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The Dirty Martini has a reputation, but it’s tasty B2

LSU’s women’s basketball team wins national title B1

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DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.

OPEC+ will cut production by 1 million barrels a day Bloomberg News

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS file (2022)

The predawn glow is reflected in the Sacramento River in Red Bluff. The complex of wetlands along the Sacramento

River National Wildlife Refuge has already been promised a full allocation of water from state reservoirs.

Here is where state’s wet start is bringing welcome recovery James Rainey

LOS ANGELES TIMES

WILLIAMS — Breathing in the rain-scrubbed air and absorbing the splendor of Topanga Creek, as it danced and pooled before her eyes, Rosi Dagit had to smile. “This is like heaven for a steelhead,” said Dagit, a senior biologist with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. “If I was a steelhead, this is where I would lay my eggs.” This winter’s strong and persistent rains have revived a creek that, in recent years amid a punishing drought, had been reduced to a series of ponds and puddles. The much-needed water greatly enhances the prospects of reproduction for the endangered southern steelhead. And it has

revived habitat for myriad other species in the Topanga Creek watershed, from a tiny minnow to frogs and newts to the coyotes and mountain lions that roam the canyon. Humans share in the watery bounty, because the rocks and sediment washing down Topanga Creek replenish an eroding beach and bolster a beloved surfing spot. Topanga regulars say the newly configured ocean bed has reshaped waves, even slightly increasing the chance they might catch a tasty little “barrel.” Dagit uses words like “fabulous” and “spectacular” to describe the scenes of rebirth and replenishment along watersheds that feed into Santa Monica Bay. It’s a sentiment of wonder and relief repeated around much of Califor-

nia in recent weeks, as the wettest winter in recent memory has given way to a damp spring. The precipitation that has all but ended the state’s three-year drought has, without doubt, brought devastation to some areas of the state, resulting in catastrophic flooding, mudslides and snowfall that cost some Californians their homes, their jobs, even their lives. But in many corners of the state that have avoided calamity, superwet 2023 has been a boon. The state’s largest reservoirs are filled to near capacity. Groundwater has begun to recharge after years of overpumping. Hillsides have exploded with a profusion of California poppies, sky-blue lupine and other wildflowers. Moisture-starved trees, including the See Wet, Page A7

9-year-old girl wanted to save her goat. Then came the search warrant Sam Stanton

THE SACRAMENTO BEE

SACRAMENTO — The 15-page search warrant and affidavit was very specific about the target Shasta County sheriff’s officials were after. “The location is a single family residence in a rural residential area,” the warrant, signed at 6:33 p.m. on July 8 by Shasta County Superior Court Judge Monique McKee, read. “The prop-

erty has a tan colored residence with a brown composite style roof.” The document was accompanied by groundlevel and aerial photos of the property, along with a street address in Napa and the notation that the subject of the search warrant had been “stolen or embezzled.” Officers were permitted to “utilize breaching equipment to force open doorway(s), entry doors, exit doors, and locked

containers in pursuit of their target,” the warrant said, then listed areas that might be searched. “The residence, including all rooms, attics, basements, and other parts therein, the surrounding grounds and any garages, sheds, storage rooms, and outbuildings of any kind large enough to accommodate a small goat,” the warrant said. Thus began the legal saga of Cedar the goat,

a 7-month-old white Boer goat with chocolate markings framing its face who is now the subject of a federal civil rights lawsuit naming Shasta sheriff’s officials, Shasta County, the Shasta District Fairand other defendants who are accused of involvement in the apparent slaughter of Cedar for a community barbecue. The details of Cedar’s See Goat, Page A7

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OPEC+ announced a surprise oil production cut that will exceed 1 million barrels a day, abandoning previous assurances that it would hold supply steady to maintain a stable market. That’s a significant reduction for a market where – despite the recent price fluctuations – supply was looking tight for the latter part of the year. Oil futures weren’t trading when the cut was announced on Sunday, but the inevitable price reaction could add to inflationary pressures across the world, forcing central banks to keep interest rates higher for longer and amplifying the risk of recession. Saudi Arabia led the cartel by pledging its own 500,000 barrel-a-day supply reduction. Fellow members including Kuwait, the United Arabia Emirates and Algeria fol-

lowed suit, while Russia said the production cut it was implementing from March to June would continue until the end of the 2023. The initial impact of the cuts, starting next month, will add up to about 1.1 million barrels a day. From July, due to the extension of Russia’s existing supply reduction, there will be about 1.6 million barrels a day less crude on the market than previously expected. The move could once again flare tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, a regional partner whose relationship with President Joe Biden’s administration has been tense. In October last year, when OPEC+ made a surprise production cut of about 2 million barrels day just weeks before the U.S. midterm elections, Biden vowed there See Barrels, Page A7

Lawyer: Trump will plead ‘not guilty,’ seek to dismiss case Bloomberg News Donald Trump, the first former U.S. president to be indicted, will plead not guilty when he appears in a Manhattan state court Tuesday to face criminal charges, his defense lawyer said. “We will very loudly and proudly say ‘not guilty,’” Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said on an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg convened the grand jury in January to investigate Trump’s role in hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The panel on Thursday voted to indict Trump but the charges remain under seal. Tacopina said he

WEATHER 58 | 35 Sunny and cool. Forecast on B8.

believes Trump faces several misdemeanor charges and signaled a defense the former president is likely to launch, including assailing Bragg’s authority to bring state charges tied to a federal election. He said the payments were previously investigated by the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department which he said concluded there were “no violations.” “Somehow, a state prosecutor has taken a misdemeanor and tried to cobble together and make it a felony by alleging a violation of federal campaign violations which the FEC said didn’t exist,” he said. “The team will look at every potential issue that we will be able to challenge, and we will See Trump, Page A7

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