It Wasn’t Easy, but We Found Some Happy News; Kalura Trattoria, the City of PS Reach an Agreement–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Feb. 6, 2025

Indy Digest: Feb. 6, 2025

Today, we’re dedicating this intro space to positive news—and an examination of why, in some ways, positive news is rather difficult to find.

Yesterday, I came across an Associated Press story that was genuinely uplifting. There’s a horrible tragedy—the deadly plane crash in Philadelphia—at the start of the story, but what develops from there is rather lovely:

A 10-year-old boy has been making a ‘miraculous’ recovery after protecting his younger sister from the flying debris of a medical transport plane that crashed in Philadelphia last week, his family said.

‘Daddy, did I save my sister?’ was one of the first things Trey Howard asked his father after he woke up following emergency brain surgery, Andre Howard Jr. said. He had gone out for donuts with three of his kids when the plane crashed Friday night, he said.

‘It sounded like a missile was firing bullets, metal at my car, everyone else’s car,’ Andre Howard told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. Howard said he immediately backed up his car while his son covered his sister and told her, ‘Get down!’ Trey grabbed his sister and Howard heard the glass shatter, he said. …

Andre Howard said he used socks and another man provided his shirt in an attempt to stop the bleeding on the boy’s head. A police officer rushed them to the hospital. Doctors warned the family he might not survive his injuries, but he has improved every day.

Yes, there is still some good in this world.

After reading this piece, I thought it would be nice to take a break from the torrent of awful news (we’ll get to some of that below, alas) and share some nice, positive stories for once … and I had a heck of a time finding some. While the lack of readily available positive news was a bit of a bummer, it was no surprise.

We’ve all heard complaints that the news is too darned negative. I generally push back against those complaints, because the majority of coverage in the Independent, and a large percentage of coverage in other news publications, involves arts, culture, food, music and sports—coverage that, by its very nature, is positive.

Look below, for example. In the “From the Independent” section, there’s an interview with a comedian, a romance-related wine column, a Q&A with a musician who just released an album, a piece about a new Detroit-style pizza joint, and our weekly 11 Days a Week events preview. Of the six Independent-produced stories, the only one that could be viewed as non-positive is the comics page, and that’s because all of our cartoonists are focusing on hard news.

And as for hard news … just as arts/culture/food coverage skews positive, hard news by its very nature is going to be largely negative. It won’t always be negative, of course, but there’s an old journalism saying something to the effect of: Readers need to know about the plane crash, not the happy landing.

That said, I did finally find a couple of other positive pieces—both of them science-related, and both of them from the AP. Here they are:

• “A spine-zapping implant helped 3 people with a muscle-wasting disease walk better.” The lede:

Three people with a muscle-destroying disease destined to worsen got a little stronger – able to stand and walk more easily – when an implanted device zapped their spinal cord.

On Wednesday, researchers reported what they called the first evidence that a spine-stimulating implant already being tested for paralysis might also aid neurodegenerative diseases like spinal muscle atrophy – by restoring some muscle function, at least temporarily.

“These people were definitely not expecting an improvement,” said Marco Capogrosso, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who led the research. Yet over the month-long pilot study, “they were getting better and better.”

Spinal muscle atrophy or SMA is a genetic disease that gradually destroys motor neurons, nerve cells in the spinal cord that control muscles. That leads muscles to waste away, especially in the legs, hips and shoulders and sometimes those involved with breathing and swallowing. There is no cure. 

Awesome!

Finally, here’s a piece on a less serious subject, although it’s a subject with which most of us can relate—”How to cook the perfect boiled egg, according to science.” The story begins:

Scientists say they’ve cracked the code for boiling the perfect egg.

It’s a recipe you can test for yourself — though the timing isn’t ideal with soaring egg prices in the United States from a bird flu outbreak.

The perfect boiled egg has a velvety yolk paired with a soft, solid white.

Achieving this balance can be a challenge because the yolk cooks at a lower temperature than the white. Hard boiling an egg can yield a chalky yolk, while cooking low and slow can produce jelly-like, undercooked whites.

Researchers cooked hundreds of eggs and used math to tackle this runny conundrum. One equation dealt with how heat travels between a hot surface and an egg; another captured how the egg’s contents morph from liquid to solid with a gel-like state in between.

I won’t give away the technique, as I don’t want to steal the AP’s figurative thunder.

See! Good news! Hooray!

