The Sinister Details Behind a Really Dumb Headline; Trump Jilts Bianco–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: April 6, 2026

Indy Digest: April 6, 2026

There are a numerous adjectives that could be used to describe this period in American history.

Terrifying. Sad. Cruel. And, yes, dumb.

From the “dumb” category, I present to you the dumbest New York Times headline I have ever seen. It’s not the construction of the headline that’s dumb—the quality of the headline as a descriptor of what’s in the story is quite excellent, in fact. The dumbness comes from the content, which is definitely newsworthy, yet so insane that The Onion couldn’t possibly come up with anything better.

Here it is:

The four graphs that lead off the story are equally dumb, yet well written, with tongue firmly in cheek:

Shastoni Burge has worked for a decade as a Waffle House server in Rome, Ga., much of it on the night shift. She said she was once punched in the face by a customer. She saw someone overdose in the bathroom. One night, a man took all the steak knives and threatened the staff with them.

But she has never seen anyone teleport to the place. “I’ve seen it all,” said Ms. Burge, 38. “But I’ve never seen that.”

Nor, Ms. Burge said, has she ever laid eyes on Gregg Phillips, a top official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who has generated numerous headlines and at least one biting late-night comedy segment for his claim that he once teleported to a Waffle House in Rome, a city of 39,000 people northwest of Atlanta.

Indeed, among roughly two dozen workers and regulars interviewed this week at Rome’s three Waffle House locations, none said they were aware of anyone traveling to the 24-hour restaurants by paranormal means, despite their reputation as powerful magnets for the sort of idiosyncratic characters who tend to surf the psychic fringes of the American South.

As hilarious as this is—and, good grief, you MUST find a way to laugh at times like these—it’s important to note that there’s a sinister and horrifying element behind this story: This person is really, truly the guy in charge of the federal response to disasters in this country—the second-highest-ranking person within FEMA.

His Wikipedia page shows that Mr. Phillips is a complete trainwreck of a government official. It’s chock full of tales of alleged wrongdoing, unpaid taxes, conflicts of interest, campaign-finance violations, grift, conspiracy theories and even romantic entanglements. Seriously, take a moment to go read it. It’s incredible. I wouldn’t hire this guy to run a cash register at a department store, let alone be the second-highest officer within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Yet that’s what Gregg Phillips is, despite a lack of qualifications, and a whole lot of should-be-disqualifications. Why? Because he’s a Trump supporter and election conspiracy theorist, that’s why.

That’s dumb. And terrifying.

Thursday is Local News Day!

Thursday, April 9, is Local News Day. According to the Local News Day website, “Local News Day is a national day of action connecting communities with trusted local news. Our mission is simple: reconnect people to trusted local outlets, empower newsrooms to grow, and spark a national movement that sustains local news for generations.”

The Independent is participating in an event that the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation (CVJF) is organizing as part of Local News Day: From 9 to 11 a.m. on Thursday, I’ll join other local journalists for an open house, of sorts, at Chef Tanya’s Kitchen, at 72695 Highway 111, Unit A6, in Palm Desert. Come by and say hello—and have a cup of coffee, compliments of the CVJF!

Learn more about the event here. See you there?

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The president is threatening a journalist or journalists with prison, due to their reporting regarding the conflict in Iran. NBC News reports: “President Donald Trump threatened to jail journalists at the media outlet that first reported a second airman was missing following the shoot-down of an American fighter jet in Iran on Friday. Both the pilot and the ‘back seater’ were recovered by American forces in what the president, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine described as separate, daring operations during a White House news conference on Monday. … Trump said that he would pursue whoever leaked information about the second airman—which the U.S. government had hoped to keep secret in order to prevent him from being captured or killed by Iran—and pressure the news media to assist in that investigation. ‘We think we’ll be able to find it out,’ Trump said. ‘Because we’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, “National security. Give it up or go to jail.”’ A White House official declined to name the news outlet in a text exchange with NBC News, citing a desire to avoid tipping off the journalists. … Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in response to Trump’s threat against the unnamed news outlet: ‘News organizations have a First Amendment right to publish stories about matters of public importance—including stories the government would prefer to suppress.’”

