HOUSTON — 

This is where a nation changes: a public school auditorium that moonlights as a veritable citizenship factory.

At the M.O. Campbell Educational Center, where murals honoring the arts and sciences adorn the walls, U.S. immigration officials routinely hold packed naturalization ceremonies. Immigrants approved for citizenship walk in, take the oath of allegiance, and walk out as Americans — and as a small army of new voters.

“It will never, ever be easier to register than it is this morning,” U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison, who presided over a ceremony last month, told the 2,155 immigrants from more than 100 countries who had just taken their citizenship oaths. “The record for registrations is 89% of those who are sworn in…. Let’s see if we can break that record today.”

Amish Soni, a 34-year-old radiologist from India holding a small American flag, was one of the 85% who registered to vote that morning, aided by a volunteer from the League of Women Voters. He “definitely” plans to vote in 2020, partly because he thinks the healthcare system should be fixed, but also: “I’m not a big fan of Donald Trump.” And he’s far from the only one.

At ceremonies like these across the country, hundreds of thousands of immigrants are expected to receive their U.S. citizenship and become eligible to vote before November 2020, gently reshaping — and threatening — the electoral path that President Trump must thread to win reelection.

Over the last two decades, naturalized immigrants have grown into a force at the ballot box, with the United States recently swearing in more than 700,000 foreign-born U.S. citizens each year.

Naturalized citizens — who share the full legal rights of natural-born citizens, except for the ability to become president — cast more than 8% of the ballots in the 2018 midterm elections, almost double their share in the 1996 presidential contest, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Surveys show that many of the new citizens are liberal-leaning, which is one of several demographic trends helping put some historically red states such as Texas, Arizona and Georgia closer to Democrats’ reach.

The gains in immigrants’ electoral strength have been gradual. But Trump’s anti-immigration policies may be accelerating the trend by spurring even more people to naturalize and to vote, worrying some moderate Republican experts.

“It’s not ‘bad-ish’ news. It’s extremely bad,” said Mike Madrid, a Sacramento-based GOP consultant who studies Latino voters. He thinks the party’s use of anti-immigrant rhetoric to mobilize non-college-educated white voters will come at a steep electoral price. “This is a five-alarm fire.”

Some experts said the national climate reminded them of California in the mid-1990s, when heightened rhetoric against immigrants and the Proposition 187 ballot measure to prohibit services for some immigrants inspired a wave of eligible Latino immigrants to naturalize and register to vote.

It helped transform the home of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon into a nearly impenetrable Democratic stronghold.

“Republicans did not learn their lesson, and they have revived some of that anti-Latino sentiment,” said U.S. Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona), who was born in Guatemala and naturalized in 1996 so she could get more involved in politics.

The Trump campaign disagrees.

“Democrats make a mistake when they assume that all immigrants think the same way,” said campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. “Our own data shows that a great many legal immigrants agree with President Trump’s position on enforcing immigration laws, because they feel that if their families played by the rules, then other people ought to as well.”

Murtaugh declined to share the data, but he said the numbers are why Trump made a recent visit to New Mexico — a state he lost to Hillary Clinton by more than 8 percentage points — to court Latino voters.

Citizenship applications spiked in the two years before the 2016 election, which is common before a presidential contest. But instead of dropping as usual afterward, the number of filings grew in 2017 in the wake of Trump’s victory. The more than 800,000 citizenship requests in 2018 were also the most filed in a midterm election year in two decades.

“There are these surges in applications when immigrants perceive that it’s a time of crisis,” said Arturo Vargas, chief executive of NALEO Educational Fund, a nonprofit that promotes greater Latino participation in civic life. “We are going through a similar period right now at the national level, where immigrants are feeling a bit in the cross-hairs by the Trump administration.”

According to data collected by the New Americans Campaign, a coalition of nonprofits, almost a third of U.S. immigrants hoping to naturalize this year were most interested in gaining the power to vote — the “top reason by far,” said Melissa Rodgers​, the director of programs at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, which runs the coalition.

Filing an application does not necessarily lead to naturalization; the denial rate is usually about 1 in 10. Immigrant advocacy groups have complained that the Trump administration has allowed a backlog to pile up, putting some applicants at risk of missing the 2020 election.

Latino and Asian immigrants are particularly potent additions to the electorate, with turnout rates that are often 5 to 8 percentage points higher than their natural-born counterparts, according to census estimates.

A September survey by Univision, conducted by the research firm Latino Decisions, said 81% of naturalized Latino respondents disapproved of the job Trump was doing as president; 12% said they were committed to voting for Trump in the 2020 election; and 64% said they planned to vote for the eventual Democratic nominee.

“A lot of folks are responding to the climate of fear and division and general intimidation against immigrant and refugee communities,” said Diego Iñiguez-Lopez, the policy and campaigns manager at National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups. This year, the coalition launched a campaign to try to naturalize 1 million new citizens in time for the 2020 election.

Trump has been less unpopular with naturalized Asian immigrants, with a 38% approval and 52% disapproval rating, according to a 2018 survey by Asian and Pacific Islander American and AAPI Data. These voters reported supporting Hillary Clinton over Trump by 48% to 28%.

