ANCHORAGE — 

A digital memory card found on a street in Alaska’s largest city contained videos of a woman being strangled and pictures of her face-down in the back of a truck, according to police and a charging document released Wednesday.

Anchorage police believe human remains found along a highway earlier this month are those of the woman. Authorities said they are working to identify her and her manner of death.

Police said they arrested Brian Steven Smith, 48, on a murder charge Tuesday. Smith had a brief court appearance Wednesday in which he was not asked to enter a plea. A judge said he would appoint for Smith a public defender when Smith said he could not afford a lawyer.

Deputy District Attorney Brittany L. Dunlop said the process calls for the case to be brought before a grand jury. The investigation continues.

A charging document filed by the Department of Law and based on a review of the investigation so far graphically describes the images and videos on the card, which someone last week reported finding on a street in Anchorage. The card contained 39 images and 12 videos, the document states.

The videos show the woman being strangled, with a man’s voice in one saying “just … die,” according to the document. There are pictures of the woman under a blanket on a hotel luggage cart near a truck and in the truck bed, the document states.

Police spokesman MJ Thim said police believe Smith recorded the events himself. He said police believe the killing occurred in early September.

Smith lives in Anchorage but is from South Africa, Thim said.

Police reviewing the footage remembered Smith, who has an accent, from another investigation and found he was registered in early September to a room at a hotel where the carpet matched that in the footage, the document says. They also used vehicle and cellphone records in their investigation.

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Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

Powerless in California

It was the day the lights went out in Northern and Central California — and they could stay out for quite some time. Fearing the return of high winds knocking down power lines that could spark deadly wildfires, PG&E shut off power to millions of Californians across 34 counties. Those who didn’t have an alternate source of electricity were left without lights, air conditioning, computers and refrigerators — though, in many cases, they were left with plenty of anger. So why is it that California, home to the world’s largest economies and a high-tech pioneer, must resort to shutting down the power grid? Read on.

More About the Power Shut-Down

— The massive blackouts led to a run on gasoline, portable generators and other supplies.

— Southern California Edison said that, given the strong Santa Ana winds forecast for the area, power could be cut off to more than 173,000 customers in parts of eight Southland counties.

— Survival guide: How to prepare if your power is being shut down, and how to survive with just your cellphone.

The Turkish Blitz Begins

In a move to get rid of a Kurdish militia that has been an important U.S. ally against Islamic State militants, Turkey has begun deploying forces and bombarding towns in northern Syria. The Turkish military operation comes after the Trump administration said it was pulling U.S. troops out of Syria. But after President Trump received wide-ranging criticism for abandoning an ally, including from some of his closest Republican supporters, the White House issued a statement quoting Trump as saying the U.S. “does not endorse this attack.” Here is a closer look at the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Turkey.

The Law of Unintended Consequences?

Constitutional lawyers say Trump’s vow not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry is unprecedented and unlikely to spare him from being formally charged by the House. In fact, they say, it may only increase the chances that he will be impeached. As for the White House’s assertion that the inquiry is invalid because there was no formal House vote to launch it, scholars have noted that no such requirement exists in the Constitution. Meanwhile, Joe Biden publicly stated for the first time Wednesday that Trump should be impeached. And in Russia, it looks as if Vladimir Putin is enjoying the show.

Failures of Oversight

One patient was strangled to death, allegedly by a psychotic patient who had never been given a psychiatric evaluation. Another patient reported being choked by a hospital employee, and a third that her roommate sexually assaulted her — but neither complaint appears to have been investigated. The acute psychiatric hospital at Kedren Community Health Center in South L.A. is a key resource for people struggling with mental illness. But a Times review of inspection and court records reveals serious failures of oversight in its caregiving.

Grand Slammed

The Dodgers finished the regular season with a franchise record 106 victories. They ended the postseason with a loss that will go down in the annals of baseball failure or, if you are a Washington Nationals fan, in the annals of underdog greatness. After leading 3 to 0, the Dodgers gave up seven runs, including a grand slam in the 10th inning, to lose the decisive Game 5 of their National League Division Series.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this day in 1983, a major power outage hit the southern part of downtown Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and La Opinion newspapers — so The Times stepped in to help. It printed La Opinion’s Oct. 11 edition, and for the Herald — left in worse shape when the power went out — it offered not only its presses but also its newsroom and computers to write, edit and lay out its pages.

As the L.A. Times employee publication Among Ourselves later reported: “The Herald rolled off The Times’ presses, on The Times’ paper and carrying The Times’ body and headline type. A banner across the front page said, ‘Many thanks to the L.A. Times for publishing today’s Herald.’” Read the entire article about the scramble here.

CALIFORNIA

— A proposed Metrolink plan would shift up to $5.5 billion from the Central Valley bullet train project to new high-speed electric commuter trains in Southern California, doubling ridership between Burbank and Anaheim, relieving freeway congestion and slashing emissions.

— Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill designed to open the elusive beaches at Hollister Ranch. It’s a significant move forward under his administration on an issue that has stalled for decades in the face of powerful landowners.

— Days after a threat forced a lockdown at Cal State Long Beach, authorities have arrested a second student — one they say hacked the email of the first, whom he didn’t know, to send the threat from her address.

— Just over half of public school students who took the state’s standardized test performed at grade level in English, while only 4 in 10 did in math — but that continues a slow upward trend over the last four years, new data show.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Wasn’t cord-cutting supposed to simplify our lives? Now that the Netflix model has made TV a cultural tyrant, it’s no longer enough to keep up with all the new shows; now we have to figure out which platform we need to watch them, too, writes columnist Mary McNamara.

— If you’re overwhelmed by the options, our one-stop comparison shopping guide can help you decide which streaming service is right for you.

— The NBC News employee whose sexual harassment complaint led to the firing of Matt Lauer two years ago says he raped her, according to a new book by investigative journalist Ronan Farrow.

— Mindy Kaling says the organization behind the Emmys tried to drop her from the producers list on “The Office” and made her submit an essay to prove her worth.

NATION-WORLD

— A heavily armed assailant ranting about Jews tried to force his way into a synagogue in Halle, Germany, on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, then shot two people to death nearby in an attack that was livestreamed on a popular gaming site.

— A Defense Intelligence Agency official has been arrested and charged with leaking classified intelligence information to two journalists, including a reporter he was dating, the Justice Department said.

— Beijing’s strategy stands little chance of quelling unrest in Hong Kong because it misunderstands the protesters’ motives. The trade-off at the core of the Communist Party’s domestic legitimacy — give up your freedoms for stability and wealth — doesn’t resonate there.

— The region home to Indonesia’s biggest Christian enclave needs an economic jolt, and attracting Muslim tourists to its natural wonders might do the trick. But what to do about all that pork? The question has touched off a local furor.

BUSINESS

— Trump vowed to revive American manufacturing. Today, it’s officially in recession and threatening to pull down other sectors, and it could hit his strongholds of support the hardest.

— Consumer Reports says Tesla’s self-driving Smart Summon feature, which lets your car back out of its parking space and come pick you up, is “glitchy and at times worked intermittently, without a lot of benefit for consumers.”

— The British serial entrepreneur who co-founded the meditation app Calm plans to build an L.A.-based empire that marries mental health and entertainment.

SPORTS

— The prospect of the Lakers and Nets actually playing a game in China is looking bleak, amid the NBA’s conflict with Beijing.

— Another blow for the Chargers: They’re putting Mike Pouncey on injured reserve.

OPINION

— Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northeastern Syria, clearing the way for Turkey to invade, was impulsive, unwise and a betrayal of the Syrian Kurds whose fighting was so crucial in routing Islamic State extremists, The Times’ editorial board writes.

— Kudos to Mayor Eric Garcetti for taking on climate change on the global stage. Now let’s see some results on the ground in L.A., the editorial board writes.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— A conversation with a guy who faithfully recreates LeBron James’ Instagram as if he were a cartoon giraffe. (Deadspin)

— We’ve already told you where to find the best autumn colors in the eastern Sierra. If you want to venture beyond California, these maps and graphics show where else in America has the best fall foliage, and the science behind why. (Washington Post)

— For homeless New Yorkers, the city’s subway system offers an elusive safe refuge from violent attacks like the ones that killed four sleeping men last weekend. (The City)

ONLY IN L.A.

In case the costs of college debt weren’t high enough, California’s priciest place to rent is an L.A. neighborhood full of students. With monthly rents averaging $4,944, it’s the fourth-most expensive ZIP Code in the country, beaten out by only three in Manhattan. Close on its heels is one closer by, spanning Mid-Wilshire and West Hollywood.

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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AMMAN, Jordan — 

President Trump’s announcement late Sunday that he was pulling U.S. troops from northeastern Syria was met with fierce criticism in Washington and elsewhere. Here is why it is so controversial:

Who are the Kurdish fighters?

They are one of the many groups involved in Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011. When troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad retreated from Kurdish-majority areas in the north, a Kurdish party known as Democratic Union Party of Syria and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, rose to defend and administer those territories.

How did they become important to the U.S.?

In the beginning of the war, they weren’t. The U.S. instead was giving support to the Free Syrian Army, a disparate group of rebel factions fighting Assad that had also clashed with the Kurds.

But in 2014, Islamic State extremists began a blitz from the shadowlands on the Iraqi-Syrian border. They scythed through northern Iraq, adding to territories they had already taken in Syria to expand their caliphate.

