Daily Republic: Friday, January 6, 2023

r. H Ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — There has been one fatality attributed to storm conditions and thousands of PG&E customers were without power Wednesday into Thursday, but emergency service officials said Solano County seemed to escape the worst of it moving into mid-Thursday.

“Knock on wood,” sheriff’s Sgt, Christine Castillo, with the Solano County Office of Emergency Services, said in a phone interview Thursday morning.

“We have checked in with all our cities and districts and they are not reporting anything significant . . . There have been some power outages, some trees down and a few (traffic collisions), but nothing significant,” Castillo said.

She noted, however, the another storm is expected over the

weekend, and yet another coming in next week.

As of 1 p.m. more than 700 customers were still without power.

The worst of the outages was in Vallejo.

“This was one of the most powerful winter storms to hit our region in years – second most powerful storm in the past decade and eighth most powerful storm in the past 30 years,” PG&E reported “Wind gusts topped more than 100 miles an hour and over 5 inches of rain fell in some areas.”

The National Weather Service reported wind gusts up to 72 mph in Solano County.

The fatality was a 19-year-old Fairfield woman who drove her car into some standing water and then crashed into a utility pole on Vanden Road, at One Lake, early Wednesday.

Winds from the Wednesday night storm hit as high as 72 mph

at the 693-foot elevation on High Gates Hill. Otherwise the gusts were between 35 and 45 in most other regions of the county, the National Weather Service in Sacramento reported.

The storm dropped between 1.7 inches to more than 2 inches of rain in the 48-hour period ending at 10 a.m. Thursday, also with the higher elevations getting more precipitation.

Scott Rowe, a meteorologist and forecaster for the Weather Service, said as much as another half-inch of rain was expected through Thursday afternoon across Solano.

“It is going to rain more Saturday into Sunday, but compared to the other days of the week, Friday looks calm,” Rowe said. Still some rain could fall on Friday, with lighter winds.

In fact, the winds for the

Fairfield fire takes over emergency response for Cordelia district

Todd r. H Ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The city Fire Department on Wednesday assumed responsibility of emergency response for the Cordelia Fire Protection District.

“Following years of financial struggles, the district made the tough decision to close their doors after over 100 years of service. In the short-term our contract for service is limited to emergency response. However, in the longterm the city and district hope to reach a more comprehensive agreement to include prevention and administrative functions,” the department

mission, to enter into a contract for service with the Cordelia district.

The fee per call will be $475. Based on call volume, the contract will generate about $213,000 for the city through June 30, about $800,000 annually, and into the future, more than $1 million, the council was told.

Cordelia has contracted with a consultant to work with Solano LAFCO and the city Fire Department to develop a service plan and financial arrangement for the long term.

“While the district is large geographically, it is relatively unpopulated, and we anticipate a net new call volume

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

WASHINGTON — House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California failed Thursday in five more attempts to be elected speaker, extending the saga over which Republican will succeed Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Without an elected leader, the House remains paralyzed, delaying members’ oaths of office, GOP committee assignments, congressio-

nal probes and hearings, a rules package and passage of any legislation. Until a speaker is a elected by a majority of the chamber, the House can do little else beyond vote for a speaker or move to adjourn.

House Republicans have begun complaining about the real-world effects of the impasse, such as losing access to national security intelligence and being unable to help their constituents

with casework.

The historic failure puts the 118th Congress on track to tie or exceed the number of ballots it took to elect a speaker in the 17th Congress, which required 12 ballots in 1821. The all-time record is 133 ballots in 1855-56.

A continued stalemate also risks House Republicans struggling to elect their leader on the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Metal detectors

outside the chamber were immediately removed once Republicans formally took control of the chamber this week.

McCarthy signaled to reporters ahead of the seventh ballot – the first of five votes Thursday –that he would again fall short because negotiations with some of his conservative antagonists were ongoing. But it remains unclear whether

Solano’s county roads among best in Bay Area; Vallejo among worst

Todd r. H Ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Solano County’s unincorporated roads rated as “very good” in the Pavement Condition Index for Bay Area Jurisdictions in 2021.

It was the third year in a row for the distinction as being among the best roads in the Bay Area, scoring an 80 in 2021, an 80 in 2020 and an 81 in 2019, the report states.

There were only six jurisdictions with a “very good” score between 80 and 89 in

2021, and Solano was the lone county. The best ranking, with a score of 84, was Cupertino.

“Pavement with a PCI score in the 80 to 89 range is considered ‘very good’ and shows only slight or moderate distress, requiring primarily preventive maintenance,” states the report, which was released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Solano County covers 930.1 lane miles of roads, the report states.

Vanden basketball teams likely favorites again

State’s

Todd

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

A road closure sign in front of Guittard Way in Fairfield allows construction crews to work on road improvements, Thursday.

Hundreds of freezing bats fell to the ground; she took them home to warm them

The WashingTon PosT

Mary Warwick’s heart sank when she realized temperatures were plunging below freezing in Houston in the days before Christmas.

She raced over to downtown Houston before sunset on Dec. 21 to check under the Waugh Drive Bridge, where a colony of 250,000 bats has lived for almost 30 years and is a popular attraction.

Her fears were confirmed: There were dozens of tiny bats on the ground suffering from hypothermia, too weak to hold on to the narrow crevices in the concrete beneath the bridge. They had dropped 15 to 30 feet to the cold cement below and looked lifeless.

“They’re only three inches long at the most, they don’t have much body fat and they get cold very quickly,” said Warwick, executive director of the Houston Humane Society TWRC Wildlife Center. “When they shut down from hypothermia, they release from the bridge and some of them will die.”

Warwick, 60, put on a pair of gloves and gently collected the unresponsive bats one by one. She picked up 138 bats and placed them in a box lined with a soft blanket.

“I put the box on my heated car seat, and as the bats warmed up, they started moving around,” she said.

Warwick said she was horrified to see the small animals in distress, but glad she had taken a break from her holiday shopping to check on them. They are part of a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that thrive in temperatures above 50 degrees. While most Texas bat populations head south for the winter, she knew that a sizable number remained behind.

She was determined not to have a repeat of the time in February 2021 when Texas endured arctic temperatures for nine days, and more than 5,000 bats dropped from the bridge and died in the cold.

Warwick decided to take them home to warm them up in an incubator. She injected fluids beneath the bats’ skin with a needle and syringe and handfed them a gruel made of mealworms, she said.

For the next several nights, she returned to the Waugh Drive Bridge with extra boxes and a flashlight to rescue more bats, and she stopped at another bridge south of Houston to rescue bats from a

second colony.

“By the time I was up to 900 bats, I decided it was time to slow down their metabolism so they wouldn’t need to eat as much,” she said.

“It was becoming pretty time-consuming to care for them all.”

The solution, Warwick decided, was to put the recovered bats in large dog kennels in her attic where the temperature was cooler, until it had warmed up enough outside to return them to the bridge.

“When it’s cold, but not freezing, their metabolism will slow down,” she said.

The Houston Humane Society posted on social media that Warwick was single-handedly rescuing the creatures. People quickly offered to help.

“I adore sky puppies –not just for their adorable faces and gentle natures, but for everything they do for us in Texas, mosquito wise,” one person commented on Facebook. “Happy to donate and thank you for helping these beautiful, so misunderstood little guys.”

Chris Cruz, a sign-language interpreter who often drives past the bat colony and enjoys watching them in warmer weather, said he immediately felt compelled to spend his Christmas Eve looking for cold and injured bats.

“I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across a local TV story about what Mary was doing,” said Cruz, 31. “I thought that was something I could help with, so I grabbed a foam cooler and poked some holes in it.”

Cruz found 14 bats on the ground and carefully swept them into the cooler

with a handheld broom, he said. He then took them home to warm them up and arranged to turn the bats over to Warwick on Christmas Day.

“I was worried that one or two might not make it through the night, so I was happy when they all started scurrying around in the box,” he said, noting that he didn’t dare take the lid off.

“It was a fun way to spend Christmas,” Cruz said. “Bats don’t really ask for anything, and I was happy to help them. Besides, they’re pretty cute.”

By Christmas night, Warwick said she had more than 1,500 bats hanging inside dog kennels in her attic. She kept bats from the two colonies in separate containers and made sure to keep them hydrated.

“What she did for these bats is incredible,” said Beverly Brannan, board chairwoman for the Houston Humane Society.

“Mary is really the only bat expert in our areashe’s a one-woman show,” she said. “When she saw that those bats needed help, she didn’t sleep for several days so she could save them.”

Brannan, 82, said she picked up several boxes filled with bats from volunteer rescuers and delivered them to Warwick’s house.

“When I got there, she was triaging bats, doctoring them and feeding them, one bat at a time,” she said. “Her dedication to the bats was next level.”

Warwick said her instincts as a wildlife expert kicked in and she felt an obligation to see the rescue through to the end.

All creatures – no matter

how small - have value on the planet, she said.

Over the years, she has also rehabilitated squirrels, raccoons, hawks, ducks and owls, Warwick noted.

“Mexican free-tailed bats are common in Texas, and I’d received some training on caring for them,” she said. “These bats are important to our ecosystem and they eat lots of mosquitoes. The bridge is also a popular tourist attraction, so the bats deserve our help.”

Although 115 of the bats couldn’t be saved, the rest perked up after five or six days. Most of the Waugh Drive Bridge bats were released back to their colony after sunset on Dec. 28, and the others will be released in the coming

days, Warwick said.

“I’m excited to get them out of my attic and send them back into the wild,”

she said. “I hope they’ll stay warm and happy, but if they need help, we’re here.”

Congratulations to our NOVEMBER WINNER

Robert Warwick/The Washington Post

Mary Warwick with one of the Mexican free-tailed bats she rehabilitated in Houston over the holidays.

Mary Warwick/The Washington Post These Mexican free-tailed bats were near death when they were scooped up and rescued by Mary Warwick in

Aniah Hernandez/The Washington Post Chris Cruz with the cooler full of bats he rescued on Christmas Eve in Houston. He handed them over to wildlife rehab expert Mary Warwick on Christmas Day.

Golden Gate structural project among 1st to get federal Large Bridge grant

FAIRFIELD — One of the first Large Bridge grants from the federal infrastructure package is a $400 million award to “replace, retrofit and install critical structural elements on the Golden Gate Bridge.”

The White House, through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, announced the grant on Wednesday.

Three other grants were awarded: $1.385 billion to rehabilitate and reconfigure the Brent Spence Bridge in Kentucky; $158 million to rehabilitate the northbound structure of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in Connecticut; and $144 million to rehabilitate four bridges over the Calumet River on the southside of Chicago.

“In addition to addressing congestion and safety issues for communities in northern California, structural retrofits to this bridge will ensure the Golden Gate Bridge can continue to carry critical freight and commuter traffic, preventing delays that currently raise costs for American families,” the agency said.

More than 37 million vehicles cross the Golden Gate Bridge each year, the transportation administration reported, including 555,000 freight trucks and waterborne commerce through the Golden Gate Strait to the Port

of Oakland.

“Safe, modern bridges ensure that first responders can get to calls more quickly, shipments reach businesses on time, and drivers can get to where they need to go,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the statement.

Projects eligible for the large bridge investment program are those with costs more than $100 million, “with minimum grant awards of $50 million, and maximum grant awards of 50 percent of the total eligible project costs. As part of the selection process for this first round of grants, priority consider-

ation was given to projects ready to proceed to construction, as well as those that require pre-construction funding and would benefit from a multi-year grant agreement,” the agency stated.

The Infrastructure Law dedicates nearly $40 billion over five years.

Additional information on FHWA’s Bridge Investment Program, including Large Bridge Grants and Bridge Planning Grants, can be found at www.fhwa.dot.gov/ bridge/bip/.

Suisun City council constructs basic outline for Beautification Committee

Todd R. H ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

SUISUN CITY — The City Council on Tuesday set a loose framework for a seven-member Beautification Committee that will guide projects the city is unable to do.

The committee will be provided a $5,000 annual budget to begin with, the council said, with hopes that it will serve as seed money for other contributions.

“I think this is an opportunity to create a committee that will listen to residents . . . and to be on the same mission and purpose (as residents),” Mayor Alma Hernandez said.

There was some discussion about making the panel a commission, including a quarterly stipend, but several council members felt that was too formal, too quick, and preferred a committee that can meet on a monthly basis – or as needed – and begin to build partnerships with existing community groups such as Adopt a Neighborhood, area businesses and potential funding sources.

“I know there are a lot of community members who are ready to run and we should let them run,” Councilwoman Jenalee Dawson added.

The group will be charged with defining a mission and developing

a work plan with specific annual priority projects, which will come back to the council for funding approval.

But the council also agreed that the committee will need a level of authority and flexibility to accomplish its tasks, and while city staff will not be regularly involved, it was clear by public comments and remarks from Vice Mayor Princess Washington, that the committee members will need to know it has the city’s support.

“We are asking the city residents to do the city’s work again . . . and the city ignores us and its really insulting,” said Brian Ferrero, calling into the meeting. He was speaking about his past experiences with city committees.

He said the same level of frustration will rise up unless the committee is given some autonomy and authority, a funding base, Public Works as a partner and stronger code enforcement.

The council generally agreed it is important that no one is turned away, and even if not an appointed committee members, that all voices need to be heard. The committee, in essence, will serve as a project coordinator for the community.

“If there is someone who wants to pull weeds for the city, I want to get them gloves,” said Councilman Mike Hudson, who

did attend the meeting in-person. He made no comments about any pending decision to leave the council.

The city staff will bring back to the council a more specific structure and makeup for the committee, the members of which would ideally represent different areas of the city. Some kind of recognition program will likely be part of the effort as well.

