Jaime Webb loves buying clothes online.

And returning clothes she buys online.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

She’ll order the same item in several sizes, just in case, spending, briefly, as much as $600. Keeping what fits best, she sends the rest in for refunds in what retailers call bracketing.

“They make the returns process so easy,” said Webb, 31, an American Airlines flight service manager who lives in Brooklyn and does most such transacting with London-based Asos. “It’s almost like, why not?”

Exactly. Now some in the industry that created the monster are trying to put it back in its cage. They’re taking baby steps — not providing prepaid mailing labels, requiring a receipt unless an unwanted item is carried to a store — but also threatening to cut off serial returners, the most troublesome of the offenders. Among the others: people who wait months (or more) before returning and the so-called wardrobers, who wear articles of clothing and then ship them back.

It has all become a bugbear for businesses selling stuff. Last year, $369 billion in merchandise, or 10% of total retail sales, was returned in the U.S., according to a study by research firm Appriss, up from $260 billion in 2015.

The holiday season is the one to dread in the returns departments: United Parcel Service Inc. expects to handle more than 1 million such packages every day, reaching a peak of 1.9 million on Jan. 2, which would be a 26% increase from the 2019 high point.

This is an expensive trend in a competitive sector where margins can be extremely thin. Older, established chains are in particular binds because they rely on e-commerce for most of their growth, if not all of it, and returns keep eating away at profits.

Reverse logistics — the transport from buyers to sellers — is not only costly on its own but creates a need for lots of room for storage. Return stock is “thrown into an empty space in a warehouse to pile up until someone can get to it,” said David Egan, head of industrial & logistics research for real estate advisory firm CBRE.

Sometimes it ends up in landfills, another cost to the environment, along with the shrink-wrapping, padding and cardboard boxes, not to mention the carbon emissions from the trucks and planes that haul everything.

“We can improve the situation, but it’s not clear that we can fix it until we convince people not to overbuy,” Egan said. In the meantime, stores have to do the math to determine whether “the cost of the returns is outweighed by the lifetime value of the customer.”

To be sure, the calculus still tends to put shoppers in the winner’s box. Costco Wholesale Corp., for one, has no plan to pull back on its no-pain-for-you policy. “Are there people who abuse their returns privilege and bring back a sweater they bought 10 years ago? Sure,” said Richard Galanti, the company’s chief financial officer. “But generally speaking, we trust our members and our members trust us.”

Among those willing to risk consumer wrath is Urban Outfitters Inc.’s Anthropologie, which charges a fee for mail returns. Fashion Nova, the most-searched fashion brand on Google last year, offers in-store credit, not refunds. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will next year stop accepting returns without a receipt, invoice or order confirmation.

“There’s a lot of abuse going on, which is why some of these retailers are implementing stricter policies,” said Gabriella Santaniello, founder of the consulting firm A Line Partners.

In extreme cases, a consumer will be blacklisted. Asos, Webb’s favorite, announced in April that it might do so to those taking too much advantage of its famously lax policy. Amazon.com Inc. hasbanned some customers for life, according to the Wall Street Journal. Four of the top 10 retailers — Costco, Home Depot Inc., TJX Cos. and Target Corp. — said they track return patterns to spot repeat offenders.

Brett Northart, Le Tote

What businesses would like people to do is bring things back in person. That helps with logistics. And there’s another benefit: According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, an item returned in a store results, on average, in an additional sale that is 107% of the value of what was brought back.

“If they come in the store to return, we look at it as an opportunity,” said Scott Lipesky, Abercrombie’s chief financial officer.

There are twists on the strategy. Nordstrom Inc.’s Nordstrom Local “service hubs” will take something you purchased from rivals such as Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. and pack it up and mail it for you. Kohl’s accepts Amazon returns, offering a 25% discount on its goods to anyone who brings those in.

“Amazon has basically ruined people,” said Brett Northart, co-founder of Le Tote, the parent of Lord & Taylor, which still issues prepaid shipping labels. “You just have to make your supply chain efficient enough to handle it.”

Webb, the over-buyer in Brooklyn, figures the no-fuss returns culture just may be too deeply ingrained by now.

“People shop online knowing they can return stuff however they want and as much as they want,” she said. “Changing that mentality will be difficult.”

Click:NBA直播live

The retail apocalypse is paying off for at least one group: women in the C-suite.

Although the crop of chief executives at the biggest U.S. companies gets more male, women have made some notable gains in retail. Just last month, Genesco Inc., which owns the Journeys shoe brand, named its first female CEO, Mimi E. Vaughn, who was previously the chief operating officer and will take over in February. Department store chains Kohl’s Corp. (Michelle Gass) and J.C. Penney Co. (Jill Soltau) brought on their first female CEOs in 2018; Best Buy Co. promoted its chief financial officer, Corie Barry, in June to become the first woman to run the electronics company.

