California is home to some two dozen military bases, including storied installations such as Edwards Air Force Base, where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and little-known facilities such as the Marines Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in the Eastern Sierra.

But what goes on behind those heavily guarded gates? Without proper identification, you can’t pop in for a look-see, so many of us have only a vague idea.

The good news is that several California bases offer public tours that give visitors a behind-the-scenes look at how the armed forces are working to meet the nation’s complex security challenges.

Some tours fill up far in advance — Edwards is booked through 2020 — so be sure to contact the installation you’d like to visit as soon as possible. You may need to fill out a registration form and undergo a security check, but you don’t need to pull out your credit card: Base tours are free.

National Training Center and Ft. Irwin

If you’re looking for a kick-ass tour with things that go boom and rat-a-tat-tat, you can’t do better than the six-hour experience at Ft. Irwin, the Army’s massive pre-deployment center northwest of Barstow.

Your tour bus will rumble through miles of creosote-studded desert before depositing you at a 1,200-square-mile training area called “the box” (short for sandbox). It’s brutal terrain and — except for a faux village with mock mud-brick houses — wide open, making it ideal for brigade-on-brigade war games that can involve as many as 5,000 fighters on each side.

You won’t be able to watch a real training exercise, but you’ll get a taste of the action during a mock battle that features soldiers exchanging rifle fire, a fake IED explosion, a helicopter buzzing low and lots of smoke.

If you’re game, you can crawl inside a personnel carrier or get down on your belly and fire a tripod-mounted machine gun. (The gun shoots blanks but it’s still loud as heck, so take advantage of the free earplugs.)

Your day at Ft. Irwin will involve lots of make-believe, but there’s nothing fake about lunch: a genuine, military-issue MRE (meal, ready to eat).

Info: National Training Center, Ft Irwin, bit.ly/fortirwintour. Eight tours per year. No children younger than 12. Reservations accepted 30 days before the tour date; upcoming tours are Feb. 7, March 6 and April 3.

Vandenberg Air Force Base

The (mostly) windshield tour of California’s preeminent launch port and test range should be on every space nerd’s bucket list.
Vandenberg, in coastal Santa Barbara County near Lompoc, offers a 90-minute bus excursion that will get you about as close to an active rocket-and-missile launch pad as you will get anywhere.

As a space port, Vandenberg is ideally positioned on California’s “elbow,” which allows rockets to head south without flying over a large land mass.

All sorts of government, military and commercial payloads launch from this 99,000-acre installation, some of them crucial to national security. Vandenberg was the launch site for the ground-based interceptor that recently shot down a simulated, incoming warhead from the central Pacific.

Test firings of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile, the nation’s nuclear deterrent, go up from Vandenberg. NASA’s latest Mars explorer blasted off from Vandenberg. The base’s launch pads are also used by United Launch Alliance, whose Delta IV heavy rocket can thrust a payload the size of a 44-seat passenger bus.

A lot of what goes on here is hush-hush (think spy satellites), so photography is tightly controlled. Our group was permitted photos only at ULA’s Space Launch Complex 6, from which the Delta IV hurtles into the wild blue yonder.

Someone on our bus joked that the sale of Vandenberg’s 42 miles of protected coastline could retire the national debt in 24 hours. That sounds like a stretch, but the Vandenberg tour is a rare opportunity to soak in the heart-stopping beauty of a stretch of Central Coast that is off limits to pretty much everyone except those with base access.

You can also schedule a separate visit to the base’s Space and Missile Heritage Center, which displays launch complex models, rocket engines, re-entry vehicles and more.

Info: Vandenberg Air Force Base, 747 Nebraska Ave., (805) 606-3595, vandenberg.af.mil/Public-Tours. Tours offered at 1 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month; upcoming tour dates are April 21, May 19, June 16 and July 21. Space and Missile Heritage Center offers tours four times a year; the next available date is Jan. 26, 2021, vandenberg.af.mil/Public-Tours

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms

Mock villages have sprung up at numerous bases but none is quite like the Marines’ urban warfare training center at Twentynine Palms, 150 miles east of Los Angeles.

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On a six- to eight-hour visit to the country’s largest Marine base, you’ll ride a bus deep into the desert until a fake city comes into view, complete with hundreds of buildings fitted out to look like homes, shops and hotels.

This is where Marines, sailors and U.S. coalition partners prepare to fight in an urban environment. You won’t be able to watch a real exercise but you’ll still have an action-packed experience.

You can fire a .50-caliber machine gun (modified with compressed air) at virtual-reality enemies that are projected on a wraparound screen in an octagonal-shaped room.

Or you can put on a helmet and flak jacket and strap yourself into the back of a mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) troop carrier that is attached to a special frame and rotates 360 degrees on its axis.

Our group screamed when we turned upside down, but this equipment is no carnival ride. In the field, MRAP rollovers are not uncommon and can be fatal, so the exercise helps service members learn how to find a hatch and get out of the vehicle — fast.

Info: Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, (760) 830-3735, bit.ly/29palmstour. No tours in June, July and August. Must be 16. Visitors must be able to walk through deep sand and on rugged terrain. Water provided.

