A Democratic presidential debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles is back on track after a labor dispute there was ended Tuesday morning.

The televised debate, set for Thursday, had been in peril since last week, when Democratic presidential candidates announced they would boycott the event because a labor union was planning to picket on debate night. The dispute was between Sodexo, a food services contractor on the private university’s Westside campus, and Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 150 campus employees.

Unite Here Local 11 said the food services workers had reached a tentative agreement for a three-year contract with Sodexo for “a 25% increase in compensation, a 50% drop in healthcare costs, and increases [in] workers’ job security.” Many of the workers previously made less than $15 an hour.

The union credited Democratic National Committee Chairman and former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez for helping end the dispute.

“He was calling me constantly, he was calling LMU, he was calling the union,” California state Sen. María Elena Durazo, a former president of the union, said at a Tuesday news conference. “He was calling everybody nonstop every day to make sure that this really got on the right track.”

Co-president Susan Minato hailed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as a “hero” for being the first presidential candidate to publicly stand with the union last week, when she announced her intention Friday on Twitter. Other candidates followed soon after.

Warren showed up to the news conference at the union local to congratulate the members.

“All across this country, working families are faced with two options. They can back down, or they can roll up their sleeves and get in the fight. The workers of Unite Here get in the fight,” Warren said. “Let us never forget, unions built America’s middle class, and unions will rebuild America’s middle class.”

In a statement, Sodexo said it was happy about the contract deal. “We have been a member of the LMU community since 1975 and are excited to continue working with our partners on campus to welcome the Democratic presidential debate,” the statement said.

The Loyola Marymount showdown was the second time that a labor dispute nearly derailed a Democratic debate in Los Angeles.

The debate was originally scheduled to take place at UCLA but had to be moved in early November after Democrats realized that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 was boycotting campus speakers in protest of the university’s use of temps and contractors.

Democrats have been hoping to win organized labor’s support in the primary and general election, and the unions have been appreciative of the candidates’ support in their contract disputes.

“These candidates have all spoken extensively about the need to stand up for working families, and it was certainly a good thing to see them all stand in solidarity with us, as they did along with the DNC,” said Todd Stenhouse, a spokesperson for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299.

WASHINGTON — 

The chief judge of a secretive surveillance court said Tuesday that the FBI provided “unsupported” information when it applied to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign advisor and directed the bureau to report back by next month on what steps it was taking to fix the problems.

The four-page order from Judge Rosemary Collyer followed a harshly critical Justice Department inspector general report that said the FBI had withheld key information when it submitted four applications in 2016 and 2017 to monitor the communications of Carter Page.

The order is a rare public statement from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which operates mostly in secret as it receives applications from the FBI and Justice Department to eavesdrop on American soil on people they suspect of being agents of a foreign power. The directive could prompt fundamental changes in the FBI’s use of a powerful surveillance tool that supporters see as vital to thwarting terrorism and espionage but that detractors say is vulnerable to abuse.

“The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable,” Collyer wrote.

Without complete and accurate information, the judge added, the court “cannot properly ensure that the government conducts electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes only when there is a sufficient factual basis.”

She directed the FBI to report by Jan. 10 on what it has done and what it plans to do to ensure the accuracy of information it submits in its wiretap applications.

In a statement, the FBI called the surveillance warrants an “indispensable tool in national security investigations” and said it was committed to working with the Justice Department and the court “to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the FISA process.”

The government’s surveillance authorities have long been scrutinized by Democrats and civil libertarians who object to the court’s highly secretive nature and view it as a virtual rubber-stamp for FBI requests, the overwhelming majority of which are approved. Most surveillance warrants do not result in criminal prosecutions, and even when they do, there is no automatic right for a defendant to see the underlying application.

In the last week, Republicans who have previously been supportive of the Justice Department’s robust surveillance powers have called for change and seized on allegations that a campaign aide to Donald Trump was treated unfairly.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was pleased to see the court “condemn” the FBI.

He said he would work with Republicans and Democrats “to make changes to better protect civil liberties while maintaining our ability to monitor foreign surveillance directed against our economic and national security interests.”

The FBI relied in large part for its surveillance applications on opposition research compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence operative whose investigations into ties between Russia and Trump were funded by Democrats.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office had identified at least 17 significant errors and omissions during the application process, including the altering of an email by an FBI lawyer.