In September of that year, they laid siege to Kobani, a Kurdish-controlled city along the border with Turkey. The city was about to fall to the extremists when the U.S. intervened, using airstrikes and the YPG’s help to push them back.

The effort became a blueprint for a partnership between the Americans and the Kurds. Unlike various Syrian rebel groups, the YPG was eager to fight Islamic State.

Washington lavished the Kurdish fighters with weapons and training and dispatched special forces teams and air power to pave the way for their offensives against the extremists. And it made them the core of a grouping of militias it called the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

Earlier this year, the Kurdish-led forces, with backing from a coalition made up of the U.S. and dozens of other countries, took Islamic State’s last territory in Syria and eliminated its caliphate. The victory had cost the lives of more than 11,000 SDF fighters.

In the meantime, the Kurds used U.S. and coalition largess to secure control of northeast Syria and self-administer a territory largely independent of Assad.

So if the caliphate is gone, why is the U.S. still supporting the Kurds?

Though Islamic State holds no significant territory, the coalition and its allied militias are still hunting thousands of extremists hidden in the remote deserts of Syria.

The Kurds also serve the purpose of denying Assad — and his allies in Russia and Iran — control of a strategic area. Northeast Syria is arguably the country’s richest region, with oil, water and minerals. It is also a major passageway linking Syria to Iraq.

With U.S. protection, the Kurds have leveraged those resources to finance a quasi-governmental bureaucracy of 140,000 civil servants serving a population of more than 2 million people. The U.S. has promoted them as a model for what Syria’s future government should be.

Trump, however, has never been convinced by these arguments. He has long advocated an end to America’s presence in the country. In December, he said the U.S. was withdrawing its troops, then succumbed to political pressure not to. On Sunday, after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said it was time to pull out.

So why does Turkey want to push out the Kurdish fighters?

Turkey believes the YPG is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, a Kurdish separatist movement that has waged a decades-long insurgency, and regards both organizations as terrorist groups. The government’s fear is that the party will establish a safe haven in northern Syria — as it has done in northern Iraq — and launch attacks into Turkey.

The U.S.-Kurdish partnership came to overshadow most of Turkey’s policy with Washington, with Erdogan repeatedly pushing the U.S. to let Turkey and the Syrian factions it supported take control of the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

Over the last two years, Turkish army units have conducted two cross-border offensives against the Kurdish fighters, overrun their territories and installed Syrian rebel factions loyal to Turkey in their stead.

What does Turkey want to do?

Turkey’s aim is to expel the Kurdish fighters from a 20-mile buffer zone along Syrian-Turkish border. It then plans to replicate what it has done in other Syrian territories under its control: rebuild them using Turkish firms and resettle the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey in this so-called safe zone.

Of course, Turkey’s other goal is to completely crush the Syrian Kurdish fighters and stop their nascent state.

What might the Kurds face in an invasion?

If past is prologue, then Afrin provides an answer. The Kurdish-controlled enclave near Aleppo was overrun by Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies in 2018. Hundreds of civilians were killed in indiscriminate shellings, and hundreds of thousands of Kurds were displaced.

It didn’t get better for the Kurds when the fighting subsided. Human rights groups accuse Turkey of engineering demographic change in the area when it resettled Syrian refugees, mostly Sunni Arab Muslims, in the homes of Kurds who had fled the violence.

The mostly Islamist rebel factions that control the area view the Kurds as both atheists and separatists and have used their power to abuse the population. Local activists have reported dozens of incidents of unlawful arrests, torture and disappearances, according to Human Rights Watch.

What have the Kurds said?

Hours after U.S. troops began to withdraw from their positions in Syria, the SDF issued a statement accusing them of not meeting their responsibilities to their allies.

It added that “Turkey’s unprovoked attack on our areas will have a negative impact on our fight against [Islamic State] and the stability and peace we have created in the region in the recent years.”

“As the Syrian Democratic Forces, we are determined to defend our land at all costs.”

Kino Gabriel, a spokesman for the SDF, said in an interview with Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Hadath that Trump’s decision had come as a shock and called it “a stab in the back.”

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WASHINGTON — 

President Trump’s decision to pull remaining U.S. troops back from northeastern Syria could revive the Islamic State terrorist group and destabilize the volatile region, senior U.S. officials said Monday, while senior Republicans in Congress angrily rebuked the president as he fights an impeachment inquiry.

Trump abruptly announced the move late Sunday without consulting top Pentagon or State Department advisors, sparking a cascade of warnings that withdrawing even the token U.S. force — up to 100 special operations troops — will allow Turkey to launch a long-planned military operation aimed at eliminating the Kurdish fighters long backed by Washington, the officials warned.

Without U.S. support, the Kurdish fighters who form the bulk of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State are expected to shift to fighting Turkish troops and to release some of the 12,000 Islamic State fighters they now hold in camps, the U.S. officials warned. The militant group has lost its territory but could pose a potent threat if reinforcements return.

