SEATTLE — 

Rashaad Penny scored one touchdown rushing and one receiving, Russell Wilson hit David Moore for a 60-yard touchdown pass, and the Seattle Seahawks built a big second-half lead before holding off the Minnesota Vikings for a 37-30 win Monday night.

Seattle (10-2) moved into a tie with San Francisco atop of the NFC West but holds the tiebreaker. The Seahawks have the inside track to the division title with four games left.

Minnesota (8-4) fell a game behind Green Bay in the NFC North and is only one game ahead of the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card race. They may have lost star running back Dalvin Cook to a shoulder injury when he fumbled midway through the third quarter in what became a major turning point.

Wilson wasn’t great, but he came up with key plays as Seattle won its fifth straight. He had a forgettable first-half moment trying to bat down a deflected pass only to watch Anthony Harris intercept the ball and return it for a touchdown. Wilson was 21 of 31 for 240 yards.

The key was the running of Penny and Chris Carson. Seattle rushed for 218 yards, the most allowed by Minnesota this season. Carson had 102, including a 1-yard TD. Penny added 74. The Vikings were giving up just 94 yards per game rushing.

Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins was 22 of 38 for 276 yards but couldn’t connect with Irv Smith Jr. on fourth-and-3 at the Vikings 42 with 2:31 left. Jason Myers’ 36-yard field goal with 21 seconds left provided the final margin for Seattle.

It was a wild second half featuring 40 combined points and four key turnovers — three by Minnesota.

Seattle pulled even at 17 on Penny’s 1-yard touchdown run. On Minnesota’s first play of the next possession, Cook was stripped by Rasheem Green, and Bradley McDougald recovered. It was the first of two critical turnovers that led to 10 points for Seattle.

The Seahawks were held to a field goal following Cook’s fumble but took a 27-17 lead on their next possession when Moore ran free through the Vikings secondary and Wilson hit him in stride. Minnesota cornerback Xavier Rhodes appeared to think he had safety help over the top, but no one was there as Moore sprinted for his second TD catch of the season on the next-to-last play of the third quarter.

The first play of the fourth quarter was forgettable for the Vikings as well. Cousins’ pass for Stefan Diggs was intercepted by Tre Flowers, who may have gotten away with pass interference, but deflected the pass and made a juggling interception at the Minnesota 25. Three plays later, Wilson hit Penny on a screen pass and Seattle had a 17-point lead.

Minnesota’s rally started with Seattle’s own blown coverage as Cousins hit Laquon Treadwell for a 58-yard touchdown from Cousins. Seattle seemed poised to add on, helped by a fake punt that Travis Homer took for 29 yards, but DK Metcalf fumbled and the Vikings recovered at their 28 with 9:34 left.

It took barely 2 minutes for Minnesota to pull within 34-30 as Cousins hit Kyle Rudolph for a 3-yard touchdown and another brilliant one-handed catch by the Vikings’ tight end. But that was as close as Minnesota would get.

Injuries

Vikings left tackle Riley Reiff suffered a concussion early in the second half and was ruled out. Cook immediately went to the locker room after his fumble with a shoulder injury and did not return.

Up Next

Vikings: Return home to host Detroit on Sunday.

Seahawks: Travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams on Sunday night.

It was only 5½ years ago that the Kings and the Ducks played an epic second-round playoff series that the Kings rallied to win in a seventh game at Honda Center, gaining an emotional boost that propelled them toward their second Stanley Cup championship in three seasons. Times have been lean for both teams since then, strangely synchronized in their mediocrity as both missed the playoffs last spring completely on lack of merit.

Neither team held a playoff position when they met in Anaheim on Monday for the first time this season, a 4-2 victory by the Ducks in a subdued renewal of their once-fierce rivalry. Not until late in the second period, when the Ducks were protecting a one-goal lead against an energetic push by the Kings, did fans work up enough emotion to start chants for their respective teams, and the crowd looked far smaller than the announced total of 15,434.

The game wasn’t as tense or as dramatic or as skillful as those playoff encounters, but these are different times and different teams. Still, echoes of the rivalry remained.

“We treated it like it’s a normal NHL game. You want to win but there’s a little something there. There’s pride,” Ducks goaltender Ryan Miller said after earning his first win since Oct. 26.

The Kings, who fell to 2-10-1 on the road this season, outshot the Ducks by 19-6 in the second period but, as happened too often this season, couldn’t finish. “It seems to me we don’t bring the same energy on the road as we do at home. We take a lot of jabs, we get knocked down. We slowly pick ourselves up off the mat, then it’s too late,” coach Todd McLellan said. “Can’t play that way. We’ve got some things we need to address and adjust to. I don’t know why it’s happening, but we certainly have to look at it.”

Highlights from the Ducks’ 4-2 win over the Kings at Honda Center on Monday.

After receiving the game in the second period instead of taking the initiative, the Ducks showed resolve by playing a stronger third period. “I think it’s not an ideal period for us. We weren’t doing a very good job in the neutral zone,” Miller said. “I thought we hung together pretty well. Definitely on our heels a bit. The third period was a good reaction.”

The only goal of the third period was the clincher, scored into an empty net by fourth-line center Derek Grant with 38 seconds left. The Ducks’ fourth line was their best weapon, with Grant scoring twice and Carter Rowney scoring once. The kids the Ducks had anticipated would be able to shoulder the scoring load haven’t been producing, so it was left to the low-profile fourth line to save the day — and not for the first time. Grant, Rowney and Nicolas Deslauriers stepped into the void and did their job well at both ends of the ice.

“They’re to be trusted, that’s for sure,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “They just do everything that’s asked of them. They play a very, very simple game and I think playing a simple game has a great advantage. And again, tonight, those guys leading the way was very important to our success.”

It was just another night’s work of grinding and scoring for Grant, who now has eight goals.

“As a team when you’re struggling to score goals you’re going to take them from anywhere,” Grant said, “and it’s something that for our team to be successful we need all four lines to chip in at different times and we did that tonight. I thought as a group we played well in the third with the lead and we were able to come out on top.”

The Ducks scored first, at 5:14 of the first period, when Grant swatted a rebound past Kings goalie Jack Campbell. The Ducks, who entered the game ranked next to last in the NHL in power-play efficiency, scored a rare man-advantage goal to take a 2-0 lead at 9:47, a play highlighted by Jakob Silfverberg’s one-timer from the left circle.

