Dispatch: Week of October 30
Election Day approaches, plus Morongo's own election controversy
Hello from California’s high desert, where fall has officially arrived. Cool and breezy weather is expected through the weekend and, if you’re anything like me, you’re willing to withstand a little wind for the more enjoyable temperatures.
In case you missed it: I’m rarely in the right place at the right time. But when I am, it is pure magic. Read last weekend’s essay here.
Onto this week’s news:
In local news:
The San Bernardino County-run early voting site in Joshua Tree will be open every day between now and Election Day on November 5 except for Sunday, November 3, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
The early voting site is located in the Joshua Tree Community Center at 6171 Sunburst Street.
Mail-in ballots will be accepted at any USPS location or mailbox as long as they are postmarked prior to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 5. Ballots that meet those requirements will be accepted up to seven days after Election Day. Mail-in ballots will also be accepted at your assigned polling location on Election Day. You can find your assigned polling location here.
If you’ve already sent in your ballot, you can track its progress through the system and confirm it was counted and recorded here.
Yucca Valley will officially begin the second phase of its years-long sewer construction project in January. Residents in the Sky Harbor neighborhood and near the Yucca Valley high school will be connected to the sewer system during this phase of the project. Homeowners are responsible for the cost of connecting to the city’s new system as well as decommissioning their existing septic tanks.
Mil-tree, a local nonprofit organization, is hosting a Day of the Dead celebration in the Sanctuary at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center on Saturday, November 2, from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.
The Joshua Tree No-Kill Shelter is holding a hiring fair to fill an open position for a canine kennel technician this Saturday, November 2, from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m.
The role does not require previous experience and pays $18 per hour. Applicants should bring their latest resume to the fair.
Construction work on Twentynine Palms Highway continues this week in Twentynine Palms. Flagging and lane closures will be in effect between Gopher Grover Road and Gold Crown Road intermittently between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Ziggy, the chicken mascot of Morongo Valley’s Hippie Chicken, won the town’s dog mayoral election, amid some controversy over whether they were eligible for the election.
The City of Twentynine Palms and Rediscover 29 are hosting a town-wide Halloween celebration on Thursday, October 31. Businesses will facilitate public trick-or-treating at Freedom Plaza from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
The Twentynine Palms High School’s Interact Club is accepting donations for their annual Thanksgiving food drive through November 15. The students are accepting boxed mix for rolls, stuffing mix, instant mashed potatoes, canned sweet potatoes, cranberries, vegetables, pumpkin pie mix, and evaporated milk.
Copper Mountain College is currently accepting applications for community education courses for the spring semester. CMC’s community education courses are free to Morongo Basin residents and do not count for college credit or a diploma.
The Bureau of Land Management has lifted restrictions on campfires and target shooting on BLM-managed land. Campfires require a campfire permit that is good for up to one year and is free to obtain.
In state news:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) have offered residents of Rancho Palos Verdes — where homes have been majorly affected by erosion and land movement — a $42 million buyout program for their homes. The buyout is currently voluntary.
The first big winter storm is expected to hit the state this week, with up to 2 feet of snow expected in the Sierra Nevada and an inch of rain expected at lower elevations starting Wednesday.
In other news:
McDonald’s suffered a deadly E. coli outbreak linked to onions used in its Quarter Pounder sandwiches across several states. The outbreak killed at least one person and sickened at least 75 others before the fast food chain pulled the sandwiches from all menus nationwide.
More than 250,000 people cancelled their Washington Post subscriptions after its owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, pulled the paper’s prepared endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris nearly a week prior to the election.
The Los Angeles Times, owned by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, also pulled its own endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris at the last minute and has since lost more than 7,000 subscribers.
Pupdate of the week: Oliver’s favorite visitor is in town and he is simply delighted to see her. Alice is less familiar but luckily she loves everyone she meets, and meets again because she forgot the first time.
Trail tip of the week: As the park heads into busy season, now is a great reminder to stick only on existing and marked trails as much as possible to avoid creating additional social trails that lead to erosion and negatively affect our local wildlife and plant life. If visitors aren’t familiar, they may easily follow your footprints off the beaten path, which then leads even more folks astray. Keep our delicate ecosystem safe by sticking to the trails, I promise your photos will be just as lovely.
Read of the week: If things are feeling a bit bleak in your corner of the world, I must say that I was absolutely enthralled by Steven Charleston’s We Survived the End of the World: Lessons from Native America on Apocalypse and Hope. The book works through distinct spiritual messengers across multiple Indigenous cultures as well as the long history of the Hopi that have navigated end times of their people, their cultures, and their land. Each story comes with a takeaway Charleston explains in a way that feels actionable even now.
Watch of the week: If you are also looking for something charming and low-stakes to binge this weekend ahead of next week’s election, I highly recommend The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. The baking competition series just released a new season, and it is literally comfort food at its finest.
That’s it for this week! I hope you have a calm, de-stressed weekend with plenty of time outside.
- Megan