The Davis Enterprise Wednesday, May 17, 2023

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Dodd fills in Rotary on Capitol happenings

By Monica Stark Enterprise staff writer

Members of Davisl Local Voices, a teen a capella group get some rehearsal time in with UC Davis mentors.

Getting their a capella together

UCD showcase spotlights local teens

From the California State Budget’s May Revise to legislative bills he’s authored and current initiatives, California state Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) provided members of the Davis Rotary Club and their guests a “Legislative Update” at Monday’s lunchtime meeting.

DODD State senator

By Monica Stark Enterprise

staff writer

The UC Davis a cappella community welcomed teenage singing group, Davis Local Vocals (ages 13-15), to join them for their last singing showcase of the year, LocalTones, to be held on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UC Davis Science Lecture

Hall. Also, they have invited them to sing and direct them for songs, including Journey’s

“Any Way You Want It.”

All six UCD a cappella groups, the Cleftomaniacs, Jhankaar, The Liquid Hotplates, The Lounge Lizards, The Spokes, and Afterglow perform at LocalTones. While most of

the showcases throughout the year feature some out-of-town groups, LocalTones exclusively features all of the groups on campus, explained Koby Lieu, a fourth-year student at UC Davis.

“It is a time for all of us to come together and celebrate each other on stage in a grand finish to the current performance year. This year’s showcase features more small-

group songs, as Koby described, which just goes to show how much closer we’ve gotten as a campus community. We are so excited to have the Davis Local Vocals join us in celebrating our collective achievements and closing out what has been another amazing year of a cappella for our campus,” said Sharada Karthik, a second-year

See CAPELLA, Page A3

Dodd’s current term expires in 2024. Two longtime local politicians, former West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon and Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza, both Democrats, have thrown in their names into a run for next year’s California Senate race for the 3rd District, which includes parts of Solano, Yolo, Napa, Contra Costa, Sonoma and Sacramento counties. At the luncheon, donations were given, as follows: Yolo Crisis Nursery, $15,000; Yolo County Children’s See DODD, Page A3

Millions of birds flying over us

Saturday night, 1,448,000 birds flew over Yolo County. That is an actual bird count done with radar. At the peak time, 541,000 were over us. Eighty percent of birds migrate at night.

We can guess at what species were crossing over by viewing birders’ lists. Likely species included yellow warbler, Bullocks oriole, black tern, Western kingbird, black-headed grosbeak, Hammond’s flycatcher and Western tanager. They flew northwest at a speed of 20 mph at an altitude of 4,700 feet.

Visit birdcast.info and see graphs for more information. See the nightly average from mid-April to mid-May, the totals for birds that have crossed over our county and see the hours of migration.

Until recently, birders and researchers did visual counts of birds at night, watching when

Board still at work as year winds up

By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer

RogeR Smith/CouRte Sy photo

Western tanager has been observed at the North Ponds and in the Jackman back yard in North Davis.

the moon was full.

Birds are nesting and hatching and fledging all over the town. At the

Uplands on F and Anderson, Western bluebirds and tree swallows have

See POND, Back page

Although the end of the school year is on the horizon, there’s still work to do at Thursday’s school board meeting, with the agenda comprising various agreements, approvals and program updates from around the district.

The first approval on the docket is that of the bond and facilities agreements. It’s recommended the board approve the professional

See BOARD, Page A3

Angelo DeSAntiS/CouRte Sy photo

Man struck in downtown fracas

A man reported being struck in the face Monday during a downtown confrontation.

The victim told police he had confronted a bicyclist who nearly hit him while riding his bike at Second and E streets. The cyclist responded by punching the victim, causing a nosebleed, Davis police Lt. Dan Beckwith said.

Officers searched but could not locate the suspect, described as a Black male adult, about 5-foot-9 with a thin build. He had a white dog with him and was last seen headed northbound on E Street shortly after noon.

Anyone with information can contact the Davis Police Department at 530-747-5400.

On ‘Davisville’: Davis trauma

Susan Cosio, a retired Sacramento hospital chaplain, ordained pastor, and longtime resident of Davis, has spent most of her adult life helping people navigate crises. On “Davisville,” she talks with host Bill Buchanan about how to find perspective in the wake of a traumatic week like Davis just endured.

“Davisville” appears on Davis radio station KDRT-LP, 95.7 FM on Mondays at 5:30 p.m., Tuesdays at noon, Fridays at 5 p.m., and Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. The current show airs through May 27, and online at https://kdrt. org/davisville or on Apple podcasts.

That’s one expensive window decal

SCHOOL PRIDE ... My alltime favorite my-kids-are-incollege sticker is the SUV that drives around town with a giant “OW” on the back window. That would be a bright yellow University of Oregon “O” followed by a deep purple University of Washington “W.”

Don’t know if the “OW” is a response to paying out-of-state tuition twice.

PICKLED PINK ... As opposition to pickleball noise grows in town, the Davis City Council is considering an ordinance to replace the decibel-busting pickleball paddle with a giant dill pickle, thus rendering the game almost soundless.

Members of the Sweet Gherkins, a newly formed pickleball club in Davis, say they relish a kinder, quieter game.

DISCING DISNEY ... Tired of

battling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Disney officials have agreed to move all of Disney World to Dan Ramos’ DiSC project on the eastern outskirts of Davis.

“We’re bringing Mickey and Minnie and the whole crew,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger.

“Everyone except Goofy. It’s clear to us Goofy already lives there.”

IF ONLY MIKE PENCE HAD

DONE HIS DUTY ... We all know that Donald Trump claims Mike Pence had not only the right, but

the duty, to unilaterally overturn the 2020 election.

But has anyone told the former president as he launches his third run for the White House that the person whose duty it will be to overturn the election in 2024 is none other than Kamala Harris?

SARAH SAVES HER STATE ... The new governor in Little Rock has banned the use of the word “Latinx” on all official state documents.

That ought to make Arkansans sleep better at night.

FATHER KNOWS BEST ... A majority of male legislators in Missouri have imposed a dress code for female members of the legislature. I am not making this up.

ROLE REVERSAL ... Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona, who defeated Kari Lake

of the Sore Loser Party last November, apparently thinks it’s just fine to have a sales tax on groceries, one of the most regressive taxes known to man.

After every Republican in the Arizona State Legislature voted to ban individual cities and counties from charging a grocery sales tax, Hobbs came up with some crazy reason why a grocery tax is a good idea.

And never mind that such a tax most dramatically affects the poor trying to purchase the basic necessities of life. Maybe Hobbs will decide next year to tax sales of tap water.

Apparently, Hobbs reasoned that if every Republican was on one side of an issue, she must reflexively be on the other.

So much for Democrats standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the poor.

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net.

Cold Shot kicks off Picnic in the Park on Wednesday

chairs and blankets for picnicking. Tables and chairs will no longer be provided.

returns on May 17.

The family-fun event will be every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m., May 17 through Sept. 13. A local band will play each night. There will be children’s entertainment, loads of food vendors, and plenty of opportunity to gather as a community. Late September through early May, Wednesdays swap back to a traditional farmers market, open 3 to 6 p.m.

Cold Shot, featuring René Martucci and Richard Urbino, brings together a dynamic selection of upbeat rock ’n’ roll, pop and dance party songs that span decades of iconic artists.

Other bands on the 2023

Picnic in the Park schedule are Julie and the Jukes on May 24, Pleasant Valley Boys on May 31, Odd Man Out on June 7, The Teds on June 14, They Hey-Nows on June 21, and According to Bazooka on June 28.

The Peter Franklin Band

plays on July 5, The New Harmony Jazz Band is July 12, 5-Star Alcatraz plays on July 19, It’s About Time is on July 26, and Putah Creek Crawdads are Aug. 2.

The Geoffrey Miller Band is Aug. 9, Penny Lane is Aug. 16, Wealth of Nations is Aug. 23, Kindred Spirits is Aug. 30, Island Crew is Sept. 6, and The Kalapana Awa Band is Sept. 13. To

see the calendar and band descriptions, visit https:// www.davisfarmersmarket. org/entertainment-schedule/.

The new layout Picnic in the Park is designed for success. Food trucks will fill the patio area, and the band will play from the top of the stairs, facing the lawn. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own

During operating hours, the market will have 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.

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

Meanwhile, the Davis Downtown Business Association plans a fall concert series called Thursdays in The Davisphere, with five concerts planned between Aug. 31 and Oct. 26, in Central Park or on G Street, depending on the date. The music schedule and locations are being finalized.

Year-round in downtown Davis, thousands gather

each week to shop for what is grown, raised and made locally. Since 1976, the Davis Farmers Market has connected and supported communities, area agriculture, farmers and artisan food producers. It educates the public about nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and the local economic value of buying food and products directly from the producer.

The Davis Farmers Market’s signature markets are Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons/ evenings in Central Park. It also manages farmers markets at UC Davis, Sutter Davis Hospital and Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento. Since 2000, its Davis Farm to School program has supported the Davis Joint Unified School District, providing farmand garden-based education, increasing farm-fresh foods in school meals, and reducing solid waste through recycling and composting. For more information, visit https// davisfarmersmarket.org or visit it on Facebook or Instagram.

