enterprise THE DAVIS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2023
COVID unemployment reckoning goes national
Bold & Blue
By Lauren Helper CalMatters
“Tonight, we gather to celebrate the remarkable journey you embarked upon,” he said. “A high school experience like no other. From the very beginning, you faced unexpected trials with your sophomore year commencing through computer screens and digital classrooms. Then, fast-forward to the
A former federal technology official enlisted by Gov. Gavin Newsom to triage California’s pandemic unemployment response details in a new book how technical and political failures combined to block payments to workers while enabling fraud. Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code For America and former U.S. deputy chief technology officer, writes that the turmoil at California’s Employment Development Department is a prime example of failures that have also plagued other major civic tech efforts, such as the post-Obamacare implosion of healthcare.gov or archaic IT systems at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. “Of all the tech disasters I’ve witnessed and tried to help untangle, the one I’ve come to see as most emblematic of these forces — and the ways we consistently misunderstand them — is the story of California’s unemployment insurance in the first year of the pandemic,” Pahlka writes in the book “Recoding America: Why Government is Failing In the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better.”
See FUTURE, Page A7
See RECKONING, Page A3
The graduating Class of 2023 enter the Ron & Mary Brown Stadium on Friday night for Davis High’s graduation ceremony. For more images of Friday’s festivities, go online to www. davisenterprise. com Mike Bush/ Enterprise photo
DHS Class of ’23 walks into future By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer Friday, June 9, is a day the Davis High School seniors will remember as the day they officially graduated. Although many Blue Devils have come and gone before, the class of
2023 distinguishes itself as the one that bore the brunt of covid and showcased a ravenous resiliency to make it all the way to graduation. It was a picturesque spring evening with the sunset painting the background of the
ceremony taking place at Halden Field. Hundreds of friends and family filled the stadium bleachers and seats on the field below, all cheering and clapping as the Blue Devils took their seats facing towards them. When the clamoring settled, Principal Bryce Geigle addressed the audience and the graduates — after a taking a selfie with them.
Activists pressure UCD to drop Pepsi
VOL. 125 NO. 69
By Monica Stark
Odd Fellows announce 2023 scholarship awards
Enterprise staff writer
Enterprise staff
The UC Davis Beverage Rights Industry Working Group will soon decide whether to renew an exclusive contract with PepsiCo, the beverage choice on campus, for the past decade. A new PRC would lock UC Davis into another decade-long contract that limits beverage choices on campus to only Pepsi products. Activists say that without an exclusive contract, opportunities for UCD to partner with smaller companies with “better track records in promoting health and the environment” would be possible. The contract expires on
The Davis Odd Fellows Lodge No. 169 recently awarded $18,000 in scholarships to highschool and college students pursuing their higher education goals. Veronica “Phoenix” Pederson of Davis received a $5,000 scholarship through Davis Odd Fellows Charities Inc., a nonprofit corporation that provides funding for students who have gone through the foster care system while maintaining high grades. “This is a special scholarship funded entirely by a major corporation back east,” said David
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Classifieds ���������B6 Graduation �������A4 Obituaries ���������A6 Comics ���������������B5 Green Page �������B7 Sports ���������������B1 Forum �����������������B3 Living �����������������B4 The Wary I ���������A2
Monica Stark/Enterprise photo
UC Davis student activists march on campus on June 1, protesting the university’s exclusive pouring deal with Pepsi. Aug. 31, 2024. Many group members have expressed serious concerns about continuing with pouring rights contracts. The group meets next on June 23.
WEATHER Thursday: Sunny and warm. High 91. Low 58.
Because the contract and others she read do not align with UC Davis and UC Davis Health’s mission and
See PEPSI, Page A3
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Rosenberg of the Odd Fellows. “It targets deserving orphans and foster children who have struggled through those systems and have persevered.”
Pederson, a Da Vinci High School graduate, will attend Sacramento State University in the fall.
Six students each received $1,500 from the Officer Natalie Corona Davis Odd Fellows Memorial Scholarship, created in honor of Corona, who was killed the line of duty on Jan. 10, 2019, while investigating
See SCHOLARSHIP, Page A3
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