Daily Republic: Monday, May 29, 2023

Biden says debt ceiling agreement gets reached

bloomberg news

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden said he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a final agreement to avert a historic U.S. default after the two spoke again Sunday afternoon.

Audit finds state’s water agency not accurate on supply numbers

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LOS ANGELES — The state auditor has issued a report strongly criticizing the California Department of Water Resources, saying the agency has overestimated the state’s water supply during drought and continues relying on forecasts that don’t adequately factor in the effects of climate change.

The report by State Auditor Grant Parks said the Department of Water Resources has “made only limited progress” in improving its water-supply forecasts to account for climate change, despite acknowledging more than a decade ago that it needed to improve its forecasting methods.

The audit also concluded that DWR “has not developed a comprehensive, long-term plan” for the State Water Project, the system

that delivers water from Northern California to Southern California and supplies almost 27 million Californians, to proactively respond to more severe droughts.

The auditor said that in 2021, amid the driest three-year period on record, DWR significantly overestimated the state’s water supply. In February of that year, the report said, the department projected that runoff would be at least twice the volume that actually flowed in the majority of the watersheds that are included in forecasts.

“DWR has continued to rely heavily on historical climate data when developing its forecasts,” the auditor said in the report. “DWR has since begun planning to adapt its forecasting model and associated procedures, but it could better ensure that it is using the best approach available if it adopted a

formal process for evaluating the quality of its forecasts.”

The audit found that significant errors in runoff forecasts can cause problems for other water agencies. For example, it said that in 2021 the department’s overestimate of inflow into Folsom Lake meant that El Dorado Irrigation District “had to forego diverting water into storage that it would have otherwise been able to capture in its reservoir.”

The report noted that California endured the driest three-year period on record from 2020 through 2022, followed this year by heavy rain, snow and flooding. It pointed out that scientists project global warming will cause more extreme fluctuations in severe weather, including prolonged drought.

See Water, Page A7

Counties face the unknown in launching mental illness court

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LOS ANGELES — In four months, the gavel will fall, and the state’s first CARE Courts will be in session.

Seven counties opted for an Oct. 1 rollout of the law that orders each county to create special courts, whose judges have the authority to order voluntary treatment plans for individuals with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders.

The CARE Act, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last Septem-

ber, requires counties to come up with the bureaucratic mechanisms that will support the goal of easing an epidemic of severe mental illness on the streets and in communities.

“We’re deep in the weeds, thinking about what will be the daily lives of the people who engage in this work,” said Luke Bergmann, the behavioral health director for San Diego County.

Among the many challenges of the CARE Act is developing a manageable workflow for

disparate groups.

For every individual appearing in the court, there will be the clerks who processed the petitions that initiated the proceedings, the outreach teams that found the individual and served the paperwork, the psychiatrists who prepared a treatment plan, defense attorneys who will represent the individual, behavioral health clinicians who will present the plan and the judges who will negotiate its implementation.

In addition, there

will be insurance companies that pay for the plan, administrators who manage the paperwork associated with the plan and healthcare providers who execute the plan.

The first group – San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Glenn – reflects the geographic and demographic diversity of California. Their courts will serve as a template for Los Angeles and the 50 other counties. (L.A. County

See Court, Page A7

“We’ve got good news. I’ve just spoken with Speaker McCarthy. We have a bipartisan budget agreement,” Biden said to reporters at the White House.

He urged both chambers of Congress to pass the legislation.

Both Biden and McCarthy now have to convince their allies to support the package, while tamping down frustrations on the left and right wings of their respective parties.

Despite reaching a deal, the clock is ticking.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Friday

that the government’s borrowing limit must be extended by June 5 to avoid a payments default. Biden complimented McCarthy for keeping his word in the talks but said “I have no idea if he has the votes.”

“I expect he does. I don’t think he would have made the agreement” otherwise, he added.

Biden this month cut short a planned trip from the G7 leaders summit in Hiroshima, Japan, to Papua New Guinea and Sydney, Australia, to tend to the negotiations. The Pacific region is vital to U.S. foreign policy to confront China’s growing influence.

The president brushed off assertions that debt ceiling talks that have gone essentially down to the wire – with the global See Debt, Page A7

Afterups and downs, Pelosi has won over California Democrats

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LOS ANGELES —

Even before former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her first appearance at the California Democratic Party convention this weekend, she was an inescapable presence, dangling in cartoon form off the shoulders of the party’s politicians and most dedicated activists.

The official swag bag –a canvas tote illustrating Pelosi’s instantly memeable furious clapping

during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address – was the most colorful tribute to the San Francisco congresswoman, but it was hardly the only one. Between an ecstatic ovation for her brief Saturday-morning address and the ballroom-size dinner held in her honor that evening, the party’s first in-person gathering since 2019 was an unabashed love letter to one of the state’s most A7

(2021)

A kayaker enjoys Lake Oroville when the water stood at at 33% full and 40% of historical average in June 2021.

A few random thoughts for Memorial Day

US Festival 1983 – 40 years later

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the 1983 US Festival. It remains the best concert I ever attended and had half a million people in attendance. That year was a watershed one in heavy metal music. The show featured Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Triumph, Scorpions and Van Halen – all for $20! Hold onto your hat because that would be ... wait for it ... $61 in 2023, which is what some pay to park at shows now, if they’re lucky.

In the article I included an interview I did with Steve Wozniak. Affectionately known as “Woz,” Wozniak is best known for being the co-founder (with Steve Jobs) of Apple Computer. He used part of the fortune he made with Apple to create the US Festivals, which were held in 1982 and 1983 near scorching San Bernardino.

I did my interview with Woz on the phone, but had an opportunity to meet him in person if I could make it to Berkeley one day when Daily Republic photographer Brad Zweerink was scheduled to take some shots of him for the piece. Alas, I had something that I can’t remember that I could not get out of. Woz showed up riding a Segway.

Another part of the package was called “A View From the Stage” where I wanted to get the perspectives of some of the performers who had played US Festivals. Now this was a year before I joined Facebook and it was much harder to get a hold of celebrities back then. If you got lucky, you could score an interview through their publicist from a website.

So being that I was just some guy from Fairfield who thought

BRIGHT spot

it would be cool to talk to celebrities I couldn’t get interviews with my top picks like David Bowie or David Lee Roth of Van Halen or Ozzy Osbourne. I did get interviews with the bass player for Triumph, Mike Levine, the drummer for Quiet Riot, Frankie Banali (who was a really cool guy), and the bassist for David Bowie, Carmine Rojas. They were all wonderful. Who I really wanted to talk to was anyone from German band Scorpions because in the eyes of many, including my own, they stole the show. But my efforts to secure one were futile.

Then 12 days after the story ran I got an email from their publicist saying that Scorpions founder and rhythm guitarist Rudolph Schenker could do a phone interview. Sigh.

Rental cars and memories

I am having the damage repaired on my Jeep that was involved in a hit-and-run when it was parked a few weeks ago. While it is in the shop I got a rental from Enterprise. Now I am not sure how they decide what vehicle you get because I didn’t really ask for a specific one. It could be that they just snag the next one in line and you get what you get and don’t have a fit.

Or perhaps the nice young woman who was helping me just thought I looked like a Dodge Charger type of guy. I mean, she wasn’t wrong. Plus it’s Raiders silver-and-black.

I did the old guy thing when I was there. I told them things I know they don’t care about, but I do. The La Michoacana Plus ice cream place that recently opened next door to them is where Baskin-Robbins used to be and where I worked in the early 1980s. I shared this information with the employees and got the expected polite, but disinterested response.

Whatever. I didn’t care.

Again, it was for me and not them. I think that when I drop off the Charger next week I’ll regale them with tales of how at one point the spot where Enterprise is was once a Mexican fast food joint called The Jumpin’ Bean and later General Fu Man Chu whose FuBurger was smelly chow mein between two buns.

To really sell the old-guy-with-old-stories-noone-cares-about-shtick, I’ll slide my glasses to the tip of my nose and talk in a higher voice punctuated with annoying hand motions.

Where are the Armijo hoopties?

Each year, the Armijo Alumni Association buys a yearbook, and I got the email from yearbook adviser Renee Deger that they were in. When I went to pick it up what hit me going into the student parking lot were the cars. I remember when I went there some of the kids from the valley had newer cars, but most were hoopties.

My buddy John drove his parent’s canary yellow AMC Matador to school until he got his first ride, a super-cool, wellused Chevy Vega. I would park the family Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon down the street from Armijo and walk the rest of the way because it was so uncool. I later upgraded to a parakeet green (why are all the colors about birds?)

1974 Mercury Montego that featured an 8-track player and had gray Bondo on the front-right quarter-panel. Now I did see one old Ford truck there but it looked more vintage than hooptie.

BLE surprise

May is a special month for me when it comes to Bright Line Eating as May 2 marked my three-year anniversary of being in maintenance, and May 17 was the day I started

doing BLE in 2019. Well, I was asked by founder Susan Peirce Thompson if I would be available to be featured in some new videos they were shooting. Of course I agreed.

I had texted the videographer Daniel before but had never met him in person. I saw him pull into the driveway and went outside to see if he needed any help carrying stuff and ...

OMG! Susan Peirce Thompson was with him! I literally did the cartoon character mouth open and eyes bugged out thing for several seconds. I had met her back in 2019, as she has relatives who live in Fairfield, but she didn’t come to my house. It was great also because Beth, who is also a Bright Line Eater, is laid up recovering from her second hip replacement.

During the shoot, Daniel told me to look not right at the camera, but next to it where Susan was sitting. So at one point I was talking about how so many promises she made in her book have come true for me and it was surreal because while I was talking about her in the third person. I was looking directly at her – the person who

revolutionized my life.

Honoring those who gave all

For several years now I have had a tradition where I watch the Steven Spielberg film “Saving Private Ryan” on Memorial Day to remember those who wore the uniform of the United States and made the ultimate sacrifice for me. I know all the dialogue, the scenes and the story arc and highlights. At this point, I’m not going to come across something that I haven’t seen so many times before.

And yet I cry my eyes out every time.

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

Tony Wade The last laugh

Courtesy photo

Tony and Beth Wade create a photo sammich with Bright Line Eating founder Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D.

Veteran who was shot down in France in WWII turns 100

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It was Christmas Eve 1944 and Alfred Arrieta was among a nine-member crew aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress, providing support to ground troops in the French countryside during the Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest battles in World War II.

The 21-year-old U.S. sergeant had participated in 28 successful missions but this time would be different. The bomber – nicknamed “Move Over Mabel” – had just dropped its payload over the Ardennes region when it was hit by German antiaircraft artillery about 9,000 feet in the air, Arrieta said.

Several of the crew were hit by shrapnel, including the pilot and a turret gunner, who lost an eye.

Arrieta did his best to aid the gunner, injecting him with morphine as the crew braced for impact. The wounded pilot attempted a crash landing.

“When we hit,” Arrieta said, slamming his hand down onto his knee, “we bounced around about 40 feet [up] and back down again.”

The plane landed somewhere near the Belgian border and the crew were rescued by the Free

French Forces. “I feel fortunate. I made it through the Great Depression, the 20th century and World War II,” Arrieta said recently at his home in Seal Beach as he sat next to his wife, Frances. “I’m here, very grateful and proud of my country.” Arrieta hit the century mark Tuesday and is looking forward to paying tribute to his fellow servicemen on Monday, Memorial Day. He was recently honored by the Seal Beach City Council and received a customary

letter from the president of the United States. The office of U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, also presented him with an American flag flown over the U.S. Capitol. Arrieta enjoys reminiscing. When he talks about his war experience, he gradually pulls at the details as though they were in a dream he had the night before.

He said after the plane crashed, the wounded were taken to a hospital but that he and the other men who were not injured found themselves alone in

Lille, France.

But they had money. There were several thousand francs stuffed in their escape kits provided by the U.S. Air Force to troops who found themselves in foreign territory.

After their neardeath experience, the men rented hotel rooms, slept on beds with comfortable mattresses and drank Champagne.

“We went outside and there was a taxi and I said to the driver, ‘Where are the girls? Dancing?’ “

The driver took them down a dark road to a warehouse. When the doors opened they found people inside dancing, drinking and celebrating Christmas Eve.

After a few weeks, the crew returned to their active duties and Arrieta went on to fly three more missions with the 8th Air Force.

“But during that time we ate the best food and drank and danced,” he said.

The El Paso native is most proud of his family. After the war, Arrieta went on to marry his wife, Frances. The two have been married for 69 years and raised 10 children together in the city of Hawaiian Gardens near

See Veteran, Page A8

Clean up Lake Berryessa on Saturday

The 13th annual Solano County World Environment Day cleanup returns again this year, according to a press release.

The event is set to begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Lake Solano County Park.

Participants will remove trash from Lake Berryessa, plant native vegetation, create takehome seed packets, and enjoy a free picnic lunch. Registration is required and can be completed at cleanupsolano.org through June 1, although those who register by May 30 will also receive a free World Environment Day event T-shirt.

“Lake Berryessa, Lake Solano and the Putah Creek watersheds are lifelines for Solano County,” said Narcisa Untal, senior planner with the Solano County Department of Resource Management in the press release. “They provide us with high quality drinking and irrigation water as well as recreational opportunities, but they are also impacted by the activities that occur within them. Trash degrades water quality, impacts the functionality of the water system, and poses a hazard to boaters and recreators. Join us in the movement to keep Solano County clean and green by volunteering on June 3 at Lake Solano.”

