Indy Digest: June 26, 2023
Earlier today, the Independent’s sister paper in Reno received a phone call from a woman who said there’d been a shooting of some sort near her downtown-area home over the weekend. At least seven police cars were there at one point, she said.
She hadn’t seen any stories about what happened in any media, neither newspapers nor TV news—and she was wondering why. She speculated that perhaps the big casinos were somehow keeping stories about incidents like this out of the press, because they might scare potential tourists away.
No, that’s not what happened, I replied. The simple fact is there just aren’t that many reporters left..
Non-media folks don’t grasp the crisis the news business, both local and national, is facing right now. We’ve mentioned before in this space that Gannett, the parent company of both The Desert Sun and the Reno daily, has halved its workforce since 2019—including 20 percent of its newsroom employees just last year.
One can make the case that 2023 has been even more brutal for media layoffs—and we’re just halfway done with the year. Forbes has a running list of media layoffs around the country, and it’s a horror show.
About 100 laid off by Warner Bros. Discovery. The elimination of 21 of 175 positions at Southern California Public Radio. About 20 let go by The Athletic, and 74 laid off by the Los Angeles Times. Two hundred laid off by Spotify. All of this has happened this month—and that’s not the complete June list.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it many times again: If you don’t support the media sources you value, they will die. That’s especially true for local media sources. If you don’t support your local media sources, they will die.
Fewer reporters means decreased local coverage—of arts, of music, of business, of food, of politics, of you name it … even shootings that attract seven police cars.
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
Civic Solutions: I Grew to Love Reading and Writing Thanks, in Part, to Often-Challenged Books I Got at My Local Library
By Maria Sestito
June 23rd, 2023
Our local libraries offer everything from cooking classes to astronomy lessons—and they’re on the front lines of the battle against book bans.
Restaurant News Bites: A New Owner for Rio Azul; Summer Specials; and More!
By Charles Drabkin
June 25th, 2023
The latest Coachella Valley food news, including new ice cream in Palm Springs; a party continues in DHS; and more!
Jazz, Elevated: Idyllwild Arts Hosts the 29th Jazz in the Pines Festival and Student Clinic
By Cat Makino
June 26th, 2023
From July 3-15, a flock of jazz musicians will head up the mountain to Idyllwild for Jazz in the Pines—led by three-time Grammy Award-winning trumpeter John Daversa and his Big Band.
Self-Parody? Wes Anderson Wastes a Great Cast in the Surprisingly Dull ‘Asteroid City’
By Bob Grimm
June 26th, 2023
Asteroid City could’ve been relevant had Wes Anderson provided his cast with more words and a livelier environment.
More News
• Ken Doctor, the founder of a local digital news outlet in Santa Cruz, masterfully sums up why the so-called California Journalism Preservation Act, which is making its way through the Legislature, is a bad bill as it is currently written, despite its authors’ good intentions. (You may recall that I’ve also voiced my opposition in this space.) A snippet from the piece, published by Lookout Santa Cruz: “In short, it would further entrench the national chain companies that have done much to diminish local reporting throughout the state, giving them a longer lifeline. The result, I believe, would be the status quo—or worse. We would not much reward those whose vigorous energy is starting to make a big difference in local coverage, but we would enrich financially driven national chains, who are in the extraction—not the news—business.”
• The latest conflict-of-interest revelations involving U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito have spurred Senate Republicans into a call for action … or, well, a very small amount of action. The Hill reports: “While Republicans don’t support Supreme Court ethics reform legislation sponsored by Democrats, they think the reports that Thomas and Alito accepted expensive vacations funded by wealthy donors has created a real public relations problem for the court. These lawmakers want Roberts to take the issue of legislation out of Congress’ hands by issuing a judicial code of ethics or some other updated statement of principles for he and his fellow justices. ‘I think it would be helpful for the court to up its game. I don’t want Congress to start micromanaging the court but I think confidence-building would be had if they were more clear on some of this stuff,’ said Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
• Some good news regarding cancer treatments, from Time magazine: “The next big advance in cancer treatment could be a vaccine. After decades of limited success, scientists say research has reached a turning point, with many predicting more vaccines will be out in five years. These aren’t traditional vaccines that prevent disease, but shots to shrink tumors and stop cancer from coming back. Targets for these experimental treatments include breast and lung cancer, with gains reported this year for deadly skin cancer melanoma and pancreatic cancer. ‘We’re getting something to work. Now we need to get it to work better,’ said Dr. James Gulley, who helps lead a center at the National Cancer Institute that develops immune therapies, including cancer treatment vaccines.”
• It appears that toxic algae is killing a lot of ocean life along Southern California. CNN says: “Officials have received more than 1,000 calls in recent weeks from beachgoers, tourists and residents reporting sick, dying and dead sea mammals washed ashore from Santa Barbara to San Diego County, amid a growing toxic algal bloom in the waters off the coast. The wave of dead or sick animals is ‘one of the largest in memory,’ Justin Greenman, a stranding coordinator with NOAA Fisheries, told CNN. ‘It’s completely overwhelming.’ And, Greenman said, it doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon. Marine-life experts believe the harmful algal bloom is to blame, though they are waiting on test results to confirm it. The algae, Pseudo-nitzschia, produces a neurotoxin called domoic acid, which can be poisonous to seabirds and fish once ingested. It can then travel across the food chain to larger marine animals like dolphins, sea lions and even humans.”
• And now for some bad news regarding cancer treatments: There are shortages of some of the treatments we have now. The New York Times reports: “The nation’s months-long shortage of highly potent cancer drugs is grinding on, forcing patients and their doctors to face even grimmer realities than those cancer typically presents. … Oncologists are concerned that the alternatives to two crucial chemotherapy drugs are far less effective in treating certain cancers, and are sometimes more toxic. The backup therapies or lack thereof, they say, pose particularly troubling prospects for patients with ovarian, testicular, breast, lung and head and neck cancers. There are few, if any, signs that the shortage will ease anytime soon. A plant that was a main producer of the more popular drugs shut down late last year and has not reopened, depleting its stock. The easing of restrictions on imported drugs from China this month has provided some relief, but doctors said the influx has yet to make much of a dent. Some companies that sell the medications are projecting that the shortage will last through the fall or later.”
• And finally … the local tourism board has launched a campaign “to provide short-term vacation rental hosts with resources to give both guests and the local community a five-star experience.” From a Visit Greater Palm Springs news release: “Visit Greater Palm Springs, together with Rent Responsibly, launched the Five-Star Summer Hosting Essentials campaign. … The campaign enables premier hospitality through responsible hosting practices, insights into the latest travel trends, and guidance on summer preparedness. ‘Our guests want to be good neighbors. By empowering short-term rental owners and operators with the resources they need to comply with local regulations, we can create a pleasant environment for neighbors in our communities,’ said David Feltman, short-term vacation rental owner and Visit Greater Palm Springs board member. ‘Many nuisance issues and frustrations can be avoided when hosts are given the tools and support they need to be successful.’ The event series includes six lunch-and-learn webinars that are free to attend. Each event will share general and regional information as well as advice for each respective municipality’s local regulations.” The first event involves Indio, on Tuesday, July 11. Click the press-release link to learn more.
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