Over the last year and a half, retailers have watched the dizzying pace of the U.S.-China trade war with a growing sense of trepidation.

When the Trump administration announced this year that consumer goods such as shoes and clothing could face a 15% duty, companies chose to get ahead of the tariff price hikes and stocked up on items as early as the summer. That means shoppers shouldn’t see higher prices reflected on their receipts on Black Friday or during this holiday season.

But if a new round of tariffs goes into effect in mid-December as planned, people could begin paying more for toys or big-ticket items such as laptops and smartphones by early next year.

“In 2020, it will be a big deal,” said James Bohnaker, economist at research and analysis firm IHS Markit.

Earlier rounds of tariffs levied by the Trump administration on Chinese goods largely targeted so-called intermediate goods, such as aluminum and plastic sheets, which are not finished products that can be bought in stores.

The Trump administration originally intended to subject consumer goods such as toys, laptops, smartphones and digital cameras to a 15% duty by Sept. 1, but put that off until Dec. 15, citing the potential effect on American shoppers during the holiday season.

Even with the delay, the impending tariffs have still been a major concern for the consumer electronics industry.

Since the tit-for-tat trade war began in spring of last year between the U.S. and China, that industry was hit by $15.5 billion in tariff costs that were either absorbed by manufacturers or passed on to consumers. The higher costs mostly applied to components and tech accessories such as cables and cellphone cases, said Rick Kowalski, senior manager of industry and business intelligence at the Consumer Technology Assn. trade group. In September alone, the consumer tech industry shouldered $2 billion in tariff costs.

If the new tariffs on consumer goods go into effect Dec. 15, companies up and down the supply chain, as well as retailers, will have to decide how they’ll handle the additional costs.

“Everybody is in a pinch,” Kowalski said. “That $15 billion has to come from somewhere.”

For some companies, that might mean passing the cost on to the consumer. JLab Audio Chief Executive Win Cramer told CNBC in August that the Carlsbad, Calif., company’s headphones would probably cost more as a result of tariffs. He also predicted that discounting would not be as strong this holiday season as it has been in the past.

“We’ve never seen this before,” Cramer said. “We don’t have a playbook to follow.”

The toy industry is also grappling with how to plan for the unpredictable. Companies have held off on investing in new product lines because of uncertainties over tariffs and pricing, said Rebecca Mond, vice president of federal government affairs for the Toy Assn. trade group.

In some cases, companies have chosen to absorb the cost of the tariffs, rather than risk losing customers.

Tom’s Model Inc., a 39-year-old toy company in downtown Los Angeles, upped its orders for a signature product, a battery-operated canine called the Lucky Dog, and ate a 10% price increase. The company has sold the $5.99 toy since its early days and it has nostalgic appeal, said Tommy Yip, owner of Tom’s Model and son of the founder.

“My father was known for that specific piece of toy,” he said. “I do want to retain our customer loyalty.”

Sometimes, though, negotiations with other players in the supply chain don’t go as expected.

Eric Tung of Torrance-based Fera, a ski clothing specialty company, thought he was in the clear when he ordered this year’s batch of insulated apparel from his vendors in China. The goods were in transit before Sept. 1, when the first round of tariffs on consumer goods was implemented.

But his items were hit with the 15% markup anyway. Tung tried negotiating with retailers in hopes that they would share the burden but was told they didn’t want their margins affected.

As a small, niche company, Tung said, Fera was forced to absorb some of the cost and pass the rest to consumers. A ski jacket that would cost $200 at wholesale is now priced for retail at $220, a 3% to 5% price increase, Tung said.

“I’m not Patagonia or North Face,” he said. “I can’t say I’m raising my prices and you’ll still buy from me. It’s not good for anyone — consumer or business — when you have big dramatic price increases.”

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WASHINGTON — 

Moving to offset the impact his trade war has had on rural America, President Trump has bypassed Congress to send some $20 billion in aid to farmers, mostly going to a bundle of states that are essential to his reelection chances next year.

The payments have ranged from as little as $2 for some small-scale farmers to more than $1 million each for some corporate agricultural enterprises.

To sidestep Congress, which has long considered price supports for farmers its exclusive domain, the administration cited an obscure law from the 1940s that was passed in the aftermath of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

Until Trump, no president had ever used that law to make direct payments to farmers, let alone tens of billions.

The strategy bears some resemblance to the one Trump used to shift millions of dollars that Congress appropriated for the military to pay for sections of his border wall. Unlike the border wall money, however, the farm aid has not drawn challenges from Congress, perhaps because Democrats have their own political reasons for not wanting to oppose help for rural areas in politically important states.

