NEW YORK — 

Police were investigating Sunday whether a gambling dispute, robbery or something else led to the shooting deaths of four people at an illegal gambling club in Brooklyn that was just blocks from a police precinct.

The New York Police Department identified the dead as Terence Bishop, 36; Dominick Wimbush, 47; Chester Goode, 37; and John Thomas, 32 — all of Brooklyn. Three other people were wounded but expected to survive.

Police said just over a dozen people had been gambling with dice and cards at the small club when the violence erupted just before 7 a.m. Saturday.

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The unlicensed club had a sign identifying it as the “Triple A Aces Private & Social Event Space.” It was on the first floor of an older wood-frame townhouse on a block with some empty storefronts and boarded-up buildings.

Multiple shots were fired, and police recovered two handguns, but investigators were still working Sunday to determine what happened. There was no immediate sign that the shootings had any connection to gangs, which have been a problem in that part of Brooklyn.

The local police precinct headquarters is two blocks away, and authorities said officers had not previously received any complaints about the location.

But area residents told the New York Times that complaints had been made to the police. Jose Torres, who lives nearby, said officers had responded to a fight outside the club just a few weeks ago.

Isaac Mickens, a community organizer, described it to the Times as a “hole-in-the-wall gambling den” that was “real tight, real small, casual, low-key.” Samuel Revells told the Times that he was the building owner and had leased the event space out but didn’t say to whom.

Eddie Baldwin, who told CBS New York he was Bishop’s brother, was mourning the man he said he had recently gotten back in touch with.

“We need to put the guns down, that’s the main thing,” he said. “What was the reason? The man is innocent.”

TOKYO — 

Rescue crews in Japan dug through mudslides and searched near swollen rivers Monday as they looked for those missing from a typhoon that left as many as 36 dead and caused serious damage in central and northern Japan.

Typhoon Hagibis unleashed torrents of rain and strong winds Saturday that left thousands of homes on Japan’s main island flooded, damaged or without power.

Authorities warned more mudslides were possible with rain forecast for the affected area during the day Monday.

Kyodo News service, assembling information from a wide network, counted 36 deaths caused by the typhoon with 16 people missing. The official count from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency was 19 dead and 13 missing.

Hagibis dropped record amounts of rain for a period in some spots, according to meteorological officials, causing more than 20 rivers to overflow. In Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, 39 inches of rainfall was recorded over the last 48 hours.

Some of the muddy waters in streets, fields and residential areas have subsided. But many places remained flooded, with homes and surrounding roads covered in mud and littered with broken wooden pieces and debris. Some places normally dry still looked like giant rivers.

Some who lined up for morning soup at evacuation shelters, which are housing 30,000 people, expressed concern about the homes they had left behind. Survivors and rescuers will also face colder weather with northern Japan turning chilly this week.

Rescue efforts were in full force with soldiers and firefighters from throughout Japan deployed. Helicopters could be seen plucking some of the stranded from higher floors and rooftops of submerged homes.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will set up a special disaster team, including officials from various ministries, to deal with the fallout from the typhoon, including helping those in evacuation centers and boosting efforts to restore water and electricity to homes.

“Our response must be rapid and appropriate,” Abe said, stressing that many people remained missing and damage was extensive.

Damage was serious in Nagano prefecture, where an embankment of the Chikuma River broke. Areas in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures in northern Japan were also badly flooded.

In such areas, rescue crew paddled in boats to each half-submerged home, calling out to anyone left stranded.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said 56,800 homes were still without electricity Monday in Tokyo and nearby prefectures that the utility serves. Tohoku Electric Power Co. said 5,600 homes were without power in Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima and Niigata.

East Japan Railway Co. said Hokuriku bullet trains were running Monday but reduced in frequency and limited to the Nagano city and Tokyo route.

An image of the aerodynamically curved bullet trains sitting in water, was seen by many as a sad but iconic symbol of the typhoon’s devastation.

Mimori Domoto, who works at Nagano craft beer-maker Yoho Brewing Co., said all 40 employees at her company had been confirmed safe. But deliveries had temporarily halted, and an event to promote the beer in Tokyo over the weekend was canceled for safety concerns.

“My heart aches when I think of the damage that happened in Nagano. Who would have thought it would get this bad?” she said.

Tama River in Tokyo also overflowed, but damage was not as great as other areas. Areas surrounding Tokyo, such as Tochigi, also suffered damage.

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Much of life in Tokyo returned to normal. People were out and about in the city, trains were running, and store shelves left bare when people were stockpiling were replenished.

