Virtual Virginia Film Festival events continued on Tuesday, as the organization hosted a conversation with an Oscar nominee. Travon Free, who wrote and directed the short film “Two Distant Strangers” spoke with University of Virginia’s Kevin McDonald, who leads the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion department. The film is a sort of Groundhog Day -- a repeat of an encounter between a Black man and a bad cop.
As a high school student, A.D. Carson dreamed of becoming a professional rapper. And he has done just that—albeit through an unusual route that he hopes will inspire others. His career path took him from a K-12 English teacher to doctoral student at Clemson University, then to his current role as a professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia. In August, his latest album, “i used to love to dream,” became the first rap album to be published by a university press, after going through a formal academic peer-review.
Saturday is the Drug Enforcement Administration's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. A goal of the day and drug drop-off sites is to ensure the medications can’t be misused, abused or accidentally ingested. The drop-off locations, which include Wegmans at 5th St. Station and the Education Resource Center Pharmacy at the University of Virginia Medical Center, will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Medications also can be taken to Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, Gordonsville Plaza, Jefferson Pharmacy in Fluvanna County and sheriff’s offices in Louisa, Madison and Nelson counties.
University of Virginia hospital system to cancel thousands of backlogged lawsuits over medical bills
The University of Virginia Health System has announced that it will be canceling decades of court judgments and liens over unpaid medical bills in an effort to reduce some of the financial burden of medical costs for low-income patients. UVA Health announced the new policy in a Monday press release, explaining that it plans to “release all liens and judgments for patients who are at or below 400% of the federal poverty level.”
University of Virginia hospital system to cancel thousands of backlogged lawsuits over medical bills
The University of Virginia Health System has announced that it will be canceling decades of court judgments and liens over unpaid medical bills in an effort to reduce some of the financial burden of medical costs for low-income patients. UVA Health announced the new policy in a Monday press release, explaining that it plans to “release all liens and judgments for patients who are at or below 400% of the federal poverty level.”
New UVA research has found that autism-spectrum disorders manifest differently in the brains of girls than in the brains of boys.
Simply, Mamadi Diakite wanted a shot. Undrafted out of UVA, the 6-foot, 9-inch forward with an NCAA championship ring hoped to get a chance just to play in the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks gave him that with a two-way contract. Four months later, Diakite has taken full advantage of the opportunity and the club will convert that deal into a multi-year contract.
Global warming is shifting the migrant population from men seeking economic opportunities to families uprooted by hunger, according to researchers at UVA and Duke University studying migration out of Central America. Climate change is a driving force, but there's little political will to help climate migrants, said David Leblang, a UVA professor of politics and policy who co-wrote the study.
“I think the verdict provided some measure of justice,” said Dr. Kevin McDonald, UVA’s vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. “We still know that issues of systemic racism exist in our society. So, this is a step in the right direction. We just have to continue to move forward and be reflective as a nation to continue to kind of eradicate and maybe continue to reflect on our current systems and structures that have served as impediments to progress.”
1. Secureworks’ President [and UVA alumna] Wendy Thomas champions the company’s drive to provide innovative, best-in-class security solutions that sit at the heart of customers’ security operations.
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar has tried to distance himself from reports he was backing a caucus that would defend “Anglo-Saxon political traditions,” but political analysts say the flap is unlikely to harm the conservative Republican’s re-election prospects. “If Gosar’s district looks like it does now, he should be fine,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “There probably are other things that he could do that would make him vulnerable in a primary, but I don’t think what’s been reported over the past several days qualifies...
Out of office, ex-presidents lose the power of the bully pulpit, but they gain the opportunity to transcend everyday politics and work on less contentious causes in the public interest, like promoting vaccinations or raising money for victims of natural disasters. That Bush is using his platform to weigh in on policy, even in a less partisan way, is noteworthy. “I think it’s a natural extension of his feelings about immigrants to do something that honors their contributions to this country,” said Russell Riley, a University of Virginia professor and co-chairman of the Miller Center Presidentia...
Conservatives rarely acted alone when handing down victories for faith groups. In nine of the 13 cases counted as Roberts-era wins for religious freedom in the study, liberals joined with conservatives in either a 7-2 or unanimous decision, according to a Deseret News analysis. “The new conservative majority is essential to the high-profile cases, but not to all the others,” said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law and religious studies at the University of Virginia, in an email. For the most part, liberal justices only peel away en masse from their conservative colleagues when religious freed...
A special edition of the popular Beyond the Screen virtual conversation series will take place Tuesday. The Virginia Film Festival announced the special edition Monday, saying it will about the Academy Award-nominated short film “Two Distant Strangers,” which is about Black cartoonist Carter James, also known as Joey Bada; he repeatedly attempts to get home to his dog but gets stuck in a time loop during which he relives a deadly run-in with a cop.
(Commetnary) Mondale was the first vice president to have an office in the West Wing, steps from the president’s own, rather than being sidelined in the Old Executive Office Building, and a weekly lunch scheduled with the president. Carter also made it clear that their two staffs were to be considered one; Mondale’s chief of staff Richard Moe was given the additional title “assistant to the president.” “We felt that Fritz’s long experience in Washington and the fact that for the first time he was being integrated into the Presidency itself was a compensating factor for the ignorance among the ...
Vaccines for COVID-19 and other coronaviruses could be produced quickly and inexpensively, and in many places around the world, if a new vaccine development method now being tested proves successful. “Our new platform offers a new route to rapidly produce vaccines at very low cost that can be manufactured in existing facilities around the world, which should be particularly helpful for pandemic response,” Dr. Steven Zeichner, one of the scientists involved in the project, said in a UVA Health news release.
An elite cultural exchange program is still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fulbright U.S. Student Award is given to certain college students after their four years of studying new cultures and languages. According to a release, full immersion, overseas programs like the Fulbright awards, have suffered due to the pandemic, as have their recipients. For example, Callie Collins is a UVA fourth-year student who was given a Fulbright to be an English teaching assistant in Russia last year.
UVA Health is expanding its operations to increase the capacity of the hospital system. On Friday, UVA Health officially acquired the Monticello Community Surgery Center next to the UVA Primary Care Riverside on U.S. Route 29 in Albemarle County. This outpatient center has four operating rooms and one procedure room.
At a time when the demand for home care is exceeding the number of physicians providing home-based medical care, a team of health care workers at UVA Health is aiming to bridge the gap. The workers started a program called Virginia at Home last year. It’s a house call program that serves homebound patients in Charlottesville and the surrounding areas.
UVA Health will wipe out a decades-old backlog of court judgments and liens resulting from lawsuits it brought against patients for unpaid hospital bills, the Charlottesville-based health system said April 19.