USC doesn’t want you to read this newsletter
Tomo Chien
March 08, 2024
Good morning. It’s Friday, and I’m happy to report that people have started plagiarizing my snarky commentary on viral SideChat posts. Perhaps the clever poster can donate some dollars to College Brief.
In other news: The newsletter will be off for the spring break. I hope you have a grand week, and I’ll see you the Monday after. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Just a few days after raising tuition by over $3,000, USC quietly cut two key programs that let eligible students enroll in extra courses for free. The Exceptional Funding award allowed recipients of the university’s most prestigious merit scholarships to enroll in over 18 units, and the Academic Achievement Award did the same for students pursuing multiple degrees. If you’re already a recipient of the Exceptional Funding award, you’ll receive those benefits until you graduate. But if you’re on the Academic Achievement Award… sorry. You’re out to dry. The cuts, of course, were buried ahead of a week-long break — as unsavory announcements often are — and were only reported by the Daily Trojan.
2.
Katie Porter is a sore loser. After suffering a blowout loss in the California Senate primary, the Orange County Democrat took to Twitter to accuse her opponents of attempting to “rig” the election — and her colleagues are pissed. After her Trump-esque tweets sparked a firestorm, the congresswoman issued a statement walking back her initial claims, saying the rigging she was referring to was the manipulation of politics by “big dark money.” In the past, Porter was one of many Democrats who flamed Donald Trump for saying the election he lost was illegally manipulated. It’s especially ironic that such antics are coming from someone who once went viral for reading “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” on the House floor.
3.
Two men who were wrongly convicted of murder sued LA County, alleging that “deliberate, reckless” sheriff’s deputies intimidated witnesses, altered reports and hid key evidence in order to put them behind bars. Juan Rayford and Dupree Glass were sentenced to life in prison after being accused of shooting up a Lancaster home in 2004, but were set free after 17 years when another inmate confessed to the shooting. The two men were teenagers at the time. “We respect the judicial process, but the department does not agree with the allegations,” the sheriff’s office said.
4.
Prosecutors abruptly dropped charges in a case where three collectibles experts were accused of scheming to sell stolen draft lyrics to the Eagles hit “Hotel California.” Prosecutors said they agreed that defense lawyers had been blindsided by 6,000 pages of communications that they introduced last-minute. Squabbles over music memorabilia aren’t uncommon, but this case was highly unusual: Eagles frontman Don Henley appeared in court between tour stops to testify that the draft lyrics were stolen. At one point in the trial, prosecutors objected that defense lawyers were asking irrelevant questions about how Henley wrote “Hotel California.” “I don’t know the relevance, but it’s interesting,” the judge said to laughter in the courtroom.
5.
Last week, rumors started to circulate that a prominent San Francisco activist lied about being a veteran — and possibly faked his own death. By then, city leaders had already eulogized Richard Parina, calling him a “true hero” after somebody who claimed to be his adopted nephew announced the death online. Well, it turns out he’s not dead: He’s just in Mexico. Journalists finally got ahold of Parina, who claimed his alcoholic adopted nephew announced his death “out of thin fucking air,” but admitted that he “stole fucking valor” and said he’s “as sorry as I’ve ever been in my whole fucking life.” He wasn’t apologetic for long, though. “I don’t give a fuck what you write,” he told journalists. “If you don’t think I’m credible, I don’t give a shit. I’m trying to give you an accurate portrayal of what the fuck happened.”