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

The Marine Corps Mechanized Museum at Camp Pendleton, 38 miles north of downtown San Diego, will bring back memories for anybody who has ever driven, ridden, crashed or cussed at a military vehicle.

The museum is in an old railroad terminal and offers docent-led tours of about 150 items, focused on engine-powered vehicles. Among the earliest is a Ford Model T ambulance from World War I (it still runs); the newer pieces include a light tactical vehicle from the Iraq war. The “movie star” here is an amphibious landing craft that director Clint Eastwood borrowed for the film “Flags of Our Fathers.”

Your museum visit can be combined with a docent-led tour of one of Camp Pendleton’s historical assets,
a circa 1840 ranch house that was home to Pío Pico, the last governor of Mexican California, and later housed families of Marine generals.

Info: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, (760) 725-5758, pendleton.marines.mil. Mechanized Museum tours Mondays-Fridays and weekends by appointment. Ranch house tours first Tuesday and Thursday and second Thursday of every month; weekends by appointment.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia operates the world’s longest hybrid coaster, the world’s first 360-degree vertical loop and the West Coast’s tallest pendulum ride.

So when the executives at the self-described roller coaster capital of the world were looking for a new kind of thrill to offer adrenaline-junkie fans, they turned to the uber-customizer behind the MTV series “Pimp My Ride” and tapped into the growing demand by amusement park fans for a new experience with each ride.

West Coast Racers, Six Flags’ new twin-track coaster that opens next week, was designed with the help of Ryan Friedlinghaus, the mastermind behind “Pimp My Ride” and the follow-up series “Street Customs,” two shows about the art of high-end car customization.

The new coaster features vehicles that were designed and painted by Friedlinghaus to look like custom sports cars. The entrance to the ride, part of an overhauled 4.5-acre land called the Underground, also resembles Friedlinghaus’ auto shop, West Coast Customs in Burbank. Passholders, park members and members of the media will get to preview the coaster until Jan. 9, when the ride opens to the general public.

“It’s different, fun and never been done,” Friedlinghaus said of his partnership with the manufacturer of the coaster, Baltimore-based Premier Rides.

Although Friedlinghaus’ roller coaster is unique, it reflects the push by theme park designers to give riders a new experience during each ride, prompting fans to return more than once.

The latest example is Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disneyland, which has a varied outcomes with riders in control of the iconic “Star Wars” spaceship. At Knott’s Berry Farm, an interactive attraction called VR Showdown in Ghost Town lets users rack up points by destroying an invading robot horde.

Work is underway to complete a new land at Universal Studios Hollywood based on popular Nintendo video games that is sure to include a few interactive features. An opening date has not been announced.

Martin Lewison, a business professor at New York’s Farmingdale State College and a roller coaster aficionado, said that dual-track coasters date to the 1920s but that many theme parks don’t always make the extra effort to launch the two vehicles at the exact same time.

An amusement park in the Netherlands called Efteling opened a popular dual-track racing coaster in 2010, Lewison said. At the end of the ride, a banner falls over one of the tracks, signaling the winner of the race.

“That is part of the appeal of the racing coaster,” Lewison said. “Sometimes you’ll get off the ride and get right back on again.”

At Six Flags Magic Mountain, the new dual-track coaster will allow two vehicles to race each other through sharp curves, loops and flips, with the speed of each vehicle being influenced by the overall weight of the passengers, the mass of the vehicle, head winds and other factors. No one knows until the end of the ride which car will win.

In another twist, each vehicle will get to race around the tracks twice, each time racing against a different-colored vehicle.

Halfway through the ride, the vehicles stop in what looks like a mechanic’s shop, where Friedlinghaus, speaking via a TV monitor, tells the riders that his crew is going to upgrade their vehicles before they speed off for the second lap. The sounds of auto shop tools blast from hidden speakers. The ride lasts two minutes.

“One of the great features of this is that you have two, not one, racing experiences,” said Jim Seay, president of Premier Rides. “Both of those outcomes are very specific to the ride you took.”

Friedlinghaus acknowledges that West Coast Racers is similar to Radiator Springs Racers, the car racing ride at Disney California Adventure. The big difference, he said, is that his ride is geared toward thrill-seeking teenagers and car junkies.

Just don’t ask him what he thinks of his own ride. Friedlinghaus doesn’t do coasters, saying he suffers from terrible motion sickness.

“I’m not a roller coaster guy, which is really funny,” he said.

The coaster touches on another growing trend in the theme park industry: adding videos, interactive games and animatronic characters to the queue to entertain waiting riders.

Visitors waiting in line to ride West Coast Racers will get to watch a video on flat-screen TVs that shows how Friedlinghaus and his crew at West Coast Customs built the roller coaster vehicles.

The roller coaster replaces several retail outlets, located between the Apocalypse wooden roller coaster and the Cyclone 500 go-carts.

It comes at a time when theme parks are investing heavily to take advantage of a strong economy and positive economic outlook among most park visitors.

