Hello from California’s high desert. Eclipse season has given way to festival season —Coachella begins on Friday, April 12, and ends its second weekend on Sunday, April 21; Stagecoach starts up the following weekend on Friday, April 26, and runs through Sunday, April 28. Now is the time to exercise lots of patience if traveling to the low-desert, and enjoy the last gasp of busy season here before summer sets in.
In case you missed it: Speaking of spring, I wrote about how I went from hating this messy, muddy season to looking forward to it every year, thanks to the beauty of the desert. You can read it here.
And now, onto this week’s news:
In local news:
Aaron McKeeman and Liam Stinson pleaded guilty to felony charges associated with starting the Elk Fire in Yucca Valley which ignited in May 2022.
McKeeman was sentenced to two days in county jail and Stinson was sentenced to one. Both received two years of formal supervised probation.
The High Desert Emergency Action Alliance is providing free fentanyl test strips and narcan to anyone who needs it. Supplies are available for pick-up from the organization’s Yucca Valley office (57353 Twentynine Palms Highway, Suite B) during business hours.
The Native American Land Conservancy is seeking volunteers for two upcoming dates for its Tend the Land event, which focuses on cleaning up Bear’s Water (Hunat Paac Pihaaka’), a private NALC preserve in Morongo Valley.
The clean-up will take place on Saturday, April 12, and the following Saturday, April 19. Interested volunteers can register here.
San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputy Christopher Bingham, 45, was arrested Thursday following an investigation into his affiliation with a motorcycle gang.
Twentynine Palms has hired H. Stone James as its new city manager. James will start in his new role on April 29, and is currently the director of economic development for the city of Cathedral City.
James replaces interim city manager Larry Bowden, who assumed the role following city manager Frank Luckino’s departure for a similar role in Desert Hot Springs.
Our pandemic-era housing market got a full-feature treatment from the Wall Street Journal this week, featuring the Basin’s own Bryan Wynwood.
Three more teams are able to join this year’s Flying Doctors SoCal Golf Tournament at Hawk’s Landing in Yucca Valley on Saturday, April 20.
Interested participants can call Jeffrey Grabow at 760-898-0535 for more information.
The Yucca Valley Sunset Rotary Club is hosting its 20th annual Desert Soirée, a fundraiser event benefiting Reach Out Morongo Basin.
The event is hosting at the Boys and Girls Club of the Hi-Desert in Yucca Valley, and features games and an auction. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased here.
Registration is now open for Yucca Valley’s lifeguard certification course, which begins on April 26 and includes six lessons.
The course is open to anyone age 15 or older and costs $225 to complete. You can register here.
The 99-Cents Only Store is closing all locations nationwide, including its Yucca Valley location.
In state news:
Here’s a tool to see where California residents are impacted by State Farm’s decision to not renew some homeowners’ insurance policies due to climate risks.
The California law setting first-in-the-nation emissions standards for vehicles is allowed to move forward, an appeals court found on Tuesday.
A new audit found that state officials failed to track the progress of initiatives aimed at helping people experiencing homelessness in the state, even after investing nearly $24 billion in such efforts.
In other news:
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to uphold an abortion ban from 1864. The ban will be the most restrictive in the country, with minor allowances in cases where mothers’ lives are at risk, though the state’s Attorney General has said she would not enforce it.
South Carolina beat Iowa in the women’s college basketball tournament, and University of Connecticut bested Purdue in the men’s tournament. For the first time ever, viewership of the women’s championship game was higher than the men’s.
Pupdate of the week: Our backyard weeds are finally gone, but the rabbits aren’t. Alice is still on nightly patrol, while Oliver is more focused on making sure he has a satisfactory bathroom break before bed.
Trail tip of the week: If you’re hiking with a furry friend, be sure to check rules and regulations of different parks and recreation areas to confirm whether they should be leashed and if there are areas they are not allowed. As it gets warmer, it’s also a good idea to invest in paw protection and make sure to bring plenty of water since dogs do not sweat to cool down.
Read of the week: This is a niche pick, but I promise you that I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong is 100% worth the effort and not at all as icky as it may seem. The book covers the microbial world that lives inside all humans and in extreme places on the planet. Yong is an incredible science writer, and was able to somehow make me emotional when writing about different forms of E. Coli. Like I said, not at all how it sounds, but entrancing none the less. If you are looking to gain a little perspective in the wake of the eclipse, I cannot recommend a better, more apt book.
Watch of the week: I’ve gotten myself into another T.V. lull, which is both good and bad. I’m happy to not be spending all evening in front of yet another screen, but I also love great T.V. and am missing the routine of ticking through episodes of a great show. I’m keen to try Station Eleven, which I wasn’t able to get through when it premiered in 2020 since it hit a little too close to pandemic home. I’ve also heard some really promising things about The Sympathizer, which premiers this weekend, so maybe that’s a contender as well!
That’s it for this week! I hope you have a wonderful weekend away from the masses with plenty of time outside.
- Megan