DIXON — The sounds of kids shouting and screeching – humans and goats, alike – carried across the hot, blue sky canopy of the Dixon May Fair on Friday.
It was Kids Day at the fairgrounds, with temperatures rising into the low 90s.
Brett Atkinson has been coming to the springtime fair for nearly 64 years, and as his family first planted its roots in the area in 1886, the first May Day celebra-
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
VALLEJO — Rozzana
Verder-Aliga said it is important the 3rd District of the state Senate be represented by someone from Solano County.
After all, Solano makes up about 45% of the district, and the district encompasses all of Solano.
So Verder-Aliga recently announced she is running for the seat currently held by Sen. Bill Dodd, who is terming out. He has endorsed the Vallejo city councilwoman.
“It will be good to have
SuSan HilanD SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
DIXON — Payton
King, 16, from Fairfield Rodriguez FFA, took the crown for Supreme Champion Steer. She had the best steer at the 2023 Dixon May Fair.
This is King’s first steer showing for FFA and she was very pleased with the outcome of the day on Friday. She has been with 4-H since she was 6 years old and was showing other animals when she was 9.
“I showed pigs for three years,” she said.
This year she decided to go with a steer because her brother wanted to show one.
“I liked the idea,” she said “It was something different. I have shown pigs before but never a steer.”
She wanted a quality animal and bought the steer from Baser Livestock in Lincoln.
“I showed him in several jackpot shows,” she said.
The jackpot shows are more intense competitions than the county fairs.
“I like to see how well we do at those competitions,” she said. “You can win big money.”
She did not win big money, but she did earn some bling.
“I won a belt buckle at one of them,” she said as she flashed her prize Saturday at the livestock auction.
Saturday was the day for her to say goodbye to her steer, which weighed in at 1326 pounds. She and her family waited
See Steer, Page A12
tion was held.
And right around the time the Dixon May Fair got that moniker, Verne Atkinson had opened up his land leveling business (1955) using a 1943 RG Letourneau pull scraper – one of 24 pieces of farm equipment and construction pieces that were on display at the fair.
That included “that little green thing,” as described by Ashly Taggart for her father’s FMC garden tractor, a 1946 Model A Bean Cutter.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” Amberly Taggart said about seeing
representation from Solano County,” she said while sitting at the CaymusSuisun Winery during a tourism celebration event on Thursday.
Verder-Aliga described a campaign platform built around improving mental health, homelessness and affordable housing.
V erder-Aliga has been an elected official for 27 years, first with the Vallejo City school district, then the Solano County Board of Education and for the last nine years on the Vallejo City Council.
She also has worked in the mental health field for 35 years.
her father’s tractor sitting among the other historical pieces.
This was the first time the Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club, Chapter 15, had shown their collection pieces at the fair. Atkinson had seven pieces on display, each personally restored. There were also pieces from Chapter 5 from the Petaluma area.
Atkinson said it was a spur-ofthe-moment decision to go to the fair, but also a chance to promote the club and the local chapter.
See Tractors, Page A12
Verder-Aliga defends the efforts of Vallejo to combat the issues on which she is running, noting that the city has an affordable housing project and a homeless navigation project in the works.
“And we are the only city that has done that,” Verder-Aliga said.
“We’ve come together, faced our challenges head
on, made city government work for its residents, and shown positive change can happen,” she stated in her election announcement.
“Now, my goal is to reinvigorate the California Dream and strengthen the opportunities it promises its people in the state Senate. The scale of the issues is larger, but the principles are the same:
bring people together, find common ground, and move our communities forward to make people’s lives better,” Verder-Aliga added “That’s my focus and the type of leadership I’ll bring.”
Verder-Aliga has doctorate and master’s degrees in Counseling Psychology and a bachelor’s in Music Education. She is a licensed marriage family therapist.
She is currently a senior Mental Health manager for Solano County Behavioral Health and responsible for managing the Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville Adult Outpatient Integrated Care Clinics.
If she wins the seat, Verder-Aliga would be the first Filipino-American ever elected to the state Senate.
F or the first time since 1990, there’s a new king of Bay Area pro sports history.
Of course, that’s not an official title, but any history of who is considered the greatest athlete in Bay Area major sports history would conclude that the greatest was Willie Mays from 1958 (when the Giants moved here) until 1990, when Joe Montana won his third title as the 49ers quarterback. Montana held that crown until this year, when ... well, read on. With no further introduction, the top 10 athletes (on Bay Area major pro teams) in history:
10. Charles Woodson, Raiders. The Hall of Famer played the first eight and final three years of his NFL career with the Raiders. It wasn’t in the Bay Area, but he’s also the coolest Heisman Trophy winner in history.
9. Buster Posey, Giants. Upset Giants fans? Well, read the rest of the list and realize No. 9 is pretty good. Posey was the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and the best offensive player on three World Series champions. What’s more, he was the public face of the Giants as they had their greatest period in team history.
8. Ronnie Lott, 49ers. Even critics of the “finesse” 1980s 49ers dynasty acknowledged Lott was intimidating. A brilliant rookie cornerback for the first Super Bowl winners, he became the NFL’s most feared safety.
7. Rick Barry, Warriors. When he retired, Barry was one of the 15 greatest NBA players in history. His stature has reduced, but he was a spectacular player who led Golden State to its first championship. Not beloved, but great.
6. Jerry Rice, 49ers. It says something about this region’s history that the guy many consider the greatest NFL player doesn’t even make the top five. The margin between Rice and the next-best receiver in the NFL was always massive and his prime
lasted twice as long as most NFL players.
5. Barry Bonds, Giants. Greatest hitter since at least Ted Williams (maybe ever), he hit for power, average and had arguably the best eye in baseball history. Of course, he got “help” later in his career and a huge cloud hovers over his legacy. But Bonds from 2000 to 2004? Unmatched.
4. Rickey Henderson, A’s. Yes, I have him above Bonds. Rickey played 11 seasons in Oakland over two stints. He’s the greatest leadoff hitter and greatest base stealer in baseball history. Plus, he’s from Oakland.
3. Willie Mays, Giants. Baseball’s greatest player would be the Bay Area’s greatest, except he played his first six seasons (and won his only title) in New York. A brilliant hitter, fielder, showman and teammate, he sadly lost his only World Series in San Francisco.
2. Joe Montana, 49ers. Unless you were in the Bay Area in the 1980s, it’s hard to understand how popular the 49ers were. If the 49ers were the Beatles, Montana was a combination of Lennon and McCartney – the guy who led them to their first championship and seemingly came through in the clutch every time. Still revered.
1. Stephen Curry, Warriors. Warriors fans are seeing something they won’t see again in their life – from the team (including Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and Kevon Looney) and especially from Curry. Steph’s shooting changed the modern NBA and he’s been the centerpiece of four NBA champions (even the Kevin Durant teams rotated around Curry). Curry has played 14 seasons in the Bay (Mays played 15, Montana played 13) and is the greatest face-of-the-franchise player in American team sports history.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@ outlook.com.
K ailyn Brown LOS ANGELES TIMES
My mom didn’t plan to spend her 21st birthday in a Las Vegas hospital giving birth to me. She did all she could to avoid it.
Her initial due date had been two weeks prior to her big day, but after doing everything from going on a long, bumpy drive in my grandfather’s truck to pacing back and forth inside of a shopping mall to trigger her labor, I wasn’t budging.
When her doctor asked what day she preferred to be induced into labor, she told him any day but her birthday. “I would have wanted to have a drink or something,” she recently told me.
She and her doctor settled on Sept. 7, but as many birth stories go, her labor didn’t go as planned. Nearly 24 hours and a caesarean section later, I was finally born on the dawn of Sept. 8, the same day as my mother.
I can understand why my mom, who’s an only child, wanted to have Sept. 8 all to herself. Birthdays are the one time of year when your loved ones likely come together to celebrate you and when you can get a bunch of free stuff –like a birthday dessert at your favorite restaurant – simply because you were born on that day. Even for people who don’t care about celebrating and say things like, “It’s just another day,” birthdays still hold significance because they represent another year of life gone by.
However, what happens when you have to start sharing your one special day with not just anyone but your only child?
I’ve heard stories about people having the same birthday as a romantic partner, a grandparent, a father or, of course, their twin. However, there’s just something unique about sharing your born day with the person who brought you into this world. I like to think of it as a higher power winking at us and saying, “Now, you two will be bonded forever” – as Beyoncé’s “Virgo’s Groove” plays in the background. We even have matching gold infinity rings to symbolize the number 8 and our eternal bond.
Since that momentous day in 1994, it’s become a tradition for my mom and me to spend our birthdays together. It’s an unspoken rule of sorts. Even after she and my dad separated when I was 6 and they began rotating which hol-
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idays they’d each spend with me, it was expected that I’d be with my mom on Sept. 8. It’s kind of like our own holiday.
Despite our 21-year age difference, celebrating our birthdays together was easy for many years because my mom always made the day about me. She’d spend weeks planning spectacular parties for me. One year she transformed our backyard into a carnival, and another year I had a sleepover with a group of friends at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. But she did hardly anything for herself. Also, it was rare for people who attended my parties, aside from our family, to wish my mom happy birthday as well.
As time went on, my mom began making jokes, which were rooted in truth, that she didn’t have a birthday. “I was happy
people acknowledged your birthday because it’s like, ‘OK, well, she’s getting all this love and attention. She’s happy,’” my mom recently told me. She was being a selfless parent who only cared about my happiness on that day.
My mom is what some would consider a social introvert. She’s the type to brag about my accomplishments to a store clerk in a checkout line and make anyone I introduce to her feel like they’ve known her for years. For the most part, though, she prefers to stay to herself. She’s also highly driven and works a lot. She hasn’t had a birthday party since she was a child, and if you asked her, she’d tell you that she doesn’t want one.
Also, she claims to be an easy gift receiver, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. She
doesn’t enjoy the smell of fresh flowers, and if she casually mentions something that she likes, such as a handbag, she’s quick to buy it for herself. For this reason, my grandmother and I typically give her money to avoid getting her something that she already owns or doesn’t want.
As I’ve gotten older, celebrating my birthday with my mom has gotten trickier.
The first time I broke our tradition was on my 22nd birthday. It was a Friday, and I had a jam-packed day: a hair appointment in the morning, an interview with singer Ravyn Lenae for my radio show in the afternoon and a SZA concert in the evening. (Lenae was opening for SZA’s Ctrl the Tour.) I planned to hang out
See Mom, Page A6
FAIRFIELD — The tall grass was chopped down to create a makeshift road and the tables were set for visitors on Saturday for the International Bird Rescue Open House.
Rather than the usual open house at the International Bird Rescue site, visitors got a chance to check out the Cordelia Slough Youth Education Program site just off of Ramsey Road in Fairfield.
“This is right in the middle of bird flu season,” said J.D. Bergeron, chief executive director. “So instead of exposing the birds and people further we thought it would be nice to introduce people to the place where we will have the Youth Education Program.” International Bird Rescue has been awarded nearly 40 acres by the Pacific Flyway Fund in order to bring wildlife and environmental literacy to the next generation of advocates for nature.
The property has riparian and marsh habitat and is located just off Ramsey Road at the Gold Hills property. They will use this space to lead field trips for children under the project title “Cordelia Slough Youth Education Program.”
This event was the first in-person open house since 2019 for the International Bird Rescue.
“We thought to make this a much bigger event with a walk and introduction to the new program,” he said.
The Cordelia Slough is part of the Pacific Flyway, a superhighway for migratory birds.
The land is covered with a rolling grasses, marshes filled with water and plenty of critters.
An industrious beaver decided that the stream running through the marshlands needed an updated and, a while ago, went about cutting down trees and making a few dens for family members.
Visitors could look at the downed trees and see beaver toothmarks on the trunks.
“What this created was a pond,” said volunteer Karen Sheldon. “It separated the water from merging with the saltwater and made a pond.”
International Bird Rescue is out counting animals on an annual basis for surveys. And so far, they have found 91 different species of animals.
Trevor deRosier, 16, of
Fairfield was very excited to come out and take a look at the area. He and his mom Cindy deRosier came to see what they had to offer; he was hoping to become a volunteer for the rescue, but he is a little too young.
“I have always been interested in bird rescue,” he said.
For his Eagle Scout badge, he created silhouettes of birds of prey for the California Raptor Center so people can stretch out their arms and see how they compare to the length of the birds’ wings.
“That took about half-ayear to complete,” he said.
After high school, he plans to attend college and become a bird conservationist.
“It is something I have wanted to do my whole life,” he said.
The event had several tables along a 1-mile walk through the dry part of the marsh. They also had
daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
VACAVILLE — Police announced Saturday they made an arrest in the homicide of 16-year-old who was killed Thursday night on Meadows Drive.
Detectives arrested a 17-year old male juvenile, a Vacaville resident, for murder and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
a bake sale to make a little money.
International Bird Rescue was founded in 1971 and has become a global conservation organization for birds in a changing world. They have responded to more than 250 oil spills and other wildlife emergencies, caring for more than 160,000 birds on six continents, according to the organization’s website.
T he organization, which has crisis-response centers in Fairfield, Los Angeles and Anchorage, Alaska, specializes in emergency preparedness and response, day-to-day aquatic bird care and scientific research. Innovations are shared worldwide to inspire the next generation of wildlife specialists.
Bird Rescue aims to give a voice to waterbirds through conservation, advocacy and wildlife literacy that builds empathy and encourages action.
The juvenile remains at a local hospital receiving treatment for a gunshot wound. The injuries sustained to the juvenile were non-life threatening, and he will be transported to Solano County Juvenile
FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Coroner’s Office identified Briana Ballesteros, 26, as the lone fatality in an early-morning crash on Peabody Road, north of Chuck Hammond Drive.
It happened around 5 a.m. Ballesteros went off the road, overcorrected and her vehicle overturned several times. She was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The coroner’s office did not have a city of res-
Hall upon release from the hospital. During the investigation, detectives learned an altercation took place prior to the shooting, involving both the victim and the 17-year old juvenile. At some point after the altercation, both the victim and the 17-year old juvenile were shot. The 16-year old victim was pronounced deceased after being transported to a local hospital. This incident remains an active investigation and any information should be forwarded to Detective Kenny Meek at (707) 469-4810 .
idence. Thursday media reports listed her as a Vacaville resident.
SUISUN CITY — Tuesday’s regular city council meeting is canceled. No reason was give for the cancelation, The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. May 23. For information, contact the City Clerk’s Department at 707 421-7300 or email dpock@ suisun.com.
A number of types of sources found within residential neighborhoods are capable of producing enough adult mosquitoes to bother not only the residents of one home but a number of homes in the area. These mosquitoes are also capable of transmitting West Nile virus! Water left standing for seven to ten days can produce mosquitoes during warmer weathaer. There are a number of simple precautions that can be taken to prevent this from happening...
HE LP US FIGHT THE BITE this season by reporting dead birds to the West Nile Virus Call Center at 1- 80 0-WN V- BIRD or go online to westnile .ca.gov to report elec tronic ally. Dead birds are an import ant tool for early virus detection. Birds ac t as a reservoir for We st Nile virus, infecting the mosquitoes that feed on them.
Dead birds are of ten the first indicator that West Nile virus may be present in an area
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — The Solano County civil grand jury is seeking volunteers to serve on the 2023-24 jury.
Residents who have lived in the county for one year, are a United States citizen and are at least 18 years old are eligible to apply.
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
SUISUN CITY —
Ground was broken
Wednesday for a new residential development.
The Meridian West subdivision is a 71-single family unit at the former site of Crystal Middle School.
“On behalf of Suisun City, we are pleased to
welcome Century Communities to our town,” said Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez, in a press release. “We appreciate their investment in our city and are excited about the future homes that will be built here.”
According to Century Community representatives, the new homes will likely start in the mid-
$500,000’s and model homes are expected to be ready for touring this summer.
“Today marks the third major new project groundbreaking in Suisun City within three weeks,” City Manager Greg Folsom said in the press release. “In addition to this single-family home community, there is one affordable housing
project, one market rate apartment project, one luxury apartment project, and three commercial projects currently under construction in Suisun City and several more projects in the planning stages. I don’t think Suisun City has ever seen a development boom like we are seeing right now. It’s a great time to be in Suisun City.”
Daily Republic Staff
DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — A resolution to approve a five-year assessment levy schedule for the proposed Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance District for the downtown bossiness district goes before the City Council Tuesday night.
On April 18, the council initiated proceedings to form the new district maximum assessment rates were approved, the city would begin levying assessments in fiscal year 2023-2024.
On May 2, property owners voiced their concerns regarding the significant increase in
assessments.
Following public comment and staff discussion, council directed staff to return with a plan to “phase-in” the new assessment district levies over a five-year period.
A portion of the proposed district budget includes dedicated funding for the repair and replacement of future capital and streetscape improvements on Texas Street, which are currently planned for completion by fiscal year 2025-26.
The future streetscape project is not funded landscape and lightning maintenance district funds. Since funding for the repair and replace-
ment reserves for these improvements is not immediately required, the collection of assessments for these improvements may be delayed.
