Daily Republic: Monday, January 9, 2023

SuSan Hiland SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

SUISUN CITY —

Anyone looking for a unique and delicious meal should put on their calendar the Suisun City Waterfront Restaurant Week that begins Friday.

“The Restaurant Week is an opportunity for us to try different meals that we normal wouldn’t have,” said Bill Davini, co-owner of Cast Iron Grill and Bar.

The Cast Iron, for the 13th annual Suisun City Waterfront Restaurant Week, is offering five different meals that include soup or salad along with dessert.

This year, the menu will include pork chops, which is a crowd favorite according to Davini, along with shepherd’s

pie, lobster ravioli and prawns, almond-crusted halibut and a lobster bake.

“We ask that people make reservation at least for the weekend because it gets very busy,” Davini said. “We are not doing deliveries for this prix fixe menu items.”

Prix fixe is a meal

consisting of several courses served at a total fixed price.

People can still order and pick up the items themselves during the week.

Other participating restaurants on the waterfront will offer three-course prix fixe

menus for dinner, a twocourse breakfast or lunch, or a special according to Laura Cole-Rowe, president of the Suisun City Waterfront District.

Diners can also order from a restaurant’s regular menu, but to take advantage of the specials offered during this week, you must order from the prix fixe or special menu.

The idea for the Restaurant Week began with Visit California thirteen years ago. They highlight all things Californian, according to Cole-Rowe.

“One of the things they noticed, there was a slow down after the holidays,” she said.

“The businesses create a fixed menu for the event,” Cole-Rowe said. “It is special for that

49ers earn a victory in their

Biden heads to border with no easy fix for on-going crisis

JoSH Wingrove BLOOMBERG NEWS

President Joe Biden was confronted at the airport in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who demanded in a handdelivered letter that Biden act immediately to stop unauthorized immigration, including by building more walls on the border.

Abbott told reporters that in his letter to Biden, he described “the chaos that his refusal to enforce the border laws” has caused in Texas and suggested five possible solutions, including increasing deportations and constructing more walls.

“He needs to step up and take swift action,” the governor said. The president, he said, responded that “he wanted to work with us on this.”

Reporters who traveled with Biden and who

spoke with Abbott after the two men met were unable to hear anything they said to each other as the president stepped off Air Force One. Biden didn’t speak to the press before leaving the airport.

Abbott, a Republican, has become one of the Democratic president’s fiercest critics on immigration as border crossings have spiked. Over the last year, he has repeatedly bused migrants from Texas to Democratic-run cities to protest what he calls federal inaction on border security. The White House has lambasted the move as a stunt that exploits vulnerable people.

During a few hours on the ground in El Paso on Sunday, Biden plans to see firsthand conditions at a port of entry and a facility housing migrants encountered by U.S. authorities.

Water officials says they are prepared for record flooding

Jordan Parker SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

California water officials emphasized the likelihood of record flooding in some areas as rain is expected to continue to pound the state this week.

WASHINGTON — A conservative Republican at the center of the tortured effort to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he’d welcome a hardfought battle over the U.S. debt ceiling, but said both parties should start negotiating terms for the increase now so it doesn’t go down to the wire.

“Our point is, let’s fight now to end the status

quo,” Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Let’s get in the room now.”

Roy helped negotiate a deal with McCarthy giving conservatives more clout that helped give the leader enough backing to win the speakership by a single vote early Saturday on the 15th ballot.

Asked whether McCar-

thy must tie a debt ceiling increase to deep spending cuts or face the mightiest tool they secured – the ability for a single Republican to force a House vote to oust McCarthy as speaker – Roy hinted that could be in store.

“I’m not going to play the what-if games of how we’re going to use the tools of the House to make sure that we enforce the terms of the agreement,” Roy said. “But we will use tools of the House to

enforce the terms of the agreement.”

Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have denounced the deal McCarthy struck that helped bring around many of a group of 20 dissident GOP lawmakers last week. Democrats and other critics say it could hobble McCarthy’s ability to reach a bipartisan deal to lift the debt See GOP, Page A7

Speaking to reporters via zoom Saturday evening, Department of Water Resources officials stressed the state’s preparedness for a second atmospheric river storm expected to usher in more power outages for residents still recovering from last week’s deluge.

Last week’s storm brought a combination of high winds and flooding across the Bay Area and Northern California regions, leaving thousands without power, downed trees and residents displaced from their homes.

As of Friday night, roughly 36,000 Bay Area PG&E customers remained without power, with some facing another week before the possibility of restoration. Areas like unincorporated Annapolis in Sonoma County will be without power until Jan. 13, the utility company said. Intense weather conditions have made restoring power difficult for crews due to access challenges resulting from fallen trees, flooding, and road closures.

And yet there is more to come. Michael Anderson, the state’s climatologist, said that Californians can expect the imminent string of storms to last through January 19. Areas including San Francisco and

Molly Yeh’s white bean hotdish is cheesy comfort

regular season finale

Stephen O’Neil carries

to

at the Cast Iron Grill and Bar in Suisun City, Friday.

laura litvan BLOOMBERG NEWS

Isometimes mock people who talk about their “birthday week” or even “birthday month.” Uh, no. You get a birth day. One 24 hour period. It’s right there in the name. But things that irritate me when others do them have a funny way of being okay when I do them.

The last laugh

On Monday, my 59th birthday, my column was entitled “Today is my birthday! Here’s what I want . . .” so this is the natural sequel. I promise it will be the last one about my birthday.

This week.

UNLOUSY T-SHIRTS –Remember the old joke that someone else did something fun and “all I got was this lousy t-shirt?” Well I got two unlousy t-shirts. One was from the guy that lives in my mirror who got me a “Chandler Jones Game Over” t-shirt commemorating when the Raiders Defensive End intercepted an ill-advised backwards pass, rag dolled Patriots quarterback Mac Jones and went on to win the game in one of the most memorable plays in Raiders history. The other is from my daughter Kaci and her boyfriend James which has Scrabble tiles that says “This Could Spell Trouble.” I am a Scrabbleholic and had gotten rid of my old Scrabble shirts that were too big so I didn’t have any and I love it. Oh and unlousy is not a word.

VOODOO DOLL– My wife Beth has been recuperating from the hip replacement surgery she had last month and has taken up amigurumi-the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. Last week she asked me who was one of my favorite Raiders and I said Lincoln Kennedy. So she secretly made and surprised me with a Lincoln Kennedy amigurumi. Since I’m a guy, I’m calling it an action figure and not a doll, but,

truth be told, it looks for all the world like a Voodoo doll. I don’t need one of those of Lincoln Kennedy but one of Raiders coach Josh McDaniels would be cool. I think I’m going to ask Beth to make me a “Trilogy of Terror” Zuni Hunter doll, er, action figure next.

DARK SIDE OF THE SEAWEED –radio DJ Steven “The Weed Man” Seaweed on KRQR the Rocker in the ‘80s and on 107.7 the Bone until he retired in 2017. He was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2012 and retired in 2017 after 44 years on the air waves. I’m Facebook friends with Steven (which still gives me a thrill) and he makes short videos that he sends to people on their birthdays that I have received for years. This years was his best.

In it he is sitting on a couch petting his two Golden Retrievers. He says “Well here I am just ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. And by the way I’m not saying that about your day, I hope its spectacular, but my God look at you!

You still look young! I mean, in a relative way, but you’re older. But hey, if you don’t mind I have more homespun advice for you on your big day today. Do not fritter away your hours in some offhand way, come on! Life is long! You’ve got plenty of time to kill today. So go for it! Or, if you’re like me, one day you’ll be sitting there with your guard dogs at cocktail hour and holy crap! Ten freakin’ years have got behind you! And then, we forget that sun up there is just racing around to come up behind us again. So until then, happy birthday and much love from me and my fur babies. I’ll be right here hanging on in quiet desperation until we meet again.”

For those who don’t know,

his birthday greeting was crammed full of quotes from the classic Pink Floyd song “Time” off their groundbreaking 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon.” It was so awesome. Plus, in the video he was even “warming his bones beside a fire.”

VINNY OOPSIE – My brother Kelvin gave me a Cameo video from Vinny Appice who was the drummer for Black Sabbath and Dio. I was a huge fan of Ronnie James Dio who died in 2010. I was at his band’s debut at the Concert Barn in Antioch in 1983. It was really cool of Kelvin to do that, only, as Kelvin detailed in his Wednesday column, Vinny kinda screwed it up at the beginning thinking it was for Kelvin (who, of course he called Kevin) before getting it right.

It was still cool and I had to blast me some Dio and Sabbath after that which fit right in with the gloomy weather we’ve had lately.

THIEVING MINERS – My brother Scott tried to send me a Raiders victory to be delivered on New Year’s Day by Amazon Prime, but unfortunately some 49er fan porch pirates (oh the irony) snatched it up right before I could get to it.

MR. MAGOO – My brother OT dropped off some 8 mm movies because I told him that Art Engell let me borrow his projector. I was hoping that there were some that were of me and my brothers back in the 1970s and I haven’t gone through all of them yet, but that doesn’t seem to be the case and the rest appear to be ones that belonged to OT’s wife Patty’s

dad. One that we did have as kids that was among them was a Mr. Magoo short which when I saw it I almost burst into tears. We used to love watching it and especially making it go in reverse. I digitized it and chucked when in reverse his hat which falls off, magically

– The most overwhelming thing that year after year blows me away is how many Facebook friends take time out of their day to acknowledge my anniversary of orbiting the sun each year. Literally hundreds of people did so and left me speechless

That evening I received another gift. I was watching the BillsBengals game when Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and like so many others was horrified. When games were canceled after the events of 9/11, I was able to put football into its proper place in my life. It is entertainment and there are way more things that are much more important. Things like family, friends, connectedness. The gift I received Monday night was having that reinforced, seeing the outpouring of support and well wishes for Hamlin that was soulaffirming and such a bright spot in such a tragedy. I was thrilled to hear that he is awake now and has made significant progress in healing and thankful for the reminder to not take today for granted.

Fairfield freelance humor columnist and accidental local historian Tony Wade writes two weekly columns--”The Last Laugh” on Mondays and “Back in the Day” on Fridays. Wade is also the author of The History Press books “Growing Up In Fairfield, California” and “Lost Restaurants of Fairfield, California.”

A 16-foot pet python was stolen in July; a dog walker just rescued it

The WashingTon PosT

Patrick Fortune was walking his dog Ka’Hu in his Austin neighborhood when he spotted something long and yellow down a ravine 30 feet below him.

It took him a few seconds, but then he remembered a post from Nextdoor over the summer: A 16-foot albino reticulated python had been reported missing in the neighborhood after it was stolen from a van, its owner said.

This had to be the snake.

Someone named Daryl Fields posted in July that his python, named Snow, was taken from his vehicle in its travel tote while he was visiting Austin from Dallas.

“She is a big gentle giant,” Fields wrote. “I’m sure whoever broke in my vehicle freaked out realizing it was a snake inside. Please give me a call if you hear or see anything.”

Fortune, 34, recalled that a few people had reported seeing the snake on a walking path near his Coronado Hills neighborhood that first week, but he hadn’t heard of any other sightings.

“The snake was big enough to take cats and pretty much anything else it wanted, so people were a little worried,” said Fortune, who did not have any experience with snakes, including pythons. “But then it disappeared, and everything calmed down. We figured it was gone.”

When Fortune realized that he had found the missing python that day – Dec. 19 –he said he took his dog home and told his girlfriend, Raven Zimmer, what he’d seen. He wasn’t sure if it was alive or dead, he said, but if it was alive, they should rescue it.

She was on board.

Fortune said he’d seen plenty of cottonmouth snakes and rattlesnakes in Texas,

and he’d once come across a 5-foot bullsnake.

“I knew that pythons were tropical - they like to be warm,” he said, noting that it been cold in Austin for several weeks, and it was 45 degrees outside on the day he spotted Snow.

Both he and Zimmer have soft spots for animals in need.

“Raven and I are animal lovers, and we’ve helped rescue owls and rabbits before,” Fortune added. “Res cuing the snake seemed like the right thing to do.”

He and Zimmer, 33, said they had no idea how to care for a freezing python, but they figured that warmth and a large container to put the snake in would be key.

They quickly warmed up a heating pad in the microwave, grabbed a few towels and loaded their large dog carrier into Fortune’s truck.

When they arrived at the top of the ravine, another neighbor called the Austin Animal Center and was told it would take a couple of hours to get an animal control officer on the scene to help, Fortune said.

He figured that if the snake was still alive, it didn’t have the luxury of time, due to the cold weather.

“The snake looked dead to us, but Raven reached out and touched it, and we were surprised when it moved,” he added. “I thought, ‘Oh! That’s different. Now what do we do?’”

When Dillon Dority, 29, received a text from a family member that the snake had been found, he immediately rushed over from his parents’ house, across the street from the ravine.

“I like the strange and unusual, so I was all in,” he said, adding that he knew nothing about large reticulated pythons but once had a boyfriend who kept a small

ball python as a pet.

The trio decided that Fortune would firmly hold the snake behind its head while Zimmer and Dority picked up its body and scooted it into the carrier.

“Because we have lots of snakes in Texas, I knew it was common practice that if you grab them behind the head, you’ll have power over them because they can’t strike you,” Fortune said.

Although Snow was 10 inches wide and its hiss was intimidating, Fortune said he and the others were determined to see the rescue through. They were not afraid of getting bitten or constricted, because the snake was moving slowly in the cold, Fortune said.

“We were genuinely worried about the snake – it could freeze to death in the cold,” he said.

“She was ice cold - it was like picking up a cold, slimy rock,” Dority added, noting from his experience with his ex-boyfriend’s snake that he knew pythons thrived in a warm climate of 80 to 90 degrees.

“When a python is exposed to the cold, its body starts to shut down,” he said. “We knew we had to get it warm.”

He and Zimmer tucked the

heat pad and blanket around the snake in the carrier, then all three of them pushed and pulled the heavy crate up the embankment. They decided to take the python to Dority’s house because he lived

He also had a fireplace.

“We took the snake inside, and I got some wood and Patrick started a fire,”

Dority had an infrared digital thermometer, so he held it to the snake’s head every few minutes and took its temperature.

