UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. See more UCLA In the News.
Internet pioneer, UCLA’s Leonard Kleinrock, reflects on 50th anniversary of the internet | KTLA-TV
“As an MIT graduate student in the early 1960s, I basically created the mathematical theory of packet switching networks, which is the underlying theory of the internet. It then basically grew into a realization which we now call the internet,” said UCLA’s Leonard Kleinrock. (Video download)
More colleges are asking scholars for diversity statements. Here’s what you need to know | Chronicle of Higher Education
Jerry Kang, vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion at UCLA, described the new policy to The Chronicle as a common-sense move. When the California system updated its personnel manual, in 2015, officials added language — approved by faculty leaders — about giving “due recognition” to diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring and promotions, he said. But there was no campuswide framework at UCLA for getting that kind of information from candidates. Some departments were asking for diversity statements, but many weren’t. “We weren’t taking it that seriously,” Kang said. Meanwhile, most of the University of California system’s institutions already required the statements in their hiring processes.
As PG&E enters bankruptcy, legal and financial professionals flock to potential fee bonanza | Wall Street Journal
“Over the past 20 years, professional fees in bankruptcy cases have risen much faster than inflation or attorneys’ fees in non-bankruptcy matters,” according to Lynn LoPucki, a professor at UCLA Law School. Heavy spending will be justified if PG&E gets the results it wants, he added.
Union official says veteran groups need to be more inclusive of women, LGBT | The Hill
An estimated one million veterans identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. An analysis by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that there are at least 134,000 transgender veterans alone. Transgender service members have openly served in the military since 2016, despite repeated efforts by President Trump to renew the ban on transgender troops.
High-speed rail helped keep housing affordable in Japan. Could it do the same for California? | Pacific Standard
That’s the question that a recent University of California–Los Angeles study explores, through the lens of Japan’s extensive high-speed rail system, the Shinkansen. The authors, led by UCLA management professor Jerry Nickelsburg, analyzed more than 50 years of prefecture-level economic and demographic data. The study follows up on a similar one from 2012, which used the Shinkansen to take a critical look at the expectation that high-speed rail would boost tax revenues in the towns and cities along the route…. “What happens is you have effectively increased the size of the city,” Nickelsburg says. “The size of the city expands, and you get urbanization moving out.” Nickelsburg developed the study with California in mind.
PG&E is a company that was just bankrupted by climate change. It won’t be the last | Washington Post Analysis
(Commentary co-written by UCLA’s Ian Gray) PG&E’s problems on capital markets suggest that investors are changing their view of the risks of global warming. If companies are exposed to unusual risks from unusual weather, reasonable investors can be expected to want to know what companies are doing about it. Perhaps this episode will reinforce calls for mandatory disclosure of physical risks from climate change, which would provide investors with more reliable and systematic information than the current piecemeal and voluntary approach to reporting.
Community schools score key victory in L.A. teachers strike | The Conversation Opinion
(Commentary written by UCLA’s Karen Hunter Quartz) As more families choose the Mann UCLA Community School, they are not just exercising the individual freedom Americans so deeply value. They are joining a community. As John Dewey put it in 1927, “Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community.”
Police unions are trying to pull the blinds on officer shootings | Los Angeles Times Opinion
(Commentary written by UCLA’s Jim Newton) Having failed to win on the merits, the unions now are trying a novel — and intellectually dishonest — end run to get back what they lost with two branches of government by trying to snooker the third. In court cases up and down California, lawyers for police unions are maintaining that the law applies only to new records created after the law took effect, not to existing ones. If they are successful, records generated by California police departments before the bill became law would not be public.
What causes wildfires? UCLA professor weighs in | Spectrum News
“If you look at beginning of the year 2000, we’ve had an acceleration of more and more big fires that have been damaging. The last decade has been really horrendous in terms of the numbers of fires. So they definitely are increasing in frequency and also in the severity,” said UCLA’s Jon Keeley.
Immigration courts face more than 80,000 canceled hearings in federal shutdown | Bloomberg Opinion
(Commentary written by UCLA’s Ashley Tabaddor) Yet most people are unaware of the primary factor underlying our current morass — that the immigration court is located within the Department of Justice, headed by the U.S. Attorney General, the nation’s chief federal prosecutor. Thus, the immigration court system fails to meet the most fundamental concept of our American judicial principles — that courts must be independent and neutral, free from interference and influence of the prosecutor or any party before it.
Who wins and who loses from PG&E’s bankruptcy | New York Times
Still, some legal experts say that processing many claims in one court can save money. “It’s going to produce some pretty big efficiencies,” said Lynn M. LoPucki, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Ancient Earth rock found on the moon | Science
Although geologists have found meteorites on Earth that came from the moon, Mars, and asteroids, “This is the first time a rock from the moon has been interpreted as a terrestrial meteorite,” says Elizabeth Bell, a geochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not part of the study…. Bell says its preservation is not so surprising because the moon lacks the weather and geologic processes that erase ancient rocks on Earth. In fact, she says, the moon might be a better place to look for ancient Earth rocks than Earth itself.
North American Cannabis Summit takes place in Los Angeles | KABC-TV
“It is important for us to think about insecticides, pesticides, metals, molds, other things we don’t want in our products and this new regulated regime will help get better quality to the consumers,” said Brad Rowe, a UCLA professor lecturing about drug and criminal justice policy.
L.A. Metro is offering car rides for the price of a bus ticket | LAist
A UCLA study conducted for the Southern California Association of Governments last year concluded that increased car ownership, particularly among low-income immigrants who have made up the core of Metro’s ridership, was the biggest single factor in the decline.
How gym junkies kick the habit and feel better than ever | New York Post
“For every one person that feels worse after exercising … 50 feel better,” says Theodore Friedman, an endocrinologist and professor at UCLA and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. “People should work out as long as they can tolerate.” Nevertheless, he believes that those suffering exhaustion and weight gain should have their hormones checked.
A ‘lack of trust’ plagued the run-up to the strike. But can LAUSD, UTLA unite going forward? | Pasadena Star News
Like Alemán, UCLA Professor John Rogers, director of the university’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, is also cautiously optimistic the district and teachers union can collaborate to improve Los Angeles schools. It won’t be easy.