UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. See more UCLA In the News.
Michelle Obama headlines college signing day event at UCLA | Associated Press
Former first lady Michelle Obama and a host of celebrities will join thousands of students to celebrate college signing day. Obama, Conan O’Brien, Kelly Rowland, Bebe Rexha, Jesse Williams, Usher, Pentatonix, La La Anthony, Don Cheadle, and other entertainers and athletes are slated to gather on the UCLA campus on May 1 to commemorate the day that high school students choose to pursue higher education. Events also are planned throughout the U.S.
L.A. students want to lower voting age in school district elections to 16 | Los Angeles Times
Many of the new voters would be from communities who are historically disenfranchised from voting, said Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA. “The younger people are, the more likely they are to be black, brown and Asian,” Diaz said…. “Today, if students are going to schools that are unsafe and under-resourced and are living lives that are shaped by the decisions of politicians that they don’t agree with,” Diaz said, “then they should very much have the opportunity for reform and redress.”
A new vapor capture system inspired by spiders | Science Times
“The growing global concern over the scarcity of fresh water has motivated the development of economically feasible ways to capture water vapor,” said Sungtaek Ju, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the principal investigator of the study. “This idea of imitating the natural rain cycle to produce clean water, called ‘the humidification-dehumidification process,’ has been around for quite some time. However, making such a system that’s inexpensive to build and operate has been a major challenge. Our system is inexpensive, lightweight and energy-efficient. These factors can potentially help overcome challenges for its adoption.”
Communities take steps to foster Latino census participation despite citizenship question | NBC News
According to a group of researchers, the addition of the citizenship question would reduce the number of Latinos counted by 6 million people (12 percent) and result in “substantial undercounts in states with large immigrant populations.” According to a survey by Matt Barreto, political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, only 35 percent of immigrants and 31 percent of Hispanics said they would trust the Trump administration to protect citizenship information.
Stakes high as Supreme Court takes on LGBTQ employment cases | NBC News
Currently 28 states have no protections for LGBTQ people in employment, housing or public accommodations, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. A brief the organization released last month found there are an estimated 8.1 million LGBTQ workers, 16 and older, living in the United States, and about half of these workers — 4.1 million — live in states without protections against LGBTQ employment discrimination.
Decade-long geology project rewrites origins of Earth’s methane | Discover
To the scientists’ surprise, the investigation revealed that microbes actually help make abiotic methane. Microorganisms deep in the Earth consume hydrogen and produce methane. “We can tell that there are instances where we thought abiotic reactions were making methane, but instead it was in part due to the activity of microbes,” [UCLA’s Edward] Young said. The discovery uncovers a chicken and egg conundrum: which came first, abiotic methane or the microbes? “We went into this project thinking we knew how abiotic methane formed,” Young said in a statement. “What we’re learning is that it is much more complicated, and the biggest key is hydrogen.”
Ukraine, where some of history’s worst attacks on Jews happened, now has a Jewish president | Los Angeles Times Opinion
(Commentary written by UCLA’s David Myers) What’s ironic about this turn of events is that, although Ukraine had one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe before World War II, there are relatively few Jews left in the country today. Over the course of its history, the country has witnessed terrifying and murderous bouts of anti-Semitism. This year, for example, is the anniversary of an ignoble moment in Ukrainian history. One hundred years ago, in the final year and then aftermath of World War I, Jews were caught in a battle between Ukrainian nationalists and Russian Bolshevik forces. Although not the primary target, they soon became the victims of barbarous violence that killed as many as 100,000 Jews.
L.A. County Sherriff Department considers banning clique tattoos among deputies | KPCC-FM
“It would be hard for the government to overcome the right to privacy just because it’s just hard to say that somehow banning the tattoos is going to do a lot to stop any misconduct,” said UCLA’s Eugene Volokh. (Also: LAist)
Metro admits to painting over historic L.A. mural | LAist
“I am very disheartened that this was destroyed during National Women’s History Month,” said UCLA’s Judy Baca. “There was a time before this, in which any woman who ran in the marathon would be tackled and stopped from running. When that mural was painted, it was the first time women could run. So that marks a significant event. It marks a significant time for women in America.” … At first Baca, who is a professor emeritus at UCLA and the founder of the Social and Public Art Resource Center, blamed Caltrans for the whitewashing, saying she was considering legal action. Caltrans insisted that they had nothing to do with it…. But on Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) took full responsibility for the repainting via a statement to LAist, admitting that one of their abatement contractors had painted over it on February 26, because of what they describe as “extensive graffiti.”
Today’s crossword too easy? Try solving down clues only | Wall Street Journal
“Sometimes the regular puzzle doesn’t provide the thrill it used to,” said Jenna LaFleur, 20, a linguistics major at University of California, Los Angeles and occasional downs-only solver.
California’s green energy policy has generated thousands of jobs | KCRW-FM
“The state has, in what I tend to call the second wave of climate policies, gone back through and integrated a social justice or environmental equity component in almost every single policy,” said UCLA’s J.R. DeShazo.
Hollywood scriptwriters prepare for ‘Wrexit’ in row over contracts | Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
“Ultimately it’s about power,” says Tom Nunan, a lecturer at UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television, and a producer of the Oscar-winning film Crash. “Agencies have been pursuing power aggressively since the Michael Ovitz era. Agents became the talent rather than behind the scenes players. They became celebrities and with power came influence.” (Subscription required)
The early signs of stroke you need to know — even if you’re young | Health
“When you’re younger and in relatively good health, you think that having a stroke is not a possibility,” says David Liebeskind, MD, director of the Neurovascular Programs at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The reality is, a stroke can strike at any age, he says.
When psychiatric medications are abruptly discontinued, withdrawal symptoms may be mistaken for relapse | Medical Xpress
Withdrawal symptoms following the practice of discontinuation, or abruptly “coming off,” of psychiatric drugs in randomized clinical trials may be mistaken for relapse and bolster the case for continued use of medication, according to two new studies by UCLA researchers published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Principal investigator David Cohen, professor of social welfare in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said that clinical trials employing a drug discontinuation procedure had not previously been studied systematically.
Stars join UCLA’s Taste for A Cure | Broadway World
Taste for a Cure unites the entertainment and epicurean communities and consistently ranks among the top ten culinary events in Southern California. This year’s theme is “A Culinary Journey through Asia,” and will feature tastings, wineries and distillers, as well as a sumptuous array of dishes from some of Los Angeles’ top Asian and Asian-influenced chefs and restaurants, all while raising valuable funds for leading-edge cancer research at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The stone faces and human problems on Easter Island | Phys.org
“When I went to Easter Island for the first time in ’81, the number of people who visited per year was about 2,500,” said [UCLA’s Jo Anne] Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project, the longest collaborative artifact inventory ever conducted on the Polynesian island that belongs to Chile. “As of last year the number of tourists who arrived was 150,000 from around the world.”
Local research links gene mutation, better cancer odds in heavy smokers | London Free Press
In a first-of-its-kind study, Lawson researchers, in collaboration with researchers at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and UCLA Cancer Center, carried out a genetic analysis of HPV-negative tumours to better determine the link between smoking and cancer recovery. Researchers found two genes more frequently mutated in heavy smokers.
