The Davis Enterprise Sunday, March 12, 2023

Too much water too soon?

By Alastair Bland CalMatters

Two winters’ worth of snow has already fallen in the Sierra Nevada since Christmas, pulling California from the depths of extreme drought into one of its wettest winters in memory.

But as a series of tropical storms slams the state, that bounty has become a flood risk as warm rains fall on the state’s record snowpack, causing rapid melting and jeopardizing Central Valley towns still soggy from January’s deluges.

The expected surge of mountain runoff forced state officials on Wednesday to open the “floodgates” of Lake Oroville and other large reservoirs that store water for millions of Southern Californians and Central Valley farms. Releasing the water will make room for the storm’s water and melted snow, prevent the reservoirs from flooding local communities — and send more water downstream, into San Francisco Bay. The increased flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could help endangered salmon migrate to the ocean.

So what’s the downside? These same storms are prematurely melting a deep and valuable snowpack that ideally would last later into the spring and summer, when farmers and cities need water the most.

The storms have created a tricky situation for officials who manage state and federal reservoirs in California, since they have to juggle the risk of flooding Central Valley communities with the risk of letting too much

water go from reservoirs. They must strike a balance between holding as much water in storage, as long as they can, while maintaining room in reservoirs for more water later in the season.

“Water management in California is complicated, and it’s made even more complex during these challenging climate conditions where we see swings between very, very dry, very, very wet, back to dry. We’re now

Commission approves U-Mall plan

By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer

Nearly three years ago, the Davis Planning Commission voted unanimously against plans to redevelop University Mall into a vertical mixeduse project, citing its focus on student housing, a lack of affordable units and the size and scale of the project — seven stories high.

The Davis City Council later reversed that decision, green-lighting hundreds of new housing units at the site on Russell Boulevard, but mall owner Brixmor ultimately decided to return to its original plan — an improved retail site without housing.

back into wet,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources.

Rivers in the San Joaquin Valley are forecast to flood today or Saturday. Eleven locations are expected to reach the flood stage, although no “danger stage” flooding is anticipated, according to Jeremy Arrich, deputy director of the Division of Flood Management with the

That plan, which involves demolition of 97,000 square feet of mall space to be replaced with 114,000 square feet of commercial retail and restaurant space, went before the Planning Commission on Wednesday for approval.

This time around, the commission voted 5-2 in favor of the new proposal, but not without a number of commissioners, as well as many member of the public, decrying the decision to remove the housing component.

Brixmor’s Bill Brown explained that decision, saying efforts to find a

See U-MALL, Page A5

Exhibit on figurative art is open

By Natalie Nelson Special to The Enterprise

This month at the Pence, we’ve been beset by hilarity. Our figurative exhibit has been viewed by hundreds of third- to fifth-graders, as part of our ArtSmart school program.

As many of you may be aware, artists tend to learn how to render the body best when it has no clothes on. This can be challenging when it comes to talking about our artworks with students, as their attitudes quickly change to giggles and a complete lack of focus when they see a nude in front of them.

Pence Gallery

Thus I’ve heard a tremendous amount of laughter when our groups have been viewing the “Figurative Expose: Art from the California Art Club” exhibit.

When I’m leading one of the 25 or so tours we do for school groups, I try to normalize their expression, and not try to embarrass them further. “Oh, so you see that the figure in the painting/sculpture/ photograph doesn’t have any clothes on,” I’ll say. Then I usually try to get them to look at their own skin tone, and to talk

about how many colors they see in it.

We usually talk about artist’s training and other things, and how drawing the human body is really challenging, and that pretty much pulls their focus onto other things. I hope that they see figurative painting as more than just people without clothes on — that there’s a narrative, a mood, and an artist’s point of view that are all important to consider.

Long story short — I’m including this story to preface how our current figurative exhibit, is more than just naked figures. In

california DePartment of Water resources Photo Department of Water Resources staff conduct the third snow survey of the season at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada on March 3.

Woodland man nabbed for theft

Woodland police foiled an alleged burglary in progress on Monday, March 6.

Officers responded to multiple alarm calls at the Community Center at 2001 East St. at 4:25 a.m. and happened upon 29-year-old Woodland resident

Trevor Gerow allegedly breaking into a gated area and tool storage closet on the north side of the business.

Gerow was promptly arrested for burglary and transported to the Yolo County Jail.

Cops looks for dog’s owner

The Winters Police Department found a dog named “Cinnamon” on Wednesday. Although she is chipped, they’ve been unable to contact Cinnamon’s owners.

She’s listed at the Yolo County Animal Services Shelter as A201689. Cinnamon is described as a female, tan and white Labrador Retriever mix and is an estimated 8 years old.

For additional information to get in contact with Yolo County Animal Services, call 530668-5287, visit their website at www.yolocountysheriff.com/services/animal-services/ or visit their address at 2640 East Gibson Road in Woodland.

About us

Students put on an amazing show

MAMMA MIA! ... I'll admit I know next to nothing about Broadway musicals. Actually, make that just plain nothing. I think the last musical I attended was "Oklahoma," which I saw the same year it was first performed.

I also have an aversion to exclamation points, especially in a title.

Still, there I was on a perfectly charming Sunday afternoon, sitting in the back row of the famed Brunelle Performance Hall on the Davis High School campus watching the DHS Theater presentation of "Mamma Mia!" with absolutely no idea what to expect.

What I saw was nothing short of magnificent. Magical. Fun and funny. Yet poignant and full of emotion. Simply overwhelming. A large cast overflowing with talent.

Made me want to get up and dance in the aisle, which probably would have resulted in being escorted from the theater.

I was blown away by how much talent the young people in this town possess and are willing to put on full display for all of us to enjoy.

At times I was moved to tears just thinking of how hard all these performers had worked to bring us their very best. They obviously took great pride and immense joy in what they were doing.

I can't imagine how many long

hours it took to put all these moving parts together. There were 28 songs total — all from ABBA — some performed solo and some by the entire cast.

I'd mention names, but there were too many in the large cast and I'd hate to leave anyone out, since everyone had a significant role to play.

The bottom line is I plan to see it again this weekend.

Saturday at 7. Sunday at 2.

Mamma Mia!

GRACEFUL WINNERS

Before last Saturday afternoon's monumental boys soccer showdown between undefeated Davis High and undefeated San Joaquin Valley powerhouse Clovis North, a number of Davis High kids helped to serve breakfast to the opponents their school would face later that day on the field of play.

A kind and meaningful gesture of what competitive sports can and should be all about.

Makes me proud to be a Blue Devil.

DAVIS HIGH 1, CLOVIS NORTH 0 ... Davis High is now 22-0-2, while Clovis North is 26-1-1. Both of them pretty much overwhelmed the opposition all season long.

Davis is ranked No. 2 in the state, behind JSerra of San Juan Capistrano, which finished 20-1-1. There is no state playoff, just North and South regional winners. Clovis North is No. 3 in California.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

JSerra is No. 1 in the nation, followed by Clinton of Mississippi, 21-0-1, with Davis at No. 3 and Clovis No. 4.

Clinton finished its season with a 2-1 win over Brandon, whose fans repeatedly chanted "Let's go Brandon" to no avail.

But here's the deal. These rankings are mythical, artificial and imagined out of thin air. Sure, they're based on someone's best belief of what might happen if all these teams played each other, but that didn't happen, except for Davis and Clovis North.

All have fabulous records and fabulous reputations, but we may be comparing apples with oranges here. No one knows for sure. These rankings are an educated

guess at best.

Some teams rise to the occasion in big games and others don't. No one can say with any certainty what might happen if JSerra and Davis locked horns. (The Blue Devils, of course, actually have horns.)

This is where I come in.

Today I am announcing the results of the first-ever Davis Enterprise National High School Soccer Poll.

These rankings have been arrived at after scrupulously poring over stats and scores, shots on goal, saves, yellow cards, red cards, corner kicks and penalty kicks. I've watched thousands of hours of game film and consumed dozens of bags of popcorn.

And I can now, with a high degree of confidence, release the results of this national poll, which are guaranteed to be 99.44 percent accurate. No. 1 Davis High School No. 2 JSerra No. 3 Clinton No. 4 Clovis North

The results of the poll are final.

Congratulations to the national champion Davis High School Blue Devils.

You are No.1 in the country and No. 1 in our hearts.

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net

State water agency rescinds controversial Delta order

By Alastair Bland CalMatters

As storms swell California’s reservoirs, state water officials have rescinded a controversial order that allowed more water storage in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while putting salmon and other endangered fish at risk.

Ten environmental groups had petitioned the board to rescind its order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law, and … not supported by substantial evidence.”

The reason for the state’s reversal, according to the State Water Resources Control Board, is that conditions in the Delta have changed as storms boost the snowpack and runoff used to supply water to cities and farms.

“An urgent need for the changes no longer exists, the changes are no longer in the public interest, and the impacts of the changes on fish and wildlife are no longer reasonable,” Eileen Sobeck, the water board’s executive director, wrote in a new order reversing the earlier one.

Sobeck wrote that the

reversal was based on “improved hydrology and in consideration of the public comments and the petition (from environmental groups) for reconsideration.”

The decision was a victory for environmentalists, but they say it comes too late. The original order was issued on Feb. 21, so it allowed flows through the Delta to be curtailed for 16 days until it was reversed.

Jon Rosenfield, science director with San Francisco Baykeeper, said the water board is “acknowledging what we knew all along — that there is no drought emergency & eliminating minimum flow requirements that protect water quality, fish, and wildlife is not in the public interest.”

But Rosenfield added that rescinding the waiver is a hollow gesture because salmon, Delta smelt and other fish already suffered for more than two weeks.

The waiver reduced the volume of water flowing through the Delta into San Francisco Bay to only about half of the volume required under state rules. When Delta flows drop below critical levels, fish become

more vulnerable to predators and can be killed by water export pumps.

Rosenfield said the “practical effect” of the reversal “is nil, because there was already damage done in February, and as far as March goes, these storms are causing upstream reservoir releases and causing a lot of runoff.”

Through February, the state’s rules would have required 29,200 cubic feet per second of water be allowed through Delta. The Feb. 21 waiver cut that to less than 15,000.

The original order was issued in response to a request from the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operate the state’s major reservoirs, to relax rules that restrict flows into San Francisco Bay.

The intent of the waiver was to store more water and eventually send it to cities and growers that receive supplies through the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. The state aqueduct delivers water to 27 million people, mostly in Southern

March Madness for ice cream

By Monica Stark

ideas have been entered into this year’s Bracketology contest at the Davis Creamery. Each week, the Creamery chooses two flavors for customers to vote on. That week’s flavors move on to the next stage in the brackets until there is a winner. Voting began on Friday. “We chose 16 flavors we feel the community will enjoy. We choose cultural flavors, and mainstream flavors with ingredients

customers will be familiar with,” said co-owner Jen Schmidt who has owned the store for 6-and-a-half years with her husband Joe. She said Bracketology was a staple before they bought the store.

