Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points, James Harden added 20 and the Clippers recovered from blowing a 21-point lead to beat the Utah Jazz on 118-101 on Thursday night, extending their winning streak to a season-best six games.
Leonard was the only Clippers starter on the floor for much of the fourth quarter. He singlehandedly matched Utah’s points in the period (20), with blood on his nose from what appeared to be a scratch.
The Clippers hit seven straight three-pointers, with Leonard making four, to pull away. Nicolas Batum finished with 14 points and went four for six from three-point range.
The Jazz rallied despite being without three starters. They were led by reserve Kyle Anderson with 22 points — his first 20-point game in nearly three years — and Brice Sensabaugh with 20. Anderson’s eight rebounds were a season high. Cody Williams also had 18 points, while Isaiah Collier had 16 points and 10 assists.
The game was tied six times in the third, when Utah took its first lead of the game.
The Clippers outscored Utah 28-7 to start the game. The Jazz missed their first six shots and had one rebound in the first six minutes.
Utah outscored the Clippers 33-22 in the second — when Leonard scored the Clippers’ first nine points — to trail 53-50 at halftime.
Utah played without Keyonte George (illness), Lauri Markkanen (knee) and Jusuf Nurkic (toe). The Jazz have dropped six of eight.
The Jazz had 58 points in the paint and their bench outscored the Clippers’ reserves 51-40.
Up next for the Clippers: vs. the Boston Celtics at Intuit Dome on Saturday.
1 of 2 | Key findings from South Korea’s 2024 broadcasting industry survey. Graphic by Asia Today and translated by UPI
Dec. 31 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s broadcasting industry remained in a slump last year, with total revenue declining for a second consecutive year as terrestrial broadcasters posted steep drops in advertising income, regulators said Wednesday.
The Korea Communications Commission said total broadcasting industry revenue in 2024 fell 0.7% from 2023 to 18.832 trillion won (about $14.5 billion) in its “2024 Survey on the Status of the Domestic Broadcasting Industry.” The market first turned negative in 2023 after expanding every year since 2003, the commission said.
Terrestrial broadcasters, including digital multimedia broadcasting, recorded the largest decline by category, with revenue falling 5.4% to 3.5337 trillion won (about $2.7 billion), the commission said. The drop was driven by weaker advertising, historically the biggest income source for terrestrial channels.
Terrestrial advertising revenue declined 9.9% to 835.7 billion won (about $640 million) in 2024 after plunging 23.3% in 2023, according to the survey. Advertising accounted for 23.7% of terrestrial broadcast revenue in 2024, down from 47.4% in 2014, it said.
Cable television operators and satellite broadcasters also posted declines, with revenue down 2.9% and 3.6%, respectively, as subscription fees and home shopping carriage fees weakened, the commission said.
Total revenue for pay-TV operators, including cable and internet protocol television, edged up to 7.2361 trillion won (about $5.6 billion), but growth remained near flat, the survey said. IPTV was the main driver, with revenue rising 1.4% to 5.0783 trillion won (about $3.9 billion), the commission said, citing steady increases in subscription fees and home shopping transmission fees.
Home shopping program providers posted revenue of 3.4168 trillion won (about $2.6 billion), down 2.1% from the previous year, the commission said. TV home shopping sales continued to slide, while data-based home shopping sales rose 1.6% to 774.3 billion won (about $595 million), reversing a decline the year before.
Employment in the broadcasting industry also fell, the survey said, with the number of workers declining to 37,427 in 2024 from 38,299 in 2023. Terrestrial broadcasters recorded the sharpest employment drop, down 4.5%.
Dec. 31 (UPI) — The nation’s new jobless claims exceeded expectations with fewer than 200,000 reported for the week ending on Saturday, marking the third straight week that new jobless claims fell.
The number of new jobless claims fell by about 16,000 and posted a seasonally adjusted 199,000, the Labor Department announced on Wednesday.
The term “seasonally adjusted” refers to a statistical method in which seasonal effects, such as weather and holidays, are factored to better show the direction in which the nation’s job market is moving.
Last week’s decline was the third straight week and the seventh of the past eight in which seasonally adjusted new jobless claims declined across the country, MarketWatch reported.
Economists responding to a Wall Street Journal poll had estimated 220,000 new jobless claims for the week.
The prior week’s new jobless claims were revised up by 1,000, from an initial estimated of 214,000 to the adjusted total of 215,000.