Additionally, funding for certain non-essential services, like regular power washing of sidewalks and tree lighting, may also be delayed.
Under the 5-year levy schedule, the council will not levy assessments greater than 30 percent of the proposed maximum assessments for fiscal year 2023-2024.
The council will not levy annual assessments against the lots and parcels of property by more than 30 percent of the assess-
ment levied in the prior year for each subsequent year, beginning fiscal year 2024-2025.
The city owns 17 assessable parcels in the district. Additionally, the city will continue to contribute 11.04 percent of the landscaping budget and 11.59 percent of the lighting budget.
The meeting gets under way at 6 p.m. in the council chambers, 1000 Webster St.
The council will have a closed session at 5 p.m. It will focus on real property negotiations and existing litigation.
Find the agendas on the city’s website, www. fairfield.ca.gov.
Daily Republic Staff
DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
VALLEJO — The third annual Solano Student Art Showcase gets under way at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Solano County Fairgrounds, in McCormack Hall.
The event is free and will be live-streamed.
The Solano Youth Coalition members promote participation in the event to fellow students, citing the importance of creativity, advocacy and self-expression.
Solano County Office of Education’s Youth Development Services hosts the event in partnership
with Club Stride, Fighting Back Partnership, Nature of Sound, Solano County Friday Night Live, Solano County Public Health, Solano Youth Coalition, Vallejo Project, and VIBE Solano
“Our art showcase for students is a celebration of creativity and a testament to the power of expression. Through art, these young people can find their voice, transcend boundaries, and convey their important perspectives and experiences. It is in these expressions that we can experience the profound impact of nurturing and honoring the artistic spirit within us all,”
said a press release from the Solano County Office of Education.
The event will feature an art exhibit with artwork from 370 young artists from 26 Solano County schools.
In addition, a community health fair will offer services and resources.
Live student performances will be featured on a stage outside of McCormack Hall.
Food will be available for purchase from local food trucks. Picnic tables will be available. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own seating to enjoy the event.
The showcase is to recognize young artists and
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — More than 100 high school students in Solano County completed the WorkR eady! certification program this year.
A ceremony recognizing the student accomplishment was held at the Jelly Belly Candy Company in Fairfield.
“Completing the WorkReady! course is just the beginning for these young people. Their preparedness for the workplace, knowledge, skills, and hard work will come together to create significant opportunities to earn
and maintain jobs, gain experience and explore careers,” Solano County Superintendent of Schools Lisette Estrella-Henderson said in a statement.
The certification program offers students “the opportunity ... to participate in workshops addressing work readiness skills such as problem solving, interviewing, teamwork, work ethic and the responsible use of social media. Students who finished the program completed a portfolio with a resume, cover letter, references, and master application. They also participated in mock
interviews with members of the local Chambers of Commerce.”
The program is offered through the Solano County Office of Education’s college and career readiness department and is supported by the Vacaville, Fairfield, Vallejo, Dixon, Black and Hispanic chambers of commerce as well as the Solano County Workforce Development Board. Travis Credit Union has been a long-standing financial supporter.
For more information, go to www.solanocoe.net/ ccreadiness.
“The grand jury is an historic institution and serves an important role in our society. It is sometimes referred to as the “watchdog” of the community. It functions as an arm of the judicial branch of government and operates under the authority of the Solano County Superior Court,” the court said in a statement.
“The grand jury investigates and reports on the
operations, accounts, and records of local government and has the power to investigate citizen complaints about local government. Empowered by the judicial branch, the grand jury is a fact-finding body that develops meaningful solutions to a wide range of governmental issues, thereby facilitating positive change in the community.”
Jurors are paid $20 a day, plus mileage, for each authorized meeting attended.
Anyone interested should contact Cheryl Clower at the Office of the Grand Jury, (707) 4352575, or visit the court’s website at www.solano. courts.ca.gov to obtain an application.
The deadline to submit an application is May 31.
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — A
Travis Reserve Area Overlay Zone is on the agenda for the Solano County Planning Commission when it meets on Thursday. Changes to the county zoning regulations would create the Travis Reserve Zoning Overlay Zone by identifying the specific properties within the overlay area and would establish land use and development regulations for those properties.
“The matter before the Planning Commission involves proposed amendments to the Solano County ... zoning regulations creating the Travis Reserve Zoning Overlay to maintain the future viability of (Travis Air Force Base),” the
staff report to the commission states.
“(The base) is by far the largest employer in Solano County. The importance of (Travis AFB) to national defense and the local economy is well documented. Continuing urban development in the vicinity of (the base) could limit the operational flexibility of the base to fully respond to possible future mission requirements. Maintaining the future viability of this economic resource is of the utmost importance,” the report states.
The commission action is to decide whether to recommend the text amendments to the Board of Supervisors. The commission meets at 7 p.m. in the board chamber on the first floor of the government center, 675 Texas St., in Fairfield.
Jacqueline Knudson
to support mental health and wellness. The goal is to promote the prevention of addiction to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug through art. The event will showcase visual and performing arts and community booths promoting health.
For more information about the Student Art Showcase contact Johanna Nowak-Palmer at jnowak@solanocoe.net or Rebecca Floyd at rfloyd@ solanocoe.net.
More information about the event (including registration information) can be found on our website https://www.solanocoe. net/showcase.
Jacqueline (Shaltry) Knudson, 85, died March 22, 2023 from a sudden illness. She w as born September 28, 1937 in Saginaw, MI. The daughter of the l ate John Laurence and Frances (Cashin) Shaltr y. She is survived by her daughter and three sons, six grand children, four step grandchildren, four great grandchildren, four gr eat st ep grandchildren, f our siste rs and three brothers. Jacqueline wa s proceeded in d ea th by one sist er and 3 brothers. She wa s of Catholic faith and had enjoyed b aking, p ainting, crocheting and fishing. A Celebra tion of Life will be held in June. Memorial contributions may be made in Jacqueline ’s name to the SPCA.
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BLoomBerg
Balmy beaches, Napa Valley wineries, scenic hikes, Hollywood: The list of California’s draws is practically as long as its coastline. But even if you’ve hit them all, chances are you’ve only skimmed the surface.
In a campaign called “Visit Native California,” which kicked off last month, the state’s tourism office aims to raise awareness that the Golden State is home to 109 of 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., many of whom live in proximity to mustsee sights. To do so, it has created a content hub that compiles more than 600 Native American businesses, cultural sites and events across the state, making it easy for visitors to tap into a rich tapestry of Indigenous-led experiences.
In downtown Palm Springs you can soak in one of 22 private mineral spring tubs at the Spa at Séc-he, opened on April 4 as part of a new cultural plaza built by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. On a drive down the Pacific Coastal Highway, pull into swish Tomales Bay for a guided history and nature tour with members of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, of the Coast Miwok people who’ve lived in the area for thousands of years. Or if you happen to visit Napa in the fall, you might join an intertribal powwow at Skyline Wilderness Park - a captivating cultural celebration with live drumming and spectacular displays of traditional dress.
“Being the first people of this land, it’s critical that visitors understand the real history of California,” says Reid Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
For Caroline Beteta, chief executive officer of Visit California, the Native California initiative helps deliver on the “authentic experiences” that so many visitors - especially millennials - crave. She says that’s one reason her office invested $1 million toward the initiative, secured through a first-of-its-kind U.S. Economic Development Administration grant. Importantly, she’s left the rest to the tribes, allowing them to take the lead on providing content and how they want to position their own stories.
nnn California isn’t the only state doubling down on Indigenous experiences. In Maine the nascent Wabanaki Cultural Tourism Initiative - Wabanaki means “people of the dawn” and refers to all four Native tribes in the state - has so far succeeded in garnering the support of both state and tribe leaders. It aims to draw visitors year-round to new Indigenous tourism experiences in Maine by 2030.
The spark was Governor Janet Mills’s first tribal economic development summit in 2019, which included tourism and thus opened the door for a relationship between Maine’s tourism office and Native American leaders.
Like in California, the Indigenous tourism plan in Maine is being shaped and led by members of the community. In this case, Four Directions Development Corp., a nonprofit Native community development financial institution, is in charge. Its $584,000 budget similarly comes largely from the federal government; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Native Americans contributed all but $150,000, which came from the
Maine Office of Tourism.
“We’re in the process now of seeing what’s market-ready,” says Charlene Virgilio, executive director at Four Directions, adding that an important part of the work is determining what tribes want to be shared or kept sacred.
One proven concept so far is the Indian Market, a vibrant outdoor festival celebrating Wabanaki arts and culture through more than 50 Native artisans’ creations - pottery, jewelry, baskets and sculptures - as well as musical and educational performances. The event returns in June 2023 at the Abbe Museum in historic downtown Bar Harbor; the state’s sole Smithsonian-affiliated institution dedicated to the history and culture of the Wabanaki people is so close to Acadia National Park that travelers tend to stumble upon it accidentally on their journeys.
Other states are further ahead.
Since 2019 the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance has banded together Indigenousowned businesses. That preexisting structure helped operator Trafalgar Tours find the right Indigenous partners to design a nine-day National Parks and Native Trails of the Dakotas tour (from $3,186 per person). Almost all the businesses on the itinerary are Indigenous-owned, and Travel South Dakota, the state tourism office, has provided training, marketing and technical support to ready the tribal entrepreneurs, who will regale visitors with traditional storytelling, Indigenous cuisine and personal perspectives that deepen the appeal of natural sites such as Lake Sakakawea.
A digital tribal tourism-focused marketing campaign will begin in the summer of 2023 using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, with $120,000 invested each year for four years. An additional $450,000 in ARPA funds will go toward a Lakota storytellers video series incorporating the Lakota language, the state tourism office has confirmed, for use in future tribal-focused campaigns.
nnn
Building consumer awareness for these experiences is one challenge. But in South Dakota, getting the tribes to trust and engage in tourism has also been complicated because of concerns that sacred cultural sites would be shared with outsiders or that Native women would be placed at risk given the ongoing plight of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples in the U.S.
“We’ve always remained kind of cut off,” says Sarah Kills In Water, grant writer for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “Our tribal nations didn’t want visitors. They feel tourism is a danger to our people or that we’re prostituting our culture,” she says.
The South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance’s work is helping to break down long-held fears about non-Native outsiders, though. And tribal leaders have been reassured that only sights open to visitors will be included in the Trafalgar tour and that the information shared with tourists is already publicly available.
The emphasis on future benefits from tourism is also helping assuage fears. Sharing that heritage, namely, is a form of cultural preservation, which creates economic opportunities for artisans, culture-bearers and storytellers, who often
When Jonathan O’Brien sees the rolling green hills of Southern California, the grasses lush from this winter’s heavy rains, he can’t help but feel uneasy.
“Even if it’s not this year or next year, sooner or later we absolutely will go into a drought period again, and all this vegetation that has grown will eventually suffer – that’s just the cycle we face,” said the National Interagency Fire Center meteorologist. “When that happens, it’s all but inevitable we will see a severe fire season or two.”
This summer, however, O’Brien and other forecasters project that portions of the state could get a break. The storms of the past couple of months have left behind a deep mountain snowpack that is expected to act as a buffer against massive wildfires like those that twice burned from one side of the Sierra Nevada to the other in 2021. At lower elevations, the outlook is uncertain. Those grassy hills could burn sooner rather than later.
“Overall, we think it’s going to be a less-activethan-normal year, led by that less active component at higher elevations,” said O’Brien, who works for the NIFC’s Predictive Services in Riverside. “But
the big wild card for this season is going to be the grass fire activity at lower elevations and whether we get the winds later on toward June and July to start pushing any fires around as these grasses start to dry out.”
Any lull in the fire season would just be temporary, experts say. Climate change is supercharging California’s natural climate variability, making wet spells wetter and causing dry spells to run hotter and longer. At the same time, the prohibition of Indigenous cultural burns and the effects of industrial logging and aggressive fire suppression have made much of the state’s forests
more flammable.
“We definitely do see bad fire years getting worse. And there’s some evidence to suggest we will see more of this weather whiplash in the future, where we have a very wet year followed by a very dry year and we see these extreme swings from one to the other,” said Kristina Dahl, principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “So it’s important to remember that those wet years don’t necessarily inoculate us from wildfires.”
This year’s exceptionally wet and snowy winter is expected to influence wildfires in several ways.
Higher elevations,
especially areas above 7,000 to 8,000 feet, will remain covered in snow until much later than normal, which is expected to decrease fire activity by keeping the soils moist and vegetation green, O’Brien said.
But this year’s heavy snow and wind also brought down trees and branches, which could add to the flammability of forests under the right weather conditions, said fire meteorologist Brent Wachter with Predictive Services Northern California Operations.
“What the snow crush and the blow-downs have done is rearrange the fuel bed to make it easier for fire to transfer from the surface to canopy fuels,” he said. “And we’re still sizing that up, still figuring out how much is happening out there. Some of it is still under snow, so we don’t fully know the extent of this rearrangement.”
All that precipitation has also fueled new plant growth, or “green-up.” In lower elevations, these grasses and small shrubs and plants will cure out, or die, by the heart of the dry summer season, when temperatures are persistently hotter. That’s when they can become fuel for a wildfire.
This curing is expected to take place later than
VALLEJO — The Class of 2023 commencement for Touro University California graduates is scheduled for May 22 and May 23 at the Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento.
The College of Osteopathic Medicine will hold its ceremony at 11 a.m. on May 22, and the College of Education and Health Sciences will hold its at 6 p.m. on May 22.
The College of Pharmacy commencement will be at 10 a.m. on May 23.
An additional ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday for graduates of the master’s of science in Medical Health Sciences at Lander Hall Auditorium on the Touro University California campus.
“Throughout their journey we have spoken our vision, ‘To Serve, To Lead, To Teach,’ but our students, our gradu-
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with my mom before the concert for our birthday. However, my interview was delayed, and I didn’t have time to go home beforehand. By the time I left the venue, it was after midnight.
“We didn’t get to spend our birthday together today,” my mom texted me just as I was about to drive home.
My mom never explicitly told me that we had to celebrate our birthdays together. Nor did she shun me after I broke our tradition that year. However, I felt conflicted in that moment – and somewhat guilty. On one hand, I was ecstatic about scoring a last-minute ticket to see one of my favorite singers live on my birthday, but on the other hand, it felt odd not being with my mom that day.
The following year, I was living nearly 300 miles away from my mom, so she and my grandma drove here to spend the day with me. They brought the same dessert I’ve been getting since I was a toddler: a vanilla cake infused with Bavarian cream and fresh strawberries, topped with whipped cream frosting from Albertsons. (My mom doesn’t like my birthday dessert, but she doesn’t have a signature cake.)
When I asked why they didn’t just order the cake from a local store, my mom had an answer. She didn’t want to risk not getting it in time. We sang “Happy Birthday,” and my mom and I exchanged gifts – she usually gives me everyday necessities and cash – which basically means that we end up giving each other our money back. (It’s a gifting habit that annoys us both.) Then she helped me get ready for a brunch I was having with friends.
Although I invited her, she declined, saying she wanted to beat the traffic back to Las Vegas and for me to enjoy my friends.
This time I felt sad. I wanted to spend more time with her and for her to meet my new friends.
I worried that she didn’t come because she felt like she’d be intruding.
For the next few birthdays, I started driving to Las Vegas to be with her even if it was just for the day. One year, I drove there for the weekend before our birthday but came back on the actual day during the week so I could attend one of my favorite parties, Everyday People, with my friends.
Although it took more effort, we had successfully figured out how to handle the distance between us. Then I got into my first serious relationship.
So instead of going to my hometown, I stayed in L.A. to celebrate my birthday with my boyfriend at the time. I didn’t think it would bother my mom because she was also in a
Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file (2014) Touro University commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, May 31, 2014.
ates, bring that vision to life and improve our world each day. Our communities across the country and around the world are fortunate to have these graduates
relationship with someone who lives in another part of the country.
I didn’t realize it then, but she was still hoping that we’d spend the day together. She teased me about caring only about my then-boyfriend.
I don’t have children, but I’ve seen enough TV shows to know that some parents go through a grieving process when their child hits new milestones: the first day of kindergarten, when they go off to college and eventually when they start forming their own life separate from their parents. Although it’s a part of life, it’s understandable why a parent could feel happy and sad about these objectively positive moments. Their baby is growing up. My mom appeared to be grieving the fact that we weren’t going to be able to celebrate our birthdays together in the way we’d done all these years.
“You’ll have all kinds of dates that you’re going to share with other
people,” she recently told me. “When you get married, you’ll have an anniversary. When you have a kid, you’ll have their birthday. So for me, my monumental moment is our birthday. So when we’re together, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s the best gift in the world.’
“Even if I can’t stand you on that day or we make each other mad on that day, it’s still like, ‘Wow, this is our day to spend together,’” she said jokingly.
My mom and I never discussed our expectations around celebrating our birthdays until I started writing this story, but it’s made me realize how important this day is to her. This epiphany has inspired me to think about our shared birth date differently.
