A female sea lion nicknamed Mandalorian that had two gunshot wounds and was rescued last month in Newport Beach has been euthanized, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center said Tuesday.

The 1-year-old sea lion was rescued from the surf spot the Wedge at the end of Balboa Pier on Dec. 16, the Laguna Beach-based marine mammal center said in a statement.

During her check-in, the center’s veterinary team found a draining abscess on her back that limited her ability to move normally.

Mandalorian underwent a series of X-rays to determine the extent of the injury. The images showed two gunshots in her chest, likely from a pellet rifle.

“Our veterinary care team did everything they could to try and ease her pain,” Krysta Higuchi, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, said in an interview. “After a week of no progress whatsoever, while her health continued to decline, our team made the very difficult decision that she be humanely euthanized.”

Mandalorian was euthanized Dec. 22.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

An autopsy showed one of the bullets wedged between the sea lion’s rib and adjacent vertabrae, the center said. The bullet’s entry wound is believed to have become infected, leading to severe muscle necrosis and an accumulation of fluid in her chest cavity.

The second bullet was lodged in her muscles between her ribs.

Higuchi said it was a “very difficult week” at the small rescue center, which has a full-time staff of about 16 people. The sea lion wasn’t properly using her rear flippers and was dragging the rear part of her body.

“You could clearly see the animal was in pain,” Higuchi said. “The silver lining is she is no longer suffering. We were able to give her a peaceful death.”

The gunshot pellets will be sent to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement for further investigation.

Jim Milbury, a spokesman for the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, told The Times that sea lions are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits the injury of a marine mammal in the wild. Penalties include a fine of up to $28,520 per count, a year in prison, criminal fines and forfeiture of vessels or vehicles involved.

Higuchi said it will be difficult to determine who shot Mandalorian because both the Pacific Marine Mammal Center and NOAA have “limited resources.” Tracking a pellet rifle, she said, “is going to be next to impossible.”

“We don’t know who did this — if it was a fisherman, or if it was someone frustrated that the animal was on their boat, or if it was a little kid playing with their BB gun,” Higuchi said. “We just want to educate the public that there are other ways to co-exist with these animals.”

Peter Chang, chief executive of the center, said in a statement that Mandalorian’s wounds are an example of actions “taking place up and down the Pacific Coast.”

“These are disgusting and intentional acts, many of which are premeditated,” Chang said. “We know there are many out there that feel like they are competing with the sea lions for the same resources. However, there’s a pathway for us to co-habitate with these precious marine mammals, and shooting them is not the way.”

Last month, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said it had recently treated three sea lions with gunshot injuries. Two of the animals lost an eye after being shot in the face.

On Tuesday, NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Law Enforcement announced that it is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to a civil penalty or criminal conviction in the shooting death of a northern elephant seal in September near San Simeon.

The seal’s body was found Sept. 29 near a popular viewing area along Highway 1, NOAA said. It had been shot in the head, its tail fins were cut off, and its chest cavity was cut open.

“We’re asking for help from anyone who may have seen or heard or knows anything related to this incident,” NOAA Fisheries Special Agent Jeremy Munkelt said in a statement.

Back in Southern California, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center currently is caring for 13 animals, slightly above normal for this time of the year, Higuchi said. Typically, most rescues happen between February and May, she said.

The majority have come in malnourished, dehydrated and lethargic.

In an unusual rescue Dec. 29, a young elephant seal, nicknamed Peppermint, was found in Doheny Beach with severe bites from a small cookiecutter shark that likely attacked because the elephant seal was sick and not moving well, Higuchi said. It is rare to see elephant seals, who spend most of the year offshore, in Orange County, she added.

Animals at the center are named by their rescuers. Mandalorian was named by “one of our volunteers who had just finished binge-watching ‘The Mandalorian,’” Higuchi said. Two recently rescued sea lion pups were named Yoda and Leia.

More than 60% of the inmates with a mental illness in the Los Angeles County Jail would be eligible for diversion if there were more facilities capable of providing supportive care, according to a study released Tuesday.

Such a move would save the county hundreds of dollars a day in incarceration costs for each inmate and, for many, end a cycle of being arrested and released, then becoming homeless and getting arrested again, the medical director of the county’s Office of Diversion and Reentry, Kristen Ochoa, said at a news briefing. Thousands of inmates could be taken out of the criminal justice system, she said, citing the study conducted by the nonprofit research agency Rand Corp.

“This is a tool I hope we can use to its fullest,” Ochoa said. “I think all we need right now are resources to increase our capacity.”

About 30% of those in the county jail each day are either in the mental health ward or receiving psychotropic medication. That number stands at about 6,000, after rising steadily in recent years.

The Rand report, which confirmed the findings of an earlier study by the Office of Diversion and Reentry, was conducted to determine how much the county should scale up its community-based mental health services to divert all eligible inmates.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

In the four years since the L.A. County Board of Supervisors created Ochoa’s office, it has secured the release of more than 4,400 inmates convicted of felonies or ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial. The cost for housing them is about $70 per day, compared to $600 per day for incarceration, Ochoa said.

