Daily Republic: Friday, November 18, 2022

Voters back 4 new mayors, 13 new council members, 1 new supervisor across Solano

FAIRFIELD

The Nov. 8 election results will not be official until the Solano County Registrar of Voters certifies the election Nov. 30. However, John Gardner, assistant regis trar of voters, said Thursday that all the in-person, mail-in and provisional ballots have been counted except for a handful that have not been verified, and those still coming in from other counties.

“We are just trying to get them resolved and counted, and are reach ing out to all those voters,” Gardner said, adding that deadline is Nov. 28.

It is not yet clear how long Larry Brumfield will serve as the next Suisun City mayor. He will fill the remaining weeks, days, hours or even minutes of the term vacated by Lori Wilson when she was elected to the state’s 11th Assembly District office.

Wilson, D-Suisun City, won a special election in April to fill in the final months of the term vacated by Jim Frazier, and won a full-term in a runoff election Nov. 8 against Jenny Callison of Vacaville.

Education boards move forward with new, incumbent members, some vacancies

Alma Hernandez, who currently serves as the vice mayor in Suisun City, will take over full-time when the oath of office ceremony is announced. She beat

Measure S school bond earns passing mark 9 days after election

Glen Faison GFAISON@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Measure S for the first time Thursday went over the top and was on its way to passage based on updated vote counts in Solano and Napa counties.

The $249.6 million FairfieldSuisun School District facilities bond had 19,514 (55.01%) yes votes to 15,962 (44.99%) no votes, the elections offices in Solano and Napa county report. Results are unofficial until certified.

It was a long slog for Measure S to reach the required 55% yes vote for passage.

A majority of voters in

FAIRFIELD — Teenager Jack Flynn, according to the unofficial Nov. 8 election results, will be the newest member of the Fairfield-Suisun School District board of trustees.

The former student trustee for the Solano Community College District unseated Trustee Area 5 incumbent Jona than R. Richardson.

Returning to the board as unchallenged incumbents are

Page A8

Wilson to start 1st full term, ending predictable season

R. H ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

SUISUN CITY — Lori Wilson has gone through three elections in eight months – all for the same office.

The Democrat from Suisun City gets a break from that until June 2024.

Wilson, who represents the 11th Assem bly District, will be sworn in for a full two-year term on Dec. 5.

“I think the first emotion is relief because it has been three elections in eight months

See Wilson, Page A8

FAIRFIELD — All the recent attention may have been on the Nov. 8 elec tion, but there are a number of primary winners and unchal lenged candidates who are return ing to the spotlight for their oaths of office, too.

That includes Solano County Sher iff-Coroner Thomas Ferrara and District Attorney Krishna Abrams, who won their June primary elections outright with 70.48% and 61.18% of the votes, respectively.

Ferrara, who was first appointed by the Board of Supervisors in 2012, will begin his 12th year in office Jan. 3, and Abrams will begin her third four-year term.

Other Solano County officials who will be sworn

in next year includes 4th District Supervisor John Vasquez, who was unchal lenged and will begin his fifth term on the county board. But he is not the longest stand ing elected official. That designation belongs to Charles Lomeli, the county treasurer-tax col lector-county clerk, who started the first of what will now be his seventh four-

Other elected county office-hold ers to start new terms are AuditorController Phyllis Taynton; Superin tendent of Schools Lisette EstrellaHenderson and Assessor-Recorder Glenn Zook, who replaces Marc Tonnesen. All were unchal lenged in June.

Eight Superior Court

Todd R. H ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

Solano County experiences rise in Covid infections A3

Vanden hopes to pass semifinal test against Kimball B1

Todd R. H ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

— Solano County cities will welcome four new mayors in the coming weeks – two in Suisun City.

Robinson Kuntz/

Construction continues on a new performing arts facility at Fairfield High School, Thursday.

HERNANDEZ MOY CARLI

FERRARA

Todd

WILSON

ABRAMS

Todd R. H ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic Shelia Carter, left, and Marissa Marzo-Holland help balance the poll places at the Government Center in Fairfield, Thursday. See Boards,

Thanksgiving Day fireworks explode at the Watkins house

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental . . . but hopefully funny.

Even though they are illegal in Fairfield, the annual Fourth of July Watkins family fireworks always start at dusk in their backyard. Now, the annual Thanksgiving fireworks start much earlier in the day and take place at the dinner table.

Leon Watkins and his wife of 31 years, Desdemona, or Dezi for short, hosted the event and were joined by Leon’s brother Isaiah and eventually his oldest brother Orenthal, called O.T. Dezi and Leon’s 24-year-old twin daughters, Sapphire and Ruby, were home from San Diego State for the holiday. At the head of the table sat Leon’s 88-year-old mother Priscilla, whom everyone called Nana. She was a resident of Sunrise Convalescent Home and since she was ambulatory but a little unsteady on her feet, Leon had insisted she use her wheel chair when he picked her up that morning.

As per usual, it was Nana who lit the Thanksgiv ing Day fuse.

“Leon. Where’s the macaroni and cheese?” Nana asked. “You know the pilgrims and Indians had macaroni and cheese at their Thanksgiving table, right?”

“Actually, that’s not accu rate,” Nana,” Dezi said.

“Humph. I’m 88 but I still got all my marbles. Your name is not Leon so obviously I wasn’t speaking to you.”

“Mom, we’ll have some just as soon as your oldest son shows up,” Leon said.

“You put Orenthal in charge of the mac and cheese? Boy, you must be outta your natural mind! You know that fool is always late. It’s 3 o’clock now

so I hope you told him to come at 1,” Nana said.

“He’ll be here, Mom, but we’re gonna start now,” Leon said.

It was a tradition that Isaiah would say grace because he was a deacon at his local church. As he recited a laundry list of gratitude, Nana would punctuate it from time to time with “Yes, Lord” and “Thank you, Jesus.” Sapphire and Ruby did likewise.

When the long-winded prayer finally reached its amen ending, Nana opened her eyes and glared at her granddaughters.

“Don’t think I don’t know that you two were mocking me during the prayer,” Nana said.

“One more thing I’m thank ful for is that my momma and daddy didn’t give me no hooker’s names like Sap phire or Ruby.”

Dezi dropped her fork onto her ornate china plate and the clatter made everyone jump.

“I will not allow you to ruin yet another Thanksgiv ing, Nana!” Dezi said with impressive venom.

Nana gently set her fork down and then started to do the derisive slow clap while staring at Dezi. Leon was hor rified because the annual fight was kicking off even earlier this year, but he was simultaneously a little amazed that his mother even knew slow clap trolling was a thing.

“There she is, ladies and gen tlemen, Jada Pinkett Smith. Incredible actress. All you need is for Leon here to go slap Chris Rock. Maybe Isaiah can stand in for him,” Nana said.

“You think I’m acting? That I’m not incensed that my girls’ own grandmother would call them hookers?” Dezi said on the verge of angry tears.

“Ain’t nobody said they was no hookers, Jada, I said they had hooker’s names,” Nana said.

For their part, Sapphire and Ruby were not angry or hurt at all. It was all they could do not to burst out laughing.

“Dezi, you know she does this to get under your skin. Just ignore her,” Isaiah said, reach ing for the stuffing. “You know the truth.”

“Humph, the truth. A truth I heard about you, Mr. Deacon Man, is that you’re spending a lot of ‘quality time’ with sister Ella Johnston since her husband got locked up.” Nana said. She actually performed the air quo tation marks around “quality time” with her fingers.

“What? Who told you that?” Isaiah said.

Nana turned to Ruby, who was hoping to turn her jour nalism degree into a career on television news.

“See there, Ruby? That’s what they call a nondenial,” Nana said.

“I do deny it! I am simply helping a sister in Christ through a difficult time!” Isaiah said, indignantly.

“Humph, is that what they’re calling it now?” Nana said, putting a forkful of turkey in her mouth.

“I have never hoped that someone would choke to death on some turkey more than right now,” Dezi said.

“Well, you made it dry enough that I just might!” Nana said.

Shouting matches, angry exits from the table, slammed doors and name-calling were the norm at Watkins Thanksgiv ings, but at this one something happened that had never hap pened before. A food fight. It was probably inevitable, but it was still rather jarring when it started.

Dezi reached into the silver bowl with chilled, previously canned jellied cranberry sauce, grabbed a handful and flung it at Nana, hitting her smack dab in the face and knocking her glasses off. They fell into the gravy lake sitting atop the small mountain of mashed potatoes on her plate.

Nana, instantly incensed, took her glasses out of the side dish mess, quickly scooped it up in her hand and tossed it at Dezi in retaliation. Whether it was because she didn’t have her glasses on or because Dezi scrunched over at the last second, the goopy mess missed her and landed on Leon’s shirt.

Isaiah started to laugh, but Nana grabbed a golf ball-sized ham hock out of the collard greens dish and bounced it off the middle of his forehead. Isaiah then angrily tossed four

buttered dinner rolls at his mother, but these were poor projectiles in a food fight so he also threw his near full glass of punch (orange sherbet and 7UP) all over her.

Then it was a frenzy with Sapphire and Ruby joining in, tossing the green bean cas serole and sweet potatoes all around. Leon was the only one not joining in and trying to calm everyone down, which just made him a target. For a few seconds that seemed like hours, the family feast was flung in every direction, far and wide.

Just then the front door opened and O.T. walked in with a casserole dish. When he saw his family and the table, walls, chairs and floor covered with food, he stopped in his tracks, dumbstruck.

“Orenthal Theotis Watkins! About time you showed up with the mac and cheese!” Nana said.

A pregnant pause hung in the air for a millisecond and then everyone – except for a horrified O.T. – cracked up.

Sapphire stood up, wiped her hands on a paper towel and walked over to the china cabinet facing the dinner table and picked up her iPhone she’d placed there before sitting down to dinner. With pieces of collard greens and turkey in her hair, she looked at her phone and said “Happy Thanksgiving every one!” and ended the TikTok livestream for the 2,711 people watching it online.

Fairfield freelance humor col umnist and accidental local historian Tony Wade writes two weekly columns: “The Last Laugh” on Mondays and “Back in the Day” on Fridays –although he swaps them out at times, as he does today.

Wade is also the author of The History Press books “Growing Up In Fairfield, California” and “Lost Restaurants of Fairfield, California.”

Tony Wade The last laugh

Courtesy graphic

Arguments are sure to happen at the Watkins home on Thanksgiving Day.

FAIRFIELD — A person who was stabbed several times early this week is expected to survive as the man sus pected in the attack awaits criminal proceedings.

Fire Department per sonnel were flagged down at approximately 7 p.m. Monday to help after a stabbing that had just occurred behind Station 37 on Kentucky Street, police report in a com munity update about the incident. Police offi cers who responded to the scene and found the victim.

The person who was stabbed was transported to a local hospital with injuries police describe as life-threatening, but said the person is expected to survive.

No description of the victim was provided, to include gender, age and city of residence.

Officers retraced the victim’s steps back to a local convenience store and found video of the sus pected culprit based on

a description the victim provided. Officer Carly Bailey began to scour the West Texas Street cor ridor and found the man on the 1600 block of West Texas Street.

He was taken into custody shortly after 8 p.m. Monday and was to be booked into the Solano County jail on suspicion of attempted murder and felony assault with a knife, police report.

The man’s name, age and city of residence were not provided.

71home subdivision map, pump station funding

toDD R. H anSen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

SUISUN CITY — The City Council on Tuesday approved the final map for the 71-home Meridian West Subdi vision and agreed to give $200,000 in federal pandemic relief funding to the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District toward the Kellogg Pump Station Resiliency Project.

The vote on the final map was 3-0 with Coun cilwoman Jane Day abstaining due to a conflict of interest. The Kellogg project vote was unani mous. Both items were part of the council’s consent agenda.

The American Rescue Plan Act funds for the Kellogg project will go toward “environmen tal, preliminary design, and community outreach or improvements to the Kellogg Pump Station and open channel located at the south end of Kellogg Street.”

The sewer district has been allocated $8.6 million from the state Water Resources Control Board for the project, which also includes fire prevention improvements that will be managed by the district.

The Meridian West

Subdivision calls for the construction of 71 singlefamily homes, a sound wall along the west perim eter of the project site, a community park, biore tention facilities, utilities, extension of West Street from Morgan to Corde lia streets, and various pavement resurfacing treatments on the street segments fronting the project site, which also includes School Street.

The tentative map was approved in August 2007 and extended in May 2020.

“The applicant has indicated that con struction activity will be deferred until the next year’s construc tion season,” the staff report states.

In other action, the council:

n Recognized Danielle M. Kent (Alooma Court No. 198) and Timothy W. Finney (Alooma Temple No. 212) for their work with the Daughters of Isis nonprofit.

n Approved a $69,560 amendment to the Profes sional Services Agree ment with AECOM Technical Services Inc. of Long Beach to prepare

See Suisun, Page A9

County experiences rise in Covid-19 infections

Officials not ready to call it a

Rep. Thompson tests positive for Covid-19

Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, announced Wednesday he has tested positive for Covid-19 after taking a regular PCR test.

“Thanks to being full vaccinated and receiv ing both booster shots, I am experiencing only mild symptoms,” Thompson said in a press release. “I will be working from home

and my office remains fully open to serve the people of our district.”

Thompson in the press release rec ommended that every American get their updated Covid-19 vaccine and booster “to stay healthy and protect their friends and families.”

Thompson currently represents California’s 5th Congressional Dis trict, which includes See Test, Page A5

toDD R. H anSen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Two straight weeks with increases in coronavirus infections – coupled with more flu and RSV reports elsewhere – has Solano County health officials pretty sure the winter Covid surge is close, if not actually here.

But like election offi cials watching closely contested races, it is not something Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health official, is ready to declare a cer tainty because of the possible influence of Hal loween and Veterans Day gatherings.

“But it does represent

surge

an increase in cases the past two weeks . . . which raises the probability that we are at the begin ning of the winter surge,” Matyas said.

The county on Thurs day reported 485 new cases since the previ ous update Nov. 10, with 404 of those from the actual seven-day period. That puts the daily average at 57.7, up from the previous update figure of 45.14, and the 10-day average climb ing from 51 cases per day to 63.8, the county reported. The pandemic case total for Solano County is 111,987. Matyas said while

Jury convicts man of sexual assault

Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VALLEJO — A Solano County jury this week found a 44-year-old former Vallejo man guilty of six counts of com mitting lewd acts on a child 14 or younger and one count of aggravated sexual assault.

The jury also found true that Ulysses Pas tones engaged in “substantial sexual conduct” while sexu ally abusing the child and the lewd acts were committed on more than one child, the Solano

County District Attor ney’s Office reported.