In recent decades, Asian Americans as a whole — the fastest-growing ethnicity in the country — had been generally more open to supporting Republicans. But the diverse group is increasingly becoming a reliably Democratic demographic, according to Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy at UC Riverside who studies Asian American voting trends.

“What we’ve seen in the last two election cycles is either a crystallization or solidification in voting preferences and increasingly party preferences as well,” Ramakrishnan said.

Liking a party is one thing. Mobilizing to vote is another. Roughly three-fifths of foreign-born Asian American voters surveyed by APIAVote and AAPI Data said they were not contacted by the Democratic Party or the GOP before the 2018 election.

Language can be a barrier, and “a lot of folks don’t watch the same channels,” making people harder to reach through the media, said Harris County, Texas, Judge Lina Hidalgo, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2005 after fleeing Colombia and who became a U.S. citizen in 2013. Last year, the 28-year-old was among the Democrats who swept Republicans out of power in the county, where immigrants make up more than a quarter of the population.

Politicians need “to reach people where they are,” said Hidalgo, who appeared at last month’s ceremony to urge the new citizens to get involved in their communities and vote.

At the presidential level, naturalized immigrants’ voting power is largely diluted by the electoral college. New citizens most commonly settle in Democratic bastions such as California and New York, where their votes are not expected to affect the next presidential election.

Along with Texas, Florida is a key exception. The battleground state adds between 70,000 and 100,000 naturalized citizens each year, with more than 20,000 born in communist Cuba, a more conservative voter bloc that has helped Republicans maintain razor-thin majorities in the state.

Immigration is only one of several forces reshaping the electoral map, such as rural areas’ swing toward the GOP and the suburbs’ moves toward the Democratic Party.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Paul Bentz, a senior vice president of research and strategy at HighGround Inc., a traditionally Republican public affairs firm, said that younger voters, college-educated suburbanites and new residents from California are also helping push Arizona from red to purple.

“The president’s got big problems in multiple segments, not just naturalized voters,” Bentz said. He added that new voters are not monolithic, either, and that “border enforcement is not every Latino in Arizona’s No. 1 issue.”

At the Houston ceremony, new citizen Raul Borjas, 32, who was born in Venezuela, said he generally shares Republicans’ policy views.

“The U.S. has given me the freedom to express myself, which is particularly important to us as Venezuelans, who are losing that freedom in our country,” Borjas said, alluding to the political strife in his home country, as he waited to get his picture taken with the judge who administered his citizenship oath.

But he said he thought the party had fallen out of step on gun control policies, and he’s not sure whether he will vote for Trump.

Hans Gottwald, 74, an Alvin, Texas, retiree, said he was born in Germany and has lived in the U.S. since 1963 after he served three years in the U.S. Army. He said he decided to become a citizen so he could vote in the next national election.

“I miss that I couldn’t vote for many years, but I think 2020 is very important to me,” Gottwald said. He’s not sure whether he’s going to support Trump or a Democratic challenger. He likes Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, but said, “I will not vote for a socialist,” apparently referring to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Walter Martinez, 22, who was born in El Salvador and has lived in the U.S. since he was a young child, said he long felt like an American, and he wanted to naturalize as a citizen before it potentially became more difficult to do so.

He doesn’t see himself as very politically engaged, but he plans to vote in 2020 — and definitely not for Trump.

“No doubt,” Martinez said with a laugh, adding he doesn’t like the way the administration has treated Latinos.

“Maybe he knows money,” Martinez said of the president, “but I don’t agree how he is toward other people.”

WASHINGTON  — 

President Trump on Wednesday ordered an end to economic sanctions against Turkey that were imposed after that country’s invasion of Syria earlier this month, declaring success for his policy despite a widespread belief among lawmakers of his own party and foreign policy experts that the U.S. withdrawal from the region has been a victory for Turkey and Russia.

“Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,” Trump said, although he also added a small number of troops would remain in Syria to secure oil fields, a goal he often voices when discussing the region.

“The sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we’re not happy with,” he added. .

The announcement gave Trump another opportunity to declare his desire to reduce U.S. involvement in the Middle East — a position that has put him sharply at odds with Republican leaders and has also dismayed U.S. allies, including Israel, who see Russian and Iranian influence growing as the U.S. pulls back.

Russian officials and media outlets have been touting the U.S. pullback as an indication of Moscow’s growing power in the region, while gloating that Americans have lost clout.

Despite Trump’s persistent description of the region as “sand” and deserts, the area of northern Syria that is in contention is actually a heavily populated part of the Euphrates River valley, which includes a number of cities, many of them with large numbers of Kurdish civilians, whose fate is at the center of the debate over Trump’s policy.

Trump abruptly decided early this month to pull a small group of American troops out of northern Syria. That cleared the way for Turkey to invade the area and attack Kurdish militia groups, which have been close U.S. allies for years.

The Kurds did the bulk of the fighting in recent years against the Islamic State militias, also known as ISIS, helping the U.S. achieve a major goal of driving Islamic State out of territories it controlled in Syria and Iraq with minimal U.S. casualties. The Turks, who have a sizable Kurdish population in their country, see the autonomous Kurdish groups in Syria and neighboring Iraq as a threat to their security.

