los angeles times

SHOW BIZ

Curate your weekend with Shelley Holcomb’s L.A. art guide

Sep 3, 2026 News Desk

I wasn’t born in Los Angeles, but it’s the city that raised me. I moved here fresh out of college with a doe-eyed dream of stepping into the kind of art scene I’d read about in history books. Instead, it quickly became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to just waltz in with my Southern charm and big smile; there would need to be some sort of hack into the art world — a place rife with unspoken roles and gatekeeping — if I wanted to get anywhere as a non-nepo artist.

After years of blister-inducing heels-on-the-ground gallery hopping and late-night schmoozing, I found myself falling in love with this city and slowly realizing that the best parts of L.A. were rarely found in mainstream spaces. There’s an inventiveness here that comes from the sprawl of the city — artists like myself who are constantly improvising, building their own ecosystems because nothing is handed to them. I fell in love with how “never-ending” the artist’s practice can feel in Los Angeles, how a studio visit can veer into an hours-long conversation about life. It made the city feel less like a scene to fit into and more like a living, breathing network you have to contribute to before receiving anything back.

In 2014, Alex Benzer and I decided to put our hard-earned knowledge to work by creating Curate LA: a community-driven platform designed to pull back the curtain on the Los Angeles art world by mapping under-the-radar exhibitions and adventurous artist-run spaces, and connecting our audiences directly with artists, curators, galleries and collectors through candid interviews, weekly guides and real-time event recommendations. Because despite appearances, an art scene isn’t held up by pristine white walls; it’s built by the artists sharing a cig and an idea outside on the sidewalk, the gallerists stocking the free booze and championing new voices, and the person you meet sitting at the front desk who tells you about the cute spot around the corner with affordable bites.

For me, an ideal L.A. weekend is a little bit of all of that: a great studio visit that turns into an unexpected conversation, stumbling onto an unconventional exhibition of an artist I’ve never heard of, eating something delicious with friends who I ran into at a show opening, and ending the night at a bar where half of the room just spilled out from the gallery down the street. What I’ve made for you is my personal, slightly circuitous, weekend guide to Los Angeles’ sprawling creative landscape. These are my snapshots of the places and people that I return to, the ones that have fed me, surprised me, taught me something or made a long day of circling the block to find parking impossible to forget.

FRIDAY: Downtown → MacArthur Park → Koreatown

Greg Ito with "Personal Effects," 2026, "The Spectrum Within," 2025 and "Love is a Vessel," 2026.

My first stop is visiting Greg Ito at his DTLA studio. I love the way his work draws me into a layered dreamscape and rearranges my sense of time and space. Greg is also a great storyteller. Pulling from archival family photos and childhood memories as a fourth-generation Angeleno in West L.A., his work weaves together a certain kind of nostalgia that always makes for a heartfelt studio visit. DM @gregitooo for availability and address.

Eduardo Medrano at John Doe Gallery.

From there, I head over to John Doe Gallery, which is run by two artists, Eduardo Medrano Jr. and Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. They show some of the best up-and-coming artists in Los Angeles, and their openings are always a good time. It’s the kind of place where I’m just as likely to run into someone I know as I am to discover someone I don’t, which in my opinion is exactly what a good art space should do. 107 E. 11th St., Los Angeles. DM @johndoegallery for open hours.

Vita Kari in front of “My Girlfriend Named Herself After a Water Bottle,” 2024, at their DTLA studio. Kari wears Barrio Drive.

You might recognize Vita Kari as “The craziest thing about being creative” personality from IG, but what you might not know is that they completed their MFA with a thesis on “Virality as Form,” wherein lies the proof in the pudding, a.k.a. their art. Vita uses textiles, performance and video to speak about internet culture, along with stunning visuals that incorporate their family’s Middle Eastern diaspora and history. DM @vitakari for availability and address.

Samala Meza in her DTLA studio with works in progress.

I make my way over to Samala Meza, who creates soft, sexy paintings that look like she literally breathed a secret into them. Her studio is situated at Princess Castle, an artist-run studio space, so you can pop over to some other great artists while you’re there. DM @samalameza for availability and address.

Devin Troy Strother on the roof of his studio overlooking DTLA.

Devin Troy Strother is an L.A.-born and -based artist and co-founder of Coloured Publishing, a printing press making books, zines, T-shirts and other editioned works, all by artists of color. Nestled among the produce district, there’s never a dull moment in Devin’s studio. Often working all hours of the night, there’s usually a cast of characters coming in and out, similar to the subjects you’ll see throughout his paintings. DM @devintroy for availability and address.

Commonwealth and Council Team (L to R clockwise): Isabel Einaudi, Audrey Bui, Brenda Reyes-Chavez, Oliver Sweet and Young Chung.

What began as an artist-run exhibition space in Young Chung’s apartment 15 years ago has grown to be one of L.A.’s most championed emerging artist safe havens, Commonwealth and Council. I’ll always make time for this space if I’m in the neighborhood. 3006 W. 7th St., Suite 220, Los Angeles, door code: 01220 (please note that this space is not wheelchair–accessible). Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., @commonwealthandcouncil

Holcomb in front of the Prince. Styled by Jocelyn Corona, wearing AYANEGUI, TANAMACHI and Vacr.

To round out the day, I recommend decompressing at the Prince in K-Town, a place where you can spot celebrities and L.A. artists under one roof. Many galleries have had their after-parties here, where you can catch up on the night’s gossip in a dimly lit booth over a kimchi pancake. 3198 1/2 W 7th St., Los Angeles. Call before your visit to confirm hours and dining details (this space is also not wheelchair–accessible). princektown.com

SATURDAY: Beverly Hills → Hollywood → Eastside

Jerson Hondall in the library of Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills.

I start the day by visiting one of my favorite people in the L.A. art scene, Jerson Hondall. Jerson worked for Curate LA back in the day, but now you can find him working as an artist liaison at Gagosian Gallery and serving on the board of LACE. He is a literal art encyclopedia, which you can see through his Instagram series #dosisdiariadearte, and he is one of the loveliest people you will find, so don’t be afraid to approach him if you see him out and about. DM @jersonhondall for availability.

Jonny Negron in his Los Feliz studio featuring works in progress “virtue signal” and “tellurian lube.”

Next, I head east to Los Feliz to visit Jonny Negron at his home studio. His paintings make you feel like you’re sitting across the bar from some of the coolest people in the room. You might recognize his work, which was commissioned for Rosalía’s single “Dolerme.” There’s something about seeing his works in the exact place where they were made that makes the paintings feel even more alive. DM @jonnynegron777 for availability and address.

LAST Projects exterior in Lincoln Heights with co-founder Ilona Berger and pup.

I then make my way to Lincoln Heights and visit LAST Projects, an alternative space and gem. This gallery has given many artists in L.A. their first shows in their early careers (myself included). It’s one of those places where I know I’m going to see something that makes me pause, even if I have no idea what I’m walking into beforehand. 206 S. Ave. 20, Los Angeles. Open Thursday, 1 to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m. @last_projects

Next I visit Drex, owned and curated by Vivian Hicks, a vintage homeware store tucked into Cypress Park. With a knowledge of designers that is truly unmatched, Vivian scours the internet and estate sales to hand-select some of the most desired American Modern, Italian and French design collectibles ranging from the early 20th century to the early 2000s. DM @drex.drex.drex for an appointment and address.

Huevos a la Mexicana breakfast burrito at Lupita’s Restaurant in Cypress Park.

I skipped breakfast, so Vivian recommends I go around the corner to Lupita’s Restaurant, and they do not disappoint with their huevos a la Mexicana breakfast burrito. Simple but effective. 2634 Idell St., Los Angeles. Open daily 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Ever Velasquez outside of Charlie James Gallery on Chunk King Road, Chinatown.

Satiated, I hop over to Chinatown to visit curator Ever Velasquez at Charlie James Gallery. While her name might not be on the door, Ever is the star of the show, putting together show after show of L.A.’s hottest rising artists. 969 Chung King Road, Los Angeles. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment. @charliejamesgallery @ever.a.k.a.thegirlabouttown

Human Resources exterior in Chinatown.

A few blocks away, there is Human Resources. An L.A. staple, HRLA has been around for 16 years now and continues to showcase some of the most experimental works coming out of the city. This space is truly a breeding ground for pure creativity and expression. Make sure to check the calendar on their website to see what’s happening. 410 Cottage Home St., Los Angeles. @humanresourcesla

Drinks at El Prado in Echo Park.

Finally, I end the day at El Prado, a local artist watering hole. Nick Fisher, the owner, used to bartend his personal bar called FISHTANK at gallery openings and come up with the craziest drink concoctions and home-brewed beers on theme with whatever exhibition was opening that evening. With names like the Loudspeaker cocktail and a Blood and Fire Smoked Lager, they were sure to get you litty. You can still sample his creations at the bar, albeit they might not be as experimental as they once were. 1805 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. Open Monday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday to Sunday, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. @ficknish, @elpradobar

SUNDAY: South L.A. → Mid-City → Pico

I start Sunday with Aleza Zheng at the artist-run Tlaloc Studios. Much like her artwork, she is quite the whimsical, spontaneous person. The first time we met, I was deep in the trenches of L.A. Art Week, starving at my probably fifth art event of the day. I was ready to call it quits when Aleza popped out of her car, dressed to the nines, with multiple bags of In-N-Out. She’s been feeding me ever since. DM @alezazheng for availability and address.

Dominique Clayton at Harun Coffee in Leimert Park.

From there I spend some time with Dominique Clayton in the heart of Leimert Park, where she was born and raised. Dominique is an L.A. native, curator and woman about town. She’s currently organizing Mom’s Night Out at Harun Coffee, a bimonthly meetup of mothers looking to connect with other creatives and artist moms. I love the way Dominique thinks about community — not as some abstract art world buzzword, but something you have to actually cultivate IRL. DM @lookatdominique to connect.

Jamal Hasef in front of his mural “Sky is the Limit,” 2026 on 11th & Vernon in Leimert Park.

I make my way to see Jamal Hasef, who uses paint to move between the personal and the political, digging into the complex and sublime afterlives of the African diaspora in his canvases and portraits. You can check out his mural on the corner of 11th and Vernon or visit him at his studio in nearby Baldwin Hills. @_hasef_ DM for availability and address.

Holcomb in front of Watts Towers in Watts, wearing Desigual and styled by Jocelyn Corona.

If you haven’t heard of or visited the fairy-tale world of Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, you’re in for a treat. Next door to the famous landmark is the Watts Towers Arts Center, a historical site of political activism and assemblage art, most notably by L.A. legendary artist Noah Purifoy, who once ran the gallery. I love bringing people here because it reminds me of why I’m so enamored with the city: It’s weird, completely handmade and unlike anything else. 1727 E. 107th St., Los Angeles. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but you can check out the towers from the street any day of the week. wattstowers.org

Books purchased from Reparations Club in Mid City (L to R): “Assata: An Autobiography,” “Love Poems’ by Nikki Giovanni, “Directed by Desire: The Collection of Poems” by June Jordan and “Communion: The Female Search for Love” by bell hooks.

By now I’m ready for some retail therapy, so I head to Reparations Club in Mid-City, my absolute favorite bookstore in Los Angeles. I could buy the entire store if my wallet and storage would allow, but on this particular trip my haul was “Assata: An Autobiography” by Assata Shakur, “Love Poems” by Nikki Giovanni, “Communion: The Female Search for Love” by bell hooks and “Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan.” Considering the state of literacy we are facing in this AI-driven world, I’d say we all could benefit from frequent visits here. 3054 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles. Open Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. @reparations.club

And finally, I end the weekend with pure sustenance. My last stop is Merkato, an Ethiopian cafe where the walls are filled with eclectic knickknacks and the plates are eat-with-your-hands style, packed with flavorful goodness; it’s the kind of meal that makes you want to linger. If you have the time, don’t skip out on the traditional Ethiopian coffee. 1036 1/2 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. Open daily 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Shelley Holcomb is an artist, curator, writer and cultural leader, whose work spans painting, installation, storytelling, advocacy and making art more accessible.