The Rand study looked at a sample of the 5,544 inmates with a mental illness to determine whether they would qualify for diversion and whether they met the clinical standard for it. Researchers found that 60.8% would be eligible and another 7.5% might be eligible but would require further assessment.

No overall numbers, either in dollars or in community treatment facilities, were cited in the study, which was limited to one day and did not account for those who might decline diversion or be refused it by a judge.

However, Ochoa conceded, any number “would be a big one.”

The supervisors on Tuesday praised the diversion program, but also expressed reservations about how hard it would be to provide additional mental health facilities.

“This makes sense. The outcomes for people will be so much better,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said. “But I think there’s a lot of hard work out there in real life on actually building this kind of capacity in our communities. I find my biggest frustration currently is just locating shelters for the homeless.”

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the board chair, said she is focused on building community clinics.

“It is about access to outpatient care,” she said. “Until we do that, diversion is going to fail.”

Retired Judge Peter Espinoza, director of the Office of Diversion and Reentry, said that getting eligible inmates out of jail benefits both their clinical outcomes and the public’s safety.

“Often forgotten is that the vast majority of the people we’re talking about, they’re coming out of the jail eventually — either to us or they’re going to be on their own,” he said. “And we are satisfied that when they come to us, their outcomes are greatly improved and their recidivist behavior is greatly reduced.”

An earlier Rand study of inmates with felony charges who were sent to a diversion program found that 14% of them had a new felony conviction after a year. Espinoza said that number was “unbelievably low” for a “population which is very vulnerable, very sick and on probation.”

OAKLAND — 

Some California lawmakers said they support a group of homeless women who have been illegally living in a vacant three-bedroom house since November, partly to protest real estate speculators who drive up housing costs in the pricey Bay Area.

Moms 4 Housing, a collective recently formed to support the Oakland women, interrupted a news conference on legislation to boost housing construction Tuesday at City Hall, shouting “affordable housing now.”

“I want to thank Moms 4 Housing for taking that house and for demonstrating that nowhere, nowhere should there be a vacant house anywhere in California when we have the housing crisis that we have,” said Democratic Sen. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley. “And it was totally legitimate for those homeless moms to take over that house.”

The women took over the home after they said they were unable to find permanent housing in the Bay Area, where high-paying tech jobs have exacerbated income inequality and a housing shortage. They also say they’re protesting real estate developers who snap up distressed homes, then leave them empty.

They are awaiting a final ruling from a judge on whether they can stay, though Alameda County Superior Court Judge Patrick McKinney has tentatively ruled in favor of the property owner, Wedgewood Inc., a Redondo Beach-based real estate investment group that bought the home in a foreclosure auction last year.

Dominique Walker, 34, who has 1- and 5-year-old daughters, said she moved back to her native Oakland from Mississippi last year but could not find a place to live in the pricey market. She said many of the people who used to live in her neighborhood have been forced out by rising prices.

“Housing is a human right. I pay bills there. I pay water, PG&E, internet. We live there,” Walker said. “We want to purchase the home; it needs to belong back in the hands of the community. It was stolen through the foreclosure crisis.”

The company bought the home for $501,000 and took possession days after the women moved in, said Sam Singer, a spokesman for Wedgewood. The 1908 house has one bathroom and is about 1,500 square feet.

“Wedgewood owns this home, and these squatters have broken into it, they’re illegally occupying it, and that is not the right thing to do. It’s simply theft,” Singer said Tuesday. “This is really a case about a group of people taking the law into their own hands.”

Lawyers for Walker argued in court last week that housing is a right and the court should allow the women to possess the house, particularly because it was vacant for a long time and the alternative would be to send them to the streets.

Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose, said Tuesday that elected officials need to ensure “opportunistic landlords and corporate landlords” don’t “keep our homes vacant.”

Many Oakland residents say they are being pushed to the fringes of the Bay Area as they struggle to keep pace with housing costs.

Federal officials said last month that an uptick in the country’s homeless population was driven entirely by a 16% increase in California, where the median sale price of a home is $500,000. It’s higher in the Bay Area.

The situation is so dire that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a statewide rent cap on some properties.

Yet there are four vacant homes for every homeless person in Oakland, said Leah Simon-Weisberg, an attorney for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which is helping the mothers in court.

The empty eyesores are in devastated, predominantly minority neighborhoods, she said, adding that developers such as Wedgewood “acquire the property, they kick the people out who are in it, and they sell it.”

Singer said Wedgewood buys distressed properties, hires local workers to fix up the homes and sells them. He said the company wants to start renovating the house so that “another family can join the ranks of homeowners of Oakland.”

He said the company will continue with its eviction proceedings against the women if the judge rules in the company’s favor, as expected.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

A man who shot at strangers during a deadly Southern California joyride has been sentenced to 373 years to life in state prison.

