Southern California struggles with paramedic shortage

Good morning, I hope you had a good weekend. Here are the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

Southern California has a paramedic shortage — so bad that in some cases, ambulances arrive on the scene with no paramedic on board. Experts, scrambling to remedy retention woes, blamed the pandemic for forcing frontline workers into close quarters with COVID patients and holding up the training pipeline.

Jeff Horseman / The Press-Enterprise

The LA Police Department arrested one of four suspects responsible for a San Fernando Valley shooting on Saturday afternoon that left one dead and three wounded. Police said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over an alleged gang-related drug deal in the parking lot of a Trader Joe’s.

Louis Sahagún / Los Angeles Times

A San Jose police union leader allegedly took part in an international smuggling ring that distributed synthetic opioids. Authorities said that 64-year-old Joanne Segovia — who served as the executive director of one of California’s largest police unions — had at least 61 packages containing drugs labeled as everyday items shipped to her home over the last seven years.

María Luisa Paúl / The Washington Post

The Biden administration OK’d a California plan to require half of all heavy vehicles like garbage trucks and tractor-trailers sold in the state to be fully electric by 2035. The state, whose regulations have historically forced changes in the automotive industry because of the sheer size of its population, needed Biden’s approval because the restrictions are far tougher than federal requirements.

Coral Davenport / The New York Times

A lost lake is reemerging in California’s Central Valley. Tulare Lake, once said to be the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi, was drained at the turn of the 20th century when its inflows were diverted for agricultural use. But this winter’s record rainfall is causing the lake to reemerge, spelling disaster for agricultural communities built on what once would’ve been the bottom of the lake.

Kurtis Alexander / San Francisco Chronicle

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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