TRAVEL

A guide to camping at Channel Islands’ Prisoners Harbor Campground

Sep 3, 2026 Travel Desk

It was a Thursday evening, and I was performing Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 hit “I Will Survive” for my audience of three on an ocean pier as we waited for the partial lunar eclipse.

As we shimmied to ‘70s hits via a Bluetooth speaker, I boasted about winning a talent competition in my tiny town thanks to my rendition of the disco classic. “We need to see these dance moves!” a fellow camper proclaimed.

Somehow, we had this island all to ourselves.

This was one of several memories I made last week when I traveled to Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park to stay at Prisoners Harbor Campground on its opening night. When the National Park Service announced that reservations would open Aug. 18, I spent 11 hours that day refreshing the page, waiting for my chance. At last, site No. 1 was mine.

A small dirt tent pad surrounded by wood beams with a small picnic table and brown metal box surrounded by trees

In this edition of The Wild, I lay out how you can create your own memories at this quiet campground on a lesser traveled side of Santa Cruz Island. I will explain how to book your site and ferry, what to pack and what you can do while on the island.

Step 1: Book your campsite ⛺

Prisoners Harbor Campground is a small, rustic campground open year-round on Santa Cruz Island, the largest island in California. Although the National Park Service lists the campground as having six sites, it technically has seven. Reservations can be made for $15 a night through Recreation.gov.

Prisoners Harbor Campground is about a 13-mile hike southwest from Scorpion Canyon Campground, the popular 31-site spot where most folks visiting the island camp. Unlike Scorpion Canyon, Prisoners Harbor does not have any water on site and is a more DIY experience. There are also fewer tours and experiences led by outfitters on this side of the island.

A green map with dots and icons identifying the locations of campsites and other amenities and landmarks

Each campsite at Prisoners Harbor has a dirt-packed tent pad, a picnic table and metal food storage containers that everyone called “fox boxes,” as the island fox is the largest land predator on the island (and will absolutely steal your food, and maybe your shoes).

From the pier, you’ll walk about one-fifth of a mile on a mostly flat dirt road, passing the brick Prisoners Harbor warehouse and two pit toilets. You will cross the Cañada del Puerto, which was dry during our visit but can swell to 3 feet and become impassable, according to the park service.

I was pleased to find that site No. 1 is tucked away in the campground’s northern corner. It is shaded by oak trees and surrounded by thick brush, offering privacy and the feeling like you exist only in this one little corner of the world.

Site No. 2 is on the path to site No. 1 and isn’t presently bookable on Recreation.gov. (I’m guessing the park service will remedy that soon, as the site exists and is ready for campers!)

A campsite with a dirt tent pad with wooded beams on its sides and a brown metal storage box and black-brown picnic table

Sites No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are all positioned in a row on the southwestern corner of the campground. Similar to site No. 1, site No. 6 is tucked under thick tree canopy. I think it’s probably shaded for most, if not all, of the day. Sites No. 3, 4 and 5 also have some shade.

Site No. 7 is the accessible campsite and has a ramp leading up to it. It is fairly exposed, appearing to have the least amount of shade and privacy. It is closest to the pit toilet, though, which also has a ramp leading up to it.

As I was getting ready for bed, I noticed the soothing sound of ocean waves. My friend Christine was already cozy inside the tent, and I asked her if she’d turned on an ambient soundtrack on her phone to fall asleep. “No, that’s just the ocean!” she said.

Step 2: Book your ferry ⛴️

There are only two ways to get to Santa Cruz Island: Take a private boat or, the more popular route, book a ferry through Island Packers, leaving out of Ventura Harbor.

A roundtrip ferry to Prisoners Harbor costs $72 for children ages 3 to 12, $96 for campers ages 13 to 54, $91 for those 55 and older. It is also $91 for members of the U.S. military.

Upon booking your ferry, you must read the rules that Island Packers emails to you. I cannot stress that enough. There are weight limits (i.e. no single item may weigh more than 45 pounds) and limitations about what you’re allowed to bring. That said, it’s all fairly easy to follow — like not packing your water or fuel inside your bag, as those both are packed in specific places on the boat.

A person in a large hat sits aboard a yellow kayak in the ocean with a paddle in her hands near a rocky jagged coastline

Step 3: Plan out what you’d like to do on the island 🚣😎

With Prisoners Harbor being more of a DIY experience than Scorpion Canyon, one of the most important things you can do is plan ahead and book your activities at least a full day — ideally a few days — before your trip.

I knew I wanted to try snorkeling, but I don’t own gear — yet. Thanks to a recommendation from Island Packers, whose staff graciously answered all my questions, I contacted Ventura Dive and Sport to see what was doable. Owner Zach Cantrell was helpful and accommodating, setting me up with everything I needed, including a 7-mm wetsuit that made me feel like an actual marine mammal thanks to my ability to float while wearing it. Cantrell also made it easy to return my gear since the ferry was returning after his shop was closed.

Outside of snorkeling, you can also rent a kayak through Channel Islands Kayak Center. Or you can bring your own kayak, keeping in mind that Island Packers has specific rules around which kayaks you’re allowed to bring. You should also take a look at the National Park Service’s safety guidance regarding the risks of ocean kayaking.

A steep wide dirt road with views opening to blue ocean water and mountains in the distance

You can also swim near the Prisoners Harbor pier, but you should keep in mind:

The beach here is not sandy, but rather covered with rocks of varying sizes; pack swim shoes to protect your feet
The waves can get choppy, so make sure not to swim alone
There are stingrays in the area, so enter the water doing the stingray shuffle
There are sea urchins on some rocks in the area, so watch out for those as well, as their sting also hurts

On the island, there’s, of course, hiking. There are two trailheads at Prisoners Harbor:

The 4-mile out-and-back Pelican Bay hike, a challenging trek that traverses along the coastline, offering seemingly endless views of the area, before ending at the bay and Tinkers Harbor, another spot where you can swim and snorkel; The hike is on Nature Conservancy land, an environmental nonprofit that owns 76% of the island, and the conservancy requires that you sign a waiver and only traverse the hike when an Island Packers staffer is present on the trail.
A hike along Navy Road that you can take to the backcountry Del Norte campground, or to a variety of other spots on the island, should you pack a paper map or download a map before your trip.

Christine and I had originally planned to check out the Pelican Bay hike on Friday morning, but then a kind island visitor said we could borrow their kayaks for free. That was an irresistible offer.

I’ve kayaked several times on rivers and in lakes but never on the ocean, so I wanted to be fairly cautious. We paddled northwest along the island’s coast, taking in the island’s jagged rocky cliffs. We spotted what appeared to be a small sea cave but agreed it wasn’t a good idea to explore without a guide who knows the island. You should always be ready on any adventure to check in with yourself and your travel companions about your skill and comfort levels. If the reason you’re wanting to do something is really just “FOMO,” ask yourself if it should instead be a “NO-GO.” (Yes, I just made that up.)

Three paddlers in brightly colored kayaks head toward a rocky coastline on the blue ocean water

I saw repeatedly on the National Park Service website that the island’s weather conditions can change rapidly, including while out on the kayak. Christine was out front and noted the wind was picking up. We swiftly paddled back, carried in part by the waves, which pushed our kayaks along in a similar sensation to surfing. I quickly fell in love with that feeling!

Despite the campground being fully booked, there were only two other campers during our trip — retired educators and travel besties Kim Eaton and Annemarie Lee, both of Riverside. They’d visited the Channel Islands multiple times, including Anacapa, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and had made previous trips to Santa Cruz, and they’d always wanted to do the Pelican Bay hike.

We were all on the island when it was particularly hot and humid, so the duo chose to go halfway and turn around.

A cloudy night sky with white-golden light and a deep blue sky with twinkling white stars above the dark ocean

“The views were beautiful,” Eaton said, noting how clearly they could see the rugged coastline and waves. “We saw you guys kayaking!”

“The color of that ocean is beautiful,” Lee added.

Rocky outcroppings near Scorpion Anchorage.

Step 4: Plan what you’ll pack, including all your water

Everything you pack in, including your trash, you must pack out. There is no food for purchase, and there is no water at Prisoners Harbor, so you must bring whatever you plan to use for drinking and other purposes. I brought 4 gallons, and Christine packed 2. As I said, it was pretty hot, and we left the island with about a gallon and a half left.

I didn’t realize coolers were allowed. Nearby in campsite No. 4, Kim and Annemarie not only had a cooler but large ice cubes they’d frozen specifically for the trip, which last longer thanks to their size. “So if you like your cocktails, you’ll have ice” for multiple days, Kim said.

Step 5: Don’t miss the boat!

Island Packers requires campers to check in an hour before the boat leaves.

I left my home just before 6 a.m., picked up Christine and boogied to Island Packers, parking just before 8 a.m. Parking at Ventura Harbor is free Monday through Thursday, and $10 for a full-day pass Friday through Sunday and on major holidays.

After checking in, we worked with Island Packers staffers to load our gear onto the boat. I also thankfully had time to buy a four-shot latte next door at Freedom Coffee. Island Packers has several items for sale in their gift shop, including waterproof phone cases and other items you might have forgotten at home.

As you board the boat, make sure you remember wherever you tuck your return ticket. Our departure time from the island was 4:15 p.m. Friday, which gave us the better part of the day to explore.

An island fence lizard rests on a log at campsite No. 1, scoping out the new visitors to its island.

Step 6: Have fun!

Full of motion-sickness drugs and glee, we boarded the boat. I tried to keep my expectations low for what we’d see on the trip to the island. I’ve been on three whale watching excursions out of Long Beach, including once when we didn’t see any whales.

A bottlenose dolphin swims alongside the Island Packer boat on its journey to Santa Cruz Island.

However, shortly into our trip, our boat was visited by bottlenose dolphins that swam next to us. As we neared Scorpion Anchorage to drop off the passengers day-tripping and camping there, we saw so many common dolphins, it felt like an organized and official welcoming celebration.

A humpback whale near the coastline of Santa Cruz Island.

But the real magic happened shortly before we docked at the Prisoners Harbor pier when our captain Pancho spotted at least one (maybe two) humpback whale. We paused for a bit to take in the majestic animal’s movements. Christine and I agreed it was easy to see how sailors believed in sea monsters, given how otherworldly the humpback’s body appears as it slithers in and out of the water.

Before leaving for the island, I’d read about how the island foxes will approach you while you’re eating, and that they’ll come into your campsite to try to snag your food. We didn’t have that experience, thankfully, as the campground is so new, and the animals aren’t used to people being there yet.

These tiny canines remained rather elusive — until just before we left. We were headed to the restroom when I gasped. An island fox, about the size of a large house cat, was busy foraging for food in the leaves. It made me happy to see it act naturally, rather than begging us for human food.

An island fox roots through leaves in pursuit of a meal.

The fox cautiously walked a few feet past us on its journey for bugs and other snacks. It was a last bit of island magic before we left.

Although the beauty and biodiversity of the island is a major reason to visit, I carried something else with me back to the mainland, though. To a person, everyone was kind to each other. Prisoners Harbor, through its simple design, offers you the opportunity to move slower, notice more and just enjoy life in a way that’s harder to do when you have cellphone service.

For those looking for a simple escape near L.A., Prisoners Harbor Campground is that and so much more. Late-night karaoke is not required — but highly recommended.

3 things to do

Declan Beck, left, his brother Colson and friend Dayna Monbello visit Malibu Creek State Park near Calabasas.

1. Celebrate biodiversity around L.A. and beyond
California Biodiversity Day, which actually runs for a week from Saturday through Sept. 13, will include several opportunities to get outside and learn in L.A. County. Malibu Creek State Park and UCLA Stunt Ranch are both hosting one-day data collection events, called bioblitzes. Friends of Ballona Wetlands will offer a freshwater marsh tour on Sept. 12 in Playa Vista. And Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy will host a native plant walk. Find events near you at californianature.ca.gov.

2. Celebrate the black walnut in Ascot Hills
Coyotl wan Macehualli and several other local groups will host a “Black Walnut Day” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Ascot Hills Park. The annual gathering will include plant adoptions, a bird walk, a community bike ride, hiking and more. Learn more at the organization’s Instagram page.

3. Plant seedlings near Agoura Hills
The Santa Monica Mountains Fund, a local nonprofit, needs volunteers from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday to work at Cheeseboro Canyon. Volunteers will plant hundreds of live plants grown from locally collected seed. Register at eventbrite.com.