World Environment Day builds global awareness of the environment, draws political attention to environmental issues, and supports individual and community projects. Lake Solano is part of a constructed watershed delivering high quality drinking water from Lake Berryessa, the seventh largest reservoir in California, to around 500,000 Solano County residents. This water is also the primary source of irrigation water for growers in the region and companies like Anheuser-Busch and the Jelly Belly Factory selected to operate in Solano County to use Lake Berryessa water. Also filling and leaving Lake Solano is Putah Creek, a vital ecological link between the neighboring mountain range and the Yolo Bypass. The Solano Resource

DeSantis’ quest: Build a GOP coalition against Donald Trump

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MIAMI — When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his candidacy for president Wednesday, confirming years of speculation, he made a speech to the Twitter-verse that hit on themes most Republicans would get behind: He would build a border wall, end inflation and, most importantly, he would beat President Joe Biden in November 2024.

But DeSantis followed that standard campaign rhetoric with a wideranging discussion that touched on a number of more niche issues. Along with billionaire Elon Musk and a supporting cast of other sympathetic conservatives, DeSantis delved into the concerns of a certain kind of plugged-in Republican: tech censorship and cryptocurrency regulation.

“As president, we’ll protect the ability to do things like bitcoin,” DeSantis said at one point.

Ultra MAGA — DeSantis will likely need support from a group of voters with wide-ranging priorities to best former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. He’ll also need to walk a numerical tightrope. Trump leads DeSantis by an average of more than 30 points in national polls, according to RealClearPolitics. Three pollsters interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times estimated that at least one-third of GOP primary voters are unshakable supporters of Trump. DeSantis has essentially no shot at attracting that bloc, they said.

Conservation District coordinates the annual World Environment Day event in partnership with Solano County Water Agency, AnheuserBusch in Fairfield, Solano County, Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership, and Volunteer Solano/ CVNL. Additional support for this year’s event is being provided by Solano County Parks, Putah Creek Council, MCE, and US Bureau of Reclamation. To learn more about these and other Solano County cleanup activities, including Solano County Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 23, visit cleanupsolano.org.

League of Women Voters’ annual meeting is Thursday

The annual meeting of the League of Women Voters Solano County is scheduled for Thursday in the Solano Community Health Hub inside the Solano Town Center.

The gathering will focus on "upcoming plans to continue its work championing democracy in Solano County as well as sharing information about its current work including a special presentation on Democracy Matters," a civics education program.

Democracy Matters is the group's civics education program, which recently won the Making Democracy Work Award at the California League convention in San Francisco.

"The special Democracy Matters presentation at the Solano League annual meeting will showcase the (league's) partnership with the Solano Youth Coalition formed to educate and engage Solano youth in local government using hallmark league hands-on civics learning activities," a statement released by the league said.

Alice Fried, Rebecca Floyd and Johanna NowakPalmer and a panel of SYC

students will be speakers at the event.

The annual meeting location is located at 1451 Gateway Blvd. in Fairfield. The entrance is located at the northeast corner of the mall near H&M. Meeting access is also available through Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/ yshakf3s. Click on the Annual Meeting information. The link is also posted at www.facebook.com/ lwvsolanocounty.

For more information, send an email to ramilmuth@gmail.com or call 707-694-5475.

CAP Solano directors meet Thursday; CSBG report meeting is May 31

The CAP Solano Joint Powers Authority directors have scheduled a public hearing to discuss the Draft 2024-25 Community Service Block Grant Community Action Plan on Wednesday at noon in the council chamber in Suisun City City Hall.

The plan is available for public comment through 5 p.m. Wednesday Comments can be submitted by email to solano@homebaseccc.org. The subject line should read 2024-25 CSBG CAP Public Comment.

The plan is available at https://drive.google. com/file/d/1rdWgCuykO50sME4IXEyaer

zzxY-W1Sj/view. City Hall is located at 701 Civic Center Blvd.

Suisun State of City address on Tuesday

The Suisun State of the City address is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Joseph Nelson Community Center, 611 Village Drive.

The event will begin with an “open house” during which attendees can meet with representatives of various city departments, as well as representatives from many partner agencies.

There will be appetizers and beverages provided, as well as free child care.

2 government meetings on calendar

Two local government meetings will be held this week. They will include:

n Suisun City Council Special Closed Session, 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, 701 Civic Center Blvd. Info: www.suisun.com/government/city-council.

n Suisun City Council Environment and Climate Committee, 6 p.m. Wednesday, City Council chamber, 701 Civic Center Blvd. Info: www.suisun. com/government/citycounci

The scattered nature of his audio-only Twitter launch event highlighted a broader challenge for DeSantis as he moves forward with his presidential campaign: How can he piece together a winning coalition of Republican voters? Young and old, white collar and blue, Never Trump and

“That’s an awfully big base to start with in a multicandidate field,” said Matthew Shelter, a partner at the Beacon Research political polling firm. Beacon has found that roughly 40% of GOP voters consider themselves supporters of Trump more than they consider themselves supporters of the Republican Party, Shelter said.

When fundraisers from around the country gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami earlier this week to give DeSantis a jolt of money –he raised $8.2 million in the first 24 hours, accordSee DeSantis, Page A8

Summer Reading program takes off on Thursday

Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

The Solano County Library will begin its Summer Reading Challenge program on Thursday.

The program is open to all ages: children, teens and adults. Library users can sign up at any Solano Library location.

"Log your reading or complete activities to earn prizes. Read anything you want: books, eBooks, graphic novels, magazines, audiobooks –(they) all count," Library Services said in a statement. "New this year, all children will receive a book of their choice when they sign up. Everyone receives prizes for reaching their reading goal. Adults will earn a commemorative enamel pin, and teens and children will earn book prizes."

All participants are entered automatically into weekly prize

drawings for Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants tickets.

"Library staff have planned exciting events during the two summer months from magic shows, ice cream socials, to petting zoos just to name a few. Book prizes and events are made possible by the generous support of the Solano County Library Foundation," the statement said. For information, go to solanolibrary.com/ summer-reading or call 1-866-572-7587.

Sandra Husse y

-

On April 17, Sandra Lyn Hussey p assed away at her home in Green Valle y, Fairfield CA; just 25 days shy of her 84th birthday She w as born in San Jose, CA, raised in Vallejo and spent her adult lif e in Green Valle y.

Sandra enjoyed traveling, watching Hallmark movies and most of all shopping which included giving her special purchases to friends and family

Sandra was deeply thoughtful, had a huge heart and was very generous and friendly She had a remarkable ability to make ever yone feel special. She lived life to the fullest and would usually be the las t to leave a party or gathering because she would talk to ever yone upon leaving...especially if you had a child or baby

She had her faith, trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ for her eternal salvation.

Sandra was preceded in death by her parents Ernest Bowen and Mar y Duarte, and son Stephen Lee Hussey. She is sur vived by the love of her life John Hom, her sons Bret Allen Hussey of Vallejo and Jon Paul Hussey (Lola) of Vacaville, and grandson Stephen Shane Hussey of San Francisco.

Sandra will be greatly missed by many more loving relatives and friends. A celebration of life will be held on Sunday June

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Alfred Arrieta, 100, served as a waist gunner in a Flying Fortress during World War II.

An LA watchmaker crafted a $70,000 timepiece

IT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE THE US WATCH INDUSTRY

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Watchmaker Joshua Shapiro gripped the machine’s worn handle with his left hand and exhaled.

Standing at the helm of the 100-year-old “rose engine,” he peered through a microscope at a small, square slab of German silver illuminated by a gooseneck lamp.

Shapiro turned the handle. The rose engine came alive.

Wheels rotated in concert. Rosettes spun. And shards of the silvery material were ejected from the plate where the machine’s cutter made contact.

Shapiro, 38, was practicing the pattern that would decorate part of the dial on his new watch. He hoped the timepiece, called Resurgence, would revive a once-great American industry.

Shapiro’s watch would be almost fully made in the U.S. – something that hasn’t been done in a half century or so.

On this day, he was adorning the German silver – a fancy name for nickel – with moiré, a wavy motif occasionally seen on high-end watches. This decorative technique is know as guilloché, which was invented in the 1500s and also is known as engine turning. Only a handful of watchmakers in the U.S. know how to do it.

After honing the pattern – and some hand wringing over just how wavy it should be – Shapiro would make the final part in sterling silver. He estimated he’d spent upward of 30 hours designing and fabricating this piece for the watch, a prototype of Resurgence.

It’s part of a process that spanned thousands of hours and began 12 years ago.

“That’s when I got into this and had this wild dream of making my own watch – making every part of a watch,” he said. “It’s been a huge journey.”

Indeed, J.N. Shapiro Watches’ latest project is without equal in contemporary American watchmaking. Resurgence, which debuted Monday, starts at $70,000 in a steel case. Versions in other metals, including tantalum, begin at $80,000.

The Inglewood company aims to make about 30 a year, and each watch will have “U.S. made” engraved on the movement – the mechanical innards that power a traditional timepiece. (Think: gears, wheels, levers and springs.) Shapiro has done his research, and believes Resurgence complies with strict Federal Trade Commission rules that dictate when a consumer good warrants the “U.S. made” designation.

It’s a distinction that other American watchmakers have sought – only to see regulators intervene. In 2016, for example, the FTC ruled that Detroit-based Shinola could not no longer use the slogan “Where American is made” because at the time its watches featured key parts made overseas.

A true U.S.-made watch has not been produced for more than 50 years – ever since the last of the once-great American watch companies went out of business or were sold to Swiss concerns.

Shapiro, whose previous offering, the Infinity Series, debuted in 2018, hopes his endeavor will inspire other horologists here to return to the traditional art of watchmaking. That’s why the partly self-taught watchmaker named the new watch Resurgence.

Industry figures are rooting for Shapiro. Paul Boutros, who oversees watches in the Americas for auction house Phillips, said in January that Resurgence would be a breakthrough for watchmaking in the United States. “That a self-taught American in this nonwatchmaking country was able to achieve that – it would be a huge achievement,” he said.

Boutros, whose company has sold two Infinity Series watches

at auction – including one on May 13 for nearly $27,000 –said collectors are “rooting for” Shapiro. “That is an American thing – we are always cheering the underdog.”

Shapiro, who until recently taught a high school history class, long wore that label well. But Resurgence could transform him into something else altogether.

‘Doing things differently’

Shapiro’s watchmaking journey began, in a way, at the South El Monte machine shop owned by his grandfather, Max Shapiro.

As a child, Shapiro hung around the shop, Kenny Sandblasting, where he’d “spend all day climbing over old machinery and tinkering [with] things.”

The elder Shapiro, who cofounded South El Monte and later served as its mayor, settled in the Southland in 1946 after working as a welder on the Manhattan Project. And he fostered his grandson’s interest in metalworking and related pursuits.

One of the duo’s early “projects” was smelting gold. Then about 6 years old, Shapiro would salvage gold that had been deposited in or on the company’s crucibles. They heated the recovered precious metal in a furnace until it coalesced, and poured it out as a nugget that Shapiro later made into a coin.

“What I learned from my grandfather is you don’t have to walk the beaten path,” said Shapiro, who grew up in Arcadia.

“You can have a fulfilling, wonderful life doing things differently than other people.”

Still, it was far from a straight path to watchmaking.

Shapiro pursued his love of history at UCLA, where he majored in the subject, graduating in 2008. He got a master’s degree in history at Cal State Northridge six years later. By then, he’d already begun a career in education, having coached track and field and worked as a substitute teacher at Arcadia High School.

Over roughly the next 10 years, Shapiro held various

roles as an educator, including serving as a teacher and principal at a private Jewish high school in the Pico-Robertson area. “It was great training,” Shapiro said. “Dealing with watch collectors is nothing [as hard as] dealing with teenagers and angry parents.”

Shapiro never sidelined his interest in all things mechanical.

In 2012, he began a distancelearning course with the British Horological Institute. Instead of spending money on a trip to England to take a final exam at the institute, he used savings to buy his first engine-turning machine.

The machine was situated in the breakfast nook at the Beverly Grove townhome Shapiro rented with his wife, Ana, and daughter (the couple now have four kids). Soon, he added another guilloché machine. Around this time, Shapiro read “Watchmaking” by British horologist George Daniels.

The book is something of a bible for watchmakers; in it, Daniels shows how to create a timepiece from start to finish. Daniels’ watches, Shapiro noted, had beautiful guilloché dials.

Shapiro took a major step in 2015: he sold his two engineturning machines – and his beloved 1967 Ford Mustang fastback – and used the proceeds to purchase two higher-quality guilloché machines.

He remembers thinking: “This is going to be a serious thing.”

Though Shapiro taught himself the art of engine turning, he also had an important industry mentor, Santa Barbara watchmaker David Walter, with whom Shapiro began collaborating in 2015. Walter needed someone to make guilloché dials for his timekeepers. Since then, Shapiro has created about 20 for him.

As Shapiro sharpened his skills, a few people close to him were the beneficiaries of his craftsmanship. In 2017, he gave his dad a watch whose engineturned dial he’d made. Keith Shapiro helped his son with the business in its early years – he once drove his son “almost all night” to Arizona so that the

watchmaker could purchase that first guilloché machine.

