PALM BEACH, Fla. — 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that he was not ruling out calling witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial — but indicated he was in no hurry to seek new testimony either — as lawmakers remain at an impasse over the form of the trial by the GOP-controlled Senate.

The House voted Wednesday to impeach Trump, who became only the third president in U.S. history to be formally charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But the Senate trial may be held up until lawmakers can agree on how to proceed. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer is demanding trial witnesses who refused to appear during House committee hearings, including acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security advisor John Bolton.

McConnell, who has all but promised a swift acquittal of the president, has resisted making any guarantees, and has cautioned Trump against seeking the testimony of witnesses he desires for fear of elongating the trial. Instead, he appears to have secured GOP support for his plans to impose a framework drawn from the 1999 impeachment trial of President Clinton.

“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell said Monday in an interview with “Fox and Friends.” “We’ve said let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton. Fair is fair.”

That trial featured a 100-0 vote on arrangements that established two weeks of presentations and argument before a partisan tally in which Republicans, who held the majority, called a limited number of witnesses. But Democrats now would need Republican votes to secure witness testimony — and Republicans believe they have the votes to eventually block those requests.

In a letter Monday to all senators, Schumer argued that the circumstances in the Trump trial are different from those of Clinton’s, who was impeached after a lengthy independent counsel investigation in which witnesses had already testified numerous times under oath. Schumer rejected the Clinton model, saying waiting until after the presentations to decide on witnesses would “foreclose the possibility of obtaining such evidence because it will be too late.”

Schumer also demanded that the Senate, in addition to receiving testimony, also compel the Trump administration to turn over documents and emails relevant to the case, including the decision to withhold military assistance from Ukraine.

Schumer told the Associated Press on Monday that he stands ready to negotiate with McConnell, and that he hopes questions about witnesses can be settled “right at the beginning.” Without witnesses, he said, any trial would be “Kafkaesque.”

“Let’s put it like this: If there are no documents and no witnesses, it will be very hard to come to an agreement,” Schumer said.

If McConnell won’t agree, “We can go to the floor and demand votes, and we will,” he added.

Schumer told AP the Democrats aren’t trying to delay the proceedings, saying the witnesses and the documents his party is asking for are directly relevant to the charges in the House impeachment articles.

Meanwhile, the White House is projecting confidence that it will prevail in a constitutional spat with Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate in hopes of giving Schumer more leverage in talks with McConnell. But the White House believes Pelosi won’t be able to hold out much longer.

“She will yield. There’s no way she can hold this position,” Marc Short, the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said Sunday. “We think her case is going nowhere.”

The impasse between the Senate leaders leaves open the possibility of a protracted delay until the articles are delivered.

Schumer told reporters in New York on Sunday that “the Senate is yearning to give President Trump due process, which means that documents and witnesses should come forward. What is a trial with no witnesses and no documents? It’s a sham trial.”

Trump has called the holdup “unfair” and claimed that Democrats were violating the Constitution, as the delay threatened to prolong the pain of impeachment and cast uncertainty on the timing of the vote Trump is set to claim as vindication.

“Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so,” Trump tweeted Monday from his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., where he is on a more than two-week holiday vacation. “She lost Congress once, she will do it again!”

Short called Pelosi’s delay unacceptable, saying she’s “trampling” Trump’s rights to “rush this through, and now we’re going to hold it up to demand a longer process in the Senate with more witnesses.”

“If her case is so airtight … why does she need more witnesses to make her case?” Short said.

White House officials have also taken to highlighting Democrats’ arguments that removing Trump was an “urgent” matter before the House impeachment vote, as they seek to put pressure on Pelosi to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

A close Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said Pelosi would fail in her quest “to get Mitch McConnell to bend to her will to shape the trial.” Graham is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was a House manager, comparable to a prosecutor, during the Senate’s impeachment trial of Clinton.

“She’ll eventually send the articles because public opinion will crush the Democrats,” said Graham. Asked whether he expected witnesses in the Senate, he replied: : “No, I don’t.”

At one point, Trump had demanded the testimony of witnesses of his own, such as Democrats Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and the intelligence community whistleblower whose summer complaint sparked the impeachment probe. But he has since relented after concerted lobbying by McConnell and other Senate Republicans who pushed him to accept the swift acquittal from the Senate and not to risk injecting uncertainty into the process by calling witnesses.

