The Davis Enterprise Sunday, October 9, 2022

Tainted tests at UCD clinic

Staff: Student

By CaleB Hampton Enterprise staff writer

In September 2019, a UC Davis student tested positive for the sexually transmitted infec tion chlamydia at the campus’ Student Health and Wellness Center. There was just one problem, medical staff recalled: she hadn’t had sex. At the patient’s insistence, a doctor agreed to retest her before pre scribing treatment. This time, the result was negative.

To test for chlamydia, Stu dent Health and Counseling Services, which runs the health center, used a nucleic acid amplification test, a highly sen sitive technology with a reputa tion for accuracy. The false result worried clinicians and medical staff.

On Oct. 15, SHCS leaders discussed the issue at a meeting.

“3 weeks ago a provider had a patient with a positive result for chlamydia (swab test). Patient did not agree so test was rerun with a urine test and it was negative,” the meeting minutes state. Later that day, the labora tory discovered a positive

chlamydia result for a second patient was false. Chlamydia is the most com mon STI in the world. Testing for it is fast and easy, and the disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics, though if left untreated it can cause lasting damage that increases the risk of infertility and ectopic preg nancy.

Because the disease only spreads through sex, a chla mydia diagnosis can also have dramatic social consequences,

especially for people in relation ships they presumed were monogamous. “If the patient did not have sex with somebody else, then the assumption is that their partner cheated on them,” said Ina Park, an STI researcher and professor at the UC San Francisco School of Medicine. “Psychologically, it can be dev astating.”

For nearly a month, SHCS paused its in-house chlamydia testing to investigate the errant results. The health center

concluded deficiencies in its infection control protocol led to contamination, which “created some false positives,” SHCS Director Margaret Trout told The Enterprise, though it was impossible to know when the problems began or how many results were tainted.

In the preceding months, from July through September, 44 students tested positive for chlamydia at the student health

Teachers flood board meeting

By aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer

A mass of teachers arrived at Thursday’s meet ing of the Davis school board, marking another chapter in the ongoing struggle for Davis Joint Unified School District teachers to receive higher wages.

The educators say they remain discontented with being told how valued they are by the board, without receiving the correspond ing compensation.

Although the board adhered to the meeting agenda, the focal point was the teachers’ collective demand for higher wages.

“This year we should be

enjoying what is, indisput ably, the best education budget that California has ever seen,” said David Plaut, a math teacher at Holmes

Junior High School. “But the board is proposing to take an ongoing revenue

Yolo County in ‘low’ risk level for COVID-19

By anne ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer

Local health officials have moved Yolo County into the “low” risk level for COVID-19 and masking is now considered optional in indoor public settings other than healthcare and longterm care settings where they remain mandatory.

The county had actually moved into the low-risk category a week and half ago based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 metrics (focused on case rate and hospitalizations), but rising levels of COVID-19 in wastewater in some parts of the county had prompted Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson to delay changing her recom mendation on masking.

The CDC’s metrics on case rates are reported with a seven-day lag but wastewater monitoring reflects realtime levels of the virus.

Sisson told the Board of Supervi sors on Sept. 27 that wastewater monitoring had shown virus levels in Winters and Esparto had “risen sharply.”

She said at the time that as health officer, “taking into account increas

DA’s town-hall meeting explores local DUI trends

By lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

Drunk driving, includ ing Yolo County’s efforts to prosecute cases involv ing high blood-alcohol levels, takes the spotlight at the Yolo County Dis trict Attorney’s next vir tual town-hall meeting on Tuesday.

These monthly meet ings explore data from Commons, the DA’s online data transparency portal that tracks local prosecutions from start to finish. Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled from 3 to 4 p.m. via Zoom.

To register, or for more information, visit

yoloda.org/commonstown-hall-meetings/.

According to Commons data, DUI investigations from the county’s police agencies Sheriff’s Office and California Highway Patrol have increased by 30 percent since 2020. Four recent cases that went to trial, along with others ending in plea deals, involved excessive BACs well above the state limit of 0.08 percent.

In the jury-trial cases, which resulted in convic tions, the BACs ranged from 0.195 to 0.33, according to the DA’s Office.

AAron

Davis Joint Unified School District teachers crowd the

Hall courtyard

of Thursday’s

meeting.

CAleb

Corollaries to our right to vote

You may not know this, but according to California Sec retary of State Shirley Weber, we have a “Voter Bill of Rights” in the Golden State.

Yes, we have an election coming up on Nov. 8, even if you're allowed to vote four weeks before that. And the folks in charge have made it so easy to vote in recent years that you can pretty much vote in your sleep just by dream ing which candidates and issues you approve of.

The Voter Bill of Rights is front and center on Page 2 of the 128page Official Voter Information Guide that you are required to carry in your back pocket and memorize completely between now and Election Day.

Basically, if you're registered to vote, no one can stop you unless you're currently serving time for a state of federal felony or have been found to currently be mentally incompetent to vote “by a court.”

I put “by a court” in quotes,

because the state of California does not specify what kind of “court” must have declared you mentally incompetent to vote.

Does a “court of public opinion” count, or even a “kangaroo court”?

And, more importantly, does the same standard apply to candi dates as to voters?

You also have the right to vote if you are still in line when the polls close, even if the line you're in is waiting to buy a burger and fries at In-N-Out.

In addition, you “Have the right to cast a secret ballot without any one telling you how to vote.”

Are they suggesting we should leave our teenagers home?

Now here's one I really like.

“You have the right to get a new ballot if you have made a mistake.”

My friend Bill wants to know if he can change his vote for Donald Trump in 2016 that he now regards as a mistake.

I mean, how far back can we go?

I honestly can't think of a vote that I later regretted. Of course, that could be because I had to be 21 before casting my first vote, which may have prevented me from making a dumb 18-year-old mistake.

“The right to drop off your com pleted vote-by-mail ballot at any polling place in California.”

I still don't understand that one. In other words, if I took my ballot with me when I decided to spend Election Day in beautiful downtown Bakersfield, I can turn it in there instead in Yolo

County where I live.

So how is Jesse Salinas ever going to issue “Final Election Results” when he's still waiting for Kern County to send my ballot north?

But wait, there's more.

“The right to get help casting your ballot from anyone you choose.”

I exercised this right last spring by selecting Lois Wolk and Helen Thomson and it worked out splen didly. We all got a terrific ride to the polls in a truly classic car, then Lois and Helen each took one of my arms and walked me into the polling place and did everything except actually marking my ballot.

We all topped the whole thing off by visiting the Davis Farmers Market and enjoying the world's greatest strawberry shortcake.

I can't remember if my candi date won, but it sure was fun.

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net.

TEACHERS: Looking for districts actions to match words

increase of 18 percent over two years and only increase teacher compensation by 8 percent.

“Teachers are frustrated and angry. Just two years ago, DTA (the Davis Teach ers Association) partnered with the board to pass Measure G,” Plaut added, referring to the 2020 employee compensation parcel tax. “The Davis com munity voted to tax itself in order to bring teachers’ salaries in line with sur rounding districts. The DJUSD proposal moves us backwards.

“This situation is bound to anger Davis parents, tax payers and voters. DTA believes that Davis students deserve the best, if you believe that too, then show us by investing in Davis teachers,” Plaut continued. “I conclude with this ques tion for the board: If you won’t raise teachers’

salaries when the budget is bad, and you won’t raise teachers’ salaries when the budget is good, then when will you raise teachers’ sala ries?”

Many other teachers echoed the same discontent and frustration with the district’s proposed pay increase in the public com ment section of the meet ing. With any luck, both teachers and the district can reach a satisfactory resolution.

“Happier teachers mean happier and more success ful students. When teach ers are appreciated, we’re so much more willing to go the extra mile and help our community become a bet ter place,” Davis High School teacher Sydney Lundy said. “But when the district doesn’t want to pri oritize teaching and learn ing, then it’s hard not to want to ask for a letter of recommendation. I could go somewhere next year

and make $25,000 more. It’s unfortunate because our students deserve excel lent instruction and an actual, credentialed teacher every single day.”

The meeting continued with a special-education program review update by WestEd. It included the qualitative and quantitative data that was collected, themes of student needs, a lack of aligned, systemwide multi-tiered system of support implementation, key recommendations for areas of focus, the call for a more cohesive understand ing of inclusion, the critical need of attracting and retaining special education teachers and more.

That transitioned to the 2021-22 unaudited actuals report by Associate Super intendent of Business Ser vices Amari Watkins. She covered the unrestricted components of the ending general fund balance, the

restricted components, the improved beginning bal ance for 2022-23 as well as further reflections and future budgetary opportu nities.

After the report, the board voted unanimously to approve it.

Then came the update on the continued advance ment of local facilities funding presented by Lori Raineri of Government Financial Strategies. She covered the district paying back debts, the 2022 cer tificates of participation sales results, prepaying Community Facilities Dis trict (CFD) No. 2 series 2012 bonds as well as next steps.

Following suit came the public hearing regarding sufficiency of instructional materials. This hearing comes within the first eight weeks of every school year and it was affirmed that all students have instructional materials and are in

compliance with the Wil liams Sufficiency Act.

During Superintendent, Matt Best’s comments at the beginning of the meet ing, he cheerfully announced that the Covid19 level is now in the “low” tier within the community and continues to decline. However, he also addressed the racism the community’s recently endured.

“Over the course of the last few months our com munity has seen disturbing acts of racism and anti semitism. We stand in sup port and solidarity with our community in denouncing antisemitism and racism in all its forms,” Best said. “We will be partnering with the city, the university and the county to combat this hate ful trend.”

The board meets next on Oct. 20.

— Reach Aaron Geerts at aaron.geerts@ mcnaughton.media.

‘Claw’ returns to city streets next week

By Anne Ternus-BellAmy Enterprise staff writer

On-street yard material pick up begins Oct. 17 and will continue every other week for a total of 10 pick-ups through late Feb ruary.

Some reminders provided by the city:

The cart before the claw

“Please remember that the on-street col lection of yard trimmings is intended for pruned tree limbs and excess leaves that cannot fit into the organics cart. Smaller pieces of yard trimmings should always be placed in the organics carts for weekly col lection.

“Placing yard trimmings in the organics cart rather than in piles keeps our streets cleaner, frees up space for parking, and allows for quick and efficient collec tion of the materials that can't fit in the cart.”

Place piles at the right time

“Yard material piles cannot be set in the street more than seven days before collec tion.”

Calendar

Wednesday

n Project Linus meets to make blankets for chil dren who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Davis Senior Center, 646 A St. At the meeting, help sew Linus labels on handmade blan kets for Yolo County orga nizations that serve children in need. For dropoff locations, fabric and yarn donations, or to sign up on for an email list to receive detailed informa tion, contact Diane McGee at dmmyolo@gmail.com.

n Dine in Congregation Bet Haverim’s Sukkah and enjoy a food truck dinner under the stars from 4 to 7 p.m. Mumpy's and Kado's food trucks will be selling food, and desserts and drinks will also be for sale. Folk Music Folks will pro vide live music. CBH is at 1715 Anderson Road. Con tact Raychel with ques tions at 530-219-5986.

n Davis Science Café returns with “Inorganic Life: Giving Voice to the Silent Roles of Metals in

Check your pile size

“The Claw cannot collect piles that are larger than five feet in any direction. If your pile is too big, you should break it into smaller piles, but the piles need to be sepa rated so the Claw can pick each one up. Make sure that branches are not larger than eight inches in diameter, and cut long branches into sections five feet long or shorter so that they can be collected with the rest of the pile."

Sign up to receive alerts

The city has a notification system avail able for customers to receive email alerts when the collection day is approaching. To sign up to receive these notifications, visit https://www.cityofdavis.org/city-hall/ public-works-utilities-and-operations/ solid-waste-and-recycling/yard-materialcollection

Scroll down below the collection map to enter your address, which will generate your pick-up day. Then, select the notification button for your pick-up day to sign up and receive the notifications. You can also choose to add your yard material pile collec tion schedule to your electronic calendar.

our Bodies.” This month’s speaker is Prof. Marie Hef fern of the chemistry department. The free event is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at G Street Wunder bar, 228 G St. in down town Davis, with complimentary soft drinks courtesy of the UCD Col lege of Letters and Science. For information, contact jtshaw@ucdavis.edu or www.facebook.com/davis sciencecafe.