The Kings cut their deficit to 2-1 at 6:01 of the second period, when defenseman Kurtis MacDermid, who was a healthy scratch in the Kings’ previous game, took a shot from the left point that bounced before it got past Miller. The Ducks responded quickly, when Rowney finished off a slick pass from Hampus Lindholm for a 3-1 lead at 6:57 of the second period. But Kings winger Nikolai Prokhorkin made a dazzling move to score his fourth goal this season, going to his backhand and deking Miller out of position at 11:42 of the second period. Miller, who had been told he’d probably start even before No. 1 goalie John Gibson became too ill to dress for the game, faced 36 shots total.

It’s easy to understand why Kings-Ducks games have become a tough sell at the box office. Both teams have had to revamp their rosters to adapt to the leaguewide trend toward youth and speed, and both have a new coach this season. Both have been showing up and competing most nights but haven’t been able to do that every night, as elite teams do. They’ve offered occasional glimpses of how good they might be someday, but neither has been consistent enough to think a return to the playoffs is likely this season. They’re still figuring out who they want to be when they grow up and how they’re going to get there, a process that often has been painful to watch for both teams.

The Ducks’ winning formula on Monday consisted of gritting their teeth during that second period and grinding on every shift. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. “These type of games, those are the fun ones to play,” Grant said.

“These type” might be the kind that gets the Ducks to the next step in their effort to return to contention.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the L.A. Times soccer newsletter. I’m Kevin Baxter, the Times’ soccer writer and we start today in Europe, where the gap between the rich clubs and the poor ones has never been wider.

The defending champion in three of the continent’s top five leagues – Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus — are the among richest clubs in their countries, according to the accountancy firm Deloitte, which annually ranks the world’s top teams by soccer revenues.

In all three cases, no other club is close.

And Barcelona, the reigning champion in Spain, is the second-richest club in the world behind only league rival Real Madrid.

But in recent years some little guys have proven you can still beat the big clubs even if you can’t outspend them.

In 2016, for example, lowly Leicester City, just two seasons removed from the second-tier Championship, won the EPL title despite having a $100-million payroll that ranked 17^th in the league.

Chelsea and Manchester United each spent nearly 4½ times as much on players that season.

However the real master at doing more with less may be Spanish club Sevilla, winner of three of the last six Europa League titles. Twenty years ago the club was so deep in debt it nearly sold its stadium to pay its bills.

“We didn’t even have the money to buy footballs,” said team president Jose Castro.

So the team found other ways to compete. Because it’s cheaper to make a player than it is to buy one, Sevilla built a stellar academy, one that sent stars such as Sergio Ramos and Jesus Navas to the first team, then on to wealthy teams for exorbitant transfer fees.

“All these players have made us a better side. And then gone on to help the club’s finances when they were sold,” Castro said. “We were the first to understand that, as unpopular as it may be, selling a star player could mean taking a step backward and then three steps forward as long as we knew how to invest the money.”

That’s where Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo – better known as Monchi – comes in. A former goalkeeper who spent his entire career with Sevilla, Monchi, now the club’s sporting director, is the Billy Beane of international soccer.

He has built a deep scouting and player-development system that has beaten the bushes to find, then produce, young players. But it’s also helped him find value in players others have overlooked, allowing him to buy low and sell high, running players through his first team like they’re on a conveyor belt.

And like Beane, executive vice-president of baseball’s Oakland Athletics, he’s managed to win while doing that.

“Being different from the rest will always be the plan,” Monchi said. “On the sporting side we are betting on innovation and development, creating a specific department for this. We are using tools and cutting-edge ideas to look at data.

“Everyone has the data. We are now looking to lighten this process. This is the key. We are trying to cover as much as possible and do it in the quickest way too.

“Twenty thousand players play in professional leagues every weekend. We are trying to create tools to take from those the evidence and data as quickly as possible.”

Between 2005-2016, that strategy won Sevilla six Europa League titles and three domestic cups. Then Monchi left for Roma and the team won nothing.

He returned in March, made 38 moves in the summer transfer market and now Sevilla is third in La Liga – a point behind deep-pocketed Barcelona and Real Madrid – and unbeaten five games into the current Europa League tournament.

“This is how we have done it,” Monchi said. “By returning to being different and setting a trend.”

When Monchi started sending scouts to U-20 games, he says few teams followed. Now those tournaments draw hundreds of club representatives, he said. And while he didn’t invent the idea of developing talent with an eye toward selling it, Monchi has probably played the transfer market better than any other executive in European soccer.

And while that hasn’t changed the names at the top of the league table in Spain, it may be making those top clubs a little uncomfortable.

“We know in advance that the top two spots are for [Real] Madrid and Barcelona. And the third is for Atletico [Madrid] because these teams have a much bigger budget,” he said. “Being close to these teams or even knocking one of them out of third place would be a noteworthy achievement.

“I believe we are close to this level. Our objective to be amongst the best teams in Europe.”

We didn’t start the fire

Zlatan Ibrahimovic took to social media last week to share a photo of a green Hammarby jersey with his name on the back, immediately fueling speculation the former Galaxy striker had signed with the Swedish club.

Turned out he was just announcing he had become a part-owner of the club. But given what happened next he may wish he had kept that a secret.

Ibrahimovic began his pro career in his hometown with rival club Malmo, which just last month erected a statue of him in front of its stadium. So when news spread that Ibrahimovic now owned part of another club, Malmo’s ultras poured lighter fluid on the statue and used flares to set it ablaze. Another group of fans went to the house Ibrahimovic keeps in Malmo and wrote “Judas “ on the door.

Ibrahimovic became a part owner of Hammarby, a Stockholm-based club, by assuming a 23.5% share that was previously held by AEG, the Galaxy’s parent company. The transfer in ownership was part of an agreement Ibrahimovic had with the Galaxy when he signed with the MLS club, similar to the deal David Beckham had in 2007. Beckham’s deal included a $25-million option to buy an MLS club, an option he exercised with Inter Miami, which enters the league next season.

“Everyone is extremely critical,” Kaveh Hosseinpour, vice chairman of the ultras supporter group, told Swedish journalists. “Some are disappointed, some are angry and some think it is idiotic.

“He has probably lost his grip on what he means to Malmo. He misunderstands his position a little when he says that Malmo will be happy for his sake. There is no one in Malmo who runs around in an LA Galaxy shirt and plays with Ibrahimovic on his back.”

Former Malmo player and coach Jens Fjellstrom said in a podcast that Ibrahimovic’s decision was “a declaration of war” and that Ibrahimovic should be considered a “rival” to the club.