“Over several years from 2013 to 2017, while living in Vallejo, (Pas tones) victimized a young child in his home while other family members were sleeping. In 2017, the family moved out of the area and the child, who was now 12 years old, began locking her bedroom door to prevent the defendant from coming in her room,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement released Wednesday, the day after the verdict was reached.

Pastones stopped sex ually assaulting her, “but began to molest her younger sister over a lengthy period of time,” the District Attorney’s Office statement said.

The sisters, in 2009, confided to their mother, who contacted law enforcement.

The girls testified at the trial in Vallejo and, after hearing their testi mony, the jury returned verdicts of guilty, the Dis trict Attorney’s Office statement said.

Court records show the trial started Oct. 31 and covered

eight days: Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, Nov. 7-9, and Monday and Tuesday.

Judge Daniel Healy is scheduled to sentence Pastone on Dec. 16. He faces up to 165 years to life in prison.

Retired Detective Bernard Avalos of the Tucson Police Depart ment and Solano County District Attorney Inves tigator Jason Scott investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Deputy District Attor ney Barry Shapiro and assisted by victim advo cate Amy Harris.

Courtesy photo

This image provided by the Fairfield Police Department shows a pair of knives and a multitool associated with a stabbing victim who was found behind the fire station on Kentucky Street in Fairfield, Monday.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks through downtown Fairfield, Thursday.

Obituaries

Martin-John (John) Konstantin

Jan. 30, 1985 — Nov. 8, 2022

Martin-John Joseph Konstantin left this world to reunite with his mother on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, after a long battle with kidney disease.

John was born Jan. 30, 1985, to Maryann (Kuncz) Konstantin in Berlin, Vermont, where he graduated from U32 High School in 2003.

After high school, John joined the United States Air Force and served for 15 years, he then went on to earn his asso ciate’s degree from Embry Riddle Aero nautical University.

John met the love of his life, Christine, in 2008, they were married in 2018 and shared a home in Vacaville.

John is survived by his wife, Christine, of Vacaville, Cal ifornia; sister, Marianna; and nieces, Stephanie and Starlet of Barre, Vermont; and brother, Maverick of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Friends and family are invited to a viewing from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, at McCune Garden Chapel, 213 Main St., Vacaville. Funeral service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, also at McCune Garden Chapel. Burial will follow service at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery, 5810 Midway Road, Dixon, California.

Sept. 10, 1938 — Oct. 18, 2022

Douglas Dial Davis, 84, husband of the late Kuniko Kimura Davis, passed away on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, in Sumter, South Carolina.

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from Duke Energy. He is survived by two brothers, Charles Selby (Faye) of Vancou ver, Washington, and Joseph Davis of Fairfield, California.

across police, fire,

Born on Sept. 10, 1938, in Suisun City, California. He was a son of RC Davis and Mae Shepherd Davis.

Douglas graduated from Armijo High School in 1956. He retired from the U.S. Navy and was a Vietnam War veteran. He also retired

Solano is not seeing flu cases in the area hos pitals, nor an influx of RSV – respiratory syncy tial virus, which can be very dangerous in infants and toddlers – cases are appearing in South ern California and other states.

“It’s inevitable that (they) will come to Northern California,” Matyas said.

“It’s a good reminder for folks to go out and get your flu vaccine and your Covid vaccine so you have optimal pro tections from both of those,” he said.

Despite the case increases, the number of related deaths remained at 441 and the number of residents hospitalized with positive coronavirus tests held at 22 with three patients in intensive care units. The ICU number is down one from last week, the county reported.

Matyas said the more severe outcomes gen erally follow the case increases by a week or two, so like the surge, he also is watching to see if more people end up in hospitals.

Vacaville had 178 new cases to take its pandemic total past 28,000 to 28,125. Vallejo added 135 cases and is on the verge of eclips ing 34,000 cases. It is at 33,974, the county reported. Fairfield added 94 cases for a new count of 30,337.

Suisun City (7,846) added 34 cases; Dixon

In addition to his wife, he was preceded in death by two brothers, Rance and David Davis.

A private family service was held at Rockville Cem etery where he was placed beside his beloved wife, Kuniko.

(5,316) added 13; Benicia (4,597) added 24; Rio Vista (1,570) added seven and the unincor porated area had its case number adjusted down by one to 225, the county reported.

Matyas has previously indicated Covid-19 case counts are likely much higher with the use of in-home testing, results of which are not gen erally reported to government agencies and in many cases are not shared with medical providers if medical treatment is not needed. He has also said availability of vaccines and changes to per sonal behavior slowed the disease throughout the Bay Area.

There were 1,488 booster shots admin istered over the past week, taking that total to 184,119. The vaccine rates did not change, however, holding at 72% for residents 5 or older who have been fully vac cinated and 81% for those who have received at least one shot, the county reported.

The vaccination numbers for children 6 months to 4 years and from 5 to 11 were not available.

The number of mon keypox cases in Solano County remained at 42.

toDD R. H anSen

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD —

Measure P generated $25.896 million in sales tax revenue for the city in fiscal year 2021-22, of which $8.85 million went to the Police Department and another $6.47 million to the Fire Department.

That is $117,726 more than in the previous fiscal year, the 2021-22 annual report from the Measure P Oversight Com mittee states.

“Measure P almost doubles (the city’s) sale tax,” said Steve Vansil, vice chairman of the Oversight Committee who presented the annual report Tuesday to the City Council.

Chris Matthews is the chairman of

the committee.

The 2021-22 sales tax generated in the city, without Measure P, was $30.28 million for at total of about $56.176 million.

But Vansil said the city needs to be address ing long-term financial planning in parallel with the city’s General Plan update. Measure P, a 1 cent increase that was approved by voters for five years in 2012 and renewed for 15 years in 2017, sunsets in 2033.

The 2021-22 funding was enough to support 35 police officers and six dispatchers, along with $1.98 million to the Crime Prevention Unit, the report states.

“Violent crime was reduced by 8% and 475 firearms were

removed (from the street), an increase of 68%,” the committee report states.

The tax money also support 26 firefighter and engineer positions, and the city’s ISO rating – Insur ance Service Office – has been upgraded, which helps residents save money on their insurance.

Vansil said Measure P also has helped the city’s bond rating to improve, which saves Fairfield on interest rate costs.

“(Measure P) actually funds, percentage-wise, more of Public Works. So (it) is actually giving a bigger lift to Public Works,” Vansil said.

The city allocated $4.51 million in Measure P funding to Public Works for streets and roads, and $950,000 to Public Works

for what the oversight committee designates as “quality of life” expen ditures such as parks maintenance and the Homeless Engagement and Response Team.

Additionally, $947,000 is allocated to Parks and Recreation, with $638,690 going to the Allan Witt Aquatic Center, $255,294 to the Adult Recreation Center and Senior Day Program, and $167,016 to the Down town Theatre.

The Aquatic Complex attracted 5,034 users, while 39 shows were pre sented at the theater. There are 24 social clubs that use the senior center, the committee reported.

The Measure P Over sight Committee meets on a quarterly basis.

City invites Vaca residents to review park plan

Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VACAVILLE — The new, draft master plan for Centennial Park in Vacaville is nearly com plete and the Parks and Recreation Department staff and project consul tant Helix Environmental Planning will present it to residents at two meetings scheduled in December.

An in-person meeting will take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Dec. 3 at the Ulatis Community Center, 1000 Ulatis Drive. A virtual meeting will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7. The Zoom link is available at the city’s website, cityof vacaville.com.

Additional information is available on the Cen tennial Park webpage at cityofvacaville.gov/parks. Written comments and questions may be sub mitted to Park Planner Hew Hesterman by email at hew.hesterman@cityof vacaville.com or by letter to 40 Eldridge Ave., Suite 13, Vacaville, CA 95688, prior to or shortly after the meetings.

The goal is to gather feedback and comments on the draft plan to ensure it includes recreation ele ments that are most desired and appropriate for this 265-acre park site.

The draft master plan proposes several new rec

reation elements within each of three designated activity zones:

n The Active Recre ation Zone (southern portion where there are existing sports fields and other active uses).

n The Creekside Dis covery Zone (triangularshaped area located between tributaries of Horse Creek).

n The Nature Explora

tion Zone (large undevel oped area located at the north end of the park). Centennial Park is located at 270 Browns Valley Parkway. It cur rently spans 53 acres of developed and undevel oped areas and includes four baseball fields – one lighted; biking, hiking, walking and running trails; four tennis courts; and five soccer fields.

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Douglas Dial Davis

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file

Fairfield police officers respond to the scene of a shooting near a 7-Eleven on Tabor avenue, nov. 10.

Suisun council takes steps toward median standards plan

Todd r. H Ansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

SUISUN CITY — The City Council this week told its Public Works director it needs more cost and other informa tion before it can decide what to do with the medians around town.

At issue is the yearly cost of maintaining the medians – especially during a drought while trying to save on water use – and what to do about new devel opment areas.

At least three members of the council seemed to agree the city needs to develop a median standards plan, with Councilwoman Wanda Williams suggest ing the staff go to other cities to find out what standards they set.

“The goal is to reduce long-term maintenance costs, water costs and labor costs,” Mayor-elect Alma Hernandez said. “So those labor costs are our own maintenance staff as well.”

Hernandez said the more time the staff has to spend on the medians, the less time they have for illegal dumping and other city priorities.

Councilman Mike Hudson, however, favors removing the medians, and certainly not requiring any in devel opment areas.

“As far as I can see, it just costs us money. We could have wide streets with nicely painted lines, things like that,” Hudson said at the Tuesday night meeting.

“We have a hard time maintaining the streets and medians that we cur rently have. We’re not good at it. It’s not that your team isn’t good at it, but we don’t have a lot of money,” Hudson said, directing the comment to Public Works Direc tor Nouae Vue.

Vue started the

discussion with a pre sentation and options for the council to consider, including describing a host of material options from straight concrete to more elaborate land scaping. He said the council could direct staff to develop a median standards plan, create a median policy or “allo cate funds to hire a consultant and prepare a median master plan.”

The council asked Vue to bring back the possible cost of hiring a consultant, but actu ally moving forward on that option was not strongly supported by any council member.

Steve Olry told the council the primary function of a median is safety, and that should be the city’s sole focus. He suggested the medians be concrete and made as narrow as safety allows.

But others said they think quality of life is important and think landscaped medians can add to the aesthetics of daily life. One caller said soft medians are actually safer than the concrete options alone.

The council directed Vue to look at working with Sustainable Solano for suggestions on the kind of drought-tolerant and native landscaping options that might be out there, and to come back with cost estimates for the various materials the staff noted in its report.

It was also sug gested the city take at least some of the new revenue created by can nabis outlets to create a beautification fund for city needs.

In the end, the council directed Vue to look into maintenance plans that fit into the city budget and will be sustainable; to bring back a cost anal ysis for removing the medians; and to return with a safety analysis.

Fairfield church provides turkey dinner for local families in need

susAn HilAnd SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The line of cars snaked down Woolner Avenue almost to Beck Avenue on Thurs day for the annual Mount Calvary Baptist Turkey Dinner giveaway.

This year it was a drive-thru event because of safety issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hundreds of families ben efitted from the food, along with countless of the community’s home less residents.

Tracy Anderson came down with her family to get a turkey and a bag of food that included fruit, bread, veggies and a few other items. This was a big deal for her as she has been homeless for nearly a year.

“It feels good to have this,” she said. “Because without it we wouldn’t have a Thanks giving meal.”

Anderson said she has been struggling for months to find a place to stay and hopes that Friday she will finally have found an apartment.

“We have a voucher,” she said. “But the problem is the requirement for having to have three times the rent to get into a place.”

This is the second turkey dinner the church will have pulled together with volunteers in a week. The first, over the weekend, was also a drivethru event with freshly cooked items for people to grab and go while still staying in their cars.

Parishioners planned for 300 turkeys to be given away Thursday.

“People are still drop

ping them off,” Tony Adams, director of evan gelism and missions for the church, said at 2 p.m. “But we have gone through at least 200 turkeys.”

The drive-thru went until supplies ran out.

Parishioners had hun dreds of bags of side dish components gath ered by volunteers from the church’s food pantry, which does a food giveaway each week throughout the year.

“Once again the demand is outpacing the supply,” Adams said.

From Page A3

the Vallejo and Benicia areas in Solano County as well as all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties.

He leads the contest for the 4th Congressio nal District seat from the election last week.

Thompson has 67.5% of the vote. His oppo nent, Republican Matt Brock, has 32.5%.

The new 4th Con gressional District will include northern Solano County from Vacaville to the Napa County line as well as eastern Solano County to include Dixon and Rio Vista; neighboring Yolo County to include Winters; and all or parts of Napa, Lake and Sonoma counties.

For those who truly had no roof over their heads, the church set aside an area for them to pick up food items that don’t go bad, which meant those people did not get a turkey.

“We are being careful of who gets a turkey,” Adams said. “The homeless bags are dif ferent because they don’t have an oven.”

Alonzo Brown, com munity outreach director for Mount Calvary Baptist Church, was able to get a hotel in San Fransisco to donate their used sheets

so he could give them to homeless residents.

“They cleaned them and bagged them for me, then I distribute them,” Brown said.

The one stipulation is he doesn’t do the distri bution in San Francisco because of liability issues.

“It just feels good to help people,” Brown said.

“Some people say I am too excited about doing this and I say, ‘I’m just a cheerful giver.’ ”

The church in Decem ber plans a Toy Drive and will give away the toys Dec. 24 on Grande Circle.

Man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after car slams into group of sheriff’s recruits

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

LOS ANGELES — Authorities arrested a 22-year-old man on Thurs day after a vehicle plowed into a large group of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cadets who were out on a training run in South Whittier, injuring more than two dozen of them, five critically.

Nicholas Joseph Guti errez was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on a peace officer in connection with Wednesday’s crash, authorities said.

Twenty-five sheriff’s recruits were injured in the early morning crash, authorities said. The status of their conditions was unclear early Thursday.

The recruits were running in four columns and were joined by drill

instructors and two blackand-white radio cars at the time the crash occurred about 6:30 a.m. Wednes day near the sheriff’s STARS Center Academy in the 10600 block of Mills Avenue, authorities said.

As the recruits ran northbound down Mills Avenue, a Honda CRV approached at 30 to 40 mph, according to witnesses. The vehicle veered onto the wrong side of the road and plowed into the group.

