Daily Republic: Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Thompson selects Koefoed as Solano woman of year A3

Japan shuts down USA in World Baseball Classic B1

Fairfield police arrest robbery suspect after tense standoff

FAIRFIELD — A

robbery suspect was apprehended without incident Monday after a tense standoff in a central Fairfield neighborhood, police report.

Police blocked access to Broadway Street for several hours as a result of the standoff.

native Noah

plans another run across US

a my m agiNNiS-HoNey

AMAGINNIS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VACAVILLE — Noah Coughlan is ready to run again.

It has been three years since the Vacaville native ran across Ireland, returning to America as the Covid-19 pandemic was emerging. He also ran across America in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

The 2023 jaunt will begin Memorial Day in Seattle and end on Veterans Day in Miami. It will encompass 13 states, 3,500 miles on his running shoes and 167 days. “The longest run,” he said.

The dates are key.

Coughlan, now 39, whose trilogy of runs across the United States were to raise awareness for rare diseases, will continue that tradition while honoring those who have served in the military, those who have helped America remain a free country. It’s a way of saying thank you, he said.

He has the utmost respect for

those who have served, citing President John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Coughlan travels with a stroller and carries a large American flag, which draw attention as he runs through America’s towns. Active duty and retired military often stop to talk to him, Coughlan said.

“When you see a guy running with a large American flag, people

come out,” he said.

Plans are still being finalized for this run, which he said will be his last across America.

“I would like to run across the U.K,” he said. What happens after this run?

“I may run for office,” Coughlan said, opting not to reveal any more details.

You can follow this journey, and his other runs, at https://www. run4rare.org.

Coughlan’s first run was a 2.500mile trek that launched in San Diego and and ended at Atlantic Beach, in Jacksonville Florida.

His second trek was a 3,100-mile run across America to raise further awareness for Batten disease. He started in Half Moon Bay and ended in Boston.

The last American run was a 3,000-mile solo trek from New York City to San Diego spanning 127 days.

See Run, Page A8

Solano needs to ‘knit’ its economic future

toDD R. H aNSeN

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Solano County has some work to do if it is going to take advantage of new economic opportunities.

But retention and expansion of existing business is equally as important.

Robert Hess, vice president of Global Strategy for Newmark and one of four speakers at Tuesday’s 40th annual EDC Breakfast Meeting, said Solano needs to have a common economic vision among the county and cities and a common workplan – all to be “knitted together” moving forward, and with some urgency.

He noted Mare Island is an asset ripe for redevelopment, but 10 years need to be sliced off the buildout timeline. He said the world is changing too fast and Solano County could miss out.

“This is an asset we can market globally,” Hess said.

Newmark was hired to develop what turned out

to be the 444-page Solano EDC: Moving Solano Forward III report. It offers 69 recommendations and outlines the top five priorities:

n Develop a compelling presentation and business case for why companies should look at and choose to locate in Solano County.

n Improve outsiders’ perceptions of the quality of life in Solano County.

n Continue to develop a dedicated EDC staff for business assistance and

grant writing.

n Deepen relationships with area universities, including Cal Maritime, Touro University California and UC Davis.

n Build cluster networks in target industries.

The good news – the nearly 300 business and government representatives who attended the event were told – is that Solano County has many of the assets necessary to attract companies.

It has a lower cost of living relative to the

Bay Area as a whole; it is connected by highway, rail, port and air access; has high-quality health care; high-quality public schools and a strong university presence; is close to major markets; and is well positioned for redevelopment, notably Mare Island.

There were three other assets highlighted as well.

Travis Air Force Base is on that list, not only because those airmen transitioning out of the military typically have the higher skill levels needed for the workforce, but also has a center of innovation that could, and should, attract private partnerships.

Solano Community College is already feeding the biomanufacturing industry that is growing in the county, and Hess said community colleges in general are going to be a driving force into the future because of the roles they can play in shaping the workforce.

Companies looking to relocate or expand also

See Future, Page A8

Lt. Nick McDowell said at the scene that a Fairfield police officer saw a suspect with multiple prior warrants, including at least one warrant involving a firearm, enter the house at 730 Broadway St. A police bearcat was called at 3:18 p.m. and everyone inside the house to ordered exit through the front door.

Everyone left the house at that time except for one person. The last person left the house at approximately 7 p.m. and was taken into custody. At least three people were detained.

Shamond M. Smith, 27, of Fairfield, was wanted in

connection with an armed robbery that occurred March 11 outside a bar on the 800 block of Texas Street, police report in a press release. Police suspect Smith and two other people approached a man as he was leaving the bar, struck the man with a handgun and robbed him of what police described in the press release as “several personal items” before fleeing from the scene.

The names of the other two suspects in the robbery were not released.

Smith was booked into the county jail in connection with three misdemeanor warrants with a combined bail of $37,500. The warrants include allegations of shoplifting, petty theft, possession of marijuana for sale, reckless driving and failure to appear, according to online jail records. He is scheduled to appear in court May 15 in connection with the three cases.

After talks with Xi, Putin hails China’s proposals for Ukraine

bloombeRg NewS

After two days of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged even closer ties with Russia’s most powerful backer and hailed Beijing’s proposals for ending his war in Ukraine.

“Many of the provisions of the peace plan proposed by China are in line with Russian approaches and could be used as the basis for a resolution when Kyiv and the West are ready for it,” Putin said Tuesday in his

most detailed comments yet on the blueprint, speaking in the Kremlin alongside Xi.

The U.S. and its allies have rejected the Chinese initiative as biased toward Russia and Ukraine has also reacted cautiously. But the proposals are Beijing’s most ambitious effort yet to seek an end to the year-old war. Xi discussed them in detail in one-on-one talks Monday, Putin said.

Xi touted the close relationship between the two countries, signaling

See Putin, Page A8

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

From left, Chris Rico, Gabriel Dion and Robert Hess listen as Dr. Robert Eyler speaks during the Solano Economic Development Corporation Annual Meeting Breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfield, Tuesday.

What happened to college entrance exams?

It was exactly 56 years ago this month, at 7:45 a.m., when teenager Steve Davis took a seat in the jam-packed high school cafeteria waiting to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Teen-Steve was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers. In those days, a good score on the SAT was imperative if you wanted to attend a fouryear college. At teen-Steve’s high school, the mandate to do well on the SAT was tattooed on the foreheads of all entering ninth-graders.

Problematically, teen-Steve was a quintessential “white knuckle test taker.” Teen-Steve did reasonably well on homework assignments, and his grades were pretty good. Nevertheless, the idea that his cognitive acuity and college prospects could be determined by a single test score turned his mind into pudding.

At 8 a.m. sharp the test proctor blew his whistle, and

the three-hour ordeal began. Almost immediately the SAT questions became mired in the pudding between teenSteve’s ears. He stared blankly at the first word comparison item. It went like this:

PALTRY: SIGNIFICANCE

Redun-

dant: discussion

Austere: landscape

Opulent: wealth

Oblique: familiarity

Banal: originality

W-H-A-T? Nothing teenSteve studied in school remotely resembled questions like “fish: carpal tunnel syndrome.” It’s hard to compare apples to oranges when you don’t know what an orange is. And so it went. Ultimately teen-Steve received a remarkably mediocre SAT score. Yes, he eventually enrolled in the college of his choice, but only after a year in junior college (where his grades were about the same as they were in

high school).

Millions of high school students have had similar experiences over the years. But the SAT (and its analogous exam, ACT) have fallen on hard times. Due in part to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, which shut down testing sites, colleges are dropping these exams like overheated hot pockets. In recent years, nearly 1,800 of America’s 2,832 four-year colleges have either dropped the SAT/ACT entrance exams completely, or made them optional. Both the UC and CSU systems (totaling nearly 700,000 students) have dropped them entirely and the trend is growing. A recent survey found that by fall 2023, more than 80% of bachelordegree granting institutions will not require the SAT or ACT for applicants.

Critics of these exams, like Cornell psychologist Robert Sternberg, maintain “they don’t provide much useful information on whether students have learned to think critically and creatively, enabling them to be

Fed up with her town’s recycling, she collected

The WashingTon PosT

Liz Pinfield-Wells was about to feed her infant son, Albert, when she looked down at the plastic pouch of baby food in her hand.

“Wow, that seems like a lot of packaging,” Pinfield-Wells recalled thinking to herself that day four years ago. “I started looking into whether it can be recycled.”

The answer, she found, was no.

“It’s quite limited,” she said about the recycling service in her town, Telford, located in Shropshire, England.

In Britain, recycling is coordinated by local governments, which is similar to the United States, where different municipalities have their own recycling operations and rules.

She was disturbed at the idea of tossing the pouches, thinking they’d end up in a landfill or incinerator somewhere.

“Once you have children, it does give you quite a different perspective on the world,” said PinfieldWells, a mother of three, explaining she’s always cared about the environment, but being a mother supercharged her desire to protect the planet.

Since the plastic pouches were not included in the town’s curbside collection service – which does not accept plastic bags, hard plastic toys, bubble wrap, cardboard and chip bags, among other waste – PinfieldWells began researching alternative recycling

CORRECTION POLICY

options. She was adamant about not throwing the plastic packets in the trash, as she was going through several a day.

Pinfield-Wells stumbled upon a news story about a U.K. family that set up a recycling drop-off site outside their home in Nuneaton, a town about 55 miles away. They collected hard-to-recycle items, such as coffee pods and toothbrushes, and sent the trash to recycling companies, including U.S.based TerraCycle, which turns the waste into raw material that can be made into new products.

At the time, the family’s efforts had stopped more than a ton of plastic from ending up in incinerators. Pinfield-Wells was intrigued.

“I thought, that’s the sort of thing I could do here because I have the space to do it,” she said.

So she set up several bins on her driveway and began spreading the word to neighbors and friends, letting them know they could drop off certain waste items, like baby food pouches, dental products, chip bags, bread bags, Pringles tubes and cookie wrappers.

Since starting the effort in 2019, she has collected nearly 2 tons – or 4,000 pounds – of waste that would otherwise likely be sitting in a landfill, floating in a waterway or incinerated.

As a volunteer for TerraCycle’s recycling program, she collects and sorts the waste, and

the company handles the shipping costs and recycling process.

Not long after Pinfield-Wells set up her makeshift collection site, people began regularly stopping by to drop off their recycling.

“It’s very satisfying to be able to reduce the amount of waste your household is producing,” said Pinfield-Wells, who is an adult-care-support worker, looking after people with developmental and learning disabilities. She is also a trustee with Climate Action Hub Telford, a local charity that informs the community about climate issues and offers solutions.

Once a month, she sorts through the waste and weighs it, to make sure she has garnered the minimum amount required – which is different for each category – to donate it to TerraCycle, or other recycling companies. Then, she packages it and waits for it to be collected by a United Parcel Service carrier.

“Our whole goal as an organization is to be a mission-driven waste management company, where we’re trying to find circular solutions where they don’t exist today,” said Tom Szaky, the chief executive officer and founder of TerraCycle, which has been operating for 22 years and is available in 21 countries.

While some volunteers set up recycling sites at their homes, others offer to manage them in public spaces, such as schools, churches and commu-

It is the Daily Republic’s policy to correct errors in reporting. If you notice an error, please call the Daily Republic at 425-4646 during business hours weekdays and ask to speak to the editor in charge of the section where the error occurred. Corrections will be printed here.

successful in college, careers, and life in general.”

Supposedly the SAT and ACT exams measure academic aptitudes (e.g., propensity to succeed in college). However, many scholars assert that these exams are unavoidably biased by social-class, plus ethnic, regional, gender and other cultural differences. In addition, they unfairly advantage those who can afford test prep seminars and materials.

