USC becomes first NCAA athletic program to partner with a cannabis brand



The University of Southern California is the first college athletic program in the country to partner with a cannabis company after striking a deal with Cookies.

The USC Trojans announced a partnership with the brand owned by Gilbert Milam Jr., a Billboard-charting rapper and entrepreneur who goes by the name Berner.

'Cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug.'

Cookies will partner with the USC football team as well as the men's and women's basketball teams, CBS Sports reported.

As Business Wire noted, fans will see Cookies' integration on the sports teams' digital channels while Cookies will also provide exclusive promotional items and tailgate experiences.

The announcement comes just a few months after the NCAA decided to remove cannabis from its banned substances list.

"Cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug and that a harm-reduction approach to cannabis is best implemented at the school level," the NCAA committee said.

The Cookies CEO said he is thrilled to partner with such an iconic athletic department at USC.

"California is our home state and for Cookies to be involved with a premier athletic program, in the oldest private college in the state of California, is incredibly exciting for us," Berner said in a statement. "We are honored and excited to be a sponsor and Trojans supporter alongside other globally recognized brands. Fight on!"

The San Francisco-based company has received several healthy valuations in the last few years, ranging from from $150 million to upward of $1 billion.

Vice president and general manager of USC Sports Properties Drew DeHart called Cookies an "innovative brand" and a "global leader in CBD."

He added that the company was "deep in life-style culture and wellness."

Berner has had an interesting career path, partnering with rappers like Wiz Khalifa for long-term music ventures while facing lawsuits that have alleged bad business practices.

The rapper has also accused website Benzinga of publishing an AI-generated interview with him. After Milam Jr. himself declared the interview to be "not real," a reporter asked him if any of the article's quotes could be attributed to him.

"Absolutely not ! Not one word is mine," the rapper replied on X. "That's why I've always done my own quotes or interviews in my own voice. That ain't me at all," he added.

The entrepreneur has prided himself with being transparent and has often tried to expose fans to shadow-banning and social media bias, stating that allegedly that his content has been hidden and deleted on Meta platforms due to the nature of his business.

In an Instagram post, Berner called it "epic" to see his brand alongside companies such as Coca-Cola, Monster, and United Airlines as USC partners.

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Friends of college student booked for murder of homeless man claim he acted in self-defense



A teen who is currently in jail in L.A. County on suspicion of murder of a homeless man acted in self-defense, his friends say.

Just after 8 p.m. on Monday, 19-year-old Ivan Gallegos and two friends heard the sound of a car alarm nearby. After calling police, they then went to investigate the alarm for themselves.

'Throughout his childhood, Ivan navigated the realities of both his parents’ involvement in gang activities, leading to their intermittent incarceration.'

They found a 27-year-old homeless man sitting in a car that belonged to one of their other friends who was not present at the time. The car was parked on private property along the University of Southern California's Fraternity Row.

The three young men confronted the vagrant, who may have broken into other cars in the area as well. When the men demanded that he leave the area, the vagrant retorted that he had a gun on him and that the car now belonged to him, Los Angeles magazine reported.

A scuffle then ensued, and the homeless man allegedly reached for his waistband, according to a GoFundMe account established for Gallegos, ostensibly prompting Gallegos to stab the man in self-defense. The vagrant died from his injuries at the scene.

It is unclear why Gallegos may have had a knife on him. No gun was ever recovered from the scene.

"He feared for his life," one of Gallegos’ friends told L.A. magazine. "He had to defend himself."

"When I heard what happened, I immediately knew it wasn't because he had malintent," another said. "Something had to have happened in order for him to do what he did."

Despite their claims of self-defense, police immediately arrested Gallegos on suspicion of murder and booked him into county jail, where he remains on $2 million bail, as Blaze News previously reported. As of Tuesday morning, the DA had not filed any charges against him.

Gallegos is a member of Delta Tau Delta who just completed his sophomore year at USC, studying business. On his LinkedIn profile, he also claims to be the first in his family to go to college.

According to a feature piece from USC Annenberg Media, Gallegos grew up in L.A. under difficult circumstances. "Throughout his childhood, Ivan navigated the realities of both his parents’ involvement in gang activities, leading to their intermittent incarceration," the article said, adding that as a child, he was frequently exposed to "drugs, gangs, and prostitution."

The area where the stabbing occurred is also rife with violence and crime, largely on account of the high homeless population, other USC students claimed.

