Daily Republic: Monday, March 20, 2023

A ngelA H Art

KAISER HEALTH NEWS

SACRAMENTO — Sacramento and Solano counties are in a standoff with the state over mental health coverage for a portion of Medicaid patients in those counties – a dispute that threatens to disrupt care for nearly 50,000 low-income residents receiving treatment for severe mental illness.

The Department of Health Care Services, which administers Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program,

Joey Logano earns first win at Ambetter Health 400 B1

Boiled peanuts lets you look at the legume in a new light B2

FAIRFIELD-SUISUN

School trustees change up order of business for meeting agendas

SuSAn HilAnD SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Changes to the order in which Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees conduct meetings drew the ire last week of an employee union leader and a trustee but was later defended by the board president as a way to encourage engagement.

Trustees voted Thursday night to make staff-recommended changes to the order of business at upcoming board meetings.

One of the changes that brought the wrath of several public speakers – including Fairfield Suisun Unified Teachers’ Association President Nancy Dunn – was moving reports for the employee unions and student board member to later in the meeting.

DAily r epublic StAff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

DIXON — A young sailor sat a table, emptied an envelope with scraps of paper, then pieced them all back together so he could reread the letter from home – a seemingly forlorn wont that he repeated until he had folded and unfolded and reread it into tatters.

Another sailer, Elliott Asimov, well known as the author of “Eight Men Out,” took a jeep out to the edges of his existence to scream and holler and exude his pain after having received a Dear John letter, which he tore into tatters never to be read again. His trip into the icy grip of the Aleutian Islands nearly killed him.

says Sacramento and Solano counties must take over managing and providing specialty mental health care for thousands of MediCal patients enrolled in Kaiser Permanente plans. It insists on shifting the responsibility because California’s remaining 56 counties already operate this way. State officials argue the switch would simplify the state’s disjointed mental health system and is needed to implement a larger transformation of

Those stories, along with tales of moonshine made from grape jam, all-night poker games, friendships and pinups, the segregation of Blacks and discrimination of Jews, difficult duty and boredom are compiled in the book “Awaiting the Sun,” authored by Dixon resident Bil Paul.

It is a collection of stories, from the sailors’ perspectives, of life on the Aleutians during World War II.

“One of my favorites, and there are a lot of them, was from Paul Kerrigan,” Paul said.

Kerrigan, a weatherman who would later serve on a submarine to post weather reports for U.S. bombing runs to Japan, had nursed

“By moving reports to the end of agenda, employees are receiving the message from the board as dismissive, disrespectful and not possessing a clear understanding of when an association president is fulfilling our duties as association presidents,” Nunn said. “We are equals of the superintendent of the district but not under supervision of trustees. Putting us beneath the superintendent’s report indicates we are not viewed with the power fitting the position of association presidents. Until shared power is accepted and acknowledged, we will not move forward to create a learning environment all students deserve and positive working environment that all employees deserve.”

Nunn received support from Trustee Ana Petero. “Moving student reports and association reports to

2 Swiss banking giants combine to quell growing global bank crisis

WASHington poSt

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Credit Suisse, the battered Swiss banking giant, has agreed to a takeover by Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS – a move aimed at staving off immediate concerns of a disorderly bankruptcy and stemming panic about global financial turmoil.

UBS has agreed to buy Credit Suisse in an emergency deal that ties up two of Europe’s largest banks, Swiss authorities announced Sunday.

Swiss authorities are planning to speed up the process by circumventing laws that would require a shareholder vote, the Financial Times reported earlier Sunday. The Financial Times also reported that the value of the all-share deal was more than $2 billion, but that figure was not officially confirmed by the Swiss authorities.

A “swift and stabilizing solution was absolutely necessary,” Alain Berset, president of the Swiss Confederation, said in a Sunday afternoon news conference. The UBS deal, he said, was “the best solution for restoring the confidence that has been lacking in financial markets recently.”

See Agendas, Page A7 A7

After 3 years, Covid-19 finally caught me

After more than three years of avoiding it,

I finally got Covid last week. I then promptly shared it with my wife. If you have to get it, now is the best time.

When the NBA decided to cancel the rest of the season in 2020 is when the pandemic started to get real for many of us. After that, the dominoes started to fall and the scope of what we were dealing with sunk in. I had just gone to Winco a couple of days before, but when I saw online that people had lost their minds and were picking store shelves clean, I decided to go back and stock up.

Employees were only letting so many people in the store at a time like they were human freeway metering lights or something. While it was shocking to see so many of the shelves completely bare, one great thing about being a whole foods, plant-based eater is that the overwhelming majority of things that I eat were left completely untouched.

Tofu? What do you want, firm, extra-firm? Al-dente?

Knock yourself out.

That first weekend it was weird, novel and scary. I remember a bunch of companies were offering all kind of freebies to keep us entertained. There were so many that I eschewed them all and started reading actual books again instead of listening to audiobooks – and I have continued to do so.

I have lost friends to Covid and the toll it took and continues to take is very real. The situation in March 2023 is very different. I am blessed that not only have I been vaccinated and boosted, but unlike three years ago, I could easily get a test.

Since I am over 50 and an asthmatic, I sent an email to Kaiser Permanente and within a couple of hours they delivered Paxlovid to my house.

Paxlovid is a drug treatment for mild-tomoderate Covid-19 in adults and pediatric patients with positive test results and who are at high risk for progression to severe Covid-19, including hospitalization or death.

Paxlovid sounds like it could also be the name of C3PO’s angry ex-wife, but that’s a different column.

So I have been chillin’ the past week and trying to get better. It has me feeling reflective rather than funny, which is problematic when writing a humor column, but I think I get a pass.

Many people who knew about me and Beth finally contracting the dreaded virus have offered up prayers for us, which I truly appreciate. That said, this past week I also got a couple of things related to that prayer thing that kinda got my goat. One was a letter addressed to me from someone I didn’t know and when I opened it, it was yet another one of those annoying letters from a local member of a certain religious organization. I won’t mention which one, though some of you may have witnessed this scenario firsthand.

Then I got yet another friend request on Facebook from a stranger who is from another religious organization. I won’t mention which one these young people belong to, but they are probably fans of the Utah Jazz.

Look, I don’t usually talk about controversial topics here beyond whether or not Sammy Hagar should have ever joined Van Halen in the first place, but

I need to break this down. I have heard people say that many wars have been fought in the name of religion. I get it. I know that is true. Awful things have been done in the name of God. At the same time, people of faith have also done some incredibly wonderful things in the name of God. I’m sure there are some, but I can’t think of any atheist organizations off the top of my head, that are there helping when there is a natural disaster, but I can think of several religious ones. So this ain’t about me dissing religion or religious folks. That said, nothing will guarantee that I will never, ever want to have anything to do with your organization than sending me an out-of-the-blue preachy letter or a teenage missionary contacting me on Messenger, making small talk and then delivering the hard sell.

Peace be unto you, but leave me alone, will ya?

I sincerely hope this is the only St. Patrick’s Day I ever have to experience while having Covid. I usually celebrate by listening to traditional Irish music: hard rock band Thin Lizzy. I did, but usually I blast some fun stuff like “The Boys Are Back in Town,” “Cowboy Song,” “Bad Reputation” and others. But having contracted the same virus that ended so many lives, I was more melancholy. A song off of the band’s 1979 album “Black Rose” is called “Got to Give it Up.”

I’ve got to give it up

I’ve got to give it up, that stuff

Tell my mama and tell my pa

That their fine young son didn’t get far

He made it to the end of a bottle

Sitting in a sleazy bar

He tried hard but his spirit broke

He tried until he nearly choked

In the end he lost his battle drinking alcohol

The incredibly talented writer and singer of the song, bass player Phil Lynott, sadly did not give it up and in 1986 at the age of only 36 died in part due to his alcohol and heroin addiction. His music still helps me to heal, though.

Stay safe everyone.

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” and hosts the Channel 26 government access TV show “Local Legends.”

BRIGHT spot

Tony Wade finally came down with Covid-19.

Fairfield-Suisun school board OKs financial update

SuSan HilanD SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield-Suisun School District’s governing board has approved the second interim financial report – a routine update on the state of the district’s finances. The district looks to be able to meet its financial obligations in the coming budget year even with declining student enrollment, according to a staff report.

Amanda Rish, director of Fiscal Services, gave the presentation Thursday night.

“There are three certifications that the district can self certify at,” she said.

“The district is expected to be in the positive certification and be able to . . . meet its financial obligations in current year and two subsequent fiscal years.”

The staff report indicated the district expects unrestricted and restricted fund balances will each

Spring plant sale returns to Suisun Valley

SUISUN VALLEY —

The Solano Resource Conservation District’s annual spring plant sale returns from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

People are invited to join district staff and local partners for a native plant sale at Mangels Vineyards, located at 4529 Suisun Valley Road in rural Fairfield.

They will have a wide selection of California native plants available that are drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly and appropriate for fire-scaping. Local fire safe councils and environmental organizations will be present, and Morningsun Herb Farm will be selling herbs, vegetables and landscape plants.

A free workshop on wildfire safety takes place at 1 and 3 p.m.

Organizers ask that people bring their own box for their new plants. A limited supply of cardboard boxes and trays will be available for use.

Parking and admission for this event is free. Forms of payment accepted for the plant sale include card, cash or check. Beverages will be available to purchase separately from Mangels Vineyards.

For more information on this event, visit solanorcd.org/events, call 707-678-1655, ext. 3 or send an email to info@ solanorcd.org.

Science, engineering fair set in Vallejo

The 2023 Solano County Science and Engineering Fair will be open to community members Thursday in McCormack Hall on the Solano County Fairgrounds in Vallejo.

The event celebrates students’ achievements in science and engineering projects, work that can prove to be pathways into careers.

Solano County students in third through 12th grades were encouraged to enter this competition. Top middle and high school winners will be eligible to enter the California State Science and Engineering Fair in April.

Careers in science, technology, engineering and math grew 18.7% between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“This rapid growth has created a STEM worker shortage in the U.S.,” according to a statement from the Solano County Office of Education. To address this, the Office of Education “is joining widespread efforts to boost interest in STEM among students.”

The event runs from 4 to 5:45 p.m. for the public. The fairgrounds are located at 900 Fairgrounds Drive.

For more information, contact Lilibeth Pinpin, director of Innovative

drop with the general fund balance down an estimated $47.2 million.

The report assumes a 6.56% cost-of-living adjustment in 2022-2023, and an 8.13% COLA in 2023-2024 with an anticipated 4.3% net COLA due to declining enrollment and lower than average attendance, the district reports. A 3.54% COLA is projected in 2024-2025.

The district shows an estimated decrease of 573 in funded average

daily attendance in 2023-2024 and an estimated decrease of 395 in funded average daily attendance in 2024-2025. Also worked into the numbers is the cost of employee agreements for 2023-2024.

A minimum reserve is estimated to be at $11.2 million. Rish said the district has $15.2 million already set aside in the Special Reserve Fund.

“The balance consists of economic uncertainty

and textbook commitment,” she said. “This does not even cover one month of payroll.”

Rish said she was happy to report the projected budget reflects a a positive cash flow balance at end of the fiscal year. Borrowing won’t be necessary but the district has options if needed.

The district could borrow from another internal fund or from the Solano County treasurer under the provisions of a

Constitutional Advance of Anticipated Tax Revenue, she said.

The governor will reveal his revised 2023-2024 state budget in May. District staff will review the fallout from the May budget revision and will make a presentation June 15 on the final budget draft for the school year that begins July 1. District staff plan to provide the final draft for adoption at the June 22 board meeting.

Programs and Student Success, at lpinpin@solanocoe.net or 707-399-4439.

Solano Home and Garden Show returns

The Solano County Home & Garden Show is scheduled Saturday and Sunday at the Dixon May Fair site. Meet home improvement specialists, and arts and craft vendors with custom jewelry, pens, baskets, soaps, Tupperware, Scentsy, furniture, personal defense, yard décor and more in one location during the two-day event. Also learn about bees at Mike & Niki’s Honey Company booth.

“Enjoy a unique shopping experience with local artisans. See the variety of arts and crafts with custom gifts and home decor items. Our home improvement specialists offer a wide range of products and services on upgrades, repairs for heating and air, solar, kitchen and bathroom, plaster, doors and windows, screen, flooring, alarms, electrical and more,” organizers said.

The show runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. General admission is $8, with a discount coupon available online. Tickets are $5 for seniors and military personnel, and children 12 or younger get in free.

The fairgrounds are located at 655 S. First St.

For more information, go to www. solanohomeshow.com.

State senator sets virtual meeting on AI

A virtual meeting on the “rapid emergence of artificial intelligence” is scheduled Tuesday.

State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, is hosting the event with panelists Alastair Mactaggart, privacy advocate who helped shepherd into law the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018; Jan Leike, alignment team leader, Open AI, creators of ChatGPT; Irina Raicu, internet ethics director at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics; and Peter Lee, Martin Luther King Jr. professor of law and director, Center for Innovation, Law and Society at UC Davis School of Law.

Dodd and the panelists will take questions via email and phone. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Audio access will be available at ksvy.org. Video streams will be available

See Week, Page A8

Allensworth residents walk past a levee they worked to fortify instead of waiting for government agencies to prevent floodwaters from inundating their community. The levee is almost fully repaired but flooding is still a concern.

ALLENSWORTH —

When it rained for days and floodwaters poured onto roads, the people of Allensworth grabbed shovels and revved up tractors. The makeshift barriers they built with sandbags, gravel and loose sand kept the water back.

Now, the town of nearly 600 people northwest of Bakersfield faces another threat – a broken levee, along with yet another storm expected to hit in a few days.

On Saturday morning, the residents were back at work, shoveling sand onto a 3-foot high berm.

Allensworth, the state’s first town to be founded by Black Americans, is now a predominantly Latino community.

Some residents work on nearby farms, planting and harvesting almonds, pistachios, grapes and pomegranates.

Local leaders say they need help from county, state and local officials to protect their town.

“It is becoming a major crisis for our community,” said Kayode Kadara, 69, who has been working with neighbors to defend against the floodwaters. “We have a lot of concerned people in this community. And we all rally to help each other.”