Hosseinpour, meanwhile, has called for the statue to be removed and reinstalled in Stockholm, closer to Ibrahimovic’s new team.

Border crossing

Last month’s announcement that Mexico’s Liga MX would take part in the 2020 MLS all-star game is just the latest in a growing list of collaborations between the two leagues that are already benefiting both. But Landon Donovan, who played on both sides of the border, said the biggest impact has yet to be felt.

Last season there were six Mexicans in MLS with four of them – LAFC’s Carlos Vela and Pablo Sisniega and the Galaxy’s Jonathan dos Santos and Uriel Antuna – playing in Southern California. And Donovan, who came out of retirement to spend part of a year playing in the Liga MX with Leon, says he expects that number to increase markedly as the leagues come closer together.

“To a player, every one of them came up to me at some point in four months and said ‘can you get me to MLS?’ I want to play in MLS,” Donovan said of his Mexican league teammates. “In the past the gap in wages was so big that it just made too much sense to play in Mexico. Now it’s very small or it’s negligible. And so now they want to come play here.”

Days after Donovan made those comments Chivas de Guadalajara striker Alan Pulido indicated he was about to do just that.

“Most likely I’ll go to MLS. There are some important teams there that are interested in me,” Pulido said.

Juan Jose Macias, 20, one of Liga MX’s most dangerous strikers in 2019, is repeatedly considering a move north as well.

“It’s great for their family. It’s a great opportunity from a lifestyle perspective. They can make great money,” Donovan said. “They can be stars in these but also have relative anonymity. It’s a dream for them in a lot of cases to come play in America.”

Counting the House

Five of the 10 largest crowds for a women’s soccer match in 2019 featured the U.S. national team.

1. England vs. Germany (friendly in London), 77,768

2. Atletico Madrid vs. Barcelona (Spain, Liga Femenina), 60,739

3. U.S. vs. Netherlands (Women’s World Cup final in Lyon), 57,900

4. U.S. vs. England (Women’s World Cup semifinal in Lyon), 53,512

5. U.S. vs. Portugal (friendly in Philadelphia), 49,504

6. Netherlands vs. Sweden (Women’s World Cup semifinal in Lyon), 48,452

7. Athletic Bilbao vs. Atletico Madrid (Spain. Copa de la Reina), 48,121

8. U.S. vs. France (Women’s World Cup quarterfinal in Paris), 45,595

9. U.S. vs. Chile (Women’s World Cup group stage in Paris), 45,594

10.France vs. South Korea (Women’s World Cup group stage in Paris), 45,261

(Source: Soccer America)

Geography lesson

With expansion teams in Nashville and Miami entering Major League Soccer next season, MLS had to add one team to each of its two conferences. Miami was the natural addition for the 13-team Eastern Conference, leaving Nashville, which is east of the Mississippi River – and east of Chicago — in the Western Conference.

But that’s not the biggest issue with the latest round of expansion. With 26 teams and a 34-game schedule, MLS teams, for the first time, will not play all of their league rivals in 2020.

Each team will play 24 games in conference, meeting the other 12 clubs home and away. But because the league will stick with a 34-game schedule, that leaves room for just 10 games against clubs from the other conference, leading to the most unbalanced schedule in the league’s 25-year history.

And that will make the competition for the Supporters’ Shield, which goes to the team with the league’s best regular-season record, controversial since teams won’t be playing equal schedules. For example LAFC and the Galaxy, which are both in the Western Conference, will play defending league champion Seattle twice while the New York Red Bulls may not play Seattle at all.

MLS could have avoided that by expanding its schedule to 37 games, allowing for all 26 teams to meet one another at least once. But that would have meant further crowding an already packed schedule.

The league will face more scheduling headaches in 2021 when Austin joins the league, then again in 2022 when St. Louis and Sacramento begin play.

The league hopes to announce the complete 2020 schedule by the end of the year. The season will kick off on Feb. 29, the earliest start in MLS history.

Quotebook

“I never stopped dreaming and enjoying football like when I was a child. I hope I have more years to enjoy, although I am aware of how old I am. Everything happens very quickly and I know that the moment of retirement is approaching.”

Lionel Messi, 32, after winning a record sixth Ballon d’Or on Monday

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.

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Marie Velasco places a rose for her daughter, Yvette Velasco, at a memorial at Cal State San Bernardino on Monday. Yvette Velasco was one of the youngest victims at the mass shooting in San Bernardino four years ago that left 14 people dead and 22 others wounded. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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Erica Porteous speaks about her sister, Yvette Velasco, at the memorial. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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The terrorist attack in San Bernardino took place four years ago. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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A rose for the victims. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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Melissa Levy listens during the memorial service at Cal State San Bernardino. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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Allie Wetzel places a rose for her father. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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Remembering the terrorist attack. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

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Family members of Yvette Velasco. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

The more than 1,400 days since Yvette Velasco died at the hands of two terrorists in the San Bernardino attack hasn’t buffered the grief for the family she left behind. They said it’s actually worse.

Every time there’s another mass tragedy, Velasco’s mother and sister say they live through the pain again. When Velasco’s mother, Marie, watched news coverage of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., and the shooting at a Walmart in El Paso in August, she heard of other mothers searching for their children, only to learn they were killed. That mentally transports her back to where she was four years ago, she said.

“When you hear parents on TV saying, ‘I can’t find my kid,’ I know what that felt like,” she said. “We know that nightmare because we’ve lived it. It’s indescribable.”

There are ways to cope with the pain even though it is permanent, the family said. On Monday, the four-year anniversary of when Velasco and 13 others were killed, Cal State San Bernardino held a memorial for the victims. Speaking before the crowd, Velasco’s sister, Erica Porteous, said these moments help her family though hard times.

“For our family, not a day goes by that we don’t feel the loss,” Porteous said. “But this brings us comfort.”

On Dec. 2, 2015, a San Bernardino County employee and his wife marched into an office holiday party at the Inland Regional Center; they were clad in black and armed with assault rifles and pistols. They killed 14 people and injured 22 others. Authorities killed them in a shootout.

Velasco, who worked as an environmental health specialist, was 27.

Five of the victims — Robert Adams, Juan Espinoza, Shannon Johnson, Michael Wetzel and Velasco — were Cal State alumni. Three years ago, the university created a “Peace Garden” to honor the victims. It was built just steps away from the College of Natural Sciences, where the five alumni graduated.

At the beginning and end of Monday’s service, a faculty member rang a bell in the center of the stone-accented garden 14 times, once for each of the fallen. It remains silent for the rest of the year.