Recent studies by the University of California and the University of Chicago found that a student’s grade point average may be a better predictor of college readiness than the SAT and ACT because it measures a wider variety of academic skills through multiple formats. Also, demographic factors appear to be stronger predictors of how students score on these exams than their grade point averages.

Research on colleges that went test-optional offers a compelling argument. Students admitted without test scores

came from more diverse backgrounds and performed about as well in college classes as their test-taking peers. For many colleges, testoptional policies are an ongoing experiment. However, there are still strong arguments for taking the SAT and ACT. First, despite the declining use of these exams, a vast majority of colleges will consider them if submitted. Second, SAT and ACT scores in combination with GPA can provide more comprehensive information related to college potential than GPA alone. Third, SAT and ACT scores are often used to determine college course placements and in some cases used to award course credit. As for the future of college entrance exams, only time will tell.

Stephen Davis is a career educator who writes a column that publishes every other Wednesday in the Daily Republic. Reach him by email at stephen davis71@gmail.com.

nity centers.

TerraCycle receives funding from various places including cities, retailers and some individual businesses, a structure that allows it to run its recycling programs, Szaky said.

While the company tries to make the service convenient and accessible for people, “it comes down to the volunteers that say ‘let’s do it,’” he said, adding that there are roughly 25,000 volunteers around the world. “They are the front line.”

Stephen Davis Eye on education

Rebecca Ellams-Sheridan courtesy photo

Liz Pinfield-Wells stands at the recycling station she set up outside her home in Telford, a town in Shropshire, England.

Thompson selects Alexis Koefoed as Solano County woman of year

VACAVILLE — Rep. Mike Thompson has selected Alexis Koefoed of Soul Food Farm as his “2023 Woman of the Year for Solano County.”

Koefoed is the co-owner of Soul Food Farm at 6046 Pleasants Valley Road in rural Vacaville and is presi dent of Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association. She was honored by Thompson on Sunday in Napa Valley for her service to the agricul ture community.

A plaque was presented to Koefoed at Trinchero in Napa Valley. She was recognized along with five other women from other counties in Thompson’s 4th Congres sional District.

“Alexis Koefoed is an advocate and community leader for farmers throughout our community,” Thomp son, D-Napa, said in a press release. “Her extensive work with local farmers and agriculture nonprofits like the Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association has directly impacted the lives of so many and helped them establish their businesses. Alexis is a farmer whose farm, the Soul Food Farm, is a hub for local farmers to bring them together, while providing a place to sell their produce.

“She has been a strong advocate for farmers’ needs at the state and national levels, and she is the perfect example of the Woman of the Year.”

Soul Food Farm’s “Reserve” Farmstand will open Friday after a brief winter break. Soul Food Farm Reserve is a private membership association. For more information, visit http://soulfoodfarm.com.

The Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association will host its 6th Annual Open Farm Days on July 15 and 16 in Vacaville. To learn more about the Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association, visit http://VacavilleFarmers. com or send an email to pleasantsvalleyaa@gmail.com.

Among the women honored was Mary Kimball of Center for Land-

NorthBay Health opens American Canyon primary care center

AMERICAN CANYON — Family Medicine physician Frances Benko saw her first patient at the Napa Junction commercial center site on March 6 and said she has great hopes for future growth and outreach to the community.

“With the changes in medicine and how we approach populations, we hope to offer a place for people to come not just for primary care but eventually urgent care and specialties,” Benko said in a NorthBay Health press release. “Because when you do that, you can have a real impact on the health of the community. The community becomes and stays healthy.”

“I came from Virginia with my husband who is in the military and that is where I completed my residency and had my first practice in what was a rural community, where they needed a physician that would do the types of procedures I do, from gynecological to newborn evaluations and then following through with the kids from kindergarten through high school,” Benko said in the press release. “This (American Canyon location) gives me the opportunity to open my second clinic with a diverse population and to be committed to providing care. It’s awesome.”

Based Learning for her contributions in agriculture, who was named the “2023 Woman of the Year for Yolo County.” Thompson’s district includes all of Napa County and parts of Solano, Contra Costa, Lake and Sonoma counties. The district covers northern and eastern Solano County to include Vacaville, Dixon and Rio Vista.

‘I Love to Read Day’ returns to David Weir campus

FAIRFIELD —

David Weir Preparatory Academy celebrated its annual I Love to Read Day on March 15.

The communitydriven event is designed to promote literacy and engagement within the school, the FairfieldSuisun School District reports in a press release. This year marked the event’s eighth anniversary and the first time it has occurred since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 20 represen tatives from community organizations, including the city of Fairfield, the Fairfield Police Department, the Fairfield Fire Department, the FairfieldSuisun School District, the city’s Public Works Department and Councilwoman Doriss Panduro joined in the activity.

Volunteers traveled from classroom to classroom to read to students and speak about the importance of literacy in their careers.

Every class at David Weir was joined by at least one reader who not

only read from a gradeappropriate book, but also engaged with the students about their professional experiences and the role that reading has played in their success.

“I Love to Read Day is a very special event on our school calendar,” Principal Alison Guernsey said in the press release. “It’s

an opportunity to bring our community together and to inspire our students to become lifelong learners. We were thrilled to see so many representatives from local organizations volunteer their time and expertise to support our students.”

David Weir Preparatory Academy is located

at 1975 Pennsylvania Ave. in Fairfield. The school serves children in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school’s curriculum is designed to “develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for success in school, college and future careers,” according to the school’s webpage.

Preparations for Urgent Care services at both the American Canyon site and in Dixon continue, NorthBay Health reports in the press release. If all goes as planned, primary care could come to the Dixon location by the end of the year.

Benko, whose husband is a neurosurgeon at David Grant Medical Center on Travis Air Force Base, said the opportunity to expand primary care to American Canyon is one of the key things that brought her to NorthBay Health.

She has nothing but praise for the team that is joining her at the new clinic, including Amanda Luke, medical assistant, and Stephanie DeMello, patient services representative.

“The team here is setting me up for success,” Benko said in the press release. “Amanda is amazing, intuitive and she has EMS experience that she applies, preparing patients and letting me know all about why they have come in. And Stephanie is just phenomenal.”

The new clinic is located at 416 Napa Junction Road. Benko will do both in-person and video appointments at the site.

SolTrans set to break ground on electric bus project

VALLEJO — A ceremony to break ground for the new Solano County Transit electrification infrastructure project has been set for 10 a.m.

April 12 at the SolTrans Operations and Maintenance Facility.

The $11 million infrastructure project is part of SolTrans’ efforts to become a zero-emission bus service provider by 2040.

The facility is located at 1850 Broadway in Vallejo.

Courtesy photo NorthBay Health’s American Canyon primary care team includes (left to right) Amanda Luke, medical assistant; family medicine physician Dr. Frances Benko; Stephanie DeMello, patient services representative; and Julia Cefelli, clinic supervisor.

Courtesy photo

A volunteer from the community interacts with children in a classroom at David Weir Preparatory Academy during the school’s I Love Reading Day, March 15.

Courtesy photo

Rep. Mike Thompson stands with Solano County Woman of the Year Alexis Koefoed at Trinchero in Napa Valley, Sunday.

Bill to extend drinking water access passes senate committee

Daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — A bill that would ensure more low-income residents will have uninterrupted drinking water service has cleared the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communica tions Committee.

“We must ensure the tap does not get turned off just because someone falls behind on their bills,” Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said in a statement. “Access to water is a fun damental right.”

Dodd, who authored the Water Shutoff Protection Act of 2018, expanded the protections in that law to more individuals.

Instead of the law applying to water systems with 200 or more cus-

tomers, Senate Bill 3 would reduce the threshold to water systems of 15 customers or more. It extends

Kaiser Permanente selects Fairfield High junior for internship

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order and affects thousands of lowincome families across California, the statement said.

“This bill enhances my previous legislation by covering people in smaller, rural communities who are struggling financially. It will allow them to continue using water for drinking, cooking and necessities such as washing clothes while they get caught up on missed payments,” Dodd said.

Dodd represents the state’s 3rd Senate District which includes all of Solano County and all or parts of Napa, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa and Sacramento counties.

Genealogy group to hear talk on steps in researching family tree

Daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VACAVILLE — The Solano County Genealogical Society will host a free virtual Speaker Series presentation on “Timelines: A Path to Your Next Research Steps.”

The event will begin at 11 a.m. April 1. The speaker is Annette Burke Lyttle.

A perennial problem for genealogists is how to organize a stack of research results: How do you figure

out what information you have and what you don’t?

Timelines are powerful tools that enable people to identify the relationships between information items, allowing researchers to draw conclusions and see what research is needed to fill information gaps. In short, timelines can help turn seemingly impossible research projects into manageable ones. Lyttle owns Heritage Detective LLC, which provides professional

genealogical services in research, education and writing. She speaks on a variety of genealogical topics. She is coordinator of the Fall Virtual Intermediate Foundation’s course for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) and has been an instructor in other institute courses on migration, Quaker research, and federal records for SLIG and the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. She is founder and leader of

the Best Practices Study Group, president of the Association of Professional Genealogists and editor of The Florida Genealogist.

To attend, send an email to scgs@scgsca. org no later than 4 p.m. March 31, and request an invitation.

More information on society activities can be found on the society’s webpage at scgsca.org and on its Facebook page.

Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield High School junior Johan Jimenez has been selected to participate in the Kaiser Permanente Launch Internship program this summer.

The eight-week internship program will provide Jimenez with the opportunity to work at a Kaiser facility where he will receive training and experience working in both medical and nonmedical fields within the organization, according to a Fairfield-Suisun School District press release.

Jimenez will have the chance to work alongside doctors, nurses and other Kaiser professionals, “providing him with valuable insights into various careers in the medical field,” according to the press release. The program aims to prepare students for successful careers after graduation by providing them with

practical experience and training.

Jimenez’s selection from a pool of nearly 3,000 high school applicants is a demonstration of his hard work, dedication and passion for the medical field, the school district reports.

“We are incredibly proud of Johan and all that he has achieved,” Fairfield High School teacher Nick Spini said in the press release. “We are excited to see where this opportunity will take him and look forward to supporting him in his future endeavors.”

Jimenez’s selection to the internship program is not only a reflection of his personal achievements but also demonstrates Fairfield-Suisun School District’s commitment to providing students with the tools and resources they need to succeed and thrive in their chosen fields, according to the press release.

Sterling Alexis Barnett

Sterling Alexis Barnett passed away suddenly at home, in Tucson, AZ on March 3rd, 2023. She was 43 years old.

Sterling grew up in Vacaville, California graduating from Will C. Wood High School in 1998. After graduating, she moved to Tucson, AZ where she planned to attend Pima Community College. She and her high school teammates will be honored at a Hall of Fame Award Ceremony on March 25th with her mom accepting her award posthumously She had many interests including sports, music and cooking. Friends and family will miss her big heart, lively spirit, humor and beautiful smile.

Genealogy

Society of Vallejo-Benicia offers in-person speaker series

Daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VALLEJO — The next in-person meeting for the Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia will feature speaker John V. Robinson.

The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. April 6 at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum at 734 Marin St. The meeting is inperson only. Robinson will talk about the history of building the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. He is an Amer ican writer and photojournalist who spe cializes in photographing heavy construction work with a focus on bridge con struction and the men and women who do the work. Robinson goes onto con struction sites and does detailed photo essays of the ironworkers, pile drivers, carpenters, labor ers and crane operators who do this demanding

and dangerous work. He frequently collects oral histories of the workers.

Robinson also does freelance photography work and his construction shots are frequently published in San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, used in calendars, and used in advertising campaigns of construction and engineering firms. Robinson’s photo essays on bridge construction and history have been published in nine books and his articles and pho-

in professional and trade journals like The Ironworker and Engineering News Record.

