An Update on the Palm Springs Cultural Center; ICE Buys Two Big Private Immigration-Detention Facilities–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: July 6, 2026

Indy Digest: July 6, 2026

I was a little nervous when I walked into the Palm Springs Cultural Center last Friday to meet executive director Michael Green.

I have countless wonderful memories of happenings at the place that old-timers still call the Camelot Theatres. Seeing my friend Jeffrey Norman in The Bent’s excellent production of Perfect Arrangement. … Going to a Desert Ensemble Theatre show with my friend Robert Litvak just before he was diagnosed with the cancer that later took his life. … The time Robert jokingly dumped popcorn on me during one of Dezart Performs’ wonderful On the Air! shows—and was mortified when he saw my shirt was covered in greasy “butter” as a result … Seeing Charles Drabkin directing people—in drag!—during an early pandemic-era Certified Farmers’ Market. … Shann Carr’s myriad hilarious lip-sync events. … Watching my friend and colleague Bonnie Gilgallon perform during her Razzle Dazzle cabaret series … I could go on and on and on.

But as you likely know, there was a fire in the Cultural Center’s kitchen area on June 27. I was nervous walking in because I did not want to see a place so near and dear to me damaged and hurt.

Fortunately, that nervousness soon went away when I saw that the Cultural Center is, in fact, OK—damaged and hurt, yes, but already on its way toward a recovery.

There was a definite—but not overwhelming—smoke smell in the lobby and the upstairs lounge. But Theatre One, the 500-plus capacity gem of the Cultural Center, was untouched, with not even a hint of a smoke smell. Because of this, and the remediation efforts that are already under way, Green is confident the Cultural Center’s doors will be again open to the general public this Saturday, July 11, for a screening of Jaws.

By then, Green said, the lobby and the upstairs lounge should be free of the smoke smell.

Green said the fire inspector determined the fire was caused by a damaged electrical wire.

“A wire that was part of the air conditioning bundle, the lining around it became frayed at some point,” Green said. “He said it could have happened when it was pushed down between the walls. It could have happened a variety of different ways. … He said that it literally could have happened when the wire was installed 26-some years ago, and slowly over time, it just got worse.”

The good news is that the insurance company so far has been “great,” Green said. He also praised the Palm Springs Fire Department for responding so quickly to the fire alarm and stopping the fire before it spread.

The bad news: Insurance doesn’t cover everything—and Green said the Cultural Center’s finances can be seasonally “precarious.” While the Supple family generously donated the building to the nonprofit Cultural Center, the donation did not come with an endowment or trust to help with upkeep. As a result, the Cultural Center has to pay for everything involving the building—and otherwise—with revenue ticket sales, fundraising, grants and the like. The organization doesn’t even have a line of credit, Green said.

“(Our insurance has) a $10,000 deductible, and you’re not guaranteed that the insurance is going to pay for all of the adjacent things that are the result of a fire,” Green said. “There are always other things that go along with it that don’t get covered. At this point, it’s so early in the process that we don’t even know what those things are or might be. … We also have loss of business insurance, but that’s not going to take care of you 100% when you are closed and not able to operate.

“Our food service … is an integral part of the business. For instance, we can’t cater any of our own events right now. When we have live music upstairs, we won’t be able to serve the food with it. That’s part of what makes that program work. So it’s going to be a challenge. We’re going to have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

If you can help, head to www.psculturalcenter.org/donate. Alternately, go see Jaws there Saturday night, and/or go to other upcoming events at the Cultural Center. Or do both—because this organization that’s provided so many people with wonderful memories really needs our support right now.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• California’s new food-labeling law has gone into effect. Fox Business explains: “California’s standardized food date-labeling law took effect Tuesday, requiring food manufacturers that choose to display expiration-style dates on products sold in the state to use uniform language and prohibiting consumer-facing ‘sell by’ labels. Under Assembly Bill 660, food manufacturers, processors and retailers that display date labels on food manufactured on or after July 1, 2026, must use ‘BEST if Used by’ or ‘BEST if Used or Frozen by’ to indicate product quality, and ‘USE by’ or ‘USE by or Freeze by’ to indicate food safety. The law also prohibits covered food products sold in California from displaying consumer-facing “sell by” labels, although retailers may continue using coded stock-rotation labels that are not easily readable by consumers. ‘Using clear, consistent date labels will help reduce confusion about when food is safe to eat, cut down on unnecessary food waste, and make it easier for consumers to make informed decisions,’ Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, who authored the legislation, wrote Monday on X.”

