The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has suffered a major electoral defeat after Dr Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, crushing pro-Israel congresswoman Haley Stevens despite an unprecedented spending campaign on her behalf.
AIPAC’s super political action committee, the United Democracy Project, spent more than $30 million promoting Stevens and attacking El-Sayed, according to Federal Election Commission filings analysed by the New York Times. NBC News projected El-Sayed as the winner on Wednesday, dealing a major blow to the pro-Israel lobby’s efforts to determine the outcome of one of the most closely watched Democratic contests in the country.
El-Sayed campaigned against US military assistance to Israel and repeatedly highlighted AIPAC’s intervention in the race. Stevens, by contrast, received the backing of AIPAC and the Democratic Party establishment.
The result is seen as providing some of the clearest evidence yet that association with Israel and its powerful lobby groups is becoming a political liability among Democratic voters as opposition grows to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the unconditional support it receives from Washington.
A New York Times investigation published before the primary result was announced revealed the scale of AIPAC’s transformation from a traditional lobbying organisation into one of the largest spenders in US elections.
Spending by AIPAC-affiliated political action committees on campaign advertising and voter outreach has more than doubled in less than five years, rising from $29.3 million to $67.2 million. Much of the money has been directed towards Democratic primaries, where the lobby has sought to defeat candidates who criticise Israel or question US military assistance to the occupation state.
However, the investigation uncovered a striking feature of AIPAC’s campaign strategy: it rarely reveals its connection to Israel.
Between April 2022 and the end of July, AIPAC-funded groups produced 109 television and digital adverts. Only six mentioned Israel. Instead, the adverts focused on issues such as abortion rights, the economy and the cost of living, despite being financed specifically to elect politicians who support Israel.
AIPAC’s reluctance to mention Israel is seen as a reflection of a deeper political problem: open association with the Israeli government has become increasingly toxic following the mass killing, displacement and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
The lobby is effectively asking voters to support Israel’s preferred candidates without making Israel itself part of the public argument.
AIPAC has also channelled approximately $22 million into five smaller super PACs with innocuous names that make no reference to Israel. These include Elect Chicago Women, Affordable Chicago Now!, Voters for Responsive Government and Blue Wave Action.
Read: Pro-Israel cash goes undercover as US voters turn against Israel
The Michigan contest became the lobby’s largest gamble. United Democracy Project spent more than $10 million promoting Stevens and over $20 million attacking El-Sayed through advertising and voter outreach.
Nevertheless, El-Sayed prevailed.
El-Sayed’s victory is thought to be particularly significant because Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab-American populations in the US and became the centre of the “Uncommitted” movement, which challenged former President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Signs of the political backlash were already visible in April when Stevens and another AIPAC-backed politician were booed during the Michigan Democratic Party Convention. El-Sayed and his former primary rival, Mallory McMorrow, had both pledged to reject AIPAC funding.
AIPAC has previously succeeded in removing several prominent critics of Israel, spending millions of dollars to defeat former Democratic representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. It has also targeted Republicans who questioned US military support for Israel.
However, the lobby has faced a growing number of defeats. Summer Lee survived repeated AIPAC-funded attempts to remove her, while candidates in Illinois and New Jersey successfully used their opponents’ links to the lobby against them.
Polls have also documented a rapid decline in support for Israel. A majority of Americans now oppose providing economic and military assistance to Israel, while Democratic voters have become increasingly critical of both Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the influence of pro-Israel lobbying organisations.
WASHINGTON — The narrow victory of progressive doctor Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s bitterly fought Democratic Senate primary sets up a defining test of the party’s progressive wing in one of the highest-stakes U.S. Senate contests of the midterms.
Whether El-Sayed, a former public health official, can carry swing voters in a battleground state could both determine the outcome of a Senate seat viewed as crucial to determining control of Congress and have broader ramifications on the Democratic Party’s struggle for its identity.
El-Sayed, a 41-year-old epidemiologist, defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat, by a narrow margin Wednesday after a long and intense campaign that was seen as a proxy for the party’s fissures.
The race was far closer than some polls had indicated. El-Sayed was leading Stevens by 15,000 votes, about 1 percentage point, with 99% of votes counted Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
El-Sayed will face former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, in the general election. The winner will succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, whose seat Democrats see as critical to retain for the party to have a chance at flipping the Senate.
“We’ve got an opportunity to bring ourselves back together, to come together around a movement, to take our democracy back,” El-Sayed said Wednesday on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.”
El-Sayed’s victory will put to the test in a swing state the broader strength of the progressive movement, which has found success in deep-blue places like New York City, where Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor last year, and Los Angeles, where City Councilmember Nithya Raman is locked in a tight race mayoral contest with incumbent Karen Bass. Both Mamdani and Raman are democratic socialists.
As Democrats struggle over the party’s post-2024 identity and grapple with how to win back voters, the divide between the party’s progressive and centrist wings has been on display in primary fights. Both camps have notched victories: Many of the leftist wins have come in intensely blue districts, such as in New York, while more moderate districts have chosen centrists, as in Iowa.
On Tuesday, two progressive congressional candidates in Michigan beat out establishment Democrats in House races — in one case, ousting an incumbent. But in Missouri, democratic socialist and former Rep. Cori Bush lost to incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell, a moderate, for a key House seat.
In California, a handful of progressive candidates are on the November ballot, including the challengers to Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) and Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford). In the Aug. 18 runoff to fill the vacant seat of former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, progressive state Sen. Aisha Wahab is battling it out with fellow Democrat and BART board president Melissa Hernandez.
Progressive leaders celebrated El-Sayed’s win on Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who backed El-Sayed, argue that his working-class-centered politics are more likely to have mass appeal.
“If you’re a working-class Republican in Michigan, I think you’re going to listen to what El-Sayed says,” Sanders told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “I think many of them will end up voting for him, independents as well, of course.”
Throughout the campaign, Stevens argued that El-Sayed would not be able to defeat Rogers, a refrain some moderates repeated Wednesday. El-Sayed vowed to unite Democrats around defeating Rogers, who previously served seven terms in Congress, saying that he and Stevens would be focused on “bringing the party back together.”
Rogers on Wednesday portrayed El-Sayed as an “extremist,” saying in a statement that the election is “about deciding whether Michigan has a future built on common sense — or whether we hand the keys to the most fringe extremists in the nation.”
El-Sayed, a former city and county health official, focused on opposing money in politics and pushing for Medicare for All, among other issues. His opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and Stevens’ support for Israel became a major issue in the campaign. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, spent millions in support of Stevens.
Early in the primary race, El-Sayed sought to temper some of the concerns around his progressive agenda by presenting himself as a Michigan-first, working-class-focused candidate, said John Barry Ryan, a University of Michigan professor of political science.
But as excitement over his campaign began to mount among progressives on a national level, Ryan said, El-Sayed’s public posture swung to a middle ground.
“The signal he’s trying to send is, I’m not a moderate, but I’m also not an extremist,” Ryan said.
Whether El-Sayed can effectively sell his message to undecided voters against Rogers now becomes a key question of the general election, said Corwin Smidt, a politics professor at Michigan State University.
“[Rogers] has experience. He has credentials,” Smidt said. “El-Sayed doesn’t have that. But I do think he’s got the skill and the right language to get him over.”
At least two key Michigan Democrats signaled a desire to move past the primary’s fights. Late Tuesday, Mallory McMorrow, a Michigan state senator who launched her own bid for the seat but suspended her campaign in early July, released an endorsement of El-Sayed.
“Whatever differences there were between the candidates in this race, those differences are nothing compared to the contrast in November,” McMorrow wrote on X. “The only way we get there is together.”
After conceding, Stevens sent a similar signal in a statement:
“We need to win this Senate race,” she said.
BREAKINGBREAKING,
Progressive advocate overcomes more than $60m in spending to defeat pro-Israel Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
Published On 5 Aug 20265 Aug 2026
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive public health advocate, has won the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, overcoming more than $60m in campaign spending, mostly from pro-Israel groups, NBC has projected.
The result on Tuesday represents an enormous blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which led the way in the effort to defeat the pro-Palestinian El-Sayed, backing his opponent, US Congresswoman Haley Stevens, with more than $30m.
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El-Sayed will face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November. The race is considered one of a handful of competitive Senate contests in the November midterms and could determine which party controls the chamber for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.
If El-Sayed – who is of Egyptian descent – wins in November, he would become the first Muslim senator in US history.
Tuesday’s result in Michigan – a swing state that voted for Trump in 2024 – will have major implications for the Democrats’ policies on conflicts in the Middle East.
El-Sayed recognises Israel’s atrocities in Gaza as a genocide and argues that money spent on conflicts that benefit Israel should be invested in local communities in the US to address healthcare, housing and infrastructure problems.
More to come…
While FBI poll monitoring is not new, US lawmakers raise alarm amid Trump’s years-long, evidenceless claims of election fraud.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced it has sent federal monitors to polls in four Democratic-leaning cities in Michigan, amid warnings that the administration of United States President Donald Trump could use such monitors for partisan aims.
The DOJ announced the monitors would be present during Michigan’s primary vote on Tuesday as part of an effort to “ensure free and fair elections nationwide”, according to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.
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“The Department of Justice is devoting extensive resources to ensure uniform and nondiscriminatory monitoring,” it said.
While the department has for decades overseen an election monitoring programme to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws, lawmakers and advocates have raised concerns over how such a programme could be used under the current administration.
Trump has for years alleged, without evidence, that US elections have been marred by widespread fraud. He has never acknowledged his 2020 loss to US President Joe Biden.
Michigan has played a major role in those claims.
In a primetime speech delivered in mid-July, Trump re-upped a previously concluded probe into alleged voter fraud in the city of Muskegon as he called on the FBI to reinvestigate the case. Local officials had already determined that several voter registration forms had been fraudulently filled out in the city by employees of a consulting firm attempting to falsely reach their quotas.
