A young girl died Thursday evening after a medical emergency — possibly cardiac arrest — on a flight out of Los Angeles International Airport, officials said.

The plane returned to the gate and paramedics responded at 5:53 p.m. and “furiously worked to save her life,” according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“Sadly, all efforts were futile and the child was beyond medical help,” said Margaret Stewart of LAFD. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.

The girl’s age and name were not released, but initial reports say she was about 10 years old.

The Los Angeles Police Department will investigate, but officials say there are no immediate indications of anything suspicious.

The official cause of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

A car plowed into a Southern California tribal hall during a funeral Thursday, sending eight people to the hospital, authorities said.

The accident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. at the tribal hall of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, near the desert community of Thermal, KESQ-TV reported.

One person had serious injuries, three others had moderate injuries and four had minor injuries, fire officials said. The driver was among those hurt.

Video showed a gaping hole in the building and a photograph showed a sport-utility vehicle with a wrecked front end smashed up against an interior wall of the building after apparently plowing all the way through the hall.

There was no word on what caused the crash, and no other details were released.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Dec. 27, and here’s a look at the year that was.

We asked our readers to tell us about how this year’s headlines affected their lives, and more than 70 of you wrote in to share your experiences. Here’s what people said.

[See also: “In 2019, California was rocked by earthquakes, blackouts and wildfires” in the Los Angeles Times]

Fires and blackouts

From Granada Hills to the North Bay and beyond, readers wrote in about the pervasive smell of wildfire smoke, the fear of evacuating homes, the wait for possible evacuations to come.

“It feels like there’s an entire season where Californians call each other and say, ‘If you have to evacuate, I have a guest room,’ which is crazy, but totally normal,” said Lindsay Coony from Santa Barbara. K.J. Kovacs in Los Angeles said that “the fires in particular and the climate crisis in general” had “sharpened an already pervasive sense of ‘Time is running out.’”

Many people who grew up in California but have left, or whose children have settled here, told us how they had followed the coverage with “sympathy and horror,” as Kathleen Lawrence, whose family still lives in Santa Barbara, put it.

The blackouts and fires also had economic impacts for many, like Paul G. Smith of Calistoga, who said his tasting room had lost money as wine country suffered blackouts and had seen fewer tourists.

In a variation on one of the year’s most common refrains, Bry McKown of Oakland expressed anger at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. “It was infuriating to get instructions by PG&E to ‘make a plan’ when that investor-owned utility had obviously ignored real fire safety and maintenance programs for decades,” he wrote. “I learned PG&E’s business model is obsolete in an era of climate change.”

Gun violence

In a year marred by multiple mass shootings in California, many of you wrote about how they shattered your personal sense of safety.

Writing from San Luis Obispo, Beth Anderson said the July shooting at the famed Gilroy Garlic Festival had been a “tipping point” for her. “My whole life I’ve been a pragmatic optimist,” she wrote. “The Gilroy slaughter darkened my entire worldview. I bought a handgun & took shooting lessons. I’m wary of everyone I encounter … in parking lots, in traffic, in the grocery store.”

Macy Kwon, a student in Sherman Oaks and a member of the Los Angeles Times High School Insider team, said gun violence had had a “profound effect” on her school community, which has faced two recent gun threats. But it was November’s deadly shooting at Saugus High School that “truly wrecked me,” she wrote. “With the shooting in Santa Clarita, fear became a creeping companion at the back of my mind.“

Earthquakes

Many readers wrote in about how they felt the Ridgecrest earthquakes in July. For John M. Kelley in Bakersfield, they echoed the many other temblors he’d experienced during his more than eight decades in California. He recalled the 1933 Long Beach earthquake when he was a 5-year-old boy, and being dispatched with his pump truck to fight potential refinery fires after the massive Tehachapi quake in 1952.

Homelessness

We asked you about the biggest change you saw in your city or town this year. From Silicon Valley to the San Fernando Valley, up and down the coast, in big cities and small towns, your answer was overwhelmingly homelessness.

The crisis seemed to affect every corner of California, but it also elicited wildly divergent responses. While some readers were angry about the presence of nearby encampments, others were radicalized into action to help their unhoused neighbors.

Anita Coleman from Irvine said the reactions in her community had changed her life. “For the last 13 years I’ve been a stay-at-home wife and mom, contented with my life in Irvine,” she wrote. But after witnessing the vitriol directed toward homeless people at a March City Council meeting, she was moved to use her professional skills as a former professor and digital librarian to launch a community education campaign about homelessness and advocate for more housing in her city.

The broader housing crisis

For many readers, the high cost of housing came paired with the sense that California has become an increasingly unequal place, where families like theirs can no longer easily carve out a life.

“To think that in my lifetime California has become the state with the greatest level of inequality is tragic to me,” said Fritzi Lareau, who said she was born in Santa Monica in 1947 and was writing from Redwood City. “My daughter cannot afford to live in the Bay Area (she is a teacher) and moved to Mendocino County.”

