By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer
At the turn of the new year, Davis Lactation Support officially opened its doors and joined the community’s stellar lineup of local businesses. Although a relatively new business, owner, Lisa Paradis comes with years of experience facilitating breastfeeding success through mental, emotional and physical support.
After more than 30 years toiling in obscurity in the ultracomplex world of battery technology, Kurt Kelty and the other chemists, electrical engineers and minerals experts racing to design the next generation of electric vehicle batteries are at last having their moment.
Kelty, who ran Tesla’s battery
cell team for more than a decade, now heads battery engineering at Sila Nanotechnologies, a Bay Area startup experimenting with new designs for EV power. When he started his career in the 1990s, Kelty avoided telling people at social gatherings he was in the battery industry because “you were relegated to the corner section of the cocktail party.”
“Now you go to parties and you are the center of attention,”
he said. “Everyone wants to know what’s going on with batteries.”
Do they ever. For all of the policy hurdles and consumer reluctance bedeviling California’s transition to all-electric transportation, unlocking the battery puzzle is the most critical element to jump-starting the post-fossil fuel revolution.
Failure to deliver safe, affordable and efficient batteries for electric cars could mean that
California fails to meet its landmark mandate, enacted last summer, to phase out new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.
As California enforces its firstin-the-world zero-emission requirements for cars, the state is navigating a policy path strewn with unique obstacles: international human rights and environmental issues, global resource constraints and
Plans to place a new piece of public art near the Woodbridge open space area in South Davis may be temporarily paused due to concerns raised about cultural appropriation.
The Davis City Council on Tuesday unanimously requested that the city’s Human Relations Commission weigh in on the artwork prior to installation.
Back in February, the city announced the purchase of the “Frog Totem,” an 8-foot-tall concrete composite piece by the late artist Mary Fuller McChesney.
The city’s Civic Arts Commission had selected the work “because of its universal appeal to all ages, especially children, and its playful nod to the renowned Davis legacy of celebrating and protecting our frogs and other wildlife,” the city said in a press release in February.
Originally hailing from the Auburn/Tahoe area, Paradis and her family made frequent visits to Davis to see her brother who was attending law school. Naturally, they fell in love with Davis and Paradis officially became a community member when she moved into town in 2007.
Before that, Paradis attended Cal Poly San Louis Obispo and got her degree in nutrition. She then worked as a registered dietitian at a hospital in Lodi and commuted there from Davis every day — for 13 years.
“That was the hospital that sparked my interest in becoming a lactation consultant because they were going to go baby-friendly which meant they had to adhere to a bunch of rules and policies to support breastfeeding and needed lactation
A large Palestinian flag hung from a tree in the quad, waving in the sunshine as students gathered around on Wednesday to hear personal stories about life in Palestine and precautions when visiting there.
Organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, an on-campus political advocacy group for Palestinian Liberation, the teach-in was day three in a weeklong event at UC Davis known as Apartheid Week, recognized by chapters nationwide. Focused on the right
of return for Palestinian refugees and the end of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank in Gaza, throughout the week, educational events also included a Hunger Banquet: Living on $1.90 a Day and work on an apartheid wall at UC Berkeley in conjunction with Bears for Palestine.
The World Bank’s previous definition of “extreme poverty,” $1.90 per person per day, was updated last September, measuring at $2.15 per person per day.
According to the World Bank, about 648 million
Woodland authorities arrested two siblings after allegedly finding a “ghost gun” in their vehicle.
On Sunday, March 5, members of the Woodland Police Department’s Gang Task Force (GTF) were on patrol when they noticed a vehicle on Muir and Cottonwood Street area. It was occupied by 25-year-old Woodland resident, Jessica Nguyen who said her brother, Jeremy, had driven her to her apartment and was currently upstairs in it.
Jeremy Nguyen, 22, was known to the GTF officer from previous contacts and also knew him to be on searchable Yolo County Post Release Community Supervision. Both subjects and the vehicle were searched which yielded a green-andblack Polymer80 pistol with a laser sight attachment.
A Woodland PD social post describes it as a “Ghost Gun” — an un-serialized and untraceable firearm.
Brother and sister were booked on multiple firearm-related charges.
Davis Mayor Will Arnold, the very definition of the phrase Local Boy Makes Good, delivered his State of the City address the other day, assuring us the town we love will continue to be both Right and Relevant.
He did talk about the condition of our roads and bike paths in general terms, but failed to explain why the portion of H Street that runs north from East Eighth to the Little League diamond is always in need of repair that never comes.
Word to the wise: do not ride your bicycle on this stretch without a helmet and knee pads.
He did, however, talk about housing, a topic that never goes away as we continue to suffer the consequences of our long history of opposing growth of any kind.
It’s all part of an “I have mine” mentality of homeowners who say it’s time to pull up the drawbridge and fill the moat with the nastiest creatures known to man.
I remember once reading a letter to the editor of this very news-
paper that said, “I moved here three months ago because Davis was the perfect size and now I’m appalled at the growth.”
Excuse me, sir, but did you ever think that you might be part of the growth that’s so appalling?
Davis had just 3,000 citizens when we rode the Shasta Daylight into town from our native Portland. The word then to my college-student dad was don’t buy a house in Davis because you’ll never be able to sell it when you get your degree and move back to Portland.
If only I could have seen the future I would have invested in Davis real estate instead of packs of baseball cards stuffed with stale pink bubble gum.
Noted Arnold, “We also, at the city, recently completed our Housing Element, basically our general plan for housing. We’ve submitted it to the state for certification. It’s a bold Housing Element that calls for us to step up to face the housing crisis that we’re in right now.”
We’ll see what the voters have to say about that.
Added the mayor, “We need to redouble our efforts on seeking supportable housing, particularly for folks who are part of our workforce.”
Dream on. Workforce housing, which presumably means a 40-hour-a-week employee at Taco Bell will one day own a home of her own is a complete myth. Has been for a long time now.
“The school district is facing a long, steady decline of enrollment and that could lead to some tough choices that the school district may have to make about keeping schools open,” Arnold went on.
“As goes our school district, so goes our property values. There’s one reason and one reason only why homes in Davis sell for darn
near twice per square foot as they do in neighboring communities. Not because we have ocean-front property here in Davis. It’s the schools.”
Yes, we hear that all the time.
“As we move forward trying to address our housing needs, how do we ensure we can have folks with school-age children welcomed back into town,” the mayor asked.
Putting two and two together — as I can because I’m a product of Davis schools — the only way to lower the cost of homes in Davis is to have crummy schools. Then and only then will demand for homes decline and prices drop.
Generally we hear politicians talk about rising housing values as a good thing, which I suppose it is for homeowners, but obviously not so good for those on the outside looking in.
One of the many reasons why former Davisites are swallowing hard and moving to that nearby suburb of North North Davis. Which is actually in Woodland. Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net
Special to The Enterprise
There is still an opportunity to celebrate Women’s History Month at the Yolo County Women’s History Month Committee’s event at the Gibson House grounds from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 18.
The National Women’s History Alliance based in Santa Rosa determines the theme each year and this year’s celebration is “Celebrating Women Who Tell
Our Stories,” recognizing women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling. The theme honors women in every community who have devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and reflecting the human condition decade after decade. The alliance is dedicated to honoring and preserving women’s history.
The committee is pleased
to announce Gloria Lopez, author of “An American Paella,” a compilation of Spanish immigrant stories, and Corinne Martinez, whose family stories are included in the book, are the guest speakers who reside in Winters. Both speakers will share their experiences and excerpts from the book. Martinez will prepare paella on site for guests attending the event.
Admission to the program is $20 per person that includes small tasting portions of paella, tapas and tortillas Españolas.
As in prior years, various nonprofits will have tables setup at the event including the Yolo County Library and Archives, local historical societies, the Woodland Public Library, and UC Davis Library Special Collections.
To make a reservation,
visit the organization’s website www.ycwhm.org to register through EVENTBRITE.
For general information about the committee or the celebration, contact Louisa R. Vessell at 916-451-2113 or email at lvessell@sbcglobal.net or visit www. ycwhm.org
Proceeds from the event will benefit the public libraries and women organizations in Yolo County.
It can be hard to know if someone is really into you. Sometimes, you get hints — a certain look or smile, a nervous blush or flirtation.
Giraffes get none of that. They have no set breeding season. They don’t go into heat, like dogs or cats. They don’t make mating calls or provide visual cues of sexual readiness. So how is a male giraffe to know his advances will be wellreceived? In short: pee, pheromones and a gentle nudge.
A study from UC Davis
provides new insight into the unique sex life of giraffes, their reproductive behavior, and how their anatomy supports that behavior.
The study, published in the journal Animals, describes how male giraffes test females for sexual receptivity.
First, the bulls provoke the females to urinate by nudging them and sniffing their genitalia. If the female is open to his invitation, she widens her stance and pees for about 5 seconds while the male takes the
urine in his mouth. He then curls his lip, inhaling with an open mouth — an act called flehmen that transports the female’s scent and pheromones from his oral cavity to the vomeronasal organ.
Hart and her co-author and husband, Benjamin Hart, professor emeritus with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, witnessed this behavior on multiple research trips to Namibia’s Etosha National Park.
Dotted among the park’s western side were large watering holes, where dozens of giraffes would
An Agoura Hills man faces robbery charges after allegedly snatching a woman’s belongings from her in downtown Davis, police said.
The robbery occurred at about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday at Third and D streets, prompting officers to respond to the area, according to Lt. Dan Beckwith.
“The victim reported that a man rode up to her on a bicycle as she walked on the
sidewalk,” Beckwith said. “The man grabbed her bag, which she had slung over her shoulder, and rode off. The victim was pulled to the ground in the process.”
Officers searched the area and located the suspect in a business complex in the 1400 block of Research Park Drive, Beckwith said. Officers recovered the woman’s bag and returned it to her.
The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Daniel Menachem Sagi, was booked into the Yolo County Jail on charges of robbery and possession of drug paraphernalia.
congregate. Lynette called it “a dream come true” for observing giraffes. “So often you see a few in the distance, not an up-close view,” she said.
Benjamin Hart had studied how flehmen behavior worked within the anatomy
of other animals, including goats. During their trips to East Africa, the Harts suspected a similar process was underway for giraffes. “This is part of their reproductive behavior,” Benjamin Hart said.
— UC Davis News
fast-moving technologies.
The industry’s imperatives: Making cheaper, faster-charging and more durable EV batteries. Breaking China’s stranglehold on the industry, where 85% of batteries are produced or assembled. And discovering new sources of rare earth minerals to replace lithium mines in countries with unsafe labor practices and poor environmental oversight, and cobalt mines where human rights groups say children are mining ore with their bare hands.
