Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m reading about the trends that defined the Los Angeles food scene this year. Onto the five USC, LA, and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

The person who died in last week’s McClintock Avenue car crash was a 27-year-old man riding a motorcycle, cops said. He wasn’t a USC student. A witness said a Tesla driven by a student T-boned the bike while both raced to beat a yellow light.

Sophie Sullivan / Annenberg Media

2.

USC said it’ll let the Trojan Knights sleep on campus to guard Tommy Trojan before the UCLA football game. The school had previously and inexplicably pulled the group’s event permit, threatening to end the 80-year-old tradition.

Sean Campbell and Quinten Seghers / Daily Trojan

3.

Feds arrested the founder of a startup that built a failed $3 million chatbot for the LA Unified School District. The founder’s fraud charges bring even more embarrassment for the school district, which was already under fire for its expensive and highly touted investment in the AI tool.

Howard Blume / Los Angeles Times

4.

California voters rejected a ballot measure that would’ve raised the state minimum wage to $18 per hour. Opponents, including the state Chamber of Commerce, had argued the bill would lead businesses to jack prices in order to offset labor costs.

Staff / Associated Press

5.

A 17-year-old girl became the youngest person to ever pass the California Bar exam. Sophia Park — whose name is sure to haunt the children of Bay Area tiger moms for decades — will join the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor when she turns 18 in March.

Alexandra E. Petri / The New York Times