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2019 was a year of big stories, with L.A. Times features, coverage of breaking events — and everything in between.
Using Twitter as a barometer, we look back on the issues and events that engaged readers. Here are our most retweeted stories of the year, drawn from our @latimes Twitter account.
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#1
A state law that took effect in late July mandated that President Trump disclose his tax returns or he would be ineligible for California’s primary ballot next year, a requirement since overturned. The tweet was our top retweeted message of the year.
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#2
Before-and-after satellite images showed how one block of ground slid past the other in the magnitude 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake of July 5.
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#3
Tom Kiefer began collecting items seized from migrants while he was working as a janitor at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility near Ajo, Ariz. His photographs of these items became the exhibition “El Sueño Americano / The American Dream: Photographs by Tom Kiefer,” on view at the Skirball Cultural Center until March 8.
This year, good news was overshadowed by a government shutdown, impeachment debates, mass shootings and cheating scandals.
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#4
You’ve heard of the chicken dance. Now get ready for ... the “Chicken Noodle Soup” dance. It was inspired by “Chicken Noodle Soup,” the much-anticipated collaboration between “Shower” singer Becky G and J-Hope of the K-pop band BTS, and quickly went viral.
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#5
In two internal memos, Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller said the “unplanned/unbudgeted” deployment along the border had forced him to cancel or reduce planned military training in at least five countries and delay urgent repairs at bases.
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This piece from our Opinion section wrote of “the blatant hypocrisy of the president profiting from the labor of such workers even as he rails against them as a threat to public safety.”
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#7
BTS, again! The day after the group performed at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, Dior announced that for BTS’ upcoming world tour, the stage wardrobe for the seven-member South Korean boy band would include ensembles designed by the Paris-based luxury label’s artistic director of menswear, Kim Jones.
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#8
This was the breaking news tweet about the second large earthquake to strike Southern California within two days in early July. The Twitter thread was added to later and included a link to our breaking story on the earthquake centered near Ridgecrest.
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#9
California health officials issued a warning that people stop vaping immediately, joining a growing chorus of health experts advising caution around e-cigarette use following reports of severe lung illnesses linked to the practice. “We are seeing something that we have not seen before,” said Charity Dean, California’s acting public health officer, in a statement.
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#10
This breaking news tweet alerted followers to the magnitude 6.6 earthquake that shook Los Angeles on July 4. The thread was later updated with a breaking story on what was, at the time, the largest area quake in two decades.
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#11
President Trump expressed disgust with the explosive whistleblower complaint at a private event, slamming the intelligence officer and the White House aides who helped him as “almost a spy” and suggested it was treason.
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#12
California became the first state to require major financial reforms in college athletics after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a measure allowing players to receive endorsement deals, despite the NCAA calling the move unconstitutional.
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#13
Jane Fonda was arrested in Washington as the Oscar-winning actress and activist joined the fight against climate change in a very visible way.
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#14
Scientists say California may be due for rain of biblical proportions — called an ARkStorm. And experts warn that the 60-year-old Whittier Narrows Dam could fail in the event of such a storm.
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#15
Raul Rodriguez said he’d lived in the U.S. as long as he could remember. He had no idea he was born right across the border. The longtime U.S. Customs agent lost his job and his health insurance, and his residency application was rejected.
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#16
The story behind the jaw-dropping sale price on the famed Mountain of Beverly Hills included a heated court battle, a last-second offer and a sparsely attended auction behind a fountain in Pomona. The property sold for a mere $100,000.
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#17
For “Maisel Day,” part of Amazon’s Emmy campaign for its period comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” nearly 30 Los Angeles businesses — salons, gas stations and more — went back to the 1950s for a day.
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#18
Police responded to the theme park after a verbal confrontation between family members visiting Mickey’s Toontown escalated to a physical fight. The violent Disneyland brawl was captured on video.
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Equifax agreed to pay as much as $700 million to resolve federal and state investigations into the 2017 hack that compromised the privacy of more than 147 million people. A quick crunching of the numbers, however, revealed that Equifax wound up paying only about $4.75 per person it exposed to hackers and scammers, writes columnist David Lazarus.
Tessa A. Bangs and Jessica Martinez contributed to this story.