The Labor Department reported 269,953 unadjusted new jobless claims last week, which was up by 5,333 and 25 from the prior week ending on Dec. 20. Economists had predicted an increase of 26,612 for a 10.1% increase last week.
The unadjusted new jobless claims for last week were down from 283,488 during the same period in 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of people with previously established unemployment claims fell by 47,000 to 1.87 million for the week that ended on Dec. 20.
The number of continuing claims had risen since the pandemic due to a slowdown in hiring, but they have not grown in number in recent months, according to MarketWatch.
While new and existing jobless claims are down, some economists cautioned that the slow hiring pace since the summer might herald an economic slowdown.
The nation’s total unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, which was its highest rate since September 2021.
The states with the five highest unemployment rates for the week ending on Dec. 13 were Washington state at 2.5%, followed by New Jersey, 2.4%; Massachusetts and Minnesota, 2.2%, each; and California, Illinois and Rhode Island at 2.1%, each.
I use the words “national treasure” hesitantly because they smack of trite hyperbole. But they truly fit.
That’s because it was Cannon who brought to light through several Reagan books innumerable broad details of the actor-turned-politician’s important and often controversial actions as America’s 40th president and California’s 33rd governor.
Bookshelves are crammed with Reagan tomes. But no author has been so thorough on a sweeping scale as Cannon. That’s because he put in the time and did the hard work of sifting through records and conducting hundreds of interviews, then painstakingly explaining it all in very readable nongovernmentese.
Reagan once asked Cannon why he was embarking on yet another book about him. “I’m going to do it until I get it right,” the writer replied, only half-jokingly, according to Cannon’s son, longtime journalist Carl Cannon.
That’s an invaluable contribution to historians and contemporary America’s sense of this oft-misunderstood and underestimated world leader.
But that’s not what mainly prompted me to write this column. I wanted to point out Cannon’s core strength. And that was his dedication to strict nonpartisanship in writing, whether it be straight news stories for the Washington Post, syndicated columns or his Reagan biographies.
I knew Cannon for 60 years, competed against him covering Reagan for at least 20 and we became friends very early based on professional respect. In none of my countless conversations with him did I ever learn whether he leaned right or left. He registered to vote as an “independent,” as do many of us political journalists.
Cannon was the type of journalist that millions of Americans — particularly conservative Republicans and MAGA loyalists — claim is rare today: An unbiased reporter who doesn’t slant stories toward one side or the other, especially left.
Actually, most straight news reporters follow that nonpartisan credo or they leave the business. Columnists? We’re supposed to be opinionated. But for some, their opinions are too often rooted more in predetermined bias than in objective facts. But that has always been true, even in the so-called “good ol’ days.”
Cannon’s sole goal was to report the news accurately with analysis and, if possible, beat his competitors to the punch. He beat us plenty, I hate to admit.
I vividly remember one such beating:
At the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Cannon scooped everyone for a full news cycle on Reagan selecting former campaign rival George Bush as his vice presidential running mate. Still pounding in my ears are the loud whoops and cheers by Cannon’s colleagues as he walked into the Post working area — next to the Los Angeles Times quarters — after Reagan formally announced Bush’s selection. It was deflating.
News sources readily opened up to Cannon, who was intense but always wore a slight smile.
I asked former Reagan speechwriter and Republican strategist Ken Khachigian what Cannon’s secret was.
“You’d get a fair shot from him,” Khachigian says. “He’d always be straight. He just wanted to get information mostly and find out what was going on.
“He had a way of talking to people that made them comfortable and he’d get a lot out of them. He wasn’t aggressive. He had a soft personality, one of his benefits. He’d put people at ease, a big advantage.”
His son, Carl Cannon, says: “If he’d been in politics, he’d have been a Democrat. But he didn’t go into politics. He went into journalism. He wasn’t partisan. He was a reporter who wanted to know what happened and why.”
Cannon began covering the state Capitol in 1965 for the San Jose Mercury News and became friends with Jud Clark, a young legislative staffer. Clark ultimately co-founded the monthly California Journal and persuaded Cannon to write for it on the side. Cannon did that for many years and when it folded, followed up by writing columns for a successor publication, the Capitol Weekly.
Cannon just loved to report and write and juggled it all in — reporting full time for the Washington Post, authoring books and writing for friends’ small publications in Sacramento.