Now, retail has the highest representation of women in the top job among large sectors in the Russell 3000: About 7% of retail CEOs are women, versus about 5% in the broader index.

Women are reaching the top in part because of turmoil in the industry that’s sparked a brutal turnover rate for executives. It’s opening the door for an unusually strong pipeline of female candidates who have been rising through the ranks for years.

“With the churn from this year and probably the best-ever pool of talented women ever waiting to get drafted up to C-suite,” said Douglas Ehrenkranz, managing partner at Boyden Executive Search, “maybe this is one of these years where there’s a significant change in women’s representation at the C-level.”

Molly Langenstein, one of five women in the eight-person top management team at Chico’s FAS Inc., said she has “always been able to look up in a company and have representation of women.” Throughout her career at the department-store chains Burdines, now defunct, and Macy’s Inc., she said she was surrounded by mentors and leaders — both men and women — who helped her rise in the executive ranks. She now runs the apparel division at Chico’s as president and reports directly to CEO Bonnie Brooks.

Women like Vaughn increasingly make up the top ranks in retail. In 2018, women held 16% of the most senior roles at the biggest consumer companies — a 17% increase since 2014, according to annual filings analyzed by Bloomberg.

The pipeline for female talent starts young. Folding clothes at the mall is a popular first job for high school and college students. In 2018, 1.2 million U.S. teenagers were working in sales and related jobs, according to Pew Research Center. Langenstein started her career in eighth grade working in her mother’s store. Once women are there, say Langenstein and retail analysts, they have a competitive advantage because they can relate to retail’s main customers: women.

“To some degree, I think boards like the idea that companies are being run by the customer that they’re targeting,” said Christa Hart, senior managing director in the retail and consumer practice at FTI Consulting.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Because of retail’s woes, some from this growing bench of female candidates are getting the opportunity to run things sooner than they would elsewhere. The consumer sector has pushed out 50 chief executives this year, more than any other industry, according to an Exechange analysis of executive departures.

And as companies struggle to keep up with rapidly changing consumer habits, the same force that creates opportunities for women also puts them at risk.

Last month, Pier 1 Imports replaced its interim CEO, Cheryl Bachelder, by promoting a man, Robert Riesbeck. (She returned to serving as a board member, as planned.)

Also in November, Daniella Vitale resigned as CEO of Barneys New York Inc. after losing a battle to save the luxury retailer, a private company that filed for bankruptcy in August. She quickly moved into a new role at the much larger public company Tiffany & Co., rejoining the roster of CEO candidates.

The recent departures of female executives may be in part a symptom of what’s known as the “glass cliff,” a pattern in which women are appointed to a leadership position just as an organization is facing challenges.

It’s certainly a tough time for retailers. Many shoppers have abandoned the mall in favor of online and mobile shopping. This year brought a record number of store closures — more than 7,600, according to a Credit Suisse report. Rumblings of a possible recession in the year ahead and the ongoing U.S.-China trade war create the type of uncertainty no retailer wants. At the same time, investors and company boards are demanding better results.

“Those are challenging situations regardless, for a man or woman,” said Ehrenkranz, of the executive search firm. But so far, female CEOs in retail have not been forced out — or pushed off the cliff — any faster than their male counterparts, according to Exechange.

Langenstein, who started at Chico’s in August, sees the volatility as an opportunity.

“The churn at the top taught me to be more focused,” she said. “In my career, I’ve always sought out the job that is a little bit messy and needed fixing. There is something appealing about those roles that you can go in and turn it around.”

This holiday season, if you receive a wreath from Fiore Designs, a full service floral and event design studio in Marina del Rey, don’t expect to see any typical red-and-white combos. “We don’t do obvious,” says Jennifer Juhos who, along with her business partner, Nicole Renna, brings an earthy, organic style to the studio’s creations. And don’t expect fake trees or snow flocking on branches at any of their events for Malibu plant-based skin care brand Osea or swanky fashion and jewelry boutique Capitol + Irene Neuwirth in Brentwood or in their arrangements at the Tasting Kitchen in Venice.

Instead, they’re known for a rustic sensibility that can be seen in their custom gift boxes and hundreds of premade bouquets they sell at all Erewhon stores. Their inspiration this holiday is “Winter Forest.” So look for eucalyptus pods, winterberries, magnolia leaves, lichen-covered branches, blue ice cypress and hemlock to remind you that decorating with nature really is about what grows outside. “The whole point is to bring wilderness into your home,” says Juhos. “We believe in more of a winter vibe for the holidays.” And they’re certain the rest of us can pull this off too. Or at least try.

