Hello from California’s high desert, and Happy Valentine’s Day. Wishing you lots of love and warmth today, as with all days.
In case you missed it: I am launching an essay series starting this Sunday. It will be part of the Dispatch, so all subscribers will receive the first few editions. You are welcome to opt out without affecting your subscription to the Wednesday news Dispatches. I’ve laid it out a bit more here.
And now, onto this week’s news:
In local news:
(A quick note: Google has changed how it conducts news-story searches in a pretty drastic way, making it tough to find reliable sources of news for our area. If you have an event, story, fundraiser, or other item of interest, please feel free to send it to me directly by replying to this email. Thank you.)
Mail-in ballots for the upcoming California primary have arrived across Morongo Basin. Voters can fill out the ballots up until election day (March 5).
You can check your voter registration here.
Joshua Tree National Park Association’s Love Your Park Food and Drink Tour is going on now through February 18. A portion of proceeds from participating restaurants and bars will go to the non-profit’s ongoing initiatives, such as junior ranger programs and desert tortoise research.
The full list of participating restaurants and their menu items can be found here.
The Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 5-0 for area-wide layoffs across the school district.
The Yucca Mesa Improvement Association is hosting a forum to discuss Measure W forum with county fire officials tomorrow, February 15, at the Yucca Mesa Community Center on Balsa Ave in Yucca Valley. The forum begins at 6:30 p.m. and is open to anyone interested in attending.
Mil-Tree, a local veteran outreach non-profit, is hosting a writing workshop with Furstworld this Sunday, February 18, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Z107.7fm’s Gabriel Hart will lead the workshop, which is hosted at Furstworld in Joshua Tree.
Loma Linda VA Hospital is seeking volunteers to help transport veterans from Morongo Valley for weekday doctors’ appointments.
Those interested in volunteering can call Stephanie Munoz at 909-583-6011.
Reach Out Morongo Basin’s 20th annual Parade of Homes is this Sunday, February 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The yearly event is one of the organization’s largest fundraisers, and allows ticket holders to tour unique homes in the Morongo Basin. Tickets are $25 each and can be purchased at various locations in the Basin.
The 29 Palms Book Festival announced the line-up for November’s festival last week, which includes a book fair and several special events.
The Johnson Valley Shared Use Area will be temporarily closed starting tomorrow, February 15, through Tuesday, February 27, for military training exercises.
In state news:
Another set of storms is on tap state-wide starting late this week and carrying on into early next week, bringing more flooding threat to coastal areas already dealing with landslides.
The top four candidates running for the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat — Rep. Barbara Lee, Steve Garvey, Rep. Adam Schiff, and Rep. Katie Porter — debated Monday ahead of the March 5 primary election. The full hour-long debate is available online here.
Charles Barrett, a climbing guidebook author from Northern California, was convicted on three charges of sexual assault in a weeklong trial held at the U.S. District Court in Sacramento. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 21.
In other news:
Karma is apparently a guy on the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs bested the San Francisco 49ers in a nail-biter of a Super Bowl match-up on Sunday that went into overtime. Taylor Swift was in attendance to cheer on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, in between shows in Tokyo and Australia.
Jon Stewart made a spicy return to The Daily Show on Monday eight years after handing the show over to comedian Trevor Noah. Stewart will host the show every Monday, with other comedians filling in the remainder of the week through the November election.
Pupdate of the week: We are sending lots of well wishes to our Seattle friend Ella this week. Ella has a cardiologist appointment tomorrow that we’re all hoping goes as smoothly as Oliver’s did last year.
Trail tip of the week: Remember to wash your Nalgenes (and water bladders, Hydroflasks, Stanley cups, or any other water holder you might use outside), people.
Read of the week: There’s a bit of a theme this week, as I have to recommend the incredible Christine Boskoff biography Edge of the Map by Johanna Garton after being completely swept away by Boskoff’s dedication and achievement in mountaineering, combined with her intense spiritual connection to some of the world’s biggest mountains. Boskoff takes over a guiding company following the death of its founder, only to herself disappear on a climbing trip a few years later. The book follows her achievements alongside her struggles, culminating in the search effort to bring her home.
Watch of the week: I was utterly fascinated by National Geographic’s new short series Arctic Ascent, which is as much about rock climbing as it is about climate change’s impacts on the glaciers in Greenland. The beautifully shot series focuses deeply on the melting crisis facing Greenland’s ice caps, with some very tense climbing from Alex Honnold, Hazel Findlay, and Mikey Schaefer peppered in throughout. It’s hard to not love Greenland — and the series’ featured glaciologist — by the end.
That’s it for this week! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and are able to get outside while we have this beautiful weather.
- Megan