This year, my mom will turn 50, a monumental age that can represent a second life or rebirth. My mom isn’t particularly excited about it, but she says that she’s grateful to be alive and healthy. After
as change agents,” Provost and Chief Executive Officer Sarah Sweitzer said in Guest speakers include Patricia Salkin, senior vice president for Academic Affairs, Touro College and University System; Loriann De Martini, chief executive officer of California Society of Health-System Pharmacists; Robert A. Cain, president and chief executive officer of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. ceremonies will feature 379 graduate degrees conferred to 320 students, taking the number of TUC alumni to more than 7,000 physicians, pharmacists, educators, physician assistants, nurses, public health practitioners and health science professionals. The Memorial Auditorium is at 1515 J St. in Sacramento. Visit tu.edu/ commencement for more information.
all of the dazzling birthday parties she’s thrown me and the times that she’s gone out of her way to make me feel special, I want to do the same for her – not only for her 50th but for every birthday after that.
She doesn’t want a party, so I’m planning to take her to Miami per her request. It’ll be our first trip together – just the two of us – and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to give her the 21st birthday turn-up experience that she wasn’t able to have because she was giving birth to me. (I spent my 21st birthday dancing with friends until the wee hours at Drai’s Beachclub & Nightclub in Las Vegas.) In the future, there likely will be other birthdays when my mom and I won’t be together for whatever reason. I’ve accepted the fact that as our lives and interests continue to evolve, our tradition will have to do the same – and that’s OK. I’m confident that we’ll be able to make it work
Large secondary house, lot line goes before zoning exec
FAIRFIELD – The county zoning administrator on Thursday will conduct two public hearings – one on a proposed 4,000-square-foot residential accessory structure at 4355 Price Lane, 2.75 miles north of Vacaville.
The other hearing is on a lot line adjustment of property boundaries for three adjoining property owners near 3771 Cantelow Road, 2.25 miles northwest of Vacaville.
Planning Manager Allan Calder sits as the zoning administrator, The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday in Suite 5500 in the Department of Resource Management office on the fifth floor of the government center, 675 Texas St., in Fairfield.
because we always do.
But most important, I want my mom to feel like she has a birthday again.
I don’t want Sept. 8 to be centered around me anymore. My mom has already sacrificed so much for me over the years and she deserves
to feel celebrated on her special day.
I can’t make up for her last 28 birthdays, but one thing’s for sure, I won’t allow her to feel anything but cherished on each birthday moving forward. That’s my new tradition.
My wife and I just returned from the White Coat Ceremony at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, in Bethesda, Maryland. My daughter, United States Air Force 2nd Lt. Sophia R. Anderson, received her medical white coat, as a military medical student. Physicians were invited to renew commitment to the Hippocratic Oath, in solidarity with the students.
Scott Anderson Ask Dr. ScottAs I looked at my wife, I contemplated the concept of a life circle. We are getting older and our daughter is now in the formative stages of her medical career. Thank goodness for the miracles of modern medicine, which allow children to grow and flourish into productive adults. In preparing this column, I thought it proper to review the section on maternal health in the medical search engine Up-to-Date.
Although maternal mortality declined in recent decades, variables related to health care access remain. Globally, things are looking better, but some disturbing upticks in maternal mortality emerged in the United States in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System tracks much of this data. Where are we now?
Worldwide, we saw about 216 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015. The range, however, was from about 13 per 100,000 in high-income countries to as high as 479 per 100,000 in low-income countries. Finland as the safest country, with three deaths per 100,000 live births. Sierra Leone was orders of magnitude worse off at 1,360 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. In the United States, the National Center for Health Statistics found in 2019 that the maternal death rate was 44 per 100,000 live births for non-Hispanic Black females, 2.5 times higher than comparable rates for non-Hispanic white females, and 3.4 times higher than the rate seen for Hispanic females. Particularly disturbing, according to a review of this subject by Haywood
L. Brown, M.D., and Maria J. Small, M.D., outlined in the Up-to-Date review article, was that 80% of these deaths are preventable. Perhaps one could argue that virtually all maternal deaths are preventable, but 80% is itself astonishing.
Risk factors for maternal death include advanced age, unhealthy body mass index and coexisting medical conditions. Very young maternal age may also confer specific risks. Issues being further studied include rural-
versus-urban living environment, access to health facilities, immigration status, socioeconomic situation and caesarian section rates.
In America, 22% of pregnancy-related deaths occur during pregnancy, 13% on the day of delivery, 12% within 1 to 6 days of delivery, 23% in the ensuing days up to 42 days, and 30% between day 43 and one year after delivery. The concept of “Three Delays” warns of delay in seeking medical care, delay in arriving to get the appropriate care and delay receiving care after arrival at a health care setting. Women over age 35 are at higher risk for specific conditions linked to maternal mortality: hemorrhage, cardiomyopathy (heart condition), embolism (blood clot that travels to heart or brain) and eclampsia/preeclampsia (elevated blood pressure).
The authors recommend that various strategies be implemented to improve maternal outcomes. Many were discussed, but I noted the use of multidisciplinary meetings between obstetricians, anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians and other involved staff. Discharge planning and seeking to monitor postdelivery blood pressure is also important. Societal efforts to diminish health care access disparities must also enter the discussion, speaking more broadly.
Looking back on my daughter’s life, I feel fortunate to realize that Pia
The WashingTon PosT
A skin patch being developed by a French pharmaceutical company to treat peanut allergy is showing promise in toddlers, according to a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday.
T he “peanut patch” outperformed a placebo in “desensitizing children to peanuts and increasing the peanut dose that triggered allergic symptoms,” said the study, which was funded by the company DBV Technologies and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The trial involved 362 children with peanut allergy from ages 1 to 3 in eight countries, including the United States, Canada
and Australia. Nearly 85% of the toddlers completed the trial; most of those who did not were withdrawn by their parent or guardian. The trial involved a toddler wearing either a peanut patch containing 250 micrograms of peanut protein – about 1/1,000th of a peanut – or the placebo patch between their shoulder blades every day for a year.
Among the children who wore the peanut patch, called Viaskin, two-thirds were able to tolerate a higher amount of peanut protein at the end of the year. (A third of the placebo group were also able to tolerate higher amounts; some children outgrow peanut allergy.)
For parents and caregivers of young children
made it to adulthood in good health. My lovely wife Camille is still with us, along with my son Luke. Family, friends, teachers and health care providers deserve thanks. Today, however, we honor mothers … wishing them excellent health!
Scott T. Anderson, M.D. (standerson@ucdavis. edu), is a clinical professor at the University of California, Davis Medical School. This column is informational and does not constitute medical advice.
with peanut allergy, the patch could be a useful tool to defend those under age 4 against potentially life-threatening accidental consumption or exposure in areas such as cafeterias and playgrounds. Peanut allergy is one of the most common allergies among children, and there is no cure for food allergies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A drug used to treat peanut allergy in children ages 4 to 17 was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2020, but the therapy, called Palforzia, has struggled to gain traction with consumers, as it is costly and requires a battery of medical appointments to begin treatment.
bloombeRg
Staring at his com puter screen, Kristoffer Rom couldn’t believe the numbers rolling in from Spotify.
A year and a half earlier, in 2018, his inde pendent music label, Tambourhinoceros, had released a languid, synthpop song, titled “Hey Kids,” by Molina, a Dan ish-Chilean singer. The initial reception was modest. But then, months later, it started taking off on TikTok and YouTube as creators embraced the song as a catchy, mood-setting score for all manner of emotive videos and animations.
From there, the momentum spread to Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services.
By March 2022, the song was generating more than 100,000 streams per day. “It was amazing to see all that traction,” Rom said. But his team’s initial excitement was soon tempered by an unsettling realization. The growing popularity of “Hey Kids” had not only caught the attention of TikTok and YouTube performers but also another more pernicious, if less widely recognized, mainstay of the modern media ecosystem – streaming music scammers. Taking advantage of the loose restrictions in an age of automated music distribution, such scammers have learned how to rake in money from mainstream music platforms, either by circulating minimally altered, copycat versions of popular songs and collecting the resulting per-stream payouts or by getting listeners to inadvertently consume their own music or ads by mislabeling uploaded content.
Much to Rom’s growing dismay, ripped-off versions of “Hey Kids” – slightly modified but largely indistinguishable from the real thing – were suddenly proliferating across the streaming music landscape, siphoning listeners away from Molina and unfairly pocketing the resulting streaming royalties. Worse yet, nobody at the major services appeared to be doing anything effective to stop the spread of the knockoffs.
“You have the ecstatic joy of people doing creative, great things with the music you’ve put out, on the one hand,” Rom said. “And the total frustration and anger of witnessing people trying to exploit it.”
Currently, much of the music industry is preoccupied with the newest threat – or maybe opportunity – to emerge from Silicon Valley. With
The collapse of First Republic Bank is a harsh reminder that any stock can go to zero, no matter how established a company is, or how loyal and wealthy its customers are.
Mark Sievers Wealth mattersment experience without knowing what is going to happen with any individual stock because of diversification. In investing, diversification is the closest thing any of us can have to a free lunch.
The failure of what many believed to be a solid regional bank should serve as powerful evidence of the importance of diversification, what I consider to be one of the first principles of investing.
AI-generated songs of mysterious provenance already going viral on streaming platforms, industry executives, most notably Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek, have been quick to promise heightened vigilance on behalf of labels, artists and copyright holders. But while the platforms are warily sizing up the shiny new disruptive force, labels and managers say that fraud of a more prosaic nature is already rampant.
Beatdapp, a company that works with services to detect and remove fraud, estimates that at least 10% of streaming activity is fraudulent. Applied across a vast scale of digital music, what can at first appear as small-time, garden-variety trickery adds up to sizable theft. Beatdapp said that the streaming subterfuge could amount to roughly $2 billion in misallocated revenue every year.
People in the music industry who spoke with Bloomberg say the majority of the problems they grapple with tend to surface on the biggest global streaming platforms, Spotify and Apple Music. By contrast, they say, Alphabet’s YouTube Music has been much cleaner. That’s in part because YouTube has for years maintained a powerful content ID system that often identifies infringing content and then allows rightsholders to either remove the fraudulent content entirely or monetize it themselves. (Unauthorized versions of “Hey Kids” on YouTube, for example, now divert any resulting ad revenue back to Molina’s team at Tambourhinoceros.)
A Spotify spokesperson said via email that “stream manipulation and content misrepresentation are industry-wide issues,”
Daily Republic Staff
DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — Partnership HealthPlan of California has announced that Elizabeth Gibboney, chief executive officer for the past eight years, will retire effective July 1.
Sonja Bjork, the deputy CEO and chief operating officer, will become the third top executive in the firm’s history.
“I have enjoyed a fulfilling and personally meaningful 29-year career at Partnership,” Gibboney said in a statement. “It has been an honor to serve as the organization’s leader, a job which has taught me so much about health and health care, leadership, resilience, and the healing power of humor.
“I am thrilled that
which it “takes seriously” and are “against our policies.”
“We have robust, active mitigation measures in place that identify bad actors, limit their impact and penalize them accordingly, including withholding royalties,” the spokesperson wrote. “We are continuously evolving our efforts to limit the impact of such individuals on our service.”
Apple Music didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Ben Gaffin, an artist manager and founder of Sound Advice, a musicservices business that represents producers, artists and media companies, said he often encounters a particular type of streaming scam. Someone will make a track and distribute it across the streaming services while intentionally tagging it with the name of another, more successful artist. Afterward, thanks to the fallacious metadata, the platform’s algorithms will start automatically serving up the mislabeled track to the legions of fans of the real musician and incorporating it into popular playlists, generating a surge of unwarranted streams.
Sometimes, lesserknown artists will use this trick to try to draft attention from a popular act. Other times, the deceptively tagged track isn’t even a song but rather a speaker urging listeners to buy something on a particular website. Basically, a rogue ad.
During a recent interview with Bloomberg, Gaffin began hunting around for an example and quickly found one such track “featuring” his artist Clams Casino. By the time Gaffin happened upon it, the mis-tagged track had already tallied up over 55,000 plays on
Spotify. Gaffin said he typically only finds out about counterfeits when he gets a notification from Spotify For Artists alerting him to new music being ready for release when, in fact, no new work is plannedor, when fans start posting angrily about a new track they dislike.
“It’s a vulnerability in the system that is being exploited,” Gaffin said.
Talya Elitzer, cofounder of the label Godmode Music, sees the same tactic targeting her artists a couple times a month. Often, she said, it takes streaming platforms up to a week to process her takedown requests.
“It seems like a fairly easy fix that every artist should have a code or security thing,” Elitzer said. “By the time you see it, it’s too late.”
Part of the challenge is that in the streaming age, more or less anyone can get tracks uploaded onto major streaming platforms with little scrutiny or oversight. There are many services, such as DistroKid, CD Baby and TuneCore, that empower users to distribute their songs to the big platforms using do-it-yourself software. The process of distributing new music to retailers, which not long ago was a labor-intensive, hands-on process, has grown largely automated.
“Way, way, way back in the day, we had a team of people that listened to every CD that came in the door,” said Christine Barnum, the chief revenue officer at CD Baby. “Operating at this scale, that’s not feasible.”
If your wealth is highly concentrated in any one individual stock, take this opportunity to learn an important lesson: While many people think they know more than other investors, none of us knows more than the entire market.
Professor Merton Miller, who taught at the University of Chicago, was well respected in the field of economics and finance. Many years before he became a Nobel laureate, he would whimsically say, “Diversification is your buddy.” Diversification is the practice of spreading investments across a variety of assets. It is a time-tested strategy to mitigate risk. Children learn about it early in life with the phrase “Do not put all your eggs in one basket,” but all too often, adult investors forget that maxim.
Anyone who suffered a large loss when First Republic Bank stock lost its value had too much invested in it.
It is safe to assume that the total value of the stock market will not go to zero. But the same cannot be said about any individual stock, no matter how promising the future of a company might seem. Why not? Because we cannot predict the future. Nobody has ever demonstrated this ability. If someone promises to do so, please do not believe them.
The current price of any stock reflects the value of all its future income streams, but that expectation is not a guarantee. Some companies fail. Can anyone predict which ones? Fortunately, there is no need to. You can have a positive invest-
Nearly all investing horror stories start with a simple fact: Someone took too much risk. In the case of First Republic, management took too much risk. The same with Silicon Valley Bank. But investors need not. Anyone who lost their shirt when FRB stock lost its value had too much invested in it.
Everyone who invests in the stock market should prioritize diversification in their portfolio. And it has never been easier to do so, because with mutual funds and ETFs, you can invest in a broad range of stocks by buying just one security. You can achieve a high level of diversification with the same number of mouse clicks as buying a single stock.
In my opinion, when you concentrate your wealth in single stocks, you are gambling, not investing. And that is fine, if you do not mind losing what you bet. That approach is not investing. It is taking risks, perhaps for entertainment, or a whim. It is not the basis of any sort of sound financial planning.
First Republic has been included as part of the S&P 500 index since 2018. On the day JP Morgan Chase announced that it was taking over the troubled bank, how did First Republic’s dissolution impact the S&P 500? When the market closed, the index was down 0.039%. In other words, the market had already priced itself on the failure of First Republic and the fact that other banks would benefit.
What could be a better example of “diversification is your buddy”?
Mark Sievers, president of Epsilon Financial Group, is a certified financial planner with a master’s in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley. Contact him by email at mark@wealth matters.com.
Sonja will head our extremely strong and deep leadership in collaborating with our board of commissioners to position Partnership to flourish and experience continued success for many years.”
Gibboney became CEO in July 2015. She had served as deputy CEO and spent eight years as chief operating officer at Partnership prior to that. She started her career with Partnership just prior to its launch in 1994.
“We are grateful for Liz’s vision and leadership to ensure our most vulnerable populations receive the care they need and deserve,” Partnership commission Chairwoman
Alicia Hardy, chief executive of OLE Health, said in the statement. Hardy served on the committee to find a new top executive. “It was clear that Sonja’s considerable history with Partnership, her operational experience, legal training, and leadership abilities made her an exceptional candidate,” she added. Partnership, based in Fairfield, started in Solano County and has expanded to include 23 counties. A 24th county is expected to be added in 2024.
Partnership is a nonprofit that contracts with the state to administer Medi-Cal benefits.
transmission, steering, axles, bearings, suspension, tires etc. We also repair and service all trucks from a pick up truck to a Class 8 Big Rig. Our team of Technician’s have over 150 years combined repair and diagnostic experience. We treat your vehicle like it is ours. There is no job too big or small, we invite them all. Give us a call to schedule an appointment or just stop by we always have coffee brewed and popcorn popped. We look forward to meeting you and providing you with excellent customer service.
Not even 2023’s eye-watering rallies can lure badly burned exchange-traded fund investors back to crypto after last year’s beating.
The top five best-performing non-leveraged ETFs in 2023 are all crypto-linked, led by the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (ticker WGMI)’s 119% rally. However, the group has attracted just $12 million of inflows so far this year – a fraction of the $118 billion that’s poured into the industry overall.
