The Davis Enterprise Friday, May 19, 2023

A Cold Shot of rock ’n’ roll

It wasn’t all rainbows at City Council meeting

By Monica Stark Enterprise staff writer

Donning colorful clothing and holding signs at Tuesday’s Davis City Council meeting, members of the LGBTQ+ community and the Davis Phoenix Coalition gathered to show their support of the transgender community, drag shows, and the upcoming Davis Pride Festival, which will be held on Sunday, June 4 in Central Park.

As the queer community and supporters prepare to celebrate Pride Month (June), the Davis Phoenix Coalition received a proclamation on LGBTQ Month for June so that the city can put up pride banners and the pride flag at City Hall.

Sandré Henriquez Nelson, Pride Festival director, speaking with The Enterprise before the council meeting, worried that members of Moms of Liberty, a conservative “parents’ rights” group, were likely to attend the celebratory meeting. “They’re really just kind of bothering (Councilwoman) Gloria (Partida) because they feel that DPC is pushing a sexual ideology agenda and that we’re trying

See MEETING, Page A5

Allen formally makes supervisor bid

Enterprise staff

Sheila Allen, a former Davis school board trustee who now serves as Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza’s deputy and as executive director of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance, has officially announced her campaign for Yolo County Supervisor, District 4.

The primary election will be in March of 2024.

Allen and her husband, Mitch Sutter, originally moved to Davis to raise their family. “Sheila immediately became active in the community and has been an energetic and effective advocate over the years,” a statement from her campaign said.

Winters councilman denies guilt in weapon charges

ALLEN

Running for District 4 seat

She has a doctorate in nursing with a focus on public health policy from UC San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in nursing with a focus on community health from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

“I am excited to bring my nearly three decades of successful local experience supporting Davis families, a rich understanding of the community I love, and a tenacious optimism to

county-level decision-making,” Allen said. “My passion and life’s work are to bring people together to address local problems and needs. I care about and have served the youngest to the oldest in our community. As we plan for our future, we always have to remember that our choices impact residents’ day-to-day lives, and that is really what matters.

Allen was a founding member of Yolo First 5, a Davis School Board Trustee for nine years, served as president of the Yolo County School Board Association, has run several successful ballot measures in

See ALLEN, Page A5

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

A Winters city councilman facing felony weapon charges pleaded not guilty to the allegations Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court.

Richard Thomas Casavecchia appeared in Judge Tom Dyer’s courtroom via Zoom, as did his attorney Michael Wise, who requested a June 7 court date for setting a preliminary hearing in the case.

“I did want to see if we could resolve it before we set it,” Wise said.

Casavecchia, 39, remains free on his own

recognizance in the meantime.

Dyer also granted Wednesday a motion by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office to file an amended complaint in the case, adding two counts of possessing an assault rifle to a previous misdemeanor charge of possessing an unserialized firearm.

CASAVECCHIA Pleads not guilty

See CHARGES, Page A5

EntErprisE photo

WEndy WEitzEl/CourtE sy photo

For the record

Sunday’s skin-care column by Rebecca Lobo should have said: “Most cosmeceuticals are effective in helping you temporarily achieve an illusion, the unrealistic and unsustainable definition of beauty as a young and flawlesslooking.”

Wednesday’s Community Calendar had the wrong time for the Davis High School Baroque Ensemble concert on May 20. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the performances begins at 3 p.m. at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall, 315 W. 14 St. in Davis. The Enterprise regrets the error. See page B2 for more on this concert.

About us

We can all appreciate real estate

Home again, home again. Yes, it seems the biggest divider between the Haves and the Have Nots in our town and elsewhere is who owns a home and who doesn’t.

One newspaper headline the other day stated boldly, “Good News — Home Prices Shooting Up Again.”

I guess that’s good news if you’re a homeowner looking to sell your residence and retire in Tillamook, but not so good news if you’re on the outside looking in.

Some of Davis’ earliest tract homes built in the early 1950s carried price tags around $10,000. Thirty-year mortgages made them affordable for just about anyone with a regular job, white collar, blue collar or no collar at all.

Still, my favorite part of the newspaper, besides “Humble Pie” and “Comings and Goings,” is that special real estate section that has such wonderful descriptions of the many homes for sale in town.

Trust me, I’ve never seen any home described as “A real dog in a bad neighborhood, complete with leaky roof, clogged gutters and oil stains on the driveway.”

Nope, these real estate folks can take a 3-bedroom, 1-bath, 75-year-old East Davis starter

home and turn it into a “Central Davis Charmer.”

If a yard needs pruning, it’s described as having “mature landscaping.”

Roof rats and squirrels in the attic will turn a home into a “haven for wildlife,” even as they devour every bit of electrical wiring in the home.

A “Handyman’s Delight” is actually a “Handyman’s Nightmare,” no matter what the accompanying photo seems to indicate.

People no longer live on deadend streets. Nowadays, homes are “nestled on a charming cul-de-sac.”

All cul-de-sacs, it seems, are “quiet,” even if every home has been turned into a 10-bedroom UC Davis student mini-dorm with 24-hour-a-day beer pong being played with red Solo cups in the front yard.

Everything is near “schools,

Dodd’s campus safety bill clears Senate

Enterprise staff

FAIRFIELD — The state Senate this week approved legislation that would “improve traffic safety in the use of personal transportation devices such as electric scooters, hoverboards and Segways on university campuses.”

“There’s now a proliferation of electric devices on our campuses that travel at high speeds and operate silently, providing little to no warning to pedestrians and motorists,” state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, the bill’s author, said in a statement.

For example, UC Davis has reported an increase in crashes and, last year, a student was killed while

riding a personal electric device.

“To address this emerging technology, we must expand the authority of public colleges to set commonsense rules and regulations. Senate approval of this measure will help keep our communities safe,” Dodd stated.

Senate Bill 295 establishes rules and regulations for the use and storage of “personal-assistive mobility devices” on its campuses. It also would allow for the operation of small, fuelefficient work vehicles on campus roads.

The measure could apply to other public agencies.

The bill next goes to the Assembly for consideration.

Child hurt in school mishap

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

A brief mishap outside an East Davis school caused minor injuries to an 8-year-old child Wednesday, Davis police said.

Lt. James MacNiven said a woman picking up a child from Holmes Junior High School on Drexel Drive with her grandson "misplaced her foot and reversed her vehicle," briefly pinning the 8-year-old between her car and another vehicle at the legs.

Emergency personnel transported the child to an area hospital for evaluation, MacNiven said.

parks, shopping and a stone’s throw from downtown Davis and the UC Davis campus,” even if a Major League outfielder couldn’t throw a stone that far.

Lots are always described in “acres,” though most are far less than an acre. As in “.14 acres,” which might convince the mathematically challenged that the back yard is 10 times bigger than it actually is.

Larger homes are invariably an “Entertainer’s Paradise,” as if mature adults with real jobs have nothing better to do with their lives than party day and night.

One recent home of just over 1,000 square feet nevertheless appears to have a burgeoning Farmers Market exploding in the backyard, which includes “handpicked beautiful roses, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, orange, mandarin, pomegranate, cherry, peach and lemon trees.” Even Adam and Eve would be happy here.

Many homes include the illdefined “bonus room,” which is apparently where the family gathers to watch “Jeopardy.”

All homes have kitchens, but when the “FOR SALE” sign goes up in the front yard, it’s suddenly a

“gourmet kitchen.”

Neighborhoods are without question “desirable,” “stunning,” “breathtaking” or a “best kept secret,” offering homes that are an “oasis,” an “escape” or a “sanctuary.”

“Rare finds” and “unique opportunities” abound.

One such home was described as having “very spacious bedrooms, very mature landscaping and located at the very end of the street.”

Very, very, very special indeed.

Another feature-laden home in a “coveted neighborhood” was described as “exquisite, stunning, striking, vibrant, remarkable, impressive, abundant, fabulous, incredible and inspired.”

Great stuff, but I’m not sure I could ever rest my dirty feet on the coffee table and fully unwind in such a world of wonderment.

Crown moulding is another plus, which I guess is better than having moldy crowns.

Recently I came across an ad for a home with “trellises laden with eating grapes.”

I don’t know what those grapes are eating, but if there’s an open house, I’m staying clear.

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net.

Police investigate Woodland school worker for ‘inappropriate contact’

By Lauren Keene

Enterprise staff writer

Woodland police are investigating allegations of inappropriate conduct involving a former Woodland Christian School employee and high schoolaged students.

Sgt. Victoria Danzl said the investigation stems from a report made on the evening of May 11, “regarding inappropriate off-campus contact between an adult female employee (not a teacher) and one or more high school students.” No arrest had been made as of Wednesday afternoon.

“It is of the utmost importance for us to thoroughly collect any and all

evidence and thoroughly investigate this incident,” Danzl said of the ongoing investigation.

Ryan Devine, a Woodland Christian School administrator, sent an email Tuesday to the parents of middle- and highschool students, notifying them that the employee is no longer employed at the school.

“The law protects minors from inappropriate behavior by adults, so the students involved in this alleged incident are legally victims and must be treated as such,” Devine said, adding that the campus brought in pastors and counselors to support students who wish to talk about the matter.

Asked for additional comment Wednesday, Devine emphasized that “the alleged incident was immediately reported to law enforcement, the employee is no longer associated with the school, and our focus is on supporting our students and their families.”

Located on Matmor Road, Woodland Christian School was founded in 1974 and offers programs for students from preschool age through high school. Anyone with additional information about this investigation is asked to contact the Woodland Police Department at 530661-7800.