Davis Poetry Night reading back on the roof of Natsoulas Gallery

Enterprise staff

The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature Lois P. Jones and William O’Daly at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 18, on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First St. in Davis.

Jones is a finalist for the Alpine Fellowship award in poetry. She has won the Bristol Poetry Prize, the Lascaux Poetry Prize for a single poem, the Tiferet Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2018 Terrain Poetry contest judged by Jane Hirshfield. Jones’ work appears or is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets – Poem A Day, Poetry Wales, Mslexia, Plume, Guernica Editions, Vallentine Mitchell of London; Verse Daily, Tupelo Quarterly, Narrative and others.

Jones’s first collection, “Night

Ladder,” was published by Glass Lyre Press in 2017 and was a finalist for the Julie Suk Award and the Lascaux Poetry Prize for a poetry collection. She is a screening judge for Claremont University’s Kingsley-Tufts Awards.

Since 2007, Jones has hosted KPFK’s Poets Café, co-produced the Moonday Poetry Series, is a contributor for the Los Angeles Review of Books and acted as poetry editor for Pushcart and Utne prize-winning Kyoto Journal.

O’Daly studied poetry at UC Santa Barbara with Kenneth Rexroth, Hugh Kenner, and many others, and with his friend and

Solo crash leads to DUI arrest

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff

An early-morning crash Sunday resulted in a woman’s arrest on drunkendriving charges, according to police.

Lt. Dan Beckwith said officers responded at 3 a.m to the solo crash in the 3800 block of Chiles Road, arriving to find a Hyundai Sonata in a narrow

construction-zone ditch.

“The vehicle had been traveling westbound on Chiles and appeared to have drifted into the ditch,” Beckwith said. “The driver was put through a series of field sobriety tests and was ultimately arrested for DUI."

Lisa Marie Armas, 37, of Davis, was booked into the Yolo County Jail.

mentor Sam Hamill, he served as assistant editor of Spectrum magazine. In 1972, he co-founded Copper Canyon Press with Hamill, Tree Swenson, and Jim Gautney.

O’Daly’s published works include eight books of translation of the late-career and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda and Neruda’s first volume, “Book of Twilight” — all published by Copper Canyon Press. “Book of Twilight” was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Translation of Poetry for 2018.

Books of O’Daly’s own poems include “The New Gods” (Beltway Editions), “The Whale in the Web“ (Copper Canyon), as well as “Yarrow and Smoke, Water Ways” (a collaboration with JS Graustein), and “The Road to Isla Negra,” the latter three published by Folded Word Press.

A National Endowment for the

Arts Fellow and a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he received the American Literary Award from the bilingual Korean American journal Miju Poetry and Poetics in September 2021. His poems, translations, essays, and reviews have been published in numerous journals and multimedia exhibits.

An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to three minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. The open mic list typically fills by 6:50 p.m. The Facebook event page is at https://www. facebook.com/events/132463624 4750774.

Police investigate hit-and-run report

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

An alleged hit-and-run collision Friday left a teenage boy shaken but unhurt, Davis police said.

Lt. Dan Beckwith reported that the 13-year-old was riding his bike along Second Street at about 4 p.m. when a gray four-door sedan exiting the Alhambra at Mace Ranch apartments, 4500

Alhambra Drive, clipped his rear tire, and causing the boy to fall to the ground.

The driver did not stop at the scene, Beckwith said. He described the driver as a dark-complected male in his late 30s with short black hair, with a female passenger who wore a head covering.

Anyone who witnessed this incident or has any other information is asked to contact the Davis Police Department at 530-747-5400.

Courtesy photo

The Davis band Cold Shot features René Martucci and Richard Urbino.

JONES Alpine Fellowship finalist

O’DALY NEA Fellow

CAPELLA: ‘They didn’t treat us as children’ ...

UCD student who’s been working with DLV.

Lieu has been singing casually since elementary school and only more formally since high school when he joined the choir and a cappella groups. “When I got to UC Davis, I knew immediately that I wanted to continue singing in a cappella and was lucky enough to get into the Afterglow in my first year at UCD,” he said. He said he always loved when college a cappella groups visited and sang with his high school groups.

“Those experiences have played a big role in my passion for a cappella and I feel it’s really important for me to pay it forward and provide that experience for any younger singers I can reach. They’re all much more advanced than I was when I was their age; I’ve been very impressed with their technical ability and learning,” he said.

The opportunity for DLV to perform at LocalTones came after a request to play with the Spokes at Hella Cappella, their annual a cappella showcase at Mondavi Center. The Spokes already filled their program but sent Lieu their contact information as a recommendation to perform at LocalTones.

“When I was in high school, I would have been ecstatic at an opportunity to perform at a college a cappella showcase, so I was excited to get on the phone with Judi (Vallero, Matthew’s mother) to invite the LocalTones. Once we got them a slot to perform at the show, I was happy also to offer the opportunity to join our community-wide small groups, and it turned out they would all end up joining one of the several groups I’m a part of for this showcase.”

Noppakan (Noppo for short) is

a fourth-year student at UCD who joined the elementary school choir around the fifth grade. “I’ve been a part of several ensembles throughout the years, including middle and high school choirs, community choruses, as well as regional and all-state honor choirs. I joined the Spokes during my second year here at UCD.”

A baritone in DLV, Matthew Vallero, 13, said he appreciated the professionalism of the UC Davis a cappella group. “They didn’t treat us as children but rather as vocal apprentices. We learned valuable lessons with this type of music, but most importantly, how to become one with a group.”

Vallero’s goals are to start composing songs and pieces for DLV. Songs already arranged include

Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want For Christmas” and Dear Evan Hansen’s “You Will Be Found.”

“More special to me is the community-wide small groups, where members from different groups can perform songs together; oftentimes, songs they would not normally perform with their current group. In addition to Davis Local Vocals, our group has two Afterglow members (myself included), one Cleftomaniacs member, and Jhankaar. We have multiple such groups where friends in different groups are singing some great arrangements put together just for this show,” Lieu said.

Evie Barnett, 14, currently sings soprano, though she also tends to jump around. Her

Angelo DeSAntiS/courte Sy photo

primary music backgrounds are musical theater and choir. “Working with the UCD a capella groups has been a wonderful growth opportunity,” Barnett said. “Collaborating closely with and being mentored by older singers is truly one of the coolest experiences, and it’s been a blast to see how synergetic everyone is. We’ve only met for four rehearsals, but everyone knows what they’re doing, and we’ve picked up the music quite quickly while getting more familiar with each other. I feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such supportive and uplifting people! For the LocalTones event, I’ll be singing the solo in ‘Rather Be’ (a Pentatonix song).”

Clara Skinner, 15, will perform vocal percussion on “Rather Be”

as well as “Any Way You Want It,” the small-group song that they sing with some UCD students. “It’s been great. They’re all super helpful and kind, and it’s fun to work with them,” Skinner said.

Charlotte Del Favero (tenor, age 13) agrees: “It’s been super fun working with them (the UC Davis students). They are all very nice and welcoming. I’m grateful we got this opportunity.”

Ruby Schwerin (soprano, age 15) mainly participates in a cappella for the friendships and bonds formed with other singers.

Ella Del Favero (alto, age 16) will sing the solo in Molly Tuttle’s “Crooked Tree” for the Local Tones event.

Lieu said his advice that if they enjoy this style to keep singing, adding that high school and college a cappella is not the final destination. “There are other styles that I became interested in, like barbershop music, after first singing pop a cappella. I also discovered the a cappella community in the United States is really tightly knit: There are so many professionals out there who are excited to arrange, produce, record and continue to sing a cappella.”

“Keep singing and keep exploring,” Karthik said. “Don’t be afraid to try new things and seek out new opportunities. You will meet so many amazing, welcoming people who also love to sing: some may even become your best friends. And don’t get discouraged or give us if an experience doesn’t go your way. Keep trying, and you’ll find something rewarding that fits your personal style.”

Tickets are $8 for students; $10 for general.

— Contact Monica Stark at monica@davisenterprise.net.

DODD: Longtime state legislater shares his perspective

From Page A1

Alliance, $15,000; and Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center, $15,000; Progress Ranch, $22,000.

“These funds will support their critical work and help them reach children in need. We are proud to stand with these organizations united and dedicated to protecting and empowering our community children I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all of our sponsors and donors and volunteers who made this event possible,” LeonGuerrero said.

Dodd secured $1 million toward the construction of YCN’s expansion of services. He said, “All of these non-profits provide critical services to our most vulnerable amongst our communities.” Last week, Dodd’s office notified Progress Ranch that they are Yolo County’s nonprofit organization of the year.

A new member of Rotary, Dodd comes from a family of Rotarians; his father was a Rotary Club president in 1955 and ’59, and his son is a member.

After Davis Rotary Club President Peter LeonGuerrero introduced Dodd by reading the bio, the congressman said, “I appreciate that. I will say it’s a little dated. We got to work on that. I have 12 (rather than

nine as stated) grandchildren, and the 13th is on the way. So we’re pretty excited.”

Dodd said he welcomes the end of his term to spend more time with family.

Pandemic playbook

Coming out of the Covid19 Pandemic, Dodd stressed the importance for California to create a nonjudgmental “post-mortem” playbook for future generations. “It’s not to criticize, or it’s not the pat on the back, is to really analyze what the overall problem was, what the state response was, what our medical team’s response was.”

