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EL SEGUNDO — When they began to survey the roster and all that went haywire before their arrival, general manager Joe Hortiz, coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter decided the Chargers’ defense could be and should be upgraded for the 2024 season.Small changes were made, minor tweaks that got little notice around the known football universe. Mostly, though, there was a buy-in from the players that Hortiz, Harbaugh and Minter noticed from the first days of practice in the spring. Matters could be improved by leaps and bounds without major changes.Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack, two veteran outside…

Southern California bosses employed a record 8.1 million workers in November, but there was no broad-based hiring spree.My trusty spreadsheet peeked at hiring patterns in the four-county region and found 88,000 workers were added in the past 12 months. However, there were mixed results among local business sectors, with only nine of 15 industries boosting staffing in this period, five cut jobs, and one was unchanged.Job losses were found in factories, personal service shops, construction sites, and restaurants. The most significant increases were in healthcare, social assistance and government.Here are 15 local employment sectors ranked by their one-year job swings…

It was less than a month ago, but it may as well have been in another lifetime for all the attention it’s getting.President-elect Donald Trump expressed support for avoiding deportation of young immigrants in the threatened program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and other so-called “Dreamers.”His Dec. 8 comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” quickly faded into the background as a high-decibel immigration debate raged over other familiar issues: Tech giant and Trump ally Elon Musk’s argued for an expansion the H1B visa program for foreign skilled workers, triggering a feud with other Trump supporters who want…

LOS ANGELES — For nine years, unless he got a chance to catch his late father Bill’s Minnesota Golden Gophers, Eric Musselman hardly ever watched a game of Big Ten basketball.He was in the Mountain West, far removed from the Midwest, for four years at Nevada. He was in Fayetteville, headspace wrapped up in the SEC, for five years at Arkansas. It wasn’t until this spring, shortly after Musselman hit it off with athletic director Jen Cohen in an initial interview for USC’s head-coaching job, that he flipped on some tape of his future program’s new conference.Every day, following that…

By Gabrielle Coppola, David Welch and Keith Naughton | BloombergThe threat by President-elect Donald Trump to end tax credits for electric vehicles helped lift sales in the fourth quarter, giving US automakers a much-needed boost after a disappointing year.At General Motors Co., EV sales more than doubled to almost 44,000 in the quarter. Ford Motor Co. saw a 16% jump in the category to about 30,000 vehicles. Overall EV sales gained 12%, pushing the full-year total to a record 1.3 million, according to forecasts from researcher Cox Automotive.Also see:  Biden administration approves California electric car mandateThe strength in EVs helped…

California likely had fewer traffic fatalities in 2024 than in any of the previous five years, nearly returning to pre-pandemic numbers.An estimated 2,824 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the Golden State in the first nine months of 2024, according to new preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — down from more than 3,000 in the same timeframe in 2023.The decrease in California mirrors a national decline, with initial data suggesting a drop in 35 states and Puerto Rico. Across the country, about 29,135 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes between January and September 2024,…

As the Kings compiled the NHL’s best home record, there has been a party at Crypto.com Arena almost every time they have hit the ice this season, and on Saturday they’ll welcome the franchise that has celebrated more than any other during this decade.The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 before reaching the Final in 2022 to nearly become the first team to win three consecutive titles since the New York Islanders captured four straight from 1980 to 1983.Yet the last two seasons have brought first-round exits for Tampa Bay, just as the Kings have…

By Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News (TNS)If you’re someone who manages the family’s finances, worries about identity theft and values maintaining a good credit score, The Watchdog has the latest updates for you.Specifically, let’s dive into what credit reports and scores really mean, how you can access them and why staying on top of them is so important.I recently tuned in to a town hall on consumerism sponsored by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Much of it was old hat, but my ears perked when I heard one speaker casually mention that you could get a free copy…

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUMPresident Joe Biden began his term in the White House with a broad promise to protect transgender Americans against Republican policies that painted them as a threat to children and sought to push them out of public life.“Your president has your back,” Biden assured trans people in his first State of the Union address in 2021, and he repeated a version of that statement in subsequent speeches.But with President-elect Donald Trump days away from taking office after piling on transgender people throughout his campaign, some worry Biden did not do enough to shield them from what’s likely to…

NEW YORK — South Korean All-Star second baseman Hyeseong Kim and the Dodgers agreed Friday to a $12.5 million, three-year contract, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press.Kim’s deal includes team options for 2028 and 2029, which must be exercised together and would raise the value to $22 million over five seasons, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been announced.His becomes the latest addition by the World Series champions in their offseason spending spree.Kim’s 30-day posting window expires at 2 p.m. PST and the deal must be finalized by then.Kim,…