Daily Republic: Monday, April 24, 2023

Try a Roman-style frittata in tomato sauce for fun dish B2

Warriors take down Kings to draw even in series B1

Evacuations from Sudan continue with no cease-fire

BloomBerg News

Visitors enjoy variety of tastes in a return to Passport Sunday

susaN HilaNd

SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

SUISUN VALLEY —

The Sunday morning started with a rescue mission for Ann Sievers, owner of Il Fiorello Olive Oil.

Before Passport Sunday began she was visited at Il Fiorello by four friendly dogs who seemed to have escaped there owners and were looking for a good time.

“They were very well behaved but I got them inside the mill and called animal control,” she said. “They found the owners and they were all united again.”

“That was crazy,” she said.

So began her day for one of the busiest events in the valley.

This year they offered popcorn covered in a variety of herbs and spices including jalapeño, lime and Italian seasonings.

Visitors got to taste a uniquely made blend of a Spring Wine Cocktail which combined several fruity tastes.

Il Fiorello also offered gelato, and olive oil tasting along with a nice mill tour to cap off the day.

Fred Godinez, along with his wife Devona Godinez, visited with several family members to end a week of celebration for three people’s birthdays

during the week.

“This is our finale,” said Devona.

They had never been to Passport Sunday and very much enjoyed the lovely coolness of the morning.

Passport Sunday returned after the pandemic woes with just as many participating wineries as before and even more people. The start of the pandemic in March 2020 forced the cancellation of that year’s event while the continuing pandemic delayed the 2021 event to the fall for a dialed-down outing that year. That was not the case this year, it was a celebration of all the good things of the vineyards offered.

Jeff

Anselmo

poured

See Passport, Page A8

Landmark firefighting law sparks a new hope for former inmates

will mccartHy THE MERCURY NEWS

SAN JOSE — When Benjamin Fowler was serving a second 10-year prison term, he didn’t see a clear path forward to a new life after his time was up. He was in his mid30s, with a young son, a teenage daughter and a 2023 release date. He figured he would try to get back into landscaping or become a carpenter.

Then in Septem-

ber of 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2147 into law, allowing incarcerated people who served as inmate firefighters to have their records expunged. Before its passage, many inmates were unemployable as firefighters after leaving prison because of their criminal records – even if they had spent years doing the exact same job, and even though California had a shortage of firefighters.

“As soon as I heard about that law being passed, it was probably a two-year process,” Fowler said. “But when I got to the fire camp, I knew that’s where I was supposed to be.” Fowler, who was serving time for armed robbery, had to earn enough points in prison through good behavior to be eligible to apply to one of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation conservation fire

camps. Once he got that far, he waited another three months on the yard before being chosen for training. After a month of physical training and another few months of waiting, he finally went out on his first fire assignment.

“I remember going out on my first fire, seeing people with posts back at basecamp saying, ‘Thank you inmate fire-

See Inmates, Page A8

Efforts by many countries to evacuate consular workers and other citizens from Sudan picked up steam over the weekend yet continued to be hampered by a ninth day of widespread fighting. The U.K. and U.S. militaries managed to airlift their diplomats to safety, yet other countries were awaiting access to the airport in the capital of Khartoum as the war raged unabated. A temporary cease-fire agreed to by Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces militia it has battled since April 15 appeared to have dissolved.

“UK armed forces have completed a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan, amid a significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff,” Prime Minister Rishi

Sunak said on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. Italy said that its evacuation would proceed from Khartoum’s airport, which other countries have so far avoided. “We are working to make sure that all Italians that wish to leave can do so by tonight,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview on Rai 3 national television. The conflict, the culmination of a long-simmering struggle between the army and the RSF, has upended plans for a power-sharing government that was supposed to lead the nation of about 45 million to democratic elections after a 2021 coup. It has left over 420 people dead and at least 3,700 wounded, according to the World Health Organization.

Sitting at the crossroads of the Middle East

See Sudan, Page A8

McCarthy says House will pass GOP debt limit bill this week

BloomBerg News

WASHINGTON —

Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the House will pass his $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase plan this week, but he dodged when asked if he has already secured the 218 Republican votes he needs.

“We will hold a vote this week and we will pass it,” McCarthy said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Asked if he has the votes, McCarthy noted he has a “very small majority” margin where just five defectors can sink a bill.

“I cannot imagine someone in our conference that would want to go along with (President Joe) Biden’s reckless spending,” he said.

McCarthy’s proposal would increase the

nation’s debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion, in order to stave off a U.S. payments default until March 31, 2024, at the latest. It aims to trim $4.5 trillion in spending over a decade, in part by cutting discretionary spending by $130 billion next year and capping its growth at 1%.

The bill, a grab bag of conservative measures, would ease energy regulations, end clean energy tax breaks, rescind unspent COVID-19 funds and impose new work requirements on adults without children who receive Medicaid and food stamps.

As of Friday, McCarthy’s top lieutenants were seeking to lock down the votes for the bill. Moderates in the conference were refusing to commit,

See A8

Fiorello Olive Oil Company offered a fruity blend of tastes for a unique drink at the facility.

Chunky Tiberius Wade’s dental adventures

Ido not like going to the dentist. It’s not based on me being freaked out by Steve Martin’s portrayal of a sadistic, nitrous-oxide-sucking tooth-puller in “Little Shop of Horrors.” Or at least not completely. Actually it goes way back to childhood when I discovered I absolutely hated laying on my back with my mouth open while someone put instruments in and got all up in my very personal space.

The only part I liked was that spitting was OK and actually encouraged from time to time.

Recently, I had to relive that fear vicariously through my pooch, Chunky Tiberius Wade. He had some serious dental issues and had to have surgery to get some of his teefers removed.

I feel some guilt about it because I was told by the kind folks at Cal West Pet Hospital years ago that if I didn’t attend better to Chunky’s dental health, this would be the result. I did try to brush his nasty little teeth, but that little stubborn 12 pounds of pooch was just not havin’ it.

The epic struggles we had were akin to trying to put a tutu on a porcupine. His squirming protests would have been bad enough, but they were coupled with fiery, insulting emails that expressed his perturbation and decried the lack of decorum and autonomy in having me brush his teeth like he was a puppy or something.

I don’t really know how old Chunky is as we plucked him from the Solano County Animal Shelter, but we have had him for eight years now. He already had white facial hair around his snout and under his chin like he was shootin’ for a canine George Clooney look when we first made him part of

the family.

Now recently I saw that he had lost some teeth and I could see some were loose. He was due for his annual examination anyway and after I took him in, I got the news that he would need surgery.

Now taking Chunky anywhere in the car is an adventure because he hates it, and it makes him nauseous. He starts shaking like premorning drink Nicolas Cage did in “Leaving Las Vegas.” I have learned to bring a towel to cover the seat in case he hurls.

When we get to Cal West, I let him go see a man about a horse, and then make our entrance. Now, the first time we ever went there I just opened up the door and led him inside on his leash. That ain’t happenin’ anymore. As soon as Chunky recognizes it as the place where he gets shots, gets his talons trimmed and has things stuck in rather sensitive places by strangers without so much as properly introducing themselves first, he goes all red alert and puts his shields up.

I was going to continue that Star Trek analogy, but the next logical place to go would be him firing a photon torpedo and I don’t want to gross anyone out who may be eating right now who would visualize what the biological equivalent of that would be.

Anyway, he morphs into a stubborn, immovable mule so I just carry his shivering butt in there these days.

On the day of his surgery I dropped him off in the morning and while he can’t actually speak, I could tell he was cussing me out in canine-ese inside his li’l mind. I picked him up that afternoon and the effects of the morphine had not quite worn off yet. He staggered and swayed (again Nicolas

pering and when I was able to give him one of his pain pills I did.

I’m pretty sure they were effective because he somehow got Alexa to play Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Pink Floyd.

His usual food is kibble that I serve to him drenched in a delightful special sauce that he seems to enjoy (water), but I have to give him even softer food for a couple of weeks. He also had to take doses of a milky, viscous antibiotic twice a day, which I cleverly mixed up in his food so he would be none the wiser.

Unfortunately, his stomach was the wiser as it made him upchuck like

performed exorcisms, but instead called Cal West. Under their direction I stopped the antibiotic, had the doc check out his mouth a couple of days later and he seems to be doing fine.

So now me and Chunky have an understanding: after he eats anything, he gets his teeth brushed or wiped off. Cal West gave me a cool little plastic thimble toothbrush with poultry-flavored toothpaste. He loves the toothpaste so much that he tries to chew on the plastic toothbrush with his remaining teeth.

I’m glad he’s now sorta cool with me cleaning his teeth and the tussle is less like trying to

squirrel. Progress. He still colorfully and creatively insults me in emails though.

Fairfield freelance humor columnist and accidental local historian Tony Wade writes two weekly columns: “The Last Laugh” on Mondays and “Back in the Day” on Fridays. Wade is also the author of The History Press books “Growing Up In Fairfield, California,” “Lost Restaurants of Fairfield, California,” the upcoming book “Armijo High School: Fairfield, California” and hosts the Channel 26 government access TV show “Local Legends.”

BRIGHT spot

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.

Tony Wade The last laugh

Tony Wade courtesy photo

Chunky Tiberius Wade and Chunky Wholly Guacamole.

Public Defender’s Office hosting its first-ever ‘Clean Slate Day’

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Public Defender’s Office will host the first ever “Clean Slate Day” – an event aimed at helping people clear records of past felony and misdemeanor arrests and convictions.

The event is set for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday in the courtyard between 355 and 365 Tuolumne St. in Vallejo.

“Criminal records are a barrier to re-entry for so many members of our community, long after they have completed their sentence,” Elena D’Agustino, Solano County Public Defender, said in a statement. “Record clearing gives people a chance at a fresh start on education, employment, housing, and so many other resources that many of us take for granted.”

Attorneys and paralegals from the Public Defender and Alternate Defender offices will provide advice on the available options and to assist preparing petitions for relief.

Additionally, several community organizations will be on-site to help connect participants with an array of community services, including employment assistance, drug treatment, mental health treatment, voter registration, medical care, GED classes, financial literacy and benefits.

For more information, call 707-784-6700 or visit www.solanocounty.com/ depts/pubdefender.

Mare Island Toastmasters host online meeting

VALLEJO — The Mare Island Toastmasters will host a free online open-house meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The guest speaker, James Jeffley, is an award-winning speaker, trainer, certified facilitator and professional coach, and is a two-time finalist at Toastmasters World Championship of Speech Contest.

His motto is, “If you can change your mind, you can change your life.”

He is the managing member of The Jeffley Group LLC, a training and coaching company devoted to helping people and organizations create better results. He wrote the book, “Follow the Signs: Lessons Learned While Traveling Life’s Highway.”

There is an art in giving a speech. Some speeches inspire, some inform, some are forgettable and some are unforgettable.

After hearing from Jeffley, members and guests will enjoy a regular Toastmasters meeting that will include prepared speeches, Table Topics (impromptu speeches) and evaluations. During the table topics portion of the meeting, members are randomly selected to speak for 1 to 2 minutes. Guests can volunteer to participate. Practicing impromptu speaking

week The ahead

helps you think and speak clearly on your feet.

“Toastmasters provides a supportive and positive environment where members have the opportunity to develop their communication and leadership skills,” Curt Hayashida, club president for Mare Island Toastmasters, said.

To receive the zoom link to the meeting, go to https://mareisland.toastmastersclubs.org. Click on “Contact Us,” under Main Menu, and fill out the form. The link will be sent back.

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of meeting locations.

Vendors needed for Motorcycle Training Competition

FAIRFIELD — Vendors are being sought for the Police Department’s seventh annual Motorcycle Training Competition on Saturday at the Solano Town Center mall.

The competition will be held in honor of Elk Grove police Officer Tyler Lenehan, who was killed Jan. 21, 2022, when his police motorcycle was struck head-on by a drunk driver on Highway 99 in Sacramento.

There will be food trucks and vendors, who if interested, should send an email to fpoaevents@gmail.com.

The competition is limited to members of law enforcement. More than 60 officers are expected to participate. Awards will be presented to best riders in multiple categories.

The agencies that have signed up are the California Highway Patrol, as well as police departments from Vacaville, West Sacramento, Roseville, San Jose, Napa, Concord, Stockton, San Francisco, Tracy, Danville, Folsom and Oakland, and the Carson City, Nevada, Sheriff’s Office.

Proceeds benefit the End of Watch Fund.

Fashion show fundraiser Saturday for SafeQuest Solano

FAIRFIELD — A fundraising fashion show will take place this spring in support of SafeQuest Solano.

The event will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Jelly Belly Events Center, 1 Jelly Belly Lane. Local celebrities will take to the runway for the benefit to support SafeQuest Solano’s domestic violence services and shelters in Solano County. Limited sponsorships opportunities are available.

Tickets cost $50 each and are available online at www.eventbrite.com/e/ safequest-solano-fashionshow-tickets-534605729127.

Solano Land Trust offers hike on Saturday

FAIRFIELD — Solano

Land Trust provides plenty of outdoor activities for the whole family year round. April ends with a couple of fun events at various locations.

There will be a Trail Crew Volunteer Opportunity from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at Patwino Worrtla Kodoi Dihi Open Space Park. Build trails and amenities, get a sneak peek of the park before it opens to the public, meet cool people who care about land in Solano County, and be part of the legacy of this beautiful new park.

A Nature Hike will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Lynch Canyon Open Space. This hike will take visitors westward along Middle Valley Trail leading to Prairie Ridge. Expect a 5-mile hike at a moderate but even pace over uneven ground. Muddy spots will have cattle prints. There are steep climbs over several hills with the longest at Prairie Ridge but the views are worth it. Cancels for rain or extreme weather.