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14th Oct 2019

It’s no secret Qantas has some of the best in-flight food out there. Thanks to a long running partnership with Neil Perry and his Rockpool team, the Australian national carrier has gained a reputation as one of the tastiest airlines to fly with — no matter your class of travel. 

Now, the Qantas spring menu for 2019 has arrived, and with it some seriously impressive ingredients. Taking inspiration from some of Australia’s greatest native ingredients, Rockpool chefs drew on the country’s own produce to inspire some of the newer dishes. 

Among them, a tasty cheese board for first class passengers, complete with Woodside goat’s cheese dressed with native green ants. Adding a punch of citrus (for the unacquainted, green ants taste sort of like limes, but with legs), the crushed ants are sprinkled over a roll of local chèvre and served with a tomato chutney, house-pickled vegetables and prosciutto. Flavours of the earth, eaten in the sky. 

For passengers in economy, spring means a fresh new salad. Available now, a new black bean, smoked salmon and edamame salad will be an option for economy customers, complete with zucchini noodles and dressed with a zesty, light sauce. Seriously tasty without compromising on health, the salad is all part of the airline’s commitment to serving fresh, non-processed foods on board long-haul flights in order to help with jet lag. 

For economy and premium economy customers, the new spring menu also includes a carrot crudite and beetroot hummus duo, complete with fresh carrot sticks and a tasty beetroot dip. 

The updated menu will be available all throughout spring on Qantas’s international flights.

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Unlike many dog walkers, Emily Ratajkowski does wear Crocs, sweatpants and large sunglasses while taking her pooch out for exercise. Instead, the 28-year-old model, actress and entrepreneur elevates her New York City outings with her pup, Colombo, to the status of dog-walking style icon — the likes of which haven’t been seen since Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s Manhattan strolls with Friday, her Canaan dog, during the 1990s.

Over the summer, Ratajkowski’s moodboard-worthy sightings have ranged from a cinching, ocre mini-dress paired with Nike sneakers, to cargo-pants-plus-plunging-vest, and a silken pencil skirt. For autumn, the duo have returned with the street-style set’s most-wanted autumn look: the beige blazer.

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Gone are the sportswear-heavy outfit combinations — the 1990s wardrobe hero, which Bessette-Kennedy herself endorsed, is currently championing a return to understated polish during daylight hours.

At Milan Fashion Week, we spotted cappuccino-hued jackets teamed with delicate, white knee-length skirts (a combination also favoured by fashion editors at NYFW), while in Paris and London the thigh-skimming blazer was accessorised with bare legs and almond-toe ankle boots. The final upscale detail? A go-anywhere mini bag in supple butterscotch leather.

Ratajkowski herself hit one of autumn’s other key trends: dressing-up her denim with a neat, white polo neck, chunky-gold hoop earrings and buffed-tan boots in a nod to the bourgeois mood that commanded the autumn/winter ’19/’20 catwalks at Celine, Burberry and Chloé. The verdict: Exemplary grooming, no?

At Moët & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes Day at Royal Randwick Racecourse, which occured on Saturday October 12, pastel hues were aplenty, each and every shade of pink was worn loud and proud, and florals upped the ante on fun and flirty ensembles. Putting their best foot forward, racegoers attended the day in absolute style. 

The annual event—which also serves as the welcome of return of spring racing season—welcomed seasoned sports presenter and Australian journalist Abbey Gelmi (above) trackside as an ambassador, and invited the fashion set to take to the field in their most race-worthy styles. Because, as Gelmi puts it, Stakes Day is the “fashion day of the spring racing carnival”.

“With spring, it’s about floral, lace, silk, and straw hats with millinery,” the presenter explained to Vogue, confessing she prefers to opt for practical looks that are glamorous yet comfortable. On the day, Gelmi stepped out wearing a voluminous ivory belted Aje dress, which she accessorised with pink Billini heels and an oversized blush bow by Ann Shoebridge.

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Taking heed of Gelmi’s advise, many racegoers descended upon Royal Randwick Racecourse wearing ensembles that were simple, yet stylish. Stiletto heels were traded in for block heels and shorter kitten heels, fascinators were swapped for hats and headbands or hair clips, and over-the-top outfits were substituted for a series of chic, minimalistic styles. 

Frills were worn by countless attendees in the form of shoulder detailing, skirting layers and sleeve styles, while power suits reigned supreme for those that wanted to deliver maximum effect with minimal effort. For more, scroll on to take a look at best street style from Moët & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes Day.