The must-read

Illustration of a female figure balancing on one leg with arms outstretched below a blue cloudy sky. A gray cat looks on.

Falling during a hike can lead to a serious injury, or even worse. This is why it’s crucial that hikers not only wear appropriate footwear but also ensure their ability to balance isn’t being hampered by underlying health issues. Times staff writer Deborah Vankin recently wrote “Get A Leg Up,” a multipart series on improving our balance. First, you read about how to test your balance IQ to discern any issues you might have. Then, you can use exercises that Deborah explains to improve your balance. “Knowing your balance ability is a critical component of self-care,” says Mike Teater, director of balance for Fyzical, a national network of clinics specializing in balance and dizziness, “so you can age gracefully and do the things you want to do — and enjoy the life you built for yourself.”

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

The L.A. River community is mourning the loss of Steven Appleton, founder of the LA River Kayak Safari. A longtime L.A. River supporter, Appleton died July 25 at his Elysian Valley home following an 18-month battle with a rare and aggressive form of esophageal cancer, according to a GoFundMe page launched to help his family. Times staff writer Doug Smith wrote of Appleton in 2019, “For more than a decade, he has been launching kayak expeditions just upstream from his newly acquired parcel. He has literally blazed water trails by moving broken chunks of concrete to eliminate obstacles to wading and kayaking.” Money from the GoFundMe fundraiser will help Appleton’s family cover his memorial and final expenses. Thank you, Steven, for doing your part to help our local river.

For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.

SHOW BIZ

Three decades of distance give Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney a new kind of sisterhood

Sep 3, 2026 News Desk

For more than three decades, Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney existed in parallel without ever quite meeting. They admired one another from afar, brushed shoulders only in passing, and, in some ways, represented opposing ways of challenging the limits placed on women in indie rock. Phair, who found novel and peerlessly smart ways to write about heterosexual skirmishes, used her ambitions to edge closer to the mainstream; Sleater-Kinney, one of the great duos of American rock, have succeeded in becoming the last band standing from the underground scene in which they emerged.

Both acts are about to share the stage for the first time, co-headlining a tour they’ve cheekily and earnestly named the Flannel and the Fury, with stops across the country, from El Cajon, Calif., to Ocean City, Md., and a night at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre on Tuesday.

Yet, despite having spent more than 30 years orbiting the same world, they have had surprisingly little time together. This interview is one of a few substantial conversations they’ve ever had. It is, at first, slightly stilted. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney) are in sync as always; Phair is clearly excited, but seemingly unsure of where to place herself in the dynamic. Now all in their 50s, the women have been asking similar questions of the same culture, and are only now getting the chance to compare answers.

“Sorry, I know you’re like, ‘Why aren’t you better friends?’ For me, that’s the point. I’m trying to be better friends,” says Brownstein. “Yeah, talk to us again when tour’s over,” Tucker adds.

Brownstein is sitting in a parking lot in Los Angeles, wearing a cardigan and glasses, people walking past her window, unaware of who’s inside. Tucker calls from her home, a blurred background behind her, wearing a white blouse and lipstick. Phair is at home too, makeup on and hair straightened, various musical instruments on the wall behind her. It’s a few weeks before their co-headlining tour, and Tucker has already loaded up all the equipment. She’s packed her suitcase too, full of socks she’ll throw away by the end of tour, and a wardrobe almost entirely of black.

“This is news to me,” says Brownstein. “I was thinking more of a chocolate brown. I will be all brown town.”

Phair is going for wine-like jewel tones. “A Cab Sav,” to be specific.

Phair, who’s had an on-and-off relationship with touring, is noticeably more nervous than Brownstein and Tucker. “It takes me two or three shows to get into it. At first I’m like, why are you all staring at me?”

Phair had been sitting on the idea of a co-headlining tour with Sleater-Kinney for a few years. She sheepishly says that she didn’t reach out herself, but got her manager to do it while she was working on the second half of her memoir. She’s been keen to share a bill with Sleater-Kinney ever since she heard their 1996 album “Call the Doctor.”

“By then, I’d started to pull back from indie rock,” says Phair. “I had gotten married, and I didn’t know I was pregnant at the time, but I was starting to drift out of this scene, and then they put out this kick-ass record, and I just remember thinking, I kind of want to be back in the game. It inspired me. It stuck with me.”

Phair felt she was atomized from the female coalitions of the ’90s, and that this co-bill might be a way to rectify that. “I’d love to be able to go back and sew it together again,” she says. “Here’s a band I was a fan of that meant something to me and now I can play with them.”

For Sleater-Kinney, Phair has long been more than a neighboring act. Tucker and Brownstein describe her as one of their “biggest inspirations.” Both have the same Phair favorite song: “Divorce Song.” “It’s a perfect song,” says Tucker. “I think I’ve put it on every mixtape I’ve ever made,” Brownstein adds.

By the time Phair released her debut album, “Exile in Guyville,” in 1993, she was the one of the two acts edging toward the mainstream. Within a year, she was on the cover of Rolling Stone.

“I still have a copy of the magazine,” says Brownstein. “We were all so excited. Like, an actual artist made the cover.”

Nirvana had made this small corporate alliance permissible a couple of years earlier, finding a loophole as Cobain wore a T-shirt that read “Corporate Magazines Still Suck” on their Rolling Stone cover. It was a time when an antiauthoritarian stance was the only artistically credible one. Before we started calling one another “performative,” Tucker, Brownstein and Phair came from a time when “poser” was the worst insult and sin. They came from a scene of ideological puritanism.

“You know when people die their life flashes before their eyes, sometimes, it’s like that when I do a deep dive, and I’m like, God, there were a lot of rules. There was a lot of fear. And I don’t think anyone who wasn’t there would be able to picture it,” says Brownstein. “It took us a long time to get over it.”

“OK, can I ask the question? Can I get right in here? Because I want to know,” Phair chimes. “Do you think that’s because there weren’t enough women? You think women would have brought the inclusivity to inclusivity?”

“Unfortunately, no,” replies Tucker.

“We had these all-female festivals in Olympia, and we had our own publicist, and they were like, how dare we?” says Brownstein. “You know, it was just gatekeeping, that now seems sort of repugnant. But it was also a way to establish yourself in opposition to what felt like the only way to be.”

It’s part of why Sleater-Kinney declined an invite to play Lilith Fair, the mainstream precedent for so-called female solidarity in music. One of history’s most famous traveling all-female festivals, Lilith Fair was considered by many in the Riot Grrrl movement to be an early symbol of the commodification of “girl power,” female solidarity aligned with corporate ideals.

“It seems like they haven’t really given credit to women in an independent milieu who have organized a lot of female-only shows for years,” Brownstein told the Dallas Observer in 1998.

“I think at the time we thought we were too cool to play Lilith,” Tucker reflects.

“I’ll just leave your answer,” says Brownstein.

Then she changes her mind four seconds later.

“I saw the Lilith Fair documentary last year and got FOMO, I kind of regretted not playing” she says. “But at the same time we had a handicap from a small indie punk community that was kind of didactic, there was a real rigidity to what you were and weren’t allowed to do. Even us signing with Matador in the U.K. was considered too big.”

Selling out, they all conclude, is no longer a concern for anyone. Phair’s son, who is Gen Z, often says the phrase “it’s time to get the bag.”

“You know, every artist has the right to get their bag,” says Phair. “I always felt that way and I was especially vilified for it.”

That vilification reached its apex when she released her mainstream-aspiring self-titled album in 2003, an album Sleater-Kinney said they hated in an interview with Rolling Stone that year, and which Pitchfork gave a rare 0.0 score in one of its most notorious reviews.

“I’d be on tour doing 10 interviews a day back-to-back, and I almost had to give these interviewers therapy, because they were so sad about my turn from indie rock,” says Phair.

Phair is adamant she made her mark on “every one of those songs, except maybe ‘Favorite,’” she says, referencing the chintzy, awkwardly phrased track where she sings about her underwear. Maybe it’s a metaphor, but more likely, it is just a song about her underwear. Safe to say it won’t be on the show’s setlist: “I will never play it live.”

The old argument about selling out now sits inside a very different touring economy. Sleater-Kinney and Phair’s co-headlining tour happens to follow a flood of co-headlining tours this year, from indie acts like Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman to big marquee names like Usher and Chris Brown. With higher ticket prices and more competition — not only with other touring bands but with the allures of home comforts — audiences need a bigger draw. Artists want an opportunity to play to big audiences, as well as a better chance of “getting the bag.”

All three artists insist they won’t necessarily bring home the bag, nor is that why they’re doing this.

“All our budget’s gone on to the lighting designer,” jokes Brownstein.

“When I do these interviews with you guys, I get kind of excited and nervous because I feel challenged in the best way,” says Phair. “I think co-headlining bills, it does let you go into bigger venues than you could by yourself. But it also, for me, gives me creative food, like nutrition. It makes me grow.”

SPORT

The Sports Report: L.A. Clippers? More like L.A. Cheaters

Sep 3, 2026 Sports Desk

L.A. Clippers are the L.A. Cheaters

From Bill Plaschke: Boom, goes the Clippers.

Steve Ballmer has been tattered. Lawrence Frank has been shredded. Their team future has been flattened.

Boom, goes those damn Clippers.

They had transformed themselves from the ridiculed Clip Joint to a top-shelf NBA organization, with the billionaire owner, the beautiful arena, the best coach and the most devoted fans … but they apparently got greedy, seemingly played dirty, and now have been affixed with a scarlet eight letters that will follow them forever.

Cheaters.

The NBA has ruled that the Clippers are cheaters.

Ballmer, cheater. Frank, cheater. Even president of business operations Gillian Zucker, cheater.

The NBA suspended Ballmer and Zucker for one year and Frank for six months Wednesday for violating salary cap rules when they signed Kawhi Leonard in 2019.

In arguably the harshest punishment in sports since SMU was given college football’s death penalty in 1987 — this is even worse than the USC sucker punch of 2010 — the league added injury to insult by stripping the team of five consecutive draft picks from 2029 to 2033.

NBA hammers Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard following investigation

Read the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard

Shohei Ohtani seems off as Dodgers lose to Cardinals

From Joaquin Ruiz: Shohei Ohtani didn’t look right when striking out in the 10th inning of the Dodgers’ 8-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday.

Ohtani, who hasn’t pitched since July 3 due to lingering knee and biceps issues, winced in pain throughout his eight-pitch at-bat against reliever Riley O’Brien, seeming to strain himself with every muscle flex, let alone big-league hacks.

“I saw the same thing that everyone saw,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m going to talk to [Ohtani] tomorrow and really try to figure out … where he’s at physically. Because, yeah, I saw the shaking of the arm, I saw the wincing, and clearly, the swings aren’t who he is.

“Obviously, there’s some compensation. So, I’m going to talk to him, and then I’ll make a decision tomorrow about his availability.”

Roberts isn’t sure if Ohtani, who went 0-for-4 on Wednesday with four strikeouts and a walk, will need to go on the injured list.

“It won’t be an IL, unless it is,” Roberts said. “But it’s very unlikely.”

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Yankees

Cam Schlitter gave up one run and two hits in eight superb innings, and the New York Yankees scored five two-out runs in the 10th in a series-clinching, 6-3 victory over the Angels on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.

New York loaded the bases with one out in the 10th when Jose Caballero singled, the automatic runner holding at third, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked against reliever Luke Murphy (0-2).

Murphy got Luis Garcia Jr. to pop out, but Austin Wells stroked a two-run single to right, Cody Bellinger hit an RBI single to center, Trent Grisham hit an RBI single to left, and Ben Rice had an RBI single to right for a 6-1 lead.

Angels box score

MLB standings

Jordan Chiles returns to gymnastics

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: That Girl is back.

Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles announced her intention to train for the L.A. Olympics on Wednesday, publicly beginning her attempt for a third Olympic Games in a video narrated by NBA legend Michael Jordan.

“Why again?” says Jordan, whom Chiles is named after. “Because the dream is still there.”