The low-lying unincorporated community lies in the Tulare Lake watershed, which was drained

for agriculture in the early 1900s. The latest storms have sent floodwater coursing through canals and ditches and flowing across farmland toward the old lake bottom.

On Saturday, a helicopter flew over the broken levee and was dropping loads of sand to plug it, while a crew was using machinery to help close the leak, said Jack Mitchell, head of the Deer Creek Flood Control District.

He said the levee was almost fully repaired but that flooding was still a huge concern.

Mitchell said he believes the levee breach was caused by someone intentionally cutting through the earthen barrier with machinery.

“They did it with a backhoe with a big skiploader. We tracked it down,” Mitchell said. “We know who’s done it.”

Mitchell said he hopes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or other authorities will come in to “take charge” and help the area “start getting rid of this floodwater.”

“We need some help from higher up because out of another creek, the water is just getting there, and it’s going to hit us hard,” he said.

Some landowners have been trying to keep floodwaters off their acreage, Mitchell said, including one that used a large piece of equipment to block a channel.

“They just don’t want

to give up any ground, but they’d rather flood everywhere except where it’s supposed to go,” Mitchell said.

More than a dozen residents stood talking beside a runoff-swollen ditch. Beside them was a gravel berm they had scrambled to build two days before near the entrance to Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

In the distance, a red emergency helicopter flew back and forth, apparently dropping loads of sand to repair the broken levee.

The churning brown water had sunk a few feet below the berm, but residents said they are worried they might have to evacuate when the next surge of floodwater comes. They said a couple of families have already packed up and left lowlying homes.

Kadara’s son, Tekoah, said more than 100 residents met at the elementary school Friday night to discuss plans for preventing disaster.

“We’re just talking about how we can save our community, because nobody is coming to help us,” said Kadara, 41, executive director of the Allensworth Community Development Corp.

“We need temporary armoring right now,” Kadara said. “We need to stop the water from coming into the town.”

Floodwaters from the White River have been coursing past the town, and Kadara said people are also concerned about water spilling from Lake Success. When residents saw water surging toward the community on Thursday, they said, they used sandbags, rocks and plywood to plug the flow through two culverts along Highway 43 beside the BNSF train tracks.

“We actually did a good job of temporarily solving a problem. But for whatever reason, the railroad unblocked it,” Kadara said.

Kayode Kadara said BNSF Railway sent contractors who came with machinery and removed the sandbags and plywood. He said he’s concerned that the community’s residents haven’t gotten the help they need to protect themselves.

“They wouldn’t allow this water to come into a white town,” Kadara said, standing beside the flood-swollen ditch, where water flowed through the culvert under the road.

Residents said that when they were initially working to plug the culvert, they had taken some rocks that were piled beside the railroad tracks, but a crew told them to stop. So they brought their

See Water, Page A8

‘We need to stop the water’ A California town’s frantic fight to save itself

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Opinion

California’s gig worker battle takes new turn after court ruling

The seemingly perpetual political and legal battle over whether gig workers for Uber, Lyft, Doordash and services are contractors or employees took another turn last week and may go full circle – back to the state Supreme Court and possibly a second trip through the Legislature.

A state appellate court upheld all but one section of Proposition 22, a 2020 ballot measure sponsored by Uber and other companies to exempt its drivers from Assembly Bill 5, a 2019 law that declared which categories of workers could be contractors and which must be payroll employees.

Dan Walters

The legislation was sought by labor unions to implement a 2018 state Supreme Court ruling that stemmed from a 2004 decision by Dynamex Operations West, a package delivery service, to convert its drivers from employees to contractors.

Two drivers sued, contending that the conversion violated state labor law. After preliminary skirmishing in lower courts, the issue wound up in the California Supreme Court. It declared that Dynamex’s drivers were improperly converted to contractors and established a three-factor test to determine whether a worker in any industry must be a payroll employee or could be a contractor.

It was a huge win for California’s labor unions, which view contractor status as a way for employers to avoid union organization of their workers or provide benefits such as health insurance and workers’ compensation. Unions quickly urged the Legislature to codify the ruling and narrowly specify categories of workers that could be contractors.

Lorena Gonzalez, a labor leader and former Democratic member of the Assembly, carried AB 5, which provided only a few exemptions from employee status, such as hairdressers and real estate agents. She now heads the California Labor Federation.

After Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 5, the affected companies launched an initiative to exempt their drivers and pledged tens of millions of dollars to qualify and pass it. Ultimately they spent more than $200 million on Proposition 22, contending that their contractor systems provided drivers with flexibility and they would receive some employee-like protections and benefits.

The labor movement, oddly, did not mount an equally strong campaign against the measure, spending less than $20 million, and voters approved it by a 3-2 margin. Its approval, however, merely shifted the issue back to the courts in a lawsuit that challenged Proposition 22’s constitutionality.

An Alameda County judge invalidated the measure but last week a three-member appellate court panel voted 2-1 to uphold all but one piece, which probably will mean a trip back to the state Supreme Court and possibly the Legislature.

If the Supreme Court agrees with the appellate ruling, the transportation services could continue classifying their drivers as contractors. However, the one section of Proposition 22 tossed out by the appellate judges, which was aimed at making it almost impossible for the Legislature to amend its provisions, would open the door to another legislative clash. It would allow the Legislature to decree that contract drivers could, if they wish, form unions to bargain with the companies.

It’s dead certain that unions will seek such legislation if the Supreme Court ratifies the appellate court ruling.

“We are grateful that the California Court of Appeal has affirmed that companies like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Instacart can’t keep drivers from joining together in a union through their deceptive ballot measure,” Mike Robinson, a contract driver who is one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said in a statement.

And if the Legislature acts, what then? Would there be another ballot measure to overturn that law as well? Given the issue’s 19-year history, one cannot discount that possibility.

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

Democracy in America had a close brush with death. I think – think –we will survive.

Readers of this column will recall how depressed I became before the 2022 election. I predicted that the Republicans would retake the Senate and hold the House. With that power, all legislation would stop, problems would fester and it all would be blamed on President Joe Biden. Donald Trump would return and crush the Constitution.

I was wrong for two reasons. President Biden campaigned by bluntly calling it out: we are facing “semi-fascism” with the MAGA Republican movement, referring to the rejection of the 2020 election by large numbers of Republicans, both elected and voters.

Not one claim of voter fraud had been verified by responsible authorities.

So the takeaway was: “We don’t care if a Democrat wins, we won’t accept it.” Hence, “fascist.” It was “semi” because this soft variety of American fascism wasn’t coming with foreign conquest, a usual component of fascism.

Second reason: Fascism usually comes with some policy of population increase. This one wasn’t as harsh as the Nazi admonition of, “German women! Have more sons to die in the wars of the Fatherland” (yes, they really said that!). Our softer fascism took the form of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, infuriating many women who turned away from the Republicans.

Crazy Republican candidates helped the return to sanity. (Foreign

THE RIGHT STUFF

People who expect politicians to do for them often find that things are done to them. The Founders built a government based on having an engaged citizenry and responsive elected and appointed officials. Bad things happen, on a national scale, when the ruling body politic works for themselves and not for we the people.

Under the right conditions, Russia in 1917, Germany in 1932 and China in 1949, all demonstrated a duped populace. Then we have the 2020 election where the FBI’s hiding of Hunter Biden’s laptop from the voters clearly skewed the election results. One Poll showed 72% of voters believe this and another poll found 19% of Joe Biden voters reported they would have voted for Trump if known. It only takes one person, or some sort of star chamber of elected and appointed officials with real power, giving bad orders and hiding the truth and things can happen that shouldn’t.

From 1972 on we have had increasing controversy and concern over governance emanating from our two traditionally dominant political parties. Everything from hiding criminal acts with Richard Nixon, to personal sexual peccadilloes leading to impeachment with Bill Clinton, to increased lies over personal medical insurance with Barack Obama, to false allegations leading to impeachment with Donald Trump.

Personally, I’m fed-up with the socalled Democratic Party, which I have

intervention was blocked, too.)

Then came the revelations from the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit. Fox News turns out to be simply a propaganda organ of the Republican Party. They lied to defend Trump’s Big Lie.

Juicier revelations might come when the actual case opens. I am now convinced that two huge takeaways will make it into the history books.

No. 1. American democracy should survive this brush with death. The determined, relentless 40-year conservative drive to dominate or even destroy American democracy and turn back the New Deal will be defeated. This long guerrilla war began with William Powell’s 1971 “Memo” to the national Chamber of Commerce calling for an action plan to defend the free enterprise system and protect conservative power and wealth. It was boosted by the Reagan Revolution, energized by Newt Gingrich and Fox News, and then morphed into the Trump nightmare ending with the Jan. 6 violent coup attempt.

War? Yes. Please note how the movement kept getting worse and worse. Trump was defeated in 2020, but the fury only increased. The coup was defeated but Republicans only became more radical. More MAGA voices shouted threats in the 2022 election and after, including a call for a “national divorce.”

The assault on American democracy only was stopped in the 2022 election when middle of the roaders glimpsed what was really happening. Now House Republicans are threatening

again to crash the economy via the debt ceiling.

The main propaganda theme of this revolution has now been exposed. The lie about a “deep state” that was working against democracy has been shattered.

In true propaganda style, Fox isn’t covering the Dominion lawsuit. They need to continue to pretend they’re honest news.

But the jig’s up. The boil has been lanced and the infection will ooze out over the next few years, although the seditious bulge in the proverbial national boa constrictor will continue to move through the system.

Historic issue No. 2. Perhaps the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever seen has been badly damaged. This system is more sophisticated than the Nazi, Italian or Japanese efforts before World War II.

It is slicker than Communist propaganda in the old USSR.

Led by Fox and copied by imitators such as Newsmax, One America, Breitbart, Veritas, countless radio stations across the nation and hundreds of blogs and websites, it was (and still is) an evil wonder to behold.

For the first time in history, we were exposed to a 24/7 onslaught of fiction, distortion and sedition. So expert were the lies, that it gained a fanatic 40% following. It’s a wonder we survived. Democracy won.

And Abe Lincoln was right. You cannot fool all the people all the time. Jack Batson is a former member of the Fairfield City Council and a current member of the Solano County Planning Commission. Reach him by email at jsbatson@prodigy.net.

1

appropriately renamed, to the annoyance of some, the Democrat Socialist Progressive Peoples Party. I am equally fed up with Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). Here are two examples of why I accuse both of them for failing due diligence, which leads to an uninformed public, just like the 2020 election.

In a complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center with the U.S. Department of Education, we learned $86 million came to the University of Pennsylvania from China, $22 million of which was reported as anonymous.

A confirmation hearing was held Jan. 18, 2021. for President Biden’s pick for secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. Mr. Blinken was the managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement from 2017 to 2019. Congress learned during vetting that he accepted the aforementioned $22 million in donations from China to support the Penn Biden Center. Money is often given to buy influence yet the Democratic Party majority and the minority RINOs refused to pursue the information. All Democratic Party senators and 28 RINOs approved Blinken’s nomination, failing to fully inform the American people.

Since Mr. Blinken’s departure, an additional $14 million was received by UPenn, which operates the Penn Biden Center, all from anonymous donors in China during the Biden presidency. By law, institutions like UPenn,

must disclose the identities of donors making gifts of more than $250,000. They didn’t. Amy Gutmann, president of UPenn, who was nominated to be ambassador to Germany, when asked about the money, replied, “Penn only got $86 million in donations and contracts from China since 2014.” When pressed, she said, “China’s contributions do not represent a large portion of donations given to Penn . . . the university gets one gift every few minutes” – outrageous! Apparently, nothing to see here, folks. What other universities accepted Chinese Communist Party money, and how much?

Does anyone with common sense believe all this money is not from the Chinese Communist Party ? Frankly, we needed answers when the first penny passed into UPenn’s purse, as money buys influence. Sen. Jim Risch (R), Idaho, remarked before the vote on Gutmann are most illuminating, “China has given $6.5 billion to American universities . . . this money has malignant influence.”

So, do we think the new President of UPenn, Elizabeth Magill, will investigate this and will we get answers? Probably not. I ask you to think and engage. What do you suppose the Chinese Communist Party got for its money? Access to be sure, but to whom and for what?

Jim McCully is a former member of the Solano County Republican Central Committee, Vacaville resident and former Northwest regional vice chairman of the California Republican Party.

As always, follow the money: Part

Jig is up for GOP; Democracy won

Jim McCully

Jack Batson

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Eminem lands another 1 billion stream hit on Spotify, thanks to TikTok

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

Eminem has joined Spotify’s Billions Club yet again, thanks to an assist from a century-old lullaby and TikTok.

The Detroit rapper’s “Mockingbird” is his latest single to rack up 1 billion plays on the streaming service, a milestone the song passed Thursday. It’s Eminem’s seventh song to cross the digital threshold.

The midtempo 2004 track, from Eminem’s fifth studio album “Encore,” is built around a nursery rhyme loop from “Hush, Little Baby” and finds Em addressing his daughter Hailie Jade and his niece, Alaina.

The song exploded in popularity in the last six

months, thanks to a viral trend on TikTok. According to the social network, videos tagged #mockingbird have been viewed 1.5 billion times, while videos tagged #mockingbirdeminem have tallied an additional 380 million views.

“Mockingbird” joins “Godzilla,” which crossed 1 billion streams in October, as well as “The Real Slim Shady” and “Love the Way You Lie,” which both hit the 1 billion mark in 2022. Em’s “Lose Yourself,” “’Till I Collapse” and “Without Me” had previously entered the Billions Club; his top song on the service is currently “Lose Yourself,” with 1.6 billion streams.

Pickles Brian Crane

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Candorville Darrin Bell

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú

Columns&Games

My doctor’s disappearance without a message hurt my feelings

Dear Annie: The doctor I have gone to for years recently took a five-month medical leave of absence. His office would not tell me anything, which I understand. I had been extremely distraught not knowing if he was all right. There was even gossip that he had passed away.

