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.

Little progress on closing L.A. County’s aging jail | Los Angeles Times

Sharon Dolovich, a UCLA law professor who heads the school’s COVID Behind Bars Data Project, said the national jail population dropped by a quarter during the pandemic. “What it showed you was if you stop arresting people for minor crimes, if you release people doing stupid jail time on small misdemeanor offenses” and commit to releasing them as they await trial, she said, “turns out you can put a lot of downward pressure on the jail population without that much work.”

Should you get a second COVID booster? | Los Angeles Times

Now, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized a second booster for people 50 and older, and for anyone younger than 50 whose immune system is very impaired … In short, the line between who might get a second booster and who definitely should get one is “a little bit wonky,” said Dr. Otto Yang, associate chief of infectious diseases at UCLA. (Yang was also interviewed by KCAL-TV — approx. 1:00 mark).

Gender-neutral passports to be available in April | NBC News

Nonbinary and intersex Americans, who are neither exclusively male nor female, are estimated to make up 1.2 million and 4 million people, respectively, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and interACT, an intersex advocacy group. Many of them have been unable to obtain IDs that accurately reflect who they are because of laws that differ by state.

Supreme Court weighs challenge to California labor law | Los Angeles Times

But workers’ rights advocates said the private lawsuits are crucial for protecting employees. They cited a recent report by the UCLA Labor Center that found 89% of claims under the Private Attorneys General Act alleged wage theft.

Can California’s home care industry meet demand?  | LAist

In California, millions of older adults and people with disabilities get help at home with bathing, eating and cleaning, allowing them to stay in a familiar setting. Demand for these services is expected to only surge over the next decade, as the youngest of the baby boomers enter their 60s and 70s. But the home care industry’s status quo is untenable, according to a new report by the UCLA Labor Center. (UCLA’s Lucero Herrera is quoted. Also: KPCC-FM.)

In wartime, a resurgence of the Ukrainian language | Los Angeles Times

The Ukrainian language hasn’t been taught at UCLA’s department of Slavic East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures “in a number of years” due a lack of demand, said [Roman] Koropeckyj, a professor in the department. He and a Ukrainian-born colleague told the department chair it might be time to teach Ukrainian again.

Bruce Willis has aphasia, but what is it? | KPCC-FM

“People with aphasia will have difficulty doing anything that requires the use of language. So that’s speaking, understanding the speech of others, reading, writing,” said UCLA’s Michael Biel.

COVID data on Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders | PBS NewsHour

Ninez Ponce heads UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research. She says Arkansas’ Marshallese are not alone. Others from the Pacific region known as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders faced similar COVID disparities across the U.S. “When the data first came out about COVID cases and deaths by race, ethnicity, I was, frankly, really shocked … Other states didn’t even have data on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders,” said Ponce.

Eating avocado can help you stay heart-healthy | Healthline

“When taken in combination — the fiber, the potassium, the magnesium — which on their own are heart healthy, plus the monounsaturated fats, which are extremely heart healthy and reduce the risk of heart disease, this is a win-win food in every sense of the word,” says Dr. Dana Ellis Hunnes, a senior dietitian at UCLA Medical Center, assistant professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and author of “Recipe for Survival.”