No fraudulent ballots were cast in connection with the fake voter registration forms. State officials have highlighted the situation as proof of the efficacy of their election security practices.
The announcement on Tuesday came weeks after the Department of Justice said it planned to monitor 15 jurisdictions across six states: Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia. The DOJ has said it will expand the use of monitors leading into November.
The department did not give a reason for why the four Michigan cities – Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing, and East Lansing – were selected.
Detroit, Lansing and East Lansing are all heavily Democratic leaning. Hamtramck, considered the first Muslim-majority city in the US, has historically leaned Democratic, but has shifted increasingly Republican in recent years.
Residents of the state on Tuesday were casting ballots to determine party nominees in local, state and US Congressional races for the midterm election in November.
Key races include a fierce Democratic Senate race, with progressive Abdul El-Sayed hoping to defeat US Representative Haley Stevens, widely viewed as a weathervane for the party’s future.
Voters will also decide the candidates for the gubernatorial race, with Trump-backed US Representative John James facing off with former presidential candidate Perry Johnson on the Republican side, as Democrat Jocelyn Benson, the current Michigan state secretary, is expected to sail to victory in her party’s primary.
In a letter to the Department of Justice dated Monday, 10 Democratic senators asked for assurances that FBI monitors deployed across the country will not “target jurisdictions in a partisan manner; discourage voter participation or interfere with the voting process; or pressure, harass, or interfere with state and local election officials as they do their jobs”.
They noted the wider context in which the monitors are being deployed, including efforts by the Trump administration to obtain state voter rolls. On Tuesday, a judge ruled the administration could not access Colorado’s voter data, the latest in a string of similar rulings.
Trump has also called for Republicans to “nationalise” elections. Under the US Constitution, state governments administer elections, in a system of decentralisation that advocates have long argued protects against wholesale interference.
The senators said that the DOJ has characterised the monitors as “routine” and “non-partisan”.
“However, it would be remiss not to acknowledge concerns that monitors are being deployed disproportionately to jurisdictions in states governed by Democratic leaders or with Democratic chief election officials,” they wrote.
“Moreover, election monitors are being deployed in the context of President Trump’s ongoing threats to nationalise, militarise, and otherwise interfere with the conduct of free and fair elections.”
Aug. 4 (UPI) — The Democratic primary for Michigan’s Senate seat between Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens is just one of Tuesday’s key races to watch.
Michigan is one of five states holding primaries on Tuesday, along with Virginia, Missouri, Kansas and Washington.
El-Sayed and Stevens are running for the seat left open by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. El-Sayed has received endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., while Stevens has the endorsement of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Stevens represents a more moderate wing of the Democratic Party while El-Sayed is the more progressive candidate.
Mike Rogers, a former Republican congressman, is running unopposed in the Republican primary. Rogers lost a tight race against Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., in 2024. Rogers is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Whitmer’s endorsement of Stevens is among the last endorsements she will make as sitting governor. She has reached her term limit, leaving the governor’s seat up for grabs.
For the Democratic Party, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is running against Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. For the Republican Party, Rep. John James is running against businessman Perry Johnson. James is endorsed by Trump.
The Democratic Party is focused on flipping House seats in Virginia after the state’s Supreme Court struck down a congressional redistricting plan pushed by Democrats. The proposed map would have favored Democrats in 10 of 11 congressional districts.
Instead, Democrats are hoping to flip several Republican-held seats, including that of Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va. Elaine Luria, a former congresswoman, is running to take on Kiggans, who defeated her in 2024. She is one of four Democrats vying for the party’s nomination.
Seven Democrats are running for the opportunity to challenge Republican Rep. Rob Wittmann in the Williamsburg and suburban Richmond district. The Democratic Party has supported prosecutor Shannon Taylor’s primary campaign. Taylor was the first Democrat to be elected Henrico Commonwealth attorney in 40 years.
A Republican-led redistricting in Missouri has altered the makeup of the state’s congressional districts. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who represents Kansas City, is running unopposed in a district that suddenly is more Republican-leaning than it has been in recent elections. The Republican primary to challenge Cleaver includes six candidates.
Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is seeking a return to Congress after losing her seat to Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo. Bush and Bell are running in a firmly Democratic district in St. Louis. The district voted 80% for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
In the state of Washington, nonpartisan primaries will see the top two vote getters on the ballot in November regardless of party. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., is running for re-election against eight candidates in Washington’s District 3.
The Kansas gubernatorial election is an open race with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly reaching her term limit this year. Three Democrats and seven Republicans are running for her seat in a state that favored Trump by 16 points in 2024.
Dearborn, Michigan – Yemeni-American activist Samraa Luqman has no regrets about voting for President Donald Trump in 2024.
While the United States president has been a disappointment to Arab Americans in Michigan with his pro-war and anti-immigration policies, she stressed that it was untenable for the community to vote for Democrats as Israel’s genocide unfolded in Gaza.
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“There had to be accountability for the genocide. We’re OK with what we voted for,” Luqman told Al Jazeera.
“I said from the beginning, I’m willing to live through another four years of Trump, that we expected him to be bad on our issues, but it was a pill we were willing to swallow in order to hold the Democratic Party accountable.”
Luqman is not alone.
Despite Trump’s staunchly pro-Israel policies and unpopular war on Iran, many say supporting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in 2024 was out of the question, and it was the right choice for the community to break with the Democratic Party.
“I could not – with a good heart, good conscience – tell someone to vote for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump”, but the approach of “lesser of two evils” no longer works to sway Arab voters, Hussein Dabajeh, a prominent political strategist in the Detroit area, home to large Arab and Muslim communities, told Al Jazeera.
Democrats’ popularity amongst Arab Americans nosedived in 2024 as President Joe Biden ignored calls to compel a ceasefire in Gaza and continued to provide Israel with weapons and military aid as it killed tens of thousands in Palestine and Lebanon.
Then, Vice President Harris refused even to consider an arms embargo against Israel.
As a result of these policies, many Arab Americans, who had been reliable Democratic voters for years, ditched the party and refused to support Harris in her presidential bid.
Trump swept in, presented himself as a “peace” candidate, and his campaign forged ties with Arab community advocates.
At a rally in Michigan ahead of the 2024 vote, Trump brought local Muslim imams to the stage and praised the community.
The Republican leader also visited the predominantly Arab and Muslim Detroit suburb of Dearborn ahead of the election.
Trump ended up winning Michigan as many Arab voters in the Dearborn area refused to back Harris. Some voted for him, while others voted for a third party, left the top of the ticket blank, or skipped the election altogether.
According to an Al Jazeera analysis of election results in heavily Arab precincts in east Dearborn, about 45 percent of the votes went to Trump, 29 percent to Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and 16 percent to Harris.
As president, Trump allowed Israel to continue its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon and launched an unprovoked war against Iran that has sent petrol prices soaring.
He has also intensified the crackdown on Palestinian rights advocacy at home with a campaign to deport noncitizen student activists critical of Israel.
In February, he also terminated immigration protections for Yemeni nationals, sowing fear and uncertainty in a community where many leaders had endorsed him in 2024.
Asked how Arab Americans feel about Trump now, Dabajeh said: “They hate him. There’s no other way of putting it. I don’t think there is a single person I know that voted for Trump from the Arab and Muslim community specifically that looks at what Trump is doing and is happy with what he’s doing, or what he’s done.”
Many Arab Americans stress that withholding support for Harris in 2024 was not out of love for Trump.
“No one understands the horrors of Trump’s policy more than us. We were his first victims in 2017,” said Amer Zahr, a comedian and Dearborn Board of Education trustee.
Shortly after starting his first term in 2017, Trump implemented a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries.
“No one is more aware of the harm that Trump can cause than we are,” Zahr added. “But the genocide matured us in a way that we finally got to the point where we were willing to tell politicians ‘no’.”
As the election season returns to Michigan, Arab Americans once again find themselves at a political crossroads.
The community is rallying behind Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed – who had previously endorsed Harris – but some are keeping their political options open.
Luqman, the Yemeni activist, said she will certainly vote for El-Sayed and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib – who are outspoken critics of Israel – in the Democratic primary on Tuesday and in the general elections in November.
Luqman said Democratic voters’ support for progressive candidates will help the party regain credibility with Arab voters.
“Those are things that do bring the Democratic Party a little bit of relevance and credibility within our community,” Luqman told Al Jazeera.
“It has kind of brought the community back to centre, whereas they were kind of swinging to the right by a large margin.”
While some political commentators have been questioning why US support for Israel has become a decisive issue in US politics, particularly Democratic primaries, the answer in the Arab community is clear.
Advocates say domestic policy takes a backseat when their loved ones are being killed, and their hometowns are being wiped out by their own tax dollars via military aid to Israel.
“Gaza and Palestine and Middle Eastern issues have now become the forefront, the top of everybody’s issues, and it’s become a red line for my community,” Luqman said.
“So if you’re a Republican or Democrat and you hate AIPAC and you value Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, then you’re going to be getting our vote, regardless of what party you’re in,” she said, referencing the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby group.
Zahr echoed that message.
“People want us not to be single-issue voters. In other words, they want us to forgo our main issue, get screwed on it, watch our families die because Trump’s bad, and accept all that,” he said.
“Well, we said ‘no’. The blood of the children of Gaza had to mean something.”
Zahr emphasised that Arab Americans are not alone in centring Palestine in their electoral choices, pointing to the defeats that pro-Israel incumbents have suffered across the map in this primary season.
“You’ve gotten to a point where if somebody says, ‘Stop bombing hospitals’, everyone knows you’re talking about Israel. That’s because of Israel. That’s not because of us. That’s because of what Israel did,” he told Al Jazeera.