“I thought this would just be a hobby,” said the elder Shapiro, laughing.

Shapiro and his colleagues eventually completed 100 of the Infinity Series watches, which used high-end movements made in Germany and sold for $30,000 on average. Each featured the “infinity weave” – a guilloché pattern Shapiro invented – on the dial.

Among those 100 watches were 10 that Shapiro made for Collective Horology, a Ventura company. Released in 2020, the watches had dials made of meteorite and started at $21,500. The otherworldy timepieces sold out.

Asher Rapkin, co-founder of Collective, has been tracking Shapiro’s progress on his U.S.made project. “If he’s successful, he’d be sending up a bat signal to other watchmakers here that it’s OK to do this,” Rapkin said. “His success will lead other people to create new art.”

American resurgence

As Shapiro adjusted settings on a rose engine on a recent weekday, it drove home a point: This was a decidedly old-fashioned endeavor, applying centuries-old techniques to craft a wristwatch – itself something of an anachronism.

And yet, J.N. Shapiro Watches is far from a tradition-bound maison, where watchmakers have toiled generation after generation in a quaint Swiss hamlet. As if to emphasize that point, the racket of an airplane flying low overheard punctuated the silence in Shapiro’s workshop – a reminder of his company’s location near Los Angeles International Airport.

Shapiro said he moved the business to Inglewood in 2020 because it was mutually convenient for him and his employees, who now number six, including five other watchmakers. But he’s also mindful of the manufacturing tradition in the area, noting the presence of companies including Raytheon and SpaceX.

The interplay of industry and artistry is central to J.N. Shapiro Watches’ story – and on display at its headquarters. On the day Shapiro practiced the moiré pattern, an industrial clamor emanated from an adjacent room that houses CNC mills and CNC lathes, which are used to fabricate watch components. Shapiro said he assembled the collection of machines needed to make

Resurgence at a cost of about $2 million.

In all, Shapiro’s company turned out 148 of the Resurgence prototype’s 180 components. Its hairspring, mainspring, ruby bearings and a few other parts were sourced from Switzerland. However, Shapiro said, the production version of Resurgence will include a hairspring and bearings made in America.

Shapiro’s commitment to the U.S.-made standard has impressed collector Gabriel Benador, who owns an Infinity Series watch that has Hebrew numerals on the dial that are a nod to the Jewish heritage he shares with Shapiro. When Benador first heard about Shapiro, he was intrigued by his outsider status. Shapiro “is totally not what you expect from a watchmaker,” said Benador, who intends to buy a Resurgence watch.

Even at $70,000 or more, Resurgence costs less than some high-end watches. In this lofty corner of horology, six-figure timepieces have become common. That’s due in part to an industrywide flourishing that occurred during the first year or so of the pandemic.

Collectors who found themselves with time on their hands indulged in the hobby, which practically beckons devotees to become obsessed. Prices soon soared. Certain models from Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet that retailed for five figures routinely sold on the secondary market for double their list price, though the market has since cooled off.

Explaining Resurgence’s cost, Shapiro noted the failure rate on producing some engineturned parts is as high as 25%.

He also drew a parallel between watches and cars: “A mass-produced Toyota ... maxes out at 90 miles per hour. The components aren’t high-performance components. We’re putting a ton of time into each and every part. These are watches that’ll last hundreds of years.”

Shapiro completed the Resurgence prototype in March. He said he took a moment for himself after a colleague handed him the completed timepiece. Stepping into his office, Shapiro “just stared at it for a while.”

“It’s very surreal,” he said. “It really is similar to having a child.”

Days later, he still couldn’t take his eyes off the watch. Turning it over, he read aloud an engraving on the movement: “U.S. made.”

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

ABOVE: L.A. watchmaker Joshua Shapiro and the prototype of his new U.S.-made watch.

LEFT: J.N. Shapiro Watches’ new model, Resurgence, features a fourlayer guilloché dial and a case with engine-turned flanks.

Atom Moore/J.N. Shapiro Watches/TNS

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Climate protesters indicted after painting case of Degas statue

The WashingTon PosT

Two climate activists were indicted by a federal grand jury following an April protest that included smearing paint on the case protecting Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture in the National Gallery of Art, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington said Friday.

The climate activists – identified in the recently unsealed indictment as Timothy Martin and Joanna Smith – surrendered to officials on Friday on two counts related to conspiracy and damaging property in the National Gallery of Art, according to a news release from federal prosecutors. Each charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and

up to a $250,000 fine. At the time of the incident, the climate group that organized the stunt, Declare Emergency, identified the protesters as Smith, 53 of New York, and Martin, 54, of Raleigh, N.C. Federal authorities allege Smith and Martin concealed paint in plastic water bottles before smearing it on the case, base and floor surrounding the sculpture, resulting in damage totaling $2,400. The gallery had to remove the exhibit for repairs afterward, according to a news release.

Attorneys representing Smith and Martin said their clients never aimed to damage artwork, but rather hoped to use art to draw attention to the climate crisis.

Pickles Brian Crane

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Candorville Darrin Bell

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú

HOW TO GRILL A JUICY BURGER

A nn M Aloney THE WASHINGTON POST

Tender, hot and well dressed. That’s how I like my grilled hamburger: a char-marked patty, less than an inch thick, sandwiched on a lightly toasted bun with a thick slice of red onion and tomato, lettuce leaves, sliced dill pickle and a schmear of mayonnaise. Cheese optional. We may not agree on how we like to adorn our burgers, but we all want a patty that retains its shape and flavor, and remains juicy but doesn’t soak the bun. Here are tips and tricks I’ve learned through years of reading recipes and from practice, practice, practice. Let’s dig right in.

coals are white-gray with ash, pour them into the grate and cover, making sure the air vents are open all the way. When all of the coals are gray, 15 to 20 minutes, your grill should be just right.

Use a grill thermometer or test the heat by holding your hand, palm down, about 4 inches from the grate. If you can hold it there for about 4 seconds, the heat should be at 450 degrees. Be sure that nothing flammable, such as sleeves or other clothing, is near the heat.

To oil or not to oil: If your grill grate is clean, there is no reason to oil it before adding your burgers. If your grill grate is not clean ... clean it.

When should you flip a burger?

The only rule here is that when you first put the burger on the grill, leave it undisturbed for at least 3 minutes so that it seals and gets char marks. Use a spatula to peek. If your burger is not browned with some marking, your grill temperature is probably below 450 degrees, so leave it a bit longer. After that, you can flip to your heart’s content, but I like to flip just once, so I can cover the grill and allow the burgers to absorb smoky flavor.

Unless you’re grilling a smash burger on a cast-iron pan, never, ever press down on the burgers while they are cooking. This tends to make the a thicker burger drier, and the dripping juices can cause flare-ups.

How can you tell when a grilled burger is done?

Generally, your burger should take about 8 to 9 minutes to cook. But that can vary because of the temperature of your grill and the thickness of the burger patty, so the best way to tell if a burger is as you like it is to insert an instant-read thermometer into the thicker part of the patty.

The USDA recommends an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees for home-cooked beef burgers, which means cooking it for 8 to 10 minutes, until there is no pink in the center. For a rarer burger, start checking the patty’s temperature after 5 minutes of total cooking time. The burger should be close to mediumrare (130 to 135 degrees). For medium (145 to 150), try about 7 minutes total cooking time.

Should you rest burgers before serving?

Yes. No one wants a burger that soaks through the bun. Transfer your burgers to a platter, lightly cover them, and let them rest for 3 to 5 minutes. This is also the perfect moment to add a slice of cheese, so it can melt and drape the patty.

For an even neater burger, place a wire rack on a sheet pan and put the burgers on it, before adding cheese and lightly covering. This allows any juices that escape to pool away from the meat.

and wait. With charcoal, it gets a little more complicated: Fill a chimney starter (or two depending on the size of your grill) with charcoal, light it, and when the

While your burgers rest, toast the buns on the grill. (I like to brush brioche buns with a thin layer of mayonnaise before lightly grilling them cut side down.) Then, dress and serve.

These green goddess grain bowls a vegan, customizable template

Idon’t typically use recipes for grain bowls. In fact, I usually don’t really set out to make all the components of one at once. Instead, my grain bowls are usually the result of various building blocks I’ve cooked in advance: grains, of course, plus beans, roasted vegetables, a dressing or sauce, and some crunchy topping I have around.

I’ve often recommended such an approach, and I stick by that. But what if you haven’t done any of that advance work? Does that leave you out of the grain-bowl game?

Of course not. For this recipe, two of my favorite vegetarian cookbook authors – Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence – come to the rescue with a build-fromscratch grain bowl idea that you can make as is, with very satisfying results, or treat as a template. You cook greens with canned beans, brighten with a little lemon, then make a

stripped-down version of green goddess dressing with avocado, mayo and scallions, sparked up with sriracha and balanced with agave nectar (or honey if you’re not vegan). When you’re ready to eat, you just build your bowls, starting with quinoa or another grain and ending with sunflower seeds. As they describe it, this is “some good, healthy fuel,” and it’s mighty tasty, too. This recipe serves four, but you might consider doubling each element – and getting a head start on your week.

GREEN GODDESS GRAIN BOWL

Total time: 30 minutes

4 servings

This is as much a blueprint as it is a recipe: Top your favorite grains with a mixture of beans, greens, tomatoes and a delicious dressing, and sprinkle with nuts or seeds.

Storage: The grains, bean mixture and dressing can be refrigerated in separate containers for up to 5 days.

1 small bunch (8 ounces)

kale or other greens

1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil

1 small onion (5 ounces), chopped (1 cup)

½ teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt, plus more to taste

1 (15-ounce) can no-saltadded black beans, drained and rinsed (1.75 cups)

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided

2 medium ripe avocados, pitted and peeled

2 scallions, trimmed and sliced

¼ cup vegan mayonnaise

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 teaspoon agave nectar

2 cups cooked grains, such as quinoa, barley or brown rice, warmed

¼ cup sunflower seeds, raw or roasted

Wash and dry the kale, and strip it from its stems. Coarsely chop the leaves and thinly slice the stems, keeping them separate.

In a large skillet over mediumhigh heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion, kale stems and salt and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and the onion is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the kale leaves, beans and

Green

2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Cook, stirring, until the kale is tender, about 5 minutes. Taste, and season with more salt, if needed.

In a medium bowl, mash the avocados with the remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, the scallions, mayonnaise, sriracha and agave. Divide the warmed grains among four bowls, and top with the bean mixture, avocado dressing and sunflower seeds. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition per serving (½ cup grains, 1 cup bean mixture, 6 tablespoons dressing) | Calories: 550;

Carbohydrates: 58 g; Fat: 31 g;

Fiber: 17 g; Protein: 17 g; Saturated

Fat: 3 g; Sodium: 497 mg; Sugar: 7 g

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

Adapted from “Vegetarian Cooking for Two” by Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence (Rockridge Press, 2021).

Joe Yonan Weeknight vegetarian

Laura Chase de Formigny/The Washington Post

Goddess grain bowl.

Scott Suchman/The Washington Post photos

You want a burger thick enough not to dry out, but not so thick that you can’t get your mouth around the dressed-up sandwich.

Making a 2-inch indentation in your hamburger patties helps prevent shrinking during cooking.

The state auditor found that in contrast to the Department of Water Resources, some local and federal agencies “use forecasting models that leverage additional data that may allow them to better account for the changing climate and its effects on the water supply.” It said some of the agencies that incorporate additional data in this way include Turlock Irrigation District, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Merced Irrigation District and the California Nevada River Forecast Center.

The audit also found that DWR lacks sufficient records explaining some of its water releases from Lake Oroville, the state’s second-largest reservoir, and has at times released more water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta than required under existing flow standards.

The report said the agency “lacks a formal process for periodically evaluating certain State Water Project operations to identify opportunities for improvement.”

Among the audit’s recommendations, the report said the department should:

n Start to evaluate the accuracy of its monthly forecasts on an annual basis, including an assessment of whether actual runoff matched the range of scenarios.

n Follow through on a plan to adopt an updated water-supply forecasting model to better account for the effects of climate change.

n Develop a long-term plan for mitigating and responding to the effects

Debt

From

economy at stake – weakened U.S. standing among allies and adversaries.

“Just the nature of the way we handle the deficit and handle whether we’re going to, each year going to pay our debts, and it’s happened more than once, will probably happen again, but it’s not going to happen at least for another two years here,” Biden said.

Biden said that he would explore in the future whether the the U.S. Constitution – which says that the validity of the debt “shall not be questioned” –would allow him to bypass the debt limit law.

“It would cause more controversy getting rid of the debt limit. Although I do – I am exploring the idea that we would, at a later date, a year or two from now, decide whether or not the 14th Amendment, how that actually would impact on whether or not you need to increase the debt limit every year,” he said. “But that’s another day.”

McCarthy said earlier Sunday that he expects a majority of Republicans to vote the emerging bill, defending it is as a “transformational” move to rein in federal spending even though “maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone.”

Biden said he doesn’t foresee any sticking points that could derail the agreement. Asked if he’s confident the deal will reach his desk, he said, “Yes.”

