The Independent Wins Two Dozen California Journalism Awards; HHS Defunds Bird-Flu Vaccine Development–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: May 29, 2025

Indy Digest: May 29, 2025

On May 17, the California News Publishers Association announced the winners of this year’s California Journalism Awards (for work done in 2024)—and the Independent won 24 of ’em.

The CNPA splits publications into seven contest categories, based on print circulation, website visitors and staffing size. Based on our print circulation (16,000), we get placed into Category 5, which is for publications with a circulation between 11,001 and 25,000, or between 300,000 and 399,000 unique website visitors, or six to 10 full-time employees. (Essentially, we’re in the second of four size tiers for non-dailies.)

Almost all of the publications in our category are bigger than we are, with a LOT more resources than we have. Despite this, from what I can tell, no publication in our category won more first-place awards than we did.

Forgive the bragging, but I think this showing illustrates how hard our staff and contributors work to bring you the best coverage possible.

Here’s what we won:

• First place in the Feature Story category for “Roller Renaissance: There’s No Local Roller Rink, so Skaters Take to Basketball Courts, Portable Derby Tracks, City Streets and Outdoor Skate Parks,” by Matt King
• First place in the Best Newsletter category for 11 Days a Week, by Matt King, Charles Drabkin and Jimmy Boegle
• First place in the Fine Arts Writing/Reporting category for “Taking the Lead on LGBTQ+ Art: Three Artists Talk About the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Q+ Art Initiative—and an Exhibit of the Works of Gay Icon David Hockney,” by Haleemon Anderson
• First place in the Health Reporting category for “The Fight Against Fentanyl: Fentanyl-Related Overdose Deaths in Riverside County Are Decreasing Among Youth—but Increasing Among Older and Latinx People,” by Kevin Fitzgerald
• First place in the Homelessness Reporting category for “Civic Solutions: Project Homekey Comes to Cathedral City to Create a Renovated Supportive-Housing Complex,” by Melissa Daniels
• First place in the Print Special Section category for the Best of Coachella Valley 2024-2025
• First place in the Home Page Layout and Design category for CVIndependent.com
• Second place in the Arts and Entertainment Coverage category for Matt King’s music coverage
• Second place in the Best Newsletter category for the Indy Digest, by Jimmy Boegle
• Second place in the Coverage of Business and the Economy category for “Arts = Business: After a Study Documents How Creatives Boost the Coachella Valley’s Economy, Locals Work to Utilize the Data,” by Haleemon Anderson
• Second place in the Environment Reporting category for “The Need for Seeds: Why the Mojave Desert Land Trust is Developing a Critical Safeguard for the Desert’s Future,” by Melissa Daniels
• Second place in the Music Writing/Reporting category for “A Need for Nostalgia: The Emo/Alt Music Scene Offers Community at a Time of Increasing Hate and Divisiveness,” by Matt King
• Second place in the Sports Feature category for “Success Via Sport: Nationwide Nonprofit ACEing Autism Brings Its Tennis Program for Young People on the Autism Spectrum to Palm Desert,” by Kevin Fitzgerald
• Second place in the Online Story Presentation Page Layout and Design, for CVIndependent.com
• Third place in the Editorial Comment category for “What Happened to Small-Government Conservatives?, More Deaths in California Jails–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: March 25, 2024,” by Jimmy Boegle
• Third place in the Religion and Faith Writing category for “Connection With Nature: The Discovery of an Endangered Plant Leads a Rancho Mirage Church to Create a ‘Sacred Garden’,” by Haleemon Anderson
• Third place in the Print Front Page Layout and Design category, with covers by Dennis Wodzisz
• Fourth place in the Column category for the Indy Digest, by Jimmy Boegle
• Fourth place in the Sports Feature category for “Coachella-Born Olympian: Local Native Citlalli Ortiz Heads for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics as Part of Mexico’s Boxing Team,” by Kevin Fitzgerald
• Fifth place in the Editorial Comment category for “News Is Something With Value, Dang It, You Can Order Free COVID Tests–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 26, 2024,” by Jimmy Boegle
• Fifth place in the Fine Arts Writing/Reporting category for “Candid Celebrities: A Modernism Week Talk and MAD.KAT Gallery’s ‘Hollywood Cool’ Exhibition Celebrate John Hamilton’s Photos of Hollywood Stars,” by Matt King
• Fifth place in the Housing and Land-Use Reporting category for “Changing (Golf) Course? Time May Be Running Out for the Proposed Prescott Preserve, as Neighbors Continue to be Concerned About the Oswit Land Trust’s Restoration Plans,” by Kevin Fitzgerald
• Fifth place in the Immigration Reporting category for “Beyond the Moshing: Bronca Mixes English and Spanish to Deal With Topics of Oppression, Code-Switching and Culture Wars—and Puts on a Raucous Live Show,” by Matt King
• Fifth place in the Profile Story category, for “Back Home, Back to Art: Artist Onnissia Harries Celebrates Black Womanhood With Her Large Canvas Paintings,” by Haleemon Anderson

Congrats to all of the winners!