“And so, people are keying into the truth. And when you learn the truth, something that comes along with that is you learn that you’ve been lied to, and you get angry. A lot of righteous anger is pushing a lot of this.”
Dabajeh, the political strategist, said that while Arab voters care about the economy, affordability and infrastructure – like all Americans – they cannot overlook US policy on Israel.
“Are we supposed to call our family members overseas and be like, ‘Listen, khalto [auntie], this guy over here that’s running for office might kill some of your neighbours, might kill some of your kids, but don’t worry about it, he’s going to take care of the flooding in our homes’?”
“It’s not going to work. We can’t do that.”
Republicans tried to court Arab and Muslim voters in 2024 and capitalise on the discontent over Gaza policies, but now, many conservatives have returned to demonising the community as an electoral strategy.
Weeks after he was elected, Trump endorsed Randy Fine, a Florida politician with a history of anti-Muslim statements, for Congress. Fine would go on to win and call for the “destruction” of all Muslims.
Meanwhile, Republican governors in Florida and Texas have designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a “terrorist” group.
In Michigan, Republican Congressman John James, who is running for governor, has also pledged to blacklist the group.
Luqman said James had spoken to community members and promised to engage voters in Dearborn before that announcement.
“There was a really big opportunity for the Republican Party to solidify the swing of the pendulum, if you will, and they lost that option. They really missed that opportunity,” she said.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where summer break is over, USC’s preseason camp is underway and we are officially back in your inbox with news, notes and analysis on the Trojans every Monday morning from now through football season and beyond. I hope you had a lovely, peaceful summer. Because this fall, the stakes will have never been higher for Lincoln Riley, who’s entering his fifth and most consequential season yet as USC’s football coach, one that could decide the direction of the Trojan football program for years to come.
We’ve got a lot planned for the Times of Troy this season, including a very exciting announcement to come later this month. But over the next four weeks, before USC kicks off the 2026 season, we’ll take a close look at the team and season ahead.
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This week, we start with the Trojans’ offense, which, in four years with Riley as coach, has consistently remained among the best in the sport. Say what you will about Riley as a play-caller or an overall CEO type, but only one team in college football ranks better in average opponent-adjusted efficiency (FEI) on offense over the course of Riley’s tenure (sorry, it’s Oregon). And only once, in four seasons with Riley, has USC fallen out of the top seven nationally in that efficiency rate.
USC finished third in the nation in offensive FEI last season. And there’s a legitimate case to be made that the offense should be even better in 2026. Two cases, really.
The first path is probably obvious and will no doubt be the source of every preseason TV segment about USC. The road to success for Riley has always run through the quarterback. And Jayden Maiava has all the tools necessary to be that guy. He took a huge step forward last offseason, and if he continues that trajectory, he should be one of the best quarterbacks in the country this season.
But Maiava has also been surrounded by seasoned receivers the last two seasons, including one who just got picked in the first round of the NFL draft. His top returning receiver, Tanook Hines, is sitting out with an injury to start camp, while the rest of the pass-catcher two-deep is made up of either freshmen or transfers. We don’t know how long Hines will have to sit out, but any amount of time isn’t ideal. It’ll be on Maiava to build chemistry in the room and make it all work on the fly.
I suspect he’ll do just fine in that regard. But if USC is really going to reach its offensive potential this season, I believe it’ll be the run game that gets them there.
Riley earned his reputation as a passing savant at Oklahoma for good reason. He had two Heisman Trophy-winning passers and one runner-up in his first three seasons with the Sooners, and all three are now starting NFL quarterbacks. There’s no college coach with a resume even close to comparable when it comes to passing. But what’s often lost about those Riley teams is that Oklahoma also had a stellar rushing attack, one that had to be accounted for at all times, and, in turn, made the passing attack all the more explosive.
USC’s run game hasn’t been bad since Riley took over, not by any stretch. In fact, in terms of expected points added per rush play, the Trojans have ranked among the 15 most efficient run games in college football in each of Riley’s four seasons. They just haven’t run the ball nearly as much as that efficiency suggests they would.
This season would be a great time to shift that ratio. Because this is the best backfield Riley has had at USC.
Before he got hurt last season, Waymond Jordan was on his way to being seen as one of the best backs in the Big Ten, if not the country. He averaged 6.55 yards per carry, which ranked 15th among qualifying running backs in the country, but better yet, he picked up more yards on average after contact (5.15) than all but one other running back in the nation.
Assuming he’s fully healed from his ankle injury last October, Jordan should immediately remind everyone that he’s bound for stardom. And his backfield mate may not be that far behind.
King Miller scores on a 41-yard run against UCLA last season.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
King Miller didn’t get regular carries until Week 6 last season, after Jordan went down. But he ended up busting 26 rushes of 10 yards or more anyway. That’s once every six carries. That’s bonkers, even before you consider that Miller is formerly a walk-on.
The pairing of those two backs, plus the threat of Maiava’s legs, gives USC a varied backfield capable of breaking a big play at any moment. Better yet, in the Big Ten, it gives Riley and his offense the ability to extend drives and wear down opposing defenses. That’s too often been missing from USC’s offense since coming to the Big Ten.
But there’s no excuse not to lean more on the run this season. Throw in the fact that USC is deeper and more talented on the offensive line than at any other point in Riley’s tenure, and it’s not hard to envision a Trojan offense dynamic enough to dominate teams on the ground and through the air.
Offense has never been a problem for Riley at USC. But we also haven’t seen Riley’s offense at the full extent of its powers just yet. And if USC is going to make the Playoff for the first time under Riley, that’s going to have to change this season.
Preseason MVP pick (non-QB): Waymond Jordan … Back from injury, I’m betting Jordan is better than ever.
Breakout pick: Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, freshman wide receiver … Take your pick of top prospects at the receiver position, but I think Dixon-Wyatt could be the big-play threat USC needs alongside Hines.
Biggest question mark: Wide receiver/tight end … So much talent, but so little of it is proven. Don’t be surprised if someone you’re not expecting breaks out at the position.
Bold prediction: Freshman tight end Mark Bowman leads the team in touchdown catches.
—USC‘s top projected cornerbacks are both cleared ahead of camp. We didn’t see Jontez Williams all spring, and we haven’t really seen Chasen Johnson at all since he was injured almost a year ago. So it’s easy to forget how touted both cornerbacks were coming out of the transfer portal. I’m particularly high on Williams, who was clearly the team’s top target in the portal this offseason. I expect both will start on the outside, unless Marcelles Williams makes a serious push to play there in camp.
—Riley is strongly in favor of the 24-team College Football Playoff. That’s been the official Big Ten Conference stance for months, so it’s no surprise to hear Riley echo those feelings. “This is something that’s not going to diminish the game in any way,” Riley said. “Having more teams in a tournament to determine a champion is not going to make it worse.” Of course, Riley’s concern isn’t the overall health of the game, but rather the fact that more playoff spots mean more chances for him to check that box. I don’t blame any coach for feeling that way. But there’s a reason why they shouldn’t be in charge of these decisions.
—Some weight fluctuations … The biggest change since spring belonged to offensive tackle Elijah Vaikona, who lost 25 pounds to open the fall at 360, while two players, tight end Walter Matthews (now 305) and defensive back Carrington Pierce (now 185) each added 20 pounds to their frames. A couple other notable changes: Veteran defensive lineman Jide Abasiri is down to 280 and could play more on the outside this season, while young edge rusher Jadyn Ramos bulked up to 250, after joining USC at (generously) 220 pounds last spring. Freshman five-star tight end Mark Bowman is also up to 245, which should help keep him on the field.
—Grant Govel spurned the Pittsburgh Pirates to return as USC’s ace. The Trojans were one of the big winners of the MLB draft deadline, as their No. 2 starter will now return to take over the top of the rotation. Govel had a 2.87 ERA and an opponent batting average of .203, which made him one of the better pitchers in the Big Ten. But Mason Edwards’ amazing year overshadowed, in some regard, the success Govel was having. That won’t be the case in 2026-27.
—Bloom Football Performance Center is having its grand opening this week. The football team already moved in a couple weeks ago, but the new state-of-the-art facility will get its close-up later this week. The media will be doing a tour Thursday, so be sure to follow along on social media for photos and videos from inside the facility.
Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland in “The Odyssey.”
(Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures)
It’s not exactly an original take to sing the praises of a movie that’s become a global phenomenon. But “The Odyssey,” more than any blockbuster in recent memory, is worthy of piling on. I caught the film in its intended 70mm IMAX format, and I can confidently say it was the most amazing cinematic experience I’ve ever had.
The sheer scale of the movie is something to behold, even before you consider just how difficult it is to adapt an ancient epic poem into an interesting movie script. And on both counts, Christopher Nolan does not disappoint. The performances are outstanding, the score is beautiful, and the themes that Nolan pulls from the poem somehow manage to give a fresh take on a 3,000-year-old story.
I look forward to watching it again, as soon as I can, in IMAX 70mm. Though, judging by the current ticket situation, that might have to be at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday.
New facility, new receivers give Lincoln Riley new hope as USC opens fall camp
Lincoln Riley says Trojans are ‘well-equipped’ to win consistently
Big Ten commissioner pushes back on talk of breaking away from NCAA with SEC
Long frustrated donor Brian Kennedy sues USC over practice field naming rights
USC and Nike agree to extend apparel deal for 10 years
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
No culprit has been identified in any of the attacks, which comes after authorities warned of a possible Iranian plot.
Published On 1 Aug 20261 Aug 2026
Michigan has reported cyberattacks on nine of its water systems, days after Minnesota reported similar breaches across the state.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it was investigating both of the attacks on Saturday. In an advisory earlier this week, it said that at least seven states have reported incidents, but so far only Minnesota and Michigan have been identified.
list of 3 itemsend of list
No culprit has yet been pinpointed. However, the breaches came after the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls of other critical infrastructure sectors.