The payments are likely to reach nearly $25 billion by early next year, making them roughly twice the net cost to taxpayers of President Obama’s auto industry bailout during the Great Recession of 2008. Even so, they may fall short of fully covering farmers’ losses from the trade war with China or fully mitigating the political fallout Trump has faced in some Midwestern communities.

It’s not that farmers are in open revolt against Trump. Surveys and interviews suggest most are sticking with him and hoping for the best. But the trade war’s impact — especially the uncertainty about future policies — could dampen enthusiasm come election day next year.

“Turnout is the key question: Are they just going to stay home or are they going to vote for Trump?” asked Katherine Cramer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin who has researched rural attitudes and the political and cultural divide between rural and urban Americans.

If farmers feel too pinched by the trade conflict, “the greatest impact will be a lack of enthusiasm — and they’ll stay home and not vote — which could make a huge difference,” she said.

For farmers, the cost of the trade war can be measured in lost markets in China, which has been by far the largest buyer of the soybeans and other grain crops that are the lifeblood of agriculture across the Midwest and Great Plains.

U.S. sales of soybeans to China exceeded $14 billion in 2016, but prices fell as trade tensions mounted. Soybean exports to China plunged to $3.1 billion last year.

Early last month, Trump announced that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would shortly be signing a “Phase 1″ agreement in which China would buy $40 billion to $50 billion of U.S. farm goods a year, about double the annual amount before exports to China plummeted last year.

That hasn’t happened.

And some farmers say they are wearying of Trump’s on-again, off-again rhetoric, with its still-unfulfilled promises of an imminent end to the conflict with Beijing.

Some farmers worry that China is developing new supply chains in Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere that may be hard to break even if the trade war ends.

Scott Henry of Nevada, Iowa, a small town roughly 40 miles north of Des Moines, backed Trump in 2016. And the 29-year-old, third-generation corn and soybean grower hasn’t given up on the president yet. Neither is he certain to vote for him.

“Trump has done just enough with tax policy and business regulations to keep people” supportive, he said.

But, he added, “I have no confidence that we’ll actually get anywhere on trade. What we’ve learned is there’s a lot of talk from this administration and very little action.”

Trump has “bought some votes from farmers” with the added farm spending, he said, adding that he’s a little troubled by the scale of the expense.

Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, said he was “very pessimistic about any progress being made on trade.”

“So I think the conditions will be there for another round [of aid] in 2020. Politically, I’d be surprised if we don’t get some attention next year.”

In launching the new payment program, administration officials used a “truncated rule-making process,” said Jonathan Coppess, an expert in agricultural law at the University of Illinois. That’s raised concerns about the administration’s legal authority and methodology.

Trump justified the spending by claiming that he was using tariff money collected from China to pay for it.

But U.S. importers and American consumers, not China, foot the bill for tariffs on Chinese imports. And the cash payments to farmers actually come from taxpayer funds through the borrowing authority of the Commodity Credit Corp., acknowledged Richard Fordyce, the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency administrator.

In an interview, Fordyce said the administration moved ahead of Congress because it saw the need and wanted to respond directly to the impact from retaliatory tariffs.

“The payments are coming at a time when the farming years are very cyclical,” he said. “These payments are coming at a time when it’s critically important for them and their farming operations.”

Even before Trump launched the trade war with China in 2018, many American farmers were struggling. Total net farm income dropped in 2014 and every year since. Farm bankruptcies have been rising.

Taken together, federal subsidies may end up accounting for roughly a quarter of the nation’s total farm net income this year, agricultural experts say.

The problem was partly of farmers’ own making: The industry had become so productive through years of automation and consolidation that it was yielding larger and larger supplies. Yet domestic demand wasn’t keeping up, creating surpluses that have led to lower commodity prices and profits.

“It’s the export market that helps re-balance supply and demand,” said Chad Hart, an ag economist at Iowa State University.

Undoubtedly Trump’s cash injection has been important and life-saving for some farms. Without it, Ron Moore, 63, reckons he and other farmers would be driving their tractors to Washington in protest, as they did in 1979.

The Chinese “really like our soybeans, but we were told they can’t buy any soybeans from the U.S.,” said Moore, a farmer in Roseville, Ill., recalling his visit a year ago to China where he met with buyers.

After 42 years of farming, banks and other lenders are starting to lean on him, Moore added.

