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SCC launches Homeless-toStudent Outreach Program A3 DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.

WEDNESDAY | November 30, 2022 | $1.00 People in the crowd react as Santa Claus arrives during Merriment on Main in downtown Vacaville, Tuesday.

Vacaville ushers in

Christmas with hometown celebration

SUSAN HILAND

SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

VACAVILLE — The downtown glittered with every tree lit with tiny lights and each shop open late with decorated trees for the Vacaville Festival of Trees in the windows drawing the eye of people as they walked toward the main event, the Christmas tree lighting for Merriment on Main. The downtown treelighting began in 1983 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Reporter, Richard Rico, the former owner of the newspaper, said. “It was a way of saying thank you to my hometown for a century of support,” he said. Rico created and gifted the Main Street three-flag monument to the community, leaving space and a receptacle in the center for a Christmas tree. The idea for an annual Christmas tree lighting came from his time as a small child when city firefighters would light a tree in the creek and decorate it. “This is a celebration of friendship and community,” Rico said. Merriment on Main has turned into a family tradition for so many and feels like the turning point of the season from fall to Christmastime. Merriment happens each year because of the many volunteers and donors, and See Vacaville, Page A8

US survives chaotic finish with Iran, advances to next round B1

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic photos

Eddie “K” Ka’anoi, right, and Santa Claus sing “Christmas in Vacaville” during Merriment on Main in downtown Vacaville, Tuesday.

Senate passes bill to protect same-sex, interracial marriages THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would enshrine marriage equality in federal law, granting protections to same-sex and interracial couples. The bill passed in a 61-36 vote, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats to vote for it. Three senators did not vote. The bill includes a bipartisan amendment that clarifies protections for religious liberties, and it will now return to the House for another vote before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign into law. The 12 Republican senators who voted “yes” were Roy Blunt (Mo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Susan Collins (Maine), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Todd Young (Ind.). Before the final vote, Collins stood to “thank all of the Republicans who have supported this. I know that it’s not been easy, but they’ve done the right thing.” Biden celebrated the passage shortly after the tally was announced. “With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” the president said in a statement. “For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled.” The Respect for Marriage Act would not force states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples but would require that people be considered married in any state as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed. The bill also would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to decline to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. That law has remained on the books despite being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed See Senate, Page A8

RSV straining children’s hospitals across state TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY LOS ANGELES — RSV and other respiratory viral illnesses are continuing to stress children’s hospitals across California. Nationally, hospitalization rates related to RSV – or respiratory syncytial virus – are exceptionally high, according to Dr. Theodore Ruel, chief of the University of California, San Francisco’s pediatric infectious diseases and global health division. The per capita RSV hospitalization rate this month was the highest since the 2018-19 cold and flu season, Ruel said at a recent campus town hall. And while scientists are monitoring signs that RSV hospitalization rates may have peaked, it will take more time to be certain. Whatever the larger

trend, children’s hospitals across California report being stressed. The primary children’s hospital in Oakland “has been really hit hard with RSV,” Ruel said. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland was “pushed and strained earlier in this recent rise than on the (San Francisco children’s hospital) campus, and they’re still seeing rising numbers,” Ruel said earlier this month. Santa Clara County, Northern California’s most populous, is reporting “an acute surge of patients … in both our inpatient pediatric ward and pediatric ICU,” said Dr. Vidya Mony, pediatric infectious disease specialist and associate hospital epidemiologist at Santa Clara Valley Medical

Center. “The predominant cause for these hospitalizations are secondary to respiratory viruses, specifically, RSV.” RSV also continues to stretch the available emergency room capacity at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, meaning the facility cannot always accommodate patient transfers from elsewhere. The positivity rate for RSV at the hospital is 28%, about the same as the previous week, when

it was 29%, and less than the 37% reported earlier this month. As of Nov. 15, L.A. County was reporting average daily occupancy of staffed pediatric hospital beds at 64%, up from 60% on Nov. 1. For pediatric ICU beds, average daily occupancy was 75%, up from 67%. “These increases in pediatric bed occupancy are concerning, especially See RSV, Page A8

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The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard on in Los Angeles, Dec. 9, 2020. Children’s hospitals across California are being strained by RSV and other respiratory illnesses.

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