Students bemoan Lyft wait times
Tomo Chien
April 03, 2024
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m reading about the guy who’s tasted everything on the Cheesecake Factory’s menu. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Students say USC’s free Lyft service is suffering from longer-than-usual wait times — and that’s leading some to walk alone at night. A USC official said that though there’s been a slight increase in recent wait times, nearly 9 in 10 riders wait no more than five minutes for their Lyft. It’s not clear why there’s an apparent shortage of drivers near campus, but it might be partially because Lyft has started offering fewer bonuses for drivers who complete rides in the area.
2.
You’d think a city rocked by eight major scandals in a four-year span might be eager to enact new ethics rules. Turns out not. It’s been almost a year and a half since the LA City Council promised to give its ethics commission more power after scandals forced some members to resign and sent others to federal prison. The council has until July to propose new rules that’d be on the November ballot, but it’s yet to schedule a hearing for the legislation. And some councilmembers support an even lengthier process that would essentially punt reform to 2026.
3.
An ex-LA County deputy alleged he was fired because he had a history of refusing to take part in deputy gang activity. In a lawsuit, the deputy said his colleagues filed bogus complaints that he gave a Nazi salute and shared a sexually explicit photo, and implied that the captain who decided to fire him — a deputy gang member himself — did so to punish him. The lawsuit is just the latest complaint to depict the department as an institution overrun by rogue bands of violent deputies who subvert the chain of command.
4.
The Pacific Coast Highway keeps collapsing into the ocean, and state officials aren’t sure what to do about it. Strong storms and rising seas driven by climate change have led to growing damage along the scenic roadway, epitomized last weekend by a landslide that left 1,600 people stranded. There are solutions — they’re just expensive. Some include: Tunneling through the mountains that border the highway. Constructing a heavily engineered foundation under the road. Or peeling back the mountain to suspend the road on a bridge-like structure.
5.
Three armed guards sat in a California hotel room, watching a duffel bag of $400,000 in cash. They weren’t drug mules: They were moving money for a legal marijuana distributor who was forced to hire them because most banks won’t work with dispensaries. Banks are technically allowed to handle the money, but they’re subject to onerous federal reporting requirements that discourage them from doing it. Distributors say the policy is a thorn in their side that’s ultimately a boon for illegal sellers.
