The Brief

If you’ll be heading to Joshua Tree to escape the city and celebrate the New Year, national park officials are warning people to be prepared for especially high traffic.

Joshua Tree is what's referred to as a “winter park,” with current temperatures rivaling summer and spring in other parts of the country. The peak season is October through May, but long weekends and holiday breaks usually bring an even bigger influx of visitors. The Joshua Tree Visitor Center alone, for example, can see more than 4,000 people each day.

Donovan Smith, park ranger, told LAist it's best to plan ahead, but be flexible and explore all the desert has to offer, not just the known favorites.

“Go into the park with not super high expectations, but with a sense of wonder and a sense of adventure — while doing it safely,” he said.

Tips for a successful trip

First, collect all the information you’ll need before you head in.

That includes maps, sightseeing stops, trailheads, and parking information, which you can find online, at the visitor centers, or through the National Park Service app (which you can download for offline use when you lose cell service inside).

Figure out what your top stops are going to be, but don’t get too caught up trying to stick to the plan.

Parking lots will be full, and Joshua Tree could become drive-through only, so don’t waste an hour waiting for a spot to open up. That’s one of the biggest ways you can ruin a trip, Smith said.

Instead, explore a bit further down and look for a parking spot on the side of the road, which you are allowed to do in many areas.

“You might find something, you know, just as magnificent as what you would have seen on that trail,” he said.

The peak entrance times are typically between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., so arrive early if you want to beat the crowds as much as possible. You can also buy a digital park pass and save yourself some entrance time.

If there’s a trail or overlook you really want to cross off the list, head there first thing. You’ll have a better chance at finding parking and could always hike out from there. But don’t be afraid to check out the second, third, or fourth option on your list if they’re less crowded.

What about camping?

You definitely need to plan ahead for camping reservations, which can fill up six months in advance. A majority of the spots were full for the New Year holiday week and weekend.

There are first-come, first-serve campgrounds, but those can be extremely competitive. People arrive early and hunker down for the allotted two weeks at a time, Smith said, so there might not be any turnover.

And although the weekends are usually a bit busier, the weekdays will likely be just as crowded, with New Year’s Day falling on Wednesday.

Other highlights to try 

If you’re just planning to see the sunset in Joshua Tree, the spots along Park Boulevard will still be your best option. But Smith noted that one of the best things about the national park is that you can get a good look from just about anywhere.

“Joshua Tree is a vast open landscape, which means that you can get some similar views at one of our popular trailheads that you can also get right on the side of the road at certain pull offs,” he said.

How to respect the park during peak times

If parking lots and roadside spots are full, don’t just pull into an empty patch of desert and make your own. It could harm the plants and animals that call Joshua Tree home.

If you do end up exploring a bit off the beaten path, don’t forget to stay safe and let others know where you’ll be.

“ If you go off in areas unknown and you're unprepared, then search and rescues and things like that can occur, people get hurt,” Smith said.

Trash cans will fill up quickly with so many people in the park, but that doesn’t mean you should leave any behind. Staff will empty the cans several times a day, Smith said, but be prepared to take out what you brought in.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.