• The Trump administration—which, of course, includes noted white nationalists like Stephen Miller—just issued a report accusing the Smithsonian of presenting “a radical view of American history.” ABC News says: “The White House released a scathing 162-page report accusing the Smithsonian Institution of engaging in ‘extreme political activism’ and presenting ‘a radical view of American history.’ The report, which was published on Saturday, July 4, particularly took aim at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH), accusing its leadership of adopting ‘an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.’ The report accuses the museum of ‘anti-White activism,’ ‘illegal alien activism’ and ‘transgender activism.’ It also includes many photos of materials the White House has identified as problematic.”

• Speaking of white nationalists: You may have seen some photos over the weekend of masked Patriot Front members riding the subway—along with some concerned-looking people of color—in Washington, D.C. The Advocate tracked down one of those concerned-looking people: Roswell Encina, the president and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. “In a Getty Images photograph by Finn Gomez that spread widely online, Encina sits on the train as masked members of the white supremacist group crowd around him. Encina said he did not know at first who the men were. He noticed patches and logos and began piecing it together. He texted friends during the ride so someone would know where he was. ‘I would be lying if I said no, he said when asked whether he was scared. ‘I was terrified, honestly, just because I wasn’t sure what the motives were.’ The men stayed on the train with him for about 25 minutes, he said. At first, he thought only his car and perhaps the next one were filled. ‘When I saw that there were really hundreds of them getting off at New Carrollton, it really did kind of take my breath away,’ he said. On Instagram on Sunday, Encina wrote that he had found himself on a ‘train with hundreds of masked white supremacists.’ He called the moment unsettling, especially on the Fourth of July. ‘I came to this country as an infant and became a U.S. citizen,’ he wrote. ‘So sitting there, on the Fourth of July, I couldn’t help but think about the promise of America and the work still required to protect it.'”

• This is a disconcerting Calmatters headline: “Private prison company sells two of California’s immigrant detention centers to the feds.” Details: “The private prison company CoreCivic has sold two of the largest immigration detention facilities in California to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a deal worth $1.5 billion, the company announced Monday. CoreCivic said it anticipates that the sale of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and the California City Detention Facility in Kern County will bring the company an estimated net proceeds of approximately $1.1 billion. The sale closed on July 2, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with the federal government paying $739.2 million for the 1,994-bed Otay Mesa facility and $732.6 million for the newly-opened 2,560-bed California City facility. The two properties were sold under separate purchase agreements, signed and completed on the same day. CoreCivic said in a news release that it expects to continue running the day-to-day operations of both facilities under existing management contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company acknowledged in its filing that the terms of those contracts could be renegotiated now that the federal government owns both properties outright.”

• Did you know California has the most segregated school system in the continental U.S.? High school senior Vesta Kassayan writes in a commentary, also published by our partners at Calmatters: “A UCLA Civil Rights Project report last fall found the share of ‘intensely segregated’ schools—those with more than 90% students of color — has quadrupled in the last three decades. The gap shows up in college. Students in the most segregated high schools complete the coursework required for a UC or CSU at rates 25 percentage points lower than students in the least segregated schools. I’m a senior at Menlo-Atherton High, and some of my classmates come from Atherton, the wealthiest zip code in California. Others come from East Palo Alto, where the only public middle school posts some of the lowest test scores in the state. California isn’t blind to these divides. It builds programs to address them. Most take the same shape: move a few kids across school lines and leave the lines themselves untouched. The problem is the programs aren’t working.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … luxury shampoo! NBC 5 Chicago reports: “A popular, high-end shampoo sold nationwide has been voluntarily recalled due to the presence of bacteria, with retailers and salons asked to pull the product from shelves and people urged to stop using it. The recall, issued July 1 by Kao USA, was impacting certain lots of Oribe Serene Scalp Densifying Shampoo sold in the U.S. and Canada. According to a release from the Food and Drug Administration, the recall was issued because Pluralibacter gergoviae bacteria was detected. ‘Though Pluralibacter gergoviae bacteria pose little medical risk to healthy people, those with certain health issues such as weakened immune systems may be more susceptible to infection by the bacteria,’ the FDA said. The release went on to say that people were urged to stop using the products, regardless of health status. The FDA says the recall is currently limited to specific lots of the Oribe shampoo in 8.5 ounce and 33.8 ounce sizes, but an investigation into the scope of the issue remains ongoing.”

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