Friday

n The UC Davis Arbore tum hosts a Folk Music Jam Session from noon to 1 p.m. Folk musicians are once again invited to bring their acoustic instruments and play together infor mally during this jam ses sion at Wyatt Deck (next to the redwood grove)

Short-term parking is available in Visitor Lot 5 on Old Davis Road at Arboretum Drive. Hourly rates start at $1.75.

Saturday

n The Davis Schools Foundation will reopen the Flying Carousel of the Delta Breeze in Davis' Central Park from 9 a.m.

to 1 p.m. Festivities will include live music, free biodegradable balloons and opportunities for kids to ride the refurbished car ousel. For information, visit https://www.davis schoolsfoundation.org/ carousel.

n The Davis Phoenix Coalition will host the Upstander Carnival from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Satur day. The carnival is free and consists of carnival style games with an added element of teaching ele mentary age kids how to recognize bullying and be Upstanders rather than bystanders when it hap pens. There will be resources, prizes and a fun zone. The event seeks sponsors and volunteers; reach out to admin@ davisphoenixco.org.

Friday, Oct. 21

n The Avid Reader will host Patricia Turner, author of “Trash Talk: Anti-Obama Lore and Race in the Twenty-First Century,” from 6 to 7 p.m. The bookstore is at at 617 Second St. in downtown Davis. Find detailed infor mation at www.avidread erbooks.com.

Courtesy photo

It’s loud, it’s yellow and it’s coming back. The Claw will be picking up debris soon around Davis.

COVID: County monitors wastewater

ing wastewater levels in Esparto and Winters, I’m asking residents to con tinue to exercise ‘medium’ precau tions and recommend masking indoors for persons 50 and older and those with underlying conditions.

“In the coming weeks, I hope that wastewater levels will decline so we can align our local masking recom mendations with those of (the Cali fornia Department of Public Health) and CDC for the low community level,” she said, “but it would be unwise to stop recommending mask ing at a time when wastewater levels suggest increasing viral transmis sion.”

However, more recent monitoring by Healthy Central Valley Together show virus levels in wastewater in Winters and Esparto have since dropped dramatically. They have risen slightly in Davis but leveled off in recent days.

“I am pleased to report that the COVID situation has improved enough to make masks optional in most indoor settings,” Sisson reported on Friday.

“However, we must remain vigilant against both COVID and influenza in the months ahead. Now is a great time to get your bivalent COVID

Obituaries

booster and annual flu shot to protect yourself and your family this fall and winter.”

According to the county, “while the current COVID-19 risk level is low in Yolo County, the situation may change, especially if new variants emerge and become dominant.

“Last fall and winter, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surged due to the Delta and Omicron variants. A surge this fall and winter remains possible. There fore, residents are strongly recom mended to get vaccinated and stay up-to-date with vaccination against COVID-19.”

Bivalent boosters are now widely available at clinics and pharmacies in Yolo County and provide expanded protection against the virus, includ ing the currently dominant Omicron variants, Sisson has said. Everybody 12 years old and older who is already vaccinated is recommended to receive a single dose of a bivalent booster if at least two months have passed since their last dose of a COVID vaccine.

Unfortunately, Sisson told county supervisors on Sept. 27, just 4.2 per cent of eligible Yolo County residents ages 12 and up had received the biva lent booster at that point.

“Uptake has been higher among older Yolo County residents,” Sisson

Lawrence (Larry) Rappaport

May 28, 1928 — Oct. 5, 2022

Larry Rappaport, 94, passed away peacefully at home after an extended challenge with demen tia. He grew up with loving par ents Aaron and Elsie Rappaport, and his sister Libby (d. 2002). At age 17, Larry courageously left his childhood home of New York to pursue his passion for horticul ture.

He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Idaho, Mos cow, and served in the U.S. Army as battalion sergeant major dur ing the Korean conflict. After completing his Ph.D. at Michigan State University, he was ecstatic to join the faculty of the Vegetable Crops Department at UC Davis, “my dream job.” Larry and his wife, Norma, settled in Davis in 1956 and raised their three

said, “with approximately 10 percent of residents 65 and older having already received a bivalent booster.”

Along with concerns about a fall or winter surge in COVID-19 cases comes a flu season which may be sig nificant, according to the county.

“In a typical flu season, 12,000 to 52,000 Americans die from influ enza. Residents can protect them selves against influenza infection, severe disease, hospitalization, and death by getting a flu vaccine every fall,” the county noted in a press release on Friday.

Flu vaccines are widely available now through healthcare providers and pharmacies in Yolo County and are recommended for everyone six months of age and older.

Adults 65 and older are advised to receive a high-dose or adjuvanted flu shot when available, but can receive the standard dose when high-dose formulations are not available.

The COVID-19 booster and flu vac cine can be administered at the same time.

For more information on vaccina tions and vaccine clinics (for both COVID-19 and flu), visit www. myturn.ca.gov.

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy.

chair, fostered the growth and academic renown of the depart ment at large.

Library backpacks help educate kids about nature

Special to The Enterprise

Yolo County libraries will lend out backpacks in October to help educate young children about the environment.

The Nature Backpacks

Kickoff event is in part nership with the Cache Creek Conservancy, the Yolo County Library and the Yolo County Parks Department.

The program begins Saturday, Oct. 22, when libraries will provide backpacks which can be checked out, according to Nancy Ullrey, executive director of the Cache Creek Conservancy.

Backpacks will include books, lessons and equip ment like binoculars, according to Ullrey. The lessons are targeted toward children ages 6 through 12.

The conservancy has agreed to lead at least one program and resource table at the kickoff, which will be held at the Capay

Open Space Park, outside Capay off Highway 16.

Other scheduled pre senters at the kickoff event include the Bohart Museum of Entomology, Yolo Audubon and the California Native Plant Society.

“Nature Explorer Back packs are portable learn ing kits loaded with books, tools and activities designed to inspire kids and their families to get outdoors and investigate the wonders of the natu ral world,” according to a statement from the Yolo County Library.

Yolo County libraries are at 315 E. 14th St. and 1441 Danbury St. in Davis; 1212 Merkley Ave. in West Sacramento; 52915 Netherlands Ave. in Clarksburg; 17065 Yolo Ave. in Esparto; 42351 Third St. in Knights Landing; 708 Railroad Ave. in Winters; and 37750 Sacramento St. in Yolo (still under construc tion).

presence will continue to be felt in all he helped build.

RAPPAPORT

children here. His professional life afforded the family wonderful opportunities to travel and live overseas, appre ciate people and cultures of the world, and have fun together.

Larry leaves a deep legacy, a product of his unbridled energy as a scientist, an educator, and a visionary. His scientific contribu tions helped to fuel increased agricultural production all over the world, and his mentorship of new scientists, students, and people of all ages enriched and inspired their lives. Larry’s lead ership in the department of veg etable crops (now plant sciences), where he served as department

Kathryn L. Thorpe

Nov. 7, 1937 — Sept. 20, 2022

Kathryn Lane Thorpe (Fenlon) died peacefully at her home in Davis on Sept. 20, 2022, following com plications from pneumo nia.

Kathy was born on Nov. 7, 1937, in Minneapolis to Gerald and Mildred Fenlon (Ridgeway). She was the older sister to Marilyn and Jim. The three were always together and affectionately called themselves “The Three Musketeers.” She graduated high school early and entered the convent at age 16. While there, she attended nursing school and loved working in labor and delivery. At age 21, she decided she wanted a fam ily and left the vocation, but her devotion to the Catholic faith never wavered and inspired a life of joyful service to others.

Kathy completed her bachelor’s degree in Eng lish at the University of Minnesota, where she played the cello in the uni versity orchestra. She was teaching high school Eng lish when she met Bob Thorpe and they married in June 1963.

Bob worked for the U.S. Navy and the newly mar ried couple decided to make their home in San Diego where their first child Teri was born. Tom, Anne and Molly soon fol lowed, and Kathy led a busy life as a mother of four children. She loved the ocean and would gladly take a car full of kids for a

day at the beach. She enjoyed shopping, volun teering in schools, scouting, eucharistic ministry, music and theater, and being team mom and PTA presi dent. As the kids got older, Bob and Kathy welcomed their first dachshunds into their home, sparking a life long love of these sweet dogs, which they were never without.

Kathy returned to fulltime teaching when her kids were teenagers and earned a master’s degree in special education at the University of San Diego. She taught junior high at Stella Maris Academy and became vice principal before she retired. She was a well-loved teacher who took pride in her work and inspired a generation of students.

Upon retirement, Kathy and Bob moved to Davis in 1999, where their oldest daughter Teri was raising her family. Kathy loved being a grandma, and Davis became the home base for all her children and grandchildren to gather. She poured her time into growing and making things, from orchids and roses to scarves and dolls, with a special focus on cre ating beautiful quilts.

In Davis, she quickly built up a vast network of friends and neighbors that gave her so much joy. When Bob’s health began to fail, she cherished their support until his death in 2016. Her

THORPE

He was proud of his contribu tions to the Jewish community in Davis, where he and Norma were among the founders of the Davis Jewish Fellowship (Congregation Bet Haverim) and established Hillel of Davis and Sacramento, a home-away-from-home for Jew ish students. He also was one of the founders of the Davis Human Relations Council, working to support tolerance and diversity locally.

After retirement, he prized his connections with the OLLI Writ ers Group which led him to pub lish his memoirs. These delightful stories and memories were ulti mately a gift to himself and his family as his memory faded.

Larry frequently expressed his deep love and gratitude for his

final years were spent serving as a lead pas toral min ister at St. James Catholic Church.

She found a great sense of purpose in bringing communion to sick and elderly parishio ners.

Her warmth, smile and merry laugh will be deeply missed by all. Though her passing was sudden, we take comfort in knowing her kind and generous spirit touched so many people throughout her life.

Kathryn was preceded in death by her husband, Robert P. Thorpe, and brother James L. Fenlon. She is survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Mari lyn and Larry Kelly of Bloomington, Minn.; chil dren Teri Greenfield (Steve) of Davis, Tom Thorpe (Rebecca) of Noblesville, Ind., Anne Thorpe (Ned Schantz) of Montreal, Que bec, and Molly Bullard (Jim) of Seattle; grandchil dren Melanie, Josh, David, Allison, Aidan, Adelaide, Ashley and Seth; greatgrandchildren Arayah and Nykoli; and many nieces and nephews.

A funeral mass and cele bration of life will begin at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10, at St. James Catholic Church, 1275 B St. in Davis. In lieu of flowers, donations in her name can be made to Sut ter Care at Home or to the charity of your choice.

family. He cherished Norma, his loving, encouraging, and devoted wife of almost 69 years, and regarded their marriage as “the smartest thing I ever did.” He loved his three children (“the smartest thing I ever helped Norma do”), as well as his five grandchildren; he was so proud of who they each grew up to be, and of the guidance he was able to give them throughout life.

Larry’s adventurous spirit and loving presence will be dearly missed by his family and all who knew him. He frequently declared, “I’m a lucky man!” He was always ready to crack a joke, make a goofy face, and share his beloved chocolate. His sweet, warm, and spontaneous nature brought smiles to those around him to the very end. Larry lived his values of family and commu nity, and his example and

Velma Lagerstrom Sept. 15, 1932 — Sept. 29, 2022

Velma Lagerstrom, who served for over 30 years in the Davis public schools, died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, Sept. 29, in Santa Barbara. Born in Kansas, Velma and her family followed her grand parents to Kingsburg in 1938.

As one of 40 Lungren first cousins, she grew up surrounded by proud and loving relatives in her closeknit farming family. A skilled pianist and church organist, Velma was very involved in the Kingsburg Covenant Church, sharing the music ministry with her future husband, Ron. Mar ried in 1954, Velma taught in public schools while Ron finished his degree at UC Berkeley.

Velma continued to teach (and play the organ) while the couple served churches in Massachusetts, Con necticut and Illinois, before being called to Davis in 1970. Velma always talked about her 42 years in the Davis community as the happiest of her life. It was a wonderful place to raise their two sons, welcome their daughter-in-law and son-in-law into the family, and celebrate the births of their grandchildren.

Velma’s passion for

Larry is survived by his wife, Norma; children Meryl Rappa port (Mark Haffer), Debra (David) Kramer, Craig Rappa port (Robin Rafferty); grandchil dren Joel Kramer (Aviva Paley), David Rappaport, Tamara Kramer, Henry and Lindsey Rap paport; nephew Larry (Lisa) Kasimow; great-nieces Erin (Mike Wang) and Jillian Kasimow; and great-great-niece Libby Kasimow.