“He would always want something new. In interviews, he didn’t want the standard stock story,” Clark says.
“Lou was curious about everything,” says Rich Ehisen, his longtime editor at Capitol Weekly. “He liked understanding what was going on and breaking things down. He told the straight story unvarnished. Never shortchanged on facts.”
Cannon was a workaholic, but he also knew how to carve out time for fun.
One summer while we covered Reagan vacationing at his beloved Santa Barbara hilltop ranch, Cannon decided he wanted to drive down to Los Angeles to see a Dodgers’ night game. But it’s risky to abandon your post while bird-dogging the president. Anything could happen. And you’d need to explain to your bosses why you weren’t there but your competitors were.
Cannon’s solution was to also get good seats for the two reporters he considered his main competitors– Steve Weisman of the New York Times and me at the L.A. Times. We’d provide each other some cover if any news broke out around the president, which it didn’t. Cannon even managed to wrangle us free dinners in a large suite overlooking the playing field.
He’ll be missed as a friend and a journalist — but not as an unrelenting competitor.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Lauren Betts had 18 points and 16 rebounds as No. 4 UCLA extended its winning streak to six games with an 82-75 win over No. 19 Ohio State on Sunday.
Kiki Rice added 16 points and Angela Dugalic scored 15 as UCLA (12-1, 2-0 Big Ten) beat the Buckeyes for the fourth straight time, dating to December 2023.
Jaloni Cambridge led all scorers with 28 points, and Elsa Lemmila added 13 points and seven rebounds for Ohio State (11-2, 1-1) which had its nine-game winning streak halted in its conference home opener.
The Bruins built a 76–60 lead midway through the fourth quarter before Ohio State closed the gap behind strong defense and key late baskets from Cambridge, T’yana Todd and Chance Gray. The Buckeyes closed within six points with about two minutes remaining, but got no closer.
UCLA outrebounded Ohio State 47–33, including a 19–10 edge on the offensive end that led to a 35–10 advantage in second-chance points. Betts anchored the Bruins in the paint as UCLA outscored the Buckeyes 50–32 inside.
Ohio State struggled from three-point range in the first half, missing its first 11 attempts before Lemmila connected with 3:43 left in the second quarter. The Buckeyes found some rhythm in the third quarter, hitting six three-pointers, and finished seven of 30 (23%) from beyond the arc.
They are methodically compiling victories — the latest, Sunday’s 34-17 thumping of the Dallas Cowboys — and perfectly content on the fringes of the national spotlight.
Lots of people wrote them off when those offensive linemen started falling like tall timber, yet the Chargers have found ways to win in spite of that. Seven times in eight games they have walked away victorious, keeping them in the running for the top seed in the AFC.
“We’re not worried about the outside noise,” said edge rusher Khalil Mack, part of a defense that has pitched second-half shutouts two weeks in a row. “Not getting too high, not getting too low. Staying even-keeled and trying to stack wins.”
Despite all that success, the Chargers (11-4) had yet to cement a spot in the postseason by the time they boarded the bus from AT&T Stadium to the airport. They needed a loss or tie by Houston — which beat Las Vegas later Sunday — or by Indianapolis, playing host to San Francisco on Monday night.
As for the Cowboys (6-8), they were eliminated from playoff contention the week before. They were playing for pride and had the NFL’s No. 1 offense, which showed up with Dak Prescott touchdown passes in the first two quarters.
But the quarterback of note in this game was Justin Herbert, who threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns and plunged across the goal line for another score. He also had a 34-yard scramble up the middle, the longest of the game, which ended with a violent collision that had him prone and wincing for a moment.
Clippers forward John Collins hangs on to the rim after dunking in front of Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36), guard Luka Doncic (77) and center Jaxson Hayes (11) on Saturday at Intuit Dome.
“I was proud that we improved from three [after starting] four for 33,” the coach deadpanned. “So we got better as the game progressed.”
With four starters out because of injuries, the Lakers’ ice cold shooting doomed them to a season low in points. Star guard Luka Doncic left the game with 12 points at halftime after a left leg contusion sustained in the first half. Redick noticed the NBA’s leading scorer limping on the court during the second quarter. Fellow starters Austin Reaves (calf), Deandre Ayton (elbow) and Rui Hachimura (groin) already were sidelined as well as key reserve Gabe Vincent (back).