Sastry Pantula, dean of the college of natural sciences, joined the university in 2018. Though he didn’t know the victims, he said they are always on his mind.

The garden, he said, has become important to the campus. His faculty and students sometimes hold meetings there. Occasionally, he will eat lunch there and meditate. Pantula said it’s imperative to remember the lives lost, not just on the anniversary.

“When you Google San Bernardino, the first thing you read about is the shooting,” Pantula said. “But you can’t live in fear, and it is good that we are promoting peace.

“The biggest worry for me is seeing people reading the news and becoming immune, saying ‘That’s just another shooting.’ People are getting thick skin and aren’t paying attention to the violence around us.”

Dressed in dark clothes with sunglasses covering her eyes, Porteous held a picture of her sister with her black graduation tassel dangling from the frame. After the ceremony, which included brief remarks from Pantula, Porteous and William Vandyke, who works in the college, family members of Velasco and other victims laid white roses at the base of the bell. Porteous said she wants the public to know that her sister was a loving person, and she is thankful that her memory is being kept alive.

“I think that this garden and the fact that the Cal State community continue to remember the alumni, and that their deaths were not in vain, can hopefully bring a sense of awareness,” Porteous said.

State regulators said Pacific Gas & Electric failed to adequately inspect and maintain aging power lines that started last year’s devastating Camp fire, which obliterated the town of Paradise and killed 86 people.

In a 696-page report filed last week, investigators with the California Public Utilities Commission cited PG&E for violating a dozen state safety rules and regulations.

PG&E “failed to maintain an effective inspection and maintenance program to identify and correct hazardous conditions on its transmission lines,” the report says.

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State investigators said there was “visible wear” evident on the arms of the tower tied to the fire but that PG&E failed to conduct climbing inspections of the tower that could have revealed it.

PG&E crews had not climbed the tower that malfunctioned and sparked the Camp fire since at least 2001, the report said.

“This omission is a violation of PG&E’s own policy requiring climbing inspections on towers where recurring problems exist,” the report states.

A climbing inspection could have identified a worn C-hook that failed, and “its timely replacement could have prevented ignition of the Camp fire,” the report says.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection concluded earlier this year that PG&E equipment caused the devastating blaze.

The utility has not disputed the findings. PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January in part because of losses from the November 2018 fire. Scores of lawsuits have been filed against the utility.

PG&E could not be reached for comment on the Public Utilities Commission report Monday night. But in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, the utility said it accepts the conclusions of the report “reaffirming” findings of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“We remain deeply sorry about the role our equipment had in this tragedy, and we apologize to all those impacted by the devastating Camp Fire,” spokesman Paul Doherty told the Chronicle.

There were systematic problems with the company’s oversight of the nearly 100-year-old Caribou-Palermo power line blamed for the fire, the deadliest in state history, according to the report.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 3, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

There are certain square-jawed scions of political families who seem practically born to run for office, or at least be called “Mr. Congressman” by the kid carrying their golf clubs.

But few quite literally take over their father’s seat in Congress, as was the case when Duncan Hunter won his first House race in 2008 to succeed his father, also named Duncan Hunter.

For decades, it seemed nearly unimaginable that anyone not named Duncan Hunter might ever represent this swath of inland San Diego suburbs and portion of Riverside County now known as California’s 50th Congressional District. Even a criminal indictment didn’t seem capable of toppling the Hunter hold on one of the state’s most conservative districts — Hunter still won reelection in 2018, after being indicted with his wife on 60 felony counts that August. But nothing lasts forever, even dynastic strangleholds.

On Monday, in what even the famously evenhanded Associated Press termed “a stunning turn of events,” Hunter announced that he would be pleading guilty in the sweeping campaign finance investigation. The decision to change his plea comes after years of ardent denials and claims that he had been the target of a political “witch hunt.”

[Read the story: “Rep. Duncan Hunter says he will plead guilty in campaign finance scandal, leave Congress” in the Los Angeles Times]

On Monday, Hunter did not explicitly announce that he will be leaving Congress, which is often an outcome in any such plea agreement. But he insinuated as much in an interview with a San Diego TV station, telling KUSI that he was confident “that the transition will be a good one,” and stressed the importance of keeping his seat in the Republican Party.

I know that we live in an age of perma-political scandal and that it can sometimes be difficult to keep them all straight, so let me offer a quick refresher course on the alleged misdeeds of Congressman Hunter.

The August 2018 indictment accused Hunter and his wife of not just being corrupt, but wildly corrupt. Authorities alleged that the Hunters had not only spent more than $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, but that they had also gone to great lengths to conceal and disguise those expenses.

How, you might wonder, does one allegedly blow a quarter-million dollars of campaign funds on personal spending? The apparent answer is both lavish and quotidian, a laundry list of fancy vacations and mundane household expenses.

According to the 47-page indictment, the Hunters spent five figures in campaign funds on a Thanksgiving trip to Italy; they also spent five figures in campaign funds at Costco.

There were dental bills, school tuition, theater and sports tickets, clothes and many rounds of golf. In my personal favorite line item, $600 in airline fees were spent to fly their pet rabbit, Eggburt, across the country. Hunter’s spokesperson referred to this charge as “cabin rabbit transport fees.”

Before the indictment, Hunter was largely known in the public consciousness for two things: Being one of the first sitting congressmen to endorse President Trump’s presidential campaign back in early 2016, and a separate incident in which Hunter went mildly viral for hitting a vape while legislating.

His long, slow fall began in 2016, when the Federal Election Commission and the San Diego Union-Tribune questioned his use of campaign funds to pay for video games on 68 occasions. At the time, the congressman attributed the charges to a mistake made by his son.

A little less than a year after the indictment, in June 2019, Hunter’s wife, Margaret, entered a guilty plea that spelled potential problems for the six-term congressman’s defense. Less than two weeks later, prosecutors entered a new court filing, alleging that Hunter also used campaign money to fund a series of extramarital affairs with congressional staffers and lobbyists.

Hunter is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday morning to change his plea. He told KUSI that he hoped to spare his children from the difficult spectacle of a trial.

In terms of what’s next for the 50th Congressional District, Republicans are likely to maintain the seat. But Hunter’s guilty plea, which will seemingly take him off the 2020 ballot, “has wholly recast what already was a heated race,” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

[Read the story: “Duncan Hunter’s guilty plea will widen an already open race for the 50th District” in the San Diego Union-Tribune]

Former Rep. Darrell Issa, former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio and state Sen. Brian Jones had all previously announced that they would challenge Hunter in the primary. Ammar Campa-Najjar, the Democratic challenger whom Hunter defeated in 2018, is also running again.

