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Morning, Trojan.

Seven stories for today, Oct. 7

📍 On campus

  1. Guess which major L.A. university was a hot topic in Thursday’s mayoral debate. (Hint: It wasn’t UCLA.) Rep. Karen Bass and Rick Caruso both found themselves on the defensive in the hours-long debate, as moderators pushed Bass on her $95,000 scholarship to the school of social work, and Caruso for backtracking on a pledge to release an internal report about an investigation of a USC gynecologist accused of sexual misconduct. (Julia Wick, James Rainey, Dakota Smith and David Zahniser / Los Angeles Times)

  1. Duffl, a student-run delivery service, co-opted the popular high school “senior assassin” tradition in a new marketing initiative dubbed “Duffl Assassins.” The over 300 participants are given a “target” player every Sunday night and have one week to squirt that player with a water gun. The last person standing gets $300 in Duffl Cash, free delivery for a year, AirPods and a $75 901 Bar & Grill gift card. (Lexi Klein and Christian Fulton / Annenberg Media)

🌴 In L.A.

  1. The updated bivalent COVID-19 booster has been available for a month — but just 5% of eligible Angelenos have gotten the shot. That’s about 355,000 people. The CDC recommends that everyone 12 and older get an updated booster as long as it’s been two months since their last shot. (Jackie Fortiér / LAist)

  1. An L.A. teen drowned near Thousand Steps Beach Wednesday evening. The Orange County Sheriff's Department identified the victim as 16-year-old Juliet Jung. (Ashley Ludwig / Patch)

  1. An L.A. County Sheriff's Department commander sued the county and Sheriff Alex Villanueva, alleging whistleblower retaliation. The commander said that Villanueva directed a cover-up of a video of a deputy with his knee on the head of a man in custody for three minutes, and retaliated against department whistleblowers. (City News Service)

🌅 California

  1. California’s homeless population grew by 22,000 over the pandemic, increasing at roughly the same pace as previous years. The crisis has disproportionately affected Latinos. (Manuela Tobias / CalMatters)

  1. Biden’s announcement that he’ll pardon everyone convicted under federal law for possession of marijuana — and reconsider its classification under federal law — drew praise from California Democrats: But some want him to go further and advocate for full federal decriminalization of the drug now. (Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle)

⭐️ A bonus listicle

🚨 In case you missed it

  • Scammers are finagling money out of students for football tickets they never receive. It’s not uncommon for students who buy season tickets to resell seats for cheaper than the individual game price — but the fraudsters are causing would-be buyers to lose faith in the secondhand market. (Salome Nebiyu, Shane Dimapanat and Carson Dorais / Annenberg Media)

  • Authorities have connected an additional murder of an Oakland man to a possible Stockton serial killer, as well as one non-fatal shooting of a Stockton woman. The killer has now been connected to six slayings. (Staff report / The Guardian)

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Morning, Trojan is curated and edited by Tomoki Chien. Chris Bibona writes The Sports Corner. Questions, concerns or feedback? You can reach me by replying to this email.

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