The summer of 2007 marked the opening of the newest BeniciaMartinez Bridge between Solano and Contra Costa counties. His talk, “Building the Benicia-Martinez Bridge,” traces the transportation history of the area from the old railroad ferry service through the construction of the existing bridges, and documents

newest bridge. Masks are encouraged but not required. For more information, go to https://gsvb.org.

Preceeded in death by William K. Moss, father; Virginia R. Tait, grandmother; Walter Tait, uncle. She leaves to mourn Carol Barnett , Mother; James Evans (Cenie) and Donald Evans (Elsie) uncles, and a host of family and friends.

Memorial service will be held on Friday, March 24th at 4 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 1127 Davis St , Vacaville, CA 95687. Celebration TBD. Flowers and cards can be sent to First Baptist Church, 1127 Davis St ., Vacaville, CA.

Helping You... Help yourself

Courtesy photo

The Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file (2019) Sen. Bill Dodd speaks, Aug. 13, 2019.

Space station discarded some trash; it rained fire in California’s sky

Los A ngeLes Times

Jeff Watters and his friends weren’t sure what to think of the streaking lights that dashed across the Sacramento night sky late Friday.

About seven meteorlike blazes appeared to dart by around 9:30 p.m., diverting attention from ongoing St. Patrick’s Day revelry, as evidenced by video that Watters took.

“It looked crazy,” Watters said in a written statement to The Times. “We thought maybe it was some Starlink or SpaceX thing or something, but that didn’t really make sense.”

Turns out, the spectacle was created by flaming “orbital debris” reentering the Earth’s atmosphere above Northern California, after years spent orbiting the Earth since being discarded from the International Space Station in 2020, according to Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

“We knew this object was going to reenter sometime this weekend, but we didn’t know exactly when,” McDowell said – or where, for that matter.

Orbiting at a speed of 17,000 mph, such “space junk” is hard to precisely track, he said, which means that pretty regularly this type of debris – the aftermath of launches or left behind from space exploration – will return to the atmosphere in what’s known as an “uncontrolled reentry.” But, he said, the U.S. Space Force does track thousands of such items, so when the dazzling display was spotted Friday in skies from Sacramento to Fresno, he was able to match the event with the space debris.

“The light you’re seeing is the kinetic energy being dissipated,” McDowell

said. “It gets so hot that it melts and breaks up.”

This specific piece of equipment was a 683pound communications device launched by Japan in 2009 and attached to the outside of the International Space Station, McDowell said. It relayed information back to Earth for about eight years but became obsolete when its coordinating satellite retired. In 2020, ISS officials jettisoned the device from the space station, beginning its years-long journey back to Earth, he said.

McDowell figured that the pieces of melted equipment spotted in Northern California probably fell near Yosemite National Park.

Although the phenomenon brought wonder and awe across Northern California, McDowell pointed out there were at least two other pieces of space debris that also reentered the atmosphere in the last few days, though at locations that probably

went unnoticed.

“I get a report like this from somewhere in the world every couple months,” he said. “They’re rare in any one place, but they’re common on a global scale.”

More than 200 pieces of space junk reenter the atmosphere every year, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, though many completely burn up and disintegrate upon reentry, and the majority fall into the ocean unseen.

“Every day the Space Force is tracking over 20,000 pieces in orbit around the Earth,” McDowell said, though he noted about 7,000 of those are working satellites. “This object is just one of those 20,000 that happened to reenter this weekend and happened to reenter at a time and place that it was seen by a lot of people.”

As the prevalence of such space junk increases, McDowell said,

After ambitious single-payer health care plans sputter, a new bill tries an incremental approach

Los A ngeLes Times

A new bill introduced in the California state Senate aims to lay the groundwork for a state universal health care system, proposing an incremental approach that departs from recent sweeping, and unsuccessful, efforts to reshape how Californians receive care.

public plan such as MediCal or is uninsured.

the chances that such debris could fall in a dangerous manner – hitting people or critical infrastructure – also increases, though those chances still remain low. He said he would like to see more safety precautions taken by teams launching such equipment, especially when the debris could include larger pieces.

China has been criticized for launches of a new rocket in which its booster has plunged uncontrolled back to Earth. The rocket booster has so far landed without incident, but experts worry that’s won’t always be the case.

“Every time they . . . launch one of these, it is sort of orbital roulette,” McDowell said. “The chances are in their favor, but not so much that I don’t worry.”

There are ways to control and plan for how objects reenter the atmosphere, which many teams across the globe utilize.

Under the measure by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), California would begin the process of seeking a waiver from the federal government to allow Medicaid and Medicare funds to be used for a first-in-the-nation singlepayer health care system.

“In the wake of COVID-19’s devastation, and as costs for working people have skyrocketed, the need to provide affordable health care to all Californians has never been greater,” Wiener said in a statement. He touted his measure as making “tangible steps on a concrete timeline toward achieving universal and more affordable health care in California.”

The legislation would require California’s health secretary to offer recommendations on crafting the federal waiver by June 1, 2024.

Proponents say singlepayer health care – which would cover every California resident and be financed entirely by state funds (including repurposed federal dollars) – is more efficient than our current system, in which available care and cost is dependent on whether a person has private insurance, is enrolled in a

U niversal health care is a leading priority for progressives, who have rallied around the “Medicare for all” plan championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during his two presidential runs. A 2017 California bill to establish a singlepayer system cleared the state Senate, but it was shelved by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood).

The setback galvanized the left wing of the Democratic party, which saw single-payer as a litmus test for political candidates, and Gov. Gavin Newsom embraced the cause during his 2018 campaign.

On his first day in office in 2019, Newsom asked Congress and the White House, then occupied by President Donald Trump, to change federal laws that would enable California to pursue a single-payer system.

But Newsom has put more focus on expanding coverage in California for people living in the country illegally. Meanwhile, his 2019 budget created a commission to explore the steps to achieve a universal health care system; that panel issued its final report last year.

Newsom declined to weigh in on the last major legislative push for single-payer, a bill by Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose). That measure was abruptly pulled by Kalra last year after fellow See Bill, Page A10

Jack Fischer/NASA via Getty Images/TNS file (2017)

In this NASA handout image, Hurricane Harvey from the cupola module aboard the International Space Station as it intensified on its way toward the Texas coast on August 25, 2017.

Columns&Games

My husband wants me home all the time but treats me poorly

Dear Annie: Do you think my husband loves me? He yells at me, and in his sleep, he yells obscenities, but he says it isn’t about me. He never wants to talk or anything. He just wants me at home. He is upstairs, and I’m downstairs. If I ask a question, I’m stupid. Never a nice compliment or “I love you.” Am I wrong for staying in this relationship? I ask for him to do things together, but he says no because they cost money. He says we don’t have any money.

Annie Lane Dear Annie

But when his best friend died, his son asked him to buy a place in the mountains, suddenly, there is money. And the son of his friend didn’t put any money or get a loan; he bought it all. — He Loves Me Not

Dear He Loves Me Not: I’m not sure if he is even capable of love because he certainly doesn’t love himself. Anyone who would say such emotionally abusive things to his wife is not loving. He is really treating you poorly, and it is time to seek marriage counseling. If he refuses to go with you, then you should seek the help of a professional therapist or

a counseling group for women who have suffered from emotional abuse. You might also want to speak with a lawyer and get your finances in order. Dear Annie: I am my mother’s first-born. She was 20 years old and a newlywed at 18. I grew up with my parents and three siblings. My parents were both hardworking people. My mother was everything to our family and huge circle of friends. What a hostess! If a loved one passed, she was instantly in the kitchen making casseroles. I could write a book about her. She suffered with dementia that took her like a freight train. Two years later, she died on my birthday. People often say “Oh, I’m so sorry. On your birthday.” All I can say is, what a great honor. She chose to go to the good Lord the same day she gave birth to me. — Here’s to You, Mom. Dear Here’s to You, Mom: What a beautiful way to look at your mother’s passing.

Dear Annie: For the doctor who is excusing parents and cellphone use; There is a time and place for everything, and

Horoscopes by Holiday Mathis

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’ll reach one checkpoint and be up, the next you’ll be down. These measurements are a matter of tradition, though less important than you might imagine. What matters is not how you’re counted on arrival but that you arrive at all.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Each family is its own country with customs and language foreign to outsiders. You will interact with those from another family. Tread lightly, as it’s easy to cross boundaries you don’t realize exist.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Because you are so open and approachable, where you go is very important. If you’re in a place where like minds and upbeat people are, you’ll probably get more out of the interactions you’re bound to have.

CANCER (June 22-July 22).

Self-care is different for everyone. For some, silence is self-care, and for others a long conversation is self-care. Exposure to a variety of experiences will teach you what nurtures you. It’s not always what you expect.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22).

There’s not one style of being that’s better than another, though there are styles more or less suited to the moment. What suits you best today will be poetic and organized aestheti-

cally rather than logically.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).

Don’t expect the breakthrough to come to those who are ready for it. Luck goes by its own rules. Often, opportunity arrives at the same time as problems, challenges and setbacks. Good fortune has many faces.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

Your mood turns social just in time to make some key connections. You’re like a hitchhiker in that you’ll get where you’re going because other people going the same direction could use a little company.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

There are those who would be more comfortable if you were

a healthy balance is most appropriate. I have an early ed degree and have provided private preschool/day care from birth through age 12 for 40 wonderful years. I’ve seen the best and worst parenting skills. Nothing is more heartbreaking than a parent arriving at the end of the day on their phone while they should be present and warmly greeting their excited child. The phone parents manage a little wave, or some hold up their hand as if to say “stop” or put a finger to their lips that means “shush.” These are the parents more likely to have children who act out because they are constantly competing for attention, and the only way they get it is by making noise or misbehaving. It’s such a sad cycle that would be nonexistent if parents could just put their phones away and greet their children in a socially appropriate way. Every parent should make time to interact with their child without a phone attached to their hand. — Early Ed Teacher Dear Early Ed Teacher: Thank you for your valuable perspective.

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

to stick with the way it’s always been done, but you’re not living for them. Get on your own side. Do it your way. Experimentation is both necessary and fun.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). Your attraction to the exotic leads you to new people and realms. You will come bearing gifts, and you will not stay too long in one place. When the mystique has worn off, you will move along.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). You get the feeling that it’s all going to be different just as soon as you get to the other side of this barrier, which could break open at any moment. This belief is the key to your persistence. Keep going.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18). Loved ones will tell you exactly what they want, though not in words. So it’s mighty convenient that you’re paying close attention today and are even more sensitive than usual to the subtleties of interaction.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Relationships will be like a rubber band. When pulled a distance away from the other person, energy will build in the bond. At a certain point, this will cause you to come quickly and forcefully back together. Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

Word Sleuth

Crossword by Phillip Alder

Bridge

only at the West hand and choose your opening lead. North’s three-no-trump response showed 13-15 points and either 3=3=4=3 or 3=3=3=4 distribution. Four clubs set the suit as trumps, four diamonds and four spades were control-bids, four no-trump was Roman Key Card Blackwood, and five diamonds showed either all four aces or three aces and the club king. Sitting West was the French expert, Benedicte Cronier. She inferred that South didn’t have a heart control when she control-bid four spades rather than four hearts. Therefore, North clearly had a heart control, because she had used Blackwood. So Cronier led the heart two.

Not anticipating the underlead of the ace, most declarers would call for dummy’s jack and go down. But South wasn’t “most declarers.” She was Carla Arnolds, from the Netherlands. She called for dummy’s heart king and won all 13 tricks.

UP, UP AND AWAY WITH THE TITLE

Erma Bombeck might have been metaphorically comparing declarer-play standards of today with 50 years ago when she wrote, “Limousines used to be reserved for the ruling class. . . . Today, limousines are like taxicabs with the door handles still intact.”

