The Made-Up Biden/Easter ‘Controversy’; the New Fast-Food Minimum Wage–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: April 1, 2024

Indy Digest: April 1, 2024

Few things tick me off more than political types and elected officials lying and/or being disingenuous to make a political statement. (So, yeah, I am ticked off a lot these days.) I get even angrier when so-called news outlets amplify these distortions and mistruths.

I was therefore furious at the manufactured outrage that was vomited forth from certain political circles this weekend over Transgender Day of Visibility.

Here, regrettably, is the home page of Fox News as I write this.

So here’s the whole story, in context, on the manufactured Trans Day of Visibility kerfuffle, which Fox News has deemed the top story of the day..

In 2009, a transgender activist in Michigan decided to create Transgender Day of Visibility, on March 31. The goal was to celebrate the lives of transgender people around the world. Over time, observing March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility caught on in certain circles, and on March 31, 2021, President Biden issued a proclamation regarding the day. He similarly issued proclamations on March 31 in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Meanwhile … Easter, as you know, is not on the same day each year. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, “Easter Sunday always occurs on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. What is the Paschal Full Moon? This is specifically the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or after the March or spring equinox.” And some Christians actually celebrate it on different days than others; this year, Eastern Orthodox observers will celebrate it on May 5.

Well, this year, Easter (the non Eastern Orthodox variety) fell on March 31, the same day when Trans Day of Visibility is every year. And when President Biden again did his Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation, it gave people who want to criticize Biden—while throwing in an anti-trans dog whistle at the same time—an opening.

To Fox News minimal credit—and, boy, do I mean minimal—the story accompanying the top-of-the-page screaming headline does point out that Biden has made the same declaration every year since 2021. It also goes on to say that “the White House simultaneously issued a flurry of other proclamations, including Cesar Chavez Day, National Donate Life Month, National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Month, Arab American Heritage Month and Care Workers Recognition Month.”

Meanwhile, this is a day on which Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. And the Biden administration is getting ready to sell Israel another $18 billion in fighter jets. And Florida’s Supreme Court upheld a 15-week abortion ban while at the same time OK-ing a ballot initiative regarding abortion rights.

But in Fox News world, the top news is an anti-Biden, anti-trans story about something literally harmless that happened on Friday.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The state’s new fast-food-chain minimum wage of $20 an hour went to effect today. Problem is, the state’s still figuring out exactly which businesses need to pay that new wage. Our partners at Calmatters explain: “The law covers all fast food restaurants that belong to chains with 60 or more locations nationally, roping in … unions’ targets: McDonald’s or Burger King and their franchise owners. More than 500,000 Californians—primarily women, immigrants and people of color—work in what’s known in the industry as ‘limited service restaurants.’ Earlier this year SEIU estimated the law will apply to roughly 3,000 employers. But outside those national chains are numerous other food sellers and business arrangements, not all of which are directly addressed in the new law. Grocery stores and some bakeries are exempt, and this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a carve-out for fast food places at airports, convention centers and hotels. According to emails obtained by CalMatters in response to a public records request, a range of employers have been trying to figure out if they must pay $20 ever since the law was signed late last September.”

• The CEO of The Desert Sun’s parent company continues to make obscene amounts of money, even though the debt-laden company is losing money, and its employees are making less. The Boston Business Journal says: “Mike Reed, CEO of the largest newspaper company in the U.S., Gannett Inc., was given total compensation last year worth $3.9 million, a 14% increase over the previous year. According to the company’s annual proxy filing on Friday, that’s 76 times the total annual pay for the company’s median employee, which was $50,856. Meanwhile, median employee compensation fell last year by $179, a fraction of a percent, as inflation rose 3.4% over the same period. … More than half of Reed’s 2023 compensation was made up of a $900,000 salary and non-equity incentive, or bonus, of $1.3 million. Reed was also given stock awards valued at $1.7 million. … In its most recent financial filling, Gannett said it still owes $1.14 billion in total debt. For 2023, it reported a net loss of $23 million on $669 million in revenue, and said it expects revenue to decline in 2024 by a percentage ‘in the low- to mid-single digits.’ Total headcount at the company has decreased by more than half—59%—from the total headcount at the two companies at the start of 2019, just before the merger.”

• If you are or were a customer of AT&T, you may be the victim of a data breach. ABC News reports: “Information for some 73 million current and former AT&T customers was recently posted on the dark web in a data breach, the telecommunications company confirmed on Saturday. ‘AT&T has determined that AT&T data-specific fields were contained in a data set released on the dark web approximately two weeks ago,’ the Dallas-based company said in a statement. AT&T said the affected data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier and impacts approximately 7.6 million current customers and approximately 65.4 million former account holders. The data set included personal information such as Social Security numbers, AT&T said. It is unclear if the data originated from AT&T or one of its vendors, the company said.”

• A part of Highway 1 has again crumbled into the ocean. The Los Angeles Times has the details: “Tourists and locals alike found themselves stranded overnight in Big Sur on Easter weekend after Caltrans shut down a portion of Highway 1 that was falling into the ocean. It was merely the latest time that the outdoor tourist hot spot was nearly cut off from the outside world. Officials discovered a slip-out on the southbound lane early Saturday evening and quickly closed the road to further vehicle travel to assess damage. With the 1.4-mile stretch shut down, there were no other exit roads and about 1,600 people were forced to seek accommodations for the night.”

• If you know of any college students who would like to work as guides at Sunnylands, take note of this news release: “The Sunnylands tour guide internship program offers competitive pay and internship credit opportunities from participating colleges, universities, and majors. It is also designed to help students prepare for their future careers through professional development, individual assessments, and the exploration of ‘soft skills’ to develop strengths as a team member and future leader. The new class of interns will undergo training from the end of July through August this year. Their main responsibility will be to serve as Sunnylands guides from September through early June 2025. They will also staff Sunnylands retreats and have opportunities to work in other departments when Sunnylands is closed during the summer. Students will have the opportunity to stay for a maximum of three seasons, receiving advanced skill-building programs each year. Sunnylands is the former winter home of the late philanthropists Walter and Leonore Annenberg. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the couple famously hosted Hollywood celebrities, U.S. presidents, British royalty, and other dignitaries at the 200-acre estate in Rancho Mirage.” Click here to learn more.

• And finally … here’s yet another airline flight you are happy to have NOT been on. CBS News Bay Area says: “Yet another United Airlines flight bound for San Francisco was forced to return to its point of origin on Friday when a Boeing 777 out of Germany had ‘a maintenance issue with one of the aircraft’s lavatories,’ according to airline officials. German media outlet Bild said that some passengers reported that the contents of one of the plane’s toilets flowed into the main cabin on United flight 59 Friday. The scheduled 12-hour flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco was cut short after the incident led the pilot to circle over the North Sea before returning to the Frankfurt Airport. … It was the latest United flight to have issues, with many of the problems involving flights to or from San Francisco. The day before the Frankfurt toilet mishap, another United international flight from San Francisco to Paris was forced to divert to Denver due to an engine issue. A week before that, the fuselage panel of a United Airlines flight—a Boeing 737-800—was discovered missing after the plane landed at an airport in Medford, Oregon, after having departed San Francisco, officials said.”

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