Five 2025 Stories Worth a Revisit; Recalls of Ground Beef and Toyotas–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Dec. 29, 2025

Indy Digest: Dec. 29, 2025

There are three days left in 2025, counting today. On Wednesday, in the final Indy Digest of the year, I’ll take a look into the future and offer my figurative two cents on stories we will be watching in 2026.

Today, I’m taking a look back at what the Independent covered in 2025. We published hundreds of pieces—some of which were quite excellent, if I do say so myself. Here are five pieces, presented in chronological order, that are worth a second look (or a first look, if you missed them previously). These are not our best pieces, per se, but they are pieces that are interesting enough to merit a revisit.

• “Hate Emboldened: A Series of Anti-LGBTQ+ Incidents in Palm Springs and Cathedral City Force Residents and City Officials to Take Action“ (Feb. 21): This piece, published one month and one day after President Trump started his second term, examined a local boost in hate incidents.

“There is a palpable sense of outrage that all of these hate incidents could happen in a region celebrated for its embrace of diversity. The second Trump presidency, with its attacks on DEI, has emboldened a small minority to speak hatred and intolerance out loud, and to act on it in extreme cases,” Haleemon Anderson wrote.

This trend—rooted in the white, straight, male supremacy illustrated by the likes of Stephen Miller and Project 2025—has continued as the year has gone on, in ways both profane and subtle.

• “Responding to the Raids: When ICE Agents Were Spotted in Cathedral City on June 6, Activists Quickly Took Action” (June 19): A fairly significant portion of our news coverage this year examined the local effects of the Trump administration’s chaotic actions. This is just one of those varied pieces—but it was one of the most powerful.

Written by Esther Sanchez, in the wake of the first big series of ICE raids in the Coachella Valley, this story offered a behind-the-scenes look at how local activists mobilized to respond.

This particular quote, from a speaker at a June 6 local press conference, stuck with me: “President Trump said he was going to do it, and we took him at his word. That’s why we’ve been preparing for this.”

• “‘Unchecked Conduct’: A Former Eisenhower Medical Center Doctor Wins a $1.6 Million Judgement Against the Hospital for Disregarding COVID-19 Safety Pleas and Harassment Complaints” (July 21): As the number of journalists in the Coachella Valley continues to dwindle, the amount of true investigative journalism done locally has also decreased.

Frankly, investigative journalism is hard. All local media outlets have pages, airtime and newsletters to fill, and we’re so busy doing that “standard” coverage that we have little time to dedicate to in-depth investigations. Good investigative journalism also takes a level of expertise that not all local journalists have. (The good news is that some local media outlets, the Independent included, are starting to pool our resources to do more investigations. Stay tuned.)

Despite this dearth of investigations, something will happen on occasion that offers a peek at serious issues within local institutions of power. Such was the case with this piece, about a successful lawsuit against Eisenhower Health, filed by Dr. Richard Loftus. “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 by those executives in attempts to silence his calls for mandatory masking and other measures to protect the safety of both patients and medical staff,” Kevin Fitzgerald wrote.

Loftus won a $1.6 million initial judgment, followed by a $4 million punitive-damage judgment against Eisenhower.

How did we end up doing this piece? It wasn’t the result of a big investigation. We did the piece because Dr. Loftus’ attorney reached out and told us about the case.

At least we followed up and did a story, unlike some other media outlets.

• “Losing Our History? Funding for the California Digital Newspaper Collection Was Restored—but UC Riverside Laid Off All of the Employees Responsible for the Project Anyway” (July 22): This, the second in a series of two stories by Kevin Fitzgerald, looked at the financial problems plaguing the California Digital Newspaper Collection, a tremendous resource for researchers, journalists and all history-curious Californians. The CDNC, which is part of the UCR College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, includes articles from hundreds of newspapers throughout the state, going back as far as 1846—all searchable and viewable online, for free.

For the 2024-2025 fiscal year, funding for the CDNC, which had been approved by the state Legislature, was directed elsewhere by the State Library. Despite a somewhat successful fundraiser, and the restoration of funding for 2025-2026, all four employees at the UCR Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research (which maintained the CDNC) were laid off at mid-year.

Today, the CDNC is still functioning; that’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s unclear what its status—in terms of being maintained and being added to—will be moving forward. The homepage of the CDNC includes a note from Daryle Williams, dean of the UCR College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, dated Aug. 13, meaning 4 1/2 months have passed without a meaningful status update.

We’ll follow up ourselves with an update in 2026—and hopefully, Williams will talk to us for that piece. He refused to answer our questions previously.

• “Goodbye, Little Street: The Music Community Bids Farewell to One of the Few Consistent All-Ages Venues in the Coachella Valley” (July 26): In Matt King’s top-notch music coverage, a theme kept emerging in 2025: the ongoing lack of good local live-music venues.