In May, Disneyland opened its $1-billion Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge expansion, and it is on schedule to open a new land at California Adventure next year based on the superheroes from Marvel comics and movies.

In July, Universal Studios Hollywood completed an overhaul of its Jurassic Park ride featuring state-of-the-art technology. In addition to adding a new land based on Nintendo video games, Universal Studios Hollywood plans to open a new attraction next year based on the animated movie “The Secret Life of Pets.”

It’s a basketball extravaganza in this week’s collection of buyers and sellers. Making the lineup are NBA movers and shakers including Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Clippers forwards, a former Houston Rockets owner and a Lakers legend.

Our Home of the Week in Beverly Hills is mammoth modern estate with water everywhere. The 27,000-square-foot mansion features reflecting pools, indoor and outdoor swimming pool and ponds. The price to get your feet wet is $75 million.

Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.

– Neal Leitereg, Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale

A turnover in Malibu

“CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker sold his concrete-clad contemporary in Malibu to Atlanta Hawks forward Chandler Parsons for $9.25 million.

The 1.4-acre property includes a saltwater swimming pool and a covered pavilion perched above a tennis court.

The 5,555-square-foot floor plan has a two-story entry, a semicircular living room, a dining room with tray ceilings and five bedrooms.

Parsons, 31, previously played for the Memphis Grizzlies, the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets.

He’ll cut his traveling

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard will have a shorter commute to the Staples Center after buying a penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live for $6.725 million.

Centered on the downtown cityscape, the 4,280-square-foot unit features wood floors, walls of glass, two custom fireplaces and magnetic, wall-mounted iPads for controlling smart home systems. The family room adjoins a center-island kitchen with a breakfast nook. There are three bedrooms.

A rooftop swimming pool, a fitness center and valet and concierge services are among building amenities.

Leonard, 28, joined the Clippers as a free agent this year after winning an NBA title last season with the Toronto Raptors.

Inbound in La Jolla

Former Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has put his La Jolla beach home back on the market at $17.75 million.

The imposing three-story contemporary, built in 2002, overlooks 50 feet of ocean frontage. Walls of glass move away to bring ocean breezes into the 9,320 square feet of interiors.

The master suite takes up the entire top floor for a total of three bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Alexander bought the NBA team in 1993 for $85 million and sold two years ago for $2.2 billion.

Going for a rebound

Houston Rockets point guard Russell Westbrook has put his home in the Beverly Hills Post Office area back up for sale at $5.35 million.

That’s about $650,000 shy of the original asking price but still $700,000 more than Westbrook paid for the place in 2015, records show.

The two-story home contains 4,100 square feet of space including five bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and a media room.

Westbrook, 31, has made eight NBA all-star teams and won the league’s most valuable player award in 2017. He previously played for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

An ally-oop in Hayward

Clippers executive and former NBA player Jerry West has sold his home in the Bay Area community of Hayward for $1.585 million.

The four-bedroom contemporary has a stucco and stone facade. Steeply pitched roofs face the street and frame the walkway to the front door.

Light tile flooring and 22-foot ceilings open up the more than 3,500 square feet of bright interiors. The one-third acre of grounds contain a covered patio and citrus trees.

West, 81, played for the Lakers for 14 years, making 14 All-Star teams. He was coach and then general manager of the Lakers, before moving on to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Her favorite room

Film producer Karina Miller likes to unwind and get creative in the kitchen of her cozy 1,396-square-foot Studio City home. The Sparkhouse Media founder has outfitted her kitchen with an eight-burner stove, a dual-fuel oven, royal blue cabinetry and a seafoam green backsplash. “I just love feeding people,” she says. “It de-stresses me.”

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From the archives

Ten years ago, “Dancing With the Stars” co-host and “The Insider” correspondent Samantha Harris sold her Westwood home for $1.64 million. The 1930s Spanish two-story had four bedrooms within about 3,000 square feet and had been extensively remodeled.

Twenty years ago, actor Neil Patrick Harris put his Sherman Oaks home on the market at $625,000. He had owned the three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot house for nine years.

Thirty years ago, Los Angeles Lakers star James Worthy purchased a home with a tennis court in a gated, Pacific Palisades community for $2.675 million. The house had five bedrooms within its nearly 5,000 square feet of interior space.

What we’re reading

Former Red Wing Pavel Datsyuk has listed his lakeside home for sale at $4.5 million, reports the Detroit Free Press. The hockey player had the castle-like house in Bloomfield Township, Mich., custom built. There are 7,780 square feet of living space on the main floors plus a 4,750-square-foot walkout basement level.

While we’re in Michigan … this Traverse City reuse project seems a little, um, unusual. The Village at Grand Traverse Commons houses condominiums, shops and restaurants within the walls of historic buildings that once made up a mental asylum, reports CBS News. A three-bedroom unit there recently sold for $800,000.

Jason Oppenheim has made a career — and a Netflix show — out of selling houses; but when it came to creating the timeless home of his own dreams, he learned there’s a hefty price for perfection.

