The Trump Administration Is Convinced to Not Do Something Stupid; a Program Placing Journalists Across the State Is on the Chopping Block–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: June 18, 2026

Indy Digest: June 18, 2026

The New York Times today published an article that, in myriad ways, illustrates the dangerous and illogical actions of the Trump administration—and shows that people can effectively fight these actions.

The story’s headline is rather pedestrian—”Trump Administration Backs Off Plan to End Ocean Monitoring”—but it’s packed with illustrative tidbits.

Here’s a gift link. The lede:

The Trump administration is abandoning its plan to dismantle a $368 million ocean monitoring system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems, bowing to a bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill.

The National Science Foundation had said in May that it would begin removing hundreds of underwater instruments this month that collect data on coastal flooding, marine heat waves and other climate and weather events.

But the agency announced on Thursday that it will pause efforts to take apart the system, known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, while convening an expert panel to determine its future.

“Effective immediately, N.S.F. will not proceed with further removal or de-scoping of equipment,” the agency said in a statement.

Then the piece explains how the Trump administration was pressured into backing off: “The Senate passed a measure Wednesday that would block the government from dismantling the system, with lawmakers in both parties warning that the action would be illegal and would threaten the safety of coastal communities. The Trump administration had also tried to cut the program’s funds the last two years, but Congress restored the money both times.”

It’s nice to know the checks-and-balances system still works sometimes!

Had the Trump administration followed through on this idiotic plan, all of us would have been indirectly affected. These instruments help scientists get information about the ocean in so many ways. Fishermen use them to check real-time wind and wave conditions. The data the system provides is important.

Here’s another fascinating tidbit:

Backlash had also come from overseas. After the Trump administration announced the plan to dismantle the system, the European Union said it would bolster its own observation of the world’s oceans with an investment of 92 million euros, or $107 million.

Though that move had been planned long before the U.S. retreat, officials in Brussels emphasized the contrast.

“Extremely worrying signals are coming from the other side of the Atlantic,” Costas Kadis, the European Union’s commissioner for fisheries and oceans, said at the time.

Translation: Kadis (and others) think the Trump administration was being stupid.

The Trump administration was indeed being stupid—but in this one instance, the public good and common sense won out.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The state is on the verge of defunding a program that’s brought Californians a whole lot of local news they would not have otherwise received. Our partners at Calmatters published a commentary by Martin G. Reynolds, the co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, explaining why this budget cut is a terrible idea. Some details: “Last year, California did something remarkable. The state made a groundbreaking $15 million public investment in local and ethnic media through the California Local News Fellowship and Propel Initiative. The Legislature recognized what communities across the state already know: access to trusted information is not a luxury. It is essential to a healthy democracy, informed communities and a functioning society. Today, that investment is at risk. Funding for both programs was omitted from the Legislature’s proposed budget, and unless Senate and Assembly leaders and the governor act before the budget is finalized, that momentum could come to a halt just as the work is beginning to show results. … Since its launch in 2023, the fellowship has placed more than 110 journalists in newsrooms across California—journalists who have since reported more than 10,000 stories that may not have been told, strengthened local reporting and carved pathways into journalism careers. More than one-third of fellows from the first graduating class have already been hired into permanent positions in their host newsrooms, helping rebuild a profession that has lost too many talented journalists over the past two decades. But this investment was never simply about filling vacancies in newsrooms. It was also about building a journalism workforce that reflects the richness, diversity and lived experiences of California itself. Communities are better served when the people reporting on them understand them. While the California Local News Fellowship invests in people, Propel invests in institutions.” Haleemon Anderson was a California Local News Fellow who worked for the Independent for two years; she continues to write for us as a freelancer. The Independent is slated to have another fellow join our newsroom this fall. Here’s hoping the Legislature and the governor come to their senses and restore this funding!

