The governance of international trade is on track to suffer serious damage this week as the United States carries out a long-standing threat to cripple the World Trade Organization’s system for settling disputes.

The WTO’s Appellate Body, which adjudicates on contested rulings over disputes between member countries, will become unable to function when Washington exercises a veto and blocks new judges from being appointed to replace two whose terms of office are expiring.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — who frequently tangled with the WTO in his former career as a lawyer for the U.S. steel industry — has repeatedly said the Appellate Body oversteps and creates law rather than interpreting WTO agreements. Trade officials say this week’s meeting in Geneva of WTO ambassadors from the organization’s 164 member countries will almost certainly be unable to persuade the United States to relax its hard line.

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The European Union, which has sought to create a temporary alternative to the Appellate Body, is set to unveil a legal tool this week allowing it to impose trade sanctions against countries even after the WTO system freezes up. Although not explicitly aimed at the United States, the new enforcement regulation would allow the EU to raise tariffs against imports from countries that seek to frustrate WTO litigation by appealing cases to an Appellate Body that has ceased to function.

On Friday, Dennis Shea, the U.S. representative to the WTO, told other ambassadors in Geneva that other countries had not seriously tried to improve the dispute settlement process.

“The United States has … articulate[d] our longstanding concerns with the functioning of the Appellate Body,” Shea said. “We have yet to see the same level of engagement from other members.”

The U.S. also has sought to paralyze the system by blocking budget allocations for the Appellate Body.

The EU has proposed an ad hoc temporary version of the Appellate Body while the full version is in abeyance, and so far it has recruited Norway and Canada. EU officials say they hope bigger economies such as China, Russia and Brazil will join their temporary system once the Appellate Body stops functioning.

The WTO would still be able to negotiate new agreements. But without an Appellate Body or an alternative system, any disputes appealed from the first panel hearing would be left in limbo.

The Appellate Body was created at the inception of the WTO in 1995. Panels of three judges drawn from a roster of seven with fixed-term offices hear appeals from dispute panels. The system can authorize trade sanctions if it finds a government in violation of WTO law. Some of the most contested issues in world trade — such as EU and U.S. subsidies to airplane makers Airbus and Boeing, respectively, and Chinese state support for Chinese companies — have been arbitrated through WTO dispute settlement.

U.S. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have long been unhappy with what they see as the judicial overreach of the Appellate Body. In particular, rulings by the body have repeatedly held that American anti-dumping rules, which allow the United States to impose tariffs against imports deemed to be priced unfairly low and to be damaging to U.S. producers, contravene WTO law.

The United States wants the Appellate Body to go back to what it says the body was originally intended to be: a technical revising body rather than a routine court of appeal.

The imminent seizing up of the Appellate Body has been met with dismay by many governments and business associations. Pierre Gattaz, president of the Confederation of European Business, said Friday: “The current system has provided massive benefits to business and consumers and is an essential element of the WTO.”

© The Financial Times Limited 2019. All Rights Reserved. FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd. Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.

The relentless conservative attack on the Affordable Care Act has been based on two deeply-held beliefs: That the individual mandate didn’t prompt people to buy health insurance, and that having coverage does nothing to make people healthier.

A new study conducted by a Stanford University researcher with the help of the Internal Revenue Service explodes both notions. It found that Americans who failed to respond to the individual mandate penalty when it was in effect (through 2018), tended to sign up for coverage when they were reminded about it; and that among those who did sign up, mortality rates fell.

David Anderson, Duke University

The study is significant for two reasons. First, it undercuts Republican actions that led to the elimination of the penalty by the 2017 tax cut bill, effective in January 2019, while supporting legislation in California, two other states and the District of Columbia that reinstates the penalty within their borders.

Second, it’s the most statistically valid study showing that mortality rates are lower for people with coverage. Indeed, the study found that among those 49 to 64 years old, acquiring health insurance showed up in lower death rates within a year or two.

As David Anderson, the health insurance expert at Duke University, notes, “There has been a cottage industry arguing that the public paying for health care is buying no health.” Until now, however, there had been no good randomized study showing the contrary. Now there’s proof that “being able to pay for health care leads to better health.”

These findings underscore the folly and cynicism of the systematic hollowing-out of outreach programs for the ACA under Trump. In 2017, the federal budget for such outreach was $100 million; Trump cut it to $10 million in 2018.

Some states have taken up the slack — in California, outreach spending for Covered California, the state’s ACA exchange, was $111 million in 2018. The effort shows: Exchange enrollments have been declining in states where it’s managed by the federal government, but remain stronger in California and other states that have taken the matter in hand.

More to the point, Covered California estimated that by keeping younger and healthier enrollees in the statewide risk pool, the outreach “likely lowered premiums by 6 percent to 8 percent.”

The new study, led by Jacob Goldin of Stanford Law School, was resourceful. It used data from an IRS initiative to send letters to 3.9 million households that had incurred the individual mandate penalty in 2016, reminding them of the tax penalty they faced if they failed to acquire coverage in 2017.

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The letters advised them to visit the federal enrollment website, healthcare.gov, or their state’s enrollment site to investigate their coverage options. About 8.9 million individuals resided in those households, creating a large sample population.

Different forms of the letter were sent out at random. Some calculated the 2017 penalty for the recipients and others merely warned them that there would be a cost. The 2017 penalty was set at 2.5% of household adjusted gross income, or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, whichever was greater, up to a maximum $2,085. It was the same in 2018, but cut to zero starting in 2019.

The initiative bore fruit. Those who received the letter were 1.3 percentage points more likely to enroll in coverage the following year than those in a control group who received no letter. That translates to “one additional year of coverage per 87 letters sent.”

