One of the stories in “One Thousand and One Nights” tells the tale of a magic flying carpet that is used as a form of fantasy transportation that can instantaneously carry its user to distant destinations.

The dogs and cats rescued by Dr. Rick Campana and pharmacist TW Taylor may feel the same way as the passengers on the legendary flying carpet. That’s because they are being flown by Campana and Taylor on a private plane to an adoptive family.

Campana, after taking care of patients for 40 years at his First Med Clinic on Second Street in Williamsburg, hung up his shingle and retired.

A dog lover all his life, Campana started a non-profit corporation called Senior Dog Sanctuary of Virginia. He funded it with $65,000 of his own money, with the intention of building a dog sanctuary in Charles City County. However, a friend of his warned him that for a “senior dog,” as he now was, it may be too large of a bite. He was advised to use the money more effectively to save dogs.

“So, I decided to fund through my own nonprofit sorties for rescuing dogs in kill shelters and fly them to sanctuaries or families ready to adopt the dogs,” Campana said in an interview with the Gazette. “My friend, TW Taylor, a former member of the U.S. Air Force, now the owner of the Williamsburg Drug Co., and I fly those dogs through another non-profit called Pilots N Paws, which is a network of private pilots.”

To date, the two Williamsburg aviators have flown 14 missions and saved a number of shelter dogs and cats.

“Our goal is to save as many dogs and cats as possible,” Campana said. “Texas, California and North Carolina have the highest kill rates in the U.S. On average, 67,000 dogs and 860,000 cats are euthanized in the United States each year. North Carolina, our primary target state, is euthanizing 60,000 dogs and 18,000 cats annually.”

Campana noted that each sortie to save dogs and cats costs about $2,500. They use Taylor’s Cessna 310 airplane.

“TW and I are the flight crew,” Campana said. “He is the captain, and I am the first officer. Our passengers — the dogs and cats — are wonderful. They often fall asleep due to the vibration of the plane. On occasion we have had a dog or two that wanted to get in the cockpit and fly the plane.”

According to Campana, nothing makes him happier than saving the shelter dogs and cats. He is in the process of developing a web site to show how the rescue mission operates, and how people can make donations to keep the flights going.

Rescue shelters are always at capacity and there are many more animals being abandoned each day than homes to welcome them. Once a pet is left at a shelter, it has about 72 hours being adopted before it is destroyed. Each day in the U,S., around 4,100 dogs and cats are euthanized at shelters.

Clearly, there is an urgent need to support no-kill shelters and rescue missions that will give at least some dogs and cats a second chance.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Paramount said Monday that it had reached a deal to sell Simon & Schuster, one of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses in the United States, to the private equity firm KKR, in a major changing of the guard in the books business.

The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of the cultural touchstone behind authors including Stephen King and Bob Woodward in the hands of a financial buyer with an expanding presence in the publishing industry.

Although private equity investors have had a significant footprint in the book business — different firms have owned literary agencies, publishing houses and retailer Barnes & Noble — the acquisition of one of the largest publishers in the country vastly increases the hold of financial interests in the business.

“I think I speak on behalf of the entire management team when I say we are thrilled with the result,” Jon Karp, CEO of Simon & Schuster, said in an interview. “They plan to invest in us and make us even greater than we already are. What more could a publishing company want?”

Karp will stay on as CEO after the deal closes.

Richard Sarnoff, an adviser to KKR on its media deals, is a familiar name to many in the publishing industry and his involvement is encouraging, several publishing executives said Monday. Sarnoff has held multiple positions at Bertelsmann, the company that owns Penguin Random House, and served as chair of the Association of American Publishers, a trade group.

In letters to Simon & Schuster’s staff members and authors, Karp said that he had known Sarnoff for two decades, and that he “understands the nuances of the book business as well as anyone I know.”

Also involved is Ted Oberwager, who leads KKR’s gaming, media, entertainment and sports group. Oberwager is on the board of RBMedia, an audiobook company, and Skydance Media, which teamed with Paramount Pictures on “Top Gun: Maverick,” a Tom Cruise action drama that generated more than $1 billion.