“They never used to ask me what my grain sales were. Now they’re asking, ‘How many contracts do you have? What have you sold?’”

Helpful as it’s been, he said, Trump’s aid “absolutely hasn’t made us whole.”

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There are still several landmark, franchise-defining moments on the horizon of the Kings’ organizational rebuild — days that will likely be marked by momentous trades and pivotal personnel decisions.

To get there, the Kings need days like Wednesday first.

Ahead of a home game against the New York Islanders, the club shook up its roster. Forward Matt Luff and defenseman Paul LaDue were recalled from the American Hockey League. Forward Carl Grundstrom was optioned to the minors. Defenseman Alec Martinez, who suffered a wrist laceration this week, was placed on injured reserve, defenseman Derek Forbort was sent to the AHL on a conditioning assignment, and forward Trevor Lewis was activated from injured reserved.

In the big picture, these transactions are simply footnotes in the frenzy of a long regular season.

Nothing the Kings did Wednesday will likely alter their overall organizational course. But, it might allow them to better appraise their current assets and inform key decisions for the future.

Grundstrom is an example. The 21-year-old winger was a key prospect acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Jake Muzzin trade last year. In spurts, he has shown himself to be an NHL-caliber player already. He scored five goals in 15 games with the Kings to end last season and five more in four games with the Kings’ AHL affiliate Ontario Reign earlier this campaign.

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But he still isn’t a finished product. In his nine games with the Kings this year, Grundstrom has zero goals and four assists. In Monday night’s game, he was benched for long stretches in the third period, watching from the bench as the Kings overcame a three-goal deficit.

As coach Todd McLellan indicated Wednesday, Grundstrom’s playing time potentially could have been slashed again had he stayed on the Kings’ roster for Wednesday’s game. Instead, by going back to Ontario, Grundstrom will get more opportunities, during both five-on-five play and on special teams. In turn, the Kings will get a larger body of work from which to assess his game.

“I don’t think Grunny is playing in the American League today because he’s been a poor player for the L.A. Kings,” McLellan said. “I think Grunny is playing in the American League today so he can experience some other scenarios he’s not getting here.

“It makes no sense when you can walk 12 steps across the parking lot” — the Reign and Kings practice in the same El Seguendo facility — “and play in a game to have a 21-year-old that’s only played 30 NHL games watching.”

In Grundstrom’s place, the Kings recalled forward Matt Luff, an undrafted 22-year-old who burst onto the scene early last season before fading back to the minors, where he began this season. Now in his third full pro campaign, and set to be a restricted free agent this offseason, Luff’s future with the club is uncertain. The more NHL games he plays, the clearer his situation will become.

“It’s about bringing energy and bringing my game, my character,” said Luff, who is back with the Kings after a four-game stint this month. “I’m a pretty outgoing guy, so not shying away from how I played in Ontario. Bringing it up here. It keeps getting me recalls, so just keep playing to my game and hopefully there will be no more recalls, no more send-downs and I’m just here.”

The same goes for LaDue, a 27-year-old right-handed defenseman also in the last season of his contract. He was recalled Wednesday to bolster the blue line in the wake of Martinez’s injury. Really, the thinking can be applied to most players filling out the middle portion of the Kings’ depth chart. After last season’s dismal result, the club finds itself, in many ways, in evaluation mode.

“A lot of that needs to be done between now and a certain part of the season,” McLellan said.

Which is why, before the Kings can make giant leaps forward — either by bringing up their highly regarded prospects or moving on from the veterans who guided them in the past — they hope these roster moves represent small steps in the right direction first.

Josh Woods’ main goal for his final collegiate game is simple: Make sure Joshua Kelley leaves the Rose Bowl smiling.

While the gregarious running back has seemingly been grinning constantly since he stepped onto the UCLA campus three years ago as a walk-on transfer from UC Davis, Woods admits he’s seen Kelley hesitate at points this season. The tribulations of yet another losing season seem to be strong enough to almost dim one of the brightest personalities in Westwood. That is why Saturday’s season finale against California is so important to Woods.

“I just want to make sure he’s maximum Josh Kelley-ness,” Woods, the redshirt senior outside linebacker said smiling.

Kelley, who is 16 yards away from becoming UCLA’s first back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher since Paul Perkins in 2014 and 2015, is one of at least 13 Bruins seniors who will be honored Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins (4-7, 4-4 Pac-12 Conference) hope to send out the seniors with a victory, a prize that’s been rare during the past two years while they helped lead a rebuild under coach Chip Kelly.

