The Los Angeles Times reported on UCLA students Audrey Ohwobete and Gladis Verenice Ramírez Veliz, who helped plan and produce South Los Angeles’ annual Beehive Block Party through the SoLa Live Accelerator, a partnership between the SoLa Foundation and Live Nation. The six-month program aims to diversify the live entertainment industry by securing coveted internships and mentorship for local Black and brown youth. The fifth annual Beehive Block Party took place on Saturday, July 25. Read more about UCLA in today’s Associated Press, United Press International and others.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: July 29, 2026

Scientists find early warning sign of irreversible groundwater damage | KQED-TV

New research from UCLA and Caltech has outlined a way to detect when temporary land subsidence becomes permanent and irreversible. The research, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses satellite imagery to identify the “abrupt transition to irreversible damage.” Researchers hope this will give decision makers new tools to monitor water resources. (UCLA’s Stacy Larochelle was quoted. Also: Science.)

Harryette Mullen: The art of poetry | The Paris Review

“I thought I was writing miscellaneous poems on various subjects that didn’t have a connecting thread. I imagined the book would be called ‘All She Wrote’ — the title of what became the first poem⁠ — but then I thought, ‘That’s your epitaph, that’s something for your gravestone,’” said (UCLA’s Harryette) Mullen. (Mullen was interviewed.)

The LAPD has quietly stopped putting many public records online | Los Angeles Times

According to (UCLA’s Nicholas) Shapiro, who published a research brief on the topic, new files stopped appearing around April 2025. Other city agencies continued releasing their records as normal, he said. The records on NextRequest once offered a vital window into the inner workings of the historically opaque Police Department, Shapiro said. By taking them down, he said, the LAPD had turned into even more of a “black hole of information.”

Marmot researchers raising funds with ‘OnlyMarms’ page | United Press International

Researchers studying marmots in Colorado are compensating for the loss of federal funding by showing off the animals on OnlyFans. Daniel Blumstein, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the head of a Colorado marmot-research program that has been running since 1962, but is now in danger due to the loss of research grants that were canceled last year by President Donald Trump’s administration. (Blumstein and UCLA student Emily Renkey were quoted. Also: Denver Post and KCAL-TV.)

Despite more extreme wildfires, global burning is decreasing | Associated Press

“Africa dominates the global fire activity,” said UCLA water and fire scientist Park Williams. “So if there’s a trend in Africa, then that’s going to be the trend in the global fire activity. In sub-Saharan Africa, fire activity over the last 25 years has gone down pretty dramatically.”

Voter ID backers sue California AG over ballot description | Los Angeles Times

UCLA law professor Rick Hasen declined to weigh in on the arguments in the lawsuit, but said that “it’s common practice for the AG to write things in ways that that align with the political interests of the Attorney General.” Hasen previously called the ballot measure a “disaster,” writing in a blog post that its requirements are vague and it would be costly and difficult for agencies to verify citizenship.

Feds targeted Latinos more after SCOTUS’ racial profiling decision | Los Angeles Times

Citing a recent UCLA study, LULAC said from January to October, federal immigration agents arrested more than 187,000 Latinos and deported more than 126,000.