Newsletter: Today: Trump, Democrats and the Art of the Wedge. A Pearl Harbor Sailor’s 75-Year Journey Home.

I’m Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

Trump, Democrats and the Art of the Wedge

Rebuilding infrastructure. Helping blue-collar workers. Expanding paid family leave. They sound like liberal platform planks, but Donald Trump’s campaign mentioned all as goals during his administration. That’s why Democrats in Congress are looking for ways they can engage with Trump and possibly drive a wedge between him and small-government Republicans. Can they do it and still fight Trump on a host of other issues?

Black L.A.’s Fears and Hopes in a Time of Trump

For one retiree, Trump’s supporters bring back the fear she felt as a black student integrating a high school in Brooklyn. For a 40-year-old free spirit, the election’s aftermath doesn’t mean much: “I don’t have time to worry about what other people are going to do.” Here are some reactions among L.A.’s African American community.

More Politics

-- It’s nearly impossible that a recount will change the election results. So why are Trump and Jill Stein talking about it?

-- Trump plans to select Rep. Tom Price, a harsh critic of Obamacare, to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

A Pearl Harbor Sailor’s 75-Year Journey Home

“Dear Folks. Here is the picture of the ship I am going to be on. … We are all ready to leave tonight at nine o’clock, Love Eddie.” That message, scrawled on a postcard of the USS Oklahoma that is dated Sept. 9, 1941, was the last communication Edwin Chester Hopkins would have with his family. On Dec. 7 of that year, he would be one of 2,403 Americans killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This is the story of how his remains finally came back to his New England hometown.

And You Thought Carmageddon Was Bad

Ten miles of freeway. More than $1.6 billion — 55% higher than the original budget. That’s the cost of the Sepulveda Pass widening project on the 405, which was responsible for the notorious Carmageddon closures, after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority settled a dispute with the contractor over schedule delays, design changes and cost overruns. The settlement amounts to nearly $300 million. As it looks to build rail tunnel through the Sepulveda Pass, has Metro learned its lesson?

Driving Lessons From Our Intrepid Correspondents: First, Don’t Stop for the Cops in Nairobi

L.A. traffic may be bad, but at least we don’t have to deal with snipers or a 100-question written driving test in German. The Times’ foreign correspondents have endured that and a lot more. Whether it was learning to drive a stick shift in Sarajevo’s Sniper Alley, trekking through Pakistan’s remote highways in a secondhand jeep, or discovering that Kenyans don’t stop for police checkpoints, they have some amazing driving stories to tell.

CALIFORNIA

-- Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were sentenced to federal prison for beating a mentally ill inmate and falsifying reports to cover up the attack.

-- Officials say three people have died and five were hospitalized after a community Thanksgiving dinner in Northern California.

-- “Breakfast Club” actor Anthony Michael Hall is facing a charge of felony battery with serious bodily injury after police say he shoved a neighbor to the ground.

-- Shop owners on Hollywood Boulevard are battling to take back the curb from mobile vendors.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- TV review: “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” is a compelling, if unsophisticated, investigation of the church.

-- A coffee-free Lauren Graham discusses the “Gilmore Girls” revival and becoming a writer.

-- “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” contemplates an age-old question: If you could go back in time, what would you change? Our theater critic checked out the play in London.

-- Here’s why the African American Film Critics Assn. doesn’t think there will be an #OscarsSoWhite repeat this year.

-- Kanye West remains hospitalized, reportedly not stable enough to go home.

NATION-WORLD

-- A chartered aircraft with 81 people on board, including a Brazilian first division soccer team, crashed in Colombia. Six people survived.

-- A man drove a car into a crowd of students at Ohio State University and then attacked bystanders with a butcher knife, injuring at least 11. Officials are investigating whether terrorism was a motive.

-- South Korean President Park Geun-hye says she would be willing to resign if the country’s legislature set an orderly transfer of power.

-- North Dakota’s governor ordered a mandatory evacuation of Dakota Access pipeline protesters, but the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they have no plans for “forcible removal” of them.

-- As Cubans mourn Fidel Castro’s death, Trump threatens to undo Obama’s diplomatic thaw.

BUSINESS

-- Where’s the holiday spirit? The FBI has warned consumers to watch out for “increasingly aggressive and creative scams.”

-- Delta Air Lines banned a passenger for life after he yelled profanities on a plane while voicing his support for President-elect Trump.

-- AT&T’s DirecTV Now streaming service is targeting cord-cutters and young adults.

SPORTS

-- A deadline is looming for baseball players and owners to reach a labor agreement.

-- A study involving a North Carolina high school football team reveals worrisome brain changes after just a single season of concussion-free play.

OPINION

-- Fidel Castro died as he lived: praised by useful idiots.

-- Humans may dream of traveling to Mars, but our bodies aren’t built for it.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Jimmy Carter writes that the U.S. should recognize Palestine. (New York Times)

-- If living a simple life is best, why do we pursue such complicated lives? (Aeon)

-- Poetry finds a new audience on Twitter. (Wired)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

Some San Franciscans got free rides on light-rail trains over the holiday weekend, but it wasn’t a Thanksgiving treat. Instead, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency opened the gates after hackers launched a ransomware attack.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.

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