“The first time, it read 53 degrees,” he said. “Raven was googling for information about pythons and learned [the temperature] was supposed to be in the 70s. So we were relieved when it started going up.”

“It was a happy feeling to know that the snake was alive and coming around,” Zimmer said. “I’m really impressed that it survived in the cold as long as it did.”

About 90 minutes into their herpetology urgent care, the doorbell rang, Fortune said. JT Moorman, a senior animal protection officer with the Austin Animal Center, had arrived to pick up the snake.

When Moorman walked into the living room holding a small cat carrier, everyone burst into laughter, Dority said.

Moorman said he’d received a call that he needed to retrieve a python and he had no idea how massive it was.

“I’ve gone on a lot of calls like these, and they’re usually three-foot pythons,” he said. “A 16-foot, reticulated python? I was flabbergasted. This was a first.”

Snow probably survived for nearly six months in the ravine by eating mice and rabbits and the occasional possum, he said.

Tony Wade

Tony Wade courtesy photo

Tony Wade wears a new “Chandler Jones Game Over” commemorative T-shirt.

Patrick Fortune courtesy photo Raven Zimmer hiked down into an Austin ravine with a heat pad to check on the snake spotted by her boyfriend, Patrick Fortune.

Weapons bunker now houses insects collection

LOS ANGELES — A World War II-era weapons bunker in Irvine has a new mission — sheltering preserved insect specimens.

When a collection of bugs floating in specimen bottles outgrew his laboratory, Robert Fisher moved them into an abandoned weapons bunker at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine.

Now, the fortification protects 6,000 invertebrates suspended in ethanol alcohol. Fisher, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, began collecting the specimens 25 years ago, when far fewer wild populations in California were in danger of extinction.

“For years, I couldn’t

find anybody who cared about this stuff,” Fisher said with obvious pleasure as he led a group of visitors into the bunker recently.

“That was before DNA barcoding became a popular research technique.”

Advances in DNA bar-

coding have made all those soggy centipedes, millipedes, snails, spiders, weevils, earwigs, bees, flies, wasps, beetles and ants very valuable for much more than what meets the eye.

Testing just a drop of

ethanol can reveal bits of genetic data from other organisms that shared the landscape with the specimen when it was alive: fungi, bacteria, mites, even the parasites in its gut. It could also detect all that remains of species that no longer exist.

Scientists say that amid global warming and rapid die-offs of species, such genetic findings are vital in protecting biodiversity and improving ecosystem management.

The search for clues has spawned a new field that Scott E. Miller, chief scientist of the Smithsonian Institution, calls “museomics”: determining the DNA in old public and private natural history collections vulnerable to loss from degradation, disasters, and becoming

Steep heating bills in the forecast

tRibune content agency

Her four-sentence warning last week about skyrocketing heating bills got northwest Bakersfield resident Donna England Little quite a bit of notice on social media. Maybe it was the kicker: “Brace yourselves friends!”

Neighbors around the city shared their reactions. Kristin H. wrote she “about had a stroke” when this month’s gas bill quintupled to almost $500. Karen C. was glad for the heads-up and announced plans to keep electric blankets and throws on hand.

Angelica Soliz responded with an uncomfortable truth: “I’m going to have to go to the laundromat soon to dry our clothes.”

Believe it: A spike in natural gas prices across the West has brought

warnings of peak heating bills close to 150 percent above last year – and no shortage of advice for anyone looking to head off a high gas bill.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. have posted notices offering help while emphasizing they are neither responsible for the jump in prices nor do they benefit from them financially.

The main culprit, spot market prices at major western trading hubs, jumped in December to their highest in 23 years, ranging around six to nine times greater than the national benchmark, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A Dec. 21 update from the agency blames the price jump on factors that have impacted supply and demand at the same time.

On the demand side, it said tem-

peratures have fallen below normal, pushing residential and commercial gas use up 23 percent during the first three weeks of December. At the same time, consumption in electrical power generation surged 14 percent.

Supply did not keep up, the EIA noted: With Western storage inventories down 25 percent from a year earlier, deliveries from west Texas slowed due to pipeline maintenance. Meanwhile, shipments of gas through the Rockies were down 9 percent during the first three weeks of December as compared with the second half of November, the agency reported. Canadian exports to the West, meanwhile, were off 4 percent.

PG&E and SoCalGas, in recent communications to customers, acknowledged a responsibility to

“orphaned” by the retirement or deaths of their owners and caretakers.

Wags in scientific communities refer to the latter unfortunate occurrence as “Collect, preserve, and then chuck it.”

Daniel Gluesenkamp, executive director of the nonprofit California Institute for Biodiversity, is wasting no time in helping organize collection rescues and DNA testing campaigns with $10 million made available under California’s new Biorepository Upgrades and Orphaned Collections program.

This is biological sampling on a Herculean scale — and in a bit of a rush.

“We believe there are at least 10,000 specimen bottles in California’s museums alone,” Gluesenkamp said. “So,

we’re starting with just insects — specifically those preserved in ethanol, not formalin, which degrades DNA.”

“We hope to complete this phase of the campaign within three years,” he added.

Just a few years ago, it wasn’t easy for museums, research institutions and scientists to fit DNA barcoding into what investment consultants call the “elevator speech” — the pithy hook deliverable during an elevator ride that is needed to recruit big donors.

That began to change after scientists determined that the rate of extinction in the last century was about 22 times faster than the historical baseline rate.

Stanek part of 2nd-place wine invitational event

DaiLy RepubLic staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VACAVILLE — Megan Stanek, a Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, senior from Vacaville, was part of the Evenstad Center for Wine Education's Team Medalia, which took second place in this year's Intercollegiate Wine Business Invitational.

Boykin achieves Austin Peay dean's list

DIXON — Madison Boykin, from Dixon, made the dean's list for the fall semester at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee.

SOLANO COUNTY — Solano Land Trust will be hosting a series of events each weekend in January.

On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., a nature hike is set for Patwino Worrtla Kodoi Dihi Open Space Park.

Come explore the hills between Suisun Valley and Green Valley and see sweeping views of Solano County and beyond. Scenic blue and live oaks, native wildflowers and fascinating geology make this a truly unique hike. Moderately strenuous, 4 to 6 miles.

Remember to wear good walking shoes and bring water. Check to see if adverse weather has canceled the event.

To register for these events go to https://solanolandtrust.org.

Treasure Island Scavenger Hunt

SUISUN CITY — The Western Railway Museum will embark on a Treasure Island Scavenger Hunt adventure that will reveal the truth about the Treasure Island Museum.

Visitors will search for clues on the historic railway cars to unlock the history of the museum.

The hunt will end with a special display by the Treasure Island Museum from which visitors can learn more about the history and how the island connects to railroads.

The hunt begins in the visitor center, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturday. The Western Railway Museum is located at 5848 Highway 12, east of Suisun City.

The Treasure Island Museum will also be conducting a costume contest via its Instagram, so be sure to come dressed in your pirate best.

To purchase tickets, go to www.wrm.org.

Eagle Scout project goes before arts panel

The ahead

mittee will receive a presentation Wednesday on an Eagle Scout project.

The project is a wall painting along Markham Avenue.

The committee also will receive a number of its own committees.

The advisory panel meets at 6 p.m. on the Council Chamber at City Hall, 650 Merchant St. The entrance is at the back of the building.

Oversight board considers budgets

FAIRFIELD — The Solano Consolidated Oversight Board on Thursday will consider the recognized obligation payment schedules and administrative budgets for the successor agencies of five former redevelopment agencies.

The successor agencies are for the cities of Fairfield, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo and Rio Vista.

The board meets at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors chamber on the first floor of the government center, 675 Texas St., in Fairfield.

SCWA directors take up employee pay, benefits

VACAVILLE — The Solano County Water Agency directors on Thursday will take up recommendations on workforce benefits, retiree health and the ongoing Lower Putah Creek salmon student.

The board meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Berryessa Room, Suite 203, in the SCWA office, 810 Vaca Valley Parkway, in Vacaville.

The benefit options include longevity pay, vision insurance and employee assistance programs.

The retiree health plan would be applied to current staff.

The salmon study includes a $320,418 contract amendment with the University of California, Davis for continuation of the study through this year.

STA directors consider legislative priorities, rail hub project

SUISUN CITY — The 2023 legislative priorities and an application for the Solano Rail Hub Project come before the Solano Transportation Authority board when it meets on Wednesday.

The agency directors will consider submitting an application for $600,000 in Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program funds for the rail hub project, which is in partnership with the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority,

The directors, who meet at 6 p.m. in its office board room, 423 Main St., also will select a new board chair, vice chair and executive committee.

County Airport panel meets on Thursday

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Airport Land Use Commission on Thursday will consider whether the Agromin/Yolo Land & Cattle Agricultural Material Chipping facility proposed for Pedrick Road near Dixon is consistent with the Travis Air Force Base Land Use Compatibility Plan.

The project is a green waste chipper and grinder operation.

The commission also will consider the compatibility of the Benicia General Plan Housing and Safety elements, and discuss the recent settlement the county reached with its lawsuit

against SMUD.

Land Trust offers walk Saturday week

The commission meets at 7 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors chamber of the government building, 675 Texas St., in Fairfield.

Government meetings this week

FAIRFIELD — The regular government meetings will be held this week. Some are online and others are in-person,. Check the websites for more information.

The meetings will include:

n Solano County Board of Supervisors, 9 a.m. Tuesday, County Government Center, 675 Texas St. Info: www.solanocounty. com/depts/bos/meetings/ videos.asp.

n Vacaville City Council, 6 p.m. Tuesday, council chamber, 650 Merchant St. Info: ci. vacaville.ca.us

n Solano County Board of Education, 6 p.m. Wednesday, Solano County Office of Education, 5100 Business Center Drive, Fairfield, California. Info: www.solanocoe. net.

n Solano Transportation Authority Board, 6 p.m., Wednesday, STA Board Room Chambers, 423 Main Street, Suisun City. Info: www.sta.ca.gov.

n Solano County Civil Service Commission, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, County Government Center, 675 Texas St., Fairfield. Info: www.solanocounty. com/depts/bos/meetings/ videos.asp

n Solano County Airport Land Use Commission, 7 p.m., Thursday, 675 Texas Street, Fairfield. Info: solanocounty.com/depts/rm/ boardscommissions/ solano_county_airport_ land_use_commission/ agendas.asp

Stanek was part of the five-member, allsenior team. Students were challenged to build a virtual wine business, including articulating the mission, vision and goals; sales and marketing strategies; competitive analysis; cost-of-goods calculations; operations; and even design wine labels.

To qualify, students must earn grade-point average of 3.5 or greater.

Do you have some good news to share? Send it to Susan Hiland at shiland@dailyrepublic.net. Be sure to include Good News in the subject line.

Leo Van Putten

Leonardus (Leo) H. M. Van Putten, a dedicated husband, father and grandfather of

California, passed away December 6, 2022 after a long battle with cancer He was born to Ellybert M. M. Mueller and Leonardus A. A. M. van Putten in 1933 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He attended Ignacio College High School and graduated from Amsterdam Higher Technolog y Institute with an architectural engineering degree.

Leo worked in Germany with engineered drawings to repair Cologne Cathedral Dome. While in Germany he played hockey for Blue-White. His sport of choice was tennis and he was highly ranked.

In 1959, he moved to Canada to learn English where he worked installing office building fronts and sold nurser y items to moving companies. He made four trans-Atlantic crossings on Holland-American Lines between Canada and the Netherlands.

Leo came to the U.S. and began working for a developer of truck terminals. While in Cinncinnati, an architect friend advised him to head to the West Coast where there would be more work during winter months. He packed his Karmann Ghia and had a cold, all night drive to San Francisco where he began working for Shell Oil.

In San Francisco, he met and married Barbara Winckler in 1961. They spent time in the Netherlands with his family and then made their home in California where Leo designed and built their home in Green Valley, California.

Leo started his own business in property development which included commercial and residential properties such as Dairy Queen in Red Bluff, California, and single family homes in Sacramento.

Leo was proud of his Dutch heritage. He is sur vived by his wife, Barbara, their children Roger (wife Keli) and Heidi (husband Eric), and four grandchildren, Jordan, Faith, Lily, and Allison.

In Holland, he leaves behind a brother John, (wife Rita), sister Ellen (husband Rene) and numerous nieces, nephews and extended family

He will be inurred in a private ceremony at St Alphonsus Catholic Cemetery in Fairfield at a future date

Fairfield,

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

U.S. Geological Survey research biologist Robert Fisher examines a jar containing vials of invertebrates collected from pitfall traps more than 20 years ago.

Repairing a relationship by working within

Annie Lane is off this week. The following column was originally published in 2020.

Dear Annie: I want to thank you for your response to the man who wrote to you concerning getting closure with the father who had abused him. It was quite helpful to me, as my situation is similar. I struggle daily with guilt at not being able to have a relationship with my parents. My mother was quite abusive to me, and my father did nothing to stop it.

Annie Lane Dear Annie

change is working on ourselves. Once you do that, you can have a better understanding as to why your mother was abusive and your father unable to defend you.

Best of luck to you as you repair your relationship with yourself and, eventually, with your parents.

they made for me while I was with them. I appealed to my son and his wife several times to reconsider but didn’t press the issue because it would have caused tension for the rest of my visit.

Was this rude of them, or am I overreacting? — Sad and Somewhat Angry Granny

Both of my parents had their own problems, but I find it extremely difficult to forgive them. I did confront my mother, and she apologized, but that did little to heal my pain. Your suggestion to talk to the child who was abused was very helpful. Thank you. — Getting to Know My Younger Self

Dear Younger Self: Thank you for sharing your experience, and congratulations as you begin your own journey of healing. Your letter brings up a great point; namely, that unloading our anger and hurt on other people does not lead to ultimate peace. What effects

Dear Annie: I visited my son and his family overseas for two weeks in December this year but left on Dec. 17, so I wasn’t there for Christmas. Because I seldom get to give them birthday or Christmas gifts in person, I spent a lot of time, thought and money on gifts for my three grandchildren and was very excited to give these gifts and to enjoy their excitement. I felt (and still feel) very sad, frustrated and hurt when my daughter-in-law refused to let the children open their gifts until Christmas Day.