Turned out he had pneumonia. He once told me that if I ever moved out of state, we could still communicate and be long-distance friends. It is for that reason that I thought I would get some message from him saying he would return and would be OK. But I received nothing from him. My feelings are hurt. I see him next week. What do you think? — Hurt Patient

Dear Hurt: I think that you should celebrate the fact that your doctor is doing better and feeling well enough to go back to work. If you feel that he is your friend and your doctor, then be a friend to him and allow him to take the space and time he needed to heal from pneumonia. His not responding to you about his absence didn’t have anything to do with you and everything to do with him and his trying to

get better. Please cut him some slack and be grateful that he made a full recovery.

Dear Annie: I am estranged from my son, his ex-wife and my grandchildren. I still have occasional contact with the other grandparents.

I have been wanting to know what, if anything, can be done about a wrongful death or elder abuse charge against my son. His actions kept my husband and me apart deliberately, believing he’d inherit his money. My husband left no will. There was real estate and cash in his account. His brother claimed next of kin status and took all cash and property.

I understand the statute of limitations has passed in order to file wrongful death charges against my son. It’s the reason for the estrangement.

I have been awarded my husband’s Social Security benefits. His brothers have used legal action to prevent any contact between them and me. But I want to tell them of my son’s actions and how those actions led to their brother’s untimely death.

I have tried to discuss this subject with an attorney. Once

Horoscopes

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

Yesterday needn’t take up too much of today. You handle things when they happen, as completely as possible. This is how you keep your days fresh and clean. Every morning is a fresh start.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20).

There’s a roadblock ahead. Take note, but don’t agonize about it. What’s inside you is bigger than what’s ahead of you. Assess the situation so you can settle into strategizing. That’s the fun part.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21).

Worry is like salt. You only need a little to improve the dish of your day. A dash will move you to action. Create a list of possible solutions. You’ll be glad you were smart enough to let a little worry in.

CANCER (June 22-July 22).

It’s time to question your assumptions again. This is a bit of a mind game, and it will help to get the opinion of an outside observer or, even better, advice from several diverse sources.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You can be on your own side and still want to change. To wish for your own growth isn’t an act of self-rejection unless you spin it that way. You’ll evolve faster when you accept yourself and build on what you already love.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Your success secret is objec-

by Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

Welcome to your year of childhood dreams come true. When you were small, you had ideas about who you wanted to be. Even though you outgrew some of them, you’ll embody those notions in surprising and delightful ways. More highlights: You’ll follow a marvelous inspiration to a different part of the world; you’ll invest well and continue the trend; and love will fill your days. Capricorn and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 9, 20, 1, 14 and 18.

tivity. Refrain from judgment.

If you can listen objectively to everything, including your own thoughts, you’ll find answers. You’ll refine a technique or improve the available tools.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

Your intellect will get a vigorous and joyous workout today as a strong desire to learn and explore new ideas meets your willingness to ask questions. New insights and discoveries abound.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

You’ll push yourself. Because you work harder to improve, you will. You may go backward before you go forward again,

he learned that I was divorced, he stopped the interview and said that I had no case. This attorney knew nothing about the actions my son took while my husband was alive.

Is there anything I can do? I would like to remain in contact with the other grandparents in order to keep up with the grandchildren. — Estranged

Dear Estranged: What you can do is seek the opinion of another lawyer. But how about shifting your focus away from the money and toward repairing the relationship between you and your grandchildren? Your letter is confusing because you said you are receiving your husband’s Social Security benefits but later you said you were divorced. Your son and grandchildren are the only family you have left, and instead of trying to repair any relationships, you are trying to fight and blame them. Ask yourself where you want to put your time, money and energy. Getting closer to your grandchildren might bring you more joy and happiness in the long run than getting closer to another lawyer and trying to prove something in court.

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

but by this time next month you’ll have made a notable difference.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). People will love to hear the thinking behind your plans, especially when you put it into a short, punchy story. Speed up the exposition, leave out the boring details and expand on the fun bits.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). You have that elusive quality called grit. You don’t see it because it’s so much a part of you; you assume it comes with your human DNA. Not necessarily. Your powers of perseverance are remarkable.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18). Do what you love for long enough to be in a good mood over it. Joy is contagious and touches every part of your life as well as the lives of others. When you’re having fun being you, relationships improve.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). It’s not enough just to survive. What about excitement, connection and fun? What about glamour, art, sportsmanship, intellectual prowess? What about adventure? Pick the category that most appeals and focus your whole being there for a few hours.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

Crossword by Phillip Alder

Bridge

In today’s deal, how should the play go in four spades by South?

Note in the auction South’s advance of two spades over his partner’s takeout double. That showed 9-11 points. Inexperienced players bid one spade regardless of point-count. The advancer, the doubler’s partner, must show not only suit preference but also hand strength in three brackets: 0-8, 9-11 and 12-plus.

If the defenders are on the ball, they can defeat this contract – how?

West leads the diamond ace, and East must signal with his queen: top of touching honors when he cannot win the trick because someone, an opponent or partner, has already played a higher card than his best in that suit.

WHEN YOU CANNOT WIN THE TRICK

I can finally announce the winner of my Christmas Competition. A perfect entry, even agreeing with me on all of the subsidiary questions, came from John Harvey of Mount Hope, Ontario.

Just behind was Ben Hawn of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Congratulations! Both are past winners.

Sudoku

When East plays the diamond queen, it shows either a singleton (which is highly unlikely here) or the queen and the jack. So, at trick two, West shifts to his singleton heart. Then, he takes the first (or second) round of trumps and underleads his diamond king. East wins with the jack and gives West a heart ruff for the setting trick. Cool! Always signal with an honor card if at all possible because partner will see it. He is less likely to notice your spot cards – but if he does, keep him as your partner!

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

by Wayne Gould

3/20/23

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

Difficulty level: BRONZE

Solution to 3/18/23:

Annie Lane

Dear Annie

Putin makes surprise visit to occupied Mariupol

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise trip to occupied Mariupol, the Ukrainian city largely destroyed in a monthslong Russian siege, according to a Kremlin statement and video released on state television.

The highly classified visit was Putin’s first to one of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed in September to have annexed as part of

Crisis

From Page One

Sunday afternoon, Trea sury Secretary Janet

L. Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome

H. Powell said that they “welcome” the announcement.

“The capital and liquidity positions of the U.S. banking system are strong, and the U.S. financial system is resilient,” Yellen and Powell wrote. “We have been in close contact with our international counterparts to support their implementation.”

Credit Suisse and UBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The takeover caps more than a week of speculation over the Swiss giant’s fate amid growing fears of a global financial crisis, after two U.S. regional banks suddenly failed earlier this month. Although U.S. regulators have taken sweeping steps, including backstopping deposits at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank of New York, those measures have done little to assuage fears of a cascading banking crisis. Those concerns went global this week, after Credit Suisse warned of “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting.

Agendas

From Page One

the end says we don’t care about students or organization – we will move you to the back,” Petero said. “We don’t care if we have a meeting at 10 o’clock at night that keeps students here to 10 o’clock.”

The board did not engage in a debate over the issue but voted to accept the changes to the governing handbook. Going forward. the meetings will be organized as follows:

n Closed Session: Confidential items as posted on the agenda.

n Communication/ Information: Information that does not require board action and superintendent reports.

n Consent: These items are routine items, regularly approved by the board.

n Action items: Board approval is requested for these items.

n Information: These items are presented as information and will return for action on a future board agenda.

n Reports: Student board member report and association reports.

n Written Board Member Reports: Written

its invasion launched in February 2022. Ukrainian officials decried Putin’s visit, made under the cover of darkness.

The trip, which the Kremlin on Sunday said hadn’t been planned in advance, came after the Russian leader on Friday was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for alleged “war crimes.”

Putin’s stops in Mariupol and later in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don followed his

unannounced appearance in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, on Saturday.

The visit to Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in southern Donetsk province, came almost a year to the day after a Kremlin strike on a drama theater there allegedly killed hundreds of civilians taking shelter.

Amnesty International, in an investigation published in June, labeled the March 16, 2022, strike

Stories

From Page One

an eagle back to health and kept it in his quanta hut on Attu. It attracted a lot of attention, including from a Navy chief that liked to tease the bird. That is, until the eagle had had enough, and would attack the chief when he entered the hut.

“a clear war crime” by Russian forces, saying the theater “was clearly recognizable as a civilian object, perhaps more so than any other location in the city.”

Putin arrived and departed Mariupol by helicopter, according to video the Kremlin released on state television. Putin reviewed reconstruction and restoration work, but didn’t meet with regional officials who would typically accompany him.

In the 40-minute video

the Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor on June 3-4, 1942. As he reached the foxhole, a white sailor would not share the space. And later, during a similar raid, the Black sailor refused the offer to share the foxhole with a white man.

And Asimov retells the story of being berated by his commanding officer because he was Jewish.

Putin is shown driving at night in a black SUV, maneuvering through concrete blocks on the road and even once stopping at a red light, which is highly unusual for a state leader’s driving protocol.

“As befits a thief, Putin visited Ukrainian Mariupol, under the cover of night,” Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Twitter.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential aide, tweeted that Putin’s visit to a city

“banzai charge.”

The Battle of Attu has become known in some circles as the “The Forgotten Battle.” Kiska was retaken without a shot fired as the Japanese had left prior to the U.S. invasion force arriving there for the campaign-ending battle, Operation Cottage, on Aug. 15, 1943. Still, Allied forces sustained 313 casualties largely due to Japanese landmines and booby traps.

where so many had died was “cynical” and that “the criminal always returns to the crime scene.”

Putin visited a newly built apartment block, where he stood in a playground surrounded by bodyguards while an official showed him photographs of reconstruction works. Later, Putin was shown meeting with local people who told him how grateful they were for Russia’s “victory.”

10 months.” Working personnel matters, the only time Paul came close to a combat experience was during a trip in a C-130 over a hot zone.

After his hitch was up, he traveled around Southeast Asia for three months before returning to California.

On Thursday, the bank received $53.7 billion in emergency funds from Switzerland’s central bank, but it wasn’t enough to restore confidence in the bank’s viability. Shares of Credit Suisse have tumbled more than 20% in the past week, and more than 35% this year.

The past week has raised new questions on what it will take to avert another crisis. On Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Congress to lift the federal insurance cap for bank deposits above $250,000. She also urged lawmakers to repeal a provision of the 2018 law that had loosened restrictions on banks with $50 billion or more in assets, saying the latest tumult in the financial system underscored her belief that the Fed has fallen short on its core duties.

reports submitted by board members.

n Board Subcommittee Reports: Reports pertaining to subcommittees.

Board President David Isom, in a telephone interview Friday, said the goal of moving the Fairfield Suisun Unified Teachers Association report along with other reports to the end of the meeting was to give them more time to talk.

“They have had to speak under public comments, which gives them only 3 minutes to talk,” Isom said. “That really doesn’t give them time to speak.”

Organization of the agenda over the years has changed several times. Isom said when he was president of the board before this term, the various association reports were at the end of the meetings.

“Many school districts do the union leadership reports at the end of the meeting,” he said. “We just want to give them time to be heard and speak.”

Isom said he hopes this will help relations between the board and unions.

“The board values what they have to say,” Isom said. Trustees approved the changes on a 5-2 vote, with Petero and Trustee Jack Flynn dissenting.

“He was wearing a leather jacket, but the talons went right through the leather,” Paul said.

But Kerrigan also told stories of his time on the sub and surviving life-rattling depth charge attacks and other “close scrapes,” as Paul described them.

Paul, 79, has written six other books, but this was his first in the military genre – the interest sparked by another Aleutian veteran, his father, Lt. Harry Paul Jr., who served as the postmaster, but also handled coded and uncoded messages.

“He probably went up there about midway to when the military had taken over,” Paul said about his father, who did not speak a great deal about his military experiences.

One story in the book tells of a Black sailer running for safety when

Health

From Page One

Medi-Cal, an initiative known as CalAIM.

State health officials gave counties until March 15 to accept Kaiser Permanente patients, so California can properly transfer their specialty mental health care to counties by July 1. But the two counties are rebuffing the transfer, arguing that without more funding they can’t adequately care for a major influx of MediCal patients with severe mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Medi-Cal officials, meanwhile, are threatening steep penalties or potentially terminating mental health contracts with those counties.

Local officials warn that if the state follows through with its plan, about 39,000 patients in Sacramento County and about 8,000 in Solano County could see their care disrupted and, for instance, may be forced to find a new psychiatrist.

“For someone who has schizophrenia or another serious mental health disorder, it has taken a long time to build a trusted relationship with their provider, and now they are going to see that care disrupted or have to find a different provider,” said Debbie Vaughn, assistant county administrator for Solano County. “There will be risks of people going into crisis.”

Ryan Quist, director of behavioral health services for Sacramento County, said the counties need not only more funding, but also more time to transfer the patients’ care. “The state is playing chicken with their lives,” he said.

Under state law, counties are responsible for administering and deliv-

The book also observes the Aleutian Islands campaign, a series of mostly unknown battles for control of some 300 volcanic islands off the coast of Alaska that Gen. Billy Mitchell said about in 1935, “I believe that in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. I think it is the most important strategic place in the world.”

They sit just 750 miles from the closest military base in Japan, and just 55 miles at the narrowest point to Russia. Shipping lanes could be controlled from the location. The Aleutian Campaign started June 3, 1942. Japan would occupy Attu and Kiska for about a year when American and Canadian forces recaptured Attu. The battle began May 11, 1943, and ended May 29 with fierce hand-to-hand combat and Japan’s desperate

ering specialty care to Medi-Cal patients with severe mental illness. Medi-Cal managed-care insurers are responsible for providing treatment for mild or moderate mental health conditions, such as anxiety or lowlevel depression.

But under a decadesold arrangement between the state and the counties of Sacramento and Solano, California has been paying Kaiser Permanente to provide all mental health care for the health care giant’s Medi-Cal enrollees. Now the state is dissolving that arrangement, forcing roughly 7,000 specialty mental health patients in those two counties to move out of Kaiser Permanente and into county-run mental health plans.

State officials argue that the two counties are legally obligated to provide care for MediCal patients with severe mental illness and that county behavioral health agencies would be the ones putting patients in danger if the counties continue refusing the shift. MediCal patients enrolled in health plans other than Kaiser Permanente get their specialized mental health care directly from counties.

