Daily Republic: Friday, November 25, 2022

Pollution alert in place across the Bay Area, much of Solano

daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — An air pollution alert is in place Friday across the greater Bay Area due to elevated levels of wood smoke and weather con ditions that are trapping the smoke in place.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management Dis trict on Thanksgiving Day issuing the winter sea son’s first “Spare the Air” alert for Friday. The air pollution alert initiates a ban on burning wood, manufactured fire logs or any other solid fuel, both indoors and outdoors.

Officials with the air district put out a call Wednesday for residents

across the Bay Area not to burn wood over the Thanksgiving holiday to help prevent air pol lution from rising to unhealthy levels.

Smoke from increased wood burning combined with light winds and low temperatures is expected to cause unhealthy air quality, officials with the air district report. High pressure over Northern California will act like a lid, trapping smoke at ground level. Offshore winds may also trans port air pollution from the Central Valley into the Bay Area.

“Smoke from resi dential wood burning

See Alert, Page A8

Ukraine struggles to restore utilities after big Russian missile strikes

tRibune content agency

Ukraine restored electricity and other vital services to some areas, but most of the capital and other parts of the country remained without power in the cold after another wave of Russian missiles targeted civilian infrastructure.

The relentless attacks threaten to trigger another refugee exodus to Europe and under score Kyiv’s need for more increased air defenses.

“When it is freez ing temperature outside and millions of people

are cut off from electric ity, heating and water as a result of Russia’s missile attack on energy facilities, it is a clear crime against human ity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations Security Council by video link after Wednes day’s barrage.

Russia’s envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, told the gath ering the attacks will continue until Kyiv is forced to take a “realis tic” approach to potential talks, saying the strikes were retaliation for U.S.

See Ukraine, Page A8

SuSan Hiland SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

ROCKVILLE — Thanksgiving Day is usually a day for feasting, football and a parade, but for some people their tradition includes an early morning 10K run through the backroads in the annual Turkey Trot at Solano Commu nity College.

This year was the first time for Corey Baxter, 39, of Fairfield, to be in the lead for the 10K run and cross the finish line first. He made it in just over 33 minutes.

“This has been my tradition for me for 22 years,” he said. “I have never taken first place before.”

Baxter’s wife, Carmen, ran with him and for a few minutes they were neck and neck, but

VACAVILLE — The Veterans Memorial Building was filled Thanksgiving Day with vol unteers scurrying upstairs and downstairs to get hundreds of meals ready to go out for delivery.

Veterans have been serving the community a turkey meal on Thanksgiving for more than 30 years. This year became one of the largest deliveries in recent memory.

The meal consisted of turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with onion and bacon, rolls and pieces of pie or cake for dessert.

Planning started months ago, organizer Jeff

Solano Public Health says county is in winter surge A3

Vanden ready for SacJoaquin Division

SuSan Hiland SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

at the Vacaville Veterans Memorial Building, Thursday.

Thanksgiving Day fireworks explode at the Watkins house: Part 2

Note: Today’s fictional column is a sequel to last week’s so if you missed that one, first, shame on you, and second, you may read it here: https://bit.ly/ WatkinsFireworks.

The second Sapphire Watkins shut off her cellphone, her uncle O.T. unfroze from his dumbstruck state after walking into the imme diate aftermath of the fierce family food fight that had broken out at the Thanksgiving dinner table. He started to walk to the kitchen to set his large casserole bowl filled with macaroni and cheese on the counter.

O.T. had been a long time math teacher at Fairfield High School before retiring, but it didn’t take a mathemat ical wizard to calculate that a hardwood floor plus jellied cranberry sauce and a leather shoe equaled disaster. But he didn’t have time to calcu late it even though his epic slip and fall appeared to happen in super-slow motion.

As his left foot lost all traction and shot out from underneath him, O.T. flailed with his right to grab onto something to keep himself upright. He succeeded in snag ging a cross-stitched wall hanging of that famous picture of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King off the wall, but it did nothing to stop or even slow down his fall.

The macaroni and cheese dish in his left hand flew up as he went down and it seemed to hang in the air like the way cartoon characters did when they ran off a cliff and only

might either hit him directly in the face or land on the floor right next to his head and be smashed to smithereens. But neither happened because Nana, leaning swiftly and pre cariously out of her wheelchair, caught it with her left hand with one of those Willie Mays/Odell Beckham Jr.-type snags you had to see to believe. It was especially awesome because she was 88 years old.

She steadied the dish with her right hand and a chunk of mac and cheese spilled out of the side and fell right into O.T.’s gaping mouth. Nana then put the bowl on the table and com mitted an egregious breach of etiquette when she started to laugh uproariously at her eldest son flailing on the floor. Now, to be sure, it was insanely comical, but the universal rule of thumb was that you first made sure someone was OK after they fell and then, and only then, could you laugh at them.

O.T. was not OK and after spitting out the mac and cheese chunk, his wailing and cussing put an exclamation point on just how not OK he was.

“My @#&* knee!” he screamed in agony.

Sapphire quickly called 911 and was concerned because her eldest uncle’s injury looked pretty serious. At the same time, she regret ted ending her TikTok live prematurely and missing what she later described as The Fall and The Catch.

“See what you did?” Nana said, shooting daggers at her daughter-in-law Dezi.

who started throwing the food. As far as I know, ain’t no one ever slipped on an insult and busted their knee,” Nana said.

Sapphire gave all the details to the 911 operator and then surreptitiously went live on TikTok again. Isaiah took a pillow from the living room sofa and put it under his big broth er’s head. Ruby held O.T.’s hand and tried to comfort him by letting him know the ambu lance was on the way. Leon went to the liquor cabinet to get O.T. a shot of whiskey, but thought better of it as he would probably soon be getting some thing strong for the pain. Dezi, aware that in mere minutes help would arrive and won dering just what the heck had happened, started to clean up the food that had been flung everywhere. O.T., for his part, just continued to bellow in pain and creatively curse.

Nana, gently humming Sly and the Family Stone’s tune “Family Affair” to herself, scooped out a healthy serving of the mac and cheese onto her plate and started to eat it. Everyone – except O.T. – paused and looked at her incredulously, but as Nana recounted later, she figured it was a righteous reward for her casserole catch that was almost as amazing as Franco Harris’ 1972 Inaccurate Decep tion (the Watkins family were all diehard Raiders fans and so never called it the Immaculate Reception).

The paramedics took O.T. to NorthBay Medical Center and the family followed. Leon, Dezi and Isaiah rode together and the twins took Nana. On the way there, they schooled Nana on the complexities of TikTok live and how it could be monetized, which she found to be completely fascinating. Ruby replayed the live video

of the food fight and Nana cackled mightily.

Dezi and Nana were kept at opposite ends of the hospital waiting room so no embar rassing shouting match could break out. Instead they just engaged in a long distance stin keye contest.

After an hour and a half, the family was allowed to go back into the Emergency Room where O.T. was being prepped to have his knee repaired.

“A torn ACL. Can you believe that? I played foot ball for four years in high school and never got so much as a broken fingernail. Never thought I would be taken down by cranberry sauce,” O.T. said. He gave a half-hearted little laugh that revealed he’d been given a little something to take the edge off.

O.T. was still a little upset at having his life disrupted by his family’s foolishness, but his darkened mood had been slightly brightened by running into two of his former standout students – one in the ambulance who was an EMT and another who was a nurse in the ER.

Just them Dr. Patel entered. He was looking down at a clip board and said, “Mr. Watkins? I’m Dr. Patel.” When he looked up, he froze and said “Wait! I know you!” He stuck out his hand and walked toward the bed.

O.T. didn’t remember having the doctor as a student, but still stuck out his hand and smiled.

Dr. Patel walked right past him.

“I saw the food fight! You’re that funny Nana from TikTok right?” he said, shaking her hand. “I loved it when you kept going ‘Humph.’ It’s like a catchphrase!”

By the following week, InsultingNana1 had 22,000 TikTok followers.

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. 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

Pixabay

The method of transmission for the fireworks at the Watkins family Thanksgiving meal.

Daily Republic Staff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — A house fire Tuesday afternoon left two people displaced and caused an estimated $250,000 in damage.

The fire was reported shortly before 2:15 p.m. at a home on the 1000 block of White Alder Court. Engine 40 arrived to find a fire in a wooden chimney box and the second-floor attic space.

Engine 40’s crew per formed an interior fire attack, confining the fire to the attic space and chimney box, the Fair field Fire Department reports. Crews from Engines 41, 37, 39 and Truck 37 all assisted, as well as three station chiefs and one bat

talion chief.

Two adults and a dog were displaced by the fire and were being housed by the Red Cross. The home sustained significant fire, smoke and water damage, making the home unin habitable, the Fire Department reports.

No injuries were reported.

The cause of this fire was a faulty chimney. The damage esti mate includes both contents of the home as well as fire, smoke and water damage.

Vacaville Fire Depart ment crews provided station coverage during the fire. Medic Ambu lance, the Fairfield Police Department and PG&E crews all provided support at the scene.

Solano Public Health: County is in Covid winter surge

toDD R. H anSen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Public Health Division said Wednesday that Solano County is in the beginning of its winter Covid surge after the county eclipsed the 112,000 case threshold.

The new cases took the pan demic total for Solano County to 112,476, the county reported.

Daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Police investigating a report of a stabbing in progress Wednesday night found one person dead and another person injured.

Fairfield police responded at around 7:20 p.m. to a call of a female being stabbed in an apartment on the 800 block of East Tabor Avenue. Officers who arrived there found a female and a male who had been stabbed. The male had died as a result of his injuries.

The incident has been determined to be related to domestic vio lence, police said in a press release. Members of the Special Victims Unit responded to the scene and took over the investigation.

No other informa tion was released due to

what police in the press release described as “the sensitive nature of the incident.” That includes the ages of the female who was stabbed and the male who died and well as their relationship to one another.

The death would rep resent the city’s ninth reported homicide of the year, unless the male who was stabbed and died committed suicide.

The Special Victims Unit has resources avail able to those who are experiencing domestic violence or those who know someone who is experiencing domes tic violence.

Those resources are available at https:// www.fairfield.ca.gov/ government/citydepartments/police/ operations-bureau/ investigations/familyviolence-unit?locale=en.

Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said in a phone interview there were 489 new cases since the last report Nov. 17, with 431 of those cases actually from that six-day period.

That means the daily case average rose to 71.83 cases, up from 57.7, with the 10-day average climbing from 63.8 to 68.6, the county reported.

“That’s showing a con tinued increase from last week and the week prior,” Matyas said. “My inter pretation is we are seeing the beginning of a surge without just the impact from the (Halloween and Veterans Day) holidays.”

However, Matyas, in a previous interview this week, said his concern is not just about Covid-19, but also the flu and other respiratory diseases that are typical for the winter.

“Our messaging is to have people get boosted and to get their vaccina tions and vaccinated for influenza,” Matyas said.

There were no new deaths reported, holding at 441, while the number of resi dents in area hospitals who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus is up from 22 to 23. The number of patients in the intensive care units held at three, the county reported.

Matyas said he fully

expects local hos pitals to see an increase in respi ratory disease cases during the winter months, including Covid cases.