The “Selling Sunset” star said he wanted a home that would “stand the test of time and look good for decades.” In his industrial, barn-like living room, that included an 85-inch, 300-pound, $65,000 television and entertainment system that lifts from a subterranean bunker, and a $3,000, two-month project rewiring a 1942 rotary phone from a U.S. Navy ship.

Two years and three times his original budget later, the final cost for the Hollywood Hills home’s reno was $5 million, on top of the $3.5 million purchase price.

“As a real estate broker and a licensed contractor, I thought I would have been able to budget more accurately,” Oppenheim said. “I’m a pretty obsessive person, especially when it’s something for me, and I’m extremely meticulous — so if you combine all those, it creates a great property, but it drives a lot of people crazy, costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.”

A fan of “loft spaces, concrete and a kind of brutalism in architecture,” Oppenheim tends to gravitate toward a darker industrial style with a lot of organic finishes, such as brick, wood and metal — “materials that are long-lasting and durable,” he said.

The 12-foot ceilings are sheathed in long planks with a massive center beam “to look like a log cabin,” with large, circular bronze and brass fixtures and specialty bulbs from Buster and Punch hanging from above.

A collection of vellum-bound vintage books, 300 to 400 years old, are dispersed throughout the space.

“Sometimes I really do judge a book by its cover. I can’t read Latin, which most of them are, but there’s just something about holding an old book and thinking about who touched it or made it,” he said.

Why is this your favorite room?

I built this specifically for myself, so it’s very much my style. I like a lot of industrial finishings, vaulted ceilings, brick, metal, a lot of wood and a very open space. I also like an area to entertain and it’s got the bar, television and the fireplace, so it’s a really nice place to socialize.

I love this fireplace.

The fireplace is grandfathered in as a wood-burning fireplace, which is unique; I just opened it up to make it a 6-foot fireplace, which for me is the centerpiece of the room. That’s why I have the television coming up from under the ground. I saw a restaurant that has these wood stacks next to the fireplace, so that gave me that idea. All the herringbone brick I did piece by piece in the fireplace.

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Tell me about your bar.

I created an extremely industrial bar that’s made of steel with copper finishings and brass accents. The bar wall is wrapped in leather behind it. I chose all the bottles because I think they’re beautiful, not necessarily because of the alcohol. The neon lights are of my favorite poem by Robert Frost. Super custom-made.

I love the expansive wood floors and ceiling.

I don’t like drywall so I tried to use other finishes, like a ceiling finished with wood. I took apart the pillars and put steel attached to these huge brackets so I could create such an open space. This room spans almost 100 feet, so in order to do that, I had to pour 13 footings under the house and have massive steel posts and beams all through the ceilings and behind the brick that you can’t see.

You’ve got some great furniture.

The bar stools are Anna Karlin out of New York; she’s one of my favorite designers. The metal bag-shaped magazine holder is Bottega Veneta, the pillow is Hermes, the couch is Restoration Hardware, the rugs are all vintage rugs and the coffee table is by Environment Furniture, recently bought up by Cisco.

What is your favorite memory in here?

The first time I was able to show off this finished house was when we filmed “Selling Sunset” here. I brought the cast, which are also my friends, and had a pool party. After spending all that time, energy, money and the stress to get it to where I wanted it, and to be able to have my friends over for the first time, felt great.

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“Schitt’s Creek” actor Dan Levy has bought a Spanish-style home in Los Feliz for $4.13 million. 

(Jo David)

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Stonework and a hand-forged staircase in the entry are original. 

(Jo David)

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Set high up from the street, the house features 3,177 square feet of updated interiors. 

(Jo David)

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Th house includes a chef’s kitchen.  

(Jo David)

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French doors open onto a dining patio in the backyard. 

(Jo David)

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Rams receiver Brandin Cooks is asking $5.8 million for his Hidden Hills home, which sits on 2.3 acres with sweeping views. 

(Jeff Elson)

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The contemporary-vibe house was extensively renovated. 

(Jeff Elson)

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The house features pocketing walls that blend indoor-outdoor spaces. 

(Jeff Elson)

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The kitchen has two islands. 

(Jeff Elson)

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The backyard includes a swimming pool. 

(Jeff Elson)

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“Claws” star Niecy Nash has sold her Bell Canyon home of six years. 

(Richard Horn)

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The updated house has a wall of windows along the backside. 

(Richard Horn)

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The house is surrounded by mature trees. 

(Richard Horn)

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One of the bedrooms was converted into a custom dressing room. 

(Richard Horn)

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The house sold for $1.265 million.  

(Richard Horn)

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Casey Wasserman, an entertainment executive, is seeking $82.5 million for his modern mansion designed by architect Richard Meier. 

(NearMap)

His television family may have gone down “Schitt’s Creek,” but things are looking up for Dan Levy.

The actor-writer, who stars in the award-winning sitcom, has bought a home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles for $4.13 million.

Built in 1936, the Spanish-style house is set high up from the street near Griffith Park. Inside the renovated two-story are 3,177 square feet of living space with a vaulted-ceiling great room, an updated kitchen, four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Original stonework and a hand-forged curved staircase command attention in the formal entry.