“Every day I live in fear that I’ll get a letter or phone call from our landlord saying she’s selling the house,” April Martin wrote from West Oakland. “I think I’m gonna start living in a van because I no longer want to spend more than half of my income on rent. The Bay Area is unlivable for artists like myself.”

Tyler Jensen in San Diego said that even with a six-figure salary, he still found himself putting about half of his net pay toward rent, making it difficult to save.

Affording health care

In an issue by no means unique to California, several readers wrote about how the high cost of healthcare — specifically prescription medication and hospital stays — had affected their lives.

Gretchen Webster in Carlsbad, who has a heart condition, talked about how she had had to turn down numerous drugs she had been prescribed because of the cost. “I see other senior citizens who live on Social Security, depriving themselves of food to afford these outrageously priced drugs,” she wrote.

All news is local

Sue Chehrenegar in Beverly Hills wrote that the biggest change this year in her city was “a new traffic light at an intersection near my home.”

Edith Goetzman, an 87-year-old in Yorba Linda, answered the same question with a response about a new shopping center that had been erected at the intersection of Lake View Avenue and Yorba Linda Boulevard, which brought “a glut of fast-food vendors and an overpriced grocery store.” But the year wasn’t all bad for her: It also brought a brand-new public library to town.

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

TOP STORIES

California’s wild winter begins with pounding rain, tornado warnings and heavy snow. A fast-moving winter storm barreled into Southern California early Thursday, bringing snow that closed the 5 Freeway in the Grapevine, Angeles Crest Highway and the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass and rain that flooded freeways across Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Times

A sweeping new law that aims to rewrite the rules of the internet in California is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, and businesses are scrambling to keep up. Most businesses with a website and customers in California — which is to say most large businesses in the nation — must follow the new regimen, which is supposed to make online life more transparent and less creepy for users. The only problem? Nobody’s sure how the new rules work. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

An Eagle Rock church is wiping out $5.3 million in medical debt for poor L.A.-area families. Using more than $50,000 worth of donations from parishioners, the church is working with a debt-forgiveness nonprofit to help erase bills for 5,555 households who earn less than twice the federal poverty level. Los Angeles Times

Good luck getting a family of four into a professional sports event for $100 — not in good seats, but any seats. The Times asked the 11 major professional teams that call Los Angeles and Orange County home whether a family of four could attend a weekend game for $100 — tickets, parking and something to eat and drink, with discouraging results. Los Angeles Times

Here are the 15 best L.A. dishes of 2019, according to our restaurant critics. Los Angeles Times

This Bell Gardens couple is making legit Puerto Rican coquito, but you’ll need some Instagram savvy to acquire a bottle. (Coquito is a “silky, coconut milk and cinnamon drink with rum that goes down dangerously easy.”) L.A. Taco

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

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

Seeing a Central American surge, Mexicans join the asylum line at the U.S. border. Mexican nationals now account for slightly more than half of the 21,000 or so people on various asylum waiting lists in Mexican border towns, which is a major increase from a year ago. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Two years in, California’s legal marijuana industry is stuck. Should voters step in? Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

The California Supreme Court will allow therapists to challenge a law that requires them to report patients who reveal they have looked at child pornography. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

A brief tornado warning jolted Orange County residents. Many received an emergency alert shortly after midnight Thursday on their cell phones, stating “TORNADO WARNING,” then “Take shelter now.” It was canceled about 10 minutes later as the storm weakened. Orange County Register

Meanwhile, a tornado did touch down in Ventura County on Thursday morning. Damage was limited to trees, roof tiles and canopies. LAist

One eccentric socialite is to blame for California’s wild pig problem. The state’s feral wild boars are the direct result of George Gordon Moore’s hunting escapades in the 1920s. SFGATE

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Pour one out for the Martinez News-Gazette: After 161 years of publishing, the paper plans to print its last edition on Sunday, marking “a painful end for one of the only news agencies committed to covering the city of nearly 40,000, which serves as the seat of Contra Costa County.” It’s uncertain whether the news outlet will continue publishing online. San Francisco Chronicle

U.S.-China trade tensions have meant tough times for the San Diego lobster industry. The average price paid to fishermen for spiny lobsters caught off the San Diego coast — many of which are shipped to China — is nearly half what it was a few years ago. KPBS

Population growth in the Bay Area hit a 15-year low, echoing broader trends across the state. Mercury News

Tribal casinos remain a last refuge for California smokers, at least for now. Tribes can set the rules for their casinos, and only three of California’s 69 casinos are entirely smoke-free. San Francisco Chronicle

Three Desert Sun journalists spent nearly a week with the Purépecha in the eastern Coachella Valley to chronicle how the indigenous community maintains its traditions through its celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Desert Sun