The county reported the vast majority of new cases are found in Vallejo, with 169, Vacaville, with 136, and Fairfield, with 115. That brings the total cases for those cities to 34,140, 28,261 and 30,452, respectively.

Suisun City (7,872)

added 12 new cases; Dixon (5,328) added 12; Benicia (4,623) added 26; Rio Vista (1,575) added five; and the unincorporated area of the county held at 225 cases, 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 generally reported to government agencies and in many cases are not shared with medical providers if

Daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

ROCKVILLE —

The Solano Community College Entrepreneur Club will host a “Shop Small for Fall” event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday on campus at 4000 Suisun Valley Road, Building 1400.

It will be a pop-up event aimed to support and promote small businesses within the surrounding area, as well as businesses operated by students.

“We will have a variety of local vendors that will have their services avail

able and products on display for purchase,” said Tim Murrell, director of the Solano-Napa Small Business Development Center, which is helping to coordinate the event.

The pop-up event will help the club fund future events.

College staff will be on site to answer questions about Solano College’s dif ferent programs.

For more informa tion or to register as a vendor, go online to https://www.eventbrite. com/e/430333879217. There will be no food sales.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file

Wakimoto draws a Covid-19 vaccination shot during a Touro University Covid-19 Mobile Clinic, April 6.

MATYAS

Obituary

Our beloved

Leslie passed away Oct. 18, 2022, at the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, California, seven years after her first breast cancer diagnosis. Brave and gutsy to the end, like the others afflicted with the devastat ing disease, the metasta sized cancer was too much to overcome.

Leslie Ellen McNeill was born on Feb. 4, 1983, in Woodland, California. Her childhood homes included Woodland and Danville in California, Hillsboro in New Jersey, and back to Califor nia in Fairfield.

Weeks following grad uation with an Education degree from Biola University, she hopped on a plane for New York to interview with that city’s Public Schools District. Two months later she loaded up the Honda for the drive east to start the school year at her new job in Queens, New York.

She was a fourth-grade teacher for five years at Public School 105 in the Far Rockaway projects. She returned home in 2010, landing in Orange County, and eventually, the Tustin School District. She was a second-grade teacher on medical leave at Arroyo Ele mentary School in Tustin at the time of her passing.

Teaching and educa tion were her passions. Leslie knew she was going to be a teacher as a fiveyear-old, setting up her play classroom, recruiting dolls, pets and her little brother as students. She lit up a

In brief

classroom. The con stant priority was what best would support the stu dent’s growth, with joy in the process. A particular focus was reading com prehension. She did not hesitate to step up and call for our better efforts.

She is survived by her mother, Janet McNeill; father, Ian McNeill and his wife, Laurie Miller; older sister, Lauren Grounds, brother- in-law, Harry and their daughters, Grace, Abby and Dottie; younger brother, Scott McNeill, sis ter-in-law, Jennifer, and their son, Hudson and daughter, Harper; numerous aunts, uncles and cousins in Dixon, Vacaville, Mountain View, Rio Vista, San Rafael and Walnut Creek, and Salem and Albany in Oregon; and fellow teachers and close friends from her college days miss her.

An energetic and enthu siastic spirit was Leslie’s demeanor. Authentic as she could be, of strong faith (documented with her ‘Believe’ tattoo), earnest in all of her interactions, con stantly giving more than she took, always looking for a laugh, and wishing joy for the group; all that was Leslie too. We miss her terri bly, but she inspires the best in us moving ahead, and we can honor her in encourag ing the active efforts of the community in public educa tion support.

A life celebration will be held on Dec. 3, 2022. Please contact a family member if you can join us.

Twitter to expand restoring suspended accounts

Elon Musk said Twitter Inc. will vastly expand the reinstatement of banned users beginning next week in a major reversal of the site’s content moder ation policies.

In response to a poll conducted by Musk, about 72% of participants voted in favor of a “general amnesty” for suspended accounts on Twitter “pro vided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” Musk on Thursday said the amnesty will begin next week.

Since buying Twitter, the billionaire chief execu tive has reinstated a number of accounts including former President Donald Trump, Christian news satire site Babylon Bee and Canadian self-help author Jordan Peterson.

Man tries to rape stranger on NY subway train

NEW YORK — A man took off his pants and underwear and tried to rape a woman on a Manhat tan subway train, police said Thursday.

The 24-year-old victim was riding an uptown 4 train when the stranger doffed his pants and underwear and laid on top of her about 11:30 p.m. Nov. 17, police said. He groped her and tried to pull her skirt down.

The woman fled to another train car. Her attacker got off the train at the Bowling Green stop and then got on a ferry bound for Staten Island.

— Tribune Content Agency

the Bay Area.

American Farm Bureau honors Mike Thompson as friend of ag

FAIRFIELD — Rep. Mike Thompson recently received the Friend of Farm Bureau Award from the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The award was presented “for his out standing service to support farmers, growers, and producers during the 117th Congress,” a statement released by Thompson’s office said.

“We greatly appreciate

the attention Congressman Thompson has brought in recent years to the issues of disaster assistance. Our farmers and ranch ers depend heavily on accurate and timely pay ments when it comes to recovery efforts. Given the challenges relating to Phase One and Two rollouts under the Emer gency Relief Program . . . we applaud the rep resentative’s efforts to encourage USDA to move more swiftly on these distributions,” Califor

nia Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson said in the statement. Among the accomplish ments credited to Thompson is the reauthorization of the Emergency Relief Program, formerly known as WHIP+, “to provide direct payments to producers for crop losses due to smoke taint, wildfire, drought or other natural disasters in 2020 and 2021.”

After getting $4 million approved for smoke taint research, another $4.5 million has passed the House and is waiting for Senate approval. The funds go to three universities, including the University of California, Davis.

Smoke damage is a big issue in the wine grape industry, which is a crit ical crop in Thompson’s 5th Congressional District.

Master gunnery sergeant from Fairfield retiring after 26 years in Marine Corps

DAily r epubliC STAff DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Master Gunnery Sgt. Daniel A. Formella, a Fair field native and Armijo High School graduate, will retire from the U.S. Marine Corps after more than 26 years of service to his country.

Formella’s official United States retirement flag was recently flown at Armijo.

Formella enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1997 and spe cialized in armor tanks. He was assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Tank Battalion. As a platoon ser geant, Formella served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Formella pro moted in 2019 to the highest enlisted rank of master gunnery ser

geant and serves at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

His awards consist of the Mer itorious Service Medal with gold star; the Navy and Marine Corps Commenda tion Medal with two gold stars; the Army Commendation Medal; the Navy Achievement Medal with gold star; the Iraq Campaign Medal;

the Global War on Ter rorism Service Medal; the Armed Forces Expe ditionary Medal; the National Defense Service Medal; the Good Conduct Medal with silver and bronze star; the Meritori ous Unit Commendation with two bronze stars; the Navy Unit Commendation with one bronze star; the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with two bronze stars; and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Amazon faces Black Friday protests, strikes of warehouse workers in 40 countries

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

Thousands of Amazon warehouse workers across about 40 countries plan to take part in protests and walkouts to coincide with Black Friday sales, one of the busiest days of the year for online shopping.

Employees in the U.S., U.K., India, Japan, Australia, South Africa and across Europe are demanding better wages and working conditions as the cost-of-living crisis deepens, in a campaign dubbed “Make Amazon Pay.” The campaign is being coordinated by an international coalition of trade unions, with the support of environmental and civil society groups.

“It’s time for the tech giant to cease their awful, unsafe practices immedi ately, respect the law and negotiate with the workers who want to make their jobs better,” said Christy Hoffman, general sec retary for UNI Global Union, one of the cam paign’s organizers.

Tension with workers has been a long-running

issue at the e-commerce giant, which has faced complaints of unfair labor practices as well as employee activism and union drives at some facil ities. In what was seen as a watershed moment, workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, voted earlier this year to join an upstart union.

“While we are not perfect in any area, if you objectively look at what Amazon is doing on these important matters you’ll see that we do take our role and our impact very seriously,” Amazon spokesman David Nieberg said.

He cited the compa ny’s target to reach net

zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and that it’s “continuing to offer competitive wages and great benefits, and inventing new ways to keep our employees safe and healthy.”

Unions in France and Germany – CGT and Ver. di – are spearheading the latest collective action, with coordinated strikes in 18 major warehouses, intended to disrupt shipments across key European markets.

Monika di Silvestre, head of Ver.di’s Amazon committee in Germany, said that workers were particularly concerned

From Page A3

medical treatment is not needed. He has also said the availability of vaccines and changes to personal behavior have slowed the disease throughout

Vaccination rates held steady at 72% for resi dents 5 or older who are fully vaccinated and 81% who have received at least one shot. The booster total was adjusted down to 183,356, though the county is not sure why the state reduced the number by 763. Matyas said he thinks

it is likely the number reflects duplicate report ing from various areas.

The age group of 6 months to 4 years con tinues to show a slow, steady climb up in vacci nations, reaching 10.8% or 2,427 individuals. The 5 to 11 age group is up to 40.1% at 14,884, the county reported.

Leslie Ellen McNeill

THOMPSON

FORMELLA

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS file (2021)

Workers enjoy a break at the amazon Fulfillment Center in Moreno Valley, California, on sept. 29, 2021. Workers across the globe are planning Black Friday protests.

about the way their pro ductivity was closely monitored by comput ers, with algorithms determining targets, for example for the number of packages they need to handle per hour.

“The workers are under a lot of pressure with these algorithms,” she said. “It doesn’t differ entiate between workers, whether they are old or have limited mobil ity. Workers stay awake at night thinking only of their productivity stats.”

She called on European politicians to strengthen labor rights across the bloc. “We don’t have a right to strike around Europe – on the European level,” she said.

In the U.K., workers associated with GMB union have planned pro tests outside several warehouses, includ ing Coventry.

“Amazon workers in Coventry are overworked, underpaid and they’ve had enough,” said Amanda Gearing, a senior GMB organizer, adding that “hundreds” will assem ble to demand a wage increase from £10.50 an hour to £15.

Any workers who walk out during a shift could lose out on the second half of a £500 bonus that Amazon announced for U.K. warehouse workers last month. The final payment is contingent on staff taking “no unauthor ized absence” between Nov. 22 and Dec. 24. The GMB has said linking pay ments to attendance could be interpreted as unlawful inducement not to strike.

In the U.S., protests and rallies will take place in more than 10 cities and outside an apart ment block on 5th Avenue, New York, where Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a condo. Multiple rallies are also planned in India while in Japan, members of a recently created union will protest in front of the company’s national headquarters in Tokyo.

In Bangladesh, garment workers in Amazon’s supply chain will march in Dhaka and Chittagong.

Some demonstrations will focus on Amazon’s environmental and social footprint, for example in Ireland where people will gather outside the com pany’s Dublin offices to push back against two new planned data centers in the city. In South Africa, protesters will gather near Amazon’s new offices in Cape Town, which is being developed on land that indigenous people consider to be sacred.

Some unions expressed concern about the current economic climate amid a warning from Amazon that its peak Christmas season might not be as busy as usual. The com pany’s decision to lay off 10,000 staff will also make wage negotiations more challenging.

