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.
Marmots reveal evolutionary theory in action | The Conversation
(Commentary co-written by UCLA Daniel Blumstein) Our new analysis shows that there is indeed multilevel selection for social behavior in the wild. We found that not only do both social relationships and social groups affect individual animals’ survival and reproduction, but social groups matter just as much, if not more.
Gum can release up to 600 pieces of microplastic in your mouth | People
“Our goal is not to alarm anybody,” Sanjay Mohanty, the project’s principal investigator and an engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the release. “Scientists don’t know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not. There are no human trials. But we know we are exposed to plastics in everyday life, and that’s what we wanted to examine here.” (Also: HealthDay News and Healthline.)
Trump’s executive order on elections is a blatant power grab | MSNBC
(Commentary by UCLA’s Richard Hasen) By design, presidents have no power over the conduct of federal elections. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on election administration aims to flip that, trying to take power from both an independent bipartisan federal agency and from the states, in an affront to principles of federalism. This dangerous power grab signals further democratic backsliding. (Hasen was also featured by The New York Times and Southern California News Group.)
SCOTUS upholds Biden’s limits on ‘ghost guns’ | New York Times
“Although this is not a Second Amendment ruling, it shows that the justices are not uniformly hostile to gun regulation,” said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Ghost guns have been found in increasing numbers at crime scenes, and today’s decision should help the problem.” (Winkler was also featured by NPR’s “All Things Considered.”)
We pay too much for electricity. Here are three solutions | Los Angeles Times
Some experts question whether that disparity makes sense — especially with the high-speed rail project facing a projected $100-billion funding shortfall, and the Trump administration threatening to cut federal funding. “There starts to be a question of whether it ever gets finished,” said Julia Stein, an environmental law professor at UCLA. “Is this something we still want to be sinking a significant amount of funds into?”
Medi-Cal under threat | LAist
Mark Peterson, a professor of public policy at UCLA with expertise in health care policy, said that this type of public pressure is the leverage House Democrats have to combat potential cuts down the road. “I think the Democrats are trying to make sure that the difficult political dynamics for maybe upwards of 15 House members in the Republican conference will be such that they simply will not be able to support the budget resolution,” Peterson said.