The sanctions Trump lifted had been imposed by his administration just over a week ago to punish Turkey for the incursion and its attacks on the Kurds. The administration acted after bipartisan outrage over Trump’s failure to protect the Kurdish population.

After the sanctions were imposed, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Turkey, where he negotiated a cease-fire with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan under which Turkey agreed to a five-day pause in its invasion. The pause allowed Kurdish fighters to flee the region, although they left behind tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians. The pause, which expired Tuesday, also allowed Turkey to secure its gains in northern Syria and Russia to move into the vacuum left behind by the U.S. withdrawal.

The Kurdish withdrawal also allowed at least some people associated with Islamic State to escape from prisons where they were being guarded by Kurdish forces.

Trump ignored a question about the detainees as he left the White House Diplomatic Room, where he made his announcement. White House aides have tried to downplay the escapes, insisting that the “vast majority” of detainees remain in custody.

Under the cease-fire agreement, the administration said it would lift sanctions once the pause in fighting became permanent. Trump said that had now been achieved, though he quickly added that any claims of permanence in the Middle East were “questionable.”

Trump said the time had come for the U.S. to wash its hands of involvement in the region, despite past assurances to the Kurds that the U.S. would defend them in return for their service against Islamic State.

“Turkey, Syria and all forms of the Kurds have been fighting for centuries,” he said. “We have done them a great service. We’ve done a great job for all of them, and now we’re getting out.”

That sentiment is in keeping with Trump’s overall policy direction. No longer surrounded by more hawkish advisors who try to restrain him, as he was in the first two years of his tenure, Trump has been eager to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, Afghanistan and other parts of the Mideast. In June, he decided at the last minute against striking Iran to retaliate for what U.S. military officials said was that country’s shooting down of a U.S. drone airplane over the Persian Gulf.

Trump has also sent mixed signals, however, agreeing recently to add to U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia.

His moves to pull back on U.S. commitments have brought sharp criticism from fellow Republicans.

One of the loudest voices, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said on Wednesday that a cease-fire in northern Syria, if permanent, would represent “real progress,” but urged Trump to commit air power as part of an international force to patrol the region.

Turkey, Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad lack the capacity or desire “to protect America from radical Islamic threats like ISIS,” Graham said.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio offered more skepticism, tweeting that “Erdogan has NOT agreed to stop all military operations” in Syria and that Russia would “remove” more Kurdish forces from the region.

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s behavior on many fronts, called it “unthinkable that Turkey would not suffer consequences for malevolent behavior which was contrary to the interests of the United States and our friends.”

Trump made his announcement flanked by top officials including Pence and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo. His remarks were heavily focused on blaming others, including former President Obama, for instability in the region.

Although Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Tuesday and agreed to Russian patrols in the border area, Trump seemed to reject the idea that other countries had played a major role in the outcome.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

“This was an outcome created by us, the United States and nobody else, no other nation, very simple. We’re willing to take blame and we’re also willing to take credit,” Trump said as he thanked Erdogan and suggested the two might meet soon. Trump has denied giving Erdogan a green light for his Syria invasion, although the U.S. troop withdrawal effectively did so.

“Our troops are safe. And the pain and suffering of the three-day fight that occurred was directly responsible for our ability to make an agreement with Turkey and the Kurds that could never have been made without this short-term outburst,” Trump asserted.

“Should Turkey fail to honor its obligations, including the protection of religious and ethnic minorities, which I truly believe they will do, we reserve the right to reimpose crippling sanctions, including substantially increased tariffs on steel and all other products coming out of Turkey,” he said.

Staff writer Alexa Díaz contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — 

The parade of witnesses going before the House committees weighing impeachment of President Trump has come overwhelmingly from one government agency: the State Department.

That would be the same State Department that Trump has dismissed and disdained; whose budget Trump has repeatedly slashed; whose foreign-service corps Trump has hollowed out, in the opinion of many career diplomats.

Representatives of this agency are now defying administration orders to refuse to testify and instead offering explosive evidence that could build the case for impeachment against Trump.

It started nearly two weeks ago with the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled by Trump amid a smear campaign, and crescendoed Tuesday with the current senior diplomat in Ukraine, William B. Taylor, directly contradicting the president’s claim that there was no quid pro quo in withholding much-needed American security aid for Ukraine until the country’s government agreed to investigate his political rivals.

Perhaps most tarnished in what might be called the revenge of Foggy Bottom is the top diplomat himself, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo.

Pompeo failed to rise to the defense of Yovanovitch, who says baseless rumors defiling her were fed to Trump by his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani. It led to her recall from the diplomatic post apparently to further Giuliani’s business pursuits, she testified to a congressional panel on Oct. 11.

The “basic understanding,” she testified, that “our government will have our backs and protect us if we come under attack from foreign interests … no longer holds true.”

“Harm will come when private interests circumvent professional diplomats for their own gain, not the public good,” she added.

Pompeo came to the State Department a year and a half ago, promising to restore the agency’s “swagger.” He was initially welcomed by a staff suffering depleted morale following the rocky, budget-slashing tenure of Rex Tillerson.

Now, however, many foreign service officers are angry or dismayed — and emboldened by Yovanovitch’s testimony.

