Forbes
Founding a startup? Don’t leave your day job just yet
USC researchers followed more than 5,000 entrepreneurs for 14 years. They found that startups were 33% more likely to survive if their founders didn’t quit their jobs right away.
Bloomberg
Los Angeles looks to beat New York in returning to pre-pandemic transit ridership
L.A.’s transit chief aims to hit that milestone by mid-2023, while New York’s MTA may not restore its ridership until 2035. USC transportation expert James Moore notes one reason: Many L.A. transit riders don’t have any other option.
U.S. News & World Report
Candidates look to bypass debates amid pivot from substance to spectacle
Voters were turned off by the tenor of the 2020 debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, says USC Annenberg’s Tom Hollihan — who also notes that debates still matter.
Los Angeles Times
Student information remains at risk after massive cyberattack on Los Angeles Unified
LAUSD is an attractive target for cybercriminals because of the large number of people affected when district systems become unavailable, USC Viterbi’s Clifford Neuman says. “This makes the impacted organization potentially more willing to pay a ransom to recover their systems,” he says, “and encourages criminals to seek larger payments.”
Los Angeles Times
Like a breath of fresh air on a hot day, USC football feels like USC football again
“On a scorching Saturday afternoon at a Coliseum rollicking with a rebirth, with players bouncing on the sideline and fans pumping fists through the sweat, an old friend returned with a roar,” writes columnist Bill Plaschke. “USC football feels like USC football again.”
U.S. News & World Report
How USC helped This Is Us put Alzheimer’s care in the spotlight
When the wildly popular TV show wrapped up its final season this year, it did so with a storyline that showed one of the lead characters dealing with Alzheimer’s as her adult children disagreed over the type of care she should receive. The storyline was developed in close collaboration with the Hollywood, Health & Society program at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center.
The Conversation
Extreme heat plus air pollution can be deadly, with the health risk together worse than either alone
High heat and air pollution are each problematic for human health, particularly for vulnerable populations such as older adults. But when they hit at the same time, death rates spike, USC researchers found.
The Associated Press
At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
As prison populations ballooned, policymakers questioned how to pay for incarceration costs, says USC Dornsife’s Brittany Friedman: “So, instead of raising taxes, the solution was to shift the cost burden from the state and the taxpayers onto the incarcerated.”
ZME Science
How friendships between rich and poor kids could lift people out of poverty
USC sociologist Ann Owens notes that income segregation is growing: Rich families have become richer and more isolated from middle-class and low-income families.
WebMD
Using a blood pressure smartphone app doesn’t beat traditional home monitoring, study finds
The study is noteworthy for several reasons: its large size, the level of comfort with technology reported by participants, and representation of Black and Hispanic people, says USC internal medicine specialist Matthew Jung.
Los Angeles Times
Hate crimes in L.A. this year could again set records
An analysis by Crosstown, USC’s nonprofit data-driven news outlet, found that hate crimes against Black, transgender and LGBTQ Angelenos this year were all up significantly compared with the first six months of 2021.
HuffPost
1 in 2 Black teens experience racism online: What parents should know
In one study, USC Rossier’s Brendesha Tynes found that Black youths experienced more than five discriminatory experiences per day — mostly online racial discrimination.
The Hill
Bad news: COVID-19 numbers are pretty meaningless
Among the problems: With the widespread availability of self-testing, the real number of cases greatly exceeds the number of reported cases, notes Jeffrey Klausner of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Axios
Fake online reviews lead shoppers to overpay, new study says
Shoppers who use Amazon more frequently were more likely to be affected by phony ratings, USC Dornsife’s Robert Metcalfe says. You’d expect that more sophisticated participants would be less likely to be duped, but frequent Amazon users shop the platform faster and tend to trust it more, he says.
Los Angeles Times
People trying to get pregnant (or avoid pregnancy) are turning to apps for help — but should they?
Cynthia Sanchez of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work tries to discourage her patients from using the apps for pregnancy prevention. She believes they give a false sense of security.
Los Angeles Times
EV demand is so hot that Tesla owners are flipping their cars like houses
“When supply and demand are not in alignment, you get these opportunities where clever people can take advantage,” says USC Marshall’s Larry Harris, former Securities and Exchange Commission chief economist. “We’ve seen this in all kinds of markets.”
Futurity
Depression symptoms spike for teen boys after grandmother’s death
A study co-authored by USC’s Michelle Livings notes that more than 4 million children and adolescents in the United States have lost a grandparent to COVID-19. That’s on top of the 10 million to 12 million kids who typically lose a grandparent each year.
Los Angeles Times
In memoriam: Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan who attended USC
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot as he delivered a speech in the western city of Nara.
Los Angeles Times
EV demand is so hot that Tesla owners are flipping their cars like houses
“When supply and demand are not in alignment, you get these opportunities where clever people can take advantage,” says USC Marshall’s Larry Harris, former Securities and Exchange Commission chief economist. “We’ve seen this in all kinds of markets.” (Los Angeles Times)
KCET
Augmented reality experience will bring L.A.’s original Chinatown back to life
A rare collection of photos from the 1930s provides insight into the neighborhood that was torn down for the construction of Union Station.
Futurity
Depression symptoms spike for teen boys after grandmother’s death
A study co-authored by USC’s Michelle Livings notes that more than 4 million children and adolescents in the United States have lost a grandparent to COVID-19. That’s on top of the 10 million to 12 million kids who typically lose a grandparent each year.
Time
Forget physique; mental health is the newest, hottest fitness goal
“People are reporting slightly different motives for wanting to be active,” compared with before the pandemic, says Genevieve Dunton of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “The reasons are certainly more about stress reduction, anxiety release and improved sleep.”
Inside Higher Ed
Navigating the path from a community college to a prestigious private university
Private universities are increasingly looking to the community college transfer pipeline to broaden access and diversify the student body. For USC President Carol L. Folt — herself a community college transfer student — it’s personal.
CNN
Seniors with long COVID should prepare to go slow
Caitlin Mcauley of the Keck School of Medicine of USC recommends a neuropsychological exam. “Plenty of older patients who’ve had COVID feel like they now have dementia. But when they do the testing, all their higher-level cognitive functioning is intact, and it’s things like attention or cognitive fluency that are impaired,” she says.