USC wants to "keep the protesters out"
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m reading about the best free museums in Los Angeles. Onto the five USC, LA and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
A worker manning one of USC’s checkpoints had a candid take on his job. “They gave us one big task,” he said. “Keep the protesters out.” USC isn’t alone: Colleges across California are attempting to stymie the resurgence of bitter pro-Palestinian protests. The first real test is today, when students at four Bay Area universities are planning a coordinated demonstration.
2.
Little-known fact: Kamala Harris spends more time in Brentwood than in any place outside of Washington. Her neighbors in the posh LA neighborhood are pissed — the Secret Service, apparently, is constantly shutting down their street. “I will vote for her if she agrees to sell her house,” one neighbor said.
3.
A California company is using a robot that looks like a World War I tank to carry out prescribed burns — a process where fire-prevention teams burn dry vegetation in a controlled setting so future wildfires have less fuel. The robot contains the blaze in a burning chamber, which minimizes the risk of inadvertently starting a wildfire. It looks pretty cool.
4.
Prosecutors accused the owners of a Van Nuys car rental business of orchestrating a massive “crime tourism” ring. The owners allegedly rented cars to foreign visitors then directed them to steal some $35 million worth of goods across the U.S., which they later resold.
5.
USC researchers said they found a way to detect bacteria with what’s essentially a specialty flashlight. The handheld device uses violet light to illuminate bacteria that would normally be impossible to detect without a lab test — which has big implications for surgeons, who can now better clean wounds and avoid serious infections that require amputation.