“The best thing we can do is go out and try to win a football game this week to honor those guys the right way because they’ve been outstanding for the two years they’ve been here,” Kelly said. “They’ve been the kind of guys you can count on every single day.”

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The fourth-year players leave with the dubious distinction as one of the only senior classes to graduate without a winning season in UCLA’s history. The last time the 100-year-old program had four consecutive losing seasons, it was 1924 and the school was the Southern Branch Grizzlies.

The on-field struggles will stay with senior linebacker Krys Barnes, whose status for Saturday’s finale is unclear due to a knee injury he reaggravated last Saturday against USC.

“UCLA had the winning record when I came here and that’s kind of why I came,” Barnes said. “It kind of sucks. You feel like, ‘Dang, I was the reason. I came here and we started losing all these games.’ But I’ll take it as a learning lesson. There are still positives from all the losses.”

Woods and Keisean Lucier-South, two redshirt seniors, are the only players on the roster who experienced a winning season when the Bruins went 8-5 in 2015. Woods played in just one game that season because of a hamstring injury.

Woods’ fifth and final season at UCLA was the first he played in all 12 games. The Upland High alumnus missed ast season with a gruesome knee injury, which he suffered on the heels of a shoulder injury that cost him the second half of his junior season. He played in 11 games as a sophomore, starting only six.

“I’m just grateful I’m going to make it through the season, so far, as healthy,” Woods said. “Playing through all the good and bad times here has just made me into a better man.”

The seniors became mentors for many of the young players who jumped into starting roles this season. Woods said teaching them was “one of the biggest joys” for him.

“This game is bigger than just the football at the end of the day,” redshirt junior tight end Devin Asiasi said of the seniors leaving. “We make friends, we make relationships and bonds that last forever. So it’s going to be a tough one, but at the same time, on to bigger and better things for them.”

Etc.

Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson practiced for the first time this week. His status is still questionable for Saturday. . . . Barnes and Lokeni Toailoa participated in drills Wednesday for the first time this week. . . . Sophomore defensive back Kenny Churchwell worked with trainers on the sideline after he suffered an undisclosed injury during Saturday’s 52-35 loss to USC.

TAMPA, Fla. — 

Joe Maddon is entrusted with the future of the Angels. Hired last month as manager, he will be counted on to end the team’s five-year-long playoff drought. But his reach goes beyond the baseball field and into the homes of sick teenagers, into a once controversial community center he helped erect in his fractured Pennsylvania hometown, and into homeless shelters in Tampa Bay and Chicago.

They are disparate causes. Yet Maddon, 65, has bundled them under a universal goal.

“You never know how it’s really going to stick, or make an impression, or help somebody,” Maddon said. “It’s the proverbial line: If you can help one person, and that one person is motivated in a way to act … it’s worth it.”

::

People pushed shopping carts full of personal belongings down boardwalks in Orange County. Others slept on the filthy floors of public beach restrooms.

Maddon caught that peek into the plight of the homeless 16 years ago riding bicycles along Sunset Beach with his wife, Jaye. The pervasiveness of the issue had escaped his notice before. He was stunned. He said to Jaye: “I can’t believe that somebody has their whole life in a shopping cart. There it is right there. That’s their whole life.”

Jaye suggested he find a way to make a difference. Maddon promised he would, but added a caveat. At the time, he was an Angels coach on track to become a major league manager. He wanted to advocate for people in need when he acquired a larger platform.

Maddon followed through. He and Jaye immersed themselves in the Tampa Bay community upon relocating there for Maddon’s first managerial job in 2006 with the Rays. They created an extended holiday they called “Thanksmas” to serve the needy. They began with homemade meals, Maddon cooking family recipes for hundreds throughout the holiday season.

Their efforts evolved and expanded, but Maddon never strayed from his initial pledge.

Through their Respect 90 Foundation — named for the distance to first base Maddon requires his players to run full speed — he and Jaye have donated services to and raised money for outposts of the Salvation Army, the Homeless Empowerment Program in Clearwater, Fla., and Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa, Fla. The charity also sponsors youth boxing programs in Chicago and Maddon’s altruistic efforts during spring training in Arizona. And it is tied to a community center in Maddon’s hometown of Hazleton, Pa.

Before long, Respect 90 will host the first “Thanksmas” event in the Anaheim area. Maybe Maddon will find a locale near the old Harpoon Harry’s restaurant in Sunset Beach. It was there, many years ago, that Maddon worked on a much smaller scale to help the homeless, passing out clothes and supplies to whoever wandered by.