Twenty-three-year-old Alejandro Lazo was sentenced Monday.

Prosecutors said that Lazo and his girlfriend, 29-year-old Reyna Gomez of Whittier, carjacked a driver in Pico Rivera in April 2017 and drove around for hours, taking turns shooting at people and cars.

A driver was killed as he waited with his family in a car at a red light in La Mirada. Two other people were wounded.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Gomez and Lazo, both gang members, had been released from prison six months earlier.

Lazo was convicted last month of first-degree murder, carjacking, and 12 counts of attempted murder.

Gomez was sentenced last year to more than 350 years to life in prison.

The combination of the largest audience for an AFC wild-card game in prime time in nine years and the week’s five highest-rated scripted programs gave CBS its largest weekly audience since it aired men’s college basketball’s Final Four in April.

CBS’ coverage of the Tennessee Titans’ 20-13 upset of the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots on Saturday averaged 31.417 million viewers, the largest for a prime-time program since the Super Bowl LIII postgame show Feb. 3 on CBS, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

NBC’s Golden Globes telecast drew the largest audience for a prime-time entertainment program since “The Big Bang Theory” series finale in May, averaging 18.323 million viewers.

Sunday’s ceremony at the Beverly Hilton, hosted by comedian Ricky Gervais, was third among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Dec. 30 and Sunday, behind the Patriots-Titans game and NBC’s 20-minute postgame show following Sunday’s Philadelphia Eagles-Seattle Seahawks NFC wild-card game, which averaged 24.657 million viewers.

Viewership was down 1.5 percent from last year’s ceremony, which averaged 18.61 million viewers and was hosted by actors Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg.

Factors for the decrease included a longer time between the end of the NFL game that preceded the ceremony. Sunday’s ceremony began 20 minutes after the NFL game that preceded it, 14 minutes more than last year.

Viewership for most forms of programming has decreased in recent years, in part because of competition from streaming programs, including streams of the same programs shown on traditional television.

CBS averaged 7.79 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Dec. 30 and Sunday for its first weekly victory since the week of Nov. 11-17 and third of the 15-week-old 2019-20 prime-time television season.

NBC was second, averaging 6.63 million, followed by ESPN, which averaged 4.631 million; ABC, which averaged 4.09 million; and Fox, which averaged 2.17 million for its 15 hours, one minute of prime-time programming.

Fox was the only network among the top five whose viewership was not bolstered by NFL programming. CBS, NBC, ESPN and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.

The 40-minute runover of Seattle’s 17-9 victory over Philadelphia averaged 38.015 million viewers. The 21-minute runover of ABC’s coverage of the Houston Texans’ 22-19 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills averaged 21.042 million viewers.

The runovers are not considered separate programs but are included in the weekly average.

In a week when there were no original episodes of the season’s three highest-rated scripted programs and 12 of the top 13, CBS’ Friday night lineup accounted for each of the week’s top three.

“Hawaii Five-0” was first among the week’s scripted programs, averaging 8.059 million viewers, seventh overall. “Magnum P.I.,” which followed and completed a crossover that began on “Hawaii Five-0,” was eighth overall, averaging 7.833 million viewers.

“Blue Bloods” was 10th overall, averaging 7.684 million viewers.

The hourlong season premiere of Fox’s “Last Man Standing” was the week’s lone first-run live-action comedy and topped the genre — and all Fox prime-time programming — averaging 5.211 million viewers, 18th overall and 12th among non-sports programs.

The premiere of law-enforcement drama “The Deputy,” which followed, won its 9-10 p.m. Thursday time slot and was 21st overall and 15th among nonsports programs, averaging 4.749 million viewers.

A pair of specials accounted for both of ABC’s highest-rated programs.

The 10-11 p.m. segment of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2020” was fifth for the week and second among nonsports programs, averaging 10.829 million viewers.

The ABC News documentary “What Is Jeopardy!? Alex Trebek and America’s Most Popular Quiz Show” was ninth for the week, fifth among nonsports programs and first in its Thursday 8-9 p.m. time slot, averaging 7.812 million viewers.

The week’s highest-rated prime-time cable program was ESPN’s 10-minute college football studio show between its Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl telecasts, which averaged 13.158 million viewers, fourth overall.

Fox News Channel was second among cable networks, averaging 2.118 million viewers, and Hallmark Channel was third, averaging 1.335 million.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

In an awards season version of Super Tuesday, the Producers Guild further confirmed the legitimacy of “1917″ and provided fuel to a resurgent “Little Women,” while Directors Guild voters nominated the usual suspects and, surprisingly, Taika Waititi, offering more good news to devoted fans of the quirky Hitler comedy “Jojo Rabbit.”

The producers’ and directors’ nominations came hours after the British Film Academy announced its slate and a day after the Writers Guild weighed in with its picks. It’s a sign of the unusually accelerated awards season in which Oscar voting closes today, nominations are announced Monday and the show is set for Feb. 9.