The Sacramento Amazon warehouse’s injury rate is among the highest in United States. Holidays make it worse. Sacramento Bee

In cramped San Francisco, a hotel turned a “needlessly large” hallway into 15 new rooms. Each room is about 185 square feet, roughly 120 square feet less than typical rooms in the Hyatt. San Francisco Chronicle

The quick action of employees at a Lodi McDonald’s helped a woman escape from her abusive boyfriend. Fearing for her life, the woman had told her boyfriend she needed to use the bathroom at the McDonald’s, then asked employees to call 911 and help hide her. Modesto Bee

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: sunny, 64. San Diego: sunny, 61. San Francisco: partly sunny, 56. San Jose: partly sunny, 57. Sacramento: sunny, 54. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Bill Deverell:

“When I was a kid, we lived at Travis Air Force Base, where my dad was stationed. My parents knew that late 1960s California was worth seeing. We took many a family camping trip to Big Sur. I remember being there with the hippies. They’d play a game with toilet plungers, tossing them into the air so they’d come down with a thwack near a chalk line some thirty or forty feet away. They played for hours and hours — their sense of time likely altered — and they always had room enough for me and my big sister to play along.”

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.

Daisy Garcia’s small Van Nuys apartment doesn’t offer much space for her 9-month old daughter to crawl. So this 27-year-old college student brings her little one to a children’s play area at Los Angeles Valley College.

Here, under the watchful eyes of child educators and caretakers, is where the baby girl lifts herself up to stand next to a shelf, wobbles and plops back down on her bottom, legs landing in a “W” position.

‘W’ is bad for their backs,” Pam Fischer, a student worker, told Garcia. “So when you see ‘W,’ reposition her.”

The play area is one of the services offered at Valley College’s Family Resource Center, among a handful of such community college programs nationwide designed to assist student parents with what educators say are critically important but largely invisible needs.

Nationwide, 3.8 million — one out of every five — college students are parents. At community colleges, the share is even higher at about one in four. These students face unique obstacles to completing their education at a time when the economic stakes of dropping out are high. Yet there is little awareness about their struggles, educators and policymakers say.

“This issue had been somewhat invisible and it has now found its moment,” said Anne Mosle, vice president at the Aspen Institute, a think tank where she directs a “postsecondary success for parents” initiative.

As higher education leaders seek to increase success rates at community colleges, they are paying more attention to the demographics and non-academic needs of their students.

“We’ve done a lot to serve students who are low-income, students who are from diverse backgrounds,” Mosle said. “The parent lens is the next chapter of recognition … of who is coming up this pipeline.”

Marni Roosevelt was ahead of the curve. As a Valley College child development professor in the early 2000s, Roosevelt often had students approach her for advice on how to handle difficulties with their children.

She realized many of her students were parents of young children — and didn’t know they shared this commonality.

“I figured if students could get together, they could support each other,” Roosevelt said.

Roosevelt invited them to meet in an empty classroom, pushing desks to the sides so their children would have a place to play. Then she applied for grants and hired interns to provide child care while the student parents met.

That evolved into what today is a dedicated building with indoor and outdoor play areas, a study lounge with desktop computers and printers, a baby clothing exchange and lending library, a break room with snacks, and a lactation room for mothers.

The Family Resource Center, adjacent to the college’s child care center and child development department, also runs a food pantry with fresh and organic produce from a local farmers market. It maintains a steady supply of diapers, wipes and infant formula to give to anyone who asks. The building was paid for by local developer J.h. Snyder, and the center’s $500,000 annual budget is fully funded by government grants and private donations.

Students can bring their children to play groups, join a parenting class or meet with an academic counselor or social worker. Across its various services, the center serves about 1,000 families a year. Child care, offered to students, staff, faculty and members of the community on a sliding scale, is available next door.

But the Family Resource Center offers students a place where they can attend to their children’s needs as well as their own.

Data suggest the services are working. In the 2017-2018 school year, 81% of students who used Family Resource Center services completed their semester, compared with 69% of students campus-wide, Roosevelt said.

“Students can’t access services [on campus] when their kids are with them,” she said. “They can’t bring them to the library when they need to study, they can’t bring them when they meet with a counselor.”

Providing that space is crucial, students say.

Garcia has been in and out of college for 10 years. She had to stop to work and support herself. And she couldn’t pass statistics, which blocked her progress.

She went back to school in 2018 determined to finish her associate’s degree and transfer to Cal State Northridge. But then she found out she was pregnant. Without child care and little support at home, it was hard to study.

When her daughter was 4 months old, Garcia started bringing her to the Family Resource Center. She uses its services and can work on her statistics homework in a computer lounge while child development interns watch her daughter. She’s finally doing better in the course.

“It benefits her and it benefits me as well,” said Garcia, who aspires one day to run a child care program.