The inspector general said that as the FBI sought to renew those warrants, it withheld from the Justice Department — and, in turn, the surveillance court — key information that the watchdog said cut against the premise that Page was a Russian asset. Page has denied all wrongdoing and was never accused of a crime.

For instance, Horowitz said the FBI omitted from its application questions about the reliability of Steele’s reporting, and omitted the fact that Page had a prior relationship with another government agency.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told the Associated Press in an interview last week that the report had identified problems “unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution.” He said the bureau was taking more than 40 corrective actions to deal with the issues.

Click Here: United Kingdom Rugby Jerseys

The Democratic debate drama started well before the candidates even arrived in Los Angeles for Thursday’s faceoff, with speculation swirling about whether they would show up. Would the event even take place?

Were the candidates feuding? Why would they not show?

Sure, maybe some of them aren’t on the chummiest of terms, but that’s not what put the debate at risk. A labor dispute at host Loyola Marymount University led the candidates, one by one, to announce on Friday that they would not cross a picket line to climb onstage. But that’s settled, mostly (more about that later), and the sixth Democratic debate is expected to go ahead as scheduled, right here in sunny SoCal.

So pour yourself a glass of cheer and get ready for the holiday tradition of political arguments and finger pointing, this time with seven presidential candidates doing the honors over three — yes, three — hours.

What time does the debate start?

The debate, sponsored by PBS NewsHour and Politico, is scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. Pacific time. It will air live on PBS and CNN, and will be streamed through the media partners’ apps and digital platforms. The event will be moderated by PBS’ Judy Woodruff, Amna Nawaz and Yamiche Alcindor, and Politico’s Tim Alberta.

So what makes Thursday night’s debate different from the five that preceded it?

It will feature the fewest candidates on a debate stage all year, meaning viewers might get a greater view of policy differences, rather than rapid exchanges between candidates and moderators.

And this will be the first time Democratic presidential candidates have debated in Los Angeles since 2008, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. (Republicans last debated in Southern California in 2015 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley).

The decision to hold the debate here is a nod to California moving up its presidential primary to March 3. (And maybe, just maybe, because Democrats wanted a break from campaigning in frozen Iowa and New Hampshire.) Political pundits are skeptical that the state will have a huge impact on the race, but at least the candidates are paying more attention to voters in the most populous state in the nation instead of just flying here to hobnob with donors.

Which candidates made the cut?

The seven who qualified are former Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; billionaire hedge-fund manager turned eco-philanthropist Tom Steyer; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

What about the new guy who has already spent $117 million of his own money on ads?

Nope. Billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg, the former three-term mayor of New York City, will not be onstage.

Why not?

He didn’t meet the polling and fundraising thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee, which has been raising the bar to qualify for debates over the course of the year. Candidates needed to hit 4% in four national polls, or 6% in two early-state polls. Additionally, they needed donations from at least 200,000 people (including at least 800 donors from each of at least 20 states or territories).

Bloomberg, who joined the race Nov. 24, did not reach either benchmark. He has two polls that count toward qualification. But he is funding his campaign with his own fortune — worth $55.5 billion, according to Forbes — so he isn’t trying to meet the donor requirements.

Three Democrats had enough donors to qualify, but didn’t poll well enough: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Housing Secretary Julián Castro and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. (Though Gabbard said she planned to skip the debate even if she did qualify. So there.)

One other candidate had qualified for the debate, but she dropped out of the race: California’s very own junior senator, Kamala Harris. After a sparkly debut and high expectations, Harris ended her presidential bid this month, saying she didn’t have the money to go forward.

Are the DNC debate criteria causing any drama?

They always do, and this year is no different. In a historically diverse Democratic field, only one candidate of color — Yang — will be on the stage in L.A.

This has led to complaints from Booker, who argued that the DNC ought to lower the threshold for the January and February debates. Booker, Castro and the seven candidates scheduled to debate Thursday signed a letter sent to party leaders on Saturday urging the DNC to use either a polling or a fundraising requirement, but not both.

The party will also face a quandary if Bloomberg continues to rise in the polls. The self-funding candidate won’t meet donor requirements, but voters weighing whether to support him would be better served seeing him in a debate setting, as opposed to only in scripted television ads.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What should voters look for in Thursday night’s debate?