::

Maddon grew up comfortably in Hazleton. His father, of Italian descent, ran a plumbing business. His mother, of Polish heritage, raised three kids upstairs in one half of a double home shared with other family members. He never wanted for anything.

Yet it was in that city of about 25,000 that Maddon established his worldview.

Many of Hazleton’s residents came from Europe in the late 1800s to mine coal. They imbued the town with their cultures. Their families prospered and propagated. They were not all the same, but they learned to live with each other.

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The demographic changed by the mid-2000s. Latino families relocated from New York and their native lands in search of jobs. Rather than welcome them, many Hazleton residents crossed their arms.

When he returned one offseason, Maddon recognized that his beloved hometown had changed. The thriving downtown had been abandoned. People had fled.

“I just thought my city was dying a slow death,” Maddon said.

So, he vowed to fix it. A year later, in the winter of 2011, Maddon, Jaye, his cousin Elaine Curry and her husband, Bob, introduced the town to the Hazleton Integration Project. They planned to create a community center that would serve all the town’s children. Through educational endeavors and arts and sports programs, it would unite people of different cultures in the way the Little League fields of Maddon’s youth brought together Irish, Polish and Italian kids.

Several thousand came through the doors when the center, funded primarily by taxpayers and housed in an old parochial school, opened in 2013. It has never served fewer than 1,000 people a week, Bob Curry said recently.

It was a smashing success in the Latino community. It took a little longer for the longstanding members of the town to come around.

Joey, what are you doing? critics asked Maddon. Others stopped Curry in the grocery store to tell him their families were doing the “wrong thing.” “Joe, you are not a social engineer,” The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader wrote after Maddon seemed to disrespect townspeople while speaking about the Hazleton Integration Project in a 2017 interview with NBC News. “You are a baseball manager.”

Yet the Integration Project, under the direction of the Currys and with the continuous input of the Maddons, is bridging the gap between longtime residents of the coal-mining town and the newer population of immigrants. Time has bred tolerance among many citizens, Maddon said.

These days he can rattle off a list of the Hazleton Integration Project’s accomplishments — partnerships with Penn State and Temple University, programs benefiting young scholars, and a myriad of community initiatives — and chuckle proudly.

“There’s so many things we’ve done and are still on the horizon,” Maddon said from his Hazleton home. “It’s gotten to the point now where people that have been here before are accepting and understand these are wonderful people just like us. They maybe speak a different language, but the kids speak English beautifully and their parents are learning. It’s like my grandparents. It’s no different.”

::

Cole Eicher sat in a coffee shop in Clearwater, Fla., and flipped through the pages of a bound book of memories. There were images of him at fundraisers, posing with Tampa Bay community leaders and speaking at packed conference halls.

And in the middle of one page, he pointed to a photo of him with Joe and Jaye Maddon at an event in 2018.

Eicher fought brain cancer when he was 12. A few years later, a surgeon removed his colon because the gene mutation that contributed to his medulloblastoma would eventually create cancerous cells in the digestive organ.

Eicher is cancer-free. He golfs for his high school team and intends to enroll in business classes at the University of South Florida next fall. His is about as normal a life as a teenager can lead.

Maddon and Eicher were speaking at the same function in 2018 and he heard Eicher share his bout with cancer. Maddon was so in awe of Eicher’s passion — “He’s different in all the best ways,” Maddon said — that he began his own speech with some self-deprecation.

“Oh my God,” he said. “I’m supposed to follow this kid?”

On the spot, Maddon offered Eicher and his family an all-expenses-paid trip to Cubs spring training for an annual head-shaving event that raises money for pediatric cancer research. While in Arizona, Eicher spoke to reporters about his initiative, sheared off Maddon’s hair and connected with Cubs players and fellow cancer survivors Anthony Rizzo and Jon Lester.

“What Joe Maddon did through those three or four days, me just connecting with that team — it was a great experience,” said Eicher, who raises awareness for pediatric cancer through the Gold Together initiative.

Eicher is one of several children in the Tampa Bay and Chicago communities that Maddon has brought to spring training in Arizona since Respect 90 was formed. Not far from where Eicher lives is the pioneer of the group, Aiden Hawk.

Unlike Eicher, Hawk is still battling disease. The 17-year-old has suffered since birth from chronic health issues that have only recently been ameliorated by new medications. There is yet a parallel between Eicher and Hawk: Hawk, too, says he is better off for the experiences he shared with Maddon.

