Green Page
For woodpeckers, it’s all about food and family — Page A3
Sports
Living
Aggies take down league leader Hawaii
Time for her next big adventure — Page A6
— Page B3
enterprise THE DAVIS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
Supes weigh in on mask mandate By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer
those found in naturally occurring wetland habitats. “We are ecstatic about this project,” said Kathleen Socolofsky, assistant vice chancellor and director of the Arboretum and Public Garden. "It has all come together thanks to many thoughtful years of planning and collaboration with faculty and other campus partners. The proof of concept for our overall plan is flourishing and now we can finish the transformation.”
While the state plans to lift its indoor mask mandate for vaccinated residents on Feb. 15, Yolo County’s health officer has not yet made a decision on whether to lift the county’s own mandate. Under the local health order, everybody is required to wear a mask in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status. Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson issued the order in July and said she intended to lift the order when the daily COVID-19 case rate fell below two per 100,000 residents for seven consecutive days. The county’s case rate has fallen by 60 percent since it reached an alltime high of 242 on Jan. 9, but it is still very high — 89 per 100,000 residents as of Monday. Whether Sisson will revise the order earlier than previously intended remains to be seen, but she did say Tuesday that the state’s decision to lift its mandate is grounded in science, specifically the reduced likelihood that someone who is fully vaccinated will be infected. “While there are breakthrough cases and we’ve certainly seen more breakthrough cases with Omicron…
See ARBORETUM, Back page
See MANDATE, Page A7
UC Davis/Courtesy graphic
Rendering of the vision for the west end of the Arboretum Waterway. When complete, floodplains and benches (grass-filled islands) will be created to mimic the habitat of a seasonal wetland.
Arboretum earns $5.4M grant Funding will help complete enhancements Special to The Enterprise A new $5.4 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency will allow UC Davis to complete the Arboretum Waterway Flood Protection and Habitat Enhancement Project. This new, two-year project
builds upon a successful first phase, completed in 2018, that engineered waterflow and replanted native vegetation from the Wyatt Deck bridge, through the Redwood Grove, to eastern end of the Arboretum Waterway near Solano Park apartments. This new grant, coupled with $2.5 million in deferred maintenance funds from the university, will complete the waterway restoration from Lake Spafford (near Mrak Hall), to its western
end, by the Equestrian Center, in 2024. The proposed project will remove the concrete banks that currently line the waterway's edges and replace them with gentle earthen banks which will be revegetated with native trees, shrubs and understory plants. Portions of the waterway will be narrowed, allowing for faster water movement. In addition, plans include the creation of floodplain benches and emergent marsh plantings, similar to
Car wash proposed for South Davis Courts resume in-person
jury trials halted by surge
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer Plans for an express car wash that would be built on a vacant 1.74-acre site at the corner of Mace and Cowell boulevards will be going before the Davis Planning Commission later this month. The lot at 480 Mace Blvd., owned by Pheasant Investment Corp. and Knights Landing LLC, has been used by the Boy Scouts for their annual Christmas Tree sales for a number of years. Now Thomas and Evan Lyon of South Davis are seeking city approval to build a 5,758-square-foot building on the site that would house a drive-thru
VOL. 124 NO. 17
INDEX
Classifieds ������B5 Green Page ������ A3 Obituaries �������� A7 Comics ������������B7 The Hub ������������B1 Sports ��������������B2 Forum ��������������B4 Living ���������������� A6 The Wary I �������� A2
By Judge Daniel Maguire Special to The Enterprise
Courtesy graphic
View of the proposed car wash at Mace and Cowell boulevards seen from the Mace Boulevard turn-in. express car wash as well as office and equipment rooms and restrooms. The proposal would also include 21 vacuum bays, eight parking spaces, three automated pay stations, a
WEATHER Thursday: Sunny and clear. High 76. Low 44.
bike washing/repair station, bike parking and a dog wash area. The car wash would be open during daylight hours
See WASH, Page A7
After a one-month pause in response to the COVID-19 omicron surge, jury trials in Yolo County were set to resume on Feb. 7. You might ask: Should we really have jury trials during a pandemic? The answer is that our justice system provides an essential service, and it can’t stop working, even in a pandemic. When COVID-19 hit, the Yolo Superior Court pivoted to remote appearances (Zoom court) for most court hearings. The technology
allowed us to keep our court working without endangering public health. Remote appearance has been a tremendous success — it has proven popular with judges, lawyers, litigants, witnesses and court observers, and the Yolo court plans to keep it as an option even when the pandemic ends. But jury trials must be conducted in person, and for most of the pandemic, we have continued to summon jurors and hold trials. Jury trials can’t wait until the
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Local
A2 THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
Briefly Woman killed in fiery collision A solo vehicle crash in West Sacramento that claimed the driver’s life Friday night remains under investigation. According to a West Sacramento Police Department news release, the collision occurred at about 8 p.m. in the 1000 block of Riverside Parkway, where the vehicle struck a tree just north of the Interstate 80/Highway 50 interchange. “Officers arrived on scene and found a single unresponsive occupant trapped inside the vehicle, which was fully engulfed in flames,” police said. “Officers attempted to remove the subject from the vehicle but were unable to do so due to the intense flames.”
Cops seek bike crash witnesses Davis police need witnesses to a vehicleversus-bike collision that left the cyclist badly injured early Saturday morning. Lt. Mike Munoz said officers responded shortly before 12:30 a.m. to the 100 block of E Street, where the driver reported he had been traveling northbound when he struck the bicyclist. Munoz said the driver remained on scene and was cooperative. Anyone with additional information is urged to contact police at 530-747-5400.
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Just another day in Washington S TANDING TRUTH ON ITS HEAD ... Glad to see that the party of law and order has now officially told the American people in plain, simple English exactly what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. This peaceful gathering of “ordinary citizens,” according to these non-partisan experts, was engaged in “legitimate political discourse.” I guess smashing windows and beating up cops is now a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. Cancel culture at work. THOSE CLEVER DEMOCRATS ... There are five states, according to Donald Trump, where Democrats used outright fraud to rob him of victory. Those state are Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. Interestingly, both houses of the state legislatures in all five of those states were controlled by Republicans on Election Day 2021. Not to mention the fact that
Donald Trump’s party also controlled the presidency, the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department, Homeland Security, all branches of the United States Military, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Supreme Court and, most importantly, Mr. Pillow. And yet somehow the party out of power was able to steal the election. ONE MAN, ONE VOTE ... Forget all those amendments to the United States Constitution that granted women the right to vote (19th Amendment) and 18-yearolds the right to vote (26th Amendment) and many others the
right to vote (14th and 15th Amendments), and forget about what the Constitution says about the Electoral College. Yes, in Donald Trump’s world only one person has the power to determine who should be president, and that is the sitting vice president on January 6 after a presidential election the previous November. That’s clearly what the Founding Fathers had in mind, according to the ex-president, who was lucky that vice president Joe Biden wasn’t aware of that Constitutional directive on Jan. 6, 2017. One wonders if Donald Trump will feel the same way about the vice president’s role when Kamala Harris starts opening envelopes from all 50 states come Jan. 6 of 2025.
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XAMINING THOSE VACCINATION CLAIMS ... I don’t doubt for a second that unvaccinated folks are dying of COVID at 30 times the rate of
One suspect arrested, two at large in weekend robberies By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer A pair of unrelated robberies at local stores ended with an arrest in one case, while the other remains under investigation, Davis police said. Shortly before 9 p.m. Friday, two men entered the CVS store at The Marketplace, 1411 W. Covell Blvd., and claimed to be pharmacy customers, according to Lt. Mike Munoz. “All of a sudden one of them hopped over the counter and attempted to go to the back where the prescription medications are kept,” Munoz said. An employee tried to block
him, but the suspect forced his way past and took an unknown amount of medications. The man dropped one bottle, which the second suspect retrieved by also hopping the counter, Munoz said. Both fled the store on foot into the crowded parking lot, where witnesses lost sight of them. Munoz described the suspects as Black males in their 20s with short dark hair, one about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, the other 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds. Both wore COVID-type masks, which obscured their facial features. Both remained at large as of Tuesday. Anyone with
information about this incident is asked to contact the Davis Police Department at 530-747-5400. On Saturday evening, police arrested a man who allegedly robbed the Nugget Market on East Covell Boulevard. Tyrice Tyrone Bradley, 40, is suspected of stealing food from the market, then throwing a liquid at the loss prevention officer who confronted him as he left the store with the merchandise, according to Munoz. Police later found Bradley at West Covell and F Streets and took him into custody. He was booked into the Yolo County Jail on robbery, battery and shoplifting charges.
County opens mini-grant applications By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprsie staff writer The Yolo County Board of Supervisors in January voted to allocate $250,000 for the development of mini grants in Yolo County aimed at economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each supervisorial district has $50,000 to award. Applications for the mini grants opened Monday and close on March 31. The American Rescue Plan mini grants will fund programs or projects that provide for a community benefit and would typically serve a single community, offering opportunities within each district, separate from the county’s larger ARP allocation process. “My colleagues and I are honored to announce the opening of mini grants focused on community level projects in each of our districts to assist in the economic recovery from COVID-19,” said Supervisor Angel Barajas, who chairs the Board of Supervisors.
Funding requests should range from $1,000 to $10,000, but requests outside of the range will still receive consideration. Eligibility is based on the federal ARP eligibility requirements and the board’s guiding principles for allocating ARP funds. Additional technical assistance and training will be made available with the support of the Yolo Community Foundation to assist applicants. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 31. Once closed, county staff will work with each supervisorial district to select the most competitive grants for funding. Organizations interested in applying and wanting to learn more about the ARP Mini Grants program should visit https://www.yolocounty.org/government/ general-government-departments/countyadministrator/american-rescue-plan or contact Eric Will, ARP Project Manager, at eric.will@yolocounty.org.
Few hourly workers compensated for shift cuts By Karen Nikos-Rose Special to The Enterprise In California, seven other states and Washington, D.C., some hourly workers, by law, have to be compensated if they report to work only to have their shift cut short. But some hourly workers may not be receiving this pay, and if they are not, it’s often on the employees to call attention to the law, according to a UC Davis study. “Shift cuts undermine the well-being of workers and their families,” said Savannah Hunter, doctoral student in sociology and co-author of a new article published in the journal Social Forces. “The law may not be enforced consistently. We really need better support of labor.” Ryan Finnigan, associate professor of sociology, and the lead author, said: “Places like San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Oregon recently
implemented similar policies to improve the predictability and regularity of workers’ schedules. But we found that the enforcement process for these kinds of policies really needs to improve for them to be effective.” Finnigan is also a faculty affiliate with the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality Research. In a nationwide survey of over 1,000 hourly workers, only 4% knew they were covered by such a law, and only 17% of supervisors responding said they were aware of laws in their jurisdictions, Hunter said. In an informational session in California that Finnigan attended, he found that there was minimal information on the state’s reporting pay policy. The six-hour session, which is voluntary for employers, focused heavily on rest and meal breaks, and payment following employee terminations, researchers said. The survey researchers
used, distributed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., asked questions about job characteristics, work schedules, experiences with cut shifts and wage theft, and awareness of local pay and minimum wage policies. The survey was conducted in 2019. The survey showed that 37% of employees had experienced shift cuts in recent months, and that only a quarter reported usually or always receiving compensation — UC Davis News
those who are vaccinated. The numbers are clear. However, it’s almost certain that some of the dramatic difference in death rates is caused by lifestyle choices as well. With some individual exceptions, as a group the unvaccinated are less likely to regularly wear a mask or observe social distancing or large crowds, meaning their chances of being exposed to the virus are higher than those who follow all the precautions. That, too, contributes to the 30 to 1 ratio. I wonder, though, as the infection rate from omicron begins to plummet as predicted, if we’re all taking our masks off too soon. I’m as tired of wearing a mask as the next guy, and some of the most effective ones are extremely uncomfortable, but I remain convinced that this thing would have been a lot worse if no one had worn a mask in the first place. — Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net.