Those runners at the front of the column were able to get out of the way before the vehicle hit others and crashed into a light pole, author ities said. Video shot by a man who lives across the street from the crash showed recruits desper ately trying to help those who appeared to be most seriously injured.

One witness said “it looked like an airplane wreck,” Sheriff Alex Vil lanueva said at a news conference Wednesday.

“There was so many bodies scattered every where in different states of injury that it was pretty traumatic for all individu als involved,” he said. He called the injuries, which included head trauma and lost limbs, “life-altering.” More than a dozen others suffered minor to moder ate injuries.

The driver of the vehicle was detained at the scene by cadets. He sustained minor injuries and was taken to a hospi tal, authorities said.

A Breathalyzer test was administered at the scene and authorities found no evidence of alcohol, Vil lanueva said.

Authorities detected

no smell of alcohol on him, and he “blew a 0.0” during a breathalyzer test administered at the scene, Villanueva said.

The arrest came hours after authorities searched

the suspect’s home on Wednesday night. News video showed deputies banging on the door of the home in Diamond Bar. A tactical team with guns drawn was also present.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic Cars drive past a median along sunset avenue in suisun City, Wednesday.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic photos

Chondell Jones places a bag of food into a car at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield, Thursday.

ABOVE: Carl Bradford organizes frozen turkeys during the Mount Calvary Food Pantry Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield, Thursday.

LEFT: Mayli Rodriguez Ramirez, 9, waits with a pile of clothing and Thanksgiving food during the Mount Calvary Food Pantry Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway.

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

WASHINGTON — After months of speculation about her future, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday she will not seek to lead House Democrats for another term but will remain in Congress.

The decision – capping a 35-year career in which Pelosi became the most powerful female member of Congress in U.S. history – followed her party’s narrow loss of the chamber in last week’s midterm election.

Pelosi is also abiding by a 2018 agreement with fellow Democrats that she would step down from leadership by the end of 2022 to make way for a new generation.

“For me, the hour’s come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect,” Pelosi said in a House floor speech.

President Joe Biden, who spoke to Pelosi on Thursday morning, later called her the “most consequential speaker of the House of Representatives in our history.”

“With her leading the way, you never worry about whether a bill will pass,” Biden said. “If she says she has the votes, she has the votes. Every time.”

The nation’s first and only female House speaker, Pelosi is stepping aside despite the strong urging of many of her colleagues to remain.

She told a small group of reporters in an interview follow ing her remarks that her phone had been “exploding” in recent days with members telling her she must run for lead ership again.

Under Pelosi’s stewardship this year, House Democrats defied expectations that the party would suffer steep losses in the midterm. Instead, Repub licans gained only a slim majority of the House.

“She will be one of the giants of American history,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich.

Had Pelosi wanted to remain as House minority leader, she

likely could have, despite the 2018 agreement. But she said she feels “balanced” by her decision and not sad.

Though many Democrats had once voiced a desire for Pelosi, 82, to hand over the reins to a younger generation of law makers, her recent success in combating the Trump admin istration and then aiding the Biden administration won over many of her critics.

She said in the interview that if she could have done anything differently during her time in leadership, it would have been to win more elections to keep Republicans, including Donald Trump, out of power.

Pelosi said last month’s attack on her husband, Paul, was a factor in her decision, though the incident strength ened her resolve to remain in Congress instead of having the opposite effect.

“I couldn’t give them that sat isfaction,” Pelosi said.

The speaker’s husband was

assaulted with a hammer by an intruder who broke into their San Francisco home aiming to hurt her, police said. She was in Washington at the time. He’s expected to face a long recovery.

She said she has survivor’s guilt and that the attack was traumatic for her entire family. “This happened in our house,” she said. “It made our home a crime scene.”

Democrats said her experience, knowledge and fun draising skills will continue to prove helpful, even if she is no longer in a leadership position.

But Pelosi downplayed any advisory role she might play, saying as leader she rarely asked for advice and won’t be disappointed if her successors don’t either.

Joking about the upcom ing Thanksgiving holiday, she said: “I have no intention of being the mother-in-law in the kitchen, saying: ‘My son doesn’t like the stuffing that way. This is

the way we make it.’ (The new House Democratic leaders) will have their vision. They will have their plan, and I think that the authenticity of all of that will be

She said she would not serve on a committee and is reluctant to return to the time-consuming process of fundraising.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., said Democrats should move quickly to replace her.

“Whoever replaces her –and we have some great people who could step up to the plate – they’re going to have to start working out immedi ately so they’ll have the muscle and the energy to do what she’s done almost effortlessly,”

“I’m not happy about it,” he said of Pelosi’s step ping down. “But like me, I think everyone – the speaker included – recognizes at some point we have a limited lifetime. And I think you give all you can and then you try to live out the rest of your life as conflictfree as you can, and nobody can blame her for leaving.”

The race to replace Pelosi had occurred quietly behind the scenes for months, but appeared to largely settle itself shortly after Pelosi’s announcement. House Democrats will hold their internal leadership elec tions Nov. 30.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is favored to become the next Democratic leader.

At one point, Pelosi’s top lieu tenants, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, 83, of Mary land and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, 82, of South Caro lina, had expressed interest in succeeding her, but both said Thursday they would stand aside for new leadership.

“I will be supporting Jeffries for leader,” Clyburn said.

Pelosi said she has no plans to endorse a successor, saying it is important to their legit imacy that they win the post on their own.

“I don’t think it’s up to me to make that anointment, although I probably know better

than anybody what that job requires,” she said.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., reportedly had interest in becoming the top Democrat as well, but has decided to focus instead on a potential Senate campaign. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat is up in the 2024 cycle, though she hasn’t said whether she’ll retire at the end of her term.

“It’s going to be very hard to replace her, to have that kind of leadership,” said retiring Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., who called Pelosi “probably the most outspoken and powerful woman in United States politics.”

The speaker’s gavel is likely to go next to Californian and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, the front-runner to lead the chamber next year.

Pelosi said she won’t for mally hand off the gavel to McCarthy, if he is elected, because that handoff is from leader to leader, and by then Democrats will have elected her successor.

On Wednesday, Republicans gained the minimum 218 seats needed for a majority. The next speaker will be decided when the new Congress convenes in January.

Pelosi has been called one of the most effective House speak ers in history. She served as speaker under every U.S. presi dent since George W. Bush.

Pelosi muscled through the largest health care reform in generations, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which she considers her greatest achievement.

Passage of the Affordable Care Act “will be the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in Congress,” she said, “but the Inflation Reduction Act was very, very essential and satis fying to me.”

She led the impeachment of President Donald Trump twice; kept her caucus united to pass massive, multitrillion-dollar leg islation to stabilize the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic; and helped push through last year’s $1 trillion infrastruc ture package.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/TNS

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., delivers remarks from the House Chambers of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Thursday. Pelosi spoke on the future of her leadership plans in the House of Representatives and said she will not seek a leadership role in the upcoming Congress.

(707) 427-1386

Leno underwent surgery, expected to fully recover

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

Jay Leno’s doctor expects the former late-night host to fully recover from the serious burns he suffered in a car fire over the weekend.

The blaze left Leno with at least deep seconddegree – and possibly third-degree – burns that required one surgery already, Dr. Peter Gross man said at a press conference Wednes day, according to CBS Los Angeles.

Another operation is expected to happen this week.

Leno, 63, on Wednes day gave cookies to children who are also being treated at the West Hills Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, his doctor said.

The former “Tonight Show” star suffered his injuries after a car exploded at his garage in L.A.

“I got some serious burns from a gaso line fire,” Leno said in a statement afterward. “I am ok. Just need a week or two to get back on my feet.”

Leno is a well-known car enthusiast who has hosted the CNBC show “Jay Leno’s Garage” since 2014.

Zits

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú

Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/TNS

JAY LENO

Crime logs

FairField

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16 4:27 a.m. — Vandalism, 2700 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 7:41 a.m. — Reckless driver, 2900 block of CORDELIA ROAD 8:23 a.m. — Trespassing, 1300 block of GATEWAY BOULEVARD 8:49 a.m. — Embezzlement, 1900 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 9:22 a.m. — Vehicle burglary, 200 block of JASMINE STREET 12:05 p.m. — Vehicle burglary, 2000 block of CADENASSO DRIVE 12:52 p.m. — Battery, 1300 block of GOLD HILL ROAD 2:20 p.m. — Robbery, 2100

From

and it is coming up on one year when I announced,” Wilson said in a phone interview Thursday evening.

The former Suisun City mayor won a special elec tion April 5 to fill out the final eight months of the term vacated by Jim Frazier. Despite carrying 64.2% of the vote in the June 7 primary, she was forced into a runoff elec tion against Jenny Leilani Callison of Vacaville.

As of Thursday, Wilson had won 60.5% of the vote in Solano County, and as of the latest statewide tally late Thurs day afternoon, had 59.3% of the vote districtwide, the California Sec retary of State’s office reported.

The June primary and November general elec tion came after the district was redrawn to include all of Solano County.

Being “thrown into the fire” immediately after the special election, Wilson said, was probably a good thing because she did not have time to think about whether she could do the job, but was forced to actually do it.

Now she feels more comfortable and looks forward to a new agenda, and her new role as the chairwoman of the Leg islative Black Caucus. High on the list of that agenda, she said, is spend ing accountability with the state moving from a huge surplus to a likely deficit.

Wilson’s unofficial victory is part of an elec

block of CADENASSO DRIVE 2:44 p.m. — Reckless driver, WESTBOUND AIR BASE PARKWAY 3:54 p.m. — Fight with a weapon, 1900 block of GRANDE CIRCLE 8:44 p.m. — Trespassing, 700 block of TEXAS STREET

SuiSun City

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16 6:47 a.m. — Fraud, 100 block of SUNSET AVENUE 4:31 p.m. — Fraud, 300 block of PROMENADE CIRCLE 6:10 p.m. — Vandalism, 900 block of EDGEWOOD CIRCLE 6:11 p.m. — Assault, BELLA VISTA DRIVE / WALTERS ROAD

tion season with very few surprises on the state and federal levels in Solano County.

The one exception to that might be in the 4th Congressional District in which Republican Matt Brock, of Vacaville, was the top vote-getter in Solano. However, Rep. Mike Thomp son, D-St Helena, won the seat for the newly drawn district, accord ing to the state’s unofficial elec tion results.

Similarly, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacra mento, carried the day in the 8th and 7th Congres sional Districts, respectively. They both won in Solano County. Gara mendi actually lives outside his district, which is legal as long as he resides in the state.

A majority of Solano County voters also joined in helping to elect Gov. Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Sec retary of State Shirley Weber, Controller Malia Cohen, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Insurance Commis sioner Ricardo Lara and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thur mond – all Democrats.

On the federal level, Solano’s majority favored Democratic U.S. senatorelect Alex Padilla.

In one other race, Solano County also favored the apparent winner for District 1 on the state Board of Equal ization, Jose Altamirano, a Democrat. He unseated incumbent Republican Ted Gaines, according to the state’s unofficial elec tion results.

From

out James Berg for the top council post with 63.05% of the vote.

Catherine Moy in Fair field and John Carli in Vacaville also are new elected mayors. Moy (43.09%) defeated four-time incumbent Harry Price (40.06%) and local business man Chauncey Banks (16.85%), while Carli (49.08%), the city’s former police chief, won out over current Vice Mayor Jason Roberts (34.27%) and business man Joe Green (16.7%). Roberts will stay on the council as the District 5 representative. He has two years left on the term.

Additionally, there will be 13 new members on the seven city councils, with one seat left to fill; and one new member of the county Board of Supervisors.

Wanda Williams replaces Supervisor Jim Spering on the county board, representing the 3rd District. The Suisun City councilwoman defeated outgoing Fair field Councilman Chuck Timm in a runoff created as the top vote-getters

Bond

From

the two counties were in favor of the school bond on Election Day by a margin of 52.77% to 47.23%. But the bond was 1,527 votes shy of passage based on the 19,635 ballots that had been counted at that time.

Percentages improved as the vote counts continued.

Measure S stood at 53.58% in favor of passage by the end of the count Nov. 9 compared to 46.42% – 399 votes shy of the 55% target based on 23,812 votes counted. The “Yes on S” shortfall was cut in half Nov. 10 to 199 votes shy of passage based on 30,233 ballots counted –54.34% to 45.66%.

No updates were posted Nov. 11 in either county due to the Veter ans Day federal holiday.

Monday saw a continu ation of the vote trend.

Measure S stood at 54.84% in favor of passage by the end of the count Monday com pared to 45.16% – at that point 57 votes shy of the 55% target based on 34,913 votes counted.

in a five-candidate June primary. She garnered 58.67% of the vote. Her term begins Jan. 3. The public oath ceremony is tentatively set for Jan. 10.

K. Patrice Williams emerged from a tight race for the District 1 seat on the Fairfield council, defeating Nora Dizon by 12 votes, 2,117 (36.13%) to 2,105 (35.93%), accord ing to the unofficial results posted Thursday. She replaces Timm. Doug Carr will be the new District 3 representa tive (59.29%), taking the seat that had been held by Moy. Doriss Panduro won her re-election bid for the District 5 seat (61.83%) and will serve a full four-year term after a two-year ballot victory in 2020. The oaths of office will be issued Dec. 20.

Princess Washington and Jenalee Dawson will be new to the Suisun council as the top votegetters in a five-candidate race. They replace super visor-elect Williams and longtime incumbent Jane Day, who finished fourth in the Nov. 8 balloting.

Charles Lee was a very close third in that race, trailing Dawson by just 24 votes, 2,280 (19.82%) to 2,256 (19.61%), accord ing to the unofficial results. No date has been set the swearing-

disappeared a day later.

Measure S ended the day’s count Wednesday down by three votes on a two-county total of 35,369 with 54.99% of the votes at that point in favor of passages com pared to 45.00%. It is now above the 55% mark by two votes with 35,476 votes counted across both counties.

Various other school facilities bonds, all of which required the same 55% vote for passage, remained headed toward defeat based on the vote count at the end of the day Thursday.

The Travis School District’s $64 million Measure M trails in the overall vote with 3,651 (50.05%) against and 3,644 (49.95%) in favor.

The Vacaville School District’s $229.5 million Measure Q was also headed toward failure with 15,500 (56.49%) of the vote against the property tax hike and 11,940 (43.51%) in favor.

Other Solano County tax measures

in ceremony. Washington earned 23.31% of the vote.

Suisun City will have one vacant chair to fill, either by appoint ment or by a special election, the first oppor tunity for which is in March. The vacancy is the council post currently held by Hernandez.

