UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. See more UCLA In the News.
Experts say urban sprawl, climate change hike wildfire risk | Associated Press
The state is experiencing longer periods of warm temperatures and dry conditions that are making major fires nearly a year-round possibility, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “What we’re seeing with some of the most dangerous fires is that they’re spreading quickly, burning very hot or producing their own weather,” he said. Still, he agreed with other experts that say the destruction was also the result of more people living closer to fire-prone areas. “Over the years, we’re putting more people in harm’s way,” he said. “More people living in high fire risk areas than usual.”
Prized 157-acre Beverly Crest property aims for $1 billion | Los Angeles Times
Paul Habibi, a UCLA real estate professor, said the mammoth price tag is a reflection of the chasm of wealth inequality in the U.S. “We gawk at those prices, but the absolute inventory is so finite that they can find buyers for homes in the $100-million range,” Habibi said. “At $1 billion, you can count on one hand who could afford that.”
Disney picks up live-action fairytale about young African princess | NBC News
“Disney as a corporate entity has been at the forefront in recent years of the effort to center diversity and inclusion in their business operations,” said Darnell Hunt, Director of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. “They understand where the market is and where the market is going, and they’re trying to produce original programming that reflect those values.”
‘Mercury in retrograde’: Should we expect 3 weeks of bad luck? | Fox News
“The idea that the gravity from these very distant bodies affects our lives in some way just doesn’t work in the framework of physics,” Jean-Luc Margot, a planetary astronomer and professor at UCLA, told LiveScience back in 2016.
Health outcomes dependent upon race | NPR
“We see the direct health effects and indirect health effects of these influences of class, place and race every day in terms of the health consequences for the children we serve,” says UCLA’s Adam Schickedanz. “From poverty, poverty-related social needs such as risk of homelessness, food insecurity, housing insecurity, payment problems and other difficulties making ends meet that add up to day-to-day stresses that can actually take a large toll on the health of their children.” (Approx. 0:37 mark)
Sober living: Lawmakers must force industry to shape up | Southern California News Group
Larissa Mooney is a board-certified psychiatrist and director of the UCLA Addiction Medicine Clinic. She is deeply skeptical of any effort to allow cities to categorically ban sober living homes, as Rohrabacher’s bill would. “If it feels like a frat party in your neighbor’s yard, that is a problem,” Mooney said. “It shouldn’t be a free-for-all. But I know a lot of people who have been very much helped by having a few months in sober living to facilitate their recovery, in an environment with people who are trying to reach the same goal. (UCLA’s Walter Ling also quoted)
Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh’s gun views are clear | Associated Press
UCLA law school professor Adam Winkler, author of “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” said Kavanaugh could become that crucial fourth vote because three justices — Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. — all have voiced support for the court to take on Second Amendment cases.
Multiple fires across California stretch resources thin | Los Angeles Times
And that heat creates a dangerous situation, said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. Vegetation across much of the Golden State has already dehydrated to “explosively dry” levels not typically reached until September, he said. “It’s a lot easier to get bad fires under these conditions,” he said, “because you don’t need as much of a push from the winds.”
In wake of Charlottesville, new scrutiny for Native American statues | HuffPost
Mishuana Goeman, chairwoman of the American Indian Studies department at UCLA and a member of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca, said statues like San Francisco’s Pioneer Monument began cropping up in California after it became a state in 1850. Pioneer memorials were “a way to Americanize the landscape,” Goeman said. “To affirm American dominance over the landscape, and to affirm a certain historical past that wasn’t quite in the past yet.”
Democratic candidates embrace gun control despite political risks | Reuters
“It’s been a big concern for Democratic candidates that a lot of people will support gun control, but won’t make it an issue on which they’ll base their vote,” said University of California-Los Angeles professor Adam Winkler, the author of “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.”
Family separations continue to haunt White House | USA Today
Matt Barreto, a UCLA professor who co-founded the polling firm Latino Decisions, said his research in battleground congressional districts found that likely voters, including conservatives, of every race were found to be angry over the family separations. “If voters connect that to their decision to who to vote for in the midterms, then that’s really bad news for Republicans,” Barreto said.
Fathers, your time off is past its due date | Bloomberg Opinion
The real question is what the cost would be of replacing that employee, says Professor Jody Heymann of UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and WORLD Policy Analysis Center. For the average company, the reality is that paid leave would be cheaper.
Uber packs a $3.2 billion economic punch in California | East Bay Times
Working for Uber has typically been promoted as an easy and flexible way to earn extra cash. But a recent study from UCLA revealed many drivers are working extra hours for longer durations while struggling to stay afloat. “Over a third of drivers buy or lease their car so they can drive for one of these companies, and this locks them into a variety of costs,” said Janna Shadduck-Hernandez, project director for the report and a faculty member at UCLA. “Many of these drivers initially see this as a novelty and an easy way to make some added income. But with all of the expenses they end up paying, some drivers find they are not even making minimum wage.”
Opioid addiction in older patients | KABC-TV
“I think older patients are more prone to side effects because they metabolize medications much more slowly,” says UCLA’s Irene Wu. “For older patients I think that we should introduce them to what we call multimodal pain management, meaning the use of muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatories, which all have much less side effects than the typical opioid may have.”
How pregnancy and childbirth may protect some women from developing dementia | Los Angeles Times
In other research presented Monday, a pilot study that captured the pregnancy histories of 133 British women offered evidence that a female’s likelihood of developing dementia declined as the number of months she had spent pregnant rose. In many ways, those findings are consistent with the study suggesting a hormonal influence on dementia risk in women. But the author of the pilot study, UCLA anthropologist Molly Fox, said her findings suggest another influence on a woman’s dementia risk — the profound changes in the immune system wrought by pregnancy.
People have started donating vacation days to coworkers for maternity leave | Simplemost
According to the [UCLA] World Policy Analysis Center, countries with paid parental leave have lower infant mortality rates. The organization also found that women who took less than 12 weeks of maternity leave had higher short-term and long-term rates of depression.
Can intermittent fasting help with MS symptoms? | Healthline
“This is another small but intriguing study which adds to the growing literature investigating the connections between the immune system, the gut, and the nervous system,” said Dr. Barbara Giesser, professor of clinical neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and clinical director of the UCLA MS program.
Will saliva translate to a real diagnostic tool? | Medical Xpress
“There are a variety of scenarios with which saliva can be used,” said [UCLA’s David] Wong. “One of the most exciting emerging frontiers of saliva is liquid biopsy, which is a non-invasive means to assess the presence and characteristics of cancer in a patient with an indeterminate pulmonary nodule detected by low-dose computerized tomography.”