McCarthy urged lawmakers to reserve

of drought on the State Water Project.

n Establish procedures to determine monthly and annual plans for operating the State Water Project, including the amount of water that will be held in dams and released.

n Reevaluate the data the agency relies on in planning reservoir operations at Lake Oroville.

The Department of Water Resources disagreed with the report’s main findings.

“DWR has been actively engaged in climate change adaptation since 2008, and we respectfully disagree with the audit’s assertion that DWR has been slow in addressing the impacts of climate change,” Karla Nemeth, the department’s director, said in an email.

Nemeth said the conditions in spring 2021 “were extreme and outside the bounds of historical experience.”

“DWR reacted quickly to the extreme hydrology and recognized the runoff forecasting error of 2021 as an opportunity to learn, adjust, and improve,” Nemeth said. “Conditions like those experienced in 2021 speak to the importance of forward-looking forecasting and developing new tools for an era of extremes.”

In a letter responding to the audit, Nemeth said DWR established a climate change program in 2008 and has since released five updates of its climate plan.

“While there is always more that DWR can do to adapt to a changed climate, DWR has demonstrated leadership in accounting for the effects of climate change,” she said in the letter.

judgment until they see the legislative text of the bill, which was to be released Sunday, giving the representatives the promised 72 hours to read it before voting as early as Wednesday. Negotiators from both parties plan to brief their members on the deal in separate calls later in the day.

“We know anytime we sit and negotiate with two parties, that you got to work with both sides of the aisle. So it’s not 100% of what everybody wants, but when you look the country is going to be stronger,”

McCarthy told reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Sunday morning.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and longtime ally of Biden, struck a pragmatic tone in a telephone interview Sunday.

“The easy part, in my opinion, is getting agreement. The hard part comes, is getting to 218 votes in the House, and 51 votes in the Senate,” Clyburn said. “You got some sniping coming from the extreme right-wing, some concern being expressed on your left flank.”

Arguing for the merits of the deal, McCarthy cited provisions taking back previously approved spending, calling them “the largest rescission in American history.” He also highlighted increased work requirements.

The deal cuts the Internal Revenue Service’s budget by $1.9 billion, the speaker said, less than the $80 billion cut in IRS funding that many GOP lawmakers had sought.

Court

From Page One

will open its court on Dec. 1; the rest of the state has until Oct. 1, 2024.)

Many counties will be playing catch-up with a crisis that has gone unchecked for decades. County supervisors and behavioral health directors describe a neglected system with an unknown number of people who may be eligible for a CARE Court.

The state has estimated that 7,000 to 12,000 people will qualify for a treatment plan. The range is so broad, officials say, in part because the law allows roommates or family members to initiate an assessment of a family member suspected of having a severe mental illness.

Some counties are concerned that they will be overwhelmed by families who have been unable to seek assistance caring for individuals with mental illness by laws that protect their rights and privacy.

They are braced as well for the frustration from families whose requests are denied for not meeting the criteria specified by the law. Those brought into a CARE Court must be 18 or older, diagnosed with “schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders” and not currently being treated.

“We’re just not sure who this law will bring to the door,” said Veronica Kelley, Orange County’s behavioral health director.

Orange County estimates it will receive petitions for about 1,500 people the first year, with about 1,000 of them meeting the court’s criteria. Of those, officials estimate, nearly 300 are expected to agree to a treatment plan without having to be brought into CARE Court, leaving 700 for the court to monitor for at least a year.

One of the smaller counties, Stanislaus, has identified 150 people who will qualify based on frequent emergency room visits. “Beyond that,”

Pelosi

From Page One

prolific politicians.

Pelosi, who at times has been a polarizing figure even within her own party, was an uncontroversial focal point for state Democratic officials wary of weighing in on California’s budding Senate race or fraught questions about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s health.

But underlying the celebrations was a lingering uncertainty about Pelosi’s plans. The 83-year-old, who stepped down from House Democratic leadership this year, has not announced if she intends to seek another term or retire from the seat she has held for nearly four decades.

Democrats have assiduously sidestepped even a hint of speculation about Pelosi’s decision. Still, the subtext was so unavoidable that Gov. Gavin Newsom said he found himself briefly wondering if the weekend-long homage meant he was out of the loop on the speculation about his lifelong friend and political ally.

“[I thought], ‘Am I missing something? Did she announce something that I didn’t know about?’” Newsom said in an interview.

“I haven’t seen any evidence that she’s stepping back or down or slowing down,” he hastened to add. “Obviously, we’re celebrating her speakership. That’s certainly a worthy cause.” Since Pelosi handed the House Democratic leadership to New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries in January, admirers have piled on the accolades. In recent months,

Family members who have loved ones with severe mental illnesses gather at the Capitol in support of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal for CARE Court, an effort to expedite treatment for those with severe conditions.

said county Supervisor Terry Withrow, “it’s anyone’s guess.”

Such estimates are critical for counties needing to hire staff at a time when the state is experiencing a shortage of behavioral health workers. Meeting that need will be harder on rural counties, which have fewer providers capable of working with people suffering from acute mental illness.

“In a small county, it’s not like staffing will grow to meet capacity, especially when it comes to administration and management,” said Joe Hallett, behavioral health director for Glenn County, 60 miles north of Sacramento. “Instead, we just add these new responsibilities to the existing workload.”

Health directors like Hallett are looking to lawmakers in Sacramento for continued advocacy and support. Glenn County will receive nearly $1.4 million in early allocations.

Startup funding for the CARE Act was $57 million. The state budgeted $26 million to be divided among the first group of counties as they work out whatever kinks arise in implementation. Another distribution of $31 million will be shared among all counties in advance of full implementation in 2024.

While Orange County received one of the highest allocations – $7.1 million –Kelley is concerned about lawmakers’ resolve keeping the CARE Act fully funded.

she has received awards from LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality California, the New York Historical Society, the American Hospital Association and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who bestowed her with the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.

Addressing the convention Saturday morning, Pelosi made clear how much she has enjoyed her post-speakership victory lap.

“Do you know what ‘emerita’ means? It means happiness,” she said to an audience waving signs reading “House of Pelosi.” Her speech otherwise contained no hints of her future. Instead, she rallied Democrats in a cavernous Los Angeles Convention Center hall for a strong showing in the 2024 elections and took swipes at Republicans in Congress.

“As we speak, extremist Republicans have pushed America to the brink of unprecedented default on America’s full faith and credit,” Pelosi said, alluding to the efforts to raise the debt limit before a tentative deal was struck Saturday.

She was preceded by a glowing video tribute extolling her as a pioneering politician and superlative House speaker, with paeans from party stalwarts such as former Gov. Jerry Brown and former Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Later that evening, Pelosi was honored at a party-sponsored dinner; the press was barred from attending.

Though Pelosi was immersed in politics from childhood as the daughter of Baltimore Mayor and congressman Thomas D’Alesandro Jr.,

“That’s good for one year,” she said, “but for the ensuing year, we don’t know.”

Funding behavioral health services was one reason Riverside County signed up early, said Jeff Van Wagenen, the county’s chief executive officer, who argues that it has not received support from the state commensurate with its population growth. The first allocation of $6.6 million will help, but what comes after the first year is unknown.

“One of the concerns of CARE Court is that it could be the latest unfunded mandate from the state,” he said.

Reflected in Sacramento’s budget for CARE Court is the presumption that the initial counties will work out kinks in the legislation so that other counties can start up their courts at less expense. This means answering a number of mundane yet critical questions left unaddressed by the law itself.

For instance, who should serve the petition and transport individuals to the court?

While behavioral health departments may seem the logical choice, Bergmann is concerned that it creates a conflict of interest when the agency bringing the person to court represents the interests of the party who petitioned the court. Enlisting law enforcement for this task is equally problematic for encounters on the street that will

her ascent was rooted in the state Democratic Party. Rising through its ranks, she was party chair from 1981 to 1983, four years before she was first elected to Congress.

“She understands the party. She understands what motivates them,” said Bill Carrick, a veteran Democratic operative. “She has a strong feeling for the party structure and the work they do in terms of the grassroots kind of stuff. She’s got a real insight into all of that, and not a lot of elected [officials] do.”

But her relationship with party activists, particularly the left flank, could be rocky at times. She angered advocates for single-payer healthcare when she called for a public healthcare option instead of a more sweeping state program to provide coverage for all residents.

During her speech at the state party convention in 2019, the audience shouted, “Impeach! Impeach!” with regard to Trump, at a time when Pelosi was wary about pursuing such an option. (The House, under her leadership, made history by impeaching the then-president twice.)

The left made a show of force at this weekend’s convention, interrupting Newsom’s speech with chants for “Medicare for All.” But there was little visible push back for Pelosi.

“I think that it has been an evolution for many of us to fully appreciate what she has done,” said David Campos, vice chair of the state Democratic Party and a former leader in San Francisco’s progressive politics.

likely require more trust than authority, he said.

Building that trust is one reason why Orange County is making provisions for its staff to help family members fill out the petitions that the court needs to initiate the intervention.

“We imagine a loved one at wit’s end – agitated, frustrated and tired – for all they have been through getting to this moment,” Kelley said. “So, the court staff has to be ready for that. We’re also trying to get the $433 filing fee waived. That’s a lot of money.”

To help families understand the process, Riverside County is developing an app that will chart individual progress through the CARE system. The county also might conduct remote civil hearings, so that someone living in Blythe, for instance, would not have to go to court in Riverside, 170 miles away.

“All we need is a table, chair and laptop,” Van Wagenen said. “So we could buy a van and convert it into a mobile courtroom. This would avoid the problem of having to store property or board pets for those who are experiencing homelessness.”

Homeless people create a unique dilemma for counties required to hold a case management hearing within two weeks of determining the validity of the applicant’s petition.

“We will need more than 14 days to find the person and to try to get them to agree to treatment,” Kelley said. “What if a person has moved to a different county? We can’t extend all our resources, trying to find them. We’re not investigators.”

Hallett, with Glenn County, has similar concerns. The two-week window is “really, really fast to find someone, do outreach and process a report,” he said. “A month would be more reasonable.”

Yet lawmakers wrote the law with the intention of pressuring counties to act quickly.

He recalled the initial skepticism when Pelosi defeated Harry Britt, a progressive who would have been the first out gay member of Congress from San Francisco.

“In many respects, I think that she has been so much more progressive than anyone thought. She has actually accomplished more progressive outcomes than just about anyone,” Campos said.

The shifting sentiments among some party activists reflect changing opinions from the broader California electorate.

In 2018, a poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies found that large pluralities of California Democrats wanted someone other than Pelosi to lead their party in the House.

In March of this year, the same polling outfit found that Pelosi was the second-most popular politician in the state, behind Newsom. Three-quarters of California Democrats viewed her favorably.

One factor driving her popularity was her emergence as a foil to Trump, barely concealing her distaste for the “previous occasional occupant of the White House,” as she obliquely referred to him Saturday.

“We’re grateful that she led and fought and had those iconic images that made us all feel a little bit more secure in the last couple of years that were really difficult to get through,” said Jodi Hicks, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of California. “People don’t know what she’s doing next, and certainly if it is that she decides to do something different, they don’t want to miss the opportunity of showing gratitude.”

Anita Chabria/Los Angeles Times/TNS

DeSantis

From Page A3

ing to the campaign – they were first briefed by the governor’s top pollster and other staff about their potential path to victory.

The focus was not on peeling away anyone from Trump’s stronghold. Instead, DeSantis’ camp has been strategizing about how best to capture the rest of the voters.

Evangelical voters are a major part of this strategy. DeSantis’ backers believe they will be swayed by his anti-woke crusades against LGBTQ+ inclusive school lessons, as well as his recent signing of a bill banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

On Monday night, DeSantis spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, billed as “the world’s largest gathering of Christian communicators.”

“The people who are in power now do not like people of faith, and so we have to get this government under control,” DeSantis told them.

DeSantis’ team has also touted its 2022 success winning over

Veteran

From Page A3

Los Angeles.

Arrieta worked odd jobs to provide for his family but then in 1965 he decided to become a TV repairman. He took night classes twice a week for a year after his regular workday.

He eventually got a job as a technician at Montgomery Ward and went on to open his own repair shop in Norwalk. He did well and managed to retire at 62.

“I’m so proud to see everything he’s accomplished and what he did for my brothers and sisters, because he always managed to be there,” his son Frank Arrieta said. “He always made sure to come to our baseball games.”

Alfred Arrieta’s family had little when he was

female voters – a bloc Trump lost in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. And DeSantis has historically done well with college-educated Republicans.

“You need to get to 50% plus one of Republican voters, and I think that DeSantis has the ability to gain support from every constituency in the Republican Party,” said lobbyist Justin Sayfie, who was one of the people raising money for DeSantis in Miami. “From the Chamber of

growing up and he credits his father, who died when Arrieta was only 6 years old, for his work ethic and family values.

He said he can still see his father, Aparicio, walking down the road at the end of the day after working at a local railroad company. Arrieta would run to meet him and eat the burrito or whatever was left in his father’s lunchbox, only now realizing that his father had saved the food just for him.

“He would hold my hand and I would be smiling, eating that burrito,” Arrieta said.

Arrieta likes to play old Spanish boleros for his children, the same type of music his mother listened to on the radio when he was a child. She particularly liked the singer Agustin Lara, but Arrieta found the music a bit old-fashioned.

