The Davis Enterprise Sunday, May 14, 2023

Newsom

restores flood funds to budget

By Alastair Bland

CalMatters

Four months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom yanked $40 million in funding to restore San Joaquin Valley floodplains from his proposed budget, angering legislators from both parties and conservationists. Today, he gave all of the money back as part of a $290-million package to increase flood protection funding statewide.

The funding comes in addition to $202 million already included in Newsom’s 2023-24 budget proposal in January. That makes a total of $492 million in investments that Newsom is proposing to protect Californians from flooding in the wake of winter storms that inundated towns in the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast.

“California is facing unprecedented weather whiplash — we just experienced the driest three years on record, and now we’re dealing with historic flooding,” Newsom said in a written statement today. “Our investments must match this reality of

See FLOOD, Page A5

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Mother’s Day at Whole Earth

By Monica Stark Enterprise staff writer

Whole Earth Festival shoppers may help the event achieve the theme “Sell Out to Love” as vendors interviewed below stated past success drives them to return. Hailing originally from Lake Almanor, Amy Rosemoore, a watercolor painter, has been selling greeting cards with her artwork at the festival since 2017. “It’s a very fun, receptive crowd,” she said on Friday.

Pegge Bastress has been making jewelry “forever”. “I was just one of those little girls that strung beads and I’m still doing it, but it is how I make my living.” Bastress works hard, like a farmer, to make it happen, selling at five to six farmers markets a week and then one or two shows a month. She really appreciated that last year, one of her daughters showed up to the festival with a surprise Mother’s Day picnic. When her other daughter attended UC Davis, Bastress got to stay in her apartment.

Not coming from a family of gift-givers, Adjowah Brodie, a “designer of thoughtful gifts for clever people,” owns The Weekend Store, where she takes ordinary household items like cooking mitts or cup holders and “makes them extraordinary”

County ceremony, walk honor fallen peace officers

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

Yolo County peace offi-

cers who died in the line of duty will be honored at a pair of events Thursday in Woodland.

The Yolo County Retired Peace Officers Association will hold its annual memorial event at noon at the Peace Officers Memorial Monument outside the historic Yolo County Courthouse, 725 Court St. Afterward, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office leads its annual Walk to Remember, starting at the monument and continuing for about a

mile to Heritage Plaza at Second and Main streets. The public is invited to both events, which coincide with National Police Week.

Originating in 1962 with President John F. Kennedy, who signed a proclamation designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day, National Police Week has evolved

See HONOR, Page A4

Is Mom into houseplants? Find those and other ways to connect with the Earth on Mother’s Day at the Whole Earth Festival.

Children’s Fund bolsters opportunities

By Aaron Geerts Enterpirse staff writer

For more than two decades, the Yolo Children’s Fund has been a fiscal boon to the kids in the county who need it most. While this organization is among many nonprofits that aid underserved children in the county, it continues to make a positive impact one life at a time.

The Yolo Children’s Fund originally got started back in 2001 when Judge Donna Petre and former administrative officer Kathleen White prepared a grant application. They became all too used to seeing abused, neglected, deprived, orphaned and desperate children move in

and out of the juvenile justice system and decided to make a difference in their lives. Fortunately, that desire came to fruition in the form of a $10,000 grant.

“They received the grant and that was the start of The Yolo Children’s Fund,” said founding member and current YCF President William Kopper. “Most of the children we provide funds for are in foster care. The requests for the grants come from a courtappointed special advocate (or CASA), and those are people who undergo training and become mentors for a child and help meet their needs. Usually, they meet with a child once a

week and stay with them through many years.

“A foster child might be moving from placement to placement, but the one consistent adult in that child’s life might be the CASA. Those people are very much aware of the needs of the CASA child, and they’re among the people who request grants from the Children’s Fund. The other people who make frequent requests are the children’s social workers.”

Essentially, the Yolo Children’s Fund is meant to bolster the quality of life of the county’s underserved, abused, neglected, orphaned and overall disadvantaged children. The

See FUND, Page A4

Monica Stark/ EntErpriSE photo

Got to take one for the team here

As some of you may know, I announced my candidacy for president of the United States several months ago, mostly because another presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, strongly suggested that people of a certain age aren’t mentally competent enough to lead this country.

I want to prove otherwise.

She will, of course, deny ever having said such a thing, claiming all she was saying was that they should have to take a mental competency test before being allowed to run for office. She, however, has not agreed to take such a test herself, apparently believing that at her age of 51, mental competency can simply be assumed without proof.

Haley doubled down on her nastiness the other day when she predicted that Joe Biden will die sometime in the next five years. I didn’t realize she has an M.D. after her name, with a specialty in gerontology.

Said the would-be president, “The idea that he (Biden) would make it to 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”

It’s even less likely poor Joe will reach 86 if Nikki is elected president and succeeds in ending Biden’s Social Security and Medicare.

Haley is, of course, ignoring the

advice given in the Good Book that we should live every day as if it’s our last, because tomorrow isn’t promised. To anyone. Even 51 year olds.

Given that her two main opponents -—former president Trump and the man Trump likes to call “Sleepy Joe” — are both over the age Haley specified for mental decline, we get the point. These guys may be charming, but they are simply too old to be running the most powerful country on Earth.

Fortunately, I’m younger than both of those much-maligned politicians, so I’m certain Nikki did not have me in mind when she made that disturbingly ageist statement.

Still, mental competency is now on the table. But why stop there?

We hear all the time about the physical rigors of the presidency, from having to fly economy on Air Force One to being forced to eat food you can’t pronounce at state

dinners with foreign dignitaries.

So, while I’m willing to take a mental competency test as long as it doesn’t involve reciting the alphabet backward, I think we should throw some physical challenges into the mix as well. And Nikki Haley will not get a pass just because she’s younger than everyone else in the field.

First, let’s start with a speed typing test, blindfolded, on an old Underwood manual typewriter, where it takes a certain amount of pressure on the keys to make them actually strike the paper with ink. I’m certain I can win that one with one hand tied behind my back.

Second, a 100-yard barefoot dash over a field full of California acorns, followed by a biathlon consisting of one set of tennis and one set of pickleball.

Next, a penny pitch with a single coin into an old Shasta Root Beer can from a distance of 15 feet, throwing a strike with a baseball from 60’6” and successfully converting a 3-pointer, a free throw and a layup in 30 seconds on a 10-foot basket.

Then let’s do some three-digit math multiplication in your head while standing on your head. Also, bench press a picnic bench and attend an entire Davis City Council meeting without falling asleep.

A bicycle race up and over the Pole Line Road overpass seems like a fair test of stamina, along with a 25-meter underwater swim in 50-degree water without coming up for air. If that doesn’t get you ready to stare down Vladimir Putin, I don’t know what will. Of course, some folks in Nikki’s camp have recently shown an odd fondness for Mr. Putin, so maybe they won’t need to stare him down after all.

And finally, the ultimate test of steely nerves, manual dexterity, keen eyesight, intense concentration and enormous patience.

Yes, I’m talking about changing a cloth diaper on a screaming, wiggling, uncooperative infant with real safety pins without leaving a scratch on either the infant or yourself.

The one who emerges in first place from the above competition can raise his or her hand and repeat the oath of office while “Hail to the Chief” plays softly in the background.

This is obviously a much better method of selecting a president than leaving it to the Electoral College, which is older than Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Nikki Haley combined.

— Reach Bob Dunning at bunning@davisenterprise.net.

Prison time due for Woodland road-rage attack

By Lauren Keene

Superior Court, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.

The conviction stems from an incident on the night of June 26, 2021, when four people on their way to a Woodland graduation party encountered Byrd as they drove northbound on Highway 113.

Prosecutors said Byrd began tailgating the other car, rear-ending it twice before using the center median to pass it. One of the car’s occupants called 911 to report Byrd’s licenseplate number.

Upon reaching Wood-

land, the victims got off the freeway, and Byrd followed them, speeding toward them on the offramp and causing the two vehicles to collide.

“Byrd’s truck was stopped at an angle on the exit ramp, trapping the young people inside their vehicle between the guardrail and Byrd’s vehicle,” the DA’s Office said in a news release.

At that point, Byrd exited his vehicle and used an object to smash the other

driver’s window. The shattered glass injured two of the car’s occupants, including the driver who now suffers permanent vision loss, prosecutors said.

Byrd fled the area but was stopped by the CHP after another motorist who witnessed the altercation followed him and alerted authorities to his whereabouts.

Rod Beede, who represented Byrd at trial, could not be reached for comment.

Byrd faces up to 10 yeas in state prison — as well as additional time for three pending drug cases — at his July 12 sentencing hearing before Judge Tom Dyer.

Get ready to picnic again in Central Park

After a three-year hiatus, the Davis Farmers Market Picnic in the Park returns on Wednesday.

The family-fun event will be weekly from 4 to 8 p.m. through Sept. 13. A local band will play each Wednesday. There will be children’s entertainment and food vendors. The rest of the year, Wednesdays swap back to a traditional farmers market, open 3 to 6 p.m.

The layout will be a little different than before. Food vendors will be stationed around the patio, with the band playing from the top of the stairs, facing the lawn. Patrons are asked to bring their own chairs and blankets. The market will no longer supply tables and chairs.

During operating hours, there will be an open-container permit, allowing patrons to consume alcohol on the grassy area, whether it’s canned beer from one of the four Davis breweries rotating each week, a bottle of wine from Heringer Estates, or a beverage they brought from home. Sudwerk will be the first brewery.

Picnic in the Park will focus on children’s activities and music, along with a wide range of food made from market ingredients. Plans call for a clown and facepainter but no pony rides or bounce houses.