A frozen blast from the past includes the popular Trifecta flavor (vanilla ice cream with Butterfinger, Oreo and Reese’s). “I love that customers have a good time trying flavors the community has come up with. We often choose very different flavors to stretch us as a business,” Schmidt said.

There’s no secret recipe for any of these concoctions. Schmidt says they rely on “good quality ingredients and source locally

whenever possible.”

Many of the current flavors regularly rotate into Davis Creamery’s flavor rotation. “Many of the winners are highly popular,” Schmidt said.

As Aaron Geerts of The Enterprise got the scoop last May, the Davis Creamery makes their ice cream in a gelato machine, hence the thick consistency and also uses high-grade butter fat, hence its creaminess.

The Davis Creamery is located at 113 E St. and is open from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The familyowned business can be reached at daviscreamery@gmail.com or 530564-4315.

California, and 750,000 acres of farmland, while the Central Valley Project mostly serves farms.

The waiver came after water suppliers and growers had criticized the state for “wasting” water during the January storms by letting it flow through rivers out to sea instead of capturing it in reservoirs. Gov. Gavin Newsom had asked the water board to waive the rules, and suspended two environmental laws to allow it to happen.

Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, which delivers state aqueduct water to cities and farms, said the unpredictability of weather patterns justified the board’s action in February. She said

the state made the right decision then, and its reversal is the right decision now. “At the time the order was granted, the forecast was dry,” she said. “Nobody could have known if it was going to get dry or get wet. Fortunately, it has gotten wetter.”

Sobeck wrote in the initial order that the waiver was permissible only if it’s made in the public interest and “will not result in unreasonable effects to fish and wildlife.”

The announcement of the reversal came at almost 10 p.m. Thursday, a day after other state water officials had opened up the “floodgates” at reservoirs to release water because storms were approaching.

Woodland police investigate gunfire

By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer

Woodland police are investigating a shooting reported Monday, March 6, at 4:07 p.m. in the 100block of Wisconsin Avenue.

Two subjects were driving in a vehicle that stopped on Wisconsin Avenue when the driver and passenger exited the car and fired handguns. Both individuals got back in their car and drove away. No one was injured in the incident.

Flooding closes two more Davis stores

In a story that echoes of last week’s news, It’s a Wash laundromat suffered a water leak late Tuesday. But this time there was more damage to its neighbor, Davis Cards & Games

Melissa Showalter, who owns the game store with her daughter, said the leak was from the laundromat’s hot-water heater. Both stores were closed on Wednesday but reopened on Thursday. They are in the Davis Manor shopping center, at 1776 and 1790 E. Eighth St.

I reported last week that Armadillo Music suffered drainpipe leak Feb. 24 that spilled stormwater into the store and onto lots of valuable records, CDs, equipment and memorabilia. It remains closed, waiting for repairs to its walls. The music store is at 207 F St., downtown.

Showalter said laundromat staff didn’t tell them about the overnight leak. They arrived in the morning to find 2 inches of water in parts of the store. Some shipments of new games were ruined – ones that hadn’t yet been shelved.

“Problem is, board games are made of cardboard,” Showalter said. But thankfully, “no Magic cards or Pokémon cards were hurt in this.”

A Magic the Gathering tournament planned for Wednesday night was canceled, but a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament

scheduled for Thursday went on as planned.

“We all worked our butts off, putting it back together,” she said late Thursday.

With all of this week’s storms, I hope this doesn’t become a recurring theme in this column.

Some of the big news of the last week was that the Davis Farmers Market is bringing back Picnic in the Park.

Since I do public relations for the market, I’ll plagiarize our Tuesday social media post announcing the return: “We heard you – loud and clear. You miss it. We do too. Starting May 17, the Wednesday Davis Farmers Market will expand to include music, children’s entertainment, more food vendors, and lots of opportunity to gather as a community. Hours will be 4 to 8 p.m. The 2023 season will conclude on Sept. 13. Late September through early May, the traditional Wednesday market continues, from 3 to 6 p.m.”

It continued, “Patrons are

encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets for picnicking. Tables and chairs will no longer be provided by the market. Bands will set up on the patio facing the steps and lawn. We’ll have an open-container permit for alcohol on the grassy area, so feel free to bring your own.”

Organizers say it will make the event more manageable.

Meanwhile, the Davis Downtown event Thursdays in the Davisphere will convert from weekly to monthly this summer.

It was partly conceived as a replacement to the music and alcohol element of Picnic in the Park. It hasn’t announced those concert dates.

For more details on Picnic in the Park, read the longer story I wrote, already on The Enterprise’s website.

Dunloe Brewing’s downtown taproom The Local now has a license that allows outside seating – and specifically the beer drinking that goes along with it. The taproom is 610 Third St. “Tables will be available outside very soon, just in time for the impending rains,” its March 6 email newsletter joked. “As the weather warms up, BYO food and snag a table at The Local for the perfect beer-drinking experience.”

The Gas & Shop gas station at 4480 Chiles Road is being turned into an ARCO station. It’s closed during construction.

A sign is going up for the new sushi restaurant that’s replacing Chuy’s Taqueria in Westlake Plaza. Davis Sushi & Fusion will have sushi and other Asian food. It’s at 1260 Lake Blvd., Suite 103. Chuy’s closed in late September. The sushi restaurant is at least a few weeks out.

Also in Westlake Plaza, Westlake Market’s deli counter now features Nepali cuisine. The market is at 1260 Lake Blvd.

Reader Tabatha Yang of Davis said, “They also have the most delicious mango lassis ready to grab and go … perfect for an after-school snack for kids.”

Construction began Monday for Dogtopia, which fills the former Tuesday Morning space at 417 Mace Blvd.

Dogtopia is a franchise that provides dog day care, boarding and “spa” treatments for canines. Co-owner Cindy Hespe said they anticipate a soft opening in early June.

I want to thank the handful of business owners who offered interest in a “sponsorship” to keep Comings & Goings publishing every week. No guarantees,

Thompson honored by public-power group

Special to The Enterprise

WASHINGTON – Last week, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, received the American Public Power Association’s Public Service Award at APPA’s Legislative Rally in Washington, D.C.

Thompson was honored by APPA for exceptional leadership on numerous issues of importance to public power — particularly his vital role on the House Ways and Means Committee helping public power utilities obtain direct pay credits to develop cleaner energy resources.

“I am honored to receive the 2023 Public Service Award from American Public Power Association for my success with the GREEN Act, which was part of the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Thompson. “This historic law is going to help public utilities access vital resources they have historically been unable to receive to aid their transition to clean and renewable energy. Climate change is a major threat to our country and world, and with the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re going to accelerate the transition and lower energy costs for consumers.”

“Representative Thompson’s leadership on the

direct pay issue has been absolutely critical,” said APPA Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Communications & General Counsel Desmarie Waterhouse. “The direct pay incentives that became law in the Inflation Reduction Act are truly game-changing for our industry. We are incredibly grateful to Representative Thompson for his role in pushing our industry forward while creating jobs and growing the economy.”

Thompson's GREEN Act was included in the Inflation Reduction Act. These investments include:

n Clean Power: 10-plus years of tax credits for renewable technologies like

solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower, including credits targeted to lowincome communities, affordable housing, and community solar.

n Grid Resiliency: Tax credits for batteries and other energy storage technologies to enable renewable technologies and make grids more resilient to disasters and blackouts.

n Energy Efficiency: 10 years of tax credits for energy efficiency, from helping homeowners afford electric and efficient heating and cooling equipment, to incentivizing energy efficient homes and commercial buildings.

n Clean Fuels: Credits to promote low-carbon fuels

PBE meeting looks at U.S. economy

Special to The Enterprise

The Davis Progressive Business Exchange will meet from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, noon to 1 p.m.

The primary speaker will be finanacial advisor David

Cougevan. He will speak about the U.S. economy, how people should be planning for their financial future and predict whether there is a recession coming this year.

PBE meetings are at Lamppost Pizza, 1260

Lake Blvd. in West Davis. Contact Bob Bockwinkel at 530-219-1896 or e-mail G. Richard Yamagata at yamagata@dcn.org for more information.

such as biodiesel and a new credit for sustainable aviation fuel.

n Clean Vehicles: 10 years of tax credits for electric, fuel-cell, and hybrid vehicles, including credits to make used vehicles more affordable for low- and moderate-income individuals and to clean up the air by getting more clean delivery vans, trucks, and buses on the road.

n Clean Manufacturing and Industry: More than $35 billion in investments in clean manufacturing, including by investing in clean hydrogen.

n Polluters Pay: Building on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, reinstates the Superfund tax on oil producers and importers, rather than putting the onus on local communities.

— Thompson represents California’s 4th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo Counties. He is a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means. Thompson is Chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. He is also Co-Chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus and a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

but look, here I am! Budget cuts at the paper call for cutting the frequency of this column to every other week. I scrambled last week and asked for support. I warned the publisher and editor about this, but the advertising department was caught off-guard. Regardless, the wheels seem to be turning, so they let me write this on what would have been my first offweek. Fingers crossed! I hope more advertisers will step up and support all local journalism. I’ve been writing this column for 22 years, and I love that you love it. I’d like to see you here next week, and the week after that. Thank you.

That said, please don’t message me about the status of an ongoing project until you’ve reviewed my paywall-free Google spreadsheet, which includes more than 325 Davis businesses coming or going. It’s at https:// bit.ly/DavisBusinesses. Look for the tabs for Restaurants Open, Restaurants Closed, Coming Soon and more. My in-box thanks you.

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

Dodd introduces annuity protection bill

Special to The Enterprise SACRAMENTO —

State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, announced legislation Friday in partnership with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara that would add consumer protections for people investing in annuities and life insurance policies, including many vulnerable seniors, to ensure they are not misled or steered into inappropriate products by unscrupulous insurance agents.

“Annuities and life insurance can be important investment tools but too often, there is incentive for abuse or exploitation,” Sen. Dodd said.

“That’s why I’m glad to partner with Commissioner Ricardo Lara on my latest consumer protection bill, which requires insurance agents to put the best interests of their clients first — ahead of any sales incentives they might make. If they

know an annuity or life insurance policy is a bad fit, they will not be able to sell it.”

Senate Bill 263 is the latest consumer protection proposal from Sen. Dodd. Earlier this year, he introduced SB 278, which would hold financial institutions accountable for defrauding seniors. Also this year, he introduced SB 478, which would outlaw hidden fees in an array of transactions, including banking. SB 263 would require insurance producers and insurance companies to strengthen suitability standards for the sale of annuities and life insurance policies. The bill aims to ensure California meets federal and national model standards, while providing additional consumer protections. The goal is to prevent the sale of these financial products to people who do not understand them or would not benefit from them.

Courtesy photo

Randy Howard, General Manager of the Northern California Power Agency, presents APPA’s Public Service Award to Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena).

Davis Repertory Theatre presents ‘Gynecologos’ UCD: Poll finds most

Special to The Enterprise Davis Repertory Theatre presents “Gynecologos,” the first event in their 2023 Saturday Series, presented in partnership with Yolo County Library.