In Vacaville, Greg Ritchie II, in Dis trict 2 (56.29%), and Jeanette Wylie, in Dis trict 6 (43.86%), won their reelection cam paigns. However, Nolan Sullivan opted not to seek reelection, guaranteeing the District 4 seat would be filled by someone new. That person is Sarah Chapman, who had been serving on the Solano Community College Dis trict board. She beat out Kristen Navarro and Christian Scott with 42.52% of the vote.

Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye replace incum bents Lionel Largaespada and Christina Straw bridge on the Benicia City Council. Largaes pada and Strawbridge finished third and fourth, respectively, in the vote, according to the unof ficial results. William Innes was fifth. Scott and Birdseye will be sworn in Dec. 6.

Former Mayor Thom Bogue is back on the

Dixon council, this time representing District 2. He narrowly defeated incumbent Scott Ped erson, according to the unofficial results. No date has been set for the oath ceremony. Nineteen votes separated the two, 534 to 515.

Rio Vista Council men Edwin Okamura and Rick Dolk stay on the council as the only two candidates for two full-time posts. The shortterm council spot will be filled by newcomer and top vote-getter in the two-person race, Sarah Donnelly, according to the unofficial election results. Their oaths of office will be given Dec. 6.

Vallejo will have three new council members on an expanding council, including the very first to represent District 2. Diosdado Matulac won a four-candidate race (37.25%), as did Charles Palmares in District 4 (35.19%). He replaces Katy Miessner, who did not seek reelection. Sim ilarly, Peter Bregenzer did not face incumbent Hakeem Brown for the District 5 seat, but did outduel four other hope fuls (34.2%). The oaths of office will be adminis tered Jan. 3.

judges went unchallenged and will start new sixyear terms: Daniel J. Healy (Department 2); E. Bradley Nelson (Depart ment 4); Tim P. Kam (Department 7); Christine Donovan (Department 10); Donna L. Stashyn (Department 18); Alesia Jones (Department 22); John B. Ellis (Department 23); and Janice Williams (Department 25).

Additionally, four special districts were scheduled to hold elec tions in November, but none ended up on the ballot.

There were three seats open on the Cordelia

Fire Protection District board, with incumbents Aaron McAlister and Jim Frische returning, and incumbent Tim Senior choosing not to run again, leaving one vacancy.

The three seats on the Maine Prairie Water District were filled by incumbents Ryan Mahoney, Harold E. Robben Jr. and Mort Triplett, while two incum bents, Elizabeth Miles and Steven Strickland, and newcomer Ken Swanson filled the open seats on the Rural North Vacaville Water District. Incumbent Chris Calvert did not run.

Finally, John D. Kluge returns as the Divi sion 1 representative and Derrick Lum as the Divi sion 5 director on the Solano Irrigation Dis trict board.

The “Yes on S” short fall was cut by more than half Tuesday to 23 votes shy of passage based on 35,190 ballots counted –54.94% to 45.06%.

The shortfall virtually

The countywide Measure E was doomed from the initial vote counts until the latest update Thursday, with 68,486 (54.15%) of voters against what was billed as a fire protection and prevention tax and 58,000 (45.85%) in favor of the one-eighth cent sales tax hike.

County officials pro

jected the tax would generate approximately $9 million a year. It is a general purpose tax, meaning it requires a simple majority for passage.

Such general purpose taxes do not require the tax money that is gener ated to be used for the purposes stated in the ballot measure, although Measure E would estab lish an oversight panel to review each year’s spending and report its findings to the Board of Supervisors.

Measure R, a three-quar ter cent sales tax for general government pur poses, was failing with 6,581 (51.11%) against and 6,295 (48.89%) in favor.

Dixon’s Measure D, which would have increased the sales tax by 1 cent for $3.1 million annually in new city revenue, was also headed toward defeat with 3,405 (56.05%) against and 2,670 (43.95%) in favor.

Craig Wilson for Area 4 and David Isom for Area 7. Neither appeared on the ballot.

The two Trustee Area 2 seats on the Travis School District board will have first-time trustees with Matthew Bidou and Will Wade claiming the spots in a five-candidate race that included incum bent Riitta DeAnda, who finished third, accord ing to the the unofficial results posted Thursday by the Solano County Registrar of Voters. Incumbent Janet Forbes did not seek reelection.

Bidou and Wade will start their fouryear term along with Meghan Thompson, who was unchallenged for her Trustee Area 1 seat on the board.

The Vacaville School District transitioned into by-district elections so there were no incum bents, by definition. In the

one contested race, two non-board members went head-to-head for Trustee Area 1. Nancy Dunn prevailed over Jacqui Nguyen. John Jansen, who has been serving as board president, and Santiago Serrato, also a sitting trustee, were unchallenged in their respective trustee areas, 3 and 5. Dixon School District will see the return of Jewell Fink on the board, along with newcomers Julian Cuevas and John Gabby, who finished first and second, respectively, in the race. Fink was third and incumbent Lloyd McCabe finishing fourth. The other incumbent, Caitlin O’Halloran, chose not to seek reelection.

Similarly, the Vallejo City School District went to a by-district elec tion, with only one of the three trustee areas contested. John Fox, a sitting member of the board, defeated current board president R. Tony Gross and challenger Ajit Bhandal for the Area 5 seat. Glenn Amboy joins

Benicia’s Measure K, which extends for another 20 years the existing Urban Growth Boundary that protects Sky Valley to the north from development, was well on its way to passage, 10,447 (81.78%) in favor and 2,328 (18.22%) against.

Benicia’s

the board as the Area 3 representative. There were no candidates who filed for Area 1.

There are two trustee area seats open in the Winter Joint Unified School District that include parts of Solano County. Incumbent Carrie Green defeated Robert Warren in Area 2, while incumbent Joedy Michael was unchal lenged in Area 3.

Many of the education boards do not have to hold elections, either because there is a single candi date running for the post or because no one files at all. That was true, again, in November.

Solano County Board of Education incumbents Dana Dean (Area 3), Teresa Lavell (Area 4) and Ginger L. Dunne (Area 6) each got new terms without a chal lenger. The same was true for the trustee areas of the Yolo County educa tion board that includes portions of Solano County, with Melissa Moreno (Area 2) and newcomer Armando

Vallejo’s Measure P, a 0.875% sales tax hike for what proponents describe as safe streets and essen tial services, was headed toward passage with 16,873 (54.68%) in favor and 13,985 (45.32%) against. The measure is expected to gener ate $18 million annually. There is no sunset provi sion, which means the tax will remain in place until repealed by voters.

Salud-Ambriz (Area 5). The Solano Commu nity College District had no formal election with all four open seats filled by single candidates: incumbents Karimah Karah (Area 1), Annie M. Young (Area 2), Denis Honeychurch (Area 4) and newcomer Amber M Cargo-Reed (Area 6). Charles Jennings was the lone candidate for Area 4 on the San Joaquin Delta Community College District, which includes a part of Solano.

Benicia School Dis trict went to by-district elections with three open seats. Two will be filled, unchallenged, by Sheri Zada (Area 1) and Mark Maselli (Area 4), both sitting members of the board. There were no candidates for Area 5. Incumbent Dan Mahoney returns unchal lenged for his Trustee Area 1 seat on the River Delta School District, which includes the Rio Vista area, and incum bent Rafaela Casillas returns in Area 3, also unchallenged.

GARAMENDI

THOMPSON MATSUI

Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic

Construction continues on a new performing arts facility at Fairfield High School, Thursday.

At least 20 dead in Gaza Strip fire

TEL AVIV, Israel — More than 20 people have died in a fire in a residen tial building in the Gaza Strip, civil defence author ities and the local hospital told dpa on Thursday.

The WAFA news agency reported on Thurs day evening that several children were among the dead and numerous people were injured.

The fire broke out in a flat in Jabalia and spread to the rest of the building.

Gaza’s Interior Ministry said initial inves tigations revealed large amounts of fuel were stored at the site. The reasons for the fire were initially unclear.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Friday a day of mourn ing on which flags will be flown at half-mast in all official places, according to his advisor, Hussein al-Sheikh.

Israeli Defence Minis ter Benny Gantz tweeted that Israel had offered assistance in evacuating the injured.

“The State of Israel is prepared to provide lifesaving, medical aid to Gaza residents,” he wrote.

Jabalia is the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and was established in 1950. Today, more than 110,000 registered refu gees live there in an area of just more than half a square mile.

— Tribune Content Agency

Suisun

additional traffic analysis for the environmental impact report for the Highway 12 Logistics Center Project. It brings the total cost of the con tract to $471,767.

n Authorized the chief of police to apply for and receive funding through the Boating Safety and Enforcement Financial Aid Program from the California Department of Boating and Waterways for fiscal year 2023-24. The amount was not pro vided. The department has had a boat patrol unit for about 43 years. Eight officers are assigned to the unit.

n Accepted the city Investment Report for the quarter ending Sept. 30. The total of $48.64 million is broken down as SSWA 2019 Series Bond Pro ceeds, $573,194; Energy Conservation ProjectENGIE, $375,994; Debt Service Reserves, $4.188 million; General Fund, $7.761 million; Trust/ Fiduciary Funds, $11.134 million; and All Other Funds, $24.61 million.

Petito’s family awarded $3M to settle wrongful death lawsuit against Laundrie’s estate

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

A Florida judge on Thursday ordered the estate of Brian Laund rie to pay $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of his fiancee, Gabby Petito, whom officials say Laund rie admitted to killing.

A trial scheduled for December will no longer take place after Sara sota County Circuit Judge Hunter Carroll signed off on the settlement.

“The Petito family lost their daughter and they were also denied the opportunity to confront her killer,” said Patrick Reilly, an attorney for the family. “No amount of money is sufficient to compensate the Petito family for the loss of their daughter, Gabby, at the hands of Brian Laundrie.”

Laundrie’s estate does not have anywhere near

$3 million, but any money the family receives will go to the Gabby Petito Foun dation, established to help locate missing people and curb domestic violence.

Petito’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nicole Schmidt, “wish to turn their per sonal tragedy into a positive,” Reilly said.

“It is their hope that Gabby’s foundation will bring these important issues into the forefront of the public eye to the

benefit of all our commu nities,” Reilly said.

On July 2, 2021, the 22-year-old Petito departed her native Long Island, New York, for a cross-country vacation with her fiance Laun drie. Her family grew concerned when Laund rie returned alone to his parents’ home in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1.

Petito’s family reported her missing days later, launching a massive

search effort that ended with her body being found Sept. 19 at a camp ground near Grand Teton National Park in north western Wyoming.

Petito’s cause of death was later ruled to be homicide by strangu lation. In January, the FBI said Laundrie con fessed in his notebook to killing Petito.

Laundrie and his parents quickly left together to go camping at Fort De Soto Park, south of St. Petersburg, after he returned from the road trip with Petito. But Brian Laundrie never returned from the camping outing, and after months of speculation about his whereabouts, he was discovered dead from a selfinflicted gunshot wound at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on Oct. 20 The wrongful death

lawsuit, filed in May, claimed Laundrie inten tionally killed Petito during their summer travels. As a result, her parents “incurred funeral and burial expenses, and they have suffered a loss of care and comfort, and suffered a loss of probable future companionship, society and comfort,” the lawsuit asserted.

The family sought at least $30,000.

Petito’s family filed a separate negligence suit against Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, in March, accusing them of failing to come forward during the search for their daughter despite knowing she was already dead. They further alleged the Laundries helped Brian conceal Gabby’s murder and were arranging for him to leave the country before his death.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images/TNS file

A makeshift memorial dedicated to Gabby Petito is located near City Hall in North Port, Florida, Sept. 20, 2021.

Solano’s volleyball team opens playoffs Tuesday

707.427.6995

Judge, Goldschmidt named MVPs in MLB

triBune Content agenCy

NEW YORK — From June to October almost every time he came to the plate, Aaron Judge heard the chants; “MVP, MVP, MVP.” Thurs day night, those chants became a reality. Judge’s remarkable 2022 season was capped with base ball’s highest award. The 30-year-old free-agent outfielder who led the Yankees this season was tabbed the American League Most Valuable

Player by voting members of the Baseball Writers of American Association. Judge got 28 first-place votes, easily beating Shohei Ohtani’s two firstplace votes.

In the National League, St. Louis first baseman Paul Goldschmidt earned the honor with his first MVP. Gold schmidt received 22 of 30 first-place votes to beat out San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado. Judge is the 14th

Yankee to win MVP, the first since Alex Rodri guez won it in 2007. A Bronx Bomber has won the award 34 times in history and Judge joins the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMag gio, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, whose AL and Yankee single-season home run record Judge broke this year.

While the most intrigu ing question about Judge this winter is where he will wind up in free agency, there still

was some curiosity about this MVP award. There was a very loud faction that campaigned for Angels pitcher/outfielder Ohtani, the 2021 unani mous winner.

The Angels star had another tremendous season as baseball’s only two-way player. In fact, Ohtani had an even better year than in 2021. He hit 34 home runs with a .875 OPS. On the mound, Ohtani struck out 219 in 166 innings and pitched to a 2.33 ERA over 28 starts.

Ohtani finished with a 9.6 Wins Above Replacement according to Baseball Reference, a statistic developed to eliminate the factors that contribute to the voting, like that the Angels were effectively out of the playoff race by May, while Judge was playing mean ingful games into late September. His WAR was 9.5 according to Fan Graphs. Judge finished with an 11.6 WAR accord ing to Baseball Reference and a 10.6 on FanGraphs.

Not only did Judge set the American League home run record, held for 61 years by Maris, but he challenged for the AL Triple Crown. He finished second in batting average (.311), first in homers (62) and first in RBIs (131). He also led base ball with a 1.111 OPS in 157 games played.

Playing in all but five games of the regular season, a career high, was not only to show that

Rodriguez senior finishes tied for 11th at state golf

M att Miller MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Rodriguez High School senior Nikki Chinda vong tied for 11th overall with a 4-overpar 75 Wednesday in the California Interscho lastic Federation State Girls Golf Champion ship at the San Gabriel Country Club.

Vanden hopes to pass section semifinal test against Kimball

M att Miller MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Preparation for a run-first offense will now give way to a game plan for a passheavy attack as the Vanden High School football team continues its run through the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

The Vikings are 10-1 on the season and host Kimball at 7 p.m. Friday in the Division IV quar terfinals at George A. Gammon Field. Vanden beat Buhach Colony 28-3 in last week’s first-round game against a team that used nine dif ferent rushers and completed only two passes.

Kimball this week will test the Vikings’ pass defense. The Jaguars

are coming off a 29-19 win over Linden where quarterback Jayden McKey threw for 337 yards and two touchdowns.