French doors open to a backyard with a pergola-topped dining area, a saltwater swimming pool, a built-in barbecue and landscaping. An outdoor shower is tucked away near the pool area. A one-bedroom guest suite has a separate entrance.

Patricia Ruben of Sotheby’s International Realty was the listing agent. Jennifer Akbari of Compass represented the buyer.

Levy, 36, is the son of Hollywood and comedy veteran Eugene Levy, who also appears on “Schitt’s Creek.” Writer, director and producer are among the many hats he has worn for the show, which is set to conclude next year after six seasons.

The ABCs of a sale

Actress Sofía Vergara of “Modern Family” fame has sold a condominium in Westwood for $1.35 million, or $25,000 more than the asking price.

Found within the Dorchester tower on Wilshire Boulevard, the 2,071-square-foot residence has dark hardwood floors, an updated kitchen, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. A custom walk-in closet/dressing room highlights the master suite.

Vergara used a trust in her name to buy the property in 2007 for $1.1 million. She was offering the condo for $1.325 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

Building amenities include a full-service doorman, valet parking, a gym and a swimming pool.

Vergara, 47, is known for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the Emmy-winning sitcom “Modern Family,” which is set to conclude next year after 11 seasons. Among her film credits are “The Emoji Movie,” “Chef” and “Hot Pursuit.”

She is among the highest-paid actresses in the world, earning an estimated $42.5 million last year, according to Forbes.

Barry Peele of Sotheby’s International Realty was the listing agent. Vangelis Korasidis of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage represented the buyer.

Running an out-route

Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks is fielding offers for his modern home in Hidden Hills, listing the renovated digs for sale at $5.8 million.

It’ll be a short stay for the former All-American, who bought the place for $5.45 million last year, a few months after being traded from the Patriots to the Rams.

Privacy is the story here, as the cul-de-sac estate sits on 2.3 acres with panoramic city views. Behind the single-story home, an entertainer’s backyard offers a redwood deck, a swimming pool, a spa, an outdoor kitchen and a fire pit.

Before Cooks bought it, the house had a 1970s vibe with generous doses of wood and brick adorning the living spaces. The remodel brought a much more contemporary feel with chic interiors that open outside through pocketing walls of glass.

Everything’s oversized in the vast open floor plan, from the chandelier-topped dining room with a wet bar to the living room with a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. Farther in, the sleek kitchen tacks on two islands and splashes of marble.

Other highlights include a game room and a spacious master suite with backyard access. It’s one of four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in 4,850 square feet.

Jordan Cohen of RE/Max One holds the listing.

A native of Stockton, Cooks was a consensus All-American at Oregon State University before being drafted by the Saints in 2014. In six NFL seasons, he’s caught 387 passes, with 35 touchdowns.

Off to her next appointment

Actress Niecy Nash of TNT’s “Claws” has nailed down a buyer in Bell Canyon, selling her home of six years for $1.265 million. That’s $16,000 more than she was asking and $130,000 more than she paid for the property in 2013.

A host of outdoor amenities complement the contemporary home. Filling out the densely landscaped grounds are a gazebo, terrace, swimming pool, three-car garage and detached studio space.

Beamed ceilings and skylights top the tan-toned living spaces, which focus on a wall of windows along the home’s backside. From the foyer, the multilevel floor plan ascends to a lofted lounge with a kitchenette and descends to a living room with a fireplace.

The tan tones and beamed ceilings continue into the master suite, which extends to a spacious tile bathroom and a custom dressing room converted from a guest bedroom. It opens to a dining patio overlooking the grassy grounds. In total, there are four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in about 3,200 square feet.

Thomas Davila and Kennon Earl of Compass held the listing. Jason Berns of Keller Williams Realty represented the buyer.

Nash, 49, has received Emmy awards as host of the Style network show “Clean House” and for her role on the HBO show “Getting On.” Her other credits include the shows “The Soul Man,” “Scream Queens” and “Reno 911.”

Earlier this year, she unloaded another home in Northridge for $970,000.

Gaming the game

Casey Wasserman, the entertainment executive who headed L.A.’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, is dialing it down in Beverly Hills. His ultra-modern mansion is back on the market for $82.5 million, or $42.5 million shy of his original asking price.

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The staggering sum is a reflection of the property’s prime location. Set just above Sunset Boulevard, the property claims 3.25 acres with lush lawns and sweeping city views.

A contemporary cocktail of stone, glass and white oak, the three-story mansion was designed by Richard Meier and built in 2016. The Pritzker-winning architect also designed the Getty Center and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art.

Inside, automated steel doors line the main level, connecting the expansive great room to the private backyard. Other gallery-like living spaces include an open dining area and a sleek chef’s kitchen with a massive center island. Two staircases and an elevator navigate the floor plan.

Five of the home’s six bedrooms are found upstairs, including a wood-covered master suite with a spacious deck. Down below, there’s a gym and theater.

An 85-foot tile infinity pool anchors an entertainer’s deck outside. Lawns, dining areas and a pool house with sliding walls of glass complete the scene.

The park-like property was previously owned for decades by Wasserman’s grandfather, famed talent agent Lew Wasserman.