Vendors include The Buckhorn; The Hotdogger; Zumapoke with pork tacos and coconuts; Kathmandu Indian food; Red Noodle 88 with Thai food and kids’ food; Dumpling House with dumplings, bao and boba tea; Village Bakery with pizza; Open Rice Kitchen with Chinese food and burgers; Montoya’s Tamales with burritos; Puros Churros, Fat Face pops; Kettlepop and Niknek Lemonade. Picnic items include North African Passion dips and breads; Bolani dips and flatbreads; La Familia tortillas, chips, salsa and tamales; Davis Breads and Desserts; Ciocolat; Purple Tree Café; and Frog Hollow baked goods.

I should note that I do public relations for the Davis Farmers

Market but the market does not have influence on this column.

Work continues on Volt Coffee, Tea & Taps, a café and beer garden coming to 1123 Olive Drive. The owners hope to have it open by the end of June or beginning of July.

It will serve coffee Mondays through Sundays. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, it will offer beer and food, with cuisine from a rotation of four trailers. So far, the first three offerings will be tacos, pizza and noodles. The fourth is still being determined, property owner Robert Salazar said.

Shipwrecked Tiki Bar is on track to open in late June or early July, co-owner Nate Yungvanitsait said.

It’s coming to the former bar side of Woodstock’s Pizza, 217 G St. The bar will specialize in premium rum drinks. Yungvanitsait owns the business with his wife, Melissa. They also own University of Beer, which has six locations in the Sacramento region, including their hometown of Davis.

Shipwrecked will not serve food. Patrons can bring their own, just like at the local University of Beer. And though cars are excluded from that section of G Street, they don’t plan outdoor seating, saying it wouldn’t fit with the nautical/pirate theme.

He went to his native Thailand to order custom decorations for the new tiki bar. He wants it to have a Disneyland-like “wow” factor. Decorations are due to arrive at the end of May, he said Thursday.

Sudwerk Brewing Company’s patio is nearing completion. The

restaurant opened April 6 but the beer garden was delayed by rain.

On Wednesday, Sudwerk posted a photo on social media, saying, “misters, sunshades, some fire pits, and lights have all been installed. Everything should be fully set up and ready next week.”

Co-owner Trent Yackzan said they are shooting for Thursday, May 18, “if the pieces fall into place.”

The owners of Davis Grill and Kabob, a rebranding of Casablanca, did not open on May 10, as originally hoped. They are working with the landlord and trying to get new signage. The restaurant is at 640 W. Covell Blvd., Suite A in Anderson Plaza. Casablanca closed at the end of March.

Construction is still underway on Dogtopia, which fills the former Tuesday Morning space at 417 Mace Blvd.

Co-owner Cindy Hespe originally planned to open it in June.

A delay in construction is putting it closer to July 1, she reports.

Dogtopia is a franchise that provides dog day care, boarding and “spa” treatments for canines.

A storefront next to Main Street Lounge in Woodland has a sign in its window saying “Axe throwing coming soon.” Main Street Lounge is at 524 Main St., Suite 101. I haven’t been to Woodland to check out its address. None of the ax-throwing chains around here list Woodland as a new location.

The other question is, why can’t anyone spell ax correctly? Axe is the British spelling.

Blue Note Brewing Company will soon add its own pizza to the menu.

The Woodland brewery, at 750 Dead Cat Alley (what was once the Daily Democrat pressroom),

has conditional approval from the county health department to start the process. “That means the building department can issue a permit to do electrical and plumbing” for its outdoor wood-fired pizza oven, it noted in a social media post. Readers say it still plans to use occasional food trucks.

Before messaging me about the status of an ongoing project, please review my paywall-free Google spreadsheet, which includes more than 325 Davis businesses. It’s at https://bit.ly/ DavisBusinesses. The most active tabs are Restaurants Open, Restaurants Closed and Coming Soon.

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

UC Davis Health earns grant to study stress, heart disease

Special to The Enterprise SACRAMENTO A team of UC Davis Health scientists are establishing a new research center to study the impact of stress from everyday life on heart health in underserved communities.

The American Heart Association is funding the new UC Davis PRECISE Center (Psychosocial stRessors and Exposomics on CV health In underServed multiEthnic populations in Northern, California). It’s part of a $13 million initiative to study the impact of chronic stress on cardiovascular disease and health.

The 2020 Stress in America survey from the American Psychological Association concluded that Americans “are facing a national mental health crisis that could yield serious health and social consequences for years to come.”

Stress is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and chronic psychosocial stress has been linked to the development of atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death.

“Psychosocial stress is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but the mechanisms of chronic psychosocial stress on cardiovascular disease remain incompletely understood, making it difficult to design preventive or therapeutic

strategies,” said Nipavan Chiamvimonvat, associate chief for research in Cardiovascular Medicine and the co-director of the UC Davis Cardiovascular Research Institute. “Given the disproportionately high burden of psychosocial stress among minorities and underserved populations, evaluating the association of chronic stressors with cardiovascular disease is of paramount importance.”

The center will be led by Chiamvimonvat, with three

interdisciplinary projects. Martin Cadeiras, medical director for the Advanced Heart Failure, Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Device Program and Javier E. López, associate professor of Cardiovas-

cular Medicine and medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation will be leading Project 1 to recruit a diverse group of participants with different backgrounds, various psychosocial stress levels and socioeconomic status from underserved

Craig Lee/Courtesy photo

Patrons enjoy music and food at the Davis Farmers Market’s Picnic in the Park in Central Park in 2018.

From

Page

organization does this by providing funds for various projects, needs and other life-enhancing opportunities. Although a simple idea on paper, the funding and coinciding acts of kindness inspire hope for a brighter future.

“Sometimes the funds go towards school clothes,” Kopper said. “We give a lot of grants so children can buy new clothes so they feel comfortable at school. That’s a very important thing for children. Other children need different things like school supplies, computers, we’ve purchased bicycles, we’ve provided gymnastics lessons, swimming lessons, music lessons and sports registration fees as well.

“So, there are many ongoing needs we’ve met. We also pay for tutoring on many occasions so students can catch up. We pay for summer school and one of our big programs is summer camp which we fund through our summer funds. We have special funds for summer programs, too.”

Kopper went on to talk

Obituaries

about other opportunities the Yolo Children’s Fund facilitates including field trips to the east coast and even cruises for children who’ve never dreamed they be able to go on one.

Currently, the organization works with and accepts fund requests from CASA’s, social workers and — most recently —Empower Yolo. The impact of The Yolo Children’s Fund can be measured and felt by the vast amount of positive feedback from its beneficiaries.

“My favorite part is helping the children, of course. Another is serving on the board of directors of this organization because the other people on this board are just really outstanding people and dedicated to doing as much help in the community as possible,” said Kopper. “Most of these people are serving on multiple boards and doing everything in their power to try and help others. It’s just truly a privilege to be on this board.”

CVS settles allegations of expired-product sales

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office and other California prosecutors last week settled a civil action alleging the sale of expired products at CVS stores.

Filed in Santa Cruz Superior Court, the lawsuit alleged that some of CVS’ 800-plus California stores — which include three in Yolo County — offered and sold over-thecounter drug products, baby formula and baby food after their “use by” dates.

“Retailers in California are prohibited from selling or offering for sale after the expiration date an over-the-counter drug,” the Yolo DA’s office said in a news release.

“Similarly, food retailers are prohibited from selling or offering for sale after the ‘use by’ date, any infant formula or baby food that is required by the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to have a ‘use by’ date on its packaging.”

Once notified of the alleged violations, CVS cooperated and

Victor George Bucher

July 18, 1945 — April 12, 2023

Victor (Vic) George Bucher, age 77, died on April 12, 2023, in Reno, Nev. Vic was a loving companion, father and grandfather.

He is survived by his longtime companion, Rea Nakanishi of Davis; daughter Debbie (Eric) Simpson of Woodland; son Chris (Deanna) Bucher of Woodland; grandchildren Tyler Simpson, Molly (Kevin) McCreight, Jack Simpson, Joseph Simpson, Amy (JD) Selstad, Ashley Bucher, Brian Bucher and Ally Bucher; and siblings Jim (Nancy) Bucher of Sonoita, Ariz., Tom (Patty) Bucher of Carson City, Nev., and Cate (Tom) Loewen of Woodland. He is preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Pat Bucher of Oroville, brother Don Bucher, and his first wife, Jo Bucher.

Upon graduating from USF in accounting specialty, Vic had a varied and long career, including service in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1969, employment at KPMG and Bernie Gorman Sr. Farming before entering private practice with his own CPA firm in 1976; earning a master’s degree in tax; serving as a Clifornia state lottery commissioner at the appointment of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003; serving the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in Qatar from 2004 to 2006; developing

HONOR: Dozen Yolo officers memorialized

conducted internal checks for expired over-thecounter drugs and infant food products at all of its California retail locations.

“CVS further invested time and resources to prioritize the verification of expiration dates and retrain store personnel,” the news release said. “There was no evidence discovered during the investigation that the sale of any expired or past the ‘use by’ date products resulted in harm to consumers.”

The May 10 judgment calls for CVS to pay $6.5 million in civil penalties and investigative costs, as well as $1 million in restitution to be distributed among several California charitable organizations.

Without admitting or denying liability, CVS also agreed to a court order prohibiting additional violations of California law regarding the sale of products past their “use by” date.

“Today is another example of those prosecutors working together to make real change,” Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said. “The public should be able to trust what they are buying.”

From Page A1

Aug. 24, 1935, in a motorcycle collision.

various buildings in Woodland and West Sacramento; and teaching at University of Phoenix. Not one for retirement, Vic continued providing CPA services and developing land even after his move to Reno.

Vic was a social, active and generous man who was deeply involved in many charities and clubs.

Vic was a Rotarian active in the Woodland, Davis and Reno areas. He was also a member of the Davis Odd Fellows. Vic was also generous in his involvement with many charities and organizations, including the Yolo County Elderly Nutrition Program, the Yolo Crisis Nursery, Woodland Christian School, the Sacramento Family Justice Center, and the

Community Foundation of Northern Nevada.