With the precursor dust now settled, three movies — “Parasite,” “The Irishman” and “Jojo Rabbit” — managed to secure nominations from the four primary guilds: producers, directors, actors and writers.

“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” likely would have pulled off the sweep as well, but the film was ineligible for the Writers Guild because Quentin Tarantino is not a member.

Waititi’s inclusion alongside Tarantino, Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) and Sam Mendes (“1917″) in the DGA nominations ranked as the day’s biggest surprise. After winning the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Jojo Rabbit,” a sentimental satire about a Hitler Youth member finding his humanity in the horrors of the Holocaust, did middling business in theaters.

But the movie — and Waititi — have a passionate, devoted following, including, it would seem, a great many awards season voters. That Waititi directed the lauded finale of “The Madalorian,” the Disney+ “Star Wars”-universe TV series, could have only helped his cause. The DGA does have a high percentage of television directors among its membership, but maybe Baby Yoda did the magic hand thing to put Waititi over the top.

“Joker” director Todd Phillips landed nominations alongside Tarantino, Scorsese, Mendes and Bong at both the Globes and the BAFTAs but was the one to miss out at the DGA. Mendes won the Globe on Sunday.

With Waititi’s “Jojo” sitting at a 57 score on review aggregator Metacritc, there were certainly more deserving choices available to voters, including Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”). DGA voters have nominated women in its feature category just nine times in its history.

In contrast, three women were nominated for the guild’s first-time-filmmaker prize: Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) and Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”), alongside Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”) and Joe Talbot (“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”). But the 5-year-old award has no direct correlation with the Oscars.

The Producers Guild nominees — “1917,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker,” “Knives Out,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story,” “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and “Parasite” — mixed critical and commercial favorites, rewarding movies that have been cited throughout this awards season.

With 10 nomination slots, the PGA Awards have some wiggle room in lining up with an Oscar best picture slate, which has included either eight or nine movies since the motion picture academy’s 2011 move to its current, complicated, voting system that allows for a variable roster of five to 10 best picture nominees.

Last year, all eight Oscar best picture nominees showed up on the PGA list. In 2018, when there were nine nominees, academy voters replaced PGA nominees “I, Tonya,” “Molly’s Game” and “Wonder Woman” with the PGA-overlooked “Phantom Thread” and “Darkest Hour.”

As the academy has never nominated 10 movies in its current system, at least one of the PGA-feted pictures will have to go. And, unless Oscar voters grant “Bombshell,” “The Farewell” or “The Two Popes” an unexpected reprieve, we won’t see any swap-outs this year. “Knives Out” is the most likely movie to drop off the academy’s list, with “Ford v Ferrari” being a possibility too.

But as both films were commercial as well as critical hits, grossing more than $100 million in the States, their inclusion would provide the telecast with a couple of familiar titles alongside other popular best picture contenders like “Joker,” “Once Upon a Time” and the surging “Little Women.”

The PGA film award has often been a strong precursor to an Oscar best picture win. After both the academy and the PGA expanded their best picture slates and adopted a preferential ballot to determine the victor, the two groups matched six years running. (That includes the strange 2014 PGA ceremony that somehow produced a tie between “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity.”)

There have been blips: The academy favored “Spotlight” over the PGA winner, “The Big Short,” and “Moonlight” prevailed over “La La Land,” the PGA’s choice. But order has been restored the last two years, with “The Shape of Water” and “Green Book” winning both honors.

With the best picture race remaining unsettled, there will be notable attention paid to the outcome of this year’s PGA prize.

Could that winner be Mendes’ late-arriving war film “1917″? The movie won the Golden Globe for best drama on Sunday (“Once Upon a Time” took comedy/musical), and picked up a key nomination from the Writers Guild.

The movie, which opens wide in theaters Friday, will likely sweep through the academy’s crafts categories when Oscar nominations are announced Monday. Nods for cinematography, production design, score, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects are likely along with picture and director.

But for the movie to win, it will likely need a nomination for original screenplay or acting, along with film editing. And the intimate, often wordless drama, constructed to appear as if it’s one unbroken take, faces significant challenges on each of those fronts, even with the WGA nod.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts continued its longstanding tradition of being the voting group least interested in movies other than those starring and directed by white people. (And in the latter category, specifically white males.) “Joker” led the way with 11 nominations, followed by 10 each for “The Irishman” and “Once Upon a Time” and nine for “1917.” “Jojo Rabbit” also had a decent showing with six nominations but missed out in major categories including picture and director.

The group was roasted on social media after revealing that all 20 of its acting nominations had gone to white actors in English-language films. Among the performers shut out were Antonio Banderas for “Pain and Glory,” Jennifer Lopez for “Hustlers,” Cynthia Erivo for “Harriet,” Jamie Foxx for “Just Mercy,” Awkwafina for “The Farewell” and Lupita Nyong’o for “Us,” at least a couple of whom should turn up at the Oscars.