Hawk’s body was failing him when a business acquaintance of Maddon learned of the teenager’s struggles. Maddon flew Hawk, his parents and his brother to Arizona during spring training in 2017 to give them a trip that didn’t include a stint in a specialized medical center.

They were treated to meals cooked with Hawk’s food allergies in mind, introduced to players and watched games. They were showered with affection.

“It was an extremely pivotal moment for our family,” said Hawk’s mother, Lisa. “We had gone through some really bad times with Aiden’s health and then this happened and it really changed Aiden’s outlook — and all of our outlooks.”

These families have benefited from Maddon’s generosity — and Maddon has drawn inspiration from them.

“When you’re that young and critically ill, I think it accelerates your method of thinking,” Maddon said. “You think things that 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds would never even possibly think about unless [they’re] faced with mortality. These kids have taught me that if you really sit down and evaluate things properly, you can accelerate your thinking.”

::

A portion of the population Maddon and his wife have spent more than a decade helping filtered through a building in downtown Tampa one evening this month.

About 80 people sat down for a catered meal hosted by the Salvation Army and provided by Respect 90. The foundation’s director, Rick Vaughn, encouraged attendees to save leftover chicken sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies for their next meals. They took the pairs of socks — homeless people often struggle to acquire that simple but essential piece of clothing — handed to them at the door. Their “thank yous” and “God bless yous” resonated as they stepped back out into the cool night air.

At “Thanksmas” events such as this, the foundation has fed about 1,650 people this year. It has also provided more than 1,700 backpacks and distributed 1,200 pairs of socks. Over the last two years, Respect 90 has donated about $600,000 to more than 60 nonprofits. That figure doesn’t include an additional $100,000 in in-kind donations.

Maddon, of course, cannot eradicate homelessness. There were nearly 7,000 homeless people in Orange County at the beginning of the year, according to the county point-in-time survey. Nearly 60,000 were counted in Los Angeles County. Both populations had increased since they were last counted.

Maddon can’t change their circumstances, but he can to try to soothe them.

“He’s got this great human heart, this great sense of humanity, that when someone is hungry and homeless on the street, if he is a position to do something about that, he can almost not walk away,” said Curry, Maddon’s cousin-in-law. “That’s who he is. Whether it’s homelessness, feeding the hungry, pediatric cancer or helping shift the paradigm of immigration in his hometown, those are all callings to Joe.”

Delino DeShields Jr. and Ramon Laureano looked at each other and laughed as the question was being asked, knowing they likely had the same response.

Both players have something of an insider’s perspective on the Houston Astros sign-stealing controversy, having been drafted by the organization. Neither player made it to the majors with Houston.

“I’m not really surprised by it,” DeShields Jr. said.

“I was with them a couple of years ago; it doesn’t surprise me,” Laureano said.

DeShields Jr., an outfielder for the Texas Rangers since 2015, was drafted by Houston with the eighth overall pick in 2010. Laureano, an outfielder for the Oakland Athletics since 2018, was drafted by the Astros in the 16th round in 2014.

They were at the Easton headquarters in Thousand Oaks for the first “Future of Baseball Social Media Summit” but couldn’t escape the biggest story in baseball as they sat in an office before the event started.

“I would talk about it all the time with my teammates, whether it was on a plane or in the clubhouse after a game,” DeShields Jr. said. “We’d wonder how certain things happened. One day they would look really bad, and the next they’re putting everything in play. I was in that organization and I’m close with a lot of those guys and I’d ask them, ‘What’s different about you guys? How do you go from being the worst team in baseball as far as strikeouts go to being the best team as far as not striking out?’

“They would just say they stick to their approach and have a selective, aggressive mind-set. They were teaching us that when we were coming up so it made sense, but looking back maybe there was more to it than that. I always thought they were really good at picking up signs, but what gets lost is they were also really good at not letting other teams pick up their signs. We could never figure it out. They were really good at the sign stuff on both sides. The paranoia when teams played them was extreme. You knew when you went into Houston you had to really be prepared.”

With the Rangers, Laureano is in the same division as the Astros. He said Houston stealing signs was a constant topic of conversation in the clubhouse and dugout.

“We’d talk it about it before the game, after the game, during the game,” Laureano said. “It’s obvious. You hear those whistles and sounds when we’re at Minute Maid Park. It’s one of those things where we know they’re cheating but that’s OK, we have to find a way to beat them.”

