Consider Arriving at the Airport Early; Lots of Local Happenings Worth Knowing About: Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Dec. 15, 2022

Indy Digest: Dec. 15, 2022

There is a LOT of stuff going on this weekend and beyond in the Coachella Valley. Here are just a few happenings worth knowing about.

• If you need a Christmas tree, or you’ve been on the fence on whether you’re getting one this year, I highly suggest buying one this weekend from the Palm Springs High School Band.

The band has sold Christmas trees at the school for many years. (I’ve bought a tree or two there myself!) Such is the case this year … but this is 2022, a year when it seems like NOTHING has gone smoothly. PSHS band booster parent and friend of the Independent Megan Goehring explains what happened:

You heard (or, well, read) Megan: If you need a tree, or you might need a tree, or you know someone who needs a tree, or you just want to support the PS High School band, get thee to the school this Saturday!

• The city of Palm Springs’ Parks and Recreation Department is teaming up with the Palm Springs Gay Softball League (full disclosure: I am a member of the league) and others to host a Breakfast With Santa this weekend.

From the news release:

The City of Palm Springs Parks and Recreation Department will host Breakfast With Santa, a FREE community event with a pancake breakfast, holiday games and crafts, and plenty of photo opportunities with Santa, on Saturday, Dec. 17, from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Palm Springs Leisure Center (401 S. Pavilion Way). Every child who attends will receive a new, unwrapped toy of their choice, thanks to the generous support of BMW of Palm Springs and Porsche Palm Springs. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling (760) 323-8272 or visiting www.palmspringsca.gov.

Breakfast with Santa is a free festival of food and fun for the whole family. Jointly sponsored by BMW of Palm Springs and Porsche Palm Springs, and co-hosted by the Palm Springs Gay Softball League, more than 200 local children and their families are expected to attend this year’s event. …

“Every child deserves to feel special during the holidays,” said Bob Hogan, BMW of Palm Springs and Porsche Palm Springs. “We’re proud to partner with the City and Palm Springs Gay Softball League to facilitate gifts for so many deserving kids in our community, many of which might otherwise go without. Giving them a happy holiday is what it’s all about.”

The easiest way to RSVP is probably by calling the number, but if you want to reserve online, here’s how. (It’s more complicated than the release lets on.) First, go here. Type breakfast into the search bar, and pick which time you want: 8, 9 or 10 a.m.

• The Palm Springs International Piano Competition, which just held a well-attended concert and fundraiser on Nov. 15 at the Palm Springs art museum, is holding another event—this time, on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

“Romance of the Holidays” will take place at 7 p.m. at the CVRep Playhouse, located in scenic downtown Cathedral City. The concert will feature the music of Joe Giarrusso, with performances by John Bayless, Cindy Brogan, Giorgi Latso, Anna Federova-Latso, Bram Conley, Richard Treat and John Walz. The show will be followed by a holiday cocktails and sweets reception. Tickets are $75, and you can get them and learn more by clicking here.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• If you’re flying out of Palm Springs International Airport during the holidays, you should consider arriving perhaps a little earlier than you normally would. From a news release: “Officials at Palm Springs International Airport expect passenger counts for Christmas and New Year’s to set new records this year, and PSP is asking travelers to arrive 2 1/2 hours prior to their scheduled departure time to check luggage and 90 minutes early with only a carry-on. Airport officials stated that this holiday season is forecasted to be the busiest in the airport’s history, with 15% more passengers expected to fly out for the holidays. TSA-Checkpoint wait times are predicted to exceed 30 minutes during peak times, and the airport also encourages travelers to consider taking a taxi or Uber/Lyft to catch their flight as parking lots may reach capacity. … The Christmas travel period, Wednesday through Monday, is expected to have nearly 15% more passengers passing through PSP than in 2021. The airport is planning for more than 35,000 people to depart from PSP during this time, and Friday, December 23 is expected to be the busiest with over 8,000 passengers expected to fly out that day.”

• The federal government has relaunched its free COVID-19 tests program. From CNBC: “You can now get four more free COVID-19 at-home test kits delivered to your door, the Biden administration announced Thursday. As part of a plan to ‘stay ahead of an increase in COVID-19 cases this winter,’ the White House announced in a press briefing that it revived the free test kit program that ended in September due to an ‘absence’ of Congressional funding. The Biden administration says it will fund a ‘limited round’ of four individual rapid antigen COVID-19 tests per household that can be ordered starting Thursday. You can order online via the federally run website COVIDTests.gov.”

