week

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who feels as cantankerous as Jackson Lamb by the end of the workweek.

The fifth season of “Slow Horses” premiered this week. And everyone’s favorite team of disgraced British spies are back to connect the dots of a new mysterious threat. Once an underrated gem, the spy thriller’s move into the awards spotlight has brought more attention to the critical darling. But in following the very British model of releasing six-episode seasons, the entertaining ride can feel fleeting — luckily, two more seasons are already in the works. Will Smith, the show’s head writer, who is stepping down after this current season, stopped by Guest Spot to talk about the sleeper hit.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include an Italian-set action-drama about a fixer at a luxury resort and a beloved baking competition series that always serves up a refreshing dose of wholesome goodness and showstopping sweet treats.

P.S.: Last week’s newsletter incorrectly stated that new episodes of ABC’s “High Potential” air on Wednesdays. They air on Tuesdays, and are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day. Don’t tell Morgan or she’ll add us to the murder board!

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

Tim Curry, center, as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

( John Jay)

Tim Curry on the sexual whirlwind of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ then and now: It is the original midnight movie and is now being feted around the world for its 50th anniversary and second life as the longest continuous theatrical release in cinema history.

As ‘Law & Order’ starts its 25th season, the case isn’t closed yet for Dick Wolf: The franchise is the crown jewel of producer Dick Wolf’s empire, with the mothership series kicking off a milestone season Thursday on NBC.

How Beyond Fest became L.A.’s best film festival: An event that started off as a bluff has outgrown its genre roots to become a legitimate destination for rabid film fans, boasting rarities and prestige titles alike.

In ‘Wayward,’ Mae Martin takes their modern-day Peter Pan persona deep into a dark thriller: The multihyphenate artist’s latest television series for Netflix is a fairy-tale-like exploration of the underbelly of the so-called troubled teen industry.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Jordan Alexandra as Genny and Jesse Williams as Daniel De Luca in a scene from “Hotel Costeria.”

(Virginia Bettoja / Prime)

“Hotel Costiera” (Prime Video)

A charming Jesse Williams, the “Grey’s Anatomy” alum, plays Daniel De Luca, a sort of action concierge at a high-end boutique hotel on the Amalfi Coast in this easygoing mix of “The White Lotus” and a midcentury Continental adventure show, like “The Saint” or “The Protectors.” A long-arc plot involving the missing daughter (Amanda Campana) of Daniel’s hotelier boss (Tommaso Ragno) runs alongside episodic stories — the search for a missing guest, sourcing a flight-worthy coffin, stealing an important bracelet from a local crime figure — mixing mysteries with human interest and a lot of local color. (Williams speaks Italian with persuasive fluency.) Assisting Daniel in his investigations is a team of classic types — a beautiful yet brainy woman (Jordan Alexandra); a comical aristocrat (Sam Haygarth), like Bertie Wooster by way of Mr. Bean; and a rotund restaurateur Bigné (Antonio Gerardi), at whose trattoria they all hang out, plotting whatever needs to be plotted. It’s saying nothing against the rest of this pleasantly diverting series that these scenes are the heart of the show, and, yes, I would like a cappuccino, grazie. — Robert Lloyd

Paul Hollywood, left, Alison Hammond, Prue Leith and Noah Fielding in a promotional still from “The Great British Baking Show.”

(Mark Bourdillon / Channel 5 / Netflix)

“Great British Baking Show,” Collection 13 (Netflix)

September means the arrival of fall and another season of the best baking show on TV. Over the years, the series has stuck to a simple yet effective recipe of beautiful bakes, friendly competition and soothing voiceovers (thanks to Noel Fielding). This season’s contestants are just as talented and endearing as previous ones, but now that we’re three episodes in — and past the dreaded Bread Week — we’re down to nine bakers. Among them are Nataliia, a Ukrainian immigrant living in East Yorkshire; Iain, a short king and self-proclaimed “yeastie boy” from Belfast; and Jasmine, an ever-smiling 23-year-old medical student. In this week’s back-to-school-themed episode, the bakers’ challenges include making flapjacks (in the U.K., they’re like a granola bar) and school cake (a sponge with icing and sprinkles). They sound simple, but no recipe is what it seems on this show. And those low-stakes surprises and competition are precisely what makes “Baking Show” a balm for the soul right now. — Maira Garcia

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Rosalind Eleazar, left, Christopher Chung, Saskia Reeves, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Jack Lowden in “Slow Horses.”

(Jack English / Apple TV+)

Do you ever look at your boss and feel both deep gratitude and disappointment because they’re not Jackson Lamb? There’s at least a new season of “Slow Horses” to vicariously experience the walking HR nightmare and his joyously rumpled, smelly and messy leadership style, as expertly portrayed by Gary Oldman. Based on Mick Herron’s “Slough House” novels, the espionage thriller/workplace dramedy centers on a misfit crew of MI5 outcasts — led by Lamb — who’ve blown their careers and now find themselves banished to Slough House, a dumping ground where the agency hopes they’ll be forgotten. The Apple TV+ series returned this week with its eponymous group of spies investigating a series of coordinated terror attacks that have struck London. A new episode will be released every Wednesday until the season finale on Oct. 29. In his last season as head writer, Will Smith stopped by Guest Spot to discuss his creative collaboration with Oldman, his pick for most the competent agent and the best show he’s seen in years. — Yvonne Villarreal

This once–sleeper hit has become such a force with critics and fans. Knowing Season 5 would be your last as head writer, did it feel any different writing this first episode? What was the most important decision you made in this season opener?

You just always want to make it the best it can be and you don’t want to repeat. You need to give the audience enough of what drew them to the show in the first place without making them think, “I’ve seen this,” and you need to give them enough that’s new without them going, “This isn’t the show any more.” The same goes for the cast, by the way; they have to feel their characters are moving on but in an organic way, that you’re acknowledging what went before and building on it. Luckily, that’s Mick’s approach with the books too. And it really helps having the same crew and returning director Saul Metzstein (from Season 3) — Saul and the camera team know what’s gone before and are continually finding new ways to shoot in our existing locations. A really obvious example of how we try to move things on but keep it all connected is Slough House itself. I know it’s a cliche, but it really is a character in the series; to me, it’s an embodiment of Lamb, it reflects so much about him, but it’s never the same. We establish it in Season 1, in Season 2 it’s a discomforting sweatbox, in Season 3 it’s full of boxes of files, which completely changes how people move around it. In Season 4 it’s shot to pieces, and in Season 5 we see the cheap repairs have been started and left. So I hope we’ve hit that same sweet spot with this series, that it gives you exactly what you want and then some things you didn’t know you wanted but feel totally in keeping with the show.

The episode opens with both a mass shooting and a fatal sniper shot in London. While it’s a sequence in the books and was written months ago, it could feel all too timely and provoking depending on the news cycle in which it’s being viewed. How do you decide what to show, how much is enough, what will engage and what will overwhelm?

This weighed quite heavily on us as we sadly knew that some horrific event could happen around the launch of the show that could affect how it was viewed. We actually had a version that cut out after he first opened fire, but felt that that didn’t go far enough. So we went and filmed a pickup where we stayed with the shooter and see his victims fall in the distance. We didn’t want the horror to be overwhelming, although being with him and his blank detachment in this version is disturbingly chilling. And then we took it as far as the assassin himself being killed out of nowhere. Which is a shock and a twist — what the hell is going on? The audience are confused in a good way. I hope by now they trust that all will be explained.

How involved is Gary in terms of script and character development? Can you give an example of a detail or moment over the run of the series that he advocated for or against that proved valuable to the story?

Gary is an incredibly generous and deferential collaborator. As I’ve said before, he’s not just one of the greatest actors of his generation, he’s also a hugely talented writer and director, and he’s completely respectful of myself and Saul Metzstein and the other directors. I think it helps that we’re very in tune creatively. Gary and I both have a love and respect for the source material, so he knows I’m not going to junk the book — we’re going to work on it and bring a version of it to life. The other brilliant thing about Gary is that he’s not intimidated by the fact that Lamb’s arc is all in the backstory. He absorbs and plays that, even if he doesn’t know the specifics. You just get the sense that Lamb has been through some bad stuff. Lamb is a cautionary tale, a smoking ruin; he’s not going to change now. The changes come to our perspective when we learn a little bit more about him and what he’s been through. The moment he was most involved in I can’t talk about in detail because it’s a spoiler. But it came from an idea his wife, Gisele, had. Gary and I then discussed the best version of it in story terms, and then we shot it twice as Saul had an even better idea as to how to make it land. We put an awful lot of thought into it, and actually it’s the one area where we do depart from the book (with Mick’s blessing). I’m very excited about it and what it can lead to in future series that I’m looking forward to watching as a fan.

If you were running the spies, who would you say is the most competent agent? And what have you learned about how to walk the line between keeping the “misfits and losers” bit believable but also allowing the Slow Horses to actually triumph in the end?

After Lamb, Catherine is the smartest agent in the building, although River is the most effective field agent. Catherine is not trained as a spy but has been around them most of her adult life. She’s incredibly bright and perceptive but lacks confidence. She’s often the person putting the pieces together but never gets the credit. I think Lamb wants her around for that reason, as well as the twisted mix of protecting her and goading her and having her as a living reminder of his own fallibility — they were both betrayed by Charles Partner (Catherine’s boss, Lamb’s friend and mentor) and Lamb had to execute him. I’m not saying Lamb was sunshine and light before that, I think he’s always been a hard-living cynic, but that really did break something in him. And yes, it’s a delicate balance maintaining the premise of the show — these people are useless yet every season they save the day but are still not allowed out of exile. I think the compromise and unfairness is what makes it believable. Although at some point I feel they either have to redeem themselves or accept that it’s fruitless and move on. But again, usually Mick will kill them off before they reach that crossroads.

In “Clown Town,” Herron’s latest installment in the book series, he references the language of the show. There’s a line — “It’s like explaining Denmark to a cat”— that feels like a direct reference to the Season 1 line, “It’s like explaining Norway to a dog.” As a writer, what’s it like to see the way he has acknowledged and tipped his hat to the show?

One of the things I’m proudest of is how much Mick and his readers love the show. Sometimes I think a line is Mick’s and it turns out to be mine or vice versa, and Mick has the same confusion. He’s also read out the opening scene of Season 4 at events and said he didn’t write it, but he would have done [it] if he’d thought of it. Knowing I’m in tune with him and his characters and stories has been absolutely wonderful because I started this and finish it as a huge fan of his work.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

“Lost Boys and Fairies” by Daf James on the BBC [available to stream on Britbox] is the best show I’ve seen in years. It’s about a gay couple going through the adoption process and is charming, tragic, playful, sad and uplifting. It’s so deftly written by Daf and wonderfully directed by James Kent and stars one of my favorite actors, Sion Daniel Young, whom “Slow Horses fans” will know as Douglas from Season 3.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

I will always watch Michael Mann’s “Heat” [Prime Video] whenever I chance upon it, and watch it by choice at least one a year. It’s perfect. But for true comfort, I return again and again to the Hal Roach-era comedies of Laurel and Hardy, which have brought me unlimited joy throughout my life.

Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.

The caption to this week’s top shot reads:

Cutaway display of a concrete masonry basement fallout shelter with an exercise bike, television and library, 1950s. (Photo by Pictorial Parade/Getty Images)

Also, a reminder:

Prime Directives!

• If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there’s always somebody that isn’t going to agree with you. 
• If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can’t handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
• No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don’t interact with folks you don’t like. 
• Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That’s as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don’t like what you see.  
• So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn’t going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it’s probably best to just move on. 
• Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn’t mean reporting people who don’t share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.

The Bunker is open!

Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com

Another week, another big-name running back across the field on the opponent’s sideline.