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

TOP STORIES

In a major change for the team tasked with addressing rising homelessness in the region, the leader of L.A.’s top homeless agency has announced that he is stepping down after a “long five years.” Homelessness has increased 33% during Peter Lynn’s tenure at the helm of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, precipitating a public reaction that has produced millions of dollars of new tax revenue but also growing frustration with the lack of visible results. Los Angeles Times

One of California’s most powerful labor unions is feuding with Gov. Gavin Newsom. Tensions between the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, which represents plumbers, electricians, ironworkers and other construction workers, and the governor have been brewing for nearly a year. The conflict is fueled by what the union says were actions by the governor that ran counter to the interests of its members, including vetoing bills they supported. The governor’s fight with one of the most formidable factions of organized labor at the Capitol could threaten his agenda to address the state’s housing crisis and test the trades’ political muscle in Sacramento. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Toll lanes in the Sepulveda Pass? Metro is in the early stages of planning to allow solo drivers in the 405’s carpool lanes, for a price. Similar programs on portions of the 110 and 10 freeways charge drivers a per-mile toll that changes based on traffic conditions. Los Angeles Times

Pozole season is nigh. Here’s where to get the hominy and meat stew in L.A. L.A. Taco

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IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

The Border Patrol threw away migrants’ belongings. A janitor secretly saved and photographed them. The images are now on display at the Skirball in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Newsom will travel to Iowa to campaign for Sen. Kamala Harris. (Insert your own joke about Newsom’s trip also laying the groundwork in Iowa for his eventual presidential campaign here.) Associated Press

CRIME AND COURTS

Riot Games will pay out at least $10 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit. The suit began in November 2018 when two women who had worked at the Los Angeles game studio sued over violations of the California Equal Pay act, alleging that they were routinely subject to sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Los Angeles Times

The establishment of an “Asian Gang Task Force” after a Fresno mass shooting has drawn criticism from the Hmong community in Fresno and beyond: “Some have said they applaud the dedication of more police officers, but think the name of the task force draws unsubstantiated parallels between the shooting and organized crime, reviving unfair stereotypes about the city’s Southeast Asian residents.” KQED

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

“In Search of Lost Time” in the BART station. This Belgian-turned-San Franciscan is on a quest read all of Proust — out loud, in French, in subway stations. Mission Local

Spanish-speaking Camp fire survivors face language and immigration barriers. Chico Enterprise-Record

The WeWork movie is coming. Universal and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions have fast-tracked a film about the embattled start-up and its founder and former CEO. The Hollywood Reporter

Dozens of logs the length of cars mysteriously appeared on an Oakland street, preventing street sweeping and parking. Homeless advocates have criticized the logs, which they think were dumped there to deter overnight car camping. East Bay Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: cloudy, 68. San Diego: cloudy, 66. San Francisco: rain, 61. San Jose: rain, 63. Sacramento: partly sunny, 62. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Karina F. Moreno:

“To be a middle-class tween girl in the Bay Area in the ‘80s was to be obsessed with the ESPRIT outlet. The trek from my house in Oakland to what was then an obscure part of San Francisco was a weekend field trip. The concrete warehouse in the middle of nowhere was full of perfectly organized and color-coded sections of clothes, radiating teenage cool. There were lavish displays of what I could be — sporty, studious, sassy, simple. Now the Warriors arena stands in the shadow of the old ESPRIT outlet — new possibilities, just with a steeper price.”

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

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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.

SAN DIEGO — 

Federal authorities Monday announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of a former San Diego man believed to be the highest-ranking United States citizen fighting for a terrorist organization overseas.

Jehad Serwan Mostafa, 37, is charged in a superseding indictment with providing support to Somali-based terrorist organization Shabab, described by prosecutors as a “militant Islamic” group responsible for numerous deadly attacks on Somali government and military members in East Africa.

Mostafa is charged with criminal activities dating from 2008 to 2017, though authorities told reporters Monday that he’s believed to still be working in a central role planning Shabab’s operations against the government of Somalia.

Federal prosecutors said Mostafa was born in Wisconsin but grew up in San Diego’s Serra Mesa neighborhood and attended high school and college in San Diego.

In 2005, he left the country for Yemen and later Somalia, according to Scott Brunner, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego division.

At some point, Mostafa joined Shabab, which has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and claimed responsibility for attacks that involve murder, kidnapping and the use of weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Atty. Robert Brewer said.

The group’s goal is to institute “a rigid interpretation of Sharia law” in Somalia by destabilizing the country through attacks against Ethiopian, Somali and other African Union forces, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Mostafa has allegedly participated in terrorist attacks, trained soldiers and acted as a media spokesman for Shabab. Video clips played during the news conference showed an apparently masked Mostafa appearing at a Somali refugee camp in which he read a statement paying tribute to Osama Bin Laden.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Erin Westfall said it’s believed Mostafa is in southern Somalia, where the terrorist group’s stronghold is located, but that the public’s assistance is needed to locate his exact whereabouts.

Mostafa was originally charged in a three-count indictment in 2009, but the superseding indictment unsealed Monday expands the scope of the original charges through 2017, according to prosecutors.

Anyone with information regarding Mostafa’s whereabouts is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or send tips online to tips.fbi.gov. Information can be provided anonymously.

On Sept. 16, 2018, Ethan Slater braced himself for the final performance of “SpongeBob SquarePants.” The Nickelodeon musical had been open on Broadway for nine months, and it received generally positive reviews and 12 Tony Award nominations. But the Palace Theatre was closing for multiyear renovations, forcing the undersea spectacle to shutter as well.

That last audience was filled with devout fans, some who had seen the show dozens of times. Families had flown in from out of town, millennials came dressed in cartoon costumes. And before anything had really begun, they were all on their feet and cheering loudly at the entry of foley artist Mike Dobson, who performed hundreds of sound effects that animated the actors onstage.

Backstage, Slater — who portrays the porous, persistently optimistic sponge — was moved to tears.

“Even though he wasn’t visible on the Broadway stage, the foley was such a quintessential part of the show,” he recalled of Dobson, who was in the orchestra pit. “It was this perfect moment when I realized that even though we were closing, our audience had understood what we were doing. It ended up being like that for the whole show, full of these beautiful little realizations that this was the last time we were gonna perform this.”