In other action, the council:

n Approved mayor’s appointment of Tyler Meirose as the city’s representative to the Solano Transportation Authority Bicycle Advisory Committee.

n Approved the city’s ordinance to conform with the state law regarding the Police Department’s use of military-styled weapons. Assembly Bill 481, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 30, increases “transparency, accountability and oversight surrounding the acquisition and use of military equipment by state and local law enforcement.” The council introduced the ordinance on Dec. 20.

n Approved an $893,270 appropriation amendment for the Green Stormwater Infrastruc-

ture Project located along the eastern perimeter of the Amtrak Park and Ride lot, 650 Lotz Way. The project is fully funded by the state Department of Transportation.

n Approved the Clean Air Funding Agreement with the Solano Transportation Authority for the Sidewalk Gap Closure Project along Marina Boulevard and Buena Vista Avenue. The city is eligible to receive a total of $95,000 in Bay Area Air Quality Management District funds, from the county and distributed by STA, for clean air projects. Staff’s cost estimate for the construction phase is $85,000. The plans and specifications will be completed in-house at an estimated cost of $10,000.

n Annexed the the Caterpillar Clubhouse childcare project and the Zip Thru Car Wash Project, both located near the intersection of Henderson and Sunset avenues, into Community Facilities District No. 2, with levied fees paying for municipal services impacted by the developments. The district will receive $4,500 annually from the Caterpillar project and $5,700 from the car wash project.

Attorney General Bonta: Beware of price gouging

daily Republic sTaff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD – Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday issued a consumer alert warning California residents about price gouging during the winter storms.

“California is currently undergoing another round of heavy rain and potential flooding,” Bonta said in a statement.

“As the state endures road closures, power outages, and other potential impacts, it’s important that Californians take the necessary precautions to protect themselves and their families. It’s also important that businesses not take advantage of the current demand for essential supplies,” Bonta added. “With the governor’s declaration of a state of emergency, price gouging protections are in full effect. If you believe you have been a victim of price gouging, report it to your local authorities or to my office at oag. ca.gov/report.”

The law generally prohibits charging a price that exceeds, by more than 10%, the price of an item

In brief

before a state or local declaration of emergency. For any item a business begins selling after an emergency declaration, the law generally prohibits charging a price that exceeds the seller’s cost of the item by more than 50%.

“This law applies to those who sell food, emergency supplies, medical supplies, building materials, and gasoline. The law also applies to repair or reconstruction services, emergency cleanup services, certain transportation services, freight and storage services, hotel accommodations, and rental housing,” the Attorney General’s statement said.

Exceptions to this prohibition exist if, for example, the price of labor, goods or materials has increased for the business.

Criminal consequences can include one-year imprisonment in county jail and/or a fine of up to $10,000, and violators can be subject to civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.

For additional information on price gouging, please see oag.ca.gov/ consumers/pricegougingduringdisasters.

tion about the incident is asked to contact the CHP at 1-800-TELL-CHP (1-800-835-5247) or the CHP Solano Area Office at (707) 639-5600. Ask for Officer Withrow.

VALLEJO — A passenger in a Dodge Ram died Thursday morning when the pickup he was in left the far-right lane of westbound Interstate 80 and slammed into a disabled box delivery truck sitting in the shoulder, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The man’s identity was withheld pending notice to the family, the Solano County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office said. He was 18 from Oroville.

The driver of the truck, Javy Martin, 27, of Oroville, was taken to NorthBay Medical Center with what the CHP described as minor injuries.

There was no one in the box truck, the CHP said.

The incident occurred about 10 a.m. east of Magazine Street. Two lanes were shut down until 1 p.m.

The crash is still under investigation, and alcohol is not considered a factor, the CHP said. It was not immediately clear whether the storm conditions were a contributing factor.

Anyone with informa-

Soroptimist seek women in aviation nominations

FAIRFIELD — Soroptimist International of Vacaville is looking for Solano County women in aviation to honor as part of the International Day of Women celebration in March.

Anyone who knows a woman who has made her career around aircraft – she can be military or civilian, employed or retired – share her story or self-nominate by filling out a nomination form at www. VacavilleSoroptimist.org. All nominees and nominators will be welcome to join the reception at the Vacaville Museum at 5 p.m. on March 8. The event coincides with the museum’s current exhibit, “Solano Skies.”

There is no charge for the event, but a reservation is required. Any active or retired female aviator is welcome. Space is limited.

Deadline to submit a nomination is Jan. 31.

Oroville man died when pickup he was riding in hit disabled truck

George Medovoy photo

The Golden Gate Bridge as seen near the lookout point on the San Francisco side of the bay.

Fairfield woman, 19, dies in single-car crash on Vanden

Todd R. H ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — A 19-year-old Fairfield woman died Wednesday morning when she crashed her car into a pole after driving through standing water on the roadway, the city Police Department reported.

The woman was identified by the Solano County

Sheriff-Coroner’s Office as Marmsha Nash.

“It’s believed, based upon evidence and witness statements, that as she was driving, she drove through standing water and lost control of the vehicle, hitting a utility pole. Speed isn’t believed to be a factor,” Jennifer Brantley, spokeswoman for the Police Department, said in an email response

to the Daily Republic. There were no passengers in the car.

“As heavy rain is projected to continue, we think it’s important to stress the issues with driving through flooded or standing water. Puddles can often be deeper than they appear, overtaking vehicles or cause them to stall. Even if not that deep, standing

water can cause vehicles to hydroplane which can be difficult course correct – especially for the more inexperienced driver,” Brantley added.

The crash occurred about 8:40 on eastbound Vanden Road at One Lake, the police said.

Both eastbound lanes were closed until the first was opened around noon.

Bay Area storm: Tens of thousands without power as damage assessments begin

TRibune ConTenT agenCy

SAN JOSE — Tens of thousands of people woke up without power Thursday after a punishing, deadly storm that rattled the Bay Area, felling trees, closing some roadways and schools, and reportedly resulting in at least two deaths in the North Bay.

A day after the powerful atmospheric river storm roared ashore, emergency crews and residents on Thursday began assessing the damage wrought from the third such system to hit the Bay Area and Northern California in a little more than a week.

Still, even as the true toll of the storm remained unclear at daybreak Thursday, meteorologists warned that more rain was likely on the way as part of a parade of storms that could continue into next week.

In the Bay Area, slightly more than 80,000 customers were without power as of 5:45 a.m., according to utility Pacific Gas & Electric. Most of those outages were in the Peninsula, where 34,754 customers were waiting for power to return. Two separate power outages were responsible for at least 10,000 of those outages. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said another 2,300 lost power after power lines fell near Brewster Avenue in Redwood City.

Elsewhere around the region, 22,770 cus-

tomers in the North Bay were without power, as were 11,920 customers in the South Bay. Another 7,703 East Bay customers were without power.

Authorities in the North Bay blamed the storm on two fatalities, one of them a toddler. The child was killed when a tree fell into a home in the Sonoma County town of Occidental, according to news reports by ABC7 and KTVU.

A 19-year-old woman also died Wednesday morning when her vehicle hydroplaned on a standing patch of water and slammed into a pole in Fairfield, local authorities said.

It’s all from a potent system fueled by a “bomb cyclone” – a swirling area of intense low pressure that churned in the Pacific before slamming into the West Coast, sending

a swell of moisture into the California that was accompanied by dangerously strong winds.

Among the places hardest hit by rain were Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz mountains, which received 3.39 inches of rain in a 24-hour period ending at 5 a.m. Thursday. Also in the South Bay, Mt. Umunhum received 3.31 inches.

Rainfall totals elsewhere in the Bay Area ranged from 1 to 2 inches, with Mountain View receiving about 1.6 inches, San Francisco International Airport receiving 1.64 inches and Oakland International Airport measuring 1.33 inches as of 5 a.m. Thursday. Dublin measured 1.24 inches of new rainfall and San Jose received 0.98 inches.

The rain and powerful winds prompted the closure of South San

But in many parts of the Bay Area, impacts from the storm appeared more limited. The Oakland Unified School District, for example, notified parents late Wednesday night that its schools would be open on Thursday.

The Santa Clara Unified School District said all but one of its schools would be open Thursday, after weather forecasts showed the heaviest parts of the storm having passed. The lone exception was Ponderosa Elementary School on Ponderosa Avenue, which remained closed because of power outages at the campus.

Hubert Edwin Pannell

Hubert

Ed

Left

Viewing and service will be held 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Monday, January 9 at Fairfield Funeral Home, 1750 Pennsylvania Ave, Fairfield, CA. Interment will be at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, January 11 at Sacramento Valley National Cemetery, 5810 Midway Rd, Dixon, CA

The XBB.1.5 variant is taking over on the East Coast. Will it happen in California too?

TRibune ConTenT agenCy

LOS ANGELES – You may have come home with it after a recent trip to New England. Or you may have gotten it from that friend or family member who flew in from New York over the holidays.

The newest omicron subvariant of concern is XBB.1.5, and it has arrived in Southern California. This version of the coronavirus is more contagious and more resistant to existing immunity than any of it predecessors.

“It’s just the latest and greatest and most infectious variant,” said Paula Cannon, a virologist at the University of Southern California. “It’s amazing to me that this virus keeps finding one more trick to make itself even more infectious, even more transmissible.”

Along with a related subvariant called XBB.1, XBB.1.5 is a combination of two different versions of the BA.2 subvariant of omicron. Both parents are particularly good at binding to the ACE2 receptor – the part of the cell the virus’ spike protein attacks to initiate an infection – and their descendants seem to have inherited that talent.

In the final week of 2022, about 40.5% of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus specimens circulating in the U.S. were of the XBB.1.5 variety, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s especially prevalent in the country’s Northeast, where it first surfaced in early November and now accounts for more than 72% of cases.

XBB.1.5 has so far made less of an impact in the region that includes California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific islands, where its coronavirus market share is 9.2%, according to the CDC. (It’s even less prevalent in mountain and Midwestern states from Utah to Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.)

In Los Angeles County, as in most of the country, the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 versions of omicron still dominate, said Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Two weeks ago, XBB.1.5 accounted for about 5% of coronaviruses in the county, Simon said. But the county’s data lag real life by about two weeks, he said, and he expects to see a jump in XBB.1.5’s prevalence –and in the total number of coronavirus infections – in the last numbers of 2022.

“It’s predictable: After holidays, there’s a bump-up in cases,”

Simon said. “We saw it after Thanksgiving. We’re expecting it’ll occur over the next few weeks.”

While it sounds repetitive to describe every up-and-coming new subvariant in superlative terms – more transmissible than ever before, now with unprecedented ability to evade immunity – that’s just evolution at work, said Dr. Tim Brewer, an infectious disease physician and a professor of medicine and epidemiology at UCLA.

“The only way a new version of the SARSCoV-2 virus is going to displace what’s already out there is that it has to have some competitive advantage,” Brewer said. “If it did not have a competitive advantage, it would not displace what’s already out there.”

And when it comes to survival of the fittest, XBB.1.5 has several things going for it.

“It’s almost like a triple threat,” Cannon said. It’s the most infectious subvariant to date. It dodges the immunity conveyed by a vaccine, booster shot or previous infection more effectively than other subvariants. And was the case with the Delta and original omicron variants, it emerged in the late fall – just in time to proliferate during the frequent indoor gatherings of the holiday season.

XBB.1.5 isn’t just making its mark in the United States. It’s rapidly displacing other omicron subvariants globally, the World Health Organization confirmed Wednesday.

“We do expect further waves of infection around the world,” said infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the Covid-19 lead for the WHO Health Emergencies Program. “But that doesn’t have to trans-

Sharon Lee Domler

On Dec. 16, 2022 heaven gained a new angel. Sharon passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her family.

Sharon was born Feb. 2, 1946 in Fairfield, California to MJ and Lorene Hudson. She graduated from Armijo High School then onto Heald Business College. She made her career working for the family business, Cement Hill Ready Mix in Fairfield, California.

She loved reading, napping, taking trips to the casino and being Nana to her grandchildren.

She is survived by her loving husband of 54 years, Carlton; daughter, Kelly Siscel; son, Matthew (Jamie) Domler, son, Michael (Jin-Ying) Domler; grandchildren, Garrett, Elizabeth, Mason, Jordan and Ashton; great-grandchildren, Austin, Avary and Asher; brother, Gary (Helga) Hudson; sister, Lora (Evert) Wilkerson; and sister-in-law, Linda Padykula.

The family would like to thank all the staff at David Grant USAF Medical Center and Anchor Health for the compassionate care and going above and beyond taking care of their sweet Nana.

Family and friends are invited to a celebration of Sharon’s life, from 1 to 4 p.m. Jan. 21, 2023, at Pietros #2, 679 Merchant St., Vacaville, California.

Edwin “Ed” Pannell was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Hub and Susie Pannell.

was preceded in death by his parents wife Josefa Pannell, daughter Jeanette Pannell, son Bill Mendiola, siblings Lorene Ill Richard Pannell, Shirley Logans, Patricia Harris, Tommy Pannell and Linda Shultz.

to cherish his memory are; Brothers Danny Pannell and Benny Pannell; son ; Michael Pannell, daughters and son s in-law Wanda and Mark Qualls, MaryAn n and Edwin Lanuza, Betty and Earnest Freddie, Cynthia and Jonathan Albert, Rose Richardson, Theresa Mendiola. 28 grandchildren, 36 great grandchildren and 4 great-great grandchildren.

NAVY VETERAN

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

Emergency officials investigate a fatality accident after a vehicle crashed into a pole along eastbound Vanden Road near One Lake Drive in Fairfield, Wednesday.

Francisco Unified School District campuses on Thursday, while snarling traffic in some parts of the Bay Area. BART reported several delays and disruptions, including to its Red and Green lines.

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS)

The canopy of a Valero gas station on Callan Boulevard in South San Francisco sits at a diagonal after being toppled in high winds, Wednesday.