As Duke’s Anderson observes, sending out 87 letters to achieve one enrollment is a “cheap and effective outreach effort,” especially since the rule of human inertia means that once a household signs up for coverage, it’s likely to keep it year after year.

Most striking is the study’s finding that health insurance yielded lower mortality rates for the newly insured. The study focused on the 49-64 age group, it says, because the overall mortality rate in that age range is higher than for younger people and the impact of insurance coverage statistically easier to detect.

The study didn’t find reduced mortality among younger people, but the study says that one fewer death occurred in the 49-64 group
for every 1,648 individuals who received a letter.

That adds measurably to our understanding of the health effects of coverage. Previous studies have been inconclusive, in part because they didn’t have the statistical power to identify the effects or focused on younger populations where the evidence was likely to be lost in statistical noise.

That’s an oft-cited flaw in the so-called Oregon study, a 2010 research project that failed to identify solid improvement in certain health metrics among a population that obtained coverage for the first time through Medicaid. As Goldin and his colleagues observe, the average age in the Oregon sample was 41, compared with 53 in the new study; gains in health outcomes therefore may have been more difficult to pinpoint in the Oregon population.

Nevertheless, the Oregon study has been cited incessantly on the right wing as proof that health insurance — especially Medicaid, a continuing target of conservative attacks — does little for one’s health.

A more recent study of Medicaid in California, where it’s known as Medi-Cal, did find that Medicaid substantially reduced in-hospital mortality for patients who gained coverage, while putting hospitals on a firmer financial footing and improving access to care, and better care, for millions of state residents.

The Stanford/IRS findings will bolster the conclusion that expanding medical coverage makes for a healthier America, and that the financial incentive to prompt enrollment actually did work.

They also point to the loose strings left from the original Obamacare rules, frayed further by Trump’s sabotage: The individual mandate penalty was too easily ignored and too low to bring everyone into the insurance pool, and we are still way too short of the ideal of coverage for everybody.

WASHINGTON — 

House Democrats are poised to unveil two articles of impeachment Tuesday against President Donald Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump, meanwhile, insisted he did “NOTHING” wrong and that impeaching a president with a record like his would be “sheer Political Madness!”

Democratic leaders say Trump put U.S. elections and national security at risk when he asked Ukraine to investigate his rivals, including Democrat Joe Biden.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined during an event Monday evening to discuss the articles or the coming announcement. Details were shared by multiple people familiar with the discussions but not authorized to discuss them and granted anonymity.

When asked if she has enough votes to impeach the Republican president, Pelosi leader said she would let House lawmakers vote their conscience.

“On an issue like this, we don’t count the votes. People will just make their voices known on it,” Pelosi said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. “I haven’t counted votes, nor will I.”

The outcome, though, appears increasingly set as the House prepares to vote, as it has only three times in history against a U.S. president.

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PHILADELPHIA — 

Eli Manning isn’t done yet. Neither are the Philadelphia Eagles.

Carson Wentz rallied the Eagles from a 14-point deficit, tossing a 2-yard touchdown pass to Zach Ertz in overtime to lead Philadelphia to a 23-17 win over the New York Giants on Monday night.

The Eagles (6-7) snapped a three-game losing streak and moved into a tie with Dallas (6-7) for first place in the NFC East. Philadelphia wins the division if it wins its final three games. The Eagles meet the Cowboys in Week 16.

Manning, the two-time Super Bowl MVP, threw a pair of TD passes to Darius Slayton in his first game since Week 2. Filling in for injuried rookie Daniel Jones, Manning was 15 of 30 for 203 yards. But he couldn’t prevent New York (2-11) from losing its ninth straight game, tying a franchise record set in 1976, when the team opened 0-9.

Wentz threw for 325 yards and a pair of TDs, including a 5-yard toss to Ertz to tie it at 17-17 with 1:53 left.

Already missing three starters on offense, the Eagles lost wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and right tackle Lane Johnson in the first half and were booed off the field trailing 17-3 at halftime.

They went three-and-out on five straight possessions before Boston Scott caught a 10-yard pass on third-and-5 in the third quarter. Scott then ran 4 yards to the 2 on third-and-3 and scored on the next play to cut it to 17-10.

Wentz drove Philadelphia to the Giants 29 with just under 10 minutes left but Greg Ward dropped what should’ve been a 29-yard TD pass on third-and-11. Jake Elliott then missed a 47-yard field goal wide left.

But the defense held and Wentz drove the Eagles 85 yards and connected with Ertz to tie it.

The Eagles won the toss in overtime and went 75 yards.

Ertz had nine catches for 91 yards.

Manning connected with Slayton for a 35-yard TD on a third-and-13 to give the Giants a 7-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter. Ronald Darby missed a tackle that would’ve stopped Slayton short of a first down.

Manning hit Slayton for a 55-yard TD on a third-and-8 with 27 seconds left in the first half to give the Giants a 17-3 lead.

Down 7-0, the Eagles got going when Wentz connected with Ertz on consecutive passes of 24 and 30 yards. Wentz then hit Ward for a 9-yard TD that was negated by a holding call on Brandon Brooks. The Eagles settled for Elliott’s 34-yard field goal.

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Aldrick Rosas hit a 34-yarder to make it 10-3.

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

CLIPPERS

In the eyes of the Indiana fans, former Pacer star Paul George is now a villain as a member of the Clippers.

They booed George from the time he was introduced as a starter and throughout his time on the court Monday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, even chanting derisive comments about him.

The unpleasantries George had to endure only seemed to fuel him to push the injury-depleted Clippers to a 110-99 win over the Pacers before 14,644 fans.