Click Here: United Kingdom Rugby Jerseys

Buttigieg, who is the youngest in the field at 37, has been rising in the polls and facing increased attacks about whether he has the experience necessary to lead the free world. Warren has lost some of her summer luster and has been increasingly contrasting her record with her rivals’. Watch this pair to see how they handle or wage attacks on Thursday.

Also, the DNC is expected to raise qualifications for the next debate. So for the lower-tier candidates, Thursday may be best opportunity to have a moment that helps them land a spot onstage in Des Moines on Jan. 14 — less than three weeks before the first nominating contest in the nation, the Iowa caucuses.

Wasn’t the debate supposed to be at UCLA?

Yes, it was. The debate was scheduled to take place at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. But in early November, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees asked Democratic candidates to honor its three-year boycott of events at the University of California. The powerful union’s members include patient-care workers who are in protracted negotiations with the UC system. The following day, the DNC announced the debate location would be moved to Loyola Marymount.

Then the union dispute at Loyola Marymount nearly derailed the debate again, with all seven candidates on Friday saying they would honor a planned picket line. The dispute was between Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 150 campus employees, and Sodexo, a food services contractor on the private university’s campus near LAX. But the union announced a tentative agreement on Tuesday.

So that’s one dispute that appears to be settled. But given that it’s the holidays, it’s safe to say there will be plenty of arguments, tension and eye rolls to go around Thursday. Consider it a dry run for family gatherings. Cheers!

Lawmakers will make their final speeches for and against the articles of impeachment against President Trump. The back-to-back votes on the two articles are expected to fall almost entirely along party lines.

The House of Representatives is expected to debate for about six hours and hold the final votes by about 8 p.m. Eastern time.

After all the rumors and the speculation and the erroneous report of his firing, here was a moment Clay Helton would soon count among the most special in his life.

Eleven days had passed since the end of USC’s season, and the Trojans coach had spent most of that time carrying on as best he could, without any word he’d be allowed to carry on much longer. It was a stressful time for the embattled coach and his staff, all of whom hit the recruiting trail, selling kids on their futures at USC, with no actual feel for their own. When a report of his firing was published by Sports Illustrated during a visit, Helton was forced to address his real-time status in a recruit’s living room.

He’d grown accustomed to the endless tumult over the last two seasons, as his Trojans finished a combined 13-11 and a frustrated fan base called for his ouster. All along, he’d told his team to ignore the noise, but as Helton stood in front of his team, two weeks ago, the noise had finally been silenced for him. The uncertainty was, for now, behind him.

USC’s new athletic director Mike Bohn met with Helton soon after the Thanksgiving weekend, assuring him of his place as coach. He told him he loved what he’d seen and how the team had finished strong. He offered up whatever resources it would require to “take this thing to the next step.”

On the day of the decision, Bohn told reporters that his support of Helton had “really never wavered.”

“He said to me, ‘Coach, you’re our coach,’ ” Helton recalled Tuesday, speaking to reporters for the first time since he officially was retained. “ ‘We love what you’re about, and we love what you stand for, and we want to be able to help you live up to the expectations of what this place is.’ ”

And now, with Helton nearby, Bohn passed along that same message to his players. The room, as Helton remembered, burst with a combination of elation and relief.

Many later said they never expected Helton to be fired. But their reaction to his return, as Helton described, was a moment on par with when he first heard, five years earlier, that he’d be USC’s coach.

“You gotta remember I’ve been here a decade,” Helton said. “I’ve sat in on every one of those couches, and this is our team. I’ve had the opportunity to recruit every one of these men that stepped on this grass. So it’s more personal to me. This is not a business to me. It’s not a business to them. It’s a relationship and a family. When you get to be a part of something that special, it is emotional. So it’s a memory that I won’t forget.”

But as he considers where to take USC from here, Helton will have to confront the business part of his job sooner rather than later.

Changes to his staff are still expected, but the coach chose not to acknowledge that possibility Tuesday, pushing back any decision on defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, special-teams coach John Baxter, or anyone else until USC meets Iowa in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27.

Baxter said Tuesday that he’d received no assurances he’d return as special-teams coach, but that the uncertainty “is what it is.” Pendergast was not available for comment.