The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, said his party is looking for a signal from McConnell that he hasn’t ruled out new witnesses and documents. But Durbin acknowledged that Democrats may not have much leverage in pushing a deal.

He criticized both Republican and Democratic senators who have already announced how they will vote in the trial, saying the Constitution requires senators to act as impartial jurors. Republicans hold a 53-vote majority in the Senate.

“The leverage is our hope that four Republican senators will stand up, as 20 years ago, we saw in the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and say, this is much bigger than our current political squabbles,” Durbin said.

The Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict in an impeachment trial — and Republicans have expressed confidence that they have more than enough votes to keep Trump in office.

Short spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” Durbin appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Graham was on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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Democrat Amy Klobuchar — running for president as someone who can win even in conservative, rural areas — says she will become the first major 2020 candidate to have visited all 99 Iowa counties after stops scheduled for Friday in the leadoff caucus state.

The Minnesota senator, who wrapped up a four-day bus tour Monday that stopped in 27 counties, said Monday she will complete the statewide tour with visits to three counties in northwest Iowa on Friday, followed by a block party in Des Moines to celebrate. She has other stops planned in Iowa on Saturday.

Klobuchar argues she is the best candidate to take on President Trump in 2020 because she has a history of winning across Minnesota, including in Republican areas, by going to places where Democrats don’t typically campaign. Her campaign, which has focused heavily on Iowa, says hitting all 99 counties proves her mantra that she would be a president “for all of America.”

“Amy believes that for Democrats to win big, our party needs to bring people together around an optimistic, unifying agenda to get things done and improve people’s lives,” said Lauren Dillon, the campaign’s Iowa director. “Her approach to campaigning — not leaving any town or community behind — gets to the core of the kind of public servant she is and how she will lead as President.”

Interest in Klobuchar’s campaign has grown in recent months, thanks in part to strong debate performances, though in polling she still trails the top candidates for the Democratic nomination: former Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.

Klobuchar had pledged to visit all 99 counties before the Feb. 3 caucus, but stepped up her schedule to complete the visits before the end of the year because of an expected impeachment trial in the Senate next month that will cut into campaign time for the senators running. The three-term senator says she will be in Washington for the trial, and will find ways to campaign around that schedule or have surrogates — including her husband and daughter and elected officials supporting her campaign — do so.

Visiting all 99 counties in Iowa is known as doing a “Full Grassley,” after Republican Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, who made it a point of pride, and is a feat other presidential candidates have touted over the years.

This election cycle, the first to complete it was former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, who announced his presidential run in mid-2017 but has not hit Democratic National Committee thresholds to qualify for the debate stage since the summer, when those requirements were lower. Klobuchar’s count includes public and private meetings with voters.

Though the Lakers have listed LeBron James (thoracic muscle strain) and Anthony Davis (sore right knee) as questionable for their Christmas Day game, all signs point to the team’s two stars playing against the Clippers in the NBA’s marquee matchup at Staples Center.

Lakers coach Frank Vogel said neither of them practiced Monday, but both are hopeful to be able to practice Tuesday morning with the rest of the team.

But James will have had five days off to recover and Davis two to get his knee back healthy before the game Wednesday night.

James sat out the game Sunday against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center because he was recovering from the injury that was causing pain in his rib-cage area.

He had suffered the injury against the Indiana Pacers last Tuesday, but still played against the Milwaukee Bucks last Thursday.

When asked whether James would be a game-time decision, Vogel said, “We’ll see.”

“We still have a day before the game, but right now we’re listing him as questionable,” said Vogel, whose Lakers are labeled the home team. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

Davis was injured in the third quarter Sunday after he slipped and fell on the court while defending against the Nuggets’ Paul Millsap. Davis had his knee checked out during the game, but still played 33 minutes 40 seconds against the Nuggets.

“[He’s the] same. Sore right knee, listed as questionable,” Vogel said about Davis after practice Monday. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

As for Kyle Kuzma, who returned to play against the Nuggets after sitting out the previous five games because of a left ankle injury, Vogel said his reserve forward had no issues following the game.

“We’re hoping to have his minutes restriction raised, but I haven’t gotten a firm number yet,” Vogel said.

Kuzma played 21:48 and finished with 16 points on seven-for-15 shooting. The five games Kuzma took off that covered almost two weeks did his body good.

