Exposing Big Candy’s 3 Big Whoppers
It’s no secret that lobbyists for America’s largest sweets companies have been on a mission to unilaterally eliminate the U.S. sugar policy of moderate tariffs and import quotas on foreign producers that “cheat” and distort the market with government subsidies. But in their relentless PR campaigns and lobbying efforts, Big Candy asserts three big arguments […]
Republic Services Can and Does Compete…Everywhere But Southern Nevada
For some reason some people seem to think it would be “rude” to ask Republic Services to actually compete for the 12-to-15-year, $1 billion-plus monopoly franchise contract to pick up residential and commercial trash in Las Vegas. But the reality is, Republic is not only quite accustomed to competing for business outside of southern Nevada […]
Las Vegas Trash Fight Heats Up on Campaign Trail
Efforts by the City of Las Vegas to grant Republic Services a new 15-year NO BID extension of its monopoly franchise contract for residential and commercial trash collection – which would cut residents’ twice-a-week pickup to once a week with no reduction in monthly service fees – has become a campaign issue in municipal elections […]
Yoho’s Zero-for-Zero Proposal Should also be Applied to Drug Importation
An op-ed defending U.S. sugar policy by the American Sugar Alliance (ASA) this week published by KTIC Radio out of Nebraska will be dismissed by some as self-serving. However, just because the organization is defending its industry doesn’t automatically make their positions and arguments wrong. In fact, their arguments also can be applied to the […]
Tolles Brings War on Tele-Medicine to Nevada Legislature
From Bruce DelValle last week came this dispatch from the political front-lines announcing that Nevada is again embroiled in yet another troglodyte fight against technology (remember the Uber brouhaha last session?) in pursuit of protectionist capitalism… “A new frontier has arisen in the seemingly ceaseless tug-of-war pitting inventive technological efforts to provide the best possible […]
PROOF: “Trash-Talking” Councilman is Misleading Public on Garbage Contract
Most members of the Las Vegas City Council have been pretty tight-lipped about a proposal to extend Republic Services monopoly franchise agreement for residential and commercial trash hauling an additional 15 years… Four years before the current contract expires… Which would be worth over $1 billion dollars… And would cut residents’ trash pickups from twice […]
Nevada GOP Legislator Proposes Banning the “Uber of Eyeglasses”
Longtime readers know how my stories and political adventures sometime take interesting, and even bizarre, twists and turns. Yep, this is one of those stories. So grab a cup of coffee or a beer, sit down in a nice, comfortable chair, and enjoy… If you’re like me, you don’t know the difference between Neodymium and […]
What the Las Vegas Garbage Contract Has in Common with King Tut’s Tomb
As the City of Las Vegas continues considering awarding Republic Services a new 15-year NO BID monopoly franchise contract extension for residential and commercial trash collection, I came across this rather interesting declaration… “The free, open and competitive production and sale of commodities and services is necessary to the economic well-being of the citizens of […]
“Stapling” Trash Collection in Las Vegas
A Bloomberg News article in Saturday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that office supply giant Staples intends to close 70 stores in the U.S. this year. “The latest announcement comes almost a year after Staples’ failed attempt to acquire Office Depot,” the story noted. “Federal regulators blocked the merger on anti-trust grounds last May, arguing it […]
Republic Services Can Play Hardball and Sweeten the Pot…When It’s Forced To
As the City of Las Vegas considers granting a 15-year monopoly franchise agreement to Republic Services for residential and commercial trash collection, some seem to be taking the attitude that it would be “rude” to ask such a benevolent company to actually compete for this $1 billion-plus contract in an open bidding process. But when […]
Why Las Vegas Should See if There’s a “Google Chrome” Trash Hauler Out There
As one old saying goes, when something works, don’t fix it. Another old saying, however, advises us not to put all our eggs in one basket. And this is the heart of the debate on whether or not Las Vegas should give Republic Services a new 15-year, no-bid monopoly contract for trash collection in the […]
Hershey Layoff Announcement Exposes Folly of Dumping U.S. Sugar Program
By now we all know that tired arguments by Big Candy for unilaterally eliminating the U.S. sugar program: The global price of sugar is lower than the domestic price and is the reason candy and sweets companies are moving their manufacturing operations out of the country. But a CNN Money story last week, “Hershey’s bitter […]
Thailand to Go “Cold Turkey” on Sugar Subsidies
The old saying is that those who say something can’t be done should get out of the way of people already doing it. Those words of wisdom should be kept in mind by Members of Congress who say the U.S. sugar program can’t be reformed in such a way as to promote the principles of […]
Big Brother Government + Crony Government = Bad Nevada Government
Nevada Democrats have gone bonkers. Not only are they suffering from a combination of PESD (Post-Election Stress Disorder) and TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), but apparently they’ve been caught up in some kind of time warp. Liberal legislators have resurrected the silly ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) issue that was killed and buried 35 years ago, along […]
Hoover, Ford, Spiegel, Goodman and Beers Can’t All Be Wrong
In a recent tweet at the start of the 2017 Nevada legislative session, Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford (D-Las Vegas) wrote… “As we are curating jobs we must protect those jobs. We want to give Nevada companies the first crack at state contracts.” I think he meant “creating,” not “curating” (darned auto-correct!), but the sentiment […]
Congress Needs to Learn from Hawaiian Sugar Disaster & Prevent Its Spread
It’s said all good things must come to an end. But for Hawaii’s sugar industry, that end is anything but sweet. “The Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company is closing up shop after more than a century,” Agri-Pulse.com reported last week, “bringing an end – at least for now – to commercial sugar farming and processing […]
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Walk into a Bakery…
Turns out it was no campaign act. “He used to love Oreos,” a former Donald Trump campaign aide told Axios.com recently, “but he really did stop eating them once they moved [their plant] to Mexico.” “The cookie crumbled for Trump,” NewsMax reported this week, “after Mondelez International announced it would close some of its American […]