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Morning, Trojan.

Seven stories for today, Sept. 19

📍 On campus

  1. Firefighters deemed an unidentified spill of a pungent odor to be harmless on Sunday night. The spill had prompted a campus-wide alert to avoid the area around the Seaver Science Center earlier that evening. (Staff report / CBS Los Angeles)

  1. Henry Fuhrmann, a beloved USC professor and Los Angeles Times editor, died last week at age 65 from a sudden illness. Fuhrmann was widely known for pushing for the removal of hyphens in terms like “Asian-American” and “African-American,” which he argued connoted “otherness, a sense that people of color are somehow not full citizens or fully American.” The hyphen was eventually removed from the Associated Press Stylebook thanks to his efforts. (Staff report / Annenberg Media)

  1. A federal judge granted a new trial for Jovan Vavic, the former USC waterpolo coach convicted of bribery as part of the Operation Varsity Blues admissions scandal. Vavic is accused of taking bribes in exchange for recruiting prospective students to the waterpolo team, though the judge found that prosecutors introduced “enough confusion” to the jury so as to warrant a new trial. (Anemona Hartocollis / New York Times)

🌴 In L.A.

  1. Los Angeles Unified school officials rescinded a suspension they had previously raised against a journalism advisor at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School who refused to censor an article naming an unvaccinated campus librarian in the school newspaper. The advisor’s suspension had raised national outrage. (Christian Martinez / Los Angeles Times)

  1. The L.A. city council’s energy committee tabled a decision on whether to shift the power source at the Scattergood Generating Station in Playa del Rey from natural gas to “green” hydrogen. (Elizabeth Chou / Los Angeles Daily News)

🌅 California

  1. Californians now have the option of an alternative burial method known as “human composting,” thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday. The burial process — which supporters say is more eco-friendly than cremation or embalming — sees remains decompose over a month in a steel vessel with wood chips, alfalfa and other biodegradable materials. The nutrient-dense soil can be returned to families or donated to conservation land. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times)

  1. A coalition of California State University students, faculty and staff confronted the system’s board of trustees calling for better staff salaries and on-campus facilities. The move was spurred in part by large pay raises for CSU executives announced earlier this summer. (Kristy Hutchings / Press-Telegram)

✌️ Sports corner

🔌 A self plug

  • Check out my photos from the football games versus Fresno State and Stanford for the Daily Trojan here.

⭐️ Bonus satire

In lieu of the now-discontinued weekend edition.

🚨 In case you missed it

  • USC now ranks number 25 on the U.S. News & World Report’s most recent national universities ranking list published earlier this week. USC, which moved up two spots from last year’s rankings, is tied with New York University, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. (Hank Yang / Daily Trojan)

  • Marilyn Flynn, former dean of USC’s school of social work, agreed to plea guilty to bribery on Thursday. By doing so, Flynn admitted that she arranged a $100,000 payment for Mark Ridley-Thomas when he was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in return for a USC contract with the county. (Michael Finnegan and Matt Hamilton / Los Angeles Times)

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“Morning, Trojan” is curated and edited by Tomoki Chien. Questions, concerns or feedback? Reach me at tomoki@gmail.com.

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