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Or so he thought. Last month, the cast and creative team reunited for “The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!” which will simulcast at 7 p.m. Saturday across Nickelodeon, TeenNick and Nicktoons. The airing is part of the yearlong celebration of the 20th anniversary of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” created by the late Stephen Hillenburg.

“This is something that deserves a wider audience, so we absolutely wanted to film it in whatever way we could,” said Rob Bagshaw, Nickelodeon’s executive vice president of unscripted and live events. “‘SpongeBob’ has always been at the forefront of many of our tentpole characters, and the fact that it’s an existing title made it obvious for our first project. We love the results, and we’d like to do more.”

Like the many entries into the “live musical event” space — whether airing on network television or broadcast to movie theaters through National Theatre Live — the upcoming “SpongeBob Musical” aims to make theater accessible to a new audience.

“Even though our show always had affordable options when it was on Broadway, if you live in Kansas, a $35 ticket to the show also comes with a round-trip plane ticket,” Slater said. “As a young person who didn’t grow up in New York, this would’ve meant a lot to me. I hope this will inspire a new generation of theatergoers, who aren’t close to Broadway, to check out regional productions or tours.”

Nickelodeon’s presentation less resembles the offerings from NBC, Fox and ABC than those from PBS, Netflix and BroadwayHD. “The SpongeBob Musical” will be captured and edited for an airing rather than broadcast live. Most of these pretaped titles do not air — or, sometimes, are not even announced — until after the original stage show has closed, possibly as a cautionary move to not cannibalize ticket sales.

Recently, that unofficial rule was broken when Netflix announced that Mike Birbiglia’s one-man Broadway show “The New One” would premiere on the streaming platform in a month’s time. Netflix made the announcement just before the tour began its month-long stop at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. CTG producing director Douglas C. Baker didn’t think the Netflix news negatively affected ticket sales.

“If anything, it raised the profile of the production and brought us the attention of a lot of people who wouldn’t have otherwise known about us,” he said in a statement. “We are working in a crowded entertainment market, so any opportunity to introduce new audiences to the theater is priceless. Hopefully we hooked them on the live theater experience and will be seeing them back at Center Theatre Group for future productions.”

But if TV audiences nationwide can watch “The SpongeBob Musical” from the comfort of home and through a service for which they already have paid, will they buy tickets to the touring version of the Broadway show, now on the road and coming to the Dolby Theatre in L.A. in the spring?

Pantages’ general manager, Jeff Loeb, whose company is bringing “SpongeBob” to the Dolby, is throwing his full support behind the airing.

“We have seen our fans enthusiastically engage on social media whenever a musical is aired on television, and for fans of musical theater, seeing the show once and only once is never enough,” he said in a statement. “Being able to see a live capture performance on television or in a movie theater gives fans additional opportunities to enjoy the art form they love. It is also a great way for patrons who may not have been able to travel to Broadway to see the show prior to seeing it locally at the Dolby Theatre. Live broadcasts are a win-win for everyone.”

Bagshaw said that Nickelodeon supports both endeavors equally and that the airing might encourage viewers to buy tickets to the “SpongeBob” tour. Tina Landau — who directed the show on Broadway, on tour and on-screen with seasoned awards show helmer Glenn Weiss — is OK with the concurrency, as long as the show is being seen in some way.

“For me, this show was, and continues to be, a vessel of joy and hope and optimism,” Landau said. “It has been nothing but a gift that we all want to give and share with audiences, and however we do that works for me.”

What “The SpongeBob Musical” does have going for it over network television’s other live musical events is the luxury of time. This is the taping of a production that was created over a decade, and it features most of the entire original cast, who spent years developing their characters and played them for Broadway audiences eight times a week for nine months. They bring the brand’s beloved cartoon characters to life without wearing the theme-park bodysuits.

Slater, who perfected his personification of SpongeBob over six years, spends the entire show dressed in a gingham yellow shirt, skinny red tie and brown plaid pants. He evokes SpongeBob through a high-pitched, nasal voice and a zippy head-to-toe physicality. He even added some new bits for the taping — an extra backflip here, a riskier trick fall there.

“Ethan had some incredible moves and facial expressions that we really took advantage of with a close-up, to accentuate moments and really bring it home on TV,” said Weiss, who directed the telecast. “It’s like the cartoon, which you’re not watching from a faraway seat. It always zooms in on his eyes, so we wanted to do that too.”

During the two-day shoot at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in England, Weiss and Landau worked together to capture as many design elements as possible: the intricate ensemble formations in “(Just a) Simple Sponge.” The apocalyptic lighting design in “No Control.” The invaluable work of foley artist Dobson, now primely positioned in a visible corner of David Zinn’s vibrant, Tony-winning scenic design.

To make the show work for a television schedule, Landau and book writer Kyle Jarrow had to identify spots for commercial breaks and trim the script by about 15 minutes. The latter was a tougher task, because every song is composed by a different songwriter — among them David Bowie, Sara Bareilles, John Legend, Yolanda Adams, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.

“I always felt like the Broadway version was too long, but I didn’t know how to get those minutes before we opened,” Landau said. “I was so happy with how we ended up doing it because rather than cutting any whole songs, we did small nips and tucks and somehow got it down for the time. Coming back to this with a little distance, it was like, ‘We don’t need that favorite joke of mine.’”

With 20 years of brand recognition on its side, “The SpongeBob Musical” sets the sincere simplicities of the series to song. SpongeBob belts out about his dream to manage the Krusty Krab; its greedy owner, Mr. Krabs (Brian Ray Norris), wails of his love of money. The pessimism of Squidward (Gavin Lee) manifests in a spectacular tap-dance number that uses his numerous tentacles and comes complete with a clarinet solo. And starfish Patrick (Danny Skinner) wonders, with all his might, what words rhyme with “rock.”

Instead of being based on any particular episode, “The SpongeBob Musical” features an original story line: A fatal volcano eruption is on the horizon, invoking sheer pandemonium among the residents of Bikini Bottom. Science-minded squirrel Sandy (Christina Sajous) calls it a symptom of “tidal warming.” She’s scapegoated as an outsider and told to go back where she came from. A dictator-like mayor eggs it all on.

The musical has become all too prescient, noted Landau.

“From the beginning, the story was always about the end of the world and how approaching danger can turn a society or a community in on itself,” she said. “That just became more a mirror of what seems to be happening in the world, as time went on. It was interesting how increasingly political and timely it became without our ever working towards that as a goal.”

