“At a time when we need a celebration as best can be had under COVID; at a time when we need to unify; at a time when we need to say to the world ‘We are a beacon of democracy and a shining city on a hill,’ our own hill, Capitol Hill is an armed fortress,” said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center. “It is not like we have not faced anything like this, but we have not faced anything like this in the modern age, even since 9/11,” Barbara added.
The capital is on edge. Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics, who has attended every inauguration since 1976, said: “We’ve had some strange ones over a couple of hundred years, but nothing like this, and what’s really sad is people are nervous. I would say a fair number of people are hoping they move it inside. You can’t put anything past these people and they clearly have been talking assassination – there’s no other way to put it. These people are crazy and they’ve been legitimized by Trump.”
Presidential historian Russell Riley said 1968-69 was a somewhat comparable time, when Richard Nixon – who had campaigned on a wave of resentment – took office after the country was riven by riots, antiwar protests and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. “It was a country that was torn apart, and Nixon understood that his chief mission was healing,” said Riley, from UVA’s Miller Center. “That’s not a word that’s usually associated with Nixon because of what happened in subsequent years, but certainly in January of 1969, that was something that was pre-eminent in...
(Commentary by Kristen E. Eichensehr, Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law) When a state seeks to defend itself against a cyberattack, must it first identify the perpetrator responsible? The U.S. policy of “defend forward” and “persistent engagement” in cyberspace raises the stakes of this attribution question as a matter of both international and domestic law.
(Commentary by Nicholas Sargen, lecturer at the Darden School of Business) Since the November elections, investors have been focused on President-elect Biden’s efforts to bolster the U.S. economy, including the latest $1.9 trillion plan. But investors should not lose sight of potential regulatory changes that could unwind much of the deregulation that occurred in the Trump era. Three areas – the environment, health care and tech giants – are among those likely to be most affected.
(Commentary by Elizabeth R. Varon, Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History) President Trump’s second impeachment, on Jan. 13, 2021, is an important historical marker – a stern repudiation by the House of Representatives of his conduct in office. But what will it take to defeat the broader phenomenon of Trumpism? Andrew Johnson’s presidency furnishes a cautionary tale about the limits of impeachment as a political remedy.
(Commentary by Melody Barnes, co-director of UVA’s Democracy Initiative, and Caroline E. Janney, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War) Long before the Trump presidency spiraled completely out of control, many Americans comforted themselves by asserting we were not in a civil war. As we sift through the debris left by the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 – and anticipate what is likely to come – we ignore at our peril the cautionary tale of the last Civil War and what followed it.
The Health Wagon was founded by sister Bernadette Kenny. More than 40 years on, the mobile health units Kenny set in motion continue their daily rounds, demonstrating the same kind of creativity that has always driven the ‘wagon.’ And now thanks to a partnership with UVA, they’ve expanded their services to include telemedicine.
UVA Health has been selected for a pilot program that will aim to provide connected care services in urban and rural places.
Researchers say they’ve found no evidence to support GOP grievances that tech companies target conservative voices. “I know of no academic research that concludes there is a systemic bias – liberal or conservative – in either the content moderation policies or in the prioritization of content by algorithms by major social media platforms,” Steven Johnson, an information technology professor at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, told USA TODAY in November.
This week at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey present the most detailed look yet at the warp of our own Galaxy. “Our usual picture of a spiral galaxy is as a flat disk, thinner than a pancake, peacefully rotating around its center,” said Xinlun Cheng of the University of Virginia, the lead author of the study. “But the reality is more complicated.”
A co-author on the paper is Zachary Irving, a UVA assistant professor of philosophy who explored the psychological and philosophical underpinnings of mind-wandering as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley. “If you focus all the time on your goals, you can miss important information. And so, having a free-association thought process that randomly generates memories and imaginative experiences can lead you to new ideas and insights,” said Irving, whose philosophical theory of mind-wandering shaped the study’s methodology.
Heart failure affects roughly 5.7 million Americans and that’s why doctors at UVA are working on a therapy to improve the quality of life for their patients suffering from this disease.
A COVID-19 model from UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute that updates each Friday predicts the state could reach a peak of weekly cases in mid-February with at least 50,232 reported. This could continue into April, partially due to the slower-than-promised vaccine rollout and pandemic fatigue.
With new COVID-19 case records in Virginia climbing every day, UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute says there’s still a long way to go. Models created by the institute in November forecasted 25,000 cases a week across the commonwealth following the holiday season. So far, cases are meeting or exceeding those projections.
African Americans are two times more likely than whites to have Alzheimer’s disease. Folks in the Charlottesville area got a chance to learn about the disease, as well as share experiences, during a forum Monday. The Alzheimer’s Association hosted the event, which was aimed at African Americans and sponsored by several groups, including the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
The nationwide social unrest in the wake of Black lives lost at the hands of police, coupled with the pandemic disproportionately affecting Black communities, quickly made one of the UVA Equity Center’s fellows change her original project. Myra Anderson has been working on creating a mental health center in Charlottesville since this past summer that would be named the Sankofa Center, a name derived from an African bird from the Akan people of Ghana that symbolizes taking the good from the past and bringing it to the present.
More than a dozen people – including representatives of the UVA Law School’s Innocence Project – spoke in favor of the bill.
In average salary, Stanford was followed by Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business ($143,867), NYU Stern School of Business ($143,858), the University of Virginia Darden School of Business ($139,945), and, rounding out the top five, Berkeley Haas ($139,122).
Donald Trump’s presidency is coming to an official end in just a matter of days, but what he’ll do in those days is unknown. Some question if he may use the time to potentially pardon himself. Law experts at UVA and across the nation say it’s unclear if it’s even possible, since it has never been done before. “What we’ll see, is a court deciding this, once and for all, if, as I expect, President Trump were to pardon himself,” said Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University and panelist at a recent UVA Miller Center virtual discussion.