Standing between the dream and the mandate are potential global supply chain disruptions, rising prices of materials, shifting geopolitical alliances and a profound retooling of a venerable industry.
Materials for electric car batteries come from mines and factories around the world, including Africa, Australia, South America and Asia. Future exploration is contemplated in the Arctic Circle and the planet’s deep seabeds.
Automakers are ramping up EV development and production, and some have already announced their intention to stop selling gasoline and diesel cars and electrify their entire fleets: General Motors set a 2035 goal, while Volvo and Mercedes set even more aggressive targets — full electrification by 2030. Ford so far has made a 2035 pledge to go electric only for models sold in Europe.
But the hill that automakers must climb is treacherous and quite steep. California officials have been planning for an electric future for decades, envisioning clean transportation that is sustainable, carbon free, better for the environment and affordable.
That journey begins with batteries, and the road to get there is decidedly tricky.
The favored technology of the moment, lithium-ion batteries, can be dirty and dangerous during their lifecycle — from the mines in Chile and Australia to the cell factories in China and South Korea to the landfills where they can leak toxic substances.
Last month, Ford encountered a battery problem and was forced to temporarily suspend production and shipments of its popular
all-electric 2023 F-150 Lightning pickup. A battery caught fire in a single truck during a pre-delivery check, the company said. The fire came after Ford issued a notice to EV pickup truck owners about “performance degradation” problems with the battery module that affected about 100 trucks. General Motors, Tesla, Hyundai and BMW, among other manufacturers, have also dealt with battery problems.
“Growing pains” doesn’t come close to describing the challenges that could thwart ambitions to fully electrify California’s transportation, at least in the short term. The sunny projections about an EV revolution are running into harsh, unavoidable reality.
“We do have a problem,” said Daniel Sperling, a UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies professor who served on the California Air Resources Board that enacted the zero-emission car mandate last summer.
That problem, he said, is that the air board and other optimistic state officials did not adequately factor in the volatility of global markets, the impact of a worldwide pandemic and the cautiousness of industrial titans.
“The American automobile industry has lagged and has been slow to embrace adoption of EVs, never mind the materials issues. The legacy (car) companies, not just the American ones, have been slow to anticipate all the issues — supply chain, materials,” Sperling said.
“We thought that all of this would be so easy a glide path to 100%,” he said. But supply chain problems are “just one thing that went wrong. There’s going to be other things that will go wrong.
“It will make it harder to get to 100%,” Sperling said, “but we will get it figured out.”
As the world races to build electric cars, the competition to source battery raw materials has buffeted the world market, primarily lithium, cobalt and nickel. Lithium, known as white gold, is a highly efficient metal for storing energy. Cobalt, called blue gold, provides lithium-ion batteries with their range and durability.
Nickel, like lithium, has high energy density.
Demand for these vital metals has yo-yoed their prices along with their supply. Even though the supply picture changes from month to month, experts say, for now, the near-term availability of battery materials is stable.
“I don’t see major issues in terms of getting supply to match demand,” said Kevin Mak, who analyzes automotive electronics markets for the U.K.-based firm TechInsights Inc. “No one is in a panic or hand-wringing. Challenges are there — nickel, Chinese supply vendors, reserves of lithium and moves toward getting supplies elsewhere.”
However, a report from the International Energy Agency found a mixed picture: Lithium and cobalt may be in surplus in the near-term, but supplies from existing mines and those under construction may meet only half of the demand by the end of the decade.
“These risks to the reliability, affordability and sustainability of mineral supply are manageable, but they are real,” the report concluded. “How policy makers and companies respond will determine whether critical minerals are a vital enabler for clean energy transitions, or a bottleneck in the process.”
Demand for lithium has been sluggish lately, driven by a variety of market forces, and prices dropped about 12% last month. Chinese suppliers of lithium concentrate halted a planned auction.
The volatility makes auto companies nervous.
The price of cobalt more than doubled from mid-2021 to 2022, but has fallen drastically. At the same time, production is booming. Forecasts project the Democratic Republic of Congo will mine almost 40% more cobalt this year and Indonesia is poised to become a major producer.
Prospecting for and processing these metals can also be problematic. Lithium is commonly derived via open-pit hardrock mining, much of it in Australia, or in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, by allowing expansive, lithiumrich brine lakes to slowly evaporate to yield the raw material.
In either case, the mining can leave indelible scars on the landscape and pollute air and water.
The process of evaporation of briny water scatters salt, ruining soils for farming and contaminating streams. One report found that in northern Chile, lithium extraction has consumed 65% of the region’s water supply.
Cobalt carries similar environmental baggage, although its critics more often cite the mines’ impacts on workers. Researchers at Northwestern University studying social and environmental consequences of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo found widespread problems.
The mining “was associated with increases in violence, substance abuse, food and water insecurity, and physical and mental health challenges,” the report says. “Community members
reported losing communal land, farmland and homes, which miners literally dug up in order to extract cobalt. Without farmland, Congolese people were sometimes forced to cross international borders into Zambia just to purchase food.”
Experts single out Tesla — with its close control of materials and battery manufacturing — as being well-positioned to avoid supply chain and battery disruptions.
“Localizing the manufacturing of more electric vehicles in the United States, along with greater localized sourcing of parts and materials, will not just help reduce our emissions footprint. It will make our business stronger and more sustainable,” said Ashwani Gupta, chief operating officer of the Nissan Motor Co. in a February statement.
General Motors announced a $650 million investment in the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, the largest known source of lithium in the U.S. The company estimates that lithium carbonate produced at the mine will be sufficient to power a million cars.
Another promising U.S. lithium source is at California’s Salton Sea, where companies are beginning to extract lithium, as well as manganese and zinc, from brine pulled up by geothermal plants near the lake, which is close to the US-Mexico border. State officials established a Lithium Valley Commission, envisioning a future juggernaut where EV batteries are built from side-by-side extraction, processing and assembly facilities.
The commission reported that the Salton Sea region has the world’s highest concentration of lithium contained in geothermal brines. Generally, the process piggybacks on existing power plants that pull up superheated water and convert it to steam. The additional step would extract lithium from the brine then reinject the remaining water back into the ground.
One difficulty is the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which includes rebates for car buyers but requires that at least half of the battery components must be sourced in the U.S. or from a trading partner country by next year, ramping up to 80% in 2026. Federal officials have not released final guidance to the car companies.
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people were in extreme poverty in 2019.
President of SFJ UCD
Yara (who requested her last name be withheld for safety reasons) said Apartheid Week highlights how “the system perpetuates apartheid” and how different experiences of Palestinians differ depending on gender, age, where they are geographically in Palestine.
“Even within the West Bank, Palestinians, some different towns and cities are living under different forms of restrictions of movement, economic suppression, political and civil suppression from the Israeli military. So throughout the week, we’re just going to be having educational events highlighting these forms of violent oppression that Palestinians are subjected to,” she said.
The Apartheid Wall invites community members to question its symbolism. “There’s an apartheid wall in the West Bank and around Gaza right now, so people struggle to get in or leave, especially when it comes to Gaza. Palestinians can’t leave Gaza, and Palestinians can enter if they live outside,” Yara said.
Born in the U.S., Seena, the vice president of Students for Justice in Palestine, travels each summer to visit family outside of Palestine. Their village was demolished and her grandparents became refugees in Jordan and Kuwait. She returns every summer to visit family and work in the refugee camps.
“(Working in the camps) is a world within itself,” she said. “Seeing your people that way is challenging, but they have so much hope and resistance. It’s very hard coming into contact with settlers or Israeli forces, but at the end of the day, Palestinian people are the most resilient people I know. It’s a beautiful culture and a beautiful place. While everything we talked about is so sad, I always have shown and shed light on the beauty of the land and the people in the culture.”
What follows is a personal account Seena shared at the teach-in regarding her visit to Palestine last summer. It has been edited for clarity:
I got to go to Palestine for three months, see my family, see my land, and be with my people. And a big thing for me is to go pray
in Jerusalem. I got the privilege of doing that this summer, and I couldn’t be more grateful. But I must say it’s not easy for me to get in as a Palestinian woman. My American passport means nearly nothing to them. When I was in Jerusalem, going through all of the little vendors selling food, shirts and little knickknacks, I was stopped by an IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) soldier. I was asked to present my visa and passport, which I did without argument.
As I waited to get those things returned to me, I had a sweet older man who asked me what village I was from. And I, of course, I’m so proud of where I’m from, and I immediately began to tell him about how the beautiful village my family is from is sadly in ruins, and he was actually able to know and understand, which was very fun and interesting for me. And then, it came time for me to get my passport back.
Before giving my pass-
port back, I was asked to recite the opening verse of the Quran. I was asked, as a Muslim woman, why I was there. Upon being asked to recite the opening verse in the Quran, I couldn’t really bite my tongue, and I looked at him, and I said, “Are you kidding me? Because in what way are you to make me feel so low? It makes me feel as though I have to prove myself as a Muslim woman, on my ground and land, to pray in a mosque for my people?”
And not long after the second those words left my mouth, the environment around me completely changed. He had a gun larger than me on him. He began to explicitly tell me, “Do you understand where you are? I don’t care if you’re from California. This isn’t California. I will have you forcibly removed. I will have you arrested, and I will not allow you to pray in your mosque.” This all happened to me in 10 minutes with my cousin right next to me in absolute and utter shock that I was
being treated this way.
But at the same time, I expect nothing less. I expect nothing less of this military occupation. It is something that I do not fear. I do not fear these soldiers. I do not fear these people because, at the end of the day, their main basis, their main foundation, is absolutely nothing. It’s empty words. It’s empty promises.
So at the end of the day, I looked at him and said “really” again, and he was starting to get very frustrated. I saw his hand moving to his gun, and I knew that they shoot before they ask.
And, immediately, all I could think about was my family. My mother, my cousin who is a martyr, and at that moment, I knew I couldn’t do that to my family. The countless stories you hear of them shooting up Palestinians are devastating. At that moment, my cousin and I began to recite the verse. And at that moment, he gave us our passports back. But I wasn’t going to go without that being said.
Midway through the recitation, he asked me to stop after giving me my passport. I continued with my recitation.
I could see the anger on his face because he could tell that I was not bothered. He could tell that there was no effect on me. I walked away with a smile because, at the end of the day, I was still home. That’s my home. I have the right to return to my home, and I wish nothing but that for every Palestinian brother and sister. My story is no different than thousands of others. My story is not the worst; if anything, it’s a great story. I’m here to tell you about it today. But I want you to know that this is ongoing. Palestinians face going through checkpoints through these interactions, just getting into Palestine. All of that is a struggle for us. But we continue to go because we know that’s home that will forever be home. I am sharing one of my many stories of Palestine’s beautiful land and beautiful people, and I am so proud to call it home.
