Will the Many Current Investigations of Memorial Medical Center Spark Change?

Embattled Memorial Medical Center’s “retirement” of its CEO, John Harris, was a first step, but the hospital still has a long, tough road back to some semblance of public trust.

More than a half-dozen public entities are investigating MMC, which has tended toward an unfair balance of profit margin and patient care since private-equity firm Apollo Global bought MMC’s parent company, Lifepoint, in 2018.

Initially, Memorial was a Hill-Burton public hospital, city- and county-owned, in the small building across Lohman from the County Courthouse. I visited folks there 50+ years ago. Memorial moved up to Telshor. Still later, City and County sold it. Now it’s private-equity-owned. City and county still own the land; and the hospital made promises under the Lease and the Asset Purchase Agreement.

There’s a legal obligation to extend care to people who need it, even poor folks. As publicized largely by Yoli Diaz, MMC has turned away patients with advanced cancer but thin wallets. In a City Council meeting, MMC seemed to deny they’d done such a thing. Good luck, MMC!

State Attorney-General Raul Torrez has initiated a much-publicized investigation of that. Las Cruces and Doña Ana County are both looking into whether or not MMC has breached its contract. I’m betting at least one concludes fairly soon that a breach (or breaches) occurred. City and county also aren’t happy that MMC allegedly is blowing off stringent reporting requirements.

Meanwhile, Medicare and the State are asking whether MMC has defrauding the public.

I wrote in January of two troubling situations. MMC declined to answer my questions, then wrote a response that didn’t deny anything I’d written, but accused me of “a false narrative.”

First, some doctors believe MMC’s cardiac folks are doing unnecessary procedures, when less costly and less invasive procedures would suffice.  I've heard anecdotal evidence; but these are complex issues. A public entity should get the facts on how many trans-esophageal echocardiograms, watchman procedures, and aortic valve replacements MMC does, whether those have increased, and, if so, fairly inquire why. (Have stress tests decreased?) I’m surely not qualified to reach a conclusion; yet experienced doctors have questions, but fear alienating MMC-Apollo.

Second, a disproportionate number of kids admitted to the hospital reportedly go to the pediatric intensive-care unit. There’s a normal range of percentages of hospitalized kids who need intensive care. Unless we’ve some weird local epidemic, MMC’s percentage of PICU admissions should be close to that norm. I’m told it isn’t. Has MMC’s pediatric ICU set protocols under which doctors have no choice but to classify more kids as needing intensive-care? Assuming that MMC charges ICU rates for kids classed as ICU patients, MMC could be taking in more than it should. Medicare folks likely wonder. Someone with subpoena power should determine this.

New Mexico’s Superintendent of Insurance is also investigating MMC, in tandem with state legislators considering passing legislation to curb private-equity abuses of hospitals. Even the U.S. Senate is investigating Apollo Global, as I discussed in my 28 January column.

I hope Apollo and MMC up their game, and adopt a more caring balance between profit and patients. However, if City and County find contractual breaches, they should put the owners on notice, formally – and be researching what our options are if MMC doesn’t cure the breach(es). Asserting public rights might encourage MMC’s owners to improve more quickly.

Let’s hope a new CEO improves both openness and care.

                                                   – 30 –

 

[This column was to appear Sunday, 25 August, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and will presently be up on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[This column is one of several on MMC. While the recent firing of MMC’s CEO appears to be (and MMC has suggested it was) a step in the right direction. MMC is still owned by Apollo Global. (Too, recent statements by MMC say the former CEO merely “retired.” ]

[ I’m hoping that Apollo’s MMC, pressured by investigations and public concern, will engage in more open dialogue and either respond to some of the many allegations against it and/or make welcome changes. That will only happen if new local management sees the need for it, and if city, county, state, and the public remain interested. Although MMC is no longer our only hospital, it’s important to our community. We need to see Apollo up its game OR evict Apollo if contracttual breaches warrant that. The usual course for a private-equity-owned hospital is ultimately grim. Can we / will we avoid that here?]

[Sorry the column wasn’t in the newsprint Sun-News people received today. The opinion page is made up for the whole area, sometimes without our editor’s involvement in the process, so that stuff happens.]

More Questionable Conduct by MMC

An old friend called, in distress. Memorial Medical Center had just fired Dr. John Andazola. Folks who work at MMC were deeply concerned about what that meant for MMC and the Southern New Mexico Family Medicine Residency Program.

