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.

How California can keep kids cool amid extreme heat | Los Angeles Times

(Column by UCLA’s V. Kelly Turner) Southern California is experiencing its latest intense heat wave, and the climate-change-fueled cycle of record-breaking temperatures won’t stop anytime soon. Among the most heat-vulnerable Californians: children, who are more susceptible to heat stress and other heat-related illnesses compared to adults.

Should L.A. make AC mandatory for rentals? | KCRW-FM’s ‘Greater LA’

Rajit Gadh, professor at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, expects that the local measure would increase energy consumption in Los Angeles by about 5%. But some of that could be offset by storing energy during the day in the batteries of electric cars and school buses and other electric vehicles, then pumping that energy back into the grid after the sun goes down. “We need the charging infrastructure to be upgraded. We also need the grid infrastructure, the systems and software. But it’s no different from taking solar energy and pumping it back to the grid,” he says. 

How climate change is making summer 2023 hotter | USA Today

Natural variability still exists, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “But we’re starting to see the long-term, human-caused warming signal overwhelming that volatility. At this point, there aren’t any unprecedentedly extreme heat events on Earth that haven’t been exacerbated by climate change.”

UCLA biobank study reveals disease risk, heath care in L.A. | Scienmag

A new study of UCLA Health’s large genetic biobank is giving researchers new insights into the disease risks faced by the region’s diverse communities and their access to health care. The effort, published in Nature Medicine, may prove useful in developing personalized medicine and treatment approaches to groups often overlooked by the medical system. (UCLA’s Christa Caggiano was quoted.)

‘Gut-level hatred’ is consuming our political life | New York Times

The degree to which the partisan divide has become still more deeply ingrained was captured by three political scientists, John Sides of Vanderbilt and Chris Tausanovitch and Lynn Vavreck, both of UCLA, in their 2022 book, “The Bitter End.” Vavreck wrote by email that she and her co-authors described the state of American politics as “calcified.”

A legal idea that allowed illegal voting maps in 2022 | NPR

Rick Hasen, a professor at UCLA School of Law who specializes in election law, has been keeping track. Credited with coming up with the term “Purcell principle,” Hasen remembers first using it on his Election Law Blog in 2014. Federal courts have long been asked to weigh in on last-minute legal controversies about elections, Hasen explains, and the Purcell principle “kind of articulated a principle that maybe courts were considering in the background.”

Gun control laws in California and beyond in peril | Los Angeles Times

UCLA law professor Adam Winkler said the domestic violence case from Texas “is the best case to go before the court for the government.” The Thomas opinion had made it very difficult for prosecutors to defend modern gun laws such as those dealing with domestic abuse because there were no such laws in the 18th century, Winkler said.

New moms shouldn’t have to suffer in silence | Los Angeles Times

But Dr. Misty Richards, the founder and medical director of the Maternal Outpatient Mental health Services Clinic at UCLA, explained that the major symptoms of major depressive disorder with peripartum onset are anxiety and agitation or anger. “How I think about anger or agitation is it’s really anxiety that’s mobilized,” she said. “There’s very little room for error when you’re a new mother and certainly if something goes awry for whatever reason, it’ll elicit intense rage out of proportion to the stressor. That can be a major symptom.”

Trans wheelchair user shot with pellet gun on way to store | Newsweek

Trans people in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by violence and abuse, with a 2021 study published by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finding that they are four times more likely than cisgender people to be subject to these kinds of attacks.