It was only when he got

Commerce types, to the Make America Great Again types, to the anti-woke types to the evangelicals – all those constituencies, Gov. DeSantis can do well with.”

Brad Coker, a longtime Jacksonville-based political pollster, said that DeSantis may be able to build a coalition by winning over staunch conservatives first. If he’s able to outlast the rest of the non-Trump candidates, he’ll be the only alternative available

older and listened to the lyrics that he realized that he just needed time to grow up to appreciate the music.

At 100, Arrieta maintains a growing playlist he listens to on his phone. His favorite song is “Solamente Una Vez” (Only Once) by Lara.

On his front porch, his daughter Gloria ArrietaSherman plays the song from her phone and Arrieta gets a glint in his eye as the lyrics float in the air.

I loved in my life, Only once

And nothing more.

“Every night, I listen to that continuously,” he said.

Arrieta tells another story, then smiles, grateful that someone asked about his life.

“Thank you, because you have awakened my memory,” he tells a visitor. “Good times, bad times. Good old times.”

to moderates. DeSantis’ prospects are better in a one-on-one matchup against Trump, polling suggests, but the Republican field keeps expanding, potentially diluting DeSantis’ support. Last week, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott entered the race, and former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to announce in the coming weeks.

“How does DeSantis get to moderate Republicans? He’s got to get it to be a two-person race,” Coker said. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that’s the principle DeSantis will use to attract people from the quote ‘center’ of the Republican Party.”

DeSantis already seems to be trying to outflank Trump on red-meat issues like abortion. Earlier this month, Trump called the abortion bill DeSantis signed “harsh.” In response, DeSantis noted that such legislation has the support of “99% of pro-lifers.”

And in a dozen media appearances Thursday, DeSantis continued hitting Trump from the right.

“I don’t know what happened to Donald Trump. This is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016,”

he told one interviewer.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., said that DeSantis’ Twitter Spaces campaign launch featured more mentions of “DEI” – an acronym for the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives opposed by DeSantis – than inflation, a sign that his campaign is out of touch with regular voters.

“Where is his base?” she said. “He’s polling closer to (former Arkansas Gov.) Asa Hutchinson than Donald Trump at this point in the race, so he has no base.”

Patrick Ruffini, a Republican pollster, wrote in an analysis earlier this month that DeSantis is most likely to appeal to the bloc of Republican voters most concerned about wokeness. These voters view political correctness as a plague on schools and corporations and support candidates who want to fight against it. They’re more likely to be younger, college-educated and nonwhite than other factions of the party, Ruffini wrote.

They’re also more likely to use Twitter – where DeSantis rolled out his presidential campaign.

Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will need to walk a numerical tightrope. Former President Donald Trump leads DeSantis by an average of more than 30 points in national polls, according to RealClearPolitics.

Bobby Kersee is still a ‘mad scientist’ to track stars B7

Giants head home after excellent road trip

evan WebeCk THE MERCURY NEWS

MILWAUKEE — The midwest weather was beautiful this week. But when it rained, it seemed to pour.

The Giants failed to complete a four-game sweep of the Brewers, losing 7-5, after falling in too deep of an early hole for the second time this trip. All of their other five contests however ended in wins, and the Giants (27-26) boarded their

charter flight back home Sunday afternoon with a pair of series victories and a winning record in their back pocket.

All in all, the loss Sunday was only their third in their past 13 games, and their 5-2 record in the seven-game swing against the two Central division leaders amounted to their best mark on a road trip this season. With three games to play this month, the Giants are 16-10 in May, and despite Sunday’s result, appear to have

turned a corner.

“I thought it was a really good road trip,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I was particularly impressed by the way we got down in this game and battled back all the way to the last pitch. It never felt like we were out of the game.”

It’s all in the pitching

Alex Cobb was tagged for seven runs – all in the first two innings – and snapped a couple streaks in the process.

It was the first time all season that Cobb, the Giants’ most effective starter so far, had allowed more than three runs in an outing, raising his ERA to 3.05.

It was also the first time in 14 games that the Giants allowed their opponent to score more than four runs, snapping a streak that was the longest in the majors this season and the longest by a San Francisco pitching staff since 2016 (May 6-19). Over the 13-game stretch entering

Celtics excited to host ‘electric’ Game 7 with history on the line

steve heWitt

BOSTON HERALD

MIAMI — It’s coming back to Boston.

Somehow, some way, after Derrick White’s buzzer-beating tip-in won an epic Game 6, the Celtics have responded to a 3-0 series deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals to force a Game 7 on Monday night at TD Garden, where history can be made. No team in NBA history has won a best-of-seven series from a 3-0 hole. One-hundred fifty teams have failed. The Celtics are only the fourth to force a Game 7. Not only can they become the first,

they would advance to the NBA Finals for the second consecutive season in doing so.

Monday night – on Memorial Day, no less – at the Garden promises to be one of the craziest home environments the Celtics have experienced in recent memory.

“I’ve never been so excited to go back to Boston in my life, and I cannot wait to see all the fans on Monday because it’s going to be fun,” Jayson Tatum said.

The Celtics have been unable to avoid the comparisons to the 2004 Red Sox, who became the first team in baseball history to overcome the same deficit

in the ALCS against the Yankees. It started before they even won a game in this series. But the comparisons, as forced as they seemed, are real now. Could there be a 2004 reunion at the Garden on Monday?

Johnny Damon, a member of the 2004 Red Sox team, was at Game 6 in Miami and tweeted after the Celtics’ win, “Might need to fly up to Boston.” David Ortiz has been a staple at Celtics’ playoff games, and Al Horford – a friend of Ortiz’s – was asked if he’s give him a call to be there on Monday.

“That’d be great,” Horford said. “You know at this point, this

Sunday, Giants pitchers posted a 2.27 ERA while holding opposing batters below the Mendoza line (.197 average).

The biggest improvements have come in the bullpen, which led the majors in most statistical categories over the past 11 games entering Sunday. The Giants used bullpen games twice on this road trip and won both of them. After ranking as the third-worst group in the majors by ERA in March and April, the 2.75 ERA

by Giants relievers this month ranks second-best in the majors.

Stars step up

When the Giants embarked on this road trip, Michael Conforto was batting .210 with a .715 OPS. Mitch Haniger’s average was a point higher, .211, but with no power to pair with it for a .557 OPS. The Giants had gotten little production from their two biggest free-agent

Astros tee off on Oakland pitching in record fashion

Curtis Pashelka BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

OAKLAND — A small positive for Oakland

Yordan Álvarez hitting two, and José Abreu and Jeremy Peñaeach connecting on one.

is special for Boston and Boston sports. … “I can’t wait. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be electric from before, throughout, after. So I’m just really excited to have that opportunity.”

The Celtics fan base was well-represented in Miami. There were noticeably more C’s fans in the building for Game 6 and than Games 3 and 4, and they made their presence known throughout the night. There were several loud “Let’s go Celtics!” chants during the fourth quarter. After the win, a large crowd of Celtics fans made their

49ers’ Patrick Willis adds another honor on potential path to Canton

SAN FRANCISCO —

Mike Singletary’s passionate speech came to an impactful pause while he described Patrick Willis, a former star 49ers linebacker Singletary helped groom.

Willis was taking a rightful spot amid Thursday night’s Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame enshrinement, and Singletary’s thoughts drifted toward the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

“I thought for sure he’d be in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame this year. There’s no reason why … I

won’t even go there,” Singletary said with a sigh to the audience of nearly 1,000 at a downtown San Francisco hotel.

Asked during the ceremony to expand on that, Singletary succinctly answered that Willis should have been

a first-ballot entrant to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, five years after Willis’ award-laden 49ers career ended due to toe injuries. Willis, 38, has been stuck in Canton’s finalist queue the past two years, and with fellow linebacker Zach Thomas breaking through in this year’s class, perhaps that opens a door for Willis in 2024. Willis takes solace in knowing he did all he could in 7 ½ NFL seasons. He started with NFL Rookie of the Year honors in 2007, earned seven straight Pro Bowl nods and six All-Pro selections, then was limited to

A’s right-hander Luis Medina as he continues to gain experience at the Major League level is that he’s only allowed 28 hits through his first 27 2/3 innings pitched. The bad news for the 24-year-old Medina is that 10 of those hits have been home runs, including the three he gave up Sunday in the A’s 10-1 loss to the Houston Astros before an announced crowd of 8,809 at the Coliseum. Medina allowed home runs to Jake Meyers, Chas McCormick, and Jose Altuve as the Astros swept the three-game series and handed the A’s their 11th straight loss, their longest losing streak in close to three decades. Meyers’ homer was a three-run shot in the fourth inning, and McCormick and Altuve hit back-to-back solo shots in the top of the seventh.

The A’s allowed an Oakland record seven home runs in all, with

Abreu took Sam Long deep in the eighth inning for his first homer of the season. Abreu then sprinted around the bases even after the ball cleared the left field wall, and raced and slid before he arrived at the Houston dugout. It was one of the finishing touches to another loss for Oakland, which hadn’t lost more than 10 in a row since a 12-game losing streak from Sept. 22, 1995, to April 4, 1996.

Ken Waldichuk started Sunday as the A’s began the game with an opener for the second straight day, with similar results.

The A’s got that run back in the bottom of the first as Ryan Noda, in the leadoff post, hit a solo home run to right off Astros starter Cristian Javier. Noda later doubled in the third inning. But the A’s couldn’t slow down the Astros, as Meyers hit a three-run blast to left in the fourth.

Coca-Cola 600 gets postponed after rainy

Forget building an engine. On Sunday, the race teams at Charlotte Motor Speedway would have been better served building an ark.

The Coca-Cola 600 was ultimately postponed until Monday afternoon, when it’s supposed to start at Noon (PDT), weather permitting.

The weather certainly didn’t permit it Sunday, on a day so rainy that the speedway could have handed out snorkels. Supposed to start at 6 p.m. Sunday, the race was instead postponed at 6:30 p.m.

The only racing we saw Sunday was the Indy 500, telecast on the big screen inside the CMS infield. The Coca-Cola 600 – already NASCAR’s

day

longest Cup race – will now make everyone wait a little longer. The Xfinity Series race will be the undercard Monday, starting at 11 a.m. Gates open at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 9 a.m. Monday. Fans with tickets to the original races this weekend will also have those tickets honored Monday. The Cup race will be telecast on FOX and the Xfinity Series race on FS1.

On Sunday, race fans huddled under their tents or in their cars or, if they braved the weather to walk around, wore hoodies and jeans and carried umbrellas. It felt like a cool and wet day in late November, with the temperature hovering around 58 degrees.

The Doobie Brothers were supposed to

Monday, May 29, 2023

SECTION B Matt Miller . Sports Editor . 707.427.6995

sCott FoWler THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER CONCORD, N.C. —

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images/TNS

Jayson Tatum (0) of the Boston Celtics reacts against the Miami Heat during the fourth quarter in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals at Kaseya Center in Miami, Saturday night.

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group Former San Francisco 49ers player Patrick Willis smiles during media interviews before the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame ceremony in San Francisco, Thursday.

See Giants, Page B8

See Willis, Page B8

See Celtics, Page B8

See NASCAR, Page B8

Columns&Games

My daughter deserves better than her unfaithful husband

Dear Annie: My daughter has two wonderful little boys, ages 2 and 1, with a man who has proven time and time again to be unfaithful. My daughter is 24 and dated “Marcus” in high school. He seemed like a nice enough young man. He went off to college and ended up losing his scholarship due to drinking.

Marcus moved back home and met an older woman who he cheated on with my daughter, resulting in the oldest of our grandsons. Shortly thereafter, he physically beat this woman while intoxicated, resulting in him getting probation for assault. I told my daughter at the time that his cheating and physical abuse with her was a sign of things to come.

Over the past three-plus years, he has cheated on my daughter at least a dozen times; fortunately, physical abuse has not happened – yet. He has borrowed thousands of dollars that he says he will pay back, but the debt only grows. He is

a compulsive liar, and after his last bout of being caught, I thought they finally were done.

At least that is what my daughter said, yet here we are, six days later, and she has let him move back in. They were renting a house, and she had moved out last week. She brought many items to our house. I told her that she and the boys could stay free of charge as long as they needed.

We have two bedrooms upstairs that she and the boys could have. They are fully furnished. I took the boys to day care all week at 6:30 a.m. because she needed to be at work by 6 a.m. She spoke to her supervisor, and they agreed to let her come in later so that her child care was not disrupted.

Then she abruptly decided she was going to stay at the house they rented but Marcus was going to live with his mom.

Today, Marcus has moved back in. My daughter brought this up to my wife today, and I told her I do not want to hear it. I am tired of the same situation playing out over and over

Horoscopes

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

You can’t undo yesterday’s loss, but tomorrow is still yours to win. Practice and strategize. The better your plan, and the more able you are to execute it, the likelier you’ll be to achieve your aim.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20).

Focusing on too many things at once hinders progress and squashes momentum. If you could only choose one subject, which interests you the most? Which is most worthy of your devotion? Which will love you back?

GEMINI (May 21-June 21).

You have an advantage that you don’t press. Perhaps this is out of compassion, maturity or strategy. Whatever your reason, there’s brilliance in wielding just enough power to get what you want and no more.