Rams running back Kyren Williams acknowledged the well-deserved attention Saquon Barkley received last week before the Rams played the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

Now Jonathan Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts, the NFL’s leading rusher, is coming to SoFi Stadium.

Williams said a “competitive mindset” drives him when high-profile backs are in the building.

“I know how people look at those guys,” Williams said, “and so it’s like, ‘Bro, you better look at me the same way.’ I love it.”

Williams, who signed a $23-million extension before the season, and second-year pro Blake Corum are providing the Rams with the backfield balance coach Sean McVay envisioned as the Rams built a team regarded as a Super Bowl contender.

Last season, the 5-foot-9, 207-pound Williams carried the ball 316 times. Only Barkley (345 carries) and Derrick Henry (325) of the Baltimore Ravens had more. The Rams averaged 103.8 yards rushing per game, which ranked 24th among 32 teams.

Through three games, the Rams are ranked ninth, averaging 127 yards rushing per game.

Williams, a fourth-year pro, has rushed for 226 yards and a touchdown in 55 carries (4.1 yards per carry). He also has five receptions for 35 yards and a touchdown.

Rams running back Kyren Williams celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Houston Texans on Sept. 7.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Corum has rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown in 14 carries (7.1 yards per carry). He has one catch for 14 yards.

“Those two play off each other really well,” McVay said, adding, “We feel really good about where both of those guys are at, and continue to lean into it and look for a good balance of being able to keep Kyren feeling good throughout it and take advantage of Blake’s skill set.”

McVay has said that ideally he would like to see Williams get 65% of the carries, Corum 35%. But the flow of the game dictates whether that plays out.

After Williams carried the ball 18 times, and Corum only once, in the opener against the Houston Texans, the duo provided more balanced production in the next two games.

They combined for 110 yards rushing in a victory over the Tennessee Titans. In last Sunday’s loss to the Eagles, Williams ran for 94 yards in 20 carries. Corum gained 53 yards in eight carries.

“It was a good one-two punch,” offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said.

That is what McVay and general manager Les Snead aimed for after Williams carried a combined 544 times in the previous two seasons.

“We’ve got it kind of dialed into where, like, we’re able to feed off each other,” Williams said of he and Corum. “It’s like friendly competition as well. I go out and make a play, now Blake is going to come in and make a play.

“It allows me to stay fresh throughout the whole game. So it doesn’t feel like I just took 50 carries and it’s only the second quarter. To me it’s a great system.”

Rams running back Blake Corum carries the ball during a preseason win over the Dallas Cowboys in August.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Corum, a 2024 third-round draft pick from Michigan, is enjoying the expanded opportunity after getting only 58 carries last season.

“It’s been great getting my feet under me, being able to just go out there and play free and fast,” he said. “Kyren and I are feeding off each other, so it’s been phenomenal.”

Against the Eagles, Williams bested Barkley, who was limited to 46 yards rushing in 18 carries.

Taylor, the 2021 NFL rushing champion, arrives Sunday averaging 112.7 yards rushing per game. Last week, he gained 102 yards and scored three touchdowns in 17 carries against the Tennessee Titans.

After each of the last two games, Taylor was named AFC offensive player of the week.

Both Williams and Corum aim to continue their production, and to break free for long gains. This season, each of their longest runs has been 15 yards.

“I know I’m capable to create not those 15-yard runs but those 40- and 50-yard runs,” Corum said. “Just need to keep working in practice to hopefully go out and show that on Sundays.”

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg, with an assist from Rebecca Ellis, giving you the latest on city and county government.

A majority of the Los Angeles City Council believed that an expansion of the L.A. Convention Center was absolutely necessary.

The venue was losing out on event bookings to smaller cities like Anaheim and Las Vegas. But the expansion would be one of the most expensive publicly-financed projects in city history, and taxpayers would be paying down the debt for the next three decades.

The year was 1985. The number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 list was — and it couldn’t have been more apt — “We Built This City” by Starship.

That year, the council approved construction of the Convention Center’s South Hall, which Angelenos now know for its curving green facade facing the 110 Freeway. The project added hundreds of thousands of square feet of event space at a price tag of $310 million — though it ended up costing $500 million.

Now, history seems to be looping around again in last week’s debate about another Convention Center expansion, this time across Pico Boulevard to link the center’s two buildings.

The City Council voted last Friday to move forward with a $2.6-billion expansion that city budget advisers warned will draw taxpayer funds away from essential city services for decades. Any construction delays could endanger plans to host judo, wrestling and other Olympic competitions in 2028, triggering financial penalties if the venue isn’t ready in time.

In 1985, only Councilmember Joel Wachs voted against the expansion — though he told The Times he couldn’t remember the exact reason. It’s been 40 years, after all.

“That said, I’m not at all surprised I opposed it … as I did other projects where I felt the city would be on the hook for untold costs with no real meaningful assurances of benefits that could possibly justify it,” he said.

Wachs said that barring any convincing arguments on the other side, “I would also likely vote against it if I was on the council now.”

In 1985, Wachs was concerned about the long-term effects of the Convention Center upgrade on the city’s general fund.

The South Hall was finished in 1993, and the city made a nearly $42-million payment the next year, continuing to pay between $13.1 million and $48.4 million a year until 2023.

Just a few years after that old debt was finally paid off, the city is set to start payments on a similar project.

“History is repeating itself, because it’s become necessary to compete with other convention centers around the world again,” said Doane Liu, executive director of the city’s Tourism Department. “I’m certain it was a hard decision to make in [1985].”

While debating the new expansion, some on the City Council wondered how the two projects matched up and whether the 1985 vote could provide guidance for the current moment.

Councilmember Tim McOsker asked City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo to report on the cost of the 1985 expansion.

McOsker compared the numbers, arguing that the annual payments were similar, if adjusted for the growth of the city’s general fund over time.

The city’s first $42-million payment for the old expansion was about 1.7% of its $2.48-billion general fund.

Payments for the new expansion ratchet up over a three-year period, starting with around $40 million in 2029, then jumping by 2031 to about $192 million a year until 2055.

Each $192-million annual payment would be about 2.3% of the city’s current general fund.

The similarities go further than the general fund percentage, McOsker said, alluding to the nearly $1-billion deficit that city officials recently faced.

“You know what else we had in ‘94-’95 and ‘95-’96? A $1-billion deficit that we were struggling with,” he said at a council budget hearing on Sept. 16. “It was a tough time then, and I know that we may hear that maybe we shouldn’t have done it, but we did do it, and 30 years later, we have a Convention Center that needs it again.”

But was it worth it?

Former Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky has come to regret his vote in favor of the 1993 expansion.

“I think I did make a mistake,” he said. “I regret that I drank the Kool-Aid.”

Yaroslavsky said the council was convinced in 1985 that the expanded convention center would generate enough revenue to pay off the bond issuance, and then some.

But after 30 years of payments, Yaroslavsky said he saw no evidence that he and his fellow council members were correct.

“That didn’t happen.”

State of play

— FRESNO-NO: Councilmember Ysabel Jurado found herself in the crosshairs of Fresno politicians this week after she suggested that L.A. should not be ceding major events to the city. “We can’t keep losing out to Fresno. Shakira ended her world tour in Fresno,” she said at a press conference in which she voiced support for the Convention Center expansion.

Fresno shot back. “There’s no need to degrade or make fun of other cities that literally feed Angelenos by picking the fruits and vegetables sold at the DTLA markets daily,” Fresno County Supervisor Luis Chavez wrote on Instagram.

— LAX DELAYS: The Automated People Mover that will connect travelers between airport terminals and the Metro could be delayed even further, the CEO of LAX told The Times. The train, which was supposed to open in January 2026, may now be delayed until June 2026 or later, imperiling the goal of opening in time for the World Cup.

— NO LAYOFFS: Mayor Karen Bass announced Tuesday that the city has managed to avert all 1,650 layoffs she proposed in April as part of her plan to close a nearly $1-billion deficit. Bass negotiated for months with labor unions, who made concessions to help stave off hundreds of the layoffs. Budget reductions from the City Council also helped save jobs.

— BATHROOM POOH-POOHED: The city’s plan to install a bathroom at popular hiking destination Runyon Canyon has come under fire from locals who worry it may bring unwanted smells and safety issues. Bass said the city has received requests from hikers for years asking for a bathroom in the park. The bathroom will be ready by summer 2026.

CHIMP INFANT: Two chimpanzees born at the L.A. Zoo in August and September and are the first chimp births at the zoo in 11 years. They do not yet have names.

DROPOUT: Last week’s newsletter mentioned Jake Rakov as a congressional candidate; he dropped out of the race earlier this month.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program hit two locations this week. On Tuesday, it brought people inside from West 88th Street and South Grand Boulevard in South Los Angeles. On Thursday, the program went to Roscoe and Balboa Boulevards in the San Fernando Valley. Over the two operations, nearly 60 Angelenos were brought off the street.
• On the docket next week: L.A. County supervisors will hear about the findings of a long-awaited report from the McChrystal Group into what went wrong during the Eaton fire. The 132-page report found that poor communication, understaffing and a lack of adequate planning amid the chaotic conditions contributed to the failures.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

The acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento has said she was fired after telling the Border Patrol chief in charge of immigration raids in California that his agents were not allowed to arrest people without probable cause in the Central Valley.

Michele Beckwith, a career prosecutor who was made the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of California earlier this year, told the New York Times that she was let go after she warned Gregory Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, that a court injunction blocked him from carrying out indiscriminate immigration raids in Sacramento.

Beckwith did not respond to a request for comment from the L.A. Times, but told the New York Times that “we have to stand up and insist the laws be followed.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento declined to comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

Bovino presided over a series of raids in Los Angeles starting in June in which agents spent weeks pursuing Latino-looking workers outside of Home Depots, car washes, bus stops and other areas. The agents often wore masks and used unmarked vehicles.

But such indiscriminate tactics were not allowed in California’s Eastern District after the American Civil Liberties Union and United Farm Workers filed suit against the Border Patrol earlier in the year and won an injunction.

The suit followed a January operation in Kern County called “Operation Return to Sender,” in which agents swarmed a Home Depot and Latino market, among other areas frequented by laborers. In April, a federal district court judge ruled that the Border Patrol likely violated the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

As Beckwith described it to New York Times reporters, she received a phone call from Bovino on July 14 in which he said he was bringing agents to Sacramento.

She said she told him that the injunction filed after the Kern County raid meant he could not stop people indiscriminately in the Eastern District. The next day, she wrote him an email in which, as quoted in the New York Times, she stressed the need for “compliance with court orders and the Constitution.”

Shortly thereafter her work cell phone and her work computer stopped working. A bit before 5 p.m. she received an email informing her that her employment was being terminated effective immediately.

It was the end of a 15-year career in in the Department of Justice in which she had served as the office’s Criminal Division Chief and First Assistant and prosecuted members of the Aryan Brotherhood, suspected terrorists, and fentanyl traffickers.

Two days later on July 17, Bovino and his agents moved into Sacramento, conducting a raid at a Home Depot south of downtown.

In an interview with Fox News that day, Bovino said the raids were targeted and based on intelligence. “Everything we do is targeted,” he said. “We did have prior intelligence that there were targets that we were interested in and around that Home Depot, as well as other targeted enforcement packages in and around the Sacramento area.”

He also said that his operations would not slow down. “There is no sanctuary anywhere,” he said. “We’re here to stay. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to affect this mission and secure the homeland.”

Beckwith is one of a number of top prosecutors who have quit or been fired as the Trump administration pushes the Department of Justice to aggressively carry out his policies, including investigating people who have been the president’s political targets.

In March, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles was fired after lawyers for a fast-food executive he was prosecuting pushed officials in Washington to drop all charges against him, according to multiple sources.

In July, Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was fired by the Trump administration, according to the New York Times.