"Street lights, a lot of them, you'll find, are out," one student said. "What's happening is they're tearing out these boxes and selling them, getting money for them, so they're taking the copper wire. It's a whole thing around here."

Another student insisted that while the USC campus is generally "pretty safe," "everybody is aware that some of the surrounding areas aren't as safe."

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USC won't let Jewish professor teach on campus after he called Hamas terrorists 'murderers' who 'should be killed'



The University of Southern California has exiled a Jewish economics professor after he suggested to student activists that Hamas terrorists should be wiped out. Professor John Strauss, an esteemed and tenured professor at USC, must now teach his classes remotely for the remainder of the semester.

What's the background?

Strauss, 72, shared words in passing with a group of students involved in a Nov. 9 protest organized by the USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, USC Graduates for Palestine, and Trojans for Palestine, reported the College Fix.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the protest was part of a national "Shut It Down for Palestine" action and included a rally where students chanted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" — widely regarded as a call for Israel's ruination.

Footage shows Strauss, audibly identified by students in the mob, mutter, "People are ignorant."

One activist halts the professor with the claim that they are gathered to "pay respect for those who were killed."

As more activists begin to amble over to Strauss, the professor states, "Hamas are murderers, that's all they are."

Still referencing the terrorist group that slaughtered thousands of Israeli civilians and dozens of Americans on Oct. 7, Strauss adds, "Every one should be killed and I hope they all are."

The professor later defended his comments, telling USC Annenberg Media, "One of them, a woman, I don't know who, yelled out, 'Shame on you, Professor Strauss. Shame on you.' And I immediately yelled back, 'No, shame on you. You were ignorant about Hamas. Hamas are murderers. That's all they are. They should all die. Every one of them.'"

Strauss told another student outlet, the Daily Trojan, "I don't mind if they want to memorialize people who were killed. That's fine, just as Jewish students are memorializing Israelis who were killed."

"But this started as a result of Hamas terrorist attacks," he added.

Lies and petitions

Various anti-Israeli student groups at the university as well as activists off campus — including the scandal-plagued identitarian Shaun King — circulated a deceptively edited version of the video along with insinuations that Strauss had called for Palestinians to be killed beyond just the members of the murderous group recognized by the American government as a terrorist organization.

A viral post on X that pushed the edited video stated, "Here is @USC professor John Strauss saying 'every one of them should be killed, and I hope they all are' while passing by students who organised a memorial for 10,000+ Palestinian martyrs killed in the past month."

Canary Mission, a watchdog group that documents anti-Semitism in academic institutions, noted that the individual who appears to have spread the video in this first instance, Tara Alami, is a radical leftist at McGill Univeristy in Montreal who has "called for Israelis to die, celebrated the death of Israelis, expressed support for terrorists and promoted a violent hatred of Zionists."

The USC Graduates for Palestine similarly also posted a deceptively edited version of the video on Nov. 10 to their Instagram account, intimating that Strauss had called for "everyone to be killed," again with the suggestion that he meant all Palestinians.

Leftists on campus seized upon this false narrative to paint Strauss as a villain.

Coinciding with the circulation of the deceptively edited videos, campus activists started a petition demanding Strauss' termination "for racist and xenophobic behavior." The petition, which has received over 7,100 signatures, decontextualized the professor's remarks, suggesting they were "not only offensive but also promote and incite violence."

The Los Angeles Times reported that Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles, demanded that the university investigate Strauss and take steps to protect "Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students as well as any others who are targeted by hate and bigotry."

Hamas critic in exile

Within a day of the incident, Strauss was told by an associate dean he had been placed on administrative leave, exiled from campus, and altogether relieved of teaching duties, reported the Times.

A spokesman for the university noted days later the professor would instead be teaching his graduate and undergraduate classes remotely for the remainder of the semester.

USC provost Andrew Guzman indicated in a Nov. 13 letter to Strauss, obtained by the Daily Trojan, that following "multiple formal complaints" filed against him with the school's office for equity, equal opportunity, and Title IX, he would be barred from campus until further notice.

The letter stressed that the "interim measures" were not punitive in nature but rather were "designed to minimize disruption to the educational environment and to ensure a safe environment for both [Strauss] and [his] students."

Strauss indicated he wants the university to let him back onto campus and to issue "a factual statement of what I did not say."