“Sacramento and Solano counties’ failure to engage in this process places Medi-Cal members at risk of losing access to critical Medi-Cal entitlement services,” said Tony Cava, a spokesperson for the Department of Health Care Services. “DHCS will have no choice but to take action if the counties continue to refuse to fulfill their obligations.”

The state is considering sanctions or terminating the counties’ contracts, but Cava said that “contract termination is not DHCS’ preferred approach.” He declined to elaborate, adding only that the agency would

Paul was born in Wisconsin and came out to California in 1963 to attend the San Francisco Art Institute.

“I didn’t have enough experience with art to take advantage of what they offered, and I became rather rebellious,” Paul said.

“I was kind of involved in underground newspapers in the ’60s – mostly photography,” said Paul, who said extra photographs he had would eventually make their way into a book.

Figuring he would soon be drafted, Paul chose to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1964 with the idea of being stationed in Europe.

“They kept their promise and sent me to Germany,” Paul said. “But it wasn’t a three-year commitment in Germany and they ended up sending me to Vietnam. I was there

“identify solutions to continue coverage” for Kaiser Permanente patients.

He said transferring patients to the counties will provide “a more consistent and seamless health system by reducing complexity and increasing flexibility.”

Counties currently receive a portion of state sales tax revenue and vehicle license fees to fund specialty mental health care, but under the agreement in Sacramento and Solano, the state has been paying Kaiser Permanente from its general fund to serve a portion of the insurer’s overall MediCal enrollees’ mental health needs.

Under the shift, California would stop distributing general-fund money to the counties. Instead, counties would receive a greater share of existing sales tax and vehicle license fee revenues set aside by a 2011 arrangement. But Kaiser Permanente’s specialty mental health patients, the counties argue, were not under their purview at the time that agreement was reached, underscoring their legal argument that the state should cover the costs of their care.

The state is offering an additional $11.6 million a year to Sacramento and $7.7 million a year to Solano, which would draw down additional federal funding. That money would be siphoned from revenue other counties rely on for behavioral health treatment.

“The insult to injury is this takes money from other counties,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, “and across California we’re seeing a greater demand for services, especially after the pandemic.”

Sacramento County wants $36 million more each year to cover a 16%

“So I wrote this book with that background,” said Paul, who chose to spell his first name with a single “L,” and spent 27 years in public and community relations with the U.S. Postal Service. He said there was a great deal of material about Aleutian sailers, and easily accessible on the internet. Still, he conducted a number of interviews as well, weaving the stories into an intimate look at the experience. In all, it took five years to complete the 210page project. It is published by Schiffer and available online with Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other outlets.

Paul is starting a new project with the working title, “What is it About the Speed of Light,” a book on physics.

Paul and his wife, Lorraine, have lived in Dixon for 14 years. They have three children and five grandchildren.

increase in patients, or 4,836 people. Solano County seeks nearly $17 million more each year for increasing its load by 50%, or 2,091 patients. Behavioral health officials say counties are also struggling to recruit and retain mental health professionals willing to serve Medi-Cal patients.

“Our system is already bursting at the seams,” said Le Ondra Clark Harvey, CEO of the California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies, which represents local mental health providers.

State officials believe that both counties have an adequate number of mental health providers, with the small exception of Sacramento County’s need for two to three additional psychiatrists to serve kids.

Kaiser Permanente told KHN that it did not ask to move patients out of its network of care and that it told the state it wanted to continue serving them. Yet it ultimately agreed to transfer care to the counties.

“While we had expressed our preference to continue to provide specialty care to this vulnerable population,” said spokesperson Gerri Ginsburg, “we respect the state’s long-term objectives.”

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KHN(Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Alexey Novikov/Dreamstime/ TNS file (2018) A Credit Suisse building in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2018.

In brief

Police: 4 shot in Chicago restaurant

CHICAGO — Chicago

Police responded to a shooting at a South Shore restaurant where three men and one woman were shot Saturday night.

According to the police’s preliminary investigation, three armed men exited a vehicle, walked up to the restaurant and opened fire from outside around 9 p.m. Police were seen outside of Kennedy Fish & Chicken at 2425 E. 72nd St. Police said the victims were listed in good condition, and no one is in custody for the shooting.

— Tribune Content Agency

Week

From Page A3

US lawmakers resume globe trotting paid by special interests

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

WASHINGTON —

Members of Congress and their staffers rebounded from pandemic travel anxiety in 2022, accepting more than $6.6 million worth of airline tickets, hotel rooms and meals paid for by special interest groups.

The total of 1,785 trips that were paid for by outside organizations last year was up from 829 trips in 2021, and 321 in 2020, when travel was limited by coronavirus restrictions, according to a database of disclosures compiled by the nonpartisan data service LegiStorm LLC. Destinations included more than 40 foreign countries, including Israel, Spain and Japan, as well as U.S. cities such as Las Vegas, New Orleans and Miami.

Picking up the tab for lawmakers and members of their staffs were some of the most active lobbying groups in Washington, like the Motion Picture Association Inc., the American Gaming Association, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Some of the lawmakers took spouses and other family members, also free-of-cost, on the excursions. Kevin McCarthy, now the House speaker, brought his mother along on an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel.

“Privately sponsored travel for members of Congress is one of the most effective tools of influencepeddling by businesses

From Page A3

own sandbags and plywood to erect the barriers.

Lena Kent, a spokesperson for BNSF, said that the residents had come onto railroad property and that their actions had put the railway infrastructure at risk. “That wasn’t the right approach,” Kent said.

She said railway officials were concerned that plugging the culverts would send water scouring the railway property, “and we could have had a track give way there.”

“I just think that they put a lot of people in danger by doing what they did that evening,” Kent

and special interest groups,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonpartisan group that emphasizes government accountability. “It is noteworthy that these trips are almost always to ideal vacation spots and not to troubled lands, such as Ukraine.”

The trips are separate from taxpayer-paid congressional delegation travel, typically taken overseas and involve military transportation.

The $26,847 tab for McCarthy and his mother, Roberta McCarthy, was picked up by the AIPACaffiliated American Israel Education Foundation. The foundation also paid $13,805 for current House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York to participate in allDemocratic delegation trip to Israel at about the same time (the Republicans had their own).

McCarthy didn’t respond to a request for comment. But in his application for the trip to the House Ethics Committee, he described it as an “educational trip to meet officials and representatives to get updates and better understand the current geopolitical, economic, and regional challenges in this important area, and their effect on our national security.”

The trip included VIP treatment at the airport, luxury hotel stays on the Sea of Galilee and guided visits to ancient sites. The itinerary took them to Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, a stop at an Iron Dome antimissile system battery,

Watersaid. “I completely sympathize and understand what they’re trying to do, but perhaps they should focus on protecting, sandbagging around their property.”

She said BNSF is open to hearing ideas from the community and is also working with the county and the state to protect the railway infrastructure.

“It slowed water flow to their tracks, for heaven’s sake. How could that be dangerous?” Kadara said.

Kadara, a retired regional facilities director for the U.S. Postal Service, works as an adviser with a local nonprofit called the Allensworth Progressive Assn., which leads community projects. He said Allensworth urgently needs help

and an opportunity to go inside a so-called Hezbollah terror tunnel. There were also audiences with Israeli leaders.

Israel was by far the top destination for the free travel, by dollars – no doubt a reflection of the nation’s role as a crucial ally in the Middle East and a top recipient of American aid. Shoring up support in Washington has grown more important as criticism mounts over Israeli treatment of Palestinians and its move away from a two-state peace plan.

The sponsored travel is legal and each trip has to be submitted for advance approval from the ethics panel of the lawmaker’s chamber to be sure it meets the rules Congress sets for itself. But critics say those rules should be stricter and that the trip sponsors are buying the lawmakers’ time and attention in ways the average person cannot.

The most frequent international destinations for Republicans were Israel, Egypt, Spain, Japan and Kenya. Tops for Democrats were Israel, the U.K., Japan, Iceland and Belgium. Overseas trips were paid for by a variety of policy institutes, universities and educational foundations, such as the United Nations Foundation, the Korea Society, the nonpartisan Aspen Institute, the Conservative Climate Foundation Inc., and the Ripon Society, a Republican policy group.

Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican. racked up the most travel, dollar-wise, reporting $80,610 worth of sponsored trips. His three excursions

from county, state and local flood-control officials. Farm landowners also need to be part of the discussion, so they can help direct floodwaters away from the community, he said.

The community has a long history of coping with floodwaters.

Jose “Chepo” Gonzales, 50, said he remembers the flooding in 1979, when he was 7.

His father wore rubber boots and waded through the water, lifting him up to join others on the bed of a dump truck.

His father had stayed behind to try to protect their home, ramming an old Plymouth to stop a leak in the canal bank, where men piled rocks and dirt,

included one to Madrid last November with his wife, Angie, for a “TransAtlantic Capital to Capital Exchange,” attended by other lawmakers. He also went to Israel with his son, a visit paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation.

“These trips are approved by House Ethics, follow all guidelines, and didn’t cost the taxpayers a dime,” Bacon said in a statement. “They provided an opportunity to expand my knowledge on issues by seeing things first-hand as well as strengthen diplomatic ties with our allies.”

“I appreciate the opportunity to bring along one family member when approved by the Ethics Committee,” he added.

Rep. Lou Correa, a California Democrat, reported the single most expensive privately funded trip, to Israel. Joined by his wife, Esther, the trip’s cost was listed as $46,713 and paid for by the U.S. Israel Education Association.

In all, Correa reported $58,315 worth of travel in four trips – including one to Reykjavik, Iceland, again with his wife, focused on agriculture and trade and funded by the Aspen Institute Inc. Congressional Program. The couple also traveled to Las Vegas so he could participate in discussions on emerging technology policies, a trip paid by the Consumer Technology Association whose members include Apple Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Amazon.com Services Inc.

He didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In the Senate, the

Gonzales recalled.

Gonzales said those repairs are still visible as a bulge in the levee.

“I got to do like my dad did then,” said Gonzales, who moved sand with a small tractor to help build a berm.

He said he planned to load his cattle onto a trailer and take them to a sister’s house on higher ground. Other people in the community have goats, pigs and chickens.

Raymond Strong, a resident who once played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons, also remembers 1979, when his grandfather died in the floodwaters along with another man.

“It’s real scary,” Strong said. “If the water really comes, it’s going to

number of privately paidfor trips was generally lower. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, is listed as taking the most. Her three trips included one to Israel valued at $23,303, sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation. She didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Some of the travel was logged by lawmakers who had announced their retirements. Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, for example, reported four trips last year costing $68,386, to Madrid, Reykjavik, Geneva and the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Tiberias.

Upton said his travel complied with House rules and “was not at taxpayer expense.” He said the conference in Madrid was a commitment he’d made before his retirement announcement.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight, said there are government-paid options for fact-finding trips.

He questioned why spouses and children –or mothers – are tagging along, for free, “especially if you’re calling it something to do in the context of your official duty as a member of Congress.”

“I would certainly enjoy an all-expenses paid trip with my wife to an exotic destination overseas,” Hedtler-Gaudette said. “But I’m not a member of Congress and I’m not claiming that it’s a part of my job to do that trip.”

uproot people.”

He said he plans to stay, and he hopes the town will get the resources it needs.

“Thank God that we have our neighbors,” Strong said. “It’s amazing to see the way they are coming together.”

As the residents stood talking by the flowing ditch under a clear sky, Kayode Kadara pointed to the snowcapped Sierra Nevada in the distance.

In the spring, the historically deep snow will melt and come rushing down to the valley floor.

“Once it gets warmer and starts flowing, we have a major challenge on our hands,” he said. “We’re looking at two to three months more of what we’re facing right now.”

at https://sd03.senate. ca.gov; and sonomatv. org. The event also will be broadcast locally on KSVY 91.3 FM. Send email questions to townhall@ksvy.org, and call in questions at 707-933-9133.

Vets reschedule

St. Patrick’s event

American Legion Post 165 has rescheduled its St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser to Thursday due to work being done on the local veterans hall.

The no-host social begins at 5 p.m. followed by the corned beef dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets are still available. Place a reservation by sending an email to vacavillelegion post165@gmail.com. Tickets are $25.

The money goes to support the post’s children and youth programs, veterans rehabilitation, the monthly meal at the Fisher House on Travis Air Force Base and to support local Gold Star families. The dinner will take place at the Vacaville Veterans Memorial Building, 549 Merchant St.

6 gov’t meetings on week’s calendar

Numerous government meetings will occur this week both in person and online. Check each agency’s website for more information.

The meetings include:

n Fairfield Suisun Sewer District Board, 4:30 p.m. Monday, 1010 Chadbourne Road, executive conference room, Fairfield. Info: fssd.com.

n Fairfield City Council, 6 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, 1000 Webster St. Info: www.fairfield.ca.gov/ government/citycouncil/city-councilmeetings.

n Rio Vista City Council, 6 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, City Hall, 1 Main St. Info: www.riovistacity. com/citycouncil.

n Solano Irrigation District, 6 p.m. Tuesday, Lake Berryessa Room, 810 Vaca Valley Parkway, Vacaville. Info: sidwater.org/ agendacenter.

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

n Suisun City Council, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, 701 Civic Center Blvd. Info: www. suisun.com/govern ment/city-council/ agendas.

Amos Ben Gershom/Israel Gpo/Zuma Press/TNS file (2022)

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with an AIPAC organized delegation of Republican members of the U.S. Congress, led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2022. Lawmakers took 1,785 trips that were paid for by outside organizations last year.

Logano earns first win at Ambetter Health 400

triBunE contEnt agEncy

Joey Logano won the Ambetter Health 400 with a dominant performance Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Logano led for 140 laps, earning his long-awaited first victory in Atlanta. It still required a close finish, with Logano edging Brad Keselowski during the final lap to secure his first victory of the year. Logano has three top-10 finishes in five races.

Christopher Bell finished third, followed by Corey LaJoie and Tyler Reddick. It was a good day for Ford, which had three drivers

in the top 10 (Logano, Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, seventh).

Down the stretch, two wrecks knocked out the leaders. Kevin Harvick, who earned his first win at AMS in 2001, took the lead with 72 laps to go but was pinballed in a big wreck that ended his afternoon. It began when Ross Chastain closed on Harvick, though both drivers noted Chastain didn’t make contact with Harvick’s car (“Just a weird deal,” Harvick said on the Fox broadcast).