He said while underfunded public health departments have ramped up funding since 2020, it’s something that we need to continue to do. “If we didn’t learn that during the pandemic, I’m not sure we learned enough,” he said.

State Budget

Despite the $300 deficit in Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revise and no raise in taxes, Dodd said California is in a “strong position” due to the state’s “thoughtful budgeting over the last three, four, or five

years” and being “good fiscal stewards of the money of the state of California.”

“(The May Revise) does not call for any real deep cuts, but I think the Governor has been very thoughtful.”

Dodd said during the previous economic downturn under former Governor Jerry Brown, the legislature still invested heavily in services like public schools and wildfire prevention, while addressing the necessities and public safety, affordable housing projects, and economic development.

“When you have one-time money, you pay down debt, which we did. You put money in the rainy day fund.”

Dodd said he appreciates Newsom not backing down on wildfire prevention.

Homelessness

Calling homelessness “one of the great failings of our society,” Dodd said Newsom has done a “good job, and the legislature has done a good job in terms of getting monies there.”

Dodd said, “It’s all about accountability at the local level.” He added county and city officials point to the mental health crisis among the unhoused. “Most of the time, you know they’re not fit mentally to make

decisions to help themselves,” he said.

He referenced the establishment and planning behind the state’s “CARE Court,” which pairs an unhoused person untreated with a mental illness with a court-ordered Care Plan for up to 24 months. It includes interventions, medication, a housing plan, a public defender, and a supporter to help them make decisions for their care.

Artificial intelligence

Dodd said even though he thinks artificial intelligence is crucial, there must be guardrails, including disclosure. “If we’re not communicating with our constituents, personally, you ought to know it. And we ought to disclose that we’re using AI. So, my bill is not intended to stifle innovation, but it’s certainly designed to protect consumers as we move on.”

Senior protections

Dodd said scammers are often “aided and abetted by bankers or shopkeepers, allowing them to continue perpetrating these crimes without asking them a solitary question.”

As explained in a press

release, when victims attempt to sue their bank for assisting in a scam, the institution can avoid responsibility by claiming it did not have actual knowledge of the fraud. “Senate Bill 278 would clarify that victims of financial elder abuse can continue to hold institutions accountable when they should have known of the fraud but negligently assisted in the transfer anyway. The clarification would support victims of financial elder abuse in meeting their burden of proof.”

Dodd told the Rotarians that most banks and credit unions are doing a phenomenal job in their communities by asking questions to the consumer, such as: Do you know who you’re sending this money to? Do you know why you have somebody trusted that I may be able to call on this? “But unfortunately, there’s far too many they’re not doing that’s why this bill is necessary,” he said. He added they’re working on a safe harbor for banks already doing that.

“The same thing with insurance,” he said. “We’ve got lots of great insurance and annuity writers, but not all are looking out for the best interest. And unfortunately or fortunately, we can do a better job of helping seniors and

BOARD: Infrastructure projects big on trustees’ agenda

From Page A1

service agreement of the School Facility Consultants' proposal for consulting services to prepare State School Facility Program eligibility and funding applications.

It’s also recommended the board approve the construction contract of California Singly Ply for the Multiple Site Roof Replacement Project at six DJUSD sites. These include Capital Operations, Da Vinci High School, North Davis Elementary, Davis High School, César Chávez Elementary and Emerson Junior High.

Following suit will be a presentation on Measure M Bond prioritization. Back on April 20, the board received an update from staff

regarding Phase 2 on bond project prioritization. This presentation will feature discussion and is expected to finalize the prioritization of Phase 2 projects.

Further updates include the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) development and the A-G Grant plan. The LCAP itself is the district’s commitment to locally developed programming and maintaining clear goals and processes. These LCAP updates come from the DJUSD Instructional Services Team to make the plan components accessible to the public as well as receive feedback for possible revisions.

Meanwhile, the DJUSD plans to increase A-G graduation rates

through professional development and direct student services. The district has also hired consultants who will do comprehensive research on barriers to A-G completion to be completed in the 2022-23 school year.

Another update scheduled at the meeting regards the Visual Arts and Proposition 28 Program. Coinciding with that will be an update regarding the music program and Proposition 28. Originally presented during the board meeting on May 4, the item is being brought back for further discussion. The district maintains that staff is engaged with the community to gather feedback about programming and the use of Proposition 28 funding.

After that will be a public hearing of the declaration of need for highly qualified educators. This is an annual process that is guided by California Code of Regulations, Title 5, and requires all school districts that may need to use emergency permits that may be needed in the upcoming school year.

Shortly thereafter the public hearing will be the approval of the declaration of need for highly qualified educators.

Wrapping up the meeting will be the approval of the employment contract for the deputy superintendent of business services.

The meeting itself is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Chambers at 23 Russell Boulevard.

that was really

my goal.”

Consumer rights

With principal co-author Sen. Nancy Skinner, Dodd is writing a bill to stop junk fees. Dodd said consumers deserve to have the price they pay upfront. “If you’re staying at a resort, a destination fee, or your resort fee, all these different fees that are charged…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been online, and I got a $25 or $30 product that ends up being, you know, $55.”

Reparations

Asked about his stand on reparations, Dodd said while a task force passed the recommendations to give each Black resident $1.2 million as compensation for slavery and other injustices, its passage created “even bigger expectations.” If this becomes law, it will cost California about $800 billion. “I mean, there’s just not enough money, and while I’m not going to say anything negative about the committee, they did their work, then gave a recommendation. We have lots of committees and give recommendations, and that’s that. I don’t think anything is going to happen in that regard.”

The teen singers were enthused about the help they got from the more experienced vocalists.

Thursday

n The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature Lois P. Jones and William O’Daly at 7 p.m. Thursday on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 First0 St. in Davis. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to three minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. The open mic list typically fills by 6:50 p.m., so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour.

Friday

n The UC Davis Arboretum hosts a Folk Music Jam Session from noon to 1 p.m. Folk musicians can bring their acoustic instruments and play together informally during this jam session at Wyatt Deck (next to the redwood grove). Pull out your fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes, squeezeboxes (you name it) and join your fellow musicians for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer and world music over the lunch hour. All skill levels welcome and listeners are invited. Short-term parking is available in Visitor Lot 5 on Old Davis Road at Arboretum Drive. Hourly rates start at $1.75.

n The Davis Friends Meeting will show the movie, "The Most Dangerous Man in America."

The film is about the life of Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers to the public during the Vietnam War.

The free screening begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 345 L St. in Davis.

Saturday

n The Davis High School Baroque Ensemble will feature Baroque violinist Michael Sand at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School, 315 W. 14 St. in Davis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 7 p.m. The concert is free, but donations are accepted at the door. All proceeds benefit the DHS Baroque Ensemble’s 2023 EnglandBelgium-France tour.

Tuesday

n The Holmes Jr. High Orchestra Program presents its Finale Concert 2023 at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School, 315 W. 14 St. in Davis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 7 p.m. The concert is free, but donations are accepted at the door. All proceeds go to benefit the Holmes Orchestra Program.

n Spice o Life, a trio with a musical repertoire including pop, folk, country, Broadway, and boleros, are the featured act at the Village Homes Performers’ Circle in Davis. Therese Llanes (lead singer), Mike Elfant (guitar and vocals) and Wendy Silk (keyboard, accordion and vocals) had such a good time playing together at a party in 2021 that they decided to rehearse and play as a group. No tickets or reservations are required. The event begins with an open mike from 7:15 to 8:15 pm and concludes with the featured performance from 8:30 to 9 p.m.

Signups begin at 6:45 for the short performances (less than 5 minutes per act). For information, visit https://www. facebook.com/village homesperformers.

Thursday, May 25

n The Davis High School Orchestra Program presents its Finale Concert 2023 at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall on campus at 315 W. 14 St. in Davis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 7 p.m. The concert is free, but donations are accepted at the door. All proceeds go to benefit the DHS Orchestra Program.

Sunday, May 28

n The Cache Creek Nature Preserve is planning a “nature-themed” Sunset Scavenger Hunt in late May. Felicia Wong, restoration biologist at the Nature Preserve, about 4 miles west of Woodland, says the event is set from 8 to 9 p.m. Sunset is expected at around 8:20 p.m. People don’t have to arrive at the preserve, 34199 County Road 20, promptly at 8 p.m., but the scavenger hunt should take about 30 minutes. People attending are asked to park in the main parking lot and check in at the green gates leading to the wetland. Bring a flashlight, binoculars, hiking/walking shoes, bright-colored clothing and bottled water. Sign up at https:// cachecreekconservancy. org/sunset-scavengerhunt/.

Thursday, June 1

n The Davis Odd Fellows Thursday Live! concert series presents Spike Sikes and His Awesome Hotcakes. All ages welcome. The Davis Odd Fellows Lodge is at 415 Second St. in downtown Davis. Doors open at 7 p.m., with music (and dancing!) starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday Live! shows are free, but cash donations are encouraged to support the musicians.

n The Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia will host Stephen Morse as a guest speaker on Thursday, June 1. The topic is, "The 1950 Census One Year Later." This meeting is not on Zoom. The inperson event will meet at Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin St. in California. Masks are encouraged but not required. The meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. The 1950 Census was released on April 1, 2022, after being sealed for 72 years. Since the release date, many who have tried to find records in the census have run into various quirks.