For information on meeting locations, directions and registration, visit the events page at solanolandtrust.org/events. For additional questions, call 707-420-1041.

33rd Annual Rush Ranch open house set for Saturday

FAIRFIELD — The Solano Land Trust is hosting the 33rd annual open house at Rush Ranch on Saturday.

The event, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is a celebration of “three decades of fun, education, and community on a scenic working ranch,” the Land Trust said.

The activities include wagon rides with Access Adventure; an astronomy table; educational booth; Rush Ranch Outfitters; Solano County Sheriff’s posse; wildlife walks; tasty food; arts and crafts activities in the Nature Center; Patwin program; and the AmeriCorps booth.

Rush Ranch is at 3521 Grizzly Island Road.

Militaria GI Joe and Toy Show coming Saturday

VACAVILLE — The Rowland Freedom Center will be the place to go next month for a military toy show.

The Militaria GI Joe and Toy Show will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Rowland Freedom Center inside the Nut Tree Airport, 300 County Airport Road.

Browse a wide selection of toys, games, posters and more with plenty of

vendors. Find items old and new to add to collections. Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for military with ID and free for children 12 or younger. For more information, visit rowlandfreedomcenter.org.

Benicia Farmers Market opens Thursday

FAIRFIELD — The Benicia Certified Farmers Market opens its 31st season Thursday on First Street between B and D streets.

The market is open each Thursday, 4 to 8 p.m., through August, and from 4 to 7 p.m. in September and October.

The market offers “farm fresh produce and fresh cut flowers along with arts and crafts vendors, specialty foods, baked goods, and numerous gourmet food vendors. Children can enjoy activities like face painting and the inflatable bounce house on the First Street Green,” organizers at Benicia Main Street said.

The market accepts CalFresh EBT cards.

A list of participating vendors can be found at www.beniciamainstreet. org. For more information, call 707-745-9791 or send an email to info@beniciamainstreeet.org.

Government meetings on week’s calendar

FAIRFIELD — Solano County will be having several government meetings this week. They are all open to the public with some online, and some in-person. Check the websites for more information.

The meetings will include:

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

n Rio Vista City Council Special Meeting, 5 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, City Hall, 1 Main St. Info: www.riovistacity.com/ citycouncil.

n Fairfield Suisun Sewer District Board, 6 p.m. Monday, 1010 Chadbourne Road, executive conference room, Fairfield. Info: fssd.com.

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

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

n Suisun City Planning Commission, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, 701 Civic Center Blvd. Info: www.suisun. com/government/citycouncil/agendas.

n Rio Vista City Council Special Meeting, 9 a.m. Thursday, City Council chamber, City Hall, 1 Main St. Info: www.riovistacity.com/ citycouncil.

Duchess shuts down rumors ahead of coronation

chRiSti caRR aS

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is shutting down rumors ahead of King Charles III’s coronation.

A spokesperson for the former Meghan Markle recently responded to a Telegraph report alleging that the duchess expressed concerns about unconscious bias within the royal family in a 2021 letter to the now-monarch.

The report insinuated that Meghan opted out of the king’s upcoming coronation possibly because she “feels she has not received a satisfactory

2023 no record year; snowpack data debunked

Scooty NickeRSoN

BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SAN JOSE — It was the snowpack reading that spawned a hundred headlines. “California ties 1952 record for alltime Sierra snowpack,” proclaimed KTVU. “California’s snowpack soars to record high after 17 atmospheric rivers,” trumpeted the Washington Post.

State officials largely seemed to agree. “As of right now, it’s looking like this year’s statewide snowpack will probably, most likely, be either the first – or second – biggest snowpack on record dating back to 1950,” Sean de Guzman, manager of the California Department of Water Resources monthly snow survey, declared the day of the official April reading earlier this month.

But this year wasn’t a record at all. It only appeared that way in large part because of the state’s shifting definition of a “normal” snowpack, which critics say obscures the true impact of climate change.

And, in a closer look at the state’s seven decades of snowpack data, 1952 –the year atop the state’s data – wasn’t a record either. That top honor should go to 1983, which cinched first at 231% of normal, a new analysis by the Bay Area News Group found, when “normal” is considered the average dating back to 1950, the start of the state’s recordkeeping.

Over that period, 1952 is tied for second with 1969 at 226% of normal. This year actually came in fourth, at 222% of normal.

You won’t find those percentages in the California Department of Water Resources’ official records. But in an interview this past week, the agency didn’t dispute the data analysis behind the reordering that gives 1983 its due as the biggest, baddest Sierra snow year on record.

What explains this history redefining shift? Twin issues in how the state compiles the statewide snowpack figures are to blame.

So we ran the numbers, compiling 74 years of

April snowpack data from over 300 locations called “snow courses” scattered throughout the Sierra, solving both issues plaguing the state data. The changes are not massive. But even small shifts can have an impact on scientific models. And they can change which year breaks a record. The state’s data misstep

The first issue with state’s official records was a more straightforward record-keeping misstep, which inflated the state’s snowpack data for 1952 – the supposed record year.

There are nine lowelevation snow courses, which show up in the state’s reports that are not supposed to have an effect on the statewide averages. They are excluded because they get very little snow in a typical year. So when they do get even a small amount of snow, their “percent of normal” calculation gets turbocharged.

But here’s the thing –the stations only started to get excluded from the statewide statistics gradually, starting in the late 1990s. They were included in historical data before then, hyperinflating some years’ statewide “normal” totals.

The problem is particularly apparent in 1952, the supposed “record” snowpack year. That year, McElroy Pass and Burney Springs, both of which are excluded from later reports, reported 1200% of normal snowpack and 1020% of normal snowpack respectively. Because those stations got fed into the statewide average that year, they inflated it to first place. In our analysis, we excluded all of these faulty snow courses.

“This is maybe where the DWR (state water agency) mission departs a bit from the sort of –you know – best scientific practices that one might want to do, like, in a scientific study, where that (issue) would probably be flagged by a reviewer,” said John Abatzoglou, professor of climatology at the University of California, Merced. “I think they’re

See Snowpack, Page A7

response to her concerns.”

“The Duchess of Sussex is going about her life in the present, not thinking about correspondence from two years ago related to conversations from four years ago,” a rep for the duchess said Sunday in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times.

“Any suggestion otherwise is false and frankly ridiculous. We encourage tabloid media and various royal correspondents to stop the exhausting circus that they alone are creating.”

According to the Telegraph report, Meghan wrote to Charles

about unconscious bias shortly after telling Oprah Winfrey in a TV interview that the royal family had “concerns and conversations” about the skin color of her and Prince Harry’s eldest child, Prince Archie, before he was born.

Charles reportedly reached out to Meghan in the wake of the interview and said he was disappointed that the duke and duchess felt the need to publicly level such damaging allegations against the Crown. She reportedly replied and said that she wasn’t trying to accuse anyone in See Duchess, Page A7

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS file

The mountains around Mammoth Lakes are blanketed with snow, March 7.

Opinion

Fox is killing us

Three incidents of shocking gunfire in a single week seem to point to where we are going in America – a nightmarish future. All three shooters were either angry or afraid or both.

Andrew Lester, 84, got up from bed around 10 p.m. to answer his doorbell. He took a loaded pistol to the door, opened it, and shot the 16-year-old Black boy who had rung the wrong doorbell by mistake.

We should not be surprised. Lester, according to a news report, “spend considerable time at home in a living room chair watching conservative news programs at high volumes,” and especially “embraced right-wing conspiracy theories.”

It was predictable. Take an angry white man, give him an easily purchased gun, and infuriate him with hours and hours of racist content on either Fox or any of its many imitators.

The night of Fox’s capitulation to Dominion’s charges of libel, I tuned in to Laura Ingraham’s “news” hour to see if she would cover the story (she didn’t). Instead, I was treated to 10 minutes of video of gangs of black youth demonstrating, sometimes violently, somewhere. The cause? The breakdown of the nuclear family (where are these kids’ parents?) because of the “liberal war against the nuclear family.”

This had the intended effect – anger – but in this case, on me. It’s well understood that in our nation’s legislation follows cultural change, usually by decades. Political parties almost never cause cultural change; they react to it. So the problem, family breakdown, occurred first as the divorce rate skyrocketed. We all lament family breakdown, but Ingraham manipulated our concern into anger at liberals – and Blacks.

So Lester expressed his anger without hesitation, and against a Black kid. Thank conservative media for helping cause that tragedy.

Then in New York state, Kevin Monahan shot at and killed a young girl who had turned mistakenly into his driveway with her friends. No shouted questions. No waiting to see what it was all about. Shoot and ask questions later.

Monahan “could be aggressive and intimidating,” according to a neighbor. “He was a difficult guy, known to have altercations with people.” Wonderful. Let’s give him any gun he wants and supply him with programming that stresses fear and anger.

Then in Texas a team of cheerleaders who had carpooled to a supermarket parking lot returned from cheer practice. Excited, one of them mistakenly got into the back seat of a car that she thought was her ride home. A man was sitting in the front seat. She exited and got into the correct car. The man approached, she rolled down the window to apologize, and he unloaded the gun into the car. No talk; no questions. Just shoot to kill.

My investigation and conclusion is not scientific. Grieving families cannot sue Fox or Smith and Wesson. But pardon me for connecting dots. Conservative politics and conservative media are changing our country for the worse. We used to be known for our optimism. That’s gone. And all for profits.

So of course I’m excited and encouraged by the Fox/Dominion case. Finally! Fox is exposed for what it is: a propaganda machine that supports a political party. A propaganda machine so powerful that it threatens our 230year pride and joy – democratic government. Again, for profits.

I used to watch Hannity (he’s excellent at his craft of demagoguery) decades ago. Every night featured a new, apparently logical, infuriating conspiracy. One day I wondered, “The GOP has both houses of congress, why don’t they open an investigation of this?”

Finally, I realized that no self-respecting GOP congressperson wanted to attach their name to a conspiracy that would ultimately stain their reputation. (Today, with Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan, that sense of honesty is gone.)

Now Fox has acknowledged the truth –it’s all propaganda. They and their imitators have created a false reality – a fantasy “bubble” – that has mesmerized roughly 40% of Americans.

Fox’s statement after its capitulation: “This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.” There was no apology, or shame.

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

CALMATTERS COMMENTARY

California is the world capital of high technology, but one of the most puzzling – and infuriating – aspects of its government is a stubborn failure to employ technology effectively.

It’s particularly vexing because 10 years ago, the head of California’s government, Gavin Newsom, published a book, “Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government,” that touted the use of technology to improve government efficiency and responsiveness.

Just before then-Lt. Gov. Newsom’s book appeared, then-Gov. Jerry Brown had created a new state agency, the California Department of Technology, or CDT, charged with cutting through bureaucratic bungling on use of information technology, which had led to multiple projects wasting untold millions of dollars without becoming effective tools.

CDT now has about 1,000 employees and a nearly $1 billion annual budget, but has not produced the high-tech nirvana envisioned in Newsom’s book, even though his election as governor gave him the opportunity to make it happen.

The reality of what has occurred –or not occurred – on Newsom’s watch is illustrated by something that happened last year.

The state’s most spectacular example of California’s high-tech shortcomings is a project called “Financial Information System for

THE RIGHT STUFF

Ithink we have all heard the term “gaslighting” applied one way or another to our modern American culture. But what does it mean and where did it come from? The original concept comes from an English play, which was the basis for the 1944 film “Gaslight.” The theme was convincing a woman she is losing her mind because she is basically being told what her senses are telling her is a lie.

So, my fellow citizens, it is a case of do you believe what is plainly before your senses or the drivel and nonsense put out politically by Democrat Socialist Progressive Peoples Party (DSPPP) personnel who are not competent to run a pay toilet with instructions on the door, define what a woman is, nor understand you cannot spend irresponsibly.

America was treated to more breathtaking hubris, utter incompetence and the seemingly endless ability of President Biden and his DSPPP to “gaslight” the American public. We had 12 pages of self-aggrandizing fiction about the astoundingly bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Biden. Ten pages to say what a wonderful job he and his people did. Then two pages of more sophomoric fiction telling us, as usual, it was all President Trump’s fault. Let’s review the facts.

California,” an awkward name devised to create a cute acronym, “FI$Cal.”

It’s supposedly a comprehensive financial management tool that seamlessly empowers state agencies to handle the many billions of dollars that the state spends each year. However, it’s never been fully baked, as the state auditor’s office has repeatedly pointed out.

At one point, project managers tried to declare it complete and therefore no longer subject to the auditor’s oversight, but when that failed, Newsom and the Legislature slipped such a declaration into a budget “trailer” bill. He also vetoed legislation that would have required detailed annual reports on the number and length of FI$Cal’s unplanned outages and changes need to make the project work well enough to comply with federal reporting requirements.

In other words, even though FI$Cal is still a troubled work in progress, state law now deems it good enough for government work. So much for Newsom’s lofty vision of California’s becoming a hightech utopia.

Last week, in a new report, state auditor Grant Parks told the Legislature that California’s high-tech efforts have fallen short because the CDT – the agency created a decade ago to make technology work – is itself deficient.

Point-by-point, the auditor describes what CDT is doing – or not doing – that inhibits the efficient use

of technology.

“CDT has broad responsibility and authority over nearly all aspects of IT in the State, including providing strategic direction, assessing IT security, and performing project oversight,” Parks wrote in his report. “However, it has not fulfilled important responsibilities in these areas, resulting in significant consequences for the state. CDT has not provided the state with sufficient strategic direction to ensure that critical IT systems are modernized, secure, and that the systems effectively provide important services. For example, CDT has yet to identify the systems statewide that are outdated or obsolete and require modernization, leaving the state at risk of outage or failure.”