“Yeah, just the best I’ve felt physically and mentally,” he said. “For the most part this year, I’ve really been playing at 70%. And part of that is physically and mentally. And I think that the time off really allowed me to get all the way healthy, and I don’t really think I was moving like I did last game, like I have been in prior games. And I think it was great. I think it was great for me.”

The Lakers have lost three consecutive games and are in need of a win but will have a tough task trying to defeat the Clippers and their two stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

They both joined the Clippers this summer, Leonard as a free agent and George in a trade, and appeared to make the rivalry between teams with legitimate championship aspirations that much more intense.

The Clippers beat the Lakers 112-102 on opening night despite not having George in the lineup yet.

“I guess,” Kuzma said when asked about the rivalry being better now. “Ah, just a lot of hype in L.A. They’re good and we’re good. So anytime both L.A. teams are good, you’re gonna naturally have that type of a rivalry.”

MINNEAPOLIS — 

Aaron Jones rushed for 154 yards and two second-half touchdowns, Za’Darius Smith had five tackles for loss to lead a stifling performance by Green Bay’s defense, and the Packers became NFC North champions by beating the Minnesota Vikings 23-10 on Monday night.

The Packers (12-3) made Matt LaFleur the 10th rookie coach in NFL history to reach 12 victories, winning for the first time in four tries at Minnesota’s deafening U.S. Bank Stadium with a dominant finish after trailing 10-9 at halftime. Green Bay stayed in position for a first-round bye in the playoffs. The top seed and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl is still in sight.

The Packers stormed back from three first-half turnovers, including a rare interception by Aaron Rodgers, to silence the crowd and seal the Vikings (10-5) into the sixth playoff seed. The green-and-gold-clad fans in attendance squeezed some “Go, Pack, Go!” chants in during the ample down time as the Packers took control in the second half.

Kirk Cousins was sacked five times, with a whopping 3 1/2 by Smith, and he threw an interception in the third quarter that set up the first score by Jones. Cousins fell to 0-9 in his career in Monday night games.

The Vikings had only seven first downs and never netted a drive longer than 31 yards in this concerning regression. They wasted a fine performance by their defense, which has produced 10 turnovers in the last two games.

Minnesota’s frustration over a stalled offense that averaged nearly 30 points over the previous 10 games only increased in the second half. Stefon Diggs caught a 28-yard pass on third-and-18 in the third quarter, but Cousins was intercepted later on the drive when Diggs was tangled up with Jaire Alexander and Kevin King made a leaping grab before a 39-yard return.

That set up the first score by Jones, who leads the league with 16 rushing touchdowns. The Vikings punted on fourth-and-1 from their 45 to white-flag their ensuing possession.

Cousins cost Minnesota the completion of a comeback from a three-touchdown deficit at Green Bay on Sept. 15, when his second interception of the game came on an off-balance throw into end-zone coverage on first-and-goal late in the fourth quarter of a 21-16 defeat. Since that iffy first month of the season, though, Cousins has played as well as nearly any quarterback in the league. He helped the Vikings withstand the extended injury absence of star wide receiver Adam Thielen and lapses in their pass defense, clinching a spot in the playoffs for just the second time in five full seasons as a starter with two teams.

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Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine again schemed awfully well against Cousins and the Vikings, keeping his outside linebackers extra wide to prevent the rollouts and screens that Cousins excels with. Third-string running back Mike Boone, in his first NFL start with Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison both out with injuries, was mostly bottled up.

Cousins was just 4 for 12 for 39 yards in the first half. The best throw from either side during the ugly first 30 minutes, though, was his back-shoulder drop in the end zone to Stefon Diggs to beat solo coverage from Jaire Alexander for a 21-yard touchdown. That came three plays after Anthony Harris picked off Rodgers by darting in front of Davante Adams for his sixth interception of the season.

Rodgers and the Packers have often raced out of the gates this season, hitting their snags later in games, but the start was awfully bumpy. Jones fumbled when Anthony Barr wrangled him down on a short catch at on the first drive, and Eric Kendricks returned it to the Green Bay 10-yard line. Adams lost a fumble and later dropped a pass in the end zone right before halftime, forcing the Packers to settle for Mason Crosby’s third field goal.