Josh Berry, Harrison Burton, William Byron, Chris Buescher and BJ McLeod were among others involved in the wreck. Berry suf-

fered damage in the collision but stayed on the track and finished 18th. He replaced Hendrick’s Chase Elliott, the Dawsonville native who won the last Cup Series race here in July but has been out with a broken tibia. A five-car accident then occurred with 51 laps to go, taking out leaders Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson, who slammed hard into the wall. Larson was seeking his third top-five finish, while Almirola potentially missed out on his first.

Logano led for the first 60 laps, earning his first stage victory of the See Logano, Page B8

One wrong step delays Vacaville’s Gonsolin in his return to mound

mate for failing to land on his feet.

With Slater, Haniger unlikely for Opening Day, Where do SF Giants turn in their outfield?

DEPTH CHART

Left field: Mitch Haniger*, Blake Sabol, Joc Pederson, Luis González*, Stephen Piscotty*

Center field: Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater*, Bryce Johnson, Brett Wisely

Right field: Michael Conforto, LaMonte Wade Jr., Heliot Ramos * = injured

LOCAL REPORT

Falcons defeat Antioch for 6th straight victory

Daily r EpuBlic staff

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield High School baseball team is riding some momentum with six straight wins heading into the Monticello Empire League season after beating Antioch 5-3 at home Saturday.

Fairfield scored five runs combined in the second, third and fourth innings. The Falcons gave two runs back in the final two innings but held on to improve to 6-2 overall.

Amari Bryant had

WEBEck BAY AREA NEWS GROUP SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. —

After making it through most of spring training without any major injuries, the Giants now find themselves scrambling to fill out their outfield, less than two weeks away from Opening Day. Mitch Haniger (oblique) isn’t likely to be ready, and neither is Austin Slater, after an MRI on Friday revealed a strained left hamstring.

Haniger won’t be re-

evaluated to resume baseball activities for another week, while Slater, according to manager Gabe Kapler, “is going to be a bit.”

With the opener at Yankee Stadium on March 30 quickly approaching, what does that mean for the Giants’ outfield, all of a sudden down two of its five projected members? It could open lanes to the roster for two young performers who have impressed this spring.

The first is Rule 5 pick

Blake Sabol, who had possibly already played his way on to the roster with his torrid spring. But if Haniger is unable to go, that should ensure Sabol’s spot on the roster. While the Giants wanted to focus on converting him into a catcher this spring, Sabol made his second start in left field on Saturday, as the club prepares contingency plans in the outfield. If there are any knocks on Sabol, who drew two walks Saturday but

See Giants, Page B8

UConn men’s basketball headed to Sweet 16 for first time in 7 years

triBunE contEnt agEncy

ALBANY — The UConn men’s basketball team is headed back to the Sweet 16 for the first time in seven years.

Thanks to a steady 24 points from Adama Sanogo and 12 in the second half from a scorching-hot Jordan Hawkins, the fourthseeded Huskies blew past fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s, 70-55, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Albany on Sunday.

UConn will meet No. 8-seed Arkansas (22-13) on Thursday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for the program’s 18th Sweet 16 appearance all-time. The Huskies

are 11-5 in regional semifinal games.

Sanogo added a teamhigh eight rebounds and made 11 of his 16 shots, while Hawkins heated up like a microwave and shot 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, making all four 3-pointers in a span of about three minutes.

Tristen Newton made three 3-pointers on four attempts and scored 13 points with five assists. Stuffing the stat sheet as usual, Andre Jackson scored six points while grabbing six rebounds and dishing as many assists. Saint Mary’s started the game similar to how Iona did on Friday.

The Gaels made seven of their first 10 shots,

2-for-3 from beyond the arc, to get ahead of UConn by as many as eight points before UConn head coach Dan Hurley sent in the reserves. Like they did in the first round, buckets from Donovan Clingan, Nahiem Alleyne and Joey Calcaterra cut UConn’s deficit to one with about nine minutes left until halftime. The score remaining close, Andre Jackson soared to the rim for a defensive rebound and pushed the pace himself with about a minute left in the opening 20. The co-captain thread a needle with a bounce

See UConn, Page B8

The injury looked so innocuous in the moment, Tony Gonsolin’s teammates initially chuckling at his one

After a round of fielding drills for Dodgers pitchers on a backfield at Camelback Ranch earlier this month, the Vacaville native was slowly trotting away from the mound when his left foot suddenly gave way on the infield grass, twisting his ankle and knocking him off balance.

At first, a group of fellow pitchers standing nearby found humor in the sight, razzing their feline-loving team -

Within a few minutes, however, the mood became more serious.

Gonsolin grabbed at his ankle in obvious pain. He walked gingerly to the dugout to be checked by a trainer. Then he hopped in a golf cart and was driven away.

The pitcher, it turned out, had suffered a sprained ankle, and it could be a while before he appears in a game again.

Almost two weeks removed from the injury, manager Dave Roberts confirmed Friday that Gonsolin won’t be healthy in time for opening day.

49ers add Hartsfield, a defensive back and . . . running back?

Eric BrancH SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

The San Francisco 49ers have signed Myles Hartsfield, a jack-of-alltrades defensive back who has even played running back in the NFL, to a one-year contract, a league source said.

Hartsfield, 25, a 2020 undrafted free agent from Ole Miss who spent his first three seasons with the Panthers, lined up at safety, slot cornerback, outside corner and was a core special-teams player in Carolina, where he played in 41 games (19 starts). Hartsfield played for new 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks in 2022.

The 49ers are expecting Hartsfield (5-foot-11, 210 pounds) to play safety and slot cornerback, his primary

positions with the Panthers. Hartsfield, who has totaled 118 tackles, seven pass breakups, one sack and no interceptions, allowed a career-worst 120.8 passer rating on the 49 passes on which he was targeted last year.

The Panthers did not offer Hartsfield a restricted free agent tender, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.

The 49ers added Hartsfield a day after backup safety Tarvarius Moore, a core specialteams player, signed with the Packers. Versatile defensive back Jimmie Ward, who had played every position in the secondary except for strong safety, signed with the Texans on Wednesday. Hartsfield and George

are the

Odum

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times file (2022) Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin walks to the dugout as he comes out of the game in the second inning against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Oct. 3, 2022.

Group

HANIGER SLATER

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

Joey Logano celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sunday.

Boiled peanuts let you look at the legume in a new light

K risten H artK e SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST

If there’s anything that makes me feel homesick, it’s the scent of boiled peanuts. Although I grew up primarily outside the South, my family moved to Central Florida when I was in high school, and it was there that I discovered the region’s ubiquitous snack food, bubbling away gently in 30-gallon oil drums set over an open flame at roadside stands and flea markets. Hand over a couple of dollars and you received a 32-ounce foam cup filled to the brim with hot, salty peanuts still in the shell; I loved the soft pop the wet shells made as I squeezed them between my thumb and forefinger, the juice running down my wrist as I savored the fleshy texture of the tender peanuts inside.

Decades later, whenever I head South to visit my parents, getting a cup of boiled peanuts is always at the top of my to-do list.

While boiled peanuts were a new concept for me as a teenager from the Northeast, they were a taste of home for chef Vishwesh Bhatt when his family moved from Gujarat, India, to Austin when he was 17. “I grew up eating boiled peanuts,” Bhatt said. “My mother would make them in the pressure cooker with salt, lemon, ginger and green chiles, so when I came here and saw boiled peanuts on the menu, it felt familiar.”

Boiled peanuts in the South tend to be cooked simply, with just salt and vinegar added to the water, and eaten just as simply – a snack straight from the shell. But once we remember that peanuts are actually legumes, a boiled peanut can shift from a snack to a centerpiece. Canadian-born chef

Hugh Acheson, owner of Five & Ten restaurant in Athens, Ga., says reframing the peanut this way opens the door to new preparations. “Sometimes when we look at food from one perspective, we are pigeonholing it.”

For Acheson, this might mean boiling raw peanuts with star anise and a seafood seasoning such as Old Bay, then using them in a reimagined hummus or falafel. “The closest affiliation we have to boiled peanuts worldwide is jarred or canned fava beans,” he said, “so it’s an easy stretch to substitute them anywhere you might use the fava.”

Originating in South America, peanuts had been spread by traders around the world by the 17th century; enslaved Africans brought them to the American South, where they were typically grown for livestock or as a protein source for those in bondage and for the poor, before gaining more widespread popularity during

the Civil War and through the later work of agricultural scientist George Washington Carver. Confederate soldiers even sang about “goober peas” –boiled peanuts – in a popular wartime ditty.

Beyond the rural South, however, boiled peanuts became a favorite preparation in many cultures, including in zongzi, a Chinese sticky rice dumpling often stuffed with boiled peanuts, and Bolivia’s traditional sopa di mani, a chunky soup of boiled peanuts, potatoes, pasta and peas. In Hawaii, peanuts are boiled with star anise and Hawaiian red sea salt, while a Ghanaian dish of mashed papaya, fresh corn kernels and boiled peanuts highlights the legume’s natural sweetness.

At Snackbar, the globally influenced Southern restaurant that Bhatt helms in Oxford, Miss., you might find boiled peanuts in chaat, a category of Indian food ranging from snacks to small plates in which there must be a combination of textures and flavors: crunchy, creamy, spicy, sweet, sour, salty. The boiled-peanut chaat in Bhatt’s cookbook, “I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes From a Southern Chef,” features fresh tomatoes, red onion and cucumbers combined with fresh herbs and toasted spices, with the boiled peanuts playing a distinctly bean-like role.

“One of the greatest ways of using them is in a salad,” Bhatt said, “but any dish that uses roasted peanuts points us

toward flavors that work with boiled peanuts as well. When you think about Thai food, basil and peanuts are a natural combination, so try using boiled peanuts in a pesto instead of pine nuts.”

Indeed, peanuts are a natural partner for many sweet and savory ingredients. Boiled with vegetable stock, cola and ancho chiles, they can become a savory-spiced accompaniment to the protein of your choice, whether shrimp or pork or tofu. Chill gingery boiled peanuts to toss with rice noodles, fresh lime juice and a splash of toasted sesame oil, or mix them with maple syrup to top off an ice cream sundae instead of wet walnuts.

Boiled peanuts can be an acquired taste for the uninitiated, said Acheson, who couldn’t even wrap his head around the concept of pimento cheese when he first arrived in the South: “Cheese mixed with mayonnaise was definitely off-putting to me, and boiled peanuts seemed just as strange.” As he began to experiment with the ingredient, he found that adding lightly crushed boiled peanuts to a beurre blanc for pan-roasted flounder allowed him to play with the texture of the softened peanuts against the crispy exterior of the fish.

“It’s such a wonderful basic food in so many ways,” Acheson said. “We just need to get away from the concept of it being a nut and treat it like the legume that it is. Boiling peanuts just opens up new possibilities.”

BOILED PEANUT DIP

Active time: 30 minutes

Total time: 6 hours 30 minutes

6 to 8 servings

In this twist on hummus from Acheson, boiled peanuts are treated like the legumes they are, standing in for the traditional garbanzo beans. When boiled, peanuts’ flavor is more subtle than when they’re roasted. The resulting dip will not taste overwhelmingly peanutty, so if you want to amp up the peanut flavor, substitute a half tablespoon of peanut butter –or more – for a portion of the tahini.

Make Ahead: If you want to cut the cooking time by half, soak the peanuts for several hours and up to 12 hours before boiling.

Storage: Refrigerate the dip for up to 7 days. Refrigerate the boiled peanuts for up to 7 days or freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

The raw peanuts in the shell can be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months.

Where to Buy: Dried raw peanuts can be purchased at many Asian or Indian markets, with or without the shell. Raw green peanuts (freshly picked and still soft when sold) are a seasonal item and will cook more quickly than the more commonly available dried raw peanuts.

For the boiled peanuts:

1 gallon water

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon fine salt

1 tablespoon seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay or Zatarain’s

2 whole star anise pods

1 pound raw unshelled peanuts, about 6 cups (see Where to buy)

For the dip:

1 cup shelled boiled peanuts

1 medium clove garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons well-stirred tahini (see Headnote)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

1 8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons water, plus more as needed

Fine salt (optional)

Boil the peanuts: Find a heatproof plate or pot lid that is just smaller than the diameter of your large stockpot and set it near your work area. In the large stockpot over high heat, combine the water, vinegar and salt and bring to a boil. When the water comes to a boil, stir in the seafood seasoning and star anise, then add the peanuts. Place the reserved plate or lid on top of the peanuts to weigh them down a bit. Cover and decrease the heat so the liquid is at a simmer and cook until the peanuts are very tender, about 6 hours. Drain, transfer to a large, rimmed baking sheet and let cool completely. Shell 1 cup of the peanuts for the dip, and transfer the rest to jars – you should have 5 ½ cups – and save for snacks. Make the dip: In a food processor, combine the boiled peanuts, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, cumin and cayenne. With the motor running on low, if your processor allows, slowly add the olive oil and process until smooth and emulsified. Stir to be sure the mixture is well combined. Increase to high, then add the water to thin out the dip, processing until the spread is the consistency of hummus. If needed, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Taste, and season with salt, if desired (the peanuts are already salted). Transfer to a bowl and serve with bread, crackers, pickles and/or crudite.

Cabbage with noodles, dill evokes cozy memories of grandma’s cooking

This dish is more than comfort food to me. It’s like coming home, ringing of the flavors and aromas of my grandmoth er’s kitchen where she served up bowls of egg noodles with butter, braised cabbage, soups wafting with dill, and a dollop of sour cream on just about anything.

She branched out often with dishes such as chicken a la king and spaghetti and meatballs, but the food she made most often spoke to her Eastern European roots. This meal-in-a-bowl of silky egg noodles mingling with tender, browned cabbage and onions, seasoned with dill, salt and pepper, and served with a big dollop of yogurt conjures her love-infused cooking,

but it’s not exactly the way she would have made it. Rather, it’s a meal that reflects my way of cooking, too.

The noodles here are cooked until they are firm tender, as I prefer them, rather than super-soft, as she would have done. I used mostly olive oil and just a knob of butter to finish the dish, introducing that essential buttery flavor in a more healthful way, and I rely on Greek yogurt, rather than sour cream, for a more protein-rich finish.