State’s aging levees are being pushed to the breaking point

Los A ngeLes Times

LOS ANGELES — The pounding rains of New Year’s Eve had ceased, but the pastures, free ways and neighborhoods surrounding the tiny community of Wilton continued to disappear beneath a vast, growing ocean of muddy water that left only the roofs of sunken vehicles visible to rescue helicopters.

It was a chilling vision of just how vulnerable Cal ifornia’s network of rural levees has become in an age of climate extremes.

By Wednesday, nearly a dozen earthen embank ments along the Cosumnes River near Sacramento had been breached, and three people had been found dead inside or next to submerged vehicles.

Experts say such failures are all but inevitable as California’s aging levee system whipsaws between desiccating drought and intense downpours. Storm water has a nasty way of finding errors in infrastructure planning and design, said Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

“There are two kinds of levees: Those that have failed, and those that will fail,” said Mount.

As California was hit by yet another “brutal” storm system Wednesday, Mount and others warned that lack of maintenance and changing hydrology would increase flood risk in the coming years. At the same time, Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth warned that rural levees would be the “most vulnerable places in California,” largely because they are not required to meet the same standards as levees that protect more urban communities.

For those tasked with maintaining levees, upkeep is an exercise in frustration.

Many reclamation districts in the state are charged with meeting requirements for 100year or 200-year levels of flood protection, referring to a 1% or 2% probability of flooding in a given year. But some small rural districts with limited budgets can maintain the levees to only a 10-year flood standard.

“That is practically nothing, but at a budget of $500,000 a year, and 34 miles of levee, that’s about all we can do,” said Mark Hite, a board member of Reclamation District 800, which oversees a stretch of Cosumnes River levees between Wilton and Rancho Murieta.

“I’d like to think we’ve done a pretty damn good job, but we get some of these extraordinary events, like a 100-year or a 200-year event, and we’ve got problems,” he added.

Of three major breaks in his district, the largest is believed to span about

300 feet, although there’s still too much water in the area to say for sure, he said. All of the levee issues occurred on private land.

On Wednesday, Nemeth told reporters that the state and federal government are partway through construction of a $1.85 billion flood protection project that will help shore up some of the levees along the Sacramento and American rivers.

“We’re making good progress, but when we have these kinds of systems, it’s very easy for smaller communities to get overwhelmed,” she said. About 361 miles of urban and 120 miles of non-urban levees have been repaired or improved since 2007, according to the state’s Central Valley Flood Protection Plan.

But as the latest storm arrived, the Sacramento River churned angrily, brown with debris and roiling with white caps across its usually calm surface on Wednesday.

In Clarksburg, along the river’s edge, residents have been without power since the previous storm on New Year’s Eve brought down dozens of power lines.

Susan Roork stopped by the area’s only open store. She said she and her husband are “keeping an eye on every agency website we can” to monitor the storm, the rising river and the strength of the levee.

Down the street, Sandy Adams Jr., the pastor of the Clarksburg Community Church, said he took comfort from knowing his local levee district had recently reinforced the berm. He worried more about the lack of power and flooding from torrential rain.

Concern over the viability of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s 1,100-mile maze of earthen levees has been percolating for years. In 2005, Mount published a paper that predicted a 2-in-3 chance that a major earthquake or storm would cause widespread

levee failures in the delta over the next 50 years.

That forecast, combined with visceral images of the destruction caused by failed levees during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans earlier that year, prompted federal legislation and local tax increases to generate funds needed to make critical improvements in certain areas.

But those upgrades, which far exceeded federal safety requirements at the time, Mount said, were not enough to keep pace with weather conditions changing at a rate that only a decade ago was unimaginable.

In the meantime, urban growth is bringing thousands of people closer to the vulnerable levee system.

Scientists and policymakers are looking warily at another trend: The whiplash effects of a heating planet, where increasing temperatures allow the atmosphere to absorb and store more and more moisture.

This phenomenon can result in either a massive release of water in the form of an atmospheric river or extreme drought and aridity.

“We know that climate change is supercharging this extreme weather,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said during Wednesday’s news conference. “We find ourselves in the third year of an intense drought –and in fact the last three years have been the driest three-year period in the state’s history. And at the same time, of course, now we navigate this series of atmospheric rivers.”

The Central Valley flood plan similarly notes that “thousands of miles of levees in the Central Valley were not designed, constructed or maintained to withstand extreme events.”

Mount added that part of the problem is that persistent drought conditions have “always made Californians forget about major storms and our deteriorating flood control

systems.” He said there is growing concern that rising sea levels, deteriorating levees, ongoing subsidence and creeping urbanization are making it all but impossible to make the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta floodproof and safe.

It all adds up to what he describes as “The Great Paradox”: The repairs needed to protect communities, farmland and a major source of drinking water for more than 20 million Californians could take decades to design, approve, fund and build.

By then, the damage and risks they aimed to reduce would have been surpassed by the likelihood of weather conditions unleashing a deluge as devastating as the Great Flood of 1862. In that event, 30 consecutive days of rain triggered massive flooding across much of the state.

A similar storm today, scientists say, would displace up to 10 million people, shut down major freeways such as Interstates 5 and 80 for months, and inundate Stockton, Fresno and portions of Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, officials were increasingly anxious about the incoming storm and the possibility that more will follow.

With much of the state on flood alert, water managers have been consulting with one another in daily teleconferences, and juggling what is flowing in and out of some reservoirs as part of an effort to absorb runoff from incoming storms.

“Are we prepared for this weather?” said Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis. “Somewhat. But more than a thousand linear miles of levees in a sorry state, means there’s a lot more expensive preparation ahead of us.”

Variant

late into further waves of death because our countermeasures continue to work.”

Early data suggest XBB.1.5 and XBB.1 don’t appear to cause more serious disease than previous forms of the virus. There is also no indication that they respond differently than other subvariants to the drug Paxlovid, which reduces viral load when taken in the earliest days of the disease, Cannon said. (Like all the other subvariants currently in circulation, it does not respond to treatment with monoclonal antibodies.)

In

response to insurrection, Newsom will march to state Capitol Jan. 6 for inauguration

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom, who assailed conservative Republican leaders and their policies while celebrating California’s progressive values during his first four years in office, is launching his second term in similar fashion.

On Friday, Newsom will kick off his second inauguration with a march to the state Capitol, where he will be sworn in for another four years in California’s highest elected office.

The celebration falls on the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, giving California’s Democratic governor another opportunity to portray the Golden State’s case as a bulwark against farright extremism.

“This observance of the California spirit of opportunity and inclusion — ‘the California Way’ — will stand in peaceful contrast to the violent insurrection and assault on our democracy which occurred two years ago,” Newsom’s inaugural committee wrote in a statement.

Few details about the event have been made public, but on Wednesday morning fencing was already being staged on the west side of the Capitol building.

The inauguration plans were first unveiled in an email to Newsom’s reelection campaign supporters on Dec. 20, announcing a vague intention of holding a march and swearingin ceremony on Jan. 6. Those interested in attending were asked to RSVP online to reserve spots. The invitation stated event staff would be checking IDs for ticketed attendees.

The festivities are expected to begin late Friday morning with a march down the Capitol Mall, ending at the traffic circle west of the Capitol building. Newsom will then be sworn in and speak about his ambitions for the new term. A permit approved by California Highway Patrol’s capitol protection agency allows for up to 1,000 attendees.

Inaugural celebrations for California’s highestranking elected officials typically occur in the first week of January, so it’s not unusual that Newsom’s would fall on Jan. 6.

What would be unusual for Newsom is passing up a fresh opportunity to castigate conservative leadership and farright extremism.

After the 2021 attack on the Capitol, Newsom called it an “outright assault to our democracy and Democratic institutions.”

Newsom’s first inaugural remarks in 2019 were a forceful rejection of the Trump administration’s policies and the positioning of California’s progressive values as an honorable alternative.

Over the course of his first term, Newsom made national headlines for feuding with conservative governors in Republican-led states, denouncing former President Donald Trump of “corruption and incompetence” and chastising his own Democratic Party for failing to create a “compelling alternative narrative” to Republican rhetoric.

Newsom’s second inauguration will look noticeably different than the first.

He took office in 2019 amid nearly a decade of economic expansion that swelled the state budget to a remarkable surplus. His initial swearing-in ceremony was the most extravagant and starstudded for a California governor in two decades.

It lasted two days and culminated the governor taking an oath of office on the Capitol steps. The weekend of celebrations featured a charity concert headlined by Pitbull to raise money for wildfire victims, a luncheon at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum and a children’s event at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time that ticket packages were being sold for up to $200,000 for the inaugural festivities and up to $1 million for corporate sponsorships of the charity concert.

But this time around, as the state faces a projected $25 billion budget deficit, the celebration appears to be noticeably subdued. It falls just days before he’s set to unveil his plan to address the anticipated shortfall in the upcoming budget.

While the new strains’ characteristics make it more likely that fully vaccinated or previously infected people will test positive for an infection, the shots are still effective at preventing serious disease, Simon said.

Los Angeles County still has a lot of opportunity to weaken its transmission chains. Disappointingly few people have elected to get the new bivalent boosters, Simon said – only slightly more than one-third of people aged 65 and older and one-fifth of younger adults have rolled up their sleeves for shots that target omicron along with the original version of the virus.

“If you’re elderly, immunocompromised or pregnant – if

you’re in one of those groups, it is really, really important that you keep up with boosters,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Yes, you personally may have moved on from Covid. Maybe you’re a young, healthy person who’s gotten their three shots,” she said. “But this is still holding back the economy. It is still having a big impact on health care institutions, which means the cost is being passed on to you as a consumer. ... So there are reasons collectively that we should be trying to mitigate (this).”

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

A farm on Freeman Road south of Elk Grove, is partially flooded, Sunday, following flooding from heavy rains on New Year’s Eve. Two levees breached in the area, prompting calls for residents to seek higher ground and closing Highway 99.

Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee/TNS file

California Gov. Gavin Newsom makes an appearance at the Assembly Organizational Session, at the state Capitol in Sacramento, in 2022.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/TNS

A close-up view of a cell infected with an Omicron version of the coronavirus. The image has been colorized to show the virus particles in red.

California’s Proposition 13 still sparking clashes

California’s famous – or infamous – Proposition 13, passed by voters 44 years ago, sought to impose limits on state and local taxes.

The initiative, and several followup measures, imposed a direct cap on property taxes, created voting thresholds that made it more difficult to enact other taxes, and curbed the use of tax-like fees.

Although voters have rejected direct assaults on Proposition 13, politicians and pro-tax interest groups such as public employee unions have fought legal and political skirmishes with the anti-tax movement over what kinds of revenueincreasing instruments can be used to skirt constitutional restraints.

One potential clash this year is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed financial penalties on oil companies that exceed still-to-be-specified limits on their profits. He initially proposed a tax on those profits, but a tax would require a two-thirds legislative vote, so Newsom substituted financial penalties which, at least theoretically, would require only a simple majority vote.

However, the petroleum industry is branding the penalties as a tax, hinting that if Newsom’s measure becomes law, a legal challenge will be mounted on its constitutionality.

“A fee imposed on the industry as a commodity going to the government, that is going to look and act like a tax,” Kevin Slagle, spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, said. “We know windfall taxes have been tried nationally and don’t work. What we need to do is focus on better public policy.”

A couple of years ago, the state Supreme Court handed pro-tax groups a major victory, declaring that although special purpose taxes proposed by local governments require two-thirds approval by voters, such taxes proposed by initiative ballot measure need just simple majority support from voters.

Writing the 5-2 majority opinion, Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar declared, “Multiple provisions of the state constitution explicitly constrain the power of local governments to raise taxes. But we will not lightly apply such restrictions on local governments to voter initiatives.”

The decision validated some local initiative tax measures that had failed to get two-thirds votes and touched off a flurry of new tax proposals using the initiative process, one of them being a highly controversial tax on property transfers of $5 million or more in Los Angeles.

In November, Los Angeles voters approved Proposition ULA by a nearly 3-to-2 margin – a clear majority but short of a two-thirds vote. It would generate between $600 million and $1.1 billion a year for lowcost housing, rent relief and programs to battle homelessness.

The city’s newly elected mayor, Karen Bass, is counting on the funds to help fulfill her pledge to alleviate the nation’s worst urban homelessness crisis.

However, if the tax is to take effect, its advocates must prevail in a lawsuit filed last month by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association – named for Proposition 13’s late author – and local real estate interests, contending that the tax is prohibited by the state constitution and Los Angeles’ city charter.

The suit argues that “great and irreparable harm will result to plaintiffs, and to all Los Angeles property owners in being required to pay unconstitutionally imposed taxes,” adding, “Similar harm will occur to all Los Angeles residents in the form of increased rent and consumer prices resulting from the tax increase on all property sold (or value transferred) above $5 million.”

Given the huge amounts of money involved, it’s likely that the legality of the transfer tax will eventually reach the state Supreme Court and it could wind up on the same docket as a challenge to Newsom’s oil profits penalties.

Thus the never-ending saga of Proposition 13 enters a new phase.

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

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Send letters to Letters to the Editor, the Daily Republic, P.O. Box 47, Fairfield, CA 94533, email to gfaison@dailyrepublic.net or drop them off at our office, 1250 Texas St. in downtown Fairfield.

COMMENTARY

Five elections around the world you should pay attention to in 2023

Elections have consequences, and not just in the United States.

Here are five elections that will occur around the world this year whose results could have outsize significance - for the entire world.

Finland

The prospective NATO member will go the polls by April 2 to select a new parliament. NATO membership is not in doubt, as no significant party opposes it. But incumbent Social Democratic Party Prime Minister Sanna Marin might not be the beneficiary of the decision to join the alliance.