But then, BAFTA is a voting body that has somehow never recognized eight-time Oscar nominee Denzel Washington. Does anything more need to be said?

Because there’s a small overlap between BAFTA and Oscar voters, pundits strain to parse meaning from its choices. There isn’t much. And until the group makes some kind of meaningful change in diversifying its membership and stops passing the buck (or pound sterling), it can go on being ignored as nothing more than a dull dog-and-pony show for the tea-and-crumpet crowd.

We all know the feeling of coming back from a leisurely holiday break to suddenly face a wall of deadlines. This year in Hollywood, that experience has had its own unique twist.

The voting period for this year’s Academy Awards nominations closed Tuesday afternoon — a full two weeks earlier than normal — a compressed timetable that forced Oscar campaigners to push their “for your consideration” blitzes forward and left many of the motion picture academy’s nearly 9,000 voting members scrambling to plow through piles of DVD screeners, make their lists and check them twice. Despite the academy’s frequent reminders, some it seems may have been unaware of the earlier deadline altogether, believing they still had more time to set aside for, say, Martin Scorsese’s sprawling, 3.5-hour gangster epic “The Irishman” or the black-and-white Czech war drama “The Painted Bird.”

“It was very rushed this year, and it was hard to watch over the holidays while traveling,” says Australian documentary filmmaker Eva Orner, who produced 2007’s Oscar winner “Taxi to the Dark Side. “A lot of screeners came late in the second half of December. I actually like to unplug over holidays, so it was very difficult.”

The awards season calendar, like the presidential election calendar or a religious calendar, has its own familiar rhythms and longstanding rituals and milestones, running from the early rush of fall festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto through the year-end critics group and guild nominations, the Golden Globes and other pre-Oscar awards shows and the nonstop screenings and cocktail parties.

Any change in that calendar is bound to create ripple effects through the entire awards ecosystem, from the consultants who strategize Oscar campaigns down to the designers who dress the stars for the red-carpet galas. And this year, the academy made a big one: After more than a decade of the Oscars being in late February or early March, the 92nd Academy Awards will be held Feb. 9, the earliest date ever.

Knowing the effect the shortened schedule would have, the academy gave its members — and all of Hollywood — plenty of time to prepare. In September 2018, the group’s 54-member board of governors, facing perennial concerns over steadily declining ratings for the Oscar telecast and complaints about awards fatigue, announced that the date of the 92nd Oscars would be moved up from Feb. 23 to Feb. 9, 2020. In October 2019, the academy began steadily sending its members nudges to remind them of this year’s key dates, an effort that has since intensified to nearly daily emails, robo-calls and text messages.

For some members, the constant stream of reminders has been a bit wearying. “They’ve been telling us for weeks: ‘It’s a shorter window. Vote. Vote. Vote,’ ” says one screenwriter, who declined to speak on the record due to having a film in this year’s awards race.

“I’ve never received so many emails from the academy,” says another member in the acting branch, who is also involved in a potential contender and wished to remain anonymous. “They’ve been extremely diligent. Do I wish I had more time? Yes. But I feel that way every year.”

Still, anecdotally, it seems some academy voters — perhaps having opted out of the organization’s notifications — may not have received the message. Last week, as the nominations deadline loomed, film journalist and longtime academy observer Mark Harris tweeted, “Based on my extremely informal survey of Oscar voters, a high number of them have NO idea that voting for nominations ends in three days,” adding, “I can’t imagine that isn’t going to affect this year’s nominations — I just don’t know how.”

One longtime awards consultant, who declined to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the subject, dismissed such apparently out-of-the-loop voters: “If you don’t know that voting ends Tuesday after the barrage of emails and texts that the academy has sent out, maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Maybe that speaks to a competency issue.”

Further complicating things, the academy has brought in hundreds of new members from foreign countries in recent years as part of its ongoing push to diversify its historically white male-dominated membership. To make it easier for these far-flung members to watch potential Oscar contenders — and in a perhaps overdue recognition that many no longer own DVD players — the organization made more films than ever available to stream this year via its online “Academy Screening Room” and a new Apple TV app.

Still, some have expressed concern that the shortened window for voting could be a disadvantage for smaller films — or late arrivals like Universal’s World War I epic “1917,” which began screening in earnest in late November but only opens wide on Friday — by making it harder for them to work their way to the top of members’ queues.

“I feel smaller films are definitely suffering from the rush and slipping through the cracks, with those released late in the year lost in the crowded field,” says Orner.

Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad says he is concerned that the shortened schedule could hurt movies like his shortlisted documentary, “The Cave,” about doctors under fire in the Syrian conflict, that have more difficult subject matter. “‘The Cave’ got a great start at the Toronto Film Festival, but the film has been described as hard to watch,” he says. “This year, many films have hard-to-watch subjects, and that makes so many of the academy voters delay watching the film in this short time.”