Wednesday June 21

n The Woodland League of Women Voters is pleased to host its first Summer Solstice Event featuring dinner followed by a presentation by Mindy Romero, Ph.D., the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, formerly known as the California Civic Engagement Project. Romero is a political sociologist and received her doctorate in sociology from UC Davis. Her research focuses on political behavior and race/ ethnicity, and seeks to explain patterns of voting and political underrepresentation, particularly among youth and communities of color in California and the U.S. The event will take be at the historic Woodland Hotel. Doors will open at 5:30 PM. Dinner tickets are $32.00. The League’s annual meeting for members, which the public may also attend, will follow the presentation. More information is online at https://my.lwv. org/california/woodland.

By Ben Christopher CalMatters

This month Californians worried about the cost of housing were offered the rarest of gifts: a glimmer of hope.

New numbers released by the Newsom administration show that California added homes to its housing stock at a faster clip than any time since the Great Recession — 123,350 additional units, or an increase of 0.85%.

Over that same period, the state’s population declined, marking the third year in a row that it’s fallen from one new year to the next.

Put those two numbers together and a surprising statistic emerges: There are now more homes per person — 3,770 units for every 10,000 Californians — than there have been since at least 1991.

For a state that has long suffered from too many people trying to cram themselves into too few homes, that’s an encouraging number at first glance.

It’s also the kind of news that might lead a person to wonder: Does this California exodus mean the state’s perennial housing shortage is finally coming to an end?

The long answer is “it’s complicated.”

Though many analysts have tried, no consensus exists on just how many more homes the state would need to build (or how many more people would need to leave) before we can call an end to the crisis and start to see rents and home prices fall within reach of working and middle class Californians.

But the short answer is “almost definitely, no.”

Much of the outflow of residents is itself driven by the high cost of living. In March, the median price of an existing single family California home was $791,490, more than twice the national median of $375,700.

“When house prices go up, people leave,” said Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said as much in a recent interview with UCLA’s Blueprint, naming the cost of living as the “principal driver” and its chronic shortage of homes “our original sin.”

And while experts don’t agree on exactly how much additional housing the state might need to attain an ill-defined “affordability,” they do agree on this much: it’s a whole lot more.

Scale of problem

In 2000, a report issued by California’s Department of Housing and Community Development estimated that the state would need to build 220,000 additional

units each year for two decades to meet the needs of what was then still a growing population.

Needless to say, that didn’t happen. Even last year, a relative high-water mark for home construction, the total was roughly 100,000 units below that goal.

The department published another estimate in 2018 urging 180,000 units per year through 2025. And last year, in putting together housing goals for regions across the state, the department’s total prescription added up to 2.5 million new homes over the next eight years (or 315,000 per year).

The administration acknowledged the state’s sluggish population growth in its latest proposed budget for next year, which gauged the need at 148,000 new units per year.

One of the reasons these estimates vary is because there’s no single definition of a “housing shortage.”

In 2015, for example, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, an agency that serves as a think tank for state legislators, framed the issue with the following question: How many units would the state have had to build between 1980 and 2010 to keep the median value of an owner-occupied home increasing at the same rate as the rest of the nation, rather than skyrocketing so much higher, as it has for the last half century?

That definition of the state’s shortage led the office to estimate 210,000 each year. Alas, the state has only hit that annual mark five times since 1980 — and not once since 1990.

A year later, the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, put out its own figure — 3.5 million homes by 2025. Newsom took that eye-popping figure as a rallying cry during his first gubernatorial run, when the then-candidate vowed that California would reach that total by the end of his second term. He’s since scaled the pledge back to 2.5 million, a goal the state is still unlikely to reach.

McKinsey based its estimate on its own version of the state’s housing problem: the number of new units required to bring California’s houses-to-people ratio in line with that of the rest of the country.

The common thread behind all these estimates is they are all very, very big. And whichever shortfall estimate you choose, the state has never hit the mark.

A moving target

But the numbers have been moving in a more encouraging direction in recent years. The totals since 2020: roughly 430,000 new

homes and some 821,000 fewer Californians competing to reside within them. That necessarily narrows the gap, however we define it, said Hans Johnson, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California.

If the shortage is relatively modest, he said, and “if we continue like this for another decade, with very slow population growth or essentially no population growth, and with fairly robust housing construction, then it should start to eat into that lack of housing,” he said.

But if the state needs to hit McKinsey-esque levels of new production, counted in the millions of units, “we’re still a long, long way off,” he added.

That’s in part because the size of the hole is so large. But it’s also because the shortfall is “a moving target,” explained Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. The building industry booms and busts. Young Californians grow old enough to live out on their own while older ones begin to die off. And people’s housing wants and needs change, too.

COVID effect

A particularly dramatic driver of such change: the pandemic.

Eager to keep COVID at bay and seeking more space to work from home, Californians dumped their roommates when they could and sought out places to live on their own, resulting in a great “spreading out,” as analysts at the Public Policy Institute of California put it. The trend toward fewer people living in each home is nationwide and long term. Over the last 40 years, the number of people living alone doubled across the country. But the pandemic put the trend on overdrive.

That worsened the state’s housing shortage. Even if the total number of Californians continues its gradual downward drift, more homes are needed to house the roughly 38 million sticking around.

tarting in June 2020, the median price of an existing single-family home

shot up from $626,170 to a peak of $900,170 in May 2022, according to data compiled by the California Association of Realtors. That’s an increase of 44% in less than two years. ince then high interest rates have brought California’s housing inflation back down to earth slightly. But the median price in March was still 29% above where it was three years earlier.

Whether Californians will begin clustering together again as COVID concerns ease is an open question. But there’s no sign that’s happening yet.

By the beginning of 2023, with the worst of the pandemic presumably behind us, the number of Californians per household hit a record low of 2.77.

A shrinking population, driven largely by outward migration, provides an escape valve for some of that extra pressure, said Meyer, the USC demographer. But based on analysis he and his colleagues conducted for the California Association of Realtors, it’s easy to imagine demand for homes staying strong, given how large the millennial generation is and how many are now reaching a baby-having, roommatejettisoning age.

Plus, if the California exodus is a cure to the state’s housing shortage, it’s also a symptom, said Dowell.

“The ones who are older are leaving because they’re (homeowners) cashing in their gains,” he said of the nearly 8 million exCalifornians who exited the state last decade.”The young people who are leaving, we now think, are leaving because they can’t buy a house here.”

And even if those departures do ultimately alleviate the state’s scarcity of homes, it’s not the solution to the problem that anyone should want, adds Johnson from Public Policy Institute of California.

“I don’t think any of us who have been advocating for building more housing in California — to help alleviate the shortage of housing we’ve had and to improve affordability in the state — thought that the best path was just to have the state start to depopulate.”

California is losing population and building new houses; when will home prices come down?

See what’s cooking on the television screen

Even I can’t cook and eat all the time. For variety’s sake, I sometime watch TV or read … about cooking, of course! With vacation season coming up, it seems worthwhile to share the list of a few things I’ve been enjoying.

“Recipes for Love and Murder” features Maria Doyle Kennedy, so it was already points up for me. She plays Tannie Marie, an agony aunt writing for a small-town newspaper in South Africa, who offers a recipe as part of the solution in each column. It’s a dark comedy, what with the murder and all, but more Murder She Wrote than Fargo. Available on Acorn TV. The show is based on the book by Sally Andrew, which is available at the Davis Branch Library.

“Julia” is quite a lovely series chronicling the start of Julia Child’s television career. (It’s also a fantastic look at the life of women in the not-too-distant past.) While the series is fairly accurate as a biography, it plays like fiction and is not even a tiny bit dry. Available on HBO.

“The Bear” was the absolute smash hit in my little crowd last year, although more than one restaurant pal declined to watch because it triggered some bad memories. The story follows Jeremy Allen White as he leaves a fine-dining chef job to run a failing family-owned sandwich shop. It’s definitely sanitized for TV as compared to an actual commercial kitchen, and very accessible to those who have never had the fun of working in the industry. Available on Hulu, Season 2 drops at the end of June.

“Mammals” is more of a

drama set in a restaurant, but it’s well worth the watching. James Corden plays a chef who becomes embroiled in a complicated relationship crisis while opening a restaurant. Available on Amazon Prime

“The Great British Menu” is an annual competition featuring British chefs. As cooking competitions go, it’s my favorite because there aren’t any gimmicks, just very skilled chefs cooking great food with a time limit. Each season has a theme, and the winners eventually cook a feast for a variety of guests. Sadly, all seasons are not available in the U.S., but you can get a summer’s worth on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

“The Menu,” the sole movie on this list, is the darkest of black comedies, taking digs at superhigh-end destination restaurants, kitchen culture, the rich and trend-setters, to name a few. Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes are both fantastic. This one is a bit over the top in violence, at least as far as food movies go. Available on Amazon, HBO and Hulu.