Finland’s conservative party, known as Kansallinen Kokoomus or the National Coalition Party, have led in the polls since mid-2021 and gained strength after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If Kokoomus finishes first, it will have the first chance to form a government. That could mean a return of a center-right government consisting of Kokoomus, the Centre Party (KESK) and the populist True Finns. Or it could result in a grand coalition between Kokoomus, the Social Democrats and one other party.

Denmark’s Social Democratic Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, chose the latter option after her country’s November election, even though her left-wing coalition retained a majority. If Finland follows suit, it would show that old foes are willing to become allies when threatened by parties who want radical change, left or right.

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seen as a strongman throughout much of the West. He has suppressed his country’s free press and brought trumped-up charges against political opponents, such as Ekrem Imamoglu, the Istanbul mayor who was convicted in December of insulting public officials and barred from political activity for more

THIS YOUTH GENERATION

than two years. Nonetheless, Turkey has a vibrant political opposition that has united against Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). AKP and its ally, the National Movement Party (MHP), have dropped significantly in polls in recent years as Turkey battles inflation at a 25-year high.

Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place on June 18, with a second round for president occurring on July 2 if no candidate wins a majority. It’s not melodramatic to say that the fate of Turkish democracy is on the line with this crucial vote.

Argentina

This proud nation is on top of the world when it comes to soccer, given its national team’s thrilling victory in capturing the World Cup. But otherwise, it remains an international example of governmental mismanagement.

Once one of the world’s richest nations, more than a century of economic and political incompetence has pushed it into an unhealthy cycle of slow growth followed by inflation and recession. That cycle is once more in full swing and the governing Peronist coalition, officially the Frente de Todos (Front of All), is behind in the polls.

The country’s center-right alliance, Juntos por el Cambio - Together for Change - remains in first place in the polls and is likely to prevail. Interestingly, a libertarian-inclined third bloc, Liberty Advances, has formed and is gaining as much as 23 percent. In any case, expect a big swing to the right in Argentina’s late October contest, with the victors given the chance to see if they can use market-based reforms to help break the country’s sorry cycle.

Poland

This Eastern European rising powerhouse has been aggressively pro-Ukraine since the invasion, sup-

plying it with weapons and housing millions of refugees.

But it is governed by a conservative populist party, Law and Justice (PiS), that is regularly under fire from the European Union for its allegedly anti-democratic practices. PiS remains Poland’s most popular party, but it is running a few points below the 44 percent it received in the last parliamentary vote.

All the polls show it would not win a majority if the election in the fall were held today, and seat projections show a hung parliament if current results hold. Poland’s proportional representation system encourages parties to team together into coalitions, so watch the pre-election maneuvering to see if PiS can attract some fringe groups to join forces in advance of the balloting.

Spain

This country, the European Union’s fourth-largest nation by both population and GDP, could continue the continental trend toward conservative-populist alliances in its December election.

The main center-right party, Partido Popular (PP), has led most polls since June. Vox, a national populist party to its right, has also consistently placed third, with the two groupings winning close to a majority of the total vote. Given Spain’s proportional representation system, which awards seats by small subregions, this easily gives the two a majority in parliament.

The incumbent left-of-center coalition of the Socialists (PSOE) and left-populist Podemos (UP), however, will surely raise the specter of extremism as it tries to tarnish Vox and regain the upper hand. This might work, but it could also push centrist Spaniards hungry for change toward Partido Popular so that party could govern alone without Vox. Regional elections in May will be an early barometer of the state of play.

Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Six pieces of wisdom for today’s youth in 2023

I’m not a big fan of the mundane cliché of a new year’s resolution.

However, I believe it is a good idea to reflect on what you believe you can do to improve the quality of your life this coming year. With that being said, here are a few wise jewels I would offer to my younger self and what I share with the youth I am fortu nate to mentor.

Although I fared well in an extremely volatile environment, these lessons would have saved me from some unnecessary mistakes and setbacks. We are currently in a very challenging and hostile environment. Unfortunately, today’s youth cannot afford to make the same bad decisions I made in my younger days.

I have been given some valuable gifts in my lifetime, but none has been more valuable and fruitful than the gift of knowledge and wisdom. The scriptures says, “there’s more joy in giving than receiving,” so I generously give these jewels quite often.

Jewel No. 1: Think before you act. The simple but effective process of thought will help you avoid making critical mistakes that could cost you your freedom, livelihood or your life.

“. . . Thinking ability will safeguard you.” — Proverbs. This will delay your response time and will avoid an impulsive and often emotional reaction which usually creates harmful results.

Jewel No. 2: Find an adult mentor.

A responsible adult knows what is best for your wellbeing. Draw close to an adult who you know has your best interest at heart. Ideally this should be your parent. Your parents ideally provide unconditional and lifelong source of love and support. However the reality is that all parents are not responsible adults. It does not even have to be a relative. A life coach or mentor could be from anywhere.

Jewel No. 3: Do not be a follower. Youth tend to be very vulnerable to current trends. This could lead to some bad decisions. Avoid the need to be part of the crowd. You can separate yourself from the group of people who are not involved in positive things and still have a social life. Following the crowd could lead to a potentially dangerous high-risk lifestyle. Today’s youth are becoming so obsessed with materialism that they will compromise their integrity to obtain certain things.

Jewel No. 4: Be humble. In the current environment, it is popular to be haughty or arrogant. Such attitudes tend to prevent an individual from developing healthy relationships. Being humble allows you to be open to learning from elders and making adjustment to become a better person. There is nothing wrong with being a confident person. However, there is a difference between confidence and arrogance

Jewel No. 5: Establish a set of

values. There are many deep cultural, social and spiritual values that will benefit all people. However, I recommend three simple and basic set of values for youth: life, peace, freedom. If you place a high value on each of these and consider them in your decisions, it will affect the choices you make. Put simply, if you value your life you will think twice about drinking and driving. If you value your peace you will avoid chaos. If you value your freedom, you will avoid criminal behavior the could lead to incarceration.

Jewel No. 6: Maintain emotional stability. Managing emotions is absolutely vital for navigating through these critical times that we are currently living in. Emotions run high in dealing with personal matters, family matters, work relationships, even in sporting events there has been incidents that go bad due to a loss of emotional control. If you are in control of your emotions most incident will not escalate. Remember, “life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to it” — Charles Schwindle.

One of the most valuable gifts you could ever give a person and the most valuable gifts you can receive from a person is divine wisdom which is priceless.

Deon D. Price is an Author and youth life skills coach who lives in Fairfield, CA. he can be reached at www.deon dprice.com or Thisyouth generation@gmail.com.

Dan Walters

Deon D. Price

Henry Olsen

(707) 427-1386

Migos rapper Takeoff’s suspected killer released on $1 million bond

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

The suspect in the fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff posted a $1 million bond and was released from a Texas jail, court records show.

Patrick Xavier Clark was released Wednesday night, the news station KPRC-TV reported Thursday, citing the Harris County District Clerk in Houston.

Clark, 33, is required to surrender his passport and wear a GPS monitor as terms of his release.

The suspect was arrested in early December, a month after Takeoff died in a shooting at the 810 Billiards & Bowling alley in downtown Houston.

Takeoff, a member of the popular rap trio Migos, was 28.

Clark’s bond was set

at $2 million before being reduced to $1 million last month. Investigators say Clark may have planned to leave the country after officials reportedly found him with cash, a passport and a Mexican itinerary.

Takeoff was an “innocent bystander” in the shooting, which occurred during an argument after a “lucrative dice game,” investigators said.

Founded in the Atlanta area in 2008, the Grammy-nominated Migos is known for hits such as “Bad and Boujee,” “Stir Fry” and “Walk It Talk It.”

Takeoff, whose real name was Kirsnick Khari Ball, was at the bowling alley with his uncle and fellow Migos member Quavo. On Wednesday, Quavo released a tribute song, “Without You.”

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú

Deadbeat boyfriend must be cut off

Dear Annie: I have been with a man off and on for seven years. He is my best friend, and I can’t live without him. A few years ago, he stole my stimulus check of $1,200, and he brought other women home, claiming he was only doing business with them.

He doesn’t have a job. I’m paying all the bills by myself, and I’m struggling. I have my own apartment and my own car and a job.

He has nothing. My friends and everyone are telling me he is using me. I don’t know what to believe. How do I know if he is true to me or not? He hides his cellphone. He has his family paying for all his needs. He is a 35-year-old man. Please give me advice or direction. — In Love but Unsure

Dear In Love but Unsure: He stole your money, he refuses to work and he is unfaithful. You are 100% better off without him. Instead of focusing on your heartbreak in letting him go, think of how much you will gain. You will save money, you will protect your mental health and you will open yourself up to new partners who love and respect you. Break up with him — immediately.

Dear Annie: My wife and I

are both successful professionals and empty nesters who have a great marriage and a lot to be thankful for. What I am writing about might be more of a problem for me than my wife, so I’m reaching out to hear your advice.

My wife is continually being reached out to via mobile device with texts and calls from her three adult sisters and one of our daughters. These calls occur daily, any time of day, seven days a week and are almost always, “What are you doing?” calls.

My wife’s a very busy woman with a lot of responsibility and works hard, sometimes seven days a week, sometimes 12- to 16-hour days (not continuously but enough for us to feel the weight). Her sisters and our daughter are all out of state and have a lot of time on their hands; other than our daughter, they’re all single.

In our marriage, it has become a “thing” where we are interrupted with significant frequency, day after day. There are very few days where we don’t have at least one (or more) meal, conversation, evening walk, etc. interrupted.

My wife is a total sweetheart and doesn’t want to discourage the calls, but she also feels hounded and exasperated

Horoscopes

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

The best leaders are often reluctant to take the position as they understand and respect the potentially grave responsibility that comes with leadership and do not enter into agreements lightly.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). No matter how many bad things have already happened, good things can still happen. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). There was a time you needed and craved familiarity but now you’re ready for something different. Adventure calls you. You’re willing to pay the ticket price, which will include the discomfort of uncertainty.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). You are impressionable, but this is no time to let others run your show. What would you do if you didn’t need anyone, if you were completely self-contained and self-sustaining on every level? Act as though this is true.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Your vision of the outside world reflects your inside world. The reason you can see beauty is because there is beauty in you. The same goes for talent, intelligence, kindness, humor and any other quality you observe in the world today.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You can’t connect with perfect

by Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

You’ll enjoy the sensation of sailing along a professional trajectory that completes your sense of self. Furthermore, you’ll like how your home reflects you: imperfectly charming. The things that don’t fit magically do and it becomes your style. An exciting change of scenery is also featured.

Virgo and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 19, 3, 31, 27 and 49.

people because humans connect through vulnerability and flaws. Luckily, you don’t know any perfect people, so it shouldn’t be a problem unless someone is too uncomfortable to be their self.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). This circumstance is a game. Your role may not seem powerful, but you can still make your move and it still matters. An Italian proverb suggests that when the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24Nov. 21). Your progress is slow, and perhaps even hindered by certain obstacles, but this is nothing that can’t be overcome. Take it hurdle by hurdle.

from it as they interrupt her work and our relationship. I’m patient so as not to add another problem to the mix for her, but she knows it drives me crazy, too. How can I help her? —

Desperate for Downtime

Dear Desperate: Kudos for noticing how this over-communication is overextending your wife and for wanting to help her make a change. Just because we can be reached basically 24/7 doesn’t mean we should be that available. It’s so important to find the balance between screen time and real life, and for your wife, this means setting boundaries and sticking to them.

The next time you two go for a walk, suggest she leave her phone at home. At mealtimes, turn both your cells to “Do Not Disturb” until after you’re finished eating. It doesn’t make your wife a bad sister or mother to miss a call and return it later when it’s more convenient. It might take her some time to adjust to the idea that she doesn’t need to be at anyone’s beck and (literal) call, but start with these baby steps. She herself deserves the same time and attention that she gives to her loved ones.

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@ creators.com.

Fuel your journey with hopeful dreams of exciting possibilities.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). You’ll be presented with options that seem to fit another person’s goals and not your own. Why accept their way as the only way? You will apply your enormous creativity to come up with interesting alternatives.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). A person cannot be deceived who does not, on some level, want to believe the deception. It is impossible to fool you today as you fall in love with the truth, embrace its flaws and celebrate its unchanging nature.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You will direct your energy well, thinking about happy things, good opportunities and beauty or the potential for it. When tempted to go negative you’ll gently redirect yourself to accomplish what needs doing.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Perhaps pure love is without contradictions, but the love that flows through the imperfect relationships of human beings is rife with them. Today brings messy and marvelous outcomes. The chaos is better than no love at all.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

IS IT FACT, FATE OR FANTASY?

The biggest puzzle in life is life itself. Why are we here? Why am I me rather than someone else? I have seen various answers to these questions, including religion, science – even 42. Do bridge contracts mirror life? Sometimes you feel as if they do. You are playing in a contract that needs a finesse to succeed, but deep down

Sudoku

IS IT FACT, FATE OR FANTASY?

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 grid contains the digits 1 through 9, with no repeats. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box. Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com

The biggest puzzle in life is life itself. Why are we here? Why am I me rather than someone else? I have seen various answers to these questions, including religion, science – even 42.

Do bridge contracts mirror life?

by Phillip Alder

you just know that it’s going to fail. Then, when it does lose, you nod your head knowingly. However, do you ask yourself if there was another line of play that would not have relied on the finesse?

On today’s deal, North’s response of two no-trump was the Jacoby Forcing Raise. South’s jump to game showed a minimum with no side-suit singleton or void.

West led the diamond two. East took the trick with his ace and returned the suit. West won with his king and shifted to the heart two.

Declarer finessed the heart queen. It lost to the king, and back came a heart. South ran all of his trumps, each defender keeping three clubs. Then South guessed to finesse West for the club queen, but East produced that honor too: down one.