Trump portrayed his decision as fulfilling his pledge to disentangle America from what he called “ridiculous, endless wars,” especially in the region’s ethnic and sectarian conflicts. But the political backlash in Washington was swift, harsh and bipartisan.

“A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran and the Assad regime. And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), normally one of Trump’s staunchest allies. (Islamic State is also known as ISIS.)

“As we learned the hard way during the Obama administration, American interests are best served by American leadership, not by retreat or withdrawal,” he added.

Trump later appeared to issue a stark warning to Turkey, although for what was unclear. “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey,” he tweeted.

Trump spoke by phone with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday. After the call, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney called Defense Secretary Mark Esper to advise him of the president’s decision to withdraw from the border, a U.S. official said.

Later Sunday, the White House announced that the U.S. would not interfere with Turkey’s plans send troops into Syria to battle Kurdish fighters arrayed near the border, saying American forces would “no longer be in the immediate area.”

The White House statement said Turkey would “be responsible” for all Islamic State fighters captured over the last two years. The statement did not suggest how, when or where Turkey would take custody of the thousands of militants held by the Kurds.

But in a sign of the chaos, Erdogan said at a news conference in Ankara that the United States “is working to decide how to handle” the prisoners.

Erdogan also said he plans to visit Washington in mid-November to discuss the “depth of the operation,” according to a Turkish newspaper, Daily Sabah. The White House declined Monday to confirm the visit.

By early Monday, American forces had begun evacuating from the border towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad to positions outside the roughly 18-mile-wide security zone they had been patrolling, officials said.

Administration and White House officials scrambled to stem the fallout, insisting that Trump had not given Erdogan a green light to invade Syria.

“The Department of Defense made clear to Turkey — as did the president — that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement. “We will work with our other NATO allies and coalition partners to reiterate to Turkey the possible destabilizing consequences of potential actions to Turkey, the region and beyond.”

Turkey has built up its forces along the Syrian border and taken other steps indicating it plans to launch an incursion into northern Syria, perhaps in the next few days, according to a U.S. official familiar with the latest U.S. intelligence assessments.

Ankara has said it wants a 20-mile-wide “safe zone” along the border to combat what it described as Kurdish terrorists and to resettle some of the 3.6 million refugees it has hosted since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

Pentagon officials are seeking to persuade Turkey to keep its troops from moving more than a few miles into Syria, instead of carving out a wider tract. In that case, Kurdish fighters probably would rein in counterattacks on Turkish forces, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments.

“If there’s a limited incursion, there could be a limited response,” said a U.S. official.

Trump has long sought to remove U.S. troops from Syria, even announcing a total pullout in December. He backed down after Defense Secretary James N. Mattis resigned in protest and White House advisors warned too fast a withdrawal would let Islamic State regroup.

About 1,000 U.S. troops are deployed in the country. Although Islamic State lost its last bit of territory in March, the Pentagon has maintained a presence for counter-terrorism operations and to prevent the Syrian government and its Iranian ally from taking over.

After Islamic State emerged in 2014, seizing a third of both Syria and Iraq for its so-called caliphate, Kurdish militias became the most dependable U.S. partners in Syria under both the Obama and Trump administrations.

The Kurds quickly carved out a self-administered enclave in northeastern Syria that U.S. officials touted as an alternative to the autocratic government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is backed by Iran and Russia in the country’s civil war.

Trump’s pullout was “a stab in the back,” Kino Gabriel, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, the U.S.-backed Kurdish force, told Jordan’s Al Hadath TV.

The SDF said in a statement that any Turkish operation in northern and eastern Syria would have “a huge negative effect” on the war against Islamic State.

Turkish troops are unlikely to reach Al-Hol, the main Kurdish-run detention center. Located about 50 miles south of the border, it holds an estimated 70,000 Islamic State family members and sympathizers.

The Kurds also are holding about 2,000 foreign fighters who had joined Islamic State and were captured on the battlefield, as well as 10,000 Iraqi and Syrian members of the group, Pentagon officials say.

A major battle with Turkey is liable to pull SDF fighters away from guarding the detention centers, however.

Prisoners already have reportedly attempted mass escapes, and Islamic State’s fugitive leader, Abu Bakr Baghdadi, recently exhorted adherents to help break them out.

The U.S. troops in Syria are not a large enough force to take custody of the detainees from the Kurds, or to prevent an Islamic State resurgence if they are set free in large numbers, U.S. officials said.

Without the Kurds, “we will no longer have a partner” to fight Islamic State, said an official involved in Syria policy.

Trump’s decision could garner support from his political base, which backs his efforts to end America’s foreign wars and stand up to the national security establishment, especially if Islamic State does not surge back anytime soon.