Adding to his own time pressures as the Oscars near, Fayyad has been denied a visa to enter the United States to attend the show, a decision that has prompted the documentary community to rally around him. “As a Syrian filmmaker suffering from harsh, impossible visa requirements, during this short time I can do nothing,” he says. “I am a victim of bureaucracy and compact time in the awards season.”

Even as members and awards campaigners have scrambled to adjust to the compressed timetable, the academy itself has had less time than usual to figure out how to mount its all-important Oscars telecast. In years past, the show’s hosts have been announced as early as the previous fall, giving them ample time to prepare. Last year, the academy announced on Dec. 4 that Kevin Hart would be hosting, only to see him drop out days later amid controversy, leaving the telecast to ultimately go on without an emcee for the first time in 30 years.

This year’s Oscars producers, Lynette Howell Taylor and Stephanie Allain, who came on board in mid-November, have yet to reveal their plans for the show. But  given the limited time remaining for rehearsals and the fact that ratings actually rose for last year’s host-less telecast, it’s likely the show will once again dispense with a traditional single emcee.

Those who have been left feeling frazzled can take comfort in two things: One, the academy has already announced that in 2021 and 2022, the Oscars will return to their traditional late-February spot. And two, as frantic as this year may feel, it’ll all be over that much sooner.

Still, for all the added frenzy, some academy members say their experience has not really changed much at all. “Honestly? I didn’t know the timeline was compressed,” says actress and filmmaker Katie Aselton. “It felt the same: They email, I click, et cetera. Life feels compressed.”

Times staff writers Amy Kaufman and Glenn Whipp contributed to this report.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

SERIES

Undercover Boss Brandon Landry, the founder and chief executive of the sports bar and restaurant chain Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar, and co-owner Drew Brees disguise themselves to learn about their business on the front lines in the season premiere of the unscripted series. 8 p.m. CBS

Chicago Med Dr. Will Halstead’s (Nick Gehlfuss) world is thrown into turmoil when a former patient resurfaces. Yaya DaCosta, Brian Tee, Oliver Platt and S. Epatha Merkerson also star in a new episode of this medical drama. 8 p.m. NBC

Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time The tournament continues. Alex Trebek hosts. 8 p.m. ABC

Nature Inspired by a 2015 incident in which a 30-ton humpback whale breached and landed on his sea kayak, filmmaker Tom Mustill returns to California to investigate whales. 8 p.m. KOCE and KPBS

Criminal Minds This gripping crime procedural opens its final season with a two-episode premiere. Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster and Matthew Gray Gubler star, with guest stars Michael Mosley and Jane Lynch. 9 p.m. CBS

Modern Family Alex’s (Ariel Winter) company puts her up at a new luxury apartment building with a number of high-profile residents. Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen and Sarah Hyland also star, and Stephen Merchant guest stars in this new episode. 9 p.m. ABC

America’s Top Dog Veteran sports broadcaster Curt Menefee hosts this new competition series, in which K9 police teams compete with civilian canines and their handlers in an obstacle course designed for dogs. Expert dog trainer Nick White is featured. 9 p.m. A&E

Party of Five In this reboot of the family drama that aired on Fox from 1994-2000, the “party” is the five Acosta children, who are left struggling to survive as a family unit after their parents abruptly are deported back to Mexico. Brandon Larracuente, Emily Tosta, Niko Guardado and Elle Paris Legaspi star. 9 p.m. Freeform

Supernanny Nanny Jo Frost helps a military family struggling with its four daughters in this new episode. 10 p.m. Lifetime

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning Author Kelly McGonigal. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today Dr. Mehmet Oz. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

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

Good Morning America Tiffany Haddish. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. Issa Rae; hosts of “The Real.” (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Live With Kelly and Ryan Penn Badgley (“You”); Jennifer Coolidge (“Like a Boss”). (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View Andrew Yang; Evelyn Yang; chef Jamie Oliver. (N) 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray Jesse Palmer; Jeremy Sisto (“FBI”). (N) 10 a.m. KTTV

The Wendy Williams Show Author Suzanne Somers (“A New Way to Age”). (N) 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Paget Brewster; AJ Cook; Matthew Gray Gubler; Joe Mantegna; Adam Rodriguez; Aisha Tyler. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS

Tamron Hall Are new meatless fast-food menu options healthful?; weight loss; being fit over age 50. (N) 1 p.m. KABC

The Dr. Oz Show Bacon and bacon alternatives; whether CBD can help with pain; carb-free, keto-approved recipes. (N) 1 p.m. KTTV

The Kelly Clarkson Show Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey; Eric Winter; chef Scott Conant. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil A homeless woman says no one is willing to help her; her kids say she refuses any treatment. (N) 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Michael B. Jordan and Bryan Stevenson (“Just Mercy”); Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”). (N) 3 p.m. KNBC

