form a regional human rights commission but told Reno City Hall that the city is broke. For once, … [Read more...]

As I watched him on the stage My hands were clenched in fists of rage No angel born in Hell Could break that Satan’s spell And as the flames climbed high into the night To light the sacrificial rite I saw Satan laughing with delight The day the music died   It’s been a rough few weeks for the empire and make no mistake, the empire is … [Read more...]

I’m not watching Ken Burns’ new Vietnam series. PBS has already done two and that’s enough. Wags often quip that if you can remember the Sixties, you didn’t participate. Well, I remember those times, part of an unbroken string of less-than-worthless wars. Then as now, any criticism was presented as lack of patriotism endangering soldiers. After Bush the Elder … [Read more...]