A celebration of life is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at the Woodland Christian School Performing Arts Center, 1787 Matmor Road in Woodland, with a reception to follow. All are welcome to attend and celebrate Vic’s life. Interment will be at the Sacramento Valley Veteran’s Cemetery in Dixon on a separate date for the immediate family.

Instead of flowers, the family requests donations to the Victor Charitable Fund at the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada, 50 Washington St., Suite 300, Reno, NV 89503.

Betty Lorraine Moore a longtime resident of Davis, passed away on April 29, 2023, at the age of 94, after a brief illness. Betty was born in Sacramento on Jan. 24, 1929, and was the daughter of Joesph and Gertrude Tremp. She was predeceased by her loving husband of 72 years, James (Whitey) Moore, and brothers Leroy and Sherman. She is survived by sons Lowell (Joanne) and Gary (Angela); grandchildren Adam, Nicole and James (Allison); and great-grandchildren Nathaniel, Wyatt

CANTRILL

Davis officer killed in 1959

into a seven-day event in Washington, D.C., that hosts thousands of lawenforcement officers and their supporters from all over the world.

Yolo County has experienced the loss of 12 officers since 1912, most recently the murder of Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona on Jan. 10, 2019.

Other fallen officers in Yolo County include:

n California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Stevens, Nov. 17, 2005, caused by gunfire.

Sgt. Gary Wagers, March 15, 2001, in a vehicle collision.

Officers Roy Blecher and William Freeman, Dec. 22, 1978, caused by gunfire.

Officer Ivan Casselman,

Jan. 24, 1929 — April 29, 2023

and Aiden; as well as many nieces and nephews.

Betty and Whitey were successful business owners of the Davis Shoe Shop. A fixture of 40 years. Betty was extremely involved in her sons, family and extended relatives lives and activities. She was a social and caring person, with many friends to this day. If you had the time there was always a story.

Betty and Whitey were long time members of the Elks Club. Through their years of community involvement they made many friendships and will

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n Davis Police Department Officer Douglas Cantrill, Sept. 7, 1959, caused by gunfire.

n Winters Police Department City Marshall William Rice, Oct. 18, 1912, caused by gunfire.

n West Sacramento Police Department Officer James McKnight, June 16, 1990, caused by gunfire.

n Woodland Police Department Officer Lawrence Sills, June 13, 1945, in a motorcycle collision.

n Yolo County Sheriff's Office

Deputy Jose "Tony" Diaz, June 15, 2008, caused by gunfire.

Deputy Walter Leinberger, Nov. 18, 1943, caused by gunfire.

To honor these officers, the Yolo County Retired Peace Officers Association spearheaded the effort to erect a permanent memorial, which was unveiled in 2013 on the historic courthouse grounds.

be dearly missed. After retirement from the Davis Shoe Shop Betty and Whitey traveled the world and all through out North America in their RV. A life well lived. A celebration in her memory will be at a later date.

Submissions may be made via www. davisenterprise.com/ obit-form/.

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BUCHER

Briefly

Beating draws felony charge

The Yolo County District Attorney's Office is seeking attemptedmurder charge against a Sacramento man accused of beating an elderly victim, leaving him critically injured.

Woodland police Sgt. Victoria Danzl reported Friday that officers responded at about 7:50 p.m. May 6 to the Aisle 1 gas station in the 1800 block of East Gibson Road, where witnesses reported the assault on a 71-year-old man who was bleeding from the head and not moving.

Officers identified the suspect as 33-year-old Avinash Kumar Sund and took him into custody nearby. Initially facing assault and elder-abuse charges, Sund found himself facing an elevated count of attempted murder at his arraignment hearing Wednesday.

Online court records show Sund also is charged with seconddegree robbery in connection with an incident that occurred the day before the beating. Danzl said he stole items from the Food 4 Less store on Pioneer Avenue and punched a loss-prevention employee, the alleged use of force elevating the case to a robbery.

Sund remains in Yolo County Jail custody on a $400,000 bail hold.

Alleged arson hits bowling alley

Woodland police arrested a woman on arson charges Wednesday after she allegedly started a fire that spread to a nearby bowling alley.

The investigation began with a 6:40 p.m. 911 call reporting a palm tree on fire in the 100 block of West Main Street, Sgt. Victoria Danzl said.

While fire crews were on scene, embers from the burning tree drifted to the neighboring San Bruno Bowling Center, which was evacuated after the structure caught fire, Danzl said. Firefighters were able to extinguish both blazes.

"Officers worked with Woodland Fire Department and the citizens in the area to develop a suspect who set the fire," Danzl said, identifying the alleged arsonist as Woodland resident Rebecca Bustamante, 43.

Police arrested Bustamante later that night and booked her into the Yolo County Jail.

FLOOD: Happy with governor’s change of mind

climate-driven extremes. We’re committing even more resources to support communities up and down the state as they continue responding to the impacts of this year’s storms.”

The governor’s revisions included changing $125 million in drought contingency funds into flood contingency funds, a response to the rapid turn from drought to deluge.

The revisions also include $75 million for local flood control projects, $25 million in grants to small agricultural businesses affected by the recent storms and $25 million for “potential additional disaster relief and response costs.”

The restored floodplains funding comes after CalMatters revealed widespread criticism from an unlikely alliance of bipartisan legislators, local leaders and conservationists in the San Joaquin Valley. They all said the cuts jeopardized the region’s low-income, disadvantaged farm towns and the city of Stockton.

Restoring floodplains — which usually involves removing or notching levees so that swollen rivers can spread across uninhabited land, as rivers naturally do — is considered one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing flood impacts on communities. Inundated floodplains also provide habitat for fish and other wildlife and help recharge groundwater basins for farms and communities.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature — often at odds when it comes to water and ecosystem management — expressed dismay when Newsom clawed back the $40 million for floodplains.

At the time, Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said the budget cut was the result of the state’s $22.5 billion deficit, adding that it was “not easy because we’re cutting priorities.”

Republican Assemblyman Heath Flora, whose district includes the northern San Joaquin Valley, was among those frustrated by Newsom’s January budget cut. He said parts of the Central Valley “are traditionally the last ones at the table when it comes to funding.”

Today Flora said the governor’s action restores “faith in a lot of us that the governor cares …The governor should be complimented on doing the right thing and hearing our concerns.”

In March, Assemblyman Adam Gray, a Democrat from Merced who rallied for floodplain restoration work in the valley, said the governor’s proposed $40 million cut demonstrated inequality in how the state distributes assistance.

The floodplain money will probably be allocated to the nonprofit River Partners, which was named in last summer’s budget as the recipient of the $40 million. The group’s projects were considered “shovelready” when Newsom cut the funding.

As much as 600 acres of land could be reconnected to adjacent waterways in the next six months, according to Julie Rentner, River Partners’ president. “It will go fast, and the impacts will be measurable and tangible,” Rentner said.

With an El Niño predicted later this year bringing the possibility of another wet winter, time is of the essence to complete these restoration projects. Rentner said she and collaborating groups are seeking matching funding from federal agencies.

“There’s tremendous opportunity right now to see how an investment of this magnitude could be amplified with federal investment,” she said.

WHOLE EARTH: Honor your mother

From Page A1

with images of feminist icons like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

She says, “Feminism is a spectrum, so I have everything from Dolly Parton to Audre Lorde.” Besides feminist messages, she also has items with city maps printed on them. “Everybody has a place in the world that is special to them.”

At the Whole Earth Festival, local and even out-ofstate vendors promote the awareness of better health and ways to make each day of one’s life more environmentally friendly.

Selling medicinal herbs, Clair Moore, a clinical herbalist, set up an apothecary called Plants & Provisions for customers to tell her about themselves, such as their wellness goals. In her early 20s, Moore said health problems were prevalent and doctors weren’t

very helpful.

“I had a lot of things going on and doctors said, ‘We’ll put you on a test. You’re probably fine,’ and I definitely wasn’t fine,” she said. She began experimenting on her own, and once she started to see some shifts, she started taking holistic health courses and her life

changed. She currently teaches pharmacy students about herbs at California Northstate University.

Today, the final day of the festival, runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the UC Davis Quad.

— Contact Monica Stark at monica@davisenterprise.net.

ronmental justice group in Stockton, also applauded the governor’s action. Scientists say the San Joaquin Valley could experience cataclysmic flooding in the near future.

“The governor listened to the multitude of voices that have called for the restoration and expansion of flood protection funding,” she said. “He did the right thing for Californians.”

She said much more money for flood protection work is needed, citing a report from state flood officials who estimated that $3.2 billion in state-federal funding over the next five years is needed to protect against catastrophic flooding in the Central Valley. According to that report, the state has spent just $250 million a year on flood protection.

“We’re still not where we need to be,” she said. “That may take work through several state budgets to get fully adjusted, but more

will have to be done to prepare for climate change,” Barrigan-Parrilla said.

Rentner also said “the $40 million is a downpayment on what we need to get going.”

The revised budget must still be approved by the Legislature

But Flora said he doubts at this point the floodplain restoration money would fail to reach the final budget, which comes later this summer. “It seems by now that this is a priority,” he said.

State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Bakersfield, said she is “committed to advocating for this funding’s inclusion in the final draft of the state budget” to help ensure that “communities of the Central Valley are safe from future flooding.”

Hurtado said the new funding will make “an important difference as continued snowmelt causes waterways throughout the Central Valley to continue rising and endangering our economic recovery efforts.”

Monica Stark/EntErpriSE photo Adjoway Brodie of The Weekend Store will be at Whole Earth.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, an envi-

Water builds up in the Yolo Bypass wilderness area near Sacramento on March 27. MiguEl gutiErrE z Jr./ calMattErS photo

No day like a Jazz Choir Cabaret

DHS singers shine in showcase

By Jennifer Nachmanoff Special to The Enterprise

Hearing live vocal performances is a pleasure we no longer take for granted in this post-pandemic era. The tenuous nature of planning and the uncertainty of COVID outbreaks and other interruptions fosters a heightened sense of gratitude and singularity when preparation finds its way to an actual live performance.