In 2009, that program was in disarray. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education had it on probation. Since it was responsible for training resident-physicians, some of whom might stay here, it mattered to our health.

Andazola took it over. Apparently he specializes in quality control and in medical education. He got the program off probation and obtained 10-year certification. The program has had no citations. It has a high return/retention rate, meaning folks it teaches often stay here. At least 30 area physicians, including several emergency care doctors, received education from it. MMC fired him.

Worse, MMC replaced Andazola with a pencil pusher, its non-doctor CFO, Laurie Thomas. Since Andazola was both Program Director and Designated Institutional Officer (responsible for quality education and maintaining accreditation), Thomas becomes a key person in the future of area medicine. She may have little or no experience in providing graduate medical education. If the ACGME ultimately suspended the program, that’d stop residency education both here and in Alamogordo.

A possible way to preserve the residency program would be having La Clinica take it over. La Clinica is reportedly willing. But because Andazola built the program from a borderline money-loser to a highly profitable project for MMC, MMC might not agree.

Maintaining the residency program is also required by the Asset Purchase Agreement that turned the hospital private. The landlords, City of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County, are [finally!] investigating. Each has hired an outside attorney to do that.

Alert readers might ask, why would we fire a guy actually born in Memorial Hospital [the old one], graduate of Mayfield High, NMSU, and UNM Medical, who’s doctored here 15 successful years, is nationally recognized, and turned your moribund training program into something both helpful to the community and profitable?

My informants tell me he was kind of what I’d call the conscience of the hospital. He cared about patient care and professionalism, and accountability enough to speak truth to power. They say that in meetings he questioned hospital administration policies that unduly favored profit-margin at the expense of maximizing patient care and safety. Local physicians I spoke to thought highly of him – and worried about how Apollo’s ownership affects health care here.

It’s a nationally-known fact that safety and outcomes tend to be less successful in entities owned by private-equity firms. Apollo Global has owned Lifepoint, which owns MMC, since 2018. Andazola was so well-regarded that he was on the National Physician Advisory Board for the entire Lifepoint hospital system – until that was disbanded after Apollo bought the show.

Apollo isn’t publicly traded. What it does and how it does hides in a deep, dark inaccessible hole labeled “proprietary.” At MMC, committees supposedly responsible for safety and quality control can’t even gain access to needed information. That’s so weird that a visiting state official recently suggested the committees should hire an independent outside lawyer to fight for access to the information they need!

My next column will discuss the many current investigations of MMC, for problems that could include defrauding medicare, and the possibility of changing state law to gain some control of rogue institutions with private-equity investors.

So much public attention may help.

                                                      – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 18 August, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on both the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[This column is part of a long and detailed investigation of MMC. While the recent firing of MMC’s CEO appears to be (and MMC has suggested it was) a step in the right direction. MMC is still owned by Apollo Global. City, county, state, and the public need to keep a sharp eye on developments.]

Welcome, Governor Walz!

Welcome, Gov. Walz!

Parties aside, let’s see how genuineness plays against falsity and self-betrayal.

Walz and his wife are teachers. Walz is a good guy, whose affability and good nature made him a quick favorite with Kamala Harris’s staff. Those qualities helped him challenge and whip a six-term U.S. Congressman in a red district that went red again when Walz became governor. You figure he’s also tough when he has to be. He did coach football.

J.D. Vance is a fake. Whereas Walz has made his six-year governorship about actually helped average folks, Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy celebrates his personal success and suggests others were lazy. Vance, though fairly conservative, loathed Donald Trump as a dangerous demagogue until Trump became a convenient handhold for Vance to climb the political cliffs.

Whereas Walz initially upset an entrenched opponent, Vance ducked, the first time he considered running for the Senate, as a non-Trump Republican, but later ran from the safer position of Trump bootlicker. Vance won the VP nomination by aping Trump’s angry rhetoric and insults. Walz prevailed through humility, cooperativeness, and a clear commitment to his ideals.

Walz is right about Trump and Vance being “weird dudes.” How does Vance feel, happily married to an Indian woman, when Mr. Trump regularly insults non-Caucasians, and mocks Harris for wearing a sari on a visit to her mother’s family’s home in India? Does Vance contemplate his close law school friend, a transsexual, when demonizing such people publicly. Walz noted that Trump never laughs, except at people. We also never hear of close personal friends of Trump, or even a dog – let alone a cat!

