Newsletter: Today’s Headlines: A championship with a 2020 twist

After a drought of more than three decades, the Dodgers won the World Series, but like much this year, it didn’t follow the script.

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A Championship With a 2020 Twist

In a year full of misery, the Dodgers gave Los Angeles a reason to believe. After worrying earlier this year that the best roster the team had assembled in recent memory wouldn’t have the chance to take the field, the Dodgers on Tuesday night won a World Series championship for the first time since 1988. And even then, the coronavirus entered the picture.

The decisive Game 6 came to a close when pitcher Julio Urías unleashed a 97 mph fastball to the inner edge of the strike zone of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Willy Adames. Moments later, Urías was squatting over the mound, unleashing a yell as he secured the final out of the World Series. The victory ended not only a three-decade-plus drought for the Dodgers but also marked the first time since 1988 that they and the Lakers have won a championship in the same year.

Yet as the celebrations unfolded on the field of Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas — a neutral site given the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic — the news hit that the Dodgers’ Justin Turner had tested positive for the coronavirus and was removed during the eighth inning.

Some 1,400 miles west, Dodger fans provided L.A. with a fireworks show and took to the streets, despite health officials having blamed gatherings related to the Lakers’ and Dodgers’ championship seasons for spreading COVID-19 and preventing the county from reopening more quickly.

In the Homestretch

With less than a week to election day, Joe Biden is playing offense and President Trump defense, scrambling to replicate his 2016 come-from-behind victory.

On Tuesday, while Trump plowed through rallies in parts of the upper Midwest where he won four years ago but polls now show him trailing, Biden campaigned in Georgia, which few expected to be within reach for him.

Georgia has become more competitive in the last decade, and both its GOP senators face tough reelection challenges. But for some Democrats, Biden’s trip there provoked anxious recollections of 2016, when Hillary Clinton made late visits to Republican-leaning states such as Ohio while apparently taking for granted Democratic-leaning ones like Wisconsin, which Trump won.

As for Ohio, Trump won it by an 8-percentage-point margin in 2016, and this year, the conventional wisdom had placed it firmly outside contention. Yet it’s now reemerging as a swing state — albeit one whose political landscape Trump has realigned. Republicans are on their heels in traditionally red suburbs and on offense in onetime Democratic strongholds like the struggling industrial northeast.

More About the Election

— Trump vs. President Obama: Who has the better record on the U.S. economy?

— Many college students had hoped to vote in swing states, but the COVID-19 pandemic sent them home.

— A judge has blocked a ban on the open display of guns near Michigan polling places on election day.

— Proposition 15 promises cash for schools and local governments. Exactly how much isn’t clear.

— How to vote in California: Our complete guide to making sure your ballot counts.

Nurses’ Sacrifice

The sudden appearance of a deadly new pathogen is always bad for the men and women who care for the afflicted, and a new report shows that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is no exception.

In a three-month period early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when personal protective equipment was often scarce and scientists’ understanding of the virus was in its earliest stages, healthcare workers were hospitalized and died at rates that were atypically high for their ages and genders.

Researchers scoured a sample of 6,760 adults hospitalized for COVID-19 between March 1 and May 31 and found that 5.9% of those patients were healthcare workers. Just over two-thirds of them were in jobs where they would likely have direct contact with patients — especially nursing.

In With the Bad Air (Again)

Two wind-driven fires that forced nearly 100,000 people to evacuate in Orange County continued to burn out of control Tuesday, helping to create the nation’s worst air quality as smoke and ash rained down on many parts of Southern California.

The fierce Santa Ana winds that fueled the blazes eased significantly late in the day, and firefighters hope that could help them get the upper hand after two days of pitched battle defending subdivisions ranging from Yorba Linda to Lake Forest.

Together, the Silverado and Blue Ridge fires have consumed more than 27,000 acres, but destruction to property has been relatively light. Officials said 10 homes were damaged in the Yorba Linda area. And by Tuesday afternoon, some of the massive evacuations in Irvine had been lifted.

In addition to smoke from the two Orange County fires, winds carried ash and soot left from the Bobcat fire earlier this month back into the skies, further choking Southern California with bad air.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Don’t look down — at least not if you’re Vince Schaefer, the window washer captured in this photograph Bill Varie took on this date in 1977. The brief story that accompanied it in the Nov. 25 edition asked readers to “spare a thought for Vince Schaefer and Richard Toliver. If you work near Occidental Center in downtown Los Angeles, you’ve probably seen Schaefer and Toliver at work — balanced seeming precariously on a swing stage high above all but the tallest of the surrounding buildings.