Casey Wasserman founded sports marketing and talent management company Wasserman, formerly Wasserman Media Co., in 1998. After spearheading L.A.’s bid for the 2028 Olympics, he currently serves as president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee.

Stephen Shapiro of Westside Estate Agency holds the listing.

It’s hard buying holiday gifts for cyclists. Whether they ride a road, mountain, gravel or e-bike, cyclists have everything they need — or that’s what they think. These effective, clean and convenient accessories are a welcome upgrade on some basic equipment that hasn’t changed in decades.

Stepped-up tire inflation

Stompump: It’s a tiny, high-volume foot pump that mounts on your frame.

What we like: It’s way faster and easier than a hand mini-pump and eliminates trash, such as a CO2 cartridge. Regular pumps can take you 10 minutes of exhausting arm strokes; Stompump does the job in less time with no-sweat, body-weight foot stomps. A 2½-inch knobby tire fills up in half the time, and mountain and gravel bikes easily fill to 60 PSI (higher pressure is difficult unless you’re a heavyweight). Stompump weighs 6.5 ounces, with a built-in air filter to keep it running smoothly. It’s triple the price of a good hand pump but far more effective; one reviewer reported using it to fill- up inflate a truck tire.

Info: $69.95; stompump.com

All-in-one dropper-suspension seat post

PNW Components Coast Post: It’s the only seat post that combines suspension and a “dropper,” which allows an immediate drop in the seat height for better descents on off-road terrain.

What we like: The Coast Post can smooth the jarring ride of a gravel, commuter or nonsuspension mountain bike and improve your center of gravity, handling and safety by letting you instantly lower the seat post on the steeps. No other product does both. Its 1.6 inches of shock-absorption travel provides minor bump relief. Flicking a remote handlebar control lever will drop, then raise, the seat 4 or 5 inches. Installation is a breeze.

Info: $179; pnwcomponents.com

All-night light

Light and Motion Rando 500 bike light: This light has an extra-long run time and can be charged on the go.

What we like: Ideal for randonneuring, 24-hour mountain-bike events and long gravel races. This compact, internal-battery light can power a high beam up to three hours at 500 lumen — double the time of most others in its class — and can shine all night when charged from an external battery pack, dynamo or e-bike USB port. Light and Motion claims the Rando 500 is the first on the market to “trickle-charge” while in use. It has a built-in side light that can help you avoid getting T-boned by traffic and is waterproof to a depth of 3 feet.

Info: $79.99; lightandmotion.com

No-mess lube

Flectr Lubri Disc: Here’s a simpler, easier, cleaner way to lube your chain.

What we like: Lubing your chain is the cheapest way to keep your bike running great, but few cyclists do it often enough. Lubri Disc is a disc-shaped sponge in a 2½-inch plastic housing that, held between your fingers, rolls oil on your chain as you rotate your crank backward. The sponge thoroughly surrounds the pins and plates of the chain without getting your fingers messy. Two to three turns of the crank, and the chain is lubed with the oil of your choice. With the lid in place, the 1.4-ounce device tucks in your tool bag.

Info: About $22 (19.80 euros); flectr.bike

Hide-in-the-handlebar tools

Wolf Tooth Components EnCase System: This system puts essential multitools and other small items inside your bike’s handlebar.

What we like: Clever and practical use of previously unused space for two key devices: a 14-function hex wrench multitool and a chain repair tool. Each one, scrunched into a form-fitting, nonrattling rubber sleeve with an aluminum end cap, stays clean and tucked out of the way, ready to use in an instant. The hex-wrench tool includes an 8 mm hex head with a 4 mm insert that fits eight Allen bits from 2 to 8 mm, plus a spoke wrench; valve core wrench; flat head No. 3.5; Phillips No. 2; and three Torx-wrench heads. A swivel head helps access hard-to-reach places. Works with most mountain, road, aluminum and carbon handlebars starting with diameters of 17.5 mm.

Info: EnCase Bar Kit One, $119.95. Separately, Chain + Tire Plug Multitool, $49.95; Hex Bit Wrench Multitool, $49.95; Handlebar Storage Sleeves with end caps, $34.95; wolftoothcomponents.com

At 8:34 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the Associated Press pushed out the news: “President Donald Trump impeached by U.S. House of Representatives.”

Prepared in advance and transmitted by editor Eileen Putman in Washington within seconds of the completed vote on the House floor, those nine words comprised one of the rarest of stories in AP’s history: They moved as a “flash.”

AP’s internal filing guidelines state, “In the case of exceptionally important news, AP may send a ‘Flash.’”

That means that the news will move across the internet with the fastest possible priority, overriding any other news being transmitted by AP in the moment.

In the digital era, this priority is not normally seen by the end user, but it is contained in the metadata of the story — the information about a story that only a computer reads.

Editors determined last week that the third impeachment of a U.S. president warranted a flash, a designation given to stories of transcendent or historical importance.

Other news that was important, but not necessarily transcendent or historic, traditionally would have carried the slightly less urgent status of “Bulletin.”