Carbahal & Company announces new managing partner Special to The Enterprise The Davis-based accounting firm Carbahal & Company recently named CPA Jennifer Nitzkowski as its new managing partner. In her new role, Nitzkowski oversees day-today operations of the accounting firm and its employees, in collaboration with other partners and the firm administrator. As of Jan. 1, outgoing managing partner Manny Carbahal stepped down to spend more time with clients. “The partners of Carbahal & Company are excited that Jennifer is taking on this role,” Manny Carbahal said. “She is the right person at the right time. During her tenure here, she has always been on the management team. No one knows the inner workings of our firm better.” With the firm for 24 years — the last 17 as partner, Nitzkowski calls the change a natural progression. “Other than a few years in other firms outside of Davis, I have basically grown up professionally here.” Nitzkowski earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1994 from Pepperdine University, and a master’s in taxation
in 2004 from Golden Gate University. She added, “We have a great team, and I look forward to helping steer the firm as Manny has done successfully for over 37 years.” Besides herself and Manny Carbahal, firm partners include John Carbahal, Stephanie Carbahal Adamo and Steven Willhoff. Manny Carbahal said, “Personally, my life will not change too much. I will be doing what I love most, working with our clients. I’ll just have a little more time to do it.” Nitzkowski is active in the community, with 20 years of service to the Davis Rotary noon club, where she serves as fundraising chair. In 2014, she was president of the Davis Chamber of Commerce board. She also serves on the Yolo Community Foundation finance committee. Carbahal & Company, an Accountancy Corporation since 1984, specializes in tax compliance, financial planning, accounting and management consulting for professionals, small- and medium-size private businesses, and individuals. For information, visit http://www.carbahal .com.
City extends comment period for climate plan By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer The city announced Monday that the comment period for the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) community forum website is extended to Friday, Feb. 18. Visit: https:// www.daviscaap.com. You will need to sign in to add comments. This community forum website identifies the CAAP’s draft prioritized actions and other actions that were presented to the City Council in December. The council has requested
the extended opportunity for community members to give input on each action before the project management team returns to council in April. The CAAP team is currently working on providing more background data on each sector and action (greenhouse gas reduction potential, cost benefit analysis and other information), in order to update this list with a revised set of actions. For more information, email CAAP@cityofdavis. org.
The Green Page
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 A3
Finding trouble with irrigation timers By Dawn Calciano Special to The Enterprise
I
n 2019, the city completed a major project that involved the replacement of all water meters throughout the City. One of the benefits of this project was the opportunity to add Advanced Metering Infrastructure, a tool being used in more and more jurisdictions to aid customers in tracking and understanding their water use. With AMI and AquaHawk (the city’s online portal where you can see your hourly water data), City customers have been “getting to know” their water-usage patterns and identifying water use that may have been unexplained before hourly data was available.
When getting to know your water use, focusing on irrigation systems can result in water savings. Older irrigation (sprinkler) timers can malfunction and although water may appear to be turned off for the sprinkler system at the timer, they may actually still be running! These older irrigation systems can use a lot of water. Brief power outages can reset irrigation systems to default programming, setting the irrigation to run on a different schedule than anticipated. Older timers can malfunction and run when not expected. Newer systems can have issues too, with app updates don’t forget to check that your irrigation is still running as scheduled. While you may not
Environmental Update see pools of water, there can also be leaks at pipe joints and valves, above and below ground. Water will usually follow the path of least resistance and flow downward, not appearing at the surface. Part of the significant benefit of the AMI installations has been the advanced toolset that city staff now have to assist customers with their water-use concerns. Building on the existing knowledge of staff to identify types of leaks that are possible around the home, the hourly data now provides staff (and customers) with the ability to see patterns of usage over time and
identify possible causes of higher water bills, especially when that cause is likely related to irrigation use. Irrigation use is a highly predictable pattern of usage (because it’s usually connected to a timer), and staff will often ask water customers if their irrigation running unexpectedly could be the cause of higher-than-average water use showing up in AquaHawk or a utility bill. Learn more about AquaHawk at www.SaveDavisWater.org
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ue to the ongoing drought, sprinkler/ spray watering restrictions went into effect on Nov. 1, 2021. Sprinkler/spray irrigation is allowed two days per week on an odd/even
schedule. These restrictions do not apply to other types of landscape irrigation like drip, soaker hoses or hand-watering. View the sprinkler/spray irrigation schedule online at SaveDavisWater.org. If you have turned off your irrigation system for the winter at the timer, be sure that the irrigation valve(s) are also closed. Turning irrigation off at the valve(s) ensures that the system is isolated and no water is flowing into the irrigation lines even with the timer off. Install back-up batteries or check the back-up batteries in your timer, so that it will not reset with a power outage. Our best tip is to signup for AquaHawk to monitor the daily and hourly
water usage on your property by visiting SaveDavis Water.org for registration instructions. Helpful information on using AquaHawk to assist in finding leaks in the irrigation system as well as other potential leaks in and around the property can be found on the City’s website. If you suspect you might have a leak, or have questions about your water usage, contact the Public Works Utilities and Operations Department (PWUO) at 530-757-5686 or email PWWeb@city ofdavis.org. — Dawn Calciano is a City of Davis Conservation Coordinator; this column is published monthly. Reach her at DCalciano@ CityofDavis.org.
There’s a fully stocked family pantry in the trees Special to The Enterprise
Tuleyome Tales
grew up believing that food is meant to be shared with family. To my great surprise, my family is not the only one who thinks so. Among oak woodlands and local parks is the charismatic acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). A social, rowdy and extremely hard-working species of bird, it’s also known as the “clown bird” because of its striking facial color pattern, red crown, and yellowish forehead and throat. Its back is black and slightly bluish with pale white eyes. And like a true clown you can hear it clowning around, projecting big laughs and calls to its family. When they fly they seem to bounce, going up and down imaginary hills in the air until they reach their destination. It usually inhabits oak forests (Quercus spp.), mixed forests with pine (Pinus) and oak, in addition to spruce (Pseudotsuga) and redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests. The Acorn Woodpecker family is like a small colony, composed of a dozen or more birds. They may be monogamous, polyandrous or polygynous. When caring for young, their parenting style is cooperative — one for all and all for one! They take turns
feeding and protecting the family’s young. In mid-fall, acorn-woodpecker families are in search of acorns. Acorns are the fruits of oak trees, with a hard shell that protects the seed and a cup-shaped dome on top. Like everything in nature, they are varied — some elongated, others round. Oak trees have irregular cycles. In some years they produce many acorns, where the floors of trails and parks are covered with these nuts. In a great year, an oak tree can produce up to 10,000 nuts! But curiously, in other years, there is no trace of any. Most species of woodpeckers typically use their chisel-like beaks to peck trees and build their nests. In the bird world, the Acorn Woodpecker is the only one that, apart from using its beak to build nests, also uses it to store food. This behavior and great strength help to create holes and store acorns to eat in the winter. These acorns are collected by and for the whole family. The family cares for and protects the same oak tree that is maintained and used for generations. Holes are drilled in dry trunks and branches. Dry trees are
By Martha Cerda
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An acorn woodpecker crawls along the family granary. Tuleyome/ Courtesy photo
preferred, as the sap can affect the acorns. One family may drill millions of holes in a single tree. This is known as a granary tree. But the work doesn’t end after the holes are created — the fun is just beginning! The birds will now have the responsibility of checking that the acorns are not loose. If they are, they are moved to a better fitting hole, because if the acorns get loose, they will be food for other companions — such as the California ground squirrel or the California scrub jay.
Oak trees are not the only places where acorns are stored. These clever birds have adapted to using human-made structures. Holes can be seen in telephone poles, house shingles, virtually any structure made of wood. In some cases, using natural holes. And as in any family pantry, food varies. The diet of the Acorn Woodpecker in addition to acorns, includes fruits, insects, flowers and sap. This season, remember that where there’s an oak tree, there’s sure to be an acorn woodpecker.
When you least expect it, you will hear the “waka, waka, waka” cackle echoing around. When you hear it, you may not be able to see it, but you will still be able to appreciate what a determined, family bird it is. — Martha Cerda is a naturalist in Pleasanton, a city in the East Bay. She works at a historic park interpreting the local and natural history of the site. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring the endless beauty of nature and connecting with diverse communities.
UC Davis leads research into climate-resistant wheat By Emily C. Dooley Special to The Enterprise
Charlie Russell/Courtesy photo
Flatface downingia, Downingia pulchella, flowering in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.
Yolo Audubon offers talk on plants in the Bypass Wildlife Area Special to The Enterprise The Yolo Audubon Society will offer a free virtual talk at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16. Charlie Russell will discuss the Plants of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. The YBWA is the area Davis drivers see from the Yolo Causeway as they drive to Sacramento. Hundreds of species of birds can be seen there, as well as more than 500 species of plants. There are many different plant habitats in the YBWA, and they support a wide range of flowering plants. Russell will focus on
those visitors would most commonly see. He will help you identify the good, the bad, the ugly, and even the poisonous ones. It’s not just birds out there. The speaker has had a lifelong interest in nature, and has photographed wildflowers for over 40 years. He has a master’s degree in plant sciences from UC Davis, and is a certified California Naturalist. He is a docent with the Yolo Basin Foundation and Jepson Prairie Preserve. Register for the Zoom meeting ahead of time at
yoloaudubon.org or yoloaudubon.facebook.com. This event, as part of YAS monthly member’s meeting, is free and open to the public. More information on birding in Yolo County is also available at the websites. YAS, a chapter of the National Audubon Society, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster an appreciation of birds and conservation in Yolo County. The group offers live and virtual events to educate and inform the public about birds and birdwatching.
Wheat products account for roughly 20% of what people eat every day around the globe. As climate changes, wheat crops must adapt to new weather patterns to keep up with demand. UC Davis will lead a five-year, $15 million research project to accelerate wheat breeding to meet those new climate realities, as well as to train a new generation of plant breeders. “Everything is less stable,” said Jorge Dubcovsky, a plant sciences distinguished professor who is leading the grant research. “Everything is changing so you need to be fast. You need to be able to adapt fast.” The grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will create a coordinated consortium of 41 wheat breeders and researchers from 22 institutions in 20 states. Researchers from Mexico and the United Kingdom are also participating. “Breeding crops for the future will require new traits, breeding platforms built for quick transfer of traits to elite cultivars, coordination of breeding efforts in public and private domains, and training for current and future plant breeders and researchers,” NIFA said in an announcement about this grant and
others related to breeding. The program involves on-the-ground research, identifying molecular markers and data analysis from multiple institutions to determine genes that will help wheat crops mitigate the effects of climate change. Plant breeding will follow to prove out those findings. Wheat is unlike other crops in that 60% of the plant varieties — generating about $4 billion in annual production — are developed by public breeding programs rather than private corporations. In many states, wheat growers tax themselves to support basic breeding efforts at public institutions like UC Davis. The NIFA grant money will lead to more coordinated, sophisticated research. “This grant allows us to do breeding at a level that a good, modern company would do,” Dubcovsky said. “This grant is essential to maintain modern and effective public breeding programs in the U.S.” The consortium will bring together data and research from across institutions, allowing for more expansive analysis while reducing redundancies. “We can take advantage of the data from everybody,” he said. “By doing that we don’t need to duplicate efforts.” “If we can breed fast, we can adapt to change,” Dubcovsky said. “We are trying to make sustainable improvements in time.”
A4 THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
Why is Valentine’s Day on February 14th? Special to The Enterprise Sweethearts who want to keep their relationships running strong know that Valentine’s Day is celebrated each year on February 14. But even the most ardent Valentine’s Day enthusiast might not know just why this day designed for lovers to express their affections for one another is celebrated in mid-February. According to the Library of Congress, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14, though the date might have ties to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a spring festival celebrated each year on February 15. The holiday was moved to February 14 after the spread of Christianity. The Christian faith had several early martyrs named Valentine, and each of them were celebrated with a saint day on February 14. But the unique history of Valentine’s Day and its association with February 14 as well as its romantic sentiments does not end there. The Library of Congress also notes that, in the Middle Ages, people believed birds selected their mates on February 14. As a result, it was not uncommon for lovers to recite prose to one another on this date. — Metro
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
Givers’ guide to Valentine’s Day jewelry When buyers put the time in to find the right piece, they can be confident knowing they’ve given that special someone an item they will cherish for years.
