The PS Public Library Foundation Launches a Fundraising Campaign; SNAP Benefits Remain Jeopardized–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Oct. 30, 2025

Indy Digest: Jan. 6, 2025

Today, we’re sharing updates on two local news stories.

First: The Palm Springs Public Library, as you likely know, has moved into a temporary home at 4721 E. Palm Canyon Way (in the same shopping center at Vons) while the main library, at 300 S. Sunrise Way, undergoes significant renovations.

Earlier this week, the Palm Springs Public Library Foundation launched a big fundraising drive. From a news release:

The Palm Springs Public Library Foundation (PSPLF) has officially launched a capital campaign titled “A NEW CHAPTER: Revitalizing Our Palm Springs Public Library.” Community support will contribute to the transformation of a dynamic, sustainable institution that will serve Palm Springs as a cornerstone of learning, creativity and connection for decades to come.

Construction is already under way following the library’s Sept. 18 groundbreaking, marking the largest investment in the library’s history—a $52 million renovation project combining $45 million in secured government funding with the goal of raising $7 million in private donations.

To inspire early giving, the Palm Springs Public Library Board of Trustees pledged to match the first $1 million, doubling the impact of every gift. With $650,000 in early commitments already secured from local donors, Foundation leaders say the campaign is off to a promising start. …

Donors’ extraordinary commitments will be recognized through naming opportunities throughout the renovated library. In addition to enhancing the new spaces, contributions will seed an endowment that ensures sustainability, innovation and continued access for future generations. … The revitalized library is expected to reopen in summer 2027.

The Foundation encourages residents, businesses and philanthropic partners to join in this once-in-a-generation opportunity. To learn more or make a gift, visit nextchapter.pslibraryfoundation.org.

Full disclosure: I am on the Library Foundation’s Campaign Honorary Committee. Because, y’know, libraries and knowledge and information are important.

Second: We have an update on a lawsuit against Eisenhower Medical Center by a former employee.

On July 21, the Independent reported: “In December 2021, Dr. Richard Loftus, the former assistant program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Eisenhower Medical Center, filed a lawsuit against EMC, an associated primary care provider group called the Eisenhower Medical Associates (EMA), and a number of individual Eisenhower employees. The case revolved around certain EMC executives’ resistance to COVID-19-related safety recommendations championed by Loftus in 2020 as the pandemic took hold—and the alleged retaliatory actions taken against Loftus. … On June 30, 2025, a retired judge appointed to act as the referee/arbitrator on the case found in favor of Loftus, awarding him $1.6 million for a loss of earnings ($600,000) and emotional distress ($1 million). A trial to determine the dollar amount of any punitive damages is scheduled to take place in August.”

That punitive-damage decision was delayed and finally released earlier this month—and Eisenhower will have to pay Loftus $4 million in punitive damages.

If you’d like to learn more, here’s our original story, and here’s the statement of decision regarding the punitive damages.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• On Saturday, SNAP benefits may be cut off for 42 million Americans. CBS News explains what this means: “While SNAP benefits will not be disbursed as scheduled in November, program recipients can use existing funds on their EBT cards to make purchases. If someone enrolled in the program hasn’t spent all their October EBT dollars, for example, those benefits would roll over into November. Some states are advising recipients to use their remaining food stamps wisely, given the stalemate over funding the federal government. … The USDA hasn’t indicated whether SNAP benefits would be paid retroactively once the government shutdown ends. But social service experts who spoke with CBS News said they expect the USDA to pay the delayed November benefits once federal funding resumes.”

• However, a judge could order the Trump administration to pay those November benefits, at least partially. The Washington Post reports: “A federal judge on Thursday indicated she would probably order the Trump administration to use reserves to partially fund food assistance for about 42 million Americans in November, potentially delaying a complete cutoff in benefits during the government shutdown. Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts spoke at a hearing in litigation brought by a coalition of 23 Democratic attorneys general and three Democratic governors against the Agriculture Department over its decision to not tap into a contingency fund to pay for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in November. … ‘Congress has put money in an emergency fund, and it is hard for me to understand how this is not an emergency,’ Talwani said during Thursday’s hearing.” So, stay tuned.

• The Trump administration’s attack on the trans community is having effects well beyond the L, G, B and T. ProPublica shares an example in a piece headlined “Citing Trump Order on ‘Biological Truth,’ VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage.” Details: “The Trump administration is making it more difficult for veterans with a rare but deadly cancer to get their health care needs covered by the government. The new policy, involving breast cancer in men, is laid out in a Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica. The previously undisclosed document does not cite any evolving science. Rather, it relies on an order that President Donald Trump issued on his first day in office titled: ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.’ An agency spokesperson confirmed the change. ‘As of Sept. 30, the department no longer presumes service connection for male breast cancer,’ press secretary Pete Kasperowicz wrote in a statement to ProPublica. He noted that veterans who’ve previously qualified for coverage can keep it. But for the roughly 100 male veterans who are newly diagnosed each year, the path will now be significantly harder. They will have to show their cancer was connected to their military service, a burden that has often been hard to meet. Without VA coverage, experts say, veterans’ care could be delayed or even missed altogether—even as research has shown the rate of breast cancer among men has been increasing and the disease is deadlier than for women. One study also found that breast cancer for men is ‘notably higher among veterans.’”

