Sources: NASA/JPL-Caltech and UCLA, NOAA

The Sacramento Bee

RIVERS IN THE AIRNASA scientists have linked the rare alignment of two weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere to the creation of an atmospheric river that they say could bring prolonged wet weather to California.

The low-pressure system northwest of California directs atmospheric riverstoward the Sierra Nevada.

Two high-pressure systems at higher latitudes prevent the low from drifting northward away from California.

DAMAGE ON THE GROUND The potential impact of atmospheric rivers through the years:

The entire Central Valley was flooded by a 45-day storm that might have been caused by an atmospheric river.

1861-

1862

A neighborhood in Del Paso Heights was inundated. At least 14 people died statewide, and floods displaced 50,000.

1986 Dry conditions before a large storm meant no major flooding, but high winds downed many trees and power lines.

2009

Sacramento History Archives Randy Pench The Sacramento Bee Lezlie Sterling The Sacramento Bee

Scientists at NASA say theyhave identified a rare weatherpattern that will help fore-casters predict when Califor-nia will experience periods ofintense and potentially pro-longed wet weather.

The new findings will helpofficials assess the possibilityof floods, mudslides and lev-ee failures, the scientists say,and will prove critical to re-gions where rivers are a bigpart of the landscape – likethe Sacramento region,where the American and Sac-ramento rivers converge. Therivers absorb run off andmelting snowpack from theSierra Nevada, where stormstypically deposit much of thestate’s precipitation.

“We have found a strongconnection between certainphases of two systems andthe frequency of winterstorms in California,” said BinGuan, an earth sciences re-

searcher at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles andNASA’s Jet Propulsion Labo-ratory.

Guan’s study – a collabora-tion among scientists atUCLA and the NationalOceanic and AtmosphericAdministration – found aconclusive link between thealignment of two weatherpatterns in the NorthernHemisphere and the forma-tion of an “atmospheric river”headed for California.

The results were gleaned inpart from data provided byNASA’s 11-year-old Aquaweather satellite – one ofmore than 40 weather-relat-ed satellites that circle theglobe.

Atmospheric rivers arenarrow bands of wind, often amile high, that can pack thepunch of a hurricane. As theymove over the ocean, they be-come laden with water vapor– and can carry with them as

United States

Hawaii

Asia

Australia

Atmospheric river

The atmospheric river shown in thisOctober 2009 water vapor image droppedalmost 19 inches of rain on California’s centralcoast over a 24-hour period.

LOW WATER VAPOR HIGH

NASA sees hurricane-forceculprits behind big stormsBy Edward Ortizeortiz@sacbee.com

‘ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS’ LINKED TO STATE’S FLOODS

ATMOSPHERE | Page B2

OURREGIONWednesday, November 20, 2013 | The Sacramento Bee | sacbee.com/ourregion B1

Acommon refrain fromthose who fondlyrecall John F. Kennedy

was that he governed in amore innocent and hopefultime and that his assassina-tion 50 years ago this Fridayshattered that dream.

Many people are repeatingthis default setting of JFKlore – a belief that may haveapplied to them and theirfamilies but not to all.

Those of us who are de-scendants of people from thebarrios, the ghettos and theanonymous margins of 1963America have more compli-cated feelings about the manand those times. They we-ren’t very innocent years forour ancestors fighting togain a foothold in Americawhen discrimination wasopen and overt.

In California, some of usgrew up hearing stories ofour parents being muggedfor speaking Spanish inpublic. Our ancestors toiledin hard-labor jobs, and ourfamilies viewed trips toMcDonald’s as a luxury inthe ’60s. We rememberbeing the first in our littlecircles to go to college. Ofbeing the first to confrontthe cultural complexities ofintegrated workplaces afterbeing raised by families withlittle or no experience withwhich to guide us.

Within that context, JFKis a distant figure whomeans less to us than he didto our parents. Within theLatino community, ourparents were thrilled whenJFK actually paid attentionto them. They were blownaway when Jacqueline Ken-nedy spoke Spanish in politi-cal ads targeting Latinovoters in the 1960 presi-dential election.

The night before his assas-sination, JFK addressed theLeague of United Latin Amer-ican Citizens in Houston.

But as many scholars havewritten since, Kennedy didnot deliver on the hope heinspired among Latinos.African American civil rightsheroes also had been frus-trated with Kennedy, despitebeing enamored of himpersonally.

And then JFK went toDallas, and then he wasgone. My parents alwaysremembered him frozen intime, just before the shotsrang out on Dealey Plaza.

Those of us who came ofage after Vietnam and Wa-tergate had a harder timemaintaining such reverence,when questioning authoritybecame what you weresupposed to do. As a journal-ist today, you are called ahack for waxing poetic aboutany politician or person inpower. It’s just not done. Wehave too much access tocurrent information and afuller history of JFK thatdidn’t make into the recordwhen he was alive.

JFK mentioned AfricanAmericans and Latinos inhis first presidential push of1960, for which he deservespraise. However, decades ofvenerating JFK should notcome at the expense of anundeniable truth – manypeople living in America hada very hard road on Nov. 22,1963, and beyond. For them,hope and innocence were inshort supply. Hard battlesstill lay ahead and goodintentions were not enough.They weren’t enough forJFK any more than they arefor Barack Obama or anyother leader to be held ac-countable by our democracy.

That’s also what historyteaches us – to view andaccept our leaders beyond ouridealized versions of them.

Call The Bee’s Marcos Breton,(916) 321-1096.