Graveside services will begin at 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, at the Davis Cemetery. A Zoom link and guestbook will be available at www.larryrappaport.com. In lieu of flowers, donations to Hillel of Davis and Sacramento, to Yolo Cares (hospice), or to Congrega tion Bet Haverim in his honor are appreciated.

education and learning, first as a teacher and then as principal, found a per fect home at Birch Lane Elementary. As principal for 22 years, she was inspired by the commit ment to educational excel lence of her staff, energized by a dynamic and diverse team. It was while serving as interim principal in 1980 that Velma was diag nosed with breast cancer.

An early proponent for aggressive treatment, she became an activist, educat ing and supporting others in the fight for greater awareness and treatment options. One of her proud est moments was her involvement with Dr. Ernie Bodai and Representative Vic Fazio on the launch of the Breast Cancer Research Stamp (since 1998 the BCRS has raised over $100 million). Grassroots advo cacy was the perfect outlet for Velma’s educational and organizational skills!

Velma and Ron left Davis in 2012, moving to the Covenant Living commu nity in Santa Barbara. Velma volunteered in the local schools, cheered friends and neighbors with her musical skills, and served on several resident committees. With Ron’s

passing in 2021, she was fortu nate to spend the rest of her life with close friends in the caring Samarkand community.

Velma was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, mentor and friend. Our family — sons Larry (Lori) and Glen (Dave), her grandchildren Ryan (Naomi) and Linnea (Ben), and her great grand children Noah and Eleanor Rae — along with so many others are blessed to have been a part of her life. Memories of her bright smile and attitude live on:

“This the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Psalm 118:24

As a remembrance, memorials can be made in Velma’s name to the Davis Schools Foundation, P.O. Box 1154, Davis, CA 95617, or www.davisschools foundation.org/donate.

LAGERSTROM

Electric mopeds come in, Chando’s out

AUC Davis graduate just opened a business in downtown Davis, selling the electric mopeds he designed.

HMP Bikes opened Monday at 440 F St., at the corner of Fifth and F streets. Peter Chu was a double major in mechanical engi neering and economics in 2018.

HMP Bikes is his second busi ness. He founded and still oper ates Muncho, a self-service kiosk system used at many local boba tea shops.

Chu saw the need for an afford able moped that would lessen people’s dependence on cars for short trips around town. He designed the model he sells, which qualifies as Class 2 e-bike, with a maximum speed of 20 mph. It can go on roads but not highways. He toured several manufacturers in China before choosing Luyuan, which has been making mopeds since 1997 in the city of Wuxi. It’s in the Jiang Su province, where Chu said 90 per cent of the world’s scooters and mopeds are manufactured.

He said his moped was designed to be safer and more versatile than a normal scooter or e-bike. It has larger tires, is more stable, and is faster than most e-bikes. Plus, it’s less expensive and more environmentally friendly than a car.

The electric moped has a 50-mile range on one charge. It can carry a second passenger, as long as the total weight doesn’t exceed 300 pounds. There are fit tings for a child seat or storage box behind the driver’s seat.

He sells one model, available in white or gray. The Davis business is the only place to purchase the HMP Bike, but it offers online sales, and free delivery within 50 miles of Davis.

The bikes take seven to eight hours to charge on 120 volts. There are plans for a quick char ger accessory, which reduces it to five hours. It has an anti-theft system with an alarm and motor lock.

“If you just want to go to Safe way or drive your kids to school, it’s a perfect substitute for lastmile transportation,” Chu said. “And it helps us protect (the) world's environment.”

Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. It plans a grand opening in Decem ber. Visit https://www.hmpbikes. com/.

Chando’s Tacos has no immedi ate plans to come to Davis. I spoke with owner Chando Madri gal on Thursday, after I learned there had been no recent building permit activity for the former Redrum Burger site at 978 W. Olive Dr.

“In terms of the Davis project, I parked that,” Madrigal said.

“Things just didn’t work out at that particular location. I wanted to just focus on stabilizing every thing, making sure we’re just staying in business.”

He said he recently moved his family to Woodland, and is not abandoning plans altogether. “Davis is still in our hearts. We go to the events at UC Davis. We’re actively involved with the com munity. …We’re definitely coming to the area.”

He blamed post-pandemic challenges, combined with some differences over the property’s development. “It’s just unfortu nate that things didn’t work out. It just didn’t make sense.”

I heard from Jason Velebit, owner of The Davis Shoe Shop, on Thursday. The shop is closed indefinitely. He hopes to reopen doors in February or March.

Velebit took over the business after his sister Melissa Skinner died of cancer on Jan. 2. He briefly reopened the shop, but was dealing with personal and legal struggles, and was unable to fill most orders. Frustrated cus tomers have posted notes on the door, pleading to get their shoes and pre-payments returned.

I checked in on two upcoming restaurants: Mamma and Bull ’N Mouth Mamma is filling the former Bistro 33/City Hall Tavern site at 226 F St. Bull ’N Mouth is com ing to the old de Vere’s Irish Pub spot at 217 E St.

On Wednesday, Michael

TCU offers scholarships to students

Special to The Enterprise

VACAVILLE — Travis Credit Union invites col lege-bound high school seniors to apply for its 2023 Community Impact Scholarship.

The program was estab lished in 2004 and was initially named after the first woman to serve on the Travis Credit Union Board of Directors — Mary Keith Duff, who believed in the power of the community impact the credit union will have on future generations.

Through this scholarship, TCU provides 20 scholar ships annually for a total of $40,000, recognizing local students who are motivated in their academic studies and active in their schools and communities.

“We understand that

paying for higher education can be a challenge for many families. Now more than ever we want to extend a hand to help support our local students and their families,” said TCU presi dent and CEO Kevin Miller. “We look forward to honoring and supporting our worthy young members as they pursue their college dreams.”

The scholarship program is open to high school seniors who live in Travis Credit Union's 12-county service area. If applicants are not currently members, they can join TCU by com pleting a simple online application or visiting any of our branches. The com pleted application can be submitted online at www. traviscu.org/scholarships,

dropped off at any TCU branch, or mailed to: Travis Credit Union, Community Relations, P.O. Box 2069, Vacaville, CA 95696-2069.

The application period is open through Feb. 20. For a complete list of eligibility and application require ments, visit www.traviscu. org/scholarships.

Headquartered in Vacav ille, California, Travis Credit Union is a nonprofit cooperative financial insti tution serving those who live or work in Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, Placer, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sonoma, Colusa and Mer ced counties. TCU is the 12th-largest credit union in California, with 225,000 members and more than $4.7 billion in assets.

Yolo, Solano fire councils seek contractors

Special to The Enterprise

The Yolo County Fire Safe Council , coordinated by the Yolo County Resource Conservation District, and the Solano County FSC, coordinated by the Solano RCD, are devel oping a bi-county online resource directory for resi dents to easily access local licensed contractors and consultants who provide services relating to wildfire protection and prepared ness.

Yolo County FSC is cur rently requesting qualifica tions information from all interested businesses that provide home retrofitting and wildfire fuels reduc tion services to residents in Yolo and Solano coun ties.

Home retrofitting work includes services such as gutter cleaning, vent blocking, zone cleaning, window replacement, home siding replacement, roofing replacement, deck board replacement, garage

retrofitting, chimney retrofitting (metal step flashing installation), installation of noncombus tible fencing, and ember resistant retrofitting.

Wildfire fuels reduction services include services such as defensible space assessments, arborist con sulting, specialty tree work around homes, mowing, limb removal and chipping (or other debris disposal), tree felling, brush removal, chainsaw work, general vegetation management, and clearing.

Credentialed profession

als including certified arborists, licensed herbicide applicators, registered professional foresters, licensed contractors and licensed timber operators are encouraged to submit their qualifications for con sideration of inclusion in the directory by filling out this Google Form: www. tinyurl.com/yolofiresaf eRFQ.

For information, inter ested professionals can reach out to Alli Permann at permann@yolorcd.org.

Galyen, co-owner of Mamma, said they are “very, very close.” When I asked what that meant, he said they were moving for ward, and would have more of an update for my next column.

Also on Wednesday, Brandon Keith, president of World Famous Fare, said its restaurant Bull ’N Mouth is progressing well. “We still have a few items that we need to take care of. Once we get through that, I’ll have a better idea and can provide more infor mation about opening.”

The city of Davis has a permit under review for 2151 Cowell Blvd., Suite A, where the Oran getheory Fitness will go. No work has begun on the site.

There’s an active building per mit for the space at 720 Sec ond St., next to Tommy J’s/Froggy’s. Sources said a while back that a Mediterranean res taurant was going to fill the space.

The building permit is under the name of the landlord, Brow man Development Corp. I am in contact with Browman, trying to get additional information on a possible tenant.

A new bookstore opened Wednesday in Woodland. The Pleasant Pheasant is at 1059 Court St., Suite 109.

It’s the only independent book store in Woodland that sells new books for all ages. It also sells spe cialty board games, puzzles and stationery. The shop shares a courtyard with Morgan’s Mill,

which serves coffee, beer, wine and bites.

The owners are Elliot and Emily Reinhart, a married couple who moved to Woodland in 2021. Elliot grew up in Davis, and his parents still live here. He was a professional brewer for seven years, most recently for Blue Note Brewing Company, before open ing the bookstore, which he man ages. Emily works as a farm director in her hometown of Colusa.

Emily said, “We love the home town feel of Woodland, and wanted to find a way to engage with our new community and culture. In brainstorming, we always came back a bookstore. … We hope to highlight local authors, regional topics, and to become another social hub for our town.”

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Visit https://www.pleasantpheasant books.com/.

Missed a column? Wondering when a new business is opening? Check my paywall-free Google spreadsheet, which includes more than 325 Davis businesses com ing or going. It’s at https://bit.ly/ DavisBusinesses.

— Wendy Weitzel is a Davis writer and editor. Her column runs on Sundays. Check for fre quent updates on her Comings & Goings Facebook and Instagram pages. If you know of a business coming or going in the area, email her at wendyedit@gmail.com.

Lyon kicks off ‘warm’ coat drive

Special to The Enterprise

SACRAMENTO — Lyon Real Estate is pleased to announce the 12th Annual Coat Drive, “Share the Warmth,” col lecting winter wear for the entire month of October. Since the collection’s inception in 2012, Lyon Real Estate has col lected and donated more than 84,600 coats to local nonprofit orga nizations with dona tions from agents,

employees and members of the public.

This year, Lyon Real Estate is accepting new as well as gently used coats, mittens, scarves, hoodies and other winter wear.

While in the past, Lyon has accepted gently used coats, the company will be accepting items that are

brand new with tags as well.

Those who would like to donate are invited to drop off new cold-weather clothing items to any one of Lyon’s 17 offices. Find a directory of Lyon’s 17 local offices at: https://www. golyon.com/real-estateoffices.

center, according to an internal report. But three years later, medical staff feared many of those patients were never informed that their diagnoses were based on questionable results. “It seems like they tried to keep this as quiet as possible,” a staff member said.

Contamination

At the student health center, patient test samples for chla mydia were collected upstairs in exam rooms by clinical staff, stored in the clinic for up to a few days, and taken downstairs to the laboratory to be processed, typi cally on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On Oct. 16, the day after SHCS discovered the second false posi tive, the health center halted its chlamydia testing. Over the next several days, specialists from Hologic, the manufacturer of the diagnostic machine SHCS used to process chlamydia tests, visited the health center multiple times. After confirming the machine’s mechanics functioned properly, they found infection control problems at both ends of the test ing process.

In August 2019, following a technical update published by Hologic, laboratory staff scaled back cleaning a rack that held patient samples within the machine from after each use to once per week. The new protocol was supported by studies, Hologic said, but when SHCS told the company about the false posi tives, a Hologic specialist advised the laboratory to disinfect the sample racks “more often than recommended,” according to an internal email. “The suspected cause [of the false positives] was contamination of the rack that holds samples within the diag nostic machine,” SHCS leaders said.

Internal records show there were also problems during sam ple collection. After swabbing patients and placing the swabs in collection tubes, medical staff would put all the tubes in a single container, usually a blue paper cup, instead of storing each patient’s samples in their own biohazard bag, an industry stan dard. “We reviewed the

places’ could have led to contamination

collections process and found the actual collec tion container is flawed and can allow cross con tamination,” Tanya Mcmanus, associate director of clinical ser vices, said in an internal email. If chlamydia got on the outside of a col lection tube, or if it was on a health care worker’s glove, a staff member explained, it could spread to other tubes and contaminate the samples when the machine’s needle punc tured the tube’s septum to test the specimen.