Special to The Enterprise Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to bring a little sunshine into a special someone’s life. Nestled between the end of the holiday rush and the beginning of spring renewal, Valentine’s Day occurs at a time of year when days are short, weather is chilly and people might be looking for an excuse to celebrate. Gifts that accompany romantic sentiments expressed on Valentine’s Day can make the holiday that much more memorable. Jewelry is a personal gift and one that should be presented with care. These tips can help Valentine’s Day celebrants as they give that special someone jewelry. ■ Opt for jewelry only if you’re in an established relationship. Roma Designer Jewelry says jewelry can “speak” commitment without saying a word. Those who are living together, have been dating for some time or married couples are good candidates for exchanging jewelry, which
Metro/Stock photo
Jewelry is a personal gift that should be presented with care. can reinforce couples’ commitment to one another. ■ Mark milestones. Use
jewelry to celebrate not only Valentine’s Day, but also milestone events. Jewelry can be given on a
Valentine’s gift ideas for guys Special to The Enterprise A holiday devoted to love and affection is nestled in the middle of the chilly days of February. Valentine’s Day is a big day for retailers, and many advertising campaigns focus on gifting women everything from jewelry to chocolate to stuffed animals. That focus may not be unwarranted, but men also deserve tokens of love and appreciation on Valentine’s Day. With February 14 right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about shopping for items that show you care. Consider this list of carefully curated gifts that can provide inspiration for gifting the special man in your life. ■ Gaming gear: The appeal of video games is hard to ignore. A new report from the gaming industry researchers at DFC Intelligence indicates that billions of
people across the globe people play video games. The next gaming generation is approaching with the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Gift ideas can include consoles and
peripherals like headsets, gaming chairs and laptop keyboards, among others. ■ At-home luxury: Some men steer clear of
See GUYS, Page A5
special birthday or anniversary in commemoration of children being born and other special moments. ■ Take note of style. Scour social media posts or peek inside an existing jewelry box to use as a visual guide for clues regarding the style of jewelry your partner prefers. This makes shopping easier and increases the chances the item will be a hit. ■ Pay attention to
allergies. Metal allergies are a consideration when purchasing jewelry. Earrings tend to be the biggest culprits for allergic reactions because posts are inserted into the earlobe. If you’re unsure if your partner has a metal allergy, stick to sterling silver and 14k gold. Always opt for nickel-free materials. ■ Plan in advance. Many jewelry stores run sales throughout the summer and the fall, so shoppers can get jewelry at a discount at these times. Engraving time may be longer around Valentine’s Day, so plan accordingly. ■ Stick with simple classics. Those who are unsure what to buy can opt for simple, classic items. Stay away from anything with a lot of color or beading. Small, delicate items tend to have universal appeal. ■ Jewelry is a popular Valentine’s Day gift. When buyers put the time in to find the right piece, they can be confident knowing they’ve given that special someone an item they will cherish for years.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 A5
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
Keep floral arrangements fresh GUYS: Just the thing to make men smile
Special to The Enterprise
Who doesn’t enjoy receiving a fresh bouquet of flowers on a special occasion? Flowers traditionally are given for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, anniversaries, and other special events. While a beautiful bouquet can make a lovely gift, fresh flowers have finite lasting power. Recipients of floral arrangements need not fret. Various strategies can help prolong the life of freshly cut flowers. Florists employ certain tricks to keep cut flowers fresh longer. In fact, that’s a person’s best bet to keep cut flowers fresh — purchasing arrangements from knowledgeable florists who have done their part to ensure flower longevity. Here are some additional strategies to consider.
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Various strategies can help prolong the life of freshly cut flowers, helping arrangements thrive in any home.
Make fresh cuts in stems Think back to the last time you purchased a fresh Christmas tree. What is the key to ensuring it gets enough water while on display? You guessed it: making a fresh cut in the trunk of the tree. The same concept applies to floral arrangements. Use a sharp scissor or pruning shears to cut about one inch from the bottom of each stem at a 45-degree angle. Continue this process every three days or so. The 45-degree angle prevents the stem from squishing during the cut and enables it to absorb more water.
Get them in water quickly Place the flowers in a vase or other vessel with water promptly after making the cuts. Some florists like to cut the stems under water to prevent air
Metro/Stock photo
bubbles from forming in the stems. Choose an arrangement first, then cut and place the flowers in water quickly. This gives fresh arrangements a good chance to last awhile.
Monitor water temperature The temperature of the water in the vase should coordinate with the flowers on display. Do not use hot water or the stems will cook. Room temperature is best for most flowers, except for blooms from bulbs that flower during cooler months, such as tulips and daffodils. They’ll be more likely to thrive in cooler water, according to Consumer Reports.
Chill your arrangement The experts at FTD by Design tested various theories for keeping floral arrangements fresh, including adding aspirin to the water or using sugar or concoctions that contain vodka. Sugar and vinegar served as a runner-up for long-lasting blooms, but the best solution for prolonging the flowers was putting the arrangement in the refrigerator each night for roughly eight hours.
Prune the foliage Before placing cut flowers in a vase, remove extra leaves at the base of the stems that will fall underneath the water line. This
helps to limit bacteria growth in the water and cuts back on foul odors. Plus, removing foliage focuses flowers’ energy on the main blooms rather than the leaves. These steps can add life to cut flowers, helping arrangements thrive in any home.
massage therapy clinics or spas. That doesn’t mean they should forgo the benefits of a deep massage. With a portable back and neck shiatsu massager, he can enjoy a massage while watching the game or streaming movies or television shows. ■ Treat bouquet: Floral bouquets may be unusual gifts for men, but a bouquet of another sort certainly may be a winning Valentine’s Day gift. More and more companies are getting creative with food bouquets. From cupcake bouquets that require a double-take to ensure they’re edible to exotic jerky bouquets, there are items to tempt every palate. ■ Cordless earbuds or headphones: Fitness enthusiasts, movie lovers or music fans know that the freedom to move around can be impeded by cords on headphones and earbuds. A new pair of Bluetooth-enabled wireless headphones can be just the thing to
Metro/Stock photo
make men smile this Valentine’s Day. ■ Coffee mill: Many people are sticking closer to home these days. That may mean skipping a favorite coffee shop and barista on the way to work, and brewing a cup of Joe before heading to the home office. According to Sam Spillman of Dillanos Coffee Roasters near Seattle, the 2019 Barista winner of the U.S. Coffee Championships, coffee loses flavor minutes after it is ground. Buying whole beans and grinding fresh before every brew ensures a more flavorful cup. Gifting a coffee grinder, particularly a burr grinder, can help improve the taste of that morning brew. These are just some of the many gift ideas to make men smile this Valentine’s Day. — Metro
Living
A6 THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
The wheels on the bus go all over town W
hen our daughter Molly was 4 years old, she had an opportunity to go to a nursery school that offered the service of a school bus. In our little town, the idea of riding a school bus to school is almost unheard of, so you can imagine the excitement that morning 15 years ago, when the most charming and cheerful yellow school bus pulled up at the curb right in front of our house. The folding doors opened and Molly’s 5-, 3and 2-year-old siblings watched with envy as her little legs climbed the metal steps. As she reached the top, I remember kissing her sweet face and saying, “This is going to be a great adventure.” The excitement and pride in her eyes told me she already knew that. As I turned to leave, a young man who was assisting the bus driver took Molly’s hand and helped her into her seat. Then I stepped off the bus to join my other three kids on the sidewalk. The folding doors closed and the bus lurched forward, on to its destination. As we watched the bus lumber down our safe little tree-lined street and out into the world, my 3-yearold looked up at me and asked, “Will she ever come back?” Within five seconds, I was in full-on panic. The kind of panic you experience when you lose your kid at the park and 45 seconds have gone by and the other moms are saying things like, “No one’s seen
him for a while.” And “Gosh, I saw her headed for the bathroom about a half-hour ago.” I had just loaded my precious baby into a strange vehicle with a strange man and no car seat. There were no background checks or signatures confirming “We picked her up and will deliver her safely.” And forget the part about no car seat. There were no seat belts. No seat belts. My head was spinning with every worst-case scenario. What if there was an accident? What if it was the wrong bus, headed for Reno instead of Pioneer Elementary? What if the bus was hijacked like in the movie “Speed”? Before the bus had rounded the corner at the end of our street, I literally tossed the 5-, 3- and 2-year-old siblings into our van and peeled out of our driveway. How could I be so stupid? How was I going to explain to my husband that I just “gave away” his favorite 4-year-old? I followed that bus, with my three young kids rolling around in the back of our van, all the way to the school in South Davis. And as the children toddled off the bus, I hunched over my steering wheel with squinty eyes, watching for Molly and her traumatized and teary face. Of course, there was no trauma. And there were no tears. Just a proud, happy little girl with a pink Dora
the Explorer backpack and a great adventure under her belt at the early hour of 8:30 a.m. I share this memory today because, once again, Molly has embarked on a great adventure. Last week, she was our third child in four-months time to pack up her dreams and her belongings and move out into the world as a grown up. The COVID pandemic has been hard for everybody. In our family, nobody was affected more negatively than Molly. The end of in-person learning halfway through the 2020 school year was tremendously difficult for all kids. For Molly, the move to online school was close to devastating. Within a day, she was ripped away from every resource she had benefitted from since she was in preschool. As someone who learns and thinks differently than many other students, Molly had depended on the resources from our school district to be a successful student and learner for her entire education. It’s not that those resources disappeared. But, as we all have learned, no matter how great the instructor, how dedicated the student, online learning doesn’t work in lots of
Shelley Dunning/Courtesy photo
Molly at 4 years old. situations. In Molly’s case, online learning didn’t work. And so Molly struggled through these past two years with lots of love but very little guidance and an uncertain future. She enjoyed a pretend Senior Prom in our backyard with her siblings. She watched her own graduation on our living room television. She applied to Sac City and took a stage craft class, the only available in-person class that was of any interest to her. But none of these things showed the promise of a bright, happy future. And then we received news that we believe and Molly believes will bring
some light back into Molly’s life. She was accepted into the new, innovative and very promising Redwood SEED Scholars program at UC Davis. From their website, redwoodseed.ucdavis.edu, in a nutshell: “The Redwood SEED Scholars Program (Supported Education to Elevate Diversity) at the University of California, Davis is designed for students in California with intellectual disabilities. The UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars are welcomed to UC Davis as fulltime non-degree students, and supported with peer mentors in academics,
social inclusion and health and wellness. Redwood Seed Scholars take part in internships both on and off campus with the goal of competitive, integrated employment. They live alongside other UC Davis students in on-campus housing and participate in campus clubs and organizations. Self-determination and choice will be the seeds we plant at the beginning of the program and what will guide us for the full four years.” It’s been a full week for Molly living on campus with a roommate. She’s learned to navigate the food service, eating hamburgers every day. She’s screamed her lungs out and stomped her feet at an Aggie basketball game with new friends. She attends classes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. In person. With real professors and thoughtful and challenging work. Molly came home last night to attend our regularly-scheduled and sacred Monday night family dinner. She did a load of laundry. She gathered some things from her room that she’d forgotten to take with her. She was happy to be home and share her stories of college life. And as Bob returned her to her new home on campus, she was happy. Happy, optimistic and as bright-eyed and proud as that little girl getting on the bus 15 years ago. Here’s to another great adventure. — Shelley Dunning is a Davis resident and a mom of four. Reach her at dunningsm@yahoo.com.