So it was with the Davis High School Jazz Choir’s recent signature event, Cabaret, performed April 22 and 23 under the expert instruction of director Amanda Bistolfo and Choreographer Jeff Teague, with the refined accompaniment of the Davis High School Jazz Combo (directed by Tom Slabaugh) and pianist Maya Khayat, and with excellent sound support from Jeff Pelz and his crew.

There was celebration enough in the very fact of being able to do the thing — to return to this time-honored spring choral tradition — albeit a smartly modified version that scrapped the old standard of singers doubling as servers trying to get hot food on tables between musical numbers. Added to the celebration was the remarkable quality of the students’ performances witnessed by the two soldout evening and matinee audiences.

The students’ joy and energy and the show’s seamless pacing made it all seem quite effortless, but of course, a tremendous amount of effort and months of planning and training are required to create this effect.

Jazz Choir is an auditioned ensemble performing a repertoire of mainly jazz and show tunes with complex and often demanding choreography. Think

the popular TV series “Glee” and you’ll have a good idea of what’s involved. Jazz Choir’s Cabaret event (not to be confused with the Kander and Ebb musical “Cabaret”) presents a variety of ensemble numbers and also showcases individual skills of students in solos and small groups.

Because of the increased difficulty of singing and dancing at the same time, it takes months to polish and perfect each number.

Bistolfo is a seasoned and credentialed music teacher and choral director, a graduate of Davis High School, and an alumna of the high school musical programs, who herself performed with the Jazz Choir and in Cabaret during her DHS tenure. As such, she was the perfect person to shape this year’s Cabaret and guide the Jazz Choir towards its fabulous performance.

Preparation for this year’s Cabaret involved the normal cycle of song selection, vocal and dance skill development, song and choreography instruction and drilling, auditioning and rehearsing of solos and small group numbers, and final program shaping and design. All of this serves the final goal of a well-prepared and polished performance. But there was something else about this year’s performance.

There was a special spark that comes from the confidence of being well-rehearsed, but also from the sheer joy of young people who are completely inhabiting their love of music and relishing the opportunity to share it with each other and their audience.

Perhaps this sense of inhabiting the music and embracing the moment comes partly from the fact that Director Bistolfo clearly gets these kids and gives them every opportunity to be themselves and to express themselves through their words, their music, and even their costumes.

Audiences did not see a lot of Bistolfo at Cabaret — a few quick words of introduction

before turning the stage and audience over to her students who emceed the show and wrote all the informative introductions to the ensemble and individual numbers. Bistolfo encouraged students to bring their own ideas for solo and group numbers to audition and then had them share with the audience the importance to each of them of the pieces they performed, adding meaning and depth to each piece.

Cabaret performances were the destination for a journey that began in class and on the choir’s recent trip to New York, where students had the opportunity to work with Broadway professionals and other seasoned performers and directors on developing and conveying their collective and individual voices and expressions through song and dance.

The choice of costuming for Cabaret also reflected the singularity and personal expression of each of the choir members. Gone are the days of the uniform sparkly blue dresses and stiff white

vests and suit jackets, although some performers chose to reprise those costumes for their individual numbers.

For this year’s Cabaret, students were encouraged to put together their own costumes within a specific color palette and with some design guidelines, but free from gendered conventions. This costume choice gave the group a unified look, but also allowed students to feel comfortable in their own choices and freed them for a more expressive performance.

A highlight of Cabaret was a 17-minute choreographed medley of songs from the musical “Rent.” The subtitle for this year’s Cabaret — “No Day But Today” — is the title of the final song in that medley. It made for a poignant and apropos theme, alluding as it does to the future’s uncertainty and the preciousness of each moment.

As pointed out by columnist Bob Dunning in his April 25 article in The Davis Enterprise praising the Jazz Choir performances and Bistolfo’s

direction, her time at DHS is unfortunately fleeting as she will be moving on to another school next fall.

The theme particularly hit home for this reason. For now though, this is clearly a group of students who have appreciated the opportunity to work this year with such a talented and attuned choir director, to get together to make music, and to perform the music they’ve worked on for an appreciative live audience. There is simply nothing like that joy.

Davis audiences will have one more opportunity to witness the joy and energy of this year’s DHS Jazz Choir under the direction of Amanda Bistolfo when they take the stage (together with the other DHS choirs — Concert Choir, ATC, and Madrigals) at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall on Saturday, June 3 at 7 p,m, for the end of year Pops Concert.

Check the choir websites for ticket info and don’t take the opportunity for granted!

Courtesy photo

The Davis High School Jazz Choir’s Cabaret event presents a variety of ensemble numbers and also showcases individual skills of students in solos and small groups.

Time to shine lights at Dobbins Stadium

LET THERE BE LIGHTS ... I have had the distinct joy of attending a number of UC Davis baseball games this spring.

With a team still struggling to rebuild from a hazing scandal that led to the program being suspended nearly two years ago, it’s a work in progress.

Things are certainly better than they were a year ago, but it will take another season or two before the wins start to outnumber the losses.

It doesn’t help that the Aggies play in a loaded Division I baseball conference, the Big West, a league that has four national championships to its credit, all from Cal State Fullerton.

UCD plays in a beautiful ballpark, Dobbins Stadium, but it’s distressing to see so many empty seats when some of the Big West powers come to town for a three-game series.

The weather didn’t help over the first

Delta league

six or seven weeks of the season, but there’s another thing that has kept attendance down. Dobbins Stadium has no lights.

A three-game series in the Big West features single games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It’s common in Division I baseball throughout the country for the first game to be played on Friday night under the lights.

On Friday nights, students aren’t in class and townspeople generally aren’t at

work. As a result, Friday night games tend to draw exceptionally well at other collegiate venues.

At UCD, meanwhile, Friday afternoon games are the least attended in a threegame series.

It would be a tremendous boost to UC Davis baseball to have lights added to Dobbins Stadium, which would also allow the field to be used by other baseball groups in the summer months after the collegiate baseball season ends in May.

It might be time for UCD officials to begin exploring this option.

After all, the motto of the University of California is “Let There Be Light.”

HOOP DREAMS ... While the Big West is an excellent conference that provides a wide variety of sports for its 11 member institutions, if I had my way I’d love to see Aggie basketball compete in the West Coast Conference, mainly because a

number of WCC schools are a short drive from Davis, which would make attending away games much easier. As it is, there are virtually no Aggie fans when UCD plays a Big West road game.

The closest Big West school to UC Davis is Cal Poly, 235 miles away in San Luis Obispo.

The next closest is Cal State Bakersfield, a nifty 266 miles down U.S. 99 to the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley. After that, it’s UC Santa Barbara, 308 miles away in Goleta.

Six schools — UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State — are all in Southern California. The other member is Hawaii.

The WCC, meanwhile, has nearby Pacific, St. Mary’s, USF and Santa Clara. All easy rides for an away game, with See LIGHTS, Page B6

pHoto

Davis High girls midfielder Tory Agnew (11) gets near St. Francis’ Brynley Hodge in Wednesday’s game at the Mather Sports Complex in Rancho Cordova on March 15. The Blue Devils posted an 18-17 win.

St. Francis edges DHS for all-sports title

By Mark Honbo

Special to the Enterprise

SACRAMENTO — St. Francis captured its fourth all-time Delta League All-Sports Championship, presented to the member school with the best overall performance across the league’s sponsored sports.

The Troubadours won or tied for five of the 10 possible championships in 2022-23: cross country, volleyball, basketball, soccer and swimming and diving.

St. Francis previous won the all-sports banner in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2021-22. There were no such championships awarded in 2019-20 and 2020-21 due to the pandemic.

The Troubadours won the title with 60.5 points. Davis High followed at 55 points for second, and Pleasant Grove third at 49. Franklin (41), Cosumnes Oaks (25.5), Elk Grove (18) and Sheldon (15.5) compose the remaining field.

Besides the five championships, St. Francis scored six second-place points for each of golf and water polo.

The softball team’s win over Sheldon on Wednesday put the Troubadours into a three-way tie for second, even though they led the overall tiebreaker for playoff seeding purposes. Tennis tied for third place with Franklin for 4.5 points.

The scoring system grants points on an 8-6-5-4-32-1 basis with teams sharing points in the event of a tie for a place. The team’s lowest score is then dropped, and the seven member schools are ranked according to the remaining sum.

The determination for league finish varies by sport, ranging from a championship meet (e.g. cross country), win-loss record (e.g. basketball) or a multi-faceted system (e.g. golf).

The Delta League sponsors 10 championships: cross country, golf, tennis, volleyball, water polo, basketball, soccer, softball, swimming and diving and track and field.

Lacrosse is the lone St. Francis varsity sport not included in the all-sports award, as only two of the league schools carry the sport.

— Mark Honbo is the sports information director at St. Francis High of Sacramento. He is also a Davis resident.

FC Davis men in hunt for victory

By Henry Krueger Enterprise correspondent

The FC Davis men’s soccer team had plenty of scoring opportunities but struggled to capitalize during its 2-1 home-opening loss to Sacramento Gold FC on May 6 at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium.

Led by striker Elijah Alba’s goal in the 17th minute, the Golden Lions had an early 1-0 lead, before being held scoreless for the remainder of the match.

“The only thing we didn’t do to earn the win was score more goals which we were not short of chances,” said FC Davis head coach Kris Hall. “We dominated the run of play and time on the ball.”

Sacramento began applying more pressure on the Golden Lions’ defense as the first half continued, resulting in a game-tying goal from striker Edson Cardona in the 31st minute. The score stayed even going into the break.

FC Davis came out aggressive in the second half, keeping the ball on Sacramento’s side of the field. The

Golden Lions nearly scored multiple times, including a shot off the crossbar from midfielder Bennett OlsenZwick.

After fending off repeated scoring attacks, Sacramento had a breakthrough in the 79th minute when midfielder Brandon Gutierrez found the back of the net. It would be the game’s final goal, with Sacramento (2-3-0) getting its second win of the season over FC Davis (0-4-1).