“I knew West had started with 1=4=4=4 distribution, so it was 4-to-3 that he held the club queen,” explained South.

“True,” replied North, “but you didn’t need to guess. Just win trick three with the heart ace, draw the trump and exit with a heart. The defender who wins that trick must either lead a club or concede a ruff-andsluff. You don’t lose a club trick.”

As Kin Hubbard said, “Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.”

by Wayne Gould

Difficulty level: SILVER

Bridge

Annie Lane Dear Annie

TUESDAY, JAN. 3

9:26 a.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 1000 block of FIFTH STREET 9:29 a.m. — Trespassing, 1300 block of HOLIDAY LANE 9:41 a.m. — Forgery, 3400 block of NORWALK PLACE 11:06 a.m. — Forgery, 2000 block of PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE 11:24 a.m. — Indecent exposure, 1600 block of GATEWAY BOULEVARD 12:09 p.m. — Commercial burglary, 2000 block of DOVER AVENUE

12:42 p.m. — Brandishing a weapon, 1200 block of DANA DRIVE

1:00 p.m. — Trespassing, 900 block of OHIO STREET 1:24 p.m. — Robbery, 5000 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE

2:12 p.m. — Residential burglary, 800 block of MEADOWLARK DRIVE 4 :20 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 1900 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 5:53 p.m. — Reckless driver, 100 block of EAST TABOR AVENUE

6:33 p.m. — Robbery, 2000 block of CADENASSO DRIVE 8:27 p.m. — Grand theft, 1800 block of VERMONT STREET 9:01 p.m. — Reckless driver, COURAGE DRIVE WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4 12:12 a.m. — Reckless driver, DOVER AVENUE 1:47 a.m. — Reckless driver, 2800 block of ELMHURST CIRCLE 2:33 a.m. — Hit—and—run property damage, WATERMAN BOULEVARD 2:35 a.m. — Battery, 1900 block of GRANDE CIRCLE 7:10 a.m. — Trespassing, 1200 block of B. GALE WILSON BOULEVARD 8:49 a.m. — Vehicle theft, 800 block of STONERIDGE CIRCLE 10:21 a.m. — Brandishing a weapon, 2400 block of DOVER AVENUE 12 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 1900 block of WEST TEXAS STREET 1:18 p.m. — Trespassing, 2400 block of WATERMAN BOULEVARD 1:19 p.m. — Vandalism, 500 block of ALASKA AVENUE

2:23 p.m. — Trespassing, 1900 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 2:33 p.m. — Hit—and—run property damage, 2300 block of FAIRFIELD AVENUE 3:59 p.m. — Vandalism, 1400 block of GATEWAY BOULEVARD 5:04 p.m. — Forgery, 2900 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 5:25 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 2000 block of BUCKINGHAM DRIVE 5:38 p.m. — Vehicle burglary, 300 block of EAST TABOR AVENUE 5:43 p.m. — Forgery, 3300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 6:01 p.m. — Hit—and—run property damage, TRAVIS BOULEVARD 6:40 p.m. — Battery, 1300 block of WOOLNER AVENUE 7:04 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 600 block of GREAT JONES STREET 7:21 p.m. — Grand theft, 2000 block of HUMMINGBIRD DRIVE 9:11 p.m. — Vandalism, VILLA COURT

9:56 p.m. — Fight with a weapon, 1900 block of GRANDE CIRCLE 10:13 p.m. — Battery, 1400 block of UNION AVENUE

SuiSun City

TUESDAY, JAN. 3 8:08 a.m. — Vehicle theft, 600 block of SUISUN STREET 9:45 a.m. — Vehicle theft, 500 block of SKYLARK DRIVE 10:39 a.m. — Grand theft, MAIN STREET/SOLANO STREET 2:16 p.m. — Vehicle theft, NEWPORT WAY 3:51 p.m. — Fraud, 800 block of SUNSET AVENUE WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4 6:01 a.m. — Vandalism, HARBOR CENTER 6:17 a.m. — Vandalism, 600 Block of PLACER LANE 17:35 p.m. — Assault, 600 Block of CANVASBACK DRIVE 9:15 p.m. — Reckless driver, MAIN STREET/SOLANO STREET

with the contract for service. We look forward to serving the district and moving toward a long-term solution in 2023.”

Biden’s immigration plan would restrict illegal border crossings

The WashingTon PosT

President Joe Biden announced new immigration restrictions Thursday, including the expansion of programs to remove people quickly without letting them seek asylum, in an attempt to address one of his administration’s most politically vulnerable issues at a time when the nation’s attention is focused on Republican disarray in the House.

The measures, which reflect a political shift to the center for Biden, will broaden his authority to grant legal entry to tens of thousands of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians into the country each month. But migrants from those countries who attempt to enter the United States without authorization will risk rapid expulsion to Mexico, as the administration plans to expand its use of a pandemic-era public health immigration policy known at Title 42.

Up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela would be admitted via “parole” each month, as long as they have a U.S. financial sponsor, officials said. The move amounted to a major expansion of a parole program that previously would accept only Venezuelans and capped the total number from that country at 24,000. The changes overall will probably mean fewer migrants from those

Loss

From

a deal would simply cut into his margins or put him over the top.

“There are only two outcomes here: Either Kevin McCarthy with draws from the Speaker’s race, or he has to wake up every morning and put on the world’s best construc tive straitjacket before the beginning of every House session,” tweeted Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who cast three speaker votes for former President Donald Trump, whom he also nominated on the 11th ballot.

McCarthy has yet to convert a single member to his column since the 118th Congress first convened Tuesday and began voting to elect a speaker. In fact, his total vote count has fallen from its height of 203 Tuesday to 200 by the ninth ballot Thursday, when one of his supporters began missing the roll call.

McCarthy has also lost votes from Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who has consistently been voted as the top McCarthy alternative; and Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., who began voting “present” Wednesday. Some conservative Republicans began sup-

four countries entering the United States illegally, and more unauthorized border crossers sent back to Mexico, which has agreed to accept 30,000 returns a month.

Migrants accepted through the parole program will be authorized to live and work in the United States for a two-year period, but those who cross illegally into Panama, Mexico or the United States after Thursday’s announcement will be ineligible, officials said.

The Venezuela parole program, which began in October, has reduced illegal crossings by 76 percent, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Biden’s new policies represent a move to the center on an issue that has loomed over the first two years of his administration. The changes are likely to draw challenges from immigration advocacy groups, because U.S. law says that anyone can apply for asylum if they set foot on U.S. soil. But officials say people are misusing those laws to cross the border to work, which is not grounds for humanitarian protection.

The White House said the measures “will expand and expedite legal pathways for orderly migration and result in new consequences for those who fail to use those legal pathways.”

“The actions we are announc-

ing today will make things better, but will not fix the border problem completely,” Biden said in a speech from the White House. “Until Congress has acted, I can act where I have legal capacity to do so.”

Biden, who has said he will seek reelection in 2024, is contending with the political and operational fallout of two consecutive years of record numbers of migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border, in part because of his more welcoming policies.

Before taking office, Biden said he wanted an orderly system, not “2 million people on our border.” The number of border apprehensions jumped to 1.7 million during his first year in the White House, however, and soared to nearly 2.4 million in his second year.

Biden campaigned on the promise that his administration’s immigration system would be “safe, orderly and humane”; his pivot toward amped-up enforcement suggests the White House sees immigration as a 2024 liability.

A few minutes after the president finished speaking, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – the son of Cuban refugees – told reporters the Biden administration is preparing additional measures to penalize asylum seekers who enter illegally instead of applying through CBP One, a government mobile app.

man Scott Perry, R-Pa., tweeted Thursday afternoon. “When confidences are betrayed and leaks are directed, it’s even more difficult to trust. Totally unsat(isfied). I will not yield to the status quo.”

McCarthy remains 16 votes shy of being elected speaker. Several members of the so-called “Never Kevin” caucus –which includes Gaetz and Boebert – say they will never support McCarthy in a floor vote, calling into question whether he has a plausible path to the job at all.

porting a new alternative on the eighth ballot.

“You see that Kevin McCarthy does not have the votes. You are understanding that he is not going to get there,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said to colleagues after nominating Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., for speaker on the ninth ballot. “It is not happening, and as it’s been said, we need to get to a point where we start evaluating what life after Kevin McCarthy looks like.”

While announcing her vote on the eighth ballot for Hern, Boebert described him as “a true consensus candidate.”

Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus

who have supported an alternative to McCarthy for speaker want him to make more concessions to potentially win them over.

The list of asks includes lowering the threshold so that a single member of the House Republican Conference can offer a motion to vacate the chair, a tool that could oust the speaker; placing more Freedom Caucus members and allies on the Rules Committee; and a commitment to hold a vote on term limits legislation for members of Congress.

“Nothing’s agreed to until everything’s agreed to,” McCarthy said Thursday morning.

“A deal is NOT done,” Freedom Caucus Chair-

“You never have to ask me again if I’m a no on Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., told reporters. “I will never vote for Kevin McCarthy.”

Some of the conservative rebels have begun sending fundraising emails highlighting their opposition to McCarthy.

“We BLOCKED Kevin McCarthy from becoming Speaker of the House,” read one email from Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs’ reelection campaign. “But I am running out of time to win over my colleagues. Can I count on your support as I fight for a conservative Speaker . . . and finally put the establishment on notice?”

department said in its post.

“The addition of Engine 36 to the Cordelia and eventually Green Valley area . . . has created the redundancy that made it possible to move forward

weekend storm should also be much lighter than the Wednesday night-Thursday morning storm, with gusts in the highest elevations peaking at 35 to 40 mph, Rowe said.

Another 2 to 4 inches

Station 36 on Business Center Drive is slated to open in 2024.

The 390-home Middle Green Valley Specific Plan buildout is factored into the potential impact on the city department.

of rain are forecast from a system moving in Monday and Tuesday, with Wednesday and Thursday looking to dry up some.

“I think the main message . . . is we are expecting unsettled weather into next week,” Rowe said.

As of 11:30 on Thursday morning, Lake Berryessa was at 398.09 feet. The lake spills at 440 feet.

From

Overall, with county and city roads combined, Solano in 2021 was listed as having roads in “fair” condition with an aggregate score of 66 – seventh lowest among the nine Bay Area counties. The combined scored in 2020 was 68, with a 67 in 2019. The total lane miles was listed at 3,707, the report states.

“Overall pavement conditions on the Bay Area’s nearly 44,000 lanemiles of local streets and roads landed once again in fair territory (in 2021), with the typical stretch of roadway showing serious wear and likely to require rehabilitation soon,” the report released by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission states.

The Bay Area in total had a score of 67, the sixth consecutive year for that mark. Highways and interstates are not included.

“The new pavement data is a bit of a mixed bag,” said Napa County Supervisor Alfredo

Pedroza, who sits as chairman of MTC. His county is among the worse in road conditions, ranked as “at-risk” and was tied for last among all the Bay Area counties.

“The good news is that our counties and cities have been able to prevent major deterioration, thanks in large part to the state gas tax money they receive through the SB 1 local streets and roads program. The bad news is we’re still a long way away from our goal of bringing the Bay Area’s streets and roads into a state of good repair, which would raise the regional average into the mid-80s,” Pedroza added.

Vacaville had the next best score, under the “good” category (70-79) with a 71. That is up from 70 in 2020 and a 69 for the prior year, the report states. The city has 697.2 lane miles of roads.

“The ‘good’ category ranges from 70 to 79, while streets with PCI scores in the ‘fair’ (60-69) range are becoming worn to the point where rehabilitation may be needed to prevent rapid deterioration. Because major repairs

cost five to 10 times more than routine maintenance, these streets are at an especially critical stage,” the report states.

Fairfield scored as “fair” with a 68 for 2021. That is down from a 69 in 2020, which took the city out of the “good” category it qualified for with a score of 72 in 2019, the report states. The city has 772.3 lane miles.

Following Fairfield is Dixon with a score of 65, also in the “fair” category. The city, with 143.6 lane miles, had a score of 64 in 2020 and 65 in 2019, the report states.

Rio Vista, with a 2021 score of 60, remained in the “fair” status, following scores of 59 and 63 in 2020 and 2019, respectively. The score of 59 had put the city in the “at-risk” category, so the lasted ranking moved Rio Vista up a grade. The city has 46 miles of lane miles, the report states.

Suisun City, in 2019 with a score of 61, had been listed as having roads in fair condition, but that dropped to at-risk with a 59 in 2020 and the 2021 score dipped to 58. The city has 153.6 lane

miles, the report states. Benicia is also to have roads “at risk” with a score of 53, following a 2020 ranking of 51. It scored a 53 in 2019 as well. The city has 198 lane miles, the report states.

The Solano jurisdiction with the worst roads is Vallejo, scoring under the “poor” category with a 48. That is down from 49 in 2020 and from 52 a year earlier. The city has 710.9 lane miles, the report states.

“Roadways with PCI scores of 50 to 59 are deemed ‘at-risk,’ while those with PCI scores of 25 to 49 are considered ‘poor’ These roads require major rehabilitation or reconstruction. Pavement with a PCI score below 25 is considered ‘failed,’” the report states.

There were not counties or cities with failed road conditions listed in the report.

Pacifica had the worst jurisdictional rating with a 42. Sonoma and Napa counties rated at the bottom among the nine Bay Area counties with an aggregate score of 55.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/TNS U.S. Rep.-elect John James, R-Mich., delivers remarks alongside House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., right, in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Thursday.

Hamlin showing ‘remarkable improvement’

tribune content agency

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin woke up on Wednesday night and asked in writing if his team had beaten the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night.

“Did we win?” Hamlin wrote with a pen on a piece of paper on a clipboard.

“Yes, you won the game of life,” the nurse responded, according to University of Cincinnati Medical Center doctors on a virtual call.

