Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and these are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.

The newsletter will be off until next Monday while I tend to a family emergency. I’m sorry to miss so many days ahead of our May 1 shutdown, but promise an incredible final week.

1.

Non-tenure-track faculty at USC’s law school are opposing a planned university-wide union ahead of a vote set to begin Friday. The Daily Trojan reported that they argued the union could undermine existing protections and limit their ability to negotiate independently with the law school.

2.

Yesterday, we linked to a USC study that suggested that eating fruits and vegetables could increase your risk of lung cancer. Turns out it’s controversial. Critical researchers told Ars Technica that they thought the findings were a “stretch,” pointing to the small sample size, lack of control group, and speculative link to pesticides.

3.

Bill Essayli, the swaggering, Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in LA has styled himself as a MAGA bulwark against California fraud. Ironically, one of the greatest victories of his legal career was a case in which he teamed up with the ACLU to defend his relatives against federal fraud charges. L.A. Material went deep on Trump’s man in LA.

4.

Many of LA’s most iconic museums — LACMA, the Getty, and the La Brea Tar Pits — have either recently undergone massive renovations or will soon close to complete them ahead of the 2028 Olympics. Torched LA pointed out that the Games actually tend to depress museum attendance; the foot traffic increases later, after the crowds leave.

5.

Arcadia is home to scores of roaming peacocks, which residents have historically embraced and treated as a charming facet of the city. But they are also a shitting, screeching nightmare that can at times sound like “a thousand dying cats.” A new short film detailed Arcadia’s peacock wars.