Since Simon & Schuster was first put up for sale in 2020, many in the publishing industry have fretted over where the company might land. The publisher, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, has had more than seven owners in its history.

A sale to another publisher would mean the new management would understand the book business. But it would also mean further consolidation in the industry, with potentially fewer players available to bid on big books, and the chance of layoffs as redundant jobs were eliminated. It could also raise regulatory scrutiny: Paramount’s first attempt to sell Simon & Schuster, to Penguin Random House, was derailed by government antitrust concerns.

Acquisition by a private equity firm, on the other hand, presents its own risks. The ruthless side of that business was immortalized in a 1989 book, “Barbarians at the Gate,” which detailed KKR’s acquisition of Nabisco and the burden the deal’s debt left on the company.

Gustavo Schwed, a management professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said the sale would allow KKR to invest in a business that was no longer viewed as core by its seller. But, like any private equity deal, the amount of debt KKR uses to finance the acquisition will help determine the publisher’s financial constraints.

“Sometimes, despite your best intentions, things crash and burn — and the more leverage you use, the more risk there is of that happening,” Schwed said.

KKR did not outline its financing plans Monday. LionTree Advisors and Shearman & Sterling advised Paramount on the deal.

As part of the deal, Simon & Schuster employees will receive an ownership stake in the company, part of a program KKR developed to improve engagement among those who work in the companies it buys. The private equity firm used this model with RBMedia, which KKR acquired in 2018.

That bet paid off: KKR agreed to sell RBMedia last month to another investment firm for a substantially higher price. KKR said that under its ownership RBMedia doubled the size of its audiobook catalog, from more than 31,000 to more than 66,000 audiobooks.

Because employees had an ownership stake in the company, when RBMedia was sold, those who worked there earned a cash payout from the sale worth up to two times their salary, KKR said.

In addition to RBMedia, KKR has also invested in another company in the book world: Overdrive, a digital reading platform used in libraries and schools.

Pete Stavros, a co-head of global private equity at KKR, said in an interview that the deal would give Simon & Schuster employees the chance at achieving “a life-impacting amount of wealth.”

Stavros and Sarnoff said they saw opportunities for the publisher in international expansion and in audiobooks, a significant point of growth for the industry at large. Sarnoff said he didn’t expect the deal to have any impact on Simon & Schuster authors.

The road to Monday’s announcement has been long and bumpy.

After Paramount (then called ViacomCBS) reached an agreement to sell Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House, the country’s largest book publisher, for $2.18 billion, the Biden administration challenged the sale in court. A judge sided with the government last year.

Rather than appeal, Paramount decided to put Simon & Schuster back on the market, obligating Penguin Random House to pay a $200 million termination fee for its trouble, on top of millions in legal costs.

Since the first deal crumbled, Simon & Schuster has performed well and remained an attractive purchase. In the first quarter of 2023, its sales rose to $258 million, up 19% from the prior year. Results at other major publishers, by contrast, were disappointing during that period.    Although KKR’s offer for the publisher is less than what Penguin Random House had agreed to pay, the difference in the price is partially offset by the termination fee paid to Paramount and earnings from the publisher. But KKR is an attractive buyer, in part because it is unlikely to raise red flags with regulators.

“Paramount doesn’t want to traipse through another deal that goes bust,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. “It wants to sell the business without more surprises.”

Dominion Energy employs 17,000 people across the country. Now, about 1,000 sheep work for the power company as well.

In a process known as solar grazing, sheep consume vegetation on solar farms to reduce the need for lawnmowers and other landscaping machinery.

“Solar and sheep — they’re both environmentally friendly alternatives,” said Tim Eberly, a senior communications specialist for Dominion.

More research is being conducted in recent years to look into the benefits of solar grazing. Reducing costs and emissions from landscaping are two of the biggest pluses, according to the American Solar Grazing Association, an organization that promotes sheep grazing for solar farms.

Richmond-based Dominion Energy started using sheep for solar grazing in October. The company deploys sheep at six of its solar farms in Sussex, Greensville, Louisa, Mecklenburg, Middlesex and Pittsylvania counties.