George was lively in responding to the boos with 36 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

“Nah, I’m not surprised,” George said when asked about the boos for the third time since he left the Pacers. “That’s Indiana for you. It’s a Hoosier thing.”

George blossomed into an NBA All-Star over his time from 2010-17 with the Pacers.

But when he requested a trade and was eventually shipped to the Oklahoma City Thunder during the summer of 2017, the lovefest between George and the Pacers’ faithful quickly dissolved.

George was booed when he came back with the Thunder the last two years and he got the same treatment in his return with the Clippers, who acquired him over the summer from Oklahoma City.

“You know, someday I’ll do a tell-all and tell the leading events of how I left Indiana. And I promise you I’m not the one to boo,” George said.

Read more

Clippers are so good even Lakers legend Jerry West can stay and watch

DODGERS

Free agent Anthony Rendon, a slugging third baseman who helped lead the Washington Nationals to their first World Series title last season, has attracted strong interest from several clubs, including the Dodgers. He reportedly declined a seven-year offer worth about $215 million from the Nationals near the end of the regular season.

Last week, Washington owner Mark Lerner said that signing both Stephen Strasburg and Rendon would be too expensive. Bringing the band back together to defend the title suddenly appeared very unlikely. On Monday, however, after the Nationals re-signed Strasburg, general manager Mike Rizzo walked back Lerner’s assertion and insisted they could retain the 29-year-old third baseman.

“Anthony Rendon is, again, one of the players that is most near and dear to my heart,” Rizzo said. “A guy we’ve drafted, signed, developed, watched turn into a superstar, playoff success, and a huge part of the world championship run that we went on. So he’s a guy that we love.

“The ownership has always given us the resources to field a great team, and we’re always trying to win, and we’re going to continue to do so.”

Besides the Dodgers, who have met with Rendon, the Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies are reportedly also interested.

They are vying for an elite defender who batted .319 with 34 home runs, a 1.010 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and a league-leading 126 runs batted in during the 2019 regular season. The performance was good enough for a third-place finish in National League MVP voting. In the playoffs, Rendon hit .328 with five home runs, eight doubles and 21 RBIs to fuel the Nationals’ improbable championship run.

Josh Donaldson, the second-most coveted third baseman on the free-agent market, could be a consolation prize for a team that misses out on Rendon.

Accommodating Rendon or Donaldson would require the Dodgers moving Justin Turner, their incumbent third baseman, to another position. Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said he has spoken with Turner about the possibility and Turner is on board. He would likely move to first base, though he could also see time at second.

ANGELS

Just a few weeks after declaring they felt comfortable with their catching contingent, the Angels have changed their tune. They are in active pursuit of a new catcher to pair with Max Stassi, a move that comes on the heels of their decision to move on from Kevan Smith. General manager Billy Eppler said Monday at baseball’s winter meetings that he has homed in on six to seven potential targets, including two on the trading block.

New Angels manager Joe Maddon was instrumental in shifting the team’s focus.

In his first news conference since being introduced at Angel Stadium in October, Maddon espoused the virtues of having a solid backstop. Like Mike Scioscia and Brad Ausmus before him, Maddon is a former catcher. He believes catchers provide the foundation for a team’s pitching staff.

“You don’t really have good pitching staffs without good catchers,” Maddon said. “It’s almost incongruent.”

A few proven catchers remain on the market, including former Angel and Gold Glove winner Martin Maldonado and former Minnesota Twins catcher Jason Castro.

Possibilities on the trade market include the Cincinnati Reds’ Tucker Barnhart, who is 28 and has two years and a team option remaining, and the Chicago Cubs’ Willson Contreras.

Read more

MLB winter meetings: Angels face steep competition from Yankees to sign Gerrit Cole

RAMS

Cooper Kupp caught four passes, one for a touchdown, in Sunday night’s 28-12 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. That kind of performance has come to be expected from the Rams’ leader in targets and receptions.

But Kupp’s production was noteworthy: He did it while playing only 20 snaps, 37 fewer than he played in the previous week’s victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

Kupp is not the only receiver to recently experience large fluctuations in his playing time.

As the Rams prepare for Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, coach Sean McVay is evolving an offense that has mostly displayed a productive rhythm the last two games.

McVay as of late has reintroduced star running back Todd Gurley as the focal point of the offense. With tight end Gerald Everett sidelined because of a knee injury, McVay also increased the role of tight end Tyler Higbee — who has produced two consecutive career-best performances — and incorporated tight end Johnny Mundt into the scheme.

“You go into a the week with a game plan, and the game plan needs to be whatever it takes to win the game,” Kupp said. “Whatever it takes is what it needs to be.

“And everyone in this locker room is going to embrace that your role changes week to week — but your job doesn’t.”

CHARGERS

Linebacker Thomas Davis has been around the NFL so long that his experience is even helping the Chargers on offense.

A 30-yard touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to an uncovered Hunter Henry on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars was the result of a suggestion the 15-year veteran gave coach Anthony Lynn in advance of the game.

“He told me from a defensive perspective how he would view that play and what we could do differently to make that play work,” Lynn said. “I thought about it, thought, ‘You know, sometimes we don’t give defensive players enough credit.’ ”

So the Chargers tweaked the play in practice in part by motioning offensive lineman Ryan Groy from the left side of the line to the right.

From his spot at tight end, Henry started on the right side and ran across the formation to the left and no Jacksonville defender picked him up.

When he caught the pass, the closest Jaguar was nearly 10 yards away. Henry wasn’t hit until he was at the goal line and about to score.

“He’s been around for so long that he can pick up on things, especially tendencies,” Henry said of Davis. “He helps all of us out. If we raise up or do something different on pass or run, he always can spot little tendencies to help you out.”