Major League Baseball is investigating accusations the Astros stole signs through illegal, electronic methods in 2017 when they beat the Dodgers in the World Series. Mike Fiers, now a teammate of Laureano’s in Oakland, pitched for the Astros from 2015 to 2017 and was among four players who, in an article published by The Athletic, described how the team stole signs.

“I didn’t really understand why he would say something,” DeShields Jr. said, “but at the same time you know how bad it is for the game if you just sit back and don’t say anything and let it slide. You have guys who are coming up, facing this team and they get their confidence shot and they don’t recover from it ,and the truth is they never had a chance. I don’t why he came forward, but he did.”

What MLB’s investigation might reveal, and what it might do if there was cheating, is unknown.

“They really need to do something that is going to scare the … out of everybody in baseball,” DeShields Jr. said. “It can’t be slap on the wrist. They have to scare the … out of everybody. If not, then everybody’s going to try it to win a World Series.

“I don’t think they can strip their title and act like that year just didn’t happen, but the league needs to penalize them heavily if the facts are the facts. Everyone is responsible for it from the ownership to the manager. I like [Astros manager] A.J. [Hinch] personally, but if he was allowing this stuff to happen he should get a significant suspension.”

Laureano agrees the league would need to come down hard on the Astros and make an example of them to stop any potential for a trend developing.

“They should suspend everyone who knew about it and was involved,” Laureano said. “We were in the same division as them and suspected it. It’s not fair for the guys affected by it, especially the opposing pitcher. Stealing signs is part of the game when you’re on second base and things like that, but you can’t take it to another level like they did. Because of them, teams started to have multiple signs with nobody on base. I’d never seen that before. You started to see mound visits with nobody on base. The whole thing was crazy.”

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Californians might be asked to vote on another homelessness ballot measure next year under a new proposal being considered by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top homelessness advisers.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who co-chair the governor’s homelessness task force, are discussing a potential 2020 statewide ballot measure that would fund a plan to provide all Californians with a new right to shelter.

The plan, which would provide enough shelter space for any homeless person who wants to come indoors, wouldn’t raise taxes but would reallocate funding from a supplemental income tax on millionaires that’s currently used to pay for mental health services in California.

“We believe that if we define the public policy of California in a different way than it’s currently defined, then we actually as a state can make pretty dramatic strides to improve the homeless problem,” Steinberg said at a forum on homelessness earlier this month.

This episode of “Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast” is the hour-long conversation with Steinberg and Ridley-Thomas, held at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica. The interview also delves into the state’s overall approach to resolving the homelessness problem, and the tensions between spending money on permanent supportive housing and temporary shelters.

“Gimme Shelter,” a biweekly podcast that looks at why it’s so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters.

You can subscribe to “Gimme Shelter” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast.

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Authorities release new details and appeal to the public for help in solving a possible kidnapping earlier this month in South Los Angeles.

After investigating more than 30 tips with no results, the Los Angeles Police Department is now seeking the public’s help in finding the victim and suspect of a potential kidnapping in South L.A. earlier this month.

At a Wednesday news conference, the LADP released an updated photo of the vehicle authorities believe the suspect used.

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At 11:10 p.m. on Nov. 12, a doorbell with a video camera and microphone captured the screams of a woman yelling for help at least 10 times in a residential area of Leimert Park just south of Obama Boulevard.

A vehicle that has now been identified as a 2003 to 2008 white Toyota Matrix with dark wheel rims was then seen driving along 3rd Avenue toward 39th Street Street at a high rate of speed with the rear hatch open. Witnesses originally thought the vehicle was a Toyota Camry.

The vehicle was last seen in the area of Greyburn Avenue and Obama Boulevard, the LAPD said. Det. David Marcinek of the LAPD’s Southwest Division said witnesses reported the vehicle’s passenger window was punched out and covered in plastic. Marcinek said it was unclear whether the incident was a kidnapping or a domestic dispute. A review of missing persons reports from across the region did not provide any leads, Marcinek said.

The LAPD asked anyone with information to contact Marcinek at (213) 485-2197. Anonymous tips can be left at (800) 222-TIPS.

Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson said Wednesday he intends to step down from the council presidency in January and is pushing for Councilwoman Nury Martinez to succeed him in the post.

Wesson, president of the 15-member council since 2012, said he is leaving the powerful post to focus on his bid for a seat on the Los Angeles County Supervisors in the March election. He introduced a motion calling for a vote on his replacement to be held Tuesday. He will continue to serve on the City Council until his term expires in December 2020.