“I’m gonna sit down, and I’m gonna look at our entire program, and any decision that need to be made, if any that need to be made, I’ll make them at a later date,” Helton explained. “But this right now is about winning a bowl game.”

When asked why he planned to wait, after twice previously making staff changes before bowl season, a frustrated Helton largely repeated his refrain about winning the Holiday Bowl.

Beyond that, neither Bohn nor Helton offered any clear explanation of what expectations will be moving forward for a coach who has so far required votes of confidence in consecutive seasons. The outside noise, while silenced momentarily, is sure to return next season, if Helton and his Trojans stumble at all out of the gate.

Asked how close he felt this team was to meeting expectations he and Bohn discussed, Helton said he believed this team was “on the brink.”

“It loses literally four starters, two on offense and two on defense,” Helton said. “And the rest of these kids are freshmen and sophomores. So it’s not only going to be a good team next year, it’s going to be a good team for a while.”

A potential influx of resources, promised from Bohn, should help in that regard. His willingness to spend on the program was already tested over the past week, as Graham Harrell, the Trojans’ rising star offensive coordinator, mulled an offer for the same position at Texas, as well as head coaching positions at Nevada Las Vegas and Texas San Antonio.

USC responded by moving swiftly to keep Harrell, signing him to an extension that will pay him more than $1 million annually, more than nearly every other Pac-12 coordinator.

Still, Harrell confirmed Tuesday that he briefly considered leaving for Texas, which he said “will always be home at the end of the day.” But his wife, Brittney, had already made her newfound love of L.A. known.

“My wife thinks she lives in paradise,” he said, “and my son, he lives with Mickey Mouse and the beach, so what’s not to like?”

But as he mulled over his options, Harrell kept coming back to one thing. It was the same sentiment that led him from North Texas to USC, less than one year ago.

“This is just too good of a place,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to win a national championship. Of all the opportunities I had to do that, this is the best opportunity.”

Click Here: Maori All Blacks Store

Having already dunked on, and subsequently stared down, Clippers forward Paul George within the first minute of Tuesday’s game at Staples Center, Phoenix forward Kelly Oubre Jr. went about adding to his highlights.

He blew kisses to the crowd after sinking a first-quarter jump shot. Before halftime, he bounced like a Pogo stick to block a dunk attempt by center Ivica Zubac at the rim. His energy was everywhere and because of it the Suns, even playing on a second consecutive night without leading scorer Devin Booker, trailed the Clippers by only 10 points at halftime.

It was not close for much longer, because in the process of what became the Clippers’ 120-99 runaway victory, their 10th consecutive win at home and the third-longest streak in team history, they proved they were unwilling to commit the same mistake that doomed them during the teams’ first meeting

It was October, when some on the Clippers realized what life would be like as the NBA’s hunted.

After opening their schedule with an emotion-filled home opener against the Lakers and a road date at the new Chase Center against Golden State, the Clippers’ third game came against a Suns team that hadn’t beaten the Clippers in three years or been a Western Conference factor since 2010.

The Clippers played as though they appeared to expect a 13th consecutive victory in the series. Instead, they were jumped from the start in what became an eight-point road loss, a reminder, players said, that the Clippers had better grow used to matching the energy of opponents looking to bag a signature win against a Clippers team billed as a championship contender.

“That was the first game that happened to us,” Zubac said of an eight-point Oct. 26 loss in Phoenix. “They came at us and after that we were like, everyone’s going to give us their best shot.”

That will only continue the rest of the season, as the Clippers barrel toward the playoffs and a potential high seed. If the Suns loss made the Clippers certainly aware of the proverbial target on their back, they haven’t always been able to blunt opponents’ charges. Maurice Harkless pointed to Saturday’s loss in Chicago as a missed opportunity.

Highlights from the Clippers’ win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.

“They came at us and, I thought we were ready for it, the road trip just kind of caught up with us,” Harkless said. “We gotta assert ourselves early in games and not give teams that confidence. No matter how we come into a game, we gotta be ready because we know the team on the other side is going to give us everything they got.”

On Tuesday, the Clippers held Phoenix to 40% shooting in the first half, but makeable shots weren’t falling and the effects from a six-game trip were evident.

“I thought the whole team in the first half was a little sluggish,” coach Doc Rivers said. “But I thought we kind of ran it out.”

