The Importance of Telling Our Community’s Stories; a Path Out of the State Insurance Mess? Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 19, 2024

Indy Digest: Sept. 19, 2024

Over the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the future of the Independent, and local journalism in general.

I’ve been to three different journalism conferences. I’ve filled out at least a half-dozen grant/funding applications. The buzz word common throughout all of the conference programming and all of these funding initiatives is sustainability: How can local-news publishers set ourselves up for success—and put us in a position where we’re likely to still be around, and hopefully growing, five, 10 and 20 years down the line?

But for the last week, thanks to our good ol’ print deadline, I’ve been focused on content—the journalism that we do—and it’s been a fantastic reminder (not that I needed one) of why what we do is important, and why we need to find ways to make sure we can keep doing it.

In the October print edition—which we sent to press earlier this evening, with distribution taking place next week—there are no big investigative pieces (though we do those on occasion), but there are numerous pieces that inform and tell the stories of our community—stories that, for the most part, may not be told otherwise (especially given the tenuous-at-best future of corporate-owned dailies).

In this one 40-page issue, you’ll find stories on a local animal sanctuary, and on an upcoming fundraiser to benefit cancer survivors. Our cover story looks at the local roller-skating community. We have news on restaurant openings and closings, and how the valley is dealing with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing local governments to ban homeless encampments. We share details on upcoming outdoor events, a three-weekend tour of artists’ studios, recommended beers to enjoy during Oktoberfest, and a popular annual series of concerts that raise funds benefiting people with autism. We profile a great local band that’s releasing a new EP with a strong message on oppression and culture. We offer extended Q&As with the candidates for city council seats in Palm Springs and Palm Desert. We even share news about a brilliant comet that will be visible in our nighttime skies.

I could keep going—there’s a lot more great stuff in this issue that I have not mentioned yet—but I think I’ve made my point. Of course, all of these stories, and much more, will also be included in this newsletter and at CVIndependent.com in the coming days; a couple have already been published online.

Back to those discussions and initiatives about sustainability: They all focus on the fact that local news organizations need to find new and better ways to bring in more revenue. We’re working on that here at the Independent, of course, and one of the things we definitely need to do is convince more readers that what we do is worth paying for—even though we give all of our content away for free, both online and in print.

If you’re a reader who financially supports the Independent on a regular basis: Thank you. If you’re not, and you both 1) find value in what we do and 2) can afford to help us, I humbly ask you to do so. You can find details here.

In other news: The final round of voting in our 11th annual Best of Coachella Valley readers’ poll is now under way!

The daily just so happens to be running its best-of poll right now as well. (We’ve always done our poll this time of year. The daily hasn’t; they moved theirs so it now overlaps with our timing. Go figure.) Our poll is 1) different and 2) a whole lot better. One reason why is we ask readers to vote once, and ONLY once, in each round.

Please, between now and Oct. 20, head to vote.cvindependent.com to pick your favorites among the fantastic slate of finalists. Again, vote only once, please—and thank you!

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Today’s recall news involves … beds! The Associated Press explains: “Nearly 138,000 platform beds sold at major retailers including Amazon and Walmart are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada because they can collapse, posing fall and injury risks. Utah-based importer CVB Inc. is recalling the Lucid-branded platform beds with upholstered square tufted headboards. According to Thursday notices from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, the beds can sag, break or collapse during use. To date, there have been 245 incidents of this occurring in the U.S., resulting in 18 related injuries such as contusions and bruises, the CPSC said. An additional 11 reports of ‘bed failures’ have been reported in Canada, with no further injuries.”

• Our partners at Calmatters asked California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara what he plans to do to fix the state’s insurance mess. Here’s (some of) what he had to say: “Could grants to low- and middle-income residents help? That’s an idea California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara wants to bring to the Legislature next year, he said in conversation today with CalMatters’ economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay. Lara discussed his multi-pronged approach to the insurance crisis—with companies decreasing coverage, raising premiums for residential and commercial customers, or leaving the state altogether. Part of the plan includes speeding up the state’s reviews of insurance companies’ proposed rate hikes—which are supposed to take 60 days, but often take as long as 18 months, by which time rates might not reflect the risk anymore. … Another significant change Lara is pushing to make insurance more available: For California to come out of the ‘dark ages’ to join other states in allowing insurance companies to do ‘catastrophe modeling.’ That would allow them to take projected losses into account—not just historical information—using data such as frequency, severity, damage and loss from wildfires and other natural disasters. Insurers can start using the modeling to set rates next year.”

• U.S. citizens may now renew their passports online. CNN reports: Americans who are renewing their passports will now be able to do so online, a top State Department official announced Wednesday. ‘This is a new service which will allow Americans to pay to upload a photo and to apply completely online, with no need to appear in person or to send documents through the mail,’ Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter said, noting that it ‘will be available 24/7.’ The service is open to adults who are renewing a regular 10-year passport that has expired within the past five years or expires in the coming year. At this point, the online passport renewal service is only accessible for Americans with a US address.”

• Gov. Gavin Newsom signed some bills that are intended to curb artificial-intelligence-generated deep fakes. The Washington Post says: “Among the measures is A.B. 2655, which requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive, digitally altered or digitally created content related to elections during certain periods before and after they are held. He also signed A.B. 2839—which expands the time frame during which people and entities are prohibited from knowingly sharing election material containing deceptive AI-generated or manipulated content—and A.B. 2355, which requires election advertisements to disclose whether they use AI-generated or substantially altered content. In July, after X owner Elon Musk retweeted an altered Kamala Harris campaign advertisement, Newsom wrote on social media that ‘manipulating a voice in an “ad” like this one should be illegal’ and committed to signing a bill ‘to make sure it is.’”

• Bad news on the illegal drug front: The Los Angeles Times headline says: “An industrial chemical is showing up in fentanyl in the U.S., troubling scientists.” Eek! Some details: “An industrial chemical used in plastic products has been cropping up in illegal drugs from California to Maine, a sudden and puzzling shift in the drug supply that has alarmed health researchers. Its name is bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate, commonly abbreviated as BTMPS. The chemical is used in plastic for protection against ultraviolet rays, as well as for other commercial uses. … It was … a growing presence in fentanyl over the summer: In June, none of the L.A. fentanyl samples tested by the team contained BTMPS, the analysis found. By August, it was detected in 41% of them. … BTMPS has been studied in rats for its potential to reduce withdrawal symptoms from morphine and affect nicotine use, but it can be toxic and even deadly to rodents at sufficient doses, and health researchers say there is an urgent need for more studies on its effects on the human body.”

• And now for some good news on the illegal drug front: NPR reports that overdose deaths are starting to finally decrease: “For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S. ‘This is exciting,’ said Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA), the federal laboratory charged with studying addiction. ‘This looks real. This looks very, very real.’ National surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6 percent. That’s a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages. Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S.”

• And finally … our planet will soon have two moons! Yes, really—but you probably won’t be able to see the second moon, and it likely won’t stick around for long. Time magazine explains: “From Sept. 29 until Nov. 25, astronomers calculate that 2024 PT5—which is what scientists think is an asteroid but have dubbed a “mini-moon”—will be looping around Earth. It will eventually break free of the planet’s gravitational orbit. The asteroid, which was discovered on Aug. 7 by NASA, originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt, where it will likely return once it leaves Earth’s orbit. … According to NASA, a Near-Earth Object is any body, asteroid or otherwise, that is ‘nudged’ by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets that pushes them to Earth’s neighborhood. … Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said 2024 PT5 is possibly a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon, meaning the mini-moon may have originated as a piece of the original moon, according to The New York Times.” Cool!

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