USC Media and Public Relations

Featured Stories

Los Angeles Times featured a study by Marguerite DeLiema of the USC Davis School and colleagues, finding that abuse of Spanish-speaking seniors is more common than previously thought. The study found that 40 percent of Spanish-speaking elders reported being abused or neglected in the last year; less than 2 percent reported the abuse to authorities. "This indicates that family solidarity within the Latino community does not necessarily protect older Latinos against elder abuse, as some research has suggested," DeLiema said. In the study, 10.7 percent of the seniors reported being physically abused; 9 percent reported sexual abuse; and 17 percent reported being financially exploited. The research was also featured by ABC News Fresno, Calif., affiliate KFSN-TV; and Univision Hanford, Calif., affiliate KFTV-DT.

KPCC-FM's "On Central" reported that hundreds of female veterans will arrive on the USC campus today to receive free dental screenings, education and supplies from Ostrow School of USC faculty and students. "Dental care is one of the biggest things that many of them need," said Niel Nathason of the Ostrow School, who is organizing the event. Roughly 300 to 400 women are expected to attend the event. Attendees will also be able to meet with pro bono lawyers, vision and medical care providers, and social workers. Nathason added that for more than a decade USC has operated a year-round dental clinic at the Union Rescue Mission in Skid Row.

TV 2 (Denmark) featured the USC Mobile Dental Clinic on a series on poverty in the United States. Via the clinic, Ostrow School of USC faculty and students provide free dental care to low-income children. Linda Brookman of the Ostrow School said that there are many children in the communities around USC who need dental care.

J. Weekly featured the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education's iWitness program, an online application that lets high school students and teachers search through the institute's Holocaust survivor testimonies. The story covered a student film made using testimony from iWitness, connecting a high school student with a Holocaust survivor. "If you tell students '6 million died,' it goes over their heads," said Eileen O'Kane, a high school teacher in San Francisco. "You need to make it personal in order for them to engage."

NBC News Philadelphia affiliate WCAU-TV featured Deborah Harkness of the USC Dornsife College and her new book, "Shadow of Night." The book combines historical fact with fantasy, following the story of a historian sucked into a world of magical intrigue. "I teach at the University of Southern California, and I was really thinking of my own students when I wrote the books," Harkness said. "Shadow of Night" is the second installment of a trilogy; Warner Bros. has already bought the rights to all three books. The Plain Dealer highlighted a discussion of the book to be hosted by Harkness.

NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV ran a column by Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the USC Price School about a recent article by columnist Conn Carroll that blamed California's woes on Democrats. "Both Republicans and Democrats share the responsibility — or the blame — for the muddled state of the Golden State," Jeffe wrote.

Contra Costa Times highlighted a hike led by Robert de Groot of the USC Dornsife College to teach grade school science teachers more about the San Andreas Fault. The hike was part of the STEM Service Learning Institute, a regular series of conferences for Southern Californian science teachers. When the next "Big One" strikes, de Groot said, "we'll either see the mountains go 25 feet that way, or Cal State San Bernardino go 25 feet thataway."