Dubbed the “Causeway Classico” for the Yolo Causeway, the rivalry match saw nine yellow cards issued. That’s a step up from the three yellow cards handed out when Sacramento won 4-1 against the Golden Lions on April 16.

While tensions have historically run high between the clubs, the matchup has been mostly lopsided. FC Davis has a 1-7-3 all-time record against Sacramento. With that in mind, Hall was satisfied with his squad’s effort.

“Sacramento is a good team, I expected them to compete which they did,” said Hall. “Going into the game we were prepared, we knew

how they would play and our performance on the pitch is one I’m proud of.”

As FC Davis continues to search for its first win, Hall remains optimistic about the future.

“Winning for us is going to be the by-product of our hard work,” Hall said. “Our focus is on the process. As disappointing as it is not to win, we are getting better every game.”

It won’t get any easier for the Golden Lions, who host El Farolito (4-0-0) on May 20 at the UC Davis Dairy Complex. After winning the league championship last season, the San Francisco-based club sits atop the Golden Gate Conference standings as the only team with at least three victories.

While FC Davis is on a two-week break before the match, El Farolito visits Lions United FC this weekend in Glendale, California.

— Henry Krueger is a rising sophomore at Gonzaga University and working as a correspondent for The Enterprise this spring and summer. Follow him on Twitter: @ henrykrveger.

An FC Davis soccer player (on the ground) stays in front of the ball during a game against Sacramento Gold FC on May 6 at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium on the Davis High campus.

FC Davis will play its next home game this Saturday, when it welcomes Sonoma Sol FC at the UC Davis Dairy Complex at 6 p.m.

Mark Honbo/Courtesy

An FC Davis soccer player (center) stays in front of the ball during a game against Sacramento Gold FC on May 6.

State High Court dismantles no-bid school contracts

Last month, the California Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in a very complex — but very important — case that had been percolating for more than a decade, dealing with how local school officials evade competitive bidding on construction projects.

The case began in 2010 when Fresno Unified School District persuaded its voters to approve a bond to build new schools and upgrade old ones. In 2011, the district sold more than $100 million in bonds from that issue and an earlier one, and in 2012 awarded a $36.7 million contract for a new middle school to Harris Construction Co.

The contract with Harris, which had been a major contributor to the bond issue campaign, was structured as a “lease-leaseback” deal in which the district leased the school site to Harris for a nominal sum, Harris built the school and the district then leased the completed facility from Harris.

“Lease-leaseback” arrangements have been common for years, providing a way for school systems to build new facilities without borrowing money themselves. Typically the “leaseback” runs for several decades, after which the district becomes the owner.

In the Harris project, however, Fresno Unified made payments to the contractor and once the school was completed in 2014, it used bond funds to immediately acquire ownership from Harris. Meanwhile, another contractor, Stephen Davis, had sued the district alleging that the Harris lease-leaseback deal was a subterfuge to avoid competitive bidding.

The district won two rulings from a local trial judge that the deal was legitimate, but both were overturned by a state appellate court and eventually Fresno Unified asked the state Supreme Court to determine whether the Harris deal was a legitimate contract protected under state law. Last week, the court declared that it was not, sending the case back down the legal ladder to determine what damages will be assessed.

San Diego attorney Kevin Carlin, who represents Davis and has carved out a niche career of challenging questionable school contracts, says that Harris Construction may be forced to pay back the $36.7 million it received for building Gaston Middle School.

The case has reverberated in other ways. The superintendent who approved the contract, Michael Hanson, was fired by the school board after the suit was filed. Critics cited Hanson’s close personal relationship with Harris Construction’s president, Michael Spencer, including the firm’s sponsorship of a gala event to honor Hanson, and the hiring of Harris as a consultant before the contract was awarded.

The FBI launched an investigation, although nothing official came of it. However, when Davis started winning his case, it sent shudders through other school districts that had used lease-leaseback in the same questionable manner.

In 2015, just a week after an appellate court ruled against the Harris contract, a lawyer for affected companies, P. Randolph Finch, outlined a plan “to mitigate our losses” by seeking legislation to legitimize questionable contracts.

“We have clients with well over a half-billion dollars of current backlog,” Finch wrote, “and another billion in completed projects, at risk on the Davis case. Consequently, we need a devoted industry effort to press these legislative changes.”

Using a parliamentary loophole known as “gut-and-amend,” a bill to absolve contractors of liability was drafted, but never enacted.

In 2004, the staff of the State Allocation Board, which parcels out school construction money, had described how lease-leaseback rules were being distorted, questioned the legality, declared “the integrity of the use of general obligation bonds…must be above reproach,” and suggested that the lease-leaseback law be clarified.

Officialdom ignored that warning but now the Supreme Court is telling school officials and contractors to play fairly or suffer the consequences.

— 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.

Foy S.

President

By LLeweLLyn King Special to The Enterprise

When the ancient Greeks wanted to learn what their future held, they would consult with oracles. Alexander the Great, for one, visited the Oracle at Siwa, an oasis in the Egyptian desert. According to his biographer, Plutarch, the oracle told Alexander that he was destined to conquer the world.

In these tumultuous days when we, the electorate, are offered a choice between an old, old president and his daffy vice president and a vengeful reprobate with a persecution complex, I did the smart thing: I consulted the oracle.

No, I didn’t cross the desert on a camel, nor as Alexander did on his much-loved horse, Bucephalus, nor in a snazzy BMW SUV.

I did go to the oracle of the day, which is the only place I know to seek and get what seems to be extraterrestrial advice: the Bing AI. I asked the oracle several questions and got some interesting answers.

When it came to the big question, I beseeched the Bing AI, “Great Oracle, I am

an American voter, and I am in an awful tizzy. I don’t know whom to support in the next presidential election.

“It seems to me that one candidate, President Joe Biden, a decent man, may be too old to navigate the difficult waters ahead in domestic and international affairs.

“As for another candidate, former President Donald Trump, many people find aspects of his conduct reprehensible.

“What to do? For me, this is even harder because I am a columnist and television commentator, and I need to have something to say. I am sure you understand, Great Oracle.”

Well, the Bing AI clammed up: It delivered only the formal histories of both men.

I had thought my question would spark a revelation, a wise analysis, or a contradiction of my view of the candidates. Clearly, I shall have to wait for the day when I get into real AI chat: ChatGPT.

Mostly, I had thought the oracle would tell me that all the presidential hopefuls so far will be toast by November 2024, that new candidates

will bring us hope, fire up party enthusiasm, and let rip.

Are new faces and new choices too much to hope for?

Republicans are wrestling with their prospective candidate after his latest character stain, having been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil trial. What does this mean for the whole issue of what we look for in the character of candidates? Rectitude was once considered essential. Not for Trump. Post-Trump is post-rectitude.

Just under 70 percent of the electorate have told pollsters that they think Biden is too old to be re-elected. That isn’t, I submit, a conclusion arrived at by pondering what it means to be 80. That is a conclusion, again I submit, they have come to by looking at the president on TV — on the few occasions they see him there.

Clearly, he doesn’t have the strength or the confidence to hold a press conference. These are vital.

In America, the press conference is the nearest thing we have to question time in the British House of Commons. It is the time of accounting. Biden is behind in his

accounting as audited by the press corps.

Harold Meyerson, editor at large of the American Prospect, is avowedly liberal. He is one of the most skillful political writers working today; he is deft, informed, and convincing, and you know where he stands. He stands with the Democrats.

So, it is significant when he raises a question about Biden and when he draws attention, as he did on May 9, to Biden’s absence from public engagement.

Meyerson wrote, “Right now, the Democrats are drifting uneasily toward a waterfall and hoping Biden can somehow navigate the looming turbulence. By autumn, if he hasn’t had some measurable success in … allaying much of the public’s fears of a president drifting into senescence, then some prominent Democrat (a category that doesn’t include Robert Kennedy Jr. or Marianne Williamson) had damn well better enter the race.”

Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle” on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @ LlewellynKing2.

Davis stabbings

Kudos to the Davis PD for catching the alleged killer so promptly. And, in these days of police brutality, kudos to them for treating him without violence when they first accosted him — from what I saw in the public videos online.

Our heart goes out to the families of the victims and to the family of this very disturbed young man. I hope the DA treats the case with compassion in memory of his first victim “The Compassion Guy” — no death sentence, no life without parole, a chance to repent, recover, and start a life. There are no winners here — just a relieved public.

Poornima Balasubramanyam Davis

Stabbing

In light of what happened during the stabbing I am perplexed why there is no one asking UC Davis about why this person was rejected from the college. If this person was rejected from college because of his mental instability or anything that he did that alarmed UC Davis to the safety of their own students faculty or anything else they should have the responsibility to let the police know that this person is

Speak out President

CEO R. Burt McNaughton Publisher

unstable and is being ejected from school and being let back into the community.

I feel that UC Davis was very irresponsible in their handling of the situation and potentially sent a torpedo into our community without telling anybody why. I feel that young man, judging from his looks, is extremely unstable, potentially disturbed, and if that’s obvious to me it should it should have been obvious to the faculty or the responsible parties at UC Davis.

Considering UCD’s past with taking responsibility for all the things that they’ve done to hurt our community, including not paying taxes, I feel that someone should be asking them why this person was rejected from the university community and why if he was mentally unstable the police were not alerted.

Ahmad Soltani Davis

Solidarity with resistance

The Social Justice Committee and Israel Peace Alternatives Group at Congregation

Bet Haverim in Davis stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have taken to the streets to challenge the current Israeli government’s reckless and dangerous attempts to drastically undermine the independence of the Israeli judiciary, the foundation of Israel’s separation of powers and checks and balances, and eliminate legal mechanisms for the protection of minorities and the basic

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

U.S. Senate

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

e-mail-me

Sen. Alex Padilla, 112 Hart Senate Office

rights of Jews and non-Jews in Israel.