Enjoying lucky streaks in books and booze S ometimes I have a library lucky streak. Excellent book after excellent book, both fiction and non. “Wow,” I think, “the literary world is on a roll!” Within a few weeks at the end of 2021 I devoured “Hamnet” (Maggie O’Farrell), “Great Fire” (Shirely Hazzard), “The Final Revival of Opal and Ned” (Dawnie Walton), “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” (Heather McGhee), and “The Secret to SuperHuman Strength” (Alison Bechdel). And some good detective fiction, too. And then the reading desert. Book after book touted as “brilliant,” “a novel for our times,” “best thing I’ve read all year,” “a must-read for everyone,” “beautiful lush prose,” which, to me, seemed pedestrian, poorly constructed, clumsily written, or stereotypical in plot and character. So disappointing. I’ll refrain from mentioning titles — maybe you loved them. Maybe I was just having a bad few weeks and nothing would have pleased me. At least at the time I had fun bedtime reading to look forward to — the fifth (and latest) Cormoran Strike detective novel from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, and weighing in at 925 pages. It kept me going (and going and going). Weirdly, I was having a similar experience with wine. A week of
bottles that were at best “meh” and at worst barely drinkable — like a much overoaked pinot noir and a flabby pinot grigio that both delivered much less than they promised. So I was especially grateful when Sterling at the Co-op steered me to a new arrival that broke the spell — the Florèz 2020 The Pope’s Smoke Grenache Noir. Florèz (like the Margins wines I’ve been touting) is Santa Cruzbased and has only been in existence since 2017. Founder, winemaker, farmer James Jelk, trained at UC Davis, then worked for a decade in wineries around the world before starting his own. Like many of the small winemakers in the area, Jelk intervenes minimally — with both destemmed and whole cluster fermentation, neutral oak, native yeast, no filtration, etc. The grapes for this grenache, though, come not from Santa Cruz but from even closer to home—the organically-certified Windmill Vineyard in the Dunnigan Hills. Those grapes, guided by Jelk, produced a wonderfully fragrant wine, and the taste (tart, lively berries of all sorts) lives up to the smell. One reviewer announced that “we couldn’t stop drinking it.” I sympathize. As soon as the bottle was empty, I longed for another glass. Extremely food friendly, it goes well with both meat and
vegetable-based meals. We drank it with a butternut squash polenta lasagne, oozing melted cheese and just waiting for that tart intervention. I’m looking forward to trying other Florèz wines on the Co-op shelves (great labels, too). The next evening we tried another Sterling recommendation — this one from Chile, which happens to be where at the moment son Jakob is rafting and making beer on a much needed break from his Willits brewery. We used this Pipeño Carrizal to toast him. Well, OK, Jakob’s southern location is not exactly walking distance from the Pipeño vineyards in the Maule region of central Chile, but, hey, we’ll use any excuse to drink a bottle of good wine. Like the Florèz, the grapes are from a dry-farmed organic vineyard, hand-harvested, fermented with indigenous yeast. Unlike the Florèz, this one’s white — sort of. The three weeks of skin contact make it an “orange” wine, though it’s more golden than orange in color and has a
significant lushness. It’s a blend of local white grapes — toronel, corinta, cristalina (semillon) and muscat d’Alexandria — that were aged briefly in wooden tanks called pipas (hence “pipeño”). Apparently pipas are cheap, since pipeño is also a slang word for peasant wine — a derogatory one. But there’s nothing “cheap” or “common” about this lovely bottle that will keep you guessing at aromas and flavors all through the meal, in part because it changes with every sip and every slight change of temperature. The wine has both fruity and floral flavors in addition to what I think of as the orange wine funkiness. I really wanted to share it with Jakob, not just because of the Chile connection but because it seems to me a wine that adventuresome beeraficionados would love. We drank it with long-sautéed escarole (from farmers market) over bowtie pasta topped with lots of grated Romano. Escarole’s not the easiest food to pair, but this dense, dry, kicky wine was perfect. Pipeño is a project of native Burgundian Louis-Antoine Luyt, an important voice for independent, terroir-driven winemaking in Chile. Since he has recently returned to France, Pipeño has been given over to the farmers/ vintners that Luyt formed connections with in their 10-year
Chilean collaboration. The name of the farmer, in this case Ernesto Soto, appears prominently on the Pipeño labels. This year Valentine’s Day is a bit of an afterthought for me, and I’d pretty much decided to open a gift bottle that I’ve been saving for a special occasion instead of going my usual route — a sparkling rosé, the wine that just seems to announce Feb. 14. I asked Sterling at the Co-op and Amy at The Pip each to recommend one for my readers — Sterling chose the Ultraviolet, made with minimal intervention by Poe Vineyards’ Samantha Sheehan. It’s 100% pinot noir from a prized vineyard, Manchester Ridge, in Mendocino ($20 Co-op). Amy really likes the Simonsig Cap Classic sparkling rosé from Stellenbosch, South Africa — a blend of pinot noir, pinotage and pinot meunier (The Pip, $22). She says, “When have you ever had a sparkling wine with pinotage in it? And it’s stellar — not a novelty. Racy acidity, confident backbone. Yes. Yes. Yes.” Both sound so good that I just might change my mind about opening the gift bottle and instead buy one of these sparkling rosés. Or both. After all, I’m on a roll. — Susana Leonardi is a Davis resident; reach her at vinosusana @gmail.com. Comment on this column at www.davisenterprise. com.
Davis Odd Fellows install new leaders Special to The Enterprise At a gala Installation and Awards Dinner attended by 70 Odd Fellows and guests on Jan. 30, Davis Odd Fellows Lodge No. 169 installed its officers for 2022 and also presented awards for outstanding service to the lodge and the community in 2021. This was the 152nd installation for the Davis Odd Fellows Lodge, which was originally chartered in 1870. Kurt Roggli, who had served as vice grand in
Name Droppers 2021, was installed as the 2022 noble grand. Other elected officers for 2022 are vice grand Larry Guenther, secretary Juelie Roggli, treasurer Kathy Hemness and financial secretary Beth Dovi. Appointed officers were also installed including warden Howie Spero, conductor Sharon Hale, chaplain Jim Walker, right supporter of the noble grand Dave Reed, left
supporter of the noble grand Sharla Cheney, inside guardian Julia Dougherty, outside guardian Dawn Student, color bearer Terry Toy, musician Ann Filmer, right scene supporter Aaron Wedra, left scene supporter Kelli O’Day, right supporter of the vice grand Kati O’Day and left supporter of the vice grand Sheryl Cambron. Conducting the installation were the installing officers and past grand masters Dave Rosenberg
and Dave Reed. Following the dinner, outgoing noble grand Matthew Elliott presented the annual awards to members who provided exceptional contributions to the Lodge in 2021. Merit Jewels were awarded to Aaron Wedra, Lea Rosenberg, Dave Rosenberg, Dave Reed, Findley McIntosh, Juelie Roggli, Ron Rogers, Brian Horsfield, Julia Walker, Diana Schmiegel, Paul Schmiegel and Greg Tanner.
Courtesy photo
From left, newly elected Odd Fellows officers — financial secretary Beth Dovi, secretary Juelie Roggli, treasurer Kathy Hemness and noble grand Kurt Roggli.
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THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 A7
MANDATE: ‘Learning to live’ with virus WASH: Applicants From Page A1 people who are fully vaccinated are 7½ times less likely to be infected with COVID-19 than someone who is unvaccinated,” Sisson told the Board of Supervisors. “There’s nothing in the state’s action that … would preclude fully vaccinated people from choosing to wear a mask,” said Sisson. “In fact, I think that is likely the case in Yolo County, that people would choose to continue to wear a mask indoors even if they were not required to. But "one of the steps that the state is taking is moving toward living with COVID, backing away from mandates and giving the public the information that they need to make informed decisions for themselves,” she said. Some county supervisors voiced support for that approach. “I want to applaud your phrase of ‘learning to live with COVID’ because I think that’s exactly where we are,” said Supervisor Gary Sandy of Woodland. “And I know that’s a difficult aspect for a lot of people to accept, but… it’s a practical utterance that recognizes the realities of what we’re dealing with and I think we’re going to move to a stage here, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, where people are going to exercise greater self responsibility for their own health and those people who understand the risks of COVID… are going to undertake appropriate measures and safeguard their health wherever they are, regardless of what an individual store says, etc., because they recognize that things like masking, social distancing, do a great deal to prevent the transmission of the disease. “There will always be measures that prudent people undertake to cope with those risks,” Sandy added, “but as the government, it becomes more and more difficult for us to oversee those efforts and perhaps more and more fruitless, which is what concerns me.” He asked Sisson what she envisions in the months ahead. Her reply: “I think we’re going to see a movement away from local health
officer orders towards guidance and arming individuals with tools SISSON they need to protect County health officer themselves. “Now that we have safe and highly effective vaccinations for nearly the entire population and effective treatments… we’re in a very different place than we were in 2020," she said. “What is our goal?” Sisson asked. “I think we need to go back to the spring of 2020 and that term ‘flatten the curve,’ where our focus is on preventing the overwhelming of our healthcare system. And despite the very high case rates that we saw with the Omicron wave, we did not overwhelm our healthcare system because enough of the population was vaccinated and because we have preventive measures in place. “So I think that is the direction were heading in: Not preventing every single infection when we know that almost all infections will be mild and focusing on not overwhelming the healthcare system by getting more people vaccinated and using effective treatments early to prevent hospitalization.” Sandy and Supervisor Oscar Villegas of West Sacramento endorsed that approach. “I’m going to encourage you to continue moving in that direction,” Sandy told Sisson. “I think that’s a much more promising one than we’ve heard for a while.” Said Villegas, “I love what you just said, I think you’re spot on, I think that’s where we’re headed. “The public health guidance components, versus the mandated, sort of forces that personal responsibility, and allowing folks to take personal responsibility, that’s kind of where it has to be now given where we’re headed, which is living with COVID in some form or another.” But other supervisors — particularly the two from Davis — had concerns. Supervisor Jim Provenza questioned the state lifting
the mask mandate for the vaccinated, noting that “people who are vaccinated still get the virus and at an increased rate under the Omicron variant and the new (BA.2 variant) perhaps at an even greater rate. “People who are vaccinated, they’re not going to get as sick, but they can still spread it to others who will. We still can’t vaccinate children under five… and there’s people who have been vaccinated who can get very sick. We’re also at high transmission.” He urged Sisson to “really give careful consideration as to whether or not we should continue a while longer” with the county’s universal indoor mask mandate. “My experience, when we didn’t have the current rule — which my constituents like — was that the unvaccinated people were the ones not wearing the masks and vaccinated people were,” said Provenza. “And that’s part of the problem and we can’t pretend that people are acting responsibly, because a lot of people aren’t. Supervisor Don Saylor of Davis largely agreed. “I think if this was all a matter of personal responsibility we’d be done with this by now because we would all exhibit that and we would have had a much higher vaccination rate, we would have had many more circumstances where individuals themselves would have determined that they would wear masks or not have gatherings during high infection times. “So perPROVENZA sonal Supervisor responsibility is a big part of this. We can’t get our way through it without that being a key part,” said Saylor. “But I do remain concerned about people who are immunocompromised. I’m concerned about people who are unable to protect themselves solely through their personal actions. We do have a societal obligation to one another.” Saylor added that he trusts Sisson “to weigh these topics and balance
see a need in Davis
them,” but also said, “we know From Page A1 that it is about the with up to four staff behavior members on site during of humans business hours, according as much as to the application. SAYLOR it is the Supervisor A 20-day public combehavior ment period for the projand evoluect opened last week and tion of the virus.” will remain open until As for the state’s univerFeb. 22, the day before sal mask mandate in K-12 planning commissioners schools, that will likely will hold a public hearing remain in effect longer. on the proposal. “This is to ensure that The Davis Express school safety layers are Car Wash, according removed one at a time and to the applicants, is in light of the extended needed because “an enviamount of time that sturonmentally friendly dents and staff spend express car wash option indoors together,” said Siscurrently does not exist in son. Davis. She noted that it was just a few weeks ago that the “For example,” they said California Department of in documents filed with Public Health loosened the city, “Woodland curcontact tracing requirerently has four express car ments in schools by introwashes while West Sacraducing group-based mento has two express car contact tracing and allowwashes. This results in ing students to remain on Davis residents driving to campus and in extracurricnearby cities to meet their ular activities after close car washing needs.” contact with a case at The applicants add that school. Sparkles Car Wash in “It is prudent to wait sevWoodland estimates that eral weeks to see the impact of the contact tracing and quarantine change before changing school masking requirements,” Sisson said. As for concerns about the new Omicron sub variant, BA.2, the county is watching closely, Sisson said. From Page A1 “Compared to the original Omicron, BA.2 appears pandemic ends — the to be up to 50 percent more accused have speedy-trial infectious and has caused rights, victims need clolarge numbers of cases in sure, civil litigants must Europe, including Denhave their day in court mark,” Sisson said. and cases must be heard “Fortunately, BA.2 also while memories are fresh appears to be neutralized and witnesses are availby existing vaccines," she able. Jury trials must added. continue, perhaps with However, Sisson said, the occasional pause to “We don’t know yet if peoride out a spike in virus ple who were infected with transmission. the original Omicron will Health is as important be protected against reas justice, and I’m writinfection with BA.2. ing this column to let you “We’re watching the know what steps your numbers in Yolo County local court is taking to closely thanks to genotypkeep jurors safe. To start, ing data from the UC Davis we have worked closely Genome Center. To date, with our justice partners only a handful of BA.2 to streamline litigation specimens have been and settle cases whenever detected in Yolo County, possible. representing less than one Here in Yolo, we are percent of current cases.” fortunate to have strong — Reach Anne Ternusand cooperative relationships with our jury trial Bellamy at aternus@ justice partners, includdavisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at ing the district attorney, @ATernusBellamy. the public defender,
up to 40 percent of their clientele live in Davis and many of those not traveling elsewhere for express washes instead “wash their vehicle at home, resulting in significant water usage and untreated wash water ending up in our storm drains.” According to data from the applicants, washing a car at home uses up to 116 gallons of fresh water with no water recapture. A gas station car wash uses 50 to 75 gallons of water with up to 50 percent recapture and 50 percent recycled water use, while a full-service car wash uses 75 to 125 gallons of fresh water with up to 91 percent water recapture and up to 75 percent recycled water use. But the Davis Express Car Wash, they said, would use about 22 gallons of fresh water with 91 percent water recapture and 75 percent recycled water use.
