Newsletter: Essential California: USC moves to fire former medical school dean and launches independent probe

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, July 22. Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

USC moves to fire former dean, launches independent probe

Faced with mounting questions and anger on campus, USC announced Friday it was hiring an ex-federal prosecutor to investigate a report by The Times that the former dean of the university’s medical school associated with criminals and drug abusers and used methamphetamine and other drugs with them. This is just one of several key developments in the story. Additionally:

-- USC said it is moving to fire Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito and bar him from campus as well as university events over allegations of drug use that the provost called “extremely troubling.”

-- The university said its shift in tone about the case came after top officials reviewed “extremely troubling” evidence Friday. Officials did not reveal the evidence or say how it was different from the detailed account of Puliafito’s behavior published in The Times on Monday. Los Angeles Times

When the robots take over

The $47-billion agriculture industry is trying to bring technological innovation up to warp speed before it runs out of low-wage immigrant workers. California will have to remake its fields like it did its factories, with more machines and better-educated workers to labor beside them, or risk losing entire crops. “California agriculture just isn’t going to look the same,” said Ed Taylor, a UC Davis rural economist. “You’re going to be hard-pressed to find crops grown as labor-intensively as they are now.” Los Angeles Times

Electric buses for all

Metro is slated next week to approve spending $138 million to buy 95 electric buses and install the charging stations and wiring needed to keep them running. The proposed purchase has raised questions about how much Metro should spend on a technology still in its infancy — as well as what responsibility the agency has to invest taxpayer dollars in a technology that could provide long-term air quality benefits. Metro’s purchase would be the largest in California, at least doubling the number of electric buses on the road. Los Angeles Times

Signs of a slowdown

California’s economic engine quieted in June as employers reduced their payrolls by 1,400, according to a report Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department. It was the second month this year that the state lost jobs. Los Angeles Times

Mariposa update

Firefighters have slowed the progress of a wildfire that has destroyed nearly five dozen homes near Yosemite National Park, and officials say they are planning for the return of evacuated residents to Mariposa, Calif. Los Angeles Times

AROUND CALIFORNIA

On O.J.: USC Trojans legend O.J. Simpson will be released from jail in the coming months. Even so, you would think his checkered past might mean that he’s been whitewashed from Trojan lore. Not so. Times columnist Bill Plaschke writes that the university seems to be unwavering in its fond remembrance of former Trojan O.J. Simpson. Los Angeles Times

Charges announced: The Los Angeles police officer at the center of a scandal roiling the department’s signature youth initiative has been charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old member of the cadet program, prosecutors announced Friday. Los Angeles Times

In the Valley: The San Joaquin Valley, with more than 4 million residents, produces nearly half the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables, annually generating $47 billion. This conservative breadbasket also has some of the worst air quality in the country — violating federal standards for sooty pollution that comes from industry, businesses and vehicles. As a result, its leaders are lobbying the Trump administration to not enforce the U.S. Clean Air Act, which this area cannot meet. Associated Press

Double killing: A Los Alamitos police captain fatally shot his ex-girlfriend three times with a personal firearm and then killed himself with that weapon, police said. Orange County Register

Animal-free farming: Is it the next step for the vegan farm movement in California? San Francisco Chronicle

Disaster averted: More disturbing details about the near-catastrophic incident earlier this month at San Francisco International Airport. Mercury News

Attractions reopening: Disneyland is slowly returning to normal after epic Star Wars land construction. Los Angeles Times

This week’s most popular stories in Essential California:

1. An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of USC med school dean. Los Angeles Times

2. Despite Proposition 13, California property tax revenue has soared. CalMatters

3. The new Trader Joe’s items you should taste (and which ones you might want to avoid). San Francisco Chronicle

4. USC’s former medical school dean is no longer seeing patients, and the Pasadena police have disciplined an officer after a Los Angeles Times investigation. Los Angeles Times

5. A tiny drone’s acrobatic tour of a legendary California beach. Slate

ICYMI, here are this week’s Great Reads

Catching you up: This Times investigation took the Internet by storm this week and revealed the tawdry secret life of USC’s former Medical School dean. The fallout from the story has been swift, and there’s more to come. So at some point this weekend sit back and read the story that started it all. Los Angeles Times

What’s that smell? The Pentagon’s handling of munitions and their waste has poisoned millions of acres, and left Americans to guess at the threat to their health. In California there’s the contaminated Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. By China Lake, the Pentagon spent more than $100 million to build special burn chambers to dispose of rocket motors. ProPublica

On the street: “In some ways, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is operating in enemy territory in California, a state hostile to the idea of mass deportations.” Still, more than 65,000 people have been arrested by the agency since President Trump took office. That’s a nearly 40% increase over the same period last year and as sure a sign as any that the United States is a tougher place today to be an undocumented immigrant. The New York Times

Built by the Cheesecake Factory founder! In the tiny town of Saranap, followers of Sufism Reoriented — a small religious order wanted to build a big temple. Soon after it was announced, a homeowners group called the Saranap Community Assn. began to lead a pushback. The Fader

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.