The Southern California News Group reported on the debate over whether parents should face criminal charges for children’s e-motorcycle and e-bike collisions following an uptick in incidents, some proving fatal for innocent bystanders. Shirin Bakhshay, an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Law, said prosecutions targeting parents in connection with their children’s actions are fairly new and appear to reflect frustration among authorities who believe current laws and public education efforts have not been effective in stopping dangerous behavior involving electric two-wheelers. (Bakhshay was also featured by KCAL-TV — approx. 1:40 mark). Read more about UCLA in today’s PBS News and LAist.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: May 13, 2026

Quarantine measures to stop the spread of hantavirus | ABC News

“This is a very containable disease. The key here is making sure that you quarantine the people who’ve been exposed for an extended period of time, isolate people who’re sick, and make sure that you track down any chains of transmission,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin (Rimoin was also featured by KCBS-TV and Vox.)

Telemedicine not breaking the bank, also not expanding access | HealthDay News

When the feds responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by relaxing telemedicine rules in 2020, some experts worried that the move would drive up healthcare costs, researchers said. At the same time, proponents hoped the wider availability of telemedicine would help people without easy access to doctors. “Our findings suggest neither prediction came true on a national scale,” said lead researcher Dr. John Mafi, an associate professor-in-residence at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles. (Also: KCRW 89.9-FM and KCAL-TV.)

AI agents can do amazing things while knowing nothing | The Conversation

(Commentary by UCLA’s Ji Y. Son and Alice Xu) We are cognitive psychologists who study how to teach difficult concepts. To recognize the limits and risks of today’s AI agent systems, it’s important for people to grasp that the systems can both accomplish superhuman feats and make mistakes few humans would. To that end, we propose a new way to think about AIs: as button-pushing explorers.

The latest on the war in Iran | KCBS-TV

“There has been no movement to bring either side closer together. Their positions are very far apart. They have red lines that are very entrenched,” said UCLA’s Benjamin Radd.  

Here’s how Trump’s proposal for fertility benefits would work | PBS News

The administration is “arguing that that should allow companies to offer plans more nimbly and potentially cheaper, by essentially having to sidestep many of the requirements that the U.S. has on health plans,” said Wesley Yin, public policy professor at University of California, Los Angeles.

Solar developers say state program is a mess | LAist

Robert Cudd, a research analyst with UCLA who has studied SGIP, said the program does incentivize developers lining up as many projects as possible ahead of time to “claim the largest possible share of that rebate pool.” That’s often the case for similar programs that aim to serve low-income customers. The state “is agnostic about who is doing this work,” Cudd said. “They just want to accelerate the energy transition.”  

Ballot measure adds sales tax to support healthcare services | KNBC-TV

“In the surveys we’ve done and have been done by other institutions, they all say the same thing. They say there’s a limit to what people are willing to tax, how much they’re willing to tax themselves. This is going to be a test of that proposition,” said UCLA’s Zev Yaroslavsky (approx. 2:25 mark).

Union-funded ‘attack ad’ against Pratt seems aimed at helping him | Los Angeles Times

Zev Yaroslavsky, a former City Council member who is now the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said that the spending on the ad by the Fed is a drop in the bucket for the mayoral race. “The ad seeks to elevate Pratt’s bona fides with more conservative and moderate voters, but I think Pratt is doing a better job of that than the ad does,” Yaroslavsky said.  

Why U.S. test scores are in a ‘generation-long decline’ | New York Times

In turn, schools expect less from students, assigning fewer whole books and simplifying the curriculum, said Carol Jago, associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There’s no other way, except volume, in order to become a really proficient, fluent, avid reader,” she said.

Short flights are popular. Will they last? | Georgia Public Broadcasting

But there’s a key snag for travelers in the Milwaukee area who might want to take the train to O’Hare International, says Joshua Schank, an urban planning professor at UCLA who’s also a partner with the consulting firm Infra Strategies. “Remember, that rail is going between the [cities’] two downtowns, and it’s not between the airports,” he says. “And that’s the key distinction,” he adds, noting that a majority of the route’s passengers are likely connecting to other destinations beyond Chicago.