The tepid appetite subverts a time-tested adage of investing: Flows follow performance. And it speaks to how hesitant investors – especially the retail cohort – have been to wade back into risky assets following the infamous collapses of a number of crypto companies as well as a precipitous crash in prices.
“Equity people have just turned off crypto, period,” said Stephane Ouellette, chief executive of FRNT Financial, an
institutional platform focused on digital assets. “You’ve got long-term believers left in the space in a time where no one really has dollars to invest – so those people are holding. The wave of selling is for the most part over so it’s just like a bunch of holders left.”
Cryptocurrencies and many related projects crashed in 2022 as companies folded and billions of dollars of wealth evaporated.
“There is quite a bit of shellshock after what happened last year in all risk assets,” David Spika, president and chief investment officer of GuideStone Capital Management, said in an interview. “So I would think investors are going to be very leery about getting back into very risky assets anytime soon.”
The five best-performing funds in 2023 – the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF, the VanEck Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP), the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innova-
tors ETF (BITQ), the Global X Blockchain ETF (BKCH) and the Invesco Alerian Galaxy Crypto Economy ETF (SATO) – have been atop the performance leader board all year as crypto prices overall have made a big rebound.
Yet, two of them – DAPP and BKCH – have seen outflows despite gains of more than 70% each. And each of the other three is on pace for way smaller intakes than they took in during all of 2022, when the multitude of scandals dented trust in the digital-assets industry.
“Typically investors chase returns so high returns often match up with high fund flows. With crypto ETFs, however, most of the outperformance year to date has been a recovery from the weak performance in 2022 and not necessarily from strong fundamentals,” said Roxanna Islam, associate director of research and head of sector and industry research at VettaFi.
From Page A8
As the amount of amateur content being uploaded to streaming services has exploded, businesses like Spotify that were originally set up as outlets for professional musicians have started to look more like usergenerated content platforms. Spotify said over 100 million songs exist on its service, and as of February 2021, 60,000 tracks per day were being uploaded. Apple Music and Amazon Music also recently said they offer listeners a 100-millionsong catalogue.
Vickie Nauman, founder and CEO of CrossBorderWorks, a music and technology consultancy, said that the growing scale at which streaming services operate is making it much easier for dishonestly labeled tracks to slip through.
“Certainly in the world before we had 100,000 songs uploaded a day, it was easier to monitor,” she said.
For the most part, the task of swatting down scammers falls on rightsholders who must manually submit takedown requests for each problematic track they identify, a process that can be particularly burdensome for small, independent labels.
To this day, executives at Tambourhinoceros continue to find new uploads ripping off “Hey Kids.” On some, the fraudsters have changed the name of the song, luring in unsuspecting listeners with variations of hashtags used on TikTok. Others feature slightly sped-up or slowed-down versions, seemingly tweaked to avoid fraud detection software while still sounding almost identical to the original work.
The most popular bogus upload they uncovered had accumulated more than 700,000 plays, possibly accounting for over $2,000 in lost revenue.
“That’s a lot of money for anybody but especially us, an independent label from Denmark,” Rom said. “We really need to get the money from what we actually do.”
Haywood’s (Amanda Warren) leadership is called into question after a tragic shooting close to home
From Page A5
usual this year because the moisture levels in the plants are above normal, so they will take longer to dry out, O’Brien said. For that reason, even though it’s now close to when Southern California would start to see a notable uptick in grass fires, such activity is probably still at least three or four weeks out, he said.
In Northern California, forecasters are calling for below-normal significant large fire potential in the Sacramento Valley foothills and lower elevations of the Bay Area until June, and in most other areas until August.
Grass fires tend to exert less demand on firefighting resources than timber fires in the mountains because the terrain is generally easier to access and the fuel burns more quickly, so crews can often contain the blazes in a matter of days rather than months, O’Brien said. But though grass fires don’t usually consume as much acreage as heavy timber fires, they tend to be faster-moving and take place near populated areas, a combination that can threaten lives and properties.
Still, O’Brien said, heavy grass growth doesn’t necessarily mean an active grass fire season. The biggest driver of these fires is wind, which allows them to spread rapidly and evade containment for long enough to become threatening. The wind patterns in June and July, when the fuel will begin to become available to burn, are difficult if not impossible to predict this far in advance.
There are other factors forecasters consider. A deeper and more persistent marine layer that lasts well into the spring and early summer can lead to more moisture in the soils and ground that can slow fire spread.
Temperatures also play a big role. Right now, conditions are projected to be cooler than normal and the marine layer deeper than normal, through at least June. Heat anomalies might bring periods of above-normal temperatures in July and August, but on balance the temperature regime appears as though it will be close to normal for much of the state this summer, Wachter said.
On the other hand, the southwest monsoon, which tends to weigh in toward July and August and last year spent a lot of time over California, raising humidity levels, is not expected to be nearly as active this summer, he said.
Forecasters are also confident that an El Niño is developing and will be in place by late summer or fall. The phenomenon refers to a pattern of warmer sea surface temperatures over the equatorial Pacific Ocean that have a big effect on weather over the West Coast and tend to bring wet winters to California.
From Page A5
struggle to find traditional employment.
As the sentiment shifts, another challenge is emerging: Many tribal nations are in remote places, making it more difficult to attract visitors. But Kills In Water is encouraged by several well-established Indigenous tourism efforts across the country, including Discover Navajo Nation in Arizona and Utah, as well as wide network of museums and cultural experiences that make tribal tourism so strong in Oregon.
There were fireworks in New Hampshire on Wednesday night at CNN’s town hall with former president Donald Trump. But there’s a slow-burning fuse in the Granite State that has the potential to blow up Democratic Party primary politics next year.
Back in February, the Democratic National Committee overwhelmingly voted to adopt a schedule suggested by President Biden, making South Carolina the first contest and moving New Hampshire to second, sharing its primary date with Nevada. Unsurprisingly, just about everyone in the Granite State has been opposed to this idea with the raw fury of a sun going supernova.
The first consequence is that New Hampshire officials, including Democrats who have few other beefs with Biden, are, in effect, declaring: “To heck with you, we’re going to hold our primary first anyway.”
State law requires New Hampshire to hold its presidential primary “7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election.” The DNC’s calendar has South Carolina holding its presidential primary on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024, meaning that New Hampshire would have to hold its primary no later than Jan. 27, probably on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
Even if New Hampshire Democrats changed their mind and agreed to the later date – a supremely unlikely scenario – they would need the cooperation of the state’s Republican state legislature and GOP governor, Chris Sununu, and the governor is literally telling the DNC to go “pound sand.”
“The state does not do what the Democrat Party says,” Sununu scoffed in March. “Our primary will be likely the third week in January. What [the DNC will] do is say, ‘Oh, well, we’re not going to see seat your delegates.’ Who cares? Nobody cares about that. New Hampshire is about coming, working, getting all the media attention, all the name ID that you need, all the really political momentum that you need.”
In 2008, the DNC punished the delegations of Florida and Michigan because those states had moved up their primaries earlier than the Feb. 5 date allowed by the party. The DNC declared that each delegate from those states would get half a vote, while all the other states and territories would get one full vote per delegate. The DNC may well do the same to New Hampshire this cycle; the state is slated to have 33 delegates.
Here’s the big question for Biden: Does he compete in a New Hampshire primary held against the DNC’s rules, violating a schedule that the committee adopted at Biden’s request? Or does he skip it? And if Biden doesn’t compete ... does he end up dramatically underperforming, or perhaps even losing the New Hampshire primary to anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or spiritual author Marianne Williamson? Those two have already committed to running in New Hampshire; others might follow if Biden’s polling numbers continue to look dire.
At first glance, Biden must ignore the rogue early primary. The whole reason the DNC changed the schedule was because Biden wanted South Carolina – the state pivotal to his winning the 2020 nomination – to go earlier and New Hampshire and Iowa (where he lost badly in 2020) to go later.
But other Democrats, such as Rep. Ro Khanna of California, argue that Biden’s skipping the primary would amount to penalizing New Hampshire voters “for failing to do something that its state Democratic Party has no control over.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire warns that Biden could jeopardize his prospects in the general election and those of down-ballot Democrats in 2024 if he snubs the state.
In the past week, Michael Graham, managing editor of InsideSources.com, noticed that when the Biden campaign announced that “50 Prominent Voices from Across the Democratic Party Will Take a Leadership Role in Delivering the Campaign’s Message and Engaging Voters Across the Country,” none of them were from New Hampshire.
The state’s Democrats are in something of a political cold war with Biden for changing the primary schedule. Then again, they’ve never felt particularly warm and fuzzy toward him; Biden finished fifth in the 2020 primary, with just 8.4%.
In that light, is it really so unthinkable that the morning after the New Hampshire primary, America wakes up to the flashback-inducing headline “KENNEDY WINS”?
Jim Geraghty is National Review’s senior political correspondent, where he writes the daily “Morning Jolt” newsletter, among other writing duties. He’s the author of the novel “The Weed Agency” (a Washington Post bestseller), the nonfiction “Heavy Lifting” with Cam Edwards and “Voting to Kill,” and the Dangerous Clique series of thriller novels.
The recent news about Clarence Thomas’ financial entanglements with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow should be alarming to every American. This is what happens when the highest court in the land is given free rein to police itself. Clarence Thomas isn’t the first justice to engage in unethical behavior. And if Congress continues to ignore the need for a Supreme Court code of ethics, he won’t be the last.
Of the nine justices currently on the bench, four have been called out for unethical behavior and connections in the last year. Neil Gorsuch sold property to the head of a law firm with cases in front of the Supreme Court. Samuel Alito dined with anti-abortion activists and allegedly leaked decisions on reproductive health. John Roberts’ wife has earned millions of dollars from law firms with business before the Supreme Court. Congress has a constitutional duty to act as a check on the Supreme Court and restore faith in our judicial system. It’s time they act and pass a Supreme Court code of ethics.
Will Ozier VacavilleThe next 10 years of economic development in Fairfield will determine how this city competes for the next 50. In the early 1980s, Fairfield was a model city with a bustling mall, and single family developments helped the city become one of the most desired places to live in California. However, over time, policies changed. Vacaville opened the outlets, and Fairfield began decades-long fights over the future of the community. While this happened, the city’s once strong stature began to erode.
Homelessness, crime and poor planning has left the city in a state of flux. Deteriorated and delapidated portions of town have never been redeveloped, and boarded up businesses are the norm, while new business and developments flee the area for greener pastures. All the while, tax revenues have shrunk and dependence on ballot measures have ballooned to help keep the city afloat.
Despite all that, despite all the fighting and all the name calling and all the division, there still is hope. There is no room for error going forward. Ten years from now, Solano Mall will no longer exist. The need for mega square footage and high-end rent has been replaced by the internet. Large department stores have been eliminated by
companies who would rather open smaller stores and focus specifically on their own brands rather than get washed out in a big-box business. Most malls now hang on by a thread and look more like a flea market than a shopping mall.
Redeveloping Solano Mall is the way to turn the community around. Eliminate the mall, build a shopping complex, more in line with the Veranda Shopping Center in Concord. A movie theater and restaurants mixed in with businesses and family entertainment. Convincing corporations to invest in Fairfield is key. Small mom-andpops do not have the financial power to see this through. Use the remaining property to build mixeduse housing, attracting people who have a vested interest in the future rather than a rental community.
Brian Runkle FairfieldI am writing about the sudden influx of opinions coming from Vacaville. I have noticed they are ALL liberal biased. More attention is needed in publishing these biased opinions. I left the Vacaville paper because I was tired of all the trash published in it. Most of the articles are AP (mostly left-leaning).The normal writers were mostly leftleaning. Even the cartoonists are biased. After frequent subscription increases, I decided to leave that paper after many years.
I was hoping the Republic would at least be more unbiased. I am tired of this group spoiling all that they touch. DO NOT LET THEM DO IT! I think most of your readers from Vacaville came to the Republic for that very reason. If this continues, then I may need to reconsider renewing my subscription. Thank you.
Ed Bullis VacavilleWe are parents of students enrolled in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District’s Long Term Independent Study program (LTIS). Students attend LTIS as an alternative to comprehensive high school for a variety of reasons, including participation in competitive sport or dance teams that require travel during the week, medical conditions, mental health issues, etc.
Each year, we complete a simple application form to secure our stu-
dents’ enrollment in the program. Unfortunately, we are unable to enroll our students for the next school year because the application forms, promised to be available Feb. 15, have not been provided to parents.
The withholding of this form has created an unnecessary barrier to our childrens’ education. It is almost May, and students at our comprehensive high schools have been registered for the 2023-24 school year, yet the LTIS community remains in limbo. Our children are anxious, wondering if continuing in LTIS will be an option for them next year.
Our students thrive in the LTIS program, but the district’s incompetence in providing timely registration for the next school year is forcing many of us to consider options outside FSUSD.
Teri Lamb Cara Cavanaugh
Rahsan Jiltonilro
Christina Ramirez
Irma Peralta Jacqueline Ponce
Alicia Mayo Tosca Dixon Fairfield
Two recent letters to the editor took aim at the school superintendent. I’d like to call these two letter-writers cowards.
School employees are not in political positions, and are unable to hit back when lied about. Public criticism should be directed to the school board members who are ultimately responsible, by majority vote, for the individuals who run our schools.
The current school board has, by the way, overwhelmingly supported, year after year, this superintendent and resents any citizen who takes shots at school employees, whether support staff, teachers, administrators or the superintendent. If you have a complaint there is a proper way to handle it.
Although I’ve seen these things up close, my opinions are only mine and I don’t speak for anyone else.
So if anyone feels the need to pop off in public about something in the schools, take aim us. There are seven school board members, and while we don’t agree on everything, we make our decisions by majority vote, just as the community expects us to.
Any single board member who publicly criticizes the district is simply undermining the will of the community, and should be ashamed of thinking their vote or opinion counts more than the majority.
That’s not democracy and FairfieldSuisun doesn’t want a dictator.
Craig Wilson Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District trustee Foy McNaughton President / CEO Publisher Burt McNaughton Co-PublisherFRIDAY, MAY 12
9:50 a.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 1900 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET
11:21 a.m. — Residential burglary, 3700 block of LYON ROAD
11:30 a.m. — Battery, 800 block of WASHINGTON STREET
1:35 p.m. — Battery, 800 block of WASHINGTON STREET
2:20 p.m. — Battery, 100 block of TABOR AVENUE
2:23 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 5200 block of RALPH MOORE LANE
2:26 p.m. — Battery, 1700 block of CATLIN DRIVE
2:48 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 1900 block of GRANDE CIRCLE
4:09 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage,
OAKLAND — Robert Sedlar – the former president of Grand View Financial LLC, a purported mortgage “investment” company – was convicted of 100 felony counts for operating a mortgage fraud scheme throughout California according to a press release by the California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The scheme resulted in a combined loss of over $7 million which hit victims, who were elderly and in financial distress, who sought mortgagerelief services from Grand View Financial LLC.
The victims came from counties of San Diego, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Placer, Solano, Men-
docino, San Francisco, El Dorado and Sacramento.
The operators of Grand View Financial — Steven Rogers, Robert Sedlar, and Audrey Gan—were previously indicted by a grand jury in the Sacramento Superior Court for conspiracy, grand theft, elder abuse, filing false or forged documents in a public office, and engaging in a prohibited act as a foreclosure consultant.
Steve Rogers and Audrey Gan entered guilty pleas before trial, and Sedlar, president of the company, proceeded to trial in March on all counts. On Friday, Sedlar was found guilty of conspiracy as well as multiple counts of filing a false document, grand theft, elder abuse and prohibited acts by a foreclosure consultant. He will be sentenced
on July 21. Between 2015 and 2019, the defendants conspired to steal money and homes from distressed homeowners using a company called Grand View Financial LLC. The company advertised assistance to desperate homeowners facing foreclosure. The defendants promised consumers that if they transferred title of their house to Grandview Financial and paid money, the company would eliminate the mortgage lien and deed the home back to the homeowner, clear of any liens. During this time, the defendants filed false court documents, false documents with the county recorders offices, and false bankruptcies that stalled the foreclosures but did nothing to eliminate the liens, all
while collecting funds from the victims. Every single victim lost their home as a result.
The indictment and arrests are the result of a joint investigation by the California Department of Justice, Fraud and Special Prosecutions Section and White Collar Investigation Team; the United States Office of Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; the United States Office of Inspector General, Federal Housing Finance Agency; the United States Trustee Program; the United States Marshals Service; the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office; and the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office according to the press
anxiously for their turn up at the auction block.
Over the past year, she figures that she has put $9,000 into the animal. She had done the math and if she could get $8.25 per pound she would clear $9,000 with about $100 extra.
“I am not sad. I have done my crying and feeling sad,” she said. “I guess it’s because I know the process now. It does suck a little though.”
She has decided that the steer will be the last one for her.
“I wanted to go out with a big win,” she said. But soccer and school activities will be limiting the time she would be able to spend taking care of a steer or heifer.
“Maybe I will do a goat,” King said.
Judging for the various animal was in the mornings on Thursday and Friday in the livestock area. The auction for market animals was Saturday.