The piece would be installed behind the San Marino Park patio on the edge of the open space trail area, the city said at the time.
But since then, the city has heard complaints from some residents that the Frog Totem represents cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation is defined as inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of the customs, practices or ideas of one culture by members of another, typically more dominant, culture.
In this case, concerns were raised about the purchase and installation of a piece of artwork influenced by indigenous culture.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Jenny Tan, the city’s director of community engagement, provided a response to those concerns from Rachel Hartsough, the city’s arts and culture manager, who was unable to attend the meeting.
According to Hartsough, Tan said, “This artwork is not a
totem pole.”
“It is not constructed like a totem pole or as a totem pole,” she said. “Totem poles are a very specific type of artwork that comes from the Pacific Northwest and from further north.
“A totem is a term broadly used to describe any person or thing having particular emblematic or symbolic importance,” said Tan. “Many countries around the world use totems or have used totems in their cultures. The word totem, when used by itself and not in connection or in a phrase like ‘totem pole,’ is a prime English word for any symbol or group of people of importance.”
The Frog Totem, as explained by McChesney herself, is specifically influenced by Mayan, Aztec and Mexican culture and is a tribute to the natural environment. The artwork includes the words ‘Save the Frogs’ in English and ‘Salva las Ranas’ in Spanish, and McChesney intentionally created the piece to promote wildlife conservation in her hometown of
Petaluma and also as a tribute to local frogs, Tan explained. McChesney “was very open about her influences, including her time spent in Guadalajara, Mexico,” Tan said, where she was “exposed to and heavily influenced by pre-Columbian art and Mayan mythology. This influence can be seen in the scope and style of work for her, which spans her entire career.”
Tan noted that artists “frequently draw inspiration from other artists, styles and periods and, in this case, the Civic Arts Commission felt the artist did so in a manner that was respectful and appropriate.”
The Frog Totem was purchased using municipal arts funds. In addition to the Civic Arts Commission approving the purchase, the city’s Open Space and Habitat Commission also weighed in, Tan said, voting 6-0 in favor of placing the piece at the Woodbridge open space area in South Davis. Hartsough is also open to presenting at any other commission
interested in hearing about the artwork, Tan added.
Council members unanimously agreed that the city’s Human Relations Commission should weigh in.
Councilman Bapu Vaitla was the first to suggest having the HRC discuss the matter.
However, he said, “I don’t think the lines of cultural appropriation are very cleanly demarcated or defined … for me it’s about the content of whatever plaque or informational materials go next to the totem. I don’t know that I see some unambiguous cultural appropriation that would merit not installing the totem at all or removing it, but there may be ways … to use the artwork as a way of bringing forth conversation about the use of other cultures in our public spaces.”
Councilwoman Gloria Partida agreed the HRC should weigh in and said, “this is a topic that deserves conversation.”
“I serve as a liaison to the Civic Arts Commission and I’m
frequently impressed by the conversations that do go on there and the thoughtfulness and the carefulness around choosing art,” Partida said.
“I think that cultural appropriation is one of those things that, when it happens, you know that it has happened and it is offensive and degrades the cultures that it is appropriating. I think the line gets fuzzier when it comes to art.”
Partida added that she thinks it’s important “for the people who are most affected by these issues to be in the forefront of these conversations.
Mayor Will Arnold and Vice Mayor Josh Chapman, meanwhile, joined Partida and Vaitla in calling for the Human Relations Commission to discuss the Frog Totem.
Tan said the piece was to have been installed at the end of March or early April, but work hasn’t started yet and could be delayed to give the commission time to weigh in.
From Page A1
consultants on staff,” explained Paradis. “So, they sent three of us to UC San Diego for a year-long program filled with clinical and on-the-job education.
At the end of the program, I became an international board-certified lactation consultant and went back to work at the hospital while working as a registered dietitian there as well.
I helped them become baby-friendly and stayed there for three more years before I decided I needed to be closer to home.”
From Lodi, Paradis went to work at Kaiser in South Sacramento where she bolstered her knowledge and know-how at their newborn clinic before finally transitioning to the Kaiser in Davis — thus putting an
end to her hours of daily commuting. Without the commute, Paradis was able to be closer to her family and her son’s educational journey through the Davis school system. However, it wasn’t until — as Bob Ross would say — a happy little accident occurred that Paradis would be set on a path to opening her own clinic.
“We were on Donner Lake and I was laying on a raft when my husband accidentally jumped on my arm which caused a very severe, ulnar collateral ligament tear. That put me on medical leave for four months and while I was at home thinking, ‘What am I doing with myself?’ I started realizing this would be a great time to look into breaking away from Kaiser and becoming my own person
out here in the community helping moms and babies without the restrictions of managed healthcare,” said Paradis. “So, that’s what I did. I spent my four months researching and working with advisors through the Sacramento Small Business Development Center, I got a grant for $10,000 for new business owners (from the California Dream Fund) and it all worked out great. I just poured myself into learning as much as I could about becoming a business owner, and I just did it!”
While it may seem like an impulsive move, opening her own clinic was something that’d been on Paradis’ mind for years. All it took was an errant jump from her husband which caused an injury that was as painful and debilitating
as it was serendipitous.
Without it, perhaps Paradis wouldn’t have had those four months to focus on the research and hard work needed to become her own business owner (although she more than likely would have figured it out anyway). Now in 2023 — and with both arms fully-functional — Paradis is able to share her knowledge and passion with her town.
“An international boardcertified lactation consultant is really an expert in infant feeding. That doesn’t just mean feeding at the breast,” Paradis said. “That means an infant also taking bottles, bottles with expressed breast milk from mom, or formula or both. It’s really the care and attention both the mom and a baby need to thrive when it comes to infant
feeding. I work with moms and the babies and give them the attention and care they need to overcome individual issues they’re having or issues together. I feel like I’m part therapist, part lactation consultant because there’s a direct link between feeding a baby for a mother and postpartum depression and I try to take care of the moms just as much as the babies.”
Paradis broke down the mental, emotional and physical assistance she provides: “Unfortunately, healthcare facilities don’t have a lot of us on staff. If they do, we don’t have enough time to provide for these families. My initial consult with a family is two hours or longer depending on their needs. At my old doctor’s office, I only got 30 minutes and that’s not
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• The Conscious Teacher I taught in Davis for 27 years. These books will be helpful for teachers and parents. I would appreciate if you would check in with me at dnpoulos@urcad.org
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PROFESSIONAL OFFICE FOR LEASE. Central Davis location on Kennedy Place, at J Street near Covell. Great parking. Beautiful wood built ins. 600 square feet. Call (530) 759-0200 or email rent1105kennedy@gmail.com
NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF BULK SALE (UCC Sec. 6105) Escrow No. 14694T NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a bulk sale is about to be made. The name(s), business address(es) of the seller(s) are: 888 JOHNSON AND BEN CORP., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, 330 G STREET #F, DAVIS, CA 95616
Whose chief executive office address is: SAME AS ABOVE
Doing Business as: HOMETOWN KITCHEN AND BLONDIES BAR (Type – RESTAURANT & BAR )
All other business name(s) and address(es) used by the seller(s) within past three years, as stated by the seller(s), is/are: NONE The name(s) and address of the buyer(s) is/are: PARKSIDE DAVIS LLC, A CALIFORNIA LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, 330 G STREET #F, DAVIS, CA 95616
The assets to be sold are described in general as: ALL STOCK IN TRADE, FURNITURE, FIXTURES, EQUIPMENT AND GOODWILL
And are located at: 330 G STREET #F, DAVIS, CA 95616
The bulk sale is intended to be consummated at the office of: CAPITOL CITY ESCROW, INC., 3838 WATT AVENUE, SUITE F-610 SACRAMENTO, CA 95821-2665 and the anticipated sale date is MARCH 29, 2023
The bulk sale is subject to California Uniform Commercial Code Section 6106.2.
[If the sale is subject to Sec. 6106.2, the following information must be provided] The name and address of the person with whom claims may be filed is: CAPITOL CITY ESCROW, INC., 3838 WATT AVENUE, SUITE F-610 SACRAMENTO, CA 95821-2665
THIS BULK TRANSFER INCLUDES A LIQUOR LICENSE
TRANSFER. ALL CLAIMS MUST BE RECEIVED PRIOR TO THE DATE ON WHICH THE NOTICE OF TRANSFER OF THE LIQUOR LICENSE IS RECEIVED BY ESCROW AGENT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE
CONTROL.
Dated: FEBRUARY 22, 2023
Buyer(s): PARKSIDE DAV IS LLC, A CALIFORNIA LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
1545069-PP DAVIS ENTERPRISE 3/10/23 #2202
Deborah Poulos
Summer leadership camp opportunities for high school juniors. The Davis Sunrise Rotary club is offering full scholarships to current high school juniors for two summer leadership camps, Camp Royal and Camp Venture. If interested, contact Don Winters, dsw0419@gmail.com
NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF LYNNE O. CRANDALL Case No. PR2022-0263
To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of LYNNE O. CRANDALL
A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Bradford G. Crandall, Sr. in the Superior Court of California, County of YOLO.
THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests tha t Bradford G. Crandall, Sr. be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.
THE PETITION requests the decedent's lost will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. Copies of the lost will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.
THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)
The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.
A HEARING on the petition will be held on March 30, 2023 at 9:00 AM in Dept. No. 11 located at 1000 Main St., Woodland, CA 95695.
IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.
IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.
YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner:
Unit
realistic dealing with babies or a crying mother. Just being able to give families the time they need here in Davis is a freedom I never knew possible.” For information or to schedule a consultation, visit Paradis’ website at www.davislactationsupport.com or their socials by searching @davis_lactation_support on Instagram and Facebook; by phone at 530-999-1712; by email at info@davislactationsupport.com; or at the clinic at 330 Madson Place, Suite B. Nervousness is not required prior to visiting because it states quite plainly on Paradis’ website, “Regardless of race, religion, nationality, sex or route to parenthood, all are welcome at Davis Lactation Support.”
Published March 3, 10, 2023 #2194
The Davis Odd Fellows in partnership with Vitalant (formerly BloodSource) will sponsor its first 2023 Blood Drive on March 14.
Sign up at https:// donors.vitalant.org/dwp/ portal/dwa/appointment /guest/phl/timeSlotsExtr ?token=8LK7V2ggHhz M%2FcCTOv0M7JubEe 14e0iEfXXeCnabVsk% 3D, or go to Vitalant online.
Culture wars have been waged for decades in the U.S. but recently the battlefield has shifted dramatically to schools and education.
