USC partially walks back scholarship cut
Tomo Chien
March 18, 2024
Good morning. It’s Monday, and I hope you had a good break. I’m reading about the best places to see spring wildflowers in Southern California. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
USC partially walked back a cut to a program that let some students enroll in extra courses for free. The scholarship, called the Academic Achievement Award, allows students pursuing multiple degrees to enroll in over 18 units without paying an extra fee. It’ll now extend to students graduating August 2025 or earlier, rather than terminating entirely as the school had indicated two weeks ago. When asked why the scholarship was cut, the USC office responsible for the award cited “occasional changes.” A separate university spokesperson didn’t elaborate.
2.
LA is about to get a lot more bikeable. You can thank Measure HLA, a ballot initiative voters approved earlier this month that calls for hundreds of miles of new bike and bus lanes throughout the city. Under the measure, city agencies must install bike and bus improvements every time they pave or improve one-eighth of a mile of street. Opponents, who included the firefighters union, had argued that the “fraudulent” initiative was pushed by an “unholy alliance” that would ultimately make traffic worse and delay first responders.
3.
USC women’s basketball was named the top seed in the NCAA tournament after upsetting Stanford for the Pac-12 title last Sunday. It’s a fitting start to the postseason for a team that, over the course of just one season, seems to have put USC back on the map — largely thanks to JuJu Watkins, the freshman phenom who has the chance to become the face of collegiate women’s basketball in the tournament’s national spotlight. Expect fans to turn out in droves for this Sunday’s game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi at the Galen Center. “We know the work starts now,” said USC’s head coach.
4.
California lawmakers want to know what makes you happy. A first-in-the-nation committee in the state Assembly is holding public hearings to study the issue in an effort to make happiness more central to policymaking. The study could encourage policy changes like creating more parks, bolstering mental health resources and teaching about happiness in schools. Last fall, around three-quarters of Californians said they were either “very happy” or “pretty happy.” “If we have everybody clothed, everybody housed, everybody has a job and they’re miserable, then we’ve failed at what we’re trying to do,” said the lawmaker leading the initiative.
5.
In 2009, a witness reported that Christian Basham, a man suspected of raping a child, jumped off a Seattle-area bridge. Local police found Basham’s car and a suicide note, though they couldn’t find his body. They presumed him dead. But when the body of a 56-year-old man supposedly named Mark Clemens arrived at the LA County coroner’s office last month, officials made a stunning discovery: Clemens was actually Basham. The suspect had faked his death, moved to LA, assumed an alias and developed a reputation as a respected handyman in a downtown apartment building.