• You can now look at a map to see how much home insurance rates have increased in every California zip code. The San Francisco Chronicle (gift link) says: “In 2026, the average California homeowner pays 84% more per year for home insurance than they did six years ago, according to new research from Stanford University. That’s a 45% increase when adjusted for inflation. The research paper, released Tuesday, provides the most up-to-date look publicly available into how insurance premiums have changed over the course of California’s insurance crisis—a crisis which the data suggests isn’t getting any worse, but isn’t getting much better, either. … Using insurance data provided by mortgage lenders, researchers with Stanford’s Climate and Energy Policy Program studied how insurance premiums rose between 2020 and 2026, both in the traditional market and for the California FAIR Plan, the state’s fire insurer of last resort.” In 92262, for example, home insurance premium increased a whopping 84.9 percent from 2020 to 2022.

• I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: RFJ Jr. should not be in Trump’s cabinet; he should be in prison. To back up this statement, I present to you this Washington Post piece, headlined “Inside the push to keep RFK Jr.’s vaccine agenda alive: The public effort to revamp U.S. vaccine policy has quieted. Behind the scenes is a different story.” Details: “Outside the public eye, a small circle of Kennedy’s allies has kept working to reshape the federal apparatus that guides vaccines. This account of the behind-the-scenes effort is based on interviews with more than 15 people familiar with the matter, in addition to medical experts and Kennedy allies, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations or internal deliberations, or out of fear of retaliation. Federal health officials are exploring re-creating an influential vaccine advisory panel that was blocked by a federal judge, including discussions around adding new members, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. There is also an effort to create a new Office of Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reports to the office of CDC’s chief of staff, even though the agency already has a science office. Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health urged scientists to take part in vaccine injury research and encouraged new research into vaccine schedules, vaccines’ long-term health effects and other issues that Kennedy has long wanted re-examined. These moves, the extent of which have not been previously reported, suggest that political warnings and legal challenges from medical groups have not fully stopped Kennedy’s vaccine agenda, but shifted it largely out of public view. Kennedy’s allies are embedding his agenda in institutions that decide what gets studied, who does vaccine research and how these findings are translated into policy.”

• Wired got its figurative hands on a list of people involved in Peter Thiel’s “Dialog” Society. As the article’s subhead says, “More than 200 of the world’s elites registered for a retreat whose agenda runs from panels on cult-building and sex to prepping for World War III. An associated app offers matchmaking.” The lede: “A trove of internal records from a secret society for powerful figures in U.S. politics, finance, and tech was left exposed online, WIRED has confirmed, naming participants in its events and revealing sensitive personal details they were assured would stay private. The group, called Dialog, is a private, invitation-only organization cofounded in 2006 by the billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. It convenes US officials, foreign government figures, and Silicon Valley executives at off-the-record annual retreats. Dialog has spent two decades declining to disclose its members. … A source separately provided WIRED with the registration list for Dialog’s 2026 retreat, which names 222 people and records what the list describes as each registrant’s membership status and attendee type, including ‘active member’ and ‘guest.’ The retreat is scheduled for August 12-16 at a venue near Dublin, Ireland. The same data lays out a program of off-the-record sessions, including: ‘Money (Does?) Buy Happiness,’ ‘Bring Back Nuclear,’ ‘Navigating WWIII,’ ‘Battlefield Technologies,’ and ‘How’s Your Sex Life?’ Other talks include ‘Build-a-Cult,’ moderated by the founder of the Christian networking site Pray.com, and ‘Build-a-Party,’ run by a former White House national security official.” Incredible stuff.

• And finally … today’s recall news, again, involves … Waymos. This one made me exclaim “YIKES” outloud. Reuters reports: “Alphabet self-driving unit Waymo is recalling nearly 3,900 robotaxis in the U.S. because a software issue could cause the vehicles to enter a closed freeway construction zone and continue driving. It ‌is the second recall by Waymo in just over a month. The latest recall, filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), stems from more than a dozen incidents since early April in California and Arizona in which Waymo autonomous vehicles (AVs) did not recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into pre-planned freeway construction zones and freeway lanes with active ⁠construction work.” I repeat: Yikes!

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