Transgender children in school bathrooms and sports, critical race theory, the history of slavery, College Board AP course on African American history — why are these topics suddenly so salient and controversial? What are the bounds of academic freedom and who decides school curriculum?
The Contemporary Issues Forum at the Davis United Methodist Church will explore these questions on Sunday, March 12. The discussion will be led by Marty West, professor emerita from the UC Davis Law School. West also served on the Davis Board of Education for eight years. The forum begins at 11:15 a.m. at Davis United Methodist Church, 1620 Anderson Road.
The Bike Campaigns Bike Skills Training Program fills a gap for kids that may not have had the opportunity to ride, do not own a bike, or need to improve their skills to feel more confident on two wheels.
The Bike Campaign now makes Bike Skills Training available at all elementary schools in Davis and Woodland.
The second-grade Bike Skills Training Program focuses on teaching every student how to ride a two-wheel bicycle using the easy “Balance Bike” method. Fifth-grade bike riding skills focus on proper bike and helmet fitting, maintaining a working bike, learning the rules of the road and how to ride with a group.
The Bike Campaign provides specially designed fleets of bikes, helmets, reflective vests and trained instructors for every training.
Upcoming training are on March 14 and 16 at Whitehead Elementary in Woodland (second and fifth grades); April 4 at Zamora Elementary in Woodland (second grade); and April 13, 14 and 21 at Korematsu Elementary in Davis (second and fifth grades).
Volunteer training is provided. To get involved, contact Bike Campaign director Maria Contreras Tebbutt at funmaria@sbcglobal.net.
Osher Lifelong Learning at UC Davis is hosting a free Zoom lecture by Ken Verosub, professor of earth sciences, at 1 p.m. Monday, March 13.
Just two weeks before the Feb. 20 earthquake in Turkey, Dr. Verosub was there, observing the seismic resistance of structures in the region, among other things. Verosub will share observations and material in a 90-minute lecture on the Feb. 20 quake and recent
aftershocks in southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria.
OLLI membership is not required – Email OLLI@ucdavis.edu to for a link to the Zoom registration.
The League of Women Voters Davis Area will host a forum on Wednesday, March 29, for the two candidates seeking the Davis City Council District 3 seat.
The seat was vacated by former Mayor (now Yolo County Supervisor) Lucas Frerichs in January and a special election has been called for Tuesday, May 2, to fill that seat. Ballots will be mailed to all District 3 residents in early April and the election itself will be mail-only.
The League of Women Voters forum, to be held via Zoom from 7 to 8:15 p.m., will feature candidates Donna Neville and Francesca Wright and be moderated by Michele Van Eyken. Register for the event at BIT.LY/DAVISD3 FORUM.
Local Davis Boy Scout and Girl Scout Units will host their annual Scouting for Food event to benefit the Short Term Emergency Aid Committee’s food programs on Saturday, March 11. Door hanger announcements will be distributed in early March by scouts and their families to various neighborhoods in Davis.
If you receive a door hanger, leave a food donation out by your curb by no later than 9 a.m. Saturday, March 11. Scouts will be collecting food donations between 9 a.m. and noon that day. Pickup locations are limited to residents who receive door hangers only.
If you receive a door hanger but your food is not picked up by noon Saturday, please send an email to davisscouting4food@gmail.com with your address for pick up. All requests must be received by March 11. Residents who do not receive a door hanger can still participate by bringing donations to STEAC’s regular donation window at 642 Hawthorn Lane between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. every Tuesday.
Information is available at steacfoodproject. org.
The Sacramento regional FIRST Robotics competition returns to UC Davis later this month.
More than 45 California and international high schools will be competing in the game “Charged Up” with the robots they’ve built and with hopes of moving on to the world championships.
The Davis team — Citrus Circuits — has won the Sacramento regional event repeatedly, including in 2022, moving on to the world championships, which the team won in 2015. Citrus Circuits is comprised of about 100 students in grades 9-12 from all Davis junior highs and high schools.
Admission to the Sacramento regional competition is free and open to the public, with competition taking place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26, in the ARC Pavilion, 750 Orchard Road.
Beatrice (Tilly) Shilling was born on March 8, 1909, in Waterlooville, England. She was a curious child who enjoyed taking apart and putting items back together again.
She spent her pocket money on tools and Meccano building sets, winning prizes for her creations. She continued with her building interests and even bought herself a motorcycle at the age of 14. She taught herself how to disassemble and reassemble the engine and would often tune and tinker with it in her spare time.
After completing her schooling, she worked installing wires and generators for an electrical engineering company. Her employer and mentor, Margaret Partridge, encouraged Shilling to attend university. Shilling attended Victoria University of Manchester, studying electrical engineering.
In 1932, she and her classmate, Sheila McGuffie, were the only two women in their engineering graduating class. Shilling continued her studies for another year and received her Master’s in mechanical engineering.
Shilling worked as a research assistant for Professor Mucklow at the University of Birmingham.
In her spare time, she raced her motorbike, often reaching 100 mph or more. She was awarded the British Motorcycle
Racing Club’s Gold Star award in 1934. Close friends would say her idea of relaxation was driving at full throttle and tinkering at her workbench to go even faster.
In 1936, Shilling was recruited to work on projects for the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Royal Air Force. During World War II the Royal Air Force discovered that planes equipped with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines would stall or cut out during dives. This put the pilots in extreme danger and caused their enemies to outmaneuver them in the air. Shilling discovered how to prevent the carburetors from flooding and preventing them from stalling.
She and a team traveled to RAF locations and installed the engine patch, significantly bettering the plane’s efficiencies during the height of of the war.
Chief engineer Keith Maddock said her small adjustment became a war-winning modification and without it likely would have resulted in their defeat.
After the War, Shilling refused to slow down. She and her husband, George Naylor, would tune and race cars. She also continued working for the Royal Aircraft Establishment until her retirement in 1969. She passed away in 1990 at the age of 81. She is often regarded as a significant contributor to Allied victory in World War II and continues to be an inspiration to women engineers worldwide.
Explorit’s coming events
n Our exhibit “Explorit Rocks!” is open to the public on Fridays from 1-4 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is $5 per person. Explorit Members,
ASTC, and those age 2 and under free.
n “Spring into Science” camp is full, please call 530-756-0191 for waitlist placement.
n Summer Science Camp registration is open! Camps for those entering K-2 and 3-5 available. Find out more at https:// www.explorit.org/camps.
n A Membership to Explorit grants the recipient free visits to Explorit’s regular public hours, discounts on events, summer camps and workshops, and gives you ASTC benefits to visit other museums throughout the world. To purchase or for more information visit https:// www.explorit.org/membership or call Explorit at 530-756-0191.
n School Programs are available to schedule. We have educational programs that travel to schools and options for field trips at our facility. Please call 530-756-0191 for more information or to schedule.
n Now is a great time to donate and help Explorit continue to educate and inspire the scientists of tomorrow: https://www. explorit.org/donate.
— Explorit Science Center is at 3141 Fifth St. For information, call 530-7560191 or visit http://www. explorit.org, or “like” the Facebook page at www. facebook.com/explorit.fb.
Special to The Enterprise
The rainbows return to Davis’ Central Park in June for the ninth annual Davis Pride Festival. The community-focused, familyfriendly weekend includes a skate night, fun run, music festival, drag queens, vendors and more — June 3 and 4.
The events, produced by the Davis Phoenix Coalition, follow the theme “I am Davis Pride.” This year, Davis Pride’s presenting sponsor is BluPeak Credit Union. The highlights of the weekend include:
n Skate with Pride, starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 3. The free night will include a disc jockey, disco lights and food trucks. Skating will be under the Davis Farmers Market Pavilion in Central Park, Fourth and C streets, downtown.
n Run for Equality at 8 a.m. on Sunday, June 4. It includes a 5K and 1K run/ walk from Central Park. Registration is $25 until May 28 and $30 after.
n A community fair kicking off the Davis Pride Festival at 10 a.m. on June 4. It continues until 5 p.m. in Central Park with educational booths, food, drink, and vendors coordinated with the assistance of Davis Craft and Vintage Market.
n A music festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. that Sunday, with local and international bands, choirs and a drag queen revue. This year’s music headliner is Northern California favorite Tainted Love – The Best of the ’80s Live.
n A Ride with Pride bike party ride starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 23, from Central Park.
Other activities are taking shape, including:
n Volunteers painting rainbows crosswalks around Davis’ Central Park early on the morning of Sunday, May 28.
n The committee is working with various
community organizations to develop an LGBTQ+ job fair, happy hour, pride brunch and other events for May and June.
June is International LGBTQ+ Month. Davis Pride events are coordinated by an all-volunteer community formed by the Davis Phoenix Coalition, a nonprofit that works to foster diversity, eliminate intolerance, prevent
hate-motivated violence, and support LGBTQ+ youths in Davis and surrounding communities.
The coalition was founded in the aftermath of a 2013 anti-gay attack on Davis resident “Mikey” Partida. Proceeds from Davis Pride events support the coalition’s anti-racism and anti-bullying campaigns, sup-port to LGBTQ+ youths and their families,
and outreach with area police departments, churches and schools. To donate, go to https:// davisphoenixco.org/ donate.
For more information about the event, or becoming a sponsor, exhibitor or volunteer, visit https:// www.davispride.org/. To learn details as they unfold, follow Davis Pride on Facebook and Instagram.
Special to The Enterprise
The community missed its lazy Wednesday evenings in Central Park — the music, food and family fun. The Davis Farmers Market listened, and found a way to bring back its beloved Picnic in the Park.
Special to The Enterprise
Lots of animals are waiting for “forever homes” at the Yolo County Animal Shelter, 2640 E. Gibson Road in Woodland.
Among them is Sweet Dee (A201293), a medium-size, 1-year-old female cattle dog mix. Sweet Dee is a little shy at first but a lovebug once you are friends. She’s smart, loves training and will benefit from a dedicated family who will encourage her zest for learning new tricks and commands.
male at maturity. Reese needs a brush up on his obedience training skills but comes with free lifetime obedience training classes. Reese is smart and a quick learner. He will make a wonderful new best friend.
Stormy is a supersweet 1-year-old spayed female Rottie/Lab cross. She’s a lovely, gentlenatured dog who loves kids and other dogs. She is crate-trained, walks well on leash and knows her commands. Stormy is definitely a volunteer favorite.
Starting May 17, Picnic in the Park will return, and continue every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. through Sept. 13. A local band will play each night. There will be children’s entertainment, loads of food vendors, and plenty of opportunity to gather as a community. Late September through early May, Wednesdays swap back to a traditional farmers market, open 3 to 6 p.m.