In the third quarter, the Clippers outscored the Suns by 11 points and took control through their defense.

In the fourth quarter, it was their offense that ended any threat from the Suns.

George had a team-high 24 points, and Kawhi Leonard had 20 and six rebounds. Lou Williams came off the bench to score 20 points, including 11 in a row in less than 90 seconds during the fourth quarter to open a 101-80 lead.

“When he gets it going,” Rivers said, “there is no shot he can’t make.”

Phoenix’s Deandre Ayton had waited 25 games for Tuesday’s appearance, the length of his suspension after testing positive for a diuretic. Getting on the court took even more patience. The Suns’ last bus arrived at the arena an hour before tipoff, forcing the top pick in the 2018 NBA draft to undergo a rushed warmup.

Ayton missed Phoenix’s first shot — his first field-goal attempt since Oct. 23 — but finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Oubre had a team-high 19 points but couldn’t transfer the effectiveness of his first-half energy into the second half. And in the end, he ended up on the wrong side of not only the game, but a highlight.

In the second quarter, his errant pass was intercepted at midcourt by George. Oubre backpedaled, blocking George as much as possible, but the Clippers forward rose for a dunk, exacting a measure of payback.

And when it was over, he stared at Oubre.

Bench scoring is one of the Clippers’ strengths, with Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell providing plenty of spark. Landry Shamet’s long-range shooting should open up lanes for the rest of his teammates, which has made his return from an injury a welcome sight.

Shamet had missed 17 consecutive games with a high left ankle sprain, returning Saturday night at Chicago.

He hasn’t been an instant success.

In his second game back since the injury, Shamet missed his first two shots, both three-pointers, and finished one of six from the field while scoring only four points during the Clippers’ easy 120-99 win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night at Staples Center.

But this was only his 12th game of the season and Shamet still is trying to find his game after being out just over a month.

“I think he’s right there,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “He got hurt in training camp. He hurt his wrist. He hurt his ankle, was still playing. So I didn’t think he played great in the first 10 games, even though his numbers said he was shooting the ball well. Watching him play in the Chicago game, that was the Sham. You were like, ‘Whoa, that’s Sham right there.’ So he’s in a great place with us.”

Shamet had 11 points on four-for-five shooting, three-for-four on three-pointers, against the Bulls.

Highlights from the Clippers’ win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.

He didn’t score his only basket against the Suns until the fourth quarter, and that came on an out-of-bounds play that seemed set up for Shamet.

“I haven’t played with Kawhi [Leonard] and Paul [George] on the floor at the same time so I’m still learning and figuring that out,” said Shamet, who was a plus-15 despite the poor shooting. “But I think it’s going to take time, obviously. I know it’s not just going to happen overnight.

“You don’t sit out for five weeks and come back — unless you’re Paul George and have 30 or whatever in your first game. I understand that. I’m being patient, just control what I can control.”

After the game, Shamet went back onto the court to get some extra shots.

He had entered the game making 41.4% of his shots, 38.7% of his three-pointers, and he was simply trying to get his stroke back.

“That’s not anything really new,” Shamet said. “If I feel like I want to get some shots up postgame, then I’ll do it.”

Before Shamet was traded to the Clippers last season, he played for the Philadelphia 76ers, where Suns coach Monty Williams was an assistant.

The two of them developed a special bond during that time, as Williams grew fond of Shamet.

“Anal about everything,” Williams said. “He wants everything to be perfect all the time. The best thing that happened to Landry was having JJ Redick there every day. After practice,I would tell him, ‘Just go work with JJ. He’s going to teach you more than I ever could.’

“We just spent a lot of time talking — about ball, about life. He comes from a great family, and just an impressive young man and a really good player. I really like him a lot.”

Click Here: All Blacks Rugby Jersey

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

LAKERS

The Indiana Pacers halted the Lakers’ 14-game road winning streak by beating them 105-102 on Tuesday night.

The Lakers were without Anthony Davis, who sprained his right ankle on Sunday in Atlanta, and Kyle Kuzma, who has missed four games with a sprained left ankle. That meant Jared Dudley started at power forward for the Lakers.

Pacers power forward Domantas Sabonis led all scorers with 26 points.

Indiana led by as many as 10 points, but the Lakers kept the game close in the final minutes.