CANCER (June 22-July 22).

It can feel like your specific skill set is unrelatable to others. You may wonder if your special interest matters to anyone outside the niche. But if you share and inform, you’ll pique curiosities.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22).

You love to give and care for others and are always looking for ways to acknowledge those around you and make them feel special and important. You’ll encounter someone who is in need of your warmth and positive energy.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).

Pride can be defined as selfesteem that arises from one’s achievements and personal qualities. Alternatively, pride can be viewed as the danger-

Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

Just being has its own magic this year, which goes beyond the world of illusion and tricks – a feeling of awe based on nothing more than existence. Because you know and live this, the many wonders that happen are icing on the cake. A domestic upgrade is coming.

You’ll also enjoy a bonus, a cross-country excursion and new friendships. Libra and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 3, 2, 22, 31 and 19.

ous state of mind leading to an arrogant sense of superiority. You’ll see both sides of the emotion today.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

There’s something standing between you and what you want. It’s small, but a barrier, nonetheless. Small things can pack big fear inside them, but it’s fear that can be overcome with a different mindset. This is attainable.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

Difficult tasks await. Expect to be bad at them at first, but you’ll get better. Difficulty is a signal to break things down further to understand them or lessen the weight of them. Figure out how small it has to be to carry it with ease.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). You’ll get stuck on a particular task, but don’t fret. This is an opportunity. You

again. She can be with Marcus, but I am done with him.

Annie, our daughter has a college degree, a good job and is a beautiful young woman; most importantly, she is a wonderful mother. She has wasted nearly four years of her life hoping Marcus would change. It is the exact same broken promises over and over again. Any ideas on how to break this cycle? Marcus grew up watching his father cheat, and now I am afraid my two grandsons are going to turn out the same way. — Frustrated Papa

Dear Papa: You are a very wise father and grandfather. The most vulnerable victims are your grandchildren, so sit down with your daughter and explain to her that if she allows Marcus to stay, she is putting her children at risk. If she can’t leave him for herself, maybe she can do it for the children. If Marcus ever beats her, as he did one of his girlfriends, she needs to call her local domestic violence hotline or find a YWCA.

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

either need more information or you need to take a break. You’ll come back with better ideas, renewed focus and the energy you need to finish.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). Knowing that people fear what they don’t understand, you strive for clarity in all communication. You make it easy for people to find you and learn about what you do, which is excellent for business and relationships of all kinds.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18). Your top priority is to give kindness to others. There are two ways to achieve it: You can be nice to whomever you’re with, or you can make sure to be with people who are extremely easy to be nice to.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). It might be impossible to protect one’s own innocence, as just knowing that there’s something more to know puts a crack in the protection. You can still protect another person’s innocence, though, and you’ll go above and beyond to do so.

CELEBRITY PROFILES:

Bob Hope was born on this day in 1903. The comedy legend popularized stand-up comedy and helped shape the art form to what it is today. He was also the first entertainer to travel with United Service Organizations to bring laughter to soldiers in wartime. Gemini is a sign of communication and trendsetting. Hope was born when Saturn was in Aquarius, the sign of altruism.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

Crossword by Phillip Alder

Bridge

They had an almost uncanny knack for avoiding misunderstandings. Their card-play wasn’t bad either. Bob declared today’s deal many moons ago. The auction is typical of the point-and-shoot style used before bidding became “scientific.” East’s takeout double with only two spades was dangerous. (Today, most experts would overcall one heart.) South could have started with a redouble. Also, one wonders why West didn’t sacrifice in four spades at the prevailing vulnerability. (Note that it would have cost only 500, less than the vulnerable game available to North-South.)

TWO OF YOU BID, BUT ONLY ONE DECLARES

Do you have a particularly close rapport with someone? Do the two of you always know what the other is thinking? Can you have conversations without saying anything?

In my experience, twins are particular adept at this. Surely the best bidding twins of all time were Englishmen Bob and Jim Sharples.

West led the spade jack, covered by East’s queen and South’s ace. Declarer played a diamond to dummy’s jack and East’s ace. Back came the heart king. Sharples paused to take stock. He needed to bring in the clubs. Finessing through West is normal. However, from East’s unblock of the spade queen at trick one, he must have begun with only two spades. To compensate for the spade shortage, East had to have full high-card values. So South placed the club queen with him. After winning with dummy’s heart ace, declarer called for the club jack. East played low, but Sharples played low also. The successful backward finesse raked in five club tricks and the contract (with one or two overtricks –the report doesn’t specify).

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne Gould

5/29/23

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

BRONZE

Difficulty level:

Solution to 5/27/23:

by

Word Sleuth

Daily Cryptoquotes

Annie Lane

Dear Annie

How California, Florida both use schools to fight the culture wars

Gov. Gavin Newsom is a self-appointed crusader against the social and educational policies of red states, particularly Florida, describing their governors as repressive authoritarians. Just a few days ago, for instance, Newsom sent a letter to textbook publishers, demanding to know whether they are obeying Florida’s command to remove passages about race and other historical subjects from books. Implicitly, Newsom threatens publishers that catering to Florida risks being frozen out of California.

Dan Walters

“California will not be complicit in Florida’s attempt to whitewash history through laws and backroom deals; parents have a right to know what’s happening in the dark to undermine our children’s education – and California deserves to know whether any of these companies designing textbooks for our state’s classrooms are the same ones kowtowing to Florida’s extremist agenda,” Newsom wrote.

Last month, Newsom paid a visit to the New College of Florida and sharply criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ effort to curb the college’s progressive culture.

DeSantis appointed a conservative majority to the college’s board of trustees, replaced its president with an ally and abolished its office devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion programs as part of a larger effort to reshape public education in what DeSantis calls the “Free State of Florida.”

“I can’t believe what you’re dealing with. It’s just an unbelievable assault,” Newsom told New College students and faculty members. “It’s common with everything he’s doing, bullying and intimidating vulnerable communities. Weakness, Ron DeSantis, weakness masquerading as strength across the board.”

DeSantis wants to shield Florida’s students from influences he deems subversive and position himself as a cultural warrior on the right as he runs for president.

The flip side, however, is what’s happening in Newsomland – making the cultural hallmarks DeSantis wants to repress more or less mandatory in California’s schools and colleges.

While DeSantis abolishes the New College’s diversity, equity and inclusion office, the University of California requires faculty to write “diversity statements” that embrace those goals.

For years, UC faculty members have debated whether the requirement interferes with academic freedom, with critics likening it to the “loyalty oaths” once used to weed out those with left-of-center leanings. They were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court.

Afterwards, UC adopted a policy that “No political test shall ever be considered in the appointment and promotion of any faculty member or employee,” and critics say UC’s diversity statement requirement violates that policy.

This month, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of psychologist John Haltigan, alleging that the mandatory statement violates his free speech rights and blocked him from a faculty position at UC Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, California’s K-12 schools are now required to provide ethnic studies and its model curriculum is permeated with the social theory that Florida wants to ban – essentially that nonwhite Americans are subjected to continuing racism and repression by whites.

The model sees students learning to “critique empire building in history and its relationship to white supremacy, racism, and other forms of power and oppression.”

Early model versions were more assertively leftist, but Jewish groups balked at their characterization of Zionism as repression and the wording was toned down before adoption in 2021.

The changes angered some members of the team that wrote the initial draft, and they have offered to consult with school systems that want to comply with the ethnic studies mandate. However, that’s sparked a backlash from The Deborah Project, a Jewish public interest law firm devoted to fighting antisemitism.

The organization has sued several California school districts, alleging that their ethnic studies programs are using anti-Zionist materials from the original curriculum.

Florida and California – both using education to inculcate ideological credos.

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

On this Memorial Day, take a moment to remember service and sacrifice

Idon’t know where I will find myself on Monday when “Taps” is played at the National Memorial Day program at Arlington National Cemetery. But count on this: I won’t be partying it up at a backyard barbecue bash or dashing from store to store in a shopping mall catching doorbuster sales.

I also can’t say whether I will devote an hour or minutes to remembering the fallen. But I know with certainty that some time will be spent giving thanks for the men and women who shed their blood and sacrificed their lives in service to the United States. They were brothers and sisters in a military uniform that I proudly shared as a commissioned officer in the Army.

At his dedication of the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke of the sacrifice of the fallen troops as having given “the last full measure of devotion” to the nation. Generations have given their all. A few of them were college classmates and fellow ROTC graduates who returned home from Vietnam in flag-draped coffins. There will be no picnics for any of them. They won’t be joining any trips to the mall. Or family get-togethers. They, and the more than 65,000 U.S. service members who were killed in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, will never know what it’s like to get a day

off the job, to gas up the car and hit the road.

And regrettably, many of them will be simply forgotten. But we can’t let it go with that.

What then am I asking?

Take a pass on holiday sales? Close the grill? Spend Monday wearing sackcloth and ashes as an outward, ostentatious sign of mourning? Perish those thoughts. But to reduce Memorial Day to just a grand occasion to kick off the summer is disrespectful of those who gave all they had.

Besides, Memorial Day has a special resonance for this D.C. native. We still don’t have what we have rightly earned as citizens: full and equal representation in Congress or full authority to govern ourselves. Yet the service and sacrifice of D.C. residents in the protection of the country, which should be a source of national tribute, is not even afforded an afterthought.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), however, has detailed the costs borne by the district in a resolution introduced in advance of Memorial Day recognizing D.C.’s service members and veterans.

Most Americans, I dare say, do not know the facts in Norton’s resolution:

n 635 D.C. residents were casualties of World War I, a figure greater than that observed by three states

during that war.

n The casualty figure of 3,575 D.C. residents lost in World War II was greater than that sustained by four states.

n The 547 D.C. residents who were Korean War casualties were greater than that observed by eight different states.

n 243 District residents were casualties of the Vietnam War, a casualty figure greater than that observed by 10 states.

We D.C. residents have more than paid our dues, but we have done so, as Norton says, “without the equal protections of American democracy.”

So yes, I’m going to carve out a stretch of time on Monday to honor the men and women who have paid the ultimate price. But mockers of Memorial Day observances, let not your hearts be troubled. I am a realist. Memorial Day has been successfully, and probably irrevocably, appropriated by many for pleasure and profit. So, all I’m asking is that you take a moment – one moment out of the day to remember – to commemorate the service and sacrifice. Those of us in the autumn of our years will appreciate that simple act of yours. So too will the families and friends of the fallen.

Colbert I. “Colby” King writes a column – sometimes about D.C., sometimes about politics. In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

The ebb, flow of American generations

We have named our generations from World War II’s Greatest Generation (1900-1924) onward. Much has been written about the Greatest Generation and rightly so. Much, too, has been written about Baby Boomers (1946-1964) but for different reasons.

Jim McCully

If each generation’s actions moving forward creates a legacy inspiring the next to dream more, learn more, do more and become more than the one before, hurrah, each generation is leading humanity forward. Is it a smooth road? No, of course not, nor should it be as nothing worthwhile comes easy.

For instance, Baby Boomers and Millennials (1980-1994) are often misunderstood, mislabeled and misinterpreted, according to academic research. This is a wide difference between these two important but very different life views. For example, we’ve all heard the jokes about the boomers not understanding the modern world and how it operates.

The truth is boomers are actually a very relevant and transformative generation as they were integral to and responsible for many technological advances in the past 50 years. They have largely been adaptable to change in our technological age as they caused it to happen.

According to the 2020 Census, Millennials and boomers combined are the two largest of the generations coexisting today. Often older folks tend to label anyone younger than

a Millennial as a pejorative term because often they do not understand nor appreciate the values and behaviors of older people. Older folks believe, for example, a successful civilization needs basic good manners, order, discipline and self- sacrifice. Many mistakenly believe Millennials are in their early 20s when they are really between 28 and 43.

Generation X (1965-1979) is a highly relevant group, too, as they serve as a kind of human “modem” or bridge from older populations to younger ones. They were there at the birth of the internet, video games, artificial intelligence and are a group who has also created many advances.

The group I find most interesting is the one labeled Generation Z (1995-2012), as this timeline encompasses the births of Baby Boomer grandchildren. This is the first group who from birth were totally immersed in social media. They were the first ones to cope with cyberbullying, terrorism, identity theft, the seemingly endless news, opinion, and entertainment cycles, increasing school violence, real or imagined climate issues and never-ending political propaganda masquerading as truth. They are the largest single generation on Earth (30% or 2 billion people) ranging between 10 and 28. They will be 27% of the workforce by 2025. A 2021 Florida International University study discovered their attention span was 8 seconds, four less than

Millennials. They process information faster.

A 2021 Meredith/Harris poll portrays them as hammer-and-sickle socialists with declining belief and confidence in capitalism, liberal on abortion and marijuana legalization, yet conservative on some issues and distinctly less “woke” than commonly depicted. They dislike both political parties but like the Democrat position on abortion. A March 2023 survey say 83% are concerned with the “health of the planet” with climate change topping the list.

The last coexisting group is labeled Generation Alpha, born entirely in the 21st century (20132025), record numbers will see the 22nd century, too. They are the most technologically adept as they are logged on and linked up; indeed, they are “digital natives,” a group of humanity born to parents who grew up with cellphones, tablets and other social media devises only dreamed of heretofore in TV programs and movies like “Star Trek” and “Star Wars.” This group is also more demographically inclined toward racial diversity and what was once called “mixed marriages,” which might lead us back to the one humanity we all came from 200,000 years ago. Interesting times we live in folks.