“Gynecologos” will be open at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 18, in the Blanchard Room at the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. in Davis.

Conceived and directed by co-artistic director Dr. Oona Hatton, “Gynecologos,” is an interview-based, community created performance about women’s gender identity, sexuality and reproductive health.

“As the title suggests, this project champions the physical and emotional knowledge that women posses,” Hatton said. “By sharing just a small sample of that knowledge, we hope to encourage more womenled public conversations about stigmatized topics related to our health and well being. Best of all, we are sharing the experiences of our own community.”

Group effort

On Feb. 18, a group of women came together to begin the work of creating an original performance. Using an ethnodramatic

method developed by Hatton, the group composed a shared set of interview questions and went out to get them answered by friends, relatives, and colleagues.

“One of the powerful things about this project is that the vast majority of the participants are not theatre artists,” notes Hatton. “They are people who want to affirm women’s experiences in doctor’s offices, at the dinner table, and in the bedroom. It is their investment in listening and learning from each other that makes this project possible.”

The final performance, which will be composed of monologues drawn directly from interview transcripts, will run roughly one hour, including time for audience feedback and reflection. The performance will take place in the Blanchard Room at the StephensDavis branch library.

The Blanchard Room will also host an installation of work by artist Ana Lazaro in celebration of Women’s History Month.

About the artists

Dr. Oona Hatton (director) is an Associate Professor of Performance Studies

Mary Jean Burke

July 23, 1930 — March 2, 2023

Mary Jean Burke passed away peacefully on March 2, 2023, at Palm Gardens

Senior Living in Woodland, where she received loving care through her extended struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to her illness, she was a 25-year resident of Davis.

Mary Jean was born to Delmar and Irene Cranmer on July 23, 1930, in Sharon, Pa., where she was raised through her high school years before attending nursing school in Newcastle, Pa. After becoming a registered nurse, she moved to Pittsburgh, where she met Andrew Burke who would become her husband of 67 years and with whom she had three children — Dean, Patti and Tim.

Together, they faced life’s joys and sorrows, including the crushing loss of their son Dean when he was a teenager. With a spirit of adventure, Mary Jean supported the family through numerous relocations on both the east and west coasts, allowing Andy to pursue his vocational interests. Later, once the children were grown, she thoroughly enjoyed her role as Andy’s travel companion to professional meetings all over the world.

Mary Jean’s great capacities for empathy and compassion were evident in her approach to life and her various roles as a wife, mother, nurse and community member. While Andy was a graduate student at

Claudine Jackson Knight

July 2, 1930 — Feb. 24, 2023

Claudine Jackson Knight passed away peacefully at the age of 92 on Feb. 24, 2023. She was born on July 2, 1930, the youngest of three children of Claude and Mabel (Hambrick) Jackson.

During the Depression the family moved several times, following her father’s odd jobs until they settled in the copper mining town of Morenci, Ariz., in 1942. Claudine and her siblings attended Morenci schools while both parents worked in the mines.

Claudine graduated from Morenci High School in 1948 where was a member of the honor society, student council, yearbook and newspaper staff, and played flute in the school’s bands and orchestra. She was a member of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, and participated in church groups. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University in 1951.

It was at ASU that she met her husband Humphrey D. Knight and

in the department of communication studies at San José State University. With more than 20 years of experience making theater in Chicago and the Bay Area, Hatton has led ensembles in creating original performances exploring student loan debt, homelessness, incarceration, dating in the 21st century and hate crimes.

Her play, “See You in My Dreams,” adapted from the letters, artwork, and poetry of solitary confinment survivor Jack L. Morris, premiered to sold out houses at the Hammer Theatre. She is currently collaborating with UC Davis Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp on “INTENT vs. IMPACT: Diversity Statements,” a multimedia performance about student and faculty engagement with university initiatives related to diversity.

V’Santi Tobey (assistant director) is a senior at UC Davis. In addition to performing in campus productions, Tobey has worked with local arts organizations including Bike City, Sandcastle, and the Culture Co-Op.

Performance Ensemble: Amanda Clifford, Leslie Dumont, Lolita EchevarriaGreco, Kayla Girdner,

Princeton University, she helped found the Princeton Visiting Nurses Program through which she excelled at providing care to new mothers and others who could benefit from in-home care and guidance. Later, as a nursing supervisor at an eldercare facility, she was instrumental in creating community amongst both staff and residents.

Mary Jean was an avid volunteer at schools and organizations in which her children were involved, as well as the many communities of which she was a part over the course of her life.

In Davis, her favorite volunteer roles were through Davis United Methodist Church and the ShortTerm Emergency Aid Committee (STEAC) where she worked diligently on collection and distribution of

began a long career supporting veterinary medicine. After graduation the couple moved to California. While her husband was in the Army, Claudine lived with her in-laws, splitting time between San Francisco and the family cattle ranch in Windsor.

In 1957 they moved to Davis, where Humphrey attended vet school and Claudine supported them by working in the animal science department. In 1960, the couple started a private practice in Valley Center, where Claudine used her business skills to run the office. In 1966 they returned to Davis, where Humphrey earned his Ph.D. and joined the vet school’s faculty. While raising their daughter

Claudine edited her husband’s dissertation and professional papers.

After divorcing 1978 Claudine went to work for UCD’s Veterinary Extension as an administrative assistant, then advanced to a position as administrative officer for Dr. John Hughes’ Equine Research Laboratory, now called the Center for Equine Health.

Claudine enjoyed working with Dr. Hughes and the many researchers who helped develop the genetic testing program.

Summer leadership camp opportunities for high school juniors The Davis Sunrise Rotary club is offering full scholarships to current high school j u

i

170

Jennifer Grace, Fleurette Kersey, Ruth Klein, Annie Velez, Justine Villanueva, and Jasmine Washington.

Additional Workshop

Participants: Britt Anderson, Jennifer Backs, Monica Frahm, Felisa Yang

Davis Repertory Theatre was founded in 2020 by Oona and Lucas Hatton to provide professional, community-engaged, live performance. The company’s mission is, through live performances that challenge systems of power, to create transformative aesthetic experiences that inspire artists and audiences work toward a more equitable society.

In spring 2023, Davis Rep will be partnering with the Yolo County Library to present the three free live performances. The series is made possible by a grant from the Davis Arts & Culture Grant Fund of the Yolo Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

“Gynecologos,” is the first performance. The second will be “En Las Sombras”on April 15, and the series concludes with “The WUI” on May 13. All performances are at 1 p.m. and will include ASL interpretation.

Californians worry about gun violence

Special to The Enterprise

SACRAMENTO — A majority of California voters are worried about becoming a victim of gun violence or having someone close to them harmed by gun violence. But the perception of potential gun violence is viewed differently by the state’s Democratic and Republican voters. Among Democrats, 78% were concerned that they or someone close to them could become a victim of gun violence. Among Republicans, only 35% had those concerns.

Those were the results of a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

The new findings align with previous research from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

The following UC Davis experts are available to talk about the new poll, problems that contribute to gun violence, and solutions for reducing gun violence in California and the nation. Firearm violence trends in California and the U.S.

Emergency Medicine at UC Davis. She is a social epidemiologist studying modifiable causes of firearm violence such as policies, social/structural conditions, and features of the local environment.

Much of her research is focused on the implementation and effectiveness of extreme risk protection orders (also known as gun violence restraining orders or red flag laws) in California. Contact vapear@ucdavis.edu.

Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz is a population health sociologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UC Davis. Her research focuses on the structural and social determinants, consequences, and prevention of violence and related health outcomes over the life course and across generations, emphasizing systemic inequities by race/ethnicity and the residential environment.

furniture to needy families settling into new housing.

Deborah

She is currently the lead investigator for the California Safety and Wellbeing Survey (CSaWS), a statewide, probabilitybased survey on a wide range of topics related to firearm ownership and policy and exposure to violence and its consequences in California. Contact nkravitzwirtz@ ucdavis.edu.

BURKE

Mary Jean is survived by her husband, Andy, and her children, Patti and Tim. She will also live in the memories of grandchildren Kaelen, Zeb, Celeste, Calista and Hayden, and greatgranddaughter Lucena.

A celebration of Mary Jean’s life is planned for 11 a.m. Saturday, May 6, at Davis United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mary Jean’s memory can be made to Alzheimer’s Disease Research, 22512 Gateway Center Drive, Clarksburg, MD 20871.

After retiring in 1991, Claudine pursued her love of cooking, reading, gardening, travel and her general thirst for knowledge. She travelled frequently to see family in Arizona and New Mexico, where she explored Southwest Indian history, arts and culture. She volunteered with Yolo County’s Short Term Emergency Aid Committee (STEAC) and UCD’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). She was a devoted mother to her daughter, various cats and dogs, and two “grand horses.”

In addition to her daughter, Marta Knight, she is survived by her niece Ellen (Terry) Jacobs of Mountain Springs, Ark., and nephew Philip Jackson of Piney Flats, Tenn., and their families. All who knew her appreciated her warmth and kindness, her sense of humor, and her amazing green-chile chicken enchiladas. A small, private gathering of beloved extended family, friends, and neighbors was held in her Davis home shortly after her passing. Donations may be made to Sutter Care at Home or YoloCares.org.

Garen Wintemute is a professor of emergency medicine and one of the foremost experts on firearm violence in the U.S. He is a pioneer in the field of injury epidemiology and the prevention of firearm violence.

He is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program and the California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis. His work helped create the public health approach to violence prevention. He is a practicing emergency medicine physician. Contact gjwintemute@ ucdavis.edu

Veronica Pear is an assistant professor at the Violence Prevention Research Program in the Department of

Amy Barnhorst is the vice-chair for clinical services at the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and director of the BulletPoints Project, a statefunded effort to develop a firearm violence prevention curriculum for health care providers. She is a nationally recognized expert on the interface between mental illness, violence, suicide, and firearms. Contact abarnhorst@UCDAVIS. EDU.

— UC Davis News.

following the sale No exceptions The mobilehome and/or contents are sold as is where is, with no guarantees

This sale is conducted under the authority of California Civil Code 798 56a and C ommercial Code 7209-7210

DATED: February 17 223 Stephanie D Rice LAW OFFICES OF JOSEPH W CARROLL Attorney for West Sacramento Mobile Home & RV Park LLC 610 Fulton Avenue Suite 100 Sacramento, CA 95825 (916) 443-9000

Published March 5 12 2023 #2185 Please look up my two books on Amazon

Home Schooling: During COVID-19 and Beyond

• The Conscious Teacher I taught in Davis for 27 years

Obituaries

U-MALL: Retail-only proposal gets unenthused backing from planners

From Page A1

developer to build that housing component came to naught, for a number of reasons.

“Over the past two years, we’ve been working with residential partners that we’ve had previously,” he said. “As you probably have read, project construction costs have gone up 30 percent annually over the last two years as we’ve had supply chain and labor disruption.”

Additionally, he said, building vertical mixed-use in a costeffective manner requires more beds than the city was comfortable with.