Today’s deal comes from a European Women’s Pairs Championship. Look

Is it any surprise that Arnold and her partner, Bep Vriend, went on to win the title?

Since this deal occurred, the ace underlead has appeared often in print. If it works, the leader wants her or his moment in the spotlight. If it fails, the declarer searches for printer’s ink. Someone always gets into the newspapers.

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne Gould

UP, UP AND AWAY WITH THE TITLE Erma Bombeck might have been metaphorically comparing declarer-play standards of today with 50 years ago when she wrote, “Limousines used to be reserved for the ruling class. . . . Today, limousines are like taxicabs with Bridge Here’s how to work it: WORD SLEUTH ANSWER

by

3/22/23

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: GOLD

Today’s birthday

Daily Cryptoquotes

Solano

We service all makes and models of RV motorhome, 5th Wheel and Trailer Chassis, brakes, lights, engine, HVAC, transmission, steering, axles, bearings, suspension, tires etc. We also repair and service all trucks from a pick up truck to a Class 8 Big Rig. Our team of Technician’s have over 150 years combined repair and diagnostic experience. We treat your vehicle like it is ours. There is no job too big or small, we invite them all.

Give us a call to schedule an appointment or just stop by we always have coffee brewed and popcorn popped. We look forward to meeting you and providing you with excellent customer service.

(707) 427-1386

Present

Former TV star, now a chicken ‘rescuer,’ found not guilty of theft

Los A ngeLes Times

Former “Baywatch”

star Alexandra Paul and a co-defendant were found not guilty Friday of theft after taking two chickens from a Foster Farms truck in September 2021.

Paul and Alicia Santurio were acquitted of misdemeanor theft charges after a multi-day trial in Merced County.

The two activists took the chickens from a truck outside of Foster Farms’ Livingston, California, plant in what they called an “open rescue.”

The incident was captured on video by animal activist organization Direct Action Everywhere and posted online within hours.

“This is a victory for [the chickens] Ethan, Jax,

and all other living beings subjected to abuse by corporations like Foster Farms,” Santurio said in a news release from Direct Action Everywhere. “I have so much love for the chickens in my family and I want all animals to experience that safety and respect.”

“This is how we shape history,” Paul said in the release, “by using our privileges to confront unjust industries that exploit animals.”

The verdict marks the second recent victory for activists who have taken animals from commercial facilities.

In October, activists with Direct Action Everywhere who took piglets from a Smithfield Foods facility in Utah were also acquitted at trial.

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

are looking at workforce diversity as a critical piece, and Solano County has one of the most diverse county populations in the state.

And the diversity can be found among the decision-makers and business community – evident at the EDC event.

“We have gone into communities and the data tell us one thing, and then we go into a restaurant and it’s all white (diners) – and that’s not a good thing,” Gabriel Dion, managing director of Global Strategy for Newmark, said in his part of the presentation.

Moreover, Solano is also diverse in its industry base, with manufacturing, health care and agriculture being among the bigger pieces. That means more types of businesses are looking at Solano.

To that end, the target industries that emerged from a yearlong economic study are fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food manufacturing; support activities for crop production; pharmaceuticals and medicine manufacturing; beverage manufacturing; and architectural and structural metals manufacturing.

But there are some gaps, too.

Chris Rico, the president and chief executive officer for the Solano Economic Development Corp., said that Upside Foods, the Berkeley-based technology company looking to grow sustainable cultured meat, took a peek at Solano recently but the county did not have the energy infrastructure in place to land the $400 million project.

Dion noted that while it is a good thing that Solano has protected its open lands, that decision leaves fewer areas for industrial development. So it is critical that those areas have the infrastructure in place and are shovel-ready for

development when compa-

nies come in to look at what Solano has to offer.

Rico said there are federal dollars coming to help develop microgrids and other needs, and in time, he said, industrial parks will be developing their own energy.

Hess said energy has grown to the same level of labor on the priority lists of companies looking to relocate or expand.

Other challenges include cost of living relative to the rest of the country; lack of collaboration among cities; lack of clear, shared vision and goals; a “not in my backyard” attitude toward multifamily and other affordable housing options; high public sector turnover; natural disaster risks; red tape and regulatory issues; and rising crime and homelessness.

Ec onomist Robert Eyler, president of Economic Forensics and Analytics Inc., opened the presentation with a breakdown of Solano’s economic building blocks before the pandemic and now emerging out of the pandemic.

He noted Solano was on a “slow walk up” from the Great Recession, when the shock of the pandemic hit.

The loss of businesses and workforce are primary concerns, as is the higher cost of housing – though the latter is likely to fade in the coming years.

Wages are rising as employers are in a more competitive environment to fill positions. In fact, the median wage level in Solano, for the first time, is higher than the state’s median, Eyler said.

“Inflation is going to continue to linger over the next couple of years,” said Eyler, who said that is the price of the government pouring money into the communities to offset the impacts of the pandemic.

However, Eyler said, the economy would look much worse if the government spending did not happen.

months after Coughlan completed his Ireland run.

Beijing’s strong support for Russia amid efforts by the US and its allies to isolate Putin over his invasion of Ukraine. Xi invited Putin to make a return visit to China later this year, something Kremlin officials said was a possibility.

“Putin and Xi share a fundamental mistrust of the West and the U.S. and in this, China supports Russia,” said Vita Spivak, non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But that doesn’t mean China supports the war in Ukraine. They see Russian foreign policy as unpredictable and chaotic and they just have to wait it out.”

John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, tore into Xi for flying “all the way to Moscow” without yet speaking to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“And he and his regime keeps parroting the Russian propaganda that this is somehow a war of the west on Russia, that it’s some sort of existential threat to Mr. Putin,” Kirby told reporters at the White House. “That’s just a bunch of malarkey. Ukraine posed no threat to anybody, let alone Russia.”

“Now look, if if he’s willing to talk to President Zelenskyy and willing to get the other side and, if any future potential negotiation can incorporate Ukrainian views and perspectives,” Kirby added, “then that’s something that that could be seen as impartial.”

Russia has become increasingly dependent on China for trade with

FairField

FRIDAY, MARCH 17

He met former Fairfield police chief and Vacaville resident Joe Allio in a church youth group. When he learned the Allio family had two daughters had Batten disease, Coughlan wanted to help raise awareness. Both daughters have since died from Batten disease, a broad class of rare, fatal, inherited disorders of the nervous system.

The last one died six

The Allios in 2011 thought Coughlan would do something such as a bake sale or garage sale. Then he pulled out a map, showing a route from California to Florida, Joe Allio told the Daily Republic in 2020.

“We were blown away,” Allio said.

There has been some progress made on Batten disease, Coughlan said. There is more work to be done, he said.

He will turn 40 in January.

other markets cut off, but there was little sign of new deals.

Putin hailed rising trade between the two countries and said he’d discussed the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline to carry more Russian gas to China but didn’t announce an agreement. “Almost all the parameters of this accord have been agreed,” he said, echoing his comments at a meeting last fall.

China is in no rush to commit to the new Siberian gas pipeline despite Russian appeals. Moscow is already committed to increase supplies and with access to its main markets in Europe largely cut off due to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has little leverage to force a deal with China.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the dominant backdrop of the talks, however. After the threeday visit to Moscow, Xi is expected to hold his first conversation since the invasion with Zelenskyy.

Putin and Xi agreed that “responsible dialog” is the solution to the “Ukraine crisis,” China’s Foreign Ministry said

in a statement after the talks in Moscow.

China’s cease-fire paper has little detail and largely consists of broader foreign policy positions long espoused by Beijing. While its embrace of the principle of territorial integrity won praise in Kyiv, which seeks to drive Russian forces back across the border, a ceasefire call that would freeze forces in current positions is a non-starter.

Neither side appears willing to negotiate seriously at the moment, however.

For Putin, Xi is by far the most significant international leader to visit since the invasion, which triggered Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II and waves of sanctions by the U.S. and its allies. Xi’s arrival comes just days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on charges of war crimes. Russia has dismissed the move, and China called for the court to avoid politicization.

The two sides discussed military cooperation, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, without

7:57 p.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 1900 block of GRANDE CIRCLE

8:16 p.m. — Shooting into a dwelling, 1000 block of MEADOWLARK DRIVE

8:44 p.m. — Reckless driver, 1000 block of OLIVER ROAD

providing details, according to Tass.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that the alliance had seen “some signs” Russia had requested lethal aid from China for the war in Ukraine. So far, he said, “We haven’t seen any proof that China is delivering lethal weapons to Russia.”

China has said it’s not supplying weapons.

The Chinese leader last visited Russia in mid2019, while Putin went to Beijing in early 2022 to attend the opening of the Winter Olympics. At that meeting the two leaders agreed to a “no-limits” friendship and signed a series of long-term energy supply deals.

The two met in September last year at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Putin said he understands Beijing’s “questions and concerns” about his invasion of Ukraine, a rare admission of tensions between the diplomatic allies.

4:59 a.m. — Arson, 1900 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET

7:52 a.m. —

1100 block of WESTERN STREET

12:42 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 1900 block of GRANDE CIRCLE

1:07 p.m. — Trespassing, 1400 block of HOLIDAY LANE

2:01 p.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 1200 block of B. GALE WILSON BOULEVARD

2:06 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 3500 block of NELSON ROAD

2:35 p.m. — Reckless driver, DOVER AVENUE

3:15 p.m. — Vehicle theft, RED TOP ROAD

3:30 p.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 1200 block of

B. GALE WILSON BOULEVARD

3:33 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 200 block of EAST

ATLANTIC AVENUE

3:56 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, DOVER AVENUE

4:35 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 800 block of EAST

TRAVIS BOULEVARD

5:35 p.m. — Indecent exposure, 2300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET

5:58 p.m. — Indecent exposure, 1900 block of WEST TEXAS STREET 6:45 p.m. — Grand theft, 500 block of CLEARWATER OAK COURT 6:55 p.m. — Reckless driver, LINEAR PARK PATHWAY 8:57 p.m. — Indecent exposure, 3300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 10:40 p.m. — Shots fired, 5000 block of BROOKDALE CIRCLE

10:57 p.m. — Battery, FROST PLACE

SATURDAY, MARCH 18

3900 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE

4:51 p.m. — Battery, 2500 block of SUNRISE DRIVE

5:43 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, TRAVIS BOULEVARD

7:39 p.m. — Shots fired, 900 block of NIGHTINGALE DRIVE

8:07 p.m. — Reckless driver, WESTBOUND INTERSTATE 80

8:54 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, EAST PACIFIC AVENUE

9:07 p.m.

8:46 p.m. — Vandalism, 200 block of CAMELLIA STREET

8:51 p.m. — Commercial burglary, FINKAS LANE

11:32 p.m. — Trespassing, 1200 block of B. GALE WILSON BOULEVARD

MONDAY, MARCH 20

2:48 a.m. — Shots fired, 2300 block of FAIRFIELD AVENUE

3:03 a.m. — Shots fired, 900 block of BRETON DRIVE

6:56 a.m. — Commercial burglary, 900 block of DELAWARE STREET

7:13 a.m. — Grand theft, 1600 block of FAIRFIELD AVENUE

8:11 a.m. — Reckless driver, VANDEN ROAD

8:34 a.m. Vandalism, 900 block of OLIVER ROAD

9:59 a.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 1100 block of MISSOURI STREET

10:38 a.m. — Battery, 600 block of JACKSON STREET

10:38 a.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 2400 block of SUNRISE DRIVE

11:22 a.m. — Commercial

burglary, 700 block of OAKBROOK DRIVE

11:27 a.m. — Battery, 1000 block of WEBSTER STREET

11:47 a.m. — Reckless driver, UNION AVENUE

12:13 p.m. — Battery, 300 block of BECK AVENUE

12:35 p.m. — Battery, 1200 block of B. GALE WILSON BOULEVARD

12:57 p.m. — Commercial burglary, 1700 block of ENTERPRISE DRIVE

1:34 p.m. — Forgery, 1000 block of WEBSTER STREET

2:03 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 1200 block of DANA DRIVE

2:05 p.m.

