(Commentary by Farzaneh Milani, Raymond J. Nelson Professor in the departments of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures) I am not sure I would have believed the incremental and contradictory details of this premeditated murder, its sloppy cover-up, and its international reach had I read them in a novel. And, yet, I know all too well that the abduction, torture, and assassination of a journalist is nothing new in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East.
New UVA President Jim Ryan is promising some big changes for students and their money. He recently talked about how new tuition cuts will take place.
Three former UVA basketball players are following in the footsteps of UVA football legend Chris Long by helping to provide clean water to people in Africa. On Monday, NBA players Malcolm Brogdon, Joe Harris, and Justin Anderson launched a nonprofit called Hoops2O, which, like Long's Waterboys organization, will raise money to build clean water wells in Africa.
We were looking for some good news and thanks to Joe Harris, we didn’t have to look far. Harris, the Nets small forward, has joined forces with former UVA teammates Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson as well as two other NBA players to form a group called Hoops2o, an initiative to raise money to help efforts to bring clean water to East Africa.
“Undoubtedly, the legislation is focused on something popular. Their opponents can’t do it. They can say, 'If I’m elected I will do X, Y and Z,’ but only an incumbent congressman can actually submit a bill,” said Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics. “As deceptive as that is, only a tiny slice of submitted legislation ever becomes law. Frankly, most people don’t know that.”
“Our current hard count in the House is 212 D, 202 R, 21 toss-ups. Neither party is over 218, a majority. Democrats have the better chance to go over the top, since 20 of 21 tossups are currently held by the GOP. That doesn’t guarantee that the Democrats actually will,” Larry Sabato, head of UVA’s Center for Politics, said Monday.
The conflict to which UVA cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham refers is the one over how to teach kids to read – specifically, the never-ending argument that pits phonics against whole language, erupting in new skirmishes every few years, including right now. Here is a new look at what we know about how to teach kids to read, this by Willingham, a psychology professor at UVA who focuses his research on the application of cognitive psychology to K-12 schools and higher education.
“What we've seen in the build-up to the 2018 midterms is largely a repeat of what we saw in the elections in Virginia last year: a clash between progressive and regressive politics, reflected not only in the policies and rhetoric of the two major parties, but also in the people they chose to represent them,” said Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor in presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center.
“I’d rather be the Democrats than the Republicans, certainly,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political handicapping website at UVA’s Center for Politics. He’s been watching 72 competitive House seats, 68 of which are or have been most recently held by Republicans. “But I don’t feel like – going seat by seat – that the Democrats have it locked up,” Kondik said.
Reuben Rainey, a UVA professor emeritus of landscape architecture, points to Le Corbusier. “Sure, he had a flat roof [on many buildings]—but he also had a view of the pastoral landscapes,” Rainey said. “The landscape as a healing element is very, very important to the Modernists themselves, the whole idea of bringing the outdoors indoors.”
Terry Rephann, a regional economist at UVA’s Weldon Cooper for Public Service, said both candidates are giving “extreme” descriptions of wages. He said data shows wages are not “going through the roof,” as Brat says, or “stagnant,” as Spanberger contends. “What it shows is a modest increase in hourly earnings,” Rephann said.
(Commentary by Rajesh Balkrishnan, professor of public health sciences) Pain medication such as oxycodone often helps cancer patients deal with intense pain after treatment, but it also can lead to abuse. The availability of life-prolonging treatments such as hormonal therapies and other targeted chemotherapy has led to a sharp decline in breast cancer deaths in the United States. But despite these advances, there’s a troubling discrepancy in America.
The brain’s lymphatic vessels offer a new way to treat multiple sclerosis, according to new findings. Investigators from the UVA School of Medicine used animal models of multiple sclerosis in order to demonstrate the value of blocking these brain vessels can contribute to the amelioration of symptoms in mice.
A man made his dreams of flying into space come true when he became a NASA astronaut and visited the International Space Station for 168 days. U.S. Navy Capt. Scott Tingle told people at the UVA School of Medicine Monday afternoon that he served as a flight engineer on an expedition from Dec. 2017 until June 2018. He said his journey into space was something he always dreamed about.
UVA says it’s leading in higher education when it comes to sustainability. The school's efforts to go green have resulted in nearly $1 million saved in utilities per year.
A NASA astronaut who spent half a year in space while working on the International Space Station was at UVA’s School of Medicine on Monday sharing his experiences with students. U.S. Navy Captain Scott Tingle served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station and has been traveling the country encouraging students to follow in his footsteps.
While much of the region is now protected from intense development, many of the threats facing the greater Shenandoah Valley remain. A University of Virginia think tank projects the valley’s population to surge by nearly another one-fifth by 2020, surpassing 630,000 people.
Rollbacks of air pollution rules for power plants could have the harshest health impacts on people in Ohio and Pennsylvania who supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election, reports a new study. UVA researchers calculated the potential downside in 20 states if the Trump administration dismantles the Clean Air Act’s transport and mercury air toxics rules.
Space is cool. Most of the people in Capt. Scott Tingle’s lecture at the University of Virginia on Monday already knew that, but Tingle tried to help medical students appreciate that research in space was more accessible and more needed than ever before.
Jim Ryan, UVA’s newly inaugurated president, is working to bridge the communication gap among members of the UVA community. On Monday, he listened to students and faculty members discuss what kinds of changes they want to see at the University.