The reasons she gave were that the children – ages 3, 6 and 9, bright and welladjusted –would wonder why they didn’t get a gift from me on Christmas Day and that she doesn’t want them to get too wound up before Christmas. I also did not get to open the gifts

Horoscopes

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

You don’t always follow logic. You’re as wild as the wilderness itself – an organism of instinct and thought with the ability to switch modes. Trust in the reasons beyond what logic can provide.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20).

Clarity is a precursor to success. You’ll assess the relevant factors and speculate as to what influences could come to bear on the situation. There is no blame to assign, only facts to be dealt with.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Change is scary. What will happen if you try to change? Whether you try or not, you’ll still change. You’d rather steer things in your desired direction. It’s very much worth the work.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). As the sign of old souls, you love other things that are old, too, like friends and artifacts. Treat them with tenderness. With age comes fragility of form, substantiality of content.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You never know what is going on in another person’s head, heart or life. So when relationships improve or just shift, it may have little to do with your influence. Center yourself on your own wants.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’ll let people know you accept them as they are. It’s not something you say. You just feel it and they can tell. Maybe it’s why they are open and amenable to your suggestions.

by Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

It’s hard to see all your wondrous qualities from the perch inside yourself, but this year brings the magic mirror held up to you by outsiders who delight in your strengths, humor, warmth, intelligence and in your very soul. More highlights: You’ll be a hero and a guide, and you’ll jump time zones for profit and adventure. Virgo and Scorpio adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 8, 48, 33, 1 and 19.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). It will be your pleasure to spend time with someone dreamy and energizing. Finding good company is like frolicking in a field of saffron – the exotic spice made from flowers that the ancients called “sunshine for the soul.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Nerves are a natural response to this high-stakes game you’re playing. You do your best to keep jittery energy from seeping into your interactions, but if it seeps in anyway it will only endear you to the people around you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). You want to know how to help your colleagues and clients find their true potential. You are able to tap into the hidden talents of others. You help people find their voice and make sense of

Dear Sad Granny: I’m not sure if it was rude of the parents so much as it was controlling. Part of the joy in giving gifts is to see the reaction of the people you love. This is especially true if they live overseas and you don’t get to see them much. I’m not sure why you couldn’t open the gifts they made for you either. If they were made for you, then you should be able to open them anytime and express your gratitude to your grandchildren.

Share with your son and daughter-in-law how much it means to you to open gifts face to face. Perhaps they aren’t big gift-givers and don’t understand the importance for you. And the next time you visit them all, just say that you are bringing your grandchildren presents –no special occasion required.

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

their life story.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). While you are confident, assertive and decisive, one of those decisions has to do with making less of them. Being the one who follows directions instead of giving them can come as a big relief.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18). No one cares what happens in situations where they already believe they are powerless. You want to be where your actions and opinions make a difference and will move on to the environments where you can create an impact.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). What would happen if you stopped fighting and just gave into it? Maybe it’s not the right choice for you, but the mental exercise of imagining your surrender could strengthen your resolve or help you think of new tactics to try.

CELEBRITY PROFILES: Happy Solar Return to Catherine, Princess of Wales, aka Kate Middleton, a Capricorn whose star burns so bright the entire world is entranced. Middleton lives up to her Mercury and Venus in philanthropic Aquarius championing causes such as the mental well-being of children, fighting addiction and promoting the arts. Her natal Mars, Saturn and Pluto in Libra are placed for diplomacy and grace.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

A FREE MAGAZINE, AN EXPENSIVE PLAY

Gilles Queran used to publish a free bridge magazine in the Loire region of France. I was amused by the comment of one of his writers, Olivier Beauvillain, when summing up today’s deal.

In team tournaments played under the Swiss system, at table one the top two teams play against each other. Teams three and four meet at table two; and so on.

Sudoku

by Phillip Alder

This deal arose at a tournament in Ostend, Belgium. Beauvillain’s team had just reached table one, where they were playing against a strong Dutch team. On this, the first board of the match, Beauvillain opened one no-trump, a debatable choice. After two passes, South bid two hearts, which North explained as showing five hearts and a four-card minor. North raised his partner to game.

Beauvillain started by cashing three club tricks, his partner discarding a discouraging diamond deuce at trick three.

What should Beauvillain have led now?

After “a long pause of 20 or 30 seconds,” Beauvillain switched to the spade king. Declarer won with dummy’s ace, cashed the two top hearts and claimed when they split 2-2.

Beauvillain apologized. “I’m sorry, partner. I thought that the declarer would have two spades in addition to his five hearts, four diamonds and three clubs.”

After you have taken all possible side-suit tricks, give the declarer a ruff-and-sluff. It cannot cost, as declarer has no losers left outside of trumps, and it might gain. Here, a club lead at trick four promotes a trump trick for the defense.

Beauvillain’s team played the next match at table 17.

by Wayne Gould

Gilles Queran used to publish a free bridge magazine in the Loire region of France. I was amused by the comment of one of his writers, Olivier Beauvillain, when summing up today’s deal. In team tournaments played under the Swiss system, at table one the top Here’s how to work it: WORD SLEUTH ANSWER

Difficulty level: BRONZE

Solution for 1/7/23:

A FREE MAGAZINE, AN EXPENSIVE PLAY

Bridge

Things’ star

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

Actor Noah Schnapp has more in common with his “Stranger Things” character, Will Byers, than meets the eye.

In an eight-second TikTok posted Thursday, the 18-year-old star seemingly came out as gay to his followers. Lipsyncing to a viral TikTok sound while lying in bed, he called his coming out “never that serious.”

“When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know,’” he wrote in his TikTok.

The actor’s coming-out video comes months after he clarified for “Stranger Things” fans that his character is gay and has feelings for his friend

Wolfhard).

“I mean, it’s pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike,” Schnapp told Variety in July. “I think for Season 4, it was just me playing this character who loves his best friend but struggles with knowing if he’ll be accepted or not, and feeling like a mistake and like he doesn’t belong. Will has always felt like that.”

He added that Will’s feelings were “always kind of there.”

With his sexual orientation now public, Schnapp says the commonalities between him and his character aren’t lost on him.

“I guess I’m more similar to will than I thought,” he captioned his TikTok video.

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú

‘Stranger

Noah Schnapp’s loved ones weren’t that shocked when he came out

Mike Wheeler (played by Finn

State’s carbon neutrality plan lacks vital detail

In mid-November, the California Air Resources Board released its longawaited “scoping plan” for the state that “would drastically reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and get to carbon neutrality by 2045 or earlier.”

“The achievable roadmap for the world’s fourth-largest economy proposes an unprecedented shift away from petroleum in every sector of the economy and a rapid transition to renewable energy resources and zero-emission vehicles,” CARB promised. It added that by 2045 greenhouse gases would be reduced by 85% from 1990 levels, there would be a 71% reduction in “smogforming pollution,” fossil fuel consumption would decrease by 94%, 4 million new jobs would be created and Californians would see a $200 billion decrease in health costs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom hailed the plan as a “comprehensive roadmap to achieve a pollution-free future” and “the most ambitious set of climate goals of any jurisdiction in the world.” He predicted that “it’ll spur an economic transformation akin to the industrial revolution.”

The 297-page plan is loaded with data and verbiage about the perils of climate change and various goals that it seeks to achieve. However, there is precious little detail about the specific steps that would be needed in the next 22 years, nor about the downsides and tradeoffs that the economic transformation it advocates would inevitably pose.

We’ve already experienced some of the difficult effects, such as an electric power system that’s flirted with meltdown as traditional fossil-fueled power plants are phased out in favor of renewable juice from solar and wind generation. That forced Newsom to keep some of those plants, as well as the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, functioning longer than expected.

Another example of transition pain has been the Public Utilities Commission’s tortured efforts to reduce subsidies for rooftop solar arrays by reducing payments for feeding power back into the grid. It did so to minimize adverse financial impacts on utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison and the vast majority of their customers who don’t have solar panels on their roofs.

Similarly, while the state touts the climatic benefits of battery-powered cars and promises a phaseout of oil fields, refineries and gas stations, it could reach a tipping point that would leave owners of gasolineand diesel-powered vehicles without enough fuel to keep on running.

The lack of specificity in CARB’s 2045 scoping plan caught the eye of the Legislature’s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, and last week, his office released a sharply critical report on its omissions.

“Despite the significant reductions needed to meet these goals, CARB’s plan does not identify which specific policies it will implement,” the report summarized. “For example, the plan is unclear regarding how much the state will rely on financial incentives, sector-specific regulatory programs, or cap-and-trade. Rather, the plan’s estimated reductions are driven primarily by assumptions developed by CARB, without specifying how those assumed outcomes might be achieved.”

Petek’s report said the plans lapses could undermine the state’s ability to actually meet the 2045 goal and “Failing to develop a credible plan to meet statewide (greenhouse gas) goals could adversely affect California’s ability to serve as an effective model for other jurisdictions or demonstrate global leadership.”

The report is particularly critical of the plan’s ambitious interim goals for 2030, just seven years away, saying it doesn’t give the Legislature and state agencies information they would need to adopt policies to hit the 2030 marks.

Issuing vague promises about achieving such a massive transformation without details is not a plan. A real plan would tell Californians in advance how their lives would be affected.

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.

ON THE LEFT

Conservative rebellion – again

Anormally minor procedural vote to determine the Speaker of the House of Representatives has exploded into a major national crisis. This occurred in 1855 and then 1923. It’s historical. We should pay attention!

It wouldn’t have happened in a normal time, but times aren’t normal. Kevin McCarthy should have been an easy shoo-in for Speaker of the House. The situation drips with irony. A decade ago he vigorously recruited radicals from the Tea Party movement who are now seeking to destroy him.

Jack Batson

I reviewed this historic situation in my Tuesday online column, timed for the beginning of this drama. (The DR has no print edition on Tuesdays.)

McCarthy needs 218 votes. But five of the “Freedom Caucus” Republican members of the 222 total voted “no” on the first ballot. He lost even more in the succeeding 10 votes as 15 more insurgents joined them. McCarthy’s support continues to decline with each humiliating vote.

Why? Several GOP rebels claim that McCarthy lied to or about them-not hard to believe about a man with no moral compass.

But the major theme is that he’s part of the supposed “swamp” due to his 15-year congressional career. “He voted for all those deficits. He voted for aid to Ukraine. He voted for Biden’s budget for 2023.”

This reveals the long-time goal of the radical right-wing: to dismantle most of the Federal government

THE RIGHT STUFF

and return most power to the states.

Their dismantling tool will be a rigid commitment to balance the budget—something they excitedly claim Newt Gingrich did in 1994. Yes, he did. But it was by compromising with then-President Bill Clinton. Gingrich got an end to “welfare as we know it,” lowering the years of eligibility for Aid to Families with Dependent Children to five years. But Clinton got a tax increase on the rich, resulting in a budget surplus for three years.

These folks today aren’t capable of compromise and they surely won’t vote for a tax increase.

Instead they want to stop aid to Ukraine, cut Social Security and Medicare, abolish the Affordable Care Act, axe environmental regulations, and eliminate as much of the Federal Government as possible. If the Democrats won’t go along, they’re determined to refuse raising the debt ceiling next September. This could crash the world economy and end the long reign of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

That would be nail in the coffin of budget deficits, since the deficits would have to be funded domestically. Perfect! “Government” would be gutted. Goal accomplished!

Historians will debate where this present madness came from. Most Americans believe that the whole weak-national-government versus strong-state-government debate was settled after the Civil War. Apparently not.

Was Barry Goldwater the genesis of today’s folly when he boldly declared, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”? His goal: to abolish Social Security.

Was it Nixon’s cynical “Southern Strategy,” inviting segregationist Southern Democrats into the GOP to strengthen conservative power?

Or was it Ronald Reagan who mocked the Federal government and sought to reverse the liberal New Deal as well as break the power of labor unions?

Bush senior was drummed out of office for raising taxes, a cardinal sin. His son continued the conservative drive against Social Security. After winning a narrow reelection victory in 2004 he declared that he had a “mandate” to privatize the program.

Then there’s Trump who tried to dismantle everything governmental –finally by use of outright force to effect a coup and overturn the 2020 presidential election.

And we can’t forget the rise of Fox News and Sean Hannity who helped fuel this whole back-to-the-19th-century political philosophy. In another big irony, Hannity is now aghast at the Frankenstein he helped create, calling it a “clown show.”

With no House Speaker, Congress can’t work. The question now is, should 20 wacko radical conservatives be able to inflict this much damage? By the time you read this, we will know if the adults in the room prevail.

Jack Batson is a former member of the Fairfield City Council. Reach him by email at jsbatson@prodigy.net.

Diplomacy without a big stick – Part II

Last week’s column demonstrated that diplomacy without military superiority is fruitless. Let’s look at the Ukrainian situation and probable results.

Russia and Ukraine share Slavic ancestry and Orthodox Christianity. However, Ukraine was one of the nations that became a silently swallowed republic when the USSR Soviet Union was formed so there certainly is a different culture. Furthermore, the 1932-1933 famine caused by Soviet leadership to punish several disloyal republics is not forgotten. Two million Ukrainians died of starvation.

During the Cold War, the Soviets deployed nuclear missiles in several republics. Ukraine had the third-largest inventory of all world nations.

Western governments were deeply concerned with numerous uncontrolled republics having the weapons.

Ukraine’s desire to rid itself of the nuclear weapons led to the negotiation framed in the Budapest Memorandum in 1994. This committed the United States, Russia, and Britain “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and “to refrain from the threat or use of” military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Those nations gave up all their nuclear weapons.

True to form Russia violated the agreement and entered Belarus in 2013 and the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea in 2014. This inspired negotiations between Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France to produce the Minsk agreements in 2014. The agree-

ments included a cease-fire, demilitarization, prisoner exchange, governmental reform, and negotiated sovereignty and borders. Sen. John McCain said appeasement incentivizes Putin to be aggressive.

