Skid Row is changing
Tomo Chien
April 02, 2024
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m ogling these California homes. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Developers want to change Skid Row. For decades, the neighborhood in downtown LA — that’s become more or less synonymous with the nation’s homelessness crisis — has been dominated by dilapidated hotels converted into housing for homeless residents. But now, developers want to build modern homeless housing high rises that could dramatically change the feel of the neighborhood. And one even wants to build a property for higher-income residents: But conspicuously left out the “Skid Row” descriptor in marketing materials.
2.
USC women’s basketball couldn’t stave off the UConn Huskies in the NCAA quarterfinals, ending a historic season with a 80-73 loss. It wasn’t without triumph: JuJu Watkins, the team’s freshman star, passed the NCAA’s all-time freshman scoring record in the second quarter. And last night’s game was the first “Elite Eight” appearance for the Trojans since 1994, fresh off the team’s first Pac-12 title in a decade. Expect them to be back next year.
3.
New video shows that San Bernardino deputies shot a kidnapped teenager to death as she surrendered and followed their instructions. The shooting occurred in September 2022, when 45-year-old Anthony Graziano allegedly shot his wife then kidnapped his 15-year-old daughter, Savannah. Deputies tracked the Grazianos and intervened on a freeway near Hesperia, but video shows that as one deputy instructed Savannah to walk toward the police line, others opened fire on her. There had previously been questions about whether Savannah was killed by her father or the deputies.
4.
A California lawmaker wants to give employees the “right to disconnect” and ignore texts, calls and emails after work hours. The legislation is modeled after similar laws in France and Australia, but would be the first such protection in the U.S. if passed. The law raises some questions, though. For one, it provides an exception for after-hours contact during emergencies — but it’s hard to define what an emergency is. And for some industries, late-night emails are just part of the job.
5.
California community colleges have given out more than $6.5 million in financial aid to scammers since fall 2021. Administrators say that fraudsters often deploy bots to enroll in online classes, collect their aid, then vanish. But sometimes they don’t leave, and actually start submitting assignments with the help of artificial intelligence — leaving professors in a Blade Runner-esque scenario. The phenomenon isn’t new, and it’s hard to tell whether it’s actually getting worse: The increase in reported fraud is likely because schools are getting better at detecting it.