The number of sheep on each farm depends on the size of the solar installation, Eberly said. About 100 sheep can maintain the grass at the Sussex solar farm. The site contains over 80,000 solar panels on 216 acres and can generate up to 20 megawatts each day, enough to power 5,000 homes.

The sheep take shelter underneath the solar panels and rotate where they graze each day.

Jess and Marcus Gray launched a business, Gray’s Lambscaping, in Southside Virginia using their sheep for vegetation control. She works as CEO and he is president. Together, with their border collies, Trip and Myra, they go to the different Dominion Energy solar farms to check up on the sheep.

Before the pandemic, Jess Gray was a college field hockey coach and Marcus Gray was a wildlife biologist. She wanted to work with her hands more, so they started the agricultural venture.

“I wanted to, at the end of the day, feel like I made a difference some way, somehow,” Jess Gray said.

Gray’s Lambscaping is the main solar grazing contractor with Dominion, and another farmer keeps sheep at one of the sites.

At the solar farms, Trip and Myra respond to calls and whistle commands to herd the sheep to different areas. Another dog helps to protect the animals from predators, including outside dogs, foxes and bears.

The sheep are also cared for by other shepherds employed by Dominion, and they receive regular visits from a veterinarian, Jess Gray said.

Ecological benefits from the grazing include the sheep adding organic matter to the soil, which keeps the ground healthy and fertile, and reducing runoff by increasing the soil’s water holding capacity, Marcus Gray said.

The use of sheep has not fully eliminated the need for landscaping yet. Eberly said the work between sheep and landscaping is at a 50-50 split, and the goal is to get it to a 75-25 sheep-to-landscaping ratio.

This summer is the first growing season the sheep have been through, and Dominion is still assessing whether having the sheep is cost-effective for the company, Eberly said.

“This is a solar farm, and obviously that’s a really valuable thing for us and for the community, residents of Virginia,” Eberly said. “But to be able to have an agricultural use of the land too is really nice, because we’re getting as much out of the land as we can.”

Gabby Jimenez, [email protected]

By Bethany Jean Clement, The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — Too many pears is a happy problem to have. At a sad time recently, someone sent a box of bereavement pears, not something to belabor here except to say that the gift — with one pear, mysteriously deemed special, wrapped in golden foil in the center of the cushioned box — actually helped in a small way, which is kind of all one can hope for at a sad time. We put them in a pretty bowl on the table and admired their curvy beauty; we ate them, the first few at ambient temperature, then chilled as they ripened all at once and it became apparent we had too many pears. It turns out that when it’s hot out, eating a juicy chilled pear while standing in front of the open refrigerator can be a small moment of pure joy, if you let it be.

Trying to figure out what to do with the pears as the ripening tumbled made for a nice distraction. We weren’t equal to anything remotely difficult, nor to anything involving a hot oven, which most pear recipes — both those gathered from an oversized personal library of cookbooks and those found by Googling “best pear dessert recipe” — require either or both of. While admittedly not rocket science, the idea for grilled (or not, depending) pears with vanilla ice cream, very good honey and black pepper took just about the amount of thought that was available, and then yielded a reward that felt outsized in its cooling comfort and sweet joy.

Many recipes for pear tarts and such make the absolutely appropriate serving suggestion of vanilla ice cream, a trusty friend to fruit and to us all, always there and always better than you expect when you stop to think about its cold richness — subtly tropical rather than plain, really. For a local/family-owned/sustainable/etc. option that’s easy to find hereabouts, Snoqualmie Ice Cream’s vanilla bean, made with Madagascar vanilla extract, is dense, velvety and not tooth-hurtingly sweet. My mass-market favorite, for when one might not be feeling made of ice-cream money, is Häagen-Dazs vanilla bean, with its many tiny flecks of the latter (and which, for what it’s worth, rated well in a recent Washington Post taste test along with Trader Joe’s French vanilla, Tillamook vanilla bean, Costco’s Kirkland option and Ben & Jerry’s). Or make your own vanilla ice cream — nothing will taste better, and I salute your wherewithal (especially if you’re hand-cranking!).

