Generation Zyn
Tomo Chien
May 01, 2025
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m dreading the day I see this guy in person. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
A USC study found that American teenagers are using Zyn nicotine pouches like never before. The number of high schoolers who’ve fallen victim to Zyndemic nearly doubled in 2024 compared to the previous year, the nationally representative survey of more than 10,000 teenagers found. For further reading: How Zyn conquered the American mouth.
2.
The man who allegedly killed four Pepperdine seniors in a 2023 car crash was ordered to stand trial on murder and vehicular manslaughter charges. Prosecutors said Fraser Bohm, 22, was driving at 104 mph down the Pacific Coast Highway before he sideswiped three parked cars that then crashed into a group of sorority sisters.
3.
Just over 100 days into Donald Trump’s second term, California is suing over the president’s policies at nearly the double the rate it did eight years ago. “Any time and every time the Trump administration breaks the law, we will take them to court,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta.
4.
A long-feared megaquake along the notorious Cascadia subduction zone could sink parts of California’s coast by more than 6 feet, a study found. The last time such a disaster happened was in 1700. But the revelation raises new questions about coastal states’ preparedness for the so-called “Really Big One.”
5.
A musical about Luigi Mangione will open in San Francisco this summer. The “wildly irreverent, razor-sharp comedy” will imagine the prison relationship between Mangione, Diddy, and Sam Bankman-Fried (which is apparently kind of real). Tickets at the Taylor Street Theater go for $30 — but they’re selling out fast.
Were you at the Carol Folt retirement bash on Tuesday? Wanna share deets with the rest of us? Contact me confidentially. I really want the menu.