It left them with just one starter in LeBron James, who had 36 points, four rebounds and three assists as the Lakers (19-8) fell behind by 22 but cut the deficit to seven in the fourth quarter before fading again.
USC center Gabe Dynes dunks during a 102-63 win over the UC Santa Cruz at Galen Center on Sunday. Dynes finished with 16 points.
(John McGillen / USC Athletics)
From Ryan Kartje: The call came Monday morning, just six days before USC was slated to play its final nonconference contest. In light of the deadly shooting on Brown’s campus, its men’s basketball team wouldn’t make the trip west. If coach Eric Musselman hoped to test his Trojans again before the new year, he and his USC staff had less than 24 hours to find a replacement.
Which is how USC found itself facing UC Santa Cruz, a 6-6 Division III team with losses to Chapman, Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, on Sunday. USC had no trouble overwhelming the Banana Slugs in a 102-63 victory. But given the scrambling it took to schedule Santa Cruz, no one was complaining about the seamless victory heading into the Trojans’ winter break.
Musselman, who notched his 250th career win, initially hoped that USC could find a D-1 program to take Brown’s place. But rules limiting the amount of regular-season games a D-1 program can play narrowed that list considerably. It left USC’s coaches counting by hand to decide which teams would fit.
USC’s Jazzy Davidson controls the ball in front of California’s Mjracle Sheppard during the first half Sunday at Chase Center.
(Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
From the Associated Press: Freshman Jazzy Davidson scored a go-ahead layup with 4:05 remaining and finished with a season-best 24 points, leading the No. 19 USC women past California 61-57 on Sunday in the Invisalign Bay Area Women’s Classic.
After Davidson’s basket, Londynn Jones hit a jumper the next time down as USC used a 6-0 burst to take control. The Trojans answered each Cal threat with a key defensive play or big basket.
Cal called time out with 43.8 seconds left and trailing 56-54, but as the Golden Bears tried to set up a play, USC’s Kennedy Smith made a steal of Sakima Walker’s bad pass.
From Jay Posner: After days of deliberation and faced with a forecast getting soggier by the day, Santa Anita officials have decided to postpone opening day of the 2025-26 race meeting from Friday until Sunday, Dec. 28.
It’s just the second time since 1976 that Santa Anita will not open on the day after Christmas. The other time was in 2019 for the same reason: wet weather. More than eight inches of rain are projected to fall between Tuesday night and Friday at Santa Anita.
Angels star Mike Trout signs autographs for fans before a game against the Minnesota Twins at Angel Stadium on Sept. 8.
(Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
From columnist Bill Shaikin: Christmas is three days away, and you’re running out of time to get a gift for the Angels fan in your life. How about a Dodgers cap?
Next year the Dodgers will try to become the first National League team to win three consecutive World Series. The Angels will try to end baseball’s longest postseason drought at 11 years, still without much of a plan beyond rushing first-round draft picks to the major leagues while treading the financial waters until Anthony Rendon’s contract runs out.
On Sunday they missed out on Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami, who signed with the 102-loss Chicago White Sox. Of the Angels’ five acquisitions this winter, three did not play in the majors last season, and not because they are up-and-coming prospects.
Author and journalist Shea Serrano’s new book, “Expensive Basketball,” is a New York Times bestseller that highlights unique, breakthrough moments in NBA history.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
From Gustavo Arellano: When Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy this weekend with another Latino finalist looking on from the crowd, the Cuban-American quarterback did more than just become the first Indiana Hoosier to win college football’s top prize, and only the third Latino to do so. He also subtly offered a radical statement: Latinos don’t just belong in this country, they’re essential.
At a time when questions swirl around this country‘s largest minority group that cast us in a demeaning, tokenized light — how could so many of us vote for Trump in 2024? Why don’t we assimilate faster? Why does Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh think it’s OK for immigration agents to racially profile us? — the fact that two of the best college football players in the country this year were Latino quarterbacks didn’t draw the headlines they would’ve a generation ago. That’s because we now live in an era where Latinos are part of the fabric of sports in the United States like never before.
That’s the untold thesis of four great books I read this year. Each is anchored in Latino pride but treat their subjects not just as sport curios and pioneers but great athletes who were and are fundamental not just to their professions and community but society at large.
1894 — The United States Golf Association is founded, becoming the governing body for the game in the country.
