As recently as yesterday morning, crews were inspecting the 130-year old monument to figure out how to safely take it down. But later that same day a Richmond judge issued an injunction while a lawsuit makes its way through court. University of Virginia legal expert Richard Schragger says the first question courts will ask is whether that language is binding. “The language just might be a kind of instruction that doesn’t have legal effect,” Schragger said. “A kind of rhetorical flourish.”
Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday he is confident he will prevail over a legal challenge that is temporarily blocking crews from removing a massive statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. But a UVA legal scholar says the outcome of the lawsuit, filed by a descendant of the family that gifted the property to the state in 1890, is far from certain. “I wouldn’t be confident on either side if I were the plaintiff or the defendant,” said Alex M. Johnson Jr., a professor at the UVA School of Law who specializes in contract and property law.
UVA legal expert Richard Schragger says the first question courts will ask is whether that language is binding. Speaking to reporters today, Gov. Ralph Northam says the monument needs to come down. The administration’s legal counsel Rita Davis says they expected a lawsuit and are prepared to fight it.
Blue chip political analysts Larry Sabato from the University of Virginia, Nathan Gonzales from Inside Elections and Charlie Cook with the Cook Political Report all rate West Virginia’s governor’s race this November as “safe” or “solid” Republican. But West Virginia has not elected a Republican to the governor’s office since 1996, when Cecil Underwood won.
The executive director of UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service will now serve a two-year term on the Virginia State Crime Commission. According to a release, Gov. Ralph Northam announced on Tuesday that Larry Terry would hold one of seats on the commission.
College of Charleston alumna Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton says that kids need to know that being sad is OK. Stressful times like these can trigger a wide range of emotions from sad to mad to confused, and emotional health is just as important as physical health. Hilton is an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the UVA School of Medicine and a nationally recognized expert on how institutional racism has led to more severe impacts for communities of color from diseases such as COVID-19.
The U.S. government will try to stop a company’s planned salvage mission to retrieve the Titanic’s wireless telegraph machine, arguing the expedition would break federal law and a pact with Britain to leave the iconic shipwreck undisturbed. George Rutherglen, a UVA professor who teaches admiralty law, said the case is likely far from over. Depending on how Judge Smith rules on NOAA’s status as a party to the case, Rutherglen said the U.S. government could still try bringing its case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
According to a recent study, diet can affect the outcome of chemotherapy due to microbes in the gut that can trigger changes in a patient’s response to drugs. The results of the study showed that components of our daily diets, such as amino acids, can increase or decrease the efficacy and toxicity of drugs used for cancer treatment. “The first time we observed that changing the microbe or adding a single amino acid to the diet could transform an innocuous dose of the drug into a highly toxic one, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” said Eyleen O’Rourke, assistant professor of biology and cell biolo...
A UVA mechanical engineer has built a semi-autonomous robot to help combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Sometimes a straight line isn’t best. Take a brick wall, for instance. Did you know that wavy walls are actually a more effective, and cheaper, way to build a strong barrier? Known as crinkle crankle walls, or serpentine walls, this type of construction is quite popular in England. Typically used as garden walls, their curved appearance is about more than just aesthetics. The most famous example is at the University of Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson incorporated them into the architecture.
Jewel Simon, a rising fourth-year student at the University of Virginia, was supposed to be an intern with a marketing company this summer, until COVID-19 changed her plans. Now she’s in the Propel Management Consulting Program, which pairs UVA students looking for real-world business and consulting experience will small businesses hit hard by the pandemic.
An online course speedily organized for more than 300 UVA medical students who were abruptly sent home in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the often-overlooked connections between medical training and the arts.
“Federal grant and equipment programs for policing are often designed in ways that incentivize harmful policing and undermine local and state political accountability,” says Rachel Harmon, a professor of law and director of UVA’s Center for Criminal Justice.
It can be tough to keep young kids, whose play is often quite physical, six feet apart. It’s not so much that children can’t estimate distance – many can. But “the much more tricky part is their inhibitory control – their ability to not act impulsively and do things that they want to do,” said Jamie Jirout, an educational psychologist at UVA’s Curry School of Education and Human Development.
Kai Millner graduated from the University of Virginia in May. He came to the protest with his graduation cap on to show that his identity is more than being a black man from Charlottesville. “I do think the demographics at UVA need to change,” said Millner. “There does need to be more black students. There do need to be more black voices because of all of the inequity that UVA has directly promoted throughout the history of this school.”
“Federal grant and equipment programs for policing are often designed in ways that incentivize harmful policing and undermine local and state political accountability,” says Rachel Harmon, a professor of law and director of the Center for Criminal Justice at the UVA School of Law. Harmon added, via email, that such programs “far more often focus on effective policing than ensuring that policing is fair, minimally harmful, or consistent with the law.”
(Commentary co-written by UVA law professors Micah Schwartzman and Richard Schragger) The government is allowing federal pandemic aid to pay for clergy salaries, something that once would have been unthinkable.
(Commentary co-written by UVA law professors Micah Schwartzman and Richard Schragger) The government is allowing federal pandemic aid to pay for clergy salaries, something that once would have been unthinkable.
UVA’s Darden School of Business has launched a new suite of MOOCs on Digital Product Management for learners across the world on the Coursera platform. Taught by Darden professor Alex Cowan, the Digital Product Management course provides learners with a different and effective approach to product development, one that results in valuable solutions to meaningful problems. This course will help provide one with a focused approach to the role, which revolves around testing for — and scaling — product and market fit with a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence.
Leading through a crisis with humanity is not simple, acknowledges Morela Hernandez, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. “But it’s not an impossible task,” she contends. Hernandez, this week’s guest on the “Three Big Points” podcast, explains that we know from social science how to address the key issues of leading through difficult times at the individual, relational, collective and contextual levels.