And just last week, a U. S. attorney in Virginia was pushed out after he had determined there was insufficient evidence to prosecute James B. Comey. A new prosecutor this week won a grand jury indictment against Comey on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

SEATTLE — When the Dodgers traded for Brock Stewart at the trade deadline, they knew he came with some risk.

But on Friday, their worst-case scenario was realized.

Stewart will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, manager Dave Roberts announced, leaving the Dodgers without the only significant deadline addition they made to bolster their struggling bullpen.

Although the Dodgers have been managing several injury concerns — from Will Smith’s fractured hand, to Tommy Edman’s sore ankle, to leg bruises that Max Muncy revealed on Friday he has been dealing with — Stewart’s status had become among the most alarming.

Even after completing a minor-league rehab stint for a shoulder problem that had kept him out since early August, he continued to feel residual soreness.

After meeting with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, Stewart and the team decided surgery would be best. According to general manager Brandon Gomes, the 33-year-old is having a debridement procedure that should allow him to pitch the “majority” of next season, when he will still be under Dodgers control.

But for this October, the club will have to proceed without him.

“We had a lot of conversations with Brock, and he was like, ‘Hey, I want to help this team in any way possible,’” Gomes said. “But watching him throw and just having the conversations with him, there was still something that was just bothering him. As much as we would love to have him right now, we don’t want to put his long-term health at risk.”

Shoulder problems are nothing new for Stewart. Last season, he made just 16 appearances with the Minnesota Twins before undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery in August.

While this latest injury is not believed to be directly related to last year’s issue, Gomes did acknowledge that “any time you’re taking on a pitcher, we understand that there are risks.”

It’s not that the Dodgers overpaid for Stewart, giving up only former prospect James Outman in their deadline deal with the Twins. But, by not adding a bigger name in a bullpen that had been slumping even before the deadline (and has further spiraled in the two months since), the Dodgers put a lot of eggs in the right-hander’s basket. He was supposed to give the unit some experienced stability. Now, he leaves yet another hole to fill.

Without Stewart, the Dodgers’ right-handed relief hierarchy is somewhat unclear. They still have longtime stalwart Blake Treinen, but he has posted a career-worst 5.47 ERA and dealt with first-half arm troubles. Hard-throwing rookie Edgardo Henriquez has a 2.50 ERA in 21 appearances, but still has just 21⅓ career innings in the big leagues. And then there’s Roki Sasaki, the rookie Japanese phenom who returned from a nearly five-month shoulder injury with an auspicious inning out of the bullpen this week.

Another name that could enter the mix: Starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan, who was scheduled to pitch Friday’s series-opener against the Seattle Mariners but will likely be shifted to a multi-inning relief role out of the bullpen come the postseason.

In any event, however, Stewart’s absence will still hurt. What the Dodgers hoped would be a high-upside play, given his 2.38 ERA with the Twins this season, has instead become yet another bullpen letdown.

Three women opposed to President Trump’s intense immigration raids in Los Angeles were indicted Friday on charges of illegally “doxing” a U.S. Customs and Immigration agent, authorities said.

Ashleigh Brown, Cynthia Raygoza and Sandra Carmona Samane face charges of disclosing the personal information of a federal agent and conspiracy, according to an indictment unsealed late Friday.

Brown, who is from Colorado and goes by the nickname “AK,” has been described as one of the founders of “ice_out_ofla” an Instagram page with more than 28,000 followers that plays a role in organizing demonstrations against immigration enforcement, according to the social media page and an email reviewed by The Times.

According to the indictment, the three women followed an ICE agent from the federal building on 300 North Los Angeles Street in downtown L.A. to the agent’s residence in Baldwin Park.

They live-streamed the entire event, according to the indictment. Once they arrived at the agent’s home, prosecutors allege the women got out and shouted “la migra lives here,” and “ICE lives on your street and you should know,” according to the indictment.

“Our brave federal agents put their lives on the line every day to keep our nation safe,” Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a statement. “The conduct of these defendants are deeply offensive to law enforcement officers and their families. If you threaten, dox, or harm in any manner one of our agents or employees, you will face prosecution and prison time.”

An attorney for Samane, 25, of Los Angeles, said she intends to plead not guilty at an arraignment next month and declined further comment.

The Federal Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Brown, 38, of Aurora, Colo., did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Court records did not list an attorney for Raygoza, 37, of Riverside.

Footage published to the ice_out_ofla Instagram page seemed to capture Brown’s arrest earlier this week. The video shows a man in green fatigues and body armor saying he has a warrant for her arrest, while reaching through what appears to be the shattered driver’s side window of her car. Brown asks what the warrant is for while the man can be seen holding a collapsible baton. Then the video cuts out.

Posts on the Instagram page describe Brown as a “political prisoner.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles did not immediately respond to questions about whether the women specifically shouted out the agent’s address online or what the defendants specifically did to “incite the commission of a crime of violence against a federal agent,” as the indictment alleges.

Federal law enforcement leaders have repeatedly expressed concern about the “doxing” of agents with ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol as residents of Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities continue to protest the Trump administration’s sprawling deportation efforts.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to prosecute people for publishing agents’ personal information last month in response to fliers in Portland that called for people to collect intel on ICE.

But the indictment returned Friday appeared to be the first prosecution related to such tactics.

Critics of the Trump administration’s operations have expressed outrage over ICE and CBP agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves in public while hunting undocumented immigrants throughout Southern California.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that forbids federal law enforcement from wearing masks while operating in California. The supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution dictates that federal law takes precedence over state law, leading some legal experts to question whether state officials can actually enforce the legislation.

When I was in high school in the 1990s, I worked the box office at Tucson’s sole art house, the Loft Cinema. My favorite shift was Saturday night when a parade of true characters began lining up for the weekly midnight screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

The shadow cast arrived before the audience, a ragtag group of aspiring and established actors and fans, costumes in hand. They’d decamp in the bathrooms on either side of the lobby without regard for who was in the women’s or men’s, and proceed to cake on makeup and rib each other in delightfully uncouth terms.

The actors would wait by the theater doors to make their appointed entrances beneath the screen after the film began, and soon the theater was a sweaty mess of wild hair, dripping foundation, torn fishnet stockings, smeared lipstick, thrown popcorn, spilled soda and ribald song and dance.

There was no doubt in my 16-year-old mind that this was underground musical theater at its finest. At that time — when one of my best friends was struggling with how to come out as gay, fearing fierce social backlash — the topsy-turvy sexuality of the show, with its outlandish, cross-dressing lead, felt deliciously subversive. This was not “Grease” or “Godspell,” it had more in common with the stage shows in “Cabaret.”

Week after week, the same shadow cast arrived, treating the show as its professional run. If someone was out sick, an eager understudy would step in. This was one small art theater in Tucson. The “Rocky Horror” phenomenon, with its live shadow casts, has been ongoing around the world for decades now. That means thousands of shadow casts in thousands of cities beneath thousands of screens — each engaging in their own form of participatory community theater.

As the film honors its 50th anniversary this year with special engagements and talks across the country (see below for an Academy Museum screening), star Tim Curry is being celebrated for breaking boundaries with his onscreen portrayal of the eccentric, cross-dressing scientist Frank-N-Furter. But it’s important to remember that the show began as a stage musical in London in 1973 — with Curry originating his role upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre. The musical then moved to L.A.’s Roxy Theatre for an electric yearlong run.

“Rocky Horror” is now known as as the longest continuous theatrical release in cinema history. But thanks to the talent and dedication of its legions of shadow casts — it just might be the longest continuous piece of live musical theater too.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, inviting you to do the Time Warp. Here’s this week’s round-up of arts and culture news.

On our radar

Wei Wang and Max Cauthorn in Liam’s Scarlett’s ballet “Frankenstein.”

(Erik Tomasson)

Frankenstein
San Francisco Ballet brings Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic horror story to life in a three-act production of British choreographer Liam Scarlett’s “Frankenstein.” The ballet originally premiered at the Royal Ballet in 2016 and has gone on to become a modern classic with a score by Lowell Liebermann and stage design by critically acclaimed ballet and opera artist John MacFarlane.
– Mark Swed
7:30 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 3; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4;and 1 p.m. Oct. 5. Segerstrom Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

Brittany Adebumola, left, and Dominique Thorne in a New York production of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” in 2023.

(Matthew Murphy)

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Playwright Jocelyn Bioh (“School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play”) captures the camaraderie and competitiveness, solidarity and rivalry of workplace relations in this entertaining comedy about the African immigrant employees of a Harlem hair salon earning their daily bread as they work their fingers — and mouths! — to exhaustion. The play is wildly amusing, but Bioh isn’t just kidding around. By familiarizing us with the workday rhythms of these flamboyant women, she makes us feel all the more acutely the threats that accompany their marginal status in a not-always-welcoming America. Whitney White, who directed the impeccably acted Broadway premiere, helms this much-praised co-production.
— Charles McNulty
Wednesday through Nov. 9. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org

Laufey performs Driday and Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Laufey
This young pop-jazz singer from Iceland shot a concert movie last year at the Hollywood Bowl; now she’s doubling down with two adopted-hometown shows at Crypto.com Arena just as her album “A Matter of Time” is garnering substantial Grammy buzz.
— Mikael Wood
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Crypto.com Arena, 1111 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A. cryptoarena.com

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

“Something Else No. 61,” 2020, by Edith Baumann. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches.

(Alan Shaffer)

🎨 Acts of Surface
A three-artist show featuring works by Edith Baumann, Chip Barrett and Vincent Enrique Hernandez that explore the literal and emotional facets of surface as a repository for memory, transformation and abstraction.
Noon-5 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Friday or by appointment, through Oct. 23. 7811 Gallery, 7811 Melrose Ave. 7811gallery.com

📷 Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images
A trove of more than 15,000 35mm slides from the archive of the activist nun offers a peek into her artistic practice, her life as a teacher at Immaculate Heart College and the world she lived in between 1955 and 1968.
11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, through Jan. 24. Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd. marcianoartfoundation.org

🎤 Tate McRae
The main pop girls have been expanding their portfolios of late. After showing off a limber pop sound on 2023’s “Think Later” that made full use of her dance gifts, McRae proved her staying power with this year’s “So Close to What,” which topped the Billboard 200 by pulling from a rich seam of Y2K R&B and club jams. Yet she scored her first No. 1 single with the Morgan Wallen collab “What I Want.” Whatever you think of Wallen — and McRae’s young, queer fan base had thoughts — the song showed that McRae’s Alberta roots could drop right into a pop-country setting. (August Brown)
7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Nov. 8. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com

🎭 Parallel Process
Writer-director David Kohner Zuckerman’s drama stars Alan McRae and Tom Jenkins as brothers facing down a 50-year divide over the Vietnam War.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 2 (except Oct. 26). Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. parallelprocesstheplay.com

🎞️ The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shiver with anticipation as star Tim Curry, producer Lou Adler and a shadow cast performance alongside a 4k screening of the movie mark 50 years of delectable decadence.
7:30 p.m. Friday. Academy Museum, David Geffen Theater, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

🎼 🎹 Daniil Trifonov
One of the most impressive pianists of his generation, the 34-year-old Daniil Trifonov, who starred in a Rachmaninoff week with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in August, opens the Soka Performing Arts fall series at Soka University in Aliso Viejo with a recital program that features seldom heard solo piano works by three early 20th century Russian composers — Taneyev, Prokofiev and Myaskovsky — along with a Schumann sonata. In the meantime, Deutsche Grammophon recently released a stunning new Trifonov recording of overlooked, intimate solo piano works by Tchaikovsky. (Mark Swed)
8 p.m. Friday. Soka University Concert Hall, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo. soka.edu 7 p.m. Wednesday. UC Santa Barbara, Campbell Hall, campuscalendar.ucsb.edu

SATURDAY
🎭 Anthropology
Prolific and popular playwright Lauren Gunderson gravitates toward brainy subjects. Here, she delves into a fraught philosophical question: Can AI substitute for the human comfort we need, or are we only hastening the demise of our species by depending on digital simulations of people who actually care about us? John Perrin Flynn directs the North American premiere of a play by a dramatist whose work (“I and You,” “The Book of Will”) is as thought-provoking as it is emotionally resonant. (Charles McNulty)
Through Nov. 9, check specific dates. Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave. roguemachinetheatre.org

🎞️ Dazed and Confused
Vidiots’ third annual celebration of Richard Linklater’s 1993 coming-of-age classic includes screenings, a takeover of the Microcinema with games on freeplay, a unique commemorative T-shirt, giveaways, food and drinks, all-vinyl DJ sets from KCRW’s Dan Wilcox and Wyldeflower and more. Close out the festivities with the period-appropriate 1976 Led Zeppelin concert film “The Song Remains the Same” at 9:30 p.m.
3 and 6:45 p.m. Saturday. Vidiots, Eagle Theatre, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. vidiotsfoundation.org

🎭 Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol
The artistic collective’s “Centroamérica” tells the story of a Nicaraguan woman on the run from Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship, exploring history and the present to discover the region’s diversity, conflict and resilience.
8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Installation view, “Echoes,” at 839.

