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.

Trump’s federal indictment breathtaking, yet inevitable | Los Angeles Times

(Commentary by UCLA’s Harry Litman) In one sense, it was breathtaking: the first ever indictment of a former president by the Department of Justice he once oversaw — and therefore the most important federal charge in U.S. history. In another, it was expected. Once Donald Trump had received a formal target letter from the department, his fate was effectively sealed.

John Roberts throws a curveball | New York Times

(Commentary by UCLA’s Richard Hasen) The Supreme Court’s voting rights ruling on Thursday in Allen v. Milligan is as shocking as it is welcome. The Voting Rights Act has lived to see another day, with implications for 2024 and beyond. (Hasen was also interviewed by NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ and quoted by the New York Times, CNN and Reuters.)

MathFest in Florida? Some LGBTQ+ groups aren’t going | Inside Higher Ed

Mike Hill, president of Spectra, a national LGBTQ+ mathematicians’ association named after a common math word that also invokes a rainbow, said his organization isn’t holding any official events at the conference this year, in light of the location. “The MAA has long been at the vanguard of supporting rights of mathematicians from traditionally excluded communities,” said Hill, a University of California, Los Angeles, math professor.

New York’s new weight discrimination bill | Health

Weight stigma is, unfortunately, prevalent in the U.S.— it’s an “umbrella term” for any negative attitudes, prejudice, or discrimination against people of higher weights, explained A. Janet Tomiyama, PhD, professor of psychology at UCLA. In basic terms, “it’s treating someone as less than because of their size,” she clarified.

Tips to protect against polluted air | New York Magazine

Make sure your doors and windows are closed tightly — Reza Ronaghi, a pulmonologist at UCLA Health Santa Monica Medical Center, advises sealing any gaps or cracks with old clothing or duct tape — and consider using an air purifier with HEPA filters to reduce the concentration of harmful smoke particles.

Is climate change fueling Canada’s wildfires? | BBC News

Parts of the country, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, have been in drought since 2020. “The vegetation in the forests is exceptionally dry,” says climate scientist Daniel Swain at UCLA, which has meant that a higher fraction of lightning strikes has resulted in forest fires. (Swain was also quoted by Bloomberg News.)  

How smoke from wildfires can impact our mental health | ABC News

“There’s a vulnerability that happens when there are disasters and wildfires — even at a distance,” Dr. Vickie Mays, a professor of psychology at UCLA College of Letters and Sciences, told ABC News. “You need to kind of just check in with yourself and say, ‘Wow, am I having a response to this? If so, do I need to do something about this?’ Don’t just ignore it.”

Defendants have advantage when meeting lawyers early | CalMatters

But in Santa Clara County, when indigent defendants met with an attorney in jail soon after their arrest, their situation changed dramatically for the better. That was the conclusion of a study by California Policy Lab, a nonprofit research group affiliated with UCLA and UC Berkeley. Researchers found that indigent defendants in a pilot program were 75% less likely to be convicted if they met with a public defender within 48 hours of their arrest, and 75% more likely to be released before trial. 

Lingering effects of Neanderthal DNA found today | Science Daily

“For scientists studying human evolution interested in understanding how interbreeding with archaic humans tens of thousands of years ago still shapes the biology of many present-day humans, this study can fill in some of those blanks,” said senior investigator Sriram Sankararaman, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “More broadly, our findings can also provide new insights for evolutionary biologists looking at how the echoes of these types of events may have both beneficial and detrimental consequences.”

Microscope captures motor proteins in unprecedented detail | Nature

But Haley Marks, a biomedical engineer and project scientist at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, says it will take time before MINFLUX becomes a truly accessible and affordable “plug-and-play” system. In the meantime, she suggests, MINFLUX could benefit the wider community by contributing to virtual super-resolution tools.