A Southern California News Group article highlighted new UCLA and UC Davis research findings that potentially harmful chromium-6 nanoparticles remained airborne for months after the Eaton and Palisades fires and may have traveled as far as 9 miles beyond the burn zones. UCLA’s Michael Jerrett said the particles likely exposed millions of residents to concentrations far above typical Los Angeles levels, while UCLA professor Yifang Zhu emphasized the need for continued monitoring to better understand long-term health risks and environmental recovery. (Also: City News Service, KCBS-TV, KABC-TV, KFI-AM, and KNX-AM.) Read more about UCLA in today’s Los Angeles Times, Reuters and more.  

More highlights from UCLA in the News: June 2, 2026

Should we rank the Santa Anas like hurricanes? | KCRW 89.9-FM

In January 2025, Southern California’s Santa Ana winds were so strong that hours before they exploded tiny flames in Altadena and the Palisades into catastrophes, meteorologists and scientists warned of “life-threatening” conditions. One of those prophets was climate scientist Alex Hall, who is now proposing a new system that would rank and categorize Santa Ana wind events the way we do hurricanes and tornadoes, to help Southern California better prepare for fires. (Hall was interviewed.)

Smoke engulfed their cities. Did it make their children sick? | ABC News (Australia)

Frankly, no one knew, not even local air pollution researchers who have spent years studying the health dangers of wildfire smoke in the American West. ”It was unprecedented,” said Yifang Zhu, an air pollution researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Vote count for governor, LA mayor could be painfully slow | Los Angeles Times

This year, those first results will probably skew more conservative — despite California’s strong liberal slant — because of messaging from the Democratic Party to wait to vote because of concerns about the too-wide field of governor candidates, said Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin and a former county supervisor. (Yaroslavsky was also interviewed on LAist’s “AirTalk” about political term limits.)

Democratic voters confident California election is secure | Los Angeles Times

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law, said he expected Republican confidence to be even lower given Trump’s decade of undermining trust in elections, especially in liberal, diverse states such as California. But he said neither Trump’s narrative nor public sentiment about election security — which generally shows voters are more confident “when their side wins” — reflects reality, which is that “our elections are administered well.” (Hasen was also featured by Spectrum News 1 – approx. 2:05 mark).

Why a loss for Hilton would be a win for Trump | Los Angeles Times

“Whether Hilton finishes first, second, or third, Trump will declare with zero evidence that there is voter fraud,” Matt Barreto told me. He’s a professor of political science at UCLA and a founder of its Voting Rights Project, meant to promote free and fair elections.

As Trump cheerleads for AI, some in MAGA world fret | AFP

This revolt by people in both of American’s main parties is reminiscent of people protesting against the construction of low-income housing projects in their neighborhoods, said UCLA political science professor Megan Mullin.

Pratt’s campaign reflects the anger of some Angelenos | KCRW 89.9-FM’s “Press Play”

Pratt didn’t respond to an invitation from KCRW to speak with us, so we spoke with UCLA professor and former Los Angeles Times editor Jim Newton about Pratt’s unlikely campaign and pugnacious persona. For all the incendiary rhetoric, Newton says “I would be surprised if even [Pratt] thinks he’d be a good mayor.” But Newton adds, “There are people out there who are angry enough to vote for someone who is manifestly unqualified for this office … That should tell people at City Hall that they need to respond to it in some way.”

Sticker shock meets gridlock: LA motorists keep driving at any price | Reuters

“People don’t change their behavior much,” said Brian Taylor, a research fellow at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies. If traffic sometimes seems lighter in Los Angeles, Taylor said, it is because small reductions in vehicles on the city’s near-capacity freeways create outsized changes in flow. ”A 10% drop in traffic can result in a 40% or 50% drop in delay,” Taylor said. 

UC professors ask for reinstatement of standardized testing | KCBS-TV

Hundreds of professors with the University of California system have signed a letter asking for the reinstatement of standardized testing in the admission process due to surprisingly low mathematical abilities in current college students. … “The point is, you have to place people who want to learn and can learn in the situation where I can give them what they need to learn,” said UCLA’s Oleg Gleizer. (Gleizer was interviewed.)