“There were multiple places where contami nation could have hap pened,” a staff member said. After discovering the false positives, SHCS Laboratory Supervisor Marsha Lucio swabbed surfaces in the labora tory and the exam rooms for traces of chlamydia. The cover of one of the machine’s sample racks tested positive. A couple of months later, so did a benchtop in an exam room.

Patient notification

Scores of internal emails, meet ing minutes and other docu ments, which The Enterprise obtained through public records requests, provide a detailed pic ture of the student health center’s day-to-day response to the con taminated testing. They indicate SHCS worked diligently to iden tify and correct its disinfection problems before resuming chla mydia testing in mid-November 2019. It is less clear what SHCS, which is supported by student fees and serves many of UC Davis’ roughly 40,000 students, did to notify patients who tested posi tive for chlamydia while those problems were present.

Industry guidelines advise health care providers to disclose errors that could potentially have impacted patients. “Withholding information without the patient’s knowledge or consent is ethically unacceptable,” the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics states. If a medi cal facility discovered its STI

testing was unreliable, it would have an “ethical duty to notify people they may have gotten false results,” said Park, the UCSF pro fessor, who co-authored the Cen ters for Disease Control and Prevention’s STI treatment guidelines.

In November 2021, multiple SHCS employees, who were directly involved in testing patients for chlamydia, approached The Enterprise with a nagging concern. They sus pected SHCS never told more than a few patients about the contaminated testing. “This could have broken up patients’ mar riages or long-term relation ships,” one employee said. “I’m still upset about it.”

SHCS Medical Director Cindy Schorzman, Medical Director Amanjit Sekhon-Atwal, and Trout, the SHCS director, all played a role in responding to the contaminated testing. They declined to be interviewed for this story. In collaboration with UC Davis’ communications office, the SHCS leaders provided collective written responses to questions from The Enterprise, which a campus spokesperson said should be attributed to UC Davis. They said they stood by the way the student health center handled patient outreach about the con taminated testing.

SHCS had software it could have used to generate a list of patients who tested positive for chlamydia during a chosen

timeframe. Then, typically, the health center would have sent those patients a “batch message” through their confidential patient portal. But when they discovered the contaminated testing, SHCS leaders “favored the more sensi tive doctor-to-patient communi cation,” they said, and never sent any batch messages about it.

“Providers were advised to dis cuss the situation with their patients, even though the oppor tunity for retesting may have passed due to treatment, in acknowledgement that a positive diagnosis could have caused stress for students or their part ners,” the leaders said. However, internal documents, interviews with medical staff, and SHCS leaders’ responses to follow-up questions indicated the only pro viders who received that instruc tion were the few whose patients tested positive during a single week in mid-October, nearly two months after SHCS said it stopped cleaning its testing machine adequately and at least three weeks after it identified the first false positive.

Because there was no evidence of a substantial patient outreach plan in the hundreds of pages of emails and other records The Enterprise obtained, the newspa per asked SHCS to provide docu mentation showing doctors were told to contact patients about the unreliable testing. In response, SHCS leaders cited a single docu ment they said confirmed “this

approach,” an email Schorzman sent Sek hon-Atwal, then the clinical supervisor, on Oct. 18, 2019. “Provid ers whose students had positive results this week should reach out directly to their stu dents,” the email says. According to meeting minutes, three patients tested positive — one falsely — for chlamydia that week.

In the weeks and months prior, dozens of others tested positive. When The Enterprise asked SHCS leadership who, if anyone, told those patients about the contamination, the lead ers appeared to contra dict their statement that they informed patients who were already treated, “in acknowledge ment that a positive diagnosis could have caused stress for stu dents or their partners,” and sug gest that contacting those patients was not a priority. “Since any repeat tests would be nega tive for individuals after treat ment, the main effort was to encourage outreach to those that potentially had not yet been treated,” they said. According SHCS staff and medical experts, it generally takes a few days at most to diagnose chlamydia and prescribe treatment.

Medical ethics guidelines make it clear that clinical errors should be disclosed irrespective of their implications for treatment. “It’s important for people to know the truth,” Park said.

The Enterprise spent months investigating whether SHCS pro viders did, in fact, discuss the sit uation with more than a few patients, and found no evidence of it. On the chance that an out reach plan was made without leaving a paper trail, the newspa per asked SHCS to arrange an interview with any provider who told patients about the contami nated testing. SHCS declined to do so. When The Enterprise reached out directly to dozens of medical staff, including several providers, Trout emailed staff a “refresher” on its media policy,

SHCS suspended its in-house chlamydia testing for nearly a month to investigate the cause of multiple false-positive test results. The health center determined contamination had caused the false positives.

TAINTED: Staffers worry about infection control

which tells employees they “should decline to comment” if approached by a journalist.

Despite that policy, mul tiple providers spoke to The Enterprise. They regularly tested and treated patients for chlamydia, and remem bered the contamination in 2019, but they didn’t discuss it with their patients because they thought that type of outreach would have been taken care of by administra tion. “The situation is famil iar to me, but I don’t know how it was handled,” one provider said. “It would have been a lab or administrative thing.”

Asking doctors to notify patients about an error that wasn’t theirs would have been both unpopular and unusual, medical staff and providers said, adding that “there was no reason not to send a batch message.” As far as they knew, there wasn’t a coordinated effort by doctors to contact their patients. “That did not happen,” a provider said.

In total, The Enterprise interviewed eight SHCS employees who were famil iar with the contaminated testing, all of whom requested confidentiality because they were not authorized to speak to the newspaper. When medical staff learned during inter views that SHCS leaders told The Enterprise that “no batch (bulk) messages were sent” to patients about the contamination, they con cluded many were simply never informed. “It’s a huge issue from a patient care perspective,” a high-level employee said. “If a patient had to talk to a partner, that conversation could have gone really badly.”

A deeper crisis

Internal documents do not reveal an explicit effort by SHCS to conceal

information about the con taminated testing. However, medical staff said little was communicated to them about it, and several described a work environ ment that discouraged staff from taking initiative, par ticularly around anything that could risk the health center’s reputation. “The worst thing that could hap pen is that they get a com plaint from a patient,” a staff member said.

In 2020, UC Davis con ducted a staff experience survey, soliciting feedback on qualities like collabora tion, culture and leadership.

SHCS scored below the cam puswide average in 19 out of 20 categories. It received especially bad scores for action taking, decision mak ing and communication.

“The sad truth is that is the student who are paying the price most of all for the failed management here,” the min utes from a 2021 staff meet ing state.

SHCS leaders attributed the health center’s perfor mance on the survey and complaints recorded during meetings to the pandemic, whose toll on health care workers was well-docu mented. But staff told The Enterprise morale was an ongoing problem, which impacted patient care, and internal records paint a trou bling picture both before the pandemic and recently.

According to emails, staff voiced alarm over poor infection control prior to the

contaminated testing—a June 2019 email described a speculum in a clean area “still having bodily fluid on it”. — but those who advo cated for higher standards faced bullying and retalia tion. In 2021, an employee was “suspected of leaving a rat” on the desk of a staff member who raised con cerns about infection con trol, according to internal emails. A week later, the staff member walked out her front door to find one of her cars had been egged and the other had a slashed tire. In a formal complaint, she said she was labeled a “snitch” after pushing for better hygiene practices.

This week, an SHCS supervisor sent medical assistants an email with the subject line, “BULLYING,” saying she requested a meet ing with upper management “to discuss the concerning behavior” of a group of medical staff.

“It was incredibly toxic,” said a former employee who worked at SHCS for several years. Others described “an ongoing culture of bullying” and staff meetings where shouting broke out, leaving people in tears. SHCS lead ership said they were “not aware of a situation” like that, though written records suggest a degree of hostility during some meetings. “Please leave if you are always complaining,” the minutes from a 2021 meet ing state. “There are other jobs.”

In that environment, an employee said, “people do things based on whether or not they’ll get in trouble, not based on whether it’s the right thing to do for the patient.”

‘Didn’t do right by our patients’

As of this month, SHCS employees continued to worry about sloppy infection control. After the contami nated testing, staff reverted to some of the problematic practices it exposed. “All lab specimens need to be in a lab biohazard bag, do not use a cup,” Schorzman reminded staff in an email this June. “Only one patient per bag.” As far as the health center knew, no results were affected.

Since fall 2019, SHCS conducted regular profi ciency testing and did not discover anymore false posi tives. This summer, the stu dent health center sent 10 positive and 10 negative chlamydia test samples to the UC Davis Medical Cen ter as part of a quality assur ance program, all of which proved to be accurate. “Stu dent health and Counseling Services imposes the highest standards for hygiene and infection control,” SHCS leaders said.

The health center’s labora tory and infection control practices were found to be fully compliant during accreditation inspections,

which happen every three years, in 2018 and 2021. In 2020, an independent accreditation organization also accredited SHCS, though it ranked its profi ciency testing practices near the bottom of a group of more than 750 peer medical labs nationwide.

Over the past year, SHCS made efforts to improve morale and communica tions, its leaders said. They introduced a weekly “clinical highlights” email from Schorzman, the medical director, and monthly Zoom meetings where employees could ask questions anony mously. “UC Davis is a com munity that values critical feedback,” said UC Davis and SHCS leaders. They added that the campus “is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and secure environment free from all forms of bullying.”

SHCS leaders pointed out that during the time con tamination was found in its chlamydia testing, some patients, such as those who got tested because their part ners had chlamydia, were almost certainly truly posi tive. Indeed, according to an internal report, the positivity rate in the summer and fall of 2019, even with the false positives, was not unusual for the student health center, an indication many of the results were likely accurate.

Nonetheless, medical staff said, when SHCS discovered contamination had caused inaccurate STI results, the health center had a responsi bility to inform every patient who could have been impacted — in the months prior, there were a few dozen who tested positive — going back at least as far as it sus pected the problem began.

“The bottom line is they didn’t go back a few months and contact patients and they should have,” a medical staff member said. “They didn’t do right by our patients.”

A danger to all other drivers

“This is significant not just because of a violation of the law, but because the 0.08 limit is the limit at which a per son is considered by most experts to be impaired,” DA officials said in a news release. “A BAC that is double or triple this rate is an exponentially greater danger to other drivers on the road and the community as a whole.

In response to this trend, the DA’s Office offers the following tips:

n Seek out alterna tives to driving: Ride share services, such as Lyft and Uber, eliminate the need to drive when under the influence of an alcoholic beverage.

n Keep tabs on family and friends: Because DUIs endanger the driver as well as the broader community, discourage relatives and friends from getting behind the wheel if they’ve had too much to drink.

n Be a good citizen: Law-enforcement offi cers can’t be everywhere at once, so community members are considered a valuable asset when it comes to reporting sus pected drunk drivers.

“Drunk drivers pres ent a danger to everyone in the community, including the drivers themselves. The data on this issue is not dis puted,” District Attorney Jeff Reisig said.

“Every year thousands of lives are lost or impacted across the country due to someone making the careless decision to drive while intoxicated.”

Medical staff told The Enterprise bullying and low morale affected the quality of patient care and infection control at the student health center.

Briefly

Partida campaign hosts gathering

Everyone is welcome to attend a meet-and-greet today for Gloria Partida, candidate for re-election to Davis City Council (District 4).

The event, hosted by Anoosh Jorjorian and Erika Roshanraven, will be from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Sandy Motley Park in Wildhorse, 1919 Moore Blvd. in Davis. A Spanish interpreter will be available upon request. If you need interpretation, please send a text with the word “Spanish” to 310-7952797. Habrá un intér prete de español disponible. Si se necesita interpretación, por favor envíe un texto al numero 310-795-2797 con la pal abra “español.”

Project Linus meets Wednesday

Join Project Linus to make blankets for chil dren who are seriously ill, traumatized or otherwise in need. Come to the gathering on Wednesday, Oct. 12, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Davis Senior Center, 646 A St.

All are welcome to attend the meeting and help sew Linus labels on handmade blankets for Yolo County organiza tions that serve children in need. Project Linus members may take home donated fabrics and yarn each month to complete a blanket. Finished blan kets can be brought to the next monthly gather ing or to the Joann Fab ric store in Woodland.

For drop-off locations, fabric and yarn dona tions, or to sign up on for an email list to receive detailed information and updated meeting time

changes, contact Diane McGee at dmmyolo@ gmail.com.

Food trucks visit Bet Haverim

Dine in the Congrega tion Bet Haverim Sukkah and enjoy a food truck dinner under the stars from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednes day, Oct. 12.

