|
 |
By Tomoki Chien
NEWSLETTER EDITOR |
Good morning, I hope you’re having a stellar break. I’m pleased to share that a new colleague — Claire Qiu — will join me and Anna (my editor) in producing this newsletter starting next week. |
I picked up a photo internship with USC Athletics, so need to cut some of my hours to stay under the 20-hour maximum for student workers. And now, onto your 10-story weekly roundup; our daily coverage will resume on Monday. |
|
|
California officials ended water restrictions for nearly 7 million residents after yet another atmospheric river drenched the state this week. Still, nixed outdoor watering limits may bring little relief to the 27,000 people who remain under flood evacuation orders and the 144,000 who still don’t have power statewide. |
|
|
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last Friday renewed fears that the economy is on the brink of a recession. The run on the bank — which was the 16th largest in the U.S. and was involved in nearly half of the country’s venture capital-backed startups — hearkened back to the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse and sent destabilizing shockwaves through the banking sector. |
|
|
USC will open a new campus next month in Washington, D.C., further expanding the university’s nationwide footprint. The “Capital Campus” will house a range of East Coast undergraduate and graduate programs in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, less than three miles from the Capitol. |
|
|
The LA Unified School District is bracing for a potential three-day strike starting next Tuesday as labor negotiations reach a breaking point. District officials said schools will shut down if the nearly 65,000 service workers and teachers go on strike, leaving working parents struggling to find child supervision. |
|
|
Floodwaters burst through a levee and inundated the farmworker community of Pajaro in Monterey County last weekend. Officials blocked access to the town as they scrambled to plug the break before more storms hit the state next week, leaving locals with no place to sleep and without access to documents and belongings in their homes. |
|
|
A California court ruled that gig companies like Lyft and Doordash can continue classifying their workers as contractors, tossing a labor coalition’s challenge that argued that Proposition 22 — a ballot initiative backed by the gig companies — was unconstitutional. Notably, though, the court invalidated a provision in the measure that would’ve made it harder for the Legislature to pass laws allowing workers to organize. |
|
|
The U.S. Senate confirmed Eric Garcetti, the former mayor of LA, as ambassador to India on Wednesday. The approval — a victory for President Biden, who's a staunch Garcetti ally — brought an end to a two-year saga prolonged by questions over whether Garcetti mishandled sexual harassment allegations in City Hall during his time as mayor. |
|
|
LA Metro riders are abandoning the transit system in growing numbers as crime and drug use soars; some Iines are seeing as little as 30% of pre-pandemic ridership. Train operators described seeing riders openly masturbate in subway cars. Maintenance crews often return from work to find their trucks looted. Robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults soared 24% last year — all renewing debates over the best way to reduce the transit’s crime rate. |
|
|
USC men’s basketball fell in the first round of the NCAA tourney Friday to a solid Michigan State, whose defenders effectively shut down Boogie Ellis, the Trojans’ star point guard. My condolences to any of you who had USC advancing in your bracket. The women’s team is playing South Dakota State as we publish this newsletter on Friday evening. |
|
|
Yosemite National Park is set to reopen on Saturday, ending a weeks-long closure after heavy winter storms dumped as much as 15 feet of snow over parts of the park late last month. The park, typically open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is expected to see as much as another 2 feet of snow through next week. |
|
|
 |
You’re all caught up. Thanks for reading Morning, Trojan, and have a good evening. Anna Hsu copy edited this newsletter. |
|
3630 Watt Way, ANN 102, Los Angeles, CA 90089. |
|
|