• NPR reports that the price of car insurance has gone up 55 percent since February 2020. Why has the increase been so steep? “Cars are more expensive; parts and repairs are more expensive; medical bills following auto accidents are more expensive. Modern cars are packed with pricey electronics, pushing up the cost of fixing even minor fender benders, while empty streets during the pandemic encouraged speeding and led to more severe (and more expensive) crashes. All those things cost insurers money. … But those price hikes may finally be about to top out. ‘The good news is that, largely, the industry is caught up on premiums, and we’re now starting to see companies reduce costs and compete for business,’ says Bob Passmore, a vice president at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the trade group that represents insurers. Insurance companies had strong profits last year, and price hikes have stabilized.”

• Tangentially related: Our partners at Calmatters is publishing a fantastic yet disconcerting series on DUIs in California. The intro of “License to Kill”: “An ongoing CalMatters investigation examines how the state of California routinely allows dangerous drivers with horrifying histories to continue to operate on our roadways. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again. The toll is measured in bodies. More than 20,000 people died on the roads of California from 2019 to early 2024. Alcohol-related roadway deaths in California have shot up by more than 50% in the past decade—an increase more than twice as steep as the rest of the country. Despite the mounting death toll, state leaders have shown little willingness to address the issue.”

• Two stories showing, yet again, that the current administration doesn’t really give a damn about truth—just Trumpian ideology. First is a piece sub-headlined “Trump administration videos purporting to show the triumph of recent immigration operations used footage that was months old or recorded thousands of miles away, an analysis found” from The Washington Post: The lede: “The Department of Homeland Security posted a swaggering montage to social media in August declaring it had triumphed in its takeover of Washington, D.C. It showed footage of federal agents fighting what a DHS official called a ‘battle for the soul of our nation’ and working ‘day and night to arrest, detain and deport vicious criminals from our nation’s capital.’ There was one problem. Several of the clips had been recorded during unrelated operations months earlier, in Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, Florida. The official’s sound bite about deportations in D.C. played over a clip from May showing detainees on a Coast Guard boat off the coast of Nantucket, the Massachusetts island 400 miles away. Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have used similarly misleading footage in at least six videos promoting its immigration agenda shared in the last three months, a Washington Post analysis found, muddying the reality of events in viral clips that have been viewed millions of times. Some videos that purported to show the fiery chaos of Trump-targeted cities included footage from completely different states. One that claimed to show dramatic examples of past administrations’ failures instead featured border crossings and smuggling boats recorded during Trump’s first term.” PROPAGANDA.

• Second: Two federal prosecutors were suspended because of how they referred to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Reuters reports: “The U.S. Justice Department placed two prosecutors on leave on Wednesday, hours after they referred to Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as ‘a mob of rioters’ in a sentencing memo, said four people familiar with the matter. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia were placed on administrative leave and locked out of their government devices, one day before their scheduled appearance in federal court on Thursday for Taylor Taranto’s sentencing. Taranto was convicted on gun charges after driving to former President Barack Obama’s Washington neighborhood in June 2023, shortly after then-former President Donald Trump posted what he asserted was Obama’s address online. Two new prosecutors, including a senior official in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, withdrew the initial sentencing memo on Wednesday and replaced it with one that made no mention of the attack on the Capitol and removed a reference to Trump posting Obama’s address. Taranto had previously been charged for his role in the 2021 assault on the Capitol and was pardoned in January on Trump’s return to the White House. He was one of nearly 1,600 people pardoned but remained incarcerated on the 2023 gun charges.” PROPAGANDA.

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … blood pressure meds! Scripps News says: “More than half a million bottles of blood pressure medication have been recalled for containing higher levels of a carcinogenic substance than allowed. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA of New Jersey originally issued the recall earlier this month for capsules of prazosin hydrochloride that it distributed. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has classified the recall as a Class II risk level, meaning consuming it may cause ‘temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences.’ The recall applies to 1-milligram, 2-milligram and 5-milligram capsules of the medication that was distributed in 100-capsule, 250-capsule, 500-capsule and 1000-capsule bottles with expiration dates ranging from Oct. 2025 through Feb. 2027.”

Support the Independent!

The economy is kind of weird right now—but the Independent is determined to keep on reporting the Coachella Valley’s stories. Please help us continue our award-winning, community-serving news, arts, food and music coverage, if you can afford to do so, by clicking the button below and becoming a Supporter of the Independent. Thanks for reading!