YOUR FAVORITE SPORTS MOMENT

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What is your all-time favorite local sports moment? Email me at [email protected] and tell me what it is and why, and it could appear in a future Sports newsletter.

This moment comes from Jack Shepard:

One of the major track & field events on the local sports calendar in the 1940s and 50s was the Coliseum Relays, where the best in the U.S. came to run. In its heyday of the 50s, the Los Angeles City track championships were held in conjunction and many of the high school finals were interspersed with the invitational races. What a thrill for the local preps to have the chance of running in front of the often 40,000-50,000 fans.

I can remember stadium announcer Dick Nash getting the high school crowd excited for what was to come by asking- “is there anybody here from Jefferson?” An entire section of the north stands, clad in green and gold, would rise and give a huge shout. “Is there anyone here from Manual Arts?”- and the next section, all in purple would give their loud rebuttal. “How about Dorsey” and “Washington” and so on until all the major City high schools had been recognized and the north side of the Coliseum was a sea of noise.

My favorite moment of those meets was the mile relay in the 1950 meet. Among the entries were local small college track power, Occidental College, and another small college power from Baltimore, Morgan State, with Olympian and NCAA 440 champ, George Rhoden on anchor. The Oxy team was Walt McKibben, Ted Ruprecht, John Barnes and Bill Parker.

What made the race so exciting was that Oxy and Morgan State left the rest of the field (teams like Rice and Michigan State) in the dust and it was a two-team battle to the finish. At the end of the first leg, Oxy led by a yard, after the second it was Morgan State by two yards. The third lap saw Barnes take back the lead to give Parker a two-yard lead over the powerful Rhoden. Rhoden made several attempts to pass, but Parker never let up and crossed the finish line, up by over a yard. The winning time of 3:10.1 (Morgan State in 3:10.2) was the third fastest ever run. Only the great California-USC dual in the Coliseum in 1941, which produced a world record 3:09.4 for Cal (USC also 3:09.4), was faster.

Pretty heady stuff for a 15-year-old at the time and it whet my appetite for track & field. Since then I have stayed involved for almost 70-years as an official, various aspects of the media, and as a statistician.

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

NY Rangers at Kings, 7:30 p.m., FSW

Ducks at Minnesota, 5 p.m., PRIME

BORN ON THIS DATE

1907: Soccer player Lucien Laurent (d. 2005)

1933: Football player Larry Morris (d. 2012)

1959: Basketball player Mark Aguirre

1969: Former King Rob Blake

1982: Archer Matt Stutzman

DIED ON THIS DATE

1946: Baseball player Walter Johnson, 59

1977: Basketball coach Adolph Rupp, 76

2015: Basketball player Dolph Schayes, 87

AND FINALLY

HBO’s RealSports segment on Matt Stutzman, “The Armless Archer.” Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email me at [email protected]. If you want to subscribe, click here

Hello and welcome to another edition of the L.A. Times soccer newsletter. I’m Kevin Baxter, the Times’ soccer writer.

We start with a subject that really shouldn’t be an issue in modern society, much less modern soccer. Yet racism remains as implacable as a morning sunrise.

No country is completely immune but in few places is racism and anti-Semitism as virulent and prevalent as it currently is in Italy. In the first month of the season, Milan’s Romelu Lukaku was targeted for verbal abuse by fans in Cagliari, a match in Parma was suspended when racist chants were heard coming from the crowd and a TV commentator said of Lukaku “the only way to [stop] him is maybe give him 10 bananas.”

Even journalists, who should know better, got into the act with the tabloid newspaper Corriere dello Sport headlining its preview of last Friday’s Milan- Roma game “Black Friday,” placing the words between a picture of Lukaku and Roma’s Chris Smalling, both of whom are black.

“I would go as far as to say it’s an epidemic,” Piara Powar, executive director of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), said earlier this year.

Powar places some of the blame on politics and some on weak leadership.

“I think part of the problem in Italy is the rhetoric of the right-wing government. It’s anti-migrant and anti-African and clearly that will always feed into stadiums,” he said. “Then you have a football association that doesn’t know how to respond, given the government’s position, and historically hasn’t responded very well.”

That doesn’t bode well for the immediate future since nationalist, anti-immigrant political movements are growing in size and influence in many places, including the U.S.

Racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism are problems wherever they appear but stadiums may be among the most dangerous places given the number of people, the passion and tribalism of sports, and the presence of alcohol. There are some who say that passion in part of the spectacle; witness the many defenses that have been offered for the anti-gay goal-kick chants that have long marred games in Mexico.

But I’ve always wondered how it feels for the players who are the targets of the racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism. Last week DaMarcus Beasley and Oguchi Onyewu, former U.S. national team players who endured racist taunts and worse while playing in Europe, tried to explain.

“Those things you don’t forget. It hurts,” said Beasley, who was mocked by chants of monkey while playing Champions League qualifiers in Belgrade and Montenegro . “As much as you try to block it out and concentrate on the game it’s in the back of your mind. It’s always in the back of your mind.

“But after the game is where I felt more sad, more angry that it happened. The soccer player, that part is over. Now you’re a human being, a normal person, and it hurts that people see you in a different light just because of the color of your skin.”

While playing in Belgium, Onyewu was targeted with racial slurs by an opponent. On another occasion, while preparing for a throw-in, he was punched by a fan.

“I look at the referee and he’s telling me to play on as if I’m the one that’s crazy. Like ‘Oh get on with it. It’s just nothing,’ ” he said. “That’s a privilege to them that they don’t have to go through it. But the people that have lived it, they understand the severity of an experience like that.”

Beasley fears it won’t be long before players, feeling abandoned by authority figures such as league and team officials and referees, begin taking things into their own hands.