If she opened the door, Taylor flung it wide. He described Trump’s demands that Ukraine investigate his political opponents if it wanted military aid, even as Kyiv fights a war with Russian-backed separatists. And, with detailed notes, Taylor described the “shadow” diplomacy conducted by Giuliani, on behalf of Trump’s reelection and his own business interests.

“In August and September of this year, I became increasingly concerned that our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an irregular informal channel of U.S. policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons,” Taylor, a four-decade foreign-service officer and Vietnam War veteran, said.

“In an instant, I realized that one of the key pillars of our strong support for Ukraine was threatened,” he added. “The irregular policy channel was running contrary to the goals of long-standing U.S. policy.”

Yovanovitch and Taylor were not the only State Department witnesses.

Gordon Sondland, a Trump donor and political appointee as ambassador to the European Union, initially refused to testify but relented and appeared six days after Yovanovitch. Despite his being close to the president, Sondland’s testimony also offered a glimpse of Giuliani’s role in conducting his own foreign policy for Ukraine, going around the State Department. Ultimately, it became clear the effort was aimed at helping Trump’s reelection.

“We asked the White House to arrange a working phone call from President Trump and a working Oval Office visit” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sondland told congressional investigators. “However, President Trump was skeptical that Ukraine was serious about reforms and anticorruption, and he directed those of us present at the meeting to talk to Mr. Giuliani, his personal attorney, about his concerns.

“It was apparent to all of us that the key to changing the president’s mind on Ukraine was Mr. Giuliani.”

Sondland, who became a key intermediary on Ukraine even though it is not a member of the EU, acknowledged he was “disappointed” at Trump’s “explicit direction.”

A day earlier, another senior State Department official testified to the panel. Michael McKinley had just resigned as one of Pompeo’s top advisors after 37 years as a foreign service officer, including postings as ambassador in numerous countries.

McKinley was one of the people who welcomed Pompeo with high hopes that he could rebuild the department, and served as his right hand. But McKinley grew disillusioned over recent months as the secretary marginalized career diplomats and seemed to infuse foreign policy with partisan politics. Generally, secretaries of State who must represent the U.S. worldwide stay above the domestic political fray.

For McKinley, the final straw was the evolving Ukraine scandal and the way Pompeo handled the Yovanovitch matter. He told the congressional investigators that he opposed “what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives.”

“I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents,” McKinley said, according to people familiar with the testimony.

As Pompeo heads this week for speeches in his home state of Kansas, the diplomatic parade will continue. Philip T. Reeker, acting assistant secretary for European affairs, and Suriya Jayanti, a State Department officer stationed in Kyiv handling energy, will appear in coming days.

And already, two additional State Department officials have testified: Kurt Volker, the administration’s special envoy for Ukraine who resigned as the impeachment hearings focused on his role, and George P. Kent, a deputy assistant secretary who oversees Ukraine and other former Soviet republics — each offering a piece of the impeachment puzzle.

“Many of us for the past two and a half years have been hoping that there was a proof of honor inside the administration, good people working in there who would actually do the right thing,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “Now you’re starting to get pings of that. … That’s encouraging.”

Times staff writer Jennifer Haberkorn in Washington contributed to this report.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

WASHINGTON — 

The Trump administration took aim Wednesday at one of California’s premier climate change policies, suing the state for entering into a cap-and-trade agreement with the Canadian province of Quebec to lower fossil fuel emissions.

The lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice argues that California overstepped its legal authority by forging an agreement with another country designed to limit air pollution and climate-warming greenhouse gases. Only the federal government has this power, according to the suit. Also named as defendants are state’s top air quality regulator and the Western Climate Initiative, a nonprofit group California created with neighboring states to promote similar policies.

“The state of California has veered outside of its proper constitutional lane to enter into an international emissions agreement,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in a statement. “California’s unlawful cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec undermines the President’s ability to negotiate competitive agreements with other nations, as the President sees fit,” Clark added.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement criticizing the lawsuit as another episode in what he called the Trump administration’s ongoing “political vendetta against California.”

“For years our state has proudly participated in a number of environmental partnerships that tackle the devastating effects of climate change to our health and economy,” the governor said. “This latest attack shows that the White House has its head in the sand when it comes to climate change and serves no purpose other than continued political retribution.”

The Trump administration has steadily escalated its attacks against California’s ability to crack down on air and water pollution. In September, it revoked a decades-old rule that empowered California to set tougher car emissions standards than those required by the federal government, prompting the state to file a lawsuit in response. Then, in the span of about a week, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency sent letters threatening to cut federal highway funding for California over alleged Clean Air Act violations and accusing the state of failing to protect its water.

In addition, the Department of Justice has launched an antitrust investigation into whether four automakers violated federal competition law by reaching a voluntary emissions agreement with California.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

California’s cap-and-trade program has been in operation since 2013 and is considered essential if the state is to meet its targets for reducing carbon pollution.

The program works by establishing an annual limit, or a cap, on nearly all of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. California oil refineries, cement plants and other industries can meet this requirement by either lowering their emissions or buying state-auctioned permits that allow them to pollute. These permits can then be bought and sold within an open market — the “trade” part of the program.

The theory underlying the program is that as the emissions cap is lowered, companies will find it more cost effective to decarbonize rather than continue to pay for pollution permits.

