Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m reading about the best Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles — two of which are just across the street from USC. 

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Donate $10 or more at the link below by the end of the day and I’ll add you to the list. Now, onto the five USC, LA and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

California State University faculty ended their strike last night after reaching a tentative deal with the university system, closing the planned five-day walkout at the nation’s largest public university system in just hours. Notably, the deal will retroactively increase salaries by 5% to last July, then by another 5% at the start of this July. That’s short of the union’s ask for 12%, but more than CSU’s original offer. Professors are expected to return to the classroom today.

Soumya Karlamangla / The New York Times

2.

Authorities are searching for the people who set off a massive display of illegal fireworks in Little Tokyo Sunday night. Police said the culprits set off an estimated 100 pounds of pyrotechnics from a parking lot next to the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA that rocked the neighborhood for almost a half hour. The sound of illegal fireworks is fairly common in downtown LA, but the scale of Sunday’s display was unusual.

Josh DuBose / KTLA

3.

Last night’s Senate debate was a dogpile — with Republican Steve Garvey at the bottom. Despite a healthy share of interparty nastiness, veteran Democratic Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee skewered the former LA Dodgers star’s vague policy positions and repeatedly pressed him to say whether he’ll vote for Donald Trump this year. “Once a Dodger, always a dodger,” Porter said when Garvey sidestepped the question.

Jeremy B. White and Lara Korte / Politico

4.

Heavy rain and flash floods wreaked havoc in San Diego yesterday, flooding entire neighborhoods and overturning cars. The city’s mayor declared a state of emergency and officials set up shelters for displaced residents. Such rain is unusual for San Diego: In a period of just three hours yesterday, parts of the region were inundated with more rain than they average in a month.

Denis Poroy and Christopher Weber / Associated Press

5.

A Southern California pool cleaner offers his services for free — with a catch. You have to let him skate your pool. Steve Alba, 60, professional skateboarder and owner of Salba Pool Cleaning, came of age in the 1970s when skateboarders typically took to empty pools and asphalt embankments. Since then, some 3,500 dedicated skateparks have cropped up over the U.S., but pools still hold a special allure. They’re more interesting. And there aren’t any mouth-breathing tweens. “On the one hand it’s a facade, to make us look official,” Alba said. “The ultimate goal is to skate the pool.”

Jacob Bunge / The Wall Street Journal

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