Dwight Howard and LeBron James led the team in scoring with 20 points each, but the pair combined to miss four consecutive free throws late in the fourth quarter.

“One reason [for the winning streak] was we kept our composure,” James said. “And we did that tonight too. We still had an opportunity to win the game, we just didn’t. Throughout the winning streak we was able to keep our composure throughout adversity. Up or down, still being able to make a game out of it, which we did tonight, but sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way.”

Said teammate Avery Bradley: “All I can really say is let’s start another one next game.”

CLIPPERS

Paul George scored 24 points, Kawhi Leonard added 20 and the Clippers returned home after two weeks away to beat the Phoenix Suns 120-99.

The Clippers went 4-2 on their recent road trip, matching their longest of the season. Leonard didn’t play in the finale, a loss Saturday at Chicago.

But he came back strong at Staples Center, teaming with George in a dominant third quarter that saw the Clippers stretch their lead from five points to 21 by the time it was over. The two superstars combined to score 18 points in a 32-16 run that sent the Clippers into the fourth leading 90-69.

Lou Williams added 20 points for the Clippers, scoring their first 11 of the fourth — including three three-pointers. Ivica Zubac had 12 points in helping the team win its 12th in a row over the Suns in Los Angeles.

NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF STANDINGS

Top eight teams make the playoffs

1. Lakers, 24-4

2. Clippers, 21-8, 3.5 GB

3. Dallas, 18-8, 5 GB

4. Denver, 17-8, 5.5 GB

5. Houston, 18-9, 5.5 GB

6. Utah, 16-11, 7.5 GB

7. Oklahoma City, 12-14, 11 GB

8. Sacramento, 12-15, 11.5 GB

9. Phoenix, 11-16, 12.5 GB

9. Portland, 11-16, 12.5 GB

11. Minnesota, 10-15, 12.5 GB

12. San Antonio, 10-16, 13 GB

13. Memphis, 10-17, 13.5 GB

14. New Orleans, 6-22, 18 GB

15. Golden State, 5-23, 19 GB

KINGS

Anze Kopitar scored at 3:23 of overtime and the Kings rallied to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3.

Kopitar beat Tuukka Rask with a high wrist shot after Jonathan Quick had come up with a huge save at the other end, giving the Kings their fourth win in five games and extending their best stretch of the season (4-0-1).

Blake Lizotte had a goal and an assist for the Kings, who couldn’t hold on to leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before rallying for a thrilling finish. Down 3-2 late in the third, the Kings pulled Quick for an extra skater and tied it on Matt Roy’s slap shot with 2:01 left in regulation.

Adrian Kempe also scored for the Kings and Quick finished with 37 saves.

DUCKS

The Philadelphia Flyers honored cancer-stricken teammate Oskar Lindblom and beat the Ducks 4-1.

The Flyers played their first home game since Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that grows in the bones or in the tissue around bones. The 23-year-old from Sweden, who is out for the season, stopped by the locker room during morning skate and visited his teammates.

“It was great to see him again,” Giroux said.

The Flyers warmed up in purple “Hockey Fights Cancer” jerseys and will auction them off with proceeds going to Ewing’s sarcoma research. They left “I Fight For Oskar” signs on every seat, and fans held them during a tribute video for Lindblom. Ducks and Flyers players tapped their sticks and fans stood and applauded the promising forward who had 11 goals and 18 points in 30 games this season. Philadelphia sold #OskarStrong purple shirts, and proceeds from the 50/50 raffle were donated toward Ewing’s sarcoma research.

USC FOOTBALL

What did athletic director Mike Bohn say to Clay Helton when informing him he would return as football coach?

“He said to me, ‘Coach, you’re our coach,’ ” Helton recalled Tuesday, speaking to reporters for the first time since he officially was retained. “ ‘We love what you’re about, and we love what you stand for, and we want to be able to help you live up to the expectations of what this place is.’ ”

Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership

And with Helton nearby, Bohn passed along that same message to his players. The room, as Helton remembered, burst with a combination of elation and relief.

“You gotta remember I’ve been here a decade,” Helton said. “I’ve sat in on every one of those couches, and this is our team. I’ve had the opportunity to recruit every one of these men that stepped on this grass. So it’s more personal to me. This is not a business to me. It’s not a business to them. It’s a relationship and a family. When you get to be a part of something that special, it is emotional. So it’s a memory that I won’t forget.”