There are, of course, far more food books available than TV shows or movies. My absolute favorite at the moment is Kerry Greenwood’s “Corinna Chapman” series. This lesser know

series by the “Phryne Fisher” author is set in a bakery in modern day Melbourne. The characters are engaging, the mysteries are intriguing, and the baking is spot on. If you’re a fan of the “cozy” genre, this will be a delight.

If you’re more of a science fiction/fantasy reader, “A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” should suit. Author T. Kingfisher has the knack for creating complete, realistic worlds — in this case, a city full of wizards, a murderer who is stalking them, and a young baker who holds the key to solving the problem. This book is aimed at middle school/ young adult readers, but don’t let that stop you!

One of the most exciting stories in the science fiction/fantasy world this year was “Legends and Lattes” by Travis Baldree. It’s a fun and well-written story about an Orc former mercenary who opens a coffee shop, complete with a million tiny and nicely drawn details about the inner workings of food service. It is, the author says, “a book about people mostly being nice” and the publication of the book at all bears that out. “Legends and Lattes” was self-published, gained notice on Twitter (in part via persistent boosting from best-selling author Seanan McGuire) and became such a sensation that the book was picked up by a publisher.

For those of you hoping for a cookbook to play with over the summer, I strongly recommend Carla Lalli Music’s “That Sounds So Good” for both a sensible attitude about food and for practical and delicious recipes. If you’d like something more cheffy, I am forever a fan of Gabrielle Hamilton’s “Prune,” which recalibrates some very high-end restaurant recipes for the home cook. Not only are there some fantastic recipes in there, the original notes to restaurant staff are highly entertaining!

— Have a show or book to suggest? Want to ask a question for a future column? Email Julie at jacross@dcn.org or visit her on Facebook at The New Home Ec.

Bubbling over with good local wine options

Abig part of my recent birthday celebration was a day/ night in Berkeley. Shortly after I arrived, daughters Allegra and Julian escorted me to Hammerling Wines for a celebratory glass of bubbles. Since I was there last (pre-pandemic), they've expanded their space and set up several pleasant outdoor tables. The sun was out, the wind light, the temperature mild — perfect.

The bubbles were perfect, too. I ordered a glass of their newly released sparkling zinfandel; Julian, who belongs to their wine club and has her favorites, ordered the sparkling pinot noir called “Tilted Mile.” And then I had to choose a bottle — as a birthday present. It was a very hard choice, but I opted for the “Tilted Mile.”

Almost all organic pinot noir, there's a bit of chardonnay in the mix — classic Champagne formula.

And it does indeed remind me of Champagne — but better. (Well, at least better than the Champagne I can afford.)

I've written about Hammerling before, but at that time the winery was called Blue Ox. They had to rename themselves in 2021 after a Midwest distillery threatened to sue for trademark infringement.

What three-year-old small winery could afford a suit?

Better to invest in the business. Winemaker and founder Josh Hammerling started his wine education in Washington State — in friends' garages. He experimented with low-intervention techniques and became obsessed with sparklers. Then he moved to Berkeley and worked for both Broc Cellars and Donkey and Goat — both natural wineries I've extolled for years. Hammerling now occupies

space on Fifth Street, just doors from both places.

Josh makes many wines, but his emphasis is still on sparklers, which have gained a serious following — including New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov, who has several times put Hammerling at the top of his list for “home-grown” bubbles.

Other critics agree that these wines are some of the best and most intriguing California sparklers. And when you consider the established competition, that's quite a compliment.

This 2020 blanc de noir is lively, with distinctive tart fruit and a savory edge. Enormously foodfriendly, it goes with everything from fancy potato chips to a full-fledged dinner of almost anything Spring — and more. Asimov, for example, recommended it for the Thanksgiving table.

Rebecca and I drank a bottle with crab-asparagus ravioli (from Market Place in Berkeley) in a lemoncream sauce and it worked perfectly. At $35 it isn't cheap — but compared to Champagne in that price range (this wine is made by the same method), it outshines them easily.

After our leisurely Hammerling afternoon, we headed to Agrodolce for Sicilian food. And we brought with us (corkage fee $25) another Berkeley bottle — the Broc Nero d'Avola. Nero d'Avola is a grape native to Sicily and a long time favorite of wine-

maker Chris Brockway, who treats the dark grapes gently, fermenting them on the skins in amphora. The result is a lighton-its-feet but flavorful (plum, spice) red that I've enjoyed several times and that was delightful to drink with food it (more or less) grew up with.

Broc, by the way, has long gotten its nero d'avola grapes from Fox Vineyard in Mendocino county, an organically farmed vineyard that grows over 25 Italian varieties. Chris has been sourcing grapes from Fox since 2013 and began managing it in 2020. Just last month, Broc bought it. Like most very small California winemakers, Chris hasn't had acreage of his own but has been buying from selected organic vineyards. Now, for the first time, the winery will be using “estate” grapes.

(Headline: “Broc Cellars Acquires Fox.” I like it.)

The following week, friends (who belong to the Broc wine club) served me and Rebecca (both of us celebrating our Taurus birthdays) a bottle of a new Broc sparkler, the Aqua Vino; an embarrassment of riches. Because this sparkler is such an unusual creature, I'll give you the winery's description:

“Aqua Vino is a story of hydration and winemaking. It started with valdiguié grapes that initially came in to make our Love Rosé. After a short maceration, we lightly pressed off the juice for the wine, being mindful not to overpress so we could make a nice rosé. We were left with grapes that had a good amount of valdiguié juice so we put the skins

into a stainless tank and filled it with water until the grapes were barely submerged. We let it macerate for three days, pressed it back into tank where it fermented for one week, then transferred it into pressurized tanks while the wine was still slightly sweet to finish fermentation. It was blended with our nouveau wine — a blend of everything we brought in from the past harvest. We wanted to create something new to share with you — bubbly, lower in alcohol and fun to drink ... Berkeley water used to hydrate the grape skins makes up roughly 25% of Aqua Vino. The water comes from the Sierra snowmelt in the Mokelumne River watershed.”

Imust admit that when I read this description I was pretty sure I wouldn't like this weird bubbly, but when I tasted it, I changed my mind. This wine is, indeed, wonderfully flavorful, fun to drink, and fun to share. Just perfect for the warm weather ahead.

To try these festive bubbles, head to Berkeley. Amtrak will get you there in just over an hour-anda-quarter, and the Fourth/ Fifth Street wine corridor is an easy walk from the Berkeley station. Hop on a noon-ish train and you'll have plenty of time for browsing shops on the Fourth St. corridor before your wine tasting begins.

Hammerling is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday for tasting, snacks, glasses and retail sales; Broc starts its hours on Thursday. So right now, your best bet would be a Friday or Saturday trip.

But I'm thinking Hammerling, with its new outdoor spaces and the advent of warmer weather, will soon expand its hours. After your sips at these two places, if you haven't reached your tasting limit, you can also walk over to wonderful wineries Vinca Minor and Donkey and Goat.

If you haven't reached your food limit, you can dine at one of the interesting restaurants in the Fourth Street area. Opt for

elegant and expensive (Iyasare, for example, amazing Japanese food, get reservations) or more casual and not expensive (like Tacubaya, which serves sophisticated Mexican specialties). Even simpler, both Hammerling and Broc often offer food events in conjunction with local chefs. Check their websites. The last train back to Davis is at 8:25 pm on Fridays or 9:25 pm on Saturdays.

Don't have that many hours to spare? The Pip in Dixon offers all manner of wines by the glass and excellent small plates. Right here in Davis, Wines in Tandem is opening its back rooms and will soon be serving snacks as well as wonderful wines. The best way to keep up is to get on the mailing lists of all these places. My experience is that the emails come infrequently and are always informative and fun.

— Reach Susana Leonardi at vinosusana@ gmail.com. Comment on this column at www. davisenterprise.com.

Seacia Pavao/HBo Max PHoto

Sarah Lancashire and Bebe Neuwirth get to cooking in “Julia.”

POND: Birds need our help to thrive

From Page A1

nested and laid eggs. We watched a territorial dispute between western bluebirds and tree swallows. The bluebirds built the nest and male and female kept sitting on top of the nestbox together.

When they left, tree swallows tried to fly in and leave feathers, unique to their nests.

Goslings are with parents at the Julie Partansky Wildlife Area Pond. There are a dozen juvenile wood ducks parading with mama at the John Whitcombe pond you can see by walking along the agricultural side of the Davis Ditch.

Many enjoy visiting and watching the growth of great horned owl with two owlets born in a nest along the greenbelt path at the end of Heron Place. The owlets have fledged and are often sitting in a tree on the west side of the path before the tunnel that goes under Anderson Road. They are practicing flying now so won’t be there much longer. They are better at flying than they are at landing. Mostly mom but also dad can be seen in the area. During the day, they sit, seldom moving, so they are challenging to spot with their camouflaged feathering.

We have a new tool called Bird Haiku that records the calls and songs of birds in our back yard.

Yesterday we had 20 species. The most frequent species were house finch, black phoebe, American

crow, California towhee, bushtit, lesser goldfinch, California scrub-jay and Western tanager.