Randii MacNear, executive director of the Davis Farmers Market Alliance, is thrilled. With a redesigned layout, it will be more manageable. “I’m so happy, because I really feel like we broke people’s hearts. There was no solution except to try to bring it back — if we could find a way.”
The new layout of the Wednesday market is designed for success. Food trucks will fill the patio area, and the band will play from the top of the stairs, facing the lawn. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets for picnicking. Tables and chairs will no longer be provided.
During operating hours, the market will have an open-container permit, allowing patrons to consume alcohol on the grassy area, whether it’s a bottle of wine from Heringer Estates, or a beer they
Also hoping for a good home is Fern (A200589), a sweet, 3-year-old German shepherd who is ready and waiting for her forever family. Fern was found as a stray and can't wait to leave shelter life behind and have a family to love her. Fern is a happy pup and likes day trips. For information on adopting, contact adoptycas@gmail.com. All shelter animals are upto-date on vaccinations, microchipped, and spayed or neutered.
Staff is available to assist via phone during business hours at 530668-5287. Shelter hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. To meet any adoptable YCAS animals, visit friendsofycas.org. To volunteer, sign up at tinyurl. com/yolovolunteerapp. Follow on at @ycas. shelter and Instagram at @yoloanimalshelter
At Rotts of Friends Animal Rescue, you’ll find Reese, a handsome 1-year-old neutered male Rottweiler. He’s a fun, energetic, goofy boy who will be a medium-sized
The next Rotts of Friends adoption event is from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, March 11, at 34505 County Road 29 in Woodland. Come by 10 a.m., as it takes at least an hour to meet and adopt a dog; everyone who will be living with the dog should come out to meet it.
Bring proof of homeownership, such as a mortgage statement or property tax bill. If you rent, bring proof that you are allowed to have a dog in your home, such as a pet clause in your lease or a note from your landlord.
All dogs adopted from Rotts of Friends are healthy, microchipped, up-to-date on their vaccines and come with free lifetime obedience-training classes. For information, visit facebook.com/ rottsoffriends.
bought from a downtown brewery or from home.
COVID-19 health guidelines halted concerts and alcohol consumption just before the Picnic in the Park season was to begin in March 2020. In November of that year, the Alliance announced it would discontinue the festival portion of its Wednesday market because it was difficult to manage. Meanwhile, the Davis Downtown Business Association started planning a summer concert series called Thursdays in the Davisphere, which debuted in May and ran through October.
While the change simplified the market and allowed it to focus on its roots, the family and communitygathering tradition was missing. Thursday concerts were highly successful but not a replacement for Picnic in the Park. The 2023
season for Davisphere will be monthly, rather than weekly. Picnic in the Park will focus on family-friendly children’s activities and music, along with a wide range of food made from market ingredients. Plans call for a clown and facepainter but no pony rides or bounce houses.
“It’s going to be a little bit more low-key than it was, but everything it was,” MacNear said.
Year-round in downtown Davis, thousands gather each week to shop for what is grown, raised and made locally. Since 1976, the Davis Farmers Market has connected and supported communities, area agriculture, farmers and artisan food producers. It educates the public about nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and the local economic value of buying food and
products directly from the producer.
The Davis Farmers Market’s signature markets are Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons/ evenings in Central Park.
It also manages farmers markets at UC Davis, Sutter Davis Hospital and Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento. Since 2000, its Davis Farm to School program has supported the Davis Joint Unified School District, providing farmand garden-based education, increasing farm-fresh foods in school meals, and reducing solid waste through recycling and composting.
For information, visit https//davisfarmersmarket .org or visit it on Facebook or Instagram.
Special to The Enterprise Davis Robotics Team 1678 Citrus Circuits concluded its first competition as regional champions.
Attended by 44 teams from California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada and Mexico, the teams competed March 2 to 5 in Port Hueneme for a spot at the international FIRST Championship on April 19-22, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
At the Hueneme Port Regional, Citrus Circuits went undefeated over 11 matches during qualifications, making it the firstseed alliance captain. Team 1678 then picked 4414 High Tide from Ventura and 696 Circuit Breakers from Glendale for its alliance.
Citrus Circuits won in an exciting series of 10 matches that started with a loss that sent them to the losers bracket in the double elimination format. They fought back to reach the finals and meet the thirdranked alliance, which included Team 4481 Team
Rembrandts from the Netherlands, Team 3859 Wolfpack Robotics from Elk Grove, and Team 6036 Peninsula Robotics from Palo Alto. The two alliances started the finals with a tie and then battled over three additional matches before Team 1678 won in the last seconds of a close final game. This qualified Team 1678 for the World Championship for the tenth consecutive time.
Citrus Circuits was also
Courtesy photo
the recipient of the Excellence in Engineering Award, which is awarded for demonstrating a professional approach to the design process. The team was recognized for their innovative approach to balancing on the Charging Station during the endgame.
This year, teams are playing FIRST’s 2023 game Charged Up presented by The Gene Haas Foundation. In this game, each match begins with a
15-second autonomous period where teams cannot manually control their robot and must instead run an autonomous program to score cones and cubes into an upper, middle and lower goal located at the end of the field. After the first 15 seconds, teams gain control of their robots to continue scoring and in the last 30 seconds attempt to balance up to three robots on the Charging Station.
Citrus Circuits was founded in 2004, and is located at Davis Senior High School. The team consists of almost 100 students from high schools and junior high schools within the Davis Joint Unified School District. Major sponsors include UC Davis, DJUSD, TechnipFMC, Lockheed Martin, Bayer, and Intuitive.
Upcoming competition for the team will be Sacramento Regional at UC Davis on March 24-26 and at the Silicon Valley Regional in San Jose on April 6-8. For information, go to www.citruscircuits. org.
Derrick Bang
Enterprise film critic
Back in 1984, I couldn’t believe that “Amadeus” would sweep the Oscars … and yet it won eight awards, including the quadruple crown of Picture, Director, Actor and Screenplay.
Just a few years later, in 1987, I similarly couldn’t believe that “The Last Emperor” would do the same … and yet it took home all nine of the awards for which it was nominated, including Picture and Director.
(And no; maturity hasn’t changed my mind. I still think both results were daft.)
This year, I’m similarly conflicted, as it genuinely appears that “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is poised to garner a similar boat load of honors.
Seriously?
That weird, bloated, overlong, crazy-quilt monster of a movie?
The times, they are a-changin’…
My bias aside, there’s no doubt we’ll hear that title several times, Sunday evening.
Even so, we must remember the lesson of last year … when everybody was certain “The Power of the Dog” would take Best
Picture. And what happened? “CODA” sneaked in as the crowd-pleasing champ.
Ergo, it’s entirely possible that the more conservative Academy voters will ignore this year’s Collection Of Strange — “Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere,” “Tár” and “Triangle of Sadness”
— and go for a more conventional choice, such as “All Quiet on the Western Front” or “The Fabelmans.” We shall see.
That aside, this year’s selections produced lots of fun facts:
■ The average running time of the 10 Best Picture nominees is 143 minutes. Only two — “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Women Talking” — run slightly under two hours.
■ With his 12th nomination for “The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg has tied William Wyler, as the director who has helmed the most films nominated for Best Picture (13). Spielberg also is the first director to be nominated during six different decades.
■ This is the first time all the Best Director nominees also are cited for writing or co-writing their films.
■ All five Best Actor nominees are first-timers. Indeed, 16 of the 20 acting nominees are first-timers.
■ Both parents of acting nominee Jamie Lee Curtis — Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh — also earned Oscar nods. Curtis is the third to be so honored, following Liza Minnelli and Laura Dern.
■ This marks the second honor for Judd Hirsch, a supporting actor nominee in “The Fabelmans,” who last was cited for 1980’s
“Ordinary People.” That 42-year gap topples the record previously held by Henry Fonda, at 41 years: from 1941’s “The Grapes of Wrath” to 1982’s “On Golden Pond.”
■ Angela Bassett is the first person to be nominated for acting in a Marvel superhero movie.
■ Catherine Martin is the first person to have scored nominations for both Best Picture and Best Costume Design. (She’s also up for Best Production Design.)
■ At 91 years young, composer John Williams has become the oldest Oscar nominee in any category. With his record of 53 nominations, he trails behind only Walt Disney’s 59 (although it must be
remembered that Disney mostly took credit for the work of others).
■ Sound mixer Andy Nelson has become the third most Oscar-honored living person, with his 24th nomination. (He won for “Saving Private Ryan” and “Les Misérables.”)
But enough stalling, I hear you cry; let’s get on with it. OK, fine: Let’s see how many right answers I can talk myself out of this time...
No doubt whatsoever. Given their astonishing feat of world- and galaxy-building, I expect to see Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett take the stage, for “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
The Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Awards generally aren’t much help, since they divide the spoils within numerous sub-categories. The top three feature film winners at their 70th annual ceremony, held Feb. 26, were “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis”; the latter two are Oscar contenders.
The 27th annual Art Directors Guild Awards, presented Feb. 18, were divided into three branches, for period, fantasy and contemporary; the winners were, respectively, “Babylon,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” Only “Babylon” is up for this category’s Oscar, so these folks weren’t much help.
Or were they? If we’re destined to reward wretched excess, then the winners should be Florencia Martin and Anthony Carlino, for “Babylon.”
Oh, boy. Now it gets tough.
The 10th annual MakeUp Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards, which took place Feb. 11, gave its top award to “Elvis.” That said, that film is in a neck-andneck race with “The Whale,” which certainly deserves equal notice.
But how much of Brendan Fraser’s amazing transformation was make-up, as opposed to CGI enhancement? On top of which, “Elvis” certainly is the “showier” choice.
Argh.
Angela
The most logical choice would be “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which drew much of its power from shock-and-awe sound design. But I suspect Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor will sneak in, for “Top Gun: Maverick.”
I’ll go with Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley, for “The Whale.”
The 25th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards, presented Feb. 27, also are divided into the
same three branches: period, fantasy and contemporary. The winners were, respectively, “Elvis,”
“Everything Everywhere
All at Once” and “Glass
Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” Only the first two are up for Oscars.
This is another neckand-neck joust, between “Elvis” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” … and that’s tough choice.
I’ll go with the guild on this one: Catherine Martin, for “Elvis.”
Full confession: Not only was I unfamiliar with the apparent front-runner — “Naatu Naatu” — but I also haven’t seen its film, “RRR (aka “Rise Roar Revolt”).
A quick visit to YouTube solved the first oversight, and all I can say is Oh My Goodness. If this gets performed as a production number during the Academy Awards ceremony — and I dearly hope so — it’ll blow people out of their chairs.
So, heck yeah: M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose, for “Naatu Naatu.”
