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Officials warned of failing water system before Palisades fire | L.A. Times

“Clearly it would have helped if many or all of these projects would have been built,” said Gregory Pierce, a professor of urban planning at UCLA who has studied L.A. County’s water systems and the impacts of water availability on wildfires. Another UCLA professor and water expert, Edith de Guzman, agreed with that assessment: “Some homes could have been saved. It is absolutely possible that it would have been able to help a little bit.”

Trump is targeting the immigrants who will be called on to rebuild L.A. | CNN

Cesar and the rest of his cleanup crew are “second responders,” said Victor Narro, the project director for the UCLA Labor Center. In the shadows, these workers have helped build America’s second-largest city and, after the destruction is cleared, they will help to restore burned homes and businesses, Narro said. “If there are deportations, who is going to do the work of this large immigrant workforce?” Narro said.

How wildfires can poison the air and water | Santa Monica Daily Press

Experts are still trying to understand the ramifications of air quality as it relates to cancer, though UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center professor Dr. Fola May, MD, said residents shouldn’t be too worried. “All that we know from air pollutants and cancer risk suggests, at this point, that it’s (from) long-term exposures,” Dr. May said. “So although this is an area that probably needs a lot more study, we don’t have any immediate concerns because this was a short event.”

Trump has axed many Biden policies, but wants to keep an AI measure | NPR

The Trump administration is expected to be more hands-off with regulation of AI, said John Villasenor of UCLA's Institute for Technology, Law and Policy – but he said it's still in its early days. Villasenor expects the Trump administration's approach on AI to differ from what he called a “fear-based” narrative from the Biden White House, which focused on the risks and preventing negative outcomes from the technology, similar to how European nations are approaching AI.

What the fires revealed about Los Angeles culture | The Atlantic

Modern Los Angeles depends on cars partly because of its sprawling geography, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, an urban planning professor and the interim dean of UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, explained to me. Yet these smog-producing cars became so central to Southern California life because of “transportation policy that has quite favored the automobile and given a tremendous amount of investment to build the freeways,” Loukaitou-Sideris said.

Will these Trump actions tackle inflation and lower prices? | Washington Post

“As soon as the tariffs hit, you’re going to start seeing price hikes on just about everything coming across the border — avocados, lumber, Canadian maple syrup,” said Kimberly Clausing, a professor at UCLA Law and former Treasury Department economist. “There is going to be a very direct hit to the consumer.”

Trump’s plans for California water policy could do harm | L.A. Times

Examining the mix of factors behind the devastating wildfires, UCLA scientists said in an analysis last week that higher temperatures linked to climate change have contributed to the extreme dryness of vegetation in Southern California, one of the ingredients that is making the fires so intense.

Is there a right way — or wrong way — to listen to an audiobook? | NPR

But can anybody really process audio at that speed? Ashley Chen, a Ph.D. student at UCLA, conducted a study on how fast you could playback audio before you have trouble absorbing it. (Chen was featured.)

Stronger stress response in monkeys helps them survive | ScienceDaily

White-faced capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica who experienced more intense physiological responses to mild droughts were more fit to survive extreme drought, researchers found in a new UCLA-led study. (UCLA’s Susan Perry was quoted.)