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Storm pummels NorCal Record rains breach levees, leaves tens of thousands without power Tribune Content Agency LOS ANGELES — Record rains on New Year’s Eve breached three levees along the Cosumnes River near Sacramento and left tens of thousands of Californians without power Sunday. Flash flooding along Highway 99 and other roads south of Sacramento submerged dozens of cars near Wilton, where the water poured over the levees. Search and rescue crews in boats and helicopters scrambled to pick up trapped motorists. “I don’t want to use the term apocalyptic, but it’s ugly,” Sacramento County spokesman Matt Robinson said by phone from a stretch of Highway 99 that he described as a vast lake following the three levee overflows. “We have a lot of stuck cars.” Downed power lines and trees crashing into homes created further trouble, said Capt. Parker Wilbourn of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District. “It was an extremely busy night,” he said. Electricity remained cut off midday Sunday for more than 35,000 customers, down from more than 100,000 who lost power overnight around Sacramento. Sunny skies on Sunday offered a respite from the downpours, but another atmospheric river was barreling across the western Pacific and was set to drench California in the days ahead. Northern California took the brunt of the weekend pounding. Oakland had its wettest day since 1970 on Saturday with 4.75 inches of rain. A mudslide east of Oakland blocked part of Highway 580. See Storm, Page A7

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

An abandoned car floats on Morris Street in San Francisco as a winter storm continues to play havoc with traffic, Saturday.

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file photos

Wanda Williams takes the oath of office while being sworn in as Solano County Supervisor, Dec. 21, 2022.

Women hold nearly half

of elected city, county, school seats Todd R. Hansen

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — There are 119 elected city, county and school district jobs in Solano County. Women hold 58 of those – 48.7% – and control the majorities on nine of the 17 boards. “Women power in the house,” newly elected Supervisor Wanda Williams said during a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony held Dec. 21. Napa County Superior Court Judge Monique Langhorne, a former Vallejo resident, administered the oath. Of the 24 elected Superior Court judges in Solano County, 10 are women. Williams called her election “monumental” and “historic” as the first elected woman of color,

Catherine “Cat” Moy, center, takes the oath of office while being sworn in as mayor of Fairfield at the City Council chamber, Dec. 20, 2022. and views it as an “oppor- for women, there are tunity to be an example” now two elected women to women of color and to mayors, 12 city council women in general. members – with two female The 2020 Solano County council majorities – and a Census notes that women three-member majority on make up 49.8% of the coun- the Solano County Board of ty’s 451,716 residents. Supervisors. While school boards That is a first for the and city clerk posts county board and for the have long been havens Fairfield City Council,

which has only its second elected woman mayor in Catherine Moy. “I said this before . . . I’m not saying it’s better, but it’s different . . . I’m looking forward to seeing what we do,” Moy said about having a female majority. She took her oath on Dec. 20. “I think people are getting used to having women in these roles,” Moy added. “I hope it encourages others to step forward.” Supervisor Monica Brown also believes women have different priorities than men, and hopes that means the new county majority will shift the board toward those priorities of family and other social issues. However, Auditor-ConSee Women, Page A7

Honeybees are at risk, along with the crops they pollinate; these scientists think the solution lies in the insects’ brains Tribune Content Agency PHILADELPHIA – The honeybees looked perfectly healthy, buzzing about their boxy wooden hive on a warm autumn day in central Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Capaldi suspected otherwise. Clad in a protective white suit and hat, the biologist reached out with a gloved hand to capture one of the insects in a small vial, then took it back to her Bucknell University laboratory to dissect its brain. Her colleague David Rovnyak later placed a sample of the bee’s innards inside a large metal cylinder and pelted it with high-frequency radio waves – a type of scanning technology that revealed the amounts of certain tell-

tale chemicals within. Their goal: to identify early warning signs that a bee is under stress, so that beekeepers can try to rescue a threatened hive before it’s too late. Honeybees have been in decline for decades, causing headaches and higher costs for farmers who depend on the insects to pollinate their apples, almonds and 130 other fruit, nut and vegetable crops. The issue made headlines in 2006 with the emergence of a mysterious new phenomenon called colony collapse disorder, but the broader downturn in bee health was underway well before that, and it continues to this day. The causes include climate change, pesticides, and disease, said Capaldi,

who studies insect behavior and neuroscience at the liberal arts university in Lewisburg. In bad years, the combination of insults can wipe out more than half of a beekeeper’s colonies. “Honeybees are suffering,” she said. “All of these factors have united together to create a stressful environment for honeybee colonies across the country.”

She and Rovnyak, a chemistry professor at Bucknell, realized five or six years ago that the problem might lend itself to an interdisciplinary solution. The pair joined forces with colleague Marie Pizzorno, an expert in viruses – as one factor in the insects’ decline is a virus that deforms their wings.

Kevin Batchelor/Dreamstime/TNS

See Bees, Page A7 A honeybee hovers at a flower.

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