“All of this made us look at what to do with our asset after six years, nearly seven years, of working on it, and what do we need to do to reinvest in the community as our center continued to deteriorate?”

Believing housing was not a feasible option at this time, Brown said, “it was either wait for another cycle or invest in this asset before it turned into a blighted condition, which, frankly, as I was there today, many parts of it are really that.

“Therefore we pivoted,” he told planning commissioners.

But redeveloping University Mall (now called The Davis Collection) as retail only does not preclude future housing at the site, he added.

“We have 13 years left on our development agreement which

Calendar

Wednesday

n This month’s Yolo Audubon meeting features Levi Souza, who will be presenting an overview of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s efforts to create “sentinel sites” on select properties throughout the state where biological and climate sensors will track climate change, ecosystem health and wildlife diversity over long time frames. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. via Zoom. For details on how to join, go to yoloaudubon.org or facebook. com/yoloaudubonsociety.

Friday

n The UC Davis Arboretum hosts a Folk Music Jam Session from noon to 1 p.m. Folk musicians can bring their acoustic instruments and play together informally during this jam session at Wyatt Deck (next to the redwood grove). Shortterm parking is available in Visitor Lot 5 on Old Davis Road at Arboretum Drive. Hourly rates start at $1.75.

Saturday

n Tuleyome will host its second annual Spring Thing, a nature-centered celebration, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Woodland Regional Park Preserve in Woodland. This event is a time to celebrate and support Tuleyome’s programs and access to public lands. This free, family-friendly community event will feature guided trails through the preserve, kid’s adventures from Nature’s Theater, nature sketching activities with local author Robin Carlson, and more. A dedicated “kid’s zone” will include games from the City of Woodland’s Rec2Go program, face painting, crafts, and fort building. Live music from various artists will

would allow us to do a mix of uses, but in a horizontal way, not in a vertically integrated way, which makes it much more cost effective to deliver that project.”

The bottom line, he said: “Residential could not be delivered and we must move forward with retail.”

That retail, he added, will contribute tax revenue to the city — up to half a million annually.

Brown declined to name prospective tenants at the mall, but said, “we probably have three of the anchors that are fairly wellcommitted and four of the 15 shop spaces that are fairly well committed,” leaving room for local businesses as well.

But Brixmor’s decision to remove the housing component has produced a mixed reaction among residents. Of the 20 or so people who spoke during public comment Wednesday night, nearly half supported Brixmor’s plan for retail only while nearly a dozen objected to the lack of housing.

Planning commissioners largely expressed disappointment as well.

Commissioner Darryl Rutherford called the project “The Davis Collection of missed opportunities.”

“I’m very disappointed in the direction this has gone,” he said.

“Here we are with this project of a strip mall… I thought strip malls were dead and yet this is like the savior now of our community.”

be provided throughout the day as well as 2 campfire events with s’mores and campfire activities.

n Celebrate Women’s History Month by attending the Yolo County Women’s History Month Committee’s event at the Gibson House grounds from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 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. Various nonprofits will have tables set up at the event. To make a reservation, visit the organization’s website at www. ycwhm.org to register through EVENTBRITE.

n Davis Repertory Theatre presents “Gynecologos,” the first event in their 2023 Saturday Series, presented in partnership with Yolo County Library. “Gynecologos” will be open at 1 p.m. in the Blanchard Room at the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. in Davis. Conceived and directed by co-artistic director Dr. Oona Hatton, “Gynecologos,” is an interview-based, community created performance about women’s gender identity, sexuality and reproductive health.

Monday, March 20

n Davis Community Church will offer Candlelight Meditation, Soundbath and Labyrinth Walk, an evening of gentle reflection, meditation and community with an eye toward the emerging season of spring. The event is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and begins in the church’s Fireside Room. Participants may enter on C Street ramp close to Fourth St. The suggested donation for the evening is $35 and registration is required at dccpres.org/ events.

Rutherford said “people weren’t happy with the businesses that were there years ago. They failed for a reason. Other commercial is failing for a reason in our community. I don’t know how just putting some lipstick (on) and dressing up a new project is really going to change the way things are going as far as retail. I don’t know what has changed in our economy that makes people think this project itself is going to be the savior.”

He added that the project could increase greenhouse gases if the retail jobs created involve commutes from Woodland or elsewhere.

“I’m really disappointed … that residential is not a part of this,” he said. “I don’t understand how a project like this still can’t be feasibly done without multi-family housing … I’ve seen other developments around, even some that are being proposed down in Modesto, that are 100-percent affordable and going to have commercial, parking and stacked housing on it. It’s really hard for me to buy into this.”

He ultimately voted against approving the plan, as did Commissioner Cheryl Essex.

Five commissioners voted in favor, though with little enthusiasm. Commissioner Michelle Weiss noted that, “if this were a different time, maybe the 1960s, I would be cheering this on, I’d be like, ‘Yes, great. A nice bright,

car-centric strip mall, yeah, let’s go.’ But it’s a little hard to cheer on this redevelopment effort just given the fact that we’re in a housing and climate crisis.

“That being said, I understand where we are and I’m a pragmatist. So let’s just move on ahead. Like most people, I just had hoped we could do better… but again, I’m a pragmatist, I’m all about following the money… I understand we need sales tax, I get where we’re going.”

Commissioner Linda Deos agreed.

“I’m just amazed that we’re building another strip mall,” she said. “I’m just amazed that that’s what’s proposed. Is there really nothing else out there as way for us to do retail now?

“To see the same old, same old is troubling to me. And, yes, I’m very troubled that there’s not the housing here. I understand … the whole penciling out and I get that. I’m just so concerned that this is the best that we’ve got.”

However, she said, “I’m frankly as concerned that we need money. And we need the sales tax dollars. And the pragmatism that Commissioner Weiss talked about, I definitely think that we have to have that be a consideration.”

Commissioner Georgina Valencia said she had visited the mall earlier on Wednesday and “it is literally falling apart. It is an abomination right now... what the developer is proposing to do doesn’t get me excited, but that’s

personal opinion, too... I do think this project that is being proposed is a very nice project.”

She added that financial analysis done prior to the pandemic showed “we are, for the size of our community, very low on retail businesses and not only are we very low on retail businesses, but we are very low on taxes as a result of having very little retail business. So I think this proposal is meeting a lot of our needs and requirements.”

Commission Chair Greg Rowe said he was concerned that “we’ve been kicking this project around for seven years.”

“I don’t know how Brixmor has the patience to have put up with our discussions about this, this long in the city of Davis. I frankly think if I was a property owner I would have thrown in the towel and walked away before now.”

The city desperately needs the sales tax revenue, Rowe said, “and I’m concerned that the longer we put this off, we’re just going to continue to put off the badly needed revenue and maybe lose the whole thing if the applicant were to decide to move away and just put a ‘for sale’ sign on the front of the property…”

“This company operates over 300 shopping centers around the country. I think they know what they’re doing,” he said.

Ultimately the commission voted 5-2 in favor of the retailonly redevelopment.

WATER: State makes more room in reservoirs

From Page A1

Department of Water Resources.

To make room for more water, state and federal officials who manage California’s major dams and reservoirs are releasing water. Some will flow into the ocean — which aggravates many water managers, Central Valley legislators and growers, who often say freshwater that reaches the bay or ocean is wasted. However, efforts are underway to divert much of the released water into depleted groundwater storage basins.

On Wednesday, the Department of Water Resources increased outflow of water from Oroville from about 1,000 cubic feet per second to 3,500 cubic feet per second. By Friday, total releases could be as high as 15,000 cubic feet per second, according to Ted Craddock, deputy director of the State Water Project.

Oroville is now more than 75% full, containing 2.7 million acre-feet of water — up from less than one million in the beginning of December. In spite of releases, the reservoir’s level will keep rising. Craddock said inflow in the next five days could hit 70,000 cubic feet per second. That’s about half a million gallons of water per second.

In 2017 Oroville’s levels reached so high that the overflow water damaged its spillway. An emergency spillway had to be used, eroding a hillside and triggering evacuation of about 200,000 people in nearby communities.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced a similar operational move for Millerton Lake, the reservoir behind Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River, which supplies water to growers throughout the Central Valley.

The two-day rainfall totals will be “quite astounding” and “will lead to some really significant

runoff,” said State Climatologist Michael Anderson. More storms are expected next week and later in March.

Rain on snow

Today’s storm is creating what watershed scientists and weather watchers call a “rain on snow” event. Earlier this winter, freezing elevations hovered as low as 3,000 feet, meaning precipitation above that fell as snow.

That has changed, Anderson said. Freezing levels have risen to as high as 7,000 feet in the southern and central Sierra Nevada, where the bulk of the snowpack has accumulated. A National Weather Service forecast shows freezing elevations even higher, at 9,000 feet, and warned that “snow will melt easily below 5,000 feet,” since it is already approaching the melting point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

State officials say the premature snowmelt from this storm likely won’t have much effect on supplies this spring and summer.

“This winter, there has been an accumulation of snow at lower to mid-level elevations, which will experience melt during this storm and will generate runoff into foothill and valley communities,” said David Rizzardo, manager of the state water agency’s hydrology section.

“However, at higher ele-

vations, where the vast majority of the snowpack is, we will not experience significant melt. Even with higher snow levels above 8,000 feet in these storms, we still anticipate seeing additional snow accumulation at the higher elevations that will add to our snowpack totals, especially in the Southern Sierra.”

John Abatzoglou, a UC Merced professor of climatology, said deep, soft snow has the physical capacity to absorb a great deal of rain. The snow may even freeze the rain, rather than viceversa, effectively increasing the snowpack volume, at least for a while.

“As you add liquid to the snowpack, it gets denser, it gets warm, and it gets more apt to melt when the next storm comes,” he said, noting that more atmospheric river events are coming next week.

Going underground

While the latest storms flood river valleys, state regulators have taken action to capture as much stormwater as possible before it flows into the ocean and use it to recharge groundwater basins.

On Wednesday, the State Water Resources Control Board approved a petition from the Bureau of Reclamation to divert 600,000 acre-feet of San Joaquin Valley flood waters into wildlife refuges and groundwater recharge basins. Diversions can

begin on March 15 and continue until July.

“Given the time it takes for water to reach the downstream point of diversion at Mendota Dam, the approval period will allow for floodwater capture following storms expected this weekend,” the water board explained in a news release.

The action is intended in part to help meet Gov. Gavin Newsom’s goal of increasing groundwater storage by over 500,000 acre-feet per year, spelled out in his Water Supply Strategy released last summer.

But environmental groups protested the water board’s action.

Greg Reis, a hydrologist with The Bay Institute, said it will allow the bureau to divert all of the San Joaquin River except for 300 cubic feet per second — what he calls “a very, very small” amount of water. Floodwaters, he said, are important for ecosystem function and survival of fish, including threatened spring-run Chinook salmon.

He compared floodwaters in a river to a person’s increased pulse when they exercise.