TRIALS: County courts getting back to justice conflicts counsel, and the private bar represented by the Yolo County Bar Association. All are committed to settling cases when possible to avoid the need to summon jurors. But not every case can settle, and so the court has taken a number of precautions to reduce the risk of virus transmission at the courthouse. We have a mask requirement enforced throughout the courthouse. We have social distancing rules, applicable to the jury assembly room and each courtroom. We have a modern and spacious courthouse, with highcapacity ventilation systems. And we have judges and staff committed to keeping our jurors safe and keeping the wheels of justice moving. — Daniel Maguire is presiding judge of the Yolo Superior Court
Obituaries Jacqueline Couper
Nov. 1, 1929 — Dec. 30, 2021 Jacqueline (Jackie) Couper, 92, passed away Dec. 30, 2021, at Sierra Pointe Assisted Care in Roseville. She was born Nov. 1, 1929, in Bend, Ore., to Graydon and Auda McGreer. She graduated from Forest Grove High School in Forest Grove, Ore., where she met her husband Rollin Couper. Rollin and Jackie were married in 1948 and moved to Casper, Wyo., where Rollin worked in the oil industry. They had two children while living in Casper, Robin, born in 1950, and Kevin, born in 1953. Later in 1953, Rollin and Jackie moved to Moses Lake, Wash., to help with a dairy farm that her parents acquired after World War II. Rollin later started his career in the credit union business in Moses Lake and Jackie started working at the junior high school as the school secretary. In 1964 they relocated to Davis, where Rollin managed the Retail Clerks Credit Union in Sacramento. Jackie took a job as secretary at Davis Junior High School and later at Holmes Junior High, where she worked until she retired. Jackie was an avid reader and bridge card player. She
and Rollin travelled extensively, both before and after retirement. COUPER Jackie was also the family historian and authored several papers chronicling the family heritage. She loved to spend time with friends, children, and grandchildren. Jackie will be remembered by the many, many junior high students that she mentored during her career. Jackie was preceded in death by her husband Rollin. She is survived by her brother George McGreer (Margie) of Salem, Ore.; children, Robin Shurtz (Randy), of Cool and Kevin Couper (Beverly) of Grass Valley; grandchildren Diedre Shurtz of Cool, Lesley Williamson of Citrus Heights, Brian Couper (Lesli) of Granite Bay and Michael Couper of Upland; and great-grandchildren Noah Shultz, Tyler Williamson and Evelyn Couper. Graveside Memorial Services will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Davis Cemetery, 820 Pole Line Road in Davis.
James Roger Hull Jr.
March 20, 1937 — Jan. 3, 2022 James Roger Hull Jr. died peacefully on Jan. 3, 2022, at the age of 84. His wife Judy and daughter Abigail were by his side. Roger was born in Nashville, Tenn., on March 20, 1937, and moved to Darien, Conn., in 1939, where he grew up. Roger graduated from Amherst College in 1959 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1964. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church shortly thereafter, and from 1964 to 1988, served churches in the Bronx, Manhattan and San Francisco. Roger also earned his master of theology degree from Princeton in 1969 and his doctor of ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1984. From the beginning, Roger’s ministry was characterized by a deep commitment to social justice and outreach to the marginalized. In his first parish in the Bronx, he was instrumental in integrating the Parkchester Housing Development where he lived. While serving Broadway Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Roger initiated new outreach to students,
to the elderly and to neighborhood youths. During his tenure at Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, Roger was a catalyst for founding Larkin Street Youth Services, a multifaceted nonprofit serving youths experiencing homelessness. Following a serious illness in 1987, Roger decided to change career paths and move to Sonoma County. He joined forces with a seminary classmate whose family owned a winery in Healdsburg (Field Stone) and worked as Field Stone’s sales manager until his retirement in 2002. In his new life in Sonoma County, Roger remained connected to the Presbyterian church, helping found Windsor Presbyterian Church in 1990 and serving as parish associate there until 2015. Roger also loved serving for many years as a board member and then board chair of the Alliance Medical Center in Healdsburg, a federally funded community clinic serving mostly uninsured and underinsured farmworkers and families in northern Sonoma County. Roger and his wife of 54 years, Judy Hull, moved to
University Retirement Community in Davis in 2015. Roger HULL treasured his time in Davis, connecting with fellow fishermen, cyclists, readers, and seekers of a life of faith and service. He and his family are forever grateful for the wonderful support of other residents at URC as well as URC’s remarkable Memory Support and Skilled Nursing staff, particularly in Roger’s advancing decline over the last two years. Roger is survived by his wife, Judy, and his daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren: Deborah
Hull, and Rosalie and Annalisa Koren of Baltimore, Md.; Abigail, P.T., Sam and Tom Koenig of Davis; and Hannah, Tim, Peter and Claire Burbery of Huntington, WV. Roger also leaves behind a large and extraordinary circle of friends, whose love and steadfastness through thick and thin serve as a remarkable testimony to the beauty and sustaining power of friendship. A memorial service in celebration of Roger’s life will be held in the chapel of the church where he was ordained, Noroton Presbyterian in Darien, Conn., on March 19. Donations in Roger’s memory may be made to the Alliance Medical Center (https://alliancemed.org/).
From Page One
A8 THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
ARBORETUM: Construction set to get going in the fall From Page A1
UC Davis/Courtesy graphic
Phase 1 of the Arboretum redesign is complete. Phases 2 through 4 will be completed with support from this California Natural Resources Agency grant. maintenance in addition to community fundraising efforts for plants and programs that support the students who now help maintain the waterway. We’re thrilled that our early investment showed the state what was possible, and that they support our vision,” Ratliff said. Construction of the improvements will begin as soon as fall 2022, with the installation of recirculation pumps and wetland planting benches at Lake Spafford. In summer of 2023, the remainder of the waterway project will be
Meeting When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 What: The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden will host a virtual meeting via Zoom. Where: To register, visit https://arbor etum.ucdavis.edu.
constructed at the far west end, near the Oak Grove and Equestrian Center. Revegetation will begin at the end of 2023. Regular updates will be posted online once
construction begins. The public can stay up to date about his important project via the Arboretum and Public Garden's email newsletter, social media channels or by attending a virtual meeting on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. (see their website to register). The community can support the project through donations or by joining in a future community restoration event. Starting in the 1870s, to
prevent frequent flooding of local farms, the historic north fork of Putah Creek (including that area that is now the Arboretum Waterway) was diverted to the south of campus and the city of Davis. While many still refer to the Arboretum Waterway as Putah Creek, the water here no longer naturally connects to that system. Functionally, it’s the largest part of the UC Davis
METRO/Stock graphic
The habitat enhancement portion of the project includes restoration and revegetation work carried out in partnership with the California Conservation Corps, as well as the Center for Land-Based Learning’s SLEWS (Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship) program. “We look forward to completing this project with our community partners and our Learning by Leading internship program, as well as providing job training for our students and traditionally underserved communities” said Nina Suzuki, waterway steward. Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff also gave thanks to the California Natural Resources Agency for the funding support. "We successfully completed the first phase of the enhancement project in 2018, using campus funds managed for deferred
campus stormwater system — all rainfall eventually collects there before being pumped out to Putah Creek and flowing out to the Delta. Regionally, it serves as the centerpiece of the Arboretum, a campus and community amenity drawing those seeking recreation and relaxation as well as those interested in learning more about sustainable horticulture and environmental restoration.
YOLOleads
Black History Month honors Metro
America long has been described as a melting pot. African Americans have played a significant role in forming the fabric of the United States. The following is a small sampling of the myriad African American individuals past and present who have made their mark on American history. UC Davis/Courtesy photo
Metro/Stock photo
Learning by Leading waterway stewardship students restore plants in the waterway’s floating islands. The next phase of the Arboretum Waterway’s Flood Protection and Habitat Enhancement project will provide additional job training opportunities for students as well as traditionally underserved communities.
YOLOages
Looking for post-retirement job Metro
The notion of relaxing on a beach all day in one’s golden years is still a retirement dream for millions of adults across the globe. But many individuals also harbor a desire to keep working after retiring. Whether it’s a volunteering gig or a part-time job retirees are looking for, certain qualities can make an opportunity uniquely suited to a post-retirement job.
Flexibility Retirees may be looking to contribute to their communities or simply earn a little spending money, but they will likely still want the freedom to travel or spend time with their families whenever they choose. So flexibility is something to look for in a post-retirement job. This is what makes consultant work so attractive to retirees. In-person hours may not be required of consultants, who can then offer their input while visiting their grandchildren or traveling the world.
Socialization Though the ability to work from home can make it easier for retirees to earn some extra money, some seniors aren’t concerned about their finances but want to work so they can get out of the house. In that case, look for a job that offers the opportunity to socialize and meet new people. Socializing as an older adult is a great way to fend off loneliness. In addition, one study published in 2007 in the journal of the American Public Health Association found that social support networks have a positive effect on cognition among older adults. So a post-retirement job that enables retirees to socialize
could delay or reduce the severity of age-related cognitive decline.
Engagement A job seniors find engaging also is more likely to provide the types of benefits seniors are looking for in post-retirement work. For example, researchers at Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging and Work found that seniors who find a job or volunteering opportunity truly engaging are more likely to benefit psychologically from those experiences than those whose post-retirement work is not engaging. If seniors find themselves simply going through the motions with their post-retirement work, they can look for opportunities that they can be more enthusiastic about.
Pressure-free Regardless of what retirees did for a living prior to calling it a career, chances are they dealt with work-related stress. In fact, the American Stress Institute reports that 83 percent of workers in the United States suffer from work-related stress, while Statistics Canada reports that 62 percent of Canadian workers say work is their main source of stress. After a lifetime of confronting work-related stress, individuals who want to work in retirement should look for pressure-free opportunities. This is an important quality, as the ASI indicates that stress has been linked to increased rates of heart attack, hypertension and other disorders. The right post-retirement job may differ from what individuals looked for during their careers. Various qualities can combine to make for a post-retirement gig that benefits seniors in myriad ways.
Aretha Franklin
The world lost the “Queen of Soul” in 2018, but her influence and resounding voice live on. Her gospel-infused singing
was born out of church choirs, and her famous No. 1 hit “Respect” helped become a soundtrack not only for women, but also the civil rights movement.
Robert Abbott
Giving voice to African Americans in a different way, Robert Abbot was a pioneer of the black press.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, civil rights leader and adviser to five United States presidents. She used her voice to be a pioneer for racial progress.
DAVIS SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
B Section
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
More every day at BlueDevilHUB.com
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B2 B4 B7
Schedule controversy continues By Shira Kalish HUB Staff
DJUSD/photo
“I just can’t at this point see why I would be persuaded to change that proposal based on what hypothetically ... would be too difficult.” Betsy Hyder Trustee
During the last three Davis Joint Unified School District board meetings, dozens of students and teachers from both Davis High and DaVinci High stood before the school board to voice their discontent with the board’s decision to drastically change the secondary school bell schedule starting in the 2022-2023 school year. At the Feb. 3 board meeting, Trustee Lea Darrah proposed a motion to reconsider the decision, but the other four trustees voted against it. Over the course of several months, a committee of educators and other district staff members had been redesigning the school schedule to fit a California law requiring all high schools start the school day no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The high school day currently begins at 8:15 a.m. The district sent out a survey to teachers, students and parents that included drafts of possible new schedules. Schedule one was similar to the current schedule with two block days per week, modified slightly to fit the new law. Schedule two upped the amount of block days to three per week. A majority of survey respondents voted for schedule one. The school board approved schedule two on Dec. 16 — disregarding the committee’s recommendation and the results of the survey. On Jan. 18, an email was sent out to students explaining the reasoning behind
the school board’s decision. One of the reasons was that “student stress is decreased as a result of fewer seven period days each week.” However, students argued at the board meetings that the new schedule will only increase student stress since they have difficulty focusing through block periods.