Wesson, who represents neighborhoods stretching from Koreatown to the Crenshaw Corridor, touted a list of his accomplishments as president, including multiple increases in the city’s minimum wage, passage of a $1.2-billion bond measure to battle homelessness and a shift in the city’s election schedule to even-numbered years, a step aimed at boosting voter turnout.

“I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as a unified council over the last eight years,” he said in a statement.

Still, some have argued that the council has been too unified under Wesson’s tenure, with open debate kept to a minimum and the vast majority of decisions receiving unanimous votes. Rob Quan, an organizer with the the advocacy group Unrig L.A., went further, arguing that Wesson has fostered a culture that discourages dissent.

Quan, whose group is focused on reducing the influence of money in politics, said Wesson led the council as it reduced the amount of time given to members of the public to comment.

Last month, Quan was approached by security officers — and publicly chastised by Councilman Joe Buscaino — at a meeting where he pointed out that the council did not have a quorum to continue conducting business legally.

“I was threatened with arrest if I didn’t leave the council chambers for simply questioning the fact that they didn’t have enough council members on the floor,” he said.

Wesson is campaigning in the March election to replace County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is facing term limits after 12 years in his post. Other candidates in the contest include state Sen. Holly Mitchell, former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry and author and political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

Ridley-Thomas, who has served on the council previously, is now one of the candidates running for Wesson’s seat.

Council presidents wield a great deal of power, deciding when and how policy proposals are discussed at public meetings. The president determines the makeup of council committees that oversee homelessness, public safety, real estate development and other issues — and hands out plum appointments to those who want to head those panels.

Martinez, whose district includes Van Nuys, Arleta and Panorama City, thanked Wesson in a statement for nominating her and said she hopes to earn her colleagues’ support for next week’s presidency vote.

Wesson and several of his colleagues have also nominated Buscaino to serve next year as president pro tem, replacing Martinez.

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The stormy Thanksgiving holiday in California took some out-of-town travelers by surprise. They expected sunshine but got rain.

“I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t pack a single coat in my suitcase. I thought I would be wearing flip-flops,” said Vy Powell, who traveled from Virginia to Orange County to visit her aging parents for the holidays.

Her flight cut into her Black Friday budget and “now that we’re stuck at home instead of lounging at the beach, I know I’m going to spend even more money eating,” said the child-care provider visiting Anaheim for the week. “We’re already going to overeat for the Thanksgiving meal. This whole break really isn’t a break. We’ll be paying for this for a while.”

Her one consolation, she said, is that she didn’t prepay for Disneyland tickets. But her younger brother, Harry Bui, did — and he now has major buyer’s remorse.

The college student, in town from Boston, said he anticipated checking out popular Disney characters on parade and sampling new rides with Park Hopper tickets for him and his friends.

“The magic of the park is taking photos of Mickey and the cool cast in sunshine. Have you ever seen a bunch of online images with rain sprinkled all over? I sure haven’t,” said Bui, who expected he would spend more than he intended because he would be ducking into stores to avoid the rain.

“Shopping is not what I had in mind,” said the business major. “I already have enough stuff. This weather is crappy.”

A cold front originating in the Gulf of Alaska arrived in portions of Northern California on Tuesday and immediately began causing headaches for motorists along mountain passes inundated by flurries of snow. In Los Angeles County, motorists had a damp drive under cloudy skies as the beginning of rain from the storm fell during the morning rush hour. The rain is expected to taper off in the afternoon, said Andrew Rorke, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“The real impacts will be tomorrow,” he said.

The storm was better news for ski resorts.

Justin Kanton, marketing manager for Big Bear Mountain Resort, said snow started hitting the slopes around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and has steadily picked up since.

“I’m looking at it right now,” he said. “It looks like what everybody imagines when they think of ski resorts and winter in the mountains — everything is starting to get nice and white for when people get their first laps.”

Kanton said he was excited the storm was rolling in Wednesday because Snow Summit, one of the company’s two Big Bear resorts, is set to open Thursday. Sister resort Bear Mountain will be open on weekends starting Friday before fully opening Dec. 20.

“Forecasts are calling for flurries through Saturday,” Kanton said, adding that he would advise visitors to monitor tire chain advisories and check road conditions before heading up.

Kanton guessed that 1 to 2 inches of snow had fallen over the course of three hours.

“It’s definitely picking up, so it’s going to go up pretty significantly,” he said.

Farther north, Mammoth Mountain reported nearly 2 feet of snowfall that was “still coming down hard.” Forecasts there predicted high winds and heavy snowfall throughout the day.

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