Based on America’s ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia was again emboldened as sanctions were ineffective. Surprise. The U.S. is now restoring its honor with material support – somewhat delayed but almost as promised. The Budapest Memorandum does not specify ground forces. The Ukrainian people are proving their desire for freedom and we have learned that the Russian military is not well-led nor invincible

NATO members significantly increased NATO military strength after President Trump criticized their failure to meet their 2% of GDP obligations. Fear of Putin’s aggression has been even more effective. America’s reduction of fuel production and Europe’s excess reliance on Russian fuel presented a retarding factor but recent completion of the Baltic Pipeline after three years has diminished that concern.

Putin strongly wants unfettered access available through Crimea to the navy base that is on an inlet to the Black Sea. Crimean culture is largely Russian and is a coveted warm water port for the Russian fleet which could aid plans for further expansion in the Middle East and to assist China in Africa.

Ignoring history and terminating

assistance to Ukraine would be disastrous. Despite the hunger for freedom demonstrated by the Ukrainian soldiers and the civilians supporting the battle, they will die in defeat if America and NATO do not supply weapons and material to overcome those used by Russia and supplied by China and Iran.

America’s diplomatic strength would no longer exist. Why would anyone negotiate with a country that does not meet its commitments? As forecast by Senator McCain, with appeasement Putin will soon be emboldened to annex the Baltic states. It follows without question that China will attack Taiwan if we abandon Ukraine.

America’s treaty with Taiwan is more intense. We have promised them that we will maintain a military strength to defend Taiwan if China attacks. Because China would need to ship an invasion force our defense measures have an advantage. Sufficient radar and ship-sinking missiles should prevent any invasion and, if our intent to do so is known, would probably deter China from even attacking.

Failing that capability, if China plants a landing force on the island, we will probably lose an economic powerhouse and strong democracy in the Pacific.

If diplomacy is to be credible it requires a NATO big stick.

Earl Heal is a retired Air Force officer, Vacaville resident and member of The Right Stuff committee formerly of the Solano County Republican Central Committee. Reach him at healearl niki2@gmail.com.

Dan Walters

Earl Heal

The president faces calls from Democrats as well as Republicans to more quickly process cases, resettle lawful claimants and deport people deemed ineligible.

Since Biden entered the White House, the U.S. has seen a large increase in migration from Latin America. The president attributes the surge to a range of factors, including people fleeing dictatorial and socialist regimes to seek a better life in the U.S. But his critics say the crisis is fueled by Biden’s rejection of hard-line measures to stop crossings.

Congress has balked at immigration reform or major new funding, leaving Biden few options. The U.S. continues to employ pandemic-era border controls known as Title 42 to quickly expel migrants. The president acknowledged there is no easy fix on Thursday as he announced new measures to address the border situation.

“Our problems at the border didn’t arise overnight and they’re not going to be solved overnight. It’s a difficult problem,” Biden said. But he also lashed out at Republicans for what he called “inflammatory” talk about migration and urged them to work across the aisle to approve immigration legislation and additional bordersecurity funds.

“Immigration reform used to be a bipartisan issue. We can make it that way again. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s economically a smart thing to do,” Biden said. “It’s so easy to demagogue this issue.”

Congress is preparing to investigate the situation at the border, following the election of Republican Kevin McCarthy as House speaker early Saturday. Some Republicans have threatened to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over what they say is a lack of border control.

Mayorkas dismissed the threat of impeachment in remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, saying his department has “work that we need to get done.”

Many Republicans

have accused Biden of overlooking the crisis, particularly those representing border states.

“During this entire time, Joe Biden has not called me – he did not call me, nor his staff called and let us know either about his visit or to invite us, until last night,” Abbott said earlier on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “We got a random email to one of my staff members asking if I would be there to meet him on the tarmac.”

A White House official confirmed that Abbott was invited on Saturday to meet Biden.

Biden is visiting the Texas city and its border installations on his way to Mexico City, where he will meet Monday and Tuesday with the leaders of Canada and Mexico at the North American Leaders’ Summit.

Biden teed up the summit by announcing on Thursday a deal with Mexico under which the U.S. will expand a humanitarian program to allow as many as 30,000 additional migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela.

The changes expand on an October initiative that allowed qualifying Venezuelans to enter the U.S. by air if they applied abroad, could point to someone in the U.S. who would provide financial support, and passed national security, public safety and health screenings.

But as part of the arrangement, the administration will stop offering asylum to migrants from those four countries who try to cross into the U.S. without authorization. In an agreement with Mexico’s government to accompany the new parole program, more migrants from the four countries will be refused entry and returned to Mexico.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Biden’s announcement “further ties his administration to the poisonous anti-immigrant policies of the Trump era instead of restoring fair access to asylum protections.”

Mayorkas said it isn’t fair to compare the policy to the Trump administration’s approach.

“It is not a ban at all, and it is markedly different than what the Trump administration proposed,” Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Ukrainian soldiers in ‘difficult’ situations in key Donbas area

TriBuNe CoNTeNT AgeNCy

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian soldiers are in a “difficult” situation as Russian forces amass near the fiercely contested front line town of Soledar, a top defense official said Sunday in Kyiv.

Holding on to Soledar and Bakhmut, about nine miles apart, is vital to Ukraine keeping its defensive wall that protects Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, major cities in the eastern Donbas region still under Kyiv’s control.

Taking the cities would be tantamount to conquering the Donbas –one of Russia’s publicly stated goals at the start of the war.

“At the moment it is difficult in Soledar,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on her Telegram channel on Sunday. She said Russia is launching attacks via the regular army and mercenaries from the shadowy Wagner Group.

Russian military blogs recently reported a breakthrough of the defense lines in Soledar, but this

has not yet been confirmed by Moscow.

Despite the heavy fighting in the east, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he did not anticipate any major Russian advance across Ukrainian lines and promised his troops reinforcements.

“Bakhmut is holding out,” the 44-year-old said Sunday in his daily video address. Neighboring Soledar is also persevering, he said, although the town has been even more ravaged.

“This is one of the bloodiest places on the front lines,” he said.

According to Zelen-

skyy, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the Ukrainian Army, visited troops in Bakhmut and Soledar on Sunday to direct the defense and organize reinforcements and greater firepower against the enemy.

Syrskyi is considered a hero in Ukraine and is credited with successes in the defense of Kyiv and the recapture of the Kharkiv region.

Zelenskyy also once again criticized the Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities in the Donbas, like Kramatorsk and Kherson, during and immediately

after Moscow’s unilateral 36-hour cease-fire ended on Saturday.

Kyiv never recognized the truce, calling it “hypocrisy” and “propaganda.”

Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka were hit by missiles, with one person killed and eight others injured, according to the deputy head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine confirmed they have completed their first prisoner exchange of the new year.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 50 Russian servicemen who “faced mortal danger in captivity” were released by Ukraine on Sunday.

Kyiv reported that 50 of its own people — 33 officers and 17 private and sergeants — were returned by Russian forces.

Prisoner swaps are a regular occurrence between Moscow and Kyiv. It is the only area where dialogue is still taking place between the warring parties, while negotiations at other levels have stalled.

Pro-Bolsonaro riots breach Brazil’s Congress, high court and palace

BloomBerg News

Thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro broke through security barriers in the capital of Brasilia on Sunday and invaded Congress, the supreme court and the presidential palace to protest his election loss.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wasn’t in the palace. Police used pepper spray in an unsuccessful attempt to control the protesters earlier Sunday. Security forces were able to clear the supreme court of rioters who had stormed into the building.

The protesters were still inside the congressional building as of Sunday afternoon.

Television images

showed thousands of protesters, draped in Brazilian flags and wearing the yellow national jersey, flooding into Vongress and other branches of government in an event similar to the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

Security forces appeared to have lost control of the main square in Brasilia that is the center of government. Some rioters broke windows and carried out other acts of vandalism, while others took videos and selfies.

“I vehemently repudiate these anti-democratic acts, which must urgently undergo the rigor of the law,” Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco said on Twitter.

The unrest on Sunday follows months of protests in front of military installations by Bolsonaro supporters who were demanding an intervention to prevent Lula from returning to power. In late December there was a bomb scare near Brasilia’s airport. More than a hundred buses of Bolsonaro supporters arrived in Brasilia ahead of the Sunday protests.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino said security forces are working to control the situation and that the federal district will send reinforcements.

From Page A1

ceiling sometime after July 1, when the $31 trillion limit will need to be raised to prevent a U.S. default on debt payments.

But President Joe Biden has vowed he won’t make concessions to prevent Republicans from forcing a first-ever default on the debt.

GOPand led to the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. sovereign debt rating by Standard & Poor’s. It ended when President Barack Obama agreed to about $2 trillion in spending cuts over a decade.

licans in the House to take aim at entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare as they try to cut the federal debt.

“That is taking our seniors hostage,” she said on CNN.

balance the budget using 2022 discretionary spending as a baseline, he said.

“Let’s sit down on how we’re going to spend on that discretionary spending,” Roy said.

From

she said.

Visitors can dine at as many participating restaurants as they would like throughout the week. No tickets are required, but some establishments may require reservations.

Suisun City Waterfront Restaurant Week beings on Jan. 13, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, through Jan. 22.

For the list of participating restaurants go to SuisunWaterfront.com.

“Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without conditions and it’s just that simple,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “Attempts to exploit the debt ceiling as leverage will not work. There will be no hostage-taking.”

A 2011 crisis rattled financial markets and consumer confidence

Floods

From Page A1

Sacramento should anticipate between 6 and 8 inches of rainfall between Sunday and Jan. 13, part of the second of five atmospheric river storms California is expected to receive this month.

Anderson added that 15 locations across the state are forecast to reach the flood stage, with an

Rep. Scott Perry, who chairs the Freedom Caucus, was asked whether he’s prepared to let the U.S. default. “Everybody should negotiate,” including President Joe Biden, Perry said on ABC’s “This Week.” Biden has said they limit should be increased without conditions.

“We can’t just keep doing the same thing under the same conditions with the same management and expect different outcomes,” Perry said. “The American people are sick and tired of this endless debt increasing.”

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark said she expects far-right Repub-

additional 30 locations forecast to be in the monitoring stage for possible flooding. Multiple locations could reach a record amount of flooding, officials said.

The combination of a stronger storm and the second atmospheric river will bring more moderate to intense showers to the Bay Area, Chronicle Meteorologist Gerry Díaz said, as well as strong 30 to 40 mph gusts on the Peninsula and portions of San Francisco during most

Roy said the target for Republicans is both defense and non-defense discretionary spending in the part of the federal budget that is determined by Congress, while saying Republicans have made it clear “we’re not going to touch the benefits” going to people who rely on Social Security and Medicare benefits.

“But we all have to be honest about sitting at the table and figuring out how we’re going to make those work and how we’re to deal with defense spending and how we’re going to deal with non-defense spending,” Roy said.

The deal struck with McCarthy seeks to

of Monday. The showers and winds will drop off by Monday night and drier conditions are forecast for Tuesday, Díaz said.

Despite the remaining atmospheric river storms ahead, there are no concerns that dams will spill over, according to Jeanine Jones, drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources. Flood control requirements keep reservoirs well below their total capacity to leave space for precipitation during California’s wet season,

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican and McCarthy ally, said the deal the new House speaker struck with conservatives is less of an issue than the brutal rounds of failed ballots that could weaken McCarthy.

“There was no reason for us to keep voting, keep voting, keep allowing these speeches that just degraded and diminished and insulted Kevin McCarthy,” Crenshaw said on CNN.

“We didn’t have to keep doing that,” he said. “We could have just adjourned for the week and just kept negotiating. That’s where the heartburn was.”

November to March, when the state typically receives about half of its yearly precipitation.

“Right now, we still have lots of capacity in the system to manage floods,” Jones said. “If it were to rain for a month straight, we’d be in a different situation, certainly.”

Officials cautioned residents to stay up to date on emergency alerts that state or local agencies may issue, and to prepare go-bags in the case of evacuation orders.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic Plates are prepared at the Cast Iron Grill and Bar in Suisun City. Suisun City Waterfront Restaurant Week begins on Friday.

Dimitar Kilkoff/AFP via Getty Images/TNS

A woman crosses a destroyed bridge in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Friday, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images/TNS

Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with riot police as they invade Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia. Sunday.

Telehealth brings expert sexual assault exams to rural patients

A rielle Zionts KAISER HEALTH NEWS

Amanda Shelley was sitting in her dentist’s waiting room when she received a call from the police. A local teenage girl had been sexually assaulted and needed an exam.

Shelley, a nurse in rural Eagle County, Colorado, went to her car and called a telehealth company to arrange an appointment with a sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE. The nurse examiners have extensive training in how to care for assault survivors and collect evidence for possible criminal prosecution.

About an hour later, Shelley met the patient at the Colorado Mountain Medical urgent care clinic in the small town of Avon. She used a tablet to connect by video with a SANE about 2,000 miles away, in New Hampshire.

The remote nurse used the video technology to speak with the patient and guide Shelley through each step of a two-hour exam. One of those steps was a colposcopy, in which Shelley used a magnifying device to closely examine the vagina and cervix. The remote nurse saw, in real time, what Shelley could see, with the help of a video camera attached to the machine.

The service, known as “teleSANE,” is new at Shelley’s hospital. Before, sexual assault patients faced mountains of obstacles – literally – when they had to travel to a hospital in another county for care.

“We’re asking them to drive maybe over snowy passes and then [be there] three to four hours for this exam and then drive back home – it’s disheartening for them,” Shelley said. “They want to start

the healing process and go home and shower.”

To avoid this scenario, teleSANE services are expanding across the country in rural, sparsely populated areas. Research shows SANE programs encourage psychological healing, provide comprehensive health care, allow for professional evidence collection and improve the chance of a successful prosecution.

Jennifer Pierce-Weeks is CEO of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, which created the national standards and certification programs for sexual assault nurse examiners. She said every sexual assault survivor faces health consequences. Assaults can cause physical injuries, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and mental health conditions that can lead to suicide attempts and drug and alcohol misuse.

“If they are cared for on the front end, all of the risks of those things can be reduced dramatically with the right intervention,” Pierce-Weeks said.