However, the term Bulletin has been phased out by AP in recent years. Instead, the first word on all important breaking news is simply APNewsAlert. And more-important news alerts will be sent out to subscribers to AP’s mobile app with an audible alarm, a so-called “noisy” alert.

Nevertheless, the concept of a flash still excites AP filers. The word itself stirs the adrenaline. It still means sending the most important, historic news at AP’s fastest priority.

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To push the button on a flash becomes something to reminisce on or to brag about years later because one is part of the history.

A collection of flashes amassed by former standards editor Tom Kent included two truly transcendent ones, on Sept. 11, 2001, when AP moved a flash for each of the two World Trade Center towers that collapsed in the terrorist attack.

But others he cited did not quite reach the same level.

• Nov. 6, 2012: Barack Obama reelected president
• Dec. 18, 2011: North Korea says supreme leader Kim Jong Il has died
• Feb. 11, 2011: Egyptian VP says President Hosni Mubarak steps down
• Aug. 16, 2008: Michael Phelps wins record eighth gold medal at Beijing Olympics
• Feb. 19, 2008: Official media says Fidel Castro resigns presidency
• Dec. 27, 2007: A party aide and a military official say Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died following a suicide bombing
• Oct. 14, 2003: China launches manned spacecraft

The AP has been sending flashes for at least 113 years, and probably longer.

According to a 1946 edition of the internal publication AP World, managers sought to standardize the use of the flash in an order that went out to all news wire operators on May 1, 1906, two weeks after competitive reports from the Great San Francisco Earthquake had riveted newspaper readers across the country.

“News matter of supreme importance which would necessitate the issuance of extra editions should be sent first as a “flash,’” in a message not to exceed ten words, and should go on all leased wires,” the order said. “Such “flash” must take precedence over all bulletins, must go upon each wire …, must be sent instantly upon the development of the news, and must never exceed ten words in length.”

(They must have been really serious about that 10-word limit.)

Teletype machines or teletype operators would attach “bells” to flashes — meaning they would literally ring in the newsrooms of AP’s members and customers when the alert was printing out, setting the flashes apart from the normal din and clatter of the teletype machines. Five bells were standard for flashes, but some enthusiastic operators might add even more. When the bells rang, editors would race over to the machines to find out what had just happened.

Through the 20th century, flashes were sent rarely, perhaps once or twice a year, and some years could pass with no flashes at all.

Here’s a sampling of some other notable AP flashes:

• 1941: U.S. declares war on Japan
• 1944: Eisenhowers Headquzarters [sic] announces allies land in France
• 1963: Two priests who were with Kennedy say he is dead of bullet wounds
• 1969: Eagle told to go for a landing
• 1969: Astronauts land on moon
• 2005: The Vatican says Pope John Paul II has died.

One other flash, which may seem particularly relevant in light of Wednesday night’s events, was sent on Jan. 4, 2007.

• Jan. 4, 2007: The House elects Nancy Pelosi first woman speaker.

Daniszewski, a former Times foreign correspondent, is vice president for standards at the Associated Press.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — 

Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin defended his controversial pardon of a man who was convicted of raping a child, saying there was no physical evidence of an assault.

Bevin’s comments sparked a flurry of harsh criticism from medical and law enforcement officials.

Micah Schoettle was in the second year of a 23-year prison sentence when Bevin pardoned him of rape, sodomy and other sexual crimes last week. Rob Sanders, the prosecutor who put Schoettle away, called the pardon a “completely classless move.”

Bevin defended the Schoettle pardon in a radio interview Thursday, saying there was no physical evidence of rape in the case.

“If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically,” Bevin said in the WHAS radio interview. “There was zero evidence of that.”

Bevin also publicly revealed the child’s relationship to Schoettle for the first time, Sanders said.

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“Just as offensive are all of his ignorant statements that he made about physical injury in assault cases,” said Sanders, who heads the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in Kenton County, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

“He obviously did not do any research on this matter or he would know that only 2% of sexual assault victims show any visible physical injury as a result of the rapes that they’ve suffered,” Sanders, a Republican, said in an interview Friday. “This is the kind of foolish ignorance that prosecutors have been working for decades to overcome.”

Bevin, a Republican, issued hundreds of pardons between his electoral defeat on Nov. 5 and his final day in office on Dec. 9. Several have stirred controversy, including his pardon of Patrick Baker, a man convicted of homicide and other crimes whose family held a fundraiser for Bevin last year.

Two other people charged alongside Baker in the slaying of Donald Mills remain in prison.

Sanders has launched an investigation into Schoettle’s pardon and whether his family’s wealth and political connections played a role in it. Schoettle’s mother was married to R.C. Durr, a wealthy road contractor and property owner whose family now runs a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation. Durr died in 2007.

Kentucky’s former chief medical examiner Dr. George Nichols criticized Bevin’s comments on the Schoettle pardon in an interview with the Courier Journal, saying the statements were inaccurate.

“He not only doesn’t know the law, in my humble opinion, he clearly doesn’t know medicine and anatomy,” Nichols said.