Jim McCully is a former chairman of the Solano County Republican Central Committee and former regional vice chairman of the California Republican Party.

Colbert I. King

B4 Monday, May 29, 2023 — DAILY REPUBLIC

Crossword

Disney

‘The Little Mermaid:’ An Ariel for a new generation

A nn HornAdAy THE WASHINGTON POST

A

This outing, which stars the incandescent Halle Bailey in the title role, would never qualify as a disaster, although at a padded-out two-hoursplus, it occasionally feels like an unnecessarily heavy lift. Director Rob Marshall knows his way around a spectacle, but it bears recalling that even his “best” film, the 2002 musical “Chicago,” is a choppy, over-edited mess. Here, his judgment is similarly uneven: Enlisting Bailey as the adventurous, headstrong mermaid Ariel was his most controversial decision, but also a stroke of pure inspiration; other casting choices, however, don’t work nearly as well. If you need a few new songs to play well with the work of the great Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who wouldn’t give Lin-Manuel Miranda the gig? Here, the gambit mostly works, except when it decidedly doesn’t.

And so it goes with an onthe-other-fin mixed bag of a movie that honors its source material with a big, color-saturated production, while never precisely proving that it ever needed to exist.

Perhaps, though, introduc-

Here’s

dmirers of the beloved 1989 animated classic “The Little Mermaid” are justified to approach the new live-action adaptation with trepidation. As Disney has systematically raided its archive for intellectual property to repurpose (and, more to the point, remonetize), the results have been wildly uneven: For every better-thanexpected “Jungle Book” and “Cinderella,” audiences have been subjected to far more misfires on the order of “Aladdin.”‘The Little Mermaid

Rated PG

130 minutes

HHH (OUT OF FOUR)

ing Bailey to a mass audience is reason enough. After a preamble in which we meet Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), a dimpled sailor who also happens to be a prince, “The Little Mermaid” introduces us to Ariel’s watery home, where she lives with her sisters under the oppressive eye of her father, King Triton, portrayed by a virtually unrecognizable Javier Bardem. As the movie gets underway in earnest, so do the original’s best production numbers: “Under the Sea,” performed by Sebastian the crab (delightfully voiced by Daveed Diggs), as well as the classic what-thegirl-wants song “Part of Your World.” It’s here that “The Little Mermaid” reveals the truth: This isn’t a live-action film as much as a CGI extravaganza featuring sentient human beings manipulated to look weirdly two-dimensional even when they’re not.

In Bardem’s case, the results are forbiddingly cold and inert, and Awkwafina wears out her welcome quickly in a screechy, strident vocal turn as Scuttle the seagull. (Her big number, a rapid-fire rap song co-written by Miranda, is sure to divide audiences.) Although Hauer-King has the film’s most thankless role as the blandly handsome Prince Eric, he sells the character’s new power ballad in his what-the-boywants scene. Melissa McCarthy similarly makes the most of her scene-stealing turn as Ursula

the evil sea witch, belting out her big number (“Poor Unfortunate Souls”) with gusto, flawless comic timing, and fabulous hair and makeup.

The basics are all accounted for in “The Little Mermaid,” which Marshall sets on a 19thcentury Caribbean island ruled by Eric’s mother, Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni) –who adopted her White son as an orphan. If this newly inclusive adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fable is gracefully addressed by its tropical, cosmopolitan setting, the story’s sexual politics aren’t fixed quite so easily: The plot still revolves around Ariel losing her voice to find the love of her life – while not losing the approval of her pathologically controlling father.

Still, for viewers who can overlook those anachronisms, this “Little Mermaid” yields its own rewards, by way of a sumptuous production design and lively, expertly choreographed set pieces; Ariel’s enchanting undersea forest often rivals “Avatar” for sheer color and beguiling imagery.

Most dazzling, though, is Ariel herself, portrayed by Bailey with such sparkle and such exquisite vocal artistry that it’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. Bailey nails the iconic moments (that head toss) and the high notes, but also her character’s combination of spunk and innocence. She delivers a lovely performance that’s all the more accomplished for being delivered amid crashing waves, sweeping vistas and the crushing expectations of generations of fans. As a new generation’s Ariel, she makes “The Little Mermaid” her own –with confidence, charisma and oceans of charm.

Word Sleuth

Bridge

by Phillip Alder

ing, but it is actually heading off a cliff. You must turn down a track that at first glance seems unpromising but leads to safety in the end.

Today’s deal occurred during the 1957 American Masters Individual. In an individual, you swap not only opponents but also partners. This championship was contested from 1931 to 1960 but then fell out of favor.

East’s bid of two spades was a tactical gambit of dubious merit. Against three no-trump, West led the spade eight, declarer winning with his jack. South saw that he had to get the club suit going, but even if the missing clubs were splitting 3-3, probably the defenders would attack hearts after he lost the inevitable trick. What was the heart position? West surely had six for his three-heart bid, and as he hadn’t led a top heart, it looked as though East held a singleton honor, presumably the king. At trick two, South led a low heart from his hand!

COME ON BABY, DRIVE MY CAR

When you play bridge, sometimes it feels like driving a car. Usually you head down the main highway, taking the same road as the rest of the world. You know you are going in the right direction. However, on other deals, taking the same route as everyone else leads to disaster. Superficially, the trail looks promis-

Sitting West, you or I would have executed a crocodile coup, winning with the ace to swallow partner’s king and defeating the contract by two tricks. However, West played the “obvious” queen. Now declarer could lose a club trick to East and end with 10 tricks. Who found this great play? Maybe no one – the reporter (West) left the dramatis personae unnamed.

COPYRIGHT: 2023, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

Sudoku by Wayne Gould

© 2023 Janric Enterprises Dist. by creators.com

5/30/23 COME ON BABY, DRIVE MY CAR

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

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

When you play bridge, sometimes it feels like driving a car. Usually you head down the main highway, taking the same road as the rest of the world. You know you are going in the right direction. However, on other

Difficulty level: SILVER

Yesterday’s solution:

Jonah Hauer-King, left, and Halle Bailey in “The Little Mermaid.”

MOVIE Review

Spider-Man crosses universes in his latest film

SuSan Hiland SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Order some popcorn for another fun weekend at the movies.

Showing at local theaters is a return to a long-standing favorite film, Spider-Man, this time in animation. He crosses the Multiverse, encountering Spider-People fighting a new enemy.

Also showing on the big screen is a horror movie about a family facing off against an evil entity while battling through the grief of losing of their mother.

Opening nationwide are:

“The Boogeyman,” in which Sadie Harper and her younger sister Sawyer are reeling from the recent death of their mother and aren’t getting much support from their father. The father is also a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at their home seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims. The film is rated PG-13.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse,” in which Miles Morales, the Brooklyn-native Spider-Man crosses the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of SpiderPeople to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered. The film is rated PG.

Opening in limited release are:

“Concerned Citizen,” in which a socially progressive man’s attempts to improve his Tel Aviv neighborhood goes unexpectedly awry. It’s a satirical parable about the insidious ways in which privilege can unleash prejudice within.

The film is not rated.

“Follow Her,” in which Jess (Dani Barker) has finally found her hook: secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she’s been hired by Tom (Luke Cook) to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote, lavish cabin. This client isn’t what he seems, and even though the money’s great, the real payment here could cost her life. The film is not rated.

“Padre Pio,” a film set at the end of World War I in which the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, with a tradition of violence and submission to the iron-clad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate, the men are broken, albeit victorious. Padre Pio also arrives, at a remote Capuchin monastery, to begin his ministry, evoking an aura of charisma, saintliness and epic visions of Jesus, Mary and the Devil himself. The eve of the first free elections in Italy sets the stage for a massacre with a metaphorical dimension: an apocalyptic event that changes the course of history. The film is not rated.

For information on Edwards Cinemas in Fairfield, visit www.reg movies.com/theatres/ regal-edwards-fairfieldimax. For Vacaville showtimes, visit www. brendentheatres.com. For Vallejo showtimes, check www.cinemark. com/theatres/ca-vallejo. More information about upcoming films is available at www.movie insider.com.

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Candorville Darrin Bell

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú and Carlos Castellanos

Kersee is track’s ‘mad scientist,’ influential as ever

A ndrew Greif

LOS ANGELES TIMES

LOS ANGELES — Four years ago, the man associated with speed more than any track and field coach in the world felt himself slowing down, and he did not know why.

Since he was born in Panama in 1954 to a Panamanian mother and U.S. Navy father, Bobby Kersee has always been restless, a self-described wanderer with energy that matched his athletes. But in 2019, feeling unusually sapped, he called his doctor in St. Louis. Blood tests produced results dangerously far beyond the norm. Pancreatitis kept him stuck in a hospital for four weeks.

Once discharged, Kersee gave up red meat and alcohol.

What he would not quit was track.

Forty years after coaching his first world champion Kersee, now 69, paced relentlessly for four hours on Thursday while watching his training group at West Los Angeles College.

“Everyone kind of says the same thing: You know, he’s different in terms of he’s basically a mad scientist,” said Athing Mu, the 20-year-old reigning Olympic and world champion at 800 meters who switched to Kersee’s coaching in September to expand her range. “He knows what he’s doing.”

Under cloudy skies at the track high above Culver City, nine athletes in his training group, dubbed Formula Kersee, ran tailored workouts and waited for his every word, from the barked “let’s go!” to commands about mechanics he hollered to athletes mid-run. He lifted hurdles, held court with reporters and stopped only to film block starts with his iPhone.

At an age when he might have become anachronis-

tic, Kersee and his methods still represent sprinting’s gold standard, associates and athletes say. Invigorated by a training group that describes itself as a family and could be dominant into the next decade behind headliners Mu and 23-year-old 400-meter hurdles world champion and world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Kersee said his career has no discernible finish line.

His coaching, primarily of sprinters and hurdlers, has brought his athletes at least one gold medal in 10 consecutive Summer Olympics, a litany of world championships and world records and, for Kersee, veneration, criticism and influence.

As the first professional meet held at UCLA’s Drake Stadium since 1990, and a key early tentpole in USA Track & Field’s attempted plan to grow its U.S. fan base before the 2028 L.A. Olympics, this weekend’s Los Angeles Grand Prix is both a callback to a time when track’s popularity soared and, its organizers hope, a harbinger such times can return.

Outside of Sebastian Coe, the 1984 Olympic gold

medalist in the 1,500 who has since ascended to lead track’s global governing body, World Athletics, few figures have spanned both eras as prominently as Kersee.

Athletes and associates credit his ability to turn seemingly outlandish goals and times into tangible results to an ability to know what they need. Malachi Davis, who has overseen McLaughlinLevrone’s training since she turned professional, likened Kersee to a conductor, his whistle and yellow stopwatch replacing a baton to direct “a beautiful dance of confidence and knowledge.”

Many coaches can teach how to run fast and build a race plan, McLaughlinLevrone said, but Kersee understands “how to break it down piece by piece.”

Robert Forster, a Santa Monica-based physical therapist who has worked with Kersee’s athletes since 1983, said Kersee understands the “workrest ratio” better than any coach, and does not overtrain where other coaches might double down on mileage. Forster has seen Kersee send an athlete home to rest just from

the look on their face, and likes to tell a story about the 2016 Olympics, that Kersee later confirmed.

Allyson Felix, the Los Angeles native who under Kersee became the most decorated athlete in track’s history, was nursing a severely sprained ankle and the physical therapist told Kersee it needed to be iced 20 minutes every hour. Forster did not expect, however, that Kersee would stay up the entire next night icing the ankle as Felix slept.

Kersee was an early adopter of technology, upgrading his video cameras at a Westwood electronics store years before he could film block starts of sprinters Jenna Prandini and Morolake Akinosun on his iPhone and zip the footage to an iPad on the infield of the West L.A. track.

Yet the Kersee mystique has endured as much because of his grasp on psychology as biomechanics — feeling for when to push and when to pull back.

Brandon Miller, a top 800-meter hopeful who began working with Kersee in September, has heard other athletes describe

Kersee as “crazy.” He disputes that characterization, but noted that Kersee knows to stoke his competitiveness entering a workout’s final repetition with four words: “OK, what you got?”

“I’ve never met any coach like him,” Mu said. “He’s not going to make you do anything that’s for his sake. You know, it’s gonna be all for you and the benefit of you and your career. And so, I come in here, I knew that he was very intentional, and that’s something I needed, especially if I want my career to be long.”

Raised by a grandmother as an “A-train baby” bouncing between the Bronx and Queens, Kersee lost his mother, Daphne, when he was 14, before moving to San Pedro for high school.

He put himself through college at Long Beach State by working at a youth correctional facility in Whittier, where Kersee watched wards from midnight until 8 a.m. After graduating, he had two jobs: Track coach at Cal State Northridge, and counselor at another youth facility in Chino. He took over UCLA’s track and field program in 1980 and that provided enough money to be comfortable. Coaching Greg Foster to his first world championship in 1983, and watching his athletes win six golds and four silvers at the Los Angeles Olympics one year later, provided the final confidence he could sustain coaching as a career.