Pierce-Weeks said there’s no comprehensive national data on the

number and location of health care professionals with SANE training. But she said studies show there’s a nationwide shortage, especially in rural areas.

Some rural hospitals struggle to create or maintain in-person SANE programs because of staffing and funding shortfalls, Pierce-Weeks said.

Training costs money and takes time. If rural hospitals train nurses, they still might not have enough to provide roundthe-clock coverage. And nurses in rural areas can’t practice their skills as often as those who work in busy urban hospitals.

Some hospitals without SANE programs refer sexual assault survivors elsewhere because they don’t feel qualified to help and aren’t always legally required to provide comprehensive treatment and evidence collection.

Avel eCare, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has been providing telehealth services since 1993. It recently added teleSANE to its offerings.

Avel provides this service to 43 mostly rural and small-town hospitals across five states and

is expanding to Indian Health Service hospitals in the Great Plains. Native Americans face high rates of sexual assaultand might have to travel hours for care if they live in one of the region’s large, rural reservations.

Jen Canton, who oversees Avel’s teleSANE program, said arriving at a local hospital and being referred elsewhere can be devastating for sexual assault survivors. “You just went through what is potentially the worst moment of your life, and then you have to travel two, three hours away to another facility,” Canton said. “It takes a lot of courage to even come into the first hospital and say what happened to you and ask for help.”

Patients who receive care at hospitals without SANE programs might not receive trauma-informed care, which focuses on identifying sources of trauma, determining how those experiences may affect people’s health, and preventing the retraumatizing of patients. Emergency department staffers may not have experience with internal exams or evidence collection. They also might not know about patients’ options for involving police.

Patients who travel to a second hospital might struggle to arrange for and afford transportation or child care. Other patients don’t have the emotional bandwidth to make the trip and retell their stories.

That’s why some survivors, like Ada Sapp, don’t have an exam.

Avera St. Mary’s Hospital in Pierre, South Dakota, recently began using teleSANE.

From Page A8

In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that made California the first state in the nation to pledge to conserve 30% of its land and coastal water by 2030.

A year later, the state budgeted $10 million to pull DNA out of historic insect collections, as well as to launch ambitious new field studies to better understand the extent of California’s invertebrate biodiversity.

“Researchers estimate that as much as 75% of California’s insects have still not been described by science,” Gluesenkamp said.

An additional $10 million was made available to upgrade infrastructure of existing collections, and to lay the groundwork for a system of new permanent homes for natural history collections as they become available.

California is ideal for such efforts, scientists say, because it harbors extremely high levels of biodiversity, as well as high numbers of declining and endangered plants and animals.

Beyond that, research on the genetics of natural populations and conservation biology has come a long way in California over the past half-century.

Samples of ethanol taken from specimen bottles housed at locations

Bugsincluding the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, UC Berkeley and Fisher’s leased WWII-era weapons bunker are being sent to UC Santa Cruz for DNA work.

“Our job is to sequence DNA in these samples and report back on what we could determine and what findings may require more analysis,” said Rachel Meyer, an adjunct assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.

“We don’t need much,” she said. Fragments of DNA from the leg of a bee collected three decades ago, for example, could determine all the plants and fungi that the pollinator had landed on while it was busy fulfilling its life cycles.

“I’m especially interested in determining the fungi present in those insect collections,” she said. “Imagine the possibility of discovering a beneficial fungus that we could inject into plants suffering from climate change.”

Fisher and USGS biologist Jared Heath are eager to help make that happen.

“Many years from now,” Fisher said, “researchers will be able to read the results of our efforts like chapters in a book.”

“They will tell a story,” Fisher added, “about whether our attempts to protect California’s wild populations were successful or not.”

From Page A8

keep prices as low as possible while ensuring safe and reliable service. Both utilities pointed ratepayers to programs that can even out bills over the course of a year, as well as flexible payment options.

“ PG&E recognizes our responsibility to serve our customers safely and reli-

Heatably while keeping their energy bills as low as possible,” Vincent Davis, PG&E vice president, customer operations and enablement, said in an online post. “We’re here to help all our customers save money by working with them to find the best rate plan for their household or business, sharing free and low-cost actions to help them reduce energy usage.”

Arielle Zionts/KHN/TNS

Nurse Lindee Miller stands in front of the mobile cart used for telehealth appointments for sexual assault exams at Avera St. Mary’s Hospital in Pierre, South Dakota. The camera allows Miller and her patient to communicate with a remote nurse trained in such exams.

49ers win regular season finale over Cards

caM inM an BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SANTA CLARA — Sunday’s 10th straight win ushered the 49ers to the NFC playoffs as the No. 2 seed. Now comes the heavy lifting: another four wins in a row to capture the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy in 28 seasons.

The NFC West champion 49ers wrapped up a 13-4, regular-season record by racing past the last-place Arizona Cardinals 38-13 at Levi’s Stadium.

That home field is where the 49ers will open up in the wildcard round, and, if they advance,

the divisional round. Shortly after the 49ers finished up this win, the Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) secured the NFC’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage (through the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 29) by virtue of a win Sunday against the No. 6 seed New York Giants.

Brock Purdy, after throwing a career-high three touchdown passes Sunday, now seeks to become the first rookie quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, though the 49ers obviously must first reach that Feb. 12grand finale in Glendale, Arizona, an hour drive from Purdy’s child-

hood home of Queen Creek.

The 49ers have not lost since a 44-23 home rout Oct. 23 to the Kansas City Chiefs, who secured the AFC’s No. 1 seed Saturday.

Of the eight teams who’ve finished a regular season with at least 10 straight wins in the last 25 years, only one has won the Super Bowl, the 2003 New England Patriots, who were a No. 1 seed and required three wins to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

For the seventh time in this 10-game win streak, the 49ers scored over 30 points, and they did so after staking the Cardinals (4-13) a touchdown on the

game’s second snap (77-yard touchdown catch by A.J. Green).

Thus, the 49ers enter the postseason with plenty of offensive firepower, with Sunday’s touchdowns coming from tight end George Kittle (two) and running backs Elijah Mitchell (two) and Christian McCaffrey, whose firstseries score gave them a 7-6 lead they would not relinquish.

The 49ers’ defense, after yielding 34 points in last week’s overtime win at the Las Vegas Raiders, rebounded nicely. Well, at least after giving up that long fleaflicker touchdown pass to Green on this game’s

second snap. The defense produced four takeaways, including two interceptions from safety Tashaun Gipson Sr.

Defensive end Nick Bosa locked up the NFL’s sack title, raising his total to 18 ½ — one shy of Aldon Smith’s franchise record from 2012 – when he dropped Cardinals fill-in starter David Blough for a 5-yard loss in the second quarter.

Purdy and other key starters were pulled by early in the fourth quarter. He improved to 5-0 as a starter and has shown

Bucs, Brady enter playoffs with a losing record of 8-9

Rick StRoud TAMPA BAY TIMES

ATLANTA — The Bucs and coach Todd Bowles found themselves in a no-win situation Sunday.

Having already been crowned NFC South champs and locked into the No. 4 seed, they had little to gain and very much to lose the longer they kept quarterback Tom Brady and other starters in an otherwise meaningless game against the Falcons.

Brady left the game after only five series and Tampa Bay led by a touchdown, 17-10, at halftime.

matters is what Tampa Bay does when it hosts either the Cowboys or Eagles in the NFC wild-card game.

It’s the first time Brady finished a season he started with a losing record. He threw only four passes as a rookie in 2000 when the Patriots went 5-11.

The Bucs led 17-10 after Blaine Gabbert relieved Brady and threw a 3-yard TD pass to Russell Gage late in the second quarter.

But that lead didn’t come without an unsettling – and perhaps unnecessary – list of injuries.

Georgia, TCU credit their cultures for establishing success as teams

doug RobeRSon THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

LOS ANGELES — If Monday’s national championship game is close between No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU, both teams have shown a resiliency to complete rallies this season borne of the development of cultures focused more on processes than results.

Georgia has rallied two times, including coming back from trailing Ohio State by 14 in the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl, to go undefeated.

“Our team has been built to this point where we are and we’re evolving,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “And you see a different dynamic each and every week.”

TCU staged several rallies, including scoring nine points in the final 2 minutes, 7 seconds, to defeat Baylor, to stay on path to the playoffs.

“And I think the thing with us is don’t get too high or too low,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “If you score a touchdown, great. Get over to the sideline and do it again. And don’t focus on that and don’t waste a

lot of energy in it. And same thing if something bad happens; don’t spend a lot of energy worrying about something that’s already happened.”

Both teams have been able to avoid panicking because of a focus on establishing a culture of positivity and continued improvement.

Dykes said his past jobs at Louisiana Tech, Cal and SMU featured teams that got off to good starts, but the pressure from expectations overwhelmed them. When he came to TCU, Dykes said one of

Andrew Wiggins felt ‘slow’ in return, but Warriors need him back to speed

M adeline k enney BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SAN FRANCISCO —

Andrew Wiggins felt like he was floating in early December.

“Amazing” is the word he used to describe how he felt through the first 22 games of this season.

“I felt like I was in a great, great rhythm. Every shot that I shot felt like it was going in.”

Wiggins seemed to pick up this season right where he left off from the NBA Finals. He looked as confident as ever as he opened the 2022-23 campaign averaging 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals, while shooting a career-best

51.1% from the field and knocking down 45% of his 6.8 3-point attempts per game.

But trouble struck early last month.

Wiggins experienced some tightness in his right thigh after he walked away from his best game yet – a 36-point outing that included a career-

tying eight 3s in a blowout win over the Rockets on Dec. 3. At first, he didn’t believe it was anything too serious.

“I thought I was going to be out for a few games,” Wiggins said. But the tightness persisted and the team’s medical staff diagnosed him with a strained adductor. He was cleared to practice about two weeks later, but when he neared his return around Christmas, he fell sick – twice – along with everyone in his household.

Wiggins ultimately missed 15 consecutive games, his longest absence from the game in his nine-year NBA career.

But the Bucs were outscored 20-0 after pulling many of their starters in the second half and lost 30-17.

The Bucs completed the regular season 8-9 and joined teams such as the 2010 Seahawks, 2014 Panthers and the 2020 Washington Football Team to reach the playoffs in a non-strike year with a losing record.

Of course, all that

Brady played only five series, going 13 of 17 passing for 84 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Rudolph. Rudolph later left the game with a knee injury.

The Bucs had a bunch of starters who were inactive for Sunday’s game, a list that included tackle Donovan Smith, receiver Julio Jones and cornerback Carlton Davis.

Controversial loss to Lakers Saturday leaves Fox fuming

JaSon a ndeRSon THE SACRAMENTO BEE

De’Aaron Fox was furious when he walked off the court following a controversial loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Fox had words with an official and threw his arm sleeve to the floor in disgust after missing a 3-pointer as time expired in a 136-134 loss to the Lakers before a sellout crowd of 17,611 at Golden 1 Center.

Fox might have felt he was fouled on the final shot. He was undoubtedly upset about the previous play after being whistled for a foul that sent Dennis Schroder to the line for the go-ahead free throws with 3.6 seconds remaining. Fox left the building without speaking to reporters, but he took to social media

moments after the game.

“Thought we were suppose to let the players decide the game,” Fox said in a tweet that was later deleted.

Kings coach Mike Brown was frustrated with the officiating throughout the game, but most of his postgame remarks centered on his team’s defense. The Lakers shot 61% from the field and outscored the Kings 70-48 on points in the paint.

“We have to figure out, somehow, someway, how to stop people,” Brown said. “Defensively, we are not good at all. . . . We can score, but we’re terrible defensively.”

LeBron James had 37 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Lakers (19-21), who have

Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com/TNS

Georgia Bulldogs tight end Brock Bowers, a former Napa High School standout, extends a catch during the fourth

quarter of the College Football Playoff Semifinal against Ohio State In Atlanta, Dec. 31, 2022.

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins (22) drives on Orlando’s Franz Wagner in the first quarter at Chase Center in San Francisco, Saturday.

4 ways to have more fun drinking wine

Dave McIntyre SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST

Have you abandoned your New Year’s resolutions yet? Yeah, me too. Actually, I long ago abandoned the idea of New Year’s resolutions altogether. But I do like to take the new year as an opportunity to consider ways to juice up my wine exploration. Despite the incredible variety of wines available to us, it’s easy to become a creature of routine, locked-in preconceptions of what we like, too timid to venture into the new and unknown. So, let’s pop a cork to new adventures. Here are a few suggestions for jump-starting your wine life in 2023. These aren’t revolutionary ideas, nor are they difficult, though some may challenge your budget. Mostly, they require your attention and focus. Let your corkscrew be your passport to wine adventure in the year ahead.

1. Cultivate Your Retailer.

If you’re not on a first-name basis with a specialist at your local wine store, you should be. Your local retailer is the single best resource you have for exploring the wine available in your market. A good retailer will have tasted the wines, maybe traveled to the regions where they were made and met with the winemakers, and can introduce you to the story that brings the wine to life. Don’t be wary that the retailer is “trying to sell you something.” Of course they are. But they also want to sell you the second bottle, and the only way to do that is to make you happy with the first one.

A good retailer is a good listener. Tell them what you do and don’t like. If they seem uninterested in what you have to say, find someone else or a different store. But when you get on a first-name basis and cultivate this relationship, your personal wine curator can point you to interesting wines you might not have heard of, and away from pretty labels that may not be your style. This is where you must pay attention. It won’t work to say, “I loved that red wine with the blue label you sold me last month.” (Pro tip: A photo of the label on your phone will help.)

Does your store offer monthly sampler packs? These are a great way to explore wines that may be new to you or outside your comfort zone.

And if your store sponsors dinners at a local restaurant with a visiting winemaker, take the opportunity to learn about wine over a delicious meal, usually at a reasonable cost. You’re supporting two local businesses (the store and the restaurant) while getting a first-hand introduction to a winery that may become a new favorite.

