The headline article in the Times today talked about the scheduled sentencing of some more people that have been involved in the public corruption cases here in El Paso.
These three individuals pleaded guilty to illegal activity relating to health insurance for local school district and government employees. Access HealthSource was administering the health coverage. Bribes were evidently offered to elected officials in return for their votes to give Access contracts.
This story is another one of those that the Times writes often about. Maybe it is good for circulation.
More of the story
Below is my opinion:
What the Times failed to mention today is that they played a big part in creating the environment that led to the corruption.
For many years Young Insurance had the contracts to administer health insurance for the major school districts and local governments in town. Steve Young was the head of the firm. He administered the health insurance programs with fairness, efficiency and honesty. The employees were happy. He stepped in frequently to get to the bottom of problems so that employees were taken care of. Young Insurance regularly saved the employers money and kept their health costs in line.
Enter a former local big shot (who is now in federal prison) who decided he wanted Young’s business. Allegations were made about the fact that Young Insurance was not in fact an insurance company. Other allegations were made that Young was secretly taking money from hospitals even though video coverage at the time showed Young explaining his financial dealings with the hospitals in open city council meetings.
The Times saw a scandal. Scandals are good for circulation. They published article after article about the situation. We see the same behavior with the El Paso Independent School District story and the public corruption story today.
Eventually the pressure on Young and his business became too destructive. He sold his business to the same Access HealthSource, owned primarily by our federal detainee. Our former county judge who is also now a federal prisoner and who coincidently has the same last name as the Access owner then helped to lobby for Access.
The result is the scandal that was covered again in the paper again today.
What about Steve Young? Charges were never filed. The investigating agencies never made an accusation. He never got so much as a reprimand. I think he lost his business thanks in large part to relentless hounding by the Times.
Steve died penniless a few years ago, but not before the Times printed a below the fold front page article that explained he had done nothing wrong. Steve was grateful for that.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Good post. The EP Times and many others in our community judge the integrity and value of people based on their charitable donations and the money they pay for event sponsorships. People are not concerned about where the money comes from or how it was earned as long as the money flows.
The Times, of course, also likes ad dollars and anything that might generate future ad dollars, so it plays along until things go sideways, then it changes positions. If the ballpark were ever to be the subject of a federal investigation, the Times would be all over it in a heartbeat to sell papers. It would gloss over its own shameful promotion of the ballpark on behalf of Mountainstar or it would claim that it too was unfairly duped.
As an example of how the Times gets sucked in, the NCED/Jones story was first exposed by The Oregonian in Portland, Oregon, not by the Times, which later tried to take credit. A newspaper thousands of miles away could see it, but our own local media couldn’t, until it was impossible to ignore. Then they jumped on it full force to milk it. A key point of their coverage was Jones’ many contributions. They’re still milking it with Jones’ ridiculous letters from prison, which simply put him back in the spotlight that he always craved.
Joe “The Hack” Muench should just resign from the Times and go on Mountainstar’s payroll. That’s where he belongs because toting their water and protecting the honor of Mountainstar’s owners are his current priorities.
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I find it amusing that the organization that screams and moans the most about accountability is accountable to no one.
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the times know what they’re doing. They know what’s good for their business
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