— Vandalism, DANA

— Drunken driver, 4400 block of CENTRAL PLACE

10:55 p.m. — Trespassing, 2000 block of CADENASSO DRIVE

SuiSun City

FRIDAY, MARCH 17

9:37 a.m. — Vandalism, 800 block of SCOTER WAY

2:17 p.m. — Fraud, 1100 block of CRYSTAL STREET

6:18 p.m. — Fraud, 300 block of LAWLER CENTER DRIVE

6:25 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 300 block of FLAGSTONE CIRCLE

7:17

DRIVE

1:25 p.m. Battery, 4900 block of RIALTO AVENUE

2:41 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 1300 block of GATEWAY BOULEVARD

4:39 p.m. — Trespassing, 1400 block of GATEWAY BOULEVARD

5:36 p.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 1700 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET

7:11 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 200 block of RED TOP ROAD

7:28 p.m. — Reckless driver, 1500 block of WEST TEXAS STREET

Pavel Byrkin/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images/TNS

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday.

From Page A5

Democrats balked at the price tag, which ranged from an estimated $341 billion and $391 billion.

The primary advocate of a singlepayer system, the California Nurses Assn., slammed Kalra for refusing to put the bill up for a vote on the Assembly floor. But they are partnering with Kalra again this year on a renewed effort to pass a universal health care system, which they dubbed CalCare.

Kalra’s bill is sparse on details at the moment, signaling that the bill’s sponsors anticipate an extended campaign to boost support both among legislators and with grassroots activists. The nurses’ union is sponsoring 45 events across California this weekend to rally support for its effort.

Wiener’s legislation takes a decidedly more modest tack, focusing solely on the federal waiver process. Sal Rosselli, president of

FEATUREDBUSINESS

the National Union of Healthcare Workers and a supporter of the bill, said this approach reflects lessons learned from the failure of two hotly contested, more comprehen sive measures.

“From my point of view, this is not controversial at all,” Rosselli said. “Our governor, the administra tion, the Senate, the Assembly, the majority of our elected leaders are in support of this system to fix our health care.”

Still, he acknowledged that fierce opponents of single-payer – largely the major health care industry inter ests – may feel differently.

“I don’t expect the industry to support this on any level whatso ever,” he said.

Preston Young, a policy advocate for the California Chamber of Com merce, signaled that the business group was wary of the plan.

“Regardless of the incremental approach, the fact remains that a single payer health care system oper ated by the state will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars on an annual basis,” Young said.

Welcome to China Palace!

China Palace has prepared specialty dishes of Peking, Szechuan and Hunan cuisine for the past 23 years and is personally prepared by owner Pat Chang. Their menu includes traditional Chinese dishes along with daily lunch specials. China Palace was voted “Best Chinese & Ethnic restaurant in Solano County” in a 2002 Daily Republic Readers Poll.

Customer comments:

China Palace 715 Jackson St. • (707) 422-5019 Open Mon-Sat 11am-8pm

“Best Chinese Food Around, Hands Down!”, “The owners are amazing, everything is so FRESH!” The family owned restaurant is operated by Pat & Lisa Chang and they are very happy to be part of Fairfield’s Downtown District. Take Out Only!

Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/TNS file

A 12-year-old patient in the emergency department at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in December.

Championship Game at loanDepot Park in Miami, Fla. Tuesday. Japan went on to win the championship over

Japan shuts down Team USA to win World Baseball Classic title

MIAMI — Team USA manager

Mark DeRosa felt confident in his team’s lineup no matter who would throw for Japan on Tuesday night.

“It’s crazy deep and crazy good,” DeRosa said.

It turns out so was Japan’s pitching staff.

Japan used seven pitchers, starting with Shota Imanaga and finishing with All-Stars Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani, to hold the potent U.S. lineup enough to secure a 3-2 victory in the World Baseball Classic championship game at Miami’s loanDepot park before a crowd of 36,098.

In the end it came down to the

Los Angeles Angels teammates as Ohtani came in to pitch the ninth and would face Mike Trout with two outs and the bases clear after the former induced Mookie Betts to ground into a double play.

After a six-pitch battle, Ohtani struck out Trout when he swung and missed at an 87-mph sweeper to end the game and send the rest of Japan’s players racing toward the mound to celebrate.

Japan celebrated its first WBC title since 2009 and won its third overall,.

Japan won all seven of its games, completing only the second unbeaten championship run in the history of the WBC and joining the Dominican Republicin 2013.

Solano Cal gymnasts shine during Pac-12 finals

M att MillEr MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Sophomore Maddie Williams (Vacaville, Dream Xtreme) and senior Nevaeh DeSouza (Fairfield, Dream Xtreme) helped the Cal women’s gymnastic team to a thirdplace finish Saturday at the Pac-12 Championships in West Valley City, Utah, with solid allaround performances.

The United States, which went 5-2 in the tournament, came up a win short of repeating as WBC champions after its victory in 2017.

Trea Turner put the U.S. ahead 1-0 in the second inning when he crushed his fifth home run of the tournament 407 feet into the left field seats.

But Japan answered with two runs in the bottom half of that inning, starting with a solo home run from Munetaka Murakami. Kazuma Okamoto, who singled and came around to score on an RBI groundout by Lars Nootbaar, then homered in the fourth to push Japan’s lead to 3-1.

Kyle Schwarber homered in the eighth inning for the U.S.

Sources: Giants’ center fielder Austin Slater is ruled out for Opening Day

Evan WEbEck

BAY AREA NEWS GROUP SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. —

The Giants on Tuesday morning released an inauspicious medical update on Austin Slater. The right-handed half of their center field platoon, who strained his hamstring last week, still has not resumed baseball activities. And, major league sources said, Slater will not be ready when San Francisco opens its season against the Yankees on March 30.

After receiving an MRI on Friday that revealed a strained left hamstring, Slater was given a timeline of three to four weeks to return to play, sources

said. The timeline indicates a moderate strain and places his earliest possible return after the club’s opening road trip through New York

and Chicago.

Slater, who missed the first half of Cactus Leagues games with neuritis in his throwing elbow, said it felt like he had taken “one

step forward, three steps back” with the unfortunate news. He had played in three games – two at designated hitter – and taken nine at-bats this spring before he suffered his second injury.

In his first game in the field Thursday against Seattle, Slater was scheduled for three or four at-bats but was removed from the game after only two trips to the plate. An error by Seattle second baseman Kolten Wong allowed Slater to reach in his second at-bat, which ultimately led to his injury.

Slater stole second base with ease, then made an

Williams tied for fourth in the all-around (39.525), tied for second on the uneven bars (9.950), tied for 10th in the vault (9.850), and tied for 16th in both the balance beam (9.850) and floor exercise (9.875).

DeSouza tied for fourth in the all-around (39.525), tied for eighth on the balance beam (9.925), tied for seventh

in the vault (9.875), tied for ninth on the uneven bars (9.875) and tied for 19th in the floor exercise (9.850). Williams was named first-team All-Pac-12 as an all-arounder and an uneven bars competitor. With a national qualifying score of 9.955, she is ranked eighth in the country on bars, an event she has won six times this year. Her all-around NQS of 39.550 ranks her 18th overall.

Williams competed in the all-around in all but one meet this season and hit 45 of her 47 routines. She performed seven bars routines that scored a 9.95 or higher, including two 9.975 scores that are good for second in program history. On two occasions she has tied

Armijo baseball rallies in 9th inning for win

Daily r Epublic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Luis

Urias threw a three-hitter over eight innings and had 15 strikeouts

Monday as the Armijo High School baseball team rallied in the ninth inning to beat visiting Will C. Wood 1-0 in the Monticello Empire League opener for both schools.

Brayan Orrantia pitched the ninth inning and gave up a walk. A dropped third strike to the next batter set up Wood runners at second and third base with two outs. Orrantia then struck out the next batter to end the threat.

In the bottom of ninth inning, Urias led off

with a walk. Charly Reid bunted a single down the first base line that was thrown into right field, allowing Urias to score. Urias, Caden Magno, Reid and Raeshaun Priest all had hits for Armijo.

The Royals improved to 2-3 overall on the young season. Devon Hancock had a strong start on the mound for Wood. No other individual statistics were made available for the Wildcats. Wood fell to 0-3.

Armijo and Wood will continue the series at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Wood and at 4 p.m. Friday back at Armijo, weather permitting.

Warriors stink, but it might not matter in playoffs out West

AN FRANCISCO —

The streak is over.

Eleven road losses in a row did not become 12.

Ending the streak –which lasted nearly two months – is a reason for celebration for the Dubs.

“That was gross,” Klay Thompson said of the losing streak.

But so was the Warriors’ win over the Rockets.

The Warriors didn’t win the game so much as

the young Rockets lost it. So while picking up a first win since Jan. 30 is significant for the Dubs, the truth remains that Golden State is far from top form.

The Warriors have nine games remaining in the regular season. Thompson pushed the idea that those contests are a “warmup” for the playoffs on Monday, but I’m not sure the Dubs can wash the stink of the team’s first 73 games away in the next two-anda-half weeks. But here’s some good

news for the Warriors – a silver lining, if you will:

The rest of the Western Conference stinks, too.

The Warriors have won eight road games all season, with the latest, No. 8, serving as an accomplishment. They’re 4-6 in their last 10 games overall. This team should be buried – relegated to the play-in tournament at best.

But the Warriors being definitively mediocre this season hasn’t mattered – they’re still one

of the Western Conference’s top-six teams as of Wednesday morning.

Yes, they’re playing atrocious basketball, but they are still an automatic qualifier for the real tournament, two games back of home-court advantage in the first round.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Warriors have never truly “turned the corner” this season, despite claiming such play was imminent several times in the last month. Why try hard when the bare

minimum will do? Who is really putting a scare in the Dubs?

It’s not Denver, a squad that is scuffling at the moment and whom the Warriors easily dispatched in last year’s playoffs.

It’s not the Grizzlies, who are better at shooting their mouths than the basketball.

It’s not the Clippers, who are counting on Russell Westbrook to operate in the postseason.

And it’s not Sacramento, either – even

though the Kings can make the case that they’re the one Western Conference team playing good basketball at the moment. Ultimately, the Beam Team’s lack of playoff experience and bottom-five defense are dealbreakers in the postseason. (If we get an I-80 series, Warriors in six.)

I thought it might be the Phoenix Suns who would scare the Dubs, but I thought wrong.

LOPES DESOUZA WILIAMS

Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group/TNS file (2022) Giants outfielder Austin Slater sprained a hamstring and sources say he won’t be ready for Opening Day.

See Local, Page B5

See Alumni, Page B10

See Giants, Page B10

Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS

Japan’s Munetaka Murakami celebrates as he crosses the plate after a home run against the United States in the second inning during the World Baseball Classic

Team USA 3-2.

CALMATTERS COMMENTARY

Should state’s referendum law become harder to use?

Over the past decade, as Democrats achieved total control of the state government and their policies took a turn to the left, those who oppose the ideological trend have increasingly used the only avenue still available – ballot measures to overturn what legislators and governors have wrought. Recent elections have seen a spate of initiatives (to write new laws) and referenda (to block legislative laws) sponsored by business interests to overturn the Capitol’s decrees. Proponents have included the tobacco, bail bond and plastics industries, as well as ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft.

Next year, voters are certain to face two other business-sponsored measures: referenda by the fast food and oil industries to block newly enacted regulations on their operations. Others could be added. For instance, were Gov. Gavin Newsom to succeed in imposing fines on gasoline refiners for exceeding profit limits, another oil industry referendum is likely.

