This week Z107.7 takes a look at the top stories of 2020 in a four-part series. Today, in part 1, the top story has to be the COVID-19 pandemic. From the first reported case in California on January 26, a state-of-emergency order on March 4, the first shut-down order on March 19, and the first vaccinations on December 17, the coronavirus has up-ended life as we know it, with a shuttered economy, a recession, and a move to work-from-home for millions of Americans. Students, parents, and teachers have struggled with on-line learning; graduation ceremonies were moved to virtual and drive-by ceremonies; and student sports were cancelled for an entire year.
This year is expected to be the deadliest in US history; by the end of the year, more than 3.2 million Americans are expected to have died from all causes; that’s about 400,000 more than last year. COVID-19 has killed more than 350,000 Americans so far. In the Morongo Basin, 1,445 people have been infected and 32 have died (as of January 3).
Managing editor Tami Roleff has another of the top stories for 2020…
Another top story of 2020 includes the election and the San Bernardino County charter. Measure J, sponsored by the board of supervisors to amend the county charter, eked out a win by 1.44 points. Measure K, a citizen’s initiative to limit the supervisors’ salaries and create a one-term limit on supervisors, was passed overwhelmingly, by a two-to-one margin. And Measure U, to repeal the FP-5 fire fee, failed by 2 points. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted in early December to sue the board’s clerk to prevent the implementation of Measure K, claiming that both provisions violate the state’s constitution. Gary Daigneault joins us with the top story in Twentynine Palms.
And finally, after more than a decade of planning, Project Phoenix in Twentynine Palms broke ground in January. The ceremony included city, county, military, and National Park Service dignitaries, gold shovels, speeches, and cake. The project will include a community center and gym, visitor’s center for Joshua Tree National Park, and in a collaboration between the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, Joshua Tree National Park, and the city, a cultural museum for artifacts collected by Elizabeth Campbell.