RAMS

Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was voted to the Pro Bowl for the sixth consecutive time and cornerback Jalen Ramsey made it for the third time.

Running back Todd Gurley is an alternate, a Rams spokesperson said.

Players are voted to the Pro Bowl by players, coaches and fans.

Donald, 28, has made the Pro Bowl every year since the Rams selected him with the 13th pick in the 2014 NFL draft.

Donald, a two-time NFL defensive player of the year, has not had the statistical production of the last two seasons. In 2018, for example, he had 20½ sacks, the most by an interior defensive lineman in NFL history.

This season, Donald has 11 sacks with two games remaining. The Rams (8-6) play the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium. They conclude the regular season Dec. 29 against the Arizona Cardinals at the Coliseum.

CHARGERS

Defensive end Joey Bosa and wide receiver Keenan Allen, who was named to his third consecutive Pro Bowl.

Melvin Ingram was picked as a first alternate at defensive end for the Chargers and Derek Watt as a first alternate on special teams and second alternate at fullback.

Bosa, 24 and in his fourth season, is second in the AFC with 10½ sacks. He also has 25 quarterback hits and 60 tackles with two games to play.

Bosa’s single-season career highs are 12½ sacks and 70 tackles, both set during 2017, his other Pro Bowl year.

ANGELS

On Tuesday, three days before the Anaheim City Council is expected to approve the sale of the stadium property, the city released a study that shows what Angels owner Arte Moreno and his partners might do with the land once they buy it.

Moreno’s company and the city of Anaheim are not expected to commit to a formal development agreement until next year, and the city has said it would like some of the land to be used for parks and open space.

The city relied on the study for its estimate that development of the land could generate $20 million in annual tax revenue for Anaheim.

The study envisions 4,251 apartments for rent and 709 condominiums for sale, plus a hotel with 943 rooms and offices that would employ 15,390 workers.

The study also envisions full-service and fast-casual restaurants, a beer garden and wine bar, a grocery and drug store, merchandise stores, fitness and recreational centers and social spaces.

YOUR FAVORITE SPORTS MOMENT

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

This moment comes from George Brose of Vancouver Island:

My story goes back to the late 1980s when the Expos were still in Montreal. My son Jacques and his cousin Luc and I attended a game in the vast Olympic Stadium and had seats in right field. The boys brought their gloves along with a ball for a possible autograph. During the warmup period Dennis Martinez was wandering in the outfield with several other players when Jacques was able to catch his eye and hold up the ball and a pen hoping that Martinez would acknowledge and sign the ball. Martinez indicated for my son to throw it down to him. Jacques threw the ball to Martinez, and this is where the drama begins.

Dennis signed the ball and threw a strike, maybe a slider, back up to Jacques. Trouble was both boys put their gloves up to catch it, and the ball bounced off the gloves back down to the floor of the stadium. Unfortunately it went between a temporary outfield wall and the concrete stadium wall. It was trapped in a three foot space between the walls. That could have been the end of story, but it wasn’t. Martinez, a force in MLB pitching ranks motioned for the boys to hang on. There was a small concealed door in the interior wall which he was able to open. But he had to get down on hands and knees to crawl through it. He then squeezed in between the two walls and retrieved the ball, came back out on the field, brushed himself off and threw the ball back up to the boys, with a “This is your last chance” look in his eye. Jacques handled this one like a pro on his second chance.

It reminded me of the old Father Flanagan of Boys Town quote, ” No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a boy.”

Thanks, Dennis, you will always be remembered in my family for your kindness.

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Ducks at New Jersey, 4 p.m., PRIME, AM 830

BORN ON THIS DATE

1886: Baseball player Ty Cobb (d. 1961)

1913: Basketball coach Ray Meyer (d. 2006)

1930: Baseball player Bill “Moose” Skowron (d. 2012)

1946: Golfer Hubert Green (d. 2018)

1961: Figure skater Brian Orser

1963: Basketball player Charles Oakley

1963: Football coach Karl Dorrell

1964: Football player Don Beebe

1974: Football player Peter Boulware

DIED ON THIS DATE

1971: Golfer Bobby Jones, 69

2010: Baseball player Phil Cavarretta, 94

AND FINALLY

Ty Cobb on the TV show “I’ve Got a Secret.” Watch it here.