Watch Maddison Brown channel old Hollywood glamour in this light-hearted video for Vogue and Piaget166891

Covered head to toe in sparkling jewels by Piaget, Australian actor Maddison Brown explores what life would be like as an old Hollywood star in this humorous video.

• 04 Oct 2019

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10th Oct 2019

“Thanks for coming, by the way, to my humble abode,” says Australian actor Maddison Brown as she greets the camera in-character as an old Hollywood starlet. “I love coming home and spending time in Australia, I love spending time in my garden, it really is my sanctuary,” she shares as she trims the hedges in the grounds of her Sydney mansion, while dripping in Piaget jewellery

While it’s easy to imagine the model-turned-Dynasty star in this setting, enjoying an off-duty moment in diamond earrings, in fact, Brown is playing a part. With more than 442,000 followers on Instagram and a season of a cult TV show up her sleeve, Brown is surprisingly down to earth, and yet, that’s what makes this video all the more fun. Having settled into her role as Kirby Anders on Dynasty, Brown has proved no role is too difficult for her to immerse herself in and so we invited her to take this to the next level, exaggerating her own story of success in Hollywood in this daring video.

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“Fans of mine include the likes of Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson,” she rattles off. “People often do tell me that I’m talented and my response is always I would never say that I’m talented, I would say that I’m very talented,” Brown adds, demonstrating one of her many talents as she plays a grand piano with her Piaget timepiece on show.

As Brown knows, Piaget is a classic brand born out of the late 1800s and has been at home in the wardrobe of glamorous Hollywood stars for centuries. The Swiss luxury watchmaker and jeweller, founded in 1874 in La Côte-aux-Fées, has just released its new timepiece collection, Limelight Gala, inspired by one of its historic watches from the golden age of Hollywood — the 1960s — and reimagined for the modern woman. Brown perfectly encapsulates this iconic style, accessorising her timepiece — and her many outfits — in this video with Piaget’s Possession and Sunlight collections. These pieces speak to a sense of timelessness, something Brown channels with her natural beauty and her radiance both on and off screen. In particular, Brown favours the hoop earrings from the Sunlight collection, which are set with 90 diamonds that are designed to shimmer to emulate the look of the sun reflected on water.

Brown’s own rise to fame has been swift and so it’s easy to imagine her encapsulating this glamour and the essence of celebrity — but this video proves there might just be more to her than meets the eye.

“You’re still here? Let’s wrap it up,” Brown says in scene-stealing fashion. Watch the light-hearted video above and prepare to channel your own inner starlet in picture-perfect Piaget pieces. 

Los Angeles City Council members are pushing for emergency provisions against evictions and large rent increases amid concerns landlords are aiming to remove their tenants before a new state law takes effect in January.

Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who represents neighborhoods from Echo Park to Atwater Village, said the city must act to prevent a spate of evictions that could force out tenants prior to a statewide cap on annual rent increases going into effect.

“We just want to make sure that there’s not price gouging by predatory landlords,” O’Farrell said. “We know that that could very well happen.”

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On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1482, which limits annual rent increases across the state to 5% plus inflation for the next decade. The legislation also prevents tenants from being evicted without documented lease violations once they’ve lived in an apartment for a year. The law exempts apartments built within the last 15 years and single-family home rentals unless they’re owned by corporate investors.

The law, however, doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1. In the meantime, landlords can still remove tenants without cause as long as the notice to vacate expires before that time.

Earlier this month, prominent attorney Dennis Block spoke at a trade group of Los Angeles-area landlords, advising them to evict tenants paying below-market rents prior to the law taking effect.

Rene Christian Moya, director of the Housing Is A Human Right advocacy group, said his organization has heard from tenants who have received eviction notices in nearly 200 apartments in half a dozen complexes across the city. Some of the notices, Moya said, explicitly mention the new state law as the reason for the eviction.

“We think this is very, very urgent to prevent thousands of people literally becoming homeless in the next couple months,” Moya told the Los Angeles City Council on Friday.

Council members introduced multiple emergency measures on Friday. Under one, authored by O’Farrell and Councilman Curren Price, landlords would not be allowed to issue no-fault evictions on the properties covered by the new state law. A second by Councilwoman Nury Martinez would limit rent increases to what is allowable when the cap takes effect in January.

The council must vote on the measures twice, and O’Farrell is hoping to receive final approval for his emergency proposal no later than the end of next week. O’Farrell, said he is aiming to make the eviction moratorium retroactive to when the governor signed the bill.