What else would pair with verging-on-overripe pears and vanilla ice cream? I remembered that we still had some of The Honey, which is how I’ve come to think of the exceptionally dark, thick, caramelly raw buckwheat honey from the Yakima Valley sold by local company Villa Jerada. It costs $13.99 for a 16-ounce jar, which is a lot for honey, but when it’s used in a way that allows the amazing work of these particular bees to shine — with pears as directed here, or over some goat cheese atop a slice of olive-oil-toasted baguette, or just on buttered toast — it is 100% worth it, in the context of enjoying our limited time on this Earth. (The Honey is available online, as well as at select stores around here and nationwide — check villajerada.com. If they’re out of it — the bees can only make so much, after all — may I suggest perusing the impressive variety of fancy honeys from near and far at Seattle’s ChefShop, with an Interbay retail location and at chefshop.com.)

The pears we were gifted definitely came from afar — that big company named after two guys from whence boxes of fruit always seem to come — and by the time we put together this absurdly easy dessert, the pears were so ripe that grilling would’ve made a mush of them. But in August, local pear season is upon us — seek some out at the farmers market for maximum greatness — and it is peak grilling season, too, so …

Finally, the black pepper might sound odd, but with the three kinds of sweetness here — fruity, creamy, sticky — it doesn’t taste peppery, instead just adding a certain small spark that’s thankfully different from yet another salted-caramel-type situation. Tellicherry peppercorns are the cream of the peppercorn crop, but in the grand scheme of things, the perfect peppercorn matters very little, and whatever you’ve got on hand is more than good enough.

———

GRILLED PEARS WITH ICE CREAM, HONEY AND BLACK PEPPER

The pears here — any kind, but ideally local and in season, which in Washington state starts in August and goes into fall — should be ripe but still firm (wait for the point at which they give a little when gently pushed near the stem). Grilling them caramelizes their sugars a bit, complements their sweetness with a little smoke and gives them pretty grill-lines. But if you’re not feeling it and don’t mind firing up the oven, you certainly could roast them according to any basic online recipe for roasted pears. Some crushed toasted almonds or another nut could be added for crunch, if you like, and/or a sprig of mint for garnish, if you’ve got any. But this is so good as is! And, truth be told, this extremely simple recipe also works well even simpler, skipping the grilling-or-roasting step altogether, especially if your pears are tending toward overripe, which won’t hold up well to the heat.

— Bethany Jean Clement

1/2 or 1 pear per person, depending on size of pear/appetite of person

A tablespoon or 3 of grapeseed oil or another high-heat neutral oil

Your favorite vanilla ice cream

Honey (the fancier stuff is very well worth it here)

Fresh-ground black pepper

1. Clean your grill grate with a wire brush — a balled-up piece of aluminum foil works, too. Get your gas or charcoal to medium-high heat.
2. Cut the pears in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Brush the cut sides of your pear halves with oil using a pastry brush.
3. Lay the pears on the hot grill, cut-side-down, for 4-5 minutes; resist moving them for 2 minutes so you can get nice grill marks, then check for doneness. You want the cut side seared, with the flesh cooked throughout until tender.
4. Fill each pear with a scoop of ice cream, drizzle with honey, top with several grinds of pepper and eat immediately while treasuring the trees, the bees, summertime, life in general — all of it.

___

(c)2023 The Seattle Times. Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Dr. Sophie J. Balk, American Academy of Pediatrics

Warmer weather means more chances for kids to go outside to play, hike and enjoy the fresh air with family and friends. Warmer weather also means preventing insect bites.

Biting insects such as mosquitoes and biting flies can make children miserable. More worrisome is that bites from some insects can cause serious illnesses.

Depending on where you live, you may already be familiar with illnesses that spread from insects to people. For example, Lyme disease, West Nile virus and Zika spread through the bite of a mosquito or tick. Recently, insect-borne illnesses are on the rise, due in part to the effects of climate change.