“The FBI is aware of recent public reporting around Water and Wastewater (WWS) sectors,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday. “The FBI and our interagency partners are fully engaged to protect critical infrastructure, and we remain well-equipped to protect against cyber threats of all varieties.”
Dale George, the director of communications for Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, meanwhile, said that “all systems continued to operate safely” following the attacks.
He said Michigan received a federal cyber alert on Tuesday about attempts to tamper with operational technology in water systems.
Soon after, the state received “a small number of reports from Michigan communities indicating activity consistent with what federal agencies described”, said George.
Minnesota had earlier in the week reported attacks on 30 sites. Minnesota IT Services, the state information technology agency, said most of the confirmed attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment.
The agency has said that impacted systems did not necessarily equate to water disruptions, noting that as of Thursday, there were no active requests for residents to modify their water usage. Some modifications had been requested earlier in the week.
Local water plants are generally more vulnerable than other infrastructure because they are more likely to have out-of-date cybersecurity. Federal law enforcement has previously indicted Iranian hackers for allegedly targeting water infrastructure.
Throughout the war, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack civilian infrastructure in Iran, including power and water desalination plants.
When asked about the Minnesota attacks on Friday, Trump instead pivoted to criticise the Democrat-led state government in Minnesota.
“I think Minnesota is behind it,” Trump said, without providing further evidence or clarification. “I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, meanwhile, indicated his belief that Iran was behind the attack. He further blamed Trump’s cuts to federal government employees for making the US more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
“Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too,” Walz said.
Roughly six weeks before the first midterm ballots are mailed out, the U.S. Postal Service is emerging as a pivotal player in an election season that will determine control of Congress.
President Trump is seeking greater control over mail balloting through an executive order while a change to how the agency processes mail is leading to criticism that it’s failing to deliver ballots on time.
Democratic officials have raised concerns over the past week about how quickly the Postal Service will process ballots after tens of thousands of them in California and hundreds in Wisconsin arrived at local election offices too late to be counted in elections earlier this year. The top election offices in Kansas and Michigan are urging voters who want to cast their ballots early to avoid the mail and instead drop them off in person.
The Postal Service replied to those concerns by saying it remains “committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process.”
“We provide a secure, efficient, and effective way for citizens to participate when policymakers decide to use mail as part of their elections,” it said in a statement Tuesday.
The Postal Service faced similar questions about mail delivery in 2024, but the scrutiny this year is heightened because of an executive order Trump issued in March that seeks to create a national voter list to guide the Postal Service in deciding who gets a mail ballot.
The order has sparked multiple lawsuits and federal court orders, leading to a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the administration is asking the justices to allow it to impose its restrictions on mail balloting.
Trump has lied for years about voter fraud to try to explain away his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, and mail balloting is a favorite target, even though he has used the method himself. During a recent stop in Michigan, he falsely characterized mail balloting as “inherently corrupt” and added, “Hopefully there will be no mail-in ballots.”
A 2025 report from the research group Brookings identified about four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Despite Trump’s attacks, the method remains popular with voters of both major parties. In 2024, nearly 30% of U.S. voters cast their ballots by mail, according to federal data. In Michigan, where competitive U.S. House and Senate races could help determine the balance of power in Congress, the state said it has sent out more than 2 million absentee ballots for the state’s Aug. 4 primary.
“We want to keep vote by mail. We want to protect it. We want to expand it,” said Jonathan Smith, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, which launched a campaign in April promoting it and is opposed to turning the Postal Service into an election administrator. “Why? Because it works.”
The Postal Service proposed a rule in June in line with Trump’s executive order that would create a national list of eligible voters, based on databases kept by other federal agencies. Only those on the list would be eligible to receive mail ballots.
Democratic officials in nearly two dozen states filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts. A federal judge there blocked Trump’s order last month, and an appeals court upheld that ruling, prompting Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court. But the appeals court for the District of Columbia refused Tuesday to block the order in a separate case, calling a legal challenge premature.
Democratic senators and governors have written to the Postal Service urging it to abandon efforts to implement Trump’s order.
“Donald Trump has shown he’ll stop at nothing to meddle in our upcoming elections,” Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a statement to The Associated Press. “At best, this new push will exacerbate already severe delays for mail-in voters and at worst, it will stop eligible Americans from casting their ballots.”
In a letter to Democratic senators earlier this month, the heads of the Postal Service said they were abiding by the court rulings that had halted the executive order. But Smith, of the postal workers union, told the AP on Tuesday that USPS information technology staffers who are union members are working on a planned portal for the list of eligible voters “behind the scenes.”
The Postal Service declined to respond to Smith’s statements and said it could not comment about whether it’s moving forward with work related to Trump’s order because of the litigation.
The postal workers’ union opposes the plan for a portal, a national list of eligible voters and using that list to determine who can receive a mail ballot. Smith said it shouldn’t be postal workers’ responsibility “to decide who can vote and who can’t vote.”
The Postal Service has been under financial stress for years and has been consolidating mail processing into fewer regional centers. Mail travels an average of 139 miles to reach one and sometimes 500 miles, according to a recent Brookings report.
In January, a group of mostly Democratic senators said it was concerned about a decision to end twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. The result is that mail arriving after the only daily dispatch would go out the next day.
California officials said the change was a factor in the state rejecting more than 148,000 ballots from its June primary, with 63% of them arriving too late despite a seven-day grace period. Officials worried that some ballots were postmarked at processing facilities the day after they were dropped off at a post office, possibly invalidating them. Wisconsin officials also said hundreds of ballots from an election in April arrived late.
The Postal Service said postmarks generally are being applied with automated equipment at processing centers, “in the same manner and to the same extent as before.” It said someone who wants to make sure their ballot envelope gets a timely postmark can get a free one applied by a postal worker.
A report on the 2024 election by the USPS Office of Inspector General said the Postal Service handled more than 59 million pieces of ballot mail from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15 that year and that 97.3% arrived on time.
The Michigan secretary of state’s office is advising voters to hand-deliver ballots to their local clerk’s office or a drop box.
“We’ve seen these issues over a number of election cycles now — they’re always concerning, and that’s why we’ve put out that guidance,” said Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie.
The Postal Service said its Michigan centers are not seeing processing delays.
In Kansas, concerns about late ballot deliveries in the state’s 2024 primary election prompted a quip on the social platform X from Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican: “The Pony Express is more efficient at this point.” Asked his view now, spokesperson Whitney Tempel said Schwab still believes “keeping your ballot out of the hands of the federal government is best.”
Jamie Shew, a Democrat elected to oversee elections in Douglas County, home to the main University of Kansas campus, said his office is trying to change voters’ perceptions.
“I think voters are used to, you can drop it off on Friday and we’re going to receive it by Election Day,” Shew said Tuesday. “That’s just not the reality.”
California’s state budget includes $10 million for social media campaigns and other efforts to discourage last-minute ballot mailings.
And the Postal Service said it hasn’t changed its own longstanding advice for voters: They should get their ballots in the mail at least a week before their state’s deadline for receiving them.
Hanna writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, Michael Casey in Boston, and Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.
July 10 (UPI) — Canada and the state of Michigan on Friday announced that a long-planned new bridge linking Ontario and Detroit will open at the end of July, 14 years after construction started.
The $4.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge between the two cities is set to open on July 27 and is set to offer improved transit on what leaders from Canada and Michigan called one of the busiest transportation corridors in North America.
The mile-and-a-half-long bridge includes new ports of entry on either side, with Canada and the United States establishing a 15-year economic development fund that has been tied to profits from crossing tolls.
President Donald Trump earlier this year threatened to prevent the bridge from opening over disagreements with previously existing trade agreements, his administration’s tariff regime and objections to Canada making trade deals with China.
“The Gordie Howe International Bridge has always been a great deal for our state,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement.
“Thousands of Michigan workers built this critical bridge, which will speed up auto production, lower costs, ease traffic, strengthen agriculture and give people on both sides of the border better-paying jobs and brighter futures,” she said. “This bridge is a testament to the enduring partnership between Michigan and Canada.”
The bridge project originated with the state’s then-Republican Gov. Rick Snyder agreeing to the six-line bridge because it would alleviate congestion accommodate future travel and create new transportation capabilities between U.S. and Canadian manufacturing regions.
Canada’s minister for housing and infrastructure, Gregor Robinson, hailed the completion and impending opening of the bridge as “strengthening one of the world’s most important trade corridors.”
“This nation-building project is a testament to what Canada can accomplish when we come together with a shared vision,” Robinson said in a statement.
“The Gordie Howe International Bridge will create new opportunities, strengthen our economy and bring economic benefits on both sides of the boarder for generations,” he said.
SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is spending the closing weeks of Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary making a simple case: she’s the candidate who wins.
Stevens flipped a Republican-held House seat in suburban Detroit in 2018 and hasn’t lost since, including surviving a bruising primary against a fellow Democratic incumbent after redistricting in 2022. She says it’s what sets her apart from her opponent in the Aug. 4 primary, progressive Abdul El-Sayed.
“It is not a hypothetical that I beat Republicans,” Stevens told The Associated Press after a campaign stop in West Michigan this week. “I win tough races. I have had Republicans throw everything at me and still managed to win.”
Holding Michigan’s Senate seat is essential to any Democratic path back to the Senate majority this fall. That imperative only grew this week after Democrats’ nominee in Maine, Graham Platner, said he planned to drop out after he was accused of sexual assault, threatening another seat the party had hoped to keep competitive. While no Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan since 1994, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers came within 20,000 votes of doing so in 2024.
That calculation has led Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and influential Michigan Democrats, including former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, to rally behind Stevens, arguing she gives Democrats their strongest chance in November against Rogers, who is running again.
But if electability is the party establishment’s top priority, it’s an open question whether Democratic primary voters agree.
