New Mexico Mercury

Provincial Matters, 9-2-2013

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

The Other Side of the Behvioral Health Audit

A new video gives a voice to those affected by the state's behavioral health audit which has shuttered the majority of New Mexican providers, seen their jobs outsourced to Arizona-based operations and caused what appears to be widespread disruption of services.

Bradley Manning

El Machete

UNM involved in privatizing medical care in NM‏

Why is the UNM Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC) so keen to go into business with private Texas investors who were part of the largest medical fraud scandal in US history? The UNM Board of Regents has enabled the UNM Health Sciences Center to enter into a part-ownership deal with the for-profit LHP Hospital Group to buy up the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services Hospital in Gallup. UNM will have a 20% stake.

The leadership of UNMHSC is being careless with our taxpayer money and trust.  Either they choose to ignore the background of their business partners, or perhaps they just don’t know how to do a simple Google search...

Insight New Mexico - Dede Feldman

V.B. Price gets a behind the scenes view of lobbying in New Mexico, how it works, and its influence from former State Senator Dede Feldman.

The problems with Jamie Oliver’s idea of a food revolution

Jamie Oliver claims that he doesn’t understand modern-day poverty in the U.K. Yeah. That sounds about right.

In a recent interview promoting Jamie Oliver’s new television series and book, Oliver said, "I'm not judgmental, but I've spent a lot of time in poor communities, and I find it quite hard to talk about modern-day poverty. You might remember that scene in [a previous series] Ministry of Food, with the mum and the kid eating chips and cheese out of Styrofoam containers, and behind them is a massive f****** TV.” Perhaps with one of his TV shows on it...

A Community Commoditized: Playas, New Mexico Pt. 2

Small-town Playas, New Mexico was once an idyllic community in the southwestern corner of the state. It's now off-limits to those who grew up there, sporadically used as a training ground for modern counter-insurgency warfare.

For Berry, nothing sticks

Mayor Berry is Teflon, the Teflon being applied by the Albuquerque Journal.  He says he has guided Albuquerque through tough economic times with a steady hand.  The Journal doesn't really question his lack of action.  Paul Heh, one of his opponents said it was 'bull shit' and pretty much lowered his expected vote from 5% to 2%.  Pete Dinelli didn't get in any killer shots in this last debate.  All of this is being fueled by incredible apathy on the part of the public who can't see that New Mexico and Albuquerque are falling further and further behind in economic growth compared to the other cities and states in the region...

The suicide of elders and the middle-aged

Many of us, I’m sure, have had friends or acquaintances who’ve committed suicide.  And the longer we live, the ever more mysterious and frequent suicide seems to become in our experience – often to the point of grieving despair.  Those left behind inevitably search themselves for missed opportunities to have helped, misperceived clues that might have signaled a call for intervention, and failures of compassion that might have lifted someone’s burden just enough...

A Community Commoditized: Playas, New Mexico Pt. 1

A small New Mexican town echoes the American dilemma. Created out of corporate necessity, an idyllic community is disintegrated by busted markets and post 9/11 security ethos.