Mumpy's and Kado's food trucks will be selling food, and desserts and drinks will also be for sale. Folk Music Folks will provide live music. CBH is at 1715 Anderson Road.

Contact Raychel with questions at 530-2195986.

Science Café is back at bar

Davis Science Café returns Wednesday, Oct. 12, with “Inorganic Life: Giving Voice to the Silent Roles of Metals in our Bodies.”

Each month, Professor Jared Shaw with the UC Davis department of chemistry hosts the Davis Science Café, featuring scientists who are study ing some of today’s cut ting edge topics.

This month’s speaker is Prof. Marie Heffern of the chemistry depart ment, who studies the interplay between firstrow d-block transition metals and hormone function.

The free event is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at G Street Wunderbar, 228 G St. in downtown Davis, with complimentary soft drinks courtesy of the UCD College of Letters and Science. Contact Shaw for information, at jtshaw@ucdavis.edu or www.facebook.com/ davissciencecafe.

Raptor Center marks half a century

Special to The Enterprise

The California Raptor Center will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at the Fall Open House from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at 1340 Equine Lane in Davis.

Join the CRC for a special celebration to mark this milestone. In lieu of its reg ular Fall Open House, the center will host an expanded anniversary event, opening its doors for an exciting, fun day to celebrate all things raptor and CRC.

Visitors will be able to enjoy a rare close-up expe rience with several birds of prey, including a Swain son’s hawk, great horned owl and red-tailed hawk. These resident ambassador birds will be on the glove with volunteers ready to answer all of your ques tions about raptor rehabili tation, biology, behavior, conservation, and more. Cameras welcome, but no flash please.

The Raptor Center also has its 50th-anniversary documentary to debut. It will play on a loop in the classroom. The on-site museum will be open with plush toys and other souve nirs available for purchase.

There will be opportuni ties to attend lectures throughout the day. Visi tors can follow the selfguided tour route and visit the museum for a hands-on experience.

Super Owl Brewing, a small independent brewery based in West Davis, will be on hand after noon to offer tastes of their favorite beers to those 21 and older.

While the Open House is free, the CRC greatly appreciates tax-deductible donations that help provide care and feeding of resident raptors, underwrite educa tion programs, provide medication and medical supplies for rehabilitation, and maintain its unique center.

Tuleyome offers two naturalist classes in 2023

Special to The Enterprise

WOODLAND — The local wildlife group Tuleyome is offering two Certi fied California Naturalist courses in 2023 — one in the winter and one in spring. Instruction focuses on the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument region.

The Certified California Naturalist courses are presented by Tuleyome in partnership with the University of California extension program. The winter course will be from January to March in 2023. This course is 10 weeks long (with classes on 10 con secutive Fridays and include at least three field trips. The spring course is a one-week program hosted at Wilbur Hot Springs.

No advanced degrees or previous naturalist experience is required. Both courses cover the same material.

The UC California Naturalist Program is designed to introduce

Jonathan serna/Courtesy photo Students get to examine the details during Tuleyome’s Certified California Naturalist course.

Californians to the wonders of our unique ecology and engage the public in study and stewardship of Califor nia’s natural communities. The pro gram uses a science curriculum, hands-on learning, problem-solving,

citizen science, and community ser vice to instill a deep appreciation for the natural communities of the state and to inspire individuals to become stewards of their local resources.

In addition to in-person instruc tion, students are required to attend field trips in the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument region. Field trips consist of lowimpact walking trips and auto-tours, so they are suitable for all fitness lev els. Impromptu walks are also often provided by the instructors as time permits to give participants even more experience in the field.

Direct questions about the course to Nate Lillge at nlillge@tuleyome. org.

Tuleyome is a nonprofit, nonparti san organization that engages in advocacy and active stewardship with diverse communities to conserve, enhance, restore and enjoy the lands in the region.

Courtesy photo

Phoenix, a peregrine falcon, waits to meet visitors at the California Raptor Center.

sports

Blue Devils, Aggies getting much-needed rest

My random thoughts as we enter the second weekend of October.

n If you’re looking for stories on the Davis High and/or UC Davis football teams and how they did Friday and Saturday on The Enterprise’s website at www.davisenterprise.com or Wednesday’s print edition, don’t bother to look.

That is because the Blue Devils and Aggies had their byes. A much-needed rest for both local squads.

Davis and UCD return to action next weekend.

Davis (0-2 in the Delta League, 2-5) will host Sheldon in a Delta League game at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium on Friday.

UCD (0-2 in the Big Sky, 1-4)is also home, returns to Big Sky Conference play as it welcomes Northern Arizona on Saturday.

But I’m planning to run a football

story on The Enterprise’s website and Wednesday’s edition.

Stay tuned.

n Speaking of UCD, former Aggie men’s basketball player Chima Moneke is trying to make the Sacramento Kings’ 15-player roster.

Moneke and the Kings are hosting the Portland Trail Blazers in a preseason game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento today at 6 p.m.

If you’re an Aggie hoops fan and want

Girls Tennis

to catch the 6-foot-6, 223-pound Moneke in person, there’s the game against the Trail Blazers.

There’s also Friday’s home game, when the Los Angeles Lakers pay a visit to G1C at 7 p.m.

n The Sac-Joaquin Section recently released its Hall of Fame classes for 2020 and 2022.

The banquet is held every two years, in even-numbered years. The banquet was postponed in 2020 because of the pandemic.

There are a combined 16 people, coaches and players, who will be recog nized for their success in football, boys basketball, softball, baseball and tennis.

Administrators and benefactors are also part of the list. Plus, game officials, game directors and media.

The hall of fame dinner is taking place Sunday, Oct. 16 at the Kimpton Sawyer

Hotel in downtown Sacramento.

Two people who should be a part of the Class of 2024: Davis High boys water polo head coach Tracy Stapleton and DHS girls water polo head coach Doug Wright.

Stapleton and Wright have produced many winning Blue Devil teams, plus multiple league and section Division I titles, since the late 1980s and middle of the 1990s respectively.

If you follow water polo in the Sacramento region, then you know each man have built young men and women into better men and women.

n As mentioned in my previous column, Jesuit and St. Francis, which are part of the Delta League with Davis and Elk Grove schools in Cosumnes Oaks, Elk Grove, Franklin, Pleasant Grove and Sheldon, must be removed from the

Triahlon

Sodaro captures Ironman

Enterprise staff

Sloane keeps family in mind when playing

By ReBecca WaSik Enterprise correspondent

Having a 7-1 overall record means your team consists of positive energy, constant encouragement and a competitive attitude.

Those attributes are exactly what Charlotte Sloane brings to the court for the Davis High girls tennis team.

Since she was 3 years-old, with her head barely peeking over the net, Sloane has been participating in the game of tennis.

Davis head coach Sally Hosley has been there every step of the way with Sloane.

When she was little, Sloane would be dragged to her older brother’s tennis lessons, taught by Hosley. Sloane would ask Hosley to feed her balls so she could hit them over the net.

Hosley remembers that even back

then, Sloane had fantastic hand-eye coordination. She even remembers telling Sloane’s mom that she was the tennis player of their family.

Although, the original tennis player of the family was Sloane’s grandfather.

“Before my grandpa passed away, he played and really helped me get into tennis and played with me when I was younger,” said Sloane.

When asked if there is a profes sional athlete she looks up to, Sloane mentions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, but again refers back to her grandfather.

“While I do think they are amaz ing players, I would say that I look up to and admire my grandpa,” said Sloane. “Although he passed away, I have always admired him. He con tinued to be a great person and player even in the hardest of circum stances.”

Sloane, who is a senior this year, uses what she learned from her grandfather off the court as well.

“Since Charlotte has been on my varsity squad for four years, she understands how I coach and deal with my players,” said Hosley. “Therefore, she has taken on a lead ership role these past two years. The players respect her, and I can count on her to order uniforms and deal with non-tennis issues, like the homecoming parade. She’s very organized and takes pride in all her details.”

As a player, Sloane understands that the game is both physical and mental, which is what she loves most about it.

“It works not only your body and your muscles, but your brain too,” said Sloane.

Chelsea Sodaro, of Davis who was an All-American runner at Cal, won the Ironman Kona World Champion ships women’s race.

Dodaro’s triumph ended the longest American victory drought in the event’s 44-year history.

Sodaro, 33, had an unofficial time of 8 hours, 33 minutes, 46 seconds on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Sodaro was in fifth place after the 2.6-mile swim and 112-mile bike.

Then she recorded one of the fastest 26.2-mile marathon runs in event history (2:51:45) to win by 7 minutes, 50 seconds over Lucy Charles -Barclay.

Sodaro, whose lone previous full Ironman was a second-place finish at June’s European Champion ships, became the first

American to win in Kona since Tim DeBoom in 2002 and the first American to win the women’s race since Zimbabwean-turnedAmerican Paula NewbyFraser in 1996.

In addition, Sodaro is the first woman or man to win in their Kona debut since Chrissie Wellington took the first of her four titles in 2007.

Sodaro placed 19th in the 10,000 meters at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.

She turned to triathlon in 2017, made podiums on the World Cup circuit and moved up to long-distance racing in 2018.

At the half Ironman distance, she was fourth at the 2019 World Championships, her last major championship start before the pandemic, pregnancy, childbirth and a move up to the full Ironman this year.

Mike Bush/enTerprise phoTo

Charlotte Sloane, a singles player on the Davis High girls squad, eyes the ball during practice in September. To view more photos, visit www.davisenterprise.com, click on the Sports tab and look for the story.

CourTesy phoTo

Chelsea Sodaro competed in many events at the Ironman Kona World Championships.

Sports

Richards’ goals give UC Davis victory

Enterprise staff

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Skylar Richards’ two goals lifted UC Davis women’s field hockey team to a 3-1 win over Bryant University at Goldberger Family Field on Friday to give the Aggies their first America East win.

Richards first got the Aggies into the scoring column near the end of the second period when she was able to knife through the Bulldog backline and find the back of the net against the goalkeeper, Dieneke Hes.

The momentum would carry over through the halftime break as Brooke Sanchez would go on to put the Aggies up by a score of 2-0 as she was able to record her team-high, sixth goal on the year.

Setting Sanchez up was Lizzy Tedrow, who has consistently been finding San chez in opportunistic times all season. The assist for Tedrow today puts her at a team-high, five on the season.

The Bulldogs would not go down without a fight, though. Just about three minutes of game time would pass before Sarah Van Scoten would cut the lead to just 2-1.

The game would stand at this score for the entirety of the third period.

As Bryant tried clawing their way back into the game, with just under five minutes remaining Richards would deliver the much-needed insurance goal to push the Aggies ahead and sealed the victory.

UCD moves to 1-4 in AE play and 2-9 overall. The Aggies return to action today when they visit UAlbany. Game time is 9 a.m.

DHS girls water polo

Davis (14-3) posted an 11-10 win over Arroyo Grande in the Arroyo Grande Invite, also on Friday morning.

The Blue Devils were scheduled to play familiar foe Miramonte on late Friday afternoon. Miramonte defeated the Blue Devils 16-5 in a tournament game on Sept. 24 and won last year’s California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Girls Water Polo Division I championship last November.

Blue Devils volleyball

Davis (5-4 in the Delta League, 14-6) fell in three sets to St. Francis on Thurs day.

The final scores were 25-9, 25-13, 27-25.

Olivia Kim had 15 digs for the Blue Devils. Lena Sundin and Marlena VanBoxtel had 10 each.

Nicole Risch had 14 assists.

Tessa Schouten finished with seven kills, Sundin six and Risch three.

Davis will host Franklin in a league match on Tuesday. Match time is scheduled at 6:30 p.m.

REST: Big bucks for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo

league and become members of fellow and tougher Division I league in the Sierra Foothill League when the section holds meetings for the 2024-28 league realign ment cycle.

The first meeting is Jan. 17, 2023. See my previous column on The

Enterprise’s website for additional information.

Davis and the five Elk Grove public high schools would be, in my opinion, a perfect six-school league for football and roundrobin sports.

In football, five nonleague games, bye week during preseason or after their non-league games and then start league play.

Jesuit and St. Francis are all-boys and all-girls Catholic schools respec tively.

Surprisingly, no emails from people who are for or against the two schools joining the SFL.

But maybe that will change going into this week of either agreeing or disagreeing with me.

For those of you who

disagree, give me, at least, 100 reasons why Jesuit and St. Francis should remain in the Delta League.

Until then, January 2023 will be here soon.

n According to CBS Sports, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has a contract bonus of $350,000 for games he starts and wins

this season.