But it generated a torrent of opposition from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill — allies Trump needs as House Democrats head toward a potential impeachment vote over his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for president.

Some of Trump’s closest allies criticized the move as a misguided pullout comparable to then-President Obama’s decision to pull out of Iraq in late 2011, a move that left a security vacuum that Islamic State later exploited.

The Trump pullback gave Republicans — who do not support impeachment but have largely remained silent as new allegations of wrongdoing have emerged — ample opportunity to show they can be critical of the president.

“I like President Trump, I’ve tried to help him. This to me is just unnerving to its core,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s strongest allies on Capitol Hill. “To say to the American people ISIS has been destroyed in Syria is not true.”

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a Trump ally and member of House GOP leadership, called it a “catastrophic mistake.”

“This decision ignores lesson of 9/11,” she said on Twitter. “Terrorists thousands of miles away can and will use their safe-havens to launch attacks against America.”

Graham said he would prepare a Senate resolution, or perhaps two, urging Trump to reconsider his decision and threatening sanctions on Turkey if its troops enter northeastern Syria.

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He predicted that Congress would approve them by a veto-proof margin, a potential embarrassment for Trump, although a resolution would not change policy.

Even some of Trump’s former administration officials were critical of the decision.

“We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have our back,” said Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria. Leaving them to die is a big mistake.”

Republicans who have grown accustomed to Trump retreating under fire are hoping he may back down again on Syria.

“If the president sticks with this retreat, he needs to know that this bad decision will likely result in the slaughter of allies who fought with us, including women and children,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). “I hope the president will listen to his generals and reconsider.”

The only Republican who publicly backed Trump’s decision was Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an ardent opponent of U.S. involvement in foreign wars.

Paul said he supported Trump “as he once again fulfills his promises to stop our endless wars and have a true ‘America first’ foreign policy.”

Amid the opposition from Republicans, Trump defended his decision and pushed back on the idea that he had taken Turkey’s side against the Kurds long backed by Washington.

“I’m not siding with anyone in Syria,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“Syria was supposed to be a short-term hit, just in and out,” he said. He said the continued containment of Islamic State should fall to countries in the region.

“We’re 7,000 miles away,” Trump said. “Let them take care of it. We want to bring our people home.”

Cloud and Haberkorn reported from Washington. Bulos reported from Amman, Jordan.

Joe Biden is calling for making community and technical college free while making existing federal college loan programs more generous as he continues charting a policy course that moves left but stops short of his more progressive rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The former vice president’s $750-billion higher education plan represents a major expansion of the federal government’s role in educating Americans beyond high school. But Biden’s pitch Tuesday is not as sweeping as proposals from his 2020 rivals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both of whom offer plans exceeding the $1-trillion mark.

The competing approaches reflect Democrats’ efforts to address spiking tuition costs in the United States and the $1.5-trillion-plus in student debt held by about 45 million Americans. The party’s education policy divide is similar to the gap that separates Biden from the two progressive senators on healthcare, with the former vice president proposing to expand the federal government’s role in the existing health insurance market, while Warren and Sanders propose a single-payer insurance system that would see the federal government essentially replace private insurance altogether.

Jill Biden, the candidate’s wife and a longtime community college professor, explained her husband’s approach.

“My students inspire me,” she said in a conference call with reporters, “and they ask for one thing in return: opportunity.”

The crux of Biden’s higher education plan is a federal-state partnership to cover community college tuition and technical training. Biden calls for the federal government to cover 75% of the tuition costs, with states covering the rest. That’s a similar financing concept to the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and the disabled, with states required to cover some costs to qualify for federal money to cover the majority of the program.

Biden proposes that the federal government cover 95% of the community college tuition cost at Native Americans’ tribal campuses.

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Sanders and Warren propose universal, free access to all undergraduate public colleges and universities.

On student debt, Biden’s more limited approach calls for doubling the Pell Grant program for low-income Americans and cutting in half the income percentage caps on student loan repayments. Borrowers now must pay up to 10% of their discretionary income. Biden calls for capping payments at 5% of discretionary income, while also delaying payments for anyone making less than $25,000, with the borrower accruing no additional interest.

Biden’s plan would forgive any remaining debt after 20 years of payments and would allow borrowers to get out of their debts as part of personal bankruptcy.

Sanders, conversely, proposes eliminating all student loan debt, while Warren calls for broad debt relief based on income. Warren’s idea would cancel $50,000 in debt for each person with household income under $100,000, with additional proportional relief for those making up to $250,000 annually.

Biden and Warren have another noticeable split on for-profit colleges, which have come under scrutiny because their graduates have a much higher default rate on loans as they struggle to find quality jobs. Biden proposes tighter regulations on those colleges to stop them “from profiteering off of students.” Warren calls for banning such businesses from getting federal money altogether.

