Editorials

THUMBS UP - OFFERS OF HELP
A fire destroyed the home of David Martinez, in Sheridan, south of Las Vegas. Immediately, Russell Pacheco, the fire chief, stepped in by agreeing to funnel offers of help to the family. He asks that anyone wishing to help the victims contact him at his office at 518 Valencia or call him at 425-2855. He will put callers in touch with the Martinezes.

THUMBS DOWN - ON BENDED KNEE

If we had a voice in selecting the next Pulitzer Prize for outstanding investigative journalism, this year we’d nominate Steven Brill and Time magazine for their lengthy, searing special report titled “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us.” It’s an indictment against the cost of health care in America, with first-rate reporting by Brill and courageously published by Time (a mainstream media magazine that gets more than its share of health care-related ads).

It’s getting to where Washington D.C.’s manufactured crises are becoming so commonplace that they’re barely cause for concern anymore. Witness the so-called sequester, which began March 1 to a whole lot of media noise while the general public slept through it.

Despite President Obama’s cries of wolf — calling the sequester a disaster, though that simply didn’t happen — the U.S. economy chugged along en route to a bona fide recovery for reasons having nothing to do with a dysfunctional U.S. government.

THUMBS DOWN! TAINTED SMACK. San Miguel County Detention Center officials say some contaminated heroin is on the streets these days, and it led to the death of one person and serious illnesses for three others — all current or former inmates at the jail. The jail officials suspect the heroin has been tainted with bath salts.