Union shows hypocrisy at center’s debut

SOME people go to great lengths to hide their intellectual dishonesty. Not the leaders of Culinary Local 226. Last week, they sent out a news release and invited Gov. Brian Sandoval to join the celebration of their glaring hypocrisy.

The occasion was the opening of the new Culinary Health Center, which Culinary described as a cutting-edge health care center for its members. In case you missed who it’s for — and who it’s not for — they plastered“exclusivelyours”and “Not a Public Facility” on the doors. So much for their “health care is a right” rhetoric.

Then,atthesameeventwhere Culinary leaders bragged about their private property, they celebrated taking away the property of others.

During the recently concluded legislative session, the Culinary and its former political director, state Sen. Yvanna Cancela, D-las Vegas, waged an all-out assault on the property rights of the companies that produce diabetes medications. Because Culinary runs the Culinary Health Fund, it has a financial incentive to slow the rising price of insulin. Rather than negotiate a better deal by themselves, the union bosses turned to the force of government. Cancela sponsored Senate Bill 265, which would have instituted price controls on diabetes drugs, forced companies to announce price increases and made companies disclose a host of proprietary financial information.

Sandoval vetoed a scaled-back SB265, although I’m told Sandoval would have signed the bill in exchange for Education Savings Accounts.

But once Sandoval turned his back on the ESAS he once championed, he made it clear he was eager to sign something on this issue, and politiciansamendedpartsofsb265into Senate Bill 539. Sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson, R-henderson, SB539 put reporting requirements on drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers.

This information is so sensitive that SB539 had to change Nevada’s current trade secret law to exclude the information SB539 requires companies to produce. Bottom line: The government is taking away the intellectual property of some companies to lay the groundwork to take away more property rights in the future.

And where did Sandoval sign this bill? At the opening of the “Exclusively Ours” Culinary Health Center. Hypocrites.

JOECKS

deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman in one of the most celebrated trials in American history.

Before those deaths, Simpson was one of the best known and liked former athletes in America, regularly appearing in films and TV commercials.

Simpson is serving a nine- to 33year sentence for the Palace Station robbery, in which he said he was trying to recover memorabilia stolen from him. In his 2013 parole hearing, Simpson expressed remorse for the robbery of memorabilia collectors Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@ reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.