Laurent Cretin, a del egate for the CFE-CGC union in France, said the company will have 880 workers in a ware house in Chalon-sur-Saône this Christmas season, down from 1,000 before Covid-19, which he linked to tightening consumer spending and the trans fer of activity to robotized warehouses.

“The projections are not great, we are not sure we will do as good as last year that saw a post-Covid surge,” he said.

Carroll sues Trump for alleged 1990s rape under new Adult Survivors Act legislation in New York

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

NEW YORK — The writer E. Jean Carroll sued Donald Trump for allegedly raping her in the 1990s just after midnight Thursday as historic leg islation went into effect suspending New York’s statute of limitations laws.

Carroll’s lawsuit filed in federal court in Man hattan accuses Trump of pinning her against a wall and then raping her inside a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman’s on Fifth Avenue near E. 58th Street between the fall of 1995 and spring of 1996.

The lawsuit was among the first filed under the Adult Survivors Act, which went into effect at midnight. It gives sexual assault survivors one year to sue their alleged assail ant regardless of when the attack occurred.

The detailed suit

meticulously describes how the incident occurred after a then-52-year-old Carroll, a former Elle Magazine advice colum nist who appeared on “Ask E. Jean TV” at the time, bumped into Trump at the entrance to the store as she was leaving.

C ARROLL

Trump asked her to join him on a shop ping trip. The lawsuit describes Carroll joining him and being “thrilled that Trump would want her advice.”

“She stuck around, imagining the funny stories that she might later recount,” reads the suit.

Trump allegedly raped her when they got to a dressing room in the lin gerie department, where he teased her about trying on a see-through bodysuit.

Trump lunged at her and gave her a forceful kiss, according to the suit. After she shoved him away, Carroll claims he pinned her against a wall, pulled down her tights and raped her.

After she managed to break free and flee the store, a disoriented Carroll immediately called journalist Lisa Birnbach about the assault, according to her lawsuit. Days later, she told her friend, Carol Martin, the news anchor.

The lawsuit details how Carroll’s friends advised her to stay silent out of fear Trump would try to ruin her reputa tion. It describes her never having a romantic relationship since.

“In Carroll’s own words the ‘music had

stopped’ and the ‘light had gone out’ after Trump attacked her at Berg dorf’s,” reads the suit.

A representative for Trump did not immedi ately respond to a request for comment.

Carroll, 78, is already suing Trump for defama

tion for calling her a liar when she first spoke out about the alleged rape when he was president. He notoriously said she was “not my type” during the same comments. Both Trump and Carroll have been deposed in the lawsuit.

Mars rover digs up intriguing clues in the hunt for life beyond Earth

The WashingTon PosT

On the floor of a shallow crater on Mars, the NASA rover Perseverance has hit what scientists are hoping is pay dirt. Martian rocks excavated by the rover show signs of a watery past and are loaded with the kind of organic molecules that are the foundation for life as we know it.

Scientists collaborat ing on the mission also say the rock samples, which the rover has cached in tubes for a future return to Earth, have the right chemical recipe to preserve evidence of ancient Martian life, if it ever existed.

The new Persever ance research is detailed in three extensive studies published Wednesday, one in the journal Science and two in the journal Science Advances. The journal reports are highly technical and devoid of hype – daring to be dull as dirt – but the scientists involved translate them into a more exciting tale.

“It’s amazing. In pretty much every rock we’re finding organics,” said Abigail Allwood, a geol ogist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which oper ates the rover and the broader Mars Sample Return mission.

One of the studies con cluded that the rocks in the crater experi enced three different events in which they were exposed to water.

“Crucially, conditions in the rock during each time that water migrated through it could have sup ported small communities

of microorganisms,” lead author Michael Tice, a geologist at Texas A&M University, said in an email. In a subsequent interview, he added, “We’re not going to know until we get the samples back to Earth.”

Perseverance made a bulls-eye landing in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, and has been roaming it since, caching rock samples along the way for later scrutiny back on Earth. This is an ambi tious, multiphase mission that will require NASA to send another vehicle to the surface of Mars with the capability of launch ing samples into orbit.

A spacecraft would then carry those samples back to Earth for laboratory research. The precise timetable is still to be determined, but NASA is hoping to have the samples on home turf in the early 2030s.

This study of Mars is part of the efflorescence of the young field of astro biology, which includes the search for potentially habitable worlds and the first example of extrater restrial life. Despite the efforts of generations of scientists, and notwith

standing the claims of UFO buffs, the discov ery of life beyond Earth remains aspirational.

Even finding organ ics – life-friendly molecules with combina tions of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen – is a far cry from discovering life or even proof of its presence in the past. Such mol ecules can be either biological or nonbiologi cal in origin.

Still, Mars is front and center in NASA’s search because it has many favor able traits. Mars probably was far more Earthlike about 3 billion years ago, with warmer and wetter conditions. Life may have once existed on Earth and Mars simultaneously, and it is possible that it origi nated on Mars and spread to Earth via meteorites. And though the surface now is an arid waste land, the planet could have liquid water in sig nificant quantities beneath the surface, and possibly “cryptic” life.

Although the Persever ance rover does not have instruments to chemically detect living organisms if they exist today, its instruments give scien tists the ability to study

the Martian surface at a level of detail never before possible.

One of the new papers more closely examin ing Mars’s chemistry has delivered a surprise for geologists. They had assumed that they were going to dig up a bunch of sedimentary rocks. Instead the rocks are volcanic.

Jezero Crater formed in an impact event – a rock slamming into Mars – at least 3.5 billion years ago. The shallow crater clearly had water in it long ago. This could be deter mined from orbital images showing the remnants of a delta where a river flowed into the lake. Planetary geologists had assumed the floor of the crater was covered in sedimen tary rock, formed from dirt and debris that slowly accumulated at the bottom of the lake.

If such sedimentary rock was ever there, it’s gone now. It may have eroded away, Tice said. The lack of sedimen tary rock could mean that the lake didn’t last very long, which would be disappointing for the astrobiologists. Life as we know it needs water, and it

takes time for more-com plex life-forms to evolve. If the lake didn’t linger, life might have struggled to take root.

The volcanic rocks are not a disappointment,

though, because they pre serve loads of information about the Martian past, including the presence of organic molecules, scien tists said. The presence of organic material on Mars had been confirmed in pre vious missions, but their precise nature and chem istry can’t be discerned through this kind of longdistance research and will require laboratory scru tiny on Earth, according to Bethany Ehlmann, a plan etary scientist at Caltech and co-author of two of the new papers.

“Are they merely organics that kind of washed into the

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover paused to capture this vista on Nov. 21 as it explores an ancient crater that might contain traces of past life.

(707) 427-1386

Starr selling statues of his ‘peace and love’ hand gesture for charity

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

Ringo Starr has come up with a new way to spread his signature “peace” greeting among his die-hard fans.

The former Beatles drummer is selling 500 life-size statues of the famous hand gesture for an online charity.

Julien’s Auctions announced Tuesday the sale of the limited-edi tion sculptures, which are available in stain less steel and bronze, and priced at $5,000 and $2,000, respectively.

Standing nearly 10 inches tall and weigh ing more than 3 pounds, each statue comes signed by the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer with a certifi

cate of authenticity and packaged in a Ringo “Peace & Love” box. Proceeds from the sale will go towards the Lotus Foundation, which was founded by the musician and his wife Barbara Starkey in 1998 to support char itable endeavors that include helping people deal with cancer, cere bral palsy, domestic abuse, substance abuse and homelessness.

Earlier this year, Starr partnered with the auctioneer to sell exclusive limited edi tions of his retrospective photo book, “Lifted: Fab Images and Memories In My Life with the Beatles From Across The Universe.”

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby Blues Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú

and European weapons supplies to Ukraine.

Power was still out in 70% of the capital, Kyiv, and half of residents lacked running water, mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Emer gency workers restored electricity to critical infrastructure in 17 of 24 regions of the country, officials said.

The barrage of about 70 missiles hit targets ranging from key energy facilities to a maternity ward, killing a newborn.

The outages left mobile communication towers without power, causing internet connection slow downs. Temperatures dropped below freez ing in much of the country overnight.

After suffering a series of battlefield defeats at the hands of Ukraine’s army, Moscow has turned to tar geting energy in a bid to crush Ukrainians’ spirit and raise pressure from its allies to agree to talks.

With fighting expected to slow as winter weather makes it more difficult to cross obstacles such as muddy steppes, Ukrai nians have remained defiant. Allies have stepped up supplies of

Crime logs FairField

TUESDAY, NOV. 22

4:37 a.m. — Vehicle burglary, 4700 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE 4:51 a.m. — Vehicle burglary, 2600 block of ELMHURST CIRCLE 5:14 a.m. — Trespassing, 1600 block of CEMENT HILL ROAD 6:50 a.m. — Vehicle theft, 3900 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE 8:30 a.m. — Residential burglary, 4200 block of GRAMBLING COURT 8:48 a.m. — Grand theft, 1700 block of AUTUMN MEADOW DRIVE 9:28 a.m. — Vehicle burglary, 400 block of CEMENT HILL ROAD 9:56 a.m. — Battery, 1400 block of UNION AVENUE 9:57 a.m. — Grand theft, 1100 block of SECOND STREET 10:45 a.m. — Battery, 900 block of OHIO STREET 1:06 a.m. — Commercial burglary, 1900 block of WALTERS COURT 11:13 a.m. — Fight with a weapon, 2300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 11:17 a.m. — Residential burglary, 1400 block of CANTERBURY DRIVE 11:29 a.m. — Commercial burglary, 2200 block of UNION AVENUE 12:10 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 4800 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE 12:16 p.m. — Forgery, 600 block of EAST TABOR AVENUE 12:20 p.m. — Grand theft, 1700 block of AUTUMN MEADOW DRIVE 12:25 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 600 block of PARKER ROAD 1:00 p.m. — Trespassing, 4400 block of CENTRAL PLACE 1:37 p.m. — Drunk and disorderly, 1300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 2:13 p.m. — Trespassing, 4400 block of CENTRAL PLACE 2:46 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 1000 block of WEBSTER STREET 2:51 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, GATEWAY BOULEVARD 3:05 p.m. — Residential burglary, 1300 block of SONATA DRIVE 3:10 p.m. — Reckless driver, CHADBOURNE ROAD 3:18 p.m. — Fight with a weapon, 5100 block of CHABOT COURT 3:50 p.m. — Commercial burglary, 800 block of EAST TRAVIS BOULEVARD 4:27 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 1900 block of WEST TEXAS STREET 4:41 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 2200 block of BENET COURT 4:59 p.m. — Reckless driver, EASTBOUND AIR BASE PARKWAY 8:17 p.m. — Trespassing, 1300 block of EMPIRE STREET 9:10 p.m. — Trespassing, 1300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 9:27 p.m. — Vandalism, 2000 block of CADENASSO DRIVE 10:26 p.m. — Battery, 2100 block of FIELDCREST AVENUE 11:34 p.m. — Drunken driving, AIR BASE PARKWAY WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23 12:13 a.m. — Battery, 1900