We affirm the statements by the leaders of the Union for Reform Judaism, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the American Conference of Cantors that Israel must be a place “where every citizen has justice and equal rights,” a place grounded on “respect, diversity, and the safeguarding of democracy ... for our people, and all peoples.” The current government’s proposals would make a mockery of those goals.

We unequivocally reject the intolerant, discriminatory and bigoted statements by extremist members of the current governing coalition in Israel.

Each Shabbat, we pray that “Zion shall be redeemed through justice, and its inhabitants through righteousness.” These are not rote and empty words. They describe what should be the essence of Judaism and Israel.

The current government’s attack on the judiciary and any check on majoritarian abuses of power is tearing Israel society apart. It is damaging the security of Israel.

It is alienating Jews in the Diaspora and democracies around the world.

These proposals must be withdrawn. Delay is not enough. The government’s attempt to transform Israel into an antipluralistic and anti-democratic regime must end now.

Sarah Pattison Davis

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/

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

Who’s has to check cosmetics’ safety? You do

“People don’t realize there is effectively no regulation of cosmetics.”

— Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-New Jersey

Most consumers assume that the FDA regulates skin-care products the same way it does drugs ... It does not. The FDA must approve all drugs before they go to market. This involves short- and longterm testing on animals, then people, to make sure the drug is not toxic and has no long-term side-effects.

The FDA assumes responsibility for drug safety. So, to develop, test and sell a drug is a long, drawn-out, prohibitively expensive process, but anyone can put anything in a jar and legally sell it as skin care because the FDA only minimally monitors and reactively regulates cosmetics.

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C) Act [sec. 201(i)] defines drugs and cosmetics based on their intended use, rather than their effects on you. Drugs are “articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease” and “articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.” Cosmetics are “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.”

A product is both a cosmetic and a drug when it meets both definitions. For example, a

shampoo is a cosmetic because its intended use is to cleanse the hair. An antidandruff treatment is a drug because its intended use is to treat dandruff. Consequently, an antidandruff shampoo is both a cosmetic and a drug. Among other cosmetic/ drug combinations are toothpastes that contain fluoride, deodorants that are also antiperspirants, a serum with SPF, and moisturizers and makeup marketed with sun-protection claims.

Such products must comply with the requirements for both cosmetics and drugs but, more often than you would assume and believe, cosmetics contain chemicals that act as drugs, but are not approved and circumvent any regulation by the FDA because the definitions of drug and cosmetic are based on intended use rather than actual effects on your body.

The manufacturers of these functional drugs masquerading as cosmetics blatantly skirt and evade FDA scrutiny and rigor by hiding behind pointedly misleading nomenclature, verisimilitude and pseudoscience … cosmeceuticals, pharmapseudocals, pharmametics, pharmamedics … alchemy, anyone?

For example, an ingredient in

Peter Thomas Roth MegaRich Intensive AntiAging Cellular Eye

“Companies and individuals who manufacture or market cosmetics have a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of their products.  Neither the law nor FDA regulations require specific tests to demonstrate the safety of individual products or ingredients.  The law also does not require cosmetic companies to share their safety information with FDA.”

— Official FDA website

Crème was initially described and marketed as, “Tetrapeptide and Oligopeptide — Peptides that work synergistically to help promote collagen production while helping to stimulate fibroblast cells in the skin,” which is fairly accurate. But, according to the FD&C Act, this makes the product a drug because it is intended to change the structure and function of your body.

After receiving a warning letter from the FDA, the description was replaced with, “Tetrapeptide & Oligopeptide — peptides that work synergistically to help improve the look of skin firmness while helping to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.”

The ingredients in the product remain the same and have the same effect on your skin cells and health. Except, now you are led and expected to believe that these same ingredients somehow are benign and not intended to change your body structure and function. Skincare products like these are not benign; they are specifically intended to alter your body structure and function …

They're drugs. Nutrients in isolated and artificial forms and concentrations also have drug-like effects. In fact, “Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant drug that can be used topically in dermatology to treat and prevent changes associated with photoageing.” (Indian Dermatology Online Journal). It’s easy to overdose on vitamin C concentrated into a capsule or cream. It’s almost impossible to overdose on naturally-occurring vitamin C in whole foods. There are only so many oranges, lemons, and limes you can eat and/ or use on your skin before the vast quantities of fiber and acid in or on your body will cause it to very obviously object to any more, at a far lower dose of vitamin C than you would receive in a capsule or cream.

Nutrients in whole foods are the building blocks with which your body evolved and uses most efficiently to grow and repair.

And, unlike the isolated and artificial forms and concentrations of nutrients found in supplements and skincare products, the concentrations and chemical structures of the nutrients present in whole foods do not circumvent any of the built-in metabolic feedback loops your

“The cosmetic industry remains largely self-regulated. History has repeatedly shown that when there is insufficient regulatory oversight, unscrupulous people or companies will exploit the vulnerable public for profit.”

— Dr. Robert M. Califf, FDA Chief under President Obama

“Unlike pharmaceutical companies, cosmetic companies are not required to notify the government of ‘adverse reaction’ reports — even if someone dies.”

— Eric Lipton & Rachel Abrams, The New York Times

body developed to prevent harmful side-effects that may progress to disease. Cosmeceuticals, part cosmetic and part pharmaceutical, are risky to use, because, although they have drug-like effects, there is no data on how they affect your long-term health. The existing “clinical” “data” is usually from in-house studies that are incredibly small (30-40 people), short-term (hours to weeks), and focused on subjective outcomes (the look and feel of skin as judged by the participant) that forward the manufacturers’ goal of selling and moving product. Most cosmeceuticals are effective in helping you temporarily achieve an illusion, the unrealistic and sustainable definition of beauty as young and flawlesslooking. But, at what risk? Is indulging your vanity worth risking your health?

It’s up to you.

Don’t know where to start?

Read my guide on how to choose skincare for health: https://bexiphd.com/blogs/news/choosingskincare-for-health and read my previous columns in The Davis Enterprise to learn more about skin care that supports your health.

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

Schools turn to the courts to combat social media

By Julie Lynem Special to CalMatters

By Melissa Kelly

Mourning tragedy from a distance Commentary

Special to The Enterprise

Davis was my home for 20 years. Two daughters went to Birch Lane, Holmes and Harper, respectively, and graduated from Davis High. With both our parents gone and daughters content living in other states, my husband and I retired in May 2020 to northwest Montana, just as the pandemic was really starting up, making us and everyone in the world nervous COVID-19 was an unknown fear, much like the young suspect who until recently was nameless, yet this killer spread unease, despair, anger over my old hometown, a safe, close community. Those emotions also spread to me, 1000 miles away. I read the Enterprise online as Davis police worked diligently and citizens aided to quickly catch the suspect now arrested, questioned and charged for the two recent murders and one attempted murder carried out over five awful days.

I am relieved for my friends and community. Yet relief has not dulled the thick veil of sadness around my heart. Two vital humans — David Henry Breaux and Karim Abou Najm — are now gone from the world.

David was well-known to me as the Compassion Guy who stood patiently on his corner of downtown, talking with anyone who would pause about their definition of compassion — words he would later collect and publish.

I didn’t stop to talk. I don’t know why. Did I think I had nothing to contribute? Was I uncomfortable? Too busy?

What I do know is none of this mattered to David. His serene face, smiling eyes would always meet mine, I felt, with warmth and acceptance. Words unspoken, yet heard, “It’s OK. I understand. Go on

about your day with compassion.” And I did, strongly feeling that even now from David.

I found his 2010 book last week and purchased as an eBook (no hard copies available) through an online bookstore — “Compassion: Davis, California, A Compilation of Concepts on Compassion,” Compiled and Edited by David H. Breaux.

I’m in that group he writes to in his acknowledgment.

“To all the people who wrote something in the notebook, to all those who didn’t, to those who ignored the question and kept walking, and to the man in front of the supermarket who expressed anger for being asked about compassion so many times.”

I’m sorry David. I must have felt introverted, maybe unconfident to stop and write my definition of compassion for you. Thank you for understanding. Because of you, I now carry my personal definition of compassion forward and will remember your sacrifice:

Compassion — Noun: enveloping others with empathy, love, friendship, despite any negative feelings, fears, ignorance felt toward or from them; unconditional acceptance in the name of understanding our humanness and personal differences.

During a public vigil by the Compassion Bench last week, David’s sister, Maria, told how David had messaged her this in 2016, “If I’m ever harmed, and unable to speak for myself, forgive the perpetrator and help others forgive that person…”

A difficult request, David, but I will try, just as you showed us all during your exceptional life.

— Melissa Kelly is a former Davis resident now living in Montana.

Commentary

ACalifornia teenager committed suicide in her bedroom after watching disturbing videos of a simulated hanging. Another teen in the Bay Area refused to eat and was hospitalized due to an eating disorder. An 8-year-old girl in Temple, Texas, died of selfstrangulation.

The reason parents gave for these unspeakable tragedies: social media use.

Silicon Valley may be a place where success sprouts from the seeds of innovation, but a growing list of California schools believe the same forces behind the economic engine of Big Tech have fomented a youth mental health crisis and behavioral issues unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

California educators have assessed the damage and concluded that they can no longer wait for lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington D.C. to take bold action against social media giants. They have instead turned to the courts in a desperate attempt to hold these companies accountable.

The San Mateo County School Board, representing 23 school districts just a few miles from Big Tech’s global hub, was the first in California to file a federal lawsuit against YouTube, TikTok and Snap, alleging these platforms — and the algorithms designed to keep kids hooked — have caused unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, bullying, eating disorders and suicidal ideation.

The crisis is so severe that schools don’t have enough counselors or administrators to manage it all, and lack resources to reach kids early enough to explain the appropriate uses and most harmful impacts of social media.

“You can’t really move through the world without hearing from parents about the high level of anxiety and stress that kids are exhibiting,” said San Mateo

County Schools Superintendent Nancy Magee. “This is a social issue; not a single, family issue.”