He was unable to speak because of the breathing tube in his throat.

The first public word of Hamlin being “awake” came from Bills teammate Kaiir Elam on Twitter Thursday morning.

The Bills added that Hamlin has shown “remarkable improvement” in the intensive care unit and said “while still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears neurologically intact. His lungs continue

to heal and he is making steady progress.”

The Bills return to practice Thursday and are scheduled to speak to the media later in the afternoon.

NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport tweeted that Hamlin “opened his eyes last night and is responsive” and ESPN’s Coley Harvey tweeted on Thursday that Hamlin has been gripping the hands of family members while in the ICU.

Hamlin has been at UC Medical Center intensive care unit since Monday night after he collapsed on the field and went into cardiac arrest.

The 24-year-old had to be resuscitated on the field after tackling Bengals’ wide receiver Tee Higgins. The second-year safety out of Pitt received CPR on the field for nearly nine minutes.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hamlin’s father, Mario Hamlin,

addressed the entire Bills team on Zoom Wednesday to give them an update on the improving condition of his son.

The game against the Bengals on Monday Night Football was postponed with 5:58 remaining in the first quarter. The NFL announced Tuesday that the game against BillsBengals will not resume this week and the Associated Press reported Thursday that the game will not be finished.

Here is the full text of the Bills’ statement:

“Per the physicians caring for Damar Hamlin at University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Damar has shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours. While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact. His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress. We are grateful for the love and support we have received.”

Shanahan’s coaching has been spot on for the 49ers

Jerry McDonalD BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Kyle Shanahan handled the aftermath of the on-field horror involving Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin about as you’d expect Wednesday.

The 49ers coach was direct but not overly flowery. Sensitive to something so serious and catastrophic happening on the field of the sport he’s dedicated his life to without being overwhelmed by it.

Vanden boys, girls teams likely favorites in MEL races, again

M att Miller MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Vanden High School’s girls basketball team takes great pride in its streak of Monticello Empire League victories and has no expectations of letting it end any time soon.

“No one on this team has lost a league game and they take pride in that,” Vanden co-head coach Jake Johnson said. “It’s a tradition handed down. They also want to make their own path, their own

legacy, and make their own statement.”

Johnson and his wife, co-head coach Allison Johnson, have won 30 straight league games, 103 of 104, 138 of 140 and picked up 18 titles in 18 years.

The 2023 MEL season begins Wednesday for the Vikings at Will C. Wood. Fairfield plays at Vacaville Tuesday and Armijo is at Rodriguez Wednesday in other games.

Vanden won the title with a 10-0 record last

season. The Vikings were followed by Rodriguez (8-3), Wood (6-4), Vacaville (3-6), Armijo (0-7) and Fairfield (0-8).

“I think the league will be stronger and more competitive this year,” Johnson said. “We know everybody is coming for us and will be ready to throw their best punch.”

Vanden has the MEL MVP back in Alyssa Jackson. Honorable mention selections Calonni Holloway, Gabby Wright, Taytum Johnson and Mila Simano are back

for the Vikings, along with a many new additions.

Vacaville’s Brynlie Headrick and Will C. Wood’s Athena Brombacher were also first-team last year and return. There are several honorable mention picks back around the league in Ronia Vaughn (Rodriguez), Natalie Sanchez (Wood), Kailei Gomez (Wood), Andrea Howard (Wood), Amani Boxdell (Fairfield), Marian Supapo (Armijo) and Jasmine

Focus on Mental health, meditation has been key for Kings’ early success

chriS biDerM an THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Eighty-two games over seven months. Countless practices, shootarounds, flights, bus trips and time zones.

That’s just part of life as an NBA player, coach or staffer. Then there are relationships, family issues, social media distractions, pandemic concerns and constant news cycles.

There are countless reasons for minds to wander. Often they can manifest into stress, depression or panic attacks, all of which can be compounded by the dehumanization many face in their line of work. It’s true

not just in the NBA, but in every walk of life.

For the Sacramento Kings, and the NBA as a whole, addressing mental health and creating an

environment for open discussion has been a priority in recent seasons.

First-year Kings coach Mike Brown took steps when he was hired in June

to foster conditions where the mental health of his team is as important as anything else.

“A lot of times, players get looked at as these robots who aren’t even human, who are above being human,” Brown said. “So to try to help them in that area, like any other business out there does, to me, was a no-brainer. And it was something that I pushed for right away from day one.”

According to the CDC, more than 50% of American adults will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime. And one in five Americans will

There is no coaches’ handbook for dealing with something so serious playing out on a national stage, the same as there is no one way to process shock and grief. Rather than gather everyone together as one, the 49ers met with their position groups with clinicians on hand to answer individual questions as well as deal with wives and significant others seeking information and reassurance.

It was back to business but not business as usual.

“That’s real rough, it’s real sad,” Shanahan said during his regular

press briefing. “But you’ve got work too. So that’s what guys do, and you’ve got to be there for each other and I really hurt for (Buffalo) specifically because of knowing how many guys have such close relationships there.”

It was a good seven minutes before anyone broached a subject other than Hamlin, who remains in a Cincinnati hospital in critical condition after experiencing cardiac arrest after making a tackle of the Bengals’ Tee Higgins Monday night.

It helps that what little information has come out regarding Hamlin’s condition has been optimistic in tone, but it was still a jarring sight that players are working through in their own minds.

At least there’s a sense of hope that wasn’t a part of off-field NFL tragedies of past years that didn’t play out during a game on live television – the drunken driving arrest

Rodriguez girls can’t keep pace against Grant

Daily r epublic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Rodriguez High School girls basketball team couldn’t slow a powerful Grant at home Thursday as the Mustangs fell to the Pacers 56-24.

Grant led just 11-9 after the first quarter but took off in the second for a 34-20 lead at halftime. Rodriguez fell to 2-13 overall.

Roniya Vaughn led the Lady Mustangs with 10 points and Mia Marquez had seven against the Pacers.

Rodriguez played at home against Manteca Tuesday and lost 49-34.

Maraya Vaughn led the team with 12 points in that one and Roniya Vaughn scored seven.

Boys Basketball Fairfield falls to Whitney

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield High School boys basketball team lost on the road Wednesday night to Whitney, 72-51.

Whitney pulled away in the third quarter with a 24-10 advantage after leading just 31-26 at halftime.

Johnnie Jones led the Falcons in scoring with 16 points.

Fairfield is 3-13 overall.

The Falcons have a 6 p.m. game Saturday night at home against Benicia before opening Monticello Empire League action at home Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Vacaville.

Xavier Mascareñas/Sacramento Bee/TNS file

Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown and star guard De’Aaron Fox have been at the center of the team’s massive improvement this season.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file

Head coach Micheal Holloway gathers his Vanden High School boys basketball team during the NorCal quarterfinals against Bishop O’Dowd in March. The

Vikings are loaded again in 2023 and ready to take aim at another MEL title. They are also hoping for deep run in the Sac-Joaquin Section and NorCal playoffs.

CALENDAR

Friday’s TV sports

Basketball College Men

Detroit Mercy vs. Wright State, ESPN2, 4 p.m.

NBA

Brooklyn vs. New Orleans, ESPN, 4:30 p.m. Miami vs. Phoenix, ESPN, 7 p.m.

Golf PGA

Sentry Tour of Champions, GOLF, 3 p.m.

Saturday’s TV sports

Basketball College Men

Notre Dame vs. North Carolina, ESPN2, 8:30 a.m.

Creighton vs. Connecticut, 2, 40, 9 a.m.

Vanderbilt vs. Missouri, 5, 13, 9 a.m.

Kentucky vs. Alabama, ESPN, 10 a.m.

Wisconsin vs. Illinois, ESPN2, 10:30 a.m.

Ole Miss vs. Mississippi, 5, 13, 11 a.m.

Michigan vs. Michigan State, 2, 40, 11:30 a.m.

Clemson vs. Pittsburgh, ESPN2, 1 p.m. San Diego State vs. Wyoming, 5, 13, 1 p.m.

College Women Iowa vs. Michigan, 2, 40, 1:30 p.m.

NBA

Orlando vs. Golden State, NBCSBA (Fairfield and Suisun City), 5:30 p.m.

L.A. Lakers vs. Sacramento, NBCSCA (Vacaville and Rio Vista), 7 p.m.

Golf PGA

Sentry Tour of Champions, 3, 1 p.m.

Sentry Tour of Champions, GOLF, 3 p.m.

Football

NFL

Kansas City vs. Las Vegas, 7, 10, ESPN, 1:30 p.m.

Tennessee at Jacksonville, 7, 10, ESPN, 5:15 p.m.

Hockey

NHL Boston vs. San Jose, NBCSCA, 7:30 p.m.

BASKETBALL

NBA

EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division

W L Pct GB Boston 27 12 692 Brooklyn 25 13 658 1½ Philadelphia 23 14 622 3 New York 21 18 538 6 Toronto 16 22 421 10½

Central Division

W L Pct GB Milwaukee 25 13 658 Cleveland 25 14 641 ½ Indiana 21 18 538 4½ Chicago 17 21 447 8 Detroit 11 30 268 15½ Southeast Division W L Pct GB Miami 20 19 513 Atlanta 18 20 474 1½ Washington 17 22 436 3 Orlando 14 25 368 5½ Charlotte 10 29 256 10 WESTERN CONFERENCE Northwest Division W L Pct GB Denver 24 13 649 Portland 19 18 514 5 Utah 19 21 475 6½ Minnesota 18 21 462 7 Oklahoma City 16 22 421 8½ Pacific Division W L Pct GB SACRAMENTO 20 17 541 L.A. Clippers 21 18 538 Phoenix 20 19 513 1 GOLDEN STATE 20 19 513 1 L.A. Lakers 17 21 447 3½ Southwest Division W L Pct GB Memphis 25 13 658 New Orleans 24 14 632 1 Dallas 22 17 564 3½ San Antonio 12 26 316 13 Houston 10 28 263 15 Wednesday’s Games Detroit 122, GOLDEN STATE 119 Atlanta 120, SACRAMENTO 117 Memphis 131, Charlotte 107 Cleveland 90, Phoenix 88

Curry leads West backcourt in All-Star voting

Shayna Rubin BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Early NBA All-Star fan voting returns have six Golden State Warriors among the top 20 in the Western Conference.

Steph Curry leads the conference’s backcourt with 2.715 million votes for the 2023 All-Star game to be held in Salt Lake City on Feb. 19. Klay Thompson comes in at fifth with 515,104 votes and Jordan Poole has the 10th most votes with 138,902.

Andrew Wiggins – who made his first career AllStar game last season as a starter – has the fifth most votes with 1.23 million.

Draymond Green comes in at eighth with 405,245 votes and Kevon Looney has the 10th most with 245,985 votes.

The top two guards and three frontcourt players from each conference are selected as All-Star starters. At the end of the fan voting period, the top vote-getters in each conference are selected as team captains that can draft among the top 10 starters from any conference to be on their team.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (a team captain in every All-Star game since the new format’s inception in 2018) and Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant currently lead all voting in their respective confer-

ences, both with over 3 million votes.

Despite a shoulder injury, Curry looks cleared to be selected an All-Star starter for a ninth time in his 14-year career. And with longterm injuries to New Orleans Pelicans’ Zion Williamson and Lakers’ Anthony Davis – who both sit ahead of him in the early fan vote – Wiggins could see a path toward consecutive starter nods.

Fan voting accounts for 50 percent of the starter voting pool. A combination of current players and media accounts for the other 50 percent of voting. Any Warriors player not selected as a starter could have a shot as a reserve.

Green is looking to make his fifth career All-Star game; he was selected as a reserve last season, but didn’t participate due to injury.

Thompson could make his sixth All-Star game and first since the 2018-19 season, the year he tore his ACL in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

Looney and Poole are gunning for their first AllStar appearances.

The 30 NBA coaches vote to select 14 reserves sent to the All-Star game. Two guards, three frontcourt players and two players at any position from each conference are selected as reserves.

Jacksonville, 5:15

Games Arizona at SAN FRANCISCO, 1:25 p.m. Tampa Bay at Atlanta, 10 a.m. New England at Buffalo, 10 a.m. Minnesota at Chicago, 10 a.m. Houston at Indianapolis, 10 a.m. N.Y. Jets at Miami, 10 a.m. Carolina at New Orleans, 10 a.m. Cleveland at Pittsburgh, 10 a.m. N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia, 1:25 p.m. Dallas at Washington, 1:25 p.m. L.A. Chargers at Denver, 1:25 p.m. L.A. Rams at Seattle, 1:25 p.m. Detroit at Green Bay, 5:20 p.m.

Early look at how Giants might stack up in a powerful NL West

Evan WEbEck BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

This week, FanGraphs analyzed teams’ offseasons through the lens of wins above replacement. Which clubs had gained the most, and which teams had lost the most, from last season through free agency?

The Giants, despite their five signings, were still at a net loss.

Down 0.8 fWAR, they were still better off than the subject of the article, the suspiciously quiet Dodgers, who have lost 14.3 fWAR from last year’s 111-win club, as well as the Padres (minus-2.1) and Rockies (minus-1.2) among their NL West foes. However, the Giants enter the season with a 30-game handicap in the division race. (The D-Backs were the only division team with a net gain, at plus-2.8.)

The Giants may not be entirely done, but the foundation of the roster is set. Is it enough to compete for the NL West, or at least a wild card berth? Take a look at how it’s shaping up with our projection below.