Chiles helped the United States to a team gold medal in 2024, competing in all four events in the final. She won her first individual Olympic medal, a bronze on floor with her energetic Beyoncé-inspired routine, but that result still is being considered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after controversy involving the inquiry process that led to Chiles’ score being upgraded to overtake Romania’s Ana Barbosu.

Chiles is the fourth member of that gold medal-winning team to announce a comeback for the 2028 Olympics, joining Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera. Simone Biles, the 29-year-old, 11-time Olympic medalist, has not officially come out of retirement.

This day in sports history

1908 — Canadian world heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Burns KOs Australian Bill Lang in six rounds in Melbourne in a warmup fight for his famous title bout with Jack Johnson.

1921 — The U.S. defeats Japan in five straight matches to win the Davis Cup.

1932 — Ellsworth Vines wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships with a three-set victory over France’s Henri Cochet.

1944 — Frank Parker wins the men’s singles title with a four-set victory over Bill Talbert in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships. Pauline Betz captures her third straight women’s title with 6-3, 8-6 victory over Margaret Osborne.

1945 — Frank Parker defends his U.S. Open title, defeating Bill Talbert 14-12, 6-1, 6-2 in the final of the first postwar U.S. Open.

1956 — Jockey John Longden surpasses Sir Gordon Richards’ then-record number of wins by riding Arrogate to victory in the Del Mar Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack to attain his 4,871st victory.

1974 — Future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame guard Oscar Robertson retires; leaves NBA with 26,710 points, 9,887 assists and 7,804 rebounds in 1,040 games.

1975 — Martina Navratilova, 18, defeats Margaret Court, who is 33 and competing in her 11th and final U.S. Open, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

1977 — Ken Rosewall, two months shy of his 43rd birthday, is beaten by 24-year-old Jose Higueras, 6-4, 6-4. The best-of-three-set third-round match marks Rosewall’s final U.S. Open singles match.

1989 — Chris Evert defeats 15-year-old Monica Seles, 6-0, 6-2, for her 101st and final U.S. Open singles win.

1994 — Miami beats Georgia Southern 56-0, breaking an NCAA record with its 58th consecutive home victory. The Hurricanes surpass Alabama’s record of 57 wins in a row at home set from 1962-82.

2001 — Jockey John Velazquez becomes the first jockey to ride six winners on a single card at Saratoga Racecourse. Velazquez guides Starine to a 5¼-length victory in the Diana Handicap, a 1 1-8 mile turf race, for his sixth win.

2006 — Sparks center Lisa Leslie wins the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player award, joining Sheryl Swoopes as the league’s only three-time winners.

2016 — Serena Williams’ dominating third-round victory at the U.S. Open is notable for a milestone: 307 Grand Slam wins. Williams’ 6-2, 6-1 win over 47th-ranked Johanna Larsson of Sweden improves her major-tournament mark to 307-42, putting her one win up on Martina Navratilova among women and tying Roger Federer among all players in the Open era.

2017 — UCLA’s Josh Rosen fakes the spike and throws a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Lasley with 43 seconds remaining and UCLA overcomes a 34-point deficit to stun Texas A&M 45-44. Rosen is 35 of 59 for 491 yards and throws four fourth-quarter touchdowns. UCLA scores on five straight possessions after trailing 44-10 with 4:08 to play in the third quarter.

2022 — 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams plays her final singles match at the US Open, losing 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 to Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia in a third round match in New York.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1917 — Philadelphia’s Grover Cleveland Alexander went the distance in both games of the Phillies’ 5-0 and 9-3 sweep of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1947 — Bill McCahan pitched a no-hitter to give the Philadelphia Athletics a 3-0 win over the Washington Senators. One batter reached base for Washington, a two-base throwing error by first baseman Ferris Fain in the second inning.

1947 — The New York Yankees had 18 hits, all singles, in an 11-2 victory over Boston at Fenway Park. Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio each had four hits.

1957 — Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves pitched his 41st career shutout with an 8-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Spahn’s shutout set a major league record for left-handers.

1970 — Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs asked to be kept out of the lineup, ending his National League record of 1,117 consecutive games played. His record was broken in 1983 by Steve Garvey.

1976 — Milwaukee’s Mike Hegan hit for the cycle and drove in six runs to lead the Brewers to an 11-2 rout of Mark Fidrych and the Detroit Tigers.

1986 — Billy Hatcher’s homer in the top of the 18th inning gave the Houston Astros an 8-7 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The teams played 14 innings the day before and used a major league record 53 players in the game.

1990 — Bobby Thigpen set a major league record with his 47th save in a 4-2 Chicago White Sox victory over Kansas City. Thigpen broke the record set by Dave Righetti of the New York Yankees in 1986.

2000 — Kenny Lofton’s 1st-inning run ties a 1939 major league record set by the Yankees ’Red Rolfe for scoring in 18 consecutive games. The speedy Indians outfielder, besides hitting the game-winning homer in the 13th, also steals five bases tying Cleveland’s single-game record set by Alex Cole.

2001 — Bud Smith became the 16th rookie in modern history to throw a no-hitter and the second to do it to San Diego this season in St. Louis’ 4-0 win. Smith was making his 11th start.

2007 — Pedro Martinez completed his comeback from major shoulder surgery and quickly went into the record books, becoming the 15th pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in his career. The New York Mets right-hander needed only two strikeouts to reach the mark in a 10-4 win over Cincinnati.

2011 — Milwaukee’s George Kottaras hit for the cycle to lead the Brewers to an 8-2 win over the Houston Astros.

2013 — Pinch-hitter Travis Snider homered in the ninth inning to lift Pittsburgh to a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers that clinched the Pirates’ first non-losing record in 21 seasons.

2017 — Jose Ramirez tied a major league record with five extra-base hits, including a pair of home runs that deflected off Detroit outfielders, and the Cleveland Indians routed the Tigers 11-1 for their 11th straight victory. Ramirez had three doubles in becoming the 13th player with five extra-base hits in a game.

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 houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

TRAVEL

Jeff Shelton’s storybook-like buildings spark joy in Santa Barbara

Sep 3, 2026 Travel Desk

Walking through downtown Santa Barbara, it’s impossible to not turn your head when you see it: those marshmallow-like plaster walls, wiggly wrought ironwork and tile that looks as though it belongs in a palace you’d stumble upon in a storybook.

This is the effect architect Jeff Shelton’s signature design has on viewers: the ability to pluck you out of the monotony of the day, if only briefly.

When asked why he thinks this is so, Shelton is quick to point to the tried-and-true architectural methods of the past, which he proudly uses. Buildings, he said, had to be designed “to act more independently” in serving the needs of their specific inhabitants. A window’s primary purpose, for example, was to allow the ideal amount of light to enter.

“So therefore they had taller windows,” he said, sitting opposite me in his Fig Avenue office in downtown Santa Barbara, surrounded by endless sketches and pattern mock-ups.

Shelton obsesses over other design details that are often overlooked in modern architecture yet instinctively felt when you encounter them: high ceilings, for one (his are 14 to 18 feet from the ground floor), as well as smaller touches like ironwork, stonework and glass. Crucially, all are made by people, designed by people — “nothing,” he said, “out of the catalog.”

Before going solo, Shelton spent a decade working in downtown Los Angeles with architect Brenda Levin on projects including the Bradbury Building and Grand Central Market. He then returned to his hometown of Santa Barbara, where he has designed 90 buildings since 1994, many of them within Santa Barbara’s Historic Landmarks District, commonly referred to as El Pueblo Viejo.

Following Santa Barbara’s 1925 earthquake, which destroyed much of downtown, new construction in the area was required to adopt the Spanish Revival style, which, according to the city’s website, “is key to the identity and beauty of Santa Barbara.” New buildings in the district must draw inspiration from Andalusia and Southern Spain and incorporate elements such as tile, terra-cotta, plaster and ironwork.

For Shelton, the guidelines are merely a reference. When designing, he doesn’t “try to make it like Spain at all,” he said, rather matter-of-factly. “I try to just use the materials and proportions and the craft of what’s so great about being in Spain.”

That approach shines through in his many projects near his Fig Street office, a 10-block radius Shelton has dubbed the “Fig District,” where 10 of his most lauded projects lie, inadvertently creating a kind of architectural museum in the heart of downtown.

Seeing them requires little more than a two-hour self-guided tour, carving your own path or following the map on Shelton’s website. By the end of the excursion, you, too, may ask yourself the same question I did: Why did we ever stop building this way?

Shelton didn’t have an answer. He could only promise to never stop.

“Every building I do is my last building,” said Shelton, now 68. “If I die tomorrow, at least I put everything in this last building.”

Without further ado, here are designs by Shelton all located in the Fig District, including iron gates designed by his brother, David.

SPORT

In a stunner, Rams’ Stan Kroenke buys the Angels

Sep 3, 2026 Sports Desk

Rams’ Stan Kroenke agrees to buy Angels

From Sam Farmer and Bill Shaikin: Rams owner Stan Kroenke has agreed to buy the Angels, adding Major League Baseball to a portfolio that spans six leagues and two continents.

The deal marks the end of Arte Moreno’s turbulent ownership of the Angels, with the news triggering shock followed by celebration among beleaguered fans whose team owns baseball’s longest playoff drought.

The transaction runs through Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, Kroenke’s holding company, which also owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS and Arsenal of the English Premier League.

The Angels are being sold for an MLB-record $4-billion valuation, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times. The previous high was the $3.9-billion sale of the San Diego Padres that was completed last month.

Forbes had valued the Angels at $2.8 billion in March. The sale is “subject to customary closing conditions” and MLB approval, with the expectation it will close in the first quarter of next year, according to a news release announcing the deal.

Light the Big A! Stan Kroenke just made Angels fans big winners

Angels fans hold up signs on Tuesday thanking Kroenke Sports and Entertainment for buying the Angels from Arte Moreno.

From Bill Plachke: Whose house? Angels’ house!

To all you long-suffering Halos fans, light that baby up, because salvation is at hand.

His name is Stan Kroenke, and he’s Rams tough, and he’s just spent a record $4 billion to transform your slumbering baseball organization into something that dazzles like Matthew Stafford and dominates like Myles Garrett.

Kroenke, whose illustrious ownership of the Rams resulted in their move to Los Angeles, a $5.5-billion stadium, and a Super Bowl championship, has agreed to take control of the Angels’ carcass from Arte Moreno in the franchise’s best move since Darin Erstad caught that fly ball on Oct. 27, 2002.

This is huge. This is landscape altering. This is like Southern California just added an expansion team led by one of the best owners in sports.

For the Angels, currently the second-worst team in baseball and on track to finish a league-worst 12th consecutive season out of the playoffs, this is downright life changing.

Kroenke builds. Kroenke spends. Kroenke wins.

Angels exuberant about Stan Kroenke buying the franchise

Mike Trout high fives teammates after scoring against the Houston Astros at Angel Stadium on July 29.

From Bill Shaikin: Mike Trout was practically beaming. He dropped the phrase “fresh start” four times in an interview that barely lasted five minutes.

The burden of the Angels’ failures has been disproportionately his to bear. He has insisted that his path to Cooperstown would run through Anaheim and only Anaheim. He has played 16 seasons for an owner that blessed him with half a billion dollars, treated his family like royalty and stranded him in position to conclude a star-spangled career without ever winning a postseason game.

On Tuesday, Trout learned that the Angels would have a new owner: Stan Kroenke. Trout got off the call, looked up Kroenke and has not stopped smiling since.

“What a track record,” Trout said. “Wherever he buys, he wins.”

Arellano: Arte Moreno finally sells the Angels. Anaheim’s long nightmare is over

MORE ANGELS COVERAGE:

Shaikin: ‘A big day for Anaheim.’ Angels get a fresh start with Stan Kroenke, and much more

Yankees strike back, beat Angels on day Anaheim team sale is announced

Angels box score

MLB standings

Sluggish Dodgers open homestand with lopsided loss to Cardinals

Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker can't reach a fifth-inning homer by Cardinals shortstop Thomas Saggese.

From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers’ August woes followed them into the first day of September.

Roster expansion, returning three players from the injured list, the mental relief of turning the calendar page — none of that gave the Dodgers the boost they needed against the Cardinals on Tuesday.

Instead, the Dodgers lost 13-8 to a team that entered the day 4 ½ games out of the last National League wild-card spot.