Julianna Ontiveros, 29, has also taken advantage of the study time, as well as the center’s play group and parenting class. Ontiveros, who has two toddlers and is pregnant with her third child, already has a bachelor’s degree from UCLA but is working on pre-requisites for a master’s degree in school psychology. She works part time, too.

“Honestly, I couldn’t do it without them,” she said of the Family Resource Center.

Itchel Coronel Reyes, 30, tried twice before to go to college. The mother of two couldn’t afford day care or private preschool. She waited until both her sons, 4 and 6, were in school to enroll at Valley College — but still had little time for her own tutoring needs or meeting other parents.

The Family Resource Center has eased those pressures. “I’m still back and forth with my kids, but at least I’m able to do my homework,” Reyes said. “Being here gives me hope to finish something finally.”

California community college students are likely to come from racial and ethnic minorities, be the first in their families to attend college, go to school part time, work, and take on debt for their education.

“Student parents sit at the intersection of all of those trends,” said Lindsey Reichlin Cruse, a study director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “If you want to increase student success, if you want to increase family economic security, you have to start paying attention to these students.”

Cruse said research has shown that affordable, high-quality child care is essential to enabling students to complete college. Managing the needs of each student is also particularly effective. At Valley College, a counselor and a social worker help students plan out their courses and enroll in services for which they and their kids are eligible.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Ensuring that student parents stay in school and finish is an economic imperative and creates a more skilled workforce, reduced poverty, lower spending on public assistance, and an increased tax base, Cruse said.

“There’s a huge economic return when student parents earn associate’s degrees,” Cruse said. “The return for single mothers is 12 to 1 — that has huge implications for their family’s success and their children’s success long term.”

There is a growing recognition among policymakers of the value of supporting student parents. In 2018, state Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Van Nuys) secured an $800,000 carve-out in the state budget to support the Family Resource Center over four years. He hopes the money will be used in part to collect data on program elements and student outcomes.

“I want this to potentially serve as a statewide model,” Nazarian said.

RIO DE JANEIRO — 

Brazil’s police on Thursday were investigating a video on social media that shows a gasoline bomb attack targeting the makers of a Christmas program on Netflix that some critics have described as blasphemous.

There were no injuries in the Christmas Eve attack on an empty video production house in Rio de Janeiro, and a security guard extinguished the flames.

But the emergence of a video in which a man claims responsibility for the attack in the name of a 1930s-era ultranationalist group startled many Brazilians who thought the movement had been consigned to history.

The man, whose voice is digitally altered, says the overnight attack targeted Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos for its Portuguese-language program.

The man claims to speak for a group he calls the Command of Popular National Insurgence and says it is part of Brazil’s “integralist” movement, which was inspired by Italian fascism during the 1930s.

He describes Porta dos Fundos, which has posted satires and parodies on its YouTube channel for years, as a group of Marxist militants.

The comedy group’s short film, “The First Temptation of Christ,” depicts Jesus returning home on his 30th birthday and insinuates he is gay. Religious groups bristled at the depiction. An online petition that was launched in Brazil called for the film to be banned and drew more than 2 million signatures.

The video circulating Thursday shows three people throwing gasoline bombs over the wall in front of the video production house. Police said the video matches security camera footage and is authentic.

“What remains to be proven is whether there exists a tie between a group and the incident,” detective Marco Aurelio de Paula Ribeiro told reporters.

Police have identified a vehicle and motorcycle involved in the firebombing, and said there are at least four suspects.

“We are going to find those responsible as fast as possible, also to prevent any future actions that this group may be planning,” said Fabio Barucke, a senior police official.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Porta dos Fundos is defending its film.

“The country will survive this torment of hatred, and love will prevail together with freedom of expression,” the group said on Twitter.

View this post on Instagram

Do u remember…the 24th day of December….when the Queen of our jam called “September” was suddenly called away…..so no one told us life was gonna be this way (clap furiously 4 times) we burned doing the Neutron Dance in Boogie Wonderland…..she was an All American Girl from The D ….where another notable Motown resident in 98 made his mark Gettin This Money sampling her “Just Come Running To Me”…I guess it’s written In The Stone that we must Stir It Up now & scream “I’m Alive”!?? What have we…what have we….What Have We Done To Deserve This? She was truly the Best! Around! And no spirit will ever keep your songs down…your words Lead Us On all night long….& thats All That Matters To Me….you were a strange beautiful soul Allee Willis we are all the better for your words. Rest in melody #AlleeWillis #September #BoogieWonderland #InTheStone #CantLetGo #NeutronDance #StirItUp #JustComeRunningToMe #YoureTheBest (Karate Kid) #WhatHaveIDoneToDeserveThis #AllAmericanGirls #IllBeThereForYou

A post shared by Questlove Froman, (@questlove) on Dec 25, 2019 at 12:27am PST

Allee Willis was born Nov. 10, 1947, in Detroit, where as a youth she was captivated by the music emanating from the headquarters of Motown Records.