“Something’s going to happen,” he said. “Either the player gets hurt [or] the player literally runs off the field and jumps in the stands. And you never know what fans bring to the stadium. It’s crazy to think that.

“[But] everything is building up so that a reaction is just going to, you know, tip the iceberg. Hope it doesn’t come to that but you don’t know. Somebody actually might get hurt.”

So how can we stop this? Onyewu favors not only stiffer penalties but stricter enforcement of the laws already on the books.

“You need some forward-thinking individuals that can stand up and say ‘OK, enough is enough.’ This team or these fans have a lifetime ban or a heavy fine,” he said. “Not just some slap on the wrist, something significant that will promote them to never do that again.”

In Italy, executives with Milan and Roma – both clubs with U.S. owners – got the other 18 Serie A teams to sign on to a public letter in which they admitted Italian soccer has a chronic racism issue and called on the league to deliver a comprehensive and robust anti-racism policy, stricter laws and a plan for educating those within the game about the scourge of racism.

That’s probably wishful thinking given that the letter urges the league to act when, for years, Serie A, through action and inaction, has largely enabled the racist epidemic in Italy. Paul Rogers, the chief strategy officer for Roma, who was instrumental in composing the letter, recently admitted as much.

“Italian football has been soft on racism for far too long and that is not something we are prepared to accept any more. In 2019, it shouldn’t need a football club to tell anyone that making monkey noises or racist comments to black players is unacceptable,” he said.

So Roma acted on its own earlier this season, banning a fan from its games after he racially abused Brazilian defender Juan Jesus on social media.

“I can’t comment on whether we were the first Italian team to openly denounce a supporter’s racist behavior towards a player but I do know for a fact that we were the first Italian club to take it upon our self to ban a fan from the stadium for a racist act,” Rogers said.

Manchester United took similar action, ejecting a supporter from Old Trafford after he made racist comments during a game with Liverpool in October. But not all clubs are as committed to the cause so it will fall to players, officials and fans to force change.

And there have been some positive signs on that front. Last month a team of 10-year-olds north of Milan played with black streaks on their faces to support a teammate who was subject to racist taunts from an opponent’s mother (read that again: a 10-year-old boy was subject to racist taunts from a parent).

In France, referee Clement Turpin stopped a match for 10 minutes and ordered both teams to their dressing rooms when Nice fans refused to take down homophobic banners. In Mexico, at least two Liga MX games were halted this fall when fans persisted in making anti-gay chants.

“These things must not happen,” Roma’s Edin Dzeko said. “We’re all equal. I’m Bosnian and you’re from a different country, but it doesn’t matter.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t understand it. I’ve played with so many players in so many different countries. We’re all brothers. I don’t know what’s in these people’s heads. If you’re that way inclined, stay at home. You’re not needed at the stadium.”

However those who do go to the stadium may be the most effective agents for change. Consider this story about a group of German fans who took things into their own hands several seasons back.

“When I came to the stadiums in the ’90s, you had a lot of right-wing people. In Munich, the culture was open to right-wing things,” said Simon Mueller, a Bayern Munich supporter.

Mueller’s group wanted to make the stadium more hospitable for families and children but knew that simply banning people would backfire. So they came up with a different strategy, adopting the legacy of former club president Kurt Landauer.

A Jewish holocaust survivor, Landauer was not a favorite of right-wing fans but his role in rebuilding the club after World War II couldn’t be questioned even by the biggest haters.

“It’s important that he was Jewish,” Mueller said.

So the Schickeria, an independent supporters’ union not affiliated with the club, began showing up for games in Landauer t-shirts and waving banners with his face on them.

“When the fans in the stands do something and the TV cameras show it, the whole country takes notice,” Mueller said. “The fans are saying, ‘this man is important.’

“The idea of Kurt Landauer, what he stands for now, is very important. But for me it’s important what he means for the people in the stands. It’s important for us not to go back to right-wing ideas.”

Soon the homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks that once plagued Bayern Munich games ceased and now, in the largest stadium in the city that gave rise to the Nazis, racism is no longer a problem. (Here’s a deeper look at Landauer and his legacy from the archives.)

And if that can work in Munich, there’s no reason why it can’t also work in Milan, Moscow, Mexico City and Montenegro.

Read more on this topic by clicking here.

Galaxy add a piece to the puzzle

The Galaxy’s offseason makeover continued last week when the team reached agreement on a contract with free-agent midfielder Sacha Kljestan.

Kljestan, 34, an Orange County native, wanted to end his MLS career in Southern California and his signing fills the gap in depth and versatility created when Chris Pontius, another Southern Californian, retired.

Kljestan made 52 appearances for the U.S. national team and has played for three MLS teams, debuting with Chivas USA in 2006 and spending the last two seasons in Orlando City. He had a goal and three assists in 23 games last season. Terms of the deal were not released but Kljestan will take a cut in pay from the $1.1 million he made in 2019.

In the last month the Galaxy, in addition to losing Pontius, have parted ways with their two leading scorers from last season in Zlatan Ibrahimovic (30 goals) and Uriel Antuna (six goals) as well as winger Favio Alvarez, whose three scores tied for third-best on the team. Also leaving were defenders Dave Romney and Diego Polenta.

MLS home openers

Speaking of MLS, the league will open its 25^th season in February with the Galaxy playing on the road in Houston on Feb. 29 while LAFC will start at home a day later, facing David Beckman’s Inter Miami in the expansion club’s first competitive game.

The February openers are the earliest in league history.

The Galaxy will play its first home game on March 7, playing host to the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Following is the list of all 26 team’s home openers. The full 2020 schedule will be announced later.

