Welcome to 5 Things to Know – a daily rundown of things you might want to be aware of if you live in, visit, or just like being aware about what’s going on in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley. As always, thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs.

Note: working on some technical issues on the website, so this post is a bit shorter than normal.  Should be back to normal tomorrow ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

1) Palm Springs short-term rentals have been seeing loads of complaints

Citations written at vacation rentals were up 150% compared to last year, with the city seeing 664 complaint calls to the vacation rental hotline from April to June and another 653 from July to September.  While other cities in the desert are now looking at changing their STR policies, Palm Springs has said they are not.

2) The Coronavirus

Riverside County reported 330 new cases and four new deaths in the last 24 hours. There have been 1,279 reported deaths from coronavirus this year in Riverside County.

Here is the latest on what’s going on in the desert:

…in line with the growing number of new cases being reported each day. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/7iCGR7g5Xv

— Kevin Duncliffe (@kevinduncliffe) October 22, 2020

More:

• The county’s scheduling system for testing appears to be back to normal:

UPDATE: All technical issues are resolved. Please continue to make #COVID19 testing appointments online or by phone: https://t.co/0tsaeW6VJu. #RivCoNOW #RUHealth

— Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) October 22, 2020

3) Those running for Indio City Council Have Raised a Ton of Cash

Money has been flooding in for candidates in the Indio city council races, with four candidates bringing in a whopping $91,000. One candidate, Glenn Miller, has raised over $30,000.

The Desert Sun has the details about who has raised what and where the money is coming from and, hey, perhaps it’s a good idea to give their story a read before deciding who to vote for.

4) A Riverside home’s Halloween display was so real looking, a bunch of people called 9-1-1

A family’s Pirates of the Caribbean-themed Halloween display in Riverside had fake fire decorations that were so real looking, local police received five calls in just one week.  The Press Enterprise has the info.

One pirate leans against the house and sings, “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.”

“And we can’t get it out of our heads now.”

With fun photos by @Cyamanaka7https://t.co/aMwueqVWz1

— David Downey (@DavidDowneySCNG) October 21, 2020

5) Looking to vote early?

if you want to vote early and just don’t feel like doing it with a mail-in ballot, you have a chance to cast your vote in person this weekend. In Riverside County, early voting is available from 10 am to 4 pm Friday through Sunday, Oct. 23 through Oct. 25 at three spots:

• Galleria at Tyler, 1192 Galleria at Tyler, Riverside
• Promenade Temecula mall, 40820 Winchester Road, Temecula
• Westfield mall, 72-840 Highway 111, Palm Desert

You can also drop off your mail-in ballot at each location.  Get more info here.

Stay safe.  Stay smart.  Wear a mask.  Take care of and respect other people. 

💚🌵