2. Explore a Wine Region or a Grape Variety

Do you enjoy Argentina’s malbec? Mendoza, where most of Argentina’s wine is made, is one of the most fascinating regions in the wine world. Winemakers are exploring different areas of the Uco Valley in the Andes foothills to suss out subtly different expressions of malbec, cabernet franc and other grapes. Catena and Zuccardi are two wineries with national U.S. distribution that offer wines from subregions of Mendoza’s Uco Valley such as Gualtallary, San Pablo, Tupungato and Paraje Altamira. With a modest investment, one could do a mini master class on Mendoza terroir. Just fire up the grill for some steaks.

You could also explore the classics, of course, such as Bordeaux’s left bank (based in cabernet sauvignon and merlot) or the right bank (merlot and cabernet franc). Or you could go down the ultimate rabbit hole of Burgundy. (Pro tip: Your retailer can help with these.)

If you love cabernet sauvignon, compare Chile with South Africa, then Paso Robles, and don’t forget Mendoza. Compare the syrah of the northern Rhône Valley in France with shiraz from Australia’s Barossa or McLaren Vale. Same grape, different names, two wildly diverse styles of wine. All delicious.

3. Visit Wineries

Support your local wine region, Even if you don’t care for the wines, the experience can be fun and you will be supporting a local business. Since wine is made in every state now, a visit to “wine country” doesn’t require a plane ticket. If you’re lucky enough to live near the vibrant wine regions of Virginia, Maryland, the Texas Hill Country, Michigan’s Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas and, of course, New York’s Finger Lakes and Long Island, wine country is just a day trip away. Don’t neglect urban wineries either: What they lack in views they make up for in vibe.

The pandemic has changed the winery experience dramatically. More wineries are charging for tastings and requiring appointments. (To be sure, the pandemic may have accelerated, rather than caused, this shift.) So a visit to wine country - even the one near you - involves planning and a budget. (Pro tip: Check the websites of local winery associations for travel info as well as lists of wineries and their hours.)

When you do go, try to break away from the touristy faux chateaux and Tuscan-style vanity wineries, and seek out some mom-and-pops. Explore the Lompoc Wine Ghetto in an out-of-theway industrial park in Santa Barbara County, or the newer (opened in 2021) Bacchus Landing in Sonoma County’s Healdsburg. In such places you can find artisans without the glitz and glam, just an intense focus on the quality of their wine.

4. Splurge

No special occasion needed. You owe yourself. Once in a while, splurge on a bottle above your normal comfort price. If you love it, go back to your retailer friend who sold it to you and ask for more affordable bottles with similar qualities. You may be pleasantly surprised. (Pro tip: Well, you got it - specialty retailer.)

Throughout this year, we’ll explore these and other themes in this column. For now, I raise my glass to you with good cheer and hope for a fruitful, healthy and happy 2023.

Molly Yeh’s pizza-inspired white bean hotdish is a cheesy, saucy comfort

yonan THE WASHINGTON POST

After the holidays, our pants a little (or a lot) tighter than they were a month or two ago, we’re all craving something lighter. Or at least we’re supposed to. At the moment, I appear to be holding out.

Why? Well, I’ve just started another few months of paternity leave, and I’m feeling a layered mixture of hope and anxiety as my husband and I mark six months that we’ve had the latest (and possibly last) foster son, a smart and talented 14-year-old we are working to make a permanent part of the family. (As they say, the third time’s a charm.)

That’s one factor. The others: We just emerged from a bone-chilling cold spell, one that caused two pipes to freeze and one to burst, leaving us without water for a few days. Finally (I hope), I have been dealing with a benign and temporary - but acutely painfulhealth condition that has been dragging on longer than anticipated.

For all those reasons, I’m still plenty interested in rib-sticking comfort food and probably will be for a while.

If you’re familiar with hotdish (Midwestern for casserole), you know that nothing is heartier or more comforting, and you might know that the reigning queen of hotdish is Molly Yeh, the cookbook author and Food Network star whose new book celebrates her take on Chinese-Jewish-Midwestern cooking. Yeh is also trying to serve nourishing food to her husband and two young children, and this recipe is her take on pizza hotdish, which she calls “basically pepperoni pizza toppings tossed with pasta and ground beef.” After she saw Deb Perelman’s famous “pizza beans,” she decided to sub cannellini beans for the pasta and meat, making what she calls a “pizza-adjacent casserole that I feel a whole lot better about serving my family on a non-pizza night.”

She calls it Veggie Supreme White Bean Hotdish, and it’s a straightforward recipe to

make, with bell pepper, spinach, black olives, beans, tomato and more, “bound together by cheese, all cozy under a blanket of breadcrumbs dressed up like garlic bread.”

If possible, make it in a vessel that can slide from stovetop to oven, because nothing says selfcare like one fewer pot to wash. Or make it ahead and refrigerate or freeze in a casserole dish, baking directly from frozen.

The next time I make it, I think I’ll double the recipe and freeze half. Then, when I say this is the kind of thing that can satisfy me and the family until spring, I’ll be speaking literally.

VEGGIE SUPREME WHITE BEAN HOTDISH

Active time: 35 minutes | Total time: 50 minutes 6 servings Molly Yeh calls this vegetarian take on Midwestern hotdish “a pizza-adjacent casserole”: beans, spinach, tomatoes and more, bound in cheese under a blanket of garlicky breadcrumbs.

Make Ahead: Assemble the casserole through topping with breadcrumbs in a metal or otherwise freezer-safe 9-by-13inch casserole dish. Cool, tightly wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. If baking from frozen, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, uncover, then

bake at 450 degrees until the breadcrumbs are lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Storage Notes: Refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil, divided 1 yellow onion, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 teaspoon fine salt, divided, plus more to taste

5 ounces baby spinach, chopped 4 cloves garlic, pressed or finely grated and divided

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano Crushed red pepper flakes

One (2.25-ounce) can sliced black olives, drained and rinsed

Two (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

One (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup mascarpone (may substitute ricotta or cream cheese)

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella, divided 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs 1/2 cup (1 ounce) finely grated parmesan cheese

Handful of torn basil leaves

DIRECTIONS

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

In a Dutch oven or another large oven-safe pot over medium-high heat, heat

2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the onion, bell pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, just until wilted. Stir in half of the chopped garlic, the oregano, and a pinch or two of crushed red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the olives, beans, tomatoes and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt, increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, so the mixture is at a simmer and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the flavors meld, about 10 minutes. Stir in the mascarpone and a big handful of the mozzarella until melted. Taste, and season with more salt as needed.

Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on top, going all the way to the edge.

In a small bowl, toss the panko with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the remaining garlic. Scatter the panko all over the mozzarella.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and the breadcrumbs are lightly browned. Top with the parmesan, basil and a sprinkle of crushed red pepper, and serve hot.

Nutrition information per serving (1 3/4 cups) | Calories: 433; Total Fat: 24 g; Saturated Fat: 12 g; Cholesterol: 52 mg; Sodium: 952 mg; Carbohydrates: 36 g; Dietary Fiber: 6 g; Sugar: 10 g; Protein: 18 g This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.

Adapted from “Home Is Where the Eggs Are” by Molly Yeh (William Morrow, 2022).

Baking with a creepy twist is this TikTok creator’s year-round passion

Jess eng THE WASHINGTON POST

Halloween happens only once a year, but Nikk Alcaraz refuses to wait a full 365 days for his favorite holiday. Fortunately for this expert crafter and serial baking enthusiast, no ghost is left behind in the time-bending world of TikTok.

Known as Practical Peculiarities to his more than 900,000 followers on the social media platform (@nikkalcaraz), Alcaraz, 28, features spooky, edible creations all year round. In his videos you’ll find him channeling Frankenstein while inhaling frightful foods, including cookies and cakes loaded with fake eyes, blood and brains, and always doing so with a devious grin.

Halloween, a holiday beloved by crafters around the world, has long held a sentimental place in Alcaraz’s heart. Raised by his grandmother Georgianna Dofflemyer in Santa Fe, N.M., he always looked

forward to spending the spooky season with her. Together, they watched and re-watched Tim Burton films and “Hocus Pocus” and brainstormed outlandish homemade costumes, even well after October.

Because they didn’t have much money, Alcaraz quickly learned to be scrappy in the kitchen and at the craft store. “A lot of things that I had to craft with were things around the house,” he says. “And if I did need to go to the craft store, she would say, ‘You only have $5 to get what you want.’”

That resourcefulness is on full display in Alcaraz’s DIY videos, where he fashions a Halloween feast complete with cobweb funnel cakes and unicorn horns made from meringue. His craftiness even helped him land a spot on HBO’s “Craftopia” in 2021, where he went home with the top prize, for a 1950s Christmas village overtaken by aliens.

Practical Peculiarities

began as a photography series in 2019. At its helm, Alcaraz designed the weird and creepy foods while his partner photographed his creations. But he had grander dreams and wished his project might evolve into a liveaction show - like “Martha Stewart, just twisted.” It was a lofty goal, but Alcaraz trained himself with the camera, and in 2020, he began posting regular videos on Instagram and TikTok from his Los Angeles home.

Crafting may have been his first love, but his tinkering led him down a baking rabbit hole. Though he ate “normal food” growing up, post-dinner baking offered ample opportunities to experiment. Following the recipes was never his style. Instead, he added pecans and cinnamon to his sweets and treated Bundt cakes as potential Christmas wreaths. Over time, Alcaraz became obsessed with using his kitchen as a playground and substitut-

ing food for craft materials.

“I could use marzipan as dough or like crushed cake and frosting as playdough,” he says.

Despite his devotion to Halloween themes, Alcaraz’s most popular video debuted not in October but just in time for a holiday associated with chocolate-obsessed lovebirds. For Valentine’s Day in 2021, he posted a video of a miniature heart-shaped pie with an apple-cherry filling.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Practical Peculiarities without a creepy twist. Taking inspiration from “you’re the apple of my eye,” Alcaraz added a realistically painted edible eye to the center of the pie. Quickly, his creation inspired compliments, horrified reactions and even playful taunts from frequent TikTok reply guy and notorious chef Gordon

Ramsay: “It’s Valentine’s Day not Halloween, you doughnut. No wonder you’re still single!”

Joe

Tom McCorkle/The Washington Post Veggie Supreme White Bean Hotdish.

The happiest, least stressful, most meaningful jobs in America

The WashingTon PosT

Agriculture, logging and forestry have the highest levels of self-reported happiness – and lowest levels of self-reported stress – of any major industry category, according to our analysis of more than 13,000 time journals from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey. (Additional reporting sharpened our focus on lumberjacks and foresters, but almost everyone who works on farms or in forests stands out.)

The time-use survey typically asks people to record what they were doing at any given time during the day. But in four recent surveys, between 2010 and 2021, they also asked a subset of those people – more than 13,000 of them - how meaningful those activities were, or how happy, sad, stressed, pained and tired they felt on a sixpoint scale. As you might guess, activities like playing with your grandkids tend to be loaded with happiness and meaning, while waiting on hold or commuting produce little of either.

But the two aren’t always correlated. Heathcare and social workers rate themselves as doing the most meaningful work of anybody (apart from the laudable lumberjacks), but they rank lower on the happiness scale. They also rank high on stress.

The most stressful sectors are the industry including finance and insurance, followed by education and the broad grouping of professional and technical industries, a sector that includes the single most stressful occupation: lawyers. Together, they paint a simple picture: A white collar appears to comes with significantly more stress than a blue one.

While our friends the lumberjacks and farmers do the least-stressful work, their jobs are wellknown to be particularly perilous, and they report the highest levels of pain on the job. To puzzle out why, we zoomed out to look at activity categories beyond work.

The most meaningful and happiness-inducing activities were religious and spiritual, which doesn’t tell us much about farming or forestry - at least not as it’s commonly practiced in the United States. But the secondhappiest activity – sports, exercise and recreation –helps crack the case.

Like farming, recreation ranks high on both happiness and pain. And the two activities have one

obvious thing in common: They take place outside. Preferably in nature. The slight pain is a sign of demanding physical exertion, and the price of getting outdoors.

With that in mind, we ran the numbers again, this time for the location of each activity. We found that while your workplace looms as the single most stressful place in the universe, the great outdoors ranks in the top three for both happiness and meaning – only your place of worship consistently rates higher.

Researchers across the social and medical sciences have found a strong link between mental health and green space or being outdoors. Even seeing a tree out your window can help you recover from illness faster. So imagine the boost you get from being right next to said tree - even if, like our friend the lumberjack, you’re in the process of chopping it down.

That adjacency to nature forms the core of forestry’s appeal. Mike Wetherbee is now board president of the Maine Forest and Logging Museum and marketing manager of his wife Alissa’s timber-sports barnstorming crew, the Axe Women Loggers of Maine. But his long journey into forest work began on a bridge while driving home from a seasonal job near the coastal scrub forests of the Everglades.

“I said, ‘Why am I leaving the forest? Why am I going back to an office setting?’ And I stopped right there in the middle of the bridge and pulled a U-turn,” Wetherbee told us. He would go on to fight wildfires in the area, work in conservation and, eventually, marry a timber-sports world champion: Alissa excels in

ax throwing, log pushing and crosscut sawing, and is the only person to have rolled a log across the Mississippi River. (It only took her 30 minutes!)

Dana Chandler, coowner of Family Tree Forestry in South Carolina, compared working in the forest not just to therapy, but to aromatherapy. It’s tough being a woman in the industry, especially an African American one, but what other job gives you a constant smelltrack of pine sap, fresh wood chips, loamy soil and swamp decay?

“Even on your worst day – something has broken down and you need to get wood to the mill – the wind’ll blow and you’ll inhale a familiar scent – that pine sap – and it’ll just take you to a place of peace instantly,” Chandler said. “It’s therapy. The woods is therapy, the forest is therapy. You can have the worst day ever but when you get out here? The forest just takes it all away.”

Chandler’s dad was a logger. So was her granddad. She grew up around logging, exploring the creeks and crannies of Carolina forests with her sister while her dad sawed and chopped. And now her own daughter, Lana, bounces around Dana’s operation, effortlessly tossing around industry jargon and visiting local wildlife – they recently found a family of baby raccoons! – as she learns the forest. Chandler said she’d be delighted if Lana, 5, joined the family business.