“Democratic leadership should think more in terms of what we want to accomplish, and less about, ‘We’ve got to make it appeal to everybody,’” said Dave Burdick, 71, of Douglas, Michigan. He’s backing El-Sayed, who has surged by arguing that Democrats don’t have to run to the middle to win.
El-Sayed has built his campaign around bold policy proposals, rejecting corporate PAC money and casting himself as an alternative to the status quo of the Democratic Party.
“People don’t want a moderate. They want somebody who’s going to come in and effect change,” Burdick added.
On a summer afternoon in South Haven, a community along Lake Michigan, Stevens walks into a pet supply store with the ease of a seasoned campaigner. Within minutes, she’s chatting with the owner about the area, greeting reporters by first name and striking up conversations with customers. She slips easily between small talk and campaign mode, asking about customers’ lives before mentioning legislation she’s championed and asking for their vote.
“I thought she was great fun,” said owner Roxanne Leder. “She was energetic and had a positive outlook.”
It’s the kind of campaigning Stevens’ allies say has defined her political career. They acknowledge she lacks the viral progressive moments that have fueled El-Sayed’s rise, but say she’s at her best in small rooms, union halls and local businesses — which they say is where elections are won.
Stevens has leaned into that contrast herself.
“Unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see,” Stevens said during a debate Tuesday. “We do not need a celebrity senator. We need a workhorse.”
It’s also a style familiar to Michigan Democrats. From former Gov. Jennifer Granholm to current-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, successful statewide candidates have often paired an upbeat, personable campaign style with a pragmatic message centered on economic issues.
But unlike Granholm or Whitmer, Stevens has yet to generate the kind of broad grassroots enthusiasm that defined their statewide campaigns. El-Sayed, meanwhile, has packed rallies with progressive supporters and high-profile endorsers.
Stevens has leaned more heavily on tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, which could become one of Stevens’ biggest liabilities in the primary. Outside groups have spent more than $30 million to boost her candidacy, dwarfing the spending behind El-Sayed. The largest spender, United Democracy Project, the super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has spent more than $13 million on Stevens’ behalf and reserved another $7 million before the primary.
For Burdick, the 71-year-old El-Sayed supporter, that spending is disqualifying. He said he would not vote for Stevens in the general election because of her support from AIPAC.
Leder, by contrast, said she expects to vote for Stevens in August because she’s far more familiar with the congresswoman than with El-Sayed. She said she still plans to do more research before making a final decision.
“I’m just a Democrat,” said Leder. “Please, please no Mike Rogers.”
El-Sayed is running on Medicare for All, campaign finance reform, abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and ending all U.S. weapons sales to Israel. He’s also a Muslim who has never held elected office.
To many Democratic leaders in Washington, that makes him a risky nominee in a battleground state often viewed as moderate and centered on manufacturing.
But Michigan has repeatedly rewarded candidates who cast themselves as outsiders challenging the political establishment. In 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the state’s Democratic presidential primary by running against party leaders. Donald Trump later built his own anti-establishment coalition, carrying Michigan in 2016 and again in 2024.
Burdick, a self-described “old white guy living in rural Michigan” who is a democratic socialist, said Trump and Sanders resonated with voters because they were upset.
“Well, you know what? They’re still mad,” he said. “They portray people like Abdul as unrealistic, but I think it’s unrealistic to think that we can continue the way that we’re heading.”
On Sunday, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign. It prompted establishment Democrats to jump off the sidelines and back Stevens, including Democratic group EMILY’s List and Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“Haley is wicked smart, has won multiple highly competitive races, and she connects with people on a level so sincere and genuine that everyone who meets her feels truly seen and heard,” Nessel said in a statement.
El-Sayed has also built support among labor groups that have played an influential role in Democratic politics, including an endorsement from the United Auto Workers.
Fems for Dems, an influential Democratic grassroots group in the state, is not endorsing in the primary. But its founder, Lori Goldman, told AP in an interview that she planned to vote for El-Sayed.
“I personally am not going to have business as usual when I go to the ballot box. I want to vote for people, candidates that are going to go there and fight on our behalf,” she said.
Goldman, who founded the group 10 years ago in the politically important Oakland County, acknowledges the changing dynamics of Democratic primaries.
“Who would the natural choice be 10 years ago? Haley Stevens, right? Because we just followed the party line,” she said.
“People are breaking away from the party line. People want change.”
Cappelletti writes for the Associated Press.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’re just one month out from fall camp and the start of Lincoln Riley’s fifth season at USC. Soon enough, we’ll have actual football to discuss and not just the existential crises surrounding it.
But while the college sports calendar remains dormant for the moment, summer basketball practice is in full swing at USC. The Times was there at Galen Center last week to get an idea of where the Trojans stand heading into a critical third season for Eric Musselman as coach. And I came away feeling like this is the most talented team the Trojans have had in quite some time.
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What that will mean come March, I wouldn’t even attempt to speculate at this point. It’s June. This team has been together only a couple of weeks. Plans are bound to change. And injuries are bound to happen.*
*I do feel safe in assuming whatever ancient curse or voodoo hex was cast long ago on USC basketball can’t possibly derail another season like it did the last one.**
**OK, so transfer center Eric Reibe aggravating an injury in June and sitting out the summer isn’t … ideal. And sure, neither is the fact that transfer guard KJ Lewis won’t be cleared from the ankle injury he suffered in February until “hopefully mid-to-late September,” per Musselman. But still no freak car accidents, sudden cardiac incidents or bizarre player dismissals to date …
But Musselman has all the makings of a roster that should — read: must — make it to March.
The difference isn’t so much in what USC added to its roster, but rather in who Musselman and his staff managed to retain from the previous one. That was USC’s primary focus coming into the offseason.
Instead of having to rebuild an entire team from scratch like in Musselman’s first two seasons, which proved much more difficult than expected, the Trojans brought back their three top returning players: Rodney Rice, Alijah Arenas and Jacob Cofie.
“Those three are a great start for us,” Musselman said last week, and alluded to losing two transfers last year. “We learned with Wes [Yates] and [Desmond Claude], that hurt us.”
The continuity is significant. At least two of those returners will be starters, with a full year in Musselman’s system, and all three could be drafted next spring if they have strong seasons.
It starts with Rice, the guard who through six games last season looked like a bona fide rising star. His shoulder injury ended up totally changing the Trojans’ trajectory. His return should be equally impactful.
“I can play at a high level, an All-American level,” Rice said. “I have all the confidence in the world still.”
Musselman and his staff feel the same way. And all parties involved concur that the makeup of this roster will better maximize Rice’s skills. He’ll be able to play more off the ball, with other options like lightning-quick Colgate transfer Jalen Cox able to handle more of the load as a floor general.
Rice won’t return to full go until after summer practice, but that’s more of a precaution than anything. He could be on the brink of a big season, if all things break right.
I’m less confident in the spring emergence of Cofie, the forward who played his way into an NBA scouting combine invite in May. When he first signed with USC, Musselman told me he thought Cofie was a future first-round pick. But considering the expectations, I thought his first season as a Trojan was mostly underwhelming.
Musselman thought Cofie “didn’t really have a stamp on the roster” last season. But so far this year, “He’s kind of a different guy.”
Cofie has made a point to expand his game to the perimeter. Just 27% of Cofie’s shots last season came from behind the arc, and he made just 31% of them. But any added spacing would be welcomed on a roster with potential to get bogged down inside the arc.
“You’ll see me shoot a lot more threes,” Cofie said last week. We’ll see how that factors into the lineups that USC is able to deploy this fall.
The most intriguing of the Trojans’ trio of returners is Arenas, given the wide range of possible outcomes in front of the guard this season. After arriving last year as one of the most-hyped hoops prospects in school history, he returns with a chance to basically redo his ill-fated freshman year.
The challenge for him as a sophomore is to be a more efficient player, after shooting just 34% from the field and 21% from three-point range. Arenas also uncharacteristically struggled finishing at the rim and with his shot selection, two skills that previously were seen as strengths.
He has all the tools to bounce back. Arenas’ ability to create space and find his own shot, in particular, is special. The question is how those tools best fit USC with so many more options around him.
When he debuted in January last season after missing the start because of knee surgery, Arenas immediately shouldered the load and dominated the ball. It was too much to ask of a freshman in that situation. But that’s no longer necessary with Rice healthy and Cox able to handle the point. Arenas will benefit from being off the ball more often.
Adding three McDonald’s All-Americans should go a long way with this team as well, if only because there will be real talent at the back end of the rotation. And unlike last season, USC should be able to bring its freshmen along at their own pace.
The potential is obvious with Darius and Adonis Ratliff, but both presumably would benefit from that time. Christian Collins, on the other hand, looks primed to make an impact right away, if needed. Watching him knife through the lane on his way to the hoop last week, I found myself wondering if he might be a lottery pick by next spring.
“Christian has been very impressive,” Musselman said. “We knew the intangibles and the length and the reaction to loose balls, but he has scored the ball, you know, [really well] for a freshman at this early stage.”
It’s far too early to draw any conclusions about the upcoming season. But after watching just one practice, it’s not hard to see why Musselman and his staff are feeling especially sunny this summer.
Back in October 2024, days after two USC defenders announced they were sitting out the football season to preserve their eligibility, a frustrated Riley offered what he felt was a reasonable solution to a growing problem.
“Guys should have five years to do whatever you want,” Riley said. “I think it should be that plain and simple. Then nobody has to worry about any of this other crap like how many games you’ve played.”
Almost two years later, the NCAA is finally on board with the coach.
The Division 1 Cabinet voted last week to implement major changes to the NCAA’s eligibility rules, giving athletes five years of eligibility to play five seasons. That means no more redshirts, no more medical waivers, no more eligibility questions. All eligibility clocks start the academic year after an athlete’s 19th birthday, and the only exceptions, per the NCAA, are for pregnancy, active-duty military service and religious missions.