Saturday, Feb. 29: D.C. United vs. Colorado Rapids (Audi Field); Montreal Impact vs. New England Revolution; Houston Dynamo vs. Galaxy (BBVA Stadium); San Jose Earthquakes vs. Toronto FC (Avaya Stadium); FC Dallas vs. Philadelphia Union (Toyota Stadium); Orlando City SC vs. Real Salt Lake (Exploria Stadium); Nashville SC vs. Atlanta United (Nissan Stadium); Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. Sporting Kansas City (BC Place)

Sunday, March 1: Columbus Crew SC vs. NYCFC (MAPFRE Stadium); New York Red Bulls vs. FC Cincinnati (Red Bull Arena); Seattle Sounders FC vs. Chicago Fire FC (CenturyLink Field); LAFC vs. Inter Miami CF (Banc of California Stadium); Portland Timbers vs. Minnesota United (Providence Park)

Saturday, March 7: New England Revolution vs. Chicago Fire FC (Gillette Stadium): Real Salt Lake vs. New York Red Bulls (Rio Tinto Stadium): Toronto FC vs. New York City Football Club (BMO Field): Atlanta United vs. FC Cincinnati (Mercedes Benz Stadium); Sporting Kansas City vs. Houston Dynamo (Children’s Mercy Park); Colorado Rapids vs. Orlando City SC (Dick’s Sporting Goods Park); Galaxy vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (Dignity Health Sports Park)

Saturday, March 14: NYCFC vs. FC Dallas (Yankee Stadium); Inter Miami CF vs. Galaxy (Inter Miami CF Stadium in Fort Lauderdale); FC Cincinnati vs. D.C. United (Nippert Stadium); Philadelphia Union vs. San Jose Earthquakes (Talen Energy Stadium)

Sunday, March 15: Minnesota United vs. New York Red Bulls (Allianz Field)

Saturday, March 21: Chicago Fire FC vs. Atlanta United FC (Soldier Field)

Quotebook

“It’s ridiculous that we are still talking about racism. There’s only one race, and that’s the human one. I appreciate the stance my club has taken.”

Roma midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini on his club’s no-tolerance policy regarding racist actions from fan

Until next time

Stay tuned for future newsletters. Subscribe here, and I’ll come right to your inbox. Something else you’d like to see? Email me. Or follow me on Twitter: @kbaxter11.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 10, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Orange County’s storied alt weekly abruptly announced its own demise in a tweet.

After nearly a quarter-century raising hell behind the Orange Curtain, OC Weekly would be no more, effective immediately.

In keeping with the broader narrative (read: slow demise) of alternative newspapers around the country, OC Weekly’s story had been far from rosy for a while. But even in its reduced form, the paper had remained a leading alternative voice in the region.

The closing of any regional outlet — particularly one that exposed misconduct at the local Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office, and held a mirror to the culture, chaos and complexities of a metropolitan area that is home to more than 3 million people — is always a deep loss to the communities it serves. But to fully understand why the Weekly closing is such a tragedy, one also has to understand something about Orange County from the early 1990s.

When the Weekly was founded, Orange County was one of the most covered places in America.

Not only was the Orange County Register thriving, but The Times also had a massive Orange County bureau led by Marty Baron, who now helms the Washington Post and is one of the few newspaper editors to have become a more or less household name in the decades that followed.

There was an intense newspaper war being waged between the Register and Times. Both papers had hundreds of staffers covering Orange County communities and fighting for scoops. The Register prided itself on having at least one story from every Orange County community in each day’s paper. The Times tried to connect O.C. to the rest of the world with in-depth stories. Both scored big scoops.

[Read the full story: “Orange County was once a battleground for an epic newspaper war. Now, journalism is fading fast” in the Los Angeles Times]

The rivalry was so heated that it once turned physical, with what one Times staffer called “bare-knuckles” tactics, as covered in the national press.

OC Weekly came to be during a golden age of newspapers, in a community that could support not one but two huge papers, plus a blooming alternative weekly.

But you already know how this story goes. The fortunes of newspapers turned dark, and the institutions that once brawled for competing scoops have crumbled into shadows of their former selves.

In that 1990s era of thriving coverage, reporters were keeping an eye on dozens of cities, school districts, planning boards and other government agencies. Today, the Register is a fraction of what it once was, and The Times slashed its Orange County coverage even more dramatically.

When Baron took over the Orange County Edition of The Times in 1993, two years before the founding of OC Weekly, The Times’ Orange County Edition had a staff of 200 reporters, editors, artists and photographers. Now, most of the coverage is provided by The Times’ small community news arm.

There is still some great journalism coming out of Orange County, such as the Register’s groundbreaking expose of abuse in USA Swimming, dogged muckraking from OC Weekly and nonprofit newsroom the Voice of OC, and Times narrative blockbusters including Framed, Dirty John and Detective Trapp.

But there is simply less and less of it. Even as the region has continued to grow in size, the number of reporters there has plummeted. And it’s hard to imagine what important stories are not being told, in Orange County and elsewhere, with far fewer reporters blanketing city halls and out in communities.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Netflix dominated the Golden Globe nominations with strong showings from movies including “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story,” as well as series including “The Crown” and “Unbelievable.” The largest subscription streaming service collected 34 nominations for its shows and films from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., surpassing rival studios in both categories. Los Angeles Times

Plus, here are the biggest snubs and surprises from the Golden Globe nominations. Los Angeles Times

Seeking to pressure retailers to accept recyclable containers from consumers, the state of California has proposed a $3.6-million penalty against the CVS pharmacy chain after dozens of its stores declined to redeem cans and bottles. Los Angeles Times

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L.A. STORIES

The definitive guide to the best restaurants in the region: Our food critics are here with this year’s edition of the 101 best L.A. restaurants. Kato, this year’s No. 1 pick, dwells inconspicuously in a West L.A. strip mall and is helmed by a 28-year-old San Gabriel Valley native. Los Angeles Times (Note: This story is available only to Times subscribers.)