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

Click:西游记

A Simi Valley assistant football coach was arrested this week on suspicion of engaging in sexual acts with a 14-year-old male student and setting up a fake social media profile to solicit pornographic selfies from children.

Bijan Nickroo II, 32, is being held on $500,000 bail at the Ventura County main jail and faces felony charges of computer facilitated luring and solicitation of a child, and oral copulation of a person under 16.

The investigation into Nickroo began Friday when the Simi Valley Police Department got a call about a child abuse investigation at Simi Valley High School, said Simi Valley Police Cmdr. Steve Shorts.

Preliminary information shows that the child’s parents made the report, and the school resource officer then forwarded the case to detectives, Shorts said.

Nickroo was employed by the Simi Valley Unified School District at Simi Valley High School as an assistant football coach, lacrosse coach and yard supervisor between June 2012 and Friday. He has been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement sent out by the district.

The district said it is cooperating fully with the police investigation and is limited in what information it can share publicly because of confidential student and personnel matters.

“Every parent deserves to know that their children are safe and treated with the utmost concern when they are at our schools; this is the foundational principle for providing a good public education,” the district said in a statement. “We hold this value at the highest possible level and will continue our work to uphold it.”

Simi Valley police believe there are more victims who might come forward. Authorities are still trying to identify the children who sent the selfies to Nickroo. They probably attend a variety of schools in the area, but appear to be primarily from Simi Valley High School, police said.

Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership

Four men have been arrested in connection with a drug-smuggling scheme in which an ultralight aircraft allegedly dropped nearly 200 pounds of methamphetamine near the Salton Sea, federal authorities announced Monday.

Investigators found the drugs, which were packaged in 26 Tupperware containers, after two of the men fled in a dune buggy and crashed into the Coachella Canal, court documents show.

Though there have been other cases of drug smuggling by aircraft closer to the border, federal prosecutors said this is the first time such arrests have been made in California’s Central District, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“This is the first time for our office, to our knowledge, that there’s been a prosecution in the Central District of California for something involving an ultralight or plane coming in and dropping narcotics within our district,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Benjamin J. Weir, who is prosecuting the case.

The aircraft illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico near the Calexico East Port of Entry late Thursday, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Agents from the U.S. Border Patrol and the Air and Marine Operations Center in Riverside tracked the ultralight using radar and a thermal night-vision scope, the affidavit states.

The surveillance indicated that the aircraft spiraled downward in the area of the Coachella Canal near North Shore before turning south back toward Mexico. The pattern of movement led law enforcement to believe that a load of cargo had been dropped on the ground.

About 11:45 p.m., California Highway Patrol aircraft officers saw two off-road vehicles using spotlights on the ground near the suspected drop site before departing south toward Coachella Canal road.

A Border Patrol agent who was in the area activated his lights and siren in an attempt to intercept the vehicles, a Polaris RZR 1000 and a 2019 Can-Am. The Polaris stopped, and authorities arrested its occupants, identified by authorities as Juan Carlos Iturriaga-Centeno, 33, and his brother, Leonardo Iturriaga-Centeno, 28.

The Can-Am sped away and crashed into the Coachella Canal. Border Patrol agents arriving at the scene saw two men trying to swim away. The officers pulled the men out of the water and took them into custody. They were identified as Victor Bugarin-Perez, 28, and Juan Favela-Paredez, 25.

Agents also saw a package floating in the canal near the crashed buggy, and more fell out when they retrieved the vehicle from the water, court documents show. In total, 26 Tupperware packages containing almost 185 pounds of methamphetamine were recovered from the buggy and the canal, authorities said. Investigators also found inside the Polaris two GPS tracking devices, which they believe were attached to the drugs dropped from the aircraft.

All four men were charged with one count each of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, which carries a maximum possible penalty of life in prison. Each made an initial court appearance Monday.

Bugarin-Perez, of Mecca, was released on $100,000 bond, and Leonardo Itturiaga-Centeno, of North Shore, was released on $40,000 bond. They are scheduled for preliminary hearings on Jan. 6.

Favela-Paredez and Juan Carlos Iturriaga-Centeno are Mexican nationals in the U.S. illegally, authorities said. They were detained as flight risks, officials said. Both are due in court for preliminary hearings Dec. 30.