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Author: davisite2

  • Mike Thompson Makes Clear Case as the Best Choice for California’s 4th Congressional District After Debate

    (From press release) In a televised debate hosted by the League of Women Voters of Yolo County on Thursday, October 8th, Rep. Mike Thompson made the case about why he is best prepared to represent the district in Congress.

    The forum made clear the stark differences between the two candidates’ backgrounds. Jones is a San Francisco venture capitalist whose firm profited from companies fined hundreds of millions of dollars including healthcare companies that repeatedly denied patient coverage, including emergency care, violated patients privacy laws, and preyed on seniors by illegally running up their medical bills.

    Thompson spoke about his record of service to the families, farmers, workers, and small business owners of the 4th Congressional district, including $9 million he secured in disaster relief for peach farmers, $4 million he secured to combat the glassywinged sharpshooter and his comprehensive tax legislation aimed at lowering the cost of living for American families.

    “San Francisco venture capitalist Eric Jones is asking this district to hand him a seat in Congress, but it’s not for sale, especially not to someone who isn’t from here and who made their fortune on the backs of seniors and patients,” said Thomas Dowling, campaign manager for Mike Thompson. “Voters deserve a representative who is battle tested, knows their district, and has earned their trust. That person is Rep. Mike Thompson.” 

    Congressman Thompson is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, tax, trade, Social Security and income security issues.  Congressman Thompson is the Ranking Member of the Tax Subcommittee and a senior member of the Health Subcommittee.  He is also a member of the fiscally responsible Blue Dog Coalition and a combat veteran. To learn more about Congressman Mike Thompson visit here.

  • The Lorax’s Neighborhood Voting Flier

    12th Edition of our local Davis ballot, summarized to save you time!

    By Alan Hirsch

    Dear Neighbor,

    This 6-page flier’s goal is to save you time as you make your voting decisions. This is my 12th neighborhood flier. I am not a candidate or a party, and I don’t work for any candidate. It is just me, with help from a neighbor, Victor Libet. This flier flows from my long-time hobby of observing council and city commission meetings

    This time the ballot is for 12 offices plus Judge retention. There are 14 Propositions, 12 state propositions, and two local propositions:  a Los Rios Bond & Davis Housing Prop “W”.

    I’ve done research, including interviewing many of candidates, talking to campaign staff and talking to other council/DJUSD observers.  I also have suggestions on where to get more information.  I suggest reading the local opinions and news articles at DavisVanguard.org and Davisite at www.Davisite.org.  Sadly, The Enterprise doesn’t add much value though Calmatters authored articles are helpful on state races and propositions. LWV gives good summary and pros/cons of proposition but not who’s behind them and the spin in the arguments. The BlueVoterGuides.org does an excellent job here.

    NOTE: This election, I think your focus should be items marked “?”  which are 3 Props& 3 candidate races.  My “progressive biased” endorsements are in bold and indicated by  “*” 

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  • 4th District Congressional Candidate Eric Jones Admits: “I’m not from here.”

    (From press release) In a televised debate hosted by KCRA on Wednesday, 4th District congressional candidate Eric Jones declared “I’m not from here.”

    Jones, a venture capitalist, has claimed he moved to the 4th district in 2021 but in fact voted in San Francisco until 2025 and purchased his $4 million Napa home with a mortgage that described it as a second home. His shocking admission came at the end of a half-hour televised debate where Jones faced questions about his venture capital firm’s investments in companies fined hundreds of millions of dollars for harming consumers, his reversal on policy positions including his suggestion to sunset all federal programs including Medicare and Social Security, and whether he is truly a resident of the community he wants to serve in Congress. In his closing statement, Jones said, “I’m not from here”

    Jones’ admission is in stark contrast to Congressman Mike Thompson, who was born, grew up, and still lives in our district. Thompson, a combat veteran and member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee in Congress, dominated the debate. 

    “Eric Jones couldn’t have said it better: he’s not from here, and he doesn’t know the needs of our community. While Eric furnishes his third home in Napa with half a million dollars worth of designer furniture, Mike Thompson has been showing up and delivering for our District to lower costs for families, protect our democracy, and put an end to this forever war that’s raising prices,” said Thomas Dowling, Mike Thompson for Congress Campaign Manager. 