We got up early and went wild retail harvesting with the pair at the Southern California Flower Market and Original Los Angeles Flower Market to see exactly how Juhos and Renna envision a winter forest, without going near a single silver spray-painted branch.

What does “Winter Forest” mean to you?

Juhos: “It’s England, cozy, not wet but damp, think evergreen, snow, the smell of juniper and pine and that feeling you get when you walk into the mountains and being in that environment.”

What about using what’s in your yard to decorate?

Renna: “Forage, we encourage that. Look outside and you will be amazed at how much is there.”

How can we break away from that traditional holiday look?

Juhos: “It’s psychological; you don’t have to do what your parents did. If your family had a fake tree, it doesn’t mean you have to. Start your own tradition. Trust what you like. People have collections of heirlooms from their families, incorporate those but still make it new.”

What’s the biggest mistake people make in their holiday decor?

Renna: “They don’t take enough risks. People think there are rules — red balls, gold balls — but there are no rules. That’s the beauty of design: Make your own rules. If you want to have a pink Christmas, do a pink Christmas.”

What are you looking for when you go to the flower market?

Juhos: “Special things. Unique. Ideally long-lasting; we don’t want to be selling stuff that’s going to die in a day. We look for the freshest product possible, like a chef going straight to a farm.”

Do you like poinsettias?

Renna: “We like them. But people assume that means the red ones with the foil you buy at the supermarket. That’s not the kind we’re talking about. The nontraditional colors are actually really pretty; there’s a light pink one, a sherbet color, a beautiful gold. Just use one in an arrangement.”

Fiore Designs’ favorite stalls at the Southern California Flower Market and the Original Los Angeles Flower Market:

Villa Growers Inc.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

“It’s a family-owned company; we love them,” says Juhos. “I’ve known some of these people longer than my cousins. They bring in local product from Southern California and Carpinteria you don’t see everywhere else. They also make custom garlands and wreaths; we add to them.” Southern California Flower Market Stall 7

O&J Growers

“These guys are all local growers; they have their own farms. We like to buy as much local as possible. I like protea, they’re really long-lasting. You can put them with greenery so it feels a little holiday but not too much. They can last one and a half to two weeks in your house. I’m looking for ones that look the freshest, not too open, not too closed,” says Renna. Southern California Flower Market Stall 34

FleuraMetz

“It’s very high quality; they’re imported but not all of it,” says Renna. “There’s more unique stuff, more variety here. They are one of the biggest vendors, so they get stuff from all over the world. It’s in season somewhere.” Southern California Flower Market Stall 32

Mayesh Wholesale Florist Inc.

“Very popular. They have really stepped it up,” says Juhos. “They’re keeping up with the trends in the floral industry. We like the magnolia leaves; they’re very holiday without screaming holiday, very elegant. We don’t go near the spray-painted silver section.” Southern California Flower Market Stall 39

Willie Sanchez

“They have been around a long time; they’re a staple down here,” says Juhos. “He gets a lot of local flowers; we just love Willie. Their dad is usually here too; it’s kind of like a hangout. We love the lisianthus in a gold kind of color, not easy to find.” Southern California Flower Market Stall 28

Oregon Coastal Flowers

“All of their product comes from Oregon, gorgeous stuff you’ll find in a forest, like moss leaves, because it really does come from a forest,” says Juhos. “Tends to be more expensive than the other vendors, but it’s worth it. Look at their eucalyptus. Other vendors have it, but it doesn’t look like this.” Southern California Flower Market Stall 27

Floral Supply Syndicate

“This place is really good for wine and candle boxes and for basic supplies like stem tape, water tubes, rubber bands, wood boxes, some vessels, pine cones, dried stuff, containers, fabric balls for garland. It’s also good for basic mechanics; if we need spray paint for something or if we’re constructing a chuppah,” says Juhos. The Original Los Angeles Flower Market: Stall G.

BERLIN — 

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government hashed out strategies Monday with German business and union officials on attracting skilled workers from outside the European Union as the country tries to tackle a shortfall of qualified professionals.

Merkel told reporters the first two pillars of her government’s approach to the problem would be providing more training for Germans and working to attract professionals from other EU countries.

But recognizing those steps will not be sufficient, Germany needs to recruit workers from outside the trade bloc, she said. To do that, Germany needs to make it easier for skilled workers to get visas to quickly start new jobs, and ensure the country is seen as an attractive place to resettle.

“It’s not only us who are looking at the world’s professionals,” she said. “There is great competition in this area.”

Legislation due to take effect March 1 will make it easier for non-EU nationals to get visas to work and seek jobs in Germany. Arrangements currently applied to university graduates are being expanded to immigrants with professional qualifications and German language knowledge.