Trump’s team will attack Walz’s record – as they’re currently blaming VP Harris for the stock-market dip. (Did Harris also cause Simone Biles’s fall the other day?) Minnesota Republicans opposed much that he’s accomplished, using a Democratic trifecta he helped create. They’ll say he spent too much money helping people. They’ll say he didn’t call out the national guard quickly enough after the George Floyd killing. (Oops – Trump praised Walz’s response.) Walz successfully governs a “swing state,” rolling up his sleeves and getting a lot done, while consistently displaying character and integrity.

They’re attacking the choice as antisemitic, because it wasn’t Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. I’m half-Jewish, but hoped Harris wouldn’t pick Shapiro amidst a controversial war. I wouldn’t have picked a Palestinian, either. (I’m betting Harris’s Jewish husband doesn’t think she’s antisemitic.)

The allegation is hilarious. Shapiro is a Jewish Democratic Governor. One of three, nationally. All Democrats. Last October, nine states were represented by Jewish U.S. Senators. All Dems. And Diane Feinstein had just left. There is no Jewish Republican U.S. senator. None. The last was Arlen Specter, who switched to Democrat in 2009! Of the 24 Jews in the House, only two are Republican. How come Speaker Johnson ain’t complaining about that.

One reporter described Walz’s “‘happy-go-lucky’ warrior manner and joyful presence.” Trumpist commentator David Brody of Christian Broadcast Network said Harris and Walz “were VERY good tonight in Philadelphia. She came across as measured, confident and fully in control. It was an optimistic speech full of hope and change (cue 2008). Meanwhile, Walz showed off his folksy and feisty Midwestern persona."

Joy and hope ain’t a bad recipe, so long as you recall that not everyone feels joyous in these tough times. So far, it’s baffling Mr. Trump.

Will we be dancing the Kamala Waltz November 5th?

                                                  – 30 --

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 11 August, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[We should add that in 2004 a teacher took his students to a George Bush rally to see citizenship and politics in action. Security noticed on one student’s wallet a sticker favoring Bush’s opponent, John Kerry. Security therefore denied entry to the group. The teacher was so appalled that he volunteered to help the Kerry campaign, ending up as head of Veterans for Kerry in his state. Later he took a sort of “beginner’s boot camp” run by some associates of the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (known for his powerful integrity and fairness of mind, dead from an airplane crash in 2002) to help everyday folks who might want to try to run for office. The teacher went, and later made the crazy decision to challenge an entrenched Republican U.S. Congressman. The teacher, Tim Walz, won. That’s a “made-in-America” origin story people should reflect on.]

[Walz initiated the “weirdness” line regarding Trump and Vance. It seems to have worked well. Aside from Mr. Trump’s narcissism, disinclination to laugh unless its’ at someone in a sardonic way, and the absence of pets in Trump’s life, Mr. Trump, as a columnist noted, “repeatedly mentions Hannibal Lecter at his rallies, speaking about the fictional cannibal as though he were a real person. 'He’s a lovely man. He’d love to have you for dinner,' must be one of the strangest things a candidate has said while trying to attract votes.”

[Ruth Ben-Giat, an expert on authoritarian dictators has noted that it’s laughter that most angered them. (see Matthew Chapman story on Raw Story. Authoritarians have no problem with being called evil, but they despise being called weird — because it means they aren't being taken seriously; it means they're being made fun of, rather than feared. They understand that when they become subjects of satire, people necessarily question everything about them.

Despots don’t mind orchestrating sadistic spectacles riduling or punishing others, but can’t abide being the target of jokes. (Is that why a key motivating moment for Mr. Trump finally to run for president was being publicly made fun of by President Barack Obama at a gala dinner/roast in New York?) The expert gave as an example an Italian who named his pet rabbit Mussolini, in fascist Italy, and took it to a bar so others could enjoy watching him order it around. That joke cost the man a year in jail.

"When we laugh together, fear and distrust lessen, which is the opposite of what authoritarians want," Ben-Giat concluded. "That, too, is why such leaders can’t take a joke."]

[Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the same Sun-News Opinion Page contained an op-ed from an Ingrid Jacquez calling Walz’s progressive programs in Minnesota, such as free school-lunches, “socialistic.” That’s an old-style attack. Neither pure socialism nor pure capitalism ultimately works out very well. Any successful government has to merge the two a bit, toward a government that values enterprise and creativity but maintains compassion and justice for those capitalism spits out or leaves behind. Minnesota seems to be doing that. ]

 

It's a New Ball Game

So where are we, with Kamala Harris suddenly the Democrats’ presidential nominee?

Joe Biden did an amazingly good job as president with the narrowest of Congressional margins – or none. If he’s been “actively engaged” mostly from 10 to 4 each day, he’s reached some good conclusions, though I can’t defend his unquestioning support of Netanyahu’s Israel. Quitting, he did something few of us could. Yeah, folks pushed him. His action doesn’t rank with George Washington twice refusing to be our monarch; but when Biden could have persevered, he stepped away. J.D. Vance whining “He should resign as President, too!” is a tiny dog yapping at the heels of a very fine horse.

Harris is experiencing a polling “bounce.” She’s fresh, Biden was stale, and Republicans haven’t yet attacked her with full force. Harris set an all-time one-month funding record, with 62% of the donors giving their first donation in this race. Democrats who prayed Biden would withdraw are delighted, and unusually enthusiastic. They’ll need to maintain that energy as precinct walking and phone calls through a tough race.

Her “bounce” reflects serious realities. Voters’ strongest sentiment, particularly among independents, was “Why the [expletive] must I choose between these two superannuated clowns?” The raft of “Never Trump” Republicans tell us many conservatives see – and fear -- the serious dangers Trump presents, but Biden was a bridge too far. They begged for someone else. One party complied. Countering the attacks on Harris is the steady drip of Republicans facing up to Trumpian realities and choosing their country.

She’ll choose a running mate from a strong field.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly: astronaut! Seriously vetted long ago. Courageous. No politician, until his wife got shot. Her serious injury puts in perspective Mr. Trump’s recent survival of an assassination attempt.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is extremely popular in a deeply Red state. Too, if we called Central Casting seeking a “sincere, idealistic, persuasive male Anglo,” he’s what we’d get. Beshear can also negate J.D. Vance’s claim to represent Appalachians. Beshear really represents them, while Vance, in his book, bragged about personal success and called them lazy. Recently Beshear gave us a great preview, saying quietly that Vance “ain’t from here. He spent summers here. He’s trying to profit off our people, but calling them lazy when they’ve mined all our resources and fought two world wars.” Well said!

Beshear lacks name recognition. Opponents can claim his father’s governorship guaranteed him success. He also hasn’t had to opine regarding the Middle East. And he doesn’t swing a single big state, as Josh Shapiro or Roy Cooper well could.

Does being Jewish mean Shapiro would less strongly reassure middle Americans uneasy about Harris’s ethnicity? Shapiro’s more serious flaw is inexperience. He was elected governor in 2022. Beshear, Cooper, and Tim Walz have each been re-elected after a four-year term. They have executive experience. (Of course, Trump’s executive experiences all ended with bankruptcy and/or lawsuits, or even criminal charges. But Reality TV is more powerful than reality.)

Harris will be attacked on thinly-masked ethnic grounds. She’s a Californian, too. And she’ll be attacked for Biden’s policies. However, she’s spent four years as vice-president, learning, deepening contacts, handling problems, and observing. Gaining patience?

In debate, Biden’s condition distracted viewers from Trump’s increasingly untethered lies. Experienced prosecutor Harris should know how to let Trump’s dishonesty and mental muddiness shine through clearly.

It’s a hell of a race now.

                              – 30 –

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 28 July, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[As days pass, I still like the excitement about Harris I see, I still think her menu of potential running mates is superb, and we’re seeing a little dissension flare up among the Republicans: J.D. Vance is too much of a doubling-down on Trumpian rhetoric, rather than a draw to disaffected independents and troubled Republicans (and women); he’s made some graceless and overstated remarks that have drawn fire from allies; Governor Breshear has shot holes in Vance’s claim to represent Appalachian folks; he’s added to the ticket’s problems with thoughtful female voters; and now that Kamala Harris (as was foreseeable) has ascended to the top spot on the Democratic ticket, some Republicans wish Trump could have been less Trumpish and invited Nikki Haley onto his ticket. Too, one decades-long Republican, whose mother was a Republican state legislator in this state, read through the Republican platform and found it so Trumpish, so senseless, and so unlike traditional Republican conservatism that she changed her registration to Independent.]