(Vanessa Wallace Gonzales/839)

🎨 Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales
“Echoes,” a solo exhibition by the multiracial Black and Mexican artist originally from Southern California, now based in New York, features cyanotypes, sculptural vessels and a multimedia installation in a hybrid home/gallery.
Noon-6 p.m. Saturday or by appointment, through Oct. 18. 839 Gallery, 839 N. Cherokee Ave. 839gallery.com

🎼 Quintessential Classical
The Colburn Orchestra opens its season with conductor Nicholas McGegan, clarinetist Minkyung Chu and masterworks from Bach, Haydn and Mozart.
7 p.m. Colburn School, Zipper Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. colburnschool.edu

TUESDAY

“The Buddhist Deities Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi,” Tibet, circa 15th century; pigments on cotton.

(©Museum Associates / LACMA)

🎨 Realms of the Dharma Gallery Tour
LACMA conservator Soko Furuhata and curator Stephen Little discuss preservation and highlights from the exhibition of pan-Asian Buddhist art created across centuries.
7-8:30 p.m. LACMA, Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

Writer Roxane Gay is the guest Tuesday at Oxy Live!

(David Butow / For the Times)

📘 Oxy Live!
Occidental College’s speaker series kicks off a new season with a new host, artist Alexandra Grant, and bestselling author and feminist icon Roxane Gay. Future guests include Taylor Mac and Robin Coste Lewis.
7 p.m. Occidental college Thorne Hall, 1600 Campus Road. oxy.edu

WEDNESDAY

Alex Hernandez, left, and Marlon Alexander Vargas rehearse for “Littleboy/Littleman” at the Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

🎭 Littleboy/Littleman
Nicaraguan brothers have different ideas about the American dream in the world premiere of playwright Rudi Goblen’s drama, which mixes poetry, live music and ritual. Alex Hernandez and Marlon Alexander Vargas star for director Nancy Medina.
Through Nov. 2. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org

THURSDAY
🎼 The Rite of Spring with Dudamel
In an online note, the conductor writes, “if the LA Phil has a signature piece, it’s The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky shocked the world when it was first performed more than a century ago, and even today, it still feels bold, modern, and full of energy — just like this orchestra.” The evening also includes John Adams’ “Frenzy” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird.”
8 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 4; 2 p.m. Oct. 5. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Ken Gonzales-Day, “The Wonder Gaze, St. James Park (Lynching of Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes, San Jose, 1933),” 2006, digital print on vinyl

(USC Fisher Museum of Art)

Times art critic Christopher Knight reviewed “Ken Gonzales-Day: History’s ‘Nevermade’,” a poignant retrospective at USC’s Fisher Museum of Art. The show features a mural-sized photograph titled, “The Wonder Gaze, St. James Park (Lynching of Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes, San Jose, 1933),” which shows the scene beneath a tree used to lynch two men accused (but not convicted) of kidnapping and murder. To create the image, Gonzales-Day photographed the original photo of the brutal scene and digitally removed the ropes and the victims, leaving only a bare tree and the many humans milling about beneath it. “What’s left is a spectral scene, ghosted by the limitations of old black-and-white photographic technology and further heightened by the uneven glow generated by the camera’s flashbulb. The mob has become the subject,” Knight writes.

A trio of vibrant 99-seat theaters are in the spotlight of Times theater critic Charles McNulty’s newest column, which features reviews of Tennessee Williams’ “The Night of the Iguana” at Boston Court; the West Coast premiere of Brian Quijada’s play, “Fly Me to the Sun,” at the Fountain Theatre; and Rogue Machine Theatre’s world premiere production of “Adolescent Salvation” by Tim Venable. McNulty was particularly taken by the fine production of the not-often-revived “Night of the Iguana,” writing, “Williams is the humane, humorously defiant playwright we need when authoritarianism is on the march.”

Earlier this week, I got to spend the morning in the company of artist Jeff Koons as he arrived at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to install the celebratory first planting of a diminutive succulent in his monumental topiary sculpture, “Split-Rocker,” which is set to anchor the east side of LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries when it opens in April of next year. LACMA CEO and Director Michael Govan was also on hand, and the two men walked into the not-yet-finished building to regard the sculpture from the floor-to-ceiling windows above. “It’s an outdoor sculpture and indoor sculpture,” Govan said.

Museums across the country are feeling the chill from the Trump administration’s push against DEI, as well as its pressure campaign against the Smithsonian Institute for what it calls “divisive, race-centered ideology.” This hasn’t stopped the Getty from continuing to ramp up a growing slate of programs and grants aimed at preserving and strengthening Black arts and cultural heritage in Los Angeles and across the country. I spoke with a variety of curators, researchers and administrators at Getty about the institution’s efforts.

A statue depicting President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands is seen near the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 23 in Washington, DC. A plaque below the figures states “In Honor of Friendship Month.”

(Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

A 12-foot-tall statue showing President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands while engaged in a gleeful dance was removed from the National Mall earlier this week — a day after it was first erected there. The statue, created by an anonymous group that received a permit to place it on the mall, was titled “Best Friends Forever” and featured a plaque that read, “We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend,’ Jeffrey Epstein.” The National Park Service removed the sculpture before it was scheduled to be taken down, saying it was “not compliant with the permit issued.”

LA Opera is staging its annual free simulcast on Saturday — this time for “West Side Story.” Per usual, one simulcast will take place on the Santa Monica Pier (bring a blanket, it will get chilly), but for the first time, a second simulcast will take place at Loma Alta Park in Altadena. The community event comes as fire recovery efforts continue, and excitement is building with a variety of local performers and vendors expected to take part in pre-show events, including “the Jets” from JPL.

George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which awards fellowships to artists and curators worldwide, is being targeted by President Trump’s Justice Department as part of Trump’s efforts to crack down on what he calls the “radical left.”

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Take a break from doomscrolling to read this delightful story by Deborah Netburn about how a shoemaker in East L.A. ended up with shoe forms for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

During this week’s White House press conference in which President Trump named the over-the-counter drug Tylenol as a possible cause of rising autism rates, he did not mince words, urging pregnant women to “fight like hell” not to take it.

But outside those remarks in the Roosevelt Room — during which Trump himself acknowledged “I’m not so careful with what I say” — the discussion on the common fever and pain reliever’s role during pregnancy is a lot more nuanced.

What the research on Tylenol use during pregnancy actually says

Physicians, researchers on the very studies cited in support of Trump’s position and even other members of the president’s administration are largely united on a few key facts: untreated fevers in pregnancy pose real risks to the fetus, acetaminophen (Tylenol’s active ingredient) remains the safest medication to treat them and any pregnant person seeking advice on the issue should consult their doctor.

“All that we should be asking of the medical profession [is] to actually weigh the risks and benefits for the women, with the women, and be cautious about chronic use of pain medications,” said Dr. Beate Ritz, a UCLA professor of epidemiology who co-authored a paper published last month that the White House cited as evidence for the link between Tylenol and autism.

Ritz said it has been misinterpreted.

The conclusion of the paper, which reviewed existing studies on the topic, was that the association between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and later diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders in kids was strong enough to merit doctors’ consideration when determining how to treat fever or pain in pregnancy. The group did not determine a causal relationship between the drug and autism, or suggest barring the drug altogether, she said.

“Looking at all of these studies, yes, there is a risk,” Ritz said. “It’s not very big, but it’s there, but the risk increases are more seen in regular users of Tylenol. This is not a woman who has a fever and takes three Tylenols.”

“There is always a weighing of the risks and the benefits, and fever in women is no good either. … Not having to take any pain medications when you are in severe pain or in chronic pain is also very cruel,” she said. “We all should have an interest in helping out here, making the right decisions without blaming the victim and putting it all on the individual woman.”

Her co-author, University of Massachusetts epidemiologist Ann Bauer, has made similar statements.

“What we recommend is judicious use — the lowest effective dose [for] the shortest duration of time under medical guidance and supervision, tailored to the individual,” Bauer told the news outlet Politico.

The administration’s confusing recommendations

Ultimately, that’s what the administration is recommending as well.

The letter that U.S. Food and Drug Administrator Dr. Marty Makary sent to physicians this week made clear that “a causal relationship” between autism and acetaminophen “has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”

It went on to recommend that clinicians consider limiting their use of acetaminophen for routine low-grade fevers during pregnancy, while noting that medical advice “should also be balanced with the fact that acetaminophen is the safest over-the-counter alternative in pregnancy among all analgesics and antipyretics.” (An analgesic is a pain reliever; an antipyretic reduces fever.)

Untreated fevers during pregnancy are associated with higher rates of birth defects, particularly those of the heart, brain and spinal cord; premature birth; low birth weight; neurodevelopmental disorders including autism; and fetal death, said Dr. E. Nicole Teal, an assistant professor of maternal-fetal medicine at UC San Diego.

“The FDA’s letter, while significantly more nuanced than the president’s comments on the issue, still gives too much weight to findings from poorly designed studies,” she said.

She said she will continue to prescribe acetaminophen to pregnant patients who need to treat fevers or severe pain, as it has the fewest known risks in pregnancy.

Are there other pain-relief and fever-reducing drugs that can be used during pregnancy?

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen (often sold as Advil) or naproxen (often sold as Aleve) are linked to problems with blood vessel and kidney development, as well as oligohydramnios, a condition in which there isn’t enough amniotic fluid to support a healthy pregnancy. Aspirin raises the risk of bleeding complications, and narcotics — which can relieve pain but not fever — pose addiction risks for the mother and infant alike, Teal said.

She referred to a statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noting that two decades of research on the question had failed to find a causal relationship between acetaminophen and autism.

“Acetaminophen is one of the few options available to pregnant patients to treat pain and fever, which can be harmful to pregnant people when left untreated,” American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists president Dr. Steven J. Fleischman said in the statement.

The group also noted that reviews in 2015 and 2017 from the FDA and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine respectively found no risks associated with appropriate usage of the drug in pregnancy.

How to navigate government communications around Tylenol use

Nonetheless, the mixed messaging from the Trump administration about Tylenol seems likely to continue.

The Department of Health and Human Services this week reposted a 2017 tweet from the Tylenol brand’s account that said, “We actually don’t recommend using any of our products while pregnant.”

A spokesperson for Kenvue, the company that owns Tylenol, said the post was taken out of context and incomplete.

“Consistent with regulations, our label states clearly ‘if pregnant or breast-feeding, ask a health professional before use,’ ” Melissa Witt said in an email. “We do not make recommendations on taking any medications in pregnancy because that is the job of a healthcare provider.”

