I am posting a link to an article on why we have Medicare, how private health insurance attacked Medicare, how Medicare Advantage turned Medicare into private profit at the expense of patient health, and the probable end of Medicare under its new director. I add my opinionated comments
Several thousand people in Sierra County receive Social Security checks every month. Elon Musk's DOG-es retrieved personal information from Social Security's computer system. A court ordered that breech of government security stopped. In response, Social Security threated to shut the whole system down. Now the Commerce Secretary has weighed in.
The President's attack Dog-e often mentions that he has Asperger Syndrome. What does this actually mean, and why should we think about it?
The state has reopened the comment period on its draft Rules and Regulations on Regional Water Security Councils. This article explains what this means, why it is important, and why we should all engage in these new entities of grass-roots self-government. Bottom line: water is your life.
Elon Musk brandished a chainsaw at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference and shouted that it symbolized his intention to cut government spending. In this article I analyze the meanings that chainsaw carries, and my conclusions are different from what the media has said.
I link to and comment on three articles about medical care: 1) the death of a child from measles; 2) meddling with the VA's health system in ways that will reduce available health care for veterans; 3) NM's debate on excessive malpractice insurance costs.
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.
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.
Director Mark Shapiro will be at the El Cortez theater to promote his movie "Downwind".
In the past year, the Federal Trade Commission has been studying how drug pricing works. In July, it published an interim staff report on the role of pharmacy benefit managers. Last week the FTC published a second report on how the biggest three PBMs control prices.
TorC MainStreet has announced the date for their clean-up event. Participants will automatically be eligible for raffle prizes.
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.
Arts & Culture (153) Business (53) Conservation (38) Development (34) Economy (175) Education (130) Elephant Butte (34) Environment (263) Govern (17) Government (492) Health (134) History/Natural History (141) Law (37) Medi (2) Media (10) Mining (6) Nature (44) Politics (208) Recreation (37) Social Issues (257) State (4) Statewide News & Information (82) Technology (7) Truth or Consequences (145) Visuals (103) Water (79)