Aguiar-Curry hosts Giffords film screening

Enterprise staff

Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, will host a free community film screening of “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back down” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at the Varsity Theatre, 612 Second St. in downtown Davis.

“Join me in viewing this incredible documentary about former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her

relentless fight to recover following an assassination attempt in 2011, and her new life as one of the most effective activists in the battle against gun violence,” Aguiar-Curry said in a statement.

A Q&A with guest speakers will follow to discuss gun-violence prevention. Seating is limited; reserve a ticket at https://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicL CMS/rsvp_main.strict=AD4&rsvp=1390.

a hostage’: Why COVID unemployment mess isn’t over yet

By Lauren Helper CalMatters

It’s been 22 months and three unemployment appeals since Nicolas Allen’s last job in Fresno.

In the time it has taken the 44-year-old graphic designer to win a fraction of the benefits that he applied for, his wife has weathered a high-risk pregnancy, his youngest son was born and his family has been pushed to the financial brink.

Now, Allen is one of thousands of Californians who say they lost jobs due to the pandemic, but are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide. It’s a ripple effect of earlier benefit backlogs that ensnared some 5 million people at the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which officials have said was unprepared and overwhelmed by mass job losses.

Those caught up in payment disputes say they have struggled with debt, housing and necessities like food or health care. Meanwhile, no one is publicly tracking how much appeals cases and lawsuits might end up costing workers or taxpayers in a state that still owes the federal government nearly $19 billion in unemployment debt.

“It’s easier to not think the money’s there,” Allen said. “Because if I worry about it too much, it’s too painful.”

The EDD has paid out $188 billion in unemployment benefits since the first pandemic shutdowns. State and federal officials waived many ordinary application requirements as millions of claims flooded in, and the agency has acknowledged that up to $31 billion was paid to scammers in the rush to distribute money quickly.

Along the way, state watchdogs say up to 1 million workers were wrongly denied benefits — many mistakenly flagged for committing fraud themselves.

“Accusing people of fraud is a big deal,” said George Warner, director of the Wage Protection Program at San Francisco’s Legal Aid at Work. “And the EDD does it very casually, very frequently.”

The biggest logjam of contested unemployment cases lies in a state appeals process, where more than 1 million workers have asked for a review of EDD’s decisions in their cases since March 2020. About 880,000 of those cases have already been transferred and heard by a lesser-known state labor agency, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, where the average case is still languishing for 139 days before a hearing with a judge, federal data shows.

Dozens of workers who have exhausted this state process have elevated their claims even further, to appellate or superior courts. Finally, advocacy groups and hundreds more workers have joined proposed class-action lawsuits against the EDD or its debit card contractor, Bank of America.

Both the EDD and the Appeals Board refused requests for interviews to discuss workers’ concerns and state efforts to respond.

The agencies also referred some inquiries to one another or offered conflicting answers, raising questions about how delays and associated costs are being tracked.

Gregory Crettol, assistant director of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, told CalMatters in a statement that the Appeals Board has hired and trained 105 judges and 100 new support staffers since the onset of the pandemic.

The board is also rolling out a new online system for workers to track their cases, and officials said at an April meeting that judges are now closing almost twice as many cases per month as pre-pandemic.

Still, “Given the historic backlog of appeals,” Crettol said in a statement, the Appeals Board “anticipates it will likely take several more years to completely resolve before workload returns to normal levels.”

Unemployment cases are complex and vary widely, but workers awaiting disputed funds have faced similarly dire challenges. A 33-year-old video editor in Burbank had to create a GoFundMe to restart her life during a gender transition. A security guard In L.A. County worried whether fellow workers still seeking unemployment would end up in the homeless camps he once patrolled. A 62-year-old temp worker in Sacramento spent months terrified she’d lose her car, and a legal office manager in Southern California filed for food stamps and MediCal to survive an appeal with no end in sight.

“I really feel like I’m a hostage,” said the office manager, who asked to be identified only as Carole M. and has been awaiting an appeal hearing since November. “I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?’”

Fraud fury

Like many of California’s COVID-era unemployment challenges, slow and unwieldy payment disputes aren’t new. But the pandemic did two things: unleash an unprecedented flood of 29 million jobless claims, and supercharge anxiety about a new generation of online fraud.

Rival politicians have seized on jobless claims filed in the name of death row inmates and YouTube rappers bragging about EDDfueled spending sprees. Investigators attribute the bulk of pandemic unemployment fraud to organized identity theft. Unemployment attorneys, meanwhile, say they’re seeing regular workers who thought they were eligible for benefits disqualified — and sometimes charged with lying — in cases that can sometimes be explained by confusion about state forms, clerical errors, language barriers or disagreements between workers and employers.

“It’s so wrong,” said Assaf

Lichtash, founding attorney of Los Angeles-based Pershing Square Law Firm.

“The way I see it, the EDD is punishing regular civilians that are just filing for benefits who make honest mistakes — they’re punishing them for their failure to safeguard the money from fraudsters.”

State reports have also highlighted a disconnect between the EDD’s hamfisted approach to largescale fraud and what some say seems like a hair-trigger impulse to flag individual workers. Organized scammers evaded the agency’s automated application systems early in the pandemic, one September 2020 report by a governorappointed EDD Strike Team found, while the vast majority of individual workers scrutinized in manual reviews appeared to be innocent.

“Processes intended to block fraud are slowing service delivery without catching fraud,” the Strike Team wrote, since just .02% of the 1.3 million cases flagged that summer appeared to be real fraud.

“The cost of finding that small number of imposters is extremely high.”

A separate report last August by the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that, during the pandemic, state appeals judges overturned EDD unemployment denials up to 80% of the time. That report highlighted another sample of 1.1 million unemployment claims stopped due to fraud concerns by an EDD consultant early in the pandemic, where at least 600,000 cases were later “confirmed as legitimate” and workers saw payments needlessly delayed.

Even before COVID upended the job market, the Analyst’s Office estimated that improper unemployment denials cost workers $500 million to $1 billion a year in unpaid benefits. The agency also noted “concerning steps” at EDD in recent years that “suggest that ensuring eligible workers get benefits is not among its top priorities.”

The EDD refused to discuss its approach to appeals during the pandemic. Over the past three years, the agency has invested heavily in new anti-fraud technology and sought federal waivers for some workers who may have received extra federal pandemic unemployment funds “through no fault of their own.”

For workers who still want to fight an unemployment case, the first step is

to notify the EDD in writing. The EDD then transfers the case to a local office of the Appeals Board, which schedules a hearing with an administrative judge. If a worker or business still feels that their case is unresolved, they can file another appeal with the state-level office of the Appeals Board, or eventually escalate the case to a superior or appellate court.

As of March, the average first-level appeals case with a judge was taking 139 days — a lag not as extreme as some other states, U.S. Department of Labor data shows, but still roughly triple the federal government’s 30and 45-day targets for state unemployment appeals.

This kind of surge is predictable after a recession; the Appeals Board heard about 1.6 million cases in the years around the Great Recession, Crettol said. But workers like Allen, the Fresno graphic designer, have seen first-hand how pandemic cases can be complicated by heightened focus on fraud and differing interpretations of emergency health orders.

In Allen’s case, he told state officials that he quit his job in July 2021, when the Delta variant of the coronavirus was raging and his wife was instructed not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 while navigating a high-risk pregnancy. Since health precautions like masking were not strictly enforced at his inperson job as a sign installer, Allen wrote in a state appeals filing, he quit “to eliminate the risk of bringing COVID-19 home.”

One unemployment payment arrived, but then the money stopped.

“I was told that it had been reported that it was a fraudulent claim,” Allen said. “Because my former employer was claiming that I quit without cause.”

So began an odyssey that involved months of arguing about pandemic protocols, clerical confusion over a brief freelance gig and paperwork ping-ponging between the EDD and the Appeals Board. After the second appeal, a state judge awarded Allen about six

weeks out of the six months of benefits he applied for — securing around $3,000 of the $10,000 he sought, not counting potential federal unemployment supplements available during the pandemic — but denied the rest after questioning how actively he was seeking work while caring for two children under age 2.

Across the state, some 170,000 other appeals cases are still pending, according to the most recent data reported by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Crettol said the Appeals Board is encouraged that new appeals have started to decline in recent months, and cited a lower state count of 154,000 backlogged cases through the end of March — a discrepancy that he said stems from differences in how state and federal numbers are reported due to funding sources and EDD processing times.

The EDD said in a statement to CalMatters that it sends cases to the Appeals Board in an average of three days. The Appeals Board offered a conflicting number: that it receives about two-thirds of appeals within a week after an appeal is filed, which Crettol said could differ due to how the two agencies track processing times. Neither agency regularly tracks the “monetary value” of appeals cases, or how much the state is being awarded or ordered to pay, spokespeople said. For workers like Allen caught in the fray, the price of being caught up in the confusion has been high. His family slashed expenses like cable TV and was able to refinance their house, which they credit with avoiding falling behind on the mortgage. But Allen said they were still forced to borrow money from family and take on credit card debt,

putting everyday luxuries like a dinner at a restaurant with their kids out of reach.

“It’s horrible. I mean, we’re living off my paycheck,” said Allen’s wife, Sharon, who works in human resources. “We’ve almost divorced a few times because of it.”

A path for reform?

In many ways, unemployment advocates like Jenna Gerry say the pandemic has shone “a spotlight” on chronic problems with the state’s job safety net, from worker confusion over benefit denials to delays at EDD to inconsistent anti-fraud efforts.

