By Andy Matthews Despite the ongoing Democrat campaign to spread pessimism about our prosperous future, the Silver State continues to thrive under Donald Trump. According to a recent report from the state's Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, Nevada’s jobless rate in October was almost a half percentage point lower than it was in the … [Read more...]
Trump is Reshaping the Federal Judiciary — For the Better
Thanks, Harry, because you exercised the “nuclear option” in 2013, ending the requirement that judges had to be confirmed by at least 60 senators instead of a simple majority, President Donald Trump has secured the appointments of about twice as many federal judges as each of his three predecessors — and most of them have been conservatives sworn to protect the fundamental … [Read more...]
International and National News
While this column was going to be a continuation of last week’s leisurely stroll down memory lane, certain national and international news stories are too important not to be discussed. The international news is of course the air strike that killed Iran’s leader of espionage. After a few days of tit for tat, the American Embassy in Baghdad was stormed by Iranian inspired … [Read more...]
Go … Do … Redeem your Past
He’s a little dazed and giddy. Words free flow as energy makes his body restless in the chair. He chats in circles, sometimes connecting thoughts and other times leaving half-sentences hanging in mid-air. I hold the space for him to find his way. Talking to him is like trying to tune in a radio station on one of those old ‘tube’ radios as it warms up. Finally, he zeroes in … [Read more...]
Barbano Sells Out to White Republicans
Everybody knows I’m a Bernie man but that’s never stopped me from promulgating my wisdom to other worthy candidates. See “Billionaire Tom Steyer Owes Me $5.” (Barbwire 11-27-2019) I work cheap for D’s but none others. Now, I’m offering my services to the first Republican willing to pay my exorbitant consulting fee -- largely because no self-respecting Democrat would become … [Read more...]
State Should Not Play Favorites with Tax Breaks
Nevada’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) has doled out billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to select companies over the past decade in order to entice them to make capital investments and create jobs, yet the state is one of 17 that has failed to create a systematic program for evaluating the effectiveness of those handouts, according to a recent article in … [Read more...]
Congress Continues its Spending Spree
Just days before Christmas, Congress played Santa Claus, doling out billions in pork to those who have been nice to them and sending the bill to our grandchildren. Talk about taxation without representation. The two spending bills totaling $1.4 trillion and covering more than 2,300 pages were debated for just 90 minutes in the Senate but passed with huge bipartisan support … [Read more...]
Diamond Anniversary
As January 2020 marks the 75th Anniversary of my first arrival in Reno, it might be a good time to review a few of the highlights of those years before they depart from memory forever. My earliest memories here were playing roundball and football for crusty Coach Jim Aiken. At that time, Reno was a sleepy little cow town that had some 21 thousand residents according to the … [Read more...]