Rodgers threw 30 passes in the first half and gained just 158 yards off them. His streak of 277 consecutive attempts without an interception was the longest in the league this season, dating to the Oct. 14 game against Detroit.

RENTON, Wash. — 

The Seattle Seahawks have reunited with Marshawn Lynch.

The bruising, 33-year-old running back known as “Beast Mode” signed a contract with the Seahawks on Monday night, his agent confirmed on Twitter.

Seattle is in desperate need of running backs after Chris Carson (hip) and C.J. Prosise (arm) both suffered season-ending injuries in Sunday’s 27-13 loss to Arizona. Coach Pete Carroll said earlier Monday on his radio show that Lynch was flying to Seattle to undergo a physical.

Carroll said reports are that Lynch is in good shape.

Lynch has not played in more than a year. His last game was Week 6 of last season with the Oakland Raiders before a core injury ended his season.

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The best stretch of Lynch’s career came during his six seasons in Seattle. He arrived via trade from Buffalo early in the 2010 season and became the face of a franchise filled with stars during his time. Sometimes difficult to deal with, but almost always productive on the field, Lynch rushed for 6,347 yards and 57 touchdowns in the regular season during his time in Seattle.

Lynch will always be remembered for his touchdown run in the 2010 playoffs against New Orleans that helped establish the “Beast Mode” persona. It was the top of the long list of highlights with the Seahawks.

“My relationship with him, it was really fun for me for the most part,” Carroll said. “There were some hard times with it because he challenged the system so much. He challenged so many different aspects — the things with the media and all those kinds of things — he was hard on the regular routine of this job in some regards, but he always played and he’d always bring it and I loved the spirit that he’d bring and the toughness he brought. He’s a very charismatic person and player and he affected a lot of people and he affected this program in a big way.”

Ultimately, Seattle needs production and that will be the big question with a 33-year-old running back.

Lynch averaged 4.2 yards per carry and 62.7 yards per game before getting injured last season. The Seahawks would take that kind of production to help make up for the loss of Carson, who finished the year with a career-high 1,230 yards and 4.4 yards per attempt.

Lynch may not be the only reunion for Seattle. Former running back Robert Turbin posted a picture from the Seahawks locker room on social media late Monday. There was no confirmation from the team that Turbin has signed, but he had been in for a workout with the team last week.

Turbin played for Seattle from 2012-14 and was Lynch’s backup.

“Happy to be back home,” Turbin wrote on Instagram.

Lynch visited Seattle’s facility earlier this month but the team said it was simply to see some friends. The team had to report the visit to the league because Lynch has not officially filed retirement papers and could be signed by any team.

Carroll said general manager John Schneider had been in contact with Lynch’s representatives on the off-chance there was a need down the road.

“John is always on the options and in astute fashion he’s been connected with this one just in case for a long enough time that we’ve had some runway for it. He’s had plenty of time to be working and get ready in case something came up and I’m anxious to see him when we get him here,” Carroll said. “There is a lot of history here that is great history and there was nobody that ever amplified the kind of mentality and toughness we like to play with, so if we get a chance to get the beast back on the field we’ll see how that works out.”

Coach Todd McLellan began the Kings’ matchup with the St. Louis Blues on Monday night with something of a Christmas wish.

After the Kings’ recent 4-1-2 stretch revived optimism in the middle of an otherwise dreary season, McLellan had hoped they could deliver another gift-wrapped performance in their final game before the NHL’s three-day holiday break.

He was wary of the circumstances. “I hate this game,” he said in the afternoon, adding, “These are often unpredictable. But he had confidence in a suddenly surging team.

“You just hope you get off to a good start,” he said. “Play hard, play through it.”

Rather than getting a head start on their holiday celebrations, the Kings (15-20-4) gave up four goals in the first 13 minutes en route to a 4-1 defeat in Staples Center, ensuring they’ll spend the hiatus tied for last place in the Western Conference.

“Frustrating, certainly, because we weren’t engaged,” McLellan said.

The Kings came unraveled right away. Their opening shifts were sabotaged by defensive-zone turnovers. Goalie Jonathan Quick uncharacteristically gave up dangerous rebounds.

After the Blues opened the scoring on a deflected Brayden Schenn shot less than five minutes into the game, Kings defenseman Ben Hutton slashed a player. The Blues cashed in less than 10 seconds into the power play.

