Our Top Five Stories of 2025, Updated! Part Three
A raucous town hall with Rep. Jay Obernolte in Yucca Valley is our #1 story of the year
Thanks to our dedicated readers, Desert Trumpet stories received more than 245,000 that’s a 43% increase over 2024!
Below is part three of our three-part recap of articles that garnered more than 2,000 views each over the course of the last year.
Coverage of the potential Ofland resort development, the potential sale of public lands and protests against federal policies were popular with our readers while a raucous town hall and the search for a bomber led the list.
The top five were determined by a combination of views and reader interactions with our top story on Representative Obernolte’s February 22 town hall receiving 3260 views, 25 likes and 11 comments. In fact our coverage of this contentious session is our number one story since we started publishing in April 2022!
And now to our top story of the year:
#1 The Morongo Basin Gets Angry
Town Holler: Rep. Obernolte Meets Resistance
In a watershed event for Morongo Basin residents concerned about the Trump administration’s attacks not just on federal agencies but also assaults on transgender members of our community, persecution of immigrants, alignment with Russia…
Since the February town hall in which Rep. Jay Obernolte drew sharp criticism from constituents, he has not held or attended any additional in-district town hall meetings; most congressional representatives have pivoted to virtual, online town halls or relied on staff to meet with constituents in small forums.
At the February 22 town hall, residents pressed Rep. Obernolte on his role as a member of Congress that “holds the purse strings,” demanding to know what actions he would take to stop deep federal cuts and questioning why unelected, non-confirmed officials appeared to be making budgetary decisions for which Congress is constitutionally responsible. Those questions remained largely unanswered in the public forum.
During the 43-day federal government shutdown earlier this year, Rep. Obernolte, like all members of Congress, took no visible action on behalf of constituents affected by furloughs, service disruptions, and economic uncertainty. For gateway communities dependent on public lands and federal services, the consequences were immediate and severe. As the Desert Trumpet reported in depth, the community scrambled to fill the gaps, with local businesses offering meals and services. Food banks extending their offerings. At the town hall, Rep. Obernolte had disputed that SNAP benefits would be affected by government action.
Rep. Obernolte’s legislative focus in 2025 has centered on technology and innovation, including AI policy and research infrastructure, where he holds significant committee leadership. His thrust has been to keep control at the federal level and circumvent state regulation of AI. He appears to be taking an active role shaping national tech policy. Rep. Obernolte founded FarSight Studios, a video game comany, and his net worth is around $98 million—his committee assignments draw on his expertise and education at CalTech and UCLA and no doubt benefit him. How these assignments will help his constituents is less clear.
On December 19, Obernolte joined a bipartisan letter urging Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to halt further staffing cuts at the National Park Service and address dangerously low staffing levels. The letter noted that since January 2025, the NPS has lost more than 24% of its workforce, impairing emergency response, visitor services, and conservation efforts. While the letter signals concern, it does not reverse the broader trend of Congress ceding its power of the purse to the executive branch, an issue constituents explicitly raised at the February town hall.
California’s Proposition 50 redistricting will not have a major effect on Rep. Obernolte. Under the new maps, most of his district stays the same, so he keeps many of his current voters—in fact, the district’s boundaries change slightly and will likely make it more strongly Republican. This will probably make his seat safer compared to other California Republicans whose districts became more competitive or lean toward the Democratic party. Contacting his office with concerns and clearly being unheard has left many Morongo Basin residents aggravated. Sadly, this frustration is unlikely to change in the coming year.
Nevertheless, they will persist.
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