The Davis Enterprise Wednesday, February 16, 2022

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enterprise THE DAVIS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Shooting suspect has violent past, records show

Masked-up students at Rio Tierra Junior High School in Sacramento build a portable air cleaner using a box fan and high efficiency air filters in September. State officials announced this week that the mask mandate in California schools would continue through the end of the month.

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

Paul Fortunato, UC Davis/Enterprise file

State to keep school mask mandate Rule in place through February By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer California will continue to require face masks indoors at K-12 schools for now, but will reassess in two weeks whether the mask mandate will remain in place beyond February. That reassessment will focus on COVID-19 case rates, test

positivity, hospitalizations and vaccination rates. While new cases and test positivity have plummeted in recent weeks from a high in mid-January, vaccination rates among children have not changed much in recent months. According to state data, just 36 percent of 5- to 11-year-olds in Yolo County are fully vaccinated and 55 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds. But during a press briefing

Monday, California’s secretary of health and human services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, said there is no threshold for what vaccination rates — or other criteria -- must be before lifting the mask mandate in schools. “We don’t plan at this point to set a threshold above which or below which something happens. What I think is the real opportunity today is to explain to Californians where we are with childhood vaccinations, that we have a long way to go,

and to work with families and communities to get that number up. “It is an important — one of the most important — mitigation approaches that we’ve seen, and I’d certainly hope as a pediatrician those numbers go up, but without sticking a number out there,” Ghaly said. “I think right now the point is, as we anticipate changing, now is great time to get vaccinated.”

See MASK, Page A3

Animal-rights group sues UCD over monkeys By Caleb Hampton

could be implanted in their brains as part of Neuralink’s development of a “brain-machine interface” the committee said.

Enterprise staff writer The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit doctors’ group, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week, alleging that UC Davis’ primate research center violated the Animal Welfare Act by conducting “invasive and deadly brain experiments” on 23 monkeys. The experiments were carried out through a partnership with Neuralink, a company owned by Elon Musk, which paid UC Davis $1.4 million to fund the research. According to the Physicians Committee, which opposes the use of animals for medical research, their complaint is based on hundreds of pages of documents the group obtained through a 2021 public records

VOL. 124 NO. 20

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UC Davis/Enterprise file

A rhesus monkey eats a zucchini in the outdoor space of the California Primate Center at UC Davis. lawsuit. The documents revealed that monkeys at UC Davis’ primate center had parts of their skulls removed so that electrodes

WEATHER Thursday: Sunny and cool. High 67. Low 39.

“The Physician Committee points out in its complaint that Neuralink and UC Davis staff failed to provide dying monkeys with adequate veterinary care, used an unapproved substance known as ‘Bioglue’ that killed monkeys by destroying portions of their brains, and failed to provide for the psychological wellbeing of monkeys assigned to the experiment,” the group said in a press release. Contrary to the press release, BioGlue, a surgical adhesive, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2001.

WOODLAND — Prior to his arrest in connection with two road-rage shootings last week in Davis, Andre Chevill Wilson faced charges stemming from two Alameda County homicides, according to court records. Wilson was conWILSON victed of voluntary manslaughter in Facing charges 1991, and a murder arrest in 2010 resulted in a plea agreement in which he admitted to a lesser charge of assault with a firearm, online records show. His status as a convicted felon prohibited Wilson from possessing guns, but records show he was arrested for that offense in 1994 and 1998, both cases resulting in state prison time. Authorities say Wilson unlawfully carried guns again last Thursday when he allegedly used an AR-15 assault rifle to open fire on two motorists on Mace Boulevard, following a reported road-rage altercation

See SUSPECT, Page A3

School board turns focus to property issues By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer

UCD confirmed in a statement

Thursday, Feb. 17, marks another DJUSD school board meeting. Making up the agenda are reoccurring topics, various approvals as well as updates on pertinent happenings throughout the school district. Heading the list is the adoption of the amended California Environment Quality Act notice of exemption for the Davis Senior High School aquatic center, STEM building and Career Technical Education projects. CEQA requires the district to adhere to specific environmental regulations and documentation based on the specific nature of each proposed project. Back on May 6, 2021, the board had adopted a CEQA

See MONKEYS, Page A3

See BOARD, Back page

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