Bird collisions with buildings, houses and windows are most likely to happen during spring and fall migration times. You can help birds avoid collisions. If a bird hits your window, take care of at least that one window. You can do it in a number of ways. Close blinds and curtains, install an external screen, put up antistrike window decals to alert birds. The decals are self-adhesive and easy to set up and remove. They can be applied inside or out to keep birds from striking the glass.

A reminder, birds are in decline all around the world so let’s do whatever we can to help them. Keep cats indoors. Cats kill more birds than window collisions. Plant some birdfriendly native plants in your yard. They flock to a shallow plant saucer of water for drinking and bathing.

This is a good time of the year to enjoy our expert-led bird strolls and learn a few new birds. Saturday, June 3, at 8 a.m. at the North Davis Ponds, 3500 Anderson Road parking lot is the meeting place. Wednesday, June 7, at 8 a.m. is a stroll at West Pond. Meet at Isle Royale and Bryce Lane.

— Jean Jackman is a Davis resident. Her columns appear monthly. Got a story, question, correction? Contact: JeanJackman@gmail.com.

Jean Jackman/courtesy photo

A mama great horned owl with two owlets perch in the same tree along the greenbelt at the end of Heron Place. The owlets have begun flying practice.

kelli o neill/courtesy photo

A male and female Western bluebird have completed their nest and laid their eggs in spite of tree swallows trying to put feathers in the box and take it over. roger smith/courtesy photo Yellow warbler is likely one of many species now migrating over Yolo County at night and appearing in our yards and greenbelts.

State Champion

Davis High’s Sarah Bennetts comes up for air during the girls 100 breaststroke at the CIF State Swimming Championships

the first Blue Devil to win an event at the state meet. She was also on two relay teams that also earned medals.

Members of the DHS girls swimming team’s 400 relay team (left to

Sarah Bennetts, Sara Kos, Adelia biello and Ava Portello walk to the start of their race at Clovis West High’s swimming pool on Saturday.

Bennetts, Blue Devils shine at championships

Enterprise staff

CLOVIS — Sarah Bennetts was motivated at this year’s California Federation State Swimming Championships.

Part of the Davis High girls swimmer was ready for it, thanks to a hit song from one of the America’s favorite musicians.

The Blue Devil won a state championship 100 breaststroke, and contributed on relay teams that also placed at Saturday’s finals at Clovis West High.

“I think she just went out with the attitude that she wanted to win,” said Davis head coach Vivian Crow.

That all added up to Davis taking a fourth-place team finish with 125 points.

This is second consecutive year that DHS has finished in the top five in the team standings.

Bennetts won the breaststroke with a time of 1 minute, 00.11 seconds. She beat

SoftBaLL

her own preliminary time of 1:00.86.

“I talked to (Crow) and she helped me, gave me some tips on how to approach the finals,” Bennetts said. “Which included, instead of sprinting the third lap of the 100, I would build into it until the last turn and then spring the last lap. It did help me a fair amount, save some energy at the end.”

Crow added, “That first 50, she attacked it from the start, and then just held on as much as she could with that second 50.”

Her finals’ time broke her own DHS record of 1:01.28, which earned her second place at the 2022 state championships.

“My goal this season was to, hopefully, place better,” Bennetts said. “I was a little nervous going into it... it would work out in the end.”

Bennetts’ walk-up song from Taylor Swift, “Ready For It?” certainly helped just a little bit.

“It did make me feel a little bit more confident,” Bennetts said. “I love Taylor Swift.”

Crow added, “It was just the best (introduction) song that she could have chosen, and I think that just got her in the zone.”

She noted that before leaving for UCLA, which she’ll be competing on a scholarship, this summer, Bennetts plans to see one of Swift’s two concerts, which are scheduled for Friday, July 28 and Saturday, July 29 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

Bennetts earned her second medal in the 100 freestyle, taking fourth place at 49.90 seconds. Her preliminary time on Friday was 49.97.

Dethlefson named Big West Player of the Year

Enterprise staff

IRVINE — UC Davis softball player, junior Anna Dethlefson, was named the Big West Conference Player of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday.

The Aggies had eight total honors as the conference unveiled their postseason awards.

Dethlefson becomes the first Aggie in program history to earn Player of the Year honors from the Big West.

The Fair Oaks native paced the conference in

slugging percentage (.627), doubles (15) and stolen bases (40). She ranks second in batting average (.407), OPS (1.104), runs (43), and hits (61).

Her 40 stolen bases, 15 doubles and 94 total bases broke the program’s Division I single-season records.

Dethlefson is just the second player in UCD Division I single-season history to bat over .400 at .407.

Aggie pitcher Kenedi See WEST, Page B5

Bennetts was part of the Blue Devil girls’ 400 relay team that took second place with a time of 3:24.47. Adelia Biello, Sara Kos and Ava Portello were the other members of the relay team.

“We just had to get out and attack every single leg that we could,” Crow said. “It was a really close race.”

Portello, a junior, earned a medal in the 200-freestyle race, taking eighth place with a time of 1:50.42.

The 200-medley relay team of Bennetts, Kos, Makena Leacox and Biello took third place at 1:42.07. The quartet’s preliminary time was 1:42.18.

The Blue Devil girls finished with 125 points for fourth place.

In the 2022 state championships, DHS had 204 points.

See BENNETTS, Page B5

Aggies extend their season

Enterprise staff

The UC Davis softball team is extending its season.

The Aggies have been invited, and accepted, in the fifth annual National Invitational Softball Championships.

The event will be played Friday through Sunday at the TC Colorado Fields at the Triple Crown Sports facility in Fort Collins, Colo.

The eight-team field will consist of UCD,

BYU, Cal State Northridge, Iowa, Maryland, San Jose State, South Dakota State and Tarleton State.

The Aggies will open against Iowa Thursday at 10 a.m. MT.

The NISC is operated, supervised, and directed by Triple Crown Sports and College Sports Eval, a sports event company based in Fort Collins, Colo., with endorsement from the NFCA.

See AGGIES, Page B5

Laura Brown/maxprepS-Cuorte Sy photo

at Clovis West High on Saturday. Bennetts, who is headed to UCLA on a scholarship, became

Laura Brown/maxprepS-Cuorte Sy photo

right)

Laura Brown/maxprepS-Cuorte Sy photo Blue Devil boys swimmer Remo Mann is all smiles after competing in the 100 breaststroke on Saturday. He competed in this event and DHS’ 400 freestyle relay team that won the consolation championship.

Constitutional fix to California’s housing crisis

By Michael Tubbs

Special to CalMatters

Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s historic commitment to ending California’s housing crisis — and the administration’s arm-twisting to try to make local jurisdictions do the right thing — we have not made the progress that Californians need.

Forty percent of the state’s households now spend more on housing than they can afford, and California is home to more than half of the nation’s unsheltered people.

A new proposal in the Legislature, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, puts us on the precipice of significant change. If passed, Assemblymember Matt Haney’s bill would give voters the opportunity to enshrine housing as a fundamental right in our state constitution. The constitutional amendment would provide the state with a game-changing legal tool — and an ongoing obligation no matter who is in office — to ensure that every person has access to a permanent, stable home.

Creating a fundamental right to housing is consistent with public will. Indeed, a survey found that 55% of Californians view affordable housing as a community responsibility, and 58% believe affordable housing should be guaranteed. That’s not a surprise — people realize that a safe, secure and productive life is only possible with a home.

A recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union and others shows why a constitutional amendment would have real teeth and is a long-overdue step towards ending the housing crisis. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for every American to have a “decent home” regardless of “station, race or creed.” The U.S. then led the effort for the United Nations to draft and adopt the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, including a right to housing.

Unfortunately, that right never took root back home. Instead, racism and classism has impacted U.S. housing policy at every level This history has led to the kind of housing disparities we see in California today. Nearly half of all Black residents are “housing cost burdened” with little money to invest in their families and futures, including 64% of Black renter households.

Commentary Letters

Among Latino renter households, 58% are burdened by housing costs.

The proposed constitutional amendment would help reverse these trends.

It would require the government to respect the right to housing by not interfering with it. So, if a local government passes zoning laws that prevent the construction of affordable housing, it would be in violation of the amendment and the courts could intervene.

It would create an obligation to protect the right to housing from third-party threats. Consider the current financialization of our housing stock which treats our homes solely as a commodity — divorced from any obligation to keep people safe and secure. The constitutional amendment would require the government to regulate third-party profiteers, which could mean rent control, ensuring habitable conditions, tenant protections from harassment, a right to counsel in eviction proceedings, and other guardrails to keep people in their homes.

Finally, the constitutional amendment would establish a government obligation to fulfill this new right by enacting policies and budgetary allocations to ensure that all Californians have secure housing. That means scaling the solutions that we know work such as vouchers, creating social housing outside of the private market, converting government-owned vacant lots into public housing and more.

A constitutional amendment wouldn’t end the housing crisis overnight. But it would require the government to raise as many resources as possible for housing without undermining the long-term viability of the economy.

Translation: Steady progress and the primacy of every individual’s right to housing.

— Michael Tubbs is the founder of End Poverty in California and the senior fellow for the Rosenberg Foundation. He is a special advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom and former mayor of Stockton. He wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's Capitol works and why it matters.

Where is the level playing field?

Transgender women competing against bio logical (cisgender) females in athletic competi tions has been controversial for nearly 50 years. It recently drew the ire of many when Austin Killips, a 27-year-old trans woman, won a high-level UCI stage race in New Mexico in April.