All three Democratic hopefuls point to proposed tax increases to pay for their spending. Sanders would tax Wall Street transactions. Warren points to her “wealth tax,” 2 cents on every dollar of a household’s net worth beyond $50 million. Biden calls for eliminating certain breaks in inheritance taxes and capping itemized deductions for the wealthiest Americans.

WASHINGTON — 

House Democrats are considering additional measures to protect the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint spurred an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, according to the Washington Post.

To prevent efforts to expose the whistleblower, Democrats are weighing having the individual testify from a remote location and obscuring the person’s appearance and voice, three officials told the Post.

The unusual measures come amid an impeachment investigation focused on President Trump’s interactions with Ukraine after the whistleblower complaint raised concerns that Trump was leveraging U.S. foreign policy for personal political gain ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Despite legal protections for anonymity, President Trump has made repeated calls for the whistleblower — whom he has called a “partisan hack” and “close to a spy” — to be revealed. This has raised concerns that the whistleblower’s identity could be leaked by those in the investigation’s orbit who would typically have unaltered access to the testimony.

Once a federal employee discloses wrongdoing through proper channels, they are granted whistleblower protections. These protections are meant to shield whistleblowers from retaliation that could affect their job duties, responsibilities, working conditions and their eligibility for access to classified information.

Additional anonymity measures reportedly could include holding a staff-only session that lawmakers would not be able to attend to ask questions, as well as having the whistleblower testify via video conference in a way that would obscure his or her appearance and voice. Options such as sitting the whistleblower behind a partition or conducting audio-only testimony also are being examined, according to the Post.

The suggestions came after a lawyer representing the whistleblower raised “serious concerns” in a September letter to Joseph Maguire, acting director of national intelligence, about his client’s safety, citing the president’s attacks. The letter also said a $50,000 “bounty” had been established for information relating to the client’s identity.

“Unfortunately, we expect this situation to worsen, and to become even more dangerous for our client and any other whistleblowers, as Congress seeks to investigate this matter,” wrote Andrew P. Bakaj, the whistleblower’s attorney.

The legal team representing the original whistleblower recently announced they were representing a second whistleblower but provided no further information.

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WASHINGTON — 

The White House has issued a formal objection to House Democrats’ impeachment probe into President Trump without an official vote.

In a blistering letter to House Democrats, the White House’s lawyer said President Trump “cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances.”

MORE COVERAGE: Defiant letter marks a major milestone in the impeachment drama

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) announced two weeks ago that a formal impeachment inquiry would focus on the president’s outreach to foreign governments to help him win reelection in the 2020 presidential election. However, she did not seek the consent of the full chamber. In response, Republicans have used the lack of a vote to argue the probe isn’t legitimate.

A House vote was held for impeachment investigations into Presidents Nixon and Clinton. When the House impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868, there wasn’t one. Some experts say that while the House voted to open an inquiry in the past, that doesn’t mean it must always do so.

“There’s no real technical reason for a full House vote,” Brookings Fellow Margaret L. Taylor recently told The Times. “The Constitution does not prescribe how the House impeaches.”

The letter from the White House follows comments by President Trump on Friday that Democrats in the House “have the votes” to begin a formal inquiry, even if they don’t have enough votes to convict him in the Senate. But he added that he believes the move would backfire politically.

“I really believe that they’re going to pay a tremendous price at the polls,” he said.

When asked last week about whether she had taken a full House vote on the impeachment inquiry off the table, Pelosi said she hadn’t.

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“There is no requirement that there be a floor vote. That’s not anything that is excluded. By the way, there are some Republicans that are very nervous about our bringing that vote to the floor,” Pelosi said at a press conference.

They passed him the ball, handed him the ball, passed to him again and handed off to him again.

And that was just in the first five plays Sunday, the Chargers intent on reintegrating Melvin Gordon as quickly as possible in an attempt to compensate for nine weeks of holding out because of a contract dispute.

“We wanted to get him lathered up and get him going,” coach Anthony Lynn explained this week. “These are his reps. He missed a lot of time. We’ve got to get him back up to date.”

Gordon missed training camp, the preseason and the first four games while failing to secure the extension he sought.

Following the Chargers’ 20-13 loss to Denver, Gordon said he felt fine physically but admitted he struggled with late on-field calls from quarterback Philip Rivers.

He said the toughest adjustment returning this late will be refining the sort of small details that typically are ironed out during training camp practices and preseason games.

“We have to get him involved,” Lynn said. “He’s our starting running back. He’s missed a lot of time. This is the only time we have. We don’t have a preseason anymore. So he’s going to get his game reps right now.”

The Chargers have gladly welcomed back Gordon, wide receiver Keenan Allen posting a video on social media of the warm locker-room reception the exact moment the running back walked in.

