Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and this still isn’t Tomo. We write College Brief’s other newsletters at Cal and Cal Poly SLO, and we’re filling in for the last edition of Morning, Trojan this year because Tomo’s collarbone is still shattered. 

Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Members of the USC Divest from Death coalition are demanding that the university drop all charges and disciplinary actions against protesters. In a press conference Monday, representatives also sharply criticized the “Moron of the Year” herself, Carol Folt, who walked back her promise to not issue disciplinary action to peaceful protesters. There are still no arrests from Sunday’s clearing of the Alumni Park encampment, but at least 14 students are facing suspensions or other disciplinary action anyway.

Corinne Smith / USC Annenberg Media

2.

LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood was just listed as one of the most endangered historic places in the country. Neighborhood leaders say Little Tokyo is losing the sense of community and character that has defined it for 140 years. As longtime businesses and residents feel the pressure of high rents, white knight investors are swooping in to “improve” the neighborhood — only to make it more expensive after all. “People still want spaces like this to exist. There’s still a real, deep meaning for them,” said a neighborhood leader.

Gordon Tokumatsu / NBC Los Angeles

3.

Spring rains pushed California’s second largest reservoir to hit 100% capacity for the second year in a row. Lake Oroville, which sits east of Chico, had exposed lake bed and houseboats clustered in its center to avoid bottoming out just a few years ago. Now, the excess shows promise for meeting water supply and environmental needs. In Southern California, Lake Casitas has reached full capacity for the first time since 1998. The state’s largest reservoir, Lake Shasta is 97% full. 

Katie Dowd / SFGate

4.

On the heels of California’s first legislation protecting the desert’s iconic Joshua trees, a new proposal would give commercial developers a break — essentially allowing them to bulldoze the trees for construction. The lawmaker who wrote the new bill has called Joshua trees an “iconic symbol of the high desert” and expressed the need to preserve them. But in his sprawling, economically fraught Mojave Desert district, there is a desperate need for housing and commerce that is threatened by the trees’ conservation.

Ryan Sabalow / CalMatters

5.

AI can accurately triage ER patients at a rate comparable to human physicians. Researchers at UCSF used OpenAI’s GPT-4 to analyze data from UCSF emergency departments from 2012 to 2023 and found that the model assessed cases accurately about 90% of the time. Although the results are promising, researchers aren’t so sure how it could be applied in real life. “With all technologies, you have to interpret these findings with caution in that this isn’t ready to be used tomorrow,” said the lead author.

David Caraccio / The Sacramento Bee