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Author: davisite2

  • In CA04, which Eric Jones do you get?

    Wrong Seat, Wrong Moment – Part V

    By Judy Tipple

    Yesterday in Marysville, Eric Jones stood in front of 250 farmers at the Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau forum and said this:

    “Let me make a simple statement: no more data centers in California.”

    He called for a national moratorium. He said members of Congress who don’t understand the technology shouldn’t be in the room for these decisions (Patch, Sept. 2, 2026).

    Strong stuff. The kind of line that gets applause in a room full of people watching data centers drink their water and eat their farmland, and farmland all over the country.

    Here’s the problem. It’s not what his campaign has been telling voters for months.

    Go to ericjones.us right now. His official AI platform page said something very different, until 2 days ago:

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  • Give Yourself a $200 Pay Raise

    By Bertie Brouhard

    It may be more. Might be less. But it’s monthly and this is a raise of after income tax dollars. Most living dwellers, bill payers, are eligible. Those incredibly wealthy, not even slightly cost conscious, a few living off the grid or your neighbor perhaps who has recently invested a large sum in solar panels, lithium battery banks and highly efficient mechanical systems might not be. My  target audience for this article is the rest of you.

    We live in a meteorological wonderland; this huge valley with its high desert, dry heat climate. Thankful every summer evening for our refreshing delta breeze. And our frost, snow free winters. As I type this about 9 AM it’s bright and still on this late August morning. Outside air temp is 68F and it’s 66F in my living room. Last night’s low was 58F and today’s high is 93F. My predicted indoor high is 78F. Only my laptop, my fridge and the trickle charges (TV and smart speakers) are consuming any electrical energy.

    Your pay raise is generated by the cost saving measures you implement to drastically lower your P, G & E monthly devotional, offering, bequest, and irksome payment.

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  • Make It Happen for Yolo County Launches Fall Campaign to Sponsor Former Foster Youth Studying at UC Davis

    Make It Happen for Yolo County board member Marilyn Stebbins and intern Kegen Wells help a UC Davis Guardian Scholar furnish her apartment this summer. The nonprofit has launched a campaign to sponsor former foster youth studying at UC Davis this fall.

    (From press release) Local nonprofit Make It Happen for Yolo County is offering opportunities for the community to sponsor UC Davis Guardian Scholars – students who have experienced foster care – as they move into housing this fall. Sponsorship levels run from $200 to $2,500 and provide essential furniture, household goods, cleaning supplies, bicycles and more to ensure former foster youth studying at UC Davis are not burdened financially, physically or emotionally by furniture poverty as they pursue higher education. The campaign will run through mid-October. Learn more and make a donation: https://www.mihyolo.org/donate-index-impact.

    “Having a fully furnished, safe and functional home is a fundamental need for these resilient students,” said Cathi Schmidt, executive director, Make It Happen for Yolo County. “Each community member can choose from a variety of levels to provide a tax-deductible gift this fall that will turn a student’s empty living space into a place of comfort, dignity and belonging as they work toward achieving their degree.”

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  • Rep. Mike Thompson Participates in Debate With Eric Jones in Marysville Hosted by the Yuba Sutter Farm Bureau

    (From press release) Yesterday, Congressman Mike Thompson participated in a candidate forum with his opponent, Eric Jones, at the Yuba County Government Center in Marysville. The event was hosted by the Yuba Sutter Farm Bureau. Congressman Thompson, himself a small farmer that grows grapes, hay and olives, discussed a variety of issues facing the Yuba Sutter community in front of a crowd of 250 people. Congressman Thompson and Eric Jones debated for 45 minutes about issues facing Yuba and Sutter Counties and our agriculture community.

    “I was honored to be invited to participate in a debate by the Yuba Sutter Farm Bureau. I was proud to discuss my record of delivering for our ag community and strengthening our rural economies,” said Congressman Mike Thompson “Right now farmers are hurting with reckless and illegal tariffs and I am proud to have worked with the Administration to deliver $9 million dollars in relief to peach growers hit by the cannery closure and will continue to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars for our district for flood control projects.”

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  • Sept 10th Event: Working Together to Protect Our Neighbors

    (From press release) The City of Davis Police Accountability Commission invites the community to “Working Together to Protect Our Neighbors” on Thursday, September 10, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Center, 203 East 14th Street. Speakers will discuss local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement, practical family preparedness, and community safety. Live Spanish interpretation will be available.

  • Why an Unubstructed Delta Breeze Is Critical for California

    And how the proposed California Forever project threatens livability in Davis and other parts of the Central Valley

    By Dr. Glen Holstein

    Covering 18,000 square miles, California’s Central Valley is the largest nearly flat valley on earth.  It is almost entirely surrounded by mountains and consequently prone to very high temperatures since winds blowing downhill from mountains compress and heat air.  That is why Death Valley, completely surrounded by mountains, has average July temperatures higher than those of any month anywhere else on earth.  Its mean July temperature is 100.9 degrees F while the mean July temperature of Aswan deep in the Sahara Desert but not surrounded by mountains is 91.8 degrees F.  Death Valley even set the all-time scientifically accepted high temperature record of 134 degrees F in 1913.

    But the Central Valley is not entirely surrounded by mountains.  They open up at the Golden Gate to permit a cooling air flow from the Pacific Ocean called the Delta Breeze to significantly lower summer temperatures in the center of the Central Valley but much less so in its northern part called the Sacramento Valley and its southern part called the San Joaquin Valley. 