McLellan called time out, hoping to stymie the early hole at 2-0. But at the 11-minute, 22-second mark of the first period, forward Vince Dunn skated around Kings defenders in their end before firing a wrist shot past Quick.

Fifty-nine seconds later, the Blues cashed in on another man advantage after a dump-in deflected off Drew Doughty’s glove and sprang a two-on-zero rush by the Blues.

McLellan stood still, looked up and down the bench, then simply dropped his head to re-watch the goal the Kings gifted the defending Stanley Cup champions. A late first-period power-play goal by Alex Iafallo was all the Kings could conjure in response.

Highlights from the Kings’ 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

“We didn’t make a play. We were sitting back, we weren’t aggressive, PK was not up to par,” said Anze Kopitar, who noted that some bad habits had been creeping in toward the end of the Kings’ trip last week.

On Thursday, the Kings were within five points of a wild-card spot despite an overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Monday was a reality check.

“We’re not playing to just improve and rebuild this season,” Doughty said. “We’re trying to make the playoffs.”

To do that, however, requires consistency.

Last season, the Blues overcame a slow first half — they were in last place on New Year’s Day — to win their first NHL championship.

The Kings aren’t an exact copy — the Blues were always expected to be good last season — but there are still lessons to learn from St. Louis’ turnaround.

“We’re in a different spot,” McLellan said, “but the will to win shouldn’t be any different.”

That wasn’t the case Monday, especially in the opening period. The Blues recorded 15 of the game’s first 22 chances, generated virtually all of the good early opportunities, feasted on the Kings’ seven first-period giveaways, and were able to coast their way into the Christmas break.

Conversely, the Kings will be seeking some form of recovery.

In the grind of an NHL season, even a three-day break “can seem like a month,” McLellan said.

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LAKE NACIMIENTO, Calif.  — 

The body of a woman who vanished last week in a Southern California coastal area has been found in a car submerged in a lake, authorities said.

Rescue divers with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office found the car at about 3 p.m. Monday in Lake Nacimiento.

The body of Jyll Stevens was found inside, authorities said.

Stevens, 45, was last seen leaving a home in Heritage Ranch, a community near the lake, on Thursday night after having dinner with friends, KSBY-TV reported.

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Sheriff’s officials had said they didn’t suspect foul play in her disappearance.

Lake Nacimiento is about 170 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

A Pennsylvania man accused of ransacking a Beverly Hills synagogue and damaging several Jewish relics has been charged with felony vandalism and accused of a hate crime, prosecutors said Monday.

Anton Nathaniel Redding, 24, pleaded not guilty to one count of felony vandalism, one count of second-degree burglary and denied his role in the alleged hate crime, officials said.

If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of six years in state prison.

According to Beverly Hills police, on Dec. 14 Redding forced his way into the Nessah Synagogue and ransacked it, shredding prayer books, overturning chairs and tossing blue and white tallits and kippahs on the floor. The vandalism was discovered by a synagogue employee.

“When my husband came home and told me what happened, I was shocked. The whole community was shocked,” Simin Imanuel, a longtime congregant, told The Times after the incident.

The attack came at a time when the community is especially alert to anti-Semitic violence.

Hate crimes in Los Angeles County have reached their highest point in nearly a decade, according to an annual report by the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations. Although religious crimes overall declined slightly, anti-Jewish crimes rose 14% and constituted 83% of religion-motivated crimes.

Earlier this month, two shooters killed three people at a Jewish grocery store, in addition to a police officer at a cemetery about a mile away. In April, a shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego County came exactly six months after 11 people were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

At a community town hall at the Beverly Hilton last week after the vandalism, police received a standing ovation when they announced Redding’s arrest. He was located in Hawaii.

Redding is due back in court Jan. 30.

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Giggling with excitement, Christian, a 22-year-old former foster youth, showed off his new apartment in Tustin on Thursday.

“I couldn’t believe it was my place,” Christian said. “It’s my place, my decision. I don’t have to listen to other people’s rules.”

This Christmas, he has his own home for the first time since he was 9 years old.

The Orange County native has been homeless for the last three years, since aging out of the foster care system at 18. Shortly after, Christian suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was hit by a car and was in a coma for six months.

After waking up, the young man slept at a Santa Ana homeless shelter called the Link for nearly a year.