According to Slater, its applicability is what makes it so fit for a television broadcast. “Unfortunately, the themes of xenophobia and climate disaster are always relevant,” he said. “But there’s a broader consciousness and a larger discussion about these things now, so it’s a great time for it to be on TV and reach a wider audience.”

Veteran TV producer and director Ken Ehrlich began his career with the Grammy Awards telecast in 1980, and in four decades presiding over the broadcast has become perhaps best known for mashup live performances featuring musicians from often wildly disparate genres and generations. Think Elton John and Eminem in 2001, classical pianist Lang Lang with heavy metal group Metallica in 2014 or Paul McCartney, Kanye West and Rihanna in 2015.

The 62nd Grammy Awards on Jan. 26 will be his final night at the helm, after which Ben Winston, executive producer of “The Late Late Show With James Corden,” will take over.

“I don’t know what my legacy is going to be with this show,” Ehrlich said. “I don’t know if next year I’ll be forgotten. I don’t care. These have been 40 of the most amazing years of my life.”

We invited Ehrlich, 76, to share in his own words the watershed moments from his long tenure of bringing the awards show to viewers around the world.

MOST NERVE-RACKING
Justin Timberlake, Al Green, Boyz II Men and Keith Urban, “Let’s Stay Together” (2009)
“This was the day Chris Brown and Rihanna bailed on the show during dress rehearsal. First we heard that he wasn’t coming and had no clue what happened. I said to myself, ‘I’ll just let the show breathe a little more, make up three minutes here or there; I’ll be OK.’ Then 15 minutes later, I got a call that she wasn’t coming. Someone finally came in and said they were out last night, somebody hit somebody, they’re not going to be here today. Now I’ve got nine, 9½ minutes to fill.

“I was sitting next to [Timberlake’s manager] Johnny Wright. I said, ‘What am I going to do?’ He said, ‘I think there’s something we can do with Justin.’ We walked back to Justin’s dressing room and told him we had a problem. Justin, with more presence of mind than I had at that moment, said, ‘Let’s look at who else is on the show’ and zeroed in on Al Green’s name. He said, ‘I just did “Let’s Stay Together” with him in Memphis — why don’t we see if he’ll do that with me?’ We also had Boyz II Men on the show, and I thought we could use them. We walked past Keith Urban in the hallway and asked him, ‘Would you put a solo in “Let’s Stay Together”?’ He said ‘You must be [messing] with me.’ We wound up with a great number with Al and Justin, plus Boyz II Men and Keith Urban in the bargain.”

MOST TALKED-ABOUT
Aretha Franklin singing “Nessun Dorma,” subbing for ailing tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1998)
“It was 8:10, so we’d already been on the air for 10 minutes, and Ron [Basile, one of the show’s producers] came to me with a little note that said, ‘Mr. Pavarotti wants you to call him. He’s at home in his apartment.’ I called and he said, ‘Mr. Ehrlich, I am sick, I cannot sing tonight, I will come sing next year.’ After I said, ‘I hope you feel better,’ I thought, ‘What am I gonna do? There’s a 35- to 40-piece orchestra and 30 singers ready to play “Nessun Dorma.” ’

“Then I remembered Aretha had sung it at the MusiCares dinner two nights before for him. She was going to be on the show to do a number related to the ‘Blues Brothers 2000′ movie. I ran upstairs to her dressing room [at Radio City Music Hall] and I took [producer-engineer] Phil Ramone with me. He had basically done MusiCares that year. We walked in, she was sitting there eating chicken, and I just laid it out to her: ‘How would you like to sing “Nessun Dorma” in front of the world?’ She looked at me like, ‘I’ll do it,’ but then said, ‘I need to rehearse it.’ One of us had a cassette of the afternoon rehearsal — that was in the days of boom boxes. We played it for her, and she said, ‘This is three keys higher than I sing it.’ Well, there was no way we could get it transposed for the orchestra and the singers in an hour. So she said, ‘I can do it.’ I walked her down and stood offstage with her. It was the first time she’d seen the setup with the orchestra and singers. She took my hand and squeezed it and said, ‘This is going to be fun.’ Neither of us ever forgot it. After that, she put it into her concerts, and it became one of her signature pieces.”

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MOST CHAOTIC
The show after Whitney Houston died (2012)
“We heard about it around 3 p.m. on Saturday, the day before the show. Todd [Smith, a.k.a. LL Cool J, the show’s host that year] was there with us. I wasn’t thinking in terms of his monologue at that moment. I was thinking we needed to do something, onstage, and I knew the answer was to get Jennifer Hudson to do one verse and one chorus of ‘I Will Always Love You,’ with the barest accompaniment. We brought her in and cleared the house, just her and [house band member] Greg Phillinganes on piano. She couldn’t get through it in the morning when she came in, but she got it on the show. Then it was all about Todd. He said, ‘We need to start the show off with a prayer. David [Wild, the show’s scriptwriter] and I looked at each other. But we are not the spiritual beings that Todd is. He came in the next morning with this prayer, we rehearsed it, put it on, and it was the most appropriate thing in the world.”

MOST UNDERAPPRECIATED
B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Keith Urban and John Mayer salute to Bo Diddley (2009)
“Bo Diddley was shredding before it was called shredding. This segment was sandwiched in between a couple of other things that had more ‘Pow!,’ but this was about musicality. If you can find it on YouTube, you can see the way it was shot: We spent [camera] time looking at the guys who weren’t playing to appreciate the guy who was playing. It’s as much about humility and generosity as anything else.”

MOST MIND-BOGGINGLY COMPLICATED
Opening number (2005)
“We opened the show with five Grammy performers stationed all over Staples Center: Gwen Stefani and Eve, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas and Los Lonely Boys. I’ve always loved the finale scene from the movie ‘Fame,’ where all the different departments come together and perform ‘I Sing the Body Electric.’ And I had always tried to find a way to steal it for the show. The closest I came was that year. We had done three acts, and even four acts in the same number, but this one had the most people coming on- and offstage. Rehearsing it was almost impossible — it was like herding cats: This one’s here, that one’s there. But it was fun to do.”

WILDEST SURPRISE
Adele “Fastlove” restart during George Michael salute (2017)
“Adele restarting her George Michael tribute because she was out of key — I sure didn’t expect her to stop and call out, ‘Hey, Ken, I’m sorry, I need to start this over.’ Obviously, she didn’t hit the key at the beginning. I think it was because she didn’t get the bell note. It’s a number she starts a cappella. So she stopped, God bless her. She had a choice — she could have gone on and gotten creamed by people who knew. But she stopped and said, ‘Let me start over.’ She loved George Michael. That’s the reason I got her to do it.”