“I just think tonight we just got behind the eight ball,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Dodgers-Cardinals box score

MORE DODGERS

Will Smith and Dalton Rushing among Dodgers activated as rosters expand for September

Ignore the out-of-town trolls. Los Angeles sports fans are the nation’s best

USC fans brace for the heat before kickoff of the Trojans' game against San José State at the Coliseum on Saturday.

From Bill Plaschke: The coach was mad. Sections of his home stadium were empty for a blowout win against an overmatched opponent, and he couldn’t understand why.

“I can honestly say I was a little disappointed there weren’t more students at the last game,” the coach said, adding, “There’s got to be a spirit that makes it special to play here, because that’s what makes it special to be here. And if that’s not here…”

Lincoln Riley after USC’s sparsely attended opener?

No, that was Nick Saban after a midseason home game between Alabama and Louisiana in 2018.

Hmmm. Empty seats even at the royal palace of the king of college football, huh?

There has been much similar chatter this week after the sports landscape witnessed a virtual ghost town at the USC opener against San José State Saturday at the Coliseum. There was an announced crowd of 51,444 but only about half that many showed up, immersing a national television audience in a giant bowl of empty red that left outsiders in a rage.

They called the Los Angeles sports fans a disgrace. They said they weren’t real sports fans. They whined so loudly on social media that USC embarrassingly felt compelled to issue a statement promising better turnouts.

“We understand the factors that impacted Saturday’s attendance,” read the statement. “We have high expectations and a premier home schedule this season, and we know the competitive advantage an electric Coliseum atmosphere can provide our program. We thank our fans who showed up Saturday and look forward to seeing increased attendance the rest of the season.”

With all due respect, I would like to issue a second statement to all you arrogant dummies spouting lazy cliches about a market you don’t understand.

Stick a foam finger in it.

Lincoln Riley defends USC amid criticism of season opener crowd

MORE USC NEWS:

This day in sports history

1901 — Seven-year-old Ogden wins two races in a single day at Sheepshead Bay race track in Coney Island, New York. Ogden edges Cameron by a head in the second race on the card, a six furlong sprint on the main track. In the sixth race, a 1 1-16 mile distance on the turf, Ogden beats Monarka by a length.

1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Bill Lang in the sixth round in Melbourne for his last successful defense of his heavyweight title.

1924 — Bill Tilden wins his fifth straight U.S. men’s singles title with a 6-1, 9-7, 6-2 victory over Bill Johnston.

1940 — Byron Nelson wins the PGA by beating Sam Snead 1-up at the Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.

1945 — Frank Parker wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships by beating Bill Talbert. Sarah Palfrey Cooke beats Pauline Betz for the women’s title.

1965 — Cubs slugger Ernie Banks hits his MLB 400th career HR (off Curt Simmons) in Chicago’s 5-3 win v St. Louis at Wrigley Field; Simmons also gave up Willie Mays’ 400th HR in 1963.

1970 — The tie-break debuts in Grand Slam tennis at the U.S. Open. A total of 26 tie-breaks (the nine-point sudden death tie-break) are played on the first day of the tournament. Bob McKinley and Ray Ruffels both win matches in fifth-set tie-breaks.

1971 — Sixteen-year-old Chris Evert wins the first of her record 101 U.S. Open matches, defeating Edda Buding, 6-1, 6-0, in 42 minutes. Jimmy Connors, playing on 19th birthday, comes back from a two-set deficit to beat Alex Olmedo for his first U.S. Open victory.

1984 — In his first NFL start, Atlanta’s Gerald Riggs rushes for 202 yards and scores two touchdowns as the Falcons beat New Orleans 36-28.

1991 — Jimmy Connors turns 39 years old and rallies from a 2-5 fifth-set deficit to defeat 24-year-old Aaron Krickstein, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6. The fourth-round Labor Day match lasts 4 hours and 41 minutes.

1995 — Frank Bruno wins a heavyweight championship in his fourth attempt registering a unanimous decision over Oliver McCall to take his WBC title in Wembley, England.

2001 — Michael Schumacher becomes the winningest driver in Formula One history, winning the Belgian Grand Prix for his 52nd career victory. Schumacher breaks the mark shared with Alain Prost and clinches his fourth world championship.

2004 — In a second-round match, Sargis Sargsian defeats Nicolas Massu, 6-7 (8), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, in five hours and nine minutes. It’s the second-longest match on record at the U.S. Open and falls 18 minutes shy of breaking the record for longest match, set in 1992 when Stefan Edberg defeated Michael Chang in 5:26 in the semifinals.

2007 — Clay Buchholz throws a no-hitter in his second career start against the Baltimore Orioles.

2008 — Adrian Beltre goes 5 for 6 and hits for the cycle in a 12-6 Seattle Mariners win over the Texas Rangers.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1929 — Joe Cronin of the Washington Senators hit for the cycle in a 10-7 win against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

1937 — For the second time this season, two batters opened a game with home runs. Boze Berger and Mike Kreevich of the Chicago White Sox connected off Boston’s Johnny Marcum, en route to a 4-2 win over the Red Sox.

1944 — Dixie Walker of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit for the cycle and drove in four runs in an 8-4 win over the New York Giants at Ebbets Field.

1952 — Mike Fornieles of the Washington Senators, in his major league debut, pitched a one-hitter for a 5-0 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics in the second game of a doubleheader.

1957 — The Milwaukee Braves swept the Chicago Cubs, 23-10 and 4-0. Bob Hazle of the Braves got four hits in the first game and teammate Frank Torre scored six runs to tie the major league record.

1963 — Cincinnati’s Pete Rose hit a leadoff homer of Jay Hook to give the Reds a 1-0 win over the New York Mets in the second game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds.

1965 — Ernie Banks hit his 400th home run as the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 at Wrigley Field. The blow came off Curt Simmons in the third inning.

1971 — Cesar Cedeno’s 200-foot fly ball in the fifth inning fell for an inside-the-park grand slam home run as second baseman Jim Lefebvre and right fielder Bill Buckner of the Dodgers collided. The hit helped the Houston Astros beat Los Angeles 9-3.

1972 — Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs retired 26 consecutive San Diego Padres before walking pinch-hitter Larry Stahl on a 3-2 pitch. Pappas then retired Gary Jestadt to finish his 8-0 no-hitter.

1987 — Houston’s Kevin Bass went 4-for-4, including home runs from both sides of plate, and drove in three runs as the Astros posted a 10-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

1990 — Dave Stieb, who had lost three no-hit bids with one out to go in the previous two seasons, finally pitched one as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Cleveland 3-0. It was the record ninth no-hitter of the season.

1996 — Mike Greenwell set a major league record by driving in all nine Boston runs, the final one on a 10th-inning single to give the Red Sox a 9-8 victory over Seattle.

2001 — New York’s Mike Mussina came within one strike of pitching the first perfect game in the 89-year history of Fenway Park in a 1-0 win over Boston. Mussina’s bid was broken up by pinch-hitter Carl Everett’s clean single.

2002 — Miguel Tejada had his second straight game-ending hit as he singled home Terrence Long with the bases loaded in the ninth inning as Oakland tied the longest winning streak in AL history with a 7-6 victory over Kansas City. Oakland, which overcame a 5-0 deficit, equaled the 19 straight wins by the 1906 Chicago White Sox and the 1947 New York Yankees.

2003 — Eric Gagne set a major league record with his 55th consecutive save in Los Angeles’s 4-1 victory over Houston.

2009 — Alex Rodriguez picks up the 2,500th hit of his career as his Yankees defeat Baltimore, 10 – 2, to complete a sweep at Camden Yards. Eric Hinske‘s home run is the Bronx Bombers’ 20th at the park this season, the most by a visiting team since the ballpark opened in 1992. CC Sabathia earns his American League-leading 16th win.

2012 — Jurickson Profar made quite a debut at age 19, homering in his first major league at-bat and doubling his next time up in the Texas Rangers’ 8-3 win over Cleveland.

2015 — Clayton Kershaw strikes out 15 batters tying a career best and setting a new personal record of 251 for the season.

2022 — Yu Darvish reaches a rare milestone with a strikeout of Cody Bellinger in the 5th inning of the Padres’ 7 – 1 win over the Dodgers: this gives him 1,750 Ks in ten major league seasons, and this gives him 3,000 when the 1,250 he amassed in seven seasons in Japan are added. Among all pitchers who have struck out 1,000 or more batters on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, only Hideo Nomo has preceded Darvish in reaching the mark.

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 Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

SHOW BIZ

‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton suspended amid ‘allegations’

Sep 2, 2026 News Desk

Jim Thornton, the longtime announcer for the popular game show “Wheel of Fortune,” has been suspended following unspecified allegations.

“We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton,” a spokesperson for Sony Pictures Television Studios told The Times. “He has been suspended from ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”

Sony Pictures did not specify the reason for the suspension.

The allegations could possibly stem from an incident that occurred in May aboard a commercial American Airlines flight to Los Angeles, TMZ reported, when a passenger complained about Thornton to a flight attendant.

American Airlines told TMZ that a passenger was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on May 14, although the airline did not identify the individual.

Thornton’s attorney told the outlet that the 61-year-old “did not engage in any illegal conduct, was not arrested and has not been charged with any crime.”

“When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight, law enforcement spoke to him for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go,” his attorney continued.

Thornton joined “Wheel of Fortune” in 2011 following the death of announcer Charlie O’Donnell.

Thornton’s credits include “The Price Is Right,” “The Soup,” “Jeopardy!” and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.” Thornton’s voice was also been featured in the 2001 animated hit “Monsters, Inc.,” and video games including “Wall-E” and “Mafia II.”

SPORT

Read the NBA’s scathing investigation of L.A. Clippers, Steve Ballmer,

Sep 2, 2026 Sports Desk

Sept. 2, 2026 2:41 PM PT

Here is the NBA’s investigation into allegations the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The NBA handed down sweeping penalties to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, team executives, the team and Kawhi Leonard following an
investigation. The Clippers said in a statement that they “vehemently reject the NBA’s findings” and vowed to challenge them.

Read the full report here:

SPORT

High school flag football: Monday and Tuesday results

Sep 2, 2026 Sports Desk

HIGH SCHOOL FLAG FOOTBALL

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

Southern Section

Adelanto 26, Arroyo Valley 0

Alemany 42, Immaculate Heart 0

Anaheim 27, Nogales 0

Arlington 20, Ramona 8

Azusa 19, Pomona 0

Bonita 25, Eastvale Roosevelt 0

Burbank Providence 32, Shalhevet 15

California Military Institute 34, Rancho Mirage 13

Calvary Baptist 7, Keppel 6

Castaic 19, Hart 6

Chaffey 25, Arrowhead Christian 6

Colony 18, Chino 13

Colton 12, Bloomington 8

Corona 20, Canyon Springs 14

Crean Lutheran 12, Sunny Hills 6

Dos Pueblos 31, Santa Barbara 0

Downey 33, Mira Costa 13

Eastside 9, Lancaster 0

Elsinore 24, Tahquitz 0

Gardena Serra 41, Culver City 12

Garey 21, San Gabriel 0

Grand Terrace 19, Carter 6

Great Oak 33, Rancho Cucamonga 12

Heritage 21, Perris 15

Highland 14, Knight 0

Hillcrest 12, Valley View 6

Imperial 37, La Quinta 0

Indian Springs 12, Victor Valley 6

Indio 12, Miller 0

Jurupa Valley 43, Rubidoux 0

Kaiser 33, Jurupa Hills 13

Lakewood 19, Santa Fe 14

Lakewood St. Joseph 34, Beckman 13

Lawndale 7, Compton Centennial 6

La Sierra 28, Lakeside 0

Liberty 19, Rancho Verde 6

Long Beach Wilson 52, Orange 0

Los Altos 34, La Puente 0

Millikan 51, Cerritos Valley Christian 13

Moreno Valley 12, Temecula Prep 6

Newbury Park 41, Rio Mesa 14

North Torrance 19, El Segundo 14

Nuview Bridge 19, Highland Entrepreneur 7

Nuview Bridge 31, Highland Entrepreneur 0

Oaks Christian 20, Village Christian 7

Orange Lutheran 20, Aliso Niguel 7

Oxnard 49, Buena 13

Oxnard Pacifica 35, Hueneme 12

Pacific 12, San Bernardino 6

Paloma Valley 26, Rancho Christian 6

Quartz Hill 18, Palmdale 0

Redondo Union 12, Etiwanda 6

Riverside King 45, Riverside North 0

Royal 18, Agoura 14

San Gorgonio 20, Rialto 13

San Marcos 34, Channel Islands 0

Santa Margarita 39, Dana Hills 0

Saugus 14, Golden Valley 0

Sierra Vista 2, Rowland 0

Sonora 37, Norwalk 6

South Torrance d. Peninsula, forfeit

Temescal Canyon 40, West Valley 6

Thousand Oaks 28, Oak Park 6

Trabuco Hills 39, Corona del Mar 19

Vasquez 14, Fillmore 0

Western Christian 20, El Toro 13

Westridge 25, Rio Hondo Prep 12

West Torrance 21, Wiseburn-Da Vinci 20

Woodbridge 59, Northwood 12

Intersectional

Cleveland 40, Calabasas 0

MONDAY’S RESULTS

City Section

Arleta 20, Sylmar 12

Arleta 52, Bernstein 0

Contreras 32, Camino Nuevo 0

Contreras 19, West Adams 0

Foshay 27, Orthopaedic 6

Fremont 14, South East 0

Granada Hills Kennedy 45, Chatsworth 0

Granada Hills Kennedy 24, Verdugo Hills 0

Huntington Park 13, Hollywood 2

Jefferson 6, Los Angeles Marshall 0

Los Angeles Marshall 6, Bell 0

Los Angeles Wilson 31, Garfield 20

Manual Arts 19, Hawkins 18

Manual Arts 7, SOCES 6

Panorama 34, Sun Valley Magnet 0

Port of Los Angeles 33, Gardena 0

SOCES 23, Hawkins 7

Sotomayor 32, USC Hybrid 13

Sylmar 21, Bernstein 0

Van Nuys 45, VAAS 0

Van Nuys 12, East Valley 0

West Adams 14, Camino Nuevo 6

Southern Section

Adelanto 40, Fontana 13

Alhambra 14, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 2

Alta Loma 8, Los Osos 6

Aquinas 47, Xavier Prep 7

Aquinas 12, Redlands Adventist Academy 0

Arlington 31, Hillcrest 7

Antelope Valley 42, Rosamond 0

Baldwin Park 6, Don Lugo 0

Beckman 33, Santa Ana Foothill 14

Bonita 18, Bishop Amat 7

Bloomington 12, Carter 7

Cajon 13, Etiwanda 6

California Military Institute 54, San Jacinto valley Academy 6

Century 25, Oxford Academy 12

Cerritos 20, Cerritos Valley Christian 2

Chaminade 24, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6

Charter Oak 67, Bassett 0

Chino Hills 13, Claremont 0

Citrus Valley 27, Rancho Mirage 6

Colony 65, Jurupa Valley 0

Compton 22, Compton Centennial 0

Compton Early College 47, Environmental Charter 0

Corona Centennial 12, Eastvale Roosevelt 6

Corona Santiago 20, Corona 0

Costa Mesa 7, Paramount 0

Desert Hot Springs 33, Woodcrest Christian 0

Dominguez 7, Long Beach Cabrillo 6

Downey 44, Bellflower 0

Eisenhower 14, Colton 6

Edison 32, Los Alamitos 0

El Modeno 13, Anaheim Canyon 0

El Rancho 18, Orange 13

Elsinore 25, Valley View 0

Fullerton 34, La Palma Kennedy 0

Gabrielino 19, Burbank Burroughs 18

Gahr 6, Mayfair 0

Garden Grove Pacifica 12, Rancho Alamitos 6

Glendora 25, Covina 20

Grand Terrace 12, Rim of the World 6

Huntington Beach 32, Fountain Valley 0

Irvine University 32, Laguna Beach 14

Kaiser 22, Rialto 0

La Serna 14, California 0

La Sierra 13, Palm Springs 6

Linfield Christian 14, Murrieta Mesa 12

Long Beach Wilson 48, Artesia 0

Los Altos 12, Rowland 6

Los Amigos 32, Whitney 0

Mater Dei 33, La Habra 7

Mission Viejo 20, St. Margaret’s 18

Montebello 12, Schurr 6

Moreno Valley 12, Hemet 6

Newport Harbor 41, Marina 0

Nogales 21, Bell Gardens 6

Norte Vista 13, Vista del Lago 0

Orange Lutheran 13, Woodbridge 7

Palm Desert 14, Banning 7

Palos Verdes 47, Warren 12

Patriot 44, Temecula Valley 6

Placentia Valencia 20, Laguna Hills 7

Portola 20, San Juan hills 13

Rancho Cucamonga 25, Liberty 12

Riverside King 34, Norco 19

Riverside North 25, Citrus Hill 0

Riverside Poly 14, Chaparral 6

Saddleback 31, Bolsa Grande 13

Sage Hill 33, Rosary Academy 7

San Gabriel 14, Ramona Convent 12

San Gorgonio 33, Summit 6

San Jacinto ValleyAcademy 13, Desert Christian Academy 7

Santa Paula 7, St. Bonaventure 0

Segerstrom 21, Garden Grove 12

Serrano 26, Arrowhead Christian 6

Shadow Hills 14, La Quinta 0

Sierra Canyon 74, Flintridge Sacred Heart 6

St. Lucy’s 18, Azusa 6

St. Paul 26, Arroyo 0

Sunny Hills 42, San Dimas 6

Tustin 13, Santa Ana Valley 7

Victor Valley 13, Jurupa Hills 7

Villa Park 39, Norwalk 0

West Covina 38, Pasadena Poly 6

Western Christian 31, Hacienda Heights Wilson 7

West Valley 24, Lakeside 12

Whittier 18, Katella 6

Yorba Linda 41, Brea Olinda 0

Intersectional

Glenn 33, South Gate 25

Southwest EC 14, Indio 6

SPORT

Light the Big A! Stan Kroenke just made Angels fans big winners

Sep 2, 2026 Sports Desk

Who’s house? Angels’ house!

To all you long-suffering Halos fans, light that baby up, because salvation is at hand.

His name is Stan Kroenke, and he’s Rams tough, and he’s just spent a record $4 billion to transform your slumbering baseball organization into something that dazzles like Matthew Stafford and dominates like Myles Garrett.

Kroenke, whose illustrious ownership of the Rams resulted in their move to Los Angeles, a $5.5-billion stadium, and a Super Bowl championship, has agreed to take control of the Angels’ carcass from Arte Moreno in the franchise’s best move since Darin Erstad caught that fly ball on Oct. 27, 2002.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke holds up the Lombardi Trophy after his team beat the Bengals to win the Super Bowl in 2022.

This is huge. This is landscape altering. This is like Southern California just added an expansion team led by one of the best owners in sports.

For the Angels, currently the second-worst team in baseball and on track to finish a league-worst 12th consecutive season out of the playoffs, this is downright life changing.

Kroenke builds. Kroenke spends. Kroenke wins.

The sale is not expected to close until early 2027, so change will come slowly, but buckle up, because a bumps-be-damned renovation is coming.

First, the Angels are getting a new stadium. Kroenke hasn’t confirmed it, but it’s surely happening. He’s a real estate guy at heart who loves turning empty lots into palaces and that’s what he’ll do in Anaheim.

You think SoFi is nice? Here’s guessing the new Angels stadium will be nicer, and surrounded by the sort of commercial baseball village sprouting up all over the major leagues. The stadium and its environs will offer everything the Dodgers can’t, and may just steal a few fans in the process.

Second, the Angels are getting new swashbuckling leadership. Don’t know who, but expect the new general manager to be the kind of leader who will boldly sacrifice the future to win now, because that’s what Kroenke does, he wins now. Think baseball’s version of Les Snead.

Third, the Angels are getting one of the game’s bright young managers. Don’t know who, but he will be a guy who’s big on analytics and even bigger on the human touch, and he’ll probably be very young and very anonymous and eventually very successful. Think baseball’s version of Sean McVay.

The overall theme of Kroenke’s leadership will be championship or bust. He hates finishing second, and has left no stone unturned in giving the Rams every opportunity to succeed.

When he brought the Rams back to Los Angeles in 2016, he gave the team all of 13 games before firing then-coach Jeff Fisher after going 4-9. Soon thereafter he made 30-year-old McVay the youngest coach in NFL history and they’ve since become arguably the most admired franchise in the NFL.

Kroenke wins both on the field and in the community. His entire operation, which also owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS and Arsenal of the Premier League, is led by Kevin Demoff, a lifelong Angeleno who understands and works the local market as well as any sports executive ever. The community has become saturated with Rams, and the same will be happening with the Angels as they increase their reach into Los Angeles County, something Moreno tried but could never pull off.

The name will remain the Los Angeles Angels, not because Kroenke doesn’t like Anaheim, but because he knows his investment must expand out of Orange County to eventually reap rewards.

“The Angels are a storied franchise anchored in a great market,” Kroenke said in a statement. “We look forward to an exciting future with the Angels organization.”

Storied. Anchored. Exciting. Those are words you rarely heard about the Angels under Moreno, whose 23-year stewardship began with a cheer and ended with a whimper.

Angels owner Arte Moreno looks across the field while attending a game in 2016.

Remember how, in his first news conference after buying the team from Disney, he lowered beer prices? He was fun, he was innovative and he was the first Latino majority owner in major American team sports. It was all so cool, and the team responded with five American League West titles and two appearances in the American League Championship Series.

But he eventually made some terrible free-agent decisions — bringing in Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Vernon Wells — and slowly lost touch with a winning formula.

The last straw was four seasons ago when he refused to trade star Shohei Ohtani and eventually lost him to the Dodgers in a free-agent bidding war he reportedly could have won.

In the end, fans were chanting for him to get out and this columnist wrote that he should sell the team … to Stan Kroenke.

Somebody listened!

It’s a sweet marriage, a perfect match, an outcome that deserves to be accompanied by the words of the late, great Rory Markas.

“Just another Halo Victory!”

Is it ever.

SPORT

Why the Angels will get a fresh start with Stan Kroenke, and much more

Sep 1, 2026 Sports Desk

When the Angels won their lone World Series, this was the headline in the Los Angeles Times: “Fantasyland!”

Can we run that headline again?

For your new owner, Angels fans, you get a proven winner and real estate developer — more on that in a second — whose very name drips with baseball history.

You know him as Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Rams. His full name is Enos Stanley Kroenke, so named in honor of two St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famers: Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial.

As he assembled his sports empire, baseball was the one sport that eluded him. He has the Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and Arsenal. He badly wanted the Dodgers, a runner-up in the bidding when Mark Walter bought them in 2012.

Now he is acquiring the Angels — at a $4-billion valuation, a record for a baseball team — and getting the closest thing to a blank slate that any owner can get without buying an expansion team.

The general manager? He’s an interim, and his contract expires this year.

The manager? His contract expires this year too.

The roster? The only players currently under contract for next year are outfielder Mike Trout — the Angels’ answer to Musial — and pitcher Yusei Kikuchi.

The stadium? The lease expires in six years.

The Angels’ playoff drought? The longest in the majors, going on 12 seasons. Go, Super Bowl champ, go!

For Kroenke, the first order of business might well be a comprehensive search for what would be the Angels’ answer to Les Snead and Sean McVay, the GM and head coach duo that led Kroenke’s Rams to a Super Bowl championship. The players might not be the next order of business. The deal is not expected to be approved until early 2027, according to a sale announcement, and who knows whether owners still will be locking out players by then?

But Kroenke appears to be the perfect guy to resolve the longest-running and most critical order of business in Anaheim: resolving the Angels’ future there.

For 60 years, the Angels have played in a stadium surrounded by 130 acres of parking lots. For 60 years, fans have driven into the parking lots, watched the game, and driven home. For 60 years, the city has lost untold millions in tax revenue by failing to build anything atop those parking lots.

Kroenke just does it. He is doing it around SoFi Stadium, which he built. He is doing it around the Rams’ training facility in Woodland Hills, which he built. He plans to do it around the sports arena he is building in San Diego.