At an event earlier this week in Los Angeles, the rent cap’s author, Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), said he was concerned about evictions occurring prior to the law taking effect, but couldn’t figure out how to make the anti-eviction provisions in the law apply before 2020.

“If you want to be greedy, you can continue to do what unfortunately some landlords have been doing, which is in part why we’re in the situation we’re in right now,” Chiu said.

Once the law takes effect in January, landlords will be required to roll back any rent hike to what tenants paid in March 2019 plus the allowable increase of 5% plus inflation — 8.3% in Los Angeles this year — under the cap.

But until January, landlords remain able to increase rents in excess of the cap. Tenant activists are worrying that such large rent increases continue to provide a backdoor means of evicting renters even if the city’s emergency anti-eviction ordinance passes.

Diana Castellanos, who lives in South Los Angeles, told the City Council on Friday that her landlord increased the rent on her two-bedroom apartment in April from $800 to $1,500 and now is planning to raise it to $2,400 next month.

“We’re asking for help because there’s no way that we can pay these prices,” Castellanos said.

Martinez’s proposal aims to address that concern.

“Our goal is to protect renters from rent gouging and getting thrown out into the streets and we need to look for any and all options on how to do that now and in the future,” Martinez said in a statement.

There are some questions about how far City Council members might be allowed to go in addressing rent hikes. Though Martinez’s effort aims to halt large rent increases, O’Farrell said his proposal would not because doing so would violate state law. The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prevents cities and counties from limiting rent hikes on buildings constructed after a certain date, which is October 1978 in Los Angeles.

“We need to exert more local control on the universe of predatory landlords,” O’Farrell said.

SEATTLE — 

President Trump’s man in Brussels found events spinning out of control when he arrived in Washington, D.C., expecting to testify before House committees this week.

Gordon Sondland, appointed U.S. ambassador to the European Union after contributing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, was to be deposed in the impeachment inquiry for his apparent role in pushing Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. But the White House blocked Sondland from testifying at the last minute Tuesday, prompting the committees to subpoena him.

Democrats expressed anger as the Trump administration has shut down cooperation with the impeachment inquiry. On Wednesday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) called for a boycott of the Portland-based hotel chain that Sondland founded.

“The public is outraged that he’s not following through on his responsibility as an American citizen to testify,” and to provide documents to the House, Blumenauer said, even as Sondland’s lawyer described him as “profoundly disappointed” about not being allowed to do so.

“No one who cares about America should do any business or stay at any of Gordon Sondland’s hotels until he fulfills his duty as a citizen to testify & turn over all relevant documents to the House. Here’s a list of his hotels,” Blumenauer tweeted. “Share if you agree!”

On Friday, attorney Robert Luskin said Sondland would testify before three committees, defying instructions from the State Department, which won’t let him provide documents.

House committee members want to ask Sondland on Thursday about the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden as the White House held up military aid authorized by Congress. He’s bound to be asked about texts he wrote to other diplomats, including one that read like a White House talking point after a call he made to Trump, saying that “the President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind.”

The political cauldron of impeachment is an unlikely landing point for a wealthy hotelier little known until recently outside the Northwest. But Sondland courted influence for years on a smaller stage in Oregon. He used contributions and connections to cozy up to politicians and jump lines of authority as he appears to have done for Trump in Ukraine, which is not a member of the 28-nation EU and therefore is outside his territory.

Sondland, 62, grew up in Seattle, the son of Jewish parents who married in Germany when his mother was 15 and fled the Holocaust. The family ran a dry-cleaning business, living in an upscale neighborhood where Sondland lacked the means of many of his schoolmates.

He studied at the University of Washington and later worked as a real estate broker. In 1985, he assembled an investment group that bought an old hotel.

Now the Hotel Theodore, the chic hotel is one of 14 properties owned by Provenance Hotels, which Sondland and his wife, Katherine Durant, built into a boutique chain that continues expanding. The couple have a family philanthropic foundation that’s given millions of dollars to organizations for the arts, homeless people and other causes.

In 2008, the foundation gave $1 million for a fund that continues to provide free admission to the Portland Art Museum for children 17 and younger.

Sondland has donated heavily to Republican political candidates, but he has also crossed party lines, serving in 2002 on the transition team for Oregon Democratic Gov.-elect Ted Kulongoski.

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Once in office, Kulongoski appointed him to head the Oregon Film board, where he served for 13 years, cultivating Hollywood connections to attract film and television productions to the state.

