Davisville

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed “care courts” for every California county. They would “allow treatment for more homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders,” says the Associated Press, “but also compel some of them into care.”

That’s a change — compelling severely disturbed people to accept care, instead of just offering it to them. Bill Pride, executive director of Davis Community Meals and Housing and one of today’s guests on Davisville, estimates that half of people who are homeless have a severe mental health disorder. This change could make a major difference in their lives, and in the extent of homelessness. Pride cautions that achieving this change in care would require years of sustained efforts and expense. We also talk with Yolo Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven about the county’s existing Mental Health Court, and how Newsom’s proposal might work alongside what Yolo already does.

Live music is music, obviously, but it’s also culture, a reason to get together with friends, part of the economy—and this spring, as in-person performances continue to resume in Davis, it’s another marker of how the Covid pandemic is easing. Knock on wood.

Today we talk with Danny Tomasello, who’s part of the Davis Music Fest, and musicians Sam Misner and Megan Smith about the hodgepodge return of local concerts, what might have changed for keeps during the pandemic, this June’s Fest, and the need for someone to write about local music the way that Wendy Weitzel writes about local businesses and restaurants.

(The photo shows Misner and Smith onstage at Berryessa Brewing in Winters in February 2020, right before the pandemic hit.)

This interview with the late Anne Hance, who died in August 2019, first aired on Nov. 27, 2017.

Anne Hance lived an interesting life. A zoologist by training, she grew up in England during World War II, came to Davis in 1968, co-founded and helped lead the Explorit Science Center for a third of a century … and those details are just part of her story. She also had the most wonderful voice. We talk with her on today’s program.

Today we talk with Jonathan Edwards, a reporter for the Davis Enterprise a dozen years ago who joined the Washington Post last July after working for news outlets in Nebraska and Virginia. We talk about differences in reporting, objectivity, establishing credibility when audiences are polarized, and what he learned in Davis all those years ago.

He also has a good story about the experience of sharing his name with other people, including the North Carolina senator who ran for vice president in 2004, the current governor of Louisiana, the musician who created the hit song “Sunshine” in 1972, and the influential 18th century American revivalist preacher who wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The title inspired an English teacher to have a little fun when handing classwork back to Jonathan at Davis High School.