In defending the pardon, the former governor also said another child who was said to be present during the alleged assaults denied they took place.

Bevin has drawn scorn before for expressing his opinions on child sexual assault. In an April 2018 interview while public school teachers were striking at the capitol, Bevin said hundreds of thousands of children were left home alone because of school cancellations.

“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home, because there was nobody there to watch them,” then-Gov. Bevin said. The comment by Bevin was used in political attack ads against him during this year’s campaign for governor. Bevin lost to Democrat Andy Beshear by about 5,000 votes.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — 

New Zealand authorities said Saturday that their country will be a safer place after owners handed in more than 50,000 guns during a buyback program following a ban on assault weapons. But critics say the process was flawed and many owners have illegally stashed their firearms.

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The government banned the most lethal types of semiautomatic weapons less than a month after a lone gunman in March killed 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques. The police then launched a six-month program to buy the newly banned weapons from owners.

The buyback ended midnight Friday, with gun collection events staying open late as police reported in a surge in last-minute returns.

Provisional figures indicate 33,000 people handed in 51,000 guns. An additional 5,000 guns were turned in as part of a parallel amnesty in which owners could hand over any type of firearm with no questions asked but without getting compensated.

Owners also modified another 2,700 guns to make them legally compliant, while police said they had seized a further 1,800 guns from gangs since March. And police said they’re in the process of collecting another 1,600 guns from gun dealers.

Police Minister Stuart Nash told reporters Saturday that criminals would find it harder to get their hands on assault weapons because they tended to steal them from lawful owners, but those weapons would now be out of circulation.

Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement thanked gun owners for doing the right thing. He acknowledged in a statement it had been “a difficult process for some people.”

Both Nash and Clement said the country was now safer than it had been before the March attacks.

But Nicole McKee, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Council of Licensed Firearms Owners, said owners had kept about two-thirds of the banned weapons because they had lost faith in the government and hadn’t been offered adequate compensation.

“They never overcame being blamed by authorities for being somehow responsible for a heinous act of terrorism — something they would never do,” McKee said in a statement.

The ban on assault weapons was strongly backed by lawmakers in a historic 119-1 vote after the mosque attacks. Lawmakers are now considering further restrictions, including creating a register to track all guns.

Police figures indicate the government paid out just over 100 million New Zealand dollars ($66 million) to compensate owners during the buyback.

NEW DELHI — 

Three people died Saturday during clashes between demonstrators and police in northern India, raising the nationwide death toll in protests against a new citizenship law to 17, police said.

O.P. Singh, the chief of police in Uttar Pradesh state, said the latest deaths increased the death toll in the state to nine since Friday, when police clashed with thousands of protesters who took to the streets in several parts of the country to oppose the new law, which they say discriminates against Muslims.

“The number of fatalities may increase,” Singh said. He did not give further details on the latest deaths.

The ongoing backlash against the law marks the strongest show of dissent against the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he was first elected in 2014.

The law allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally to become citizens if they can show they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It does not apply to Muslims.

Critics have slammed the law as a violation of India’s secular constitution and have called it the latest effort by the Modi government to marginalize the country’s 200 million Muslims. Modi has defended the law as a humanitarian gesture.

Six people were killed during clashes in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, and police said Saturday that over 600 in the state had been taken into custody since then as part of “preventive action.”

Police have imposed a British colonial-era law banning the assembly of more than four people in some parts of the state.

India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory Friday night asking broadcasters across the country to refrain from using content that could inflame further violence. The ministry asked for “strict compliance.”

In the northeastern border state of Assam, where internet services were restored after a 10-day blockade, hundreds of women on Saturday staged a sit-in against the law in Gauhati, the state capital.

“Our peaceful protests will continue till this illegal and unconstitutional citizenship law amendment is scrapped,” said Samujjal Bhattacharya, the leader of the All Assam Students Union, which organized the rally.

He rejected an offer for dialogue by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, saying talks cannot take place when the “government was hoping to strike some compromise.”

In New Delhi on Saturday, police charged more than a dozen people with rioting in connection with violence during a protest Friday night in the capital’s Daryaganj area.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, meanwhile, criticized the law.

At a news conference following the conclusion of an Islamic summit in Kuala Lumpur, Mahathir said Saturday that India is a secular state and the religions of people should not prevent them from attaining citizenship.

“To exclude Muslims from becoming citizens, even by due process, I think is unfair,” he said.

Following the remark, India’s foreign ministry summoned the Malaysian Charge d’Affaires to lodge a complaint.

Protests against the law come amid an ongoing crackdown in Muslim-majority Kashmir, the restive Himalayan region stripped of its semi-autonomous status and demoted from a state into a federal territory in August.

The demonstrations also follow a contentious process in Assam meant to weed out foreigners living in the country illegally. Nearly 2 million people were excluded from an official list of citizens, about half Hindu and half Muslim, and have been asked to prove their citizenship or else be considered foreign.

India is building a detention center for some of the tens of thousands of people who the courts are expected to ultimately determine have entered illegally. Modi’s interior minister, Amit Shah, has pledged to roll out the process nationwide.

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