Should the 49ers produce another winning season and deep run in the NFL Playoffs, the 49ers must extend Garoppolo’s stay in the Bay Area.

Plus another pay raise. He’ll deserve it.

— Contact Mike Bush at mike@davisenterprise. net. Follow on Twitter: @ MBDavisSports.

Leroy yau/uc davis athLetics courtesy photo

UC Davis’ Skylar Richards, seen here during a recent home game, played a big role in her team’s win on Friday.

‘Move it along,’ declare dead-crow decoys

Soyou might remember that I’m in the Bay Area a lot these days while S is serv ing at the interim president at San José State University.

A column where I talk about being somewhere new after liv ing for 21 years in Davis is forth coming, but I haven’t fully formed my thoughts on it yet.

One element about this new locale, however, that cannot not be discussed is the crows. Yes, those black birds that make a “caw caw” sound are the topic of today’s story.

Here’s why: They appear to be really hated in San Jose, and they’ve earned their reputation as scoundrels.

We first noticed the glimmer of an issue as S and I were get ting familiar with the Rose Gar den neighborhood where the university owns a house. While walking our pups Pauley and Sandy, we noticed a lot of pre tend dead crows in people’s yards. They hung upside down

in trees, were wedged in the crotches of limbs (yes, they’re called “crotches,” I just looked it up to make sure I wasn’t misre membering) and laid menac ingly on people’s lawns.

We thought the first couple decoys we saw on someone’s grass were real dead crows and tried to imagine what might have happened to them. Maybe there’s a serious feral cat issue over here? Urban coyotes?

As we kept walking, we saw a pretend dead crow — ahem, I mean a “dead crow effigy” in the “classic ‘death pose’ “ as one Ama zon.com product advertised — hanging in a tree, and realized we were witnessing something else.

Soon after, S heard a story about research done on crows that showed the birds remember when they or one of theirs has been wronged. In fact, even if a crow did not personally witness you holding a dead crow, it would still join a “crow’s funeral,” which consists of a lot of aggressive squawking at the evil-doers. (Here’s an excellent story about a researcher who studies this: https://www.kqed. org/science/1923458/youveheard-of-a-murder-of-crowshow-about-a-crow-funeral).

What this adds up to is that if you want to decorate your yard with decoy dead crows, you need to sneak them into place when no crows can see you, like at night. They get super-mad if they suspect you of crow-murdere ring, and they hold a grudge.

Still, we weren’t sure what specifically people were object ing to about sharing their yards with these birds. I mean, we know they are noisy and don’t

have very melodious singing voices. But is that enough to lit ter your landscape with crow corpses?

And then about a month ago, we saw the carnage they unleash. It was truly something to behold.

As S and I were walking our pups back to the house, in the yard across the street there were about 15 crows working on the front lawn like they were dig ging for gold. They were pulling out clumps of grass, including roots and dirt, and disdainfully tossing them out of the way. We’ve since learned they are on a grub hunt.

Here’s a short video that shows their effectiveness at pull ing up lawn chunks: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uyn_lwHvorM. Imag ine 15 of them instead of two!

More evidence of “why crows make bad neighbors” came this week as we saw in a different yard the distinctive aftermath of

crow prospecting. Clods of dead grass were cast all over a for merly luscious lawn. I bet the homeowners were pretty livid at this unscheduled landscaping. (And no, there weren’t dead crow decoys in this yard.)

I couldn’t help but marvel at their work, though. While I understand wanting to prevent this from happening on one’s yard, this could be a business opportunity, the same way farm ers now rent herds of sheep and goats to act as “fuzzy mowers” who trim down weeds.

Maybe some entrepreneurialminded person will start a crowpowered lawn-removal business, encouraging Californians to replace thirsty yards for drought-tolerant ones. And they can call it “A Lawn Murder of Crows.” Eh, needs work ...

— Tanya Perez lives in Davis with her family. Her column is published every other Sunday. Reach her at pereztanyah@ gmail.com.

Halloween can be traumatic for foster kids

By Tracy Fauver Special to The Enterprise

Have you heard the term, “trauma informed?”

During our trainings, we teach our volunteers how to spot signs of trauma and the triggers associated with it. We also teach them how to seek out alternate activi ties. This is all called being “trauma informed.”

With Halloween around the corner, being trauma informed is especially important.

While Halloween is a fun holiday for most chil dren, things like flashing lights in the dark, scary costumes, doorbells ring ing, and strange sounds can bring a child right back to the moment they were traumatized… and it might be hard to see because that child may simply be operating in sur vival mode.

An example of what “survival mode” looks like can be as subtle as appear ing to daydream or “drift off” when the child is really intentionally withdrawing to avoid further retrauma tization.

Halloween is an espe cially important time for our volunteers and other caretakers to foster chil dren to be trauma informed. Examples of being trauma informed on Halloween are attending a Halloween event in the daylight or watching a

CASA

movie instead of trick or treating. It’s not that the day can’t be fun … prior trauma just calls for a dif ferent type of fun.

We are grateful to our CASA volunteers for their commitment to providing safe environments for their CASA kiddos, even if it looks a little different than traditional activities. This is another of the many rea sons that the role of a CASA volunteer is so important … they may be

the only ones thinking about a trauma safe envi ronment for their youths on Halloween.

Speaking of CASA vol unteers, we could not train and retain them without the financial support of our community. On Sept. 15, we gathered for our annual Dinner & Auction and it was a great success.

We’d like to especially thank Park Winters for donating their venue and our sponsors. They are Sycamore Lane Apart ments, Sharon and

Again, without the financial support of these sponsors and other gener ous members of our com munity, we could serve Yolo County’s foster chil

Art center awards fellowship to Davis writer

Enterprise staff

The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts awarded a fellowship to Karolina Letunova of Davis. Letu nova will be among approximately 22 fellows focusing on their own cre ative projects at a working retreat for writers, visual artists and composers.

VCCA is a unique Vir ginia-based organization of national stature and international impact. One of the largest year-round artist residency programs, VCCA typically hosts over 400 artist-fellows annu ally at its Mt. San Angelo facility in Amherst, VA and 50 annually at the Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France. VCCA has been a wellspring of music, litera ture, and the visual arts, providing residencies for artists during the most important and the least supported phase of their work — the creative phase.

A typical residency ranges from two weeks to two months. Each artist is provided with a private bedroom, a private studio and three prepared meals a day. This distraction-free atmosphere, as well as the energy that results from

nAme dropperS

having some 22 creative people gathered in one place, enable artists to be highly productive.

The artists who come to VCCA, whether emerging or established, are selected through competitive peer review on the basis of the important or innovative work they are doing in their respective fields.

Since its founding in 1971, VCCA has hosted over 6,000 writers, visual art ists, and composers.

VCCA Fellows have received worldwide atten tion including MacArthur fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fel lowships, National Endowment for the Arts awards, the National Book Award, Grammy Awards, and Academy Award nom inations.

For information, visit vcca.com.

Biola University was excited to welcome stu dents to start the year, including Caden Drefs of Woodland, undecided major, and Bethany Taylor of West Sacramento, majoring in cinema and

media arts.

Biola's incoming class represents an accom plished, diverse group of individuals who hail from 41 states and U.S. territo ries and 45 countries around the world. A total of 1,583 undergraduate and graduate students started their collegiate journey at Biola University on the first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 29.

Biola University is a nationally ranked Christian university in the heart of Southern California. For information, visit biola. edu or call (562) 777-4061.

Newsweek Magazine named Dr. Meghan B. Zavod of Davis as one of America’s best medical dermatologists.

“This year Americans are expected to spend $19.9 billion on non-pre scription skin care and protection products, up from $18.7 billion last year, and that market is expected to grow to nearly $23 billion in 2025,” Newsweek said. The mag azine and research firm Statista surveyed more than 2,200 dermatologists and other skin care profes sionals and listed the 275

dermatologists in the 20 most populous U.S. states.

See the full breakdown at https://www.newsweek. com/rankings/americasbest-medical-dermatolo gists-2022.

— Do you know of some one who has won an award or accomplished something noteworthy? Email it to newsroom@davisenter prise.net.

Speaking of which, do you know someone who would be a great CASA volunteer or have you been thinking about it yourself? We are currently accepting

applications for our winter training. More informa tion can be found on the volunteer section of our website at yolocasa.org.

— Tracy Fauver, LCSW, is the executive director of Yolo County CASA

By Andy Jones Special to The Enterprise

1. The Beatles. Once a choir boy and a boy scout, the first Beatle to get married was the last one who learned to drive. Name him.

2. Film. Marion Crane steals $40,000 from her employer in what classic film?

3. Automobiles. What Chevy was named after an electrical unit that was named after an Ital ian physicist?

4. Books and Authors. What American marine biologist, writer and con servationist wrote the

influential 1962 book “Silent Spring”?

5. Botany. Starting with the letter H, which vascular plants have no persistent woody stems above ground?

Answers: John Len non, “Psycho,” Volt, Rachel Carson, herba ceous plants.

— Dr. Andy Jones is the former quizmaster at de Vere’s Irish Pub and author of the book “Pub Quizzes: Trivia for Smart People.” His pub quiz is now seeking a new home. Meanwhile, Dr. Andy is also sharing his pub quizzes via Patreon. Find out more at www. yourquizmaster.com.

Christopher Steele, Diane Marie Makley, Sycamore Lane Apartments, Park Winters, Georgia and Jim Corbett, First Northern Bank, Katie Flaherty, Van Dermyden Makus, Robert and Sandy Lorber, Vanessa and Jay Errecarte, Kim Eichorn, Cecelia Aguiar Curry for Assembly 2022, Nugget Markets, and Marty West.

dren with CASA volun teers.

On Sept. 15, Yolo CASA supporters gathered for the annual Dinner & Auction. Kelly lynn, KlJ StudioS/ Courte Sy photo

Commentary

Woe Britannia!

New PM hits rough seas

By Llewellyn King Special to The Enterprise

EDINBURGH, Scotland — These are trying times for the British, as I am finding on a visit to Scotland with a brief foray south into England. All isn’t right with their world, and there are expec tations that the winter will be the hardest to bear since the long-ago days of the end of World War II.

The price of everything is up, with infla tion at 10 percent, and predicted to top that by as much as double.

Compounding that, there is a sense that nobody is in charge. The new prime minis ter, Liz Truss, has had a disastrous begin ning with a revolt of the rank-and-file of her own Conservative Party. She has had to eat her words and, according to the New Statesman, has had the worst imaginable beginning for a new prime minister. Truss seems to have abandoned traditional con servative principles and that, together with her own wobbly trajectory, has the party worried.

The centerpiece of doubt about the prime minister is a mini-budget that her chancel lor of the exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, introduced just after she was elected to the leadership. It called for more spending and a cut in the top income tax rate from 45 percent to 40 percent.

This was supposed to encourage busi ness, but even diehard conservatives couldn’t justify a lot of new spending — needed to ease the burden of energy costs — while slashing revenue. Rather than making businesses happy, the proposal sent the pound into a freefall and the markets into turmoil.

According to her many critics, Truss did a U-turn, a maneuver she has done often in her career.

Another misstep happened as the Con servatives assembled in the central English city of Birmingham for their annual party congress: The prime minister refused to guarantee that social spending would be linked to the cost of living.

Complex social obligations in Britain are lumped together under the rubric “benefit.”

“No, no, no,” cried the party, including cabinet members. Benefits had to be indexed to the cost of living.

But not all of the mess is of Truss’ mak ing. Things were in sorry shape when the party sacked the previous prime minister, the notoriously articulate-but-incompetent Boris Johnson.

The economy was faltering, labor unrest was building, and issues such as education, health care, immigration and the Northern Irish border demanded strong, deft leader ship.

The result has been that the Tories, as the Conservatives are called, are between 14 and 30 points behind the opposition Labor Party in the polls, and they are expecting a drubbing in the next election in two years unless Truss can pull things together. The somber mood in Birmingham suggests that gloom will turn to doom.

The Truss government is set to subsidize heating costs this winter, which promises real hardship across the board, from pubs closing at a record rate to middle-class households digging out the woolies.

The primary fuel for making electricity and home heating is natural gas, which has increased tenfold over historical levels because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The subsidy isn’t disputed, but it will take Brit ish borrowing to new levels even as interest costs are soaring — an ugly combination.

There is a backstory that isn’t being aired much in the largely Conservative British newspapers: the huge, self-inflicted wound of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit. Its effects are everywhere, and there is a complicity in not pointing this out: We voted for it, and we own it. It wasn’t a party vote, so Brexit remains a common guilt.