Quebec has participated in the program from the beginning, expanding the size of the emissions-trading market. Companies in California can trade carbon emission allowances with companies in Quebec.

David Wright, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law, who has studied California’s agreement with Quebec, said that while there is some case law supporting the Trump administration’s legal argument, “the case is extremely far from a slam dunk.”

“I would suggest that this litigation will not be successful because the cap-and-trade regime was carefully structured to not have key characteristics of formal international agreements,” he said. “Even if unsuccessful, though, this litigation is problematic because it will affect market confidence in this emissions trading regime.”

Wright added that the administration’s lawsuit could ultimately backfire. If courts uphold the California-Quebec agreement, it could encourage other states to join.

Other legal experts said Trump may have weakened his administration’s own case by announcing plans to withdraw from the landmark Paris agreement on climate change, under which nearly 200 countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is deeply ironic for the United States to make an argument that California is interfering with the United States’ ability to conduct foreign policy on greenhouse gas emissions when it has no foreign policy on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at UCLA.

California’s cap-and-trade program has raised billions of dollars since its launch through the auction of pollution permits. But so far, the program is not a major driver of cuts in greenhouse gases — most of which are being achieved through other, more traditional regulations including those on fuels, vehicles and power generation.

This has prompted some state lawmakers and other critics to question the program’s stringency, and whether an oversupply of allowances will be an obstacle to its efficacy.

Regardless, California regulators say the program’s role must increase dramatically in the coming years if the state is to meet its ambitious target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The state Air Resources Board’s plan calls for cap-and-trade to become the single biggest driver of emissions reductions by 2030, responsible for more than one-third of emissions cuts.

The state’s plan to achieve its 2030 climate goal not only depends on a more stringent cap-and-trade program with a continually declining cap on emissions, but also calls for preserving the program’s linkage with Quebec as well as “future linkages with other jurisdictions, thus facilitating international action to address climate change.”

Though California officials hoped the program would spread to other states, that has not been the case. An attempt in Oregon to pass cap-and-trade legislation fell apart over the summer after Republican senators fled the state to avoid a vote on the measure and Democrats lost support for the bill within their own caucus.

Undrafted and undersized, he has been quite a find as a running back for the Chargers.

Nearly halfway through Austin Ekeler’s third NFL season, the Chargers are rediscovering him now — as a receiver.

“He’s so versatile,” quarterback Philip Rivers said. “You could say he’s a running back playing receiver or he’s a receiver playing running back. I think he’s that special and has that much ability.”

Ekeler, who signed as a free agent in 2017 out of Western State in Colorado, which has since changed its name to Western Colorado University, always has been a threat coming out of the backfield.

But, over the past few weeks in particular, the Chargers have been deploying him regularly from the slot and split wide.

Ekeler had a team-high seven receptions Sunday against Tennessee for 118 yards, his first career 100-yard game as a receiver or rusher.

“When he’s not the primary back, he has a versatility role where we can do that …” coach Anthony Lynn said. “Keenan Allen is a No. 1 guy, no doubt about it. But, you get Austin Ekeler on a linebacker, that becomes a No. 1 target.”

The Chargers have been searching for answers at receiver. Travis Benjamin and Dontrelle Inman are on injured reserve, thinning their depth.

They also have been unable to replace the production of Tyrell Williams, who left for Oakland in the offseason via free agency.

With Melvin Gordon back the past three games, the Chargers have been forced to find alternative ways to keep Ekeler involved in the offense.

“The more you can do …” Ekeler said. “So I’ll expand, if they’ll allow me to. As long as I can continue to make plays with what they’re giving me, I think you’ll see me probably get more reps.”

Since Gordon returned, Ekeler has rushed only 13 times for 28 yards and caught 25 passes for 218 yards.

He is tied with Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins for third in the NFL with 49 receptions. The next closest running back, New England’s James White, is tied for 14th with 38 catches.

“He’s quick, he’s explosive,” Lynn said of Ekeler. “He has excellent hands … I’ve always liked him in space.”

Against the Titans, Ekeler’s progress as a receiver was illustrated on the Chargers’ final drive. He ran a pair of five-step slant routes, the latter picking up 16 yards.

Before that series, Ekeler had never run a slant route. Well, at least not in a real game. And that’s while in school and in the NFL.

“It was new,” he said. “But, I mean, we’re all pretty good athletes. You just make it work.”

In the Chargers’ 23-20 loss Sunday, Ekeler also had their most explosive play — a 41-yard touchdown reception from Rivers with 5:09 remaining.

Lined up wide right, he badly beat Tennessee linebacker Wesley Woodyard with a basic double-move and raced into the end zone ahead of closing strong safety Kenny Vaccaro.

“I didn’t do anything crazy,” Ekeler said. “Just a little stutter [step]. Got him off his mark enough that I could just run by him.”

With the Chargers struggling to run the ball and score touchdowns of late, Ekeler is expected to remain one of their primary weapons, from the backfield and on the outside.

On Sunday, they will be matched against a Chicago defense that is fifth-best in the NFL at preventing points and 13th against the pass.

“It’s kind of routine at this point,” Ekeler said. “I’ve caught so many balls now, especially with Phil and I. We’ve been playing catch all season.”

