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The Washington Post, in an Associated Press story, covered an open-heart surgery performed by Vaughn Starnes of the Keck School of USC on a child actor who had appeared in a Darth Vader mask in a car commercial. The surgery was performed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles on seven-year-old Max Page, who was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. Michael Silka of the Keck School told NBC News' "Today" that the problem restricted blood flow in the boy's heart. "It's like trying to pump gas through a straw," Silka said. "Running and play was becoming very difficult for him, and as we know Max, he's a real competitor, so he wanted to keep up with his friends," Starnes told CBS News Los Angeles affiliate KCBS-TV. The story was also reported by Los Angeles Times, Daily Mail (U.K.), Reuters, People, City News Service, NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV, CW News Los Angeles affiliate KTLA-TV, a second KTLA story, Kentucky Post and Contra Costa Times.

KPCC-FM featured research by Yu-Han Chang and Rajiv Maheswaran of the USC Viterbi School, who gathered optical tracking data on 10 NBA teams. The teams were captured on video cameras throughout an NBA season. Chang and Maheswaran analyzed the data and discovered patterns in the way the teams play. They explained that there's a relationship between where players take a shot and the likelihood of getting the ball back if they miss. "We found out there's this interesting curve: The further away you are from the basket, you lose a 1 percent chance of getting an offensive rebound, but there's a point where it goes up again around the three-point line," Maheswaran said.

CNET featured a keynote speech that Jeffrey Cole of the USC Annenberg School gave at the Ad:tech marketing conference in Singapore, about Facebook's changing demographics. Cole said that Facebook will probably be around forever, particularly as a family networking tool, but the network will continue to shrink in developed countries as older users start joining. "The online community is like a nightclub, and when the uncool kids start showing up there — you're out of there," Cole said.

NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV ran a column by Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the USC Price School about the challenge Gov. Jerry Brown faces over his proposal to raise taxes. Jeffe wrote that passing the measure will require overcoming voter skepticism and opposition from conservative groups. "The most powerful sales tool the governor's initiative could have has to be the Governor," she added.

Truthdig ran a column by Richard Reeves of the USC Annenberg School about California's new top-two primary. Reeves noted that it's an attempt to resolve partisan gridlock in the state. He cited Dan Schnur of the USC Dornsife College about the need for the new system: "Over the years, the two major parties have retreated from the middle of the political playing field toward their respective ideological end zones." Reeves wrote, "With the new reforms, hopefully primary candidates will campaign in the middle of the political spectrum because they will want both liberal and conservative votes."