The question she and others are asking now is whether state officials will act to change the system that has once again gone haywire, or whether workers caught up in pandemic disputes will be left to bear the brunt of the confusion.

“It was a perfect storm,” said Gerry, a senior staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. “Instead of being like, ‘Wow, that was really bad. How do we make reforms now?’ … all people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.”

The biggest underlying issue, Gerry said, is that millions of California workers — such as gig workers, undocumented workers and others in tenuous hourly positions — aren’t eligible for normal unemployment benefits. That was why the federal government started emergency jobless programs like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. But subsequent high rates of fraud in the emergency program have complicated conversations at the federal and state levels about whether to make elements of the program permanent to cover more workers.

Larry VaLenzueL a, CaLMatters/CatChLight LoCaL photo

Nicolas and Sharon Allen play with their two sons in their playroom in their home in Fresno on April 10.

Storks — fly with the bird and the myth

By Sara Thompson Special to the Enterprise

Storks are long. Longlegged, long necked, and have a long bill. Their long legs help them with wading around shallow water, their long necks and long bills help them catch their prey. Storks are fully carnivorous, feeding on small reptiles, fish, frogs, small mammals, and any other small animals that will fit in its mouth.

There are about twenty different stork species in the world. The smallest stork, Abdim’s stork, is about two and half feet long, weighs about 2 pounds, and lives in Africa. The largest stork, the Marabou, weight nearly 20 pounds, measures around 5 feet in length, but its wingspan is almost 10 feet wide!

The most commonly depicted stork is the white stork, whose size is slightly smaller than the Marabou, and is found mostly in Europe.

Although storks and cranes look a lot alike, they are separate species. There are several differences

between the two species. Storks are shorter than cranes, but slightly heavier. Cranes have an omnivorous diet, but storks are exclusively carnivores. Storks also have larger beaks and a slight webbing between their toes, which is missing in cranes.

Cranes build their nests close to the ground, where storks prefer to build their nests onto high platforms. Stork nests can be over six feet in diameter and are

PROFESSIONAL OFFICE FOR LEASE Central Davis location on Kennedy Place, at J Street near Covell Great parking Beautiful wood built ins 600 square feet Call (530) 759-0200 or email rent1105kennedy@gmail com

often reused and expanded upon each year.

Storks have a common myth associated with them that they bring families their babies. This myth can be found in many places in the world including

explOrit Science center

Europe, North America, parts of Africa and the Middles East. Because it is found in so many places it is hard to accurately trace exactly where the myth started.

One origin of the myth could come from northern Europe. Storks often nest up north during spring and early summer but migrate to northern Africa for the fall and winter, then back again for spring. Many couples would marry around the | summer solstice, around the time the birds would be starting their migration south. Between nine to 10 months later, the storks would be coming back to the areas to nest while many babies were being

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME

Case Number: CV2023-0815

To all interested persons:

Petitioner: Ali Soleimani filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows:

Present name a Ali Soleimani to Proposed name Nima Soleimani

THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause if any why the petition for change of name should not be granted Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted If no written objection is timely filed the court may grant the petition without a hearing

born, giving rise to the myth that the storks brought the babies with them on their migration.

It was also not uncommon for storks to build their nests on rooftops. This was thought to bring good luck to the family living in the home.

Explorit's coming events:

n Visit our exhibit

“Explorit Rocks!” Open to the public on Fridays from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is $5 per

person. Explorit Members, ASTC, and those age 2 and under free.

n Missed Big Day of Giving? No problem, any time is a great time to donate and help Explorit continue to educate and inspire the scientists of tomorrow: https://www. explorit.org/donate.

— Explorit Science Center is at 3141 Fifth St. For information, call 530-7560191 or visit http://www. explorit.org, or “like” the Facebook page at www. facebook.com/explorit.fb.

Family daycare looking for assistant during play and reading time The candidate should be bilingual in English and Spanish

Mondays Tuesdays Fridays 9 a m - 4 p m Permanent position CPR and fingerprints will be required Current immunizations Competitive salary Email ivanna6@ yahoo com

Furnished ROOM FOR RENT (sublease) June through July 2023 West Davis $990 per month (plus PGE & internet)

1 Bedroom with Walk-in Closet and Reading Nook with Large Window ($35 application fee – due when applying with complex – will be refunded after lease signing)

Private Upstairs Bedroom in 2 Bed, 1 5 Bath

Townhouse Location: LeTournesol Apartments

2640 Portage Bay East Davis CA 95616

Apartment Website: letournesolaptsdavis com

Housemate: current UC Davis PhD student

LGBTQ+ friendly

Please contact me Julie Vatuone jvatuone@gmail com

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME

Case Number: CV2023-0958

To all interested persons: Petitioner: Nathaniel Sellman Curiel filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows:

Present name a Nathaniel Sellman Curiel to Proposed name Nathaniel Cohen Greer Sellman

Present name b Conrad Isaac Beitners Curiel to Proposed name Conrad Isaac Beitners Sellman

This

DATED:

Stephanie D Rice LAW OFFICES OF JOSEPH W CARROLL P C

Attorney for Casa MFD Home Community LLC 610 Fulton Avenue, Suite 100 Sacramento CA 95825 (916) 443-9000

Published May 12 19 2023 #2269

THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause if any why the petition for change of name should not be granted Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted If no written objection is timely filed the court may grant the petition without a hearing NOTICE OF HEARING

Date: July 7, 2023 Time: 9:00 a m Dept : 14 Room:

The address of the court is Yolo Superior Court Clerks

Office - Civil 1000 Main Street Woodland CA 95695

A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation printed in this county:

The Davis Enterprise

Date: May 12, 2023 Stephen L Mock Judge of the Superior Court

Published May 19, 26, April 2, 9, 2023 #2284

m Dept : 11 Room: The address of the court is Yolo Superior Court Clerks Office - Civil 1000 Main Street Woodland CA 95695 A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county:

The Davis Enterprise

Date: April 25, 2023 TIMOTHY L FALL Judge of the Superior Court

Published May 5, 12, 19, 26, 2023 #2272

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF Larry Edmund Mt Joy CASE NO PR2023-0066

To all heirs beneficiaries creditors contingent creditors and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate or both of: Larry Edmund Mt Joy

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Rita M Mt Joy in the Superior Court of California, County of Yolo

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Rita M Mt Joy be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent THE PETITION requests the decedent s WILL and codicils if a n y b e a d m i t t e d t o p r o b a t e T h e w i l l a n d a n y c o d i c i l s a r e a v a i l a b l e f o r e x a m i n a t i o n i n t h e f i l e k e p t b y t h e c o u r t

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 issua n c e o f l e t t e r s t o a g e n e

Stefan OemiSch/Wikimedia cOmmOnS phOtO

This is good fortune? A pair of storks nest atop a chimney in Hundisburg, Germany in July 2019.

MEETING: Commenters square off in front of council

to turn kids trans. We’re just an organization that wants to be supportive of the kids. We understand that when kids don’t feel supported in any stage of the LGBT process, that could lead to suicide, Some of these kids become homeless because they don’t feel supported at home. We just want them to know there’s a community for them.”

With a decade of service to marginalized communities, the Phoenix Coalition started after the brutal beating of Partida’s son, Lawrence “Mikey” Partida, on March 10, 2013, in a hate crime targeted for his sexual orientation.

Tuesday was Beth Ochsner’ first ever city council meeting. “I mean, the good news is that I’ve never felt compelled to come to a city council meeting before because the city runs in such a way that I don’t feel like I need to go, ‘Hey, you’re doing things in a way I don’t like,’” she said. “So that’s the good news, and I’m here to support people I care about, so that’s lovely. I trust our city council, the fact that they’re even going to do a Pride Month proclamation is a lovely gesture.”

In part, the proclamation recognizes the community has “an opportunity to join in the national reflection of the work left to do to bring true equality to the LGBTQ+ community while celebrating the work of individuals and organizations who have continuously fought to create equality for all.” The proclamation states that The City of Davis has shown support by working with the Davis Phoenix coalition to color-select crosswalks in the city for the month of June and by co-sponsoring the annual Davis

Pride Festival, which will be held in Central Park on Sunday, June

4. “The City of Davis invites everyone to reflect on ways we all can live and work together with a commitment to protect mutual respect and understanding and to celebrate the diversity of our community during LGBTQ+ Pride Month.”

Nelson, who has been the Pride director for nine years, said at one point somebody called Davis Pride the fastest-growing LGBT event in the Sacramento Valley.

“We’ve gone from our Year 1, when we were hoping anybody would show up with about 500 people and we’ve seen it grow pre-pandemic to having about 5,000 attendees at our festival.”

Meanwhile, the Phoenix Coalition has seen a bit of growth and more activity recently in the LGBT teen group, Nelson said.

“The kids really wanted to do things to express themselves. Recently, had a drag night, which was very successful. They are going to do some things at Pride, the festival itself is going to be a little more expressive.”

Social conservatives and members of the LGBTQ+ community dominated the public comment portion of the meeting.

Kathy Guerrero claimed that

“boys who like to dress in dresses and polish toenails, and girls who hate dresses, and hate nail polish are being converted to medical patients for life in their quest to feel comfortable in our society and in their own bodies.” She urged the public to listen to the de-transitioners as they speak out about the reasons they adopted their trans identities and what they discovered. Guerrero ended her two minutes by calling on the Davis Phoenix Coalition to

commit to celebrating “the courage of these de-transitioners.”