Sectors such as information technology and nursing have complained of labor shortages.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

“Many companies in Germany are urgently seeking skilled workers, even in times of a weaker economy,” Eric Schweitzer, president of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told the Funke newspaper group ahead of the meetings. “For more than half of companies, the shortage of skilled workers is currently the biggest risk to business.”

Ingo Kramer, the head of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations, noted that some 430,000 migrants who came as asylum seekers since 2015 are now in jobs, so that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect at least 100,000 positions per year could be filled by actively seeking educated professionals from outside.

“The process has to go quickly, so that it is not long and bureaucratic,” he said.

He added that it was also clear that if Germany wants those workers to remain, “it is important that they feel at home here.”

According to proposals that came out of Monday’s meeting, the government hopes to increase use of its “Make it in Germany” information portal for skilled workers, which includes a hotline and jobs board. The plan also calls for companies offering more jobs targeted at foreign workers.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the government and business groups had also agreed to set up pilot projects with some countries, like India, Brazil and Vietnam, to hone the new approach.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas promised to increase his office’s capacity to process visas and to digitize the process.

“The German government is showing today that it is serious about eliminating the shortage of skilled workers,” Maas said in a statement.

Like many other European countries, Germany is trying to strike a balance between the needs of its labor market, an aging native population and concern about immigration.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party has made gains in recent years with an anti-immigrant platform. The party’s co-parliamentary leader, Alice Weidel, spoke against the new labor policies, saying the focus should instead be on preventing qualified professionals from leaving Germany.

“The planned recruitment of skilled workers from abroad will further exacerbate the problem of immigration and the social systems,” Weidel said. “In the end, it will turn out that when we call for specialists, we get welfare recipients.”

Three people are confirmed dead and a dozen more injured as a powerful storm front packing suspected tornadoes smashed into buildings, downed trees and left a trail of destruction around the Deep South on Monday, authorities said.

One person was reported killed in a suspected tornado strike on a Louisiana home, and two others were reported dead after another storm hit around a community about 55 miles west of the north Alabama city of Huntsville.

Scott Norwood, coroner in Lawrence County, Ala., said the two people killed were husband and wife. Authorities said the injured people included a 7-year-old-child who was taken to a hospital in Birmingham. Authorities did not release names of the victims.

The area was filled with debris and downed trees when first responders arrived.

“It was total chaos,“ Norwood told reporters. “We had to make due the best we could.”

The storms prompted numerous tornado watches and warnings Monday. Some cities opened shelters as a cold front collided with warmer air over northern Gulf Coast states and temperatures were expected to plunge. The National Weather Service said the severe weather threat could last into Tuesday.

The Louisiana death was attributed to an apparent tornado that struck a residential area in Vernon Parish. Details were not immediately available, said Chief Deputy Calvin Turner. He said authorities feared others could be hurt, since crews were still trying to reach hard-hit areas.

In nearby Alexandria, La., about 200 miles northwest of New Orleans, crews cleared roads and restored power late into the night, working in a chilly mist.

Children in a church school were moved to the church before the tornado ripped off the school’s roof, said Cpl. Wade Bourgeois, spokesman for the Alexandria Police Department. Among the hardest-hit spots was the Johnny Downs Sports Complex, which he said may have suffered “total damage.” The complex includes five full-sized soccer fields, more than 10 smaller ones, and eight baseball diamonds.

“Fortunately we have no reports of any deaths or serious injuries,” he said of the Alexandria area.

Meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles said it appeared the twister that hit part of Alexandria also struck near the town of DeRidder on an “absolutely ridiculous” path estimated at 63 miles long.

“I don’t know what our records for the longest total in this area is, but that’s got to be pretty damn close to it,” he said.

Jones said storm surveyors will find out whether the tornado went the entire distance along the ground or touched down in spots along the way.

Three people were injured, at least one of them very seriously, by an apparent tornado that hit Amite County, Miss., Monday afternoon, county emergency director Grant McCurley said.

Some houses were destroyed and others severely damaged, he said. The number wasn’t known Monday night because crews couldn’t get to them all — downed trees tangled with power lines blocked county roads and state highways.

McCurley said damage was spread across the county, which adjoins the southeast Louisiana state line.

Four counties eastward, seven women were taken to a hospital from a heavily damaged group home in Sumrall, Miss. Injuries were minor, Sheriff Danny Rigel told WJTV. Damage on the men’s side of the Douglas Graham Group Home was less severe than on the women’s side, Lamar County emergency management director James Smith told WDAM-TV.

That tornado cell sprang up in Tangipahoa Parish, La., and went through Washington Parish on its way into Mississippi, said meteorologist Phil Grigsby of the National Weather Service office in Slidell.

