Firebrand professor drops lawsuit
Tomo Chien & Maggie Bell
April 23, 2025
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and Maggie is reading about the “triangle method” of flirting. Tomo is not. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
A former USC professor dropped a lawsuit that accused the school of unjustly disciplining him for a LinkedIn post that suggested Vietnamese citizens may have boosted COVID immunity because they eat rats. “USC SUCKS!!!” Joel Hay wrote in a Substack post at the time. “Here is my lawsuit against the fuckers.”
2.
College newspapers across the country are receiving a flood of requests to delete or alter old stories from international students worried about being deported. Their fears might be valid. In one instance, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts was likely detained for writing an opinion piece critical of the university’s stance on the war in Gaza.
3.
The State Bar of California is facing public outrage from the legal community after admitting it used AI to develop questions on this year’s exam. The revelation added fuel to already raging accusations of “stunning incompetence” after the test was plagued by lags, glitches, and general chaos.
4.
Alex Villanueva, LA’s embattled former sheriff, is interviewing for a job at the Metro police. Reminder: Villanueva once raided the Metro’s headquarters in what was widely seen as an attempt to settle a political vendetta. “It is genuinely unhinged to oversee a raid on an organization’s headquarters and then apply to work there,” wrote journalist Keri Blakinger.
5.
LA’s much-anticipated sperm race had to upgrade to a larger venue after selling out the Hollywood Palladium. Now, Friday’s marquee USC-UCLA race will be at LA Center Studios. “There is no way in the world that I lose,” said sophomore Tristan Wilcher, who’s racing for USC. “This other guy … hasn’t been training as hard as me.”