But his return did not boost the offense as expected. In fact, the opposite happened. The Chargers failed to establish any consistency against the Broncos and finished with a season-low 246 yards.

Afterward, Lynn dismissed the suggestion that Gordon rejoining the team somehow negatively affected the chemistry on offense.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Melvin’s a good football player. … He didn’t have many opportunities, I can tell you that. But he played OK.”

Gordon carried 12 times for 31 yards and caught four passes for seven yards. As a team, the Chargers generated only 35 yards on the ground in 16 attempts.

With Gordon back, Austin Ekeler was used more as a receiver, Denver’s defense backing off in a scheme that successfully eliminated big plays. Ekeler caught 15 passes but gained only 86 yards. He carried only three times for seven yards. While Gordon was out, Ekeler averaged 14 carries a game.

“To me, I could care less about carries,” Lynn said. “It’s touches.”

Against the Broncos, Ekeler had 18 touches and Gordon 16. When the Chargers play Pittsburgh on Sunday night at Dignity Health Sports Park, Gordon’s workload is expected to increase.

One of Gordon’s carries that netted no gain Sunday came on a third-quarter play near the goal line after the Chargers inserted Tyrod Taylor at quarterback and split Rivers out wide right.

Immediately after that failed bit of trickery, Rivers was intercepted in the end zone, one of four Chargers red-zone trips that failed to result in a touchdown Sunday.

It wasn’t the first time they’ve employed Rivers and Taylor at the same time this season. So far, those plays have been largely unsuccessful.

“With Tyrod in there you have to defend him,” Lynn said. “You can’t stack the box as much. Just trying to create an advantage there in the blocking scheme, that’s all.

“I thought the exchange was a little sloppy, and it could have been from the backup quarterback being in the game or it could have been from a new runner. Other than that, nothing wrong with the concept.”

Another notable breakdown came on the final play of the first half when Ekeler, on fourth down from the one-yard line, took a short pass from Rivers and tried to score on a sweep around the left edge.

The Broncos forced Ekeler wider than he wanted to go, and he eventually was stopped near the front pylon and fumbled for a touchback.

Asked whether he was OK with the play call, Lynn said, “Hell, I called it, so I guess I was OK with it.

“Looking back at that play, should I have kicked the field goal? Maybe so. But I wanted a touchdown. I wanted to give this team some momentum going into the locker room knowing we were going to get the ball back.”

Instead, the Chargers went into halftime trailing 17-0. After receiving the third-quarter kickoff, they gained four yards in three plays and punted.

52 pickup

On a day when the Chargers produced very little down the field, wide receiver Andre Patton drew two pass-interference calls that totaled 52 yards. Both plays contributed to drives that resulted in field-goal attempts.

“He did a good job of fighting back toward the ball and creating it,” Lynn said. “That’s just a smart move by him. I liked the way he played. I like some of the things that he’s doing.”

Because of injury, Patton has been active for three games this season. He has two catches for 22 yards. Patton, 25, spent the past two seasons and the start of this one on the Chargers’ practice squad.

“He’s a good young prospect who’s stepped up the past couple weeks,” Lynn said.

Flag picked up

One indignity the Chargers narrowly avoided Sunday was losing another touchdown because of a penalty.

Desmond King’s 68-yard punt return was upheld only after officials waved off a flag that had been thrown, apparently for what initially was thought to be an illegal block.

“I mean, the thought crossed my mind,” Lynn said of having another score wiped out. “I’m glad they picked it up. I wish that would have helped us win the game, but …”

The Chargers have had four touchdowns nullified by penalties this season.

A Los Angeles Unified School District investigation into an allegation of academic misconduct involving a Harbor City Narbonne football player confirmed that a player on last year’s team was ineligible after Oct. 4 because he did not have a grade-point average above 2.0, according to Michael Romero, superintendent for Local District South.

Narbonne reported to the City Section on Tuesday that there was a violation of LAUSD academic policy involving the player last season. Now it will be up to City Section Commissioner Vicky Lagos to apply CIF rules and determine whether any sanctions are warranted against this year’s team, such as a playoff ban.

Lagos said she will be “reviewing and processing” and consulting with CIF legal staff. One of the first priorities would be to see whether the player was in a game after Oct. 4. The City Section has banned teams from the playoffs in the past when ineligible players were discovered the previous year.

Narbonne is the five-time defending City Section Open Division champion and heavily favored to win a sixth time. The Gauchos are 6-1 overall and won their Marine League opener last week against San Pedro 53-0. But the fact the Gauchos used an ineligible player places them in serious jeopardy of sanctions by the City Section.

Romero said in March of this year that a teacher reported to the administration his concern regarding the grades of a football player. “We did determine he was ineligible to participate after Oct. 4,” Romero said.

The teacher reported that the player’s grades in the computer system did not reflect his true grades, according to Peter Hastings, administrator for operations in Local District South.

