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Varsity Blues dad sues USC
Tomo Chien
September 23, 2024
Good morning. It’s Monday, and if you’re wondering what all the construction fuss is on McClintock lately: This is it. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
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1.
A USC dad implicated in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal is suing the school for over $75 million, alleging it told him he could legally give a large donation to help his son gain admission — then turned around and told feds it was an illegal bribe. The litigious former Gap executive previously sued Netflix for its portrayal of him in a documentary about the scandal.
2.
Remember that chi chi firework show that promised something about a “heavenly secret” in the Coliseum? Turns out there actually kind of was one: The fireworks rained clay pellets down on spectators, leaving several injured during the closing act — which was aptly named “Divine Wrath.”
3.
USC won a $181 million defense contract to develop “advanced modeling and simulation capabilities” for the U.S. Army. The contract renews funding for USC’s little-known Institute for Creative Technologies, which is one of just four Army-funded university research centers in the U.S.
4.
Plastic bags will vanish from California grocery store checkout lines by 2026 under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The ban is an attempt to right the state’s decade-old legislation that banned thin plastic bags but allowed thicker “reusable” plastic alternatives — which everybody still threw away.
5.
Former students of a Christian college in Riverside County are accusing the school of forcing them to complete at least 40 hours a week of unpaid manual labor. The students, many of whom hail from East Asian countries, said Olivet University lured them with the promise of student visas, then kept them locked in the barbed wire-ringed campus.