The report cites one obvious example of a critical IT system failure, the 2016 meltdown of the Department of Motor Vehicles’ IT apparatus that “left some offices unable to provide certain services for about two weeks, which affected its ability to process driver’s licenses and vehicle registration transactions.”

CDT officials rejected most of the auditor’s criticisms, contending in essence that it is doing a good job of fulfilling its assigned mission. But Parks counters that the report’s findings are well justified. The proof is, to use an old phrase, in the pudding. 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.

New state auditor report pinpoints California’s high-tech failures Dems engage in disgusting Afghanistan gaslighting

We had 13 of our military personnel murdered by a suicide bomber. We had, God only knows, how many people who helped us murdered on the spot by the Taliban. Those that could hide are still being hunted to this day. We had initially hundreds of American citizens stranded, and presently the number left is currently estimated to be 175. We were treated to the same sight when the Democrat Party caused the abandonment of Saigon on April 20, 1975; same party, same results.

We abandoned Bagram Air Base, one of the more remarkable facilities of its type in the world. But no big deal, we only spent about a billion dollars building it. Gee. I mean it is only tax money after all and there is far more left to waste, right? Funny thing though, allegedly the Chinese are looking to cut a deal and move in because, unlike President Biden and his band of fools, China’s leaders, like Trump, realized Bagram was a serious counterweight to their regional power. President Trump planned to hold the base. We left tens of thousands of weapons and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition to an implacable enemy. We left trucks, armored vehicles of varying types, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, night vision, communications and other highly valuable and desirous military

equipment, which cost we American taxpaying citizens approximately $10 billion alone. The entire 20-year investment cost about $80 billion.

In one fell swoop President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan negated and denigrated the sacrifices of our military blithely turning the Taliban into one of the world’s largest arms dealers. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot we condoned females being denied education, freedom to socially interact as they please or decide how to live their lives as free and equal humans being. Yeah. Let’s go Brandon!

Now envision a gigantic weekend swap meet full of goodies all paid for by someone else. Yippy, it’s free! Imagine you spent nothing then get to sell as much as you want for hundreds of millions of dollars. You get to keep all the cash and play with all the other stuff you want all paid for by we American taxpayers. Kind of sounds like Chicago, New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles last weekend. Biden’s gaslighting is fetid hot air!

Milton Friedman said: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by stated intentions rather than their results.”

Jim McCully is the former chairman of the Solano County Republican Central Committee, Vacaville resident, and former Northwest Regional Vice Chairman of the California State Republican Party.

Dan Walters

Jack Batson

Jim McCully

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 ser vice

(707) 427-1386

ABC renews ‘Will Trent’ for a second season

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

ATLANTA — ABC will bring back crime drama “Will Trent” for a second season, buoyed by a positive reaction from viewers and relatively robust ratings.

The announcement came just hours before the 11th episode began airing on ABC. The 13th episode, the season one finale, is scheduled to air on May 2.

“Will Trent” is based on a series of books by bestselling Atlanta author Karin Slaughter. The series is set and shot in metro Atlanta. It follows Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, played by Ramon Rodriguez.

“We’re so excited for the opportunity to

dive deeper into these stories with season two,” Rodriguez said in a press release.

Erika Christensen plays his occasional love interest and fellow law enforcement officer Angie Polaski, Iantha Richardson plays Trent’s reluctant partner Faith Mitchell, and Sonja Sohn is Amanda Wagner, Trent’s warily supportive boss.

The show’s ratings were sixth best among 15 scripted ABC shows but among 18-to-49 year olds, “Will Trent” fell to 10th since its audience skews older than average.

The most recent overnight ratings for the 10th episode (3.6 million viewers) were almost the same as for the debut in January, a sign the show has found an audience.

Pickles Brian Crane

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis Candorville

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott Baldo Hector Cantú

Columns&Games

Reader offers suggestions for the hearing-impaired

Dear Annie: As a hearing-impaired person, I have some suggestions for other people who have hearing troubles, and I wanted to share them with your readers. The first thing I would suggest – if they haven’t done so already – is that they should see an ear, nose and throat physician, as well as a licensed audiologist.

If you have Wi-Fi at home, you may be able to get a free landline caption phone through a licensed audiologist. I have one. You read what the other party is saying. The phone would have the same phone number as any other landline phones in your home. The phone itself is free, but you still have to pay for monthly Wi-Fi.

Sometimes when I am on a no-caption phone, the easiest way for me to communicate is to ask the party a question where all they have to do is answer “yes,” “no” or “I don’t know.”

I also have my own simple sign language with friends, for

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

Whether natural or imposed, an unhurried sense of time will serve you in multiple ways. It puts others at ease with you, increases your attractiveness and lets you ease into a comprehensive understanding of the circumstance.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20).

You want to help someone but are afraid you’ll be trapped if they need you too much. The answer is to help people help themselves by teaching them instead of doing things for them.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21).

This is the beginning. Every day has the potential to be the beginning if you want it to be, but some days it’s easier to see the fresh start or to become the new person opening a door.

CANCER (June 22-July 22).

After striving, gaining ground and seeing continual improvement, it is natural to hit a plateau. This is a signal to change up your strategy. Doing something different could look active or challenging, and it could also look like a nice, long break.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22).

Though you are loyal to those in your vicinity, try not to become too local. There’s so much to be experienced that you won’t have time to do if you give all your repeat business to the ones you already know.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).

The happiness you crave has various forms, many of them unexpected. Because of this, it would be easy to overlook sources of joy. You’ll see opportunity better when you

Crossword

those times when we are together. I ask them questions where the answer is “yes,” “no” or “I don’t know.” A thumbs-up is “yes”; a thumbs-down is “no”; and just a flat hand is “I don’t know.”

I do have a hearing aid, which works for me. However, people should talk more SLOWLY, not necessarily louder. — A Faithful Reader Dear Faithful Reader: Speaking slowly and measured is always a good thing. Thank you for your wonderful tips, and I am sure they will help others. Dear Annie: I want people to know how difficult it is to deal with life after a spouse dies. This includes grieving ahead of everything else, but while doing so we must deal with all the things that need to be settled, such as people you need to notify and arrangements for the living. I have been an executor for three small estates (under $1 million). The last one, which was unexpected, was a special

by Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

Welcome to the year of the effortless stellar attitude. It’s like your set point is at “winning.” The other easy thing for you will be staying in the moment, and it’s this gift of presence that brings the gleaming world to you. You’ll pace financial dealings well and earn a bigger payoff. More highlights: love notes, a commitment fulfilled and a profound honor. Leo and Sagittarius adore you.

Your lucky numbers are:

2, 20, 5, 14 and 8.

don’t need things to be any certain way.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

Don’t try and hide a flaw. Instead, put a frame around it, spotlight it and ponder anything and everything that’s good about it. Within a limitation, there are gifts you have yet to mine.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

You learn what’s expected so you can exceed it. Your communication is stellar, your understanding multilayered. In addition to finding out the literal guidelines, you’ll read between the lines and take the emotional temperature.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). The entire scope of people’s motivations is unknowable. You’re well aware that good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. You’ll consider the entire context of a scenario and

challenge. No will, no book to go to for passwords for the computer, no final requests and a spouse whose husband did everything.

I cannot advise strongly enough how important it is to leave your papers (divorce and marriage certificate), passwords, life insurance companies, bank info, investments and anything else that the survivor needs to know with them or a family or friend you trust.

There is not one comprehensive list to check off all the tasks that need to be done. Lawyers, probate, Social Security and the funeral home all have their lists. So it is up to the survivor, usually an adult child, who has to do everything. — A Busy Daughter Dear Busy Daughter: This is one of those subjects that no one wants to think about, but you are so right. Thanks for the reminder, and good luck with your important work.

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

handle matters carefully and discreetly.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Consider the demand for what you offer. You’re doing something others need. When it’s time to be charitable, you’ll give it away for free. And when it’s time to be professional, you charge a fair price.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Emptiness invites fate’s blessing. What can you let go of to make room? An empty seat, space on the counter or in the inbox – these are all good omens. Good luck comes to you when there’s a place for it.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20).

All investments, including financial, energetic and emotional, come with risk. You may not get back what you pay in, or you may get a large return, and not knowing how it’s going to go is part of the excitement.

CELEBRITY PROFILES:

As if hosting a wildly popular talk show didn’t keep her busy enough, Kelly Clarkson has announced a 10-show Vegas residency. America’s first idol was born when the sun was in the sign that rules the voice. Taurus singers are at a definite advantage with strong vocal cords, an excellent sense of time and the determination to make headway in the very competitive realm of music. Clarkson, who has natal sun, moon and Mercury all in Taurus, shares a birthday with the legendary Barbra Streisand.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

Bridge

by Phillip Alder

line of play in six clubs after West leads the diamond king.

North-South were not using New Minor Forcing, so South rebid three clubs. North showed his heart values, simultaneously suggesting weak diamonds. This made South wonder about a grand slam, but he feared choppy water with one or both black suits splitting unfavorably.

KEEP YOUR TRICKS HIGH AND DRY

Just when you thought it was safe to swim back to the bridge table, you find that the sharks (bad suit breaks) are still there, having driven the dolphins (friendly distribution) away. However, maybe it will be possible to swim safely to the shore if you know what to do.

To decide if you are a budding Jacques Cousteau, decide upon your

When the dummy came down, South thought he had missed seven. He ruffed the diamond lead and drew two rounds of trumps ending in the dummy. When West discarded, declarer, feeling happier because seven was indeed out of the question, continued with the spade ace and another spade. East defended well by discarding. South ruffed a low spade in the dummy, but East continued the good work by discarding again. Declarer was down to two trumps, the same number as East, and he was stuck in the dummy. He had lost trump control and finished down two.

Declarer was too extravagant with his trumps. He should have drawn only one round with dummy’s queen before turning to the spades. Then, if East defended as before, declining to overruff, declarer would still have a trump to lead from the dummy. His spades would be high, and he would play on that suit, happy for East to take his trump trick whenever he liked.

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne

Gould

4/24/23

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

Difficulty level: BRONZE

Solution to 4/22/23:

Horoscopes

Annie Lane Dear Annie

Bed, Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy

BloomBerg News

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey with plans to shut down, putting thousands of jobs on the line.

The U.S. housewares retailer will use the court process to begin liquidating its 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby shops, while also searching for a buyer for some or all of its assets, according to a statement. The company may “pivot away” from the store closings if there’s a successful sale.

Bed Bath & Beyond estimated it had assets of $4.4 billion and

total debt of $5.2 billion as of late

November, according to a court filing. The number of creditors is between 25,001 and 50,000, with BNY Mellon having the biggest unsecured claim of $1.18 billion. Bed Bath & Beyond’s chief financial officer, Holly Etlin, will serve as chief restructuring officer to manage the bankruptcy.

The Union, New Jerseybased company’s crisis spiraled this year, starting in January when it said there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating and that it was weighing options to restructure its debts. Later that month, it received a default notice from

JPMorgan Chase & Co. after breaching terms on a credit line.

The retailer received a lastminute lifeline from the hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital Management – a deal that would have given Bed Bath & Beyond more than $1 billion under certain conditions. But the company failed to meet stock-price minimums, and the deal was terminated. Bed Bath & Beyond then said it would sell more shares in an effort to stave off a filing.

A unit of Sixth Street Partners is providing the company with a $240 million loan to help it fund itself in bankruptcy.

In 2022, the company

embarked on a turnaround effort that gave it a $375 million rescue loan as it shuttered some stores and cut roughly 20% of its workforce. The plan, unveiled in August, was among the retailer’s latest comeback attempts as it struggled to keep up with e-commerce competitors and changing consumer shopping habits.

In recent years, lagging performance has made the company an activist target. In 2019, shareholders forced a revamp of the company’s board and the removal of its chief executive officer, while activist investor Ryan Cohen launched a subsequent campaign in March that

Biden plans to slash warming pollution from power plants

BloomBerg News

WASHINGTON —

The Biden administration is preparing to propose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants that are so stringent they could almost wipe out the U.S. electricity sector’s planet-warming pollution by 2040.

The White House is in the final stages of reviewing a draft proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency, which would target new and existing power plants – the second-biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. today. Details of the measure, some of which were previously reported by The New York Times, were described by people briefed on the plan.

The proposal, which could be unveiled in coming days, is the EPA’s second attempt to clamp down on carbon dioxide released from powerplant smokestacks. The Supreme Court last year tossed out a sweeping Obama-era rule that sought to shift electricity generation from fossil fuels toward renewable sources.

The new draft is smaller in scope, with a foundation built on changes that can be employed directly at power plants, including through efficiency gains known as heat-rate improvements, carboncapture systems and the

substitution of cleaner hydrogen for natural gas as a combustion source.

The proposal would establish rate-based limits on pollution, built on the EPA’s assessment of the best system of emission reductions that can be employed at sites, the people said. To meet the requirements at existing facilities, many plant owners would be compelled to add carbon-capture systems or substitute hydrogen for some of their fuel. Plant closures also could help satisfy the limits.

States and power plant owners would have flexibility in how they meet the

Snowpack

From Page A3

more sort of focused on what’s happening right now.”

What is normal?

There’s another issue with the state’s hyper-focus on the here and now. All of the statewide snowpack statistics are reported based on the “percent of normal” snowpack. But state water managers have changed the definition of what’s considered “normal” five times since 1950. “Normal” snowpack back in 1952 was calculated after-the-fact based on data from 1946 to 1995. Normal in 2023, meanwhile, was calculated based on data from 1991 to 2020, a period marked by many years of drought.

