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By Tomoki Chien
NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Good morning, today’s newsletter will be the last daily edition before we return to school in the new year. We’ll send out weekly editions every Friday until then. Happy holidays, and have a great break!

And now, here are the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

The National Labor Relations Board will pursue unfair labor practice charges against USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA. Advocates argue that USC’s athletes are employees of the school and have thus been unlawfully treated. If successful, such a move would classify basketball and football players at any private university as employees and therefore grant them the right to unionize.

Dan Murphy / ESPN

2.

Californians who install new home solar panels will get at least 75% smaller payments for excess power, the California Public Utilities Commission voted in a controversial overhaul of state rooftop solar regulations. The new rules will instead set aside $900 million in incentives to help residents purchase new panels, two-thirds of which are specifically for low-income households.

Julie Cart / CalMatters

3.

LA landlords can begin evicting tenants on Feb. 1, bringing an end to one of the city’s major pandemic-era renter protections in place since March 2020. Landlords still won’t be able to raise rent in large swaths of the city until February 2024, though.

Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times

4.

The mother of Melanie Ramos, the 15-year-old girl who died of an overdose in a Hollywood high school bathroom in September, sued the LA Unified School District alleging school officials knew its students were using drugs but did nothing. Ramos died after swallowing a Percocet pill likely laced with fentanyl.

Thomas Peele / EdSource

5.

San Bernardino County will study the possibility of seceding from California to form its own state. The move would have to be approved by the California Legislature and U.S. Congress, a highly unlikely prospect. Still, the discussion in the state’s fifth-most populous county — that’s relatively diverse and adjacent to LA County — underscores deep political divisions in a deep blue state.

Michael R. Blood, Jae Hong and Amy Taxin / Associated Press

You’re all caught up. Thanks for reading Morning, Trojan, and have a good day. Anna Hsu copy edited this newsletter.

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