The market card includes 102 pigs, 88 sheep, 39 goats and 16 steers, as well as 100 market birds – poultry and quail –and 33 rabbits. There are also breeding animals that are judged, but are not part of the auction.
Board opened on Friday according to a press release.
The CIRB will be responsible for reviewing officer-involved critical events to determine whether actions taken were appropriate and consistent with training and policies. This CIRB review process will aid the department in identifying best practices and shortcomings, quickly and objectively, within practices and policies. Additionally, the appointment of community members to this board will aim to build and strengthen the trust between the community and the Vallejo Police Department.
The CIRB will comprise a minimum of six
members, including one community member, in addition to the deputy chief of the Support Services Division, who will serve as chair. The CIRB will work independently of the department’s Professional Standards Unit Internal Affairs investigation and is empowered to conduct a review of all the factors contributing to an officerinvolved critical incident under its authority.
For information, please contact the chief’s executive secretary, Monica Gomez, at (707) 648-4540 or Monica. Gomez@cityofvallejo.net.
To submit an online application, visit www. vallejopd.net/community/ boards_programs/critical_ incident_review_board
Applications must be received no later than June 9.
Daily Republic Staff
DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
VALLEJO — Pavement repair work will close various on-and off-ramps on Interstate 80 for four consecutive nights starting on Sunday, the state Department of Transportation announced on Saturday.
Detours will be in place.
The overnight ramp closures are:
n Eastbound I-80 : American Canyon Road/ Hiddenbrooke Parkway off-ramp exit closed Sunday and Monday,
8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
n Westbound I-80: American Canyon Road/ Hiddenbrooke Parkway off-ramp exit closed Monday 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
n Westbound I-80: American Canyon Road/Hiddenbrooke Parkway on-ramp onto I-80 closed Monday, 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
n Westbound I-80: Columbus Parkway offramp/exit closed Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
n Westbound Highway 37 connector to westbound I-80 closed Wednesday, 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
n Westbound I-80: Redwood Parkway off -ramp closed Wednesday, May 17, 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The detours are:
n Eastbound I-80, American Canyon Road/ Hiddenbrooke Parkway off-ramp: detour to Redtop Road then to McGary Road.
n Westbound I-80 American Canyon Road/Hiddenbrooke Parkway off-ramp: Detour to Redwood Parkway then to eastbound I-80.
n Westbound I-80 American Canyon
Road/Hiddenbrooke Parkway on-ramp: Detour to eastbound I-80 to Redtop Road in Fairfield.
n Westbound I-80 Columbus Parkway off-ramp: Detour to Redwood Parkway then to eastbound I-80 for Columbus Parkway.
n Westbound Highway
37 connector to westbound I-80: Detour to eastbound I-80 then to American Canyon Road for westbound I-80.
n Westbound I-80 Redwood Parkway of-ramp: Dtour to Tennessee Street off-ramp.
Chapter 15 has about 100 members. The national organization, which will hold its annual show May 25-28 in Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County, has about 2,200 members. International members also will attend.
“My pride and joy is this yellow Cat V-8 14-A Series dozer that started its life working for the Southern California Edison Co., but at some point became the property of longtime Solano County contractor Ken Eubanks.
Atkinson saw it sitting up on the hillside near Lake Berryessa. He said it took a long time to convince Eubanks to sell it.
“It was built in 1952, and when I got to it, it hadn’t run for 18 years. It took seven years to restore this tractor,” Atkinson said. He bought it about 10 years ago. The oldest piece on
display is a 1926 Cat 60 owned by Kenny Drew of Pengrove, a Chapter 5 member. There is also a 1934 Cat 22, with a set of false eyelashes attached to the headlights that Atkinson’s wife, Carol, brought. She calls it “Sassy Pants.”
The rarest piece, Atkinson said, is the Cat 40 hydraulic pull scraper. There were only 700 built
when manufactured in the early 1950s.
Atkinson, who followed his father into the excavating and land leveling business, has another connection to the Dixon May Fair.
The first tractor pull was held in 1978 and the sled all competitors used was built by Atkinson and some classmates in the welding shop at Dixon
High School.
“They pulled the same sled. We just added (and took off) the weights on it and they pulled it for the best distance they could get,” Atkinson said. The fairgrounds will host a Truck & Tractor Pull Saturday. The show starts at 7 p.m.
“They’re a little more sophisticated than the one we put on,” Atkinson said.
Sunday, May 14, 2023 SECTION B
I Fairfield
2 p.m. Sunday
“Alice in Wonderland” Solano College Theatre, 4000 Suisun Valley Road. https://app.arts-people. com/index.php? ticketing=sct01.
7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
“SpongeBob the Musical” Downtown Theatre, 1035 Texas St. www. downtowntheatre.com.
I Suisun City
10 a.m. to Noon Sunday
Mother’s Day
Champagne Brunch
Marina Lounge, 700 Main St., Suite 106. www. marinaloungesuisun.com.
7 p.m. Wednesday
Cultural Exchange
Wednesdayz Marina Lounge, 700 Main St., Suite 106. www.marina loungesuisun.com.
7 p.m. Thursday
Karaoke Marina Lounge, 700 Main St., Suite 106. www. marinaloungesuisun.com.
8 p.m. Friday
Ladies Night Marina Lounge, 700 Main St., Suite 106. www.marina loungesuisun.com.
I Vacaville
7 p.m. Friday
Seventh Day Slumber with Magdalene Rose & Matt Sassano
Journey Downtown Theatre, 300 Main St. https://events.journeydowntownvenue.com.
6 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m., 1:30, 4 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday Dream Xtreme presents: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre, 1010 Ulatis Drive. https://vpat.net.
5 p.m. Thursday Town Square Thursdays: Running with Scissorz 11 Town Square Place. www.facebook.com/ vacavilleoperahouse.
11 a.m. Saturday
Lion King Kids Journey Downtown Theatre, 300 Main St. https://events.journey downtownvenue.com.
I Benicia
7 p.m. Tuesday Open Mic Night The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
7 p.m. Wednesday Karaoke The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
8:30 p.m. Thursday
DJ Glenn Snyder
The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
4:30 p.m. Friday
Bray The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
8:30 p.m. Friday Mad Apple The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
4:30 p.m. Saturday Ticket to the Limit The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
8:30 p.m. Saturday Crayzed The Rellik, 726 First St. www.therelliktavern.com.
I Vallejo
1 p.m. Sunday Mother’s Day Sip and Paint Vino
a my m aginniS-Honey AMAGINNIS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
VALLEJO — The Vallejo Symphony’s third concert of the 90th season, “The River,” will feature guest violinist Cordula Merks, the concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.
This will mark her debut with Vallejo. Vallejo Symphony conductor Marc Taddei has served as guest conductor with the ballet.
“I love working with him,” she said in a phone interview.
Vallejo Symphony 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. May 21
Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St., Vallejo Tickets are available at the door and in advance at vallejosymphony.org
Merks was born in Germany and grew up in Holland where her father was a professor of the-
ology. “There was a lot of music in the home,” she recalled, adding that her mother was a pianist and organist. She originally was set on playing the cello. Merks was offered the violin, but practicing wasn’t her forte. Then, she was offered the cello and turned it down realizing that the year she had played the violin would have felt like a waste of time.
“I still love the cello,” she
See Merks, Page B3
‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ Rated R 95 minutes HHH (OUT OF FOUR)
micHael o’Sullivan THE WASHINGTON POST
‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” opens with a reenactment of the moment when the film’s subject, the star of the “Back to the Future” film trilogy and the sitcoms “Family Ties” and “Spin City,” experienced the first symptom, while filming “Doc Hollywood” in 1990, of what would come to be diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease.
“I woke up with a ferocious hangover. I placed my left hand across the bridge of my nose to block the sunlight. A moth’s wing fluttered across my right cheek. I put my hand in front of my face so I could finger-flick the little beastie across the room. That’s when I noticed my pinkie: auto-animated. ... The trembling was a message from the future.”
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
BENICIA — To remember late member Robert Nelson, Gallery 621 has an exhibit filled with sunsets and growing things for May. The gallery is open noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. An exhibit of Nelson’s works, some from private collections, is also on display. Brought together in one room, his recycled assemblages are said to evoke a sense of fun that will be missed in our community.
Gallery 621 features contemporary artists working in a variety of media including painting, printmaking and sculpture.
It’s at 920 First St, Suite 203. For more information, visit www.gallery621.com.
The scene in the new, formally inventive and emotionally powerful documentary by Davis Guggenheim (“He Named Me Malala”) – based on several memoirs written by Fox, and liberally borrowing snippets of their text as narration –is shot using a combination of a body double for the then-29-year actor and clips from his films. It segues to a more recent shot of Fox, who turns 62 next month, getting out of bed and putting his slippers on.
The rest of the film incorporates new sitdown interviews (with Fox and his wife, Tracy Pollan), scenes at home with their kids and archival footage, along with more film and TV clips and reenactments, giving “Still” the air of a time-travel drama, as its subtitle suggests. The effect doesn’t come off as gimmicky, but
See Still, Page B3
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — Two family-friendly comedy shows are coming to Vallejo and Fairfield libraries to raise awareness about the stigma surrounding mental illness.
The shows are scheduled for May 24: 4 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy Library in Vallejo and at 6:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Library in Fairfield.
Funded by Mental Health Services Act, through the county Behavioral Health Division in partnership with Library Services, the show features the group 1Degree of Separation, which shares that “depression has one degree of separation: if you don’t suffer,
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
RIO VISTA — The Plein Air Artists Group, consisting of artists from Rio Vista, Davis, Dixon and surrounding areas, will hold a free art show May 20-21.
Rio Vista’s Harvey Steinhaus and Betty Bertreaux, of Davis, will be among the group of artists displaying work. The show will run from noon to 5 p.m. at the McCormack Ranch Granary, 8192 Montezuma Hills Road. The ranch is about 1.5 miles past the Rio Vista Marina, on the left side. Look for the balloons.
En plein air is a French term for “in full air” and means the artists paint outdoors.
“The artists here have
Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
aimed to express the special qualities of our local landscapes: Solano and Yolo counties, and Sacramento Delta. Some of them work in the studio from photographs taken on site, but they still strive to convey the uniqueness of where we live,” Ellen LaVaccare wrote.
Free wine, beer and other refreshments will be offered. Music by the Limber Jim Bartz Band will be played on Saturday and Allen Brattesani’s group on Sunday.
All sales must be paid for with cash or check.
A donation from the sales will be made to Rio Vista Care, a nonprofit organization that sponsors support groups, family counseling and crisis counseling for low-income individuals and families.
Daily Republic Staff
DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
CALISTOGA — Longtime Bay Area rock aficionado and event producer Richard Garwacki has announced a special pop-up event, starting Wednesday and running through May 29, highlighting his vast collection of rock ephemera from his years as manager of the Fillmore and Warfield Theatre.
The collectibles will be on display and for sale with proceeds benefitting wine country canine nonprofits. These posters were created by some of the most revered artists of the genre, from Stanley Mouse to Randy Tuten.
From Page B1
said. “I’ve tried to learn it.”
Merks started the violin when she was 6. When she was 12, she was accepted by the Young Talent Department of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
In Vallejo, she will plays a Mendelsohn violin concerto.
“It’s a very romantic concerto,” she said.
“For many violinists, it the first big piece (they learn.) Merks said she learned it at 12 or 13 and when she was 19, she performed it with an orchestra in Amsterdam.
The piece is very open.
“You can hear every note,” she said. “It’s musically challenging.”
There have been many art books published, adding a cache to these works which travel museums and adorn the poster room to this day at the Fillmore. In addition to the posters, dog art donated by the community will be available, adding to the “eye candy” of the event. Doors are open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at 1400 Lincoln Ave. Visit www.bark4arts. com for more ticket information or call 707-755-1125. Garwacki donated his personal collection of memorabilia for display and to sell. This collection has been stored and unopened for over 25 years.
Each piece has its challenges, she said. The Mendelsohn concerto beings her “complete joy” and is one of her alltime favorites.
Merks first season as concertmaster with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra was 2015.
Prior to that, she served as assistant concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony. Before moving to Seattle, Merks held concertmaster positions with Germany’s Essen Philharmonic, Bochum Symphony and Bergische Symphony.
She has served as a guest concertmaster for many orchestras, including the Dresden Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, West German Radio Orchestra, Cologne Opera and Portuguese National Opera.
Merks dreams of the day she hosts her own chamber music festival.
FAIRFIELD — A new arts show titled, “Music and Dance,” will open May 24 at the Solano Town Center Gallery.
The show runs through June 24. A reception is set for June for spot-
From Page B1
light artist Carl Bradford I II. Refreshments will be served with wines from the BackRoad Vines Winery.
Bradford III is a mixed media artist who began his art journey as a young child, “encouraged by his mother and father and by mentors, Loïs
rather makes for a deeply poignant story, told largely in Fox’s own words. Those that are spoken by the actor in response to Guggenheim’s questions can be halting and sometimes slurred, in stark contrast to the film’s more precise narration, some of which we see Fox recording for an audiobook with a speech therapist. Fox’s most recent memoir, “No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality,” came out in November 2020.
The consideration of mortality looms large here. Guggenheim asks Fox at one point about the source of an obvious injury to his face: a fall that resulted in a cheekbone fracture and pins in his skull. Other broken bones – common to those with Parkinson’s – are mentioned, and we see the actor take an alarming tumble on the sidewalk while working out with his physical therapist. When Guggenheim asks Fox to reflect on
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then someone you know does,” the county said in a statement.
“The show features a lineup of comedians talking about their relationship with depression and suicide, and sharing their stories of hope,
In the ballet offseason, she plays chamber music with colleagues and friends. She has done summer festivals in Gualala.
Merks is married to contrabassoonist Mike Gamburg, who plays with the San Francisco Symphony and others in the Bay Area.
They have two daughters. The oldest, 10, is enjoying ballet currently but also loves music. The youngest, 5, is in a girls chorus in San Francisco.
“I am really looking forward to coming up to play,” she said, calling the concerto the “highlight of violin repertoire.” “It’s special to get to play it.”
The complete program will also include the world premiere of Trey Makler’s “you echo in me” and Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington’s “The River Ballet Suite.”
Mailou Jones and William Dorsey,” gallery organizers said in a statement.
He moved to Vacaville in 2017, and joined the Fairfield-Suisun City Visual Arts Association in 2018. He has shown his artwork in several association shows.
T he Solano Town
Center Gallery is at 1508-B Travis Blvd. in Fairfield; in the Solano Town Center, on the second floor, next to the AT&T Store. For more information, call Dennis Ariza, F SVAA president, at 707-688-8889.
something 20 years from now, the actor replies that, if he’s even around at that point, he will be either cured or a “pickle.”
The joke is one of many that Fox drops in a conversation that conveys how excruciating it must be to have largely been robbed of the ability – or at least the circumstances – to make audiences laugh on a regular basis. Seeing Fox today (in pain, as he finally notes toward the end of the film) and then seeing him in the old clips that are ingeniously woven into the story that Guggenheim and his subject want to tell – voluble,
happiness and triumph,” the county added.
Brad Bonar Jr. is the leader of the group, which has been performing in the Sacramento area. It started in 2019.
The 90-minute shows are free. No registration is required. Light refreshments will be served.
The JFK Library is
hyperactive, a ball of nervous energy – makes for a bold and bravely vulnerable form of nonfiction narrative. The title of “Still” is of course ironic. Fox says he wouldn’t know what it was like to be motionless, even before his diagnosis. But it also has another meaning: Michael J. Fox hasn’t given up yet. He still has an immensely likable and funny on-camera persona, and now he is using that gift – along with a different one, this nakedly honest film memoir – to share hope, joy and perhaps a sense of acceptance with others.
located at 505 Santa Clara St., next to City Hall, in Vallejo. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. The Civic Center Library is located at 1150 Kentucky St. in Fairfield. Doors open at 6 p.m.
For more information about 1Degree of Separation, go to https://www.1degreeof separation.life.
To raise awareness on mental health and available resources, advocates throughout Solano County have organized local events, including art exhibits, trainings, walks and a community resource fair. For a full list of activities, go to https://bit.ly/ mhmonth-solanoevents.
Dear Readers: Happy Mother’s Day!
I hope that you feel appreciated and celebrated. I am also sensitive to the fact that Mother’s Day can be difficult for some, either because their mothers have passed on or because they didn’t have the idyllic type of mother described in the beautiful quotes below. Know that Mother’s Day can also be Love Day. A mother’s love is an unconditional love and nourishment that even a friend, teacher or someone you admire can give to you. If your own mother did not give you that uncon-
ditional love, take this day to give that love to yourself.