The reason they change the definition of normal is “to keep pace with climate change,” according to de Guzman. Using these shifting definitions of normal improves snowmelt flood forecasts, meaning that the state is better able to predict when snowmelt could turn into a disastrous problem downstream — a major concern in the coming weeks, especially in the Southern Sierra.

But there is an ironic consequence to shifting the goal post — by changing the definition of “normal” to keep pace with climate change, experts say the state masks its impact in the historical data.

“We’re sort of looking in the rearview mirror, but we’re not looking in the rearview mirror on the last 100 years… we’re looking in the rearview mirror in terms of our own memories,” Abatzoglou said. “And, you know, we’ve been on this bumpy, bumpy ride with climate change – uphill towards warmer climates.”

requirements and time to employ the strategies –including many years for existing facilities, the people said.

The measure would accelerate a power-sector shift toward renewable sources that’s already propelled by hundreds of billions of dollars in cleanenergy incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act. It comes alongside newly proposed limits on carbon dioxide from car and truck tailpipes – and dovetails with other Biden administration efforts to meet a U.S. promise to pare the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030.

The closer you get to the present, the more the state’s definition of “normal” includes a bunch of unusually warm years with lessthan-normal snowpack. That artificially inflates the most recent percent of normal numbers in comparison with earlier eras, like the 1950s and 1960s.

To get around the shifting definitions of normal, the Bay Area News Group collected all of the state’s snowpack data and applied a single definition of normal, which stretched the entire record period from 1950 to 2023. By putting all the data on the same rate, experts say you can much more readily see the impact of climate change.

More evidence that California snowpack has declined over time can be found in what experts call the “snow line,” which essentially marks the elevation at which snow begins to accumulate. The snow-water line has risen by about 500 feet due to climate change.

“We are going to see the lower stations start to get less snowfall,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at the Central Sierra Snow Lab, a research station maintained by UC Berkeley located at Donner Pass. “We’re also seeing, at least at the Central Sierra Snow Lab, a shortening of the snow season. … And that’s a trend that’s been noticed in a lot of other regions as well.”

The main thing that scientists look at to gauge how much snowpack we have is something called “snow water equivalent” or “snow water content.” That measure is the amount, in inches, of water that would be produced if all the snowpack melted at once.

From 1950-1986, the Sierra had 29.2 inches of snow water content.

The EPA declined to comment on the details, citing a pending interagency review of the proposal.

“We have been clear from the start that we will use all of our legally upheld tools, grounded in decades-old bipartisan laws, to address dangerous air pollution and protect the air our children breathe today and for generations to come,” the agency said in an emailed statement. The electricity sector can now take advantage of expanded tax credits for renewable and nuclear power, hydrogen and carbon-capture operations.

23% decline in snowpack levels at stations across the Western United States from 1955 to 2022.

Since California gets nearly a third of its drinking water from snowmelt, those declines are a huge deal. In that same time period, California’s population nearly quadrupled to 40 million, putting even more strain on the water supply.

So what?

State water officials point out there will always be issues around collecting statewide snowpack data. It’s hard to get to some of the snowiest courses in the winter. And some snow stations are decommissioned over time.

“A lot of folks – especially academics and researchers – have asked us to try to redo this (statewide snowpack data) to put everything on the same playing field, like . . . what you’re doing,” de Guzman said. But he explained that there are technical limitations on their ability to rerun the numbers. And state officials don’t really go back to adjust numbers that were previously published, especially since those numbers were used in forecasts at the time and had real world impact.

A change to one data point or even one entire dataset is not going to radically change our understanding of our warming climate, experts say. But having a clear record of how our state’s climate is changing over the long term is incredibly important for understanding where we’re headed as our planet warms.

saw another CEO ousted after a board shakeup.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s demise is not, as some pundits have insisted, an example of the inevitable decline of brick-andmortar retailers that struggle to compete against Amazon.com Inc. Instead, Bed Bath & Beyond is largely responsible for its own undoing, according to suppliers, analysts and former managers and employees. For nearly a decade, the retailer’s leadership teams made decisions that pushed the company, little by little, toward the brink of financial collapse.

Experts believe classifying ‘tranq’ as a controlledsubstance no good

H aNNa weBster, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

PITTSBURGH — This week, the Shapiro administration and acting health secretary Dr. Debra Bogen announced that the sedative tranquilizer xylazine, also known as tranq, would be listed as a Schedule III controlled substance.

The administration said the categorization was an attempt to curb deaths and restrict illicit supply. “The steps we are taking today will help ensure this dangerous drug can’t be diverted from legitimate sources to the drug dealers harming our communities, while preserving its important use on animals,” said Gov. Josh Shapiro in the news release. Xylazine is not approved for use in humans and has been tagged by the DEA as a public safety concern when mixed with fentanyl.

But officials working on the ground with communities impacted by xylazine say the scheduling will not reduce tranq from the drug supply and will instead promote the criminalization of those who use and sell drugs, when evidence shows Black and brown people often get harsher sentencing compared to their white counterparts.

Alice Bell, the overdose prevention project coordinator for Prevention Point Pittsburgh, confirmed that xylazine had reached Pittsburgh’s drug supply, but that there was no way to tell to what extent.

“We are seeing an increase in wounds sugges-

tive of xylazine,” she said. The drug causes necrotic sores, sometimes at the site of injection but not always. Skin rots and blackens, leading to infection and possible amputation. And xylazine carries severe anxiety symptoms during withdrawal, trapping users in a cycle of managing their sores and staving off sickness.

Dr. Raagini Jawa, an infectious disease and addiction medicine physician at UPMC and a physician at Prevention Point’s wound care clinic, said she has seen a massive rise in patients who come in saying “they don’t feel right” after using their substances, reporting weird symptoms, insisting something is off.

“Here in the Pittsburgh area, we are noticing more and more that xylazine is being mixed in with other illicit drugs,” she said. “We’re seeing more harms associated with it as time goes by.” Dr. Jawa also treats patients with addiction-related injuries at UPMC Mercy.

The drug has been present in Philadelphia for at least five years. In 2021, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health released a report revealing 91% of fentanyl samples contained xylazine, skyrocketing from 26% of samples in 2019.

But “making it Schedule III is going to do nothing,” said Bell, who has worked in the harm reduction and recovery space for more than a decade.

Duchess

From Page A3

the family of being a racist by raising awareness about unconscious bias.

and Meghan.”

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning,” the statement continued. “While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

That dipped to 25.6 inches from 1987 to 2023, according to a Bay Area

Group analysis. The

“No one data point is ever going to prove or disprove climate change.” Schwartz said. “It’s about the longer trends, and the comparison years are important. But when we look at the overall, you know, over the entire record, that’s when we really start to see this (climate change) trend emerge, and when we stop getting lost in the weeds.”

The letters reportedly identify the senior member of the family who remarked on Archie’s skin color, while both Charles and Meghan reportedly agreed that the person did not act with malice.

Following the Winfrey interview, Buckingham Palace said in a public statement that the “whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry

Earlier this month, the palace confirmed that Harry will attend the coronation of his father, Charles, without Meghan – who will remain in California with the couple’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. The date of the coronation coincides with Archie’s fourth birthday. The coronation is on May 6.

Matt Dunham/Getty Images/TNS file (2022) Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in a June 2022 photo.

Dreamstime/TNS

The Biden administration is preparing to propose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants that are so stringent they could almost wipe out the U.S. electricity sector’s planet-warming pollution by 2040.

So how wealthy are US Supreme Court Justices?

BloomBerg News

WASHINGTON — The nine Supreme Court justices in total are worth at least $24 million. Or it might be closer to $68 million.

It’s impossible to get more specific than that. That’s because federal ethics laws require justices to disclose only those assets that might pose a conflict of interest. As a result, the public can only assess part of each justice’s holdings, valued in a broad range.

But the most recent numbers, which come from the justices’ 2021 financial disclosures released last year and analyzed by Bloomberg News, show that at least six of the Supreme Court justices are multimillionaires. That means the judges, appointed to make decisions affecting millions of Americans, are significantly richer than around 90% of them.

In the wake of recent ProPublica reports exposing Justice Clarence Thomas’ close relationship with a GOP megadonor, Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocates have ramped up scrutiny of the Supreme Court’s ethics rules. Democrats have reintroduced bills to set new ethical standards for the Supreme Court, called for hearings into the court’s recent conduct and asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify. Republicans point out that the donor, Texas real estate investor Harlan Crow, hasn’t been involved in any case that reached the Supreme Court.

Court experts say that significant gaps remain even in the available disclosures, which also include information on spouses and dependent children. None of the justices are required to list the value of their personal residences or the contents of their government retirement accounts. These are often the biggest assets people

own, said Gabe Roth, executive director of advocacy group Fix the Court. The review of the Supreme Court’s financial disclosures shows that Thomas is not the only justice leading a privileged lifestyle. Although he and his colleagues on the bench are expected to act as neutral arbiters of the law, advocates argue they bring their life experiences with them as they weigh in on cases concerning issues related to class, including student debt relief, renter’s rights, disability claims and labor unions.

The financial disclosure policies that apply to the U.S. federal judiciary, enacted in the late 1970s, specifically state that the disclosures are not supposed to represent net worth. Instead, they are meant to flag potential conflicts of interest, such as investments in companies that come before the Supreme Court. Justices have recused themselves from cases involving companies in which they had a financial stake. But the disclosures are relatively narrow, in part due to concerns about protecting the judges’ privacy, according to the regulations. As a co-equal branch of government, the court has argued it has discretion to set its own ethical rules. But Democratic lawmakers for more than a decade have introduced legislation that would impose oversight of the Supreme Court, including establishing a code of ethics to ensure the justices are not improperly influenced and an independent group to review the high court’s conduct.

Roberts is the richest of the Supreme Court justices, reporting between $9 million and $27 million in assets. That includes a waterfront cottage in Maine, located on an island accessible only by boat, which is valued at an estimated $250,000$500,000 per year, and part of a cottage in Ireland, valued at less than $15,000.

Passport

From Page One

wine from oak barrels as visitors came through. As the owner of BackRoad Vines at Village 360, he was more than thrilled to see a nice turn out of people.

Along with the wine tasting was also a vendor fair, which this year morphed into part of the flavor of the days activities.

“This works out great because even though it is separate from Passport Sunday, people can come over here and doing a little shopping. So it is not just about the drinks,” Anselmo said.

BackRoad Vines opened the newest building back in 2021 and it includes an art studio, yoga studio and meet-up site for the Fairfield Visual Arts Association, which has a gallery to show the artists’ work year-round.

Last year there 2019 Petite Sirah

Inmates

From Page One

fighters,’ ” Fowler said. “I had a moment, going back into my tent.”

Now a year out of prison, Fowler was scheduled to graduate on Saturday from a first-ofits-kind Bay Area program that helps formerly incar cerated firefighters land jobs in the industry. In a few weeks, he will start a new job as a firefighter for the Forest Service in Sonoma County.

In many ways, he is the face of this program’s success and the effect AB 2147 has on the lives of the formerly incarcerated. But the process of finding a job in firefighting is still an arduous process, and the program Fowler will graduate from, the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, aims to smooth the process.

which is aged in a French Oak Barrel was a visitors favorite but he hadn’t gotten it bottled yet.

“We finally have it bottled and ready to sell,” he said.

“One of the things about this day is that it gives people an idea of what Suisun Valley has to offer,” he said. “Its not just the wine but the food and learning about what we have here.”

Angela Liles of Fairfield came out with her family all dressed in summer gowns and broadbrimmed straw hats. Family and friends came from Dixon, Arizona and locally.

“This is so great because I love spending time with family and friends,” Liles said. “You get a little shopping and a great pizza.”

The restaurant was serving hot pizzas along with the cool wines for anyone who wanted a bite to eat.

Most of the vegetables come from BackRoads Vines farm, which is behind the main facility at the original building.

The event was hosted by the Suisun Valley Vintners and Growers

Association, with 11 different wineries taking part. Some wineries had more than one vineyard represented at the venue.

This event is the largest fundraiser of the year for the association.

Michelle Alameda, Tasting Room Manager for Wooden Valley Winery noted that 900 tickets were sold this year in just nine days.

“We are going to see at least 600 of those 900 tickets today,” she said.

Visitors could enjoy some Hawaiian food from the Shaka Grinds food truck along with their wine this year.

A leisurely and relaxing afternoon drew visitors to several locations, including BackRoad Vines at Village 360, Bally Keal Estate, Caymus-Suisun Winery, Il Fiorello Olive Oil Company, Jelly Belly Candy Company, Mangels Vineyards, Suisun Creek Winery, Suisun Valley Wine Cooperative, Suisun Valley Filling Station, Tenbrink Vineyards and Tolenas Winery, and Wooden Valley Winery.

stop them from spreading. The job is not for everyone — of the 50 people who joined the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program with Fowler, only 10 were scheduled to graduate on Saturday. But the lifestyle suited Fowler. Growing up, he was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout. He previously owned a landscaping company and likes working outside with his hands.

Fowler appreciates the fact that people trust firefighters to be there for them on their worst day. Working on the fireline brought him to new, beautiful parts of the state – a far cry from the experience of being in prison.

ing and supplies social workers to help them transition out of prison. The program started in Southern California and expanded to the Bay Area last year. This will be its first graduating class.

York City, April 17.

From Page One

while conservatives were angling to further increase new work requirements on Medicaid recipients and Midwestern lawmakers were looking to shield biofuels tax breaks from elimination.

McCarthy used the Sunday interview to reiterate his argument that President Joe Biden, in refusing to hold talks on

Housethe debt ceiling, is pushing the U.S. toward a payments default, which could happen as soon as June.