Any athlete who wants to state their case for an extra year of eligibility has until the end of next month. But after that, the word “redshirt” officially can be retired from the college football vocabulary.
USC pitching coach Sean Allen talks to Gavin Lauridsen during a Super Regional game last season.
(Kara Durrette / For The Times)
—Musselman has yet to have one of his USC players selected in the NBA draft. But that will change next season. I’d expect, by next spring, we will be talking about as many as three Trojans who could be selected in 2027. Collins and Arenas are five-star talents, and while Collins’ stock is higher at the moment, Arenas easily could return to draft darling status with a strong start to the season. Then there’s Cofie, who balled his way into a draft combine invite this spring, and Rice, whose name will be known in draft circles soon enough.
—Fourteen USC baseball players entered the transfer portal. That group includes two promising young pitchers in Diego Velazquez (who also plays infield) and Gavin Lauridsen. Both were highly touted prospects and looked slated for bigger roles next season. USC also lost its starting catcher to the portal again, with Isaac Cadena committing to Clemson. Losing the young pitchers is a blow, but without the backing to match the name, image and licensing offers of some ACC and SEC teams, this sort of exodus is just inevitable.
Tatiana Maslany in “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.”
(Apple TV)
Apple has been on an absolute heater, and “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” is yet another unique and worthy entrant into its growing library of prestige TV. It stars Tatiana Maslany as Paula, a divorced mom and magazine fact-checker whose only solace is returning to a webcam boy who turns out to be scamming her. Her life is unraveling, but when she takes matters into her own hands, it only descends further into chaos.
“Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” is an absolute thrill ride and one of the more surprising shows I’ve seen this year.
USC freshman linebacker Talanoa Ili joins lawsuit seeking to upend new NIL system
USC paid Lincoln Riley nearly $12 million in lackluster 2024 season
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Questions surely will follow Dusty May as he leaps to the Dallas Mavericks after coaching Michigan to the NCAA national championship.
Can he provide blessed amnesia to the Mavericks faithful? Can he help them forget Luka Doncic and Nico Harrison and Anthony Davis and Jason Kidd? Can he allow them to peer into a future anchored by budding superstar Cooper Flagg without constantly checking the rearview mirror?
May, 49, was hired Tuesday as the Mavericks’ head coach,. He led Michigan to the pinnacle of March Madness last season and posted a 64-13 record in two years. He also coached Florida Atlantic to the 2023 Final Four and a 60-13 record in the last two of his six seasons there.
“We set out to find a leader who embodies the values we want to define our organization,” Mavericks president Masai Ujiri said in a statement. “Dusty has won at every stage of his career because of his ability to build. He develops players, creates accountability, and brings people together around a shared standard of excellence. His work ethic is extraordinary, and his teams consistently reflect his values.”
The list of high-profile college coaches who struggled to replicate their success in the NBA is daunting: Rick Pitino, John Calipari, John Beilein, Lon Kruger, Tim Floyd and Mike Montgomery immediately leap to mind.
Not only did May not coach or play in the NBA, he barely played in college. He was a 5-foot-10 point guard at NAIA Oakland City for one season before transferring to Indiana and serving as team manager under coach Bobby Knight.
But his arrival will divert attention from the past, from the hugely unpopular and disastrous trade of Doncic to the Lakers for Davis and spare parts on Feb. 1, 2025.
Mavericks fans staged a faux funeral complete with a casket a day later in front of the Dirk Nowitzki statue outside American Airlines Center. They booed Harrison — the general manager who engineered the deal — at every home game and chanted “Fire Nico.”
When Doncic returned as an opponent, Mavericks fans chanted “MVP” when the Laker shot free throws.
Harrison admitted to underestimating the backlash from fans but defended the trade, initially saying he had “no regrets.” By November, he was fired and updated his social media profile to “unemployed.”
Next to go was Kidd, a Hall of Fame point guard who helped the Mavericks to their only NBA title as a player and to the NBA Finals as a coach. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether Kidd was an advocate of the Doncic deal or a victim of a front-office blunder. But Mark Cuban, the Mavericks’ former majority owner who currently owns 27% of the team, indicated March 31 during a podcast that Kidd was complicit.
“I think there was animosity between [Harrison] and some people on Luka’s team — his agent and some of the people around them,” Cuban said. “I don’t think they got along. I think there were issues.
“J-Kidd had coached Anthony Davis and was close to him, and Nico was close to AD since he was like 13 years old. So I think there was some confirmation bias as well. But that doesn’t justify our coach and our general manager to stand up and trade our best player.”
Doncic, 26, flourished in his first season in Los Angeles despite a late-season injury that kept him out of the playoffs. The shooting guard led the NBA with 33.5 points per game and he will be a franchise cornerstone. Davis played only 20 games with Dallas because of injuries and in February was traded to the Washington Wizards.
The makeover began when the Mavericks secured the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft despite having only a 1.8% chance of obtaining it through the lottery. They took Flagg, a forward from Duke who went on to lead Dallas with 21 points per game and was named rookie of the year.
Next, they hired respected former Raptors executive Ujiri as team president. And now they have added May as coach. This week they will add two more promising players via the first round of the draft.
“I am honored to join the Dallas Mavericks organization,” May said in a statement. “This is one of the most respected franchises in professional sports, with passionate fans, a talented roster, and a clear commitment to building a championship organization.”
The franchise is trying to eliminate reminders while attempting to instill hope for the future.
“When you study [May’s] journey, you see someone who has earned every opportunity through preparation, discipline, humility, and an unwavering commitment to improvement,” Ujiri said. “We believe those qualities make him the right leader for the Dallas Mavericks.”
Meanwhile at Michigan, a loaded roster will report to interim coach Mike Boynton Jr., May’s top assistant and the head coach at Oklahoma State from 2019 to 2024. Players are allowed to enter the transfer portal for 15 days following a coaching change, so job one for Boynton will be to keep them from fleeing.
TORONTO — A new Canadian-built bridge across the Detroit River that U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to block will open soon, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, jointly owned by Canada and the U.S. state of Michigan, is set to take place on Friday, while the bridge itself is expected to open to traffic later this month.
In February, Trump demanded that Canada turn over at least half the ownership of the bridge to the U.S. federal government and agree to other unspecified demands in one of his many salvos over cross-border trade issues.
The bridge, which would connect Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, and would be a vital economic artery between Canada and the United States, had been expected to open early this year, according to information on the project’s website.
The bridge is named after Howe, the late Canadian hockey great who spent 25 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.
The project was negotiated by former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder — a Republican — and paid for by the Canadian government to help ease congestion over the existing Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Work has been underway since 2018.
“Obviously the bridge will be open at the end of the week. A symbol of, but also a fact of cooperation between our countries,” Carney told reporters as he walked into Parliament.
“Great for Canadians going across the border, Americans coming across the border, and for commerce,” he said, calling it “positive news.”
Trump threatened the bridge as the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement is up for review this year, and Trump has been taking a hard-line position before those talks, including by issuing new tariff threats.
Carney, meanwhile, has spoken out on the world stage against economic coercion by the United States.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, has said that the Canadian-funded project is a “huge boon” to her state and its economic future.
Michigan is a swing state that Trump carried in both 2016 and 2024.
Snyder wrote in an op-ed in The Detroit News earlier this year that Trump was wrong in asserting that Canada owns both the U.S. and Canadian sides of the Gordie Howe bridge.
“Canada and the state of Michigan are 50/50 owners of the new bridge,” Snyder wrote. “Canada was wonderful and financed the entire bridge. They will get repaid with interest from the tolls. Michigan and the United States got their half-ownership with no investment.”
The Gordie Howe bridge will join the privately owned Ambassador Bridge as the second span connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
The rival Ambassador Bridge is considered the busiest U.S.-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries. It plays an especially important role in auto manufacturing.
Companies controlled by the Moroun family, owners of the rival Ambassador Bridge, previously sued to prevent the Howe bridge from being built.
Gillies writes for the Associated Press.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where USC baseball’s charmed season came to a devastating end in the bottom of the ninth of a decisive Super Regional matchup with North Carolina on Sunday. But no matter how brutal it may have been in the moment — with black-stained tears streaming down Trojan cheeks in Chapel Hill — the fact that USC was in position to have its heart broken at all is a testament to what Andy Stankiewicz has built in his four seasons at the helm.
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It was barely a year ago that I sat with Stankiewicz in an unfinished concrete dugout at new Dedeaux Field, discussing the importance of building a foundation for a program that had lacked one for so long. The metaphor wrote itself at the time. His team was on the cusp of clinching its first NCAA berth in a decade, just as its new stadium was finally rounding into form. But as triumphant as that tournament invite would be when it finally happened, Stankiewicz was already thinking bigger.
“We want to build this thing for the long haul,” he said then. “And to build a home, you have to build a strong foundation so it can withstand the weather. The same thing applies here. I want to be here for a long time. This is where I grew up. This is where I’d love to be.”
A year later, the foundation hasn’t just been built. The house is finished. The front door is open. All that’s left is for the Trojans to walk through it.
They had their chance Sunday in Chapel Hill. Andrew Johnson twirled another postseason gem. The Trojan bats, again, delivered in big moments, with clutch solo shots from Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb. Through 8.2 innings, USC had given up just a single run.
But the bullpen, which had been one of the Trojans’ few weak points all season, couldn’t finish the job. Sax Matson came in for just a single pitch and was pulled. Adam Troy faced three batters, walked one who scored and was pulled in the middle of a 3-0 count for another. Chase Herrell faced four batters after that, walked one and gave up two other hits, including the walk-off winner.
Just two outs stood between the Trojans and a trip to Omaha. At one point, all they had to do was catch a fouled pop fly to send the game to extras.
