Max Yeh

Max Yeh

Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project’s board president Max Yeh is a novelist and writes widely on language, interpretation, history, and culture. He has lived in Hillsboro, New Mexico, for more than 30 years after retiring from an academic career in literature, art history and critical theory.

What you need to know, February 24, 2025: Texas Measles Outbreak Spreads into New Mexico

This posting republishes an original article by Amy Maxmen in KFF Health News. The article also appeared in CBS News. Since the federal government and some state governments no longer concern themselves with containing infectious diseases, more people will get infected, some die, just as in the great old days.

What You Need to Know, February 23, 2025: Federal Firings in New Mexico

I link to Searchlight New Mexico's article which interviews three people recently fired from the Forest Service. I follow with an opinion piece discussing the continual firing of civil servants as the product of a new idea of government, not imagined in the country's past.

What you need to know, January 7, 2024: Malpractice insurance threatens New Mexico’s doctors and hospitals

Doctors are leaving New Mexico. Hospitals essential to small, rural counties (and that is most of them in the state, including Sierra County), find it difficult to stay in the black. The Searchlight New Mexico reporter Ed Williams thinks the cause is malpractice insurance. His analysis has started a controversy.

What you need to know, November 20, 2024: Got health insurance?

ProPublica investigates more health care problems. It details how UnitedHealth uses its statistical data to find mental health patients to deny payment for care, sometimes forcing therapists and doctors to withdraw care. It’s all part of “saving money,” “efficiency,” responsible sounding terms in corporate PR speak for "profit" and "greed."