Good morning. It’s Thursday, and these are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

A group of faculty at Rossier joined colleagues in Gould and Marshall in opposing an ongoing union drive, saying “we do not believe our interests will be adequately represented by such a large, complex bargaining unit.” Ballots in the vote-by-mail election are due May 15.

2.

Volunteers broke ground on a long-anticipated new Peace Garden, the Daily Trojan reported. The popular community garden was founded in 2022 as a way to help people connect with nature, but USC briefly caused a kerfuffle when it sold the original plot on Shrine Place last year. The new location is outside Kerckhoff Hall on Adams.

3.

Marshall and Annenberg have, as per usual, landed some of the highest-profile speakers for this year’s commencement ceremonies: Mythic football coach Pete Carroll will speak at the business school while Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn will address comms grads. Annenberg Media compiled a list of this year’s speakers.

4.

Cops will soon be able to ticket driverless cars on California streets, thanks to sweeping new regulations adopted by the DMV. The San Francisco Standard reported that the rules were inspired in part by several high-profile incidents of Waymos driving into active emergency scenes, and in one case, making an illegal U-turn.

5.

The hot new place to land an LA hookup is Erewhon, according to the California Post. “Everyone is checking each other out,” one shopper said. “There are just vibes everywhere.” Another observed that the store’s absurd prices make for great conversation starters, and all agreed that the Beverly Grove location is the horniest.