“That was a tough one,” Stankiewicz said after. “As best we can, we’re gonna move forward. But again, I got some disappointed young men in our dugout. As the head coach, you think, ‘Dang it, what could I have done differently?’”
Surely, the Trojans coach might be thinking all season about how close his team was to reaching that next rung as a program. The truth, though, is it’s a wonder they got here this fast in the first place. USC won 48 games, its most in a quarter century. It had to climb its way back from the loser’s bracket in its regional, then, on the road in Chapel Hill, it took one of the national title favorites to the brink.
Not only that, but USC rose to that level in a still-unfinished stadium, without anything resembling the NIL firepower that other college baseball teams, particularly in the SEC and ACC, are wielding. USC has tried to make up for that by funding more scholarships, but when other teams are handing kids hundreds of thousands more in NIL offers, it makes competing with the Joneses especially difficult.
Stankiewicz has managed to make it work, anyway. And as more talent rolls into Troy, there’s every reason to believe that we’ll look back on this moment, not as a devastating end, but the start of something particularly special for USC baseball.
“We got to the finals of the Regional last year. Now the finals of a Super Regional,” Stankiewicz said. “We’re not going away.”
With the summer here and college sports now on hold for the next two months, it’s a perfect time to answer any questions you have about the upcoming year at USC. So please send anything on your mind about Trojan sports to ryan.kartje@latimes.com. When the newsletter returns in a couple of weeks, I’ll answer the best ones in this space.
USC pitcher Andrew Johnson.
(Laura Wolff / For The Times)
—A standing ovation for Johnson, whose pitching performance through the postseason was nothing short of Herculean. Johnson spent most of the season as the Trojans’ forgotten No. 3 option in the rotation, with Mason Edwards and Grant Govel ranking among the best pitchers in the nation. But it was Johnson who came up the biggest in the postseason. Twice he pitched well in relief, only to throw seven-plus innings two days later. This felt like a breakthrough moment for Johnson, who should pair with Govel to give USC an outstanding 1-2 punch on Fridays and Saturdays next season.
—There’s been talk about alternate jerseys at USC over the last several years. The conversation about alternates actually dates back to before Jennifer Cohen took over as athletic director. But as was the case before, the conversation has been tabled for the time being. Athletic departments are always looking for added revenue these days, but the juice just hasn’t been worth the squeeze to date, considering the many fans that would surely be offended by changes to the Trojans’ classic uniforms.
After going on a tear to close out the season, USC women’s golf was on the precipice of snagging the school’s second national title this year … before it ran into a buzzsaw in No. 1 Stanford.
But an NCAA runner-up finish is still a great result for a program that hasn’t won an NCAA title since 2013. The Trojans have now finished second six times in their past 38 seasons, which is to say they’ve been the runner-ups basically 15% of the time over the last four decades.
That’s a lot of years being the bridesmaid, not the bride. But there’s no reason to think that Justin Silverstein, the Big Ten’s Coach of the Year in 2026, shouldn’t have this program back in the mix as soon as next season.
Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root in “Widow’s Bay.”
(Apple)
If you’re in the mood for something creepy, boy do I have the content for you. “Widow’s Bay” on Apple TV follows Mayor Tom Loftis, played by Matthew Rhys, who’s desperate to revive his struggling island community of Widow’s Bay. But the locals on the island are convinced the town is cursed, and don’t necessarily approve of bringing tourists into the mix.
As you might imagine, the locals appear to be right. And Loftis finds himself in some horrifying situations. Enough to convince me that maybe this isn’t the best show to be watching alone, late at night. But if that’s in your wheelhouse, then this is as good as it gets.
USC’s College World Series hopes shattered in heartbreaking loss to North Carolina
Q&A: As costs rise, AD Jennifer Cohen says USC is well-positioned amid college sports chaos
Ed Orgeron is returning to LSU as member of old USC pal Lane Kiffin’s staff
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
WASHINGTON — It was perhaps a surprising private overture from OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman to Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The meeting between the two had come just after the Vermont senator announced a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI, using their stock to create a public wealth fund that would spread the fortune generated by AI behemoths.
Altman told Sanders that he, too, wants the public to have equity in AI companies. Though the CEO said he couldn’t support Sanders’ threshold of 50%, he nonetheless wanted to work with him to advocate for the general idea, according to people with knowledge of the conversation.
The nearly hourlong meeting in Sanders’ Senate office this week, held at Altman’s request, highlighted the inherent tension between AI powerhouses and policymakers as Americans are increasingly asked to accept the costs of the AI boom even as many remain unconvinced of its direct benefits. Yet it’s also creating odd political bedfellows fueled by populism as politicians from Sanders to President Trump embrace giving the public a stake in AI’s growth.
Speaking to reporters Friday on Air Force One, Trump described a potential partnership “where the American people can benefit from the success of AI” and said executives from leading AI companies will visit the White House, perhaps in the coming week, to discuss the idea.
“There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public,” Trump said.
When reporters noted to the Republican president that Sanders, a democratic socialist and political independent, had proposed public ownership in AI companies, he pointed to similarities in their coalitions. The economic views of Trump voters and those who have supported Sanders for president, Trump said, “aren’t that far apart.”
Trump has embraced government investment in private companies in his second term, scrambling his party’s politics. His administration last year secured a 10% stake in the struggling Silicon Valley company Intel, and it considered a government takeover of Spirit Airlines earlier this year, although the airline couldn’t reach a deal and ultimately closed.
The positioning of leading figures such as Trump and Sanders comes as concerns about AI are emerging far beyond Washington.
In Michigan, Democrats recently clashed over Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appearance with Altman at the site of a major data center. Candidates such as New York Democratic House candidate Alex Bores have also made AI regulation a campaign issue by tapping into voters’ unease about the technology.
“This is a real change to society,” Altman told reporters this week. “I think it’s possible both that people can use AI a lot and like using it and also have anxiety about what it’s going to do for the future.”
Data center projects across the country have drawn opposition from residents concerned about electricity demand, water consumption and environmental impacts. Some states once eager to attract the facilities, including Ohio and Virginia, have moved to reconsider tax incentives.
“We need to pass legislation right now that says there’s not going to be any further data center development until they agree to pay for their own electricity, build their own grids and pay for their own water supply,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a leading Republican skeptic of Big Tech, told the Associated Press.
Before arriving in Washington, Altman stopped in Michigan on Monday to appear alongside Whitmer, a Democrat, at the site of a 1.65 million-square-foot data center project. Whitmer’s team said the project will create more than 2,500 union construction jobs.
But it also drew criticism from local activists and some fellow Democrats, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who called the project “disgusting.” She said she was “so disappointed” in Whitmer.
“It’s a very controversial topic right now and it’s coming from the ground up,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, another Michigan Democrat, said about the grassroots resistance. “People feel very strongly about it.”
Whitmer defended her appearance, telling reporters afterward that “one thing’s very clear: Everyone has a cellphone in our pocket.”
“We are all, more and more, consuming technology and data, and these data centers are going to get built. So, my thought is if we can hold them to a high standard and do it in Michigan, that’s the best way to do it,” she said.
The tensions extend beyond data centers. On college campuses, commencement speakers have been interrupted by boos when discussing artificial intelligence. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Altman acknowledged those concerns. He said that while “the impact on jobs has been less than many people in our field expected,” he understands “that college students have a lot of anxiety about the future.”
The idea that AI’s expansion is inevitable is increasingly shared by leaders across the political spectrum, even as they disagree sharply about how to manage it.
That reality was at the center of Altman’s conversations in Washington. In addition to Sanders, Altman met with Trump administration officials such as Michael Kratsios, the White House’s chief science and technology advisor, and congressional leaders from both parties.
Sanders’ team emphasized that the two did not reach an agreement on the main points that the senator made to Altman, including the 50% figure to ensure that the public has decision-making power. The senator also expressed opposition to the growing spending on elections by the AI industry.
“Unfortunately, Sam Altman did not commit to any of those,” Sanders spokesperson Jeremy Slevin said.
Altman, emerging from the conversation, described it as “great,” though noting that the two “obviously don’t agree on everything.”
Congress this week released a bipartisan framework that would establish the first broad federal approach to AI regulation while temporarily preempting many state laws.
Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s top competitors, has proposed mechanisms for coordinating pauses on advanced AI development if systems become too powerful.
The Trump administration has also begun constructing its own oversight structure, signing an executive order to establish a process for reviewing national security risks posed by advanced AI systems before their public release.
Sanders said he found the administration’s move notable after years of warnings that regulation could slow American innovation.
“Even these guys are beginning to catch on that there are legitimate concerns that have to be dealt with,” Sanders said.
Cappelletti and Kim write for the Associated Press.
PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court has denied a prosecutor’s appeal of an order that the state’s fake elector case against President Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others over the 2020 presidential election be sent back to a grand jury.
The decision marks another setback for Democratic Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes as she struggles to push the sprawling case through the courts. Mayes’ office said it will again present the case in its entirety to a grand jury rather than end the prosecution.
The ruling came after similar cases in Michigan and Georgia were dismissed by the courts and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Cases related to the fake elector scheme remain in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.
A lower-court judge in Phoenix concluded in May that the case’s first grand jury hadn’t been shown the text of the Electoral Count Act, a 19th century law that governs the certification of presidential contests and was invoked by those charged in defending themselves.
Defense lawyers argued the law allowed for multiple slates of electors to be submitted to Congress in case the results were disputed, though it was amended in 2022 to specify that a state could put forward only one slate of electors and that it was the governor who would sign off.
There has been no movement in the Arizona case at the trial court level since mid-May.
Former President Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by 10,457 votes.
Billeaud writes for the Associated Press.
May 28 (UPI) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will not run for president in 2028, planning instead to take a break from politics rather than jumping straight into another campaign when her term ends.
Whitmer, who is in her second and final term as Michigan governor, was widely expected to join the field as her profile nationally has grown since President Donald Trump‘s first term in office.