“We uncovered documents that there were irregularities,” Romero said. “His eligibility was compromised due to failure to meeting the 2.0 grade-point average.”

The LAUSD confirmed in May that it was investigating an allegation of academic misconduct at Narbonne. Two staff members were reassigned, and the entire football team was brought into the school library to be interviewed. Football coach Manuel Douglas was reassigned at the end of May for an allegation of “misconduct involving interference with an on-going District investigation,” according to a lawsuit Douglas filed last month against LAUSD.

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While the investigation into academic misconduct was completed by the local district office, the inspector general’s office of the LAUSD has since launched an ongoing investigation that led to Douglas’ lawsuit.

Douglas’ frustration grew to a breaking point in August when he flew on a private charter jet paid for by a Narbonne booster to see the team play in Clovis in its season opener and put on his Twitter avatar, “Head coach of team outcast.” He is not expected to return to coach this season. He continues to be paid while assigned to his home.

A letter was sent to Narbonne parents Tuesday from principal Sara Aiello that said:

“Today Narbonne High School submitted a letter to the CIF reporting the findings of its investigation of academic misconduct. At this time, we cannot provide further information due to student privacy issues, but our investigation has determined that a student athlete was made eligible to play football as a result of academic placement that failed to comply with LAUSD policy. LAUSD is in the process of taking corrective action as a result of these findings. CIF will make a determination based on the details of this report.”

Aiello also sent a letter to Lagos:

“The Los Angeles Unified School District has concluded its investigation of academic misconduct for Narbonne High School. The investigation has determined that a … football player was made eligible to play as a result of academic placement that failed to comply with LAUSD policy. The modifications to the student’s schedule resulted in an inaccurate recording of his academic marks, making him eligible to play when, in fact, he was not. [He] should have been deemed ineligible as of October 4, 2018.”

Whatever happens this season, the Gauchos’ reign could be nearing an end because the coaching staff put together by Douglas is unlikely to stick around when the season ends. The rest of the coaching staff has stayed together under interim coach Joe Aguirre and successfully kept the players focused on the field.

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ATLANTA — 

Heroics from franchise icons and inspired performances by youngsters have turned the meeting between the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series into a classic.

A tie game slipped away from the Braves bullpen in the opener. A few days later, a vintage performance from 38-year-old Adam Wainwright was cratered by Cardinals closer Carlos Martinez in Game 3. Postseason newbie Dansby Swanson had the tying hit for the Braves. Veteran Yadier Molina, who has otherwise struggled in this series, hit a tying single in the eighth inning and a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th to stave off the Cardinals’ elimination the following evening.

Now this thrilling best-of-five set shifts to SunTrust Park. Game 5 will either propel the 97-win Braves to the franchise’s first championship series since 2001 or prolong the underdog Cardinals’ October stay.

“All four of these games have just been tremendous,” said Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz, who will return to the mound on regular rest to attempt to replicate the seven scoreless, three-hit innings he threw in Atlanta’s Game 2 win. “I don’t have any nails right now. I mean it’s just edge of the seat.”

The series has been a whirlwind despite the inefficiencies of both offenses. The Braves and Cardinals have hit a combined .182 with runners on base.

St. Louis has kept pace with help from a rejuvenated Marcell Ozuna, who in his first postseason appearance has eight hits and four RBIs. Ozuna has two homers — and so does teammate Paul Goldschmidt, who counts four doubles among his seven hits.

Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. has eight hits in 16 at-bats and Swanson seven in 14. They each have three doubles, and Acuna has a triple and homer. Off the bench, Adam Duvall has collected three hits and driven in five runs.

But Atlanta’s middle-of-the-order bats have shriveled. Freddie Freeman, probably still not fully recovered from a nagging elbow injury that caused him to miss four games during the final week of the regular season, has only two hits. Outfielder Nick Markakis and third baseman Josh Donaldson have combined for five.

Pitchers have dominated this series. The Cardinals have struck out 36 and posted a 3.00 ERA, the third-lowest mark among postseason teams. The Braves are close behind with 35 strikeouts and a fourth-ranked 3.19 ERA.

A deviation from that trend seems unlikely in the finale, which pits the resurgent Foltynewicz against the Cardinals’ Jack Flaherty, the 23-year-old product of Studio City’s Harvard-Westlake High who held the Braves to one run through six innings in Game 2. He did, however, give up a two-run homer in the seventh to Duvall on his 105th pitch.

Asked before Tuesday’s workouts if he expected another close game, Braves manager Brian Snitker laughed, “You know, after the last few days, yeah.”

“That’s like where we’re going. This has been an unbelievable series. My God. Both teams just banging at each other and the close games and the late-inning heroics. It’s been something. It’s been exhausting, but it’s been a heck of a series for both sides.”

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