Sixty years ago, on Sept. 26, 1960, a debate between major party presidential candidates was shown on television for the first time. The presidential hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, and Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States, met in a Chicago studio to discuss U.S. domestic matters.

There were three other debates in October. In the final debate Oct. 21, the candidates met to discuss foreign affairs. The election was held Nov. 8 and was one of the closest in history, with Kennedy winning 49.7% of the popular vote to defeat Nixon (49.6%) by a hair.

Nixon returned to the national stage in 1968 in a successful bid for the presidency. Like Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Nixon declined to debate his opponent in the 1968 presidential campaign...

The giant sequoia

Sequoia National Park is closed due to massive fires burning nearby that have resulted in the loss of more than 100 structures and thousands of evacuations. The nation’s second national park would be celebrating its 130th anniversary Sept. 25.

Jurassic park?

The oldest known redwood fossils date back more than 200 million years to the Jurassic period and the trees once spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The last giant sequoias are on about 48,000 acres, in about 73 groves scattered along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The northernmost sequoias grow in Tahoe National Forest, and the southernmost groves are in the Sequoia National Forest, northeast of Bakersfield.

Giant sequoias live a very long time and grow quickly...

Jamal Murray spent Thursday night hanging letters on the Lakers. Add it all up and he probably won five simultaneous “horse” games.

The problem for Murray, and Denver, is that you have to play “rhinoceros,” or something even more multi-syllabic, to beat the Lakers.

The letters were too plentiful and the limbs too long, especially the arm belonging to LeBron James, who turned away Murray’s drive on the final play that really mattered.

“LeBron asked for the assignment,” coach Frank Vogel said. “Naturally I granted it.”

The Lakers won Western Conference Final Game 4, 114-108, and took the same 3-1 series lead over Denver that Utah and the Clippers also held. Again, this might be a case of a different animal.

Murray made three anatomically impossible shots in the lane, one ...

A protester in Hollywood was struck Thursday night by an SUV speeding by a crowd of marchers on the second night of protests related to the killing of Breonna Taylor by Louisville Metropolitan Police Department officers.

Shortly before 9 p.m., a black SUV sped by the crowd, striking a protester before speeding away again. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded and took one person to a hospital, according to the LAFD’s Nicholas Prange.

The protest began at 7 p.m. and by 7:30 p.m., at least 200 people were sitting and standing in the grass outside the entrance to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, located at 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., in Hollywood.

Vehicles could be heard driving by the protest honking in support, and a series of speakers addressed the crowd.

Demonstrators chanted “Black l...

LOS ANGELES >> Secure from red alert.

Walker Buehler’s right index finger passed its final regular season test with flying colors — none of them red or inflamed. Buehler went four scoreless innings before a parade of relievers completed a three-hitter in a 5-1 Dodgers win over the Oakland A’s Thursday night.

The win gave the Dodgers two out of three in the series against the A’s. With one series left (three games against the Angels this weekend at Dodger Stadium) in the regular season, the Dodgers have lost only one — two out of three to the Colorado Rockies Sept. 4-6.

The start against the A’s was Buehler’s first since he managed to get through just  2 2/3 innings in Arizona on Sept...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. >> However these Western Conference Finals turn out, observers will agree on at least one thing: Jamal Murray has raised his game.

The fourth-year guard is the highest draft pick on the Denver Nuggets’ roster, landed at No. 7 in 2016. At the time, Nuggets coach Michael Malone thought he was a steal even so. And now as he averages 26.6 points, 6.5 assists while shooting better than 47 percent from three in 17 playoff games, he’s outshone a lot of even what Malone could have expected.

“I would actually say – this is no disrespect to Jamal – but I think he’s gone from a very good player,” Malone said. “I think he was a very good player coming into this whole thing. And now on this stage has showed himself to be a great player, a superstar.”

It’s just...

LOS ANGELES >> Bubble up.

The Dodgers, like playoff-bound teams across MLB, went into quarantine Wednesday night in hopes for a postseason uninterrupted by positive coronavirus tests. The Dodgers players and coaching staff were expected to move into a Los Angeles hotel for the duration of the regular season and next week’s Wild Card Series, then move to a resort in Dallas for the remaining rounds of the postseason (if they advance).

The MLB ‘bubble’ will not be as stringent as the NBA version which limited players to an Orlando campus and punished players for breaking quarantine. MLB players will, however, be expected to limit their activities to the hotel and the ballpark with families allowed to join them.

If the Dodgers advance through a seven-game World Series, they would spend...

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I’m worried about Simon Le Bon. Not the Duran Duran frontman, but my houseplant (a stunning calathea ornata beauty star I named after the singer) that has spider mites. I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve gotten REALLY into houseplants during the pandemic. I also name them after rock stars so they have a built-in soundtrack. (Didn’t we all do that elementary school science fair experiment where you played music to plants to help them grow?)

Anyway, Simon has spider mites and they’ve also spread to some of my other calatheas, including Mick (Jagger, a peacock calathea) and Elton (John, a rattlesnake calathea), and I wish I could find some music...

Long Beach

Long Beach Gives topped its $1 million goal on Thursday, Sept. 24 — a day dedicated to raising money for local nonprofits.

“It’s going wonderfully well,” Niko Galvez, campaign manager for Long Beach Gives, said about halfway through the giving day. “It’s just so great seeing the nonprofits cheering each other on — to see how we’re creating community.”

This is the second year for Long Beach Gives, where nonprofits of every type gather under one umbrella and use social media to raise money.

In its inaugural year, the event — which Julie Meenan, executive director of the Josephine S. Gumbiner Foundation, conceived and The Nonprofit Partnership put together — raised $822,000 for 92 nonprofits.

This year, more than 150 groups and organizations participated, ra...

Sept. 25

Movie Showing: Los Angeles Arts Society presents Pop-up Drive-in cinema showing of “Grease,” Gardena Cinema, 14948 Crenshaw Blvd., Gardena. 7:30-10 p.m. $25 per vehicle. 310-217-0404 or eventbrite.com.

Flu Shots: Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center, Vermont Pavilion driveway, 25825 S. Vermont Ave., Harbor City. Free. 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. healthy.kaiserpermanente.org.

Movie Showing: Los Angeles Arts Society presents Pop-up Drive-in cinema showing of “La La Land,” Gardena Cinema, 14948 Crenshaw Blvd., Gardena. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Also Sept. 27. $25 per vehicle. 310-217-0404 or eventbrite.com.

The Art of Aicher: Paintings by Scott Aicher exhibit: Cornelius Projects, 1417 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro. Noon-5 p.m. Also Noon-5 p.m. Sept. 27...