“If you don’t get your heart rate up when you exercise, you don’t get the health benefits,” he said. “Same thing for a river. You’ve got to get the flows up, and the 300 cubic feet per second is certainly not adequate for a river like the San Joaquin.”

PENCE: Whimsical creatures and introspective paintings

fact, one of my favorite pieces, “The Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County,” by Debra Holladay, includes a great scene of a family reacting to a couple of very lively frogs. Inspired by a short story written by Mark Twain, this painting is set in a very modern suburban home, with two children reaching out to grab the amphibians from their father. A young woman, possibly the mother, looks on her phone, lost in thought, oblivious to the action with the children. It’s comical and sweet, all at the same time.

Other paintings, such as “Anticipation,” which captures a young ballerina caught waiting before her turn to go on stage by Mardilan Georgio, are more about internal thoughts. What is she thinking? Her colorful costume adds a playful touch to the mood, but she looks hesitant or nervous to perform. The artist uses the quiet depiction of her

body to show her inner thoughts — not an easy thing to do, at all! This exhibit, “Figurative Expose: Art from the California Art Club,” is on display through April 2, is sponsored by Tom Doyle & Kathy Joseph, and Jim & Sue Smith. I hope that you will stop by to see it at the Pence before it ends.

Upstairs, we just opened a two-person exhibit, simply titled “Art by Cathi Newlin & Toni Rizzo.” It’s one of those exhibits in which the art simply demands to be enjoyed. Both Cathi Newlin, who is a ceramic sculptor, and Toni Rizzo, who is a painter, use bold, bright colors and patterns. Cathi uses lusters, gold, and other types of glazes to create these lively designs on her wall monsters and larger creatures.

I call them creatures, as they aren’t based on real animals, but seem to be related to characters found on animated shows such as “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

Judgy Pink Vase and Grumpy Orange Vase have little rolling feet and appendages for hands, but it’s really their human-like expressions that steal the show.

“Cathi’s Pink Fishthing” also shares this comical facial expression. It looks less like a fish, and more like a bulky whale of a creature that seems to propel itself with little prongs, rather

than fins. Its red eyes look up at the viewer in confusion. With all of her pieces, there’s a great sense of exaggeration and whimsy.

Toni’s paintings use decorative patterns to ground the object or objects that she highlights. At times, her subjects are ordinary: a man making pancakes, a houseplant, or a fish. But more often, the subject is extraordinary and surreal, as seen in the small composition titled “Invisible.”

Toni uses a sinuous pattern in red as the backdrop to the action in the scene, in which a pair of smart black boots is topped by an overcoat (sans figure). It looks as if the head and arms were just erased, as the rest is all there in great detail.

She loves to include humor as well, “Happy Hour” shows a Classical Greek amphora complete with a goddess holding a cocktail. The vase’s inscription

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” is perfect to lend this historical vessel a modern touch. Their exhibit is up through April 30.

— Natalie Nelson is the executive director and curator of the Pence Gallery; her column is published monthly.

Courtesy photo “Pink Fishthing” by Cathi Newlin.

Courtesy photo “Anticipation” by Mardilan Georgio.

Big West tournament

UCD men’s hoops exits the postseason early

By Bob Dunning Enterprise staff writer

HENDERSON, Nev. — “Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and say the better team won.”

UC Davis head coach Jim Les said those words after UC Riverside defeated the Aggies, 68-52, in the quarterfinals of the Big West Conference men’s basketball tournament Thursday night in the Dollar Loan Center.

“They were better than we were tonight. Their overall physicality was really good. We got very few open looks.”

The final stat sheet gave credence to Les’ assessment.

UCD hit just 34 percent from the floor, including a woeful 1 of 16 from 3-point land.

Noted Riverside coach Mike Magpayo, “Anytime you hold someone to just one three-pointer, you’re going to win some games.”

The 52 points were a season low for UCD.

The Aggies started fast, scoring the game’s first six points, but the Highlanders quickly recovered with a 10-0 run and never looked back.

UCR took a 23-11 lead with 5:23 left in the half, then survived a brief Aggie flurry to take a 28-24 lead into the break.

A pair of baskets by Ade Adebayo cut

the deficit to 30-28 early in the second half, but again Riverside responded, this time with a 21-8 run that concluded with a successful 3-point bomb from the most unlikely of candidates, 6-11 center Jhaylon Martinez.

At that point, there were still 10 minutes left in the game, but UCR stepped on the gas and would let the Aggies no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

The Highlanders finished with 51 percent accuracy from the field, including nine successes from long range.

“We kept hanging our hat on defense, and usually when you do that good things will happen on offense,” said Magpayo.

There’s a saying in sports that it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season, but that’s exactly what Riverside accomplished this winter, stopping the Aggies, 74-72, in Davis and 72-65 at home during the regular season.

As he has all season, Eli Pepper led everyone on the floor with 22 points as the only Aggie in double figures.

The loss ends the Aggie season at 18-14, while UCR, now 22-11, moves on to a semifinal date Friday night against UC Santa Barbara.

The other semifinal pits UC Irvine and See DOOR, Page B6

LoCaL rounduP Water PoLo

Aggies linebacker earns scholarathlete award

Enterprise staff

UC Davis football student-athlete Jayce Smalley is getting the job done off the field.

Smalley was named a National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete by the Sacramento Valley Chapter at the organization’s annual banquet.

The award recognizes the combination of football performance, academic achievement, and school leadership. Smalley was named a Campbell Trophy Semifinalist by the NFF during the season.

The UCLA graduate transfer, earned his degree in just three years in Westwood, has already etched his name on a Master of Business Administration degree in Davis and is working on another graduate degree in professional accountancy. Smalley boasted a 3.82 grade point average in his MBA program.

In the classroom, Smalley also received the Robert H. Smiley Award during his time in the MBA program, that recognized outstanding leadership. He was also named the Director of Health and Wellness for the MBA program and is a UC Davis Program Ambassador.

On the field, the Kaneohe, Hawai’i native bided his time, and it paid off for the Aggies during his final season on the collegiate gridiron. Smalley started in all 11 games for UCD in 2022, ranking third on the team with 48 total tackles, including 28 solo stops.

The linebacker added four tackles for loss that included two sacks. He also chipped in with two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

Against Causeway rival Sacramento State, Smalley registered a career-high 14 tackles. Against Montana State, the linebacker posted six tackles, a sack and broke up a pass.

Golf

Patrick Fahey, a Davis resident of the last 26 years, recorded his first-ever hole-in-one at the Wildhorse Golf Club on March 3.

The shot was on the par-36 hole, using an 8-iron 144

See AGGIES, Page B6

Wright choice in becoming a Bronco

By Mike Bush Enterprise sports editor

Malaya Wright is enjoying the next four months as a Blue Devil.

Then she’ll be a Bronco.

However, the Davis High girls water polo player seriously considered moving to the East Coast, which has its perks.

But the idea of earning a college degree in the Bay Area, which could lead to better job opportunities later this decade was the clincher. Plus, staying close to her family.

Wright, who is the daughter of, now, former DHS girls water polo head coach Doug Wright, is going to continue her academic and water polo career at Santa Clara University, where she has made a verbal commitment. The Bay Area college was one of seven Malaya Wright was looking.

“Santa Clara University had been my No. 1 school for a while,” Wright said.

What stood out at SCU above the other colleges?

‘Small team’

“The coach (Claire Linney) told me that she can keep the team small,” said Wright, who plans to major in studio art. “I thought that a small team would mean more playing time, it’s easier for me to earn a spot. I think there will be a lot of opportunities for a job done there.”

She was amazed by the look of the SCU campus during her tour.

“It was awesome,” Wright said. “I

walked around with the coach and one of my former (DHS) teammate (Libby Slater, now a sophomore at SCU). I got perspective from both a coach and player’s perspective, which was really nice. I got to see the inside of the dorm that she’s living in, her roommate... showed me how big the campus was. Everything that they have to offer.”

Santa Clara University also has the Schott Athletic Excellence Center, which opened in 2020. “It focuses more on the athletics, which is awesome because you can never get too much athletic training,” Wright said. “I thought that was a plus for me.”

Family guidance

Doug Wright and his brother Jamey Wright, Malaya’s uncle, guided her during the college process.

Doug competed in the UC Davis men’s water polo program in the 1980s.

Jamey was the UCD women’s water polo head coach for 36 seasons. He retired after the spring 2022 season. Jamey served as Doug’s assistant coach last fall season.

“He was able to help me with advice,” said Malaya Wright of Jamey. “Like when a (college) coach would say this, what does that mean, and how I can respond. It was really helpful to have someone that can help me.”

Picking a college is a load off Wright’s shoulders.

“I kept seeing people around me

committing, and it was making me really stress,” said Wright, who turns 18 on April 30. “Knowing I still have my options, and not knowing any certainty of who wanted me. But once I got that phone call asking me to verbally commit to Santa Clara, and she (Linney) told me I had a spot, I was beyond happy. I was so excited.”

Wright was seriously considering Harvard University.

“They were also recruiting me,” Wright said. “Everyone felt connected. They also have a good internship program. And also, they have a real good internship program. I’ve always wanted to go overseas to Japan and do an art internship there for anime. They are really good at that.”

Malaya, who stands 5-foot-6, is already preparing to play collegiate water polo. She continues to play on her club team, which is the Davis Water Polo Club.

“We have tournaments on weekends,” Wright said. “That’s keeping me in shape.”

DHS swimming

She’s also a member of the DHS girls swimming team.

“I am a breast stroker,” Wright said. “Usually swim 50 breast (stroke), anything breaststroke. I’m also a distance swimmer, so I can also do the 500 freestyle... and the 200 IM. So, I’m all over.”

Out of the pool, Wright is lifting weights two to three times a week.

See WRIGHT, Page B6

Big West Photo/Courtesy Photo

UC Davis guard Elijah Pepper (40) looks to pass the basketball against a UC Riverside player in Thursday’s Big West Tournament game in Henderson, Nev.

Courtesy Photo

Jayce Smalley (center) stands with UC Davis football head coach Dan Hawkins (right) and defensive coordinator Matt Coombs. Smalley was earned the NFF Scholar-Athlete Honor award for his academic achievements.

Political power shifts south

By Jim Newton CalMatters

Younger, more liberal, more weighted to the south: California’s political demography is shifting, particularly as two of its political lions move off the stage. For generations, the Bay Area has punched above its weight in terms of influence, and California’s political position has grown up — and old — with it. That’s changing.

Just two years ago, all three plum California offices — the governorship and both Senate seats — were held by Bay Area Democrats (Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris). The governorship still remains in Bay Area hands, but Senator Alex Padilla, a veteran of Los Angeles politics, holds the Harris seat, and the race to replace Feinstein, who announced last month that she will not seek a seventh term, includes two formidable Southern California candidates.

The Senate race, in turn, has touched off jockeying to replace those who would replace Feinstein. In almost every instance, the congressional seats would be filled by new officeholders who are younger, more liberal or more oriented toward Southern California – sometimes in combination.

