The Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation’s Media Hall of Fame lunch took place on Feb. 24—and it was an excellent day for journalism in the Coachella Valley, and for the Independent in particular.
About 300 people attended the fundraising lunch at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas, where CVJF board president Randy Lovely said the nonprofit had raised about a quarter-million dollars over the last year. After the awards and the fundraising pitch, former Desert Sun executive editor Julie Makinen interviewed special guest Tonya Mosley, the co-host of NPR’s Fresh Air.
The lunch was especially excellent for the Independent for several reasons. First (chronologically), I was inducted into the Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame—a tremendous honor that, as I mentioned during my speech, doesn’t make sense to me, because I still think of the Independent as a startup. I guess I need to get over that, since we’re now in our 14th year of existence, and have published 153 print editions and about 10,000 articles at this point.
Another reason the lunch was so special: Kevin Fitzgerald, our staff writer, was named the CVJF’s Journalist of the Year. When his win was announced, Kevin was stunned—and I was delighted. It was an acknowledgement that many of the longform journalism pieces he does are complex, difficult and important.
Thanks to Randy, Julie and CVJF co-founder Ricardo Loretta for all of their work to support local journalism. Congratulations to my fellow Hall of Fame inductees: Larry Bohannan of The Desert Sun; Lina Robles of La Poderosa 96.7; the family of Ric and Rozene Supple (who were inducted posthumously); and Ricardo Loretta, who was a surprise inductee.
Also, congrats to KESQ’s Shay Lawson, winner of the Rising Star award (for journalists younger than 30 or with less than five years of experience), and the Rising Star finalists: KESQ’s Luis Avila, El Informador del Valle’s Xochitl Diaz, and Univision’s Antonio Marquez. Finally, congrats to Kevin’s fellow finalists for Journalist of the Year: Tom Coulter and Ema Sasic of The Desert Sun; Peter Daut of KESQ; and Thalia Hayden of NBC Palm Springs.
Finally … thanks to all of you, dear readers, who have supported the Independent over these last 13-plus years. You’re why we do what we do.
Oh, I have one more piece of good news to report: Independent contributor Melissa Daniels (who writes, among other things, our semi-regular Civic Solutions pieces) is one of 14 journalists selected this year for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s annual California Health Equity Fellowship, to do reporting on important health issues across the state. The Independent joins other California news outlets including EdSource, The Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, the Southern California News Group and others in having fellows participating program. I am so happy for Melissa—and I can’t wait to see the reporting she’s going to be able to do for the Independent as a California Health Equity Fellow.
Note: This is the editor’s note that appeared in the April 2026 print edition. Portions of this were originally published online in the Feb. 26 and March 19 Indy Digests.