Stirring the cool, creamy yogurt into the bowl of hot noodles so it melts into a creamy, tangy sauce ranks to me as one of the world’s most satisfying experiences.

I know my grandma would have loved this dish exactly as it is, not

only because it’s nourishing and fulfilling, but because it’s a kind of teamwork between us, a meal that connects us and reflects us both.

CABBAGE AND NOODLES WITH DILL AND YOGURT

Total time: 30 minutes

4 servings (makes 6 cups)

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.

8 ounces medium or wide egg noodles

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion (12 ounces), halved and thinly sliced

½ head large green cabbage (1 ¾ pounds total), cored and thinly shredded (6 cups)

¾ teaspoon fine salt, divided, plus more to taste

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Water, as needed

¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh dill, plus dill fronds for garnish

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ cup plain wholemilk or low-fat Greek yogurt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until al dente, about 1 minute less than the package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water, then drain.

Meanwhile, in a large, deep skillet over mediumhigh heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the cabbage, ½ teaspoon of the salt and the pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender and browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Add a splash of water to the pan if it seems to be getting dry. Remove from the heat and set aside until the noodles are ready.

Add the cooked, drained noodles to the skillet, along with the dill, butter and the remaining ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Set the skillet over medium heat and warm the mixture, tossing it gently, until the butter is melted and everything is combined. Add some of the reserved cooking water as needed to loosen. Taste and season with additional salt, if desired. Divide the mixture among the bowls, top each with a dollop of yogurt and a couple of dill fronds, and serve.

Nutrition information per serving (1 ½ cups

noodle-cabbage mixture and 2 tablespoons low-fat yogurt): Calories: 422; Total Fat: 16 g; Saturated Fat: 4 g; Cholesterol: 56 mg; Sodium: 497 mg; Carbohydrates: 60 g;

Dietary Fiber: 8 g; Sugar: 11 g; Protein: 12 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.

Ellie Krieger Nourish

Tom McCorkle/The Washington Post

Cabbage with noodles and dill is served with a big dollop of yogurt.

Rey Lopez/The Washington Post

Boiled peanuts let you look at the legume in a new light.

Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

The planning, daring execution and shocking aftermath behind history’s most elaborate heists are detailed on “History’s Greatest Heists With Pierce

John Wick fights for his freedom

FAIRFIELD — John Wick battles The High Table for his freedom but finds himself instead going head-to-head against a new enemy.

Also showing locally is a limited run film about a woman’s quest to find the remains of King Richard III. In spite of a lack of support from family, friends and academics, she perseveres.

Opening nationwide are:

“John Wick: Chapter 4,” in which John Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes. The film is rated R.

“The Lost King,” which tells the story of King Richard III, whose remains were discovered in 2012 beneath a carpark in Leicester after 500 years of being lost. The search had been orchestrated by an amateur historian, Philippa Langley, whose unrelenting research had been met with incomprehension by her friends and family and with skepticism by experts and academics. The film is based on a true story of a woman who refused to be ignored and who took on the country’s most eminent historians, forcing them to think again about one of the most controversial kings in England’s history. The film is rated PG-13.

Opening in limited release are:

“Last Sentinel,” in which four soldiers man the Sentinel, a remote military base in a vast ocean that separates two warring continents. They await the relief or the enemy, whichever comes first. But as the empty weeks turn to months a paranoia descends, testing relationships to the breaking point. This boil over when a ship is seen. Is it time to go home or fight? The film is not rated.

“Stalker,” in which a broken down freight elevator precariously hangs dangerously high, trap-

ping a young woman inside with her stalker. The film is rated R.

“The Tutor,” in which an in-demand tutor is assigned to instruct a billionaire’s son from their New York waterfront estate. But what should be a straightforward job is complicated by the student’s disturbing obsession with him, threatening to expose his darkest secrets. The film is rated PG-13.

“Perfect Addiction,” in which a successful MMA trainer discovers that her boyfriend, the reigning champion, has been cheating on her, so she sets out to get revenge by training the one man capable of dethroning him: his arch-nemesis. What begins as a payback quickly turns into a complicated and steamy love triangle. The film is rated R.

“Santiago: The Camino Within,” which highlights the Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilgrimage route dating back centuries. Legend recalls that the remains of the Christian apostle St. James the Great were mysteriously discovered at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain after having thought to be lost. For centuries, pilgrims have traveled the route, also known as the Way of St. James, for spiritual reasons. This film follows pilgrims along this Way, sharing their stories and profound experiences about how walking the Camino changes them in different ways. Viewers will be inspired to experience this pilgrimage as their own interior journey of discovery. The film is not rated.

For information on Edwards Cinemas in Fairfield, visit www. regmovies.com/ theatres/regal-edwardsfairfield-imax. For Vacaville showtimes, visit www.brenden theatres.com. For Vallejo showtimes, check www. cinemark.com/theatres/ ca-vallejo. More infor-

Zits

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Candorville Darrin Bell

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú and Carlos Castellanos

Bob Odenkirk stars in a dark comedy about academia

RobeRt LLoyd

LOS ANGELES TIMES

When television goes to college, it’s usually to focus on the students, with their youth, dewy skin and lust for life undimmed by time, experience or perspective. These shows offer a hit of fantasy nostalgia for older viewers and a flattering mirror for younger ones. They’re sexy by nature. Stories that focus on professors and administrators are a different breed. (The 2021 Netflix series “The Chair,” with Sandra Oh, was a rare recent example, and it died after a season.) If often as childish as their most difficult students, these characters may carry the added weight of moral exhaustion, aging bodies and/or minds, spouses or exspouses, and children; their days are mired in bureaucratic folderol, intra- and interdepartmental competition amid shrinking budgets, and the pressure of just holding on to a job. Not so sexy!

Even so, bookshelves’ worth of literary works have been set in that milieu. Many writers have not only been to college but have also worked in them, and age tends to play better on the page than coming off an 80-inch, 4K flat screen.

One such book, Richard Russo’s 1998 institutional comic novel “Straight Man,” set in a third-tier college in a distressed western Pennsylvania town, has become the series “Lucky Hank,” premiering Sunday on AMC.

Bob Odenkirk plays William Henry Devereaux Jr., a professor of writing and chair of the Railton College English department. The author, years before, of a well reviewed but unsuccessful novel, he’s the estranged son of a literary critic so esteemed his retirement is front-page news. He’s married to Lily (Mireille Enos) – reason enough to call Hank lucky – a high school administrator whose patience he often seems on the verge of exhausting; they have a grown married daughter, Julie (Olivia Scott Welch), who is ever in need of money. Hank is also having trouble urinating and is convinced, in spite of his doctor, that he has a kidney stone because his father had them – which, apart from a name, may be all that he’s inherited from him.

Creators Paul Lieberstein and Aaron Zelman, who co-wrote the two episodes available to review (both directed by Peter Farrelly), have turned up the heat on Hank. In the novel, which is less the story of a midlife crisis than midlife stasis, he comes across mostly as amused or bemused. Here he’s more dyspeptic, cynical, unsatisfied, insecure, prone to panic and driven by insecurities. He’s avowedly miserable.

Daily Cryptoquotes

On TV

(Hank to Lily: “Who isn’t miserable? Being an adult is 80% misery.” Lily: “I think you’re at 80. The rest of us hover at around 30 to 40.”) That he hasn’t written a second novel – the failure of nerve also assigned to Jay Duplass’ character in “The Chair” – is much more of an issue in the series. While novel-Hank has come to terms with the possibility he’s just a one-book writer, seriesHank is haunted by it.

All these qualities lead early on to an outburst in class, prompted by a particularly trying student, the self-admiring Bartow (Jackson Kelly), who is quite sure that his work is beyond criticism. Demanding a stronger reaction from Hank, he gets it.

“The fact that you’re here means that you didn’t try very hard in high school or for whatever reason you showed very little promise. And even if your presence in this middling college in this sad forgotten town was some bizarre anomaly and you do have the promise of genius, which I’ll bet a kidney that you don’t, it will never surface. I am not a good enough writer or writing teacher to bring it out of you. But how do I know that? Because I too am here. At Railton College, mediocrity’s capital.”

Having felt himself demeaned by Hank, whose rant winds up published in the campus newspaper to general chagrin, Bartow – who stands for a certain sort of entitled sensitivity – will not be content to accept his apology but insists it also be published in the campus newspaper. He is, seemingly, a nemesis in the making.

Surrounding Hank are characters as pointedly individual and colorful and as antagonistic as the cast of any workplace sitcom. In the English department are Paul (Cedric Yarbrough), who is at war with Gracie (Suzanne Cryer); Teddy (Arthur Keng) and June (Alvina August), who are married; Finny (Haig

Sutherland), pretentious; Billie (Nancy Robertson), drunk; and Emma (Shannon DeVido), who is, if anything, more sardonic than Hank. Above them is Jacob (Oscar Nuñez), the dean, who goes out of his way to be accommodating but is also threatening budget cuts that make the professors feel that their jobs might be on the line. (Hank, who regards these threats as seasonal and empty, is more sanguine on this account.) Diedrich Bader plays Tony, Hank’s friend and racquetball partner, who also works at the college. With only two episodes available to review, it’s hard to tell just how much of “Straight Man” will find its way into “Lucky Hank.” (The opening shot, as Hank contemplates the college duck pond, suggests that at least one major incident from the book will repeat in the series.) The novel is eventful without being especially plot heavy, and in its early stages the show comes on less like a strict translation of Russo’s novel than the foundation of a workplace that might wander any old way and continue for years, whereas the book takes place over a week.

Indeed, the first two episodes contain myriad original scenes and plotlines, most notably a visit to the campus from George Saunders, a real author played here by the actor Brian Huskey, with whom Hank started out but who has far outpaced him. And though they have imported Russo’s characters – with some alterations – Lieberstein and Zelman have not used much, if any, of his dialogue and written their own jokes for Hank, some of them better than the book’s.

Odenkirk, who started out as a comedian, is a fine choice for a character whose main conversational mode, and way of dealing with the world, is the dry wisecrack. (These either tend to be ignored or to escalate a situation – no one ever laughs.) A more or less charming antihero once again – his Saul Goodman was all that kept me watching “Breaking Bad” – who may or may not become more hero than anti with time, he exerts a kind of authority even as he avoids responsibility.

There’s something about the series that feels both quaint and timely, given current debates about the worth of college and the marketability of an English degree. Nevertheless, people still attend college or work in one, and write books or want to. And though “Straight Man” was written in a world before media was social and when cancellation was a word applied only to the likes of TV shows and restaurant reservations, its social dynamics and cultural concerns are still very much alive. “Lucky Hank” intensifies them to entertaining effect.

Word Sleuth

Crossword by Phillip Alder

Bridge

Today’s deal was played many years ago in a team match between experts –and both declarers went down. Why not cover the East-West hands and decide on your line in three no-trump? West leads a fourth-highest heart two, dummy’s queen winning the trick. Both declarers saw an easy nine

tricks by way of one spade, two hearts and six diamonds. Without pausing for breath, they won the first trick and immediately led back the heart king. However, they had overlooked a minor problem: Where was the hand entry to cash the jack of hearts? Both pairs of defenders played perfectly at this point. West won with the heart ace and switched to the club five. East won with the king and returned a club. West won with the ace and exited with a diamond, leaving declarer in the dummy. South drew three rounds of diamonds before leading a spade to the queen, but luck was out to lunch. West won with the king and returned a spade. The finesse of dummy’s 10 lost as well, and the contract was down one. The declarers should have taken a few moments at trick one to consider the possible pitfalls. They should have won with the heart queen and immediately cashed three rounds of diamonds, removing that suit from the opponents’ hands. Only then would it have been safe to advance the heart king. West would have been unable to defeat the contract. South would have scored an extra trick in spades, hearts or clubs, and dummy would still have had the spade ace as the entry to the remaining diamond winners.

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne Gould

Bridge

3/21/23

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 grid contains the digits

1 through 9, with no repeats. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box. Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com

East-West hands and decide on your line in three no-trump?

© 2023 Janric Enterprises Dist. by creators.com

Difficulty level: SILVER

Yesterday’s solution:

PEEL AWAY THE EXIT CARDS

Sergei Bachlakov/AMC/TNS Bob Odenkirk as Hank in “Lucky Hank.”

Making sense of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR MONEY

Jon Healey LOS ANGELES TIMES

It’s never a good sign when “bank collapse” is trending on Twitter. Such was the case

Monday as investors pummeled shares of First Republic Bank and Western Alliance Bancorporation, among several other regional financial institutions. Evidently, they feared that these banks would suffer the same fate as Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, Calif., which was taken over Friday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Signature Bank in New York City, which was shut down Sunday by state regulators.

The rapid rise in interest rates has been a challenge for banks in general, reducing the value of some of their safest investments. But banking experts say the circumstances that toppled Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were so unique, and the response from the federal government Monday so aggressive, that depositors in other banks can stay put rather than shifting into crisis mode.

Besides, at least part of the doomsayer wing on Twitter appeared to have a rooting interest in a wider collapse. Some were conservative critics of the Biden administration, but others were business executives eager for the government to protect their uninsured deposits (which the feds eventually did).

Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (who is running a long-shot presidential campaign) tweeted Sunday that venture capitalists and startup executives who stood to lose their deposits at Silicon Valley Bank “are going *out of their way* to push a narrative that there’ll be a bank run on Monday if SVB depositors aren’t bailed out by the government. They’re yelling fire in the proverbial theater, hoping that everyone runs and knocks down a candle on their way out – actually starting a fire that may not otherwise have existed.”

Here’s what you need to know about the latest developments and what the best course for you may be going forward.

Is my money safe in the bank?

Regardless of how resilient or fragile your bank may be, the answer will be yes for an overwhelming number of people. That’s because federal insurance programs will protect all the money typical Californians have squirreled away in a bank or credit union.

For each depositor, the FDIC ordinarily insures a total of $250,000 in checking, savings, certificates of deposit and money market accounts at participating institutions. (The vast majority of banks are insured; you can confirm whether your bank is by checking this directory at FDIC.gov.) The FDIC’s limit applies to each bank where you do business, so if you have $250,000 at Bank A, $150,000 at Bank B and $300,000 at Bank C, all but $50,000 at Bank C would be automatically insured.