New laws being challenged by referenda, including the two already headed for the 2024 ballot, are suspended until voters render final judgment.

Understandably, progressive politicians and their allies, particularly labor unions, dislike business use of ballot measures to thwart their legislative gains. As the syndrome has evolved, there have been efforts to make placing measures on the ballot more difficult.

A few systemic changes have been enacted, affecting the process on the margin, but there hasn’t been a successful frontal assault. In 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have banned paying signature gatherers on a per-name basis, using the same words he used in his 2011 veto of similar legislation.

“Per-signature payment is often the most cost-effective method for collecting the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to qualify a ballot measure,” Brown wrote. “Eliminating this option will drive up the cost of circulating ballot measures, thereby further favoring the wealthiest interests.”

Contrarily, those who would make qualification of measures more difficult, or at least more expensive, contend that it’s the current process that favors those with the deepest pockets (i.e. business groups), and that their money encourages paid signature gatherers to lie to voters about proposed measures to persuade them to sign petitions.

Does that occur? Absolutely. But it also happens when labor unions and other left-leaning interest groups circulate their measures and when politicians themselves use the ballot process.

Proposition 57, a 2016 measure sponsored by Brown, was especially deceptive, claiming that it would reduce penalties only for nonviolent felons, when it also benefited those who commit certain types of rape, domestic violence and other heinous crimes.

The latest effort to kneecap those who resist the Legislature’s progressive legislation was unveiled Monday – a bill to require that unpaid volunteers gather at least 10% of signatures on all referenda and on initiatives seeking to repeal or amend recently enacted laws.

Assembly Bill 421 also would require paid signature gatherers to undergo mandatory training, register with the state for the specific measures they are presenting to voters, wear badges and use unique identification numbers that would allow their petitions to be traced back to them.

The coalition of progressive groups advocating AB 421, and its author, Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, a Culver City Democrat, argue the proposed changes would make the ballot measure process more fair and more transparent.

It’s entirely possible that AB 421 will be enacted, but ironically, business interests could challenge it by referendum.

Moreover, it could run afoul of a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a Colorado law that banned a statute against paid signature gatherers. It declared that petition circulation is “core political speech” and the use of paid signature gatherers is “the most effective, fundamental, and perhaps economical means of achieving direct, one-on-one communication with voters.”

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.

Letters to the Editor

Letters must be 325 words or less and are subject to editing for length and clarity. All letters must include the author’s name, address and phone number.

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

COMMENTARY

State’s drought is over; its water problems aren’t

M ark GonGloff

BLOOMBERG OPINION

California’s recent water windfall is a bit like somebody getting a big tax refund after years of dipping into their 401(k) to pay the bills. Any sense of wealth this sudden bounty engenders will be fleeting and perhaps dangerously misleading.

Weeks of heavy snow and rainstorms, poetically known as atmospheric rivers, have essentially ended the state’s three-year drought. Just 9% of California is still experiencing “severe drought” conditions, down from almost 33% a month ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some of the state’s formerly parched reservoirs are overflowing.

But the deluge on the surface has barely replenished the state’s groundwater, the 401(k) on which this and future generations of Californians will depend. Decades of mismanagement and below-average rainfall have led farmers, homeowners and businesses to drain it. With a heating planet making extreme weather such as droughts and floods more likely, it would be a grave error to think a few months of precipitation will let the state off the hook for shoring up this critical resource.

“In California we don’t do the basics to manage droughts,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law. “If we declare victory just because it rained, then we lose the opportunity to prepare now for the next drought.”

Measuring California’s groundwater capacity with precision is difficult, but it could hold an estimated 800 million to 1.3 billion acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is a measure of how much water it takes to submerge an acre of land, or roughly one American football field, in a foot of water. In contrast, all of California’s surface reservoirs combined hold just 50 million acre-feet of water when filled to the brim.

California’s Department of Water Resources periodically takes readings from thousands of wells in an

SOLANO VOICES

effort to plumb these depths. In its latest survey, it found water levels in 51% of wells had retreated by five feet or more over the past five years. Levels had dropped by more than 25 feet in 14% of the wells. Nearly 1,500 wells went dry last year, the most since the agency started keeping track in 2013, and likely an undercount.

A recent study by the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security found that groundwater in California’s Central Valley had shrunk by about 36 million acre-feet since 2003, equivalent to the disappearance of Lake Mead, the biggest surface reservoir in the U.S. The other hint that groundwater is in serious decline is the fact that, in much of the Central Valley, the ground is sinking so much that it can be studied from space. In parts of the Tulare Lake region - site of a former freshwater lake bled dry by farms and cities - the ground has sunk by more than 1 foot per year for the past five years, according to the water resources agency. When there isn’t enough snow and rain to keep surface reservoirs filled, users have to tap groundwater. And the past 22 years have been California’s driest stretch since roughly the year 800, a recent study estimated.

This winter’s deluges will go a little way toward making up lost ground. But there is no guarantee wet conditions will continue. The first few months of 2022 put the state on pace for a record year of precipitation.(1)

Then the atmospheric rivers disappeared, and the year ended with 20% less precipitation than usual, putting even more strain on groundwater.

“It will take several years, or even decades, of normal or above-average conditions, combined with appropriate management actions, to counter the decades of depletion of our groundwater resources,” the Department of Water Resources wrote in its latest groundwater report.

The possible return of the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific after three years of La Niña conditions does offer some reason to hope. On average, El Niño makes California wetter. But that’s no sure thing.

A strong El Niño in 2015-16 couldn’t reverse the long-term trend of declining precipitation and shrinking groundwater.

So California, like many places, will need to do a better job of saving its water windfalls. This is partly an engineering problem. The state’s Safe Clean Water Act of 2018 throws $280 million in tax dollars per year at the problem of funneling floodwater into the ground. The results so far have been disappointing, suggested a recent report by Los Angeles Waterkeeper, a nonprofit group.

But better groundwater replenishment would only address the supply side of the water equation. Reducing demand is even more important. Unfortunately, that is a knottier, political problem. Berkeley’s Kiparsky points out the state Water Resources Control Boardthe referee ostensibly in charge of doling out water rights – lacks the resources, funding and authority to properly do its job.

Unlike other Western states, which use an established pecking order to determine which water users must give up some or all of their rights to increasingly scarce water each year, California’s approach is more ad hoc, and less effective. Even in the depths of the latest drought, as hundreds of wells were running dry, farmers in the Central Valley were still drilling new ones.

It will take political will on the part of Governor Gavin Newsom and California’s legislature to make the tough calls needed to shore up the state’s most important asset for the future. After decades of drought, you would hope that will is strong enough to withstand a few buckets of cold water.

(1) We’re talking here about “water years,” which, like many fiscal years, run from October to September.

Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change. A former managing editor of Fortune.com, he ran the HuffPost’s business and technology coverage and was a reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal.

Superintendent’s approach inimical to students’ success

Nonprofit organizations in Solano County have been of tremendous assistance to the students in the Fairfield-Suisun School District and “End 68 Hours of Hunger” is no exception.

Each Thursday afternoon, this group meets at The Salvation Army Kroc Center in Suisun City to bag groceries and distribute them throughout the district for students in need. As one of the schools I represent has at least 20 families in need of additional assistance, I thought I would do my part to help, so I informed the superintendent that I would be delivering bags of food to Suisun Elementary School.

The response I received from Superintendent Kris Corey was unexpected: “Unfortunately, we do not have the personnel to assist in the coordination of this program. It involves more than just a food delivery. This was communicated last week to . . . the school site principals.”

I thanked her for the update and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?” To my surprise, Board President David Isom interjected to say that, “I believe that the best way to help is to follow the guidance of the leader. . . .” No offer from the good reverend to assist in feeding those in need. I suppose his boardroom sermon on “the Golden Rule” was just a suggestion. To be fair, the superintendent did, later, respond that she was researching the matter.

Hedge much?

As an elected trustee who represents approximately 20,000 Fairfield residents, I take my responsibility seriously to ensure that our students receive the best education this district can provide. In this capacity, I have discovered failing programs, favoritism, policies that would make Machiavelli blush, and disrespect for superiors on the level of textbook white fragility as defined by sociologist Robin Diangelo, to resorting to slinging ad hominem attacks and assertions of reverse racism.

Since 2016, the district incorporated MAP testing as an additional standardized test. Unfortunately, the $200,000 a year cost has not garnered significant benefits to the students to warrant such an expense, but the superintendent insists on a failing test. The literacy program has also proven to be a bust, as at least 11 teachers have been pulled out of the classroom to teach teachers to teach students how to read, further exacerbating the teacher shortage problem when the remedy is smaller class sizes in grades K-2, not more costly, ineffective programs.

Second, accompanying the Fairfield-Suisun Unified Teachers’ Association’s president twice a week as she meets and greets the faculty and staff at each site has been revelatory. Experienced teachers on one side of town cheerfully glide onto campus, ready to begin their days in

their manageable class sizes while at the other end of town, teachers look exhausted as they drag their trolley loads of supplies to their overcrowded classes. When I dared to ask why the least experienced teachers were assigned to our Title I schools, I was accused by the superintendent and other district administrators of discriminating against them because they are white.

Participating in one’s democracy is vital to ensure accountability and transparency, and I would like to thank members of the community, some voicing concerns related to failing test scores. Parents of students in Long-Term Independent Study lamenting the hardships of in-person parent/teacher meetings when virtual meetings are an accommodation provided for in the Local Control Accountability Plan. These parental requests were dismissed by the superintendent as teacher laziness. Conversely, Matt Garcia College and Career Academy parents organized, fought for their school and prevailed.

This board will continue to let the tail wag the dog at the expense of a quality education for our students, which is why it is imperative that the community continues to show up to affect change. Consider running for office, because we must be the change we want to see. Si se puede.

Ana Petero, a resident of Fairfield, is a trustee with the Fairfield-Suisun School District. This column represents her own views and not those of the school board.

Dan Walters

Ana Petero

Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell will be taking fast food orders again in “Good Burger 2.”

But which celebrities will be doing the ordering?

Thompson and Mitchell announced the long-awaited sequel, which starts filming this summer, on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Friday. The next day, Thompson crashed an “All That” panel at 90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, and teased some potential cameos.

The longtime “Saturday Night Live” cast member first gushed that he would make “cameo calls” to former “All That” co-stars Danny Tamberelli and Lori Beth Denberg, who sat alongside Mitchell during the panel. Denberg also appeared in the original 1997 “Good Burger” movie. Thompson said he also had his sights on even bigger stars.

“I keep saying Harry Styles. I just feel like it would be a really big one, you know what I’m saying? One Direction!,” Thompson said, according to People, before adding that “Barack Obama would be great.”

Thompson further promised that comedian Sinbad would reprise his role as the short-tempered schoolteacher, Mr. Wheat.

“Sinba d definitely is gonna be back. Even if we got to go to him, we’ll make sure we have Sinbad for sure,” Thompson said during the panel, referencing the comedian’s health. Sinbad was hospitalized in a coma in 2020 after a blood clot had caused a stroke. He has since regained consciousness and has been recovering and learning how to walk again.

Rumors about a “Good Burger” sequel have swirled for years.

Keeping the idea alive among its fan base – mostly children of the 1990s – Thompson and Mitchell reunited during a 2015 “Fallon” episode and parodied their iconic characters of Ed and Dexter Reed. Then, in 2019, Mitchell went on to reprise his role

in the Paramount+ “All That” reboot.

In recent months, as the duo began to appear together onscreen more often, talk of a sequel began to ramp up.

First came the 2022 Emmys moment where Thompson, who hosted the show, walked up to a dozing man at the bar and asked him what he wanted to drink. The man lifted his head, revealing he was Mitchell, and asked, “You know what, can I get a Good Burger?” The crowd burst into applause as the pair embraced.