In September, at a gathering celebrating the label’s 60th anniversary, Willis shared memories of sitting on the lawn outside Motown’s offices, watching musicians, songwriters and employees come and go, despite her father’s admonition to “stay away from black culture.”

Six decades later, she described the event as “the ultimate fulfillment of my childhood fantasy to be up on stage at Motown 60 in the finale singing ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ with [Motown co-founder] Berry Gordy dancing right in front of me!”

She also had her own exhibit at the Motown Museum, placed between those highlighting the lives and careers of Oprah Winfrey and Nelson Mandela. “I cry just thinking about it,” she said at the time.

After studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she moved to New York and landed a job as a secretary at Columbia Records, working first as a copywriter before turning her attention to songwriting and performing.

Her only album, “Childstar” in 1974, flopped commercially, but did catch the ear of Bonnie Raitt, who became the first artist to record one of her songs, “Got You On My Mind.” She subsequently became a songwriter at A&M Records, and after being introduced by a mutual friend to Earth, Wind and Fire bassist Verdine White, she met his brother, Maurice, and began collaborating with him as a writer, scoring her first hit with “September.”

Earlier this year, the Library of Congress added the song “September,” which Willis wrote with EWF co-founder Maurice White and guitarist Al McKay, to its National Recording Registry honoring historic and culturally significant recordings.

She liked to tell of her initial resistance to the nonsense syllabic refrain “ba-dee-yah” that White repeated at various points while they were working up the number.

“I just said ‘What the [heck] does ‘ba-dee-yah’ mean?” she told NPR in 2014. “He essentially said, ‘Who the [heck] cares?’ I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove.”

It went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart in 1978, and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 ranking. The opening line “Do you remember/The 21st night of September” was subject to debate over the years, White claiming it simply sounded good to him. Willis, however, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that White’s wife, Marilyn, told her that was the due date of their son, Kahbran.

Perhaps even more widely recognized than “September” was the “Friends” theme “I’ll Be There for You.” She was one of several collaborators on the song, along with series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman, composer Michael Skloff (Kauffman’s husband) and songwriters Phil Solem and Danny Wilde of the Rembrandts, whose recording was featured in the series and subsequently became a standard at weddings, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs and other special occasions.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

The song was nominated in 1995 for an Emmy Award in the category of main title theme music, but lost to Jerry Goldsmith’s “Star Trek: Voyager” theme. Pop singer Meghan Trainor recorded a new version that was released in September for a 25th anniversary celebration of the show’s premiere.

Willis won a Grammy Award for her contributions to the soundtrack of “Beverly Hills Cop” and was nominated for musical show album for “The Color Purple,” the latter also earning her a Tony nomination in 2006.

“With all of her accolades, Allee Willis was most proud to be recognized for her extreme, over-the-top party-throwing at her famously kitschy Pink Streamline Moderne house known as ‘Willis Wonderland’ in Los Angeles,” her spokeswoman, Ellyn Solis, said in a statement.

“I always had a music career, an art career, set designer, film and video, technology,” she told the New York Times last year. “The parties really became the only place I could combine everything.”

Among her other songs that became hits were “Boogie Wonderland” for Earth, Wind & Fire with the Emotions, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” by the Pet Shop Boys and “Lead Me On” by Maxine Nightingale.

Singer Bette Midler tweeted on Wednesday, “My condolences to all her friends in the music community, and in Los Angeles, where she was so beloved.”

Willis is survived by her partner of 27 years, animator and producer Prudence Fenton.

SERIES

Craft in America The episode “Quilts” kicks off a new season, profiling contemporary masters of quilting and documenting the role quilts play in America’s history. Susan Hudson, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Michael A. Cummings, Judith Content and special guest Ken Burns. 9 p.m. KOCE

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Host Guy Fieri opens a new season of his culinary road show by featuring truly inventive foods, which includes mac-and-cheese pancakes in Burlington, Vt., and grits and biscuits in Richmond, Va. 9 p.m. Food Network

SPECIALS

America Salutes You Presents Guitar Legends 3 This benefit concert promotes and supports charities that work with veterans and first responders to ensure their mental wellness. Host Billy Gibbons performs. George Thorogood, Warren Haynes, Nancy Wilson, Steve Lukather, Charlie Starr, Ellis Hall and Kenny Aronof also perform. 8 p.m. CW

Popstar’s Best of 2019 Host Elizabeth Stanton counts down the most memorable moments from 2019, based on polls from Popstar magazine. 9 p.m. CW

MOVIES

Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love A sequel to the “Coat of Many Colors,” this 2016 drama continues the saga inspired by the song. Jennifer Nettles, Rick Schroder, Gerald McRaney and Alyvia Alyn Lind (as the young Dolly) return as the members of the rural Tennessee family who face new challenges, including a holiday blizzard and the patriarch’s financial struggles to give his wife a proper wedding ring. 8 p.m. NBC