[It’s a tight race. Harris still trails, and the electoral college still favors Republicans; and better-aimed attacks on her will come. A Democratic friend who said, “It went from an unwinnable race to a race that’s ours to lose” was, in my view, too optimistic. But, for now, the Democrats have more excitement, are saying and doing things that are getting more and better media attention, and clearly have the momentum. Like a football game in which you’re still down a field goal, maybe a TD, but have narrowed the gap from 18 or 21 to 7 or 3, with time left. Mr. Trump still has a solid base who love him. There are still many who buy into the Republican arguments that there problems are caused not by economic inequality or big corporations ripping us all off and dictating to our government, but by people getting abortions, not sticking solely to male-female relationships, and/or getting a break on their student loans. That seems as inaccurate as ever, but so do a lot of things that many human beings believe.

I do think enough level-headed folks, of varying ideologies, will wake up to the fact that Mr. Trump’s disqualifying points transcend normal politics. But Mr. Trump has won once and lost one close one (after we’d seen four years of him), so I ain’t bettin’ the farm on that. ]

 

U.S. Supreme Court trashes laws and constitution to get the results it craves

Never before has the Supreme Court’s disregard for precedent, reason, the Constitution, and public sentiment been so complete that the court changes whole swaths of Constitutional Law too fast for law schools to keep up.

It’s no one substantive area, but affects the Presidency, how modern government functions, individual rights, and other issues. Tossed aside are not only substantive decisions but time-honored ways of deciding cases.

Mr. Trump’s “immunity” is only the hottest news.

When judges interpret laws, they consider what the lawmakers knew when they enacted them. If city council outlawed visitor parking in Lots 1, 3, and 4, but didn’t mention Lot 2, that factor strongly suggests that they intended not to outlaw visitors parking in Lot 2. They knew Lot 2 existed, and – barring compelling evidence to the contrary – meant that omission.

Our Founders were writing a Constitution we could follow. They gave the Presidency Article II. They knew the concept that the ruler is above the law and cannot be sued or prosecuted for crimes. “Sovereign immunity” had been the law forever, everywhere. They could have declared a president above the law, during or after his time in office, but they strongly feared that a ruler could try to become a king. Alexander Hamilton reassured voters that the President’s great powers were limited by “his being liable to impeachment, trial, dismissal from office, . . . and to forfeiture of life and estate by subsequent prosecution in the common course of law.”

Fighting impeachment, Trump’s minions argued that impeachment was unnecessary because the criminal courts would handle Trump’s conduct. He was subject to our laws and courts, like anyone. Now, suddenly, he isn’t. (How we’d all howl, had a court invented that to bar punishing Joe Biden for taking a Chinese bribe to weaken us to enrich Hunter Biden.) President Trump could have VP Pence shot – with impunity.

Meanwhile, as governments grow, and everything gets more complex, it’s tough to balance Congress’s right and duty to make our laws with Congress lacking the time and expertise to write a 10,000 page law providing for every way that poisonous industrial by-products could harm us and every possible way officials can react to each. After enactment, a statute develops through court decisions, legislative tinkering, and administrative rules, as experience, new ideas, new technologies, and jury verdicts teach us more.

You don’t want Congress writing “Anyone who puts poison into the air or water gets 50 lashes.” But you can’t expect congress to write a law that enumerates every possible poison, assesses how dangerous each is in what concentrations, and list every possible corrective action government might take.

Legitimate problem. Increasingly so as decades pass. The Court developed “the Chevron exception.” Basically if Congress implicitly delegated aspects to a regulatory agency, courts give substantial deference to the agency’s expertise, so long as the regulation is reasonable.

Polluters, oil companies, food purveyors, and others hated that. If they could require that Congress had to specify every detail in the law, then every time they had a new poisonous wrinkle, they’d skate free pending a new law from Congress. Eliminating “Chevron,” the Court just gave bad actors a huge “Get out of Jail Free” card.

Justices also blew off significant personal rights, cracked the wall between church and state, and anointed the NRA Emperor.

Law schools had better give ConLaw classes only in the 3^rd year, so’s the teaching’s are accurate.

                                               – 30 – 

                            

[The above column appeared Sunday, 21 July, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

A Glance at the Past - and Present

[Prizing local restaurants and community, avoiding the processed poisons that chains call “food,” and watching mammoth corporations and the Internet destroy community shops reminds me of this (fictional) editorial about a citizen’s death in April, 1900. Let’s prize what little we retain of community!]