• If you’re a fan of dark chocolate like I am, please read on and share in my sadness and concern. According to CBS News: “Scientists at the nonprofit advocacy organization (Consumer Reports) recently measured the amount of heavy metals in 28 popular brands of dark chocolate bars and found cadmium and lead in all of them. For 23 of the bars, consuming just an ounce a day would put an adult over a level for at least one of the metals that could be harmful, CR said. Five of the bars were above those levels for both cadmium and lead. Long-term exposure to even small amounts of heavy metals can lead to a slew of health issues, including developmental problems and brain development in young children, experts say. … CR found that an ounce of Hershey’s Special Dark Mildly Sweet Chocolate contained lead 265% above what California allows, and Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao holding 192% more.” Ugh.

• The Biden administration is trying to take action to prohibit misleading Medicare Advantage ads. The Associated Press says: “The rule, proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would ban ads that market Medicare Advantage plans with confusing words, imagery or logos. The new regulation would also prohibit ads that don’t specifically mention a health insurance plan by name. It’s an aggressive step to tackle a growing problem in the Medicare Advantage marketplace, a booming business that offers privately run versions of the government’s Medicare program for people who are 65 and older or have disabilities. Nearly half of all Medicare enrollees—about 28 million—are now turning to Medicare Advantage plans. And some have been deceived by television commercials, online ads and mailers put out by the marketing agencies and brokers that some insurers have hired to win over customers.”

• The state just made some huge changes to California’s rooftop-solar programs. Our partners at CalMatters explain: “The California Public Utilities Commission today overhauled the state’s rooftop solar regulations, reducing payments to homeowners for excess power but providing nearly a billion dollars in incentives to encourage more solar projects for low-income homes. Commissioners called the new rules—adopted unanimously after hours of highly charged public comments that were almost entirely opposed—a much-needed course-correction to California’s 27-year-old residential solar rules. Both the power companies and the solar industry criticized the new rules. … The new regulations will: 1. For new customers, reduce the amount utilities’ pay them for excess power by at least 75% compared to current rates. The change would not apply to residents with existing solar systems. 2. Fund $900 million in new incentive payments to residents to help them purchase rooftop solar systems. Two thirds of the funds, $630 million, will be set aside for low-income households. The remainder provides funding for paired solar-battery storage systems. 3. Set rates that aim to shift all consumers’ use of power to the times of day that improve grid reliability.”

• Another day, another announcement that more news-media announcements are coming. From The Washington Post, interestingly enough: “The Washington Post will continue to eliminate jobs early next year, Publisher Fred Ryan said Wednesday, weeks after the paper announced it will shutter its Sunday magazine and lay off 11 newsroom employees. Ryan said at a companywide meeting that the cuts will probably amount to a ‘single-digit percentage’ of the company’s 2,500 employees but did not provide specifics. He added, though, that the company will add new jobs to offset the loss of positions that are ‘no longer serving readers,’ and that The Post’s total head count will not be reduced. The publisher walked out of the meeting after dozens of employees raised their hands and peppered him with questions. Plans for job cuts will be finalized ‘over the coming weeks,’ Post spokeswoman Kathy Baird said in a statement.”

• And finally … you probably heard about the fusion ignition announcement last week, and you probably know that it was a big deal … but perhaps you didn’t understand the specifics. A nuclear engineer, writing for The Conversation, is here to explain. A taste: “To assess the success of a fusion experiment, physicists look at the ratio between the energy released from the process of fusion and the amount of energy within the lasers. This ratio is called gain. Anything above a gain of 1 means that the fusion process released more energy than the lasers delivered. On Dec. 5, 2022, the National Ignition Facility shot a pellet of fuel with 2 million joules of laser energy—about the amount of power it takes to run a hair dryer for 15 minutes—all contained within a few billionths of a second. This triggered a fusion reaction that released 3 million joules. That is a gain of about 1.5, smashing the previous record of a gain of 0.7 achieved by the facility in August 2021. … Fusion energy has been the ‘holy grail’ of energy production for nearly half a century. While a gain of 1.5 is, I believe, a truly historic scientific breakthrough, there is still a long way to go before fusion is a viable energy source.”

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