As the pair pretended to do martial arts into the camera, Thompson exclaimed, “Sequel comin’ at ya!”

A month after the Emmys, Thompson told ET that he was “getting really close” on the sequel. “It’s gonna happen, and I think it’s gonna happen soon,” he said.

In a December episode of “SNL,” Thompson and Keke Palmer performed another”Good Burger” parody with Mitchell making a surprise appearance.

When Fallon asked the pair Friday what prompted production of the sequel, wondering whether it had been influenced by the 2015 “Tonight Show” skit or the recent “SNL” parody, Thompson deflected, giving sparse details: “It’s been years –since the first one, we’ve been wanting to do two.” Thompson said he hoped to get “as many cameos as we could possibly get – anybody that wants to do it that is somewhat famous,” before asking an eager Fallon if he would join. Fallon agreed.

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 and Carlos Castellanos

Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) embarks on the next chapter of her life in “Good Trouble.”

Los A ngeLes Times

Amy Sussman/Getty Images/ TNS file (2022) Kel Mitchell, left, and Kenan Thompson attend the 2022 People’s Choice Awards in Santa Monica, Dec. 6, 2022.

‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ delivers with sublime action, locales

K atie Walsh

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The nearly three-hour fairy tale of firearms that is

“John Wick: Chapter 4” is a sprawling, Shakespearean orgy of violence, a salute to stunt choreographers, and a return to the original film’s roots – at the heart of the matter, it is the fundamentally the story of a duel, and a dog.

For four bloody installments, Keanu Reeves has played the sorrowful, taciturn assassin John Wick, directed by his former stunt double Chad Stahelski, who has proven to be quite the cinematic stylist. Together, these two have offered up a completely unique blockbuster action franchise, one that dares to be somber, centering the doleful Reeves as the grieving John Wick. It also dares to embrace bold aesthetics – color, style, production design and location shooting – which feels downright revolutionary in the age of endless greenscreen and computer-generated landscapes.

These films are long on style, but narrative complexity is not on the menu here – the “John Wick” films are merely conduits for long dream ballets of stunning fight choreography set amongst richly production-designed scenery. Reeves seems aware that he is merely a vessel for violence here, and though the script, by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, is laden with lore surrounding the Continental Hotel for assassins (gamely delivered by Clancy Brown), feel free to simply let it wash over you.

All you need to know is that John Wick is fighting for his freedom, that the governing body of assassins, the High Table, doesn’t want to grant it, and he’s going to duel to the death for it. The new leader of the High Table, the preening, poncy Marquis (an excellent

Daily Cryptoquotes

work it:

Review

‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Rated R 169 minutes HHH (OUT OF FOUR)

Bill Skarsgard) hasn’t just put out a huge bounty on Wick’s head, he’s also compelled the Zatoichi-like blind swordsman Caine (an even more excellent Donnie Yen) to kill John Wick in exchange for protecting his daughter. And so it unfolds. “John Wick: Chapter 4” is structured roughly in three parts set in different locations across the globe. The first, taking place at The Continental in Osaka, is spectacular – stunningly designed in a neon Japanophile style that combines traditional and modern symbols: cherry blossoms and samurai swords, rich reds and nightclub lighting. The hotel, managed by Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter Akira (singer Rina Sawayama in her acting debut) becomes the location for a showdown between John and the High Table henchman. It’s the high point of the film, and it’s distressingly over in the first act.

This long fight sequence shows what the “John Wick” movies do best, melding choreography with space and cinematography. Kevin Kavanaugh’s eye-popping sets become an integral part of the action, putting glass art panels and neon-lit stairs to work. Dan Laustsen’s sumptuous cinematography captures it all in long fluid camera movements, allowing the work of stunt professionals to shine.

The film later moves on to Berlin, and then Paris, as John decides to challenge the Marquis to a duel. In Berlin, he has to earn back the trust of his

family so that they’ll stake his challenge, and in Paris, he’ll face off with the Marquis if he can manage to get to the church on time (Sacre-Coeur, that is). In between, there are moments both insipid and sublime. The attempts at comedy ultimately fail; one wishes the filmmakers would realize that the humor in “John Wick” works when they keep a straight face – Reeves knows this – and not try to force it. There’s an unfortunate sequence of Scott Adkins in a fat suit as a Berlin-based heavy who roundhouse kicks John Wick all over a brutalist nightclub. It’s great to see Adkins in the movie, but not like this.

But when it’s sublime, it’s positively transcendent, such as Yen’s incredible turn delivering one of the best physical performances of all time as the blind assassin. The supporting cast brings the color and the heat, and Shamier Anderson is also fantastic as a tracker trying to run up John Wick’s contract. Each character has a distinct fighting style, and while Yen is like a classically trained dancer, Anderson’s “Mr. Nobody” is all muscle and force, a military-trained survivalist using a pump-action shotgun and sporting a backpack. He’s the one with the dog, by the way, a dog whose loyalties will ultimately tip the shifting allegiances.

John Wick is a man of few words, but a lot of action, and when all is said and done, it’s simply a treat to watch him move about these space, from the galleries of Japanese art, to a pounding Berlin club, to the traffic circle at the Arc de Triomphe, and even more spectacularly, the 222 steps to Sacre-Coeur. We like to watch him work – a skill he employs almost regretfully –and “John Wick: Chapter 4” is a stunningly beautiful, if a bit narratively sludgy, climax for America’s favorite assassin.

Word Sleuth

Crossword by Phillip Alder

Bridge

launched into Blackwood and bid the small slam when he learned that an ace was missing.

West led the heart jack. If the dummy had included a third heart, the contract would have been laydown. With the actual layout, it seemed that South needed to find East with the club ace. As you can see, that wasn’t the position, but South gave it the old college try.

KEEP WATCHING AND KEEP BELIEVING

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “What a glorious garden of wonders the lights of Broadway would be to anyone lucky enough to be unable to read.” In bridge, though, we must watch all the lights –the cards – and read the information they are broadcasting.

North’s response of two no-trump was the Jacoby Forcing Raise. South. holding such a powerful hand,

After winning trick one with dummy’s heart queen, declarer drew two rounds of trumps, cashed the diamond ace, led a diamond to dummy’s king, ruffed the diamond seven in hand and played the heart king over to dummy’s ace. His preparations completed, South led a club to his king. West paused to take stock. South was known to have started with six spades, two hearts and two diamonds. Therefore, he held three clubs. West saw that if South had the club queen and he, West, won this trick, the contract would make. A club lead away from the jack would be won by dummy’s 10, and a heart return would concede a ruff-and-sluff. So West played his club eight. Now South couldn’t avoid losing two club tricks and finished down one. Was that well defended? Here, yes – but wait until you see tomorrow’s deal.

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne Gould

Bridge

3/23/23

KEEP WATCHING AND KEEP BELIEVING

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

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “What a glorious garden of wonders the lights of Broadway would be to anyone lucky enough to be unable to read.” In bridge, though, we must watch all the lights –the cards – and read the information they are broadcasting.

© 2023 Janric Enterprises Dist. by creators.com

Difficulty level: BRONZE

Yesterday’s solution:

MOVIE

Murray Close/Lionsgate/TNS

Keanu Reeves as John Wick in “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

CALENDAR

TV sports

Roethlisberger said 49ers reached out in 2022

Jerry McDonalD BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

As the 49ers were struggling to keep their quarterbacks healthy in 2022, former Pittsburgh Steelers star Ben Roethlisberger said Tuesday the club reached out to see if he was interested in coming out of retirement.

“They were, I think, reaching out maybe just to gauge my interest,” Roethlisberger told 105.9 The X (Pittsburgh) host Mark Madden and reported by SteelersNow.com.

“I had discussions. . . . I’d be lying if I didn’t say there was a small part of me that was intrigued. I could still do it and prove to people that I could

Thursday’s TV sports

Local

From Page B1

Vanden rolls to big win over Fairfield

FAIRFIELD — Vanden High School’s baseball team scored early and often in the Monticello Empire League opener Monday at Fairfield and notched a 13-0 victory in five innings.

still play. At the end of the day, I just can’t see myself in anything other than black and gold.”

Roethlisberger, who turned 41 on March 2, retired after the 2021 season with 64,088 yards passing and 418 touchdowns in 18 seasons. The 49ers opened 2022 with Trey Lance at quarterback, then pivoted to Jimmy Garoppolo when Lance fractured an ankle in Week 2. Garoppolo was re-signed as insurance for Lance either being injured or ineffective and was available

struck out five.

game winning streak for the Falcons. Fairfield is now 6-3 overall.

Vanden and Fairfield are scheduled to play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Fairfield and 4 p.m. Friday at Vanden, weather permitting.

Vacaville rallies late to defeat Rodriguez

England, FS1, 12:45 p.m.

Navratilova says she’s finally cancer-free

Tribune conTenT agency

Tennis great Martina Navratilova said she’s cancer-free, just over two months after revealing she had been diagnosed with two unrelated forms of cancer.

The former top-ranked tennis star described her frightening experience in an upcoming interview

with Piers Morgan on U.K.’s Talk TV.

The diagnosis also led Navratilova and her wife, 50-year-old Julia Lemigova, to postpone plans to adopt a child.

Navratilova said earlier this year she had been diagnosed with Stage 1 throat cancer and early-stage breast cancer.

The Vikings scored five runs in the first inning and added four-run innings in the second and third. Vanden finished with 13 hits and improved to 4-1 overall.

Cody Buckley went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs for the Vikings. JoJo Torres hit two doubles and drove in two runs. Josiah Miguel singled, doubled and had three RBIs. Austin Hammerschmidt also doubled.

DJ Andersen threw a two-hitter over four innings for Vanden with three strikeouts. Chris Marley worked one inning, allowed one run and struck out two.

Trustin Mitchell went 2-for-2 for Fairfield. Juan Martinez added a double. The loss snapped a six-

VACAVILLE — The Vacaville High School baseball team erupted for a six-run bottom of the sixth inning Monday and the Bulldogs rallied to beat visiting Rodriguez 9-5 in the Monticello Empire League opener for both teams.

Rodriguez had a 5-3 lead after five innings before Vacaville struck for its breakout inning. Vacaville is now 3-4 overall and Rodriguez is 3-3.

Tyler Chalk was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs for Vacaville.

Brendan Murphy, Bennie Dyer and Drew Carrington each singled and doubled. Carrington picked up three RBIs, while Murphy and Chalk had one apiece. Luke Johnson also tripled.

James Oldwin pitched six innings for Vacaville. He allowed three hits, two earned runs and

at a reduced contract because he was coming off shoulder surgery. Brock Purdy, the last selection of the 2022 NFL Draft, was kept on the roster as a No. 3 quarterback.

Roethlisberger was not clear on the timing of the 49ers’ interest. Was it before Garoppolo came back on final cutdown day? After Lance was hurt? After Garoppolo was lost to a broken foot in Week 13, necessitating the move to Purdy?

Purdy, of course, was a revelation as the starter, starting and winning the last five regular-season games and two playoff games before being lost to a UCL tear n his right elbow during the NFC Championship Game loss against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Kyle Sandner and Kaden Wilde had two hits apiece for Rodriguez. Sandner had a double and a triple, while Wilde tripled. Aaron Strong added a triple and Michael Boals doubled.

Nathan Schikore pitched three innings. He allowed four hits, two earned runs and struck out five batters.

Vacaville and Rodriguez are scheduled to play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Rodriguez and will be back at Vacaville at 4 p.m. Friday, weather permitting.

Vacaville Christian falls short to Colusa

VACAVILLE — The Vacaville Christian High School baseball team rallied for seven runs in the sixth inning Saturday but came up just short in a 9-8 loss to visiting Colusa.