A 15-year-old named Eros stated that had he never come out of the closet as a trans boy, he would have been dead by last year. “I understand that some of you adhere to the misconceptions that we are predators and we sexualize everything that moves, but I’m here to tell you that that sickens us to the bone,” Eros said. “We do not understand how us existing harms you.”

Eros said he has witnessed the LGBTQ+ community be nothing but gentle and caring to kids and allies. “I will say we aren’t perfect but that is because we are just humans like everyone in this room.”

Carol Marquis, a 34-year resi-

CHARGES: Missing serial number

From Page A1

Documents filed in support of the motion allege that police found the assault rifles in Casavecchia’s home on April 2, after Casavecchia’s wife arrived at the Winters Police Department to report a domestic violence incident and request an emergency protective order.

“She then told Winters police that defendant has a concealed-weapons permit along with other weapons,” the document says. She initially declined to give officers consent to enter her home and remove the weapons, but later reversed that decision.

About two hours earlier, a Winters patrol officer initiated an unrelated traffic stop on Casavecchia at Neiman and Main streets

and asked Casavecchia whether he possessed any firearms, the motion says. Casavecchia confirmed he did, producing three handguns from a case on his truck’s passenger seat.

“One of the handguns did not contain a serial number or any identifying information,” prosecutors wrote. “Based on the officer’s training and experience, he opined the handgun was manufactured with several aftermarket parts, none of which contained a serial number.”

Officers went to Casavecchia’s home at about 4:30 p.m. that same day, seizing three AR-15 style rifles, two ammunition magazines and four ammunition rounds, the motion says. Police later determined two of the firearms were not registered to Casavecchia.

ALLEN: Years

From Page A1

support of Davis students, chaired the Davis Human Relations Commission, was president of the Explorit Science Center Board of Directors, served on the Yolo Aging and Disability Resource Connection Advisory Board, served on the board of Nurses for National Health Care, was nursing faculty at Rush University and Sacramento State University, researched and practiced nursing case management, managed Yolo County Public Health programs, and founded and directed the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance for 12 years.

Her work has been honored by Rep. John Garamendi and stat Sen. Bill Dodd, each of whom presented Allen with their

Court documents describe both of those weapons as “semiautomatic, centerfire rifle(s) that did not have a fixed magazine. Further, (they) had a pistol grip that protruded conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon, a telescoping stock, a forward pistol grip and a flash suppressor. Both rifles meet the definition of an assault weapon.”

Casavecchia remains on the Winters City Council while his court case is pending, although several fellow councilmembers plan to discuss a possible vote to censure him at their June 6 meeting. Voters elected him to a four-year term last November.

— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenter prise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene

in public service

Women of the Year Award.

Provenza, who was first elected to the Davis Joint Unified School Board in 2003, announced in late April that after 45 years in public service; he will not seek re-election.

“I thank Supervisor Provenza for his four terms of service to Yolo County,” Allen said, “his endorsement, and the opportunity to serve as Deputy Supervisor for District 4.”

Antonio De Loera-Brust has also filed paperwork with the county indicating he plans to run for the

office Provenza is vacating. De Loera-Brust is Davis High graduate who has worked as a congressional aide to Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and as special assistant to the secretary at the U.S. Department of State and currently works for the United Farm Workers. The Fourth District includes Davis east of F Street, the area north of Covell Boulevard and east of Highway 113, El Macero, and the unincorporated areas to the south and east of town.

dent of Davis, read a speech written by a friend who couldn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting. The speech began by asking about the drag show at the Pride Festival.

One question was: “Who has given the Davis Phoenix Coalition the authority to sexually emancipate a minor child without initiating legal emancipation for that child in all other aspects of their personal life?” Another: “If any adult or teen in attendance is possibly sexually aroused during the drag show, resulting in a sexual assault of a minor or adult, are there legal implications for the sponsors of this event?”

Director of Yolo Rainbow Families within the Davis Phoenix Coalition, Anoosh Jorjorian, stated that the LGBTQ+

population has been “attacked quite a bit in this forum as of late.” While DPC has worked to stand up for the marginalized to end hate in Davis and in the region and bring marginalized voices forward, Jorjorian said, they’ve been “slandered, frankly, in our work and what we do.” “I would really prefer not to have to keep coming to these forums to say that hate is wrong and that discriminating against any community in Davis is wrong,” Jorjorian said. “When they dox our members, when they take photos of a trans member of our community and put it public on Twitter with an antitrans slur, that is hate.”

— Contact Monica Stark at monica@davisenterprise.net.

Bohart open house has ants

By Kathy Keatley Garvey Special to The Enterprise Ants! Let’s talk about ants!

The laboratory of Professor Phil Ward, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will provide live ants, specimens, information, and engage in oneon-one discussions about ant species at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21.

The event, free and family friendly, will take place in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. The family arts-and-crafts activity will be to create paper ant head band. “The current version has serrated mandibles, but people can go free form, too,” said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. “We’re hoping for a .colony. of visitors with red head bands.”

Among the Ward lab personnel scheduled to participate are doctoral candidates Jill Oberski and Zach Griebenow (both are expected to receive their Ph.D.s this

year), and first-year graduate student Ziv Lieberman.

Griebenow and Oberski are veterans of UC Davis teams that won national championships in the Entomological Society of America’s Entomology Games or “Bug Bowls.”

The Bohart Museum featured Ward, a noted ant systematist, in a video, “All About Ants II” shown at the 2021 UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. It is posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ d8eRNsD8dxo.

Ward offered an hourlong, introductory presentation on ants and answered scores of questions, drawing viewers from as far away as Virginia. He illustrated his talk with ant images taken by his former doctoral student Alex Wild (PhD from UC Davis in 2005), curator of entomology at the University of Texas, Austin, and a noted macro photographer.

Ants originated about 120 million years ago (early Cretaceous), evolving from “wasp-like creatures,” Ward said.

Ward related that live in

long-lived colonies with

(1) cooperative brood care

(2) overlapping generations and (3) reproductive division of labor, the hall marks of eusocial behavior.

California is home to some 300 species of ants, but thousands more live in the tropics. Globally, there may be as many as 40,000 to 50,000 species of ants, the professor estimated, but only about 14,000 are described.

“Ants have occupied almost all of the world’s land surfaces, from deserts to rain forests,” Ward said in the video.

“There’s a few places they’re absent. They’re not in Antarctica, no surprise! They haven’t colonized the Arctic and a few very high elevation tropical mountains, but apart from that, almost any place you go on land you’ll see our friends, the ants. And they have assumed a quite a diverse array of ecological roles. Some of them are predators, others are scavengers, and some are seed collectors, and these habits vary tremendously among different species in different parts of the world.”

Monica Stark/EntErpriSE photo

Gay and trans rights activists crowd Community Chambers Tuesday as the Davis City Council prepared to proclaim June as LGBTQ month.

Don’t be afraid to look a little deeper

By Evelyn Dale Enterprise staff writer

Do you have a pet? Then you have to deal with its poop. Do you hold your nose and look the other way when you clean it up? If so, you’re missing out on a lot of important information that can keep your beloved pet healthy.

Here’s the scoop on all that poop. Look and smell matter.

n Consistency: Healthy poop is neither too hard nor too soft and looks and feels like “PlayDoh. On a 1-7 scale with 1 being hard pellets and 7 being a watery puddle, healthy poop is 2.

n Coating: No coating is good. Mucus and blood are concerning. Slimy mucus that looks like jelly may indicate large bowel inflammation. Red or black blood means there’s a problem in the digestive tract. Consult your vet if mucus or blood continues for more than two bowel movements.

n Contents: Small amounts of non-digestible materials like grass and fur are normal. However, large amounts are more concerning. Foreign objects like sticks, cloth, and bits of toys signal it’s time to watch pet and keep dangerous objects out of its reach. Intestinal worms are white or cream colored and require veterinary care. Roundworms resemble spaghetti. Tapeworm segments look like rice.

paws for thought

Hookworms are tiny thin worms with a hook-like mouth. Whipworms look like tiny threads enlarged at one end. Many heartworm prevention medications include intestinal parasite prevention medication. Consult your vet immediately about any intestinal worms.

n Color: Dark brown is good but color can vary depending on what was eaten. Foods like pumpkin, red beets or spinach add color so rule this out before panicking. Black or red indicates blood in stool. The darker it is, the higher up the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the problem. Gray/Yellow-Orange may indicate liver, pancreas, or gall bladder problems. Green probably indicates your pet has eaten a lot of grass and/or plants. White/ chalky could mean too much calcium in diet that can lead to chronic constipation (obstipation).

n Smell: Not too stinky. Smelly poop can mean a pet’s digestive system isn’t absorbing food effectively. Other causes may be due to medications or indicate dangerous infections such as giardiasis or parvovirus (metallic smell).

Diarrhea or constipation may merit a vet visit. Diarrhea causes dehydration and is especially concerning with puppies. Causes

Pets of the week

Enterprise staff

Lots of animals are waiting for “forever homes” at the Yolo County Animal Shelter, 2640 E. Gibson Road in Woodland.

Among them is Sweetie Pie (A202319), a 6-year-old tabby whose name fits her friendly personality. Sweetie

Pie had an elderly owner, is an indoor-only lap cat that would sleep at the foot of the bed. Sweetie Pie is a lovely kitty who appreciates attention but is also independent if you are busy. She did not meet children at the

senior-living housing she came from.

Also hoping for a good home is Luna (A202714), a 2-year-old Siamese mix that is a loving and affectionate lap cat once she gets to know you. Luna is a gentle and quiet cast who bonds with her human. Luna's favorite toy is a laser pointer, and she could play with it for hours. Luna has lived with another cat and a small dog. Luna is ready for a patient family to help her transition.