Gov. Gavin Newsom took over in 2019, maintaining San Francisco’s hold on the governor’s office, though replacing the iconoclastic Brown with a younger, more staunchly and predictably liberal Democrat.

With Feinstein preparing to wind down her historic career, the trend is set to continue.

Congressman Adam Schiff, the bestfunded and best-known of Feinstein’s would-be successors, would shift power south. He was a federal prosecutor in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office, and his congressional district cuts across Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena.

Some of the same would be true for Congresswoman Katie Porter, a more junior member of Congress who won her Orange County seat in 2018, part of a wave of Democratic victories born out of revulsion for then-President Donald Trump. Porter, known for her tough, populist questioning of congressional witnesses, would represent a more liberal senator than Feinstein, as well as a more southern one.

Both Schiff, 62, and Porter, 49, are downright youthful compared to Feinstein, who will be over 90 when she leaves office.

The third major contender for the Feinstein seat is Rep. Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland but grew up in the San Fernando Valley. At 76, she’s hardly a youngster, though notably younger than Feinstein, and she is a standout liberal.

— Jim Newton is a veteran journalist, best-selling author and teacher. He worked at the Los Angeles Times for 25 years as a reporter, editor, bureau chief and columnist, covering government and politics. He teaches at UCLA and founded Blueprint magazine. He wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's Capitol works and why it matters.

LettersNeville deserves vote

I believe Donna Neville is the ideal person to fill the current vacancy on the Davis City Council. I’m impressed with her experience in state government, her extensive involvement in the community and her proven ability to bring people together on difficult, often contentious issues.

Her credentials aren’t just great on paper. I’ve seen first-hand that she’s the real deal.

As a member of the City’s Finance and Budget Commission, I watched appreciatively as she chaired that commission. She listened thoughtfully to all points of view on the worrisome financial issues facing the City. She was always mindful of the commission’s responsibility to be open to one another and to public comment, while always pushing us to take action.

This is especially important these days as the city faces budget shortfalls. We can all see that our roads and bike paths have suffered as a result. An ambitious plan to bring

Can we close achievement gaps?

When Jerry Brown returned to the governorship of California in 2011, after a 28-year absence, he proposed a major overhaul in financing public schools.

For many decades, school finance was quite simple. Local school boards would decide how much money they needed each year and adjust property tax rates to generate the revenue.

The state was at most a peripheral player, allocating money to somewhat equalize per-pupil spending in response to a series of state Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s.

Everything changed in 1978, a year in which Brown was seeking his second term as governor, when voters passed the iconic Proposition 13 property tax limit.

School districts and other units of local government, such as cities and counties, could no longer adjust property tax rates and overall property tax revenue took a nosedive.

The state responded by assuming the basic responsibility for financing schools, largely on a per-pupil basis. In 1988, at the behest of the California Teachers Association and other education groups,

voters passed another measure, Proposition 98, to give schools a guaranteed share of state revenues.

That’s the system that Brown inherited when he became governor for a second time and he advocated a longdiscussed reform dubbed “weighted funding formula.” Rather than providing funds on a per-pupil basis, the system would allocate extra money for students, mostly poor and non-white, who were struggling to reach academic achievement standards.

Declaring that “equal treatment for children in unequal situations is not justice,” Brown persuaded the Legislature in 2013 to pass the “Local Control Funding Formula” or LCFF, a complex system for school systems with large numbers of “at-risk” students to qualify for extra funds.

LCFF had — and still has — some basic flaws.

It assumed that local school officials would spend the

pavement up to standards has been slowed by the pandemic and by the rising cost of labor and materials—all beyond the control of the current City Council. Donna has promised to address this issue. Her years of experience working to address financial issues in state government will be invaluable.

And her current service on the city’s Planning Commission is also important as our community addresses a lack of affordable housing and the nagging problem of homelessness. I know that she is deeply committed to addressing these issues and has real, practical solutions.

With the election to fill the empty Council seat less than two months away, I’m urging my neighbors in District 3 to vote for Donna Neville in the May 2nd special election.

Paul Jacobs Davis

Stop Willow

I’m writing to express my grave concern over ConocoPhillips’ Willow project — a proposed massive expansion of oil and gas drilling and extraction that President Biden

Senate

money effectively on the targeted students with just cursory state oversight. Brown, a one-time seminary student, called it “subsidiarity,” drawing the phrase from a tenet of Catholic social doctrine.

That flaw is compounded by another — providing extra funds to districts, rather than to individual schools with large numbers of at-risk kids, diluted their potential impact.

In practice, subsidiarity has been just a political dodge, allowing Brown and other political figures to wash their hands of any accountability for outcomes that have been mediocre at best. Lawsuits by civil rights groups have been the only real oversight of how schools have spent billions of LCFF dollars.

That’s the system that Gavin Newsom inherited when he succeeded Brown in 2019. In his proposed 202324 budget, Newsom wants to tweak it in hopes of making it more effective.

Newsom would allocate an additional $300 million to schools with the highest levels of poverty, dubbed an “equity multiplier,” while sidestepping a demand from Black legislators for extra funds specifically for Black students, who as a

plans to approve. This massive project would emit 287 million metric tons of pollution over the next 30 years and would threaten Indigenous communities, wildlife, and ecosystems in Alaska’s Western Arctic.

It’s critical that President Biden stops this project — and any other proposals for new fossil fuel infrastructure that come across his desk.

I urge President Biden to do the right thing: halt the production of the Willow project, hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for their deception and lies, and invest in real climate solutions that can create millions of family sustaining jobs, that also provides us a path forward for long term prosperity without jeopardizing the stability of our biosphere.

Mark Huising Davis

On growing taller or fatter

Recent letters have debated whether Davis growth should emphasize infill and density (taller) or lower density on the periphery (fatter). I think Davis needs more housing and should grow but that

Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202224-3553; email: https://www.padilla. senate.gov/contact/contact-form/

House of Representatives

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/

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

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

group have the lowest educational outcomes.

The Legislature’s Black Caucus is unhappy with Newsom’s approach, which also includes more assistance to school districts that are failing to meet achievement standards. The Legislature’s budget analyst, Gabe Patek, is also highly skeptical, albeit for different reasons.

Patek’s office, in a recent report, points to LCFF’s structural flaws and its lack of tangible improvements for at-risk students and declares that providing another $300 million is less important than “increasing transparency to ensure existing funding actually targets the highest-need schools and student subgroups.”

There’s an old saying about throwing good money after bad that is applicable to the LCFF quandary. It will never succeed in closing the achievement gap until there is more direct accountability for using its money for the intended purposes and actually improving outcomes.

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

such growth must be consistent with our declaration of climate emergency, and that means infill and increased density.

More than 70 percent of GHG emissions in Davis come from transportation, much of which is due to commuters. We need more housing so fewer people must commute, and we need infill and higher housing density to further reduce vehicle miles travelled. Infill and density will also help preserve ag land and promote a pedestrian-friendly ambiance.

Elaine Roberts Musser (letter March 3) opposes density and favors houses with large yards. There are many such homes in Davis and dense infill will not replace them; she will still be able to find her dream home in Davis. She also cites neighborhood opposition to dense projects such as Trackside. She overlooks other instances of successful dense projects such as those on B Street. In any case, Davis should try to accommodate neighborhood interests but not be bound by them at the expense of what is best for the whole city (and the climate).

Jim Cramer Davis

An exceptional history from the Emerald Isle

By Llewellyn King

Special to The Enterprise

The Irish punch above their weight. That is why worldwide, on March 17, people who don’t have a platelet of Irish blood and who have never thought of visiting the island of Ireland joyously celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

That day may or may not have been when St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint, died in the 5th century.

The fact is, very little is known about St. Patrick. The broad outline is that he was born in Roman Britain, kidnapped by pirates as a child and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped, returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary and became a bishop.

To be sure, in the Emerald Isle truth can be augmented with folklore, mysticism and the great love of a good story.

commenTary

Hence devout Ireland can also believe in fairies and leprechauns, or little people, to this day. Both are quite real to some in Ireland, although, unlike the festival of St. Patrick, they don’t seem to have crossed the Atlantic, or even the Irish Sea, except in movies.

When horseback riding with my wife on an annual visit to the northwest of Ireland, we were curious about a stand of trees that seemed not to belong in the middle of a working farm field.

“A fairy ring is in there. You can ride through, if you keep on the path,” a stableman told us.

But he warned that if we got off the path, we would upset the fairies. “And you wouldn’t want to do that, would you?”

Indeed, we didn’t want to upset any fairies, so we stayed on the path, and all was well.

From what I have gathered, the little people co-exist with the fairies but also are separate.

A friend built a house for his mother near Galway. It was an A-frame house with a low, decorative wall around it. The wall had — surprise — a gap; not a gate, just a space of about 18 inches. That, she insisted, with the concurrence of locals, was for the little people to pass through.

You don’t mess with the little people any more than you would trample a fairy circle.

The little people were originally an Irish tribe dating back to antiquity, who disappeared but were encased in legend. When Hollywood met Irish legends, the movies embraced the legends and expanded them.

Over the centuries, Ireland has been hard-used by England. It began with the English Reformation and Henry VIII and went on through the English

Health is wealth; it can pay off big

Your body is designed to thrive with certain levels of stress, but, like food and almost anything else, too little and too much are harmful.

The cumulative burden of chronic stress (your daily habits) and life events on your body is called your allostatic load. Contributors to your allostatic load are your relationships, what you think, say, do, eat, drink, breathe, and, the part too often neglected, what you put on your skin.

You have a threshold at which allostatic overload tips you into a state of disease. Therefore, relieving the allostatic load on your body is key to good health. And good health is wealth.

What you regularly put in and on your body, for example, food and cosmetics, can support or stress you out. Food is broadly defined as any substance that animals and plants absorb and use to grow and maintain life. Cosmetics are defined by the FDA as, “articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body ... for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance.”

Whole foods provide your body with the components (nutrients) it needs to grow and repair itself, in the forms and concentrations your body easily recognizes. Traditionally, our only choices for food were those that Mother Nature provided and we then minimally processed before eating, whole foods such as meat, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, etc. Modern agriculture and food science have changed and expanded our food choices.

We now have foods, and are developing more foods, that look like and are still called meat, eggs, cheese and milk, but are made from raw materials that do not provide your body with the same quality and quantity of nutrients your body needs to thrive. The nutritional value of a burger patty is very different, depending on whether the patty is made with grass-fed beef, grain-fed beef, black beans or vegetables, or a slew of isolated, synthetic nutrients and chemicals. And the effects on your allostatic load and health are very different, too.

To compensate for the loss of nutrients in processed food, synthetic nutrients are added back, in structurally different

forms and higher concentrations than found in nature. My dissertation research at UC Davis focused on the metabolic and epigenetic effects of folic acid and folate on breast cancer progression. Folic acid is the synthetic, chemically modified version of folate, a B vitamin that is not shelf-stable outside of the supporting matrix of the whole foods in which it is found.

