UCLA in the News September 19, 2025

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.

Obscure court is key to billions of dollars in research grants | CalMatters

Following a complicated Supreme Court ruling in late August, the fate of billions of dollars of science research grants is now at the mercy of an obscure federal law known as the Tucker Act. “I had never spent more than three minutes in class even mentioning the existence of the Tucker Act, and it would never have occurred to me to do so before this spring,” said David Marcus, a UCLA professor of law who specializes in civil procedure and federal courts.

Crackdown on Charlie Kirk critics ignites a free speech debate | CBS News

First Amendment legal scholar Eugene Volokh told CBS News that, in most circumstances, the government cannot go after ordinary people for making insensitive or offensive public comments about Kirk's killing. “It may be in bad taste. It may be bad for the country when people are trying to normalize political violence. But it is protected by the First Amendment,” said Volokh, a professor emeritus of law at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Volokh was also featured by The Hollywood Reporter, Agence France-Presse, USA Today, Spectrum News 1 and LAist KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk.”)

California moves to curb ultraprocessed foods in schools | Capital & Main

Though the law applies everywhere, its effect in disadvantaged communities could be profound. A 2023 study by researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine drew a link between the lower-quality food prevalent in such neighborhoods and a disruption in the brain’s ability to process certain types of information.

An upsetting number of Americans are dying from alcohol | Gizmodo

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles examined data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find that the rate of alcohol-related death increased between 1999 and 2024, with an especially sharp uptick during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while such deaths have declined since that peak, they remain markedly high. (UCLA’s Maria R. D’Orsogna was quoted.)

State lawmakers propose $23 billion bond to restore science funding | KQED

Dr. David Shackelford, a professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, said the work he leads to find new treatments for lung cancer has been suspended since the federal government halted about $8 million for his laboratory. “The impacts have been incredibly devastating, and this is really hurting patients ultimately,” said Shackelford, one of the scientists who spoke in support of SB 607 during a press conference. “This bill is a lifeline for us to continue this outstanding research that really California leads the way in.”

Wildfire smoke could kill over 70,000 people a year by 2050s | S.F. Chronicle

Michael Jerrett, a professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health who wasn’t part of the new study, commended the authors: “These are exactly the kind of studies that we need to try to understand the magnitude of the impacts from climate change on public health and our economy.”

A year after Hurricane Helene, many students haven’t returned | L.A. Times

After natural disasters, it’s common to see a surge in students living in unstable, temporary arrangements, such as sleeping on a couch, staying in a shelter, or doubling up with another family, according to research from UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools. Those arrangements qualify students as homeless under federal law.

Threatening broadcasters, Trump takes page from autocrats | N.Y. Times

“In general, few authoritarian leaders have a sense of humor and even fewer can laugh at themselves,” said Daniel Treisman, a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an expert in dictatorship. “Putin was said to be enraged by his portrayal as an evil dwarf.”

Fallout from Charlie Kirk’s killing reveals Trumpism’s truths | N.Y. Times

Analyzing crime data, researchers at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that trans people are four times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than a cisgender person.