Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m reading about why Los Angeles is a confusing jumble of the county, the city, unincorporated areas and other cities entirely. It’s all about water rights, apparently. Onto the five USC, LA and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

The LA City Council greenlit a proposal that’ll allow landlords to raise rent by up to 4% next year, a compromise between an extended COVID-era rent freeze and the 7% cap that would be in place otherwise. The plan only applies to units covered by the city’s rent stabilization ordinance. Tenant advocates argued that an end to the rent freeze could be catastrophic for vulnerable renters, but landlords noted that they haven’t been able to raise rent in more than three years amid soaring inflation.

2.

The section of the Interstate 10 damaged by a fire this weekend will be repaired in three to five weeks, officials said. Inspectors who assessed the site said the damaged section can be retrofitted rather than torn down and replaced entirely, meaning the traffic nightmare will be far shorter than some had initially feared. Investigators are still determining who started the fire, which they suspect was caused by arson.

3.

The man who broke into former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and attacked her husband with a hammer last year offered a bewildering testimony in his trial. David DePape said he planned to don a unicorn costume and interrogate Pelosi about what he believed were government plots against Donald Trump — and that he’d break her kneecaps if she lied. But Pelosi wasn’t home at the time of the attack: just her husband, Paul, who DePape struck in the head with a hammer. “I felt bad for him because we kind of had, like, a really good rapport,” DePape told jurors.

4.

Students renting at the Hub LA Figueroa apartments are set to move in Thursday, at last ending a three-month saga of delays where renters were forced to live in temporary accommodations. The embattled apartment building had faced construction delays, permitting issues and the death of a contractor that all postponed the new building’s promised August move-in date. A few amenity spaces, like the rooftop pool, still aren’t complete.

5.

Just 20 extended families consume the majority of water the Imperial Valley draws from the Colorado River, often using more water than small cities to grow hay that’s shipped to foreign countries. Many of the farmers are descendants of early homesteaders and thus work land that’s guaranteed large amounts of cheap river water. “You’ve got this small group of families, and … they’ve all intermarried,” a county tax assessor said. “It’s almost like a feudal type system.”

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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