Report co-authored by UCLA shows the country’s Latino GDP has skyrocketed — and more media coverage of UCLA

CalMatters featured a column by UCLA’s David E. Hayes-Bautista discussing findings from a new report showing that the creation and growth of Latino-owned businesses have significantly fueled employment and economic prosperity for the United States. Hayes-Bautista, a distinguished professor of medicine and co-founder of the Latino GDP Project, and collaborators found that Latino GDP, or gross domestic product, contributed to boosting California’s economy and helped it achieve its ranking as the fourth-largest in the world. Read more about UCLA in today’s USA Today, The Hill and other outlets.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: Jan. 28, 2026

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, UCLA Chancellor calls for “empathy and respect” | Jewish Journal

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk issued a video statement that said hate of any kind — including antisemitism — has no place on UCLA’s campus. “With antisemitism on the rise across the nation, it is more important than ever that we remember our shared humanity and practice empathy and respect,” Frenk, who has served as chancellor of UCLA since Jan. 2025, said. “This moment calls for decisive action grounded in moral clarity. Hate — of any kind — has no place at UCLA or anywhere. We must choose kindness by lifting up dialogue and stamping out intolerance and bigotry in all forms.” (UCLA’s Stuart Gabriel was cited.)

Trump’s use of AI images pushes new boundaries | Associated Press

Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor at UCLA and the host of the “Utopias” podcast, said many people are now questioning where they can turn to for “trustable information.” “AI systems are only going to exacerbate, amplify and accelerate these problems of an absence of trust, an absence of even understanding what might be considered reality or truth or evidence,” he said.

Deportations from ICE street arrests jump, study says | USA Today

“When we traced the sources of the ramp-up, we realized that it all started with ICE targeting its arrests less,” Graeme Blair, a University of California, Los Angeles, political science professor and codirector of the Deportation Data Project, said in a statement. “Now ICE is doing something new,” he said. “It seems to be arresting anyone it can.”

Trump push for voter data ratchets up election interference concerns | The Hill

Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote Monday that Bondi’s letter “shows ICE is not in Minneapolis for law enforcement or immigration purposes.” “They are there to stir up s‑‑‑ in blue states and try to extort them, or at least to win a battle in American public opinion about what is necessary to curb illegal immigration,” Hasen said.

The gay glass ceiling still hasn’t been shattered | Fast Company

Being out at work is even more complex. “If you’re out, you’re more likely to be discriminated against than you’re not out — about three times more,” says Brad Sears, distinguished scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, and founder of the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, which researches policy around sexuality and gender.

Executive order to ‘preempt’ permitting process for fire rebuilds | Los Angeles Times

Jonathan Zasloff, a UCLA law professor who focuses on land use, called the executive order “childish and irresponsible policy.” Zasloff, who lost his Palisades home in the fire, said that the president does not have the authority to get rid of state and local law just because he doesn’t like them. Instead, Zasloff said, the president should focus on fully funding disaster recovery so that the city and county can have adequate staff to process permit applications.

Pali High students return | LAist

UCLA environmental health sciences professor Yifang Zhu said one way to imagine off-gassing is through the lingering smell of cigarettes at a casino that no longer allows smoking. Whether those toxins harm people depends on “a combination [of] the chemicals themselves and then the level of exposures and the duration of the exposures over time,” Zhu said.

Reverse-racism lawsuit against LAUSD flies in the face of history | EdSource

(Commentary by UCLA’s Tyrone Howard) A new lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District is not about protecting or upholding equality; to the contrary, it is about rewriting who counts as a victim of racism in the United States. 

LA won’t be tweaking its ‘mansion tax’ | CalMatters

Researchers at UCLA and the Rand Institute estimate that roughly 13% of the revenue generated in the tax’s first year and a half came from the types of new developments that would have been carved out by Raman’s proposal.

About that UCSD math report | Inside Higher Ed

(Commentary co-written by UCLA’s Marcelo Almora Rios) UCLA has shown that biology students can thrive in subsequent courses without a standard calculus class: In the redesigned Mathematics for Life Sciences sequence, UCLA biology majors develop quantitative and computational skills by learning how to model biological systems. In subsequent science courses, students who took the redesigned curriculum outperformed those who took traditional calculus.

24 simple secrets to a healthier life | New York Times

“A relaxed, calm immune response is the goal. Three things that support that are a healthy gut microbiome, exercise and stress reduction,” said UCLA’s Dr. Rita Kachru.