• Today was a bad day for fervent Trump supporter Chad Bianco. The Associated Press explains why: “President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Steve Hilton for California governor, reordering a crowded, wide-open race to lead the nation’s most populous state. Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator ‘a truly fine man’ who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, ‘has gone to hell.’ … With a large field, Democrats have been fearful that a quirk in the state’s unusual ‘top two’ primary system could allow only two Republicans to reach the November general election ballot—Hilton and GOP rival Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. Trump’s decision—a strong signal to undecided conservative voters—will make that outcome less likely by helping Hilton lure additional support.”

• Our partners at Calmatters look at the race in the newly drawn 48th Congressional District, which includes Palm Springs and is without an incumbent after Republican Darrell Issa decided not to run: “The new hotly contested district covers most of East and North County San Diego and parts of Riverside County, including Palm Springs. Its voter makeup shifted from deep red to slightly blue when California voters approved a redistricting plan to try to give the state five more Democratic congressmembers after Texas created five extra Republican seats. San Diego Democrats, including council member Marni von Wilpert, and former Obama official Ammar Campa-Najjar, are competing with (San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican) in a crowded field. The top two vote-getters in the June primary will face off in the November general election, regardless of their party. Given the district makeup, Desmond is expected to secure one of those spots. With a local background in nonpartisan office, Desmond is a ‘formidable opponent’ to Democrats, said Ross Pike, parliamentarian for the Democratic Club of Fallbrook. Desmond raised nearly $1.4 million by the end of last year and the main GOP re-election campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, says it’s optimistic about the district as Desmond aims to cast himself as a moderate focused on affordability and immigration.”

• Politico reports that the U.S. Holocaust Museum has made a lot of concerning changes since Trump returned to office: “In the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington quietly removed from its website educational resources about American racism and canceled a workshop about the ‘fragility of democracy.’ The changes, which have not been previously reported, came as Trump cracked down on what he called ‘corrosive ideology’ at the Smithsonian Institution, demanding a slew of alterations at the world’s largest museum network to more closely align its content with his worldview. They also coincided with the administration’s efforts to remove content related to diversity, equity and inclusion from federal websites. … The museum pulled from its website a page called ‘Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow’ at some point after Aug. 29, 2025, the last time the page was captured on the Internet Archive. That page provided lesson plans and resources about the connections between American de jure racism and the Nazi regime, including links to sites about ‘African American Soldiers during World War II’ and ‘Afro-Germans during the Holocaust,’ among other topics. It also linked to a 2018 video on the museum’s YouTube channel featuring a conversation between a Holocaust survivor and a woman whose father was lynched in Alabama. That video is now unlisted, meaning it does not show up on the USHMM’s YouTube page but is still accessible via direct URL.”

• Meanwhile, the Trump administration is proposing more massive cuts to national parks. SFGate says: “The National Park Service will operate with more than 25% less money if the Trump administration gets its wish. According to the administration’s 2027 budget proposal, released Friday, funding for park operations could be reduced by $736 million. ‘A cut this massive would be catastrophic,’ said John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association, in a news release. ‘After a year of deep staffing cuts, dwindling resources, and attacks on history and science, park staff are already at the brink.’ … At the same time, the Trump administration is proposing the allocation of $10 billion within the Park Service for a new ‘Presidential Capital Stewardship Program’ for beautification efforts around Washington, D.C., leading up to the country’s 250th anniversary this summer.”

• We’ll conclude with two bits of recall news. First up … eye drops! CBS News reports: “More than 3.1 million bottles of eye drops sold at major retailers, including Walgreens and CVS, are being recalled due to concerns about their sterility, according to a notice from the Food and Drug Administration. The eyedrops have been recalled by their manufacturer, K.C. Pharmaceuticals, according to the March 3 alert. The products were sold under a number of brand names, including Dry Eye Relief Eye Drops and Artificial Tears Sterile Lubricant Eye Drops. The recall was classified as ‘Class II’ by the FDA, which describes products that may cause ‘temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.’”

• And finally … the next recall involves … pans! USA Today says: “More than 700,000 sauté pans sold at Costco, Walmart and Amazon have been recalled due to them being a burn hazard, according to a notice published on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) website. E Mishan & Sons, a New York-based consumer products importer and distributor, announced the recall of about 740,000 Granitestone Diamond Pro Blue Sauté Pans on April 2. The recall stems from at least 98 reports of the metal cap on the screw that connects the sauté pan to the handle detaching and forcefully ejecting when heated, effectively ‘posing impact and burn hazards to consumers,’ the notice says. Of the 98 reports, one involves a consumer who received bruising and burn injuries.”

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