Okung to play

The Chargers will get left tackle Russell Okung back Sunday. He missed the first seven games after suffering a pulmonary embolism in June. Lynn said Trent Scott will receive the “bulk of the reps” against the Bears but added that Okung definitely will play.

“It’ll be great to have Russ back out there,” Rivers said. “He brings more … than just on the field.”

Okung, who turned 32 this month, is in his 10th NFL season. He is a former team captain and a two-time Pro Bowl selection.

When Okung is ready to resume starting, Lynn suggested Scott could battle Sam Tevi for the starting right tackle job.

It appears Scott Quessenberry will remain at center, with recently signed veteran Ryan Groy providing depth at center and guard. Groy spent time with Buffalo when Lynn was coaching there.

“He’s a heck of a competitor,” Lynn said. “He may work his way into the lineup at some point.”

Tackle issues

Defensive tackles Brandon Mebane (knee) and Justin Jones (shoulder) remain out after missing the game Sunday.

The Chargers signed veteran defensive tackle Sylvester Williams on Wednesday, an indication that one or both of those injuries could be longer-term.

Williams, 30, has appeared in 89 games with four teams over the last six seasons. Coming out of North Carolina, he was a first-round pick by Denver in 2013. Williams spent time last season with Detroit and Miami.

Also along the defensive front, edge rusher Melvin Ingram (hamstring) and tackle Damion Square (hamstring) were limited in practice.

Ingram appears close to returning after missing the last three games. Square started Sunday in place of the injured Mebane.

Etc.

Fullback Derek Watt (knee) and running back Justin Jackson (calf) also were limited in practice. … Edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu has been dealing with a hip issue in recent weeks but has not missed any time. … Rookie defensive tackle Cortez Broughton was absent from practice because of an illness. … The Chargers placed guard Forrest Lamp (leg) on injured reserve.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

The coach known for a businesslike approach that involves monitoring his players’ sleep, hydration and heart levels might have just earned himself a new nickname: Fun-time Chip.

UCLA’s Chip Kelly told the Bruins to enjoy themselves against Stanford, sparking their best defensive effort of the season during a 34-16 victory that snapped a losing streak at 11 games against the Cardinal.

“When our head man said it, like, ‘Guys, I just want you to have fun. I just want you to enjoy it,’ ” linebacker Jason Harris said Wednesday, “once we heard him say it, we were like, all right, let’s do our thing. Let’s ball out.”

Harris made one of his team’s season-high seven sacks while limiting the Cardinal to 198 yards of offense, the first time UCLA had held an opponent under 200 yards since 2009.

To Harris, a graduate transfer from Illinois State, having more fun meant worrying less.

“We have a pretty in-depth schematic program here and sometimes it can get a little complicated for us,” Harris said, “but he just really wanted to put that aside and for us to not worry about making mistakes and just to fly around and have fun and I think that’s what we did and that’s why we saw a lot of success.

“For me, it’s just trying not to be perfect because a lot of times I want to be perfect. I want to not have any mental errors, get 100% on my assignments and stuff like that, which you want to do, but sometimes it can slow you down constantly thinking and you just have to let it loose and be a ballplayer because that’s what they want us to do.”

The Bruins made enough plays to nudge them away from contention for the worst defense in the nation. They are now yielding 459.7 yards per game, down from 503.3 before the Stanford game, as well as 34.6 points per game, down from 37.7 points previously.

All because they decided to have a little fun.

“I don’t know if you guys could tell, but we had a lot more energy as a team and it was a lot of fun to be around those guys,” Harris said. “I think it will carry on and I hope it does. That’s the plan.”

Scripted success?

UCLA has statistically enjoyed far greater success on its opening drives than it has over the rest of its games, but it’s not a matter of a winning script giving way to ineffective ad-libbed play calls.

Kelly said every play call is predetermined based on down and distance.

“We script by situation,” Kelly said, “so we have first- and second-down calls, third-down calls, red-zone calls, coming-out calls, so whatever the situation dictates, everything from that standpoint in terms of what we do is all scripted.”

The Bruins have scored on four of seven opening drives (57.1%), nearly double the success they’ve had in scoring on 26 of their other 80 drives (32.5%), not including end-of-half situations.

Kelly said his team’s inability to sustain its early success has involved a hodgepodge of factors, including consistency in execution and defensive coverages.

“That’s kind of the give and take that goes on during a game,” Kelly said. “We know going into the game that they’re 75% [in two-deep coverage] on this down and distance, so you’re probably calling a play that’s good versus two-deep. They didn’t run two-deep; they ran it the first time, they didn’t run it the second time. So the first time it worked, the second time was their 25% where they’re running another coverage and it didn’t work out as much.”

Etc.

Freshman defensive lineman Siale Liku, still waiting to make his college debut, has been spending time at offensive line in practice. Kelly said the move was intended to find the best spot for Liku because the team has more depth on its defensive line. No decision is expected until the end of the season. … Kelly said sophomore receiver Michael Ezeike, who has no catches this season in limited playing time after a promising freshman season, has been hindered by nagging injuries. “It’s just a matter of Mike being able to sustain consistent weeks over time,” Kelly said of a player who caught 12 passes for two touchdowns as a freshman. “It seems like he starts moving and you’re excited about him but then something flares up and he’s out for a week or so.”

Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey

In the postgame locker room Tuesday night, Anthony Davis and LeBron James were sitting a few feet apart at their respective lockers finishing up a conversation as reporters trickled into the room.

James, holding a printed box score, noted the 25 points the Clippers scored off Lakers turnovers.

“And fastbreak. They had 22, right?” Davis said.

“Twenty-two, we had five,” James said. “That’s it right there.”

That was only the beginning of the Lakers’ dissection of Tuesday’s season-opening loss. The Clippers beat them 112-102, and the Lakers spent the next day of practice reviewing what happened, without overreacting to it, while figuring out how to improve what didn’t work.

“We looked at both ends of the ball, and there’s a thousand little execution pieces that we tried to clean up from post spacing to not running enough offensively, more second action, more side-to-side movement,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “… We’re not focused on the result each game as much as the process and building and tightening things up and all the little habits we know we need to win.”

Vogel seemed most disappointed with the Lakers’ second quarter — especially defensively — on Tuesday night. A day removed, he acknowledged that the Clippers made some tough shots despite the Lakers’ defensive efforts. That was particularly true of Kawhi Leonard, who made 10 of 19 shots — only one of them a three-pointer.

Click Here: essendon bombers guernsey 2019

Offensively, the Lakers struggled to shoot the ball well, making only 43.5% of their shots, and the ball movement wasn’t what they wanted with only 20 assists.

Vogel said the plan was to run more pick-and-roll plays, but the Lakers struggled to account for the Clippers’ defensive switching. It’s part of why their ball movement stagnated at times.

“It’s one of those things where the ball can stop moving at times, but you have to be smart,” Lakers guard Avery Bradley said. “It’s a guy’s job off the ball to make sure they continue to move and create space for those switches so we can attack that. And sometimes we need to continue to keep the ball movement. … Those are all things that we need to continue to learn, and it’s gonna take some time, but I feel like everyone’s dedicated to making those adjustments so we can be the best team we can be.”

After the game, James was quick to correct a reporter who asked about the “issues” defensively that appeared in the Lakers opener.

“There are issues?” James said Tuesday night. “You don’t have issues after one game.”

Sign up for our free Lakers newsletter >>

It might have felt like more than just one game, having ushered a new star-studded era in Los Angeles basketball. Several players noted the playoff-type atmosphere. Pundits saw it as a potential conference finals matchup.

But in their Wednesday activities, the Lakers worked to treat it like just one of 82 games.

Injury update

Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma missed the start of the season because of a stress reaction in his left foot. He suffered the injury during his stint with Team USA this summer. Kuzma won’t play Friday, but he was spotted Wednesday doing some unopposed scrimmage work.

The Lakers on Tuesday were without point guard Rajon Rondo, who was a game-time decision. Vogel was noncommittal on whether Rondo would play Friday against the Utah Jazz. Rondo is dealing with a sore calf, but did some on-court work after practice on Wednesday.

Elsewhere among the Lakers’ guards, other injuries hampered their rotation. Alex Caruso was still recovering from a bruised pelvis and Quinn Cook was on a minutes restriction because of a sore calf. Cook played 17 minutes and scored four points with two assists and a rebound.

HOUSTON — 

All regular season long, Major League Baseball faced questions about the baseballs used because they were flying farther than ever. The evidence was there. More home runs were hit than ever before and studies illustrated details supporting claims that the balls were behaving differently. In June, MLB acknowledged the balls were different because a pill in the middle wasn’t perfectly centered. It became a storyline the league wanted to swat away.

Then, suddenly, the baseballs seemed to have changed, without explanation, once the calendar flipped to October. Balls barreled this postseason seemingly aren’t traveling as far as they would have during the regular season. Sure home runs the previous six months became routine fly balls. Anecdotal evidence is prevalent, but balls hit with the same launch angle and exit velocity are not going as far as the regular season. Observers have assumed the balls were changed.

On Wednesday, before Game 2 of the World Series, Rob Manfred maintained that the sample size is too small and unreliable. He noted cold weather suppresses a ball’s flight and the pitching is better in playoff games. He emphasized the balls are not different than the ones used during the regular season.

Click Here: essendon bombers guernsey 2019

“I can tell you one thing for absolute certain, just like every other year, the balls that were used in this postseason were selected from lots that were used during the regular season,” Manfred said. “There was no difference in those baseballs.”

MLBPA director Tony Clark countered Manfred’s viewpoint. He said players have maintained the balls have “changed quite a bit.” He said conversations with the league about the matter are “ongoing and will continue.” He said players want consistency.

“It should just be a baseball and it should be a baseball that they can expect to do what it’s always done,” Clark said. “So I’d like to get to a point … as I’m sure players would, where they know what they’re picking up, they know how it’s going to play. As much as it’s been a concern this year, we hope it’s not a concern moving forward and we get the consistency that we did in the past.”

All MLB baseballs are produced in Costa Rica at a Rawlings plant the league has controlled since buying the company in June 2018. Clark said MLBPA officials are willing to visit the plant to ensure qualifications are met; he said MLBPA officials did that before MLB took ownership. But he emphasized a ball’s characteristics can change after manufacturing.

