UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.
UCLA faculty lead initiative to help Afghan scholars | KCRW-FM
A group of UCLA faculty are hoping to send a lifeline to colleagues in Afghanistan. They’ve launched an initiative to bring some of them to the U.S. … “They are facing tremendous repression and, possibly, expulsion from universities. I think that scholarship and scientific inquiry are by definition secular practices. Science doesn’t care what you believe, but what can be proved through rigorous research,” said UCLA’s Ali Behdad (approx. 0:30 mark).
Are stimulus checks helping Newsom’s recall fight? | SFGate
[UCLA’s Jim] Newton agreed that he intuitively doesn’t think the stimulus payments will have a major impact on the election. “It just feels more remote,” he said. “It’s not like Gavin Newsom shows up to your door and hands you a check.” Rather, he thinks the tipping point will come down to Newsom versus Larry Elder, the conservative personality currently leading the pack of Newsom’s competitors.
14 hacks to safely hike in the L.A. heat | Los Angeles Times
I acclimate when I hike to high elevations, but high temperatures and humidity also require getting used to. “Heat acclimation occurs over the course of four to five days,” said Dr. Daniel V. Vigil, who specializes in sports medicine at UCLA and oversees the university’s athletic teams.
Recall vote could weaken California’s climate policies | New York Times
“We don’t have many years left between now and 2030,” said Cara Horowitz, co-director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at U.C.L.A. Law School. “If we waste a year or more because the Air Resources Board has been told not to prioritize cutting emissions, it’s a lot harder to see how we get there.”
State’s special COVID sick-leave policy set to expire | San Francisco Chronicle
A recent UCLA study found the U.S. to be lagging behind “almost every other country” in offering sick pay to its workers, a scenario that deepens social inequalities. “The disparities in sick leave access are worsened by eligibility rules,” Dr. Jody Heymann, professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health and lead author of the study, told The Chronicle. “People of color have faced higher risks of financial ruin due to job losses, and higher risks of danger to their health because of working conditions exposing them to COVID-19.”
A new era of Black TV | Essence
UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report 2020: A Tale of Two Hollywoods found that Black actors have reached proportional representation among lead actors in cable-scripted shows and, based on the fact that Blacks make up 13 percent of the total U.S. population, they are overrepresented in cast diversity for broadcast and cable series.
The latest on COVID booster shots | CNN
“I think that there is a lot of confusion because there’s so much data that is emerging right now, and the messaging is a little bit confusing. So, what we know is that we’re seeing from several studies — and in particular, studies from Israel — is antibodies decrease over time, and infections becoming more common, in particular in older individuals who are having more severe disease. And that is a real indication of having waning immunity,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin. (UCLA’s Dr. Otto Yang is also interviewed by KABC-TV.)
LAUSD’s mandatory COVID testing program | Washington Post
“The efforts we can take and the money we’re spending are well worth it if we can keep our students in school in a safe environment,” said Robert J. Kim-Farley, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Kim-Farley and others cautioned that no matter what, there are almost certain to be multiple outbreaks in L.A. Unified, given the size of the district and the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The hope is that the measures the district is taking will contain any outbreak and limit the number of kids forced into quarantine.
Secrets to successful crowdfunding | Wall Street Journal
(Column by UCLA’s Christopher Tang) Crowdfunding has helped many startups turn creative ideas into innovative products. But the failure rate of crowdfunding campaigns is high. Kickstarter, for instance, says about 61% of completed campaigns on its platform have failed. So, what can businesses do to improve their chances of success?
‘Shang-Chi’ shows public is hungry for diverse films | IndieWire
A recent report from UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers analyzed over 100 films released from 2016 to 2019 and found that, “even after accounting for critical acclaim, big-budget films lacking in diversity make about $27 million less on their opening weekend, with a potential loss of $130 million in total.”
Federal Writers’ Project: Do we need a new one? | USA Today
(Commentary by UCLA’s David Kipen) Rep. Ted Lieu has arranged a free public virtual screening for the nation — and for his colleagues on the Hill — of Soul of a People, a terrific Smithsonian documentary about the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s. This follows a bill he and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez introduced in May, the 21st-Century Federal Writers’ Project Act, which is jockeying for inclusion this week in the upcoming $3.5 trillion human infrastructure package.
Potential of new drugs that activate STING protein | Medical Xpress
A new study from scientists at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that emerging drugs that activate the protein STING, a well-established regulator of immune cell activation, substantially alter the activity of metabolic pathways responsible for generating the nucleotide building blocks for DNA.
Unemployment linked to health concerns during pandemic | KPCC-FM
“The population health issues that arise over the next years could very well be tightly linked to the unemployment that we’ve seen that’s been spurred by the pandemic,” said UCLA’s Jenny Brand (approx. 1:30 mark).