Sigh.
Much as I wish John Williams could take home another Oscar for “The Fablemans,” he doesn’t stand a chance.
Trouble is, I don’t like either of the two frontrunners: “All Quiet on the Western Front” bored to tears with Volker Vertelmann’s relentlessly monotonous synth crashes, and
Are you ready to laugh your way from stern to bow? Then row yourself out and brave the storm to head to Davis Musical Theatre Company’s production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance.”
The story follows Frederic (Lucas Dunn), an indentured servant to a ship of lovable and merciful pirates. There are a lot of twists and turns as the audience is entertained and laughing throughout the show. This is fun for both young and old, and I saw a few guests get into the mood by wearing their own pirate attire, too.
As Frederic nears his 21st birthday, he decides to leave the ship and instead do his duty by fighting against the
pirates. Meanwhile, his middle-aged nursemaid
Ruth (Jenn Clossick) would like to marry the poor chap, but he doesn’t know if she is pretty enough to wed as he hasn’t seen any other women. They are dropped off on an island where they meet Major-General Stanley’s beautiful young daughters, but Ruth runs back to join the pirates. The pirates learn of the women and attempt to kidnap them for their wives. Stanley (Joe Alkire) shows up and the craziness continues.
Especially fun to watch was the Pirate King (Brian McCann). He is a master at captivating the audience with his air of superiority and crazy facial expressions. His diction was especially fun to listen to. Dunn, Clossick, Jesus J.
Madrigal-Wick (his lieutenant) and Alkire all played well alongside him. Joe Alkire really milked the song “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General” which is often parodied in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. The audience absolutely loved his rendition and the theater broke into thunderous applause and shouts of appreciation! The rest of the company took his lead and matches his rhythm and pacing. It was just wonderful! The other stand out in the show was the lovely Mabel (Carolyn Poutasse), who was the soprano opera singer. Her voice was amazing. If you want a taste of opera, this is a wonderful introduction. The highs were crystal clear! Dunn as the protagonist and love interest of Mabel performed some
very fun duets. His sense of duty waged against his love for Mabel which brought a lot of conflict and suspense to the show. Arthur Vassar as the Police Sergeant led a keystone cop style crew who were hilarious. The pirates and general’s daughters were spot on and very funny.
Great job on the period costumes (Jean Henderson) and the orchestra led by Kyle Jackson was great. Congratulations to director and choreographer Jan Isaacson and Music directors Steve Isaacson, Montana Monce and Kyle Jackson. And don’t forget to try the special drink at intermission featuring spiced rum! Shows run weekends now through March 26. Tickets available at dmtc.org.
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” certainly isn’t a children’s film, but it nonetheless should take home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
From Page A1
Justin Hurwitz’s work on “Babylon” is as much a mess as the film itself. Even so, he seems to have the momentum.
Holding my nose, then, I’ll reluctantly pick Justin Hurwitz, for “Babylon.”
Double sigh.
Pixar’s “Turning Red” absolutely deserves this award, for Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins’ genius blend of provocative storytelling and gorgeous artwork.
But it won’t win. Despite being frequently off-putting, this category is a lock for Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley, for “Pinocchio.”
Like there’s any doubt?
Germany’s “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
The American Cinema Editors’ 73rd annual Eddie Awards ceremony took place last Sunday; their awards are divided between drama and comedy/musical, and the winners were, respectively, “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Everything
Everywhere All at Once.”
Both are nominated for this category’s Oscar, and the race is tight. The likely voter’s sweep probably will carry this category, so I expect to see Paul Rogers take the stage,
On Saturday, March 11, Stories on Stage Davis will present two novel excerpts from works in progress by husband-and-wife writers, read by husband-andwife actors, at the Pence Art Gallery in downtown Davis. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the event starts at 7:30. Masks are strongly encouraged, but not required.
for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The 37th annual American Society of Cinematographers Awards banquet, also held last Sunday, surprised a lot of folks by giving their award to Mandy Walker, for “Elvis.”
James Friend certainly deserves this award, for his astonishing work throughout “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
But there’s a whole lotta love for the Pelvis, so I’ll go along with Mandy Walker, for “Elvis.”
The 75th annual Writers Guild of America Awards, also held last Sunday, honored Sarah Polley in this category, for her thoughtful adaptation of Miriam Toews’ “Women Talking.”
It’s well known that writers vote in a solid block, come Oscar time. Besides, I’m satisfied with this choice: Sarah Polley, for “Women Talking.”
Surprising nobody, the Writers Guild gave this category to “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
It’s the obvious choice: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Wow. Who could have known that the little guy
who got his start in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies” would grow up to become a serious Oscar contender?
Actually, he’s more than a contender; he’ll win: Ke Huy Quan, in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
This category has too many knee-jerk contenders who sneaked in solely on the basis of a voting streak.
(I’m looking at you, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis.)
That makes the choice easy, particularly since she has mounted such a dignified and popular campaign: Angela Bassett, in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Oh, golly. Predictions on this one are all over the map. My personal choice is Bill Nighy, for his extraordinarily sensitive work in “Living,” but he ain’t one of the three.
Austin Butler? No question, his work in “Elvis” is impressive.
Colin Farrell? I hated the film, but his subtle performance is sublime.
Ah, but the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, presented on Feb.26, gave this to Brendan Fraser.
I agree: Brendan Fraser in “The Whale.”
Good grief; this one’s
even harder.
Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh have literally even odds with all the Vegas and online bookmakers. The Screen Actors Guild gave the honor to Yeoh, which could be significant.
And here’s an important thing: Although Blanchett’s work in “Tár” is stunning — goodness, but she had to learn a lot of lines — the film itself is an unwatchable grind. Performers rarely get honored for work in movies that nobody likes.
I’ll therefore go with the sentimental favorite: Michelle Yeoh, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The 75th annual Directors Guild of American Awards, which took place Feb. 18, gave the top honor to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
There’s no denying the wild creativity of vision. So sure: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
It seems obvious, right?
Somewhat reluctantly, I’ll go with “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
— Derrick Bang will be parked, breathlessly, in front of the television set Sunday afternoon and evening. Read more of his film criticism at http://derrickbang.blogspot.com. Comment on this review at www.davisenterprise.com.
Chamber music from the Baroque era and from the 20th century, an orchestra and chorus symphony from the late 1800s, and more, will be featured in local concerts during the next seven days.
This eight-musician ensemble dedicated to advancing peace in the Middle East — featuring musicians drawn from countries in the Middle East — will visit the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall on Friday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. Leading the ensemble will be violinist Michael Barenboim (born 1985 in Paris, and the son of pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim).
On the program will chamber works from the late 1800s and the first half of the 20th Century by Ravel, Dvorák, Hindemith and Enescu. Michael Barenboim also travels Europe appearing with orchestras as a soloist, including the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, of which he has been concertmaster since 2003. The WestEastern Divan Ensemble, currently in the midst of a 10-city American tour.
Tickets are $50-$95 general, with discounts for students, MondaviArts. com and at the door. There will be a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m.
Orchestra, conducted by Christian Baldini, and the University Chorus and Alumni Chorus, directed by Erik Peregrine, will team up on Sunday, March 12, at 7 p.m. in the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall for a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) featuring as soloists soprano Carrie Hennessey and mezzo0soprano Julie Miller. Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is a large scale piece running 80-90 minutes, and became one of the composer’s most popular works.
The “Resurrection” Symphony premiered in Berlin in 1895, and the first U.S. performance was by the New York Philharmonic in 1908, with the composer conducting.
Opening the concert will be a short piece titled “Our Phoenix” by con-
temporary American composer Mari Esabel Valverde, who was born in Texas and earned degrees from St. Olaf College in Minnesota as well as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Tickets are $24 general, $12 students/children, MondaviArts.org and at the door.
Several musicians who are longtime members (and audience favorites) with San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists will be featured in a chamber music concert on Monday, March 13 at 7 p.m. at Davis Community Church, 412 C St. in Davis, with Jeffrey Thomas conducting. Tickets are $39-$101 general, online at AmericanBach.org.
An excerpt titled “Out of My Hands” from a memoir-in-progress by Dawn Yackzan will be read by Kat Miller. Shortly after she graduated from Davis High School, Dawn was cast into the political and social turmoil of post oilcrisis Libya, where her father had taken the only job he could find, heading the Institute of Arab Development. This excerpt captures her family’s first days in Libya, adjusting to their new life, their mother’s conspicuous absence, as well as their father’s sudden severity.
Yackzan, a first-generation American Lebanese woman, is a writer, mother, teacher and activist. Her background includes teaching in public elementary schools, primarily low socio-economic, under-served communities for thirty years. This work led her to found the Sexual Assault Awareness Campaign in 2013, a grassroots program which gained support from local schools, law enforcement, University of California leaders and state politicians.
Having moved once a year in her first two decades of life, she discovered different regions and cultures of the United States. These nomadic and diverse cultural experiences, including living as an expat in North Africa at 17, have influenced her writings and become prominent subjects in her nonfiction and fiction writing.
Miller is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association whose professional theatre career began in Northern California. A former company member of the Sacramento Theatre Company, her credits there include Gwendolen in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Vicky/Brooke in “Noises Off,” The Goddess Parvati in “Arranged Marriage,” Ifigenia in
“Electricidad” and Padma in “Queen of the Remote Control.”
As a member of the Canadian Actor’s Equity Association, her credits abroad include the role of Tecmessa in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “Ajax in Afghanistan” and Artemis in “The Intuition of Iphigenia” by Valina Hasu Houston — both productions were world premieres performed in Greece in 2012.
An excerpt titled “The Last to See Her” from a novel-in-progress by David Masiel will be read by Matt K. Miller. In this excerpt, Eleanor Anderson has disappeared. Who was the last to see the girl before she went missing?
Likely the aging school bus driver, Darrell, who meanders in and out of his thoughts as the excerpt raises large questions about truth, memory and suspicion in a small community.
Masiel lives, writes, and teaches in Davis. A graduate of the UC Davis creative writing program, Masiel has taught in the English department and University Writing Program over the past two decades, teaching courses in fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism and professional editing.
Matt K. Miller has appeared in more than 40 productions at Sacramento Theatre Company, including “The Tempest,” “Othello,” “Julius Caesar, “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Amadeus,” “Tartuffe,” “Of Mice and Men,” two soldout runs of “Fully Committed” and several years as Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol.” He was appointed Artistic Director in 2010.
Stories on Stage Davis is a sponsored project of YoloArts, a nonprofit arts organization, and is supported by the 2022 city of Davis Arts Grant (funded by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, a California nonprofit corporation).
The event is free to attend, and Stories on Stage appreciates donations at the door. For information, including previous podcast episodes and live events, go to the Stories on Stage Davis website: storiesonstagedavis.com.
