Senators are expected to grill Ticketmaster Tuesday, questioning whether the company’s dominance in the ticketing industry led to its spectacular breakdown last year during a sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, said the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will focus on consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries and how it harms customers.

“For too long, consumers have faced high fees, long waits and website failures, and Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company faces inadequate pressure to innovate and improve,” Klobuchar said in a statement ahead of the hearing.

Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket seller, processing 500 million tickets each year in more than 30 countries. Around 70% of tickets for major concert venues in the U.S. are sold through Ticketmaster, according to data in a federal lawsuit filed by consumers last year.

In 2010, Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation, a Beverly Hills, California-based entertainment company that produces live shows, festivals and concert tours. Live Nation’s President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold is among those scheduled to testify Tuesday.

In mid-November, Ticketmaster’s site crashed during a presale event for Swift’s upcoming stadium tour. The company said its site was overwhelmed by both fans and bot attacks. Many people lost tickets after they had waited for hours in an online queue.

Ticketmaster required fans to register for the presale, and more than 3.5 million people did. The company said it was the largest registration in history.

Ticketmaster eventually canceled a planned ticket sales to the general public because it didn’t have enough inventory.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James hit a career-high nine 3-pointers while scoring 46 points, but the Los Angeles Clippers hit 19 3-pointers of their own on the way to a comfortable 133-115 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

James scored at least 40 points against the Clippers for the first time in his 20-year career, giving him a 40-point game against all 30 teams in the NBA. James hit his record ninth 3-pointer with 6:45 to play, setting a career high from distance in his 1,404th game.

James also ramped up his chase of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring record with his 101st 40-point game, including the postseason. He trails Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points) by just 177 points, putting him in position to potentially break the record at the end of the Lakers’ upcoming five-game road swing instead of back home in Los Angeles.

James’ brilliance wasn’t nearly enough: The Lakers never caught up after falling behind by 23 points, and James spent the final minutes on the bench after the Clippers pulled away for their 10th consecutive victory over their arena co-tenants in downtown Los Angeles.

Paul George had 27 points and nine rebounds, and Kawhi Leonard added 25 points in the Clippers’ third straight win overall. The Clippers hit a season-high 15 3-pointers in the first half while scoring a season-high 77 points and jumping to a 23-point halftime lead.

Norman Powell had 22 points and Reggie Jackson added 19 for the Clippers.

Russell Westbrook scored 17 points and Thomas Bryant added 15 for the Lakers.

The Clippers never trailed, largely because of a spectacular outside shooting performance in the first half.

Powell hit four 3-pointers and George and Jackson added three apiece while the Clips went 15 of 23 behind the arc, making more 3s than two-point buckets (12) while going up 77-54. The Clippers hadn’t made 15 3-pointers in a half in the past three seasons.

James went tumbling headfirst onto the walkway behind the courtside seats while chasing a loose ball in the third quarter, but got up unhurt.

HACHIMURA ARRIVES

Rui Hachimura sat on the Lakers’ bench in street clothes one day after Los Angeles acquired him from Washington in a trade for Kendrick Nunn. The Japanese big man could be in uniform Wednesday.

“I’m super-duper excited” about the Lakers’ acquisition, coach Darvin Ham said. “A multifaceted, strong, skilled, athletic player. Definitely fills a big void and can just fall into the system seamlessly. … I think he’s going to bring a lot.”

TIP-INS

Clippers: Marcus Morris left the game with bruised ribs. … John Wall missed his sixth straight game with an abdominal injury. … Luke Kennard missed his ninth straight game with a calf injury, but could return Thursday.

Lakers: Davis is close to his return, although the team still hasn’t put a date on it. Davis had “another great day” of rehabilitation, Ham said. … Guards Lonnie Walker and Austin Reaves also are both close to returns from injury, Ham said. Reaves hasn’t played since Jan. 4, and Walker has been out since Dec. 28. … Westbrook scored his 24,000th point in the first quarter, becoming the 28th player in NBA history to hit the mark.

UP NEXT

Clippers: Host San Antonio on Thursday night.

Lakers: Host San Antonio on Wednesday night.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

HONOLULU (AP) — Attorneys for a Native Hawaiian man who has been imprisoned for more than 20 years for the 1991 sexual assault, kidnapping and murder of a white woman visiting Hawaii will ask a judge Tuesday to dismiss his conviction due to new evidence — including DNA testing — in the case.

A petition filed late Monday outlines additional evidence in one of Hawaii’s biggest murders, which unfolded on Christmas Eve in 1991 on Hawaii Island, commonly known as the Big Island.

Dana Ireland, 23, was found barely alive in the bushes along a fishing trail in Puna, a remote section of the Big Island. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten and later died at Hilo Medical Center. The mangled bicycle she had been riding was found several miles away and appeared to have been run into by a vehicle.

The murder of the blond-haired, blue-eyed visitor from Virginia gained national attention and remained unsolved for years, putting intense pressure on police to find the killer.

“Whenever you have a white, female victim … it gets a lot more attention than people of color and Native Hawaiians,” said Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. “The parents, understandably, were becoming more and more infuriated. … There was insurmountable pressure to solve this case. And when that happens, mistakes are made. Some intentional and some unintentional.”

With help from the Innocence Project in New York, the co-counsel in the case, Lawson’s group is representing Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, the last of three Native Hawaiian men convicted in Ireland’s death to remain imprisoned.

