Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and we’re reading about how Los Angeles is a doughnut town. Onto the five USC, LA and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

An incoming California heat wave is expected to trigger rapid snowmelt on the Sierra Nevada slopes and cause more flooding in the San Joaquin and Owens valleys this week, forecasters say. Temperatures are expected to climb into the high 80s and mid 90s beginning Wednesday, melting one of the largest snowpacks in state history.

2.

A controversial bill aiming to outlaw caste discrimination cleared its first big legislative hurdle, passing through the state Senate Judiciary Committee. If approved by the broader Legislature, the bill could make California the first state in the nation to make caste bias illegal, an issue that is especially contentious within the South Asian community.

3.

California is expected to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and mandate that large companies swap existing trucks for zero emissions versions by 2042, building off of last month’s decree that half of all heavy-duty truck sales be fully electric by 2035. Trucking companies contend that electric big rigs are still prohibitively costly and lack the necessary range.

4.

A report found that bystanders account for almost half of all the people killed or injured during police chases initiated by the LA Police Department in the last five years, a continuation of a decades-long pattern. LAPD’s policy is looser than other large cities: Philadelphia, Phoenix and Dallas no longer chase people suspected of misdemeanors, and New York and Chicago banned a maneuver where police bump cars traveling below 35 mph in order to force them to stop.

5.

Electric vehicles have accounted for 21% of all new vehicle sales in California so far this year. Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y continue to dominate the market and in fact outsell the state’s three most popular gas-powered models. Chevrolet’s Bolt EUV, BMW’s X5 and Jeep’s Wrangler round out the rest of the five best-selling electric vehicles, though sales continue to be heavily clustered in affluent areas of the San Francisco Bay Area.

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

3630 Watt Way, ANN 102, Los Angeles, CA 90089.