Special to The Enterprise
The Avid Reader will host award-winning and best-selling author Karen Joy Fowler for a discussion of her most recent book, “Booth.” A former Davis resident, Fowler is also well known for her books “The Jane Austen Book Club” and “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves” (set in Davis).
Local author Kim Stanley Robinson will introduce Fowler.
The event will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, April 28. Tickets are available for purchase in store at The Avid Reader Davis and online at www.avidreaderbooks.com.
“Booth” was voted a Best Book of The Year by NPR, Real Simple Magazine, AARP and USA Today and was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. The novel is an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.
In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide and to bear 10 chil-
dren over the course of the next 16 years. Junius Booth — breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one — is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one, the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.
As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.
“Booth” is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.
Arguably more than housing and other issues that typically attract more attention, the latest battle at UC Berkeley threatens the heart of the university: its libraries.
Distressingly, the university says it wants to close three libraries, including its anthropology library, because it says it can’t find the money out of its $3.1 billion budget to keep them open.
It may not seem like much amid all the challenges facing higher education. Yet the fate of the anthropology library and its nearly 45,000 volumes are at the forefront of a planned transformation of the entire library system at the oldest public university in the UC system. It is only one of the three libraries in the U.S. dedicated to the discipline, and the only one in California.
The others are at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
UC Berkeley intends to shrink the number of libraries from 23 to 10 “hub” libraries, and seven “satellite” libraries, the latter with very limited hours, and without a librarian in attendance. Others will be by appointment only.
The mathematics statistics library and the physics-astronomy library would also shutter under the so-called long-term space plan. Some of the books will be transferred to the main library, but others will be sent to its off-site “shelving facility” in Richmond, miles from the campus, where another 48,000 anthropology volumes are stored.
The changes, at least in part, reflect a movement taking place throughout higher education in response to changing reading habits. Students increasingly are using libraries not so much for their books but more as study halls.
But university librarians say the main reason for the planned closures is a budgetary one. They say that the library system has 40% fewer employees than it did two decades ago, even as enrollment increased by roughly 12,000 students. It is not, says university librarian Jeff Mackie-Mason, “a result of judging any discipline as less important than any other.”
But what does this say about university’s priorities? Losing the anthropology library represents not only an assault on the most prominent symbol on the University of California’s seal (a book), but effectively undermines the anthropology discipline itself.
The library is a “crucial component of anthropological inquiry at Berkeley, both for its legacy and for what it has to offer to future generations,” wrote anthropologist Charles Hirschkind, the department chair, in an anguished letter to university officials last fall.
I feel a close connection with the university on this issue. I spent a lot of time in the library when I was a graduate student in the department — admittedly in pre-internet days when we relied exclusively on hard copies of books and journal articles for our classes and research.
Yet the testimonials of current students have been moving — many of whom recently participated in a “sit-in” in the library for two days and nights to protest the planned closure. They told me that despite the profound changes in how information is conveyed, the library still plays an essential role in the intellectual and social life of the department — and, in many cases, their mental health.
What’s more, they say they actually use the books. Many of the library’s holdings, they point out, aren’t available online.
“The University and the Library cannot exist without each other,” a high level commission on the future of the Berkeley library declared a decade ago. The commission called for a “serious major strategy of reinvestment.”
Yet the university is embarking on just the opposite strategy, disinvesting in a repository of knowledge that encompasses and helps sustain an entire discipline, with special significance for California.
It is not too late to change course.
— Louis Freedberg is a veteran journalist and former executive director of EdSource, and serves as the director of the Advancing Education Success Initiative. He has a doctorate in anthropology from UC Berkeley. He wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s Capitol works and why it matters.
California government bureaucrats call it the “Advanced Clean Car II Rule,” last August’s update to the state’s prior edict mandating that all new cars sold here be all-electric or plug-in hybrids by 2035. Between now and then, other benchmarks are also set, starting with 35 percent of new cars sold being EVs starting in 2026, just three years from today.
Since the rule passed, it’s been a theme for folks who like to bash California, from Texas to Florida to Ohio. They call it just one more unrealistic regulation making California a very tough place for businesses to operate.
But it might not happen.
And not merely because of doubts about the state’s electric grid capacity to handle all that extra demand.
With little fanfare, more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general just the other day filed a new court document claiming California’s move and the federal law that enabled it are unconstitutional.
The top government lawyers from Texas, Ohio, West Virginia and others claim in their lawsuit that the waiver in the 1970 Clean Air Act giving California the right to regulate smog emissions from cars sold here “puts it on an uneven playing field compared to other states in violation of the interstate commerce clause of the
Dear Davis Community, This year, Davis Senior High School students have been very fortunate to have Amanda Bistolfo as their choir teacher. During September, within three weeks of starting her job, she took our Jazz Choir students on an incredible start-of-year retreat.
They learned so much of their primary “Rent” medley during that time and enjoyed getting to know Amanda. We watched this group of kids have their first retreat in three years.
Constitution,” also giving this state unique power to regulate global climate change.
The Clean Air Act waiver, first signed by then-Republican President Richard Nixon and later renewed by every president except Donald Trump, has been the authority behind many edicts from the California Air Resources Board. Those rulings, starting in the early ‘70s, led to innovations like early smog control devices, catalytic converters, hybrid cars, hydrogen cars, EVs and plug-ins.
Each move was protested at first by almost all automakers as either impossible or prohibitively expensive, but all have turned out fine.
The California rules carry extra clout that infuriates officials of some other states for two reasons: 1) the California car market is so large that manufacturers who want to sell nationwide figure it’s cheaper to make all their cars conform to California rules than to build different models for different places, and 2) 16 other states and the District of Columbia now automatically adopt California’s automotive rules five years
after they become effective here. Those states make up 40 percent of the American vehicle market.
None of that will last if the Republican attorneys general get their way.
They are working in the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia, from which both judges and cases often eventually move up to the Supreme Court.
And the Supreme Court has been notably inconsistent on states’ rights since Trump’s three appointees provided it with a 6-3 conservative majority.
That court has consistently upheld the California waiver in the Clean Air Act, but never with its current membership, dominated by conservative Republicans.
So the survival of the waiver is not certain, despite the court’s putting abortion and other matters back under state jurisdiction. Not from a court whose majority justices took firearms policy out of state hands by making their preferences on carrying guns and other issues apply everywhere.
It’s uncertain whether, when this case inevitably reaches them next year or in 2024, the Trump-appointed justices will essentially validate his attempt to take away California’s unique authority, which has led to both
millions of cleaner cars and much cleaner air nationwide.
For the waiver was originally granted by Nixon’s administration because of California’s unique geography, with many of its large cities, from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Bakersfield and Fresno, sitting in basins where mountains or large ranges of hills hold smog in place for longer periods than in flatter environments, where any old wind can quickly blow it away.
That’s why air is often dirtier in those California cities than in places like Cincinnati and Seattle, Portland, New Orleans or New York.
Will the Supreme Court recognize that unique environments require unique tactics to retain their healthy environments? Or will the justices go along with states like West Virginia and Texas, which don’t mind smog so much because it doesn’t hang around very long.
At stake here is a continuation of the drop in diseases from lung cancer to emphysema that has paralleled the advent of cleaner cars and light trucks. No one can yet know whether the Supreme Court majority will heed any of that.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough,” is now available in a softcover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
It was full of learning and friendship-building. It was immediately clear to all of us that Ms. Bistolfo has a high level of energy and care for the students and high standards for their singing and performing.
In October, she was the teacher who energetically showed up at their first Halloween fundraiser since pre-COVID, again, full of encouragement, and continuing to build relationships with our students.
In December, she directed a wonderful pops performance where all of our choirs worked seamlessly together, again at a very high level of performance.
In January, she facilitated the first elementary and Jr high workshop that our Choir has been able to facilitate since pre-COVID. Again, she insisted on a high standard with our students and deeply encouraged their leadership in that experience.
In January Amanda worked with three parent groups to create the Idol performance and give students a chance to perform music of their choice in front of their peers. This is a fraction of what Amanda did in first semester as she was doing similar activities with her other choirs during this time.
My daughter has grown in confidence and in competence as a singer since the start of this year in Jazz Choir. And she has been part of a classroom where she is able to express herself, listen to peers, and learn to lead. I believe this is what we
President
Foy S. McNaughtonall want for all of our students.
Pam Moeller DavisThe March 5 commentary by Llewellyn King does a good job of explaining the worrisome gap between expected increased electricity use and our ability to produce the needed electricity. The commentary makes one wonder: how is the electricity going to be generated? I would like to suggest that serious consideration be given to new-technology small modular reactors (SMRs).
Their safety features include ability to shut themselves down without need for external power. They are appropriate for smaller populations like university campuses and small towns and can be combined for more power. According to a recent Department of Energy report, more than 300 retired and operating coal plants in the United States are good candidates for a nuclear conversion.
James Beaumont DavisHere’s a solution ... Instead of rebuilding the University Mall property as a single-level structure why not just flip it from the north side of the property to the
Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202224-3553; email: https://www.padilla. senate.gov/contact/contact-form/
House of Representatives
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
U.S. Senate
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3841; email: https://www. feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/ e-mail-me
Sen. Alex Padilla, 112 Hart Senate Office
Rep. Mike Thompson, 268 Cannon Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202225-3311. District office: 622 Main Street, Suite 106, Woodland, CA 95695; 530-753-5301; email: https:// https:// mikethompsonforms.house.gov/contact/
Governor Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-4452841; email: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/ gov40mail/
south side (on Russell)?
That way the original plan (multi-story with three-level parking, etc) can be used without bothering the neighbors. Replace the original structure with parking. Perhaps some trees on the north side to buffer the parking.
Keith vonBorstel DavisLlewellyn King’s commentary is misleading and overly pessimistic about our ability to meet the electricity needs for reducing our climate change emissions. First, the headline is misleading —King didn’t say we will run out; instead he said that we might if we don’t move more quickly.
Which leads to the second point. We have the means to meet rising electricity demand on the expected schedule over the next two decades. Full electrification isn’t happening tomorrow. The fact is that most of the load increase will happen during nights and mornings and in the winter, not during hot summer evenings. And we can meet much of this load increase with more rooftop solar that can be installed in a matter of weeks, not decades like transmission lines. Many studies show the feasibility of meeting rising demand.
Richard McCann Davis
The Davis High boys lacrosse team posted a 10-9 win over Vintage in a nonleague game at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium on Wednesday.
Davis (4-1) outscored Vintage, out of Napa, 3-2 in the fourth quarter to squeak out the win.
The game was knotted at 6-all at halftime.