The winner advances to the section finals next week against either No. 3 West Park of Roseville or No. 7 Capital Christian of Sacra mento. The date, time and venue of that championship game has yet to be determined.

“They are a very athletic, speed team,” Vanden head coach Sean Murphy said of Kimball. “They have a great quarterback and very athletic receivers. They are a little more committed to the pass and run a lot of screens. It should be a great high school football game.”

Kimball enters the game with a 7-4 overall record. The Jaguars

finished third in the Valley Oak League with a 3-2 mark behind two powerful teams in Central Catholic of Modesto and Manteca. Vacaville lost its quarterfinal game last week to Manteca 42-0.

Kimball went 10-2 in 2021, defeating Will C. Wood 44-32 in the playoffs before falling by a point, 51-50, to Merced.

Vanden, meanwhile, beat Merced 49-21 for the section title and played two more games after that en route to a state championship.

McKey has completed 148 of 227 passes for 2,183 yard and 25 touchdowns. Sebastian Tate has rushed 137 times for

Chindavong birdied the par-5 17th hole, which measured 452 yards, and had 13 pars. She recov ered nicely after bogeys on 11, 12, 3 and 7 for a solid round after start ing the tournament on the back side of the course at No. 10.

"She did really well," Rodriguez head coach Tracy Lopez said. "She hung in there, even through some rough shots, but still came out tied for 11th at state. We are very proud of her here at Rodriguez and I am certainly proud of her. I have nothing but great things to say about her. She has been a great leader and we will miss her."

There were a total of 54 golfers in the tourna ment. Two broke par. Angela Liu of Santa Margarita won with a 5-under 67. Michelle Woo of Mission San Jose was second with a 2-over-par 70.

Liu helped lead Santa Margarita to the team title as the Eagles finished 18-under-par with a 378. Arcadia was second (383) and Valley Christian finished third (396).

Chindavong's perfor mance at state finished off a stellar postseason run. She helped lead the Mustangs to the Divi sion III team title in Lodi at the Micke Grove Golf Course with a score of par 72. She was third overall at the Sac-Joa quin Section Masters with a 4-under-par 68 at The Reserve in Stock ton. Chindavong also tied for 10th at the NorCal tournament in El Cerrito with a 76 at the Berkeley Country Club.

She recently signed a national let ter-of-intent with the University of Nevada.

Giants have long list of decisions before deadline

By evan WeBeCK BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SAN FRANCISCO —

By M adeline K enney BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

PHOENIX — Last year at this time, the War riors were 12-2, boasting the best defense in the NBA while also leading the league in scoring.

But everything has changed.

While scoring hasn’t been an issue for Stephen Curry, who’s dropped 40-plus points in three of his last five games, the team as a whole has been inconsistent and out of sync on offense, which is impacting the War riors’ play on the other end. The defense can’t get stops and is allowing 118.3 points per game, a 16.7-point increase from

last November. Golden State is 6-9 and 12th in the Western Con ference standings.

Despite playing more than half of their first

15 games outside the Bay Area, the War riors have yet to win a road game – they are 0-8 – a precarious situation for the defend

ing champs, who insist they’re not panicking.

Coach Steve Kerr didn’t mince words Wednesday night following the War riors’ 130-119 loss to the Phoenix Suns that undermined a 50-point masterpiece by Curry. Kerr said he has “failed” as the coach to bring the group together and “give them a vision that they can collectively shoot for.”

But the responsibility doesn’t lie solely on him. Everybody needs to be held accountable.

Unselfish play and commitment to both ends of the court, to each other

After a 26-win drop-off from 2021 to 2022, con ventional wisdom might have suggested a blowit-up-and-try-again approach for the Giants this offseason. Listen to Joc Pederson, however, and perhaps it begins to make sense why San Francisco so far has committed to running it back with the local slugger and righthanded counterpart Wilmer Flores, who resigned before the end of the season.

“Everything fell apart and we finished at .500,” Pederson said after inking his oneyear, $19.65 million qualifying offer to return for 2023. “As bad as it was, we still finished at .500. That’s not a good expecta tion to have, but it just shows you weren’t, like,

20 games under and everything fell apart.”

The Giants believe they have the bones of a postseason contender –nowhere to go but up in the mind of Pederson, who missed the play offs for the first time in his career and made it clear playing for a non-contender was a nonstarter – and are still expected to be aggres sive this offseason. But many familiar faces will be back next season, too, with no better example than in what is shaping up to be a substantial arbitration class.

The non-tender dead line looms Friday; any arbitration-eligible player not tendered a contract becomes a free agent.

The Giants entered the offseason with 13 players set to hit arbitration; as many as 11 are certain to receive

Kerr says he’s ‘failed’ to bring Warriors together; team remains winless on road

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

Vanden High School’s Jordan Jones fights for yardage against the Buhach Colony defense during the quarterfinal

playoff game last week. Vanden takes on Kimball in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinals Friday.

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/TNS file

Draymond Green speaks to Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr during a preseason game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Oct. 14.

CALENDAR

Friday’s TV sports

Basketball College Men

• Charleston Classic, Semifinal, ESPN2, 9 a.m.

• Myrtle Beach Invitational, Semifinal, ESPN2, 11:30 a.m.

• Charleston Classic, Second Semifinal, ESPN2, 2 p.m.

• Virginia vs.Baylor, ESPN2, 4 p.m.

NBA

• Milwaukee vs. Philadelphia, ESPN, 4:30 p.m.

• N.Y. Knicks vs. Golden State, NBCSBA (Fairfield and Suisun City), 7 p.m.

• N.Y. Knicks vs. Golden State, ESPN, 7:05 p.m.

Football College

• South Florida vs. Tulsa, ESPN2, 6 p.m.

Golf

• DP World Tour Championship, GOLF, 3 a.m.

• RSM Classic, GOLF, 9 a.m.

• LPGA, CME Group Tour Championship, GOLF, Noon.

• DP World Tour Championship, GOLF, 11 p.m.

Saturday’s TV sports

Basketball

• G League, South Bay vs. Santa Cruz, NBCSBA, 7 p.m.

Football College

• Navy vs. Central Florida, ESPN2, 8 a.m.

• TCU vs. Baylor, 2, 40, 9 a.m.

• Illinois vs. Michigan, 7, 10, 9 a.m.

• Wisconsin vs. Nebraska, ESPN, 9 a.m.

• Lehigh vs. Lafayette, NBCSBA, 9:30 a.m.

• Oregon State vs. Arizona State, ESPN2, 11:15 a.m.

• Boston College vs. Notre Dame, 3, 11:30 a.m.

• Georgia vs. Kentucky, 5, 13, 12:30 p.m.

• Ohio State vs. Maryland, 7, 10, 12:30 p.m.

• Miami vs. Clemson, ESPN, 12:30 p.m.

• Iowa vs. Minnesota, 2, 40, 1 p.m.

• GeorgiaTech vs. North Carolina, ESPN2, 2:30 p.m.

• Tennessee vs. South Carolina, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma, 7, 10, 4:30 p.m.

• USC at UCLA, 2, 40, 5 p.m.

• Alabama-Birmingham vs. LSU, ESPN2, 6 p.m.

• Utah at Oregon, ESPN, 7:30 p.m.

Golf

• DP World Tour Championship, GOLF, 3 a.m.

• RSM CLassic, GOLF, 10 a.m.

• LPGA, CME Group Tour Championship, GOLF, 1 p.m.

• DP World Tour Championship, GOLF, 10:30 p.m.

Hockey

• NHL, N.Y. Rangers vs. San Jose, NBCSCA, 7:30 p.m.

Volleyball

• College Women, San Diego State vs. San Jose State, NBCSBA, 2 p.m.

US men’s soccer team hoping to surprise world

By k evin Baxter LOS ANGELES TIMES

The soundtrack of the U.S. national team’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup will always be Taylor Twellman’s epic rant inside an ESPN studio in Bristol, Conn.

“It is an utter embar rassment!” Twellman, a former national team player, screamed at a camera moments after the Americans lost to Trinidad and Tobago, missing the World Cup for the first time in nearly three decades. “That should have never happened. And it did. And every single person should look themselves in the mirror.

“What are we doing?”

Twellman’s point was the United States couldn’t consider itself a soccer country, one that could compete with Argentina and Belgium, if it couldn’t beat Trin idad and Tobago. How could it be a world power if it couldn’t qualify for a World Cup?

U.S. Soccer needed to start over – so it did.

In the wake of the loss, Bruce Arena resigned as coach. Federation president Sunil Gulati decided not to run for reelection. And Dave Sarachan was named interim manager and told to . . . well, he really wasn’t told anything.

“There wasn’t a lot of input,” he says now. “Everybody was sort of just disassociated with the men’s team. But I didn’t mind because

it allowed me a lot of autonomy in terms of using what I felt was good judgment to begin the process of identifying these next generational guys.”

The wisdom of that judgment will be on display in Qatar on Monday when the United States returns to World Cup play after an eight-year absence. In Sarachan’s 12 months as the caretaker coach, he gave a record 23 players their international debuts, including nine –Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Tim Weah, Shaq Moore, Luca de la Torre, Josh Sargent, Antonee Robinson, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Aaron Long – who are on the World Cup roster.

The U.S. team, with an average age of 25, is the youngest in Qatar and the second-young est World Cup team in U.S. history. It might also be one of the best because after Sarachan was replaced by Gregg Berhalter, the team he helped build climbed into the top 11 in the FIFA world rankings for the first time in 16 years.

And it might never had happened had the United States squeaked by Trinidad and qualified for the tourna ment in Russia.

“It’s hard to go back in time to say ‘what if’ and predict or say if we had qualified would certain guys not have gotten an opportunity? said Sar achan, now coach of Puerto Rico’s national team program.

BASKETBALL

NBA

EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division W L Pct GB Boston 12 3 800 Toronto 9 7 563 3½ New York 8 7 533 4 Philadelphia 7 7 500 4½ Brooklyn 6 9 400 6 Central Division W L Pct GB Milwaukee 11 3 786 Cleveland 8 6 571 3 Indiana 7 6 .538 3½ Chicago 6 9 400 5½ Detroit 3 12 200 8½ Southeast Division W L Pct GB Atlanta 9 6 600 Washington 8 7 .533 1 Miami 7 8 .467 2 Orlando 4 11 267 5 Charlotte 4 12 250 5½ WESTERN CONFERENCE Northwest Division W L Pct GB Portland 10 4 714 Denver 9 5 .643 1 Utah 10 6 .625 1 Minnesota 7 8 467 3½ Oklahoma City 7 8 367 3½ Pacific Division W L Pct GB Phoenix 9 5 643 SACRAMENTO 7 6 .538 1½ L.A. Clippers 8 7 533 1½ GOLDEN STATE 6 9 400 3½ L.A. Lakers 3 10 231 5½ Southwest Division W L Pct GB New Orleans 9 6 600 Memphis 9 6 600 Dallas 8 6 571 ½ San Antonio 6 9 400 3 Houston 3 12 200 6 Wednesday’s Games Phoenix 130, Golden State 119 Indiana 125, Charlotte 113 Minnesota 126, Orlando 108 Oklahoma City 121, Washington 120 Boston 126, Atlanta 101 Toronto 112, Miami 104 Milwaukee 113, Cleveland 98 New Orleans 124, Chicago 110 Houston 101, Dallas 92 N.Y. Knicks 106, Denver 103

Thursday’s Games San Antonio at SACRAMENTO, (N) Brooklyn at Portland, (N) Detroit at L.A. Clippers, (N) Friday’s Games N.Y. Knicks at GOLDEN STATE, 7 p.m. Miami at Washington, 4 p.m. Charlotte at Cleveland, 4:30 p.m. Milwaukee at Philadelphia, 4:30 p.m. Orlando at Chicago, 5 p.m. Indiana at Houston, 5 p.m. Oklahoma City at Memphis, 5 p.m. Denver at Dallas, 5:30 p.m. Boston at New Orleans, 5:30 p.m. Phoenix at Utah, 6 p.m. Detroit at L.A. Lakers, 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s Games Toronto at Atlanta, 3 p.m. Orlando at Indiana, 4 p.m. Minnesota at Philadelphia, 4:30 p.m. Utah at Portland, 7 p.m. San Antonio at L.A. Clippers, 7:30 p.m.

HOCKEY

NHL

Buffalo

St. Louis 5, Chicago

L.A. Kings 3, Edmonton 1 Thursday’s Games Detroit at SAN JOSE, (N) Tampa Bay 4, Calgary 1 Colorado 3, Carolina 2, OT Dallas 6, Florida 4 Columbus 6, Montreal 4 New Jersey 3, Toronto 2 Boston 4, Philadelphia 1 Winnipeg 3, Anaheim 2 Nashville 5, N.Y. Islanders 4 Pittsburgh 6, Minnesota 4 St. Louis 5, Washington 4, SO Arizona at Vegas, (N) N.Y. Rangers at Seattle, (N) Friday’s Game L.A. Kings at Vancouver, 7 p.m. Saturday’s Games N.Y. Rangers at SAN JOSE, 7:30 p.m. New Jersey at Ottawa, 10 a.m. Calgary at Florida, 1 p.m. Pittsburgh at Winnipeg, 4 p.m. Buffalo at Toronto, 4 p.m. Chicago at Boston, 4 p.m. Colorado at Washington, 4 p.m. Detroit at Columbus, 4 p.m. Philadelphia at Montreal, 4 p.m. Anaheim at St. Louis, 5 p.m. Carolina at Minnesota, 5 p.m. N.Y. Islanders at Dallas, 5 p.m. Tampa Bay at Nashville, 5 p.m. L.A. Kings at Seattle, 7 p.m. Vegas at Edmonton, 7 p.m.

FOOTBALL

T Pct. PF PA Seattle 6 4 0 .600 257 241 SAN FRAN 5 4 0 556 198 163 Arizona 4 6 0 .400 230 258 L.A. Rams 3 6 0 333 148 200 Week 11

Thursday’s Game Tennessee at Green Bay, 5:15 p.m. Sunday’s Games Chicago at Atlanta, 10 a.m. Carolina at Baltimore, 10 a.m. Cleveland at Buffalo, 10 a.m. Washington at Houston, 10 a.m. Philadelphia at Indianapolis, 10 a.m. N.Y. Jets at New England, 10 a.m. L.A. Rams at New Orleans, 10 a.m. Detroit at N.Y. Giants, 10 a.m. Las Vegas at Denver, 1:05 p.m. Dallas at Minnesota, 1:25 p.m. Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 1:25 p.m. Kansas City at L.A. Chargers, 5:20 p.m. Monday’s Game SAN FRANCISCO at Arizona, 5:15 p.m.

