California to crack down on marijuana industry

Good morning,you may notice in today’s email that there are no spaces after bold text and links. We assume it’s a system-wide Mailchimp bug because it’s affecting even old newsletters that we’re resending to ourselves.

So bear with us. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

California is lookingto crack down on widespread corruption in the marijuana industry, where, in some cases, local officials have demanded six-figure bribes to approve licenses. The audit, which has the green light from the state Legislature, could help lawmakers draft new regulations that would reform the licensing process.

Adam Elmahrek / Los Angeles Times

State lawmakerswill vote on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed possible penalties on oil companies who gouge prices at the pump Thursday. The effort — which Newsom had originally wanted to be a hard cap on the profit companies can make per gallon — would instead allow the California Energy Commission to decide whether to impose a penalty, and what that penalty should be.

Adam Beam / Associated Press

Mayor Karen Bassagreed to join talks between the LA Unified School District and union leadership. Thursday is the third and final day of the strike, which the union characterized as a protest of unfair labor practices rather than being a protracted effort to sign favorable terms. The union, however, did leave open the possibility of such a strike in the future.

Staff / Los Angeles Times

A rare tornadostruck Montebello Wednesday morning, damaging 17 buildings and injuring one person. The twister traveled four-tenths of a mile, was around 50 yards wide and was on the ground for two to three minutes. It was only the sixth tornado recorded in LA County since 2005, though there was a weak one in La Mirada last month.

Staff / KTLA

Residents ofthe flooded Monterey County town of Pajaro remain locked out of their community without any of the aid Gov. Newsom promised two weeks ago. In a heated town hall meeting, county officials wouldn’t commit to a date residents would be allowed back in the inundated agricultural town, leaving many to continue sleeping in cars and tool sheds without their belongings.

Aldo Toledo / The Mercury News

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

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