We wish to express our personal sympathy to the family of the late Millard Halvorsen and also our fears for the future of a way of life he exemplified.

Mr. Halvorsen (who would laugh at being called anything but “Mills”) owned a general store among the farms near Duckton. Such stores are essential to the lives of nearby residents, while most of us rush past without noticing them – unless we suddenly need a new wheel or warmer gloves.

Such stores may not long outlive Mills. Enabled byRural Free Delivery, the huge mail-order houses have the little general stores on the ropes – or perhaps flat on their backs on the canvas, with a referee shouting numbers.

Mills was a big, strong Swedish man with a friendly warmth and a keen sense of right and wrong, as well as strong arms, a sun-reddened face, and a broad forehead encumbered by less and less hair each year. We shared the youthful experience of War – and the lifelong bond GAR veterans share.

Not often enough, I sat watching Mills dispense advice as he dispensed sugar or salt from one of the big barrels. Carefully weighing the desired quantity, he would speak warmly to a child who felt ignored by his parents or listen patiently to a woman whose husband was not all he might have been.

His store held almost everything a farm family could have wanted – from pins to plows, and drugs to dairy products. Salt by the barrel for the use of cattle and for salting their meat later on. Green coffee for those who preferred to parch and grind it themselves. Siftings of broken tea leaves for fifteen cents.

Sears Roebuck isn’t likely to sit up nights worrying with a customer over his seriously ill child, nor will Montgomery Ward accept eggs in place of dollars when necessary.

He had a back room the length of the store filled with plows and harnesses, hoes, axes, coal oil. If he didn’t have what someone needed, he’d bust his backside to have it the next time.

Following time-honored custom, his store was also a gathering place for folks to visit and gossip. He claimed a person could get more news in an hour there than from a month of this newspaper. Though I never admitted it to him, he was surely right.

We understand the excitement of devouring the spring and fall catalogues when they arrive, well-illustrated with images of plows and tools, sleds and skates, and dishes and new clothing styles, to whet the appetite of each family-member for more THINGS. And in the very latest styles. We understand the lure of low prices.

But Sears won’t carry a neighbor on credit if he’s lost his job or the elements destroyed his crop this season. You won’t be writing “Montgomery Ward” down for $100 on the subscription list for church repairs or a new town hall. Seegle Cooper won’t help pay the preacher’s or teacher’s salary or feed a hungry widow and her kids.

Perhaps the proverbial silver lining today is that Mills won’t have to witness the end of that story.

                                         – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 14 July, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[I hope the 1900 Gazette editorial both offers a glimpse into a past we left far behind us and enhances our perspective on our contemporary world and conduct. I wrote it as part of a long piece of fiction, or, more precisely, had fiery old Addison Martin write it, as part of a bygone time in our country. But, tinkering with it recently, it again seemed relevant to contemporary life, too. Addison (who dies about four years after the editorial) and I are both vigorous old men watching our world both grow and deteriorate. As I read about some distant grocery chains planning to transform Albertsons into a cheaper wholesale sort of place that will be less satisfying to customers (while I patronize Toucan more often – and Toucan's advertising on our community radio station echoes the sorts of community contributions from local businesses that Addison describes), and watch “Dutch Brothers” and other characterless, cookie-cutter drive-by coffee places spring up, but drink my coffee at Milagro, Nessa’s, Grounded, The Bean and other local places that are more interesting and welcoming, offer better coffee, and contribute to our community, . . . I thought of Addison’s complaints.]

[A friend emailed me this morning, “Thanks, Peter, for the interesting obituary ‘rerun’. It reminded me of Lake and Chaffee counties in Colorado in the 50s. My first jobs were working for people I'd known as a child, when my parents were their customers. People I kept in touch with until they died. That's where I learned what a community was.” ]

 

Thoughts on a Nomination Few Vote On

 

570

Judicial elections differ from other elections; and one Magistrate Court nomination race apparently has some of my favorite political folks misbehaving.

Local lawyer Rosenda Chavez-Lara and full-blooded Chickasaw Jannette Mondragón both seek the judicial nomination. Our Governor appointed Mondragón to fill the vacancy from April 27 to the end of the year. Democratic Central Committee members vote July 10-12 on the nomination for November’s election to a four-year term.