Vice President JD Vance offered similar guidance this week.

“My guidance to pregnant women would be very simple, which is follow your doctor. Right?” Vance said in an interview with the outlet NewsNation after Trump’s press conference. “Talk to your doctor about these things.”

Through four games this season, Jayden Maiava has done just about all he could to dispel any lingering doubts about him as USC’s starting quarterback.

Maiava is averaging 12.7 yards per pass attempt this season, higher than any other quarterback in college football. His completion percentage has risen more than 11 points since last season (to 70.8%). He has thrown nine passing touchdowns, plus added four on the ground, and has yet to turn the ball over after throwing nine picks during the same number of starts in 2024.

Granted, during the Trojans’ 4-0 start, Maiava has yet to face a pass defense that ranks inside the top 100 in passing yards allowed per attempt. Nor has he or anyone on USC’s offense faced much in the way of adversity. The Trojans have scored more than 52 points per game and won their first four by an average margin of 32.

But the level of competition ratchets up this week. Each of USC’s next three opponents are ranked in the top 25, while three of its next four games come on the road, beginning Saturday with No. 23 Illinois, which was ranked in the top 10 before it was trounced by Indiana last weekend.

If USC has any hope of making the College Football Playoff, it’ll need Maiava to prove his fast start in September wasn’t a fluke. USC coach Lincoln Riley doesn’t want Maiava to change much from his first four weeks.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Riley said.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava evades a tackle attempt by Michigan State defensive back Armorion Smith at the Coliseum on Sept. 20.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

“He’s been steady. He’s been in a good head space. There will be different challenges. You’re gonna have mistakes here and there. That’s where your experience is going to show up. We just need him to be the steady, efficient leader he’s been and keep playing really good, efficient ball. I think he’s in a really good head space to do that.”

Illinois hasn’t had much success rattling capable quarterbacks this season. Duke’s Darian Mensah threw for 356 yards and two touchdowns in Week 2, while Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza dropped five scores on the Illini secondary last Saturday. Injuries have only made matters worse for the Illini secondary as it lost All-Big Ten slot corner Xavier Scott to a potential season-ending injury, have one safety in concussion protocol and another cornerback in a walking boot. Two other defensive backs also exited Illinois’ last game with some sort of injury.

The stage is set for Maiava to make a major statement Saturday, in one of the marquee matchups of the week. Here’s what else you should watch for when USC plays to Illinois.

From Jack Harris: It was not supposed to be this difficult. It was not expected to feel so frustrating.

Six months ago, the question was not whether the Dodgers would win the National League West, but how far out of the water they’d blow the competition.

It wasn’t whether they’d enter October in position to defend their World Series title, but if they could set a single-season wins record along the way.

“Everyone,” first baseman Freddie Freeman recalled, “was talking about our “superteam.’”

What played out instead, of course, was a disappointing regular season relative to the club’s lofty preseason expectations.

The team will not win 100 games, let alone the 120 that some predicted ahead of the year. It will not have a bye for the first round of the playoffs, having limped through much of the second half of the schedule. It did not realize the full potential of its $400 million roster, hampered by starting pitching injuries early in the year, bullpen implosions down the stretch and an extended funk from the lineup in the middle of the summer. It did not play like the star-studded juggernaut or villainous evil empire or ascendant dynastic power the rest of the baseball world had labeled it to be.

Continue reading here

Shaikin: Dodgers fans should take a moment to appreciate team’s success before anxiety returns

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

ANGELS

Vinnie Pasquantino homered and drove in three runs, Bobby Witt Jr. had four hits and the Kansas City Royals beat the Angels 9-4 on Thursday night.

Michael Lorenzen (7-11) gave up two earned runs and five hits with a season-high nine strikeouts and no walks in 5⅔ innings for the Royals.

Jo Adell, Nolan Schanuel and Mike Trout each homered for the Angels (71-88). Trout’s two-run shot — his 23rd of the season and 401st of his career — cut Kansas City’s lead to 5-4 in eighth.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

LAKERS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Lakers kicked off their summer break by signing their star player to a contract extension in a flashy news conference featuring Balkan walk-up music and a photo gallery display of Luka Doncic’s best Lakers moments. The team returned Thursday by announcing their continued commitment to their coach.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka announced head coach JJ Redick had signed a contract extension at a news conference with the coach as the Lakers begin training camp next Tuesday.

Redick signed a four-year, $32-million contract last year as a first-time head coach and led the Lakers to a 50-32 regular-season record and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference before losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of playoffs. The terms of the new deal were not announced.

Continue reading here

From Ben Bolch: UCLA’s five-member search committee for its next football coach that was revealed Thursday features heavy hitters from various corners of the professional sports world, including two who helped engineer a quick turnaround with the NFL’s Washington Commanders.

Commanders general manager Adam Peters and adviser Bob Myers — who will be joined on the committee by sports executive Casey Wasserman, former NFL star linebacker Eric Kendricks and UCLA executive senior associate athletics director Erin Adkins — were part of the team that hired Washington coach Dan Quinn, who took the Commanders to the NFC Championship Game in his first season.

They will hope to have similar success in selecting the successor to Bruins coach DeShaun Foster, who was fired earlier this month after his team started the season with three consecutive losses. Every member of the committee will be driven to find a winner given they either graduated from UCLA or work for the school’s athletic department.

Continue reading here

Abandon all hope, ye who enter? What to watch when UCLA faces Northwestern

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1942 — Jockey Club stewards revoke Eddie Arcaro’s license for one year after his display of “rough riding” aboard odds-on favorite Occupation in the Cowdin Stakes on Sept. 19, in which he attempted to injure a fellow rider during the race.

1981 — Kelvin Bryant of North Carolina rushes for 173 yards and scores four touchdowns in a 56-14 victory over Boston College, giving him 15 touchdowns over the last three games, an NCAA record.

1983 — Australia II wins America’s Cup yacht race to end the longest winning streak in sporting history. Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, wins the title in the seventh and final race. Australia II crosses the finish line with a winning margin of 41 seconds over Liberty, which is skippered by Dennis Conner. The U.S. had successfully defended the cup over a period of 132 years, since the schooner America won it in a fleet race around England’s Isle of Wight in 1851.

1992 — Rocky Mountain’s Steve Thompson rushes for 405 yards and six touchdowns in a 42-36 overtime victory over Carroll College. The rushing total is the second highest in NAIA history.

1998 — Prairie View A&M ends its NCAA-record 80-game losing streak by stopping a 2-point conversion in the final minute for a 14-12 victory over Langston. The victory is the Panthers’ first since Oct. 28, 1989, when they defeated Mississippi Valley 21-12.

2000 — At the Sydney Olympics, the U.S. softball team completes a stunning comeback by edging Japan 2-1 in extra innings to win its second straight gold medal.

2004 — Peyton Manning of Indianapolis passes for 393 yards and five first-half touchdowns in a 45-31 win over Green Bay. Manning has the most TD throws in one half since Tommy Kramer in 1986, and the most yards in a quarter, 247, since Boomer Esiason in 1996.

2004 — San Francisco’s 34-0 loss at Seattle ends a 420-game streak of not being blanked for the 49ers, an NFL record.

2010 — Christine Sinclair has two goals and Marta adds a goal and two assists as the FC Gold Pride beat the Philadelphia Independence 4-0 to win the Women’s Professional Soccer championship.

2010 — Seattle’s Leon Washington returns two kickoffs — 101 and 99 yards — for touchdowns in the Seahawks’ 27-20 win over San Diego.

2015 — Aaron Green catches a tipped pass in the back of the end zone with 23 seconds left and No. 3 TCU outlasts Texas Tech 55-52 in the Big 12 opener for both teams. On fourth-and-goal from the 4, Trevor Boykin throws four touchdown passes and finishes with a career-high 509 yards for TCU.

2015 — Sebastian Giovinco breaks the MLS single-season points record, assisting on two goals in Toronto FC’s 3-2 victory over the Chicago Fire to push his total to 35.

2017 — Sylvia Fowles grabs a WNBA Finals-record 17 rebounds and scores 13 points to lead the Minnesota Lynx to a 70-68 victory over the Sparks in Game 2, evening the series at one game apiece.

2021 — United States regains the Ryder Cup beating Team Europe 19-9 at Whistling Straits, Haven, Wisc.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1908 — Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs became the only pitcher to throw two shutouts in a doubleheader, beating the Dodgers 5-0 and 3-0.

1926 — The St. Louis Browns beat the New York Yankees 6-1 and 6-2 in two hours and seven minutes. The first game took 55 minutes.

1952 — The New York Yankees clinched their fourth straight AL pennant with a 5-1, 11-inning win over the Philadelphia A’s.

1961 — Roger Maris tied Babe Ruth’s 34-year-old record with his 60th homer, off Baltimore’s Jack Fisher.

1981 — Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros became the first player to pitch five no-hitters, hurling a 5-0 victory over the Dodgers at the Astrodome.

1983 — Bob Forsch of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched the second no-hitter of his career by defeating Montreal 3-0.

1993 — Randy Johnson of the Seattle Mariners became the eighth pitcher to strike out 300 batters in a season with 13 strikeouts in 10 innings of a 3-2, 12-inning loss to Oakland.

1998 — Curt Schilling became the fifth pitcher to strike out 300 batters in consecutive seasons when he fanned Kevin Orie in the seventh inning of Philadelphia’s 4-3 loss to Florida in the first game of a doubleheader.

2000 — The Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets 7-1 to clinch the NL East and win their record ninth straight division title.

2007 — The New York Yankees clinched their 13th straight postseason appearance, beating Tampa Bay 12-4.

2007 — Michael Young reached 200 hits for the fifth consecutive season with a pair of RBI singles among his three hits and Texas pounded the Angels 16-2. Young joined Wade Boggs and Ichiro Suzuki as the only players since 1940 with five consecutive 200-hit seasons.

2008 — The Tampa Bay Rays won their first AL East championship when the Boston Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees. They became the first team other than Boston and New York to win the division since Baltimore did it in 1997.

2008 — Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki matched Lou Gehrig’s record with his eighth season of at least 200 hits and 100 runs. Suzuki scored his 100th run of the season in the third inning against Oakland. Gehrig reached the marks in 1927-28, 1930-32, 1934 and 1936-37.

2018 — Jacob deGrom was dominant, throwing eight stellar innings and leaving with a major league-best 1.70 ERA as the New York Mets blanked the Atlanta Braves 3-0. DeGrom (10-9) made his final regular-season start, striking out 10 and allowing just two singles against the NL East champions.

2018 — Colorado Rockies right-hander German Marquez started with eight straight strikeouts to match a modern-era big league record, and the Colorado Rockies routed the Philadelphia Phillies 14-0. By striking out his first eight batters, he tied a post-1900 mark set by Houston’s Jim Deshaies on Sept. 23, 1986, and equaled by the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom on Sept. 15, 2014.

2019 — The Minnesota Twins become the first team to hit 300 home runs in a season.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Stitch Fix (SFIX -17.02%) stock was more or less humming merrily along at the start of this week, until it fell into a ditch Thursday morning. That gaping hole was the company’s latest set of quarterly earnings, which despite looking outwardly impressive had several areas of concern.

As a result, on a week-to-date basis the fashion stock was down notably in price Thursday night. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the company’s equity had lost almost 17% of its value in those days.

Stitched up

After market close Wednesday, Stitch Fix took the wraps off its fiscal fourth quarter of 2025. When adjusted for an extra week in the same period of 2024, the company’s net revenue rose by 4% year over year to slightly over $311 million. The GAAP net loss narrowed considerably, to under $8.6 million, or $0.07 per share, against the year-ago deficit of more than $36 million.

