Attacks Against the Right to Vote Continue; Congrats to the Desert Sun NewsGuild–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: March 4, 2024

Indy Digest: March 4, 2024

Tomorrow is Election Day—specifically, it’s California Primary Election Day. On a national level, it’s also Super Tuesday, aka the day when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs in the presidential primaries. (Not that there’s any suspense regarding the nominees this year.)

As those of us in the Coachella Valley vote—the most important civic duty we have—it’s important to realize that our right to vote is under full-on attack, on multiple fronts, across the country. 

A lot of politicians—who would like to stay in power as trends continue to shift away from them—are working to keep a lot of eligible voters from exercising that right. 

Another front in the war against voting rights involves the harassment of election workers officials across the United States. Here’s the lede of a Washington Post story from last month, and as you read it, I ask you to keep in mind that this happening in the United States, in 2024:

Around the nation, those who run voting operations—more than a dozen of whom were interviewed by The Washington Post—say they are preparing for the types of disruptions that historically had been more associated with political unrest abroad than American elections.

In a year when Republicans appear on track to nominate for president Donald Trump, who continues to deny the results of the last election and is already casting doubt on the integrity of this one, election officials are going on offense more than ever to try to keep election workers safe, educate voters on how the voting and counting processes work, debunk misinformation and hold accountable those who try to disrupt the democratic process.

They are amping up advertising budgets, increasing training for election workers, learning how best to quickly correct false information and bolstering coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement to better respond to threats and harassment.

The scale of the undertaking reflects the magnitude of the challenge. After years of Trump’s relentless attacks on the election system, fewer than a third of Republicans see Biden’s 2020 victory as legitimate. Many voters who believe that the vote was rigged cite as evidence a series of claims that have been repeatedly debunked. New conspiracy theories sprout almost daily, some tracing their origins to authentic-looking AI-generated videos. All the while, election workers face harassment and threats.

A lot of these elections officials have been asking Congress to step in and help. Guess what? Congress is not interested in doing so.

We all need to make sure we’re fighting these attempts to deny people the right to vote. This phrase is a cliche, but in this case, it’s undeniably true: Our democracy depends on it.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Congratulations to the members of the Desert Sun Newsguild, who finally have a new contract in place with Gannett. Here’s a Twitter/X thread with some of the details. Key quote: “The contract ensures that … staffers will earn a total of $456,000 more in compensation over the next three years. Guild members will see an average 16.5% raise upon formal ratification of the contract. Every member of the guild is seeing a raise under the contract taking effect, with some seeing raises as high as 48.51% or of more than $20,384.”

• You’ve likely heard this morning’s news that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state of Colorado can’t kick Donald Trump off the ballot. However, the details of the ruling(s) are far more complicated than that. A political scholar, writing for The Conversation, takes a historical approach to explaining things: “America’s Constitution has long acknowledged that the preservation of the republic may, in some cases, require the disqualification of candidates and officeholders who commit crimes while in positions of power or participate in insurrection against the very government they have sworn to serve. The Supreme Court has sidestepped the question of whether Trump’s actions disqualify him from office and declared instead that Congress must make that determination, under the various constitutional restrictions that continue to exist about who is allowed to serve as president.“

• Our partners at Calmatters examine the brewing battles over fast-food wage increases in California: “One of workers’ biggest wins in the Legislature during ‘hot labor summer,’ the agreement in the session’s final week resulted in a minimum wage hike for employees and some guarantees for companies. In exchange, the industry agreed to stop fighting the issue at the ballot box and lawmakers backed off on even stricter regulations. But a month before the new wage—$20 an hour for workers at fast food chains with 60 or more locations nationally—goes into effect, the temporary truce is unraveling. As the Legislature pushes through a bill exempting fast food restaurants in airports, hotels and convention centers, Republican lawmakers who had vehemently pushed back on the wage hike are calling for the deal to be investigated, after Bloomberg reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed for a bakery exemption that benefited a donor who owns two dozen Panera locations in California. … Some franchise owners are cutting jobs in advance of the minimum wage increase, while workers have begun pushing for additional benefits in San Jose and Los Angeles, prompting businesses to gear up to lobby back.”

• Today’s first recall-news item hits close to home, because it concerns something that’s a personal favorite … Trader Joe’s soup dumplings! The Associated Press says: “More than 61,000 pounds of steamed chicken soup dumplings sold at Trader Joe’s are being recalled for possibly containing hard plastic, U.S. regulators announced Saturday. The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service noted that the now-recalled dumplings, which are produced by the California-based CJ Foods Manufacturing Beaumont Corp., may be contaminated with foreign materials—’specifically hard plastic from a permanent marker pen.’ The recall arrives after consumers reported finding hard plastic in the Trader Joe’s-branded products, FSIS said. To date, no related illnesses or injures have been reported.”

• Next up: General Moters pickup trucks! NBC News says: “General Motors has expanded an earlier recall of its trucks over a faulty tailgate to include 820,000 vehicles sold in the U.S. and Canada. In a recent letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website, GM said 570,434 trucks may be affected by the issue, which may cause tailgates to inadvertently unlatch as a result of a short-circuit from water intrusion. Affected models include 2020 through 2024 Chevy Silverados and GMC Sierras. In addition, approximately 249,000 vehicles sold in Canada are affected by the recall, according to records on Canada’s motor vehicle recall database.”

• And finally … you can find a link to our review of Dune: Part Two in the “From the Independent” section above; here’s a piece from The Washington Post about a very cool thing the film’s director did for a dying man: “Dune: Part Two, director Denis Villeneuve’s long-anticipated second chapter of the science-fiction epic, hit theaters this weekend. But it was secretly screened more than six weeks earlier in an unusual location: a palliative care facility, for a movie buff whose last wish was to see the sequel before he died. With the curtains drawn in a room inside the facility in Quebec, the man, who was in his 50s, and one of his friends watched the film on the screen of Villeneuve’s laptop—which the director’s assistant had flown in that day. Getting the film to the man was a ‘race against the clock, Josée Gagnon, whose charity made the moment happen, told The Washington Post. … The man ultimately was not able to watch the full 2 hours and 46 minutes of the film. He was in pain and saw only about half of it before he had to stop, Gagnon told The Post. He died a few days later. He died ‘taking the secret of the film with him,’ Gagnon said in her post.”

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