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By Tomoki Chien
NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Good morning, I hope your week’s going well. Here are the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

The LA City Council sparred last night over a vote to extend the police department’s contract to patrol Metro buses and trains amid a rising wave of crime on the public transit system. Two council members dissented from the ultimate 10-2 approval, arguing that unarmed responders, not traditional police, are the solution to the assaults and drug overdoses on Metro lines.

David Zahniser and Rachel Uranga / Los Angeles Times

2.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in 13 counties impacted by this week’s severe winter storms — Los Angeles and San Bernardino included. The declaration should help state agencies assist and coordinate with local governments as crews race to clear roads in mountain communities without power, where residents remain snowed in with dwindling supplies of food and medicine.

Josh DuBose / KTLA

3.

Common sense is running strong in California’s far north: The Shasta County Board of Supervisors this week voted to cancel its contract with Dominion Voting Systems — the supplier of voting machines and software swept up in baseless Trumpian claims of mass voter fraud — and pursue the possibility of counting all votes by hand. A county supervisor, thankfully, said he consulted MyPillow guy Mike Lindell in making the decision.

Jessica Garrison / Los Angeles Times

4.

A controversial California bill backed by many of the nation’s big-city mayors could make it easier for authorities to detain people against their will for mental health treatment. Those mayors argue that the bar is too high to treat members of their homeless populations who might be so severely debilitated from mental health or addiction problems that they’re not capable of making decisions for themselves.

Adam Beam / Associated Press

5.

California could bar commercial salmon fishing for the first time in more than a decade after the fish population along the Pacific Coast plunged to its lowest point in 15 years. Experts pointed to the drought as a likely cause of the shrinking population, noting that young salmon are highly dependent on the amount of water available in rivers and streams.

Tara Duggan / San Francisco Chronicle

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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