Good morning. Freshmen, we did it: The class of 2026 boasts the highest entering average GPA in USC history, a 3.87 on an unweighted 4.0 scale — I saw this in the Daily Trojan yesterday and figured I’d share.

Consider this the last time you and I will ever talk about our high school GPAs, SAT scores and AP courses. Here’s the news you need to know for today.

If you thought election night was the last of the drama from Sheriff Alex Villanueva, you thought wrong. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has opened a criminal investigation into whether Villanueva solicited campaign donations from deputies — a misdemeanor under state law. In a video address, Villanueva asked deputies to pitch in “20 bucks, all the way up to 1,500 bucks” for his race against former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna. Villanueva trails Luna by 13.6 percentage points with 44% of the expected vote tallied.

Alene Tchekmedyian and James Queally / Los Angeles Times

The L.A. mayoral race is still a nail-biter. Businessman Rick Caruso leads Rep. Karen Bass by a few percentage points with less than half of the expected vote tallied. The race has seen the two campaigns collectively pour more than $113 million into advertisements and door-to-door canvassers.

Linh Tat / Los Angeles Daily News

Young the Giant — yes, Young the Giant — gave an impromptu performance yesterday on campus. The band, which has two Billboard top 10 albums and over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, was joined by a quartet of USC performance students who were invited to play last-minute.

Hali Mecklin and Shane Dimapanat / Annenberg Media

USC is seeing an early surge in flu cases, mirroring the broader L.A. County. It’s not yet clear if this is a small, early spike, or the beginning of a severe and prolonged flu season.

Jonathan Park / Daily Trojan

The California lottery made its first ever billionaire. The lucky winner bought a Powerball ticket worth more than $2 billion at an Altadena gas station, and lottery officials surprised the gas station owner with a $1 million bonus check for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.

Grace Toohey and Gregory Yee / Los Angeles Times

Federal health officials are investigating whether a now-defunct California military base exposed veterans to high levels of cancer-causing toxins. An Associated Press investigation earlier this year found that the Army knew chemicals had been improperly dumped at Fort Ord in Monterey County for decades, but sought to play down the risks.

Martha Mendoza, Juliet Linderman and Jason Dearen / Associated Press

The City of Berkeley could soon ban right turns on red, a move which street safety groups say can help reduce the risk of drivers hitting pedestrians and cyclists. Allowing right turns at red lights hasn’t always been common practice: It started during the gas crisis of the 1970s as an effort to cut down on wasted fuel as drivers idled in intersections.

Nico Savidge / Berkeleyside

Nation / world

Republicans are placing part of the blame for the “red wave” that never materialized on former President Donald Trump. (The Wall Street Journal)
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, cut around 11,000 jobs in its first ever major round of layoffs that CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed himself for. (Bloomberg)
WNBA star Brittney Griner was moved to a Russian penal colony after a court rejected an appeal for her nine-year drug possession sentence. (Los Angeles Times)
Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, pulled out of a deal to take over the main trading platform of rival company FTX, likely avoiding scrutiny from financial regulators. (Reuters)
The World Health Organization reported a 90% drop in COVID-19 deaths globally compared to last February, but experts caution that the virus is still continuously circulating. (Associated Press)

Other things we’re reading

Tomo’s picks:

“What We’ve Lost Playing the Lottery” (The New Yorker)
“Democracy Was on the Ballot—And Won” (The Atlantic)
“Do We Have the History of Native Americans Backward?” (The New Yorker)
“How to Prepare for the End of Card Payments” (WIRED)
“The Republican Elite Makes Its Move Against Trump” (New York Magazine)

Anna’s picks:

“The Disease Took Zara, Then Sara. Could Ayla Be Saved?” (The New York Times)
“Want employees to come to the office? Pick up their laundry and welcome their dogs” (Los Angeles Times)

In case you missed it

Democrats predictably swept key state-level offices. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis all cruised to reelection. Sen. Alex Padilla — appointed in 2020 to fill Vice President Kamala Harris’ seat when she left for the White House — became the first Latino ever elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate.

Staff / CalMatters

A Black L.A. County sheriff’s sergeant sued the county, alleging he was subject to retaliation for complaining of racial discrimination and the presence of a deputy gang at the East Los Angeles Station. Sgt. Reginald Hoffman is seeking unspecified damages.

City News Service

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Morning, Trojan is an Annenberg Media product. Tomoki Chien is the founding editor, Anna Hsu curates weekday reporting and Chris Bibona writes the Monday sports section. Questions, concerns or feedback? Just reply to this email.

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