Now Kroenke could lobby for a new ballpark in Inglewood, in place of the Forum, and call it synergy. James Butts, the mayor of Inglewood, has said he would frown upon a ballpark there.

But here’s betting Kroenke won’t ask. The sale announcement highlighted Kroenke’s “presence in one of the largest sports and entertainment markets in the United States” and said the purchase of the Angels “extends this footprint south into a market of more than three million residents with its own distinct civic identity, corporate base and tourism economy.”

Kroenke wants what all sports owners want these days: money coming out of a stadium site 365 days a year, not just on game days. That means shops, restaurants, homes, hotels, offices, parks, music venues, and food halls. And good luck to Kroenke or any other developer trying to find a vacant 130 acres in any urban area in Southern California, much less one adjacent to a train station and within three freeways.

This is already happening across the 57 Freeway from Angel Stadium, where Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli are putting up what they call the OC Vibe. Kroenke’s history indicates he would do something just as fun, and likely grander given that he’ll have more land, and suddenly Anaheim could be the coolest place to be in Orange County (*unless Olivia Rodrigo is putting on another Daisy Chain Fields festival in Irvine).

And, if Kroenke is willing to rename the team the Anaheim Angels, the city and its local assemblyman just pushed through a new law that could provide him with a significant financial incentive for development, which in turn could reduce his cost to build the new ballpark the Angels so desperately need.

The city owns the stadium and parking lots, so they were not part of the team sale. City officials have not met with Kroenke.

“Fans and residents welcome the start of a new chapter for baseball in Anaheim,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said. “I am encouraged by Stan Kroenke’s track record with the Rams and his commitment to investing in and uplifting neighborhoods.

“I look forward to working with the team’s incoming ownership to advance our city’s priorities around housing, open space and youth sports at the right time.”

For decades, Anaheim has loftily labeled the land around the neighborhood around the “Platinum Triangle.” Now the city might well have struck gold.

The local assemblyman that introduced that law, Avelino Valencia, could hardly have been any happier Tuesday.

“This is a big day for Anaheim,” Valencia texted me. “For 60 years, our community has filled Angel Stadium, raised a World Series banner as the Anaheim Angels, and shown up through every season.

“Few cities can offer a new owner a foundation like that. New ownership means new possibilities, and Anaheim is ready for them.

“I congratulate Stan Kroenke and Kroenke Sports and Entertainment on their agreement to purchase the Angels, and I welcome them home. Let’s build a partnership rooted in pride of place, a team that reflects the city it calls home, and the return of the Anaheim Angels.

“Anaheim is ready to work together, and Anaheim is ready to win.”

In a statement, Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) called it “a great day for Angels fans and Anaheim.”

As the stalemate between the city and Angels owner Arte Moreno grew more entrenched, the condition of Angel Stadium deteriorated. So did Moreno’s investment in the team.

Three years ago, the city commissioned an assessment of what it would take to keep Angel Stadium up and running for decades to come. We’re still waiting.

Those words, in a nutshell, exemplified the relationship between the team and the city in recent years. When the news broke Tuesday, a city official reached out to me to ask if it were true. And, after years of city officials sniping that the Angels had for a decade clipped the “of Anaheim” from their “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” name, the Angels emailed a statement confirming the sale with this headline: “Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to Acquire the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.”

After a season of “Sell The Team” chants, Moreno did. And, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Valencia’s bill into law last week, the title of the law actually sounded more appropriate Tuesday: “The Home Run for Anaheim Act.”

POLITICS

State lawmakers pass bills targeting industrial operators after Boyle Heights fire

Sep 1, 2026 Politics Desk

SACRAMENTO — The state Legislature on Monday passed a pair of bills to address industrial accidents in the wake of a massive blaze at a cold storage facility in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood.

Assembly Bill 817 by Assemblymember Mark González (D-Los Angeles) would prohibit the approval of a building permit for a cold storage facility unless the owner or operator of the facility establishes and maintains a contingency fund.

González sought the creation of the fund for air purifiers, masks and other health essentials for neighbors in the wake of an accident.

The bill would apply to Boyle Heights in the short term and would go into effect statewide July 1, 2028.

The bill also would ensure that anyone who sues over the fire doesn’t have to pay state taxes on any settlement.

A June 17 fire at cold storage operator Lineage’s 500,000-square-foot food warehouse left the community with noxious smoke and an influx of rats and flies attracted to rotting meat.

Senate Bill 716 by Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), also passed Monday, would raise the amount of fines that can be levied by local agencies against companies who pose a threat to health and safety. Under the legislation, companies could face fines of up to $50,000 per violation.

Durazo said current rules limit the fines to just a few hundred or thousand dollars.

“The fines are too small to matter,” said Durazo, describing the “massive fly and rat infestation” and “stench of rotting food” at the Lineage site.

The law would apply only to Los Angeles County and expand statewide starting July 1, 2028. It includes several exemptions for business categories, including institutional and educational.

Scores of business groups, including those representing agriculture, opposed the bills.

Some Republican legislators expressed sympathy for the Boyle Heights community, but questioned the financial ramifications for businesses.

“One terrible incident should not automatically translate into a new statewide financial burden on every similarly situated facility,” said state Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares (R-Acton) during a Monday discussion of Assembly Bill 817. “Especially when those costs can ultimately ripple through our food supply chain and contribute to higher costs for families.”

The bills now head to Gov. Gavin Newsom for consideration.

SPORT

The Sports Report: UCLA fires athletic director Martin Jarmond

Sep 1, 2026 Sports Desk

UCLA fires Martin Jarmond

UCLA has fired athletic director Martin Jarmond and appointed longtime Lakers executive Tim Harris to replace him as chief executive and director of athletics.

UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk announced the change on Monday, ending Jarmond’s run of more than six years that included a stunning move to the Big Ten Conference, a string of conference championships outside of football and a significant financial deficit.

“UCLA Athletics currently carries a significant financial deficit, and its current path is not sustainable,” Frenk wrote. “Now is the moment to build a model for Athletics that protects the breadth of our program, creates new opportunities for student-athletes and coaches, and supports itself through the revenue it generates. I believe UCLA should help lead the transformation of intercollegiate athletics: our future must be shaped by purpose — not by pressure.”

Frenk cited the rapidly evolving college landscape, including the soaring costs associated with the name, image and likeness athlete compensation era, while announcing the need to shift to Harris’ leadership. Harris is a UCLA alum who spent more than 35 years helping run the Lakers’ business operations. Frenk announced Harris is accepting the job on “pro bono basis.”

“Tim will develop a new strategy to grow revenue through partnerships, licensing and other ventures, while ensuring that our student-athletes and coaches have the required support to compete at the highest level,” Frenk wrote in a letter to UCLA fans while outlining a new direction for the athletics program.

Angels interim GM discusses his plan

From Bill Shaikin: In two months as the Angels’ interim general manager, John Mozeliak has reoriented the team’s draft selection priority from “closest to the majors” to “best available,” traded one-third of the major league roster to seed a barren minor league system, fired three coaches and completed a restructuring of the front office.

On Monday, he has scheduled the first meeting of the new leadership group in baseball operations.

We’ll get to that restructuring, but none of the decisions so far resolve two of the most compelling questions in Anaheim: Who is going to be running the Angels next year? And, with this year’s Angels flirting with the first 100-loss season in franchise history, are the Angels going to be much better next year?

To the latter question: Probably not.

“With the starting pitching we have, if we have the ability to be more consistent with our offense, you can definitely squint and see a better club out there,” Mozeliak told me. “But it’s going to take a few pieces to do that.”

Uh oh. That sounds discouragingly like the Angels of the last decade: We’re undermanned, but we want to be competitive, so we’ll sign a few lower-tier free agents and hope we can sneak into the playoffs with an 83-win season. In the real world, the Angels clinched their 11th consecutive losing season before the calendar turned to September.

Mozeliak has said he did not believe that the Angels need to rebuild, that the resources available to a team in the second-largest market in the majors should preclude outright tanking. In theory, that should mean that Mozeliak could trade José Soriano for shortstop Arjun Nimmala, 20, now the Angels’ top prospect, comfortable that owner Arte Moreno could buy a quality free agent to replace Soriano in the starting rotation.

Angels end losing streak

Vaughn Grissom drove in four runs, rookie Walbert Ureña pitched seven strong innings and the Angels ended a seven-game losing streak with a 10-1 victory over the sloppy New York Yankees on Monday night.

Mike Trout had a two-run single and Christian Moore drove in a pair of runs as the Angels won at home for the first time since Aug. 15. Ureña (9-9) gave up five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

Elmer Rodríguez (0-3) failed to make it out of the fourth for the Yankees (78-60), giving up four runs and four hits with three walks over 3⅔ innings. It was the shortest of his six career starts since making his major league debut in April.

Angels box score

MLB standings

Angel City defeats Boston

Prisca Chilufya scored a pair of goals as Angel City snapped a six-game winless streak with a 5-2 win over the Boston Legacy at Gillette Stadium on Monday night.

The match featured four goals in the first 18 minutes. Ally Sentnor scored for Angel City (8-8-5) in the fifth minute with a hard strike from just outside the box.

Some three minutes later, Sammy Smith added her own long strike for the Legacy that bounced to the far post out of reach of goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.

Angel City regained the lead with Chilufya’s first goal that got a slight deflection before getting past goalkeeper Laurel Ivory in the 14th minute.

Angel City summary

NWSL standings

This day in sports history

1923 — The United States wins its fourth consecutive Davis Cup by beating Australia four matches to one.

1946 — Patty Berg wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf title by beating Betty Jameson in the final round.

1971 — John Newcombe becomes the first top-seeded man to lose in the first round of the U.S. Open when he loses to Jan Kodes, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3.

1972 — American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer beats Russian champion Boris Spassky 12.5-8.5 in Reykjavik, Iceland; most publicized world title match ever played; Fischer 1st American to win title.

1973 — George Foreman knocks out Jose Roman at 2:00 of the first round in Tokyo to retain the heavyweight title.

1977 — Renee Richards, the 43-year-old transsexual who fought for more than a year for the right to play in the women’s singles of a major tennis championship, is beaten in the first round by Virginia Wade, 6-1, 6-4. Tracy Austin, at the age of 14 years, eight months, 20 days, becomes the youngest player to play in the U.S. Open, defeating Heidi Eisterlehner, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, in the first round. Austin’s mark is broken in 1979 by 14-year-old Kathy Horvath.

1984 — Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State passes for a Division I-AA record 536 yards and nine touchdowns in a 86-0 rout of Kentucky State. Jerry Rice catches 17 passes for 294 yards and five touchdowns and breaks his own Division I-AA record for receiving yards.

1987 — Fifteen-year-old Michael Chang beats Paul McNamee, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, to become the youngest man to win a match at the U.S. Open.

1989 — Chris Evert becomes the first 100-match winner in 108 years of U.S. tennis championships. Evert, playing her final U.S. Open, beat Patricia Tarabini 6-2, 6-4.

1993 — Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor play the longest tie-break in the history of the U.S. Open (38 points). Ivanisevic wins the first-round match 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (18).

2007 — Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32. Julian Rauch’s 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds left puts the Mountaineers ahead of the Wolverines and Corey Lynch blocks a field goal in the final seconds to seal one of college football’s biggest upsets.

2012 — Eureka (Ill.) College quarterback Sam Durley passes for 736 yards in a 62-55 victory over Knox to break the NCAA single-game passing record. Durley completes 34 of 52 passes and throws for five touchdowns, including two in the final two minutes as the Red Devils close the Division III game with 17 unanswered points.

2014 — Kei Nishikori outlasts Milos Raonic in a five-set marathon that ends at 2:26 a.m., tying the latest finish in U.S. Open history.

2015 — Indiana’s Tamika Catchings scores 13 points, and the Fever beat the Connecticut Sun 81-51 to reach the playoffs for a WNBA-record 11th straight season.

2021 — Cristiano Ronaldo breaks the world record for goals scores in men’s international football with his 110th and 111th goals for Portugal in a 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over the Republic of Ireland.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1906 — The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 in 24 innings. Jack Coombs of the Athletics and Joe Harris of the Red Sox pitched all 24 innings. Coombs fanned 18.