One way to protect your child is to use insect repellents. Choose one that is effective at preventing bites from insects commonly found where you live. Follow the instructions on the label for proper use.

Keep in mind that most insect repellents don’t kill insects. Insects that bite — not ones that sting — are kept away by repellents. Biting insects include mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, chiggers and biting flies. Stinging insects include bees, hornets and wasps.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend using an insect repellent product that has been registered by the Environmental Protection Agency. These products contain ingredients such as DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or another EPA-registered active ingredient. Visit https://bit.ly/44Rt1mI to search for EPA-registered insect repellents

Several insect repellents with DEET are approved as safe and effective. The concentration of DEET in a product indicates how long the product will be effective. You can choose the lowest concentration to provide protection for the among of time spent outside. For example, 10% DEET provides protection for about two hours, and 30% DEET protects for about five hours. A higher concentration works for a longer time, but anything over 50% DEET does not provide longer protection.

DEET products can cause skin rashes especially when high concentrations are used, but these reactions are rare.

Until children are at least 2, their skin may be different than the skin of an older child or adult. Apply DEET sparingly when needed. Weigh the risks of exposure to potentially serious illness spread by insects and the possible risk of absorbing chemicals into the body. Parents of newborns and premature infants should be especially cautious.

Similar to products made with DEET, insect repellents with picaridin provide protection from mosquitoes and ticks for an amount of time that is based on the concentration of picaridin. For example, insect repellents that contain 5% picaridin can protect against mosquitoes and ticks for three to four hours. Products with 20% picaridin can provide protection for eight to 12 hours.

When choosing insect repellents made with lemon eucalyptus oil, look for EPA-registered products. These products should not be used on children younger than 3. These insect repellent products contain no more than 30% lemon eucalyptus oil. Products with 8% to 10% concentration of lemon eucalyptus oil protect for up to two hours, and products containing 30% to 40% oil of lemon eucalyptus provide six hours of protection.

“Pure” oil of lemon eucalyptus products have not been tested for safety as insect repellents and are not registered with the EPA as insect repellents.

Tips for applying insect repellent on your child

Do:

• Choose products in the form of sticks, lotions or unpressurized sprays.
• Read the label and follow all directions and precautions.
• Only apply insect repellents on the outside of your child’s clothing and on exposed skin — not under clothing.
• Use just enough repellent to cover your child’s clothing and exposed skin. Using more doesn’t make the repellent more effective.
• Use spray repellents in open areas to avoid breathing them in.
• Help apply insect repellent on young children. Supervise older children when using these products.
• Wash your children’s skin with soap and water to remove any repellent when they return indoors and wash their clothing before they wear it again.
• Keep repellents out of young children’s reach to reduce the risk of unintentional swallowing.
• Use mosquito netting over baby carriers or strollers in areas where your baby may be exposed to insects.

Don’t use:

• Sprays in pressurized containers if children might accidentally inhale or get into their eyes.
• Repellent on children’s hands because they may put their hands (and insect repellent) in their mouth and eyes.
• Repellent candles if your child is at risk of breathing problems from fumes.
• Insect repellent directly on your child’s face. Instead, spray a little on your hands first and then rub it on your child’s face. Avoid the eyes and mouth.
• Insect repellent on cuts, wounds or irritated skin.
• Combination sunscreen/repellent products. Sunscreen needs to be reapplied often — every two hours while in the sun, and after swimming or sweating. Applying this product may expose your child to too much insect repellent.

Examples of “natural” insect-repellent ingredients include citronella, geranium, peppermint and soybean oil. These are deemed safe but have not been approved for effectiveness by the EPA. Most keep insects away for only a short time. Some natural repellents can cause skin irritation.

Other products not proven to be effective against mosquitoes include wristbands soaked in chemical repellents and ultrasonic devices that give off sound waves designed to keep insects away.

Natural and other alternative repellents may be good if there is no concern about getting a serious insect-borne illness. If there is a health concern — such as for Lyme disease in an area known to have ticks — use DEET, picaridin or another approved effective product.

What if my child has a reaction to an insect repellent?

