Daily Republic, Friday, April 15, 2022

Page 1

Focus of Benicia fire turns to cleanup, reconstruction A3

Dumdumaya says Augusta trip ‘a great memory’ B1

FRIDAY | April 15, 2022 | $1.00

DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.

Special Assembly district election official with county certifications Todd R. Hansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic file (2021)

California Assemblywoman Lori Wilson is seen as she campaigns for office in Suisun City, Dec. 22, 2021.

Musk launches hostile takeover bid of Twitter

FAIRFIELD — Lori Wilson has been on the job as the newest member of the California Assembly since April 6 when she took her oath of office from Speaker Anthony Rendon. She even partici-

INSIDE State treasurer to appear at Williams’ meet-and-greet. Page A4.

pated in a brief legislative session April 7 from her assigned chamber seat, Chair 63. The Assembly has been

in recess since then, so Wilson has been using her down time to be trained on the rules and procedures of the Legislature, including the dos and don’ts of her district budget, and, of course, fixing up her office space in Room 5150 in the new Swing Site on O Street as the Capitol annex offices go

through a renovation. “The great thing about being sworn in right before recess is I have been able to be trained. So I am getting up to speed,” Wilson said in a phone interview Thursday, when her election was officially certified in Solano, See Election, Page A8

COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Tribune Content Agency Elon Musk has made a controversial offer to buy Twitter Inc., saying the company has extraordinary potential and he is the person to unlock it. The world’s richest person will offer $54.20 per share in cash, representing a 54% premium over the Jan. 28 closing price and a valuation of about $43 billion. The social media company’s shares soared 18% in pre-market trading. Musk, 50, announced the offer in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, after turning down a potential board seat at the company. The billionaire, who also controls Tesla Inc., first disclosed a stake of about 9% on April 4. Tesla shares fell about 1.5% in premarket trading on the news. Twitter said that its board would review the proposal and any response would be in the best interests of “all Twitter stockholders.” The bid is the latest saga in Musk’s volatile relationship with Twitter. The executive is one of the platform’s most-watched firebrands, often tweeting out memes and taunts to @elonmusk’s more than 80 million followers. He has been outspoken about changes he’d like to consider imposing at the social media platform, and the company offered him a seat on the board following the announcement of his stake, which made him the largest individual shareholder. After his stake became public, Musk immediately began appealing to fellow users about prospective moves, from turning Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter and adding an edit button for tweets to granting automatic verification marks to premium users. One tweet suggested Twitter might be dying, given that several celebrities with high numbers of followers rarely tweet. Unsatisfied with the influence that comes with being Twitter’s largest investor, he has now launched a full takeover, one of the few individuals who can afford it outright. He’s currently worth about $260 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, compared with Twitter’s market valuation of about $37 billion. In a letter to Twitter’s board, Musk said he believes Twitter “will neither thrive nor serve [its free speech] societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company” The takeover is unlikely to be a drawn-out See Musk, Page A8

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

Denise Yeung draws a Covid-19 vaccination shot during a Touro University California Covid-19 Mobile Clinic, Thursday.

Solano’s top public health official not overly concerned about Easter surge

Todd R. Hansen

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Public Health Division on Thursday reported a Covidrelated death for the first time in three weeks, and despite a recent climb in case numbers, hospitalizations continue to decline. Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said he is not particularly concerned with seeing a MATYAS strong surge of cases due to the Easter holiday weekend, but even if numbers climb, the latest omicron variant is acting very much like its predecessor in that it has not caused an increase in bad outcomes

such as hospitalizations. “I do think we will see a bump during Easter . . . but not for a sustained surge,” Matyas said. “I’m not anticipating any (surge in) hospitalizations or ICU (cases) as a major consequence.” The county reported four residents were in area hospitals with positive coronavirus tests, down from eight. There was still one patient with Covid-19 in an intensive care unit. The added death, taking the pandemic total to 414, was a “very, very ill” woman, older than 65, unvaccinated and living at home, Matyas said. There were 122 new cases reported, 82 over the three-day

period, taking the pandemic total to 84,997. Another jump in active cases took the 10-day daily case average to 30.2, up from 24.2 Monday and up from 22 April 7, the county reported. Fairfield added 49 new cases to take the city’s total to 22,774. Vallejo added 33 cases for a new count of 25,632. Vacaville is at 21,724 after 26 new cases, the county reported. Suisun City (5,969) added eight cases, while Dixon (4,350) and Benicia (3,158) each added three. There were no new cases reported in Rio Vista (1,191) or in the unincorporated area of the county (199). Vaccination rates did not change, with 73% of residents 5 or older having been fully vaccinated and See Surge, Page A8

UKRAINE | RUSSIA CRISIS

After missile attack, Russia reports its flagship sank while being towed Tribune Content Agency

Patrick Pleul/POOL/AFP/Getty Images/TNS file

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the start of the production at Tesla’s “Gigafactory” in Berlin, March 22. SUNDAY

Parade coming this weekend. Look for the insert in the DR. WEATHER 67 | 48 Sunny. Five-day forecast on B10. INDEX Arts B4 | Classifieds B6 | Comics A7, B5 Crossword A6, B4 | Opinion A5 Sports B1 | TV Daily A7, B5 WANT TO SUBSCRIBE? Call 427-6989.

KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia warned Finland and Sweden against joining NATO, its military was dealt a serious loss with the sinking of its flagship in the Black Sea even as its ground forces are preparing a major offensive to take a large swath of eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials in the port city of Odesa reported overnight that a Neptune missile had been launched at the Russian ship, the Moskva, which has been part of the naval campaign against Ukraine. There were conflicting reports as to whether one or two missiles were fired at the ship. Pentagon spokesman

John Kirby said he could not confirm that a Ukrainian missile struck the ship, only that there had been an explosion on board that caused a fire, “which as of this morning was still raging.” The Russian Defense Ministry, which had acknowledged the fire but did not provide a cause, later reported that the ship sank while being towed in a storm, according to Russian state-run media. The sinking of the Moskva is a major blow for the Russian fleet and a tactical and public relations coup for Ukraine at a pivotal moment – when the country is bracing for a massive Russian offensive in the eastern and southern regions.

Ukrainian officials said the Moskva, which reportedly carried an array of missiles, torpedoes,

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mines and other weaponry, had a crew of 510. It was previously deployed See Russia, Page A8

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