The rules set by the Union Cycliste Internationale require transgender women to take injections that suppress their testosterone levels to no higher than 2.5 nanomoles per liter for two years prior to competing in female events.

A normal biological male has from 10 to 35 nmol/L; a biological female 0.5 to 2.4 nmol/L of testosterone. In other words, the amount of this naturally occurring hormone hugely favors males. That is part of the reason the very best female athletes cannot win competitions with the best men.

The sex difference is clearly seen in sports that take speed, power or endurance. A 2018 study demonstrated the distinction comparing the best times for women and men in the world in 2017 in track events from 100 to 5,000 meters and in jumping events.

In the 100 meters, for example, the fastest woman that year, 10.71 seconds, was 1.02 seconds slower than the fastest male. If that elite female who ran the fastest time were competing against men, she would have been beaten by 2,474 different men. Her best time would have been defeated 10,009 times in 2017.

In the 5,000 meters, the fastest man was 1 minute 23.14 seconds faster. The best male pole vaulter cleared a height 1.09 meters higher than the top female in that event.

Let them down easy

As far as I know, Killips, who started racing bicycles four years ago, never competed against men when she was a biological male. She did, however, go through puberty as a male and, as a result of that, grew to be bigger, taller, stronger and faster than she would have had she had testosterone levels in the female range from age 10-16.

As a consequence of post-pubescent development, men typically have larger muscles, more fast-twitch muscles, denser bones and higher fractions of lean body mass than women. Males also have larger hearts. A study published by the NIH notes this: “The smaller female heart, pumping less blood with each beat, needs to beat at a faster rate to match the larger male heart’s output.”

In endurance sports, men also have an advantage due to a roughly 10% higher maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) rates. An NIH study explains, “We can think of VO2 as the ability for oxygen delivery to, and utilization by, the muscles during exercise. As intensity approaches maximal levels, VO2 reaches a plateau unaffected by further increases in exercise intensity.”

So even if a biological male transitions to being female and takes drugs that suppress her testosterone levels to 2.5 nmol/L or less, it seems reasonable to guess that trans

I have been giving much thought to the tragedy in Davis which happened recently, and what could be done in the future, to address the procedure utilized to inform a student they have not adequately performed to continue.

I am not sure how colleges and universities handle the separation process now, but here are suggestions I have thought about.

When a college student is told he has flunked out, it would be wise to convey the message in person! Not with a cold impersonal letter.

A spiritual counselor, as part of the procedure, should be present, to offer support and encouragement. For many students, it is the death of their cherished plans for the future!

It is important to be sensitive, and caring, and compassionate, when delivering the news.

It is important to be prepared, after research, as to whether the student can, through city college courses, eventually return to original major. If not possible, then search alternative areas, to suggest, utilizing what he has already achieved in his successful classes.

In other words, continue to show value to the student and what they have been able to, and still can, accomplish.

Encourage the student to try to take some time to recoup, and consider a positive course of action to pursue.

Also, ask if they have someone to talk to. Offer to call a family member, or friend, to come and accompany them home.

If they have no one, a volunteer peer, who could comfortably reach out, to offer to accompany them home, would help.

It is a frightening time for the student. They may flunk out, but need encouragement more than ever, not abandonment. Make the goal that they leave with hope, not in total despair.

Susie Aronson Sacramento

Speak out

President

female would still have an advantage competing in sports against cisgender women.

Unfortunately, at this point, that hypothesis is not scientifically proven one way or the other. It’s largely conjecture.

What we do know in a very limited sample is that when male athletes have become transgender women, they can move from being moderately successful to elite.

Richard Raskind was the first famous case in point. As a male, Raskind was a good college tennis player at Yale University, won singles and doubles titles in the U.S. Navy and had some success competing against men professionally. He was never in the top 100 male tennis players. But at age 41, Raskind had sex reassignment surgery and became Renée Richards in 1975. It took two more years (following lawsuits) to allow Richards, an ophthalmologist, to play in women’s professional tennis tournaments.

Despite being in her mid40s, Richards, who was still banned from many events, rose to the 20th ranked woman tennis player in the world. She reached the doubles final at the U.S. Open in 1977, losing to a team featuring Martina Navratilova.

Navratilova, who is gay, has come under fire for opining that trans females should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. She has said she thinks their biological advantages amount to cheating. For expressing that opinion, several transgender advocates have said Navratilova is “transphobic.”

Navratilova first weighed into this issue in a Times of London op-ed in 2019. When

Bike swap another success

A big thank you to all who helped at the César Chávez Elementary 10th annual Citywide Bike Swap Event on Sunday, April 23. It was our biggest year yet and continues to be a win-win situation for those who consigned bikes, donated bikes, or bought bikes at the Swap.

More than 400 bikes and bike-related items consigned or donated, the majority of which sold — all for great prices! The CCE Bike Swap is a true community effort with local business support from several starting with Winston from Davis Bikes & Skateboards adjusting bikes and answering questions, Maria from The Bike Campaign sharing bike safety and maintenance tips, Davis Cyclery consigning bike lights and bike locks for us to sell (which the school received a percentage of), and Davis Freewheeler and Ken's Bike, Ski, & Board, along with the previous mentioned bike shops, offering discount tune-ups to folks that bought bikes at the Swap.

We continued to expand the Bike Swap again this year to make it a fundraiser for other Davis schools so Bike Swap volunteer support came from parents and

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

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/

Lia Thomas — who was born male and competed in men’s swimming at the University of Pennsylvania before transitioning to female — won the women’s NCAA 500 yard freestyle championship a year ago, Navratilova opined that was unfair to the biological females in the race.

Thomas was a good swimmer as a 6-foot-1 biological male. He was ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1,650 freestyle. But he was not close to being a champion.

Then Thomas underwent hormone replacement therapy, declared herself a trans woman and began her rise to the top.

When Austin Killips won the Tour of Gila bike race, Navratilova and many other professional women athletes said Killips ought not be allowed to compete. Former world champion cyclist Alison Sydor tweeted, “The current UCI rules that allow males to compete in female cycling events are not fair to female athletes.”

Hannah Arensman, a 35-time winner on the cyclocross circuit, chose to retire from her sport after losing to Killips. Arensman said, “… a man with the unfair advantage of an androgenized body that intrinsically gives him an obvious advantage over me, no matter how hard I train.”

Even though the science is not yet definitive, I agree with Navratilova that anyone who goes through puberty as a male should not compete in women’s sports. Trans athletes ought to be allowed to contest an “open” category.

— Rich Rifkin is a Davis resident; his column is published every other week. Reach him at Lxartist@ yahoo.com.

students of Chávez, Emerson, Korematsu, North Davis, Pioneer, Harper, Davis High and Willett schools. We also had mechanical support from the Davis Composite Mountain Biking Team and organizational support from Golden Valley 4H Club who both made the CCE Bike Swap their April community service project. We also had the City of Davis Safe Routes to School Coordinator Daniela Tavares busy registering bikes into the city's bike index system at the Swap.

Lastly, a huge thank you to Davis Bike Club and Ink Monkey for their continued support with canopies and signage. And, of course, Davis Enterprise for helping us get the word out on this citywide, annual event.

All profits support César Chávez Elementary Spanish Immersion Parent and Teachers (SIPAT) as well as participating school PTA programs. Thank you again to all who made this continuing event so successful and so fun by either consigning a bike, donating a bike or buying a bike. It's a great way to recycle your bicycle! Hope to see you again next year!

Jill Bonner César Chávez Elementary Bike Swap coordinator

By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

To place a classified ad, visit https://www.davisenterprise.com/submit-ad/ To submit an obituary, visit https://www.davisenterprise.com/obit-form/ To submit a legal notice, email a copy to legals@davisenterprise.com For questions, call Shawn at 530-747-8061.

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PETITION requests

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THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with full authority (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action ) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an o bjection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority

A HEARING on the petition will be held on 06/09/2023 at 9:00

AM in Dept 14 located at 1000 MAIN STREET WOODLAND CA 95695 YOLO COUNTY COURTHOUSE

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issu-

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Scope of Work

The Scope of Work will consist of all work shown on Laugenour and Meikle drawings dated 3-28-23 This work includes b u t i s n o t l i m i t e d t o r e l o c a t i n g a n d r e fu r b i s h i n g a n e x i s ti n g s t o r m d r a i n p u m p a n d i n s t a l l i n g a n e w p u m p w i t h i d e n t i c a l capabilities so that these pumps can alternate as a duplex installation or possibly both run in extreme cases Each pump w i l l h a v e v a r i a b l e f r e q u e n c y d r iv e s c o n t r o l l e d b y Y a s k a w a controllers There will be a new steel platform installed over an existing concrete basin where the pumps shall be mounted to Preliminary investigations show that the existing

Madison Migrant Center RFP 23-002: Ramp Replacement/Construction Request for Proposals

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Migrant Center Sites • Madison Migrant Center 29289 State Highway 16, Madison, California 95653 48 Buildings 86 rentable units

Timeline The following have for project completion:

May 15 2023 Proposal Advertised

May 26, 2023 Site Walk at Madison Center @ 10 am

May 31 2023 Final Day for questions

June 02 2023 Final Addendum posted to YCHA website

June 09, 2023 Proposals Due via email or hand delivered

June 12-23 2023 OMS approval

June 23 2023 Notice to proceed

Nov 13 2023 Construction begin

Minimum Standards for RFP Referenced in Attachment A Please ensure that every component of the Minimum Standards is addressed in the proposal, so as not to be disqualified for missing items

Pre-Proposal Site Visit A pre-proposal site visit is scheduled for Friday May 26 2023 between 10:00 am and 11:00 am at Madison Migrant Center 29289 State Highway 16 Madison

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The Scope of Work for this project is to provide the removal a n d r e p l a c e m e n t o f r a m p s a n d i n s t a l l a t i o n o f s i

Zhang advances to NorCal golfing tournament

Enterprise staff

Andre Zhang and Ryan Firpo had solid performances for the Davis High boys golf team at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Championships at The Reserve in Stockton on Monday.