Folate is easily recognized and used by your body. Folic acid is put into foods at concentrations two to three times what is recommended and requires extra steps to convert to folate. This costs your body energy, uses up other nutrients, and perturbs your metabolism, all of which increase your allostatic load.

The easiest way to reduce your allostatic load is to consciously select nutrient dense products to put in and on your body. In essence, you are a walking cylinder with ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, and viruses (microbiota) growing on you that communicate with your cells and influence your health. Your skin, the lining of your gut and airways, and the openings into your body, your nasal passages, mouth, ears, eyes, genitalia, anus, and lungs are lined with epithelial cells that join together like tiles and form a barrier to protect your insides from the outside.

Epithelial layers form selective barriers that allow substances of a certain size and shape into your body. Historically, most of the substances we were exposed to either killed us, harmed us, or improved our health. However, science, technology, and industrialization have changed that. Now we are exposed to substances that are pseudonatural, modified just enough to get into our bodies easily and to burden us by increasing our allostatic load enough to cause chronic disease, but probably not enough to kill us.

Moreover, modern-day practices, like washing your face with soap every day, were

instituted to make money off you rather than improve your health, and they may impair your barrier function and expose you to chemicals and poisons that increase your allostatic load. Dysfunctional epithelial layers are leaky barriers (“leaky gut” and “leaky skin”) and they allow in stuff that should stay out of your body, triggering chronic lowgrade systemic inflammation, adding to your allostatic load.

Synthetic forms of nutrients like retinol and niacinamide and chemicals like artificial sweeteners and food coloring found in your food and skincare increase your allostatic load. Your body must figure out how to break down, use, store, or get rid of these chemicals. With frequent exposure, these chemicals disrupt your metabolism and poison your system, causing allostatic overload and disease.

And, because most manufacturers put two to three times as much of a synthetic nutrient into a product than is found in nature, most of the synthetic nutrients act as drugs in your system, changing the structure and function of your body. So, while they’re marketed as healthy and good for you, they may just be FDAunapproved drugs.

What to do: ignore the hype, choose products made from whole foods, read the ingredient list, and figure out your cost per unit. By law, the components that make up the product must be listed in “descending order of predominance.” Therefore, if two similar products of similar size claim to be made with aloe vera juice, and one lists aloe vera juice as the first ingredient, while the second lists aloe vera juice towards the end of the ingredient list, you probably get much better value by choosing the first product, because it contains more aloe vera juice per unit than the second.

When comparing several ingredients across two products, choose the product that is most nutrient dense and gives you the most value for your money. Yes, you pay more up front for actual natural nutrient density, but you save your health and quality of life in the long run.

Health is wealth. Invest wisely.

— Rebecca “Bexi” Lobo, Ph.D. is a nutritional biologist and biochemist.

n Woman robbed in downtown Davis: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4hIC

n County officials see signs of ‘eviction tsunami’: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4hGg

n Court rejects Marsh appeal, again: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4hAV

n Soccer: DHS boys corral Broncos for perfect record, regional title: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4hCo

Revolution, with Oliver Cromwell being especially brutal, then on to the potato famine in the 19th century and the excesses of the Black and Tans, poorly trained and equipped, thuggish British troops with mismatched tunics and trousers.

Given that around 40 million Americans can claim some Irish ancestry, it might be argued that they were welcomed here. Hardly. Irish immigrants were often persecuted as they flooded in, escaping the privations at home.

I thank my friend Sheila Slocum Hollis, a very proud IrishAmerican, for pointing out that in the 1920s, the Irish were victims of the Ku Klux Klan violence in Denver. They fit the profile of KKK enemies, along with Blacks and Jews. Except they were Irish and Catholic.

In no field of endeavor have the Irish punched above their

weight more than in literature. They took the language of the conqueror, the English, and have added to it immeasurably and profusely.

Irish writers have enhanced, expanded and luxuriated in the English language. Just a few towering names: Swift, Shaw, Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, Goldsmith, Synge, Bowen, O’Brien, Hoult, Lavin, Murdoch, Binchy and, contemporarily, John Banville and Sally Rooney.

The Irish word for good fun is craic (pronounced “crack”). “Good craic” is a party where you indulge.

I wish you great craic this St. Patrick’s Day. May you consort with the little people, after some Guinness, and may the fairies guide you safely home. Sláinte!

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

Violence, resistance in Middle East ramps up commenTary

By Haley Morrow

Special to The Enterprise

Just this week, elite fighter pilots of the Israeli Air Force’s 69th squadron refused to attend training.

This is one of many acts of resistance against the new Israeli government, which is the most right-wing and nationalist in Israeli history. This new government is run by Benjamin Netanyahu, who won the election for Prime Minister in November.

Netanyahu’s coalition is known for, among other things, antiPalestinian and anti-Arab racism.

For weeks, protests have erupted against the Israeli government, most notably the government’s call to change the judicial system. These changes will limit the power of the Supreme Court and strengthen the power of Netanyahu and the Israeli Knesset (parliament) to overrule the judicial system. Conveniently, it will also immunize “Bibi” against multiple corruption charges.

Pandering to the most avowedly misogynist and openly racist Knesset members in order to assemble his ruling coalition, Netanyahu has set the stage for a hard right slide into autocracy, including stripping many of their human rights.

Jaffa teacher Yaara Ben Geraluf noted, “This government will not be any good for women, for LGBTQ, for the impoverished people ... and of course for Palestinians.”

Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces and Israeli settlers have killed more than 70 Palestinians, and enraged Palestinians have killed 11 Israelis. Just this past Tuesday, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians and injured 11 during a raid of a camp in Jenin, West Bank. Netanyahu claimed that one of the six people killed was responsible for killing two Israelis last month. This sparked more settler violence in the West Bank.

On Feb. 23, the Israeli government approved more than 7,000 new settlement homes in the West Bank. Settlement in Palestine is one of the largest problems the Palestinians face. Since 1967, when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Amnesty International reports that some 600,000 settlers have seized more than a quartermillion acres of Palestinian land

n In Davis, but where? — Digging into the Ditch: http://wp.me/p3aczg-4hC6

and demolished more than 50,000 Palestinian homes.

Palestinians are forced out of their homes and stripped of their land, their olive orchards, and communities when Israeli settlers take over. Friction and violence between settlers and Palestinians are thus a daily occurrence. Israeli forces patrol the settler communities, “protecting the settlers.” Hundreds are killed, and thousands are injured yearly due to the settler violence.

With settlement in the West Bank, Israeli strips Palestine of its ability to build a strong economy. Natural resources, such as water and agricultural production in the West Bank are controlled by Israel. This restricts Palestinians from accessing these resources.

Settlement also prevents Palestinian freedom of movement as nearly 5 million Palestinians are forced to go through checkpoints and roadblocks just to move around, often even from a family farmhouse to their own farms, frequently taking literally hours to cross the checkpoint. Continued settlement not only adds to the tension in the region but directly undermines the possibility of a two-state solution.

Violence between the Israelis and Palestinians has gotten significantly worse over the past year. Each side blames the other for the conflict and its protracted nature. For many Palestinians, the expansion of settlement is seen as the root cause of the conflict, and the reason for violence in the West Bank.

As one political analyst noted, “The Palestinians will continue to resist with whatever they have in order to protect their lives and their property.”

While privileged people living in peace cannot judge Palestinians for their resistance methods, scholars in the field of civil resistance put the Palestinian chances for justice higher with nonviolent methods, especially if the US citizens could demand that US aid to Israel be tightly conditioned to Israeli observance of human rights for all.

— Haley Morrow is a Conflict Resolution masters candidate at Portland State University and PeaceVoice Associate Editor.

From Carole Markese McIntosh

response to “Skate Jam takes

“The Palestinians will continue to resist with whatever they have”

Social clubs should be part of Davis

For unclear reasons, both S and I have always fantasized about owning a bar.

My theory is we both loved the show “Cheers” when we were in high school. The appeal of having a neighborhood bar, “where everybody knows your name,” has never left us.

But because I worked in bars during college, I also understood the difficulties of actually being the owner of a drinking establishment, especially in a college town. So any time we’ve ventured into the topic of “If you owned a business in Davis, what would it be?”, I point out that it wouldn’t be like Sam Malone, hanging out with our friends all day in our neighborhood bar.

Still, the idea never quite dies, and I recently read an article in The Atlantic that offered a lot of insights about the attraction of a local bar.

Writes Allie Conti in April of last year, “To me, the ideal hangout has a few components: spontaneity, purposelessness, and a willingness among all

parties involved to go wherever the conversation leads them.”

Conti writes about what sociologist Ray Oldenburg dubbed in the 1980s “third places” — “a physical location other than work or home where there’s little to no financial barrier to entry and where conversation is the primary activity.”

Classic examples of third places are English pubs, German beer gardens and French cafés, “all of which appeal to people from various walks of life.” Yes to all three, please.

Note: I highly recommend the whole article, but there is a definite COVID component based on the timing of when it was written: https://www.theatlan tic.com/family/archive/2022

/04/third-places-meet-newpeople-pandemic/629468/ In Conti’s story, she relays an anecdote about walking around a suburban Pennsylvania neighborhood when she sees a sticker on a mailbox announcing “Mac’s Club.” As she looked at the house for signs of what this might mean, she noticed a pool table, a man behind a long bar acting as bartender and another guy sitting there drinking a bloody Mary.

Inviting herself in to what she found out was a social club for the neighborhood, Conti said, “The bartender ... rewarded my sense of adventure with a Guinness on the house. She hung out with the two guys for a while, having a “perfect, no stakes interaction.”

Well, I have walked up and down many streets of Davis neighborhoods and have yet to see a subtle sign inviting me in to hang out with strangers. And as I type that, I realize that doesn’t sound like something I’d even want to do — although I

want to want to do it.

Still, long before I’d heard of this idea of a social club in someone’s house, S and I have had many conversations about creating our own “third place” for people to gather.

Admittedly, I kill most ideas right outta the chute because of my overriding sense that people won’t leave when it’s leaving time, aka, when I want them to. The person who doesn’t pick up on cues that it’s time to go? Banish him to Dante’s third or fifth circles of hell (Google it).

Of course, there are obvious liability problems with people drinking too much on your property, along with the risk of insufferable people showing up because they lack self-awareness and believe themselves to be gifted socializers. Plus, I don’t want our bathroom to be anyone’s “fourth place.”

Thus, my favorite idea we’ve come up with is putting a hinge in the top quarter of our back-

yard fence that lines a sidewalk. We could lower the fence 90 degrees and create a countertop/bar, and put some stools on the sidewalk when the club is open.

In this scenario, I imagine the On the Fence Club (trademark!) being open a twice a week or so for a couple of hours. People strolling the greenbelt with dogs, riding bikes or just out to stretch their legs will sidle up to our fence-bar and enjoy a beer or mocktail and some interesting chit-chat.

And when it’s time to go, we will raise the fence-bar — cans and bottles be damned! — and head into the house until next time.

Seriously, I just came up with the name “On the Fence Club” and now think there’s no way we don’t do this. It’s just too good.