“We do not want to be resilient. We want to be happy.” Anna Kelly, junior
“You all speak to us of mental health, of how your schedule will benefit us and lower our stress. Why do you not listen to us when we tell you that the opposite is true? This district has appalling rates of depression and anxiety … And I find it disheartening, frankly, that the primary solution appears to be changing the schedule to one that the student body agrees will only increase stress,” junior Anna Kelly said at the Feb. 3 board meeting. Students are not the only ones who are concerned that the new schedule will harm their mental health. DaVinci High math teacher Elizabeth Broughton said at the Jan. 20 board meeting that such a radical change to the schedule will be stressful and labor intensive for teachers. “Adopting schedule two requires a fifth
pivot in instructional practice since March 2020,” Broughton said. She said that such a drastic change forces teachers to create a “full-scale revision of all of our lessons and labs, semester plans, and course maps.” “Is the district prepared to compensate us for working through the summer of 2022? Asking teachers to give up significant personal time to rewrite their curriculum … demonstrates a serious misunderstanding of our current workload and teacher morale,” Broughton said. Trustee Betsy Hyder said at the Feb. 3 board meeting that since DJUSD has never tried a three-block schedule, the problems that students and teachers anticipate are “hypothetical.” She does not believe that she has seen sufficient evidence to convince her to change her decision. “I just can’t at this point see why I would be persuaded to change that proposal based on what hypothetically ... would be too difficult,” Hyder said. “Our planet is scorched, our firefighters can’t say it’s too hard. Our healthcare workers can’t say it’s too hard.” Kelly spoke against the expectation that students and staff should be ready to handle any changes that are thrown their way. “You call us resilient, strong, and ready to handle whatever challenges you make us face. I am confident in saying we are only resilient because you leave us no other option … We do not want to be resilient. We want to be happy,” Kelly said in her comments before the board.
Students compete at national level
Brennan Fuchslin/courtesy photo
Davis High sophomore Brennan Fuchslin (bottom left) poses with Davis Club teammates.
Ray Oldham/courtesy photo
Davis High senior Ray Oldham clears 6’8” for a personal high jump record.
Brennan Fuchslin excels in the pool Ray Oldham jumps to new heights By Declan Fee HUB Staff Davis High sophomore Brennan Fuchslin has been in the pool for six years now — winning games with the Davis Water Polo Club and winning high praise from teammates. Now he is competing at a national level with the 680 Drivers Water Polo Association for certain tournaments, on a team that was ranked 2nd in last year’s national rankings. Playing on the big stage brings a pretty large spotlight onto Fuchslin, but he is ready to deal with the pressure. “There is (pressure), but it’s always good to have a little bit of pressure. It’s better than just kinda floating around,” Fuchslin said. Fuchslin plays the wing position, meaning that he is offensive minded, contributing shots, and hopefully goals. His teammates greatly appreciate what he contributes to the team, and are excited when they have the opportunity to to be in the pool with him. “He is a stud in the water. When you throw the ball to him, you see some poor kid get (humiliated). It’s terrible but it’s awesome,” Barr said. DHS senior and teammate Jonny Vochatzer holds similar sentiments.
“Brennan is an awesome player with an immense amount of potential. He’s also just a really good teammate. (He’s) really fun to work with and we grew really close over the recent season,” Vochatzer said. Playing water polo means that strong swimming skills are necessary, so Fuchslin is also on the swim team, meaning that his days are packed. When he’s not playing water polo, he’s swimming, and when he’s not in the pool, he’s doing schoolwork. As he progresses through high school, though, it is becoming apparent that finding a school-sports balance is difficult, so Fuchslin is going to be, “tapering off swimming for a little bit,” to ensure that he can focus the necessary time and effort into school. While the future after high school remains uncertain, Fuchslin is fairly sure he would like to continue playing water polo for as long as he can. “I’d like to play in college, but who knows yet,” Fuchslin said. His teammates are sure that he has what it takes to take his playing wherever he wants. “I can see him becoming (an All American) … by senior season. He’s definitely going to be a leading force on the water polo team for the next two years,” Vochatzer said.
By Max Davis-Housefield HUB Staff “It feels like you’re flying when you’re up in the air,” Davis High senior Ray Oldham said. After jumping 6’8” at a track meet in Pittsburgh, California on Jan. 22, Oldham found himself ranked 1st in the state for high school high jumpers. He was also ranked in the top 10 nationally. Oldham started doing the high jump, a track and field event, in 7th grade, but didn’t get serious until his junior year. At the beginning of the year, he could jump 6 feet. He soon found himself progressing higher every week, jumping 6’6” by the end of the year. During the off season, Oldham trained “a ton.” He visited the gym three times per week, working tirelessly to build muscles with olympic style lifting and front squats. He worked especially on building his leg muscles, focusing on his hamstrings and quads. Ankle strength and hip flexibility are also very important for the high jump. “I’m not very flexible,” admitted Oldham. All of the training paid off when Oldham cleared 6’8” at the beginning of this year’s track season. Lou Payne coaches Oldham. “Ray has jumped a new personal record nearly every time he has competed at a meet,” he said.
“I’m a bit of a showman, so I like the crowd,” Oldham said. “I like exceeding expectations, stuff like that.” The next step for Oldham is holding his record. “Of course it is early season, there’s always better jumpers coming and the leading height in the state will of course increase as the season goes on,” he said. He wants to be ready for that. He’s going to work up to jumping higher, “cause that’s always the goal,” Oldham said. “The Davis High school record is something I’m definitely shooting for this year,” Oldham said. “The 6’9” school record set by Kyle Clancy in 2015 is in serious danger,” Payne said. When he’s not jumping or sprinting down the track, Oldham spends his time watching television, hanging out with his friends, and keeping up with his school work. However, “track really is my life right now,” Oldham said. Oldham is unsure what he is going to do after high school. He said he has had offers to jump for colleges, but he isn’t sure if that’s the right path for him. The one thing he knows is that he would like to keep doing the high jump.
sports THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE — WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
UCD men rally to top league-leading Hawaii By Bob Dunning Enterprise staff writer Elijah Pepper and Ezra Manjon keyed a dramatic second-half rally, as UC Davis roared back from a 14-point deficit to drop league-leading Hawaii, 68-65, in a Big West men’s basketball showdown Saturday night at University Credit Union Center. The win, UCD’s second straight, evens the Aggies at 3-3 in conference play. Hawaii falls to 6-2. “I’ve been saying all along that we can play with any team in this conference, and if we keep improving, we’re going to be right where we need to be in March,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les of his team’s spirited effort. “This was an example of a game where maybe we didn’t play our best, but we managed to figure out a way to win. We really ramped up the pressure in the second half after we fell behind. We had to if we were going to
win this game.” A back-and-forth first half ended in a 29-29 standoff, but Hawaii scored the first seven points of the second half and soon led 50-36 with 11:30 remaining in the game. “We got some big plays on both ends of the floor and were finally able to string together some stops to turn things around,” Les added. “And then Eli really got us going.” Christian Anigwe got the comeback started with a layup and free throw, followed by another short field goal to cut the deficit to 50-41, then Kane Milling hit a long-range bomb and Manjon had a pair of free throws and suddenly the Aggies were within five. Pepper, who at one point was just 2 of 10 from the field, then had consecutive steals that led to easy buckets as UCD pulled to within 51-50, much to the delight of the boisterous crowd of 1,102, the largest
of the season. Pepper then hit two straight 3-pointers, his specialty, for a 56-53 lead entering the final five minutes. However, Hawaii wasn’t about to go away. The Rainbow Warriors quickly took a 59-58 lead before a magical reverse layup by Manjon put the Aggies back up at 60-59. Another driving layup from Manjon gave the Aggies the lead for good at 64-62, but Hawaii had one more chance to win or tie after a Manjon free throw put UCD up 67-65 with 18 seconds remaining. But, as Noel Coleman released a 3-pointer that would have given Hawaii the lead, Ade Adebayo leaped for a perfectly timed block that sent to ball to teammate Caleb Fuller, who was fouled with five seconds left. Fuller made one of two free throws for a 68-65 lead, then Junior Madut’s desperation three-point attempt
Mike Bush/Enterprise photo
UC Davis guard Ezra Manjon (5) glides toward the basket in Saturday’s Big West Conference game against Hawaii. for Hawaii missed at the buzzer. “We didn’t have anything going for a while there in the second half,” Pepper noted
accurately. “We knew that we had to make a stand on defense, and when we did, that led to all those chances on offense.
The crowd was amazing and the energy they brought was really great for us.” Les, too, gave much credit to the home crowd. “It was awesome to have all those students back,” said the Aggie coach. “They’ve been through so much with all the testing and remote classes and quarantine. It really hasn’t been fair to them, but they really lit the place up tonight.” Manjon led all scorers with 20 points, while Pepper added 19 and Anigwe 16 as only five Aggies broke into the scoring column. UCD returns to action Thursday at UC San Diego in a game that will not count in the league standings. Then the Aggies travel to defending champion UC Irvine Saturday before returning for a four-game home stand, beginning with Cal Poly on Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. — Contact Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenter prise.net.
Blue Devil soccer hits a fever pitch DHS boys are Section No. 1; girls are No. 9
Girls second in Delta league after loss to Troubadours By Rebecca Wasik Enterprise correspondent
By Mike Bush Enterprise sports editor A new season begins Thursday for the Davis High boys soccer team. Then 24 hours later, the Davis High girls soccer squad will start its new season. On Tuesday, the SacJoaquin Section released playoff brackets for Divisions I-VI boys and girls. Davis (12-2 overall) captured the Delta League title with a 10-2 record and the top seed in Division I boys. “It’s very nice to have that,” said Davis head coach Alex Park. “As a team, we worked really hard to make sure that we got the (No.) 1 seed. Hard work paid off.” On Thursday at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium at 6 p.m., Davis will host No. 16-seed Chavez of Stockton. Chavez (8-6-1) was third in the San Joaquin Athletic Association with a 6-4 mark. The Blue Devils, Park pointed out, will not look past the Titans. “Just like in any other sport, anything can happen, right?” Park said. Preparing for Thursday’s playoff opener is no different than how the Blue Devils practiced all season. “The whole season was a preparation,” Park said. “We want to make sure that we stay healthy, trying to make sure that COVID didn’t hit us really hard.” During the season, Davis was hit hard with a large number of injuries and players missing games because of COVID-19. But that is in the rear view for the Blue
Mike Bush/Enterprise file photo
Blue Devil Simon Vaca-Lorenzi (17) dribbles upfield against Jesuit earlier this season. Devils, as they prepare for the Titans. “We talked about peaking at the right time,” Park said. “We’re playing well the last five games.” In those games, Davis has scored 22 goals and has only given up one. Jesuit scored that one goal at the Marauders’ field in Carmichael on Feb. 1, which led to Jesuit posting a 1-0 win over the Blue Devils. “We try to stay focused, try to make sure that we’re playing well, trying to stay in shape, trying to stay healthy,” Park said. The Chavez-Davis winner will play the No. 9 Franklin of Elk Grove-No. 8 Oak Ridge winner on Tuesday, Feb. 15. Other teams in the same bracket as Davis, Chavez, Franklin and Oak Ridge are No. 12 McClatchy of Sacramento at No. 5 Tokay of Lodi, and No. 13 Folsom at
No. 4 Modesto. In the opposite bracket, No. 3 Jesuit will host No. 14 Enochs of Modesto, No. 11 Franklin of Stockton makes the cross-town trek to play at No. 6 Lincoln, No. 10 Edison of Stockton at No. 7 Bella Vista of Fair Oaks and No. 15 Pleasant Grove at No. 2 Whitney of Rocklin.
Girls The Davis girls soccer team (6-2-5) earned the No. 9 seed. On Friday, the Blue Devils, who took second place in league, travel within Yolo County to play at No. 8 River City of West Sacramento. River City (12-5-3) took second place in the Metro Conference with a 9-2-1 record. The Davis-River City winner advances to take on the No. 16 Stagg of StocktonNo. 1 Oak Ridge on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
Other teams in the same bracket as Davis, River City, Stagg and Oak Ridge are No. 12 Pleasant Grove at No. 5 Inderkum of Sacramento, and No. 13 Franklin of Elk Grove at No. 4 Folsom. In the other bracket, No. 14 Monterey Trail of Elk Grove plays at No. 3 St. Francis, No. 11 Lincoln of Stockton at No. 9 Enochs of Modesto, No. 10 Tracy at No. 7 Turlock, and No. 15 Edison at No. 2 McClatchy of Sacramento.