1930 — Wes Ferrell of Cleveland beat the St. Louis Browns 9-5 for his 13th straight victory.

1931 — Lou Gehrig hit his third grand slam in four days as the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-1.

1945 — The Philadelphia Phillies, behind Vince DiMaggio’s grand slam, beat the Braves 8-3 in Boston. It was the fourth grand slam of the year for DiMaggio to tie a major league mark.

1958 — Vinegar Bend Mizell of the St. Louis Cardinals set a National League record by walking nine batters and tossing a shutout. Mizell beat Cincinnati 1-0 in the first game of a doubleheader.

1963 — Curt Simmons of the St. Louis Cardinals allowed six hits, drove in two runs with a triple and stole home plate in a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Simmons’ steal of home is the last by a pitcher.

1967 — Cincinnati’s Bob Lee walked Dick Groat with the bases loaded in the 21st inning to give the San Francisco Giants a 1-0 victory at Crosley Field.

1975 — Tom Seaver struck out Manny Sanguillen in the seventh inning to become the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in eight consecutive seasons. Seaver recorded 10 strikeouts in the Mets’ 3-0 triumph over Pittsburgh.

1986 — Oddibe McDowell and Darrell Porter of Texas hit back-to-back pinch hit homers in the ninth inning off Boston reliever Steve Crawford, but the Rangers fall to the Red Sox 6-4.

1998 — Mark McGwire broke Hack Wilson’s 68-year-old National League record for home runs in a season, hitting his 56th and 57th in the St. Louis Cardinals’ victory over the Florida Marlins.

1999 — Twenty-two of baseball 68 permanent umpires found themselves jobless, the fallout from their union’s failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract. Under the deal mediated by U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner, the union agreed the 22 “will provide no further services.”

2002 — Miguel Tejada hit a game-ending three-run homer to power Oakland to a 7-5 win, Oakland’s 18th straight victory, over Minnesota.

2007 — Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz struck out nine, walked three and hit one batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over Baltimore.

2008 — Arizona’s Stephen Drew and Seattle’s Adrian Beltre became the first players to hit for the cycle on the same day since Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the New York Giants did it on Sept. 17, 1920.

2014 — Cole Hamels and three Philadelphia Phillies relievers combined to pitch a no-hitter, beating the Atlanta Braves 7-0. Hamels pulled after six innings. Relievers Jake Diekman, Ken Giles and closer Jonathan Papelbon each pitched a hitless inning to finish off the fourth no-hitter in the majors this season.

2018 — South Korea wins its third straight baseball Gold in the Asian games as they beat Japan 3-0.

2019 — Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros strikes out 14 batters as he throws his third career no-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

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 houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

POLITICS

L.A. County sues State Farm over its handling of wildfire claims

Sep 1, 2026 Politics Desk

Los Angeles County announced Monday that it had filed a lawsuit against State Farm General after hundreds of victims of last year’s devastating wildfires complained that their claims had been delayed, denied or underpaid.

The lawsuit alleges that State Farm engaged in illegal and deceptive business practices that kept victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires from receiving what they were entitled to under their policies.

County officials said their investigation into the complaints found unreasonable delays in processing claims, as well as “systematic underpayments.”

Officials said they also found that State Farm had illegally suppressed smoke damage claims.

“Survivors are just asking for what’s right,” L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said at a Monday news conference.

Bob Devereux, a State Farm spokesman, said in a statement that the company would respond to the lawsuit through the legal process.

“State Farm General strongly disagrees with Los Angeles County’s characterization of our wildfire claims response,” he said.

Devereux said that State Farm has so far paid more than $6.2 billion on claims related to the two wildfires, including about $1 billion for smoke-related damage. About 78% of the claims have been closed, he said.

“We continue working directly with customers whose claims remain open and evaluating each claim based on the facts of the loss and the coverage provided by the customer’s policy,” he said.

“Our focus remains on helping customers recover,” he said.

Wildfire victims praised county officials for the lawsuit, which was filed in L.A. County Superior Court.

Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, said at the news conference that, in the months after the fires, it became apparent in talking to victims that those with State Farm policies were not getting the benefits they had paid for.

She said for those families, insurance had become “a barrier to recovery” rather than a safety net.

“Nineteen months after the fires, families are still suffering,” she said.

The county’s investigation included looking at complaints that Chen’s group and others had collected, as well as hundreds of other documents from State Farm policyholders.

County officials said that State Farm “failed to substantially comply” with their requests for documents and information during their investigation.

With more than 2.8 million residential and commercial policies, State Farm is California’s largest private insurer.

The county’s lawsuit includes dozens of complaints of L.A. County fire victims.

“After six decades of paying thousands a year for insurance, we expect them to honor their agreement,” said one family.

Many families say the insurer refused to test their homes for toxins left by smoke.

The lawsuit claims that State Farm “drastically lowballed” estimates of financial losses for destroyed or partially damaged homes.

“They offered us $11,000 to remediate our five-bedroom house,” complained one family. ”That’s only 13% of the actual cost.”

According to the California Department of Insurance, 11,300 State Farm policyholders filed homeowner claims arising from last year’s L.A. County fires.

The lawsuit asks the court to require State Farm to pay full restitution to policyholders, as well as civil penalties for violating state law.

POLITICS

Bill to aid California newsrooms now on the governor’s desk

Sep 1, 2026 Politics Desk

California lawmakers have approved a bill that seeks to throw a lifeline to the state’s struggling journalism organizations.

Assembly Bill 2222, which would create refundable tax credits for California local news organizations based on the number of journalists they employ, joins a litany of bills on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.

The state Senate passed the bill on Sunday and the Assembly narrowly approved its amendments on Monday to send the bill to the governor’s desk, with some Republican lawmakers pulling their previous “yes” votes.

The approval comes just as the Legislature is set to adjourn its two-year session early this week.

The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward (D-San Diego) would work by assigning a “job retention credit” of $20,000 per journalist for up to five positions, and after that $15,000 for every additional journalist. Part-time positions would be awarded half-credits. It also stacks an additional $15,000 credit for each new hire, to incentivize expanding journalist head counts.

“This measure is a safety net for news outlets on the verge of closure,” said former state Sen. Steve Glazer, who is a proponent of the bill and during his Senate term pushed similar legislation.

Proponents may face an uphill battle persuading Newsom to sign the bill, which creates a unique revenue stream to pay for the program. Newsom typically spurns laws that make changes to the state budget after those fiscal discussions conclude in the first half of the calendar year.

AB 2222 represents the latest attempt by California lawmakers to bolster the news business, with governments globally discussing similar efforts. Canada implemented newsroom payroll tax credits in 2019 amounting to about $13,750 per journalist in an eligible newsroom.

AB 2222 would create the largest relief plan in the U.S. to date, with the state tax board estimating it would make more than $40 million available to the state’s newsrooms annually.

The California Taxpayers Assn. and groups representing business interests such as the California Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill because it raises taxes on employers.

The governor’s finance office issued an analysis opposing the bill for failing to outline a cap on tax credits and for seeking to subsidize existing jobs rather than encouraging the creation of more journalism jobs.

The bill is supported by the California News Publishers Assn., of which the Los Angeles Times is a member.

Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto bills.

SHOW BIZ

The best movies, TV, books, arts and concerts to spice up fall

Aug 31, 2026 News Desk

Aug. 31, 2026 7:56 AM PT

After oohing and aahing over “The Odyssey,” it’s time for the hot summer splash to make way for an intriguing fall lineup.

At the movies, Alexander Skarsgård plays a sexy wicker husband. Tom Cruise, a bizarro oil man. Jenna Ortega, a robot friend, and Kendall Roy, ahem, Jeremy Strong, is Mark Zuckerberg. Then we revisit classics of various stripes on the small screen, from a further-future “Blade Runner” to “A Different World” relaunch to “East of Eden” to “Pride and Prejudice.”

For new books, it’s an Emily fest. Emily St. John Mandel’s “Exit Party,” based in Los Angeles, is being called her best work since “Station Eleven.” And Emily Wilson, “The Odyssey” translator who launched 1,000 hot takes, lets us inside her process. As for arts, directors steal the spotlight: the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens with 20 inaugural exhibitions and a collection of David Lynch’s L.A. photography fills a local gallery.

Bookmark this page and come back daily this week as we share even more of the best of fall. — Brittany Levine Beckman

SPORT

Nneka Ogwumike and Rae Burrell lead Sparks to win over Storm

Aug 31, 2026 Sports Desk

SEATTLE — Nneka Ogwumike had 23 points and 12 rebounds, Rae Burrell scored 22 points, and the visiting Sparks beat the Seattle Storm 90-74 on Sunday in their final game before the FIBA World Cup break.

The Sparks scored the first 13 points in an opening 18-2 run and Dearica Hamby’s layup with 5:45 left in the first half capped an 11-0 spurt that gave them a 39-20 lead. Seattle shot 32% (12 of 38) from the field and two of 11 (18%) from behind the arc before going into halftime trailing by 19. The Storm were just as bad from three-point range in the second half, finishing four of 22.

Cameron Brink had 11 points on three-of-15 shooting for the Sparks (15-25).

Flau’jae Johnson scored 11 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter and Dominique Malonga had 17 points, on eight-of-21 shooting, and 15 rebounds for the Storm (8-32). Zia Cooke made six of 17 from the field for 14 points.

Seattle is 1-18 against Western Conference teams this season, its only win coming at the Sparks, 82-64, on July 6.

The Storm’s Jordan Horston fell awkwardly midway through the third quarter, limped to the locker room and did not return.

Awa Fam and Natisha Hiedeman did not play for the Storm.

Up next for the Sparks: at Dallas on Sept. 17.

SPORT

Chargers stick with Trey Lance as backup quarterback on 53-man roster

Aug 31, 2026 Sports Desk

The Chargers’ backup quarterback competition is over — for now.

Despite DJ Uiagalelei outperforming Trey Lance in Thursday’s preseason finale against the Rams, the incumbent was named QB2 once again, as the Chargers announced their initial 53-man roster Sunday evening.

“My mindset has just been stacking days,” Lance said. “As many days as I can have; good days that I could feel good about. Good reps [or] bad reps, I learn from them all.”

Choosing Lance, who is familiar with the role and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel’s system from their shared time with the San Francisco 49ers, was one of several interesting roster moves the Chargers made on cut-down day.

Most notably, punter and nine-year veteran JK Scott was released alongside running back Jaret Patterson.

The Chargers' initial 53-man roster for the 2026 season.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Chargers brought Scott back this week. However, he had a rough preseason, in which he showed abysmal tackling effort and shanked a punt.

“As competitors, yeah, I don’t like seeing that on tape,” special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken said.

Patterson, meanwhile, couldn’t crack a crowded running back room led by Omarion Hampton. Greg Desrosiers Jr. and Amar Johnson also didn’t make the roster despite promising showings during the preseason.

“I feel like I did everything I needed to do to kind of put all the teams on notice [and] put the front office here on notice,” Desrosiers said after rushing for 118 yards and a touchdown against the Rams.

Other intriguing players, such as wideout Dalevon Campbell, outside linebacker Kyle Kennard and linebacker Junior Colson, a third-round pick in 2024, were waived.

Some “bubble” players, though, did make the cut; cornerback Rodney Shelley is one of them.

The undrafted rookie put a bow on a strong camp by earning five tackles and a pretty pass breakup against the Rams. Plus, the Chargers made room for him by trading cornerback Avery Smith to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2027 sixth-round pick. The Chargers also traded defensive lineman TeRah Ewards to the Carolina Panthers for a 2028 sixth-round draft pick.

Jacob Spomer is another undrafted rookie who will remain in Los Angeles.

The offensive lineman impressed during training camp and adds depth after the Chargers assigned offensive lineman Branson Taylor to injury reserve alongside two-way trenches trooper Scott Matlock.

Of course, some waived players could see extended opportunities with the Chargers through the practice squad.

“I can’t really think of anybody that I’m going to tell their football lives are over to,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said Thursday. “I can’t think of one guy I’d say that to. I just don’t believe that.

“I’m probably going to put myself in their shoes and hopefully give them some great advice [on] what to do next. It’s going to be said with encouragement and love, because I truly believe in them.”