And here’s how critics Bill Addison and Patricia Escárcega approached this year’s 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list. Los Angeles Times

L.A. is an e-book borrower’s paradise. But a major publisher’s crackdown could hurt. Los Angeles Times

Dryland, a literary journal based in South-Central, tells stories that are often left out. Viva Padilla started the journal because she wanted the neighborhood she grew up in to have a literary outlet. Los Angeles Times

Silver Lake’s first boutique hotel has opened. Here’s a look at the pool and rooms. Eastsider LA

Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Here’s what Sen. Kamala Harris’ swift exit from the Democratic primary race means for her political future: “By quitting when she did, Harris avoided embarrassing losses in several early contests and, most important, her home state of California, preserving her status as a leading vice presidential prospect and positioning her as a strong candidate for a place in the Cabinet, such as attorney general, in a Democratic administration.” Los Angeles Times

One byproduct of Rep. Devin Nunes’ very visible role in the impeachment process? A huge bump in fundraising for Phil Arballo, the Central Valley congressman’s Democratic challenger. Fresno Bee

CRIME AND COURTS

A Muslim high school student said she was assaulted last week in a targeted attack at her campus in Elk Grove, Calif. Police have launched an investigation. Los Angeles Times

A Newport Beach woman has agreed to plead guilty in the college admissions scandal. Karen Littlefair is the 36th parent charged in the admissions scandal by the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Amid the wasteland of the Salton Sea, a miraculous but challenging oasis is born. Thousands of acres of exposed lake bed have become, of all things, the unintended beneficiaries of lush marshlands that are homes for endangered birds and fish at the outlets of agricultural and urban runoff that used to flow directly into the Salton Sea. Los Angeles Times

Southern California will get a chance to dry out this week after a string of storms dumped rain and snow across the region over the last few weeks. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

God, thirty-foot fountains, a faux Wailing Wall and a 4-D motion theater: Welcome to Legacy International Center, a $190-million Bible-themed resort in Mission Valley. San Diego Union-Tribune

Get a $10,000 bonus for leaving the Bay Area? A handful of small and midsize tech firms are turning Bay Area dissatisfaction into a recruiting tool. Mercury News

Elon Musk hit a traffic pylon with his new Cybertruck after taking the dystopian-looking vehicle to dinner at Nobu Malibu. Gizmodo

The decision to end a cherished “Older Adults” program at a San Francisco community college has sparked shock and outrage. The decades-old program serves more than 2,000 people who are primarily in their 70s and 80s and offers free, noncredit classes tailored to that age group. San Francisco Chronicle

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: partly sunny, 68. San Diego: partly sunny, 66. San Francisco: cloudy, 55. San Jose: cloudy, 59. Sacramento: cloudy, 56. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Marlene Bowman:

“I was born in L.A. in 1945, moved out to the sticks (Sunland-Tujunga) in 1952 when my parents purchased a brand-new tract home financed with a CalVet loan for $11,500. In 1967, three days after graduating from UCLA, I got married and moved to VA. In March 2003, I was traveling from Ohio with our youngest son to visit my mother still living in that same house. When the Greyhound bus made an early morning stop in Barstow, our son disembarked, surveyed the surroundings on a typically glorious morning and proclaimed, ‘If this is California, I am never leaving!’ ”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

A former City Hall aide faces more than $37,000 in fines for himself and his consulting company after failing to report that he was lobbying Los Angeles officials, following an inquiry by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

Gary Benjamin, a former planning deputy to City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, formed his own consulting company after he had left his city job and worked with Elizabeth Peterson Group, which is registered with the city as a lobbying firm.

His firm, Alchemy, was paid more than $209,000 for lobbying activities over a period of two years, according to an Ethics Commission report. Benjamin said he was surprised to hear that his work was seen as lobbying when investigators reached out to him earlier this year, describing most of his work as “research oriented and administrative.”

“It didn’t rise to my understanding of what lobbying was,” Benjamin said in an interview. “I don’t meet with elected officials. I don’t engage in fundraising activity.”

Under city rules, “lobbying activities” can include research and providing advice to clients if that work is part of a paid effort to contact city officials and influence an upcoming municipal decision.

Lobbyists are supposed to register with the city if they are paid to spend 30 or more hours on lobbying activities — including at least one direct contact with a city official or employee for that purpose — during a period of three consecutive months. They are also required to file regular reports that outline their lobbying efforts.

After going over the rules with Ethics Commission investigators, Benjamin acknowledged that he should have registered as a lobbyist and promptly turned in forms detailing his clients and what they were seeking from the city. He already has signed a stipulation agreeing to pay the proposed fine, which is scheduled for a Tuesday vote of the Ethics Commission.

“It was unwise of me not to look into the laws that affected the industry,” Benjamin said, calling it “an unfortunate mistake.”

The investigation was spurred by a whistleblower complaint, according to the Ethics Commission. Lobbying disclosures for Benjamin, filed after he heard from investigators, list clients that included real estate developers planning new housing and shops, as well as bars and restaurants seeking city approvals.

Benjamin said that he had met with staffers for some council members, but not the elected officials themselves. Ethics Commission staffers initially stated in their report that Benjamin had met with both elected officials and their staffers, but later amended the report to say that he had met with staffers. Agency representatives did not provide comment Monday on the change.