“The two men, along with two partners, spend all year washing Occidental Center’s 6,556 windows. It takes three months to complete the 196,680 square feet of glass, and when the job is done, they begin all over again. Danger is an occupational hazard; as Schaefer says, ‘You make a mistake in this job and you usually don’t get a second chance.’”

Oct. 28, 1977: Window washer Vince Schaefer leans far out to put a little muscle into the job.

(Bill Varie / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA)

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CALIFORNIA

— The cleanup of lead-contaminated homes, child-care centers, schools and parks near the closed Exide battery recycling facility in Vernon is running behind schedule and over budget due to poor management by California regulators, leaving children at risk of poisoning, and could ultimately cost close to $650 million, state auditors say in a critical new report.

— The Los Angeles Police Department received approval to begin recording and storing aerial footage of protests and other large gatherings from its helicopters.

— Beverly Hills luxury retail mecca Rodeo Drive will be closed on election day and the day after in what the city’s police chief calls a “proactive approach” to possible protests.

— The L.A. City Council has dropped a plan to explore taxpayer aid for a Koreatown hotel developer whose company was sued by the city over unpaid taxes a decade ago.

NATION-WORLD

— Police shot and killed a mentally ill Black man on a Philadelphia street after yelling at him to drop a knife, sparking protests and clashes between demonstrators and police.

— NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, whose self-improvement group was deemed a cult by some ex-members and whose devotees included millionaires and Hollywood actors, was sentenced to 120 years for turning some adherents into sex slaves branded with his initials.

— A federal judge has denied Trump’s request that the U.S. replace him as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit alleging he raped columnist E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1990s.

— Leopoldo López, the Venezuelan politician who for years has led the biggest challenge to the government of Nicolás Maduro, has pledged from his self-imposed exile in Spain to continue fighting to “free” his homeland.

— A panel of health experts wants U.S. adults to start getting colon cancer screenings at age 45, five years younger than it previously recommended.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— The CBS entertainment special “Essential Heroes: A Momento Latino Event” drew attention to the risks and sacrifices facing Latinos in the U.S. during the coronavirus crisis.

— The pandemic has spawned a new job on Hollywood sets — the COVID-19 compliance supervisor. Here’s what that is, and what it requires.

— After suffering a pregnancy loss last month, Chrissy Teigen has written a powerful and heartbreaking essay about grief and gratitude.

— A 62-year-old grandmother who played the unwitting “babysitter” in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” said she thought the movie was a documentary and feels “kind of betrayed.”

BUSINESS

— Canceling a subscription shouldn’t be an obstacle course, columnist David Lazarus writes. Gyms, cable providers and other companies should have to clearly disclose their cancellation procedure before any money changes hands, he says.

— China outmaneuvered Trump on trade, and now the deal he touted as a sign of victory in his trade war is coming apart at the seams, columnist Michael Hiltzik writes.

SPORTS

— Christian Coleman, the world’s top sprinter, was banned from competing for two years for missing a string of random doping tests — which means he’ll miss the Tokyo Olympics.

— UCLA football remains success-starved, but no program is eating richer. The tab for non-travel meals grew to $5.4 million last year.

OPINION

— In Los Angeles County, the largest local jurisdiction in the nation, sheriffs should not be elected, The Times’ editorial board writes.

— A new California law that regards making racist 911 calls as hate crimes will do more harm than good, the editorial board writes. It’s a well-intentioned law — but it’s one likely to make well-intentioned people reluctant to call 911 in unclear but dangerous-looking circumstances.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Trump has brought his company more than $2.5 million from taxpayers. Among the charges: Mar-a-Lago billed the government $3 apiece for glasses of water for Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Washington Post)

— How Joey Moss, who died this week at 57, touched the hearts of professional athletes and fans, became “an iconic Canadian” and taught a generation about vulnerability. (Sportsnet)

ONLY IN L.A.

The oldest children’s bookstore in the country, Once Upon a Time, can be found in Montrose. It has survived bad economic times, the owners’ retirement and even Amazon over the years. The coronavirus crisis has posed a threat like no other. But support has come from many places, including author Stuart Gibbs and comedian Jimmy Fallon.

Comments or ideas? Email us at headlines@latimes.com.