Long after Truss has gone, Brexit will remain the guiding fact of Britain’s place in the world. A place less certain than at any time in its long history.

— Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle” on PBS. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

High costs thwart housing push

During its just-closed biennial session, the California Legislature passed — and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed — dozens of bills aimed at relieving the state’s acute shortage of hous ing.

Newsom capped the effort late last month by signing two somewhat similar bills that make it easier to build housing on unused or under used commercial properties.

“California has made his toric investments and taken unprecedented actions to tackle the state’s housing cri sis over the past four years,” Newsom said. “But we recog nize there’s more work to do. This package of smart, muchneeded legislation will help us build new homes while rebuilding the middle class.”

The two bills typify the thrust of legislation and the Newsom administration’s tougher enforcement of state housing quotas on local gov ernment — making more land available for housing by reducing the ability of local governments, cities particu larly, to thwart development through restrictive zoning, convoluted building stan dards and other practices.

Newsom’s efforts on hous ing over the last four years

won him a lengthy plaudit by New York Times columnist Binyamin Appelbaum last week, thereby enhancing the governor’s drive to become a national political figure.

The praise is well-deserved, as far as it goes. But making more land available is just one factor in the thorny housing crisis and to date, there’s little evidence that by itself it will result in more construction.

The state says California should be building 180,000 units a year to meet current demand and whittle down the backlog, but at best we’re seeing about 120,000 hous ing starts and when the hous ing lost to fire, old age and other reasons is subtracted, the net gain is no more than half of the 180,000 figure.

The major constraints are financial — ever-rising costs of construction and the insufficient private sector

investment due, in part, to those costs.

The state’s most press ing housing need is apart ments for low- and moderate-income fami lies — projects that not only draw the most local opposition but are becoming prohibitively expensive to build.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last month that based on docu ments for the construction of three “affordable” housing projects, the per-unit cost is more than $1 million and approaching $1.2 million for one.

developers for that segment must rely on packages of pri vate funds, tax credits and money from state and federal governments.

However, projects using even small portions of public funds are subject to state laws mandating that they use union workers, which is one of the big reasons they are so expensive.

Letters

District 4 deserves better

District 4 residents will decide in November whether to elect Adam Morrill or Gloria Partida.

Gloria has shown time and time again that she is out of touch with our district. And it shows with constituents; ask any one here in Mace Ranch who our council member is and few will answer correctly. In District 4, our greenbelts need severe work, crime from Target continues to take place, and our kids and pedestrians have the ever-increasing risk of being hurt by falling tree limbs. Our current council member has done nothing in this district to make it better.

And to add insult to injury, when nearly every single one of my neighbors here at the Mace Curve voted against measure H, she voted in favor. Did Gloria come talk with my neighborhood to hear our con cerns or even just learn what’s been going on? Nope. Not once.

Then here comes Adam, who quite frankly is fed up with a city council mem ber who accomplishes very little in their own district. Adam is going to have fire side chats in Mace Ranch before the November election where he actually takes the time to listen to residents. This has happened zero times in the eight years Gloria has been elected.

Adam is rightfully demanding an update to our general plan before sending to voters any other development plans, like the train wreck that measure H was.

Adam is ready to listen to the people and stand for them, which is welcome like a breath of fresh air. Council member Par tida is great at listening to special interest

Speak out President

U.S. Senate

San

Francisco is a notori ously difficult place to build housing, which those outrageous numbers reflect. But $1-plus million is common across the Bay Area and statewide, average costs of projects meant to house low- and moderateincome families are well above $500,000 a unit — enough to buy a nice singlefamily home in many California communities.

Purely private develop ments cannot pencil out unless owners can charge market-rate rents that are unaffordable to those in lower income brackets, so

The two bills that Newsom signed last month to make commercial property avail able for housing contain boil erplate language mandating union labor. In fact, there are two bills on the same subject because two different con struction union factions could not agree on the precise language and to break the stalemate, legislative leaders finally decided to send both to the governor.

The land that Newsom and the Legislature have opened for housing needy families will go largely unused if development costs continue to soar.

— CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Wal ters, go to Commentary.

groups, like the developers of Measure H, but she has a serious lack of interest in listening to the constituents she is sup posed to represent.

Without a council member who repre sents our interests, like we have today, we might as well have no representation. Adam will not always agree with D4 resi dents, I’m sure, but he will always listen. And I’d rather have a city council member who listens over one who doesn’t eight days a week. Adam Morrill is going to change D4 for the better.

Jeremy Taylor, Davis

Council election

Measure H provides an ideal test for the current city council candidates. Measure H was a proposed industrial project near Interstate 80 and Mace Boulevard. It pro vided an opportunity for each of us to compare our values to those who presum ably represent us: on land use and traffic planning, municipal finance, good gover nance, the environment, farmland and open space preservation. This proposal was placed on the ballot by all five city council members, was supported by three of the current council candidates, and yet it was rejected by 65% of the voters.

How’s that for being out of touch with the community?

That proposal was not in the city. It didn’t comply with community policies or goals. It wasn’t even in the city general plan. Do you want council members who pursue their own desires, or do you want council members who strive to deliver what the community wants? If the latter, join me in supporting the only two candi dates who represent that view and who opposed Measure H: Adam Morrill and Kelsey Fortune.

202-224-3553; email: padilla.senate. gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

House of Representatives

If we want a community that reflects our values, we must start by electing can didates who share our values.

Bob Milbrodt, Davis

Re-elect Dan Carson

We support Dan Carson for re-election to the City Council of Davis, District 1 for two reasons.

One, he has been fearless in his role as a nonpartisan elected official in fighting to our critical priorities — like affordable housing and economic opportunity — while keeping a steady focus on the basics like good money management so that we have the financial resources to meet our goals.

Second, Dan has been remarkably effec tive in delivering on his promises to change the city government for the better. As he has noted, no one succeeds in gov ernment without collaboration with oth ers. Dan has successfully worked with others to adopt an $84 million plan to fix our streets and roads; add creative new initiatives to build affordable housing; and ensure that our shift to new council dis tricts does not undermine our ability to work together as one city.

The next few weeks will see lots of city council candidates offering lots of ideas for consideration by voters. Dan has many interesting ideas, like transforming our downtown with new housing and eco nomic development consistent with our town’s strong environmental values. Better yet, Dan also knows how to transform those policy dreams into practical reality, as he has done over and over again at the state and local level.

Please join us in voting for Dan Carson for City Council District 1 in West Davis so that he can continue to serve our city.

We welcome your letters

The Hon. Joe Biden, The White House, Washington, D.C., 20500; 202-456-1111 (comments), 202-456-1414 (switchboard); email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3841; email: http://feinstein. senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Sen. Alex Padilla, B03 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510;

Rep. John Garamendi (3rd District), 2368 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202-225-1880. District office: 412 G St., Davis, CA 95616; 530-753-5301; email: visit https://garamendi.house.gov/contact/ email

Governor

Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-4452841; email: visit https://govapps.gov. ca.gov/gov40mail/

Addresses and phone numbers should be included for verification purposes; they will not be published.

Limit letters to 350 words. Anonymous letters will not be accepted. We reserve the right to edit all letters for brevity or clarity. Mail letters to The Davis Enterprise, P.O. Box 1470, Davis, CA 95617; bring them to 315 G St.; fax them to 530-756-1668; or email them to newsroom@davis enterprise.net.

Marie and Bob Bockwinkel, Davis

Taylor

Poem of the month

Gorgon

Now that you need your prescription glasses to see the stars and now that the telemarketers know your preference in sexual positions.

Now that corporations run the government and move over land like giant cloud formations.

Now that the human family has turned out to be a conspiracy against the planet.

Now that it’s hard to cast stones without hitting a cell phone tower, that will show up later on your bill.

Now that you know you are neither innocent, nor powerful, not a character in a book.

You have arrived at the edge of the world where the information wind howls incessantly and you stand in your armor made of irony with your sword of good intentions raised—

The world is a Gorgon. It presents its thousand ugly heads.

Death or madness to look at it too long but your job is not to conquer it; nor to provide entertaining repartee, nor to revile yourself in shame.

Your job is to stay calm. Your job is to watch and take notes, to go on looking.

Your job is to not be turned into stone. — Tony Hoagland from “Turn Up the Ocean,” Graywolf Press, 2022

If October is the month of ghouls and goblins, then why not consider a Gorgon too! Gorgon is a monster from the underworld, usu ally referring to the three snake-haired sisters in Greek mythology whose appearance is so frightening that the beholder turns to stone. The late Tony Hoa gland’s poem “Gorgon,” however, uses humor and wit to gently help us con sider that our current exis tence, with its climate crisis, cyber stream, and overem phasis on making money, may itself be the Gorgon.

If we look carefully at Hoagland’s poem, we see that the first five stanzas describe multiple distress ing facts about our current economic, natural and moral landscape. Hoagland does not use traditional syn tax here; rather he leaves the statements unfinished to build tension. That is, stating “Now that we …”, implies there will be a quali fying phrase to explain what follows, but this does not happen.

When we arrive at the sixth stanza, we discover that we are at ‘the edge of the world where we do bat tle, armored in our “irony”. Even here we cannot take a breath; the emdash at the end of the line, (“with your sword of good intentions raised—”), does not allow us to relax as the sentence con tinues on.

It is not until the poem is more than halfway over, that the sentences are com plete and we can relax a lit tle. But it is also here that we learn that the world itself is the Gorgon. Luckily, Hoagland does not let us lose all hope. Rather he gives us compassionate advice in dealing with the monster of our lives. First we are told what not to do:

Not to try and conquer nor entertain this Gorgon, and not to revile ourselves in shame. The very last declar ative sentences of the poem tell us what our job does consist of: to stay calm, to look, to remain human and alive. We must not turn to stone.

This is an important rev elation, because in times of fear and disaster it is natu ral to make jokes or use irony, and eventually even go numb via detachment or dread and self-hate.

Hoagland knows that these defenses may make us feel safer, but at the cost of keeping us from being fully present.

Because, at death, we do become stone-like, it is important to remember that this poem was written while Tony Hoagland was actively dying of cancer. We can read this poem, then, not just about the current and distressing global pre dicaments we find ourselves in, but also how it is to know that the contempla tion of the death of this planet, as well as of our own singular lives, can feel mon strous. And that we must not be dead (i.e. stonelike) while we are still alive.

It is Hoagland’s mastery that grants the poem its clear-eyed compassion and humor and wisdom without turning away from its frightening subject. In this collective moment in an unstable time, Hoagland’s poem serves to remind us that our helplessness and terror is not best met with shame, detachment, or a delusion that it can be “beat”, but rather, with our vulnerability and curious gaze, that will keep us, as long as possible, still alive, still human.

— Julia Levine Davis Poet Laureate

Op-Ed

Coming to the end of the circle

By P. GreGory Guss Special to The Enterprise

Back in 2010, the Men’s Movement in the U.S. was (and still is) robustly active, yet keenly understated. Men, primarily white men, held primary power, shaping the culture for far too long, in their own image and needs.

So any new work or movement attempting to understand the principles of unworked human pain and trauma, especially men’s pain, would there fore be devalued and thwarted. Such under standable resentments were incumbent for the Men’s Movement to accept. Knowing that any new work, new attempts would be automatically viewed as suspicious, thus contaminated, and seen only in a brackish and self-serving light.

Nonetheless, the Men’s Movement has continued despite these legitimate dynamics, to hold sincere healing-goals to get at the wounds, pain and under pinnings driving much of men’s egregious, uncon scionable and destructive actions.

The Davis Community Men’s Talk Circle came to be in 2010, born from the great desires for men to do their men’s work and to find new ways to har ness authenticity, tender ness, creativity and wholeness. But many men had no prior experience in doing such work. Further, men chronically have little trust to openly talk can didly with other men without encountering the joking, teasing and

mockery that is custom ary along with men’s unsolicited advice-giving.

Such are the immature cultural hallmarks that so often come alive when men gather. These styles of anxious-connect ing suppress any attempts towards honest and sub stantive talk.

For 12 years, the Talk Circles have been holding monthly, two-hour meet ings, free of charge, offer ing any man, new to men’s work, an introductory experience.

The Talk Circles were intentionally constructed differently than a men’s support group. Framed in an emotionally safe struc ture, they cultivated talk ing, only as men felt ready. The model asked for no cross-talk, thereby no advice was offered, because men often hear others’ advice as judg mental. The Talk Circle design and the presence of a small committee, facilitated for participants a new felt sense of emo tional safety and fostered new connections, a prime goal. Helping men build new friendships and hav ing enhanced community was paramount, as so many men confess they have no real friendships where honest-talk is served.