Sondland stood out at Portland receptions, hobnobbing in the orbit of elected officials and maneuvering to appear in photographs with them. He boasted of working behind the scenes to foster ties between Kulongoski and then-President George W. Bush, saying that he helped the governor get federal money for projects.

In a 2016 interview, he portrayed himself as a master of the quid pro quo, the practice he would later deny in his text concerning the Ukraine matter. “We would make these requests and they were done quietly,” he told the Portland Business Journal.

“They were done with rifle precision and there was always a quid pro quo,” Sondland said in the interview. “The governor would help the president with something, and the president would help the governor with something. And it was very transactional.”

Sondland spoke with nostalgia, saying bipartisan transactions had dwindled, but Anna Richter Taylor, who was Kulongoski’s spokeswoman at the time, disputes his account.

“If the governor needed to speak with the president or someone in the White House, he didn’t need an outside party to facilitate it,” she said.

Sondland did not return a call for comment this week, and his Portland attorney, Jim McDermott, said he would not grant an interview.

Provenance spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael said Friday that Sondland was no longer affiliated with the company, where Durant is chairwoman.

On Saturday, Carmichael released a letter that Provenance President Bashar Wali sent Friday to the company’s 1,100 employees mentioning that Sondland remained an investor in the company, a role that Wali cited as the basis of a congressional ethics complaint. The complaint he filed Friday said that by seeking to harm Sondland financially by a boycott, Blumenauer broke rules prohibiting members of Congress from threatening government officials with reprisal.

Sondland raised big donations for now-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns, said David Nierenberg, a Portland-area investment advisor who coordinated regional fundraising. Nierenberg said Sondland confided a personal goal during a conversation toward the end of Romney’s 2012 campaign.

“He shared with me his ambition to become an ambassador, ideally to a German-speaking nation,” Nierenberg said. “That would square the circle” of being the son of Holocaust survivors, he said.

But political appointments to ambassadorships are plum positions, typically reserved for a president’s biggest supporters.

In 2016, Sondland picked his favorite in the presidential race, becoming Trump’s Oregon campaign finance chairman. His name appeared as an organizer of a big-ticket fundraiser that August in Seattle.

But Sondland and Wali pulled out of the event and renounced their support after Trump publicly feuded with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a slain Muslim American soldier.

“In light of Mr. Trump’s treatment of the Khan family and the fact his constantly evolving positions diverge from their personal beliefs and values on so many levels,” Provenance spokeswoman Kate Buska said in a statement at the time, “neither Mr. Sondland or Mr. Wali can support his candidacy.”

But after Trump was elected, Sondland quietly resumed his support, donating $1 million for the inauguration, not in his own name but through four limited liability companies. The president selected him in March 2018 for the ambassadorship. He was confirmed by the Senate that June.

In Portland, Sondland’s intention to testify Thursday has not mollified his critics. Demonstrators planned to march through downtown Portland on Sunday to protest in front of the Heathman Hotel, a Provenance property.

“Sondland’s text messages show that he is a complicit Trump crony and is implicated in Trump’s crimes,” said Kate Sharaf, a member of Stand on Every Corner PDX, the organization coordinating the protest.

Managers of Salt & Straw, a Portland artisanal ice cream company, said Thursday they were pulling their products from Provenance Hotels.

A Provenance spokeswoman said that boycotting the hotels, in response to Blumenauer’s call, would hurt its employees.

But customers such as Katie Reichard, a Seattle woman who had recommended one of the hotels for guests invited to her Portland wedding in April, have already made other plans, citing Sondland’s role in the Ukraine affair.

“If he chose to acknowledge corruption in the administration and really explain what happened, we’d definitely consider changing our minds,” she said.

BATON ROUGE, La. — 

Joe Burrow passed for 293 yards and three touchdowns, and fifth-ranked LSU scored three straight touchdowns after falling behind early in the second half to emerge with a 42-28 victory over No. 7 Florida on Saturday night.

Facing a Florida defense that came in leading the nation in interceptions and leading the Southeastern Conference in sacks, the Tigers (6-0, 2-0 SEC) totaled 511 yards without giving up a sack or committing a turnover.

Ja’Marr Chase had 127 yards receiving and the last of his two touchdowns was a 54-yarder to give LSU a two-score lead with 5:43 left. Justin Jefferson caught 10 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown.

Burrow, meanwhile, went 21 of 24, meaning he had the same number of touchdown tosses and incomplete passes. Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for 134 yards and two scores on 13 carries.

The Tigers still have yet to score fewer than 42 points in a game this season.