block of GRANDE CIRCLE 3:35 a.m. — Trespassing, 1800 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 4:56 a.m. — Trespassing, 2500 block of AUTO MALL PARKWAY 7:40 a.m. — Battery, 1800 block of BRIDGEWOOD COURT 9:07 a.m. — Vehicle burglary, 2300 block of SANCTUARY DRIVE 9:09 a.m. — Vehicle theft, 2200 block of BENET COURT 10:13 a.m. — Residential burglary, 1300 block of SONATA DRIVE 10:46 a.m. — Vehicle theft, 400 block of JACKSON STREET 11:03 a.m. — Commercial burglary, 5000 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE 11:32 a.m. — Shots fired, 1600 block of WOOD CREEK DRIVE 11:45 a.m. — Drunken driving, 1400 block of FARWELL STREET 12:15 p.m. — Forgery, 1800 block of BUCKINGHAM DRIVE 12:44 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 5100 block of BUSINESS CENTER DRIVE 2:21 p.m. — Sexual assault, 900 block of HARDING STREET 2:29 p.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 100 block of HAWTHORN DRIVE 2:54 p.m. — Vehicle burglary, 1500 block of GATEWAY BOULEVARD 2:56 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, 3700 block of LYON ROAD 3:51 p.m. — Reckless driver, DOVER AVENUE 3:57 p.m. — Reckless driver, NORTH TEXAS STREET 4:45 p.m. — Forgery, 1000 block of WEBSTER STREET 4:56 p.m. — Sexual assault, 1200 block of LINCOLN STREET 4:58 p.m. — Reckless driver, WOOLNER AVENUE 5:11 p.m. — Battery, 1300 block of TRAVIS BOULEVARD 5:11 p.m. — Trespassing, 5100 block of SOPRANO CIRCLE 6:27 p.m. — Fight with a weapon, 3300 block of NORTH TEXAS STREET 7:22 p.m. — Assault with a deadly weapon, 800 block of EAST TABOR AVENUE 7:52 p.m. — Trespassing, 2200 block of PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE 7:55 p.m. — Hit-and-run property damage, GREEN VALLEY ROAD 8:34 p.m. — Shots fired, 3500 block of NELSON ROAD 9:02 p.m. — Trespassing, 300 block of TRAVIS BOULEVARD 10:36 p.m. — Vandalism, 3700 block of POPPY HILLS COURT

SuiSun City

TUESDAY, NOV. 22 1:55 p.m. — Reckless driver, LONG STREET WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23 1:30 p.m. — Vandalism, 1300 block of WORLEY ROAD 9:35 p.m. — Shots fired, 200 block of BRIDGEWATER CIRCLE

anti-aircraft weapons, allowing Kyiv to shoot down many of Russia’s missiles. But the esca lating misery has raised fears of a new wave of refugees that could over whelm a Europe already struggling with surging costs of living, in part due to the war.

Ukrainian authori ties enacted emergency blackouts and took three nuclear plants offline after rocket attacks knocked out power lines and left the reactors nowhere to transmit electricity. Even before the latest barrage, weeks of attacks had wrought more than $1.9 billion of damage to the grid, according to the

state distribution utility, that will take considerable time to repair.

“It’s hard to run a modern society on fancy camping equipment,” said Joseph Majkut, the direc tor of the Center for Strategic and Interna tional Studies’ energy security program. “This is a very cruel type of warfare and it portends a hard winter in Ukraine.”

The World Health Organization warned even before the latest strikes that millions of lives are at risk in Ukraine this winter due to damaged infrastructure that has left 10 million people, or around one quarter of the population,

without power.

Zelenskyy’s admin istration has set up emergency points for residents to weather blackouts. U.S. and Euro pean governments have supplied his government with generators and fuel. A particular challenge is trying to source the near obsolete auto-trans formers that are needed in Ukraine’s Sovietdesigned electricity grid, according to a European diplomat familiar with the discussions.

European Union offi cials have expressed concern that the devas tation to the energy grid may touch off another exodus of refugees to the

bloc, in addition to the mil lions of Ukrainians who’ve already fled and remain abroad to escape the war.

“The Russian strat egy now seems to be to make those conditions so extremely horrible that people give in and maybe start putting pressure on the Ukrainian lead ership to negotiate some sort of peace,” said Elis abeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Washing ton-based American Enterprise Institute.

Zelenskyy has ruled out negotiations with Russia until it with draws forces from all of the country’s territories, including Crimea.

From

she fell behind on the final curve.

Carmen Baxter said it was fun and they had been doing this since they moved to Fairfield.

“It is now our Thanksgiving tradi tion,” she said.

The couple went home to a nice home cooked veggie meal of stuffed peppers. They like to experiment with new recipes on Thanksgiving.

The chilly morning saw 2,100 people out for a brisk run Thanksgiv ing morning.

Vacaville Fleet Feet owner and event orga nizer Carol Gilpin said she was excited to see the numbers coming back to more pre-pan demic totals.

“Last year we had 1,700 people,” she said. “It just feels so good to see everyone coming out.”

The dozen or so vendors was the most number they have had in years.

Solano Turkey Trot is

a public benefit charity race started in 2009 and is comprised of 501(c) (3) partner organiza tions serving high-risk children, families and seniors.

The two partner non profits who will benefit from this year’s race are Meals on Wheels of Solano County and The Salvation Army Kroc Center in Suisun City.

It helps to have two big sponsors like Medic Ambulance and Fleet

this week and continued through Thursday, start ing at 3 a.m.

Feet to make the event happen smoothly.

“I never thought I would ever be a race director,” Gilpin said.

“But I really look forward to this every year. I love seeing people’s faces as they start the morning.”

Gilpin estimates they brought in $30,000 this year, which will be split between the two groups.

She considers her Thanksgiving a party with 2,000 happy people doing something for a

good cause.

Emceeing the event was the husband-andwife team of Leah and Tim Osterhout of Reaching Down Inc., which helps nonprofits host events with tech nical support and other event needs.

“We donate time and resources to help non profits because it can get pretty expensive,” Leah Osterhout said. “This is always such a great cause, too.”

From

Jewell said.

He was a whirl of action Thursday morning, giving instruc tions to 100 volunteers for deliveries, food safety and serving.

Jewell has been doing this for 43 years and only missed one Thanksgiving in all that time.

“We have over 900 meals to serve this year,” Jewell said. “That is the most requests we have ever had.”

Prep work began early

They will deliver the meals to senior centers, Travis Air Force Base and various other locations.

“A few homeless people who don’t have addresses will also get deliveries,” Jewell said. “That will be after we are done doing deliveries.”

The Veterans Memo rial Building used to host the Thanksgiving Day meal in the building, but that had to stop because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The last time we had a meal here we served only 250 people but deliv

an exemption.

ered to over 600,” Jewell said. “We have talked about going back to inperson meals but this seems to work better for everyone. Maybe next year we will have a smaller meal here.”

Carmie Perez of Vacaville held a large cardboard box in her hands, ready for the con tainers to be placed in her arms. This was the first time she volun teered at the Veterans Memorial Building on Thanksgiving Day.

“I came with my son because his school is doing this as a project,” she said.

U.S. Marine Corps

veteran Bob Kauer has been volunteering on Thanksgiving for the past 12 years to help other vets out. He is also a Coast Guard Auxil iary member.

His specialty Thurs day was maintaining proper food safety.

“I had to take a chef program for the Coast Guard Auxiliary, so I am very aware of food safety,” Kauer said. “It is very important to make sure we don’t get anyone sick.”

Kauer said he keeps coming back to help because it has become a Thanksgiving Day tradition.

From

is expected to reach unhealthy levels this holiday weekend,” Sharon Landers, interim executive officer of the air district, said in a press release. “Residents can help protect the respi ratory health of their families and communities by refraining from wood burning – the number one source of winter time air pollution in the Bay Area.”

It is illegal for Bay Area residents and businesses to use their fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves, outdoor fire pits or any other woodburning devices during a “Spare the Air” alert for fine particle pollution. Exemptions are available for homes without perma nently installed heating, where wood stoves or fireplaces are the only source of heat. Anyone whose sole source of heat is a wood-burning device must use an EPA-cer tified or pellet-fueled device that is registered with the air district to qualify for an exemption.

An open-hearth fireplace no longer qualifies for

Like cigarette smoke, wood smoke contains carcinogenic substances, such as particulate matter and carbon mon oxide, which are harmful when inhaled. Exposure to wood smoke has been linked to serious respiratory illnesses and increased risk of heart attacks. The fine particulate pollution in wood smoke is especially harmful for children, the elderly and those with respiratory conditions.

Low temperatures and calm winds trap smoke from wood burning around homes and increases fine particulate pollution buildup indoors and outdoors. Natural gas, propane or elec tric fireplaces are allowed during Spare the Air Alerts.

The air district may call “Spare the Air” alerts for fine particle pollu tion up to three days in advance to prevent air pollution from exceeding federal standards. During an alert, the use of wood burning devices such as fireplaces, pellet stoves, wood stoves and outdoor fire pits is illegal. The National Park Service in San Francisco also pro hibits recreational beach fires at Ocean Beach in

Golden Gate National Recreation Area through the end of February.

Bay Area residents can find out if a “Spare the Air” alert is in effect by:

n Signing up for text alerts. To sign up, text the word “START” to the number 817-57.

n Calling 1-877-4NOBURN.

n Visiting www.spare theair.org or www. baaqmd.gov.

n Signing up for auto matic email alerts or phone alerts at www. sparetheair.org/alerts.

n Downloading the Spare the Air iPhone or Android app.

First-time violators of the wood burning rule are encouraged to take a wood smoke aware ness course to learn more about the health impacts from wood smoke and the weather conditions that lead to unhealthy air quality in the winter. Those violators who choose not to take the course will receive a $100 ticket. Second vio lations are subject to a $500 ticket, with the ticket amount increas ing for any subsequent violations.

There are also prohibi tions on excessive smoke and burning garbage and other harmful materi

als like junk mail, plastic, wood pallets and more in fireplaces and wood stoves. Residents con cerned about wood smoke pollution may call 1-8774NO-BURN or visit www. baaqmd.gov to file a com plaint or to get more information.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management Dis trict is the regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county Bay Area. The district’s boundar ies extend into western Solano County to include Vallejo and Benicia, Fair field and Suisun City and the surrounding unincor porated areas.

A “Don’t Light Tonight” alert was in place Thanksgiving Day across the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, which includes eastern Solano County and Winters in neighbor ing Yolo County. Officials projected the air pollution warning may remain in place Friday.

A two-day “Don’t Light Tonight” alert was in place Monday and Tuesday across the YoloSolano district.

For more on air pol lution conditions in the Yolo-Solano dis trict, visit https://www. ysaqmd.org/.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

Runners participate in the 2022 Solano Turkey Trot in Fairfield, Thursday.

Europe’s hottest summer led to 20,000 excess deaths

BloomBerg

Europe’s hottest summer on record likely resulted in more than 20,000 excess deaths in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, according to official data.