Starting pitchers (6)

Projected: Alex Cobb, Anthony DeSclafani, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling, Logan Webb, Alex Wood

Other 40-man options: Tristan Beck, Sean Hjelle, Sam Long, Keaton Winn

Total WAR (Steamer projection): 12.1 (Cobb 3.1, Webb 3.0, Manaea 1.9, Wood 1.8, Stripling 1.4, DeSclafani 0.5, Harrison 0.4)

One player accounts for the majority of the WAR the Giants must replace from last season: Carlos Rodón, who totaled 6.2 fWAR, the second-most in the majors, and parlayed that into a $162 million contract – and a clean shave – in New York. Their two additions, Manaea and Stripling, combined to throw more than 100 more innings last season than Rodón but were worth 2.0 fewer wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.

What they lost at the top of their rotation, however, they hope to make up for in depth. And, maybe, a little creativity.

“There may be some situations in which we go to a six-man rotation for a period of time,” Farhan Zaidi said last week. “There will be times we do that. There will be times we tandem guys and try to use two of our

starters to get through an entire game. . . . We don’t have a group of 34-start, 200-inning guys, so I do think an element of this will be managing workloads more generally across the course of the season.”

How it shakes out to start the season is still to be determined, but this much is certain: Webb will suit up for Team USA during the World Baseball Classic, and a few weeks later, make his second straight Opening Day start for the Giants.

It will certainly be a goal of Webb’s to reach 200 innings, after a careerhigh 192⅓ last year, but for the first time in his career, the 26-year-old righty from Rocklin will be without a co-ace at the top of the rotation. By the end of the season – maybe even before the All-Star break – he could be joined by another homegrown arm in Harrison, 21, the top left-handed pitching prospect in baseball, who is expected to start the year at Triple-A.

There is some room for positive regression to the mean: Giants starters led the NL last season in FIP (fielding independent pitching), with a 3.43 mark. However, their ERA (3.86) ranked seventh. It was the secondwidest gap of any team in the majors.

Relief pitchers (7)

Projected: Scott Alexander, John Brebbia, Camilo Doval, Jakob Junis, Taylor Rogers, Tyler Rogers, Thomas Szapucki

Other 40-man options: Yunior Marte, Randy Rodriguez, Cole Waites

Total WAR (Steamer projection): 2.4 ( Taylor Rogers 0.7, Doval 0.6, Junis 0.5, Szapucki 0.2, Alexander 0.1, Brebbia 0.1, Marte 0.1, Waites 0.1, Tyler Rogers -0.1)

Six spots are locked down, and the Giants are working to add another reliever, which would fill the seventh and final slot. But, for now, the leader in the clubhouse is Szapucki, one of the four players the Giants got in return for Darin Ruf and who is out of

13 points for the Wildcats. Nigel Rogers had 10 points and Jayden Hamilton-Holland contributed eight.

Dixon lifts Wildcats to win at Natomas

VACAVILLE — Isiah Dixon scored 21 points and added 10 rebounds and six assists as the Will C. Wood High School boys basketball team edged out Natomas on the road, 58-54.

Julian Martinez added

“We led the whole game but were unable to put them away,” Wood head coach Mark Wudel said in an email. “Natomas eventually took the lead in the fourth quarter but we bore down on defense and took the lead back for good and sealed the victory.”

Wood, now 10-6 overall, will play at Benicia Friday. The Wildcats open the Monticello Empire League

options.

We’ve already gotten a “Step Brothers” reference from the Rogers twins, but Zaidi stressed that the addition of Taylor Rogers was more than a good story. The Giants were concerned about the stress put on the arm of their talented young closer last season, so they added an oppositehanded option who also saved 31 games last year.

Catcher (2)

Projected: Joey Bart, Austin Wynns

Other 40-man options: Blake Sabol

Total WAR (Steamer projection): 2.0 (Bart 0.9, Sabol 0.7, Wynns 0.4)

Despite Bart’s well-documented struggles last season, the Giants’ catching position still ranked 16th in the majors in fWAR. There was room to improve on the trade market, with Oakland sending Sean Murphy to Atlanta and Toronto dealing Gabriel Moreno to Arizona, but Zaidi has reiterated his confidence in the duo of Bart and Wynns.

Sabol, a Rule 5 pick acquired in a trade with Cincinnati, would give the Giants the left-handed-hitting partner they have been seeking to pair with Bart – and his .284/.363/.497 batting line last season, mostly at Double-A, is intriguing – but evaluators have questioned his ability to serve as a primary backup behind the plate because of his defensive shortcomings.

Infielders (6)

Projected: Brandon Crawford, J.D. Davis, Thairo Estrada, Wilmer Flores, David Villar, LaMonte Wade Jr.

Other 40-man

season Tuesday night with a game at Vanden.

College Eaglin powers Solano women to victory

ROCKVILLE — Dominique Eaglin scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in leading the Solano Community College women’s basketball team Tuesday night to a 62-46 win at home over Marin.

So, the Giants will have the shortstop position to address next offseason. (It’s a big year for top prospect Marco Luciano, who missed much of last year with a back injury that flared up again in winter ball.) Crawford, who turns 36 in January, will be penciled in for his 12th consecutive Opening Day start at shortstop, after all. He was better at the plate and back in old form defensively after returning from a threeweek IL stint, and the Giants plan to balance his workload to keep him fresh this season. Without any other additions, however, Estrada would be their only other capable shortstop, and he is expected to start every day at second.

This group will also be challenged by the new restrictions on infield shifts. The Giants were one of the most effective teams at positioning their infielders last season, and despite intentions to upgrade its athleticism, the group is largely the same from last year.

The emergence of Villar at the end of last year (eight home runs in September/October) allowed the Giants to move on from Evan Longoria, who recently found a comfortable landing spot with the Diamondbacks, an upand-coming club in need of a veteran presence (whose stadium is conveniently located a short drive from his home). He and Davis will share the load at third with Flores and at first with Wade. It’s possible top prospect and defensive whiz Casey Schmitt gets a look at third base by the end of the season, too.

Is this group looking a little righthanded heavy? Brandon Belt remains a free agent.

Outfielders (5)

Projected: Michael Conforto, Mitch Haniger, Joc Pederson, Austin Slater, Mike Yastrzemski

Other 40-man options: Luis González, Heliot Ramos

Total WAR (Steamer projection): 8.9 (Yastrzemski 2.3, Haniger 2.0, Pederson 1.7, Conforto 1.6, Slater 1.1, González 0.2)

With Aaron Judge in tow, the Giants . . . ah, well, never mind.

At least the additions of Conforto (whose deal is not yet official, though he has passed his physical) and Haniger should bolster the league’s worst outfield defense and stabilize their lineup. Provided they stay healthy, that is, given that Conforto missed all of last season and Haniger has played 100 games twice in seven seasons.

With some combination of the free-agent additions in the corners and the Slater/Yastrzemski platoon covering center, it allows the Giants to use Pederson as their regular designated hitter, where his offensive contributions (23 home runs, .873 OPS in 2022) won’t be outweighed by his defensive shortcomings.

Julia Wright had 12 points and six rebounds for the Falcons. Jaslyn Woods added 10 points and three rebounds. Solano improved to 7-8 overall this season and 2-1 in the Bay Valley Conference. The Falcons outscored the Mariners in each quarter. Solano led 27-22 at halftime before pulling away with an 18-12 edge in the third quarter and a 17-12 advantage in the fourth.

Solano will host Merritt at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group/TNS file San Francisco Giants’ Joc Pederson (23), second from left, and Mike Yastrzemski (5), fourth from left, and teammates watch the game from the dugout in San Francisco during a game with the Atlanta Braves, Sept. 13.

Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group/TNS file Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry reacts after a 3-point basket by Klay Thompson in the third quarter of their NBA game against the Charlotte Hornets at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Dec. 27.

Movies to fit your moods, from joy to heartbreak and adventure

Moira M acdonald THE SEATTLE TIMES

The best movies leave us feeling something – joy, heartbreak – that stays with us for a little while, letting us walk around in the world of the movie for just a bit longer. Should you, during these cozily dark days of winter, be in need of a movie to inspire a specific emotion, behold: Here are 30 great ones, most from recent years, that took me on beautiful journeys. Here’s hoping they inspire . . . well, whatever you happen to be in the mood for.

Movies that make you feel joyful

“In the Heights” (2021): Musicals are the most joyous of genres, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tale of love and dreams in a primarily Latino neighborhood of Manhattan dazzles with movement and charm. (HBO Max)

“Paddington 2” (2017): Just try to find a performance funnier than Hugh Grant as a washed-up actor turned criminal in this wildly creative family film. Go ahead, I’ll wait. (HBO Max)

“School of Rock” (2003): Jack Black teaches a pack of middle schoolers how to raise their goblet of rock, er, how to become rock musicians, and it’s hard to tell who’s having more fun – them, or us. (Prime Video)

Movies that make you feel loved

“Beginners” (2011): The late Christopher Plummer won his one and only Oscar for this wistful, wonderful film about family – and about believing in love, wherever you happen to find it. (Prime Video)

“If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018): Two kinds of love – that between young lovers, and between mother and child – light up this incandescent James Baldwin adaptation, from director Barry Jenkins. (Netflix)

“Philomena” (2013): As the title character in Stephen Frears’ warm drama about a woman searching for the child taken from her decades ago, Judi Dench is loving kindness incarnate. (Netflix)

Movies that make you feel adventurous

“The Handmaiden” (2016): This gorgeous, wildly creative film – basically an eroticrevenge-crime thriller – from Park Chan-wook is like nothing you’ve ever seen before; it’s a period film gone mad. (Prime Video)

“The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999): I rewatched Anthony Minghella’s elegantly Hitchcockian thriller, set in several gorgeous European cities in the 1950s, during the darkest

days of the pandemic; it made me happily dream of travel.

(Paramount+)

“The Wildest Dream” (2010): Watching this documentary about re-creating George Mallory’s famous Mount Everest climb on an IMAX screen was breathtaking; watching it at home is probably still pretty good (and warmer). (AppleTV+)

Movies that make you feel heartbroken

“The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (1981): Here’s a swoony blast from the past. A young Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons play dual roles in this romantic drama, getting their hearts broken in two different centuries. (Netflix)

“Manchester by the Sea” (2016): Just thinking about this one, in which Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams beautifully play a former couple coping with crushing grief, practically has me in tears. Some broken things, this movie wisely tells us, can’t be mended. (Prime Video)

“Nobody Knows” (2004): Writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda makes eloquent movies about families; this one, about four children left to fend for themselves by their single mother, is both devastating and utterly mesmerizing. (Prime Video)

Movies that make you feel rebellious

“Rushmore” (1998): Still my favorite among Wes Anderson’s oeuvre, this irresistible comedy showcases a teen prep-school rebel (Jason Schwartzman) who’s nonetheless desperate to fit in. (Disney+)

“Widows” (2018): This crackling, wonderfully cast crime thriller, led by Viola Davis as the leader of a quartet of widows whose robber husbands never finished their last job, might just tempt you to pull off a heist of your own. (Prime Video)

“Young Adult” (2011): Charlize Theron is hilariously unlikable as a grown-up mean-girl rebel lazily trying to win back her high-school

sweetheart. Diablo Cody (“Juno”) wrote the sly screenplay. (HBO Max)

Movies to make you feel inspired

“Amazing Grace” (2019): This concert documentary, assembled from footage filmed at a Los Angeles church in 1972, shows Aretha Franklin at the height of her vocal powers; you might close your eyes to get lost in the glory of her voice, which is both worshipfully solemn and incandescently joyful. (HBO Max)

“Captain Phillips” (2013): This meticulously crafted thriller inspires in two ways: its real-life tale of an ordinary man facing an unspeakable ordeal, and the central performance by Tom Hanks, who in midcareer keeps finding ways to dazzle us anew. (Netflix)

“Man on Wire” (2008): In 1974, tightrope artist Philippe Petit walked a rope strung between the World Trade Center towers. This astonishing documentary revisits that August day; a thrilling exploration of one man’s mad dream. (Prime Video)

Movies to make you feel less alone

“The Best of Youth” (2005): Six hours long, and worth every minute. Watching this warmhearted saga of an Italian family (told over four decades, beginning in the ‘60s) is like reading a marvelous novel; you won’t want it to end. (Prime Video)

“The Farewell” (2019): Lulu Wang’s heartfelt drama/ comedy (because what is life but both of those things?) is the tale of family love both very specific and completely universal; you look at this family and see, whoever you are, a warm shadow of your own. (Prime Video)

“Little Women” (2019): Likewise, Greta Gerwig’s creative yet utterly faithful adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic makes every viewer feel part of the loving March family. (Prime Video, FXM)

THE SUN WAS SHINING BRIGHTLY

There are days when you wish you had stayed in bed. You bid to excellent contracts, but the cards lie so badly that you fail to make them. On other days, you seem to fly in the face of adversity, finding silver linings to every black cloud.

When North made a transfer bid,

Sudoku

Bridge

THE SUN WAS SHINING BRIGHTLY

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 grid contains the digits 1 through 9, with no repeats. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box. Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com

There are days when you wish you had stayed in bed. You bid to excellent contracts, but the cards lie so badly that you fail to make them. On other days, you seem to fly in the face of

by Phillip Alder

South’s jump to three spades – a superaccept – showed four spades, a maximum and a doubleton somewhere. North then used Roman Key Card Blackwood to learn that his partner had the other two aces but did not have the spade queen. (South would have bid five spades with two key cards and the trump queen.) So, North settled for six spades. How should South have played after West led a low club?

In a team game, both pairs reached six spades. At the first table, the declarer won the club lead and cashed his top spades. When the queen didn’t drop, he tried the diamond finesse. It lost, and he retired to his bunk, complaining about bad luck. The second declarer saw that he didn’t need a successful diamond finesse. He started similarly, winning the club lead and taking the ace and king of spades. However, then he cashed the club king, ruffed the club eight in his hand and played off his three top hearts, discarding two diamonds from the board. He ruffed the heart two, while East discarded a diamond, but that only delayed the evil moment. South exited with a trump, endplaying East. He had to lead a diamond away from the king. Plus 980 and a gain of 14 international match points.

by Wayne Gould

Bridge

Wilson Webb/Columbia Pictures/TNS file Florence Pugh, left, Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women.”

The Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inducts the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter on “ACL 8th Annual Hall of Fame Honors Sheryl Crow.” SATURDAY AT 11 P.M. ON CHANNEL 6

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

A 911 call log from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has detailed some of the injuries Jeremy Renner suffered in a snowplow accident on New Year’s Day.

CNN through a public records request, the call log states that Renner was “com pletely crushed under a large snowcat” during the incident on Mount Rose Highway in Nevada. The Merriam-Webster dic tionary defines a snowcat as “a tracklaying vehicle for travel on snow.”

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office would not confirm the contents of the CNN report when contacted Thursday by the Los Angeles Times.

Record of an emergency call placed Sunday at 8:55 a.m. Pacific Time states that the Marvel actor was “run over” by the vehicle, per CNN. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Renner keeps a snowplow at his home located on the side of a snowy mountain near the Mount Rose ski slopes. In a press conference this week, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office identified Renner’s plow as a 14,000-pound Tucker Sno-Cat.

The call log noted that the “responding person” who dialed 911 was “screaming” while informing the dispatcher that Renner was “down” after being struck by the plow. The “Hawkeye” star could be heard “moaning loudly in the background” of the call, the log continues.

At the time of the call, Renner was “bleeding heavily from his head and other [unknown] injuries,” according to the log, which added that the caller wasn’t “sure where all the blood is coming from.”

The log proceeded to detail some of the injuries, noting that the right side of Renner’s chest had “collapsed,” while his upper torso had been “crushed.” Despite suffering “all kinds of injuries,” the two-time Oscar nominee was conscious and breathing “with extreme [difficulty]” when the call was placed, the log said.

About 49 minutes after 911 was contacted,

a helicopter transported Renner to the hospital, CNN reported. After undergo ing surgery Monday, Renner was in critical but stable condition, according to his representative.

his hospital bedside.

“ICU spa moment to lift my spirits,” Renner captioned the selfie video, which shows him wearing an oxygen mask over his bruised face. “Thank you mama. Thank you sister. Thank all [of] you For your love.”

During a Tuesday press conference, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam explained the circumstances surrounding Renner’s accident and evacuation. He said the emergency response that day was delayed by the weather conditions after the Lake Tahoe area had been buried under 3 feet of snow, forcing roads to close and drivers to abandon their vehicles.

The sheriff revealed that Renner had been using his snowplow to pull his car – which was being driven by a relative – out of the snow.

Renner had just hopped out of his snowplow to talk with his family member when the Sno-Cat began to roll on its own, Balaam said. While attempting to prevent the snowplow from rolling further, Renner failed to jump inside the vehicle, which then ran him over before coming to a stop in a pile of snow.

Investigators will inspect the snowplow for possible mechanical failure to determine why it started to roll, Balaam said.

In the wake of the accident, Renner has received an outpouring of love and support from his fans, friends and Marvel co-stars – including Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Paul Bettany, Alaqua Cox, Josh Brolin and Vera Farmiga.

aka Hawkeye.

Renner portrays Clint Barton,

Renner was ‘completely crushed’ by snowplow, according to 911 log

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú and Carlos Castellanos

RENNER

SERVICES

experience mental illness in a given year.

Beyond keeping it light with laser-pointed postgame celebrations, a giant Defensive Player of the Game chain and Brown turning on the “(expletive) jets,” the “Beam Team” is also incorporating meditation and breathing exercises into a hectic basketball schedule.

It’s been a mandate from Brown that he’s fulfilled by hiring mental health coach Graham Betchart, who’s a regular at team headquarters, helping everyone “stay present.”

Betchart has been a mental health coach for two decades after playing guard at UC Santa Cruz. He has served as a mental skills coach for the NBA Players Association, USA Basketball and the Utah Jazz. Brown connected with Betchart when he was an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, where Brown credited head coach Steve Kerr for incorporating mental health practices into their routine. Betchart was among Brown’s first calls when he came to Sacramento.

Betchart’s work starts with team-wide meditations, which can come after days of travel to help players refocus and calm their minds of stressinducing thoughts. These sessions take roughly 10 minutes but have a lasting impact.

Some Kings players have experience with meditation while most don’t. Guard Kevin Huerter first began incorporating meditation while at the University of Maryland and has continued it throughout his five NBA seasons. He said early sessions with the Kings included a few scattered giggles, mostly because players were new to the idea.

“The art of thinking about nothing, you know?” Huerter said. “It’s tough for me not to sit there in a dark room with your eyes closed and not think about different things. So, it’s something I have to practice to get better at, but it’s a good thing to do.”

Huerter said he’ll often take a moment to close his eyes and focus on his breathing during pregame introductions, where excitement or anxiety can peak.

“Sometimes you get the jitters or you get those butterflies before a game, and, for me, (it helps) to just try to close your eyes, take deep breaths,” he said.

Betchart, who sports a long beard, shaved head and is often near the Kings’ bench during early warmups to help players prepare, has incorporated tenets into the Kings’ mental health approach. The first is “next play speed.”

“That’s the ability to refocus, right?,” Betchart said. “To let go of whatever just happened, whenever it was in the past, to refocus and come back to that

MEL

From Page B1

Cardwell (Armijo).

Vanden also ruled the roost in the boys race with a 9-1 record. Vacaville (8-2) was second, followed by Rodriguez (7-3), Will C. Wood (4-6), Fairfield (2-8) and Armijo (0-10).

All three MEL boys openers are Tuesday with Will C. Wood at Vanden, Rodriguez at Armijo and Vacaville at Fairfield.

“It’s become highly competitive,” said Vanden head coach Micheal Holloway, owner of last season’s title. “All these kids live within a 10-mile radius. They’ve grown up together, play AAU together, cross paths all the time. We expect it to be competitive.

next play.”

Betchart calls himself a “strength coach for your mind.” Another skill he is trying to hone in players is “palms down.”

“If you’ve noticed around a lot of sports, there’s this reaction where people put their palms up when something doesn’t go their way or they perceive some sort of adversity,” Betchart said. “It’s about being really mindful and choosing your response to these situations.”

The Kings have maintained a good spirit throughout their first season under Brown. Guard Malik Monk is a connective personality who can joke with everyone in the locker room.

Center Domantas Sabonis sets the tone with his work ethic and consistency, evident in his unwillingness to miss time with an avulsion fracture to his right thumb.

Harrison Barnes, 30, is an understated veteran with a professional approach the Kings hope rubs off on their younger core of players. Brown has praised point guard De’Aaron Fox for becoming more of a vocal leader than years past while he’s played the most efficient basketball of his sixyear career.

To put it plainly, the vibes have been good in the Kings’ locker room, which hasn’t always been the case in recent seasons. That has been as important as anything as they’ve maintained a winning record into January for just the second time since 2004-05.

The team has also incorporated periodic breathing exercises, which can play a vital role in physical training as well, from the treatment of injuries to work in the weight room.

“I think the traditional lay down and do some belly breathing is definitely one avenue,” said Jas Randawa, the Kings’ senior director of athlete health. “But we can also incorporate breath work into an actual workout. So, instead of saying, ‘You’re having a number of reps. How about we do this exercise into a number of breaths? I just want you to control your breath as your doing this.’ And so that has tremendous value as well.”

Mental health discussions have stemmed from prominent athletes willing address their issues publicly, shedding light on concerns that had previously been swept under the rug and allowed to fester. Cavaliers big man Kevin Love took a significant step in the discussion by writing a letter for the Players’ Tribune in 2018.

Love detailed a panic attack he had during a game, details of which he struggled to reveal until deciding to pen his essay.

“Call it a stigma or call it fear or insecurity –you can call it a number of things – but what I was worried about wasn’t just my own inner struggles but how difficult it was to talk about them,” Love wrote. “I didn’t want people to perceive me as somehow less reliable as a teammate.”

But we feel we’ve done the best we could to prepare our guys with the schedule we have played.”

First-team, All-MEL picks back on the boys side include Tyler Thompson of Vanden and Nathan Schnell of Vacaville.

Vanden’s Sterling McClanahan and Ahsan Huff, along with Jerel Victor of Rodriguez and Gavin Hamill of Vacaville, were honorable mention last seasons. There are also many new faces around the league ready to step up and play major roles for their schools.

“We tell our kids to remember all their lasts,” Holloway said. “Remember the last time you play at Vacaville, at Rodriguez. Cherish every moment. Not all these kids are going to play after high school.”

Sharks’ Karlsson named All-Star

Curtis Pashelka BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SAN JOSE — Following a first half for the ages, San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson – to no one’s surprise – was selected to play in this year’s NHL All-Star Game.

Karlsson on Thursday was among 32 players, one from each team, chosen to participate in the NHL’s all-star weekend festivities, which take place Feb. 3-4 at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

The NHL’s department of hockey operations selected the initial eightman rosters for each of the four divisions. The three remaining players per division, two skaters and one goalie, will be selected by a public vote that began Thursday night and ends on Jan. 17.

This is the seventh time Karlsson, 32, has been selected for the game, although this might be the most meaningful.

49ers

From Page B1

last season by the Raiders’ Henry Ruggsthat took the life of an innocent woman and her dog; the murder-suicide involving the Chiefs’ Jovan Belcher in 2012; the shooting death of Denver cornerback Darrent Williams the day after the 2007 season when he played for Shanahan’s father Mike Shanahan.

That Kyle Shanahan would successfully navigate a sensitive situation shouldn’t come as a surprise, given all the 49ers have accomplished under his watch in 2022. There is good reason to believe his team has the perspective and professionalism to finish the regular season Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi’s Stadium with a 10th straight win and one of the top two seeds in the NFC.

Coaches at the NFL level aren’t always the most well-adjusted people. They know little of the outside world during the season, sacrifice a lot in terms of their family and pore over minutia for hours that would make the eyes of most anyone else glaze over in a trance.

But as awful as the Hamlin situation is, it’s been good to see NFL coaches handling it with their teams with compas-

Not only is he fully healthy, but he’s also now a father to two young children, a daughter, and a son.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in one, so it would obviously be fun,” Karlsson said Thursday morning before the initial all-star rosters were announced. “It would be the first time if I get to go, that I can bring my family and kids.

“I have a three-year-old that probably won’t remember much of it, but she can still be around and I’m sure she will enjoy the whole aspect of it. So I think that will be the most exciting part, is to be able to share it with my kids, have them around, and build some good memories.”

It’s been an unforgettable first half of the season so far for Karlsson, who is putting together a resume that might put him in line for a third Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman.

to Thursday, Karlsson, in 39 games, led all NHL defensemen

in goals (13) and assists (40) and is on pace to become the first blueliner in over 30 years to eclipse 100 points in a season.

Karlsson’s 53 points so far mark the fastest start he’s had in his 13-plus years in the NHL and is already greater than any season total he’s had since he came to the Sharks in a blockbuster trade with the Ottawa Senators in 2018. He has either scored or assisted on a staggering 44.2 percent of the Sharks’ 120 goals this season.

Going into Friday’s game with the Anaheim Ducks, Karlsson is on a Sharks franchise-record 13-game point streak and is one of only eight defensemen in league history to have at least 40 assists in 39 or fewer games.

The last defenseman to score at least 100 points in a season was the New York Rangers’ Brian Leetch, who had 102 points in 1991-1992.

unable to work his usual offensive magic.

When Christian McCaffrey arrived via trade, Shanahan had the perfect runner/receiver for his offense. The 49ers, who have been stout all season defensively with the exception of two games, haven’t lost since.

Since the NFL’s Coach of the Year usually goes to someone who turned around a losing team, Shanahan isn’t likely to get a lot of support. Brian Daboll of the Giants fits the prototype.

sion with their own teams as well as the Bills and Bengals. It’s real life and a far cry from the tired war analogy “next man up.”

As pointless as the games may seem, things will get back to normal. There will be playoff games and people will watch in record numbers. And when the ‘tournament’ as Shanahan calls it is ready to begin, it should be apparent that the 49ers’ 43-year-old coach is having his best year.

Shanahan and GM John Lynch have assembled a championship-level team and worked through some early-season adversity, the kind of adversity that seems insignificant when compared to real hardship but was a big deal at the time.

Their quarterback of the future, Trey Lance, went out in Week 2 with a broken ankle, and the

49ers were wise enough to keep Jimmy Garoppolo around to the point where he came back aboard as a backup and assumed the starting role.

Garoppolo had a poor first start in Denver, stepped out of the end zone for a safety and small minds wondered why Jimmy G was smiling with former teammates afterward. Garoppolo broke his foot and gave way to Brock Purdy, who has been a revelation as the final pick of the draft.

That meant Shanahan had to recalibrate the offense back to Garoppolo and then once more for Purdy to include the rollouts and bootlegs that suit his skill set.

There was speculation that perhaps the loss of longtime assistant Mike McDaniel to the Miami Dolphins as head coach left Shanahan

But it’s worth stepping back and admiring the job Shanahan has done in building a team that has answered every challenge. He can be exacting, demanding and blunt with a touch of sarcasm mixed in, but he picks players who respond well to criticism and don’t need to be coddled.

“When you have guys that want to be coached and you don’t need to tell them 10 compliments before you tell them a coaching point, then it’s a lot more fun and I think that’s how they get better,” Shanahan said.

Whether the 49ers can finish things off in a way that allows Shanahan to join the Bill Walsh-George Seifert club as a champion remains to be seen. He’ll get crushed in some quarters if it doesn’t happen. But it’s hard to imagine the 49ers in better hands.

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/TNS file

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks the sideline while facing the Los Angeles Chargers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Nov. 13.

Prior