The Storm Prediction Center reported two other people suffered minor injuries from flying debris after storms moved into Mississippi, and multiple trees fell atop homes and vehicles in Edwards, east of Vicksburg.

In Guntown, Miss., near Tupelo and about 260 miles north-northeast of Amite County, an apparent tornado destroyed a church and damaged dozens of homes.

Pastor Carl Estes searched through the debris of Lighthouse Baptist Church for books, photos or any other salvageable items, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. The storm flattened the building, which Estes said was empty at the time.

Church member Shane Keith told the newspaper he rushed here after the storm and found pews tossed around the hillside.

“I wanted to cry, I really did,” Keith said. “I mean, I just got baptized last year and this means a lot to me, this place right here.”

Mississippi State Sen. Chad McMahn of Guntown said he toured a subdivision where an estimated 35 homes had been damaged.

As the storm system pushed into Alabama on Monday evening it toppled trees and power lines and kicked up more suspected tornadoes. The Colbert County Emergency Management Agency said buildings were damaged in the Colbert Heights area and that multiple roads were blocked.

School systems in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi dismissed students early and canceled afternoon events and activities.

Forecasters said tornadoes, hail and winds blowing at 70 mph posed the greatest threat as a cold front moved east across the region.

Tornadoes in December aren’t unusual.

Monday was the 19th anniversary of a Southeastern tornado outbreak that produced a twister that killed 11 people in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Storms on Dec. 1, 2018, spawned more than two dozen tornadoes in the Midwest.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

How Homelessness Law Now Stands

Los Angeles and dozens of other cities across the West, all struggling to deal with a growing number of people living on the streets, had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would hear a challenge to a case known as City of Boise vs. Martin, which has curbed the ability of police to stop people from sleeping on public property if no other shelter is available.

Instead, the high court decided to not hear the case and let last year’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stand. Why? The Supreme Court did not explain its decision to turn down the appeal — the justices usually don’t do so — but they may have thought the dispute was moot.

Advocates for the homeless cheered the court’s move, which in effect means that, for now, the only solutions to homelessness in nine western states are more housing and more services. But there is discussion of a possible California ballot measure that would create a legal “right to shelter” or “right to housing.”

Another Roadblock for Asylum Seekers

The United States is preparing to send asylum seekers to Honduras, even if they are not from there, and effectively end their chances of seeking asylum in the U.S., according to documents obtained by The Times. Earlier this year, the Trump administration reached a similar agreement with Guatemala. But what’s significant about the Honduras agreement is that it is the first to explicitly state that if Honduras or another country rejects the individuals’ asylum claims, they won’t get another chance to apply in the U.S.

More Politics

— The House Judiciary Committee has released a 650-page report detailing its rationale for the impeachment case against President Trump and accusing him of betraying the nation for his own political gain. The House will vote Wednesday on impeachment articles.

— A senior U.S. diplomat says Washington won’t accept a year-end deadline set by North Korea to make concessions in stalled nuclear talks and urged Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table immediately. Worries about a major North Korean provocation are growing.

— A federal judge has scheduled a sentencing hearing for next month for Michael Flynn after rejecting arguments from the former Trump administration national security advisor that prosecutors had withheld evidence favorable to his case.

— The fate of L.A.’s Democratic presidential debate on Thursday hinges on a union contract bargaining session today.

Our Sour Ocean

When carbon dioxide mixes with seawater, it undergoes chemical reactions that increase the water’s acidity. Scientists call it the world’s other major, but less talked-about, CO2 problem. Now, a new study has found that waters off the California coast are acidifying twice as fast as the global average. It threatens not only major fisheries but also sounds an alarm that the ocean can absorb only so much more of the world’s carbon emissions.

The Saga of ‘Sparkle Boy’

Should the complexities of gender identity be taught to kids in the third grade? For the leaders of the acclaimed Oak Park school district in Ventura County, the answer was an obvious yes. For some parents of the 8-year-old students, the answer was a clear no. Our latest Column One feature shows how the district’s decision played outside and inside the classroom, including the reading of a book titled “Sparkle Boy.”

A Studio’s Inclusive Approach

Ozzie Areu presides over one of the nation’s largest Latino-owned and operated film studios: a sprawling 60-acre site in Atlanta that was previously owned by his former boss and mentor, Tyler Perry. He plans to turn it into an inclusive media campus that champions Latino, women and other underrepresented groups in entertainment. But he is quick to emphasize that he does not want to restrict himself to Latino or female audiences.

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

FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this day in 1976, the 810-foot oil tanker Sansinena exploded in Los Angeles Harbor — breaking in two, rocking the coastline, shattering windows, killing six crewmen and injuring more than 50 other people. Two other crewmen and a dock security guard were never found and presumed dead.