The excess deaths – the difference between the total number of deaths in the summer of 2022 and the historical average –were particularly elevated during the three intense heat waves that struck Western Europe between June and August. Extreme heat is dangerous for human health because it makes every existing medical condition worse and can cause heat stroke in vulnerable populations like children, the elderly and those who do physical work outside.

Europe experienced the hottest summer on record for the second con secutive year in 2022, according to the EU’s Earth observation agency Copernicus. Climate

change made the heat wave that struck the UK in June at least 10 times more likely, according to World Weather Attribu tion, a group of scientists that conducts rapid anal ysis on how the warming of the planet influences

system – maybe from meteoritic material that was just part of the water? That would be the least exciting. Or are they little niches of microbial life living in the cavities of these rocks? That would be the most exciting,” Ehlmann said.

She added that the rover “is collecting an awesome set of samples to reveal Mars’s envi ronmental history in all of its forms – the volca nic history, the history of water, the relationship of organics to those waterrich environments.”

All of this is an attempt to solve the fundamental mystery of Mars: What went wrong? How and when and why did this planet that apparently was congenial to life turn into such a harsh place? The Red Planet may not be a dead planet – the coroner’s report is incomplete – but it certainly resembles one.

Scientists point to something Mars lacks today: a global mag netic field like Earth’s. Such a field protects our atmosphere from the cor rosive effects of the solar wind – high-energy par ticles steadily streaming from the sun that can strip away lighter mol ecules. Mars also lacks plate tectonics, the geolog ical process that on Earth

extreme weather events.

The new UK heat record of 40.3C (104.5F) was set on July 19 and broke by 1.6C the previous high mark set in 2019. Fortysix UK weather stations recorded new highs that month.

“Heat waves are one of

recycles the crust and continues to spew water and nutrient-rich lavas through active volcanoes.

Somewhere along the way, Mars’s magnetic field died, and then it became a different kind of planet. It lost almost all of its atmosphere. It became a frigid desert world. How quickly that happened is unknown, but that’s something that might be revealed by the volcanic rocks in the crater.

Magma contains some amount of iron, which is sensitive to a planet’s magnetism. As lava cools, it crystallizes into igneous rock, freezing electrons within iron-bearing min erals into patterns that could reveal a magnetic field’s traits, such as

the biggest threats posed by climate change,” said Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Insti tute for Climate Change and the Environment in London. “High temper atures are responsible for thousands of deaths

its orientation.

Benjamin Weiss, a planetary scientist at MIT and co-author of two of the papers, said in an email, “On balance, we are actu ally super lucky that there are igneous rocks in the crater, and that we hap pened to land right on them, since they are ideal for determining ages and studying the past history of Mars’ magnetic field.”

Once the mission can send its precious rock collection back to Earth, scientists may finally be able to tell if life ever found a foothold on Mars – which would raise new questions about whether, despite the dra matic transformation of the planet, life somehow managed to persevere.

across the world every year, many of which go under-reported.”

England and Wales suf fered 3,271 excess deaths between June 1 and Sep tember 7, according to a report by the Office of National Statistics. The ONS report excludes coro navirus deaths and noted that the number of deaths was higher on hotter days.

Over 10,400 people died in France during the summer months, accord ing to data released on Wednesday by gov ernment agency Santé Publique France. One in every four of those deaths occurred during a heat wave, the French report said, and excess deaths were 20% higher in regions under red alert for extreme temperatures.

In Spain, more than

4,600 deaths between June and August were attrib utable to heat, according to the public Instituto de Salud Carlos III, which conducts research on health. In Germany, about 4,500 died during the summer months due to extreme temperatures, according to estimates by government agency Robert Koch Institute.

“Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as the globe warms up, so we can expect more and hotter heatwaves in future,” said Eunice Lo, a research fellow in climate change and health at the Univer sity of Bristol. “Observed heatwaves have been made more likely to occur or more intense because of human emissions of greenhouse gases.”

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg file

Drought-damaged corn plants near Luckau, Germany, in August 2022.

Vanden, Capital Christian ready for Sac-Joaquin Division IV final

M att Miller MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Will C. Wood

High School football coach Jacob Wright will be an interested observer when Vanden and Capital Christian square off Saturday for the Sac-Joaquin Section Divi sion IV title.

Wright has been on the opposite side of the field from both teams late this season. His Wildcats lost to Vanden 49-21 on Oct. 13. And just three weeks ago, Wood had its season come to an end thanks to Capital Christian. The Crusaders won that playoff opener 48-13.

“I’d like to see a league team keep winning,” Wright said, “but I’m in a tough position. I’d also like to see the team that beat us win it all. I’ll have to go check it out.”

Vanden and Capital Christian will square off at 1 p.m. at Sacra mento City College. The Vikings are the defending section cham pion and hope to go back-to-back after an impressive 11-1 overall record thus far. Capital Chris

tian enters 7-5 and has caught fire of late with six straight wins to advance to the big matchup.

“That’ll be tough,” Wright said.

“It will likely come down to the team that plays the best defense, because they both have high-pow ered offenses. The team that limits the big plays will come out on top.”

The top-seed Vikings have dis played a hounding defense in recent weeks. They had a firstround bye before beating Buhach Colony of Atwater 28-3 and Kimball of Tracy 29-6 last week.

Vanden has only allowed 15 points in its last four games.

The Vikings last week gave Kimball a steady dose of running back Jordan Jones, who rushed 17 times for 198 yards and two touchdowns. The defense also stepped up with a safety and three interceptions, including two picks from Marcellus Chandler.

Vanden has had an incredi ble run over the past two years. The Vikings went 13-2 in 2021 en route to a state championship. A 38-31 loss to Rancho Cotate that

season was made up by a 30-29 win this season. The only blemishes on both seasons were a pair of losses to Vacaville that denied them two Monticello Empire League titles.

Capital Christian has out lasted its previous two opponents after the Wood win with victories over Casa Roble (42-35) and West Park (41-34). The Cougars started the season 1-5 with a tough pre season schedule before turning it on. They went 4-2 in the Capital Athletic League and finished third behind Christian Brothers and Vista del Lago.

Junior Eddie Brusuelas is Capital Christian’s top quar terback. He has completed 61 of 130 passes for 1,090 yards and 16 touchdowns. Malakai Taione Tavataina is a tough running back to bring down, having 141 carries for 1,263 yards and 13 touchdowns. Senior Kanye Clark is a dual threat with 35 rushes for 591 yards and six touchdowns to go with 24 catches for 528 yards and six

Solano College women’s volleyball falls in regional playoffs to Sierra

Daily r epublic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

ROCKVILLE —

The Solano Community College women’s volley ball team was knocked out of the California Community College Ath letic Association Regional Playoffs on Tuesday night by host Sierra, 25-11, 25-19, 25-22.

Sammy Brown led the Falcons with eight kills and 16 digs. Crystal Carroll added 16 digs and also served 12-for-13 with two aces. Hannah Del Rio chipped in four kills and three blocks.

Dani Rydjord led the blocking with one solo and four assists. She added 19 assists and seven digs. Rachel Lin contributed four kills and 11 digs. Lili Ayala had two blocks. Kelsey Wall chipped in five kills and a block.

“I thought we played amazing defense, but so did Sierra College,” Solano head coach Darla Williams said in an email. “It was prob

ably our best overall match with amazing defense and passing on offense. We just could not find the hole.”

Solano finished its season 24-8 overall.

The Falcons won their fifth straight Bay Valley Conference champi onship and increased their league winning streak to 47.

Basketball Thompson helps power Vanden boys

FAIRFIELD —

Tyler Thompson scored 25 points to outscore the opponent himself as the Vanden High School boys basketball team rolled to an 82-24 win over Hiram Johnson on Tuesday night in Sacramento.

Nate Hibbert scored 11 points and Sterling McClanahan added 10 as the Vikings opened the 2022-23 season with a victory.

Vanden opened the game by scoring the first

10 points and went on to lead at halftime 50-14.

The Vikings play at 6 p.m. Friday at Bishop O’Dowd.

Fairfield boys have strong start in win

FAIRFIELD —

The Fairfield High School boys basket ball team earned a 61-39 win Tuesday night over Dixon.

Amarre Davis led the Falcons with 14 points, Nicko Ignacio scored 13 and Jamaal Williams finished with 10. Fairfield opened with a 23-9 first quarter that set the tone for the rest of the game.

Patrick Moten scored 15 and Khamanni Martin had 13 as the Fair field junior varsity team secured a 57-42 victory.

Fairfield also won the freshman game 52-35 as Gabriel Lico scored 13 points and Elijah Ditona added 12.

The Falcons’ varsity team plays a Founda tion Game on Monday at Edison High in Stockton.

Wood boys enjoy rout of Mesa Verde

VACAVILLE — The Will C. Wood boys bas ketball team scored early and often Tuesday in routing Mesa Verde 82-19 on the road.

Eric Lacy and Josiah Chavez led the Wildcats with 16 points apiece. Jayden Hamilton-Hol land added 13 points and Nigel Rogers contrib uted 10 points.

Lacy pulled down eight rebounds and Rogers had six. Wood outscored Mesa Verde 29-2 in the first quarter and never allowed the Mavericks over eight points in a period.

“Every player scored and our team defense caused 41 turnovers,” Wood head coach Mark Wudel said in an email. “Overall, a good start to the season. We had great intensity and hustle on our part.”

Wood returns to action Monday for a Foundation Game against Pioneer.

Solano area runners set for state final in Fresno

M att Miller MMILLER@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — In between the turkey and the yams, two full Vacaville varsity teams and three area individ uals have been getting ready for Saturday's Cal ifornia Interscholastic Federation state cross country meet at Wood ward Park in Fresno.

It's the pin nacle of racing for California high school trail runners. All 17 local athletes have high expectations for themselves after having earned two extra weeks to train after qualify ing for the big event based on their strong performances at the Sac-Joaquin Section finals in Folsom.

Rodriguez senior Kate Kimball is the lone Fairfield city runner. She will compete in Division II after finish ing ninth in the section.

"She's feeling strong and confident and has been really having an excellent two weeks," Rodriguez head coach Isaac Diaz-Reyes said in an email. "As she men tioned to me at training, she is nervous for the moment but is excited for the opportunity to show all the work she has put in to get here."

Vacaville High fresh man Khloe Delatorre will join Kimball in the Division II race. Dela torre was 13th overall at section. The two will

take to the 3-mile course at 12:30 p.m.

Vacaville Christian junior Kara Krulick will compete among the Division V girls at 9 a.m. She was seventh overall at the section meet.

The Vacaville boys advanced their full squad in Division II. Senior Donovan Che ruiyot was the section champion after running under 16 minutes (15:55.7).

Junior Colton Walker was seventh, sophomore Jackson Stream was eighth, junior Justus Hundley was 14th, junior Josiah Rowland came in 18th, sophomore James Rowland came in 28th and senior Lorenzo Cilia closed out the seven in 34th. The Bulldogs run at 11 a.m.

The Vacaville Chris tian boys were second in Division V and also have seven runners going to state. Freshman Gunner Lyon was seventh at the section meet and was followed by soph omore Apollo Adam in ninth, sophomore Mav erick Adam in 14th, senior Aaron Laxamana in 26th, senior Har rison Jones in 27th, sophomore Lukas Don aldson in 40th and sophomore Timothy Damon in 58th. Vacav ille Christian runs at 10:30 a.m.