He asked that his last name be omitted out of concern his background could harm job prospects.

Christian moved into a one-bedroom apartment last week thanks to a new federal program that aims to prevent foster youth from 18 to 24 years old from falling into homelessness.

The Santa Ana Housing Authority, in partnership with the Orange County Social Services Agency, secured vouchers that provide rent support for Christian and 14 other former foster kids under the Foster Youth to Independence program, an initiative of the Housing and Urban Development department.

His favorite hobby in his new home is drawing in adult coloring books. He loves that he can use his private balcony to securely store his prized position, a BMX bike.

Senior Social Services supervisor Lourdes Chavez said she thought Christian was younger than he really was when she first met him at the Link. Then she realized his brain injury affected his speech.

Despite his challenges, Christian is planning to get a job, earn his GED and obtain a driver’s license, she said.

Christopher Patterson, regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said he sees himself in the 22-year-old man.

“I wanted to start crying,” Patterson said. “Kids who have been through the system don’t trust most people, and why should they?”

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Patterson was bounced around to temporary foster families in his hometown of Spokane, Wash., until he was adopted at 5 years old. Then he was put back in the system at 12 until he was taken in by his final foster parents, who also ended up fostering his brother.

He managed 10 group homes for foster kids in the Pacific Northwest before HUD Secretary Ben Carson appointed him to oversee the department’s work in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and U.S. Pacific territories.

The Foster Youth to Independence program was created, introduced and passed by Congress within four months, demonstrating bipartisanship in a time of deep partisan divide in national politics, Patterson said.

“It’s a monumental lift that’s never been done before, and that’s why it’s so important to do this right,” he said.

The HUD program is providing 24,000 vouchers to young adults across the nation who left the foster care system, mostly within the last year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 23,000 young people age out of foster care each year.

The National Center for Housing and Child Welfare estimates about that 25% of these young people experience homelessness within four years of leaving the foster system and an even higher percentage are precariously housed.

For the first time in his life, Christian has the stability to do everything from cooking meals to applying for Supplemental Security Income from the Social Security Administration.

“That’s a big deal,” Patterson said. “It’s somewhere he can lock the door and feel safe.”

In November, the Santa Ana Housing Authority and OC Social Services hosted 25 former foster kids for a briefing on the new HUD voucher program. Some attendees were apprehensive about the proposal, said Becks Heyhoe, director of United to End Homelessness, who was invited to observe the event.

“You could see how the room changed as these youths realized that there were people there to help them find a home,” she said.

Under the umbrella of Orange County United Way, United to End Homelessness has raised $148,000 to help pay for security deposits, household appliances, cooking utensils, cleaning supplies and insurance fees that will turn apartments into homes for Christian and 24 other former foster youths and their children.

“I think today shows the collective impact of public and private partnerships when we all work together and bring our piece to the table,” Heyhoe said.

Langhorne writes for Times Community News.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 24, and this morning we’ll be sharing our compendium of some of the best California writing of 2019.

BEST OF 2019

Here’s some of the best California writing of the past year. The list is highly unscientific, but these were 25 of our favorite stories published this year, from The Times and beyond.

“The Man in the Window” (Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times, June 2019)

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was arrested on suspicion of being one of California’s most prolific serial killers and rapists — the Golden State Killer — on April 24, 2018, after decades of terror.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Paige St. John began work on a profile of DeAngelo shortly after his arrest. But what started as a profile soon grew into a yearlong project that eventually became a four-part series and podcast.

[See also: Our newsletter interview with Paige about the series]

“How Racism Ripples Through Rural California’s Pipes” (Jose A. Del Real, New York Times, November 2019)

Amid a vast migration during the early 20th century, tens of thousands of black people came to California’s farm country from far-off states in the Cotton Belt and the Dust Bowl. Often, the only place those black farmworkers could settle was in waterless colonies. The legacy of segregation in the Central Valley endures underground, through old pipes, dry wells and shoddy septic tanks.

“Getty fire: Housekeepers and gardeners go to work despite the flames” (Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, October 2019)

Sent to cover the Getty fire, my colleague Brittny Mejia wrote about the largely immigrant, low-wage workforce who still trekked to their jobs in one of L.A.’s most affluent neighborhoods because their employers had neglected to tell them about the evacuation, leaving many stranded. This is a story that has seared itself into my brain. I think about it constantly, about the vulnerable chaos of that scene and what it says about our city. And also how easily such an important story could have been missed, if another reporter without Brittny’s language and cultural fluency had been sent instead.