For information on

include dietary issues, injuries to GI tract, ulcers, tumors, pancreatitis, and bacterial, parasite, or viral infections. Cats that go outside and hunt may carry toxoplasmosis. Most constipation is temporary but if it continues, consult your vet.

Remember, regular veterinary checkups, vaccinations and medications prevent parasites and keep pets and people healthy. Clean up carefully and thoroughly to avoid spreading diseases between pets and people. Sprinkle very soft poop with dirt or sand to more easily pick it up. Use a 50/50 solution of water

adopting, contact adoptycas@ gmail. com. All shelter animals are up-todate on vaccinations, microchipped, and spayed or neutered.

Staff is available to assist via phone during business hours at 530-6685287. Shelter hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. To meet any adoptable YCAS animals, visit friendsofycas.

and white vinegar or a storebought product for indoor clean up. Dispose poop properly. Pet waste may contain pathogens, so it’s considered garbage. However, it can be composted. These resources explain how to turn poop into valuable compost and reduce green house gasses.

n Download “Composting

Dog Waste,” United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service for a worksheet and stepby-step instructions for building bins and composting. @https:// www.epa.gov/system/files/

org. To volunteer, sign up at tinyurl. com/yolovolunteerapp. Follow on Facebook at @ycas. shelter and Instagram at @ yoloanimalshelter.

At Rotts of Friends Animal Rescue, you’ll find Spike, an adorable neutered male 1-year-old shepherd/Rott mix — a great combination. Spike loves to play ball. He’s mediumsized, gentle and very friendly. Spike walks calmly on leash, is not dog-reactive

and loves being petted. He’s smart, funny and has a great tail that never stops wagging.

documents/2022-11/Composting-Dog-Waste-Booklet-Alaska. pdf

n “How To Compost Pet Waste” @ https://naplescompost.com/how-to-compost-petwaste/.

n The Many Benefits of Mulching Dog Waste @ https:// babelbark.com/the-many-benefits-of-mulching-dog-poop/ Happy Tails

Marigail was looking to adopt a small dog with her good friend Denise when they met a small female dog who’d been in Front Street Animal Shelter’s morning playgroup. It was love at first sight. Adopted and in her forever home, Marigail notes that the love continues. “We did end up giving her a new name; we decided on Spencer!! We have been loving our time together, she has been doing so good!! We are one happy family.

“It has been so amazing bringing Spencer into our lives. She loves cuddling on the couch while we watch TV and has such a silly little personality. We feel so lucky to be a part of her life and for her to be a part of ours.” — Evelyn Dale of Davis is a volunteer and advocate for shelter animal welfare. Contact her at pawsforthought.comments@ gmail.com This column appears monthly.

Betty is a very young Rottie/Dobie cross with a natural tail. She’s a super-fun, playful girl. She plays well with other dogs, is super moldable and has a goofy personality. Betty will be a great buddy for a family as well as a for single person. She would be wonderful jogging or hiking pal.

The next Rotts of Friends

adoption event is from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 20, at 34505 County Road 29 in Woodland. Come by 10 a.m., as it takes at least an hour to meet and adopt a dog.

All dogs adopted from Rotts of Friends are healthy, microchipped, upto-date on their vaccines and come with free lifetime obedience-training classes. For information, visit facebook.com/rottsoffriends.

Courtesy photo

When Marigail and her good friend Denise met Spencer, it was love at first sight.

SWEETIE PIE LUNA SPIKE BETTY

UC Davis band concert includes music by alumnus

By Michael G. French Special to The Enterprise

The Concert and Campus Bands of UC Davis will include two works by alumnus Olin Hannum in an end-of-year concert on May 31 at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

The concert begins at 7 p.m.

The Campus Band will perform “Amabe” by Hannum (B.A., music, ’09), a native of Woodland who attended Davis High School.

The work was inspired by the Japanese legend of a “merperson,” a mythical creature who appears to prophesize either a bountiful harvest or famine. The Concert Band will play Hannum’s “Odds and Unevens,” an homage to games of chance such as rolling the dice.

Hammun, who was the director of UC Davis athletic bands from 2011 to 2016, is the director of athletic bands at Oregon State University, conducts the OSU Wind Symphony, and teaches music at the university.

The Concert Band will

also perform Soo-Hyun Park’s “Festival Bong-JiGa,” Lindsay Bronnenkant’s “Tarot” and Paule Maurice’s “Tableaux de Provence,” which will feature undergraduate student and saxophonist Dave Wang, winner of the Concert Band Concerto Competition.

The Campus Band’s program will include Amanda C.E. Aldridge’s “On Parade: Quick March” and Mat Campbell’s “A Thousand

Inner Voices.” In addition, Brad Sparks, assistant director of the UC Davis Marching Band, will lead Clare Grundman’s “Kentucky 1800,” and undergraduate music major

Natalie Laurie will conduct Shelley Hanson’s “Albanian Dance.” Tickets are $24 for adults and $12 for students and youth. Tickets are available at the Mondavi

Center Ticket Office in person or by calling 530754-2787 between noon and 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Tickets are also available online at Tickets.MondaviArts.org.

Courtesy photo

For more information about the College of Letters and Science’s Department of Music and future performances, visit arts.ucdavis. edu/music.

More at Mondavi: Finnish maestro Osmo Vänskä visits campus

By Jeff Hudson

Enterprise correspondent

Concertgoers this weekend can hear the exceedingly famous orchestral depiction of a disastrous shipwreck amidst stormy seas, when the 1888 musical fantasia “Scheherezade” by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is performed at the Mondavi Center by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, May 21, at 2 p.m.

This orchestra hails from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, founded 99 years ago. Curtis has trained many famous musicians, among them conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein.

For this performance, muchhonored Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä (conductor laureate of the Minnesota Orchestra, also conductor laureate with orchestras in Finland and Iceland) will lead the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to “Scheherezade,” the program includes the fiery Piano Concerto No. 2 of Hungarian-born composer Béla Bartók (1881-1945), featuring Russian/ American pianist Yefim Bronfman (a Curtis alum who won a 1997 Grammy Award for his recording of this concerto). The program also includes a new piece, “Awakening Lion,” by Chinese-born composer Dai Wei, who serves on the Curtis faculty. Tickets are $91-$25 general,

with discounts for students, MondaviArts.org and at the door.

Mellon Music Festival on

Memorial Day weekend

The Mellon Music Festival, a chamber music series in Davis organized by artistic director and cellist Eunghee Cho (who grew up in Davis), will present three concerts in downtown Davis over Memorial Day weekend:

n Friday, May 26, 7:30 p.m., Pence Gallery, 212 D St. Maurice Ravel, Sonata for Violin and

Cello. Andrea Casarrubios, SEVEN for Solo Cello. Bedrich Smetana, String Quartet No 1 in E minor.

n Saturday, May 27, 7:30 p.m., Davis Odd Fellows Hall, 415 2nd St. Robert Schumann, Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor. Giovanni Sollima, Reporto N. 12 for Piano Trio. Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Quintet in G Major.

n Sunday, May 28, 7:30 p.m.

See MONDAVI, Page B2

Artery hosts textile arts in June exhibit

The Artery presents “Off the Floor and on the Wall” with Lisa Erskine's installation of rag rugs, double weaves and other woven textiles. She is joined by Jerri Erskine-Zilbert showing handwoven creations and Blayney Breckenridge with clay art. The exhibit opens on June 2 and continues through July 3, with a reception on June 9 from 7 to 9 pm

Courtesy photos

Off the floor and on the wall, The Artery presents handwoven creations and artistic expressions by Lisa Erskine, MFA, and compatriots from June 2 to July 3, with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, June 9. Above is a blue weaving by Erskine; at right is a fringed weaving.

Erskine uses many different weaving techniques including card weaving and doubleweave pick up. As she pushes the edge of color and pattern, her images often emerge as landscapes or abstract art. Blankets, drawings and poetry will also adorn the gallery walls.

On Wednesdays, June 7

and 14, Erskine will be in the gallery to demonstrate weaving on an eight-harness loom from 10 a.m. to noon Erskine-Zilbert credits

Erskine, her mother-inlaw, for introducing her to weaving. In this show she demonstrates her unique style. Blayney’s cunning little Habit Homes are

perfect for a garden glen and maybe little leprechauns. This June, the gallery overflows with summer colors, cooled by cool blues and greens.

The UC Davis concert bands will perform their season finale on May 31.

Courtesy photo

The Mondavi concert will feature music by Woodland native, and UCD and DHS alumnus Olin Hannum.

Enterprise staff

‘Fast X’ brings the expected over-revved lunacy

Popular franchise continues to be a guilty pleasure

By Derrick Bang Enterprise film critic

This series has long verged on becoming a live-action cartoon, and the newest installment definitely crosses that line.

Physics, vehicular stamina and the frailty of the human body aren’t even an afterthought in director Louis Leterrier’s tenth (!) entry in this hard-charging franchise, but I’ll say this: He’s definitely the man for the job, having long ago helmed 2002’s enormously entertaining “The Transporter” and its 2005 sequel.

This turbo-charged “Fast” escapade also gets plenty of momentum from a dog-nuts script by Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin, along with rat-a-tat editing by Dylan Highsmith and Kelly Matsumoto.

As an added bonus, Jason Momoa is a memorably and thoroughly reprehensible villain: a deranged, giggling sociopath prone to outré outfits and a mincing manner that make him even scarier. If he were granted a Snidely Whiplash mustache, I’m sure he’d twirl it with glee.