A petition demanding that the administration bring Strauss back to campus, which has already received nearly 12,000 signatures, stated, "Jewish people have not come this far by hiding in fear. Perpetrators of violence and false accusations must be removed, not their victims."

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USC star Caleb Williams now says crying in mother's arms on TV helped spread 'awareness' for 'mental health'



Caleb Williams, the college football star who was pictured crying in his mother's arms after losing a game, said that he feels his actions help spread awareness for mental health and expressing oneself.

The Heisman Trophy winner received ridicule as well as praise following a 52-42 loss to Washington, which split commentators and athletes into different camps over the imagery.

Days later, Williams said that his actions actually helped him spread awareness about mental health and self-expression.

"Being an advocate for mental health and trying to show your emotions and express yourself - it's something that I've been doing since I was young," Williams wrote on Instagram.

It is unclear what the quarterback was referring to with the generic claim of promoting "mental health" since he was "young"; Williams is only 21 years old.

"Now being on the national level, being able to try and share that awareness with the public and me doing just what I did on Saturday, even thought it was far from what I was trying to do, it showed and spread that awareness," he added.

In videos following the loss, Williams jumped into the crowd to hug his mother, before using the sign she was holding to cover his face while he cried, with his body showing visible signs of distress.

"Williams felt compelled to run to his mommy in the stands ... and clearly bawled his eyes out," said OutKick's Charly Arnolt.

Former NFL quarterback and commentator Robert Griffin III saw it differently. Williams "pours his heart out for his team EVERY TIME he plays. Any NFL team would be lucky to have him as their QB and this emotion shows how much this game means to him," he wrote.

Fellow NFL great Robert Mathis replied to Griffin by remarking "sorry ... but I gotta chalk this one up in the soft category. He ran and jumped in stance to his mommy and cried. I always tell players 'I’ll never lie to em' and this is not the look you want from your [quarterback]."

Caleb Williams was emotional after USC's loss to Washington
— (@)

Williams also commented on his emotional state after the game and said, "I want to go home and cuddle with my dog and watch some shows."

"I don’t know. Like, we lost the game. Something you work hard for throughout months, years to have big games like this, try and go win and play your best, each and every one of us," he added, according to the New York Post.

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USC school, partnered with Disney and the US State Department, now financing pro-abortion propaganda films



On August 17, the University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (AI2) announced it would fund pro-abortion propaganda films.

USC Annenberg, a school for communication and journalism, counts Disney (via ABC News, Inc.) — an organization that will pay its employees' way to exterminate their children — among its industry partners, along with the U.S. State Department, Google, and the Cartoon Network's parent company, WarnerMedia.

This Disney-linked school is behind AI2, touted as a "leading think tank in the world studying diversity and inclusion in entertainment."

In its work, AI2 has tackled pressing issues such as the absence of disabled, gay Muslims depicted in TV shows and Warner Brothers Pictures' reluctance to release "Batgirl."

Over the course of this year, AI2 has launched a number of accelerator programs that award money to film students on the basis of their sex and race. One such program, AI2's "Reproductive Rights Accelerator," will confer $25,000 stipends to film students who "have a story to tell about reproductive rights."

Stacy Smith, the founder of AI2, is concerned about the success of the pro-life movement and life-affirming laws in America. She cited them as reason "to educate and inform audiences" about the pro-abortion agenda. "Entertainment has a unique ability to reach viewers and provide that education."

Smith noted in a statement that her goal "is to illuminate how many opportunities there are to use storytelling as a tool to expand the conversation and create substantial attitude and policy change."

Monika Parekh, president of Psquared Charitable Foundation, emphasized that the purpose of these student films is to "shape the hearts and minds of their peers and broader audiences in ways that can influence culture and decision making."

Caren Spruch, a media spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, suggested that this initiative constitutes "an invaluable tool" in crystallizing public opinion and achieving the goals of the pro-abortion movement. Spruch also suggested that the "entertainment community plays a critical role in educating people about their sexual and reproductive health and rights."

The Hollywood Reporter indicated that script-readers Meryl Streep, Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria, Amy Schumer, and others have agreed to publicize the initiative.

Education Department Investigates Allegations USC Ignored Anti-Semitic Harassment

The Education Department formally launched an investigation on Tuesday into allegations the University of Southern California (USC) fomented "a hostile environment of anti-Semitism" on its campus that forced a Jewish student government official to resign from her position.

The post Education Department Investigates Allegations USC Ignored Anti-Semitic Harassment appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.