Image source: Getty Images.

Both headline figures beat the consensus analyst estimates. Pundits tracking Stitch Fix stock were modeling less than $305 million on the top line, and a net loss per share of $0.10.

Improvements and beats in those two important metrics would, all things being equal, inspire investors to push into any stock. Stitch Fix is different, however, as those achievements masked one particular concerning development.

Not getting a Fix

Stitch Fix is anchored by its Fix service, in which customers can subscribe to either occasional or regular deliveries of clothes picked by the company’s stylists, paying for the ones he or she elects to keep. So the service’s subscriber numbers are crucial — if they’re not rising, the company’s growth will likely not be robust.

And they’re not rising. Stitch Fix revealed that its count of active clients — defined as those who checked out a Fix or bought an item through the company’s Freestyle marketplace — was slightly more than 2.3 million for the quarter. That meant a worrying decrease pf nearly 8% year over year.

According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Nano Nuclear Energy‘s (NNE -2.79%) share price had eroded by almost 11% week to date as of Thursday night. This, despite the fact that the company was included on several stock indexes managed by a well-known indexer.

Come and join

Before market open that day, Nano announced that its stock is now a component of not one, not two, but three equity indexes managed by S&P Dow Jones Indices. The trio is the S&P Global Broad Market index (BMI), the S&P Total Market index (TMI), and the SPX Completion index.

Image source: Getty Images.

These, however, are not as closely tracked and have less prominence than other equity gauges in the S&P family (most notably the S&P 500 index).

At least Nano has plenty of company. In terms of composition, the BMI is certainly sprawling. As of the end of August, it has 14,782 component stocks, which are collectively headquartered in 48 countries around the globe.

The other indexes are notably smaller, at 3,360 for S&P Completion and 3,865 for TMI. The two are related — S&P Completion has the same composition as TMI, except with the stocks also on the S&P 500 index stripped out.

The good old index effect

Nano’s ascensions definitely represent an advancement for the next-generation nuclear company. However, many investors might be thinking they aren’t enough of an advancement, since in prestige and visibility terms, the trio is under the level of closely monitored mainstays, again like the S&P 500 index.

Nevertheless, if it hasn’t already been discovered and researched simply by its presence in the currently hot nuclear sector, Nano will soon go under the microscope by a host of index funds. After all, such vehicles are constantly on the hunt for good investments among a relatively limited pool of stocks.

Prior to the start of this week, Tempus AI (TEM -2.40%) stock had locked in a 161% gain since the start of the year — an impressive performance for the healthcare company that’s pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for improving patient outcomes. This week, however, Main Street noted a well-known investor’s decision to trim her position in Tempus AI stock, and the stock plunged.

According to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Tempus AI stock had fallen 12.4% from the end of trading last Friday through the close of Thursday’s market session.

Image source: Getty Images.

Ark Invest decides it’s time to reduce its position in Tempus AI

Representing significant positions in more than one of Ark Invest’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Tempus AI is ending the week with a smaller weighting in the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK -2.19%). On Tuesday, Ark Invest trimmed the Tempus AI position in the ARK Innovation ETF by 62,352 shares, a transaction valued at about $5.2 million.

The decision to reduce the weighting of Tempus AI follows soon after the company announced it had received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its RNA-based Tempus xR IVD device — a tool intended to support drug development programs.

While the Cathie Wood-led ETF reduced its position in Tempus AI, the stock still retains a significant weighting in the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF, where it’s the largest position with a 10.7% weighting as of the end of trading on Thursday.

Should AI investors follow suit and reduce their positions in Tempus AI?

Although investors may be disconcerted to see the ARK Innovation ETF reduce its Tempus AI position, it’s worth noting that the AI stock still holds the pole position in the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF, so it’s clear Cathie Wood isn’t eschewing the stock completely.

Ark Invest ETFs frequently buy and sell stocks, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the fund chooses to buy Tempus AI stock again if the stock drops much further. If you were bullish on Tempus AI stock yesterday, nothing should change today.

From Jack Harris: If the Dodgers are going to win 13 games in October, they will likely have to master the playbook they ran Wednesday night.

Starting pitchers came out of the bullpen. Another late-inning collapse didn’t cripple their psyche. The offense delivered timely hits when it needed to. And the team grinded out a 5-4 extra-innings win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The story of the night, in an unexpected but entirely warranted late-season plot twist, was Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kershaw throwing scoreless innings of relief for a beleaguered Dodgers bullpen.

The theme, however, was improvisation with the roster and resiliency in the dugout, moving the team within a win of another National League West division championship.

“I know the word resilience gets thrown out a lot, but it was a resilient win and a resilient group,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We fought our tails off until the end. It didn’t look good at different points of the game. But Arizona fought as well. So it was a heck of a ball game … Really good stuff.”

Continue reading here

Dodgers bullpen remains a mess. Can Roki Sasaki’s return provide trustworthy relief?

How Bill Russell stayed connected to baseball, and reconnected with the Dodgers

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

ANGELS

Taylor Ward homered, Kenley Jansen earned his 475th career save and the Angels beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday night to avoid a series sweep.

Only four pitchers have at least 475 saves: Jansen, Mariano Rivera (652), Trevor Hoffman (601) and Lee Smith (478).

Yusei Kikuchi (7-11) gave up just one hit while striking out six over five innings. He was removed with a left forearm cramp before the sixth. Jansen struck out two in the ninth for his 28th save of the season.

Continue reading here

Despite rough season, Angels’ Mike Trout still believes he can recapture his MVP form

Angels box score

MLB standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: No reset necessary. No reason to make more of some rare misfires.

After 16-plus seasons, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford knows how to put less-than-efficient performances behind.

So the passes he missed in last Sunday’s defeat by the Philadelphia Eagles are not cause for concern as he prepares for Sunday’s game against the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts at SoFi Stadium.

“It happens,” Stafford said Wednesday before practice. “I’m not too worried about it.”

Stafford completed 19 of 33 passes (57.6%) for 198 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. Despite missing on some passes he usually completes, he finished the game by directing a two-minute drive that positioned the Rams to win the game. The Eagles blocked a last-second field-goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown.

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UCLA UNLOCKED

Sign up for UCLA Unlocked, our new weekly newsletter featuring all things Bruins athletics. Ben Bolch, in his 10th season covering UCLA football and men’s basketball for The Times, will be your host. To sign up to get this newsletter delivered every Monday to your inbox, click here.

UCLA POLL

Almost every week in UCLA Unlocked, there is a poll for readers to give their opinion on UCLA athletics. This week’s poll:

Who would you rather have as UCLA’s next football coach?

An exciting lower-level coach such as Tulane’s Jon Sumrall?

A rising star such as Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein?

An existing Power Four coach such as Arizona’s Jedd Fisch?

A wild card such as Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin?

Click here to vote in our survey.

From Ryan Kartje: Walker Lyons took his place in the slot and looked right. Lake McRee crouched on the opposite wing and looked left. The two Trojan tight ends had spent all last Saturday night moving around USC’s formations — split out wide, in the backfield, on the line of scrimmage — paving rush lanes and creating mismatches wherever they went.

Now it was third and short, early in the third quarter of USC’s win over Michigan State, and the two of them were on the field together again, forcing the Spartan defense to decide in a hurry just how Lincoln Riley planned to deploy them.

That unpredictability was precisely the point of the position. It’s why the tight end has been a critical tenet of his Riley’s offense since he started as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 2015. No other position, Riley has come to believe, adds more versatility to an offense.

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TIMES OF TROY

Times of Troy is our weekly newsletter featuring all things Trojans athletics. Ryan Kartje, who covers USC football and men’s basketball for The Times, is your host. To sign up to get this newsletter delivered every Monday to your inbox, click here.

SPARKS

The Sparks announced they are joining the WNBA’s facilities upgrade boom, building a $150-million, 55,000-square-foot training and practice facility in El Segundo that is set to open ahead of the 2027 season.

The venue will include two WNBA regulation basketball courts along with a locker room, weight room and athletic training space. The team states the facility will also feature an outdoor spa, indoor hydrotherapy suites, dedicated nap rooms, wellness spaces for yoga or mediation, and extensive use of natural light and retractable doors.

“We’re building a place where Sparks players can be at their best on and off the court,” said Eric Holoman, Sparks managing partner and governor. “From cutting-edge training and recovery spaces to family and community areas, every corner of this facility was designed with them at the center.”

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DODGERS DUGOUT

Dodgers Dugout is our award-winning Dodgers newsletter. Current news, historical items, polls, top 10 lists, you name it, if it’s about the Dodgers it is covered here. Houston Mitchell is your host. You can sign up by clicking here.

PREP RALLY

Want one place to get all your high school sports news? Our Prep Rally newsletter is what you need. Twice a week, we’ll deliver all the scores, news and features you crave, straight from our award-winning high school sports columnist, Eric Sondheimer. You can sign up for Prep Rally here.

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1866 — Jerome Park, named for its founder Leonard Jerome, opens in the Bronx in New York. Jerome, seeking to emulate the British racing system, also establishes the American Jockey Club, precursor to the present Jockey Club, formed in 1894.

1920 — Molly Bjurstedt Mallory wins her fifth title in six years with a two-set victory over Marion Zinderstein in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships.

1926 — Walter Hagen wins his third straight and fourth overall PGA Championship. Hagen beats Leo Diegel 4 and 3 in the championship match at Salisbury Golf Links in Westbury, N.Y.

1949 — Louise Suggs wins the U.S. Women’s Open by 14 strokes over Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

1962 — Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson at 2:06 of the first round at Comiskey Park in Chicago to win the world heavyweight title.

1966 — Gloria Ehret wins the LPGA Championship by three strokes over four-time champion Mickey Wright.

1982 — Ricky Edwards rushes for 177 yards and four touchdowns to help Northwestern end its 34-game losing streak in a 31-6 victory over Northern Illinois.

1988 — Americans sweep the medals in the long jump at the Seoul Olympics; Carl Lewis wins his second gold of the Games with leap of 8.72m ahead of teammates Mike Powell and Larry Myricks.

1988 — Swimmer Matt Biondi wins his 5th gold medal of the Seoul Olympics anchoring the victorious American 4 x 100m medley relay team.

1994 — Oliver McCall scores a major upset by stopping Lennox Lewis 31 seconds into the second round to capture the WBC heavyweight title in London.

1995 — Jerry Rice has 181 yards receiving in San Francisco’s 27-24 loss to Detroit. It’s his 51st 100-yard game, which breaks Don Maynard’s NFL record.

1997 — WNBA announces it will add Detroit & Washington, D.C. franchises.

2000 — American basketball player Vince Carter jumps over 7 foot 2 Frédéric Weis in 2000 Summer Olympics, known in France as “le dunk de la mort” (the dunk of death).

2004 — Bobby Seck of Hofstra throws eight touchdown passes to tie an Atlantic 10 mark and set a school record in the Pride’s 62-43 victory over Rhode Island.

2005 — Fernando Alonso becomes Formula One’s youngest champion by finishing third in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Alonso, 24, a six-time winner in his third full season in Formula One, ends Michael Schumacher’s five-year hold on the title.

2010 — Collingwood and St. Kilda plays to a 68-68 tie, the first in an Australian Rules football grand final since 1977, setting up a rematch to decide the league title.

2011 — The Detroit Lions snap a 13-game losing streak with a 26-23 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions, who won in the Metrodome for the first time since 1997, are 3-0 for the first time since 1980.

2013 — Skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA win the America’s Cup with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history to keep the oldest trophy in international sports in the United States. Spithill steers Oracle’s space-age, 72-foot catamaran to its eighth straight victory, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay. All but defeated a week ago, the 34-year-old Australian and his international crew twice rallies from seven-point deficits to win 9-8.