The top three teams in each division earn trophies. The top 10 individuals in each race medal.

US looks to gain respect in match against England

by K evin baxter LOS ANGELES TIMES

DOHA, Qatar — No one expects the U.S. to beat England.

The oddsmakers say the World Cup matchup Friday in Al Khor on the edge of the Qatari desert is a huge mismatch, like leading lambs to slaugh ter. England is ranked fifth in the world. It made the semifinals of the last World Cup and the final of the last Euro pean Championship.

And the U.S.? Well, it has done nothing comparable.

“We haven’t achieved anything as a group on the world stage,” coach Gregg Berhal ter conceded.

Before you go out and bet the farm on the Three Lions, though, here’s a fact to consider: The Americans have never lost to England in a World Cup, winning in 1950 and playing to a draw 12 years ago in South Africa. And they’re not con ceding anything going into this game.

“I don’t think any thing intimidates me. Other than spiders,” captain Tyler Adams said Thursday.

Adams is one of eight

members of the U.S. team who plays club soccer in the U.K., and that has helped erase some of the mystique surrounding the English game. While the Amer icans respect England, they no longer fear it.

“England are cur rently one of the favorites to win the World Cup. People would probably say that we’re the under dogs,” Adams said. “But we carry that with pride. We have to perform in the games and show up. We know that our quality can show and our determi nation can show.”

If it doesn’t, the show might soon be over for the U.S. After a tourna ment-opening draw with Wales, a loss to England would be a significant blow to the Americans’ chances to reach the knockout stages. Con versely a win would move them a big step closer to advancing.

Berhalter said Thurs day he expects to have a full squad, with forward Gio Reyna, midfielder Weston McKennie and outside back Sergiño Dest — who have all been dealing with fitness issues — avail able to play.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

Vanden High School’s Simeon Wydermyer, right, tackles Kimball’s Darius Doyle during the Sac-Joaquin Section

Division IV semifinals last week. The Vikings take on Capital Christian in the section finals, Saturday.

Yin and yang of California’s job picture comes in to focus

When California’s monthly report on employment was issued last week – telling us what the situation was in October – Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly issued a celebratory statement.

“California has now fully recovered all jobs that were lost to the pandemic-induced reces sion, but we know this isn’t the finish line,” Newsom said, making a plug for his economic programs to counter rising consumer costs and “to help create thousands of jobs and opportunities for Californians throughout the state.”

Newsom claimed “Califor nia has recovered 101.1% of the 2,758,900 jobs lost during the recession – the state is now 30,800 jobs above the pre-pandemic level total of February 2020.”

Walters

Data from the state Employment Development Department tell a slightly different story. In February 2020, accord ing to EDD’s bulletin for that month, 18,756,900 Californians were employed. The bulletin for October 2022 pegged employment at 18,502,900 – or 254,000 fewer.

Numbers aside, California’s employ ment picture has definitely improved from what it was two-plus years ago, when the state’s jobless rate had soared from less that 4% of the labor force to more than 16%. Newsom had ordered widespread shutdowns of business to counter the spread of Covid19, throwing nearly 3 million Californians out of work.

The financial pain to millions of Califor nia families was made immeasurably worse when EDD experienced a bureaucratic melt down that prevented many jobless workers from collecting unemployment insurance payments, sometimes for months. Moreover, under pressure to clear the backlog, EDD workers then swung too far the other way, authorizing tens of billions of dollars in pay ments to fraudulent applicants.

Although the October report tells us almost as many Californians were employed as prior to the Covid-19 recession, the state’s overall job picture is more complex than those simple numbers.

For one thing, the reports for Febru ary 2020 and October 2022 reveal the state’s labor force – the total of Californians either employed or looking for work – has shrunk by nearly a quarter-million people. The numbers continue a long-term decline in what’s called “labor force participation” – the percentage of working-age adults who have jobs or want to work. They also imply that as the state’s overall population ages, the pool of potential workers is also shrinking.

Whatever the underlying causes, the labor force decline is one reason why California’s employers are having such great difficulty finding enough workers and why they are raising wages – to as much as $18 an hour for fast food workers, for example – to attract more applicants.

“For the past full year and for the first time in decades, California has more job open ings than job seekers,” a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California notes. “While this is good news for people looking for work, it also limits businesses’ workforce plans and growth – and wage increases have put upward pressure on prices.”

In response, the Public Policy Institute of California report says, some employers are implementing more labor-saving technology, such as ordering kiosks in fast food outlets and GPS-guided machinery in agriculture.

The labor shortage may be having other impacts. The sharp drop in community collage enrollment could, for instance, reflect would-be students’ opting for higher wages in service industries over education.

We may look back on October 2020 as a high point for employment in California because, economists tell us, a recession may be on the horizon. Some employers, especially those in the high-tech industry, are already laying off thousands of workers in anticipation of a downturn.

California has a history of experiencing a recession of some kind about once a decade and we may be due for another.

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

Tech creates health problems for youth

Why are we so sur prised we now have more overweight children and youth obesity is a serious health concern? Why is today’s youth so dangerously over weight and unhealthy?

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, “An unprec edented number of American children are carrying excess body weight.” Compared to children of the 1970s, this youth generation has three times more obese children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance reveals the Bay Area has one of the highest rates of overweight children and youth in California. The Journal of Pediatric Psychology con cluded children who were obese were also associated with a variety of other health concerns that include low selfworth and behavior problems.

These alarming revelations should leave the modern parent extremely concerned.

Why is there such a contrast between children of the 1970s and 1980s and today? Well, let’s go beyond the obvious reasons and get down to what my mother use to call “the nitty gritty” of the matter. The overindul gence in fast food, the influence of entertainment, social media and other unhealthy eating habits have been well documented. However, another one of the contributors to the problem that seems to fly under the radar is technology.

Today’s youth are spending eight to 10 hours per day in front of a digital screen be it a cellphone, tablet, com

THIS YOUTH GENERATION COMMENTARY

puter or flat screen TV. The modern child has access to hundreds of video games and at least three different game consoles at their imme diate disposal, which turns more kids into spectators and decreases physical par ticipation. The video game industry is a multibillion-dol lar industry and these game manufacturers should be considered as at least part of the problem for con cerned parents.

“Anything that will keep him from sitting around playing video games would help,” said one father of a weight-challenged youth.

One of the most common com plaints from parents is their child’s inactivity due to their addiction to video games. There seems to be a need for a therapeutic rehabilita tion center for video game addicts for this generation. The 1970s gener ation had little or nothing by way of home entertainment. There was very little or nothing to keep us from going outside to play catch, freeze tag, hide and seek or even ding dong ditch, which provided much-needed physi cal exercise.

Being stuck in the house was like a death sentence to the average kid in the 1970s.

These youth also have more than 100 channels to summon from their digital cable, fire stick or satellite remote – enough to keep them plas tered on the sofa for hours or even days without any physical activity. As youth growing up, we had three chan nels, ABC, NBC and CBS. There was no 24-hour cartoon network or Disney

channel. If you wanted to change the channel, you had to get off your behind and move or summon your feet to the TV.

Technology has even affected other healthy childhood activities. Today, skateboards and scooters are motorized. Even the ever-popu lar Big Wheel has been replaced by the battery-operated Power Wheel. The manually powered child vehicles that at least require children to pedal and get some exercise is now a thing of the past. When was the last time you saw a small child fly by on a Big Wheel, tricycle, Green Machine or any other kid-powered vehicle?

Teens are also now opting for the more dangerous motor scooters or mini motor bikes instead of the tra ditional bicycles, which are more primitive in comparison yet consis tently provide basic cardio exercise.

It is obvious our environment has dramatically changed in the past 30 to 40 years. However, it is up to us to make the necessary adjustments for the sake and good health of our chil dren. Limit the number of hours daily over all screen time for your child. Find them a youth sports program or after-school program that involves physical activity or health and fitness.

If not, the age of technology will continue to contribute to an already “super-sized” and dangerously unhealthy youth generation.

Deon D. Price is an author and youth life skills coach who lives in Fairfield. He can be reached at thisyouthgeneration@gmail.com or www.deondprice.com.

It’s now clear QE a colossal policy mistake

The great quantitative easing experiment was a mistake. It’s time central banks acknowledge it for the failure it was and retire it from their policy arsenal as soon as they’re able.

Since the global finan cial crisis of 2008, an integral part of central banks’ play book in the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union has been QE –the practice of buying up long-term bonds and mortgage-backed secu rities. QE is supposed to work by lowering long-term interest rates, which boosts demand and increases lending and risk-taking.

There is little to show in terms of the economic benefits of QE, but there are plenty of costs. Now central banks find their hands tied as they try to curb inflation with interest rate increases and quantitative tighten ing, which means no more purchases of long-term bonds and mortgagebacked securities. But they’re finding that ending QE can itself be a threat to financial stability.

During the 2008 financial crisis, central banks were desperate to inject liquidity into the financial system. With the policy interest rate at zero, it needed to figure out another mechanism, so it bought long-term bonds and mortgage-backed securi ties, ballooning its balance sheet. That was supposed to be an emergency measure, but it went on for years. QE was followed by QE2 and then QE3 as the Fed became fearful that stopping would crash the bond markets.

About a decade later, just as the Fed’s balance sheet finally started to shrink, along came the pandemic and the biggest QE ever. It lasted well after the immediate crisis passed, even as inflation and the housing market started to heat up.

Looking objectively at the evi

dence, it’s still not clear that all this bond buying ever did much for the economy. As Ben Bernanke once said, “The problem with Quantitative Easing (QE) is that it works in practice but not in theory.”

In cases where a market is in trouble, having the central bank step in and buy bonds can provide needed liquid ity. But using QE to boost the entire economy, to lower unemployment or boost inflation, has a more dubious record. One study, called Fifty Shades of QE, assessed the many research papers that measure the impact of QE on the economy. It found that all the research coming from central banks view QE as a great success, but only half of the research from academics finds any benefits to economic output or inflation. When they do find some benefit, it tends to be smaller than the bank research claims.

Meanwhile, there are substan tial costs. First there are direct costs: QE is essentially taking a leveraged bet that won’t pay off if interest rates increase. The Fed pays interest on the reserves it holds for banks, and it uses those reserves to finance its purchases of long-term bonds. Now that the interest rate has increased to fight inflation, the Fed must pay more for reserves than it’s getting from the bonds in its portfolio, and its losing money.

The indirect costs of QE could be even worse. Using QE to keep inter est rates low distorts risk assessment since bonds are considered the riskfree assets in the economy – they’re used to price assets and act as a barometer on risk-taking. Long-term bonds are among the most sys tematically important assets in the economy, and when their price is dis torted, risk prices have less meaning.

QE blurs the relationship between

fiscal and monetary policy and threat ens central bank independence because the Fed is essentially mon etizing government debt. It also makes it hard to follow monetary policy rules.

There was a long-running debate among macro economists over how the Fed should do monetary policy.