By way of comparison, the median amount that Ameri-

cans have in banks is $5,300 per household, according to the latest Federal Reserve survey (from 2019). The average amount is $41,600. So for all but a small percentage of borrowers, the FDIC’s $250,000 figure is an aspiration, not a limit.

Credit unions have a similar insurance program from the National Credit Union Administration, with the same $250,000 limit.

For businesses with large payrolls, however, $250,000 can be a real issue. The federal takeover of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, which temporarily cut off customers’ access to their funds and jeopardized amounts over $250,000, came just as some companies were about to cover the cost of their bimonthly paychecks. That’s one of the reasons the Biden administration announced Sunday that it was waiving the $250,000 limit and giving customers of the two failed banks access to all the money they’d deposited.

The point, according to a joint statement from the Fed, the FDIC and the Treasury Department, was to send a message that strengthens public confidence in the banking system and discourages more bank runs. And that message should be effective, said Jeffrey Ball, the chief executive of the Orange County Business Council and the founder and former CEO of Friendly Hills Bank in Whittier.

Now, Ball said, businesses don’t need to make any preemptive moves with their deposits at other banks. “I think the precedent that was set . . . should give you confidence that you will be able to access your operating funds going forward,” Ball said.

Economist Joseph E. Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was not so sanguine. “If you have uninsured deposits, you might want to think about the health of your bank. But you’re probably feeling that’s less

urgent now,” he said. “You probably think this precedent the administration has set is going to protect you. . . . [But] anyone who has uninsured deposits should certainly think about this.”

Is this another bailout like the one in 2008-09?

At this point, no.

Both banks have investments and other assets that may be substantial enough to cover the withdrawals made by their depositors. According to the FDIC, those depositors are first in line to be made whole; if there’s anything left, it will go first to secured creditors (i.e., companies that billed the bank for services that haven’t been paid for yet), then to investors who purchased the banks’ bonds, and finally to investors who hold the banks’ stock. If the assets don’t generate enough money to cover all the deposits, the FDIC will have to cover the costs it incurs by charging banks a special assessment. As with any other insurance program, the banks carrying the insurance are the ones that pay for it. The banks’ customers and investors, not taxpayers, ultimately pay for deposit insurance through higher fees, lower interest payments and reduced returns. That may be a distinction without a difference, however, Gagnon said. Just about everyone who’s a taxpayer has a bank account, he said, and the cost of the latest rescue is “going to be paid for by just about anybody that has a bank account.”

Why did Silicon Valley Bank fail?

In the Great Recession, banks nearly failed because their investments in housing-related securities plunged in value after the housing market crashed. This time, the problem wasn’t

risky investments, but rather a mismatch between longer-term investments and short-term demands for cash by depositors.

Donald P. Johnson, vice chairman of the American Business Bank board, said SVB and Signature were victims of a sharply changed banking landscape. Long years of low interest rate targets set by the Federal Reserve and tepid economic growth reduced the demand for bank loans, prompting banks to put more of their deposits into longer-term Treasury bills and municipal bonds in search of higher returns, he said.

When the Fed drove up interest rates sharply in the last year to fight inflation, the value of those bonds dropped. So when Silicon Valley Bank had to sell some of those bonds to raise cash, Johnson said, it took a hefty loss, which helped push down its stock price and fed concerns about the bank’s health.

That, in turn, triggered a number of tech companies with huge accounts at the bank to rush for the exits Thursday –spurred in part by their venture capitalist backers – resulting in an astounding $42 billion worth of withdrawals Thursday. Regulators stepped in after that, worried that the bank wouldn’t be able to meet the immediate demand for cash.

Gagnon said he was surprised that the bank examiners supervising Silicon Valley Bank allowed the problem to develop as it did. “This is a very obvious risk they were taking on,” he said, referring to the long-term investments. “It was an enormous part of their balance sheet. . . . I would be surprised if a lot of other banks would have this issue. It’s like Banking 101, don’t do too much of this.”

One possible explanation, he said, was the bank’s unusual reliance on depositors with huge accounts. Depositors with relatively small accounts don’t generally pull out their money

and search for higher rates when interest rates go up, Gagnon said, so having a mismatch between a bank’s long-term investments and short-term deposits isn’t a big deal. But Silicon Valley Bank didn’t have the luxury of customers who would stick around no matter what.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was enacted in the wake of the subprime loan fiasco, required regulators to test banks with more than $50 billion in assets to see whether they could withstand certain types of stressful events, such as a sharp rise in interest rates. That’s the sort of test that would have detected the problems faced by Silicon Valley Bank, Gagnon said. But Congress passed and President Trump signed a bill in 2018 raising the threshold to $250 billion, a change that exempted Silicon Valley Bank from the extra scrutiny.

The Fed said Monday that it would review the “supervision and regulation” of Silicon Valley Bank “in light of its failure.”

When Silicon Valley Bank went down, Signature Bank experienced a similar run of withdrawals from customers with large amounts of uninsured deposits. This bank also had accepted cryptocurrency deposits, but it’s not clear what role that played in its troubles. One factor for both banks, Johnson said, was that they had expanded aggressively – too aggressively, he said.

Critics say that both banks failed to manage the risks posed by inflation, which started well before the Fed raised rates. Johnson agreed but said the bottom line was the public’s view of the banks. “The perception of whether a bank is good or bad makes a difference as to whether it’s going to make it or not,” he said.

FedEx soars most in 9 months after boosting profit forecast

BloomBerg

FedEx’s shares jumped the most in nine months after the courier boosted its profit outlook, signaling efforts to cut costs are helping counter a decline in package volume.

Adjusted earnings this fiscal year will be $14.60 to $15.20 a share, up from a prior forecast of no more than $14, the Memphis, Tennessee-based company said. Analysts were expect-

ing $13.57 on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“We’ve continued to move with urgency to improve efficiency, and our cost actions are taking hold, driving an improved outlook,” Chief Executive Officer Raj Subramaniam said in a statement late Thursday. FedEx also revealed third-quarter profit that topped Wall Street’s expectations. Its shares surged 11%

at 9:30 a.m. Friday in New York, the biggest intraday gain since June 14. The stock climbed 18% this year through Thursday’s close, well ahead of the S&P 500 Index’s increase.

The better-thanexpected report triggered a number of upgrades to stock-price targets, including from analysts at TD Cowen, Citi and Susquehanna Financial. Cowen’s Helane Becker said in a note that FedEx

is “well-positioned to see improving results in the second half of calendar 2023 and into 2024.”

Subramaniam has sought to cut costs and strengthen operations in response to weaker package volume as people return to stores and spend on more services following the pandemic. He previously ordered savings of up to $3.7 billion from its original annual spending plan, including shedding 10% of

top management jobs.

While the cuts have been across the board, the brunt of them have fallen to Express, the company’s largest unit. The courier has reduced flights and parked older planes as customers shift more cargo back to ships after supplychain snags have eased.

Volumes have also dropped at the Ground unit and FedEx Freight, the company’s trucking company. Although demand has

softened, FedEx has been able to maintain robust pricing, especially for ground deliveries, and had announced a general rate increase of 6.9% for this year, the largest such increase in its history. Adjusted profit in the third quarter was $3.41 a share, FedEx said, beating the $2.71 average of analysts’ estimates. Revenue was $22.2 billion, compared with analysts’ projection of $22.7 billion.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images/TNS file

Signage is displayed outside of a First Republic Bank branch in Manhattan Beach, March 13.

following: RFP#2174-24 Laptops

InterestedBiddersarereferredtotheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictPurchasing

Departmentwebsite,athttps://www.fsusd.org/page/warehouse-and-purchasing,forall communication,instructions,andforms.TheRFPpacketwillbepostedby4:00p.m.on March20,2023.AllquestionsregardingthisRFPwillbeaccepteduntil4:00pmonMarch 30,2023,andmustbesubmittedviaemailto:MelissaIriarteatmelissair@fsusd.org–usingthesubjectlineof“RFP#2174-24Questions”. ItistheresponsibilityoftheBidderto checkthewebsiteforaddendaand/orupdates.

SealedBids/Proposalswillbereceivedonorbefore12:00p.m.,April20,2023,attheofficeofthePurchasingDepartment,3rdfloor,2490HilbornRoad,Fairfield,California.One originalandoneelectronicversion(usbdrive)responsemustbesubmittedinasealed, clearlymarkedenvelope.Allproposalsmustbereceivedandtimeanddatestampedin thePurchasingofficebytheabov eduedateandtime.Proposalsreceivedafterthedue dateandtimewillbereturnedunopenedtotheBidder.Noexceptions.Faxedoremailed proposalswillnotbeaccepted.

AllproposalsmustconformandberesponsivetothisRFP,andallnecessarydocuments mustbeenclosed.Subjecttoapplicablelaws,Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservestherighttorejectanyandallproposals,towaiveanyinformalitiesorirregularities therein,andtoaccepttheprop osalinwhole,orportionsoftheproposalthat,intheopinionoftheDistrict,isinthebestinterestoftheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrict.

NoBiddermaywithdrawtheirproposalforaperiodofsixty(60)daysafterthedatesetfor theopening. Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservestheright,initssolediscretionandsubjecttoapplicablelaws,todeterminethecriteriaandprocesswherebyproposalsareevaluatedandawarded. DR#00062038 Published:March20,27,2023

FAIRFIELD-SUISUNUNIFIEDSCHOOLDISTRICT NOTICEINVITINGBIDS/PROPOSALS

NOTICEISHEREBYGIVENthatFAIRFIELD-SUISUNUNIFIEDSCHOOLDISTRICT, actingbyandthroughitsBoardofEducation,hereinafterreferredtoastheDistrictwillreceivesealedproposalsfromqualifiedBidders,upto,butnolaterthanMay4,2023,12:00 p.m.localtimeandwillnotbeopenedpublicly,fortheawardofcontractsforthefollowing: RFP#2178-24 ChildNutritionServices,Groceries-ShelfStable

InterestedBiddersarereferredtotheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictPurchasing Departmentwebsite,athttps://www.fsusd.org/page/warehouse-and-purchasing,forall communication,instructions,andforms.TheRFPpacketwillbepostedby4:00p.m.on March23,2023.AllquestionsregardingthisRFPwillbeaccepteduntil4:00pmonMarch 30,2023,andmustbesubmittedviaemailto:MelissaIriarteatmelissair@fsusd.org–usingthesubjectlineof“RFP#2178-24Questions”.ItistheresponsibilityoftheBidderto checkthewebsiteforaddendaand/orupdates.

SealedBids/Proposalswillbereceivedonorbefore12:00p.m.,May4,2023,attheofficeofthePurchasingDepartment,3rdfloor,2490HilbornRoad,Fairfield,California.One originalandoneelectronicversion(usbdrive)responsemustbesubmittedinasealed, clearlymarkedenvelope.Allproposalsmustbereceivedandtimeanddatestampedin thePurchasingofficebytheaboveduedateandtime.Proposalsreceivedafterthedue dateandtimewillbereturnedunopenedtotheBidder.Noexceptions.Faxedoremailed proposalswillnotbeaccepted.

AllproposalsmustconformandberesponsivetothisRFP,andallnecessarydocuments mustbeenclosed.Subjecttoapplicablelaws,Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservestherighttorejectanyandallproposals,towaiveanyinformalitiesorirregula rities therein,andtoaccepttheproposalinwhole,orportionsoftheproposalthat,intheopinionoftheDistrict,isinthebestinterestoftheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrict. NoBiddermaywithdrawtheirproposalforaperiodofsixty(60)daysafterthedatesetfor theopening.

Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservestheright,initssolediscretionandsubjecttoapplicablelaws,todeterminethecriteriaandprocesswherebyproposalsareevaluatedandawarded.

DR#00062036 Published:March20,27,2023

ing: RFP#2177-24 ChildNutritionServices,Groceries-Refrigerated InterestedBiddersarereferredtotheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictPurchasing Departmentwebsite,athttps://www.fsusd.org/page/warehouse-and-purchasing,forall communication,instructions,andforms.TheRFPpacketwillbepostedby4:00p.m.on March23,2023.AllquestionsregardingthisRFPwillbeaccepteduntil4:00pmonMarch 30,2023,andmustbesubmittedviaemailto:MelissaIriarteatmelissair@fsusd.org–usingthesubjectlineof“RFP#2177-24Questions”.ItistheresponsibilityoftheBidderto checkthewebsiteforaddendaand/orupdates.

SealedBids/Proposalswillbereceivedonorbefore11:00a.m.,May4,2023,attheofficeofthePurchasingDepartment,3rdfloor,2490HilbornRoad,Fairfield,California.One originalandoneelectronicversion(usbdrive)responsemustbesubmittedinasealed clearlymarkedenvelope.Allproposalsmustbereceivedandtimeanddatestampedin thePurchasingofficebytheaboveduedateandtime.Proposalsreceivedafterthedue dateandtimewillbereturnedunopenedtotheBidder.Noexceptions.Faxedoremailed proposalswillnotbeaccepted.

AllproposalsmustconformandberesponsivetothisRFP,andallnecessarydocuments mustbeenclosed.Subjecttoapplicablelaws,Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservest herighttorejectanyandallproposals,towaiveanyinformalitiesorirregularities therein,andtoaccepttheproposalinwhole,orportionsoftheproposalthat,intheopinionoftheDistrict,isinthebestinterestoftheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrict. NoBiddermaywithdrawtheirproposalforaperiodofsixty(60)daysafterthedatesetfor theopening. Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservestheright,initssolediscretionandsubjectto applicablelaws,todeterminethecriteriaandprocesswherebyproposalsareevaluatedandawarded. DR#00062034 Published:March20,27,2023

FAIRFIELD-SUISUNUNIFIEDSCHOOLDISTRICT NOTICEINVITINGBIDS/PROPOSALS

NOTICEISHEREBYGIVENthatFAIRFIELD-SUISUNUNIFIEDSCHOOLDISTRICT actingbyandthroughitsBoardofEducation,hereinafterreferredtoastheDistrictwillreceivesealedproposalsfromqualifiedBidders,upto,butnolaterthanMay4,2023,10:00 a.m.localtimeandwillnotbeopenedpublicly,fortheawardofcontractsforthefollowing: RFP#2172-24 ChildNutritionServices,Groceries-Frozen

InterestedBiddersarereferredtotheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictPurchasing Departmentwebsite,athttps://www.fsusd.org/page/warehouse-and-purchasing,forall communication,instructions,andforms.TheRFPpacketwillbepostedby4:00p.m.on March22,2023.AllquestionsregardingthisRFPwillbeaccepteduntil4:00pmonMarch 30,2023,andmustbesubmittedviaemailto:MelissaIriarteatmelissair@fsusd.org–usingthesubjectlineof“RFP#2172-24Questions”.ItistheresponsibilityoftheBidderto checkthewebsiteforaddendaand/orupdates.