Kyle Trask was 23-of-39 passing for 310 yards and three touchdowns for Florida (6-1, 3-1), but was done in by freshman Derek Stingley Jr.’s interception in the LSU end zone in the fourth quarter, when the Gators were trying to tie the game. Soon after, Burrow spotted Chase running free down the right sideline, and a Tiger Stadium crowd more than 100,000 strong was in virtual delirium.

Florida led 28-21 after opening the second half with an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive that ended with Van Jefferson’s second touchdown catch of the game.

But LSU tied it less than four minutes later on Edwards-Helaire’s 5-yard run. Tryron Davis-Price put the Tigers back in front with a 33-yard run on LSU’s next possession.

The first half was played to a 21-all tie with Florida using methodical drives to answer each of the first three touchdowns scored by LSU’s high-octane attack.

LSU’s first touchdown, a 9-yard pass to Chase, took two plays and 32 seconds, starting with Edwards-Helaire’s 57-yard run. The Gators responded with a 12-play drive that took more than six minutes, capped by Trask’s 5-yard pass to Trevon Grimes.

After Justin Jefferson’s 7-yard TD catch capped a five-play drive that covered 82 yards in just 2:09, Florida answered with a 13-play drive that consumed nearly seven minutes, ending with Emory Jones’ fourth-and-goal pass under pressure to Lamical Perine, who deftly corralled the ball after it was tipped by linebacker Patrick Queen.

LSU took the lead just 1:29 later when Edwards-Helaire scored on a 39-yard run, and Florida tied it again with an 11-play drive that finished with Van Jefferson’s first touchdown on a 6-yard pass from Trask.

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — 

For weeks, his carry count remained confusingly stagnant.

And so, as an even backfield split continued, the questions kept coming, as well: Why wasn’t Markese Stepp, USC’s redshirt freshman running back, carrying a larger load?

On Saturday night, those questions were never louder, as Stepp averaged more than eight yards per carry, scored a touchdown, andat one point, literally carried a pile of Notre Dame defenders latched onto his back.

In his homecoming to the state of Indiana, against the school to which he was once committed, Stepp ran as strong as he has all season, leading the team with 82 yards rushing in a 30-27 loss to the Fighting Irish.

Still, as Stepp strapped the Trojans’ rushing attack on his shoulders, USC’s coaches again approached his carry count with an odd amount of caution. When asked why Stepp didn’t get more carries, just as he seemed to find his stride, USC coach Clay Helton was defiant in suggesting that he had.

“He had a bigger role tonight,” Helton said. “He did a wonderful job with 82 yards on the night. His role got bigger.”

Stepp still rotated with USC’s two other backs, Stephen Carr and Vavae Malepeai, who combined for 90 yards rushing and each averaged about five yards per carry.

But the redshirt freshman was undoubtedly more effective in a game he played in front of a host of family and friends. Whether that progress will lead to something more, though, remains to be seen.

Questioning the call

On a third down in the third quarter, as linebacker Palaie Gaoteote collided with Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book, a key personal-foul flag was thrown, extending a scoring drive that otherwise would’ve stalled.

Helton did his best not to question the call after the game, but his tone was clear. He did not agree.

“Referees have very hard jobs. And at full speed some calls are hard,” Helton said. “I see it one way, another man may see it and you have to live with those calls as coaches…. But that crew out there is a pro crew. They do a great job out there and some calls go your way, some calls don’t. That call didn’t go our way.”

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Another call, or lack thereof, raised questions. As USC attempted an onside kick at the end of the game, one of Notre Dame’s coaches was on the field, Helton said. It was Brian Kelly. Helton asked whether the call could be reviewed, but was denied.

“Should have been a flag,” Helton said.

Hufanga returns

After a week in concussion protocol, and another week spent in a no-contact jersey, recovering from a shoulder injury, Talanoa Hufanga returned to the field on Saturday.

But the standout sophomore safety wasn’t quite himself in his first game back.

Two missed tackles from the Trojans’ best tackler led to big plays in the second quarter.
Hufanga’s miss on an option pitch allowed running back Tony Jones to scamper for 43 yards.

Four plays later, Book hit tight end Cole Kmet near the goal line, and Hufanga again missed a tackle.

Defensive injuries

As USC mounted a comeback in the second half, it lost a number of key players on defense to injury, a few of whom managed to fight through their ailment.

Cornerbacks Greg Johnson and Isaac Taylor-Stuart both left hobbled in the second half. Gaoteote also left the game briefly, after spending several minutes on the ground with an injury.