The Davis High girls soccer team’s regular season came to a rough close with a loss to the St. Francis Troubadours on Monday at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium. Davis (6-2-5 overall, 5-2-5 league), awaiting its seed placement in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, was looking to get one last regular-season win in the books over St. Francis (14-4-4, 9-2-1). In the end, the Troubadours were victorious at 5-1. “The girls played with a lot of pride today,” said Davis head coach Sara Stone. “They tried to be the first to every ball, but they had problems keeping the ball out of the net. (St. Francis) had about seven
or eight shots and scored five, so that ratio hurt us.” Eight minutes into the first half, Micaela Romo sunk the Troubadours’ first goal of the night with a shot that went over the Davis goalie’s head. Ten minutes later, Mika Shinoda scored St. Francis’ second goal of the night on a shot that went into a wide-open goal. At the 20-minute mark, Davis kicked a shot on goal that was stopped by the Troubadour’s goalie. Two minutes later, the Blue Devils missed another shot to the left of the goal. After Shinoda scored her second goal of the night that went through Davis goalie’s legs to make it 2-0, Davis got another shot on goal that was stopped on a
See GIRLS, Page B3
Title games On Tuesday, the Sacramento Republic FC announced that Heart Health Park will serve as the home for section’s D-I boys and girls championship games, which will be played on Thursday, Feb. 24. The girls championship
See SECTION, Page B3
Mike Bush/Enterprise file photo
Davis High’s Rebeca Blum (7) keeps the soccer ball in front of her while trying to get away from Pleasant Grove players in a Delta League game earlier this year.
Davis High boys basketball team goes cold, falls to Franklin By Lev Farris Goldenberg Enterprise correspondent Some variables are uncontrollable, especially in basketball. For the Davis High boys basketball team, its 53-38 loss — make it seven straight — to Franklin in a Delta League game at the North Gym on Monday night was a study in doing little things right and still coming up empty. The Blue Devils (6-15 overall, 2-9 league) limited Franklin shooters early and held a slim lead after one quarter. Younes Chantit was the control variable — as he has been these past few weeks — bucketing a
team-high 13 points and three 3-pointers for the Blue Devils. But some variables are just out of their hands. It did not help when the shooting went cold for Davis in the second quarter — it managed just four points in the period. Meanwhile, the Wildcat shooters got hot, hitting three treys. With the Devils playing from behind in the second half, the uncontrollable variable was energy, and more specifically, a lack of it. Davis has played a grueling six games in the last 12 days, with barely a moment to come up for air. “We want to play more uptempo, try to get them playing on their
heels, and it just seemed like we didn’t have the energy today,” Davis head coach Dan Gonzalez said. “Not to make excuses, but it’s been tough playing three games a week … We’ve gotten the short end of the stick as far as scheduling goes.” With rescheduled games and referee shortages, the cards simply haven not been in the Devils’ favor as they fell out of the playoff race. The locals’ last win came against Franklin (9-16, 2-8) on Jan. 19, when the Blue Devils ripped the Wildcats 71-56. But the marathon of a schedule it has faced since left Davis running on empty in Monday’s loss.
Chantit & Co. could not carry the blue-and-white to a comeback win on Friday. Colin Walsh chipped in 8 points, Jackson Isidor added 6, and Zane Pickus finished with 4. Keandre Burns, Will Ackerman and Jordan Sacramento each added buckets for Davis. “I think the second half of (Delta) league has been great with what I’ve seen from Younes,” Gonzalez told The Enterprise. “He’s been kind of our energy guy … We’ve needed other guys to step up and Younes has done that.” Chantit is one of nine graduating players that will be celebrated at Friday’s Senior Night, where Davis hosts Pleasant Grove
(15-11, 3-7) in what will be the last game of the season. Gonzalez knows the Blue Devils will want to finish the season on a high note. They have three days to rest and rejuvenate — and practice — before Senior Night. “Knowing these guys, we’re gonna come out ready on Friday,” Gonzalez said. “They have a lot of pride and I know what they can do, they know what they can do. Being that things have against us schedule-wise this year, they don’t want to end a season like this, so I think we’ll be ready and excited to play that last game.” — Follow Lev Farris Goldenberg on Twitter at @levgoldenberg.
Sports
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 B3
Davis grapplers rule Delta By Mike Bush Enterprise sports editor ELK GROVE — Davis High wrestling head coach John Rosendale has never had a Blue Devil wrestler win their weight class in the five years he’s been in charge of the program. Then the Blue Devils hit the jackpot on Saturday. A combined six grapplers won their weight classes at the Delta League Tournament inside Cosumnes Oaks’ gym. Three boys and three girls who pinned down titles. “These are my first Delta League champions,” Rosendale said. “It feels really good to see the kids kind of recover from COVID ... there was still, when can we practice and where can we practice, and there’s protocol for this and protocols for that. Earlier this season, there were a lot of ups and downs. We really answered today. Six kids in the finals; three champion boys and three champion girls.” On top of that, all 14
Davis wrestlers, boys and girls who competed at the league meet advance into postseason. This Saturday, Davis boys will compete in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I tournament at Del Oro High of Loomis. This year’s divisional tournament is only one day. James Davis (184pounds) was one of the three Blue Devils winning their weight classes. Davis, a senior, won his only match before reaching the championship match against Pleasant Grove’s grappler in the weight class. The match was knotted at 0-0 entering the third round. But Davis recorded two escapes, which added to a 2-0 victory. This was Davis’ second time this season he faced his opponent. The Blue Devil also won by a 5-4 decision. “It was a really close match,” said Rosendale of Davis’ championship match. “James is a really strong wrestler. He’s one of the most physical wrestlers
I’ve ever coached. He’s really aggressive. He’s good head position, and in a combat sport, you want to make sure that your body is in a position to score. James is really good at that.” Aoui Pacheco-Delfino (197), a senior, won his championship match by pin with 1:21 left in the third round. A.J. Hasson, a sophomore who was started at tight end and defensive end on the Davis High football team last fall, went 2-0 that included winning his championship match by pin with 1:30 in the first round. Hasson faced his championship foe from Franklin for a second time this season, with the Wildcat winning their first meeting. “I was especially proud of A.J.,” said Rosendale. Rosendale further stated that Hasson showed signs of growth in practices during the season. “It was nice to be able to work with A.J. in the room and say, ‘A.J., let’s make a
Mike Bush/Enterprise photo
Davis High wrestler Paco Castillo-Brown looks at one of the referees in his 172-pound title match at the Delta League Tournament at Cosumnes Oaks High on Saturday. couple of adjustments,’ ” said Rosendale. Other Davis wrestlers who competed in championship matches were T.J. Meuller (134), second place and went 1-1; Ian Greenway (162), second place and also going 1-1 and Paco Castillo-Brown (172), second and going 1-1. All three Blue Devils are sophomores. Taking third place for Davis were Sam Reising (140). Josh Prudhomme (128) took fourth place. Wyatt Bluecoat (122) and Christian Merola (154)
each took fifth place. Bluecoat is a sophomore and Merola a senior.
Girls Brooklin Cienfegos (113) joined Blue Devil teammates Kelsey Bordios (126) and Avangeline Turner (143) won their weight classes. Cienfegos, a freshman, went 2-0 at the league tournament. Bordios, a junior, also went 2-0. Turner, a sophomore, only needed one match to win her class. Blue Devil wrestlers
taking second place were Juana Peralta (108) and Andrea Gonzalez (118). Peralta, a junior, went 1-1 at the league tournament. Gonzalez, a sophomore, also went 1-1. The five wrestlers advance to the North regional qualifier tournament, which includes Sac-Joaquin and Northern sections. This tournament will begin on Friday and run through Saturday at Natomas High of Sacramento. The tournament will begin 11 a.m. both days. The medal round is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
SECTION: New partnership GIRLS: Team looks to be ‘playoff ready’ From Page B2 game will kick off at 4:30 p.m., and the boys’ game at 7:30 p.m. Between the title games, the Republic FC’s Academy program will showcase many of the region’s top players competing in MLS NEXT Pro, where four of the club’s teams sit at the top of the table in their respective age division and each squad remains undefeated in league play. “We’re excited to create a new
partnership with the Sac-Joaquin Section and provide student-athletes with a memorable opportunity to play on the region’s premier soccer stage at Heart Health Park for these showcase matches,” said Republic FC president and general manager Todd Dunivant in a press released on Tuesday. — Contact Mike Bush at mike@davisenterprise.net. Follow on Twitter: @MBDavis Sports.
From Page B2 dive from St. Francis’ goalie. With less than two minutes left in the first half, Jaycee DeFazio of the Troubadours secured St. Francis’ fourth goal of the night with a shot that went through the Blue Devil goalie’s legs once again. Despite the ball being kept on Davis’ side of the field for most of the first half, the Blue Devils had a hard time executing a goal. In the 45th minute, the Blue
Devils scored their first and only goal of the night when Una Keller scored on a penalty kick. At 58 minutes, St. Francis had a shot on goal that was saved by a nice stop from Davis’ goalie. After three shots over the goal by Davis, St. Francis added its final goal of the game at the 75-minute mark on a penalty kick. Monday’s match marked the final regular-season game for Davis High seniors Harper Burnham, Chloe Barr, Rebecca Blum,
Kiana Bagheban and Samantha Foster. Regardless of their loss to the Troubadours, the Blue Devils are looking forward to participating in the playoffs. “We’re super excited,” said Stone. “This past week was tough for us, so it kind of got forgotten that we were in second place in the league, which is a huge honor. We’re getting healthy and we’re playoff ready.” — Follow Rebecca Wasik on Twitter: @BeccaFromTheBay.
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Commentary
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022
City’s fix on Mace is bad medicine
Why single- B payer health care failed By Roger Niello Special to CalMatters
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he state of California is experiencing record-high budget surpluses while it also imposes among the highest tax burdens in the nation on its citizens. What is the Democrats’ response right out of the gate to begin the 2022 legislative session? Assembly members Ash Kalra and Alex Lee proposed the largest tax increase in our state’s history to pay for a complete government takeover of the health-care industry with Assembly Bill 1400. The measure to fund the Guaranteed Health Care for All bill, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 11, was estimated to raise taxes by $163 billion. While the measure may have faltered as many Democrats feared the political consequences of a “aye” vote, this issue is not going away. Organized labor appears to be making single-payer a litmus test for their support, and I imagine we will continue to see attempts to hand over health care to the government. Until then, it is worth examining why single-payer failed and look at the issue with the clear eyes that come from legislative defeat. The unprecedented breadth and depth of the tax increase was economically tone deaf. Given the constitutional amendment would have to go before the voters, it was almost as if Kalra and Lee wanted the voters to reject the ballot measure. Their proposal had something for just about everybody to dislike. It included increased taxes on businesses — a gross receipts tax, imposed whether the business makes a profit or not — increased payroll taxes on employers and employees, and increased personal income taxes on individuals.
