Indy Digest: Sept. 18, 2023
Ladies and gentlemen: Here are your 2023-2024 Best of Coachella Valley readers’ poll finalists, as well as our final round ballot. Congratulations to all of the finalists!
As regular readers know, we do our Best Of a little differently than other publications, primarily by asking our readers to vote once, and only once, in each round. Not everyday. Just once.
And now, dear readers, some complete transparency: We do our Best of Coachella Valley poll for two main reasons: 1. People enjoy the poll and find the results useful. 2. It makes us money.
Yep: We get a boost in revenue from the ballot ads and, especially, the extra ads in December’s Best Of issue. The extra money we bring in for that December issue helps us publish in, say, July, when our revenue is … well, let’s just say the bottom-line budget number for that month is generally colored red rather than black.
A couple weeks ago, a member of our community posted a nice comment on social media expressing appreciation for the fact that we only ask people to vote once per round in the Best of Coachella Valley poll. Another member of the community, who should know better, responded with an eye-roll gif, along with a comment implying our Best Of was unnecessary, because there already enough readers’ polls in the valley.
Even though our poll is far from new—this is the Best of Coachella Valley’s 10th year—fair enough. Perhaps I’ll send a note asking how he proposes we make up the revenue we’d lose if we stopped doing the Best of Coachella Valley.
In any case … since we’re doing the Best Of poll, we’re going to do it as well as we possibly can. That’s why I spent a significant chunk of the last week checking for ballot-box stuffing, and compiling the first-round results, to make sure things are as fair and accurate as possible.
I have no issue with the other publications’ readers’ polls (although the fact that Gannett/The Desert Sun calls theirs the “official community’s choice awards” cracks me up, because there’s nothing that says “community” like using the same name and logo in dozens of markets across the country.) They have some worthy, deserving finalists and winners.
But compare our overall slate of finalists and winners to theirs, and you’ll see the difference.
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
Ambitious Aspirations: Gary Powers and James Owens Create the Revolution Stage Company in the Former Desert Rose Playhouse/Zelda’s Space
By Haleemon Anderson
September 18th, 2023
The first full production for the Revolution Stage Company will be Mid-Century Moderns, beginning an eight-week run on Friday, Oct. 6.
The Lucky 13: Billy Gibbons, Frontman of ZZ Top, Performing at Fantasy Springs
By Matt King
September 16th, 2023
Get to better know Billy Gibbons, the legendary ZZ Top frontman. The band is performing at Fantasy Springs on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Hiking With T: The Abundance of Rain Has Made Nearby Waterfall Hikes Even More Spectacular
By Theresa Sama
September 17th, 2023
The rains have made Southern California’s waterfalls more amazing—running strong late into the year.
A Tedious ‘Haunting’: Kenneth Branagh’s Newest Hercule Poirot Film Is a Snoozefest
By Bob Grimm
September 18th, 2023
While they failed to wow with their mysteries, Kenneth Branagh’s first two Poirot films were swell to look at and (mostly) finely acted—but A Haunting in Venice is bland across the board, visually and contextually.
More News
• The state of California is suing Big Oil for lying about climate change. The Los Angeles Times explains the end game: “Several other states and dozens of municipalities, including cities and counties in California, have filed similar lawsuits in recent years. ‘With our lawsuit, California becomes the largest geographic area and the largest economy to take these giant oil companies to court,’ (state Atty. Gen. Rob) Bonta said. ‘From extreme heat to drought and water shortages, the climate crisis they have caused is undeniable. It is time they pay to abate the harm they have caused.’ Bonta is seeking to create a nuisance-abatement fund to finance climate mitigation and adaptation efforts; injunctive relief to protect California’s natural resources from pollution, impairment and destruction; and to prevent the companies from making any further false or misleading statements about the contribution of fossil fuel combustion to climate change.”
• There may soon be a shortage of Clorox products. The reason? A massive cyberattack. ABC News reports: “The Clorox Company, known for its sanitizing wipes and brands such as PineSol, FreshStep cat litter, and Hidden Valley Ranch, said they detected ‘unauthorized activity on some of its Information Technology’ on Aug. 14. The company took steps to ‘remediate the activity, including taking certain systems offline,’ according to the filing. The activity … damaged portions of the company’s IT infrastructure, ‘which caused wide-scale disruptions of Clorox’s operations,’ according to the filing. That may mean an impact on Clorox products hitting shelves. Clorox said it’s repairing the infrastructure damaged in the cyberattack and reintegrating the systems it proactively took offline. Clorox said it will begin transitioning back to normal automated order processing the week of Sept. 25.”
• Related: Vegas is a mess, because two large casino companies are continuing to grapple with major cyber attacks that happened last week. NBC News explains who is taking credit for the attacks: “They are known in many cybersecurity circles in part because of a rare trait—they appear to be native English speakers, something that differentiates them from the many cybercrime groups that are made up of Russians and Eastern Europeans. A person familiar with the attacks said the hackers behind the Las Vegas intrusions are members of a group that the cybersecurity industry often refers to as ‘Scattered Spider.’ And while many hacker groups employ varied hacking techniques to wreak havoc on computer systems, this group’s entry points can be decidedly low tech: phone calls and online chats with tech support. Wendi Whitmore, a senior vice president at the cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, said her company is investigating multiple breaches connected to the hacker group. She said the hackers are masters of social engineering, which is the practice of fooling people into giving up information that can be used to take over the accounts of key people at victim companies.”
• Another pandemic-era funding program that many childcare businesses have come to depend on is ending at the end of the month. Time magazine says: “These funds were used by childcare providers to improve workers’ compensation, cover expenses such as rent, mortgages and utilities, and purchase personal protective equipment and supplies. Some 220,000 childcare programs, the majority of which were family home providers, benefited from these grants, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. At the end of 2022, the average grant award stood at $23,300 for family home providers and $140,600 for childcare centers. But the funding now faces a dramatic sunset as several pandemic-era benefits are set to expire on Sept. 30, stripping away economic assistance for millions of Americans and presenting a looming crisis for the industry. An estimated 70,000 childcare programs are projected to close as a result of lost funding, causing 3.2 million children to lose care, according to a study by the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.“
• I’ve always said it’s bad to have the phrases “smoked meat products” and “extraneous materials” in the same sentence, and this Food and Wine magazine piece shows that I am right: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced a recall of more than 15,000 pounds of smoked sausage produced by the Hillshire Brands Company. The smoked meat products are being pulled from shelves because they may be contaminated by ‘extraneous materials,’ specifically bone fragments. The recalled meat-and-poultry smoked sausages are labeled ‘Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage Made with Pork, Turkey, Beef’ and were sold in 14-ounce packages. … According to FSIS, the recalled Smoked Sausages were sold in supermarkets and other retailers in seven states: California, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.” Check out the story for specific lot and label info.
• And finally … I hate scorpions. They’re just … horrifying. So forgive me if I never leave the apartment again after reading this story, from KESQ News Channel 3: “The Bark Scorpion is known to pack one of the most potent stings in the country. When we last reported on the Bark Scorpion back in July, none of our local hospitals carried the needed anti-venom. We were there while the Coachella Valley Vector Control District found the Bark Scorpion in a Palm Desert neighborhood for the first time. Dr. William Hayes, a biology professor at Loma Linda University said, ‘This is an unpleasant and unwelcome invasion.’” Nope. Just, nope.
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