By Tomoki Chien
NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Good morning, I hope you're having a good week. Here are the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

California scrapped a $54 million contract with Walgreens after the pharmacy giant said it won’t distribute abortion pills in 21 states where Republican attorneys general threatened legal action. The contract, due for renewal on May 1, allowed the state to procure specialty prescription drugs used mostly by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

2.

At least 12 have died since snowstorms hit Southern California mountain towns, cutting off roadways and leaving some residents trapped in their homes. In one instance, residents said they suspected an elderly neighbor froze to death in her home. Officials said 95% of San Bernardino County roads were cleared as of Wednesday morning, though some were only wide enough to allow for single-lane traffic.

3.

The storm that’s expected to drench Northern California starting Thursday will largely spare the south, bringing about an inch of rainfall. Snow is possible at over 7,000 feet in elevation and officials warned of “non-life threatening flooding” in the lowlands. Some residents whose homes were already damaged by the severe mountain snow fretted that this storm’s water damage could be the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

4.

A famed UC Berkeley professor for decades used bones stolen from Native American gravesites to teach anthropology classes — just one part of the university’s long history of excavating burial sites to add to its collections. Berkeley to this day holds the remains of some 9,000 Indigenous people, and the professor, Tim White, has been a particularly strong critic of efforts to return those bones.

5.

California’s LA to San Francisco high-speed rail project is stalling. A new report found that the project needs another $10 billion just to connect Bakersfield to Merced — bad timing considering the state’s over $22.5 billion deficit and as the U.S. House’s Republican majority seems unlikely to lend federal aid. Still, though, the dream has a certain allure: 500 miles of rail connecting the north to south in under three hours.

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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