Opinion

MARCOS BRETON

mbreton@sacbee.com

JFK lorewears thinfor some

When 77-year-old JohnnieEsco died in 2008 after a shortstay at a Placerville nursinghome, her husband of 60years wanted someone heldresponsible – civilly and crim-inally.

Don Esco of Cameron Parksettled his civil lawsuitagainst the El Dorado CareCenter and its owner in 2010for $2.9 million. The criminalmatter ended quite different-ly this week, with California’sattorney general declining toseek a new trial against the fa-cility’s former head nurse fol-lowing a mistrial.

More than five years afterthe elderly woman’s death, anEl Dorado County jury failedto reach a verdict in the caseagainst Donna Darlene Palm-er, charged with felony elderabuse.

Palmer, the former directorof nursing at the facility, wasone of two nurses chargedcriminally last year by the Cal-ifornia attorney general’s of-fice. At the time, AttorneyGeneral Kamala D. Harris’ of-fice had announced plans tointensify efforts statewide tobring criminal cases againstnursing home administratorsand employees whose failingsharm vulnerable patients.

In Palmer’s case, the jurytipped decidedly in the nurs-

No juryverdictin carehomedeathSTATE WON’TSEEK NEW TRIALOF FORMERHEAD NURSE

By Marjie Lundstrommlundstrom@sacbee.com

TRIAL | Page B2

Trustee Cortez Quinn wasnot at the Twin Rivers UnifiedSchool Board meeting Tues-day night, but it didn’t stopthe board and parents fromcalling for his resignation.

Quinn, 46, was arrestedNov. 6 on three felony and fivemisdemeanor charges thatinclude allegedly falsifyinghis paternity test and accept-ing illegal gifts from a districtemployee.

On Nov. 8, Quinn an-nounced he would take a 90-day leave of absence from theboard.

But the school board and ahandful of parents were clearTuesday that they want himoff the board. Ross Hen-drickx, speaking on behalf ofthe Del Paso Heights Com-munity Association, demand-ed that the board vote unani-mously to seek Quinn’s resig-nation.

“The community is goinginto its third year, at least, ofMr. Quinn being an embar-rassment to the school dis-trict, rather than the examplethat he was elected to be,”Hendrickx said.

The board voted 5-1, withTrustee Walter Garcia Kawa-moto dissenting, to approve aresolution asking Quinn tostep down from his Area 5seat immediately. Quinn rep-resents the North Natomasand Robla areas. The resolu-tion said there has been “con-

Boardcalls onQuinn to resign‘OUTRAGE’ OVERTWIN RIVERSTRUSTEE CITED

By Diana Lambertdlambert@sacbee.com

QUINN | Page B3

Up until the time he sathis wife down on a love seatand shot her six times in theNorth Highlands apartmentthey once shared, DanielWeddle had hoped thatsomehow they could maketheir relationship work.

He loved his wife, he said,and he couldn’t believe he

drilled a .38-caliber slugthrough her heart. Thatwasn’t him, he said. It wasthe heat of passion, broughton by her serving him withdivorce papers and then giv-ing him a dirty look that sug-gested he didn’t have what ittakes to squeeze the triggerwhen he pulled a pistol onher.

Then, after he called his

mother first and the 911 op-erator second, and after hecried to the dispatcher aboutwanting to kill himself, andafter sheriff ’s deputies puthim in the back seat of a pa-trol car and he sat all by him-self inside with the camerastill running, Weddle, 50,had a little something to say.

“I wonder,” Weddle said,“if the bitch is dead.”

That remark was the sub-ject of some discussion Tues-day in the closing argumentsof Weddle’s murder trial,brought on by the fatalDec. 1, 2011, shooting of hiswife, Margaret, 46, in theapartment in the 3600 blockof Bellinger Court.

Deputy District AttorneyAaron Miller played it as hisace card. He told the Sacra-mento Superior Court juryhearing the case that out of

Jury hears closings in wife-killing trial DEFENSE: HUSBAND SNAPPED AT NEWS OF DIVORCE

By Andy Furilloafurillo@sacbee.com

KILLING | Page B4

Leslie Pinkston’s suspect-ed killer faced charges ofstalking and threatening herearlier this year and was setto face trial on the allega-tions in December.

William Carl Gardner III,30, of Sacramento faced fe-lony allegations of stalking,threats to commit crimes re-

sulting in death or greatbodily injury and vandalism,according to informationfiled May 13 in Yolo SuperiorCourt in Woodland. Author-ities say Gardner was a for-mer boyfriend of Pinkston,32, of Winters.

Gardner remained atlarge Tuesday.

The alleged threat againstPinkston was “so unequiv-ocal, unconditional, imme-

diate and specific as to ...cause that person reasona-bly to be in sustained fear forhis or her own safety,” rec-ords show. Pinkston wasidentified as the victim bythe initials “L.P.”

The court issued a crimi-nal protective order to pro-tect Pinkston from Gardner

in connection with the case,said Michael Cabral, YoloCounty assistant chief depu-ty district attorney, who de-clined to comment further.

Court records showGardner failed to appear foran Oct. 15 Yolo SuperiorCourt hearing related to thecase.

Pinkston was shot andkilled at close range about9:30 a.m. Monday as she satin her car in downtown Win-ters. She was listed as a wit-ness expected to testify atGardner’s scheduled Dec. 9

Winters slaying suspectwas accused of stalking GARDNER FACED CHARGES OFVANDALISM, MAKING THREATS

By Darrell Smith and

Bill Lindelof

dvsmith@sacbee.com

SLAYING | Page B4

Leslie

Pinkston

William Carl

Gardner III