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The city of Palm Springs has instituted a “disaster recovery zone” to assist businesses that were affected by the May 17 bombing. Our friends at the Palm Springs Post say: “Palm Springs elected officials Wednesday night approved a disaster recovery zone with reduced fees to help more than 50 businesses rebuild from an estimated $6 million to $12 million in damage caused by the May 17 terrorist bombing that killed the suspect and injured four people at a fertility clinic on North Indian Canyon Drive. The City Council unanimously approved the disaster overlay zone during a regular meeting which saw multiple department heads give a report on the city’s response following the bombing. The zone covers several blocks around the bombing site at 1199 North Indian Canyon Drive and offers reduced permit fees and expedited review processes for damaged businesses. ‘We estimate there’s a total of 56 businesses impacted by the bombing,’ City Manager Scott Stiles said. ‘Of those buildings, four buildings and businesses were a complete loss. The remaining 52 have minor damage to doors and windows that were blown out.’”

• Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are now on-again, off-again in the courts as well. CNBC reports: “A federal appeals court on Thursday granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily pause a lower-court ruling that struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Trump administration had earlier told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that it would seek ‘emergency relief’ from the Supreme Court as soon as Friday if the tariff ruling was not quickly put on pause. The judgment issued Wednesday night by the U.S. Court of International Trade is ‘temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers,’ the appeals court said in its order. … Trump officials maintain that they have other options for imposing tariffs, even if they do not prevail in the case. ‘Even if we lose, we will do it another way,’ Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon.”

• Some headlines have the potential to, one day down the line, become much more significant than they seem at the time of publication. Let’s all hope this is not one of those headlines: “HHS cancels funding for Moderna to develop vaccines to combat bird flu.” The Washington Post reports: “The Department of Health and Human Services is pulling millions of dollars it had committed to give Moderna to aid the effort to develop a vaccine to combat the bird flu in humans, the company announced Wednesday. Under President Joe Biden, HHS had announced its intent last summer to award $176 million and then a subsequent $590 million in January to Moderna amid an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle. The virus has infected 70 people since last year, and federal health officials had previously described the effort as critical to strengthening the country’s pandemic preparedness. The company was developing vaccines using messenger RNA—the same technology used in the most commonly administered coronavirus vaccines hailed as a major medical achievement during the first Trump administration. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of mRNA vaccines, and this week he announced that the coronavirus shots would no longer be recommended for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. The termination reflects ongoing tensions between Kennedy and medical experts who say the vaccines have been proved to be safe and effective.”

• I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: RFK Jr. should be behind bars, not running HHS. The Associated Press reports: “The White House will fix errors in a much-anticipated federal government report spearheaded by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which decried America’s food supply, pesticides and prescription drugs. Kennedy’s wide-ranging ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report, released last week, cited hundreds of studies, but a closer look by the news organization NOTUS found that some of those studies did not actually exist. Asked about the report’s problems, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the report will be updated. ‘I understand there was some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated.’ Leavitt told reporters during her briefing. ‘But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government.’”

• Food-safety inspections have been decreased due to all of the federal layoffs/budget cuts—and this is having some bad consequences. The Washington Post starts off by telling the story of a 9-year-old who was severely ill after eating tainted lettuce: “The E. coli bacteria that ravaged Colton’s kidneys was a genetic match to the strain that killed one person and sickened nearly 90 people in 15 states last fall. Federal health agencies investigated the cases and linked them to a farm that grew romaine lettuce. But most people have never heard about this outbreak, which a Feb. 11 internal Food and Drug Administration memo linked to a single lettuce processor and ranch as the source of the contamination. In what many experts said was a break with common practice, officials never issued public communications after the investigation or identified the grower who produced the lettuce. From failing to publicize a major outbreak to scaling back safety alert specialists and rules, the Trump administration’s anti-regulatory and cost-cutting push risks unraveling a critical system that helps ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply, according to consumer advocates, researchers and former employees at the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture.“

• This Wired sub-headline screams “Big Brother” and “Massive Privacy Violation”: “Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4, whose genetic data is uploaded to an FBI-run database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future.” Details: “Spanning from October 2020 through the end of 2024, the records show that CBP swabbed the cheeks of between 829,000 and 2.8 million people, with experts estimating that the true figure, excluding duplicates, is likely well over 1.5 million. That number includes as many as 133,539 children and teenagers. These figures mark a sweeping expansion of biometric surveillance—one that explicitly targets migrant populations, including children.”

• And finally … our partners at Calmatters report that low-income elderly and disabled Californians are worried about losing Medi-Cal benefits due to a rule change proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Cynde Soto, a quadriplegic who requires around-the-clock care, has been on Medi-Cal for most of her life. Recently, she came into a modest inheritance, about $8,000, that has helped cover her daily expenses. But it also means that she would lose her state health insurance under a proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom has proposed restoring a $2,000 limit on an individual’s assets—including savings accounts and property other than a home and a car—and $3,000 for couples to qualify for Medi-Cal. Anyone 65 and older or disabled who exceeds that limit would be ineligible. Newsom also is proposing a cap on how much home care Medi-Cal enrollees like Soto could receive. In unveiling the proposal, Newsom said that California has a ‘spending problem’ and needs to make ‘difficult choices’ to address the state’s $12 billion deficit, which he attributed in part to growing Medi-Cal costs. … But health advocates say that it’s almost impossible for someone to live with just $2,000 in assets in California. Rent often exceeds that amount, and medical expenses not covered by insurance quickly add up.”

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