Finn Shields had four goals for the Blue Devils. Dom Freedland-Wolford followed with three goals, Mason Bennet two and Ethan Cavanaugh one.
Blue Devil goalie Sawyer Schoen had nine saves in the game.
The Davis girls won their first Delta League game of the season over rival St. Francis 12-8 on March 3.
On Thursday, DHS was scheduled to play at Dougherty Valley.
This Friday, the Blue Devils will host Justin-Siena of Napa at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium. Game time 7 p.m.
The UC Davis women’s lacrosse team claimed its largest win since 2010, with a 19-1 victory over Howard University at the UC Davis Health Stadium on Tuesday.
UCD (3-1) started off with three quick goals before the HU scored its only point
of the contest.
Then UCD went on a 16-0 scoring run lasting throughout the rest of the game.
The Aggies had 40 shots, 26 of which were on goal.
The Davis High softball team posted a 10-0 win over Woodland in a nonleague game on the Blue Devils’ diamond on Tuesday.
Four players had two hits each for Davis (2-1). Kaylie Adams, along with Cloe Lamoureux, Maia Romero and Sofia Lester had those multiple hits. One of Adams’ hits was a double.
Lea Lamoureux, plus Sydney Tuss, Naomi Kalanetra, Hannah Fox and Ella Shorts, had a hit each.
Lex Lamoureux tossed five innings in the circle for the Blue Devils, allowing one hit and struck out five.
The 49ers announced Thursday that they have signed offensive lineman Colton McKivitz to a two-year extension through the 2024 season.
McKivitz(6-foot-6, 301-pounds) was originally selected by the 49ers in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL draft.
From 2020-22, McKivitz, 26, has appeared in 28 games (five starts) with the team.
From Page B6
Turner exploded for an exceptional junior year this season. She averaged 15.1 points-per-game with 21 games in double figures and eight games with 20+ points.
The sharpshooting guard led the conference in 3-pointers (77), 3-pointers-per-game (2.7) and finished third in field-goal percentage (.411) while
attempting the most shots (157).
The Fontana native achieved a host of milestones this season. She eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career on Jan. 21 and has since ascended to No. 12 on the UCD alltime scoring list with 1,156 total points.
Turner also became the UCD all-time leader in career three-point field goals when she nailed her
196th career triple on Jan. 16 and has increased her lead at the top with 228 threes.
Norris burst onto the scene in her first playing season with the Aggies as she was named Big West Freshman of the Year while landing herself on the AllFreshman Team as well. She led the team with a field-goal percentage of 48.5% while averaging 7.0 points-per-game.
AGGIE: Makusha former Olympian
From Page B6
Hall of Fame in 2021.
Two-time Big West Player of the Week, Sabel came on strong toward the end of the season to earn honorable mention recognition.
The Penn State transfer averaged 11.8 pointsper-game to finish 13th in the conference.
She racked up 16 doubledigit scoring performances and five games with 20 or more points. Sabel had two games of 30-plus points.
5,000m title.
The Aggies finished fourth in the Big West on the women’s side and was sixth in the men’s competition.
UCD head coach Ngoni Makusha, a 2008 Olympian enters his fourth season at the helm of the Aggie track and field program. Makusha was inducted into the Florida State Athletics
Over his historic career as a Seminole from 2008-2011, Makusha won six NCAA titles between the long jump (four), 100-meter dash and the 4×100 relay team and added six ACC titles. The Aggies will return to action on Saturday, March 18, when they make the trip over the Causeway to Sacramento State to compete at the Hornet Invite.
Enterprise staff
The UC Davis track and field team will open the 2023 outdoor season at the Woody Wilson Track, as the oval will be the site for the Aggie Open on Saturday.
The hammer throw will start things off today at noon, and the jumping events kick off the festivities on Saturday. The running events will begin at 11:15 a.m. with the 5,000m.
The field will be comprised of athletes from American River, Cal State East Bay, Cal State Monterey Bay, Dominican, Jessup, Nevada, Pacific, Sacramento State, San Francisco State, Sonoma State, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz.
This marks the second straight season UCD has hosted and started the outdoor season at the Aggie Open. The Aggies claimed five event victories in last season’s opener.
The Aggies claimed two individual conference titles at the MPSF Championships held in Spokane, Wash.
Sierra Atkins raced to an indoor school
record time of 16 minutes, 13.32 seconds to win the 5,000m, while 2022 Big West Cross Country Champion.
Briana Weidler won the 3,000 with a time of 9:34.27. Including the school record time from Atkins, UCD boasted eight top-10 alltime marks during the 2023 indoor campaign.
The Aggies are coming off a 2022 season that saw four individuals qualify for the NCAA Prelims.
Matthew Okonkwo qualified in the 200m and broke the school record with a time of 21.07 seconds.
School record holder Marlene
Gutierrez qualified in the hammer.
Brooke Starn (10,000m) and Marin Chamberlin (pole vault) were also successful. Gutierrez was named the Female Field Athlete of the Meet at the Big West Championships after winning both the hammer and shot put. Okonkwo won the 200m and Atkins claimed the See AGGIE, Page B5
Enterprise staff
The UC Davis men’s basketball team saw three players receive honors for their play throughout the regular season, as the Big West Conference announced on Monday.
Headlining the trio of Aggies was guard Elijah Pepper, being an All First-Team selection.
Tabbed as honorable mention by the Big West were Christian Anigwe and Ty Johnson.
The native from Selah, Wash., Pepper has put together the best scoring season in UCD history. Breaking a 35-year-old single season scoring record set by Randy DeBortoli. Pepper was able to break the record with a torrid stretch of games that started on Jan. 26 at CSU Bakersfield.
Recording a season and career-high six 3-pointers against the Roadrunners to give him 28 points, Pepper would go on a seven-game stretch of scoring 28-plus points per game with the last four of that stretch, all being 30-plus point outputs.
Pepper has been elite not only for UCD standards, but on a national scale as well. He is tied for fourth in the country in points per game, averaging 22.5 on 45.1% from the field.
Pepper has scored 30-plus points, seven times on the year and has shared the wealth when needed with defenses keying in on him. Paired with his elite scoring prowess, he led the Aggies in assists with 3.5 per game, which ranks seventh in the conference.
Pepper is third in the conference in steals per game, averaging 1.6 per game while also being a huge factor on the glass, averaging six rebounds per game, good for 11th in the Big West.
Anigwe, a forward, has been the heart and soul of the UCD frontcourt this season. Averaging a league leading 1.4 blocks per game, along with career-highs in scoring, 3-point shooting, and assists, Anigwe has completely evolved his game in his senior campaign.
Starting off the year with a 21-point game against Cal, Anigwe showed off his ability to impact the game both offensively and defensively at a high-level when needed. Posting 12 multi-block games, a career-high five blocks twice in games against Pacific and UC Irvine, along with five 20-plus point games, Anigwe has been as good as anybody in the Big West when healthy. He finished the regular season averaging 12.1 points per game, 5.6 rebounds, 1.4 blocks per game and a 39.1% mark from 3-point range.
Johnson, a guard from Chicago, is in his first year with the Aggies. He took the reins of the offense and has provided UCD with one of the most impactful newcomers in the conference.
Averaging a league leading 1.9 steals per game and ranking ninth in the conference in points per game (14.8 points per game), Johnson has used his athleticism and tools on both ends of the court to create an impact.
Johnson has had many memorable games this season with one being his eight-steal game in the Cream City Classic Tournament, where he posted the second most steals for an Aggie in a single game.
IRVINE — Three UCD women’s basketball players in Evanne Turner, Megan Norris and Tova Sabel, have received All-Big West Conference recognition following their outstanding 2022-23 campaigns.
After becoming the first Aggie to lead the Big West in scoring since 2018-19, Turner earns First Team All-Conference honors. She was named as an honorable mention last season and was named to the All-Freshman team in 2020.
See PLAYERS, Page B2
Enterprise staff
HENDERSON, Nev. Shooting woes plagued the UC Davis women’s basketball team in the quarterfinal round of the 2023 Hercules Tires Big West Championships presented by the Hawaiian Islands, as UC Santa Barbara took the 70-36 victory inside the Dollar Loan Center on Wednesday.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” said UC Davis head coach Jennifer Gross in her post-game interview. “We felt like we were playing some great basketball last week, going on the road (the Aggies won their last two Big West games).
“We were trying to carry that momentum, and obviously (UCD) struggled to make shots, struggled to get stops. It’s always hard when you don’t finish the season playing your best. I think that’s the hardest part for us right now.”
UCD (16-14) struggled mightily on the offensive end, posting 36 total points which stands as the new program low.
Aggie guard Evanne Turner poured in 16 points and fellow backcourt teammate Tova Sabel followed with 15.
UC Santa Barbara took control of the game shortly after tip-off, racing into the lead after a 12-2 run in the early minutes. Baskets from Sabel and Turner opened the scoring for UCD, but the Aggies would then endure a scoring drought of nearly five minutes.
“I thought they played exceptional basketball today,” said Gross of UCSB. “They came out and played with a lot of confidence.”
That allowed the Gauchos to build an 18-point advantage. Despite an impressive four-point play from Turner at the 1:41 mark, UCSB managed a 28-10 lead after one.
The offensive woes continued in the second period as
UCD scored just three points, tying the program record for the fewest points tallied in a quarter. The Aggies were just 4-for-26 in the first 20 minutes and closed the half on yet another dry spell, going over six minutes without a bucket.
The Aggies went 0-for-5 in the third quarter and the Gauchos were able to make it a 30-point advantage. In the last 10 minutes, Turner and Sabel each poured in six points to wrap up their fantastic seasons.
UC Davis finished fourth the Big West standings after the team was picked to place fifth in the preseason poll. The Aggies won 10 of their last 14 games, concluding the season on a high note.
“We had our fair shares of ups and downs,” said Gross, “but through it all, they stuck together, and they played for each other. This team did everything we asked of them.”
Gross liked how the Aggies grew on and off the court, entering the Big West tournament.
“We were sharing the ball, we were playing together,” Gross said. “We brought in a lot of new pieces in this year... we graduated a lot of seniors that had been pretty successful. We brought in (forward) Tess Sussman, (guard) and Victoria Baker and (guard) Nya Epps, (center) Megan Norris coming in from her redshirt freshman year. We have this whole new group of people, and you can’t snap your fingers and have them just jell and create chemistry.
“I think it was all of the off-court stuff, all of the relationship building, all of the team building that led us to this final stretch where I felt like we truly were had developed tremendous chemistry. That was really a pride full moment for me, just kind of seeing that kind of showcase itself on the court. Off the court, they are good friends and care about each other, but it wasn’t always showing up on the court.”