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• More good news! This just in: The city of Palm Springs says it has reached an agreement with Kalura Trattoria, the restaurant adjacent to the Plaza Theatre, after the city had started the process of taking over the restaurant’s patio via eminent domain. A news release says the settlement includes: “Payment in the amount of $500,000 to Kalura Trattoria for the loss of goodwill resulting from the relocation of Kalura’s existing outdoor patio; the city will provide a relocated outdoor dining patio with seating for 60 people within a portion of the right of way in front of Kalura. In addition, the city will improve the courtyard area in front of the Plaza Theatre, including where Kalura’s existing patio now sits; (and) the city has agreed not to charge Kalura for the use of the right of way area within the relocated patio for as long as Kalura occupies the restaurant property.”

• A new bird-flu development in Nevada has surprised and worried experts. The New York Times says: “Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu that is distinct from the version that has been spreading through herds over the last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday. The finding indicates that the virus, known as H5N1, has spilled from birds into cows at least twice—leading to these two sets of infections—and that it could continue to do so. It also suggests that the virus may pose a persistent risk to cows and to the people who work closely with them. Before last year, scientists did not know that cows were susceptible to this type of influenza. ‘This is not what anyone wanted to see,’ said Louise Moncla, an evolutionary biologist who studies avian influenza at the University of Pennsylvania. ‘We need to now consider the possibility that cows are more broadly susceptible to these viruses than we initially thought.’”

• Here’s yet more evidence that what’s happening in the country right now is NOT NORMAL and NOT GOOD. NBC News reports: “Federal health workers are expressing fear and alarm after a website called ‘DEI Watch List’ published the photos, names and public information of a number of workers across health agencies, describing them at one point as ‘targets.’ It’s unclear when the website, which lists mostly Black employees who work in agencies primarily within the Department of Health and Human Services, first appeared. ‘Offenses’ for the workers listed on the website include working on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, donating to Democrats and using pronouns in their bios.”

• Also not normal, and not good: There’s been an apparent spike in people impersonating Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. CNN says: “Authorities in at least three states have arrested individuals allegedly impersonating Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at a time when real ICE agents have ramped up immigration enforcement efforts under the Trump administration, adding to existing fears of law enforcement among migrant communities. In South Carolina, Sean-Michael Johnson, 33, was charged with kidnapping and impersonating a police officer after allegedly detaining a group of Latino men along a Charleston County road. Johnson is accused of ‘willfully and unlawfully presenting himself as an ICE Agent and detaining a vehicle of individuals from moving,’ according to court records. … The founder and president of the Charleston Hispanic Association told CNN that harassment of his constituents based on their ethnicity is commonplace. ‘We hear of Hispanics being targeted quite a bit. It’s an everyday thing,’ Enrique Grace told CNN. ‘I don’t think this is an isolated case; it was just caught on video. It’s pretty sad to see that.’” The details in the piece are indeed sad—and horrifying.

• Speaking of not good … our partners at Calmatters report: “For the past three years, more than 200,000 western monarch butterflies spent their winters along the California coast—huddling together in tall tree groves, finding respite from the wind from November to February. But this winter, volunteers from the Xerces Society, a nonprofit environmental group, tallied just 9,119 western monarchs—a dramatic 95% plunge and the second-lowest recording since the count first began in 1997. While the butterfly’s population has been declining for years, the finding still has some biologists and California park advocates worried. … Habitat loss, pesticides and severe weather due to climate change are some of the reasons the butterflies are under threat. The atmospheric rivers in 2023, for example, caused their numbers to dip. The Palisades Fire also burned vegetation at Lower Topanga Creek in Topanga State Park that supplies nectar to the butterflies, said California State Parks spokesperson Jorge Moreno in an email to CalMatters.”

• We’re in the height of flu season—but there are brand-new testing tools, at least. CNN explains: “The United States is seeing a second peak in flu cases this season. After doctor’s office visits for flu dipped early this year, they jumped past the previous season peak at the end of last month, with a 30% test positivity rate—and there are still months to go. … But there are some new tools to help this respiratory virus season: over-the-counter tests that can identify whether an illness is COVID-19 or influenza. The tests are available for purchase at most pharmacies or online and allow patients to learn what may be making them sick without needing to make an appointment at a clinic or wait in line. The tests won’t check for every respiratory virus, but they mark the first time the public can test for flu at home.”

• We could easily post about 20 more links to big, important news regarding what’s happening within the federal government, but y’all know where to find that news if you want it. Instead, we’ll end with a move being made by a large national restaurant chain (that, alas, is not in the Coachella Valley)—a move diners should probably expect to see at many restaurants in the coming weeks. CNN reports: “The soaring price of eggs has forced Waffle House to add a temporary surcharge on customers’ orders. The Georgia-based chain is adding a 50-cent charge per egg because of the ‘nationwide rise in cost of eggs,’ according to signs posted at its restaurants. An aggressive strain of avian flu is hurting supply and causing prices to rise—with no relief in sight. ‘The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices,’ Waffle House said in the statement to CNN. ‘Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions.’”

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