Staff photographer Robert Lachman remembers feeling the blast while eating dinner in The Times’ 10th-floor cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. After rushing to the scene, he took the photo below using a slow exposure with a tripod-mounted Nikon F. See more photos of the blast’s aftermath here.

CALIFORNIA

— L.A.’s online system for pot licenses opened one minute early, letting 12 applicants start up to six seconds before the official launch, city data show — and while officials say they were pushed back in line, the revelation is still likely to deepen suspicion surrounding the program.

— County officials shut down a housing program for young adults transitioning out of foster care last month after learning one La Verne apartment was linked to a murder investigation, according to authorities and court documents.

— Earl C. Paysinger, a pillar of the Los Angeles Police Department and a respected leader in South L.A. who was credited with driving down crime by focusing on community partnerships, has died at 64.

— Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband want prosecutors in the college admissions scandal to turn over FBI reports they insist would show the $500,000 they paid a consultant’s charity was a legitimate donation, not bribes to get their daughters into USC as fake rowers.

— Expect strong Santa Ana winds through tonight that could topple trees and power lines and bring colder temperatures to Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— The Oscars’ screenplay categories could be a crucial test for best picture aspirants. Columnist Glenn Whipp has some predictions for what will be nominated.

— Greta Gerwig had the perfect ending for “Little Women.” Here’s why she kept it a secret.

— Harvey Weinstein thinks he’s been “forgotten.” Twenty-three of his sexual assault accusers would beg to differ.

— From Keb’ Mo’ to Los Lobos, here are 18 new standout holiday music albums.

— What it took to turn Renée Zellweger into Judy Garland.

NATION-WORLD

— Authorities say at least nine people have died in weather-related crashes in several Midwestern states amid a snowstorm that forced schools to close and snarled traffic.

— New research suggests the toll school shootings take on survivors’ mental health, finding that antidepressant use sharply rises in nearby areas in the years just after a shooting.

— Meanwhile, a provocative study that linked police killings of unarmed black people with health problems in black babies has been retracted due to problems with the data used in the analysis.

— Officials from the Army and Navy academies are investigating whether hand signals flashed by students standing in a TV broadcast before their annual football game Saturday were white supremacist messages.

— In India, opposition is building to a new law that critics say violates the secular constitution of the world’s largest democracy by, for the first time, conditioning citizenship on religion.

— Side by side in Belgium on Monday, the Allies and Germany marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, which stopped Adolf Hitler’s last-ditch offensive to turn the tide of World War II.

BUSINESS

— Boeing will temporarily stop making the grounded 737 Max in January, deepening its crisis and threatening a vast web of suppliers.

— The former production assistant who won a $58-million civil verdict against hologram executive and billionaire Alki David now plans to file a criminal complaint for sexual battery.

— Amazon is flexing its power over how shoppers get their stuff by barring third-party merchants from using FedEx ground this holiday season because it’s too slow.

— Federal regulators have approved the first fully disposable duodenoscope in a bid to stop patients from being infected by lethal superbugs. The reusable version of the commonly used medical device is notoriously hard to clean.

SPORTS

— LeBron James’ answer to all those load management questions: “If I’m healthy, I play.”

— Ilya Kovalchuk’s stint with the L.A. Kings is officially over. It’s an ending that feels both premature and long overdue.

OPINION

— California’s referendum on eliminating money bail is welcome but still nearly a year off, but in the meantime, forward-looking attorneys and activists are helping to ensure a more just criminal justice system now, The Times’ editorial board writes.

— Trump’s shakedowns are threatening two key U.S. alliances in Asia, three experts on the region write.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— The price of America’s inability to track child deaths from abuse and neglect? Sometimes, more lives. (ProPublica)

— Who is Chanel Rion, the One America News host who traveled to Ukraine with Rudolph Giuliani? (The Daily Beast)

— Banksy’s photographer reveals their scams and scrapes. (The Guardian)

ONLY IN L.A.

Perhaps you found yourself flipping through our 101 Best Restaurants in search of just the places for Mexican food? Whether you’re after fideo or fusion, taco trucks or tasting menus, we’ve broken out all of L.A.’s greatest Mexican food from our larger cuisine-agnostic list. The top pick among them, Taco Maria in Costa Mesa, comes in at No. 3 on the full list. Here’s what our critics had to say about it and 16 other spots.

If you like the Today’s Headlines newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

WASHINGTON — 

The U.S. government proposed new rules Tuesday to increase organ transplants — steps to make it easier for the living to donate and to make sure that organs from the deceased don’t go to waste.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

The proposals come after President Trump in July ordered a revamping of the nation’s care for kidney disease that included spurring more transplants of kidneys and other organs.