The Darkest Minds Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”), Harris Dickinson (“Trust”), Mandy Moore (“This Is Us”), Bradley Whitford (“Perfect Harmony”) and Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones”) head the ensemble cast of Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s 2018 adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s dystopian young-adult novel about teenagers forced to go on the run from the government after they develop superpowers in the wake of a plague that kills 90% of other American children. 8 p.m. Cinemax

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today Airline food investigation; moves for a financially healthy 2020; Eduardo Garcia. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

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

Good Morning America Kathy Bates; Clint Eastwood; Jessica Mulroney. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. (N) Matt Johnson. 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan In Las Vegas, Christina Aguilera; the Blue Man Group performs. (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View Wendy Williams. 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray Gretta Monahan. 10 a.m. KTTV

The Wendy Williams Show Jason Derulo (“Cats”). 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Brigitte Nielsen guest co-hosts. 1 p.m. KCBS

Tamron Hall Former NFL player Jeff Rohrer and his ex-wife Heather; Dr. Drew Pinsky. (N) 1 p.m. KABC

The Dr. Oz Show The new compostable takeout containers and eco-friendly paper straws; Kristin Chenoweth. 1 p.m. KTTV

The Kelly Clarkson Show Kelly covers DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean”; Jason Momoa; Alfre Woodard; Kaleb Lee performs. 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil A woman’s family say her fiancé is controlling her, brainwashing her and alienating her from them. 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Dwayne Johnson (“Jumanji: the Next Level”); Chrissy Teigen; Michael B. Jordan (“Just Mercy”). 3 p.m. KNBC

The Real Meagan Good; Tisha Campbell. 3 p.m. KTTV

The Doctors Breast-implant illness; whether Boba drinks cause intestinal blockage; inexpensive self-care. 3 p.m. KCOP

The Wendy Williams Show Hot Talk; Cirque du Soleil’s “’Twas the Night Before..”; Wendy’s Holiday Gift Grab. 4 p.m. KCOP

The Real Jackée Harry; guest co-host Tisha Campbell. 5 p.m. KCOP

Washington Week Impeachment of President Trump; the Senate trial; immigration; the economy; foreign policy: Kimberly Atkins, WBUR; Amna Nawaz, PBS; Bob Woodward, the Washington Post. (N) 7 p.m. KOCE

The Issue Is: Elex Michaelson Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders; best of 2019. (N) 10:30 p.m. KTTV

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

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Jon Hamm; Keri Russell; Gary Clark Jr. performs. 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Robert De Niro; filmmaker J.J. Abrams. 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! Kevin Hart; Julia Fox; Finneas performs. 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden Evan Rachel Wood; Melissa Benoist; Mike Birbiglia. 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers John Mulaney; Rodrigo Santoro. 12:37 a.m. KNBC

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

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

SPORTS

College Football Military Bowl: North Carolina vs. Temple, 9 a.m. ESPN; New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Michigan State vs. Wake Forest, 12:20 p.m. ESPN; Texas Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M, 3:45 p.m. ESPN; Holiday Bowl: USC vs. Iowa, 5 p.m. FS1; Air Force vs. Washington State, 7:15 p.m. ESPN

NHL Hockey The Minnesota Wild visit the Colorado Avalanche, 5 p.m. NBCSP; the Kings visit the San Jose Sharks, 7 p.m. Fox Sports Net; the Vegas Golden Knights visit the Ducks, 7 p.m. FS Prime

For more sports on TV, see the Sports section.

Click Here: Tienda Club Tijuana

While Noah Baumbach’s latest film, “Marriage Story,” is about a painful divorce, the writer-director describes it also as a love story. When he sat down with Times film writer Mark Olsen for “The Reel” podcast, Baumbach explained what inspired this latest movie.

“In telling the story of a marriage coming apart, I could actually focus even more clearly on the marriage itself,” Baumbach said. “That it could be a story about marriage as much as it was a story about divorce.”

Baumbach has been making movies for over 25 years, and “Marriage Story” is quickly taking off and earning awards nominations. He’s explored similar themes in previous films, including divorce in 2005’s “The Squid and the Whale” and explains the difficulties in trying to make each movie feel different.

“Each movie I’m trying to express something that’s in my head, trying to find the cinematic expression of the thing in my head. That’s the challenge for every screenplay and every movie that I direct,” said Baumbach.

He says he relies heavily on research and personal stories when writing movies. Sometimes inspired by moments in his own life, or experiences shared with others, he tells Olsen however, that his true vision comes when he can see the fiction in the story.

Subscribe to “The Reel” podcast

“In the case of this, research I did, interviews with other people, a line somebody said to me about their marriage, all of those consist on the page as intriguing ideas,” Baumbach said. “Until I sat down writing it, I couldn’t really start writing and moving forward until the fiction kind of took over.”