The Rules require a judicial candidate to act with the highest integrity and not “misrepresent the candidate's or the candidate's opponent's identity, qualifications, present position or other material fact.” And to try to keep supporters avoiding misrepresentations.

I think some Mondragón supporters have tried to mislead voters. She and supporters have claimed that Rosenda’s election would present a conflict of interest because her husband, Robert Lara, is a district judge. Both the presiding judge and the state have said there’s no such problem. Mondragón herself ceased making such statements after being advised. But supporters reportedly accused Rosenda and Robert of trying to build a judicial empire. Nonsense! More reasonably, one strong Mondragón supporter argues that since the district court’s chief judge supervises magistrate court, Robert would vote on who’d be Rosenda’s boss. That’s a fact. Different folks could give it different weight.

One supporter’s Facebook post (“The New Mexico Observer”) dismissively called Chavea-Lara “a judge’s spouse,” naming her only in the third paragraph. The post portrayed Rosenda as an outsider who’d handled just 50 cases in several years.

Living in El Paso during her childhood, Rosenda spent much time in our county, visiting paternal and maternal cousins and helping her father, who opened a tax office to serve folks in Sunland Park. She hung our her shingle here in 2015. Mondragón is the relative stranger. She was appointed two months ago. The Bar Directory still lists her office in El Paso, though she’s litigated cases here the past few years.

Chavez-Lara has handled hundreds of cases; but because she mostly represented the children in abuse and neglect cases, we don’t get the details. Ex-Judge Marci Beyers presided over many of those cases and has endorsed Rosenda, praising her professionalism, compassion, and ability to do a hard job well.

Jannette says her campaign had nothing to do with that post. I believe her. One local lawyer who strongly supports Mondragón invited folks to “like” it. But he’s not part of her campaign.

My first reaction to Mondragón’s appointment was that I questioned an out-of-area appointment but liked the idea of a fully Native American judge.

But inaccurate personal attacks shouldn’t be part of a judicial campaign. One central committee member complained, “Team Mondragón is really upset, and trying to stifle the democratic process. They’re acting as if Rosenda is coming after something that’s rightfully Jeannette’s.”

Powerful friends calling committee members for Mondragón can’t be doing it because they know a lot about her judicial performance. She’s been a judge two months. They prefer her politically. If they feel that the Governor’s preference deserves some deference from Democrats, I agree; but central committee members should do what seems right to them.

I lunched recently with each candidate. Both are serious, compassionate women. Rosenda has demonstrated she cares about our county, particularly our poor; and I’m convinced Jannette would exhibit those same qualities. Both are tough. Both seem to be truth-tellers.

I hope Central Committee consider all the facts and make an independent judgment.

                                                        – 30 –

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 7 July, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

[As columns do, this one changed significantly from my initial concept what I submitted to the Sun-News. I was chagrined by the Facebook post. It was obviously by someone knowledgeable, because few citizens even know the nomination contest exists. (Ironically, in a much earlier post, from 2021, I saw my own face, as NMO reposted a column I’d written.) Although I had limited information, I was also troubled by what big fish in our small pond (Democratic elected officials with whom I agree on much) appeared to be saying to the central committee members who’ll bote on the thing.

But I can’t link the NMO post to the campaign. Sure, Mondragón’s sister liked it and a strong supporter invited folks to like it; but I can’t say who posted it, let alone opine that the candidate had prior knowledge or control. Too, meeting Mondragón I instinctively trusted her; and while she admitted saying some questionable things in early calls to committee members, she’d ceased once she was informed about the subject; and I could hardly blame her for not urging NMO to withdraw the post, since I couldn’t establish who that is. I also learned that Mondragón has handled some cases in this district, although her office was in El Paso.

But the post and some aspects of phone calls seemed inaccurate, unfair to Chavez-Lara, and perhaps violative of the rules.

So I hope voters turn off the noise and consider this one fairly. We have two reasonable candidates for the nomination. One has far more experience with our county and its courts, and had demonstrated compassion and, per Judge Beyer, competence and dedication. The other is also a compassionate and dedicated person – and we are unlikely to hear what the local judge thinks who has most frequently heard her cases here, because that’s the Hon. Robert Lara. He’d best keep his opinion to himself. Voters must each decide how much weight, if any, they choose to give the Governor’s appointment – and the fact that one candidate would be our first judge from a federally-recognized tribe.]