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

Working to prevent domestic gun violence

Natalia Baltazar

Special to The Enterprise

It is not uncommon

these days to turn on the news, read in the newspaper, or view news articles on the internet and see devastating reports of gun violence and mass shootings all over the United States.

Mass shootings have a devastating toll on communities. Since 2009, there have been 299 mass shootings in the United States, resulting in 1,678 people shot and killed and 1,087 people shot and wounded. Despite these staggering numbers, these events are relatively less common than gun violence in relation to domestic violence, firearm suicide, or community violence (violence between unrelated individuals).

Nonetheless, it is crucial as a community that we take every measure possible to prevent any of these tragedies.

“In abusive situations, the presence of a gun increases the risk of homicide,” says Jaime GarfieldImus, Director of Legal Services, Empower Yolo. This can include the presence of firearms in domestic violence situations, harassment, and stalking, workplace violence, risk of suicide, the potential for harming others in an action such as a mass shooting, and more, according to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV).

It’s important to understand the intersection between firearms and domestic violence injuries and fatalities. From 2001 through 2012, 6,410 women were murdered in the United States by an intimate partner using a gun. In California there were 1,674 domestic violence fatalities during this same time period, averaging 167 per year. In 2021 there were 82 domestic violence homicides in California.

When firearms are present in a situation where domestic violence is being perpetrated, a survivor is more likely to experience more severe physical abuse, and more likely to end up killed than in situations where firearms are not present. A person who causes harm that has access to a firearm poses a serious threat to victims, making it five times more likely that a woman will be killed. In total, a firearm is used in over half of domestic violence homicides nationwide.

To help address this problem CPEDV launched the Gun Violence and

EmpowEr Yolo

Domestic Violence Fatality Project. Empower Yolo received a one-year grant from the CPEDV to be a service provider in the project and will partner with other agencies, and local law enforcement through the criminal justice system.

Based on the link between domestic violence fatalities and the increase in fatalities when a firearm is present there is a significant need for domestic violence survivors to understand all the remedies available to them when they are seeking protection through the Court.

Empower Yolo’s legal department assists with Domestic Violence Restraining Orders (DVRO) at clinics throughout Yolo County. In 2022 the legal department provided 321 survivors of crime with restraining order assistance. A DVRO is a civil court order that helps protect people from domestic violence — abuse or threats of abuse when the person being abused and the person causing harm are or have been in an intimate relationship (married or domestic partners, are dating or used to date, live or lived together, or have a child together).

It is also when the abused person and the person causing harm are closely related by blood or by marriage. A DVRO allows for additional remedies such as child custody and visitation, attorney fees, move-out orders, and prohibitions on being violent or accessing a home, school, or place of employment. DVROs automatically include firearm and ammunition prohibitions in California, meaning a person who has a DVRO issued against them generally cannot own, purchase, or possess firearms and ammunition.

In some situations a DVRO is not the appropriate remedy for the survivor; however, a Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO) may be.

Through the gun violence grant, Empower Yolo will be expanding its DVRO clinics to include assistance with applying for a GVRO. A GVRO is a civil court order that prohibits someone from having a gun or ammunition.

A GVRO can order someone to: not have (possess or own) a gun or ammunition; not buy a gun or ammunition; and turn in any guns and ammunition to the police,

sell them to or store them with a licensed gun dealer.

A GVRO cannot order someone to: stay away from you or your family members; not contact or go near you, your children, other relatives, or others who live with you; stop abuse or harassment; or move out of your house.

A GVRO is designed to protect only the respondent — the restrained person — from harming themselves (i.e., suicide prevention) or to prevent them from having firearms and ammunition when they have made threats but have not abused or harassed specific people.

If you are worried that someone you care about may be a danger to the public, generally if they have access to firearms, a GVRO may be a legal remedy to consider accessing.

California’s law makes the following people eligible to petition a court for a GVRO: A law enforcement officer or agency, the respondent’s close family members, including but not limited to a spouse, domestic partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild, also teachers and coworkers can apply. The petitioner must meet the relationship requirement and file in the appropriate County.

The GVRO is an extremely important remedy because, if granted, it will prohibit someone from having guns and ammunition during the duration of the restraining order, which can be issued for a short period or up to 5 years. Furthermore, a GVRO is another legal remedy available to remove firearms from a dangerous person deemed to pose a significant risk to

themselves and others.

The process to petition for a DVRO or GVRO can be complex and difficult for survivors to understand and navigate, which is why Empower Yolo’s legal advocates are crucial to support survivors through the application process. “This program is important because gun violence affects all of us. This is another tool in our “toolbox” to help reduce and prevent violence in our communities,” says Garfield-Imus.

Through this project legal advocates will be offering assistance with petitions for GVROs, doing community outreach, and will be giving presentations on how GVROs can help people in crisis stay safe. The legal

department will be trained on how to petition for GVROs and will educate the community on the purpose, intent, and enforceability of GVROs.

Empower Yolo’s goals, in support of the CPEDV’s campaign, are to educate family members, employers, teachers, law enforcement professionals, and other community members on the link between gun violence and domestic violence, provide legal assistance to clients seeking protective orders to address gun violencerelated threats and other community strategies that support gun violence reduction. Empower Yolo will promote the message that gun-related homicides and suicides are preventable by providing

information and raising awareness in the community. Empower Yolo’s campaign to promote awareness of gun violence, firearm suicide, community violence, and domestic violence will also include efforts to target the rural and Spanishspeaking communities in Yolo County.

The community can get involved by following us on social media (Facebook @empoweryolo, Instagram, and Twitter @ empower_yolo) and engaging in dialogue. More information will be available at empoweryolo.org.

It is imperative that our communities, all of us, especially survivors of domestic violence, are aware of options for reducing risk when seeking safety, particularly as it relates to access to firearms. This includes understanding the range of legal remedies available and the protections provided under the law designed to increase safety by reducing the likelihood that someone who has become prohibited from having firearms will be able to keep or obtain them.

We can make a difference and save lives by raising awareness and ensuring access to safety planning and key legal remedies where appropriate. “We all want to keep families and communities safe by preventing injuries, fatalities, and trauma from gun violence,” said Garfield-Imus.

— Natalia Baltazar is the Director of Development and Community Relations of Empower Yolo.

CourtE sY photo

Empower Yolo’s GVRO legal advocate assisting a client with a GVRO during a restraining-order clinic.

YOLOlaughs

By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

M. Schulz

Start the NCAA tournament

It is long past time for men’s college basketball to adopt the four 10-minute quarters format in lieu of two 20minute halves.

n Sixty-eight teams, both men’s and women’s, will learn their NCAA Tournament fates today.

The next 32 will be “competing” in the NIT, known by many as the “Nobody’s Interested Tournament.” These games are played on college campuses, generally in front of a couple of thousand fans. ESPN televises them, mainly for the two hours of live sports programming the contests provide.

Solution: A 96-team tournament. Let anyone who qualifies in. There would be upsets, which everyone likes. TV has a larger inventory, that it likes. Postseason conference tournaments? Why play the same teams you just played in the regular season? Schools potentially could make more money in a 96-team “Total March Madness” than a one-anddone appearance in a conference tournament.

n Chill out, San

Francisco 49ers fans. Your 2023 starting quarterback probably won’t be known until at least late July and quite likely later than that. All you need to know now is that someone will take snaps and reps when the regular season begins in September.

n Difficult as it is to envision Aaron Rodgers possibly wearing a New York Jets uniform, keep this in mind: Jets great Joe Namath ended his career as an LA Ram; 49ers legend Joe Montana wrapped it up in Kansas City; and longtime Baltimore Colt Johnny Unitas played a final season with San Diego.

n It’s been a horrific season for the San Jose Sharks, but one member of the organization has had great reason to celebrate since last summer.

Canadian-born TV play-by-play man Randy Hahn has been with the team over 30 years. Last

July, he became a United States citizen. A five-time Emmy winner, Hahn has broadcast over 2,000 Sharks games.

n Hard to believe, but one-time UC Davis quarterback, pitcher and assistant football coach Mike Moroski is in his 10th season as head coach at the College of Idaho. Moroski played in the NFL with San Francisco, Atlanta and Houston.

n The NCAA men’s basketball tournament returns to Sacramento.

First- and secondround games will be played Thursday and Saturday.

The Golden 1 Center hosted this event in 2017, and after a stellar performance, was awarded 2020. But the COVID-19 pandemic wiped that out and both ‘21 and ‘22 had previously been determined.

So, 2023 was the earliest available year.

Sacramento previously hosted in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2007, all at Arco Arena. The NCAA elected not to return until a new, modern arena was built. Golden 1 opened in 2016.

WRIGHT: Big numbers for Malaya

From Page B1

“I want to keep growing and be able to shut people out,” laughed Wright.

Wright craved out a name for herself the last four seasons with the Blue Devils. Last fall, she led Davis with 65 assists and second in scoring at 71. She also had 53 steals and accounted for 136 points.

water polo playing career in the Bay Area is Wright will be independent. But knowing her father and Lori, Malaya’s mother, her brother Luke, who is playing in the DHS boys water polo program, and their other brother and three sisters live two hours away. Malaya and her siblings are adopted.

and be independent,” said Malaya Wright. Malaya’s summer plans after she graduates from DHS in early June will continue playing on her club team.

“I plan to have the best time,” Wright said. “I also plan on traveling, but mostly staying local.”

DOOR: UCD finished season at 18-13

From Page B1

“It was an emotional locker room,” said Les as he reflected on the season.

“I think we had some really good moments. We had some very good wins. We won 18 games. We had

problems with consistency early in the year and in the middle, but we had a lot of guys who were willing to lace it up when they really weren’t 100 percent because of injuries.”

The Aggie coach talked about how hard such an abrupt end to the season can be, but said he knows he will look back with a strong sense of what his team accomplished.

“When I get 24 to 48 hours away from this game, I’ll look back fondly at this group. Night in and night out they were successful. In the locker room, we as a staff just thanked them. They are great ambassadors for the university. I tell them it all goes fast and it’s really hard, but they’ll be Aggies for life, and we’ll always be there for them.”

Another perk to continuing her academic and

AGGIES:

From Page B1

“Not too far away from home, but also not too close to home where I can have my own time and become who I am

Purdy good surgery for 49ers quarterback

— Contact Mike Bush at mike@davisenter prise.net. Follow on Twitter: @MBDavisSports. Cal State FullertFon. The tournament winner will represent the Big West in the NCAA tournament that begins next week.

yards. Mike Fahey, Patrick’s father, was present at the time of the hole-in-one.

Michael Thomas, a golf operations manager at the club, was notified of the feat.

San Francisco 49ers

In a press release Friday, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy underwent successful surgery with renowned specialist Dr. Keith Meister on Purdy’s right elbow.

Mike Bush/enterprise file photo

Malaya Wright (middle) and Davis High girls water polo teammates listen to assistant coach and Malaya’s uncle, Jamey Wright (right) at Arroyo Pool on Sept. 20, 2022.