Thousands die every year while waiting for a transplant. There are many reasons for the organ shortage. An Associated Press analysis recently found some of the groups that collect organs at death secure donors at half the rate of others — leaving behind potentially usable organs. And other studies suggest people hold off volunteering to be a living donor because they can’t afford the time off work.

Tuesday’s proposals address those two challenges. If the rules become final, they would:

—Allow living donors to be reimbursed for lost wages and child care or elder care expenses incurred during their hospitalization and recovery. Still to be determined is exactly who will qualify.

Currently, the transplant recipient’s insurance pays the donor’s medical bills, but donors are out of work for weeks recuperating and not all employers allow some form of paid time off.

—Hold the “organ procurement organizations” that collect donations from the deceased to stricter standards. Rather than self-reporting their success, each organization’s donation and transplantation rates would be calculated using federal death records that show the entire pool of potential donors each has to draw from.

For the first time, that change would allow the government to rank organ procurement organization performance. The proposal would require the government to do yearly evaluations and push low-performing organ procurement organizations to match those doing a better job.

The rules are open for public comment for 60 days before taking effect.

“Our broken system of procuring organs and supporting kidney donors’ costs thousands of American lives each year,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

More than 113,000 people are on the U.S. waiting list for a transplant.

It’s not clear how big an effect the new rules would have, but a 2017 study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers calculated that a better-functioning system to secure deceased donors could produce up to 28,000 more organs a year.

And people lucky enough to receive a kidney or part of a liver from a living donor not only cut years off their transplant wait, but those organs tend to survive longer. Yet fewer than 7,000 of the 36,529 transplants performed last year were from living donors.

Click:check balance my gift card

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” began when Noah was trying to parent his extremely stubborn 2-year-old. One day, in desperation, he pulled up a YouTube clip of Fred Rogers. His daughter turned to the screen and was transfixed — listening to Mister Rogers more intently than she had ever, and would ever, listen to her dad. The next day, Noah walked into our office — by which we mean a coffee shop where we could steal WiFi — and said, “Micah, I’ve discovered a warlock who speaks toddler and we need to write about him.”

That was 10 years ago. We had no idea that it would be a full decade until we would see this movie in a theater. That stubborn toddler is now in middle school. Now Micah has a toddler of his own.

When we set out to write a movie about Fred Rogers, we realized fairly quickly that he was not an ideal subject for a conventional biopic. Honestly, he was too unwavering, too steady, too emotionally healthy. An amazing human being does not necessarily make an amazing movie.

But Fred involved himself in the lives of the people around him. He was compulsively intimate, an emotional archaeologist, and a Presbyterian minister. There were dozens of stories of people who found Fred at a low point in their life — and he helped them put the pieces back together. Tim Madigan, François Clemmons, Benjamin Wagner and, of course, Tom Junod.

We settled on our story. After a brutal negotiation, we hired ourselves to write the first draft for zero dollars. We wanted the movie to feel like an episode of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” for grown-ups, about a journalist on assignment to profile Fred Rogers. We sent it to producers Youree Henley, Leah Holzer and Peter Saraf, who helped bring a director on board. It was a dream scenario. The only problem was that we didn’t have the rights.

So we all went to Pittsburgh, Fred’s home base, and sat down with Bill Isler, who ran Fred’s company for decades. He shook our hands, smiled and said that he was happy to hear what we were thinking, but that there would never, ever be a Fred Rogers movie.

We left Pittsburgh empty-handed but we didn’t give up. We stayed in contact with Bill. We begged, we cajoled, we embarrassed ourselves. And finally, he agreed. Not to give us the rights. No, he wasn’t ready to do that yet. He agreed to let us return to Pennsylvania and meet Joanne Rogers, Fred’s widow.

She was generous with her time and spirit and answered, honestly, every question we asked. That day, for whatever reason, she agreed to trust us with her husband’s legacy. She had only one demand — that we not portray Fred as a saint. He was a real human, who struggled like we all do. His life of listening and helping others was a practice, and he worked at it every day. To think otherwise meant that his way of life was unattainable.

From there, Bill and Joanne gave us access to the Fred Rogers Archive at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pa. If we were ever going to make a Fred Rogers movie, we needed to get closer to the man himself.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

It was in the archive that we found a box labeled “Tom Junod.” We knew that Tom got to know Fred over the course of writing his profile. We didn’t know that their relationship extended for many years. In the 200-plus letters they exchanged, we realized what our movie must be.

We wrote up a quick and dirty outline and sent it to Bill and Joanne. They gave us the thumbs-up. We reworked the script until we thought it was ready to go … and then we lost our directors!

We had worked with Marielle Heller on “Transparent” and deeply loved her two features. We sent her the script. We got lucky. She came on and asked us who our ideal actor was to play Fred. Sheepishly, we said Tom Hanks. We had sent him the script before and he passed, but Marielle said, “Let me give it a shot.” She sent him the script. They spoke. As you do. To Tom Hanks.