The performances by stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in “Marriage Story” have caught the attention of audiences and critics alike. On working with the two of them, Baumbach says he often got ideas from what the actors did with the scenes.

“Part of the job is to listen,” Baumbach said. “It is like any kind of conversation. People have different rhythms, they have different ways. But we’re all in service of telling this same story.”

“Marriage Story” premiered earlier this year and is streaming on Netflix.

Check out other episodes of “The Reel” here

Take a breath, travelers. By today, you should be where you are supposed to be if you were traveling. If you weren’t in motion, maybe you’re wrapped in a blanket and watching the rain turn our landscape into the Southwestern version of Monet’s “Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies.”

My name is Catharine Hamm, and I’m the travel editor for the Los Angeles Times. Your cocoon may be quiet, but here at the word factory, we are still hustling to make your travel interesting and trouble free (to the extent that’s possible).

We’ll update you on one of our favorite California wine regions, tell you about free military base tours, alert you to some changes in getting to Disneyland and let you look into our Vegas crystal ball. Want to move to Alaska? We have a great opportunity for you. And in the End paper (at the very end), we also give you a nudge to book that trip, even if life’s demands try to strong-arm you into taking no action.

All of this plus our best wishes for a new year that takes you where you’ve always wanted to go. Onward!

Uncrowded + less expensive = win for wine travelers

Every year when wildfires break out — especially this year— I receive calls and emails from people who are worried and, thankfully, don’t need to be. The geography of where these fires rage is confusing. And so it was with Napa and Sonoma, Rosemary McClure writes. The Kincade fire last fall slightly menaced Napa and Sonoma valleys but did not damage the place known for its superlative wines. (The main blaze was more than an hour away.) McClure celebrates the off-season in these areas, when prices tend to be lower and the throngs are curled up with Netflix for a long winter’s nap. That means you’ll have the place mostly to yourself. Cheers!

Tour these military bases for free

MREs. Machine guns. Rocket launch pads. These are but a few things you’ll see on unusual and free tours of California’s military bases. Anne Burke writes about the tours of bases that enhance your understanding of the men and women who protect us and the jobs they are called to do. But you’ll need to book soon; tours fill up fast.

Disneyland Express stopping service

First, SuperShuttle announced it was ceasing operations. Now, the Disneyland Express, which serves LAX and John Wayne passengers, has announced that it’s getting out of the biz on Jan. 7, Mary Forgione reports. It used to provide round-trip service from LAX and John Wayne.

The wait for Global Entry approval isn’t over, but maybe the anxiety is

Customs and Border Protection got further behind in processing its Global Entry applications, adding about 50,000 more to a backlog reported at 300,000. That’s the price of the program’s success, at least for those who are anxiously awaiting renewal but find their application pending, pending, pending. If you’re stuck in the seemingly unending loop — you’re not accepted but you’re not rejected — CBP has some good news: If you have submitted an application for renewal and haven’t received a nay or yea, your benefits stick around even if your card says they have expired.

A way to get through customs faster

You already have expedited service because you have Global Entry, you say? You do if you paid the $100, had the interview and got the OK. But if you didn’t or didn’t want to, you still can get through customs faster by using the Mobile Passport app (for iOS and Android). It’s free (there’s a premium version, of course) and is approved by Customs and Border Protection. Now the app that expedites you through security can help you with passport renewal and, in the future, with obtaining visas. You can still go through the State Department’s regular channels, so this service, which charges for its processing in addition to your passport fees, is significantly more expensive than handling the paperwork yourself. But sometimes you just need a helping hand, and this could be one.

What’s ahead for Vegas, what’s left behind

Here’s a word you rarely associate with Las Vegas: dull. And so it will be in 2020. Jay Jones gives us a rundown of what we can expect from our favorite adult playground in Nevada: new supper clubs, flat-rate taxis from McCarran airport to the Strip and, of course, Meow Wolf, an interactive art experience that promises, its founder says, to be “an insane, shocking experience.” Meanwhile, some of the best restaurants in Las Vegas aren’t on the too-too category; they’re in outlying areas where the chefs who traded their position on the Strip for smaller restaurants that are off the beaten path, Michael Hiller writes. And Mary Forgione writes about what you will miss in 2020 in Vegas (Donny and Marie! The Hard Rock!) and one thing you won’t: PfP, Paying for Parking.

What we’re reading

Perhaps you’ve always wanted to live in Skagway, Alaska. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to own a newspaper. Your dreams can come true, Matthew Cantor writes for the Guardian. The paper is for sale, and it’s a bargain: free, which tells you something about the state of publishing. The good news, the departing owner says: Your salary will be about $50,000 a year.

Quickly, how many micro-nations are there? Micro-nations form when people decide to break away from the country where they live. Quartz reports. You can read about micro-nation history, including one near us: Zaqistan, which exists inside Utah’s borders. Answer to the question of how many: 67, based on Google maps. Some of these are jokes, but some are serious to the point of having passports (attention, country collectors), money and flags. Some even ban books, Quartz reports, including the Kingdom of Elleore, which banned “Robinson Crusoe” because of how it depicts small islands.