    The Delta Breeze’s origin is the cold California Current flowing southward from Alaska.  Disturbance where it encounters obstructions like Point Reyes and the Monterey Peninsula causes upwelling from depths that cool coastal water even more.  

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  • Davis Farmers Market Celebrates 50 Years of Community, Connection and Local Food

    (From press release) On Saturday, August 1, the Davis Farmers Market celebrated a remarkable milestone: 50 years of bringing farmers, food, families and community together in Davis.

    The day was a celebration of the past, the present, and future, five decades ago this market started as a gathering place for local farmers and community members to sell directly to customers and has since grown into a beloved Davis institution — a place where generations of residents come to shop for fresh, locally grown food, connect with neighbors, support local agriculture and experience the unique sense of community that makes the Davis Farmers Market special.

    The 50th anniversary celebration brought together market shoppers, farmers, community partners, local leaders and longtime supporters to honor the market’s history and look toward its future.

    “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped make the Davis Farmers Market what it is today,” said Randii Macnear, Executive Director of the Davis Farmers Market Alliance. “For 50 years, this market has been more than a place to buy food. It has been a place to meet your neighbors, celebrate local agriculture, build relationships and feel connected to the community. We’re excited to carry that spirit forward for the next 50 years.”

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  • You Must Be So Jelly

    By Bertie Brouhard

    Envious, jealous (“jelly”) of us; 80-plus years of age. We’ve arrived. Been selected and inducted into a very prestigious club. If you’re much younger; not having given it (80) much thought but hopeful to arrive one day far into your future or if you’re perhaps closer to 80 and wonder if you’ll crawl across this finish line, this column is for you. Intended for everyone hoping to age.

    You, my reader; fellow octogenarians or those more advanced in age may agree with some or all of my observations. You others, maybe younger, may question my findings. I get that.

    I’m thrilled to be in my eighth decade and hopefully you have one or more in your circle; a contented individual in your life; a parent, grandparent, sibling, friend or neighbor. At this age I feel a calm, a quiet not present in my younger years. I get less frustrated, think I’m more patient, less irritating and irritable with fewer mountains to climb and live with less noise, destruction and disappointment. The insignificant minor, many tiresome details and bothersome annoyances of my younger years are gone.

    My mother was very secretive about her age until she turned 80. Then she proudly told everyone. She passed at 84 and my dad who lived but five months past his 80th wanted to sail and get in a round of golf the day he died. Those who I learn have passed on gain greater notoriety when you’re their age. How long do we each have? Probably fewer days that we expect.

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  • Senior Citizens Commission Bites the Dust

    By Elaine Roberts Musser 

    In checking over the Senior Citizens Commission agenda, it was incredibly sad to see that it is “concluding its work”. In other words, it’s disbanding. What is particularly disheartening, is knowing that my successful fight, many years ago, to save this commission (when the City Council was attempting to eliminate commissions at the time), was ultimately unsuccessful so many years later.  Does anyone honestly think that senior citizen issues will be addressed, when their concerns are split between three different commissions not designed to handle senior issues? The upshot will be that seniors will no longer have a meaningful voice in Davis.  

    Because of Councilmembers Vaitla and Chapman and their plan to defang commissions, they have single-handedly destroyed the Senior Citizens Commission, the Tree Commission, and the Utilities Commission. Along with that, they have eviscerated the power of the other commissions – by insisting that no new items be placed on commission agendas without City Council permission.  And the rest of the City Council, to their shame, have gone along with this nefarious plot. That controversial commission agenda policy was to be reviewed after a year, but no such assessment ever took place.In other words, we were lied to. 

    It has become patently clear the current City Council is hostile to public input. They are not interested in independent review or advice from commissions composed of ordinary citizens. We have entered a more authoritarian form of city government, much like what is going on at the federal level, a revolting development.

    Elaine Roberts Musser is Former Chair, Senior Citizens Commission and Former Chair, Utilities Commission

  • Eric Jones, Red-Boxing, & the AI Money Nobody’s Talking About

    And update to the series on the race for congress in California CD04 (Links below)

    By Judy Tipple

    [Reposted with permission of the author. See original at https://rosietheboomer.substack.com/p/eric-jones-red-boxing-and-the-ai]

    OK, I admit it… I’m a political nerd. Many years of campaigns, more FEC filings read than I’d like to admit. And I had never heard of “red-boxing” until a friend flagged it to me last week. Wait till you hear what it means — because once you see it, you can’t unsee it on every campaign website you visit.

    Before I get to that: credit where it’s due. Roberta Millstein at Davisite already dug up the core of Jones’s Dragoneer ties and his Super PAC connections. Read her full series here: Who is Eric Jones? A summary of the series. This piece adds a few new pieces to her picture.

    1. Red-Boxing: The website is talking to PACs, not to you

    Jones’s campaign site has a page — not in the main menu, you have to know where to look — that reads less like a pitch to voters and more like a memo to an ad-buyer. It tells you what you “need to see,” what you “need to hear,” on what timeline. That’s a known, legal-but-gray tactic called red-boxing: campaigns aren’t allowed to privately hand a Super PAC their ad copy, so instead they post it publicly and let the PAC “discover” it — no phone call required, no coordination on paper. It’s used by both parties nationwide, so it’s not unique to Jones. What is fair to point out: he’s built his brand on refusing PAC money, while his own site is doing PAC-facing work in plain sight. That is red-boxing.

    2. Follow the money, follow the name, follow the family

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