“With all of those challenges that they face, I have never heard a logger say, ‘I’m going to get out of it,’” Chandler said. “They say, ‘I wouldn’t want to do anything else.’” She says it’s because of the woods: “It humbles you.”

Like Wetherbee, Leslie Boby didn’t grow up in

the industry or originally target a life in the trees.

“I actually grew up in Chicago, so I had no idea about forestry. . . . I just wanted to work outside,” said Boby, who runs Southern Regional Extension Forestry in Athens, Ga. “Even though I grew up in a city with a family that has no outdoorsy history.”

That instinct led her from a Peace Corps posting in Kenya teaching forestry to wildland firefighting in the dusty ponderosa and pinyon pines of Northern New Mexico. And finally to her current post supporting forest-focused outreach and education at land grant universities across 13 Southern states.

But foresters’ happiness comes from more than just the great outdoors, Boby says. Forestry forces you to work on a slower time scale. It pushes you to have a generational outlook.

“There’s a point where you are now planting trees that you are not going to see harvested,” she said. “It speaks to something larger than yourself. . . . . Your work is living on, and someone else will benefit from your efforts in a tangible way.”

Just as importantly, she said, as a forester you know your work is sustainable. As your trees grow, they’re sucking carbon out of the air while providing a habitat for wildlife and a linchpin for regional eco systems. When they’re harvested, their carbon will either be stored for the long term as a joist in a house, or as paper pack aging that will replace the fossil-fuel-heavy plastics littering Ameri can landfills.

“People are missiondriven,” Boby told us. “They feel that this is an important thing they’re doing, even if the finan cial rewards are not nearly enough.”

Laid-off Twitter workers remain in limbo over severance pay

BloomBerg

Twitter employees who were laid off shortly after Elon Musk took over are still awaiting details of their severance packages months after being let go, leading to further legal trouble for the new owner.

Musk laid off roughly 50% of Twitter’s more than 7,000 employees on Nov. 4, just a week after taking control of the company. Almost 1,000 of those who were terminated lived in California, according to documents filed with the state. Those workers were required under state law to keep receiving regular paychecks over the past two months.

But that 60-day period ended on Wednesday, the official termination date for California employees. Employees have still not heard any details about additional severance, or continuation of health coverage, known as COBRA, according to three laid-off workers.

Musk tweeted at the time that everyone “was offered 3 months of severance.”

Since acquiring the social media platform for $44 billion, the billionaire has scrambled to cut costs, warning that the company may face bankruptcy. Earlier this week he eliminated other employee benefits, including commuter benefits and meal allowances, according to Platformer.

Twitter faces multiple suits over unpaid bills, including for private chartered plane flights, software services and rent at its San Francisco office.

Lawyer Shannon LissRiordan said hundreds of Twitter workers she represents have now had their last day at the company and have received no severance notice or pay.

“No one has gotten any severance pay,” said Liss-Riordan. The Boston-based labor attorney has filed private arbitra-

tion cases and several federal class-action lawsuits and U.S. labor board complaints related to the mass terminations, alleging a mix of retaliation, discrimination, and failure to provide required notice and pay. She said 100 arbitration claims were filed on Thursday, on top of 100 already pending.

“We don’t know what Elon Musk is doingwe expected that those severance agreements would have been sent out by now, because a lot of people had their last official day,” Liss-Riordan said. “We’re wondering what he’s planning to do but meanwhile we’re pushing forward with our legal actions.”

Twitter has asked the judge in San Francisco overseeing the severance suit to throw it out or, alternatively, move it to Delaware, where Twitter has litigated other cases, including the fight over Musk’s buyout of the company. To the degree the suit remains intact, wherever it eventually lands, Twitter argues its former employees are bound by contractual agreements requiring them to resolve any disputes with the company in closed-door arbitration rather than in open court.

Employees who were laid off in New York, where Twitter also has a big office, have a 90-day period where the company must continue to pay them, according to state labor laws.

At the time of the layoffs, some of Twitter’s employees were pregnant or dealing with other medical issues, complicating the fact that they don’t have clarity over insurance coverage.

“He’s got to make a decision here: Does he really want to get into this costly drawn-out legal battle, which is going to be very, very, very expensive for Twitter, or does he want to do the right thing and just take care of it now?” said Liss-Riordan.

World food index ends year where it began after dramatic run

BloomBerg

After a year marred by disruptions from the war in Ukraine and extreme weather, global food prices ended 2022 roughly where they started.

A U.N. index of food-commodity costs soared to a record in March, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crippled vital flows of grain and vegetable oils from the breadbasket nation. Prices then slid as a Black Sea crop export deal and good harvests in other countries buffered supplies before steadying toward year-end.

The gauge - which tracks five major staples - fell 1.9% in December, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report. That took losses for the year to 1%, the first annual

decline since 2018.

Prices still remain well above their 10-year average, which has added to a global cost-ofliving crunch and exacerbated a hunger crisis that the United Nations has aimed to quash by the end of the decade. For 2022 as a whole, the index averaged 14% higher than the prior year.

The gauge tracks shifts in commodity costs, and it takes a little while for changes to filter though to retail prices, which have been pushed up by rising energy and labor costs. Food inflation has been running hot in countries from Brazil to Britain to Pakistan.

“We’re still seeing a lot of really high prices in a lot of the major food commodities,”

Erin Collier, an economist at the FAO, said in an interview.

“Supplies are boosted right now, but there’s definitely still a lot of factors that are risks and could be further exacerbated at any point.”

Weak demand for vegetable oils and beef helped drive the food index lower in December, its ninth straight monthly decline. Dairy and sugar prices rose.

Prospects for 2023 hinge on beneficial weather to boost strained crop stockpiles. The war in Ukraine, nearing its oneyear mark, is also hampering the finances of Ukrainian farmers and forcing them to leave some land unsown.

Other major growers have suffered drought, flooding and

freezes. Disease outbreaks and herd cutbacks are restraining meat output, and sugar futures recently hit their highest level since early 2017.

Still, Brazil is set to reap a bumper soybean crop and Russia is exporting large wheat volumes, keeping prices in check as 2023 kicks off. The economic downturn could also force consumers to cut back, pressuring food prices this year, Rabobank said in November.

“Calmer food commodity prices are welcome after two very volatile years,” FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said. “It is important to remain vigi lant and keep a strong focus on mitigating global food insecurity given that world food prices remain at elevated levels.”

Jeremy M. Lange/The Washington Post

A sandy road through pine forest in West End, N.C.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, Nov., 29, 2022.

Islam Safwat/Bloomberg Bread at a bakery in Cairo on June 1, 2022.

What Questlove shares with the enslaved Africans of ‘Descendant’

“Instantly, everything in me changed. It’s almost like there was a dead, inactive set of selves and DNA in me that suddenly just came alive.”

Ahmir “Questlove” Thomp son is speaking on Zoom (screen name: Questo!!!) from his office at NBC Studio 6B, where he leads the Roots, the house band for “The Tonight Show Star ring Jimmy Fallon.” Thompson is recalling the moment when, while taping an episode of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” the historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed him that he was the descendant of Charlie and Maggie Lewis, natives of the Dahomey kingdom who, in 1860, were smuggled illegally to Alabama on the schooner Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in America.

“I basically just went down a nonstop rabbit hole over the past two years, playing catch-up for the last five decades,” Thompson says, calling his newfound knowledge of his family’s past “absolutely transformative. It really completes you.”

Thompson grew up in Philadelphia, the son of musicians Arthur and Jacqueline Thompson. Although he had been able to trace a great-great-grandmother once for an eighth-grade school project, “besides knowing her name, I didn’t know where she came from,” Thompson says. “I just knew nothing. And when you know nothing, you tend to live in that place where you feel like you’re nothing.”

After the “Finding Your Roots” episode aired in early 2020, Thompson took advantage of the pandemic pause to read whatever he could about the country of his ancestors’ birth, now called Benin. “I wanted to know everything,” Thompson recalls. “I wanted to know, what colors did they wear? What did the king and queen look like? What foods did they prepare? What was their spiritual practice like? What was their religion?”

About the same time, documentary filmmaker Margaret Brown was finishing the first edit of “Descendant,” a film chronicling the history of the Clotilda, the discovery of the ship’s remnants in 2019 in the Mobile River, and its lingering impact in the Alabama community of Africatown, where several Clotilda survivors settled after they were freed. (Anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston documented the story of Africatown and its inhabitants in the 1928 short documentary “Fieldwork” and the book “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo,’” finished in 1931 and published in 2018.)

Hopeful that he might want to be involved, Brown sent a copy to Thompson, who by then was working on his own film, “The

Summer of Soul (. . . Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised”), which would go on to win the 2022 Oscar for best documentary.

After several months, Thompson agreed to be an executive producer on “Descendant.” “I wasn’t even coming from the standpoint of, ‘This will be my next movie project,’” Thompson says. Instead, he approached it much like his collaboration with D’Angelo on “Voodoo” or co-producing the soundtrack for “Hamilton.”

“Half the time I do these projects knowing I have the best seat in the house,” Thompson explains, adding that when it came to “Descendant,” “I just knew that, regardless of the outcome, I wanted to be in proximity.”

“Descendant” premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a special jury award and was acquired by Netflix, with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company presenting. Recently shortlisted for the documentary Oscar, the film is considered an assured nominee; a win would make Thompson an Academy Award winner in two successive years.

Becoming a hit, Thompson insists, isn’t the point of a film that delves deeply into how history reverberates over decades, especially when it’s forgotten or actively suppressed.

On a personal level, the film allowed him to meet long-lost cousins – fellow descendants of Charlie Lewis - who live in Mobile. One of them, Joycelyn Davis, is a major protagonist in “Descendant,” at first skeptical of the importance of the Clotilda shipwreck, then advocating for the community’s profiting from the artifact, much like Mobile businessman and plantation owner Timothy Meaher sought to profit from their ancestors’ bodies.

An ostinato of generational trauma pervades “Descendant,” trauma that Thompson has experienced firsthand. “I’ve basically been spending the last two years sort of unraveling that endless spool of yarn,” he says, “trying to free myself of

it.” At the center of that trauma is silence: the silence of grandmothers and grandfathers who were prevented from or couldn’t bear sharing the most unspeakable truths of their pasts; and the silence of those who kept their involvement in the slave trade a secret even as their families’ wealth accrued.

The Clotilda came to the United States as the result of a bet made by Meaher that, even though the slave trade had been outlawed in 1808, he could successfully send a ship to Africa and bring back enslaved humans without being caught or punished. A captain named William Foster abetted him in his plan, traveling to the West African city of Ouidah and bringing back 110 individuals between the ages of 5 and 23. When he reached Mobile Bay, Foster scuttled and burned the Clotilda, to erase the evidence of his and Meaher’s crime. “Descendant” portrays the Meahers as a shadowy but still-powerful presence in Africatown, where, the film persuasively argues, residents have been chronically contaminated by the factories that leased land from the family.

The Meahers and their representatives are pointedly absent in “Descendant,” a gaping hole in the narrative that speaks to the impunity of Timothy Meaher’s original Clotilda scheme, and the shame and intellectual dishonesty that have obscured the realities of racism for centuries. Thompson, for his part, sees the familiar contours of instinctive self-protection.

“I think, to be an American, your monetary self-preservation has to be protected at all times, often to the detriment of your spiritual enlightenment,” he says, adding that, as tempting as it is to calculate what it would take economically to make Africatown whole, the reparations debated in the film might by now be too small. “It’s literally almost priceless now,” he says of authentic restitution. “I wish there were free health care in terms of mental health. I would take a mediation center and [daily] mental health workshops and classes over a billion-dollar amount.”

Word Sleuth

Bridge

by Phillip Alder

and – very important – the high-card points produced, you should be able to find the right answer. However, now and then a nigh-impossible deal will come along – like today’s.

North invited game with a limit raise, and South wisely folded his tent with a hand that old-timers would have passed initially.

West led the spade eight: a happy choice. East won with his queen, cashed the spade ace and played the spade seven, which West ruffed. What should West have led now?

It is traditional in this situation for East to make a suit-preference signal. By leading his higher remaining spade spot, he asked for the higher-ranking side suit to be returned. Here, therefore, West switched to the diamond four.

PARTNER, WHICH SUIT DID YOU ASK FOR?

As we are all aware, defense is the hardest part of the game. One way to make it easier would be to place mirrors behind your partner. However, most opponents don’t countenance such furniture fixing.

Nevertheless, if you keep track of the tricks won and lost, the cards played

Sudoku

Bridge

Declarer won in hand with the king, unblocked the club king, played a diamond to dummy’s ace and cashed the club ace, discarding the spade jack. Only then did South play a trump. East won with the ace and led his last spade, but declarer ruffed high, drew West’s last trump and claimed.

East started to say something, but West beat him to the punch. “Sorry, partner. I see that returning a trump at trick four defeats the contract because you would give me a second spade ruff. When Hy Lavinthal invented the suit-preference signal, he didn’t allow for this situation.” COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

by Wayne Gould

Fill

PARTNER, WHICH SUIT DID YOU ASK FOR?

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

As we are all aware, defense is the hardest part of the game. One way to make it easier would be to place mirrors behind your partner. However, most opponents don’t countenance such

Netflix

Emmett Lewis in Netflix’s “Descendant.”

Valentine (Jeremy Sisto) and the team face a hostage situation in “FBI.”

TUESDAY AT 7 P.M. ON CHANNEL 13

Learning and growing are one theme for movies this week

FAIRFIELD — Action and adventure movies are all coming to the theater this week.

Tom Hanks come to the big screen as a grotchy senior citizen who torments his neighbors with a bad attitude until he is bested by the new family on the block.

Also playing locally will be a movie about bad decisions which lead to more bad outcomes.

Opening nationwide are:

“A Man Called Otto,” in this film, Tom Hanks plays a grumpy widower whose only joy comes from criticizing and judging his exasperated neighbors. He meets his match when a lively young family moves in next door, leading to an unexpected friendship that will turn his world upside-down. This film is rated PG13.

“House Party,” in this movie, two down on their luck house cleaners discover they’re assigned to clean the mansion of Lebron James while he’s overseas. They decide to throw a party in his house, along the way one of Lebron’s championship rings goes missing. This film is rated R.