But he did not leave behind the edge required to do his former jobs.

“I used to work in the prisons, so you can’t walk into the prisons being Mother Teresa,” he said. “And then I did find myself carrying a little bit too much of that to the track. I had to calm myself down and say, ‘Wait a minute,

you’re not working with a warden.’ “

Once, an elderly woman approached Kersee in an airport in Indiana and told him she did not like what she had seen from Kersee or the other famed coach with the B.K. initials: Bobby Knight. He did not belittle his athletes, he said, but he also didn’t leave room for interpretation about who ran the workout. The edge created a mystique that “he’s crazy,” Miller said. “But he’s not. I feel like everybody has preconceptions of everybody but you won’t really know unless you’re there and you’re with them every day.”

Just as when he built his vaunted World Class Athletic Club in the 1980s, he will only train those he can coach hard and have chemistry. His athletes typically train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He treats Monday Zoom calls with the group as though he is re-interviewing for the job. It’s more convenient than years before, he said, when he recalled gathering before dawn in Europe to address their complaints with him.

“I think we have that understanding that I’m going to listen and respect them,” he said. “But my job is to get the job done for them individually and collectively but you hired me. And if you hired me, let me do my job.”

Imparting confidence is his plan. And no one does it like Kersee, said Davis.

“He’s a competition coach, so the time it counts, you feel confident,” Davis said. “And your head coach is basically your general and then competition is basically war. And yes, you prepare for war but that final voice, that presence, that action, that essence, that’s Bobby. And he earned that by what he’s accomplished throughout his career.”

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS Track coach Bobby Kersee after a training day at West Los Angeles College, Thursday.

CALENDAR

Monday’s TV sports

Baseball

MLB

• Pittsburgh vs. San Francisco, NBCSBA, 2:05 p.m.

• Atlanta vs. Oakland, NBCSCA, 5:07 p.m.

• L.A. Angelsvs. Chicago WhiteSox, FS1, 5:10 p.m.

Basketball

NBA Playoffs

• East Finals, Miami vs. Boston, TNT, 5:30 p.m.

Hockey NHL Playoffs

• West Finals, Vegas vs. Dallas, ESPN, 5 p.m.

Lacrosse College

• NCAA Championship, ESPN, 10 a.m.

NLL

• Buffalo vs. Colorado, ESPN2, 1 p.m.

Tennis

• French Open, 3, 8 a.m.

Tuesday’s TV sports

Baseball

MLB

• Philadelphia vs. N.Y. Mets, TBS, 4:10 p.m.

• Atlanta vs. Oakland, NBCSCA, 6:40 p.m.

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

Basketball

WNBA

• Seattle vs. New York, ESPN2, 6 p.m.

Giants

From Page B1

acquisitions.

But that began to change on this road trip.

The only two games the Giants lost on this trip were also the only two games they didn’t get a home run from Haniger or Conforto, who combined to leave the yard five times in seven games while batting .373 (19-for-51). Even in Sunday’s loss, they ripped a pair of consecutive singles to start the seventh inning, setting up Blake Sabol’s three-run homer and kicking off a four-run rally, which simply proved to be too little, too late to complete the series sweep.

Young guns step in

In the two games the Giants lost on this road trip, guess who was missing from the starting lineup. That’s right: Casey Schmitt and Patrick Bailey.

The Giants won all five games with Bailey behind the dish on this trip and are 6-1 overall when the defensive-minded switch-hitting catcher is in the lineup. In two games without him behind the plate this trip, they allowed 14 runs,

Celtics

From Page B1

way to TNT’s “Inside the NBA” set at the Kaseya Center for the show.

During Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla’s press conference, C’s fans were still loud as they exited the arena.

Now imagine what Monday will be like?

Jaylen Brown famously called out the fans before Game 7 against the 76ers, and they responded. The Celtics star can’t wait for what’s in store on Monday.

“Man, I can only imagine,” Brown said. “I know these fans, you can hear them here in Miami, so I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like for Game 7. It’s going to be huge. The best two words in sports is “Game 7,” and our home crowd, I know they’re going to bring the energy, so I’m excited.”

Still, the Celtics aren’t taking anything for granted.

They know they got away with one on Saturday night. They produced their worst 3-point performance of the season. Their defense stepped up again, but they blew another double-digit fourth quarter lead to Jimmy Butler and the Heat. If Marcus Smart’s missed shot bounced the other way and White wasn’t there for the

NASCAR

From Page B1

play an outdoor pre-race concert. But that old black water, it kept on rollin’. So that concert was also canceled due to safety concerns. And anyone who thought we were going racing after that — have you ever heard the song “What a Fool Believes”? (OK, I’ll stop).

Concord Mills, the nearby shopping mall, had the advantage of being enclosed and was packed to the gills Sunday afternoon as race fans sought a diversion from watching the rain fall.

The weather was an unlucky break for both fans – scrambling to decide whether they could stick around an extra day on the Memorial Day weekend to use their tickets – and for the speedway itself.

It’s always vastly preferable to run a race when you plan to, both in terms of TV audience and various forms of revenue. But Mother Nature really doesn’t care about NASCAR’s schedule, as she has proven a number of times over the years. Monday will now be a busy doubleheader, and the stands won’t be as full.

About that Indy race that was the only racing anyone saw at the speedway: It had a very scary moment, reminiscent of something that happened at an Indy race at Charlotte

Motor Speedway in 1999. At that sad race, three spectators were killed when a tire came off of one Indy car and was punted by another into the stands. The rest of the race was canceled. It was one of the darkest days in race history in Charlotte.

At the 2023 Indy 500 on Sunday, a tire somehow got free of its wheel tether and flew over the catch fence. However, in this case, it only hit a parked car, and reports indicated no one was injured.

Still, there were a few minutes of unsettling deja vu for myself and anyone else who remembers the open-wheel race in Charlotte in 1999.

Nothing like that happened at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, of course. In fact, nothing much at all happened, other than a lot of looking at the sky and muttering. Some people wished that CMS officials had postponed the race earlier. Some people wished they had waited longer. Everyone wished that the sun had simply shone and the race, which was going to have a sellout crowd packing the grandstands, had gone off as scheduled. That’s not what Mother Nature intended, though, and that’s not what she did. Sunday was a washout. Let’s hope Monday is better.

more than twice as many as their total in five games with him (six).

Schmitt began to displace Crawford as the starting shortstop on this trip, starting three consecutive games while a healthy Crawford remained on the bench. But with Crawford back in there Sunday, he proved he still has something in the tank, ranging to his left, spinning and firing to first for a vintage 6-3 web gem to retire Brian Anderson in the second inning. He also laced a line drive double in right field and scored one of the Giants’ four runs in the seventh inning.

Gabe Kapler, however, seems to understand that Schmitt is the player that gives them the best chance to win ballgames now. It’s a difficult task as a manager to phase out a franchise icon, but it’s been made easier by the fact that Crawford has taken Schmitt under his wing.

“He’s a veteran player that’s had a lot of success for us over the years,” Kapler said before Sunday’s game. “He deserves the highest level of respect. As much as I can communicate with him I will. He’s been a great teammate and I expect the same going forward.”

tip-in, their season would be over right now.

The Celtics certainly celebrated the win, one of the most legendary endings in franchise history. But they know they haven’t won anything yet. They know Saturday doesn’t matter if they don’t complete the job and win Game 7.

“We all talked about it,” Tatum said. “We’re all aware it’s not time to celebrate. We didn’t accomplish anything. We won a big game that we had to win in incredible fashion. We’re proud of the way we played, proud of the way we figured it out.

“But the job is far from finished. (The Heat) is a great team, really wellcoached team, and we’ve got to be ready on Monday. It’s not over. Both teams want this extremely — like to the highest degree. They want it. We want it. The guys are competing on both ends, giving everything they have.”

Brown echoed that sentiment, but noted the momentum that Game 6 can give them for Monday.

“It means nothing if we come and lay an egg on our home floor,” Brown said.

“Still focused, but excited that we came here and did what we said we was going to do. …

Willis

From Page B1

six games in 2014, his final year.

“I always heard (NFL) football was for Not For Long,” Willis added. “Whether it ended tomorrow or four years from now, I wanted to be able to evaluate and stop and say, ‘Look at this time. I was giving it everything I had.’ That’s what I was graded on. Not what could have been, what he should have done. Take what you see and do what you will with it.”

Singletary, whose linebacker career vaulted him to Canton’s Class of 1998, said Willis “didn’t have the hype” of others.

Reminders like Thursday night’s Bay Area Hall of Fame induction should help, as should last year’s into the 49ers’ Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. Hall of Fame, his 2019 induction to the College Football Hall of Fame, and his 2015 spot in the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame.

In today’s data-driven sports society, perhaps the 49ers should unearth tracking data from Willis’ time to somehow relay his blazing speed and brickwall force.

“When you buckle the chin strap, there are no friends,” Willis said.

“It’s straight business.

It’s game time.

“I’d have to tell Marshawn (Lynch) that, because he’d try to talk between the lines, and I’d say, ‘Man, stop talking to me. We’ll talk when the game’s over.’ It’s just about knowing what needs to get done and getting it done.”

When Willis and the 49ers weren’t getting it done in a 2009 loss at Houston, then-Niners coach Singletary hollered from the sideline, “Pat, let’s go! Get them going!”

Singletary recalled Thursday how, on the

flight home, he checked in on Willis, who was upset about being the only targets of his coach’s yells during that game.

“I sat down next to him,” Singletary recalled, “and said, ‘Pat, you’re the only one I could yell at. You know why? Because I know you can take it. Because I know you will get up and fight. I know you will lead. I know you will work through it. You’re like my son.’

“Pat said, ‘Coach, you can yell at me anytime.’ ”

Gary Payton Sr., an Oakland basketball legend and fellow BASHOF inductee, was among those who wish Willis’ career had gone longer.

“I’m a big 49ers fan,” Payton said. “I really hated when he retired in the middle of his career, and how good he was, but he wanted to protect himself.”

Willis wanted a longer career. Toe surgery during the 2014 season put an end to it.

“If I had it my way, who knows how it could have ended out if I kept playing,” Willis said. “I hadn’t spoken on it a whole lot but my other toe was just as bad. At some point, you had to make that decision.”

Oakland success stories in sports

Payton, 54, was inducted a decade ago into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, yet Thursday’s Bay Area enshrinement was even more special. “This is bigger than the Naismith to me, because this is in my hometown,” Payton said. “I want kids to look up to me, to become where I’m at now … especially kids out of Oakland. They need guidance, and the guidance is me.

Payton also took pride in entering the BASHOF with fellow East Bay product Andre Ward, the last United States

boxer to win an Olympic gold medal (2004) before capping his pro career with a 32-0 record.

“There’s something different about being inducted at home,” Ward said. “I’ve heard about how Oakland and the Bay Area is a small market, that you can’t sell tickets here, you can’t become great here, that nothing good comes out of Oakland.

“You need to remind them: I just did that throughout the course of my career, in the ring and how I carry myself out of the ring. They can’t really introduce me or say my name without saying where I’m from, and, for me, that’s big.”

More on Ward will be gleaned in an upcoming Showtime documentary, “S.O.G. The Book of Ward,” which comes out Friday; a private screening is set for Wednesday at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre.

Foudy on the state of women’s soccer

Some 30 years after leaving Stanford and serving as a longtime captain for the U.S.Women’s National Team, Julie Foudy is thrilled the Bay Area has landed a National Women’s Soccer League expansion team for 2024, even though she’s a part owner of Angel City FC in Los Angeles. “To not have a women’s sports team here in the Bay Area feels criminal to me, especially with how well women’s sports are doing,” Foudy said. “So I’m ecstatic they finally got their (NWSL) team.”

Foudy credited her family with opening doors for her to succeed. “With the best of intentions, as parents we hover and we want (children) to be successful. My parents basically opened doors and said, ‘You go, you walk, you do it. I’ll be here

to support you, but you’re going to do it.”

Kuiper on Posey

Duane Kuiper dutifully presented Buster Posey as “the backbone” of the Giants’ three world championship teams, and Kuiper also praised the work Posey and his wife, Kristen, have done the past decade with childhood cancer research and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Posey autographed a Giants catcher’s helmet –along with attendees Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Dave Dravecky and Kuiper –which reached $10,000 in a bidding war during Thursday’s auction. Payton intervened, suggested two helmets be awarded, and, boom, $20,000 was headed toward the event, which benefits Special Olympics of Northern California.

“There’s been a bit of false advertising on the helmet,” Kuiper joked. “It was advertised as all the great players had signed it. Well, I signed it, too, so whoever purchased it, if they need a discount, I’ll pay for it.”

Southern gentlemen

Now that Posey has moved back to his native Georgia, he reflected on the culture shock of his decade-plus in the Bay Area.

“It’s just a different way of life, in a lot of respects. One of the bigger ones is the weather,” Posey said. “You’re used to really hot, humid weather, and then you’re playing in 52 degrees and wind in the middle of the summer here. That was a big change.”

Willis grew up in Tennessee and he talked about his and Posey’s shared Southern roots when they met Thursday for the first time. Willis hasn’t left the Bay Area since arriving as the 49ers’ 2008 first-round draft pick.

Logan Riely/Getty Images/TNS

The Toyota Track Drying Team works to dry the track prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, Sunday.