USG to cut assembly funding
Tomo Chien
April 11, 2024
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m reading about burrito bliss in North Hollywood. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
USC’s Undergraduate Student Government will cut funds for a handful of assemblies it supports in the face of a $19,000 budget deficit. Most, if not all, of USG’s money comes from the mandatory $64 “Student Programming Fee” that every undergraduate pays. But USG has a nasty habit of allocating funds before USC releases its final enrollment numbers, which means it can often wind up having to make contentious cuts. Assemblies with funds on the chopping block include: the Native American Student Assembly, the Environmental Student Assembly and the International Student Assembly.
2.
Police identified the man murdered Tuesday afternoon just south of the Coliseum as 26-year-old Jonathan Orellana-Lozada. Authorities detained three people at the scene where Orellana-Lozada was shot and killed in broad daylight, but didn’t say if those people were arrested. Police said they don’t know the motive for the shooting.
3.
Home insurers are fleeing California because of the state’s high risk of wildfires, and a handful of LA neighborhoods are among the hardest hit. As many as 70% of homeowners in the tony neighborhoods of Brentwood, Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades and Woodland Hills will lose coverage starting in July, a move that’ll leave many homeowners with no choice but to turn to an expensive state insurance plan.
4.
Waymo launched paid robotaxi rides in LA yesterday — and there’s a waitlist. The company is fielding a fleet of only 50 cars in a 63-square-mile area from Santa Monica to downtown, and some 50,000 users are already in line to try the service. But not everybody’s pleased: The LA Department of Transportation and Teamsters Union opposed the rollout, arguing that the self-driving cars aren’t safe enough to allow on the road.
5.
Police nabbed four middle-aged men in possession of $300,000 worth of stolen Lego sets in Southern California. The so-called Lego larcenists stole limited-edition sets from stores like Target and Home Depot, then scattered the booty across four separate stash houses in LA and Orange counties. Exceptionally popular Lego sets can trade online like cryptocurrency or precious metals: One plastic recreation of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon from “Star Wars” fluctuates between $1,000 and $4,000.
