A Call to Support the Rebuild Palm Springs Fund; Proof That AI Is Terrible at Book Recommendations–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: May 22, 2025

Indy Digest: May 22, 2025

Palm Springs businesses and residents are coming to the aid of those affected by the bombing on May 17.

The American Reproductive Centers building was essentially destroyed, and other nearby buildings were badly damaged. The bombing is considered an act of terrorism—and most insurance policies don’t cover damage due to terrorism.

The Palm Springs Post today reported:

The city is implementing a disaster overlay zone for the affected area, which will provide businesses with reduced permit fees and expedited approvals for rebuilding. (Mayor Ron) DeHarte said he spoke with the state insurance commissioner, who immediately connected state resources with city staff to explore support options.

The attack also damaged other businesses in the area, including the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert, which had 15 windows blown out. 

Palm Springs-area business leaders including Bob Smiland (Desert Hand Car Wash), Liz Ostoich (Farm, Tac/Quila, Clandestino), Willie Rhine (Eight4Nine Restaurant and Lounge, Willie’s), Bill Sanderson (Townie Bagels) and Gregory Goodman (My Little Flower Shop) have teamed up with the Desert Business Association (DBA) and Greater Palm Springs Pride to create Rebuild Palm Springs, an effort to raise funds to help businesses and residents whose buildings were damaged.

The DBA will disperse the funds, with Greater Palm Springs Pride acting as the fiscal sponsor, using guidelines based on the city of Palm Springs Facade Improvement Program.

If you’re able to help, the city and NBC Palm Springs will hold a drive-through donation drive tomorrow, Friday, May 23, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Boozehounds, 2080 N. Palm Canyon Drive.

You can also visit bit.ly/RebuildPS to make a donation. As of this writing, more than $41,000 has been donated.

“Palm Springs has always been a community that comes together in times of crisis,” Mayor Ron deHarte said today in a statement. “The strength of our city lies in our unity and compassion for one another. I encourage all who are able to contribute to this crucial effort.”

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The Palm Springs Post continues to do fantastic coverage of the explosion’s aftermath. Here’s another interesting detail from the Post’s aforementioned story today, about Dr. Maher Abdallah, of American Reproductive Centers: “The doctor was supposed to be in his office at the time of the bombing, following his usual Saturday routine of handling mail and paperwork at 11 a.m. That day, he decided to stay out of town to visit family members, a decision that likely saved his life. ‘I do forgive him,’ Abdallah said of the bomber. ‘I wish his family the best and we all pray for them.’”

• The Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this week that updated COVID-19 vaccines would only be approved for older adults (65+) and higher-risk groups. A health expert, writing for The Conversation, puts the announcements in context: “(According to FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and the agency’s head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, the FDA) is moving away from these universal recommendations and instead taking a risk-based approach based on its interpretation of public health trends—specifically, the declining COVID-19 booster uptake, a lack of strong evidence that repeated boosters improve health outcomes for healthy people and the fact that natural immunity from past COVID-19 infections is widespread. The FDA states it wants to ensure the vaccine is backed by solid clinical trial data, especially for low-risk groups. … The FDA’s decision to adopt a risk-based framework for the COVID-19 vaccine aligns with the expected recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an advisory group of vaccine experts offering expert guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, which is scheduled to meet in June 2025. But while this advisory committee was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to, the FDA’s policy will likely make that difficult.”

• Some newspapers ran a syndicated summer reading guide that included books that don’t exist. How did this happen? AI. Oops! NPR explains: “Some newspapers around the country, including the Chicago Sun-Times and at least one edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer have published a syndicated summer book list that includes made-up books by famous authors. Chilean American novelist Isabel Allende never wrote a book called Tidewater Dreams, described in the ‘Summer reading list for 2025’ as the author’s ‘first climate fiction novel.’ … Only five of the 15 titles on the list are real. … According to Victor Lim, marketing director for the Chicago Sun-Times’ parent company Chicago Public Media, the list was part of licensed content provided by King Features, a unit of the publisher Hearst Newspapers. The list has no byline. But writer Marco Buscaglia has claimed responsibility for it and says it was partly generated by artificial intelligence, as first reported by the website 404 Media. In an email to NPR, Buscaglia writes, ‘Huge mistake on my part and has nothing to do with the Sun-Times. They trust that the content they purchase is accurate and I betrayed that trust. It’s on me 100 percent.’”

• State Farm, as noted in this space, was just granted a first-ever emergency rate increase by the state. Now the insurer is already asking for another increase. The Guardian reports: “Condo owners and renters could see a larger jump in insurance costs as State Farm General pursues an overall 30% rate increase for homeowner policies in California. This comes just a week after the company was granted a 17% emergency interim hike, down from the nearly 22% increase it originally requested, following a ruling approved by the insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara. State Farm confirmed to the Guardian that it plans to seek an additional 11% rate hike the company had proposed last year. First reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, State Farm says these increases are necessary due to ‘severe capital depletion,’ especially after the devastating Los Angeles county wildfires.”

• Today’s recall news involves … cucumbers! NBC News says: “The Food and Drug Administration announced a recall of cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales because of a multistate salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 20 people. The FDA said in a statement Monday that the cucumbers have been distributed to restaurants, wholesalers, retailers and distribution centers since April 29. The FDA is working to determine where the potentially contaminated vegetables were sold. … According to the FDA, as of Friday, at least 26 people had been sickened by the outbreak in 15 states: Florida, Alabama, California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Nine of the patients have been hospitalized, and 11 out of 13 patients who were interviewed reported having eaten cucumbers.” Eek!

• And finally … .last year in this space, we reported on a deal made by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state of California to help fund journalism in the state—a deal that killed two bills in the Legislature that would have possibly forced big tech to pay much, much more. Well … months later, that deal has been substantially diminished. Ugh. Our partners at Calmatters report: “Google will pay $5 million less than it promised to a fund intended to help struggling California news outlets stay afloat, less than a year after committing to pay $15 million.  The company will now pay $10 million into the initiative to fund local news which will be distributed among California news publishers, according to the office of Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who has been involved in setting up the program. The announcement Wednesday came a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting the state’s own share of the first-year commitment to $10 million from $30 million, as California faces a $12 billion budget deficit. The new California Civic Media Fund will be administered by the California State Library, which will set up a board of publisher representatives to determine how to distribute it with the goal of ‘sustaining and enhancing community news coverage in California,’ according to a news release from Wicks’ office. The library will also assess the regional availability of news coverage across California to help divvy up the money.”

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