Biden last week called the GOP plan “wacko.”

“We are the only ones who are putting a responsible plan out that will raise the debt limit,” McCarthy said. He said he wants the bill to form the basis of talks on a compromise and he’d be open to a larger debt ceiling increase that staves off a default past next March.

Started by two formerly incarcerated firefighters in 2015 – there were some exceptions that allowed former inmates to work in the industry before AB 2147 passed – the program is a comprehensive, six-month endeavor that helps people earn the certifications they need to apply to federal and state fire jobs, provides train-

Sudan

From Page One

“When they’re with us, they’re choosing to be better people for themselves, for their friends and family, for their community,” said Cari Chen, the forestry and fire recruitment program’s Bay Area director. “It’s not just a job. It’s not just a career. It’s a lifestyle.”

It’s also a way to give people who have spent

and Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan has drawn interest from foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which have each backed the rival generals leading the fight – military boss Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Western powers have dangled billions of dollars in frozen aid in a push for a return of civilian rule in a country coveted by Russia and China for its strategic Red Sea coastline and mineral resources.

The French government, whose embassy in Khartoum came under attack early on Sunday, was among the countries coordinating an evacuation of its diplomats and citizens, it said in a statement. Meanwhile,

years in prison a new purpose, advocates say, and to show they can make meaningful contributions to their community. Studies have shown that having a full-time job helps reduce recidivism exponentially.

“When you’re in prison, you’re a number,” Fowler said. “But I was able to give back. It became a true drive.”

The work itself is demanding. Fowler served 31 months on a hand crew while in prison, digging in the soil for hours a day to create perimeters around fires to

neighboring South Sudan – which has about 1 million people in Sudan –has received around 7,000 citizens fleeing by road, acting foreign minister Deng Dau Deng said by phone from Juba.

“The airport in Khartoum is yet not safe and typically all the countries evacuating their people are doing it from Port Sudan,” Deng said, adding that its oil exports via the port were unaffected.

A six-bus convoy of French and German citizens was en route to the port, some 500 miles to the northeast, on Sunday, said two Western officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak publicly.

Heavy clashes were reported in northern Khartoum and it remained unclear who controlled strategic locations throughout the capital city, according to an internal U.N. document published Saturday and

Today, however, the best part of the job is hearing his 10-year-old son brag to his friends about what his dad does.

Starting in a few weeks, Fowler will be working on an engine crew in Mendocino National Forest just a few hours north of his home in Fairfield. He specifically waited for a job that would keep him close to his family.

“I have a lot of time to make up,” Fowler said. “I did 10 years the first time, and 11 years the second time. I’m going to be doing a lot of just being a dad.”

seen by Bloomberg.

The RSF and the army have traded accusations that the other side is impeding foreign evacuations and attacking embassy staff.

There are “no movement corridors in Khartoum officially open despite the RSF indicating openness to support evacuations,” according to the document. “Civilians are self-relocating despite the significant risks.”

Meanwhile, looting of humanitarian assets and forced entry into compounds reported since the conflict began are “expected to continue,” the U.N. said in the document.

“Due to the shortages of water, fuel, food, U.N. personnel and dependents are likely to try to selfrelocate, with significant risks of crossfire, arrests, physical violence,” the document said.

Eric Paul Zamora/Fresno Bee/TNS file (2021)

Firefighters conduct a fuels reduction project along Sugarloaf Road as Calfire teamed with USFS and California National Guard firefighters in a burning effort, north of Meadow Lakes in 2021.

Susan Hiland/Daily Republic

Passport Sunday drew 900 visitors this year for the annual fundraiser for Suisun Valley Vintners and Growers Association. Wooden Valley Winery offered several types of wine for tasting, Sunday.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/TNS

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks with Peter Giacchi, executive floor official with Citadel, on the floor of the the New York Stock Exchange in New

Pederson delivers as Giants beat Mets again

evan webeck

SAN FRANCISCO —

With their lineup finally nearing full strength, the Giants’ dugout must have felt a sense of relief Sunday when it was Joc Pederson stepping to the plate in the cleanup hole.

It was Pederson, in his first at-bat in nearly two weeks, who sent a line drive screaming into right field in the first inning, driving in the Giants’ first run. And it was Pederson,

after drawing a one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth, who came screaming all the way from first on Mike Yastrzemski’s double to score the goahead run in the Giants’ 5-4 win over the Mets on Sunday, clinching a split in the four-game series.

After coming out on top Saturday, the Giants have won consecutive games for the first time this season.

With offensive contributions from Pederson and Thairo Estrada and a shutdown effort from their

maligned relief group, the Giants overcame a short outing from Ross Stripling, who allowed three runs (two earned) over 3-plus innings while filling Alex Wood’s rotation spot for the first time.

Stripling successfully navigated one basesloaded jam but couldn’t escape a second and was lifted in favor of Taylor Rogers with one out and the bases loaded in the top of the fourth.

Rogers was primed to get out of the inning with

minimal damage, but an error by Michael Conforto allowed the Mets to extend the inning and plate an additional run.

Mark Canha, pinch-hitting for Luis Guillome, lofted an easy fly ball to right – it should have been a sacrifice fly – but Conforto let the ball fall off the tip of his glove, allowing one run to score. Brandon Nimmo took advantage of the extra out with a deep sac fly to center for the Mets’ second run of the inning.

After eight scoreless

Warriors hang on for nail-biting win, even up series versus Kings

Shayna rubin

BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors’ Game 4 win over the Sacramento Kings came down to the final second and a few inches.

Former Warrior Harrison Barnes got the last shot on a possession that the Kings started down one point with 10.5 seconds remaining.

De’Aaron Fox, who finished with 38 points, found Barnes for a wideopen shot he missed off back iron to preserve the Warriors’ 126-125 nailbiter win on Sunday afternoon at Chase Center. That evens the firstround series 2-2 heading back to Sacramento for Game 5.

The experienced Warriors nearly blew the win with a rookie mistake. Up four points with 42 seconds remaining, Stephen Curry called

timeout when no team timeouts remained. That gave the Kings a technical foul free throw and the ball back on their end.

They made it pay with Fox hitting a second-chance 3-pointer to cut the Warriors’ lead to one. Then the series-changing miss.

It ended a chaotic game and, particularly, a back-and-forth fourth-quarter where the Warriors barely held an edge as Curry played the entire frame. Curry finished with 32 points, including 5 3-pointers on 11 attempts.

under the basket for an easy layup to cut the Warriors’ lead to three. Then a Looney offensive foul on a screen, challenged unsuccessfully, got the ball back to Sacramento for a miss.

Green blocked a layup attempt on the other end and Wiggins came up with a floater to extend the Warriors lead to five. The Warriors played staunch defense on the other end, forcing the Kings into four misses that helped the Warriors keep their small lead.

appearances, Tyler Rogers surrendered his first run, which also tied the game at 4 in the sixth.

First-pitch swinging, catcher Francisco Álvarez barely cleared the left-field wall with his first home run – and the first extrabase hit by a Mets catcher, period – this season. It was also the first run Rogers had allowed since Sept. 6 of last season, a stretch of 26-plus innings, which was the second-longest active scoreless streak in the majors.

Besides Rogers, there had been few bright spots early this season in the Giants’ bullpen, which had already lost five games, blown two saves and entered Sunday’s series finale with the fourth-highest ERA in the majors (5.56). But the group locked down to hold the Mets to one run over the final five innings after Stripling’s early exit.

After a pair of soft singles in the second

Rodriguez swimmers win a pair of MEL

banners

daily r epublic StaFF DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Rodriguez High School boys and girls swim teams came away with a pair of Monticello Empire League championship banners Saturday and a number of top individual finishers.

The Mustangs dominated the threeday competition in their home pool.

Rodriguez won all four varsity relays. The girls 200-yard medley relay team of Natalie Graham, Emma Trotter, Ava Bautista and Keilani Greer were first (1:54.06). The Rodriguez boys 200 medley relay team won with Andrew Johnson, Remy LeNoir, Brandon Ha and Jack Green (1:43.22).

The girls 400-yard freestyle relay team of Graham, Trotter, Greer and Bautista finished on top in 3:46.27. The boys team of Green, LeNoir, Ha and Johnson won in 3:24.59.

Graham grabbed an individual title with a first-place finish in

the girls 200 freestyle (2:10.02). Jack Cook of Vacaville was the winner on the boys side with a time of 1:54.76 in the 200 free.

Rodriguez won the girls and boys 200 individual medleys. Greer finished on top (2:20.08) on the girls side. Ha was also a winner on the boys side (1:54.59).

The 50-yard freestyle races also belonged to the Mustangs. Bautista was the girls winner (24.82) and Johnson came up on top for the boys (24.62).

Bautista picked up another win in the 100 yard butterfly (55.77). LeNoir was the boys winner in the 100 fly with a time of 56.48.

Trotter picked up an individual win in the girls 100 yard freestyle for Rodriguez (55.99). Richard Lin of Vanden was the champion in the boys 100 free (48.74).

Carina Rivera was a winner for Vacaville in the girls 500 yard freestyle (5:47.46). Ha won the boys 500 free for Rodriguez in 4:47.07.

The Kings trailed by one with just under five minutes remaining when Curry and Klay Thompson hit two 3-pointers sandwiched by a pair of Fox free throws to extend the Warriors’ lead to five points. But Poole turned the ball over on a bad pass and found

The game began with Golden State’s significant adjustment before tip off, opting to start Green off the bench – back from his one-game suspension – for the first time in a playoff game since 2014. Kevon Looney got the start

Davion Mitchell

deGrom quells any injury concerns after solid start against A’s for Texas

Shawn McFarland

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

ARLINGTON — He shook his head at the question and maintained that each outing comes with the same outlook as any other.

Jacob deGrom, is there any added motivation, any extra oomph to deliver a strong outing after your last ended prematurely due to an injury concern?

“I wouldn’t say there’s added motivation,” deGrom said. “Every time I go out there, I want to put up zeroes. That’s just how I take the field.”

Hey, a double-digit strikeout day probably feels great regardless of the circumstances. But

the Rangers have got to feel swell when their $185 million ace (with a recent track record of injury) can put the wellness discussion to bed with relative ease.

DeGrom pitched

six innings, struck out 11 batters, allowed one earned run on three hits and walked none in Texas’ 5-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday at Globe Life Field, just six days after he left a no-hit-

Kyle Busch steals thrilling Cup Series win

a lex Zietlow THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

A gamble on fuel paying off.

A wreck from the lead missing him by the closest of margins.

for Richard Childress Racing at the racetrack.

ter in the fourth inning versus the Kansas City Royals with wrist soreness. The victory secured a fourth-straight series win for the Rangers – something that hasn’t happened since 2018 – and will send them off to Cincinnati with a 14-7 record and a two-and-a-half game lead over the Houston Astros in the American League Weststandings. The 34-yearold now leads MLB with 43 strikeouts in 26.2 innings pitched. His ERA – now at 3.04 – has continued to drop since his uncharacteristic Opening Day start. He’s given up just three walks

And some general late-race “luck.”

Those three things – with a bunch of strategy and guts mixed in the previous 500-plus miles – ultimately delivered all-time great Kyle Busch his second win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

“Sometimes you gotta be lucky,” Busch told the Fox broadcast. “So many of these races come down to that, and you gotta take them when they come your way.”

Sunday marked only the second win at Talladega that Busch has captured in his career. It also marked the 13th win

Ryan Blaney finished second. Chris Buescher finished third, and Chase Briscoe ended up fourth. There wasn’t nearly as much damage Sunday as there was during the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, but there was substantial carnage nonetheless. The most consequential wreck – The Big One, so to speak – came on the race’s last lap.

After finding himself in the top 5 before a double-overtime restart, Busch took the inside line and bullied his way forward. He was passed for the lead with one lap to go (white flag) by Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney on the outside –but then Wallace, trying to block Blaney as the No. 12 car made moves for the win, got loose

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Golden State Warriors’ Donte DiVincenzo (0) congratulates teammate Klay Thompson (11) after scoring a three-point basket against the Sacramento Kings during the third

quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference firstround playoffs at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Sunday.

Elias Valverde II/Dallas Morning News/TNS

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom delivers a pitch during the seventh inning of a MLB game against the Kansas City Royals, April 11.

See MEL, Page B8

See Warriors, Page B8

See Giants, Page B8

This humble, clever Italian dish stars ribbons of egg in tomato sauce

Pyenson

Luke

SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST

Almost 20 years ago, when I was a teenage apprentice at an Italian restaurant in Boston, I learned about an unfamiliar sauce that sticks in my mind to this day. After spending one morning carefully hand-rolling thick strands of pici – a rustic pasta from Tuscany – I asked the chef how we would serve them. I was expecting a familiar ragu, but, with a glint in his eye, he replied, “sugo di coniglio scappato!” Literally, “escaped rabbit sauce.”

What we prepared that day was essentially a meatless meat sauce, full of flavor and history – a lesson in culinary ingenuity from times when protein was out of reach. This was my introduction to a subset of Italian dishes whose evocative names almost suggest parables. And on a recent trip to Rome, I encountered another: uova in trippa.

It may not be as immediately whimsical, but hidden within the literal “eggs in tripe,” is a story layered with meaning for Romans. The eggs are not actually “in” tripe, whatever that might entail. The eggs are standing in for tripe. The tripe escaped.

Admittedly, I was glad it had. Tripe is not one of my favorite foods, but in Rome, I felt some pressure to sample it in one of its most well-known iterations. I would probably love trippa alla Romana, smothered with tomato sauce and lifted with salty pecorino and woodsy, aromatic mentuccia, a local variety of mint. But I jumped at the opportunity to enjoy this preparation with something I like much more than tripe: slices of frittata. The texture translates remarkably well.

