Nearly 15 years ago, USC stood alone atop college football. It won 34 consecutive games, churned out first-round picks on an assembly line and won or shared seven consecutive Pac-10 titles. With Pete Carroll jackrabbiting around the sideline and stars like Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush dueling each other for the Heisman, USC unquestionably led college football in both talent and cachet.

These days, USC leads college athletics in federal investigations, leadership questions and potential buyout payments. The most intriguing part of USC in 2019 has little to do with what will unfold on the field, as USC’s national relevancy is tied to the tenuous futures of embattled athletic director Lynn Swann and sputtering football coach Clay Helton.

The school that not long ago led the sport in buzz, nowImmigrants turn Orange County blue in 4 decades

In just 40 years, an immigration explosion has turned California’s Orange County – formerly a predominantly red Los Angeles urban sprawl area – into a new blue stronghold for Democratic candidates.

“The Democratic capture of four Republican-held congressional seats in Orange County in November – more than half the seven congressional seats Democrats won from Republicans in California – toppled what had long been a fortress of conservative Republicanism,” The New York Times reported in an article titled, “In Orange County, a Republican Fortress Turns Democratic.” “The sweep stunned party leaders – among them Paul D. Ryan, the outgoing House speaker. Even Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor-elect of California, won the county where Richard M. Nixon was born.”

Foreign makeover

The longtime conservative suburban