The Talk Circles grew a sublime feature which I had not planned for, nor expected. Men of three generations found them selves gathering in the same room, listening, sharing and coming to understand one another.

This spoke most notably to the younger men, to feel there was a place where they could be wit nessed, and seen by men further along in life. This quiet hunger to be seen lingers for men well into their adult lives. It was evident how powerful this phenomenon was, as older men listened, hear ing the inner-workings, the angst, and the desires of younger men to find their own present direc tions and true pathways.

The Talk Circles evolved and trans formed over our 12 years. We found ourselves naturally being guided by our ancestors, and a won derful wholesome indige nous-wisdom grew into our Community culture.

Talking aloud was held and understood as a way for a man to reach his own greater clarity, a vital form of healing. Such wis dom shaped us and pro duced a simple group response: “I hear you.” Men were free to work their issues employing their own tools and cadence. This new culture helped men learn the great gifts of not-fix ing every issue, while honoring the capacity of another, to grow them selves. The concept of lis tening was worked as well, thereby anointed as a legitimate verb of action in the male lexicon.

The Davis Community Men’s Talk Circle is clos ing down after COVID meant only meeting virtu ally via Zoom. Our loss of ritual space — making our experience sacred, notably the lighting of the

five directional candles — and holding our commu nal space together all took their toll on our atten dance. This chapter of work that we offered Davis has been nothing short of a blessing to behold.

We know that men heal and develop themselves when the courage to speak is coupled with the vul nerability of acceptance. I am grateful, deeply grate ful for the courageous many, who participated in our Talk Circle experi ences.

Currently this Talk Cir cle model of offering men a safe structure, an anti dote to the vituperative ways of isolation and exile, will soon be pro posed to our junior-high and high-school students. We know only too well how young men often do not feel emotionally pre pared for the emotional rigors that are required in the relationships they seek.

We also wish to thank the numerous stewards, the good-hearted men who served on the Talk CIrcle Committee for their generosity, forward thinking and service to the betterment of us all. We collectively also wish to thank our several homes over the years that welcomed and housed this project: Temple Bet Haverim, Families First, the International House, Don Saylor’s office and Davis Community Church.

Thank you!

— P. Gregory Guss, LCSW

Hanging with my zero-sum hummingbirds

By Tom H. HasTinGs Special to The Enterprise

I adore “my” hummingbirds, argu ably the best in-close flyers in the world, with reaction times so fast they zip in next to angry defensive bees to score a sip of sugar water despite the bees coming at them in a bee fury that would dissuade virtually any other critter, including me.

Two feeders full of sugar water hang not 40 inches from me, just outside my home office window. Who needs Netflix when I can turn to the Hummingbird Channel?

In virtuoso demonstrations of maneuverability, a tiny hummer can dart backwards and hover, waiting a human heartbeat for the bee to either peel off or charge toward it, and if the bee is serious, the bird might wheel and bug out, or might zigzag into another port of the feeder to see what the bee will do then.

Of course during that human heartbeat the little hummer’s heart beat some 200 times. They must per ceive even the quickest human or bee as operating in slo-mo. No bee has ever caught any hummer at my feed ers.

Watching the bird feeders is observing nature as endless meta phor for our human foibles.

Like hyper-intelligent humans with big cerebrums, hummingbirds fall for the zero-sum approach to sharing with others--at least the hummers who come to my feeders do. They seem to be convinced that whatever sips another hummer can take means that much less for them. Classic zero-sum thinking.

There are two feeders there, each accessible to them equally, with four ports on each. Eight hummingbirds

icymi: our Top 5 sTories of The week

News

n Seattle woman’s body found amid discarded cardboard: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4dvh n Thieves strike twice at downtown convenience store: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4dEu n Judge orders jail time for Davis CVS thefts: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4dA0

n Mike Bush: Take Jesuit, St. Francis out of Delta League: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4dz2

could easily share all those. They never do. They expend enormous energy chasing each other in wild aerial acrobatics that make the Blue Angels, or the Olympic gymnastic events, look staid and clumsy.

Gosh, I guess their little brains can’t seem to learn what should be obvious. Human beings are at the top of the intelligence pyramid because we learn so much, so quickly, and advance so easily. We wouldn’t fall for the same sort of wasteful error that the hummingbirds do.

Um, yeah.

We barely survived four years of a regime led by the quintessential zerosum thinker, Trump, who reminds me of a hog guarding a rotting car cass, chasing off other scavengers to keep all that delicious filth for him self. No matter what the comparator, he boasted that he was at the top, smarter about national defense than “his” generals, more intelligent than the US intelligence services, able to more brilliantly analyze the “China flu” problem than world-renowned virologists, and just generally a “very stable genius.”

But we can all fall into similar--if less world-stagey--logic traps. Over coming our amygdala reaction to see ing someone else doing well is our daily challenge.

My zero-sum white man reaction to immigrants or refugees coming into “my” country might be, “You will not replace us!”

My evidence-based response would be closer to, “Welcome. Like any eco system, our diversity is our strength. Work, study, learn, be productive, pay taxes, create a future for your family here. Help us repair and improve our

nation’s image around the world and with your homeland. We are glad to make this your new homeland.”

My zero-sum white man reaction to a person of color, possibly an immigrant, being hired by my employer might be, “Stealing our jobs! I gotta figure out how to under mine this one.”

My evidenced-based response would be more like, “Welcome. The most successful work teams are those that can operate well in a complex world economy. Let’s learn from each other and perform at our top poten tial.”

The hummers are fun to watch chasing each other. It’s like an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, with Elmer Fudd chasing him and Daffy and the perspective showing a long hallway with many doors and all of them sud denly popping out of random doors with no idea of how they got there, all to the tune of Infernal Gallop (aka the Can-Can). The hummers go streak ing past my window, then suddenly sprint downwards from above my window, and it’s pure entertainment for me.

But our human zero-sum analysis tendencies have a more malevolent outcome and show us often at our worst. From white nationalists to Vladimir Putin to anyone who feels like someone else’s misfortune is their gain, those stories are ugly.

Can we show that we are even smarter than a bird that weighs about the same as a penny? One wonders.

— Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coordi nator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University, PeaceVoice Senior Editor, and on occasion an expert witness for the defense of civil resisters in court.

Editors’ choice for web comment of the week

In response to “Pets of the week”

n World-renowned violinist joins DHS Baroque Ensemble: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4dAt

“This is cute but maybe an article on affordable apartments for the week?”

From Kim Brennan

By Scott Adams

Pearls Before Swine

By Stephan Pastis

Classic Peanuts

By Charles M. Schulz

Ambitious

Ritualz

Garrett

7 Baggins End, Davis. jason@schadavis.org, 916-642-9447

LaRussell's Album Release Concert @ 3pm Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia Street, Vallejo

Yerba Buena Night

6pm Yerba Buena Night

Square,

Yerba Buena Gardens,

Galleries,

Bigger

Buena

town SoMa Jessie Square, San Francisco. info@ybcbd.org, 415644-0728

"Passengers"

Westside Boogie

Beth Leavel: "It's Not About Me"

@

at

Street,

"Kinky Boots"

The Alpine Camp: Plac‐erville, CA

@ 7pm The Green Room Social Club, 251 Main St, Plac‐erville "Kinky Boots" @ 8pm / $15-$22.50

Victoria Theatre - San Francisco, 2961 16th Street, San Francisco

The Pleasure Routine @ 8:30pm Bottom Of the Hill, 1233 17th St, San Francisco Magician Jay Alexander @ 9pm / $45-$47.50

Marrakech Magic Theater, 419 O'‐Farrell St., San Francisco

D-Program @ 9pm DNA Lounge, 375 11th

Kenny Barron

Johnathan

Henry Rollins

Booze

St, Sacramento

Kiyoshi Kitagawa @ 7:30pm SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St, San Francisco

Katie Von Schleicher

8:30pm

Francisco

the Hill, 1233 17th

BIT @ 9:30pm

Jagged Little

Saturday

The

City

& Siah, Or Jesus in a Body Bag"

8pm / $20

Phoenix Theatre San Francisco, 414 Mason St., San Francisco

Magician Jay Alexander

9pm / $45-$47.50

Marrakech Magic Theater, 419 O'‐Farrell St., San Francisco

James McMurtry

9pm Harlow's, 2708 J St, Sacramento

Wendy DeWitt Queen of Boogie Woogie

9:30pm

Saloon, 1232 Grant ave, San Francisco

Bisi X Gavin

11pm Folsom Street Foundry, 1425 Fol‐som St, San Francisco

Bisi:

TELEFONE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

HOOKS

of

the River"

Work

World Premiere of

Get up early to watch

The end of the baseball season always has a sense of melan choly to it, especially if your team isn’t going to the postsea son.

n Just to clear it up, the wild card playoffs are best-of-three series, and the home team is the actual home team for all three games, if needed.

n College football insanity No. 4,356: Five weeks into the season, five coaches have already been fired.

They are Scott Frost, Nebraska; Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech; Herm Edwards, Arizona State; Karl Dor rell, Colorado; and Paul Chryst, Wisconsin.

Total dollars expended by their five schools for them not to coach is $56.7 million. With seven more games to go, count on more golden handshakes.

Thanks to column co-conspirator John Evenson for the figures above.

n The two fastest four-legged ani mals are the cheetah and pronghorn antelope.

That’s according to C.J. Box, whose novels center around a Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett. Any one of Box’s books is bound to entertain.

n If you, loyal Enterprise reader, are up early this morning, the Green Bay Packers are playing the New York Giants in London.

The Packers are the 32nd, and last, NFL team to play a game over seas. Kickoff is 6:30 a.m.

Having been in London and Green Bay, I opt to prefer the state of Wisconsin.

n There is a minor uproar in Col lege Station, Texas that Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher hasn’t won every game he’s coached and needs to be fired. Fisher signed a 10-year contract several seasons back.

Letting him go right this minute would only cost the school $90 mil lion.

n Is there a better wide receiver in the NFL than the Los Angeles Rams’

Cooper Kupp?

grad

The San Francisco 49ers skunked the Rams on Oct. 3 for one good reason. The Rams offensive line is awful.

n George Kittle gets a lot of attention as the 49ers tight end, but the offensive Niner who gets the tough yards is fullback Kyle Juszczyk.

n The New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge is now the all-time American League single-season home run hitter, having his 62nd home this past Tuesday.

He passed Roger Maris, who hit 61 in 1961.

Judge becomes a free agent once the playoff-bound Yankees season is over.

It’s hard to see Judge playing anywhere but the Bronx, but he is from Linden and will at least consider what the hometown San Francisco Giants have to say.

Those conversations will be mostly about dollar signs and contract length. Lots of dollar signs.

n To read the rest of Doug Kelly’s column, visit www.davisenterprise. com and click on the Sports tab.

SLOANE: Blue Devil cheers on teammates

Sloane’s style of play is to always be consis tent and play smart.

Her favorite shots to use against an opponent are her serve, slice and backhand.

Although she doesn’t have a routine or ritual before matches, she does try her best to stay calm and make sure she is perfectly warmed up.

As a team, the DHS team cheer for its team mates, which Sloane leads. She credits lead ing these cheers with helping her get into the mindset to play well.

When she looks back on her Blue Devils career, Sloane remem bers beating Pleasant Grove high for the first time as one of her favor ite memories.

“Everyone loving

everyone in moments like that makes me feel like I’m not only a part of a high school tennis team, but a family and an amazing group of people that I will always cherish,” said Sloane.

When the DHS tennis season comes to an end, Sloane’s high school playing career will close.

“I will miss every thing about the DHS tennis team,” said Sloane. “I will miss all the friends I have made, I will miss Sally, and I will miss playing with this amazing group of women.

n To read the rest of Rebecca Wasik’s story, visit www.davisenter prise.com and click on the Sports tab.

— Follow Rebecca Wasik on Twitter: @BeccaFromTheBay.

Hunter Douglas custom window shades

light in your home,

everyday living and defining the mood of your unique

beautiful space. Hunter Douglas offers the highest rating

protection which you'll love for yourself and the

furniture. Add Duolite to any window covering to strike the perfect balance of light filtering and room darkening. We also specialize in PowerView Automation. Bring your home into the future by controlling your shades via remote, phone, or voice activation. Visit our Hunter Douglas Gallery today!

Plenty of Parking Available.