Zhang finished with a 69 score during the par 72 course.

Zhang’s score advances him to the California Interscholastic Federation

NorCal Tournament, which will be held at Berkeley Country Club on Monday, May 22.

“He had three birdies and no bogies to complete a very fine round in a tough

field,” said Davis head coach Kelly Hammond.

Firpo had a 73 score at the Masters.

DHS track and field

The Davis High boys and girls track and field teams finished in the top five at the section’s Division I Championship at Folsom High on Friday.

The Blue Devil boys took third place with 61 points. Delta League rival Jesuit was second at 90,5 points and Whitney of Rocklin ran away with first place at 96.5.

The Davis girls finished in fourth place

with 61 points. Rocklin was third at 64, St. Mary’s second at 71.5 and Whitney also winning with a whopping 110 points.

Results of Blue Devils advancing to the section’s Masters Championship, which the DHS track and field program will hosting this Friday and Saturday, will appear in a story online and print in Friday’s edition.

UC Davis baseball

HONOLULU, Hawaii — The UC Davis baseball team had a tough showing in the series finale against the Hawaii Rainbow

BENNETTS: ‘They should have every bit of confidence’

From Page B1

The fact that DHS has placed among the top five high school girls swimming team in California for a second consecutive year in a row is something Crow and her swimmers are happy to have accomplished post-pandemic.

“We were pretty stoked about it,” said Crow of the Blue Devils placing in the top five again. “Going into it, we weren’t really sure how we were going to place. There were a couple of girls that had illnesses and stuff into states. So, it was just a little bit stressed going in, but we ended

being really strong in almost every event that we swam.”

Boys

Brennan Fuchslin, a junior, took eighth place in the 200-freestyle race with an even time of 1:39.00. He had a preliminary time of 1:39.24.

“He went into the meet very relaxed,” said Davis head coach Tracy Stapleton of Fuchslin. “He improved his time in the prelims from his time at the (Sac-Joaquin) sections a week ago. Each swim, over the last week, was just slightly better.”

The 400 freestyle relay

team of Fuchslin, John Doughty, Issac Carsel and Remo Mann took first place in the consolation championships, ninth place overall, with a time of 3:05.56 on Saturday. That is an automatic allAmerican time.

The Blue Devils’ quartet recorded a preliminary time of 3:07.26. “What we saw was a desire to compete,” Stapleton said. “They are some very, very strong swimmers there. Today, they felt free just to go out and compete hard.”

Mann, only a sophomore, took 10th place in the 100 breaststroke at 55.83 seconds. In the pre-

liminary heats on Friday, he was clocked at 56.27.

“I think that these athletes, no question, that they have a very bright future,” Stapleton said. “They should have every bit of confidence that if they dedicate themselves to training, that they can be back at this meet next year. I think we’re going to see people approach the meet with a different set of eyes.”

The Blue Devils took 19th place as a team with 34 points.

The 2022 DHS boys squad took 15th place with 49 points.

Warriors, who posted a 7-2 win on Sunday.

Hawaii beat the Aggies in all three games. The Rainbow Warriors outscored UCD (7-17 in the Big West Conference, 17-30 overall) 23-8. The scores of Friday’s game had the Rainbow Warriors posting an 11-3 win.

The host squad jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the second inning.

Mark Wolbert went 2-for-3 for UCD.

Nick Iverson had a double and an RBI and drove in one of the Aggies’ two runs.

James Williams III also had a solid game, recording a hit and an RBI.

WEST: Brown ERA 1.73

From Page B1

Brown, another junior, earns first-team accolades for the third straight season. Brown ranks third in ERA (1.73), and strikeouts (146) and is tied for second in wins (16) in the conference.

The Elk Grove native also broke the record of 53 career complete games and is one victory away from passing the mark of 47 wins.

Sarah Starks, also a

junior, nabbed allconference honors for the second time in her career as she was named to the second team.

Starks is hitting .299 with 13 doubles, three home runs and a teamleading 30 RBI.

The Gilroy native is just behind Dethlefson in the single-season doubles record and is just two RBI shy from breaking the UCD Division I career RBI record of 91.

AGGIES: Invitation only

From Page B1

A committee determined the invitationonly field using NCAA Softball Final RPI, win/ loss record, last 10 games played, key injuries or additions, consideration of teams with 30+ wins, and other pertinent information gathered on

all considered teams.

The tournament will be a double-elimination tournament played over consecutive days. The tournament concludes with a four-team single elimination championship bracket. All games will be streamed on FloSoftball, subscription required.

Davis High remembers Karim Abou Najm

By Sean CampBell & leyla Bolkan

HUB Staff

Karl Franz, an emperor and military leader in the video game Warhammer, told his troops, “if we die, we will die wielding our swords, for there is no better death for a warrior. We will sit at Sigmar’s banquet like the heroes of old and our names will be remembered in the songs of our people till the end of time!”

In his 2020 yearbook, Karim Abou Najm used Franz’s saying as his senior quote to not only express the finality of graduating high school, but to lead him and his fellow seniors into the rest of their lives.

However, Karim’s life was cut short when on April 29 he was stabbed to death while riding his bike near Sycamore Park.

The Davis community hosted a “celebration of life ceremony” on May 5 at UC Davis where Karim’s mother Nadine Abou Najm mourned her son and thanked the community for its support.

“In the last five days our family and community experienced the worst and the best of humanity,” Nadine said.

UC Davis’ International Center overflowed with community members who paid their respects to Karim and his grieving family and celebrated Karim and everything he stood for.

“(He’d let me know) how much better you were than you, he let me know that I was much better than I thought I was,” Karim’s best friend Aman Ganapathy said. “He taught me how to live.”

During his two years at DHS, Karim was involved in both model UN and culture club. DHS class of 2021 graduate Emily Chapman was in the culture club with Karim in both 2019 and 2020.

“His death crushed us, devastated our community, and created shockwaves across the world”

Chapman was not only shocked to have her high school friend killed so suddenly, but also the fact that it happened in the small “bubble-like town” that she grew up in.

DHS class of 2022 graduate Andrea Leung’s world was rocked when she heard about her high school friend’s death.

“He was really smart and a tad bit goofy and he had a great path ahead of him with graduating early and all. It’s so unfair. I am literally at a loss for words,” Leung said in a statement to the HUB. “Rest in peace Karim, we will always remember you in our hearts.”

Davis High French teacher James Curley had Karim for French 4 in 2020.

“Karim was an academically gifted student, an honest person, and mature in his worldview for someone his age. I thought to myself, ‘he will likely succeed in whatever personal goals he sets forth,” Curley said in a statement to the HUB.

Karim was only 20 years old and was on pace to graduate in three years with a degree in computer science from UC Davis just weeks after his death. Karim’s father Majdi Abou Najm said that his biggest regret was not saying “I love you” more to Karim before his passing.

“Forgive me, Karim, While I said the words ‘I love you’ to you many times in my mind, I did not say it out loud,” Majdi said.

In order to ensure that nobody in the audience would have to have the same regrets as him, Majdi instructed the crowd to call their loved ones and tell them “I love you.”

“Take it from a devastated father, don’t take love for granted,” Majdi said.

“He was a comet blazing brightly, his journey went beyond us all. He moved so fast and burned so bright”

Community mourns David Breaux and his legacy of compassion

David Breaux was the first victim of a string of stabbings that horrified Davis. Breaux was a longtime Davis resident who inspired many people with his quiet emphasis on showing compassion to all. His “compassion bench” in the corner of 3rd and C Streets still overflows with flowers and notes nearly three weeks after his death.

Aman Ganapathy Karim’s friend

Majdi Abou Najm Karim’s father

“It was just really heartbreaking to hear. It’s just he was such a good guy. So it was really just really sad to hear. ”

Emily Chapman Karim’s high school peer

Photo/DhS yearbook

During his two years at DHS Karim was involved in both model UN and culture club and was beloved by many teachers and students.

“David was pillar— no I think he really was a beacon.”

Robb Davis

Former Mayor

“David may have not had a house here in Davis, but he had a home ... in everybody’s heart.”

Brennan Bird Bench Designer

“Sometimes we move through the world so quickly, and his presence would slow you down and draw you in.”

Gloria Partida City Council member

Max DaviS-houSefielD/hub Photo