The story opens with a cleverly tweaked flashback to a key event in 2011’s “Fast Five,” as Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew steal a massive bank vault laden with $100 million belonging to drug kingpin Herman Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Our heroes subsequently drag the vault through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, laying waste to everything in its path, until the audacious climax on the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge.

In this “adjusted” version of events, Reyes perishes on the bridge: a demise witnessed by his violently unbalanced adult son, Dante (Momoa), who barely survives.

As things kick into gear in the

Moreno

Available via: Movie theaters

present day, Dante — who has spent the intervening 12 years plotting revenge — orchestrates the first in an increasingly lethal series of attacks on everybody Dom holds dear. The goal is not to kill Dom — at least, not immediately — but to make him suffer the deaths of his friends and family, most particularly main squeeze Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and their 8-year-old son, Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry).

Meanwhile, Tej (Ludacris), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), Han (Sung Kang) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) jet off to Rome, to handle a heist assigned by the clandestine U.S. government “Agency” that runs off-the-books operations, and until recently has been headed by the equally mysterious “Mr. Nobody” (Kurt Russell).

Back home in Los Angeles, Dom and Letty get an unexpected visitor: a badly wounded Cipher (Charlize Theron), the über-nasty who bedeviled our heroes in the series’ previous two installments, most notoriously when she killed Diplomatic Security Service Agent Elena (Elsa Pataky) while Dom watched.

Cipher has just barely survived her own unpleasant encounter with Dante. In a nod to the old mantra — “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” — an uneasy

truce is struck.

Alas, the Rome op turns out to be a trap masterminded by Dante. With a last-minute assist from Dom and Letty, the crew must try to stop a bathysphere-sized spherical bomb before it destroys the Vatican: a landscape-leveling chase that one-ups the aforementioned vault heist, in terms of street-level carnage and structural damage.

Credit where due: It’s a helluva sequence, despite being wholly preposterous.

Also meanwhile, The Agency’s Mr. Nobody has vanished mysteriously, replaced by Aimes (Alan Ritchson), a new supervisor who neither likes nor trusts Dom and his crew, believing them rogue dogs who’ve been let off the leash for far too long. When our heroes are branded as terrorists who just laid waste to Rome — courtesy of social media manipulation by Dante — Aimes has an excuse to track them down.

Much to the dismay of colleague Tess (a new character, played by Brie Larson), who has a “secret connection” to The Agency’s past.

At this point, our heroes are beset on all sides: attacked by

Dante; targeted by crooks and mercenaries promised a fat reward by Dante; wanted by international law enforcement; left without assets (Dante’s work again); and with nowhere to run.

Leterrier and his writers have pulled out all the stops for this “gang’s all here” adventure, finding room for Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood); Queenie Shaw (Helen Mirren), mother of Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham, also present); Jakob (John Cena), Dom’s younger brother and former rival, now beloved uncle to Little Brian; and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), former main squeeze of the late Brian.

Ultimately — and very importantly — this strong, family-style bond grounds even the most absurd events. However outrageous their exploits, we’ve grown to care about these characters; when the steely eyed Diesel frequently intones “Family is everything” in his deep, gravel-on-asphalt voice, we believe it.

Cena and young Perry have a great time sparring with each other, when Jakob is charged with protecting Little Brian; the boy

Courtesy photo

can’t believe that his rough ’n’ tough uncle can be such a square, in so many respects. Gibson and Ludacris similarly have fun with the sniping that passes for respect, between Roman and Tej.

But Momoa steals the show as the flamboyantly unhinged Dante, invariably decked out in another of costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays’ garishly colorful outfits, each crazier than the last. Momoa makes the guy a self-indulgent showman, often waltzing to a tune only he can hear, seconds before unleashing another dastardly act.

All this said, these antics wear out their welcome during the film’s overlong 141 minutes. As for where we’re left following the final scene, a quick visit to the Internet will address that. Leterrier already is in pre-production for the next installment, due in 2025.

One can hope for a bit more restraint, next time out.

— Read more of Derrick Bang’s film criticism at http://derrickbang.blogspot.com. Comment on this review at www.davisenter prise.com.

Davis High Baroque Ensemble features violinist Michael Sand

Enterprise staff

The orchestra programs at Davis schools are wrapping up the year, gearing up for their last concerts before the term ends

Davis High School Baroque Ensemble

First up, The Davis High School Baroque Ensemble will feature Baroque violinist Michael Sand on Saturday, May 20, at the Richard Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School, 315 W. 14 St. in Davis.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 3 p.m. The concert is free, but donations are accepted at the door. All proceeds benefit the DHS Baroque Ensemble’s 2023 England-Belgium-France tour.

Praised by violinist Isaac Stern as making “a most convincing argument for the Baroque violin,” Michael Sand has become one of the leading Baroque violinists in America. A founding member and first musical director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, Sand is also the director of Arcangeli Baroque Strings, a string ensemble dedicated to the concerto grosso repertoire. In great demand as a guest musical director and lecturer, he has led performances of numerous chamber orchestras throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Israel, Canada, and Australia.

Sand plays with the chamber ensemble Musical Assembly, is director of the New York State Baroque, and appears with many Bay Area early music groups. Sand has recorded for Meridian, Harmonia Mundi (France and the U.S.), Arts and Music, KATastroPHE, Wildboar, and Titanic. He teaches at UC Davis and at the San Francisco Early Music Society’s Baroque Music Workshop.

The program features Concerto a due cori by Georg Philipp Telemann, transcribed and arranged by Sand; Sonata in Eco con Cinque Violini by Biagio Marini, transcribed and arranged by Sand; “La Sultanne,” Sonate en quatuor, by Francois Couperin, transcribed and arranged by Sand; “Il Ballo del Gran Ducca” by Giovanni Battista Bounamente; Concerto Grosso, Op. 6 No.2 by George Frideric Handel; and Concerto Grosso in D minor, “La Follia,” by Francesco Geminiani.

Holmes orchestras

On Tuesday, May 23, the Holmes Jr. High Orchestra Program presents its Finale Concert 2023 at the Brunelle Performance Hall. 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. DHS Orchestra Director Angelo Moreno will emcee and conduct. The Holmes SeventhGrade Quartet will pres-

ent Allegro from Serenade No. 1 in D, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arranged by Robert D. McCashin.

The Holmes Intermediate Orchestra will perform the Coronation March from “The Prophet” by Giacomo Meyerbeer, arranged by Andrew H. Dabczynski; Concerto in G Major by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Thomas LaJoie; the “Star Wars” Main Theme by John Williams, arranged by Larry Clark; and “Mountain Chase,” by Alan Lee Silva.

The Holmes Advanced String Quintet will play String Quintet No. 2, Op. 77, Allegro con fuoco, by Antonín Dvořák.

The Holmes Advanced Orchestra will present Serenade for Strings, Finale, by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged by Richard Meyer; Theme from “Schindler’s List” by John Williams, arranged by Robert Longfield and Amy Barlowe; Symphony No. 1, Adagio and Allegro, by Ludwig van Beethoven, arranged by John O’Neill; and “Capriccio Espagnol” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, arranged by Sandra Dackow.

Davis High orchestras

The Davis High School Orchestra Program will present its Finale Concert 2023 on Thursday, May 25, at the Brunelle Performance Hall. 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. Moreno will emcee and conduct.

The program begins with the Viola Sonata in F-minor No. 1 Op. 120 by Johannes Brahms with soloist Markus Baur-Costa,

and Jerry Zhang on piano.

DHS Symphony Piano Quintet will perform Piano Quintet No. 1 in A major, Op. 5, Mvmt 1, by Antonín Dvorák.

The DHS Baroque Ensemble will perform Concerto for 2 Cellos in G minor, RV 531 by Antonio Vivaldi; “La Sultanne,” Sonate en quatuor, by Francois Couperin, transcribed and arranged by Michael Sand; and Concerto Grosso in D minor, “La Follia,” by Francesco Geminiani.

The DHS Chamber Orchestra, directed by Moreno, will present “Swan Lake” Act II, No. 10, by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,

arranged by Michael Hopkins; Andante from Symphony No. 94, “The Surprise Symphony,” by Franz Joseph Haydn, arranged by Janet FarrarRoyce; Allegro Molto from Symphony No. 40, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arranged by John O’Neill; and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, arranged by Robert Longfield.

The DHS Symphony Orchestra will perform “On Top of the World,” by Brian Balmages; Kol Nidrei Adagio, Op. 47, by Max Bruch; and Piano Concerto No. 2, 3rd Mov, by Frédéric Chopin.

MONDAVI: Mellon Music Festival back

From Page B1

Angélica Negrón, Marejada for string quartet, electronics and percussion. Francis Poulenc, Violin Sonoata, FP 119.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, String Sextet “Souvenir de Florence.”

Tickets are $20 general, with free admission to the Saturday and Sunday performances for students with ID and children younger than age 18.

Eunghee Cho grew up in Davis (graduating from Davis High School in 2012), and went on to earn a doctorate in cello performance at the New England

Conservatory. He is now on the music faculty at the University of Houston in Texas. Cho launched the Mellon Music Festival in his hometown of Davis in 2018.

Cho will be joined by violinists SoYoung Choi and MuChen Hsieh, violists Mann0Wen Lo and Tanner Menees, cellist Joy Yanai, and pianist Andrew Staupe, all of whom earned degrees at major American music conservatories.

Full details of this year’s Mellon Music Festival are available online at Mellon MusicFestival.com.