2016 — Rory McIlroy rallies to enter a three-man playoff and win the FedEx Cup. After trailing by three shots with three holes to play in the Tour Championship, McIlroy holes a 15-foot birdie putt on the fourth extra hole to win the playoff and claim the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus.

2022 — Laver Cup Men’s Tennis, London: Team World sweeps final day for 13-8 victory over Team Europe; tournament marks retirement of Roger Federer.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1941 — Pete Reiser’s homer and Whitlow Wyatt’s five-hitter helped Brooklyn beat the Boston Braves 6-0 and clinch the Dodgers’ first pennant in 21 years.

1955 — Detroit’s Al Kaline, at the age of 20, became the youngest player to win a batting title, finishing his second season with a .340 average. Ty Cobb was one day older when he won the crown, batting .350 in 1907, also playing for Detroit.

1956 — Sal Maglie of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies.

1960 — The New York Yankees clinched manager Casey Stengel’s 10th and last American League pennant with a 4-3 victory over Boston.

1965 — Satchel Paige, at 59, became the oldest player in the majors, taking the mound for Kansas City and pitching three scoreless innings over the Boston Red Sox. He gave up one hit, to Carl Yastrzemski.

1965 — Willie Mays, who hit 51 home runs in 1955, joined Ralph Kiner as only the National Leaguers to have more than one 50-home run season.

1974 — Dr. Frank Jobe transplanted a tendon from Tommy John’s right wrist to the Dodger pitcher’s left elbow. The revolutionary ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction allowed John to win an additional 164 games, more than half of his career total of 288 victories.

1980 — Oakland’s Brian Kingman lost his 20th game when the A’s were defeated by the Chicago White Sox 6-4. Kingman was the first pitcher to lose 20 games with a winning team since Dolf Luque went 13-23 for the 1922 Cincinnati Reds.

1984 — Rusty Staub of the Mets became the second player to hit homers as a teenager and past his 40th birthday. Staub’s game-winning home run off Larry Andersen to give the Mets a 6-4 victory over Philadelphia at Shea Stadium. Ty Cobb was the other major leaguer to accomplish the feat.

1987 — San Diego’s Benito Santiago set a modern major league record for rookies by hitting safely in his 27th consecutive game in a 5-3 loss to the Dodgers.

1998 — The New York Yankees set the AL record for wins with their 112th, beating Tampa Bay 6-1 to break the victory mark held by the 1954 Cleveland Indians.

2001 — Richie Sexson and Jeromy Burnitz became the first teammates to hit three home runs apiece in a game as Milwaukee defeated Arizona 9-4.

2003 — Toronto’s Carlos Delgado became the sixth player to homer in four straight at-bats in one game as the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10-8 at SkyDome. Delgado tied the score at 8-8 in the eighth with his fourth homer, a solo shot off Lance Carter.

2007 — Prince Fielder, at 23 years, 139 days old, became the youngest major league player to hit 50 home runs in a season, connecting twice in Milwaukee’s 9-1 rout of St. Louis.

2013 — The New York Yankees failed to make the playoffs for only the second time in 19 years, getting mathematically eliminated during their 8-3 loss to Tampa Bay.

2016 — Jose Fernandez, 24, ace right-hander for the Miami Marlins, was killed in a boating accident.

2017 — Aaron Judge broke Mark McGwire’s major league record for home runs by a rookie, hitting a pair for the second straight day to raise his total to 50 and lead the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 11-3.

2018 — Max Scherzer became the 17th pitcher since 1900 to strike out 300 batters in a season, reaching that milestone by fanning 10 in seven innings during Washington’s 9-4 win over Miami.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:

THURSDAY

Oxnard Pacifica (4-0) at Hamilton (2-2), 4 p.m.

It’s a last-minute game put on the schedule after both schools had opponents drop out. But what a quarterback matchup it features. Pacifica’s Taylor Lee vs. Hamilton freshman Thaddeus Breaux. Lee has 15 touchdown passes in the last two games. The pick: Pacifica.

FRIDAY

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (2-2) at Culver City (3-1), 7 p.m.

Basketball standout Tyran Stokes came out last week to play receiver and he has been cleared to make his football debut. Also expected to play is USC commit Luc Weaver, another receiver who has been sidelined because of a leg injury. The Knights want to challenge for a top-three spot in the Mission League and Culver City offers a good challenge. The pick: Notre Dame.

SATURDAY

Bishop Gorman (4-1) vs. Santa Margarita (3-1) at Tesoro, 7 p.m.

Bishop Gorman, after losing to Mater Dei last week in Las Vegas, travels to face another Trinity League opponent. The Eagles are trying to stay healthy before the grind of league play. The pick: Bishop Gorman.

STACEY Solomon has shared how she keeps her bouncy blow dry in place for more than a week after getting it done.

The mum-of-five retained her crown as the most relatable celeb in showbiz as she took to TikTok to post the exact routine she swears by.

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In the video, she said she was doing her best to get ready “as quickly as possible” for work, so had done her make-up in seconds and prepped her locks the night before.

“I didn’t wash it, but I just dampened it down,” Stacey said in a video on her TikTok page.

“It was, I had like a really old blow dry, and I’ve been trying to keep it in for a week.

“So I’ve just been putting my heatless curler in, and then going to bed with it, taking it out.”

Once taking the heatless curling rod out, Stacey, 35, used some of the REHAB. Essential Dry Shampoo on her roots – to absorb the grease and give her hair some extra texture.

She then ran her fingers through her hair, and grinned as she showed how it looked as though she’d had a “fresh, bouncy blow dry”.

“I wonder how long I can like this blow dry for,” she laughed.

“Like we’re on week one, I wonder if I can bring it into week two with my heatless curler.

“They’re just so good, and it just means I only have to destroy my hair with heat once every couple of weeks, because I can keep all of the curls in place, and keep it looking fresh with my dry shampoo and heatless curler.”

She finished off her speedy makeover with a swipe of lip oil, and then was ready to go.

“I want daily updates on the hair! BRING ON WEEK 2!” one person commented on the TikTok.

“You have such great hair,” another added.

“And it actually looks stunning!” a third praised.

“Go on girl!”

“I love the dry shampoo, it’s a life saver,” someone else said.

While others admitted they were more than a little jealous of Stacey’s finished look.

“I swear if I don’t wash my hair for two days on day three my curls look like rats’ tails!” one wrote.

“I have such hair envy! My hair doesn’t hold curl ever!” another added.

“OMG! You are so glamorous even when you’re not,” a third smiled.

“I get up looking like a badger’s bum!”

Danish police said drone activity in Aalborg airspace similar to drones that shut down Copenhagen airport earlier this week.

Denmark’s Aalborg airport, which is used for commercial and military flights, was closed due to unidentified drones operating in its airspace, a closure that follows just days after the country’s main Copenhagen airport was forced to shut temporarily due to drone sightings.

Danish police said early on Thursday that “more than one” drone was sighted near Aalborg airport, which is located in northern Denmark, in the Jutland region, and is the country’s fourth-largest city by population.

Police said the drone sightings in Aalborg followed a similar pattern to the drones that halted flights at Copenhagen airport for four hours on Monday, when a number of large and unidentified drones were spotted near what is one of Scandinavia’s busiest airports.

The closure of Aalborg airport affected Denmark’s armed forces because it is used as a military base, police said.

“It is too early to say what the goal of the drones is and who is the actor behind,” a police official told the Reuters news agency, adding that authorities would take down the drones if possible.

The Danish armed forces said they were assisting local and national police with the investigation, but declined to comment further.

Police said later on Thursday morning that the drones had left Aalborg airspace but that drones were also reported in the vicinity of airports in the towns of Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup in the west of the country.

Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in southern Jutland is the base for Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

De uidentificerede droner som blev observeret i det nordjyske, befinder sig ikke længere over luftrummet ved Aalborg Lufthavn. En intens efterforskning er gået i gang, og politiet beder alle med oplysninger i sagen henvende sig på telefon 114. #politidk https://t.co/sU3Azw8amD

— Nordjyllands Politi (@NjylPoliti) September 25, 2025

Translation: The unidentified drones that were observed in northern Jutland are no longer in the airspace over Aalborg airport. An intensive investigation has been launched, and the police ask everyone with information about the case to contact them on phone 114.

Northern Jutland police told reporters that “more than one drone” had been sighted near Aalborg airport, and they were flying with lights on.

The drones were first sighted at about 9:44pm local time [19:44 GMT] on Wednesday, according to police, and remained in the airspace for several hours.

Eurocontrol, which oversees European air traffic control, said arrivals and departures at Aalborg airport would be at a “zero rate” until 04:00 GMT on Thursday due to drone activity in the vicinity.

Northern Jutland police said they could not specify the type of drones or whether they were the same as the ones flying over Copenhagen airport on Monday.

Authorities in Denmark said the incident at Copenhagen airport was the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours on Monday evening after a drone was sighted.

Speaking on Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she “cannot reject in any way that it could be Russia” that was behind the Copenhagen airport incident.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on social media that “while the facts are still being established, it is clear we are witnessing a pattern of persistent contestation at our borders”.

“Our critical infrastructure is at risk,” she said. “And Europe will respond to this threat with strength and determination.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called any allegations linking Russia to the drones “unfounded”, saying that Russian “aircraft are guided by international regulations in all their flights and do not violate them in any way”.

Earlier this month, Poland closed four of its airports, including one in its capital, Warsaw, after Russian drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace, according to the Polish military.

NATO members have committed to increasing the defence of their borders while reconfirming their allegiance in the aftermath of the drone incident in Poland.

From Jack Harris: Shohei Ohtani entered uncharted territory in his final pitching start of the regular season Tuesday night, shutting out the Arizona Diamondbacks over a season-high six innings while throwing a season-most 91 pitches.

Given the woeful state of the Dodgers’ implosion-prone bullpen, however, the only way they would’ve won was if Ohtani was able to go nine.

In the kind of late-game giveaway that did not feel the least bit surprising, the Dodgers were instead walked off by the Diamondbacks in a 5-4 loss, cutting their division lead to 1 ½ games with five to play.

Rookie relievers Jack Dreyer and Edgardo Henriquez combined to give up three runs in the seventh, cutting deep into what was then a 4-0 Dodgers lead.

Closer Tanner Scott completed the collapse in the bottom of the ninth, suffering his 10th blown save and fourth loss in a two-run inning punctuated by Geraldo Perdomo’s walk-off RBI single.

“It’s hard to absorb those games,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 11th walk-off defeat of the season. “Especially games that we need to win right now.”

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‘A good message.’ Why celebrating Clayton Kershaw’s retirement gave Dodgers mental ‘reset’

MLB will use robot umpires in 2026, ushering in a new era for calling balls and strikes

Former Kings broadcaster Alex Faust to replace Bob Costas on TNT’s MLB playoff coverage

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

ANGELS

Bobby Witt Jr. and Adam Frazier each drove in two runs, Salvador Perez moved into second place on Kansas City’s career RBI list and the Royals beat the Angels 8-4 on Tuesday night, shortly after being eliminated from postseason contention.

The Royals (79-78) were knocked out of the race for an AL wild card with five games remaining in their regular season. Kansas City, which reached the playoffs last season, has failed to qualify for the postseason in nine of the last 10 seasons.

Perez singled to center in the first inning to score Witt. It was the 35-year-old catcher’s 97th RBI of the season and 1,013th of his career, moving him past Hal McRae. The Royals’ all-time RBI leader is George Brett with 1,596.

Bryce Teodosio hit his first career homer for the Angels in the fifth inning, in his 45th MLB game this season. Taylor Ward added his 35th homer, a career high, in the ninth inning. The Angels have lost 10 of their last 11 games.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

From Ben Bolch: A winless football team went bowling. It’s true.