Benjamin faced a maximum fine of $75,000, but Ethics Commission staffers decided to halve the proposed penalty because he cooperated with investigators, filed the required reports within weeks of being contacted by staff, and had no history of wrongdoing with the Ethics Commission. Nor, they said, was there evidence of “an intent to conceal or deceive.”

The fine is one of the biggest penalties that the city has levied for failing to properly report lobbying. Earlier this year, the Ethics Commission imposed fines on land use consulting group Pacific Crest Consultants and two of its executives that totaled $65,000, including fines of $20,000 or more for the company and each executive, for failing to report lobbying.

Three years earlier, progressive advocacy group Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy was fined $30,000 for not accurately reporting its lobbying activities for three years. The influential group, commonly known as LAANE, had registered as a lobbying entity but not reported how much money it had spent or on which issues it had lobbied.

Former municipal officials also face “revolving door” restrictions on immediately coming back to lobby the city. Benjamin, who left his city job more than four years ago, was not fined for any such violations.

The biggest “revolving door” penalty was levied this year on former planning department chief Michael LoGrande, who was fined more than $281,000. Jimmy Blackman, who had been an aide to former Councilman Dennis Zine, paid a $22,500 fine for such violations. And Marie Rumsey, another former O’Farrell aide, was fined over $7,000 three years ago.

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Airbnb reached a settlement with Santa Monica on Tuesday to collect money from renters for affordable housing in the city and ensure compliance with strict short-term rental rules.

A federal appeals court in March unanimously rejected Airbnb’s challenge of Santa Monica’s 2015 home-sharing ordinance, which prohibits short-term rentals if the owner is not on the premises.

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City officials adopted the ordinance after receiving complaints of disturbances in normally quiet residential neighborhoods.

Airbnb will now require all listings to have a license number issued by the city. The company will permit each host to list only one dwelling and no more than two rooms in that home. Airbnb also will collect $2 a night from renters and pass it on to the city to be used for affordable housing. The company charges similar fees in other cities.

City Atty. Lane Dilg said the agreement would ease enforcement of the ordinance and help preserve housing.

Santa Monica has 351 registered home-shares, most of them rented through Airbnb. In addition to requiring hosts to remain on the premises, the city limits rentals to fewer than 31 days.

Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown said the agreement would “better protect real permanent homes, especially our affordable rent-controlled apartments, from being used as de facto hotel rooms.”

The settlement requires Airbnb to take down illegal listings when notified by the city. The agreement is effective immediately and is expected to be fully implemented by the end of January 2020.

“After years of uncertainty for our host community in Santa Monica, the new settlement agreement provides our hosts the clarity they need to continue sharing their homes,” said Matt Middlebrook, Airbnb’s public policy chief for California.

In addition to Airbnb’s lawsuit against the city, Santa Monica resident Arlene Rosenblatt also challenged the ordinance. Her suit charged the ordinance hindered commerce in violation of the federal constitution.

Rosenblatt had been renting out her home for $350 a night when she and her husband traveled. The 9th Circuit rejected her lawsuit in October.

NEW YORK — 

A common but increasingly mighty and very busy little word, “they,” has an accolade all its own.

The language mavens at Merriam-Webster have declared the personal pronoun their word of the year based on a 313% increase in look-ups on the company’s search site, Merriam-Webster.com, this year when compared with 2018.

“I have to say it’s surprising to me,” said Peter Sokolowski, a lexicographer and Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, ahead of Tuesday’s announcement. “It’s a word we all know and love. So many people were talking about this word.”

Sokolowski and his team monitor spikes in searches, and “they” got an early start in January with the rise of model Oslo Grace on fashion runways. The Northern Californian identifies as transgender nonbinary, walking in both men’s and women’s shows around the world.

Another look-up spike occurred in April, when U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) got emotional while talking about her gender-nonconforming child during a House committee hearing as she advocated for LGBTQ rights legislation.

Merriam-Webster recently added a new definition to its online dictionary to reflect use of “they” as relating to a person whose gender identity is nonbinary. In October, the American Psychological Assn. endorsed “they” as a singular third-person pronoun in its latest style guide for scholarly writing.

“We believe writers should try to use a person’s self-identified pronoun whenever feasible,” said Jasper Simons, chief publishing officer for the association. “The singular ‘they’ is a way for writers to avoid making assumptions about gender when it is not known.”

The American Dialect Society, which is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, named “they” its word of the year for 2015, in recognition of its emergence among people who reject “he” and “she.”

In September, Merriam-Webster experienced another big increase in look-ups for “they” when pop star Sam Smith wrote on social media that their preferred pronouns were “they” and “them.” Smith said the decision came after a “lifetime of being at war with my gender.”

Sokolowski told the Associated Press that “they,” one of a handful of nonbinary pronouns to emerge in recent years, is “here to stay.” Nick Adams, director of transgender representation for the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Merriam-Webster’s choice is a positive step in acknowledging nonbinary people.

“There is a long road ahead before language, policy and culture are completely affirming and inclusive,” Adams said.

And the Merriam-Webster runners-up?

They include “quid pro quo,” “impeach” and “crawdad,” the latter a word in the title of Delia Evans bestselling novel, “Where the Crawdads Sing.” The top 10 also included “egregious,” “clemency” and “the,” a shocker of a look-up spike when the Ohio State University attempted to patent the word to protect its turf. It failed.

Also in the mix: “snitty,” which was used by Atty. Gen. William Barr in reference to a letter by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about a summary Barr wrote of the Mueller report.

We have Washington Post columnist George Will to thank for “tergiversation.” The word, meaning an evasion or a desertion, was Merriam-Webster’s top look-up on Jan. 24 after Will used it in a column in reference to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

The words “camp” and “exculcate” rounded out the Top 10 list.