“The Porch Pirate of Potrero Hill Can’t Believe It Came to This” (Lauren Smiley, The Atlantic, November 2019)

A longform investigation into the “porch pirate” of San Francisco’s Potrero Hill enters a vortex of smart-cam clips, Nextdoor rants and cellphone surveillance that tugs at the complexities of race and class relations in a liberal, gentrifying city.

“Lugging water into the desert for thirsty migrants unites this couple. Trump divides them” (Cindy Carcamo, Los Angeles Times, October 2019)

Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction. John is a Trump-loving conservative whose former congressman brother helped push for the “triple fencing” that separates the cities of Tijuana and San Diego. His wife Laura is a Mexican immigrant who dismisses Trump as a “despicable human being.” Together, they work to fill and maintain more than 100 water stations scattered along the sun-bleached California borderlands, to prevent the deaths of migrants deep in the unforgiving desert.

“Tongva, Los Angeles’ first language, opens the door to a forgotten time and place” (Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, May 2019)

For decades Tongva, the language of the first people who lived in the Los Angeles region, was consigned to notebooks and papers hidden away in museums. Through the efforts of a UCLA linguist, Tongva is being spoken again.

“The California coast is disappearing under the rising sea. Our choices are grim” (Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times, July 2019)

This investigation into California’s rising sea levels is masterfully reported, exquisitely told and deeply terrifying.

[See also: Our newsletter interview with Rosanna Xia about this story]

“Four years in startups” (Anna Wiener, the New Yorker, September 2019)

In this deeply compelling personal history, Anna Wiener writes about her life in Silicon Valley during the dawn of the unicorns: “I was employee No. 20, and the fourth woman. The three men on the Solutions team wore Australian work boots, flannel, and high-performance athletic vests; drank energy shots; and popped Vitamin B in the mornings. The Solutions manager assigned me an onboarding buddy, whom I’ll call Noah — employee No. 13 — a curly-haired twenty-six-year-old with a forearm tattoo in Sanskrit.”

“I get one last Lent with my Mami. I’m using it to learn our family’s capirotada recipe” (Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, April 2019)

This is a eulogy for Gustavo Arellano’s mother, Maria de la Luz Arellano Miranda. But it’s also a food story, about learning to cook the layered bread pudding that’s the de facto Mexican dessert for Lent. And like all food stories, it’s a culture story too, interwoven with family history and the zacatecano exodus that has spilled throughout California for more than a century.

“The People v. Melina Abdullah” (Jason McGahan, the LAnd, January 2019)

Former LA Weekly writer Jason McGahan profiled Melina Abdullah and looked at how one of the city’s most visible Black Lives Matter organizers became an LAPD target, facing eight criminal misdemeanor charges stemming from her activism. [Note: The charges against Abdullah have since been dropped.]

“Nipsey Hussle’s brother found him dying. These are his final moments” (Angel Jennings, Los Angeles Times, April 2019)

The caller on the other end of Samiel Asghedom’s phone was panicked but clear. His younger brother — known to the world as rapper Nipsey Hussle, but to Samiel as just Nip — had been shot. In this deeply moving story, Asghedom recounts to Angel Jennings what happened in those final moments outside the Marathon Store.

“In Little Saigon, this newspaper has been giving a community a voice for 40 years” (Anh Do, the Los Angeles Times, March 2019)

A single man served as founding editor, publisher and circulation manager of Nguoi Viet Daily News. The paper grew with the Vietnamese community of Orange County’s Little Saigon to become the largest Vietnamese-language publication in the United States. Reporter Anh Do — the daughter of Nguoi Viet founder Yen Ngoc Do — reflects on her father’s paper, and his legacy.

“The Day the Music Burned” (Jody Rosen, New York Times, June 2019)

It was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew. Jody Rosen delves into the story of a 2008 fire on the Universal studio lot that destroyed an irreplaceable treasure trove of seminal master recordings.

“Gone” (Mark Arax, California Sunday Magazine, July 2019)

Decades of greed, neglect, corruption and bad politics led to last year’s Paradise fire, the worst in California history. Mark Arax’s sweeping account revisits how it all happened.