Here are some wonderful thoughts about mothers that I wanted to share with you:
“I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.” — E. M. Forster
“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” — Unknown
“There’s no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.” — Jill Churchill
“A man loves his sweetheart
You’re open-minded and you believe that wonderful events are in store, so they blossom in your life. Whether or not things go to your plan is irrelevant because it often turns out so much better for the unexpected twist. More highlights: amazing outcomes from teamwork, adventurousness in your personal life and gorgeous connections. Libra and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are:
21, 4, 44 and 17.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’re exceptional at what you do best. While expertise is impressive, the courage to try new things is equally, if not more so. When you’re doing what you’re not good at yet, you’re at your most charming.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You go into an endeavor with terrific energy, hope, warmth and intelligence. This will secure your place in the hearts of those who already know you and endear you to new people as well.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). The cosmic gift of the day is a sense of calm and composure. By being yourself and treating everyone with respect and equality, you’ll create an environment that fosters trust and openness.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). Because you see the multidimensional aspects of people, you don’t jump to conclusions based on a single oddball experience. People do weird things when they are uncomfortable. Wait for them to settle in and see what emerges from there.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). The environment gets stuffy. Stodgy attitudes require a shake-up and you’re just the one to do it. Change your body language. That slight shift will be enough to alter the mood.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’ll express your appreciation, ever mindful of the balance. You don’t want to appear insincere or like you’re trying too hard to be nice. A light touch goes a long way to conveying solidarity.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). New people will want to be your friend because they sense they can trust you. They see you follow through and they know you’re good for your word. It speaks well of you that you have known certain friends for most of your life.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). The one who once heard you and acted on your advice is now someone you should be listening to. A slight adjustment of mind and you’ll be on to some magic. Sooner or later the student always becomes the teacher.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). The theme and topic to understand deeply is resonance. Your day grows through tones. A cheery tone will be joined in harmony. A somber chord will meet the same ambient support.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Philanthropy and social conscience are second nature to you, but not everyone has the need or capacity to join you in these missions. You’ll clearly see how people might be better at being good to one another.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18).
Before Hollywood took over the term “glamour,” it was associated with nature spirits. The magic of glamour is transformative, tricky and playful. You’ll wield it with mastery.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Ward against greed. Overdoing things is a danger, so consider the parameters before you embark. Once you’ve hit your aim, step back, rest and consider next steps carefully.
CELEBRITY PROFILES: Cate Blanchett will play a documentary journalist in the upcoming miniseries “Disclaimer,” a thriller based on the novel of the same name by Renee Knight. Blanchette’s Taurus sun surrenders to Neptune, planet of emotional highs and lows, discontent and uplift. Her Mercury in the roving sign of Gemini makes her a keen observer and communicator of the human experience. Contact Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.
the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.” — Irish proverb
“When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.” — Mitch Albom
“Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.” — Stevie Wonder
“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” — Maya Angelou
“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find for-
giveness.” — Honore de Balzac “A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” —Victor Hugo “A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.” — Agatha Christie
“Mothers can forgive anything! Tell me all, and be sure that I will never let you go, though the whole world should turn from you.” — Louisa May Alcott
“Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There’s no bond so strong
in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving.” — Gail Tsukiyama
“If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.” — Booker T. Washington
“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.” — George Washington Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@ creators.com.
‘It’s not fair.”
Those familiar words of indignation span all ages, from the child who covets a playmate’s toy to the adult who learns a co-worker earns more money doing the same job.
Humans have a keen sense of inequity and are quick to protest when they encounter it. This rejection of inequity is said to have played a role in the evolution of human cooperation, since monkeys also appear to get angry when they receive unequal treatment.
One study detected distinct signals in the primate brain that, scientists believe, indicate they recognize bias. There also is that humorous, well-publicized video of a monkey flinging cucumber slices back at a researcher after seeing the monkey in the next cage get a grape for performing the same task.
Some scientists wonder, though, do animals actually grasp the concept of fairness, or are other factors at work?
Primate research from Germany suggests that “social disappointment” with humans may play a role. The study found that long-tailed macaques were more likely to reject an inferior reward from a human than from an automatic feeding machine, meaning they can distinguish between the two and react to the difference.
Understanding such reactions is important “in the context of learning more about human evolution,” said study co-author Rowan Titchener, a doctoral student at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. If primates, including humans, share certain behaviors, “it means it has likely evolved in our last common ancestor, and was potentially advantageous for survival,” she said.
The research, which appeared in Royal Society Open Science in March, looked at four different experimental conditions: In one set, a subject monkey received less-preferred food (fennel) from a human experimenter or an automated food dispenser. In the other set, the subject monkey received fennel, while the partner monkey in an adjacent cage got grapes, a better treat, from a human experimenter or the machine.
The researchers found that the subject monkeys more often refused the low-value food from the humans but accepted the same low-value food
from the machine. This happened both when the monkey was alone or with the partner monkey.
“If the monkeys were reacting due to a sense of inequity, we would have seen frustration only when the other monkey was getting a better reward,” said Titchener, who is also a researcher in cognitive ethology at the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ). “Instead, we saw food refusal consistently with the human, as compared to the machine.”
She thinks the monkeys understood that the human’s goal was to provide low-value food, and that “the machine is inanimate – it has no goal,” she said.
Macaques have not shown an aversion to inequity until now; they are hierarchical, he said, which may indicate an acceptance of inequality. “The reaction is mostly to human distribution, but at least there is a reaction,” said de Waal, who was not involved in the German research.
He said he did not know what the German study’s findings mean for the “reaction patterns of more cooperative, less hierarchical species” such as capuchin monkeys “and if the findings of this study can be extended.”
“Capuchin monkeys, which were in the original study, have been tested with an empty cage next to them and react more strongly if high-value food goes to a partner than to an empty cage,” de Waal said, “so social comparison still seems a good explanation” for their behavior.
The German study is in line with previous research about chimpanzees by Jan Engelmann, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley.
“The monkeys have no social expectations of a vending machine and are therefore not disappointed.”
Sarah Brosnan, distinguished university professor of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience, and co-director of the Language Research Center at Georgia State University, whose early research in capuchin monkeys found a clear rejection of “unequal pay,” said the German primate study added another dimension to previous findings.
That the monkeys focused on the human “suggests that this is a social response,” said Brosnan, who was not involved in the German research.
“To use a crude analogy, if someone issues me a smaller paycheck than you for the same work, I’m going to be upset with them, but if the printer has an error and prints my check for less, I’m not going to feel that it was inequitable,” she said.
Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center and C. H. Candler professor of psychology at Emory University, who conducted many of the early fairness experiments in monkeys – including the one with the cucumber-flinging monkey – said the response of the macaques in the German study was “remarkable.”
“The striking thing to me is that macaques seem to form special expectations toward other social beings, for example, to be treated nicely by a human being, which they do not form toward machines,” said Engelmann, who was not part of the German study.
He said it also was interesting for “machine-human interactions.”
“Differentiating between machines and other social animate beings seems to be deeply rooted in our evolution,” Engelmann said. The macaques “seem to understand that handing over the bad food is an expression of ill-will by the human experimenter, but not by the machine,” he said.
Titchener said that to understand the behavior of the macaques, it would be helpful to know “what it is about the human that the animals are reacting to, that is, what characteristics of the human are important.”
Stefanie Keupp, a postdoctoral scientist in the German Primate Center’s Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, and lead author of the study, cautioned that animal behavior research has limits.
“We cannot ask our nonhuman primate subjects how they perceive an experimental situation, we can only observe their behavior,” she said, and “need to avoid falling into the trap of viewing animal behavior without context, through a human lens.”
‘The striking thing to me is that macaques seem to form special expectations toward other social beings, for example, to be treated nicely by a human being, which they do not form toward machines.’— Jan Engelmann, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley Adobe Stock A study found that long-tailed macaques were more likely to reject an inferior reward from a human than from a feeding machine.
Los A ngeLes Times
On a February morning in 2021, a water treatment plant operator in Oldsmar, Florida, noticed something unusual: An unidentified user had remotely accessed the plant’s computer system and was moving the mouse around the screen.
The operator watched as the intruder clicked into various software programs before landing on a function that controls the amount of sodium hydroxide, or lye, in the plant’s water system. The hacker then increased the amount of lye – a potentially dangerous substance used to control acidity – from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
The plant operator reversed the change almost immediately, and officials said there was never any threat to public safety. But the incident has highlighted the threats facing major drinking water systems across the country.
“Water systems, like other public utility systems, are part of the nation’s critical infrastructure and can be vulnerable targets when someone desires to adversely affect public safety,” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, Florida, said at the time.
In California, where epic Sierra Nevada snowpack and “the Big Melt” have substantially increased the stakes for reservoir managers, officials say they’re taking steps to protect the state’s water systems from hackers, terrorist attacks and natural disasters, such as the flooding that temporarily severed the Los Angeles Aqueduct – the city’s water lifeline to the Owens Valley.
But experts say the challenges are numerous. Many of the systems in California and nationwide are still operating with outdated software, poor passwords, aging infrastructure and other weaknesses that could leave them at risk.
“We’ve seen a steady rise in both the prevalence and the impact of cyberintrusions, as well as an extraordinary increase in ransomware attacks, which have become more destructive and more expensive,” said Joe Oregon, chief of cybersecurity for Region 9 of the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
Andrew Reddie, an assistant professor of practice in cybersecurity at UC Berkeley’s School of Information, said much of the problem is “driven by the fact that the infrastructure is really, really old, and ultimately predates the era that we find ourselves in now, where we actually bake cybersecurity into these ... systems by design.”
“You can point to any number of critical infrastructure, including things like dams and water treatment plants, that are not terribly wellprotected in terms of passwords,” he said.
A lot of older infrastructure is not “air gapped” from the internet, he said, referring to a separation between operational technology and internet technology. That could enable a bad actor to do things like change chemical levels or open sluices to manipulate flows in water channels or dams.
Compounding the problem is a lack of central regulation or uniform protocols. Multiple agencies – including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Water Works Assn.
and the Department of Homeland Security and CISA – provide some degree of risk management oversight, or offer frameworks and recommendations. But many of the day-to-day decisions are left up to individual operators.
“A lot of the responsibility does certainly fall on the stakeholders’ shoulders to manage their own information systems effectively to prevent any type of cyber compromise or cyber incidents,” said Oregon, of CISA.
The agency estimates that about 63% of the nation’s 91,000 dams are privately owned. Federal, state, and local governments and utilities own 35%, and the remaining 2% have “undetermined ownership.”
Despite the risks, experts said it’s important for water systems to be networked in order to expedite maintenance and monitoring. In California, reservoirs are often intentionally spread far apart to maximize rainwater capture and other benefits, so sending physical crews to respond to every potential problem would be time-consuming and expensive, said Ethan Schmertzler, chief executive of Dispel, a cyberdefense firm.
“It all depends upon how water systems are connected, and most water systems in the United States are not –it’s not one national water system,” he said. “The good news is each community is divided into their own command and control systems. The downside is, they’re all divided into their own command and control systems.”
Though most standards are not mandatory, cybersecurity recommendations – and
spending – have vastly improved in recent years, he said. Recent legislation through the National Defense Authorization Act will soon compel utilities to report cybersecurity threats to CISA, which will help the federal agency better spot trends, share information and render a response.
John Rizzardo, security coordinator with the State Water Project at the California Department of Water Resources, said the agency operates with an ethos of “layers upon layers of security,” for both physical and cyber threats. Because the agency is also an energy provider in the state, “we probably employ more security features than a lot of just the water industry,” he said.
That doesn’t mean it is immune, however. CISA pointed to the Oroville dam crisis of 2017 as an example of the nation’s need for “comprehensive oversight and guidance over dam resilience.” During that incident, hillside erosion on the dam’s emergency spillway threatened a major flood event and prompted the evacuation of about 200,000 people, though disaster was ultimately averted.
Rizzardo said the agency has since shored up the spillway and made significant security upgrades, and is working to implement the same standards across all State Water Project facilities. The Department of Homeland Security runs national security drills for the dam sector every two years, he said, which the agency also participates in.
But even with the best protocols in place, “there’s still going to be a risk of a cyber or physical attack,” Rizzardo said. “It could happen – we’re doing our
best to prevent it – but if it does happen, we do practice our emergency action plans regularly so that we’re prepared if there is some kind of attack that we can try to mitigate, to reduce the consequences.”
Indeed, the Oldsmar incident was not a one-off. Only weeks later, a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline – a vital U.S. oil conduit between the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast – spurred fuel shortages, flight cancellations and state of emergency declaration from President Biden.
Earlier this year, Biden unveiled a national strategy for cybersecurity that calls for a “more intentional, more coordinated and more well-resourced approach to cyberdefense.”
Similar attacks have threatened other water systems, including an Iranian attack on a New York dam in 2016, in which hackers tried but failed to take control of a sluice gate.
In January 2021, an unnamed water treatment plant in the San Francisco Bay Area also suffered a cyberattack, NBC News first reported. Hackers accessed the plant’s system through a remote access TeamViewer account and deleted programs used to treat drinking water. The programs were reinstalled the next day and no failures were reported.
(The Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, which compiled a report on the incident, said it could not provide more details as an investigation is ongoing.)
One of the largest water providers in the country is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a massive regional wholesaler that supplies 26 agencies serving 19 million people, including
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
General manager Adel Hagekhalil said in an email that America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 served as a “catalyst for utilities to evaluate their resilience to risk and create emergency plans for responding to all hazards.”
“We are constantly taking steps to ensure the security of our water supplies against physical and cybersecurity threats,” Hagekhalil said. He noted that community water systems serving more than 3,300 people are required to actively update their risk and resilience assessment and emergency response plans every five years.
Additionally, the MWD employs cybersecurity experts and constantly monitors network and computer activity to “detect unusual events quickly so they can be addressed,” he said. Computer and network access is tightly controlled and employees are also required to take annual cybersecurity training. The agency also conducts periodic emergency management exercises at different facilities to simulate responses to physical threats such as earthquakes, floods, fires and terrorist attacks, which include first responders and law enforcement agencies, he said.
But the U.S. is home to more than 55,000 public water systems and 16,000 wastewater systems, said Jennifer Lyn Walker, director of infrastructure cyberdefense at the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center. One of her primary concerns was that there is often a “lack of awareness” about the potential for cyberthreats and other such vulnerabilities.
“Physical threats are so much more top of mind,
or more easily identified or more easily understood than the cyberthreat,” she said. “The concern is a lack of preparedness.”
However, most large systems in California “are doing what needs to be done” when it comes to cybersecurity, she said. Small and medium-size systems, which often have fewer resources than major providers, may need assistance however, and could benefit from the guidance of larger operators.
“A smaller system that just barely services 5,000 people – that’s still 5,000 people’s lives that could be at risk if something should happen, and that’s from physical or cyber [threats],” she said.
Reddie, of Berkeley, said more auditing would provide a better understanding of which systems are networked, as well as which systems follow best practices. He also recommended educating workforces about proper cyberhygiene.
Even with such steps in place, however, vulnerabilities remain. Ongoing investigations into the Oldsmar incident indicate that it may not have been the work of an outside hacker at all, but might have been caused by an internal employee. Should that prove to be the case, it would highlight that insider threats can also be cause for concern, Reddie said.
“These individual firms need to be thinking about what’s their model for the type of threat actor that they’re likely to see,” he said. “Like, is this going to be a state actor? Is it going to be a disgruntled employee? Is it going to be, you know, a script kiddie in a basement?”
FAIRFIELD — The Vacaville High School softball team earned the No. 1 seed in Division II Friday and six other area teams were selected to join the Sac-Joaquin Section postseason party as well.
The Monticello Empire League champion Bulldogs went 15-0 for the title and carry a 26-1 overall mark, losing only the
season opener to Pleasant Grove. Vacaville is riding a 26-game winning streak into the playoffs. Vacaville will be home Tuesday for a 4 p.m. game against No. 16 Atwater, the third-place team in the Central California Conference. Atwater is 8-17 overall and went 8-4 in the CCC to finish behind Central Valley (11-1) and El Capitan (9-4). Rodriguez received the No. 10 seed in Division II
and will travel to No. 7 seed and perennial-power Elk Grove Tuesday at 4 p.m. Rodriguez is 9-9 overall and went 7-6 in the MEL for third place. Elk Grove is 15-12 overall and went 8-4 in the Delta League for fourth place.
Vanden will get a home game as the No. 8 seed in Division III. The Lady Vikings will host No. 9 Christian Brothers at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Vanden is 12-8 overall
and went 11-3 in the MEL for second place and a runner-up finish to Vacaville. Christian Brothers is 13-8 overall and went 9-3 in the Capital Athletic League for second place. Will C. Wood advances with a losing record.
The Lady Wildcats are 6-10 overall but grabbed the MEL’s fourth and final playoff spot with a 6-9 league record. No. 15 Wood heads to Shingles Springs in the foothills
Chavez ran to a personalbest time of 48.55 to win the boys’ 400 meters.
FAIRFIELD — Area
athletes won eight titles Thursday night at the SacJoaquin Division III Track and Field Finals in Lincoln, while many others qualified for the upcoming Masters meet as well.
Gianni Miles of Rodriguez led a trio of top finishers in the boys’ 100 meters with a winning time and personal-best mark of 10.67. Marcellus Chandler of Vanden was third (10.93) and Miles’ teammate, Gentle Edwin of Rodriguez, was fifth (11.14).
The top six finishers in each event qualify for the Section Masters, which will be held Friday and Saturday at Davis.