The Real Christine Lahti (“Evil”). (N) 3 p.m. KTTV

The Doctors Women’s wellness retreat; women’s libido; stress during pregnancy; blemishes; 911 misuse. (N) 3 p.m. KCOP

Amanpour and Company (N) 11 p.m. KCET; midnight KVCR

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

Conan Matt Damon. 11 p.m. TBS

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Quentin Tarantino; Jodie Whittaker; Nathaniel Rateliff. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Larry David. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! John Cena; RuPaul; Dermot Kennedy performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden Hailee Steinfeld; Gugu Mbatha-Raw; Mallrat performs. 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers Tiffany Haddish; M. Night Shyamalan; Shaed performs; Caitlin Kalafus performs. (N) 12:37 a.m. KNBC

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

A Little Late With Lilly Singh YouTubers Rhett & Link. (N) 1:38 a.m. KNBC

SPORTS

College Basketball St. John’s visits Georgetown, 3:30 p.m. FS1; Notre Dame visits North Carolina State, 4 p.m. ESPN2; Florida State visits Wake Forest, 4:30 p.m. FS Prime; Seton Hall visits Xavier, 5:30 p.m. FS1; Oklahoma visits Texas, 6 p.m. ESPN2

NBA Basketball The Denver Nuggets visit the Dallas Mavericks, 4:30 p.m. ESPN; the Milwaukee Bucks visit the Golden State Warriors, 7 p.m. ESPN

NHL Hockey The Washington Capitals visit the Philadelphia Flyers, 4:30 p.m. NBCSP; the Dallas Stars visit the Kings, 7 p.m. NBCSP

For more sports on TV, see the Sports section.

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has hired as its new executive director Ben Cadwallader, who comes from the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, LACO said Tuesday.

Cadwallader, who succeeds Scott Harrison, is expected to begin in March.

Cadwallader has been executive director of Vermont Symphony since 2015. In 2016, he was one of nine arts administrators selected by the League of American Orchestras for its Emerging Leaders Program. An oboe player, he graduated from the Mannes College of Music at the New School in New York.

From 2012 to 2015, Cadwallader worked at the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the education programs manager. He led the composer fellowship program and worked with composers including Andrew Norman, Sarah Gibson and Christopher Rountree.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

At LACO, he will support new Music Director Jaime Martín’s artistic vision, oversee strategic planning and operations, and collaborate with the board of directors on the ensemble’s financial growth.

Cadwallader said he was excited to return to Southern California, calling his new role “the honor of a lifetime.”

“I have admired this organization throughout my career,” he said. “To play a role, along with Jaime, the musicians, the staff, the board, the audience, in how that organization is going to evolve over the years to come … I couldn’t be more excited.”

Cadwallader was selected after a six-month search. “Ben’s mixed experience, his energy and his true enthusiasm for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles overall really put him head and shoulders above the other candidates,” said LACO board Chairwoman Leslie Lassiter.

Cadwallader’s appointment comes after the sudden departure of former Executive Director Harrison, who was brought in to modernize LACO. Board Vice Chairwoman Ruth Eliel has been serving as interim executive director.

Harrison “accomplished a lot of things at LACO, and we miss him,” Lassiter said. “The decision was mutual. He was hired with a certain agenda, and he accomplished that. And I think, like many young executives, [he] wanted new challenges.”

Cadwallader said he won’t begin his tenure with a “prepackaged vision for the organization” but instead plans to prioritize inclusivity within the organization.

“LACO has a primarily white audience, a primarily white board, a primarily white staff,” he said. “There’s a huge opportunity there for us to open our doors and transform our institution to more than just a place where everyone is welcome — where we proactively encourage and engage with communities that have historically not been part of classical music.”

He added later: “Classical music has throughout its history been a fairly exclusive place. We have a lot to atone for.”

Another priority, Cadwallader said, is bringing “an entirely different category of music lover to the table by creating conditions where musical experiences can unfold.”

The ensemble plays at venues throughout Southern California, including Royce Hall at UCLA and the Alex Theatre in Glendale, and has recently introduced its experimental “Session” music events in alternative spaces.

Cadwallader cited past success with Vermont Symphony programs, including the sliding scale concert series Jukebox, which presents classical music in alternative spaces.

“When we bring more people to the table, when we craft experiences that are authentic, inclusive, interesting, innovative, approachable, we don’t do so at the expense of excellence,” he said. “We don’t do so at the expense of of playing serious classical music, we only augment it.”

The Arts District, a low-frills buffer between the Las Vegas Strip and Fremont Street, attracts tourists and locals looking for fun in a place devoid of pedestrian congestion, flashing lights and slot machine cacophony.

The rapidly evolving mile-long stretch of Main Street is dotted with cocktail bars, most notably quirky neighborhood trailblazer Velveteen Rabbit, but beer is the headliner here. With multiple suds-specific spots within walking distance, there’s no better place to experience the Vegas craft beer scene.