At least 60 school districts across the nation have filed lawsuits against social media companies, following the lead of Seattle Public Schools, which in January became the first in the country to do so.

Anne Marie Murphy, an attorney representing the San Mateo school board, said she expects hundreds more school districts to join.

The lawsuit is essentially a public nuisance case, Murphy said, but it’s also bolstered by a racketeering claim, alleging that social media companies intentionally misled the public and covered up knowledge of the harm their products cause for financial gain.

The recent $462 million settlement with e-cigarette maker Juul is centered on anti-corruption law, she added. Years ago, the Justice Department also used the RICO Act in its successful case against the tobacco industry.

The disappointing fact remains that California lawmakers are trailing other states when it comes to tougher restrictions. Ed Howard, chief counsel for the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego, pointed to other states — some under Republican leadership — that have done more to shield kids from the dangers of social media.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox recently signed a bill that allows parents or legal guardians to set time limits on social media use and institutes a strict age verification process. The Arkansas House of Representatives passed similar legislation that would require social media companies to verify user ages and confirm minors have a guardian’s consent to open an account. Last month, Montana lawmakers sent a bill to the governor that would ban TikTok on

all personal devices.

“They are acting and acting ambitiously,” Howard said. “California could lead again, but right now, California’s parents and children have far fewer rights than parents and children in other states.”

Powerful lobbies and dizzying amounts of wealth make tech companies notoriously difficult to rein in. The result is a grindingly slow legislative progress, especially in California where there’s much handwringing about the outsize influence tech lobbyists have on legislators, particularly those whose constituents include tech leaders with deep pockets.

Last year, former Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, a Central Coast Republican, co-authored a first-of-its kind bipartisan bill with Oakland Democratic Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks that would have made social media companies liable for the damage caused by their addictive platforms. But that bill was quietly killed in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Wicks and others are trying again this year.

She introduced Assembly Bill 1394 with Assemblyman Heath Flora, R-Stockton, to address child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking online. The legislation would impose civil penalties on social media companies for “each act of commercial sexual exploitation facilitated, aided, or abetted by their platform,” according to the Children’s Advocacy Institute.

The bill still includes the contentious private right to action, giving parents the right to sue, but Wicks remains optimistic that it will receive enough support to pass. She’s already had bipartisan success with a bill signed last year that requires social media platforms to consider what’s in a child’s best interest. In addition, it defaults to privacy and safety settings, further protecting the mental and physical health and

well-being of children.

The California AgeAppropriate Design Code Act was not about content but rather the product design choices companies make, Wicks said. Over the course of last year, she met with tech industry officials, including from Meta.

“They said, ‘we want the internet to be safer for kids, too,’” Wicks recalled. “They do, but are they putting in the engineering time and capacity to make sure this is in fact happening? Is this issue one, two, three or down lower on their list? If you have government regulation, it forces issues to be one, two and three.”

Another pending bill, Senate Bill 287, authored by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, would hold the platforms accountable for promoting the illegal sale of fentanyl and for the sale of unlawful firearms to California’s youth. Social media companies would also be liable for targeting content to youth that could result in eating disorders, suicide or inflicting harm on themselves or others.

There are “cracks in the wall” as the public becomes more knowledgeable about the dangers of social media on kids’ mental health, said Cunningham. This added pressure will build as more states pick up the mantle.

“It’s all moving in the right direction,” he said. “I think that the era where tech lobbyists can say I want you to vote or not vote for a bill that will hurt our company, that era is over with.”

— Julie Lynem is a journalism lecturer at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and cofounder of R.A.C.E. Matters SLO County and RaiseUp SLO. Lynem is a veteran journalist who has been a reporter, columnist or editor at the Indianapolis Star, San Francisco Chronicle and San Luis Obispo Tribune. She wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's Capitol works and why it matters.

An empty building tells family a big story

Is it possible that imagination is more powerful than real life?

That question rattles in my brain after my husband and I made our trip to Rock Springs, Wyo., to follow up on our recent discovery of where his father spent his teen years.

Those years were not happy.

My much-loved father-in-law, Wing Lew, came to America from China in 1931 at age 10 to live with his father who, less than three years later, fell ill and died. Wing survived the next six years alone during the Depression by washing dishes at a restaurant and living in its basement.

Very recently, my husband and I learned the restaurant’s address and the important fact that the building is for sale.

This meant that, with the help of a realtor, we could visit it. Our imaginations were seized by this unexpected opportunity.

When I say “our imaginations were seized” it sounds like something good, but that’s not accurate. Knowing that I was going to see the restaurant’s basement led me to imagine it more vividly — as if I were already there — but what I imagined was sad.

I pictured darkness and dank. I imagined loneliness. Both my husband and I thought we might cry.

It was a three-hour drive from Salt Lake City Airport to Rock Springs, my first experience with treeless, high-desert Wyoming. Snow decorated the taller mountains, but the overall impression was of barrenness.

Rock Springs itself made me think of a pretzel because the town grew up with no urban plan. Streets twist in unexpected ways, but the restaurant where Wing washed dishes as a teenager was easy to find.

It has had different names and different owners, but during the ’30s when he worked and lived there, it was called the North Side Café. The restaurant thrived because it was located only one block from the railroad depot, the hub of transportation at that time.

Now the restaurant sits in a sad part of town where adjoining businesses are completely empty. The restaurant’s booths are

decorated with Mexican ceramics left over from its most recent incarnation, which must have failed due to COVID.

The realtor who let us in was a last-minute substitute. Elderly and a little confused about why we were there, she didn’t want to accompany us down the uneven staircase to the basement.

But even when she wasn’t with us, I couldn’t get her out of my head. While I descended the staircase, I wondered what she was doing upstairs, whether she was impatient, whether she even understood that we weren’t shopping for a restaurant.

I tried to turn my attention to the basement, which did not look ready for prospective buyers. Crumbled concrete littered the floor and old dishware lined the walls, some of it decorated with Chinese characters. The space was large but unfinished, with exposed pipes and wires. If you had to sleep there, it would be hard to find a good spot.

“Dank,” the word I used in my imagination ahead of time, was right. My husband walked around slowly but did not cry. I did not cry either, nor did I feel like crying. The imagined scene that brought me close to tears before we left Davis was right there in

front of me and yet I was able to walk around easily, like a tourist.

Had my heart gone missing? What was wrong?

Rock Springs and the neighboring town of Green River have museums, archives and research staff to preserve their rich history so we spent the rest of our visit pouring through photos and documents.

We made minor discoveries, nothing to knock us off our feet, but it was somehow very satisfying when my husband figured out where his dad attended elementary school, not in Cheyenne, as he had told us, but right there in Rock Springs.

His class photo from kindergarten, the only one we have, matches those from Washington Elementary, near the Chinese neighborhood. It shows him looking much older than the other children, probably placed in kindergarten because he couldn’t speak English.

On our last morning I asked my husband, “Should we see the restaurant one more time?”

We knew we couldn’t get in. We knew that cars would be parked in front, making good photos impossible. We knew we had seen much more with the

realtor than we would see alone and yet Bob said, “Yes, let’s go.”

It turns out that the second visit wasn’t about seeking a good photo. I knew that as soon as we parked in front and my eyes started feeling funny, tight and then soft and, finally, moist.

My husband spoke about his imagination.

“I always pictured a small window in the basement where my father slept,” he said, “one at street level that allowed him to see people’s shoes walking by.”

There were no windows.

Before we went to Rock Springs, we used our imaginations to envision Wing’s difficult young life. In some ways our imaginations got things wrong, but in other ways they contained more truth than the bricks and mortar we saw.

If my imagination is better at picturing scenes and helping me get emotions right, that’s a good thing.

I’m glad we went in person, but I also recognize that imagination is a gift: it brings me closer to the father-in-law I loved no matter where I am.

—Marion Franck has lived in Davis for more than 40 years. Reach her at marionf2@gmail. com.

Unimaginable times when you need a person

By Colleen Campbell Special to The Enterprise

As I write this col-

umn, I am feeling the effects of a deeply devastated community. In the past week there have been three stabbings in Davis, resulting in the deaths of a prominent community member and a brilliant UC Davis student, and a woman who is in critical condition. Our hearts are broken and we are living in fear.

I have personally been drawing upon the support of my closest loved ones to get through this unimaginable time. Each day that I go to work I wonder how our foster children are feeling, especially in Davis. What have they heard about the recent crimes?

How are they processing them? Who are they leaning upon during these dark times?

Of course, I can’t help but to think about the role that our CASA Volunteers are currently fulfilling. As many of you who are

familiar with our mission know, CASA volunteers are often the only stable, oneon-one adult relationship that a foster child has, and times like these highlight the need for this unduplicated role.

The Big Day of Giving was just days ago (actually, as I write this column, it has yet to occur). However, as my heart weighs heavy, it’s the pre-donations and the hope for a fulfilling day that gets me through the week. Whatever we end up raising will be critical to training and retaining our CASA Volunteers to support our foster children. One day our wait list will be at zero … and the Big Day of Giving always provides an incredible boost to that progress.

In advance (but now retrospect), we’d like to say a special thank you to all who supported us on the Big Day of Giving. The money we raised will undoubtedly improve many outcomes, through the advocacy of our CASA volunteers.

yolo CA sA

Leading up to the Big Day of Giving we ran a “Reasons to Give to Yolo County CASA” campaign. One of the reasons stated, “When you give to Yolo County CASA, you give a child the opportunity to succeed in school, you ensure a safe and stable home, and ultimately a brighter future.” By providing a consistent and stable adult relationship to a child in foster care, we know that outcomes are influenced for the better.

We know that rates of homelessness go down, rates of high school graduation go up, and mental and physical health improve. CASA volunteers can truly change the course of a child’s experience in the dependency system.

May is foster care awareness month, and it seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the fact that there are over 407,000 kids in the foster care system nationally. 62,000 of

these children are in California. We have 287 kids in the child welfare system who do not have a CASA volunteer. Could you imagine the impact we’d make if we could provide them all with the support of a CASA volunteer?