And then, Tom Hanks was in our movie, and we lost our minds.

Ten years later, Fred has become part of our lives, not merely as the subject of our movie but a guide along the way. He helped us to be better fathers to our children. He taught us how to slow down, and be kind to others and ourselves.

But perhaps more than anything, Fred has served as a rare beacon of light in a dark time. An antiseptic for cynicism. A role model when there aren’t many to go around these days. We never expected this film to take as long as it did to come to fruition. We thought we were waiting for this moment. Maybe this moment was waiting for Fred Rogers.

PADADA, Philippines — 

Rescuers pulled out two bodies Monday from a three-story building that collapsed in a strong earthquake in the southern Philippines and scrambled to find at least seven more people who were trapped inside.

Army troops, police, firefighters and volunteers, armed with sound and motion detectors, located a third body in the rubble of the building in Davao del Sur province’s Padada town but could not immediately extricate the remains pinned in slabs of cement, Padada Mayor Pedro Caminero said.

At least five people died in Sunday’s magnitude 6.9 quake that struck Padada and outlying rural towns, cities and provinces in a region that has been battered by three deadly earthquakes in recent months. A child died after being hit by a collapsed wall in her house and a woman in her 70s died from a heart attack during the quake, officials said.

“We’re looking for about seven more,” Caminero said by phone from Padada.

Distraught relatives waited in a cordoned-off area as rescuers worked overnight in search of their relatives.

Several shoppers managed to dash out of the building, which housed a grocery store, as the ground shook, including a number who were escorted out with injuries.

A total of 84 people were injured in the quake, officials said.

A city and four towns near the quake’s epicenter were still without power Monday, and classes were canceled in a broad area to give time for inspections of school buildings.

The Davao region has been hit by at least three powerful earthquakes in recent months, causing several deaths and scores of injuries and badly damaging houses, town halls, hotels, malls and hospitals.

The Philippine archipelago lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur. It’s also lashed by about 20 typhoons and other severe storms each year, making the Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 million people one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

The Argentine superstar fielded a number of interesting questions ahead of this season’s first Clasico encounter on Wednesday

Heading into a crucial meeting with Real Madrid on Wednesday, Lionel Messi has opened up on a number of issues, including why Barcelona seem to perform better against their rivals when they play at Santiago Bernabeu.

La Liga’s top two sides will face off at Camp Nou in midweek, with only goal difference separating them in the table after 16 fixtures of the 2019-20 campaign.

Barca were held to a 2-2 draw at the Anoeta by Real Sociedad in their last outing , but Real Madrid missed the chance to return to the summit when they took in a trip to the Mestalla.

A stoppage-time Karim Benzema goal ensured that Madrid snatched a 1-1 draw against Valencia to stay level on 35 points with Barca, who are now set to host the first Clasico of the season.

The Spanish champions won the same fixture 5-1 last term, which marked their only home win over the Blancos in their last four attempts.

In stark contrast, Barca currently boast a record of four successive wins at the Bernabeu, with Messi acknowledging that “many more spaces are generated” away from home.

He told Marca: “When we play at the Bernabeu, many more spaces are generated. They attack us more because they have the obligation as the host team and people push them for that.

“At the Camp Nou, they play another type of match, sitting a little further back, they are closer together and hit on the counter-attack because they have very fast players upfront.

“At the Bernabeu, we play 90 minutes equally. Here the game becomes more locked and is more complicated.”

One man who used to have a big impact on Clasico encounters is Cristiano Ronaldo, who spent nine years on Madrid’s books before joining Juventus in the summer of 2018.

Summer signing Eden Hazard was billed as the Portuguese forward’s successor upon his arrival in La Liga, but he has so far failed to live up to expectations in the famous white shirt.

When asked if the Belgian is capable of filling the void Ronaldo left in Madrid’s line-up in the long-term, Messi responded: “Hazard has a lot of quality. He is a different football player who can unbalance [defences], but I think he is different to Cristiano, with different characteristics.

“It is very difficult to replace Cristiano, but Hazard is also a great player.”

Messi is among a number of Barcelona’s senior stars who are no longer guaranteed to start and finish every single game, with Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Gerard Pique also now required to take a step back for the good of the team from time to time.

The six-time Ballon d’Or winner went on to discuss Ernesto Valverde’s selection policy, with it his belief that compromise is a necessity in order to keep motivation levels high.

He added: “Actually I think we are all very important. There are times when it’s another teammate’s turn to play and I think you have to take it in the best possible way, being aware that the most important thing is that everyone in the dressing room feels important because we need everyone motivated to achieve the targets.”