Many economists think rules are better in most situations because they maintain the Fed’s credibil ity and promote transparency. There is no such formula or rule for QE; it’s always ad hoc. That may be nec essary in an emergency like the financial crisis. But the persistent use of QE shows central bankers will then extend that emergency action into normal times.

Ending QE won’t be easy. Central banks now have enormous balance sheets that will take years to whittle down. And as we see in the U.K., when a central bank stops buying bonds, it can throw markets into chaos. Now that QE has become the norm, the next time there is a recession markets will expect more QE, and if it doesn’t happen, that could cause more trouble in the debt market.

That’s why central banks need to admit QE was a mistake. Their cred ibility is already at stake after they underestimated inflation. Now is the time to take a hard look at mon etary policy over the past decade and rethink what worked and what didn’t. Otherwise we’ll be stuck with QE forever.

Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering econom ics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “An Econ omist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Under stand Risk.”

Dan

Deon D. Price

Allison Schrager

I’m struggling to get my boyfriend’s finances on track

Dear Annie: My boy friend and I are in love, and we’ve been together for five years and have lived together for the past three years. He moved in with me after his divorce. Now, from that divorce, his credit was horrible. So, since living together, I pay all of the household bills and occasionally help him with his bills because he is “trying to get his credit straightened out.”

Herein lies the problem. I had no issue with this when it began, and it was actually my idea to help him in this way, but it has now been three years and counting. He still claims he never has any money to help, yet we make the same amount of money. How is this possible? He seems to have money for alcohol, cigarettes and anything else he wants. What started out as a loving favor now feels like a nightmare. I try to commu nicate my feelings to him, but he always makes it emotion ally devastating for him and manages to end the conversa tion or change the subject.

I now feel taken advantage of and see no end in sight. I have great credit and carry very little debt, but he somehow cannot seem to get his act together, and it is starting to change how I feel about him, mainly because I feel walked on, unappreci ated and taken advantage of.

Am I wrong to feel this way? Should I continue to help the man I love? I do not want to hurt him, but this is starting to take a serious toll on my finances, as I cannot get ahead this way. I do not want to ask him to leave because he has nowhere to go, and I feel respon sible for him and I still love him. Help me decide what to do.

— Feeling Stuck

Dear Feeling Stuck: It sure sounds like you’re being taken advantage of, so you’re defi nitely not wrong to feel that way. At the risk of sounding cheesy: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” In other words, rather than simply giving him money, sit down with him and help him assess his finances, create a strategy to get out of debt, boost his credit, etc. You should also explain to him how this imbalance makes you feel – unappreciated, taken advantage of, used.

It’s possible that he was never taught how to be finan cially literate, and he is embarrassed. Or maybe he’s lazy and wants to get money out of you. Neither is acceptable in a partnership, but having these conversations with him will help you get to the bottom of it and find a solution.

Dear Annie: I enjoy your

Horoscopes

ARIES (March 21-April 19).

You take care of everyone, but who takes care of you? As a selfmade individual, you believe you’re the best candidate for that job too. Someone will offer to help you. Accept. Because whether you think you need it or not, you do deserve it.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). If there’s one person you shouldn’t wage war against, it’s you. You may not be overjoyed with your current choices, but you still need to get on your own side. That’s the power position that allows you to do better in the future.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). The first step to breaking out of a rut is recognizing you are in one. Step two is to stop doing what you’re doing, which only makes the rut deeper. The third step involves an anchor on the outside that you can latch onto to lift up and out.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). It’s wonderful when your vision matches what the group wants. Now you just need everyone to agree on getting there in more or less the same way. You’ll pave the way with good com munication, gentleness and mutual respect.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Since good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things, you’re glad it’s not your job to judge the hearts and actions of all. Well-aware that the entire scope of people’s

by Holiday Mathis

Today’s birthday

Anyone with money can give it to their favorite people and causes. You’ll contribute something far rarer. Your generosity takes whimsical, bright and inspiring forms and in this way, you will alter the course of projects, relationships and indeed the fate of people. More highlights: a gamble that pays and a big move or renovation. Gemini and Scorpio adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 4, 44, 13, 10 and 6.

motivations is unknowable, you’ll handle a situation fairly.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).

It’s better to highlight a flaw than hide it. In doing so, you’ll probably learn that the feature in question is not a flaw at all; rather, it’s an opportunity in the making. The right application is everything.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23).

Relief is at hand, but first you must empty what’s full: the trash, the inbox, the overstuffed bag, the stress-driven mind and more. Open it up, take it out, let it go. Better things come when you make room for them.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21).

In case you’re wondering whether you won or lost, the

column and find most of your suggestions very thoughtful and helpful. I find your response to “Let Me Finish, Please,” whose mother-in-law frequently talks over her when she is respond ing to a question from her husband, to be a reasonable option. I’d like to offer another because some mother-/daugh ter in-law relationships can be very tricky.

It might be received much better if the message came from the mother-in-law’s son rather than her daugh ter in-law. If he were to say, “Excuse me, Mom, but I do want to hear from ‘Mary,’” each time she talks over “Mary,” she may catch on. If not, he could be the one to say, “Hey, Mom. I’ve noticed that some times you have a tendency to talk over ‘Mary.’ I’m sure you don’t intend to and would want me to let you know.” I know for 100% certain that if I had that type of direct conversation with my mother-in-law, she wouldn’t believe me and would be very offended, but she might listen to her son. Plus, “Mary” will feel supported by her husband on the issue. — Getting a Word in Dear Getting a Word in: I couldn’t agree with you more; thank you for this suggestion. Even if this mother- and daugh ter-in-law are close, you’re right that this sort of a comment may land better coming from her son instead of from his bride.

answer is both. You can spin it in any direction you like with that brilliant imagination of yours. What is the true desire of your heart?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21). Feeling overwhelmed is natural when you’re following an ambition. Take a breath and consider that it’s really OK to be in over your head. Whether the water is deep or shallow doesn’t matter; you’ll inevitably swim near the surface.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19). When there is chaos around you, you find refuge in a calm mind. The challenge is harder when things around you are calm, but your mind is chaotic. You’ll seek to improve your mental control with new tricks and techniques to good effect.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 18). You crave variety, novelty and adventure. The more out of your element you get, the luckier you’ll be. Even so, a guide who knows the ter ritory will be key, saving you much time and trouble as you learn the best a place has to offer.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Make space in your life for you being you. You have always possessed natural talents and you will continue to possess them for as long as you live. A simple agenda awaits: remem ber what you’re good at, do it, be happy.

Bridge

by Phillip Alder

no-trump. Now, though, most duplicate players treat that as showing six or more diamonds. To invite game, they have to go via Stayman, even without a four-card major. This results in the defenders knowing more about the opener’s hand than would have been the case in the past.

There is also a secondary downside risk. In this deal, East took the opportunity to double two clubs to show good clubs. Now, when South ended in three no-trump, it was easy for West to lead the club 10. The defenders took the first seven tricks (five clubs and two spades) for down three. That was an 80% board.

At the six tables where East did not double two clubs, West, of course, led the spade six. South took at least the first nine tricks via one spade, four hearts and four diamonds. Three were even given an overtrick by imperfect discarding.

MODERN METHODS CAN COME WITH A PRICE

It is all well and good to have a well-oiled bidding system full of scientific gadgets that aid accuracy in the auction. However, occasionally science comes with a price – as in today’s deal.

In the olden days before minor-suit transfers, North would have invited game by raising one no-trump to two

Sudoku

One West led the spade six even though partner had doubled two clubs. He requested anonymity!

Another West, whose partner had doubled two clubs, liked his spade holding sufficiently to double three no-trump. South got the message, but there was nowhere to hide. He bid four diamonds, which would have gone down three. However, North retreated to four spades, happily doubled by West for 1100 and a top.

COPYRIGHT: 2022, UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE

by Wayne Gould

Difficulty level: SILVER

MODERN METHODS CAN COME WITH A PRICE

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

It is all well and good to have a well-oiled bidding system full of scientific gadgets that aid accuracy in the auction. However, occasionally science comes with a price – as in today’s deal.

In the olden days before minor-suit

Word Sleuth

Annie Lane Dear Annie

Hugh Bonneville serves as narrator on “Silent Night: A Song for the World.”

Lorraine a Li LOS ANGELES TIMES

She’s creepy (not kooky), mysterious and spooky. She’s the dead-eyed, mordant daughter of the Addams family. And now she’s headed to boarding school in Tim Burton’s cheerily macabre Netflix series, “Wednesday.”

The eight-part series from director Burton and writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, which premiered Wednes day, has caskets full of fun when daddy’s “little viper,” Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), is expelled from Nancy Reagan High, her eighth school in five years. All she did was release pira nhas into a swimming pool full of jocks who’d bullied her younger brother, Pugsley.

Nevermore Academy is the alma mater of her mother, Morticia (Cath erine Zeta-Jones), and father, Gomez (Luis Guzmán). Its curriculum is designed for outcasts, creeps and monsters, and the student body is filled with cliques of vampires, werewolves and sirens. But even they’re freaked out by Wednesday’s cadaverwhite skin and all-black uniform. “Wednesday always looks half-dead,” explains Gomez. “Please excuse Wednesday. She’s allergic to color,” adds Morticia. The school’s suspiciously cheerful Principal Weems (Gwen doline Christie) has no intention of going easy on Wednesday.

Ortega kills as the gifted, nihilistic teen who’d rather hang out in a crypt than a club. She embodies Wednesday with her flat affectation and utter disdain for her peers. Her spasmodic, zombie-like moves at the school dance to the tune of the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” – with a deadly straight face, no less – create one of the top television moments of the year.

The blackhearted heroine is sadis tic, fearless and full of fantastically sar donic one-liners. When describing how she’s plagued by visions, mommy’s little storm cloud says, “They come on without warning and feel like electroshock therapy, but without the satisfying afterburn.”

She doesn’t have an Insta or TikTok account

because she finds “social media to be a soul-suck ing void of meaningless affirmation.” And when her hideously perky new roomie Enid (Emma Myers) gives her a tour of the school’s social scene, Wednesday makes it clear that she’s not interested in “tribal adolescent cliches.” (You will love Myers’ perfor mance and character by the time the series is done.) Wednesday puts her inherent distrust of humankind to use when a mysterious creature with ties to the school starts killing off students and townsfolk. Like a gothic Nancy Drew, she relies on her powers of deduc tion – and the occasional torture session – to solve the mystery.

Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the 1991 film “The Addams Family” and its 1993 sequel, “Addams Family Values,” is the academy’s one “normie” teacher, Ms. Thornhill. She doesn’t have morph ing skills or powers like the others. Her passion for teaching botany is what brought her to the school. But why is she really there? Gimmicky callbacks to the films and the 1964 TV series are rare and strategi cally deployed in this streaming iteration of the franchise.

Burton’s sensibili ties and style are all over this irresistibly quirky, sardonic whodunit. Nev ermore Academy is a beautifully ghoulish place replete with gar goyles and spires, while the small historic town of Jericho outside draws tourists in with a cheesy re-creation of a Pilgrim village. The mix of witchburning artifacts and kitsch fudge stands is a Burton playground.