MOST FUBAR
Sly Stone tribute with Joss Stone, John Legend, Van Hunt, Maroon 5, Ciara, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry (2006)
“I got hosed by Sly’s manager. It wasn’t obvious in the beginning, but it became clear that he hadn’t told me that Sly didn’t really want to do this. He was a mess. He rode his motorcycle to Staples. He still had his motorcycle suit on when he performed — he got off the bike, came onstage, did the number, then got back on the motorcycle and left.”

MOST MEANINGFUL
“Same Love” with Macklemore and Lewis, Queen Latifah, Madonna and Trombone Shorty (2014)
“We had 28 couples of all sexual preferences who got married onstage. I had heard from my gay daughter that couples were getting engaged at Macklemore shows, so I will always be grateful to her for telling me about that. The number was wonderful —and it made a difference in the culture. It made a bold statement.”

SERIES

The Flash Iris and Cisco (Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes) try to help Barry (Grant Gustin) take control of himself before he’s lost forever in this new episode of the superhero TV series. 8 p.m. The CW

The Resident A former patient files a malpractice lawsuit against Conrad (Matt Czuchry), which puts Bell (Bruce Greenwood) in hot water with his bosses. Also the doctors team up on a risky surgery for Devon’s (Manish Dayal) VIP patient who has a life-threatening brain condition. Shaunette Renée Wilson also stars with guest star Erinn Westbrook. 8 p.m. Fox

The Voice In the new results show, seven artists will be safe and the bottom three will compete to determine which one will be eliminated. 9 p.m. NBC

Empire Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) raises concerns over changes to the “Empire” movie script Lucious (Terrence Howard) made. Trai Byers and Taraji P. Henson also star in this new episode of the music industry drama. 9 p.m. Fox

Fixer to Fabulous Dave and Jenny Marrs are hired by a couple with a baby on the way, who need an overhaul of their woefully outdated 1970s-era home in this new episode of the home design series. 9 p.m. HGTV

Making It The makers transform a blank wall into an artistic home installation then add curb appeal to an ordinary mailbox in this new episode. 10 p.m. NBC

Running Wild With Bear Grylls Armie Hammer scuba dives with Grylls in search of a sea cave used by smugglers. 10 p.m. National Geographic

SPECIALS

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas Boris Karloff narrates this classic animated tale about the lonely and heartless title character who decides to dress up as Santa and steal the Christmas decorations, gifts and feast from the people of Whoville. 8 p.m. NBC

Brad Paisley Thinks He’s Special In this new performance special, the country singer welcomes Kelsea Ballerini, Hootie & the Blowfish, Jonas Brothers, Tim McGraw, Darius Rucker and Carrie Underwood. 8 p.m. ABC

How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming Characters from the blockbuster animated movie trilogy reunite for this new half-hour holiday special, which opens 10 years after the end of “How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.” The voice cast includes Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. 8:30 p.m. NBC

CMA Country Christmas Country music star Trisha Yearwood hosts this new edition of the annual holiday special. Among the artists scheduled to perform are Yearwood, Kristin Chenoweth, For King & Country, Chris Janson, Tori Kelly, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Runaway June, CeCe Winans, Brett Young and Chris Young. 9 p.m. ABC

Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On The two-part documentary profile of the country music superstar concludes. 9 p.m. A&E

24/7: Kelly Slater This one-hour 2019 documentary takes a look inside the life of the 11-time world champion surfer as he prepares to compete in the Billabong Pipe Masters in Oahu, Hawaii. Liev Schreiber narrates. 9 p.m. HBO

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan; author Michael Lewis. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today Rachel Brosnahan; Tony Shalhoub. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

Good Morning America Author Kellyann Petrucci; Felicity Jones; Tomi Adeyemi. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. Jay Baruchel (“The Moodys”). Sleep tips: Dr. Raj (“The Doctors”). Elizabeth Wagmeister (“Behind the Headlines”). (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan Laura Linney; Aaron Taylor-Johnson. (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View Ronan Farrow; Dennis Quaid. (N) 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray Julie Andrews. (N) 10 a.m. KTTV

The Wendy Williams Show (N) 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Brad Paisley; Brigitte Nielsen co-hosts. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS

Tamron Hall Candace Cameron-Bure. (N) 1 p.m. KABC, 1:07 a.m. KABC

The Dr. Oz Show A woman is stalked for years; an update on a celebrity stalker; what to do if one is being stalked. (N) 1 p.m. KTTV

The Kelly Clarkson Show Tom Hanks; Matthew Rhys; Susan Kelechi Watson; Marielle Heller. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil A couple claims that the husband’s ex has been harassing them. (N) 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Jimmy Kimmel; Jennifer Beals; Kacey Musgraves performs. (N) 3 p.m. KNBC

The Real Yandy Smith-Harris (“Love & Hip Hop: New York”); Fantasia (“Sketchbook”). (N) 3 p.m. KTTV

The Doctors Vaping; breathalyzer to count carbs; backseat driving; baby gut health and probiotics; doing chores. 3 p.m. KCOP

Amanpour and Company (N) 11 p.m. KCET; 1 a.m. KLCS

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central

Conan Jay Baruchel; Garrett Millerick. (N) 11 p.m. TBS

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon A science demonstration from Kevin Delaney; Felicity Jones; author Tomi Adeyemi; Burna Boy. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Steve Carell; Toby Keith performs. 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! Henry Cavill; chef Chris Shepherd; Beck performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers 12:37 a.m. KNBC

Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC

A Little Late With Lilly Singh 1:38 a.m. KNBC

SPORTS

College Basketball St. Peter’s visits St. John’s, 3:30 p.m. FS1; Iowa visits Syracuse, 4 p.m. ESPN2; Michigan visits Louisville, 4:30 p.m. ESPN; Oral Roberts visits Creighton, 5:30 p.m. FS1; Florida State visits Indiana, 6 p.m. ESPN2; Illinois State visits TCU, 6 p.m. FS Prime; Duke visits Michigan State, 6:30 p.m. ESPN

NBA Basketball The Dallas Mavericks visit the New Orleans Pelicans, 4:30 p.m. TNT; the Lakers visit the Denver Nuggets, 6 p.m. SportsNet; the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Clippers, 7 p.m. TNT

NHL Hockey The Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Nashville Predators, 5 p.m. NBCSP

For more sports on TV, see the Sports section.

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