Hello from California’s high desert, where summer is putting up one last fight before we descend into fall, for real this time. My eclipse photography didn’t work out quite as I had planned last weekend, but hopefully you were more lucky than I!
Onto this week’s news:
In local news:
This coming weekend is the last opportunity to tour the Basin’s amazing network of artists through the Highway 62 Art Tours. The full brochure and other information about the free event can be found here.
Morongo Valley reelected Roxy as Dog Mayor on Saturday after more than 1000 votes were cast.
John Root Fitzpatrick, the 52-year-old Morongo Basin resident last seen traveling with missing 47-year-old Chinese woman Jin Fang, was found dead in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Both Fitzpatrick and Fang were reported missing in July, and Fang remains missing.
The Hi-Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley unveiled a new temporary exhibit called “From Earthquakes to Epidemics: How Disasters Transform California’s People and Places” earlier this week.
A group of local authors is holding the first Twentynine Palms Book Festival, a free one-day event, on October 28 from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the Twentynine Palms Community Center. You can learn more about the event at 29pbf.com.
The Twentynine Palms High School Interact Club is holding a craft and car show this Saturday, October 21, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at 74362 Joe Davis Jr. Dr in Twentynine Palms.
Speaking of Twentynine Palms, this Thursday marks the start of the 87th Annual Pioneer Days festival.
The Luckie Park Carnival opens at 5 p.m. Thursday, and runs through 9 p.m. on Sunday. There is also a beer garden courtesy of local beer bar Grnd Sqrl and a parade beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The full schedule of events is here.
The California Fish and Game Commission voted to permanently protect Inyo rock daisies as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.
Twentynine Palms City Council hired Larry Bowden as interim city manager to replace outgoing city manager Frank Luckino. Luckino was tapped as city manager for Desert Hot Springs.
In state news:
The $1.765 billion Powerball winner was sold in Frazier Park, California, last week.
The California Franchise Tax Board extended the tax filing deadline for Californians affected by last winter’s storms. Now, most Californians have until November 16, to file and pay their 2022 state taxes to avoid penalties. As with the federal deadline, those who would have had an Oct. 16, 2023, postponed tax filing deadline now have until Nov. 16, 2023, to file and pay.
Kaiser Permanente, the Bay Area-based healthcare group, and a coalition of unions reached a tentative deal last Friday, ending the largest healthcare labor dispute in U.S. history.
The new contract attempts to address staffing shortages with raises that will amount to 21% in wage increases over the next four years.
In other news:
Climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested during a protest outside a London hotel that was hosting a meeting of oil industry executives.
Did last weekend get you excited about the eclipse? Well, you’re in luck, because the next full eclipse will also be visible in parts of the U.S. in 2024.
Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid ongoing litigation around its role in the opioid crisis. It plans to close 2,000 stores across the country, though its unclear which locations will be affected.
Pupdate of the week: Alice gave everyone a bit of a scare this week when she was acting strange overnight and refusing to eat, but turns out she overreacted a bit and is completely fine. Drama queen!
Trail tip of the week: Be sure to keep an eye out for our reptile friends during this last warm spell as they are surely out and about! Snakes, lizards, and other reptiles often move to asphalt when the sun finally goes down in an effort to retain some of that heat, but can be hard to see if you’re driving too fast. Slow down! The trailhead will still be there in a few minutes’ time.
Read of the week: I ordered Glossy by Marisa Meltzer immediately after reading this interview Meltzer did to promote the new book, which focuses on millennial skincare and makeup company Glossier. Meltzer does an excellent job weaving in a bit of CEO Emily Weiss’s own rise and fall within the company against the backdrop of a rapidly changing culture around makeup and skincare, especially as Gen Z consumers got older and had more money to spend. I thought it was a smart and interesting look at a company that reflected a lot of our culture at the time, and am excited to dig into the book itself!
Watch of the week: Last Stop Larrimah is a lot of things — murder mystery, case study in small town living, Australian outback history — all of them excellent. The two-hour HBO documentary follows the case of Larrimah resident Paddy Moriarty’s disappearance in 2017 after walking home from the single bar in town. The town itself only has 11 residents — 10 after Paddy disappears — and everyone has a grudge with Paddy and is happy to see him gone, but the residents distrust the police investigating the case and no one talks. It does require watching with subtitles, I found, since some of the accents are particularly difficult to parse, but it is very worth it.
That’s it for this week! I hope you have a great weekend and are able to get outside.
- Megan