SealedBids/Proposalswillbereceivedonorbefore10:00a.m.,May4,2023,attheofficeofthePurchasingDepartment,3rdfloor,2490HilbornRoad,Fairfield,California.One originalandoneelectronicversion(usbdrive)responsemustbesubmittedinasealed clearlymarkedenvelope.Allproposalsmustbereceivedandtimeanddatestampedin thePurchasingofficebytheaboveduedateandtime.Proposalsreceivedafterthedue dateandtimewillbereturnedunopenedtotheBidder.Noexceptions.Faxedoremailed proposalswillnotbeaccepted.

AllproposalsmustconformandberesponsivetothisRFP,andallnecessarydocuments mustbeenclosed.Subjecttoapplicablelaws,Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservest herighttorejectanyandallproposals,towaiveanyinformalitiesorirregularities therein,andtoaccepttheproposalinwhole,orportionsoftheproposalthat,intheopinionoftheDistrict,isinthebestinterestoftheFairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrict. NoBiddermaywithdrawtheirproposalforaperiodofsixty(60)daysafterthedatesetfor theopening.

Fairfield-SuisunUnifiedSchoolDistrictreservestheright,initssolediscretionandsubjectto applicablelaws,todeterminethecriteriaandprocesswherebyproposalsareevaluatedandawarded. DR#00062032 Published:March20,27,2023

CALENDAR

Monday’s TV sports

Baseball

WBC

• Second Semifinal, FS1, 4 p.m.

Basketball

NCAA Women’s tournament

• Matchups TBA, ESPN channels, Times TBD

NIt Women’s tournament

• Matchups TBA, ESPN channels, Times TBD

NBA

• Golden State at Houston, NBCSBA (Fairfield and Suisun City), 5 p.m.

• Sacramento at Utah, NBCSCA+ (Vacaville and Rio Vista), 5 p.m.

Hockey NHL

• San Jose at Edmonton, NBCSCA, 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday’s TV sports

Baseball

WBC

• Championship Game, FS1, 4 p.m.

Basketball NIt Men’s tournament

• Quarterfinal Game, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• Quarterfinal Game, ESPN, 6 p.m.

NIt Women’s tournament

• Matchups TBD, ESPN channels, Times TBD

NBA

UConn

From Page B1

pass and found Calcaterra again in transition.

The University of San Diego transfer fired from the wing in front of Saint Mary’s bench and gave UConn its first lead since the score was 7-6.

Augustus Marciulionis answered with a 3-pointer that put Saint Mary’s back up two, but UConn point guard Newton, who hit one at the 2:37 mark to tie it, walked into another with four seconds left from the wing. His third made 3-pointer of the opening 20 minutes fell through the net with a second to spare and sent UConn into the break up one, 31-30.

Alex Ducas had eight points for the Gaels on 3-of-4 shooting before he went down holding his lower back with about five minutes left in the first half. The Australian senior guard, who entered Sunday averaging more

Mound

on the wing opposite the Huskies’ bench in transition. Karaban, relatively quiet in his first three halves of March Madness, hit from 3 with 13:33 on the clock to give UConn its largest lead of the game, 46-40.

Jackson made a floater after and Newton drew a Saint Mary’s charge to ignite the UConn-heavy crowd in MVP Arena.

Hawkins, still struggling, only took one shot in the first half and missed. But when the sophomore fired again with just over 11 minutes left in the second and registered his first three points of the game, the crowd showed love.

than 12 points per game, struggled to walk off the court and sit comfortably on the bench. He did not return to the game. Sanogo, who scored a seasonhigh 28 points with 13 rebounds in the first round, scored six of UConn’s first nine and went into the locker room with a game-leading 10 points and six

rebounds. The 6-foot-9 big man used his powerful dribble to get past Saint Mary’s 6-foot-10 center Mitchell Saxen and scored eight of the Huskies first 13 points after the break. Right after Sanogo was given a rest, substituted for Clingan, Newton took the ball from Saxen in the paint and found Karaban

The decibel-level only continued to rise after Clingan slammed down an alley-oop pass from Jackson and then Hawkins made another from deep to give the Huskies a 56-45 lead at the 9:50 mark.

The sophomore Hawkins scorched the net twice more from deep in the next three minutes and just like that, UConn had a 62-47 lead and the dancing began in Albany.

UConn (27-8) is now 15-4 in second round games since 1990.

49ers

From Page B1

top backup safeties on the roster behind Talanoa Hufanga and Tashaun Gipson. Hartsfield and Samuel Womack are the top reserve options at slot cornerback behind Isaiah Oliver, who signed a twoyear contract Thursday.

Hartsfield split time between defense and running back in training camp as a rookie. After playing only special teams in his first six games in 2020, he debuted as a backup running back in a 27-24 loss to the Saints on Oct. 25, 2020. Hartsfield, who hadn’t had a carry since high school, had two carries for two yards while playing the only four offensive snaps of his career.

“I thought they were blowing smoke at first,” Hartsfield told the team website in 2021. “But I get to the hotel the night before the game, and I’m looking at the first 15 (play) script, and I’m in there, it’s like, ‘What’s going on? They’re really going to give me the ball.’

“Then, as soon as I got hit, it’s like, ‘OK, this is why I play defense.’ But I hadn’t done it in five years, so my two carries for 2 yards (was) like living the dream.”

Local

From Page B1

• Boston at Sacramento, NBCSCA, 7 p.m. a pair of doubles and drove in two runs. Joey Mason also had two hits. Pat O’Reilly threw 4 2/3 strong innings of two-hit baseball with four strikeouts.

Fairfield opens MEL play at 4 p.m. Monday with a game at Vanden.

Rodriguez falls to Petaluma

FAIRFIELD — The Rodriguez High School baseball team had one final tuneup Saturday before the start of

“To say he’s gonna start the season,” Roberts said, “that’s not gonna happen.”

An exact timeline for Gonsolin’s return is unclear. If his recovery doesn’t speed up – which seems unlikely after Roberts cautioned multiple times it will be a “slow” process – the pitcher could be in danger of missing multiple starts to begin the season.

“Long-term, I don’t think it’s gonna be an issue,” Roberts said. “But that speaks to how we’re gonna handle this thing on the front end.”

Consider it one of nine lives burned for the so-called “Catman” – a freaky, ill-timed, literal misstep that won’t derail his 2023 season, but is delaying his pursuit of “unfinished business,” as Roberts termed it, from last year.

While Gonsolin had a career regular season in 2022 – he went 16-1 with a 2.14 ERA to earn his first All-Star selection – he was one of many Dodgers who failed to perform in their abrupt postseason elimination.

After missing most of September because of a forearm injury, Gonsolin flopped in his lone outing

Giants

From Page B1

From Page B1 otherwise went hitless (lowering his spring average to .379, with a 1.318 OPS), they have to do with his defense, which is a work in progress at both positions. If that conjures too many memories of last season, when the Giants’ left field defense was the worst in the majors, then consider Bryce Johnson, who comes with the added benefit of being able to hit from both sides of the plate and possibly the fastest set of wheels in the organization.

Johnson, who stole his MLB-leading 10th and

the Monticello Empire League season but lost at Petaluma 11-6. Rodriguez scored five of its six runs in the top of the first inning. Petaluma struck for eight of its 11 runs in its first three innings. The Mustangs fell to 3-2.

Connor Boschard delivered a double for the Mustangs. Jaheem Mosely-Wallace and Nathan Schikore each had a hit and drove in a run. Kyle Sandner, Denzel Dilley, Landon Trout, Michael Boals and Kaden Wilde also contributed hits. Rodriguez opens the MEL season at 4 p.m. Monday at Vacaville.

against the San Diego Padres, getting only four outs in a Game 3 start the Dodgers were hoping would last four innings.

While Gonsolin gave up just one run, his early exit helped put the team behind the eight ball for the rest of that game, which ended in a loss, and the series, which ended with a stunning four-game defeat a night later.

The frustration lingered into the start of Gonsolin’s offseason, becoming the latest in a pattern of playoff disappointments for the four-year veteran.

“It sucked,” he said when asked about his finish to the year following his first, and only, Cactus League start this spring on March 3. “I feel like I did it back-to-back years in 2021 and ‘22.”

Gonsolin turned the setbacks into motivation while crafting his personal goals in 2023.

“Go wall to wall,” Gonsolin declared. “Go from start to finish.”

The start, now, has been complicated. While Gonsolin denied multiple requests from reporters in the last week to discuss his injury, Roberts said the 28-yearold’s discontent has been clear.

“You work all offseason to get to a certain point to come into camp, and then to have this setback

11th bases of the spring on Saturday, “has shown us he has the capability to fill in, if necessary,” Kapler said.

It is looking more necessary, with Slater’s injury leaving Mike Yastrzemski as the only true centerfielder on the roster. (Michael Conforto has logged 143 career games there but none since 2019, and the Giants much prefer him in one of the corners.)

“I think it’s important because he’s played really well,” Kapler said of Johnson, who also scored two runs and recorded two more hits, improving his spring batting average to .360 (9-for-25). “He’s done what we’ve asked him to do, which is to be

early on, yeah, he’s frustrated,” Roberts said.

Asked where the randomness of Gonsolin’s ankle roll ranked among injuries he’s seen in his career, Roberts acknowledged it was “up there.”

“It was something very, obviously, benign,” Roberts said. “A guy like Tony, to have something like this happen, to be up to this point costly, it’s very freakish.”

The challenge now for Gonsolin and the Dodgers will be making sure the pitcher stays primed for a strong return and, eventually, finish to 2023, when he will once again be expected to serve as an anchor of the team’s starting rotation.

“Tony talked about finishing the race or finishing the season strong, that’s still in play,” Roberts said. “But I think, to make sure we nip this and don’t have it linger, is very important.”

Dodgers pitching coaches were trying to strike a different kind of balance prior to Gonsolin’s injury, keeping his focus narrowed on the day-to-day while looking for big-picture improvements to be made from last season.

“It’s all about just keeping everything in perspective,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said. “I think it’s frustrating for all of

relentless on the bases, be ultra aggressive, be dynamic and don’t hold back at all. He’s done all of those things.”

Johnson, 27, went 2-for-18 (.111) with seven strikeouts in a brief call-up in 2022 and has a career .737 OPS over five minor-league seasons, but he would give the Giants something they sorely lacked last season: athleticism. He is regarded as a plus defender at all three outfield positions (67 of his 88 starts in 2022 came in center) and stole 61 bases between the past two seasons in Triple-A.

For a team that has relied heavily on its bench to pinch-hit in previous years, Johnson could round out their bench

us, and frustrating for him of course, that he had the year he had, and then had a little hiccup there at the end. So I know it’s front of mind. . . . But we just don’t want him thinking too much into the future. If he just takes it day by day, we know he’s going to be outstanding for us.”

After throwing twoplus scoreless innings in his Cactus League debut at the start of the month, Gonsolin felt he was making such strides.

“I had a better understanding of what I was preparing for,” he said. “Just kind of figuring out the routine, the dayto-day routine and being able to build my body up in a way to withstand the innings load.”

While that work is on hold, Gonsolin’s bigger goals for this season –steadily improving over the course of a full campaign, and pitching his best when it matters down the stretch – remain intact.

It’s an important step in his burgeoning career.

He’ll be hoping it goes smoother than the one that left him with the aching ankle that will delay the start of his season.

“As long as we stay on the same page with him, he should be good to go,” McGuiness said. “He’s an absolute beast. He’s going to be back out there soon.”

as a late-inning pinchrunner and defensive replacement.

Another option, if San Francisco prefers a player with a more established hit tool and more defensive versatility, is Brett Wisely.

While Wisely entered the organization primarily as a middle infielder, he also has outfield experience, and in the wake of their recent health concerns, he has joined Sabol in getting additional outfield reps. On Saturday, Wisely began the game at shortstop but moved to center field. Offensively, he lined an RBI double down the right-field line. While Wisely has only five hits in 27 spring at-bats (.185), three have gone for extra bases.

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season. Austin Cindric, another Ford driver, collected his first stage win in Stage 2.

Byron, who won here last March, was eliminated after suffering damage during the big collision. He’d won his previous two races and was the betting favorite Sunday. This was the third race at the repaved AMS. Logano joined Byron and Elliott as the winners on the remade track, which debuted last March.

AMS races often bring out notable Atlanta athletes. This time, several Falcons attended, including quarterback Desmond Ridder –likely the team’s Week 1 starter – and former Bulldogs Lorenzo Carter and John FitzPatrick. The AMS crowd was smaller than usual, perhaps partly due to the chillier weather (mid-40s during the afternoon).

The Cup Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway on July 9 for the Quaker State 400. Elliott won the event last summer, his first hometown victory.

Wisely, Kapler said, looks “very natural out there” in center. His ability to play short, too, is all the more valuable with lingering concerns about Brandon Crawford’s left knee. While Crawford is expected to be ready to make his 12th consecutive Opening Day start at shortstop, he’s been shut down all week with soreness in the same knee that sent him to the injured list twice last season.

But the bigger concern is in the outfield.

Wisely and Sabol, the two converts, “are candidates to get some work out there” in the regular season, Kapler said.

“Because you can’t see the future, you know.”

Rob Carr/Getty Images/TNS

Alex Karaban (11) of the Connecticut Huskies gets a rebound against Harry Wessels (1) of the st. Mary’s Gaels in the second half during the second round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament at MVp Arena in Albany, New York, sunday.