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f enacted, California would have the highest marginal tax rate in the nation — almost 16% vs. the next highest of 11%. California currently has the 4th highest corporate tax rate in the country. Seemingly not wanting to be inconsistent, Kalra’s and Lee’s proposed gross receipts tax would likely result in our state’s tax burden on corporations also being the highest in the nation. Conversely, U-Haul says California remains the top state in the country for out-migration. Demand is so high they simply ran out of moving trucks to meet demand for outbound soon-to-be-former Californians. They have plenty, though, for those relative few who want to move to California. With cost of living the primary motivator for those fleeing our state, massive tax increases seem to only accelerate that alarming trend. And all of this to pay for government-run health care, even though the vast majority of Californians already have health coverage. Kalra and Lee presented a solution looking for a problem — one that would disrupt an entire industry to assist a small minority of the population. There is no clearer example of legislation in recent memory that uses a sledgehammer where a scalpel is more appropriate. Those of you out there who believe that a state government with a record of mismanagement in such areas as the Employment Development Department, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the high-speed rail project and numerous technology project failures can effectively manage your health care, please raise your hand. Kalra’s and Lee’s proposed government takeover of health care to be paid for by the highest tax increase in California history was an inauspicious beginning to the 2022 legislative season. I worry for what comes next. — Roger Niello is a CPA and smallbusiness owner. He formerly served as a member of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the California State Assembly, and president & CEO of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. He wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s Capitol works and why it matters.
efore medicine was guided by science, it was not uncommon that the remedy was worse than the disease. This aphorism fits the first fix on Mace Boulevard. It created more problems than it solved. On Jan. 20, the city of Davis revealed its longawaited “Mace Boulevard Redesign” in a public workshop. The “solution” presented is supposed to answer the concrete problem the city created a few years ago. Unfortunately, what they are going to do — make Mace two lanes in each direction without dealing with the dangerous on-street curbs they installed — won’t solve anything. In fact, it might make matters more malign. Before 2019, Davis concluded the concern from Cowell Boulevard to Montgomery Avenue was too many cars traveling too fast, making it too dangerous for children to get to and from Pioneer Elementary School, two blocks east of Mace. Compared with other K-6 campuses in Davis, a smaller share of Pioneer pupils were walking or riding bikes. The city did not consider that may have been due to a larger share of Pioneer kids living farther away from their school. The city thought three things would solve this problem: reduce the automobile travel lanes in each direction from two to one, in order to slow traffic; put corner bulbouts in to lessen the distance to walk across the street; and install raised concrete curbs to separate the bike lanes from the travel lanes. Almost immediately, many residents in that area and other users of Mace realized the city made a mistake. Once the travel lanes fell from two each way to one, traffic jams ensued. Once the city put in those massive bulb-outs, cars began crashing into them. Once the city installed on-street curbs, cyclists began hitting them and going to the hospital. The constant car crashes caused by the city’s cure have eased since large, ugly, orange blocks were put up to alert drivers that there are unexpected obstructions. But the other two issues remain. Certainly, having only one lane in each direction slows automotive speed. With an extra lane, traffic will move more efficiently. This issue has been compounded by traffic apps that direct drivers to bypass Davis
Bypass a toll road. Charge each car heading east $10 from noon to 8 pm and afternoon congestion on the freeway would disappear.
T when Interstate-80 is clogged. On Thursdays and Fridays for several hours, eastbound travelers take Tremont Road to Mace Boulevard and proceed east on Chiles Road toward the Causeway. The solution suggested on Jan. 20 — to make Mace a four-lane road again — would likely reduce that congestion. It will also let cars go faster and imperil children crossing Mace. In my opinion, that’s not a worthwhile trade-off. Moreover, the congestion on eastbound I-80 is not something the city can solve. It’s due in part to the freeway narrowing from five lanes to four to three east of Old Davis Road. CalTrans plans to alleviate this bottleneck by adding a fourth lane through the Causeway. Once done, that will improve traffic flow toward West Sacramento and significantly help our air quality in Davis. In the meantime, if the state wants to reduce the number of drivers crossing the causeway in the afternoons on Thursdays and Fridays, it could make the bridge over the
Our last best hope? We need to remember that there is an “impractical” Constitutional remedy for the Senate filibuster impasse and the wide array of efforts that have been implemented (or are planned) to restrict voting and voter rights at the state level. This solution is “impractical” only because the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that the clause in the Constitution that could help us in the current crisis is not “justiciable.” That is, the Supreme Court long ago ruled that it would not decide cases based on this clause, a clause that anti-slavery advocate Sen. Charles Sumner (Mass.) once described as the “sleeping giant” of the Constitution. This clause, in Article 4, section 4 of the Constitution, mandates that the “United States shall guarantee to every state in the union a republican form of government.” Perhaps with Justice Stephen Breyer’s announced retirement, the issue of
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The new bike lane striping on West Covell Boulevard across from The Marketplace Shopping Center. There is no good reason not to do this on Mace Boulevard.
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he city plan also calls for experimenting with traffic lights at Tremont Road and Road 104 and at Mace and Montgomery. The idea is in part to disincentivize the Tahoe-bound from leaving the interstate in Dixon; and in part to time the signals so drivers arrive in smaller bunches. I’m skeptical this will do much. The problem is the bottleneck on I-80, which can cause traffic to stop altogether on the freeway. A red light on Tremont won’t change that reality on I-80. The most shocking part of the city’s suggested solution is what it does not do: The plan is to leave the concrete curbs and bulb-outs in place. Their belief is that a “protected” lane gives people the feeling that they are safer due to the concrete. I’ve written about his before. It’s all an illusion. The curbs make riding a bicycle on Mace much more dangerous. What’s hard to understand is why the city and its consultants don’t look at other major streets in Davis — that work well — for the right answer to separate cars from bikes on Mace. This is not that hard. We have the answer on Covell Boulevard
increasing the size of the Supreme Court can again become the focus of attention. And while there is still time, a reconstituted and expanded Supreme Court can revisit the issue of the justiciability of the republican form of government guarantee. Once it holds the clause justiciable, the Supreme Court can then interpret and apply this guarantee against the offending states so as to halt and reverse the un-republican actions that have so limited and perverted the voting franchise of targeted portions of the citizens in those states. “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.” (Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address). Andrew Majeske Davis
Go beyond plastics Marine lives, so stunning and beautiful. Layers of plastics piled up in the ocean. Millions of lives were harmed,
Speak out President The Hon. Joe Biden, The White House, Washington, D.C., 20500; 202-456-1111 (comments), 202-456-1414 (switchboard); email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
U.S. Senate Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3841; email: http://feinstein. senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me Sen. Alex Padilla, B03 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510;
and parts of B Street and F Street. Go to The Marketplace Shopping Center on West Covell. Davis recently reconstructed, repaved and repainted the block from Highway 113 to Sycamore Lane and a bit further east. The eastbound bike lane is now separated from the travel lane with two thick stripes and hatched section in between. That creates a 5-foot-9 partition — I measured it. There is no good reason not to do this on Mace Boulevard. In fact, there is more room to accommodate a super-striped separation. An added benefit is where drivers are turning right — such as from northbound Mace to eastbound Cowell, the bike lane could be painted to the left of the right turn lane. Davis has done this everywhere else in town at intersections where there is room. It is far safer than forcing hook-turns. We learned this lesson from the tragic 1997 death of cyclist Ellie Gerhardy. Hopefully no one else has to die before Davis determines that its prescription is perilous, its remedy worse than the disease. — Rich Rifkin is a Davis resident; his column is published every other week. Reach him at Lxartist@ yahoo.com.
including human kind. This issue of unnecessary plastics ending up in the ocean is no longer a topic that certain people have to be aware of. Indeed, it’s a global issue, and we can start doing actions and lead others to act. Plastics turn into microplastics, and it takes hundreds of years to break down. Microplastics enter the food chain and cause dangerous consequences, which creates toxic chemicals and produce greenhouse gasses. Personally, I did online shopping often, and it always came along with pretty but unnecessary plastics within the packages. The solution to this issue is easy, to phase out these plastics. We have to ban the unnecessary plastics in daily lives now, from convenience stores to e-commerce. People must be aware of plastic pollution to ensure our society can develop continuously. Not only for the good of marine lives and environments, but also for ourselves. Monica Chao UC Davis
202-224-3553; email: padilla.senate. gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
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Rep. John Garamendi (3rd District), 2368 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202-225-1880. District office: 412 G St., Davis, CA 95616; 530-753-5301; email: visit https://garamendi.house.gov/contact/ email
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He loves her as a mother — not as a wife Dear Annie: I have a child with a woman who is 20 years younger than me. Having a child was not planned. I’m grateful for our child, but I’m not in love with her mother. I’ve tried to explain to her that I love her for the mother she is but that I’m not in love with her. She found old letters in my closet from an ex that I was in love with over six years ago, and she wonders why I can’t love her the way I did my ex. I tried explaining to her that she isn’t my ex and what we have is completely different from that relationship. Shortly after our daughter’s birth, things got rough between us, and she took my daughter and everything I’d bought for her. I did not get to see her for two months. Through a lot of court and financial upsets, I finally got to see my daughter. We now live together, just so that I can see my daughter and know that she’s taken care of — but I’m still not in love with her mother, nor do I trust her.
How do you get someone to understand you’re not in love with them and it’s best to go our separate ways coparenting our child than to live in a distrustful, jealousy-filled environment? Avoiding each other isn’t a healthy environment in which to raise our daughter. — Loving Father Dear Loving Father: Everyone comes into our life for a reason. Some are meant to stay forever. Some are meant to teach us something. Some are meant to offer companionship or love or guidance. You share a child with this woman, and that is some-
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 B5
thing very special. But it doesn’t mean she is a good match as your life partner and vice versa. If she doesn’t understand that message, it’s best to speak with a couples therapist or mediator to help you two communicate. And do let her know that although she is not the love of your life, she has given you something no one else can: your daughter.
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B8 THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
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A Citrus Circuits RoboCamps camper celebrates a match victory.
Registration open for Citrus Circuits summer RoboCamps Special to The Enterprise The local high school robotics team, Citrus Circuits, will host eight weeks of its RoboCamps this summer for students entering fourth through eighth grade. There will be eight sessions in-person with one “On-Lime'' week. Camps encourage a collaborative learning environment led by experienced Citrus Circuits students and adult mentors. Registration for the camps will open at 7 p.m. March 3 and is intended for students who wish to participate in hands-on, interactive STEM activities. The camps will be held from June 13 to Aug. 5 and run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday. The in-person camps will have two Introductory/ Intermediate sessions where no robotics experience is necessary and a structured curriculum is provided. Three Intermediate/Advanced sessions are available for students who already have experience with VEX robots, and provide campers with more freedom in designing, building, and programming. There will also be a Girl Powered session and two
Advanced Programming sessions. The Girl Powered week is run by an all-female camp staff and is intended to introduce girls to STEM with a structured curriculum similar to the introductory camps. The Advanced Programming session is for students who already have experience with VEX. Emphasis will be placed on programming challenges where campers learn to implement the ROBOTC language. The “On-Lime” camp will be an Introductory/ Intermediate session run through Zoom from June 20 to June 24. Virtual participating students will need a computer, internet connection, and an open area at home to work. The fee for each camp is $275, and each student can only register for one session of camp. Full and half scholarships are available upon registration. For more information go to www.citruscircuits.org/ robocamps. For questions regarding the camp and registration, contact davisyouthrobotics@gmail.com. For more information regarding the Citrus Circuits robotics team, visit www.citruscircuits.org.
UCD: Bile acids may help psoriasis patients Special to The Enterprise SACRAMENTO — Taking bile acids or treatments that regulate their production levels may help control inflammation caused by psoriasis, a chronic skin condition, a UC Davis Health study has found. Psoriasis, which causes itchy and painful scales and red patches on the skin, is linked to the body’s immune system. The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, suggests that bile acids may treat psoriasis by stopping immune T cells from producing a proinflammatory protein known as IL-17A and blocking the immune cell movement to the inflammation site. “Our studies showed that bile acids significantly inhibited skin inflammation without causing apparent systemic adverse effects,” said Sam T. Hwang, professor and chair of dermatology at UCD Health and senior author of the study.
Bile acids Bile acids are produced in the liver and secreted into the first part of the small intestine to help digest food. While most bile acids are reabsorbed into the liver, a small portion escapes into the colon. There, they get transformed by the gut microbiota into secondary bile acids including lithocholic acid (LCA), deoxycholic acid (DCA) and 3-oxoLCA. Bile acids are important in lipid absorption and cholesterol balance in the blood. Previous studies have identified their role as key signaling molecules in regulating skin immunity and inflammatory diseases.
Help in mice Interleukin-23 (IL-23) is a protein generated by the immune cells. It is responsible for many inflammatory autoimmune reactions, including psoriasis. In one of their studies, the researchers injected mice with IL-23 DNA to induce a response mimicking psoriasis-like skin disease. They found that compared to mice receiving a placebo treatment, all the mice treated by any of the three secondary bile acids had less redness, scaling and ear thickness. The LCA bile acids showed the greatest improvement in ear swelling.
Immune response In this new study, the researchers found that in the IL-23 mouse model, keratinocytes (the dominant cells in the outer skin layer) served as a major source of CCL20 in the skin. They found that LCA diminished the production of the proinflammatory protein IL-17A, prevented skin cells from producing CCL20, and blocked the development of psoriasis. “Giving bile acids or using treatments that regulate the work of bile acids may be beneficial for controlling psoriatic inflammation,” said Zhenrui Shi, visiting assistant researcher in the UC Davis Department of Dermatology and co-lead author on the study. “Our work provides an explanation for several prior small pilot studies of oral bile acid supplementation in psoriatic patients that resulted in improvement of their psoriasis.” — UC Davis Health News
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022