Solano women’s volleyball team to open playoffs against Sierra

Daily r ePuBliC staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

ROCKVILLE —

The Solano Community College women’s volley ball team will open the postseason Tuesday with a match at Sierra in Rocklin.

The Wolverines fin ished 17-12 overall in the regular season and went 10-6 in the Big 8 Con ference. Solano carries an overall record of 24-7 and went unbeaten in the Bay Valley Confer ence for its fifth straight championship.

The Falcons have a better record but head coach Darla Williams said there are five dif ferent categories to the formula on rankings and the BVC had a weaker conference among other considerations. Sierra is ranked sixth and Solano is No. 11.

“I watched them against Folsom,” Williams said. “I think we have a good opportunity to get past the second round, which I have never done.”

Sophomore middle blocker Veronica Tupy of Granite Bay leads Sierra with 251 kills and 77 blocks. Fresh man outside hitter Alexis Adebodun of Christian

Brothers has 230 kills. Freshman setter Becky Merca of Walla Walla, Washington, has recorded 644 assists, while sophomore defensive spe cialist Hailee Mulic of Colfax has 497 digs.

Two-time Bay Valley Conference MVP Sammy Brown has 427 kills and 384 digs for Solano. Kelsey Murray-Wall has 264 kills. Dani Rydjord has set up 811 assists and Crystal Carroll has 388 digs. Hannah Del Rio has 64 blocks.

Brown also learned Thursday that she is one of 12 community college volleyball players named to the all-Northern Cali fornia team.

High School Vacaville Christian athletes sign to play in 5 sports

VACAVILLE — Vacav ille Christian High School held a signing-recogni tion ceremony Wednesday afternoon for five athletes who received scholarships in five different sports.

Kirra Martin will attend UC Davis and play beach volleyball for the

Aggies. Martin is a twotime Sierra Delta League Most Valuable Player on the hard court for the Falcons.

Katrina Husby will run cross country at Charleston Southern Uni versity in South Carolina. Husby was the league MVP, qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section meet and just missed qualify ing for state.

Emerson Meggers will play softball at Utah State University. Meggers is also the reigning MVP in league.

Mason Releford will swim for the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. He earned allleague honors.

Quarterback Hunter Jackson will play foot ball at Grinnell College in Iowa. Jackson was also all-league.

Sierra Delta League coaches name 2 from Rio Vista as MVPs

VISTA —

Delta League in recent voting by coaches.

Tony Bellante was named the offensive MVP. The senior running back had 112 carries for 718 yards and 13 touch downs. He also caught 13 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns. On defense, Bellante was the leading tackler for the Rams and had a hand in 84 stops.

The defensive MVP was the Rams’ Isaiah Turner. The junior made 31 solo tackles and had 16 assists from his free safety position.

All-league selections for the Rams included senior linebacker Michael Lorton, junior running back Marco Carrillo, junior linebacker Matthew Bodle, junior defensive back Damien Castellanos and freshman defensive end Nathan Frisbie.

RIO

Members of Rio Vista High School’s varsity foot ball team claimed both the offensive and defen sive Most Valuable Player awards for the Sierra

Rio Vista had four honorable mention selec tions in senior offensive lineman Ian Vieira, soph omore running back Angel Mendoza, sophomore defensive back Daniel Diaz and sophomore line backer Cesar Valentin.

The Rams finished the season 6-5 overall and 4-1 in the SDL, good enough for second place.

Erik Karlsson responds to Sharks GM’s comments on potential trade

By Curtis Pashelka BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

SAN JOSE — Erik Karlsson did not wish to speculate about his longterm future with the Sharks, saying Thursday he remains committed to the team after general manager Mike Grier said earlier this week he would consider trade offers for the two-time Norris Trophy winner.

Grier said after the general manag er’s meeting in Toronto on Tuesday he would be open to listening to offers for Karlsson, recognizing also that the Sharks defenseman has a full no-movement clause throughout his lengthy contract with full veto powers over any potential trade.

Asked Thursday if he could see a scenario where he would consider

waiving that clause, Karls son said, “whenever that or if that question ever arises, it’s going to be between me and (Grier), and that’s that.

“So there’s no point in me even thinking about that or speculating about that. I’m fully invested

here at the moment.”

Karlsson’s eightyear, $92 million deal, which expires after the 2026-27 season, is just one of the numerous barriers to any potential trade.

Karlsson’s deal carries an average annual value of $11.5 million, a near-

impossible number for any NHL team to absorb right now without certain caveats. The Sharks would likely have to retain some of Karlsson’s salary, involve a third team to reduce the AAV or take back another hefty con tract in return.

The NHL presently has an $82.5 million salary cap, which is expected to rise only marginally next season.

The deal also has to work for the Sharks, who could use salary cap flex ibility, but also want to be back in the hunt for a playoff spot sooner rather than later.

“I’ll listen, but ulti mately it’s also going to be up to Erik,” Grier said. “He has a no-trade clause and he has control over what he wants to do.”

The Sharks have missed the playoffs for three straight years.

Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group/TNS file

Erik Karlsson of the Sharks skates on the ice during warmups before their game against the Florida Panthers at the SAP Center in San Jose, Nov. 3.

Agencies take step toward agreement on state’s water use

State water managers and local water agencies have, for at least a decade, off and on, pursued the holy grail of a master agreement to improve the envi ronmental health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by increasing its water flows.

At any given moment, California’s water supply is a zero sum game. Therefore, increas ing flows through the Delta to improve habitat for salmon and other species would require local water agen cies, particularly those serving farmers, to take less from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries.

THE TAX WATCHERS

State, local schools failing our children

Dan Walters

That’s not only a hard sell, but also could interfere with water rights, some of which stretch back to the 19th century. State officials have hoped socalled “voluntary agreements” would forestall direct action that could touch off a legal donny brook over those rights.

However, many environmental groups have pushed for direct and mandatory restrictions on water diversions, saying they don’t trust agree ments that lack the force of law and believe water rights need to be reconfigured to match 21st century conditions, including the likelihood of semi-perpetual drought.

The pressure for agreements ramped up in 2018 when the state Water Resources Control Board published its draft of new regulations to protect the Delta, indicating roughly 40% of natural river flows should make it to the Delta, and most into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

Reaching that figure would require steep reductions in water diversions from rivers for farms and municipal users.

A few months later, newly inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom stressed the urgency of the sit uation in his first State of the State address, saying, “Our first task is to cross the finish line on real agreements to save the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta. We must get this done – for the resilience of our mighty rivers, the stability of our agriculture sector, and the millions who depend on this water every day.”

Later that year, he vetoed a bill that would have adopted, wholesale, all of the environmen tal laws that existed in the federal government prior to Donald Trump’s election as president because the Trump administration had loosened up on water diversions. Had the bill become law, Newsom was warned, it would have short-circuited the drive for voluntary water agreements.

Newsom’s Resources Agency in 2020 released a framework for such agreements and earlier this year announced initial agree ments with some major water interests that would forestall a legal clash.

However, there were holdouts, particularly agencies that draw water from the Tuolumne River, including the City and County of San Francisco, which owns Hetch Hetchy Dam on the Tuolumne and transports its water to the city via pipelines. Tuolumne water diverters filed a lawsuit challenging the water board’s right to impose diversion restriction and their offers for voluntary cutbacks were rejected as insufficient.

There was a breakthrough last week. San Francisco and two agricultural water agencies, the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, forged an agreement with the state to increase Tuolumne flows and enhance habitat.

“This collaborative approach holds the promise to do that (work) more quickly and holistically, while improving water reliability to communities, farms and businesses,” the state resources secretary, Wade Crowfoot, said in a statement.

Does that mean the Delta water war is over? Not necessarily.

Environmentalists still don’t like the vol untary agreement approach and there still is another unresolved Delta issue: A New som-backed tunnel beneath the Delta to carry Sacramento River water to the head of the Cali fornia Aqueduct near Tracy.

Tunnel opponents believe the flow-enhancing agreements are being sought merely to make the project, which would divert water from the Delta, more environmentally acceptable.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Califor nia’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more columns by Dan Walters, go to calmatters. org/commentary.

Foy McNaughton President / CEO

T. Burt McNaughton Co-Publisher

As a teacher in Califor nia schools with more than 30 years of experi ence, I am deeply trou bled about the academic trends in our local schools.

District leaders believe social justice, critical race theory and gender iden tity takes precedence over teaching basic academic sub jects. As a result, Fairfield public schools fall far below other Califor nia schools. Sadly, California schools are at the bottom when compared nationwide.

Carla Nelson

California just released its own report, based on a state testing and scoring system, showing percentages of students meeting (a “C” grade) or exceeding state standards. More than half of our state’s students did not meet the English standards and two thirds did not meet the math standards. Demographically, 84% of Black students and 79% of Latino and low-income students did not meet the math standards.

Sadly, Solano County schools scored below state averages with the Fairfield-Suisun School District among the worst.

Fourth-grade English-language arts: California schools overall scored 44.22% while the Fairfield-Suisun

COMMENTARY

School District fell below at 37.51%. In math, California schools rated 38.26 and Fair field-Suisun School District only ranked 31.48.

Eighth-grade: The Fair field-Suisun School District did somewhat better but still fell behind, ranking 44.47% compared to the state school average of 47.74% in Englishlanguage arts. In math, state schools posted a dismal 27.83% while the Fairfield-Suisun School District came in at 25.38%.

Eleventh grade 11 shows the largest gap in scores with California state schools ranked 54% in English while the Fairfield-Suisun School Dis trict, Armijo High School specifically, earned a mere 34.10%. In math, state schools earned 26.97% and the Fair field-Suisun School District had a dismal 13.60%. Fairfield High ranked only 28.87% in English-language arts and 4.80% in math.

As terrible as the numbers are, the government’s responses miss the problem completely.

Gov. Gavin Newsom believes pumping more of our tax dollars into the system is the answer. The Fair field-Suisun School District takes our taxes and spends 90% of its general fund budget on employee salaries

and benefits. It pays all teachers the same, regardless of their effective ness as a teacher. It’s no wonder why every election asks us to vote for yet another school bond. After high staff salaries, there is nothing left for facil ity care and upkeep.

One of the biggest hurdles in changing these statistics is the Cali fornia Teachers Association, which protects underperforming teachers and failing schools instead of protect ing our children.

No matter which political party you follow, California citizens should not tolerate these scores. We all should be participating in an imme diate and united effort to ensure our most precious resources, our chil dren, are being taught to read, write and do basic arithmetic problems at their grade level.

I would encourage all parents to consider running for school board, attending school board meetings and demanding excellence and pride in our state school systems. If this cannot be done, then consider paro chial and/or private school options as they seem to care about their students and excellence in education.

Carla Nelson is a retired classroom teacher and member of the Central Solano Citizen-Taxpayer Group.

GOP path to 2024 hasn’t changed despite midterm

Republicans smarting from a disappointing election want some body to blame. Expecta tions, including mine, soared as the country was swamped with bad economic news. It wasn’t irrational exuberance, but it was still an understand able looking beyond the elec tion in front of us to the GOP agenda, while looking past some obvious flaws in our own nominees.

Lesson (re-)learned.

Hugh Hewitt

But this isn’t the GOP’s version of the Democrats’ 2016 shock, with stunned staffers sitting on curbs. It’s a prod to get better at party organi zation and to master the rules as they exist if they cannot be changed (and they won’t be in California).

What the GOP needs is a quick vote of confidence in the experienced congressional hands who know how to position the party while landing some wins along the way to the big contest for the presidency in 2024.

GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy (California) and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) have critics within their caucuses, and some loud hecklers in the con servative media ecosystem, but both are canny, hard-working, competent coalition managers.

The question now should be, what’s the best route to a 2024 victory? It would simply be party suicide to depose either leader or even to spend much time trying.

Right now, Republicans are over correcting to deep disappointment, and of course there are recrimina tions, egged on by Blue Bubble media and Democratic Party activists who would love to see a GOP civil war. What ought to matter to Constitutionfirst conservatives is the House, as of Tuesday morning, is still more likely that not to go Republican and, if it does, the GOP can (1) set up a select committee on China and (2) attend to a depleted Pentagon budget while (3) conducting vigorous oversight of federal agencies that are failing, especially Homeland Security.

A small majority can do these things, and they matter, both on the substance and with voters. Go that way. And put hard votes in front of the Democrats while standing as a wall against the excesses of the past two years.

McCarthy has been de facto leader of the GOP House since then-Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisconsin) announced retirement in April 2018. McCarthy guided the Republicans to increased numbers in 2020. If he has gotten them over the top this year, it would be insane to begin shooting inside the tent. No leader of a caucus of 218 or more members can satisfy them all, but outliers should not control the vast majority that sup ports McCarthy.

This week’s caucus vote was good news for McCarthy. He and his able ally Steve Scalise (Louisiana) will need a whip who can work the caucus and the media while representing the growing veteran coalition within the GOP and young parents everywhere. Indiana’s Jim Banks makes the most sense, by far, for the job.

On the Senate side, every 10 years like clockwork the GOP forgets that candidates who win primaries are sometimes too far to the right for the general. Republicans cannot wish away independents who do not want abortion rights ended, only limited. They cannot wish away young voters. The Buckley Rule abides: Nomi nate the most conservative candidate who can win. The Republicans didn’t. McConnell warned them, but he did his part for those who were viable –J.D. Vance in Ohio (successfully) and Adam Laxalt in Nevada (the most dis appointing loss of the election). In the closely divided chamber, the GOP should stick with the guy who had the guts and acumen to do what it took to secure a conservative Supreme Court majority.

The Senate Republicans, whether they total 49 or 50, will remain a check on the administration. Let the battle-tested McConnell chart the

course to a last, legacy-burnishing turn at Senate majority leader ship. Thus far, the Senate caucus is backing McConnell.

“Never get too high” should be a sign at GOP HQ. Right next to: “Never get too low or make deci sions when angry or disappointed.” McCarthy and McConnell can guide the GOP back to governing power in 2024, and they will support whom ever the party nominates in what promises to be another demolition derby presidential primary – just like 2016. As it should be.

And, by the way, gridlock isn’t inevitable, even with a tiny margin for the GOP. There may yet be leg islative compromises to be had on the border and immigration. Also possible is responsible, legislated regulation of Big Tech that doesn’t strangle innovation in artificial intel ligence or quantum computing but does insist on Chinese Commu nist Party-controlled products such as TikTok being banned from our shores – finally. There is more to do, and to run on, and chaos in the cau cuses won’t get it done.