    Congressman Thompson is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, tax, trade, Social Security and income security issues.  Congressman Thompson is the Ranking Member of the Tax Subcommittee and a senior member of the Health Subcommittee.  He is also a member of the fiscally responsible Blue Dog Coalition and a combat veteran. To learn more about Congressman Mike Thompson visit here.

  • Eric Jones’ Super PAC Hypocrisy

    By Sue Greenwald

    [Note: this letter first appeared in the Davis Enterprise, here. However, they did not have room to print the first paragraph, which the author asked to be included here].

    Eric Jones has been touting his strict opposition to ‘corporate PACs’ over the course of the entire campaign. But Super PACs are worse than corporate PACs, because corporate PACs limit individual donations to $5,000, whereas Super PACs have no limit on individual donations. So Eric Jones, while sanctimoniously abjuring corporate PACs and attacking Thompson for accepting some donations from them, himself not only benefited from his (barely) former partners’ $3.9 million Super PAC, but also personally donated $10,000 to a Super PAC in support of the campaign of one of his tech cronies.

    Eric Jones claims to be a progressive congressional candidate who wants to get money out of politics, but his actions speak much louder than his words.

    Eric Jones was a big venture capitalist — a partner at Dragoneer Investments — until only one month before he declared for office. He received the vast majority of his outsized war chest from his network of AI/Crypto/tech-related executives and their financiers and his own venture capital fortune. He is also supported by a $3.93 million Super PAC largely funded by his long-term fellow Dragoneer venture capital partners/spouse. Dragoneer is a huge investor in tech and artificial intelligence.

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  • Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren calls out Eric Jones in letter to the editor

    Jones has misrepresented Congressman Mike Thompson’s record, according to Lofgren

    (From press release) In a letter to the editor published in the Napa Valley Register, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren dispelled one of Eric Jones’ most common talking points as a complete falsehood. When Eric Jones attacks Congressman Thompson’s record, he uses faulty and inaccurate data that excludes nearly $7 billion dollars worth of Social Security spending in the district.

    Read the full letter to the editor here and below:

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  • Out of the Basement, Into the Light: KDVS’s New Home is a Victory Over Systematic Administrative Disrespect

    By David Kupfer

    Walking across the UC Davis campus today, the sight of the new KDVS facility at Temporary Building 24 (TB-24) brings a profound sense of relief. For those of us who spent the 1980s down in the subterranean basement of Freeborn Hall—breathing in dust, spinning vinyl, and defending student autonomy—seeing the station above ground is a triumph. But let’s be entirely clear: this new studio is not a monument to administrative generosity. It is a hard-fought trophy won in spite of a university apparatus that treated a legendary media institution with utter disrespect, dragging its feet for over a decade in the hopes that KDVS would simply fade away.

    The timeline of this transition exposes a shocking pattern of institutional disregard. Freeborn Hall was condemned for seismic issues way back in 2014. For twelve long years, the administration engaged in a masterclass of bureaucratic foot-dragging, stalling, and closed-door planning. Rather than treating KDVS as the invaluable cultural archive and public trust that it is, university real estate planners viewed the station’s massive footprint as an inconvenience. They repeatedly prioritized administrative office space, enrollment growth, and corporate-friendly campus branding over a fiercely independent student sanctuary.

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  • “Village Farms” vernal pools have been leveled

    California Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating and an open letter is gaining signatures from concerned citizens

    By Shannon Hickey

    The city’s last remaining vernal pools—the ones on the Measure V (for Village Farms) property that supported a local population of the federally endangered vernal pool tadpole shrimp as well as two rare plant species (alkali milkvetch and San Joaquin spearscale)—were potentially filled, disced, and graded in the week of September 13, 2026.

    The attached photos were taken early Saturday morning, September 19, showing the area where the largest pool existed, now a level surface. To give a little back story, this pool was on a property that has been proposed for development since the early 2000s and actively farmed since circa the late ’60s, according to historical aerial imagery. Despite regular discing, this vernal pool continued to pond because it was protected on two sides by a railroad berm to the west and an irrigation channel berm (Channel A) to the north. The developer has known about this vernal pool and the extremely rare species in it since the last time this project went up for a vote by the citizens of Davis back in 2005. At that time, it was known as the Covell Village project and it was voted down then as well. For both the Covell Village project and the Village Farms project, the associated environmental surveys supporting the EIRs revealed that these species were present.

