Viterbi has a new candy making class

Author

Tomoki Chien
October 30, 2024

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m reading about the best things to do for Halloween tomorrow — if you’re not planning to get wasted on the Row. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

The dude who helped perfect Frosted Flakes with a computer model is now teaching a candy making class in USC’s engineering school. Making the perfect sweet treat is an “engineering problem,” insisted professor Eyal Ben-Yoseph, who added that students get to taste test their products. CHE 499 is available next semester.

2.

In case you missed it: USC will no longer axe a popular benefit that pays tuition for the children of certain longtime employees even after they leave the university. The school, however, didn’t backtrack on a slew of other significant benefit cuts first reported by Morning, Trojan last week that have caused outrage among faculty and staff.

3.

The federal government is offering to buy roughly 20 Rancho Palos Verdes homes that are sliding into the ocean. One resident of the wealthy enclave described the $42 million combined buyout as a “lifesaver” given the slow-motion landslide that’s destroying the community.

4.

The man who attacked Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison without parole by a California judge. David DePape, 44, had previously received 30 years as part of a separate federal trial for his crimes.

5.

The smell of rotten eggs is wafting from LA’s beaches to as far as Mid-City, leaving residents befuddled. Turns out it’s a downside of the bioluminescent algae that’s been turning ocean waves a beautiful glowing blue this week: When it dies, it releases pungent hydrogen sulfide gas that smells like “sewage and dead fish.”

I need your help on a major story. Do you have knowledge of USC’s contracts with McKinsey & Company, construction at the Gould School of Law, budget cuts, or under-the-radar layoffs? Are you currently studying or working at the Capital Campus?

Contact me confidentially at [email protected]. All conversations are informal and off-the-record until you say otherwise.