If you suspect your child is having a reaction to an insect repellent, such as a rash:

• Stop using the product and wash your child’s skin with soap and water.
• Call your child’s pediatrician or Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 for help.
• If you go to the doctor’s office, take the repellent container with you.

Talk with your child’s pediatrician if you have any questions about protecting your child from insect bites.

———

ABOUT THE WRITER

Sophie J. Balk, M.D., FAAP, is an attending pediatrician at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and a professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change Executive Committee. In her clinical practice and research, Dr. Balk’s focus includes pediatric tobacco issues, skin cancer prevention, noise hazards, and climate change. A past chair of the AAP Council on Environmental Health, Dr. Balk has served as associate editor of the four editions of the AAP handbook Pediatric Environmental Health.

©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Gisselle Medina, Los Angeles Times

A California family of six had everything arranged for their trip to France at the end of June — except a passport renewal for one of their sons. They’d booked their flights and accommodations in April and gotten a passport appointment in May, paying for expedited service. But one week before the trip, their son’s passport still hadn’t arrived.

They started making daily calls to the U.S. State Department, which issues and renews passports, but couldn’t get through to anyone.

It wasn’t until they saw posts on local Facebook groups that they realized there was a national passport appointment backlog. And it wasn’t until four days before their trip that they learned about a potentially risky way around the backlog.

Why is there a passport backlog?

Andres Rodriguez, lead community relations officer for passport services at the State Department, said the passport backlog is a result of the pandemic’s effect on travel.

During the pandemic, the usual number of expiring passport renewals and new applications significantly decreased because of travel restrictions. As restrictions eased and travel resumed, applications surged. Many people whose passports had expired applied for renewals, and a considerable number of people who had never obtained a passport before also applied for the first time.

As of March 24, 2023, the latest available data, passport processing times were 10-13 weeks, and expedited service was taking seven to nine weeks.

Processing times include the duration a person’s application spends at passport agencies or centers, excluding any additional time taken for mailing.

The department is receiving roughly 400,000 passport applications a week, down from 500,000 earlier in the year. Last year, more than 22 million passports were issued, and the department is on track to surpass that number this year.

According to the State Department, limited appointments are available at passport agencies, and the department prioritizes life-or-death emergencies.

What’s being done to reduce the backlog?

They’re increasing overtime for all employees across the network, hiring more passport specialists to handle the manual paper-based process, and using a satellite agency in Washington, D.C., to assist with renewal applications.

Rodriguez said that the key to improvement long-term is modernizing the system, rather than relying on increased overtime, which is why the State Department piloted an online passport renewal system in February 2022. The system offered applicants a user-friendly portal to create profiles, upload documents and photos, make payments and renew their passports without the need for paper submissions.

This pilot version processed around 500,000 applications before being temporarily taken down for system enhancements in March 2023. The plan is to reintroduce the system by the end of the year, providing the public with a more efficient and convenient option for renewing passports online.

Congressional reps are trying to help with the passport backlog

Congressional staff are also scrambling to help their constituents receive their passports on time.

The office of Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) has handled more than 250 passport cases since June. Gomez’s staff has helped more than 400 people receive passports, both through the office and at two passport fairs, one in April and one in July.

The passport fairs, held over a four-hour period, provided people with passport renewal and new application services. The events were staffed by representatives from Gomez’s office and the U.S. Postal Service, which offered assistance in Korean, Spanish and English.

At the April fair, 120 appointment slots were available, and a total of 209 passport applications were filed. The July 23 event, held at the Eagle Rock post office, had about 210 slots, and helped over 250 people with their passport needs. There is now a wait list with over 100 people hoping to participate in the next fair, which Gomez plans to organize in September.

“I wanted to do this as a service to my district and as a means of reaching out to constituents, because it has been a number one issue in my office from constituents for at least the last year or more,” Gomez said.

Gomez said that, given that the backlog has accumulated over a period of two years, it is likely to take a couple more years to fully catch up.