Zits Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis

Dilbert Scott Adams

Baby

Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Baldo Hector Cantú and Carlos Castellanos

Vlad Cioplea/Netflix/TNS Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in “Wednesday.”

Movie top 10 for the holidays:

From a new ‘Scrooge’ to an old Christmas romance you’ve never seen

Michael PhilliPs CHICAGO TRIBUNE, (TNS)

Our stockings runneth over with streaming holiday options whose titles, on Netflix and Hallmark and elsewhere, tend to blur into a single, extended holiday viewing option we’ll call “Countdown to Falling for Christmas with You on a Holidate on Mistletoe Farm All the Way.” Someone should make that one, and then we’ll be done for a while.

Meantime: Here’s a list of 10 holiday movies, nine stream ing, one in theaters. Some are old. Some aren’t. Some you know. Some you won’t. Some are grisly. Most are not. Happy viewing and stay warm.

“Holiday” (1938): The grandest romantic New Year’s Eve scene in Holly wood history, and yes, I’ve seen “When Harry Met Sally.” With partygoers downstairs, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, in the attic playroom of a Park Avenue mansion, find themselves edging toward a realization of what they mean to each other in direc tor George Cukor’s exquisite film version of the 1928 Philip Barry play. On Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV+ and other streaming services.

“Remember the Night” (1940): A pip, hard to find but worth the effort. In Manhattan, over the holidays, assistant dis trict attorney Fred MacMurray feels sorry for convicted shop lifter Barbara Stanwyck (he’s the one who convicted her) so he pays her bail and brings her home to Indiana for Christ mas. It’s a truly unpredictable mixture of comedy, drama, astringent family dynamics and sneaky romance. Preston Sturges’ script, Mitchell Lei sen’s pearly direction, the stars! Sturges’ own assess ment: “Quite a lot of schmaltz, a good dose of schmerz and just enough schmutz to make it box office.” On the fawesome.

tv service, if you want to find a younger relative to help you figure that one out.

“Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944): The wintertime sequences in director Vin cente Minnelli’s achingly nostalgic vision of turn-of-thecentury mid-American life are just a fourth of the storyline. But every season’s wonder fully realized in this one, which comes festooned with “The Trolley Song” and “Have Your self a Merry Little Christmas.” Judy Garland stars, and how. On Amazon Prime and other streaming services.

“Christmas Holiday” (1944): Some titles are more deceiv ing than others; this sinister wartime film noir from director Robert Siodmak takes the cake. It comes from the W. Somer set Maugham novel. The movie version stars a cast-againsttype Gene Kelly as a murderous gambler, and Deanna Durbin, haunted by Yuletide memo ries she can’t forget. A “gotcha” studio marvel of vexed but finally fulfilled expecta tions. Streaming on Roku and YouTube.

“The Family Man” (2000): My wife’s favorite seasonal rewatch, and I love her madly, so that’s that. Selfish, acquisi tive businessman Nicolas Cage learns a lesson in true com mitment and what’s important from his college sweetheart (Tea Leoni) with help from an angel (Don Cheadle). On Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.

“Jingle Jangle: A Christ mas Journey” (2020): Netflix’s recent original movie musical features a wealth of Black talent in a Victorian-era fantasy starring Justin Cornwell, Forest Whitaker, Anika Noni Rose and Madalen Mills. Some, including my colleague Nina Metz) have written that “Jingle Jangle” has “the makings of a classic that endures year after year.” Streaming on Netflix.

“The Noel Diary” (2022):

Another Netflix holiday present, this one from the Richard Paul Evans book, about a bestsell ing author (Justin Hartley of “Smallville” and “The Young and the Restless”) inheriting his parents’ house after his moth er’s death. Luminous Barrett Doss (luminosity: always a fine quality to have in a holidaythemed heartwarmer) co-stars as a woman seeking answers to her own family secrets. Pre mieres Thursday on Netflix.

“Violent Night” (2022): “Bad Santa” just got owned: David Harbour portrays a mean, bloodthirsty hombre of a St. Nick who’s apparently been watching a heavy rotation of “Straw Dogs” and “Home Alone 2″ (they’re equally sadistic) in prep for this hostage thriller in which brutal mercenaries led by John Leguizamo pay for their place on the naughty list. Premieres in theaters Dec. 2.

Rated R for “really?”

“Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” (2022): We’re never far away from another Dickens “Christmas Carol” remake or two: Already on Apple TV + there’s “Spirited,” with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, and next up is the new Netflix animated “Scrooge: A Christ mas Carol.” From the trailer, it looks and sounds like a varia tion on the 1970 “Scrooge” film but with tons more fireballs and time-traveling portals. The voice cast includes Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Jonathan Pryce. Premieres on Netflix Dec. 2.

“The Apology” (2022): A Christmastime housebound thriller starring Anna Gunn as a haunted mother whose child disappeared 20 years earlier. Her estranged ex-brotherin-law (Linus Roache) shows up, unannounced, with some secrets to spill along with the blood promised by debut feature writer-director Alison Star Locke. Janeane Garo falo co-stars. Premieres on Shudder Dec. 16.

CLUBS OR DIAMONDS ... CLUBS OR DIAMONDS?

The Senior Life Master entered the bridge club engulfed in a ski jacket to try to keep out the chill of winter. He was looking forward to his trip south for the holidays and New Year’s. First, though, he had a few more classes to teach.

Cover the East-West cards in my

Sudoku

Bridge

CLUBS OR DIAMONDS ... CLUBS OR DIAMONDS?

The Senior Life Master entered the bridge club engulfed in a ski jacket to try to keep out the chill of winter. He was looking forward to his trip south for the holidays and New Year’s. First,

by Phillip Alder

first diagram (the SLM began) and decide how you would play in four spades, optimistically doubled by East. West leads the heart queen and continues with the heart jack.

After pausing for about 90 seconds, the SLM continued: In a team match, both declarers ruffed the second trick and drew trumps in three rounds. Now came the key question: Which minor to play first?

One South led a club to the queen. East won with the ace and tapped declarer with another heart, South ruffing with his final spade. South cashed the club king, led to the club jack and, when they broke 4-2, called for the diamond jack. However, East won with his ace, cashed a heart trick and led a fifth heart. Dummy had to ruff and concede a club trick to West: down two. If the clubs had been 3-3, declarer still would have finished down one.

At the other table, South realized it was right to lead a diamond at trick six. East won with the ace and forced declarer with a heart, but South cashed his two diamond winners, discarding a heart and a club from the dummy. Then he led a club. East won and played a heart, but dummy ruffed, and two club tricks were cashed.

by Wayne Gould

Bridge

Gareth Gatrell/Netflix/TNS

Forest Whitaker as Jeronicus Jangle in “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.”

0633 GIVEAWAYS

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FRIDAY’S TV sports

Baskeball

College Men

• ESPN Events Invitational, Semifinal, ESPN2, 8 a.m.

• Battle 4 Atlantis, Third Place, ESPN2, 10 a.m.

• Knight Legacy, Consolation Semifinal, ESPN2, Noon.

• Knight Legacy, First Semifinal, ESPN, 12:30 p.m.

• Knight Legacy, Semifinal, ESPN, 2:30 p.m.

• Battle 4 Atlantis, Championship, ESPN, 4:30 p.m.

• ESPN Events Invitational, Semifinal, ESPN2, 5 p.m.

• Knight Legacy, Semifinal, ESPN, 6:30 p.m.

• Battle 4 Atlantis, Fifth Place, ESPN2, 7p.m.

• Knight Legacy, Semifinal, ESPN, 8:30 p.m.

• Knight Legacy, Consolation Semifinal, ESPN2, 9 p.m.

College Women

• UConn vs. Duke, ESPN2, 3 p.m.

NBA

• Sacramento vs. Boston, NBCSCA (Vacaville and Rio Vista), 5 p.m.

• Utah vs. Golden State, NBCSBA (Fairfield and Suisun City, 7 p.m.

Football College

• Utah vs. Boise State, 5, 13, 9 a.m.

• Tulane vs. Cincinnati, 7, 10, 9 a.m.

• Baylor vs. Texas, ESPN, 9 a.m.

• Arkansas vs. Missouri, 5, 13, 12:30 p.m.

• North Carolina State vs. North Carolina, 7, 10, 12:30 p.m.

• UCLA vs. Cal, 2, 40, 1:30 p.m.

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

Golf

• Andalucia Costa del Sol Open de Espana, GOLF, 7 a.m.

Hockey

NHL

• Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia, TNT, 2:30 p.m.

• St.Louis vs. Tampa Bay, TNT, 5 p.m.

• L.A. Kings vs. San Jose, NBCSCA, 8 p.m.

soccer World Cup

• Wales vs. Iran, FS1, 2 a.m.

• Qatar vs. Senegal, FS1, 5 a.m.

• Netherlands vs. Ecuador, 2, 40, 8 a.m.

• England vs. United States, 2, 40, 11 a.m.

Saturday’s

Football College

TV sports

• Michigan vs. Ohio State, 2, 40, 9 a.m.

• South Carolina vs. Clemson, 7, 10, 9 a.m.

• Georgia Tech vs. Georgia, ESPN, 9 a.m.

• West Virginia vs. Oklahoma State, ESPN2, 9 a.m.

• Grambling State vs. Southern, 3, 11 a.m.

• Auburn vs. Alabama, 5, 13, 12:30 p.m.

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

• Minnesota vs. Wisconsin, ESPN, 12:30 p.m.

• Memphis vs. SMU, ESPN2, 12:30 p.m.

• Iowa State vs. TCU, 2, 40, 1 p.m.

• LSU vs. Texas A&M, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• Central Florida vs. South Florida, ESPN2, 4 p.m.

• Notre Dame vs. USC, 7, 10, 4:30 p.m.

• Kansas vs. Kansas State, 2, 40, 5 p.m.

• Washington vs. Washington State, ESPN, 7:30 p.m.

soccer World Cup

• Tunisia vs. Australia, FS1, 2 a.m.

• Poland vs. Saudi Arabia, FS1, 5 a.m.

• France vs. Denmark, FS1, 8 a.m.

• Argentina vs. Mexico, FS1, 11 a.m.

Vanden

From Page B1

touchdowns.

“They have a very good football team,” Vanden head coach Sean Murphy said. “They are very athletic. It should be a great game.”

Max Clements and Tevita Vaea picked up the most tackles this season for the Cougars. Clements has a hand in 68 this season for Capital Christian and Vaea has 54.

“They didn’t have their new offensive coor dinator until the Del Campo game (Oct. 14),” Wright said. “Vanden beat us with their speed.

Capital Christian gave us a really physical game

— Sean Murphy

from the get-go. They have good size and those three legit star athletes.”

Vanden practiced Thursday morning before sending the ath letes home to spend time with family. A 1 p.m. practice was scheduled for Friday before a teambonding experience that night.

“It’s an honor to prac tice on Thanksgiving,” Murphy said. “If you are practicing on Thanksgiv ing, that usually means you are playing for a championship. Appreci ate the opportunity.”

forecast for Fairfield-Suisun City

p.m. Green Bay at Philadelphia, 5:20 p.m. Monday’s Game Pittsburgh at Indianapolis, 5:15 p.m.

“It’s an honor to practice on Thanksgiving.”