Disappointment can be a reason for change, but not if it descends into bitterness. With the presidency in Democratic Party hands, we were always going to have divided power in D.C. Republicans ought to focus on making 2024 a second 1980, not a second 1964. It won’t take much to secure a House-Senate-White House trifecta. But it could also turn into a triple loss if activists and donors can’t turn away from party-splintering internecine battles.

Winning requires optimism and a spirited but not destructive 2024 primary season. And it requires patient, coherent progress on the Hill. That’s a goal best served by this week’s quick votes of confidence in McCarthy and McConnell.

Hugh Hewitt is a nationally syndi cated radio host on the Salem Radio Network. He is also a professor at Chapman University School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law since 1996.

Setting boundaries has me labeled as ‘judgmental’

Dear Annie: I am struggling with the fact that I will be coming face to face with family members after a year estranged. I drew a line in the sand last year when my niece assaulted another guest in my home. “Lynnie” is nearly 40 and has always been the life of the party. However, her drinking has gotten out of control. She had a DUI three years ago and proclaimed the court-ordered Alcoholics Anonymous meet ings “a joke.”

I was hesitant to host her last year, but I thought if I didn’t have a stocked bar and didn’t loan her my car, the visit would be OK. It was, until her last night with us. Her cousin “Kim” drove to my home to fetch her for a girls camping trip. Kim took Lynnie to the store with her to buy supplies. This included alcohol. After I went to bed that night, Lynnie

was drinking and Kim asked her to stop. I woke the next morning to find Kim making a hasty exit while holding an ice pack to a bruise on her head! I ordered Lynnie to leave. I told her she really needed to quit drinking and I don’t ever want to be around her if she is drinking.

What happened in the fol lowing weeks really surprised me. Not only did Kim decide to forgive and forget; she joined Lynnie in berating and guilting me. Both women have texted me that I am a judgmental hyp ocrite and ruining the family. I do like a beer on a hot day or a margarita at a Mexican res taurant. However, I have never hurt anyone or broken the law. I am not out of control, ever.

Soon I will be facing both of these young women at a family wedding. What do I say if I am asked to kiss and make up? I don’t want to! I think

Horoscopes

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

You have a talent for fixing things. Part of your secret is that you act immediately. The best time to mend or clean things up is right at the moment they happen. There’s no time to waste in blame. You focus on solutions.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Fortune favors the bold, though the risk is more than many will be able to stomach. It’s per fectly acceptable, and perhaps even wise, to hang back and study what’s working, and not working, for the others.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You’d be hard-pressed to find anything more valuable than the unconditional support of a true friend. You’ll experience the rare and pure love of an exchange that is without motive or expectation of reciprocity.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). When you make something with your hands, you put your heart into it too. Those who experience your creation will feel this tug on their own heart – a strange and very real phenomenon.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Is it possible to rebuild a relation ship by remembering things differently? You’ll entertain alternate versions of what hap pened and, in doing so, rewrite your memories to think of

by Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

You’ll go with the fun choices. Even your idealistic notions will pan out at times this year, so shoot for what you really want. Sometimes you’ll say yes just because it will provide you more experience than if you’d said no. You’re courageous and the year ahead expands on your favorite aspects of yourself. Aquarius and Virgo adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 2, 22, 18, 1 and 14.

things in a more helpful way.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). If you’re going to do nothing, you won’t do it idly. Your version of doing nothing involves a state of readiness. To be alert and observant is not inac tion; rather, it just might be the best action.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

Compromise will be an integral part of your day and is a skill you should give yourself props for being so good at. Compro mise requires humility and careful listening, creativity and cooperation.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

Everyone has shortcomings, including the people you’ll deal with today. To identify a weak

boundaries are a good thing. — Strict Auntie

Dear Strict Auntie: Your niece certainly sounds like she has a problem, and I think you are wise to not allow her in your home until she gets her drink ing under control. It’s a shame that she didn’t take her courtordered AA meetings seriously, but there is nothing you can do for her until she admits she has a problem.

Kim’s situation is a bit more complicated. She obviously loves her cousin very much, but she is putting herself in danger by spending time with Lynnie. She already suffered a bruise, and God forbid she gets in the car with her cousin after a night of drinking. Attend a local Al-Anon meeting, and invite Kim to go with you, so that she can be better equipped to handle a loved one with a drink ing problem.

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

ness isn’t necessarily a negative thing because it allows you to work on finding the opposite and equal strength.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). Those who bring something to the table always enjoy the dinner better. In today’s case you may feel you’re bringing the whole meal, and you’ll enjoy it all the more because of your proud contribution.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). There’s great comfort in knowing what to expect and feeling confident you can give what’s expected of you. You may stand at a distance, pausing to collect yourself and assess things.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18). Because you’ve already shown that you’re willing to work hard, others will support your quest. Deciding what exactly that quest should be is the tricky part, of course. Success is a matter of knowing what to focus on.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Changing the future is easy. Just do one thing different. This is all it takes to alter the entire course. Also, note that the way you meet someone sets a direc tion for the entire relationship.

Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

TWO INTO ONE WILL NOT GO

Lawrence Welk said, “I knew nothing of the real life of a musician, but I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.”

Against four hearts, West led the diamond jack. Things looked like smooth sailing to South. He won trick

Sudoku

TWO INTO ONE WILL NOT GO

Lawrence Welk said, “I knew nothing of the real life of a musician, but I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.”

by Phillip Alder

one in hand with the diamond king and cashed his heart ace. However, West’s discard was a rude shock. Suddenly there appeared to be four inescapable losers: one spade, two hearts and one diamond.

Hearing the strains of an accordion in the street outside, South had a clever idea. He led his spade. East won and returned a trump (a diamond is no better). Declarer won with his king, crossed to dummy with a club to the jack, ruffed a spade, played a club to dummy’s queen and ruffed another spade. Now came the diamond ace and the club ace.

South had won nine tricks: two spade ruffs in hand, the heart ace-king, the diamond ace-king and three top clubs. Left in his hand were the heart eight-seven and the diamond four. East had the heart jack-10 and the diamond queen.

Declarer called for dummy’s spade jack. How could East defend? If he discarded, South would ruff for his 10th trick. However, when East ruffed, declarer discarded his diamond loser. He had a trump trick to come.

South had squeezed two losers into one with a loser-on-loser play. The accordion or its close cousin the concertina are good analogies.

2022, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

COPYRIGHT:

by Wayne Gould

Bridge

Word Sleuth

Annie Lane Dear Annie

Trolls embark on a journey to save their fellow villagers in “Trolls.”

Carey can’t be the only ‘Queen of Christmas’

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

It’s official: Mariah Carey can’t be the only artist to wear the “Queen of Christmas” crown.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on Tuesday terminated Carey’s bid to trademark the title after the musi cian and her company, Lotion LLC, failed to respond to fellow singer Elizabeth Chan’s opposition to Carey’s trademark claim.

Carey’s “Queen of Christmas” trademark would have allowed her to brand a wide range of products, including fra grances, lotions, nail polish, jewelry, cups, mugs, sweatshirts, food and drink, ornaments and music, according to her application filed with the U.S Trademark Office in March 2021.

Carey’s claim to the Christmas throne seemed legitimate. The multi-Grammy-winning pop singer’s 1994 single “All I Want for Christ mas Is You” is a staple of the holiday season. A year ago it became the first holiday single to be certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America.

But when Carey’s attempt to trademark “Queen of Christmas” became public in July, several other singers associated with the holiday – including Darlene Love, whose “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is another seasonal classic – pro tested Carey’s move.

“Is it true that Mariah Carey trade marked ‘Queen of Christmas’?”

Love wrote on Facebook in August. “What does that mean that I can’t use that title? David Letter man officially declared me the Queen of Christ mas 29 years ago, a year before she released ‘All I want For Christmas Is You’ and at 81 years of age I’m NOT chang ing anything.”

Love promptly cel ebrated the trademark board’s decision.

“Thank you, Lord!!”

Love wrote Tuesday on Facebook. “Congrats to all the other Queen of Christmases around the world, living and whom have passed!”

Chan, who filed the opposition to Carey’s

trademark in August, has made a career out of Christmas music albums and calls herself “the world’s only full-time pop Christmas recording artist.” She also wel comed Tuesday’s news of Carey losing her trademark bid.

“Christmas is a season of giving, not the season of taking, and it is wrong for an individual to attempt to own and monopolize a nickname like Queen of Christmas for the purposes of abject materialism,” Chan said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

She said her goal was to protect against “trade mark bullying” and to allow other artists such as herself to continue using the title.

The trademark board also rejected Carey’s application to trademark “Princess Christmas,” due to Chan’s opposition. However, Carey’s bid to trademark “Christmas Princess” is still pending and so far has not seen any opposition. Carey published a children’s book with the same name in 2021 and features herself as a child as the main character.

In recent years, Carey has capitalized on Christ mas branding. In 2020, she released an Apple+ Christmas special, which garnered a Primetime Emmy nomination. This December, Carey plans to showcase a mini Christmas tour, includ ing a pair of shows at Madison Square Garden in New York.

On Halloween night, Carey posted an Insta gram reel in which the pop singer was dressed in a black catsuit and witch’s hat while ped aling on a workout bike in a spooky, barren forest. Then, after a menacing laugh, the black-and-white frame gave way to amber Christmas lights and sparkling gifts.

Carey then sat atop a stuffed reindeer, her blond locks glowing, dressed in her iconic red Santa jumpsuit. “It’s time,” she sang in her signature whistle note, ushering in the opening chords of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and what Carey called in the caption “#MariahSZN.”

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú and Carlos Castellanos

15 most anticipated movies this holiday 2022 season

Moira M acdonald THE SEATTLE TIMES

The holiday season tends to bring a rush of Serious Movies – prestige projects with Academy Awards buzz all over them – sprinkled with a handful of just-for-fun romps. 2022 is no exception, and those venturing out to the multiplexes this season will find everything from a Steven Spielberg origin story to a cannibal love tale to a Whitney Houston biopic – oh, and a long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Here’s a guide to some of the season’s most anticipated titles, with something for every one; note that release dates are always subject to change.

“The Fabelmans”: Steven Spielberg looks back at his own youth in this family drama, about a boy growing up in Arizona who dreams of becom ing a filmmaker. Written with playwright Tony Kushner, with whom Spielberg previously col laborated on “West Side Story,” “Lincoln” and “Munich,” the film stars Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. (Nov. 23)

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”: Back in 2019, Daniel Craig as the wonderfully taffy-voiced detective Benoit Blanc lightened up the Serious Movie Season in “Knives Out”; now he and writer/director Rian Johnson are back, with a new cast (including Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom Jr.) Expect silliness, in the best of ways. (Nov. 23 in theaters, on Netflix Dec. 23)

“Strange World”: Disney pretty much always has a family movie on tap for Thanks giving weekend, and this year’s version is an adventure featur ing a family of explorers, voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Gabrielle Union and Lucy Liu. (Nov. 23)

“Bones and All”: The latest sensual odyssey from Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Suspiria,” “I Am Love”) is a

romantic cannibal tale starring Timothée Chalamet, Taylor Russell and Mark Rylance. It was an award winner at the Venice Film Festival earlier this fall. (Nov. 23)

“Women Talking”: Actorturned-director Sarah Polley’s latest feature (and it’s been a while; her last, “Stories We Tell,” was among my favor ites of 2012) is an adaptation of Miriam Toews’ bestsell ing novel, which took place in an isolated religious commu nity. Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Frances McDormand lead the ensemble cast. (Dec. 2)

“Emancipation”: Can Will Smith’s career recover from The Slap at the Oscars early this year? He’s the star of this historical drama from Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”), about an enslaved man fleeing the Louisiana plantation on which he grew up. (Dec. 2 in theaters, on Apple TV+ Dec. 9)

“Empire of Light”: Sam Mendes takes a break from blockbusters (“Skyfall,” “Spectre,” “1917”) to tell a quiet, small-scale love story, taking place in the 1980s at an old movie house in a British seaside town. Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Toby Jones are among the cast, and the great Roger Deakins is the cinema tographer. (Dec. 9)

“The Inspection”: Film maker/photographer Elegance Bratton, a former Marine, makes his feature debut with this tale of a young Marine (Jeremy Pope) who faces homophobia both at boot camp and at home. Gabrielle Union and Bokeem Woodbine co-star. (Dec. 9)

“Spoiler Alert”: Journal ist Michael Ausiello’s memoir, about the life and death of his partner Kit Cowan, comes to the screen starring Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge; Seattle writer/journalist/activist Dan Savage co-wrote the screenplay with director Michael Showal ter (“The Big Sick”). (Dec. 9)

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”: The last gasp (maybe?)

of the “Shrek” franchise, this animated adventure fea tures the swashbuckling title character (voiced by Antonio Banderas) who’s dismayed to learn that he’s on the last of his nine lives. (Dec. 21)

“I Wanna Dance With Some body”: British actor Naomi Ackie plays the late R&B/pop singer Whitney Houston in Kasi Lemmons’ biopic, which also features Stanley Tucci as Clive Davis, Ashton Sanders as Bobby Brown, and Houston’s legendary vocals. (Dec. 21)

“The Whale”: Brendan Fraser is getting strong preOscar buzz for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s latest, a drama about a 600-pound man trying to connect with his teenage daughter (Sadie Sink). The film won multiple awards at the Venice International Film Festival. (Dec. 21)

“Avatar: The Way of Water”: It’s been a very long wait, but James Cameron’s longpromised follow-up to his 2009 megahit “Avatar” is finally here. The first of four planned sequels, it’ll feature 3D cine matography, special effects wizardry (watch for stun ning underwater scenes), and return performances from Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, joined this time by Michelle Yeoh, Kate Winslet and Jemaine Clement. (Dec. 23)

“Babylon”: Damien Cha zelle’s “La La Land” was set in Los Angeles of the present; his new film returns to that city, but in the past. Set in the 1920s, as a decade Hollywood transitioned from silent film to talkies, the film has a large ensemble cast led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Jean Smart. (Dec. 23)

“The Son”: A follow-up to director Florian Zeller’s 2020 film “The Father” (which won an Oscar for Anthony Hopkins), this is a family drama starring Hugh Jackman as a dad struggling to connect to his teenage son. Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath and Hopkins co-star. (Dec. 23)

Bridge

by Phillip Alder

and when there, to ask yourself what you would have done in his position. Sometimes this will help you to ring the right bell.