How the passport backlog has affected people

Feeling increasingly desperate, the California family planning a trip to France tried reaching out to local politicians for a passport appointment and were able to secure one, but it was six days after their scheduled flight. And it was in Denver.

They also visited a local passport office multiple times, but faced constant rejection. They could get help only if they had booked an appointment by phone beforehand.

Four days before their trip, the parents of the Bay Area family took the day off work to go back to the local passport office. They say were informed by a security guard that they couldn’t be allowed inside unless they faked a hospital letter from their destination country, pretending they had a medical emergency.

They tried it, but were caught.

However, in line, Andrea — the mother of the California family who agreed to talk to The Times if we did not use her surname, for fear of legal repercussions — met someone who managed to get a passport appointment in another state — through what the State Department’s Rodriguez called a third-party aggregator.

Jokingly, Andrea told the person in line that she should probably get the appointment seller’s number and scribbled it on an old receipt.

Facing the prospect of having to cancel the family trip, the next day, Andrea paid $400 via Zelle to someone she never met for an appointment in Tucson. Andrea’s partner and son traveled back and forth from the Bay Area to Tucson the day before their vacation and were able to renew the passport.

“We tried every above and below trick in the book to make it happen,” Andrea said. “Ultimately, the cost of whoever this person was who was able to secure an appointment was far cheaper than all of the costs that we were going to incur to have to cancel or change all of our reservations, because nobody would help us.”

Rodriguez said no one should have to pay for a service that the government provides for free.

“We would advise folks to visit our website first for information about the processes that we have in place so they’re better informed about whether or not to pay a third party for passport services,” he said.

And give yourself a lot of extra time if you need a new or renewed passport.

Where can you make a passport appointment?

• Call (877) 487-2778 to make a passport appointment with the State Department. Remember that wait times can be lengthy, so it’s best to call right when the department opens or a little bit before to get in the call queue. Representatives are available Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to noon. The department is closed on federal holidays.
• Various post offices, libraries and local government offices across the United States are organizing passport fairs. Most of these fairs cater to first-time customers and children who are using Form DS-11 to submit their passport applications.
• More than 8,000 U.S. passport acceptance facilities, which include post offices, libraries and local government offices, send passport document applications to the State Department. Don’t confuse that with the 26 regional passport agencies where you can make an appointment only if you have travel booked within 14 calendar days or need a foreign visa within 28 calendar days.
• Find your congressional district and representative to request passport application help.
• Use a passport expediter service, such as PassportsandVisas.com, which has a Los Angeles office. Courier or expediter services charge anywhere from $150 to $300 to handle and submit your passport application on your behalf. The services also have access to appointments set aside by the government to help serve disabled customers, those who are unable to leave work or those who have children.

Is there any way to speed up the passport process?

• Make sure your passport isn’t expiring before you book a trip. Once you realize that your passport may be expiring soon, try to make an appointment.
• You can check your application status online. You can also register for email updates. Status updates may not be available in the first two weeks after you submit your application.
• If you have a trip within two weeks, contact your local congressional representative to see if you can get expedited processing.
• Fee waivers for a replacement passport are available through the Disaster Recovery Reform Act if you lost your passport in a major disaster.

©2023 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The U.S. Women’s National Team concluded an uninspiring performance at the FIFA World Cup early Sunday morning, succumbing to long-time rivals Sweden on penalty kicks in the round of 16. It was an ignoble end for the two-time defending champions which, despite not playing well leading up to the tournament, entered as one of the favorites to lift the trophy.

Their uncharacteristically early exit was accompanied by another surprising sound: cheers from their fellow Americans at the team’s failure on the world stage. Some on the right — including former President Donald Trump — wasted no time celebrating the defeat of these world-class athletes representing the United States.

No team — not even the wildly successful USWNT — is universally immune to criticism, and there was plenty to dislike about this squad’s performance in Australia and New Zealand. But these attacks are instead meant to belittle the team’s advocacy and to intimidate others who would use their platforms to support equality, opportunity, tolerance and inclusion.