With his players in need of a refreshing change that would still allow them to compete, UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper took the Bruins to a bowling alley last week on one of their days off from practicing.

“I also wanted to get out of the [football practice] building, to be honest, even for me and the coaches’ sake,” Skipper said Monday. “We’ve been locked in working and grinding and all that stuff, so we needed to get away and just kind of take a deep breath and compete in a different way.”

While it was the sort of team bonding exercise usually carried out in the offseason or during training camp, throwing a few strikes together could be the thing to help spare players from walking out on the rest of the season after an 0-3 start that led to the dismissal of their coach.

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UCLA UNLOCKED

Sign up for UCLA Unlocked, our new weekly newsletter featuring all things Bruins athletics. Ben Bolch, in his 10th season covering UCLA football and men’s basketball for The Times, will be your host. To sign up to get this newsletter delivered every Monday to your inbox, click here.

UCLA POLL

Almost every week in UCLA Unlocked, there is a poll for readers to give their opinion on UCLA athletics. This week’s poll:

Who would you rather have as UCLA’s next football coach?

An exciting lower-level coach such as Tulane’s Jon Sumrall?

A rising star such as Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein?

An existing Power Four coach such as Arizona’s Jedd Fisch?

A wild card such as Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin?

Click here to vote in our survey.

From Ryan Kartje: As USC enters a critical stretch of its conference slate, it’s unclear if it’ll have its star wideout or starting left tackle ready to play.

Junior wideout Ja’Kobi Lane did return to practice on Tuesday after sitting out last Saturday’s win over Michigan State with an upper body injury he suffered the week before. But junior offensive tackle Elijah Paige was not seen entering or leaving USC’s practice field.

USC coach Lincoln Riley declined to provide an update on Lane or Paige on Tuesday and instead referred reporters to the Big Ten’s availability report, which is released two hours before kickoff every Saturday.

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TIMES OF TROY

Times of Troy is our weekly newsletter featuring all things Trojans athletics. Ryan Kartje, who covers USC football and men’s basketball for The Times, is your host. To sign up to get this newsletter delivered every Monday to your inbox, click here.

LAFC

From Kevin Baxter: How good is Son Heung-min? On the night LAFC celebrated Carlos Vela’s induction into the team’s ring of honor, Vela asked for Son’s autograph.

And he’s not the only one. Small crowds of fans have begun gathering outside LAFC’s training center at Cal State Los Angeles, some waiting for hours, to request Son’s signature on scraps of paper, photos and plush likenesses of the South Korean star in a Tottenham uniform.

On a recent afternoon, Son stopped his car and obliged every one of them.

Forget, for a moment, what he’s done on the field — which isn’t easy to forget since he’s scored six times and assisted on three other goals in seven games, only one of which LAFC lost.

The transformation Son has brought everywhere else since joining the team seven weeks ago has been breathtaking.

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DODGERS DUGOUT

Dodgers Dugout is our award-winning Dodgers newsletter. Current news, historical items, polls, top 10 lists, you name it, if it’s about the Dodgers it is covered here. Houston Mitchell is your host. You can sign up by clicking here.

PREP RALLY

Want one place to get all your high school sports news? Our Prep Rally newsletter is what you need. Twice a week, we’ll deliver all the scores, news and features you crave, straight from our award-winning high school sports columnist, Eric Sondheimer. You can sign up for Prep Rally here.

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1930 — The Portsmouth Spartans beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 12-0 in the first NFL game played under floodlights. More than 6,000 fans turn out on an unseasonably warm evening to watch the game at the new University Stadium.

1950 — Philadelphia’s Russ Craft has four interceptions to lead the Eagles in a 45-7 rout of the Chicago Cardinals. Chicago quarterback Jim Hardy sets an NFL record by throwing eight interceptions.

1953 — Rocky Marciano knocks out Rolando La Starza in the 11th round at the Polo Grounds in New York to retain his world heavyweight title.

1967 — Jim Bakken of St. Louis Cardinals kicks an NFL-record seven field goals to give the Cardinals a 28-14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. His longest field goal is 33 yards.

1971 — The World Hockey Association announces its formation with 12 teams to start play in October 1972.

1988 — American heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee sets new world record 7,291 points to win the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics; East Germans Sabine John & Anke Behmer take the minor medals.

1988 — American swimmer Matt Biondi sets world record 22.14 to win the 50m freestyle gold medal at the Seoul Olympics; his 4th of 5 gold medals for the Games.

1988 — Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson breaks his own 100m world record with a time of 9.79 at the Seoul Olympics; disqualified 3 days later for use of drug stanozolol; Carl Lewis awarded gold and world record 9.92.

1993 — Juniata’s women’s volleyball team beats Washington of St. Louis to end Washington’s NCAA-record winning streak at 59 matches.

1994 — Washington ends Miami’s NCAA-record home winning streak at 58 with a 38-20 victory against the Hurricanes at the Orange Bowl.

1995 — On the final day of competition, Europe rallies past the U.S. to win the Ryder Cup 14 1/2 to 13 1/2 at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y. Europe takes seven singles matches to win its first Ryder Cup since 1989.

2001 — Green Bay’s 37-0 shutout of Washington ends the Redskins’ NFL record of scoring in 231 consecutive road games.

2006 — The Europeans turn the Ryder Cup into another rout, winning 18 1/2-9 1/2 and becoming the first European team to win three straight times.

2006 — Washington’s Mark Brunell breaks the NFL record for most consecutive passes completed in a game when he connects on his first 22 throws in a 31-15 win over the Houston Texans.

2011 — Dwayne De Rosario scores the quickest hat trick in MLS history, leading D.C. United to a 4-1 victory over Real Salt Lake.

2012 — Russell Wilson throws a disputed 24-yard touchdown to Golden Tate on the final play of the game, and the Seattle Seahawks rally to beat the Green Bay Packers 14-12.

2013 — Skipper Jimmy Spithill and defending champion Oracle Team USA extend their winning streak to seven to force a winner-take-all America’s Cup finale against Emirates Team New Zealand.

2016 — Daniel Carlson kicks six field goals and Auburn beats No. 18 LSU 18-13 after a ruling that Danny Etling’s apparent last-gasp scoring pass comes after time expired.

2017 — Peter Sagan of Slovakia becomes the first man to win three straight road race titles after holding off Norway’s Alexander Kristoff at the World Cycling Championships.

2017 — Diego Valeri scores twice to extend his MLS-record scoring streak to nine straight games and Portland beats Orlando City 3-0. Valeri moves in front of NYCFC’s David Villa for most goals this season with 20.

2017 — Jake Elliott kicks a 61-yard field goal as time expires to give the Philadelphia Eagles a 27-24 victory over the New York Giants. It is the longest by a rookie in NFL history.

2017 — Laver Cup Men’s Tennis, Prague: Roger Federer is unbeaten as Team Europe dominates Team World, 15-9 in the inaugural teams event.

2018 — Real Madrid midfielder & Croatian World Cup captain Luka Modrić is named world’s best male player at the FIFA Awards in London; Brazil & Orlando Pride forward Marta best female player; France’s Didier Deschamps best men’s coach.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1940 — Jimmie Foxx of the Red Sox hit his 500th career home run off Philadelphia’s George Caster in the first game of a doubleheader at Shibe Park. Foxx’s homer came in the sixth inning after Ted Williams homered. Joe Cronin followed with a homer and, later in the inning, Jim Tabor also homered. The four homers in the inning were a first in the AL.

1969 — The New York Mets clinched the NL East title, with Gary Gentry pitching a four-hitter in a 6-0 victory over St. Louis.

1974 — Detroit’s Al Kaline doubled down the right-field line off Dave McNally of Baltimore for his 3,000th career hit. The Orioles beat the Tigers 5-4 at Memorial Stadium.

1977 — Jack Brohamer of the Chicago White Sox had four extra base hits and hit for the cycle in an 8-3 win over the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome.

1984 — Rick Sutcliffe threw a two-hitter and led the Chicago Cubs to their first league title since 1945 with a 4-1 victory over Pittsburgh.

1988 — Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays, one strike from a no-hitter, gave up a bad-hop single to Julio Franco. Stieb settled for a 1-0, one-hit victory over Cleveland.

1998 — Boston’s Tom Gordon set a major league record for most consecutive saves with his 42nd to preserve the Red Sox’ 9-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

2004 — The Atlanta Braves clinched their 13th consecutive division title, winning the NL East with an 8-7 victory over the Florida Marlins. The Braves’ record streak of division championships began with the 1991 NL West title and excludes the 1994 strike-shortened season.

2006 — Trevor Hoffman became baseball’s career saves leader, earning No. 479 to pass Lee Smith and help NL West-leading San Diego beat Pittsburgh 2-1. It was his NL-leading 43rd save in 48 chances.

2008 — Francisco Rodriguez worked the ninth inning of the Angels’ 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners to end the season with a major league record 62 saves.

2014 — The New York Yankees were eliminated from postseason contention after losing to the AL East champion Orioles 9-5. The Yankees missed the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 1992 and ’93.

2016 — Jose Bautista hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees 3-0 to send New York to its third consecutive shutout defeat — the first time that has happened to New York since 1975.

2022 — The Braves’ Kyle Wright, who had only won two regular season games in four seasons, becomes the first 20-game winner in the majors this year with a 6-3 win over Philadelphia. The win moves Atlanta within one and a half games of the Mets, holders of first place in the NL East.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

As USC enters a critical stretch of its conference slate, it’s unclear if it’ll have its star wideout or starting left tackle ready to play.

Junior wideout Ja’Kobi Lane did return to practice on Tuesday after sitting out last Saturday’s win over Michigan State with an upper body injury he suffered the week before. But junior offensive tackle Elijah Paige was not seen entering or leaving USC’s practice field.

USC coach Lincoln Riley declined to provide an update on Lane or Paige on Tuesday and instead referred reporters to the Big Ten’s availability report, which is released two hours before kickoff every Saturday.

Without Lane, who is averaging almost 27 yards per catch this season, USC was forced to count on senior Jaden Richardson, who had just one catch coming into last Saturday’s game. He doubled that output against Michigan State and would presumably play a similar role if Lane is unable to play.

“He’s really created his own value here,” Riley said of Richardson. “He can play any of the receiver positions in our offense. Just does a lot of things well.”

Lane came out for early warm-ups last Saturday in shorts and a sweatshirt and appeared as if he’d try to play. But when the team returned in full pads, Lane came out of the tunnel several minutes later in street clothes.

It’s not clear how close Lane was to playing then or how seriously USC was actually considering the possibility. After the game, Riley described his injury as only “inconclusive.”

USC has a bye next week after its trip to Illinois.

“[It] was a little bit unexpected,” Riley said of Lane’s injury. “I don’t think it’ll be super long, but at the same time, I can’t sit here today and say for sure he’s going to play next week or in the coming weeks.”

Paige left Saturday’s game early in the second quarter and never returned, causing a chain reaction down USC’s offensive line. Paige was replaced by Justin Tauanuu, who shifted from left to right tackle. Tobias Raymond then moved from left guard to right tackle, while Micah Banuelos took over at left guard.

“These guys take a lot of reps at different positions throughout the week and really have throughout camp,” Riley said. “Some of the position flex we’ve built up at that position really paid off.”

Illinois is dealing with its own injury issues, but on defense. In a blowout loss to Indiana last week, Illinois was without most of its starting secondary. This Saturday, it definitely won’t have All-Big Ten cornerback Xavier Scott, who’s out for the season, and it could also be without a starting safety who is in concussion protocol. Two other key cornerbacks have yet to practice, but Illinois coach Bret Bielema expressed hope that they’d be cleared by midweek.

Even without its top red zone receiver and its steadiest offensive linemen, USC’s offense didn’t show many signs of slowing down last Saturday. It still piled up 517 yards of offense.