Thomas Lane and Grayson Frische had two hits apiece for Vacaville Christian. Lane also drove in a run. Vacaville Christian fell to 4-2 overall.

Nicko Meadows pitched three innings, allowed two hits and one unearned run, and also had three strikeouts.

The Falcons were scheduled to open Sierra Delta League play at 4 p.m. Tuesday against visiting Golden Sierra, weather permitting.

Softball

Buckingham wins over Vaca Christian

VACAVILLE — The Buckingham Charter softball team defeated Vacaville Christian 2-0 Friday in a pitcher’s duel.

Haley Griffin and Annalyn Steh combined on a two-hitter with 16 strikeouts for Buckingham. Griffin and Steh had RBI singles to account for the Lady Knights’ runs.

Griffin and Jordan Walberg each had two hits. Steh, Giana Jones and Makayla Tonn had one apiece.

Emerson Meggers went the distance in the circle for Vacaville Christian. She allowed just two runs on seven hits with 13 strikeouts. Meggers also reached base twice with a single and a walk.

Buckingham is now 1-2 on the season. Vacaville Christian is 0-2.

ROETHLISBERGER

Alumni

From Page B1

the school’s fourth-highest all-around mark of 39.625, including Cal’s home quad meet March 12 when she was named the all-around champion. This is her second time making the all-conference list, earning an honorable mention for bars last season.

DeSouza has been the “Iron Woman” of the Bears for the past four years, competing in the allaround in all but one meet in her career. She becomes the first Bear to make the all-conference list all four years, being named an AllPac-12 Honorable Mention as an all-arounder and vault competitor. In total, she has earned eight allconference honors, which is also a school record.

This season DeSouza has hit all 48 of her routines and has won three event titles. She ranks 24th as an all-arounder with an NQS of 39.505 and 23rd on vault with a 9.905. Usually competing in the leadoff spot, DeSouza consistently turned in strong performances to get the rotation off to a great start for her team. She turned in 16 routines that scored 9.90 or better this season, including a 9.975 on beam, which at the time tied the program record.

Both are products of the Dream Xtreme Gymnastics Center in Vacaville.

Cal will compete March 31 at the NCAA Regional Semifinals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Women’s Gymnastics

Junior Jaudai Lopes (Buckingham, Dream Xtreme) tied for first in the vault (9.825) for San Jose State at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation finals in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Spartans finished second overall.

Lopes was also fourth in the all-around (38.675), took second in the floor exercise (9.850), tied for 19th on the bars (9.725) and was 26th on the beam (9.250).

Lopez was named first-team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and will compete March 30 at the Los Angeles Regional at UCLA.

Freshman Amelia Moneymaker (Del Oro, Dream Xtreme) was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Freshman of the Year as she helped UC

Giants

From Page B1

attempt for third. He made it safely but strained his hamstring in the process.

With Slater ruled out for Opening Day, the Giants did receive some good news Tuesday: Mitch Haniger (oblique) had begun his throwing and hitting progression, though he remains unlikely to be ready for the season opener. Non-roster invitee Stephen Piscotty, who had also been sidelined with a mild oblique strain, returned to the lineup Tuesday and could provide another outfield option.

Down two of their five outfielders from their expected Opening Day roster, the Giants have given longer looks at Blake Sabol, a Rule 5 pick, and Brett Wisely in the outfield. While Sabol entered camp competing for one of the two open catching spots, his clearest path to the roster may be as an outfielder and third catcher; he made his second start in left field on Saturday.

Wisely, a natural middle infielder with some previous outfield experience, has also logged two games in center field and “looked very natural out there,” according to manager Gabe Kapler.

However, Wisely and Sabol, two left-handed hitters, don’t fill the open hole in the center field platoon with Mike Yastr-

Davis to the team championship. Moneymaker was seventh in the floor exercise (9.825), tied for 18th in the vault (9.625) and tied for 22nd in the bars (9.675).

Senior Thea Michovsky (Napa, Dream Xtreme) also helped the Aggies with the win. Michovsky tied for seventh on the bars (9.825).

Alaska-Anchorage was fifth at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation meet. Freshman Ariana DeSouza (Vacaville, Dream Xtreme) tied for 12th in the floor exercise (9.800). Freshman Madelyn Gomez (Dixon, DreamXtreme) finished tied for 23rd in the vault (9.550) and 29th in the floor exercise (9.400).

Track and Field

Three area athletes competed Saturday for Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, at Fresno State in the Bulldog Invitational.

Junior Quinton Alexander (Vanden) won the men’s 800 meters (1:52.61). Sophomore Maya Holman (Vacaville) was second in the women’s 100 hurdles (14.63).

Freshman Aspin Oliver (Vacaville) was eighth in the 100 hurdles (15.75).

Softball

Sophomore outfielder Maiya Alemania (Rodriguez) belted a two-run home run in the seventh inning Sunday to help power Cal State Northridge to a 2-1 win at Cal Poly. Alemania also tripled and scored two runs Friday in a 5-0 win over Cal Poly.

Junior pitcher Dariana Orme (Vanden) had another big week for Baylor. Orme picked up three wins to improve to 10-2 on the season. She has allowed only nine earned runs in 79.2 innings this season.

Orme threw a two-hitter with nine strikeouts in a 3-0 win over South Dakota State. She fired a threehitter with one earned run and six strikeouts in a 7-1 win over Houston. Orme added another threehitter against Houston with one earned run and eight strikeouts in a 3-0 victory.

Baseball

Sophomore utility man Hunter Dorraugh (Vacaville) hit a home run for San Jose State in an 8-3 loss to Saint Mary’s. He went 3-for-6 with a double in a 5-4 win over Air Force.

zemski, while Piscotty, a right-handed hitter, isn’t an option in center field.

But don’t forget Bryce Johnson, a switch hitter who can play all three outfield positions and has stolen more bases this spring (11) than anybody in the majors while hitting .360 in 25 at-bats. While 27-year-old received a brief call-up in 2022, he would need to be added to the 40-man roster. But Kapler said recently, “(he) has shown us he has the capability to fill in, if necessary.”

The Giants are optimistic that whoever takes Slater’s place on the roster won’t have to fill in for long.

Notable

n Reliever Cole Waites is scheduled to get into his first game of the spring on Thursday, Kapler said. Waites, who strained his lat during a pre-spring bullpen, has thrown to live hitters twice in the past week with positive reviews each time. A candidate for the final bullpen spot, “anything is possible” once he sees live action, Kapler said of his chances at the Opening Day roster.

n Shortstop Brandon Crawford is scheduled to return to game action “in the next few days,” the club said. He was shut down from all baseball activity last week with inflammation in the same left knee that sent him to the injured list twice last season.

Willis Reed, New York Knicks’ Game 7 legend, dies at age 80

Neil Best NEWSDAY

NEW YORK — The man was a Hall of Famer, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, a league MVP and a seven-time All-Star, but you are forgiven for remembering him primarily for a single iconic moment.

That is the legacy of Willis Reed Jr., who died Tuesday at age 80. Reed’s death was announced by the National Basketball Retired Players Association, which confirmed it through his family.

And why not? There are worse fates than to be forever appreciated for an inspirational display of grit that lifted a franchise to its first championship and completed an unparalleled 16 months in New York sports.

The Jets and Mets already had won it all in 1969 when the Knicks took the court at Madison Square Garden on May 8, 1970, hoping to beat the Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and join the others in glory.

But there was a problem: Reed, 27, a 6-9 center who would be named that season’s NBA MVP, still was hobbled by a severe thigh injury he suffered in Game 5.

The Knicks had lost Game 6 in Los Angeles without Reed, 135-113, as Wilt Chamberlain recorded 45 points and 27 rebounds for the Lakers. Now the question before the finale was whether Reed would give it a go.

Reed decided he would, something that reporters knew and that radio announcer Marv Albert shared with his listeners as tipoff neared.

But the crowd inside the Garden first learned of Reed’s status when he belatedly came out of the tunnel and limped onto the court for warmups, stunning the Lakers and prompting an ovation that Albert, in 2020, said he considered the loudest he ever heard in the arena.

“I saw the whole Laker team

Warriors

From Page B1

Perhaps Phoenix will become world beaters when Kevin Durant returns from his ankle injury, but in the meantime, their bench is proving all the naysayers of the blockbuster trade correct. This team lacks depth and defense — two essential things in the postseason.

Yes, the Suns have high-end players, but

standing around staring at this man,” Knicks guard Walt Frazier told ESPN. “When I saw that, when they stopped warming up, something told me we might have these guys!”

Reed would score only four points that night – the Knicks’ first four – in a game in which Frazier’s 36 points and 19 assists led a 113-99 victory that was not nearly as close as the final score suggests (the Knicks led 69-42 at halftime).

But Reed widely was hailed then and since for charging up the team and its fans, not to mention playing fierce defense on Chamberlain.

“I wanted to play,” Reed told ESPN. “That was for the championship, the one great moment you play for all your life. I didn’t want to have to look at myself in the mirror 20 years later and say I wished I had tried to play.”

In the locker room afterward, ABC’s Howard Cosell told Reed,

they’re one jammed finger away from mediocrity, and they have to trust Durant and Chris Paul to stay healthy while playing 42 minutes a night in the postseason. That’s a huge ask.

We’re not glossing over the Warriors’ problems. No sir, that’d be ridiculous. The Dubs have provided ample reason for you to disqualify them from championship contention.

Yet as the Warriors’ proved last season – you don’t have to be the best

“You’ve offered, I think, the best that the human spirit can offer.”

(The live ABC broadcast was blacked out in the metropolitan area, where the game was seen by a tiny audience on the fledgling Manhattan Cable Television, with Marty Glickman on the call.)

A recording of Albert’s call is extant, while Glickman’s likely is lost to history. The ABC telecast is on YouTube, with analyst Jack Twyman famously pointing off camera in the pregame and saying, “I think we see Willis coming out!”

“On every basket and every defensive play, the Garden was going berserk,” Albert said in a 2020 interview with Newsday.

The crowd noise is evident in the background of Albert’s original call of Reed taking the court, so much so that he later recreated a clearer – and different – version that often is heard over highlights of that moment.

After the game, Reed said, “I couldn’t move at all. I almost hurt myself on the opening jump . . . It was bad for a while.”

Said Frazier: “Just his presence was the turning point in the game.” Reed was born on June 25, 1942, and grew up in tiny Bernice, La., before attending Grambling, which he led to an NAIA title in 1961.

Drafted 10th overall with the first pick of the second round in 1964, he became an immediate star for the woeful Knicks, securing NBA Rookie of the Year honors.

He used his physically intimidating style to overcome his relative lack of height for his position and averaged 19.5 points and 14.7 rebounds, both among the top 10 of all players in the league.

Reed continue to produce through four losing seasons before the team began to turn it around in 1967-68 under coach Red Holzman and broke through in ’69-70, a season that included an early 18-game winning streak.

team in the league; you just have to be better than the teams you play in the postseason.

The Warriors might be objectively terrible on the road. They might be lacking a reliable secondary scorer. They might not have last season’s playoff ace, Andrew Wiggins. They might generally look old and stiff.

But to pick against them, you must pick someone else in the Western Conference.

Can you trust any team in the West not

to beat themselves in a seven-game series against the Warriors?

No viable alternative has stepped forward. I doubt one does.

And until that changes, the Warriors can keep moseying along, looking at a corner they might never have to turn, knowing that so long as they make the real playoffs, they’re the team to beat.

Dieter

Kurtenbach is a sports columnist for the Bay Area News Group.

Keith Bedford/Getty Images/TNS file (2002)

Former New York Knicks’ Willis Reed attends the Project ALS Fifth Annual New York City Gala “Tomorrow is Tonight” benefit on Oct. 21, 2002. Reed died Tuesday at the age of 80.