1915 — The Federal League folds. Owners of the American and National Leagues buy out half of the owners (Pittsburgh, Newark, Buffalo, and Brooklyn) of the Federal League teams. Phil Ball, owner of the St. Louis Terriers, is allowed to buy the St. Louis Browns of the AL, and Charles Weeghman, owner of the Chicago Whales, buys out the Chicago Cubs of the NL.
1924 — Babe Dye of the Toronto St. Patricks scores five goals in a 10-2 victory over the Boston Bruins.
1946 — The Cleveland Browns beat the New York Yankees 14-9 in the first AAFC championship game.
1969 — Pete Maravich sets an NCAA record by hitting 30 of 31 foul shots, and scores 46 points to lead LSU to a 98-89 victory over Georgia.
1974 — Boston’s Phil Esposito scores two goals, including his 500th goal, to lead the Bruins to a 5-4 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Boston Garden.
1990 — Paul Coffey becomes the second NHL defenseman to record 1000 points. Coffey reaches the milestone with an assist on Kevin Stevens’ goal in second-period of a 4-3 win against the New York Islanders.
1996 — Brett Hull becomes the 24th player in NHL history to score 500 goals, with a hat trick in the St. Louis Blues’ 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Brett and his father, Bobby Hull, are the first father-son tandem to each score 500 goals.
2003 — Brett Favre passes for 399 yards and four touchdowns a day after his father dies, moving into second place in NFL history for career TD passes while leading the Green Bay Packers to a 41-7 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Favre passes Fran Tarkenton on the NFL’s career list with his 343rd career TD throw.
2005 — Reggie Campbell of Navy ties the NCAA bowl record with five touchdowns and had 290 all-purpose yards, leading the Midshipmen to a 51-30 win over Colorado State in the Poinsettia Bowl.
2006 — Peter Bondra scores his 500th NHL goal early in the third period to snap a 1-all tie and lead Chicago past Toronto 3-1.
2007 — Eathyn Manumaleuna blocks a field goal as time expires to give BYU a 17-16 victory over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.
2009 — Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh becomes the first defensive player voted The Associated Press College Football Player of the Year, winning the award after his dominant performance against Texas in the Big 12 title game.
2013 — Peyton Manning finishes 32 for 51 for 400 yards and four touchdown passes to set the single season touchdown mark in Denver’s 37-13 win over Houston. Manning, with 51 touchdown passes, passes Tom Brady (50 in 2007) for the most in a single season in NFL history.
2013 — Tom Brady leads the Patriots to a 41-7 win at Baltimore as New England clinches the AFC East. It’s the 11th division title for Brady, the most by a starting quarterback in NFL history.
2016 — Matt Linehan throws for 381 yards and four touchdowns and runs for a another score to help Idaho beat Colorado State 61-50 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. It’s the third-highest scoring game in bowl history. Idaho (9-4) matches its highest victory total since moving to FBS in 1996.
2020 — Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi scores his 644th goal for FC Barcelona during 3-0 win over Real Valladolid to break Pele’s record for most goals for one club; Pele, 643 goals for Santos 1956-74.
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.
FANTASY lovers can take a step down the hobbit hole this winter, as a new location invites guests inside to escape the icy winter weather.
A Tolkien-inspired holiday spot has opened for business north-west of Cambridge, with pods and lodges available for keen glampers.
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Live like a Hobbit in this cosy glamping lodge at West Stow PodsCredit: West Stow PodsPods and lodges have been fitted out to emulate the popular fantasy village of HobbitonCredit: West Stow PodsThe location is also pet friendly, so all family members can kick back and relaxCredit: West Stow Pods
The town sits betweenTenbyand Amroth in Pembrokeshire.
It’s home to around 3,000 residents and has a Blue Flag sandy beach, a picturesque harbour with cafes and shops, plenty of walking paths – but absolutely no rides.
And according to WalesOnline its “craggy coastline is amongst the most beautiful in the world and can be enjoyed year-round, especially in autumn”.
Someone on Tripadvisor described the village as a “winter wonderland” when the Christmas lights are up.
It’s a popular place for Atlantic grey seals and you can see them on boat trips – and you can see them all year round
Saundersfoot has previously been named one of the ‘best places to live by the sea in the UK 2024’ by The Sunday Times.
The Boat House at Saundersfoot is a 2025/26 Good Food Award winner – Gold Seal.
The family-run restaurant serves up meals from curries to pastas, surf and turf, steak, and burgers.
The lodge is a perfect place to escape the busy city lifeCredit: West Stow Pods