DNA evidence previously submitted in the case belonged to an unknown man and all three of the convicted men were excluded as sources.

New DNA evidence, according to the petition, shows a “Jimmy Z” brand T-shirt found near Ireland and soaked with her blood belonged to the same unknown man, and not to one of the three men, as prosecutors claimed.

Additionally, a new tire tread analysis concluded Schweitzer’s Volkswagen Beetle car didn’t leave the tire marks at either location where Ireland and her bicycle were found. A forensic odontologist also concluded an injury on her left breast wasn’t a bitemark, as previously believed, the petition said.

“At a new trial today, a jury would not convict Mr. Schweitzer of Ms. Ireland’s sexual assault and murder,” the petition said. “In fact, a prosecutor would likely not even arrest Mr. Schweitzer for this crime.”

The likelihood that all three men participated in a sexual attack and left no trace of biological evidence — including a lack of evidence uncovered with advanced forensic testing — is “extraordinarily improbable,” the petition said.

At the evidentiary hearing, a judge will consider the defense’s request to vacate Schweitzer’s sentence and release him.

Ireland’s relatives couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the petition.

In 2019, Schweitzer’s attorneys and Hawaii County prosecutors entered into a “conviction integrity agreement” to reinvestigate the case. It was the first time in Hawaii there has been this type of agreement, Lawson said, which is increasingly being used to reexamine questionable convictions and guard against future errors.

Much of the background on the Ireland case is detailed in a document filed with the petition listing facts that defense attorneys and prosecutors have stipulated.

In 1994, police made what they believed to be a major breakthrough. A man facing charges for his role in a cocaine conspiracy contacted police and claimed his half-brother, Frank Pauline Jr., witnessed Ireland’s attack, according to the stipulated facts document.

Police interviewed Pauline, who was in his third month of a 10-year sentence for an unrelated sex assault and theft. He claimed brothers Ian and Shawn Schweitzer attacked and killed Ireland. But he was interviewed at least seven times and gave inconsistent accounts each time, eventually incriminating himself, the stipulation document said.

Despite the lack of evidence linking them to the killing, the two Schweitzers and Pauline were indicted in 1997.

At one point the charges were dismissed because all three men were excluded as the source of semen found in Ireland and on a hospital gurney sheet. They were indicted again after another informant claimed Ian Schweitzer confessed to him in jail that Pauline raped and killed Ireland.

Pauline later said he offered details to police about the Ireland murder in order to get drug charges dropped against his half-brother.

In a prison interview with the A&E show “American Justice,” Pauline compared his story to the tale of the boy who cried wolf. “Wasn’t me,” he said in a strong Hawaii Pidgin accent. But when he started telling the truth, he said no one believed him.

Shawn Schweitzer took a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping — and receive credit for about a year served and five years of probation — after seeing juries convict Pauline and his brother in 2000.

In October, Shawn Schweitzer met with prosecutors and recanted. According to the stipulation document, he pleaded guilty because his “parents did not want to risk losing another son and encouraged Shawn Schweitzer to do what he needed to do to come home and not suffer the same fate as his brother.”

Shawn Schweitzer “continues to feel immense guilt about agreeing to the confession and entering a guilty plea for a crime he did not commit and falsely implicating his brother,” the document said.

A polygraph test in November showed he was telling the truth when he denied any involvement in the murder, the document said.

Pauline was killed in a New Mexico prison by a fellow inmate in 2015. Ian Schweitzer is serving his 130-year sentence in an Arizona prison because of a lack of space for inmates in Hawaii.

“Mr. Schweitzer has spent over two decades wrongfully incarcerated based on unreliable informant evidence and accident reconstruction testimony,” the petition said. “It would be unconscionable for him to continue to remain incarcerated, given this overwhelming new evidence of innocence.”

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A senior Australian government minister said Wednesday that rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, could be refused a visa due to antisemitic comments if he attempts to visit Australia.

Education Minister Jason Clare was responding to media reports that the U.S. celebrity intends to visit the family of new Australian partner Bianca Censori in Melbourne next week.

Clare said he did not know if Ye had applied for a visa but that Australia has previously refused them to people with antisemitic views.

“I expect that if he does apply, he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions” as others who’ve aired such views, Clare told Nine Network television.

Last month, Ye praised Hitler in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Twitter later suspended Ye after he tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David.

Australia’s Migration Act sets security and character requirements for non-citizens to enter the country. Any decision on whether Ye gets an Australian visa would be made by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, whose office said he could not comment on individual cases due to privacy reasons.

Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, met government officials on Tuesday to argue for an entry ban.

“We had a sympathetic hearing,” Wertheim said on Sky News. “We’ve made the case that this particular individual does not meet the character test and that it would be in the national interest not to grant him a visa and we set out our reasons in some detail.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said if he were in government, he would be inclined to bar Ye on character grounds.

“My inclination would be not to allow him in,” Dutton told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW on Tuesday.

“His antisemitic comments are disgraceful, his conduct and his behavior is appalling, and he’s not a person of good character,” Dutton added.

Ye and Censori intend to visit her family who live in the northeast Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe next week, Seven Network News reported.

Ye and Censori recently married less than two months after he finalized his divorce from Kim Kardashian, entertainment news website TMZ reported two weeks ago.

The AP asked Ye’s representative whether he had married Censori and planned to visit Melbourne, but did not get an immediate response.