“Street of dreams” (J.K. Dineen, Trisha Thadani and Roland Li, San Francisco Chronicle, May 2019)

Eight years ago, San Francisco city leaders offered a tax break to draw companies to the Mid-Market neighborhood. In this three-part series, J.K. Dineen, Trisha Thadani and Roland Li look at the evolution of the street, the impact on commercial and residential real estate, and the benefits that flowed — or didn’t — to the city and its people.

“Nipsey Hussle Understood Cities Better than You. Why Didn’t You Know Who He Was?” (Sahra Sulaiman, Streetsblog LA, August 2019)

Sahra Sulaiman brings an incredible amount of history and context to this deep dive on Nipsey Hussle, and the broader legacy of decades of disinvestment, disenfranchisement and repressive policing in South L.A.

“The working witches of Los Angeles just want you to be your best self” (Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times, June 2019)

The incomparable Deborah Netburn details the lives of L.A.’s “working witches,” whose prominence is growing thanks to social media and who primarily see themselves as healers. They help clients who are struggling to cope with life’s hurdles — heartache, aging, misogyny, work stress — and who find that more culturally accepted remedies, such as therapy and meditation, aren’t enough.

“Shade” (Sam Bloch, Places Journal, April 2019)

In this fascinating piece, Sam Bloch looks at the unlikely, omnipresent politics of shade in Los Angeles. After all, shade is a civic resource, an index of inequality and a requirement for public health. It’s also often seen as a luxury amenity.

“Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking. Take a ride along the Punjabi American highway” (Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, June 2019)

There are 3.5 million truckers in the United States. California has the second most after Texas. As drivers age toward retirement and a shortage grows, Sikh immigrants and their kids are increasingly taking up the job.

“Homeless people keep arriving at Tarzana mansion thinking it’s a shelter, but it’s really a prank by online trolls” (Ariella Plachta, Los Angeles Daily News, July 2019)

This story involves a YouTube star and a tent city and the burn of a promised opportunity that doesn’t pan out when you are already so very down on your luck. It unfolds like a Russian nesting doll of the city’s darker contradictions.

“Inhaled” (Robin Epley, Chico Enterprise-Record, August, 2019)

Chico Enterprise-Record reporter Robin Epley spent much of the past year examining the health effects of wildfire smoke in the wake of the Camp fire for this powerful five-part series.

[See also: This newsletter interview with Robin about the series]

“Desert pool culture” (Amy DiPierro, The Desert Sun, July 2019)

Pool season never ends in the Coachella Valley cluster of resort cities 120 miles east of Los Angeles. Today more than 30% of Coachella Valley homes have a swimming pool, but one man’s leisure is another man’s livelihood. And to understand desert pool culture, you also have to understand the lives of the backyard laborers who scrub them clean.

“Grounded during white flight” (Rich Manning, L.A. Taco, September 2019)

A “white boy” from Maywood (a neighborhood that is now 96% Latinx) reflects on how his upbringing as the neighborhood changed shaped him, and made him a better parent and citizen.

“The sea wanted to take this California lighthouse. Now, it’s part of a conflict between a town and two tribes” (Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, November 2019)

This story looks like it’s about a small, red-roofed lighthouse on an eroding bluff. But it’s really about the big impact of small-town politics, ancestral burial grounds and the changing California coastline.

“Buck Delventhal dies, and San Francisco loses its most capable guide” (Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local, October 2019)

Buck Delventhal amassed 49 years and four months of institutional memory at the San Francisco city attorney’s office, and played a major role in this city’s groundbreaking equal benefits legislation and, subsequently, its fight for marriage rights.

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: sunny, 61. San Diego: rain, 61. San Francisco: cloudy, 52. San Jose: cloudy, 53. Sacramento: partly sunny, 51. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Steven Tracy:

“I remember entering UC San Diego (La Jolla) in 1968 when the campus was barely eight years old and still in construction. Surrounding it were thick eucalyptus forests in which owls hooted and which dripped with water when the fog came in at night, making walks home from the library a mystical experience. Behind the campus to the east were deep ravines with mustard plants taller than one’s head in the spring and in the evenings, the coyotes would bark. In some ravines were rivulets in the mud of which one would periodically find bobcat and coyote tracks.”

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.

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