South’s one-spade response is debatable. The key feature of the hand is the good club suit. However, players are brainwashed into thinking that only major suits are fit for bidding. Here, you will notice, five clubs is an excellent contract. However, South’s spade bid helped him in three no-trump.

West led the heart jack. Declarer won in hand with the ace and played off dummy’s two top diamonds. When the queen didn’t drop, South ran the club jack. West won with the king and, on auto-response, continued with another heart. Declarer claimed nine tricks.

“You had six clubs?” asked an incredulous West. “Sorry, partner. How could I tell?”

WOULD YOU HAVE FOUND THAT DEFENSE?

David Mercer, who was an English dramatist, said, “Did you hear what the white rat said to the other white rat?

‘I’ve got the psychologist so well trained that every time I ring the bell, he brings me something to eat.’”

One of the arts of bridge is being able to enter the mind of another player – the declarer or a defender –

Sudoku

Bridge

It was difficult, but suppose you were South with a guaranteed spade stopper. Wouldn’t you establish diamonds? South’s actual line strongly suggested that he was trying to run nine tricks without losing the lead and was giving himself a chance in each minor.

Whenever a competent player does something strange, ask yourself why. Maybe the answer won’t be so elusive, and it will help you to find the winning riposte.

COPYRIGHT: 2022, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

by Wayne Gould

WOULD YOU HAVE FOUND THAT DEFENSE?

David Mercer, who was an English dramatist, said, “Did you hear what the white rat said to the other white rat? ‘I’ve got the psychologist so well trained that every time I ring the bell, he brings me something to eat.’”

20th Century Studios/Album/Entertainment Pictures via ZUMA Press/TNS

A scene from “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

THE FOLLOWING PERSON (PERSONS) IS (ARE) DOING BUSINESS AS PAPILLON

LOCATEDAT190ZiniaCircle,Vallejo CA,94591Solano.Mailingaddress190 ZiniaCircle,VallejoCA94591.ARE HEREBYREGISTEREDBYTHEFOLLOWINGOWNER(S)RuthA.Clarke190 ZinniaCir,Vallejo,94591.THISBUSINESSISCONDUCTEDBY: aIndividual Theregistrantcommencedtotransact businessunderthefictitiousbusiness nameornameslistedaboveonN/A I declarethatallinformationinthisstatementistrueandcorrect(Aregistrantwho declaresastrueinformationwhichheor sheknowstobefalseisguiltyofacrime.) /s/RuthA.Clarke INACCORDANCEWITHSUBDIVISION (a)OFSECTION17920AFICTITIOUS NAMESTATEMENTGENERALLYEXPIRESATTHEENDOFFIVEYEARS FROMTHEDATEONWHICHITWAS FILEDINTHEOFFICEOFTHECOUNTY CLERK,EXCEPTASPROVIDEDIN SUBDIVISION(b)OFSECTION17920, WHEREITEXPIRES40DAYSAFTER ANYCHANGEINT HEFACTSSET FORTHINTHESTATEMENTPURSUANTTOSECTION17913OTHERTHAN ACHANGEINTHERESIDENCEADDRESSOFAREGISTEREDOWNER. ANEWFICTITIOUSBUSINESSNAME STATEMENTMUSTBEFILEDBEFORE THEEXPIRATIONOctober16,2027. THEFILINGOFTHISSTATEMENT DOESNOTOFITSELFAUTHORIZE THEUSEINTHISSTATEOFAFICTITIOUSBUSINESSNAMEINVIOLATION OFTHERIGHTSOFANOTHERUNDER FEDERAL,STATEORCOMMONLAW (SEESECTION14411ETSEQ.,BUSINESSANDPROFESSIONSCODE). FiledintheOfficeoftheCountyClerkof SolanoCounty,StateofCaliforniaon: October17,2022 NewASSIGNEDFILENO.2022001758 CHARLESLOMELI,SolanoCountyClerk DR#00058913 Published:Oct.28,Nov.4,11,18,2022

THE

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WHATHESAYY LOCATEDAT1106TylerStreetFairfield, CA,94533.Mailingaddress1106Tyler StreetFairfield,CA,94533.AREHEREBY REGISTEREDBYTHEFOLLOWING OWNER(S)MarkquanDuboise1106Tyler StreetFairfield94533.THISBUSINESS ISCONDUCTEDBY: AnIndividual Theregistrantcommencedtotransact businessunderthefictitiousbusiness nameornameslistedabo veonN/A. Ideclarethatallinformationinthisstatementistrueandcorrect(Aregistrantwho declaresastrueinformationwhichheor sheknowstobefalseisguiltyofacrime.) /s/MarkquanDuboise INACCORDANCEWITHSUBDIVISION (a)OFSECTION17920AFICTITIOUS NAMESTATEMENTGENERALLYEXPIRESATTHEENDOFFIVEYEARS FROMTHEDATEONWHICHITWAS FILEDINTHEOFFICEOFTHECOUNTY CLERK,EXCEPTASPROVIDEDIN SUBDIVISION(b)OFSECTION17920, WHEREITEXPIRES40DAYSAFTER ANYCHANGEINTHEFACTSSET FORTHINTHESTATEMENTPURSUANTTOSECTION17913OTHERTHAN ACHANGEINTHERESIDENCEADDRESSOFAREGISTEREDOWNER. ANEWFICTITIOUSBUSINESSNAME STATEMENTMUSTBEFILEDBEFORE THEEXPIRATIONNovember13,2027. THEFILINGOFTHISSTATEMENT DOESNOTOFITSELFAUTHORIZE THEUSEINTHISSTATEOFAFICTITIOUSBUSINESSNAMEINVIOLATION OFTHERIGHTSOFANOTHERUNDER FEDERAL,STATEORCOMMONLAW (SEESECTION14411ETSEQ.,BUSINESSANDPROFESSIONSCODE). FiledintheOfficeoftheCountyClerkof SolanoCounty,StateofCaliforniaon: November14,2022 NewASSIGNEDFILENO.2022001886 CHARLESLOMELI,SolanoCountyClerk DR#00059416 Published:Nov.18,25Dec.2,9,2022

contracts Friday (then, the process moves to negotiations and, if a deal can’t be completed, to the often-contentious arbitra tion court where each side submits a proposed salary for the upcoming season).

Going by MLB Trade Rumors‘ consistently accurate estimates, the total bill is expected to come out to about $33 million for all 13 players, putting the Giants’ 2023 salary obliga tions at about $120 million, or about $35 million shy of their Opening Day payroll last season and some $100 million short of the luxury tax.

The easy calls include their homegrown ace, Logan Webb, who will make more than the rookie minimum for the first time; a long-term extension makes sense for both sides at some point. MLB Trade Rumor sprojects a salary of $4.8 million, more than all but one other Giants player in the process.

Mike Yastrzemski, in his second year of arbi tration, is projected to earn $5.7 million. But the Giants won’t balk at that figure, even if Yas trzemski never reaches his 2020 levels again. His platoon partner, Austin Slater, is projected to earn $2.7 million in his third

year of arbitration, a com bined total of $8.4 million that can slot into one outfield spot.

Yastrzemski’s .737 OPS against righties and Austin Slater’s .824 mark against lefties last season still makes for a strong platoon pairing, especially if the Giants acquire a capable center fielder to shift the duo into a corner, where they can provide plus defense (Yastrzemski was a Gold Glove finalist in 2021 for his work navigat ing Oracle Park’s tricky right field).

The other locks include Jakob Junis ($3.3M), one of their most success ful rehabilitation projects who is penciled in as a swingman and spot starter next year; J.D. Davis ($3.8M), the largest piece of one of the trade dead line’s most lopsided deals whose role grows more important if Evan Long oria isn’t returning; and Thairo Estrada ($2.4M),

who entrenched himself as a core piece and could be the everyday second baseman or a superutility player, depending on what happens this offseason.

With no options left and coming off a down year, LaMonte Wade Jr. ($1.4M) seemed like a possible non-tender can didate. But president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi reaffirmed the Giants’ intent to bring him back, banking on his underlying metrics and a boost from new restric tions on the shift.

One group that won’t look the same is the bullpen. Zaidi said an overhaul is already underway.

Entering his final year of arbitration, local lefty Scott Alexander ($1.1M) is sure to be back after his strong audition down the stretch last season (17 games, 1.07 ERA). MLB Trade Rumors doesn’t list an estimate

for Alex Young, one of the 22% of players to receive “Super Two” status, but he was another effective lefty that showed well down the stretch (24 games, 2.39 ERA), after the Giants acquired him from Cleveland in July.

That, however, made Jarlín García ($2.4M) expendable after three years of service: The Giants designated him for assignment in a 40-man roster crunch this week. Zack Littell ($900K), who gained notoriety for his spat with manager Gabe Kapler late last season, was also arbitration-eli gible and designated for assignment earlier this week. Jharel Cotton, who appeared in five games (6.75 ERA) as one of the many newcomers to the bullpen late last season, would have been eligi ble but was granted free agency instead.

Although it was an upand-down year for Tyler Rogers ($1.8M), he fin ished strong, and the Giants’ commitment to the submarining reliever never wavered; he’ll be back, and maybe they can work out a deal with his twin brother, Taylor, who’s a free agent.

And perhaps John Brebbia ($1.9M) can boost his arbitration figure by claiming he’s a part-time starter, with a leagueleading 10 games opened, though the red-bearded right-hander figures to be back at any rate.

and to winning – char acteristics that defined this winning team for the better part of the last decade – are lacking.

“There’s no collective grit,” Kerr said. “And when you don’t have grit, the game is really easy for the other team.”

Kerr compared his team’s play to a Drew League game, indicat ing guys aren’t focused on the game’s funda mentals and playing as a unit. He didn’t offer much insight on why that is, given that 10 of the team’s 16 players (that includes Andre Iguo dala, who has yet to play this season, and guys on two-way contracts) were on last year’s title team. Perhaps it’s exhaustion from last summer’s NBA Finals run or lingering tension from the pre season incident Kerr called the biggest crisis of his Warriors’ tenure.

“We need to figure out what it’s going to take to win and figure out what everybody needs to do differently, more con sistently,” Curry said.

“Forget the road record, you can’t even find a sustainable period of success when habits start to form and we’re in a position where we’re feeling good about ourselves. We’re still searching and chasing a little bit.”

half of their 40 attempted 3-pointers and shot 51.6% from the field. Phoenix scored 73 points in the first half – its second time doing so this season against the Warriors.

The Warriors also haven’t been able to find offensive rhythm.

Klay Thompson remains in a slump, shooting 35.1% overall and 33% from 3-point range, both career lows. He scored 19 points Wednesday, but it took 17 shots (and four free throws) to get there.

Jordan Poole has also been spotty this season. He had eight assists Wednesday, but scored only two points in 27 minutes, missing all five of his shots from the field

The young players are struggling to get playing time as Kerr tight ened the rotation in an attempt to get the season back on track. Two-way forward Anthony Lamb has jumped the players touted as potential future foundational pieces such as Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga.

James Wiseman has been sent to Santa Cruz..

“We have to be honest with ourselves,” Curry said. “We’re not playing the way we should. What are we going to do about it?”

Kerr said the issues go beyond the numbers.

Judgedespite his earlier strug gles with injuries, Judge has been durable the last two years, but also to accommodate the national interest in his home run chase of Maris’ title.

Both facts will con tribute to what will likely be a contract that will be north of $300 million. Judge turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension offer before his self-imposed negotiation deadline on opening day.

“You kind of have a chip on your shoulder going into the season, but once the season started it was time to go to work,” Judge said Thursday night on the MLB Network. “I saw what type of team we had and the tasks in front

of us and you know, I tried to wipe everything that happens you know in the offseason away and you know, focus on analysts go out there, win our divi sion and then go out there and try to win a World Series this year because we’ve got the group that can do it.”

The Yankees fell short

of the World Series for the 13th straight year, losing to the Astros in the AL Championship Series. Judge, however, went out and made that Yankee offer irrelevant with his play this season.

He not only played a career high amount of games, but set a career high with a

.425 on-base percentage and a .688 slugging per centage. Judge was not just putting up big per sonal numbers, but he was the engine in the Yankees’ offense. Of the 802 runs the team scored this season, Judge drove in 131 of them.

So it is hard to imagine a Yankees lineup without him in it, but Thurs day night, Judge was a free agent.

“So far, so good. So far, so good. It’s a different process, but we are hoping to get the job done here soon. And we’ll see what happens,” Judge said.

Yankees managing general partner Hal Stein brenner made it clear after the owners meetings in New York on Tuesday that money will not get in the way of trying to keep Judge.

Defense was yet again an issue for the Warriors, who’ve surrendered at least 125 points in six games this season. The Suns, playing without Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and Cameron Johnson, still managed to light it up beyond the arc. They made more than

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1,084 yards and 10 touch downs. McKey has two receivers approaching 1,000 yards in Darius Doyle (58 catches for 951 yards, 14 TDs) and Travis Mariero (67 catches, 978 yards, 12 TDs).

Murphy said the Jaguars have a very aggressive defense as well. Middle linebacker Zachary Macmartin is the leader with a hand in a team-high 92 tackles.

“Buhach was pound the football,” Murphy said. “Kimball is a little more of what we have seen throughout the season. We’re not going to change much. We still haven’t put together a solid four quarters and we have to make sure we do that.”

After closing the Mon ticello Empire League season with a tough 7-6 win over Rodriguez, Vanden rebounded with

The Warriors have become known as a team that plays with joy, competitive desire and togetherness. That has been absent. You can see it in the subdued reac tion on the bench, even after big plays.

“If you’re not right emotionally, spiritually, you will get exposed every night,” Kerr said.

“And that’s where we are right now.”

a strong offensive per formance and 28 points against Buhach Colony. The Vikings had four rushing touchdowns, two by quarterback Tre Dimes and one each from running backs Elijah Fisherman and Jordan Jones.

Dimes completed 7 of 16 yards for 115 yards to five different receiv ers. Six different Vikings had carries and were led by Jones’ 10 carries for 56 yards.

The Vanden defense held Buhach Colony to just one second-quarter field goal. The Thunder had opened the playoffs by scoring 64 points in a win over Los Banos.

Murphy said semifinal matchups can be tricky.

“Semifinals are tough because you are coming off an exciting firstround playoff win,” he said. “You now find out if you are a section con tender or if you are done with it. We’re trying to make things as normal and fresh as we can this week.”

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS file

Starting pitcher Logan Webb should likely return to the Giants after a strong season on the mound in 2022.

John Fisher/Getty Images/TNS file

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees was named the MVP in the American League after hitting 62 home runs in 2022.