Courtesy photo

Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä will lead the Curtis Symphony Orchestra at Mondavi on Sunday.

Momoa, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, John Cena, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Alan Ritchson, Leo Abelo Perry, Jordana Brewster, Jason Statham, Helen Mirren, Rita

Confronted by a massive, spherical bomb rolling its way through the streets of Rome — target: the Vatican — Dom and his comrades desperately try to re-route the threat.

Courtesy photo

Baroque Violinist Michael Sand will join the DHS Baroque Ensemble on Saturday.

Transportation shouldn’t be a barrier to reporting campus sexual assaults

By Kate Rogers Special to CalMatters

Growing up, I was bombarded by clichés about the college experience. Before I went to UCLA, almost every adult I knew told me I would have “the best four years of my life.”

But just a few weeks into my college experience, I was sexually assaulted. It paralyzed me. I could hardly get out of bed, let alone function as a full-time student. My social circle shrank and my academic performance declined.

The heartbreaking reality of undergraduate life came into sharp focus: Sexual violence is everywhere on campuses.

According to the nation’s largest antisexual violence organization, an estimated 26% of female students and 7% of male students are raped or sexually assaulted as an undergraduate. Every year, that statistic translates into thousands of students whose world is turned upside down – thousands who no longer feel safe in lecture halls, common areas or their dorm rooms.

Thankfully, many colleges have committed advocates that fight against sexual violence on their campuses. On the state level, student-led organizations are working to end sexual assault and harassment through the legislative process. Last year, for example, Generation Up sponsored Assembly Bill 2683, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law. Introduced by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, the bill required that California universities and community colleges to provide their students with preventative information and annual trainings on sexual violence and harassment.

Assaults will still continue to occur on college campuses for the foreseeable future, which means students will need continued support from their schools as they navigate medical care and reporting resources in the aftermath of an assault. While current state law requires colleges to maintain partnerships with community-based organizations, including rape crisis centers, only 1 in 5 female college-aged survivors receive support from a victim services agency.

The problem is particularly acute when it comes to student access to forensic exams. Campuses are not required to directly connect their students with Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) kit administrators or Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) exam providers, placing the burden of coordinating care on survivors in crisis.

To help reduce the barriers to care, Assemblywoman Akilah Weber, D-La Mesa, and important student-led organizations wrote AB 1138, which will require that California colleges and universities provide their students with free, safe and anonymous transportation to and from forensic exams. Equitable and immediate access to SAFE kits and SART exams is especially important because survivors must receive forensic care as soon as possible to preserve potential evidence.

As long as sexual assault remains a pervasive issue on college campuses, Californians must simultaneously support the work to end violence while preparing for when it does occur. Crafted for students and by students, AB 1138 prioritizes the people most affected by sexual assault. Student survivors and advocates are no longer willing to wait for colleges to protect us.

What can we do now to address the issue of sexual violence on college campuses?

Passing AB 1138 is a start. Californians can also push for future legislation that protects survivors and support politicians that share their values. And we can amplify the voices of those most affected by the issue.

We are faced with a choice everyday. We can be complacent in the face of sexual violence, or we can take action to support California students.

— Kate Rodgers is the collegiate director of policy for Generation Up. She wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s Capitol works and why it matters.

Beware yet another utility bailout

Any time California’s three biggest privately-owned electric companies tell you they want to change their pricing struc ture just for your good, hold onto your wallet.

These companies — PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — did exponentially more physical damage to this state and its people over the last decade than any other industry and never paid much for their misdeeds.

One — PG&E — has been convicted of manslaughter and negligence for its role in both wildfires and a huge natural gas pipeline explosion, without a single employee ever serving so much as a day in prison for causing the loss of well over 200 lives and many hundreds of homes and other businesses.

Instead of penalizing these companies heavily, the utilities’ friends in the state Legislature and other offices from the governor on down keep bailing them out.

When bankruptcy threatened PG&E after its admitted roles in the massive 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise in Butte County, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators created the ongoing state Wildfire Fund guaranteeing aid to the companies after future fires they might cause. Customers of all three big utilities still pay monthly to fund this

Housing prices, population growth

$13 billion insurance policy.

When PG&E worried about possible losses in shutting down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant as scheduled in 2025, Newsom and the Legislature set up a statefunded extension of at least five years. The rationale for this took the form of “blackout blackmail,” threats of power outages if Diablo went off line. But plenty of “peaker” power plants exist around the state, firing up in times of very high electric demand and making blackout threats questionable.

Now the utilities are at it again, using a law passed quietly last year that supposedly requires them to restructure power rates so the rich pay more than the poor for electricity, regardless of how much juice they use.

Under this plan, households with income under $28,000 would pay a fixed $15 per month to fund power infrastructure like transmission lines, with usage charges added to it. The fixed charge for households earning $28,000 to $69,000 would

be $20 to $34, those making $69,000 to $180,000 would pay $51 and households with more than $180,000 income would pay $92 per month, plus usage fees.

One problem with this: average net bills for everyone would most likely rise, starting in mid-2025. The first phase of public comments on this system are due for submission to the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by June 2.

This masquerades as help for low income families, but it is really just another longterm insurance policy for the utilities. For Community Choice Aggregations (CCAs) are taking hold all over California today, from Sonoma to San Diego, Placer County to Pico Rivera.

These agencies buy power wherever they can get it, offering options including all-renewable energy to those who want to pay a bit more than if they bought the same mix offered by the utilities.

They use the utilities’ power lines to bring that energy to customers.

But what if large-scale CCAs like Northern California’s MCE Community Choice Energy and Southern California’s Clean Power Alliance decide to build transmission facilities of their own?

The utilities could be looking at multi-billion dollar transmission line white elephants they built with

of Davis. The common motive was to find cheaper housing. These statistics indicate that up to 20-25% of Davis citizens are considering relocation due to financial impediments, highlighting the urgency of addressing this issue within our community.

consumer money acquired through monthly bills. To eliminate that risk, the big companies need guaranteed funds to maintain and expand their lines, thus discouraging the CCAs from undermining them by getting their own facilities.

That’s what the new pricing system seems to be all about, although no utility company would ever admit it, and the PUC can be counted on to cooperate, as it almost always accommodates the utilities it regulates. If the new system also discourages rooftop solar installations by forcing solar owners to pay monthly electric bills, that’s fine with the utilities.

That’s why their lobbyists worked to get the Legislature and Newsom to “require” them to make the currently planned change.

So as usual with the utilities, it is caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. The utilities’ planned new pricing is designed first of all to help them. Any good it might accomplish for anyone else would be incidental.

— Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” is now available in a softcover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net.

members of the community, we wish to share these findings with the people of Davis to promote the approval of future housing projects, which will enable new citizens to come to town and increase its diversity.

We are students at Davis High School and are doing a project on how housing prices have impacted the growth of Davis. As town residents, we have observed first-hand people's struggling to move to and remain in Davis. After surveying DSHS students and staff, we feel that a communal examination of Measure J’s impact on the approval rate of new housing developments as well as the town’s unwillingness to sanction any is necessary.

From the survey we conducted, of the 109 student responses, 45% listed they knew someone who wanted to move out of Davis, 71% citing housing affordability as the cause. Additionally, 22-23.4% of adult and student residents stated they had at some point considered moving out

Even longtime residents are impacted by the rising home prices. One person responded to our survey that, “[They] had to move from Davis after living in Davis for 39 years because [they] couldn't afford it.” The high costs also prohibit any new people from moving to Davis, with 45% of responses to our survey saying they knew someone who wanted to but couldn’t.

Measure J is the reason behind unaffordable housing and the lack of approved housing in Davis. Bretton Woods, one of only two proposals authorized under Measure J, as a relocation project for seniors who already live in Davis, is not designed to bring new people to town.

For the above reasons, as concerned

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

House of Representatives

Sophie Anuurad, Niamh Thomas, Truman Roe, Rowan Shankarappa, Jasmine Anibaba, Samantha Harris and Ian Greenway DHS Race and Social Justice class

We welcome your letters

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

Limit letters to 350 words. Anonymous letters will not be accepted. We reserve the right to edit all letters for brevity or clarity.

Mail letters to The Davis Enterprise, P.O. Box 1470, Davis, CA 95617; bring them to 315 G St.; fax them to 530-756-1668; or email them to newsroom@davisenterprise.net.

California Senate

http://feinstein.senate. gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

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

Rep. John Garamendi (3rd District), 2368 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202-225-1880. District office: 412 G St., Davis, CA 95616; 530753-5301; email: visit https://garamendi. house.gov/contact/email

Governor

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

Sen. Bill Dodd, State Capitol, Room 2082, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-651-4003; fax: 916-651-4903; email: visit sd03.senate.ca. gov. District office: 555 Mason St., Suite 275, Vacaville, CA 95688; 707-454-3808; fax: 707-454-3811.

California Assembly

Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0004; 916-319-2004; fax: 916319-2104; email: visit https://a04.asmdc. org/. District office: 600 A St., Suite D, Davis, CA 95616; 530-757-1034

By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Stephan Pastis

By Charles M. Schulz

UCD softball loses to Iowa at invitational

Enterprise staff

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — UC Davis opened its postseason at the National Invitational Softball Championship against University of Iowa, which posted a 6-3 victory on Thursday.

Newly-named Big West Conference Player of the Year Anna Dethlefson went 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Bella Pahulu and Leah Polson had a hit each with a run scored.

Sarah Starks broke the program’s Division I record by recording two RBIs to move her total to 92 in her three seasons.

The Hawkeyes scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning — one on a home run to left field and two on a fielding error.