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  • It’s Time To Give Youth A Chance

    By Bertie Brouhard

    Maybe for our U.S. House of Representatives 4th California Congressional District Seat? Time for us on November 3rd to elect Eric Jones as our new representative?

    So … who are we? And who are the incumbent, Mike Thompson, and his opponent in the midterm, General Election, Eric Jones? Soon we need to decide. 

    “We” of the “newish” 4th District (one of California’s 52) with its 760,000 population have an ethnic breakdown of 51.3% white, 31.4% Hispanic, 7.6% Asian and 5.3% two or more “other.” We’re solidly of the Democratic Party persuasion with a median income of $98,000 and median age of 39.9 years.

    Thanks to the passage of Prop. 50 in 2020 our district’s boundaries changed again. What were new district boundaries in 2012 which shifted the population centers to the south and east were shifted again in ‘20 to the west and the Bay Area adopting the bulk of District 5. Today our district is all of Lake and Napa Counties, most of Yolo and parts of Solano and Sonoma County. It includes the cities with populations greater than 10,000 of Santa Rosa, Vacaville, Napa,Woodland, Petaluma, West Sacramento, Rohnert Park and our home; Davis.

    Democratic Party candidates win most seats in our district. In 2024 Mike defeated Republican John Munn 66% to 33%. But sadly only about half our population is registered to vote and of those registered only about 50% cast a ballot. In June’s Non-partisan Primary election Thompson received some 84,000 votes to Jones’s 46,000. 

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  • Biberstein Social Action Fund Grants Available

    24th Annual Request for Proposals

    Proposals due October 16, 2026

    (From press release) Nonprofit organizations are invited to submit applications to the Biberstein Social Action Fund for grants in support of projects addressing poverty, discrimination, abuse and neglect, and the promotion of social justice in Yolo County.

    The Biberstein Social Action Fund was established in 2002 by the Board of Directors of Congregation Bet Haverim to honor Ernie and Hannah Biberstein, who are among the founding members of CBH, and who devoted much of their lives to community service and social justice. Hannah passed away in April 2011. This is the 24rth Anniversary of the Fund.

    The goal of the annual awards made from the Biberstein Social Action Fund is to help Yolo County organizations in their efforts to meet unfulfilled needs. Special consideration is given to new and/or innovative projects.

    An annual Call for Proposals is released each Fall. Grants ranging from $500 to $2,000 are awarded in December. The Biberstein Fund members review the proposals. Current Biberstein Fund members include Congregation Bet Haverim partners Ernie Biberstein, Amy Abramson, Anne Gieseke, Sandy Jones, Joan Sublett, and Shoshana Zatz.

    Information about the Biberstein Award, including a link to the application, is available on the CBH website: https://bethaverim.org/engage/committees/biberstein-social-action-fund/

    Grant proposals must be submitted no later than October 16, 2026. Questions may be directed to the Biberstein Social Action Fund at: cbhbibersteinfund@gmail.com. Awards will be announced in December 2026.

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  • Remembering Dick Livingston

    By Scott Steward

    Richard (Dick) Livingston was the kind of educator and citizen who defined what it means to belong to a community. He passed away in June, and a celebration of life will be held this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at Rushtallers to honor his legacy.  Mr. Livingston had a whole family side I wasn’t familiar with, and I offer my condolences to them. I knew Mr. Livingston as a Davis Senior High School teacher and social justice activist in 1978.  I would learn much later that he was a jazz musician. There is much to know and remember.  He did not like overwrought accolades, but I’ll do it anyway.

    In a town where roughly 95% of the student body was headed for four-year universities, it was easy for a student running behind the curve to feel out of place. Dick never let that happen to me. He was more than an instructor—he was a mentor who saw potential where others saw performance gaps. He had an infectious joy in meeting students exactly where they were, building confidence, and cherishing their individuality.

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