Vanden’s Brayden
Eric Tyson of Rodriguez also advanced in third place (49.89).
Khloe DeLaTorre of Vacaville won the girls’ 800 meters (2:18.29).
Kaitlene Ofilan of Rodriguez was third in the event (2:19.98).
Will C. Wood’s Preston King finished on top with a personal-best 14.97 in the 110-meter hurdles. Vacaville’s Gavin Dimich was second (15.16) and fellow Bulldog Seth Mitchell was fifth (15.92), both running PRs.
Vanden won both the boys’ 4x100 meter relay (42.41) and the 4x400 (3:25.58). Rodriguez was second in the 4x100 (42.51), while Armijo was sixth in the
4x400 (3:32.26). Vanden’s Nathan Gernert was the winner in the boys’ discus (158-11) with Vacaville’s Joseph Page third (146-0 1/2).
The Vikings’ Skye Odom took first in the girls’ triple jump (34-43/4) and second in the girls’ triple jump (16-11 1/2), a new PR.
Chavez doubled up with a second-place finished and PR time of 22.11 in the boys’ 200 meters. Chandler was fifth (22.43) and Evan Wortham of Armijo was sixth (22.51), also a PR. Vacaville’s Lily Holman took fourth in the girls’ 100 meters (12.33).
Cierra Kinsey of Armijo was fourth in the girls’ 200 meters with a seasonbest 25.27 and second in the 400 meters (56.76).
Jacarla Black of Vanden also advanced with a fifth-
to take on No. 2 Ponderosa. The Lady Bruins are 19-4-1 overall and won the Foothill Valley League with a 10-0 record.
The lower seeds open with quarterfinal matchups. No. 7 Vacaville Christian heads to No. 2 Riverbank for a 4 p.m. game Tuesday. The Falcons are 9-3 overall and went 9-0 to win the Sierra Delta League. Riverbank checks in at 11-7-2 overall and finished 8-2 for
second place in the Trans Valley League.
Two area teams will square off Tuesday. No. 3 Buckingham will host No. 6 Rio Vista at 4 p.m. Buckingham is 10-4 overall and finished in first place in the Sacramento Metro Athletic league with a 9-0 record. Rio Vista is 10-5 overall and finished second to Vacaville Christian in the Sierra Delta League with an 8-1 record.
K
LOS ANGELES —
Steve Kerr surveyed the visitors’ locker room at Crypto.com Arena Friday night and saw tired eyes and disappointed faces looking back at him.
The Warriors’ season was over. It ended with a 122-101 drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers. It ended in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, two big steps short of the NBA Finals, where six of their last eight seasons have ended, five times with a championship.
onship team.”
The Warriors opened training camp eager to defend their title after an improbable climb back to the mountaintop last summer. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala had a fifth championship on their brain.
“It’s mind-boggling to think that we have that opportunity,” Thompson said back in September. “We are going to seize it, I just – I can feel it. I can feel it.”
Where did it all go wrong?
place finish and PR in the 400 (59.76).
Vacaville’s Donavan Cheruiyot took fifth in the boys’ 800 meters (2:00.46), Jackson Stream of the Bulldogs was fifth in the boys’ 1,600 meters (4:24.47), a personal best, and Justus Hundley got in under the wire in the boys’ 3,200 meters in sixth place (9:31.20).
The girls’ 1,600 meters featured two local qualifiers with Kate Kimball of Rodriguez fifth (5:18.55) and Lilian Luu of Armijo sixth (5:20.42). Both athletes clocked their best times.
King doubled up with a fifth-place finish in the boys’ 300 hurdles (40.96), also a personal best.
In other relay
FAIRFIELD — Five athletes from Rodriguez and Armijo high schools earned top-40 finishes during competition at the CIF state swimming championships in Clovis.
Brandon Ha of Rodriguez had the best local finish, taking 12th overall and finishing fourth in the consolation final of the boys' 100 butterfly with a time of 48.88. He took 15th Friday in the preliminaries (49.27). Ha was also 27th in the boys' 200 individual medley (1:54.60).
Ava Bautista of Rodriguez was 25th in the girls' 100 butterfly (55.81).
Spencer Merodio of Armijo took 33rd in the
boys' 100 breast stroke (57.29). Armijo's Benjamin Tooley was 25th in the boys' 1-meter diving competition (139.30 points).
FAIRFIELD — The Vanden High School softball team rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh inning to win 9-7 at Rodriguez on Thursday in the regular season finale for both teams.
Vanden is 12-8 overall and took second in the Monticello Empire League with an 11-3 record. Rodriguez is 9-9 with a third-place record of
7-6 in the MEL.
Aniya Lawson, Mia Zabat, Kiah Silva and Maalia Cherry all had three hits apiece for the Lady Vikings. Lawson hit three doubles and Silva had one. Zabat added a triple. Isabella Cueva, Samanie Simmons and Ona Green all pitched in the circle for Vanden.
Jaedyn White, Noe Landry, Brooklyn Denina, Eliza Goodwin and Za'raya Garcia had two hits apiece for Rodriguez. Denina had two doubles and White had one. Sofia Vallejos-Coleman and Denina pitched.
O'Reilly nearly hits for the cycle
FAIRFIELD — Nikki
O'Reilly was only a single short of the cycle, with a double, triple and home run in leading the Fairfield High School softball team to a 16-6 win at Armijo Thursday in the regular season finale for both teams.
O'Reilly drove in two runs. Adriana GutierrezDavis had three doubles and a single, driving in four runs. Talia Falekaono was 4-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Amya Mendoza was also 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
Gutierrez-Davis and Falekaono pitched for the Lady Falcons. Fairfield is 8-18 overall and finished the Monticello Empire League season 2-13. No information was made available for Armijo.
There was sadness in the room, but there had been time to come to grips with the reality. The Warriors, in a microcosm of their season-long struggles on the road, had trailed by doubledigits the entire second half. They were down by 20 points with nine minutes to play.
Kerr noted that the Warriors were one of eight teams still playing this week.
“That’s probably where we should be,” a top-eight team in the league, Kerr said. “This is not a champi-
This season started with what Kerr called “the biggest crisis” of his Warriors tenure and finished with a fitting season-ending loss on the road, with the team’s stars “maxed out.” Bad habits formed over the course of this rocky season haunted the Warriors in this series, and Curry couldn’t save them as he had done so many times before.
The writing had been on the wall for some time.
“When you go 11-30 on the road during the regular season, that’s not what championship teams do,” Kerr said. “It
Jason a nderson THE SACRAMENTO BEE
First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes baby in the baby carriage followed soon after by an appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, a breakout performance in the playoffs and an All-NBA selection.
This was quite a year in the life of De’Aaron Fox, a 25-year-old point guard who took his first real steps toward superstardom while leading a long-suffering Kings franchise to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
“I think it was almost
something out of a movie,” Fox said. “Just with my life coming together like that, I definitely think Year 25 for me is probably the best year that I’ve had in my life, and I just want to keep this feeling going.”
Fox reunited with boyhood friend and former Kentucky teammate Malik Monkwhen the Kings signed him as a free agent in July. A month later, he married his soulmate, Recee Caldwell – the new queen of Kings – in a pictureperfect Malibu wedding.
CHICAGO — A new study by Northwestern Medicine found no connection between running and arthritis of the knees and hips.
Through surveying about 3,800 participants in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, researchers found that runners have the same risk of developing arthritis as the general population, Dr. Vehniah Tjong, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon at Northwestern Medicine and one of the paper’s authors, said.
She said many of her clinic’s patients have participated in the Chicago Marathon, and about six months before the race every year, runners pour in to ask about their training and whether it would be detrimental to their health.
Over time, Tjong said, the doctors began to wonder, “What are we actually telling these patients, and is the current dogma necessarily true? Is running really bad for an individual, especially if they’ve never picked up running before?”
The study answered these questions.
Survey results found arthritis to be caused by the same factors identified in previous literature, Tjong said. These risks include increasing age and body mass index, family history of arthritis and previous injuries and surgeries to the hip and knee areas.
In addition, a quarter of those surveyed said their physician had told them to stop running because of an increased risk of arthritis.
“(The results) really challenged that current approach, or what we’ve known historically about running,” Tjong said. “That running may be wearing down your joints, when in fact, from the study, that’s not necessarily true.”
Still, Tjong acknowledged that runners should avoid injuries by training properly and working with the advice of medical professionals. She said the study being self reported limited the researchers’ ability to identify true arthritis in the participants.
runner and one of Lakeview Run Club’s leaders, said the myth that running leads to arthritis is often spread by non-runners.
People who don’t run will often tell her, “that’s not good for your knees,” she said, even though in her seven years of running, she’s not been injured or told by a doctor that running isn’t good for her health.
Sarmousakis called the study results “super exciting,” especially because she views running as a way to improve her health in the long run. She said the confirmation that running won’t be harmful to the joints over time is a strong reason to keep running.
“Obviously a big part of why people run and join running groups is to stay in shape and stay healthy,” she said. “You want to make sure it’s something that will benefit you in the short term — losing some weight before the summer or to improve your cardiovascular health — and also something that is going to set you up to be healthy long term.”
According to Sarmousakis, misconceptions related to running and arthritis can also be spread by people needing an excuse to stop themselves from trying something new.
with Tjong often revolved around the safety of marathoning and the question of whether running long distances may lead to progressive arthritis.
Still, Tjong had seen in the clinic that running could possibly be more protective than harmful. She brought the question to Chiampas. He said there are very few opportunities to ask scientific questions in a population such as marathon runners, so it was a “natural fit” to work with the Chicago Marathon on the study.
He said the results can benefit runners by creating more awareness around marathon medicine. By surveying runners, researchers were able to answer a lot of questions, he said, and after finding results, there’s an opportunity to educate marathoners around the world to make their running as safe as possible.
Additionally, information in the study addresses the myths that running long distances causes runners to hurt themselves, Chiampas said.
Jon Gray of the Texas Rangers pitches in the second inning against the Oakland Athletics at the Coliseum in Oakland, Saturday.
Shawn McFarland
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
OAKLAND — Sometimes it really is the little things.
And sometimes the little things can lead to big things.
Jon Gray, in this specific instance, is evidence.
Since Gray made a slight mechanical change to his slider, he’s pitched 14 2/3 scoreless innings – 6 2/3 against the Seattle Mariners last Monday after a first-inning home run, and eight against the Oakland Athletics on Saturday in a 5-0 win at the Oakland Coliseum. The 31-year-old right hander no-hit Oakland for his first 6 2/3 innings, the furthest a Texas starter has taken a no-hit bid since Bartolo Colon retired 21 straight Houston Astros batters on April 15, 2018.
Gray gave up three hits, two walks and struck out five on 95 pitches.
“It was the Jon Gray show,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.
A little tinkering got the program on the air.
The way Gray described it: the slider he’s thrown in his last two outings has a sharper break, and is “a little bit more like a fastball” rather than the sweeper he’d thrown before that “feels more like a curveball.” The velocity numbers (it averaged 87 miles per hour on Saturday, nearly three mph faster than his season average) reflect that. He threw it in spring training, ditched it once the regular season began and brought it back into his repertoire against the Mariners.
Against the Athletics, Gray threw 36 sliders for eight called strikes, two swings-and-misses and four groundouts. He elicited 20 swings and misses with the pitch against Seattle.
“It’s going to be a cleaner pitch,” said Gray, who added that he likes the feel of the pitch in his hands. “I don’t think there’s going to be as many mess ups with it.”
There certainly weren’t many on Saturday.
Gray retired the first nine Oakland batters he faced before Esteury Ruiz worked a leadoff walk in the fourth. He stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw, but Gray induced a flyout, strikeout and a groundout to strand Oakland’s speedy leadoff hitter at third. Oakland’s Jace Peterson led off the fifth with a walk, but Gray left him at first with a strikeout, a lineout and a flyout.
He needed just four pitches to retire the Oakland side in the sixth, and retired consecutive batters in the seventh before a Peterson single to right field snapped the no-hit bid.
Ramon Laureano followed Peterson’s single with a double to the right field wall. Rangers’ right fielder Adolis Garcia chased it down and made a relay throw to second baseman Marcus Semien, who threw Peterson out at the plate to end the inning and preserve the shutout.
Gray gave up a leadoff single to Jordan Diaz in the eighth, but retired the next three batters he faced.
Tjong said she hopes that the study raises awareness among health care providers to not advise patients to stop running when it could be beneficial to them.
She also said it’s a goal that the study highlights the positives of running – including its benefits to cardiovascular and mental health.
While previous studies looked at elite runners, Tjong said that the Northwestern Medicine study chose to survey marathon participants to hear from recreational runners of all levels of experience.
Ana Sarmousakis, a recreational
“People like to talk ourselves out of doing things that are new to us or scare us or make us uncomfortable,” she said. ”People can use (the misconception) as an excuse to talk themselves out of running.”
She said the study results are encouraging for people who are thinking about getting into running but are concerned about the longterm health effects.
“Always listen to your doctor, and listen to other runners,” Sarmousakis said. “Don’t be afraid to try something new.”
Dr. George Chiampas, chief medical and safety officer for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, is also on staff at Northwestern Medicine and part of the study.
He said that his conversations
He said the Chicago marathon has been a leader when it comes to marathon medicine and running studies. He said it’s a testament to the event to be able to work in a scientific way with an institutional review board and take the information learned back to the public.
“For a lot of people, running is their mental health benefit. Running is their ability to decompress. Running is their ability to stay healthy,” Chiampas said. “I think as we gather this information that is scientifically based, I think runners can then take this to their clinicians, we can obviously publish it and, and it obviously helps everyone in being able to bring this information to light. It’s really the largest study that’s ever been done to hopefully shift the narrative and start discussing the protective benefits of running.”
4:
Cam Inman BAY AREA NEWS GROUP SANTA CLARA — Like to go bird watching? Desire more stress around the holidays? Willing to become a night owl?
Then the 49ers’ 2023 schedule is for you!
That’s right, it’s here, a 17-game parade route to the first Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Yep, off they’ll go, defending their NFC West crown, winning that third-time’s-a-charm NFC Championship Game, and, ultimately, preserving a Super Bowl lead for Lombardi Trophy No. 6.
How do birds factor into this? The 49ers will have to dethrone the Philadelphia Eagles from the NFC nest, while other regular-season bird hunts come against the Seattle Seahawks (twice), the Arizona Cardinals (twice) and the Baltimore Ravens (on Christmas night). Perhaps the Atlanta Falcons await in the playoffs.
Holidays? Yep, aside from their second-ever Christmas game (see: 1993 loss to the Houston Oilers), the 49ers will spend Thanksgiving dinner at the Seattle Seahawks’ house, and New Year’s Eve comes with an afternoon date at the Washington Commanders. Night owl? The 49ers drew five prime-time kickoffs, unless the NFL’s flexes them into less (or, maybe more, to further crimp your New Year’s Eve plans).
Week 3 Vs. New York Giants
Thursday, Sept. 21 (5:15 p.m.
Prime Video)
Five days after Levi’s Stadium hosts an Ed Sheeran concert, a quick turnaround is demanded to get the (new?) sod ready for the 49ers’ home opener. This coast-to-coast rivalry is tied at 21-21, including a 4-4 mark in the playoffs. Kyle Shanahan’s first win as 49ers’ coach came in the Giants’ 2017 visit (after an 0-9 start). These Giants play seven of their first 11 on the road, and this trip follows a Week 2 roadie to Arizona. Degree of difficulty: 9
Week 4
Vs. Arizona Cardinals
Sunday, Oct. 1 (1:25 p.m., FOX)
Kyler Murray tore his right knee’s ACL on Dec. 12. Will he be healthy enough to elude a rabid defense led by new coordinator Steve Wilks, the Cardinals’ 2018 head coach? Degree of difficulty: 17
Week 5
Vs. Dallas Cowboys
Sunday, Oct. 8 (5:20 p.m., NBC)
Week 8 Vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, Oct. 29 (1:25 p.m., CBS)
These teams are bound for a third Super Bowl meeting, right? It’s been ages since the 1981 and ’88 Niners narrowly won those Lombardi Trophy battles. Brandon Aiyuk’s overtime touchdown catch won their December 2021 meeting in Cincy. The Bengals will be coming off their bye for only their second appearance at Levi’s Stadium; they won in 2015. Degree of difficulty: 2
Week 9 Bye
Week 10
At Jacksonville Jaguars
Sunday, Nov. 12 (10 a.m., FOX)
Both teams are coming off bye weeks, and the 49ers are 3-3 under Shanahan after byes. The 49ers won 30-10 in their last visit to Jacksonville, in November 2021. The Jaguars have not had a winning record entering Week 10 since 2017. Degree of difficulty: 11
Week 11
Vs. Tampa Bay Bucs
Mahomes-led Chiefs vs. the Aaron Rodgersless Packers? Degree of difficulty: 1
Week 14
Vs. Seattle Seahawks
Sunday, Dec. 10 (1:05 p.m., FOX)
Last visit to Levi’s, they led 17-16 at halftime of January’s wild-card playoff loss. This quick rematch is reminiscent of 2018, when the Seahawks held serve at home (Dec. 2) and then the 49ers did the same (Dec. 16). Degree of difficulty: 8
Week 15
At Arizona Cardinals
Sunday, Dec. 17 (1:05 p.m., CBS)
New coach Jonathan Gannon lacks the defensive enforcers who walloped the visiting 49ers in the NFC title game when he was the Eagles’ coordinator. The 49ers won a December game at the Cardinals in 2020, when State Farm Stadium doubled as the 49ers’ hostel amid Santa Clara County’s COVID ban on football. Degree of difficulty: 16
Week 16 Vs. Baltimore Ravens
Monday, Dec. 25 (5:15 p.m., ABC)
1: Ann Rollin 60/37
2: Ilene Pliler 63/38
3: Kim Weaver 64/42
TrIbune ConTenT agenCy
SANTA CLARA —
A southeasterly, 6-mph breeze came off the Alviso wetlands. The sun reflected off Josh Moody’s shiny black cleats. A leather, NFL-branded football lied in wait.
