Dispatch: Week of March 6
Landers UFO makes a triumphant return, plus primary election results
Hello from California’s high desert, and welcome to March. The trees are budding and the flowers are just starting to peek their heads out of the ground. Spring is here!
In case you missed it: I took a bit of a leap of faith with last week’s essay, which looks at why we value hardiness, and what we lose when we lose our soft spots. You can read it here.
Onto this week’s news:
In local news:
Here’s a quick rundown of the primary election results from Tuesday:
Incumbent Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte will face challenger Democrat Derek Marshall in November’s general election in the U.S. House of Representatives race. Both ran uncontested.
Incumbent Republican Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh will face Democratic challenger Lisa Middleton in November for the State Senate race in District 19.
Incumbent Republican Assembly member Tom Lackey will face Democratic challenger Ricardo Ortega for the Assembly seat for District 34.
Incumbent Republican Assembly member Greg Wallis will face Democratic challenger Christy Holstege for the Assembly seat for District 47 in November. Holstege was leading Wallis in the ranked choice primary, 49% to 46% as of Wednesday morning.
Incumbent County Supervisor Dawn Rowe is leading the race with 58.8% of the vote as of Wednesday morning.
Measure W is still too early to call with just 16% of precincts reporting, but the No vote is currently prevailing with 55.8% of the vote.
The United States Marine Corp dismissed Lt. Col. Rafael A. Candelario II and Sgt. Maj. Marcus A. Chestnut, both of which were senior leaders of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in Twentynine Palms, due to lack of confidence in their ability to lead, per reports.
The Joshua Tree post office was closed Monday following a weekend burglary. Officials were investigating the break-in, which is the third such burglary in the Basin in the last few weeks. The Landers and Pioneertown post offices were also broken into.
Anyone missing any mail can report it to the United States Postal Investigator at 1-877-876-2455.
Indian Cove residents voiced their opposition to a proposed resort in the neighborhood at a public meeting last week with the project’s developer, Ofland.
The Twentynine Palms Public Works Department is paving portions of Indian Trail over the next two weeks, which will result in partial closures while work is completed.
One mile of Indian Trail between Mesquite Springs Road and Adobe Road will be closed from 6:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. on March 12 and 13.
Applications are now open for one of three $1,000 scholarships from the Morongo Basin Conservation Association. Applicants must be planning to major in a subject that can affect environmental conservation to be eligible.
Applications are due on April 7. The full instructions and application are here.
The Twentynine Palms Public Arts Advisory Committee is now accepting applications for a vacant seat on the committee.
Applicants must reside within city limits and be registered to vote. Applicants must submit an application and resume to Community Development Director Keith Gardner, kgardner@29palms.org. More information can be found here.
The Dispatch loves our Search and Rescue folks near and far, so we were delighted to learn more about Joshua Tree National Park’s Preventative Search and Rescue initiatives from Z107.7 this week.
The Council of Mexican Federations in North America, the CactusToCloud Institute, and the Mojave Desert Land Trust are jointly hosting a sunset hike through the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument in the Coachella Valley on Saturday, March 16th from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
You can sign up to attend the hike here. Hikers are encouraged to bring water, headlamps, and hiking gear.
Yucca Valley residents are eligible to receive a free countertop compost pail from Burrtec as part of the green waste initiative.
Contact Burrtec Customer Service at (760) 365-2015 or customerservice@burrtecdesert.com to receive the pail.
Palms ‘N Paws Animal Shelter is offering discounted adoption fees — just $29 — for any dog that has been in the shelter for 29 days or more through the month of March.
The Landers UFO has been returned! Residents are planning to clean it up a bit before stationing it back at its post near the Landers post office.
In state news:
Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff will take on Republican former athlete Steve Garvey for the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat in November.
Proposition 1, which would provide bond funding for statewide mental health services, is currently too close to call with 49% of the vote in. The Proposition’s passage is currently leading with 50.5% of the vote.
The state’s average snowpack crested about 100% after last weekend’s storm. It was hovering at about 80% before the storm dumps tens of feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada.
Experts are predicting that the state will stay drought-free into 2025 as a result of our last two winters.
A Southern California man was arrested Monday on suspicion of smuggling refrigerants into the U.S. from Mexico, making him the first person to be charged with violating regulations intended to curb the use of greenhouse gases.
In other news:
The Academy Awards Ceremony airs this Sunday, March 10, on ABC starting at 4 p.m. Oppenheimer is expected to win many of the major awards, with Barbie expected to take category wins in many of the creative categories.
The full list of nominees is here.
France became the first nation in the world to enshrine access to abortion in its constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump can be allowed on primary election ballots in states that found he violated the 14th Amendment due to his actions during the insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Pupdate of the week: Oliver and I took a trip to visit the VCA cardiologists in Murrieta this afternoon for his six-month check-up. My 11-year-old puppy is still going strong! Alice has been chasing the rabbits from our yard every night, and now begs to go out as soon as the sun goes down.
Trail tip of the week: I am here once again, begging everyone to give sun hoodies a chance. The incredibly light shirts have built in UPF sun protection, and are great if you, like me, tend to forget sunscreen reapplications while you are out and about. The long sleeves do not make the shirts any warmer, and the hood is great for keeping sun off of your neck and ears. The clocks jump forward next weekend, which means even longer days outside and more reason for sun protection!
Read of the week: If you watched and enjoyed Natasha Lyonne’s Netflix series Russian Doll, you will probably enjoy Gillian McMaster’s novel Wrong Place, Wrong Time. The premise is similar, with the main character in the novel forced to travel back in time as she tries to solve a murder her son commits one night. She gets to relive portions of her son’s life while trying to figure out what went wrong that led to the murder years in the future.
Watch of the week: It seems like everything on TV is a true crime mystery these days, and that is not my chosen genre. So, if you have any recommendations this week, I am all ears! I am excited to watch Killers of the Flower Moon now that it’s available on streaming before the Oscars on Sunday.
That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy the glorious weather and spend most of it outside.
- Megan
Lots of great info. Thank you!