Dispatch: Week of March 30
Second boosters get the green light and Noah Purifoy Museum gets national attention
Hello from California’s high desert. I hope your lawn furniture and fences made it through Monday’s storm in one piece. That may have been the most intense storm I’ve experienced in a while. Grateful for the moisture, as always, but the wind was brutal.
And now, onto this week’s news:
In COVID-19 news:
The FDA authorized a second COVID-19 booster shot for Americans age 50 or older on Tuesday.
It cleared an additional dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines in an effort to protect older Americans if there is another surge.
The government stopped covering the cost of COVID-19 testing and treatment for uninsured Americans last week.
Funding for the Covid-19 Uninsured Program, established at the outset of the pandemic, ran out.
China is ramping up its shut-downs in major cities and mandatory testing programs across the country as it continues to battle an on-going COVID-19 surge.
Shanghai, a city with roughly 26 million people, is under strict lock down while officials conduct mandatory testing.
In local news:
A 50-year-old Riverside resident named Tina Fiori suffered a fatal climbing accident in Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday.
It was the second known fatal climbing accident in Joshua Tree National Park. San Diego resident Michael Spitz died in a free solo fall in January.
Editor’s note: I was privileged enough to meet Tina once, and it was evident that she was an absolute ray of sunshine. She will be dearly missed by all those lucky enough to have known her.
Maybe the wind is actually a good thing. In 2021, the Morongo Basin exceeded air-quality standards set by the World Health Organization while Los Angeles remained the worst for air pollution among major US cities.
The Noah Purifoy Art Museum in Joshua Tree has been added to the US National Trust of Preservation’s Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios register.
Riverside County was among the top counties in the country for total population growth, according to US Census Data.
Much of that is attributed to the larger, COVID-induced migrations of people from cities to outlying areas.
In state news:
Governor Gavin Newsom called on local water authorities to impose new restrictions on water use ahead of the dry season. He stopped short of issuing state-mandatory restrictions.
The lone gas station in Death Valley National Park, Furnace Creek Fuel, has the most expensive gas prices in the country.
California’s crab season is ending April 8, two months earlier than planned, after two humpback whales were caught in netting off the San Francisco Peninsula and Monterey Bay earlier in March.
In other news:
The Oscars had higher ratings than last years after repeatedly declining viewership in recent years. Did the Will Smith-Chris Rock altercation have anything to do with it? If my Twitter feed was any indication, 100% yes.
The Big Bear family of bald eagles made it through Monday’s storm. Check out the live feed on the nest here.
The Foo Fighters confirmed they were cancelling all upcoming shows after drummer Taylor Hawkins was found dead last week.
Pupdate of the week: Speaking of the storm, Alice had the time of her life running around in the wind and the rain on Monday. That girl is crazy and refused to come in while I huddled on our porch bribing her with treats. Oliver was less amused and stayed under his blanket all night.
Trail tip of the week: I would actually love to hear your tips for foot pain while hiking. I have looked into all the usual culprits, got a set of orthotics, traded out socks, and still am having some issues with foot pain where my big toe connects to the ball of my foot. Not looking for medical advice per the rules of the internet, but if anyone has dealt with something similar and has figured out a way to manage it, I would love to hear your experience!
Book of the week: I just pre-ordered Valley of Giants by Lauren DeLaunay Miller, out April 1 (close enough, right?). The book is a sort of living history of women’s climbing history in Yosemite. I cannot wait to dig in once it gets here, and DeLaunay Miller is planning to host a talk based on the book in Joshua Tree at the end of April. Also of note, pre-ordering a book is a great way to support authors because it helps promote the book and notifies the publisher of how popular the book is before it’s even out!
Show of the week: I ended up catching a few of the Oscar-nominated films last week and absolutely loved CODA on Apple TV, so I’m recommending it again. It follows a child of deaf adults in a coming of age story in the year before she heads to college. It won Best Picture and Best Actor on Sunday, and I maintain that those were both incredibly deserved honors for the film.
That’s it for this week. I hope you have a great rest of your week and get a chance to get outside!
- Megan