“The custodianship from the time it leaves to the time it arrives at a ballpark, to how long it sits, to where it’s stored, to what balls are used at what point in time, all of that is worthy of discussion,” Clark said.

Manfred said the league’s investigation into the baseballs will conclude some time after the World Series and before the end of the year. That should give the league ample time to rectify the inconsistencies before the start of next season — even if officials claim there aren’t any to rectify.

Click:辦公室租用

A man was wounded and two other men — including the suspected shooter — are dead after a gunman opened fire inside a Long Beach bar early Wednesday, sending patrons fleeing to safety.

Police said an officer was flagged down in the 1700 block of East Artesia Boulevard about 12:20 a.m. by a person who told him someone was shooting inside the Bottoms Up Tavern. The officer heard gunfire inside the bar and headed toward the entrance, said Shaunna Dandoy, a Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman.

The officer, who has not been identified, was still outside when he saw the shooter and opened fire through the open front door. The gunman retreated to another part of the bar where investigators suspect he shot and killed a patron.

SWAT officers searched the building where they found the gunman, still holding a revolver-style firearm, and a wounded man. Both men died at the scene, Dandoy said.

Their names were not immediately released. It is not clear whether the gunman died from an officer’s bullet or took his own life.

Click Here: essendon bombers guernsey 2019

Police said the gunman first opened fire after he confronted a man inside the bar. The gunman shot the man, who then fled the building and was taken to a hospital with a non-life threatening wound to the upper torso, Dandoy said. It is not clear what prompted the altercation.

The gunfire sent people running from the bar. Some of the patrons suffered minor injuries as they fled the location. Three women and a man hid in the bathroom and were later found by police, Dandoy said.

Investigators found a bullet casing that doesn’t match the gunman’s weapon or the officer’s weapon, leading authorities to suspect there may have been a second shooter involved in the incident. Authorities are trying to determine the identity of that person and their role.

The bar employees and patrons were part of a close-knit community. Most of the patrons were regulars. Several employees said they were family or godparents to each other‘s children.

Based on what employees inside the bar during the shooting told her, bar owner Suzanne Blevins said she believes the shooting was a random act by a first-time patron.

The incident began with an interaction between the gunman and a cook, she said.

“There was nothing happening,” Blevins said. “He just said that ‘It’s gonna go down’… The guy ordered his drink. It wasn’t threatening, it was just weird. That’s when the gun came out.”

Blevins said the gunman pointed the gun at the cook and the two men briefly struggled. The cook jumped over the bar and fled. The gunman then began shooting others, Blevin’s employees told her.

“He didn’t want him, he just wanted anybody. It’s very weird, very random,” said Blevins.

Coroner’s officials have not identified the deceased men, but a family member confirmed the dead victim as Manuel Marquez, a 44-year-old bar employee.

Marquez began working at the bar just months ago as a maintenance worker but had recently asked for additional shifts behind the bar for financial help during the holiday season, Blevins said.

“He was hella cool,” Marquez’s sister, Cindy Marquez, said. “He got along with everybody, everybody liked him. Did anything and would help anybody, anybody. He helped around the bar, he would fix things. The girls needed something, he would help them.”

Blevins said she believes Marquez saved a bartender’s life. As the gunman shot at patrons, he and the bartender hid behind the bar. When there was a pause in the shooting, he urged her to run.

“I guess he didn’t feel like he had enough time,” Blevins said. “I don’t know why he wouldn’t go. He’s quick on his feet.”

Police say quick actions by bystanders and officers also likely prevented additional fatalities.

“Those individuals who alerted our officer to the incident and officers who took quick action prevented potentially additional casualties from occurring,” Dandoy said.

An El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed early Wednesday and another deputy was wounded during a shootout near a private marijuana grow in a rural area just south of Placerville, Calif., authorities said.

Deputy Brian Ishmael was responding to a report of theft from a marijuana garden at a private residence in the Sierra Nevada foothills community of Somerset, officials said. An off-duty San Joaquin County sheriff’s deputy had accompanied Ishmael on a ride-along.

The pair were “immediately” met with gunfire upon arriving at the scene, El Dorado County Sheriff John D’Agostini said at a Wednesday morning news conference.

The off-duty deputy “returned fire and did his best to save Brian,” but Ishmael was fatally wounded, D’Agostini said. The off-duty deputy was also shot. He was released from a local hospital after undergoing surgery.

Two men, who have not been identified, were taken into custody. One of them was shot and remains hospitalized in unknown condition, D’Agostini said.

Authorities said the scene was still active with a large law enforcement presence. “At this point we don’t know whether there are any outstanding suspects, and in an abundance of caution we are making sure that the area is safe for residents,” D’Agostini said.

The shooting occurred in the area of Sand Ridge Road and Mt. Aukum Road in Somerset, a rural unincorporated community about 10 miles southeast of Placerville and about 40 miles east of Sacramento.

Later Wednesday morning, a procession of patrol cars escorted Ishmael’s body from a hospital to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. Video showed first responders lining overpasses above Highway 50 to salute their slain colleague.

“Brian worked in this community and lived in this community,” D’Agostini said. “He was personable, easy to talk to, kind and always positive. He never had a bad day.”

Ishmael, a four-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, previously worked at the Placerville Police Department. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Click Here: COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 2019