Does anybody really want to spend time in an airport? Yes, if it’s Changi Airport in Singapore, Stephanie Rosenbloom writes for the New York Times. Her descriptions of her airport vacation sound fanciful, but she’s not making this up. You will find a waterfall and a forest, butterflies and tube slides; you can watch movies for free at any hour of the day or night. It’s consistently rated the top airport in the world and has become more beloved with the addition of what is basically an airport version of an adult amusement park.

What you’re reading

Besides this newsletter? Maybe others like it. Go to our newsletters center to see the lovely assortment of information that can be delivered to your inbox. Best of all, if you overspent on Christmas, their cost will suit your budget. They’re free.

Here’s a New Year’s resolution: Read the Los Angeles Times because it’s good for you, and if you’re not good to yourself, who will be? Subscriptions cost less than your daily coffee fix. And they’re better for you.

Finally, tell us what you think — about anything. We’re always happy to listen, especially if you have some suggestions for improvements. Write to [email protected].

Endpaper

I fell asleep at my desk the other day, perfectly upright but completely in LaLa Land. Fortunately, I did not drool, nor did I snort myself awake as I so often do on an airplane (where I am usually embarrassed but not as mortified as I would be if I did this in front of colleagues).

Like many of you this holiday season, I suffered from Calendrical Confusion, which occurs as you are finishing the leftover turkey and dressing and realizing it’s already December. You’re behind before you’ve even started.

Then I did what would have been unthinkable even in normal-sized holiday season: I took a weekend in New Orleans to gather with seven longtime dear friends, all linked by travel journalism.

I made this trip knowing I’d need to go into shopping overdrive (though I enjoyed giving “How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety”), mailing (thank you, U.S. Postal Service) and baking. (One cake doesn’t exactly make me a candidate for “The Great British Baking Show,” but it was the best I could do.)

I lost a weekend that I otherwise would have devoted to the orderly reduction of the task list and spent many late nights wrapping, cooking, writing cards and speaking colorfully about my predicament. Given this, if I had the trip choice to make again, would I?

In a heartbeat.

So, yes, I’ve been a little sleep deprived and maybe a little shorter than usual, and I don’t mean in stature. Some of my packages looked as though they starred in a slasher movie. None of it really mattered.

What did matter is that by getting on that plane, I had a chance to be in a great city and to say thank you to these seven strong women who, when I was just starting, explained to me how travel journalism was supposed to work. We listened to one another’s life stories, laughed a little, cried a little but mostly we savored how travel had shaped our lives.

Christmas came early for me, defined not by the shopping season but by this amazing celebration of the power of travel. During the holidays and in the new year, if you find yourself daydreaming about a place you want to go, let me suggest you not debate too long. Book it. Everything else will still be there when you arrive home.

As will we. My wish for you is that you always travel safely and well and know that we will be here to welcome you and your memories home.

More Americans did their shopping online during the shortest holiday shopping season in years, helping to push total sales higher.

U.S. retail sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 rose 3.4% compared with last year, according to early data from Mastercard SpendingPulse.

Online sales rose at a faster pace, up 18.8% from last year. Online shopping made up nearly 15% of total retail sales.

Mastercard SpendingPulse tracked spending online and in stores across all payment types, including cash and check. Sales of automobiles were not included.

Faced with the shortest gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas — and therefore the shortest traditional holiday shopping season — since 2013, stores were trumpeting deals even before Halloween in hopes of getting people to think ahead.

Thanksgiving landed on Nov. 28 this year, the latest possible date it could fall. That meant six fewer days than last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and last-minute shoppers scrambled. The Saturday before Christmas was the busiest shopping day in U.S. history, surpassing Black Friday, according to research firm Customer Growth Partners.

Amazon.com Inc., which stepped up its one-day deliveries this year, said more people tried out its $119-a-year Prime membership this year than any other year: The online shopping giant said it gained more than 5 million new customers in a single week. Prime members get faster shipping and other perks, such as movie streaming.

Overall, Mastercard said, clothing sales rose 1%. Jewelry sales increased 1.8%. Sales of electronics and appliances rose 4.6%. And furniture sales grew 1.3%.

Department stores, which have been hit hard by the rise of online shopping, still had trouble getting shoppers in their doors: Total sales fell 1.8%, Mastercard said.

But Christmas Day does not signal the end of the effort to attract shoppers.

Retailers are all but certain to offer steep discounts through at least New Year’s Day in hopes of snaring those who did not get all they had hoped for in the shortened holiday shopping season, said C. Britt Beemer, chief executive of the consumer behavior firm America’s Research Group.

“You’re going to see a bunch of larger crowds in the stores,” Beemer said.