“It’s an almost forgotten dish in Rome,” said Marco Ceccarelli, who manages and co-owns Ristoro degli Angeli, the delightful neighborhood trattoria where I first tried uova in trippa. Ceccarelli and his colleagues Domenico Falcone and Francesco Morrone, who took over the long-running restaurant last year, pride themselves on offering what he calls “rediscovered” dishes from the Roman tradition. “I have childhood memories of my grandmother making it,” he added. “You don’t find it in restaurants anymore.”

With roots going back roughly a century, uova in trippa exists at the crossroads of two distinct but related Italian culinary traditions: cucina povera – the modest yet clever cuisine born of hardship, and cucina quaresimale, or Lenten cooking, the cuisine born of rigid religious devotion.

Trippa alla Romana is a

classic and beloved dish of cucina povera, in which offal takes the spotlight from moreexpensive cuts. Ceccarelli explained that Romans traditionally abstained from meat throughout the period of Lent –a substantial block of tripe-free days for a population so under its spell. Sometime around the late 19th or early 20th century, an inspired cook thought to imitate tripe with eggs, and uova in trippa was born.

“It’s an interesting meeting point when very resourceful dishes are met with lean days,” said Rachel Roddy, a food writer and cookbook author based in Rome. She sent me a handful of uova in trippa recipes from her cookbook collection.

One of those was from a 1939 copy of Ada Boni’s “Il Talismano della Felicità.” “She was the real queen of popular Roman cooking,” Roddy said. The recipe is two sentences, simple and no-nonsense. “I have really good fun when I make it.”

Elizabeth Minchilli, a Rome-based food writer who leads culinary tours throughout Italy, is a fan as well. “Uova in trippa is brilliant, because everyone likes it,” she said.

“The important thing is, it’s Roman because of the mint and pecorino, which work so well with the acidic tomato sauce. Those things make you think ‘trippa alla Romana,’ because if

you eat tripe in Florence, it’s not going to taste like that.”

To her point, Florence has an equally robust relationship with tripe, and trippa alla Fiorentina differs from its Roman counterpart in a couple key ways: it is cooked with a soffritto (onion, carrot and celery), and it is garnished with parmesan. Interestingly, a similar egg dish exists in Tuscany under the name “trippa finta,” or “fake tripe.” It is the same idea as uova in trippa.

I’d never dream of straying from the Roman tradition. But tradition isn’t as dogmatic as it may seem. Boni’s recipe, called “uova in trippa alla Romana,” includes parmesan, not pecorino. Among the other recipes Roddy shared with me, one omitted cheese and another calls for parsley. Yet another offered sliced hard-boiled egg in a thick, gravy-like sauce, to be eaten on toast. Let’s not worry about that one.

I’d happily use parmesan (or mix it with pecorino), but I wouldn’t skip the mint, nor would I skimp on it. In fact, while testing this recipe, I found myself constantly adding more cheese and mint to the dish as I ate it. The combination of flavors is absolutely electric. It’s a humble dish, but it inspires strong feelings.

“When you wrote to me,” Minchilli said, “all I could think was, ‘Oh my God, I want to make that tonight!’ ”

4 servings

Storage: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 1 day.

Where to Buy: Dried mint can be found at well-stocked supermarkets, spice shops or online.

¼ cup plus 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

One (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Fine salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

8 large eggs, divided

Grated pecorino cheese and/or parmesan cheese, for garnish

Chopped fresh and/or dried mint, for garnish

Crusty bread, for serving

In a large, deep-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, heat ¼ cup of the olive oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes, and season to taste with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, if using. Stir to combine well and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to low, cover and simmer while you prepare the eggs.

In an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1 ½ tablespoons of oil until shimmering. Have on hand a pot lid at least as wide as or wider than the pan.

In a small bowl, whisk 2 of the eggs and season lightly with salt and pepper. Pour the eggs into the

skillet and cook for 15 to 20 seconds. As the eggs start to set, gently pull the edges toward the center of the pan, tilting to let the uncooked egg fill in the gaps. Repeat this until the frittata is set enough to be fully loosened from the pan with a spatula, about 1 minute.

Loosen the frittata from the pan with a spatula and, holding the pan in your dominant hand and the pot lid upside-down by its handle in your other hand, slide the frittata onto the upturned lid. Quickly and confidently, flip the frittata back into the pan and cook until fully set, another 30 seconds. Transfer to a cutting board. Repeat three more times with the remaining oil and eggs. Once all the frittatas are cooked and have cooled enough to handle, roll each one and slice into ¾-inchwide strips. Taste the sauce, and season with salt and/or pepper as desired. Add the strips to the sauce, gently stir to coat and let simmer, uncovered, until the egg strips absorb some of the thickened sauce, about 10 minutes.

Divide the eggs and sauce equally among 4 shallow bowls, and garnish generously with the pecorino and mint. Serve warm, with crusty bread for dipping.

Nutrition information per serving (2 eggs and ¾ cup sauce) |

Calories: 505; Total Fat: 43 g; Saturated Fat: 8 g; Cholesterol: 430 mg; Sodium: 467 mg; Carbohydrates: 17 g; Dietary Fiber: 4 g; Sugar: 9 g; Protein: 15 g

This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.

This shrimp, feta skillet deserves to be in your regular rotation

This is one of those dishes I have made so many times over the years, it feels like a part of me.

There is a recipe for it, called Shrimp Scorpio, in one of the first cookbooks I ever owned: “The Complete Book of Greek Cooking,” by the Recipe Club of Saint Paul’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The book, published in 1990 and still available, lacks glossy photos and elaborate stories, but makes up for it with dozens of delightful, homestyle recipes that I’ve turned to again and again.

This skillet dinner of shrimp and herbs, simmered with tomatoes, topped with feta cheese and baked until the cheese is melted, has been woven into the fabric of

my life because it checks all the boxes: It’s a breeze to pull together on a busy weeknight, it brims with nourishing ingredients, and it has all the Mediterranean flavors my family and I love.

Over the years

I’ve played around with the version in the book, changing up the herbs and aromatics, using different cuts of canned tomatoes or swapping in fresh, and adding different vegetables to the mix for extra color and nutrition. This take on it incorporates ribbons of fresh spinach, but you could swap in kale, Swiss chard, mustard greens –whatever you like.

Serve it with orzo, rice or crusty bread for sopping up the luscious juices. I know that once you try it, it will

be in regular rotation for you, too.

GREEK-STYLE SHRIMP SKILLET WITH TOMATOES, SPINACH AND FETA

Active time: 20 minutes

Total time: 35 minutes

4 servings (makes about 6 cups)

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 2 days.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small yellow onion (6 ounces), diced (1 cup)

3 cloves garlic, minced or finely grated

One (28-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, with juices

¼ teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

2 cups baby spinach, coarsely chopped

1 ¼ pounds shrimp (26 to 30 per pound), peeled, deveined and tails removed

¼ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

2 ½ ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about ½ cup) Cooked orzo or rice, or crusty bread, for serving

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees. In a 12-inch ovenproof skillet, such as cast-iron, over

medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until aromatic, another 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, and bring to a lively simmer. Reduce the heat to mediumlow and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick and saucy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the spinach and

cook, stirring, until just wilted, about 1 minute, then remove the skillet from the heat. Stir in the shrimp and herbs, top with the feta cheese and transfer to the oven. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked through and the cheese is melted. Let rest for 5 minutes, then taste and season with additional salt and/or pepper, if desired.

Serve with cooked orzo, rice or crusty bread to sop up the juices.

Nutrition information per serving (1 ½ cups) | Calories: 308; Total Fat: 12 g; Saturated Fat: 4 g; Cholesterol: 198 mg; Sodium: 552 mg;

Carbohydrates: 24 g; Dietary

Fiber: 7 g; Sugar: 14 g;

Protein: 31 g

This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.

Ellie Krieger Nourish

Tom McCorkle/The Washington Post

Greet-style shrimp skillet with tomatoes, spinach and feta.

UOVA IN TRIPPA (ROMAN-STYLE FRITTATA IN TOMATO SAUCE)

Scott Suchman/The Washington Post

This Roman-style frittata in tomato sauce is full of flavor and history.

Ready to switch from gas to electric appliances?

HERE’S HOW

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

By rejecting Berkeley’s ban on natural gas lines in new buildings, a federal appeals court has thrown into doubt dozens of similar prohibitions. But what does it mean for you?

The ruling won’t stop gas appliances from polluting homes and emitting greenhouse gases. And the sort of ordinance at issue applied only to new construction, not the gas appliances already in homes.

So the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision doesn’t have any bearing on homeowners considering a switch to electric appliances. Nor is it going to stop developers from building natural-gas-free homes, given that there is demand for them – witness the all-electric developments popping up around Southern California.

There are still health and climate reasons to take the leap, along with subsidies to trim the cost. Yet there are other considerations that may keep you wedded to natural gas, at least for now.

Here’s a guide to what’s involved in switching away from natural gas in your home, including the financial incentives offered by utilities and government agencies.

Which appliances use natural gas?

The appliances most likely to be powered by gas in your home are the furnace or wall-mounted heater, water heater, clothes dryer, oven and cooktop. Other possibilities include pool heaters, fireplaces, outdoor lights and outdoor grills.

To tell whether your appliances are gas or electric, it’s not enough to look for a cord plugged into the wall – even gas-powered units may still require some electricity. Instead, you’ll need to see if the appliance is connected to a gas pipe, typically made of corrugated metal and equipped with a shut-off valve that is often yellow. Or you can look up the specifications for your appliance on the manufacturer’s website.

What are the environmental and health risks?

Appliances that burn natural gas emit carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and other greenhouse gases. But in the big scheme of things, home natural gas use is not a leading contributor to climate change. Homes accounted for 6% of the greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, although other estimates put the residential share closer to 20%.

Within the home, the big dogs in terms of carbon emissions are the furnace and the water heater, which account for two-thirds of a home’s energy use. A gas stove and cooktop are more parsimonious, accounting for only 7% of home energy consumption.

But cooking appliances can create hazardous byproducts when they burn gas, including carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, that are especially risky if they are not vented.

Those byproducts have been correlated with childhood asthma, but research looking for a direct link has been inconclusive. Worse, a study published last year found that gas stoves routinely leaked benzene and other harmful gases even when no one was using them.

Don’t electric appliances contribute to climate change?

They do, because electricity-generating utilities still rely on fossil fuels to produce power. In California, about 40% of the electricity generated in the state comes from power plants that burn natural gas. So if you’re going to swap out appliances, it’s important to make sure you’re buying electric ones that use power efficiently.

And in the case of clothes dryers, switching from gas to electric could increase your energy use significantly. Gas dryers dry clothes roughly twice as fast as conventional electric dryers, according to Home Depot, making them much more energy efficient.

On the other hand, replacing your gas furnace with an electric heat pump will slash your energy use and emissions. A 2020 study by UC Davis found that, on average, CO2 emissions from heat pumps were 37% to 53% lower than from gas furnaces. “The impact of fugitive emissions from the furnace is significantly higher than that of the heat pump,” the study said, adding that the greenhouse gas reductions would be seen “under a wide range of geographic and climatic conditions.”

(And if you really wanted to cut your power bill and carbon footprint, you could install solar panels on your roof and a storage battery in your garage. But that’s a whole ‘nother project with a unique set of benefits and trade-offs.)

What’s a heat pump?

It’s a machine that draws warmth or coolness from the environment –the air in most cases, but

some higher-end models pull from the ground. It can then send heating or cooling air through your home, either through existing ducts or through wall units (“mini-splits”).

Early versions of the technology didn’t work in cold climates, and heat pumps are still not a good option in the coldest parts of the country. Another shortcoming, according to Consumer Reports, is that heat pumps are not well suited for poorly insulated homes, a description that applies to many Southern California houses.

“Heat pumps heat more gently than other systems – it’s a constant trickle of warm air, rather than blasts of heat every few hours,” Consumer Reports explained. “If you have poor insulation, you’ll notice drafts and cold spots more often than you would with the higher temps of a traditional system.”

A heat pump can also be used to power a hot water heater. You can get a water heater with a dedicated heat pump, or you can add a water tank to an existing heat pump system.

The technology has also been incorporated into higher-end clothes dryers. Heat pump clothes dryers push warm air through the spinning tub of clothes to absorb some of the moisture, then pump the air through a condenser to remove the moisture so that it can be cycled back through the clothes. The technique requires significantly less energy to heat the air, making these models far more efficient than conventional electric dryers.

Can I just unplug a gas appliance and plug in an electric one?

Nope. It’s a much bigger job than that.

Although you’ll have no trouble finding electric heaters, dryers and stoves to fit into the spaces now occupied by your gas appliances, your house’s electrical panel, wiring and outlets may not be ready for the additional demand for current.

That’s especially true if you have an older house with a 100-amp electrical

panel, which has half the capacity of a contemporary home’s panel. If you do require a new electrical panel, that could add well over $1,000 to your costs, according to the Angi website. You’ll probably need a permit from your local government to do the work too.

You will also need higher-voltage wiring, circuits and outlets to install a heat pump and to switch your dryer, stove and cooktop from gas to electric. These appliances typically need a 220- to 240-volt circuit, and they don’t plug into the standard three-prong outlet. (Some new manufacturers, including Channing Street Copper Co. in the San Francisco Bay Area, are addressing these issues, but the products are not yet widely available.)

One way to reduce the need for new electrical capacity is to plug the leaks in your drafty home by sealing cracks, weatherstripping windows and doors, and adding insulation. According to the advocacy group Efficiency First California, “A very high-performing, average-sized home (1,800-2,000 square feet) can be heated or cooled with 1,500 watts of power –about what a hairdryer or toaster uses!”