Able Baker Brewing

Despite being on the relatively desolate southern end of Main Street, Able Baker Brewing Co. has had no problem drawing a crowd since opening in September.

The industrial-chic space features concrete floors, communal picnic tables and a colorful chalkboard menu. A wall dedicated to the history of atomic testing in Las Vegas is an unusual touch. (Able and Baker happen to be the code names for the first two nuclear detonations at the Nevada Test Site. The brewery’s atomic duck mascot pays homage to what legend says is the lone animal to survive the nuclear explosions.)

Though this is the brewery’s brick-and-mortar debut, it’s earned a devoted local following over the last few years for its beers, which were produced in limited quantities at Henderson’s Joseph James Brewing Company. But now fans won’t have any difficulty getting a taste of Able Baker’s globe-hopping lineup, including El Charro Mexican Lager, Shower Sour (a hopped-up Berliner Weisse) and the Belgian-style Tripel Dog Dare, which earned gold at the 2017 Great American Beer Fest.

Don’t pass up the brewery’s dark beers, especially if they’ve been aged in spirits barrels. The Double Barrel Honey Dip Stout, which is aged in bourbon and rye barrels, is a standout with complex notes of caramel, vanilla and chocolate.

Food options, prepared in-house by Arts District Craft & Kitchen, also favor the unconventional. Chef Van-Alan Nguyen offers a menu of Asian-influenced gastropub fare, including a decadent pork belly-topped burger, sweet and spicy Gochujang honey wings and five banh mi options, including a vegan version loaded with hoisin sambal-glazed jackfruit.

Info: 1510 S. Main St.; (702) 479-6355, ablebakerbrewing.com

Hop Nuts Brewing

This local favorite was the first brewery to plant the craft beer flag in the Arts District. Hop Nuts opened in 2014, but the dimly illuminated bar has a well-worn vibe that gives the impression it’s been in the neighborhood for decades.

Cocktails and wine are available, but you’re here for the beer. As its name suggests, the brewery excels at the hoppy stuff, particularly hazy IPAs, which are fruitier and less aggressive than their filtered counterparts.

If bitter brews aren’t your thing, worthy alternatives include the roasty Harry Porter and the easy-drinking Blonde Ale. Another popular option is the Golden Knight, a hearty Belgian. Owner Kevin Holder insists its moniker was inspired by the beer’s color and strength (a buzz-inducing 7.5% alcohol by volume), not Las Vegas’ professional hockey team.

Click Here: Japan Rugby Shop

If you find yourself in the Summerlin area, Hop Nuts recently opened a satellite taproom in Tivoli Village.

Info: 1120 S. Main St., No. 150; (702) 816-5371, hopnutsbrewing.com

Crafthaus Arts District

Crafhaus Arts District, also known as CHAD, is the first offshoot of Henderson’s 5-year-old Crafthaus Brewery, which helped usher in the Las Vegas brewery renaissance.

Although CHAD pays homage to the mothership, including a wall-spanning mural depicting a showgirl (a nod not only to Vegas but also to co-owner Wyndee Forrest’s professional past as a dancer), there is no brewing on the premises, and the experience is decidedly more upscale.

Gold accents, Carrara marble and velvet upholstery exude a Strip vibe but without the attitude. Bartenders are gracious and go out of their way to walk you through the eclectic tap list, which features flagship beers such as Resinate IPA and Evocation Belgian Saison, along with seasonal favorites and one-offs.

The Sour CHAD, a tart and refreshing taproom exclusive brewed with local prickly pears, is a must-try.

You also can choose a frozen beer slushy, which, for the record, is not available in a novelty yard glass. Recent flavors, which rotate weekly, have included a riff on horchata made with Silver State Blonde, and Carrot Topless, a blend of Evocation, carrot juice and ginger dedicated to a certain orange-haired, prop-loving Vegas icon.

If you’re hungry, there’s a limited menu of bar bites, but your best bet is to order from modern Italian hot spot Esther’s Kitchen, which is across California Street.

Info: 197 E. California St., Suite 130; (702) 888-1026,crafthausbrewery.com

Three Sheets Craft Beer Bar

The multi-story Three Sheets offers an expertly curated tap and bottle list. Among the dozens of familiar favorites and under-the-radar gems are local offerings from Tenaya Creek, Joseph James, Banger and several other Vegas-based breweries.

TVs are scattered throughout so you can pair your suds with big-game viewing. Three Sheets’ original Northern California location was popular with Raiders fans, so it’s a good bet it will become a destination for fans of the silver and black when the team arrives later this year in Las Vegas.

When the heat is manageable, take advantage of the two outdoor patios and courtyard biergarten, all three shaded. Four-legged friends are encouraged to join the party; Three Sheets plays hosts to several canine charity events throughout the year.

Info: 1115 S. Casino Center Blvd.; (702) 912-0590, threesheetsdtlv.com