Good morning. We’re reading about how some California prisoners now have the chance to earn a master’s degree while incarcerated.

Also: Please wish our copy editor, Anna Hsu, a happy birthday. Was there ever a better way to celebrate your 20th than waking up to edit Morning, Trojan? Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

Content warning: Today’s newsletter contains mentions of sexual assault and rape.

1.

Chipotle said it plans to hike menu prices in its California stores to offset rising labor costs, a direct response to the state’s new $20 minimum wage for fast food workers that’ll take effect in April. The Newport Beach-based company said it doesn’t plan to pull additional levers, like opening fewer stores than planned, unless customers react adversely to the price bump. Company executives say the increase will be relatively modest.

2.

USC students say an alleged rape in a Lyft ride earlier this week has put them on edge, and that they no longer trust the rideshare platform the university partners with to offer free services. Police still haven’t arrested the driver who allegedly assaulted a female student at the end of a ride early Wednesday morning, and Lyft said it couldn’t confirm that the driver was one of its own. “I’ll never go out in a Lyft by myself again,” one student said.

3.

California labor officials are investigating an incident on a Santa Barbara farm where a worker was reportedly struck and killed by a truck — then other laborers, including her own daughter, were ordered to keep working while her dead body lay in the carrot field. Grimmway Farms claimed that an internal review didn’t indicate people were instructed to continue working after the September accident. “They don’t care about us for nothing,” one worker who witnessed the incident said.

4.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former head of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was found guilty of charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering by a Manhattan jury — and could now spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried orchestrated “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history” by secretly funneling money from FTX to a private trading firm he controlled. He and his top lieutenants used that money to buy luxury real estate, make political donations and spend on risky investments, prosecutors said. Bankman-Fried is set to be sentenced in March.

5.

California schools are scrambling to find new ways to get their students milk, thanks to a nationwide shortage of cartons that’s hitting the dairy industry. Hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and other settings with cafeterias are likely to be affected as well. Some advocates say the shortage may be a blessing in disguise — this could force schools to move away from single-use containers, and instead explore reusable ways to deploy the dairy.

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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