There are myriad reasons for this dearth of venues; one was hinted at in this piece, which noted that Josiah, Sam and Vince Gonzalez, the brothers who owned Little Street Music Hall, partially blamed the Indio venue’s closure on a “competing set of values with the city.”

The space, at 82707 Miles Ave., has since re-opened as The Dune Room—and that opening has been tinged with drama, which you can read about on social media, and in an upcoming piece in the Independent. To repeat: Stay tuned.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Why was the federal government tracking the movements of an investigative journalist, known for covering Jeffrey Epstein, in 2019 (i.e. during Trump’s first term? The Independent (U.K.) reports: “Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have demanded answers from the Department of Justice after details of a flight taken by an investigative journalist well known for covering Jeffrey Epstein turned up in the pedophile’s files. Miami Herald reporter Julie K Brown, author of the book Perversion of Justice, which was published in 2020, posted on X Sunday: ‘Does somebody at the DOJ want to tell me why my American Airlines booking information and flights in July 2019 are part of the Epstein files (attached to a grand jury subpoena)? As the flight itinerary includes my maiden name (and I did book this flight) why was the DOJ monitoring me?’ Brown also addressed the matter in a post on Substack in which she said she had ‘expected’ to see her name in the Epstein files because of her reporting, but added: ‘What I didn’t expect to see was an American Airlines flight record from 2019 with my full name on them, including my maiden name, which I don’t use professionally. It’s an unusual name, so it’s clear it’s me.’”

• The Kennedy Center is threatening to sue a performer who cancelled a performance at the venue after the president’s name was (physically but unofficially) added to the building. NPR reports: “The Kennedy Center says it plans to file a $1 million lawsuit against jazz artist Chuck Redd, after the musician canceled his annual Christmas Eve performance. The Associated Press first reported that Redd pulled out of the show days after President Trump’s name was added to the exterior of the performing arts center in Washington, D.C. In an email to NPR on Saturday, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said Redd’s decision is a disservice to the arts. ‘Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people,’ she said. Redd, an international performer on drums and vibraphone, hosted the center’s Christmas Jazz Jam for many years.”

• Flu season is here, and cases are rising in California. The Los Angeles Times says: “Fueled by a new viral strain, flu is hitting California early—and doctors are warning they expect the season may be particularly tough on young children. Concentrations of flu detected in wastewater have surged in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the test positivity rate is rising in Los Angeles County and Orange County, according to state and county data. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits for flu are also rising in L.A. and Orange counties. ‘We are at the point now where we’re starting to see a sharp rise in flu cases. This is a few weeks earlier than we usually experience, but very much akin to what was seen in the Southern Hemisphere’s experience with flu during their winter,’ said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional physician director of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. At Kaiser, flu cases are primarily being seen in clinics so far, but hospitalizations typically rise after Christmas. ‘We expect to see the same this year too,’ Hudson said.”

• Our partners at Calmatters examine the 2025 ICE raids in California, which are ramping up again as the calendar turns to 2026: “Enforcement grew more data-driven. Drone surveillance expanded in urban areas, and advocates warned about new uses of artificial intelligence to identify deportation targets and analyze asylum and visa applicants’ digital histories. 2026 outlook: California expects further interior enforcement, additional legal battles over sanctuary laws, funding, and renewed attempts to expand detention capacity. School districts and employers are preparing for more mass removals, while lawmakers are considering new privacy protections.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … ground beef! The Hill reports: “Grass-fed ground beef that was distributed to six states is being recalled over concerns of E. coli. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a recall on more than 2,800 pounds of raw 90/10 ground beef processed by Mountain West Food Group, LLC, from Idaho. The ‘Forward Farms Grass-Fed Ground Beef,’ produced on Dec. 16 and packed in 16-ounce packages, was shipped to distributors in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Pennsylvania and Washington for further distribution to retail establishments. FSIS reports the E. coli concern was found during ‘routine’ testing, with sampling results showing the presence of E. coli 026, according to the FSIS announcement.”

• And … Toyotas! Car and Driver says: “Toyota is known for its plentiful hybrid options, but one of its most popular models is part of a notable recall. Toyota says that 51,644 versions of the recently refreshed Camry could lose power due to a defective inverter assembly. This issue also involves 3,761 copies of the Toyota Corolla Cross. According to a document submitted earlier this month to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the recall affects 2025–2026 Camry models and the 2026 Corolla Cross. The issue stems from the inverter that converts power from the hybrid system’s battery to the electric motor, as a bolt inside the assembly could come loose and create an open circuit, which could either cause the vehicle to go into limp mode or lose power. Along with activating a warning light, the loose bolt could lead to a short circuit in certain situations that could cause a fire.”

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