The Aggies trimmed the Hawkeyes’ lead to one in the top of the third inning as Starks singled to center field. The single scored Dethlefson and Polson.

The Hawkeyes added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on a single to left center.

Each team would score a run in the sixth inning. The Aggies’ run came on a Mickey Buscemi single to left field that scored Libbie McMahan.

Now UCD will take on Tarleton State in

the double-elimination tournament today at 8 a.m.

Ex-Aggie Bertsch

CHICAGO, Ill. — One of the most decorated UC Davis women’s basketball athletes of all time, Morgan Bertsch, has been named to a WNBA opening day roster, joining the Chicago Sky.

The Santa Rosa native is the Aggies’ alltime leading scorer and earned a multitude of accolades during her playing career, including Big West Player of the Year recognition following the 2018-19 season.

Bertsch became the first Aggie to be drafted into the WNBA when she was selected in the 3rd round (29th overall) of the 2019 draft by the Dallas Wings.

Bertsch signed her initial training camp contract with Chicago in April but will now join the full-time roster. She recently scored in double-digits for the first time on May 13, dropping 12 points and grabbing five rebounds in her 25 minutes against Minnesota.

The Chicago Sky tips off the 2023 regular-season against the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis today at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

DHS: Masters continue on Saturday SENIORS: Some going West, East

From Page B6

Boys

Feryer, pole vault, first place; 110 hurdles, eighth place.

Ryan Mitchell, 1600 meters, third; 3200 meters, third.

Thomas Albeck, triple jump, sixth place.

Alex Valcarenghi, high jump, seventh place.

Beckett Dolan, 800 meters, eighth.

Alex Oldham, 300

hurdles, sixth.

Boys 4x400 relay team of Jacob Schaa, LJ Dixon, Ben Schneider and Odham, fifth place.

Girls

Bitners, discus, first place; shot put, second.

Sophia Ramirez, discus, third.

Sophia Coil, discus, fifth.

Norah Dulaney, 3200 meters, fifth; 1600 meters, sixth.

Sophia Young, long

jump, third.

Emma Vogt, 400 meters, sixth; 200 meters, seventh.

Sophia Ballard, triple jump, sixth.

Michelle Kang, high jump, seventh.

Sierra Baptiste, long jump, fifth.

Girls 4x100 relay of Baptiste, Vogt, Ballard and Young, fifth.

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

From Page B6

that got me sold.”

The other athletes who signed included baseball player Carter Stoltz Willamette University); basketball players Noah Salmon (Lane College) and Matthew Cossu (Lane College); diver Maya Schumann (UC Davis); field hockey player Evelyn Soller (Wellesley College); golfer Ryan Firpo (Fresno State); soccer players Una Keller (Smith College), Simon Vaca-Lorenzi

(Sacramento State), Lucas Liu (Amherst College), Caleb Yoon (Sonoma State) and Declan Fee (UC Santa Cruz); swimmers Makena Leacox (UC Santa Barbara), Sarah Bennetts (UCLA), Hailey Pistochini (Soka University of America) and Evan Rieger (UC Santa Cruz); cross country/ track athletes Abigail Carroll (Sonoma State), Norah Dulaney (UC San Diego), Ryan Mitchell (Gonzaga University); track and field athletes Sophia Young

(Bowdoin College), Anaya Browning (Santa Clara University) and Anthony Edson (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo); and water polo players Malaya Wright (Santa Clara University) and Mackenzie Walker (UC Berkeley). — Henry Krueger is a rising sophomore at Gonzaga University and working as a correspondent for The Enterprise this spring and summer. Follow him on Twitter: @henrykrveger.

chicago Sky Media reL ationS/courte Sy photo

Former UC Davis women’s basketball player Morgan Bertsch is now an official member of the Chicago Sky of the WNBA.

Track and field

DHS welcome schools for Masters today

By Mike Bush Enterprise sports editor

Nearly two-dozen members of the Davis High boys and girls track and field teams will be looking to perform against the best athletes from Yuba City to Mariposa starting today.

Davis High has the honors of hosting the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Track and Field Championship, which will take place at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium.

Today’s events start at 2 p.m., with the trials in field events of boys’ pole vault, girls’ high jump and boys’ discus.

The boys’ triple jump is scheduled to get underway at 3 p.m.

The girls shot put and girls’ triple jump will go at 5:30 p.m.

Then all running events, beginning with the girls’ 4x800 relay and ending with the boys’ 4x400 relay, will run from 3:20 to 9:17 p.m.

Saturday starts off with girls pole vault, boys’ high jump and girls’ discus at 2 p.m.

The girls’ long jump goes at 3 p.m.

The boys long jump and boys’ shot put goes at 5:30 p.m.

The boys and girls’ running events are scheduled to run between 5 to 8:14 p.m.

fooTBall

The top four placers in the finals of the Masters advance to the California Interscholastic Federation Track and Field Championships, which will be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the Buchanan High campus in Clovis. The state championships will take place May 26-27.

The top eight from the section’s Division I meet, which took place at Folsom High on May 10 and 12, advance to the Masters.

Two of the 18 Blue Devils competing to the Masters won D-I medals at Folsom High.

Benjamin Feryer won the boys’ pole vault at the D-I meet with a leap of 15 feet.

Sol Bitners, a junior, captured first place in the girls discus with a throw of 135 feet, 10 inches.

Bitners took second place in the shot put with a toss of 37 feet, 3 inches.

Here is the list of the other Blue Devils scheduled to compete at the Masters. Listed are the names of the student-athlete, their event (s) and what place they took at the D-I meet.

See DHS, Page B5

courTesy phoTo

Former UC Davis punter Dan Whelan is all smiles after inking with the Green Bay Packers on Wednesday.

Ex-Aggie Whelan signs with Packers

Enterprise staff

Dan Whelan is an official NFL player. The former UC Davis punter, a native of Ireland, posted on his Twitter account Wednesday that he has signed with the Green Bay Packers.

“All glory to God!”

Whelan posted on Twitter. “It’s official! Thank you @ packers for the opportunity.”

Whelan will compete against veteran Pat O’Donnell.

Whelan was with the New Orleans Saints last offseason but was released before training camp started.

Most recently, the former UC Davis AllAmerican punter competed in his first full season with the D.C. Defenders of the XFL.

Whelan was one of seven D.C. Defenders to be named to the 2023 All-XFL Team, the league office unveiled on Monday.

Whelan has put together an impressive rookie campaign as the Defenders enter the XFL Championship Game after posting the

best regular season record in the XFL with a 9-1 mark.

The former finalist for FCS Punter of the Year finished the XFL regular season ranked third in punting average at 45.6 per kick.

On top of ranking third in punting average, Whelan drilled 11 punts inside the 20, which also ranked third and he booted a long of 66 yards.

Whelan helped D.C. get to the title game as the Defenders downed the Seattle Sea Dragons, 37-21. In that contest, Whelan boomed his one punt for 57 yards.

During his time at UCD, Whelan was named a HERO Sports FCS AllAmerican and a Stats Perform FCS AllAmerican in 2021.

He finished his collegiate career as arguably the greatest punter in Aggie history, averaging a school record 44.01 yards per punt and a single-season record 46.25 yards per kick in 2021.

Whelan had at least one punt of 60 yards or more in seven games that season and had 21 of 50 or more.

Blue Devils seniors ready for new chapter

By Henry Krueger Enterprise correspondent

Davis High held its annual signing day ceremony in the quad Tuesday to honor the 25 student-athletes who will be competing at the collegiate level next and upcoming seasons.

With family, friends and coaches in attendance, the participating Blue Devils were introduced to the crowd before signing their athletic letters of intent.

The event was led by DHS Athletic Director Jeff Lorenson, who was delighted to celebrate the efforts and accomplishments of each student-athlete.

“It’s amazing to see this many

kids year in and year out committing to the next level,” Lorenson said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re going to a Division I program on a full scholarship or playing at a JC, every step up is a huge accomplishment and we take so much pride in success.”

For Malia Abrenica, who signed to play for the UC Merced women’s basketball team, the ceremony was an opportunity to reflect on her time at Davis. Abrenica has received the Cathy Speck Award and the Coaches Award, while also being named to the all-league team.

“I loved the experience and getting to be a part of the basketball team because it was like a family to

me,” Abrenica said. “I think that I grew a lot playing for coach Heather (Highshoe), and I feel like I definitely wouldn’t have gotten opportunities to play at the next level without her.”

The process of choosing the right college can be lengthy and challenging. But for Santa Clara baseball commit Koen Carston, the decision came naturally.

“I went into this last summer, I was playing and coach (Rusty) Filter came up to me and it was an automatic like fit,” Carston said.

“He’s a great guy and he said ‘I don’t want you to go anywhere else’ and

See SENIORS, Page B5 Davis High girls swimming head coach Vivian Crow (left), who is a 2015 graduate, poses with Hailey Pistochini for a photo after Signing Day on Tuesday at the quad.

To view more photos, visit www.davisenterprise.com, click on the Sports tab and look for the story.

Mike Bush/enTerprise file phoTo

Blue Devil Beckett Dolan (No. 2) races along side a Jesuit runner in the boys 800-meter race at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I track and field championship at Folsom High on May 10.

Mike Bush/enTerprise phoTo

Davis High Athletic Director Jeff Lorenson (left) gives his speech to Blue Devil senior-athletes who took part in Signing Day at the quad on Tuesday. To view more photos, visit www.davisenterprise.com, click on the Sports tab and look for the story.

Mike Bush/ enTerprise phoTo