Davis student joins honor society

Enterprise staff Marina Valle of Davis was initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society. Valle was initiated at University of Michigan.

Valle is among approximately 25,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus L. Urann who had a desire to create a different kind of honor society: one that

NAme Droppers

recognized excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the Society has chapters on more than 325 campuses in the United States, its territories and the Philippines.

Kirion Press published the first-ever English translation of a work by the great Brazilian novelist and critic, José Geraldo Vieira. The translator is Roberto van Eyken, a 25-year Davis resident and longtime teacher at Woodland High School, now retired and living half the year in Portugal and half in West Sacramento.

The translator also happens to be the author’s grandson. While considered one of the most important Brazilian writers of the 20th century, Vieira is virtually unknown in the U.S. because his works were never translated into English, until now. The new translation is of the author’s acclaimed 1950

novel “A Ladeira da Memória”; “The Slope of Memory” in English.

UC Davis alumna Shirley Gee, a retired research toxicologist and a former longtime manager of the Bruce Hammock lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has been named one of the nation’s best chemists by research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers. Research.com just released its 2023 rankings, based on a researcher’s D-index (Discipline H-index) metric, which includes only papers and citation values for an examined discipline. For chemistry, the organization singled out leading scientists with a D-index of at least 40 for academic publications.

Gee achieved a D-index of 56, 8,287 citations, and 202 publications.

“We already knew she’s one of the nation’s best chemists; we’re so proud of her,” Hammock said.

“This is a pleasant

surprise and I am honored,” Gee said. “But, it would not have been possible without Bruce’s mentorship and all the hard work of the many graduate students and postdocs that have come through our lab. Their eagerness and creativity and the ready availability of both lab and campus wide collaborators, as well as the multidisciplinary nature of the lab let them bring many new ideas to fruition. So my deepest gratitude goes to all of them. I just tagged along for the ride!”

The UC Davis toxicologist was among the first staff research associates at UC Davis to be given principal investigator status on grants. “On her own, she developed a computerbased chemical and equipment inventory system in the laboratory which could be used throughout the university,” Hammock said.

— Do you know of someone who has won an award or accomplished something noteworthy? Email it to newsroom@davisenterprise.net.

You just helped us take another step toward achieving that. Your donation will go a long way in helping us recruit and train more CASA volunteers to serve children in foster care.

Thank you from the bot-

By Andy Jones Special to The Enterprise

1. Science. The largest gland in the human body is a spongy mass of wedge-shaped lobes.

Name it.

2. Art. What Dutch

Baroque Period painter painted “Girl with the Pearl Earring”?

3. Film. In what 1999

Tom Hanks film does the main character say, “I think Mr. Jingles happened by accident”?

4. Countries of the World. With civilizations dating back to 5,000 BCE, the second-smallest country in continental Asia (also a Mediterra-

tom of all of our hearts! For more information about becoming a CASA Volunteer or to make a donation, visit our website at yolocasa.org.

— Colleen Campbell is the executive director of Yolo County CASA.

nean country) has Arabic as its official language. Name the country.

5. A Poem for MidMay. Stanza 5 of what John Keats ode includes the lines about “Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves; / And mid-May’s eldest child”?

Answers: The liver, Johannes Vermeer, “The Green Mile,” Lebanon, “Ode to a Nightingale.”

— Dr. Andy Jones is the quizmaster at de Vere’s Irish Pub and author of the book “Pub Quizzes: Trivia for Smart People.” Dr. Andy is now also sharing his pub quizzes via Patreon. Find out more at www.

YOLOlaughs

Stephan Pastis

By Charles M. Schulz

Ambitious Sudoku 1

Complete the grids so that every row, column and outlined 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. No number will be repeated in any row, column or outlined box.

Schmitt adjusting in S.F. Giants’ lineup

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, girlfriends and significant others.

*When the San Francisco Giants elevated Casey Schmitt to the big-league roster, Schmitt almost immediately had his personal rooting section in place.

More than 40 family members and friends were on hand at Oracle Park this week for the Giants series against the Washington Nationals.

They were rewarded when Schmitt got his first major league hit, a home run to leftcenter field.

On Thursday, he became the first modern-era shortstop to get multiple hits, including an extrabase hit, in each of his first three games.

Schmitt was tearing up Pacific Coast League pitching with the Sacramento River Cats. So, it wasn’t a surprise when he received “the call” a little over a month into the regular season.

With the Giants off to a slow start, other farmhands could quickly be on the way to San Francisco. Injuries to everyday players and inconsistent pitching have kept the team below.500 thus far.

*There will be at least a dozen new NFL officials this year, all coming with experience in spring football games. The USFL has nine officials making the jump to three for the XFL.

The NFL revealed its full schedule, including Thanksgiving earlier this week.

The first of three Turkey Day games has the Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, followed by

the Washington Commanders visiting the Dallas Cowboys. The San Francisco 49ers travel to the Seattle Seahawks to complete the triple-header.

*Then this coming Christmas, Santa Claus will have to get an early start on his deliveries. With the holiday on a Monday, the NFL has provided a second triple-header.

The early game, 10 a.m. PST, has the Las Vegas Raiders at their longtime AFL rival Kansas City Chiefs.

The middle game features the New York Giants at the Philadelphia Eagles.

The evening nightcap will be the Baltimore Ravens at the 49ers.

Beginning Oct. 1, five NFL games will be played overseas, three in England and two in Germany.

The five international games are the most in league history. Another first is one team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, playing

Gilliam invited to Miami minicamp

Enterprise staff

UC Davis record-setting running back Ulonzo Gilliam Jr. has been invited to participate in the Miami Dolphins rookie minicamp, the organization confirmed on Friday.

The two-day camp begun Friday and concludes on Saturday.

The only three-time captain in program history was named to the AP second team, STATS Perform and HERO Sports All-American squads. The senior rushed for 1,180 yards and 13 touchdowns to rank second in the Big Sky in yards and third in touchdowns on the ground.

The Merced native also hauled in a team-best 50 passes for 366 yards. His 1,554 all-purpose yards

LocaL roundup

ranked second in the Big Sky. Gilliam leaves Davis as the all-time leading rusher and career record-holder in allpurpose yards, scoring and career touchdowns.

UCD baseball

HONOLULU, Hawaii —

Despite picking up seven hits in the ballgame and out-hitting Hawaii, the UC Davis baseball team was unable to overcome three unearned runs, as the Rainbow Warriors posted a 5-3 Big West Conference win Thursday night.

Jack Gallagher paced UCD (7-15 in the Big West, 17-28 overall) with a home run in

his first at-bat, a walk and 2 RBIs. Damian Stone contributed the other Aggie RBI on the night, going 2-for-4 with a walk.

James Williams III also chipped in for UCD, putting together two hits in four trips to the plate while adding a double, bringing his season total to 15 doubles, which ranks second on the team.

Nick Iverson was all over the field as well, coming up with an amazing catch in the bottom of the seventh in foul territory while also going 2-for-4 with a double.

UCD had a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the fifth frame. Then Hawaii scored a run for a 3-1 score. The Rainbow Warriors scored four times in the bottom of the sixth inning for the win.

back-to-back games in London.

It won’t be long before there is an NFL franchise playing a full schedule outside the United States.

n Since 2000, three different Giants have hit walk-off home runs into the frigid waters — splash hits — of McCovey Cove. Who are they? Answer below.

n Watching JP Sears pitch for the Oakland Athletics earlier this week reminded of the mostly long-gone Sears, Roebuck and Co. department stores. Actually, a Roebuck also pitched in the big leagues; Ed Roebuck had an 11-year career, eight of them with the Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1955 to ‘66.

At one time, there were 3,500 Sears outlets and used Ted Williams as a celebrity pitchman. An avid outdoorsman, Williams endorsed the Sears brand of fishing gear.

n The outdoor grilling season is upon us, and what gets grilled more often in the USA than that

truly American staple, the hot dog?

Bon Appetit’s taste testers evaluated eight different brands of wieners, frankfurters and hot dogs.

The runaway winner?

Nathan’s and you can read the whole story here: https://www. bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ story/best-hot-dog-brand?utm_ source=pocket-newtab

n How much more time will go by before the Pac-12 Conference has a media rights deal?

Splash hit answer: Barry Bonds in 2003, Brandon Crawford in 2014 and Mike Yastrzemski in 2020.

The longtime radio and television color man on UC Davis football broadcasts, Doug Kelly is director of communications for Battlefields2Ballfields and managing general partner of Kelly & Associates. Contact him at DKelly1416@aol.com.

LIGHTS: Took trips all over state

From Page B1

plenty of time to come home on the same day, which is not possible in the Big West.

Other WCC schools are Portland, Gonzaga, San Diego, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. (BYU is leaving the league for the Big 12.)

Years ago, when Bob Hamilton had the Aggie men’s basketball team dominating the Division II Far Western Conference, hundreds of Aggie fans would show up for away games in Chico, San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, Hayward, Turlock and Rohnert Park. I remember one game at San Francisco State when the hometown Gators ran onto their home floor and were greeted by the chant “Welcome to another UC Davis home game.”

That’s not likely to happen again, but it is a great memory.

SPEAKING OF THE BIG WEST

When UC San Diego was invited to join the Big West, it began the transition from Division II to Division I athletics. Unfortunately, the NCAA mandates that the transition take place over four years, during which time the school is not eligible for the Division I post-season.

Everyone knows that recruiting top athletes is how you succeed in Division I, but with a four-year post-season ban, it has been nearly impossible for UC San Diego to compete on the recruiting trail with their Division I counterparts.

This is especially true in basketball, where one-and-done athletes are becoming more common by the day.

UC San Diego has another full academic year remaining with this onerous rule that is more punishment than probation. But then watch out.

Between its academics and its location, UCSD will have no trouble attracting the athletes necessary to compete at the highest level of the Big West.