“There will be a robust group of people running for president,” Whitmer told WJBK-TV.
“I will not be one of them in 2028. I can tell you that,” the Democratic governor said.
Whitmer’s term ends at the end of this year, and she told the Detroit television station that there is time between now and the next presidential election to change her mind, but does not expect to do so.
“I want to have an impact,” Whitmer said in the WJBK interview, which was conducted at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
“I want to do good work, but I’m also looking forward to taking a little bit of a break and thinking about it, not jumping right into something,” she said.
Whitmer said she spoke with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo before making the decision.
A poll on Democrats who may run for president in 2028 published Thursday found Buttigieg leading a possible primary race, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
INTERLOCHEN, Mich. — A Michigan summer arts camp and boarding school where Jeffrey Epstein has been accused of meeting at least two of his victims will tear down a lodge that once bore his name.
The Interlochen Center for the Arts said this week that its board of trustees has approved a plan to demolish the Green Lake Lodge, which had been known as Jeffrey E. Epstein Scholarship Lodge until the school cut ties and scrubbed references to the late millionaire sex offender after his first conviction in 2008.
Epstein attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in 1967 as a teenager, and donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 to 2003, including $200,000 for the construction of the lodge.
“The lodge has, over time, come to carry associations that are not reflective of who we are as an institution or the values we strive to uphold,” Interlochen said in a statement. “After careful consideration, the Board determined that removing this structure in a safe and timely manner is the right step for Interlochen at this time.”
A world-renowned destination for young artists, actors and musicians, Interlochen’s alumni include Grammy winners Chappell Roan and Norah Jones and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
At least two of Epstein’s accusers have said they met him at Interlochen in the 1990s.
The school said it was aware of news reports about the women’s claims and said it has invited them to speak with an independent investigator as part of an external investigation into reports of historical misconduct at Interlochen.
A pair of internal reviews, most recently after Epstein’s sex trafficking arrest in 2019, found no reports of misconduct at Interlochen involving Epstein in its records, the school said.
Epstein visited Interlochen periodically, often with his confidante and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and stayed in the lodge now marked for demolition.
According to correspondence included in the Justice Department’s recent release of Epstein-related records, he directed that tuition for at least one student be paid out of his donations and once flew violinist Itzhak Perlman to the school on his private jet.
Epstein killed himself in a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. In 2008 and 2009, he served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking for helping to recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims, and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images News
Bayer’s (BAYRY) (BAYZF) Monsanto unit agreed to pay at least $133M to settle claims by Michigan and Rhode Island that the company contaminated the states’ natural resources with toxic chemicals that are known to have dangerous health effects, Reuters reported
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where USC and Notre Dame are back at the bargaining table — as you first read in this space last Monday — and also back to bickering about who’s to blame for blowing up their century-old rivalry in the first place. One step closer to order being restored!
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I have less faith in the rest of college football and its leadership, which now appears to be mobilizing around a playoff format that’s almost universally disliked by actual consumers of college football. The 24-team playoff is a great deal for coaches, who want to be able to point to as many playoff berths as possible for job security. It’s probably a good deal for athletic directors, digging through couch cushions for extra NIL dollars. And for the TV networks, it’s especially juicy. Twenty four teams means more than double the number of games, and each of those games is pulling in an average of between 10 million and 20 million viewers. That’s a lot of eyeballs and a lot of advertising dollars. (For everyone but ESPN, which currently has exclusive rights up to 14 teams.)
It’s also a good deal for Notre Dame, whose athletic director Pete Bevacqua came out this week in support of the 24-team playoff in an interview with the Athletic. The Irish would essentially assure themselves of a bid in most years, which, per Bevacqua, would make it easier to clear the way for USC and Notre Dame to play again.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti has been leading the charge on the 24-team playoff. So while USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen hasn’t said anything about her preference, it would be a surprise to hear her publicly oppose what the rest of the conference has been pushing.
But why do we have to push anywhere? Why do we have to keep fixing the playoff? And if you must keep tinkering with college football, well, there are plenty of ways to fix it that won’t water down the product and devalue the regular season the way playoff expansion does. Plus, who’s to say that after two seasons at 24 teams, the conference commissioners don’t decide they want to expand again? To 28 teams? To 36 teams?
The 12-team playoff already makes a lot of money. But like everything now, it has to make the most possible money or be as big as possible. I actually long for the days when college football’s leaders did whatever they could to keep the game from changing.
Now it’s the only thing that feels inevitable these days around college football.
Marqise Lee at his graduation ceremony.
(USC)
Marqise Lee stepped to the lectern Friday, in full cap and gown, looked out over a full crowd at Galen Center, and cleared his throat. For so many reasons, the former USC wideout still couldn’t quite believe he was standing there.
Growing up, no part of Lee thought that college would even be available to him. He was brought up in the most difficult of circumstances in Inglewood. Separated at a young age from his sister and his mother, who was deaf. Thrust alone into the foster care system. He ended up living in a motel for three years.
When he did make it to USC, class hadn’t been a priority. Football was his focus from the start, and it would ultimately lead him to the NFL, where he’d never really taken the idea of returning to school that seriously. A counselor would try to convince him on a few occasions and even got him onto campus to set up a schedule.
“But it just never happened,” Lee told me.
Then, his football career ended, and his daughters started getting older. They never got to see him play football. He started thinking about what it would mean to show them what he could accomplish. So Lee decided to go back.
It wasn’t easy at first. He was taking five classes, a full course load. He felt uncomfortable being the oldest student in the class.
“When I first sat in there,” he said, ”I was like, I really don’t need to come back.”
His statistics class, especially, was daunting. He looked for any reason to leave. Then, he thought of his daughters.
“To go back to school and tell my daughters, yeah, I went back, but I wasn’t successful — and expect them to succeed?” Lee said. “Yeah, I can’t.”
But before long, Lee found that he actually liked his classes now. He enjoyed the group projects where he used to only do the bare minimum.
After sloughing off his final semester the first time around at USC, Lee needed at least three B’s and two A’s. No easy feat at USC.
Lee ended up getting A’s across the board. At the end of the semester, the school asked him to be the speaker at its student athlete commencement. Which is what led Lee to that stage, where he delivered a hell of a speech Friday.
“It was just like, this is something that you never ever dreamed about,” Lee said. “You never dreamed about graduating from college. So like to get that done was amazing. And then, I have an opportunity to sit up here and say to these kids and get them prepared for their future, by at least letting them understand where I come from and how hard it is. So they know that we actually can fight through anything that comes our way.”
Next up for Lee?
“I’m about to try and go get my master’s degree after this,” he said.
Jacob Cofie reacts after a layup and a foul during a win over Washington State last season.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
A month ago, USC basketball announced that Jacob Cofie, one of its starters from last season, planned to return next season. It was a huge coup for Eric Musselman, who had a grand total of two returning players in two seasons as USC’s coach.
Cofie decided to still take part in the G League scouting combine. But in the process, he became one of five players who earned invites to the NBA scouting combine last weekend.
While in Chicago, Cofie was asked if he’d considered keeping his name in the draft. And he didn’t say no. “I’m leaving that up to my agent right now,” he said.
But even with the combine invite, I don’t expect that Cofie could climb any higher than the second round of this NBA draft. And depending on where he would be drafted, if he’s drafted at all, he might actually stand to make more at USC in revenue sharing dollars and NIL.
Cofie has nine days, technically, to make a decision. But I expect we’ll hear sooner than that on his future, and I’d be shocked to hear he’ll be spending next season anywhere but USC.
—USC baseball locked up the fourth seed in the Big Ten tournament. But what about hosting a regional? The Trojans managed to take one of three against Oregon to at least lock up a bye until Friday in the Big Ten tournament. But right now, USC is likely on the outside looking in at hosting its first NCAA regional since 2002. All that could change with a run in the Big Ten tournament. Doing so, though, probably means pulling off an upset of No. 1 UCLA. If USC wins its first tournament matchup against whomever emerges out of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State and Purdue, then the Bruins will almost certainly be on tap. Win that game, and their hosting fate could change fast.
—Pete Carroll is coming back to teach “The Game of Life” at USC. The former USC coach delivered the commencement address for the Marshall School of Business last Friday, and in the process, announced that he’ll be making his triumphant return as Professor Pete next school year. A spot in Carroll’s class was one of the most coveted on campus in his first go-round — good luck getting off that waitlist the second time!
—Honor Fa’alave Johnson, USC’s top commit in 2027, reaffirmed his plans to sign with USC. That was after a group of USC coaches flew down to the safety’s hometown of San Diego via helicopter. Not a bad way to show you mean business — especially as Texas was doing its best to flip Fa’alave Johnson.
—Some Big Ten championship results from the weekend: The USC men finished fourth in the Big Ten track and field championships, while the USC women finished third. Meanwhile, women’s rowing placed sixth at their Big Ten championships.
Patrick Radden Keefe writes for the New Yorker.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
It’s a quiet time for new TV, so I took the radical step of picking up a new book this week. (Crazy, I know.) That said, I’m always game for reading something new from New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who, for my money, is one of our greatest living nonfiction writers. His latest book, “London Falling” follows an American family investigating the death of their 19-year-old son, who they find was living a secret life within London’s criminal underworld mysteriously before he jumped mysteriously from a building into the Thames River in 2019.
Keefe is a tremendous reporter and writer, capable of turning a nonfiction narrative into a roller coaster, page-turning story that reads like a crime novel. This book, like “Say Nothing” and “Empire of Pain” before it, is one I won’t forget any time soon.
I said I’d be off this week, however the Lee graduation was so nice that waiting to report on it seemed wrong. But the newsletter will be on hiatus the next two weeks.
NCAA to expand March Madness fields to 76 teams
A star pitcher at USC, he was cut after six years in the minors. Then Banana Ball came calling
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.