Aren’t gas stovetops better for cooks?

That might have been true in the days when electric cooktops relied on coils that couldn’t raise or lower their temperatures quickly like a gas flame. Now, however, there are electric cooktops that use induction to give you far more precise control over the heat you’re applying, while also being better for health and safety than other electric or gas ranges. (Induction uses an electromagnetic field below the glass surface of the cooktop to heat the iron in the pot directly above it.) These appliances are more energy efficient than other stovetops, although they can be costlier to operate when electric rates are higher than gas rates. But they’re also more expensive – prices

for a name-brand fourburner version start at $600 and increase rapidly after that – and they work only with flat-bottom pans that a magnet can stick to.

And as noted above, you’ll probably need to do some rewiring to switch from gas to electric. “Most kitchens that are set up for gas cooking don’t have the right connection for an electric range – you can’t just plug it into a regular wall outlet,” Consumer Reports observes. “An electrician will need to set up a high-amperage circuit (40 or 50 amps, 240 volts) connected to a four-prong outlet, using a very thick wire that can safely handle the amount of energy that a range will need.”

How much will the new appliances cost?

The biggest hit to your bank account will come from an electric heat pump. The cost will depend on how big a unit you need, which in turn depends on how large and well-insulated your home is. The Angi website reports that most L.A. homeowners spend between $3,000 and $8,000 for a unit that draws heat and cooling from the air; installing a geothermal unit can cost $20,000 or more.

Plenty of name-brand electric stoves are available for $500 to $700, but adding an induction cooktop will drive the price over $1,000. And although name-brand conventional electric clothes dryers start at around $500, most sell in the $900-to$1,200 range, which is also the starting price range for heat pump dryers.

That’s just the cost to buy the appliances. Because electric rates are typically higher than gas rates, you can expect higher bills for the energy used to cook and do the laundry if you replace your gas dryer, stove and cooktop with electric ones. A heat pump, on the other hand, should reduce the cost of heating and cooling your home.

Are there rebates for electric appliances?

Yes, although they are

limited at the moment.

California’s Golden State Rebates program offers $500 for an electric heat-pump water heater to replace a gas-powered one. Some local utilities offer their own rebates for qualified high-efficiency electric appliances; for example, to encourage customers to buy heat pumps, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power offers a rebate of $100 per ton and Glendale Water and Power offers $150 to $170 per ton. Glendale also offers $200 to $220 for a heat pump dryer, $400 to $450 for an electric water heater, and $200 to $220 for an electric range or oven.

The federal government has allocated about $290 million to California to help low- and moderateincome families purchase energy efficient appliances. That money isn’t expected to be available to states until this summer, though, because the feds are still working on the details. Then California will have to develop its own rules for distributing the money, which could delay the rebates further.

According to the California Energy Commission, the federal rebates will be available only to households with incomes below 150% of the area median income; in Los Angeles, that translates to roughly $137,000. And only projects that are certified as efficient by Energy Star qualify for rebates. The most you can receive from the program, the commission says, is $14,000.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the rebates will include up to $8,000 for an electric heat pump for space heating and cooling, up to $1,750 for a heat-pump water heater, up to $840 for a heat pump clothes dryer, and up to $840 for an electric stove, cooktop, range or oven. The program will also offer up to $4,000 to upgrade an electric panel and up to $2,500 to upgrade wiring.

In addition, the feds offer a 30% tax credit for a number of these purchases. The maximum credit is $2,000 for a central heat pump or heat pump water heater and $600 for a panel upgrade.

Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times/TNS

Induction ranges give cooks more precise heat control than previous styles of electric burners, while also being better for health and safety.

‘Mrs. Davis’ will make your head explode

The new Peacock show is like nothing you’ve ever seen, made up of everything you’ve ever seen

LiLi Loofbourow

THE WASHINGTON POST

‘Algorithms love cliches,”

Jake McDorman’s character Wiley says a few episodes into “Mrs. Davis,” the buzzy new Peacock drama premiering April 20 about a world dominated by an omni scient algorithm (think: ChatGPT on steroids) and a nun seeking to destroy it. “And there’s no cliche bigger than the quest for the Holy Grail.”

Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez’s latest project assigns its frustrated characters that very quest while riffing on the many, many stories that have done the same. “Most overused MacGuffin ever,” Wiley grouses.

It’s an unlikely pairing. Lindelof (the creator of “Lost”) has spent the past few years making twisty, bleak and vaguely supernatural dramas such as “The Leftovers” and “Watchmen,” whereas Hernandez is best known for “Young Sheldon” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Their combined powers are considerable: “Mrs. Davis” is a rollicking, absurd, moving extravaganza about the power of cliches and the pleasure of smashing them. It’s about magicians and God and computers, the fun of predicting how a story will go, the joy we feel when those predictions go haywire and the compulsive appeal of structuring living through “quests.”

If “Mrs. Davis” wonders how big a problem it is (or isn’t, or might be) if an omniscient AI learned to exploit our needs for all these things, the show also has bigger and smaller fish to fry. A LOT of smaller fish. There’s a female baker’s vendetta against the pope. There’s an illusionist’s mission to restore magic to its former glory by creating a “Lazarus machine” that could appear to resurrect him from the dead. The show is a thriller, a romance, and an epic and sobering allegory about mothers. It traffics in tropes while being unrelentingly, almost excessively, inventive. Its well-chosen symbols are hilariously, self-consciously, deliciously lame. It stars a world-weary nun, Simone, played by the inimitable Betty Gilpin; it takes a supernatural interest in livers and features the most surprising take on Jesus I think I’ve seen.

It is a mazy delight, a “Faerie Queene” for the modern age.

The sci-fi premise of the show, set mostly in the present-day United States, is that a powerful algorithm known as “Mrs. Davis” – characterized by avid users as beneficial and even benevolent – has fixed the world. “There is no famine or war,” one character dreamily says. “All who want a job

STREAMING Review

‘Mrs. Davis’ (eight episodes)

Premiered April 20 on Peacock with four episodes

Subsequent episodes will drop weekly

have one. She has healed and united us and given purpose to the purposeless.” “I’m nurturing, warm and empathic,” the algorithm itself says, through human “proxies” it takes over (apparently consensually) to communicate with people to whom it wishes to assign quests. (For instance, in the pilot, it assigns much of the world the quest of getting Simone to talk to it.) “I provide gentle guidance, structure and unconditional care.”

It doesn’t seem quite right to call “Mrs. Davis” sci-fi, because the show doesn’t actually spend much time working this setup through to its logical and sinister conclusions. This is arguably a flaw, but if you’re anything like me, it comes as a relief. Some sci-fi scenarios take on a paint-by-numbers quality once the premise is revealed, and I was gearing up for the inevitable bleak and dutiful anthropology of how ordinary users live like placid zombies. “Mrs. Davis” blows up that expectation, along with many others. While the series explores questions of free will and how it gets co-opted, the algorithm is not the only entity assigning humans quests, and the humans we follow are not reflexively obedient.

It’s all a little more complicated than that. That doesn’t mean every episode is a home run. Some –particularly one riffing on the Arthurian legend of Excalibur – drag. The pilot is hard to follow, because it has to get a hundred plates spinning and establish the rules of a Davis universe. The show opens with a set piece in Paris, helpfully captioned 1307, in which some soldiers interrogate a group of women over the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. A melee ensues in which the women – who turn out to be Templars guard-

ing it – fight to the death. The next scene (helpfully captioned “Present-Day. Not Paris. Obviously.”) shows us the rescue of a shipwrecked man from the island he was marooned on for 10 years. His rescuer explains to him that the world has been fixed, referring to a “she” with whom she seems to be communicating via an earpiece. The subsequent scene features a man and a woman getting into a gory car accident on a highway in Reno, Nev.; while the man panics, a nun arrives on a white horse to sunnily administer CPR to his companion’s headless, spurting corpse.

This (the nun, not the corpse) is our hero.

If this sounds like a fever dream, it should. I haven’t even gotten to the fake Germans, the underground lair, the creepy twin girls in sashes, the kindergarten teacher or the exploding jam. Not since “Arrested Development” have so many ancillary plot points and set pieces been introduced, only to (mostly) come together pretty gloriously at the end. (Critics received all eight episodes.)

Gilpin was already a revelation. (You might remember her from “Glow,” the Netflix show about female wrestlers.) But she levels up here as Simone (nee Lizzie), a Reno native and recent convert who resides at a run-down convent presided over by Margo Martindale, where she spends her days exposing frauds, growing strawberries and rejecting the algorithm. She plays a cranky, vulnerable and willful Bradamante whose travails will echo those of all kinds of other figures, including the biblical Simon Peter and Jonah.

Her sporadic partnership with Wiley – a childhood friend now leading a “resistance” to the algorithm – is strained but warm. It’s also the vehicle through which many tropes the show activates get openly analyzed, broken down and fulfilled. “Mrs. Davis” is undisciplined, rather beautiful, seedy, surprisingly profound and, above all, fun. I can’t recommend it enough.

Crossword by

Bridge

Phillip Alder

mended in the textbook. Some are difficult to get right; some, like today’s, are virtually impossible. This deal occurred during the match between Great Britain and Norway in the 1948 European Championship.

To test yourself, look at the North and East hands. Defending against four spades, your partner (West) starts with his two top clubs. You echo (play high-low) to show a doubleton. West leads a third club. What do you play after ruffing?

At both tables, at trick four, East switched to a low heart. However, declarer won with his ace, played a diamond to dummy’s king and successfully finessed in spades through East. Returning to dummy with another diamond, declarer took a second spade finesse to pick up the trumps without further loss and claimed his contract.

IT LOOKS NORMAL, BUT MAYBE IT ISN’T

When I was young, we had a budgerigar called Peter. One morning we came downstairs to find an egg lying in the bottom of the cage. After that, our budgie was Petra. There are bridge deals like this, in which you need to make a marked change from the normal play recom-

There was nothing anyone could do – or was there? Suppose, at trick three, East doesn’t ruff. Instead, he discards a diamond. What does the declarer do now? If he plays trumps from hand, East wins two spade tricks to go with the pair of club tricks already in the bag. So South needs two dummy entries for finesses, but now he has only one. Whichever way South turns, the terminus is defeat.

You can’t play by rote for one moment in this game.

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne

Gould

by

any row, column or box. Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com

Yesterday’s solution:

Sophie Kohler/Peacock

Betty Gilpin as Simone in Peacock’s “Mrs. Davis.”

SuSan Hiland SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — In a one-day special screening, the “40th Anniversary ReleaseStarWars:Episode VI - Return of the Jedi” will come to local theaters for a touch of childhood nostalgia.

Judy Blume’s famous book comes to the big screen reminding us that childhood questions about growing up never change, no matter the decade.

Also showing is a movie based on the life of George Foreman, who struggled and triumphed over adversity.

Opening nationwide are:

“40th Anniversary Release Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi,” an anniversary showing of the beloved film in which the Rebels, after rescuing Han Solo from Jabba the Hut, attempt to destroy the Second Death Star, and Luke Skywalker struggles to bring his father back to the Light Side of the Force. The film is rated PG.

“Are You There God?

It’s Me, Margaret,” in which 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is uprooted from her life in New York for the suburbs of New Jersey, going through the messy and tumultuous throes of puberty with new friends in a new school. She relies on her mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams), who is also struggling to adjust to life outside the big city, and her adoring grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), who isn’t happy they moved away and likes to remind them every chance she gets. The film is rated PG-13.

“Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story,” in which the remarkable life of George Foreman is told. From Olympic Gold medalist to World Heavyweight champion, the Rumble in the Jungle fight with Muhammad Ali in Zaire, to finding his faith, retiring and becoming a preacher. When financial hardship hits his family and church, he steps back in the ring and regains the championship at age 45, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history. The film is rated PG-13.

“Polite Society,” in which martial artistin-training Ria Khan believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood. The film is rated PG-13. Opening in limited release are:

“Rebellion,” the documentary of the behind-the-scenes story of Extinction Rebellion plays out from the start of peaceful demonstrations in 2019, which brought London to a standstill and become the largest act of civil disobedience since the Suffragettes. Within days of the protests, a climate emergency is declared by the UK Parliament and climate change is propelled to the heart of public debate. Nations around the world follow suit declaring emergencies. Yet as XR becomes a global phenomenon, internal tensions rise. Here we see XR Youth come to the fore, calling out the power imbalances of the group. For them, climate change is not just an environmental issue but is rooted in – and reinforces – social inequalities. The film is not rated.

“Butcher’s Crossing,” in which the focus is on a man who forsakes his Harvard education to move to the small Kansas town of Butcher’s Crossing in the West during the 1870s. He joins the hunt for one of the last great buffalo herds. The film is rated R.

“The Monster Without,” in which monsters and humans for centuries have coexisted peacefully under the watch of a secret multi-national organization called PHASE. When an ancient, rogue group of monsters called “The Nameless” enter our dimension intent to bring about the end of the world then both monster and human must band together to save humanity. The film is not rated.

