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DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.

Kevin McCarthy falls short on first 3 votes for speaker in historic defeat Tribune Content Agency

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

A wind turbine overlooks a large puddle that formed near agricultural land along Rockville Road in Fairfield,

Tuesday. An atmospheric storm is expected to hit Solano County Wednesday.

Solano under flood watch, highwind warning as next storm hits Todd R. Hansen THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Emergency service officials are telling Solano County residents to be prepared before the worst of the next storm hits – and it hits today. That means be prepared for possible flooding and power outages. A high-wind watch was upgraded to a high-wind warning just after 4 p.m. on Tuesday. The warning period, issued by the National Weather Service, runs from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. Thursday, the Solano County Office of Emergency Services reported. Reports put gusts up to 60 mph. “Be prepared for power outages . . . (and) with high winds, more trees are going to come down,” said Robyn Rains, the acting OES

manager, warning motorists to drive carefully and avoid standing water as well. Potholes and other hazards can create their own kind of dangers. The flood watch issued by the National Weather Service runs from 4 a.m. on Wednesday to 10 a.m. on Friday. Gates Canyon Road at Pleasants Valley Road is already closed, as is Sykes Road between Midway and Trefoil roads, the county reported. The Cordelia Fire Protection District has made sandbags and sand available at Suisun Valley and Rockville roads, near the Ice House. There is also sand available at the Fairfield corporation yard at Pittman and Cordelia roads. The bags and sand is available at other locations as well. A list is available at www.solanocounty.

com/depts/oes/grs/flood/sandbags_ and_information.asp. Residents need to bring their own shovels and someone to help, and are advised to fill the bags halfway for best use. More information and storm preparation tips are available at www.solanocounty.com/depts/oes/ grs/storm_ready/default.asp. “December recorded 15 days of rain, nearly half of the month, which is twice the number of average number of rainy days for December. That’s the good news, however, the ground is saturated and he runoff from the heavy rains is quickly filling farmers’ and growers’ ponds and lakes used for water supply and irrigation,” local meteorologist Mike Pechner said. See Storm, Page A9

NorthBay welcomes 5 New Year’s babies; Kaiser rings in 9 early, too THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Young Kam Bell is a quiet baby – the quietest of Kayla Bell’s three children at birth. “He will be the last one, for sure, but he is very quiet. He hardly cries at all,” Bell said. But that was not the case when he was in the womb. “He was pretty active in the womb, so we are looking at some sports,” said mom, who was a basketball player in her youth at Berkeley High School. Her favorite team is the Warriors, and she said she watched a lot of basketball when she was pregnant. So maybe that will be the sport of choice for Kam as well. Her oldest son, 18, also played basketball through high school. She also has an 8-year-old daughter. Her other children are summer babies, she said.

Bell also said young Kam looks just like his dad, Norco. “His twin,” she said. The family lives in Vacaville. Kam was born at 4:42 a.m. – 6 pounds, 2 ounces and 20 inches tall. He was the second baby born at NorthBay. The first was at 12:38, but the family declined to be interviewed. There were five babies born at NorthBay on New Year’s Day, and nine at Kaiser Permanente hospitals. “It was very exciting,” said Bell. “It was like a race. Everyone was in here.” Kam did his part with a quick and easy delivery, the easiest of her three births, Bell said. The Bells received a large gift basket from the hospital. Of course, Bell added, it would have been nice to have the income See Baby, Page A9

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic

Kayla Bell holds her newborn son, Kam, at the NorthBay Health Medical Center in Fairfield, Monday, Jan. 2. Kam is one of 5 babies at NorthBay Health Medical Center born on New Year’s Day.

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House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy fell short of the necessary number of votes to succeed California Democrat Nancy Pelosi as speaker in the first three rounds of balloting Tuesday. McCarthy, also of California, became the first majority party leader in a century to fail to secure the speakership on the first ballot. He failed to win any additional votes on a second ballot and lost support on the third ballot, as Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., switched his vote from McCarthy to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “The reality is Rep. Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the votes,” Donalds tweeted after the vote concluded. “I committed my support to him publicly and for two votes on the House Floor. 218 is the number, and currently, no one is there. Our conference needs to recess and huddle and find

someone or work out the next steps.” The repeated failure to elect a speaker is a clear sign of the divisions in the Republican Party. It is also a potential blow to California. If McCarthy prevails, Congress will hand off power and influence from a California Democrat to a California Republican. If he doesn’t, both leaders could be relegated to the back benches – one by choice and the other by force. Nineteen Republicans voted for candidates other than McCarthy on the first and second ballots. Twenty Republicans voted for Jordan on the third ballot, leaving McCarthy 16 short of the 218 votes needed to secure the post he has long sought. Although Tuesday’s first-round outcome wasn’t a surprise, the fact that McCarthy and his allies were not only unable to move a single vote his way in subsequent See Defeat, Page A9

Russia updates death toll from New Year’s Eve attack, admits mistakes were made Tribune Content Agency MOSCOW — Following Ukrainian missile strikes on a Russian military shelter in the town of Makiyivka in eastern Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said 89 of its soldiers were killed in the attack, updating the previous death toll given by more than 20. The soldiers, including the deputy commander, were found in the rubble of the collapsed reinforced concrete building after the the missile strike on New Year’s Eve, Lt. Gen. Sergei Sevryukov said in Moscow late Tuesday. Kyiv reported Monday that an attack on New Year’s Eve killed hundreds of Russian soldiers in a temporary shelter in the town of Makiyivka in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Defense Ministry first admitted to the deaths of 63 soldiers. According to media reports, those killed were reservists called up during Moscow’s partial

mobilization. They are said to have gathered in the building for a New Year’s celebration. For the first time, Sevryukov also admitted that mistakes had been made, therefore confirming media reports according to which the Ukrainian military reportedly became aware of the site because of the high activity of mobile phone data traffic. While investigations were still ongoing, it was already clear that “this factor has enabled the enemy to determine the direction and locate the coordinates of the soldiers’ position in order to carry out the missile strike,” Sevryukov said. Those in charge would be held accountable, he added. It is very unusual for Moscow to confirm a high number of soldiers killed after an attack. It is the highest number of deaths in one place cited by Russia itself in the war that Russia started See Russia, Page A9

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