“Plane,” in this action movie, pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help, and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye. This film is rated R.

“The Devil Conspiracy,” in this film, a powerful biotech company has breakthrough technology allowing them to clone history’s most influential people with just a few fragments of DNA. A group of Satanists steal the shroud of Christ, putting them in possession of Jesus’ DNA. The clone will serve as the ultimate offering to the devil. Archangel Michael comes to Earth to end the plan. This film is rated R.

Opening in limited release are:

“Kitchen Brigade,” in this film an inflexible 40-year- old sous-chef is about to fulfill her lifelong dream by opening her own restaurant. But nothing goes as planned. Facing serious financial difficulties, she reluctantly accepts a job in the cafeteria of a shelter for young migrants. While she hates her new position, Cathy’s skills and passion for cuisine start to change the kids’ lives. And they also have a lot to teach her. This film is note rated.

“My Father Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story,” in this documentary champion boxer Muhammad Ali’s story is told through the eyes of his only biological son, Muhammad Ali Jr. This film is not rated.

“Saint Omer,” in the film novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment. This film is not rated.

“Skinamarink,” in this scary movie, two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. They cope by creating a pillow fort in the living room. Soon it becomes apparent someone or something is watching them. This film is not rated.

For information on Edwards Cinemas in Fairfield, visit www.regmovies.com/theatres/ regal-edwards-fairfield-imax. For Vacaville showtimes, visit www. brendentheatres.com.

For Vallejo showtimes, check www.cinemark. com/theatres/ca-vallejo. More information about upcoming films is available at www.movieinsider.com.

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

u b l i c i s n o t r es p o n s i b l e f o r e rr o r s o r o m i s s i o n s after the first day of p u b l i c a t i o n T h e D a i l y R e p u b l i c a cc e p t s n o l i a b i l i t y g r e a t e r t h a n t h e c o s t o f t h e a d o n t h e d a y t h e r e w a s a n e r r o r o r o m i ss i o n C l a s s i f i e d l i n e ads that appear online hold no monetary value; therefore they are not eligible f o r c r e d i t o r a r ef u n d s h o u l d t h e y n o t a p p e a r o n l i n e

Fair Housing is the Law!

T h e m i s s i o n o f t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f F a i r E m p l o y m e n t a n d H o u s i n g i s t o p r ot e c t t h e p e o p l e o f C a l i f o r n i a f r o m u nl a w f u l d i s c r i m i n ation in employment h o u s i n g a n d p u b l i c a c c o m m o d a t i o n s T h e D a i l y R e p u b l i c w i l l n o t k n o w i n g l y accept any ad which is in violation of the F e d e r a l F a i r H o u sing Act and the Calif o r n i a F a i r E m p l o ym e n t a n d H o u s i n g A c t w h i c h b a n d i sc r i m i n a t i o n b a s e d o n r a c e c o l o r n at i o n a l o r i g i n s e x r e l i g i o n s e x u a l o r ientation age disabi l i t y f a m i l i a l s t a t u s a n d m a r i t a l s t a t u s D e s c r i b e t h e P r o pe r t y N o t t h e T e n a n t

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Disclaimer:

CALENDAR

Monday’s TV sports

Basketball

NBA

• Orlando vs. Sacramento, NBCSCA (Vacaville and Rio Vista), 7 p.m.

Football College

National Championship Game, Georgia vs. TCU, ESPN and family of networks, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday’s TV sports

Basketball College Men

Michigan vs. Wisconsin, ESPN, 4 p.m.

South Carolina vs. Kentucky, ESPN2, 4 p.m.

Oklahoma vs. Kansas, ESPN, 6 p.m.

North Carolina at Virginia, ESPN, 6 p.m.

NBA Oklahoma City at Miami, TNT, 4:30 p.m. Phoenix vs. Golden State, TNT, 7 p.m.

Hockey

NHL San Jose vs. Arizona, NBCSCA, 6 p.m.

49ers

From Page B1

veteran savvy in his six games since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo. Purdy finished this one 15-of-20 for 178 yards with no turnovers but a career-high four sacks.

Kittle’s two touchdown catches gave him a team-high 11 touchdowns this season, as it was the third time in the past four games he’s caught two touchdown passes from Purdy.

Here are other quick notes from this lopsided finale:

Purdy’s prehalftime show

Purdy has thrown two touchdown passes in his six games since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, a streak last accomplished by a rookie quarterback in Justin Herbert’s 2020 season for the Chargers.

Purdy’s second scoring strike Sunday – a 4-yarder to Kittle – came 19 seconds before halftime, with Kittle making a nice grab in the back corner of the end zone. It was the fourth game in which Purdy has directed a touchdown drive in the final seconds of a first half, having also done so in Week 13 against Miami (McCaffrey run, 4 seconds to go), in Week 14 against Tampa Bay (Aiyuk catch, 15 seconds to go), and in Week 15 against Seattle (McCaffrey run, 47 seconds to go).

Rushing rotation

The 49ers got three touchdowns out of their renewed backfield tandem of McCaffrey and Mitchell, the latter of whom scored his first two touchdowns of the season while coming off injured reserve again.

McCaffrey made his 10th straight start, and he not only got a 9-yard gain on the 49ers’ first snap, he finished the opening drive with a 21-yard catchand-run for a go-ahead

touchdown. McCaffrey had 45 yards on 10 carries and 34 yards on three receptions.

Mitchell, in his return from a Nov. 27 knee sprain, put the 49ers ahead 14-6 when a 5-yard run produced his first touchdown. Mitchell, playing just his fifth game this season, finished off the opening drive after halftime with a 6-yard scoring run that was set up by a 37-yard, sideline jaunt for a 28-13 lead. He had just five carries, for 55 yards.

Gipson’s interception

Gipson, a surprise starter at free safety when the season opened, finished as the 49ers’ interception leader this season with five. He recorded two interceptions Sunday against Cardinals’ No. 4 starter David Blough, a week after an overtime interception set up a winning field goal at the Las Vegas Raiders.

Mired in a 7-6 ballgame, the 49ers got a boost early in the second quarter when Gipson’s first interception set them up at the Cardinals’ 18-yard line and set up Mitchell’s first touchdown for a 14-6 lead.

The 49ers’ third interception this game came from safety George Odum in the fourth quarter.

Warner’s tackle title

Fred Warner finished as the 49ers’ leading tackler for the fifth time in as many seasons. He needed six to surpass Dre Greenlaw, who did not suit up because of a back injury suffered last week.

The 49ers’ linebacker depth took a further hit this game with injuries to Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (neck) and Greenlaw’s replacement, Azeez Al-Shaair (ankle).

Samuel’s return

Deebo Samuel finished with 20 yards on two receptions, giving him 632 yards on 56 receptions with two touchdown catches this season.

Scoreboard

BASKETBALL

NBA

EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division W L Pct GB Boston 28 12 .700 Brooklyn 27 13 .675 1 Philadelphia 24 15 .615 3½ New York 22 18 .550 6 Toronto 17 23 .425 11 Central Division W L Pct GB Milwaukee 25 14 .641 Cleveland 25 15 .625 ½ Indiana 23 18 .561 3 Chicago 19 21 .475 6½ Detroit 11 32 .256 16 Southeast Division W L Pct GB Miami 21 20 .512 Atlanta 18 21 .462 2 Washington 17 23 .425 3½ Orlando 15 25 .375 6 Charlotte 11 30 .275 10 WESTERN CONFERENCE Northwest Division W L Pct GB Denver 26 13 .667 Minnesota 20 21 .488 7 Portland 19 20 .487 7 Utah 20 23 .465 8 Oklahoma City 18 22 .450 8½ Pacific Division W L Pct GB SACRAMENTO 20 18 .526 L.A. Clippers 21 20 .512 ½ Phoenix 20 20 .500 1 GOLDEN STATE 20 20 .500 1 L.A. Lakers 19 21 .475 2 Southwest Division W L Pct GB Memphis 26 13 .667 New Orleans 24 16 .600 2 Dallas 23 18 .561 4 San Antonio 13 27 .325 13 Houston 10 30 .250 16½ Saturday’s Games Orlando 115, GOLDEN STATE 101 L.A. Lakers 136,t SACRAMENTO 134 Boston 121, San Antonio 116 Chicago 126, Utah 118 Dallas 127, New Orleans 117 Sunday’s Games Philadelphia 123, Detroit 111 Toronto 117, Portland 105 Indiana 116, Charlotte 111

Brooklyn 102, Miami 101 Memphis 123, Utah 118 Minnesota 104,

NHL

Anaheim, (N)

at Buffalo,

p.m.

at Ottawa, 4:30 p.m. Seattle at Montreal, 4:30 p.m. Edmonton at L.A. Kings, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday’s Games Arizona at SAN JOSE, 6 p.m. Columbus at Tampa Bay, 4 p.m. Minnesota at N.Y. Rangers, 4 p.m. New Jersey at Carolina, 4 p.m. Seattle at Buffalo, 4 p.m. Vancouver at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m. Winnipeg at Detroit, 4 p.m. Dallas at N.Y. Islanders, 4:30 p.m. Calgary at St. Louis, 5 p.m. Florida at Colorado, 6:30 p.m.

FoxFrom Page B1

won five in a row to move into a three-way tie for 10th in the Western Conference. Thomas Bryant had 29 points and 14 rebounds. Schroder added 27 points while Russell Westbook came off the bench to produce 23 points, five rebounds and 15 assists.

Fox finished with 34 points and nine assists for the Kings (20-18), who squandered another opportunity as heavy favorites at home following recent losses to the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks.

Domantas Sabonis had 25 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists before fouling out with 48.1 seconds remaining. Sabonis recorded his 16th consecutive double-double to break a franchise record held by DeMarcus Cousins, who had 15 in a row from Dec. 31,

Culture

From Page B1

his focuses was to make sure that everyone stayed relaxed no matter what was happening. It was especially important because the Horned Frogs had only four players who had competed in a bowl game.

“Our group has had a little bit of a magical ride,” Dykes said Sunday. “And I think the biggest difference is that it’s our first year. We were still trying to get to know the guys. We’re still trying to get a culture established. I just think at the end of the day that’s the most important thing is what is your culture, because it drives

2013-Jan. 21, 2014. Harrison Barnes scored 18 points, Kevin Huerter scored 17 and Keegan Murray had 16, but Brown wasn’t pleased with the team’s rebounding. Barnes grabbed two rebounds in 36 minutes. Murray went 6 of 8 from the field and 4 of 5 from 3-point range, but he didn’t come up with a single rebound in 29 minutes.

“Harrison has a load of a guy that he’s guarding in LeBron, and LeBron is out on the perimeter,” Brown

the decision a player makes from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed.”

But the lessons and processes took hold and resulted in helping the team rally from 14 points behind in the fourth quarter to defeat Oklahoma State in double overtime, and rally from 18 points behind in the second quarter to defeat Kansas.

Dykes said his most important rally, the one that helped them reach the CFP National Championship game, was one that wasn’t completed: the overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship game. Dykes said had his team not scored 11 points in the final 7:34 to force the extra period, it prob-

said. “We have to get something from Keegan. We can’t have him out there for 30 minutes and get zero rebounds.”

Fox scored 17 points in another electric fourth quarter. He went 5 of 8 from the field and 7 of 7 at the free-throw line, giving the Kings a chance to win another late thriller.

“He stays ready,” Sabonis said. “He knows we need him in crunch time and he can get any shot he wants. He was great again tonight.”

ably wouldn’t have been selected for the playoffs.

“And I think that’s the thing that really gets lost, I think, in so many different ways is the importance of culture,” he said. “People talk about it all the time, but what does that mean? And, so, that was our goal from the beginning is, look, let’s not worry about football. Let’s worry about work ethic. Let’s worry about doing things the right way. Let’s worry about responsibility to each other. Let’s worry about all these kind of intangible things, kind of process-driven things. And then we’ll see when we get to spring football where the football goes.”

Smart pointed to how TCU completed its rally against Baylor as an

The Lakers came in on the second night of a backto-back after beating the Hawks 130-114 on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. There was some uncertainty regarding the status of James, who was listed as questionable due to left ankle soreness, but he was cleared to play along with Westbrook (foot) and Damian Jones (toe). Anthony Davis, who has been out since Dec. 17, was still sidelined with a foot injury.

The Kings were missing Malik Monk, their top reserve, who was considered questionable due to lower left leg soreness. Brown said it was his decision to rest Monk, explaining he is “a little banged up right now.”

The Lakers led by as many as nine while shooting 63.6% in the opening period. The Kings battled back to take a 38-37 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Davion Mitchell provided a spark off the bench, going 3 of 3 from 3-point range for nine points in six minutes.

example of “phenomenal” management. It’s also an example of Dykes and his staff getting the players to focus on “the next play,” which has been their mantra this season. TCU trailed 28-20 when quarterback Max Duggan led the team on an 11-play, 90-yard drive to close its gap to 28-26. The defense forced Baylor to punt after three plays. Duggan went to work again, leading the team on a nine-play, 46-yard drive with no timeouts for a game-winning 40-yard field goal.

“So, for me, that was a coach managing the situation the right way,” Smart said. “So I think both teams have grown and gotten a lot better throughout the season.”

From Page B1

“It’s not fun” missing that much time, Wiggins said.

The Warriors weren’t having much fun either.

Golden State dropped seven of its next nine games without him, losing Stephen Curry to a shoulder injury along the way, before going on a five-game home winning streak that helped bring them back above .500.

Wiggins finally was cleared to come back Saturday against the Orlando Magic. The game ultimately turned out

to be an overall underwhelming game for the defending champs that dropped them to 20-20 on the season.

It’s expected for a player to miss a month to need some time to brush off the cob webs before settling back into a groove. Wiggins said he felt a “step slow,” and it showed. He was restricted to 19 minutes and finished with 12 points on 4 of 12 shooting, going 2-for-7 from distance. While he had three defensive boards, two assists and a steal, Wiggins also committed three turnovers and ended the night with a team-worst minus-22.

Xavier Mascarenas/Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox (5) reacts to a call in the Los Angeles Lakers’ favor during the last moments of game Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.