‘Return of the Jedi’ is back on the big screen for 40th anniversary

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

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

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

Informational: A cord o f w o o d s h a l l m e a sure 4x4x8 and be acc o m p a n i e d b y a r ec e p t P l e a s e r e p o r t any discrepancies to: T h e D e p a r t m e n t o f Agricultural / Weights a n d M e a s u r e s a t ( 7 0 7 ) 7 8 4 - 1 3 1 0

e p u b l i c 1 time in Friday s Tailwind

SELL YOUR STUFF Daily Republic Classifieds dailyrepublic com

un ess an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority A hearing on the petition will be held in this court on 6/9/2023 at 8:30 A M in Dept 4 Room N/A located at 600 UNION AVENUE FAIRFIELD CA 94533

If you object to the granting of the petition you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney

If you are a creditor or a contingent creditor of the decedent you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first ssuance of letters to a general personal representative as defined in section 58(b) of the Cal fornia Probate Code or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law You may examine the file kept by the court If

Legal and Public Notices Legal

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: LARRY TINNARELLO CASE

NUMBER: PR23-00081

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

Larry Tinnarello A Petition for Probate has been filed by:

Anthony Tinnarello

and Public Notices

t i c e t o i n t e r e s t e d p e r s o n s u n l e s s t h e y h a v e w a i v e d n o t i c e o r c o n s e n t e d t o t h e proposed action ) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why t h e c o u r t s h o u l d n o t g r a n t t h e a u t h o r i t y A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: DATE: JUNE 5, 2023 TIME: 8:30 am; DEPT : 4 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SOLANO 600 Union Avenue P O Box 5000 Fairfield CA 94533 Hall of Justice

I f y o u o b j e c t to the granting of the petition you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written object i o n s w i t h t h e c o u r t b e f o r e t h e h e a r i n g

Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney I f y o u a r e a c r e d i t o r o r a c o n t i n g e n t c r e d i t o r o f t h e d e c e d e n t you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the l a t e r of e i t h e r ( 1 ) f o u r m o n t h s f r o m t h e d a t e o f first issuance of letters to a gen eral personal representative as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under s e c t i o n 9 0 5 2 o f t h e C a l i f o r n i a P r o b a t e Code Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor You may want to consult with a n a t t o r n e y k n o w l e d g e a b l e i n C a l i f o rn i a l a w Y o u m a y e x a m i n e t h e f i l e k e p t b y t h e court If you are a person interested in the estate you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisa of estate assets or of any petition or account a s p r o v i d e d i n P r o b a t e C o d e s e c t i o

Anderson & Associates, CPA’s

Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano

Downtown Theater Foundation for the Ar ts

Jelly Belly Candy Company

Jim Stever Realty - Stever & Associates

Law Office of Elizabeth Anderson

Medic Ambulance Ser vice

Meyer Corporation

Michael J. McMurry CPA

Napa Solano Medical Society

Nor thBay Healthcare

Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3

Salvation Army - Suisun City, KROC Center

Vogelpohl Real Estate Consulting & Sales

Yin McDonald’s

State Farm Insurance - Gar y Falati

Network Independent Mor tgage Broker

CALENDAR

Monday’s TV sports

Baseball

MLB

• Oakland vs. L.A. Angels, FS1, 6:38 p.m.

• St. Louis vs. San Francisco, NBCSBA, 6:45 p.m.

Basketball NBA Playoffs

• Milwaukee vs. Miami, TNT, 4:30 p.m.

• L.A. Lakers vs. Memphis, TNT, 7 p.m.

Hockey NHL Playoffs

• N.Y. Rangers vs. New Jersey, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• Tampa Bay vs. Toronto, TBS, 4:30 p.m.

• Winnipeg vs. Vegas, ESPN, 6:30 p.m.

• Seattle vs. Colorado, TBS, 7 p.m.

Tuesday’s TV sports

Baseball

MLB

• Oakland vs. L.A. Angels, NBCSCA, 6:38 p.m.

• St. Louis vs. San Francisco, NBCSBA, 6:45 p.m.

Basketball

NBA Playoffs

• Atlanta vs. Boston, TNT, 4:30 p.m.

• Minnesota vs. Denver, NBA TV, 6 p.m.

• L.A. Clippers at Phoenix, TNT, 7 p.m.

Hockey

NHL Playoffs

• N.Y. Islanders vs. Carolina, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• Minnesota at Dallas, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• Los Angeles at Edmonton, ESPN, 6:30 p.m.

Soccer

• EPL, Leeds vs. Leicester, USA, Noon.

• CONCACAF Champions, Club Leon vs. U.A.N.L. Tigres, FS1, 7 p.m.

Busch

What if an improved Bart was Giants’ hope?

SuSan SluSSer SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE SAN FRANCISCO —

For all the focus on the San Francisco Giants’ catching situation during spring training, the best option increasingly appears to be the most familiar one. Joey Bart is doing a solid job in all areas. Given that Roberto Pérez is out for the season after rotator cuff surgery and that Austin Wynns chose free agency after being designated for assignment and went to the Dodgers, Bart’s re-emergence as the top choice after his shaky rookie season is even more welcome.

Bart was batting .300 going into Sunday night’s game, and his play behind the plate has been much improved. He has been blocking balls better, his pitch framing has improved, and he’s throwing the ball extremely well, nailing two runners in San Francisco’s win

over the Mets on Saturday. Logan Webb, who had Wynns catching him much of the final month of last year, was full of praise for Bart on Saturday, saying, “Joey was fantastic back there.”

Manager Gabe Kapler described Bart as very composed and applauded his game calling and his throwing. “The way things are trending across the league, it’s always nice to have a guy with a plus arm back there,” Kapler said.

Catching coach Craig Albernaz said that Bart has made some mechanical adjustments with his knee position to get in a better position to throw, making him quicker and more accurate, and Bart said the key for him is making sure he doesn’t speed himself up too much, even with a fast runner on base. “I’m trying to stay in the same rhythm all the time,” he said.

Game-calling is an area of shifting responsibilities, with many of

the Giants starters now electing to call their own pitches via PitchCom. The catchers can still weigh in, and Albernaz said they’re encouraged to take a firm hand if they disagree with a selection. But there’s no doubt that the weight of pitch decisions is now spread a little more evenly, which can help a young catcher.

“I think it’s awesome,” Albernaz said. “It puts more ownership on the pitchers. Now it becomes more like a great conversation and you’re meeting at a halfway point.”

Webb called most of his pitches Saturday but Bart made several suggestions.

“It’s more like a team, it’s more like a connection we can build,” Bart said. “I’m still in tune on every pitch, I’ll still throw some pitches in there when I feel it’s the right time. It works great because at the end of the day, you want that guy to throw with confidence and not overthink.”

all season and became the fifth active player to record 60 or more double-digit strikeout games.

Point being: he’s the kind of guy you’d want on your side in a series-deciding game three.

“It’s a great feeling,” Rangers designated hitter Robbie Grossman said. “It’s where you want to be.”

And it’s where the Rangers are. Oakland, which let Texas score a season-high 18 runs the night prior, found that out early.

Not the best luck for a team that might be headed to Las Vegas.

The two-time Cy Young award winner struck out two batters in each of the first three innings and stranded a runner at second base in the second with consecutive strikeouts to end the inning. He reached 101 miles per hour in the first to strike out Ryan Noda, and cracked 99 mph on 13 other pitches.

The lone mistake came in the fifth inning when Oakland designated hitter Shea Langeliers sent a deGrom slider 432 feet to left field for a two-run home run. Only one of the runs was earned, though, as Oakland’s Aledmys Diaz reached on a throwing error from Rangers shortstop Ezequiel Duran.

DeGrom responded with five consecutive strikeouts to cap his day.

and spun out.

The No. 23 car then collected cars through the field.

winning Stage 1 – one spot short of becoming the first driver in the Cup Series to sweep the first two stages at Talladega. (Aric Almirola stole it from him right on the final lap for the green-white checkered.)

But one of the drivers who avoided Wallace’s wreck? Busch.

And the No. 8 car ended up being in the lead when the caution came out — solidifying his trip down Victory Lane.

“The seas kind of parted there when they went up the racetrack,” Busch said.

“(Wallace and Blaney) were trying to push draft, and these cars are just not stable enough to do that. I saw the 23 just turn a little bit sideways, and I was like, ‘Just get out of the way, just miss it, and try to see if I was ahead of the 12 by the time it was called.’”

Busch added that his win at Fontana earlier this year was top of mind down the stretch on Sunday. It’s what told him to stay on track while his crew chief told him he didn’t have enough fuel to finish the race.

“We were sweating (fuel) being close, but I thought back to California, at Fontana, earlier this year where we have a win,” Busch said. “I was like, ‘We gotta gamble. We’re up here, you gotta take the track position when you have it and go get what you can at the restart and see what happens.’ And lo and behold, it worked out.”

Other notables

Elliott saw a great run punctuated by a P12 finish.

Bubba Wallace: With his boss (Michael Jordan) in the pit box, the driver of the No. 23 car put together a complete race. He ran in the top 5 virtually all day. His coolest move? Wallace created a third lane late in Stage 2, and enough people followed him to launch him to the front.

Moves like that showed that Wallace was primed for a good day. The driver was in it until the end, too –until a block-turned-awry caused him to spin from the lead and prompt the race-deciding caution after the white flag had already flown. That ultimately gave Busch the trip to Victory Lane. Wallace ultimately finished 28th on Sunday.

Courtesy Photo

Rodriguez High School’s boys and girls swim teams, champions of the Monticello Empire League for the spring 2023 season.

MEL

From Page B1

From Page B1 Fields that won in 1:55.72. Vacaville's boys team of Jack Cook, Kyle McAllister, Jayden Scalise Kifer and William Bulris won in 1:37.80.

Vacaville won both 200-yard freestyle relay events. The Vacaville girls had a team of Gracie Lopez, Allison Schroeder, Pauline Sweeney and Alannah

Alessandra Comier picked up an individual win in the girls 100-yard backstroke for Rodriguez (1:04.70). Lin won the boys event for

Vanden in 56.51.

Trotter picked up another individual win for the Mustangs by finishing first in the girls 100-yard breaststroke in 1:09.44. Spencer Merodio of Armijo led the Royals to the top of the podium with a win in the boys 100 yard breaststroke (58.62).

“I was pretty frustrated,” deGrom said of Langeliers’ blast. “I made a lot of good pitches, then leave one over the middle and he hit it really hard. So that frustrated me.”

DeGrom threw 80 pitches, 57 for strikes.

“That was far enough, we were good,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “I’m sure he could have gone out there [for the seventh], but I made the call. The bullpen was fresh, and there was a little [injury] thing going on there and we said we weren’t concerned about it, but just trying to keep that under control.”

Grossman, who entered Sunday’s game hitting just .196, gave Texas a lead in the second with a threerun home run to left field. He drove in another in the fourth with a deep sacrifice fly that scored Leody Taveras. The Rangers scored a fifth insurance run in the eighth when Taveras scored from third base on a wild pitch.

Giants

From Page B1

Warriors

From Page B1

Chase Elliott: The driver of the No. 9 car was so close to making some interesting history on Sunday. Elliott finished second in Stage 2 after along with Jordan Poole, who started Game 3 in Green’s absence.

Fox challenged the Warriors defense consistently, putting up 21 first-half points. Keegan Murray stepped up from a tepid first three games and put up 15 first-half points and the Kings entered halftime with a four-point lead at the half.

The Warriors had Looney and Green start the second half, where the Warriors tried to find some offensive momentum and regain an advantage on the boards. They had one offensive rebound heading into the half compared to Sacramento’s seven.

Joey Logano: The twotime Cup Series champion made one of the riskiest moves of the day at the end of Stage 2. And it worked. Logano was about to get lapped and elected to stay in the middle lane when the field caught him – and that kept him as the leader of the non-lead-lap cars. All of that to say: That move essentially delivered him the free pass ahead of Stage 3 and gave one of the best superspeedway drivers in the sport a chance to contend in the end. (It ultimately didn’t work — a wreck with five laps left sealed Logano’s 30th-place fate on Sunday.

Green added three offensive boards in the third quarter and the Warriors found some momentum with second-chance points. Steph Curry scored nine points and Poole eight in a rabid third quarter punctuated by Klay Thompson’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 10-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Green defended Fox for most of the third quarter, limiting the Kings’ star to five points in the frame — though Green emerged with four personal fouls before the final quarter.

The Warriors and Kings face off again on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. PT at Golden 1 Center. No team has won a game on the road this series yet.

inning, Stripling fumbled a soft roller toward first base, loading the bases with one out. While the Mets seemed primed to strike, Brandon Crawford cleanly fielded a 110.5mph ground ball from Álvarez – the hardest-hit ball of the game – and started an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Stripling lasted 3⅓ innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits, but he left with the lead.

In his return to the

lineup after a nine-game absence, Pederson made an immediate impact, driving home LaMonte Wade Jr. in the first inning for the first of four runs against Mets starter Tylor Megill.

Continuing his excellent start to the season, Estrada extended the lead to 2-0 in the second inning with a 413-foot blast to left field. Estrada, who already leads the team in steals (five), is now tied for the team lead in homers, with four. If he continues at this pace, Estrada would finish the season with 31 homers and 39 stolen bases, which would make him

55

the first Giants player with a 20-20 season since Hunter Pence (2013) and their first infielder to do so since Orlando Cepeda (1959).

Estrada used his speed to beat out a double play ball in the fourth, advanced first to third on a single from Brandon Crawford, and scored on a line-drive single from Blake Sabol.

Brett Wisely, second only to Estrada in speed, also used his wheels to beat out what would have been an inning-ending double play, allowing Crawford to score from third to reclaim the lead, 4-3.

The Rangers, who’ve scored the second-most runs in baseball with 139, are now 12-0 when they score five or more runs in a game.

“I was just glad I could do something to help the team win a game,” Grossman said. “Plus we got the series win, so that’s even more exciting.”

Taveras went 3 for 4 with three runs scored.

Since Wednesday’s win over the Kansas City Royals, Taveras has hit 7 for 15 with six runs scored and three extrabase hits. He missed the season’s first 11 games with an oblique strain, but has begun to round into form after just two hits in his first six games.