DOJ pressures California to withhold ballots from flagged voters — and more UCLA media

The Los Angeles Times reported that the Justice Department is pressing California election officials to verify the citizenship of thousands of flagged voters or set aside their ballots ahead of the November midterm elections. Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law, questioned the legality of the demand, noting that federal law restricts systematic voter purges within 90 days of an election to protect eligible voters from being mistakenly disenfranchised. Read more about UCLA in today’s New York Times, LAist and other outlets.

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More highlights from UCLA in the News: October 15, 2026

Santa Ana winds are weakening. Is it enough to stop fires?  | Los Angeles Times

Scientists have projected that by 2100, human greenhouse gas pollution will cut back the number of days these winds blow. Now, a research team led by UCLA scientists has found it’s already happening.

Pilot offers discounted electricity during the day. Will it change behavior? | LAist

California has more solar power than it can use during the day, and while the state is increasingly storing that energy in batteries, there’s a simpler strategy to help too: changing behavior. “If we can better align our consumption with the sun, we use more clean energy, we reduce pressure on the grid in the evening, and we eventually lower costs for everyone,” said Magali Delmas, a strategy professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and Institute of the Environment.

What can a biological age test actually tell you? | New York Times

Morgan Levine, who developed PhenoAge while she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed out that if you take multiple biological age tests, each one will give you a different answer. That’s in part because the tests are all measuring slightly different things. But it’s also because they were developed using different data sets to establish what the “average” for any given age looks like. (UCLA’s Steve Horvath was also cited.)