Flying taxis are coming to USC
Tomo Chien
August 26, 2024
Good morning! It’s Monday, and I trust you had a fabulous summer. I’m excited to get back to it. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Electric air taxis are coming to USC — supposedly. A company called Archer Aviation says it plans to build an ambitious network of “vertiports” across LA by 2026, including a station at USC. The company has not said how much flights will cost. But if it’s any consolation, Archer’s promo videos feature a very handsome, very leather-clad Usher.
2.
USC was ranked the fifth-best party school in the U.S. in Niche’s latest rankings, up from sixth-best last year. UC Santa Barbara, unsurprisingly, nabbed the top spot. “Its all on the row,” one student reviewer wrote of USC. “And thats just annoying cause its all about hooking up.”
Tomoki Chien / Morning, Trojan
3.
There’s a wild battle raging over the future of a male stripping empire. Steve Banerjee, the disgraced founder of the originally LA-based Chippendales, forfeited his interest in the company after he hired a hit man to take out a former employee. Now, his son is claiming he’s the heir to the enterprise — and that the company tried to assassinate him.
4.
Pete Carroll, the legendary USC football coach who later won a Super Bowl, is returning to campus … to teach a class. The university said it’ll be in the spring, but did not offer more specifics. Read more about Carroll in one of the best profiles ever written.
5.
A USC study found that people who consume excessive amounts of weed are up to five times as likely to develop head and neck cancer than those who don’t. Researchers did not distinguish between the different methods of consuming cannabis in the 90-million-person study, but hypothesized that smoking is the primary cause. This one’s a bummer.