Moody’s right foot stepped forth and launched that ball through the uprights, over a net and into the 49ers’ player parking lot.
The legend was born.
Okay, too much hyperbole, too soon. Friday, however, introduced the 49ers’ rookies to their practice field.
His first kicks showed why a third-round pick seems fair for Robbie Gould’s replacement. It won’t be all sunshine and field goals forever, however. “I’m going to miss. It’s inevitable,” Moody said Thursday as the rookie class convened.
Mentally overcoming
a miss – and making pressure-packed kicks – is what the 49ers need right away from the 23-yearold “Money Moody,” as he was called at Michigan under former Niners coach Jim Harbaugh.
Doug Brien, a 1994 third-round kicker on the 49ers’ last Super Bowl-winning team, says the mental hurdles are most challenging for such an NFL introduction.
So what was Moody’s toughest miss of his life?
Against Minnesota in 2020, specifically his third and final miss that game.
“Missed that, got yanked, didn’t kick another field goal for a few weeks. That one hurt,” Moody recalled. “But it was the best learning experience I had at Michigan.”
Now wearing No. 4 for the 49ers, he’s ready for his “weird” habit of learning wind patterns at Levi’s Stadium, and of staying even keel.
A game-by-game analysis, each coming with a degree of difficulty on a scale of 1-17 (No. 1 being the toughest):
Week 1
At Pittsburgh Steelers
Sunday, Sept. 10 (10 a.m., FOX)
Since 1980, both the 49ers and the Steelers have earned 24 playoff berths, one shy of the Patriots’ lead. Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett will be a marked man for Nick Bosa, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year who’ll likely become the NFL’s highest-paid nonquarterback by August. Degree of difficulty: 6
Week 2
At Los Angeles Rams
Sunday, Sept. 17 (1:05 p.m., FOX)
Christian McCaffrey makes his encore appearance after last year’s touchown hat trick – rushing, receiving, passing – keyed a 31-14 rout and sparked a 12-game win streak. This is the Rams’ home opener — meaning it’s time for another 49ers takeover in red jerseys. The 49ers have not lost a regularseason game to the Rams since they were in St. Louis (correction: since 2018). Degree of difficulty: 7
Last visit to Levi’s, they were tied at 9 entering the fourth quarter of January’s divisional playoff loss. This is the first primetime meeting hosted by the 49ers since 1983 (a 42-17 win). The Cowboys will visit the Chargers after this in a Californiatrip doubleheader. Degree of difficulty: 4
Week 6
At Cleveland Browns
Sunday, Oct. 15 (10 a.m., FOX)
The Browns will be coming off their bye, after opening with 3-of-4 at home. Kyle Shanahan returns to Cleveland for the first time since serving as the Browns’ 2014 offensive coordinator. Former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo used to take the train as a kid from his Youngstown hometown to watch Jim Brown and, well the Browns. Degree of difficulty: 14
Week 7
At Minnesota Vikings
Monday, Oct. 23 (5:15 p.m., ESPN)
The 49ers have lost their last six visits to Minnesota, dating back to the 1994 regular-finale season, which the Niners rebounded from to win their last Lombardi Trophy a month later. The Vikings are 7-5 in prime-time games since U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016. Degree of difficulty: 5
Sunday, Nov. 19 (1:05 p.m., FOX)
The 49ers are 13-3 at home against the Bucs, including last season’s 35-7 rude sendoff of Tom Brady (two interceptions) in Brock Purdy’s starting debut. Will Brady’s successor be Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask this season, and could that change by Week 11? Degree of difficulty: 14
Week 12
At Seattle Seahawks
Thursday, Nov. 23 (5:20 p.m., NBC)
Food fight! Can the 49ers get their Thanksgiving dinner revenge for losing at home in the 2014 Turkey Bowl?
Reminder: Geno Smith won NFL Comeback Player of the Year award (over McCaffrey) but couldn’t bring the Seahawks back in three losses to the 49ers last season. Degree of difficulty: 3
Week 13
At Philadelphia Eagles
Sunday, Dec. 3 (1:25 p.m., FOX)
It’s a delicious rematch of the NFC Championship Game, which went the Eagles’ way 31-7 following Brock Purdy’s elbow-ligament tear on the 49ers’ first possession. The 49ers won their previous visit, in Week 2 of the 2021 season (17-11). Could this trip flex into the Sunday night spot in place of the Patrick
Ho, ho, whoa – it’s Lamar Jackson, who was in MVP form when he beat the 49ers in December 2019. Can you believe 10 seasons have passed since these teams met in the Super Bowl? “It’s kind of funny, growing up, (the 49ers) and the Ravens were the best teams I was watching when I was little,” 49ers rookie wide receiver Ronnie Bell said Thursday. Degree of difficulty: 10
Week 17 At Washington Commanders
Sunday, Dec. 31 (10 a.m., FOX)
For auld acquaintance be forgot … Shanahan dedicates this tune to outgoing Washington owner Daniel Snyder. The last time the 49ers played there, their 2019 Super Bowl-bound crew was doing belly slides to celebrate a 9-0 victory in the “Mud Bowl Championship.” Degree of difficulty: 13
Week 18 Vs. Los Angeles Rams
Saturday/Sunday Jan. 6/7 (time/TV TBD)
The 49ers could be trying to sweep the season series against the Rams for a fifth straight season, which hasn’t happened since 1994-98. This is the fourth time in seven years these teams meet in their regular-season finale. Degree of difficulty: 12
From Page B6
In February, they welcomed their first child into the world with the birth of baby Reign. Fox explained it was Recee, a former college point guard herself, who chose a Kingsthemed name for their young prince.
Kings coach Mike Brown has given the newlyweds his blessing, saying they are a match made in hoops heaven.
“He’s fortunate, blessed, lucky, however you want to call it, to have Recee say yes to him,” Brown said. “She’s a beautiful, beautiful human being herself. They just make a fantastic couple, and the addition of baby Reign, it’s like a storybook beginning for them as a young family.”
Mother and baby sat courtside at Golden 1 Center while Fox went to work, building on the best year of his professional career. He scored 16 points in his first game back after taking a few days away for the birth of the baby. Then he started flexing his dad strength, scoring 31, 33, 36, 35, 31, 42, 33 and 33 over the next eight games while averaging 34.3 points on 59.8% shooting.
“It was big, just having your family there every single game,” Fox said. “Recee helps me in my development both on and off the court, so a lot of what I do is a testament to her and the discipline she’s helped instill in me, and with the baby coming, I think I started playing my best basketball as soon as
From Page B6
events, the Armijo girls were second in the 4x100 (48.75), the Rodriguez girls qualified third in the 4x400 (4:07.26). The Vacaville boys were sixth in the new 4x800 (8:33.20) and the girls were fourth (10:10.40).
Jeffery Achamfuor of Vanden was third in the boys’ high jump (6-0), a season best. Will C. Wood’s Athena Brombacher took third in the girls’ high jump (5-0).
Fairfield’s Sylas Pisarcik doubled up with a third-place finish in the boys’ long jump (20-8 1/2), a personal best, and sixth in the boys’ triple jump (41-6 1.2).
VACAVILLE — Vacav-
he was born. I’m not sure how much that actually helped and the correlation, but just having him here, I think it was fun just having a baby in the house with us.”
Sacramento has watched Fox grow into adulthood since the Kings selected him as a 19-yearold kid from Kentucky with the No. 5 pick in the 2017 NBA draft. He was passed over for AllRookie honors after his first season, but now he is an All-Star and All-NBA player who just helped the Kings end the longest playoff drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons.
Fox averaged 25.0 points, a career-high 4.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.1 steals in his sixth season. He shot career bests of 51.2% from the field and 78% at the freethrow line.
Fox went to the All-Star Game for the first time as an injury replacement while continuing to emerge as one of the league’s most lethal fourth-quarter scorers. He won the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award. Then, in an epic seven-game playoff series against the defending champion Golden State Warriors, Fox traded shots with Stephen Curry despite suffering an avulsion fracture in the index finger on his left shooting hand.
Fox averaged 27.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 2.1 steals in his first career playoff appearance. Curry, averaged 33.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 0.9 steals.
ille Christian High School’s Deshawn Seymour Jr., qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters track and field championships in three events after solid finishes Thursday night at the Division V meet in Stockton.
Seymour was third in both the 100 meters (11.30) and 200 meters (23.42). He joined Dominique Ruff, Maverick Adam and Aaron Laxamana for a fifth-place finish in the 4x400 relay (3:39.87).
The top six finishers in each division advance to Masters, which will be held Friday and Saturday at Davis High. Ruff was second in the boys’ 400 meters (53.01). Caitlyn Ferreira was fifth in the girls’ 400 meters (1:03.81).
Kara Krulick grabbed a qualifying spot by finishing sixth in the girls’ 1,600 meters (5:33.38).
From Page B6
felt like all season we were desperately trying to recapture what we had last year and we did a pretty damn good job of finding something here over the last month.”
It wasn’t any one specific person’s fault that the season played out this way, but rather it was a culmination of one dishing of adversity after the next, and the Warriors were unable to get their bearings until it was too late.
Green punching Jordan Poole in the face in a preseason practice and the subsequent unauthorized release of video showing the altercation was a catalyst to this season; the disconnect between young and old, earned and entitled – all coming to head before the season even tipped off.
Green lost the trust of his teammates when that happened and it took time to mend those relationships.
Injuries to key players piled up, too. Curry was limited to just 56 games. Andrew Wiggins was available for even less – a careerlow 37 games – because of a nagging strained adductor and a family matter that cause him to miss the last seven weeks of the regular season.
Poole severely regressed after a breakout third season that earned him a nine-figure extension, leaving Klay Thompson as the primary scorer without Curry. James Wiseman, Golden State’s highest draft pick in decades, didn’t work out. The Warriors sent him away at the trade deadline to bring back Gary Payton II, who couldn’t even help them for six weeks as he rehabbed a core muscle injury.
The younger players, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, did not make the expected leaps in Year 2, as both found themselves in and out of the rotation all year.
“There were several things that went wrong,” Green said. “It was hard to prepare for the things that happened in the beginning of the season and then bounce back from
that as we did, it’s hard to prepare for all the injuries that we dealt with throughout the season… and in saying that there’s no excuses. (Stuff) happens every season.
“Every season is made up of events, some are great, some are not. I think for this team more of the events that aren’t so great were so public. And that’s not something that you normally deal with. And so the world knows the tough times that this team has had but there’s tough times in every season. Winning a championship, there are tough times.”
The Warriors hadn’t found themselves on solid ground since, spending most of the season fighting an uphill battle. They boasted one of the best five-man lineups in the league, but it took time for the bench to establish its identity. The Warriors, who didn’t win a road game until Nov. 20, never found an answer for why their home-road splits were so drastic.
“The way this season started, we were disjointed, we had that 0-5 road trip and it felt like we were swimming upstream from the beginning,” Kerr said. “We found ourselves down the stretch and in the first round of the playoffs and to be fair, this team probably ultimately maxed out. We were barely in the playoff picture for most of the year so to make that push, to
get there, to win an epic first-round series and then to get the Lakers, a fight in this series and have our chance.”
The Warriors were on the fringe of the Western Conference playoff picture for most of the season and narrowly avoided the play-in tournament, closing out the regular season 5-1 to pick up the sixth seed. They overcame a 2-0 deficit in the first round to beat the Sacramento Kings in seven games, but couldn’t stave off elimination this round, suffering their first series loss to a Western Conference opponent since 2014.
“We came close to recapturing what we had but we didn’t quite get there,” Kerr said. “In my mind, we didn’t feel like a championship team all year. But we had the guts, the fortitude to still compete and we made a pretty good push, we just couldn’t get there.”
Kerr wasn’t ready to talk about what might come next. The emotions of Friday’s loss were still too raw.
But he did emphasize that this isn’t the last chapter of this Warriors’ dynasty.
“All three guys are still highlevel players and I still feel like this team has championship potential,” Kerr said. “We didn’t get there this year but it’s not like this is the end of the road.”
5/14/23
Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimination to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest).
Difficulty level: SILVER
Solution to 5/14/23:
Sam’s owners just found the best house and it was so easy. They simply picked up their newspaper, browsed through the Classifieds and there it was: the twostory colonial with the big backyard they had always wanted. Now Sam can run around and play fetch in the backyard.
The Classifieds... everything you could ever want or need all in one place.
707-427-6936 • dailyrepublic.com
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“I GOT MY OWN YARD!”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, under a siege of lawsuits from 438 people who say they were sexually abused by its clergy in past decades, said it plans to file for bankruptcy protection in November.
Such a move, spelled out in court papers filed this week and in a hearing in San Diego Superior Court Thursday, would halt all lawsuits against the diocese until the bankruptcy is complete and a universal settlement of all the claims is reached through the bankruptcy process.
The diocese, which includes 96 parishes and serves some 1.3 million Roman Catholics in San Diego and Imperial counties, had said in February it was pondering filing for bankruptcy and would likely make a decision by late spring. It would mark the diocese's second time filing for bankruptcy. It did so in 2007, eventually settling 148 claims of sexual abuse for $198 million.
The statements this week left no doubt that the diocese will seek protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, which gives debtors time to reorganize their businesses, resolve debts and then restart their operation.
It would join two other dio-
ceses in California that have also recently filed for bankruptcy – Santa Rosa, which filed in March, and Oakland, which filed on Monday.
The church organizations are seeking court protection in the wake of AB 218. That state law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2019, reopened for three years a window for filing claims over sexual abuse that happened years ago, which would otherwise be barred by legal deadlines for filing a suit. That window closed at the end of 2022.
The law also contains a provision allowing a tripling of any monetary damages awarded if the organization was proved to have engaged in a cover-up.
The dioceses say the potential payouts for the hundreds of claims they are facing would overwhelm them financially, and they need the sanctuary of the courts to work out resolutions.
When the San Diego diocese will file, though, is unknown, and will largely depend on the ruling of San Diego Superior Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon. He is presiding over 361 individual cases filed against the diocese by 438 total plaintiffs that have been
consolidated into one massive combined action.
Currently there are two cases of alleged sexual abuse by clergy members set for trial, one in July and the second in September.
In court papers filed for a hearing Thursday, Marcia Roberts, the lawyer for the diocese, said the organization "has made the final decision to file a petition for Chapter 11" in San Diego federal bankruptcy court and expected to do so the first week of November.
She cited several factors for the extended time frame, including the availability of Cardinal Robert McElroy, leader of the diocese, and the possibility
that a settlement of the sex abuse claims could be worked out under a court-ordered mediation process in the next few months. Going to trial before then, when the diocese has already decided to go the bankruptcy route and seek a settlement there, would be unnecessary, she said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, however, objected to that timetable.
Irwin Zalkin, whose firm represents hundreds of the plaintiffs, told Sturgeon that allowing a November filing would mean both of those cases would be postponed and said the diocese was trying to delay the two impending trials.
Those cases, he argued, could serve as bellwether cases for the rest, setting a financial valuation that could be used to determine an overall settlement.
Zalkin also said the mediation talks have not been fruitful and there is little reason to believe progress could be made in the next few months. He said the diocese should begin the bankruptcy process before November, or go to trial on the cases.
Sturgeon did not make an immediate decision after nearly
90 minutes of sometime heated exchanges among the lawyers.
In addition to the pending trials and the bankruptcy proceedings, the diocese is facing legal woes on two other fronts.
A lawsuit filed in March contends the diocese fraudulently transferred nearly 300 properties from its control to individual parish corporations in 2019, when Newsom signed the new law.
The transfers were done, the suit contends, so the diocese could divest itself of assets and thereby lower its potential payout in a final settlement. The plaintiffs' lawyers want those transfers reversed.
The diocese said that there was no fraud involved but had long planned to transfer the properties – which for years were held in trust for the parishes by the diocese. The timing was coincidental, the diocese has said.
The diocese is also facing a lawsuit from its own insurer, Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America. The insurance company, which would be on the hook for part of any settlement, said it should not have to pay out anything.
Minister: Elliott Williams
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