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 report: wildfires caused up to $164B in damage | Audacity

A new report from the University of California, Los Angeles, has confirmed what many already believed: the Southern California wildfires are among the most costly natural disasters in American history. The report, which comes from the [UCLA] Anderson School of Management, estimates that the two biggest fires caused property damage and capital losses of up to $164 billion. Economists added that insured losses made up around $75 billion of that total. (Also: Xinhua and National Public Radio.)

Nearly half of Black homes in Altadena destroyed, damaged | The Guardian

Nearly half of the Black households in Altadena were destroyed or majorly damaged by the Eaton Canyon wildfire, according to new estimates by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, … The UCLA researchers found that 61% of Altadena’s Black households were located within the Eaton fire perimeter, and that the blaze had a disproportionate impact on Black residents. (UCLA’s Lorrie Frasure was quoted. Also: KCAL-TV.)

5 approaches experts say are our best shot at surviving future fires | Vox

“We have not built for the hazards we face now,” said Megan Mullin, faculty director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. “The kinds of destructive, life-taking, enormous property-damaging fires that we have seen over the last six or eight years actually are pretty new.” 

Fire smoke protections | National Public Radio

The outlook for California wildfires is grim so far. The state has seen little rainfall this year, and early forecasts anticipate a warmer late spring and early summer. According to UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, that could lead to an early “start” for fire season in Southern California — peak fire season can start as early as May and run through October. 

New strain of bird flu detected in dairy cows | KTLA-TV

“This is really important news here. This is not the same variant that we’ve seen in cattle previously. This is a variant that we normally have seen in poultry and that variant has been associated with more severe disease,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin.

Funding uncertainty could threaten life-saving research | KABC-TV

“Having just a few ideas being pursued is not enough,” said Dr. Otto Yang with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His work as a renowned immunologist made him a top go-to expert during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the past 25 years, Yang and his colleagues have mapped the inner world of T-cells in our immune system. How they act when challenged by HIV, cancer and transplanted organs. It’s foundational research that’s contributed to novel therapies.

Judge deals another blow to birthright citizenship order | New York Times

“There’s very clear and strong precedent” for birthright citizenship as it stands today, said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Mainstream legal thought has assumed this understanding of birthright citizenship for decades.” 

Trump’s assault on trans rights isn’t a sign of strength | Los Angeles Times

Who are the targets of these orders? They’re not a large group. About 1.6 million U.S. adults, or one-half of 1%, and 300,000 adolescents aged 13 to 17, or 1.4%, identify as transgender, according to a study by [the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law]. 

Kaiser back in the hot seat over mental health care | California Healthline

Mark Peterson, a professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, notes that the open-ended nature of therapy can conflict with health plans’ focus on their bottom lines. “It may be once a week, it may be more than once a week and go on for years,” Peterson says. For insurers, he says, the question is, “How do you put an appropriate limit on that?”