The USWNT entered this year’s World Cup as the overwhelming favorites, a surprising place considering the months of uneven play that preceded the tournament. The generation which won the 2015 and 2019 cups had given way to younger talent, but the team struggled to forge aging superstars and fresh-faced newcomers into a cohesive identity under head coach Vlatko Andonovski.

After opening play with a relatively easy 3-0 defeat of Vietnam, the USWNT looked overwhelmed in the first half against the Netherlands before securing a 1-1 draw. A nervy 0-0 game against Portugal followed, in which the U.S. was fortunate to survive, before Sunday morning’s 0-0 game vs Sweden, which the U.S. lost 5-4 on penalties.

It was USWNT’s earliest defeat in a World Cup, and post-game interviews with team captain Lindsey Horan and a tearful Julie Etrz showed the emotional toll of the loss. Like all athletes who reach the pinnacle of their sport, these women had given everything to be a part of this team, to play in tournaments such as this and to represent their country on the world’s largest stage.

Such sacrifice and dedication were lost on the critics, many of whom smugly celebrated the early U.S. exit. On social media, people who likely have never watched these women at work or viewed a second of Sunday’s match — it started at 5 a.m. eastern — were full of thoughts about how the players should and should not represent this nation, what causes they should and should not support, and, predictably, how they should look, speak, dress, act and behave.

Some took issue with the players not singing the national anthem before games, despite the fact that the men’s team routinely does the same. The section of U.S. code outlining etiquette for the anthem, like that for the care and display of the U.S. flag, are not enforceable by criminal penalty.

Trump histrionically and falsely said on his social media platform that, “Many of our players were openly hostile to America – No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA”

That’s some impressive patriotism from an admitted draft-dodger. Never mind that this team espoused these same views about fair pay and equal representation while winning two World Cups. Woke equals failure, indeed.

Midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who announced before the tournament that she would retire at its conclusion, was again a lightning rod for criticism from Trump et al. She said at the 2019 World Cup that she would decline an invite to the White House if the team won the trophy, sparking her row with Trump.

Ultimately, Sunday’s loss was disappointing, but also illuminating in that it shows the work needed to return to the sport’s summit. Those who chose to kick the team at its lowest moment also revealed themselves as false patriots, whose support for athletes representing this country only extends to those who don’t rock the boat.

The four remaining Pac-12 schools still aboard for next season — California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State — have options if they are looking for another conference.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is exploring the possibility of adding the West Coast schools, with an emphasis on California and Stanford in the San Francisco Bay Area, a person with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the ACC was not making its internal discussion public and the conversations were still in early stages.

The American Athletic Conference also has interest in expanding West and adding all four Pac-12 teams, a person with direct knowledge of that league’s internal discussion told AP on condition of anonymity. The AAC has schools as far West as the Dallas area.

The Pac-12 lost five members last week after a potential media rights contract with Apple left the schools seeking a better deal. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah announced they would join Colorado in the Big 12 next year, while Oregon and Washington decided to follow USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, also next summer.

The abrupt departures have raised the possibility that the Pac-12, which dates to 1916, will completely dissolve sooner rather than later.

The Mountain West is the most logical spot for the Pac-12 schools to land geographically if they wanted to leave their former conference behind altogether. A person familiar with discussions in that league told AP that its leaders have been strategizing the possibility of trying to add Pac-12 schools since last week.

The MWC and the AAC are so-called Group of Five conferences, where adding Power Five schools would be considered an upgrade in most cases.

The ACC, however, is a fellow Power Five conference that seems like a strange option for the Pac-12 orphans. It has 14 members, none farther West than Louisville. But while the cross-country travel would be challenging, Stanford and Cal do fit the profile of a league that has the likes of Duke, Wake Forest and Boston College.

The ACC has been exploring ways to bring in more revenue to keep up with the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference and Florida State leaders have insisted the ACC must do something because of what they say is an unfavorable media rights contract. Adding the Northern California schools could extend the footprint of the ACC Network and possibly increase its value.

As for Cal and Stanford, with the Big Ten and Big 12 seemingly done expanding, they don’t appear to have another Power Five option.

Without a future home. The conference’s media rights expire on June 30, 2024.